Sweat and tears (Rhi)

[Anonymous]

Since orientation, life for Chica had been shit. There was no other word to describe it, it was just shit. Alright, fine, aside form that initial scuffle, her roommate hadn’t turned out to the that bad, but her mentor still hadn’t shown up and classes were lame and the ATC was boring and and and…

Not that she really wanted to share in the horror stories that some of the other candidates were spreading about what their private lessons were like; she just hated being left out. It made her angry. Her mentor hadn’t even sent her an email demanding ridiculous amounts of study or anything. Not that she would have done it of course, but it would have been nice to be given some work that she could not do.

There was just nothing to keep her occupied either. The entire facility was what it was, a training complex. She’d heard that there were rooms for entertainment somewhere, with TV’s and games and stuff, but she had yet to find them, and besides, she really wasn’t much of a video game player anyway. Chica had always been too active for them, which was why she was, once again, in the gym she’d found. There were a few scattered about, but she liked this one. It had everything, machines, weights, various sporting courts, a sauna, and even a full length pool.

Which was where she was now, arms at her sides as she glided up and down the pool, pushed buy long strokes of her tail. Swimming was really easy for Chica, too easy really to make it a good workout. She’d been going at it for a little over an hour and was only just starting to feel a little hot. Coming to one end she stopped and hauled herself out of the water, which was quite difficult given the weight of her tail, and sat on the edge with her tail still dangling in the water.

The standard one piece bathing quite girls would normally wear for this kind of exercise didn’t really work for Chica, given her lack of legs, so she was wearing a sort of boob tube with a zipper up the front, only around her hips rather than her chest, and a sports bra made of swimsuit material, also with a zip running up the front.. Finding clothing that wouldn’t fall down or fly up while exercising was tough, but she found this skin-tight stretchy stuff worked.

Her normal goggles had little vents in the sides to let air in, so she was wearing a different, watertight pair, which she took off and switched for her usual ones. She had to make sure to keep her eyes closed. No one was around, but still, someone might walk through the door to the pool at the wrong second and be hit by a full powered blast of Chica flavoured death.

Pulling herself out of the water Chica towelled herself off, not even needing to take off her swimsuit because it was waterproof and could be dried just as easily as her skin. Her hair objected to being dried, wriggling about and making it generally difficult to dry them. They weren’t looking their best either. She’d been shedding for the past few days, and while her tail looked shiny and new and her skin pink and fresh, her hair hadn’t quite finished and was still all motley looking.

She slid out through the double doors that lead into the pool, entering the carpeted gym area. Treadmills, bicycles and all description of other machines filled the room in ordered rows, with weights and benches at the back of the room. She headed for them, stopping at an alcove where a long bar ran across for chin ups.

Chica couldn’t actually lift herself entirely off the ground using only her arms, but she could do chin ups by taking some weight on the tip of her tail and lifting the rest. When her arms started to get tired she hauled herself up and over the bar, grunting as her breasts got somewhat caught in the process, until she slipped over it entirely. Catching the bar in her tail she coiled around it, hanging upside down.

Sweat was dripping off her nose as she clamped her hands behind her head and curled upwards, panting as she did it over and over again.

[Rhi-Rhi]

The ATC was large but when your candidate was a gorgon, you didn't have to be psychic to root them out.

Darien entered the gym silently and stood back by the doors so he could observe Chica for a moment without interrupting, mismatched eyes taking her all in. He'd seen pictures of her, of course, while reviewing her file and the files of other candidates he'd been thinking about taking on, and he had to admit he'd taken her on for mostly superficial reasons. She looked interesting, though she was far more impressive in person. However, he'd also taken her on because he felt he could handle her where other Pilots might not have the patience to deal with her type, and he'd heard a lot about her exploits in the ATC, from various sources.

She would be a handful, no doubt, so she'd need a firm hand which he would gladly provide.

He watched her do a few more crunches, marveling at the way the muscles of her snake half rippled under the scales, before he finally decided to introduce himself.

Some Pilots liked to get theatrical with their introductions, but all Darien did was walk toward her, clear his throat loudly to get her attention, and say, "I understand you've been wanting to meet me, Candidate Characa."

That was it. There was no need to scare the daylights out of her yet, especially not while she was hanging upside down from a bar. No need for her to freak, let go, and break her neck or anything. Not that he'd let that happen; he'd catch her. She was too valuable to lose to something stupid like that, and he kind of wanted to keep on mentoring candidates.

And so he waited for her to get her bearings, thumbs hooked into the pockets of his jeans, expression placid if a little bored. He hardly had the intimidating presence many other Pilots had, average in height and build, dressed in casual clothes, with his long brown hair currently pulled back into a loose and messy ponytail. If anything, it was usually only the unnatural yellow eye and the ugly, jagged scars across his blue eye that made people do a double take, because he was otherwise fairly average and unremarkable in every way.