"...okay, that actually does sound cute."

"And it didn't approach anybody, it just swam around and then away."

"Aww. Adorable. I know sharks don't like the taste of your flesh but I still find them kinda terrifying."

"People are very rarely bitten by sharks."

"Do you have statistics on it?"

"I'd have to look it up."

"You mean to say you don't have the rate of shark attacks memorised? The shame!"

"I'm a terrible statistician."

"—wait, really?"

"No! Good statisticians do not try to do things in our heads and accordingly do not need to have good long term memories for random numbers such as shark attacks."

He giggles. "But don't you have any conversation starters for parties? I bet walking up to someone and going 'Did you know sharks kill people less often than vending machines?' would be an interesting piece."

"Yes, I have some of those, though not the shark one, I don't bring up being eaten by wild animals at parties. Did you know that official league arcballs are more likely to be lost during their lifespan than formally decommissioned or autographed for auction?"

"—well, I didn't, but in hindsight it totally makes sense."

"The league could fix that if they wanted to by having players sign them after a game or two and selling more of them but then the price would drop, so they don't. There's a grey market in found balls."

"How do people even know whether they're really found balls instead of fakes?"

"Is the answer you're looking for 'certificate of authenticity', or 'they don't'?"

"I'm genuinely curious! I know next to nothing about arcball."

"What I mean is the found ball sellers might offer certificates of authenticity - claim it's the ball from a specific game, tell you where they found it - but there's really no way to be sure."

"Yeah I don't think I'd trust that."

"Are you in the market?" she snorts.

He giggles. "Nah, think I'll pass. I don't get the obsession anyway."

"Me either, but it's sort of cute."

"Kudos for having a website mainly dedicated to that, I'm not sure the stats would be enough to not drive me out of my mind with boredom of looking up arcball data."

"Well, that's why I mix up articles about player performance and coach win/loss ratios with stuff about found balls and politics and crime."

"Yeah, I get that, I just dunno whether I'd be able to deal even with that much, I have to confess I find arcball an incredibly uninteresting game in itself."