#today I put together a bike machine for under my desk and felt very productive

[jenevas]

assembling furniture is like Lego for butches

[writehardwhumpharder]

Suits fic.

So this ended up pretty long, I got a little carried away. I’m not even sure if tumblr will let me post it. I hope you guys like suits as much as I do. Prompt: Okay can I see, like, early Mike just started working at the firm and he's trying to keep up with Harvey's almost non-stop schedule and ends up sick but tries to keep going? Cue "annoyed" (but actually worried) Harvey?

Mike eyed himself in the mirror subconsciously wearing his too-cheap suit, and too-skinny tie. His first couple days had gone well enough, but now he knew what was expected of him and boy was he out of his depth. Sure he could recite the Harvard law book by memory, but that didn’t help much with all the little nuanced details each draft needed. He slipped his files into his bag and slung it over his shoulder then grabbed his bike to lug down the stairs over his head.

By the time he reached the Pearson Hardman building his heart was racing, and not from the 3 miles he just biked through traffic. What the actual hell did I get myself into? he wondered. Mike had made sure to get to the office 40 minutes early in hopes that he’d have time to review the files Louis requested to be done by this morning, but when he got to the office every other associate was already at their cubicles. Only the senior partners weren’t there yet and even they got there a fashionable 15 minutes early. Mike had hardly sat down when Donna came bustling past the cubicles.

“Harvey wants these by lunch but if you’re pressed for time, do this one first. He needs it for a client meeting at 1:15pm which you should attend by the way.” She was gone before he could say good morning. She winked at him as she walked away, making him feel a little better about the cut and dry work of a major law firm. Thank god Louis had taken one good look at him and deemed him capable of only the simplest of cases. He meant it as an insult but on a day like this, he took it with a genuine smile. Before getting buried in his work, Mike opted to take a quick trip to the coffee machine, knowing that for the next few hours he’d be glued to his work station.

The morning went by quickly but Mike managed to finish the file Harvey needed and the easy cases Louis gave him. Despite a few things he had to do for Harvey, he was pretty proud of what he’d been able to finish. It was 1pm the next time Mike looked up from his work, almost time to go meet Harvey. Reading the small print for hours on end was starting to make his eyes sore so Mike was grateful for a short break from it, even if it is just to talk to a client. Mike rubbed his eyes as he crossed the room holding the stack of papers he had prepared. Harvey emerged from his office and wasted no time flipping through the papers.

“Um, good morning. Or afternoon…” Mike mumbled.

“Yeah okay, these are fine but they could be a little cleaner.” Harvey commented, clearly distracted. Mike felt his shoulders sag in mild defeat. For his first week of work “fine” was pretty damn good, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was slaving over files only to stay invisible. Harvey looked up long enough to read his associate’s face. “You know you’re doing really well competing against a bunch of people who actually went to law school.” Harvey teased in a low voice so no one might overhear them. Mike trailed after him towards the conference room already rehearsing in his head what he would say to the client if he had to speak.

Turns out he didn’t. Harvey introduced them both and Mike shook the man’s hand but apart from that he was mostly there to observe and supply information. Mike would hand Harvey a paper with the most important details highlighted every so often as they discussed legal concerns over a faulty product.

“Don’t worry Dave, we’ll stay on top of this. We’ll find a way to cover this long before anyone can file against your company. It’s not my area of expertise but I would suggest issuing a press release with this information as soon as possible.” Harvey said, handing the man a summary of what their plan was in simpler terms. Mike flexed his aching fingers under the table, trying to rub away hours or rather days of hard work. As much of a relief as it was to be able to sit for 30 mins and do next to nothing, he caught himself glancing at his watch multiple times, anxious about every second he didn’t spend working.

After the meeting, Mike dropped off Louis’s files and got to work on the other things Harvey had left him. These would take some research, great, off to the file room it is then. He gathered his things and sat on the floor, scanning through bins of information. If his eyes didn’t hurt before they certainly did now. Words were starting to blur together and he kept sagging more and more out of tiredness until he was basically laying on the ground, propped up on his elbows just enough to be able to read the paper.

