Working out with Jemma.

[runningred]

{{From here}}

Jay is hanging out in the bar early in the morning. Well, early for him. He's dressed in sweats and running shoes, waiting for Jemma.

Comments

[protect_and_survey]

She can't exactly encourage him to break the rules - breaking the rules makes her deeply uncomfortable, so... it'd just be weird.

"Only a couple?" Mostly she's just curious - and if so, which one is he leaving out?

[runningred]

Jay shoots her a quick smile. "I'm not that sort of exhibitionist. I prefer my amours more private."

[protect_and_survey]

She snickers breathlessly, shaking her head.

"Figures, that's probably... the easiest one to... get away with." Honestly, people do it all the time in the real world - how much harder could it be in a poorly patrolled pub at the end of the universe.

[runningred]

"Sneaking around in corners isn't my style. It's fun from time to time but it's not my way." He drops back to a walk again. "Besides, the bar has plenty of rooms."

[protect_and_survey]

Gratefully she slows to match him - she's pretty sure an Operations agent would already be all the way around the lake, but that's not going to be her today.

"Which is utterly odd - have you seen the stairwells? They'd give a sherpa vertigo."

[runningred]

"I found out there's a way round that. Seems like the spacial dimension of the bar are malleable. Apparently with a bit of negotiation with the Bar herself, you can have extra rooms added, install shortcuts to get from one place to another. I now have a door that goes from my room on the sixth floor to my workshop in the garage without any apparent shift in elevation. It's goes a little Escher if you think to hard about it but it seems to work."

[protect_and_survey]

"You'd need a portal that could account for changing air pressure as well as the physical distance..."
Jemma, distracted by the implications (and shiny, shiny science) slows while trying to work out how that could happen. She really does need to get her hands on one of Fitz's robots.

...

Also, continuing to walk would probably be good.

[runningred]

"Possibly but I haven't noticed any change that would account for the air pressure. Not that I've measured it with anything more sensitive than my own ears." Jay's happy to walk for a bit more.

[protect_and_survey]

"Yes, six floors probably wouldn't be enough to be seriously notable, but have you seen the numbers in the elevator? There's some in the thousands." She agrees, her pace turning meandering as she gets more caught up in the idea and how to make it work.

[runningred]

"I have a feeling the garage shifts. It never seems to be the same number of floors down." Jay tries to keep her at a brisk walk.

[protect_and_survey]

Belatedly she realizes why it seems that suddenly he's hurrying her along. Embarrassment at getting distracted (again, this happened yesterday too) silences her abruptly. In a fit of stubborn self-flagellation, she takes off into a run again.

Focus, Simmons, is it really so hard?

[runningred]

Jay keeps pace as she speeds up, jogging along next to help. "You're doing good, Jem. Just keep it up. Tomorrow we'll do it again with one less walking stage."

[protect_and_survey]

"I'm slow." She grits, determined not to stop again before finishing the loop of the lake. "It's not acceptable."

[runningred]

"No, Jem. You're building up. There's a difference. It takes time. But if you want to go fast and push harder, we can." He keeps up with her until they get back around the lake.

[protect_and_survey]

She's out of breath by the time they get around the entire loop, but she's just about stubborn enough to not fall over once she feels it's okay to walk again. These are the times (and the only times) she wishes she'd taken a teaching post at the Academy - there aren't any gazelle-like runners to make one feel quite turtle-like.

[runningred]

"Okay. Good work. Lets walk back to the bar, grab some water and head down to the garage. I have some self-defence moves I'd like to work thought with you."

[protect_and_survey]

She nods, glad at least that the upcoming humiliation at least won't be public.

Not long later she walks into the garage for the first time, blinking in surprise at just how very big it is.
"Goodness, do you spend much time down here?"

[runningred]

"I lived down here for the first month I was in the bar. It might be massive but it's private. And comforting in it's own way." Just past his workshop, Jay has a training space set up - a sprung and slightly padded floor that won't hurt to hand on.

Jay ditches his shoes and shirt and bounces onto the mat, stretching a little. "Do you want to show me what your trainer's been doing with you? Might be best to build on that."

[protect_and_survey]

Thiiiiiis is not going to go well. Jemma can just feel it. She follows his lead and pulls her shoes off before stepping onto the mt - with decidedly less bouncing and much more trepidation.

"Um... mostly throws, at the moment. To escape a hold. Well. That's where I am, anyway." Since most of the other people in this class are a) from Operations and b) recruits stolen from the US Army or RAF or some other military-type organization or other, the rest of the class dealt with that in a morning.

She.. she understands the physics of it. She can see what they want, from the outside. But for some reason it just stops making sense from the inside.

[runningred]

"Okay, so if I was to come at you like this," He holds out his hands as if to catch her by the throat, but not quite touching her. "How have they taught you to respond?"

He moves slowly, making sure she okay with him being inside her personal space before proceeding.

[protect_and_survey]

There's a moment of wide-eyed freezing - it happens every time, because her natural reaction is to back up and keep on going... which she's learned is not a valid option. So she freezes, ignoring (or trying to) the chorus of 'Run away!' in favor of trying to remember what she's supposed to do next.

She's found she doesn't much enjoy the way her brain freezes up about this. It doesn't do it anywhere else, which makes it all the more annoying.

Jerkily, with a very clearly telegraphed sense of 'Oh right that of course' her own arms come up inside his, to push his hold apart and away.

[runningred]

"Okay. Seems fairly standard. I can teach you some other techniques but you really do hate this, don't you?" He steps back, unsure how to proceed.

[protect_and_survey]

"I... oh dear. Is it really that obvious?" She sighs, her shoulders drooping. Hate might be the wrong word, but she's desperately uncomfortable with the whole thing. She's gone from university life to SHIELD Academy to SciOps - and in each place spent most of her time in the laboratory, usually highly guarded laboratories. Her fights with other people are fought on the academic level - she can slaughter someone in peer review but the idea of actually being attacked... Terrifying.

But if she can get field certified... there's so many things she wants to see in person, not through reports.

[runningred]

"Your reflexes are tilted towards flight and that's fine. That'll save your life more like than not. You can learn defence, or even offence but if you don't have the inclination, I'd rather teach you to run faster." He invites her to sit down on the mat with him. "Jem, tell me why you're putting yourself through this?"

[protect_and_survey]

She sits, thinking furiously. It's helpful, actually - it distracts from the feeling that she's failing at this (again), which is just plain depressing.

"Security clearance. There's field work my laboratory does, but in order to be part of it, you have to pass qualifications." She figures that's vague enough to keep Hill happy (which has become a bit of a Thing, lately).