Coffee And Conversation [Diana/Meninas]

"I am trying to expand my knowledge of the Quincy Arts." Diana informed Meninas that she was looking to improve her skills beyond the basics she had learned when she had turned fourteen and was told of her Quincy heritage. Being a Quincy did not pay the bills and her family was not wealthy, so they had day jobs so that they could keep the lights on and food on the table. Her father Alvin was a hunting guide and her mother Anna was an elementary school teacher. Diana was not sure what career she wanted... she had graduated high school days before the Hollow attack on her home, so she never got to apply to college and pick a field of study that would lead to a career.

In addition to the Quincy arts Diana's father had also taught her to be a hunting guide, which was how she had made her way in the world after being forced to relocate to Central Georgia. It was not the most lucrative way to make a living, but thanks to living frugally she was able to afford a small apartment with the bare necessities. Saving the money gained from that side job over the space of many months had enabled Diana to get a passport and travel to Japan, so even if she were not able to get further training in the abilities every Quincy worth their salt knew she had a way to make ends meet.

"I am not very good at spellcraft either." Diana told the pink-haired young woman that they shared a weakness. The blonde recalled how her father and mother both tried to teach her that particular art but came up short every time. Diana did her best to learn it, even devoting entire days to training nothing but Gebet, but try as she might she was unable to progress in it. She had more aptitude for Kruezen, but that was not saying very much considering how weak her overall skill set was.

"My spellcasting is so weak I cannot even do that at the present." Diana candidly informed the other young woman that the latter had an advantage over her when it came to spellcraft. The blonde was not trying to start a competition to see who had it worse, but Meninas seemed to have a far better grasp of Gebet than she did. The blonde then took a sip of her coffee to buy herself time to properly phrase the answer to Meninas' question. The bitterness of her chosen drink lingered on her tongue as she lowered the cup and spoke.

"Kreuzen is where I seem to have the most competence." Diana replied truthfully. Kreuzen was the skill she had demonstrated the most aptitude in when her father had started training her all those years ago. While the training in that art had started off smoothly, both of her parents were dismayed when their child failed to create a bow, the traditional spirit weapon of Quincys. Instead Diana had managed to create an old bolt-action rifle with a small detachable box magazine and a scope named "Altes Gewehr"... the spirit weapon looked like she had raided a war museum and grabbed the first weapon she could get her hands on. However, as a few Hollows had found out the hard way, despite its antiquated appearance Altes Gewehr was just as deadly as any bow.

Despite seeming to have the most aptitude for Kreuzen, Diana's knowledge was not where it should be for a Quincy of her age. She knew Blut Vene but could not use Blut Arterie. Steigen was a skill she had struggled with: after the death of her parents she had had to train it rigorously just to reach a basic level of competence. When it came to Gebet that Quincy art seemed like it was forever destined to be one that she would struggle with worse than she had struggled with Steigen.

"My spirit weapon is an old bolt-action rifle with a small detachable box magazine and a scope." Diana told Meninas the form her spirit weapon took but did not reveal its name just yet. Her father had once told her what kind of rifle Altes Gewehr was, but the blonde could not quite remember the name of the design off the top of her head. However, she was able to recall that it was one that was from the early 1900s, which was way before the time of either Remington. Perhaps that was why her spirit weapon was named "Altes Gewehr."

"I stay at long range if I can." Diana informed the pink-haired young woman how she tended to fight. Altes Gewehr was a bolt-action weapon with a firing rate that was somewhat slower than a bow due to having to work the bolt between shots. That limitation made Diana do her best to keep away from her adversary and whittle them down with shots targeting vital places and limbs to give herself an advantage if she could. An opponent who had been shot in a leg might have a harder time chasing the blonde Quincy than one with their legs intact, after all.

