Lion and Gnome at the Gym

Alma had mentioned wanting to properly train her muscles, and Yuri had directed her to this facility called the “Gymnasium,” but he said it’s often referred to as “the Jim,” and she was lost on why the name of a facility would be called a person’s name. Althana decided to tag along; she needed to do something about her lack of physical capabilities, and a facility designed to train muscles while hopefully being supervised or guided by someone who built their life on muscles might be just what she needed. The facilities were extensive, almost as big as the dining area on the main floor, and there were all sorts of simple devices to assist in strength training neither woman had ever seen; there were also a few bars that could have specially formed weights added to them. There were also these strange machines that looked like you could walk or run in place on them, judging by the tracks and rollers Althana managed to take note of.

“When that man said there was a special room for improving your muscles,” said Alma, “I figured it would be some kind of combat practice arena and grounds. But this…”

“Is a whole lot of unfamiliar innovations,” Althana finished. She went over to one of the machines designed to be walked or run on and stood on it; a panel at the height of her face that said something about adjustments popped out of one of the main fronts of the device. She pressed on the image of an arrow pointing down and saw the front portion collapsing and lowering as long s she pressed the button, even the panel she was operating lowered to a more reasonable level below her face, the moment the main portion of the front was at a height she could read everything on it, Althana shut panel; the device lit up with all sorts of inputs, especially numbers. Althana saw something that looked like a humanoid walking with a glowing zero next to it. She pressed the up arrow next to it to change the number to one, and the floor started moving beneath her. She quickly started walking at a relaxed pace to keep from falling over.

Alma chuckled as she observed the display, then went over to the round metal bar with circular weights on either side and tested the weight; it was a bit heftier than she anticipated. She set the bar down and inspected the circular weights nearby; she found numbers and a symbol pressed into the material, probably indicating each piece's weight. Next to the bar were a set of pins. Looking closer at the bar, she found a pair of small holes spaced quite a ways apart from each other, but she also noticed a raised circular bump a bit around average humanoid shoulder width; it was slightly smaller in width than her shoulder width but not to the point of being uncomfortable. Alma tried loading all the weights onto each side of the bar, and they fit with a little over a finger’s width from one of the peg holes on each side. She doubted they could handle the stress for long but put the pegging pins into the holes anyway. After that, she got down under the bar, spaced her hands on the open section, then gripped and started her lifting attempts. She found she couldn't even raise out of the holding brace; at most, she lifted it about a finger’s width before having to let go after a few seconds.

Alma was actually rather happy about the fact that her muscles were protesting a moment of inability to lift a weight. She removed half the weights from each side after a few minutes and tried again after reinserting the pins; this time, she could feel a bit of resistance but at least she could actually get it out of the brace, it felt a bit under her usual limit she was familiar with but she wanted a comfortable to start with before gradually building up her limit due to such an extended period of lacking something to test her strength against.

While Alma was taking time to mess with the weights and try it all out, Althana had been trying out the device, walking and running at different paces. She was used to walking everywhere; everyone registered as an adventurer did, but she had basically reached her limit of an unhurried pace by the time Alma was changing the weights to be half of the entire set of weights, and had stepped off the device to catch her breath for a moment before returning to the device again. After a few more minutes on the device, she pressed the little key-like button she remembered was used to signify opening and closing the circuit for the power of these devices. She began heading to another device to study it, briefly stopping by where Alma was to exchange a few pleasantries before continuing on to her next item of interest.

When she arrived at the device, Althana began the inspection. The device had a series of pulleys attached with some kind of black line, there were weights with what looked like peg pin placed atop them to the side of the device, the front looked like a seat with a pair of bars (one short and straight and one long with bends near the ends) both bars had textured black gripps at their ends, just above the chair was that same black line with some kind of clip, a closer look at the bars revealed a partial ring atop them with hole that looked like the clip above could go through it. Given her height, Althana noted that even if she used the long bar, she would not be able to use the device as intended.

