TI- Just the Beginning

Surfing

The once bustling beach, with toys of all shapes and sizes competing for a chance to win a gold medal for their team, was now rather empty with just a few toys left behind to do clean up or settle down.  Amongst them stood Florence, picking up forgotten surfboards with Snowflake in order to return them back to where they belonged, The Surf Shack.  Near the water Raphael, Calico and Garret worked together in order to take down the wooden stages placed earlier for the Swimming competition, while Arae and Pops worked to pull down the Volley ball nets and put away the poles.  Amongst Florence and Snowflake, a few other toys helped gather up the abandoned surf boards, one of which was Rawk who spent more of his time flaunting his muscular form to passing females than actually collecting surfboards.

Currently he was attempting to impress the piggybank Prima, who had only taken one, small glance before rolling her eyes and picking up a few more surfboards.  Rawk, still flexing his arms, did not take notice of Prima’s irritated glare and continued to follow after her for a bit until Prima paused, spun around, and told Rawk to go away.

“Be of use.  Help, or go home.” She snapped, gesturing to some boards sticking out of the sand not too far from their position before she stomped away towards the Surf Shack.

Rawk stood there for a moment, watching Prima stomp off before turning, spotting Florence, and then proudly striding over.  Despite being so quickly turned down, Rawk still had a bit of swagger to his step, his head tilted upwards and displaying a grin filled with pride.

“She totally digs me.” Rawk announced to Florence.  “Just another girl you’re never going to get.”

“Why would I want Prima?  We barely even talk.” Florence retorted uninterestingly, glancing towards Snowflake who had climbed onto the wooden docks and was starting to put away the thirty or more surfboards she had stacked up and carried along with great ease.  “Besides, I think Prima wants to smack you with her fist than “smack” you with her lips.”

“How would you know?” Rawk questioned.  “I’m sure she’s just playing hard to get, that’s all.”

Florence shook his head, seeing no value in trying to explain to Rawk the difference between someone “playing hard to get” and someone “wanting to get away from you”.  The man, in Florence’s book, was bona fide delusional.  The world was a big game to Rawk; with every single man a competitor, and every woman a date.  It would not have been a surprise to Florence one bit if suddenly, Rawk decided to challenge Florence to “who can pick up the most surfboards”.

“Whatever you want to believe.” He muttered, returning to the task at hand in the small hopes that Rawk might turn around and leave to bother some other poor gal.  Of course, he chose to follow Florence instead, opting to gloat more about his “wonderful, fantastic self” or that “all the ladies want him”.

“So did you see how bad you tanked at that swimming race?  Man, it was funny!” Rawk laughed.  Florence paused, having been bent down to pick up a surfboard, and turned to glare at the muscular toy.

“Oh, so you take enjoyment the fact that I was going to die?  Psychopath.”

“Ah, you would have been fine!” Rawk roughly smacked a large hand against Florence’s back, nearly sending him to the ground.  “Don’t be such a baby.”

“Yeah, well you take a swim, sink to the bottom, and sit there.  It isn’t all that fun when your chest feels like it’s going to explode, your head is spinning, and-”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Felicia.” Rawk mumbled, eyes now directed to the arcade on the boardwalk.

Florence, with a long exasperated groan, turned to walk away from Rawk when the large toy shot an arm out and caught onto Florece’s arm.  The pink toy stopped and stumbled back a bit when Rawk pulled him over, in turn dropping all of the boards he had just collected.

“Hay, let go!” Florence spat, yanking his arm out of Rawk’s grip.  “If you haven’t notice, we have to help clean up the beach!”

“Let’s surf!” Rawk commanded.

“What- no!  You know I can’t swim and Arae would be furious!” Florence bellowed, scooping up the six or seven surfboards he dropped.

“Not in the water!  I mean surf there!” Rawk pointed towards the open arcade, towards a large game that had a surfboard attached to a metal platform, sat before a broad screen and buttons.  “Surfer Extraordinaire 2!   It’s perfect!  You and I can finally have our surfing competition!”

“Rawk, no we have to clean up.” Florence reminded, shaking his head at the competitive toy’s efforts to beat him at yet another thing.

