Fitness World
Late, late, late night. Well after all the evil little bunnies have gone to bed, and well after a certain stuck-in-the-80s girl has fed. The sky is almost moonless outside, and as its cloudy and overcast there aren't that many stars. Outside, it's probably a pretty scary night.
Here in Fitness World though, there's nothing scary in the world. All that there is are a few men lifting weights, trying to get a jump-start on their days (or spending their nights alone working out, who know?!). That's really all that there is, except…
… over on a mat in the middle of the workout area, is a young girl. One who's run-dancing in place. The young girl is very distinct. So very distinct in that she's wearing a stretchy yellow bodysuit with no sleeves. Beneath the bodysuit is a pair of black spandex pants that reach to her ankles. Over the top of this outfit is an overly large shirt with the shoulders and neck cut, and it's tied up beneath her breasts at an angle on the left. A swatch of shiny golden sequins makes up the middle of the outfit, and just to make things even more colorful is a pair of rainbowed legwarmers.
As she runs in place, she yells, "She's a maniac, MANIAC on the flow-or! And she's dancing like she's never danced before~!"
~
Also somewhat distinct from the rest of the crowd is Todd. Surrounded by bulging biceps and rock hard abs, Todd looks… Well, diminuitive is probably the most polite word for it. His oversized t-shirt, a headband that causes his hair to stick straight up, and baggy sweatpants probably don't help his image any.
Off to the side of the workout area, oblivious to how out of place he may look, Todd is struggling with a rowing machine, while breathlessly counting out loud. "31… 32… 33…. ugh…. thirty… thirty… /four/…. thirty….FFFFIVE…" A trainer who seems to be somewhat familiar with him finally takes pity and steps over. "Todd. Weren't you going to stop at ten?"
Todd stops and looks up with a series of owlish blinks. "Was I?" he asks, looking puzzled. He dismisses the question before it can be answered, and leans back to catch his breath. "Well. Ten is good. I'm ready to stop. Thanks." The trainer rolls his eyes and wanders off to get back to work, while Todd pulls out a notepad that had been clumsily stuck in his t-shirt pocket and flips through the pages.
~
While Todd is counting, he may miss parts of the song. He shouldn't fret though, as the crazy yellow-clad girl continues to sing at the top of her lungs, "You work all your life for that moment in time, it could come or pass you by… it's a push of the world, but there's always a chance… if the hunger stays the night~"
Then, just like that, the singing stops.
Ronnie furrows her brow a little, running with alarming speed toward the rowing machine. Until she's right up at it, peering down at the man with the notepad. "Dude! Can, you like, tell me what time it is? I mean, I guess I totally misplaced my watch or something, and I need to know if it's bunny time."
The scary thing is, Ronnie likely has a poor defenseless bunny shoved into a locker somewhere.
~
To the accompaniment of the strange girl's singing, Todd finds the page he's looking for, and mutters to himself as he reads it. Somehow, as he's reading, his muttering becomes humming. Then humming becomes quiet singing, his pen tapping against the paper. "Push of the…hmmmhmm… night…"
After a moment, he looks confused, and looks back at the rowing machine. "Wait. Did I finish the…" Luckily for Todd's poor muscles, Ronnie comes running up to distract him from the rowing machine. He looks up, blinking owlishly, but takes the whole thing rather calmly. In fact, he just gives a kind of friendly smile, as though people come running up to him asking about bunny time every day.
"Time? Oh, hold on." Todd looks down at his hands, frowns, then examines the medical bracelet. "Hrm. No, apparently I don't have any time. I don't seem to have a watch," he points out, looking back up with a friendly smile. "It's possible that I misplaced mine, too. Maybe if we ask, one of these nice people will know?" he suggests, gesturing to the various scowling, sweaty, musclebound men surrounding them. "I would hate to miss bunny time."
~
"Really!?" Ronnie peers at the curious man on the rowing machine, then settles onto the floor beside it as though she's going to start rowing with nothing in front of her. It's entirely possible — she is having a rather bad night so far as normalcy is considered.
"I totally brought a bunny with me. I was going to purge the evil after my dance, but if it's not bunny time, then Wil Wheaton will get angry, and if he gets angry then I lose my MTV." A rapid nod, followed by another, and she's all up in the poor man's personal space.
