Yoga Night [Open Sesame!]

[Florence Bryant]

The town hall on Tuesdays was always packed full of loose pants wearing, tanktop sporting women with yoga mats and towels. On the odd occasion a gentleman would join the fray of ladies and (perhaps for not the most ethical of reasons) would join in. The serene panpipe music combined with the gentle scent of incense sticks burning behind the instructor gave everyone the relaxation they sought for this class.

Intermediate was Flo's current class, and she found herself running two minutes late - after Gwynie had gotten stuck on her math homework and the Recruiter had sat with her and talked her way through it. Locking the door and driving the 10 minutes to the town center, she parked up and hurried up the stairs, hair bobbing back and forth in it's tight pony tail as she pushed open the door. Hit instantly by the scent of cinnamon and musk, she waved at her yoga buddies and laid her mat down near the corner.

Wiggling out of the bottom of her towel, a small, nearly unnoticeable creature wiggled out, lifting his small nose up to the sky, before lying still and twitching his whiskers.

"Ah, it stinks in here."The tiny creature complained.

Starting slightly and trying to disguise it, the young woman glanced over to her towel and spotted the tiny shrew sniffing the air. Rolling her eyes, she shook her head.

"I thought I told you to stay at home with Gwynie." She shot back, doing her stretches and settling, cross legged on the mat, keeping her eyes trained on the instructor.

"I would have, but I fell in your bag."The shrew grunted, before burrowing back into the towel, out of sight. The conjurer looked around the room for a moment to make sure no one had seen her silent exchange with the shrew, before giving off a big, warm grin, and moving into the first position.

She hoped Jared - for that was the Shrew's name - would stay quiet for the rest of the evening so she wouldn't make a mistake.

[jinkyung]

Unafraid of a little bit of experimenting, JJ had decided upon taking a yoga course. Naturally, he meditated early in the morning when hardly a single soul was up to see him, but with dancing and everything, he didn't think it would hurt to get some good breathing exercises or some stretching in as well. And what would be better for those purposes than yoga? To be honest, he had done some in the past with his sister. It sounded lame, but he actually didn't mind it. It was a trade-off sort of thing that they did: JJ taught her dance moves and she taught him yoga. A nice trade if you looked at it fairly.

He had time to register for the class and buy his mat with some extra money sitting around, just in the nick of time. There was about two spots left in this class, and although intermediate, with JJ's flexibility, he figured he would manage. Plus he had a pretty good heart rate as is from all the excessive dancing. After all, you need to know how to breathe properly to be spinning on your head and doing flips all the time. But only time would tell if his skills would bode well in this class. Optimism always helped though.

Arriving about five minutes early, JJ set up his mat and his water bottle, just kneeling down, waiting for something to happen. He wasn't very used to this sort of environment, didn't know anyone, and didn't really know much yoga at all, although he knew that he could catch on in a very timely manner. Still, he wished it would start so that he could get on with it. Being one of the only males in the class that seemed to be there for the purpose of yoga in and of itself, he felt sort of awkward, skirmish, and fettering about as he waited for the second hand to make its way around the clock five more times until the instructor would soon come in and start the class up.

Finally, after many excruciating minutes, a gong like noise came from the front of the room, and after some Namaste's back and forth, the class adjourned. First position, or so he assumed started. They were all standing there, hands together, as if in prayer. With eyes squinted, JJ looked around and tried to mimic what everyone else was doing without them noticing. It wasn't that difficult of a position to muster, so he got it within a few seconds, and waiting for them to move, and noticing that they weren't he figured it would bode well to try and meditate while standing here. Surely some time would pass through it.

[Mason McQueen]

It’s only been a week since the deal but Mason’s already quite pessimistic about the outcome. He knew gym results were never instant, but the way he’s progressing with it, he feels that he’ll still retain the belly fat Ella’s been teasing him about even after 6-weeks of relatively intense work-out. Not good.

