letsdropin | Pool teaching (for 6thseasonbuffy)

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Pool teaching (for 6thseasonbuffy)

Yeah, it had taken Reid a bit of recon to find a place that was likely to be decent for making it possible to both play pool and relax, but then again, he had the whole of the day for it, and since he meant to enjoy things, he didn't do this bit casually, either.

Eventually, he liked a place - and no, it wasn't extremely cultured or anything. Just had a feel to it that rang true with Reid. That was enough - there was enough experience for him to trust that.

He texted the location to Tony. And then went to look around some more. No, he really hadn't been there before. So. It had to be explored, the place. Yes, it was big. No, that wasn't intimidating.

Eventually, he got home and rested a bit, because. And then he made his way to the pool place, settling with a beer to wait for the other guy to show up. Not that he had any idea where things were going to end up - maybe just a game, maybe an interesting conversation. Maybe longer hanging around would end up in them fighting, which he'd keep to civilized levels, because he'd learned, but still; and maybe they were going to have a different ending for the night altogether. Mmmm keeping an open mind.

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Reid smirked and took a much small sip. He'd already had some, and getting too drunk too fast might make fun more difficult. "I am!"

He tilted his head slightly. "I don't think that was ever in the options, for us." Meaning his friends and himself. Stupid inherited shit. Except how it usually wasn't that. "So, decided I might as well make the best of what I have!"

Tony laughed and thought about his own words to Henry way back when. 'Like calls to like.' Maybe being boring or normal wasn't ever an option for him either. And he was certainly making the best of it these days.

"Well it's a good attitude if nothing else," he replied, taking another drink. "I guess the fun kind of trouble would include things like..." Tony raised an eyebrow, encouraging Reid to finish the sentence.

Laughing was good. Laughing was very good. And, well, magical power aside, Reid was hoping he'd get a normalish life. Plus self-stirred trouble, but that didn't get out of control. ... right?

Another grin. "Glad you like! And, oh, anything. Whatever mood strikes. Picking up the wrong people. Picking on bullies. Going to places we should stay away from," and it's a 'we' out of sheer force of habit, he usually drags Tyler right along at the very least.

And other things. Using power when he shouldn't be. Not that he is, now.

Now, he's got momentum. "I think picking on bullies might be among my favorites. Hate bullies."

Tony snickered, approving in spite of himself. Hey, he hated bullies too. It didn't mean he was going to go out of his way to get in trouble with them though because...

"Picking on bullies is a good way to get punched in the face, you know."

"I duck fast!" Reid grinned. He kind of liked that look on Tony. "Besides, most of the time I have three friends to back me up. Not to mention that I pick on them in places that tend to keep their customers protected."

Smirk. "There is a sort of satisfaction to seeing the three-hundred-pounds-of-loads-of-muscle owner of a bar run a bunch of them with a baseball bat." A beat. "Of course, then I get to hear about starting the whole fight. Being almost the youngest of the four has it's down sides."

"Well you don't have a black eye at the moment, so I guess you're telling the truth about ducking fast. And about having backup." Tony grinned back and then finished his beer with a few quick swallows.

While they'd been talking, the pool table had cleared, and Tony tilted his chin in that direction.

"So, you gonna teach me something new?"

"Ayup." Reid laughed, and grabbed his beer. It could sit in the corner of the table. "At least, I hope so. If you weren't pulling my leg about not knowing, earlier." He winked and bounced off to claim the table. Assertive personality and all that junk. No, that was a tease, nothing more.

When that was accomplished and he was aligning the balls, he looked over. "So... how much do you know?" There was, after all, nothing at all - such as, which balls to hit, etc. - and something, but no actual skills to play... and a range in-between. And beyond. No harm in asking!

Tony followed him out of his seat and over to the table, hands in his pockets. "Basically, I know that you hit the balls with the stick to try and get them into the little holes," he said. "And there's some you're not supposed to hit in. Right?"

Ohman. This was going to take a bit... and Reid didn't mind in the least. It was shooting pool, for chrissake.

He grinned slightly, then started lining up the balls for a break, explaining. "Basically, yeah. Specifically..." He held up the white...ish ball. "You're only allowed to hit this one with the stick. It's called the cue ball, not that that bit is too important. But. You hit it. It hits the other ball. The other ball has to go in one of the holes." A bit of a face. "If this one goes in hole, or jumps over, well, you lose a turn. Unless you're shooting for the eight-ball, in which case you might lose the game. But that's if you're actually competing."

