'Feeling the burn,` was a proverb that the AI had struggled to understand for the longest of times. Used throughout the world to explain the feeling of tired muscles. It was the feeling of over-using muscle groups to an extent that they have not adapted to.
The AI fully understood the context behind the feeling. He knew how the process in it worked, why the brain processed it in such a way, and what happened in the hours after the initial sensational blast. In every form other than feeling the actual feeling, Adam knew nearly all that there was to know about it.
Yet he had not truly trusted this information. 'Feeling the burn,` hinted at a burning feeling. Hotness, normally described as being in an intensely hot climate or being blasted dry by the sun itself. Not directly painful but most definitely unignorable.
Warmth to the level where it should hurt, but being nothing more than noticeable. Adam had not been able to comprehend the description fully, otherwise, he would not have been asking himself these questions. Was he the one misunderstanding information or was it a trait only the human mind could fully comprehend? The AI believed itself to have felt everything that Troy felt, down to the most minor of details. But… how did he know that they were feeling the same thing? Could the sensations that he related to specific stimuli be the same as the one Troy had?
It was like the colour principle that the people of old had so readily discussed. Almost every person knew of the colour red. They knew how it looked. When asked to pick the colour out from a synthetic rainbow, there would be no problems with it. But did that mean that every person saw the same colour? One person's red could be another's green, yet both would call the colours the same thing, for that was what they had been taught as children. Neither would suffer problems, but neither could truly know if they were seeing the same thing. If it had not been disproven long ago, Adam would have pointed to this as to why fashion was so constantly changing.
The point was that if the sensations were different, there was no reason for them to synergize as they had with humans. The AI was an artificial construct, built upon the technology that had little to no relation to the human mind. Expecting the same things to be felt in the exact same way was illogical if not outright unprofessional.
With the information he had been supplied with, there was much about the so-called burn that was felt during intensive workouts. Though the precise placement of when this feeling would spread out was not stated anywhere, Adam was relatively sure that it should have been felt by then. This was not due to the sore state that Troy had been in for fifty minutes at that point, being driven to his utmost. It had been due to a simple question that had been asked throughout the ordeal until the current point.
“Are you feeling the burn, my little torture victim?” Charlie would ask every ten minutes on the clock. There would be a warm smile accompanying it each time. With the metallic surfaces around the fitness room, Adam had been able to see the older man's face constantly.
“Not yet,” had been the customary answer by Troy. The AI had not been able to understand why the younger man would answer as such. There was no point to it. Before the training had started in earnest, while Zep was still completing the last of her ab work-out, Charlie had given Troy the run-down of what he would be doing. It was not the most complete of run-downs, being mostly focused on the cries of pain which would be heard to anybody near, but it had been mentioned that the first part would be a warm-up of sorts.
Letting the body get ready for intensive performance-based training was a must. Without formal preparation, the risk of injury increased both in the short- and long term. That Charlie had instructed such warm-ups to be the first step into a better lifestyle was fully supported by the AI, not that such information had been shared. Adam himself knew about his agreement to the statement was enough to satisfy him.
It was here that the first clue-in to what 'feeling the burn` had the potential to mean. As Charlie had asked if Troy felt the aforementioned burn during the latter’s warm-up, was it not logical to assume that being warmed up meant that one was feeling the burn? As Troy had normally answered in the negative to this question, Adam had assumed that the burning sensation that was so popular had simply not been felt yet, due to the body not yet being warmed up by a justifiable amount.
That excuse had quickly been removed from the realm of potentials however when Troy had decided to change his answer. There was no reason to be angry at the man for doing so, nevertheless, as it was Charlie who had started it.
“It's been an hour now, Troy. Are you feeling warmed up yet?” Charlie asked, looking quite amused at the persistence.
“As I can still stand without shaking feet, I don't so, no,” Troy answered, going back down on his stomach to continue the bodyweight exercises. As the eyes were firmly planted to the floor, so as to prevent unnecessary damage to the neck, Adam was only able to observe the slight repositioning of Charlie’s feet.
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“You do realise this is only the warm-up, right? If you fall while on your feet now, we’ll only be able to do upper body exercises,” Zep said from the back. The woman had continued training, not wanting to spend time in the gym staring at other people training. A mindset that Adam could certainly get behind, not seeing the point why Charlie was not imitating her. Troy was acquainted with the body-exercises being used, and such training-methods provided much more safety than training with weights or machines.
While the two other people in the room might not have been able to see Troy’s facial expressions, this did not stop Adam from understanding them in full. While the AI was unsure of what specific reasons had caused it, the young man had severely misunderstood what he was supposed to be doing.
“Could you say that first part again, Zep? I think my ears are being clogged by my sweat or something,” Troy asked, simultaneously trying to find an excuse for his poor mental judgement an hour earlier. Such actions showed another trait that humans had trained themselves to do perfectly, to such an extent that there would be near to no chance of failing. This action was commonly known as fooling themselves into thinking that it wasn't them who messed up.
