Fandom Island and Town

Gladio was switching up the motivational stickers this week, especially since they were in February now, so all the January Resolutionists who weren't really going to stick with it had already filtered out. He still had silver and gold stars, but he'd added a few workout specific ones to the offerings this week, too.

The Cup Noodle^TM stickers he'd also ordered, however, were all for him. And,well, maybe if you really impressed him.

Atlas is open!

It was that time of year again. That inexplicable rush of randos getting gym memberships for their New Years resolutions, so the gym was incredibly busy this week. But Gladio knew those numbers would start dwindling dramatically once they reached February. And he was a little bit of two minds about the whole thing. Obviously, the more people working out and getting healthier, the better. But some of these wayfair workouters were just kind of obnoxious.

So there were extra signs reminding people of gym etiquette and rules (not that many of them would read them) and he had to tell several people it was best to just leave the gremlins alone, and he had to kick one guy out already for taking out his frustration in the Cup Noodle^TM claw machine.

And you know that wasn't going to fly around here!

Atlas is open!

There was a Christmas tree in the weight area of the gym! There were even presents underneath it! All of them wrapped in some truly appropriate, decidedly amazing, and entirely expected wrapping paper, too! And the best thing was? You could have one of them after your workout!

There was just one caveat, as proclaimed by the big sign hanging on the tree:

No Lift, No Gift!

So come get your pump on and take home some festively-offered Atlas swag, like water bottles and t-shirts, small weights, protein bars and shakes, and fitness dice.

Yeah, that's right. Fitness dice.

And obviously Cup Noodle^TM, but that went without saying!

Either way, Gladio thought it might be a fun incentive to hit the weights and if not? Well, you can't say he didn't try.

And hopefully it would make up for the "Out of Order!" signs on the locker rooms due to the fact that your only option is to either shower in mulled wine or hot chocolate today, but, hey, if that's what you're into...

Atlas is open!

Well, it would seem that the pillow forts had disappeared from the classroom space, but Gladio had to doublecheck the books when he passed by and saw a lot of activity going on inside, but not from a bunch of gremlins. Sure enough, though, there was a class in there for...a bunch of turkeys, just running around in circles, gobbling away and flapping their big feathers.

He barely even needed to look at Sonja for her to offer an explanation.

"They're preparing," she said, "for a Turkey Trot." A pause, and she elaborated: "It's a marathon race run around Thanksgiving time."

Another pause, but Gladio wast he one to fill it this time: "You mean the holiday where people eat turkey?"

Yet another pause still and Sonja winced, "This just got way darker than what we bargained for, didn't it?"

Gladio grunted an agreement, and then went to go get the straws ready because he knew already it was going to be a thing trying to determine which of the staff was going to get the task of cleaning up all those feathers once the turkeys cleared out.

Atlas is open!

Gladio didn't really know why the classroom space was filled with pillows and blankets right now; he mostly just felt like he'd maybe missed something, but the gremlins were busy doing....something with them all in there, and it was there allotted time in the space, so he wasn't going to question it as long as no one got hurt. And if someone got hurt with a bunch of blankets and pillows, then he'd almost be a little impressed.

What he did know was that the Pumpkin Spice Cup Noodles^TM were back in the claw machine, and he'd managed to snag a few to enjoy when he took some downtime in the office.

Yes. Enjoy. He did skip the whipped cream, sure, but honestly, this was probably one of the last remaining visages Pumpkin Spice to linger before things made a more definitive turn toward the peppermint, so he was going to appreciate it before it was shoved out by more wintry holiday cheer.

Atlas is open!

Now Gladio was feeling a little more ready to get back on with business as usual, with a little space and a little discussion with Nell about Iris' unexpected visit that weekend. There was a still a lot to consider with starting to poke their noses back into Eos a little bit, but, considering what happened last time....

Yeah, none of them seemed in any real big rush to have something opened up for them just to have that door slammed shut behind them again. And it was weird thinking about how, not even two years ago, Gladio would have leaped straight into the first chance he got to return but, well....a lot could happen in two years.

And a lot could happen over a single weekend, too.

"Dammit, Iris!" Gladio said, looking at the nearly empty Cup Noodle^TM claw machine in the lobby with no small amount of shock and a good slice of pride in there, too. "I knew I shouldn't have given you all those quarters."

First thing he was going to do was text her (oh, you know, just texting his sister, like...no big deal!!) to let her knew exactly how many new containers of Cup Noodle^TM he owed her, and try to think of rebuttals to her argument that she'd won them all fair and square!

Atlas Gym is open!

The new stereo had come in yesterday and it was still working very well, not getting stuck on any songs at all, and the staff was under strict instructions to not let any of the gremlins near it if they could help it. This meant that Gladio had to deal with a couple of any gremlins that morning, giving him the stink eye, but he was fine with that. They knew what they did.

