i just wanna know: who broke it?

[summonerd]

[Sheena'd thought she was all done with dimensional travel, now that the two worlds were united. But here she is, having fallen asleep in one world and woken up in a Tethe'alla that's just different enough from the one she knows to be constantly jarring. Her connections to Aselia's summon spirits dangle loose, snapped by distance - not even Origin's power could follow her here, it seems. That's more than a little unsettling.

It takes her some time, alone in a bizarro version of Meltokio as she is, but eventually she stumbles on a lead - an old scientific journal, a mention of the power of something called an Aegis being able to transcend space and time, at least in theory. And a little asking around tells her that Tethe'alla has its own Aegis, though no one's seen it for years. Well. Worth a shot, right?

Somehow she manages to talk her way into the Tethe'allan castle where the Aegis's core crystal awaits being woken up, with a series of smiles and her very best politicking - yes, of course she's got nothing but loyalty for Tethe'alla, of course she's skilled at this, of course it'd be a great honor.

(Zelos would be proud, she thinks, wryly.)

They're dubious, but her persistence wears them down, or maybe they're just desperate enough for a return of the Aegis's power to let her try, and the orange core crystal is offered out to her.

She takes a deep breath, and reaches out to touch it.]

Comments

[summonerd]

["Why should I trust you?" It hits her right in the chest, a sharp pang that has no business hurting as much as it should. Of course he doesn't. He never really did, did he? Maybe if he had, he wouldn't have--

Alright. Not now, Sheena. The grief just overwhelms her for a moment, too much to handle. She curls one hand into a loose fist, digging her fingernails into her palm to distract her.]

... It's a ways away, but there's a hidden village to the east, called Mizuho. If I explain things to them, they'll help us. Or, if you want, we could try right away to go back to my world. You'd be safe there. Our friends wouldn't let anyone make you do anything you don't want to, either.

[The question's harder than she would have expected it to be to answer. It takes her a second.] I just-- you're my friend, okay? I don't want you to be trapped, or made to do anything. [Another pause, but... she may as well be bare her heart for this, right? Even if it's not something she ever would have told him before.] ... I don't want to lose you again.

OH BOY

[presidentheartbeat]

[He knows about Mizuho. He's heard about it before, at least, knows the rumours of their people being experts at espionage and whatnot. It's one of the first things anyone learns in the corrupt business of politics. Why Mizuho would send an agent over to kidnap him eludes him completely, but it should make do for a hiding place if they manage to escape, he guesses. Sure, why not.

But that's not what he's focused on at the moment.

Sheena's grief is sharp and echoing in their link, washing over Zelos like a gentle, yet strong wave. She sounds so... defeated. Small. Like she's reaching a limit and yet won't allow herself to do it, or she doesn't even know that she's reaching it in the first place. "I don't want to lose you again," come her words, and without even thinking about it Zelos feels himself relax, shoulders drooping, breath leaving him in a slow exhale. "Again," she said. She seems so dead-set on some sort of bond between them, but Zelos has no idea what's going on here, and that honest to god scares him. Is there something here that he's missing? He's pretty sure he's never met this girl before in his life. And even if he's famous and well-known throughout the country, she has no right to be so friendly and familiar with him at all. Who the hell is she?

What does she know, that he doesn't? Why does she insist he give her something he genuinely cannot give?

Zelos takes a deep breath. Holds it. Counts in multiples of seven, each number punctuated like pieces of a finality in a decision he doesn't like, could never like, but thinks is necessary. They're not going to get anywhere like this--they need to bridge the gap. And that means...]

"Put your hand on my core crystal," [he demands. If she's going to order him around, to dangle freedom in front of his face like that, then he gets to be hostile right back. Zelos squints.] "I need to check something."

HERE WE ARE!

[summonerd]

[Well, that's... not what she expected. If this is a setup for some pervy joke she's going to punch him in the face. She is.]

Huh? Alright, I guess. [She closes the distance between them with a step, reaches out with only a little hesitance to place her hand onto his crystal, three fingers pressed gently to the warm crystal. She glances up at him as she does, quizzical.] Like this?

Oh god what did I just write

[presidentheartbeat]

[Once she's made contact with his crystal Zelos shudders, then immediately reaches up for her wrist and holds her in place.]

