Play ball!

[Gherron Dragovalor]

”Daddy, I want cotton candy!”

Gherron smiled down at his son, ruffling the little blond’s hair for a moment. ”And you shall get some, Articus, but you must have patience. There’s a long line still. Why don’t we go find our seats?”

The little boy smiled wide at the answer. ”Okay! He looked down at his ticket and ran off for the stands.

”Art! Articus! Wait for daddy!” Gherron shook his head and chuckled to himself as he strode after the boy. Such joy in the child; he was almost jealous. He never really had a childhood, but since having Articus in his life, he was grateful to share every moment with him. That was why he’d taken him to see his first grav-ball game on Lothal. Well, it would be a first for the both of them, really. He’d never been to Lothal before today, and he had to admit it was a beautiful planet.

[member="Mariya Fleischer"]

 

[Mariya Fleischer]

Lothal.

It sounded like a backwater planet to her when she first heard about it. But it was also the place where Grav-ball was founded. She was a fan of sports, so Grav-ball was something that she she had followed every now and then during her early retirement. Now, she was back at work with a grueling schedule. A typical day usually involved running the operations of her food and beverage company and juggling the assignments between two factions.

So Sunday was a day to rest. That meant a good night's rest on Saturday night till the sun shone brightly in the late morning. She got up and had her brunch, before taking a transport all the way halfway across the galaxy just to see a Grav-ball live match. She had worn her casual clothes and shades for the day, sitting comfortably when the empty seat next to her was suddenly occupied by a little boy.

Mariya looked at him, an adorable blond just like herself. She looked around curiously, but was not able to see [member="Gherron Vael"] among the crowded stand yet. Concerned that a little kid like him had no adult supervision, she decided to ask him if he was lost.

"Why, hello there. Did you need my help to look for your parents?"

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

Articus went up and down the various rows of seats, double checking before he sat himself down in the correct one. His eyes shining, he watched the playing field as a nice lady asked if he needed help looking for his parents. ”Don’t worry, my daddy’s coming. He can be a bit slow sometimes.”

Mere moments later, Gherron placed one hand on his son’s shoulder from behind, chastising him as he did so. ”Articus, I told you not to run off like that! I understand you’re excited, but...” He trailed off when he noticed they had an audience of one. ”I apologize; he’s always going off and doing his own thing. Not unlike myself, once upon a time.” As he sat down next to the little boy, he handed over a large mound of cotton candy, to the toddler’s delight. ”I appreciate you looking after Articus here; name’s Gherron”, he offered with a smile.

[member="Mariya Fleischer"]

 

[Mariya Fleischer]

"Your daddy's coming? Oh..."

She looked up and found herself looking into a rather bearded man. No prizes for guessing whom the kid had inherited his hair from. [member="Gherron Vael"] was definitely his dad, a rather caring one who had bought him cotton candy. Also a rather poor dad since too much cotton candy was bad for a young toddler. But Mariya knew better than to say that out loud to a stranger she had just met.

"No worries. Articus is so adorable. I won't mind looking after him for a bit," she smiled back at the rugged stranger. "Nice to meet you Gherron, I'm Mariya."

With the greetings done, she placed herself back into the seat. Articus was sitting between her and his dad, happily stuffing the fluffy candy into his mouth and smiling back at her. She grinned, taking a paper napkin and wiping off some of the mess from the chair and from Articus' pants. She assumed that his dad probably would not mind if she did that.

"It's nice of you to bring your son out for a game. I haven't got much chance to watch Grav-ball, so this is one of the rare occasions."

The match had yet to start, so Mariya figured there was some time to kill.

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

Gherron nodded in agreement as he ruffled his son’s hair, smiling. Looking out into the field, his eyes shone like that of a child’s. Having never been to an event like this, he was so eager to see anything new he could. His attention was brought back to the seats when Articus shifted in response to Mariya’s clean-up. The little boy would grin widely up at her as a result, causing Gherron to chuckle a bit.

”This is a first for both of us here. I never got to go to a live game like this as a kid; only ever heard of snippets in conversation, or a commercial on the holo. It feels good to be at that place where I can do things like this for myself for once. Of course, it’s just as fun watching Articus’ reactions.” Chuckling at the added comment, he took a small fluff of candy and stuck it into his mouth, closing his eyes as he enjoyed the feeling of it melting on his tongue. ”Truth be told, this is the first time I’ve had this stuff also. I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without ever trying it! It’s like... fruit-flavored clouds? Does that sound right?”

[member="Mariya Fleischer"]

 

[Mariya Fleischer]

"The first time watching Grav-ball? No way... hope you enjoy the match later then. The cheers and adrenaline rushes when the team scores... totally love it." Mariya nodded her head, her eyes sparkling when she remembered the first time watching her live match. It was just different from watching it on a screen. The crowd, the atmosphere itself was worth paying the admission ticket. She was certain [member="Gherron Vael"] and Articus would know what she meant by the time the match was over.

Speaking of the dad, he was now sharing the cotton candy with his kid. The boy would never be able to finish the gigantic cloud of sugar by himself anyway, so the dad was just helping along. Mariya was not a fan of cotton candy, not that she had actually tasted much of it. Her childhood had been rough, and cotton candy was the least of her worries when growing up.

"Ha, you are asking the wrong person. I haven't really eaten much cotton candy in my whole life..."

Her words were cut off by the cheering crowd suddenly as the teams came out into the field and began doing their warm up. It would still take a while before the game began, but the roars had just proven her initial point. The atmosphere was off to a good start.

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

Gherron laughed at the woman’s incredulous voice, though it did have merit. Grav-ball was very much a popular sport in the galaxy, especially on Lothal. However, until recently he just never had the time to even have interest in such things. Settling down with a family was doing a lot of good for him. As he tried to describe the substance of cotton candy, Mariya’s response of not having it before either had him offering the cone to her. ”You must have some then! Come on, I insist. I’m sure Articus won’t mind.” As he said this however, he couldn’t help but notice his son absentmindedly reaching for the sweet cloud of candy, and he gave a hearty laugh at that.

[member="Mariya Fleischer"]

 

[Mariya Fleischer]

"Erm... alright," the blonde paused for a moment to think about the offer. Calories... her mind whispered to her, but she decided to take a small bite anywhere. She pulled out a small wisp from the puffy cloud and put in into her lips. A soft, sugary sensation that she could only explain as sugar rush.

"Wow, fluffy and sweet. Hahaha..." she laughed but decided not to have a second go, allowing [member="Gherron Vael"] to hand the cone back to his son. Her eyes darted back to the field, where the players began their warm up by passing the grav-ball around and catching them. It was a simple drill, one which she used to play sometimes as a kid. Of course, she was tossing whatever ball like object she could find at that time, since it was difficult to find a real grav-ball.

"So, you mention something like doing things for yourself for once. What made you decide to do so?"

Continuation of small talk. Mariya had no idea who the man was, but she reckoned that it was always good to do some networking on a free day. Business deals, allies, friends or acquaintances. Generally acquaintances ended up providing the most referrals, due to the natural lack of deep understanding of them. The depth of their connections were like a wild card.