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 Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:18 pm
“Sorry for the mess,” Sessrumnir mumbled as he nudged some of the books aside with his foot. It had been a while since he’d been to his Wonder. He didn’t need to research a way to help his brother any more, so being there was just an excuse to have his summon out. Which he did. The giant canine-like summon immediately made herself comfortable on one of the couches in the small library, as though she’d done it many times before. Well, as comfortable as she could get with her hindleg not fitting and having to rest on the floor instead.
At one point, Sessrumnir tried cleaning up the books that had been scattered along the ground, likely in the chaos that came with Jupiter falling during the Silver Millenium, but he never got far enough to make a dent. He didn’t want to just shove books back where they didn’t belong, so he had them stacked in piles along the floor. Enough to make a path through the room filled with bookshelves.
“There are other libraries, but I think this one was mostly on other Worlds. Creating maps and things like that,” he explained, nodding to the large desks that must have once been used to hold giant maps, and the work benches that had shattered orbs of glass or crystal or whatever they were made from.
“Probably why this one was ransacked more than the others. People looking for information on resources for other Worlds. Advantages to challenge them with. Weaknesses they might have. Maps to get there,” he said, but he trailed off in thought after a few moments, wondering why he knew that. Or at least it seemed like it was right, even if he never knew exactly what anything was. It was all in different languages, although he had found a few books in Latin. He hoped that Ganymede’s memory would help them with deciphering anything they might need, though.
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Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2021 7:57 pm
Ganymede didn’t mind the mess. It came with the territory. She’d yet to visit a homeworld or wonder that wasn’t something of a disaster, home to ghosts and debris more than anything living. Even the Moon, perhaps their safest domain, was a haunted place.
Sessrumnir was no different. There was a stillness to the air, an eerie hush, like the ghosts were waiting, watching, there but not there, nudging at memories she and Sessrumnir would not have had without them.
She would not see the ghosts the way Sessrumnir might, but she did have memories of this place. Ganymede decided not to disclose whether Sessrumnir thought right or wrong about its purpose. It seemed in poor taste to remind him that she remembered his wonder better than he did.
“Probably a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack to find anything on the Velencians in here,” she said, touching the cover of a random book with delicate fingertips.
Liesel’s memories continued to fail her in that regard. Either he knew nothing about the Velencians, or any information he might have had about them was buried so far beneath everything else, it would take a considerable effort to uncover them.
Ganymede wasn’t sure they had that sort of time.
“I don’t even know where to start,” she admitted. “I know where the section on the Jovian system would have been, but beyond that…”
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 4:46 pm
Sessrumnir wasn’t sure how he felt, knowing that Ganymede could remember more about his Wonder than he did. Obviously she didn’t say anything to rub it in, but he knew that she had access to more information in that Princess-brain of hers than the rest of them.
And yet, here they were, looking for information on aliens that decided they wanted to help.
“If their timeline is accurate, Velencya was only established shortly before everything went to s**t. We should be looking for anything we can find on Velenia. And the two moons it had. That couldn’t have been good for the planet’s ecosystem if the moons were destroyed. They might not even be able to revive their world, even if they found their Senshi. Have you heard from anyone who tried getting in contact with Cosmos?”
Sessrumnir doubted it, but he was pretty sure that if Cosmos wanted anything to do with them, she needed to actually be there, and not just show up when it was time to rescue them. Surely she would do the same for them again if things went bad. Or maybe they would really manage to destroy Metallia and not have to worry about it.
He picked up a few books off the floor, the necklace he got from Almadel hanging from his neck as he’d hastily taken it off before he powered up, and put it back on immediately after. He didn’t know why he felt so attached to it when he had no idea what it was, but it helped him keep focus, he found.
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Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 8:35 am
Velencya, Velenia, neither offered much in the way of memories, if anything at all. Ganymede paused, picking through the past, sifting beyond the memories she had of this life to the ones she had of Liesel, and of all those who were important to him.
That Serge kept coming to the forefront of her brain instead of anything relevant to their search was somewhat frustrating, and she didn’t often say that about Serge.
“I haven’t,” she said, heaving a sigh, tapping an anxious beat against the book beneath her hand. “Since Cosmos hasn’t summoned us, I assume she either can’t be reached or she doesn’t care.”
