undergrounds | hazy shade of winter

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."

Caroline does the same, already beginning to brace herself for what's to come. But even while it is physically demanding - and painful, at times - she's glad to be doing this. If she wants to get more involved in cleaning up the Nest and keeping things running smoothly, she's going to need any advantage she can get.

The girl can move, so at least Evie's got something she can work with. Imagine if Caroline had been blundering and oafish. The whole thing would have been a complete disaster. But luckily, Evie had good taste when it came to who she accepted.

Following the blocks, Evie had her working on proper form to throw a punch. She'd traded in her gloves for those pads you can hit without causing any damage, urging Caroline to alternate from one target to the other. And, if she didn't keep her arm up?

Well, then Evie had no problem giving her a light thwack on the head with those same pads.

"Keep your arm up."

Caroline isn't a complete newcomer to fighting, even if she hasn't had much official training, beyond a few weaponry lessons from Alaric. She knows there is a lot to learn but it's hard to remember all of it. Especially the part about keeping an arm up. Apparently, she's more offence, less defence.

But eventually, she's blocking the pad more often then it hits her, and she really does feel like she's making progress.

Caroline is making progress, and Evie finds herself grinning through the exercise.

"Good!" She tells her at last, signaling to end the round. "You're already better than when you first stepped in here."

Caroline is happy for another break and quickly gets a drink. "Good, because I'm definitely sorer too." At least she'd been in good shape when she became a vampire, aside from the whole internal bleeding thing that had landed her in the hospital. She isn't sure if she would have been able to get much stronger otherwise.

"I'll give you another water bottle for the road," she promises her. "we'll make sure to stretch out before you go home." At least their accelerated healing made being sore a lot less of a problem.

"But I think that's enough for work today, don't you?" Evie pulls her hoodie back on and begins to walk to a spot further down the room. There, she had a few practice swords. They were dull, of course, though still metal. When you're a vampire, you don't have to worry about the messy side effects, but that doesn't stop her from grabbing two face masks similar to what a fencer might wear, and a glove for each of them, to protect their sword hand.

"Here." She tosses Caroline the sword. "Keep the tip down until it's time to start. Don't worry about hitting me. We're going to go to five touches." Plus, if she had Caroline swinging at her now, she could show off a little.

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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