[closed] basketball attractions and unplanned demolitions

[whatsupcroc]

Date & Time: Morning of the 25th of August
Location: Smaller training Gym near and/or around the Hold.
Characters: Adam Jensen, Barnaby Brooks Jr, Collette, and Vanadi.
Summary: People are so going to play basketball.
Warnings: Unfortunately, the gym will not survive. Also Vanadi's around. Expect flirtations hand in hand with ridiculousness!

Collette knew the basketball wasn't an actual basketball. For one, it wasn't the right texture, and it was on the large side. For another, it lacked the right coloration or striping. The important point was the ball bounced with sufficient give as one would expect from a basketball, and there was a hoop attached to a backboard in this very gym. Even without a net, Collette figured they were all set up and ready to go.

Which is why she waited for her team of misfit elder males to assemble. Should they have a name? She was passingly fond of The Baskteers, and picturing Barnaby's face at the announcement of anything like that was temptingly amusing. Still, for Adam's sake, she figured she should play nice.

Ball in lap, Collette tested out her chair's maneuverability on the gym floor. Near the top of the key she brought herself to a stop. "She shoots," she said, lifting the ball in her hands and letting her elbows drop down. Letting it arc through the air, Collette snorted as the ball hit the backboard, bounced off the rim, and shot to the far left. "She doesn't even come close to scoring."

Comments

[implying]

[ Oh, god, she's crying, what has he done to make her cry? Has he already been too brusque? Too rude? He's not sure he has quite enough charm to act any differently, in the face of this bizarre and misplaced hurt.

But he doesn't immediately leave. He tugs off his mask, and the transformation is sudden. Underneath is a soft sympathy, a few dozen unspoken apologies, and an encompassing sadness to round it off. He leans down to press a kiss to her forehead, same as he had the day he'd first met her. ]

For now, only for now— I think I'll take a while to consider this, is all. I'm sorry.

[whatsupcroc]

[ She pulls back at his touch, miserable and confused. Even more confused when he's apologizing at the end of saying he needs time. Okay, she understands time. Time, space, different people need that to get themselves together. But...

As she looks up, she finds it in her to force herself to talk past the lump lodged in her throat. ]

Why are you sorry? Stupid, I'm the liar.

[ She tries to smile, managing a twitch of her lips, but this is her own inability to push past the all-engulfing nature of how she feels. It's a part of being young, and nothing she's had to grow past. Not when she's lost the composure of keeping things in happy slots that let her ignore the unpleasant parts of reality until later. ]

I'm the one who's sorry. I understand if you don't...

[ She swallows, looking away again, then back to him. He's going to disappear. She knows that. Better to watch it happen then wait to be rewarded with the inevitability.

Her hands twist out of each other's grasp as she starts worrying at the end of her shirt. ]

... If you don't want to be my friend anymore. Because I'm not your Collette. And I wasn't honest about it. It's okay if you don't --

[ She loses her nerve, letting her gaze drop down to her hands, both fisted in the material of her t-shirt. ]

[implying]

[ The longer he stays, the more difficult this gets. It's rude of him, and insensitive, and selfish— but he's got to make an escape. ]

You are my Collette now, my dear.

[ It's said with a smile, but it's a terribly sad one. Until the mask clicks into place, again, and it becomes simply a smile. Then he turns, rather abruptly, and starts away.

If he doesn't go now, it feels like he never will. ]

[whatsupcroc]

[ She doesn't look up until she hears the click telling her his mask is reattached. Even then, it's just to watch him walk away. ]

No, I'm not!

[ Not quite a shout from Collette. She protests the idea. ]

I'm not her. And I'm not her replacement, either!

[ Which makes no sense, given she tried to pass herself off as the same as herself from another time and another universe, from the sounds of it, and isn't that her? But it's not.

Ugh, it'll be better with him gone. Then she can -- go distract herself, or whatever, take that stupid bath she'd been thinking about before this confrontation. Why had she thought it was a good idea to lie? ]