MD #206: You're Your Own Person
You're Your Own Person
Summary: Rowan shows Atticus how to use a treadmill. They briefly commiserate about having parents who are well known to the ship's crew.
Date: 01/1102017
Related Logs: None
Atticus Rowan 
Fitness Center - Deck 3 - Battlestar Orion
Smelling of sweat and grease, the Fitness Center is a place where individuals can come to work out or just work off stress. The area closest to the entrance is taken up by two very large sparring pads with a pathway down the center, each pad removable to reveal a Pyramid court beneath. The walls beside the pads hold lockers for everything from pugilist sticks to boxing gloves to rubber guns, though deadly weapons are strictly prohibited in here except by authorized personnel such as on-duty Military Police. Standing goalposts for Pyramid are also kept against the wall. Past the pads are a vast number of nautilus machines as well as free weights to lift. At the back of the room are workout bikes, rowing machines, treadmills, and stairclimbers. There is an entrance to the pool at the rear as well as a locker room to the side.
18/05/2049

It's night shift, the quiet time onboard, and while the fitness centre isn't empty, there aren't many people about. What few crew there are though are mostly side-eying a small group of three over by the treadmills. Consisting of two clearly armed and on-duty MPs, and one guy in sweats it's an odd bunch, made even odder by the fact that one of the MPs is clearly showing the third guy how the machine works, while the other stands well clear and keeps an appraising eye on the scene. Just in case.

Recruit Heron doesn't like PT. Just nope. She keeps getting busted for skipping out, and today is no different. Begrudgingly, she drags her ass into the gym, dressed in a sports bra and sweats. A mandala tattoo graces one shoulder, as well as brass-colored hinges on her inner elbows. Her auburn hair is pulled back, revealing pointed ears. She eyes the man with the MPs as she makes her way over to a nearby treadmill. "Oh gods, don't stand on the belt while you're setting it. You'll get knocked on your ass when it starts," she warns him.

MP 1, lets call her Cpl Allen, watches Rowan's approach as the recruit heads towards the treadmills, but as nothing is amiss she keeps out of things. MP 2, with Atticus, lets call him Pvt Granger, flicks his head round as she speaks, but equally, sees no threat. The Knight is briefly silent as he eyes those ears, then realises it was him being spoken to and blinks in brief confusion. "Belt?" He doesn't have a belt, just standard issue fleet sweats. Since she mentioned not standing on one he looks down, just in case someone has dropped one, then just looks faintly confused, and mildly suspicious of the flesh-eating elf deamon. "What do you mean?"

"The belt? Of the treadmill? This thing?" Rowan hops up onto a treadmill herself, poking the belt with the toe of her sneaker. She eyes Allen and Granger, then the stranger. "So what did /you/ do to end up with babysitters, anyway?"

Atticus seems to find not being recognised a novel experience. He takes a moment to enjoy it before eyeing what she did with her feet and nods once. Looking back to her he then asks, "so it's dangerous then?" Apparently Granger hasn't got this far in his explanation for he gives the MP a faintly wary look, as if to ask why that hadn't been mentioned. As for the question, he considers for a moment how to answer, but in the end opts for the polite option, rather than the bitter. "I'm a Knight of House Benning, from the planet you call Picon. I remain loyal to my King and Queen, and so my movements are limited." That last bit at least he seems to accept easily enough, and he's certainly not showing hostility towards the pair of marines.

A spark of realization glimmers in the recruit's odd eyes. "Ohhh. You're /that/ guy. No, I mean, it's not /dangerous/, but you can definitely get hurt if you use it wrong." She glances at the MPs before introducing herself. "I'm Rowan. I'd offer a handshake, but I don't know if your buddies would be cool with that."

"Probably better not risk it," Atticus replies, and a subtle shakes of the head from Granger confirms it. He nods at the recognition though, and returns her introduction with his own, "Atticus." Then, he glances to her once more and asks with a thoughtful frown, "you're not a marine are you?" His tone suggests that he's inferred she's not and is looking for confirmation, rather than it being accusatory. His attention then turns to the treadmill and he says, "I'm told it's the closest you have to being able to run, or hike. I'm not sure I understand how though."
You invite Randy to meet you for RP.

