Britney closed her eyes listening to him as he spoke. Her throat was pretty sore now from the allergies and she didn't feel much like talking, not that she ever did.

She was glad that Silas didn't seem to hold too much of a grudge on her. It would really suck to have to work with him this whole day at least with a bitterness keeping them from working together. Heck it could even get them kicked out!

She opened her eyes smiling a little when he said something about capturing 'all the awesome'. "Is that a challenge I hear?" She asked a little smugly. She knew that whatever he was thinking about she was sure that she could draw him justly.

Britney smiled a little looking around the room her eyes slowly getting back to normal. "Well, looks like treadmills, bench presses, pull-ups and normal stuff is what we're suppose to do..." She said trailing off. "Do you want to do the thing you're bad at first when you have energy or after when it's going to be harder?" SHe asked him tilting her head a little. "If you want I can show you some tricks for the pull-ups."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Veronica chuckled a little. "Well, now I can tell, but still, has it crossed your mind that they're pulling an act to keep themselves out of trouble?" She debated a little. She hated it but she rarely counted on people being the best they could be.

She nodded as he continued on the subject of Silas. "I'd want him on my side for sure. That energy could be very helpful on field or even on a planning ops team." She added to what he had said as she started walking. toward the general direction of the equipment.

"I cheated a little and memorized the small print of requirements for a field slot..." She started and thought for a bit. "You have to be able to run a mile in a minute, do forty pull-ups in three, twenty eight bench presses, and I believe it was sixty of each sit-ups and push-ups." She said thumbing her lip. "Sorry, really wanted field." She said smiling.

He grinned much wider now, pleased that she no longer seemed annoyed. He liked her better when she was happy; he liked most people more when they were happy.

"Depends..." he said. "Are you up for a challenge of that caliber?"

He relaxed a little after, looking to the stations. She had a point... do the hard things first and get them out of they way while he was at full charge and then do the cakewalk stuff later! It was tempting to do the easiest first, though... that way if they ran out of time or energy, they could say they did something and maybe even did that something super-good! And maybe that would count enough to get them to pass!

But... he was pretty sure the boss-lady was a firm believer in "no half measures".

After some thought, he sighed. "Yeah, let's try and get the hard stuff out of the way." he agreed. "And man, I'd appreciate any tips on pull-ups and flexed-arm hangs. I don't got spaghetti arms or nothing but... well, they're not beefy either."


~*~


"It could be possible. Human beings are notoriously complex and some are very adept at masking their true actions. You never really know until you get to know a person in-depth. Though even then... there's always something left buried. Maybe not on purpose, but it's there." he said, watching the tension seemingly dissipate between the two as they moved off towards the stations.

As they walked, he listened to her list off the battery of requisites. It was a lot, but if you were going to be in the field, you had to be in shape and capable of demanding physical tasks. It was no different than police academy, firefighter's training or the army. The guidelines existed for a reason, after all. If your partner fell in combat and was unable to move or unconscious, could you carry their dead-weight to safety? If you had to pursue a perp, could you sprint fast enough and last long enough to catch them? Could you climb, run or jump to clear obstacles that stood between you and investigation? Were you in peak physical shape?

Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure of the answer here. Not as it pertained to him. He liked to think he was in shape- and he did keep fit, even despite his age- but whether he was in shape enough... that was the mystery.

"It's not cheating, it's being well-studied." he said with a wry grin. He glanced back to Brittany and Silas, and then back again. "He is full of energy... maybe if he can reign it in, I'll be pressed to agree with you. Right now though, impulsive as he is, he seems a liability more than anything."

Britney snorted. "It isn't that hard for me to draw anyone. Can you sit still for more then five minutes?" She asked crossing her arms. She wouldn't really need him to sit still, it would only be a minor annoyance in the end.

Honestly, she thought he was just being a little bit of an ego for joking around about that. He seriously wasn't too special looking. She'd probably draw him at lunch or something to prove it.

Britney couldn't help but laugh a little when he said something about his arms being skinny. "Come on... Mine are skinnier!" She said holding out a arm to prove it. "And I do pull-ups just fine thank you very much, so stop the belly aching." She said bending down to pick up her bag and started moving toward the pull up bar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Veronica felt that they had exhausted the subject of judging people so she simply nodded in response. She understood what he was saying exactly, her parents used to play a game with her where she'd act a little different and they'd try and figure out what she'd be like the next day.

It wasn't exactly fun but it was hard to get her parents to actually pause for a minute during the day to hang out with her and with the game they'd actually eat at the table and laugh as they'd guess what she had done.

Veronica looked around at the equipment then back to Watson. "What do you want to start with, I think starting with the sit-ups then moving to the tread' is a good start." She said then paused as she walked a little closer to the treadmill.