—-

At first he wasn’t sure what woke him, a sharp knock, maybe someone was calling his name? He blinked slowly and looked up to see Rachel staring down at him disapprovingly.

“Odd time for a nap don’t you think?” she said.

“Oh my god, Rachel, what time is it?” Mike asked suddenly alert.

“Almost 4pm.”

“Shit, shit, shit. Harvey wants these by the end of the day.” Mike stammered combing through the files to see just how much trouble he was in. If Harvey stayed late today he had a chance of finishing them but he probably had more work for him to do by now anyway. Rachel gave him a sympathetic look.

“Fine,” she huffed, “I’ll help you.” Mike grouped up the documents for her, pairing the papers he was going to use to prove precedent to the sloppy drafts he’d started. Luckily for him she didn’t comment on how bad they were and got to work on rewriting them entirely. Having her there was a welcome distraction to how run down he was. He crossed his fingers hoping that these hellish past few days were some kind of trial by fire and things would settle down soon.

“Okay, these two are done. But that’s all I can help with. You better hurry if you want to catch Harvey on his way out.”

“Mhmm.” Mike responded without looking up, “thank you for the help.” Rachel paused by the door.

“Don’t get used to it.” She said in a tone that was both serious and lighthearted. When Mike finished a few minutes later and leapt to his feet to go find Harvey, he found that both his legs had fallen asleep and fell rather ungracefully back down to the floor. He banged his elbow on the shelf on his way down.

“God damn it.” Mike cursed to himself before trying again, much more successful this time. Harvey’s office was empty but it was just past 5pm so with any luck he’d still be in the lobby. Mike took the stairs for lack of time and scrambled down each floor to the building’s main lobby. Despite going downhill the trip sapped up a surprising amount of energy and he was left panting, one hand leaning on the wall before exiting the stairwell.

Yes! Harvey was still here, he probably only stopped to flirt with the receptionist.

“Ha- Harvey.” he said still a little out of breath, “I’ve got those files you wanted.” Mike said. Harvey took them and shoved them in his briefcase, only to pull out an equally large stack for him.

“Thanks Mike, I was going to give these to you earlier but Donna said you weren’t at your cubicle. I need these by 9am at the latest. And do get some sleep Mike, you look like shit, and we have court tomorrow.” Harvey replied. Mike had completely forgotten about their hearing tomorrow. He ran a hand through his messed up hair and straightened his tie in an attempt to look more professional.

“Sure, Harvey, no problem.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Harvey said before taking off, leaving Mike standing stupidly by the receptionist’s desk. He offered the girl a sheepish smile before heading back up to the office to grab his things in addition to the new assignments Harvey just gave him, this time taking the elevator.

—-

When Mike’s alarm dragged him out of a restless sleep he felt.. bad. Not in any particular way, just bad. And he had a feeling this was the kind of tired coffee couldn’t fix. He’d been up all night, getting only about 2 hours of sleep, which on second thought was more like a glorified nap. After a few more minutes of sulking Mike dragged himself out of bed, hoping a cold shower could perk him up. He grabbed a dull, dark grey suit from his closet and a crisp white shirt, he had to be in court later so now wasn’t the time to be taking fashion risks. He picked up the navy blue tie his grandma got for him when she heard about his fancy new job. The thought put him a little more at ease despite the worsening headache he had. Mike took one glance at his bike on his way out before deciding to just take a taxi. He’d probably puke his guts out trying to bike to work when he felt so crappy.

Mike threw a $20 at the taxi driver before jogging up to the building, he hadn’t planned for the extra time he’d spent stuck in traffic so now he was borderline late. It was clear Harvey was in no mood to deal with his associates lateness. He tried to go easy on the kid but with his schedule, lightening his workload just wasn’t an option. Jessica was already skeptical of his choice so when Mike showed up to his office looking pale and sweaty he had his lecture already planned out, for appearances at the very least.

