Meeting The Mechanic (Diana/Elara)

"That is an understatement, Elara." Diana calmly remarked in response to Elara's first statement. She was not going to regale the mechanic with a tale of woe and misfortune nor a tale of the life experiences she was forced to miss due to her parents' obsession with making her a powerful all-around Quincy. She would instead discuss what Elara had stated about individual strengths and weaknesses.

"You are right, Elara. As I said earlier, Gebet is easily my weakest art, but fortunately I am somewhat more proficient in the other three. Kreuzen seems to be the one I have the most affinity for." Diana reiterated that her weakest art was Gebet while balancing that out by mentioning arts that she had some ability to use without too much trouble. "Proficient" might be being too generous when describing her current level of skill with Kreuzen, Blut, and Steigen, but she was still more competent in them than she was in Gebet. Despite how weak they currently were Diana had a fairly solid skillset that could be built upon... if she could find the right teacher, that was.

"It sounds like you had a better instructor than I did." Diana calmly commented on the contrast between her "teachers" and Elara's teacher. It sounded like the dark-haired Quincy's instructor had a good idea of how to effectively teach their student and it did not sound like harsh criticism for the slightest mistake was a teaching tool of theirs. Alvin and Anna Remington held the opposite view... they believed that coming down hard on Diana for each and every mistake she made would help her learn better.

"I tried to politely convince them to ease up on the criticism a few times, but each time I was shouted down." Diana informed Elara that on a few occasions in the past she had tried to get her parents to tone their harshness down a bit but had failed each time. That was due to the stubbornness of her mother and father, who had refused to change their ways despite growing evidence that their training methods were not getting the results they had desired. Instead of changing their approach they doubled down on it in the belief that their daughter was just being obstinate and needed constant pushing to realize her full potential.

"When they were in a mood to not shout me down for daring to ask for leniency they claimed that the criticism was to motivate me to do better. As you can imagine, being constantly berated for mistakes or misunderstandings was hardly motivational. Instead such an approach slowly and steadily eroded my motivation and made me feel like I was being used as a project of theirs, but I had no choice but to keep training because I had no alternatives other than leaving home." The blonde explained the "logic" behind the harshness and what it did to her. She disliked being called "lazy" and "dumb" for failing to understand a lesson right away. She also disliked how her parents seemed to delight in pointing out her mistakes and going over them in exhaustive detail while never pointing out any successes she achieved. That approach to training had been a dismal failure, to put it lightly.

"When they were feeling particularly harsh they declared that as long as I lived under their roof I was to do what they told me when they told me. My father even added that if I had a problem with that I was free to pack my belongings and leave. However, if I ever left their house my departure was to be permanent... they openly stated that they would never take me back under any circumstances." Diana informed Elara that if she left home she would never be permitted to return. She supposed that that decree was intended to make her think very carefully about what she did before she did it, but to her it was yet another example of how uncompromising her mother and father could be. Having regaled Elara with enough about her parents and their behavior for the time being, Diana stopped talking to give the other Quincy a chance to speak.

"My parents stopped treating me like that once I turned eighteen." Diana told the truth... from a certain point of view. Her mother and father had stopped chastising her for her shortcomings day in and day out, but that was not because they had had a change of heart. They had stopped because Hollows had killed them over four years ago, but the time was not yet right to tell Elara that. As heavy as the conversation was at the moment Diana did not want to drag the mood further down with another tale of woe unless the dark-haired young woman really wanted to know every last detail of the story.

"If I were to try and guess what my parents were trying to accomplish by being so harsh, I would venture that my parents were trying to make me a well-rounded Quincy in case I ever had to fight alone." Diana put forth a hypothesis concerning what Alvin and Anna Remington were aiming for with their harsh "motivational" tactics. By the time she had turned eighteen the blonde had come to detest their rough treatment and had considered just leaving home more than a few occasions, but she never went through with it due to the simple fact she had nowhere else to go. She did not even have a friend whose house she could crash at until she figured out a more permanent solution to her housing situation. With little real choice but to endure the situation the best she could, Diana had emerged from the four-year ordeal with both a trade she could work in until she could find better, more stable work and basic knowledge of the Quincy arts that could be built upon.

"I wish my parents had toned their behavior down just a little, but I suppose that they thought were dealing with a prodigy who just needed constant pushing to achieve greatness." Diana remarked in the closest she had come to openly criticizing her late parents. They had taught her skills she would need for both ordinary life and the life of a Quincy, so she could not criticize them for that. What she could criticize her mother and father for was how they had disregarded her wants and feelings in favor of their agenda. Diana had been pushed so hard to do what her parents wanted for so long that she did not know what she really wanted anymore.

"I do not know whether my mother and father had any real feelings for me or just considered me a project they were working on." Diana added without prompting. At multiple points in her life the blonde had felt like her parents considered her a project of sorts. Diana supposed that Anna Remington felt like her daughter needed to live up to her Roman mythological namesake and be a huntress, one who could take on any Hollow and win.

"They died over four years ago in a Hollow attack on my home." Diana calmly informed Elara why she had spoken about her parents in the way she had. The dark-haired Quincy was perceptive if she had picked up on the blonde's choice of words that were an effort to obscure the past. Diana had chosen to answer truthfully because Reida, Meninas, and Sabriel already knew that the blonde's parents were dead and there was no point in lying about it.

"I was upstairs in my room trying to pick out an institute of higher education to attend when I heard my parents calling for me from downstairs. I left my room and ran outside to see what was going on. I looked in the direction they were looking in and saw Hollows. A lot of them." Diana began telling an abridged version of the story. She would leave out all the irrelevant details in favor of only those that mattered because she did not want to bore Elara to tears. The blonde doubted that her story would be boring, but she did not want to bog it down with trivial parts and risk ruining the emotional content of a tragic moment in her life.

"My parents brought out their spirit weapons and got ready to fight the Hollows off. I was about to do the same when my father told me that the fight was not possible to win even if I stayed. My mother told me to flee far away from Columbus and go to her hometown further in Georgia, where it might be much safer. I hesitated for a moment, then obeyed and ran as fast as I could from what was about to happen. I did not stop running until I reached the city limits." Diana told Elara how she had come to leave home and end up in Central Georgia. She might have sounded way too calm while telling the story, but she had come to terms with what had happened long ago. No amount of screaming, crying, and acting emotional was going to undo the past... besides, she had told Elara the truth and how the latter handled it was up to her and her alone.