Weights

[Derrick Voss]

Derrick walked into the training center and whistled at the sight he saw. Treadmills, weight machines, and the hulking rock climbing wall were all a sight to see. He decided to go for the thing he was most comfortable with first. He walked over to the weights, eyeing the climbing wall as he walked by. "I'll be seeing you later." He got into a routine, gradually increasing the weights as he went along.  

[Ayla Farrow]

Ayla walked into the weight room, and surveyed it. She was surprised to see so much equipment and so many free weights. Back home, she had to get creative with lifting. Typically, transporting large pails of water served to keep her in shape. She began with dead lifts. She noticed Derrick lifting weights as well.

She turned to him, "Hey, I'm Ayla. You're Derrick, right? Let me know if you want me to spot you on any of the larger weights"

[Derrick Voss]

Derrick got startled a bit after focusing on bench press. He tried to guess the weight of the tree trunks he usually carried, but haven't been able to get it quite right. He looked over to the girl who called out his name. Ayla? He noticed that she had set up a bar for dead lifts. He liked a girl who did weights.

He couldn't help but smile, "Yea, that's right. I might take you up on that offer once I get these weights right. Trying to guess how much a tree trunk weighs isn't easy. Let me know if you need any help as well."

Derrick went back to stacking weights back on the bar. Another couple of 45lb plates? Too much? Maybe try 35lbs first and see how that goes? Gah! Might as well try the 45.

[Ayla Farrow]

"Will do." Ayla said. "I might take you up on that in a bit."

"I take it you didn't have weights like these at home either?"

[Veronica Braxton]

V wandered into the weigh room; with a hundred yard glare in her eye; seeing the two other tributes in the room. She saw the boy and girl practicing bench and dead-lift, respectively. She said, loud enough to be heard from the entry way, "bench press is great if you're trying to impress the ladies back home, but it won't do you dick in the wilds." "Dead lift is better but still only gets halfway there." she added.
What do you reckon a seven-point buck weighs? 160? 180?" she said as she walked over to the floor barbell at the near corner of the weight room. Adding 55's and 30's to reach the right weight ratio, she grasped the bar by her estimation of the saddle and haunches of a deer of similar weight and heaved. Hitching the weight first over her knees, and then over her shoulders. She then jogged a lap for fun and stood next to the other tributes.
"Ha! Whether as food or not, you need to be able to carry your weight, literally!" She dropped the weight on the floor with a thud.
"Well, be seeing you around" she said in her normal, chipper voice.

[Ayla Farrow]

Ayla smirked. What was her problem? Causally lashing out at someone she didn't know the first thing about. "I guess the games really do make people crazy" she thought. Too each their own. She moved on to pull ups.

[Veronica Braxton]

Watching Ayla smirk off her attempt at impressing them, V huffed and thought to herself, "Well, shit, that didn't work at all!"

"You guys may want to rethink your strategies a bit." She said as she took one of the twenty-five pound weights off the bar and headed to the chin-up station. With a grunt she placed the small rope loop on the weight in her mouth and did a series of three chin ups.

Dropping to the ground, she sighed, "*hugh-huh* you know *huff* those high reps might be impressive to the sponsors but they sure won't garner you any points with people trying to stay alive. You better start thinking about who's going to keep you alive rather than who you're afraid will outclass you in the sponsors eyes.." With that she turned to leave the weight room...

[Veronica Braxton]

She paused at the door. "DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! That's not right!" She thought as she turned bashfully back towards the rest of the gym.
"I'm sorry everybody, I didn't mean to try and tell you guys what to do. I- I don't know what came over me. You guys seem like you know what you wanna do... and I, well, I like to think I know what I'm doing. If we were honest with each other and tried to help objectively, I'm sure we'd be able to give constructive criticism to each other, what'ya say?"

[Ayla Farrow]

Ayla turned to Veronica. "I don't give a shit about what the sponsors think of me. I'm not their type, and frankly they're not mine. I'm just in here to relax by doing something I love. I've never had an opportunity to use, let alone see, real equipment. This might be my last chance."

