The Gym: Wednesday Afternoon

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Dipper decided today to do something healthy. Like work out with the weight machine to try to perform a bench press.

It wasn't working well. He could barely push the bar up.

If one listen closely, they could hear him mutter "Stupid. Noodle. Arms."

Hopefully no one else would be around to witness his humiliation.

Comments

[kenselvren]

"Kathy." Jalian nodded to her and eyed her routine for a moment curiously. "This is your acrobatics?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's music was blasting in her ears, so she didn't notice Jalian right away which is my explanation and I'm stickin' to it. She finished her flip with a back handspring, then pulled her earbud out and waved to Jalian. "Hey!" she said, jogging over. "Did you catch any of my routine?"

[kenselvren]

"Some," Jalian said. "You're very flexible! This is your acrobatics?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"It is!" Kathy said, beaming. "I've been working on a new routine just for fun. Now that I don't have to worry about pleasing judges, I can focus on a lot of the moves that are fun to do, but not as technically difficult or impressive. It's cool being able to design routines to my own tastes and nobody's else's."

[kenselvren]

"Judges?" Jalian gave her a quizzical look. "You use these for legal proceedings?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh nononono," Kathy said quickly, before imagining how interesting that would make legal proceedings. "Gymnastics is a competitive sport. So people create routines, like I did, and then perform them in front of other people who have enough skill or knowledge of the sport to judge which performance was best. There are a lot of factors that go into their decision: technical skill, percent of difficult maneuvers to easy ones, how evocative the performance is and how well it suits the accompanying music...all kinds of stuff. And a lot of it is pretty subjective, so two gymnasts who give two equally good performances based on technical merit can still receive different scores based on the artistry of their pieces."

[kenselvren]

"Ah. That makes more sense." Jalian nodded. It even sounded useful and potentially fun. "But now you don't do that?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"It wouldn't be fair," Kathy said with real regret. "Between my speed and my agility now, I've got an edge on the competition I didn't rightfully earn. It just seems wrong to compete against other people who've worked just as hard as I did, but have no chance of winning against superpowers."

Overall, becoming Banzai was worth giving up gymnastics, but that didn't mean it didn't still hurt.

[kenselvren]

"But if you are best, you should win. Why hide if you enjoy it?" Jalian asked.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Because what I can do--isn't natural." Thinking of Raven made her amend that to, "Isn't normal, I mean. I don't know of anyone else that can do what I can. It makes the competition unfair in my favor--like if I were competing against children, instead."

Which seemed a little mean to say, but Kathy figured it would get her point across better than any other metaphor.

"They can't do what I can do. It's physically impossible for them. So, competing against them just isn't right. I have an advantage that no one else does and that has no place in a friendly competition."

[kenselvren]

Jalian turned that over in her head, then nodded. "So now you perfect yourself as you like, but not for competition."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Exactly!" Kathy said. "It's kinda sad that I can't compete anymore, but that doesn't mean I can't still do what I love, you know? And, again, I don't have to worry about what other people like when I make up my own routines. So that's always fun."

[kenselvren]

"Your own rules are best," Jalian agreed, grinning.

[spin_kick_snap]

"My music, too," Kathy said. "Far better than what I used to have to perform to."

[kenselvren]

"What was that?" Jalian asked, curious.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Mostly instrumental versions of soft rock," Kathy said, making a face. "Slowed down to rob it of anything interesting. It's just familiar enough to snag the judges' attention, but without committing to anything that they might object to."