(no subject)

[awakeningwill]

Who: Zero and Blue and possibly others
What: SWORDS
Where: Swordfighter training area
When: Weeks after humanizing happened
Warnings: Pointy objects

Zero wasn't terribly good at being human. But, not having much of an alternative, a human he remained.

He was weak - cut and scraped and bruised and fractured in new ways almost every day, to the point where it was laughable. Having your physical limits completely redefined wasn't something that you could adjust to overnight, especially when your instincts were purely honed for reploid combat.

But that was all he knew. It was basically all he was good for, considering he was garbage doing anything else as a human. If he couldn't perform at peak power, he would only be a liability in exploring, foraging, defending. So until he could consider himself an asset, he'd have to train. Relearn everything he could do.

Every day without fail, he'd be practicing with the arsenal available in the training area - wearing himself down until his body memorized every single weapon. With one arm in a splint (don't ask), he was working his way through the one-handed swords and daggers as he healed.

Sweaty, dirty, aching, hungry, shoeless and tired though he was, Zero was still a fighter. And starting at rock bottom was becoming rather familiar to him, honestly.

Comments

Vivian. It's Vivian. She's the other.

[idonthateyou]

Though Vivian had been housed by a system she didn't understand how could she not? a mystery, she constantly wandered to see what others were up to. Happening upon Zero was strictly a chance opportunity, but one she felt uncertain about.

Well, not at first. It was just him being there, being Mr. Zero, but she saw it instantly in his stride, his limbs, his face - he was no longer different.

It shocked her momentarily, but she stood and watched him without interruption. She did, however, unconsciously draw closer to be sure her human eyes weren't deceiving her.

Dun dun dunnnnn

[awakeningwill]

Zero was so engrossed in his training exercises that he made no sign of acknowledging her arrival. Perhaps he didn't know, or perhaps he didn't care - if it was urgent, then they would've said something.

It wasn't until a jolt of pain ran up his broken arm in the middle of a knife combo that he had to take a break - served him right for trying to do more damage by putting more weight behind the blade. He stopped, breathing heavily, wiping the sweat and loose hair from his eyes.

Slowly, he turned to face Vivian, staring back with eyes entirely unlike his old ones. Still grey and still stern, but no longer the flat, opaque walls they used to be.

"...Yes?"

[idonthateyou]

"...Ah!" Right, she has to communicate. "Hello, Mr. Zero..."

Looking him over was interesting, but mostly it was... pleasing. There was this inalienable satisfaction of seeing the different become the norm, but Vivian couldn't verbalize that for the life of her. It simply existed in her heart and burned at the pit of her mind.

"U-Uhm, do you understand its functions?"

[awakeningwill]

Interesting was one word for it, considering how sweaty and banged up he was. Also, the fact that his clothes were old, ill-fitting, found in a dusty pile of junk, and his hair was too long to be even remotely practical.

"Its functions?"

Zero looked down at the knife in his hand, assuming that it was what Vivian was referring to. It was the only thing he'd been focused on for the past several hours, so his mind was on a single track right now.

"These are designed for close quarters combat, optimal with covert tactics. On its own, its range loses out to longer blades, but it serves well as a concealed weapon."

I'm already laughin at this mess

[idonthateyou]

Confusion was an understatement to her expression. It occurred to her then he didn't understand. Hah!

Approaching him to get close enough, she's reaching out for his hair, aiming to poke his stomach with her other hand. PERSONAL SPACE IS OUT, ZERO. SORRY.

"Your body!"

[awakeningwill]

When Zero saw her hand coming for his midsection, he immediately put his weapon between them - pointed downwards, but nonetheless a barrier him and her touch. His whole body stiffened, wound tight in an instant. A prickly, bristling feeling spread over him as he took a sharp step back.

Physical contact wasn't something Zero liked even on the best of days, and in this vulnerable, human form, he liked it even less.

"It's just a body," he muttered. It was no big deal, obviously - but he was still on edge.

[idonthateyou]

The reaction was actually something Vivian hoped for, in a sense.

