2019-11-17 - Boxing and Brainstorming

Joey is right where people expect him to be. No, not jail, the gym. shorts, sneakers, gloves, and a sweatshirt with the sleeves and neck ripped out of it leaving him with that pro-athlete that was attacked and chewed on by a big big moth look. Duarte, the evening manager is off to one side spotting one of the regulars talking Pokemon Go of all damn things. Joey's up on that speedbag 1-1-2-2-1-1-2-2. The radio presently is kicking out some Bush in the form of Machinehead through the gym over the clangs and concussive smacks echoed within. It ain't fancy, but it's fite-home.

Mae walks into the gym, bag in one hand, towel over a shoulder. She's not wearing a jacket, she walked down here from a few doors up the road. She's wearing sweats, a long-sleeved t-shirt and has her hair tied back into two scalp-hugging braids. She watches Joe for a few moments after she arrives and then she makes her way to a bench, taking a seat so she can dig her gloves from her bag. Her big bottle of water is pulled out too, along with a pair of small earbuds, just in case she needs to start rocking her own jams.

When a new face arrives in the form of Garrett, it's probably fairly clear he is not, in fact, there to train. He's in jeans and a bright yellow hoodie with University of Minnesota in blue across the chest, giving an assessing glance around as he enters. After a moment he grabs the attention of the nearest person to the door not busy, getting pointed in the direction of Joey at the speed bag after a brief question. Given that his target is currently busy, though, he drifts towards a bench, offering Zoiya a small nod of greeting as he finds himself leaning nearby, idly glancing between Joey and the rest of the gym.

Joey has his total focus ate. The large, man pointing Garrett over yess, "Boss!" Joey's attention doesn't move. Not for a moment but in the end just slugs the bag. Because he can, because it's fun, and because he's learned not to let it hit him in the head. Disengaging there's a pause and a deep breath.The hem of his sweatshirt is pulled up to wipe his face with for a moment with a heartfelt grunt and a "Hey, Mae." Looking over to Garrett he squints and points one half-gloved finger to him, pauses and ventured the guess, "7 Oak? Sup." Looking back to Mae he holds out a fist for her to bump curious, "Hey, how's livin been treating ya?"

Mae finishes strapping her gloves to her hands, and she gets to her feet, nodding to Garrett as she makes her way to a bag. There is a brief pause near Joey so she can bump her gloved fist with his, shrugging. "Always an adventure." She flashes him a bright grin and then stands in front of the heavy bag, stretching before she squares her shoulders. She hits the bag like she has a good idea how to throw a punch, her strikes are steady and decent, not overcompensating or trying to show off. She falls into a rhythm, letting her arms swing out to make contact again and again, trying to drive her heart rate up. She doesn't relent, the steady strokes providing a nice percussion to the conversation. "Nice and quiet in here tonight." Mostly.

Garrett watches Joey approach, standing up a touch straighter. He tilts his head a bit at the greeting, though. "No, 14 El-- oh! Right. Movie night." He starts to correct Joey before it clicks and he nods. He watches the little exchange between him and Mae, occasionally watching her throwing punches with a bit of curiosity, keeping quiet for the most part before finally piping up. "If you get a minute, Sparrow says you're the guy to talk to about a project she's putting together?"

Joey looks confused like he's double checking his memory a moment but- yup, There it is. Before he answers he hesitates and clarifies, "You know i'm Joey not Jaime, right?" The eyebrow goes up before he indulges what project Sparrow might be on about. Looking back to Mae on the bag he fetches his water bottle off the bleachers and grumbles back, "Lotta people in finals right now for fall semester. Just before them big fly home holidays so it gets a lil quieter. I'm closing down for Thanksgiving weekend. Duarte's gonna be gone and I decided to give myself a four day weekend. Maybe do something with it. I dunno."

When the pair start to talk about things that have nothing to do with her, Mae pulls her earbuds out of her pocket and taps her phone. The dulcet tones of Skylar Gray start to croon in her ears as she sings along to 'Kill for You'. Her fists match the beat of the song, and there is a slight sway to her hips as she punches the bag, not faltering once the music starts in her ears. Despite the buds, the music isn't loud, so it shouldn't be to anyone's surprise when she answers. "Yep, been dead as fuck at the strip joint too. People are too busy getting ready for the holidays to pay people to sit in their laps." She snorts, changing her footing before she starts punching the bag again.

