Modoc Gym Practice Practice Practice

Wearing something similar tothis

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As great as Ravi's house was for doing most everything Imogen needed a space to practice her ballet and workouts. She didn't want to join a dance school at the moment so she had opted for the gym. It wasn't ideal for doing actual ballet but it would work for yoga which was what she wanted to start with anyways. Fucking expensive though even for a day pass. Made her almost second guess her decision to come. But determination won out and she paid that exorbanent amount and made her way towards the stretching area.

Setting up a mat with her water bottle and ballet flats to the side she would start. Gentle at first as she wasn't sure of her new leg, but when it held firm she moved on to more difficult and strenuous poses. Pigeon pose, locust pose, even boat pose. Looking to strengthen her body from those two years of no movement, even though perhaps it wasn't needed after the change.

It was as she was finishing with a leg stretch that she noticed eyes on her. It wasn't that unusual to get a glance but she had been feeling the sensation of being watched for a few minutes. Rather annoyed she would look up.

"You got a problem?"

Outfit

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It had been Natasha who'd been staring, but not for any ill thoughts! She'd honestly just been curious as to what she was doing, and secretly debating if she was able to bend and twin the same ways she was currently doing. She was flexible to a degree, but she wasn't quite sure if it extended to that degree.

She hadn't even realized she was staring all that long until the woman was snapping at her, Natasha offering an apologetic smile that quickly turned into something more genuine as she spoke up. "Not at all!" She assured, raising a hand, "I was just admiring, honest."

To be honest Imogen had been expecting a guy. Thats what she usually got at gyms, guys oogling her especially with yoga. She actually felt a bit bad when she did snap and looked up to see it was another woman. Even more it was a nice woman who didn't seem upset at all at being snapped out. Made Imogen feel bad about lashing out.

"Sorry thought you were a guy."

She made the assumption that any girl that had gone to a gym knew those sorts of guys.

"You into yoga?"

Imogen offered as an attempt to smooth things over.

Natasha nodded, having experienced such occurrences herself, she could understand completely where the girl had been coming from. Heck, even if she hadn't thought she was a guy, Natasha would have understood.

Nobody liked to be stared at, regardless of the gender doing it.

"No problem, sorry for staring." She waved, closing some of the distance between them so they could speak easier... Which had her realizing that this girl was like her! Woah, she'd never sniffed out this animal before.

So now she was dying to know two things, one what sort of dancing did she do, and two, what animal was she!?

"I've done a bit of it." She nodded, "definitely tend to lean closer on the cardio side though. You dance right?"

There was a weird smell in the air as the girl got closer. A piney but also husky kind of smell. Made her think of the outdoors and mountains. Figured the other girl had just been outside or something, didn't really seem that strange to Imogen.

It was nice to be pinned as a dancer again. No more pitying stares.

"Yeah Im a Ballerina."

She lifted the ballet flats up as emphasis. If there was room she wouldn't mind showing off a few moves.

A ballerina?!

This girl was living Natasha's childhood fantasy then because she had been super oppressed with Angelina Ballerina growing up. "No way, that's so cool." She gushed, mouth dropping in amazement. "So do you do it like professionally?"

It was a lot of little girls dreams to be a ballerina so Imogen had more then her fair share of wide eyed admiration. But who didn't like being told they were cool?

"Yeah I just moved here from Australia so I haven't gotten into a company yet but I do ballet professionally."

She was in the midst of figuring out how to make it all work. She had been to ballet school but all of the professors had known about her leg so there was worry about using them as a reference to get into a company.

A fellow foreigner!

She didn't know much about Australia, but she knew they had animals... Lots of animals, mainly kangaroos. Oh, also, Steve Irwin!

"That's quite a big jump, what brought you to Colorado?"

Imogen couldn't come out and say shark eaten leg was her reason for coming so she went with something a bit tamer but not fully a lie.

"Change of scenery, just needed something different."

She had needed something life changing, maybe not getting by a were raccoon but that's what she had ended up with. Wasn't about to tell this nice stranger that though. No way she would be believed first off and second not exactly the kind of conversation she wanted to have anyways.

It seemed like a pretty far jump for just a change of scenery, then again, Natasha was here for similar reasons. America had originally been her choice for a change of pace, but now it was the place where her second family lived, and where she belonged. A place without Pine Peak wasn't a place for her, and she couldn't imagine forcing Mary to leave all of the bears and live a life of solitude.

What would she do without good ol' Clifford, the notorious twins, song bird Indra or her first sister Maxine? Probably cry!

"I feel you, I moved all the way from London myself." She hadn't asked, but Nat was telling anyway. "Had been wanting it since I was in school, but it hardly turned out the way I expected."

