Scene #9055: Another Trídéag Social

Owner	Pose
Angela	Pete, Xion, Sarracenia, and Odette successfully completed their mission. Having been sent out to investigate and deter any further ambushes from the batch of Rats that had jumped Finn before. Shortly after the scuffle this resulted in, Cheer revealed herself to having been in Pete's new dimensional bag all along, having snuck in while Pete was fetching Knifty out of a drainage pet. Regardless, the Rat they found named Koffee required immediate medical attention. Frankly they all did, including Tee and Shoda (the other Rats involved in the ambush), even if their medical needs weren't as immediate. They were taken to the sublevel medical facility after clearing the matter with Lilian. Odette and Lenny were able to tend to Koffee and the others until they were not in immediate danger of expiring but Koffee will still need bedrest and Lenny has stated she'll make up the training session as someone needs to monitor Koffee in case there's a sudden downturn. Tee, Shoda, and Koffee also still need to write their entry application and interview with Lilian, however. Tee and Shoda are working on it while receiving care (Koffee will be a little slower). ...But Lenny has also interviewed the G Corp Remnants Trideag had hired and has done some research on her own with Ceri providing some physical protection. Eventually she has given Lilian a number of sites that used to be under G Corp control that aren't controlled by another Wing that MIGHT have some information about the 'augmentations' they've been provided--which should make treating, modifying, or removing those augments easier to manage. But other than Lenny, the new Rats, and Ceri (who has to work at her OTHER job today), everyone is available for gym day! The gym is on floors 11 and 12 of the Trideag building which have been combined into one large gym floor. On the 11th floor there is a heated pool including diving board but the 12th is where all the gym equipment is. There's treadmills, bikes, a large selection from weights ranging from Knifty weight class and kettle bells to some real heavy ones and a number of machines including a weight bench, a lat pulldown machine, a squat rack--and more as well as an area set up with mats to practice falling or some light sparring. Knifty really wants to go to the pool but is presently working on the bikes with Pete who is trying to encouraging her by challenging her to 'races' and giving her little star stickers every time she beats her previous goal. He has taken it upon himself. Lilian had told him 'I expected as much' in a way that meant 'good job' and he's riding high, his morale is really good and has entered in a workout routine that is consistent and he keeps pushing himself hard. Lenny occasionally has to insist he rest up so he doesn't injure himself. Knifty is grunting, whining, crying, and pouting and sweating. If you wringed all the sweat out of her into a bucket the bucket would probably weigh more than her.
Angela	Finn and Solace are sparring hand to hand on the mats but Solace is winning consistently now. They match each other in technique but Finn can't match her strength, speed, or ferocity. Cheer and Soothe are watching this as usual with Soothe lifting up a scorecard every time Finn takes a dive. But he just won't give up, so the scorecard is 2 - 8 in Solace's favor. "Aggh..." Finn complains. "Why do I feel like I'm falling behind?" Solace has an answer, "No augments. You're maintaining. Not getting stronger." before entering a small coughing fit. "Can afford them now." "...Yeah... But..." Finn has been told he'd need to figure out why he didn't want augments for a while. " "Figure it out yet?" Solace asks. "...I just don't really know how to talk about it." Finn says. " "Mm. When ready, talk to me. Maybe we figure it out." Solace is cutting her sentences short to ease up on her throat but... "Sure. Maybe I can help with your throat? With some work you can do to help it heal." The former G Corp crew's augments are way outdated but once upon a time they were near top of the line so they have been consistently competent. Bombini has adapted to the sword use best whereas Sanction's struggling due to his arm-blades. Arachnae is adapting her sword use well with her augmentations even if she can't quite match Sanction's skill. Right now Bombini is teaching Arachnae and Sanction how to swim in one corner of the pool. "Is this really going to help...?" Arachnae complains. "If we ever get sent out to the Great Lake it could save your lives." Bombini says. "Bet it'll make Rita happy too." Archnae's cheeks pinken faintly as she ducks under the water.
Kale Hearthward	One of the treadmills in the gym has a sticker on its dashboard: <Reserved for future Grade 1> That's the one Kale Hearthward uses, and he's terribly passive aggressive to anyone else who happens to be on it when he shows up. A lot of standing uncomfortably close within the person's blind spot, clearing of throats, checking of watches (Kale doesn't wear a wristwatch but he finds the passive aggressiveness of the motion to be quite apt), stage whispering about how nobody knows how to read a sign these days, and the like. Kale is fixated on getting 'his' treadmill, even if every other one in the gym is open. Whether he gets 'his' treadmill or not, his gym bag is dropped right behind it. Not stowed in any of the lockers, not set off to the side or against a wall, he just drops it wherever, which turns out to be right in the pathway between the sets of machines, with no consideration to the navigation hazard it creates. And then... his music. He has a workout soundtrack on his phone, that much is normal. And he clearly has wireless headphones, which he has set on the treadmill dashboard next to his phone. There's a backup pair of wired ones in his gym bag, and even his Paladins earpiece radio can sync up. He's not lacking in options for private audio experiences. And yet. And yet. Kale's choice of trill, bass-less experimental jazz-rock blares out of his phone's speaker at maximum volume as he runs. It's not even a good speaker, either - it's a cheap phone and at some point Kale dropped it in the ocean and that's done the audio quality no favors. If anyone, despite all of that, gets on a machine near him, he can't help but comment on whatever settings they're using. "Not challenging yourself today, I see." "Oh, that's just your warmup, right?" "I guess some of us are fine being stuck at grade 8." After that, he drinks some ice water - except there's no water left in the cup, just ice, so the straw in his water bottle makes an irritating rattling slurping noise as he tries to get the last few drops out.
Sarracenia	Gym day. Since she is officially part of the Trideag now, Sarra received the invite. She almost ignored it. Working out makes one sweaty and icky and usually involves clothing that is questionable in style and cuteness. But after some thought she decided she should go if only to improve her reputation with the organization. At some point she went to see Koffee to make sure he was doing well and chastised Tee and Shoda for their abandonment of their friend, talking about how it was rather unheroic (as if such things matter to them) as well as advising them that such behavior is very likely not to be tolerated in this organization. She arrives at the gym in her usual royal gown and looks around. She walks around the pool, her heels clacking on the hard floor while she is taking note of who is there, then heads upstairs and does the same. She offers a wave to Knifty and Pete since of those here she knows they are at least okay with her...though she is still a bit uncomfortable with Knifty after that rather forward proposal when Sarra was getting signed up. -Someone- who shall remain nameless is playing terrible music and generally being a nuisance, so Sarra returns downstairs to the pool area then the nearest changing area. She emerges a short time later in a sparkling red one-piece swimsuit that looks like it would be as much at home on a performing gymnast as on a swimmer. She still has her long black gloves on, along with her crown and her metal lotus hairpin. Her copper-colored hair has been done up in a sporty ponytail with a sort of circlet of braided hair leading into it. Even with the braids and the ponytail her hair reaches to her lower back. She offers another wave and a cautious, "Hello." to Arachnae and Bombini, then she hops into the pool and just sort of floats about while watching the two of them.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine has an unusual relationship to fitness. Her bodily health is largely reflective of her mental and spiritual well-being, and the miraculous nature of her physical abilities prevents them from diminishing in periods of lethargy. Working out will not make her stronger. It will, however, make it easier for her to use that strength, less taxing on her soul to exert superhuman extremes. Which, for someone with limited mental energy (much of which is devoted to avoiding tiger attacks), is an important factor! So she's at the gym today, in a black tank top and black-and-white checkered yoga pants, lifting weights on the machines near Solace and Finn and checking her form against a slightly-dated exercise manual she probably cut out from one of Torrie's fitness magazines. It's not the only thing Madeleine brought from her minotaur's lair today - she keeps sneaking two-bite cucumber sandwiches out of her gym bag between sets. She watches with vague interest as Solace pins Finn again and the pair chat about augmentations. "No shame in using the tools available to you, I'd say. And that's what augments are, really, just fancy tools you can't put back in a box 'cus they're stuck onto you. I don't exactly go fighting yetis bare-handed. Sure, I probably could, but it's a hell of a lot harder without the right tools for the job. Fixer work's much the same, only less snow most of the year."