Icy cold fingers reach out to grab the bracelet and read it. "Huh. You're like, way totally right, dude. That's not a watch at all. Sucktastic. I mean, you'd think they'd like have clocks here or something, right?"
~
"Well. No. I mean, I'm sure bunny time is lovely, but I'm not sure what it is," Todd admits, looking quite apologetic. "I'm sure it's /wonderful/, though. You seem very excited…" He trails off as she sits on the ground, and he glances around. It takes him a moment to put two and two together, and with a start he jumps to his feet.
"Here, you can have it," he offers, helpfully. "I'm sure Wil will know what time it is," he adds, saying the name as casually as one might any acquaintance. Even though he's never met the person. "But I wouldn't want to make anyone angry." He pauses as the bracelet is grabbed, but is calm enough while allowing it to be examined. There's nothing particularly interesting about it. It's just a plain metal band with the inscription, "Todd Landers. Amnesia. ICE: Hope House" There's also a phone number.
While Ronnie is examining the bracelet, Todd looks around the room, and smiles pleasantly at one of the muscle men. Said man looks rather uncomfortable, and eventually abandons the weight machine in favor of one on the other side of the room. "We should get ice cream," Todd says, rather randomly but a bit wistfully. "Ice cream would be lovely."
~
"Oh." There goes Ronnie's mood. The plummet of death. Luckily, she's not angered, just disappointed. "Bunny time! It's like, you know, you totally take this break. To eat a bunny." Two more nods, and she turns to grin at him. Only, she winds up grinning at his knee since he's now on his feet.
"You know, he like, might totally know if it's bunny time, but Wil Wheaton is a very busy man. He's not in the city right now. Business or something, I think. But I still have to behave when he's gone. Y'know how much of a bore-o-rama that is? I mean, it's totally the pits." Not that she doesn't behave the majority of the time, because she honestly does.
"Hope House? That's a funny name for a house. What do you hope there?"
Then she's distracted. "Ice cream? I haven't had ice cream in years! Granted, I don't think I can have ice cream now. Maybe blood ice cream. Do you think they'd make blood ice cream if I asked? With a bunny?"
~
Todd blinks, and smiles politely. He looks kind of puzzled, but tries to act like he knows what's going on. "Right. That's what it is. Eat…Wait. Why would you eat bunnies? Aren't they…you know…fuzzy? And cute?" He looks a little dubious about the whole thing, but luckily he doesn't have to figure it out, because she's moving on and leaving him just as puzzled as ever.
The question about Hope house is answered with an honest shrug. "I don't know. Is it important?" Then it's back to ice cream. "Oh! Ice cream is a /lovely/ idea. We should get ice cream… I don't know if they make blood ice cream, but you can always ask!" he encourages, cheerfully.
~
"Bunnies? Way not! They're the most eviltastic creatures in existence." Ronnie leans in conspiratoritally and whispers, "They're trying to like, take over the world. Hoppy legs. Twitchy noses. Beady eyes. Super procreation." Stoutnod.
"I totally have no idea. It's on the back of your bracelet though, so I thought you'd like, know if there was a reason the house is so hopeful." There's a small pause, while the crazy vampire considers whether or not a house can actually be hopeful.
Ronnie nods. "Sure! Blood ice cream. Maybe I'll just like, make my own blood cream or something. That'd be WAY cool. Did you know it tastes better cold? Not like the warmed up stuff they serve at the vamp bar."
~
"Well, I don't think humans drink blood," Todd replies, distracted, as he examines the bracelet. "I mean…it just doesn't sound right…" He looks over at Ronnie, with a sudden look of concern. "I'm not a vampire, am I? That would be rather difficult." Suddenly concerned, he reaches for the notepad, flipping through the pages in search of pertinent information.
"Hope house…" he says, suddenly, as he stops on a page. He looks puzzled, then suddenly brightens. "Right! Hope house. That's where I live. It says right here." He smiles at having figured out that little puzzle, then goes flipping through the notebook again.
"Vampires, vampires, vampires…" he murmurs to himself, as he skims each scribbled page.
