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]

"You are a friend to Cassandra," Jalian noted. At least she'd heard their names together on radio a few times. Then she remembered in what context. "You've sparred. You can fight with knives?"

Far too few people here could, really. What was with all these industrial-society people?

[dwarvenswagger]

They were just weird. Fighting was a valuable life skill, okay? Valuable.

"I have," Thorin replied. "Though my weapon of choice is axe or sword."

[kenselvren]

Jalian nodded. "I can use axe or spear, but I like knives. Cassandra and I have sparred, but most here seem to prefer guns. Or they know nothing of fighting."

So, so weird.

[dwarvenswagger]

"That I have noticed," Thorin replied with a little laugh. "And yet they talk of constant invasions."

[kenselvren]

Jalian shrugged. "There have been several since I came here, but nothing difficult - fish that flew, some men with wings once. Not warriors wanting land or goods, only..." it took her a moment to find the word, "skirmishes."

[dwarvenswagger]

"Men with wings?"

[kenselvren]

"Mechanical ones," Jalian clarified. She made a disgusted noise. "They might have been trouble, but they were stupid."

[dwarvenswagger]

"Strange," Thorin agreed. "If you wished to spar, I believe the salle has practice knives."

So stubborn people couldn't get their dumb asses killed in practice. Thorin.

[kenselvren]

"Their balance isn't very good," Jalian cautioned. Not that she was saying no, but he should know what he was getting into.

[dwarvenswagger]

There was that.

"I can correct them." Or make new ones. He just really liked forging, okay?

[kenselvren]

"Can you?" Jalian perked up at that. "I can keep my own in balance, but these were too far off."

[dwarvenswagger]

Thorin sniffed. "My talents at the forge aren't minor."

He was a dwarf, damn it.

[kenselvren]

Yeah, all Jalian knew was that he seemed shorter and more solidly built than most of the males here. (Certainly more of the latter than Mr. Noodle Arms.)

"You're a smith?" Jalian nodded. It was nice to know some of the people here had useful skills. Even male skills! "But you fight, too?"

[dwarvenswagger]

"Of course. My people prize our crafts just as much as our skills in battle."

[kenselvren]

"Which are males' skills?" Jalian asked.

[dwarvenswagger]

"Pardon?" This would so be awkward if she couldn't tell the difference between male and female dwarves Just because of the beards.

[kenselvren]

"For ken Selvren, farming is a male's job. Hunting and fighting are a woman's. Smithing can be either," she added. "Here, fighting is for males." She rolled her eyes. They weren't very good at it. "But you fight and you smith."

[dwarvenswagger]

Weird habits of men again. Seemed about right.

"I am not Ken Selvren, nor am I a man. I am a dwarf," Thorin replied. "We craft because our Father created us to gift his teachings onto. We fight because we must endure the world. Male or female makes no difference."

[kenselvren]

Jalian frowned. The enduring part made sense, and the Father part...she'd learned enough of this timeline's religion to guess it was something similar. But... "What is a dwarf?"

[dwarvenswagger]

"I am." Thanks for that, Thorin. "Where I am from, there are the three free races of men, dwarves, and elves."

And hobbits. Ents. Skinchangers. Eagles. Way to simplify.

[kenselvren]

"So you are a dwarf and not a person...a human?" Jalian nodded. "You look more like than not. I should not have assumed."

[dwarvenswagger]

Thorin bristled a little at the first word used he was described as not being and had to force himself to relax a little. "I assume you do not have such folk where you are from."

[kenselvren]

Jalian had learned that "person" here meant more than a species designation; it didn't mean she didn't slip up sometimes.

She shook her head. "We have only ourselves and the Corvichi. They look very different. I had never met another species before coming here. How are dwarves different from humans?" She was not going to call them "men". Honestly, males in some timelines!

[dwarvenswagger]

They were men! It's what they were called. Human just sounded odd.

"We are shorter." Obviously. With his staggering height of 5'2". Which, for a dwarf, was actually rather tall. "We live longer than your kind, almost to three centuries."

Unless you were Durin. Then you were just cray-old.

"And we are stronger and more able to weather the harshness of the land."

[kenselvren]

Jalian shrugged. "The persons in this timeline are mostly fragile," she agreed. "They live longer than many ken Selvren, but their lives are easier. Your timeline...your world," she corrected herself, "is harsher?"

Old age wasn't a terribly common cause of death for ken Selvren women (nobody paid attention to the men).