National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Aug 12, 2024 21:39:20 GMT -8
[[This thread will cover multiple locations (and reference a few more) but the bulk takes place in Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games. There will also be a few time skips. However, the thread starts in Cedar Beach in mid-June 2024.]]
Inkar got off the call with her official national coach for the Kazakh national track team full of excited jitters. With her most recent competition having earned her direct time qualifications in both the 400 m with a 50.90 s and the 400 m hurdles with a 54.84 s, she'd officially booked her place to the Paris Olympics. It had been a nearly certain thing before, especially as a returning Olympian, but it was now official.
She had an extra thing to think about though, one that hadn't even occurred to her. In Tokyo, no one had been able to travel as guests. But for Paris, her team coach had told her they had a spot for her to bring one guest as spectator and cheering person, generally expected to be a family member or significant other. They had told her they could make arrangements for more family members to come, but they could only pay the way for one reservation.
Her first thought was Nika, but that would not fly. It wasn't accepted on a structural level and she didn't want to even try to figure out navigating it. Her second thought was her mom, but she was pretty sure that her mom wouldn't be able to do it that close to the start of the school year, or whatever she decided she would be stressed and guilty about it. She'd been living with Timur since partway through college, and she was having trouble remembering the last time Timur had watched her compete, maybe he'd watched her on TV in Tokyo, she'd never asked, but she would appreciate having him there, and she suspected he'd appreciate a trip to Paris.
She popped her head out of her room, and called out, "Hey Timur, I've got a question for you."
Timur Mun
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Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Online.
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Post by Timur Mun on Aug 13, 2024 8:15:06 GMT -8
Timur had been resting after a long work day. He was about ready for a vacation, but didn't know what to do, so he hadn't put in the request yet. His job was something he was good at, he could do it, but after a while it would wear him out and he'd want a break. His job had a generous PTO package, though, so he didn't mind. Usually he would use it up on a long weekend here or a half day there, but he was realizing he hadn't used any of it this year.
He had music playing softly, and he was doodling in a notebook, finding ways to relax, when he heard Inkar call him. He turned to her, "What's up?" He asked her simply.
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National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Aug 14, 2024 9:10:30 GMT -8
Inkar was relieved that her brother didn't seem to be particularly busy. She grinned at him, coming to sit near him in the common space. She said, "Dont know if you overheard any of it, but the call I was just on was confirmation that I've got my Olympics berth."
She waited for a beat and then said, "My national team coach was telling me that for Paris they're covering me bringing someone with me, a family member or significant other to basically be a support and cheering person."
She took a deep breath, realizing that she wasn't sure how much Timur had paid attention to her career, and asked, "Would you want to come to Paris with me? Like there would be the condition that you come to all of my races to cheer, and there might be a few cameras on you around that, but you'd have an expenses paid trip to Paris, and we could see some of the other events together maybe, and do some Paris sightseeing. And you'd have plenty of time to see Paris in general when I was busy training and stuff."
Se hesitated again and added, "We'd be there probably from July 26th to August 11th if you decided to come, though my events would be August 4th through 9th probably."
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Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Online.
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Post by Timur Mun on Aug 15, 2024 14:11:37 GMT -8
Timur hadn't really watched his sister do her sports thing. He was not sporty, and never really had an interest in sports. But, he had watched her events while she was in Tokyo for the Olympics, and he knew she was good. That she was going to go to the Olympics again was exciting, and he could deal with sitting through watching a sport for getting to go to Paris. After all, he had just been thinking about needing a vacation, and what better than an all-expenses paid trip? Not to mention, this was a great way to better repair their relationship. It had gotten significantly better in the last few years, but sometimes Timur still felt like it was a bit awkward, and it felt like there was a lot they still didn't know about each other.
Still, he hesitated before nodding, "Sure, I'd love to go." It was honest, but he hesitated again before adding, "though I don't know much about Track and Field... I'm not sure how good of support I'll be."
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National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Aug 15, 2024 14:27:27 GMT -8
Inkar smiled, relieved at how quickly he'd agreed. She said, "I'll email you what I'm going to need to get your travel stuff organized in a minute."