“This is the bloody warm-up, you deaf punk!” Zep shouted right back in response, causing Troy to temporarily loosen his neck so he could look even closer to the ground. The only real countermeasure to the trait of not blaming oneself for actions performed by oneself is to to be told off by another. While such actions may have to be taken to the extreme to take effect, it was only in rare cases that any other cures had been found. Shifting the blame was a problem that would always follow the human population, no matter how much they wanted to deny it.
“Troy… “ Charlie said from the side. Not being able to see the man still, the AI was unsure if the grin had grown wider or not. Yet from the tone, it was obvious that a change had occurred. “Are you warmed up? Feeling the blood boiling yet? Maybe I should ask in another commonly used way to ask the same question. Are you feeling the burn yet?”
If not for the physical impossibility of it, Adam would have described Troy's face as in having an immediate loss of blood. Then again… impossible things were only deemed as such, due to no person yet having figured out a person to do it. Magic was only magic as long as it went unexplained.
“I do believe I am, actually,” Troy timidly answered, getting up from the lying position. The legs shook slightly, but Adam doubted that it was due to any muscle stress. While there was some heaviness felt, it was not near enough to cause any problems yet.
“All limbed up, and ready to do actual training?” Charlie questioned, digging deeper into the psyche.
“Ye-yes!” Troy answered, the back standing a bit more upright than usual. The AI appreciated the gesture, even if it was not intended for him. Proper blood flow let the body move more effectively, which further equalled better results for him at the end. “Was everything before this not-”
“No,” Charlie stated, not letting Troy finish his question. “Nothing you have done in the last hour is anything we have scheduled for today. You can just note it down in your little calendar as… extra work? Yeah, that should be vague enough for you not to get too many nightmares.”
Stating that it should not cause too many nightmares was nightmare material in of itself. But, that was likely Charlie’s intention, and it was working perfectly. The fight or flight instinct was visibly being impacted into Troy’s body, shoving adrenaline down his throat. It was an outdated method, causing fear instead of anger, but the performance increment increases coming from it was nothing strut at.
“Now!” Charlie said, clapping his hands together loudly once. The sound made Troy twitch, the heart-rate increasing for a moment. “Are you ready to start, my dear friend?”
“Haven't we started already?” Troy asked, clearly trying to delay for time. That couldn't do, and it was not only the AI that had these thoughts.
“Warm-ups don't count! I just said that” Charlie instantly refuted. “And for such a dumb question, I am answering for you. And your answer is a big fat yes, with doughnut sprinkles on top!”
Charlie gave Troy a good slap on the shoulder, before moving forward with the younger one in tow. Meanwhile, this was going on, the AI was working on a more important conundrum, one that was causing much frustration. It was the problem that he had been working on for over an hour now and was still not fully understanding.
'Feeling the burn.` Such a simple phrase of words, being nothing more than a common dent in the human knowledge bank. Many had heard it before, and many had not felt the burn themselves. Yet upon the first feeling of it, they could pinpoint exactly what it felt like, and be able to say it the next time as well. The pre-known knowledge had not stated an exact stage, where this feeling would become obvious, where every person could distinctly feel that exact feeling from their bodies.
This could be slapped with the excuse of all people being different, their bodies may look identical but each had an original part to them. Mutations always appearred, changing the body’s response to many things. Putting a timer on certain reactions with all humans would be near impossible when it was constructed to such a tight concept.
But the AI had different ideas of what the reason could be. A reason that would not cause many questions to appear, nor would it be radical in its framework. A balanced concept, which Adam had thought of after many tries rethinking the problem over and over again.
What if it wasn't the same thing being felt? The human mind was great at many things. Not all of them were positive. Making itself believe a falsehood out of sheer will was not out of its repertoire.
With no real idea of what the feeling should be like, only having heard of the so-called burning sensation, would there not be many things which could be associated with it? Burning out of energy, not having any strength to go on, would be a reasonable assumption of the feeling. Completely sore muscles could be another, in the case of Troy. And It could be a hundred other things, just as possible as the last.
For that was the great thing about feelings. It was all subjective.
“Do you want your back destroyed first, or should we start with the chest?” Charlie innocently asked.
“Please kill me now,” Troy requested, sounding more dead than a rotten fish.
“Where would the fun be in that?” Charlie stated, not expecting an answer. “Oh, look at that! A stress-modulated lifting bench. With this one, it will automatically but your muscles at the optimal stress-point without doing any long-term damage. I don't use it because it's really tiring, but I am sure you will find great pleasure with it!”
However much feeling may have been in the beholder, Adam found some strange amusement in seeing Troy struggle around. Further investigation was needed.