Tales of Chaos I: Chaotic Beginnings
Disclaimer: We do not ToS, or ToS 2, simple as that sadly.
Chapter Two: Who Knows
'Who knows what could happen,
Do what you do,
Just keep on laughing,
One thing's true,
There's always a brand-new day,
I'm gonna live today like it's my last day. . . .' -Avril Lavigne, Under my Skin
Serena stared up at her white ceiling tiredly, she'd had a very odd dream. . . . The only thoughts that were wondering through her mind at the moment were, 'That had to have been a dream.' she thought back on the "dream". Her dream involved two Tales of Symphonia characters somehow winding up living with her and Eliza. She'd woken up and tripped over one of them, and blacked out only to reawaken fully when Eliza had come over, with another video game character in tow. And after that, they'd try to sort the whole ordeal out and explain what was going to the two, as best as they possibly could. And then both she and Eliza had spent the rest of the day trying to sort out living conditions for themselves since they'd decided to live with the two for the next month, until their Mothers returned from their trip to Hawaii.
That was something that had not ended well, she and Eliza had debated on things all day and night and it ended abruptly when Serena had finally given in to Eliza, unwillingly that is, and tottered off back to bed, too sleepy to argue any longer. Leaving Eliza to deal with how the Symphonia characters were going to sleep, and where.
But that dream was completely crazy! 'Really, two Tales of Symphonia characters in the real world?' she thought to herself. The shock of Eliza's Gamecube explosion must not have worn off quite yet. . . . Either that, or the girl had been reading way too many fan fictions lately.
""I wonder how long I slept to have dreamt of something so bizarre." Serena hadn't meant to speak aloud, though her voice slipped from her lips in a quiet tone.
That's when, surprisingly to Serena, someone bent over her, this person having plum-black hair drawn back in a messy ponytail. . . .
"Dreamt of what?" the woman asked her. Serena let out a very loud scream and bolted up right, her forehead colliding with Sheena's leaving both of the women crying out in both shock and pain. Serena, though in pain and clutching onto her forehead, started to hurl whatever she could get her hands on at Sheena. One of which was her precious Froggy pillow. . . .
"Get out!!! Get out of here you . . . you weird person!!!" she shouted, not able to think of any witty insults on demand.
Sheena, whom was also clutching her forehead, shouted at her, "Serena stop it!"
Eliza, who had been out in the living room, was startled by the sudden amount of noise that was coming out of Serena's room, her head snapped around and she jumped to her feet. The manga which had been in her lap fell to the ground, the poor girl had been skimming through it in order to try and keep herself awake since she had been up all night keeping an un on Zelos, who she had no trust for. She did not trust him to be around her while she was asleep, or around Serena for that matter. She had herself dressed up in a brown decorated graphic tank-top with baggy tan cargo pants, and a pair of brown flip-flops on her feet. She had her light brown hair pulled back into a side ponytail which fell over her right shoulder, the reddish tips barely brushed the skin of her shoulder. She had bangs that were angled opposite of her ponytail, along with a strand of hair that hung in front of each of her ears, and framed her face.
She darted back to Serena's room to find out want had happened, as she walked through the doorway she was met with the sight of Serena's now messy room, and the sight of both Sheena and Serena clutching their foreheads, Serena though was ducking behind a pillow.
Eliza's eyes went back and forth between the two before asking, "What happened here. . . ?"
"I'm definitely not doing that again." Sheena groaned.
"I'm sorry Sheena, I forgot that yesterday wasn't a dream. . . ."
"Okay then." Eliza muttered as she walked out of the room, again as she had said and thought to herself yesterday this really was bound to be a long month. After all, she was stuck with trying to find a way to get two video game characters back into a game that she didn't even have that was in one piece, and trying to keep them from getting into trouble.
From behind her Serena got up from the bed, still clutching the sore spot on her forehead. She followed behind Eliza until the drowsy girl collapsed onto the couch. Serena continued on into the kitchen, getting ready to cook breakfast for everyone, since Eliza always burnt her food to the point of it lighting on fire. Zelos already happened to be in the kitchen, poking through drawers and cabinets without bothering to close them . . . the refrigerator was included in this. One particular thing he opened was the dishwasher, which had been filled with approximately three weeks' worth of silverware. He had just bent down to look inside one of the lower cabinets when Serena came in. She saw her guest and opened her mouth to greet him when the dishwasher's door caught her feet. Before she could do more than let out a yelp, she tumbled forward yanking out the silverware drawer in an attempt to keep from slamming face-first into the cabinet Zelos was peering into at that very moment.
