| Angsty Athletics |
| Summary: | People train, trade blows, and hang out. Though, some leave worse off than others. |
| Date: | 22 Sep 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | Anything involving Rian and rumors. |
| Players: |
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| Athletics Area - Deck 12 - Battlestar Cerberus |
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| A large pair of mats dominates the center of this room, their centers taped-out for a small area to practice boxing or other martial arts. Around the outside are treadmills, bikes, weights, and an impressive variety of gym equipment to help tone and shape the bodies of the crew. To one side of the room is the locker room while at the rear is a hatch that leads back to the oversized swimming pool. Off to the side is a rack that holds boxing gloves, pugil sticks, and the associated pads for the sticks. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #208 |
Unusually, the athletics area is relatively quiet just now. Only a couple of off duty grunts on treadmills or pumping iron. Amongst those on the weights is Shiner, struggling hard with barely any weight on the machine, sweat pooling on his brow as he attempts to bring his forearms together and thus lift the tiny weight. For those who know him, or at least knew him and his passion for working out, it's almost embarrassing.
When the clock hit 18:00 Rian was off duty and without stopping by the berthings she went straight to the gym. In the far corner she runs in her off duty clothing, her tanks already soaked with sweat around the neck and underarms. With dark determination she turns up the tredmill, running faster now with jump in her step, other then that her features remain neutral. Every once and a while she glances over to Shiner, looking nervous as if he would break something.
The athletics area and Sergeant Lysander has plenty of energy right about now to try his hand at burning off. The fact that he is off-duty also helps and so he enters from the rear locker room in the standard affair of sweats while stretching out his upper as he patiently steps forward. It brings him past Shiner in the process and the man glances over, and then focuses on the weight. "Nice technique," is offered jokingly before he speaks up further, more sincerely as his hands lower, "Need help with that?"
Argento is just finishing up on the treadmill as Rian arrives. He makes his way over to the free weights, finds an empty bench, and adjusts the weights on the bar. He glances around to see if there's anyone who might spot him, and sees Lysander and Shiner. Lysander looks unoccupied in comparison, so Argento walks over with a smile and says hello. "Hey, can you help me out for a minute? I'm trying to go a little heavier this week and I need someone to spot me."
"Oh yeah, I'm going for a personal best," Shiner replies to Lysander, although through gritted teeth as he works, in perhaps not as light a tone as he might have hopes. "I got another twenty to do on this, but, uh… yeah. I'll need a hand in about ten minutes?"
Having not gone to her bunk Rian is without her music player and thus is more intune with what is happening around the gym then normal. Dark eyes glance to the doorway as the marine sergeant enters, surprise showing noticeably in her wide eyes. Concentration now broken she stumbles on the treadmill, a couple loud frantic stomps to keep up with the spinning rubber ribbon she throws her hand on the controls, slowing the machine and eventually stopping it. Sweat drips from her brow and beads upon the rest of her bare pale skin. Cheeks take a tinge of red as she seems slightly embarrassed by her less then graceful nature. Looking away from the group of weight lifters she moves to the rack of towels, grabbing one, opening and burying her face in the cotton as she speaks in monotone, "eve'nin folks."
Lysander looks to the held weight again and lowers his brows, briefly, before chuckling and offering a small nod to Shiner. "Personal best, eh, sounds good - let's see where you're at in ten," as obviously amused as the man is he can still agree to help out, which he does, while looking up to note the approach of someone else. "Huh? Sure, I've got nothing better to do but collect dust, and I don't like dust." He nods to Shiner and then turns more so to Argento, and in the process he's noting Rian over the other man's shoulder, "Where… where you set up?" He'll follow Argento while looking at Rian, and when she's nearer he speaks up with a light smile. "Feelin' better after last night, Rian?"
Argento hears the loud stomping coming from Rian's treadmill as she stumbles, and glances over in her direction. He nods hello to her and replies, "Evening." Turning to Lysander, he says, "Appreciate it, thanks. Over here. I'm Tony, by the way." He lies down on the bench and grips the bar with both hands, getting ready to lift it.
