[Emily Littleton] There are some battles that are over before they've even begun. It's not that Emily is wary of standing up to Ashley, or takes the separation of their magical skillsets personally, or resents Ashley digging about in her mind a couple weeks ago. She doesn't. None of this bothers her. It's just that there are battles that are worth fighting, and there are stupid, pointless fights waiting to happen that don't even need starting.
Emily wants Ashley to help her go tass hunting. Emily wants to make progress on helping Nico. Emily wants to move forward with this fixable thing, this fixed thing, this problem she can tear apart and build back up in better ways. She wants it fixed. Now. Yesterday. Better yet had it never happened in the first place. This is the problem with Architects: Rome may not have been built in a day, but they can concieve of ways to build it faster, better, stronger.
She wants Nico better, so that it won't continue to hurt Owen.
Ashley, on the other hand, wants to play football.
There's an Initiate in ICU, and Ashley wants to play football. Emily suspects that Ashley actually wants to play soccer but is using her clever mind powers to realize that Emily responds better to football than soccer. It doesn't much matter what Emily thinks, or wants, just now, because they're not going Tass hunting or to talk to Israel or to see Nico until the football happens.
But it's night-time. (So what?)
But it's raining. (Since when are you afraid of getting dirty.)
But...
It's not worth fighting about. It's not even worth arguing over. Emily sighs and agrees to meet the Adept at Grant Park. She puts on sweat pants, a light top, and a hoodie. She wears sneakers. She doesn't bring anything with an on/off switch beside her phone. She brings her own football too, and a few of the markers she'd brought to the Memorial day cookout. She's affixed some reflective tape to them, so they can still see the goals in the relative dark.
[Ashley McGowen] [So I can actually play this game...]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 4, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 3)
[Ashley McGowen] [And Forces...]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 1, 8, 10 (Failure at target 3)
[Ashley McGowen] [Hell no I am not failing an apprentice level rote.]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 4)
[Emily Littleton] [Corr 1! Practiced, so, so practiced.]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 5 (Success x 1 at target 3)
[Emily Littleton] [Extending +1dif, *ahem*]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 6, 8 (Success x 2 at target 4)
[Emily Littleton] [And Forces!]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 3)
[Jarod Nightingale] [Because I want to feel included (and because I do this all the time but Mystic is too lazy to actually roll it)...Life 3]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 3, 4 (Success x 1 at target 3)
[Jarod Nightingale] [extending]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 10 (Failure at target 4)
[Jarod Nightingale] [...and again]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 6, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 4)
[Ashley McGowen] It was indeed a clever insight that made Ashley refer to it as football yesterday, and she continues to do so today. Unbeknownst to Emily, she is not the only person who has requested Ashley's help in locating Tass. A mage with Ars Conjunctionis at high levels is in demand these days, it would seem.
Thus: a stubborn refusal to start doing it today. It isn't that Ashley doesn't want to see Nico well. It isn't even that Ashley is unsympathetic to Emily's desire to help Nico so she can in turn help Owen so she can in turn take a load off her own shoulders. It's that she knows there are always going to be more problems, and she suspects Emily in particular could do with some time away. After a while this is the sort of wisdom that comes to Adepts.
She's been out long enough for water to have ceased lighting in her hair like dew on grass and to have started to weigh it down, soak it, drops moving in cold trickles down the back of her neck to pool in the hollow between her shoulderblades and her neck. She's wearing a dark thermal underneath an orange T-shirt, and is thus easy to spot where she's perched on a bench.
Ashley doesn't usually compensate for the senses that she's lost via magical means. She does it for games, and she does it for battle, but in day to day life she tries to live with it. The same way she lives with that barrier that exists between herself and others, the one that can only be breached with the Ars Mentis: magic is not a crutch. She doesn't use it as one. But Emily can tell when she reaches Ashley that her senses have been enhanced if only for how quickly the Adept seems to notice her.
Not that she moves or otherwise reacts. She just watches the Singer's approach, damp and probably cold but seeming to enjoy the weather for all that, a ball on the ground near where her feet would be if she didn't have her legs drawn up. She raises a hand to wave at Emily when she gets closer. "Hey Em."
[Jarod Nightingale] [2nd one]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 6, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 3)
[Jarod Nightingale] [extending]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 5, 6, 7 (Success x 3 at target 4)
[Emily Littleton] Emily would be lying if she said that this particular Correspondence rote was anything but familiar to her these nights. With her renewed penchant for doing potentially stupid things, giving herself a magical safety net was helpful. It kept her from worrying overmuch about the parts of humanity she could neither foresee nor control. It gave her a sense of safety, when she didn't have someone to be her wingman or when she was stepping out on her own by design.
It was a long enough walk from the El station to this part of the park to warrant working it up early. Ashley waves and Emily returns the gesture. She's idly dribbling the ball as she walks, and it's a practiced thing. She's grown up loving this sport, playing it with kids around the world in Embassy gardens and streets, using overturned trashcans for goals, getting skinned knees from dirt lots.
