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 Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 1:47 am
Watch was always (usually) set, when other officers didn't interfere and send guards away. One more failing of appropriate protocol on a SpecOps mission that it was even allowed. Imprecise. For now, her order to this guard went unchallenged and well- wait for and time an hour and twenty minutes into the already disturbed sleep cycle and for the caged eternal and send for her. Word came, the general came. She came with a newly welded apart toy. She came with Barbary gripped on shoulder to mask all sounds of movement. Her cane was held in hand in approach to the cage. Then Schörl circled round it, clacking the dragon wings against the bars as she went. Sunshine Alouette a guine bird said... ignore if you do not want~
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 5:36 am
Ganymede did not awaken for some time, fighting through the haze and delirium of fever. What remained of the starseed she'd been forced to consume continue its cold burn in her stomach. Now her trembling was caused by illness as much as it was by the horror of it all.
She came to slowly, her eyes fluttering until she found the will to keep them open. Someone was circling her cage. She could hear the sound of each bar being struck, from one side to the other, around and around with a clanging that rang in her ears. Ganymede groaned and pushed herself up onto her forearms, forcing herself to combat the nausea and the pain to look through blurry eyes at the officer.
There was something familiar about her, something that brought forward memories of Oberon.
“I remember you,” she said, quiet now. She didn't think she had the strength left for screaming. “You ran from me once, didn't you? When I used my magic. Or you made an escape at least. You were weaker then.”
A laugh, tired and weak, and then, “That's probably as close to running as I'll get from anyone. Anyway, obviously you've got the upper hand now.”Ivynian omg of course I want! <333
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:05 am
Plucky, leading off with a try at defusing power differential with prior engagement. Keen memory as well, for not meeting in more than a year plus torments. But no, I do not need to talk of comparing our assets. "A grave, a grave," Lord Barnard cryd, " ‘To put these lovers in; But lay my lady on the upper hand, For she came of the better kin." Schörl did not pause in slow circle, nor the cadence of cane on bars. " You are changed. " "I prefer of left hand and right. You're down one there. On the other hand, it doesn't have to get worse. We can dispense with the beforehand. Offer me handout, gracious 'queen, and I can offer you the same. Or your other-other hand. Significant other? "
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:26 am
Ganymede groaned her misery into her arms.
She was tired, so tired. All she wanted was the peaceful oblivion of sleep. Without thought, without memory. Once she'd been numb to the pain. She still felt it; of course she did. She felt every second of it. But she could withstand it. She had experience with pain. She'd known it would take a lot to reach her limit.
This was different. Not the pain itself, but the experience. The whole gravity of the situation, of what she'd been made to do. It made the pain a hundred times worse, tinged with guilt as it was.
And now this General came to her seeking more answers.
“What are you saying? What do you want?” Ganymede said. “Haven't I answered all your questions already? What more do you expect to get from me?”
Significant other, she said. Valhalla.
“Please, just leave Val alone. I'll do anything...”
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:19 pm
What do I want? Everything. "There an end to expectation? True enough. There is an end. I am here to help you. You and 'Val'. Let's start there, since he's at the front of your mind. Tell me about 'Val'. That's a close sort of pet name. " The general twirled her cane once, switching the end on the bars from the dragon to the lighter rattan tip. It switched the note that rang out. "Yourself and Val. The more I know, the better I know how to help you. If you speak in honesty, the less I will need question him and others. This can go quite easily if you help me. I can help you."
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:32 pm
Ganymede wondered, why was she so interested in Valhalla?
Because he was a weakness. Because he could be used against her. And Ganymede had fed her that information after so little provocation. Ill with fever and consumed by pain, she had little sense to hold back.
“Everyone calls him Val,” she said. “Valhalla. He's a... Knight of Jupiter. A Jovian. Please, if I could just see him... He was hurt. At the party. He needs a doctor. Don't let him die, please.”
She had tears in her eyes. What would they do to him if not kill him? Corrupt him? She wondered which was truly worse. Corrupted he would be alive. She could save him. Except she was likely to die. Who would save him then?
“Please, he's my husband...” she said.