Shiner manages another rep, before glancing to Rian. "After last night? Was there a party I missed again or something? Shit, what is it with nobody ever inviting the cripple, huh?"
Roughly Rian wipes her brow with the towel, pushing most of her wet bangs to stick over her head. As Lysander mentions the previous night her eyes dart away, looking anywhere but to another crew member, trying to keep the embarrassment from her features and redness out of her cheeks, "Uh, yessir." She mumbles, still looking to the deck and as Shiner talks she takes the opportunity to clarify, "I managed to knock a couple nuggets into their place. And how bout you sarge? Have a good time?" Swinging the towel over her shoulder she walks to Shiner, taking a seat on the weight bench nearby. A nod towards him, "So you better behave yourself Shiner," looking around then she adds, "Where's Lurch?"
The smiling that Lysander owns grows a bit further as he follows after Argento and moves behind the bench in order to properly take on the responsibility of spotting. "Just a little spat in the galley," offhandedly explains the Sergeant as he assists in the weight-lifting. He looks down to Argento with a sharp nod. He also introduces himself in turn, "Garret." While he holds his hands out in case the weight tries to maim someone, his gaze floats briefly up and towards Rian. "Had a great one, all things considered," is his response.
"Gone for a piss," Shiner tells Rian, wrinkling his nose. "About half an hour ago, so either he's got some kind of bladder problems or he's buggered off for a shifty shuffle." He forces his arms together again with a grunt of effort and concentration, fingers curled around awkwardly like some kind of claw. He suddenly grins wickedly, waggling his eyebrows. "Tell you what, this'll shit him up. Leave the chair here, but gimme a hand to hide round the corner, yeah? When he gets back tell him I got sick of waiting and went for a run."
"Nice to meet you, Garret," Argento replies, his eyes on the bar. He takes two slow breaths, then lifts the bar up and lowers it slowly to his chest as he inhales…exhales slowly as he straightens his arms with a considerable amount of effort. "…1." Again. "…2." On 5 his arms are already shaking. On 6 he needs Lysander's help to finish his final rep. He takes a minute to catch his breath, and asks about the spat in the galley. "There was a fight last night?"
Rians dark eyes a quick yet heated look to Lysander for the briefest of seconds before flashing back to Shiner, "yup all things considered." She repeats but then switches topic, even turning her shoulders more to face the younger deckhand, a brief breathless laugh. "I bet that would piss him off good and he'll leave you in the shitter for more then is humanly necessary. Really want to take that chance." She leans forward balancing her elbows on her knees, taking the towel from her neck and holding it in her hands she replies to Tony but does not bring up her gaze, "it wasn't so much of a fight then a 'put down'. Let's just leave it at that shall we? Idle gossip rots your brain."
"All things considered," Lysander grins somewhat with the reply and then turns more of his attention towards Tony and less on the conversation that Rian and Shiner are enjoying. He only pays half a mind to the rest of the area and brings down his hands to help Argento with the weight, setting it temporarily back to the rack near to his waist. "Stationed on the Cerberus, eh? Where at?" He angles his expression curiously down to Tony, since small-talk is better than rumor-mongering, maybe.
"Weapons," replies Argento. "You?" He goes into his second set, determined to finish his three sets even though he already knows he overestimated the weight he'd be able to lift today.
Rian snorts a laugh and turns on the weight bench to face the other two men, ignoring as Lurch comes to take Shiner away. Shoulders are slumped forward and dog tags sway before her chest as she moves the towel back and forth in her hands, uneasy perhaps. "Can't you tell? Marines through and through. I'm Rian." She rises from the bench and steps toward the two to stand over Argento, the briefest of stares go to Lysander's green eyes before darting down to the man on the bench. A straight ridged hand is offered for a shake, even though his are still on the weight bar.
