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[Furiosa spends most mornings in the gym. Honestly, she'd prefer the Enclosure, but she needs to be moving long and often enough that she can't justify using more than her share of the precious time in the false environment. She works out quickly how to run on the treadmill, but most of the other machines remain a mystery to her. If the right person is using them, they may see her watching, or so may decide to approach.

Some mornings her prosthesis is on, and others it is off, tucked protectively and nearly underfoot, out of habit, though this doesn't seem like the kind of place where anyone is likely to get any ideas.

When she is done, she usually ends by slipping upstairs, showering quickly, and permitting herself what feels like the decadent luxury of putting her feet into the pool. It takes her until about the fifth time to get up the nerve to walk in to the water, to lower herself down in it until she feels it lap up around her neck, then to hold her breath and gingerly, cover her mouth and nose, and cautiously, gingerly slip under the surface and just let herself float, suspended.

She can be found in any of those places.

Still, a workout isn't the same thing as practice, really, and the conversation that has been going on here has weighed heavily on her, though she hasn't participated. So, finally, she takes a break one morning in the gym and turns on the feed.]

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[She has to clear her throat to start, and wipe the sweat off her face. She's sitting in the frame, bare feet apart, elbows rested on her knees, metal arm down at her side. Furiosa isn't comfortable, exactly, talking to a little plastic box that will take her words all over the ship, but this is important to her.]

My name is Imperator Furiosa. I'm human. No powers. I'm in the gym.

If you need, I've been teaching people a little about how to fight. If you don't need, but you're--

I could use the practice.

[Short, unceremonious, she disconnects.]

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[He would rather have vengeance, he doesn't say. He just returns the smile, in equal measures, with equally devious meaning.

He looks away, toward the deep end.]

I'll have to teach you to dive, sometime.

What's that?

[She's interested, at least.]

[He'd show her, but decides to hold off. Better to explain why you'd want to do such a thing.] You go from standing to leaping head-first into the water. Say you've got a knife and it's been dropped to the bottom of the pool; diving is the only way to get to it. The faster and deeper you go, the better off you are.

[It's the right approach to take. She makes a pragmatic, curious sound. Yeah, she can see it.]

[He nods encouragingly, and then smiles a bit]

Want to make a deal? I'll teach you to swim like a fish; you teach me to fight as a human?

Sweeten the pot. Teach me how to take on a dog.

[It startles a grin out of him and he pushes himself up to sit beside her]

You drive a hard bargain. Being able to change is a trump card, for me.

I'll do it, on two conditions. You teach me a bit about mechanics [that arm intrigues the hell out of him] and you keep what I am a secret.

If I promise you that, it'll be a lie. I've got people here I like.

[She tries to think of a fair limit to put on it.]

I won't tell anyone unless I have to, and if I do, I'll tell you who within seconds.

[His expression closes right off--not in anger, but it becomes utterly unreadable. Being a wolf is his biggest strength which also makes it his deepest weakness.

If he knows names, he can kill them.

But if he kills them- it won't fix anything here. And he can't count on having anything to leverage against them.

He just stares at her, silent, waiting to see if she'll add or explain.]

I don't know what to do. I won't give you my word when I'd just break it, and I already know.

[A faint shrug.]

If you threaten my backup, and I don't back them up-

[Softly:] I can't offer to teach my weaknesses to someone who already knows they'll just hand them over to people I don't know, Furiosa.

[Ah. That makes her smile.]

No words on the subject other than 'Lark is a were' will ever come out of my mouth. And that, only if I have reason to believe my ally is in serious and imminent danger, and I tell you if I tell him.

Edited 2015-06-30 15:57 (UTC)

I'm not a-

[Oh hell, let her think that's what he is. It's better that way. He laughs.]

How do you not have water but you have werebeasts?

We don't. I learned that here, trying to figure out why I was suddenly hallucinating on a cool day and without thirst.

Well, you probably know, then.

[He kicks a foot, splashing them]

Have you been to the deck?

Not even slightly, but I'll learn.

[Deflecting that deflection, just for now.]

Can you live with that, Lark?

I don't have a choice, do I?

[He sounds perfectly casual.]

No. But if there's more you want to build into it, I'll listen. I didn't get the drop on you on purpose.

Who would you tell, today?

No one. We're not even close to giving me a reason.

Tell me what a reason looks like.

[Because he would never tell her or anyone else in advance if he planned to attack someone, and he's pretty sure she suspects that. So it's not like "you threatening someone" can be a reason.]

How do you explain what a fight about to break tastes like? The air is different, your eyes get narrow, your nostrils flare. Feet shift on the ground. A hardness in and a narrowing of the eyes. Animosity, at the point of breaking.

[He shakes his head] People--animals, too--they naturally don't trust me, Furiosa. Even if you'd met me fully clothed, this is what it would have been like.

There is always animosity around me. And in a place like this, with as many violent tempers as we're surrounded by...?

Well, Lark, I know. And I know it matters to you that no one else does. I'll keep it for as long as my conscience can live with it.

[And that means more than any amount of finicking and negotiating.]

Okay. [Almost a whisper, that. It's like taking a leap off the deck again, but without the excitement. Sometimes, though, you have to just trust people in order to make them trustworthy.]

Where do we start, then?

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