[Game Thread] Scene 4: Take me out to the ball game

[HexCursed]

Brookdale Park The Tuesday night baseball game for the U17 girl's teams represented one of the last chances to get out and enjoy an evening for the week. The rains were forecast to start overnight and even now clouds were menacing the sky. Yet for now, in the few hours of daylight left, participants and spectators were free to enjoy an evening of the good old American pass-time, complete with unhealth snacks, the vibe of the crowd, and a little friendly competition. Tall poles with oversized lights were available for when the natural light diminished. Most of the crowd were overly excited parents and the player's peers and sibling. Naturally, Cynthia was holding court, surrounded by her entourage and some other students as well. OOC: Marcus and Piper will not be available for this scene. Also, Morgan and Balvinder will be absent.

[Starflier]

Ash Hot -1 Cold +2 Volatile -1 Dark +1 Exp 4/5, Harm 0/5, Take 1 Forward, Conditions: Foolish, Morbid, TraumatizedAsh, the Ghost Ash had come straight from school to the field, still wearing her skirt and Morgan’s shirt, and carrying her bass guitar. The walk had done her some good, giving her time to clear her head after all the craziness that had gone on earlier in the day. Spotting Cynthia and company higher up on the bleachers Ash took a seat down in front with a good view of the strike zone, not wanting any part of that drama. The decision to come out tonight had been sort of last minute - Ash wasn’t even sure what team Quinn played for, but she was always ready to support a friend. If that meant viciously mocking some complete strangers for three hours, so be it. Better than wandering around her house alone all night. She also wondered if she might see Morgan out here tonight, not that she expected Morgan to show up at a baseball game of all places, but it seemed to be the closest thing to a social event on the calendar. The prospect both excited and terrified her, not sure whether Morgan would be happy to see her, completely ignore her, or something else entirely. Ash’s knees were bouncing up and down as she sat there, waiting for the game to start, finding herself surprisingly excited about the game itself. It had been a while since she’d actually been to a game, and nearly as long since she watched anything other than her brother’s games with Alabama. Roll Tide. Nashville had an NHL team this year, and she’d been excited to watch every game she could, before the whole dying thing anyway. Going to need a job to afford tickets. Then another thought occurred to her, Can I even go to Nashville? Can I even leave the city? The exact nature of her situation was still a mystery to her. She didn't seem to be bound to any one place, but maybe she simply hadn’t reached the limits of her ‘cage’ yet. Maybe she could recruit someone with a car to test those limits; she didn’t fancy walking to Nashville. Turning her attention back to the field as players started coming out of the dugouts, she considered that she still needed to talk to Quinn about stuff. There hadn’t really been a chance to talk after History class, in fact, she hadn’t seen Quinn all day. Maybe after the game if nothing comes up.   The Ghost Skin: The Ghost Look: Pained eyes Origin: Murdered in hot passion Stats: Hot -1, Cold 2, Volatile -1, Dark 1 Exp: 4 / 5 (Accepted temptations from Morgan x2, Unresolved Trauma x1, Accepted temptation from DP) Harm: 0 / 4 Conditions: Foolish, Morbid, Traumatized Take 1 forward (Shutdown on Balvinder) Strings on others: Tommy - 1 Luke - 1 Morgan - 1 Quinn - 1 You become invisible, unnoticeable. No one can see you, feel you, or hear your voice. You can still affect inanimate objects, but this is your only avenue of communication. You escape your Darkest Self when someone acknowledges your presence, and demonstrates how much they want you around.Darkest Self When you have sex with someone, you both get to ask a question of one another. This can be asked in character or player-to-player. They must answer honestly and directly.Sex Move Moves Whenever something brings to mind your death, you choke up and gain the Condition traumatized if you don’t have it already. Whenever someone helps you resolve this Condition, you both mark experience.Unresolved Trauma When you help someone resolve a Condition, gain a String on them.Helpful Spirit You can walk through walls and fly.Limitless

[Acathala]

Tommy remained at home. Regretfully he prepared a meal for Heidi, and brought it to the study. Heidi was there, waiting. "I’m really sorry to ask you to do this, and I intended to give you another day or two, but somebody was in our home." Never had Tommy felt so violated, an odd mixture of fear and anger. Oh yes that dragon called anger. He performs his ritual, and looks into those cat eyes. His question is very simple. "Who took my sympathetic tokens?"