"Through and through, without a doubt," Lysander grins at that and then clears his throat as he looks to the side, to nothing in particular but he would rather not enjoy coughing on anyone by accident. He turns back forward and looks down to Argento before glancing over towards Rian. They share a look and then she looks away. He lifts his brows a bit, somewhat curious, partially amused, and probably a plethora of other things. So there's a half-smirk constantly floating about his expression. "Sergeant Garret Lysander," comments Garret at length, "Charlie Two-One Actual, at your service."
Argento laughs out loud in a friendly way as Rian stands over him with an extended hand, struggling with the bar. "Are you trying to make me drop this on myself?" he asks, once he's put the bar back down, and shakes her hand. "I might've guessed marines," he admits. "Nice to meet you. Thanks, Garrett. I think I'm done for a bit. You want to bench?" He gets up and wipes the bench off with a towel.
Rian's hand shake is firm and uniform, leading with the wrist and shaking twice before releasing. Whatever the look was from Lysander she does her best to ignore it. As Tony suggests the bench a smile comes over her lips, growing into a hopeful grin. "Nah," she tosses the towel over one shoulder, "you guys want to do some hand to hand combat?" Brows rise and fall with wide excited eyes as she glances from Argento back to Lysander then to the open space behind her.
Lysander looks back down and leans forward in order to better assist in helping the weights back up into their resting position. He rubs his hands together for a lingering moment and then inhales deeply. "Not a problem, but," he inclines his head in the direction of the sparring mats now that they have been brought up. "I'm under the impression that wrestling Rian down is far more dynamic than playing with weights." He grins, mostly to himself, as he moves to step around from behind the bench. "What do you say, Tony, up to going against the best of the best?"
Argento stretches his arms, looking hesitantly between the marines. "The best of the best? I don't know. I don't think I'll be much of a challenge, to be honest. Maybe I'll just watch you two go at it for a bit."
Rian's face lights up as the other marine agrees to spar, though as Argento speaks her eyes grow wide with surprise and one hand raises to cover her mouth trying to stop the out pour of laughter. It's a bubbly and familiar sound and she throws her head back as she turns towards the mats, "watch us go at it huh? Ahahhaaahhaha, that's great." Turning on her heel to face them again she tosses the towel that was in her hand down, "nah Tony, you can go against the winner, we'll take it easy on yah." Dark eyes look look directly to Lysander then, wide and confident. "Well c'mon sarge, let's go at it." She motions him forward with her hands and takes her ready stance, still chuckling to herself.
Lysander looks between the two and he too catches hold of the euphemism of things. That gets him chuckling under his breath as he heads for the mats. "Go at it? Well, at least the ladies think I'm good in bed - now we just need to see if they're lyin' or not," he trails off momentarily while stepping over the downed towel and turns to face Rian in turn. He rotates his shoulders in slow arcs as he watches her gesture for him to start things off. He takes up his own stance while shaking his head to the woman's motioning. "You sure you can handle this, Rian?"
Argento grins at Rian. "Well somebody's got the giggles. You always have your mind in the gutter?" He stands leaning against a wall as the two marines step onto the mats, sighing a little bit because he knows it's his turn to get his ass kicked next.
Rian stands at ready as Lysander steps closer, bending her knees and bringing up her forearms in front of her face. The smile still on her lips she replies to him, "Oh yeah? Which ladies think that?" A quick glance to Tony and she calls over the sergeants shoulder, "Make sure there's no fowl play from over there, you call it if you see it." Then focus turns entirely to her opponent. Eyes narrow as she looks into his green gaze, taking in his stance, his movements, noteably cautious of them. Both are basically the same height though he does have more bulk to his build, giving her the agility edge. "Oh I can take it, can you?" She quips before throwing a downward right hand punch to his abdomen.
