Too Old For This, Ouch (Devyn)

[Deleted]

Who was that handsome man? Yes….yessss….that was a handsome man, thought Victor as he inspected his distinguished wrinkles in the mirror. He took a step back and flexed. Yes, there was still some tone there. Victor growled at his image, probably catching a few looks from the other gym goers. Here was a giant of an old man, giving himself a mirror-pep-talk-ego-boost in front of a dozen or so civilians. At least, most of them were civilians. Some of them he recognized from the station though they were most certainly pretending to not know him. Who would want to advertise that this crazy old man was actually their boss, after all? At least he wasn’t going to traumatize the room by lifting his shirt to show of his (nonexistant) wrinkly prune-abs.

Victor was feeling fairly good this morning, though. Like he could take on the world! After all, his daughter just accepted his friend request on that Facebook website. They hadn’t talked yet, but it was a start and now Victor was privy to all the things she was posting about events in her life(he didn’t know about security features yet, so had yet to find out she was only letting him see what she wanted him to).

High on endorphins and life, Victor allowed a foolish idea to enter his mind. He normally went to the gym for general wellness and cardio, for the health of his heart, but today he was feeling a bit cheeky and daring. So, Victor decided to add just a couple(or a few) more weights to his bar. If these kids could handle all this weight, then certainly a war veteran like Victor could as well!

Victor laid down across the bench after securing the weight and grabbed the bar, pushing up on it and slowly arching it over it’s holding notches. From there, things went downhill. Quite literally. Damn, this was a lot heavier than he thought it would be. And while he wasn’t crashing and burning, he could feel his muscles start to flare up as the barbell slowly descended down onto his chest. Victor winced. “Ahgg!” he grunted. “Bad idea, ack, help!” He hissed out his plea to whomever was around to hear it. Someone would surely help, right? Nobody would abandon an old man in their time of need…right?

[Deleted]

There was always someone preening in front of the mirrors at the gym, it was hard to avoid catching your reflection when one wall was devoted to people who liked to look at themselves. Devyn usually avoided looking directly at them, it was awkward enough to stare himself down without the added distraction of being able to see everyone else.

The thing about the mirror gazers was that nine times out of ten it was usually a very buff frequent visitor who stared at himself as they flexed in the mirror. Today was a rather... different type of person, and he couldn't stop the small amount of entertainment he got out of watching the man. It wasn't so much that he was laughing /at/ him, he was just funny.
Devyn could overhear him speaking to himself from where he was running on the treadmill. He had to bite his lip to prevent a small chuckle when the older man's growl was heard.

He stopped paying as much attention to the man once he stepped away from the mirror, he probably should have been watching though as it seemed no one else was eager to say anything about how much weight he'd added to the bars.
Though, the man was in luck that Devyn was close enough to hear the grunt of pain, and while many people made noises as they worked out none were so...pathetic.

"Oh," Devyn said in surprise as he twisted his head around to see the man struggling and requesting aide, 'he hopped off the treadmill, the clip attached to his pants pulling from the machine and shutting it off.

He grabbed the bar off the man, "Push up," and helped lift it back into place on its holds.

"Shouldn't you try to take it a bit slower?" He said with an exhale of a chuckle, relieved that the man didn't seem to have hurt himself too badly.

[Deleted]

Maybe he should have tried for a lighter weight? Maybe he should have tried for less pride? Maybe he should have, should have, should have! If all we thought about were the ‘should have’s, then we’d never make any progress on anything, always looking back instead of forward to the future!

Then again…if one didn’t at least keep the past in mind, then mistakes like this happened more frequently. Victor pushed up on the bar at the direction of the boy who came to help him out of his ‘predicament’. Once the weight was off and safely put back in place, Victor allowed himself a breather, blowing out his breath sharply and puffing out his cheeks as he did.

He looked up at the boy who helped him. “Take it slower? What do I look like to you? An old man?” Victor sat up and popped up to his feet with the vitality of an 18 year old, stretching up to his full giant height….and then bent over, holding his back with a wince. “Agh! My back!” Ow. Maybe he was an old man after all…

[Deleted]

Devyn had grown (ha) past any issues he had with his height and wasn't even phased when people pointed it out. Those insecurities threatened to resurface once the man stood up and Devyn was forced to take a step back to even attempt to look at him.

The twitch of irritation passed rather quickly once the man doubled over in, what he guessed by the wince and following words, was the pain. "Yeah well, that does tend to happen when you try to lift heavy weights. Especially when a) you aren't ready to and b) you don't have a spotter."

It was hard not to chuckle at the man's misfortune but did attempt to help anyway. "Maybe you should sit down or do I need to get someone?" He was a little worried that he might have injured himself more than what he appeared to have.

[Deleted]

Victor dared to say he was simply being overdramatic and that his pain wasn’t half as bad as he was expressing…that would have been a lie, however. But true to his personality, Victor would rather turn his misfortune into something he could laugh about later, so why not be entertaining? Even if it was only to himself.