"Don't think about anything," [he orders, closing his eyes as ether gathers at his fingertips, as he starts to push his conscious into an abstraction that will align with Sheena's ancient-feeling-ether, her foreign port.

He needs her to stay a focused and willing receptor for this to work. Newbie as she is, maybe Sheena will at least be capable of doing that, even if it's bound to be overwhelming. A memory transfer is a two-way road, after all, but maybe if he's careful he can keep his own information highway selective so as to not saturate her. So shyly, slowly, Zelos' ether presses at their link until he's sunken his conscious into it, until he's binding his and Sheena's mindspaces in a lesser, waking version of the Aegis dreamspace he can manipulate to his own will.

It's very similar to the blade network at first, that feeling like sinking into water, but there's no gentle hum of multiple lanes of information that surrounds him. There's only a steady, thumping beat around him, engulfing him--a human heart. Zelos opens his eyes, blinks away the darkness of their connection as he approaches a light, and--

He sees himself.

Lying on the floor, covered in a red liquid (but that's wrong, his ether is orange, and even if he were to bleed it wouldn't be liquefied at all because he's not a flesh eater, he's not--) and laughing like it's nothing, like it's triumph, his mirror image slowly expires before his eyes. Dread and grief stab into him deep enough to draw out more misery than he's ever felt before in his life. Slowly Zelos feels himself move, shaky and unsteady steps bringing him closer to the scene, and when a hand reaches forward towards his dying form he sees purple fabrics instead of black.

The mirror Zelos is speaking, but the Aegis can't hear his words. Weakness sprouts where anger dies, and Zelos feels himself collapse to his knees. Breathe, breathe. Just breathe. Focusing all of his attention to his other's lips, Zelos puts all his processing power in reading what he says, seeking context in any way, looking for information to parse--]

"To tell you the truth, I was getting pretty tired of living anyway."

[The images shut away in a bright flash of white light when he abruptly opens his eyes. The connection drops, leaving behind static in his ears as Zelos lets go of Sheena, as he stumbles backwards until his back hits the wall. Absently, vaguely, over the taste of static on his own tongue, Zelos wonders what Sheena saw in their connection, and if it was nearly as horrifying as this was for him.

Because, this? What... what the fuck.]

THE MURDER WEAPON YOU USED ON ME?

[summonerd]

[Sheena closes her eyes as well, dutifully tries to keep her mind blank as he does whatever it is he's trying to do. It's disorienting, letting someone in like this, but she doesn't fight it, sinking down into the place where their minds meet. There's a faint impression of something orange behind her eyes, a distant glow, but it passes quickly as the world fades down to black. When it comes back up...

She's in some kind of cylinder, just barely large enough not to set off claustrophobia in and of itself but the walls looming far too close anyway. There are wires under her skin, like one of those compatibility experiments for summoning they'd run on her back at the research academy, but the bands holding her arms down are new and stifling. She looks down at her bound arms, struck by the barely-luminescent lines down them more than any of the other differences from what she would have expected to see.

"Beginning test fire," a voice says from somewhere outside the cylinder, muffled, and the world goes white, nothing left but the faintest outlines of objects in her vision. She's screaming, but it's not her voice - beyond it, distantly, she can just make out more voices, the vibration of the pod shaking as someone bangs at the controls on the outside. All she can do is watch in numb horror, and wait for it to end, but it's gone on so long--

And then something snaps, so far away she shouldn't have any awareness of it from here, and the world evens out until even the faintest details are gone and nothing remains but white streaked with orange. Her eyes fly open.

Sheena feels like she's rooted in place, her hand not even falling from its position as he lets go and stumbles back. Her other hand comes up to cover her mouth, struck numb with horror.]

What was th-- [Goddess, no, talking was a mistake. She feels like she's gonna be sick. She shakes her head and swallows hard, squats down where she stands in an attempt to not throw up all over the nice floors of the castle.]

He's so fuckored he won't speak oh my god

[presidentheartbeat]

[Zelos Wilder committed suicide.

