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 Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:36 pm
Ganymede wasn’t the sort of senshi to go actively seeking danger. He didn’t have a death wish, he was only as brave as he needed to be, and he placed more importance in keeping innocent people safe and watching his friends’ backs than he did in completely eradicating the forces of evil. He left that sort of thing to the senshi who enjoyed it or else handled themselves in battle better than he did. Not being a natural born fighter and having no desire to lose himself to the trials and tribulations of war, Ganymede was more than happy to blend into the background and exist as just another face in a sea of countless other senshi.
Most nights these days he took to the streets with Valhalla or Oberon, feeling much more confident with his boyfriend at his side or else maintaining the determination to keep Oberon safe. With school starting for all of them, it had become a little more difficult to find the opportunity to patrol over the last week. Difficult, but not impossible. As Ganymede could never quell the sense of obligation no matter how much he often abhorred what he’d become, he found himself making time for it in-between his other responsibilities.
He was out by himself tonight—a rarity these days—though he would not remain alone for long. He had been ambling through the streets for only twenty minutes when he sensed the presence of a nearby youma. Ganymede could sense another senshi within the vicinity as well—and not a particularly powerful one. He briefly considered leaving said senshi to take care of the youma on their own, but compassion led him in that direction anyway. How was he to know it wasn’t one of his teammates? Or what if it was a new senshi in over their head?
Regardless of his feelings on senshidom, Ganymede’s past experience would not allow him to leave another senshi feeling as lost and alone as he had at the start of it all. Thus he continued his approach, doing so with caution, keeping an eye out for any other sign of danger as the youma and senshi both came into view.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:59 am
Vanadis was learning. She was learning pretty fast, in fact - and what she was learning went like this: she could not, for the life of her, stop having stupid run-ins with youma she had no chance of defeating on her own. It was becoming a habit. A bad habit. But she couldn't just leave the youma to its own devices after she'd detected it, could she? That'd be a pretty bad neglection of her senshi duties. Or so she thought, anyway, which was why she had leapt out of the tree she'd been hiding in and confronted said youma. It had been a Bad Idea, she now knew. This youma was way over-powered compared to her, and although she'd gone at it like Chaonis and Pasiphae had told her to, she was losing phenomenally. She was pretty sure the youma had managed to dislocate her right arm, and although she'd quickly yanked it back into place, it was now hurting like a b***h and slightly numb. Not to mention, it'd sucker-punched her in the stomach and she knew, just knew that her tummy would be a mass of blue-black bruises tomorrow. She was losing, and she was losing fast. She took another swipe at it with her left fist, and although her blow connected, she was right-handed and her punches just wasn't as strong with her left arm. But at least it was something, and the youma did seem to feel the blow, rearing back and then coming at her again. Too bad it just wasn't enough to get her out of this.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:25 am
Upon drawing closer and seeing the difficulty with which the lower level senshi was having in facing the youma, Ganymede was momentarily relieved that he’d taken the initiative to make his way over before anything too terrible could have happened to her.
That was until he realized he couldn’t have fared much better, and he paused a moment to decide how he wanted to go about intervening.
That was the thing about Ganymede. He wasn’t always a particularly observant individual, though he was somewhat perceptive—perhaps intuitive?—when it came to emotions. Nor was he the calculating sort. Yes, he liked to approach a battle with some sort of a plan in mind, he liked to see for himself what the youma was capable of and try to pick out its weaknesses, but it was a rare occasion indeed when a battle turned out exactly the way he intended for it to. Most of the time he was left improvising and coming up with a different tactic about half-way through.
Cringing, he decided there was no better way to put some space between the regular senshi and the youma than to use his magic, and he stepped forward to mutter “Searing Passion” only seconds after making his presence known.
For a moment it seemed to do absolutely nothing, but that was quick to change as the youma staggered back and let out a piercing wail that split through the humid evening air as the magic—invisible on the outside—began to burn its insides. Ganymede forced himself not to cover his ears to block out its screams and swallowed heavily to try and calm himself as it began to thrash about. The last thing he needed was for this senshi to see him completely freak out over what his magic could do. That would be embarrassing.
