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[Action/Voice]

[Finally, after all this time! Mulder has found that much-desired basketball. He's in luck too, as it's well-inflated, not a sign of wear or tear on it. Too many times, he's come across half-deflated or otherwise messed up ones. But this one is perfect. It's as if there's finally some compensation for all the usual rounds of disappearances and so on. He's really needed this. He starts dribbling the ball right as he leaves the shop and continues bouncing the thing everywhere he goes throughout the day. It can also be heard in the background of his voice transmission.]

Does anyone have any unique birthday traditions they care to share? I wonder how similar these traditions might be between the worlds... Let's just say I'm curious, for purely theoretical reasons.

...By the way, is there anyone out there who'd be up for shooting some hoops or even getting together a pick-up game of basketball? Of course, we'd actually need to throw together a hoop somehow first, but minor details! If you've never played before, I promise I'll go easy on you.

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[Mulder was expecting confusion, so he's easygoing about that.]

There's no guns actually involved, so it's not that kind of shooting. It's a game, played with a bouncy orange ball. The goal is to toss the ball into a hoop as many time as possible, and try to prevent your opponent from tossing it in more times.

[To go with the very basic idea.]

[ Oh. That sounds really easy. So easy a caveman can do it! She was trained for this! She has the speed, the accuracy, and the.... something else! ]

A gun? [ SHE SHOOTS KNIVES OUT OF SCROLLS> ] I think I can manage to do that. It sounds like a fun game though.

[Ah, a very different world, then. Mulder is eager to find out more about that, but one thing at a time.]

It is, both in playing and watching. There are even professional teams back home who play against each other, and people watch them for entertainment.

I just play casually though. Don't worry, it's not so bad to pick up when you're playing for fun.

[ Good! She's pretty open about her world except for a couple of things. ]

Ah! I see! So it's sort of similar to the Chuunin exams back at my home - or when a bunch of talented ninja face off in a competition against each other on front of really interested spectators, or country rulers, or kages, and if a panel decides they fight well they can become chuunin.

[ She makes a brief affirmation before asking him where to play. ] All right. Tell me where to show up so you can teach me. I'm interested. It sounds really fun. [ When you spend five years tossing weapons perfectly at bull's eyes, you seem a bit geared towards basketball. ]

There are ninja competitions in your world? [Yep, consider him very interested in what her world must be like, considering that.]

Come on over, by Community Building 7. I'm setting up an improvised hoop for the time being. [It'll suffice at least for the moment. Someday the Malnosso will give him a proper hoop, he hopes, since he's finally gotten the ball.]

Yeah. I've been in a couple. [ The Chuunin Exams twice. One of which was a roflstomp from Temari. That really sucked. ]

All right. I'll be there in a few. [ And sure enough. A tiny, five foot, three inched teenage girl will be there soon in her average clothes! She seems to be dressed in a fairly oriental style, but she seems to be very eager to play. ]

You're the man I was talking to earlier right? I'm Tenten.

Good to meet you, Tenten, I'm Mulder.

[He's definitely curious about what her world must be like now, since it looks like there are similarities to parts of his... but of course, he knows better than to think they're necessarily at all from the same world.]

[He bounces the ball a few times, then tosses it at the improvised hoop, watching it swoosh through.]

There! Looks like everything's in good working order.

[ She doesn't have any clue about his world so she remains oblivious to his curiosity. She nods and continues to eye the ball and the hoop, as if she's measuring something. ]

Then let's get started already. You go first!

Ok! We can start off with some free throws, which is just tossing the ball in... and I can explain things about playing the game. [He bounces the ball, takes a shot and watches it swoosh through. As the ball comes toward them, he bounces it over toward her.] If you're used to aiming for targets in a combat situation, this won't be too bad to pick up. Just take it easy and aim.

[ She observes the basket for the briefest of moments before turning to Fox and nodding her head. She tosses the ball into the basket with astounding ease without even looking. ]

As you were saying? [ Tenten uses projectiles to fight. A ball is a bit different for her but not too much. ]

[Mulder grins a little, glad to see he'll have a challenging opponent.]

So to play the game, we can keep taking free shots to figure out who gets the ball first. [He goes again, and makes it, again bouncing it over to her.] Usually it's a good plan to decide on scoring, which can vary a bit... say, first one to twenty one points wins? Each basket is worth two points when we get going, and if you make it from father back- [Indicates the area.] -it's three. The lines I've painted around the area are the boundaries, so you want to keep the ball inside the area.

All right. That sounds fair. [ She tosses her hands from her chest, and the ball falls into the basket before returning to her. She tosses it towards him with a polite smile on her face. This may take a very long time to decide who goes first. ]

So, now that I know how to score points, what are the rules?

[It totally will. His go next, making another shot.]

I'd say we flip a coin as an alternative, but how often does one ever run across money in Luceti?

[Not that he's usually tried looking for it, but still.]

Anyway, more of the basics. When you have the ball, you're on offense, and your objective is to make a basket. You have to keep dribbling the ball- bouncing it along as you go- and keep it in bounds. If the offensive player scores, possession of the ball goes to the other person next, and they go on the offense and try to score. But if the offense doesn't score when they shoot, anyone can try and catch it, they just have to dribble it outside of the area directly near the basket before trying to shoot.

The player without the ball is on defense, and they're trying to stop the other player from scoring. You can steal the ball, but you can't do it by pushing or otherwise roughing up someone. Touching someone like that would be a foul, something you don't want to do. But you can try and block the ball itself at any time. You'll want to keep moving in front of the offensive player at all times, facing them.

The game is as much about good footwork and other strategies as anything. It gets pretty involved. But it's a really good workout once you get into it.

Luceti doesn't have an economy, unfortunately. [ She effortlessly makes the next basket while sponging everything Fox told her. ]

All right. Make baskets when I have the ball and bounce it. Try to get the ball if the opponent somehow gets it. Sounds really simple to me. Hmph, I can probably use this game and teach it to Iruka-sensei at the academy for the kids to play. Thanks for teaching it!

[ She bounces the ball over to him. Of course, she doesn't have much to add not playing basketball ever, but she will bow in gratitude. ]

Of course! It works great with groups of kids, that's how I started out playing. Usually you could put five players on a team, when you're playing with a group... they'd each have a position to play. One on one is a lot simpler.

[Mulder grins wryly seeing that this might take some time if they keep going at it.]

Why don't you take the ball first?

Hm... I can learn the positions another time, right? I'd rather get down the fundamentals before I go into more complex stuff. [ She'll nod at his proposition. ]

Sure! Thanks for the help, mister.

Of course! I'll give you a full tutorial of the entire game, anytime you'd like.

[Mulder is enthused to do that, too, since sports in general are a favorite hobby of his. And in some weird way he likes having the reminder of home.]

All right. Let me just learn the fundamentals for now. [ She gives off a brief nod before she begins to dribble to the right to make a shot.

ooc: Just out of curiosity, how tall is Fox? Tenten is around 5'3" so feel free to use height to his advantage, haha. ]

Excellent. You'll get a good feel for it in no time.

[He moves along, on the defense and guarding.]

(ooc; 6'0"! So pretty tallish, he'll be sure to do that. ;))

[ Tenten immediately turns her back on him to block his path while still dribbling. ]

[And Mulder keeps on her, not letting up the closer they get to the hoop.]

[ And then Tenten will try to twirl before jumping upwards to aim and shoot for the hoop. ]

[Mulder watches, waiting to see if it makes it, ready either way to catch it.]

[ The ball goes through the hoop as Tenten does an elbow thrust downwards; a brief celebration. ]

All right! This is fun!

It is! It's definitely one of my favorite sports.

[His world is just awesome for things like this. And he gets the ball next, dribbling along.]

voice is good! XD

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