"I'm sorry but I didn't even ask, did you want to try to get into field too?" She asked feeling slightly guilty for not having done so before hand.

Silas had only laughed and shrugged in response to her question about sitting still- he probably could, if he had a reason to but even when he tended to sit for long stretches, he was always doing something- jiggling his leg, tapping his fingers... it felt unnatural and uncomfortable to sit perfectly still. He wasn't really sure how other people managed it.

He stood under the pull-up bar, sighing. The minimum requirement for the marine corps was 3 pull-ups, un-timed. He knew because he looked at joining the armed forces out of high school- they paid for continued education and would give him an opportunity to provide for himself (which he figured he needed since the state government cut you off from care at 18, whether you had a post-foster situation or not). But then he realized just what the armed forces were about and quickly nixed that idea- he was nowhere near equipped for combat. And so the couch surfing had began... but the requirements others had to endure stayed with him.

If only his math skills had stayed with him better instead! But then again, who was ever going to need to use algebra without a calculator, right off the cuff? No one. Well, maybe doctors and math teachers but still! Mostly no one!

He tried to pull in his wandering mind, still staring up at the bar. Maybe he could do one? How many did they want, again? He wished he paid more attention to the requirements for here...

"Okay so... maybe we do it like this?"

He jumped up and grabbed the bar, palms facing towards him and wriggled around, trying to hoist himself up. He managed... half a pull up before dropping back to hang limply from the bar. After another equally unsuccessful attempt, he dropped back to the mats, frowning.

"...I'm better at climbing, anyways. I get to use my legs, then."


~*~


Watson paused by the treadmill, nodding to his partner. "I figured the basics- sit-ups and push-ups- would be a good point for starting. It's best to warm-up before extensive exercise anyways. Otherwise, you're liable to hurt yourself."

They always had a good 15 minute warm-up period in karate class. After stretching, it typically went: sit-ups, plank position, push-ups, jumping jacks and then jogging. Then the actual karate and heavier tasks. He'd seen kids half-ass the warm-ups before and they were always the ones that wondered why they were so gimped and sore after class (or even halfway through class, if they were particularly unfit).

At her question, he nodded. "I would prefer it. Otherwise, the alternative is sitting in an office, coordinating from behind a screen, I assume. I do best when I have access to the outside." he said with a small smile.

If he stayed inside too long, he slowly lost the drive to go out at all. And if he lost the drive to go out it made it perilously easy for him to sink into a poor and relatively lugubrious thought pattern (one he'd neglected to mention on his forms as it was the sort of condition that ruled you out of a lot of occupations). So it would be best if he could meet the requirements for field. If not... well, he was sure he'd manage, it'd just be more difficult.

Still, he had his doubts. "Though how attainable it is, I'm not sure. Some of the requirements seem improbably lofty. For example, even world-class sprinters can only manage a mile in just under 5 minutes. Being five times faster seems... unachievable. It makes me wonder... maybe the guidelines are purposely set to be impossible to see how students react to such standards. Or to see how close they can come to it."

Britney covered her mouth as she chuckled a little, attempting to keep from laughing too loudly that they'd draw attention. He really didn't know what he was doing very well at all. "Well, you have at least the basic idea down." She said moving over to the bar herself. "You need to keep your hands aligned with your shoulders. " She said setting down her bag.

"Like this." She said jumping up to the bar keeping her hands shoulder width apart. "And when you pull up you should pull your shoulder blades together until they touch." She said pulling up her legs swinging a little******she lifter herself to where her shoulders were above the bar. She slowly went back down and pulled herself back up again. "And it doesn't say you can't use your legs." She said as she went down and paused for a moment. "You can swing them a little to gain momentum. Just don't swing them too much or you'll move forward and fall." She said demonstrating as she spoke.

She let go falling to the ground her bare feet hitting the mat with a slapping sound. "Your turn." She said picking up her bag pulling her loose red hair out of her face, her eyes still a tad pink but barely noticeable now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Veronica nodded. "I like the sit-ups, running, lifting, pull-ups, and then sit-ups, in that order. It works rather well in my opinion." She said sitting down on the floor her feet in front of her as she laid back her hands behind her neck to support it.

She nodded quickly before she started actually doing the sit-ups. "My thought exactly. I hate being stuffed behind a desk for too long. I almost went crazy in high school having to sit behind the desk in study hall." She said slowly speeding up her sit-ups, her leather suit squeaking a little against the mat with the movement.

She huffed a small laugh as she counted fifteen to herself. "I honestly think it was a typo or a scare tactic to keep the really wimpy people out...." She said breathing a bit heavily for a bit keeping up her pace. "I mean, if people aren't even able to consider trying the impossible should they really be trying for a job with so much uncertainty?" She said counting twenty-two to herself in her mind.