~
"Who says they don't? When I was staying with Rob Lowe, I saw a chick totally drink blood. She was all pulse-y and swampy, so she must've been human." Ronnie furrows her brow, then finally gets to her feet. "Your heart is making kerthud noises, so I'm guessing you're like, not a vampire. I mean, if you were a vampire, you'd not have a heartbeat." The icy hand snakes out again as though going to slam against his chest to verify her assumption.
"You live in a hopeful house? What if it gets sad or something? I don't think that's a very good place to live. I bet Corey Heart has a totally cool house. He's so strong and haaaaandsome."
~
Todd flinches away from the hand, but it's more of a reflex than anything. He continues to smile, politely. "Oh. Okay. Well. That's a relief." He closes the notepad, apparently taking her word for it, and returns it to the pocket of his t-shirt. It's an awkward place to keep it, but that's where it goes, apparently.
As for the hopeful house, he just shrugs. "I guess. It's probably a nice place to live. I mean, I'm not hungry or anything…" He just gives a baffled little grin at the last bit. "Really? I mean…ah…yeah. I'm…sure he does. Handsome Corey."
~
"Totally handsome! I mean, like, he's the bomb! A total hunk-o-rama!" Ronnie is grinning quite toothily, even though her fangs aren't showing. "Oh, hey! Since you're like, not a vampire, you should totally go get ice cream."
Nose twitching like a bunny's, the vampire nods. "I'll totally take your word on it. Does it have MTV? If it like, doesn't have MTV then you're totally being robbed. Hopeful houses should always be hopeful and the only way to be that way would be to like, have MTV."
~
The mention of ice cream causes Todd's expression to brighten all over again. "Ice cream! That's a /great/ idea. We should do that…" He glances around, as though looking for something, pats his chest, then nods a little as he wanders off. He glances back with a cheerful smile for Ronnie, apparently expecting her to follow. "I don't know about MTV. But if it's a hopeful house, and it has to have MTV to be hopeful, then it makes sense it would have it, doesn't it?"
~
Ronnie starts to follow him, then realizes she's got to go get her bunny first. "You're right! A hopeful house would have MTV! Great idea. You should get the ice cream and like, go watch the MTV." She starts to do her run dance again, very randomly.
"I feel a hot wind, on my shoulder, and a touch of a world that is older. I turn the switch, and check the number. I leave it on when in bed I slumber…" It doesn't have as much of a run feel as Maniac does, but it's what she's singing.
"My bunny! Can you hear the evil it's spouting? Can't you hear it? It's being very nasty and needs to be punished, you know…"
~
When Todd glances around to find that Ronnie isn't following him, he pauses, then wanders after her, instead. "Hrm. That's an interesting song…" He glances around, but since Ronnie's the only one run-dancing and singing, he doesn't try to copy it.
He looks puzzled about the evil bunny comment. "Bunny? Bunnies aren't evil. I'm pretty sure they're fuzzy and cute…" Confused, he resorts to pulling out his notepad to flip through it. "I'm sure I would know if bunnies were evil," he comments, reading through his notes for some evidence of evil bunnies.
~
Reaching in to yank the notepad away, Ronnie grins. "No no. I'm like, totally telling you that bunnies are evil. They're trying to take over the world." Should she manage to be successful in getting the notebook, she flips to a blank page. Then she yanks a pen from her hair — never ask a woman why she's got a pen in her hair, it wouldn't be prudent — and writes down 'BUNNIES ARE DEMONICALLY EVIL'.
"They're going to eat people, you know. I mean, like, they totally will. It's why they've got such big teeth." Kind of like vampires, only worse.
The vampire seems to lose it a little when she realizes he's mentioning a song she's singing. Without sitting down, she yanks off one of the rainbow colored leg warmers and crumples it into a ball and throws it at him. "I LIKE WAS TOTALLY NOT SINGING OKAY!?!"
~
As the odd vampire grabs the notepad, Todd looks rather distressed, and grabs after it. Unfortunately, it's not really that hard to get the jump on Todd. "Hey! That's /mine/…" He watches, anxiously, as she writes in it. "You really shouldn't…ah… That is, I don't think other people…um. I mean, that's mine," he finishes, rather lamely.
