But it is not Ophelia, but Sylvia, who pushes back at whatever the mechanism is -

- and Luna who swears vehemently as she realizes that her own analysis is what's getting in the way, and steps back to simply watch, instead -

- letting Diana's past practice lobbing beanbags in the air and hitting them with a stick (and her recent experience with the fangbat) come to the fore, as they go back in for another round of it.

This time it goes much better! She can dodge or deflect all the shots, save one which bounces weirdly and whacks her in the leg anyway.

Pink Girl is drinking from a water bottle and watching her now.

That's better.

Now, to add magic to the equation.

It is Luna who takes point on this - for all that Diana is the undisputed mistress of combat, she is the equally undisputed mistress of dirty tricks.

And she has one in mind, if she can freeze water by holding it in place hard enough.

Well, no, she has that idea regardless.  But she wants to make ice, because it's pushing her limits, just as conjuring a forceful stream of water would.

...Actually, she'll conjure that stream of water, and spend a little bit of time seeing just how fast she can get it to go, before stepping back in to the center of the circle, flicking the start button, and seeing how well she can deflect with a ribbon of flowing water, or spot-conjured bursts thereof.  She wants to make up for her earlier embarrassing showing.

Then it's Sylvia's turn.

...except that the spirit is willing, but the magic is weak - slow to respond, and with the approximate control of a becalmed sailboat in ways that have her cursing with about the frequency of a sailor thereupon, and eventually making a frustrated noise as yet another miss occurs and she switches tactics entirely, drawing a thin film of water in a rough oval, then compacting it where the hit will be, sending ripples through the shield, before it returns to standby.

Pink Girl shouts, "Good luck, newbie! Watch the mouth in public!" and gets back to her level 5 practice.

Controlling the water by enforcing pressure on it works... Moderately well! It takes some rather intense strain and focus to maintain it in that shape, it wants to drift and turn into a soft blob. Her film of water may have to be thicker than she likes. But 'hardened' water that experiences a surge of pressure at exactly the time of impact stops the balls cold, sending them bouncing away instead of punching through with a splash.

Thank goodness she's not almost useless in combat, even if she'll likely never be a front-liner.

...It's well-meant advice she receives, but she really doesn't like it.  She doesn't want to censor herself for the sake of others' clutched pearls.

At least she's not likely to be doing much of anything public-facing anytime soon, and thus needn't confront that issue.

Anyway - it's Sylvia's turn.

And as the water melts away, replaced by a rounded metal shield, Sylvia gives the veteran a nod and a "Thank you for the advice."

Sylvia's defense is inherently a lot more solid than Luna's, or Diana's.  This poses something of a problem, actually, given that she would need to risk either actual injury, or training bad habits, were she to practice her defenses only against this form of attack.

On the other hand, she could practice snap-casting defensive barriers, and mark success in size, thickness, and reaction speed.

She could, of course, also turn up the difficulty a notch.

And she does, because her goal is to endure where the others cannot.

At level two the balls fly faster, more often, and from a nearly 180 degree field.

That said, Sylvia is very good at blocking.

Pink Girl is in the middle of a session but still looking curiously over to her.

Perhaps she might notice that the stripe of blue across bare-metal armor (with a gambeson beneath, in earth tones) has instead become half-blue, half-silver.

Perhaps she might not.

Sylvia has no particular stake in this matter; Luna is arguing that it is a matter of correctness to keep the stripe up to date, supported by Ophelia, and so much weight is behind the concept of 'being correct' that even were the others dead-set against it, which they certainly are not, the motion would nonetheless carry.

Her only business, given that, is to prepare to endure the backlash, should it become somehow contentious.

She truly hopes it doesn't.  It would hurt the others.  She doesn't want to see them be hurt by bigots or narrow-minded fools.

Pink Girl waits for both their sessions to end before waving and shouting, "Oiiii, you're multi-element! And changing your color scheme! And armored! That's really cool and weird! Hi, I'm Rose Weed! 'Cause I'm annoying according to some people, who are idiots actually! What's it feel like what's your name?"

Rose Weed grins and bounces on her feet in the air, poofy skirt and all.

"You are very excitable.  Hello, Rose.  I have many names, and none have yet felt entirely correct in truth, not for the totality of my soul."

Her voice is surprisingly soft, all things considered.

"As for what it feels like...Each element, each way of looking at an element, has its own associated mindset, has its own associated form and space, and we simply sum the vectors in our soul to point the way, in a sense.

"The shapeshifting spell helps, in that it grounds us in an appropriate form for the motions we undertake, but it is not...necessary."

And hey here's Clara with a burst of wind, and a momentary shift to green, right on cue!  She's helping!

"Exhibit A, as they say."

"Nerd. Sappy nerd. That's fucking awesome- Ga, gosh, sorry, no swearing, no swearing." She slaps herself lightly, back and forth. "Is that, like, the multi-Tanyas from that one show? Where they sit around in a conference room in her head arguing?"

"No self-harm, Rose.  I do not mind if you swear, either.

"To answer your question, it is not entirely inaccurate to model our situation that way, especially given its...magicalness.  It is inaccurate, however, to say that there is much back-and-forth argument; there is simply...gravity, in half-a-dozen different directions.  Some of those directions have names; some branch from a name like a leaf from a tree.  This direction, the endurance, the calm, the resilience, the silver metal and solid earth, is named Sylvia; the analyst who helped me make this speech has only chosen a codename as of yet, but that codename is Luna, and she is...the moon's pull on the distant tides, the deep thoughts 'neath the ocean that surface to do strange things, the crystal clarity of ice - and, sometimes, the sharp cracks of it breaking under strain, as you may have noticed from the swearing."

"Oh come on, I barely even felt that. I'll self discipline how I like, thanks. I dunno what's going on in your head...s... But I don't have to, that's like, Plato's cave or whatever it was. I know what it's like to be me, not you. Also, you sound like the more mystic sorts of girls. Gotta have a good cadence in your voice and a deep well of metaphors to pull that off. Me, I know who I am. Aside from being Samantha in the strictest sense of the label, I am hyper and explosive and annoying! Nice to meetcha, Sylvia et al." Rose Weed holds out a white-gloved hand for the shaking.

There's a soft little laugh that sneaks out around the edges of her voice.  "You will get along with Clara just fine.  Out of costume - or.  Well.  In costume, but in Clara's frilly skirt costume instead of exempli gratia Sylvia or Diana's armor, we go by Annabel."  And she handshakes!  "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Handshake! "Rose Weed, like I said! Dunno how much we'll end up seeing each other, there's a lot like a lot of new stuff that gets thrown at the wall when you're just starting out."

"Hmm?  How do you mean?"