Early Start (D1 EM Gym)

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"Fifty pounds?! That's more than half my weight! I'm a strongman already. Hoo boy this stuff happens real fast. Had I known I would have been lifting these weights long ago, I'd be pushing some major weight by now. Like maybe even a whole mech." She sat laid there with her arms already feeling like linguine. The water was a nice break, she'd have to remember to bring her own next time.

"You got it Mei Mei, soon you'll be the fastest of all of us."

[John Slaktare]

He moves to his weights and takes them up. "Maybe I should just lift two of you if you're that light?"

He starts his set and the pair of 90 lb dumbbells seem relatively easy to him.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei caught a second wind, she was still too focused to chat but the idea of John powerlifting two Hrafn's took her mind off the burn and somewhere else entirely. She blasted past the quarter mile mark set by her new trainer and in a bid to show off kept going.

Tiny twins, hehehe

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"If only there were two of me, Big J. Then I could get things done twice as fast or do twice as many things. Oh! Can you imagine that? Two of me workin' out in those mechs, two at a time. We'd have those things cranked out in no time." She laid down on the bench again, ready to pump some more iron.

"How about you give me one of those piggy back rides around this place and it'll help work out your legs. Hmm...we'd need another one of me to make it worth the while. Somethin' is tellin' me you'd have no problem carrying me around all day. Or maybe I'll get heavier by pumping this iron right here."

[John Slaktare]

Finishing his set, Butcher puts his weights aside. He moves to spot for Hrafnhildur.

"A piggy back ride? All day long? That could be some good training for me," he says.

"Watch the form," he says moving to guide her arms through a couple of reps. "But yeah, you keep up the training you'll put on some muscle weight."

He looks over at Mei-Ling for a second to make sure she's still doing well.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei couldn't take it anymore, the conversation happening around her and her own thoughts were to much and she had to step off the treadmill and drop the weights; though not before reaching a third of a kilometer.

"Fuck that's hard."

She walked around in a small circle shaking her arms out and reaching for her towel.

"You're trying to get buff Hrafn?"

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

A few beads of sweat formed on Hrafna's brow as she pushed the weight under the watchful eye of John. This wasn't getting easier, in fact it was getting more difficult each time. By now her arms shook more visibly with each push.

"Yup! I'm trying...to...just..." Then she pushes out the final rep and her arms fell to her sides. "...get stronger. Always been the smallest one in my family and with that came being the weakest. Ah, but this brain I got was always moving and gettin' stronger at least. Now I'm thinkin' it's time to match my body up to this juicy brain, Mei Mei. If the J Man here has anythin' to say about it I'll get there. If I still have arms after this of course. This ain't like lifting boxes at all. Or heavy mech parts. Nope, this ain't like that at all."

She took the time to lay there and rest. "Looking good on that running belt thing Mei Mei. Gonna have to change your call sign to Legs and Big J's to Pumpin' Iron."

[John Slaktare]

John was careful to catch her wrists so the weight didn't hyper extend her arms by just dropping them. He took the weights and set them aside.

"They'll be sore, but that stops happening with enough practice. Drinking plenty of water can help, so can stretching. Glad to help out with that too if you like. But they ain't gonna fall off."

He takes a moment to look at the treadmill, then nods at Mei-Ling. "Good job. Get your heart rate down then you can star bench squats. I'll guide you through the form when you're ready."

Finally he gets back to his weights and does another set, finally getting a slight sweat sheen before finishing it. He starts feeling the pump he enjoys so much, the increased blood flow making his chest, arms, and veins look a bit bigger, and feeling slightly more intense and aggressive. Very few things he loves, but he seems to love working out and helping others working out.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

She replaced the weights she had used and then took a drink of water.

"Don't let us stop you for getting your own workout done John." She huffed. "So Hrafn did you got to a school to learn about mechs or were you just around it a lot growing up like me? I mean, you know a lot more than me. I can tell you the weight of an Atlas's hand servos but I suck at installing them."