She didn't quite manage to avoid it. Serena hit it so hard that it closed on Zelos, who had been trying to figure out where the tantalizing cookie smell was coming from. His pained cry was muffled and he had to slide out of the cabinet sideways because someone was braced against it. When he saw her on the floor blinking up at him and giving a goofy smile, he wondered if she suffered severe brain damage from the fall.
"Sorry. I guess I forgot to close that last night."
"Uh, Yeah, probably," he agreed. Zelos was not about to argue if she wanted the blame.
She sat up and started retrieving all the butter knives, forks and spoons that had clattered all over the kitchen floor. There always seemed to be more when they were spread out.
Now all of this had happened before Eliza had the chance to sit back down, the girl uttered a groan as she turned around from the couch, and she stalked back to the kitchen to see what had happened. She had expected that maybe Serena knocked something over, or ran into something, but what she was not expecting was to see was Serena with a new welt forming on her forehead . . . and picking up scattered silverware next to a disheveled drawer and an open, and now dented dishwasher. . . . And to top that off by seeing Zelos standing over the injured girl, just watching her clean up a mess while not even bothering to offer his help to her!
Eliza got a very unhappy look on her face as she clenched her hands at her sides, "Zelos what did you do?!" she screamed.
"W-What?!" he asked, confused and slightly panicked.
"What did you do to Serena?!"
"Eliza I'm sorry!" Was the reply, but the apology had not come from Zelos. Instead it had come from the girl on the floor, silverware in hand. "This is my fault."
Eliza's eyes chillingly darted back to Zelos, "He did nothing strange to you to cause this?"
"I-I didn't touch her! Besides I didn't even know she was in the room until she tripped and nearly made me get stuck in that storage area!" he defended himself, while pointing to the cabinet.
"Did he do anything weird?" Eliza asked in an icy tone.
"N-Not really." Serena muttered.
"Did he?!"
"W-Well. . . ."
"I told you I did nothing to her, or to cause this!" Zelos insisted, to say he was panicked would have been an understatement.
Eliza looked back at Serena who was currently tugging on a lock of her dark brown hair. "For the love of all that is decent! Tell me what the heck happened!" she finally shouted.
That's when Sheena popped around the corner of the doorway, curious about all the commotion in the kitchen.
"Whoa, what happened here?" she asked, seeing the mess of silverware on the black and white printed tile.
Eliza let out a frustrated whine, "That's what I want to know!"
"Zelos, what did you do?" Sheena automatically glared at the man.
"Why do all the pretty girls assume it was me?" he whined, as he lowered his head in mock sorrow.
"Simple, because when something like this happens, usually the innocent girl is the scape goat. And at this particular moment; that would be Serena." Eliza spoke.
"But I didn't do anything!"
Eliza rolled her eyes, really she wasn't buying what he said at all, she opened her mouth to speak again when Serena's timid voice cut her off.
"U-Uh, u-um? Eliza, Sheena?" her voice squeaked from all of the tension in the air. Both of the women looked back down to Serena who held a slight flush over her face. "Z-Zelos didn't do anything, I-I didn't see that the dishwasher was open and I-I tripped over it and grabbed the drawer because it was open. . . . Zelos was opening one of the cabinets at the same time and I hit my head over it . . . I-I'm sorry you got the blame Zelos." Serena said looking up at the redhead apologetically, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
Zelos smiled at Serena's words and her timid and nervous demeanor, "Aww, aren't you just the sweetest? Really, my Cute Nymph, there's no need to be upset." Already, he was back to his usual self. . . .
Eliza growled audibly, "Do not call her by that stupid nickname! Her name is Serena! S-E-R-E-N-A! Got it memorized?!" she shouted as she knelt down.
Zelos chuckled to himself, "Now really, is there such a need to be so harsh, my Gorgeous Princess?" he teased her.