"...I hope you are or that guy lied to me," Garrett responds with a grin, jerking his head back in the general direction of the guy that pointed him towards Joey in the first place. "But yeah, Sparrow said this would be the place to look for you. Said something about jello wrestling and a raffle and her maybe needing help with the latter, but that you were the one to talk to since this is apparently where this is going down?" He gives a little shrug. That's all he knows about the entire project, apparently. Mae's input gets another glance in her direction, a slightly raised eyebrow and a quick, almost involuntary, once over before he clears his throat and focuses back on Joey. "So yeah. What's going on with this whole thing and how can I help?"

Joey gestures with two fingers Chuck-wardly, "Shit, then he's been lyin to me too. Don't get mad at him. He gets hit in the head for a hobby." And then the truth comes out with a slow grin and that same flinty expression as if jello is somehow serious business. His hand comes up, fingers and half-glove rubbing his face. "Yeaaaah apparently She and Nicole had some sort of bet and now it's evolved into jello wrestling here for to raise money for this charity. Holidays comin up. Should be less shitty for some one." Looking back to Zoiya he nods with a murmur, "Yeah Roxy said as much. I still gotta get out there to find out when we wanna run that self-defense class. Haven't talked to Antonio in a minute." His hand rubs the back of his neck and looks to teh man in the U Minn sweatchirt. "Garrett, yeah? That's Mae. She's cool. Sooo she sprung this on me this morning so you know as much as I do presently and I'm up for ideas."

Mae pauses, pulling an earbud out of her ear as she tries to catch her breath. "Jello wrestling for charity? Brilliant." She chuckles and pulls her towel off of her shoulder to wipe at her face. "I imagine you'll get a huge crowd for it, and you'll manage to make a lot of money for a good cause." She nods about the self defense class, pulling a hand from her glove to wiggle her fingers toward Garrett. "Hey."

Then the hand is stuffed back into the glove and she turns back to the bag, taking a deep breath before she gets back to work throwing punches. She does keep an ear on the conversation though.

"Important to be dedicated to your hobbies," Garrett says with a laugh and a glance towards Chuck, shaking his head. Then back to Mae and introductions and the like. "Nice to meet you, Mae. Garrett," he offers, in case that hadn't already been made clear. A handshake is briefly offered when the glove comes off, but he settles for returning the wave when she quickly goes back to her workout. "Right, so... yeah, that checks out," Garrett says with a laugh at the spontaneity of the idea. "I don't know. She made it sound like she had more developed in her head than this." A small shrug. "What does one raffle off in association with jello wrestling for a women's shelter charity event?" His mouth twists up in contemplation. "Gym memberships?" It's a half-hearted suggestion, at best. "Hm." He glances between Joey and Mae to see if they have anything better.

Joey looks to Mae and holds up both hands, "Jello shots and a bunch of sugared up people treating the world like their kiddie pool for a cause. Shit we cna probably stretch out the event. Jello shots. bets for funsies prolly." He considers Garrett's questions, "Safety." Looking back he arches an eyebrow, "I'm thinking dinner escort event, or snow removal, dinner voucher for Pourhouse? Things we can do to keep some shit entertaining. I'm up for some ideas and honestly I have done the dinner escort thing. It's kidna fun seriously."

"First off, you find some things from the places sponsoring you, creative cheeky things, and you raffle those off. Remind people who helped you while you're helping others." Mae responds, having the air of someone who might have heard some people event plan before. "Also, if you wanna be very useful, accept donations of clothes, tampons, and various other things that women's shelters are always low on. You'd be surprised how much of that stuff you'll get." Her arm snaps out and her fist makes a connection with the bag, a grunt escaping her. "Those places are always so overwhelmed. Last time I had to stay in one.." She changes her mind and shrugs. "The more fun you make the event, the more people will join and donate. Capturing interest is not always so easy."

"...dinner escort?" He tilts his head, seeming like he's looking for clarification, but Mae's suggestions get his attention and he nods. "Right, that makes sense," he agrees, crossing his arms over his chest as he thinks. "So, I'm guessing you both know town better than I do, so if you two come up with places to go nosing around asking for some help with sponsoring the event and donations and stuff, I'll put in the leg work and actually go around asking?" he offers. "Or, like logistic stuff I can probably help with if you need help figuring out numbers," he adds.

