Star Wars OPEN Elite League Limmie

GM post

LimmieCon skills challenge results for Tay Neir:

• Agility: 32.5 seconds, plus 5 second penalty for missing the pass
  
• Shooting: 34.7 seconds, all 8 shots in the goal
• Penalty shots: 3 out of 5 in the goal
  
• Defense: 13 of 20 defender bots tackled
• Passing: 23.9 seconds, 9 of 10 passes caught (5 second penalty), 6 of 10 passes completed (20 second penalty) (58.9 second total time)
• Goalkeeping: 1 of 1 shots stopped
• Combined score (equally weighting each event, 60 possible points): 41.79

TAG: @Tay Neir

 

IC: Aisa Arain
LimmieCon, Coruscant

OK, so Aisa was not just with two amazing limmie players—female limmie players, no less—who were seemingly friendly. Almost like they were normal sentient beings. Or as normal as you could be when you were some of the greatest limmie players in the galaxy.

She could be cool. Totally cool.

So of course she laughed too hard at Tendra’s suggestion that she played midfield. When she got ahold of herself, she said, “I’m flattered you think I could do all that running! No, I’m not even an awesome forward like you.” This piece was to Jay. “I just play defense. I do my best, but I’m not flashy like—” Aisa decided she shouldn’t mention Veers. That might not go over well. She seamlessly transitioned into, “—you must see in the ELL. Or saw, when you played.” That last piece was to Tendra. “But I bet you could still play today if you set your mind to it.”

Aisa handed her datapad to the LimmieCon volunteer who was taking the holos for attendees. She then took a position between the two players for the holo. The volunteer took a few to make sure there were some good ones. Aisa didn’t have to fake her smile.

“I’m sure when you two were my age you were probably tearing up the field. Like they probably had to replace it after each game. I bet that made you real popular with the groundscrew,” Aisa joked.

TAG: @galactic-vagabond422 @jcgoble3

 

IC: Tendra Nalo-Linrai

“But I bet you could still play today if you set your mind to it.”

Tendra chuckled. "I miss it, but I'm a little too old now, especially with all of my concussions." She posed for the pictures, displaying her rings for the camera as the volunteer took the pictures. "You do wear your headband protector, right?" she asked after the pictures were done. (TAG: @Trieste )

“I’m sure when you two were my age you were probably tearing up the field. Like they probably had to replace it after each game. I bet that made you real popular with the grounds crew,” Aisa joked.

Tendra rolled her eyes slightly and laughed a bit. "Yeah, I was pretty good. No idea about field damage though." She glanced over at Jay to see if the forward had a response. (TAG: @Trieste @galactic-vagabond422 )

 

IC: Jay Chu-ni

Jay let out a quiet breath as her words were quickly passed over. A smile as the young woman described her limmie experience. Another defender, of course, just another being that was going to stand in her way. She thought tongue firmly in her cheek. Ah yes the headband AID. The most important piece of kit a limmie player had, Logan even wore one even though he never even got close to the pitch.

"The field I played on was a little bare from the get go. And I think our goundskeeper was also the gardener for the park in the area where we practiced when we were younger so. I likely wasn't his favorite person."

TAG: @Trieste @jcgoble3

 

IC: Tay Neir

Tay looked at his results,

He was not impressed, well it was hard to impress this former jedi. There was also very little he hadn't seen of the galaxy as his carrear took him all over, from the galactic core to the unknown regions of space. Tay then started wandering when he came across the sports cup. Tay was surprised as it shone in the bright light of corusant. It's nut's to think that this planet had once been home to one of the greatest conflicts in the history of the galaxy, The Clone Wars. Tay stood looking at the cup for quite some time, it was a beautiful sight to be sure and it was always welcome to Tay's eyes. Tay even took off his helmet so that he could get a better look at it.

TAG: @Trieste

 

IC: Aisa Arain
LimmieCon, Coruscant

“Oh, for sure. I don’t think my mom would even let me out of the house if I didn’t have it,” Aisa said to Tendra regarding her HeadBANDAID. Her mom might be on board with limmie for its potential usefulness in university applications, but she before every game—every practice even—Mrs. Arain’s parting thoughts to Aisa always included “be safe.” She knew her mom meant well. Aisa never did anything too crazy anyways. “They’re pretty strict about it in my league. They don’t even want us doing headers to be extra careful.”

As she listened to Jay talk about playing limmie in a park, she remembered something one of her teammates had sent her about how legendary some of the pickup games could be on Carratos. The rumor was that some of the junior teams would just pluck players out of them and have them on the roster the next day. It sounded unreal. Youth limmie on Bakura was more structured. That was probably for the best, but Aisa always kind of wished she could have gotten into one of those impromptu games. She was being grass-is-greener about it, but it just sounded so cool.

“Hopefully he knew good limmie when he saw it and didn’t mind too much,” Aisa said to Jay. “I bet playing in those conditions just made you better when you were on regulation fields.” Maybe she should do some adversity training. It could be like that one holo where the heroine did ridiculous stuff like carrying bags of feed on her shoulders and pulling speeders. She could even make a video for her social feeds. When she put that up next to her images with the Cup she’d look like a real limmie star.

Aisa snapped out of her daydream, realizing that she was probably holding up the line for everyone else. “Thanks so much! Good luck this season—both of you!” Aisa added, remembering that she’d heard Tendra was working with the Officers.

As she moved on, she found the next holo experience was none other than Astra Sixtrees. Aisa positively bounced up to the Kurtzen forward for the Miners. “Oh my stars! I can’t believe it’s you!” Aisa gushed.

Today was turning out to be the greatest day.

TAG: @galactic-vagabond422 @jcgoble3

 

IC: Aisa Arain
LimmieCon, Coruscant

Today was turning out to be the worst day ever.

“You’re joking, right?” Aisa asked in disbelief. Because this couldn’t actually be happening.

“This is the end of the line,” a LimmieCon volunteer repeated to Aisa. “We’re not taking any more beings after this.”

“But I’m just one being. Surely she can do one more autograph,” Aisa said. She wasn’t going to stand on pride now. She was so close. She’d beg if she had to. On her hands and knees, literally.

“And, unfortunately, that wouldn’t be fair to the two dozen beings who got here before you who also would have been just one more being,” the volunteer said patiently. “I’m sorry, but Ms. Veers’ line is full.”

“But she’s my favorite player!” Aisa pleaded, abandoning all self-respect. “Please. I promise I won’t tell anyone. I won’t put it on my social accounts. I just want her to sign my jersey. I won’t even talk to her. Please. Can I give my jersey to someone else for her to sign?”

“I don’t think we’ll be doing that,” Mrs. Arain said, taking Aisa by the shoulder and leading her daughter away. Aisa realized belatedly the idea of taking her shirt off in public definitely wasn’t something her mom would be on board with. “Have a nice day.”

“Mami, Mami, no, I have to—”

“I know,” Mrs. Arain said consolingly, “but the rules are the rules.”

“But we got here on time. With more than enough time!” Aisa exclaimed, near to tears. There’d been nothing in the LimmieCon program about an “end of the line.” Nothing that said you had to get there early. “It’s not fair!”

It all suddenly caught up with Aisa and she leaned against a wall, sliding down into a sitting position with her knees in front of her. She put her forehead against her legs and tried not to cry. She was literally meters away from her hero and she wasn’t even going to get to see her.

“Aisa, I’m sorry,” Mrs. Arain said, kneeling next to her daughter. “I know how much you wanted to meet her.”

Aisa didn’t have it in her to say what she was thinking: that she was never going to get this opportunity again. That her parents wouldn’t let her come to another LimmieCon. She knew it. Next year it would be all about visiting universities and family vacation and there’d be no credits for a jaunt to LimmieCon. This had been her one chance. And it was gone.

“Would you like some nachos? They were surprisingly good for having so many odd ingredients,” Mrs. Arain suggested. She sounded like she’d actually enjoyed them. Aisa shook her head in the negative without removing it from against her legs. “Would you like to go home?” Once again Aisa shook her head. She wasn’t going to get to meet Bree Veers, but she knew she had to squeeze what she could out of LimmieCon while she should.

Aisa pushed herself to her feet. “No, let’s walk around some more.” Lokensgaard’s address was beginning soon, but there was no way they could get into the hall for that now. “Maybe we should go look at some of the Bak10 booths. We could get some info about how to get on their radar as a prospect.”

“OK, sounds like a plan,” Mrs. Arain said as she stood up. “But let’s not talk to UBGC or Deredith & Millicent. I don’t like these rumors I heard in the nacho line that they want to join the Super 16. I don’t want you joining a team where you’d be traveling to places like Ord Saboak. It would be much better if you stayed on Bakura.”