So when Flo mentioned something about a yoga class in town, he didn’t even think twice about it. No matter that it’s almost a pure women’s class (they do allow men, it’s just that no one would come, or at least that’s how Flo might’ve told him) or that he scores rather low on the flexibility scale (as his brother had put it, he looks like a walrus basking under the sun whenever he tries to do such things). But hey, if it helps him win the deal with Ella, it’ll do.


He promptly grabbed his stuff and walked a good 5-minutes towards the town center (he does need all the exercise he can get) when the day came, donning what he thinks is an appropriate attire for such an activity. He was a total beginner when it comes to the said discipline, but at the risk of being alone and uncomfortable, he faked his registration, tagging along Flo’s class like a shy and ever-obedient dog.

His eyes widened for a bit when he first entered the room. Flo was definitely not kidding when she said it might be an all-women class (except for the rather young man around the corner, that is). Returning their questioning gazes with a shy smile, he promptly scurried near Flo, unknowingly putting his back on top of her towel. “Sorry I’m late. Dog ate my homework.”

“So what do I do now?” he whispered, laying his mat down and trying not to look like a total newbie, “Do I just copy what you guys are doing?” Something tells him faking his skill level is not the smartest thing he has done in his life.

[Florence Bryant]

Flo had just started to get into the first position when the two newcomers arrived. The first she could easily see was a student... the second was her friend. Pausing to grin unashamedly, she gave a gentle tut to Mason's excuse, then nudged him with an elbow. "You're awful." She said brightly, eying Mason's attire. "Did you forget to get dressed?" She teased, only to let out a little squeak as the bag went over onto her towel.

"Owwwwwwwwwww." Came the monotonous groan from the towel.

"... You just squashed Jared." She said sadly, shaking her head. "Come out of there then, just stay very still." A shrew eventually appeared into view, then hopped under the shade of Mason's bag. Breathing a sigh of relief that no permanent damage had been done, she stretched out into another of the poses, her long legs stretched as wide as she could possibly get them, before dropping down as though all the bones had gone from her body.

She kept an eye on JJ and tried not to smile. The kid seemed to be coping alright. All the same she burst into rapturous giggles when one of the other men in the room stumbled and fell over. "Look, it's you in a few hours!" She added brightly, nudging Mason with an elbow. At the same time she positively beamed over at the student, giving him a thumbs up. "I'm sure you can take potshots at Mason in a little bit too. I give you permission."

Repeating the flopping forward action, the conjurer lifted her head to assess Mason's attempt. "You look constipated, stop pulling that face." Flo tutted, purposely pulling a face to distract her friend further. "Anyway..." She started, before getting looked at by the instructor. She dropped her voice down. "What brings you to yoga?" She asked, looking over at JJ with a smile. That's it JJ, keep her distracted so she doesn't "accidentally" knock Mason over.

[jinkyung]

Struggling to maneuver around these quite interesting positions, JJ wondered silently who actually created the positions for people to contort their bodies into. They must have been pretty bored to think of all these moves. And flexible at that. Maybe it was a housewife spending her idle days at home while her husband worked, and instead of baking pies and sweets for him when he arrived back, she read too many books on too many eccentric things, and thought, while making pretzels herself, that she should make her body into a pretzel. By the way, pretzels sounded good right now. You know, the soft ones with nacho cheese and salt on 'em. Yum yum.

