Atlas Gym; Tuesday [05/02].

[sword_chocobro]

Thankfully, the werebeasts had seemed to leave the gym relatively alone through their whole little rampage through the island; he'd spent a good deal of yesterday just double-checking for any damages on the equipment that might not be immediately noticeable, but everything had passed inspection, with the exception of a few weight machines that came off a little wonky. It had been revealed, however, that this was because one of the staff had been hitting them a bit too hard over the weekend, and the damages were completely unrelated to any animals.

Except, of course, the absolute beast she became when in the groove.

So those ones had some Out of Order signs on them, but there was still plenty of equipment to go around.

Well, except for the rowing machines; there was a group of gremlins that had sort of taken over those that Tuesday, with one of them wearing a nautical cap and occasionally blowing on a whistle to keep the others in pace with each other in a way that made Gladio kind of wonder if they had some sort of rowing team or were just really serious about prepping for an excursion out to the Isle of Ikea.

Atlas is open!

Comments

[mylandmyrules]

Nell came in for her usual early morning workout after her run. She stopped dead when she saw the gremlins on the rowing machines. "Guess I won't be using those today."

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio met that comment with a faint grin and a shrug of his shoulders. "Could always enforce a time limit on 'em if you really had your heart set on rowing today," he offered, "or just harrass 'em a little until they move along. Pretty sure that one with the yellow stripe is overdue on his membership payment, anyway."

[mylandmyrules]

"No, no," Nell said. "I didn't have my heart set on it, so I think I'll just let them be. My luck I'd get bitten and turn into a werebeast that just showed up late."

[sword_chocobro]

"Biting," Gladio assured her, in no uncertain terms, "is definitely a bannable offense. They know the rules."

And who didn't love a little impromptu gremlin-tossing on a Tuesday morning?

Mentioning the werebeasts, however, did cause him to pause a moment and give Nell a bit of a once-over. He knew that the people who did get bitten ended up recovered once they turned back, but he also knew that the same couldn't be said for those who may have sustained injuries in other ways during the whole...kerfuffle.

"You make it through all that okay?" he wondered, pretty sure he hadn't heard her name much on those broadcasts, but he never listened as closely as Ignis did.

[mylandmyrules]

"I did," Nell assured him. "I just hunkered down in my house and stayed out of all the ruckus. And you? Were you okay?"

[hasaknightjob]

When Marc spotted Nell he gave a nod of greeting. "Hey. How's it going?"

[mylandmyrules]

"Good, and you?" she asked. "You guys missed a lot of craziness last week!"

Funny how that always seemed to happen.

[hasaknightjob]

It really was! But what were the odds that a guy connected to the god of the moon would be overpowered in a way that's no fun for anyone in any way useful for a fight against werecreatures? That was as silly to suggest as it would be to imagine that if someone wrote some sort of official story about him, perhaps even one with pictures, said story might have even been about a werewolf in the first place!

Tsk. Such silliness, Nell.

"Looks like," Marc said. He looked her over to see if she was sporting any new injuries. "You okay? Assuming you would have called if you needed help."

[mylandmyrules]

"I'm fine," Nell assured him, "But no, I wouldn't have called. You guys were in London! I wouldn't have called you back from there!"

[somethingwithturquoise]

After getting more than enough of an extra workout on her arms last week, Summer decided that today should definitely be a leg day, which meant breezing in with a pair of cute shorts to show off said legs, and a good shirt to match.

And, of course, that also meant giving off a trilling "Hiiiiiii, Gladio~!" on her way over to toss her bag aside and start warming up for the day, too.

[sword_chocobro]

"Summer." Gladio greeted her with the customary, mildly-amused nod; the quips on the shirts were definitely doing in their job in being more memorable than Random Pink Spandex Outfit Number 4567, at least. "Squats, huh? Bold choice."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc stopped by the gym around his usual time. He took in the sight of the gremlins and just kept on going. Not like he was a rowing machine person in general anyway.

Besides, given the various things weighing on his thoughts, today seemed like a good one for punching bags.

[sword_chocobro]

And, of course, at some point that seemed like a good moment to do so, Gladio came around, silver moon sticker extended his way on a fingertip with a nod. "Marc."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc might have stared at the moon sticker a little bit longer than usual before taking it and putting it on his water bottle. "Gladio. Looks like you missed the worst of the damage."

[sword_chocobro]

And Gladio may have met that slightly extended stare with a bit of a quirked brow before he sort of just shrugged a shoulder and glanced toward the weight machines with the signs posted up. "Any damage this place took," he said, "was entirely incidental and unrelated. Guess werebeasts aren't really into the whole fitness thing. How you been? You make out of everything okay?"

[hasaknightjob]

"We were out of town," Marc said. Which, given the conversation he'd ended up having with Khonshu, was making Marc wonder if that had been a coincidence. "You get to have any fun?"

[stykera]

Maybe if Stark were a little faster or a little stronger he wouldn't have ended up a very large and angry raccoon last week. Maybe.

Maybe if he were a little stronger or a little faster he might avoid such situations in the future. Maybe.

He was walking into the gym, looking only a little bit lost, to hopefully make a start at improving things. And maybe work off some excess energy.

[sword_chocobro]

That's exactly what Gladio had been telling you, Stark!

But he seemed both pleased and mildly impressed to have Stark finally wandering his way, slightly adrift though he may be, through the door, and not only quirked a chin up in his direction in greeting when he saw him, but went so far as to lift a hand, as well, before heading over.

"Hey, Stark! Good to see you finally make it in! Feeling up to getting started yet?"

[stykera]

"It seemed like a good idea," Stark said. "After last week. I...I tried to help and things only got worse."

And he had so much guilt, Gladio. So much.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio gave a small, sympathetic wince at that. "Yeahhhh," he said, trying very hard (okay, maybe not that hard) to not think of Prompto right then, "that is...unfortunately an all too common thing. That's rough, man. You doing okay, though? How worse are we talking?"

[stykera]

"I was meant to be helping with the angry sloth and I turned into a large angry raccoon instead. And I tried to attack Summer. More than once."

So much guilt!

"She knocked me out. More than once."

Why did that make Stark smile a little? Who could say, really.

"And the regular raccoons were following me around and cheering."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve arrived at just past "oh my God, why" o'clock in the morning. "We're heading to O'ahu later today," he explained, smiling.

[sword_chocobro]

Which was, of course, the optimal time for any workout.

"I have no idea where that is," Gladio responded, smiling right back and not even a little ashamed about it.

[grenadesandohana]

"It's an island in the Pacific," Steve explained. "It's where my other job is, and one of Danny and my coworkers is getting married this weekend. It's beautiful there," he added. "Lots of beach, lots of sun." He grinned. "Very few shirts."

[sword_chocobro]

"Sounds like my kind of place."

Especially the disparity of shirts, but so help him, if he didn't love a good beach jog through all that sand.

Gladio then peeled off a silver star sticker from the sheet he'd had in his pocket and handed it over to Steve, balanced on the end of his finger.

"Good luck, though," he added, a totally normal thing to tell people before a wedding, really! "Hope everything goes well."

Sure, the last two weddings Gladio had been to had been fine, but all it took was one doozy like the one before that to sort of put a damper on things.