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 Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 8:31 pm
The longer they kept her, the worse her condition became. They needn’t touch her to torture her, though some of them leeched her of energy or tried their hand at her starseed, the latter of which earned them nothing more than a burst of golden power and, on some occasions, a few minor injuries of their own.
To Ganymede, the pull of her moon was a constant thing, exacerbated now by distance and time. She yearned for it, ached for it like physical pain. When she could stand, she would pace her cell to compensate. With every touch of the rough stone walls, she would imagine the palace on Ganymede in the worn, decaying state she first found it in. With every flicker of light out in the hall, she thought of the dark, star-strewn sky with the wide, cloudy face of Jupiter that first greeted her. She thought of the ghosts and the memories, and the butterflies that now flitted about the gardens.
She mourned for it all, too, for she knew she would never see it again.
Perhaps the ache she felt was her moon mourning for her in return.
Chaos pressed ever closer — a constant, suffocating shroud. Ganymede held herself steady and forced herself to breathe, but it was becoming increasingly more difficult. Nightmares kept her awake when she needed rest. The near constant drain of energy left her trembling and weak. Fear had not yet consumed her, but she found herself preoccupied with the state of her starseed, with her moon and her power and the connection that existed between the two.
What if distance and time were enough to break it?
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Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2022 7:00 pm
In the Chaos of it all, Laurelite’s presence was nearly undetectable. She wanted it like that; if she’d intended to announce herself with it, she would have. She stood just outside Ganymede’s cell. She hadn’t teleported, she’d walked, and every step closer was another second to relish her aura. Smothered by Chaos. A tiny little speck in a sea of it. Laurelite liked to imagine she could feel the Chaos chipping away at it, chipping away at Ganymede’s resolve. She smiled when she looked in at her. “Ganymede,” she greeted, “You look horrible, darling. Aren’t you tired of all this yet? It’s exhausting just to look at you.”
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:11 pm
If she had the energy, maybe Ganymede might have jumped out of her skin. Something lurched in her chest, but there was no outward sign that Laurelite’s arrival surprised her.
Ganymede sat in a corner. The join of two walls held most of her weight and kept her upright, but she was visibly exhausted and in as poor of a state as she’d been when Jet first brought her to the Dark Kingdom. Dried blood still stained her dress. The stumps of her severed wings still ached at her back. Her sickly complexion would have been concerning to anyone who actually cared.
She laughed quietly — unamused.
“I suppose we have one thing in common,” Ganymede said. She cracked her eyes open and offered Laurelite a snide smile. “Looking terrible, I mean. You becoming Queen hasn’t really improved on much, has it? A shame you couldn’t’ve died with Apatite.”
For a while, back then, Ganymede hoped she might have.
In this war, hope never lasted long.
“One day, maybe, someone’ll get lucky, or one of your own’ll stab you in the back, or Metallia will put you down herself.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 1:46 pm
Laurelite laughed richly, something more than just the little tinkling bells of laughter she was known for. “Oh, Ganymede,” in her sickeningly sweet voice, filled with condescension and amusement, “Don’t even dream to compare us. We’re completely different, you and I.” The smile on her face didn’t change, but something around her just seemed like she was gloating. “Metallia will never replace me,” she said, gentle and confident. “I would never betray her. I’ll forgive you for your manners, I suppose I’d be a bit cranky if I only had this to keep me company.” She gestured vaguely to Ganymede’s prison. “You’re going to be here for a very long time, though. The least you could do is understand your predicament. I’m merciful. If you asked nicely, perhaps I’d find a way to accommodate you a little more nicely.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2022 8:07 am
Ganymede’s head rolled against the wall, then her eyes followed suit in their sockets. Air rasped through her throat — a soft inhale full of aggravation.
“Once there was Beryl, now there’s you,” Ganymede said. She lifted one weak hand and flicked it, like the difference was so minimal as to not even matter. “Someone else’ll come after you, if Metallia isn’t destroyed first. Judging by how the last decade has gone, I’d say the former is far more likely.”
She offered a snide little smile, as if Laurelite should appreciate her willingness to admit to the White Moon’s losses, to its weaknesses and its struggles, and the unlikelihood of their victory as things currently stood.
“I wonder who Metallia would pick,” she continued, ticking names off her fingers. “Maybe Jet? I don’t know if he’d be the right choice, though, when you consider his attachment to Aquamarine. There’s Faustite. He’s been busy, hasn’t he? Tried to trap me in a building downtown a while back. Or Stabs the Impaler, or that blond torturer who goes after children. Sorry, I don’t think I ever learned their names. It’s been a long time since I saw either one of them. Maybe they’ve died, or seen the light, if you know what I mean. Oh, but they’re Generals still, aren’t they? I suppose it’d be pretty awkward to jump so far up the ranks.”
Her head rolled again, bringing her gaze back to Laurelite. The sweet voice was like nails on a chalkboard — truly the worst sort of torture she’d experienced since being dumped into this cell.