She comes to stand near Ashley. Her ball is trapped beneath one foot, kept idly there. It's thoughtless.
"You really want to play at night?" she asks. One of her eyebrows is a little higher than the other. "Usually when I'm out this late, I just use the backboards at the handball courts. At least there's lights there..."
She's not really complaining. Maybe the Singer's just giving the Adept a chance to bow out. Emily looks tired, though. Pulled a little thinner than usual. Without the professional clothes and tighter posture, it's easier to see how slight she is. How empty the year has left her just now.
[Jarod Nightingale] [Awaaareness?]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley doesn't look as tired as she has lately. Tomorrow will mark another day of quiet mourning, but for right now, she seems a bit more vigorous, a bit brighter. Whatever else can be said about Ashley, she's incredibly resilient: it's likely that no matter what she suffered through she'd still come out if it at the end with the capacity to smile when she feels like it. She thrives, no matter what.
The grin that Emily gets is a touch pointed, a white flash of teeth in the gloom currently hanging over the park, as she says, "We're probably on pretty equal footing at night. So yes." Emily won't be able to see as well; for Ashley, who will be relying on magic to tell her where both Emily and the ball are at points, it isn't really that different than playing during the day.
The Hermetic lets her feet drop back to the ground and pushes herself to her feet, nudging the ball around in front of her. There's a sort of deftness in her movements that wasn't there in May. Perhaps those evenings of urban exploration with Kage have finally started to pay off and restore some of the quickness of hand and foot that she had before her accident ten years ago. Because she was a decent athlete once: Emily isn't the only one who has fond childhood memories of this game in particular.
She doesn't remark that Emily looks tired. She knows, and she knows why (they talked about it yesterday.) Or maybe she just doesn't notice at all.
Hunger starts across toward the field, dribbling the ball along in front of her idly, trusting that Reverence will follow. "If you really want the light, I guess we can go over to the basketball courts. Where are they?"
[Jarod Nightingale] It's a strange sort of realization... when someone who is very used to being alone suddenly finds himself in a state of noticing the silence in his home. Normally this would be a pleasant thing: coming home to a large, empty flat where he could relax and tuck himself away from the world at large. Considering how much rarer it was, these days, that he even got to spend time at home by himself, one might expect that he would be thoroughly enjoying his night off. Usually that was the case. Tonight, it wasn't.
So Jarod wasn't at home tonight. He was out. Earlier, he'd had dinner with his business-partners. Then he'd gone home, briefly. Then he'd gone to a bar, but he hadn't stayed long. Now he was walking through the park. The rain had stopped, but the ground was wet, and the wind whipped its way through the sparsely-leafed tree branches. It was a cold wind, and a clear reminder that, despite recent bouts of unseasonably warm temperatures, November was fast approaching. He'd managed to avoid getting wet, but his hair was ruffled (not unattractively so). His leather jacket was zipped, and the collar turned up. Hands rested snugly in pockets as he walked. There was a thoughtful air about him, as if, despite the weather, he wasn't really in a hurry to get any place in particular.
He'd be easy to pick out on this particular occasion, to anyone with the right kind of senses. He often was. The lingering residue of the rotes he'd cast this morning was still on his skin, their effects still in place for the time being. Ashley might not be familiar with this particular kind of Willworking, but Emily had felt it on him numerous times, and she knew enough to sense that his pattern had been altered. Unnecessary, some might think. Those people were not Jarod (who tended to view his own body as something that required ever-constant perfecting, in much the same way that Ashley probably viewed her mind.)
And apparently... he was not the only one who'd been working effects recently. The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and he paused to look up, scanning the park for familiar figures. He found two.
And they looked like they were kicking a couple of soccer balls around. Somehow he found this... a little endearing. After a few moments of observing from a distance, he approached the two women.
"Is the chantry thinking of starting a football team?"
[Emily Littleton] Reverence followed, drawing the goal markers out of her pocket and tossing two to Ashley. She's smirking, faintly, but it's hard to tell in the darkness. Emily's dark curls are tucked back down through the neck of her hoodie. It keeps them more or less dry. There are dark, damp patches on the light grey fabric already. She does not seem to have any interest in heading for the basketball courts.
Basketball is Owen's sport. Emily hasn't so much as shot hoops with anyone since he left. It's one of the few things she can think of doing that might help him with that problem Ashley mentioned.
"That sounds like a taunt, you know," Reverence tells Hunger, jogging out to place her markers in the damp grass before coming back near the center of their make-shift pitch. It takes a bit of adjustment to learn how to see things through her extended senses. Ashley hasn't leveled the field so much as shifted it in her favor, but Emily isn't complaining.
Speaking of taunts...
