Life Around the Tower

Lavina taps her training blade against the ground, a little pre-practice ritual she did to focus herself, inhaling and exhaling once. Twice. Then she goes into her fighting stance, letting only a moment pass before…

CLUNK!
SNAP!
CRUNCH!

She unloads a few moves on the armored dummy before her, huffing in slight frustration at it's continued fragility to her onslaught. The head came off, again. And she just got a whole new one! She drops her training weapon, restraining herself from outright throwing it to the ground.

Then the red plumed Archangel removes her mask for just a moment to rub her furred face. A noise behind her makes her ear twitch however before very swiftly getting it back on. "Sneaking up doesn't suit you, Scholar." She remarks.

"And destroying dummies with naught but a piece of wood does not suit you either. Mostly." Scholar retorts. "You’re still angry abo-"

"Not!" She raises a finger in a gesture for them to cease, "Another word." Lavina bends to retrieve her training implement. "I didn't get a chance to relieve some stress on that last expedition, so i’m trying to do so now. So would you rather be standing in that dummy's place or are you gonna stop criticizing my methods?"

"Not criticism! Just an observation!" Scholar steps around to go sit down out of the way, hand on his chin. "You really don't think I get some kind of joy from seeing you like this, do you?"

Lavina stays silent a good few seconds, before letting out a dismissive breath, focusing back on the now headless target. Still had something to hit and, with the whole Void thing, not everything will have a head to slice off. Or be of comparable size, for that matter, but that's not something she can do something about when training.

"Your footing is off, ma'am."

"...Thanks." She shifts her foot to proper position, before getting back to 'stress relief', knocking about the target.

Scholar, meanwhile, only watches, waiting for the right moment to speak again. Wait until she's firmly into it, until her intensity lightens up… "It wasn't your fault, you know."

There's a brief fumble in her swing, only nicking the armor of the dummy, but she corrects herself on the next. Without losing another step, she responds, still working on her slashes.  "You know how difficult it is for me...For us to not think of it as our fault."

"I know, I know. It's one of the unfortunate things we tend to inherit from our father." They lean back, stretching their arms. "He spent years sitting around and blaming himself for everything. And we, without him intending to, got a portion of that."

"At least the whole thing with Mischa and Misk pulled him out of that rut." Another loud crack on a swing, think she just damaged her own weapon with that one.

"We can hope so!" Scholar offers up a smile. "Still. There was nothing we could do for Comfort. None of us knew where they went…And now..." The smile fades, remembering the mission. Rocks falling, everyone getting split from Comfort, and the later realization that was the last time they would ever see them. “Now we have to go on, never knowing what happened, how scared they might’ve been at the end…”

"They're not dead." Is all Lavina says, hitting a dead pause in her swings.

"Well, yes! Technically! But even if they managed to survive after we last saw them, after the timeline collapse, by themselves, they would not have been able to-"

Scholar is interrupted by the snapping of wood and of metal being crushed. In a single swing, Lavina had managed to collapse in the armor on the dummy, snapping her wood sword in half as a result, the broken pieces clattering onto the ground.

"THEY'RE. NOT. DEAD." She roars out, a flash of red in her eyes as she directs a glare to her sibling and squadmate, fists clutching so tightly that her claws might even pierce her palms. It takes a moment for the Archangel to calm enough to speak normally, aside from the tinge of a growl, looking away from Scholar.

"Comfort isn't dead! Or nonexistent or whatever you're implying!" She heaves out a heavy breath, "They can't be, I still remember everything clearly about them...And I know they're stronger than that, deep down. They're out there, waiting for rescue, and we will find them!”

Lavina looks back at Scholar then, taking off her mask to give them the full brunt of her fiery stare. And, shows the heavy bags under her eyes. “You can keep up your shitty, clinical intellectual viewpoint assholery as much as you want, but i’m gonna drag your ass with me if we see ANY sign of them, you hear me?!

"...Besides."

She remembers something she said to her missing sibling, turning away once more. When Comfort asked why they deserved to be with them in the Rainbow Wolves. "...It's not a rainbow without the color green, right?" She lets out a sigh, affixing her mask back into place. No, a rainbow without green wasn't a rainbow.

The Rainbow Wolves without Comfort aren't the Rainbow Wolves.

A hand places itself on her shoulder, Scholar's. "Well said, my captain...My sister." They rub at an eye on their mask. "We all miss them...Deeply. I thought perhaps being realistic would help but...Well, your immense hope in them and your endless determination to find them? It feels a lot better than thinking them dead."

Lavina nods, taking deep breaths as she calms herself. "...Thanks, Scholar.” She lets a moment pass before, “Oh, c’mere already!” Then she turns about and wraps her arms around her sibling.

This, of course, takes Scholar by complete surprise, who completely fails to return the gesture. “Oh! Uh...You’re welcome?” They just pat at her back, awkwardly.

Lavina however, squints behind her mask. “What? Whats the problem? I can’t give you a hug?”

“Oh no, no!” They respond, “I was just...Not expecting it. At all! You never were the affectionate type.” And that gets them practically shoved away as their sister cuts the hug there.

“What the hell does that mean?! Sure i’m temperamental but that doesn’t mean I don’t give a hug now and again!” She gives an annoyed huff, “You really need to learn when to shut your damn mouth before you say dumb crap.”

“Dumb? Why, I thought I was being perfectly honest about your standoffish nature! And we all know honesty is paramou-” One of Lavina finds the rambling Archangel’s mouth, holding it shut.

“You have about five seconds to stop talking before you say something that’ll make me do something that I doubt i’ll regret.” She let’s go, punching them in the shoulder as she moves to pass, eliciting a yelp of pain from her squadmate. “Come on! Let’s get the others together, i’m tired of training today.”

“F-fair enough, Lavina! Maybe we can watch a classic film I- Okay, I see that look, not that then.” They eventually follow behind, still chattering on, leaving the destroyed training sword and wrecked dummy where they sit in the training room.

Lavina makes a note, as she walks with Scholar. Get a new dummy, a new training sword...

And remember to close and lock the door to the training room when she's blowing off steam.