Odette Raskins	Odette might not be the best person to consult about specific nutritional needs, but she's certainly done a thorough job ensuring that the three newest Rats have their medical needs met. Whether it was by her hand or by someone she's left instructions for, she made sure not to leave them in any easily foreseeable danger from pneumonia or any other injuries they might have been hiding. That's why she can show up at the gym today with a clear mind, ready to sweat out all the stress that's been building up over the past several weeks. She's got suitable-enough exercise gear on, too, having put away her usual uniform for a loose tank top and long shorts combo that almost makes her look like an amateur boxer if not for the missing boxing gloves and also it being Odette instead of probably anyone else here. At first, she's watching Finn and Solace at the mats, trying to glean anything she can from what they're doing. She keeps her hands busy with a pair of light weights, though, doing deliberately slow hammer curls and wincing each time Finn goes down. "If you need a hand with training to get stronger... Erm. M-maybe we could work out some kind of routine?" She suggests while raising a hand, flinching briefly once she remembers that she's still holding a weight and just narrowly avoids swinging it into her own face. Sufficiently embarrassed by that flub, she clears her throat and hastily sets the weights back in the racks before nonchalantly tryingt o slip away before anyone can laugh at her too much. Unfortunately for Odette, she ends up joining Kale at the treadmills, waving meekly before getting her own water bottle set into place and not saying a thing about the audio experience. Someone else will say anything about it if it really bothers them, right? It's not like it's that awful to listen to. "Warmup? Um... Y-yeah! It's.. Gotta make sure to get the bloodf lowing before really going hard." She lies, trying to look like she's nonchalantly jogging before kicking the speed up. To her credit, she's actually keeping up with the speed increase for a while. She just needs to hold onto the bars after the first minute, and there's a real risk of her eating shit in the next if she keeps this up.
Xion	All was well with a mission that earned the Dame Commander and Director's very special flavor of 'good job', which Xion had taught to Pete to look for. Having packaged up the outing with an outstanding performance from each member and three new recruits for the streets after a little growing, the black-coated woman had returned to hang out at Tridaeg for a few days after to make good on her own promises. Namely, that she had to show off her throbbing purple gravity disruption magic to Cheer for 'being good'. And so, wearing her Tridaeg jacket over black t-shirt and workout tights with checkered black and white running shoes, she had done so - flinging out a few space-distorting Demi spells and purple poltergeisting space to show off for Cheer. After tossing around a pyramid of metal pipes (Xion carried them in a stack of ninety-nine) and crushing some soda cans into tortured helixes with black-purple implosions and distortive ripples, the fourth Demi-blast tires the Nobody out with a bottomed-out sigh. Xion offers a wearied thumbs up to Cheer, and then turns to clean up her scattered bars and watch the work of others for a bit. "If you keep being good, maybe there's some more to show! If!" She announces to Cheer, hoping to keep earning good behavior with a bit of carrot, because stick was too hard to apply to most of Tridaeg for Xion. In her wandering gaze, Xion spies particularly... Odette, joining Kale on the treadmills, earns a long look and a grin from the noirette while she watches the nurse up her pace to 'holding on both bars and puffing along'. Braving the winds of Bird it To The Limit (swoop-ah! swoop-ah! limiiiit!), Xion sidles up besides Odette's treadmill and sizes up the nurse. "Careful there, Odette. Or, are you going for a PB?" Regardless of the stress status placed upon the hustling nurse, Xion keeps going. "I see the Princess isn't in her full suit any more, and it's like she's coming out of her shell, isn't it?" "Odette?" She asks, pressuring more. The only break comes with Xion looking at Kale. "Oh, are you getting cut? I haven't heard your power workout mix yet, is this for your PB?"
Lilian Rook	Admittedly, Lilian hadn't anticipated her delegating that task to Xion to result in an immediate plus-three recruitable character swing, but she'd resigned to throwing away her more gradual plans at practically the moment she had looked deep within herself and faced the terrifying abyss of realizing she felt profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of withholding antibiotics from a sick street orphan until a bunch of paperwork clears first. Now she has a little extra work, and doesn't feel too bad about it. Only perhaps slightly strange about the fact that Tee, Shoda, and Koffee had lucked out by . . . assaulting one of her Fixers. Excavating the ruins of the Smoke War for a proprietary information that a Wing would have her inqusitioned for, if it still existed, is a bigger task. As the labwork drags on and helping the G corp desperates starts to look more and more like a Subquest, Lilian has made no secret about restricting what little she shares to Ceri and Solace-- the two most experienced locals-- besides Rita-- a Star of the City-- and Xion, who is Xion, while taking the time to search L Corp's records for the rest that she can get before drawing up teams. She is in fact taking a break from operations planning right now. The remains of the Blood Fiend have been processed for all they're worth, so now G corp's augmentation paradigm is what keeps the tenth floor nominally busy, while the Rats keep the sublevels occupied. Given that her office is the only thing on a higher floor than the exercise and training levels (save the new rooftop garden, which only has an elevator and not stairs), it's clear as day where she's just been, by the simple act of arriving. Compulsively adding data points to a node map she'd told herself that she would put down six and a half minutes ago, Lilian stops once she can overhear conversation, and is briefly dazzled at her own brilliance in accidentally turning a shitty apartment block into a space where she can take one staircase from work and either be in an open air garden or at an indoor pool. "Goodness. It must be such a habit that I do it without thinking." is all she says out loud, barely, on the subject of her no-doubt staggering genius. The eleventh and twelfth floor are effectively one unit, given the need for double height in the sparring area, but the gym has the benefit of being divisible in verticals; water training can handily occupy the 'eleventh' floor, divided from machinery, while gymnastic gear and open mat resistance training can occupy the 'twelfth' overhead by a few staircases, catwalks, and remnants of the original ceiling. It's comfortably communal, in a certain way; large enough to not be able to hear every little thing that everyone says, but open enough to feel busy even with just a dozen people around; and also that means both the stairs and elevators technically only service the eleventh floor, so Lilian walks in on Sarracenia in a one-piece and still wearing her crown floating around the bug people she's been thinking about for hours, and does a double take. Conscious that the pause is about to get awkward, Lilian courageously musters up an "I'm surprised. I hadn't expected to see you here." at Sarracenia, with just about the politest tone she's used at her in at least three years. "I'm pleased to see that you aren't having any trouble." comes out next, far too professional to tell whether that means absolutely nothing, or has something to do with having reservations about the princess getting along with the former G-corp members.
Ivy Carrow	"Isn't she getting carried away again...?" A meek voice sounds, hand resting on a shoulder. "Hm?" Luz's eyes turned up from where she was working on her medical supplies, then made a soft sound. "Ah. No. Not this time." "But..." Ivy was engaged in some sparring of her own, holding a wooden sword in her hand, still dressed in her cloak. Surrounding her were three other warprunners, with blades of their own. Her Vice-Captain was one of them. "The key," Ivy said, her voice clear, speaking to a small cadre of other runners in their uniforms, and anyone else bothering to watch. "Is reflex. To train your body, until it knows every move. Ready, Vice-Captain?" An intake of breath. "Ready." She snapped her fingers. "Begin." One of them lunged forward, their blade raised in a wide swing--and Ivy was already in his reach. Too close to slash at, leaving him to awkwardly bump into her, while she raised her hand in a gun shape, pointing it underneath his chin. "Bang. You're out--" But while she was focused on him, Alex shared a nod with the last combatant and moved in, pinching her between two sides. Ivy turned her head toward them, smiled, and-- --It would have been easy to imagine that she'd teleported. It was in the Warprunners' name, after all. Wouldn't it make sense? But no. Her sword flicked, a blur through the air, smashing into her Vice-Captain's wrist, sending his sword, clattering to the ground, while throwing her cloak at the other, tangling and diverting their sword in the absolute black. Another moment, and Ivy was drawing her blade across Alex's torso, while leaning down to try to grab his blade. "Out." Something seized her arm, then, and Ivy felt herself pulled back, an arm coiled around her neck. Breathing hard, the last one standing had Ivy in a chokehold. But Ivy was smiling nonetheless. Her sword had already turned around in her hand, and with deliberate gentleness, she poked the promising new runner in the ribs. Sheepishly, they let her go. "I'm sorry..." "Don't be." Ivy grabbed their hand, rising them in the air. A scattering of applause. "Chasing after their weapon could have left them open--" She gestured at Alex, still grimacing at the impact. "But Van here took the advantage. Maybe they need to think about their followup~" She pokes them playfully again. "But those are the kinds of reflexes you need to cultivate."