Despite herself, Aisa smiled. Of course her mom thought it would be better that way. Best would be if Aisa went to Tiarest and lived at home all four years. It was oddly comforting for her mom to still be her mom, even if the entire galaxy felt like it was crashing down around her. “What if one of them wants to give me a full ride?” Aisa couldn’t help but ask.

“Well…that would be another matter entirely…” Mrs. Arain conceded.

As they headed towards where the colleges had their stalls, Mrs. Arain’s head turned. “Oh, would you like to do that?”

“Huh?” Aisa asked, stopping. She’d missed whatever had caught her mom’s attention entirely.

“There are some activities,” Mrs. Arain said. She gestured towards a sign pointing the way to the skills challenges. “I bet you’d be great at that.”

Aisa shrank inside. The idea of the entire galaxy seeing her as the middling player that she was hardly seemed appealing. She already felt wounded enough after messing up on getting to see Veers. “I don’t know. I mean, I haven’t stretched and I don’t have my cleats.”

“I’m sure they accounted for all that,” Mrs. Arain said breezily. “Your father would be so excited to hear about how it went. This seems like the slam derby he watches every year.”

That was true. Her dad always liked these kinds of things. He’d probably make up stories about how Aisa didn’t do it only because she didn’t want to embarrass everyone else. And since he’d be spouting them to everyone they knew, that would be more embarrassing than total strangers seeing her scores.

“OK,” Aisa said. “Sure. Why not?”

As they walked towards the skills arenas, Aisa felt a little bit of bounce infiltrate her step. She knew what her skill level was, but all of her teammates were going to be so jealous that she was even on the leaderboards. They wouldn’t even care about her performance. And maybe she’d surprise herself and blow everyone away. It could happen, even if it was improbable.

When they arrived at the first challenge, Aisa handed her datapad to her mom so she wouldn’t be encumbered with it. Aisa stretched in line, trying to get as loose as possible. When she got to the front of the line, it turned out they needed to scan her datapad to link her performance to her profile. (Aisa could have facepalmed at forgetting this.) Her mom jogged over to present the datapad and a second later, Aisa stepped into the agility pavilion.

“Ready…” the volunteer called out, “…set…go!”

TAG: None

 

GM postLimmieCon skills challenge results for Aisa Arain:

• Agility: 29.2 seconds (no penalty)
• Shooting: 36.0 seconds, 7 shots in the goal, 1 shot stopped by defender
• Penalty shots: 0 out of 5 in the goal
• Defense: 9 of 20 defender bots tackled
• Passing: 24.0 seconds, 2 of 10 passes caught (40 second penalty), 0 of 2 passes completed (20 second penalty) (84.0 second total time)
• Goalkeeping: 0 of 1 shots stopped
• Combined score (equally weighting each event, 60 possible points): 20.08

TAG: @Trieste

 

Joint GM post with @Vehn
LimmieCon, Coruscant

Hall H was buzzing. If there was a climax to LimmieCon, this was it. Some beings had arrived early and sat through panels they had no interest in solely to get good seats for this session. Not a single seat was empty and the organizers had stopped several beings from coming in to make sure they didn't violate local fire ordinances. (On top of that, "Hundreds trampled to death at LimmieCon," was a headline no one wanted to read.)

Though the Commissioner had made his remarks solo for the past two years, some fans had been unimpressed by the "dictator for life," as they called him, holding forth as if he were a head of state on par with the Supreme Chancellor. In an effort to soften his image, the League had decided that this year's season preview would come in the form of a moderated conversation. To generate fan interest and excitement (and perhaps to provide someone other than Lokensgaard for the crowd to latch onto--positively or negatively), they'd selected Cam Mosk to lead the discussion.

"Welcome, everyone!" Cam said with a smile as he kicked off the discussion with Commissioner Fenrir Lokensgaard.

"Commissioner Lokensgaard," Cam started, "glad to have you here. I think we all know the fans are excited to be here and present for the kick off to another glorious season in Elite League Limmie!"

The crowd applauded and roared.

"So let's get down to it, shall we?" Cam said, "I think the biggest question facing the league this year is what changes do you anticipate to the beautiful game? What do you see peering into your crystal ball?"

"I think the beauty of ELL is that you never really know what's going to happen," Lokensgaard began with a smile, "but I've got some guesses based on what the League's seeing already.

"First off, I think we're going to see more scoring last year. Now, now, before all you defense fans start booing, that doesn't mean that there's going to be no defense, just higher overall scores. I mean, no offense to the beings who sign your paycheck, Cam, but the Smugglers didn't even put up 10 points per game last season. The Gangbusters were barely over 10 per game and the Mercs--the Mercs of all teams!--just got over 11 per game. I just don't see that happening again for a second straight season.

"We saw an average of 29 points per game. That means teams averaged scores of 14.5 points. That's definitely below what we expect. What we've seen time and again in the League is that when these things happen, teams adjust. The coaching staffs do a lot of work to improve what they're doing on the field and take away these advantages. So the biggest thing I see is that we're going to get a bump in those scores. I think a league-wide average of 20 points per game isn't impossible in 306."

Cam nodded already thinking about his next question.

“Those stats are certainly off from previous years,” Cam began, “but what about the league. The players. Gone are the stars of yesteryear. Meredith Chambers, Polis Vayne, Alana Glencross, the Vigos, Tendra Nalo, Ryi Kor’le and so many more. Tell me who do children look up to today? Some say the Silver Age of Limmie is gone. That regional stars are a thing of the past. How do you keep the beautiful game relevant in an era of increasing indifference?”

"It's just not true we don't have big names in the league today. I'll throw out just a sample: Iris Copin, Deon Canistia, Harle Quinn, Toemash Hurtle come to mind immediately. These are some of the greats of the game today and I absolutely think that they're the inspiration for young beings today, regardless of whether they play Little League or in the backyard.

"It's also worth pointing out that we're on the cusp of a new generation of greatness. Just look at Kassandra Kirt, who broke out last season and is now arguably one of the best midfielders playing today. There's a lot of young talent in the league today and I suspect that we're going to see it burst out this season.

"But before you accuse me of dodging your question," Lokensgaard said amiably, "I think the way that we keep limmie strong and vibrant is by showcasing the game where there's the most energy and enthusiasm for it. That's always been the ELL model. If we were doing this just for the numbers, Coruscant would be in the League today. Now, I know where I am and I want to clarify and say that I'm not saying Corsucant shouldn't be in the League right now. That's a separate topic. What I am saying is that worlds like Bakura, Nar Shaddaa, Geonosis, Euceron, Carratos, Mandalore, and Kothlis have teams because that's where we see the passion for the game. There are stories to be told on these places. That's why the ELL chooses to lift those teams up."

"Very well said," Cam remarked, "very well said. That's why they pay you the big credits. Let's move forward. Do you see any expansion ahead for the league? Any new markets? Is there a clamor from the fans to return to a conference on conference model?"

"Expansion beyond eight?" Lokensgaard confirmed before giving his response. "No. The governors are happy at 8 right now. It's what keeps the Elite League elite. The bigger the league gets, the more diffused the talent pool gets. If you are on the field in an ELL field right now, it means you are one of the top 120 players in the galaxy.

"Let me say that again: right now the ELL represents the 120 best limmie players alive. Think about that. In a galaxy of, what, quintillions, in a sport played by trillions--including every being who plays, not just the pros--that's astounding.

"But I see you slipped something in there, Cam. Was your question about new markets a way to try to get me to talk about the fact we need an eighth team for this season?" Lokensgaard's teasing smile indicated he was not just positive that was the case, but he didn't mind at all.

Cam shushed the crowd as they oohed at the Commissioner's tease.

"Hold on a moment, wait a minute," Cam said as he raised his hands as if pleading for calm, "are you suggesting there's room in the Elite League to add a limmie team? Now?"

"You know Cam, there's one thing we've heard pretty consistently from fans, players, and teams. In fact, it's the one thing that I think everyone agrees on," Fenrir said. "Bye weeks are the worst. So yes, not only is there room for an eighth team, but the Board has voted and we've found them."

The crowd oohed.

Cam raised an eyebrow, "Do tell, Commissioner, do tell."

"I said earlier that the Elite League hosts the greatest storylines in limmie," Lokensgaard said, "and that's what we kept in mind when we went looked for our eighth team. And I think it's safe to say that we've found a pretty interesting one.

