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."

[endsthegame]

Leaning down, he put the lemon gently back onto the towel. "I know I'm not," Ender said, pulling himself back upright, his shoulderblades stretching to meet each other as he rolled his shoulders back at the same time. "I think I like the cafetaria food better."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Now there are words you don't hear very often!"

[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.

[endsthegame]

"At least there you know what you're getting."

[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."

[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.

[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!"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

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

[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."

[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."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Not necessarily," Cal pointed out, saying his words with an unfaltering confidence in its truth. "What you see is not always what you get."

[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?

[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.

[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."

[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?"

[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.

[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."

[endsthegame]

"No," Ender said, his arm coming out to stretch behind him, "But at least in the cafetaria, you're sure of that."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Pausing to add more weight, before settling beneath the bar, John liked to think he could understand that except he was certainly not that.

"Yeah, I'm actually trying to get a little more top heavy myself." He would appreciate a little extra power in his back and shoulders. Might stop him from getting beat up by girls.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"Fat monsters?" Yeah, that went over Viki's head. Probably because Cal was a boy. "I've never heard of them before. Does killing them make all of this worth it? Is it hard?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Oh good," John didn't bother with another smile, Ender was likely there with the goal of working. "And you haven't left screaming after all the weird pirate stuff." That was impressive, really.