“But we’re tied 1-1 today!” Rawk moaned.  “And we still haven’t figured out who’s a true man today.”

A true man… today!? Florence thought, grimacing at the prospect that Rawk would suggest each day they would have to compete to see “who’s a true man”.   This guy is if full blown loony!

“Rawk, no!”

Rawk huffed, following after Florence who attempted to quickly strolled away from the now fired up toy.

“But we’re tied today, Flora!  I won the Swimming Competition, you won Volleyball!  Now this is our chance to settle who wins, once and for all!”

Florence spun around and looked at Rawk, eyes narrowed and mouth set into an irritated sneer.

By pure luck, Willowoods won the Volleyball game against Snowspell and by extension Rawk, who had volunteered to help out Cecilia and Eliza when they lacked a third member.  It was a furious match to say the least, with Rawk and Florence taking the lead and attempting to “smite” the other.  Initially Florence had lost his team a point when his efforts to spike the ball down were misdirected and in the end had hit Rawk.  It was truly just a mistake, but his voice and pleased smirk at Rawk’s pain had not sounded truly sincere when he told Arae it was an error.  Thus they lost a point.  Rawk had then followed it up with his own efforts to spike Florence in the head, likely because he too interpreted the earlier blow as purposefully done.

Thankfully Florence just knocked the ball back over and Cecilia, Eliza and Rawk missed, giving Willowoods a point and thus evening out the score.  After that though, neither side would allow the other to gain a point.  Rawk would always make sure to knock the ball back, with Florence also making sure to return it.  Over time, barely anyone was able to touch the ball save for Florence and Rawk, with the others occasionally coming to their aid if the other slipped up.

After a long, gruelling thirty-five minutes of this, Rawk finally had enough and just punted the ball right into the air.  Everyone on the side of Willowoods stood in anticipation of this, readying themselves to smack the ball back over the net.  But it wasn’t coming down as soon as they had hoped, and after waiting for a moment Rawk moved, grabbed for Cecilia and tossed her into the air, with the hopes of her knocking the ball down onto Willowwood’s side.

Florence would have none of this and went towards Aldric, who very calmly had allowed Florence to throw him into the air as well.  It appeared very “exciting” and “extreme” but in all honesty Cecilia and Aldric had not gone all that high.  In the end, Willowoods won with Aldric smacking the ball down and right onto Snowspell’s side of the court.  Cecilia nearly had it, but because she had not anticipated Rawk tossing her up, she had become too flustered and missed her chance.  Aldric on the other hand, from start to finish, was as calm as he ever was, and hit the ball with little effort.

This changed the score to 2-1, where then Arae decided to end the game there.  Logically it should have been because neither side would have reached 21 points, not with Florence and Rawk playing the game.  But the true reason why she called the game there at 2-1 was “how amazingly they worked together”.

“That was amazing!  The teamwork, the struggle, this is what the Toy-lympics is all about!” Arae cheered, leaping down from her referee’s chair to congratulate the team.  “If we saw more participants use that type of teamwork, then I’m sure that Cirque des Jouets would have some serious doubts about winning, though we all know that it won’t matter…”

By then Florence had tuned her out.  He was breathless, exhausted, aching, and just relieved that the game ended there with his team winning. He had at last obtained the “revenge” he had so sought for earlier in the day, and now satisfied with beating Rawk, who was furiously fuming and venting his anger onto the volleyball, he could relax for now.

Except it appeared to be that Rawk did not want to end today’s games with a tie, he wanted someone to win and most preferably himself.

“Rawk, what would you be proving?” Florence asked.  “I mean what, we play some virtual surfing, and whoever gets the most points wins?  What does that show, it isn’t even real surfing.”

“But I don’t want today’s games to end with a tie!  Someone has to win!” Rawk whined.

Florence, still holding the surfboards, glanced over to the horizon.  The sun was still in the midst of setting and would likely not be disappearing for at least another six to seven minutes, and the game did not last all that long now did it?  If we played just one game, it wouldn’t hurt… and it would get Rawk to shut up and leave me alone.