She continued "I actually originally came in here to meet other tributes. If you're interested in some advice - here's some for you: insulting people isn't a great way to make friends."

She rolled her eyes and began doing push-ups.

[Ayla Farrow]

As Ayla was speaking, V began what seemed like a plea for forgiveness.

"Okay, yeah. We can try to help each other out- but just stay cool girl! Don't go insulting people that might be able to help you in the games."

"What's your story anyway?"

[Veronica Braxton]

"This might be my last chance."
Those words echoed in V's head for what seemed like an hour, when she finally snapped-to Ayla was deep in a set of push ups.
The only reason she even volunteered to be a tribute was to see and do and experience new things herself. She didn't know where this sudden critical edge was coming from, but it seemed like it was getting in the way of her objective.
V's face ran a crimson blush, her chest puffed up as if she was about to make some proclamation, but instead all she did was hit the floor.
Not wanting to through off her count and piss her off even more, V began on Ayla's count of twenty.
"Twenty-one! Twenty-two!" V rattled on in sync with Ayla.
"I'll be damned if I make enemies on a mistake!" V though to herself.

[Arnie Thistle]

Arnie stepped into the gymnasium and saw a smattering of tributes. He took note of who was doing what. Bench Press, deadlift, and a power clean albeit the grip was a touch off. The only thing missing was a squat.

"Those moves are key, but a good squat will give you a core of steel! All my life I've been carrying bags of grain and baled hay. No workout can truly begin unless you put in the leg time."

Arnie loaded up the bar with a plate on each side and started his warm up. Time after time he added more weight. Arnie forced the reps out of him and grunted loudly as he finished his final warm up lift with quality form.

Arnie looked around, seeing a couple of the tributes involved in an exertion fueled argument. He knew one way to get that energy out and help him get those max lifts to impress the sponsors.

"Hey! Instead of wasting your breath, could you spot me for my final few sets, I feel a personal best coming on!" Arnie yelled in the direction of Ayla, V, and Derrick. Maybe this was the chance to get to know a few of the tributes and start to develop a picture of who he could trust.

[Ayla Farrow]

As Ayla finished her set, she stood up and faced V. "I can't tell whether I like you or hate you. Damn, you're a confused mess of emotions. Thanks for counting for me. Do you want me to help you with your next workout?"

[Derrick Voss]

Derrick chuckled at the new girl's antics. "I just want to have fun while I'm here. I personally like to keep up appearances and strength," Derrick flexed his arms at this, "but overall, if there's a chance I'm going to die, I might as well enjoy myself. I've only ever lifted and thrown around logs for most of my life. Lumberjack and all. So these weights are pretty exciting to me." Derrick went over to the bar the other girl used, adding a couple of 45s and did the same lift easily. "I think I got a hang of these weights now!"

[Ayla Farrow]

"Let me help ya" Ayla said to Arnie. She nodded her head to V implying that she could follow to continue talking.

[Derrick Voss]

Derrick glanced over at the newest tribute to walk in asking for a spotter.

"Don't worry, bro. I got you."

[Derrick Voss]

Derrick stepped back as Ayla offered to help at the same time. "Go for it."

[Ayla Farrow]

Ayla smiled as she helped Arnie load plate onto his squat bar. "So how are you guys feeling about the games?"

[Derrick Voss]

Derrick shrugged as he walked over to do some pull ups. "A competition is a competition. I think everyone should do their best and enjoy themselves in the meantime, but that's just one man's opinion. I'm trying not to think about it too much."

[Arnie Thistle]

Arnie enjoyed the company while he was exercising, and the help was definitely appreciated.

"I think you nailed it. Just have fun, of course there is the overarching fear of death, but I might as well make the best of it. I'll have to be a bit more careful now that I have seen how strong you all are!"

Arnie reracked his weights and headed off for the track to start working on his sprints.

