Open - Play Ball!

"Heeey! Over here!"

At the loud high-pitched call, Valdrada looked back at its apparent source. She had just been going through Brisshal looking for something to do, and happened to be passing by a small town. It looked like a sleepy place in general, so she thought that she could just make her way across the outskirts without being disturbed. Apparently not, since she saw a small group of 4 kids, all holding their arms up and waving.

Pointing to herself in a questioning way only made the waving more frantic and started getting nods from the children, so she frowned and headed over. "What do you want?" she asked as she got closer, glancing at the kids--who mostly looked to be around her age, actually.

"Hey, do you want to play football with us?" a pigtailed girl asked, looking intently at Val. "We need more people for our team because everyone wants to be on Jason's team." The name was said with an exaggerated whine, and drew snorts from the other children.

"Jason?"

"Yeah," a boy muttered sullenly, kicking at the dirt. "Because he's going to magic school in the city. Now everyone wants to be friends with him, and the teams aren't even anymore."

"And he's using his magic to cheat!" the first girl said loudly, planting her foot on the ground.

"You're an adventurer, right?" another boy said, pointing at her sword and shield. "You fight monsters and stuff! You have magic too, right?!"

"Um, no," Val said, scratching at an ear. "I don't actually know any magic... And I never really played football before."

Instant crestfallen faces. Oh dang, now Val felt guilty about that. "But I can be on your team!" she said quickly, to a round of cheers. Ooh boy. She really wasn't kidding when she said she didn't know how to play football. It was basically chess, chess, and more chess all her life. When all the neighborhood kids wanted to play basketball or go cycling or whatever her parents didn't let her join them because it was all "training for the next tournament" or "working on your openings".

"Yes, one more! But we still need more people..."

 

The town WAS a sleepy place. If you got drunk enough to pass out.
And Temperance was very good at that.

She had found a nice tree to lay under, pulled out a wine skin, and downed a comfortable amount of its contents before letting the warmth of the sun and the gentle stir of the leaves lull her towards rest, but her reverie was interrupted by the locals. Damn those locals! She had been here first! Okay she hadn't. But she was sufficiently more lazy and stubborn than they, and didn't feel like wandering into the woods just to find a quiet place to nap.

Of course there was going to be no real rest with the amount of noise kids were going to make. And if any found her napping they'd doubtless poke her with sticks, and she wasn't really allowed to punch them in the throat so... Really it'd be best to just cancel her plans to snooze.
Sighing, the woman stood up and finished the last of her wine, knowing she would need the buzz if she was going to be dealing with all this shit. She approached the ongoing game, deciding that it would be entirely too unfair for somebody with her stats to get involved in the sport. Instead, she sat herself down near the edge of the playing zone, waving to the other adult who seemed to be swarmed by the nasty little bastards. Poor dear... but it had been her own fault for getting close, and without backup.

"What a scene!" Temperance announced as she propped her boots up on a crate, lounging in the back of a wagon.
"I won't be joining in the game, but I'll be more than happy to heal anyone who gets hurt. Provided they get hurt doing SOMETHING AWESOME. Otherwise, go to your parents, or whatever it is you do."

 

"Me, me! Aw yes, pick me!"

A small figure with wavy hair was jumping up and down (while somehow still running towards the group) with his hand in the air. His legs and arms pumped with reckless energy as he skidded to a halt, flattening the soft grass. "Oh man, you guys playing ball? Count me in!" He was no taller than the children, but his round, freckled face was arranged in a broad grin. His competitive nature had certainly been invoked. "You don't mind, right? I like, totally love sports."

No one on the online forums was sure if the Faerin of Terrasphere were supposed to represent dwarves, or gnomes, or some kind of pixie-- but if KG resembled anything over the others, it would have to be a goblin. His huge, gleaming eyes and sharp-toothed mouth only served to make him look young and vaguely fiendish, masking his true age. "Hi, I'm KG_Merlin! Whose team are you on?" He enthusiastically stuck out of his hand and gave the little pigtailed girl who'd been talking to Valdrada his most professional handshake.

Spying the white-haired catgirl, his eyes lit up. "Oh man, I wanna play on her team! Hey! You look cool, we'll totally crush those little kids. Unless like, more people come. I hope they do, this is gonna be rad! What's your name?" KG grinned at her and spun around, looking for the source of the sideline commentary. Spotting Temperance only seemed to fuel his enthusiasm. He put his hands up to his mouth, calling "Yeah, whatev! Bet you're just scared!" He elbowed Valdrata conspiratorially (whether she wanted to conspire or not, apparently) and turned back to the woman in the wagon. "Uh... I dare you to come play!" Whispering out of the side of his mouth, he said "That'll get her."

 

Valdrada glanced over at the boy who suddenly started leaping towards them, a bit taken aback at how excited he sounded to play.

"Oh- uh, okay!" said the pigtailed girl, quickly turning her surprised expression into something that approached smugness. "Nice to meetcha KG. I'm Sara, and those are Connor, Bobby, and Riley, and that's-" Gesturing over at Valdrada, she paused. "Uh. Uhh..."

"I'm Val," the Felis interrupted, opting to just go with a short version of her in-game name. "Nice to meet you," she added politely, holding out her own hand to KG.

"So now we have six people on our team," Sara said triumphantly.

"Jason still has more," the boy Sara introduced as Bobby muttered.

That seemed to cause Sara to deflate. "Well... yeah."

Valdrada was watching the four children start to try to discuss plans among themselves, she was interrupted by an elbow to her side. Twitching in surprise, she watched KG start taunting the white-haired lady lounging in a wagon. "Uh. I guess so?"

Well... if the teams were still lopsided, then it wouldn't really be cheating if they had one adult on their team to even the odds, right? It's like how a rook was worth 5 pawns. And even if a piece wasn't directly involved in a duel, it could still be an important element on the board.

"Um, miss!" Val walked a bit closer. "Could you try to help us during the game a little? You don't have to move if you don't want to, but you said you could heal, right? So, if you can heal, then could you do some spells during the game so that the sides are even? The other team has more people, and they're cheating by using magic. So if they're doing it, then it isn't wrong if you help us a little too, right?"

@KG Merlin
@Temperance