She had picked up an accent on the other girls words but hadn't thought to much of it until she mentioned London. Oh that was kind of funny, two foreigners finding each other in a gym full of Americans. Her lips tilted in a laughing smile.

"Of course out of all the americans we find each other."

It was funny. Maybe not as funny as it seemed to Imogen. But hey she need a laugh.

Natasha's own giggle would bubble up in time with the woman's.

"Right? Like we have some sort of foreigner connection." She snorted with a shake of her head. "I'm Natasha by the way!"

It was good to laugh. Felt like she hadn't cracked a smile in years. It was just a euphoric sensation, like being up on stage with the spot light in her face everything else going dim around her. Just her and the movements. God she missed dancing.

"Im Imogen."

She said sticking her hand out for a shake.

"Its nice to metchu Natasha."

Imogen, now that wasn't a name that Natasha had heard before, but she found that she really liked it.

Fell off the lips easy enough, and it was unique!

Taking the hand, Natasha would offer a quick shake before lowering her voice quite a few octaves. She knew her name, knew her occupation, so that just left one other thing she wanted to learn...

"So what sort of animal are you?"

Things had been going swimmingly. Laughing smiles and introductions. But then came the weirdest out of the blue question. What the hell was what animal are you suppose to mean? Of course it brought up the raccoon and shifters hard not to when it was always on the brain in some way. There was no way Natasha knew about that stuff so that left Imogen very confused.

"Sorry what?"

She asked confusion clear in her eyes and the way her brows tilted in arches.

Oh, had she just made a mistake?

A breath in through the nose told her she hadn't, but it didn't look like the confusion on Imogen's face was a lie either... Did she just not know?

"You, uh.." How had Cliff brought this up to her? It had been so long ago she couldn't recall!! "Noticed anything strange? Like waking up in strange places? Blackouts through your day? Those sorts of things."

She still didn't know what train of though Natasha was on. Asking about blacking out and stuff like that. Imogen never blacked out except for the shifting thing with the other raccoons. God did she just think of them all as raccoons? This was a different level of fucking weird. She didn't know if she would ever get use to it.

"Not really. I handle my liquor well."

That was honestly the only thing Imogen could think that Natasha was getting at. But how it had to do with animals she didn't know. Was there some knew brand of beer with animal mascots?

Okay, no, not exactly what she meant, but she supposed that it could have easily been taken that way. She wasn't going about this right apparently, but hell if she knew where to go from here. She was almost positive that her nose was correct, and this girl just had to be in the same position she had been in the beginning.

New and clueless.

Probably left behind by whoever had changed her, just like Nat had been. There was a kinship to be found here.

"Alright, I am going to be straight up with you." She decided, trusting her nose enough to go forward. "I am a bear, like one of those Weres that you see on the news sometimes." A slight pause as she let that process before pushing forward, "you are one too..." But not a bear... :(

She was lost as to what Natasha was talking about until things went into that path of not so great truth. Imogen had thought there was no way anyone could tell what she was unless she hulked out into raccoon form her on the gym floor. But that was apparently not that case. Some mixture of shock and a tinge of anger hit her system. Not at Natasha but rather that she hadn't known this was possible for other weres to know she was one.

Also there was fucking Bear shifters?!

Her jaw was most certainly open and when she realized that she snapped it shut fast.

"Ooh...Uh well i didn't know we could tell who was you know like us."

She said a bit sheepishly.

A fucking bear of all things. That was like ten times cooler then a raccoon. Fuck.

"Okay but don't laugh."

Said with a bit of a pout.

"Im a raccoon."

It was such a relief to find out that her nose had indeed been correct, that there wasn't some other Were hanging around nearby with a scent that just lingered everywhere. Relief that she wouldn't have to trust some stranger to keep this big secret of hers, or that there currently wasn't going to be a big freak out happening right here and now.

Nope, this chick was a Were just like her, just hadn't yet worked out the nose portion yet!

"I could tell by your scent." She answered with a soft tap to her nose. "You'll get it eventually."

As for the animal, she could almost sqee with how cute it was.

A raccoon! An adorable little masked bandit, she wanted to see it in person so bad!!!

"I'd never laugh at such a cute creature." She whined, "I bet you look absolutely adorable."

For a hot minute Imogen was almost offended. She didn't smell bad. Except she could smell something on Natasha as well. That outdoor pine husk smell that she had mistaken for just being an outdoor thing. Like smelling like rain after a storm. If Natasha was right, and Imogen didn't think the other girl would lie, then maybe that was what bears smelled like. Wow that was super disappointing. What if she smelled like garbage or something? It was a serious concern.

"Oh my god do I smell awful?"

She need to know Natasha.

