[Location: Taxon High Gymnasium] Time for the big game!

[genequeen]

Tonight is the night of the big basketball game between Taxon High and their rival Cricetidae High! It is the biggest game of the season for the basketball team, the band /and/ the cheerleaders. All of them have performances that they need to hit out of the park. For some there are scholarships on the line and for others it is a huge peer pressure moment.

Of course, for others, it is just another thing to do, another place to be seen and another chance to get out of the house.

What might happen this evening? Will there be triumphs or tragedies? Will there be hookups or hangouts?

Only time will tell!

Comments

[personaldemon]

"Yes," Jason mutters petulantly, and doesn't cross his arms, but only because his hands are holding the sun-orange.

He jerks his hood back up from where it had been half sliding off, and sulks stares down at the basketball court. The game's starting soon.

[skinandbone]

Well. This is nice. He keeps quiet, because talking means inviting more yelling.

But the game! Metody perks up when the pre-game festivities and announcements show up. Eeeeeeeeesports!

[personaldemon]

Jason barely listens to the principal welcoming the out of town team, or the rest of the pre-game ... whatever... that they talk about. Okay, he doesn't listen to it at all. He resumes biting of nails of one hand, and clutches his orange with the other.

Metody isn't arguing with him about the sun, so he can stay.

The whistle blows, they start doing basketball. Playing it. Whatever. Jason scootches forward to the edge of the bleacher, worrying his thumbnail jaggedly as his eyes dart back and forth over the court.

The lines are important. On a solstice, the lines are really important, and the idiots on the court are enacting the sun's rising and sinking, rising and sinking, over and over again with their part of the sympathetic magic, and if they do it too many times it's going to be really bad. Jason is sure of this. He researched it for, like, a week.

He's half-forgotten Metody is there, and is watching the game with uncharacteristic fervor.

[skinandbone]

Metody has a not-very-secret: he loves sports. Basketball, football, baseball...he'd watch them all day, if it wouldn't mean his mother lecturing him on how repulsive these pseudo-religious consumerist events were.

So he radiates excitement, groaning whenever they're scored against, cheering when their score rises, and lunging his feet along with everyone else at a particularly tricky play.

"WOOOO!"

[personaldemon]

Basket after basket is scored. Jason watches the scoreboard with increasing nervousness. It's getting towards, you know, really significant numbers. Important numbers. Bad numbers. And the clock is going down and down.

The student body is holding their breath as one of Taxon's star players gets ready to take his free throw that'll tie the game. Jason standing up isn't weird-- everyone else is on their feet, after all, including Metody.

Of course, nobody else is throwing an orange at the guy taking his free throw.

"Haaaaaaaaah!"

It's almost a pity the baseball coach isn't here to see his perfect aim.

[skinandbone]

The whole stadium roars as one, Us with growing triumph, Them with the rage of the defeated - and then - and then -

It takes him a moment to connect the barely noticed movement to his left and the disaster

"Wh- why - we were winning-"

Anguish!

[personaldemon]

He barely hears Metody's words, and surely doesn't process them. Jason stands with his pale face flushed with triumph.

"I did it!" he informs the top of Metody's albinoesque head. "It's okay, it'll be alright now, I disrupted the ritual so now the demon can't manifest, it can only...

"...uh...

"...try and make... people.... mad..."

Said as Jr. Goth Mint here recognizes the looks people are starting to turn on him.

[skinandbone]

"We were winning - " Jason clearly doesn't appreciate how important that is. Metody is practically reeling. What kind of penalty is there if a crazy fan attacks their own team? Does it count against the attackee, or the other school? And -

- someone shouting something ugly distracts him from his thoughts. Metody blinks, a little shocked, then turns back to Jason.

"Jason. You should - you should go home now. Really fast, Jason."

[personaldemon]

Jason totally doesn't appreciate how important that is. He does, however, appreciate the glares he's receiving, and the students getting to their feet. A few wadded up paper flyers are already being chucked his way in the bleachers.

He looks down at Metody with a wide-eyed stare.

"....I think you're right," he manages, then turns and bolts for the edge of the bleachers, where it's possible to climb over the half-railing, slither down, and hang by your fingertips to drop.

The game resumes, although half the players on the court seem to want to chase Jason as well, and the whistles of the refs are blowing constant and shrill.

[skinandbone]

The whole stadium roars as one, Us with growing triumph, Them with the rage of the defeated - and then - and then -

It takes him a moment to connect the barely noticed movement to his left and the disaster

"Wh- why - we were winning-"

Anguish!