Lilian Rook	'Bet it'll make Rita happy too.' "That, and it conditions just about every muscle in your body at once." Lilian says, on the move. With her company director jacket over her shoulder, yet a disappointing lack of generic drab grey suit underneath, she glides around the edge of the lower floor pool area and towards the sparring mats at an unhurried pace, taking both corners. "Before you begin trying to put on any sort of fighting weight, it should help you tremendously to improve your muscle recruitment and innervation as much as possible. You were in better shape than the starvation cases we've seen when you found us, but for various reasons, you should be eager to prepare to rely less on just the augments." "That, and I can hardly guarantee you'll never go anywhere near water." she adds, in agreement with Bombini. "Don't worry. I won't make you dress up for it." Lilian says, and then falls to a guilty-indulgence moment of staring at Sarracenia's crown, daring it to fall off her head while swimming. She's only distracted for a moment by the distantly muffled sound of horrid tinny-speaker experimental jazz music; enough to say "Dear God. You'd think they could afford earbuds with what I'm paying them." while glancing ominously in a direction that Kale is in. '...I just don't really know how to talk about it.' "That's a talent you'll have to learn as a Fixer." Lilian says, finally rounding the second pool corner and arriving at the liminal space between glass dividers and zigzag stairs to the second floor (half), raising her voice to be heard properly while she looks for a place to fold up her jacket. "The 'silent, uncomplicated muscle' is a fictional character. Solace is quite eloquent in her own way, and she struggles physically with speech." she says. "Comprehending the job isn't good enough. Being able to articulate the Association's goals, your personal ethos, the reason that there is to trust and rely on you, and the points on which you'll inevitably come into conflict with others on; that's something indispensible to the quality of Fixer I'm aiming for."
Rita Ma	Rita can't, anymore, say that she's a 'very sick girl'. She used to. But being sick- she reflects on this as she does her face in the mirror- would require part of her to be the pathogen and part to be the patient. There is no drawing that line anymore. There's been no drawing it for a long time. 'It's all just me': she said that sometime around January, when probably her last human cells were cooking off. So Rita is just 'a Rita' now. And without her disguise-wrappings, without even the little finishing touches she usually puts on to look passable without them, 'a Rita' doesn't quite look healthily human. Her long-sleeved, short-ruffly-skirted swimsuit blends smoothly into the collarbone and wrists. Darkened veins in odd patterns show through her skin slightly too eagerly. Subtle blue spots form lines up her throat as if presaging gills, her fingers are a little too sharp-tipped, eyes shining catlike when they catch the light, lips held at a slightly different angle to still cover the teeth-- I look awful, she thinks, while still looking kind of cute. ... I hope it helps the G Corp people feel a little less lonely. Rita walks into the gym, just like that, with a cute towel under one arm and waterbottle in the other hand. Deep breath, little apprehension at the doorway, and then she scans for a familiar face. "Ms. Knifty!" "Thank you for encouraging her, Mr. Pete," she beams while swooping in beside the bike to offer her cold water. Her now-free hand after foisting the water bottle off can pet Knifty's head, too, heedless of sweaty hair. Rita seats herself sideways on the empty machine next to it. "You're doing a great job, Ms. Knifty," she adds, which she really doesn't know for sure, but surely anyone who looks that miserable is doing at least okay. "Finish this up and then you can join me in the pool, okay? And then maybe you can take a nap. I'm sure you'll be needing it!" The implicit promise of tentacle-snuggles is surely a strong motivator. "That, and it conditions just about every muscle in your body at once." From there, she waves brightly over to Arachnae, Bombini, and Sanction, eager to join them in a minute. "Mmm! And it's great for being something you can do even when you're injured, Ms. Rook. Swimming is really easy on your body when you're recovering from something. ... At least, that's what I've heard." "No shame in using the tools available to you, I'd say." Peeling off from Knifty for a moment to rubberneck at Solace (who is so cool) and Finn, Maddie's words make Rita's lips scrunch. "... I don't think you understand at all, Ms. Madeleine. A tool isn't part of the way you are. A lot of people are really attached to that. Right?"
Kale Hearthward	"You're doing it wrong," Kale tells Odette. "You gotta bump up the incline if you want to work all your muscle groups," says Kale with the full force of confident knowledge of someone who only ever does cardio. "Here," he says, leaning over and messing with her settings. "Let me fix that for you." Odette's treadmill starts tilting upwards. Odette is saved by Xion's arrival - and her comment. "My PB? Oh - oh, no, this is just my warmup," he says, despite having punched in his properly-difficulty-scaled routine already. He starts tuning up his own settings instead of Odette's, pushing everything a bit higher. "Now this - this is... my..." He starts falling behind on the treadmill, and has to lock in to get back to the center. "This! Is my PB pace. Witness - witness *greatness- oops," He starts falling back again, and has to push himself to get back. "Witness greatness." "How about - how about... about you?"
Angela	Surprisingly, Tee and Shoda (to a lesser extent) do seem to feel at least a little guilty about it. Shoda mumbles about it being what they'd expect Koffee to do if situations were reversed but her heart isn't in it. For all they know right now, Sarracenia is a serious member of Trideag who takes her duties seriously and totally doesn't think things about how gym is too icky and sweaty to do. ''No shame in using the tools avalable to you, I'd say.'' Finn's cheeks pinken as he looks up to Madeleine (he is four foot ten, Madeleine's nearly a foot taller than him). "It isn't a pride thing." Finn tells Madeleine. "It's not even just ''cost''. I just..." "You fight yetis?" Solace asks. "What do you use to fight yetis? 'Ssuming roughly bear strength, human intelligence?" Odette suggests doing a ''routine'' to Finn. Finn's been doing a routine, of course, before he even joined Trideag. He starts to retort but then is startled by Odette nearly clonking herself in the face. "H..hey be careful..." And he grimaces as Odette slinks away. Pete looks over towards Kale, then doubletakes. "Hey man--" He says. "That's Xion's treadmill." The worst part about this is, he isn't trying to give Kale shit--he genuinely thinks someone put that stickienote there on behalf of Xion. He frowns at the jazz and Knifty lets out a wail and covers both her ears as she runs. "Buddy. Can you like--plug that in or something?" Pete asks before looking to Xion whose arrival only convinces him that Kale has stolen her treadmill. He is more relaxed about Sarracenia. Doing a mission together essentially makes a team in Pete's book. "A lot of us are by the sound of it. You were right about everything, again." He grins at Xion. If teaming up with SArracenia has improved his opinion of the Princess, he outright seems to look up to Xion--not unlike how he looks up to the Dame Commander or Rita at this point. She gave him reassurance at a very distressing time for him. Cheer is distracted from giving Finn shit by a GRAVITY SHOW. Her jaw drops open and she gasps with amazement at Xion's magical powers--she doesn't even know it's actually magical power, it just FEELS magical which is, in her mind, more important than actual magic. She literally applauds. Soothe claps along politely and stares ''If you keep being good, maybe there's some more to show! If!'' "Ooffff... Okay I'll keep... being good. That's a deal." She is only promising being good by the standards of a child her age but she'll do her best.
