i_speak_softly | Luceti Appointments

[He has literally never encountered a weight bench before. This is what happens when your physical education system is extremely lax and you avoid the hell out of gyms.]

... Ah.

... [Derp. Now he feels sort of stupid.]

[Okay. After this he's going to give Robert a brief tour of basic exercise equipment, because clearly their definitions of "basic exercise equipment" are very different. But first -]

Count me to fifty. I'm on thirty-six. [He grips the bar again and lifts it.] Thirty-seven.

[Robert watches the way Don's muscular arms contract as he lifts the bar, and tries to think of just how much force is going into that lift.]

Thirty-eight...

[Not that he needs to count aloud, but doing so is soothing and rhythmic.]

Thirty-nine...

[If Robert reads the numbers printed on the weight discs, he might deduce that Don is currently lifting 125 pounds, plus the weight of the bar itself. His movements are calm and practiced, effortful but not strenuous. He looks like he could do more than fifty if he felt like it.]

[A hundred twenty-five pounds. That's nearly Robert's weight. It's a mixture of fascinating and mildly, detachedly frightening. The kind of training Don had to do to get to this point is nearly unfathomable, even though he objectively knows it happened; for someone who, before Luceti, couldn't even walk across the village, it is incredibly difficult to contemplate.

Robert duitfully counts down the numbers, matching Don's steady rhythm.]

... Fifty.

[And then he stops, waiting expectantly.]

[Don smoothly replaces the bar on the supports and rests a moment, then sits up and smiles at Robert.]

You should come in here more often.

I feel... [... Like a burden?] ... unaccustomed to being in a place like this.

But if you would like me to, I could make a habit of it. [As awkward as he'll probably be. He definitely feels like a fish out of water.]

[Don gestures around.] What don't you recognize?

[... Please don't say 'everything'.]

Erm...

[... Most of it?]

... [He actually looks genuinely... ashamed of himself. Not knowing something really sucks.]

... I have difficulty... recognizing much of anything here.

[So pretty much everything.]

[He stands up from the bench.]

What do you want to know about?

[The things in this room are so familiar to him, he doesn't know where to start. Maybe this way will be better.]

I suppose the ones you... would use most often...

[Robert doesn't even know which ones those would be.]

... I... suppose I should use this sort of thing myself... are there protocols, for it?

[He answers the second question first, very strenuously:] Yes.

[He then moves to the far side of the room, where the floor is covered with some kind of woven material.] Mostly I work on the mats. I also use the training post a lot. [He indicates a thick, sectioned wooden pole, about four feet high, with pegs sticking out at intervals.]

How exactly do you use the training post? [It doesn't seem like something that would be easy to utilize, to Robert's perspective.]

Do you want to see?

Of course, if you do not mind demonstrating.

[And now Robert turns to watch attentively.]

[Don nods, then turns to the post, contemplating it for a moment before launching into a flurry of strikes that set the sections spinning. The pegs blur by, but Don intercepts them with unerring accuracy, using them to stop the sections or reverse their spin. The demonstration only lasts thirty seconds before he brings the post back to a standstill, turning to Robert again to see what he thought.]

[Robert is just standing there open-mouthed. For somebody whose reflexes and reaction times are as slow as his are, something like what Don was doing is ridiculously accurate and fast.

... Finally:]

... Gods. That was... well, incredible.

[Don looks embarrassed.] Just an exercise...

Just an exercise. [... Yeah, uh. That's one of the more impressive non-magical things Robert has seen in Luceti.]

...

I am not certain what to say about that.

[Don essays a smile.] Say you want to learn how to do it.

... I doubt I ever could. [It just requires so much that is nearly unattainable for him, physically or mentally.]

... I could try, but...

I think you'll surprise yourself, someday. [He gestures around the room again.] What else do you want to know about?

Perhaps if you continue to assist me. You are... rather an inspiration that way.

[Looking around the room, Robert's eyes settle on the rest of the equipment. ~~The mun really needs to figure out what might be in there...~~]

... Does... does it really take all this sort of equipment to maintain the fitness level you have?

[Don smiles. The feeling is somewhat mutual.]

No, but it's nicer than using sewer junk.

... Sewer junk? [He can't keep the potentially-privileged slight note of horror out of his voice. Using something sourced from a sewer sounds like a recipe for disaster...]

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