After the Game

[Katie]

Four seconds left on the clock.

Fig intercepted the ball and passed it to Atalanta, who kicked up and spun herself left and passed off to Jinna, who slapped it into the neutral basket. Plus one point for the Schenectadys, which put them one point ahead, and three seconds left on the clock.
The other team had the ball now (as according to the rules) and they sent their scorer right up the middle of the court, towards the Schenectady goal. That would win them the game if they got it.

But the defense moved in and the purple-haired scorer let it go too early and Kebey kicked it away and Atalanta caught it and there went the buzzer. 20-21, in their favor. Alright.

The locker rooms were full of post-win buzz. Jinna and the defense were getting most of it, but Kebey slapped Atalanta on the shoulder and said "Nice pass!"

Zie would have said it to anyone in her place, she reminded herself, but it still felt nice.

Atalanta showered and changed (oversize WoW t-shirt, shorts, sandals) and headed out. She left the complex through the side door, like she always did, and looped around the front, and--

--almost ran smack into someone, yeep. Luckily, she managed to backpedal enough that she didn't actually hit them, thank god, because that would have been really embarrassing. "Uh," she said, "Sorry."

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Whoa!"

Kestrel jumped back in alarm, the feathers of his wings fluffing out--and then he just stared. [i[Up[/i], specifically, because at first all he saw was chest (and a WoW design, nice!) and it wasn't until he craned his neck back that he saw her face. Her. A really, really tall girl.

Then again, that was most people, because Kestrel was a damned short guy.

Blinking yellow eyes, Kestrel took another step back to give her space and gave himself a shake, feathers smoothing back out. "Heh, whoa, sorry, my bad," he said with a sheepish grin, reaching back to rub his neck. "That woulda ended badheywhoa!"

He literally had to do a double-take.

Was she...?

No fuckin' way.

Just moments ago, Kestrel had been chilling at his favorite sports bar catching the last hour of the Mag-Ball game. He wasn't huge on sports, but he watched it when it was on, got sucked in when he did, and he could name teams and players and had his favorites. So not obsessed, but sure, he'd call himself a fan. And now here he was, staring up at the spitting image of one of the players...that he'd just been watching on TV.

It couldn't be her.

Could it?

Would it be super stupid if he asked? Or would it be flattering to be mistaken for someone like that? Well, shit, he'd be flattered so why not! And it looked just like her! Though...would she wear a WoW shirt? She looked really cool on TV and that was so dorky. A sports player probably didn't even have time for all that!

He opened his mouth to speak, but what came out was, "Always thought ya were shorter."

[Katie]

Whoa, wings. Puffy wings. Really big wings, that would probably be useful as hell in microgravity, although from the looks of things regular gravity was kinda out. (Thank you, bonus science class.) Also the guy was really short, and he was either looking at her breasts or her shirt or both (but probably her breasts, because most people did and anyway the shirt just had the logo on and was about the most common design). Although she couldn't actually be too mad about that because they were kind of at his face height and he was looking up now anyway.

"Yeah," Atalanta started to say (for want of anything better), and then the guy did this...thing. He looked at her and then away and then back again, like he'd noticed something weird. It was kinda weird. Was it the skin? It was the skin sometimes. Or the teeth. Or maybe it was the breasts+gaming shirt thing. That happened too. She was expecting him to ask--well, okay, she wasn't exactly sure what, but it definitely wasn't what he actually said. Where did this guy even know her from?

"I--you what?" she said, staring at him.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Er..." Shiiiiit. Right then, right there, Kestrel wished he could sink into the ground and straight to the earth's core, never to be heard from again. Or, y'know, that there was at least a backspace or edit button for real life interactions. His face flushed, feathers bristling.

"I, er..." He cleared his throat. "I, uh...yeah. Let's start over." Another brief throat clearing as he struggled to save face.

"So. Hey! Heh. Sorry. I shoulda been lookin' where I was goin', that was prob'ly my bad. Uh, so...yer a gamer, eh?" SHIT! He looked at her boobs. He was totally looking at her boobs and she could probably tell because the logo was right there. "'Cause of the logo. I mean, WoW."

Oh wow. Could he get any lamer? Somehow, he was beginning to think his attempt at saving the situation was far more awkward than the truth.

[Katie]

Starting over seemed like a really great idea right now. At least she wasn't blushing or anything, because that was even more embarrassing than screwing up a conversation with some random guy within the first sentence. (Seriously, who did that? Morons like her, that was who.)