"The eighth and final team for the 306 season of Elite League Limmie is none other than the Lucicar Neir All Stars," the Commissioner announced. "And if you're not familiar with them, allow me to provide a brief introduction, starting with the name. When we first considered this team, I asked, 'What's a Neir?' And it turns out it's less of a 'what' and more of a 'who.' The Neirs are a family, a pretty large one. Large enough, in fact, that they're able to field an entire ELL-grade team themselves. Talk about going local, right Cam?" Lokensgaard smiled.

"What!" Cam declared as the crowd roared.

"Say what?" He repeated pumping them up even more.

"That's about as local as we ca get these days!" Cam exclaimed with a smile, "Wow, an entire team made up of relatives. Is that nepotism at all, Commissioner?"

"I think that's a matter for the beings of Lucicar to decide. The League doesn't take positions on how or why rosters are formed, as long as they comply with all League standards, naturally," Lokensgaard said. "Honestly, I'm interested to see what happens. It's why I think this could be a season unlike any other in recent memory."

"I think that statement right there is a great way to wrap things up," Cam observed, "what do you say?"

"Well Cam," Lokensgaard said before the audience could start gathering their things, "I'd think that we'd be remiss if we didn't talk a little bit about the Smugglers. After all, they're your home team. So I guess that makes this the right place for me to mention that the League received troubling allegations that the Smugglers organization, up to and including Lars Steelhead, purposely tanked the 305 season, in direct contravention of League rules. A formal investigation has been opened and ELL representatives are currently gathering documents at Smugglers headquarters. We'll release the results of our inquiries when they're final.

"See you at the games everyone!"

With that, Fenrir Lokensgaard stood, gave a wave to the crowd, and left Cam Mosk to pick up the pieces of that bombshell. It seemed the Commissioner was feeling particularly mischievous this LimmieCon.

---

The news flashed across the datapads of LimmieCon: the ELL's eighth team in 306 would be the Lucicar Neir All Stars. It likely sent beings searching the HoloNet to learn what they could about this newest addition to the stratosphere of limmie, though likely not for Tay Neir, who now had the answer he had come to LimmieCon to find.

TAG: @Tay Neir @Vehn

 

IC: Aisa Arain
LimmieCon, Coruscant

Aisa sped through the agility course. She’d been doing drills like this at practice for years. She even hit the pass dead center. She smiled when she saw her time.

Feeling good about herself, she headed into the shooting arena. Admittedly, this wasn’t one of her strong areas. There was a reason why she played defense. “You can do this,” Aisa said to herself. She’d been working on her accuracy with her passes and this was just another form of passing, right? You were just passing into the back of the net.

Aisa put the first three boloballs past the automated defender and goalkeeper. The fourth banged off one of the defenders, earning a grimace, but Aisa kept her composure. She threaded the remaining four into the net. With the penalty for her one miss, Aisa had a respectable score. Maybe if there weren’t six players trying to tackle her in a game she could have made a good forward.

Aisa swung her arms back and forth in front of her chest as she moved onto the next challenge, staying loose. Honestly, she’d kind of thought they’d be harder. She was sweating, sure, but she would have thought this would be tougher.

She stopped short when she saw what was waiting for her next. Penalty shots—against a live goalkeeper. Aisa knew how a good goalkeeper carried themselves and this one looked good. She stepped up to the line where a boloball waited for her and took a deep breath. She tried not to think about what she was facing, but she couldn’t forget that she’d need some good shots to beat this guy. As a result, she shanked the first boloball. The goalkeeper had read it anyways, so he was probably would have stopped it if she hadn’t.

The second shot went right into his chest, the third palmed and knocked aside. Settling in, Aisa had the feel of this goalkeeper now, but she bonked the fourth off and back out courtesy of the crossbar. Her fifth shot nearly made it, but the goalkeeper had arms two centimeters too long and barely knocked it aside.

Even though she was disappointed, Aisa smiled. “Great work,” she called to her tormentor. But she wished she’d gotten at least one in on him.

Aisa perked up when she arrived at the defense challenge. This was her jam. She had this in the bag.

Or so she would have assumed. She got the first three droids, but then they started coming faster and too far away from where she was. Aisa knew she couldn’t cover the whole arena. She’d just wind up running around, chasing the play and catching nothing. She made a snap decision to lock down her side of the arena. As a result, she tackled nine total. Walking out she was a little dejected. She would have thought she could have done better.

For the passing drill, Aisa was determined to make up for it. She watched someone ahead of her do the passes on the run for a faster score. She knew she should probably stop to catch the passes rather than running through the course at a fly, but that was what a Little Leaguer would do. She was a high school player. She could do it on the run. She did it all the time at practice.

Like the first two challenges, Aisa flew through the course. The problem was she couldn’t get the hang of the passing cadence. At first they were too fast. She tried adjusting when she’d signal for the pass, but started having the passes come in behind her. She caught a couple, but couldn’t settle them in time to hit the passing target while she kept moving.

Aisa growled in frustration and had to keep herself from kicking one of the barriers of the arena. She should have been better than that. She usually was better. She was still in her head after doing poorly in the defense challenge.

When she got to the final challenge and saw it was a goalkeeper experience, Aisa actually laughed. Sometimes they’d mess around at practice and some of the defenders, including Aisa, would get in the net to block shots. The high point of Aisa’s time in the goal was taking a boloball in the face when she didn’t get her hands up in enough time—and the ball had gone in anyways.

Once again, the players at the challenge who would run a drill for the shot looked good, way better than anyone Aisa had ever faced. But if she was going to go down, she was going to do it in a blaze of glory.

“OK kids,” Aisa called out, “I wanna see your best stuff.” She punched a fist into an open hand in imitation of a move she’d seen some of the lightball players in the games her dad watched before getting into a stance and putting her arms wide.

The shooters smiled and began their attack. Aisa tracked them with her eyes and kept her feet moving, mimicking their motion across the field. They were good, but Aisa had read a lot of offenses. She could see them setting up for a cross-pass. She decided to let them think they had it by respecting the ball carrier. When Aisa saw her arm start to move, she was ready and dove to the opposite side as they tried for a one-timer. Where the goalkeeper she’d shot on had the two centimeters he’d needed, Aisa’s fingertips were just about three centimeters too far away. The ball went into the back of the net as she hit the artificial turf.

One of the players offered her a hand, which Aisa gratefully took to get back to her feet. “Nearly had that one. Nice work.”

“That one usually gets them,” another player said with appreciation. “Great read.”

“Thanks. You three ought to get a tryout with that play,” Aisa said.

One of them gave a chuckle. “Yeah, not sure the ELL’s going to come calling, but you’re sweet.”

Aisa left the skills challenge and got her free shirt for completing all the challenges. There was also a station of SkimmerAde for all participants and Aisa grabbed the bright red flavor and gulped it down. She toweled off her forehead and took a seat to catch her breath as her mom came over.

“You had those first two down great,” she complimented Aisa. “The other ones were very fast. I don’t know how you did as well as you did.”

“Thanks Mami.” She got her datapad back from her mom and refreshed the leaderboard section. She knew she hadn’t done great, but she still wanted to see where she was in the high school standings. They’d been pretty tough, so maybe everyone had trouble with them. “Huh?”

Aisa was looking at scores at the top of the board in the 50s. Her paltry 20 points were way off. Her heart sunk. “Wow. I don’t get to meet Veers and I’m in the basement of the rankings,” Aisa said. “Great way to finish the day.”

Mrs. Arain massaged Aisa’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. You tried your best.”

Aisa flipped all the way to the 20s to see what other mediocre limmie players she was ranked with…and didn’t find her name. She refreshed, but still nothing. “Oh come on,” she muttered. She might have stunk, but she still deserved to have her score in the leaderboards. Aisa pushed herself to her feet and went to one of the volunteers. “Hi, I know it doesn’t matter, but my score’s not showing up in the leaderboard.” She showed her the datapad. “It’d be nice to get a screenshot, even if I didn’t have the best score.”

“Oh, sorry about that! Let me see what’s up.” She tapped through Aisa’s datapad with a small frown on her face. “Sometimes these things are finnicky…oh there we go. Yeah, you’re in there. You were just in the wrong tab.”

Aisa looked at the screen and sure enough, there was Aisa Arain – 20.08. “Oh, I see what happened. It got uploaded to the wrong board. This isn’t the high school board,” Aisa said. “Could you move it over for me?”

“Yeah, the prospect board,” the volunteer said. “That’s what you listed in your account. Prospect.”

“Yes, of course,” Mrs. Arain said. “I noticed when Aisa got in line that she had it set to high school, but we hope she’ll be a prospect for universities. I changed it to make sure it was right.”

