AJD is away this weekend for the twentieth-anniversary reunion show of the showtunes singing group he was in at college. Upon learning of this, the kittens decided to take over the bed for a soccer game. They were so excited about the prospect that they didn't even wait for him to leave. The game was predictably adorable, and also very typical of the personalities involved, so we thought we'd share it with you.
The adults, needless to say, were having none of this kitten silliness and decided to get as far away from the fracas as possible. I'm not quite sure what they were talking about because they got very quiet whenever I came near. Not all the adults decided to hang out, though. Stal isn't with them because he decided to sequester himself in the closet and work on his epic; Alfredo was off doing paperwork; the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy had some sort of board meeting; and so on.
Mahler and Rusty got to be captains this time. Rusty won the toss for first pick, and naturally he chose Khamsin. Khamsin always gets picked first for athletic events, of course, because he's a cheetah, and everyone knows that cheetahs are the best at everything. The annual Feline Games are very strict about cheetahs because of this; they're barred from competing in individual events and species-team events, and there are restrictions on the number of cheetahs per team in mixed-species team events. If you want to see cheetahs compete, you have to go to the annual Cheetah Games instead. (Most felines do, because they're awesome.)
Anyway, so Rusty chose Khamsin. Mahler had the next pick, and he chose Navarre. This left Cami and Flurry, and so of course Rusty chose Cami, because Flurry really doesn't understand the game yet. Mahler decided to have Navarre be goalie; clearly having Flurry as goalie would be a really bad idea, but he's not great on the field either, and since Mahler is older, he's a more experienced player than Navarre and probably better at picking up the slack. On the other team, Cami got to be goalie, which he was really trepidatious about, although he's actually a good goalie. He's just really concerned about letting his team down.
Now, before I start showing you actual pictures of the game, I should explain about the ball.
The kittens weren't really playing soccer, exactly. They were playing Izit-Football. It's exactly like soccer, except that the ball is an Izit. This is the Izit in its usual habitat on AJD's desk. It likes Czechoslovakian glass.
See that string between the Izit's eyes? It's girded for battle. You wouldn't think it to look at them, because they're balls of fluff with eyes, but Izits are actually a Proud Warrior Race. Initiated adults are expected to always be ready to enter combat at a moment's notice. Part of their training, as it happens, involves being a soccer ball, so when the kittens started making noise about having a soccer game, the Izit volunteered to be their ball. The kitttens were delighted; none of them had ever played with a Battle-Girded Izit before, but they'd always wanted to. (Except Flurry, because he's so young.)
Here we are, the match underway.
Khamsin has the Izit, and he's trying to get a pass off to Rusty, but he's going to have to get it through Mahler first. Navarre is ready at the goal, just in case. Cami's doing likewise; he's looking pretty nervous, although I'm not sure you can tell. Flurry is basically trying to figure out what he should be doing.
Now, Mahler may not be as good as Khamsin, but he's a good player all the same, so he managed to intercept Khamsin's pass to Rusty.
Here's the view from behind Navarre's goal. You can see Mahler driving the Battle-Girded Izit down towards the other goal. Cami's looking increasingly nervous. Fortunately for him, Khamsin, being Khamsin, is already there defending (yes, he really is that fast), and Rusty's on his way. Also fortunately for Cami, Mahler's kind of stymied here. He wants to pass to Flurry, but Flurry is looking beseechingly at Navarre for instructions and isn't paying attention.
Navarre, fortunately, had the presence of mind to tell Flurry to look at Mahler, and Mahler managed to pass him the Izit.
Cami is really sweating now. But his teammates are behind him: Khamsin is in place at the goal, and Rusty is closing in on the other side. Flurry has the Izit, and he's really excited about it. He's so excited that he has absolutely no clue what to do. Mahler is trying to get him to either try to score or pass it back. Now, Flurry had worked out that Navarre doesn't really seem to have much to do in this game, so he had decided that whenever he wasn't certain what he himself should be doing, he would look to Navarre for help, since Mahler was (rather obviously) trying to do the work of two kittens.
So naturally Flurry misguidedly attempted to pass the Izit to Navarre. This might have still worked out okay, except that his aim is... kind of terrible.
Flurry's pass went completely wild. This is where Khamsin really got to shine. If you compare his position in the last picture to his position in this picture, you'll see just how fast he is (and why he's always chosen first): even though Mahler and Rusty were both closer to where the Izit ended up, Khamsin still managed to get there first.
Rusty was anticipating a pass, so he moved into position on Navarre's blind side while Navarre covered the goal to prevent Khamsin from rushing in and scoring, which he's entirely capable of doing. Mahler, meanwhile, grimly made his way down the field. Flurry was closer, and really should have been rushing in for defence, but he was too busy trying to get Navarre to give him instructions, which Navarre rather obviously couldn't do, because it was all down to him. Here's the same scene from another angle:
You get a better sense of the spatial confiigurations in the second photo. As you can see, if Flurry would move in, Khamsin wouldn't have so many options; he'd have to try to score before Mahler got closer. With Flurry staying away, though, Khamsin could take his pick.
Had Khamsin been Rusty, or possibly even Navarre or Mahler, he might have tried to score, for the personal glory. He'd have had a good chance, too, because he's so fast. But Khamsin isn't all that egotistical. He's really bloody good and he knows it, so he doesn't feel the urge to prove it all the time. For him, athletic games are just fun, and worth playing purely for their own sake. This is, of course, one of the things that make him good: his judgement is never clouded by his ego.
So Khamsin sent a quick pass to Rusty, still in position on Navarre's blind side. Rusty (who, for the record, has the makings of a good player, even if he's not in Khamsin's class) promptly scored.
This picture, as you can see, was taken just after the goal, when Navarre had turned just a moment too slow. Rusty, as you can imagine, was quite triumphant; not only had he scored, but he had scored against Navarre, which is the Accomplishment To End All Others in Rusty's book. Khamsin and Cami are celebrating too. Poor Mahler, who was essentially playing one-on-two, is staring banefully and dejectedly at Flurry. And Flurry... is really excited because he's just so happy to be playing.
After the match was over, Lady Faraday gently suggested that perhaps the next time they play Izit-Football, the captain with second pick should get to choose two players rather than one, in hopes of evening things up a bit. Khamsin could probably take on two other kittens with Flurry as his teammate and still have a decent shot at winning.
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