Atlas Gym, Monday (11/30)

[notallbluemonks]

How was it almost December again? Beau had no idea, and it annoyed her that she had no idea, but she was bracing herself for the onslaught of daily festive cheer. But also doing some browsing on her phone for gift ideas -- not that she was actually buying shit, out of a sheer stubborn refusal to have anything to do with this Cyber Monday business -- and being mildly appalled at herself for... having some level of... enthusiasm about trying to come up with gifts for people?

Because yeah. She was that person now, apparently, and it was weird, and she was coping with it by good-naturedly heckling the morning spin class regulars at every opportunity.

Obviously.

[OOC: I am draaaaaaaaaaaaagging today, but open.]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

If Rey wasn't in total denial about how Friday was going to go, she'd say she was getting more training in at the start of the week to compensate for Saturday morning. Buuuut she wasn't.

Instead she was just here to run the course, and checking in with a, "Anything good?"

[notallbluemonks]

Denial was totally fine! Nothing unhealthy there. Nope.

"'sup, Rey," Beau called, heading over (probably to the relief of the spinners) when she heard the question. Nugget who had totally been here even if I forgot to mention it in the post, I was mostly asleep, okay heard too, peeked out from behind the desk, and bounded over too, with a little yip. "Yeah, Nugget says hi too, I guess."

[thatwaslucky]

Oh no, Rey's attention was now fully on Nugget. "Hello there," she said, smiling.

[notallbluemonks]

Yeah, that was to be expected.

Nugget, as usual, was ridiculously excited to meet someone, and his tail was wagging so hard it looked like he might lift off like a helicopter.

"Sorry about that, he's like this," Beau said, sighing, but also faintly smiling the whole time. "Like all the time. You can totally pet him if you want to, by the way."

[thatwaslucky]

Before she'd even finished speaking, Rey was sitting on the floor to say hello. "Don't apologize, I love it."

[notallbluemonks]

Nugget all but flung himself across Rey's lap the second he got the chance.

"So does Nugget," Beau said wryly. "Just, you know, making sure since not everybody's a dog person. I didn't think I was one, come to think of it. I think Jester rubbed off on him."

Sprinkle, on the other hand, was probably going to be the meanest weasel and their archnemesis if Jester kept forgetting she was dragging him into danger.

[thatwaslucky]

"Is he yours, then?" Rey asked, perfectly content to just hang here and give pets.

[notallbluemonks]

"Kind of?" Beau shrugged. "Jester impulse bought him off a merchant on the road, but it's kind of hard to, like, take a puppy a whole bunch of dangerous places. Her mom took care of him for a little bit while we were, uh, briefly exploring piracy as a career option, but Jes thought he'd be happier here, so... he's on a long term loan. Maybe a lease option? We didn't really discuss that."

Nugget was totally rolling over to beg for belly scritches, now.

"Okay, dude, we're going to need to discuss your sense of self preservation," said Beau, as if she was qualified for that discussion. "I mean... Rey's cool, but like in general."

[thatwaslucky]

"He's fine. No one would dare hurt a face like this," Rey said, giving all the belly scritches he wanted. "So how've you been? Besides leasing a dog?"

[notallbluemonks]

The thing about an abundance of belly scritches was that Nugget was so delighted, he accidentally blinked away about ten feet still with his paws waving in the air, made a confused noise, and padded back over to nose at Rey's hand.

"I mean, fine," Beau said with a shrug, and it was true as long as she didn't factor in the creeping sense of dread that things had been too good for too long. "I had some super wild adventures with the Mighty Nein, and still made it back in time for the holidays, so... that's a win. You keeping busy?"

[thatwaslucky]

Rey blinked at that, then shrugged and started petting Nugget again. Fandom, and all.

"You could say that. Training, visits home, dating someone, I'm somehow throwing a party that you're definitely invited to Friday," she said. "It's looking to be ridiculous."

[notallbluemonks]

"Blink dog," Beau sort of explained. "I still can't get him to teleport himself outside to do his business, though." Honestly, that was probably for the best.

And then she blinked. "Okay, yeah, definitely keeping busy, but like in a fun way? It's a good look on you. I'm into it."

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm now a big fan of blink dogs," Rey decided. "And yeah, it's in a fun way. It's just a matter of balancing it all."

Saturday for instance was a wash.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau made an uncertain noise. "I mean, sure." She'd much rather wing it herself, never mind balancing anything out, but maybe that was just her. "You know, that kinda makes it sound like -- I don't think I ever really asked before, but that sounds like you're more leaning towards being here as... maybe less of a temporary thing than the impression I used to get."

Did she sound kind of glad about that? Yeah, her abandonment issues snuck through sometimes. On which note a bit of a scowl crossed her face right after that. "Wonder if Yasha is actually going to come back," she muttered.

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm at least trying to figure out how to best use my time," Rey said slowly. Because while this was still temporary, she was at least getting to have a normal life while also leaning into the whole destiny thing.

"Yasha didn't come back?"

[notallbluemonks]

Beau shrugged and idly ruffled Nugget's fur. "No, she took off, said she had some shit to take care of back there first and then she'd come back here, but..."

Her sullen tone said plenty about how (not at all) willing she was to assume that people who left would come back.

Anyway. She nodded thoughtfully, like the abandonment thing didn't get to her that much. "Like... making the most of it, while you can, that kind of use of your time?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Exactly," she said, nodding. "I don't know what's coming, but I'm in a good position right now, there's no reason not to."

Just had to keep up training while she did it.

(Not Saturday. It would not be happening Saturday.)

[notallbluemonks]

"Right," Beau said, dropping into a crouch to stay within petting range of Nugget, her expression a little distant as she thought about how much fun she'd just had exploring the Lucidian Ocean with her dumbass adventuring friends. "'cause like... it all ends sooner or later anyway, so."

Might as well go hard, and then go out while you were on top. (It was going to be a while before she learned to shake this particular outlook.)

"What ifs in retrospect suck, and I am super not here for that."

[thatwaslucky]

"I don't know if I look at the ending part," Rey mused. "I think I just flit through enough places that I hope to get back to someday that I try to enjoy it in case I don't."

The eternal optimist's version of it, basically.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau smiled a little bit at that, because yeah, she found it weirdly reassuring that most of the people she knew were more optimistic than she was.

"Yeah, speaking of not going back to places again, guess who got themselves completely banned from an island of pirates." It was not a question, seeing as the answer would surprise no one.

[thatwaslucky]

"What'd you do?" Rey asked, both curious and smiling a little.

[notallbluemonks]

"You know, got busted for stealing the journal of this cultist pirate, set the docks on fire when she called us out for it, got her into fatal trouble when we proved that she was plotting a coup..." Beau shrugged, a faintly sarcastic but also pleased grin half forming on one side of her mouth. "The only rule on Darktow is that you don't fuck over other pirates, she just did it way worse than we did. Totally normal, right?"

Her life was ridiculous. She knew that.

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh, that old story," Rey teased.

[notallbluemonks]

"Right?" Beau snorted a laugh and felt a little bit of her pessimism melt away at the sound of it. Not much, but just enough to take most of the weight off her fear of the future, and for that she was silently grateful. "It was an adventure. Creepy old snake temples on jungle islands and underwater ruins and shit like that. I keep going back and forth on whether it was the kind of thing you'd have been into or not."