Dawn's Disciples [Vanyel, Violet]

...Wait, she understood? That was...probably one of the lamest ways to try and make an excuse he'd ever done, and she understood? Did...what? Vanyel blinked, his lips parting, yet unable to find the words to respond with. In that moment, Violet was quick to take his own empty plate and immediately head to the kitchen to clean the dishes, the clinking of porcelain snapping him back.

He had tried to tell her not to, ever since he had started cooking for the two of them, but, at this point, she wasn't going to listen, so, he had stopped saying it. That didn't, however, stop him from protesting internally. But, he certainly wasn't going to try and force her, so, there wasn't a whole lot he could do besides just let her do it. So, standing up, Vanyel sighed softly as he slid his chair back in.

"Alrighty, let's get a move on."

With that, he started out to the backyard, stretching before opening the door, letting Vi step out first. It gave him time to do some last minute thinking, just in case he forgot something or needed to adjust a particular part of their schedule and regimen. Violet had been handling the practicality of Krav Maga really well, currently, it was a mix of sharpening her technique, as well as making sure she could understand the context clues and make sure she had the situational awareness not to potentially hurt someone by accident.

Violet stretched her arms wide as she walked out in the sun. She had a decent sized backyard, but nothing was back there. She couldn’t afford to put anything neat back there yet, but she had plans for a small pool at least. This was actually why she preferred training at the beach; her backyard was just boring. Of course, now that she wasn’t always doing this alone, it was a lot more tolerable.

Standing in the middle of the yard, Violet began to stretch, specifically focusing on arm stretches, to back stretches, to leg stretches, until she was doing the splits in the grass. Vanyel was used to this. It was her normal routine stretching! “Okay, so where do you wanna begin today?” she asked as she got back to her feet.

When it came to where they were to start, Vanyel had to think a bit on that. He wanted to primarily focus on sharpening her technique. Context clues and situational awareness was something that they could do in the down time. So, as Violet got done with her own stretching routine, Vanyel walked to the middle of the backyard, taking up a particularly unique defensive stance, though it was one that Violet had seen quite a few times by this point.

"Today, we'll focus on refining your technique. Remember, keep your strikes simple and easily repeatable, but make sure to target vulnerable points in the body. When using this practically, don't stop attacking until you're sure that an opponent is incapacitated. But, that's also just for one-on-one situations."

His stance was rather unorthodox, hands and arms focused around the middle of the body, fists partially curled, ready for either forming a fist or to make a knife hand, as well as being prepared to move to any various vulnerable point at the front of his body. Taking in a deep breath, he made sure to keep himself calm and ready, idly trying to channel the flow of his energy, while remaining aware of his student in front of him.

"You're gettin' a good handle on this, so, I don't think I need to remind you of the other things to keep in mind. You got this, Vi. Focus on the follow-up, don't think about if you're 'doing it right'."

'Like the nose…’ she thought in response to the “vulnerable” part, subconsciously poking her own nose. ‘Don’t stop attacking… gotta kill the guy.’

Violet took on the same stance that Vanyel was taking, albeit much less precise. She stood in front of him, understanding that the next step was to practice striking and using him as a target. At first, she didn’t like the idea of hitting him, but… then she never did. She could not hit this man. His skill was too high, and he was just physically superior in all aspects, so he was safe from anything she could do.

Knowing that he was safe made it a lot easier for her to try and strike at him. She always avoided his face though, even though that was technically one of the more “vulnerable” places. She just proved to not be able to aim there. Instead, she practiced more kidney, neck, and throat shots to get the technique down. It was about ending a fight in less than five seconds, which is what Violet wanted.

The first few strikes were always weird for Violet. These strange combo attempts that were her not stopping while attacking Vanyel, of all people, took her some time to get used to. Still, she proved she was getting better at the accuracy of them. While she was supposed to attack the neck, she often misaimed for the chin or chest. That was slowly getting better, even if she did just clock his chin... hard.

"SORRY!" Violet immediately yelled when she realized what happened, putting her hands over her mouth in fear, eyes wide. "Shit, I'm so sorry... Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to. Are you okay?" He was... he always was... but she hated hitting him.

Vanyel wasn't too worried about getting hit. He'd spent most of his life taking hits and getting back up, even when it hurt beyond belief. More than anything, he was focused on making sure that Violet was learning and improving. For that, he was more than willing to take most whatever she would throw out. So, as they began, Vanyel was quick to take a half-step back in preparation as she stepped forward.

Carefully blocking and redirecting the first few strikes, Vanyel gave a brief nod. The repetition was good, so was her overall strength, it seemed like what she was struggling with right now was accuracy. That was fine, he could work with that, it was something that would ultimately work itself out with enough practice. She was still getting back into the consistency of it, so, he wasn't too concerned.

Reading the pattern of her attacks, his judgement was to block at either the neck or the chest. It made sense for her to aim there. The throat was one of the most vulnerable parts of a person, and being able to consistently cut off their ability to breathe or speak was valuable. In addition, the chest was a large target, and, with the right amount of force or placement, could also be devastating.