Emily has her hands on her hips when she glances the Verbena's way. The expression she wears shifts further toward the wry spectrum. "Oh, didn't you hear? Try-outs were Memorial Day. Ashley's team captain."
Her voice belies not of the weariness she feels. There's a push. An edge of something familiar and competitive. It's thin, but present. Perhaps that's what Ashley was after bringing forward in her. Or maybe Ashley had learned that Emily did better when she'd run off some of her frustration in physical ways. It was possible that both of the more experienced magi here had realized that, in their own time.
[Ashley McGowen] Perhaps Emily is suspecting altruism here: it's not, so much. Ashley wanted someone to play with, and she suspected Emily would enjoy it too and that it would be good for both of them. It wasn't that she'd intended to bring that competitiveness forth, as that would require a greater amount of insight and thoughtfulness in regard to someone else than Ashley is capable of. But things tend to work out for other people when she goes seeking their company more often than they don't, intentional or not.
She'd noticed Jarod coming toward them before he spoke, for once. The heat their bodies are giving off is visible to her right now, a hungry ardent burning that halos each of them in brilliance. Even if she can't tell that he's altered his Pattern, there is some shift in his body that's visible to her right now: it seems a bit warmer, it moves faster. Her gaze doesn't slide to him until he's moved closer, though.
There's a wry smile toward both of the other two when Jarod asks about a soccer team and Emily teases her about being the captain, followed by a dry scoffing sort of noise. "I would never. They might start thinking that I care about morale or something."
She nudges her ball off to the side, seemingly content with using Emily's. Unlike Emily she doesn't seem to have to take any time to get used to seeing things this way; she's been doing it for a long, long time, and in far darker and more dangerous places than this. Then, cheerful, "Emily's just saying that so she'll feel better when she loses."
Trash talking. The Tytalans perfected it.
[Jarod Nightingale] Jarod glanced at Ashley and smirked with amusement.
"Guess I missed the memo."
And wouldn't it be funny if this was how they solved their problems, rather than with spells and guns? If the Traditionalists and the Technocracy could battle it out on the soccer field for the rights to the city. Life would be like a Disney sports epic. (Based on a True Story.) And people wouldn't have to die, or suffer more than the occasional injury.
He wasn't dressed for the occasion, as they were, but neither was he wearing anything particularly restrictive of movement. Underneath his jacket, he had on a white henley and a pair of jeans. His shoes were a little on the expensive end of the spectrum, but their intention was for walking, not sitting in a boardroom.
When Ashley responded to Emily's teasing, his smile broadened. Perhaps unexpectedly (he'd never once given the impression that he was the slightest bit interested in football or any other sport, let alone that he knew how to play) he asked, "Want to go two against one?"
[Emily Littleton] "Oh, I'm sorry," Emily says, feigning surprise, placing her hand over her sternum in a delicate gesture of surprise or disdain. "Were you crowing, lovely? How'd this go for your team last time? Ohh, that's right. We beat you."
Trash talk. About football. It was practically a required art in Manchester. Jarod would know full well how Emily felt about her hometown's team. They'd never really talked about it either. But he'd lived in Britain, and he knew about Football Clubs, and Manchester United was the one sports club Emily cared about in the slightest. Despite Wharil's attempt to make her feign an interest in the Cubs last winter.
Then she turned that smirk toward Jarod, which was a far more dangerous pursuit with the tension they had built up between them lately.
"Oh?" she says. It's a wicked little lilt. She plays with the ball with one foot as she studies him. "You want to play?" Raised eyebrow, sweeping look. She's teasing though. Emily isn't really taunting Jarod. He's likely better at this game (and also at football) than she is. Instead she digs her toe under the ball and lifts it in an arc toward him. It'd be easy to stop and return, but he'd likely have to get those far-more-expensive-than-she-knows clothes a little mussed.
[Ashley McGowen] "I let you win. I just wanted to hear Atlas brag about a victory," Ashley says, and her tone is light enough. Ashley is the sort of person who enjoys fighting, even when it's dangerous, even when it's in jest, and there really isn't any sign that her temper might sour the way Riley's had on Memorial Day.
She too grins at Jarod and is about to reply that she could take them both - even though Emily is a bit more practiced at this sort of thing and Jarod is much, much more athletic - like the tenacious Hermetic she is. She doesn't seem too surprised, even though she suspects he's going to get mud all over the slightly-too-expensive shoes he has on; it doesn't really matter. He'd get them walking around in the grass when it's like this, anyway.
But Emily whips the ball toward Jarod before she can answer, and Ashley readies herself without any apparent care for who is on whose team. She suspects they'll figure it out.
Ashley pushes the sleeves of her undershirt up to the elbows, idly tracking the arc of the ball in the peripheral vision of her right eye and taking a few steps over to flank Emily.
[Jarod Nightingale] She kicked the ball toward him, and he caught it beneath his foot.
