Take a Look at My Body, A Look at My Hands [Open]

[celebrityskinned]

Who| Venus and Open
What| Venus in the training center
Where| Training Center
When| Immediately after her arrival
Warnings/Notes| None. Venus has just woken up in a human body. I'd really rather Venus not know about the resurrections yet.

Venus has been paid in cash. She's been paid in cruises, she's been paid in designer shoes and take-home samples straight from the music video, and at one point some schmuck who booked her tried to pay her in promises to hook her up with a 'guy' who had 'lots of connections' and 'knew Puff Daddy', as if she needed or even wanted that. But no one's ever paid her in her own body before.

The first thing she does is strip down in front of the mirror and examine herself. When she exploded, she was a child. She's grown since then, grew up, but the body is fitted just right for her. There's even a birthmark that she remembers from her childhood, a blotch on her ankle, a little scar on her knee from when she fell off her bike. Her body gets goosebumps in the chill of the room and joints pop and the blood rushes from her head when she gets up too fast, and it's still perfect. She's perfect.

She gets clothes on and flips through her map, deciding to explore the place she's living first. She runs down the stairs in bare feet and finds herself in the massive training room where she was scored in. A trampoline and a balance beam and a rope ladder all call to her. Before she goes and explores the city, she wants to try this human body out.

She does flips and somersaults and handstands. She traipses down the balance beam and easily scales the rope ladder. She boxes against the dummies and rolls around on the floor and grabs a sword and fences imaginary foes with it.

At one point her knuckles start to bleed from the boxing. She puts her hand to her mouth and tastes blood, blood and sweat, and it's marvelous because it means that she's well and truly alive. Not a bunch of unhappy molecules but a flesh and bone human being, with hair and skin and snot and spit and coppery, sticky blood.

She laughs, almost hysterically, and it's like a jar full of butterflies being opened from her mouth. The sound echoes throughout the training center, interspersed by her grunts and gasps of exertion as she tumbles and flips across the floor.

Comments

Lurkin' like a lurker, wants to be noticed.

[gruesome]

There's not a lot of laughter in here, in Some's experience. His biased experience, any rate. From the netting across the ceiling, he rolls over, letting his upper body hang down as he looks around for the source. He squints when he sees her, but doesn't think she looks any kind of familiar.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus is so used to eyes on her that she doesn't get that tingly 'I'm being watched' feeling anymore. She only notices Some when he moves. There's a flash out of the corner of her eye and she finishes her tumble, sticks the landing, and looks up with a little flourish.

Some's unusual body doesn't faze her. After all, in her prior form the only thing making her look humanoid was a bunch of vinyl and latex, and her teammates ran the gamut from dead to furry.

She grins up at him. "Liking the show?"

[gruesome]

He liked that, immediately. That her first instinct was a smile. Almost no one smiled the first time they spotted Some, no matter what they were up to.

"Liking the laughter, actually. Though the rest looked like nearly a dance."

[celebrityskinned]

"Then I'm doing it wrong. It's supposed to look badass." She places her hands on her hips. "You coming down anytime soon?"

[gruesome]

Obligingly, he lowered himself down, hanging for a moment from his his hindfeet as his lower hands reached the floor, all nearly-twelve-feet of him stretched out. Once earthbound again, though, he stood up normally, four feet on the ground and his lower arms folded neatly across his back.

"There aren't many places to climb without being lectured for it," he explained, before her offered her a long, skinny, six-fingered hand. "And I miss climbing. My name is Some ovMennet."

[celebrityskinned]

She reaches forward and shakes his hand in a way that suggests she's very used to holding strange hands and making good impressions. It's solid without being intimate.

"Venus Dee Milo. And what, you can't pull a Spider-Man up the buildings?"

[gruesome]

Easy familiarity. He liked her, he decided, quick as that.

"Not so easily, if you mean climb them anyway. Lots of glass, and there are walls I can't see, too." Even with his eyes. All eight.

