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 Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2026 6:54 pm
The way we started this a year ago and forgot we'd neither finished nor posted it lmaooooo. Backdated to Jan 2025 because I'm not editing to make it more current. Maybe if we post it we'll remember to finish now. “Do you ever feel like we’re on the verge of something?” Ganymede asked.
They lounged on the bed in the room set aside for Liesel in the Fortress of Valhalla, decorated as it had been centuries ago in the Ganymedean style. Takeout containers of food sat between them, some half eaten while others waited to offer a first bite. Date nights on Earth always ran the risk of interruption; Ganymede couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone anywhere or done anything around the city without constantly looking over her shoulder, or scanning a room beforehand to ensure no trouble waited for them—only for trouble to find them anyway.
Here, they could be alone. There were no youma lurking in the shadows, no agents of Chaos preparing to burst onto the scene. They had an open line of communication to Earth, albeit a bit finicky at times, and enough trust in those they’d left behind to watch over their children that they could almost relax.
Not that Ganymede really knew the meaning of the word anymore.
“Not anything good,” she elaborated. “Like things have been too peaceful and you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. Or like… I don’t know. Maybe I’m paranoid. I’ve felt that way for a long time, but it’s gotten worse since…”
Since the Velencians came. Since their worlds came back to life. Since Empyrean was killed. Since her time spent as a captive in the Dark Kingdom.
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Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2026 12:31 pm
Thunder rumbled low in the distance. Every so often, they somehow managed to visit Jupiter during a time of meteorological peace. Or as peaceful as a world like Jupiter could be. The winds weren’t as harsh. The clouds not as thick. The torrential downpours more like a spring shower.
Valhalla had noticed it more frequently in the last few years. He didn’t know if it was the particular location, or if something was changing in Jupiter’s atmosphere. And if so, was it magic? Was it something NASA would pick up on? He didn’t have the answers, but there was a calmness in his heart that seemed to match the calmness of the normally turbulent weather of his Wonder.
“Yes,” he answered quietly as he picked at some of the pieces of food from the takeout container.
After everything, he couldn’t trust that the Negaverse just gave up after stopping their attempt at crippling their operations. They hadn’t had any success in repairing the Void, but occasionally they would invite one of their Mauvian acquaintances to tinker with it.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but…”
Valhalla paused and sighed. He felt old, even though he knew he wasn’t. Not really. He just felt worn down, like all the optimism in him had been slowly seeped out over the years.
“What are we going to do if there’s more than just the Negaverse to deal with, you know? We didn’t know about the Velencians. Or the Senshi trapped on their worlds for a thousand years. There’s that merchant -- Almadel… He can’t be the only one of his kind. Or maybe he is, if the Senshi from space are the last of their kind. It just feels like… I guess it’s cheesy, but the peace before the storm, or the receding of the tide before a tsunami.”
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2026 11:50 am
Ganymede frowned. She took another bite of food and chewed slowly, taking her time to mull things over.
They’d had similar conversations before, with varying degrees of detail involved. They spoke so often of the war and their new and developing concerns that it could have easily become repetitive, but Ganymede couldn’t let it go, not until they had an answer, or came up with a solution, or exhausted all their options. Soon it would be fourteen years since the night she’d awakened. Any progress they’d made since then hadn’t been made on Earth.
“I wish I knew what to do about any of it,” she said.
They had no way to Metallia. They had nothing to offer Lyndin and his Vanguard to tempt them to their side without handing over Caedus—a prospect Ganymede was willing to entertain, but some of her allies were not; she wasn’t desperate enough yet to do it behind their backs. They had nothing to defend themselves against anything else that might be lurking out in space. The Surrounding was broken. Some of their Worlds and Wonders lived, but they were limited by what they could do there.
Every success seemed to come with a caveat.
Ganymede sighed and dropped her fork into one of the takeout containers. She rose into a more comfortable position, taking some of the pressure off her arm.
“I’m worried about Elsie.”
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2026 1:33 pm
Valhalla wished any of them knew more about what to do. Teaming up, working together…
That could only go so far. There were so many lives at stake. One little slip up could be the difference between life and death. Who they trusted with information mattered. They could be risking everything by saying the wrong thing to the wrong person.