"Oh frak," mutters Lysander under his breath, which as a statement is a touch better than listing off random names of women he's possibly been with over the years. He does at least grin in return, green eyes focusing on her dark ones. It's her latter comment that gets him lunging forward with a sharp jab aimed for her midsection. With his right hand extended, he keeps his left hoisted upwards and primed for blocking any retaliation. "What about Ri? You remember her, right? There was that one time-," he starts with a huff, keeping his gaze locked on hers.
It's not hard to evade the other Marine, his attack was slow and sloppy and with a step to the side she dodges the blow quite easily. Her hit lands home however with medium force, blocked by his over-sized hand and wrist. Brows arch as she keeps her gaze on him, grin lighting up her whole face as she bounces twice on the spot, teasing. "That one time that you what?" Chin rises towards him in a curt mock sort of way before she makes her strike again, right swing to left upper chest, should knock the wind outta him good.
Lysander airlessly chuckles upon the incoming blow, using it as a simple glance while he retracts with two steps and paces himself to circle to the right and away from Rian. He melts his expression down into a patient smile. Half of his attention is on the sparring, the rest on the woman herself. "Me and her had a lovely evening, is all," counters Garret before pivoting aside from her swing and sending in another jab. This time it's with his left hand but he's still aiming towards her torso.
A side step and a twist of the hips and Rian evades the blow again, her stare remaining on her opponent and the smile begins to fade as she begins to focus more on the fight. "You sounded like you had real talk there for a moment sarge," she speaks out gutturally as she throws another punch, a left right to his right upper chest. "Now me. I got stories." she speaks as she backs off from the attack, preparing to block.
"No need for talk - easier to just let the body do all the conversin'," comments Lysander in the middle of trying to retreat out of her reach. He's not quick enough this time and with his guard broken in order to attack he gets a good strike in on his chest. He chokes out the initial word of his comment but the rest come out smoothly. "See, Ri, has a fine body. I like to think I'm handsome myself, which leaves us to have the greatest debates in all of Kobol." Of course, he's been talking about her the entire time. There's a pause as his footing is switched and he lungs forward. "Helps that she's a marine; endurance is key," he aims a right hook for her jaw.
Rian laughs at his retort, the smile spreading across her lips and eyes have a friendly glint to them even though she still circles. As his blow comes in her arm is too late to perry it away and it strikes home on her neck. A cough is forced out of her and she steps back stunned. Ri? Now saying Marine? Post a frakn bulletin already. The smile melts from her face and eyes glance to Tony in the background and a few careful steps back and she's out of the circle. Brows arch upwards as she looks to the sergeant one more time, a sad look of betrayal perhaps. Though the look only lasts a second before the cool stone demeanour takes over. Hands up she backs towards the hatchway, head shaking back and forth, "Ya know, this isn't really worth my time."
Argento watches as Rian suddenly departs, absolutely befuddled by what just took place between Rian and Lysander. He steps in next to Lysander and gives him a questioning look. "Well that was weird," he comments.
Lysander drops from his stance as Rian backs down and he owlishly blinks as she begins to depart from the area. He turns in place to watch her and he inclines his head in her direction; not that he is checking her out, not at all. He clears his throat a bit. "Well frak, c'mon," he breathes it out with an impatient stammer and reaches up with his hands to comb through his dark hair and leave them there. With a glance towards Tony, he shrugs somewhat. "Could be worse, I guess." His gaze floats on back towards where Rian's left and he drops his hands. "Could've went better than that too…"
Argento also watches Rian leave, and also isn't checking her out. "What was that all about?" he asks. "She couldn't have run off any faster." Grabs his towel and thinks about going for another run on the treadmills. Didn't really feel like sparring anyway.
"Eh, women," jaded Sergeant Lysander is as jaded Sergeant Lysander does and he shrugs things off before wiping over his face with his hands. The next gesture is to brush over his chest where she had landed a blow and then he heads for the treadmills himself. He sets himself up for a medium speed and the marine begins an idle training regiment.
Argento joins Lysander on the next machine over, and jogs in silence for a while. "Hard to meet women these days," he suddenly thinks aloud. "Most of them here are military, and then there are all these rules about fraternization. You married or anything?"
