Summary:Team-building at the RESCUE gym. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It had been an early morning of reflection. Neena had been doing some laps around the reflecting pools outside the buildings then spent some time doing nothing more than looking out across the still surfaces for a time. Then she relocated to the gym, all restlessness and wired energy. A bag and an energy drink sit off to the side along with a clean towel which is currently being kept company by Oreo the almost-but-not-quite-black feline. A comparison could be had by the black spot curled up in the center of a white canvas but no one's commented about any likeness yet.
Nearby is one albino clad in smoke grey sweat pants and a black sports top which leaves some scarred midriff open. Given her desire for keeping warm she must have gotten a good head start on building up her core temp.
Karl is, naturally, nearby. Doing Karl stuff. He's still being a good sport about it all.
*
"Howdy Spot," a voice chimes as a black figure emerges from behind a row of equipment. Except for her sneakers the green-eyed woman is a monotone expanse of stim-suit and advanced prosthetics, and just as distinctive as ever. She smiles open-mouthed and wipes a light sheen of sweat from her brow. "Ya found the gym."
*
In the midst of the gymnasium floor, the often lab-coated Dr. Veronica Kelsey is currently clad in clinging bike shorts and a t-shirt, laid out on the floor of the gymn, apparently doing her best to accomplish a variety of yoga-like stretching and isometric poses and exercises: push-ups that only lift her torso with her arms; one-armed push-ups with each arm on either side; folding herself into bow and other poses; rocking, twisting, everything that can be done by a woman alone with a paralyzed lower half. Her wheelchair sits a few meters away, locked down in place, her smart glasses, towel and water bottle in pockets on the arm. But it is not her usual wheelchair; instead, it is a slimmed-down and very physically agile chair, clearly intended to be pushed to its limits in ways that may not be very comfortable.
There also seems to be a stack of short orange safety cones nearby. And a basketball?
"Good afternoon, Neena. And a hi for Oreo." Roni comments between panting huffs, as her workout continues.
*
"More that I found your schedule" Neena calls back with a quick smirk but a lingering glance. "Though if you've got a pool big enough to swim in you hide it well. Or I don't have the security clearance for it yet," she teases.
Roni is impossible to miss over there yet Dom hadn't been the first to offer a greeting. "Heya Doc" is offered in return while she stretches a leg out against the wall with a foot raised way up over her head. "Didn't want to interrupt, you looked like you were really getting into the groove."
Oreo's eyes slit open before stretching his front limbs out and ending with a head somehow curled deeper still into the towel.
"I'd say he's here for moral support but looking at him only makes me tired. Communal naps are a thing, apparently."
*
"If you want swimming try the city or the beach," Ava advises. "Metal sinks so pools aren't my speed."
Glancing over to the comfortable black dot on Neena's towel the cyborg grins. "He looks more like a towel warmer. So what's on your circuit today?"
*
"We have a flow pool." Veronica comments between more panting and huffing, as her workout continues. A bit later, she turns on her side and actually waves to Neena, covered in perspiration. "As long as you do not make rude comments, you are not interrupting. I like the challenge of trying to talk while working out."
The doctor glances at the feline towel-warmer, and smiles; apparently she really has a soft spot for Oreo, even more than she does for Domino. And that's saying something, all things considered.
*
"What, and hang out with normal people? No thanks" Domino chuckles. To the flow pool she almost sounds victorious, "I -knew- there had to be something around here. There's still a high enough concentration of non-metallic personnel."
On the circuit, "Probably going to kick my own ass for a while then take up a few hours of drinking. Don't know. I seem to have an abundance of spare time. Maybe go for a drive and hit up an outdoor range," she considers while looking up toward the ceiling. "So damn bored."
The leg stretch transitions into a lazy backward cartwheel away from the wall, leaving her with a good view of the two individually. "What about you ladies, anything fancy in the barrel?"
*
Ava's brow lifts at the cartwheel and the white-haired vet chuckles. "Cardio, chow, and enjoying a DONSA," she replies. "If you're looking to get smoked I can spot you. Or just try to copy Roni for fifteen minutes," she suggests with a nod of her head towards the grounded woman.