“Shut the door, Mike.” Harvey said in a clipped voice. “Want to tell me why you’re 15 minutes late and look like you just ran a marathon?” Mike adjusted his tie subconsciously.

“I rode my bike, it’s pretty warm out today.” Mike lied. Harvey was tempted to make a remark about how if he can’t afford a taxi maybe he doesn’t belong here but he knew better. Mike didn’t belong there, and that’s exactly why he chose him.

“Sorry Harvey, I’ve been working really hard to finish these and it’s still before 9am, I- I hope that’s okay.” Mike said. Harvey sighed visibly, looking reminiscent of a disappointed father.

“It’s fine, Mike. Just plan better next time. Be back here in twenty minutes, Ray will drive us to the courthouse and for the love of god, do something to make yourself presentable.”

Mike took that as his cue to leave. At first he headed towards his cubicle but a sinking feeling in his stomach had him walking towards the bathrooms instead. He almost felt hungover, the ache spreading through his body from lack of sleep gave him the distinct feeling of being poisoned. Mike barely managed to keep his composure until he got to the men’s room where he ran the last few feet and collapsed on his knees in front of the toilet. He dry-heaved for a moment, using his brief second of relief to lock the stall door behind him. This time he actually brought up the small bit of breakfast he had. It’s just nerves right? Mike rationalized to himself. He just had to get it together. He didn’t want Harvey to regret hiring him, after all he did try to fire him once already.

As soon as Mike was confident that he was done, he exited the stall and made for the mirror to “make himself presentable” per Harvey’s request. Though Mike had to agree with him, his skin was a dull almost greyish color, which his glistening layer of sweat only helped make more visible. His cheeks were flushed a sickly pink. There wasn’t much he could do besides take a few deep breaths and splash some cold water in his face.

When he met back up with Harvey, he looked and felt worse than he did when he came in.

“Mike I thought I told you to do something about-“ he made a vague gesture to Mike, “that.” Harvey scolded, though Mike thought he detected the slightest hint of concern.

“I did…” Mike said, lacking the energy to make a better argument for himself.

“You know that? Why don’t you sit this one out. It’s not that important, I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff for you to do here.” Harvey said. This was his chance to back out, but Mike was too stubborn to quit just like that.

“No, I’m fine. I want to go, really,” he insisted. Harvey gave him a disbelieving look but he didn’t have time to argue with the kid.

“Fine, let’s go. Ray is waiting outside.” Harvey grabbed his briefcase and walked ahead, leaving Mike to try to keep up with him. He couldn’t help but notice the way his associate leaned heavily against the elevator wall, lacking the youthful energy he always had. He should have his earbuds in right now, listening to some ridiculous playlist to psych himself up. The doors opened before he had a chance to comment on it.

Mike felt truly awful at this point. He was starting to doubt whether or not he’d make it through the hearing. As long as he could stay sitting, everything would be fine. He all but fell into the seat next to Harvey and lazily reached up to grab his seatbelt. Harvey saw his minor struggle and opted to just grab the seatbelt and click it for him.

“Get it together, Mike. I’m serious. ‘Cause if you can’t, I’ll have Ray drop you off at home.” Harvey said.

“No!” Mike whined, “I’ve got it.” he said. They continued the rest of the ride in silence, luckily the courthouse wasn’t very far away.

Harvey strode into the courtroom with his usual confidence and grace. Mike on the other hand stumbled a bit, gripping the edges of the rows of chairs to steady himself. No turning back now. It was a simple case, all they were doing was filing a motion to allow them access to a rival companies records, but you could hardly call any case of Harvey’s simple. He was representing some of the wealthiest businessmen in New York. They quickly took their seats and waited for the judge. Mike could practically feel the sweat seeping through his shirt, he was uncomfortably hot now and the nausea was coming back despite his stomach being completely empty from earlier. He stared down at the desk in front of him and tried to focus on breathing.