He doesn't know why this fact is so clear to him when he'd barely even seen his mirror self's death in the memory, but context is context, and through Sheena's grief and after quickly analyzing every other interaction between them, the Aegis asserts this one fact as a truth. Zelos Wilder committed suicide. Sheena saw him die, struck him down herself, and if it weren't for his other self's admission to wanting the outcome then Zelos would probably be more frightened of his driver than he is. He should be horrified. He should probably be more upset about having seen himself die, but...

There's a certain envy in his chest at the memory of the man bleeding on the floor, laugh victorious as he'd achieved a goal that the Aegis knows he will never be able to chase after. Death, to a blade, is a temporary and fleeting thing, a never-ending spiral of life and death that they find themselves trapped in, where only regular blades have the blessing to forget while Aegises are cursed to remember each and every life, and all the pain they're put through. Thinking of it this way, then Zelos can't find it in himself to blame his mirror for his choice--Zelos is so tired. If he could, he would've done the same.

Standing on his spot by the wall, one hand on his crystal, Zelos looks up to regard his driver and finds her squatting, a sickened wisp of a feeling floating up the shores of his subconscious. He grits his teeth, exhales. Tries to stop shaking. Whatever Sheena saw, it couldn't have been anything good if she's feeling this disturbed. He's unsurprised--his life is shit. Vaguely, absently, Zelos feels pity for her, and then shame; sorry, Sheena. He's unfortunately always pretty messed up, both in your world and now in this one you find yourself stuck in.

Right... alternate universes. Ah--just the thought of that subject manages to wind him completely. After seeing that mess, with the image of his own dying gaze staring right through him stuck to his mind's eye, Zelos is suddenly not quite sure if he doesn't believe her anymore. Something burns in his eyes. He clears his throat. Zelos wants to say something, anything, aches to get back to having control of the situation, but nothing comes to him, words suddenly, completely lost to the winds together with the bravado he'd once held close. He feels small. He feels lost.

What happens now?]

[summonerd]

[What the hell was that? She'd seen the mentions of the cannons in what she'd read, hadn't liked the comparisons to the mana cannon's usage during the ancient war, but the reality of it - a mana cannon powered by one person's pain and suffering - is so much worse. Sheena leans her head forward, tenting her hands behind it and pressing down to get the nausea under control. This is awful. She's going to find whoever did that to Zelos and tear them apart with her bare hands.

The anger helps, gives her something else to focus on, and she uses it to pull herself out, unfolding slowly from her curled position as she gets to her feet, only a little shaky. Sheena looks up to catch his eye, to say-- something, but the lost look on his face kills her words before she even starts to put them together. She's not sure she's ever seen Zelos look so vulnerable, and it frightens her a little. Did he see that too, or something from her memories, instead? Neither of those options sound great right now, not with what she's had on her mind.

The way his fear mingles with her own reminds her that they're linked now, though, and she tentatively tries to push something better his way. It's not much, shaken and inexperienced with resonance as she is, just a cloud of "I won't let that happen again" and attempted comfort, but it's a start, she thinks, as she tries to couple it with a smile that's too hesitant and shaky to be as encouraging as she wanted it to be. Maybe. Hopefully.]

[presidentheartbeat]

[Well, this is fucked! Sheena makes quite a pathetic attempt at comforting him, all tight and shaky, and the only thing that comes to Zelos' mind through the haze is the observation that she's picked up on resonance way too fast for a newbie. Zelos would be proud of her, but then the implications of what that means slam into him full-force all of a sudden and leave him breathless, eyes widening just a bit as her protectiveness reaches him.

Just like that everything snaps back in place. Oh, Architect. Okay; take a deep breath, hold it, release. Tick tick tick tick, comes an echo of anxiety crawling up Zelos' spine through the wall, a whisper and reminder of the situation at hand.

Shit, shit, shit--

Oh.

So far, through their conversation, the ether in the air has been engulfed in a constant, low hum of inactivity, something that's quiet and private as they worked through... everything. Through whatever the fuck this is. As an Aegis, Zelos can feel disturbances in atmospheric ether like they're ripples in water from within quite large a radius of distance around himself, so when something suddenly enters that radius, pushing the calm around and disrupting it all in a steady rhythm of footsteps in the hall--

Zelos tenses. Right hand still on his crystal he pushes himself off the wall, eyes snapping off Sheena to rest on the door, and clenches his free hand into a fist.]