She giggled at his uncertainty about track and said, "So in the races I'll be running, 400 m and 400 m hurdles, the goal is to go faster than the other people on the track. I'll run each race a few times, and each round, they're narrowing down how many people move towards the final. And as long as you're there and cheering for me, that's the important part."
She thought for a second and added, "I bet we can find you a stream with commentary to listen to on your phone while I'm running so someone who knows the details can be excited about it for you to listen to."
Inkar was excited that Timur wanted to go with her though. She said, "We'll have to do some research of things that we will want to do while we're there though. I mean, I want to watch other sports at least some, gymnastics is always interesting, and there are going to be some sports like skateboarding and break dancing that are just neat to watch. But there's also all sorts of things for us to do in Paris."
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Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Online.
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Post by Timur Mun on Aug 16, 2024 17:06:31 GMT -8
Timur nodded about receiving the email with the details, "Okay, sounds good." Once he got that, he could put in his time off request. That wasn't during any holidays, so ideally it would be easy and quick to get approved.
"Finding a stream to follow along with the commentary sounds like an excellent plan. But I think I can keep track of paying special attention to the 400 m and 400 m hurdles. It's not a lot to follow, but in general I really... really don't know anything about sports. On that note, feel free to drag me to other events you want to watch, I just can't promise I'll enjoy them."
He thought a moment and looked to her, "do we want to go there as tourists or try more local-ish tours? Like, find a random museum or the Eiffel Tower?"
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National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Aug 16, 2024 23:05:01 GMT -8
She pulled up the email from her national team coach when her phone vibrated, and she forwarded the form to Timur. She told him, "The form from the coach has Russian and Kazakh language versions, but I bet there's an English version one if you'd feel more comfortable with that that I could bug him for. He at least knows to always send me the Kazakh version ones. I can't manage the ones in Russian."
She giggled at her brother's complete confusion and said, "Don't worry, most of what I'm interested in watching is races, so the big idea is who does it fastest, or things with a performance aspect. I feel like you don't need to know what is technically going on in gymnastics for the performances to be cool. But like, I can answer any questions you can think of about track and field. Hell, if you wanted I could drag you out running so you remember what it feels like."
The last bit was said teasingly, but she wouldn't be mad if he took her up on it. She did enough coaching that she figured she could help her brother with a few workouts if he wanted.
She told him, "For touristy stuff, I'd mostly rather see the smaller more local attractions, but I didn't get to be a tourist in Tokyo, so I am looking forward to doing it in Paris, and I don't mind some of the more standard tourist stuff. Some of it will be really busy though."
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Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Online.
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Post by Timur Mun on Aug 18, 2024 9:37:17 GMT -8
Timur smiled, looking at the familiar Cyrillic writings. "I can teach you some Russian, you know. I'm comfortable in all three of those languages, if not very rusty in Russian." He read over the email, making sure to take note of the dates so he could request them off. "Like, I'm significantly more comfortable in Korean and Kazakh, but I could tell you how to parse this email okay." He wasn't trying to brag about it, but he did take pride in having kept up on all the languages he knew. According to a Russian coworker, his Russian was childish and sometimes made them laugh, but it was usable. And he didn't mind that considering the last time he was formally learning Russian he was a child.
"That's easy enough to remember." He thought about the offer to run with his Olympic track sister, sucking in a breath, "I don't know... You'd have to go easy on me. I haven't willingly run since high school, and that was... arguably willing." It wasn't like he was out of shape, but he definitely didn't have a regular exercise routine by any means.
He thought over how to approach their travel plans. "Do you think you can give me an estimate of how much time we'll have to do touristy stuff? And like, do you have to be back at the..." He struggled to remember what they had called the sleeping arrangements for Tokyo, "Olympic Village..? Every night? Or can we plan an overnight thing at some point, maybe if we get there a little earlier or stay a little longer than we need to? I'm assuming until then you're going to be pretty busy training, so I'm happy to be in charge of planning places to go." He paused. "My work also just got a new person from Paris, I can maybe ask them what they'd recommend that's off the beaten path from typical tourist destinations... I definitely want to go to the Eiffel Tower though, if you're up for that."