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:48 pm
"He does need a doctor, you are very right there. " Schörl gave a sympathetic nod. "You do too. With that wrist of yours. " Husband. Isn't that romantic. "Infection can happen very fast in conditions like these. So we should act fast, shouldn't we? Tell me about the day that this happened to you. Start to finish, even what you ate for breakfast- I like details. You didn't have tracery before. I want to know all about that twenty four hours. " The General Queen knows plenty for anger about the night.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 9:40 am
“The day what happened?”
She was confused. It was hard to think through the pain. Equally hard to process the General's words. So she spoke of her last memories before being brought to this place. It was difficult for her to think further back.
“I made omelets for breakfast,” she mumbled. “I did laundry and cleaned the house. For lunch I had a turkey sandwich and a side of potato salad. I ate a parfait for desert. I went to have my hair and nails done that afternoon. I dressed for the party at home. A driver came to pick us up and dropped us off at the hotel. They gave me a white mask. We danced, but I felt weak. And then... everything just... fell apart. Cyllene brought me here.”
She paused, took a few quick breaths, and said, “Where is Cyllene? Tell her I don't blame her. Tell her it's okay...”
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:00 am
"Tsktsk. You're going to have to listen closer than that. Tracery. Your glowing lines, your lack of tiara and symbol in its place. I want to know about the day that these things happened to you. The day you changed from being a regular, every day, run-of-the-mill eternal senshi into whatever it is you'd like to refer to yourself as now. I want to know everything about that day. Every little detail. " "You skimmed before, even on the wrong day as it was. I didn't say paraphrase. I said every detail. I want to know your thoughts, even the naughty ones about your husband. Even the boring ones, about how much it was for gas. You'd be surprised what you can remember, I should think, when it makes the difference between the Eagle of Jupiter being able to wrap you in his wings...or he loses them altogether." Schörl lifted from inside her coat lapel a wing. It was singular, metal, once part of a helmet and now welded off the rest and detached. It was let to fall, clattering with sudden weight on the floor. A second disembodied wing followed it, fallen. "He needs help. Doctors. If he doesn't get them soon, he's going to need his name altered to Icarus."
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:46 am
“I'm sorry,” Ganymede cringed. “I'm sorry!”
She made no excuses. She knew it would not matter to this General that she was in pain. Likely she'd come to cause more. Ganymede's breathing quickened as she attempted to think back, but it had been so long since then. How was she to remember...
The sound of metal falling to the floor jolted her further into consciousness. Ganymede looked beyond her cage to see part of Valhalla's helmet. She sobbed quietly, attempted to crawl closer to it, reaching out her good hand like she meant to grab it. Yes, he needed help. He needed a doctor. She needed to get help for him.
“It happened in May. Before Mother's Day. It was... it was a Monday!” she said, her voice tinged with panic. “I don't remember the date. Val and I had French toast for breakfast. I made him extra coffee because he was finishing up with final exams. I had my last exam that day. It was... biology. I felt good about it. I knew most of the answers. I met friends for lunch in the cafeteria. I had pasta with olive oil and garlic. We talked about stupid things. Clothes, celebrities, nothing important.
"After, I went to the gym for a yoga class. I was tired," she continued, rambling now. "I almost fell asleep in corpse pose. But then when I left I felt invigorated. I went to the bookstore to return some of my school books. There was a long line. It took at least an hour and a half. I waited for Val to finish another exam and we went home together. He let me drive. I remember thinking he must have been tired. I don't usually drive his car. We stopped to pick up Chinese for dinner. Beef Teriyaki, Beef with Peapods, Pork Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour Chicken. We ate at home in front of the TV. We watched an episode of Criminal Minds on Netflix. One of the earlier ones, with Gideon.
"When it was over I told Val I was going out on patrol. I could tell he was tired so I told him he could stay behind. I went to the graveyard. I could feel a really strong Chaos power. It was Laurelite. She stuck her hand in my chest and in just happened, I swear. I don't know anything else about it!”