"Someone's coming."

[summonerd]

[Zelos's words snap Sheena back from the frankly weird and uncomfortable place her thoughts have taken her two, at least for the moment. Escaping the castle sounds much easier than working through any of this, anyway.]

Shit. [she says, takes a few steps towards him and away from the door so she's at his side, though there's still a gap between them. They should look like a united front, at least. She shoots him a sidelong look, trying to decide what the plan is.] What do you think? [Stay? Run? It's probably not the best idea to murder their way through the castle, but Sheena's more than up to it right about now.]

[presidentheartbeat]

[Sheena steps towards him, stands by his side, and Zelos doesn't know what to do. Eyes firmly on the door, that ether signal getting closer and closer, the disturbing rhythm of anxiety and fear in his ether grows and grows and grows like a deranged drum beating to a desperate song of forlorn hope. What do they do now? Does he leave with her, putting his trust on a human who killed him in another universe, who wants to use his power for her own selfish gain? Or does he stay, put himself at the mercy of those who created him after they find out he's been conspiring with his new driver?

Tick, tick, tick, tick, goes the rhythm in his veins like a skipped heartbeat, like a doomsday clock.

He isn't sure.

In the end he simply scoffs at himself.] "It's up to you, I guess," [he says through a grin, ether roaring in his ears, the tick tick tick tick still so loud over his own voice.] "You're the driver."

SHEENA FUJIBAYASHI DOES A MURDER I GUESS!!

[summonerd]

[She stares at him for a moment, the approaching footsteps getting louder in her ears, and then seemingly makes her decision, giving him a nod. That's not the most encouraging she's ever heard him, but it's more than enough for her right now, furious on his behalf as she is.]

Okay. Stay there. Act like you don't see me.

[She pads her way over behind the door, her posture transforming to something much more battle-ready as her steps shift from normal to ninja-silent. She reaches into the hidden pocket of her sash to pull out a knife. They didn't even bother searching her properly before they let her in. Sloppy.

The door creaks open, to reveal someone clad in a well-tailored suit. She blinks, clearly not having expected to find the Aegis seemingly alone when he'd just begged off to have time to get to know his new driver. "Where's your d--" she starts as her eyes shift around the room, only to be cut off by a knife to her throat and a surprisingly iron-tight grip on her arm.]

Don't scream. [Sheena advises her, gaze sharp. The woman swallows against the knife, eyes wide but not resisting.] What's the quickest route out of the castle grounds from here?

[The woman laughs, humorless, even unable to see her assailant's face as she currently is. "You expect me to help you steal government property? You're awfully brazen for a--"

She doesn't finish the thought, or any other, as Sheena's whole face goes dark with rage and the knife cuts deep into the woman's throat. She gurgles, choking on blood, far too loud for Sheena's liking - shit, shit, people are definitely going to hear this if anyone else is nearby, can Zelos tell if there is? - as she dies, bright blood spraying from arteries as she goes down. Sheena grunts, pulls the knife free so she can use both hands to catch the corpse and pull it to rest out of sight where she'd been hiding. It won't do anything for the bloodstain, but if anyone else comes in here they're fucked anyway. She wipes the knife off on that fancy suit, readjusts her grip on it as she straightens to look at Zelos.]

Okay, let's go. Just-- stay close to me, and be ready to run if anyone sees us.

[What she's seen so far, and the bits of floorplan she'd managed to find, had looked enough like the Meltokio Castle she knew that she's pretty sure she can find a way out. Probably. If she has to kill a few more, she can do that.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vztd7n6bjIY

[presidentheartbeat]

[Zelos doesn't have to be told twice to act; as soon as the ether signal is staring them right in the face, he fixes his usual mask back in place and sets his hands on his hips. He smiles, casual. Manages to keep the farce almost flawlessly for the most part, though when the door finally opens and he makes eye contact with one of his caretakers, Zelos feels a faint hiccup of terror bubble up his throat before he swallows it down and hums a greeting for her instead, acting the part, painting himself as the living decoy Sheena wants him to be.

And then it happens.