Eliza's face tinted a shade of red at the use of the name, "G-Geez . . . Z-Zelos–! Don't call me that!" She knelt down to the floor, her hands began to gather the various utensils off of the floor, while Zelos just smirked in response to the girl's order.
"E-Eliza you don't have to help!" Serena said nervously.
"I want to help."
"N-No, I can do it myself." Serena tugged at a lock of her hair.
"I want to," Eliza said, her hands nearly full.
"B-But. . . ."
"Zelos, you ought to be helping out too. Sheena, you don't have to since this had nothing to do with you." Eliza said as she dumped the silverware in her hands into the dishwasher.
"Nah, I rather help since everyone else is. Zelos, everyone includes you!" Sheena yelled, beginning to kneel down.
"R-Right!" Zelos nearly yelped out of shock.
"N-No, it's fine!! Really!" Serena's cheeks turned red as she insisted upon doing it herself.
That's when Eliza shot one of her infamous death glares at Serena that promptly caused her to just shut up and let everyone help with the mess. Serena knew better than to get on Eliza's bad side, though, most people that knew her, knew that one as well.
After the mess of silverware was cleaned up off of the floor, and the dishwasher had been shut in order to prevent anymore kitchen catastrophes, Serena started to get things out to make breakfast. When Zelos noticed that Eliza wasn't offering her help to Serena in cooking breakfast he started to wonder why then the girl had been so adamant on helping to pick up the dining utensils, if she wasn't insisting on helping her cook. . . .
As the brunette tiredly stalked back over to her place on the couch, she snatched up her discarded 'Pet Shop of Horrors' manga and tried to go back to reading it as she had been before she'd bolted back to Serena's room. As she nonchalantly skimmed through the pages of the book, she felt someone else sit down on the couch next to her, she looked up from her book to see who had sat down. A look of annoyance crossed over her face when she saw that it was none other than Zelos who'd sat down, "What doyou want now?" she asked him.
He was sitting smack in the middle of Serena's couch so that he was facing her entirely, "So my Dear Eliza, I have something to ask you." he said to her in his typical tone of voice.
When Zelos called her 'His' Eliza let out a huff of annoyance, "I'm not even going to comment on you calling me your 'Dear', at least you actually used my name. . . ." she said to him monotone, "Anyway, what is your important question?" she said, saying the word important sarcastically. In the background, both of them could hear Serena clunking about in the kitchen.
"I'm curious to know why you are so stubborn about helping Serena in cleaning things up, such as the silverware, but when it came to her cooking you leave without a word. What, are you too good to cook, or something?" he asked her.
Eliza glared over at him, "You know everything that you say when you aren't being a pervert is just as annoying as when you are?"
He let out a laugh, as if he thought what she were saying was funny. "All I want you to do is answer my question."
"You really want to know? Simple, everything I attempt to cook results in being a fire." she said as she brought her book back to her face, "There I answered your question. Now do me a favor; shut up and read." She grabbed a manga off of Serena's coffee table and shoved it into Zelos' hands. Before bed, Serena had left out a stack of manga for Sheena and Zelos to read if they got bored, only Serena didn't tell them that the books weren't like the ones that they probably had in Tethe'alla.
Sheena herself already had her nose stuck in one of the said books, she'd figured out how to read it thanks to a diagram she found that was printed on the last page of the book. Zelos on the other hand when he opened the book, didn't know that there was a diagram on the last page of the book so he wound up turning the book in every which direction, trying to figure which way the pictures went and how you were suppose to read the thing. Though some manga were printed in the American reading fashion, most that Serena owned were printed in the usual Japanese style, leaving it backwards, unlike the books Zelos was probably used to.
Eliza had found herself starting to nod off, even while she was trying her hardest to keep reading her own manga, the manga she'd shoved over to Zelos had kept him quiet, which was allowing the girl to doze in and out of awareness. Out of nowhere though, Zelos asked her yet another question, "Could you tell me how I'm suppose to read this thing? It's like, backwards or something."
Dully she looked over to him, the book he was trying to read was a volume of 'Trinity Blood', and he was without a doubt confused.
Eliza yawned, "I'm guessing manga doesn't exist in Tethe'alla," she muttered quietly, "Like you said Zelos, it's backwards. You read the panels reverse from normal books." she pointed out the panels went before she almost fell asleep.