But he had to concentrate, as he almost missed a transition into a different movement. This sure was an interesting class. And what made it even more interesting now was that yet another guy came along into the class, also late. He sat next to the lady who had also come in a tad bit late. They seemed to know each other, and he now vaguely recognized them. The guy he recognized first, as he was indeed a teacher. Mr. McQueen, to be exact, the bio professor. The lady he'd only seen around vaguely, but she now seemed pretty cool to him, if only for the small creature that had crawled out of her bag, that she seemed to be talking to. Maybe that was her nifty power, as no one that he recognized from Hammel could possibly be just 'normal'. Everyone had a gift, and although some people say that when everyone thinks they're special, no one is, he wasn't yet at that stage. Because not everyone was, Hammel was just a school: outside of those walls was a world filled with people that either knew or didn't know at all about people like him. That meant that not everyone was special in his sort of way. And it wasn't like everyone could do the same things either. The variety certainly had its advantages and some disadvantages as well, depending on the trait. JJ probably should have gotten over the coolness factor of it all already, but from where he was coming from, from his very civilized and well-ordered family lineage, where everything was proper and conformed, this was basically the ultimate sign of rebellion. And being the teenager he was, he liked the idea of rebellion, especially with a set of parents like his.

But time for a different position. He flattened his body, at least the lower half of it, against the mat, and then pushed his torso up in the air using his arms for balance. What was this supposed to represent? Some sort of bird or something? But before his mind could tarry off into a new tangent, he heard the voices, once contained to a smaller whisper and a few giggles, now reaching farther across the room, and he looked over at them while still trying to maintain his balance with his torso and arms wavering. Looked like the voice was indeed pointed at him, surprisingly enough. He tried to gather the wee bits of what was being uttered, and respond accordingly. She had asked him why he'd come to yoga, so what had brought him here? Well his main objective was meditation, but he wasn't able to get much out of it with all these cooky positions. "I like to meditate, and to dance. This seems like a middle point of each, although I feel like I'm putting on more of a dance stance than being able to rest my mind. How do you guys do all this with deep thinking too?" He nearly lost balance, trying to roll back into the original position before he had tumbled over. Nice save. He cleared his throat and tried to both focus on his control of balance and look back over to them, too. "How about you?"

[Mason McQueen]

He simply stuck his tongue out at Flo when she began her usual teasing. Just because they’ve passed through the twenties doesn’t mean they all have to act like adult already, right? He did try to zone Flo’s teasing stare when he began copying what he’s seemingly, trying his hardest to mimic the whole lift-your-body-using-only-your-arms position. God he wishes he had enhanced muscle memory right now.

He was halfway through the pose (his concentration was apparently working) when his trusted friend suddenly said something about his drab, making him a bit too self-conscious and causing him to fall back down on the mat. “Is that why they’re all staring at me like-oh. You’re one mean bully Flo, you know that?” he chuckled softly, shaking his head as he scrambled to get back on track. Apparently behind current events, Mason took an extra hour or so surfing the net for what is supposedly acceptable yoga attire. He’d be damned if all that effort went to waste and all that.

“Jared who?” And his question was almost immediately answered when a small furry creature suddenly appeared in view, but at least only for a little bit. “Oh I’m sorry. Is he hurt?” He’ll never cease to be amused by Flo’s power really. He’s seen a number of familiars during their tenure in Hammel as students together and yet Jared was someone he’s never encountered before. “Jared a new one Flo?”

Flo’s words only made Mason even more nervous and self-conscious. As he was the only man of prime age within the class (other than the teenager beside them, the others were way older than Mason is, or at least they seem to be), he feels like he should show the most physical prowess among them. That he should be able to hold himself up, curl like crazy and all that jazz. “Please don’t tell your classmates about this Jin. Thanks,” he pleaded, chuckling at how pathetic he sounds. Instead of making his face more pleasant, Mason crumpled his face even more when Flo chastised him, giving her a mock frown in the process.

Something tells him he should’ve stuck with the treadmill and bench presses instead of this.

[Florence Bryant]

"Don't worry hon, everyone looks a little out of place their first time here." Flo said reassuringly to JJ, flexing her body round into another shape, this time with one leg in the air and her two palms pressed to the ground. Taking a deep breath and then exhaling, she dipped her back and then let out a gentle sigh. It was pretty relaxing to Flo, but then, she'd been doing it for five years now and knew all the poses off by heart. Moving one hand up, she glanced over at Mason and sniggered.