“Mami!” Aisa groaned. “That board is for pro prospects. Like people who want to be drafted or scouted by pro teams. I should still be on the high school board.”

“They should have clearer names,” Mrs. Arain objected before relenting. “But my mistake. I hope it’s easy to move the score over to the right one.”

“Actually I can’t,” the volunteer said.

“I know we made a mistake—” Mrs. Arain repeated.

“No, it’s not that. It’s that the challenges are set up based on what you set in the app. It adjusts everything.” The volunteer looked at Aisa. “You just did the prospect version of the challenges.”

“I did?” Aisa said, her jaw dropping open.

“Yeah. It’s the second hardest level. The only thing tougher is the pro level one and you have to have a contract with a team to get that one.”

“I did the draft-level challenges?” Aisa was stunned.

“Yeah. It’s faster and the patterns more complex. We also put in some of our Premier League volunteers for the live challenges. Honestly, if you’re in high school, 20 points is pretty impressive,” the volunteer said. “Way to go. I’d frame that score.” She moved on to help someone who looked a little overheated after completing the defense challenge.

“I got 20 points in the prospect skills challenges,” Aisa said, still not getting over it. “I got 20 points!” She threw her arms around her mom in a giant hug. “Mami! This awesome!”

“See, I told you that you were good,” Mrs. Arain said as she hugged her daughter back. “I hope I didn’t mess it up for you.”

“Are you kidding? I got to do pro prospect challenges! Everyone on the team is going to be so jealous!” Aisa gushed. “You’re the best!”

“So you’re in high school and those were your scores on the draft board?” a new voice asked.

Aisa pulled away from her mom to find a Human female in a nerfhide jacket standing a few meters away with an inquiring look. “Yeah.” Aisa had a ridiculous grin on her face, but she couldn’t help herself.

“And you’re how old?” the Human asked.

“Seventeen.”

The Human paused. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a moment, do you?”

“Uhhh…” Aisa looked at her mom. There wasn’t much left on their LimmieCon list. She wasn’t sure if her mom wanted to go home.

“There are nachos in it for you,” the Human said.

“Well if there are nachos…” Mrs. Arain allowed. Aisa guessed that she’d enjoyed the ones she’d had when Aisa was getting her holos with players more than she let on.

TAG: Only if @Jedi Gunny is hanging around the skills challenges and has anything to say

 

I'll bite.

IC: Cecilia S’rily


“How could you oversleep on an important day like this?” CeCe asked as she facepalmed at her brother’s poor response. She had known Galin for a long time, yet some things he said still managed to confuse her.


“Sorry, Sis, but I swear that’s what happened! Honest!”


“Just because you’re older than me doesn’t make you the Chosen One.”


“Hey, I won my Galactic Cup! Back off.”


CeCe frowned. “That’s . . . honestly not relevant here. But since you’re here, I think we should watch some of these beings try out the Skills Challenge. And then you should give it a shot. Might be fun to see how you stack up now that you’re retired.”


Galin was affronted by the remark. “I stay in shape, thank you very much. Besides, I think I could take that on with my eyes closed.”


“Then I’d like to see you try, you big blowhard.”


“Maybe I will! Anything to get you off my back.”


LimmieCon had been an interesting experience for the S’rily siblings, the hustle and bustle of the convention demonstrating the staying power of Limmie throughout the galaxy. But as was to be expected, the very real aspect of the Senators not playing in the Elite League certainly had placed a damper on the home crowd.


Might have to try and change that someday.


As the siblings made their way over to the Skills Challenge area, Galin wandered off probably in search of how to enter the friendly competition to prove his skills and maybe prove his younger sister wrong. Meanwhile, CeCe began to watch the competition from afar as a young human finished her battery of skills challenges and awaited her results.


Then there was a hubbub of activity as the human’s scores made their way onto the big board. Judging by the look on her face, she could not believe how well she had done. Then a group of individuals milling around the scoring area began talking to her, including a woman wearing a worn-out spacer’s jacket. After a few moments of talking, the two left the scoring area en route to an unknown destination.


Impressed by what she had seen at the tail-end of the competition, CeCe could not help but place credit where it was most certainly due. “That’s a mighty-fine score you got there. Congratulations for putting all of those prospects to shame.”

TAG: @Trieste

 

GM post

306 ELL regular season schedule

Week 1
Euceron Officers at Carratos Pirates
Kothlis Spies at Mando’ade Mercs
Bakura Miners at Nar Shaddaa Smugglers
Geonosis Gangbusters at Lucicar Neir All Stars

Week 2
Geonosis Gangbusters at Kothlis Spies
Bakura Miners at Carratos Pirates
Euceron Officers at Lucicar Neir All Stars
Nar Shaddaa Smugglers at Mando’ade Mercs

Week 3
Lucicar Neir All Stars at Bakura Miners
Kothlis Spies at Euceron Officers
Mando’ade Mercs at Geonosis Gangbusters
Nar Shaddaa Smugglers at Carratos Pirates

Week 4
Mando’ade Mercs at Euceron Officers
Kothlis Spies at Bakura Miners
Geonosis Gangbusters at Carratos Pirates
Lucicar Neir All Stars at Nar Shaddaa Smugglers

Week 5
Bakura Miners at Mando’ade Mercs
Nar Shaddaa Smugglers at Kothlis Spies
Carratos Pirates at Lucicar Neir All Stars
Euceron Officers at Geonosis Gangbusters

Week 6
Nar Shaddaa Smugglers at Euceron Officers
Bakura Miners at Geonosis Gangbusters
Mando’ade Mercs at Lucicar Neir All Stars
Carratos Pirates at Kothlis Spies

Week 7
Carratos Pirates at Mando’ade Mercs
Geonosis Gangbusters at Nar Shaddaa Smugglers
Euceron Officers at Bakura Miners
Kothlis Spies at Lucicar Neir All Stars

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik @galactic-vagabond422 @jcgoble3 @Tay Neir @Vehn

 

IC: Aisa Arain
LimmieCon, Coruscant

Before they could get too far away from the skills challenge, a being congratulated Aisa on her skills challenge performance, which caused Aisa to beam. “Oh! Yeah! Thanks!” Aisa said.

The Human accompanying Aisa and her mom pulled up. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.” Though the content of her words seemed hostile, the smile on the Human’s face said otherwise. “Just when I thought the Senators were going to stop being a thorn in my side. I should have guessed you’d be here too. But you’ll have to get in line behind me. That’ll give you enough time to call your dad and say hi from Shay.” The Human winked.

If Aisa’s jaw had dropped when she heard she’d gotten the prospect-level skills challenge workout, it hit the floor now. Because there was only one Shay in limmie that Aisa knew about.

Shay freaking Dionne. The general manager of the Miners. Whose name was on the Cup three times.

When Dionne confirmed her identity in the nacho line, Aisa still couldn’t believe it. The capacity for speech deserted her until they were sitting at a folding table with a plate of nachos in front of them. Settling in, the GM said, “I’ve got to hand it to them. I wouldn’t have thought meiloorun could make a good salsa, but I guess this is why I went into limmie instead of opening a restaurant.”

“So what is it that you do as a…general manager?” Mrs. Arain asked, dredging the title up. Aisa wanted to facepalm.

“She basically runs the team,” Aisa said before Dionne could respond. “She finds the players, deals with all the admin stuff, works with the League.” Aisa stopped. “Sorry,” she apologized. “There’s probably more to it than that. I should let you explain.”

“No, those are the big things,” Dionne said. She didn’t seem put out by Aisa jumping in. “The biggest being roster management. I started in scouting with Nar Shaddaa, so it was a natural transition. I imagine Aisa knows this, but do you know what ‘go local’ means in limmie, Mrs. Arain?”

“Is it some kind of Rodian slang term?” Aisa did her best to not look completely embarrassed at her mom’s wildly incorrect guess.

Dionne smiled. “Not quite. It’s a scouting philosophy that the Smugglers pioneered. Instead of running a galaxy-wide scouting operation, you focus your resources in your area of the galaxy, sometimes even just your world.

“Part of why I took the GM job with the Miners is that I believe that Bakura is one of the best places to go local. There are 10 universities with top division limmie programs on planet. The only world with that kind of talent concentration is Coruscant. I argued to the Triestes that they could go local and win championships. And in the nine years I’ve been with the team, we’ve won three, so I think I was right.

“That’s come at a cost. If you’ve been following our news today, you’ll know that I just invested a lot of credits to keep some key pieces together. And that’s tied my hands next season, potentially into 308. I need to find some low-cost, high-value beings that can complement our roster and keep us competitive.

