built to destroy

Hercules had tried, he had tried so many times with so many different people (usually men, if he was honest, but not always) to make sure that they made smart choices in the gym, and so many times he had watched them injure themselves as a result of it. He had watched as they tried to bite down their pain and hobble away as if nothing had happened, even though he could follow the pain in every movement they made.

"Ok, but 50kg, not 50 pounds, you know?" Sometimes people got tripped up by that, just an innocent mistake - especially with so many Americans in town.

"It's just a lot of weight," he went on, nervously, not wanting to watch the man absolutely destroy his back. "And that's a very hard lift you're gearing up for there, not many people could manage that-"

He could, he knew. With cold certainty he was sure of it, but he would never try it here.

But the man in front of him? He didn't seem that tall, or that strong, and his build wasn't right for him to be able to just shift that without help. Not unless there was something helping him.

"And honestly," he added, grinning - nervous and apologetic as it was - "I'm not sure the bar can handle all that weight, you know? They're not built for that."

Then he mentioned the equipment and Stiles understood exactly what was going on. He probably dealt with a lot of guys who didn't know their own strength and didn't care about breaking stuff around here. Well, Stiles certainly didn't want to cause any extra trouble for this guy, or possibly get him fired.

"Okay, is there something that is more built for it that I should use instead?" He didn't mind at all moving to a different machine. He took one of the weights off of the bar, holding it in one hand and carrying it back to where it belonged with no particular rush.

Luz looked around the sitting room with a twist of her mouth, trying to imagine what it would look like as theirs and failing. God, it was tiny! And Stiles was not a small guy! Plus, Luz was enthusiastic with her body language at the best of time; she needed space to gesture without smacking someone in the face!!!

"I don't think we will fit in here," Luz murmured back out of the corner of her mouth, leading him through the sitting room into the kitchen. She immediately came to a halt and gaped in horror. The kitchen was practically the size of a closet!!!

Classic Sidney Princess films had LIED to her!!! Who could possibly bake a pie in a tiny space like this!!! No way they could host family dinners in a place like this.

"No way our family is fitting in here," she said, proving her point by stepping forward and stretching her arms out to either side of her body. Her fingertips touched opposite walls, and she glanced at Stiles with a wide-eyed look.

‘Our family’ … The idea of bringing a child into the world was still pretty terrifying. He had no idea what to expect with his strange magic. Would they be Gifted? Sorcerers? Something else?

It was something he hadn’t given a lot of thought, because it made him anxious just thinking about it. But he tried to picture for a moment what one or two small children would look like in this house, and it just wouldn’t work. Especially if they had super strength.

“Yeah, you’re right. Should we just move on to the next one?”

"I can think of one," she said easily.

With Edward gone, Mim picking up more freelance work, and the busy season in swing, Elsa could use all the help she could find. She was humble enough to admit that the ice cream shoppe was a very easy job -- there was a reason most of her staff were uni kids or younger.

"You know better than most what it would be like to work here, so if you're not interested that's totally okay," Elsa reassured. "I can still help you find something. But hey, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least offer. I very much liked working with you in the dream."

"It's pretty similar to the shop in the dream, then? With a little less Sidney magic?" But with more real magick, he supposed. It sounded... perfect. He genuinely enjoyed working with Elsa, so he was sure this couldn't be that much different.

Homemade chicken noodle soup was on the menu, and even though he had no real experience with the recipe, he was happy to keep Luz company and help out where he could. It sounded like a great way to spend the day, especially since Camila had been so kind to him in the past. He was happy to have an opportunity to repay some of that kindness.

He arrived at the house, carrying a paper bag with a few groceries Luz had been missing from the recipe. "Hey, Luz. How's she doing?"

Taking each stair at a time Lottie almost thought to just cry a little more and offer to give him a tip or something if he just went and got it and brought it back to her...but that seemed wrong. "I really do appreciate you doin' all this sugar." There was truth to it. "I hope I'm not keepin' you from anything. I know I can be a lot."

"You're welcome." He chose not to comment on the rest of her statement, not wanting to agree or disagree with it. He led her to the appropriate section, no longer narrating the process. He had wanted to teach her how to do this herself next time, but something made him think she didn't really want to learn.

As they reached the appropriate shelf, he stopped in the middle of the aisle, reading the spine labels in search of the number they had found on the computer. "It should be right here..."

"If you ever do need help, you can always find me at the Ice Queen," Elsa offered. "I know plenty about the town and would be more than happy to offer some advice if you need it!"

Somewhere, she could imagine Anna teasing her about taking in another "stray", but hey, she was the one who had moved all the way back to Arendelle and left Elsa with all of these eldest-sister urges with no one to aim them at. Besides, Swynlake was the one who drew all these strays in, Elsa just made sure they didn't land on their faces when she could.

"Thank you." Having more people to turn to if he had a big problem was always good. Elsa seemed like she might be more helpful with big Life Questions than someone his own age, who only had a little bit more real-world knowledge than he did.

"Actually, I've got a question you might know more about as a business owner. Do you know anyone who's hiring? Who won't care that I have no qualifications?" He was quickly learning that having no GCSEs could hinder him in this area, so he wasn't really sure how to proceed. But hopefully Elsa could give him a couple leads.

Stiles was starting to seem like a pretty dry well, but hey ho. She shuckled a bit at the reccomendation list, recognizing some but not a lot. "Shakespeare?" Mitte pulled a bit of a face, "oy, you migth have some boring friends, sorry. Don't believe the hype, Romeo and Juliet is a bunch of nonsence." Not that she'd ever read it, but everyone knew that story. "Star-crossed my ass, needed to get their acts together."