Emily's response to his request had been challenging, and in turn, the smile he afforded her was more than a little cocky. Cockiness was a state he embodied well, and often. It fit him.
He didn't bother to trash-talk, though. That would have just delayed things. Instead he unzipped his jacket and slid free of its encumbrance, tossing it carefully to the side. If he had any reservations about this, he didn't show it. He did, however, aim very carefully for a spot on the grass that contained neither mud nor pooled water. His shirt was white, which... probably spelled trouble, but it was fairly cheap as far as his clothes went. He pushed the sleeves up to his elbows, and without a word, shifted from stillness to sudden, graceful motion, directing the ball across the grass with his feet as he ran for one of the makeshift goals.
[Dex+Ath ftw?]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 7, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Emily Littleton] Emily would have reminded Ashley that it's not her in nature to let anyone win, much less in Riley's, but as soon as she opened her mouth Jarod took advantage of their trash talk to get a headstart toward one of the goals. Apparently, dividing up teams was utterly unnecessary in the Verbena's mind. That likely meant this was going to devolve into a game of running about in the dark, also with a ball. Emily didn't mind overmuch. They were already out in the dark, it was already wet.
She flashes Ashley a broad grin and takes off after Jarod.
At least he was easy to find in the moonlight and ambient city lights. White shirts stood out. Not that Emily expected it to stay white for long.
[Dex + Ath! Go go go!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] Emily grins at her as Jarod takes off with the ball, and Ashley isn't sure whose goal that's supposed to be, but it doesn't matter much. Running around in the dark, indeed. She doesn't need the white shirt as a beacon to track Jarod: the Ars Essentiae is doing that for her well enough, letting her see both where he is and where the ball is so long as it remains in motion. How far away they are.
Apparently taking that grin to mean that they are on the same team, she too takes off after Jarod, intending to come up around his other side. She'll probably be the most tired of them after this is over - she's the only one without a knowledge of Life and her slight form is not built for endurance - but that doesn't keep her from sprinting.
[Dex + Ath?]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 5, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Jarod Nightingale] He wasn't really a good enough football player to have much hope in a game that was two-against-one, but between the three of them, he probably had the largest advantage simply by virtue of the fact that he'd been born with long legs and an almost inhuman physical grace. In keeping with that, he ran across the field with long, easy strides, but it had been awhile since he'd kicked a ball around, and Emily was more practiced at this game than he was. Ashley and Emily came at him from either side, and he managed to stay ahead of the Hermetic, but Emily snatched the ball neatly out from under him.
Naturally, he turned and ran after her, attempting to get it back.
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Emily Littleton] Grass fields are always nicer than dirt lots, or parking asphalt, or cobblestone streets. Only the latter provided the same uncertain roll and bounce to the ball as grass. There's something timeless, for the Singer, about this sport. It's a little piece of home she doesn't have to explain to share. It didn't require much translation. Most countries in the world can understand Football. She'd played a lot less of it since moving to the States, but Ashley was right -- shh, don't tell the Hermetic -- this is one thing guaranteed to ger her mind off the problems facing her cabal just now.
Besides, if she lost her focus long enough, Ashley would win. And then she'd been (even more) insufferable. Emily couldn't have that.
Snagging the ball from Jarod, she makes a quick change of direction and takes off for the opposite goal. Naturally, she assumes both of the more experienced mages will be tailing her now. 2 vs 1 isn't necessarily about static teams, not with stubborn will workers for friends.
She hopes to maintain enough of a lead on them to make a shot on the goal.
[Dex + Ath! Run run run! Dribble dribble dribble!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 9, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] Emily's assumption is that Ashley will dart in and try to take the ball from her, but as she passes the Hermetic, Ashley does follow her, but with the intent of defending the ball so that Emily can make a shot. The kind of person who prefers static teams or at least a set of rules to go by, perhaps, or at least the opportunism she regularly spouts doesn't seem to apply here.
Thus she watches Jarod, doing her best to get in his way and be a general nuisance while Emily takes the ball to the other end of their makeshift court.
[Dex + Ath! Block!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3 (Botch x 1 at target 6)
[Jarod Nightingale] The fact that the two women paired up of their own accord was of no surprise to him. It had in fact been what he'd assumed when he'd made the suggestion of two against one (though this was less a comment on how he saw the two of them than how he saw himself). So Emily stole the ball, and Ashley attempted to block him from taking it from her, but this attempt did not prove successful. The wet grass got the best of the Hermetic's footing, and Jarod jumped around her in time to whisk the ball away from Emily and take it back in the other direction.
[Go go go!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Emily Littleton] Emily pauses for a moment when Jarod steals the ball and Ashley goes down. But only for a moment. It doesn't take long to remember what happened last time Ashley took a spill on the football pitch. She'd landed on her wrist at some sickening angle, and then started giggling. So there's a bare moment of concern, before Emily races after the long-legged Verbena.