"Yes. It's just a body. A human body..." Her hands folded together and dropped in front of her, eyes scanning him. Did he understand the gravity of her reply? "Right?"

She leaned down to more or less match his height, locking her sights onto him. "Do you understand it?"

[awakeningwill]

Zero frowned even more when Vivian leaned down to his level. It was condescending. And while he may have recognized that becoming human was an important thing for her, it wasn't an outlook he shared. A body was a body - a vessel, a tool he simply had to adapt to, no matter how large the change.

"I'm working on it," he grumbled.

[travelingbelle]

Blue had very little idea why she had been placed in the swordsman house of all things. She'd never done anything remotely like sword-fighting. She owned the swords dance TM at one point? Did they look at her inventory history and go, 'ah yes this is the house for her' based on items that weren't even for her? Swords Dance didn't even have anything to do with swords half the time! The logic just did not exist.

The fact that she knew she didn't belong didn't keep her from being curious though. It'd be neat, she supposed. Probably even just useful on the island. No, not probably. Definitely. She couldn't rely on her Pokemon all the time anymore. Didn't want to either. New skills were required.

So she'd had every intention of slipping into the training rooms to see what was available to her, but it had always been occupied. Intensely so. Blue had never wanted to interrupt, choosing to peek in instead and bide her time until it was her turn. The more she peeked in, however, the more it was becoming apparent that if she continued to wait she would just... Never get a turn. The blonde that vigorously occupied the training room was a permanent fixture. Did he ever actually leave? Blue wasn't sure.

She recognized the fire burning in him, but he was doing it wrong.

Today the trainer crossed through the the threshold, her mind made up. There was a full pitcher in one arm, two scrounged up glasses in her hand. "Have you had a drink yet?"

[awakeningwill]

Zero stopped in his tracks, training dummy still punctured with a dueling blade. For a moment, he mentally assessed the last time he took in hydration or sustenance... not since he woke up, if he recalled correctly. That was the designated time. It'd been a while since then, a few hours at least, but he wasn't sure how long. Time seemed to pass in a blur whenever he trained - he focused on nothing but the weapon becoming an extension of his body. It wasn't unusual for him to leave the training room to find that the sun was already starting to set.

"No..."

Though his voice was flat, there was an air of begrudging shame to it - he knew he was doing something wrong (he usually was, when it came to taking care of this human body), but had no experience when it came to correcting it. There was a quiet shunk as he pulled the sword out of the dummy and glanced back at his visitor, wondering if she had answers.

[travelingbelle]

The gears turning in his head were practically audible. Blue's eyebrows raised up when he glanced back at her, and she let out a quiet laugh under her breath at how much it seemed like he had been caught with his hand in a cookie jar. A cookie jar of poor health decisions.

"Let's fix that then," she breezed on with a clink of the glasses in her hand. Blue gave him an expectant look as she set one aside and went about filling up the other.

[awakeningwill]

Warily, Zero approached, scanning her up and down as he did so - force of habit, searching for threats. The glass of water got a similar treatment, but sensing nothing suspicious about the two of them, he set down his sword and picked up the cup.

"...Thanks." Zero took a sip, but that quickly turned into chugging the whole glass down. He hadn't actually noticed how tired and dehydrated his body was until the coolness of the water hit his throat. Hours of aches and fatigue caught up with him in a rush - but he bit off a groan of exhaustion with a grimace. There was no point in complaining over this human body when his reploid one would be even more unviable without an energy source.

His body craved more water but, unsure of how to ask this stranger for more, he awkwardly held onto the glass and watched her.

[travelingbelle]

He wasn't the only one studying. Blue eyed him closely over the rim of her glass, taking stock of the body of injuries in front of her. He looked like someone that had taken a tumble down a mountain and then decided it was a good idea to take dancing lessons from a pack of Scythers. The trainer had done at least one of those, so she didn't feel like it was far off the mark.

She took a sip, slower and less needy. It was mostly a front to begin with, a reason to bring him some. Blue set it aside after a moment, grabbing the pitcher again.