“Are you okay?” Harvey asked, no longer trying to hide his concern. Mike just nodded in response, not trusting himself to open his mouth. He started shaking his leg impatiently until Harvey told him to knock it off.

“All rise.” A woman said as the judge entered. Mike forced himself to stand but he kept his hands firmly planted on the table. Harvey walked up to the stand and started talking. Okay Mike, just relax, everything is gonna fine, you’re- oh god. The dizziness was pressing in on him from all directions and his vision started to tunnel. He looked up to watch Harvey, though he couldn’t hear much of anything. He pressed a hand to his stomach and closed his eyes as the dizziness and fatigue made his stomach churn. He was pretty sure he was dangerously dehydrated at this point as well since he’s been running on coffee the last few days. Without Harvey next to him to stop him, he started tapping his foot again and used his other hand to rest his head. Mike knew how he must look but nothing could distract him from of primary goal of not throwing up right there in the middle of the courtroom. Harvey kept looking back to him anxiously but couldn’t disrespect the judge by interrupting him to go check on Mike. Turns out, he didn’t have to. Mike swayed slightly in his chair, his head was too foggy to know up from down and before he knew it he was sliding towards the floor, helpless to stop it.

Harvey heard a thud and whipped his head around to see Mike in the floor, struggling to get on his knees.

“Mike!” he called out to him. He knew he should have sent him home, but Mike was trying so hard to impress him he worked himself to his absolute breaking point. “What’s going on?” He asked, trying to sound calm as he moved the chairs out of the way so he could get to him.

“I- I’m fine.” Mike muttered weakly.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Harvey said as he grabbed Mike and hauled him to his feet. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

“But… but the case.”

“Already taken care of.” Harvey said. Which turned out to be true when the judge’s assistant ran up to them with the signed documents on their way out.

“Feel better.” she smiled. If Mike wasn’t so out of it he would be absolutely mortified right now. The last thing he remembered before drifting to sleep was Harvey helping him up the stairs to his apartment, taking off his jacket and shoes before letting Mike sleep this off. Despite how terribly the day had gone, Harvey knew he made the right choice.

[viropaulski-blog]

WHAT IS VIRO MOVE

Viro Move is one of the VR Fitness products from the team at FitReality.

This particular product is a free roaming game. As gamers and developers, we all tend to spend a lot of our lives sitting in front of our beloved gaming machines, when you work and play in the same area it’s obvious you’re not going to move very much. And so our challenge was simple, how we can use VR to help gamers to move more. As we progressed with the idea of moving gamers we realized our game was beginning to feel like a real workout. Meaning we were really beginning to sweat and feel the burn as we tested our early levels.

So we invited fitness experts into the development process to help us to mimic actual aerobics workouts, instantly we found that by stretching gameplay to the very edge we were now able to maneuver players to move around the game zone. Suddenly we had a game idea that was both engaging and healthy, and with that eureka moment Viro was born. So in a way Viro Move is our most important product of all because this is the one product which we built as gamers for gamers.

If you know our industry you will know that pitching a VR fitness game to the VR community is no easy feat. You guys know how the best VR games should look and feel, from a development sense exposing our game to the community will help us gather the right type of feedback to ensure Viro Move is the absolute best it can be.

As gamers -this is our baby. For the whole team, this will be a lifetime dream realized. We have been extra critical of every element of the game, even the tiniest details have had long late-night debates in the office. We debate and argue a lot because as gamers, we want other gamers to love the game as much as we do.

So VIRO MOVE is a free-roaming full body workout VR  game. If you are a VR gamer, you will know the BEAT SABER concept. And it will make sense if I tell you VIRO MOVE is a bit like BEAT SABER – but on steroids. For those of you who don’t know BeatSaber, I say – “OMG why not!”

BeatSabre – you have our deepest respect!

It is an amazing game that allows players to slice boxes to the beat of the soundtrack. The gaming community went wild for the gameplay. From a developer’s perspective, this game helped to propel the VR gaming community forward, faster and wider than almost all others in our industry.