Ashley would be far more ticked at her if she let Jarod score first.
If anyone else wandered past, they'd likely marvel at what had to be stupid college kids playing in the park too late at night. If any other Awakened wandered past, they'd likely wonder what warranted such a conglomeration of resonances (Hunger. Reverence. Sensuality. Cold. Unrelenting. Relentless. Poignant. Determined. Thriving.) It was like some great wrestling match between Old Gods. All on the doorstep of All Hallow's Eve.
This was the stuff nightmares and ghost stories were made of.
It says a lot about Emily's year that she's gone from wide-eyed fear and wonder to calling these things goofing off in the park with friends.
But Jarod has the ball, and she's not going to let him make a shot on goal without a defender. And Ashley is either just fine, or determined to deal with it on her own, without help. So she runs, tries to steal the ball back, or at least muss up his shot.
[Dex + Ath!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 5, 8 (Failure at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] It is, perhaps, characteristic of Ashley's life that her feet should go out from under her the moment she starts to have some real confidence in her abilities. She can see the moving ball and the tails of heat Emily and Jarod leave behind them in the darkness, but the mud under the grass is cold and hard for her to catch sight of without light to call attention to it. Her feet skid along the slick ground and in seconds she winds up sprawled on her back.
She doesn't get angry. She laughs. Though at least she didn't land at some horrible angle this time.
She promptly pushes herself back to her feet, untroubled by the mud splattered along the back of her shirt and her jeans and now covering her hand. These things wash off. Emily guessed right: Ashley would have been more unhappy if she'd let Jarod score. Though as it is, she can't get across the makeshift pitch toward the Verbena anyway, and the ball goes through the goal.
Ashley offers the two of them a wry smirk and reaches back with her unmuddied hand to smooth her hair back down. "I guess it's a good thing you weren't the one I decided to trash talk," she tells Jarod while she waits for him to bring the ball back.
[Jarod Nightingale] It was certainly a potent mixing of energies. Given another set of circumstances, they might achieve great things or tear each other apart. Luckily for all involved, Gods could play games just the same as mere mortals.
Ashley was on the ground, and Emily couldn't quite catch up to him. The first goal was his despite their combined efforts, and with a swift kick, he sent the ball sailing through the markers. Turning around, he put his arms up into the air and shouted victoriously. Then he grinned in an almost intolerably self-satisfied manner.
Like Ashley, he was competitive. And he liked to win.
"Your turn," he said, after retrieving the ball and tossing it at Ashley.
[Emily Littleton] The ball goes through the markers. Emily slows and circles back, having to listen to Jarod hoot and holler. She leans forward, braces her hands on her knees for a moment. Lets her breath catch up with her body while he's off collecting the ball. If his victory lap brings him past Emily, she'll good naturedly shove him -- there's no power to it, certainly not enough to off balance him. He knows that, though. Knows that there's no way she could move his bulk if she tried.
"Nice shot," she manages. It sounds mostly like good sportsmanship. It is warm and friendly enough, but they are all driven and competitive in their own ways. Then the Singer is glancing toward her team-mate, looking for a cue for what direction to take off in. Ashley controls the ball and apparenlty its the Verbena who needs to be double-teamed tonight.
[Ashley McGowen] Jarod raises his arms and yells, which makes the Hermetic grin as he starts back toward the two of them. She likes to win, but apparently this is enough fun that she doesn't mind losing. Perhaps her father's lectures about a lack of ego were ingrained during this aspect of her childhood, at least, if nothing else.
She doesn't shove him when he goes by; Ashley is small enough that she'd risk knocking herself over just from the momentum, and wouldn't that be embarrassing.
When Jarod throws the ball in her direction she catches it, then drops it to the ground, starting forward once and then passing it to Emily while she runs for the other goal.
[Dex + Ath! Kahseeno, I know where your children sleep.]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Jarod Nightingale] Emily gave him a playful shove as he jogged past her, but it didn't break his stride. It did, however, cause him to laugh, and then to turn around after he'd tossed Ashley the ball and fix Emily with a smile that landed itself somewhere between friendly (he was having fun, in spite of himself) and suggestively daring. (A number of things could be read into that.)
And then Ashley took off with the ball, passing it to Emily with a skill and precision that she hadn't shown in their play up to this point - a reminder not to underestimate her. (Generally speaking, it was never a good idea to underestimate Ashley.) Jarod attempted to intercept the pass, but it wasn't likely that he'd manage it.
[Stealing the ball!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Emily Littleton] It didn't take much to turn things physically suggestive between the Verbena and his once student. After all, they communicated most clearly when they said nothing at all. His hint of suggestively daring is answered by a flicker of the wickedness he'd seen in her at the club, with Bastian, when she was carrying his favorite shot and a lime. It's just an echo, of course, because she's dressed for rainy day mischief not dancing. And that wickedness folds into a smirk that lingers even as she looks past him, to see Ashley taking off with a deftness and grace that might just mean the next point will be theirs.
