Team Building - The Ball Game [Everyone]

“Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes…” James continued on as he walked towards the large and spacious room where most (if not all) the actors have spent most of their time in. It was nothing special, just a large and empty room, with a connecting ‘storage’ room that held empty boxes for makeshift props during rehearsal. James had never tried using the boxes for makeshift props before, but he had heard that they were effective. How effective, he was not sure. He knew that he had to use his imagination and miming skills. Too bad he was unsure about that fact. Using his imagination would be easy, but the miming now… That was a bit more challenging.

He pushed it out of his mind as he pushed the door that led to the spacious room. “Potatoes, potatoes…” His accent was slowly changing from a South-Western Australian accent to an Irish accent. He was getting into character, which was good for him. At least he could try and maintain this one; however, the effort was thrown out the window when his green eyes spotted the medium sized child’s ball. Well hey, if he had to be there and there was a ball, then why not entertain himself? Someone had obviously provided entertainment for him here, and it would just be rude to not play with what was given to him. He did not wish to offend anyone after all, so as soon as he placed his stuffed koala at a safe corner, James picked the ball up and started to bounce it around, playing keep up with himself.

The instructions lay on the floor, unnoticed by the Australian. If he had looked at the ball, he should have waited for everyone to come. The exercise they needed to do to ‘bond’ with one another was just a simple game of ‘keep up’ to see how many times they could hit the ball and not have it land on the floor. Of course there were specific instructions on how many times one could play keep up with oneself, and how many times a pair of people could toss the ball between one another. They had to somehow keep the ball up, but have everyone hit the ball at least once every round. Simple instructions, but it would be harder when put into motion.

James continued to try and let the ball fly by itself from his hands though, bouncing it on his forearms as he waited for people to come. Occasionally he would hit it too hard, or aim it so that it would fly farther and lower than he had intended. He did dangerous moves to try and keep it up, first leaping to save the spheroid with his head. Then James tried to dive to get the colourful sphere, but he only to hurt himself in the process yet again.

“Owww…” He groaned, lying on his back. He had hit the deck pretty hard, and so he lay there for a moment or two, recomposing himself before getting up again. He looked to the corner of the room where his friend was sitting. “Don’t ya laugh at me, Steve-O!” He pouted, turning his face to the bear. “I was careful! It was the ball’s fault! I swear!” He cried, pointing to the resting sphere.

Surly if anyone walked into the room and saw the male, they would have thought that he was crazy for talking to a stuffed animal. Come any closer to Steve, they would see that the koala looked very realistic. Come and inspect the koala, and one would think that James was insane for carrying around a mounted koala, and actually talking to it as if it were alive; nut there he was, sitting in the room and speaking to the koala, waiting for anyone to show up. Or maybe it was just him that got the memo… If it was only him, then it was a shame. He would just be the isolated fool who is sitting in the rehearsal room, talking to himself and using a mounted creature as an excuse to talk to himself.

((I hope you don't mind if i toss Roderich in here?))

“To make the environment of the theatre a better experience for both patrons and everyone involved in the production in the show, please attend a day-long-team-building activity in the rehearsal room.” Roderich muttered darkly under his breath as he pushed the back door to the theatre open. As though they didn’t spend enough time in that room. He could be doing any number of things with his day—things like composing, or practicing the score, or figuring out which musicians he could abide having for the orchestra this show, or buying groceries, or jumping off a cliff. Yes, the last option was sounding the most tempting at the moment. He’d seen how sparse the employee’s lot was. Sparse meaning he didn’t think he’d seen any cars. But since the door was unlocked someone was evidently there.

He paused outside of the room at the sound of a thud and a moaned “ow.” The musician frowned, looking at the door. This was not sounding promising, in his not so humble opinion. He glanced back in the direction he had come. He could claim he’d never gotten the message and had booked other things to do that day. Perhaps go find a nearby cliff—though he was quick to dismiss that thought. He heard a name, or thought he had, and an order not to laugh? What on earth? He recognized neither the name, nor heard the sound of laughter. The Austrian pianist finally opened the door, quietly.

Roderich paused, his hand still on the door handle at the sight before him. One of the actors—an Australian if he remembered right and the accent was anything to go by—was seated on the floor, his back to the other man. One dark eyebrow arched as he quietly examined the other. Sandy brown hair, and a build that would probably be a good five inches (to use the American measurements) taller than he was, should the young man stand up. Though that wasn’t what made the Austrian pause. The stop to his progress was the fact that there wasn’t another person anywhere in the room. The younger man had to have been talking to someone, or perhaps not. Some actors were known to chatter aimlessly, though Roderich would have sworn he heard a name spoken. His violet gaze swept the room to see a stuffed koala set to one side.

Wonderful. He was here early enough to end up stuck with the one man in the entire place who talked to stuffed animals. He cleared his throat slightly. “Excuse me?” Stepping further into the room, he finally let the door close behind himself.