Camp Gym; Monday Morning.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

It was Monday morning and Cal was no longer on all fours and lacking in opposable thumbs, so it probably wasn't too terribly difficult to figure out where he was. He had nearly a whole week to catch up on, although, as he stretched to get ready for his workout, he wasn't feeling like the lengthly time as a hyena had been detrimental beyond an urge to chuckle a lot more than he would normal.

He tried to ignore it as best he could as he settled into a routine with the dumbbells.


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[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He grinned and nudged the ball over to Cal.

"Telvin said he'd never seen such a pathetic specimen of a ball player before me," he told Cal. The Munchkinlander had been shorter than him, of relatively low birth, but he'd seemed as big as a giant when he'd yanked Liir out of the way of one of the more zealous players his first day out.

"Most of it is just getting familiar with the ball, how it moves, how to touch it to get it to do what you want. A nudge, a kick... the weight of it, how much it'll bounce. That kind of thing. The easiest way to get a feel for it is to dribble it between your feet."

And he showed sans ball.

"You'll come up with your own way of handling it once you've gotten a feel for it."

He had, anyway.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal snorted a little, stopping the ball with his toes so that he could pay attention to what Liir was telling him, showing him, and shook his head. "So much for positive reinforcement," he commented, thinking that at least it wasn't as bad a discouragement as losing a whole important game due to being unable to keep a hockey ball from your face, and he shook his head, clearing the thoughts. It had been a long time since his field hockey days, anyway, and he had been working out since he became Cal, so maybe...

He volleyed the ball a little lightly between his feet, carefully, slowly, held back by the certainty that if he switched his weight between his feet any faster than that, he'd fall right on his ass.

And then, with probably much more force than needed, he kicked the ball back towards Liir.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Oz isn't much for positive anything," he admitted as he bounced it lightly against his shin, caught it with the side of his other foot, and finally stopped it under his foot.

"Not bad, though. You, I mean."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Well," Cal said, agreeably, "I am still on my feet. Of course, the ball's been kept low to the ground so far."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Well, you want to keep it low if you're not experienced yet. It's harder to control up in the air and easier for people to steal."

He started dribbling it himself a little before punting it lightly towards Cal again.

"I think you're doing well enough."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, well, it's high flying balls that've gotten me in trouble in the past," Cal explained, his concentration on the path of the soccer ball toward him strong enough to make him realize how that might have sounded, which was good. If he realized it, he probably would have just shut right up. He tried to think on how to receive it to kick it a little back and forth, faltered, and ended up just kicking it back, at a skewed angle that went more toward the corner than towards Liir.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir shifted over and ran to catch it with his foot. He just scooped it up before dribbling it a little and knocking it back low and slow.

"Same here," he said, going along with it. "I was bent over trying to see the ball amongst all the feet and someone kicked it right into my face."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal blinked, shaking his head a little and trying to pull his eyes away from Liir's feet, to avoid the risk of potentially making the same mistake he mentioned. "I got distracted," he admitted, a little sheepishly, "by a leaf. Next thing I know, bam. Slapshot to the face, and we lost the game."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I have the opposite problem," he admitted. "I was too focused. I was so busy looking for the ball, I didn't even move when they kicked it. I think I was even thinking 'oh, there it is!' at the time, if you can believe that."

And he laughed a little.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal had a light laugh for that, too. "'Oh, there it is,'" he repeated, "and then a few thoughts for how close it was, maybe, before it hit?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I think it was closer to 'this is going to hurt where are my hands when I need them'," he said with a flat note before laughing again.

"I don't do surprise very well. I usually freeze."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"So," Cal had to ask, "where were your hands when you needed them?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Where they usually are but I didn't have enough forethought to pick them up and put them to use."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"I hate when that happens," Cal said, laughing with the tone of someone well acquainted with that phenomenon.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I freeze!" he said, trying to sound put out but mostly he was laughing along. "It just happens. I think that maybe if I don't do anything I won't foul up and then I don't do anything and things happen anyway. It's utterly ridiculous."

He tipped his chin to the ball.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Tipping his chin back, Cal attempted a few light passes of the ball from one foot to the other. "I do that a lot, too," he contributed simply, before pausing to focus on what he was doing. He felt inspired to try to get the ball balanced a little on his toe, just enough that he could make the effort to kick it up high, to bounce off his knee, or something like that.

The effort was an utter failure; the ball somehow ended up underneath Cal's foot instead of on top of it, kicking it behind him, bouncing it slightly off the wall and it rolled back. He lifted his foot to let it pass, swinging it back just in time to give it a little momentum as it rolled across the gym.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir grinned as he trotted over to herd the ball back.

"Nice back shot. It's good and confusing if you're playing with new people and an easy fake even if you aren't."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"...Thanks," Cal said, because, yeah, he totally did that on purpose.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"You're welcome," he says of course as he dribbles it a little himself. A toe under the ball launches it up and he bounces it to either knee a few times before popping it up with his head and catching it.