And even if it actually hurt and left him somewhat disabled. Ow ow ow, back problems were the last thing he needed right now, on top of the x-number of other health problems he had. “Heh heh,” he huffed out with a low rumble in his grumble. “Get off my back, why don’t you? It’s bad enough it’s not working like it used to. Why, when I was your age…” he started, settling himself back down on the bench at the boy’s suggestion and raising his head to the boy who helped him, enthusiastically waving around his hand as he continued his grandpa rant. “…we didn’t have spotters! No, we just lifted that stuff like a man was expected to, two tons worth! And there was nobody around then to help when you when you ‘overdid’ it! You young’ns don’t know what hard is! Back then we didn’t have gyms and machines and stairmasters to strengthen our arms and thighs, no, we walked fifteen miles every day in the snow bare-footed, rain or snow, in the middle of the scalding heat of July! And that wasn’t even to school, that was just to the grocer! No, the school was fifty miles off and the only one within a hundred that any of us could go to. Ha, you think I need help, son? I survived Nam, I’ll survive this! America!!”

By the end of his rant, the ‘old man’ had his fist clenched defiantly in the air and a number of other gym patrons staring at him(and a number of others still pretending that he wasn’t their boss).

[Deleted]

Devyn wasn't sure if the comment for him to 'get off his back' was really meant to be a pun on the current back pain he was feeling or not, but that didn't stop Devyn from chuckling anyway. It seemed everything this man did was to elicit some sort of laugh or chortle out of him.

He rested a hand on the man's back, not sure if he would be much help to steady him considering how much bigger the man was than him. A brow arched at the other's rant, and his lip quirked as another laugh threatened to come out. "Yeah, well, looks like you definitely need help now sir."

His hand moved from the man's back and up to his own mouth, to stifle his laughter as the man continued. There was a slight worry, as he bit his lip, that he might draw blood at his attempts to not laugh out loud at the man.

Though, his efforts ended in vain once he heard the shout of 'America', and he bent over forward, his withheld laughs coming out first as a sharp barking sound and then rolling out continuously after that.

"Okay, okay," he wheezed, "I get it. You can handle anything." Devyn straightened up and moved to pat the man's back rather sharply, "Does that mean you back /doesn't/ hurt?" It was only meant to tease, because he knew simply from his earlier reaction, that, yes, he was indeed in at least some mild form of pain.

[Deleted]

Indeed it was a pun! Oh he was so clever! No matter how cheesy or silly it was, it always brought Victor an immense amount of satisfaction to hear someone laugh and be entertained by his showcasing. His humor definitely wasn’t the best, but in his opinion, the more groans he got, the better the joke was! All a comedian needed was a reaction to keep going, and he got plenty of that from this child.

Victor stared firmly at the boy, as if humor was the last thing he was trying to portray in that ridiculous rant of his. “Are you laughing at me boy? Is something funny to you?” He grinned something maniacal and devilish, however it was only short lived as the sharp pat on his back by the boy sent him into a slight grimace and bending over again from pain. “Argh! What are you doing? Beating up on a helpless old man, what’s wrong with you? I tell you, kids don’t got no manners these day, can’t even help an old grandpa out at the gym…” Of course his back hurt. He’d gotten cocky and paid the price for it. He could hear Justin going on an “I told you so” tirade already.

A deep breath and stretch of his shoulders, and Victor was slowly able to sit upright again. “Maybe I should take it down a notch, eh kid?” He gave the boy a half smile. Victor decided he liked this kid, considering he’d stayed for the whole thing and hadn’t been chased off already.

[Deleted]

Devyn was mostly laughing at how ridiculous the man was more than his actualy jokes, which were quite funny, but he'd never really met anyone quite like this man before and the novelty itself had him chuckling along.


He became a little unsettled when he stared at him, it was quite sudden compared to his earlier antics and it left him a bit surprised. His chuckles died down but still bubbled forth on occasion as he met the man's look. "Yeah," he said in a bout of teenage rebellion that was a rarity indeed for Devyn, "I am laughing at you," typically he was very reserved when it came to those older than him, especially adults, but it was quite hard to see him as an authority at this moment.


Another, much louder, round of laughter burst forth at his reaction to his pat. He quickly covered his mouth when he took notice of the attention they were recieving and tried to quiet down. "I'm sorry," he fought to get just that out through the snickers and giggles, stepping forward to rest his hand once more on the man's back and help him straighten up. "I didn't mean to beat up on you, sir, you just seemed very... confident about your abiliy to get through it."


He didn't want to bring up that he had quite literally shouted 'America' in an occupied gym.

"Yeah," he said after he'd finally managed to stop laughing, a small smile on his face, "You probably should or we'll be carting you out of here on a stretcher."

[Deleted]

From gleeful, to rageful, to accusing, to sad, so went Victor’s expressions, the last being brought on by Devyn’s outright admission to laughing at him. His eyebrows curled upwards in a look of disbelief and sorrow. “Why would you do such a thing? Laughing at an old man. What’s wrong with kids these days?”

Not only laughing at old men, but beating them up as well! “You better be sorry boy. I’ll have my lawyer track you down for the medical fees.” Despite his joking, his back really did hurt! Maybe he should’ve gone easier on the weights after all? “Confidence will get you everywhere, son, and through everything. Keep that in mind and you’ll find yourself in great places one day.” Just a little bit of unsolicited advice. Victor gave that out freely, without charge.

Though things were calming down with him by now, and Victor might even be able to have a serious conversation at this point, while he gave his back a rest. Maybe. “Bah, the only thing that’s carrying me out of anywhere are my own two legs or a body bag,” he informed the young man. Victor was indeed that willful. Though maybe he should take the young man’s advice? “So…what’s your name, son?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck and gently messaging the tensed muscles there. “I think I’ve seen you meandering around here before. What’s a kid like you needing to be working out so hard for?”