This is what the girl was concerned about? Natasha couldn't stop the burst of laughter, hand coming to useless cover her mouth as her head gave a very firm shake.

"No, not at all." She assured, "your smell kinda reminds me of..."

A sniff just to be sure.

"the city?" Did that make sense? probably not, and she was probably just saying that because she knew what Imogen was now.

Aaah no smelling like the city meant she did smell of garbage. Garbage and car emission. Every were would tell her apart cause of that stinky smell. When she got home she was going to dump all of Ravi's perfume on herself. Its what Ravi deserved for turning her into a smelly person.

"I'd rather smell like you. All pine needles and grass stuff."

This was really an upsetting revelation. What if it got worse with sweat. What if everyone would be able to tell she was garbage smelly?

She smelt like pine needles?!

How cute was that!!!

"Well, that might be because the bears are located out in Camp Baron?" She offered, hardly believing it herself but making the attempt anyway. "We have a sanctuary out there for our kind, and it's got a ton of trees." A hand would move between them both as she said 'our kind' not wanting her to think it was just the Bears.

Was there a bear group like the raccoon group? Out in Camp Baron which she didn't know where that was. The city was still very unfamiliar to her. But they had a sanctuary which sounded like a nature reserve for weres. And now she couldn't stop thinking about a zoo for shifters and that was all kinds of fucked up.

"Oh that's cool. The uh I guess group im with is in Ridgefield."

She was still a bit salty about the fight with Alice and the things they wanted from her for this 'group'.

Ridgefield? But wasn't that where Asha was set up, was she sharing with them like they were with the coyotes?

"Huh, I hadn't heard about you guys, but I have a friend who set up a group out there too." She shrugged, "you might of met her? Asha?"

So half betted that Alice would be steaming if she heard this. Imogen didn't know about group networks though and didn't think anything about Natasha not knowing about the raccoons. She also didn't know who the hell Asha was.

"No. But Im kinda new to the whole thing. Not really even sure what groups do and are for to be honest."

Probably the key part of the fight she had with Alice at the meeting.

Yeah, Natasha had pretty much figured the new thing if she hadn't realized that they were both Weres in the beginning. It was nice to have some confirmation though, gave her a better understanding of where this chick was currently standing in life.

"It's super confusing at first, I'll be honest." Nat assured an apologetic smile on her lips. "I think a lot of it comes with experience and stuff, but essentially groups are there to make the whole progression easier. Safe place to figure out everything that's going on up here." A tap to her temple as she said this.

It was kind of nice to talk to someone else about all this. Someone who didn't know about the raccoons.

"See that's sort of what I don't get. Nothings going weird in my head. I feel pretty normal except for having two legs again."

Maybe it wasn't fair to spill out all her frustrations in front of Natasha but thats what was happening.

Nothing weird? Two legs?

HUH?

"Wait," she managed after a moment of stunned silence, "you can't feel the raccoon up there?" Once Nat had been made aware of Mary, she'd been pretty intuned with her existence. "And what do you mean two legs?"

Imogen didn't understand what they all meant but feeling the raccoon in her brain. Ravi had said something about impulses but Imogen couldn't think of anything besides getting hungrier then normal. Sure there had been that time when she had fallen asleep surrounded by all her sparkly tutu's but that was actually pretty normal, she had been tired. Sometimes she found herself playing with stuff around Ravi's house but again she just put that off as being bored.

"No not really."

To the first question.

"My leg was amputated after a shark bite two years ago."

Probably a good thing the gym was to noise for people to listen in on their conversation.

How strange? She supposed everyone had a different experience with their animal, but given that Mary was almost constantly on her mind, Natasha couldn't imagine being a Were without one.

"I wonder if you just have a shy animal or something." She hummed, lips pursing in thought, "maybe she'll be more vocal with time." Who knew how other people's animal brains worked?

As for the leg, that was bloody brutal!!!

"I'm so sorry to hear that!" She gasped, "congratulations on the recovery though?"

Imogen wished it wouldn't be so bloody shy. Then she could actually understand what everyone else was talking about.

"Thanks. The bloody thing grew back that first night. I can't remember anything except pain though."

She had been told that was normal though. That she wouldn't remember in the beginning. Wasn't sure she wanted to remember at all to be honest.

How scary was it to pass out with one leg and then wake up with a brand new one? Were healing was freaky, and she was high key glad that she'd never lost a limb to witness it all to that extent. She still got surprised when a little cut was healed by the end of the day!

"That's usually how it is," she nodded, now imagining whether or not the raccoon had three or four legs during its time as an animal. "It'll start sticking around eventually, and that's when things start getting easier."

Well she'd get there when she got there. No rush worrying about it when she had so much else to think about.

"Im sure it will. Been nice talking to you Natasha."