But, to kind of ease tensions a little bit, too, there was a Music Playlist Suggestion Box set up at the reception desk in the lobby now, too, with little cards to even include what time and days you were at the gym so that it could be more likely to hear what you wanted to hear while you worked out if you weren't working out to your own jams.

Gladio wasn't going to put it together; he was absolutely sending that task over to Prompto, because Prompto would go nuts for something like that, but it felt like a good compromise over, you know, letting gremlins play the same exact song on repeat all godsdamned day.

Atlas is open!

To say that Gladio was intrigued when he came in to find a couple of boxes of Cup NoodleTM on his desk was an understatement, and he quirked a brow at his staff and had to ask what they wanted that they needed to butter him up or bribe him for.

There were a few pouts that he would think they would stoop so low, but then they revealed that Sonja was going to the nationals for Competitive Cup Stacking, but she wanted to rep Atlas properly by stacking only Cup Noodle^TM cups, but in order to do that, they needed empty ones, and, well, who better to turn to tha--

They needn't say a work further.

Gladio was happy yo do his part in contributing to the cause.

(And they were all....especially his sodium intake...we're getting raises that week).

Atlas is open!

To say that Gladio was on the fence about whether to tackle the hot tub project himself or to hire a professional to do it was a little inaccurate; he was definitely strongly on one side, but he wanted to do plenty of research before deciding which side to stay on. Which is why, outside his usual rounds that would put him out and about during the peak times people came in so he could at least say hello, he was in the office doing some research and on the phone with the guys who did the maintenance and parts for the pool.

And, honestly? It kept him out of the whole debate and discussion the staff was having about the Olympics. But don't worry. If you were into that thing, they were almost all more than happy to get you on board with the discussion and get your input for the actual board they were using in the lobby to keep track of the proceedings and events.

Atlas is open!

It had been a pretty normal day at the gym at the start. Everything seemed to be fine, nothing too far out of the ordinary. There had been an attempt to make a joke about the AC being broken that went over like a lead brick in this heat, but, thankfully, the AC was working just fine.

Eventually, though, it would seem, that the pool filter was not, so, eventually, Gladio was dragged away to deal with that, having to make a few calls and hopefully getting that fixed soon because it was getting to be good time for people to remember that there was even a pool here, and then he was left trying to decide if he needed to put into place some sort of rules and regulations about raccoon pool useage, since it turned out the problem was all thanks to the filter getting clogged with raccoon hair after their early-morning water aerobics class.

Atlas is open!

There was a new flavor of Cup Noodle^TM in the claw machine that morning, and the staff was so excited about it that they texted Gladio even before he came in to let him know that he was probably going to be pretty stoked about it.

It was Cup Noodle^TM, you guys. Of course he was going to be stoked about it!

But there was, he admitted, a small pang of disappointment once he got in that Tuesday and finally got to see what all the fuss was about.

"Oh, man," he said, laughing. "Terrible timing. Just when I decided to move away from the camping and focus on swords instead!"

You'd better believe he was spending a good portion of his morning at the claw machine until he got himself a couple of those bad boys for himself! And, once he did, he might need to take a moment to swing by the diner and show it off to Iggy. He'd love that!

Atlas is open!

The ping pong table had been moved from Gladio's office, and it now sat in the lobby, where a sign-up sheet had been put up for a tournament that weekend, which seemed to mostly just be amongst the staff so far. But who knew? Maybe it would gain some traction throughout the week. Gladio didn't really have a lot of high hopes for it; the people who came to this gym definitely weren't coming here for ping pong, but you never knew. It definitely seemed like the kind of thing that raccoons and gremlins could get a little crazy for.

Which ultimately just meant that Atlas would probably be a good place to avoid this weekend.

For now, Gladio's attention would be in figuring out if he wanted to rearrange some things to get the table on the floor, so to speak, because he could already tell there'd be some heartbreak if he suggested just getting rid of the thing.

Atlas is open!

[[ apparently, the mysteriously appearing ping pong table in our conference room is for a 'summertime tournament'. like you do. ]]

Every so often, Gladio would get some mail for the gym that involved advertisements for gym equipment or programs and flyers for new products that he, for the most part, regarded with a mild interest in case there was anything good in there, but, usually, he disregarded them and sent them into the recycling. What they had going for them right now seemed to work, so he wasn't looking to revolutionize anyone's workouts with the latest and greatest new technology that was basically glorified versions of what they already had.

But there was one flyer that seemed to have sparked a bit of discussion among the staff, one that suggested the bold strategy of replacing all the treadmills with people-sized hamster wheels.

"Or maybe," Sonja suggested, "they're just wheels for the giant hamster clientele."

There was...a pause.

"You know," Gladio had to admit, "I want to refuse that by saying we haven't got any giant hamsters, but it's Fandom, so that's just asking for me to put my foot right in my mouth, isn't it?"

