Archive Mutants & Masterminds: The Unlikely Prophets - [Pre-Prologue] Making decisions

[Bodhie Armstrong]

4 Years ago

„You’ve got to be kidding me!?“, Bodhie said still not sure if she heard it right.

“I’m totally serious about this.”, answered her best friend whom she considered to be perfectly sane till a few minutes ago.

“Let me get this straight – You want to work out professionally? Get a Pro-Card and everything? Do you know how difficult this is? It’ll take years!”, Bodhie said still hoping this was some kind of prank her friend was trying to pull off. But Rachel shook her head.

“I mean it, Bodhie. But I can’t do it without you. I beg you – please be my training partner. I lack the discipline to pull this through alone. But if you would do the same we could both check on each other, you know? It’ll be great, trust me. You’ll feel much better once we’ve gotten into a routine.”

Bodhie was unsure what to say. Rachel was her best friend – her only friend to be precise. She had lost contact with most of her friends after Sean was born. Being the only one to have a child put her on the bench and off the radar. Bodhie had to learn to live with refusal most of her life. Her husband wanted her to stay home and take care of the child while he focused on his career.

At first things were ok – he was making progress and soon climbed the ladder into management of the law firm he was working for. He earned enough money for their little family but his working hours almost doubled on the downside.

Now after 12 years Bodhie was back at her starting point. She realized she had accomplished nothing aside from her Son and the marriage. She wanted to study medicine right after school but then she met John and a few months later she was pregnant with Sean. Her plans were completely off the table and now it was too late – she lacked the energy to give it a another try.

“Common – you’ve been unemployed for about 6 months now and I know you’re starting to hate having nothing to do except keeping the house tidy and cook for your men. Lets do this and you’ll have something to look forward to – to work on and no one can take that away from you. You’ll do it for yourself… and me”, Rachel added sheepishly at the end.

“Alright… I’ll do it.”

(ooc: to be continued...)

[Bodhie Armstrong]

3 years ago

"Just one more.", Bodhie said trying to push Rachel do her last rep. Rachel almost finished her set but had to give up on her last push which Bodhie helped her with before she racked it back into its resting place.

"Damn... I almost got it.", Rachel frowned wiping away sweat from her face while she removed her gloves.

"You've been doing fine, don't worry about it. Tomorrow you'll make it.", Bodhie reassured her.

"I don't know. Shouldn't I be on par with you? I mean we both started out the same - we do the same routines, are on the same diet and still you make this look easy while I am struggling to finish my sets.", the ravenhaired woman said to her friend.

"Genetics, I suppose.", Bodhie answered shrugging at her. She spared her the truth that the sets they were doing barely gave her a "good" work out. They were too light while Rachel was at her limit. Bodhie didn't know how to explain it but she never actually felt as if she was reaching her limit. She stuck to the routine they both worked out after doing some research on the web but if it wasn't for Rachel she would've moved on to the next heavier set months ago.

"So how's family?", Rachel asked trying not to think about why she was doing so much worse than her friend.

"Hmm? You mean John? He's complaining about how much I changed. He's trying to be mean by constantly telling me I'm getting fat. And Sean stared at me speechless last weekend when we were having breakfast together. I put on an old shirt of mine and the seams at the shoulders ripped. He almost freaked out and left wordlessly. I think both my men are not liking how I'm responding to the workout. John even threatened if I lost my breasts he'd file divorce and I would get nothing he added since he knows all the tricks being a lawyer.", Bodhie said without much emotion in her voice.

"To sum it up with a few words - fucked up as ever."

"I'm sorry to hear that.", Rachel said trying to be supportive but failed since she was still too much absorbed by her bad performance in comparison to her best friend. Why couldn't she be more gifted like Bodhie? Bodhie didn't wanted to get into this in the first place and now she is improving from month to month while Rachel's gains were slowly stalling. Maybe she was using some kinds of steriods? They should be doing the same, shouldn't they?

Rachel watched Bodhie start with the next set of dumbbells and looked enviously at how her arms flexed and swelled with each repetition. She could tell that Bodhie was bigger and more defined already. How could she compete to that? Rachel felt like crying but swallowed it down. Probably she was just having a bad day... or maybe Bodhie was cheating. She'd have to find out if she was and get some herself to catch up with her. At least she had a plan now.

(ooc: to be continued...)

[Bodhie Armstrong]

2 years ago

Rachel woke up with a startle. Her heart was beating fast and she felt a short moment of nausea before fully awoke. Her pillow was stained with some blood and she could feel some dried blood that had crusted aroun her nostrils. Not again, she frowned to herself wiping away the remains of the blood from her nose.

She walked to the bathroom and checked herself in the mirror. Aside from the nose bleed she felt fine. Rachel removed her nightie and flexed her muscles tilting her torso a bit to the sides to get a good impression of her shape. Ever since she started taking some of the “special” supplements she had made vast improvements in mass and shape. She was sure she was bigger than Bodhie now and the competition was only 4 weeks away. Then she would finally get her Pro-Card.

