undergrounds | hazy shade of winter

Evie had told Caroline to meet her at one of the last safehouses in London. It wasn't her flat, to say, though upstairs there were beds in case she needed them, it belonged to the Assassin's. The small mark on the door said so, to anyone who knew what symbol to look for.

When Caroline arrives, Evie's dressed in a pair of work-out leggings, trainers, and an open hoodie over her sports-bra. She's got bottles of water for the two of them, a little diluted with a few drops of blood to help keep Caroline's energy up.

"We're not going to do anything too crazy today," Evie tells her, and gesture for her to follow down to the basement. The basement is completely free of natural light, and surprisingly comfortable. A punching bag hangs in the corner, in addition to all sorts of fun work-out and training items. A few free weights lay about, and it's quite clear that this is where Evie does a lot of training. "Have you stretched?"

Without waiting for an answer, Evie tosses Caroline a pair of fingerless boxing gloves. "Because I want to see what you can do, first."

Caroline has no idea what symbols to look for and is just happy to find the place okay. Her London navigation skills are definitely getting better.

She's dressed similarly to Evie, with a yoga pants and an old t-shirt she's pretty sure she stole from Tyler at some point. She studies the water bottles for a moment until she realizes what Evie's put in them. "Neat trick."

The basement work-out space is pretty impressive and this whole thing is beginning to feel very real. Caroline's excited but also worried about the bruises she sees in her near future. But it will be worth it, to be able to better defend herself - or others - if necessary.

"Yes," she replies. She even jogged a bit on the way over, just to limber up. And so she puts on the boxing gloves and gets as ready as she's going to be for a bit of sparring.

"I find it's a bit of a vampire equivalent to Gatorade," she says, and picks up her own pair of gloves. Hand-to-hand is coming first, before any weapons are added. That would help teach her how to move.

She slides them on, then rolls up the sleeves of her hoodie.

"Come at me. Whenever you want. Don't be afraid to hit me. I'll only be blocking." She knew her strength, and she knew Caroline was far younger than her, and subsequently, she wasn't worried about her hitting her.

"I'll have to remember that one."

She raises her hands in fists and tries to think about what she should do. She doesn't really have a style or know any strategies. Which probably meant she was now overthinking it.

Finally, she decides to just rush in as quick as possible and see if it worked. She lunges towards Evie, aiming a punch at her head.

Caroline pretty much telegraphs her entire attack, and Evie steps to the side, holding a hand up to block the punch easily.

"Keep a hand covering your face," she tells her. "Black eyes take a while to heal, even with our abilities." She recovers, coming to face Caroline again.

"Again."

Caroline readjusts, keeping on hand in front of her face. This time, she goes in on the left, only to veer right at the last minute, hoping this punch might get a bit closer to landing.

The punch doesn't land- sorry, Caroline, but you're sparring with a trained Assassin who has been training for over one hundred fifty years. She mirrors Caroline with ease, stepping in behind her.

"You're telegraphing. Don't think. Again." She's happy to continue for as long as Caroline needs.

This is going about as poorly as Caroline expected but she keeps trying. She slowly gets closer to Evie, looking for any weak points. She's not surprised to not see any - even if they are there, she's not really trained to notice. So instead she aims a punch lower, at Evie's stomach.

There's a drop in Caroline's shoulder, and this time Evie isn't quite so nice when she rushes her. She gives her a small shove down to the mat.

"Don't drop your shoulder."

Okay. Keep a hand up to protect her face, don't telegraph, don't drop her shoulder. Caroline repeats that in her head as she gets up and prepares to try again. She goes for another tactic this time, making a small jab with her right hand before aiming another punch at Evie's head with her left.

Evie lets out a satisfied sort of snort. She's able to block Caroline's attacks, but that doesn't stop her from smiling. "Good- more of that. Again- try the same thing, but I'm going to move backward and I want you to cover the distance."

Caroline nods, pleased to feel like she's making some progress here. She moves when Evie does and manages to keep up. She still doesn't actually land a punch but hey, at least it's something.