Silas looked over at the bar again. Okay so... there was a method to it. Maybe if he could just get the method right... he could do enough to get by. He stretched out his arms, kicking off his sneakers- maybe having a little less weight would help- and moved into position.

"O...okay. That sounds easy enough. I've just never been an 'arms' guy. I was always a runner, you know? I did really good at track and cross-country. Other stuff? Eh, not so much." And honestly, it was surprising that he did well at track. That required a lot of coordination and Silas... he could be a rather clumsy boy at times. But he had excelled ad he was quite proud of that fact.

He rubbed his hands together and shook his arms out before jumping at the bar again... and missing entirely, falling back to the mats comically. He shot upright again, blushing and rubbing the back of his head with a small, nervous laugh. Well... that was not how it was done, was it?

He tried again, doing better this time. Or at least he managed to grab the bar properly, anyways. Okay, pull your shoulderblades together... wait, how does that work? Maybe... like this? He wriggled around a bit, looking somewhat confused before he got the motion down. He seemed to do better this time, hefting himself up further this time- though not all the way. He dropped back down, took a deep breath and then pulled himself back up. After some struggle, he managed to reach the bar with a sharp, triumphant laugh.

"Hey! I got one! Hey, you think maybe they'd let us sub the flexed-arm hang like they did in middle school during fitness testing? Cuz now that I'm up here, I could prolly hang for awhile... but I dunno if I'll be able to get back up again if I drop down..."


~*~

Watson nodded, moving to time and spot her. It was as good an order as far as everything went. Not too intense to start, but the flow should allow them to accomplish what they needed to in the timeframe allotted. Hopefully, anyways.

"I was never the type to sit and wield a pen, slaying paper dragons all day. I can manage office work well enough- most of my 'IT work' was done from my PC, the likes of which would be very hard to move outside." he said with a small smile. The laptop was portable but it lacked the heft and power his desktop unit had and so much of his work was done from home "But I can empathize. School was... challenging for me as well- for a few reasons. And even grown up, I could have never been a committed white-collar worker, spending 8-12 hours within four walls. Like a plant, I wither without the sun, to say the least. It was something my family never entirely understood, one of the many things we never saw eye-to-eye on. But... what are you going to do, right?"

He finished with a shrug and a muted smile, glancing at his watch again to track time. Of course, the friction with his family hadn't been related to his disdain for professional work. It was more than instead of simply getting a blue-collar job in lieu of office work, he instead had elected to barely scrape by and get into noticeable amounts of trouble in the process.

He thought more on the requirements as his partner worked to finish her reps, eventually nodding in regards to her thoughts. Intimidation... that was a valid tactic too. "Makes sense, thought, that they'd set the numbers for our reps high to scare some off. If you can't even try... it does not speak well for your character, I agree." he said. He thought a bit more and then spoke again. "It could also be a test of honesty- set the numbers impossibly high on purpose and see who just writes things down to 'pass'. I highly doubt any of our trails will be completely straightforward, to be honest."

Britney smiled glad she had helped him out a bit. It had taken her a while in school to figure out a good way to do pull-ups and she almost got a C in gym just because of her lack of arm muscles.

She giggled a little as he fell to the ground trying to get up again. She had no idea why she kept laughing and giggling. She never did anything like the sort. Maybe it was the allergy meds she had taken a few minutes ago.

She couldn't help but smile wider as he finally completed one pull-up. She clapped a little hoping to keep his confidence up. She thought about his next question for a few moments. "We could write it down and see if it's okay... Here I'll time you." She said setting her wrist watch as a stop watch and hitting start. "Now, was it easier the way I do it?" She asked pulling out her note book to write it all down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Veronica nodded a little with a small gasp for breath. Her count was forty-eight at the moment and she could feel her back muscles starting to ache a little with the curling. "Anything where you can't work outside at least a little... sucks." She finished after going up then back down for her fiftieth time.

She couldn't help but feel he was talking from experience which she hadn't really seemed as likely before hand even though he said he never had a job like that. "Well, hopefully they have some out doors tests for us because I might go a tad nuts being trapped down here for a few days." She said knowing it was probably true. Even though you couldn't really tell you were a couple stories under ground it still felt cramped to her.

She pause talking for a brief moment as she finished sixty and did five extra just for good measures. She sat on the ground her hands on her knees as she closed her eyes doing steady breaths for a bit. "That is also a good possibility. I mean who'd even want to be on a team with someone who lied just to get on it?" She reasoned more to the air then to anyone else, including herself.

Sy hung there patiently, working hard to keep the flexed position. It was worth a try to see if they'd let them sub an equal exercise... if it was good enough for the presidential fitness test, it was good enough for here, right? Plus, it still demonstrated arm strength! It still should count!

