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 Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 7:33 am
There were a lot of things Ganymede could tolerate about being a prisoner.
She could tolerate the pain; she'd felt enough of it in her life. She could even tolerate the hunger and the thirst. It seemed sad to her that the months she'd spent running herself ragged, eating little, and leading herself closer to an early grave should prepare her for something like this, yet prepare her it had. She could ignore the rumblings in her stomach, the dryness of her throat, the ache in her head that came from so little necessary nutrients. She could even tolerate the endless (and in her mind, pointless) questioning, angry though it made her. With each question posed to her she gained a small victory, knowing the Negaverse would never get all of the answers they desired.
But what she couldn't tolerate was the solitude. Large stretches of time passed alone. Hours maybe. It was hard to tell. With no windows it was impossible to judge the time of day. She saw neither sunlight nor moonlight. Just the same peeling walls, and the cold bars of her cage.
That she could hardly move was almost as intolerable. She was born for movement. She'd never gone immobile for such a long stretch of time. It chaffed at her nerves, prodded the anxious feeling already rising higher and higher the longer she remained imprisoned.
Eventually she had enough of sitting on the floor of the cage. Tired though she was, and stilted though her movements were, Ganymede put her feet beneath her in an effort to rise. The metal chains which kept her arms bound and fastened to one of the bars of the cage screeched loudly as they dragged up the bar. Ganymede ignored the jarring sound, gritting her teeth against her weakness until she was standing upright.
A minor success, but a success all the same.
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 7:52 am
When Kadyrelite had volunteered to be an extra set of hands at the fun house, she had expected it to be dull. Perimeter patrol was hardly the most exciting thing out there. She'd figured that her superiors were used the old wreck of a building as a base. A headquarters to sit and plan.
She had not expected prisoners. And she had not expected the screams and appearances of some of them when she was allowed to go peek or bring food and water. Granted, that last wasn't often, but as General Queen Apatite wanted these prisoners to be kept alive, it at least happened. Personally, Kadyrelite thought that they've have better luck getting information by being nice, but she had to admit that the methods being used might be more effective in some ways. People would start babbling eventually simply because they'd reach the point where they couldn't do anything else.
But there was information that she wanted and as she wasn't exactly on duty, she figure it couldn't hurt to visit one of the prisoners and see if she couldn't get answers. And while the woman in the cage seemed as good a place to start as any.
Stepping closer to the cage, she began to unscrew the bottle of gatorade she'd brought with her as a sort of peace offering.
"You look thirsty. Here."
Thrusting the bottle through the bars, her eyes flickered over the woman, trying to figure out why such measures were needed.
"Don't drink it too fast," she cautioned. "I'd rather not see you puke your guts up or anything."
A tiny frown wrinkled her brow as she stared at the symbol glowing upon the woman's forehead. Tried to figure out her aura.
"You feel different," she stated as she picked a spot on the floor to sit on. "Not hugely different, brighter, I guess? It's interesting at least."
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 8:16 am
Ganymede looked from the proffered bottle of gatorade to the woman who offered it to her, suspicious as she always was whenever she was brought something to eat or drink. Who knew when they'd think to slip poison into something and put her out of her misery.
Who was she kidding? Poison was far too subtle a method to be used by the Negaverse. Certainly they'd find more satisfaction in brutalizing her.
“Can't really drink without my hands,” she said, shaking her chained hands against the bar they were fastened to as if to make her point.
She peered at the young woman cautiously, attempting to determine what she might expect from this one. The offer of food or water was usually a good sign—when it wasn't being used to taunt her, that is. She didn't know how long she'd been confined her, but she'd managed to learn a few things since first gaining consciousness. Despite the Negaverse's hand in her current predicament, there remained a few agents who approached the situation with a sort of kindness, whether or not they felt an true sympathy for her.
Maybe this woman would be one of the more gentle ones. She certainly didn't immediately come across as a brute.