Ganymede could not decide which would be worse. Either way, they couldn’t rely on Cosmos to make this decision for them. More than likely, she’d show her face when she was needed. Maybe she’d even lecture them again, then disappear until the next time anyone had need of her.
Ganymede did not want to need her.
She turned, intending to make her way to the only familiar section of books, hoping that by starting there they might be struck with some ideas. She stopped as soon as her gaze fell on Sessrumnir — specifically the necklace he wore.
“When did you get that?” she asked. “Did you find it here?”
How long had he been wearing it before she noticed?
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Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 8:28 pm
He’d just picked up a book and flipped it open to see if there was anything that might have been useful to them, once again unable to read anything that the strange language said, when Ganymede broke through his thoughts. Sessrumnir looked at her, and then down at the necklace.
“Internet.”
Okay, he was sure that answer wouldn’t be accepted. There was no reason she would be asking about it if she didn’t at least know it wasn’t from Earth. How could it be when it was swirling with latent magic? Not that he knew what that magic did, other than help him find peace when he couldn’t otherwise.
“That other alien guy that came through in June,” Sessrumnir explained, because surely Ganymede would have at least heard of the man, if she hadn’t been to him herself. “He wanted those little wisp things that I guess decided to rampage after all. I don’t know. I found it in his piles of junk he had. It seemed neat.”
He ended with a shrug, and he placed the useless book down on the stack he’d been making.
Ganymede didn’t need to know that he felt as though the necklace called to him, resonated with him somehow. That it had been nothing but black smoke until he held it in the palm of his hand, and that was when the gold began flickering through. Now it was a pure color, gently swirling.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:21 am
It seemed neat.
Ganymede almost snorted. Should she be amused? It seemed a terrible thing to laugh about, given what she knew, but Sessrumnir was his typical irreverent self about it, and the part of her that would always be a bit bitter and jaded tended to respond to that.
That he got it from the alien shopkeeper was both unsurprising and infuriating. The cup Ganymede received from the same man seemed inconsequential in comparison to what Sessrumnir had found. The cup undoubtedly came from her world, but there was a chance Liesel never even touched that specific one. Sessrumnir’s necklace was different. Ganymede remembered seeing it around the neck of the previous Knight of Sessrumnir. He touched it, owned it, cherished it. That it’d been found in some alien’s keeping, not here, or somewhere else deeply personal…
Should she tell him what it was? What she knew of it? She had a feeling Sessrumnir was already aware that she knew something, and yet he didn’t ask.
If he wanted to know, he would ask.
Ganymede sighed and let it be, banshing the memories to the back of her mind. There were matters of more consequence to be seen to.
“We’ve had too many alien visitors for one year, if you ask me,” she said, drifting over to the only familiar section of books.
Considering Sessrumnir’s location, the information it contained on the Jovian system was extensive. Unfortunately, the section was no longer in the pristine condition in which it used to be kept. Ganymede stared at the battered shelves, at the books scattered around. Loose pages littered the floor.
“Whether or not we can trust the Velencians, we should prepare ourselves for what might happen if they fail. Invading the Dark Kingdom was enough of an insult to Metallia. Caedus and Lyndin seem confident, but… this could backfire on all of us.”
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Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:37 pm
That was it? That was all Ganymede was going to say about it?
Sessrumnir found himself frowning. He shouldn’t be curious about the necklace. He didn’t want to be so attached that it would be disappointing if it broke or whatever. And yet, he felt as though she knew something about it that he didn’t.
It really wasn’t fair that she had all of her memories and the rest of them just had to scrape by with blips of visions every now and then.
“I absolutely expect this to backfire on all of us,” Sessrumnir said, and then caught Ganymede’s eye and shrugged. “That way I won’t be disappointed when it does go to s**t. If it works out then I guess I’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
Given the history of how things worked out in Destiny City, it was better to expect the worst. He was tired of his optimism coming through at the worst times, because it never seemed to work out.
“You’re going to ask me where I got this and then no say anything about it?” he finally asked, holding the orb with the pretty gold swirls between his fingers so she could see exactly what he was talking about.
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Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:25 am
“You didn’t seem interested,” Ganymede explained.
Her eyes lingered on the necklace for a few moments longer. Then she turned away and began to collect scattered books from the floor, returning them to some approximation of their proper place. Some she recognized more than others. She found a book detailing the history of Ganymede, followed by another she thought might contain information about Europa.