"Anymore? Why don't we take a seat, eh?"

[awakeningwill]

Rather than say anything, Zero gave only the subtlest of nods. His grimace faded into his standard resting frown - everything, even his eyelids felt heavy right now.

Honestly, he felt like he could down that entire pitcher. He definitely wasn't hiding the way he eyed it, but... well, this girl was here for something. Why else reach out to a total stranger? She was probably going to make it known, so if he was going to take advantage of her water, he wanted to know what he was in for first.

He took a quick glance towards the bench over by the sword rack, and headed towards it. Every sore muscle in his body seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when he finally sat down.

[travelingbelle]

Blue gave the pitcher a delicate swish twirling the water inside in a most enticing and entirely deliberate way as she moved to join him. She took a seat beside him, gently gesturing for him to raise his cup.

Luckily, Blue wasn't usually one for beating around the bush too much.

"You spend a lot of time in here."

[babylonmechanic]

Wave had slowly become accustomed to Zero's... mannerisms. And by "mannerisms", she meant "death wish". What a robot was doing with his arm in a splint was beyond her, such was his state when she walked by and saw Zero hard at work training.

She leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "You know, if you were broken, I could've fixed you," she commented, almost insulted that she wasn't consulted by her former security teammate.

[awakeningwill]

Zero continued hacking away at his training dummy with a machete until all its limbs were cut clean off. Seemed like a pretty useful weapon. Powerful at chopping things to pieces.

"Didn't think you were a doctor," was his gruff reply. "You fix meat as well as machines?"

[babylonmechanic]

"Meat? You're not made of meat, you're made of metal, silicone, and some substance called ceratanium," Wave replied, pushing off the wall. "And for that matter, what's with the low tech blade? Where's your beam saber?"

Someone hadn't heard about Zero's change, apparently.

[awakeningwill]

That earned a raised brow from Zero. He stopped what he was doing and turned to face Wave, correcting her with, "Not anymore."

Could she really not tell the difference? Well, she probably assumed all robots of his world were like Rock, when the truth was very much the opposite. "This isn't artificial skin. I'm stuck in this human body... until I can find an energy source on this island, anyway."

[babylonmechanic]

Wave blinked. "Now you're just making shit up," she commented. "Robots don't just turn organic out of nowhere. What's REALLY going on?" she asked, walking right up to him without a thought of propriety.

[awakeningwill]

Well, as long as she wasn't going to pop his personal bubble. He gripped the machete a little tighter and crossed his arms, though.

"You're smarter than that. All those animals walking around in human bodies around here, they got that ability from somewhere. I just came across it by accident."

[babylonmechanic]

"Uh huh. And is that why you're covered in bandages?" Wave asked. "You're literally THAT reckless?"

[tempus_fixit]

Lucca had heard Zero's kiais echo across from the gunner arena between volleys of lasers. At least, it SOUNDED like Zero, but what was he doing out in the arena? He wasn't quite ready to fight, not with the the way he'd been disregarding his limitations as a human...

She turns a corner and sees the erstwhile fighting robot punishing himself in training and just... Stares for a moment in disbelief before she pads closer, not really caring if he's in the middle of a routine or not.

"Zero. What're you doing?" She asks, with the same tone you would ask a person who's sawing off a tree branch while standing on the limb.

[awakeningwill]

Zero stared back with the look of someone who considered sawing off the branch he was standing on to be a perfectly feasible way to get out of a tree. You know - he wasn't wrong, exactly, but it was one of the worst ways to go about it.

"Practicing."

With seemingly no effort, he twirled the sai in his hand into a resting position. Sure, he was a clusterfuck of a human, but his unnatural talent with weapons still stayed with him regardless of his form.

[tempus_fixit]

"You ought to be resting." She replies bluntly, then uncrosses her arms as she thinks about what she says.

"Look, it's just... I mentioned it to you guys before. I can't fix you now; and if you keep pushing yourself like this you won't even self-repair correctly."