What kept her from doing said action was an, "Eeeek!" from the kitchen. Eliza shot up, wide awake, "Serena what did you do this time?!" she shouted.
"I-I just . . . I just forgot to turn off the stove top." she replied sheepishly.
A sigh escaped Eliza's lips, "Just what am I to do with you?"
"Sorry Eliza," Serena muttered as she finished up the breakfast. By accident the girl had burnt the pancakes she was making, and she'd added a wee bit too much salt to the hash browns, but it wasn't something that couldn't be hidden with a little syrup. That was when Eliza stumbled into the kitchen without warning.
"Huh, Eliza what are you doing. . . ?" Serena asked the girl as she saw her reaching into the cereal cabinet.
"I'm eating cereal, I don't need anything with too much sugar in it this early in the morning."
Serena shrugged as she herself got out three plates, and distributed the food onto them in equal portions. Eliza on the other hand was pouring milk into her bowl of Cheerios.
"Sheena, Zelos I finished breakfast!" she announced. Serena didn't dare attempt to bring out someone else's food for fear that she would spill it. The game characters put down the manga they'd been reading and made their way to get their plates off of the counter.
At the dining table, Eliza sat down in between Zelos and Serena. Everyone but her began to eat their food, until Eliza's head splashed into her bowl of cereal. Everyone looked at her strangely trying to figure out if she was still alive. What gave that away, was the bubbles in the milk from her breathing. Serena poked Eliza's side.
"Eliza," She poked her again.
"Mhmm. . . ." Eliza's moan was drowned out by the milk and came out as more bubbles.
"Eliza! Wake up before you drown in your cereal!" Sheena's foot hit Eliza's in attempts to bring the girl around. And even that didn't work! "Maybe I ought to try to summon Undine and see if splashing her works..."
"I've got something better." Zelos spoke, Both of the girls looked over to him curiously.
"You'd better not do anything to Serena." Sheena glared at him.
"It doesn't involve her!!" Zelos shouted. "Just watch ok?" He moved toward Eliza slightly, not daring to get to close. After all, who knew what the girl was capable of in her sleep? He lowered himself until his chin was resting on the back of his hands, which were flat on the table, and stared straight across at Eliza. Then in a cooing voice he whispered, "Time to wake up, my Gorgeous Prin—"
"I told you not to call me that!!" Eliza's head shot up from the bowl of milk, spilling it everywhere.
"Told you it would work!" Zelos gloated.
Eliza looked around the table unaware of the Cheerios stuck to her face. "What did I miss?" she asked, confused.
"Uh, Eliza you have cereal stuck to your face," Serena said to the girl.
"W-What?!"
"Yeah it's all over your forehead and cheeks," Sheena pointed.
"Aw man," Eliza wiped the cereal off of her face with a napkin and let it fall back into the bowl that she knew she was not going to finish.
"Eliza, maybe you ought to go take a nap," Serena suggested quietly.
"I don't think so! Do you have any idea what he's like!?" she pointed her finger at Zelos who looked shocked.
"I-I didn't do anything!" he yelled with a hurt expression across his face.
"Yeah, not yet!" Eliza retorted.
"Don't worry I'll keep an eye on him for you," Sheena said. "You just fell asleep in your cereal, so I'm pretty sure you could use a nap."
Eliza let out a sigh knowing this was a fight she just couldn't win, as tired out as she was. "Fine, I'll go take a nap . . . but do notleave him alone with Serena." Eliza ordered, pointing a thumb at Zelos.
"I won't," Sheena replied as Eliza got up from the chair and wobbled over to the couch. The girl collapsed onto it, already back in the clutches of sleep.
"Poor Eliza, she really must have been tired," Serena sighed, "I wish she wouldn't stay up so late all the time."
"Whatever, just so you two know; don't bother asking me to wake her up again, because I'm not going to." Zelos said as he turned his attention back to the food on his plate.
After both Sheena and Zelos finished up their breakfasts, they decided to sate their curiosity about the strange new world they were in . . . by looking around Serena's apartment. Sheena wasn't shy about showing her full curiosity towards this matter, she looked around nearly every visible inch of the place. She picked up and examined the random trinkets that Serena's mother had gathered from her many trips, they'd been left out on shelves and on end tables for decorations.