[Veronica Braxton]

Jul 28, 2014 19:49:23 GMT -6 Arnie Thistle said:

"Hey! Instead of wasting your breath, could you spot me for my final few sets, I feel a personal best coming on!" Arnie yelled in the direction of Ayla, V, and Derrick. Maybe this was the chance to get to know a few of the tributes and start to develop a picture of who he could trust.

(I wouldn't think a big ol' thang like you would want a spotter, mustn't look that good with the sponsors eh?) V though as she saw Derrick walk over to spot. All she managed to vocalize was a more-than-intednted-girlish-giggle. "Eh-hehe-hehe-he!"

Jul 28, 2014 20:01:07 GMT -6 Derrick Voss said:

Derrick chuckled at the new girl's antics. "I just want to have fun while I'm here. I personally like to keep up appearances and strength," Derrick flexed his arms at this, "but overall, if there's a chance I'm going to die, I might as well enjoy myself. I've only ever lifted and thrown around logs for most of my life. Lumberjack and all. So these weights are pretty exciting to me." Derrick went over to the bar the other girl used, adding a couple of 45s and did the same lift easily. "I think I got a hang of these weights now!"

"I think I feel the same way as you (supposing I understand you correctly) These games are basically a death sentence, so at the VERY least you may as well enjoy whatever little time you have left. Not saying you shouldn't strive for the most time you can." She said in response.
Seeing Derrick add another 90 pounds to her bar, "You really think you're going to need to lift 250 out there? There's schism between attracting sponsors and attracting allies..." She stares at the questionable faces of her colleagues and adds, "Oh man, I'm doing it again aren't I?"

Jul 28, 2014 20:08:12 GMT -6 Ayla Farrow said:

Ayla smiled as she helped Arnie load plate onto his squat bar. "So how are you guys feeling about the games?"

"Sweetie, you may as well be asking, 'What does the Dawn think of the Dusk'?"

Jul 28, 2014 20:14:16 GMT -6 Derrick Voss said:

Derrick shrugged as he walked over to do some pull ups. "A competition is a competition. I think everyone should do their best and enjoy themselves in the meantime, but that's just one man's opinion. I'm trying not to think about it too much."

"HMM." V shruged with a smirk (This seems like someone I can relate to. Not bad on the eyes either.)

[Ayla Farrow]

Ayla nodded. "There's not much more we can do but try to enjoy it. Any way, I've been here long enough - I'm starving. I'm gonna go to the common area to get something to eat. Feel free to join me later if any of you want to talk."

She left the room.

[Derrick Voss]

Derrick glanced back at the weight he just lifted after the comment the girl made. What was her name? It was a letter or something. I overheard it somewhere. P? B? D? V? V. V! Damn I need to get with my adviser and go over names. "Maybe not, but it doesn't hurt to know that I won't be in any sort of immediate danger if I find myself dangling from a tree. I take comfort in knowing I can climb for a good while. Speaking of climb, I'm going to check out that wall over there." Derrick beat his chest comically as he said in his most dramatic voice, "I like a good challenge," and stepped over to the rock climbing wall.

[Jorn Oxen]

Ox had entered the Gymnasium and eyed everyone around him. Lifting weights doing push ups and generally interacting. Ox knew that he should try and be as social as possible but it was always daunting to him to approach a large group. They all seemed so articulate and he was... muscle and tongue tide.

Ox makes his way over to the rock climbing wall and stands near Derrick and after looking over a couple times speaks up in his rumbling bass.

"So uh... Rock wall huh?" He says already breaking out in a nervous sweat.

"um... Race you?"

Ox said with a sheepish smile eying the wall.

[Veronica Braxton]

V watches as Derrick muscled his way towards the climbing wall. She surveys the intricate pattern of hand- and foot-holds for a moment and concludes, "You know, strength isn't the only thing you need to get through this, right?" she barely finishes before setting off upon the wall, nimbly climbing her up way, using the easiest path provided by the series of holds and sitting triumphantly upon the top. "Huh?" she declares in a self-satisfied tone.
At that time she see Jorn enter the room and challenge Derrick to a race. "First one up gets to kiss the lovely Veronica Braxton!" she says with a bat of her eyelids in overly-feminine tone.