*
"Copy me?" Veronica doesn't quite get why either would want to copy her, but she's not going to argue. Instead, finished with about an hour of stretching and isometrics, Roni literally drags herself over to her wheelchair and then crawls up into it, twisting around and strapping in. She pends over to release the brakes, and then rolls to the cones and picks them up, starting to lay out a random pattern on the floor of the gym.
As the pattern emerges, a few things become clear: the cones are actually numbered; and the cones are in a random order, as well as being laid out in a relatively randomized pattern. Once Roni is done she rolls herself around the setup carefully two or three times, memorizing the locations of all of the cones. Then comes the demonstration of this exercise!
Roni starts from the door into the gymnasium, and she wheels herself as hard and fast as she can, twisting a full circle - or more, but never less than 360 degrees - around each cone, and then setting off to the next cone in numeric order. It's an outrageous outpouring of agility, strength, and endurance. It's a very different side of the cerebral doctor Neena has seen most often. But this is an exercise Ava has seen many times.
*
A dark brow inches upward as Neena looks back to Roni and her specialized workout. "Think I'll leave that to the professional" she considers while rolling herself backwards and catching her fall in a bridge. Ava's given an inverted smirk when she then says "But I will take you up on the offer to ..Spot" with a clear note of emphasis.
While Roni's setting up the cones the albino reaches a hand out to give Oreo a similarly inverted scritch, prompting a sleepy 'what the -hell- are you doing' stare from the feline.
Once Roni's ready to wheel and conquer Dom twists back onto her feet and watches the Wheelchair Wonder go. "Yeah, when -I- do stuff like that it's with rear wheel drive and an embarrassing amount of torque. Although…" She falls silent until Roni's done her first 'set' before Neena motions her way with a quick chin uptick. "Wanna try a new spin on that run?"
*
Ava smiles as she watches Roni's wheelchair move. Sure she's seen it before but it's still fun to watch, like a deadlift that's twice her body weight. "If that ain't enough torque for you, Spot, I can find you both space on a pull-up bar," she teases. Reaching her arms up and back behind her head the cyborg grunts in a stretch then shakes out her limbs. "Looks like you're loose enough already."
*
Veronica finishes her run and spins out, panting heavily, her chest heaving and her whole body flushed with the effort. She rolls over, though, towards Ava and Neena, and pauses near to Oreo without getting close enough the cat might worry for her tail around those wheels. "I always like to grow my challenges. So if you have some ideas, Neena, I'm listening."
Roni glances up at Ava and smirks. "The pull-up bar, or the hanging push-up bar. I like that one two." With that horizontal U-shaped bar, one pushes up and dangles, then continues to lower and push oneself up without ever touching feet to ground, entirely on arm and shoulder strength. It is another thing she and Ava have in common.
*
"This is me watching the point arc over your heads like a forty-five" Neena teases. "Get me behind the wheel and I won't disappoint. Put me in a chair like that and my luck's gonna be kept plenty busy trying to keep me from killing myself."
As Roni wheels over the albino looks between the two with a gentle sigh. "You could both bench me, couldn't you."
This time she bobs her head toward the cones. "Ever run a course like that twice? How about when the cones are moving? Catch your breath, reset, then take another start. Once you pass the third I'll start shuffling the deck around you. Memorize the first run then try to learn the second while you're already moving, complete with the added distraction of me."
*
"I could go for some dips," Ava gamely accepts to the doctor, just as open it seems to a freeform workout - or more likely to a competition. Neena's comment draws her attention back to the albino and she quirks a snowy brow. "And you can't? You want, I can watch your form." Then the albino pitches her cone idea, and the cyborg chuckles. "That sounds dynamic. Not much of a workout for you though is it?"
*
Veronica looks up at Domino confusedly; she's still not getting whatever it is she's not getting. Oh well! "You start out slower, Neena. My speed comes from experience as much as athleticism." A beat, as she considers the other question. "Possibly? I don't really know. I've never tried to bench press another person." The weight? Absolutely. But that posture on a body not a bar? Not sure.
Neena suggests an alternative, and the doctor considers it, glancing back at her cones. "Actually, we could put the cones on half-sized Ramblers. Then program in a random propagation matrix. Then they would reorganize themselves every time a path had been cleared." Because of course Roni is actually sitting there thinking about how to actually DO THIS.
*
To Roni, Neena waves it off with a "Yeah, yeah. All rhetorical, just go with it." She isn't suggesting that they -actually bench her,- though it could be done!
Then comes talk about having -Ramblers- do the cone shuffling for her and the albino's shoulders hang slightly. "Thinking too much, going with it too little. Seriously, people. I know you're all about having your plans and contingencies and measuring everything out to the eighth friggin' decimal but come on, we don't need -random programs- to do this. Let me explain."
She walks over to where the cones are laid out and grabs number one, bringing it back over to Roni. "You pass number three. I pick up number one," holding it up a little higher, "and — hold still for a second."
With the cone in hand Domino jumps and twists about to leap -right over Roni- chair and all. She lands, tucks, rolls, and plunks cone #1 down before springing back to her feet. "Then I go for number two, and so on. This is about us learning to work together. I already know Ramblers well enough to drag race the things."
*
"Ohh so you're doing shuttle runs," Ava realizes as she watches the merc gracefully spring through the air. The acrobatic display earns a smile of amusement then the cyborg looks around for a couple seconds before stepping over to a pull-up bar and hopping up to work through a few reps. "That does sound like a good workout. What do you think, Roni?"
*
And as Neena explains all of that, so energetically … the first tone Roni actually responds to is to turn and stare at her almost accusingly "Wait. You have been drag racing the Ramblers?" She sounds most put out.
Roni turns around, spinning her wheelchair slowly in place, and considers Domino's idea. "Well, it would certainly be challenging for me, trying to figure out the new pattern on the fly. I'm not even sure i could do it." Roni does three circuits of a course after she lays it out, after all. "But I'm willing to try. I'm not quite sure how this teaches us to work together better, but if you think it could help, I'm open to trying."
*
Neena considers Ava's 'shuttle run' then dips her head. "That..describes it pretty well, yeah. Ah…" she sheepishly trails off at Roni's disbelief while rubbing the back of her neck. A glance is passed to Karl on the sly where he makes an equally subtle 'stop right there' gesture.
"Figure of speech. Merc thing. Anyway look, maybe this isn't proper fighty stuff but it's as good of a place to start building some bridges as any. Unpredictable outcomes are your enemy. Right? Getting shot or stabbed are mine. You make for a really good moving obstacle out there and introducing some randomness is something I do -really well.- We can build off of this. C'mon," she encourages with a hand gesture.
Roni can reset the course on her own or let Neena handle it, either works! All the albino is looking for is some Freaking Action, even if it only amounts to playing pinball with a wheelchair.
*
The corners of Ava's mouth curl as she finishes a quick set of chin-ups but manages to keep from laughing at the rambler news. The twinkle in her eye as she looks between Karl and Neena suggests the albino might owe her a more complete answer later.
"You two have at it. I'll get in a couple sets while watching," she offers.
*
"You sure, Ava, you don't want to play too?" Roni teases. That said, she pivots and rolls back towards the cones, gathering them up in her lap. SHe shuffles them and then stacks them up in a new random order, and starts wheeling around assembling the new random arrangement.
When Roni is done, she rolls over to Neena and holds out a hand. "C'mon. Now we circle it, figure out the pattern, and get ready to start. You have to adjust to me, so you deserve as much clue of what is where as I have before we start." The rest will all be wildly random, and probably a disaster, but Roni is going to try. Why not, after all?
*
"Three's not a crowd!" Neena chimes in to Ava with a toothy grin.
Domino's all fired up and ready to go, which is exactly why she takes a turn to look somewhat put out when Roni holds out a hand and talks about them figuring out the initial pattern together. She was going to figure it out on the fly, as she does, because of COURSE she was. Instead, Roni catches her at her own game.
Working together.
You win THIS round, Veronica.
"Alright" she concedes then follows Roni's lead. Sure it might be a disaster but it should be a FUN disaster. They can learn together!
Or at the very least Ava will get a good laugh at their expense. This is still a win in Dom's book.
*