Atlas Gym, Monday (8/10)

[notallbluemonks]

Another care package from Jester had arrived over the weekend, so when Beau showed up at work this morning she was nibbling on a cinnamon-laden bearclaw and snickering at a couple of drawings of some of the Mighty Nein's escapades in Nicodranas. They really should give some serious consideration to a visit out there at some point, huh?

Not now, though. Now was the time for running all around the gym in search of one stupid screw that had come loose and popped out of the stair climber apparatus, then gotten kicked around by various pairs of unsuspecting feet.

It was going to be a long day. Hopefully not a bad one, though.

[OOC: Post/gym open! As usual, SP is the way of it.

Comments

[firstofitskind]

Over the last few months, Liam's usual mostly handwavey Monday gym habit had involved him showing up basically as soon as the doors opened. Today, though, he was there sometime in the mid-afternoon, and looking far more cheerful than he had in... a while.

(Not that he'd been, like, moping around in public or anything, but there had definitely been an undercurrent of suppressed frustration and concern to even his most positive of moods as of late.)

"Afternoon, Beau!" he practically chirped.

[notallbluemonks]

"You're way too happy to be in my gym," Beau informed him immediately. "I'm gonna have to kick you out of here now."

Watch her making absolutely no move whatsoever to do anything like that.

[firstofitskind]

“You do that, and who’s going to pay for the next round of equipment upgrades?” Liam asked, not pointing out that it was technically Clint’s gym.

[notallbluemonks]

Pffffft, details.

"I do that and the rate of equipment failure drops like sixty percent anyway," Beau countered with one of those little smirks calculated to be irritating.

[firstofitskind]

“Sure, if you want to get all technical,” Liam reached over to punch her shoulder playfully.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau put up a hand to intercept the punch. Sure, she could have dodged, but this was the kind of context in which friendly casual contact was more comfortable for her so an interception it was.

"'sup, dude?"

Because the mood was noticeable, yes.

[firstofitskind]

“Verity’s back,” Liam explained, still grinning.

Not that she’d technically gone anywhere, but. You know. It wasn’t the same.

[notallbluemonks]

Yeah, there was ... it wasn't the same.

"That was my first guess, not gonna lie," Beau told him.

[firstofitskind]

“Am I that predictable?” Liam asked, shooting her a wounded look.

When it came to his wife? Yeah. Yeah he kinda was.

[notallbluemonks]

"Yeah, there's --" Beau waved her hand in a circular motion in front of his face. "Being in a good mood always has this sort of distinct vibe to it when it involves getting laid."

Did you have to be so crude about it, Beau?

... yes. Obviously.

[firstofitskind]

“Beauregard!” Liam exclaimed, with an air of exaggerated shock.

She wasn’t wrong, of course.

[notallbluemonks]

Look, Liam, it wasn't like Beau couldn't speak from personal experience.

"Am I wrong though, dude."

Note how it wasn't a question.

[firstofitskind]

"No," Liam grinned. "You're really not."

[notallbluemonks]

Beau spread her hands and gave him a look as if to say okay, so what were you objecting for?

"Congrats, I guess?"

[firstofitskind]

“Thanks,” Liam said. “It’s more than just the sex though, you know? I was starting to get worried.”

Hahaha, ‘starting’.

[notallbluemonks]

"Starting to," Beau echoed, dry and sarcastic, with her arms crossed and eyebrow raised. "As opposed to the last however many weeks where you what, just had a really bad case of gas?"

The touch of humor in her tone was pretty well hidden, but Liam should know her well enough to pick up on it by now.

[firstofitskind]

“Shut up!” Liam grumbled at her, but there was no real heat behind the words. “Tell me you wouldn’t be crawling the walls if Karolina had been stuck as an animal for that long.”

[notallbluemonks]

"Would there even fuckin' be walls left?" asked Beau, because that was not something she cared to contemplate, thank you very much.

"... I mean, I get it, man. I get it."

[firstofitskind]

"Especially since the idea that she or her family pissed someone off enough for them to level some weird curse at her isn't exactly out of the realm of possibility."

[notallbluemonks]

"That --"

Spells like that were almost always time-limited in Beau's world, except for the rare occasions when some super high-level wizard had mastered True Polymorph, so it wasn't until right now that she realized that was a valid concern.

"That's fair. Also very true. I assume that wasn't the case here?"

[firstofitskind]

“Thankfully no,” Liam confirmed. “Though now at least I know I can check in with her Aunt Rose if I ever do think there’s something that might actually be a spell and not just Fandom being Fandom.”

[notallbluemonks]

An odd look crossed Beau's face for a moment as a brief unwanted flash of memory stirred up, something about her father and his constant paranoid rambling about curses.

"Yeah, that's the kind of valuable resource you probably never expected you were gonna need someday, am I right?"

[firstofitskind]

"And when you factor in that that 'valuable resource' is also a ghost..." Liam shook his head. "You okay?" he checked, because he hadn't missed that look.

[notallbluemonks]

Who didn't have a ghost for a family info source, anyway? Totally common!

"I'm fine," Beau replied a little too breezily. "Just -- my dad was like way superstitious, especially about curses and shit? Just reminded me of that for a second."

[firstofitskind]

The Prices had two ghosts in the family, even. Albeit one was a biiiiiit more reticent on the 'sharing information' front. Great babysitter, though.

"Ah," Liam nodded, making a bit of a face because yeah, he understood being thrown by the occasional reminder of one's father. "Sorry," he offered.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau just shrugged. "It happens."

You know. People promising part of their hypothetical future fortune to powerful magic users just so they can get rich enough to marry someone on a totally different social level, and then making their families miserable with (among other things) their ongoing paranoia about when the proverbial bill came due because surprise, said magic user actually feeds on misery. That sort of thing. Totally happened sometimes.

[firstofitskind]

In Verity's world, those sort of bargains were made at the crossroads and... yeah. Always turned out badly for everyone involved, in the end.

Just ask Verity's grandmother, who was currently hopping through dimensions looking for her husband who'd been taken somewhere by the crossroads years ago.

"I know," Liam nodded. "Still. I just know what it's like, you know? To get those reminders and be a little bit blindsided by them for a moment."

[notallbluemonks]

He would, Beau realized, and that was the only reason she didn't just try to gloss over the topic entirely.

"Fucking sucks, but yeah, it happens sometimes," she muttered with another shrug. "Not that often, which is fine with me, but still."

[firstofitskind]

Liam’s right hand unconsciously clenched into a fist, energy rippling down to his palm as Beau spoke. Seriously, if he ever had the chance to meet her father, the guy was going to get such a punch to the face.

“Lucky for us we both found our own families, you know?”

[notallbluemonks]

He was going to have to get in line behind Karolina for that, and probably fight Yasha and the rest of the Mighty Nein for second place.

Which was to say it was a very valid way to feel.

"I --" Beau shifted awkwardly at that. "I don't know if I would call -- I mean, for me, not for you, but not sure if I'd go that far..."

Well. She would. She already did, in her own head, consider him and Karolina and Rey and the Nein family, but it felt like too much to hope for, maybe too much presumption on her part, to actually call them that as if they'd feel the same way.

[firstofitskind]

"Beau," Liam said quietly. "I would go that far, when it comes to you. For the record."