“Sorry, you looked like you could use a hand,” he said, pleased when his voice didn’t sound as shaky as he thought it might. He tried to offer her a smile as he drew closer, keeping an eye on the pitiful sight the youma made as it continued to wail.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:51 am
As soon as she got over the absolute shock of the horrifying youma that'd been beating her up suddenly stopping, only to start screaming terribly, Vanadis crouched down on the ground, frantically scribbling. She didn't even notice the other senshi that was right about next to her now, so focused was she on getting her magic to work before whatever was happening stopped and the nasty youma went at her again. "Algiz Rune Warding!" It was more of a whisper than than the loud voice she normally used to proclaim her attack, but the relief in it was nearly palpable. And as the rune on the ground glowed blue and a shimmering dome in the same colour went up around them, the red-head finally noticed that she had company of the non-youma variety. In fact, this was company of the distinctly senshi variety. "Oh. Oh! So that was why it started screaming!" Vanadis got up from the ground, her whole body protesting the action. But still a brilliant smile found its way unto her face - rescue! She'd been rescued! "Thank you s-so much, that was, that was amazing, I've never seen anyone just, poof, um, do that to a youma!" Admiration was painted onto her face, an honest tale of just how fantastic Sailor Vanadis found the other senshi (and his timely intervenetion) to be. And that was seriously fantastic.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:07 pm
Ganymede just kind of stood and stared and let himself look confused, wondering what on Earth the other senshi could possibly be doing drawing on the ground in the middle of a battle, before he noticed the magical dome erupt around them and figured the two events must be interrelated.
How terribly inconvenient for her.
Facing her, he sputtered as she all but gushed over his timely rescue. “I… I mean, I wouldn’t really call it amazing…”
He happened to think his magic was a horrible ability to possess. Before he’d hit Eternal it had been more trouble than it was worth. He’d rarely ever used it unless he thought it might actually work for the better. Now he only used it if he didn’t think he had any other choice. Considering this girl had been in danger and there didn’t seem to be anything that might prove useful as a weapon lying around, it had seemed one of the few ways to give her some time to regroup without putting either of them in danger.
The youma thrashed about for a little longer before the magic began to fade and the burning sensation went with it. At first the creature paused as if to catch its breath and get its bearings, before it turned a ferocious looking face on the both of them. Ganymede took a nervous step back but figured they should be relatively safe for as long as the dome lasted—which would hopefully be long enough for them to decide what to do about this.
“It… uh… sometimes it can actually dust a youma pretty quickly if they’re already weak enough. Guess this one’s a bit tougher than I thought,” he said, quickly trying to come up with a plan of action, which wasn’t always easy when he was suddenly felt as if he’d been put on the spot by circumstance. “If we could get a couple of good hits in, I could try using it again. I should be able to manage another go at it. I haven’t seen any other action tonight, so I’m pretty good on energy. If you want to come at it from one side while I come from the other we might be able to confuse it if it’s as dumb as some of the others.”
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 6:17 am
Vanadis begged to differ, but this wasn't really the time to argue with him over whether or not his amazingly effective awesome attack was really as amazing as it was. Really, she'd have clobbered someone for an ability like that; although she supposed there wasn't much correlation between Wards and making-a-youma-scream-like-it-was-dying. More's the pity, really. Still, her ability was pretty nifty, she figured. Keeping a wary eye on the youma, she nodded along to his words. "S-sounds like a good plan. I'm, uh, pretty battered, but I think I can get a good couple of kicks in." It'd hurt like hell, but frankly, losing to the youma would probably end up hurting more. "The ward's about to go down, by the way - I'll take its left, y-you take right?" She didn't wait for a reply - the shimmering dome went down just as she finished her sentence, and Vanadis immediately darted to the youma's left, aiming a kick at it.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:08 pm
Ganymede was ready. Or as ready as he ever was for any battle—which wasn’t much considering they tended to be surprised a lot of the time, but at least youma were generally easier in comparison. His reflexes, at least, were quick enough, and when the dome went down he hastened to the right only seconds after his companion had took off for the left. As they’d intended, the youma didn’t quite know which one of them it wanted to follow.
The other senshi made the choice for it in landing the first kick. As the youma stumbled from the impact, Ganymede stepped in to land one of his own. Most of his fighting skills (if they could even be called skills) tended to involve some influence from dance, which was the only thing he really knew but which made him more skilled in evasion than in landing a series of blows. It did, however, mean he had a pretty decent kick when he put his strength into it, and he made use of that more often than he made use of his fists.
The youma stumbled again when his foot struck its side, swiping an arm out at him that Ganymede was able to dodge gracefully enough. He stared passed the creature to find the other senshi on its opposite side, realizing that he didn’t even have any idea who she was.
Not that it mattered. She’d needed his help regardless.
“I’m Ganymede, by the way,” he told her, leaving out the “sailor” because that was obvious, and the “eternal” because that should also be obvious, provided she knew anything about any of that. He couldn’t recall having ever seen her before now and could therefore only assume she was still learning the ropes. “Are you new at this?” he chanced to ask.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:39 am
She almost got distracted by the graceful movements of her ally (really, why couldn't she be that elegant?), but she managed to get back to reality just as the youma turned to throw a hit at her. Luckily it'd been facing the other senshi before, though, and it had a lot of turning to do - it gave her plenty of time to dance out of it's reach and watching as it gave a frustrated grunt. "Sai- er, Vanadis, Senshi of Wards." She lunged at the youma again, levelling another kick at it before following it up with a quick punch. Black flakes were starting to come off of the thing, and its movements were getting sloppier. Which probably meant that they were close to winning, she figured. "Not quite new, but I guess kinda?" She sounded a bit puzzled, as if she herself didn't really know if she counted as new or not. "I've kinda been on a break, I g-guess you could say. A looong break. Two years, in fact."