“Tell me something I don't know,” Ganymede said. She had no intention to making things easy for this agent, whatever the agent's feelings and responses may be. “Look, I don't know why I feel different, okay? It just happened. You can blame Laurelite. In fact, why don't you go ask her? Where is she anyway? I'd've thought she'd be all up in my business now that I don't have anywhere else to go.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 8:42 am
"Oh," the soft exclamation was followed by a faint blush as Kadyrelite scrambled to her feet and hurried to hold up the bottle for the senshi. "Didn't think about that, sorry. I can hold the bottle up for you if you like." She pressed herself against the cage, shoving her arm through with the bottle to show willingness to help in this small way. Up close the glowing symbol was a bit more noticeable. Nodding toward it, Kadyrelite seemed completely oblivious to the senshi's tone. "Well, you're glowing. Maybe it's an alien life stage kind of thing? Maybe an ovipositor is the next stage!" Grinning and looking entirely too pleased with this theory, Kadyrelite was in fact reveling in talking to a real live alien. Oh sure, she knew that the senshi were evil, war-mongering aliens and all, but still. Aliens."Why would I blame General Queen Laurelite for anything? And I don't know where she is. I mean, I'm still just a grunt, you know? It's not my business where my superiors' business takes them." She paused for a moment, thinking. There were things that she'd been trying to understand for a while now. Where was the point in sitting and stewing when she had a senshi right in front of her who might be able to help shed some light on them? "So my name's Kadyrelite. Would it be okay if i asked you some stuff? It's nothin' big or bad or anything. It's just curiosity on my part and I can't find anyone else who can answer my questions." Worst the senshi could say was no, after all. And really, where was the harm is asking why this business of purification was such a huge damn deal?
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 9:45 am
Ganymede stared at the officer, not sure she didn't expect a flood of gatorade in the face for her snappy tone, but when she nodded and leaned forward and strained against the chains to bring her mouth to the bottle, she was able to drink at her leisure.
She didn't drink much. Just enough to sooth her parched throat. The liquid was lukewarm but fortifying enough for now. Clearly it was too much to expect a nice cup of tea.
When she was done Ganymede leaned back against the bars of the cage and decided to keep her silence for the time being. That Laurelite had not thought it pertinent to come see her pissed her off as much as the fact that she'd been captured in the first place. If Laurelite wasn't around for interrogating, where the hell was she? Who the hell was in charge, and what were they planning on doing with them when they were done?
Ganymede would have asked, but judging by the young woman's response, Ganymede didn't expect she'd have any of the sort of information Ganymede wanted. Instead, she stood and watch the officer, filing her name away into her memory when it was offered to her.
“Don't expect me to offer my name in return,” she said.
Certainly there were some agents who already knew it, Buddingtonite and Bischofite chief among them, but she didn't intend to make it easy for those that didn't.
“Depends on what you plan on asking me,” Ganymede continued. She made her voice sound disinterested even as she wondered what questions they could possibly have for her this time. “Go ahead, but I'm not making any promises that I'll answer.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 9:58 am
Once sure that the senshi'd drunk what she wanted, Kadyrelite capped the bottle and resumed her place on the floor. Tilting her head to watch the blonde, she krinkled her nose in a smile.
"No worries. I expect that you're probably tired of having questions slung your way. And eh," she shrugged indifferently. "If you don't, one of the others might. I'm not here to badger anyone."
Now how to phrase this? The lieutenant knew that purification was a touchy subject, nearly forbidden. She didn't want to risk upsetting the senshi if she followed the same line of thought where the process was concerned. Upset people tended to be, well, noisy.
Still, the senshi had given her permission to ask, so maybe it would be okay.
"Well," she began, drawing her knees up under her chin. "I guess I was hoping you could tell me why this purification stuff I keep hearing whispers of is such a huge deal. I mean, how does it work? No one will tell me anything and I just want to understand why it's such serious business."
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 10:14 am
Purification was the last thing Ganymede had expected to be asked about, if only because most of the questions posed to her by others so far had been in regards to her name and her strange aura. Of course, she could see why purification would be such an issue. The more people purified, the more dedicated soldiers the Negaverse lost, the weaker their argument became.
