Chapter 3
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PilotKogane [reblogged] TheOppositeofAmnesia
TheOppositeofAmnesia
[Video of a man in his late twenties, military cut black hair except for a tuft of bangs dyed white, wearing loose workout attire. He gives instructions, and then models how to follow them. His mechanical right arm is in view at all times.]
Captions:
"Hey there, internet. I've gotten a lot of asks from people on how to do a push-up. When you think of workouts, a lot of people think of push-ups, but a lot of people also can't manage to do push-ups like they think they should. So I'm going to show you some basic moves that'll help you gain the skills to do as many push-ups as you want.
Now, if you've never ever tried to do a push-up before, try doing a plank first. Place your hands a tiny bit further than shoulder width apart and hold yourself in the position of the top of a push-up. Keep your body in a straight line from your heels to your head, not letting your butt stick up, your hips dip down, or your head to hang. Squeeze your butt and your abs. This will help you hold the position and trains the muscles in both areas. Hold this position for almost as long as you can go, then rest for a few seconds before doing it again. The goal is to be able to hold yourself up for about thirty seconds before you move up to the next step.
The next step is shoulder taps. Shoulder taps challenge your abs and glutes to keep your hips still, all while building stability in the shoulders as your hands leave the ground. The position for shoulder taps is the same as for a plank – the top of a push-up – but with your feet slightly further apart. To do a shoulder tap, again, squeeze your abs and your butt, don't let your head or hips tilt up or down. Then, lift each hand to lightly tap just above the shoulder of the opposite arm. Only lift one arm at a time. And as you lift with one hand, you want to press down, through the floor, with the opposite hand in order to maintain your balance and solid position.
When you feel comfortable with shoulder taps, you can move on to elevated push-ups. Simply put, an elevated push up is when you do a regular push-up, but your hands are on an elevated surface. This takes some of the pressure off when doing a regular push-up and allows you to go through the full range of motion. As you lower yourself toward whatever elevated surface you've chosen, imagine pulling yourself down chest-first using your shoulder blades. Again, don't let your head or hips move up, down, or side to side.
Now, as you get stronger, you can put your hands on something closer and closer to the ground, until you're doing pushups on the floor just like in all of those exercise videos you probably watch. You can also do these moves in reverse, moving from one to the next whenever you start to tire so that the intensity level lessens and you can keep going, even beyond what you thought you could. I'll make another video going into more advanced moves you can do once you've got the basic push-up mastered, maybe sometime next week.
Remember the three P's: Perseverance, Persistence, and Practice. You can do anything you set your mind to. If you fail, try again, try harder, try better. Nothing is achieved in a day, but anything can be achieved. Trust me. And if you think no one is on your side, remember that you have me. Message me any questions or comments, any feedback or concerns, and I'll answer you as best I can.
Good luck out there cadets!"
PilotKogane
I guess I really needed to hear that last part today. Thanks, Shiro.
TheOppositeofAmnesia
Is everything okay? Do you need anything?
PilotKogane
Nothing's wrong. I just needed the encouragement.
Source: TheOppositeofAmnesia
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Keith stared at the screen for what seemed to be hours but was mere seconds. Shiro. Shiro had- Keith had a follower. Keith had a follower because Shiro had followed him. What had he done that got Shiro to follow him now, rather than when Keith was liking almost all his posts, or when Keith learned tags brought in followers?
Now he had one. Just one. Just Shiro. Still, it felt like a giant step for Keith, like something monumental had happened.
He copied the notification and pasted it in a new text post dialogue box, added a comment, and sent. Which, obviously, led to a reply.
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PilotKogane [reblogged] TheOppositeofAmensia
TheOppositeofAmnesia is now following you.
I really appreciate it. Thanks. You're my first ever follower.
TheOppositeofAmnesia
You deserve all the followers in the world. I've looked at your blog: quality stuff. Also, now we're mutuals!
PilotKogane
A lot of that stuff is yours. But I started on Tumblr only a little while ago and I'm still figuring it out. What's a mutual?
Source: PilotKogane #shiro #followers
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PilotKogane [reblogged] savethefood_savetheworld
SIRLancelot3000
It really rankles, it really sucks, it really blows ass when you work really hard and then SOMEONE ELSE gets the prize first.
[GIF of Stuart Twombly rolling his head down looking annoyed and vaguely murderous]
I've been on this site two YEARS longer than SOME PEOPLE. I've been following one specific blog almost that entire time. I've sent asks, I've reblogged posts, I've liked posts, I've submitted stuff. But some noob who joined like a month ago just got a mutual before me? What. The. Literal. Fuck.
[GIF of Griffin O'Conner giving the middle finger to the camera then riding off into a desert on an ATV]
P1dg3N4t10n
1) You're overreacting. It's just a mutual, not a marriage. 2) Careful, you're crush is showing.
