Altador Cup

Tyrannia

It Takes a Team

There wasn’t a lot to be done once the twins got into one of their moods. Normally, they were of two minds, but when one got upset, the other usually cried alongside her.
     This was why Loryche, as captain of the team, usually didn’t bring them to practice without the babysitter, but she wasn’t left with much of a choice nowadays. The babysitter’s family had been affected by the grey curse, and Loryche insisted she go be with them. A choice that she stood by, but still kicked herself for making without much of a backup plan.
     Pebpeb and Brambles were crying over a Mutant Yooyu who no longer wanted to play with them. Loryche couldn’t blame the poor thing; they’d been babbling its ear off for the last few hours. She scooped up her younglings and dabbed their tears.
     “It’s alright. We’ll be done here soon, and then we can go home and get some cactus blossoms. How does that sound?” Loryche said, bouncing them up and down as they giggled.
     “No!” yelled a Tyraninan Moehog behind Loryche and her girls. “Cap made it to where I would faint left, and then score. You’re supposed to be the distraction!”
     “Please, you’re a defender. Why would she possibly mean for you to do that manoeuvre?” laughed a Krawk, with spikes covering most of his body. “She obviously meant that to be me!”
     “CAAAAP!” Scrap and Spikes yelled in unison.
     They were arguing over the playbook again, always trying to find ways to one-up one another. Another pair she regularly had to calm down. Loryche tried to place her girls down to deal with the situation, but they immediately started crying once more.
     “Oh, Captain! I can take them off your hands for a while!” Wila Benne-Neyhbol said as she whirled over. She was the team's left forward—a newlywed young Tonu with a heart of gold—and Loryche knew she had aspirations of becoming a mother one day, but…
     “WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!” Pebpeb and Brambles cried even louder.
     …for whatever reason, the girls just didn’t like her.
     Wila raised her hands and backed away to the bleachers, where she pretended to flip through the playbook Scrap and Spikes had been fighting over moments ago. Loryche would have to talk with her later, as the two numbskulls were now physically fighting over whose sling was whose.
     Luckily, the captain was granted a moment of peace when Mor Gollog, the team’s goalkeeper (and one of the biggest relic Moehogs around) came up between Scrap and Spikes and lifted the fighting nincompoops by their shirts. He placed them on either side of him and gave a big huff.
     “Sooorry Golloooog,” Scrap and Scruff said in unison.
     Mor huffed again and pushed the two towards one another. They reluctantly hugged, a team tradition after any fight, and went out to the pitch to practice the move they’d just been fighting over. Mor then came over to Loryche and held out his hands, offering to take Pebpeb and Brambles.
     “Oh no, Mor, you should join the team and train. I don’t want to take away anymore from today’s session.” Loryche bounced the girls on either side of her hips.
     Mor looked over towards Wila, still sitting on the bleachers alone, and gestured again to take the girls. Loryche sighed and handed them over. The girls squealed and immediately started tugging on Mor’s tusks, but he didn’t seem to mind. He’d always been good with them, perhaps because he was the second eldest on the team besides her. She knew he was beloved by many nieces and nephews, despite having no children of his own.
     “Find anything interesting in there?” Loryche asked as she sat down next to Wila.
     Wila flipped through a couple more pages of past and future plays before placing it down beside them.
     “Why don’t they like me?” Wila said softly.
     “Oh, hun, they’re toddlers. Their interests change per bowel movement.” Loryche laughed, but noticed Wila slouch more. “They’ll come around, darling. Just give it time.”
     “Maybe it’s a sign… that I won’t be a good mom,” Wila said, somehow even softer than before. “At least not like you.”
     Loryche looked over at Mor. Her girls swung from his ears while he watched the other two train... perks of being painted relic, she guessed. Although, she’d also believe he was just that strong.
     She sighed. This was the third practice in a row she had disrupted by bringing them. And yet Mor always helped out, Scrap and Scruff never treated her differently, and, somehow, Wila still thought so highly of her.
     “Sweetie, I’m sorry,” Loryche said, pulling Wila into a big hug.
     “You're sorry?!” Wila said, muffled from the tight embrace.
     “Yeah, I’m sorry I must make motherhood look like an omelette-walk,” Loryche said jokingly. She released Willa and lovingly pinched her cheek. “But let me tell ya, I haven't slept a whole night in months.”
     “W-what?” Wila laughed and elbowed Loryche. “That’s–that’s not–”
     “Not whatcha meant?” Loryche finished for her, “I know, pumpkin. I just wanted to see ya smile.”
     Wila’s smile disappeared then, as though hiding after being called out.
     “It’s just… I see how hard you work. Juggling everything, and yet never dropping the ball. What if I can’t handle that sort of pressure?” Wila said, returning to her softer voice.
     “Sugar, I drop the ball all the time!” Loryche chuckled as Mor pretended not to know where he was going, and her girls’ tiny hands covered his eyes. “It ain’t about not dropping balls. It’s about knowing which one’s a Clockwork Yooyu and which one’s a Regular Yooyu.”
     “Huh?”
     Loryche paused, putting more thought into her next words. She must need more sleep; she was barely making sense to herself now.
     “I suppose what I’m saying is… you’re gonna make mistakes. Won’t make ya a bad mom, just like it don’t make you a bad Yooyuball player. Take your time, pass the ball to your teammates when you can, heck, drop a ball altogether if you need to.”
     She thought of her babysitter once again; Loryche hoped the girl was doing well, but she couldn’t wait for her to return.
     “It’ll take practice, though, to know which balls are most important,” she continued as she watched Scrap, Spikes, and Mor collide with each other. Mor held the girls high above his head, unfazed by the circumstances. “And it’ll take time to learn all the ins and outs of the playbook.”
     Scrap and Spikes begged Mor for forgiveness, and it seemed Mor was letting the girls decide their fate. Loryche and Wila laughed.
     The captain returned her attention to the young Tonu beside her. “But if you’re willing to put in the work, you’ll find there’s no better team out there!”
     Scrap and Spikes, as punishment, were now running laps around the pitch with either girl on their shoulders.
     Then Loryche had an idea.
     “How about this?” she said, watching Wila’s old smile return. “If you’re looking for some practice, I just happen to be down a babysitter for awhile. What do you say we form a new team to tackle this whole motherhood thing together?”