Ganymede paused to stroke a gentle palm over the cover of that one before placing it delicately on one of the few shelves that seemed relatively intact.
“Look, for the longest time, Val didn’t like talking about the past. You never seemed to like talking about the past. I didn’t even care about it initially, so… I only talk about things if someone actually wants to know, or if there’s information that might be relevant to the situation.”
She sighed heavily and looked toward Sessrumnir again, her gaze challenging. She knew how to sway his interest easily enough.
“Percy’s lover gave that to him,” she said. “There was an exchange of jewelry. I’m sure I don’t need to explain the significance.”
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 7:23 pm
Sessrumnir listened, and he tried not to make a face, but he couldn’t exactly stop himself from wrinkling his nose. From the couch, the giant form of his summon whimpered quietly, as though saddened by the mention of her previous master. She didn’t move from the couch, but she didn’t seem very inclined to wag her tail or express happiness upon being let out of the home where she was typically kept at his side.
So the necklace was some kind of engagement present, perhaps? He couldn’t remember. Those memories of his past life often seemed fleeting and out of reach. Maybe there was something wrong with him that he couldn’t access those memories so easily. Or maybe it was something about the Wonder that prevented it.
Or maybe his own starseed wasn’t ready to relive whatever seemed to shroud the Wonder in a sense of hopelessness that he felt every now and then.
“You knew him, didn’t you? Percy? Or… your past life did. What was his deal? He didn’t seem very knightly. I’m surprised he was allowed to even be a knight.”
From the couch, his summon whined again and tucked her nose under a paw. It seemed as though it was more heartbreaking for her than Sessrumnir could understand.
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:13 pm
“I don’t pretend to know how or why certain Knights are chosen,” Ganymede said.
She wandered more, picking up scattered pieces of paper as she went, loose pages from damaged books. She glanced over each one. The text was painfully familiar, yet she couldn’t read a word of it. It all felt a bit like déjà vu, only Ganymede knew she had never seen these pages before.
She set them down neatly on the shelf with the Jovian books.
“Sessrumnir was a family inheritance, I think. The same with Valhalla and—” She stopped herself before she could say Empyrean. If Sessrumnir didn’t want his parents knowing he was a Knight, the reverse should be respected until Beau decided to tell him. “—others. Percy’s brother and father were both Knights of Jupiter, and his grandfather and a few uncles before them. It was a point of pride passed through the generations.”
Whether or not it suited them all the same was up for debate.
Not that they were here to discuss any of that.
“You’re upsetting your wolf,” Ganymede said, “and we’re getting off topic, aren’t we? The Velenians. I’m not convinced their plan will work. I don’t know if Lyndin’s confident or just arrogant. Either way, he’s never dealt with this current version of the Negaverse.”
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2021 5:50 pm
Sessrumnir’s eyes lingered on the wolf summon on the couch, but said nothing else about his past life, nor did he ask Ganymede any other questions about him. They hadn’t gone there to talk about anything other than the Velencians and the possible threat they meant for Earth.
The heaviness of the room seemed to be settling once more, anyway. It was best not to disturb the ghosts.
He watched Ganymede move some books around, and he picked up a few from the floor himself and set them on a mostly empty shelf. He couldn’t read them, although he’d found a few in latin before. Not that he remembered much of his latin studies, anyway.
“I think Lyndin is confident in his abilities. If he’s really never failed a mission then he has every right to be confident. But I think you’re right that he’s in over his head with the Negaverse. They just don’t know what to plan for. Neither do we, if we’re being honest. Someone could go and tell the Negaverse that the Velencians are here. Can you remember anything about when their original world was taken over? Or at least remember reading or being told anything about Sailor Velenia? I’ve tried looking up named stars and moons, but found nothing. We just might not have located it yet, or maybe it’s been misnamed.”
He paused to pick up a dusty glass orb that was stuck against the corner of a bookcase, and dusted it off. Inside looked like tiny stars and planets moving along their intended path. Some kind of magic keeping them in place and in real time, even after these hundreds of years.
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Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 9:23 am
“No, Velenia doesn’t ring any bells,” Ganymede said.
She brought a hand to her head, like touching her temple or giving her hair a brief tug would be enough to jog her brain into functioning. When that didn’t work, she dropped her hand to her chest, over her starseed — the thing that allowed her to remember the past in the first place.
If only some of her recollections weren’t so spotty.
