Talk to him about what's on your mind.

{if@ Gammod == False}((Ello! This chapter doesn't really make sense at all outside of Game Mode, since it's just Newton giving you advice on the latest development, so imagine just sitting down and having a nice and pleasant heart-to-heart with the big man. Sorry! I do try to keep everything mostly-accessible for people out of Game Mode, but there's really no way to pull this one off. Hope you're enjoying the story, and having a great day so far!)){endif}

{if Time == 5}"I wanted a bit of advice, if that's alright." You say in a quiet voice, because he's still helping out {if Time5Gym == True}Delilah, and you don't really want her listening in.{else}that person, and you don't really want them listening in.{endif}

Newton looks over to you, gives a warm smile and a quick nod, then turns back to {if Time5Gym == True}Delilah{else}the person he's helping to work out{endif}. "Great stuff so far! Keep it up, I'll be back in just a sec."

He turns back to you with a caring and ready-to-listen face, and immediately the two of you walk off to a little private spot in the corner of the Gym. It's pretty cozy and secluded, which is awesome, and normally you'd be having a huge stowaway roleplay daydream, but right now your mind's just too busy.

"What's wrong, friend?" Newton's voice takes you out of the stowaway roleplay daydream you'd started as the pair of you crouch down in the corner. He's so big and muscly that it looks really awkward when he's all balled up like that. It's pretty funny!

"It's about one of my friends." You say, in a much more normal voice now that you're away from the big crowd of gym-goers. "Her name is Lexi and she is very happy lots. But just earlier today she was acting sort of weird, and she got all serious for a bit, and I think she might be in trouble."

Newton adjusts his awkward ball form to be a bit more comfortable, listening to you attentively.

You tell him all about what happened, from her weird reaction before the lecture started to her coming back with a bunch of small cuts all over. When you're all done with the story, Newton nods a few times, and pauses to make sure you don't want to add anything.

"Well, friend, I think you're right to worry. That sounds like a no good situation for her. I'm not sure I've ever been in a spot like that." He reaches up to scratch at the side of his face. "Secrets are no fun at all. I think the best advice I can give you is to stick around her and support her, as long as you really do still think of her as a friend. You haven't known her that long yet, I'm sure she'll open up more later down the line. And you don't want to leave her to fend for herself if she really does need your help, right?"

You think for a little bit, then give a single nod.

"Okay, I think you're right." You say. You stand back up to your feet, and Newton does the same, looking very thankful to be out of ball form. "Thanks a lot, Newton!"

He flashes you an encouraging smile, and gives you a nice quick high-five.

{elseif Time == 6}{if ArenaAccess == True}"I found {if BankCuddle == 0}{if ArenaAskNewt == True}that redhaired girl!{else}this really nice and beautiful girl, and she let me into the Arena!{endif}{else}{if ArenaAskNewt == True}Nora! She let me into the Arena, like you said!{else}Nora, and she's letting me watch stuff in the Arena now!{endif}{endif}" You share happily.

"Oh, Debbie, that's awesome!" Newton grins, and does another upside-down ab crunch. "Have you seen many fights yet?"

You shake your head.{if ArenaView == 2} "Just two."{else} "Just one, and I haven't today yet."{endif} You reply. "But I wanted to come tell you! You and Nora know each other, right?"

"We sure do!" Newton says, speaking entirely normally despite being upside down and still doing his ab crunches. "She's a good friend of mine, even if we haven't talked in a little while. So, where do you reckon you sit?"

"They have chairs set up near the ring."

"I mean in the Arena's leaderboards, Debbie! You've got to be top 25%, surely."

You laugh happily. "Newton! I'm just allowed to watch, not fight yet. Don't be silly!"

"For everyone else's safety, I'm sure." Newton and you share a giggle as he bangs out even more ab crunches, continuing talking only once you've both settled down. "Hey, you know, if you can get Nora to agree to it, you could probably arrange to get a fight so long as you'd like that. No telling how long it'd take, but it's worth keeping in mind!"

{if NoraAskFighting == True}"That's what I was thinking!" You shout. "She said she'd see what she could do."

"Hey, look at you, you little businesswoman! Two steps ahead as always, I see."

You smile a little bit. "{else}You nod. "I'll try that! {endif}Thanks Newton, I just wanted to give you the latest update!"

Newton flashes you a thumbs up, which is actually a thumbs down because of his position right now, so he flips it around to make it proper for you. Cool!{endif}

{elseif Time == 8}{if StaffCombat == True}"I just wanted to tell you about what just happened, it was crazy!"

Newton cranes his head to look at you through the sides of his eyes, then drops down from the pull-up frame and stops what he was just doing to focus all of his attention on you, smiling happily. "Well then, friend, don't keep me waiting so long!"

You take a seat on the ground, and Newton waddles over to sit down next to you, looking like his workout barely even had an effect on him. You wait patiently for him to be seated, then clap your hands excitedly.

"So! This morning, in combat class, we were learning how to fight with staffs, right?"