“Aisa,” Dionne said, turning to look at her, “I think you’re one of them.”

“What?” she exclaimed before she could stop herself.

“This is…I don’t know what this is,” Mrs. Arain stuttered. Was this the first time Aisa had seen her mom flabbergasted. “Surely she can’t play for your team. She’s 17.”

“The ELL doesn’t have an age requirement. Honestly, it’s probably a loophole because no one’s tried it,” Shay stated, “and I want to try it.”

“But I’m not good enough to be a Miner,” Aisa said. She’d dreamed about becoming a Miner, but now that someone was actually offering it? Reality hit her hard. “I’m not even the best player on my high school team. And you saw my score. That wasn’t even the pro difficulty.”

“Let me tell you what I saw,” Dionne said, looking into Aisa’s eyes. “I saw someone who got through all the timed challenges in under 30 seconds before penalties. You moved smoothly through drills designed to challenge your footwork and agility. Those are fundamental skills. You scored an 8.4 in the shooting challenge. Will that beat an ELL goalkeeper? No. But you’re a defender. You just need to put passes into places your teammates can get them. An 8.4 can do that.

“I don’t care how you did in penalty kicks and goalkeeping. I’ve got other players for that. What I care about is your defense performance.”

“But I only stopped 9 in that one,” Aisa pointed out.

“I watched players better than you try to stop 20. Sure, some of them did because they were fast. But I saw the moment you registered you couldn’t. You changed your plan. I’ve passed on a lot of talent who can’t—or won’t—make that adjustment. I don’t need you to stop 20 defenders. I need you to lock down one side of the field for me.

“I want to be honest: your performance in an actual prospect, one who’d just done four years in the GCAA, would be bad. I wouldn’t give them a second look. But in someone your age, with the right training routine…” Shay tapped the table absentmindedly. “…we’ve got a good chance of getting you there. I don’t think you’re going to be a 60 minute player. But I think you can be a roleplayer. Someone that Leigh can use tactically, when she needs it.

“This might backfire. We’d have to see how training camp goes. And yes, there are a lot of details to work out, like school, you being a minor, handling the press and probably the League, but we have attorneys and PR for this kind of thing. What I need now is honesty from both of you, because I don’t have time to waste on dead ends. Is there any scenario where this happens?”

Aisa looked at her mom. She knew better than to say something first. Her mom would think Aisa was trying to pressure her into a decision, which would only have the opposite effect. The seconds of silence felt like hours to Aisa.

“I would need to talk to my husband about this. It’s a very big decision,” Mrs. Arain said.

Aisa’s chest swelled. It wasn’t a no. It wasn’t a no.

Dionne nodded. It seemed like that was enough. “Of course.” She looked at Aisa. “And is this something you want? This will be the hardest thing you’ve ever done in your life. Maybe the hardest thing you ever will do. And I can’t guarantee the galaxy will be kind to you.”

Aisa knew Shay Dionne was right. She took a deep breath. “I’ve got to try. Otherwise I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering.”

“All right. Then it sounds like there are a lot of conversations that need to happen when we all get back to Bakura,” Dionne said. She extended a hand to the teenager. “Well Aisa Arain, if all goes well, a lot of beings are about to learn your name.”

As she clutched the GM’s ahnd, Aisa was so excited she felt like she was about to burst.

“Just one thing,” Dionne said.

“What?” Aisa asked.

“If Cece S’rily tries to sign you too—” Dionne gave a thrust of her chin in the Coruscanti’s direction. “—give me the opportunity to make a better offer, will you?”

“Yeah, of course,” Aisa said, sure that no one else was going to offer her a pro limmie contract. Because as unbelievable as today was, that would just be too wild.

TAG: @Jedi Gunny (who I hope doesn't feel cut out--I just had some business I had to do before scores this week! )

 

GM post

After a long LimmieCon, the season is here! Bonus potential for Bakura, Carratos, Euceron, Lucicar, Mando'ade, and Nar Shaddaa. (And Coruscant maybe one day. )

Week 1
Euceron Officers at Carratos Pirates (25-26)
Kothlis Spies at Mando’ade Mercs (11-24)
Bakura Miners at Nar Shaddaa Smugglers (21-39)
Geonosis Gangbusters at Lucicar Neir All Stars (9-22)

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik @galactic-vagabond422 @jcgoble3 @Tay Neir @Vehn

 

IC: Aisa Arain
Kaitlyn Vehn Coliseum, Nar Shaddaa

Aisa’s palms were sweaty, her pulse fast, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. She was wearing the road white uniform of the Bakura Miners. Between her shoulder blades her jersey read ARAIN, a large 43 below stretching across most of her back. She was at the end of a line of similarly-attired limmie players waiting to go onto the field. And they weren’t just any players.

They were her teammates.

Because that was a thing that had happened.

---

Hi’lo, Bakura
First day of training camp

The last two months had been surreal.

From the moment she got home from LimmieCon, Aisa had done exactly five things:

Eat
School and studying
Temple
Limmie training
Sleep

Maybe somewhere in there she saw 10 seconds of the HoloNet or she talked with her mouth full at the dinner table. But that was it. Aisa didn’t have time for anything else. If she was going to go to Miners training camp, she needed to get a lot better at limmie—right now.

While she’d trained, her parents had dealt with Dionne about the contract and the other legal considerations. Aisa hadn’t had the time to pay attention to all that. She trusted everyone to make the right decisions.

She only knew that the news had broken when her classmates started coming up to her in the hallways at school, asking in awed voices if it was true she had a “try-out contract” with the Miners. Though it was tiring to answer the same question 300 times, it was better than some of her now-former teammates accidentally-on-purpose knocking into her when they walked by. It was always the players who thought they were the stars. The message was clear: who was Aisa to get a one-in-80-million chance to play with the Miners?

But they were thousands of meters away now, for Aisa had stepped off the shuttle that had brought her to the Miners’ training facility in the Hi’lo island chain. It was legendary for being in one of the few places on Bakura that approached a tropical climate. The legend was that it was part of how the Miners enticed their players to come to training camp.

As far Aisa was concerned, they could be on Hoth and she would have still shown up with a smile on her face.

When she dropped her things in her room, she found a closet full of team gear, including practice uniforms. They didn’t have her name on them, but that didn’t matter. She was putting on a real Miners uniform. Even if it was a practice one, nothing else mattered.

She was as eager as a Jawa who spotted a pile of scrap to get to practice. Much to Aisa’s surprise, she wasn’t the first being to arrive. Aisa almost fainted when she saw Rose-Lynn Hypertravels, Jimsey Vigo, Kassandra Kirt, and…

Stars.

There she was.

Bree Veers.

There was a halo of light around her. A real halo. It couldn’t just be the angle of the sun. If Aisa didn’t know better, she would have said Veers was a Force ghost.

A whistle sounded, snapping Aisa out of her daydream. Aisa turned to face the sound and discovered it belonged to none other than Leigh Cavanaugh, the Miners’ head coach. The shrill signal spurred the remaining players to hustle over. Aisa followed their example and took a knee on the grass. She absentmindedly noticed it was the nicest playing field she’d ever set foot on.

But she couldn’t focus on that now. Cavanaugh was talking.

“Those of you who were here last year, you know how hard an ELL season is. And those of you who’ve been around longer than that know how hard it is to defend a title. And those of you who are new—” Even though Cavanaugh didn’t look at Aisa, she was sure this was directed at her. “—buckle up. Everything we do at training camp has one purpose: to make sure that when your moment comes you are ready to win it.

“Let’s get started.”

---

Aisa ran with the rest of the Miners out of the locker room and onto the field. Six Boroughs and all its various iterations was one of the most famous limmie stadiums in the galaxy. The lights were bright, the fans loud, and the atmosphere palpable. This wasn’t just everything she thought an ELL game would feel like.

It was more than that. Ten times more. A hundred times more.

She was just a reserve player. She might not even play today, or at all this season. Maybe she’d get cut tomorrow. But even if she cleaned refreshers for the rest of her life, she’d still be a refresher cleaner who’d once knelt on an ELL field during the national anthem and worn the jersey of her homeworld.

Aisa wore her warmup suit while she sat on the bench. She wanted to be ready in case the team needed her. That was the life of a reserve player. You had to be ready to go in an instant. She watched the game like a Tusken Raider hunting in the Dune Sea. There was so much she could learn, watching a real ELL offense take on her defense, not just a practice squad.

