fandomtownies | Atlas Gym, Monday (4/8)

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Atlas Gym, Monday (4/8)

Last week, Liam had tried to warn Beau about the island's regularly-scheduled week before prom shenanigans, and like a headstrong 22-year-old dumbass who was sure she knew better anyway, she'd completely blown it off.

She was a little more restless than usual, but she was usually pretty restless anyway so that didn't seem out of the ordinary. If her thoughts kept drifting toward very specific things she'd rather be doing than being at work right now . . . that had been the case for the last several weeks anyway, so nothing out of the ordinary there, either.

There was just the minor added factor of a vague itching sensation just under her skin, but hell, that was probably just the added restlessness. Which was nothing that throwing herself into her training with extra enthusiasm today wouldn't fix, right? Just the extra adrenaline rush of laying into the practice dummy at full force, or going a little more aggressive on the parkour obstacle course than usual, and that would be totally fine, right?

Right.

[OOC: Why yes, the gym and this post are open. Which feels dirtier than usual to declare today.]

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Seivarden really needed to go to the gym. Having been around last year, she was well aware why, but exercise was a good way of dealing with it, and hopefully the only other person around was Beau, whom she had no interest in that way, and she was quite sure the feeling was mutual.

So she walked in through the door early in the morning.

Beau was in the middle of an enthusiastic, if not terribly well-executed, series of staff attacks against the poor training dummy that had earned her favor today. She used the staff to vault up to the dummy's shoulder then, blink-and-you-missed-it quick, kick off its shoulder, flip in midair, and land behind it to finish off with a hard two-handed strike that would have taken the dummy out at the knees if it actually had any.

It wasn't until she finished that entire sequence that she flipped the staff up and used it to give Seivarden a mocking salute -- which was to say she brought it up in a weird contorted grip that had the ultimate effect of . . . making the staff look like an oversized middle finger.

Very mature of her, really.

"Oh, good," Beau drawled. "Just how I really wanted to start off my week."

Yeah, the feeling was definitely mutual, Seivarden.

"It's your lucky day, then," Seivarden said with a snort. She walked over to the weights section of the gym, which would be a good place to spend some time, and began warming up.

"I'm so fucking thrilled," Beau scoffed, flinging her arms wide in exasperation (yes, already) and basically yelling that entire declaration at the ceiling.

Had this been some other week, Seivarden might have ignored it. Now, however...

"Just go wave that stick around in some other corner, then."

"Gods, what did I do to deserve this," Beau grumbled, overly dramatic and much too loud. Stupid work and stupid trying to be responsible when she'd really much rather be at home with Karolina and otherwise very, very occupied.

She flipped Seivarden off again and stalked back over to her training dummy, but not before throwing a sarcastic "What, are you jealous? I know I'm real good with it, but . . ." over her shoulder.

Advisable? No. But like she was in a mood to care.

"I've seen plenty of kids like you who think they're really good until they have to get into a real fight," Seivarden said, beginning by making circles with her arms

"Assuming I haven't?" Beau asked, deceptively cool but with a distinct bite in her tone. "Could be a pretty dumb mistake, just saying, 'cause you don't actually know anything about me."

"I don't," Seivarden said. "Let's keep it that way."

Beau barked out a short, mirthless laugh. "Fine by me. I already know you're pretty much an ass, that's enough for me. I mean, shit, keep that up if it works for you, but do it outside of my space."

"Oh, so how come you know me all of a sudden?"

Seivarden actually grinned.

Beau rolled her eyes.

"Nah, dude, nah, that part's pretty fucking obvious and anyway, takes one to know one, right? Like it doesn't actually take any effort, or giving a shit, to figure that part out. Don't you have shit to do? It's a gym, not a fucking social event."

Wow, did she not want to be here today. Would it be a bad idea to start sending dirty text messages to Karolina? Maybe she should do that.

"I was just being polite," Seivarden said, finishing the stretching and turning towards the weights. She should warm up better, but she also really wanted to lift something heavy right now.

Beau shot her a scathingly disbelieving look over her shoulder.

"I mean, I'm no expert on politeness, but . . . fuckin' really? That's what you call it?"

The poor training dummy got a couple of solid whacks to the solar plexus. You could tell by how loudly the impacts rang.

Seivarden looked at her. "Yes. Just adapted to who I'm talking to. Like lying, obnoxious kids."

"Just so you know, I'm taking that as a compliment," drawled Beau. "'cause, uh, you kinda keep harping on this, which means it's really kinda getting to you more than you act like it is."

"It's not personal," Seivarden said. "Just too many people like you on the island."

She frowned as she picked up one of the dumbbells.

"No, actually, you're one of the worst, and I'm sure you'll take that as a compliment, which just proves the point."