There's a taunting little flick of her eyebrows when she momentarily glances back at Jarod. It promises nothing at all. It's a silent form of laughter, and it pairs with the easier cant to her grin. This is fun. It's less feigned. She's keeping less back from them now.
No, it was never a good idea to underestimate Ashley. Or to taunt Jarod. Emily occasionally fell into the trap of doing one or the other on any given day. She still had a lot to learn.
Jarod tries to steal the ball, Emily strives to keep control of it and carry it further down field.
[Go team go! Dex + Ath!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley doesn't notice the suggestiveness or the flirting; she has, by now, closed in on the other end of the pitch, expecting that Emily will keep up. When a quick glance behind her realizes that somehow the Singer has fallen behind, Ashley starts back again.
Her intent is to block Jarod, since Emily is trying to keep control of the ball. Hopefully it will go better than it did last time.
[Dex + Ath!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Jarod Nightingale] Had Ashley not taken such a big lead when she'd sprinted forward, he'd have been able to take back control of the ball from Emily. As it was, Jarod had to rush to close the distance, changing direction to follow the ball as Ashley passed it across the field. Emily was still kicking it toward the goal when he approached, and then there was Ashley trying to block him. He, in turn, attempted to dodge around her to take the ball before Emily could score a goal.
[Nooo, no goal for youuu!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Emily Littleton] The three of them closed in on the far end of the field in a rush. Ashley was trying to block Jarod, who was stepping around the smaller mage and continuing on to harass Emily. Emily was trying to avoid running headlong into either of them, and trying to find the goal markers in the dark and muddy pitch. There's not a lot of time for aiming, but hopefully the added awareness that her rotes have given her will help place the ball into the goal.
He looms. She shoots.
[Dex + Ath! C'mon, Kahseeno. I even left out an offering!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 3, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Jarod Nightingale] [No no, mine!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 7, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Emily Littleton] [No! Mine -- er, Ours! Me and Ashley's. Damnit, you know what I meant.]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 7, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] [Continuing to get in the way!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 5, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Emily Littleton] [Good! He's distracted! Kick kick kick. Gooooooool?]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] The ball rolls toward the spot Emily has designated for the goal, and for a moment or two it looks like it might miss. When it goes through Ashley's arms shoot up and she proceeds to throw a series of rapid punches at the air in joyful silence. It's play right now, but it isn't difficult for one to imagine that without her physical shortcomings she probably would've made an enthusiastic (terrifying) warrior. With that spirit of an Old God that she embodies, that archaic word is the most appropriate.
She doesn't compliment her team mate on the shot; Ashley is the sort of person to let victories speak for themselves without seeing any real need for affirmations. And then runs over to go and get the ball and retrieve it so that she can bring it back to the others.
She passes the ball between her hands as she trots back to them, and then (sportsmanlike) tosses it back toward Jarod to decide what to do with it. It's just cold enough that the bellows of her lungs are pumping forth steam that lingers in the air before dissipating, and she flashes the two of them a flushed, happy grin as she waits.
[Jarod Nightingale] They fought for the ball as the three of them neared the goal. It was more than a little tempting to reach out and attempt a foul by grabbing the Chorister and manhandling her in some fashion or another, but to his credit, Jarod didn't do that. The two of them brushed against each other, the combined heat from their bodies intermingling, but Ashley's intervention blocked Jarod from being able to steal the ball, and Emily scored the second goal of the game.
For all that he'd been so smug earlier, he didn't seem particularly put out now that someone else had taken the limelight. (Games were always the most fun when there was real competition.) Instead he just grinned and gave her a gentle shove, just as she'd done to him earlier. Then he leaned in and whispered something that Ashley wouldn't hear.
The last time the two of them had been together, a lot had happened. It had been an emotionally exhausting evening for both of them. In spite of, or perhaps because of that, they behaved now as if nothing had happened. Not because it hadn't meant something, or because it wasn't still in their memories, but because right now what they both needed (probably what they all needed) was to just feel good for an evening. No matter how tenuous and fragile that state might be. So they played football, and they teased, and they flirted.
Ashley tossed the ball back to him, and Jarod dropped it to the ground and waited for Ashley and Emily to get into position across from him. His breath came in little clouds of steam in the moonlight, and a faint sheen of sweat was visible on his forehead. He wiped it with his hand, brushing back his hair.
Then he kicked the ball, and they were at it all over again.
[Go Verbena Go!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Jarod Nightingale] What he whispered to Emily: You smell good.
to Emily Littleton
[Emily Littleton] There is a struggle for the ball, for control, for the goal. In the end Reverence and Hunger triumph. In so much as the ball goes more or less through the goal. But Winter triumphs in his own way, distracting the Singer for a moment, his breath and voice curling into her ear, whispering some sussuration that...