She flexed her right arm and felt it's large and hard biceps with her hand smiling confidently, the nose bleed forgotten suddenly. Opening the cabinets door with her small collection of “supplements” Rachel took out a handful of pills that had gotten part of her daily routine. Finally she would get more attention than Bodhie.

Later that day...

At the gym Bodhie was already done with her warm-up. She was sweating slightly and smiling at Rachel as she saw her talking to Alfred briefly. Rachel sure had gained some mass lately she had to admit but something felt odd about it. She couldn't quite point her finger at it but Rachel's general behaviour had changed over the last weeks additionally to her gains. Bodhie knew that Rachel was having issues with her poor progress and everything had gotten even more important ever since she signed up for the nationals.

That was 3 months ago – but the Rachel she saw know was like a new person. Maybe the much anticipated contest gave her more energy which she put into a positive effect. Who knew? Psychology had far more influence in bodybuilding than most people thought or cared to admit.

Bodhie credited her own progress both to gifted genetics and her husband. He should be more supportive but he resented almost everything his wife did. Instead of despairing Bodhie chose to convert her anger into positive energy which flowed directly into her workouts. It was a very strong motivator and that was extremely important if you wanted to succeed in bodybuilding.

For the first time Bodhie felt intimidated by Rachel's presence. Her best friend bristled with energy and radiated an unexpected confidence. It was very unlike her but lately she had gotten more and more self confident. The initial selfdoubts and almost nervous breakdown when she signed up was completely gone.

“You look amazing, Rachel.”, Bodhie had to say handing her a pair of 25 lbs dumbbells that she used for warm-up. Rachel smiled at her friend and started her warm-up right away concentrating on making clean and slow reps. It was important to warm up the muscles the right way to minimize the chance for injury because of too much strain or a wrong move. So close to the competition Rachel didn't want to risk anything. Bodhie was glad that Rachel finally managed to get some kind of focus. And took the next heavier set of dumbbells to start with her routine.

A few hours later...

Rachel was posing in her bikini which she had bought for the nationals while Bodhie gave her feedback.

“I think you should slowly slide down into a crouching position while you do that double biceps and then turn to the side showing your stronger right arm and your thighs. When the music stop you let yourself fall into a push-up position which should bring out your shoulders.”, Bodhie said trying to show Rachel what she meant by doing exactly what she described. “Like this.”

Rachel nodded and agreed and then hugged her friend. “I think that's it. I like it and I can memorize the choreography easily. But you gotta be there, Bodhie. Promise it!”.

Bodhie laughed and nodded, “Of course I will, wouldn't miss it for my life.”

“And you're sure you don't want to sign up yourself?”, Rachel asked.

Bodhie slowly shook her head. Part of her wanted to give it a try. Just to see where she was compared on a national level but if John found out about that he would totally freak out. It was difficult enough already as it was.

“No... I don't think I got it in me, Rachel.”, Bodhie lied and sighed turning away from her friend to turn on the music again. “One more go and then we hit the showers, ok?”

(ooc: To be concluded...)

[Bodhie Armstrong]

one year ago

“Hey, what happened to you?”, Rachel asked while they were getting ready for workout. Bodhie took off the sunglasses and frowned. She hoped that the bruise wasn't that obvious.

“I... I tripped and bumped into a door... that's what happened.”, Bodhie lied. She was too embarrassed to admit what really happened but Rachel didn't need much empathy to tell the lie.

“Yeah, right. You tripped.”, Rachel mocked Bodhie and turned her around to give her a better look. The bruise had already turned from reddish violet to bluish black and yellow. It had the faint resemblance of a fist. Bodhie stared at Rachel and tears started running down her cheeks. She shook her head as if to fight it off but she couldn't and finally gave in as Rachel hugged her.

“hush... shhhh. It's ok, honey... I'm here... tell me what happened. Did he hit you?”, Rachel tried to comfort her. Bodhie cried like there was no tomorrow unable to answer Rachel's questions. She felt like dying – she wanted to die.

Bodhie retreated into herself finding herself in a dark room. There was a dim light which shone on a large mirror. She stepped hesitantly into the light and saw herself in the mirror – her old self before the marriage, before the child. Bodhie touched the mirror just where the bruise was and flinched as she touched it. Then her mirrorimage started to speak. “Don't let him destroy your life. You are stronger than this. I know you are. Look at yourself – look at what you accomplished. There is nothing to be ashamed of. You have deserved better than him. Don't succumb to his attempt to dominate you or your life. Take control – take action – defy him... defy him... defy him...”, her own voice echoed through her mind.

Bodhie stopped crying and swallowed down her frustration. With each breath she took she replaced sadness and shame with anger and fury, righteous fury. No she wouldn't die today. She would take revenge – she would pay him back every single day he took from her. Every single day she felt miserable because of him and she would make sure he remembered it for the rest of his life.

Bodhie suddenly laughed and smiled at Rachel. She couldn't tell her what just happened. She had trouble understanding it herself. She loved him so much and now it got replaced with hatred... there was only hatred left now. She felt only hatred for him now and it made her laugh.

(finis)