Fans of that game will be happy to hear that our game has all the same wonderful game mechanics. Custom beat mapped music and that highly addictive sword slashing gameplay which amazed Jimmy Fallon and the entire VR gaming community.

In VIRO MOVE we also incorporated other game mechanics such as boxing, shooting, stretching, in-game weapons changing. Additionally, all of our levels are based on the movements from actual fitness routines. Our level designers worked with personal trainers and physiotherapists to create full body in-game movements that mimic fitness routines across multiple cardio workouts.

We began by green-screening our designers performing specific aerobics movements and then moved on to mapping specific movements from weapons training all the way to shadow boxing. For example, during a sword fight, you will complete Zumba, aerobics, dance and Kenjutsu movements without ever really knowing -You are very welcome.

*Our level designer Pawel, building lunges into his swordplay.

We designed the in-game immersive elements with an insanely high level of graphical environments along with the widest choice of intricately detailed weapons, obstacles, and environments.

Personally, I’ve played dozens of VR games, so it is difficult to shock me. However, when I first immersed myself into a Viro environment – things were moving in the background, birds were flying, the grass was blowing all around me. I mean, the guys didn’t have to make the random things in the background move for this game to be amazing, we could have had success with a much simpler environment. But the team believed the immersive experience is equally as important as the fitness routines, and honestly – it is.

Our developers pretty much incorporated every VR fitness mechanic that’s been proven to move virtual man, even invented a few new ones -and all that before the design team went back again to polish the tiniest detail. Then -and only then, they found ways to make those perfectly textured tiny details in the background move with the wind, the experience is unbelievable.

VIRO MOVE FITNESS AND WEAPONS TRAINING

Our game has incorporated boxing gloves, swords and guns as weapons to help players feel fully immersed in the gameplay. These weapons also help us to deliver training movements specific to each fighting style. I can honestly say – as an aspiring graphic designer, watching our artists drop highly detailed weapon skins every week, truly is a thing of beauty.

I’m not just blowing our trumpet here -at least, not much I hope. But I am in awe every time I see a new weapon appear. I mean, how could you not be? The weapons look so realistic, I’m super excited anytime one of the designers mails me a video flyover of his new weapon, the level of detail is inspiring. It’s hard to imagine it’s something that has been squeezed out of his head and onto a computer screen.

VIRO GUN TRAINING

I sometimes sit at my desk and zoom in on random weapons just to see the detail and effort that has been crafted into designing them.

When it comes to VIRO MOVE guns, I am the office nerd -even though when it comes to gun training, I am without question the worst player in the team. But I don’t care, Viro Move guns are my all-time favorite weapons. Our team has painstakingly crafted so many tiny details into each gun. Whenever a new gun drops I plan a good twenty or thirty minutes on photoshop – just to zoom in on a macro level so I check out the little things.

I’m not sure when I became a virtual gun nerd, but I am pretty sure it happened sometime during the last few months.

SWORD TRAINING

If you have never trained with swords, you have never lived. Holding a pair of swords on a mountain top feels nothing short of spectacular.

Now, this is my thing, training with swords is the highlight of my day. If you believe in past lives -as I now do, you will understand when I say “I’m pretty sure I was a secret Ninja in a past life”.

I just can’t get enough of VIRO’s sword training, I can train for thirty minutes alone with swords and although I am a sweaty train wreck at the end, I’m smiling all the way through.  And I honestly can’t describe it, it’s the simple things that inspire me. Like the feeling, I get by tipping two ends of the swords together before the game begins. The touch creates a vibration from the controllers in the form of a delicate sense of resistance, and happens anytime the glowing blade tips touch each other, as it would in real life, clearly! The feeling is just awesome.

BOXING TRAINING

No detail was spared. If you look closely you can see our designers even allowed for leather wear above the knuckles of this skin.

