RS: This one is mostly about Corrine.
Corrine: Finally! Some recognition! Humans are so thoughtless.
RS: You're probably right.
Corrine: Anyway, Red Seraphim doesn't own Tales of Symphonia. If he did, I would still be alive, and when you summoned me, I would turn into my new form and attack.
Lloyd sat eating the sandwich that Sheena had made. In addition to the bread, it was all meat, greens, some lemon, and Sheena had been kind enough to remove the tomato that she usually used from Lloyd's sandwich. He was about to start eating, when he noticed that Corrine was staring at him.
"Hi." Lloyd said, putting the sandwich down a bit.
Corrine said nothing, but his eyes were following the sandwich more than Lloyd.
Lloyd noticed this, and he tore about half of his sandwich and held it out to the small, cat-like creature.
Corrine leapt onto Lloyd's arm and began to nibble at the sandwich. Lloyd was slightly startled at this sudden movement, but he kept his arm steady as Corrine ate. When he was down to the last mouthful, Corrine jumped down off of Lloyd's arm as he ate the last bite.
"Thanks, boy." Corrine said.
Lloyd looked slightly startled. He wasn't expecting Corrine to talk.
Corrine seemed to see his thoughts and scowled at Lloyd. "I'm a Summon Spirit, you oaf! Not a stupid animal!" He squealed at Lloyd.
"S-sorry. I wasn't thinking." Lloyd stammered the apology.
Corrine looked away, his face pinched in annoyance. "Well, I expected as much; you humans always think you're so superior."
"I don't think I'm superior to you!" Lloyd said, a little annoyed himself.
"Oh yeah? Give me one good reason!" Corrine challenged.
"Somebody else would have given you mere crumbs." Lloyd said flatly.
Corrine sneered at Lloyd then went over to Sheena, settling down in her lap fixing Lloyd with a final, icy glare before shutting his eyes to go to sleep.
After she was sure that Corrine was asleep, Sheena went over to Lloyd. She was going to shake him to wake him up, but found that he was already awake, and he sat up and they talked.
"Why did Corrine glare at you before he fell asleep?" Sheena asked, looking at Corrine sleeping as she did.
"We had something like an argument." Lloyd sighed, resting his face on his hand.
"What about?" Sheena asked.
"He was angry that I was surprised that he could talk. He called humans 'a superior thinking race'." Lloyd said.
Sheena looked down at the ground, her face stony and serious. "I'm sorry about him. He was experimented on when he was created. The experiments were very painful." Sheena explained.
"It's not his fault. He hasn't had any good experiences with humans." Lloyd said.
She looked up, and saw that Corrine had appeared and was occupying the space between her and Lloyd.
Corrine spoke. "I thought that you were like the humans I've met before, Lloyd. But you're not like them. You're like Sheena. I owe you an apology." Corrine said.
Lloyd stuck out his hand. "No hard feelings then?"
Corrine stared at the hand. "Why is he-? Oh…a handshake? But that's something only humans-" In his mind, Corrine cut himself short. Lloyd was treating him as an equal, as if Corrine was a human.
Corrine stuck out his paw. Lloyd's human hand enveloped it entirely. Lloyd felt only the space it occupied, as if it was a feather, but he made sure not to look shocked or concerned.
The next day, they were traveling to Meltokio. When they stopped and rested, Corrine came up to Lloyd and spoke.
"I've been watching you fight, and I think that you could still improve." He said to Lloyd.
"Really?" Lloyd said. No one had talked to him like that since Kratos left.
"Yes. You could use your partner's attacks, or even your enemies, to your advantage." Corrine continued.
"You mean like Unison Attacks?" Lloyd asked, confused.
Corrine suppressed a grin. "No. In a way, their nothing like Unison Attacks. Let's find an open field to test this. Have Genis come with us." Corrine said.
Lloyd called Genis over and explained what they were going to do. As they walked over to the field, something about Corrine began to change. He started to grow at first, then his paws turned into hands and feet, his eyes, less cat-like and more like a human's. Most of the hair that had covered his body vanished, replaced by an orange shirt and loose pants. His hair had sort of stayed pretty much the same, he had a golden brown tan, and his iris' were purple, which was the most astonishing of all. His eyes in his animal form were brown.
"Okay, Lloyd. Can I borrow one of your swords?" Corrine asked.
"Sure." Lloyd said, and handed him a munmei.
"Genis, could you cast Stalagmite?" Corrine asked again.
"Of course!" Genis said, then concentrated on focusing his magic. "Stalagmite!"
A series of rocks came out of the earth. Corrine ran at them, jumping on each one as he climbed up and up. Then, when he reached the top stalagmite, his jumped off, heading towards the two boys, and when he landed, they could almost feel the aftershock of the sword as it was stabbed into the ground as Corrine landed. He then looked at Lloyd, threw the sword up in the air, then caught it skillfully by the tip, the hilt held out to Lloyd.
"Now you try." Corrine said.
"Me?! I couldn't do that!" Lloyd answered with astonishment.
"Lloyd, I may be a Summon Spirit, but I think I know you're limitations. I've been with Sheena for a long time, and I know when she is pushing herself to hard. She has almost the same strength and endurance as you, and, to use an adaption of a human saying, 'I won't make you do anything that Sheena couldn't do herself.'" Corrine said, tossing the sword to Lloyd at the end of his speech.
Lloyd caught it, a new look of determination in his eyes.
"Okay, then! Let's do it!"
Among the attacks that Lloyd learned that day, he could name the Stalagmite Stab, Aqua Edge Slice, an attack that included riding on an aqua edge like a surfboard and then attacking the opponent with a horizontal slice, Fireball Baseball, an attack where Lloyd would hit fireballs that were aimed at him at his opponents, thereby catching them off guard, and one final attack.
"Are you ready, Lloyd?" Corrine asked. They had set up a dummy between Lloyd and Corrine and they both had swords, Corrine, of course, only having one.
"Yeah, let's do this!" Lloyd said.
Corrine rushed the dummy, hitting it with five good strikes to the chest, then he jumped in the air, whirled around, and back-kicked it towards Lloyd.
"Your turn!" Corrine shouted.
Lloyd ran towards the dummy as it flew towards him, and swung his sword in a great arc, dealing the finishing blow to the dummy, sending it in two different directions; the upper body one way, the lower another.
Genis was sitting on a rock nearby, and clapped. Then he grinned and called to Lloyd. "Hey, what're you going to call this one?"
Lloyd looked up to the sky, then down to the earth, deep in thought. Then he looked up. "Seraphim Slash!" He called back, grinning.
Later, as they were eating their evening meal, Corrine came by Lloyd again. He had changed back to his normal form, and was nibbling at a piece of cheese. "You did well today, Lloyd." He said.
"Thanks to you! Those moves are so awesome! How long have you know them?" Lloyd said.
Corrine coughed, choking on his cheese in laughter. "Are you kidding me?! I made those up on the fly!" He giggled between his coughing fits.
Sheena looked on at the two fondly, and whispered to herself.
"I'm so glad you made another friend, Corrine."
RS: Well, Corrine, what do you think of that?
Corrine:…Idiotic.
RS: Shut up. Oh, in case anyone was wondering, Lloyd made up all the names for the attacks, much to the protest of Genis and Corrine.
Corrine: They were stupid and childish!
glances and see RS trying to do the Seraphim Slash
Corrine: Sigh. Just like that kid.