...But, his judgement had been off, and he suddenly got clocked in the chin, causing him to stumble back in surprise. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit as Violet immediately started apologizing. Vanyel rubbed his chin a little, blinking and shaking his head a few times to ward off the sudden shock.

"It's alright, Vi, I'm fine. Hell, that's a good thing. When I said 'easily repeatable,' I didn't mean for them to be predictable. Keeping yourself unpredictable is good, it lessens the chance that an opponent can counter as effectively. Easily repeatable technique is good, but being able to randomize the placement of it and get past the guard is even better. So, it might have been an accident, but, that's not a bad thing."

Violet stared down at her hands. Vanyel knew that when she messed up, she often did things to punish herself. When she messed up big time, she grabbed heroin and ended up throwing a brick at his head, which was another mess up that caused her to taunt someone into beating the shit out of her and leaving her stranded in Japan. For some reason, she always thought her mistakes required a consequence, and the guilt and regret from making the mistake was not enough.

Violet would let it go for now though. She took up her stance again, knowing they weren't going to stop for a long while yet. "Okay, again," she said with determination. She'd count up the times she messed up anyway and then deal with it later.

Violet began practicing her strikes once more, but took Vanyel's advice to heart and began striking randomly, utilizing quick and unpredictable jabs to the three vulnerable spots she had chosen. She tried moving quick enough to get the strike in where he couldn't easily redirect her aim, but not actually hit him.

Vanyel almost took a step forward as Violet looked at her hands. He knew that she always did things to try and punish herself whenever she did something wrong, regardless of whether or not it was an accident. So, it had become something of a second nature reaction for him to step forward, whether it meant to stop her, to comfort her, or to relieve her of the stress and reassure her that she didn't need to.

But, he knew it was also a hard habit to break, and part of him was concerned, as well as curious, about where she ended up getting it from, even if he already had an idea of where. As she took up her stance again, Vanyel smiled warmly, giving a brief nod and taking his own stance again.

As she started her attacks again, Vanyel gave an approving nod at the now erratic nature of them. He was quick to redirect and push her hands away, but, with the inconsistency, even he was finding it a bit difficult to keep up with them again and again. Eventually, rather than redirect them, he started to move his arms and legs into various defensive positions, letting them take the hits to protect the more vulnerable areas she was targeting originally.

"Good, keep that up, but be more aggressive. You gotta keep your opponent on the defensive, as well as keepin' muscle memory to make sure your reactions are sharp and that, if an opponent gets an opening, you can turn it back around."

As soon as he said that, redirecting one of Violet's strikes, Vanyel quickly responded with a simple knife hand thrust to the stomach. It wasn't intended to actually harm her, so, he was confident that Violet would be able to handle the shift.

The one thing Violet did have was good reflexes when defending herself in more normal means, especially in spars. She froze up in real life, in true combat, which was a serious problem, but there was a reason her technique was pretty damn good. She had been practicing taekwondo since she was very young, something Vanyel likely learned on one of the first training sessions together.

So, when the knife hand came in, a simple back step with one foot and s turn in her body let Vanyel’s hand move beyond her stomach and dodge well enough. The back step triggered a move in Violet that she didn’t expect. Taking advantage of the back step, she twirled on one leg and swung the other high up and toward the side of Vanyel’s head. Unfortunately for both of them, this was not a move from Krav Maga, but the style she had grown up with. It came on instinctively, not by thought.

Given the martial art that they had settled on, he had expected her to utilize the fundamentals from it to react and counter. But, he was both surprised and impressed to see such a swift, fluid, and refined movement as she stepped back to avoid the strike, then spinning to aim a high kick to the side of his head.

With the step backward, instead of hitting something and being able to use her weight to correct himself, Vanyel found himself off-balance, leaning too far forward for him to readjust in time. He recognized this kind of technique, and, even as he got kicked in the side of the head, he found himself grinning from being impressed. The kick made his vision flash with white and see stars, as well as knocking what little balance he had left out, sending him crumpling to the ground.

But, before Violet could say anything, she'd hear Vanyel laughing as he sat up and rubbed the side of his head.

"Holy shit, Vi! That was incredible! Fantastic technique, you kept your balance, and you made sure it was fluid the whole way through!"

Violet was at his side in an instant, but he was sitting up just as quick. She didn’t get a chance to say anything, though the wide eyes and dropped jaw were enough to express her fear. Hearing him laugh brought a smile and a light blush to her face. She couldn’t say anything; she didn’t know what to say. She did reach out and gentle dust some dirt from the side of his face before standing again. She held out a hand to help him up and then stepped back to her place, taking up her stance.

‘He was proud… not mad…’ Violet thought and waited until they were both ready to continue. ‘I doubt it will stay that way if I hit him again though… Or… maybe it will…’

Violet and Vanyel were sparring for quite some time. She was having enough fun that she lost track and kept wanting to do more. Anytime she got too hot, she took the hose and soaked herself with cool water and jumped back into fighting. Violet did her best to keep to Krav Maga, focusing on the repetition, vital points, and trying to understand what he meant by “aggression,” though that wasn’t clicking.