... has nothing to do with football.
It catches her off-guard for a moment. And instead of cheering her goal, Emily steps out of the imbalance his playful shove causes and watches him. It's a lingering thing. Languid. Slow. Curious. (That is not quite in the rules, sir.) It was more flirtation than football, indeed. It toed a line. Ran right up against it. Stepped over.
But Ashley was right. She needed to do things that made her feel alive. There was no way for Emily to handle the darkness that had followed Owen and Nico back from Pierre, if she were not grounded in her own gratefulness and appreciation of life. Of living. She needed nights like this, flushed cheeks fighting back the brisk chill of Autumn, breath rising like tiny clouds, like gunsmoke, like whispers. She needed the huddle of them all close together, and even the line-crossing innuendo that slipped into those moments. She wasn't fighting off quiet, but Emily was struggling in her own way.
Right now, the struggle was not to let that cheeky Verbena get another goal! At least that's how the slightly narrowed eyes and subtle shift to the set of her jaw must read. Jarod takes off and Emily, willful Emily, easily-goaded Emiliy, and Emily of the well-known buttons, heads off after him. She casts a quick glance to Ashley as she goes.
[Dex + Ath! ... I am not distracted. That was a cheap shot. Troublemaker.]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] It's the first night that Ashley can remember being happy in a while. That's why this was her idea: perhaps in talking to Emily and Jacques about what needed to be done to shake off Quiet she remembered a bit of what she taught herself to do from January to June. It would be all too easy to suppress feeling, to avoid joy out of fear of its loss, except that she dealt with that once already.
It occurs in stolen moments and it doesn't last, but being able to make peace with loss is a skill one learns.
Either way, she isn't thinking about it at the moment because she isn't letting herself. The Hermetic has an uncanny talent when it comes to compartmentalization - this is something one learns to do on her own before she learns to do it with Mind. So she remains happily ignorant of the line-toeing, because she is a bit self-absorbed and doesn't know how to be any other way, because she doesn't know how to focus on other people when she's feeling things on her own so strongly, and because she's just that damned unobservant sometimes.
She springs off after Emily, and unlike the Singer hasn't been goaded; she's just trying to process all of it tactically, because for her that's part of the fun. She attempts to catch up with Jarod in spite of the Verbena's long strides, intending to steal the ball if she can.
[Dex + Ath!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Jarod Nightingale] He could be manipulative, and often was - in sly, underhanded ways. With Emily though, it was always with the clear sense of playing a game, rather than out of any deliberate intention to control her behavior (which he wouldn't have wanted to do, even if he could.) In this particular case, his attentions certainly had an effect, but it wasn't to throw off her game so much as to provide her with increased motivation.
If he was disappointed, he didn't show it. She stole the ball, and he turned on a dime and chased after her, attempting to wrest control once again. Ashley was close behind, breathing on his heels.
[That would be my ball, thank you.]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 5, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6) [WP]
[Emily Littleton] He's taller. He's faster. He's stronger. He's arguably a better athlete. All of these things, and the way he'd tried to curl her attention away from the game at hand, had Emily imminently focused on getting down the field before him. But there's a point, mid-field, where she realizes that she can't outrun him and that Ashley is close behind them. Emily gets in front of the ball, stops it with one foot, and redirects it to the Hermetic so that Ashley can make a run on the goal.
It's teamwork.
It's tactics.
It's hopefully quick enough that he won't notice the pass if Emily stays close to his space.
[Dex + Ath + WP, because srs football is srs business.]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6) [WP]
[Ashley McGowen] One could say this is arguably not fair, except that Jarod has given a very good account for himself in spite of being on his own. It won't be entirely surprising if the two person team wins, but they've had to work for it at the very least. There is no one in the park this late, but if anyone happened to come by they would probably be astonished at how well all three of them seem to be able to see both each other and the ball. They're playing extraordinarily well, for this being done in the dark.
Uncannily so.
Seeing the pass, Ashley catches it and then attempts to move around Jarod. Getting past people is one of the few situations in which her small stature works to her advantage.
[Dex + Ath]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 5, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Jarod Nightingale] Another goal for the Emily-Ashley tag team seemed imminent, and for the first time, a tiny glimmer of frustrated concentration broke through the self-assured air of fun and frivolity that had dominated Jarod's demeanor since they'd started playing. It wasn't that being beaten by a couple of smaller, less athletic women was troublesome to him (it was still two against one, and neither Emily or Ashley were particularly unskilled opponents.) He just didn't like to lose, period.
His attempt to take back control of the ball had failed, thanks largely to a very impressive bit of tricky footwork on Emily's part, and instead Ashley caught it deftly and dribbled it toward the goal. Jarod chased after her, putting on a burst of speed in the hopes that he might be able to catch her before she made her shot.