Angela	The regenerative powers of bloodfiends is Touta-esque but without any other bloodfiends to compare to, it's difficult to know the breadth of a blood fiend's capabilities. Even amongst Fixers, blood fiends are a rare occurance and the ones most experienced with blood fiends are with LobCorp, not Trideag. Even Solace doesn't really know much about them. Ceri mentioned to Lilian, however, that there is a 'Bloodfiend' Abnormality in LobCorp that has been disconnected from the rest of the facility due to the abnormality, called Nosferatu, getting stronger the more blood in the facility there is and, well, you can see how that might get out of control very quickly even for Lobotomy Corp. She doesn't know much of the details. It's safe to assume that the blood fiend that Lilian's team killed was one of the weaker and more foolish ones. Blood seems to be a substance that they can control and desire, much like others might desire currency. They can turn people into 'bloodbags' or 'fellow kindred'. Both are beholden to their creator, though kindred have more will than bloodbags who are more like mindless ghouls. Bloodbags were the kind of creature Lilian's team mostly had to fight during that battle. But yes, the G Corp adventure is decidedly a subquest. And one notably more dangerous than harassing a bunch of Rats. There's also the matter of the Stray Dogs who were the ones the Rats were working for when they assaulted Finn. That's a small syndicate but they have ties to the Thumb so that could be a different kind of dangerous. Lilian's presence is enough of a comfort that the Fixers don't all immediately stiffen and salute anymore. She gets some of that, still, but others contintue their work--Finn and the G Corp agents in particular still seem inclined to be formal (minus Arachnae who is underwater). Cheer is distracted, for a moment, by Ivy's own training session, marveling at Elite level combat maneuvering. Bombini wasn't expected to be overheard. "Aha, well, that's true too. Come on guys! The Commander wants you to swim!" Arachnae pokes her head back out of the water. "I wasn't complaining!" She says before pushing off and wading in space. Sanction struggles and grimaces, even in front of the Dame Commander, but digs his hands into the side of the pool and works on kicking his legs.
Angela	''That's a talent you'll have to learn as a Fixer'' Finn bites at his lip. He is embarrassed because he wanted to get through this stumbling block of his quickly but he just hasn't really either gotten the push he needs or figured it out enough to actually communicate what he's trying to get across. "I...understand. Is there... How do I ''train'' that?" Finn asks. "I keep thinking about it but I always stumble over the words, it feels like I don't...have the right words." The G Corp people don't realize Rita's a sick girl or look awful but they seem to appreciate her company--especially Arachnae who is getting a little jealous of Knifty which feels strange to her so she deals with that by swimming harder and causing splooshes to go everywhre. ''Thank you for encouraging her, Mr. Pete.'' "Kinda starting to feel like my real job is wrangling Rats around but ... It doesn't feel bad helping them along. Even when I have a long way to go myself." ''You're doing a great job, Ms. Knifty.'' Knifty squeaks and starts running twice as face across the treadmill, her face turning interesting colors as she ends up holding her breath as she runs. She wants to get this done as fast as possible so she can get to the pool..! "H-hey running faster won't make it go faster. WE're going by time...! You're almost there. Just a couple more minutes..."Pete stammers. ''A tool isn't part of the way you are.'' Finn's eyes widen. "...Yeah... It's... That feels... That feels closer." Finn says to Rita. "I mean... If it's going to be me, it should be a ''me'' I want to be, right? I mean..." He glances to the G-Corp folks which is certainly part of his reticence. "What do you want to be?" Solace is cool. And blunt. And nodding to Rita and eyeing Cheer and Soothe because inevitably they're gonna rush her--but Finn doesn't immediately answer that one either.
Odette Raskins	If Odette just focuses on the rhythm, this should be manageable. It's rough, but she's managing well enough, and not having to worry about her hands as long as she's holding onto the bar means she's close to hitting that zen state of- "You're doing it wrong," "Or, are you going for a PB?" "I see the Princess isn't in her full suit any more, and it's like she's coming out of her shell, isn't it?" "Buh? Puh-wah!" The EMT stomps several times in rapid succession as she scrambles to not eat shit on the treadmill, very nearly doing so when Kale messes with her machine and bumps it up a few degrees. She's wheezing and puffing harder even from that, and there's considerable difficulty in getting her balance back once Xion gets her attention. Still, grasping the bars for dear life helps her somehow manage not to die barely. "Hhh... H-hey, Miss Xion! Yeah, I-huff... G-gotta keep pushing myself if I want to ca... Catch up with everyone else! Who's coming out of... H-huh?" The pressure is working. She's trying so hard not to fall on her face, so hard not to push her settings back down, and there's even more stomping steps to keep herself upright. Odette doesn't dare say anything about it being too much, of course, or even needing a moment to focus. Xion's expecting answers, Kale's expecting her to do well, and... Rita's there! She can't let her expectations that totally exist down, especially when she's here in her... Is that her Sunday best? Her coolest that Odette's ever seen so far, for sure. Lilian's there! She can't let herself be seen as more of a weakling than she already is, especially after the last few times they've spoken. She still needs to reach par at the very least if she's going to stay an 8 here! Sarracenia's there, too, and so are Ivy and Alex! She can't let them think she's unreliable. People are watching! Maybe everyone's watching. Even while scurrying on that treadmill, it's real easy to see that lip quiver as Odette forces herself not to slow down and keeps working up a sweat that might very well be making the track underneath her far more dangerous than it needs to be. If someone's quick, they might even notice the telltale squeak as she starts to slip and fall face-first at the rapidly-moving treadmill...!
Sarracenia	'I'm surprised. I hadn't expected to see you here. I'm pleased to see that you aren't having any trouble.' Sarra sees Lilian coming and sinks a bit deeper into the water when she approaches until just her eyes and crown are visible. But...then Lilian is civil? Sarra gets a bit of a confused look and floats upward to her shoulders again. "Er...thank you...? I must admit I strongly considered not coming, but I suppose I cannot avoid everyone if I am going to be a part of this organization. Will you be...joining us?" she asks in equal parts curiousity if Lilian actually would, obligation since Lilian is being civil, and wanting to see who looks better in a swimsuit. Rita arrives, and Sarra can't help staring a bit. She hasn't seen proper monster girl Rita before. Not that Rita looks bad, just...different. Even to a princess who lives around plant people and bug people in a land full of many other monstrous types. Sarra blinks out of it after a moment and offers a smile and a wave to Rita. "Hello! Good to see you, Miss Rita~ I like your new look." she says, not really thinking about it. Unfortunately for Sarra, she is in the pool and not upstairs, so she misses Ivy's training session. And Kale's near fails. Two things she would have enjoyed seeing. She also misses Xion's comment, but does wave to Xion as Xion heads up to the 12th floor.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"... I don't think you understand at all, Ms. Madeleine. A tool isn't part of the way you are. A lot of people are really attached to that. Right?" Madeleine turns to look at Rita, and her eyes briefly go just wide enough to make her gaze a little impolite for a second. "I mean, I think... if you use something nearly every day, and come to depend on it, and to care for it like you care for yourself, it might as well be part of you, right?" The huntress's eyes wander from Rita. "It's like... hmm. Maybe it's different for me. I'm not just 'a huntress', I'm a Huntress, capital-H, a carrier of the legacy of ingenuity and craft that's kept people afloat for so long. Our bodies" - she holds out a hand, curling and uncurling her fingers - "aren't good for much on their own. When we want to interact with the world in some way or another, we make a tool for it. I think, when I pick up my spear, I and it are one, closer than family." "I mean... If it's going to be me, it should be a ''me'' I want to be, right?" "Yeah! I'm not telling you to slap on the first augmentation in the catalog or whatever - it's important to find something that's as natural for you as the spear and bow are for me. The sort of thing you weren't born with, but that you may as well have been born for." "What do you use to fight yetis? 'Ssuming roughly bear strength, human intelligence?" Madeleine lights up a little. "Well, the boring answer is 'it depends', because yeti are different from world to world, but that's not what you're looking to hear. You're in the right ballpark about their abilities, which makes them tricky. Can't always just lure one out with food or chase it away by acting big and loud. They'll drop boulders on you from higher up, set deadfalls, I've had some trigger an avalanche on me once. It's a real battle of wits, honestly. And they tend to come in bigger groups than temperate Sasquatch on account of being farther from human civilization. I guess, for all I have to say about tools, the most important tool is my mind? It all flows downhill from there. A big spear certainly doesn't hurt, though," she says with a chuckle. "Something obviously dangerous enough that they know to take it seriously as a threat."
