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Light. So bright. Why is it so damn bright with my eyes closed? Wait, my eyes won't open! Where am I? Think, think, think... A female form lay on a clean white hospital bed, dark hair splashed across sterile pillows. One finger moved, slowly, then another. Her hand clenched and relaxed, testing a movement it hadn't made in quite some time. "It's OK, Clementine. You're safe." What the hell? Who is that?? Where am I, why can't I talk? "Don't fret, the sedatives are wearing off. You should be able to open your eyes shortly." Clementine's eyes opened slowly, squinting at the brightness of the fluorescents on her long-covered retinas. She looked towards the source of the voice. A stern-looking young woman stood at her bedside, dressed professionally and sporting a seriously sharp bob haircut. Well at least I haven't lost my clearly razor sharp fashion sense, Clem thought to herself wryly. The woman looked at a tablet in her hand, before regarding Clementine. Her look wasn't without compassion, though it was barely visible under the layers of serious business on top of it. "Clementine Dana Bowden." Clem tried to speak, and had to cough several times before she could manage to croak out her words in a harsh voice. "Uh, yeah, whoever you are. I remember my own name. Where I am, not so much. Mind filling me in?" "Clearly your experience here hasn't affected your wit," the woman said, pulling an inscrutable face. She paused to give Clem a drink from a bag of liquid sitting on the dresser. "I'm Dr. Wynn. This is the Fall View Facility, a hospital and research lab for the Dawn Hunters." Wait, what? "Dawn...what the heck am I doing in a hospital for the freaking Dawn Hunters? I can barely pass the New Earth Corps standard fitness test..." Dr Wynn paused, that unreadable look still on her face, as if she was struggling to decide whether to laugh or scold Clem for her attitude. "Yes, I am aware of your previous capacities. Rather a lot has changed in the past two months, and I am hesitant to risk overwhelming you with all the details." "I'm not going anywhere fast. What, was I in some kind of accident? Dawn Hunter run me over with an offworld roller and now you guys have to foot the bill?" "You were in an accident, yes, but not of the kind you posit. The accident was very serious, you've blocked it from your memory and rightly so, for now. I don't want to put your psyche at risk by presenting any possible triggers just yet, suffice to say that your injuries were extensive. Based on your history and application to New Earth Corps, you were selected to be put in my care. Clementine, you are not exactly the woman you used to be - I have no other way to tell you this but to show you." Dr Wynn tapped briefly on her tablet before holding it in Clem's view. It took her a moment for her eyes to adjust, and figure out what she was seeing. Is..is that ME? It was a picture of her lying much as she was now, clothed in undergarments. Her arms and legs...they were metal. They had Made her, rebuilt her into a cyborg. Of all the craziest things... Cyborgs weren't uncommon, of course, especially now with the level of technology available to New Earth Corps. It was, Clem knew, an exceedingly expensive set of dangerous procedures to undertake, and was never done lightly - or even voluntarily. She must have not only been in terrible shape, but the Dawn Hunters must have really wanted her. Why? What could they want with me? "You have a face that can be read like a book, Ms. Bowden. Don't worry, we can train that out of you. Once you gain full control of your new limbs you'll be moved to the Dawn Hunter's training grounds to learn the basics. After that, we'll introduce you to your new team and you'll start off-world tasks within six weeks." As Dr. Wynn talked, Clem concentrated on the hand she moved earlier - her right hand. With some effort, she bent her arm at the elbow and brought her "new limb" into view. Unlike the picture, it wasn't metal at all. It was pale skin, perfect in it's detail right down to the barely visible blue veins and short fingernails. More weirdly, it was flawless. All her old scars and freckles, her misshapen knuckle from when she broke her finger, all gone. So weird. "I hope it won't take you overly long to adjust to this. We're undermanned as it is, and the faster you can integrate the better. You'll have all the support you require, both physical and mental, so don't hesitate to call on the resources available to you. A final formality, we don't use real names in the Dawn Hunters for many reasons. Your new codename is Cledbo - I hope that's easy enough for you to remember." "Shouldn't be a problem, Doc." Cledbo, yeah thanks Doc. Real original. THEME MUSIC Cledbo Joins the Dawn Hunters A newly Made cyborg, Cledbo is selected to join the Dawn Hunters, an elite unit who search for new habitable planets for Humanity to colonise. She will train body and mind under specialist instructors before joining a team and going on her first off-world mission. Main Quest Build a resilient, flexible, and strong body that can do a few neat tricks as well as weather the hardships of Army work, pregnancy and motherhood. (And become a Dawn Hunter, obviously ) Goal 1 - Training This job is highly specialised and dangerous - she needs her wits and knowledge, but also strength, balance, flexibility, stamina and a strong constitution. She needs to be able to move quickly in many directions, stretching and flexing at odd angles, and be able to lift herself up, over and through things. Sprinting short distances is also a key skill. Complete 3 workouts per week Bonus points for doing extra mini