[ after that invitation HERE HE IS, the gremlin boy. the worst. everything is terrible but he's not as righteously mad as he'd have been about it two years ago. this sucks, but you know what?
he's been through worse.
so here he is, right where catra told him to come. ]
[ The location Catra left takes a little bit longer than usual to find-- it's away from the central area, off a twisty tunnel path that doesn't really stand out. It'd be easy to walk by it. There aren't many signs of regular occupation here. There used to be once-- there are still lights and signs that people once used this thoroughfare. But not anymore. Maybe a cave-in? Who knows.
After a bend in the tunnel, there's Catra, leaning on one side of the tunnel wall. She waves. ]
Yo.
[ Then she turns, and-- seemingly disappears between the walls? No, that's not quite right. On closer inspection, there's a small gap in the rocks, hard to spot in the low light. But there's air flowing through it, so it's definitely a gap and not a solid slab. Catra slips through easily-- Damian might be a tighter fit, but it's still perfectly doable.
On the other side is what can only be described as. A den. This is very clearly Catra's Hideaway. There are stacked boxes around the place, most of them empty, seeming to serve no other purpose than to sit on (or in). One by the entry, however, has a few stolen rations. In another corner is a mattress and a bunch of blankets and pillows, all of them covered in cat fur. Who knows who she got all this shit from. Or how she got them in the first place, not to mention, all the way down here without being spotted. The only thing in here that doesn't appear to be stolen are the old lights.
All in all, the small cavern is a good size for training in-- large enough for both of them to be able to move around and do some acrobatics, but not so big as to echo or leave room to run around. ]
... For what it's worth, if you tell anyone else about this place, I'll kill you.
[ She absolutely will not. But Damian doesn't need to know that.
Sometimes you just need a place where you can come to scream. ]
[ thank god he isn't as bulky as his dad. he'd never get through this if he was. ]
Secret's safe with me.
[ it's a nice place, a good hideaway. he's almost mad he didn't find it first if he's being totally honest. his eyes rack over the space, head canting faintly to the side. ]
... The place I lived in, back home-- it was kind of like this. Only without the... "outside world being literally poison" schtick. But the rest of it-- largely the same. Rations. Monitoring. Enforced schedules. Lack of privacy. Group rooms. Group punishments... et cetera.
Sometimes being able to just get a minute alone is the only thing that keeps you sane.
... Trust me. It doesn't help even when you see the world the same way.
A shitty parent is always going to be a shitty parent. No amount of changing yourself can fix that. If you need to dance to their tune in order for them to be "good," then they were never any good to begin with.
[ Ah, a good old conversation about parental figures. Just what Catra needs before letting off excess steam. ]
Whatever. Good riddance to bad rubbish. [ She walks further into the room then, before turning back to him and entering a ready stance, fists up. Her claws are still retracted, though-- this isn't a cage match. ]
[ Catra only grins viciously in reply, before she's off like a shot.
This time, it's different to how she fought in the ring when they met before. In the fighting rings, Catra has an audience. She plays with her food. Dances around, is probably a bit more acrobatic than she strictly needs to be. It's showy and flashy, and her main focus is on letting the other person tire themselves out trying to hit her. Saving her hits for the end.
This is nothing like that. She's seen Damian fight-- she knows he's not just all talk. Knows that tactic won't work on him. And besides, she's not here to earn money or have a fun time taunting someone else. They're here to vent. So Catra brings her A-game instead. She knows she doesn't stand a chance in a battle of raw strength, so she focuses on her advantages-- speed and precision. Her blows aren't that strong on their own, but she seems to know exactly which spots to target, and she does so fast, staying at close range as much as possible to minimize her height disadvantage. With her reflexes she's annoyingly difficult to hit, but not impossible when it's someone like Damian.
Getting hit doesn't seem to bother her too much when he does, though. At least, not in the beginning, anyway. She jumps backwards after they've been going a while, trying to get a second to catch her breath, panting hard from the exertion but grinning back at him in a way that looks distinctly feral. She's starting to lose ground here as she tires and she knows it, but for once there aren't any egos involved in this fight, so it hardly matters. For the first time in a long time, she can just enjoy it. ]
violence as a language isn't well understood. to the outsider it seems like nothing more than brutality, barbaric and raw. to anyone who'd grown up with it - knowing it better than the whisper of a hug, or the lie of a smile. there's no better way to get a read on someone and there's no greater conversation than one that's matched.
he's having fun.
really enjoying it. trying to avoid her, trying to hit her, not going easy but not going all out with the intent to hurt. damian's got the benefit of being honed to the finest of weapons by hours upon hours of brutal training in every way imaginable, but he's also rusty.
but he wouldn't mind being bested. or, well, it wouldn't bother him as much as it might've. she gets several good hits in before all is said and done, and he comes away suitably impressed ]
[ Catra comes away grinning like a feral by the time they're done, even as she's panting and drenched in sweat. It's a good fight, one with no emotional baggage between them, and even her bruises feel good.