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National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Aug 22, 2024 9:34:28 GMT -8
Inkar told him, "I've been working on my Russian some, but I mostly get by fine when I'm there with Kazakh, which is the one that's actually the official language. Plus, not being even remotely fluent in Russian means that I work with the junior sprint and hurdle coach, and I'd much rather keep working with him. If I was going to move to Kazakhstan, I'd want to actually get better at the Russian, but I'm mostly fine where I am. Might take you up on a little bit of coaching on phrases at some point."
She thought about the schedule and said, "I'm going to have more free time the first week of the Olympics than the second. Track and field happens that second week, but you'll have a lot more time than me. There's going to be a few hour long session each of the days that my event happens that you'll be there, so six of the days total if I make it to the finals for each race. I'll have training time the first week, but I don't want to overtrain, so I'll have free time. I'll see if we can stay a little past the end, I'll be able to do more food tourism stuff after my events."
She paused and added, "Why don't you come up with a like dream list, and I can draw up a schedule and we can go from there?"
[[OOC: We might be about ready to timeskip to Airport Day?]]
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Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Online.
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Post by Timur Mun on Aug 25, 2024 9:41:56 GMT -8
[[OOC: I'm gonna go ahead and do that time skip in this reply]]
"Okay, yeah, I can do that." Timur replied, nodding. He turned back to his computer, opening a new document and beginning to work on tourist spots he'd want to visit.
--
Timur turned off his alarm and dragged himself out of bed. To say he wasn't excited would be a lie, but he was too tired to show it currently. He didn't sleep well, and was nervous and excited for this adventure. On the one hand, he never thought he'd get the opportunity to visit Paris, or get this time to spend with a sibling. On the other hand, he hadn't had a flight even remotely close to this length since he was ten. He'd done traveling to the East Coast for a business trip, but nothing more than the approximate six hours it took to go coast to coast. He knew things would have changed in... 23 years, but it still made him anxious. What if they were by a crying baby? Or someone who just wanted to keep their seat back the whole time?
He tried to clear his mind as he washed up and got dressed, putting the last of his toiletries and necessities into his suitcase and bringing it out to the living room, sitting on the couch. He was going to close his eyes for just a minute, but accidentally fell asleep again.
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National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Aug 27, 2024 15:35:00 GMT -8
Inkar heard her brother drag himself out to the living room from the restroom where she was finishing up after her after morning workout shower. She'd gone easy that morning so that she wouldn't be sore on the airplane. She was looking forward to being able to take a direct flight to where she was going instead of having to connect the way that she did when going to Kazakhstan for nationals and time trials. Even her most recent event in Oslo had required a transfer, though at least the second leg of that flight had been very short. A little over eleven hours in the air wasn't her idea of a good time, but it was better than around twelve hours followed by another eight.
When she made it out to the living room, having blow dried her hair which she almost never did but the idea of wet hair on an airplane seemed like the worst option, Timur was asleep again on the couch, and she laughed and poked him lightly in the shoulder. She said, "It's not even that early. We've got about thirty minutes until our airport shuttle. You got everything packed and ready?"
She had already brought out her bags either the night before or that morning, and had them waiting by the door. She had complete travel sets of toiletries that were separate and set up for airport requirements just because she did travel for competitions pretty often. She still double checked her bag, making sure that her driver's license, resident card, and passport were all readily available. She had some jitters, but it was her second Olympics, so it was significantly less jitters. She didn't really know who she would spend time with in the Olympic village, she didn't know most of the rest of the Kazakh national team well, but she figured that between her different languages she could make some friends, and she was there to focus on her competitions anyhow, and she'd be able to go see events with her brother and sightsee, so she wouldn't be alone either.
[[The Air France direct flight to Paris leaves SeaTac at 1:35 pm, but I'm guessing Inkar wants them to be there like 3 hours early since she has to deal with going through the international traveler stuff and she has to check some of her stuff carefully, so they'd be aiming to get to the airport around 10:30 am. Assuming 45 min to the airport on the shuttle, and it's 30 min until that gets there, this is at around 9:15 am. The Opening Ceremony was Fri 7/26/2024, which Inkar is going to be in, so I'm guessing they're flying out Tues 7/23 or Wed 7/24 (and then would be arriving Wed or Thurs morning at about 8:15 am in Paris time). This is here partially for my own reference but also for yours. I'm also assuming that they're living in a 2 bed/2 bath apartment because that makes my life easier and I don't think that we have anything contradicting it.]]