It's very fast, a little too fast, the way Sheena just springs up and puts a knife to the woman's throat. Almost like she's done this already before. Zelos barely has any time to react, but he can't do anything further than acting on the sharp surprise that pushes him forward as if he could do something about all of this anyway. He opens his mouth to say something, whatever, but by then Sheena has already plunged the knife into the woman's throat, and whatever words Zelos was going to say die on his tongue as he raises an arm to cover himself from the spray of blood that splashes on him.

His first thought is more along the lines of 'fucking hell, human blood is disgusting'. His second thought is somewhere else, wondering about the implications of Sheena fucking murdering a government official in cold blood, about sealing Zelos' fate. Stay or leave, Sheena offered. Zelos looks back at the woman's corpse, now hidden behind the door as Sheena wipes the blood off her knife on her, and slowly starts to realize that his driver has already made the choice for him.

And yet there's something... vaguely satisfactory, about it. Something that sings like justice in his core, something terrifying and deranged that he doesn't want to keep feeling, so he rips his gaze off the woman's dead stare and looks at Sheena instead, sealing away his emotions once again to make way for a shaky, blood-stained grin. Right--they're going to escape. He needs to focus.]

"Guess we're really running away, huh?" [he says, pushing himself past the static in his mind and legs to join Sheena as they exit the room. He spares a glance at Sheena's knife and laughs.] "That shitty knife's not gonna do it for you beyond that woman, though. Luckily for you, I think I can do you one better."

[summonerd]

[She doesn't even seem fazed by the murder - it's like the official's life was nothing more than an obstacle to be removed. Sheena takes the lead as they go, but only by a step or two; if they got separated, it would be a disaster. Her voice drops a little, not wanting it to carry.]

I do have my cards, too. [She'll just paper cut the whole castle to death. It'll be fine. Not for the last time, probably, she wishes that even one of the summon spirits was able to hear her call from here. At least she's not alone, now that Zelos is with her.] But it might be a problem if we run into too many people at once. What've you got in mind?

[presidentheartbeat]

[Zelos opens and closes his hands into fists, trying to anchor the ether towards his palms, feeling for an old command written in his veins that he hopes he hasn't forgotten in his dormancy. He's only really summoned his sword for a few practice runs, or for show, so the idea of summoning it for battle scares him a little, even though he knows it should probably be fine. The problem is that he has an inexperienced driver and he's not sure how he will do in battle.

They cannot afford to make any mistakes.

He laughs nervously, ether crackling at his fingertips as he flexes the connection. Well, whatever; this is what he has to make do, so it will have to make do.] "I'm just gonna assume that you at least had the thought of reading up on the blade system before you came here," [he jokes, giddy from anxious energy, staying as close as possible when the ether in the vicinity starts to stir.] "We should be finding out how you do pretty soon, though," [he adds, clicking his tongue.] "Look sharp; company up ahead."

[summonerd]

Ah... some, [she says, with a humorless half-laugh.] I know the basics, I think?

[She swears under her breath at his warning. (How is he even hearing them coming before she does, anyway? Maybe it's like Colette's angelic hearing.)

Sheena grips the knife tightly in her hand, half-hidden by her sleeve, even as she mentally runs through her options. It'd make for a cleaner escape to leave no one alive, but it's not like she's fast enough to kill more than one person before they can even call out, and it's not like most of the people they're likely to run into were responsible for what Tethe'alla has done to Zelos, probably. The hallway widens into a crossroads ahead of them, with no chance to avoid being seen by the small group of servants heading their way, laughing and gossiping. That laughter dies abruptly, the group freezing in place as they notice the blood all over the Aegis and his driver. Sheena rocks back on her heels, gauges the situation. This is going to suck.

One of the servants opens his mouth to say something, maybe to shout, and she pulls out one of her smoke bombs, tossing it to the ground. (Suddenly she's very grateful to Colette for asking if she'd wanted to stop in at Mizuho before they set off looking for Exspheres properly.) His yell breaks off into a cough as the smoke fills the hall, and Sheena turns, her hand closing over Zelos's wrist as she pulls him to the opposite direction that the servants had come from.]

That won't last long. This way!

[With their cover blown, they should just climb out a window and be done with it. It'll be easier to hide until dark in the city. She breaks into a run, wanting to be well out of sight by the time the smoke fades. It won't take much time, in a hall this big.]

[presidentheartbeat]

[Alright! We've been spotted! This is officially going to hell!