[teethofneedles]

Karis is still in a bit of a bad mood. She lost, after all, and she doesn't particularly enjoy losing. Or dying. Theres nothing else to do but train, though, so off she goes to use the training room - because hey, it's better than doing nothing. Of course, there's someone already there (someone she doesn't recognize) and she watches the other woman for a while. She's - well, she's good at what she does. For a breather.

"Are you gonna do everything while you're here?" She drawls, "Or are you gonna save some for tomorrow?"

[celebrityskinned]

Venus does a backwards tumble and lands seated. She looks over her shoulder, blowing a lock of hair off her face. She's more comfortable in front of an audience than not. Being alone means marinating in all those fears that soak into her very molecules. She gets up and rests her hands on her hips.

It's not Dead Girl. She's got the same gravelly dead rasp as Dead Girl, but Dead Girl has a better body. Still, zombie girl over here looks like she could throw down, and as far as Venus understands it, battle to the death is the name of the game.

"Why, you looking for a sparring partner?"

[teethofneedles]

Karis might find being called "Dead Girl" morbidly amusing. Or she might go flying off the handle. Really depends on the day and her mood. She eyes Venus for a long moment and lifts a clawed figner to pick at her teeth while she thinks. A slow grin spreads over her features - she doesn't really need a sparring partner, but she might as well learn how this woman fights. They're going to be going at one another, after all.

"Usually not. But you - hey, if you're offering, I might take you up on it."

Easy on the eyes, too, but that's somewhat secondary.

Somewhat.

[celebrityskinned]

"Sure. I haven't gotten a chance to give this body a test run against a live opponent." She reaches over and smacks one of the dummies on the back of the head. "These guys don't really fight back."

She doesn't really want to do anything with weapons; she may be up for experimenting with her new form, but she doesn't want it to get too cut up, especially not before the death match itself.

"Hand to hand?"

[teethofneedles]

"New body...?" Karis quirks a bow curiously. She wants to hear more about that. But she can't just let that go by without a quip - she glances at the dummy as Venus smacks it.

"Depending on who run into, not many of the idiots they throw into the arena are gonna fight, either."

She snickers nastily, "Was kinda too easy for a while."

Oh, right, they're supposed to spar or something. She shrugs, "Sure. I've got claws, though, so watch out."

There's another grin and she lifts her hand in a mocking salute, "Karis Needleteeth."

added a note up top, please don't correct her mistake ;)

[celebrityskinned]

Ah, so this woman must be the winner. Venus figures she'll be getting more of a lesson that she's bargained for, but at least there'll be no reason to sabotage her.

"Well, that's no fun. How am I supposed to put on a show if I'm surrounded by dead weight?" She lowers herself into a boxing stance. "I can take some claws, just don't damage the merchandise."

She holds her hand out to shake before they go at it. "Venus Dee Milo."

Buahaha

[teethofneedles]

"Charmed, Vee," Karis replies in her usual rasp - although she adds a wink and a wide grin - and then sidles back a step or two to fall into an open crouch - she's clearly a grappler, not a boxer or a martial artist.

"Whenever you're ready..." She grins widely and slowly starts to circle, waiting to see how this Venus Dee Milo fights.

[gluteus]

Maximus spent much of his free time training. It was something he could do, regularly and with relative ease, that would keep him from thinking. He could simply lose himself, running through exercise aver exercise, his sword arm flashing steel every few seconds.

His habits however meant that he had a fairly good idea of those tributes that trained regularly.

So when he saw someone new, flipping and punching and running and jumping and bleeding, he can't help but watch for a few minutes, a frown growing on his face. Eventually, however, he steps over.

"You'll do yourself an injury," He says lowly.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus pauses, realizing that she totally didn't notice that someone was coming in during all that gamboling. A strange giggle escapes her, something she didn't anticipate, and jerks her shoulders up and her eyebrows into a bashful expression.

"Right. I was just taking everything out for a test drive." She slaps her hands together as if dusting them off, sizing up her fellow Tribute. She can't say she's looking forward to trying to take on Tall, Strong and Handsome here, and it seems a shame that one of them should die when they're both really easy on the eyes. "But you'd like that, wouldn't you? Easier for you one we get in the ring."