She taps a familiar entry on the list, "haven't read those, but Swynlake pulled us all into it once. You been around for any of those funky dreams yet?" Mitte hummed, a laugh a little too slow to be all the way real, "got hacked to death by a guy with an axe. Interesting time, for sure... Probably won't be as fun to re-live, though."

He raised an eyebrow at the mention of being pulled into a book. That could happen? The one town dream that he had experienced had been so idyllic in comparison, almost boring compared to dealing with an axe murderer.

"Been here for one, yeah, but it was nothing like that. Are they usually so... violent?" This town never failed to surprise him. If that was the norm, he wanted to be mentally prepared to deal with it.

"Since you've got a couple of the tragedies covered, I'd say you need to read at least one of his comedies. Too many people see the tragedies and stop thinking its all death and misery. Of those, I think I'd recommend As You Like It."

After all, who could deny Rosalind as a character? But it was a good exposure to Shakespeare's general gender fuckery, the romances were enjoyable, and the banter was top notch without running into the problems that The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing did. If he was only going to read one, it should be that one.

As they approached the Drama section of library, Stiles kept an eye on the shelves, searching for the S section. He was proud of how his navigation skills had progressed, understanding the structure of the library better ever time he visited. "Any other favorites? Or other authors I should check out?"

“Yeah, I’ve read The Hobbit! I love The Hobbit!” 

Wow, what an honor it was that he could help someone on their first step to Middle Earth.

“I think it should be right around here… aha!” He grabbed the book and handed it over to the stranger. “Is this your first foray into Tolkien?” 

"Yeah, it's my first time. Are you a fan, then?" He loved getting to see what other people were passionate about. It helped him know if he was on the right track, and it was just cool to see the way some people's faces lit up when they shared. It was probably one of his favorite things about life here, compared to his past.

She nodded in confirmation, eyes narrowing a little as she waited for the follow up to that question as she realized she was being an ignorant sorcerer– sometimes people didn't know what that meant, or they thought they did and were actually very misinformed.

"Uh, well it's pretty simple. I mean, it isn't actually simple, but you don't have to do anything too wild. Like um, say I wanted that shade of color your wearing for something. I would just..." After reaching down to set her jar of dirt on the floor Su flicked her wrist, the fan in her hand unfolding into its full form. She reached forward until the end of the fan was a few inches from his sleeve, and moved her wrist again so the wand waved. With a bit of concentrated effort she used her other hand to pull the color free– in her hand it was like a piece of play dough, in that same color. She held it up for him to see before setting it down on the lid of the jar on the floor.

"Okay, I'm on board." He smiled at her, hoping to convey the same level of confidence that he saw in her. Rock, paper, scissors... He knew that one! His friends used it fairly often to decide simple things like who got to pick where they ate or who got to go first at something.

He held his hands up and did the little bouncing motion with his fists, choosing rock to be his fighter.

Maybe a few people needed a little help, a little guidance, but that was what he was here for, it was why he made sure he had some extra time on the gym floor this time of year! To help out people who were trying something they'd seen online, or weren't sure how to use this particular machine or-

Or who were heaping way way too much weight onto an olympic bar.

"Whoa, hey there-" Hercules hurried over towards the free weights, spotting the young man who was looking like he was about to blow his back out completely. "That's a whole lotta weight," he commented. "You know the black plates are the 50kg ones, right?"

After doing a lap around the gym to get the lay of the land, he made his way to the weightlifting area and watched as another patron finished doing some squats and returned the bar to the rack. They said they were done and offered to remove the weights from the bar, but Stiles told them to just leave it, knowing that the weight wouldn't be too much for him with his enhanced strength.

He entered into the position they had left, copying the move they had been doing easily. He had done this kind of stuff before, back at the lab, but he had never been the one controlling the amount of weight he had or the speed he went at. He practiced the move a couple times before returning the bar to the rack and grabbing some more weights. He was confident that he could at least double that weight, so he put a couple more plates onto the bar.

As he prepared to test out the weight, he spotted the man rushing toward him and froze. Oh no, should he not be doing this here? Was he going to draw too much attention to himself? "It's okay, mate. I've got it." He tried to be reassuring, but he didn't know the right terms to use to communicate that he knew what he was doing.

She could tell by the way he said 'stronger' that he meant it in the way she did when she said she was a little 'chilly'. She gave him an encouraging smile. "That's a very useful skill to have," Elsa offered. "If that's the biggest difference, then I'm very glad we got to meet in person as well. You were an excellent employee and friend."

The Stiles she remembered had been a sweetheart; helpful and loyal and with the general demenor of a very loving puppy. If he was the same in reality, then she was looking forward to seeing him when he visited the shoppe.

"Are you a student at Pride U?" she asked curiously. If this was his first dream, he must be new to town and that was the first reason that came to mind.

"No, I'm not a student." It was a question he got fairly often, being the same age as many of the students. He hadn't figured out the best way to respond to it without prompting too many questions about where he came from or what he was searching for here. But he really didn't like lying, especially to someone like Elsa, so he tried to stick to the truth as much as possible.

"I'm just... I'm figuring out my next move." He hadn't given too much thought to his move here besides it being safe for Magicks, but at this point it was probably time for him to start putting down some roots here. He could take some steps to make his life more stable, like it was in the dream.