000 [Action] 4th Walled

[aerialassault]

[The mass influx of wingless people doesn't throw Cliff off his game. After the last few weeks of cleaning up messes and dealing with the natural fallout of the Malnosso's influences within the village, the flood of new faces is somewhat relaxing for a laid back guy.

He set's his sights primarily on helping out in the Welcome Center for the weekend, planning on spending his time pestering his friends while he was on the lookout for familir faces that he hadn't seen for a while. When he's not there he spends his time hanging out in the Battle Dome or Good Spirits in the evenings before returning to his apartment in the Ground Building at night.

All in all, it's a pretty normal day.]

Comments

battle dome!

[aerialassault]

It's called basketball. [He grinned.] A friend of mine's really good at it, but I know enough to help you learn a little bit about it.

battle dome!

[positivelycharged]

[...He knew it! He totally called it! But that's okay because he really doesn't remember a thing about how the game goes. Smiling!] Basketball, okay! I'm gonna be an expert at basketing balls!

battle dome!

[aerialassault]

Yeah, you are! And, if you get really good, you might get to be a pro one day!

[He wasn't sure how basketball and other sports worked in Florian's world...but, no matter. The kid was eager to learn something new, and that was awesome.]

battle dome!

[positivelycharged]

I'll be the best pro there is! Even better than your friend! Can your friend play with us too? Maybe we can all play together!

[Whoever the friend is...but saying this sure is getting him excited, either way. Look at him bounce!]

battle dome!

[aerialassault]

[Cliff laughed. Man, did he miss this kid...]

Sure, we can do that. You've just gotta remember though that a pro basketball player is only as good as the rest of their team is. It's not a sport you can do all alone, like swimming is.

battle dome!

[positivelycharged]

[He has to think about that for a second.]

...So it's a game where you work together? I like working together! But how do we win? [There's only two of them there today...!]

battle dome!

[aerialassault]

[Don't worry, kid. It'll all make sense.]

Normally, you've got two teams playing against eachother. The team that earns the most points wins the game. But, we don't need to worry 'bout that right now. You're just gonna learn how to bounce and throw the ball today.

battle dome!

[positivelycharged]

Ohh, okay. So we practice first and then do teams. [Oh but he understands this practice part!] I know how to do that! I'm especially good at bouncing.

[Though dribbling is probably another thing entirely.]

battle dome!

[aerialassault]

Aah-- but can you do it like this?

[He demonstrated, deftly tossing the ball toward the ground and intercepting on the rebound, quickly bouncing the ball between the hard floor and his open hand-- dribbling the ball, just for Florian to watch.]

battle dome!

[positivelycharged]

[He watched the demonstration quietly, mouth just slightly open, very obviously totally new to this whole idea.

And then:]

.......I can do it that way too!

battle dome!

[aerialassault]

[He smiled.]

You can? Show me.

[He gently tossed the ball too the kid, inviting him to go ahead and try it.]

battle dome!

[positivelycharged]

[He caught the ball easily enough - he's gotten pretty good at that.

The dribbling, on the other hand...probably isn't going so well, considering he just accidentally bounced the ball waaaaayyyy off over there.]

Ah--oops.

battle dome!

[aerialassault]

[Clearly, this was gonna take a little time.]

Don't sweat it, kid. Nobody gets it on their first try.

[He retrieved the ball and bounced it back over.]

You've just gotta go a little easy on it, is all.

battle dome!

[positivelycharged]

Easy...like this?

[Bouncing it...reeaaallly slowly......or as slowly as you can bounce a ball, anyway.]

battle dome!

[aerialassault]

Close! Now you've just gotta make it a little faster without doing it too hard. Think you can do it?

battle dome!

[positivelycharged]

I can do it! It's not hard.

[He says, but it's hard to keep himself from trying to go too fast, and it doesn't take too long before the ball slips out of his fingers again.]