Atlas Gym | Late Tuesday Morning

[knife_bender]

It was a shock that Diego hadn't been to the gym before now. In all fairness, the town kind of threw him for a loop at first. Now that he was settled he was back to training and making plans to do some vigilante stuff in Baltimore soon. As one does.

And seeing family again for the first time in over a decade brought out some anger in him so a punching bag was useful in that area as well.

[Open!]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie wasn't really willing admit how much of her night had been spent with a box of Franzia that she'd picked up after her incredibly, incredibly weird day yesterday. Sure, she should have probably gone out patrolling her first night here, but she still couldn't get ahold of anyone at Vought, and based on what she'd heard yesterday (and, you know, observed with her own eyes), it didn't really seem...necessary.

That being said, Annie had worked out pretty much every morning of her life, and she wasn't going to stop now. Once she found the gym, she tossed off a wave and a quick, "Hey, how's it going," to the guy going to town on the punching bag as she scoped out the equipment - she didn't want to interrupt his workout so much as ensure he knew she was there, since she knew she hated being snuck up on in the gym.

[knife_bender]

Yeah sneaking up on Diego at any time wasn't wise. He had an itchy trigger finger. Knife finger. Whatever.

"Hey," he replied with a nod of his head. He pulled back from the bag for a moment to grab some water. "Can't complain. You?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, you know," Annie said, warring between an honest answer and a normal, polite one as she eyed the free weights. "I think I just crossed the twenty-four hour mark of being here, so - it's like that. Minimal complaints."

Pretty much everyone had acknowledged that the island had a bit of a learning curve, so Annie felt like Diego would probably get her meaning.

[knife_bender]

"Ah. Yeah I get that," he said. "I've been here, what, three weeks I think? You managed to find the gym faster than me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, that's something," Annie said with a small smile. "Three weeks, huh? Do you feel like you've got the hang of the place, yet?" She didn't think she ever would.

[knife_bender]

"Absolutely not," he joked. "But I've been told I'm handling it better than most."

"I'm Diego, by the way."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Annie," she replied with a laugh. "Nice to meet you, Diego. What's your secret to handling it? 'Cause, like, I could really use some tips."

[knife_bender]

"It helps that I come from a place that's almost as weird." Like a nameless city with no cellphones in 2019 kind of weird.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Weird enough that you know it's weird?" Annie noted, stretching a bit. "That's pretty good. How weird are we talking?"

[knife_bender]

"Talking chimpanzees, androids, that sort of thing." Even growing up he knew that was Not Normal. "Similar things are common here."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, sure, that sort of thing," Annie nodded, snorting a little. "Do all the animals talk, or just the chimpanzees?"

[knife_bender]

"Just the one chimpanzee. He was sort of an experiment." Just like all the Hargreeves siblings were! "I take it you're from a fairly normal place?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Eh. I'm learning that what I thought was normal isn't normal for everyone else," Annie admitted. "I'm from Iowa, which is about as normal as it gets, but I guess not everyone has superheroes?"

[knife_bender]

"Not everyone, no." He was thinking of Danny who seemingly seemed weirded out by everything. "But there's more than one of them around here so if you've been here long enough I'm guessing you catch up pretty fast."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, I met this chick yesterday who teaches a literal Superheroing class, so it seems common enough," Annie mused, "but yeah, it's completely strange to me that there are people who come from worlds where no one has powers." What did they watch on TV?

[knife_bender]

"Yeah I gotta admit that's new to me too," Diego said. "Seems like a boring situation."

[defenderofdesmoines]

That got a slight raise of Annie's eyebrow. "You've got Supes and a talking chimpanzee and androids?" That was interesting. "Okay, I'm starting to see why you took the adjustment well."

[knife_bender]

Diego smirked and shrugged a shoulder. It would be hard to explain how all of that just existed in the same house.

"What brings you here?" he asked. "The island, I mean, not the gym."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Kind of a work transfer thing," Annie said, because it was true if vague. "I can't get in touch with anyone at the office, though, so there miiiight be some kind of a mistake." Because wow, it did not seem like Fandom needed any kind of Supe help. "Making the best of it in the meantime. How 'bout you?"

[knife_bender]

"Something similar." Just add in a dash of escaping his family though look how well that turned out. "I work at the Trooper Station now. Mostly taking phone calls from crazy people."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"From what I hear, you guys are not busy with, like, crimes," Annie agreed, casually selecting a set of eighty-pound dumbells to take over by the mirrors. "Were you a cop back home? Or just really good at answering the phone and talking down the crazies?"

[knife_bender]

"I guess it would be closer to the second one." He took note of the weights Annie picked but he could hear a voice that sounded suspiciously like Allison telling him to not be a sexist pig.

"What kind of work do you do?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I guess you could kind of say I'm kind of in...security," Annie decided. It seemed increasingly stupid to pay any attention to Vought's policy about secret identities here, in a place with a literal Superheroing class, but it was too ingrained for her to just come out with her actual job title like it was normal. "I think I'm probably going to find, like a bartending job or something, though. It seems like I accidentally downgraded to part-time when I moved here." Though apparently she'd get something to do about every three to four months, so that was something!

[knife_bender]

Well security explained why she could lift that sort of weight, at least.

"There's two bars on the island to pick from," Diego said. "And everyone here is weirdly helpful so, you know, don't be afraid to ask."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh yeah? Do you count yourself amongst the weirdly helpful, or does that tendency take, like, a whole month to set in?" Annie asked, clearly teasing. "'Cause I'd put you at a normal-to-above-average helpful, so far."

[knife_bender]

"I think I'm still too new to be considered above average helpful," Diego said, smiling slightly. "Most of what I know comes from what others have told me, not direct experience."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Still, you're paying it forward, and that's nice," Annie said, pointing a finger at him before picking up one of her weights in her other hand. "Are you from around here? Like, geographically, I mean." She was learning to differentiate already, look at that.

[knife_bender]

Diego leaned against the punching bag, crossing his arms over his chest. "Just far enough away where it would be kind of inconvenient for people to visit."

Unless you were desperate for money like Klaus was last weekend.

"What about you?" He gave her a sly smile. "Geographically."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Ah, the perfect distance," Annie said, nodding sagely. "I'm from Iowa, which should be far enough away that my mom won't want to visit but I'm not holding my breath."

[knife_bender]

"Yeah I would let go of any idea that she won't visit," Diego said. "Just last weekend we had a ton of family visit the island, whether you invited them or not."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I heard that was just for the students!" Annie protested, shaking her head. "Don't tell me someone inconvenienced themselves to come see you after all?"

[knife_bender]

"Oh it was everybody," Diego said, sighing. "One of my brothers showed up uninvited."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yikes," Annie said mildly, wincing. "I don't have any siblings, but uninvited guests are always a pain, and I'm guessing brothers aren't an exception."

[knife_bender]

"They definitely aren't," Diego agreed. "Who knows, maybe you'll be the outlier who doesn't get surprises like that."

Was there such a lucky person on this island? Probably not.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Kinda doubt that, but hopefully I've got awhile before that particular problem," Annie noted optimistically. "Were you around for the...evil horse thing? That sounded intense."

[knife_bender]

"Evil horses?" he asked. "Yeah, no way I was here for that."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, they apparently fed on bad memories. And I think maybe they were ghosts, too?" Annie nodded slowly. "I'm standing by 'intense.' We definitely don't have anything like that where I'm from." At least not that she'd seen.