"That one kid had a pretty big capybara," Sonja also pointed out.

"....I'll think about it," he said, saving the flyer from the bin and setting it aside, to a cheering approval from Sonja, and then they all went back to their business, and Gladio was going to try not to think about exactly why Sonja seemed so enthused about them getting giant hamster wheels in the first place...

Atlas is open!

Gladio was spending a little less time just doing his rounds and tending to administrative tasks today, and a little more time just sort of hitting the weights and at one point one of the punching bags, in a way to sort of work through some of his distracted thoughts about the Jetty's he'd found yesterday. Unsurprisingly, when he swung by Portalocity before coming in to talk with the gnomes, they....well, understandably, they were a little reluctant to deal with him, especially when they had bad news, because of how he'd kind of acted when he'd first got stuck here, but after some convincing that he'd settled down with all that now, they looked into it and reported that, yeah, no, access to Eos seemed to still be blocked or even nonexistent. Which meant he'd just have to wait on what Summer came up with on the store's end.

But waiting for answers meant thinking about all the other questions that had cropped up, and thinking about those questions and not being entirely sure of those answers left Gladio feeling pretty out of sorts that day, and trying to just not think about it in the best ways he knew how: distraction through sweat and (eventually) Cup Noodle^TM.

Atlas is open!

The last few weeks had felt more than a little off, especially with the end of the semester and whatever had gone down while Gladio had been stuck as a plant, so he came into the gym with the intention to get focused and back on track with the usual steady rhythm of things. Thankfully, he knew his staff was pretty good about keeping up with things no matter what the island was throwing at anyone at any given time, and if he needed any sort of reassurance that he didn't need to worry, it was coming in to find the Cup Noodle^TM nice and stocked with some of his favorite flavors.

No new ones, either, which was good, because that meant he wasn't going to get distracted trying to get it, and could just get his work done, taking a few breaks from being holed up in his office all day to do some rounds and maybe squeeze in a rep or two here and there.

Atlas is open!

Today ended up being one of those days when it was a good thing Gladio was doing rounds, so that he could wander into the weight area at some point to find someone definitely not using standard weights in his workout.

Which meant that he had two tasks to focus on today: one, making a sign for the weight room that emphasized that only standard and approve weights were allowed, especially since he was pretty sure he saw some gremlins eying this happen and contemplating the same thing; and two, seeing about maybe removing that ceiling fan.

Sure, it had only been an issue because they'd been acting like idiots, but, as a tall man who'd known at handful of people even taller, he could see that becoming a problem even beyond weight room shenanigans.

Atlas is open!

Well, last night had been a nice little celebration of it, but today was the actual date of Gladio's birthday, and, if any of the gym regulars didn't know it already, they sure would now. He wasn't at all surprised, but still a little touched and pleased and amused, to come in that morning to find the staff decked out the lobby with the expected HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLADIO! banner, strung up with empty Cup Noodle^TM, almost like little lanterns, and the streamers were definitely meant to look like noodles, especially with the little paper boxes of orange and spheres of green meant to be carrots and peas.

"See, now," he pointed out to them with a chuckle, "that's just not fair, that's just going to make everyone hungry!"

Including himself, which meant that he would likely very frequently be found carting around a container with him when he did his rounds and especially when he was in the office working on his administrative stuff.

Atlas is open!

Gladio didn't think he'd be at the gym for long that day; he figured he should at least do what he could to at least check in on things, making sure the staff was behaving themselves on this week in particular, and most of all, checking in on how the new 'Immersion' set-up for the bikes and treadmills and rowing machines had been working out. Because, yes, last week, he did temporarily borrow of a few of Lils and Igs' contractors to do a little work setting up alcoves and lining them with large screens that would play out a variety of different landscapes and trails to make it seem like, as you were jogging or biking or rowing along, you were actually kind of outside or whatever else doing it.

He thought they were pretty cool, anyway. And probably great for rainy or really cold or incredibly hot days when you'd like to experience a run through the woods or something without the trouble of dealing with any of that, and there was a lot of room to keep adding more programs if they really caught on.

Someone even offered to station themselves at the row machine ones with a spray bottle to really help the immersive feeling, but Gladio said he'd get back to them on that idea.

Atlas is open!

Gladio had a few contractors coming into the gym that day to scope out some of the areas he was thinking of remodeling to make those little 'full experience' areas inspired by the first hotel during the school trip, so that was probably going to take a good portion of his time, though they weren't coming in until the afternoon. So he was going to maybe sneak in a workout of two between some of his other tasks in the morning, although that just got him thinking that he should put a good pull-up bar in his office whenever he just wanted to get a few sets in between paperwork or phone calls or emails, and that just reminded him of the pull-up bar he'd had installed at the Covent Garden apartment way back when and then wondered what Nell would think of one being installed somewhere in the current place.

