Atlas Gym; Tuesday [03/28].

[sword_chocobro]

There was some discussion that day, between Gladio and some of the other staff that was in that day, of getting a vending machine or two for the gym's lobby, and mostly what should go into them. Sports drinks, bottled waters, things like that for the beverage one, and various protein bars, trail mixes, other healthy snacks for the other, but, of course, there would come the inevitable moment where Gladio (maybe joking? Probably not) suggested they just get one that served nothing but Cup Noodle^TM, and he was definitely pulling his Boss Privilege on this one, much to the disparaging look of his employees.

"What?" he asked, with an absolutely unapologetic chuckle and an unabashed smirk. "You guys voted me into this position, you have no one to blame but yourselves."

This may have inspired whispers of an uprising, but, either way, Gladio had surprisingly interesting material on vending machine vendors, and they could try and veto their corporate shill of a boss all they wanted.

Atlas is open!

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer may have gotten a pretty good workout last night, sure, but that wasn't any reason to skip out on her new regular gym day today! Especially not since she already had another new cute workout get-up to prance around in.

Yeah, there was a lot of her budget being poured into exercise clothes right now, but, hey! At least she wasn't using her ex's credit card to pay for them any more! Progress!

"Hiiiiiii, Gladio~!" she sang as she bounced in and passed him by while flitting her way over to a treadmill.

[sword_chocobro]

You know...considering the drinks that had been brought his way last night, Gladio shouldn't have been surprised that this was going to be a regular thing now, should he? But hey, if it was getting her in the gym and actually working out (which she'd been doing, so kudos to her there), then he could hardly complain, really.

"Summer." He nodded a greeting back. "Weights again later?"

[grenadesandohana]

"Morning, brah," Steve said, grinning as he came in. "Did you get the ab jiggler working?"

There had to be a better name for that, Steve.

[sword_chocobro]

Absolutely not. That was the perfect name for it.

"Sorry to disappoint," Gladio grunted with a grin, "but it's someone else's problem now. Found a new home over in the junkyard, with the rest of that crap. But if you're really heartbroken about not getting to use it, I can always look into ordering a new one."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve laughed. "I think I'll stick with crunches, but thanks."

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio nodded. "Offer'll be standing," he said, "if you change your mind, but, yeah, obviously, nothing wrong with sticking with what works, right? How you been?"

[grenadesandohana]

"Good," Steve said, smiling. "Kind of bummed not to be a firefighter this weekend, though. The Trooper Station's pretty quiet."

[sword_chocobro]

"Did you at least get a chance to help out?" Gladio wondered. "That seems the kind of thing where any extra, capable hands would have been helpful, firefighter or not."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve shook his head. "It was better to not get in the way of the pros."

And his canon didn't have firefighter crossover shows, sadly.

[sword_chocobro]

"I guess that's one way to look at it, too," Gladio allowed, since there'd definitely been time where he, the professional, felt that.

Often with his own teammates, but that was beside the point.

"Glad you got to avoid it, then. I'd suggest maybe considering a career change for the next one, but as soon as you do that, the island'll hit a crime spree or something, I'm sure."

[grenadesandohana]

"I would loooove a crime spree," Steve said. Like a weirdo.

[sword_chocobro]

"I'd offer to help," Gladio said with a snort, "but I gotta admit, I think I prefer staying on this side of the law when I can."

[grenadesandohana]

"I appreciate that," Steve said, grinning. "Taking you down seems like it'd be a huge pain in the ass."

[sword_chocobro]

"You're definitely not wrong," Gladio agreed, with a self-satisfied kind of nod at picturing how that would probably go down. "I'd definitely make it worth your while, at least."

[grenadesandohana]

"Could be kind of fun," Steve said.

[sword_chocobro]

"You guys really need some stuff to do around here," Gladio snorted, "don't you?"

[grenadesandohana]

Steve groaned. "We really do."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc came into the gym around his usual time. He kept his gym bag with him instead of shoving it in a locker. Because if Gladio was going to be nice enough to provide the appropriate practice targets, Marc was going to bring knives to practice with.

[sword_chocobro]

It wasn't as if Gladio had to do much to provide those targets, since Ignis already used them on the oh-so-handwavey regular. Besides, it was a business. If the people wanted it and it would get used, then it would just be stupid not to meet those demands.

But Gladio definitely was making his rounds, of course, and when he got to Marc, he was peeling off a gold star sticker and holding it out to him on the tip of his finger, with a nod.

"Marc."

[hasaknightjob]

"Gladio," Marc said with a nod. The sticker went onto his water bottle to join the growing population of others. "Figured I'd do a little target practice."

[sword_chocobro]

"Mind an audience?" Gladio asked, with another nod, of approval. "Gotta admit, I've been a little curious about your technique."

[hasaknightjob]

"Don't mind," Marc said. He bent down to put his water bottle on the floor beside his bag, then unzipped the bag to get the case with his knives out. "These aren't anything special. The ones I use on the job come with the armor."

[sword_chocobro]

"A matched set, huh?" asked Gladio, with an amused quirk of his eye. "Fancy."

[hasaknightjob]

"With the armor?" Marc asked. "Yeah, I guess. There's a theme."

Totally impossible to guess what the theme was though. No way. For real. Never guess it.

[sword_chocobro]

"And who doesn't love a good theme?"

Or, at the very least, a good dose of solid brand loyalty. Not that he'd know anything about that.

[hasaknightjob]

"Saves me having to pick it," Marc said. He then gave Gladio a wry look. "Last chance to leave if you don't trust my aim."

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio barked out a laugh. "Well, I did up until just now!" he remarked, but then, grinning, he folded his arms in front of his chest and sort of leaned back a little as if getting settled into his spot. "But now I've really got to see for myself how bad it actually is. It's fine. I hear the clinic's already cleared up after the weekend, and everything."

Been a while, since he'd gotten any new scars!

[hasaknightjob]

"Be nice and I'll call a rickshaw to take you over," Marc said.

Marc took a few knives in his left hand, squared up, then threw them at a practice dummy one right after the other, thunk thunk thunk. They hit squarely where he wanted, heart, face, neck.

He wasn't a Hawkeye or a still-powered Diego. Nobody would mistake him for someone who uncannily never missed. But he definitely came off as someone who'd thrown plenty of blades in his time and didn't worry much about them getting where he needed them to be.

[sword_chocobro]

"Yeah, somehow I'm getting the feeling that any trips to the clinic aren't going to be accidental," Gladio offered from the peanut gallery. "But it could just be beginner's luck. Not bad, though."

[hasaknightjob]

"Lotta practice," Marc said. He went to get the knives out of the dummy. "This part's easier when they come back to me."

[sword_chocobro]

"That's how I feel about how I used to be able to summon up my sword out of nowhere," Gladio remarked with a snort. "That another perk of your armor?"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc nodded to show he could appreciate the usefulness of having a sword that could be summoned out of nowhere. "Yeah. The weapons that come with the suit can do that. It's handy."

[sword_chocobro]

"Magic?" Gladio guesses next. "Or something different?"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc shrugged. "God stuff. Guess you could call it magic? It's not technology."

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio nodded. "I'd definitely file 'god stuff' under magic."

[hasaknightjob]

"There's all kinds of different powers where I come from," Marc said. He waved it off with a free hand. "I'm fine knowing mine come from a god and there you go. Whatever anybody else does is their deal."