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"I don't know much about stretchin', besides what a good taffy does. But I'll be the taffy and stretch my arms out. You promised they won't fall off so I'm takin' your word for that." Already her arms were feeling and looking rather noodly, but she set herself up to squeeze out one more set. "Right right, I hope we aren't in here slowing a professional like you down, Big J."

Her last set was surely a set, but only in the loosest of terms. To Hrafna's credit she did push as hard as she could but only managed a few reps. As she lay there trying to catch her breath she turned with h a smile to Mei. "I learned as I went just by gettin' my hands dirty. I was always fixin' things back home like tractors and stuff. I got good with things like that and when I left I started using my head on more and more things. I was a mechanic for things that had wheels in the beginning. Took a while but I got the hang of it. You grew up around those big things, Mei Mei? Must've been real neat to see them comin' and goin' as a little one."

[John Slaktare]

"Well, lets move to the next exercise. I said I was gonna help out, and I'm gonna."

He moves next to a bench and looks to Mei-Ling. "Bench squats. Like this. Three sets of ten." He demonstrates for her.

Then he turns to Hrafnhildur. "For us, upright rows. Slightly less weight." He exchanges his weights for something lighter then demonstrates.

"And I'm gonna help stretch both of you out when we're done. No worries about not knowing."

He does his first set pretty easily, bending over to put down the weights when done.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"Yeah my parents were both arena fighters so I grew in mech bays. I haven't done much wrenching but I've studied a lot of technical details and watched just about every fight I could get my hands on including most of John's career. I've got some of his matches from back in the day, Alek's fights too.

So which of our mechs do like the most? I mean out of the whole company."

She moved over to the station and took up her position.

"Squats after that? Whew I'm gonna be sore tomorrow."

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

Hrafna's eyes widened and a smile spread across her face. "Dang, I can only imagine how that must have been as a little one. Those things must have looked so much bigger than they look now. I've never seen an arena fight, I'd love to watch if you still got those videos. First time I saw one of those mechs was when I was grown up. Hmm...I suppose there wasn't much height difference between me as a little one and me now. With your experience and my know how, we out our heads together and we can take care of anything." With the mention of rows she started warming up by making a rowing motion, as if she was rowing a boat. "Can't pick just one, Mei Mei. They're all different and they all require a different touch. That's what I like about them. When I maintain' your mech I sing a different song than when I have my hands on Big J's, they like different melodies you see. Helps them get back on their feet that much faster. Helps certain parts sit just right too."

When she notices that they will not be rowing a boat for exercise, Hrafna makes a face but follows what John had demonstrated. "I won't lie to you J Man, I was lookin' for the paddles in here when you said row. I used to get my little row boat across the pond second fastest in the yearly rowing festival back home. I could never beat Gunnar though, the boy from two farms over. I could never understand his style, but it got him across that finish line first everytime."

[John Slaktare]

John observes the two of them for a moment while he's resting. "I've piloted a Raven and a Grasshopper in the past. Liked each of em for different reasons than I like my Hatchetman. I think she's right, and they all got their own things that make em good machines."

"And this exercise will make those same muscles for rowing a boat hurt. We'll get you strong enough to row circles around Gunnar." He moves next to her, then adjusts her posture, lightly touching her shoulder and back for a moment. "Shoulders back, chin slightly up."

He moves to Mei-Ling next. "Make sure you don't sit down. You're butt should just tap the bench, grazing it and holding for a second, then come back up. Keep the work in your legs and core, right?"

"You're both doing great. Keep it up," he says in a positive motivational tone, clapping for their hard work. "Looking really good."

While they're finishing out their sets and taking a break, he does a full set of his own upright rows with a bit more weight than last time.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"So I guess this is a leg day for me?"