He should probably focus on making that hot tub thing happen first, and then maybe get on that. But, before any of it, he was going to focus on the changes here. But it was nice to sort of have some projects to keep him focused with some things to look forward to.

Atlas is open!

It had been a while since Gladio had dealt with some random bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid toting a backpack full of red and white balls wandering into Atlas with the very wrong impression of just what kind of gym it was, but, since it had happened before, he was a little less confused by the arrival of this one coming in and challenging him and asking about badges and more amused as he calmly explained that, no, it wasn't that kind of gym.

The whole thing, however, got just a little muddled when the gremlin aerobics class got out and the kid got all excited about some new type he'd never seen before and Gladio had to do a little chaos control when she started pulling those balls out of her backpack and trying to throw them at the gremlins in an attempt to 'catch them all.'

Look, it didn't feel good having to pretty much kick a kid out by picking them up by the scruff of their shirt and bodily removing them, but those gremlins were paying customers, kid.

Atlas is open!

Everyone was pretty sure that, no, that gremlin over there by the mats was not just being really dedicated to a corpse pose in his yoga session, but, instead, had definitely just fallen asleep. So now the real question was whether or not anyone was going to bother waking him up and risk getting bitten. There was debate, about how it would be a good display of leadership if the boss were to take care of it, and maybe he was big enough that it took more than the standard amount of venom to effect Gladio? He honestly was not interested in finding out, though he supposed he'd do it if he had to. Someone suggested drawing straws, but, at the moment, really, he didn't take up much space and as long as it wasn't causing any problems for the other patrons, they could probably just leave him there for a while.

And, after that, it just became a matter of swinging by every once in a while just to double-check that the little guy was still even breathing, but, no, they were good there, too, and, eventually, a bunch of other gremlins showed up for their aerobics class and Gladio convinced them to help out a little.

Atlas is open!

Thanks to the run with the boys being set to the tune of them inexplicably joining in on singing "Stand By Me" while they jogged through the chilly morning at the start of their day, Gladio wasn't too surprised that, when he prepared his first cup of Cup Noodle^TM for the day and started to do his rounds and checks around the gym, the staff and the gremlin morning aerobics class was treating him to a well-choreographed and frankly pretty impressive rendition of "Physical," that, honestly, he was just glad he wasn't somehow being roped into.

It must have been the protective power of the Cup Noodle^TM...

...which was very precious of Gladio to think, because, no, it was just bidding its time to strike him with a song about how much he loved noodles and the dance that went along with it.

And you know what? He couldn't even be mad, because it was true, he did love noodles.

Atlas is open!

The gym was still busier than usual that week, but a lot of that initial crowd from the week before had already been filtered out, making it hopefully a lot less chaotic for his current regulars, and which also meant that the people still there were at least serious enough about it to keep it going for another week. Which meant the stars were out that Tuesday, because, you know what? He didn't know most of these new people yet, but if there was a chance that he might get to, he'd want to, and a second week in a row deserved a silver star. It seemed to surprise a lot of them, but most of them seemed pretty charmed by it, so that felt like a good sign that, if they did keep it up, he was fostering a good relationship between them and the gym.

But, other than that, taking care of his usual rounds and admit tasks and checking in on the staff, Gladio was a bit distracted today, with the unexpected turn in the conversation between him and Nell last night and the logistics to go along with moving in.

Honestly, the biggest thing was going to have to be talking to Ignis about it, which was kind of ironic, because this last weekend was probably the most time Ignis had spent in that apartment in the last few months. But he knew Ignis, and he knew that the apartment was a safety net, a precaution, a back-up plan.

But he also knew that pointing out the fiscal drain of paying rent on an apartment you didn't even really live in anymore was a pretty solid selling point, too...

Atlas is open!

Well, Gladio was discovering that morning that the staff at Atlas didn't really waste any time, the holiday decorations, with all their great Christmas-related workout puns, had already been tucked away and replaced with reminders of the great deals they had on annual memberships, with an emphasis on keeping those new health and wellness fitness goals for the new year!

And that also included having some statistics lobbied at him about how most people stop using their new memberships well before February even came around, if they used them at all, which lead to a brainstorming session on things to help keep people coming in, since Gladio was more in this for everyone's muscle gains rather than his own financial ones.

Cup Noodles^TM and shirtlessness seemed to be the most popular suggestions, although, really, those things were already pretty much expected from their clientele these days, weren't they?

Atlas is open!

The hot topic of debate among the staff that day seemed to have been whether it was gross or not to eat chocolate coins found in your shoes...especially your gym shoes, but Gladio was just going to stay out of that one, figuring it was a good time for him to go work on some reps to avoid having to...(heh) weigh in on it.

Which gave the staff the opportunity to put a little polling sign up on the reception desk, encouraging patrons to cast their own votes on the matter.

Atlas is open!