What Aisa saw was not encouraging. The Smugglers offense was outscoring, outhitting, and all-around outplaying the Miner defense today. In particular, new corner back Buc Gronine was having trouble with the Smugglers on the edges of the field. Aisa knew that’s where she was most likely to be subbed in, so she was always watching him. He was a fellow rookie and clearly the Smugglers wanted to exploit his inexperience. Buc was getting massacred and Aisa felt awful for him.

Every time Cavanaugh wandered close, Aisa watched for the slightest hint that she should get ready. Given what the Smugglers were dishing out, she needed to be warm the moment she got in the game.

After the third pass, the coach must have been able to sense Aisa’s eyes. “It’s not your moment,” Cavanaugh said without even turning to look at Aisa. “Buc needs to take this one on the chin.”

Aisa’s posture changed from leaning slightly forward with anticipation to slumping a bit as she settled in for the rest of what looked like a tough game. OK. Coach knew best. But Aisa was itching to help, to be there for her teammates, not sheltered on the bench. She’d just have to let that itch go unscratched this week.

TAG: @Vehn

 

GM post

Bonus potential this week for Bakura.

Week 2
Geonosis Gangbusters at Kothlis Spies (13-0)
Bakura Miners at Carratos Pirates (31-29)
Euceron Officers at Lucicar Neir All Stars (21-30)
Nar Shaddaa Smugglers at Mando’ade Mercs (15-16)

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik @galactic-vagabond422 @jcgoble3 @Tay Neir @Vehn

 

IC: Aisa Arain
Arcadia Colosseum, O’pahz, Carratos

“Come on Logan!” Leigh growled, even though there was no way her old teammate could hear her across the field. “You went with that play? You’ve got to be joking.” She shook her head.

From her position on the bench, Aisa had witnessed a continual string of commentary from the coach. The Miners’ second game of the season had seen the offense show up to go play-for-play with the Pirates. Aisa had watched plenty of these scoring duels on the HoloNet, but it was entirely different to be on the sidelines for one.

Even though the lead changed seemingly every possession, no one on the Miners sidelines seemed concerned. No one seemed to be panicking. It probably helped that most everyone had been through games like this as part of winning the Cup. Lacking that experience, Aisa felt no such sense of calm. Her heart rose with each Miners point and fell with each Pirates response.

The Pirates put a point over the bar and the Colosseum surged with sound in response. Leigh immediately signaled an official. She held up two fingers and twisted her wrist a couple of times. The coach turned to the bench, looked at Aisa, and said, “Get in there, kid.”

---

Hi’lo, Bakura
Training camp

Aisa tried not to look at her. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to remember the drills if she did, and she couldn’t afford that. Aisa needed to be perfect. There was no guarantee she’d make the team. She was already so far behind the other players, one mistake might be enough to get her cut. And if she started mooning over sharing the field with her idol, she knew she was going to make one.

Smack!

Like that one. Aisa must have reversed her route and run right into her teammate, knocking them both to the ground.

“Oof. I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s done.”

The stars had a funny sense of humor. Aisa had just collided with Bree Veers.

“I’m so sorry Ms. Veers, I mean, Captain,” Aisa said hurriedly as she got to her feet while the rest of the defense moved back into their positions to restart the drill.

“It’s just Bree,” Veers said, “and I think you were in the right place.”

“I was?”

“I probably had the playbook upside-down or something.” Veers shrugged. “How’s it feeling?”

“I…uh…It’s…” Aisa stammered.

“A lot. Here’s a secret: it is for everyone. Coach overhauls the playbook every season. Never wants to give teams the same look two years in a row. You do that, you’re not going to win many games.” Bree leaned in. “So you just keep running the drills until it’s second nature.”

“Really? Everyone out here is faking it?”

“Think you’d know the difference if we weren’t?” Veers smiled. Now she raised her voice. “Let’s run it again. We’re going to get it now for when it matters.”

---

Aisa jogged into position on the field, relieving Buc. Her heart was pounding. The Pirates were going to come for her. She knew it. There were 20 minutes left. An eternity in limmie.

“Aisa!” She turned to look at the call she could barely hear over the Colosseum’s fans. “You got this!” Veers shouted. “Just play!”

Just play. Just play. Just play. Aisa’s main mark was Wona Polag, the left corner forward for the Pirates. She’d watched the vids on her. Polag was good, but the Pirates ran most of their offense through their half forwards. Iris Copin was the pivot point of the whole offense. Aisa needed to not get sucked in by Copin. Her job was to shut off an option, force the star to win the game. Copin was good, but she couldn’t carry the team all game.

Aisa’s job was supposed to use her fresh legs to keep up with talented, 60 minute players like Polag. She played a tight, being-to-being defense, but the Pirates threaded a pass to Polag, attacking Aisa’s side just like she’d expected. The Zabrak hurled a shot towards the goal—quicker than Aisa expected. She was just able to get a hand up, but her fingers only tipped the ball, which went between the uprights for a point.

As Meshurok got set to kick the ball back into play, Veers shouted, “You saved two there! Keep it up!”

“OK,” Aisa yelled back, steeling herself for the next play. She was sure that Veers was just being supportive. But Bree Veers had never pulled her punches. She was right. Damage limitation in a game like this might be what made the difference. Two points could be the margin of victory.

Aisa punched a hand into the other palm a couple of times. Yeah, she was doing well.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before the Miners scored and the boloball was coming back Aisa’s way. And if it worked once, the Pirates would surely keep going to the well. The boloball was going to come back her way. Aisa repeated that in her mind. The more she prepared mentally, the more ready she’d be when it did.

And then the boloball was crossing the field in a pass over Veers’ head. Aisa judged the trajectory and moved forward. It was a risky play, but she had inside position on Polag. If she got this wrong, the corner forward would be alone.

Aisa jumped, using her body to block out Polag. She caught the ball square in her gut, trapping it with her arms. She landed on both feet and started running forward, angling towards the middle of the field. She checked down for a pass, eventually finding Dragonstorm was open. She punted the ball up to a half back, who took off up the field, who worked it to Kass Kirt, and it was off to the races from there.

Before the Pirates fans got loud again to spur the home defense, a voice hollered across the field. “There we go, kid!” Veers shouted, clapping as she ran up the field to support the offense. “That’s the way we do it!”

Aisa couldn’t restrain the goofy grin on her face. She’d made an interception in an ELL game and her limmie hero thought she looked good doing it.

---

Aisa didn’t remain perfect through the rest of the game, but she settled in and made life difficult for Polag.

She tried not to look at the clock, to not let up, to play every second as hard as she could, but she knew the game was ticking down and the Pirates were within a score on them. Aisa tried to stay loose instead of tensing up.

Aisa read a developing play and saw that it was going to be a head-on attack of the goal. She needed to get in there to support Bree—

Her leg hit Polag’s, suddenly jutting out in front of her. Aisa came off her feet and fell face first into the turf, sliding along the grass. Her white jersey probably looked green now. Aisa blew our her breath and a few blades of grass poofed out. She jumped back to her feet, no worse for the wear. Playing being-on-being against Polag had made it easy for the two to make contact. She’d had this happen plenty of times on her high school team.

“For Force sake, Logan!” Aisa heard from the visitor’s sideline. She was angled so she could see the coach make a gesture that polite society would probably frown at—and would be hard to miss on the other side of the field. “You really need to knock around my rookie like that?” Aisa hadn’t thought the play was dirty, but Cavanaugh must have seen something else.

Before Aisa could see what happened next, the horn sounded and the Miners had won 31-29.

Aisa let everything go, because the only thing that mattered was the Miners had their first win of the season. She high-fived her teammates to celebrate bringing this one home. A lot had gone into their victory. She’d never be able to prove it, but she knew in the bottom of her heart that that margin of victory, those two points, were hers.

It was the greatest feeling in the world.

TAG: @galactic-vagabond422, who collaborated on the Cavanaugh/Manx-Sandin running commentary

 

Jay Chu-ni
Carratos

"Hey this is Mech, leave a message." His answering machine, again. She's been trying to call her brother everyday for the past few weeks. She needed to talk to him to tell him all the things she hadn't said yet. But, he was stonewalling her, refusing to even give her the chance. Maybe he was just busy getting ready for the draft or something. Even with all that she couldn't shake the feeling that it was all intentional, it wasn't like their relationship over the last few years had been good. She supposed the time apart might have cooled things down, but it seems not. Now she's just left furiously calling his number hoping to get him to answer.

"Hey Mech, it's me…Again. Please talk to me, I don't want to leave us like this. Look I'm sorry for all this I just want to make this right. Please Mech just talk to me."