"Uh, mine too," she said. It kinda was--amateur mag-ball players should definitely have more coordination and spacial awareness and shit. But apparently that kind of thing only worked off the court for her when it wouldn't be horribly socially embarrassing if it didn't. "Sorry. Again."

And now he was staring at her breasts again. She hated it when people did that. Atalanta crossed her arms (under them, because they were too bulky to go over) and hoped he got the message.

Oh. Okay. Gaming she could do. Gaming was Safe, she could talk about that no problem. "Uh, yeah," Atalanta said, "I work for Hurricane." Then she realized that that wasn't exactly what he meant, so she added, "I play too, though. Host. You?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

...What.

Kestrel stared at her. This time, he stared at her face, not her boobs. It was a ways up (her boobs were more at eye-level than her face--hey, not his fault for being short or hers for being tall!) but he gaped up at her just the same.

Did she just say she worked for Hurricane?

"Get out!" Kestrel gave himself a shake. "So yer like...ya work fer them? Yer fuckin' kiddin' me! Whatcha do fer 'em? Like programmin' shit?" Then he realized he'd regressed in his excitement and felt his face heat. He cleared his throat and ruffled his wings.

"Er. I ain't played much yet," he said. "But I'm Host, too. 'Cause of the Red Elves." They were hot, what could he say?

[Katie]

"I'm a mod," said Atalanta. "Like, forums and stuff. I mean, I do programming to, but on the side." The place her dad had moved them now was pretty expensive. So two jobs. They could move, but he liked it there, said it was good hunting, and he didn't have enough stuff that made him happy. She couldn't tell him they oughta move, not when he was so in love with the place.

Course he was Host cause of the Red Elves. It was a guy thing. Boobs and all, plus ass and the "exotic" (Atalanta hated that word) thing. She played an orc--big like her, but way more kick-ass. There was just something satisfying about slicing up monsters with a giant ax.

Next thing to talk about after faction was guild. Why couldn't she talk gaming all the time? It was so easy. She knew what everything meant and she didn't have to get personal or anything. "In a guild?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

Kestrel blinked several times and then it clicked. "Oh. A mod. That kinda mod! Oh! I thought ya meant like, y'know, mod development. Like fer games. An'...stuff." Then he jolted, wings bristling, and waved his hands.

"Not that forum moddin' ain't awesome. I bet that's a fun job!" he said with a grin. Not that he knew much about it. He wasn't much of a forum person. Didn't mean he wasn't still enamored with the fact that she worked for a big company like that. That like, made her famous by association or something!

At her next question, he shook his head. "Naw. I tried it once but couldn't understand a word they was sayin'. Then I got in a fight with some guy and was booted. Guess I just make a better lone wolf." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. "What 'bout ya?"

[Katie]

Hah, if only. Atalanta wasn't near good enough at programming for that kind of thing.  "Uh, yeah," she said. Fun. Right. Except for the parts where she came across posts with rape threats and kitchen jokes and all that shit. Lucky thing the ToS of the forums meant she was able to delete most those right off (it was what kept her job as Safe territory). "It's fine."

Yeah, guildie slang got...thick sometimes. Atalanta'd been real close to giving up, but she'd gotten it eventually. "La Malga," she said. There was just a little bit of pride in her voice--La Malga was a really good guild, and she liked it a lot. Apart from the mag-ball team, the other guildies were pretty much the closest thing she had to friends, which was nice. Atalanta knew she couldn't really count on them and all, but it was somebody to talk to who wasn't her dad (she loved him best, of course, but sometimes she just needed to see somebody else).

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Oh, I think I heard of 'em," Kestrel said with a smile, though he hadn't heard of them at all. He just figured it was better to sound like he did, to act like he knew what he was talking about, because she obviously liked this stuff and he didn't want to seem a wet blanket or clueless.

"How do ya like 'em?"

There! A nice, neutral way of asking what the heck La Malga was without admitting his ignorance.

[Katie]

"Oh, they're great," said Atalanta. She smiled--this was a good topic, and La Malga was awesome. "Real professional, no griefing allowed, this great questing team setup. We've got this tavern we use to meet up in Crowholdt." The setup in particular was the best part--set teams, and then they got switched around sometimes. Her team members were really nice and everything, even if she didn't know them that well. And the switching was kind of awkward (new people, not Safe), but it was a pretty good skill test, because you had to work around new people.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Kestrel's brow furrowed in confusion. Professional? Could gamers really be called professional? Sounded kinda funny to him, 'cause the few times he'd run around in an MMORPG, there'd been a lot of swearing and, well...they were pretending to be paladins and stuff taking out dark mages and fearsome beasts and whatnot. It all seemed kinda silly. Fun, but silly.

