It's the eye of the tiger

[a_shadow]

Who: Adrien Arbuckal and Agent Texas (with a special guest appearance by Agent Washington)
When: Throughout the month of June
Where: Workout facility and training rooms
What: Adrien helps Tex figure out how to quit treating her human body like it's a robot
Warnings: None as of now

After Adrien's offer to act as Tex's personal trainer, Tex takes full advantage of his expertise, both as a physician and a soldier.

Starters for sessions to be posted below.

Comments

6/11

[a_shadow]

As promised, the morning after receiving the triptan shot, Tex awakens to the alarm she had set on her MID. She has a bit of a medicine hangover, she thinks, but it's nothing a nice shower won't help cure. After washing up, she goes to the training room at the appointed time—actually arriving a bit early—and resists the urge to get started with a set of push-ups before the doctor's arrival. She knows she needs for him to monitor her activity—that's the point of all this.

She sort of realizes then that she never bothered to ask the doctor his name. It won't do for her to keep thinking of him as Church's double. Indeed, she decides that should be the first thing on her agenda, since he's going to be acting as her personal trainer for a while. She ought to know who he actually is.

So when he enters moments later, she approaches and says, "What do I call you?"

[prorenataa]

Dressed in a thermal and not bothering with anything else for this bit of exercise, it might be hard to tell if Adrien was just waking up or had been awake for some time. His sleep schedule was a wonder in and of itself for the sheer lack of it, even when the ship was calm and the crew on R&R.

Courser padded along at his companions side, something resembling half a chicken hanging from his mouth. Adrien was distracting the young tracker from training by feeding him, otherwise Courser would have been trying to help. As they came through the door, he spoke softly to the bahari, sending him off to the side of the room, before he turned right into Tex's question.

Oh.

Right. That pesky social convention of names. He was and would always be utter rubbish at remembering these things.

"Adrien," he offered as he held up a hand in which he held two bottles of water. "I'm making a sweeping assumption that you didn't bring any?"

[a_shadow]

She didn't show any surprise or fear when the creature padded in at the doctor's side. She was curious about it—what it was, where it had come from—but mentioning it would be fine to save for later. It certainly seemed a more interesting pet than the cats and small-breed dogs that had taken up residence on the ship. Tex was more of a large-dog person, or thought she probably would be should she have the opportunity to bond with one.

For now, though, it was nice to have a name. It helped in her separating this man from Church in her mind, though his differing voice and accent already had gone the distance in helping this process. "I didn't," she said in response to his question. "It didn't occur to me this morning."

Tex is otherwise well-prepared for this session, wearing sneakers, bicycle shorts, a sports bra, and a wide-armhole tank top—clothes she'd acquired on this trip with the unlimited funds she'd been given. Now that she's not in motorcycle leathers her muscles are on display—she's obviously pushed this body to its limits in the past, even in her now more weakened state.

[prorenataa]

Adrien merely nodded and tossed one of the bottles towards her.

"Lesson one. An organic body is over 50% water. Hydration is key to almost everything about keeping the body healthy, even staving off headaches. Whenever you exercise or exert yourself, keep your water intake in mind, dehydration can happen quickly and is devastating."

He walked his own bottle of water over towards where Courser was curled up and gnawing on his breakfast. Setting the bottle down, he headed towards the terminal.

"I have a few training programs written but I figured we start with basics and see where your fitness level falls."

The darkness of the thermal did not accentuate his own musculature unless the eye was looking for it. If she was paying attention she may notice that while not muscle bound, his build just wasn't right for it, there was a sculpted, razor sharp precision to his muscles that suggested rigorous training, not just maintenance workouts.

"Do you have a specific area you want to work on?"

[a_shadow]

She caught the bottle and held it for a moment. She knew that, of course, about needing replenishment of water when working out, but applied knowledge is different from academic knowledge. And she never had been the best about keeping hydrated. She uncapped it, took a drink, and set it on a nearby weight bench.

"I mostly do what feels good when I work out, what I find I'm in the mood for," she explained. "Lots of work with the heavy bags, though I do my best to keep a balance between the different muscle groups of my body." As far as specific areas? "I'm mainly concerned with learning how to stop when I should. At least when I'm in the rebound condition I'm in now." She has pushed herself to exhaustion before.

[prorenataa]

Standing with his hands on his hips, Adrien listened to her with a slight furrow between his eyebrows. He nodded but his next words were probably not going to be particularly encouraging.

"Already, it sounds like you've overdone it," he said, without chastising, just matter of fact. "Fitness comes in four key components for an organic body." He lifted his hand and ticked off each one with a finger.

"Muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility. The bag, for instance, is something you should work once you've strengthened the core four. We'll work today on all four, starting with a test to see where you are right now in terms of your endurance."

He lifted his wrist and began to type on the MID to call up some basic equipment as well as mats for them to work on. It wasn't going to be as exciting as the bag work or ... well any of that actually.

"Do you have any sort of music you like?"

[a_shadow]

She arched an eyebrow a bit as he explained the components, but she also knew she'd pushed things hard without using any sort of guide. She knew she was strong and that she had endurance, but perhaps those factors weren't up to the level of perfection that they could be. She remembered when she'd fought Ocelot—she'd been sure she could beat him handily in a hand-to-hand fight, just like she had beat York and Maine and Wyoming, but the limitations that she kept running into in this body had taken her a bit by surprise. She had beat him, but it had been a closer thing than she had been expecting.

"Anything with some good guitar work," she responded when he asked about her music preferences. There was nothing contemporary to her times in the network's music library, but she called up one of her favorite, more upbeat rock songs from it and got it started playing on the overhead system in the room.

[prorenataa]

Adrien cocked his head and listened to the song that started up before giving a small nod. It would certainly suffice and since this was her workout it seemed only fair that they go with her music choice.

"Alright, we're going to start with warm-up." He began, motioning for her to take a position on the mat and then moving to stand slightly in front of her and to the right.

Adrien demonstrated and talked through what they were doing and why. He discussed the need to give an organic body the chance to raise temperature, increase blood flow and slowly lift heart-rate. It was noted as a way to avoid muscle tears and increase body efficiency.

From the warm-up he would lead them into an 8min 2 mile run.

As they went through these initial steps, he kept an eye on her, watching for the signs of fatigue that Tex herself might not even be aware of. As for Adrien himself, if she had the focus to glance his way, she might note that none of what they were doing appeared to even wind him.

[ooc: For the record I am not an exercise guru or a doctor but Adrien is both so figure that he's walking Tex through the medical as well as the exercise/fitness whys and how fors in everything they're doing. He understands that some of it may be stuff she already knows but he's thorough. ]

[a_shadow]

She moved along with him, listening to him speak, appreciating the methodical way he worked and explained things. Tex herself tended to go balls-to-the-wall when she came to work out, pushing herself to the limit without much preamble to it. Icing strained muscle after a workout was for her a rather regular occurrence, and she was sure now that telling Adrien this would lead to something of a mini-lecture on the topic.

Because he'd been so thorough in explaining how he was bringing her through a warm-up, she managed to avoid her instinct to treat the run as though it were a race, letting him set the pace and remaining by his side the whole time. Conversation was the last thing on her mind, letting a companionable silence linger between them as long as he was content to do the same. She was interested in learning more about him, at some point anyway, but casual talk seemed out of place while trying to work out.

As far as her condition at the end of the run, while she was easily strong enough to accomplish it, her breathing belied the fact that she wasn't used to these sorts of distances. She did a lot of patrolling on the ship, but that was all done in her robot body, and most of her workout in her human body tended to be strength training rather than aerobic exercise.

She did indeed notice how much fitter his lungs seemed to be than hers and as she headed toward the weight machine where her water bottle rested she paused to take a few deep breaths. "I think I'm sticking to your method," she said—a bit of an admission there that she hadn't expected it to prove so much more superior to hers.

[prorenataa]

It was true. Between his medical profession and his military back-ground, Adrien was nothing if not methodical. Perhaps to a level of detail and by the numbers that could be downright annoying and he'd accept that accusation if it were ever hurdled at his head.

He appreciated that she was good with companionable quiet, as he was himself, though he was reminded that the simple act of running in company did seem to make it go by a little quicker. With or without a bit of competitive spirit working into the mix!

As they pulled up and she went for her water (something he noted with an inward nod of approval) Adrien walked over to scoop up his own bottle. Courser, having finished his breakfast, was indulging in a bit of a laze and merely flicked his colorful tail towards his companion.

Taking some sips, Adrien walked back towards Tex as she made her comment. He didn't smile, though perhaps by now she'd picked up on the fact that smiling was not something he did, but he nodded, pleased she'd found some use to the methodology. Between the run, the way it stirred memories and her statement, Adrien unbent a little and offered up a small anecdote.

"When I joined my last crew, I had been in civilian life for much too long and out of shape. There was a man in the crew, who had super human abilities, including stamina, strength, endurance, speed ... all of it. I spent months going out cross country running with him, just trying to keep close enough to keep him in sight."

Adrien paused, took another sip of water and then admitted.

"He was good enough to slow down and not lose me, at least for the first few months. Anyway, I never did ever run past him. But the view was worth it."