[gluteus]

He made an expression that resembled bemusement. She's young. But youth is rarely a detriment on the battlefield. While experience certainly counts for the most, youth has benefits that he simply doesn't have, after being so long at war. So long on the road.

However he isn't very used to soldiers, or gladiators, giggling.

"I prefer my fights evenly matched," He mused, an eyebrow raised. He didn't understand the term 'test drive', though he could make an assumption as to what it meant. "May as well fight while you can still do back-flips."

[celebrityskinned]

She shakes her head and lets her hair fall around her face, catch on her lips, then brushes it aside. "I probably won't live long enough to get old and frail, so you know. If you don't want to lose it, abuse it."

She approaches and holds her hand out. "I'm Venus."

[gluteus]

Everyone in the place seems to want to shake arms, so he does so - gripping hers just below the elbow as is the common method (which no one, so far, has corrected him on).

"Maximus," He says, as he is processing her name. He blinks. He's heard roman names here before, of course, but none that are directly divine. "Venus. You're named for the goddess?" He hoped, at least. He somehow did put it past himself to actually run into one of the gods, here. Not after Morrigan.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus smiles, although it goes a little bit taut as the handshake moves into a way her agent would yell at her for indulging. It's a bit of a trapping gesture, rather than the light one she's used to using at meet and greets.

"For the statue, actually, but I could stand to be named after a goddess, you know?" She pulls back and strokes her own neck idly. "Can I call you Max?"

[gluteus]

"The statue." That makes little sense to him, but he lets it pass - given the length of time between his life and now, perhaps many of the gods are remembered only in their marble forms. There are certainly no temples to them here.

He nods at the question, though he finds the need for shorter names odd - she is a young enough women, however, that perhaps she is merely trying to be... what was the word they used, now? Cute?

"You may call me whatever you wish, m'lady," He says lowly.

[bangbangkerpooow]

He doesn't know what it is. It's the enthusiasm, maybe, the simple fact that she laughs when she fights and that when she fights, she fights so damn hard. It could be because the meal he just had, steak fries and a burgar with blue cheese, was just about his favorite thing ever, and when he's in a good mood, he sooometimes goes a little easy on things he maybe shouldn't go so easy on. Either way, when Billy sees Venus, he doesn't drawl his usual condescending hello. Instead, he applauds, his legs dangling from his place atop one of the elevated platforms.

When a whole crowd of people applaud, it's like an avalanche. When one person applauds, it's like pebbles tumbling off the edge of a cliff.

Poetic, he thinks. But boring.

"Hey," he says. "Nice moves, killer."

[celebrityskinned]

To Venus, the sole clap is lonely, too. It's possibly even a taunt, when her ears are so much more used to roaring crowds and clamoring fans and paparazzi. A single clap is something you hear at a dance recital for little girls who still think they can grow up to be ballerinas.

But it's still better than no applause at all, so she turns to Billy with a big smile on her face. A little trickle of sweat works down her cheek. "Thanks! I wasn't really busting out the real stuff. I'm saving it for when my bacon is on the line, you know?"

She stands just so, the curve of her hip jutting in a way that straddles sassy and come-hither. It's a pose she's been told to take by all the people who advise her before she hits the cameras; at this point, it's habit.

[bangbangkerpooow]

"I'll bet," he says with raised eyebrows and raised lips, the back of his bright red shoes scratch-scratching the platform as he idly swings his feet. Billy isn't an expert -- at least not from any analytical standpoint -- but he knows stage presence when he sees it.

"Looks like somebody already trained you."

[celebrityskinned]

Venus notices the shoes. They're the same bright, artificial red she used to be, and she has to admit that it certainly helped her stand out. Now she just has to rely on her natural charisma, and she hasn't actually had to think about that for years.

"Well, you know. Combat training, interview prep, been getting camera-ready long enough. Think they'll like me, Mr...?"

Right, she's bad at asking for names, even from people who don't look like they know what they're talking about. What's Billy, she thinks, a producer, an agent? He doesn't really look like a star.

She's used to being introduced. It makes her pout slightly.