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Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:18 pm
“Oh,” Ganymede replied, considering her answer for a few moments. “Wow.”
There were times when he thought of taking a break. Once or twice he had. Well… sort of. He took nights off here and there, gave it a break for a couple of weeks and focused on the civilian side of his life instead, reminded himself for a while that he was still Paris, still very much a normal kid, though every time he considered giving up completely something always dragged him back in, whether it was the need to protect his family and friends or something else entirely. Regardless, he honestly couldn’t say he blamed Vanadis, whatever her reason might have been for giving it a rest for so long.
This wasn’t the easiest life, for sure.
“Well, welcome back, I guess,” he said, offering her a smile before returning his attention to the weakened youma.
He gave it one last good kick before putting a little bit of space between him and the creature, taking a slow, deep, steadying breath as he prepared himself to use his magic again. “Watch out,” he warned the other senshi, a bit wary of the attack getting out of hand and perhaps missing its intended target.
When he felt as secure as he was ever likely going to, Ganymede murmured “Searing Passion” again and watched as the youma began to react under the effects. It started slow and easy the way it always did, growing stronger and stronger by the second until the youma was howling and writhing in pain. For just a moment he wondered if it was going to work as he’d intended for it to, or if the youma hadn’t been weakened enough, but just as the effects were beginning to fade the youma crumpled over, smacked into the ground, and burst into dust.
Ganymede released a sigh and lifted a hand to wipe some sweat off of his forehead. He felt a bit winded, likely from using his attack twice in one outing. He definitely didn’t think he’d be able to manage that again.
With another smile, he slowly crossed the distance between himself and the other senshi, making a point not to look at the spot where the youma had disappeared and doing his best not to put too much thought into what his magic had done to it.
“Not too bad for being out of action for a couple of years,” he commented.
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Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:47 pm
Vanadis' grin was blinding as the youma got dusted. She didn't know what Ganymede had against his magic, but hot damn she thought it was awesome. Paying mind to her bruises, she lumbered towards him, meeting him halfway in his stride. "I g-guess not. I still think you did most of the work, though." She sent a quick glance at the pile of dust before looking back to him. "Thanks a bunch, seriously, you, um, you completely saved my butt here. I'd have been toast without you." She laughed a bit awkwardly, cradling her right arm with her left. Laughing turned out to be a not too good idea, as the motion made the bruises on her stomach hurt. Grimacing, she noticed that he seemed to look pretty battered too - tired, at least, though thankfully not actually damaged like she was. "Are you OK?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 3:52 pm
“Me? Yeah, I’m fine. Just haven’t ever used that attack twice in one night before. I probably shouldn’t do that too often,” Ganymede said. His friendly smile remained, but he did indeed look a bit more fatigued than he had at the start of this encounter.
He looked the other senshi over to check her for any major injuries. She looked a little worse for wear—maybe more than “a little”—but he didn’t think it was anything too serious. He didn’t think she looked ready to collapse yet. Then again, his definition of a serious injury might be different than someone else’s. Everyone had their own limits and barriers and thresholds for pain. He certainly wasn’t of a mind to make light of her injuries. For all he knew, they could be much worse than they looked to him.
Besides, he didn’t think he was really one to talk. At least she’d given it her all. At least she was trying. Him, on the other hand… well, he was trying, too, but he also tended to be a lot more cautious than some of the other senshi—and for some potentially selfish reasons.
“What about you?” he asked. “You look a little… well, I’m sure you’ve seen better days. How’s your arm? It doesn’t look as if it feels all that comfortable at the moment. Did you want to get it checked out?”
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Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:49 am
"Oh," she looked a bit awkward at having been the catalyst for him to take such measures. "Well, thank you, really! I'll pay you back s-some day, promise. Just give me a call whenever you're in youma trouble and I'll be there! Or, um, Negaverser trouble too I guess, or those Dark Mirror people - although I should probably warn you that, um, they tend to kick my a**. Like, really kick my a**. But I'd still help you! Because we're allies and I owe you one. Although I'd probably do it even if I didn't owe you one-- I'm just going to shut up now, r-right." Looking even more awkward after her little ramble, Vanadis shifted lightly on her feet. Truthfully she was pretty exhausted, and the pain of her arm might be getting to her head a little bit; but she had a real, live hero here, and if being a senshi had taught her one thing, it was that she needed to get advice wherever she could. And Ganymede was practically a pro! Plus, he'd totally saved her a** so she'd stick it out instead of excusing herself and going home to feel sorry for herself. "No, no, it's fine." She patted said arm with a small smile. "Been dislocated before, the pain goes away by itself, um, eventually. S'long as you put it b-back right and such. Should be better tomorrow, really, nothing to worry about." Well, she'd probably have to take a day off from school, but she could live with that.