He placed the white ball on the initial spot, then picked up the black one. "This is the eight ball. It ends the game. You're not supposed to try and shoot it into a hole until all the rest of the balls you need to shoot are pocketed."

And then he picked up a high and a low ball. "And the ones you need to shoot are either the solids," he turned a two around to show what he meant, "or stripes," turning the eleven in his other hand around. "One player or team gets to shoot these, and the other, the rest. When they're done with the seven? Then begin trying to pocket the black one. How're we doing this far?"

Tony followed the explanation more or less easily...it was easier than following Sorge's half-French instructions on how to get peanut butter out of expensive camera equipment.

"Yeah, okay, I get you," he said. "But how do you get that white ball to hit the ones you want? I'm telling you now, my aim more or less sucks."

Small grin, and he could repeat those rules till they were easy!

"Practice. That's the fun of pool - getting the aim right. And it doesn't happen from the first time... well. Unless you're really lucky. Which we can deal with, too. I can demonstrate, and if you're having too much trouble, can show, um. How to," Reid's lips stretched, fully aware of how that might sound, although he did mean the game at the moment, "hold the stick right. And aim straight."

Which. Showing how to make a hit, close up, the hands of both of them on the stick, aligning hands and arms right... Might be slightly distracting.

Ahem. He moved around against the apex of the triangle. "Now, first move is breaking. Once we move past the hitting the balls more or less how you want them, we might get to more about it, but. Start with the basics, right?" Hit, and break. Not particularly show-off-y, but pretty good. Just because that's how Reid played.

"Now you can choose which you'd rather be working at - solids or stripes."

Tony waited a beat, weighed the chances of Reid punching him, and decided that if he wasn't at least comfortable around gay guys then he wouldn't have been almost laughing when he said the suggestive words in the first place. Then he returned the grin over his shoulder and took hold of a pool cue.

"Oh, I know how to hold a stick," he teased. "It's the aiming straight thing. Never could get the hang of it."

And just so he could pretend he was still talking about pool here...

"I'll take solids."

... punching him? Was the furthest thing on Reid's mind. The blond's eyes twinkled a bit in the not-so-bright light of the place as he met the grin. He'd... even if not figured something along that sort of preference, at least had a hunch, when they were discussing, ah, seafood.

"Hey, it don't have to be aiming straight. Aiming right's better. As in on the appropriate... target."

Oh, this was going to be even more fun than it might have been. Awesome.

"So. If you hit the cue ball so it hits the other ball head-on, it'll move in a straightish line. If you hit it a bit sideways," he pointed, but yes, his grin was still on, "the cue ball will go one way, and the other ball the other way, at an angle, like that. I mean, you'll see when we, uh, get to that, but it's something to keep in mind when you are, usually, choosing which ball to shoot at. Oh, and you don't want the cue ball to end up in one of the pockets. Anyway, that's about as much about the rules for the moment. Now," corner of his mouth hitching even higher up. "Pick a ball, and let's get to... starting to work on that aim. Or at least seeing how well it works to begin with."

Well if that wasn't encouragement, Tony didn't know what was. He relaxed just a little more, something unfurling in the line of his shoulders that only happened when he was sure he was in the company of someone who wouldn't end up screaming "fag" at him and swinging a bat at his head. Not that they'd connect, but it made for an awkward evening. Actually, so did people who stared at him funny and made absolutely sure to stand three feet from him at all time for fear of catching "the gay". It happened less often since he moved to Vancouver, but there were still the occasional non-show-biz homophobes to contend with.

Tony took up a pool cue that looked more-or-less like all the other pool cues and walked around the table slowly. There was one solid precariously close to the high right pocket that would for sure go in if merely brushed against, but there seemed to be a lot of stripy balls in the way. Tony debated for a second and then lined up his shot.

...And ended up glancing the cue ball off of a striped one and sending it in a relatively useless direction away from where he wanted it to go. He glanced up at Reid sheepishly. "See? I told you."

It's possible that the four of them - Reid and his friends - just radiated too much... something. Power, charisma? Most people accepting it was the kind of thing connected with beauty and money, probably, but the result was that they rarely got treated that way, even if their actions might suggest anything of the sort to people who might be watching. And among themselves... well. Perhaps one day Tony would get to see two or more of them in the same place and how relaxed they could be, some ways. But no, Reid would not treat him any differently based on Tony's preferences.

