Post by Sigrid Tendo on Jun 27, 2020 1:23:28 GMT
A rather absurd variety of vending machines peppered one wall of the corridor, each displaying an equally absurd assortment of snacks, drinks, and other consumables to temp passersby with. You’d think the hall advanced directly to the UA cafeteria or an adjacent lounge but, despite hosting enough goodies with which to feed a small army, it was a good ways away from any such area. But the vending machines still saw plenty of action what with being placed next to facilities where energy expenditure tended to be rather high. The gymnasium, weight and fitness rooms, and other training amenities were all in sight. As opposed to middle schools, which were known to prohibit the use of Quirks in physical education, on the PE Grounds at UA Quirks were not only allowed but often required. That usually resulted in students whose hungry bellies were best satiated pronto, lest a lack of caloric intake stump their training routines.
Though these facilities normally saw regular use, by some stroke of luck Sigga had arrived when no other soul was present. That was bad- …erm, uh, or good rather. Yes. Good. It meant she could focus on the task at hand. Purple head-fins splayed in quiet determination as the girl marched through the hall towards her destination. Only the muffled ruffling of her UA gym uniform along with her footsteps could be heard. Fortunately the chaos behind her eyes was not audible. Conflicting thoughts vied for the girl’s attention, coercing her to put off this doomed venture for another day.
Sigga continued straight past the vending machines, though they did tempt her so. Money was tight now. Until she got a job she needed to save every penny so she could replace her smartphone before anyone got wise to its demise, or rather the reasoning behind it. Though… maybe after. Yes. After she was done she could treat herself to something inexpensive, because then she’d actually have earned it.
A billboard overflowing with flyers caught her gaze but for far too brief a moment to pull her in. Instead, her beeline ended at the door to the weight room. Her goal today was simple. As part of a multi-faceted plan to build up some confidence, which Sigga recently concluded was quite lacking, she’d partake in some form of physical conditioning outside her standard PE classes. The smart thing would have been to speak to a teacher or fellow peer for some guidance, but she still wasn’t thinking straight and the whole affair was a little too personal for the fish to just open up to someone about. Simply making the conscious decision to show up had been a huge achievement in its own right. Sigga was not fond of PE. Understandable since she wasn’t particularly good at it outside of short-distance sprints. Lacking proper motivation, even those short-distance sprints were performed in a less than satisfactory manner. At least the rest of her academic studies were going well.
She pulled open the door and entered the room, surveying the vast array of equipment. Well. Step one complete. The weight room had been reached, but now what? She didn’t know how some of the machines worked or for how long she was supposed to use them or anything like that. The darkness at the back of Sigga’s minds clawed its way forward. A plan she may have had, but it had been far too vague. Maybe too ambitious as well. Her brow furrowed. It was still too early to give up. How hard could working out be anyway?
The dumbbells were the first things that caught the attention of her amber eyes, but surely such simple equipment would bore rather than better her. She looked around some more, and then decided to give one of the larger machines a go. It looked straightforward enough. A long bar to pull down over a seat on one side, a stack of weights on the other. Sigga may not have known it was called a seated lat pulldown but she was certain she’d seen the machine in action at some point in her life.
Still in denial about the inevitable outcome, the girl got herself comfortably situated on the seat, extended her arms upward to grab the bar, and pulled. The bar didn’t move. She tried again. Nothing. Maybe it was stuck? Sigga cocked her head to the side, looking at the various cables and pulleys. It didn’t look like there was some sort of safety switch disabling the device. Maybe there were too many weights hooked up or something?
The bald student didn’t see an obvious manner to adjust the load, instead deciding to put her entire weight onto the bar. It was clearly a stroke of genius. What better way to confirm the device was operating correctly? Sigga stood up on the machine’s seat, allowing over fourty-six and a half kilos of human fish to counter the coupled weights. Slowly, like molasses going uphill in the dead of winter, the bar lowered the fish downward. Just what kind of monster had used this machine before her?
Sigga shifted her center of mass. The puzzle of the machine’s ability to function had been solved and it was time to use it properly. She lowered herself carefully until her feet touched the ground, but when she let go of the bar both it and the accompany weights remained motionless. The girl offered up an expletive. The machine did not reply. Great. She broke it.
An aggravated sigh hissed out between her teeth and the girl walked around the machine. The stack of weights had skewed ever so slightly and was now stuck along the rails. A sharp kick to the steel structure produced no result other than to prompt more colorful language and a throbbing foot. She surveyed the machine some more. There! She found it. A pin on the opposite side, clearly meant to hold all the weights in place. Sigga tugged at it, put in all her strength until it relented.
CRASH!!!