Joey pauses and arches an eyebrow to Mae, "Those are really solid ideas. Straight up bring something to donate or cash or we can explain to them how to not be a dick." This? This he can do. He pauses and his lower eyelids tuck up briefly tucking that tidbit away for later. He agrees to say only, "Yeah, ma's had stories." And he leaves it there. Looking to Garrett there's a faint grin, "So you do an auction for a fella to basically go and be a dinner date for the highest bidder or work on stuff for a day. Not sayin go be a rent boy cause that's illegal and I don't need Cap giving me that look for new exciting things. Could be anything like paint a room of someone's house. Whatever. It's fun. Makes things less shitty and yes, we'll talk to businesses around and advertise the shit out of them in exchange for donations. I like it. See? It's a start." There's a pause and both eyebrows arch, "Could really use the help with the numbers. Logistic stuff. Totally. Also you know word of mouth is gonna be key."

"Raffle off a dinner escort? That.. is actually a good idea. Get a few good looking bachelors and you'd have a feeding frenzy." Mae flashes a smile over at Garrett. "I can ask Antonio if he'd like to give some money for the cause, and I bet I could convince him that it's a great idea." She pauses from her punching and pulls her gloves free. She walks closer to the pair, taking a seat on a bench. "Might want to do ladies as well if you can get any who don't mind a date." She crosses her legs. "You all are good people to do something so kind like this."

Garrett considers the explanation provided for a few moments, then gives a shrug. "If you go that way, fuck it, sign me up now," he volunteers, returning that quick smile in Mae's direction. "So, right. Flyers and stuff, I'd imagine? Advertise like I'm trying to get people to show up at a band gig. I can manage that," he decides, rubbing his hands together, getting into the idea of things. "Yeah, I'm better at numbers than ideas, so... yeah. Just let me know when you need help with that end. Might as well put all those math classes to use." Mae's compliment gets another little smile and an equally little shrug. "What was I supposed to do when Sparrow said she was trying to organize a fundraiser, say 'have fun' and go fuck off for a bit?" Pause. "But thanks. I try."

Joey looks to Maw and nods slowly, "So long as it's opt in. " He pauses looking upward and sighs, "Yeah we can run insurance on that too." And by insurance he means explain courtesy with a bat if someone doesn't get it. His jaw sets slowly and a nod follows looking to Mae. The compliment sits a bit uncomfortably. Walking over he pulls a marker for his dry erase board and jots these ideas down. "Not yet. Workin on it. Grew up not being able to do somethin about that shit. Now I can so? We will. Make up for lost time. BUT!" His mood picks up on the end, "If you'd be willing to talk to the gals and see who might be interested? Could be a good deal. Know what we have to work with ahead of time." He pauses to Garrett, "I like you. Can you see what it might run us to do a pancake breakfast following morning for volunteers and get back to me on that?"

Mae nods at Joey, offering him a cheeky salute and smile. "Will do, boss." She glances over toward Garrett, nodding her agreement of Joey's assessment. "Yeah, he seems like a really nice guy." She gets to her feet, gathering up her bag, pulling off her other glove to stuff them away. "Boys, I think I'm gonna get out of your hair, but Poe has my number if you want more help. Joey can get it and pass it on to you.." She nods toward Garrett. "You're both more than welcome to get in touch anytime. I like to think I can be useful or helpful when it suits me."

A little smile that's directed more to the ground than to either Mae or Joey at the concensus that's apparently reached on his niceness, but he doesn't argue the point. "Thanks," he says quietly, then clears his throat, smiling as he looks up. "Pancake breakfast. I can work on that. Might know a person or two handy around the kitchen to help with that sort of thing, too," he muses. And then his phone is ringing at him and he frowns, pulling it out. "Shit. Work. Sparrow's got my number if you need anything. Mae, nice meeting you. Joey, nice meeting you more official-like. I gotta run too," he tells the pair, waving as he makes for the door, raising his phone to his ear as he goes. "Yeah... an hour?..." And then he's out the door.

Joey pauses and looks to Mae and there's a faint, faint smile. He doesn't' take a compliment well, but the sentiment lands. "Hey, speaking of Poe and mayhem and food, if you are freed up on Thanksgiving or don't have plans there's going to be a big fuck off thing going on at the house. 100 Elm. It's already got lights on the damn house. Food. Dress code is pajamas or whatever you want." He shrugs and looks to Garrett, "I assume Jaime or Sparrow told you. If not? You know now." The hand goes up and he turns to the wipe off board taking a deep breath actually satisfied by this plan. There's a slight grin giving it a nod.

"Pajamas and food, I'll probably be there!" Mae likes food, and she likes her jammies more. She's halfway out the door before she turns to call out. "I'll get your number off of Poe to text and see what I can bring with me!" She can't cook, so hopefully whatever she brings is edible!