The Camp Gym; Monday Morning.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

It had been a bit of an effort, but Cal forced himself out of bed early that morning to get back on track of things. Well wrapped and with his loosely fitting clothes, he did a bit of stretching and then headed over to the little gym enclosure, spotting out some weights and hoping to get a really good set and workout in before he had to even start worrying about his workshop later on.

He didn't know exactly how he felt working out in a public spot like this, but maybe it would be early enough that the place didn't get much traffic. Maybe he should move his workouts to late at night. No one would workout at night, but then he lost the feeling he got throughout the day of having known he'd done the work and could feel out whether it was helping to make his body seem less...what he didn't want it to seem.


[[ this would be assuming there be weights and stuff like the school gym, la. Open, of course ]]

Comments

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I've been taking lessons from another student," he admitted, "a friend of mine named Ino. And I practice a lot."

He watched Cal for a moment or two before speaking again, curiosity and interest both in his eyes.

"What're you doing?"

He knew about practicing for things, but straight out exercise was something he was still a little confused on. Or rather, something he'd never really been introduced to.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal snorted a little on the effort of pulling up a bit as he offhandedly commented, "She teach you to run down the sides of buildings yet?"

Back down and then, steadily, up again, and he continued, "Sit-ups. Working the abdominal muscles. Staving off the inevitable Greek pudge."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He shook his head.

"No. Just stances and falling properly. And how to connect the two. We're working slowly since I'm starting very much from scratch."

He watched for a moment more, his lips quirking to one side.

"'Greek pudge'?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

And Cal imagined that running down the side of buildings was pretty advanced. Still grinning slightly, he shook his head. Ninjas. Maaaan.

"Greek pudge," he affirmed as he came back up again. "Runs in the family; damn genetics. It'll probably sneak up on my anyway in a decade, but if I'm sure as hell going to try to keep it off."

Genetics had screwed him over so much, anyway, that he figured it owed him at least the one.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Oh."

What was he to say to that?

"But what's a pudge? I know it's a kind of bird, but I wasn't aware of a specifically Greek one. Or what Greek is, other than--"

Well, he'd heard the announcement like everyone else.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal chuckled a little, and, realizing that it was impossible to chuckle and do sit-ups easily, he stayed up when he got there, leaning forward a bit and reaching for his water bottle. "Definitely not the bird," he clarified. "Fat, I mean. You know, pudge. Fat that kind of hangs on you like a spare tire. We get that in my family. I know, I'm thin as a stick now, but it catches up with you, trust me. You see it in my mom, and I bet it hit my grandma, too."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I don't... think I have that. Something like that."

He couldn't know for certain, as he'd never known his grandmother. And he'd never seen his mother get too very old. But from what he'd seen of her, she'd remained thin as a pin (and just as sharp) until her dying day.

"So you do that?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Yup," Cal nodded. "Works this area," sitting up a little, he gestured vaguely at the length of his torso. Gestured. He didn't dare get close enough to touch his side; it was unlikely, yes, but he was nervous about any stance that might give off a bit too much suspicion. "That and watching what I eat, but, I mean, come on. Working it off is a lot easier than refusing food."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"There's a lot of food here," he said with a brief smile. Brief because he soon enough thought of reasons why not to smile.

"I like to cook. Which is sort of odd, considering before I was here, I was living on the streets of the Emerald City."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"How does that make it odd?" Cal asked, shifting a little. The pause had him feeling anxious, like he should not be ignoring his workout like this. It might inspire lazy habits.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"It's not as if there was anywhere to cook there," he pointed out with a faint smile. "I did the cooking where I lived before that, but I only got to have any fun with it when the traders came in with fresh goods."

He shrugged.

"Perhaps it's not odd. I'm the worst person to ask on something like that."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Definitely not odd," Cal decided with a nod. "That's like saying, 'oh, I've never had...whatever before, so it's odd that I like it now.'" He shrugged. "I like cooking, too, a bit. That's genetic, too. And probably also works into the pudge. And, if anything, living on the streets is probably going to make you like it more because you know what it's like to not be able to cook."

He gave a light smile. "I got stuck with the homeless thing for a bit, too. Definitely not my favorite chapter in my life."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

The smile stayed for a little longer this time, if only because he felt a little less alone.

"And how did you end it? That chapter?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal's eyes shifted a little, and he took a good, long sip of his water as he tried to work around the best way to explain that without giving away too much.

"Things got rough; called up a favor from an old friend, got a job, a roommate, started the next one. That one ended, and then another one back home after my dad passed away. That was a short chapter, and that chapter lead me to this one here, because I really couldn't stay at home after everything..."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He noticed the lack of details, but he didn't press since there were things about his life that he didn't like to talk about, after all.

"Ahh.

"My mother was killed. And I had to bring her murderer to the Emerald City. And then I didn't really have anything else to do, no money, and no one wanted to hire me."

Much shorter.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal frowned a little at this, forehead wrinkled, as he thought about all the things he could say to something like that and how not a single one of them were actually things he would say. For multiple reasons. It was kind of weird to think that someone might be coming from somewhere just as twisted as his path. Sure, he'd encountered a lot of weirdness her so far. But still nothing quite strange.

"Sorry about your mother, man," he offered, not knowing what else to say, and even that he figured wasn't much because he'd mentioned his own dead parent a moment before. That was all he had that he could mention, really.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He shrugged.

He wore all black, but mourning was complicated. Personal. An almost sickening blend of love and hate and confusion that he didn't like to consider, let alone share. Which was why he hadn't said anything to Cal's mention.

He had no way of knowing what it might be to him. And he wouldn't presume to know.

"She doesn't care," he said, not looking at anything in particular. "But thank you. Though I've made things awkward. I do that. Perhaps introductions? They're good at interrupting things."

He nodded.

"Liir Thropp. Scorpius cabin."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal shrugged, as if to say that the awkward wasn't any worse than any other awkward he'd come to expect with anything else in life, and then nodded back.

"Cal Stephanides. Virgo."

Which...could never be said without a wry smirk, no matter how hard he tried.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

That he wanted to know about.

"And that's amusing why, hmm?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal snorted slightly again, snagging up his towel to wiped away a bit of sweat, which also had a double use of perhaps making the red spreading across his face a little less obvious. "I'll let you figure that one out yourself," he muttered. He was certainly not going to explain that one, especially since he didn't exactly know how to bring up all the facets of its massive irony up in comfortable conversation.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He laughed, just a little, and nodded.

"Something with stars?"

His question was entirely innocent as the innuendo train tended to pass by his station unless it was coming from Andrew but he shook his head anyway.

"Either way. I'm assuming you're just come here, since I've never seen you before. Are you from this place? Earth, I mean?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, exactly," Cal deadpanned, as he tried to think of if he, an Aquarius, could even manage to pull something up from all of Zora's knowledge of the zodiac to even help him with another way to work that. They were both water signs, weren't that? He'd have to check.

"And, yeah. Earth. Although, apparently, I'm a little behind the times here, but adjusting hasn't seemed too bad. My roommate has no idea what a typewriter or a cigarette is, but other than that..."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I don't know how you could not know what a cigarette is," he said with a blink. "Even I know that. Even I knew that where I came from. Who's your roommate, if you don't mind me asking."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal winced a bit, wondering if he was unwittingly leading a smear campaign against his poor, extremely gullible roommate. "His name's Alex," he offered. "He's a real good guy, though."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure. You can't judge someone by what they know or don't. It's probably not their fault, after all."

That had the ring of personal experience to it.

"I haven't met him though. Is he new as well?"