Open RP: Sports? Are you serious?

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

(some time after her fevery/craziness episode. Probably a few weeks while she scrounged up materials. I know Adam wanted in on this one, but anyone's free to join in at their leisure. Warning for Dean in advance: if he comes into this, he's gonna get attacked. Not in a bad way per se, but I still thought the warning would be fair. XD And now there's a post on Starbuck's journal, So everyone can get a better idea of how this game goes.)

She got the ball. What she needed was the court.

It had taken a little longer than she'd expected. Well, to be honest, she hadn't thought about it hard enough. The good news was that she hadn't been bored in quite a while. The bad news was she'd searched for a tool kit forever and then had to take various equipment apart to get the pieces she'd needed, which was no small task. Good for keeping in shape, though, which was something.

Okay, she wasn't exactly sure that she had the pieces she needed. She'd certainly seen a pyramid court put together from scratch, but that was a little different than making it by yourself. Yeah, just a little.

Sador was whining at her again.

"It's not time for lunch yet, you brat," she told the dog as she surveyed the wreck she'd dumped in front of Space Mountain. She had marked out the arena with masking tape that she'd found in an office. It was regulation size, or she hoped it was after all the trouble she'd gone through to get it that way. Only one area left to tape off and then she could try to put up the rest of the equipment.

Not that she had any idea how to do that.

Comments

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She felt bad that there was any person int he world who people called 'Greasy', but that left her head quickly and she shrugged and smiled. "I don't think they're too bad. The big thing is, when you have the ball you can only take three paces before passing, shooting or bouncing the ball off of one of the barriers. Obviously, in a one-on-one game you use the barriers since there's no one to pass to. And the corners and triangle at the center that are outlined with the tape are neutral zones; you place the ball inside it and no one can tackle you, but the ball has to be on the ground inside the zone."

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Adam nodded to show he understood. "Three steps. I think that's like basketball. The neutral zone is kinda interestin', though. If you're holdin' it there, isn't it easier for someone to get close enough to tackle you when you fin'ly do move?"

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"Yup, which is why you normally use your time in the neutral zone to figure out who you can pass the ball to on your team," she explained, tapping her foot at the central triangle. "This position is easier. You can move around it while still keeping the ball inside. When you're in one of the corners it's harder because you normally have to charge past a person to get out." She liked it, though. Crouched down low on the ground in that particular kind of face-off. Getting a good look at the person's eyes and gaging whether or not they could take you if you came barrelling forward right then-

"In a one-on-one game the person doesn't always move to tackle you, though. They'll usually face you because it's easier to try and snatch the ball from your hands once you take it off the ground than it is get you both down there."

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Looking unfocused for a moment, like he was trawling the universe for an image of that, which is quite possibly what he was, in fact, doing, Adam smiled.

"It sounds neat. But if I'm gonna get to see how it all works, we'd better get this court finished, huh?"

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She had a funny feeling he was going to catch on pretty quick.

"Right," she said, standing up and getting to work arranging metal barriers so that they could be propped up correctly. It seemed like her makeshift panels were holding fine, thank the gods. "Okay, you set the three panels up at the sides, I'll get the two at the bottom corners and the goal at the top corner."

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

He often did.

Adam watched what she was doing for a moment, then got to work on the three panels she'd indicated. It didn't seem like too much longer that he finished up and looked over.

"How's this?"

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

Damn, he was fast.

Starbuck was fixing up the goal properly when she looked over. "Very nice," she decided. She was messing with the panelling; the goal had an extra panel that direct the ball down and back out through a hole at the bottom after a goal was scored. Once she'd made sure that it couldn't escape on the sides, she went to stand in the center of the arena.

"Not bad. And it's regulation size, which is the important thing."

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Grinning, Adam looked at how the goal worked and asked, "How do you know?"

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She did a kind of eyebrow-shrug, placing her hands on her hips. "Military. One thing you have to be able to judge with reasonable accuracy on sight is distance. And I know regulation size because I was in line to play professionally when I was fresh out of school. Got a bad knee, though. That was when I discovered flying." So it had all worked out right, really. Because the cockpit was definitely where she was supposed to be.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"Really? You were gonna be a professional? I'd best be careful, then," Adam said, still smiling. "But you seem like you like flyin' better anyway. Isn't it interestin' how things usu'ly work out for the best, even when it don't seem like it at the time?"

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She pointed a warning finger, smirking. "Don't think I'm going to go easy on you just because you haven't played Mr Unlimited-Power-From-Another-Dimension."

To be honest, Starbuck didn't really know if anything worked out for the best. It certainly hadn't with Zak. Or her mother. Or, oh, her entire frakking civilzation. Perhaps the most disgusting thing about it was, even though she was a devout pessimist in the face of it all, she had some resevoir of hope somewhere that persisted in telling her that everything was going to work out. She wouldn't make it to Earth (she'd die in some huge firefight before the end), but everyone else would, and they would live. Most of the time, she hated it that little resevoir. Right now she wasn't really sure.

"I do like flying better. It was just one of those things; got in the cockpit and had the feel instantly. I miss it around here." She was in control in a viper, at least.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"I don't expect it at all," he laughed. "Don't worry, I'm used to gettin' beat by girls. Well, one girl anyway. Pep made sure I'd never be one of those boys that has to win all the time."

