Castor had converted the basement of his dilapidated home into practice space. The broken furniture had been shoved into the corner, a darkly stained carpet covered a majority of the concrete floor and there was a pair of mismatched chairs sitting along one wall. The basement itself was lit only by a pair of LED lanterns which gave the flaking paint on the walls a checkered appearance.

By a table in the far corner of the room Castor stands relaxed and calm, waiting for Jennifer. He is in a black t-shirt and dark blue jeans. Of course, he also wears his boots. Unlike normal, Castor does not have on his gloves. In the light the dark rotted flesh is clearly visible. The flesh has been devastated by necrosis and the decay runs almost to his elbows. His nails are short, splintered and cracked. The lanterns exaggerate the coloring in his hands, but tonight Castor didn't care about appearance. This wasn't court.

His gaze settles on stairs as he waits for Jennifer to arrive and begin training.


Jennifer arrives and enters through the back door. She takes a moment to slowly traverse the house; finding herself in the kitchen. Upon locating the stairs in the kitchen; she descends to the depths of the basement.
As she steps out into the basement; she gives a nod to Castor. Tonight she wears a simple black loose-fitting T - shirt and grey work out shorts. A black scarf is knotted securely around her neck. She carries a canvas tote bag.

"Hello, Mr. Drake. " She greets. "Thank you for meeting with me."
She extends the tote bag.

"I thought you may enjoy this."

Within the tote bag is a sizable book entitled A Companion to Russian History
by Abbott Gleason.

The Nosferatu glances towards the other Nosferatu; noticing the lack of gloves an the depth of the Curse beneath. She is not horrified; for she has spent all of her time with those affected by the Curse.

"Good evening Ms. Hazelton." Castor extends a hand and takes the tote, careful not to touch Jennifer. He places the bag next to the table. "Thank you for the book. It should keep me busy for a few nights." He smirks just a bit. "And I have a present for you as well. " Picking it up off the table, Castor holds out a black combat dagger handle first. The blade is balanced carefully between two fingers. "Of course, we won't start out using knives, but I thought you might appreciate having your own blade."

"I am glad." The young Nosferatu replied. "It got very good reviews online."
Jennifer stepped forward; closing the distance between the other Nosferatu and herself. She studies the black combat dagger that her Nosferatu brother is holding; examining it with great curiosity.
"Thank you," She looked up to Castor; smiling her gratitude.

"Before we start out, I'm curious. You said your sire never taught you to defend yourself, what about during your mortal life? Have you ever taken a self defense course? Do you have any experience hunting or fishing? Butchering meat perhaps?" Castor knew that it was a long shot that Jennifer had ever worked in a butcher shop but any knife experience would help him to train her. Starting from square one was still a starting point.

"I was a college student in life," Jennifer explained. "- I did attend the safety briefings about personal responsibility and safety meetings in the dorms. The most I did was carry a pocket key chain canister of mac- which I still have." She admits ruefully.

"If I feel that I may be in danger; I normally fled or made myself unobtrusive. The gifts of the Blood have helped me in that; so I haven't had many confrontations. I now am thinking that I should at least be prepared on a basic level if something does happen. Sacramento seems to be very busy; and some of it could boil over to where I may need to defend myself."


Nodding in agreement, Castor sighs. "Sacramento does seem to have it's share of excitement. So let me pose a question." He tilts his head and looks into her eyes knowingly. "How are you going to use the skills I teach you?" His tone is calm and mild. "Be honest. No matter what you say I'll still teach you. A deal is a deal."

"I've seen a lot of 'events' and 'investigations' blossoming. I've had the luck of being invited to assist in a few of them. I plan on using the skills to defend myself and the investigators if it any enemy of the domain makes itself known."

She continued, earnest.
"I know that I'm not going to turn into G.I. Jane. I'm happy with who I am. I just want to be able to help the domain; not hinder it."

She tilted her head.
"I am glad you agreed to help me. I may be a poor fighter; but I'm a dedicated student." She cracks a wry smile.
"I have been one for 10 years."


Castor nods approvingly. "I have no doubt that you will be a dedicated student. And your goal is respectable, but there is something to keep in mind." There was a downside to having a decent set of skills. "The better you are at something, the more people want to use you. The more talents you possess, the more danger you will be put in." He waits a moment for this to sink in. "Just remember that."

He moves away from the table and to the center of the room. "Now, I think we have discussed why you want to train more than enough. So let's talk about the training itself."

Jennifer tilted her head. "I'd be glad to assist the domain officers. I am hoping to eventually gain the rights to have tenancy. If taking more risks entails that benefit; I may be glad for being considered. I'm glad you informed me of the chances; though. I certainly won't be of much use right now."


At Castor's invitation to begin; Jennifer places the knife within her tote bag and sets it aside by the stairs. She had no plans of accidentally harming Castor from ineptitude.

"Yes; I'm ready to begin."

She approaches Castor to arms length and watches him; curious how he will approach and it it would be different from Ricardo's.