workouts during the day, getting more than 10,000 steps, doing handstand training etc - these aren't part of the base goal, but can help mitigate missing one workout per week maximum if I do enough. What's the Plan? I'm learning that I won't exercise if I wait until I get home - I have to do it before then at ANY time of the day except between getting home and cooking dinner. I need to find good balance between spontaneity and preparedness - doesn't matter WHAT exercise gets done, as long as it is done! 16+min app workouts, Xtend Barre, TRX, Krav Maga, playground, HIIT and bodyweight circuits all count. Also do Assassin's guild mini challenges if they fit with goals and time. Building Stamina, Strength, Dexterity and Wisdom. Tracking Track all workouts and activities in Battle Log and post to challenge thread regularly with BL as Spoiler (like Hazard does). Measure progress for specific activities against goals in Battle Log at end of challenge. Revise goals at end as well. May track other result-related measures to help gauge progress, such as perceived difficulty of a challenging class like Barre or TRX, sleep quality and time to fall asleep, waist size, handstand time, new tricks (one handed cartwheels, layovers, etc) Goal 2 - Nutrition One of the skills she must learn is to survive on purely natural food - landing in a potential colony location she needs to be able to identify and prepare food as part of her mission to determine viability. Takeaway meals/bought lunch maximum of once a week, home cook from scratch rest of the time. Sub-goals: Follow histamine-lowering food plan from naturopath, and take all my supplements every day as prescribed. What's the Plan? No takeaway shops, little to no packages, loads of variety in veg and fruit. Cook/prep weekly to prepare for missions (i.e. work, and weekday life!) Have slow cooker meat and veg batches ready for busy/lazy evenings. Follow histamine-lowering plan provided by my naturopath, to try and get my skin reactions under control (this will take some time and tinkering, which is why it's a sub-goal at this time - avoiding takeaway will be required though!) Building Constitution. Tracking Take body fat using electronic analyser 3 x week (Sun, Wed, Fri) and adjust activity and food levels accordingly (maintain % only, not decrease). I am at an ideal body fat % now (22.6%) and have no desire to become leaner, so this is about food quality and making a strong habit of cooking for us (especially before kids come along and throw a spanner in the works!) Use Chris-Tien Jinn's method of colouring her foods each day (good, meh and bad) to help track nutrition cheats and histamine-raising food consumption. Goal 3 - Sleep Reboot and recharge, 'power cycle' - no one and no thing can be 'on' forever. She needs to learn how to look after her new body properly and part of that is a solid 'maintenance' routine - sleep time and wake time, plus all the 'little things' which add up to a good routine (washing, moisturiser, teeth, vitamins, checking her systems etc) Get up before 8:30am every day, and try to get ready for bed around 10:15pm. What's the Plan? See below re: self-hypnosis script. Also, just do it! I get enough sleep, I'm perfectly capable of doing this. This goal has been revised upwards from 7am after discussion with my naturopath, who said in order to maintain my sleep cycles on weekends it's better if I have an achievable goal to start with - considering I often sleep until 11am on a Saturday, I am inclined to agree. Building Constitution. Tracking I record my sleep patterns and quality in a Symptoms Log on Google Docs, which I started when I first met with my naturopath and has really come in handy for trips to my psychologist as well. I'll keep tracking like that, and put 'Yes/No' scores up weekly on my challenge thread as well. Life Quest Being the first to step onto a potentially hostile planet is a stressful and exciting thing. It takes courage, confidence, sureness of self and resilience. Mental training is necessary to ensure she has what it takes between her ears to deal with this job, not just what her body can do. Make and record self hypnosis script prior to challenge starting, listen daily. Aim is to support sleep goal and also improve stress levels, coping skills, attitude etc. (Building Constitution and Charisma) Side Quests 1) Commit to subscribing to at least 20 others' challenge threads to support them (Charisma) 2) Floss every day without fail! (Constitution) Motivation I want to: Make a strong habit of working out at home before pregnancy/childbirth/being at home a lot.Get into habit of healthy COOKING and eating prior to the big time.Develop cool skills that also have functionality, therefore having a resilient body. Become less fragile, more graceful.Build good sleep habits, no more weekends playing catch up - get circadian rhythm and deep sleep cycles sorted.Increase energy and mental acuity, decrease depression symptoms, mood swings and general bitchiness.Decrease the sensitivity of my skin to environmental factors, by following my naturopath's advice. Scoring 1) Habit formation - did I do what I said I would, the number of times I said I would do it? - for STA, CON and CHA. 2) Increases in strength, skill & flexibility for STR, DEX and WIS (don't have hard and fast scoring for these, they'll be judgement calls based on comparison of start and end of challenge 'abilities') I'll decide how to allocate my points when I finish, as I'm not sure how I'll go across the board. The majority of my goals are in the Constitution arena, but if I'm diligent with my workouts I may see great increases in STR, DEX and/or WIS so we'll see how I feel when I'm done!