"Jared's okay. Shrews are pretty hardy." She smiled, moving into the lotus position with her legs crossed intricately. "He's not new persay, just underused." She added, closing her eyes and taking a few steady breaths. "I normally keep him for spying on Gwynie, but he fell in my bag." She tutted, tilting her head to the side and opening one eye, her trademark grin back in place.

"Generally, after you've been a few times, the poses become very natural and you can go into a semi-trance while doing them. It'll take a while to remember all the poses, but once you do, you just flop around." Florence chuckled, looking over at Mason with a smirk. "You're doing far better than old useless pants here." She grinned, patting Mason on the cheek with her hand.

As the man fell over, she had to stop herself from bursting into a fresh fit of giggles, closing her eyes as her shoulders bounced up and down in concealed laughter. "Nice." She arched an eyebrow and peeked at the bashful man. "You know I love you Masiewasie. Even if you are... well... as co-ordinated as a drunk ostrich."

[jinkyung]

As Flo tried to comfort JJ with his unlucky beginner's attempt at this whole yoga thing, his face contorted as he watched her bend into all sorts of weird positions, as he was left there, in the position that he was still trying to do well while the entire class was already moving ahead. Conscious of the fact, he drew himself into fetal position and watched Flo move, desperately attempting to copy such moves. Dancing seemed easier at this point. Most of the moves all had flow, rhythm, and tempo, and none really made your body bend into a pretzel. Yoga..well JJ still hadn't really figured out if there was a tempo or a rhythm to it, but Flo insisted there was a flow for it all, and that it could be relaxing after a while. Who actually knew how long that 'after a while' meant, but he' was trying, so that counted, right?

As for Mason er--Professor McQueen, he didn't seem so lucky to be able to mimic moves like JJ. He actually made JJ look good, and that was saying something. He nearly chuckled, in turn nearly losing his fabricated 'flow' for the moves as he watched Mason instead of Flo. He knew he shouldn't laugh about it, as JJ wasn't that much better at all, and it might not be good for his grade if he made fun of the teacher, so he tried to hold it in as best he could, looking in the opposite direction at the lady in front of the class, leading them on as she went from indian-style sitting to legs flicking up in the air and back again. Really..he was going to have to research the yoga creator.. they were mad whack for some of these moves. How did they work together at all? How did a sitting position lead to leg kicks? It perplexed his mind, but shaking it off, he tried again to look over to Flo and see what she would do next, making sure not to peep a glance at Mason, with fear he'd break out in a guffaw if he saw him struggling.

[Mason McQueen]

“I don’t think that applies to everyone though,” Mason said in a low whisper, butting into Jin’s and Flo’s conversation, “I have a feeling that despite me doing this more than three times, I’d still fail all the same.” According to Mason though, such a statement isn’t a testament to his low self-esteem; he just knows his own capabilities, he says. Despite his tall and at times imposing stature, he’s more nerd than jock really, should he resort to high school clique analogies. “My hair’s a whole lot stronger than me really,” adding a playful chomp-gesture at the end as an answer to Flo’s cheek pat.

He let out a sigh of relief when Flo assured him that nothing happened to the shrew. “You spy on Gwynie? Tsk tsk. Is she turning into a mini-Flo already? Scared she’d get in so much trouble like you did before?” teased the man. Not that being a miniature Flo is a bad thing; Mason actually looks up to Flo, especially in the way she managed to juggle her career and Gwynie. How wonderful it would be for Gwynie to turn into a strong woman like her mom.

The man did try his hardest to get all the positions correctly. He tried taking in more deep breaths, zoning out the noise and distractions (read: Flo’s playful mocking-teasing) in an attempt to improve his performance. And for a while, it worked. A combination of improving muscle memory and concentration helped the then awkward man shift from one pose to another, feeling himself more relaxed and confident as time passed by. He was still a bit off, yes, but he feels like he’s getting the hang of it.

Until the instructor began doing headstands, that is.