As a young man in my non-virtual life, I trained for some time to be a boxer. As it turned out I was a better Ninja than a boxer, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t relish the opportunity to use my experience and skills to get critical with our boxing level designers. Indeed, I felt this was my real opportunity to position myself as the team expert, and boy I was so very wrong.

Let me start by saying, I don’t think any of our guys have had real-life boxing training as I did. But they have worked tirelessly with professional trainers to build routines that simulate jabs, crosses, uppercuts and even under hooks and all the other boxing maneuvers my competitors used against my nose as a young man.

Watching these guys test their levels is sometimes like watching professionals shadow boxing in the gym. They have nailed all the movements, while I –the semi-professional, look and feel like a fat middle-aged dad trying to swat a nest of angry hornets. I’m getting better now, but it’s not at all like riding a bike, shadow boxing is an art form that needs time, practice and physical agility to pull off.

I need to pause a little to talk about our boxing gloves. We have an ever growing range of skins, from futuristic metal gauntlets to traditional leather and fabric gloves. Granted, you don’t get much of a chance in the game to look at the gloves, but I highly recommend that players take the time to stand there – when fully immersed, and just look at the detail that has gone into designing each of our glove skins.

Our designers have added details which to help create an enhanced sense of reality. For example, some leather gloves have ever so slight wear across the knuckles, really it’s the smallest things that make me happy sometimes.

STRETCHING

They say you should always save the best till last. I’ve always been a bit of a rule breaker and I’m not going to change today, so I have saved the worst for last. I hate stretching, I hate it more than going to the actual gym. But to be honest, it’s the most important Viro Move training tool. I try to train for twenty minutes every day and while that may not seem like a lot – trust me, after twenty minutes of Viro Move you will look and feel like you have gone ten rounds with Ivan Drago. I didn’t always make the time to use the stretching levels, which always felt like a bit of a mistake the morning after.

You can easily forget that Viro Move is a real aerobics workout – but it is, you will use muscles you didn’t know you had and if you don’t make time for stretching as part of your warm up and cool down, please expect the muscle cramp fairy to come to visit you while you sleep – and she’s not a kind lady.

Stretching is not always going to be as sexy as boxing, shooting or sword-fighting – fact, so we have put a lot of energy into making it relaxing and enjoyable, and remember most professional sports coaches will advise you to make time for stretching before and after training. Our team has built the stretching and flexibility movements into our game to help you eliminate that morning after pain. I have learned the hard way that a  six-pack is no good to anybody if you are not flexible and agile enough to stand up straight the next day. As it’s too late for me to become the next Arnold, I will settle for the ability to climb out of bed and bounce down the stairs like the sprightly twenty-year-old I still feel I am.

Stretching and flexibility are my new favorite buzz-words – still, my least favorite exercises but most probably the best thing Viro Move has given me – after swords!

MIXED MODE

I am a huge fan of Deadpool. Handsome, sarcastic, energetic, sexy, funny, muscular, worshiped by millions of women and a handful of men do you see the similarities? That’s right! Deadpool has exactly the same qualities.

The similarities don’t end there, when I play VIRO MOVE, I do so in “mixed mode”. Meaning, after I set the level, environment, music, difficulty, I can then set the game to mix weapons during gameplay. One minute I am shooting and dodging drones the next minute I’m slashing and boxing orbs. Guys, you can make believe you are Deadpool – the Ladies, we will imagine you are the lovely Laura Croft.

We built mixed mode for those of us who are experts, those who really want that extra challenge at the highest level. It’s fast, furious and even though you know a weapon change is coming, changing the weapons mid-game requires some serious practice and technique.

THE FUTURE OF VIRO

Since the initial idea we have gone on to develop other solutions for the fitness industry, but as a small team of developers, our efforts are focused on ensuring the gaming elements of all our games are the best they can be. Meaning, for sure we will help you get fit -it’s our mission in life, but we always want you to have fun in the process.

Blog is written by VIRO Paulski first published on the VIROMOVE website