Sheena grabs him by the wrist and pulls him along, and Zelos actually has half the mind to get out of his passive state of 'oh my god this is happening' and starts thinking of what the fuck they should do. He quickly queries his own database for the plans of Tethe'alla's castle and starts mapping out an escape route, hoping and praying that they won't be running into too much resistance on the way. He marks a promising route, checks it, makes a choice. It should be good enough for now if everything goes according to plan, but he keeps the floor plans in mind just in case he has to change the heuristics later on the fly if something blocks their path.]

"Best chances we got are we find the staff wing and follow a route down to the ground level, then make our way outside into the gardens. There's a maze, but I can guide you through it. After that, though," [he huffs,] "you're on your own, 'cause I sure as hell don't have a map of the fucking wilds."

[With a swift move as they round another corner, away from the smoke-filled hallway, Zelos manages to maneuver his hand so that he's gripping at Sheena, too, then sends a spark of ether down to her where the two of them touch. It should feel like a small jolt for her, so he sends a quick apology her way as Sheena glows for a moment. It's nothing too fancy or complicated, just a quick speed-enhancing ability of his he never got to use. It's the only thing he can offer right now that isn't offense-based.

Then he hears shouting, followed by footsteps, and curses. Well, shit; that took him by surprise. He didn't even feel it. Zelos clicks his tongue.] "Don't think I'm gonna be able to predict who's after us anymore, either," [he warns as they run into another hallway.] "The ether in the air is too chaotic. Pretty sure the entire castle's on high alert now!"

[summonerd]

Wait, you have a map?

[That would have been helpful to know earlier!! The jolt startles her, and Sheena glances down at their joined hands then back up at him as she realizes what it did. She's definitely going to have to ask him about that one when they're not running for their lives. She'll keep holding onto his hand for the moment, just in case the spell needs them to stay in contact.]

We'll have to go the long way to get to the staff wing, I think. [She's pretty sure that's where the group they ran into had been coming from, at least. Circling around shouldn't be too bad, so long as they're not caught... They hit another fork, and she hesitates, the shouting seeming like it's coming from the direction they need to keep heading in. The door to one of the rooms just down the hall is ajar, though, a suite with a just-visible connecting door to the room next to it, and she pulls him towards it, ducking inside and closing it before anyone sees.]

Just until they pass by.

[Maybe she shouldn't have jumped straight to murder! She takes the moment to catch her breath, as quietly as she can.]

[presidentheartbeat]

"Duh? Course I do? It's the one bit of classified info I can access freely?"

[They take refuge inside a fancy room that Zelos quickly recognizes and decides not to think too hard on. Architect, he hates this place. Suddenly the idea of getting the fuck away from here seems more and more appealing, the chant of freedom mixed with the tick tick tick of his anxieties in his veins intoxicating and perhaps a little dizzying.

Alright, okay, fucking hell, now that they're not on the move he has too much time to think. Zelos needs a distraction. Okay. He lets go of Sheena and huffs loudly, shaking his hands about in the air to his sides, getting ether to coalesce at his fingertips. There's something he wants to try, now that they can actually do it, if he wants to make himself useful at all in this great escape. He keeps his eyes on the ground and focuses, pacing for a few minutes, and then raises his open right hand in front of himself. Waits a few seconds as ether snaps in his hands. Come on, it shouldn't be too hard. It should be fine. Come on, come on, come on--it's not like he doesn't know how to do this, it's ingrained into his brain--

There's a flash of orange at his outstretched hand, ether finally gathering and pooling until it starts to take shape, something sharp and powerful and and ready for use. It falls into Zelos' hand and he immediately takes it, adjusting the weight so he can hold it without problem. It's light. It's familiar. It sets off something in his brain, tactics and ideas and something pre-set in his systems slowly coming back online like revitalized yet atrophied synapses.

It's so overwhelming that Zelos ends up laughing, a little manic, still high off the emotional rush.] "Oh. Good." [Then he grins, dismissing the sword with a sigh.] "Thank the fucking Architect I can still do that."

