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who: Alex Reagan and hopefully you!
what: An open log. There's a couple open prompts but if they don't work just add your own! And don't worry about styles. I'll match em.
when: The month of August.
where: Anywhere you want her to be that's not the mingle, honestly!
warnings: Not that I can think of at the moment.

I.

Despite everything else in her life, Alex Reagan happened to be someone who was a person of habit, and so where she could be found just happened to be habit as well. So, all too often Alex found herself working at The Coffee Shop rather than her office with the substandard coffee and the annoying interns. She was there almost every day with at least one empty cup in front of her, one full one and some sort of pastries there for anyone who might happen to want to stop by and visit, or for anyone whom she had a lunch date with. The table itself was largely taken up with two books and a notebook, along with her phone from home. She inevitably had one of the books open, even though both of them were on the same lines of things, even if vastly different.

Alex would either be reading from a book on learning Spanish and copying what she was learning into the notebook in small and frantic writing, as if her hand couldn't keep up with her brain, because well... That's basically what happened, even in things like this. Still, she was making a real effort to do it, and the book was deeply into, as Alex was hitting the harder parts of the beginner's section and there were lists of words that went along with it.

The second book is much older and still somehow less well-loved than the first one, and Alex had found it in the back of the library shelves. Despite having taken it out days ago, she was still dealing with the beginning pages of it, and if there was something that was guaranteed that would make her grumble, it was this. But still, she was determined to try and teach herself how to read Cruciform even if it killed her, which at this point it honestly just might do. So when someone came up to her, she was all too ready to sit either of them aside, and greeting the other person with a grin, especially if it was someone who she expected.

ii

The other way in which Alex was a creature of habit came with her walking her dog in the afternoon. Alex's pitbull was large and gray and more than a little friendly, which probably made sense considering Alex Reagan was his owner. Her mornings were normally running and rowing, but afternoon walks were more slow and leisurely and normally made by herself. Well, by herself as well as her playing Pokemon Go, even if no one else was. So, yes, she's walking her dog but she's also got her device out to let her know when there just happens to be a pokemon or two in the area that she's walking in.

Normally she collects one or two, and fights at a gym or so, and then goes about her business and comes home. Not today though. Today, Alex just stopped so suddenly that Apo's leash actually snapped taunt for a moment before the gray dog came back to see her, and Alex is just staring at her phone for a second. The dumbed silence only lasts for a second or two before Alex just yells like the child who she can come times be: "Oh my god! It's a Pikachu! It's a Pikachu!" Then without a preamble other than that, Alex just takes off after it, a giant grin on her face. She's never caught one before.

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"Just think, it is a perfect excuse to eat whatever you wish." She was informed of Alex's eating habits, and perhaps it was a slight joke that only by working this hard could she really enjoy herself.

Silver linings and all of that. "It is terrible because it is painful, but do not worry, you will get stronger. Then it is moving on to reflexes and agility."

Which would mean pain in the form of 'not moving fast enough', but she decided to leave that part out.

Elizabeth's mention of eating whatever she wanted made Alex frown, because she could guess where the woman had gotten her information about what she ate. A shot of irritation worked through her for a minute, and she scowled at a boyfriend who wasn't actually there. To be fair, Alex had opened her big mouth about him a fair amount, but she'd never told anyone about the time that she'd needed to drag him out for food when he'd turned into a recluse with an eating habit that just consisted of power bars.

"I eat what I want anyway," Alex announced firmly. "I mean, it's not like I don't do a bunch of running and stuff." And god knew that she didn't think that she was fat or the like. She thought she looked good, even if she couldn't defend herself enough to get away from the assholes who had kidnapped her.

Taking another big sip of water, wishing that it was coffee (Alex knew she couldn't have coffee when she was working out, she was an idiot in some respects, but not in all of them, despite what some people seemed to believe) she just nodded. "And then we'll move onto things like fighting and I'm just going to get my ass kicked even more." Alex knew that's where this was heading, and considering how she already felt more than a little bit like dying, she wasn't looking forward to it. Alex Reagan was a lot of things, but being a quitter definitely wasn't one of them, so she's just going to go with it for now.

"But you have not trained this hard or in this matter." She said, rather cheekily. Of course, she didn't mean to imply anything, but there was a sort of freedom to eat anything here and not fear putting on weight.

"By the time we move on to actual combat training," She turned serious, sitting down next to her. "Your muscles and stamina should be improved enough that you can actually put up a good defense. Atleast, that is my intention."

Well, that was true, Alex definitely had never trained like this before. Then again, she'd never really considered that she needed to be battle ready as it were before. No, she'd always thought that the things that her father had taught her would have been enough that she'd never had been in that situation. Cultists had proved her wrong, of course (because honestly why was it always cultists) and just given the state of everything back home, doing this probably would have been a really good idea even before she was kidnapped. But it was better now than later, because if nothing else, it helps with the sense that Alex feels like she's been victimized, and she doesn't want to ever be again.

As Lizzie sat back down, Alex offered her the water back, because training in this sort of heat needed to suck even if you were used to it like the other woman was, honestly. Fixing her eyes on her friend, Alex asked, and she was glad that she'd managed to prevent the words from sounding like they were the whine that she wanted them to be, "how long do you think it'll be before we get there." It wasn't that Alex was impatient... no, it was exactly that Alex was always impatient as hell.

"Until we both feel you are ready." The remark may've come out rather sharp, but she was fully serious: they both knew it would be a while before she was even physically ready.