Mason felt cold sweat forming on his forehead and palms as their instructor showed how to do it slowly and properly. With a long gulp, he started the positions, taking extra care to do exactly what was demonstrated. Miraculously, he managed to hold his body straight for three seconds, give or take a second or so. Unfortunately though, he fell down with a rather loud thud. “Not that nickname again,” the man whined as he rubbed his hurt bum for a while, “I really should think of a decent one for you Flo. I’m thinking something from Finding Nemo, but Dory seems too obscure.”

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[Florence Bryant]

Flo moved her hands up as though stretching to the sky, then took several rhythmic deep breaths, for a moment forgetting that she was looking after the two men next to her. Eventually, one eye opened and she chuckled to herself, moving to help Mason to actually get his leg in the right position. "C'mon Masie." She encouraged her friend, giving him a grin as she tried to get his leg up higher. "Flex!"

Only the instructor clearing her throat stopped Flo from continuing to contort poor Mason into any other further, silly positions. However, when the man utterly failed at the handstand, the conjurer pretty much keeled over in giggles, covering her mouth with her hand, concentration utterly broken. It was thankful that the instructor decided to call the class to a close a few moments later, since Flo was starting to ache from trying not to howl with giggles at Mason's epic fail.

Grabbing her towel and her water, she took a sip, and beckoned the little shrew out of his hiding place, resting him on her leg as she settled down again. "Well, I'm more worried about..." She paused, giving Mason a serious look. "Other things at the moment." The knowing look in her eyes spoke of the recent MSAD battle, and Jared lifted his nose and wiffled the air. He seemed a little tense for a moment too, before the woman shrugged off her problems and grinned again.

"Since you're both new to the class, what do you say to a quick drink now?" She asked, lifting Jared up onto her shoulder, letting him burrow into her hair. "Nothing alcoholic... just a hot chocolate. I can give you both tips." Her voice seemed bright, and she slung her bag onto her shoulders, offering JJ a hand to get up.

"I've never seen so much fail in my life. And I'm a SHREW." Jared commented in Flo's ear, causing the woman to snigger to herself. She stepped into her shoes again and let out a blissful sigh, feeling a lot calmer now she'd stretched. The grin on her face was positively stretching from ear to ear as the little mammal continued to make snerky comments to her.

"My treat. Come on!"

[jinkyung]

Relieved to see that he didn't need all the blood to rush to his head for their final stage, after some sniggering from the two adults next to him, Jin lagged behind on purpose, just waiting for the instructor to call the session to a close. He sighed and stretched his arms, cracked his back and yawned. So much for this yoga thing to help him 'elongate' his muscles. It only made his body more tense than before. Perhaps he should have just swam a few laps at the pool. That would have been free too... But there seemed to be more than one benefit from coming today. First of all, he got to see his Biology teacher make a fool of himself. He also got to perform better than his biology teacher according to the lovely recruiter Flo who had been coaching both of them along for the duration of the night, and finally, last but not least, he was being offered free hot chocolate. How could you turn down an offer like that? You just didn't do that sort of thing.

Excited at the idea of getting out of this place and getting something in his stomach, JJ nodded happily and thanked Flo for the offer. "You betcha, that would be awesome." He flashed a grin as he gathered up his stuff, put on his street shoes, and waited for Professor McQueen to do so himself. Sine he was on a first name basis with the recruiter, would it be weird if he were on the same terms with his Bio prof? Perhaps he could just give it a shot to hear how it sounded. "Come on Mason, let's get going." He smiled but then thought about how odd it was to be on a first name basis with someone who could fail him from biology if they rubbed the wrong way. He cleared his throat and looked down at the ground, as making eye contact with the guy right now could make things odd. Too bad he couldn't rewind the situation and keep things classy. Oh well.

