Atlas Gym; Sunday [04/16].

[sword_chocobro]

Sunday was usually a break day for training, but, usually, on a Sunday, Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto didn't exactly have a sudden trio of offspring from an impossible future that never was. And while yesterday was sort of just spent trying to wrap their heads around that (and for the kids themselves to wrap their heads around this future where they definitely would never exist), today, apparently, seemed to be filled with....honestly, just sort of seeing what the kids were made of.

It was mostly Fort's idea. Fortis Amicitia, 115th Shield to the King of Lucis....or, he would be, anyway, once King Noctis' reign was over and King Regis the Second's would begin, but, for now, he was just training, and, at fourteen, he still had a long way to go. Avis...Avis Highwind, it should be noted, not Scientia, and the oldest of the trio...agreed it could be useful, perhaps there were techniques that their fathers had picked up in this alternate timeline that they could still find useful, even though the threat of daemons had long been abolished before they were even born. And Cidney Argentum, much like her own father, seemed just lucky to be there, her own talents falling more in line with her mother's mechanical acumen, but of course she'd been trained to be a solid hand at firearms.

So....they had a gym. They had the time. Might as well make use out of that space, to get to know each other and what sort of skills they could impart to the kids, and maybe share a few stories for them to take back with them to this perfect little version of Insomnia that seemed impossible to them, but couldn't help being intrigued about, anyway.

Besides, the training helped them all focus on something else other than a certain sort of anger or disappointment or longing for what might have been.

Atlas is open!

Comments

[dragoon_chocobro]

Avis felt a little compelled, to remind Fort to take a break every once in a while, but she couldn't blame him...nor was she surprised, with how well she knew him....that he wanted to keep pushing with his training. She, however, was not quite so dedicated, and had to admit, she preferred just stepping back for a little, rehydrating, and just watching with a certain fascination at how different their fathers all were, in this world.

The debate between which was a bigger shot, discovering your father was blind or discovering that he had a whole different family was one that she and Cidney were going to debate together for years to come, probably. Fort really did have it easiest, in the case. The only thing different that really stood out about his father was just how much angrier he seemed. He tried to hide it, of course, but Avis could tell. Reading people had always been what she'd done best, and this whole weekend had made for very interesting observations.

[shield_chocobro]

"Oy! Avis!" At one point, Fort made sure to get her attention. Even if he knew she was probably paying attention to literally everything around her, that was just what she did, he wanted to make absolutely sure she saw him taking a break and pointedly drinking some water, so that she'd have no excuse to harp on him about it later.

So, look, Avis, he was being good, and drinking about half of a bottle of water right now.

The other half was going over his head and sweaty chest for an extra cool down. Sans shirt, of course. You're welcome, Avis.

[dragoon_chocobro]

Avis just shook her head and faintly sighed.

"I swear to Titan," she murmured, mostly under her breath, "if he loses another shirt in here somehow..."

[grease_chocobro]

Mostly under her breath, sure, but Cidney caught it pretty easy as she had drifted over to Avis, pausing only to take a moment to enjoy the show. "I definitely wouldn't mind," she noted, with a bit of a wistful sigh and a shake of her own head about how unfair it was that Amicitias existed, but it was an unfairness she was happy to suffer.

[dragoon_chocobro]

Avis gave Cidney a very familiar side-eye, but there was something almost a little indulgent in the look, almost a little grateful, even, knowing what a shock yesterday had been to the other girl. "You'd better get some of that water for yourself, Cidney," she said, with a lift of her chin that direction, "although we all know how little it would do to quench your thirst."

[mylandmyrules]

Nell had just thought, since the gym seemed open, that a quiet work out - away from all the children and her ideas and dreams of what might have been if her life had been different - would be good. She was not expecting the three friends and a number of what she assumed were their children.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, coming to a stop when she was barely through the door. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I can just..." She gestured back to the outside.