Xion	Kale isn't someone that Xion wants to see fail or splatter, and while she could reach in close and listen to the murmurs of his heart... She thinks she's got it! Because, as someone quite good at reading people: Kale really locks in and thinks he's got it! "What's going on with me?" Xion asks back, thumbing the side of her chin and chewing on a fingernail. "Well, we've got a shift system for having to deal with the end of the world prophecy situation going on, so it's not just me and Roxas constantly having to hit things with sticks." A dismissive flick of her hand follows. "So that's nice! And, this is going really well." Kale is really pushing himself! A little faith in him seems to have helped, plus, he's really locked in! Xion can't help but pump a fist in support. "Hey, good sprint, 'greatness'. How's your mile?" The noirette asks and checks the screen for duration, before putting the Cardio Lord to work with her expectant look. Xion looks over the treadmill at Pete, grins again, and gives the Rat King a sloppy sideways supporting-salute to beam him with confidence that she currently feels. "I was right that a big heavy force and a big sappy-helping heart were the right mix of allies to bring, and we spent our reprisal on 'making them listen'. You did well with your part - I asked you to stop a fleeing Rat, and you did. We'd have had more work if we didn't all perform exactly like we were trying to succeed, rather than just fighting to survive. And for that, sometimes, you win the big prizes. Go for what you can win, Pete. You're a real well-fed boss now, aren't you?" A little praise always felt necessary for people like Pete, right on the transition from dining on ashes to the wine of success, so the Nobody really wanted to make sure it was well and responsibly enjoyed. 'G-gotta keep pushing myself if I want to ca... Catch up with everyone else!' Xion looks up from the intimate shine-up of Pete to Odette in frames of flailing. Odette, locked in. Odette, eyes wide. Odette, forehead damp. Odette, slipping, slipping, slipping down. Xion ducks under the bar, arm run through the dangling safety-strap out early and grabbing Odette by the lapel and off of her failing feet into her chest, tumbling back with the awkward angle of safety yank-abducting Odette off the treadmill. Landing on her back, almost certainly with Odette hugged to her chest, Xion looks up and then turns her head to Pete. "I think Odette was on mine, actually." She asides, before patting the medic on the back and tilting her chin down. "You're not going to catch up to me doing burnout reps. You'll just burn out. Magic crystals are what you need, not Kale's PB on the treadmill."
Kale Hearthward	> "That's Xion's treadmill." "Huh? No, it's mine." And it turns out Xion's is the one over there, anyway! See. > "Buddy. Can you like--plug that in or something?" "Plug it in? But - it's still at 60% battery. It's fine, it'll last for a couple more hours, but thanks for the concern." "End of the world... prophecy, right, that's never good, good you've got help but admittedly those are some pretty nice sticks you two have..." And then Odette falls. "What-" Xion's there to catch her, thankfully. Kale, himself, almost slips off as he turns his head to watch. "Ack - you okay, Odette? Don't, uh, don't push yourself that much." Maybe he shouldn't mess with other peoples' treadmill settings! For the time being, though, he's got his PB to beat. He's on track at this pace, he just needs to stick with it and sustain it. Xion's earnest faith pushes him forward, even as he finds himself faltering. As with many things in life, doing something once or over a short period is never the hurdle. The hurdle is in continuing. Keeping it up. Sticking with it minute after minute after endless minute. It's so easy to say, it's fine if I don't reach the target, if I stop a bit early, I can try again tomorrow. Continuing is hard, and you have to do it again and again, but stopping is easy and you only need to do it once. Kale's legs feel like lead. His feet are sore. His lungs burn. The timer on the treadmill, ticking down to when he'll have hit PB, seems to be moving in slower and slower increments every time he checks it. "Doing... great! I can keep this up all day," he lies.
Angela	''I'm a Huntress, capital-H.'' "You a Hunter too?" Solace asks. "Never ran into a yeti but yetis like those christmas gnomes." Christmas gnomes?? "Very dangerous. Don't like humans. A lot. You sound like you know your stuff." She offers Madeleine her hand. "So far, mostly fighting humans. But sometimes monsters break in. Next time I see a job like that I'll invite you along." Solace typically goes off on her own so this is a bit of an unusual occurance. Knifty finishes her work at te treadmill and steps off it and then falls flat on her face. "My legs are jelly eheheheh...jellyfish..." She says, Pete hefts Knifty up under one arm and says to Xion, "Eh? Really? The Commander made it sound like you'd be the first to make it." He looks to Kale. "Not going for a Color?" He teases and when Kale says he feels great. "Cool we finished our set so--" He taps on Kale's treadmill controls to add a few more minutes to whatever's already on there. "That probably means you need to do more time if it's that easy. Maybe add speed if it's still easy." As he passes by the pool Knifty wiggles out of his hands and throws herself into the water. Knifty, like the G-Corp Remnants, also doesn't know how to swim... But strangely she CAN hold her breath for an unusually long time. Weird.
Lilian Rook	'And it's great for being something you can do even when you're injured, Ms. Rook. Swimming is really easy on your body when you're recovering from something. ... At least, that's what I've heard.' Lilian pauses only to cross-reference that fact with her foggy half-recollection, verify it as probably true, and warmly state in definitive confidence, "So you've seen right through me already~" as if she weren't just realizing for the first time that she put a pool next to her office about five minutes ago. "I'm proud of you, by the way." she says, with next to no context. "Perhaps a tiny bit envious. But I'm very glad that you're here. On everyone's behalf, as well. And don't worry about how many people will tell you how good you look." 'Aha, well, that's true too. Come on guys! The Commander wants you to swim!' "Ah . . . Don't force it, though. Once you've achieved basic competence enough to not drown on the job, I'd really prefer that you either chose the activity on its own merits, or used this space as you see fit." 'I...understand. Is there... How do I ''train'' that?' Folding her jacket on a bench on the reverse side of the divider, rather than going for a locker, Lilian places her messenger bag on top, and inserts her PDA with it, in a subtly staggering gesture of shared confidence when she leaves it all right there in plain sight. "First, you get it completely wrong trying to make sense, and then you sound completely incomprehensible trying to be true to your feelings." Lilian says, steadily assembling her portable belongings. "Then you rapidly alternate between them in frustration, until the waveform of your incompetence gradually narrows down to a consistent band. Once you have that, you begin making up ways of saying it that no one equipped you with before." Stepping out around the corner, Lilian places her hand on the stair rail and peers up to the open second level. "Or did you think that this was the one type of training you could get away with not making a slew of embarrassingly poor first-attempts at? I'm sorry to say that the idea of 'training' is rather universal. Everything can be improved by constructively failing at it." 'I must admit I strongly considered not coming, but I suppose I cannot avoid everyone if I am going to be a part of this organization. Will you be...joining us?' "I'll admit that I thought about it." Lilian says, only to move on to what Sarracenia is obviously thinking instead. "As long as you're a Fixer employed by this Association, on an Association job or Association property, . . ." Partway through her thought, she pauses in reminiscence, smiles to herself, and repeats after someone else, "'That is that, and this is this'." 'A tool isn't part of the way you are.' 'I mean, I think... if you use something nearly every day, and come to depend on it, and to care for it like you care for yourself, it might as well be part of you, right?' "That's rather the point, isn't it?" Lilian interjects. Without having to look at the bulk of the group, she somehow sounds as if she's resigned to the place the conversation is going, long before it's taken a concrete shape. "A 'tool' implies a certail level of remove. No matter how cherished, a tool is fundamentally something apart from you. It connotates something external, alien, artificial, even expendable, to the point that it's a depersonalizing insult." Her fingers reach her top blouse button, and work down from there. "I'd feel wretchedly uneasy calling Night Mist a tool. Whether or not it's stapled to my hands doesn't mean that I haven't 'taken it into myself', in a very serious manner of speaking. It's all but a pithy truism that once someone is an extension of yourself, it's transcended the level of a mere tool."