Unfortunately, Ronnie is rather successful at distracting Todd from the notebook by throwing a leg warmer at him. He flinches away, taking one or two steps back to put a bit more distance between himself and the shouting vampire. "Okay? Fine. That's…um…Did I say you were?" He looks more confused than ever, now.
~
"I know, but you were like, missing this part." Then the notebook is tossed at him, though in a manner so that he can catch it. The pen disappears into her big 80's style hair-do.
Ronnie is still frowning though. "You totally did. No one should say I'm singing. I mean, it's not… I don't sing. That's the biggest lie in the world." Even though she does it all the time. "So you'd better not say it again, or else."
~
Todd still looks distressed after he gets his notebook back, though he tucks it into his pocket without further complaint. As she goes on about her singing, or lack thereof, he tries to give another polite smile, but it has a definite edge of anxiety to it. "Well. Um. Okay. I'll try not to?" he offers, with an apologetic tone. "I didn't mean to offend you…"
~
There's only one thing that offends Ronnie, and that's it. Especially when she's having a bad night already. The 80's girl frowns at him, looks as though she's going for the other legwarmer, then stopps. "Weren't you going to get ice cream?"
Since she's not throwing the legwarmer, and she's not going to outright attack him, due to him being human and therefore swampy, she's very content to drop down onto the rowing machine.
"Row, row, row your boat, to collect the bunnies! Then you eat up all the evil, and drown their little bodies!"
~
Todd does not seem as happy to be reminded of the ice cream this time. If anything, he just gives a halfhearted little smile, and responds, "Was I?" He hesitates, then asks, uncertainly, "Were you coming, too…?" But she's already dropped onto the rowing machine.
For a moment, Todd dismisses her, since she seems to have done as such with him, and reaches for his notepad again. He scans through the pages, anxiously, then suddenly looks up with a frown. He watches Ronnie for a moment, then comments, "That's not a very nice song."
~
"Row, row, row your boat, to collect the bunnies! Drain all the evil from their necks, and it'll fill your tummy!"
The handles of the rowing machine SNAP back into place, and Ronnie is up on her feet. In the blink of an eye, she's got the other rainbow legwarmer off and is trying to bean Todd on the head with it. Repeatedly. "Nononononono! I don't sing. DO NOT SING. I told you! You're wrong! No singing! Like, you're totally on coke or something! I'm not a singer. NOT. A. SINGER!"
Then the tears start. You'd think for a vampire they'd be all bloody and messy, but these tears look… uncannily human. Simple, salty tears coursing down her cheeks. "You… you h-hurt me!"
~
There is nothing terribly nimble about Todd, and he seems to be completely taken aback by the sudden attack. He gives a kind of wordless squawk and stumbles backward, right into a random weight lifting machine that looks more like a torture device than a tool for a healthy lifestyle. Todd fends Ronnie off with his hands, wide-eyed and shocked, until she finally starts to cry and stops hitting him. He looks completely lost, and finally just says, "Um. I'm…sorry?"
Meanwhile, all those meat heads are looking rather uncomfortable. Todd /seems/ harmless enough… But it seems unchivalrous not to come to the aid of a lady in tears. So they end up watching, waiting for someone to make the first move.
~
There would be a great deal of laughter if any one of them came to help her. Laughter, and probably a show of fang. Ronnie finally gives up on the beating and just drops the legwarmer. Then she's running, at an alarming speed toward the woman's change room. That should be a clue to any of the meatheads, that she can handle herself.
Even so, she starts to sing again as she gets into the change room, her voice easily heard over the din. It's nothing grotesque, or even remotely popular. It's one of her own songs, from before her vampiric death. Thankfully no one mentioned that to her, or there would have been more pain than legwarmer beatings.
~
Todd watches Ronnie, completely baffled as she runs off to the changing rooms. He glances around, finds people watching him, and then gives a kind of self-conscious clearing of his throat. He goes for his notepad, still looking little disturbed, but flips through it to the end. He looks reflexively at his wrist, frowns, then looks toward the front of the building, probably trying to get some sense of the time. Eventually, his gaze wanders back to the changing rooms, and then he heads in that direction. Toward the /men's/ changing room, of course.