[sword_chocobro]

Even with everything going on, Gladio's attention was pretty well trained on noticing when someone was coming into the gym, and there was definitely enough room in the gym for people to work out on their own without getting in the way of the multi-generational Kingsglaive training sess that had popped up. But the fact that it was Nell coming in...and that she immediately seemed ready to flee the second she saw everyone...well, that was a little different.

"No, no," he called out to her, giving a nod to Prompto and Fort and giving Iggy a faint nudge to sort of excuse himself so that he wasn't just shouting at her from across the gym. "Don't worry about it, you're not interrupting anything, Nell. Come on in, we'll try to keep it down."

Fort looked over at Avis for a moment, who quirk a brow, and then looked at Cidney, who just shrugged her shoulders, and wondered if she could use this as an opportunity to take a break herself, too.

[mylandmyrules]

"Oh no, you don't have to keep it down," Nell said quickly. "I just didn't expect - I mean, I should have... You all look quite busy. And very good, very proficient. I don't want to intrude. I know, well, these days don't last long."

She still looked a bit ready to flee, there in her skirty-pants hovering in the doorway.

[sword_chocobro]

And it was that quickness and that sort-of babbling and mostly the feeling of a startled rabbit ready to just scamper off into the bushes that had Gladio calling out over his shoulder, "Alright, everyone, take five!" Then grabbing his shirt and tugging it on as he made his way over to Nell.

If anything, no matter how much the kids showing up meant getting to play-pretend Shield of the King again, he wasn't anymore. He was, however, the owner of a gym, and Nell a valued customer, right?

"We've been going at it for a while now, anyway," he assured her. "Well overdue for a break. Don't even worry about it."

[mylandmyrules]

Was it wrong that a small part of Nell was disappointed that he'd put his shirt back on? Probably. It was abit more comfortable for her though.

"So," she said, coming further into the gym. "I see you have visitors. They seem very good at all this. Me and my litle forms couldn't hold a candle. But maybe I could watch a little? I might learn something?"

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio wasn't usually in the habit of just putting on shirts, Nell, so....

"Yeah, well," he shrugged, swiping the heel of his hand across his brow to take care of the sweat that now threatened to drip into his eyes now that his movement wasn't helpfully whisking it away, and then placing his hands on his hips a little as he breathed out and took a glance back at the various ways in which the kids did and didn't take that break. "They've pretty much been training like this their whole lives, so I should hope so."

Even though he had to admit, he couldn't help feeling a little worried that the three of them had had it a bit too easy, given their circumstances, and were a little softer than they should have been, but he was trying not to think about all of that too much, because all that was...

...ugh. Complicated.

"But, yeah, sure, if you want. Or you could join in. Maybe they could learn a thing or two, themselves. Or maybe I will." He gave her a faint grin. "Who knows?"

[mylandmyrules]

That made her laugh. "Oh yes, I'm sure I have so much to teach them. Though if we were outside I could make vines grab at them - that might be new. But if you're sure I wouldn't be imposing, yes, I'd like that. I could always stand to learn new things."

She felt safe with Gladio - or as safe as she ever felt - and comfortable enough to think he'd let her know if he truly preferred she leave.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio's brows lifted a little. "Actually," he said, "that vines idea might not be a bad one. I can guarantee they've probably never encountered anything quite like that before. But we'll hold that thought."

There was a slight hesitation, then, and a small sigh he might not have been entirely aware of, before he offered, "Wanna meet 'em? Probably make them feel a little less performance anxiety if we're throwing an audience at 'em."

[mylandmyrules]

"It's one I don't practice much for obvious reasons," Nell said, "So I'm happy to do so sometime."

She caught the hesitation and the sigh. "If you'd like," she said. "I wouldn't want them to be uncomfortable, though I doubt any of them have performance anxiety," she teased.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio snorted a little bit at that. "You'd be surprised," he said. "But...you know, then? About the whole...thing this weekend? The kids from alternate realities?"