Lilian Rook	'I mean... If it's going to be me, it should be a ''me'' I want to be, right?' 'What do you want to be?' "Thus demonstrating that the distinction between 'tool' and 'self' has to be something close to 'intimacy'. And so if an 'augmentation' is something that can only be taken into you, never held at the remove of a tool, isn't it perfectly reasonable to have reservations? Fears? Even irrational ones." Unbuttoning enough of her inner shirt to show the swimsuit top she'd been wearing underneath before coming down to the gym, Lilian continues on as if the slowly bending direction of the discussion is exactly what she was talking about from the start. "You're allowing something past a line that you can't just put it back down again. Something that is going to affect how you live. It can't help but impact how you feel about yourself, and how you view your own worth. Taking on something that intimate presents a kind of anxiety altogether different from decision paralysis." says Lilian, and in almost businesslike manner, fully removes her top, baring half of her two-piece black swimsuit and the necklace under her collar. "It's like sex. Not feeling the slightest sting of fear or shame doesn't mean you're strong or enlightened; it's a warning. Shouldn't you at least feel a little protective of your body?" More salient than the figure of a woman who has quietly kept up with her training every single day, ever since she was a teenager, is the full-upper-back glory shot of gold ink. Bending over to put her blouse away, not even her hair is in the way, letting Finn, Solace, and just about anyone else see the cloven sunburst and geometric knotwork down to its most intricate detail, touching the inside of both shoulderblades. "I know what you're thinking." Lilian says. "But it's very much the opposite. Did you know? It serves no purpose but to negate a certain sort of 'augmentation'. So think of it as proof of my resolve to stay a certain way, and examine your own feelings once more."
Rita Ma	"Good to see you, Miss Rita~ I like your new look." "Ah--" says Rita, taken by surprise in drive-by compliment. She touches her neck and her ear, as if she might have forgotten she's wearing jewelry to deserve the compliment. "Thank you?? ... Ahah. This is mostly just how I look without my 'makeup' on." Still half-stunned, she gestures limply: "Does the crown always stay on?" Circling back to her spot by Knifty, Rita makes a little gasp when Odette soars by into Xion's arms- oh, thank goodness- and then, purely precautionarily, puts her sharp-fingered hand on Knifty's lower back to steady her against any similar happening. "It's nice to be relied on, isn't it, Mr. Pete?" she says around Knifty's back, while silently encouraging her for the last minute or two. "Or maybe that's not even it. They're like 'your community' now, right? And of course it feels good to help out your community." The adorably sunny smile she puts on is too precious, even when she's not hiding her teeth. "It's like... hmm. Maybe it's different for me..." "It is different for you," Rita looks over to say to Maddie, firmly but without venom. "Obviously. Or he wouldn't have bad feelings. You're not going to argue him out of his feelings, you know- you've got to figure out why he feels the way he does, instead of saying he ought to feel some other way." She taps her lips to think. "Mr. Finn, is there some kind of 'augmentation' you can take off at the end of the day? A powered suit, or something like that? Then it'd be more like a tool, right?" When Knifty finishes up, Rita hugs and congratulates her- "See, I knew you could! Good job! And say thank you to Mr. Pete!"- and then urges her off in the direction of the showers. When she escapes from Pete's grip, Rita simply grabs her arm midair to haul her back from the edge. "Hang on, you have to shower first! And change! You aren't wearing a swimsuit, Ms. Knifty!" While waiting for Knifty to return from the showers, Rita eases herself into the water down to mouth-level. Intentionally or not, the white swimsuit camouflages her against the pool's white walls, and she practically vanishes but for her trailing lions-mane of blonde hair. "You look like you're doing a great job already, Ms. Arachne! You know, swimming can be good for your joints too. The weight of the water's like a massage. Is it doing any good for your bug parts?" When Knifty comes back, Rita watches her first with alarm, and then with a quiet contemplativeness.
Rita Ma	"I'm proud of you, by the way." Her mouth hasn't quite cleared the water, and so Rita's noise of looking-up surprise comes out as a burblyy "bwwah?". Then she parses, and smiles uneasily, and looks off to the side from Lilian while lifting her chin. "Thank you, Ms. Rook. It means a lot from you. But I-- I didn't really feel like I could ask the G Corp people to trust me, otherwise." "And don't worry about how many people will tell you how good you look." She laughs a tiny bit. "Too late. I think I'm just accepting they see something I don't. ... I don't know what you mean, envious, but I hope you get the thing you want too?"
Odette Raskins	Xion's praise doesn't just get Pete. Prior to falling, Odette's actually feeling a swell of pride herself. She DID do her job alongside everyone else, didn't she? It's just the thing to lighten her mood before she does, in fact, start slipping, but as luck would have it... Xion's there for the save! The EMT doesn't even process what's going on at first, just squealing and sort of vaguely recognizing that the treadmill's bottom is coming towards her face really fast. There's just enough time to brace for impact, but instead of a hard teeth-shattering slam, she's just sort of... Waiting. Her eyes are screwed shut, and she's got enough sense to curl up so she can try and not take it all on her face, but... No impact. Just safety. She's still shivering for a little bit as the adrenaline hits, then starts to wear off once she realizes there isn't going to be an impact after all. She opens one eye, then both, then blinks in confusion until she hears Xion speaking and puts everything together to figure out where she is! "You're not going to catch up to me doing burnout reps. You'll just burn out." ".. Huh? Oh! Uh. H-hi, Miss Xion. Wha.. Um. Sorry!" She blurts out, the red spreading all the way to her ears at figuring out that she had to get saved from such a fall. "Y... Yeah, I'm okay! Right. Might've gotten a little too ahead of mys..." "Don't, uh, don't push yourself that much." "...elf...?" She turns her head just enough to make almost-eye contact with Kale, but not so much that she moves out of Xion's safety bubble. Odette stops short of actual eye contact, of course, since she was raised to at last try and avoid that sort of direct confrontation, but the slight clench of her jaw and puff of her cheeks makes it somewhat obvious that she's not super happy with him at that moment. "Magic crystals are what you need, not Kale's PB on the treadmill." "M... Magic what?" That finally gets Odette to look up. She's still panting and she's still a little scattered, but she does look and sound intrigued by what Xion's just suggested. "Like... Magic magic? I-I mean, I'm working with Father Lucius in-er. A magic user from another place, but if there's other ways to learn how to... Get good?" It's getting much harder to put words together, between realizing how cool Xion looks right now and how Xion was holding her so close and also being exhausted from basically sprinting for a minute straight. That even helps her forget how uncool she must've looked to Rita and everyone.
Sarracenia	'That is that, and this is this.' Sarra relaxes a bit, then resumes her low-energy swimming. "Well, I appreciate the degree of separation." The subject of tools comes up and Sarra nods. "If you still call it a tool, then you do not really consider it a part of yourself. It is difficult to imagine what I would do without my hammer or my purse full of power-ups. But, that is still very different from some kind of implant." 'It's like sex.' Sarra turns a bit red even at the word, but still nods in agreement. "Very protective! One should reserve such things for someone you truly value and who values you in return!" she exclaims a bit too loudly. Sarra wasn't really considering it, but she is glad Rita stops Knifty. "Oh! Quite true! One should shower before entering a pool or a hot spring, especially after a workout!" she agrees. Knifty dives in...and doesn't swim. Sarra watches for a few moments, thinking Knifty must be playing. But, after it becomes clear that Knifty -isn't- playing, Sarra's eyes widen. "H-hey!" She dives down quickly and pulls out a frog suit power-up, then presses it to Knifty. And in a puff of underwater smoke, Knifty is in...a full body frog suit! One of those kinds that comes with a big frog head with a hole for the wearer's face. Of course this one lets you breathe underwater and swim with all the power and skill of a frog! It does not grant a long tongue, though. Sarra swims gracefully back to the surface. She figures the suit power-ups are self-explanatory, so isn't worried that Knifty will just keep holding her breath under the water.
