Atlas Gym, Monday (2/17)

[notallbluemonks]

Was Beau in a pretty damn good mood when she showed up at work this morning? Yep, and it apparently unnerved a couple of the early regulars, because they were giving her a pretty wide berth. Not like she cared, but to be fair, yeah, it probably was kind of unnerving. Sure. She'd give them that.

It was kind of nice, honestly, to be able to throw herself into her usual maniacal exercise routine and not end up -- well, more worked up than usual, because that was inevitable to an extent.

Whenever she didn't have to help someone, she was working on her Step of the Wind technique some more. Today, that largely consisted of her running through the parkour course, like usual, just with occasional bursts of speed that almost -- not quite, but almost -- made it seem like she'd almost just blinked from one place to another. She doubted she'd ever actually be able to do that, but it'd be cool to just fine-tune making it look like she could.

Good thing she did have to stop and help people sometimes, though, because there was only so much she could channel her ki to pull it off without getting tired, and then she'd need to just chill for an hour or so before she could do it again. Hopefully with more practice and conditioning, that'd improve, too.

[OOC: Lol you know, it helps to hit post, self. Open gym/post, though I'll be in and out attempting to use what's left of my day off to do errands and shit.]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

Liam, too, was in a good mood today. In a strange roundabout sort of way, the past week had actually done a really good job of... grounding him in himself. Because while yes, some of his, uh, emotions had definitely been heightened, they were all very much his.

(And of course there had been finishing off the week with both Verity and Dominic in Baltimore, but this is a public comm so we’re not getting into detail there.)

Not only that, but he’d left his usual appointment on the mainland feeling better, rather than just mentally and emotionally exhausted, which was definitely a sign of progress in that part of his life.

So. Yeah. Good mood, if a little awkward because he’d pretty much been a hermit since coming back from Beau’s world.

“Hey,” he greeted Beau as he went over to the heavy bag.

[notallbluemonks]

"Liam," Beau returned, and used Step of the Wind to quickly dart all the way over toward him just because she could, and besides, she didn't think she'd showed off this new trick to him yet. "I'd ask what you've been up to, but, uh ..."

Well, first off, she was pretty sure she knew what he'd been up to for the past week, and second, she wasn't really sure how to ask how he'd been in the weeks before that.

[firstofitskind]

More than a little guilty about missing Karolina’s birthday party, among other things.

“Jesus!” he hissed, one hand coming up reflexively to cover his face. “I would say warn a guy, but I know you didn’t just now on purpose.”

[notallbluemonks]

"Sorry," Beau said cheerfully. Yes. Cheerfully. Yes, that was kind of unsettling. "It's like a new thing, I'm still getting the hang of it, you know?"

No, she had the hang of it. It was just that the new-and-shiny of it hadn't worn off yet.

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, Liam’s response to that was simply a snort of disbelief and a muttered “Sure.”

[notallbluemonks]

"What?" Beau asked in a fairly whiny tone. "So it's cool as hell, okay? Besides, your reaction was pretty fucking satisfying."

[firstofitskind]

Okay, it was cool, he'd give her that. But-

"Would you still be saying that if I'd, you know...?" he held out a palm, shaqarava flickering to life for just a moment and then fading back out.

[notallbluemonks]

"I --"

Beau stared at him for a few seconds, her mouth halfway open and a wary look of oh shit on her face.

"Fuck, I didn't think about that."

She was getting better about not treating people like shit! But the combination of that and having cool abilities, she still needed to figure that out.

[firstofitskind]

You were his best friend, Beau, he really didn’t want to accidentally burn you thanks to an instinctive reaction.

“It’s fine,” he said after a beat. “I didn’t, after all. And you’re not wrong about it being cool.”

[notallbluemonks]

"I learned some cool shit while I was gone," Beau said, sounding almost ... excited about it? But cautiously. Kind of like a kid who had learned something new, and wanted to share it, but was prepared to have it blown off or be told it wasn't anything important. "That, the stun thing, a couple of other things. It's not quite having powers, or magic, but it's something, right?"

[firstofitskind]

And Liam knew how sensitive she was about being surrounded by people with cool powers and being just a 'normal boring human'. So...

"What kind of other things?" he asked, genuinely curious. Yes, Beauregard, he was absolutely inviting you to show off, here.

[notallbluemonks]

And Beau would have loved to show off! Except the other stuff didn't lend itself well to show and tell.

