Gym, Wednesday Early Afternoon

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Class had, as usual, left Jen in a restless and edgy mood and thus in need of a fairly harmless way to work it off -- thus a trip down to the gym. A workout was usually a fairly effective way to let off steam, although the continued lack of actual workout gear blunted that effect a bit, as Time Force uniforms, while designed to allow for a full range of motion, weren't the most comfortable thing in which to work up a sweat. (There was a certain amount of catharsis to be had in blaster fire, sure, but the controlled environment of a shooting range negated it.)

After a quick and maybe less than thorough warmup, Jen wasted no time in taping up her hands and going after the heavy bag, hard, hands, feet, elbows, and knees; it wasn't too long before the slightly muted sounds of impact echoed off the walls of the gym along with her grunts and yells -- those as much out of pent-up frustration as of physical exertion. Other things might be complicated and frustrating, but this at least she understood with no trouble.

[OOC: Open in that gym-ly way. ]

Comments

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela hadn't actually been to the gym yet. Most of her physical exercise consisted of running, after all. But since she was still working on getting a feel for every building on campus, she figured she'd stop by.

She stepped inside, and after a quick look around decided to lounge against the wall next to the door to watch the girl beating up the bag.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

In the middle of a particularly savage attack on the bag, Jen didn't notice Triela at first, but when she finished with a leaping, spinning kick and stopped to catch her breath, she noticed her observer.

"Hey," she said, slightly bent over with her hands on her knees.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Hey back," Triela called in return. "Are you winning?" she teased.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

She'd apparently worked off enough tension to laugh at that. "Since it's still hanging there, I think it's a draw," Jen replied, wiping her forehead on the sleeve cuff of her uniform.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"You seem to be pretty good at beating up punching bags," Triela said in a half-teasing, half-serious tone. "You do this sort of thing a lot?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"I guess you could call it a habit," Jen allowed, with a slight nod of thanks for the compliment. "Not necessarily limited to punching bags, though."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Remind me not to get on your bad side then," Triela laughed. "I'm Triela, by the way."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Jen," she replied as she straightened. "It's okay, I don't make a habit of beating up fellow students."

Unless she'd been drugged by someone against whom she'd sworn vengeance, but that had just been the once, and well, Kabuto had come close but not that close . . .

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Good. Because I don't much enjoy getting beaten up."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Not my favorite habit either," Jen agreed. She'd had plenty of that. "Hence the practice -- better them than me."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I'd rather avoid fighting altogether. Well, except on missions." But that was different.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah, no unnecessary force and all that," Jen agreed, and tilted her head, curious. "Missions?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Back home," Triela nodded. "I'm assigned to the Social Welfare Agency's Secion II Action Branch."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Unless people de-aging via unstable time travel was common around here, Triela seemed awfully young for that sort of thing, and the surprise likely registered on Jen's face, but in the interest of tact she didn't voice it. What she said instead was, "A welfare agency needs mission ops?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela actually laughed in amusement at that. "If you define 'welfare' broadly enough, then yes. And I know I'm just a skinny girl who's barely fourteen, but I'm a lot stronger than I look."

"Actually, the Agency's name is really just there to keep people from wondering what they're really doing," she elaborated. "Well, and to make it easier to recruit people."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"I try not to judge people on appearances," said Jen -- this despite her initial reaction. Well, she did say she tried. She didn't say she always succeeded. "People will surprise you."

She wasn't sure she liked how that sounded, but . . . well, trying to keep an open mind and all. "If you don't mind my asking, what do they really do? If you can tell me."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Well, it's a secret, but I'm pretty sure that Hillshire doesn't expect me to try to keep it that way around here. Hard to keep it from people you live around."

"The Social Welfare Agency is a counter-terrorism unit."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

That rocked Jen back on her heels, or would have if she'd been taking a step. "That . . . makes a surprising amount of sense, if you think around the name enough," she stammered.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Yep," she agreed. "I think the government types find the irony amusing."

For a moment she eyes Jen with concern, "I... hope that doesn't make you uncomfortable? I think I sort of surprised my roommate with the fact that I shoot people."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen shook her head and took a deep breath. "Before I came here," she said slowly, "I was part of a police force charged with the rounding up and incarceration of every mutant in our jurisdiction. I can't say I exactly condone that any more, but I'll still fight for what I believe in and I'll use force when I have to. So no, it doesn't make me uncomfortable."

It felt oddly good to say that, somehow.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I guess we're in the same line of work. Well, you probably kill fewer people than I do, but it sounds similar."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen nodded. "I guess in a way it is, yeah," she said.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"So how long have you been here?" Triela asked with a slight tilt of her head. "This is my first semester."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Mine too," Jen answered. "I got here just before the semester started, in some freak coincidence of timing."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Hillshire, he's my handler, decided that I needed some... non-traditional training after a mission went bad. So here I am."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"I had a mission go bad, too," Jen told her. "We pulled it off in the end, but it was a mess. After the debriefing we were going to have our memories wiped . . . and I wasn't going to take that, so I ran. And ended up here."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Memory wiping? So you're from a group that uses Conditioning too?" Somehow her tone managed to suggest that she considered that sort of thing to be pretty routine.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Not as standard practice," Jen replied, mildly bothered by Triela's casual inquiry. "Well, standard procedure, but not for anything that came up on a regular basis. Almost at all, really."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Most of us only go through it the one time," Triela shrugged. "Though I'm pretty sure they've done it to Claes twice, even if I haven't been able to sneak a look at her file."

[And I must to bed. Continue this tomorrow or fade out around here? I'm good for either one.]

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen shook her head, perplexed. "I don't see how anybody could deal with that," she muttered. "No offense."

[OOC: Off to bed myself rather soon . . . I'm gonna say fade out, if that works, since I have no idea how busy I'll be tomorrow . . .]