“Given the politics of the time, I can’t imagine Liesel never heard of it, but he might not’ve had any dealings with them,” she continued. “My memory is nowhere near complete. There are still gaps. Most of what I do remember took place on Ganymede, or places throughout the Jovian system.”
Which added to the frustration. She knew there was more. She knew there were a number of things still missing, but she had no idea how to trigger her mind or her starseed into remembering.
Things might be easier if she could.
With a heavy sigh, Ganymede turned to Sessrumnir again, glancing at the glass sphere he’d picked up.
“If this fails and the Negaverse retaliates… we might be worse off than we already are. We were lucky to get out of the Dark Kingdom alive. That we’ve survived this long when the Negaverse has so many resources…”
She shook her head, unsure how she meant to finish the thought. Even with her powers, she felt unmatched. How could they hope to measure up to the task when they always seemed to be at a disadvantage?
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Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2021 4:50 pm
“Even if this doesn’t fail, I can’t imagine they will all so willingly give up what they currently have,” Sessrumnir grumbled as he stacked a few books up after flipping through the pages of text that he couldn’t read.
“Most of them aren’t trained. Not really. No more than any normal senshi or knight. It’s that they can teleport and tear out starseeds and steal energy that makes them a threat. If we could just get them on even footing, then maybe they’d realize it was only their Chaos that makes them anything. If they knew that, they might be more willing to purify,” Sessrumnir said with a small shrug. He had no idea what others would think, and he knew, and he knew Ganymede knew that not everyone was so willing and quick to purify.
They both had blood on their hands because of mistakes that were made, and the stubbornness of people who didn’t know any better.
“If you don’t know anything about the Velencians, then maybe we should drop that for now. I doubt we’ll find information on them here. At least nothing that will be useful. We should figure out a way to counter the Negaverse when they retaliate instead.”
How? He had no idea about that either. He knew what the problem was, but not how to fix it. “We just need something to… tether them in place long enough to get the message across that they’re not as all powerful as they think.”
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Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 7:12 am
“Even footing…” Ganymede mumbled.
What would that even look like? The Negaverse had almost the entirety of Earth, didn’t they? Destiny City was the only safe place for any Senshi or Knight to power up, and even that was debatable. So many were killed. So many were corrupted. So many went missing with no explanation about what happened to them, only guesses. Ganymede had magic, but it was finite. The Negaverse seemed to have unlimited resources, unlimited power.
But strip their power away, and what did they have?
Strip away their power, and we have the advantage.
The whisper of a memory.
Ganymede latched onto it, closed her eyes and focused on the voice that drifted through her head. It was one she knew well, one she’d heard so often on Ganymede, one she was fond of above all others. Serge’s voice, calling to her from the past, nudging past the fog that still shrouded so many of Liesel’s memories.
She remembered the sadness of exile, Liesel mourning for a world that was not dead, but no longer welcoming to him. She remembered drifting through the halls of Valhalla, walking out into the rain, staring up into the sky…
She remembered a face, and a name. Altamira. She remembered Serge in Liesel’s arms. She remembered the swirling clouds and the gleam of a blade and—
It isn’t ready, Serge had said, angry, worn, defeated, but determined still. He took Liesel’s hand into his own, pressed his mouth to Liesel’s fingers. On the desk before them was a device of metal and glowing stone.
Ganymede opened her eyes.
“There might be something…” she said, low and quiet, struggling to hang onto the memory. Already, it was sinking back beneath the fog. “At Valhalla. Serge was working on something before he—...”
The part of her that felt what Liesel felt didn’t want to think of Serge dying.
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Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 9:14 am
Sessrumnir looked up at Ganymede in surprise when she started explaining that there might be something--
“What do you mean? What was he working on?” Sessrumnir asked and shut a dusty book to place on the pile he’d started. But the way she was speaking… clearly it must have been soon before--
“Do you think Valhalla knows anything about it? Is it something Liesel had access to? Would know anything about?” he couldn’t stop himself from asking. Something about the thought of being able to be on even footing with the Negaverse was too good to want to pass up.
He opened his mouth to ask something else, but the far off look in her expression had him pausing. He just frowned and tried to will his subconscious to remembering something useful. But in the end, there was just an empty ache in his chest and the gentle pulse from his necklace.
“Maybe we should be looking on Valhalla for answers,” he suggested instead, his voice quiet in case she needed a moment to breathe.
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