[summonerd]

It would have been helpful to know, is all! [Sheena starts, but falls silent when he does, leaning against the wall. The footsteps approach, but they don't slow as they pass the room; she holds her breath as they go, anyway. As they recede she turns her attention back to him, watching as he paces. It's weird seeing Zelos this unsettled, in a way that she's still not sure how feel about, but they can take a couple minutes for him to get it out if he needs. From the look of the room, it's not in use, just clean and ready for the next dignitary to need it.

She fidgets a little, takes the time to make sure she knows where everything is stashed away in her pockets for when she needs them. Just as she's starting to get impatient, about to open her mouth to ask if he's ready to go, he stretches out his hand, and--

Oh.

It's much bigger than the swords she's used to seeing Zelos use, almost comically so to her, but he lifts it like it's nothing.]

Since when could you-- [... Right, not the same Zelos.] That's a neat trick.

WE'RE ON THE RUN! LET'S HAVE A TUTORIAL

[presidentheartbeat]

[The sharp surprise pops in their ether link and Zelos is filled with something that's kind of half pride, kind of half mischief, absolutely, a hundred percent smugness. He turns around after dismissing the sword, hands on his hips, and smirks. It's the kind of smirk that's usually telling that the person wearing it is laughing on the inside. It's the kind of smirk that falls into place perfectly when one is trying not to think about how everything sucks because something funny just happened and by god, you're going to take that distraction.]

"Why, thank you so much, honey. I am pretty neat," [Zelos laughs, bowing, knowing full well that he's full of shit but riding the waves of this ridiculousness for as long as he can. He straightens back up and speaks again before Sheena can get anything in.] "Now, before you get us killed because you don't know how to drive a blade," [he gestures towards Sheena with one hand,] "why don't you try it while we wait this out?"

let sheena become a sword lesbian

[summonerd]

[Ah. There we go, that's the Zelos she knows. Whatever she was expecting him to say, it definitely wasn't that! Sheena lets out a little laugh, blinking at him in surprise.]

What am I gonna do with a sword? You're the one who knows how to use them, right?

I showed you my sword please respond

[presidentheartbeat]

[Oh my god she did not read up on the blade system.] "I mean," [he begins after a laugh, gesturing between them both with both hands now as if to drive (ha!) the point home.] "You are my driver, and I am your blade. You're supposed to wield my sword while I stand around looking pretty and powering you up. That's kind of the point."

[Given Sheena's been using a knife and has mentioned having cards in her arsenal, Zelos... might be better at this than her, actually. But. The point still stands; drivers wield their blades' weapons. Sheena has to take responsibility for awakening him, because considering the fact that he hasn't ever been in a fight before, the thought of Zelos wielding his own sword is actually kinda terrifying.]

absolutely not

[summonerd]

I'm not your anything, [she says, automatically, a frown growing onto her face. It's not a strong reaction, though, without any spike of emotion to accompany it, and her expression shifts into something more thoughtful as she listens. She'd rather have him to back her up, now that they're both armed, but...]

I can... try if you want, I guess? Not sure I'll be much use with it, though.

PWEASE

[presidentheartbeat]

[Wow! That was rude! Zelos kind of mentally recoils a little when she says that, but settles back up just in time to smile smugly at her next words. Well, the anxiety's back, that's for sure. He just wants to know he can at least count on his driver doing the most basic of driver responsibilities so he doesn't have to think about fighting the people who fucking created him.

Maybe if he annoys her into it she'll do it. Hm. Weird train of thought, but okay. Zelos clasps his hands together and grins.] "Pretty pretty please, Sheena, my sweet and wonderful driver, try summoning my sword!" [he says in a sing-song voice.

Someone put him out of his misery.]

no dick jokes in my lobby

[summonerd]

[Oh, that anxiety catches her in the gut, hard enough to make her wince, and she pauses, eyeing him uncertainly. She hasn't even been reunited with Zelos for an hour, and she's already messing things up, isn't she? But then his words have her hackles back up, getting under her skin just enough to make her want to do it. Just like old times, really.]

Alright, alright! [She feels kind of dumb stretching her hand out like this, copying what he'd just done, but it's not like it can hurt anything. Their connection is so loud and immediate that it's easy to find and reach for, though she's not entirely sure what to do. Maybe if she just treats it like a summoning? It's not the worst idea she's had today, at least.]

Aegis of Tethe'alla, I summon thee!