"Not a marine. I'm a pilot. Why?" Rowan cants her head, curious. This is the closest she's gotten to anything interesting in a couple of weeks. "I mean, you can run in the corridors, but /you/ probably can't. Also it's hard on your knees because Battlestar floors are made of metal. You want to stand like this when you're getting everything set up," she says, demonstrating, placing her feet on the runners on the side of her treadmill.

Granger seems happy enough to let Rowan take over as instructor, but he doesn't back off to join Allen, but instead keeps himself ready just in case anything untoward should happen. As for Atticus? Well, he just grins faintly in amusement at the idea of a corridor run. "I suspect it would end poorly," he agrees, then follows her lead on where to put his feet. "I asked because the marines mostly seem to recognise me, yet you didn't, so I was curious, that’s all."

"Well, yeah, marines are more likely to have, like, met you. You can read, right? The machine will walk you through the setup. You can just tell it to do a speed and set the incline, or you can do something fancy and play with intervals or whatever. It's up to you. I like intervals. It keeps this thing from being even more boring than it already is." Rowan leans lazily against one of the handholds on the side of her treadmill. Talking about running is clearly more interesting than actually running.

The expression that flashes over Atticus' face suggests that Rowan's reasoning isn't the one he had in mind, but he suppresses the surprises quickly and clearly decides not to share his own and let her's stand instead. "I can read," he confirms with a slight nod and the comment about speed seems simple enough. From there though there's less understanding. "Incline? As in slope?" It's flat, how the frak does that work? Clearly colonial flesh-eating elf deamons are weird. Finally, though, he does have to ask, as it means nothing to him in this context, "intervals?"

<FS3> Rowan rolls Alertness: Success.

"Did I say something wrong?" Rowan seems to have caught the flicker of whatever that was on Atticus' face. "But yeah. You can make the treadmill tilt upwards, so it's more difficult. Intervals, like, make it automatically vary in speed or incline. It's good for your heart or whatever. I don't know, I'm not a doctor."

Atticus shakes his head slowly. "Unexpected, but not unwelcome." That's reassuring, right?" He keeps listening to Rowan as he leans forward to read the screen on the console. He might have been living with medieval tech for the last two decades, but he seems conversant enough with touchscreen technology to get the hang of menu-hooping easily enough. He eyes her sideways as she says the thing tips though, clearly not sure if he believes her or not. "What counts as fast and steep?" he asks, the numbers presented in the options screens not making much sense to him, "perhaps I should just try flat for now. If it's bad to use it wrong."

"Okay, you gotta explain that one," Rowan says with a little grin. She gestures vaguely to her own treadmill console. "There's no using it wrong. I mean, maybe jumping on it or throwing it in a swimming pool would be wrong. Basically, higher number means faster or steeper. You can adjust while you're running or walking. It's just not advised to be on it when it's still and then it starts."

Atticus leaves the incline for now, and starts the machine going at a slow pace. Keeping his feet either side he experiments with the speed controls, watching how the effect the belt between his feet, before he slows it again and takes a tentative step onto it. He'd get no prizes for gracefulness, but he keeps his feet, and matches pace. Only then does he glance across and consider how to reply. "Some of them served with my father," he says levelly, not apparently enjoying the connection, "apparently I look just like him."

There is a look of understanding and no small amount of empathy. "I get it. Both of my parents serve on this ship. There's a lot to live up to, and people can seem to forget that you're your own person and not your parents." Reluctantly, Rowan starts up her own treadmill. She can only avoid exercise for so long.

My father was a tyrant," Atticus replies, looking away as he does so, "I have no intentions of taking his path." There's an awkward pause for a moment after that, and he's glad he can't see Granger or Allen and their reactions. Instead he simply pulls out the music player Miri lent him and offers one of the wireless earbuds to Rowan, "you want to listen to? I find it helps distract from the fact that there's no change in scenery." Battlestar walls are boring. Whatever the answer from the pilot though he settles into a steady rhythm of steadily increasing the speed until he's running, and leaving the inclination well alone.

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