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_beast]

"Thanks!" Zach said cheerfully, because who could feel bad after running around in the park on a beautiful day, playing a friendly game of football? He was still feeling energized. "Your team gave us a run for our money, though."

[nola_cyclops]

"We didn't work together very efficiently," Sam said with a nod, "But not a bad effort. You're good at this."

[nola_beast]

"Big family," Zach said by way of explanation. "Football games just seem to happen."

[nola_cyclops]

Sam liked Zach so much; he thought, as he stood there, how much Scott would have liked him too, if he'd been Zach instead of Hank. And he thought of Alex and felt a pang he didn't have time or space for about Zach's big family and what he was about to wrinkle or challenge or change, but it didn't stop him from saying, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

[nola_beast]

"Sure," he said, taking a swig of water from his stainless steel bottle. "And you know this win counts toward our running tally, right?" Of course Zach and Sam carefully kept track of their chess win-loss ratios.

[nola_cyclops]

"What are you talking about! This is a completely different game! This has to be a new tally. We can have a cumulative score across all competitions, and I'm very happy to compete with you in all kinds of activities, but you can't treat this like a chess game." Had Sam gotten worse since the whole thing happened or had he always been like this? Honestly he couldn't tell.

[nola_beast]

"Now, Sam, you're just saying that because this ruins your average," Zach said calmly, in his patient teacher voice, but the corners of his lips were twitching.

[nola_cyclops]

"I'm saying this because it's fair! The variables and rules and structures, not to mention difficultly levels, are vastly--" Oh, Zach was messing with him.

[nola_beast]

"I'm sorry to hear that this was very difficult for you," Zach said, just as solemn as before, but now he couldn't resist the slow-growing grin taking over his face.

[nola_cyclops]

"You are so infuriating--" But Sam chuckled, anyway.

[nola_beast]

"And you're so competitive." To be fair, though, so was Zach!

[nola_cyclops]

"I'm trying to talk to you!" Couldn't Zach feel this? How could Zach not feel this!

[nola_beast]

"I'm listening, but you just started yelling at me..." Zach knew he'd instigated it, of course. He was still grinning.

[nola_cyclops]

"You asked for it, I had no choice. But I'm trying to tell you something important. You can yell at me after I tell you, but before you do, you should know someone has already done that, and it pays to be original. Zach, look at me when I say this." Sam looked at Zach, direct and square and true. "Somewhere inside you, this won't sound insane. Your name is Henry McCoy. Hank. Beast. You're an X-Man. I don't know why we're here with new identities, but we aren't the only ones."

[nola_beast]

Zach's smile dimmed steadily throughout Sam's rush of information, but hadn't completely disappeared by the time he was done. It lingered there, frozen and stunned, more of a grimace than anything else. "What are you..."

He wanted so badly to argue against this. To say it was literally, positively insane, to ask if Sam needed help. But it was as if hearing Hank's name awakened that part of himself, and once they were out, he was flooded with memories and emotions he'd never known were there all along. Hank, being Hank, could see convincing evidence when it was laid out in front of him.

Zach rubbed his temples, eyes wide. "Stars," he muttered.

[nola_cyclops]

That was so Hank that Sam felt an overwhelming fondness for him. "I'm sorry, but I had to tell you."

[nola_beast]

"Who yelled at you?" Zach said, voice still soft and considering, turning over all this new information in his mind. One thing was certain—Sam was Scott, somehow all at the same time. That was as plain as the sky being blue and the grass being green.

[nola_cyclops]

"Who do you think?" Sam answered wryly, nodding over his shoulder towards Caleb. They may not be speaking, but if they were in the same shared space, then Sam was going to know where his brother was every single minute.

[nola_beast]

When he saw Caleb-Alex with new eyes, Zach barked a surprised laugh that turned into a sad ohhhhh midway through. He turned back to Sam and said, "That adds up. Who else is there? And why is this happening?"

Hank had always asked a lot of questions, but then, he'd answered a lot of them too.

[nola_cyclops]

"So far I know that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are here. And Jean." Sam tried not to give any of those names any particular weight; he was sure he failed. "We could really use your help on the why. I know it isn't Scarlet Witch, so it isn't another --" Huh."I was going to make a reference, but some of us are from different timelines and I don't know if you're from mine."

[nola_beast]

"Other timelines? Like Dark Beast?" Oh, this was getting better and better. "And Jean is here, but you're dating a man? Oh, Scott."

[nola_cyclops]

Yeah, there was no way this wasn't Sam's own personal Scott. None of them could ever quite say 'oh Scott' in the same way. Especially when it came to Jean. "Don't even get me started on Dark Beast, I was dealing with him right before I ended up here. Jean's timeline is one of the fictional movie timelines here, so she knows all of us in a different way.... and if you want to feel the full of effect of my current romantic situation, I suggest you take another look at Oliver."

[nola_beast]

The crowd was still pretty big, so Zach had to search a little more before he found Oliver talking with one a short brunette woman from the other team. It seemed impossible, but Zach's eyes got even bigger. "Oh, Scott."

[nola_cyclops]

"It's been an intense few days, to say the least," Sam said, although that was obvious.

[nola_beast]

"Okay, I need to focus." Zach put a hand on either side of his eyes, like he was blocking out the intense WTFery of the world he was now seeing in double time. In the grand scheme of things, Scott dating Quicksilver, though unexpected, was not the big issue right now. "So we have no ideas of why or how this is happening, or because of who?"