The bit where Reid might like him could color things somewhat. Not in the negative way. But he could also behave, for all sorts of reasons, including being in a strange city and alone, the latter of which was really rare. He knew he could handle most things that he could come across, but he just... wanted to have fun. A break from school. Shooting pool with nice company. Or, well. Whatever came.

"Hmm." Reid crossed an arm in front of himself, opposite elbow on the back of the wrist, fingers tapping on his lip thoughtfully. Then he reached and recovered the cue ball, placing it where it was. Tony was right, that was the easiest solid to shoot at... so let's start with basics.

"Now. Usually you don't do this, but. First, you want to have your shot clear. Sometimes, you might need to do more complicated shit to get one without touching other balls, like bouncing the cue ball off the walls, or hitting one ball with the cue ball, and THAT having to hit the one you are aiming at - but when you have other balls on the way, you won't reach with a direct hit. For right now, we'll clear the way to work on the shot itself, then we'll add more stuff." His hand worked to shift the striped balls away, not touching the solid or the cue. "We'll go with the rules next round."

He probably should have started with just shooting off different situations first off, really. But it was really a long time since he was learning. So... yeah. The balls were on the table, they could just go at it. (Woe to anyone who tried to argue with them for the table. But it was getting to the kind of time when nobody would.)

"With this one... okay, you have to align the stick to hit in the right direction, but I think you've got that bit pretty well. The next part is... hit hard enough so that you'll reach the aimed-at ball, but not so that the white one will end up in the pocket too." And he cleared the way for Tony to give it another try. This time focusing on the other guy, rather than on the table.

Tony wasn't particularly worried, in any case. He'd pretty much grown-up on the streets of Toronto and if you couldn't take care of yourself with the less tolerant crowds there then you were pretty much screwed for life. Simple distaste or people calling names didn't bother you as much when you knew what a true gay bashing, in every sense of the word, looked like. That, and years of having a vampire babysitter who tended to glare people into submission if he thought they were "being rude" in his opinion had given Tony a kind of confidence that he at least had someone on his side in a pinch.

He watched Reid shift the striped balls out of the path he'd been trying for and then set up his shot again, concentrating. Tony aimed the pool cue, and smoothly sent the tip striking against the cue ball. Unfortunately, the hit was far too hard and both balls went into the pocket, one after the other. Sheepishly, Tony straightened and held his pool cue in front of him like it might be a shield against mockery.

"So...not like that, huh?"

Reid was unlikely to cause that kind of trouble; he was more likely to make said vampire babysitter's company unnecessary. However, a meeting between those two had the potential of going from weird to difficult.

The blond moved very quickly - humanly quickly, thank you - diving for the pocket to hold the cue ball before it rolled with the other one. Out of habit. Then he held it up and grinned, not quite as sheepishly, but a bit.

"'s easier than getting it out if it rolls down the channel." The blue eyes were clear now, although, while his head was ducking down in the dive, there might have been a slight fiery flare, a small Use of his power to hold the white ball another half-instant, in case he didn't reach it in time. Also out of habit.

He set his catch on the starting spot and cocked his head at Tony. "Yeah... generally, not like that. Umm. Unless you're shooting for a ball that's on the other end of the table, or doing a shot that's going to go around a bit, you don't really need to hit all that hard. Another thing you don't want is any ball hopping over the edge." Reid would mock about anything and everything that somebody perceived as their strength, something to brag about; less often about weaknesses and mistakes.

But he couldn't resist showing off a little bit, and his smile widened slightly. "And by a shot that goes around... heh." He pointed to a striped ball. "Okay, this one. To hit it from where the cue ball is, it'll have to bounce off here, and here, and here," he touched three spots on the walls of the table with the butt of his cue. "I wanna make sure it is still rolling for all of that, so I've gotta shoot it a bit," he leaned over the table with unconscious ease, narrowing his eyes, aimed, and made the hit, "harder."

The cue ball did bounce off the three spots he'd indicated spots and hit the striped ball - but not strong enough to actually tip it into the pocket. "Oops. 'm good, not perfect?" But he was grinning again, point mostly demonstrated. "Your turn. Pick your next shot?"

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