The scope on Altes Gewehr provided enough magnification to give her a good view of the target and aided in reasonably accurate long-range shooting, but that was only during the day. Once night fell the scope was of limited use since it did not have any special modes like night vision or thermal vision to let her see targets in the dark. So far Diana had been fortunate that all of her battles had occurred during the day, but one day she might have to participate in a night battle or enter a dark place to hunt a target. Diana would need to start thinking of ways to compensate for that particular weakness if she could, preferably before she found herself facing those unfavorable situations.

Diana recalled Meninas mentioning a friend whose spirit weapon was an ax and found that interesting enough to comment on.

"I was not aware that a Quincy's spirit weapon could be a melee weapon." The blonde admitted that she was somewhat surprised by what she had been told.

Diana was not too worried about her inability to form a bow because Altes Gewehr had worked for her so far. However, she was keenly aware of the irony of being unable to form and use the weapon of the goddess she was named for. When she was a teenager training under her father's auspices and learning how to use Kruezen she had tried countless times to create a bow but kept creating Altes Gewehr instead, so the blonde took it as a sign that perhaps she was meant to wield a bolt-action rifle instead of the traditional Quincy weapon. However, her parents were not thrilled about that and insisted that she could create a bow if she only put enough effort into training Kruezen.

Hearing Meninas mention the "organization" she was employed by made the blonde Quincy wonder if she was referring to the Vandenreich, but the latter did not jump to conclusions just yet. The pink-haired young woman might have been referring to another group that employed Quincys, perhaps one not affiliated with the one she was thinking about. Diana kept her mouth shut on that topic and listened to the advice she was given, which was a suggestion to put some effort into improving Blut. Right now Diana could only make use of Blut Vene, but that was the form she was likely to get more mileage out of considering Altes Gewehr's rate of fire was not the fastest around and fast opponents could take advantage of that slowness to close the distance and give the blonde serious trouble.

"That is a good idea, Meninas." Diana sincerely agreed with the other Quincy's advice. The blonde's initial plan was to try and improve Kreuzen, but focusing on Blut instead might be a more prudent idea. If an enemy got within melee range Diana would benefit a lot more from Blut Vene's boost to defense... that boost might just buy her the time she needed to put some distance between her and the enemy before continuing the fight, but the best idea was to never get into close combat with an enemy to begin with.

Diana blinked and when her eyes opened again she was looking at Meninas sporting a pair of innocuous gauntlets that were colored pink and looked like they would be right at home in a "magical girl" anime show. However, just like with Altes Gewehr, appearances could be deceiving... opponents who underestimated the gauntlets because of how they looked might not live to regret the mistake. Diana kept quiet until she came up with something to say that was unlikely to offend the other Quincy.

"I can truthfully say that I have not seen anything like your gauntlets before, Meninas." Diana remarked calmly without any trace of insult. Looking away from the pink-haired young woman's unusual spirit weapon, she made eye contact with Meninas and waited for her to speak.

The more Diana listened the more it sounded like Meninas had gotten a lot better training than she had. All the blonde had learned was the Quincy arts... there was nothing to supplement them like basic hand-to-hand combat training or anything that could help cover Diana's glaring weakness in close-range combat. She had no idea what her parents were thinking when they made her training curriculum so narrow, but it was far too late to ask them why they had done that. Maybe they sincerely believed that knowledge of the Quincy arts would be all their daughter needed to defeat any adversary.

It also sounded like the other Quincy had a better grasp of her abilities too. Meninas knew exactly what her weapon was capable of while Diana was still trying to figure out the full extent of what Altes Gewehr could do. So far it was a spirit weapon with no special capabilities, which was one major reason why she had been so keen on training Kreuzen. The idea to focus on improving Blut was a good one, but the blonde was not totally sold on it just yet. She would need to make a decision soon so that she knew which art to focus on first.

"So far my spirit weapon does not have any special abilities." Diana confessed. It was just an ordinary spirit weapon with a form that was suited to her, but the blonde Quincy was not satisfied with that. She wanted to learn everything Altes Gewehr could do and achieving that goal meant investing a lot of time into training Kreuzen; should she do that first Blut would have to take a backseat.