"Well, it's basically the same, anyways! It still shows strength, just in a different way!" he said, wobbling a little but still hanging on. "It was easier your way though, the getting up part! I didn't know there was like... a technique to it. I figured... grab bar, pull up, right? But... there's a method to everything, right?"

He huffed a little, arms starting to tremble some. He tightened his grip and continued to hang on, though... he had to get a decent time, though! If he wanted this to count, he had to do as good as he could!


~*~


"It's good for the body to get vitamin D anyways, unless you like getting rickets." he added.

And it was good for you mood. Yes, Wats did a chunk of his IT work (which, to be honest, was just a polite way of saying 'hacking of dubious legality') inside from home base but he always made an effort to go outside at some point, whether it was for shopping, running, classes or whatever. If he didn't- such as if he got embroiled in a job or felt ill or was housebound by a stretch of poor weather- it was the start of a downward slide. He just... could not imagine how people in offices managed day in, day out, for years (though he suspected financial necessity was a big part of it).

"It is somewhat claustrophobic, being trapped underground, isn't it?" he agreed. Thankfully, he didn't wither immediately without the sunlight. His mood might start to suffer and he might become withdrawn as time went on but at least work and striving to qualify would keep him from sinking too deep. Or... he hoped so, at least. But he hadn't gotten real bad in years anyways, so he was optimistic here.

He recorded her time and amount of sit-ups before moving into position to get started on his own set. "No one, I would suspect." he responded to her last remark. "This is a profession in which you essentially put you life into your teammate's hands. It requires complete trust for cohesion of the unit... if someone lies about something as basic as entry tests... how are you to trust them as much as you need? You can't because if they'd lie so quickly on something so basic, what else would they lie about- or slack off on, for that matter?"

[Sorry that it's messy and late. I was on vacation and had no idea what to do.... Plus I have two minutes left on the library computer]


Britney let her face dead pan as she kept close watch of both Silas and her watch, she wanted to get it accurate enough so that they wouldn't think she was trying to skim his time or give him extra.

She was slowly getting more impressed that he was still up there. For someone who couldn't really do pull-ups he was staying up for quite some time. She smiled inwardly when he spoke again she nodded a little. "You would think it was easy enough." She agreed and went back to watching his time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Veronica took one more deep breath before standing nodding in agreement. "If I didn't have spy work to do I'd probably go nuts and get freakishly into reading." She said almost shivering from the thought. It wasn't that she didn't like reading but it was what she did when she was depressed. And not going outside was a quick way of making her like that.

She started tracking his time and counted to herself. lifting a hand to pull her hair off her neck for a bit. She loved dressing in her suit but when she was wearing it and moved her neck up and down her curly hair would fall in and it'd drive her crazy.

She mentally told herself to not forget a hair tie tomorrow. "My thoughts exactly. I wouldn't like to work with a wimpy liar." She said looking away briefly to see if anyone had gotten on the treadmills. She hoped that it really was a scare tactic or typo. She knew she couldn't do it in one minute, maybe she could push to three or two but not one.

[It's fine. I figured that was the case. Sorry for vanishing myself... I had more stuff come up and Sylestia was way at the bottom of the priority stack. This summer's been hell dude... just when I think things are settling, something else comes up. Gah!]


Sy tried to cling on a little longer but his arms trembled, heralding his drop from the bar seconds later. He landed hard on the mats, laying there on his back for a while before stretching his arms all the way out.

Everything burned. He... probably should have let go sooner. But he had locked his arms and got in the zone... he'd spaced out and even the fiery ache of his muscles didn't reach him. He had actually quieted down for once and got a weirdly intense look. It had only broke when his upper finally said 'yeah okay this is way past our capacity' and let him drop.

After a few seconds, he regained his breath and sat up, rubbing his arms tenderly. "Wow, that kind of stings." he said with a small, almost nervous laugh.

~

Watson moved swiftly, cranking out the requisite numbers of sit-ups. He went over time- as he expected; he was only a mere mortal- but he wagered his mark was still acceptable. He had thought, briefly, of adding extra to his set but eventually decided against it. He wagered it could be taken one of two ways- one, that he was only meeting the minimum and half-assing things or two, that he was good at following instructions.

Not everything is a mind game, V. Just because you came across a few bad boys-in-blue that liked to play head games doesn't mean they all do. Plus, that was years ago... it shouldn't color you behavior now. You're 45 and you should act it, his mind scolded.

He sat up now, arms resting on his knees as he took a brief break. "Freakishly into reading? I'm not sure that's really possible. But I have- well, had- my fair share of books so I may be biased." he laughed.