She also looked at the paintings and family pictures that were hung up on the walls, considering the fact that cameras didn't exist in Tethe'alla, she thought that the photos were paintings done with some unusual paints, or some other material. She wondered how much money Serena's mother had to have in order to have so many portraits done of her and her children. . . . And she also had to wonder why someone would paint a portrait of a family with one of its member's eyes shut . . . and why that person was always Serena, no matter how recent the portrait or how old the girl's eyes were always shut or she had somehow made some sort of facial movement that ruined the picture.
Even though Sheena took her sweet time in carefully examining everything she saw, Zelos on the other hand did not show his curiosity so openly. Though he was just as curious Sheena about the things that Serena's apartment held, he wasn't as willing to show it. He instead played his curiosity down by only opening things like doors, cabinets and anything else that had a handle and hinges. More than anything though, he probably was just interesting in learning what Serena's family kept around the house, and not about the new alien world he was in.
Serena herself took her time in finishing up her food, she hated eating fast. After she gathered up her plate, along with Sheena and Zelos' and put them away in the dishwasher she went back to her room in order to change. The girl had wound up picking out a pair of jeans, a black zip up jacket that had silver thread woven in it so it had a sparkle to it, a grey T-shirt, and a pair of black Converse knock-offs. She wound up putting her dark-brown hair back into a braid, her hair fell down to her knees, and at the sides of her face she had a strand of hair that covered up her ears and fell down to her knees as the rest of her hair did, the girl kept simple eye length bangs that covered her forehead.
She walked out to the living room and gathered up the few volumes of manga she'd left out last night to take back to down the hall, and to her book stash. In front of the said closet was Zelos, he stood there with his hand on the door knob, about to turn it.
A panicked look came over her features, "No! Don't open that!" she cried out frantically, dropping the books in her arms.
"Why not?" he asked as he finished turning the knob. His question was answered when an avalanche of books fell over top of him. All that stuck out of the top of the mound was his arm,
"Z-Zelos. . . ?" she squeaked nervously, when he didn't respond she moved carefully around the edge of the pile, she remembered a little of her health class from her freshman year in high school, not much, but a little. She stuck out her index and middle finger like the teacher had shown in her class and looked for a pulse half way in-between his wrist and elbow, not remembering that you're supposed to look for a pulse at the wrist. . . . When she failed to find one her eyes went wide with shock.
"Oh my goodness," she muttered to herself, "I KILLED HIM!" she yelled loudly, really believing that Zelos was dead.
"I'm not dead!"
"Oh my gosh! I killed Zelos and now he's turned into a zombie!" Serena shouted out in panic. Racking her brain to see if she could remember if she had any Holy Water in the apartment, and wondering if Holy Water would work on a zombie...
"Who's a zombie?" Sheena asked, she poked her head into room at the sound of a panicking Serena, and the sound of an avalanche of books.
Serena, who was now shedding tears of fear and remorse from the thought that Zelos might be dead due to her books, turned to her, "My books killed Zelos and now he's a zombie!" Sheena's face went deadpan at this.
"My books killed Zelos! I'm a murderer!" she shouted sorrowfully before Sheena had a chance to speak.
"Your books . . . killed him and he's now a zombie?" Sheena asked skeptically.
"I looked for a pulse and I didn't find one and I said I killed him and then he talked!!" Serena shouted out all in one breath.
"Will you two please get these books off of me so I can move?!" Zelos yelled from under the books, he was growing impatient with the two for sitting by and chatting while he was left under the pile of books.
"Ahh!" Serena screamed, bolting up from where she was kneeling down and hiding behind Sheena for safety, "S-See?! H-He's dead but he talked!!!" she shrieked.
Sheena moved away from Serena without a care toward the book pile. She did a mock imitation of what Serena had done earlier with her hand, only finding the right spot for a pulse on Zelos' arm. "Serena, I think you had the wrong spot when you tried to take his pulse . . . because from what I feel now, he's alive, and he is not a zombie."
"Y-You mean my books didn't kill him?"
"No, far from it. They just buried him." she replied, standing up.
"Speaking of which, could you two get out from here now that you're sure that I'm not part of the undead?" Zelos asked.
"O-Oh! S-Sorry Zelos!" Serena squeaked, her voice was panicked as she slid down to her knees and began to move books off of the man. Sheena went to her knees to, but not as quickly as Serena had, and also started to help move books off of the Chosen.