[a_shadow]

She appreciated this, his candidness. She nodded. "Sounds like he set a good precedent." Not that she wouldn't be able to run circles around Adrien when she was in proper good shape, she was sure of that. With the ability to calculate her exact speed and pressure of her footfalls, she would never have to have him slow down for her to keep him in sight.

"What next?" she asked once she felt she had drunk a good amount without overdoing it. She felt somewhat tired, yet invigorated in a way. It must be the effects of filling her body with oxygen and hydration.

[prorenataa]

He had a few tricks up his sleeve, though at the moment he wasn't pushing any of it to the forefront and he probably wouldn't really hit his own stride until he was finished helping her. Though if she employs her robotic body, well then yes she's going to definitely have the physical advantage on him then.

For now, he took one last sip of water before capping the bottle and tossing it aside.

"Now strength. Push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. We're going to do them in sets of 4-4-3 and go for 5 sets and see how you feel."

As he spoke he motioned for her to take a position on the mat. His intention was to go in cycles; first the push-ups, then the sit-ups and then the pull-ups. Rinse, lather, repeat five times.

[a_shadow]

She understood right off and took her position on the mat. Doing so few at a time seemed ridiculous to her—she usually did as many at one go as she could manage—but well, so far his ridiculous suggestions were making sense. It was the sort of thing Allison had likely known that hadn't been imparted to her via the imperfect way her intelligence had been made.

Tex immediately pushed that thought aside, as she typically did when thoughts of Allison came up, and began. The motions themselves weren't difficult, and she she knew she had good form—it was one of the aspects of working out in her human body she had bothered to research. After the warm-up and the run, and with the way the exercises were being cycled, they were having more of an effect on her than they normally would. She lowered herself after her final pull-up and dropped to the floor.

"I normally have to do more of these to get to this point," she admitted.

6/19 - Before C-Prime shennanigans

[prorenataa]

As had become a habit of late, Adrien pushed to be early to their agreed upon appointment. Today it was the practice range, which the doctor arrived at approximately fifteen minutes early.

This may have been due to the fact that he had yet to go back to his barracks after working his shift in the MedBay.

Sitting at a metal table, more like a counter sticking out of the wall and a stool, he had the Glock in pieces as he gave it a thorough inspection. It was already cleaned and oiled to within an inch of it's existence, he was really just fidgeting.

Courser lay under the table up against his legs, head on his paws as he dozed lightly. Occasionally a colorful ear would twitch when his companion clicked or clattered but otherwise he appeared quite acclimated to the sorts of sounds and smells that came with a gun range.

[a_shadow]

Evidently Adrien had learned by now what to do if he wanted to beat her to these sessions. She walked into the shooting range and spotted him right away, of course. She had on her the handguns she had purchased when she visited Niko's home world through the reverse-Ingress—she had arrived on the ship with nothing herself, so the opportunity to do so had been welcome at the time. It had spurred her even more to ensure the shooting range was everything it needed to be, which was why here at The Collective she'd bought a system for paper targets and an electronic scoring system.

"You're early," she remarked as she went by. Adrien would have been free to get started without her, so his waiting was noted and appreciated. She moved to a lane and began to set up, procuring a paper target and hanging it on the hanger before using the system to move it back toward the back wall. "Did we want to use the scoreboard today?"

The thing was that Tex was highly accurate, even as a resident of her human body. She was liable to beat him whether she meant to or not—and she wasn't the sort to let someone else win.

[prorenataa]

"Or late, depending upon how you keep time," he remarked mildly as he began to resemble the Glock.

Glancing over to where she was setting up a lane, he gave a gentle shrug of his shoulders and began to feed bullets into the clip.

"If you wish," was the response to the question about the scoreboard. It hadn't been lost on him that she had something of a competitive nature. Adrien had learned (or had it beaten into him) long ago that the only competition he put himself up against was himself. He had personal benchmarks that he worked against, letting the rest go.

But if it gave Tex an edge to target a goal (pun intended) he went along without comment.

[a_shadow]

"If we keep trying to one-up each other on who gets here the earliest we'll never leave," she said, amused. Her clips were already loaded and she slid the first one into her gun as he did that. She waited until he had his paper target set up and went over to start the electronic system for scoring their hits. The light went on for her to make the first shot, and she fired, making a hit fairly cleanly just off-center from the bulls-eye.

Adrien had a way of indulging her nature while holding on to his own ground, and she appreciated that about him. It was what drew her to him more and more, even as she had begun to let go of any associations she had with him being the host for Church's clone. Even if he didn't mean to, Church had a way of expecting her to be what he wanted her to be, and being around someone who could respect her for what she was made her feel like the association with him was worthwhile.