She ended the call and just sat back on the couch taking another hot chip that she had in front of her. Things were going fine on the field, close games and just bad luck down the stretch. That wasn't her worry. It was still fun to play, she loved her job. But it just felt a little empty without her brother there to level her out or just be there in her life. She doesn't need his adoration she just wants to talk to him, to have him in her life again.

The com sat there on the table next to the hot chips doing nothing. It was silent as it had been for the last few months. Turning on the holo she tried to get her mind off all of this, at least for a little bit.

A few moments later she found something to watch, a childish show she used to watch. It wasn't complicated or high brow it was just comfortable like a big blanket.

Even though her attention was on the holo, she couldn't help her eyes sliding over to her com that was in her sight.

However, it eventually was forgotten as the show took more and more of her brain power to focus on.

Then it rang.

Jay's hand slammed down on the table missing the com and sending it sliding towards the edge her other hand moved to catch it but she only succeed in knocking it up in the air. Scrambling both hands shot out bobleing it back and forth before she finally got a hold of it.

"Hell…Hello?" She asked with far too much hope in her heart.

"Practice has been moved back an hour tomorrow." It was not the voice she wanted to her, just the calm tones of her coach, Logan Manx-Sandin.

"Oh, ok I'll note that…" She couldn't help the emptiness in her voice.

"Are you ok?"

"No I'm…I'm fine Coach, I'll see you then."

"Alight. See you then."

A long breath left her, it was going to be a long season.

TAG: No One

 

GM post

Bonus potential for Bakura and Carratos this week.

Week 3
Lucicar Neir All Stars at Bakura Miners (15-39)
Kothlis Spies at Euceron Officers (1-27)
Mando’ade Mercs at Geonosis Gangbusters (30-13)
Nar Shaddaa Smugglers at Carratos Pirates (25-15)

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik @galactic-vagabond422 @jcgoble3 @Tay Neir @Vehn

 

IC: Aisa Arain
Bakura Gardens, Salis D’aar, Bakura

Aisa was pumped. It was her first game at the Gardens. It was the stadium for any Bakuran kid who played limmie. It wasn’t the biggest ELL arena, but if your dream came true and you got to play in just one stadium, you wanted it to be this one.

In a few moments, she was going to walk through the silver doors etched with the Miners logo, across the concourse, and onto the field. It didn’t matter that she was at the end of the line. It just mattered that she was here, wearing the blue and gold.

Yeah, she was going to watch most of her teammates get their championship rings while another Galactic Cup banner was raised into the sheltered rafters of the Gardens. Then she’d take her place on the bench, not on the field.

But she was going to be there. Her family was going to be in the stands. This was everything she’d dreamed of—and she wasn’t going to do it alone.

---

Training camp, Hi’lo, Bakura

The door chime sounded gently. Aisa left her playbook and jumped off her bed to answer it. She bunked alone (a maybe-perk of being under 18), so whoever was at the door was looking for her. The door slid back to reveal Bast Amun, the veteran midfielder.

“Hey,” Amun said. “Got a minute?”

“Yeah, sure,” Aisa said, ushering her teammate inside. She pressed a button to keep the door open. It was another rule due to her age—no closed doors when alone with another being. Aisa thought it was a going a little overboard, but she understood why the rules were in place.

“So, forgive me if this is a giant assumption,” Amun said, taking a seat on the unused bed opposite Aisa’s (the fact it was still perfectly creased made it clear it wasn’t hers), “but stars’ blessings.”

Aisa perked up. “And blessings of the stars upon you,” she responded automatically, even though she was surprised. “You go to temple?”

“All my life,” Bast said. “I thought you might too.”

“What gave it away?”

“Your necklace.” Aisa touched it unconsciously after Bast pointed it out. It was a brief excerpt from the Journal of the Whills in aurodium. “I thought you’d like to know you weren’t the only one on the team.”

“Thanks. It’s cool you’re a believer.” Most of Bakuran practiced the Cosmic Balance, so it wasn’t often someone else shared Aisa’s faith.

“It’s something private for me, which is why I don’t talk about it in public, but a big part of what’s important to me about my faith is the community,” Bast explained. “I hope I’m not making an assumption or anything, but I figure this is has got to be tough for you. None of us were this young when we were here. We all came up through college or the juniors. For what it’s worth, I think you’re doing great. But it’s OK if it also takes a toll. Just know that it’s not on you to shoulder that alone, OK?”

Aisa smiled. “Yeah, OK.”

“So this gets to be a lot for you, you’re going to…?” Bast let the sentence dangle.

“Come see you,” Aisa finished.

“There we go. That goes on the field too. You need me and I’ll be there. More importantly…” Bast stood. “…do you game?”

“Do I?!” Aisa replied excitedly, jumping to her feet.

“Come on. We’re going to start our weekly Mega Mash Bros. session. We can team up on Harle. She’s an easy mark. You’d think after rooming with me she’d figure out you don’t just press buttons at random…” Bast mused as they left Aisa’s room.

“Any character restrictions?” Aisa asked.

“Pfft. You can beat anyone with any character if you know what you’re doing,” Bast scoffed.

“That’s what they all say…” Aisa said as she cracked her fingers in anticipation.

---

The Miners were stretching their lead against the Neir All-Stars, but Aisa wasn’t letting her guard down. If anything, it was going to make them play harder. The All Stars were newcomers like her. They were still fighting to prove they belonged. A comeback win against the reigning champions on their home field was a good way to do that.

Aisa felt the pressure, but she was calmer than in the last game. She felt like the game was in front of her. One of her coaches had preached the value of “keeping the game in front of you.” She hadn’t understood it then, but she did now. Aisa saw things developing. She felt like she was making decisions for herself, not just reacting to what was happening around her.

She took a pass from a teammate, who’d blocked a shot. One of the All Stars was coming her way. Aisa didn’t have much time. She knew what her best play was.

Aisa took a couple of steps and punted the ball hard and high up the field, angling it towards the middle to keep it away from going out of bounds. She watched as the boloball hit the top of its arc and began to tumble end-over-end towards the ground…

Into the waiting arms of Bast, who was off like a blaster bolt and up the field.

Aisa smiled. It was good to have someone you could count on to be there for you.

TAG: @Tay Neir

 

Jay Chu-ni
Cho'fin, Carratos

She lowered her head pulling the brim of her hat low. It wasn't that she was ashamed to be here, it was a lightball field it was fine. It was just she didn't want to be recognized. That and she had to fake sick to get out of practice to get here, so if she was seen elsewhere fit as a fiddle she'd catch hell for blowing off practice to take in a lightball game. Curse her brother, he forced her to come here he wouldn't answer his comm, so she had to go where he was. Though she couldn't go back home, even with her disguise she would be recognized, the joys of a small town. So she had to wait for his team to play an away game, and an away game close enough to O'Pahz that she could get there without having to take a long speeder ride.

Brining her eyes back up she looked at the scoreboard, the Cannons were down 3 runs with the Cho'fin Raiders up to bat. The lead off hitter cracked the ball to right field but it fell short. The second basebeing dove out and caught it quickly throwing it to first to try and get the runner out but it was just late. Though it did stop the lead off from going further. The second batter came up hitting it hard to left. Mech was quick get to it. It bounced off the ground but, he was able to snag it but, just too late to tag the runners out.

The game was getting away from the Cannons it was going to be difficult to claw it back. The next batter was stuck out, that was one out. They still needed two more if they were going to survive this inning. The next at bat was a slog, balls, fouls, and strikes aplenty. Then finally a clean hit. Jay could hear Mech's voice over the din of the crowd.

"I got second snag it Lana." He rushed to second, while the second basebeing Lana, by Mech's order, rushed to snag the ball. A quick toss to Mech and he tagged second base and put all that he had into the throw to third. The ball was faster than Jay's eyes could follow a little white blur that beat the runner to the bag. A double play getting them out of the inning. It still wasn't good, but it was something.

The Cannons were up bat. They made a strong showing before Mech was up. They were only down by two now, with runners on the corners, and two outs. It was salvageable but, it all fell on Mech. Well not really but, Jay could just feel it, see it in his shoulders. He was going to carry this team even if he didn't have to. The first pitch was fast, too fast for Mech to see as he didn't swing taking the strike while looking. The next one he swung late sending it foul. The third pitch made contact, the crack resounded through the stadium and ball being carried by the force he'd put on the ball. With a sneer Jay could see Mech flipped his bat walking with purpose and anger as he rounded the bases. He looked angry, frustrated that he had to be the hero this game. Jay's eyes scanned the crowd a few looked excited the few Cannons fans that could make it out. The majority looked sullen the home team's fans taking in the loss.