"I might as well ask this since I have nothing better to say," Zelos said pausing before asking the question, "What's with all of these books?"
"I-I r-really like t-to read. . . ." Serena answered meekly to his question, her face went red at that.
"That's something I can tell just by seeing this." Sheena replied, she took one of the books into her hands and examined it, the cover read 'The Looking Glass Wars', "Are all of these books about your world?"
Serena shrugged, "W-Well they are sort of," she started as she moved more books off of Zelos, "I read fantasy books more than anything. . . . I also have a few science, and historical fiction books mixed in there somewhere. I'm not into romance very much, Eliza's the one who likes those kinds of books."
"Oh. . . ." Sheena said in a disappointed tone, she dropped 'The Looking Glass Wars' on top of Zelos' head, her interest lost.
"Ow!" Zelos protested, "Sheena did you have to do that?!"
"Oh I'm sorry Zelos! A-Are you okay?" Serena asked him, shoving more of the books aside until he was able to get free. He didn't answer her, instead as soon as he was free and able to move he immediately stalked out to the living room and sat himself down next to Eliza on the couch.
"O-Oh . . . Zelos is probably mad at me now." Serena said sadly as she started to shove her books back into her closet with the help of Sheena.
"Don't worry, he's just angry that I dropped a book on his head. He'll get over it soon enough." Sheena told her.
"O-Okay, if you say so Sheena." she replied.
"So you've really read all of these books?" Sheena asked to move off of the previous topic, and to try and get Serena to be cheerful again.
Serena nodded happily, "Yep I have! Actually I've read some of these more than once!" she smiled as she braced herself back against the door and forced it shut so it wouldn't cause another avalanche.
"So, any of them good?"
"Yeah, I-I could pick out a few of them for you to read . . . if you wanted?" Serena suggested timidly, "B-But if you like Romance novels, you'd have to ask Eliza about those, she has lots more of them than I do."
"Hmm, I might do that later." She wasn't about to ask Serena to lend her any book, considering that it would probably be very, very, hard to re-open her closet. And asking Eliza as she was now was certainly not a wise idea.
Serena nodded her head, "O-Okay, I'll leave out a few good books, if you want to read them, you may. . . ."
"That sounds fine."
Serena considered lending her some books by Melissa Marr and went to her room to see if they might be there by any chance. As she was digging beneath her bed, she found some of them plus another book she'd been searching for everywhere for months. "Oh! My Vampirates book!" Serena cried out with joy, she had been halfway through the book when she lost it. After she set out the books, she set the Vampirates book on her bed to read sometime later on that day.
"Mmmm, n-no I don't wanna. . . ." Eliza moaned in her sleep, she was still out cold. Zelos, who'd decided against opening anything else in the apartment, settled on staying out in the living room. The two reasons behind that were, one; he'd almost gotten blamed for Serena's little spill in the kitchen earlier that morning, and two; he'd been buried under an avalanche of books. . . .
That being said, currently the man's only source of entertainment was Eliza, he watched her contort herself into the strangest positions he'd ever seen, and she apparently talked in her sleep. And she said some pretty off of the wall things too. One time she said something about being chased by a talking purple dinosaur . . . whatever that was.
Sheena's curiosity hadn't diminished in the very least, regardless of whatever misfortune she might have come across, that is until she came across a room full of boxes, cobwebs and dust. Serena was just coming down the hall to leave out the books she'd picked out for the ninja-girl just as she'd opened the door to the room. She let out a light yelp at the room's appearance.
"Uhh, y-you might not want to go in there. . . ." Serena said, her voice a few octaves higher than normal.
"I wasn't planning on it." Sheena's cringed at the thought of being trapped in that room.
"That's good. But, unfortunately for me, I have to clean that up before my Mom gets back from Hawaii," Serena sighed, while motioning to the room with her hand.
"I think I understand how you feel."
"I guess I'd better start on it soon, but I don't feel like it right now." the girl shrugged.
Sheena shut the door with relish. Even for someone like her, who'd faced off with monsters and super-humanoid creatures, the room was a horrific sight that gave her the chills.
"I don't envy you, are you sure it's not haunted?" Sheena wondered.