By the time they call it, her mood's lighter than it's been in a long time, even though her body feels a little like it's been through a meat grinder. She rubs one hand idly at a tender spot where Damian got a hit in and doesn't even seem to mind. ]
Hah... [ She tries to say something, but it gets cut off by her lungs demanding more oxygen first. She sits down on the ground, hard, and does a stretch instead. Waits for her breathing to return to normal. ]
Not bad... [ Coming from Catra, that's basically the highest form of praise. ]
What else ya got?
[ She clearly doesn't mean in the form of going another round, right now. ]
[ non-lethal combat has sort of taken a backseat. he refuses to sit down or show any kind of weakness, even if he's breathing just as hard and smiling just as much. it's a good exhaustion. the kind he'd missed. ]
My Mother was a big believer in a boy being a well-rounded fighter. There's not a weapon I haven't used.
[ She gives a little shrug. Having finished her first stretch, she moves into another. ]
It's not exactly my weapon of choice. But it's not like they're going to give us any real toys here, but you can make a staff out of anything. And, well. More reach is always useful when you're... [ she pauses ] ... not tall.
[ he's not Massively Tall, but he's 5'10 now instead of five foot fucking nothing, so like, you know all his tips and tricks are outdated but whatever ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
action.
Date: 2020-05-20 03:40 am (UTC)he's been through worse.
so here he is, right where catra told him to come. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 04:01 am (UTC)After a bend in the tunnel, there's Catra, leaning on one side of the tunnel wall. She waves. ]
Yo.
[ Then she turns, and-- seemingly disappears between the walls? No, that's not quite right. On closer inspection, there's a small gap in the rocks, hard to spot in the low light. But there's air flowing through it, so it's definitely a gap and not a solid slab. Catra slips through easily-- Damian might be a tighter fit, but it's still perfectly doable.
On the other side is what can only be described as. A den. This is very clearly Catra's Hideaway. There are stacked boxes around the place, most of them empty, seeming to serve no other purpose than to sit on (or in). One by the entry, however, has a few stolen rations. In another corner is a mattress and a bunch of blankets and pillows, all of them covered in cat fur. Who knows who she got all this shit from. Or how she got them in the first place, not to mention, all the way down here without being spotted. The only thing in here that doesn't appear to be stolen are the old lights.
All in all, the small cavern is a good size for training in-- large enough for both of them to be able to move around and do some acrobatics, but not so big as to echo or leave room to run around. ]
... For what it's worth, if you tell anyone else about this place, I'll kill you.
[ She absolutely will not. But Damian doesn't need to know that.
Sometimes you just need a place where you can come to scream. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 04:10 am (UTC)Secret's safe with me.
[ it's a nice place, a good hideaway. he's almost mad he didn't find it first if he's being totally honest. his eyes rack over the space, head canting faintly to the side. ]
Kinda needed a getaway for a minute anyway.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 04:21 am (UTC)Sometimes being able to just get a minute alone is the only thing that keeps you sane.
So yeah. I get it.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 04:24 am (UTC)that's a lot of emotional honesty. it catches him offguard. enough that he stares for a moment, not expecting it and not sure how to reciprocate.
so he shrugs. because he... gets it.. ]
My old man threw me in prison on bogus charges. I just got out before they tossed me back here.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 04:29 am (UTC)Oh, let me guess. Was it to "teach you a lesson" about something?
[ She actually does the air quotes with her fingers as she says it. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 04:34 am (UTC)[ man, what a good cat. ]
We see the world in wildly different ways.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 04:42 am (UTC)A shitty parent is always going to be a shitty parent. No amount of changing yourself can fix that. If you need to dance to their tune in order for them to be "good," then they were never any good to begin with.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 06:00 am (UTC)[ .... sucks that she got hit with the same raw deal. ]
Anyway. They don't matter. Not anymore.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 06:16 am (UTC)[ Ah, a good old conversation about parental figures. Just what Catra needs before letting off excess steam. ]
Whatever. Good riddance to bad rubbish. [ She walks further into the room then, before turning back to him and entering a ready stance, fists up. Her claws are still retracted, though-- this isn't a cage match. ]
Anyway. You ready?
