Whatever Works

[Vae]

Vae looks between Halo and Ariadne. “You’re welcome to join discussion if you wish. But if you decide to not do so, I’d say that Ariadne , that spell was a good idea, but you need to do something more than just that, what if it didn’t work? Don’t rely on only one form of attack, you constantly left yourself open to physical attacks.” she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Your magical skill is good, but it’s not enough to keep you safe all the time, I’d suggest dropping a spell and booking it, personally. And I know that you probably don’t intend to get into fights, but you should know when to run, and standing still like that was kind of dumb.” She looked over at Halo. “What you did, Halo , though, was both smart and dumb as hell. The spell was good, but shooting at the person you were trying to protect...you’re not good enough yet.”

She looked over at Animus as he approached, the Thyrsus’ aura was pulsing...that meant something was wrong.

“Animus, are you alright?”

[Animus]

The Thyrsus' face clouds, his walls against the world buckling under the direct question. "It's Weavebreaker. She froze up in the middle of the fight, completely gave in. And I worry that she'd clutch again if a patrol went sour."

He falls silent, stomach churning. You had to trust that any Arrow you fought alongside had your back, and undermining that trust as he did now never came without cost. But if the young Talon buckled while others were truly counting on her, the results would be devastating. And he daren't withhold what he knew, lest his silence bring down exactly that.

[Weavebreaker]

Weavebreaker slowly kneels down by her gym bag, dropping the blood-stained towel next to it. Rummaging through it for a moment, she pulls out a bottle of water and twists off the lid, pouring a bit onto the towel and then drinking some. Setting the water bottle to the side she begins to use the wet part of the towel to clean herself up better.

Stings so bad...

She shakes her head softly as she hears Animus' words, her jaw clenching ever so slightly. What he says draws her mind away from the pain.

Weavebreaker knows that it is pointless and that nothing could have changed the outcome. No spells or attacks in her arsenal have any hope of piercing his defense. Conceding defeat against an opponent that outclasses you in training is not the same as standing by idle when life and limb were on the line. She knows intimately well that in a real scenario , against opponent that you have no hopes of beating, you do not stand there and die.

Placing the towel back down next to her bag and grabbing the water bottle, Weavebreaker rises to her feet. She takes another sip of her water, staring at the crumpled up towel. While Animus may be unbeatable at the moment, she calculates what she has to do to correct that.

Weavebreaker walks over to Aegis giving him a nod of her head. "How are you holding up?" As she spoke, she looks him up and down to see how bad of shape he is in.

[Vae]

At Animus ’ words Vae pinched the bridge of her nose, “Are you serious?” she asked in a bit of an exasperated tone. She let her hand drop with a long exhalation of breath and looked back at Halo .

“Either you’re out of practice or you need to learn more than two tricks. Personally I’m privy to the second option, It looks like you’re trying to stay away from your opponents, which may be a good thing for you. But,” she looked over at Ariadne “That’s not always going to happen, spread out yourself to other Arcana, learn different ways of fighting, I’m sure everyone here could teach you something.”

She looked over at Leo ( Xander ) standing near the table waiting for her, then at Aegis ( AethrDav ) and Weavebreaker making their own small talk. “Animus I know you really didn’t see much of our fight, or perhaps you did, you think you can show the Veil what they need to know?” It wasn’t another suggestion of a fight but one where the discussion would be more of a benefit than anything else. “I got yours.” With a nod from one Banner Warden to another she walked towards the newer members of the Sacramento Arrow.

“So, Weave, Aegis....Leo, you might as come over here too.” She wave d the other Obrimos over. “So lets start with ‘what did you do wrong?’”

[Weavebreaker]

Weavebreaker heads over to Vaeltia with her towel pressed to her neck.

"Had no means of overcoming his defense..." Weavebreaker glances to Aegis. "No matter what attack I could muster with weapon or spell it would not have been able to overcome."

Weavebreaker drops the towel down to her side for a moment. "Nothing within my power that I can do at this time except work towards correcting such a weakness, against such a foe. I am aware of what direction to go to be able to persevere and overcome such a deficiency."

Weavebreaker's training centers around shutting down spellcasting, and against a willworker that has most of the spells up and going from the beginning to be a nightmare, she feels ill prepared. She knows, though, that being able to strip those offensive and defensive buffs is where she is going to have to focus. It will make the probability for success more favorable and it is going to increase the areas I am already strong in...

Beyond the short term correction of such a weakness, Weavebreaker also saw the steps she needed to take to mimic such a potent defense. She may not have had the same toolkit to do it, but it is not far out of reach from where she draws down on the Supernal.

Weavebreaker puts the towel back to her neck, trying to clean up the mess Animus has made of it. She glances to Leo and Aegis, taking in the scope of their injuries. It was not hard to know the pain they were feeling when Animus gave her intimate knowledge. Her eyes shift back to Vae. "Am I missing something?"

"Was there anything that we could have done to change the outcome?" Weavebreaker looks back to Aegis.

[Animus]

The Thyrsus accepts the handshake, still a bit distracted, although his focus returns as Vae takes charge of the Talons. "Animus." Well, it was training. If the blood contact made the Guardian squeamish, he'd just have to find a way to deal with it.

Finally, he gives Vae and Leo a meaningful glance, before turning back to survey Halo and Ariadne. "Okay, here's a starting point. That was an awfully long fight to not have someone hit the dirt. Regardless of whether you're standing your ground or booking it, you need to be focused. You have much more to fear from two injured opponents than one healthy one."

[Vae]

“So the fact that you were out classed is what made you limit yourself further?” Vae asked the Obrimos, “Because if I recall correctly, the Banner Warden asked you what limits you were setting on the match. What rules you wanted to play by, and I know that your first statement was to start casting spells.”

She looked between the two, “Your awareness was down, you shouldn’t let your mind control you so much. Animus is our best instinctual fighter, and that is what keeps him alive.” She breathed out heavily. “Your body knows how to survive better than you do, you should learn how to trust it. Listen closer, and know that we don’t pull punches, if we did you wouldn’t be prepared for anything. The intention is to put you through hell in training so when you get to a point where you need to use what you learn, it’s familiar and you don’t get surprised.”

She fixed her eyes on Weavebreaker, “I heard you say it was useless, did you think about running? Did you try it? Don’t get so caught up in one or two means of attacks. ‘Die Every Day’, ‘Have No Preferences’. Those are part of our philosophy, you can use whatever you know, and if that doesn’t work make it up. MAKE it work,”

She looked over at leo. “Now can anyone tell me what Leo did wrong?”