"There's this thing," she said, miming a couple of punches at him anyway, "where if I'm, like, fighting someone, there's like pressure points I can hit, and sort of ... read their energy? And figure out things like if they're super fast and I need to watch out for that, or if they're really vulnerable to fire, or, like, if Caleb might have a hard time casting certain kinds of spells on them. I don't really want to demonstrate that on you, though."

She paused momentarily.

"Yasha's here now," she added abruptly, not caring about the change of subject. "I don't know if you'd heard."

[firstofitskind]

"I'm kind of curious what you'd be able to read off my energy," Liam admitted. Since he had more of that than most people. And also could kind of do something similar. "But maybe another time."

"I had heard," he added, in response to her change of subject. "I thought about checking in on her, but," he lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug.

He hadn't really been up to people-ing any more than what was strictly necessary, especially with someone new.

Well. New-ish. If you counted their experience in Wildemount as them having met.

[notallbluemonks]

"Maybe next time we spar," Beau offered. "I can try it then."

She was ... trying not to think too hard about how it might've gone if she'd tried to check in on Yasha last week. She was also not talking about that right now.

"I think she needs time," she said, with a half-shrug of her own. "She's still got a lot of shit to work through. Not sure what any of us could really do to help with that, to be honest."

[firstofitskind]

"Yeah," Liam nodded in understanding. "If there's one thing this place is good for, though, it's working through shit."

Case in point, his own damn self. Even if the last year had seemed to involve more backward movement than forward, he knew it was technically progress.

[notallbluemonks]

"You and me would know that," Beau noted, far more casually than she felt about it. "Not to say it doesn't throw some other shit in our paths in the process, but it ... kinda works out?"

Was that almost optimism, Beauregard?

[firstofitskind]

"More or less," Liam agreed.

"Which." A beat. "Sorry." For freaking out on her that day after the portal. For skipping the party. For not seeking her out sooner.

[notallbluemonks]

"For what?" asked Beau, aparently genuinely uncertain what had warranted the apology. Sure, all of that was stuff she would've beaten herself up for if she hadn't done it for her friends, but that was a totally different situation, because they deserved that, right? They did, but she didn't, so ... what was the big deal? "There's nothing to apologize for."

She paused for a second.

"Although if Kar makes sad faces at you for missing her birthday, I'm not gonna let you hide behind me." Like that was going to happen.

[firstofitskind]

She absolutely deserved that. There had been a delivery of roses from Liam that had even said as much!

He smiled a little ruefully at the mental image of Karolina sadfacing at him. "We could start with me losing my shit all over you after the portal dropped us off," he pointed out.

[notallbluemonks]

They had been really nice roses! Sadly, Liam, it was going to be a while yet before she actually believed it, though.

Beau snorted. "You had good fuckin' reason though. We all have our damage. Don't ever feel like you need to apologize to me for when yours bites you in the ass."

[firstofitskind]

And here he thought one of the good things to come out of that whole Iron Shepherds mess was that she'd made a little progress in that arena, what with her opening up a little about some of the stuff she'd been going through.

"But it wasn't even-" Liam ground out, visibly frustrated with himself. "Nothing that bad even happened to me."

He hadn't been kidnapped and tortured, is what he meant. Much like Beau struggled to believe she was someone worth knowing, worth loving, Liam struggled with acknowledging that his trauma was valid.

[notallbluemonks]

A little progress, sure. There was still a lot of damage to repair, though, and it was slow going.

"It's not a fuckin' competition, Liam," Beau replied, and how was she the relatively even-keeled one here? "You have as much right to feel like shit fucked you up as anybody. Jester would probably be the first person to tell you that, if she was here."

Jester would also be the first person to put on a carefree, cheerful face and act like her trauma wasn't as important as taking care of everyone else's, granted.

"You're a good fucking person who got a little too much of an up close and personal experience with some piece of shit asshole's memories," she added, looking at him intently. "Yeah, that's gonna fuck you up. I'd be concerned about you if it didn't, to tell the truth."

[firstofitskind]

The latest in a line of piece of shit assholes, no less.

“I chose that,” he pointed out. “I did it on purpose.”

Knowing how badly his reaction last time had nearly fucked up his- and Verity’s- lives, and he’d gone ahead and done it anyway.

[notallbluemonks]

As if Beau was ever going to call him on risking his own safety for other people's sakes. (Yes, even if anything that happened to her while taking those risks would have an impact on her friends, too. That was a particular blind spot of hers.)

"You might have saved our asses by doing it," she countered. "That said, I might kick your ass if you pull that shit again, especially since I know you know the consequences."

[firstofitskind]

“I’m kind of counting on it,” Liam admitted with a hint of a smile.