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 06:18 am (UTC)[ he'll settle into a nice and easy battle stance. ]
Show me what you've got.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-20 06:53 am (UTC)This time, it's different to how she fought in the ring when they met before. In the fighting rings, Catra has an audience. She plays with her food. Dances around, is probably a bit more acrobatic than she strictly needs to be. It's showy and flashy, and her main focus is on letting the other person tire themselves out trying to hit her. Saving her hits for the end.
This is nothing like that. She's seen Damian fight-- she knows he's not just all talk. Knows that tactic won't work on him. And besides, she's not here to earn money or have a fun time taunting someone else. They're here to vent. So Catra brings her A-game instead. She knows she doesn't stand a chance in a battle of raw strength, so she focuses on her advantages-- speed and precision. Her blows aren't that strong on their own, but she seems to know exactly which spots to target, and she does so fast, staying at close range as much as possible to minimize her height disadvantage. With her reflexes she's annoyingly difficult to hit, but not impossible when it's someone like Damian.
Getting hit doesn't seem to bother her too much when he does, though. At least, not in the beginning, anyway. She jumps backwards after they've been going a while, trying to get a second to catch her breath, panting hard from the exertion but grinning back at him in a way that looks distinctly feral. She's starting to lose ground here as she tires and she knows it, but for once there aren't any egos involved in this fight, so it hardly matters. For the first time in a long time, she can just enjoy it. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-05-25 09:25 pm (UTC)violence as a language isn't well understood. to the outsider it seems like nothing more than brutality, barbaric and raw. to anyone who'd grown up with it - knowing it better than the whisper of a hug, or the lie of a smile. there's no better way to get a read on someone and there's no greater conversation than one that's matched.
he's having fun.
really enjoying it. trying to avoid her, trying to hit her, not going easy but not going all out with the intent to hurt. damian's got the benefit of being honed to the finest of weapons by hours upon hours of brutal training in every way imaginable, but he's also rusty.
but he wouldn't mind being bested. or, well, it wouldn't bother him as much as it might've. she gets several good hits in before all is said and done, and he comes away suitably impressed ]
no subject
Date: 2020-05-26 12:34 am (UTC)By the time they call it, her mood's lighter than it's been in a long time, even though her body feels a little like it's been through a meat grinder. She rubs one hand idly at a tender spot where Damian got a hit in and doesn't even seem to mind. ]
Hah... [ She tries to say something, but it gets cut off by her lungs demanding more oxygen first. She sits down on the ground, hard, and does a stretch instead. Waits for her breathing to return to normal. ]
Not bad... [ Coming from Catra, that's basically the highest form of praise. ]
What else ya got?
[ She clearly doesn't mean in the form of going another round, right now. ]
I'm rusty on staff.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 12:29 am (UTC)[ non-lethal combat has sort of taken a backseat. he refuses to sit down or show any kind of weakness, even if he's breathing just as hard and smiling just as much. it's a good exhaustion. the kind he'd missed. ]
My Mother was a big believer in a boy being a well-rounded fighter. There's not a weapon I haven't used.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 01:24 am (UTC)[ She gives a little shrug. Having finished her first stretch, she moves into another. ]
It's not exactly my weapon of choice. But it's not like they're going to give us any real toys here, but you can make a staff out of anything. And, well. More reach is always useful when you're... [ she pauses ] ... not tall.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 02:12 am (UTC)I preferred the sword. Cut them off at the knee and height isn't a problem.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 02:24 am (UTC)Oh man. I'll have to remember that one!
no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 02:57 am (UTC)he loves this awful cat ]
I could show you some moves. I was fighting assholes standing at six feet or higher while I was a child.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 03:04 am (UTC)Let's get one thing straight-- I don't need help to hold my own.
... But if you want to show off, I'm not gonna say no.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 03:05 am (UTC)[ genuinely this time. no flattery. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-04 03:36 am (UTC)[ he's not Massively Tall, but he's 5'10 now instead of five foot fucking nothing, so like, you know all his tips and tricks are outdated but whatever ]