Pump it up (Jim)

[jim]

Jim grimaced widely as he pushed up slowly. Only after he had finished the set and re-racked the weight did he sit up to ask his question. He flexed his fingers and shook out his arms while he thought how to phrase his words. "Well... I guess I just figure since you're going to be a knight and all...what's the deal with ladies?"

He paused and realized he hadn't done a very good job of choosing his words. "Umm. I don't mean just women. I mean. What's the difference between a lady and a um, ordinary woman? Not that I mean to disrespect normal women, I'm just not sure I really get the whole thing where you treat a woman like lady or not. How do you know? What - what's the deal? Why do ladies get treated better?"

[Deleted]

"Well technically speaking, a lady is a woman of noble birth." Lance pointed out, but it was clear that he had more to say on the subject. "But I don't think it matters either way, I think you should always treat a woman like a lady, they don't deserve and more or less respect just because of their birth."

It worked in theory of course, and in his head Lance was a perfect gentleman, but he tended to find that he was so awkward around women that it never quite worked out like that, and he didn't really get a chance to be particularly chivalrous towards a woman because he was too busy trying to make amends for the mistakes he already made.

[jim]

Jim nodded thoughtfully and took a long drink from his water bottle. "I see," he said. "I guess that makes sense. How- how are you supposed to know if a woman is a lady or not? They should wear hats... or something. But you're right - I guess they should all be treated the same. " He shrugged, set the bottle down, and moved back to the bench, laying down then sliding back under the bar. He performed the next set in silence, pushing stoically upwards while he thought about the idea.

When he racked the weight again, he had another question. "But - how are we supposed to treat women anyway? From what I've seen more than half of them will take your head off for opening a door for them." Shaking his head, he remembered his old friend Captain Amelia. She had been tough as nails. Certainly she didn't need a man, she could hold her own.

Wait, who was Captain Amelia? The name he knew, and he could hear her commanding voice ringing sharply in his head, but he couldn't put a face or a place to the person he knew he remembered. He growled in frustration and slid another ten pounds onto each side of the barbell.

[Deleted]

Lance just shrugged, he had to admit it was a bit tricky. Well, it was tricky here at Tintagel anyway, he supposed at home it was easy enough to tell the ladies because of how they were dressed, but here they all seemed to dress the same regardless of rank.

The next question made him shrug again. Technically he knew the answer, but, well...
"I'm probably not the best person to ask," he admitted "I know all the normal stuff about chivalry and that, but it never seems to go the way I plan... women are so hard to figure out."
He wished he could just blame it all on the women, but he knew his own ineptitude was to blame more often than not.