OoC Gaze into the abyss. Sanctuary. Dice Dark: 2d6+3 (5, 4)+3 Total = 12

[NoizePollution]

Quinn Hot -1 Cold +1 Volatile +2 Dark -1 Exp 0/5; Harm 0/4; BullyQuinn, the Ghoul *CRACK* A low grounder toward center and Quinn is off, feet pounding the dirt as she drops into a slide to snag the ball in her glove. The momentum pulls and she tosses the ball to third to cut off the second base runner before rolling and sliding. Back to her feet just as quick and she moves back to her place. Short stop packs the most action on the field and that's why she fought so hard for the position. Brushing the brown off the white of her uniform, she digs her cleats into the dirt and watches for the next hit. This place, on the diamond, is where she truly feels at home. The crack of the bat, the cheer of the crowd, the dust in her eyes. Quinn had stumbled on baseball at her brother's suggestion. She was a bundle of pent up energy as a kid and often drew her fathers anger at the trouble she'd get into solely by virtue of being bored. Baseball gave her everything she needed. An outlet for her energy, competition, a sense of achievement. She was incredibly angry when her parents made her transfer to a school with no sports but the community league remained a viable option. Hannah Duhman, the next at bat, doesn't have the distance to threaten one over the wall but she could get an in-field home run if Cassie doesn't cover right field. Little judgments like that are frequent in her mind, but on the field Quinn keeps her damn mouth shut and plays the game. This isn't like school or home or...anywhere else, really. She won't jeopardize her place on the team for anything. At least, not for anything she can think of. She could still get a couple more years of play here and losing that would be too much to handle. Rolling her shoulders and letting her head swivel, she feels the popping of joints and but the tension doesn't bleed away. In that moment she is particularly resentful of Tommy. She'd done her best to play it cool but she'd spent the entire ride over sulking. How is it that guys can go from hot to cold so quickly? Luke, Tommy, Hawke. Knowing she is the common denominator in all of it does a lot to chip away at her self-esteem. Now she's on the field wound up, or pent up, or whatever up it might be called and her focus is all over the place. As it is, she recognizes the risks. An injury from tense muscles, or losing her cool to a bad play and spiking one of the other players. It takes all she has to keep her mind on the damn game. A problem to unpack later, as if there is any choice. Now, she has the game. Her eyes scan over the crowd, such that it is, as the next batter steps up. Wait...is that Ash? She pulls the cap down lower to shade her eyes as she stares. It has to be. Who else would be carrying around a guitar at a ball game. Ash, her partner in the crime of making terrible decisions because of feelings. She'd have to say hi during the next change over. But it is who she doesn't see that makes the most impact. Not that she really had any reason to think Luke would make good on showing up here after everything that went down. But a small part of her had held out hope. There's no other way to frame it. She'd been bailed on in the woods, bailed on in the library and now bailed on at the game. Three strikes. Looks like she's out. A swing, the bat cracks and she's moving again.

[Starflier]

Ash Hot -1 Cold +2 Volatile -1 Dark +1 Exp 4/5, Harm 0/5, Take 1 Forward, Conditions: Foolish, Morbid, TraumatizedAsh, the Ghost ”Hey Ump! Those ones right over the plate are strikes, not balls,” Ash called out as she watched the pitcher on Ash’s team getting robbed, ”although I’m guessing you’ve never seen a pair of balls before so the confusion is understandable!” Ash was having a great time at the game. It had been a while since she’d gotten a chance to yell at someone like this, and there was no one better for yelling at than the ump at a baseball game. She’d rather be watching a hockey game, but the refs on the ice couldn’t hear you insulting them until they started crying; not like the older teen ballplayers they inevitably roped into officiating these kinds of games. What made it better was that Quinn was actually a pretty good ballplayer, so she wasn’t going to have to pretend or lie, neither of which Ash was particularly good at. Looking around the crowd, she was a little disappointed to see so few people she recognized, and even fewer she might call friendly, if not friends. No Morgan, Bal, Luke, Hawke, Tommy, just Cynthia’s people and Ash knew she wasn’t going to be welcome back there. More to the point, she wouldn’t be able to keep herself from saying something that got her in trouble, so best to just avoid the lot of them. Even as she turned her eyes off the crowd back to the field, she heard the crack of the bat and watched Quinn running to make another good play even as she started clapping. ”Nice play, Quinn!”   The Ghost Skin: The Ghost Look: Pained eyes Origin: Murdered in hot passion Stats: Hot -1, Cold 2, Volatile -1, Dark 1 Exp: 4 / 5 (Accepted temptations from Morgan x2, Unresolved Trauma x1, Accepted temptation from DP) Harm: 0 / 4 Conditions: Foolish, Morbid, Traumatized Take 1 forward (Shutdown on Balvinder) Strings on others: Tommy - 1 Luke - 1 Morgan - 1 Quinn - 1 You become invisible, unnoticeable. No one can see you, feel you, or hear your voice. You can still affect inanimate objects, but this is your only avenue of communication. You escape your Darkest Self when someone acknowledges your presence, and demonstrates how much they want you around.Darkest Self When you have sex with someone, you both get to ask a question of one another. This can be asked in character or player-to-player. They must answer honestly and directly.Sex Move Moves Whenever something brings to mind your death, you choke up and gain the Condition traumatized if you don’t have it already. Whenever someone helps you resolve this Condition, you both mark experience.Unresolved Trauma When you help someone resolve a Condition, gain a String on them.Helpful Spirit You can walk through walls and fly.Limitless

[HexCursed]

Originally Posted by Acathala

Tommy...