"Yeah, you know, I think that might actually be one of the best compliments anyone's ever given me when they're not trying to get in my pants?" Beau replied, managing to sound even more insufferably smug about it. "But at the same time, like, man, I thought I had a whole misanthropic thing going on, and now I'm gonna have to work to keep up with you on that front."

"The attitude makes it less believable," Seivarden said, switching to a heavier dumbbell.

"How come you lied about that sword, by the way?"

Edited 2019-04-09 15:04 (UTC)

Ah, damn. Well, Beau had had the feeling that one hadn't entirely landed, anyway.

"Because it was fun," she said, shrugging, and that was the (partial) truth. "Thought it was worth a try, seeing if I could mess with you."

"You'd have try harder," Seivarden said dryly. "Unless you want it to be that obvious."

"I don't know if you're really worth my best effort though," Beau said dryly. "For that, I usually have to actually give a shit, sooooooooo."

"I suppose," Seivarden said. "I'm not going to tell anyone of your failures, don't worry."

"I mean, sure," Beau replied, and the sarcasm was practically visibly dripping from each word. "I can see why you wouldn't want to tell anyone how I fail to give an actual shit about you."

And yet she wasn't walking away from this conversation.

"I'm glad I've worthy of being an excuse for you not to practice properly," Seivarden said, as she was at least holding the dumbbells now.

"What do you know about my practice routine anyway?" Beau scoffed. "Unless you've been like secretly stalking me all this time or something. I get it, I know I'm hot and all, but like . . ."

There was a good bit of self-mockery in that last statement, but she had a lot of practice at concealing that so that it sounded genuinely conceited.

"You're talking more than waving that stick around," Seivarden pointed out. "Looks like you're slacking to me."

"Ha, it's like you care or something," Beau said in a mocking tone that made it clear that she didn't believe that in the slightest. "I mean, you're paying more attention to what I'm doing than your weights over there. You might break a toe."

"I used to train young officers sometimes. Old habit. You should work on your technique."

That was even honest advice, from Seivarden's perspective.

"Ex-military, right." Beau did turn around now, her sharp blue eyes focused keenly on Seivarden. Her lips were pressed tight into a feral sort of grimace. "You, uh, get pretty high up in the ranks?"

"Captain. Not sure what the equivalent here would be."

Seivarden would also say she wasn't sure why she was mentioning this.

"Heh. That explains a lot," Beau said, still wearing that tight, sarcastic little smirk. "I always fuckin' hated authority figures."

Seivarden looked amused. "Why am I not surprised!"

"'cause you're used to it, maybe?" Beau asked in a tone that suggested this ought to be obvious.

"Here, yes," Seivarden said. "Where I'm from, no."

She nodded towards the staff. "Need some help with that?"

She was good, yes, Seivarden had to admit that, but she had also disarmed uncivilised people with similar weapons before. That annexation had been messy.

Beau's left eyebrow twitched upward, the motion accented slightly by the light glinting off her piercing, and she gave the staff a deft one handed twirl.

"What, really? Thought this shit wouldn't be sophisticated enough for your fancy ass."

"It's not, really," Seivarden said. "Doesn't mean I haven't tried it. I've been on all sorts of planets."

Beau rolled her eyes. "So, like, what makes you think I want help with what I worked my ass off to be good at from someone who thinks it's primitive bullshit or whatever? Condescension's not a real effective training technique, I can tell you that from firsthand experience."

She'd had enough of that from some of the monks who'd thought the little delinquent kid and her attitude weren't worth their time.

Seivarden shrugged. "Just an offer."

"I mean, shit, if you're really that bored . . ." Beau shrugged, even if her eyes were narrowed somewhat suspiciously. She couldn't lie, it might be kind of satisfying to get a few good hits in.

"I offered, didn't I?"

She put the dumbbells down and slowly walked over to where Beau was standing.

"Sure, but ulterior motives are a thing," replied Beau, ever the pessimist. "But fine, whatever."

She spun the staff again and held it in a ready position, a little unnecessarily flashy about it. Really, she just wanted to get this day over with, get home, and spend a lot of quality time with her -- with that girl she was dating, and if a nice contentious sparring match helped pass the time until then she'd take it.

"What are you, just going to go unarmed?"

"You don't have a spare one?" Seivarden asked, then shrugged. "I could try and disarm you, or we could spar unarmed, but that might put you at a disadvantage."

It might, but Seivarden figured there was a chance Beau would want to prove it wasn't.

Beau snorted, then barked a loud, mocking laugh.

"Put me at a disadvantage disarmed, yeah, you're real fuckin' funny. Hilarious, even. You might have missed your true calling there."

It would probably hurt, she had no armour, but it wasn't like she'd never been in a fight with people with staffs before.

A long time ago, on that terrible planet, but still.

Seivarden shrugged. "I'll try to disarm you, then."

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Atlas Gym, Monday (4/8)

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