Touch Football mega thread

[nola_eleanor]

There was a field not too far from Phoenix Effect that was too small for all the various sports leagues in the city to have snapped up for weekend practices or games, but big enough for the fairly flexible game of touch football, so that's where they played. People came and went for most of the afternoon, though the game itself only lasted an hour and change. Almost everyone played, but there were several people watching, choosing to cheer or heckle or talk amongst themselves as it suited them.

When everyone got together enough to actually start the game, they divided into two teams, with Matteo as the referee. Zach's team was made up of Hazel, Max, Hanne, Nori, Nick, Alex, and Oliver; Kyle had Elspeth, Joel, Carrie, Caleb, Irene, Sam, and Elena on his team. It wasn't a blowout, but Zach's team won by a few touchdowns and were crowned the victors. Despite a couple minor accidents, everyone came out of it in one piece. More or less.

Comments

[nola_buckybarnes]

This was killing him, because of course he wanted to say yes please and spend the night happily having fun with Elspeth. But now that he remembered things, he knew the dangers of dating someone like him. Hell, even being friends was a risk. He also didn't want to hurt her, though, and didn't want to be an utter asshole. And of course he still loved the feel of her against him. "Why would you waste all that energy on a jerk like me?" he murmured, just for her ears.

Re: Katie

[nola_wanda]

Dani shook her head. "I'm not a sports person, I'm just here because Oliver invited me." Even if she had been into sports, her parents probably would have never let her play, or even watch with any real interest. Luckily it was one thing she didn't feel she'd missed out on too much. "I just met him too. He reminds me a lot of my brother."

[nola_quicksilver]

"You gonna play? You can be on my team." He was teasing, though he was also fully prepared to nag Sam into letting Dani take his place if that was necessary.

[nola_wanda]

"I don't think I'll be googling myself anytime soon. Too easy for it to mess with your head, no matter which life you're talking about." Dani had done a lot of work with boundary-setting for herself, tired of a lifetime of being inundated with things that could, that did, hurt her. But she also knew how tempting it was.

[nola_buckybarnes]

"I was hoping for clues, but instead got to see how strangers interpret my naked body. I've learned my lesson."

[nola_wanda]

She laughed and shook her head. "That's okay. I'm just going to watch." It was nice to be invited, though, even if observing was definitely more her speed. "I think Joel is playing though, and he's...he's from the same place I am."

[nola_quicksilver]

Oliver raised his eyebrows in surprise and looked around for Joel, who he knew a little through Elspeth. "Wow...who? I mean, other than being Joel."

[nola_eleanor]

"You are not a jerk. Trust me, I know jerks," she reassured him, pressing a kiss to his jawline. Where was this coming from? If it was just for being busy for a few weeks, there were far better ways to make it up to her than feeling bad about himself. "You are hot and fun to be with and I like you. And it's not wasted energy when I'm getting just as much out of it." Elspeth kissed him slowly, encouragingly, tugging on his bottom lip with her teeth as she broke it again. "What, you think I get you off out of the goodness of my heart?"

[nola_wanda]

"You know Joel?" Dani looked just as surprised as Oliver did. "He's Bucky Barnes, does he exist in your world? He said Steve's here, too. Cap." She was very out of the loop on a lot of pop culture and knew next to nothing about comics, but even she knew Captain America was a big part of that universe.

[nola_wanda]

"Welcome to what it's like to be a woman." Only it was clear from her tone that she didn't wish that on anyone. Though it would be handy if the experience could somehow be replicated for some women's studies classes. In even the few Dani had taken, there was always at least one guy who thought he knew what he was talking about and just didn't have a clue. "If only being fictional-but-not came with a manual, right?"

[nola_quicksilver]

"Yeah, he's seeing a friend of mine." He found Joel then, talking with Elspeth herself. "Jesus, Cap and Bucky are here? That changes some of the stuff we were assuming about this situation." He turned back to Dani. "But they're good to have on a team—of course, you know that. Well, Cap is, anyway; I don't know Bucky very well."

[nola_buckybarnes]

"Yeah, I sense it's like this bad for the average woman." He leveled a hand above his head. "And then here for Bucky Barnes specifically." Now the hand was below his clavicle. "And then the average man is..." He bent over to gesture to his knees, then stood again. "But the good news is, at least, we can figure out the manual together."

Re: Katie

[nola_jeangrey]

Was this the sister Oliver had mentioned? If so, what a sweet way to bring it up. But Katie wasn’t going to push it. “I’m not really a sports person either. I just wanted to spend some time outside with nice people. So it’s lucky you sat next to me.”

[nola_wanda]

He got it and Dani was just so relieved. She'd only just started to figure herself out, so people who understood her were few and far between, and bringing Wanda into it all had only made it seem more impossible. "I'm really glad you're here. I was feeling really...I don't know. Out of place? Sort of tacked on and extraneous? I have Pietro, but. He's my brother but also he isn't."

[nola_wanda]

"I wouldn't assume anything. I think what we actually know about what's going is probably only a tiny fraction, and I'm not sure we'll ever solve it like it's some kind of puzzle." Some situations could be solved by super heroes and some just required people, and Dani had the feeling that this was the latter. But then that was an assumption in its own right, too. "Bucky's a good person, I trust him." Not that Dani was thinking about a team so much as a friend. She knew which she needed more.

Re: Katie

[nola_wanda]

Dani flushed a little, though she wasn't sure why. And Katie was clearly the nice one here. "I definitely don't spend enough time outside." Maybe she should try to study outside more.

[nola_buckybarnes]

"I thought you were just a born teacher," he joked, genuinely touched by what she'd told him. He kissed the top of her head and said, "You're a star, you know that?"

[nola_buckybarnes]

"I can't even imagine how tough that is. The closest I've got is Steve, and I lost my mind without him in our own universe."

[nola_eleanor]

"Only when I'm inspired by the right student," she replied cheekily, grinning. "So is that a yes to coming over? I miss you."

[nola_wanda]

"I just want my brother in every universe to be safe and healthy and happy, and it feels like I never get that." Pietro had died, Ian was stuck with their parents, Oliver didn't have his Wanda. "It makes me wish I had my powers, so I could blow something up, blow off some steam. Of course that's probably also a very good reason not to have them." It was too easy for people to get hurt when she wasn't perfectly self-restrained.

[nola_quicksilver]

"I really, really need to watch those movies." He smiled apologetically. "I mean, I've seen parts of a few, but it felt like watching an adaptation of life as I knew it that took extreme liberties with the text, in retrospect."

[nola_wanda]

"I wish you wouldn't?" Dani replied softly, hesitantly. "I can't speak for anyone else, or the movies I'm not in, I guess--" She knew there were a lot of them, and that many of them were about characters she didn't know or events she wasn't part of, so she didn't feel the same way about them. "--but they feel like...I don't know, like an unauthorized biography. Like someone took, specifically, the worst or most difficult parts of my life and wrote about them to entertain people. Millions of people. But at least most of them don't know it's about me." Dani spent her whole life feeling exposed, and judged, and worse, she didn't need more of the same from Wanda's perspective.

[nola_buckybarnes]

"Have you tried boxing or something like that? It's not the same, but at least you'd get some of your feelings out."

[nola_quicksilver]

He winced. "I won't if you don't want me to."

[nola_buckybarnes]

"Let's see how we feel after the game?" he suggested. "I might be destroyed by all this exercise and wholesomeness."