Savethefood_savetheworld
What are you talking about Lance? Who followed who? What blog?
PilotKogane
[GIF of Brendon Urie looking to the left, then to the camera, and smirking]
Source: SIRLancelot3000
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To be honest, Keith didn't know if SIRLancelot3000 was talking about the fact that Shiro followed Keith. He'd checked the original post and none of the tags had specified. Neither Pidge nor Hunk had reblogged it with anything identifying. But Lancelot's post had been made shortly after Shiro had reblogged Keith's post about Shiro following him, there was a lot of TheOppositeofAmnesia content on his blog, and he'd used the word 'mutual.' There was something, his instincts perhaps, that told Keith that he was the 'noob' who had beaten him.
Responding to the post had also been a great chance for Keith to learn how to use GIFs. He'd been trying to think of how to best respond, how to textually but quietly boast, when he'd taken note of the little plus sign to the side of the reblog box. He'd clicked it before but had not wanted to include a picture or video, didn't need a horizontal line, didn't understand what 'Read More' was, and was confused about the whole GIF thing. But Lancelot used lots of GIFs in his posts, so perhaps using a GIF in response was the best option.
He'd typed 'smirk' into the search bar and clicked on the first one that appealed to him. It was a little dark, but that was part of why he liked it.
Keith didn't have time after reblogging the post to worry that he'd misinterpreted who Lancelot was angry at. Within an hour, there was a notification on his dashboard that SIRLancelot3000 had reblogged his post and added-
Well, Keith didn't know Spanish, but he could assume from the English included that Lancelot was using Spanish curse words to try and get back at Keith, as if the use of the second language made him more credible. He also included the GIF from SNL that said "HOW DARE YOU?" again.
That seemed like proof enough that Keith had been right. It also made Keith chuckle and hit the heart at the top of the post on Lancelot's blog. He wondered if liking the post would get the same reaction as reblogging it had.
He kind of liked interacting with people on Tumblr. Shiro was supportive and nice, and the others made him laugh, especially Lancelot, who was very dramatic. And if someone didn't like him or he didn't want to talk to them, he could just ignore them, walk away from the computer. Joining Tumblr was turning out to be a good decision, Keith thought.
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Keith was floored the following morning when he logged into tumblr just because and found three new follower notifications.
P1dg3N4t10n is now following you.
Savethefood_savetheworld is now following you.
SIRLancelot3000 is now following you.
He was even more surprised to see the little envelope at the top of the screen had three new messages as well.
P1dg3N4t10n said: Please continue to annoy the shit out of Lance. I haven't laughed that hard in probably weeks. ;D
savethefood_savetheworld said: I've seen you pop up in my notifications recently. You seem really cool. Glad to be mutuals!
Keith wanted to respond, but he couldn't think of anything to say other than 'Same here.' Lance's scathing response to Keith's smirking GIF had made him chuckle quietly to himself, alone in his home. Hunk seemed pretty cool too and Keith was happy to have more followers. But that didn't seem like enough to respond with, so he instead left the messages alone in the inbox. He felt bad for not responding, but just like in life, he would rather stay silent than say the wrong thing.
What he did do was greet them, though it still left him feeling like maybe he'd done something wrong – as if he would be judged for not trying hard enough, for doing what might be seen as the bare minimum. He hoped he got the hang of internet interactions soon.
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PilotKogane
Thanks to P1dg3N4t10n and savethefood_savetheworld for the follow.
#followers
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He did respond to the third message though. He couldn't help it. And then, of course, Lancelot couldn't help but respond. Even though Keith needed to get ready for work, Lancelot was apparently online and instead, they spent several minutes in a rapid fire back and forth conversation. Keith even tried out giving Lancelot his own special tag.
SIRLancelot3000 [reblogged] PilotKogane
Don't think this means I like you
- SIRLancelot3000
PilotKogane
The idea never crossed my mind.
SIRLancelot3000
#silly boy with a stick ?!
Better a silly boy with a stick than a pretty boy with a flower! !#T!
[GIF of Philip Anderson flailing against a wall covered in papers, then starting to fall to the floor, tearing papers down with him as he goes]
PilotKogane
Better to be pretty than silly.
SIRLancelot3000
You're FACE IS PRETTY
PilotKogane
You keep saying I'm pretty. You don't even know what I look like. And you used the wrong 'your.'
SIRLancelot3000
[GIF of J.D. looking pained and gesturing at Keith, from Scrubs, reads "It's like you're begging me to hate you"]
Source: PilotKogane #pretty boy with a flower
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Pidge and Hunk both liked the post, as did Keith. He was surprised to find a smile stuck on his face, one that stayed in place for a long time after Keith had left for work.
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tbc...