But they could also be receiving a wealth of knowledge and amazing allies with a bit of trust. It was too much to risk, still. Especially when--
He sighed when Ganymede sat up and voiced her concern about Elsie. Valhalla feared it was only a matter of time. Just like it was only a matter of time until Henry--...
“Sometimes I think it might be a good idea to at least prepare her for what might happen,” Valhalla cautiously suggested. “Abby and Henry were lucky that you were right there when Abby awakened. If Elsie was alone? If another Mauvian happened to cross her path. At school? If something was happening and we couldn’t get there?”
He shook his head, not really knowing what to do about their children being pulled head first into this war that seemed like it would never end.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2026 2:26 pm
“I know,” Ganymede said, but it was tense, half strangled, full of fear and guilt—and fury, that the war continued on so long her own children had no choice but to face it.
She wondered, sometimes, if it had been a mistake to have them, if she and Chris, being so young at the time, might not have been thinking clearly. Having Henry and Abby had been an act of defiance. Ganymede had seen a future she hadn’t wanted, and she’d done one of the few things in her power to change one tiny piece of it. Looking into their sweet faces, she had allowed herself to hope. She had believed, for a few short years, that the worst had already come. Having Elsie had been a celebration. They could live their lives like they might have without the war. The future she’d feared never came to pass.
Now the future was murky, their fate uncertain, their youngest children an act of desperation—to hang onto hope a little longer.
“I keep telling myself not to worry, that she might get lucky and not be involved at all, but so much of it seems like destiny,” she said, and felt ridiculous for it, except that she and Valhalla both had phantom scars across their palms. “I still see faces I don’t have names for. In Liesel’s memories. Other children with Celia. Or I hear whispers—names I don’t have any memory of yet. It was like that before Abby awakened. I remembered Celia and then… there she was. Ours, like she was before.”
Ganymede saw her ghost in the room sometimes, prancing through in her nightdress with her dark auburn hair twisted into a braid, cradling a book of fairy tales in her arms.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2026 4:30 pm
Valhalla carefully pushed the containers of food aside. They were close enough on the bed that it didn’t take much for him to inch over a little more and wrap an arm behind Ganymede, trying to coax her further into his embrace.
He knew they’d been reaching when they agreed to having children. They wanted something that only they could have. But the universe seemed to want to take that from them as well.
“Maybe it’s because they’re safest with us,” he gently suggested, rubbing Ganymede’s back and pressing a kiss to her temple. “If it was Celia’s time to be reborn, at least she’s with us.”
He didn’t know how everything worked. Why destiny seemed like things fell so easily into place. How past lives crossed paths so frequently. It was as though they were given another chance together. Or maybe it was something else.
“If Elsie is awakened… if Henry--”
Valhalla paused and frowned. He didn’t usually get emotional, and while he wasn’t now, his voice did seem to strain.
“They’ll be more prepared than we ever were. They won’t be alone, wondering what was happening.”
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Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2026 9:23 am
That was the only consolation—that their children had them; that their children had each other; that they could be given love and safety in this life, and be prepared for what might come to pass. Ganymede hated that it was necessary, would rather they grow up ignorant to the things she and Valhalla had faced, but that wasn’t to be, not until the war was over.
They’d cursed their own children to the same fate.
Ganymede would do all in her power to ensure they had all the skills and the tools they needed to face it.
She took one of Valhalla’s hands and gave it a desperate squeeze, accepted the kiss to her temple and leaned in to rest their heads together. She heard the strain in his voice and wished she could take it away. Henry hadn’t awakened. Maybe he wouldn’t until he was older. Maybe he wouldn’t at all.
Empyrean had no knight now. Maybe it would again.
A memory snaked through her awareness, so closely aligned with reality it took her a moment to parse one from the other. Liesel sat with Serge near enough to kiss, hands clasped in the flickering candlelight. Liesel fidgeted as he tended to when he was uncertain or overwhelmed, playing with Serge’s fingers. He touched a ring, skin-warmed gold and deep red stone, twisting it around fretfully. Ganymede closed her eyes to focus on it. The ring stood out against Serge’s signet ring—less functional and more decorative.
I love you, Liesel whispered, like he was still ashamed to say it.
The memory was early, then. Before his exile.
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