Newton puts on a face of happy surprise. "No way. I bet you're a total expert already, too!"

You give him a small smile back, but then quickly switch back to a serious expression, because this is a serious topic of discussion. "Yes, but at the end of class, one of my classmates did -- like -- whoosh, and we 'WOAH!', and she did, like, eight flips in one go, and then BAM with the staff, and- and she did like, a lot of flips as well before the bam!"

Newton nods along as you act out the scene with your hands, leaning forward and fully engaged. When you finish with a loud WHOOSH!, spreading your arms out wide for emphasis, he leans back with an incredulous look of disbelief.

"That's some story Debbie. Wooh, I think I just got chills." He shudders a bit.

"You should wear a shirt for my next story."

"I should!"

"But you won't."

"You know, with a bit of hard work, I bet you'd be doing flips like that too, in no time at all. I bet you'd be doing nine!"

{if FindClassmateA == True}"Well, actually, me and my friends were talking about that earlier!" You state proudly. "We're all gonna work really hard together to do- you kn, like, to do better. Than her!"

Newton smiles. "I should've known you'd be one step ahead of me, friend. I can't wait to see you flipping all around this gym!"{endif}

{if Workout <2}You proudly tell Newton that you've actually already done some workout today, and that makes him look really really happy.{else}You promise Newton that you'll do some more workout later on today, and that makes him get a big smile.{endif}

"Speaking of which, I've been resting too long!" He hops up from his cross-legged position into a standing position in barely an instant. "I've got to get back to it -- but thanks for telling me about that, Debbie, it was a real heart-pounder!"

{elseif CumSuccess == 1}"Newton?" You ask tentatively, shifting your weight from foot to foot.

"Mhm?" He asks, pulling up his entire body weight with his chin.

"I.... I have this friend. Who's sort of worried that they might have done something really, really wrong."

Newton cranes his head on the pull-up bar, to look at you from the sides of his eyes. Without saying anything, he drops down from the metal frame and lands on his toes, stopping what he was doing to focus all of his attention onto you. "What did your friend do?"

Your eyes go down to the ground, and you shuffle your feet. "Ummm.... well...... s-she talked to this group of girls, and they looked like they were having a lot of fun, so she wanted to join in."

Newton puts a massive arm around your back. "Mhmm."

"And- and so, to join in, they told her that she needed to do something. And she did it, just earlier. But now she's worried that it might not have been the right thing to do. But those girls are all so friendly to her, even if what she did felt wrong, and so she doesn't know what to do!"

Newton rubs your back with his big paw of a hand, and you lean back into the strong embrace for extra comfort. Only after you seem to have settled somewhat does Newton talk.

"What exactly happened? With your friend."

You sniff, and wipe at your watery eye.

"Well, whatever it is, I know that you're a good person. The sort of person who would do what is right, instead of what is easy, so long as you're given the chance. So- anyone you're friends with is probably good too. When we make mistakes, there's nothing wrong with feeling bad or guilty about them, but once we've let that all out we should try to make things better again. Nothing ever got better by pretending that there weren't any problems, or by being upset longer than we need to. So I'm sure that you- and your friend- can turn this mistake around, because you're the sort of person who does. I think what's most important for now is letting yourself feel upset, and using this time to think about if this really was a mistake or not -- and about if those girls are really the sort of people you'd like to have around, which they may even be once the dust settles."

Newton crouches down in front of you, and waits patiently for you to eventually drag your eyes up from the ground to look at his.

"Tell your friend to keep her chin up, friend. She'll come out the other side of this."

You manage a smile, and give a single nod. Newton smiles back, and claps a hand over your shoulder as he stands back up. "I'm worried for whoever gets in your way, after you're done feeling all that you're feeling!"

"Thanks Newton." You say up towards the huge shirtless man. "I'll.... tell her that."{endif}

{elseif Time == 9}{if CumSuccess == 2}"Hey, Newton, do you know Professor Phoebe?" You ask.

Doing a not very co-ordinated dance, but still impressive given the weights, Newton responds. "Sure do! She's a combat teacher for the year above me."

You blink.

"There- there isn't a class above you, Newton."

"Oh yeah." He jives in silence for a few seconds. "Hey, does that mean she's moved back to teaching your year level again?"

"She's my teacher, silly!"

Newton claps his hand to his forehead, still holding a 12kg dumbbell, but it doesn't seem to phase him that much. "Oh! Well, yeah, I know her. She seems nice. The last group of students she took through the year levels all liked her tons, and she's substituted for my Combat teacher a few times when he's been sick. I wonder how he's doing right now. I should go say hi."

"Well!" You interject, wanting to get back to the talking point you had in mine. "I just saved her from a bunch of bad people!"

You pose with your hands on your hips.

"Really?"

"Mhm!"

"Really?"

"Sort of. We saved each other." You drop the pose, watching as Newton continues his dance. "I guess we both, uh.... hey, does this really help that much?"

"Oh yeah, plenty!"

