[D1 LA - Walker's Gym] Sweat

[Craig Walker]

A few years back when Craig first made his way down to Minuit he had a bit of extra cash on him from odd jobs he had worked along the way. Enough cash in fact to put a down payment on a run down old warehouse downtown.

That old warehouse, with a fresh coat of paint and a few adjustments it wasnt a half bad space. Craig did some work contracting some changelings and trawling some used sports equipment sites and such and a little over a year after he moved to town Walker's Gym opened. It was no Gold's Gym but it had a boxing ring, a few full bags, a couple speed bags, and some weight racks. It got the job done.

Minuit being the size it was there weren't hundreds of people looking to learn but there were a few here and there, enough to keep the lights on, plus any of the Lost that came wanting to learn how to defend themselves got a pretty steep discount.

Today though Craig was in the gym working out himself, he would lift weights for a bit before moving to jump ropes and bag work. There were a few others in the gym today practicing boxing and a couple of wrestlers were on the mat practicing the takedowns Craig had showed them earlier.

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[Lily Heartzler]

Lily had seen the place a couple of times, walking back to her appartment through the downtown area. She normally spent her active time on parkour and running, but for some reason this place always seemed to tickle the back of her mind. So she decided, needing to let off some steam and anxiety before the big party tonight, that she would try it out (not wanting to light up so early). What the hell, she thought. So here she is, in a black sports bra, open black jacket with little skulls all over it, and some black sports shorts, walking into a new place. She looked around, not sure where to begin

[Craig Walker]

Lily would notice the clientele of the gym to be mixed human and Lost, a massive minotaur looking Lost spotted for your typical gym bro, a woman with black skin and a red line that gashed her face ear to ear and knees that hinged the wrong way wrestled with a small mousey girl in her 20s.

At the moment she walked on Craig was ring side coaching two MMA style fighters who were sparring.

"Dammit Jake keep your hands up!" He shouted at an athletic blonde boy in his late teens or early 20s, Craig looked to the other boy, a bald african american man around mid 20s "Devin next time he drops that guard ring him, maybe we can beat it into him!" Walker growled.

The humans saw a massive and muscular black man who stood over six and a half feet tall and was likely in his late 20s or early 30s. He had a military style haircut and wore only a tight black tank top and black athletic shorts. Lily and the other Lost saw something very different. They saw a giant of obsidian and magma that loomed over 7 feet tall with horns of obsidian that had etchings and runes in them. A mask of volcanic rock gave the thing a "face" of carved obsidian that looked hard but moved and flowed just like skin and bone. The mask of black had two eye shaped holes and a gash of orange where his mouth was.

Craig looked up and saw the girl entering that he didnt know he nodded to her and looked back to the guys "alright keep at it." He hopped down from ringside and approached Lily extending a hand to the Spring courtier. "Name's Walker, Craige Walker. What can I do for you? Dont recognize you."

[Lily Heartzler]

Lily shook his hand, and put on her signature smile.
"Hey, was just hopping I could get a good work out in, and maybe learn a couple of things."
She leaned to her left, looking around Walker at the punching bags.
"How much does it cost to beat up on a punching bag for an hour?"

[Craig Walker]

Walker thought for a moment before waving a hand dismissively "for you? Nothing, have at it. Think of it as a trial membership, see how you like it. And if you want to come back we can go in the back and discuss numbers." His voice was deep and rich, it was a full voice, one you would expect on a man that looked like Walker.

"I didnt catch your name. I know most people around Minuit that are like us. Though I guess it's possible we run in different circles."

[Lily Heartzler]

"Oh I'm sorry, my name is Lily" She centered her attention back to Walker. "And yeah, I haven't really been around that long, and I haven't met a whole lot of people like us yet. But with the turn of Autumn and all that, I'm sure that'll change tonight." She said with a slightly higher octave, giving away her nervousness. She shook her head lightly and added "But I'm not here for that. I don't want to waist my free hour" she said glancing back at the punching bags with excitement on her face. "So which one of these bags can I beat up on?"

[Craig Walker]

Walker chuckled "Straight to business, no wasting time, I like that. First things first, you know what you're doing? I'm not gonna have you sprain your wrist cause you don know how to punch right. No offense Lily but you don't exactly strike me as a boxer." The big man folded his arms across his chest and quirked an eyebrow at her as he looked down.

[Lily Heartzler]

Lily glanced around the gym. She decided that it would be better to swallow her pride and accept any help she could get rather than make a fool of herself infront of everyone.
"I've never done it before, but don't you just punch and kick it? And jump around a lot?"
She looked up at him, hoping she didn't sound like an idiot.

[Craig Walker]

That elicited another deep rumble from the big man as he dropped his arms and turned toward the heavy bags motioning her to come work him "Come on let me show you how this works. Yeah you have the basics, you punch and kick it but you gotta do it right or you'll hurt yourself."

[Lily Heartzler]

Lily followed the big man, wondering how smart it was for her to tell another changeling that she didn't really know how to defend herself in close quarter combat. Sure he seemed nice enough but she wasn't sure how much she could trust another of her kind. Approaching the bag brought her out of her thoughts, she looked up at Walker
"I appreciate this, once I get the technique down I'll just keep going at it till I can't lift my arms* she smiled and giggled a bit. She supposed it could be seen as flirty but that wasn't her intent, it was just the way she talked.