The way Nell was reacting, it seemed like she did, but he figured he'd better make sure to prevent this from being more confusing and awkward than it probably already would be.

[mylandmyrules]

She nodded. "Didn't spend four years here as a student without noticing. Never had any children show up for me, but then that's not surprising."

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio grunted a little, feeling like maybe his situation right now wasn't all that complicated after all, considering what Nell's had been, while she was a student here, but that wasn't anything to bring up now. "Definitely pretty surprising to me," he admitted, "though I guess it shouldn't be; even Iggy and Prompto had one together at one point, back in the day..."

And it had been a whole thing, because the kid was basically spitting prophecies the whole time about what actually did end up happening, and Ignis had been obsessed with trying to use that knowledge to prevent it, and, well...clearly, that worked out great for them. And now...

"Well, come on, then," he said, cocking his head toward the training space and then turning to lead her over there. "Before they get too lazy with the break. Turns out, we got one of each. Well, Prompto got two, but his other one's Liz's, too, and he....this isn't really his thing. Bonus points if you can guess which is whose."

It was a real tough one, too, between the bouncy blonde who couldn't stand still, the shirtless one twirling a sword as big as he was, and the serious one who gave off the energy that she was too old to be participating in an event like this despite only being fifteen. A real headscratcher, here.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell looked at the three of them and grinned. "No real challenge there unless they're totally playing against type."

She made her way over to them, nodding to Prompto and adding a quiet hello to Ignis to show she'd acknowledged him as well. "Hello," she said politely. "My apologies for interrupting your training and family time. I'm Nell Ingram."

[sword_chocobro]

Prompto had been sort of wondering if Nell was going to be coming over, and when she did, he gave her a bit of a nervous smile and a lift of his hand in a wave. "H-hey, Nell," he said, trying, and failing, to not feel sort of awkward about it all and look almost apologeticly over at Cidney, who was regarding all of this with two very lifted eyebrows. "How's it going?"

From Ignis, there was a nod of acknowledgement and a greeting back, and then Gladio grunted, and said, "Well? Don't be rude. Introduce yourselves."

"Cidney Argentum, ma'am," said the blonde girl, with a familiar lopsided grin and a quirk of her hand (and practice pistol) in the air. "Nice to meet'ya."

"Avis Highwind," the serious girl's nod was almost an exact replica of Ignis', although there was a clear marked difference in the way it was followed with a tilt of her head as she seemed to look Nell over.

And, finally, the boy stepped forward, sword slung back and resting on his shoulder to free up a hand that he offered out to Nell, after wiping the sweat from it on his pants. "Fortis Amicitia."

"Nell's a friend of mine," Gladio explained to the kids, his voice taking on a distinctly firm, almost militaristic gruffness and shortness to it. "She might help us out with our training today, too, but first, she's got to see if it's even worth her time. Warm up's over, yeah?"

"Yes, Sir!" the all barked back in unison while Gladio kept his face very implacable.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell nodded back to Prompto, Cidney, and Avis, and shook Fortis' somewhat damp hand. "I'm pleased to meet you all and see what you have to show me."

She figured she'd follow Gladio's lead and kept her expression carefully composed, even if she had to fight a little twitch of amusement as they responded back in chorus.

[shield_chocobro]

"Back to it, then?" asked Fort, with a big, eager grin, clearly excited to return to work. Avis took a moment to tilted her head one way, then another, and went to fetch a long, slim lance, and Cidney let out a snort.

"No rest for the wicked, right?" she chirped, and they looked at Gladio expectantly as he considered them carefully, before giving instructions for a 2 on 3 pincer, divide and conquer.

"Two on three?" Fort gave him a speculative look.

"I'll be taking notes," Gladio explained, quirking a chin to nudge him back out there, and he shook his head, twirled his sword, and before long, initiated the first move in getting the mock battle started again.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell perched on a bench out of the way, watching with amazement as they went through their paces. She'd never seen anything like this before, except perhaps as a scene from a movie.