The sounds emanating from the weight room echoed throughout the building like a freight train derailing. With the pin absent, dozens of kilograms of metal weights made excellent use of the building’s acoustics as they skid, clanged, and clattered to the ground. The fish too went flying. Overestimating the sudden absence of tension holding the pin in place had her tumbling backwards over the rack of dumbbells. The pin itself flew from her grip and fell through the air; fell like it was a yakuza informant and the polished floor was Tokyo’s Sumida River. It clinked and clattered, spinning as its velocity sent it under the door and into the hall beyond.
Though these facilities normally saw regular use, by some stroke of luck Sigga had arrived when no other soul was present. That was bad- …erm, uh, or good rather. Yes. Good. It meant she could focus on the task at hand. Purple head-fins splayed in quiet determination as the girl marched through the hall towards her destination. Only the muffled ruffling of her UA gym uniform along with her footsteps could be heard. Fortunately the chaos behind her eyes was not audible. Conflicting thoughts vied for the girl’s attention, coercing her to put off this doomed venture for another day.
Sigga continued straight past the vending machines, though they did tempt her so. Money was tight now. Until she got a job she needed to save every penny so she could replace her smartphone before anyone got wise to its demise, or rather the reasoning behind it. Though… maybe after. Yes. After she was done she could treat herself to something inexpensive, because then she’d actually have earned it.
A billboard overflowing with flyers caught her gaze but for far too brief a moment to pull her in. Instead, her beeline ended at the door to the weight room. Her goal today was simple. As part of a multi-faceted plan to build up some confidence, which Sigga recently concluded was quite lacking, she’d partake in some form of physical conditioning outside her standard PE classes. The smart thing would have been to speak to a teacher or fellow peer for some guidance, but she still wasn’t thinking straight and the whole affair was a little too personal for the fish to just open up to someone about. Simply making the conscious decision to show up had been a huge achievement in its own right. Sigga was not fond of PE. Understandable since she wasn’t particularly good at it outside of short-distance sprints. Lacking proper motivation, even those short-distance sprints were performed in a less than satisfactory manner. At least the rest of her academic studies were going well.
She pulled open the door and entered the room, surveying the vast array of equipment. Well. Step one complete. The weight room had been reached, but now what? She didn’t know how some of the machines worked or for how long she was supposed to use them or anything like that. The darkness at the back of Sigga’s minds clawed its way forward. A plan she may have had, but it had been far too vague. Maybe too ambitious as well. Her brow furrowed. It was still too early to give up. How hard could working out be anyway?
The dumbbells were the first things that caught the attention of her amber eyes, but surely such simple equipment would bore rather than better her. She looked around some more, and then decided to give one of the larger machines a go. It looked straightforward enough. A long bar to pull down over a seat on one side, a stack of weights on the other. Sigga may not have known it was called a seated lat pulldown but she was certain she’d seen the machine in action at some point in her life.
Still in denial about the inevitable outcome, the girl got herself comfortably situated on the seat, extended her arms upward to grab the bar, and pulled. The bar didn’t move. She tried again. Nothing. Maybe it was stuck? Sigga cocked her head to the side, looking at the various cables and pulleys. It didn’t look like there was some sort of safety switch disabling the device. Maybe there were too many weights hooked up or something?
The bald student didn’t see an obvious manner to adjust the load, instead deciding to put her entire weight onto the bar. It was clearly a stroke of genius. What better way to confirm the device was operating correctly? Sigga stood up on the machine’s seat, allowing over fourty-six and a half kilos of human fish to counter the coupled weights. Slowly, like molasses going uphill in the dead of winter, the bar lowered the fish downward. Just what kind of monster had used this machine before her?
Sigga shifted her center of mass. The puzzle of the machine’s ability to function had been solved and it was time to use it properly. She lowered herself carefully until her feet touched the ground, but when she let go of the bar both it and the accompany weights remained motionless. The girl offered up an expletive. The machine did not reply. Great. She broke it.
An aggravated sigh hissed out between her teeth and the girl walked around the machine. The stack of weights had skewed ever so slightly and was now stuck along the rails. A sharp kick to the steel structure produced no result other than to prompt more colorful language and a throbbing foot. She surveyed the machine some more. There! She found it. A pin on the opposite side, clearly meant to hold all the weights in place. Sigga tugged at it, put in all her strength until it relented.
CRASH!!!
The sounds emanating from the weight room echoed throughout the building like a freight train derailing. With the pin absent, dozens of kilograms of metal weights made excellent use of the building’s acoustics as they skid, clanged, and clattered to the ground. The fish too went flying. Overestimating the sudden absence of tension holding the pin in place had her tumbling backwards over the rack of dumbbells. The pin itself flew from her grip and fell through the air; fell like it was a yakuza informant and the polished floor was Tokyo’s Sumida River. It clinked and clattered, spinning as its velocity sent it under the door and into the hall beyond.