Florence, sighing, gestured for Rawk to follow and carried the remaining surfboards back to the surf shack.  Then he turned and walked towards the arcade, Snowflake following after when she noticed from afar the two of them heading towards the arcade.

“One game and only one!” Florence insisted, setting the rules here and now so when the game was over, there would be no “rematches” or “best two out of three”.  “We both play one game, and whoever gets the most points from that one game wins.  No more complaining, no more whining, you leave it there.”

Rawk nodded his head vigorously, his upset scowl quickly curling up into his confident grin as he pushed past Florence and climbed onto the surfboard.  Snowflake ran up and stood beside Florence, looking between her boyfriend and then Rawk.

“What are you two doing? Oooh can I play?!” She asked.

“No Snow, this is just a quick competition.  Since I can’t surf, Rawk here has decided to have a “Mock Surfing Competition” using Surfer Extraordinaire 2.”

“Did I hear Surfing Competition!” Arae, who was carrying the folded up net, paused and looked to Florence.  “Florence, the competitions are over, silly!   It won’t count for any marks towards Willowoods.  And besides, you can’t swim and Heaven would be cross with you if you drowned again.  Plus I don’t see any waves, so you’ll-”

“No, no, no, it’s a “mock” Surfing competition.  Fake, not real.” Florence elaborated quickly, before Arae could delve into another lecture.  “It’s just to settle a sore, that’s all, between me and Rawk.  And we’re using Surfer Extraordinaire 2 as our outlet.”

“Oh, if that’s the case-” Arae, looking at the machine, then to Rawk, gestured to the both of them to wait.  She turned and ran away, putting the volleyball net back in storage and then going towards the nearest toy she could find, Prima, before returning with the sour woman who struggled not to be dragged along.  “Okay!  Then we will have mock judges too!”

“Excellent!  Now this is turning into a real surfing competition!” Rawk cheered.  Florence just shook his head, giving an apologetic look to Prima who just glared at him, likely blaming Florence for dragging her into their little escapade.

“Arae, we- we really can’t have any judges…” Florence suggested.  “I mean, whoever wins has the highest score on the game, so-”

“So then Snowflake, Prima, me and Surfer Extraordinaire 2 will be giving the scores!” Arae proudly announced.

Florence, with little more than a blank stare, sighed and quietly shrugged his shoulders.  If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

“Fine, whatever.  It’s your spare time…” He shrugged, going to the nearest token machine and getting three token for Rawk and then himself.  As Florence turned to walk back over, he could see Snow and Arae pulling a table and three chairs over from an outdoor restaurant.  Arae and Snow sat own first, with Prima standing there for a minute before huffing and sitting beside Arae.  “Okay, so still the same deal. One play through, and whoever gets the best score wins.”

Rawk, with a broad grin, nodded and took the three tokens.  Then he slipped them into the machine, selected “Free Surf” and waited for the game to begin.  Shakily, the surfboard lifted up, getting into starting position until the game shouted out “GO!”  Then it started to dip, dive, sway side to side, and shift about in response to the “waves” that swept under the board.  Rawk, with his arms out and legs positioned like a true surfer, swayed and shifted his weight about in an effort to do tricks or keep him “afloat”.

Snowflake and Arae cheered him on, treating the little arcade escapade a little too seriously while Prima ceased to pay any attention to the game.  Florence just quietly observed as he stood to the side, watching Rawk’s virtual character surf rather than Rawk himself.  For Florence, it did not matter who won the game.  Florence just wanted this ridiculous rivalry to have some sort of end, instead of perpetually challenging each other.

It would be nice if he just found someone else to be his “enemy”, Florence wished, moaning slightly when Rawk proceeded to lift himself up and into a handstand.  This only increased Arae and Snowflake’s clapping, the two of them continuing to be entertained by Rawk’s attempts to impress the three women.

Likely thinks this’ll get him more points, Florence scoffed.  Of course with Snowflake and Arae it might.  But the machine was not like a hologram, which registered every movement someone displayed.  Rawk may have gone into a handstand, but the game only registered how someone moved on the board and so his virtual self was still on his feet, even faltering at times because Rawk was more focused on impressing Arae and Snowflake than successfully playing the game.

