Fate and desperation is what brought them together, but also what ultimately forced them apart.
Perplexed by Golf Ball's enigmatic past, there is a constant sense of impending jeopardy surrounding the both of them, lurking.
And it's only a matter of...
Ever since right from the start, Tennis Ball always felt different. Autonomous loner, they called him, and for good reason. A lot of the time he just felt alone in his thoughts, isolated from the world, brooding. He never understood others, their constant need for approval, their emotional nature, their traditional mindset. Though he wouldn't admit it, deep down, he craved validation. Tennis Ball just wanted someone to understand him, someone like-minded that could listen to his inner thoughts that he never shared with anyone. No matter how hard he tried, others kept abandoning him because of their lack of patience or intellectual bandwidth needed to appreciate him. Just casting him aside, as always. Due to his extreme self awareness, Tennis Ball came across as awkward. He also wasn't a fan of sugar-coating, just saying stuff as it is.. the truth, that is, if anyone bothered to listen. This unfortunately got him labelled as overly blunt and condescending, time and time again. So instead he observed. Over time he learnt to hide his true self at a final attempt to try escape his loneliness. And it worked. Every social interaction was a careful balance of manually reading social cues and remembering patterns. But there were many times when Tennis Ball felt out of step with others and it used to frustrate him, how his musings were always looked down upon, being shunned as iconoclastic or even offensive. But he just loved the truth too much, even if it tormented him later by nihilism or social stigma. He just accepted his fate as it was, and it was something he had learnt to compromise with.
That was actually his first break
Tennis Ball calmly sat out on a dock dangling his legs close to the water not far from the fairly large city he grew up in. It was very close to the desert surrounding Burj Goiky, obviously not as well known as Yoyle City. He would often come here, staring out into the vast ocean, lost in thought or in this case, pondering about a math problem.
"But it just doesn't make sense, there has to be some sort of pattern!" Tennis Ball insisted. He glared at his reflection in the still water growing more and more frustrated as he attempted to find the solution for what seemed like the fiftieth time.
The glaring sun shone its rays directly over head, it was an extremely calm day but there was much more sun than usual. It was a desert after all.
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After a long time, he finally broke the tense silence, "Uuughh!" "Maybe there isn't and I'm just wasting my time!" As he angrily got up to leave, a familiar voice sounded behind him. "Hi TB!" It was Rocky. Despite his small companion claiming to be his friend, Tennis Ball only thought of Rocky as an acquaintance. Yet, it was comforting to have him around as Tennis Ball could go on and on about anything his mind had latched onto at the moment, without having to worry about saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong person. Rocky would just sit there smiling innocently and listening, sometimes for hours. But most importantly, he sat there with him, and Tennis Ball secretly felt honoured. No one else would even dream of doing the same thing, not even once. Though sometimes, albeit how nice it was to be acknowledged, Rocky wasn't a great conversationalist and it really bothered Tennis Ball. It was almost like talking to a brick wall, well with exceptions. Still, it was better than being ostracised, as usual.
"Um hello, Rocky." he began while cautiously stepping over him, "I was actually just about to lea- "I saw someone new today!" Rocky interrupted, running to face him. "What do you mean?" Tennis Ball replied. He really wasn't all that interested in who it was, he just wanted to go home and continue thinking. "I haven't seen them around and I think.. they are armless, small, uh.. looks a bit like you but they are white and have dimples." He finished. "Wait, a golf ball?" Tennis Ball stated. "Eh, haven't seen them..." he made his way around Rocky and proceeded to head back to the shore. Slightly hurt from the sudden disinterest, Rocky blurted: "They looked angry at something and they kept muttering about numbers and something called 'pur.. sentages' ??" "You like numbers don't you!?" Tennis Ball halted and came to a stop. "Percentages.. huh.."