Scanning the chamber, Althana noted that most of the equipment did not use any power; only three or four devices she could see seemed to use power in some way, including the movement device she had recently been using. She spotted a set of strange devices in one of the corners; they seemed to be of various sizes. She went over the strange devices; they had steps attached to what looked like a slightly bent bar that was designed to move in a circular motion, a seat to sit upon, and a bar to grip at arm’s length from the seat. These were strange devices, and one looked like it was even sized for someone of her stature.

Althana then noticed one of the internal communication devices in the wall near these strange devices. She pressed the button she was shown, indicating intent to talk, and asked Yuri what these strange devices next to her were, going into thorough detail about their physical characteristics. A few minutes later, Yuri’s voice came out of the speaker section, which prompted Alma to put the weighted bar she was pressing up and down in the air on the platform attached to the brace provided by the bar and come over and listen in.

“Oh, those things,” said Yuri with a chuckle, “they’re called ‘Exercising Bicycles’ but most people from where I’m from just call them ‘Exercise Bikes’; they’re used for toning your legs and rear end muscles.”

“What is a Bicycle?” Inquired Althana, “it sounds odd.”

“In the simplest terms,” came Yuri’s voice after a moment, clearly trying to think terminology to use that could reasonably explain the majority of his explantions, “it’s a vehicle composed of a frame, gears, chain, and pedal system with two wheels that your travel around on; they come in different model types back where I’m from, like for navigating urban environments or rugged terrains. The type with the word ‘exercise’ tagged onto the front isn't designed to go anywhere, but it still helps you use and train the primary muscles for movement with their vehicle counterparts. The vehicle versions could even be fitted with special wheels and wheel linings for various environmental terrains as well. Did any of that make enough sense for you?”

“Barely,” came Alma’s voice almost as soon as Althana pressed the button to speak again.

Althana shot the tall lion woman an annoyed look while her finger was still on the button for a moment before returning to actually respond, “Yes, I think your explanation of everything was adequate enough to get your message across. Do you have any of the vehicle variety around? I would so like to study one.”

“I have a few in storage around the grounds, I think,” came Yuri’s voice in response. “Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I have been requested by one of our new residents to assist with a matter she believes needs immediate addressing.”

“Understood,” said Althana, “but before we finish up here, I have one more question to inquire. What are those strange symbols with an M and an I and a K and an M? I saw them on that strange device that allows you to walk and run in place when I was utilizing it.”

“The treadmill,” came Yuri’s voice with amusement, “those symbols are for measuring distances, mainly in terms of total number traveled in accumulation during your tread on the device. They’re part of two different measuring systems. The M and I together are a symbol that means ‘miles’ and that is part of what is known as the ‘imperial system’, you’ll some of the other measurements in the kitchen in reference to what are know as ‘cups,’ the one with the K and M together signifies what are known as ‘Kilometers’ and those are part what is called the ‘Metric System’ and you can find other parts of that system in the kitchen in the form of ‘mililiters’ and the like. I suppose I’ll have to explain temperature measuring systems to you later on; try making sure the whole house is present for that presentation. In the meantime, I think there are a few books in the library for learning and practicing the systems; that would be the ‘Mathematics’ section of the library.”

“I don’t think I encountered that section when I was last there,” said Althana.

“It’s between the Science and Science Fiction sections. You need to turn a hidden latch in the floor, and it will rise out for you to use. It’s on a timer and will return to the hidden cubbyhole after a few minutes of being out. I’ll join for the visit to help out; we don’t want you grabbing something that you can’t properly comprehend too soon.”

“Sounds good,” said Althana as she pressed the button, “sounds like you’ll be a bit busy for a bit; we can puzzle out when you can show me the section over the next meal we share, or at your earliest convenience tomorrow, depending on how occupied your time is.”

“Thanks for that,” said Yuri, anything else you need help with?”

“Not currently,” said both women in near unison almost as soon as Althana pressed the button again.