By the time his “Free Surf” was up, Rawk was on the verge of just showboating it.  Thankfully, the machine came to a stop, with the robotic announcer crying out “Times Up!” Before it started to list the tricks Rawk had attempted, and what each one was worth in value.  In that time, Arae, Snowflake and eventually Prima wrote up their own personal scores.  By the time they were done, the machine had also listed Rawk’s score.

“Let’s see the scores!  Okay, Rawk has gotten a… 10 from Snowflake, 9 from me, 0 from Prima, and…” Arae looked the machine, “124, 521 from Surfer Extraordinaire 2!  Giving Rawk a total of 124, 540 points!  Ooh, that’ll be a hard one for Florence to beat!” Arae called.

Rawk smirked cockily and registered his name as “RWK” for the top ten play list at number 1.  Then he happily hopped down from the board and moved to stand by and watch Florence go.  He smiled in a rather smug manner as Florence walked past him and towards the machine.  The fat toy lifted himself up onto the board and placed his tokens into the slot.  Then, in a similar fashion to Rawk’s playthrough, he chose “Free Surf” and patiently waited for the game to begin.  However, unlike Rawk, Florence just stood there, displaying very little enthusiasm when it came to this “mock competition”.  He had no plan to treat such a silly device as true surfing, this was just a game and one that would hopefully shut Rawk up and get him to leave Florence alone.

As the robotic announcer called “Start” Florence moved along with the surfboard.  Like before, Arae and Snowflake cheered, though Snowflake a little more enthusiastically than she should have for Florence’s rather monotonous movement.

After two minutes of calmly swaying side to side the game finally came to a stop, with Florence lazily climbing off and standing by to see what his score was.

“And Florence’s score is 10 from Snowflake, 7 by me, 0 from Prima,” Florence chuckled when Prima rolled her eyes, stood up and walked away the moment she knew it was over.  It was no surprise that she had found this entire event ridiculous, pointless, and a waste of her valuable time.  “And Surfer Extraordinaire 2 says…” Arae once more looked to the score board, “124, 523 points! Which means…” She paused to calculate his score as well, and then a little longer for dramatic effect. “Ah!  We got a tie!”

“A what!?” Rawk screamed.  His proud, triumphant grin and his superior posture quickly disappeared and he stomped over, grabbing at the cards and staring at the game screen.  “No, no, no!  We can’t end on a tie!” Rawk demanded.

“The score doesn’t lie.  Both of you are tied!  Isn’t that exciting?” Arae clapped.  “Two men, battling it out for their pride, for power, but equally matched!  It’s too bad you two aren’t on Cirque des Jouets team!  Then you might have a chance at winning!” Arae babbled on, Florence typing in the word “DUM” when his score was put onto the top 10 as well.

“Eh, who would have seen that coming?” Florence chuckled, walking towards the two females and lending a hand in putting the table and chairs back to where they belonged.  “Well, that’s that. It ends on a tie.”  When the table and chair were properly set into place, Florence looked to the sky, seeing that night was just about upon them.  “Well I’m exhausted.  Snow, you want to come over for dinner?”

Rawk, standing to the side, continued to babble on about “manliness” and “winners”, struggling to come to grips with the fact that today’s competition did not end with a winner.

“Sure!” Snowflake nodded, skipping along to stand beside Florence.

“Wait!  I demand a rematch!” Rawk commanded.  “We- we cannot leave it here!  Not like this-”

“Too bad Rawk.” Florence interrupted, his arm locked with Snowflake’s and his head turned back to glance over to Rawk.  “I said we play one round and that’s it.  No more, we’re done for the day.”

“And everyone needs their rest.” Arae reminded.  “I want all of you to be on your top game tomorrow, for when Cirque des Jouets beats you.” The Island Overseer proudly declared.  “I like to know that Cirque des Jouets beat all of you fair and square.”

As Arae started to walk home and Florence towards his house in Willowoods with Snowflake by his side, Rawk stood there and watched everyone start to leave.

“This is not over!” Rawk called to Florence.  “This is just the beginning!”