It isn't long before her body is aching for a bit of a break and she goes to get a drink. "Am I getting any better?" she asks after swallowing a mouthful of the vampire Gatorade.

"You are," Evie says, removing her hoodie at last. She's left in a sports bra, the tattoo across the back of her right arm visible. The Assassin's symbol, if Caroline was familiar with it at all, with a few fancy looking filigrees surrounding it. Likewise, on her left hip, a set of initials was visible, dipping below the waist-band of her pants.

"It takes time, you can't except to be brilliant overnight."

"I know, but I can dream, can't I?" Caroline says with a grin.

She's a bit surprised by that tattoos, since for some reason she hadn't expected Evie to be the type of person to have them. Then again, she knew there was a lot about the older vampire that she didn't know.

"Can I ask you what your tattoos mean?"

Most people don't expect Evie to have tattoos. Which of course meant she had them.

"Of course." She hitched down the waist band of her pants a little, showing off her hip bone where two sets of initials were now visible: C.F. and E. F. "Cecily and Ethan Frye were my parents." She says by way of explanation, before settling her trousers back where they belonged.

"And this one," she gestures to the back of her arm, "is the symbol of the Assassins."

She has other tattoos- a symbol black band around her pinky, another Assassin mark, though far more sensible, she supposes, than a big arm piece. But in her defense, it had been the 80s.

Caroline didn't know a whole lot about the Assassins but she found herself more interested in the initials. Part of that was probably due to the fact that her mother had been E.F. as well.

"I never really though about getting something like that," she said after a moment. "But I guess it is a nice way to carry someone's memory with you. Especially for a vampire."

"I wasn't going to get anything like it for a long time," Evie admits. "The first tattoo I got, the one on my pinkie, as an homage to my Brotherhood and our history. In the past, many Assassin's chose to be branded." She could go into the history of her hidden blade, how it used to require a missing finger to operate.

"Then I wound up getting my parents' initials. I doubt I'll ever forget them, but it seemed appropriate." She'd never met her mother, but she knew Ethan Frye well. "They're a bit addicting, but it's been at least twenty years since I last had one."

"My mother's name was Elizabeth Forbes."

It had been almost a year now since Liz died. Her absence was still such a hole in Caroline's life. Part of her had avoided talking about it too much, especially around other vampires whose parents had been dead for at least a century.

Evie lets this information receive the weight it deserves.

"Cecily Frye was my mother. Ethan Frye my father." And then there was her stupid twin Jacob. It doesn't hurt so much, to think of her parents. She misses them, true, but they died human, a luxury she and Jacob never had the choice of.

Caroline sits down on the mat, stretching out some of her sorer muscles. "Sometimes I wonder how us baby vampires really look to the rest of you. I know I still have a very human outlook on time and memory and all that sort of stuff."

Evie gives her an incredulous look.

"I'm only 170, I'm hardly old by vampire standards. Jean-Claude is how old?" And he wasn't even that old. She'd met vampires that were thousands of years old, in her travels.

"But the views will come in time. Enjoy the humanity, Caroline."

"I know that! But I'm 21. I've only been a vampire for four years, though it feels like longer. So some parts of the whole immortal thing probably haven't really sunk in yet."

She shakes her head. "Okay, now I'm just getting morose and serious. What should we do next?"

"It'll come. But don't rush it." She gives her a soft smile.

"Get as morose and serious as you want with me. But I think it's time to actually learn a few things. We're going to work on blocking, next. Got to keep your pretty face protected."

Caroline nods and stood up. "Sounds good. I'm not sure my boss would be thrilled if I came in to sing all black and blue."

"No, though luckily we heal fast." She gives her a grin, and starts to pull her gloves back on.

"Let's get ready for round two, then see how we feel."

Training Montage- Caroline, early January

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LITERALLY MAKING SHIT UP RN

Same here! Whose idea what this action scene?

well, we signed on for a *montage*

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well, we signed on for a montage