Jay herself shot to her feet cheering. Without missing a step Mech locked eyes with her his scowl deepening. He'd won the game and he was mad about it. Another look and there were more beings taking notes, where these the scouts? Jay had heard whispers about them how they watched games and took notes about the players they had their eyes on. The young woman had always just kept her mind on the game didn't worry about the people in the stands.

As the fans filed out Jay followed them, then slinked off to try and find the locker room. She wanted to congratulate her brother and talk with him. After some wandering her found the room but, reasonably it was blocked by security.

"Yes I'd like to see my brother?" She explained, "he's the one that won the game." The guard an ugnaught narrowed his eyes.

"I'll go see, stay here." He was a gruff man but that was understandable. Jay rocked on her heels waiting, and waiting. It felt like forever then the guard came back. "Says he doesn't have a sister."

"What?"

"Now get out of here missy,"

"But I am his…"

"And he said he'd never had a sister now go before I have to call for back up."

"I'm…I'm going…" Jay hung her head a tear in her eye. Not have a sister, how could he say that…why would he say that?

TAG: No one

 

IC: Tay Neir

The Lucicar Neir all-stars were losing against the Miners. Tay honestly wasn't surprised after all, the miners were the reigning champs and this was the all-stars first season within the sport. Still, if the all-stars could turn their act around and win against the miners on their homefield that would be something. Tay wasn't sure why Lucicar had joined the sport in the beginning but he did now. It was the best thing he had seen in a long time, the speed, the agility, and the expertise of the opposing team was surprising, Tay loved the sport and it seemed the all-stars did to. Tay watched on as one of the miners took a couple of steps and punted the ball hard and high up the field, angling it towards the middle to keep it away from going out of bounds. Tay watched as the boloball hit the top of its arc and began to tumble end-over-end towards the ground into the waiting arms of a teammate, who was off like a blaster bolt and up the field. How the all-stars would win against a player like that was anyone's guess.

TAG: @Trieste

 

IC: Tendra Nalo-Linrai
Practice field

"Don't take low-percentage shots like that!" Tendra yelled across the practice field as a shot on goal was easily saved. She leaned on her crutches, a result of a sprained ankle suffered when she had tried to demonstrate a technique herself two weeks ago. The doctor would tell her later today whether she could get rid of the crutches. Force, she hated them.

The offense attacked the goal again, and again the shot on goal was not open, but this time the player recognized that and sent the ball over the crossbar. "Good recognition! Drown them in bar points!"

Head coach Rockta Sparks blew the whistle, and the team gathered around the Rodian. "Alright, it's a hot day and I don't think pushing you for another 10 minutes in this humidity is worth it," she said. "We've made good progress today and I want you fresh and ready for the Mercs in two days. We'll have a walkthrough tomorrow to finalize the plan for game day. You all are dismissed for the day, but remember the curfew. Save the partying for after we win," Rockta said with a wink.

As the team dispersed, Rockta turned to Tendra. "I was told to pass the message that the doctor is ready for you."

Tendra acknowledged and hobbled to the exam room.

One hour later

"So your ankle looks fine. You're clear to drop the crutches, but I do want you to be careful on it for another week or two. Walking on it normally is fine, but I don't want you to run or put excessive weight on it for another week or so."

"So when can I get back to demoing skills on the practice field?"

The doctor sighed. "So you're going to force that conversation." Tendra looked at him with a quizzical look. "Tendra, you're 47 years old," the doctor continued. "As you age, there are certain things you can't do anymore, or should I say certain things you shouldn't do anymore. Trying to join elite athletes on the field, even a practice field, is one of those. Your body has taken too much abuse over the years, and you need to back off the throttle. Coach from the sidelines, not with the ball in your hands."

There were a thousand profane things Tendra wanted to respond with, but she bit her tongue and stayed as respectful as she could. "Seriously? That is literally what I was hired to do. You're telling me I can't do my job?"

"Your body is telling you that. If you keep it up, the next injury might not be just an ankle sprain. It might be something far more serious. I'm not saying you have to stay completely on the sidelines. You can demo something at slow speed or controlled conditions, just not full speed live action."

Tendra let out an audible sigh, and the doctor responded. "I know it's not ideal, but it's the reality of aging. We don't have access to the advanced technology that a planet like Bakura has. Look at your mother; you're probably headed to her current state faster than her with how much abuse your body has taken."

Tendra winced at that. Her mother was 81 years old and relied on a walker for mobility. Tendra closed her eyes for a moment, and silently screamed before opening her eyes again and accepting her fate. "Alright, I suppose you are right, even if I hate it. I'm still doing the skills challenges at LimmieCon next year, though."

"And that's fine, as long as you don't exceed your body's limits. I would call that a controlled environment."

"Perfect. Well, not perfect, but you get my drift." Tendra carefully stood up, testing weight on her ankle. It held firm, although she could feel a hint of pain, signaling that the doctor was right that it was too early to run and put pressure on it.

"Just be careful out there. I don't want you back in here because you overdid it again."

"I will. Be careful, that is."

Tendra slowly walked toward the locker room to talk with the team, picking up speed as she trusted her ankle more and more.

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik for a brief mention of today's game

 

GM post

Here's a little unannounced Monday Night Mesh'geroya for everyone (it was an unexpectedly busy Sunday out my way!). Bonus potential for Bakura, Carratos, Euceron, and Lucicar this week!

Week 4
Mando’ade Mercs at Euceron Officers (7-29)
Kothlis Spies at Bakura Miners (28-12)
Geonosis Gangbusters at Carratos Pirates (20-11)
Lucicar Neir All Stars at Nar Shaddaa Smugglers (26-26, OT 33-32)

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik @galactic-vagabond422 @jcgoble3 @Tay Neir @Vehn

 

IC: Aisa Arain
Bakura Gardens, Salis D’aar, Bakura

Aisa sat on the bench with her chin propped on her hand. It was not fun getting doubled up by the worst team in the league. Sure, the Spies were probably bitter about losing two straight Finals—including the last one to the Miners—but, after last week’s stellar performance against the Neir All Stars, you would have thought that the Miners would have this one.

But Aisa had been a Miners fan long enough not to be that surprised. They just couldn’t help but fall into a trap game.

---

Training camp, Hi’lo, Bakura

Periodically the team broke into squads so they could go deep in their responsibilities and drills. They usually involved vid review, looking at previous games of ELL teams, and detailed play breakdowns. Today, Bree had gathered the defense not in the vid room but on one of the patios overlooking the white sand beach in front of the training facility. The gentle breezes provided welcome cooling after a long morning of practice.

“We’ve got to be better with our consistency. There’s nothing worse than winning a big one only to lose to a team we know we’re better than,” Veers said.

“We need to keep the intensity up week-to-week,” Rose-Lynn added. “Every team is dangerous. Any given Primeday.”

“Right,” Gerald Riviera agreed. “We can’t turn our backs on a team until we know we’ve got them in the bag.”

“Bring the fire all 60 minutes,” Danys Dragonstorm added.

“And let the mistakes go when they happen. Be a scalefish,” Obi-San Samya said. “Have a 30 second memory.”

Aisa nodded her head along with the conversation, not speaking up in the presence of these Galactic Cup champions. They knew what they were talking about. She decided to squash the question at the forefront of her mind.

Those are really nice locker room quotes…but how do we do that?

She was sure someone would explain it eventually.

---

Aisa was still waiting for the answer. She looked at a displeased Leigh Cavanaugh, curious if the head coach had any thoughts. All she got was the coach shaking her head.

“Can’t beat the Spynet,” Cavanaugh grumbled.

Aisa looked at Bast, who’d been pulled earlier in the game when Leigh decided the game was a lost cause. Doubtless it was to rest Bast for future matches. It was the smart move. The Miners were going to need to ace the rest of the season to have a shot at the playoffs.

“You really think the Bothans spied on us?” Aisa whispered to her teammate.

“Nah. We just got outplayed today,” Bast said. She didn’t seem broken up about it.

“This one’s pretty bad. I mean, they had the worst offense in the league and look at them out there.” Aisa waved her hand at the field. “You’d think they’re the defending champs.”

“It’s hard to be at the top of the hill. Just keep that in mind next week.”

“Next week?” Aisa echoed.

“Yeah. We’re going to Mandalore, remember?”

Aisa closed her eyes. “Great. That’s just great.”

Next week might make or break the entire season—and the Miners were going to have to play it on the road in one of the toughest stadiums in the ELL against one of the best teams in the league.

Awesome.

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik