Character Perspective: Novarod

“Watch out!” I yelled after pushing off of Curtis’s feet just slightly off angle in a move we had been attempting to practice and went careening toward Sera and Ty tangled in some sort of wrestling like movement that they broke off just in time as I split directly between them in and oddly accurate flight path.

“I gotcha Nova!” Ty called grabbing the cloth of my pants and reaching back for Sera who grabbed onto her and slowed me down, though my momentum pulled us forward slowly before we finally came to a slow float. As I tried to right myself though, I noticed Ty had a look in her eye that made my gut drop. “Spacefly, think you can get enough momentum to whip me?” She asked down to Sera without ever even meeting my eye.

“Hmm, maybe?” She replied, her own eyes sparking with curiosity as I looked between the two girls. “Where to?”

“Aim for the goal over there by Doc and Sullivan,” she gestured to a round hoop like object at the closer of the two ends of the long rectangular room that made up the arena where Mendez and Sullivan were floating next to each other, though they were now looking over our way.

“Wait, wait, wait, don’t I get a say in this?” I asked as I struggled slightly and tried to pull my leg away from Ty’s seeming iron grip.

Sera was already starting to pull back downwards though, her body rotating quickly, and I felt myself getting dragged backwards as Ty shouted, “Go long Nova, you’re the ball now!”

As she let me go, I felt myself go flinging feet first down the field and the more I tried to move the wilder my flight went as I started tumbling through the air on my side causing my stomach to drop over and over again. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to keep my lunch down.

“Gooooooooal!” Mendez hollered as I felt myself crash against the wall behind the hoop and come to an abrupt halt as I bounced off of it.

“Novarod! You good?!” Curtis shouted toward me as I tried to shake the stars out of my eyes and struggled for one of the handholds available on the wall I had hit.

I was shaken up, definitely I was, but even with the crash, I didn’t actually seem all that hurt overall, the wall and non-gravity somehow acting like a cushion to my fall in a way I sure as hell didn't understand. “I… I think so? Unless I’m dead and this is just the weirdest afterlife.” I called back as I rubbed my shoulder lightly. “What the hell Ty!?”

“Oh you’re fiiiiine!” She yelled back with a giggle. “I can’t believe I scored!”

“I don’t know, I kind of feel like that was my score…” Sera added with her own laugh hidden behind her hand.

“If it’s anybody's score it’s mine damnit! I was the damn ball!” I complained as I planted my feet onto the wall, “Doc, Sullivan, give me a boost and throw me to the other side of the field,” I said and they nodded, their hands reaching out as I pushed off and they both grabbed one of my outstretched hands and flung me across the football field sized room.

This time it was faster and I was unable to keep myself from letting out an exhilarated whoop of a laugh. I was on a near collision course with Ty and Sera when Curtis sprang up in front of me and I crashed into him with a THUD.

“I got the ball now!” Curtis shouted and the entire group let out a near concurrent surprised laugh. He pushed me back as we listed slightly to the side as he kept a solid grip on the sleeve of my coat, and I could already see the gears moving in his head. “Now where’s your green cube?” He asked as his eyes looked around.

“No don’t you friggin da-“ I started before he whipped his body around and flung me himself with his own laugh and for the first time since our trial, I saw a genuine smile on his face. Luckily, he threw me by the arm and this time I flew with a bit more stability, heading directly for a cube lit up green on the far side of the room that I snagged out of the air as I passed it by, turning myself onto my back before hitting the ceiling of the room.

“CAN SOMEBODY ELSE BE THE BALL NOW!?” I complained loudly as I held the cube up in one hand by a handle planted on the side of it. It was actually bigger than I had expected, almost like a large speaker device instead of something more handheld.

“But you make such a good ball Nova!” Ty shouted with a much heartier laugh as she doubled over in mid air with her hands on her stomach.

“Oh it wasn’t that funny,” I muttered under my breath but let out a sigh and just shook my head to get rid of the frustration. Given how tense our lunch had gotten, it was good that everyone was laughing and having a good time, even if it was at the expense of getting flung around.

“Bring the cube down here Nova, I think we can count yours as collected,” Curtis hollered up to me as he hit another button on the remote the Commander had given to him and started to drop toward the ground of the arena.

It was still weird trying to get a grip on directions in a Zero-G space but the Commander’s instruction of using the ceiling as north had stuck carefully in my head and was keeping me from getting fully disoriented. With one hand still on my cube, I copied the flip and plant move that was starting to feel familiar before launching back down toward Curtis. My speed was still an issue, but my aim was starting to get much better as I went in a b-line toward our Captain.

Luckily for me he extended a hand and grabbed me before I could hit the floor, his feet hooked under a pair of handles that kept him planted in place and bringing me to a stop.

“I thought you didn’t want to be the ball any more man?” He asked with a laugh and helped me right myself as I found my own hook to latch my feet onto.

“Can we just agree not to let “Ball” become my nickname?” I muttered low enough that hopefully only he heard it.

Plum however had been close enough to hear me and she let out a laugh as she floated back down to the ground with a deep purple cube in her hand that must have been what Curtis had referred to as Indigo, not that I could tell the difference. I had missed how she had moved so effortlessly but given that I had been getting flung around, missing that was probably understandable.

“Don’t worry Nova, it’s a bad nickname, I think your safe that it won’t stick,” she said with a playful smirk.

“Tell that to Spacefly,” I said and nodded up to Sera and Ty who had gone back to seemingly wrestling in midair as they tried something that didn’t seem to be working. Or maybe they were just having fun in Zero-G, the longer we got to float around the more I realized this was really exactly what we had needed, and I hoped we would get more time to hang out or do stuff down here in the coming days and weeks.

“Yeah, Ty really pushed that one hard, it kind of did get ingrained into me before I realized it had happened,” Curtis replied with a nod. “But I agree with Vicky, Ball is a terrible nickname,” he added looking down to his watch. “Okay guys, let’s start collecting these cubes, we’re down to the final five minutes,” he yelled out.

“Cool, where’s your red cube, I think I deserve to fling you at least once,” I said looking for his cube and before Curtis could even start to argue I grabbed for his sleeve and shoved off the ground, immediately launching him forward and sending him tumbling end over end as a look of surprise was clear on his face and Vicky failed to suppress a roar of a laugh.

“Bold move Nova!” She said breathlessly and I crossed my arms over my chest as I floated just over the ground.

“Totally worth whatever extra PT he decides to give me, ain’t it,” I shot down to her with my own smile. “Now… think you can get me down from here?”