Early Start (D1 EM Gym)

[John Slaktare]

Butcher walks into the gym and takes a look around, water bottle in one hand and towel in the other. Wondering if or when anyone would be joining him. As always there was this little nagging feeling in the back of his mind that said nobody gives a shit and they're not going to show up.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei groaned as she entered the gym looking tired and stiff. Seeing Butcher already there she paused for a second but continued her slow plod towards the treadmill. She smiled and looked at him.

"Good morning John, I hope you are feeling well. Ready for another trip into hell?"

[John Slaktare]

"Good morning," he responds back with a nod.

"High incline, easy pace, and grab a light pair of dumbbells, when you're ready to get started. I'm doing arms and chest today."

He moves to a bench and does some bodyweight exercises on it: pushups, dips and squats.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei stopped as she was getting on the treadmill and went over to the dumbbells.

"Do I just run with them in my hands? So I went to see the doctor last night and she is amazing. She adjusted my leg so it fits better, rubbed it down with ointments and stuff, gave me something for the pain and then helped me bake cookies."

She grabbed a pair of 5lb weights and went back to the treadmill setting it for a moderate incline to start.

[John Slaktare]

"No running," he says pausing his exercise. "A high incline, brisk walk. Like you're walking up a hill while carrying something. That's how you get the burn in your legs and glutes."

He resumes his warmup.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei did as instructed.

"So how did you sleep?" She asked casually as she started walking.

[John Slaktare]

"Slept well enough for an orbital insertion mission. But I'm glad to be out of the harness and moving around again. It's good to stretch the joints a bit. How about you? The shaking or excitement make it hard for you to get to sleep?"

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"I'm not the best when it comes to sleeping at night. When the ship is quiet I always get an urge to do something. In a perfect world I would be going to bed right about now. I did manage to get some, about five hours plus I got a nap yesterday afternoon.

Really to sleep through a night I need to be exhausted so I should sleep like a baby tonight, setting up camp is always a tough day plus for all I know I could pull a night patrol.

Pickle and Turtle are just like me. Pickle has been spending weeks in the Sim Room, he wants to steal my spot as lance leader and Turtle is usually playing video games."

[John Slaktare]

"I usually try to keep a solid schedule, but that's not going to happen here. Never does on mission. Gotta get sleep when you can."

Finishing up his warmup, he moves to the free weights. They said something about the gravity being less and the oxygen being just a bit better here, so he goes slightly heavier than he normally would for his dumbbell presses, but at the weight level with no spotter.

"Today's gonna be busy for sure. Lot's of shit to take care of," he agrees.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"I just hope our landing spot is good and the local informant is trustworthy. Everything else we can handle with violence." She said huffing to get un the imaginary hill. I mean it's mostly local PDF and PDFs suck, I was in one and we were terrible; I've yet to encounter one that was worth a damn."

[John Slaktare]

"This is the only unit I been a part of. So its kinda my only perspective," he says pushing a few reps.

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

Hrafna had been up for quite a while now, she did grow up in a frame and it was hard to kick the habit of getting up before the sun rose. It didn't seem to change the amount of energy the small engineer had though. She entered the gym almost at a skip wearing a very retro look. Her upper half sported a purple t-shirt with the word Wham! on the front and Go-Go on the back. The collar was stretched down over one shoulder and a pink sweatband adorned her head. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail which hung off one side of her head. Not owning any pants besides what she worked in, she wore a light cotton skirt that surprising matched her shirt. All that was left was the leg warmers that rested on top of some very worn white shoes. All that could be read on said shoes was 'Ree--k'.

With a smile and wave Hrafna moved right up to John and Mei. "Hello and good mornin'! Let me at least those weights. There's some heavy ones with my name right on 'em."

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"Good morning <huff> Hrafn, you seem <huff> energetic. How <huff> is the ships best <huff> Mechtech doing <huff> today?"

Mei continued up her imaginary hill, the burn really starting to set in.

[John Slaktare]

"Good morning," he says, completing his set and sitting up. Was interested in finding out how she was doing, but Mei asked for him.

"I just got started on dumbbell presses. Should start you off light and work up to what you can handle."

Butcher sets his weights aside then wipes down the bench.

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

With a playful look around the room she shrugged. "I'm not sure, when I see them I'll ask and let you know, Mei Mei." Well that just seemed to be the funniest joke anyone had told because Hrafna couldn't help but laugh at it. Not quite full snort but she treaded very close to it.

"I hope you two are good this mornin'. Well now, dumbbell presses? Not sure what those are but I can do it. Oh hey! Like this one time back home and this carnival came by. They had this big guy liftin' these weights up over his head. Anyone who could do it got free cotton candy. So here comes little Hrafnhildur giving it a good try. Nope. Nope. But hey now look at this. One of my brothers, the one who was supposed da be watchin' me, well he lifts those weights right up over his head too. Gave me the cotton candy. I thought I'd grow up big just like the rest of my family, but here I stand." As she spoke she stretched a bit.

"Now I just carry big hammers and wenches. Load me up Big J, I'm gonna be one of them strongmen." While Hrafnhildur was quite petite and slender, she still cut a halfway decent feminine figure. It was easier to see that now thanks to what she wore though what was also easy to see what the lack of real muscle too.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei watched Hrafn and then looked to Butcher, her eyes screaming Oh my god I want one.

"Should <huff> someone spot for <huff> her? I think <huff> I could use <huff> a break." She asked pleadingly.

[John Slaktare]

Butcher shakes his head at Mei-Ling. "Gotta teach her proper form first, and I'm guessing you haven't even hit a quarter of a kilometer. Hit that mark and you can take a break."

Finding suitably light weights and returning with them. "On your back on the bench," he says pointing to it. Once she's in position he hands her the weights then takes her wrists, slowly guiding them through a couple reps so she knew what to do, spotting for her. "We'll do a couple like this, okay?"

[Hrafnhildur Ylfasdottir]

Hrafna looked at John, then at the bench, then at Mei, then back to the bench. With a nod she slid onto the bench and got into position. So far this was nothing like lifting triangular weights above your head, but she would go with it. Her arms shook through the movements now that they were using stabilizing muscles that had never really come into play before. With h a scrunch face the small engineer pushed through each rep.

"How much...weight is this? Seventy five? One hundred? That's more than I...weigh."

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei looked back at the treadmill display and groaned. Butcher was right, she still had a tenth of a mile left before she reached his goal. As much as she wanted to watch them she put her head down and tried to power through the pain in her legs and burning in her chest.

You can't fail, you can't be weak.

[John Slaktare]

"Not quite. Closer to fifty. Twenty five for each arm. But we start somewhere and we get better," he says, continuing to spot until she can't lift on her own.

"Take a break and drink some water." Noticing she hadn't brought any with, he handed her his. He also looks to see if Mei-Ling brought some.

"Going until it feels too heavy is called going to failure. Doesn't mean you failed though. Means you pushed yourself to the maximum. Going to failure is a big success to me."