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Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Online.
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Post by Timur Mun on Aug 28, 2024 14:47:49 GMT -8
"Didn't sleep well," Timur grumbled, peeking an eye open. He sat up and looked over his luggage, double checking in his carry-on that he had all the necessary items - passport, ID, headphones, charger, and a few travel-size toiletries - and looked to his sister, "I'm all ready to go, though I should probably eat something before I have to pay airport prices for things." He went into the kitchen as he was saying it, looking for a quick food that would theoretically hold him over long enough he wouldn't be tempted by airport foods. He settled on some protein-rich foods that were quick and easy to make. "Have you eaten?"
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National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Aug 29, 2024 2:32:14 GMT -8
Inkar nodded and said, "I ate before you were up. I did a workout this morning. And we do have meals included in our flight because it's so long. I also have a little bit of travel budget set aside for getting things in the airport if I do need it. Positives of getting travel stipends."
She did her own last check of her things, knowing perfectly well that she was ready. She plopped down on the couch, keeping an eye on her phone for the alert that the shuttle would be to them soon.
When it was five minutes out, she told Timur, "We might as well go ahead and bring down our things if you've finished eating, we've got five minutes to shuttle if it doesn't get delayed."
If she'd not had the travel arrangements that she did from being a national team athlete, she probably would have just taken public transportation to the airport, but it was nice, especially with all her bags for her equipment, to be able to have the shuttle.
She stood and started gathering her things by the door.
[[OOC: If you want to get us to the airport in your reply, that probably wouldn't be bad. I figure that nothing that interesting will happen in the van to the airport, which might well have a few other people on it, though if you have an idea for that go for it.]]
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Aerospace Engineer.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/10/1991.
33.
Sheep (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Online.
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Post by Timur Mun on Aug 29, 2024 19:23:42 GMT -8
"Oh, cool." Timur replied, nodding. He finished up his food and quickly cleaned off the dishes he used, then said, "yeah, good idea, let's head on down."
He grabbed his luggage and slipped on his shoes, waiting for Inkar before heading down to the parking lot. "Seems like we got here at just the right time." He said, noticing the shuttle pulling into the parking lot.
It was a fairly uneventful trip to the airport, and once they got all their luggage checked in, Timur walked with his sister towards security, "At least the line isn't stupid today..." He murmured.
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National Athlete.
Bi.
Dating Nika.
10/19/2000.
23.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Aug 29, 2024 23:08:32 GMT -8
Inkar was slightly baffled as Timur followed her towards the line for international travelers. She nudged his arm and pointed out the other line and said, "Timur, I know you're tired, but you need to be in that line, the one for US citizens doing international travel, not following me."
She sighed and added, "The lines aren't too bad, which is a relief, but we could either get through around the same time, or I could take forever, that's why I was setting us up to be this early. There's a Dillitante Chocolate like right through the end of security, meet me there? That way at least you can get a treat if I take forever."
She hopef that the person checking all her paperwork was one of the ones just wanting to get people through efficiently, as she headed for her line with all its paperwork. She did her best to keep an eye on her brother, hoping he would navigate his own line and customs forms easily enough. She wasn't tall enough to keep good track of him, though occasionally she'd catch glimpses across the other lines because he was so tall himself.
She wasn't lucky or unlucky. She had a methodical customs and security agent, oje who made sure everything was clear and accurate, but not one who checked everything ten thousand times and asked her really invasive questions. And at the end, the person doing her check said, "And good luck for the Olympics, you're my first athlete today."
Inkar gave a little smile and a nod and said, "Thanks," before heading for the chocolate shop to find her brother, keeping an eye out as she went. She figured she'd kept him waiting for a bit, and considering the mix up, she suspected he had questions. She was still clutching her Kazakh passport in case she had to show it again, as she reached the meeting place she'd named.
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