Lysander offers a sidelong glance and then a light laugh, nodding. "Frat' this, frat' that - it's the best frakkin' cockblock around these days, but sometimes you get real lucky with them," he lifts his gaze upwards as he continues along with the jogging towards nowhere but there. "Never had the time, I've been in the Corps since eighteen - never even thought about it, now that you mention it." There's a pausing beat and then he asks in turn, "You?"
Argento chuckles, increases the speed on his machine to a fast jog. "I don't think I ever thought about it either, before you know, Warday. Then the universe turned upside down. I'm thinking about everything, and thinking too much."
"I was stuck on Sag' for months after that," says Lysander in turn, with regards to Warday. It's a brief interjection and, in his opinion, relatively non-consequential. With Argento increasing the speed of his treadmill, the marine glances to it and does the same in turn. It could be a subtle challenge, after all. "Worse comes to worst, I'm sure they've got plenty of women down with, well, all of the other civilians. Just got to find the right one, an' there's nothing against fraternization on that." The entire hangar's been refurbished to accommodate them. "Thinkin' though, don't know, I'm stuck with the same."
Argento starts to breathe heavily, sticking with the pace he's chosen. Sweat trickles down the sides of his face, and he dries it with his towel every few minutes. "Oh you were on Saggitaron. That must've been hell." After a moment, he inquires, "Stuck with the same what?"
Lysander exhales as he paces himself. Slowly but surely he'll start the process of sweating and breathing harder, and metaphorically kicking his hygiene around until he's exhausted. For now though, the marine contents himself with replying. "Yeah, glad to be off the rock, even if it means being on a flying tin can. Oh." Garret reaches up and wipes his brow with the back of his left arm while continuing along. "Thinking too much, for too long, almost too the point of losin' out - almost. Life just got a frakton harder after the bombs fell."
Argento starts his cooldown, and his machine starts gradually winding down the speed. "Shit's crazy," he agrees. "The bombs falling, it makes me realize that the human race is just as mortal as the human being. I mean, we all know that we're all going to die some day. But I don't think it ever hit me that we're /all/ going to die some day, as a species. And you know, it could be next week, we pick a bad set of jump coordinates. Or it could be a million years from now, for some other reason. I'm rambling now, you see what I mean? Thinking too much. Sometimes I got myself thinking, what's the point of it all, really? And then I try to remind myself to stop thinking so much and just do my frakking job." He gives Lysander a grin.
"Never would've thought that things would boil down to this kind of shit," agrees Lysander. The man even gives a stiff nod of his head before quieting down and just listening. He clears his throat, or snorts, one of the two, and nods once again in further agreement of things. "I figure these days all I'm left to do is make the best of things, and that's it. It might not be worth much of anything to do it - but what else can I do? I'm not going to give up, and I'm not going to trust that some higher-power is out there to save us." He exhales. "We're on our own," the man grins in reply, "Making sure we survive against the odds."
Argento grins widely and shakes his head in appreciation that Lysander took the words right out of his mouth. "I feel exactly the same way, man. We're alone! We came into this universe alone and we're going out alone. It's bleak but that's what I feel in my gut. I always believed that, but the destruction of the colonies, that's proof right there, that shit happens for no reason. You're right. What else can we do? I mean it all comes down to that, I think. What else are we going to do." Argento's treadmill counts down to 0 and finally stops. "Hey nice talking, Garret."
Lysander begins to climb down from the high that is treadmill jogging and technically too with conversing with a likeminded individual. He paces himself though in both pursuits. "That, or the Gods' have a frakked up sense of humor and deserve a punch in the face," he pauses and then intones with a lowered voice, "I'd like to try my hand at both of those. A good punch and be right about things - happens for no reason." He nods again and looks over to Argento before offering his right hand. "Likewise, Tony," is said in return.
Argento shakes his hand. "I'm going to hit the showers. See you around."