The motions are embarrassing if you think of them like a dance, but if you take that part away from them, they're strangely beautiful. Newton's tree trunk arms flow like a river, smooth and formless, without any roughness to their movements at all. Almost like a roaring fire, your eyes are drawn to it, and the longer you look, the more you seem to notice.... like how that's actually not true at all, you tried to save him, couldn't be done.

"I think it helps, anyway. I'd need to redo life without doing this to know for sure."

You wouldn't mind if he did redo life without doing it. It's embarrassing to be talking to someone doing this.

"Good job with Professor Phoebe, though! That'll put you in her good books for sure. Oh, and in case I don't see you, have an awesome first weekend, Debbie!"

"Will do!" You smile, spinning on your heel and marching back into the main part of the Gym. He was totally impressed by your news.{endif}

{elseif Time == 10}{if DelilahGotYa == True}"So, I didn't want to say this when Jace was listening, and you can't tell him at all!"

"My lips are sealed, Debbie." Newton says, one half before a jump-squat and the other half after. "Secrets are the best part of being friends!"

You nod, because it is truthful.

"Last week I got in a bit of trouble, and ended up getting stuck in school for the night." You say. Newton listens carefully as you explain the story of the end of last week, leaving out exactly why you got trapped, and playing up the scary parts from the start. You pull it back a bit when he starts looking scared during his squat-jumps, and add in a fake part about the school speakers playing party rock anthem to make him laugh, because you feel bad about scaring him.

You tell him all about Delilah and Toffee, and especially Toffee, telling the whole story as this grand ordeal which you went through and survived completely. He looks very impressed with you. At one point during the storytelling, you try to do jump-squats along with him even though you just have normal weight shoes on, but it gets inconvenient and you stop.

"That was some adventure you went on, Debbie!" Newton says, and means it. "You sure are brave! I'd have been really scared in those dark hallways."

Oh, yeah, you also told him that you didn't mind the dark bits. And you might've pretended that Delilah was a bit more friendly than she really was. But that didn't take away from the story, so they're each an okay lie!

"Your friend sure is lucky to have adopted that cat, if he really is hers. I've seen him around the university every now and then since my first year here, and he never really even went near to people. It's nice that he's found an owner now that she's here."

Oh, yeah, you didn't even really think about that! If Delilah's his owner (which you're p sure she is), but she's just as new as you are, she must've met him some point last week assuming that he was already at the school. You wonder when that could've happened? Drat, it'd have been so cool if you met him first. Drat.

"I'm sorry about your shoes by the way, Newton." You say.

"Ah, it's fine." He says between jumps. "Your story cheered me up anyway. Thanks for keeping me up to date, Debbie, I promise to keep it a big secret!"

{else}"Newton, do you work out over weekends too?"

"Of course!" He says between his squat-jumps. "But a little bit less, and only because I enjoy it. This last weekend I was spending time with my family, so it was quite a lot less."

You nod. "I'm just asking because I want to know how much I should be doing." You explain. "I was kind of treating weekends like full time away from school, exercise and all, but maybe it would be better if-"

"Hold on a second, friend!" Newton cuts you off. "I understand wanting to hear other people's ideas to help construct your own, but you're going a bit too far there!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that if you best use the weekend as a short getaway break, then that's perfectly fine! I do a lot of exercise because I have fun with it, so it's not really work for me." Newton squats extra-deep, to help drive his point home. It only works a little bit. "You shouldn't be wondering if you're doing 'enough' based on how much other people are doing, you should just focus on if it feels like enough to you. You don't want to overwork yourself so that you associate getting fit with dread!"

"O-oh." You stand in place for a few seconds, watching him jump up and down. "But couldn't I be wrong about what feels like enough? And anyway, a bit more exercise can't really hurt that much...."

"So long as you keep exercise from becoming your enemy, sure!" Newton says. "But most of the time, if you're really feeling like the exercise you're doing is enough, without basing 'enough' on what other people are doing, you're golden. And the longer you do it, the better you'll get, even if it might be slow at first!"

{if Gym == 2}You sort of forgot that Newton's super big on advice, since it's been a little while since he helped you work out back in town.{elseif Gym == 1}{if GymFondle == 0}You sort of forgot that Newton's super big on advice, since it's been a little while since he helped you work out back in town.{else}You didn't know Newton was so big on advice. It feels like he's said this whole thing before, it's very rehearsed.{endif}{else}You didn't know Newton was so big on advice. It feels like he's said this whole thing before, it's very rehearsed.{endif} Still, he's right! You need to let yourself have those breaks -- if you feel like you should work out more, there's plenty of time to get it done during the school week, so that you aren't dipping into your time off to relax. Exercise may be its own reward to Newton, but to you, it's not quite yet something you're exactly looking forward to....

"Thanks Newton!" You beam. "That really helped. And I'm sorry about your shoes."

"Ah, no sweat friend!" He says, still jump-squating. "I'm not that bothered by it anymore. Talking to you helped me feel better again."

{endif}{endif}