"Ohhh! So yer like a guild or somethin'?" he said, then grinned. "Well, I can't say I'm too like...pro or nothin', but I gotta say it's tough flyin' solo." Rubbing the back of his neck, he shrugged his shoulders.

"There like some application process to get in?"

[Katie]

"Yeah," said Atalanta, shrugging. Quests were kinda hard when you were all on your own, and a lot of them you flat-out couldn't do cause you needed a buddy to heal you up, or maybe another one to soak up the damage while you were healing yourself.

"And you can ask them and stuff, but usually they ask you." She'd half thought they were joking when they invited her, but nope. Real. Cassia's idea (Cassia was pretty cool, even if Atalanta didn't really talk to her that much.)

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Hmm..." Kestrel pondered that for a moment; it had been a while since he'd played so hopefully he'd even remember how to run a search for guilds! But he figured he could search the Net if he got lost. Better than losing face by asking her how to. "Sweet deal. I'll have to look into tha'! Maybe catch ya 'round, uh...um..." Wait a minute.

It occurred to him then that he didn't actually know her name, that he kept referring to her in his head as, well...her.

Whoops.

Shifting his wings, a motion not unlike an awkward shrug except with more feather-fluffing, Kestrel gave a sheepish grin. "Er. Jus' sorta realized I dunno yer name."

He glanced both ways, then looked back to her and held out his hand. "I'm Kestrel. Say, ya wanna like get outta here? Somewhere less middle-of-th'-sidewalk?"

[Katie]

"Uh." True. They hadn't exactly gotten around to the whole name thing, what with that weird thing that had happened first and then the boob-staring and then the game talk. It was just the kinda thing that happened to her. She could give out her name, though. It wasn't like she was the only one ever with it, right?

"I'm Atalanta." She almost said something about the name going with the wings, and then stopped herself because it was stupid, and she'd just met him, and he was like everybody else but she still didn't want to look like a total moron.

And. Er. Did she want to? They were in public right now and they'd probably go to a public place, and there were a lot of bad things that could happen ever then...but did she want to? It was fun sometimes when the team managed to talk her into going places after practice. She'd actually have to talk here. But she could talk game stuff, all she had to do was stay on the topic. "Um, sure," she said, and hoped she wasn't expected to think of a place.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Atalanta, huh? Cool," Kestrel said with a smile. "So, I know this pretty neat like gamer bar type place...y'know, arcade but with alcohol? Sound like yer type-a place?"

He'd been there a few times, even met some cute chicks there! It wasn't far from his apartment so it was convenient and not all smoky like other bars, because that was bad for the screens. Best of all worlds!

[Katie]

It didn't really, but she'd already said yes. Backing out would be--not good. For starters. "Yeah, sounds fine," she said. Atalanta was trying for at least semi-enthusiastic. She hoped it'd gone through.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Cool! Alright! So, yeah, I'll show ya where it is!"

She didn't seem all that excited, but eh, he was a strange, random dude that had just randomly invited her out to a geek tavern so it figured she'd have her reservations--he guessed. Despite the fact that she towered over him and looked athletic enough to kick his ass into next month, while he was scrawny and, well...bird-delicate. But who knew! For all she knew, he could be some psycho with a posse waiting just around the corner.

Ick.

"It's jus' down th' street, coupla blocks away." Smiling, he turned and motioned for her to follow, making sure to keep his wings tucked in close so he didn't accidentally whack her.

[Katie]

Atalanta followed him, having all kinds of second thoughts. But she was stuck with it now. It wasn't that long a walk to the bar, and he didn't have any friends who suddenly joined them.

The bar wasn't that bad, either. Screens were all in good condition, glasses weren't all chipped or dusty, staff looked alright. Good. "So, uh," she said, "You want me to buy?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Wha?" Kestrel stared at Atalanta, feathers slightly fluffed, and then shook his head vigorously and swallowed down a rush of embarrassment. "Oh, no! I got this. I invited ya, yeah? Be pretty funky makin' you buy when I asked ya along."

But he probably didn't look like he could afford much, he imagined, being on the lower end of the middle caste and a lowly bagger at a grocery store. That stung his pride. So maybe he did live sort of payday to payday but she didn't have to know that!

"Whatcha want?"