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 5:10 am
Good pet. The General nodded, putting a foot onto the cage to push it away from the fallen wings, "That's a start...that's a fine start. But you see, you stopped. I said the whole day, luv. You stopped at Laurelite. Do I look like the General-Queen? Simon didn't say stop. " Bringing the rattan cane down on the reaching arm was simple. The sound it made split the air. Punishments are levied when the object refuses to answer, or doesn't answer enough. Even reinforcing the thought that they haven't offered enough encourages complete obedience. An open flow of all information. Everything. They will scramble to provide. We're getting somewhere. We've got the start of the behavior. A month or two and you'll be in prime shape, pet. That's worth your precious Val's life that long, at least. "Make it up to Val. Tell me about going to the Moon. That's less interesting, less personal, but I recall something about being the 'Moon Queen'? Tell me how you get there, Queen. Why go. What is there. All, and don't lose your focus. You can win him medical treatment. His wings might still be saved."
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:58 am
Ganymede yelped as the cane was brought down onto her arm, a short, high-pitched little sound she struggled to cut off.
“It was a joke,” she said. “It was just a stupid joke. I'm not the Moon Queen. I'm not. I don't know where she is.”
Fear assailed her. This was not a subject she could claim to have a lot of knowledge on. She made infrequent visits to the Moon, preferring her home-world above a place that seemed foreign and at times unwelcoming. But if she didn't answer appropriately, would would happen to Valhalla?
“We can only go during the full moon,” she said. “We have charms that hook onto our phones. If we concentrate on them during the full moon, we'll be taken there. But there isn't anything there. Just ruins. Just a broken castle and overgrown gardens. I've only ever seen the Moon Queen twice. Once during a Negaverse ambush more than two years ago. We were transported there for the first time. The Moon Queen was there, but I didn't pay attention to what she said because she made me so angry.
“I saw her again before Christmas,” she added. “I'd gone up to the Moon. There are places in the castle that are blocked off. I was looking at one of them when I thought I felt someone behind me. She was there, but she didn't say anything. All she did was smile at me. She doesn't live anymore. She's only a ghost. Knights can't go to the Moon on their own. They need our help to do it, but they're welcome there. We go because it's safe, because nothing can reach us there.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:49 am
Very, very good. Now that is a load that can be counted and accounted for. Sifted for its truths. And finding their truth or falsehood equally valuable to our engines. Schörl stepped away from the cage and to the two wings upon the floor. "One I take in trust of your words. It will buy time. Beg all that come after leave the second in your sights and for my second coming. If you have been friendly, speaking well and of help, then I will pick up the second. For now, this sees to bandage, fluids, antibiotics." " It is bad to stop medicine mid-treatment. " A chance to recant of lies or add information. The General toyed the wing in her hands while shifting the other further away from the swinging distance and reach of the cage. And others coming in will need to be told to threaten the posession of that wing on the floor. To move to take it. The uncertainty of what is not bought if I do not find it here to take up is leverage of madness. But Ganymede must never be allowed to touch it, if they tease the cage with it. Good.
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Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 6:11 am
There was some relief when her babbling seemed to have been enough.
“Please, I don't care what you do to me, just help him,” she said.
The subtle threats were not lost on her. In return for her cooperation, she'd bought no more than time for Valhalla to heal from his injuries. She'd not guaranteed his safety, or that treatment would continue indefinitely. The next time they wanted something from her, she expected it would stop. If they even treated him in the first place...
Perhaps the General was lying. Likely, she had no intention of helping Valhalla, but had used him as a means to gain information. Ganymede didn't know what to believe. She was tired and delirious. So long as there was the possibility that Valhalla might be spared more pain, she would take whatever opportunities were presented to her.
“That's all I know about the Moon,” she wept. “There's nothing there that would be a danger to you. Not the Moon Queen, not anything. Please, that's all I know, I swear.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 1:01 pm
Very good. We are making small progresses, tear by tear. Don't you worry, pet. If we keep you, you'll not cry so much. You'll be very happy and very well trained. There's pain at first, but that goes away, like most things.The single wing was brought over and rung along the bars where the cane had been used before. "We'll have a quiet chat again sometime. " Don't you go anywhere, now. The wing was brought away and the General walked slowly away to the dark and to doors beyond.
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