Adam tended to take the long view of things, and if you take a long enough view, things do tend to work out. Not necessarily for individuals, however...

"All the more reason you should fly on brooms with us," he nodded finally.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"She was one of the friends you had in that gang you were telling me about?" Starbuck recalled. "The Them, right? Good thing you had someone to keep you in your place." It didn't occur to Starbuck that being beat by girls is something that boys on Earth wouldn't be used to. The gender politics of her civilization was just a little different from the planet that the twelve colonies had set out for. She may be one of the Toughest of the Tough, but it wasn't among a group of prissy princesses for sure.

"A broom is out in open air. A cockpit is contained and has controls; pitch, yaw, roll and all that. I'm kind of doubting a magic broom is going to work the same way." Really doubting it.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

He grinned. "It works 'zactly the same way. Only it's instinctive. There's no instruments to rely on. You jus' gotta trust it." Pepper would do it for sure, he thought.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"You mean you have to trust you," she said, narrowing her eyes a little. Sure, that was a great idea for her.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I always trust myself," Adam laughed, purposefully misunderstanding. "But I don't have anythin' to do with the brooms. They read an' follow your cues as you're flyin'. You don't hafta believe me, though. You c'n ask James, or Sirius, or Susan; they'd tell ya the same."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

It was just as well that he had misunderstood, she thought. He was the last person she needed asking about things that were best left well enough alone.

"Susan? I haven't heard about her, is she a wizard like James and Sirius?"

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Funny how he seemed to know when not to press...

"Well, girl wizards are called witches, an' I s'pose she is since she went to Hogwarts, but that's not how she'd identify herself, I think," said Adam thoughtfully. "She runs the First Aid station an' does some teachin' and governessin', watchin' over a little boy named Calvin who's here without his parents."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"Right the kid," Starbuck muttered. "Why wouldn't she identify as one? Does she not want anyone to know what she can do?" She supposed that might make sense. Starbuck wouldn't want anyone to know if she had power like that. Too dangerous.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"I don't think she's hidin' it," he explained, "I just 'spect there are other things she identifies with first." It wasn't his story to tell and he wasn't going to. Adam was hardly one to talk about having odd relatives.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She paused at that wording. "You're... really careful about what you say and don't say, aren't you?" She didn't understand how he could stand to be the censored. If she had those kind of abilities she'd.... "I'd be a really Antichrist," she laughed. All that power and no one to get her in line if she misused it? It was a damn good thing she had superiors, and that was just being plain old her.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Adam grinned. "You caught me. But, yeah, I am. Words have power, you know. Mine 'specially. An' I try real hard to be neutral which means not favorin' anyone over anyone else. Sometimes it does turn into knots." He shrugged. "Jus' how things are, I guess. Knowin' everythin' helps, but that don't equal wisdom. I made plenty of mistakes while I was figurin' stuff out, and I 'spect I always will. Only human, after all..." The young man winked.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

((*looks up at missing word on last post* *facepalms* I swear, I do proofread, my brain just choses to skip over things that are wrong. >.<))

She cocked her head to side, took up the pyramid ball and dribbled it once. "Okay then, enlighten me; you say that all of these terrible things have happened on your planet, in your history. If you have all that power, you could stop that from happening, you could end suffering and tyranny. You don't do it. So what's the bigger picture that I'm missing?" Gods know if she had the chance to wipe out every frakking cylon with a thought, to do the whole thing over again and fix it, she would. She wouldn't even hesitate.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

((*laughs* It's okay. I think I figured it out anyway. XD))

"I don't," Adam agreed. "'Cause what would people learn if I fixed all their problems? Don't seem to me like they'd be very good people. There'd be no point to havin' free will anymore if I was makin' all the decisions. An' then there'd be no point to people."

Appropos of seemingly nothing, he added, "Seems to me that if someone kills a whale, they oughta know all they've got is a dead whale. But it's about knowing the consequences an' makin' choices anyway. In the end, it's gotta be up to them if they're gonna make things better or not. I 'spect if Heaven an' Hell stop messin' 'round with 'em, they might jus' figure it out on their own. So, instead of changin' things the way I want, I jus' make it so that they can change things the way they want, for good or bad. They're jus' names for sides, anyhow. But if it's gonna be a fair experiment, it should be fair an' no one should interfere in the results. Far as I can tell, people tend to swing to the middle anyway. 's all 'bout balance, an' that's where I c'n help. See, bad stuff is sometimes the only way to make good stuff happen. Without sufferin' there'd be no change at all an' people would stagnate away. Make sense?"

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

((That's because you're smarter than me. XD))

She was starting to feel like this was a doctrine difference, maybe. After all, free will wasn't exactly the focal point in her society. And with all the talk lately of prophecy and destiny, lots of people were beginning to wonder about free will at all. As the scriptures say, all of this has happened Before, and all of it will happen Again.

And then the rest of it really made her brain do loops. "So... existance is an experiment? Why would anyone design it that way?" Experiments were bad. They got people killed, so many.... But it was the talk of suffering that made her drop the pyramid ball.

"You were born to a woman who believed that suffering was good for the soul, so you suffered."

It was just how things worked. It was their burden. You couldn't change that because that was what it meant to be human. Wasn't that what she had said to Leoben? "Yeah, makes sense," she said quietly, her brow furrowed too harshly for such an plain response.