Xion	Pete might mess with Kale's controls, but Xion's going to save him! She's always ready to make those quick-Time events. Fast on her feet! Lickety split! Except she's already burned her readiness on yanking Odette from the jaws of instant boost bumper into the ground, and doesn't have an extra set of hands to fix his panel! "Don't get discouraged, Kale! PB is PB, between you and you!" She calls, over Odette's head. "But also, hey, don't mess with people's exercise equipment unless you're saying you want them hurt! Using them wrong can hurt you." The chiding isn't particularly aimed at Pete, but, it's about Pete. She's not thinking about becoming a top ranked Fixer so specifically at all, and takes it as simple praise. 'Might've gotten a little too ahead of mys... elf...?' "Oh, there's plenty of ways to focus your will if that's what you have, but if you've got a teacher, I'd focus on that. PB is PB, the only one that can beat you is you, so don't think so much about other people as just snapshots, benchmarks, inspirations to shoot for. You're not going to be them, I'm pretty sure, so focus on being more you. And I'm real certain you're not on that pace for cardio! Stick to cardio you can hold a conversation during, that's a comfortable pace for you. Just at that part where the conversation gets hard." Sitting up with Odette in her lap, Xion considers the medic and adjusts the cap atop Odette's head. "Magic magic is just wanting it enough the right ways, but burning out running in every direction means you learn nothing quickly."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"Next time I see a job like that I'll invite you along." Madeleine smiles and takes Solace's hand for a shake. "It'd be my pleasure. Christmas gnomes, huh..." For a moment the huntress is lost in thought, idly musing on the nature of such a horrible creature. "You're allowing something past a line that you can't just put it back down again. Something that is going to affect how you live. It can't help but impact how you feel about yourself, and how you view your own worth. Taking on something that intimate presents a kind of anxiety altogether different from decision paralysis." "No, yeah, that's- you make a good point. Hm. I guess, I go through flesh like some folks go through paper towel. I don't know if an augmentation would even take in the first place, let alone stick around. So yeah, it's bound to be different when you've only got the one body..."
Angela	''Ah . . . Don't force it though.'' "Ahaha, sorry Dame Commander. Just 'pumped', you know? It's a nice change of pace from living in ruins." Bombini says. "Honestly it's even better than when we were living in the Nest in some ways..." "More like living in a Nest's labs." Sanction points out. It seems good odds that Arachnae will keep the swimming up due to motivation whereas Sanction will be comfortable with stopping when he 'can not drown'. Finn asks a question and gets an answer from Lilian. It's an unpleasant answer but that doesn't mean it's wrong. "Aw geeze." He says. "That sounds really embarrassing..." "I will not judge." Solace promises as Cheer jumps into the pool too though she, at least, does know hot to swim and quite well (she, and Soothe, are already wearing bathing suits). Finn is in a kind of quiet awe and murmurs, "Never heard of talking being a thing you could train. That's incredible..." Lilian kind of reminds him of his big sister in some ways--not that she ever could make it as a Fixer with her medical bills--though with what he's making throug Trideag, she might have more opportunities than either of them imagined. ''Isn't it perfectly reasonable to have reservations? Fears? Even irrational ones.'' Finn seems relieved. Maybe he can only really train it by fucking up his words a lot, but it really is helping to hear other people put words to feelings he struggled with. ''It's like sex.'' Finn's mind blanks out. Huh? Wait. What? ''Shouldn't you at least feel a little protective of your body?'' Finn breathes out. He didn't realize he was holding it in. His face is now beet red but he, at least, gets the analogy now. He catches a look of Lilian's back. Like a golden fracture, he thinks. ''Yeah! I'm not saying to slap on he first augmentation in the catalogue or whatever--'' "Yeah, yeah. I mean. I'm not--Yeah." Finn clarifies again. He certainly isn't arguing that anybody thinks he'd throw himself into the first augmentation package offered. ''But it's very much the opposite. Did you know? It serves no purpose but to negate a certain type of augmentation.'' Solace and Finn both have questions in their eyes but Finn asks firsts, "What kind of--augmentation did you want to negate? ... If I, um, may ask Commander." He understands it might be something pretty personal.
Angela	''It's nice to be relied on, Mr. Pete?'' Pete laughs sheepishly and mumbles something self-effacing because he isn't accustomed to half the kind of praise he's been getting lately--even the 'it means good job' kind. It feels nice, but he's worried about appreciating it too obviously. "...My community huh. I was always kinda looking for one, but I never expected I could see the 'Rats' as one. Until I got here." Knifty is happy to get hugs. "Thank you Mr. Pete!" She repeats loyally. Pete gives her a thumbsup in turn. It takes a few tries but eventually Knifty remembers to put on a swimsuit (and shower) and hops into the water this time, giggling all the while basically slowly drowning. Until Sarracenia frogsuits her. Knifty pokes her head above the water, bewildered, and says, "RIBBIT???" in a panic. She can speak normally she just thinks she shouldn't now that she's frog-suited. ''You're doing a great job already, Ms. Arachnae!'' Arachnae goes back to wading, steadying herself on the side of the pool. "It um. It feels good against my mandibles..." She mumbles, suddenly quite shy about it.
Kale Hearthward	> Odette "Ah - yeah... sorry... I shouldn't have messed with the controls like that." Such is the samsara of Kale - he's improving, but he cannot yet escape his intrinsic Kaleness. His core Kality. Watch him learn, watch him grow, watch him repeat the same mistakes again next episode - just maybe a little less, and a little softer. Xion's cheering him on as he nears his PB, and it pushes him forward - and then. And then. Pete taps on a few extra minutes, and gives Kale a gift. An amazing, wonderful, generous gift. A truly stupendous gift. "Oh - fuck you..." Spite. Kale, who'd been winding down his efforts as he approached PB - digs in further. "I can take extra minutes! And grade 1's just the first step, obviously! I can reach Color just fine!" (What's a Color? Kale can't remember that part of the city's hierarchy. It didn't involve a Cool Number Going Up (down) so maybe he tuned that part out? But whatever it is, he's sure he can reach it.) The PB point comes and then goes - Kale takes deep breaths, and focuses. "Screw you, I can..." "... I'm better than... better than...!" Fueled by faith, by spite, and above all by pride, Kale pushes himself probably too far, finishes the set even with the extra minutes, and slumps against the treadmill's arms as it beeps and slows to a halt. He mumbles something that doesn't quite make it past his beak.
Odette Raskins	Odette feels an immense surge of relief at Xion saying to Kale what she was thinking super hard, but couldn't even attempt to say out loud without far too much outward pressure to do so. She might not/definitely doesn't actually realize that Pete's done something similar to the treadmill Kale's on, either, so it comes off way better in her head as a result! "Ah - yeah... sorry... I shouldn't have messed with the controls like that." "Ah...? I-it's okay. Um. It worked out in the end!" Odette blurts out, still trying a bit too hard to deflect blame away from Kale for.... Wait, why did she even do that? It's too late to pull it back now, but he does sound like he feels bad, so... She can't bring herself to stay too grumpy at him. Xion's words of wisdom "A teacher... Hehe. D-definitely. He said I'm making really good progress, so that's a good sign already. I don't know if it's been fast enough, but... N-no, you're right. I can't-" "Luck to be this tall, good diet, and about fifteen years of hard labor, mostly." "I can't help you be less short." "-... Become everyone I look up to, no. But... I can still learn from you all, though, right? Like the cardio thing and..." Odette takes a moment to take another deeper breath, finally catching her breath enough to sit up and grin sheepishly at Xion. "Comfortable pacing, mhm. And... Um. Focusing on one direction at time, yeah. Mmmaybe two?" She looks hopeful about doing at least two things at once. "But that's... I-is that the same thing as the crystals?" A beat, and then Odette starts to realize something else: "Are those rocks in the commercials real?"
Sarracenia	'RIBBIT???' Sarra blinks, then laughs lightly. "I suppose that means you like the suit?" Sarra says with a smile, completely misunderstanding what is happening. "It is a rather useful power-up when in the water. And quite cute as well!" A few people talk about the benefits of swimming and how good it feels, and Sarra nods. "Indeed! I personally never use exercise equipment. Just swimming, dance training, and combat training. Oh, and depending on my mood some flight practice~" Then, radio stuff happens. Sarra ends up staring at Knifty for a bit. But, once the promise is made she relaxes again and swims around properly. "Oh, and do not worry. You can take off the suit at any time just by pulling it off."
Xion	"You can't become everyone you look up to, because, they're separate. And you look up to plenty of different folks, right? So," Xion gives Odette a gentle squeeze and pats the nurse in the center of her back. "Just try to take a little bit and make it yours, and after a while you'll figure out you've gotten a lot. You don't expect to see the results of a run right after, right?" Letting Odette go and scooching to the side to stand up, check her phone by putting back in an earpiece, smiling thinly, and then putting the earpiece back into her jacket pocket. "It's interesting on the radio tonight. You want to grab a smoothie? You'll need protein after that run, and water." A little pause hitches Xion as she stands and jams one hand in her Tridaeg jacket pocket and offers the other down to Odette. "Trust me on the pieces-collecting part. It does work - over time." She offers, down the length of her arm with a smile.
