undergrounds | hazy shade of winter

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.

Caroline is very excited to see the swords, even if she knows this will be even harder, since she has no experience with them. But how cool would it be to change that?

The sword is heavy and it takes her a few moments for her to find a comfortable grip. "Does the touch have to be on the torso?" she asks, trying to remember anything she knows about fencing.

"Usually, if we were doing proper fencing." And if they were doing proper fencing, she would have htem in more than just masks and gloves. Like, protective covering.

But then again: vampires, and these things were metal. They were in no danger except via accidental decapitation. She doubted Caroline had the strength to do it, anyway, with her blunted sword.

She also doubted that Caroline would be able to best her, but then again, sometimes you didn't have to be good, you just had to be extremely lucky (or unlucky, as the case may be). "But, because it's your first time, no. You can hit anywhere above the waist." That was a more traditional saber style of fighting. Then again, fencing was very different from dueling and Evie was apt to teach her to duel.

Evie placed her mask on, and moved to the far-side of the mat. Bringing her sword up, she gave a small bow and salute of her weapon. "When you're ready."

Edited 2017-01-14 04:58 (UTC)

Caroline does the same and gets herself settled and ready. And then she stands there for a moment, realizing how much harder this will be than the sparring earlier. She remembers some advice about about watching her opponent's eyes to see where they would attack next that she must have picked up from a book or movie. Keeping that in mind, she moves forward, watching Evie closely while also trying not to telegraph what she was going to do too much.

Evie kept her eyes on Caroline, moving on the balls of her feet with an easy grace. She circles Caroline, letting her lead. She had no intentions of moving to attack until Caroline did the same.

It was going to be surprisingly hard not to show off.

While Caroline can do patience, she prefers to be more direct, and so finally she makes a quick move, aiming for Evie's shoulder. The movement feels clumsy right away but she doesn't pull back, since she might as well learn from yet another mistake.

It's a clumsy move alright, but Evie takes a step back and raises her blade up to parry.

"all your movements should come from the wrist," she tells her, and flicks her blade lightly to show her.

Caroline's blade is knocked aside easily and she takes a few steps back to regroup. "From the wrist, okay." She practices a few swings, before getting ready to try again.

This was going to take awhile.

"Little movements, that's it." She lets Caroline take a few swings at her, dodging easily out of the way, then back in again.

"Not bad," she tells her.

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