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 Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:13 pm
Location: Crimson Hotel
Keeping a body in shape was a full-time commitment, multi-faceted in its approach. It was not enough to simply diet or lift weights or stretch, but demanded a complicated dance of measures, a lapse of any causing complete and utter failure. Keeping a broken body in shape was even more challenging, attempting to maneuver without pivotal pieces of the engine. Suri had to keep to a strict schedule of physical therapy, self-guided work, and palliative massage or she risked atrophy in her remaining limbs and decreased mobility. It required constant planning and maintenance, as well as a team of physicians and trainers to keep her on track. It had been easier in the first year, when there was still the potential growth curve of additional recovery. Now it was all she could do to keep her head above water.
Being so far from home disconnected her from the network that kept her up and running, but this was not the first time she'd practiced by herself. She kept to appointments, worked in between meetings, stole every bit of time to continue the slog of holding herself together. Given her station, it was demanded of her--lose her grip, and she was one bad commendation from being repurposed as some foot-soldier youma. Or perhaps they'd find better use of her as a test subject for youma grafting, furthering Metallia's grotesque army in such a way that would keep her mind intact. Suri rarely thought about which was worse--instead, she used the ever-present threat as a flame under her, to keep her moving, reaching for more. But lately, even that was starting to feel like insufficient motivation. Since arriving in Witzend, she'd slept through her alarm twice, missed critical morning exercises, and felt too sluggish to complete her usual calisthenics.
It wasn't that the threat left her mind when they were further from Destiny City--the reports of the dead Witzend soldiers were more than enough to remind her how expendable each of them was. And yet, with the guillotine looming over her ever-closer each time she missed a part of her routine, she just found that...she didn't care.
Suri was supposed to be doing evening laps in the Crimson Hotel pool, where she could safely get the benefits of cardio without looking like a fool on a treadmill. Instead, she let herself drift in the water, staring blankly at the ceiling. She willed herself to move, and nothing happened. Something had to bend. Something had to break.
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Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 4:59 pm
For some, the up-keep of a body was an enjoyable activity. Trey used swimming as much to keep the clean lines as to take a break, mentally, from everything.
Expectations, failures, success, demands, plans... it got to be overwhelming with those needed breaks. When he was in the water, all that mattered was the bunch and pull of muscle, the slide of water past his limbs. And usually it came with a measure of quiet as well, of solitude. Not today, in a strange place on another continent than his pool at home.
The concrete felt warm on his bare feet as Trey entered the pool area, a hint of chemical smell hitting his nose that always came with places like this. It almost felt like home. Almost. Having someone there already was not like home and he almost didn't recognize the blonde floating in the water until he reached the edge. The suit should have clued him in... severe black, and plain. Who else?
"Suri!" Trey called as he reached the edge, towel draped over one arm. She might not hear him with her ears under water... but she would also probably dislike being startled by him in the pool with no warning. His path carried him around the edge, nearer to where pool chairs waited for his things.
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Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:29 pm
The nice thing about wading in water was that it blurred everything--sounds, lights, sensations, all lost their edge in the gentle lapping motions of the surface. It was a known quantity that Suri disliked being snuck up on, and even in well meaning cases there was often a flicker of her gaze, a warning clench of her fist, a tightening in her shoulders. Even as a civilian, Suri carried herself like a violin string pulled just slightly too taut, on the edge of breaking.
But now, she limply lifted her head from her watery reprieve, glancing up at her visitor with a placid expression. "Oh. Good evening, Trey," she murmured, starting to curl her legs back under her, but she paused, looking out over her body. Submerging the place where her knee ended and the treated metal began would not hide its material, its texture. It would not spare Trey to hide him from the ugly truth, even as a man made out of beautiful lies. He could loathe or revile her if he wished--no modesty would keep her from that judgement, and she could not change it anyway.
"I won't interrupt your swim," she conceded, drifting to an edge adjacent him to pull herself out of the water. Suri had more laps to complete, but then again, she also had more reports to file, or more divots to count in the ceiling while she stared at nothing in the privacy of her room. She didn't need to be here, where all she would accomplish is exacerbating one of Chase's projects by practicing something as vapid as sentiment. Trey had no interest in her emotions, and even if he did, they were strangely adrift, like she'd been on the water. Even-keeled, softly ebbing and flowing, nothing serious. Nothing at all.
"Shall I leave you to it?"
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Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 9:17 am
Oh. Good evening, Trey, she said, as mild as milk. It earned her a narrow eyed look as he passed, dropping it only when he dropped his towel to the lounge chair.
Mild was not usually how he found Suri to be. Prickly, Defensive, tight-laced, sure. But also snappish, and with a hidden humor he rarely saw from her these days. This was strange. It made him uneasy, and he wasn't sure if it was unease for her or for him.
"Oh, no, please. Stay. Its a public pool and you aren't interrupting anything. I'm quite happy to share." And he was. As much as she aimed those pricklies at him much of the time, he... liked being around her. Masochist. Trey ignored the mocking inner voice as he padded to the edge of the pool and sank down onto it, lowering his feet into the water when he was seated. He took a moment to put his hands into his hair, gathering up the wrist-thick braid to coil it around itself until it made a neat not. The band around his wrist secured it there, leaving only tendrils to tickle his hairline.
"Did you finish already and were relaxing after? I should be the one apologizing for interrupting. I can do my laps on the other side, it doesn't bother me." Being closer gave him a chance to study her face better and he took the opportunity, trying to keep the questions out of his eyes.
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