Lilian Rook	'Well, I appreciate the degree of separation.' "If there weren't any, then it'd be no different than my personal tree fort. Who is going to look out for their fellow Fixers if I don't?" 'Very protective! One should reserve such things for someone you truly value and who values you in return!' And yet, still, Lilian cannot help but roll her eyes a little and say "Well you don't have to be Catholic about it." 'No, yeah, that's- you make a good point. Hm. I guess, I go through flesh like some folks go through paper towel.' "Would you--" Lilian stops and stares. "--care to try a better . . . ? No?" The urge to ask what the fuck Madeleine means by 'only one body' visibly rises to just below the surface of her face, then falls back away again. "Well, I'm pleased it made sense to you so quickly." Lilian is now working on internalizing a new thought for her cabinet: compare things to sex more often. 'Ahaha, sorry Dame Commander. Just 'pumped', you know?' "Then by all means." Lilian waves offhandedly. "So long as you don't harm yourself. And do be certain that you don't work yourself to exhaustion while swimming." 'Yeah, yeah. I mean. I'm not--Yeah.' Lilian casually glances back over her shoulder at Finn, and begins conceptualizing that perhaps comparing things to sex might be a double-edged blade. Still staring, the process of her slowly catching up to the fact that she'd said it while stripping visibly plays out over the course of five seconds, and then she turns back to look at the pool with an extraordinarily hesitant grip on the waist of her skirt, paused just below her waist. 'What kind of--augmentation did you want to negate? ... If I, um, may ask Commander.' "It's a long story." says Lilian, in that particular way of hers; that softly sigh-backed tone of humming contemplation that turns words of dismissal into an implication of more. "And you may not. But you already did, so . . ." After a moment's pause, she continues through the motions of undressing into her swimsuit, sitting on the bench with her bag to remove her tights. "Something one of a kind. That I brought upon myself, as the inevitable conclusion of everything I wanted. The kind that should be-- perhaps even still is-- everything I want." Lilian says. Her shoes are kicked neatly under the bench, her hands press to her knees, and she entertains a moment of staring at the tiles between her feet. She doesn't think to remove her jewelry; even when she takes a deep breath and pops herself upright. It's the same swimsuit she wore for that first (and not second or third) beach trip, only sitting a little differently on her than it did then. "But it wasn't the right time for it. I wasn't ready for it, and I knew it, and people needed things from me first, and so I said so. 'I'm not ready'. Chose to wait until the right time." It takes barely a couple of steps for Lilian to leave the poolside and slip into the water. She's far from being Rita, but the nearly noiseless way it barely sloshes around her is somewhat impressive. Taking a moment to move her newly wetted hair around her head, Lilian squints a little water out of her eye, lets go of the side, and says, "You know. Like sex. Or so I hear." 'RIBBIT???' "I'm drafting new rules about pool use after this." Lilian sighs, and goes drifting by.
Sarracenia	'Well you don't have to be Catholic about it.' "...Catholic?" Sarra does not really know what that means. The Church is not a thing on her world, and the next closest experience she has is Meika's world. 'You know. Like sex. Or so I hear.' Sarra's eye twitches lightly as she turns red again. "Stop that!" she exclaims huffily but not really angrily for once. She listens to the story, though. She even looks a bit confused and contemplative by the end. "...how could it...not be the right time to get everything you wanted?" Such a concept is quite outrageous to the princess. Waiting to get the things you want? On purpose? 'I'm drafting new rules about pool use after this.' "What? Why? Do not tell me you are opposed to cute frog outfits that grant powers!" Sarra exclaims. After marveling at how Lilian was able to dive in such a graceful way as to barely splash. Challenge unknowingly made and accepted! Sarra hops out and heads to the diving board. Is she an expert diver? Not even close. But, she is much more athletic and agile than it might seem. She bounces a couple of times, then leaps almost high enough to touch the ceiling before somersaulting a couple of times and straightening out to dive gracefully into the water. But, not without splashing. And, also not without hitting the bottom of the pool since it likely was not designed for high diving. Large bubbles rise to the surface, then Sarra floats up with a hand on her head, rubbing a red mark on her forehead. And because her player forgot earlier, she looks to Rita. "To answer your earlier question...yes, the crown stays on at all times unless I am in my bed asleep." She then looks to Lilian again. "Oooh. We should have a little swimming race!"
Rita Ma	Rita absorbs Lilian's story about "augmentations" with a silent focus, which looks either a little funny or a little intimidating with only the upper half of her face visible above water. She burbles it thoughtfully at the end, eyes drifting away... "It's a nice change of pace from living in ruins." "Mmm! I can imagine, Ms. Bombini," says Rita, who sort of still lives in (very very nice) ruins. "But as important as hard work is, you've got to let yourself just 'blossom' in a better place, right? Like the Rats are doing," she adds, with a warm glance cast up at Pete. "It um. It feels good against my mandibles..." "Then you'll want to get your head underwater, Ms. Arachne! There's a special trick to keep it from going up your nose, too." Rita casually grabs Knifty by her frog-hood to lift her up- Knifty is fine with being handled firmly, she assumes- and peels it back so the suit won't protect her breathing. Otherwise Knifty won't learn! "Breathe out through your nose. Then find a way to 'block' the breathing out partway! It should feel like you've plugged it somehow, almost in the roof of your mouth." She demonstrates; sinking beneath the water to blow nose-bubbles, then abruptly halting them before popping back up. "Now if you keep that 'tensed', you're safe from breathing in water! It's neat, isn't it?" She's absolutely giddy to be teaching one of the few things she knows about, innocently swaying back and forth and almost giddily bouncing with her feet against the pool floor. Until-- "You know. Like sex. Or so I hear." "Huh? You're supposed to wait for a special time for that?"
Angela	Pete waves a hand back to Kale nonchalantly. Kale could just get off the treadmill early it's not illegal but Pete's assuming he won't. Giving one another shit is how Rats bond. Honestly, he thinks he actually kind of likes the guy but that doesn't mean he's not gonna mess around with him a little. Will he be messed around with in turn? Probably. But that's a problem for future Pete. He wonders what color he'd be given. And he's a bird guy, so like--would it be Wind something? He decides he's not going to get involved in the discussion about choking anymore. He's done his time and even a Rat King needs to take breaks now and then. He did his workout and he'd really like to get in that pool. But shower first! He heard Rita. Hopefully he can avoid the suit. Kale manages to get through the extra minutes and Solaces gives him a nod. Just a nod. What does a nod mean? You may never know. ''I suppose that means you lik ethe suit?'' Knifty says, "Ribbit?" again before realizing she can communicate with words. "Is this magic...?" She is in a frog suit and isn't sure how to 'peel it off' because she doesn't see any seams but Rita hefts her up by the froghood and peels it off, returning her to bathing suit knifty which doesn't have any superpowers beyond letting her gain access to the pool and allowing her to go back to drowning. Knifty listens carefully to The Queen and then nods her head repeatedly. "Okey..." She says it like that, not like Okay. She beams widely at being held and this seems to give her motivation for her to practice beathing. She flubs it a few times and comes back up coughing and sputtering but she keeps at it. Even though the instructions are for Arachnae. "Huh... Alright I--think I get it..." She looks at Knifty and, bizarrely enough, starts following her example. Progress! Bombini meanwhile follows the gaze up to Pete. "He really only needed a chance, huh. Makes you think." ''Lilian stares at Finn'' Finn squirms a little. Finn's looked up to a big sister since he could walk. He is elementally weak to this. And maybe a bit shy about the metaphors here. He listens to the story. It does speak to him, to him--perhaps--more than any of the others with their ambition and need. Finn has grown to understand the things he is not ready for yet since joining Trideag and what is 'not yet' for him. There's something he wants too that he can barely conceptualize. But he's closer today. He nods, solemnly but doesn't speak up because he'd just stammer and not form a sentence now that Lilian ended the phrase with 'Like sex' again. You can practically see the steam blowing out of his ears. It's a bit Hodian in a way. Either way, gym day sems to be a success so far. At this rate, Trideag will be able to rival the other Associations in no time. At least, that's the unified feeling of your current batch of hires.