Serena shrugged, "There really isn't much I can do. I have to listen to my Mom—w-wait, what? H-Haunted!? Of course not! I-It's just really, really . . . really . . . scary. Um, I'm gonna go relax." Serena teetered back to her room, retrieving a few sheets of blank, lineless paper and a pencil.
"What are you doing?" Sheena asked.
"O-Oh, I'm going to go draw. I like to do that once in a while." she replied as she slouched onto her bed and began to run the pencil over the paper in a curvy line.
"Oh. . . ." Sheena wandered out of the girl's bedroom slightly disappointed by the girl's answer. Drawing really didn't seem all that exciting to her. She decided to check up on Zelos and Eliza . . . when she reach the living room she found Zelos poking the side of the sleeping Eliza. She stared at the strange sight, less than amused, she was not pleased with his complete lack of respect for their host . . . make that hosts.
"I'm going to hate myself for asking this, but Zelos what are you doing?"
The man shrugged as he stopped the random prodding, "I was just seeing if she was still alive," he muttered, "That, and I was bored out here. I don't know how any of this world's weird gadgets work." He slid own in the couch, blanking staring ahead in boredom.
"Bored or not, you don't have any right to poke Eliza."
"What, is my darling, voluptuous Sheena jealous?" Zelos teased, though, that only earned him a rough smack to the head.
"Be quiet or I'll smack you!!" Sheena threatened him.
"Oww, Sheena, don't say that after you've already done it!" Zelos moaned.
The ninja choose to ignore the man, and took to looking around the room only then did she find the Television remote.
Moments Later. . . .
All she could recall was being chased by a talking purple dinosaur, before she was snapped out of her sleep by a loud sound.
"What the–?" Eliza started as she jerked from her restful position on the couch, "Ack!" she yelped as she slid off of the side of the furniture and landed face first on the floor.
She let out a groan, shaking her head as she got to her knees, trying to get a grip on where she was and what was going on.
She looked up to see that the source of the noise that had woken her up was none other than the Television. Both Sheena and Zelos were standing near it as if it were some sort of monster, but that wasn't the part that caused her to scream. . . .
"WHICH ONE OF YOU THREW THE REMOTE INTO THE TV?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as she jumped to her feet.
The volume of Eliza's shout caused both Tethe'allans to cringe and automatically turn back to the girl, it also caused Serena to drop all of her drawing supplies back in her room and bolt down the hallway to the living room.
At the sight of a remote sticking out of the middle television's screen Serena bit her bottom lip as hard as she could to keep herself from screeching in horror. . . .
"I-I didn't know how to work the thing!" Sheena yelled in panic.
"Oh some excuse! Sheena, between you and Zelos I would have thought you'd be the one who'd ask Serena or me about something you didn't know how to work!!! Not just chuck remote at the TV!" Eliza motioned to the broken TV violently.
"Ohhhh!!!! Mom is going to murder me!!!" Serena moaned, she had slid to the ground and was leaning against the hallway wall.
"W-We didn't know what it was! We thought it was a window that people could get into and out of!" Zelos interjected.
"It was just an image!" Eliza yelled as she smacked her forehead.
"How were we suppose to know that?!" Sheena replied.
Serena's wail of anguish cut off Eliza before she started to speak, "Oh, I'm so dead when mom gets home!"
Eliza went over to the poor girl and crouched down next to her, "Don't worry Serena, I'll just tell you that someone broke into your apartment and freaked out or something and threw the remote into the TV."
"Whatever. . . ." she replied in a murmur, she doubted that her mom would buy it. With a sigh the teenager stood to her feet and headed to the televison, getting ready to unplug it.
"Don't worry my darling Nymph, I'm sure your Mother will understand." Zelos said to the girl, trying to console her.
"Obviously you've never met my Mom. . . ." Serena replied.
"Zelos, you're only going to make it worse. And call her by her first name would you?" Eliza paused, "Whoa, Serena what do you think you're doing?" She grabbed the back of the girl's hoodie, stopping her in her tracks.
"I-I was going to go unplug the TV."
"Uh, no. You are not to go near broken electronics; do you remember what happened last time?" Eliza asked her, her hand still bunched up in the black cloth of the hoodie. Eliza seemed to have forgotten that in reality, she'd been the one who had gotten messed up by a broken electronic.