"You will not be able to fight the way I fight. I use brute strength and my size gives me an advantage as well." There is a light professional tone in his voice. "What I plan to teach you is how to use your mobility to your advantage. How to hit someone in all the right places." Castor points to his liver, his heart, the femoral artery, and his jugular. "Vampires and people have many of the same weaknesses that Kine do when it comes to blades. For you to exploit them, you have to be agile and precise."

Castor's right foot shifts back and he pulls a blunt wooden dagger out of his boot. "There is another dagger like this on the table behind you. Pick it up. When I swing at you, I want you to dodge and try to hit my kidney with your weapon." He crouches down and smiles lightly, waiting for Jennifer to pick up the fake knife. Once she has it and has prepared herself, Castor swings high and hard. I'm wide open if you dodge it. If you don't try not to fall into the wall.

Jennifer turns and locates the knife; returning to her position. She takes a moment to adjust her grip at the wooden knife; turning her attention back to Castor.
"Good to know."

She decides; rather tersely. She expects this might not be pleasant; but she needed to learn where she was flawed in order to improve. She was glad to learn here; away from the scorn of her elders.
As Castor moved; she dodged aside. She lunged forward; trying to hit the kidney. Yet as she moved forward; she found herself unbalanced. She circled awkwardly behind Castor as she recovered.

She chuckled wryly as she redirected her attention to Castor once her feet were back on the ground.
  
Date Action Roll Result
2011-11-05 21:32:04 Jennifer Hazelton rolls 1 to Sparring (10 Again) 5 failure

"You didn't fall. Good Job." That tells me what I needed to know. "You were quick and managed to avoid my strike. Shame your balance isn't better."

"Stay in that position." Castor steps towards Jennifer. "We are going to repeat that same action only slowly. I will work you through the motions step by step alright. But first let's work on that starting stance."

He uses his foot to move Jennifer's left leg a few inches forward. "Crouch down. You want a low stable stance." Castor takes the arm she holds the knife with and places it in front of her body with a bend in the elbow. When he touches her skin, Castor is quick and does his best to make the contact as brief as possible. "You want to be able to cover your entire body. What you have to be careful of is locking your arms."

Moving in front of Jennifer again, Castor returns to his stance. "Here we go. Remember, slowly this time. When you dodge step towards me." Castor makes the same lazy swipe at Jennifer as before.

Jennifer complies with castor's instructions silently; watching his gestures and letting him get her into a proper position. She takes a moment to remember how this feels; so that she could hopefully replicate it if she ever has a need to defend herself or another.
"Slowly," She affirms; watching as Castor makes a swipe at her.

The Nosferatu focuses on the earlier directive. She slowly dodges the swipe and remembers to make a move for the kidney. Her foot shifts in some improper way as she moves; causing her knife to miss the kidney - but it was a good deal better than the first attempt.
Jennifer regroups; re positioning herself into the low, stable stance.

She focuses for a moment; ignoring the Beast's growl of annoyance at failure.
"O.K." She states aloud; working through the exercise mentally.
"Dodge. Kidney when you're open."


And so the Castor continues to practice with Jennifer. When they work slowly he walks her through the motions, making sure that each position is done properly. When they perform at full speed, he doesn't pull his blows and forces her to work to the best of her abilities. When Jennifer trips, he offers her a hand to get her back on her feet. When he knocks her down with a heavy blow Castor lifts her back to her feet.

Even when Jennifer makes a mistake, Castor is firm but not patronizing. Those moments when she falls short, he shows her how to correct the error, when she performs an attack properly, he offers controlled praise.

After a few hours of back and forth, Castor has had enough. "Stop. You've done quite well tonight all things considered. For a woman with no training, you have the potential to be quite talented." He gestures for her training knife and then takes them both over to the table where they had rested before. "If you would like to improve your balance, I would recommend Yoga. Though I've never practiced it myself, I here it is quite relaxing and helps with balance and flexibility. Also, I would recommend each night when you rise and right before sleeping, getting into your starting position. Memorizing what that feels like and being able to snap into it will be a great benefit. In melee combat muscle memory is key."

Castor arches his back popping his spine, neck and fingers simultaneously. "Do you have any comments, questions or concerns?"

Jennifer grins.
"Yoga. Ought to be easy to find a good instructor; most of my kine are college students obsessed with it. "


"Oh, I'll definitely do that. I want to be more flexible and prepared for our next lesson."

Jennifer walked with him to the table.
"No, I'm good. Thanks for the instruction." She smiled. "When would you like to meet again?"

"I have work at the Church for the next few nights. How about 3 days time? I should be free by then. Same time same place."

"Sounds great." Jennifer replied enthusiastically. "Thank you for your time. I've enjoyed it."

Smiling just a bit, Castor nods. "I'm always happy to help family Ms. Hazelton." Perhaps more than anything it was nice to use his skills for someone's benefit. He passes by Jennifer and picks up the copy of A Companion to Russian History. "Have a good evening. Be safe on your way home. There are some nasty people around here." He offers a sarcastic grin.

"Aren't there?" She returns his grin with a wry one of her own.
"Be well until we meet again, Mr. Drake."