Anvil (Afina)

[Ebiris]

Wow, she's getting rebuked by Dana who was earlier getting all pissy that someone with superb defensive skills like her was shockingly being used in a defensive role, that smarts. "If you have any complaints about how I've prepared our defences I'm all ears," she invites coolly.

[Anastasia]

"Well, besides that I'm cooling my heels here?" Dana replies just as coolly, "Shit's fine, we have a fucking invincible fortress here and some big-ass celestial within shouting range. If shit goes wrong anyway, who stayed and who went matters jack shit."

[Ebiris]

"With that attitude we may as well give the fortress over to those celestials and trust them to use it better than we have," Afina says. "Aurora's too great a prize to leave unguarded, and I believe the definite presence of ourselves is a far greater deterrent to the opportunistic than the potential intervention of Dorniel."

It would be nice if they could just leave Aurora abandoned with its gates open and trust that no one would dare poke such an obvious trap, but the rewards outweigh many risks.

[Anastasia]

"The hell did I say that? No. What I mean is with the forces here, any of our armies could hold it well. If something fucking threatens Aurora enough and Domiel over there can't do anything about it, we'd be just as fucked." Dana crosses her arms and glowers at Afina.

[Ebiris]

Inviting Dana here was probably a mistake, they're just falling out with each other even worse. Once more Afina curses her lack of diplomatic skills, seeing no way to get out of this argument without looking weak or insulting Dana further. Maybe Elena will come by with a convenient distraction? That'd be nice.

"Even so, this is the army that's been chosen and it's one I think well suited for defending a fixed location - you're a particular bulwark of that given your skills, even if you'd rather be elsewhere. If it turns out to be pointless I'll be happy that we made too imposing a sight to risk attack. And if we are attacked I'll be happy that we'll hold it off better than anyone else could."

[Anastasia]

"Of course I'm good at it," Dana says, puffing up. "But still." She slowly shakes her head, "Look, I know and you're fucking right. I'm good at defense. But I'm just as good when being on the front line and being defensive, rather than sitting somewhere. It's just that sitting around like this is bullshit!" she says, "You know, if I'd have been there, I'd have kicked Taelfagn's ass and Muirfinn and Lief would be here. Hell, if I'd been there, Willim would've come back. But I still get left fucking behind, no matter how I tell people to bring me."

Dana's foot lashes out, kicking out and hitting nothing. Her face twists in a frustrated scowl, "You know who I focus on this? So I can take the brunt of things. The fucking worst of it hits me and the rest misses, so everyone else can come back fucking safe!"

[Ebiris]

Awww. Afina hangs her head at those heartfelt words, agreeing with the spirit of them. "I wish I had been there to stab Taelfagn too. And you might've made the difference for Willim," she agrees, looking at the battlefield that she would currently be on if Ithea's anarch powers hadn't been so vital. "I'll bring you along next time I have to go somewhere dangerous."

Wait a minute, didn't Rosa just die on Earth while Dana was there? Urgh... nevermind, not touching that. Though she'd been about to ask Dana how things went from her perspective on that mission, she thinks she'll leave it alone now.

[Anastasia]

"Good," Dana says, turning back to the illusions. "Now if they'd get their asses going and move."

[Ebiris]

"They are taking their time, aren't they?" the pixie grumbles, folding her arms. "I was expecting we'd get to examine troop dispositions, critique feints, point out openings... not bicker about our neuroses and fetishes."

Seeing something somewhat interesting she angles the illusory view to see where Moore has just gotten a detachment roused up in a hopefully morale boosting song. That reminds her... "I heard a joke the other day. Would you like to hear it?"

[Anastasia]

"Eh, sure," Dana says.

[Ebiris]

Afina nods, taking a second to recall exactly how the joke went as she overheard the soldiers in the mess hall the other day. A bungled joke is as bad as a bungled dance after all!

"One day an ice devil - not to be confused with a nice devil because there's no such thing, was leading a battalion of hell's finest bearded devils on patrol. Their glaves were sharp, their beards sharper, and their minds... not so much. But they were quick to follow orders and that's what counts for a devil! So while patrolling they heard a voice call out from behind a nearby hill.

"'One Lifasan can beat a hundred devils!'

"Well, he wasn't about to have any of that so he turned to one of his advance scouts. 'You there, go over that hill and teach that loudmouth what we devils do to Lifasans!' And so the bearded devil saluted and charged over the hill. There was the sound of great and immediate violence and then it was briefly quiet...

"'One Lifasan can beat a hundred devils!'

"The shout rang out again. Not willing to let such defiance of Hell's rule go unpunished the ice devil quickly ordered a squad of five barbazu to go over that hill and sort things out in proper Hellish style. So the five bearded devils gave a proud yell and ran over the hill, where there was soon a great furore of screaming and yelling and blood being spilt! After things quieted that same voice called out...

"'One Lifasan can beat a hundred devils!'

"Of course by now the gelugon was practically seeing red, his proud battalion of Blood War hardened legionnaires being made a mockery of! Grabbing his spear and practically bending it over his knee as he raged, he gestured wildly for a platoon of one hundred elite devils to take care of business. 'Go and bring me that braggart's head!' he screamed in such a way that would surely have spittle flying everywhere if he had lips instead of mandibles. But proud and obedient to the last, those one hundred devils went charging over the hill with a great war cry. And oh! The violence that came! Blood and viscera was drawn with such intensity the gelugon could see it arcing up over the hill as butchery untold went on, screams and cries filling the air. Until at last one bedraggled devil came running back over the hill, weapon forgotten and panic writ across his face as he shouted...

"'It's a trick, there's two of them!'"

[Anastasia]

Dana chuckles lightly - perhaps just politely, on reflection. "Yeah," she says. "Prefer jokes with more bite."

[Ebiris]

Bah, that's more talking than she usually does too. Oh well, she thought it was funny, and it was a nice show of pride to hear from those former prisoners of the Burning Aeropolis. Still, maybe something's happened in the rift during the time it took to tell it?

[Anastasia]

Then suddenly, two enemies appear on Jaela's flank. A rather battered gelugon and barbazu, slowly approaching them. Dana perks up at that, "Will you look at that?"

[Ebiris]

Is it the same gelugon she saw earlier at the gate?