[Dex+Ath - this is the last time I'm spending WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6) [WP]
[Emily Littleton] It doesn't look good for the Verbena. Ashley's headed down field with the ball and she's got a clear shot on goal. Speedy as he is, Jarod hasn't caught up with her just yet. Emily calls out to cheer her team mate on, but she's far enough behind them now that she can't catch up by the time Ashley takes her shot.
They're alone in the park, acting like obnoxious college kids. Making noise. Playing reckless games in the dark. Emily's grinning, broadly, as she watches the trails that the other two mages leave in her awareness. The ball was another bright point of movement, a thing tracked. She watches, waits, ready to be her own brand of insufferable if the shot hits true.
She's also getting tired. It hasn't been a particularly gentle week. She hasn't slept much, and when she does her newest housemate sees fit to wake her up in creative ways. That An has lived through her first week in Emily's flat is a testament to the Singer's patience -- or to her lack of time in which to get the kitten re-adopted.
"Go, Ashley!"
[Ashley McGowen] [Goal?]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 7 (Failure at target 6)
[Ashley McGowen] ['Cause Mystic's nice!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 5 (Failure at target 7)
[Jarod Nightingale] [It's a failure, but at least it's a 1337 failure.]
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley must be getting tired too, though in her case it's likely more because she doesn't usually run up and down a field rather than because she's particularly lacking for sleep this week. She hasn't been summoned to the emergency room late to take care of Nico; she hasn't been up nights worrying about the well being of anyone else.
So upon nearing the goal she stops for a second, but the kick is sloppy and the ball goes wide. She can't blame it on her vision, either; that, at least, is compensated for tonight. And that's when a little frustration starts to show. She could accept losing when it was because Jarod provided good competition, but not because of her own incompetence. She manages to recover the ball, but her concentration has slipped and that too goes wide.
There's a muffled curse as she scrambles to recover it.
[Jarod Nightingale] He hadn't been able to catch her in time, but Ashley's kick aimed wide and missed the goal. Twice. Jarod.... stopped. And laughed. It was a pleasant sound, that laugh. It dissipated his momentary frustration with the game and brought a smile back to his face.
"What say we call it a draw?"
It was late, and both Ashley and Emily seemed tired. Jarod... did not. And that wasn't because he hadn't been working. There was sweat present on his skin. It shimmered a little in the mixed glow of the moon and street-lights, and the tips of his hair along the border of his face and neck were damp. He was breathing deeply, too, the way anyone would after racing back and forth across a field, though he didn't appear winded. Reaching down, he grabbed the edge of his shirt and brought it up to wipe the residue of sweat from his face and neck so that the cold wind wouldn't turn it icy on his skin. A momentary glimpse of torso was revealed (hello abs), but this was nothing that either of them hadn't seen before.
When he was done, he ran his tongue across his lips absently, tasting salt. "We should totally do this again some time. When I'm actually dressed for it." At this, he glanced down at his shoes, which were now splattered with mud and bits of grass (as well as the cuffs of his jeans) and made a bit of a face.
[Emily Littleton] Emily winced a little when the shot went wide, twice in a row. It's not that she cared, overmuch, about this game. It was just that she knew full well how much that stung. She tugged her hair free of her hoodie, resettled the way it closed around her neck against the cold. She jogged over to where Jarod was. This time there was no push, just the quiet glow of exercise and amusement.
"I'm fine with a draw," she says, and Emily's breathing is a little shifted. She's considerably out of practice with Owen and Riley gone for so long. "Well played, sir," she tells him, with an imaginary tip of her hat. (The time spent with Thomas is rubbing off on her.)
Jarod made a face at his shoes, and Emily smirked. "And have a team mate, perhaps?" she added to his list of things for next time. It's a gently ribbing. If Ashley's ameniable to a draw, she'll gather up her goal markers and football and set about finding her way home when they all part ways. But not before telling the Hermetic, in a quiet aside, "Thank you."
[Ashley McGowen] Jarod offers a draw. Ashley would usually refuse such a thing, and with vehemence, but the thought of running back up the pitch right at this moment makes her lungs screech in protest. The Hermetic watches the ball roll away and then promptly flops backward into the grass, sucking in a lungful of air and looking up at the overcast sky. Her frustration, too, has dissipated: it doesn't seem to be something she's doing out of irritation or even exhaustion, really.
It's muddy. She took a spill backwards earlier and her clothes are already streaked with soil and grass; she doesn't care. She holds up a hand and spreads her fingers wide as though to beg five minutes, though it's likely she won't need anywhere near that much time.
Evidenced by the fact that she says, seconds later, "We should."
Emily's quiet aside when she picks herself back up again draws forth little more than a wide grin of the type she'd given the Singer earlier on the pitch, and it's hard to know what she means by it. Whether it's appreciative of being thanked, or whether Emily didn't really have to thank her at all, or whether Emily's happiness was just an unexpected but pleasant side-effect because she'd just wanted a game. She's not telling.