She looked over at Hrafn. "Damn girl that looks heavy, get it! You're gonna get so jacked." She bore down and powered through her assigned sets, her but never touching the bench after John's reminder.

"So what kind of farm did you grow on Hrafn, what did you grow?"

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"Hah! Hear that Gunnar! Next time we meet out on that pond I will be takin' home that trophy and all of that corn. Shoulders back, Hrafna attacks. Chin slightly up, Hrafna wins the cup." The new motivation helped the small engineer power through the rest of her set.

"Jacks? Like the game with the ball and the metal pieces? I can see that, my muscles looking like the ball and being as tough as those little metal pieces you gotta pick up. Look out Angels, Hrafna is going to be jacks." With the weight set down Hrafna couldn't help but flex in front of the mirror to show off her gains. "I heard someone say you should never skip leg day, I'm glad to see you ain't doin' that Mei Mei."

A few more poses and she sat to rest. "We had a little of everything. We had fields for wheat and corn mostly, but we had some plots set up for other things like a whole mix of vegetables. Even a an orchard there full of apples. Not many big animals though, a couple of horses and cows, a few pigs and a goat. Oh! But we had so many chickens and ducks. So many ducks! That was my job mostly, takin' care of those ducks. Getting the eggs, feedin', healin' and raisin'. Even had a few follow me around wherever I went, I liked that." The memory brought a smile to her face. "Big J here had a ton of cows on that farm of his. I wonder what that would be like. You grow up in the city Mei Mei. You're speakin' to two farm kids right here."

[John Slaktare]

"Jacked means having lots of visible muscles.
Like comparing a bear and a tiger. Both are very strong, but the tiger is jacked because you see the muscles," he explained, no judgement or negativity. Like he's accustomed to helping out with the little misunderstandings.

"And yeah. Cows meant lots of fresh milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream. Before I got into wrestling and weightlifting in school I was a bit chubby. Hard work and dedication meant that I could keep enjoying fresh ice cream and still make my weight."

He goes ahead and finishes his final set of rows.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"Yeah like John said, your arms are going to be huge. You would probably break my arm if we arm wrestled."

Mei finished and sat then laid down on the bench under her.

"There were a lot of farms back home on the southern hemisphere. I didn't get to spend much time there, just travelling though every once in a while but man was it beautiful. It was mostly rice fields but the way the terrace them into the hills looks really nice. Then you get deeper into the region and all the manmade salt-lakes filled with shrimp and fish for the nobles."

She grunted and stood up, stretching backwards and producing a loud pop.

"OK boss, what's next?"

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

"Ah right, jacked. Jacked. I'm jacks about being jacked." Hrafna gave a couple of nods after finishing her flexing in the mirror. "Huge arms you say? Soon I'll be as big as those mechs you two pilot. I'll be right out there on the front lines smashing tanks and having a good old time. Hmm... I'm gonna need a good call sign if I'm gonna be joinin' up, might need to think up a few ideas."

Her eyes went over to the real heavy weights at the end. "We can have a big up about arm wrestlin' too. My brothers used to always have a match each day. Heck, people used to come from a ways away at one point just to have a go at the biggest arms, just at the end of the laneway there. Gotta get these pipes up to code first then we can have that match Mei Mei." She laughed at that, a light cheerful laugh to match the smile she wore.

"That southern hema-steer sounds really nice. I wonder if this place gets nice like that went it's not snowin' like this."

[John Slaktare]

"We could call you Ducky," he says. She did like her ducks.

Moving to Mei-Ling, "Step downs are next. Get up on the bench. Three sets of 10, take them slow." He demonstrates the exercise and guides her through proper form.

Next he goes to guide Hrafnhildur. "We're gonna do some pushups. If it gets too hard use your knees."

He starts doing a few, even a couple on his knees to demonstrate, before finishing his set.

"We'll turn you into the Angels arm wrestling champ if you work hard enough."

"And we had some salmon farms in the region too. Nice to have some fresh fish nearby."