She stood back, gun lowered, pleased with the shot, and waited for Adrien to fire when his light came on.

[prorenataa]

"Nah. I only maintain that level of relationship commitment with MedBay," he fired back easily before going quiet so she could focus.

He watched her, studying her stance and grip, before turning his head to see where the shot landed. Just off a little bit but still a solid center mass contact. It was a good, warm up shot and he had no doubt she'd pull the next one even closer to the bullseye.

Adopting his own stance, gun up in a two handed cradle, he waited for the light to come on and almost immediately squeezed off his own shot. Unlike her, he didn't go for the center mass bullseye (and where the point would be recorded) but rather he drilled his shot through the head, slightly above the point just between the eyebrows.

Hrm ... the Glock was still pulling up a little.

The point was her's.

[a_shadow]

"Lucky for you—I don't think the Med Bay will cheat on you," she said. The scoring system recorded her point and the light went on for her to fire her next shot. Since he had gone for the head, she fired at the circle he had aimed for—this one hit dead-center in the middle of the forehead area, right where the circle was printed. "I think she likes your dedication."

[prorenataa]

He winced, inwardly, when Tex referred to MedBay as a "her". His lips flattened slightly but he said nothing, merely watched her take her next shot.

When the scoreboard had recorded her shot, he adopted his own stance, this time using a one handed grip. He sighted the gun, then quickly flipped the barrel upward, deliberately fouling his targeting before retargeting and pulling the trigger in one smooth motion.

This time his shot drilled through the cardboard silhouette's throat, just off center, tearing away the carotid artery. Again, because of where he placed the shot, he did not get awarded a point.

[a_shadow]

The silence was noticeable, but she took it to mean he was getting more into this contest. His dry sarcasm was something she enjoyed in bantering with him, but if he wanted to take this more seriously, she was willing to let him be silent and concentrate. Even if he was making unnecessarily show-offy moves. Tex had respect for his ability to make a killing shot, even if the scoring system's targeting didn't allow for his less-perfectly placed shots to win points. The person who had suffered this blow would have died, regardless.

Still, remaining in the lead of the contest was the forefront consideration in her mind, and when things shook out at the end of the first round, she had won. "Nice round," she said. "Up for more?" She shifted her weight a bit as she asked this, dropping the rest of the clip out of the pistol she had been using so she could load the machine pistol and practice with it instead.

[prorenataa]

Perhaps the shots looked showy, if he pulled himself out of his own head long enough to consider that fact. The truth was, he'd had too much experience with creatures who needed to be hit in 'soft' spots or decapitated completely, to bother with body shots. The Glock was not a man stopped of a weapon or caliber, anymore than Adrien could put someone down with his fist. It meant that some level of finesse had to be employed.

Lowering the weapon, he held it to the side, frowning pensively before giving his head a shake.

"I need to work on this, see if I can sort out why it's pulling up." He explained, looking over at her and nodding. "Besides, there is no way a hand gun is keeping up with that."

He lifted his chin towards the machine pistol, as he stepped away from the target lane, walking back to the counter.

[a_shadow]

"Do you want me to look at it?" she offered, knowing her AI abilities meant she'd be able to calibrate the gun more perfectly than he could. It was possible his sights were out of alignment, she knew. She wasn't counting on him taking her up on that, though, and she pressed the button to retract her paper target so she could load another. If he was anything like her, he was possessive over proper care and maintenance of his weapon and wouldn't necessarily want someone else fiddling with it.

[prorenataa]

Tex had the right read on the situation; that he was going to be a bit possessive over the weapon.

"I've got it," Adrien responded, sitting down once more and setting the gun on the counter. Then as he seemed to realize that his response was more than a little curt, he backed up to further explain.

"I had two, the Ingress took one so I can't rule out that this one might have been damaged. Depending upon the circumstances, I may have to learn to compensate for that damage, at least till we get somewhere I could get it fixed."

He didn't suspect the Moira had an arms repair shop on board, though hard to tell. Regardless.

"If that's the case, best I understand what I'm dealing with." Which was to say, that she could probably do a better job but he needed to be on hands for it to sink in to his thick skull.

[a_shadow]

"Fucking Ingress," she muttered. "I'd offer you a replacement but in the end when I bought these I was only able to get what I personally needed." Besides, these weapons, too, had come through an Ingress.

Her second target set up, she began to shoot, this time upping the difficulty for herself—in her robot body she was just as accurate at one-handed shots as she was two-handed, but that had proven to be difficult in this human body. The machine pistol fired more easily than the handgun, but it had a bit more kick, causing her shots to fire wide as she concentrated her attention on stabilizing her arm. "Fuck," she muttered when she pulled the target in again—not a single one had landed where she meant for it to.