The Gym; Wednesday Morning.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Not that he was obsessed or anything, but Cal, even though he'd handwavily been up all night writing, still made himself go down to the gym fairly early, wanting to squeeze in a decent set of weights before he went about his errands for the day. Well, errand, really. Whatever. He did some lazy stretching for a bit longer than usual and then hopped up on a treadmill, hoping the running would wake him up a bit before he put himself between a bench and considerable weights.

[[ yup. obligatory and open, la la la. And it even always had the right day, too. Scout's honour. ]]

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[endsthegame]

And of course, Ender found his way to the gym this morning, too: his towel slung over one of his shoulders, his mind kept blank of anything but the morning's exercise regimen. It was one of those little favors, the ones you had to work for, but that made life a little easier.

"Morning," he said, pulling the towel off his shoulder to discard for his stretches, then paused as he found a lemon, neatly wrapped in the fabric. "...Hm." He couldn't recall bringing it-- nor had anyone had the time to slip it in during his walk.

He studied it, trying to hide his surprise.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal couldn't help a lazy grin at the unveiling of the lemon, brushing the hair out of his eyes as he jogged along. "Yeah," he said. "I found a lime in my sock drawer. Go figure."

[endsthegame]

"I guess it beats pudding," Ender said, with a shake of his head. He let the lemon lay firmly in his palm for a moment; it was real, alright. "Maybe a new food delivery system." Even he wasn't sure if he was serious.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"They want to make sure we get our daily vitamin C," Cal offered. "I gotta question how they think randomly appearing fruit will help that. I know I'm not going to eat anything that's been sitting in my sock drawer that I didn't put in there, but, hey, maybe some people are bit more trusting."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Having plenty of time before his class, John went for a run around the island and entered the gym already nice and sweaty. He raised a hand in greeting at the guys already there and set himself to work with the free weights. Bench pressing was good for the soul or something.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

If that were true, then Cal would have been made a saint by now. From his jogging, he lifted his chin in immediate greeting, since a vocal one would be delayed as he steadied his breathed.

"Morning, John."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"How's the treadmill treating you?" John disliked running and not going anywhere.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal took a moment to carefully consider the way his breathing felt like he'd been placing weights on his chest instead of lifting them, and the way sweat was causing his shirt to stick to his back and his hair to cling around his forehead, to his neck.

"Like a bitch," he decided. "I gotta switch it up a bit, though; I think I'm getting too top-heavy."

[endsthegame]

At the new arrival, Ender's head turned; he shot John a look, cateloguing for a split second. Then he raised his hand in a return greeting-- it was the custom her to be unexpectedly friendly, and while he still wasn't that interested in approaching anyone directly unless he had to, keeping to the etiquette helped him stay unremarked.

Especially if this one was going to turn out to be another one of the 'regulars'. He began to loosen his shoulders.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John was bad about remembering who was new and what their names were, but he smiled fakely at the other guy before pushing into his first set of quick reps. "I'm John, and I generally fail at meeting people, so I apologize in advance if we've done this before."

[endsthegame]

Sometimes, it wasn't hard to tell if someone was being genuine or not-- especially with smiling, where it didn't really hit the eyes unless the other person was a really good liar. Ender filed that one away; he wondered if John actually wanted to talk, or he'd thought that Ender wanted to and didn't want to bother with the trouble of ignoring him.

Whichever it was, Ender didn't return the smile, but he nodded back and said, "I'm Ender, and I just got here." That covered everything. He waited for a reaction.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

Viki... had no idea how she'd wound up at the gym. This wasn't entirely surprising to her even though it had occurred without her sneezing.

"Oh! Hello!"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

The look of surprise on her face both vaguely amused Cal as well as confused him, but he nodded a greeting from the treadmill, his voice following a moment later once he caught his breath a little from the steady pace he was keeping.

"Morning."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

She watched him for a bit. "Why do you do that?" Viki asked. "Are you training so that you can kill monsters?"

Yes, that must be it, right?

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

After his discussion with Helen the other day, the answer barely surprised him, but it did make Cal grin a little. "Fat monsters, maybe," he said. "I just like to keep fit, that's all."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John looked up from the weights to see who the new arrival was, again not sure if he'd seen her in class or just around.

"Hi," he waved a little before picking up another set of weights to add to what he was already doing.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"Good morning!" she chirped, and really, even if they had met before it was unlikely that Viki would remember clearly. "Are you training so that you can kill monsters?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Well, there is that," John nodded. He'd really like to go kill monsters. It would make things much easier. "Mostly I'm training to train with others which probably doesn't make sense, but there it is."

[endsthegame]

Ender looked up from the weights, granting her a casual examination; with his hands preoccupied, he just offered her a slight nod, wondering idly if that would prompt her to come over or to leave him alone.

From what he'd learned of this island so far, it seemed likely.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

Viki considered the boy for a moment, then grinned. "Are you here to get strong to kill monsters?"

[ambassadorinara.livejournal.com]

Inara was a little bit surprised to find the gym quite so crowded as she entered and decided to alter her plans for a workout today. Instead of starting with meditation and a swim, she would end there.

She spent some time over at the practice swords before selecting one and walking to an out-of-the-way area of the mats, where she began to work on her form.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

His mind idly marking how this morning seemed a pretty hot one for working out, Cal duly glanced toward the door when someone else came in...

...and then promptly, upon seeing who it was, lost his footing on the treadmill a little as his feet tangled slightly in each other from the sort of surprised coincidence. There was a stagger, a slightly flailing of long legs and a reach forward to grip onto the machine with his long arms as he fought to not let the pull of the tide of his ceased movement from pulling him under and tossing him roughly off the treadmill.

Thankfully, the quick scramble to regain his composure had been successful, and, a moment later, Cal was back to his previous pace, but cloaked in a thick sheen of extreme embarrassment. He paid extra attention to seeming like it hadn't happened, that it hadn't happened because that girl whose body Amber was in over the weekend had walked into the gym, and grateful for the fact that face was already red from the exertion of his exercise.

[ambassadorinara.livejournal.com]

"Are you alright?" Inara asked, hurrying over after hearing the commotion. That had been quite an almost fall. "Shouldn't you sit down and have water or something?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John raised his chin to Inara in greeting. His hands were a little busy with the weights.

[ambassadorinara.livejournal.com]

Inara waved her foil back at him, then had to start over since she'd lost her rhythm.