But purification, Ganymede knew, was not the answer to everything. For every officer that purified, two more rose to take their place. Agents were expendable, replaceable, particularly those ranked lower on the totem pole. Like this one. If she ever came to the point of switching sides, the Negaverse would probably have someone else in her place the very next day.
It'd sicked Ganymede, that the Negaverse treated their people like that. It sickened her even more now that she knew her best friend was one of them.
“I don't know why it's such a huge deal,” Ganymede said without sympathy, “when your people would just as quickly replace you. It's more a big deal to us than it should be to the Negaverse. Call it a minor victory.”
She remained standing in her cage, looking down upon the Lieutenant with mild curiosity.
“As for how it works, I don't really know,” she admitted. “I've heard only a Prince or Princess would be capable of it. That seems to be about the only thing they're useful for. I don't know how or why, just that they can. Otherwise, it's a divisive issue. Some of us don't see it as an answer, while others think it's better than the alternative, which would be to kill every last one of you.”
She made it sound like a threat, even if, as things stood currently, she had no intention of following through with it.
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 10:32 am
Clicking her tongue against her teeth, Kadyrelite nodded thoughtfully. Well it was a little more information than she had before.
"Have you ever seen it happen to anyone?" she asked. "I heard rumors about one a few months back, but beyond that, nothing. I wouldn't mind seeing one done, you know? It must be interesting."
Focused on the idea of one purifying, she was completely oblivious to the threat in the senshi's voice. Even the words were hardly important.
"Eh, sounds about how most of us feel about you guys. Now me, I think aliens are pretty awesome and you don't seem bad. But hey, it is what it is."
Her eyes grew distant as she drummed the floor lightly with her fingertips, deep in thought. How strange that only a certain type of person could do it. But maybe that was only for senshi.
"Is it different for Knights? Or do they need to borrow a prince or princess from you guys?"
Really, she thought delightedly, this was such interesting stuff!
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 10:52 am
“No, I haven't seen it,” Ganymede said honestly.
But that would change soon if she had anything to say about it. It wasn't that she had any particular compulsion to see a purification take place, it was that there happened to be someone she wanted to save and see purified.
Before, purification had interested her only so far as it could affect the Negaverse itself. Now, with the revelation as to who exactly Wolframite was, it suddenly seemed much more personal. And the thought that she would have to rely on other people to make it happen frustrated her. Wolframite wasn't just some random Negaverse officer to be shoved toward whatever Prince or Princess happened to be available at the time.
Of course, she had no choice in the matter. And the possibility of it even taking place rested entirely upon convincing Wolframite that the option was preferable to remaining as he was now.
“The purification of Knights I know even less about than the purification of Senshi,” she said. “If you want to know more about that I'd suggest you go ask a Knight. The only thing I know about that is you'd become a Knight if you happened to purify. I'm assuming a Prince or Princess could do it. I can't imagine why they couldn't. Speaking of, why didn't you go after one of them?”
She thought it a valid question, considering the power and the threat inherent in Senshi royalty.
“They'd make a bigger prize than me or however many others you managed to capture.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 11:13 am
Well hell. She had so hoped that this senshi might have seen one at some point. Pity. Though, it was interesting to know that she'd be a knight if it ever happened to her. Not that she wanted it to.
"Maybe I will," she said slowly. Surely they'd brought some captive Knights in? She'd have to do some snooping. Waggling her finger dismissively, she gave the senshi a half-grin.
"I can't see myself ever going down that path. As for going after a Prince or Princess, I don't know. My orders here are to guard and make sure that you guys eat and drink a bit. Not to capture. Not to interogate. Truth, I'd be pretty terrible at either."
She couldn't help the soft laugh at her own expense that burbled up. She was a walking disaster waiting to happen as far as physicality went. And even sitting in the room with it's terrible cage and chained senshi pulled at her heartstrings. No, she made a better guard and bearer of edibles here.