“I think I understand my predicament perfectly well,” Ganymede continued. “For an enemy, I doubt you’d have better accommodations than this. I’m sure I’d get a much better room if you could corrupt me. What a nice trophy I’d be for you. How unfortunate for both of us that that isn’t possible.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 6:46 pm
Laurelite continued to smile, as sweet as ever. She didn’t seem the least bit flustered. “Beryl was selfish. She put her own priorities above the Negaverse. She is not missed. Her power was repurposed for a better cause. This power is a commitment,” she explained patiently, “It’s not meant to be abused. She forgot that. I won’t.” She glanced around the room but there wasn’t really anything interesting. Except for Ganymede, of course. Boring enough to drive someone insane, she supposed. “You can’t really think Metallia’s going to be destroyed any time soon. She is so much more than you can imagine. But it’s cute that you daydream like that. I can’t presume to imagine who Metallia would choose to succeed me if she needed to. From where I’m standing, it doesn’t really seem like she’s going to have to, though.” Her tone shifted and she had a bout of fresh enthusiasm. “You have a family, don’t you? I’m sure you’d do anything to keep them safe. I’m sure it won’t take too long to acquire the others. Maybe you’ll think joining the Negaverse is a little less impossible when it’s their lives on the line. Maybe you’ll get creative and find a way to join them. They can’t put up a fight like you, can they? It would probably be easy. I bet they’re out looking for you right now. Probably worried sick, not taking care of themselves. Getting desperate and reckless. Easy targets.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2022 1:00 pm
“If they were such easy targets, you’d’ve brought them in already,” Ganymede countered.
Normally there might be fear in her voice, or fury — to hear her family threatened, to know of their habits and their vulnerabilities, but not be able to do anything to protect them. Indeed, she felt impotent here, powerless to keep those she loved safe, yet she’d managed to convince herself that she need not worry.
If they wanted Valhalla, if they wanted any of the others, if they thought them at all useful, they would have taken them when they took her.
“Not that it’d make a difference. I’ve told your people I have no idea how to break the protection around my starseed. With it, I couldn’t join you even in the event that I wanted to.”
She’d never want to, couldn’t imagine falling so far, becoming so desperate… and for what? Chaos had nothing to offer her.
“You’re wasting your time with me,” Ganymede said. “I’m flattered to have been such a pain in your a** all these years that one of your Generals thought it worth risking his life to bring me to you, but the chances of this accomplishing anything…” She waved another careless hand. “Slim to none, I’d say. But who knows. Maybe you’ll surprise me. Stranger things have happened.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2022 8:57 am
There was something knowing, something smug in Laurelite’s eyes. “You won’t know when we bring them in. If they’re alive or dead. But you can spend the rest of your life here dreaming about it. Maybe one day you’ll change your tune. I’m not worried.” She shrugged, as if she really didn’t have the slightest care in the world. “Just because you don’t know how to break your silly little magic doesn’t mean we won’t find a way. You might be a waste of time, but you’re interesting, at least. We’ll see if we can’t make use of you. And if you’re just meant to rot alone down here, ah,” she sighed, but the smile never left her face. “I suppose I’ll just have to give up on you, too. And then you can stay down here, all alone. If you don’t give us something to work with, eventually we’ll lose interest. But not until we take every little piece of you apart to find out just what makes you so special.” She wasn’t afraid of Ganymede. She had no reason to be. She could enter the room. She could cross the distance between them. She could crouch to meet Ganymede’s face. Could reach out to cup her cheek face in her hand and brush her thumb over the gentle curves of her face. Her grip was firm. Not quite bruising, but not particularly kind. “Don’t make me break you, Ganymede.”
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:00 pm
Ganymede didn’t flinch away. Once, long ago, she might have, when she’d hated what she’d become and the war was nothing more than a terrible inconvenience. The thought of corruption, the thought of death — both used to terrify her. Then she couldn’t be corrupted, and death seemed inevitable anyway, so why let fear control her?
She didn’t tremble in the face of Laurelite’s power. She didn’t pull away from Laurelite’s hand.
Ganymede stared the Queen of the Negaverse in the eye, and then spat in her face.
She wished she could say it was satisfying. Instead, there was nothing but emptiness, and the smallest shred of contempt.
“I’ve been broken,” she said. “I’m a thousand different pieces of two separate lives held together by the light of Ganymede. And spite, if I’m being completely honest. Resentment can be a powerful motivator. There’s nothing you can do to me that I haven’t already considered. Hurt me. Kill me. Try to corrupt me. Threaten the ones I love. Leave me to rot here. Feed me to one of your beasts. None of it will matter. I’m not special. I’m one of many. I just happen to like making a nuisance of myself.”
It was all she could do, at times, when victory seemed like a far off dream.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 4:25 pm
Laurelite did not take offense at the spit. She almost didn’t even seem to react at all. Except, suddenly, there was the merry tinkling of her little laugh. She reached two fingers up to scoop the spit from her face. It was a minor inconvenience, and she took two much pleasure flicking Ganymede’s spit back into her own face to let the gesture sully her mood. She wiped her fingers off on the front of Ganymede’s dress and reeked of smugness as she stood. She looked down at the Princess and seemed to take no shame in relishing the sight as she peered down at her. “Cling to whatever crumbs you can, little princess. You have no idea what I have in store for you.” The smile on her face was as sweet as it was menacing. “Let’s see if I can’t surprise you yet.”
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Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2022 9:40 am
Ganymede held herself still, hardly fazed by Laurelite’s response — the flick of Laurelite’s fingers, the smear on Ganymede’s dress. She watched the Queen rise, lifting her gaze with the motion. It didn’t trouble her to sit there, staring up at the Queen.
Laurelite was a shell of a human — dangerous, certainly, and abhorrent, to have sullied herself so much in the service of Chaos. Ganymede might have pitied her, once, if Laurelite hadn’t been responsible for so much suffering.
Now, Ganymede had nothing to offer her but defiance and disdain.
“You haven’t before,” she said. “Everything you’ve done makes perfect sense, once you realize you’re little more than a glorified puppet.”
A pretty one, and lethal, but bound by strings, brought to the height of power only because she’d proven herself useful.
Metallia’s plaything. Her proxy. Once Metallia had the entirety of Earth as her own, Laurelite would have no further use. Earth would decay, as all their other worlds had, and its people would perish with it.
“If you want to surprise me, you’d have to long for the light. Until then…” Ganymede gave another dismissive flick of her hand.
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