smack and zoob being redundant
"Say, Pandy."
"What's up, Zeke?"
The Tantalese duo took a break on the shores of the new landmass Rex was gleefully dubbing Elysium (and seeing as the original had been basically barren and nothing worth writing home about, it stuck), boots and Big Bang Edge stuck in the sand.
It was the type of sight, looking out over a virtually endless sea, that made one contemplative. Made one look back upon not just the changes that were being made, and the crux of the journey, but all the little steps along the way, as well.
Zeke loved to contemplate, and Zeke loved to pontificate.
"You know how we met up with the Aegis and her Driver three times, and didn't even end up testing the kid's mettle until the last time?"
Pandy sighed. "I remember, of course. Pretty hard to forget falling off a cliff, getting punted by a rolling boulder, and watching you fall through a railing, all while the most powerful Drivers and Blades in Alrest were looking on."
"Most powerful?" Zeke scoffed. "Why, my dear Pandoria," he gesticulated with thumb jabbed to sternum, "that's you and me!" By far!
Though appreciative of the esteem, Pandy rolled her eyes, swirling in a spiral reminiscent of her old lenses. Power was...a tricky thing. Their bond was special, sure, but power? "I'm not so sure about that... I mean, what were you going to say about meeting up with the Aegis?"
Since, obviously, no one could ever match up to that. Pssh. In your dreams!
But, then, Zeke was a big dreamer. Pandy had to admire the way he throttled between cynical and fanciful, harboring such depth that it'd make a hermit blush.
So, back to spectacularly failing three consecutive (or almost) intimidation checks in front of the Aegis: "Only to think of how illustriously our travels have come off! Don't you see, our persistence was worth it!" Quite the point for sticking to your guns and your goals, no matter the cost or kerfuffle.
"Yeeeaaah, buuut...we didn't really do anything, did we?" Besides...all that.
Zeke, perennial champion of recounting their past progress and prowess, in snowy deeps or out of it, was well affronted by this unexpectedly humilitous observation from his ever-ardent partner Blade.
(In reality, it wasn't all that unexpected, because she did undermine him when humorous, but usually not to his face. Right? Well, but that was only worse...)
No, this couldn't stand.
"What on Alrest are you talking about, Pandy? We escorted the party directly to Indol, as the Praetor's - may he rest in...rest - special envoy!"
Special envoy for Indol. Talk about illustrious. Yeah, right.
"They could have gotten there themselves, I'm sure. Plenty of Titan ships were still doing even when the place hadn't been bombed out by its own benevolent leader." And one of its most illustrious exports - or, say, exponents? Thank goodness he'd survived. He deserved it. Unless, like, he didn't want to have.
(If he'd had a personal reaction to the revelation that Patroka wasn't around to snuff him out, he hid it well. Poor chap.)
Okay, fine, so Indol was open season, with or without a handsome liaison. How about... "The Ruler's Congress?" Very official. Very handy.
"I'm pretty sure we know Amalthus didn't trust you much further-"
"-it's farther, Pandy-"
"-much farther than he could throw you, my prince. And with Mòrag there..."
"Well, but think of the Omega Fetter! Surely they'd- I mean, surely we'd all have been toast without that!"
Pandy put fingertips to lips, considering. She hmm'd and hum'd and hrm'd. Surely. Since, y'know, Ophion was pretty damn important, especially to anyone wanting to climb up the World Tree. Which Rex had wanted to do, kinda, most of all. To say nothing of what Pyra and Mythra wanted, which was a whole other story in itself.
Toast. Yeah, toast. Eaten by Genbu as like as Uraya, and running late to the greatest life lesson of all.
When Pandy, still musing, didn't put forth any particular argument, Zeke pressed, "Tell me, what did Mòrag do that we didn't?"
And while the point sort of stood, being that Mòrag was also an enigmatic envoy from an established nation, standing well above the coming-of-age status that Rex and Nia and Tora held both by years and by stature, with a powerful purple Blade synced to her every move and whim and an iconic piece of headgear that concealed her true vulnerability...
Pandy shook her head. "I dunno, how about was generally more involved? Like, with all the Nopon and Artificial Blade stuff, and the Titan Weapon, and the Senator? And the Emperor, obviously. Oh, and Gormott."
"Lots of proper nouns you've got, Pandy. But not the Omega Fetter!"
"And we shouldn't have had it, either, should we have, huh, my prince?"
Zeke had long debated the ethics of his father's strict adherence to the centuries-old Tantalese isolationist policy. It had been to conceal a colossal grift, he knew that much now, but perhaps it was the butterfly effect that plagued. What would the state of the war, and the world, and the refugees (and oh, god, Indol's experiments), have looked like with Genbu surfaced and participatory?
He eyed Pandy sheepishly (that is to say, with his left eye, which she couldn't see, but she knew it so, regardless). Whether or not they had "done anything" of any import, how could it possibly look for the Crown Prince of Tantal, Thunderbolt Zeke, and his Quickest Purple compatriot, to have not been present at the summit to Elysium?
"I suppose I'm just glad we got to go at all, eh?"
"Definitely had to be there," she affirmed.
"Maybe redundant, but NOT irrelevant!"
At Pandy's snickering answer of "You got it!" Zeke began to doubt once more his Blade's absolute fealty. But, then, she'd been with him for this long, and shared her Core with him, however willingly (he was inclined to believe that it was willingly in theory, but not in the specific practice that had turned out). She'd put not a single claim to her own individual contribution, instead standing as a monolith with him as mutual Bringers of Chaos.
It was both of them, or nothing at all. Zeke pulled up his eyepatch and winked at her, cherishing her laughter even as he winced.
Yes, they truly did share the greatest bond in all of Alrest - and yeah, why not, Elysium too.
Implicitly!