fandomhigh | Summer Shenanigans, Wednesday, June 10, 2020

"Good morning, everyone!" Anakin called through his bullhorn. "Welcome to another fun-filled team-building activity!"

Is everyone excited? No? Ahhh, you're learning.

There were laundry baskets out, along with scooters, and roughly 3,000 plastic balls in the center of the blacktop ~~that totally existed, shhh~~.

"Today we're playing Hungry, Hungry Hippos," Anakin announced. "Without actual hippos."

Which needed to be pointed out around here. "Because they are mean and not into team sports."

Because he'd called a few zoos to find out.

"We'll have three teams today, of six members each. One member each round will lay stomach down, clutching the laundry basket. The second team member will use their legs to push them into the balls at the center of the arena."

Blacktop. Whatever.

"The team with the most number of balls at the end of six rounds win."

"Listen for your names and retrieve your shirts:

TEAM CINNAMON SMELL
Wayne
Alara
Amaya
Stark
Astrid
Mae

TEAM WHAMP
Sidon
Shuri
Danny
Tahani
Shunsui
Alexis

TEAM RED DRESS
Steve
Duke
Beaker
Sabine
Kitty
Tony"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Mae pushes Astrid, Alexis pushes Shunsui, Tony pushes Kitty. RNG says it goes: Team Cinnamon Smell, Team Red Dress, Team Whamp.]

"YES! Finally!" Mae had been watching the rounds so far just waiting for her turn. She looked around for Astrid. "Ready to pretend-eat some balls?"

Whatever sort of mixed feelings Astrid may have had bubbling up inside of her stomach over being paired up with Mae for this round dissipated pretty quickly (mostly); it was hard not to be infected by her enthusiasm. She grinned a little, which turned into a small laugh as she considered the scooters and the basket and her....pusher.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she said, feeling disappointed that she was involved in this so that she couldn't actually see what it was going to look like with Mae pushing her, and kneeling down to figure out the best way to actually position herself. Which wasn't at all going to make her feel even more awkward about her gangly height as it was... "Let's get those balls."

God, this was going to be a disaster, wasn't it?

You'd think, but they'd actually manage to win! Probably mostly because this set up perfectly suited Mae's natural disaster energy.

"Okay," Mae said thoughtfully. "So the rules say I have to use my legs to push you, right? So riding you like a skateboard should count?"

Well, Astrid was just naturally inclined to think anything she was involved in would be a disaster, so it would actually be a pleasant surprise.

Just like that suggestion was a surprise, but she wasn't sure whether to put that under pleasant or not.

"I..." She shifted a little to find her center on the scooter, reaching for her basket, as she considered it. "I don't think I've ever been ridden like a skateboard before."

But as intrigued as she was, and the fact that if anyone was going to ride her like a skateboard, she'd want it to be Mae, for both practical and personal reasons, she had to at least point out, "I think they meant you use my legs to push me, not necessarily your own. But do you think that would work?"

Because Astrid did not. But she felt oddly willing to try, perhaps because she sort of figured she was going to mess it up, anyway.

"Ohhhhhhh. That makes more sense."

LOOK PRONOUNS WERE HARD OKAY?

". . . I think we just need to get up lots and lots of momentum."

"I don't think that is going to be a problem," Astrid noted with a wry grin. "Come on, Mae." Her feet sort of kicked in the air a little. "Let's go. Those balls aren't going to pretend-eat themselves, right?"

"They won't," Mae agreed. "But how cool would it be if they did?"

Mae, don't give the island ideas.

She grabbed onto Astrid's ankles and with a mighty bellow, charged into the fray. It was a bit like pushing an extra unwieldy shopping cart. Mae loved pushing around unwieldy shopping carts!

And if she'd known that, Astrid would have felt honored to have been an unwieldy shopping cart. For now, though, she was going to laugh, because it turned out that actually being pushed like an unwieldy shopping cart was much different than how you think it was going to feel like, and she had to adjust and then focus on actually getting the balls in her basket while Mae pushed. The unbridled energy of her driver had pushed away the natural urge for cynicism, and replaced it with a newfound urge to not let all of Mae's energy go to waste.

If there was one thing Mae had in spades, it was energy. She kept up her wild whumpus whooping as she steered Astrid around the other players, chasing after the balls.

This game was amazing!

"I don't think this is a good idea," Tony said, showing off that galaxy brain of his. Or the fact that he didn't have any aspirin and was about to keel over.

"This isn't a good idea," Kitty agreed. "I might stay solid?"

"Solid is a good state of being," Tony agreed, using the wagon thing mostly to keep himself upright.

"Yes. Remember that, self," she said, very slowly getting onto the scooter.

There was zero grace to it. Zero.

"You're doing great." Tony's head was down and he definitely couldn't see her at all.

"I'm really not." If Kitty was going to get any balls at all it would be because she stopped phasing long enough that the laundry basket would turn solid over them.

Summer Shenanigans, Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Round Five

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