"Hell, I don't really even understand why they want so many of you. Guess they think you guys know something important."
Glancing over her shoulder, she wondered if she'd over-stayed her welcome. She didn't think she'd get into too much trouble for being in here talking, but she wasn't exactly willing to be found out just yet and dressed down either.
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 11:22 am
Ganymede latched onto whatever small bits of information she could glean from the Lieutenant. Firstly, given that the Lieutenant didn't know where Laurelite was, Ganymede could conclude that this had not been done under Laurelite's orders—and if it had, she'd not yet been informed of their captives. Secondly, she was not the only one to have been taken.
She'd expected as much. It made no sense for her to be the only one, especially as she knew the Negaverse had been intending to capture Senshi like her. That included Ida, and Babylon if they were going after Knights, too. She was sure they were. She was sure Valhalla was here somewhere, though what they intended to use him for she didn't have a clue. He may know more about the history of the war than she did, but she didn't expect it was anything the Negaverse didn't already known themselves.
“How many of us were brought here?” she asked.
She almost asked after people she knew but reconsidered it and thought it might be dangerous to throw out names. If she asked after Ida and it turned out Ida hadn't been captured, what was to stop them from going after her once they knew what had become of her—if they didn't know already?
Ganymede observed the Lieutenant but could not determine how far to place any of her trust in her. It didn't seem as if Kadyrelite meant her any harm—indeed, it didn't seem as if the Lieutenant had any interest in that—but that didn't mean she wouldn't inform her superiors of this conversation if Ganymede happened to reveal some pertinent information.
“If your orders aren't to interrogate, why are you asking me these questions?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 11:36 am
"Hadn't counted," came the breezy reply. And while she couldn't, personally, see the harm in tossing out numbers, she honestly didn't know. With a sigh, she rose to her feet and approached the cage again.
"Want any more?" she asked, holding up the gatorade. "I don't think I should stay much longer. It might end up being bad for both of us."
She fussed a bit around the cage, wishing that she could at the very least release the senshi's arms from those chains. But her superiors clearly wanted this one chained and it wouldn't do to go against them.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry you're caught up in this. You don't seem bad. And I asked because I want to know and thought you'd be more likely to tell me than my officers. That's all."
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 11:53 am
Ganymede eyed the Lieutenant with some wariness but leaned forward as far as she could to take another drink of gatorade. Again, she didn't drink too much, conscious as she was of how empty her stomach had become, but it was enough to satisfy her for the time being.
“Thank you,” she said. She didn't know what Kadyrelite's motives were, or if she had a motive at all, but the Lieutenant had approached her with enough kindness to earn at least some of Ganymede's appreciation.
That didn't stop Ganymede from being suspicious, of course. There was no telling how much of this was genuine and how much of it might be a ploy.
She almost questioned Kadyrelite's curiosity, almost pointed out the folly in what seemed to be the Negaverse's intention to keep its officers ignorant. The less the officers knew about these things, the more curious they'd be; the more curious they were, the more likely they'd be to seek out their own answers; and the more answers they sought on their own, it seemed to her as if they'd drift further and further away from the Negaverse, until the only option let to them would be to join her and her kind.
“I won't tell anyone you were here asking questions,” she offered. She hoped some kindness in return might sway the Lieutenant's opinion further in her favor. “If anyone asks, you were just here to make sure I drank something.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 12:16 pm
A hint of relief touched Kadyrelite's eyes as she smiled one last time at the caged senshi.
"Thanks. I appreciate it. If they let me, I'll try to come back, maybe bring an old blanket or something that you can sit on or well, I don't know."
Looking suddenly embarrassed by the offer, the lieutenant crept tot he hall and peeked out. Not seeing anyone, she turned and gave the senshi a wave before carefully edging from the room. Poor thing, she thought. She did, truly, hope that they wouldn't do anything to bad to the blonde. Well, to any of the captives when it came down to it.
At the same time, orders were orders and doubtless someone would come looking for her soon to stand guard or do some water deliveries.
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