"Oh yeah . . . I-I got shocked."
"I'll get it myself, ok? I am so not taking responsibility for you if you die on me." Eliza relinquished her hold on the hoodie. And she herself crept her hand back behind the entertainment center, pulling out every other plug back there before she finally pulled out the televison's. She withdrew her hand as she began to pull the thing out of its cubby hole, "Sheena, Zelos! One of you two help me lift this thing!" Of course, since Sheena was the one that broke the televison she helped Eliza out.
Serena walked past Eliza and Sheena with a smaller TV from her Mother's room, hoping that this one wouldn't get broken. She turned around as soon as the other two women were back in the room.
"Sheena, please don't break the this one!"
"Sorry, it just sort of freaked me out."
"It's ok, just please don't do it again." Serena had a knack of making people feel guilty without trying to.
"Don't worry! The Great Zelos will keep a watchful eye over the voluptuous Sheena and make sure she stays out of trouble!" Zelos suddenly interjected into the conversation, and before Sheena had a chance to yell at him another voice cut her off.
"You're the one who needs watching! Not Sheena!" Eliza's arms were crossed and in one of her hands was a spray-bottle of Bleach.
"Um, Eliza why do you have spray Bleach...?" Serena asked looking past Sheena.
"Oh, I found it under the kitchen sink and emptied it."
"Ok..." Serena said confused to why she'd do that.
"I rinsed out all of the Bleach from it."
"Uh-huh." She really didn't see where Eliza was going with this.
Eliza sighed, "Then I filled it back up with water. . . ."
"Yeah? And?" Serena asked her confused.
"Geez, I watched a show where I learned that people train circus animals by spraying them with water if they misbehave." Eliza went on, trying to see if Serena was catching on to her plan. In fact everyone looked at her confused. That's when Serena's brain clicked and she looked up, her orchid eyes widening in fear of Eliza, now armed with a bottle. . . .
"Anytime Zelos does anything stupid, suggestive or anything like that he gets sprayed," she concluded.
"Hey, you really think of me as no better than some animal!?" Zelos yelled, insulted by this assumption.
"Eliza he's not an animal. I mean, I-I did that with my cats to get them to stop fighting, but Zelos is human." Serena muttered out timidly.
"So? We need to teach him some way, and I don't think Sheena's smacks to the head are helping him along, nor are my lectures. I figure if it works on animals, why won't it work on a person?"
"You really are mean, you know that?" Zelos asked, his expression one of insult and annoyance.
"I do only what has to be done!" Eliza's hands met her hips, "Hate me if want, but I just want the least amount of trouble out of this whole ordeal as possible, and if we don't do something about your behavior–well who knows?!"
"I have to say that I agree with her." Sheena spoke up.
"Not you too, Sheena! You traitor. . . ." Zelos whined.
While Sheena, Eliza and Zelos all continued their conversation/argument, Serena herself just plopped onto the couch and watched them, not entirely sure of what was going on.
A/N: Well, there is the end of the second chapter. And we have a question to ask; is this story worth continuing? Really, really think on that and be honest. If we know that people think that this story is worth continuing, we'll continue, so review! Also, did we get Zelos and Sheena's personalities down right? We did our best too! And, we also wish to say that we are going to be doing poll questions at the end of each chapter from here on out! Feel free to answer, we love to hear your answers! The motivate us, like reviews do. We also give our answers to the questions!
Poll Question: Who is your favorite character from Tales of Symphonia, and why are they your favorite?
Crimson Fallen Angel's Answer: Ah. . . . My favorite character would most likely have to be tie between both Sheena and Martel/Tabatha. I count Martel and Tabatha as the same person because of the fact that they both join together at the end of the game. But I like Sheena a lot because she is smart, independent, she kicks butt, and at the same time she is working to overcome her inner fears and the doubts she has about herself. Plus, she is the only Clumsy Ninja I know of! XD And I like Tabatha/Martel because if not for them, the game's events would not transpire. The original Martel was a very caring person, a good role model.
Daughter of the Cerulean Water's Answer: Mine's a tie too, between Mithos and Colette!
Well, please feel free to answer the poll!
-End of Chapter Two
-Through the twists and turns may our paths cross once more. . . .