"In terms of this," She waved a hand towards where they were just working out. "When you can do these sorts of exercises without feeling like joining the walking dead, then we will move on."

There was no sense in setting a deadline for this. To do so would only cause discouragement if by then she was still struggling.

'Until you are ready' was exactly the sort of answer that Alex had hoped to avoid, and it made her groan once more. She burrowed her face in her hands for a moment, because well, Lizzie was right. She definitely felt like the walking dead, even more than she had when she wasn't sleeping and that sort of thing. Honestly, she'd thought that would have been the most tired that she could be, but this training was definitely proving her wrong on this point.

Well, at least it tired her out, she supposed. Alex was well aware of just how glad Richard was with that.

But Alex was going to ask a reasonable question, or at least what she considered a reasonable question. "Is it just possible that I'm too old for this? I mean, I am thirty-four." Even if Alex didn't look it all the time (or act it, let's be honest) her age was still there on her body and all of the dumb things that she did to it.

To hear her actual age was a genuine surprise on her part, but to say it changed her plans with Alex would've been an overstatement. "I will have you know my father is nearly twice your age and he is perfectly fit. Your recovery time may be a fraction longer than my sisters would require, but not enough to put you off completely."

Still, she couldn't fault her for being discouraged. This was not something one could do without any form of conditioning, and fear of what happened did lead them both to want to go faster. Yet that still meant going the more painful route.

"It was painful for all of us when we first began. Jane was the only one who did not cry those first few weeks, and that had less to do with not feeling pain, and more her nature of not wishing to attract attention to herself."

Alex knew that for a mixture of reasons, most people didn't peg her actual age. She looked younger for one, and god knew she definitely acted younger as well at times. (Or more often than not, because people of Alex's age tended to have more chill than Alex herself did.) It would have been easier if this was the fault of her age and she knew it, so Alex just groaned softly before she hefted herself into a standing position again with an only slightly exaggerated "oof."

She just nodded for a moment, and closed her eyes as she tried to stretch some of the pained kinks in her muscles. It didn't help much, but it might have helped a little bit. At least for now. "And yeah, I know, Richard's twenty years older than I am and he does all of the stupid running and rowing things too. And made me pick up rowing with him." Which she actually likes now, but she's never going to stop complaining about it.

"He cares about your health and safety," She answered. Cold and aloof as he might be, deep down, Elizabeth knew he had a good heart; his was more the stick over the carrot method. "For all the fuss he makes."

She stood up as well, only lightly stretching. "In light of recent news, how do you feel? If you are still feeling that poor, I would be willing to cut this short, but I would rather go for one more circuit."

"I know he does," Alex just gives a soft and fond smile, the sort of one that's become more than a little bit involuntary when she's talking about him with someone in unguarded moments. "Which is why he didn't talk me out of doing this, honestly. I'm pretty sure it's the most terrible idea I've had that he's supported." Bad joke there, but it's still true, Richard was enthusiastic about her taking the lessons, even if he did tease her for how much she whined when she came home.

Shaking off the concern, Alex just smiled her more normal smile to Lizzie. "I'm okay. If there was even the slightest chance that I'd aggravate my injuries or anything like that, he'd be out here arguing with me until I put it on hold. I promise, I'm fine... just not at all used to doing something like this."

"I nearly fear to ask what terrible ideas he's refused." Not that training was especially fatal or risky, but too much could risk injury. Even at the temple they were aware of that.

She walked with her back to the area. "You will be hurting tomorrow. Epson salt baths along with anti-inflammation pills will help."

Alex isn't going to fill Elizabeth Bennet of all people in on some of the ideas that she's had. The last thing that she wants to do is scandalize her friend like that! So, she's just going to smirk instead for a moment before she moves to follow her back into the area.

"Yeah, I know. Ice and all of that stuff too. I'm probably mostly going to just lay on my bed and groan like a dying walrus or something like that though." Alex has no illusions about dealing with the pain tomorrow with grace and style. She's going to be a whiny brat, but she'll still get up and do it the next day anyway.

"And I will remind you that this is what you signed up for." She teased back. Perhaps Alex didn't know it was going to be this difficult to start with, but she had to know it wouldn't be easy.

Once more Elizabeth lead her into the series of exercises. This time around, she did slow down just a fraction of the speed as they did earlier that day, but that was all the leeway she was going to give her.

"I know. I make a lot of bad life decisions." Despite the words, Alex's voice is light and teasing, and she sounds amused as she started to go through the exercises again. Honestly, she barely noticed the change in speed; there was too much going on in the form of well. Ow.

She kept doing the exercises, until Elizabeth gave the word that they were done, and then she just dropped onto the ground once more and closed her eyes and covered her face with her hand dramatically and muttered, "okay, leave me here to die."

"And then someone will have to retrieve my body when Strand kills me in return." She said, her expression serious but tone clearly meaning she was kidding around. "Come on, I am not so cruel as to really leave you there."

She reached over and took her hand, pulling her up onto her feet. "And to think, we were actually indoors."

Imagine how poor she'd feel if they had to do this outside.

Alex just laughed softly. "Strand wouldn't do that. The person you'd need to be worried about is Simon, actually." Which yeah, was a giant blinking 'it's complicated' sign in crimson lights around him. But she does take the hand to help her onto her feet, and Alex just does groan again at that.

"Yeah, I know. God, it still sucks though. Not enough to stop or anything, but jesus my body hates me right now."

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