fandomhigh | Team-Building for Fun and Profit! - Thursday, Third Period [07/27].

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teambuilding

Team-Building for Fun and Profit! - Thursday, Third Period [07/27].

This week, team-building was going to be held in the danger shop, where an elaborate and very moddable sort of obstacle course awaited everyone...as did a bunch of blindfolds.

"Welcome back, everyone," Ignis greeted them this time with a nod from behind the table that had all the blindfolds laid out in front of it. "I suppose it makes a certain sense for me to be leading the instructions on this week's activity, which will be a challenge in working together with both giving and following instructions. Being able to be clear and precise in your communication with your teammates can often be a crucial factor in success...and in saving lives, depending on the situation. To put these concepts into practice, then, we are going to do an activity that should put some of this to the test.

"Before you is an obstacle course filled with obstructions, pit falls, a few minor puzzles and challenges that you all need to get through. The catch is that all but one of you will be blindfolded, and that person has the challenge of instructing and leading the others through the course to the end. Prompto has set it up so that the maze will randomize after each pass through, so everyone can take a turn being the leader, hopefully, assuming we have enough time. Simple in concept, potentially challenging in execution, but we suppose we'll find out just how well you work together in the dark soon enough. And the sooner we get started, the more you can all work on working together and taking turns in the leadership role."

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Who are not ready to sit back and see how this goes with a big bowl of popcorn, how dare you.

Edited 2023-07-27 10:07 (UTC)

To be fair, it is very fancy popcorn.

Prompto is also ready at the controls to possibly throw a few unexpected challenges at the group, especially if it seems like things are going very smoothly between the lot of them.

And Gladio is definitely the reason there seems to be a lot of really narrow passages and low entry points in general.

Nell meet up with Gladio at the end of class. "Shall we find a comfortable place, or..." She looked over the setup for the class. "Actually... That spot over there might be a good height for you to sit on and me to be able to reach all of your... tallness."

Gladio had to chuckle a little at that. "And there is," he admitted, already twisting a little where he stood as a reminder how, especially after some of those heart-opening moves from yoga, this was long overdue and very needed, actually, "a lot of tallness. But that definitely works. Wherever you feel will be most comfortable works for me."

"Then have a seat," Nell said, gesturing to the spot. "She make yourself comfortable."

She rubbed her hands together to warm them, not that it was really necessary, but it got them ready to work.

Gladio, dutifully, sat down, giving his shoulders a little bit of a roll as he settled in. Squared them a little, and glanced over one with a faint grin before turning his attention forward again.

"Alright," he said. "Do your worst."

Nell stepped closer, hesitated for just a moment, then gently put one hand on the side of his neck before running it down to his shoulder. The other hand followed suit on the other side and for a moment she ran them lightly over his sides and back, assessing.

Then she took a deep breath, moved up to the top of his right shoulder and began working to loosen the muscles. Her hands were small, but years of manual labor had made them very strong. "Just let me know if I'm hurting you," she said. Her eyes were half closed as she focused on what his back was telling her.

His neck had not really been where Gladio had been expecting Nell's hand to fall at first, and the surprise of it, as well as the trailing of her hand toward his shoulder after it, made his draw in a breath that he very deliberately made slow and easy. He closed his eyes and let out a faint huff as those small, strong hands got to work and he grinned.

"I'd be impressed," he said, "if you were. But this is good."

There was a little shifting, as if to subtly position himself so her hands were getting the spots that needed this the most.

"Really good, actually."

She was getting to those spots, Gladio. You don't just jump in, you assess.

"Might yet," she said. "You've got some awful tight spots, but I trust you to let me know if I go beyond a 'good hurt' in working 'em out to something really uncomfortable.". She figured she'd be able to tell, but it wouldn't hurt to have him aware.

She hit one of those spots moments later and pulled back to work the area around it and loosened that up before going back. It was... she couldn't even put words to it, the way it felt to have her hands on a man she had feelings for, almost a little electric.

Gladio knew, of course, going into this, that it would be inevitable, it would be entirely unavoidable, that, eventually, Nell was going to hit one of those awful tight spots in just the right way, and he really wasn't going to help the guttural, appreciative grunt that escaped him. Really, the odds were in her favor in that respect; there were plenty of those tight spots and it had been a while since he'd had anyone work his back like this and it was clearly sorely needed.

"Don't worry." It came out as just an absent sort of murmur. "I will."

Despite having done this countless times for John and Leah when they were ill - though never as intensely as this - it was an entirely different experience for Nell. She had to admit, if only to herself, that she loved the excuse to be able to touch him.

As she worked intently on loosening and unknotting, as usual are found her hands almost working independently, as if they knew what to do without conscious input from her. So she talked, eyes still half closed. Good time for any questions, Gladio.

"Even when I was a little little girl I had a way with plants," she said softly. "Could make most anything grow. Nothing made me happier than having my hands in the dirt and watching all things I'd planted grow. 'Course I didn't do any of the stuff I can do now, making 'em grow super fast or anything like that."