[Mason McQueen]

Mason let out a sigh of relief when the instructor called the session to a close, the man’s smile returning after an hour or so of constantly looking constipated. “Woah. I thought that would never end,” said the man, flopping down his mat, hands and legs spread open while he tries his hardest to catch his breath. “How did all these become natural to you Flo? I would say my respect for you increased bounds after this day, but since you teased me to no end, it just went spiraling down again.” He added a playful smirk at the end (or at least the ‘smirk-i-est’ his face can get given his current out-of-breath situation) so that the conjurer knows he’s not really taking her teasing into offense. Sure she might’ve been a bit too irritating at times, but Mason’s got enough teasing as is when they were in Hammel as students, so he kind of knows how Flo goes already. That, and he himself knew he deserves it anyway – he’s never seen himself as clumsy and as uncoordinated as he was earlier.

Flo didn’t need to tell Mason what she was thinking of. Her abrupt change in disposition was enough to give him an idea about what she ran through her mind. Normally Mason would be quite oblivious to these things, but since he was involved to an extent (though his participation had been limited to taking care of the injured while they rescued James and Nikko, as well as driving them to the hospital after the incident), he got it almost immediately. He understood her worry; she is a mother after all. If they could go after Nikko, what’s to stop them from going for Gwynie?

After laying ungracefully on his mat for a while, the man finally rolled to his side, wiping his sweaty forehead with his shirt as he got on all fours and scrambled to stand up. He only managed to get into a kneeling position though, promptly sitting on his feet as he tried to reach for his bag. Darn it, is he really this unfit? “Hot chocolate would be nice, but I think something cold would make me feel a whole lot better,” chuckled Mason. He was heating up after all; he doesn’t think a hot beverage would help him cool down anytime soon.

He flinched slightly when his student suddenly called him ‘Mason’, partly in shock and partly in, well, discomfort. It wasn’t that he’s being all uptight in keeping the boundaries, but something just felt very odd about the boy suddenly calling him with his first name. But deciding that it was really quite the non-issue at the moment, he simply let it go after a few seconds.

“You know where the changing rooms are Flo? I just need to tidy myself up, then I’d go grab a drink with you, if you don’t mind.”

[Florence Bryant]

Florence merely grinned at both male's astonishment at her ease of the yoga poses, and offered a playful shrug. "You know me, Mason. Salsa classes, Aikido with Gwynie, jogging and yoga? Helps the muscles bend a lot easier." Taking her hair down from it's tight pony tail, she ruffled it to loosen it up, lifting her bag over her shoulder. She paused to check she'd bought her own clothes change with her, then thumbed over at a side door.

"Better let us ladies go in there first." She said with a grin, striding over, then pausing and heading back to Mason. "Take care of Jared while I'm in there?" She asked, scooping the little shrew from her shoulder into Mason's hand. "Then once we're all set, I'll take you both to the cafe."

Moving off, Flo disappeared behind the door for a few minutes, a steady stream of ladies entering and exiting in much smarter clothes. Jared silently wiffled Mason and made some sort of rude remark that only the conjurer could hear, and she attempted to stifle a giggle from behind the door, reemerging only a few seconds later in a much smarter outfit. Does Flo always dress this smart? Pretty much, this is her definition of dressing down.

"Okay boys, you're free to go in. I'll wait by the door for you." Snatching Jared back up and putting him in her coat pocket, she hummed to herself as the two boys changed, head turned to look out of the window. After her two accomplices for the evening reappeared, she graciously opened the door for both of them, smirking. "After you, ladies." She bowed, then followed the odd group out the door, waving goodbye to the instructor and heading out into the evening.

"Want a beer then Masie?" Flo asked as they walked along together. "I'd offer you one, JJ, but you're illegal still. Maybe in a few years time, I'll write an IOU out so I don't forget." She chuckled, then moved off to the cafe. She paused outside the door and pinged a quick text off to Gwynie, telling her she'd be a little later coming home, and could she please bring a milk out of the freezer, then turned again to her yoga buddies.

"Think you'll go again?" She asked mischievously, a wicked grin on her face.