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Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:43 pm
“Yeah, I’ve seen my fair share of dislocations,” Ganymede observed with a wince. “Only had one myself, though. Um… but that wasn’t because of anything like this, so I’m not even sure if that counts. A sling’ll help keep your arm from moving too much, and if you’ve got any pain meds at home I’d go ahead and take them. Ibuprofen’ll help with the inflammation, but if you’ve got anything stronger than that it might be worth it to dull the pain for a while. It shouldn’t take too long to heal, though. But then you probably know all that already…”
The healing thing was probably the one thing being a senshi was good for, in his opinion. Well, aside from being able to protect people, which was important, but Ganymede definitely appreciated the accelerated healing more than most other things about being what he was. His feet in particular had been known to benefit from it from time to time, not to mention all the various minor injuries he’d received in the last year and eight months.
In any case, he appreciated Vanadis’ insistence on returning the favor and he continued to smile sympathetically before summoning his senshi phone from subspace.
“You don’t mind if I scan you in, right?” he asked first to make sure. “It’ll be easier to get in touch if you ever need help again. Not that there aren’t plenty of other senshi out there who’d be willing to help, but just in case. Or even if you just want some company. I’ll warn you, though, I can’t say I’m always the best at this, but I can handle youma alright. Negaversers… well, I try to steer clear of them if I can. I’ve never been very comfortable fighting them, and I’ve only met one Dark Mirror senshi so far. She was… not the most intimidating one, I’m sure. But I’ve been through my own ups and downs and still tend to have trouble, so… if you’re still settling back into all this, seriously, don’t feel like you have to be perfect at it. None of us are, and anyone who claims to be is a liar.”
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 2:59 pm
She'd dutifully nodded along to his advice, noting it down even if she knew most of it already. It was very kind of him to go out of his way like this, after all, and she wouldn't pay him back by being in-attentive when he was saying something. "Right, no, go ahead!" Smiling shyly, she let him scan her in before summoning her own phone. "It's OK to scan you in too, r-right?" She did it anyway, not waiting for his reply - what if he said no?! Anyway, she guessed she could always delete him if he really insisted. "R-really?" No-one had ever quite explained senshi duty like Ganymede just did. She turned puppy eyes on him, strangely heartened by his advice that she didn't need to be perfect. "That's, um, really nice of you to say! I've kinda been worrying, because I get my a** kicked a lot, you see? Like, not so much with youma b-because most of the time you can kinda see which ones are weak enough for you, but Negaversers and those other senshi, they, uh, kick my a** really badly. Like, it always goes badly when I encounter them, and Chaonis said I should just be a bad a** senshi, but I think maybe I'm not really all that suited to being a bad a** and sometimes it seems a bit mean to just hit them for no reason, you know?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:41 pm
Ganymede certainly didn’t mind being scanned in to Vanadis’s phone. Other senshi he might have had a few problems with—he didn’t exactly have the best record with some of them—but he couldn’t say “no” to someone who seemed kind and had already shown herself to be appreciative.
“I don’t know who Chaonis is,” he said slowly, taking a moment to think back over all of the senshi he’d seen or met, but no face came to mind to match the name, “but being a ‘bad-a**,’” and here he made air quotes around the word once he’d sent his phone back to subspace, “probably isn’t the smartest or the safest way to go about fighting the war. People who think they’re bad-asses are usually more pathetic than they like to believe they are anyway. Honestly, I’d prefer someone who can admit to their mistakes or their lack of skill but at least makes the effort to improve than someone with an inflated ego.”
Admittedly, he hadn’t met a lot of senshi like that. Just a few—some of whose names he still didn’t know—but they stood out starkly in a year and a half’s worth of memories. Most of the others he’d encountered seemed to have a more level-headed approach, which he could appreciate even if he didn’t readily agree with everything they believed in.
“Just do your best,” he advised. “Only you know what your limits are and what you can and can’t handle, and you’re the only one who can decide who or how to fight and why. No one else can make that decision for you. If you only want to fight youma, then only fight youma. That’s usually what I try to do. I admit, the idea of fighting another person and potentially hurting them makes me uncomfortable, but I’ll do it if it needs to be done to save someone. If you need help with the others, the Negaversers and the DMC, then ask for help. No one can fault you for that. It takes a lot more guts, in my opinion, to admit that you need help than it does to go out and try to be a bad-a**.”
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