In a way, Gladio was grateful, that Nell apparently had a tendency to want to talk, while she worked, because it gave him something else to focus on than just how nice it was to have Nell's hands on his back, on his shoulders, working out all those kinks and knots and all the other thoughts that might follow in its wake that he was consistently nudging back to the periphery.

And he could focus, instead, on trying to think of something good or clever to say in response. Or if he even needed to say anything at all, if he could just listen to her and take it all in while she worked.

"When did you start to realize," is what he'd eventually decided on, "that you could do more with them? With plants?"

"People started to talk about when I was ten or so," Nell said. "My plants always grew faster than the others and the ones I tended were healthier and bigger than the rest of the women's. Worried my mother some, I can tell you." She hit an obviously painful spot and gentled her touch but kept working on it.

"'Bout then when people started whispering that I might be a witch of some kind."

There was a bit of a grunt when Nell hit that spot, but it turned into a softer, more amused sound as she adjusted accordingly.

"Don't know much about witches," Gladio admitted, "but I'm pretty sure what you're doing back there's gotta be some kinda magic.

"Still," he added, a moment later, "that's gotta be a lot for a kid to deal with."

"Wasn't really a kid then, not by church standards." She sighed. "I know, I know, the church standards don't matter and aren't right and it was - is - a bad place, but for a body growing up there I wasn't a child anymore."

Her hands continued to with as she talked, unbothered by the topic. "Found out just recently that my mother had me tested then to see if I was, she hoped I was, but I wasn't."

Considering it would only be, wjat? About only two years after that that she'd been married off, yeah, that didn't surprise Gladio much. His next grunt had absolutely nothing to do with anything Nell's hands were doing and he shook his head, just slightly.

"Would it have been better," he had to wonder, "if you had been?"

"You wouldn't think so given the Church's willingness to stone or burn a witch," Nell said, as easily as she might have talked about her ice cream preference. "But... one of the other things I found out was that that was how she hoped to save me. She'd have had me thrown out of the church and spirited me off to live with relatives on the outside." That part maybe had a little more emotion to it - and the rest Nell wasn't ready to talk about, not here, though it was all tied in with the lies John and Leah had told her, what they'd deliberately kept from her to keep her from her family.

"Not sure if I'd ever learned all I could do if that happened. Which might not entirely be a bad thing." She came upon another knot. "Goodness, whatever did you do to get this?"

Were it not for that last part, Gladio would have been quiet for a moment, but because of it, the next grunt was wryly amused. "What haven't I done? Probably a little of everything with a side of not exactly being as young as I used to be. Funny how my respect for older Crownsguard and hunters has grown through the years..."

"Oh, you poor ancient man," Nell said teasingly. "I could get you some porridge and a wheelchair."

"Might be kinda difficult to navigate these streets in a wheelchair," Gladio pointed out, "but that could be a good arm workout."

And that. That kind of thinking was exactly why this back rub was so much work right now.

Nell laughed and continued on. "What were you like as a little boy?" she asked. "I imagine you into everything, but so charming even that young that you got away with it all."

"I'm not really sure charm had much to do with it," Gladio admitted, after a moment to think about that...and maybe just sort of appreciate how much better he was feeling already. "But I was always way too serious as a kid. All about training, had a legacy to fulfil, after all, no time to mess around, you know?"

"So, not much actual childhood either?" Nell said. "I was effectively running a household by twelve. I mean, Leah was in charge at first, but she was already quite ill by then, so it was more supervising, and as she became more frail I took care of it all."

"That's way too young." There. He'd finally said it. Not that it was controversial or anything, but it was good to finally actually say it, and with every ounce of disapproval for it that he felt, too. "They wouldn't even let me officially join the Crownsguard until I was eighteen, even with my pedigree and training."

"It is. I agree."

She knew it. She accepted it. But it was what it was.

She couldn't help a huff of dark amusement. "By nineteen I'd been married for seven years - or eleven if you count my four years here - and was already a widder woman. Which is also far too young."

And now Gladio was quiet, for a moment, not knowing what to say or what could be said or even if anything needed to be. He felt like he should, and he wished he could just figure the right words.

"Well," he finally managed, and he turned a little, not good for the back rub,but much better for looking at her, "you're definitely your own woman now." A small smile, with a touch of rare uncertainty. "Better late than never, right?"

He had time. It would undoubtedly come up another time.

For now though he got a smile and a nod.

And... since he was turned around...

"Gladio? Can I..." She hesitated, then put her left hand on his chest over his heart and leaned in enough to rest her head on his shoulder. "You... I... I'm awful happy."

And here Gladio was just about to remind Nell that she didn't need permission, and then he didn't even need to. He smiled softly, lifting a hand to gently place at her side.

"Good," he said. "Me, too."

And that was a time where he felt perfectly fine with the fact that that was all there was to say.

She stayed there for maybe ten heartbeats, then slowly sighed and slid back around to get back to work. "M'glad you are too."

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