Heidi Heidi dared come out from under an end table to approach his friend and hopefully dine. He sat on the floor, low but still with all his feet under him in case he needed to run. He gazed at the floor. Having guessed the question even before it was asked, he nodded to himself. "I really wish that I could tell you exactly who was behind all this. All I can really tell you is that the tokens are gone. Burnt up. And nothing but..." he said as he finally looked Tommy straight in the eyes, head cocked slightly. "Ash" He finished with a pointed expression, maintaining eye contact and looking at the Human expectantly.

[Acathala]

"It’s Ashraqat." Tommy said flatly. "She must have realised what I did at the pizzeria. I’m fairly certain I would have spotted her on the way back..." His eyes widen. Could it be that she had been here before? More importantly how did she get in? No signs of forced entry. Was she supernatural? The ever growing list of people connected to the supernatural, was really beginning to irk him. As Heidi tucks into his meal, Tommy gets the extra special once a month treats, and places them beside the bowl for when Heidi was finished. Never let it be said he didn’t take care of his buddy.
Tommy is for once at a loss what to do. His mobile goes off. "Hello?"

[NoizePollution]

Quinn Hot -1 Cold +1 Volatile +2 Dark -1 Exp 0/5; Harm 0/4; BullyQuinn, the Ghoul Three outs and the teams change over. Quinn is third in the order. A power hitter but not reliable enough for the clean up position. She is too in her own head during her first at bat and goes down swinging, the first out of the inning, and despite the frustration of the poor showing it does buy her time to slip into the stands. Nobody is going to care about that on the last game of the season. Most players pop over to say hi to their parents or friends at some point. She clears several of the benches with bounding steps as she closes in on her friend. "Ash!" She wraps the smaller girl up in a hug, bass and all. "It's so cool that you came." Peeling herself off Ash, Quinn slumps into a spot next to her and works the cap off her head. It is work, as she's bound her hair in a tight enough braid to fit through the gap in the back of the hat, so she has to snake it down and off that before she can set the cap aside. "I didn't think anybody would be here." Her eyes snap to Cynthia and her cohort of fools. "Nobody that matters, anyways." She takes a deep breath and smiles over to Ash, and while there is genuine happiness in it there is no hiding the exhaustion underneath. The circles under her eyes, the tightness in her jaw. She reaches out and pinches Ash's shirt at the shoulder. "Interesting. I guess things are okay with you two now?" Her voice is a bit tight as she says it. Strained. She tugs at the sleeve of her uniform for a moment, discomfort obvious in the motion. She can certainly relate to losing sight of the bigger picture despite that picture's obvious dangers. Not just with Luke, either. "I hope you know what you're doing. I'm here for you even if you don't, though." Quinn bumps her shoulder into Ashs, a gentle motion to back up the words. "Sorry I couldn't find you after school. Got into an argument with a chair and had to sit in the office for like an hour." Her shoulders lift in a shrug and her smile is a half-hearted thing. A very weak effort at looking like its no big deal and she doesn't care. "They might suspend me this time."

[Starflier]

Ash Hot -1 Cold +2 Volatile -1 Dark +1 Exp 4/5, Harm 0/5, Take 1 Forward, Conditions: Foolish, Morbid, TraumatizedAsh, the Ghost ”Of course I came. Just wish I’d known earlier so I could have yelled at more umps,” Ash said as she sat back down, glad that Quinn was happy to see her. She’d been feeling a little awkward about where they’d left things earlier, and with everything else that happened there hadn’t been time to finish their talk. She turned and looked back at the crowd again, Quinn’s thoughts mirroring her own on that front. Ash shrugged when Quinn brought up the subject of her and Morgan, ”Hell if I know. One minute I’m telling her off, standing up for myself. The next minute she does some hot girl voodoo and I’m in a closet bereft of clothes and dignity, and I’m still not sure how.” She glances over at Quinn, impressed by the braid she’s used to get her hair up out of the way, ”Know what I’m doing? Please, it’s like I’m riding a bike downhill with no brakes.” Ash clapped as she watched the next hitter make good contact, prolonging their chat. ”Then again, I figure I didn’t get old enough to make any of the kind of mistakes you really learn from. Maybe it works, maybe it crashes and burns, maybe she rips my heart out ‘Temple of Doom’-style, again, but I’m willing to give it a chance. See what happens.” Sitting there quietly for a bit, she listened to Quinn talk, feeling shitty for blathering about her situation when her friend was going through something. ”That sucks. For hitting a chair?”   The Ghost Skin: The Ghost Look: Pained eyes Origin: Murdered in hot passion Stats: Hot -1, Cold 2, Volatile -1, Dark 1 Exp: 4 / 5 (Accepted temptations from Morgan x2, Unresolved Trauma x1, Accepted temptation from DP) Harm: 0 / 4 Conditions: Foolish, Morbid, Traumatized Take 1 forward (Shutdown on Balvinder) Strings on others: Tommy - 1 Luke - 1 Morgan - 1 Quinn - 1 You become invisible, unnoticeable. No one can see you, feel you, or hear your voice. You can still affect inanimate objects, but this is your only avenue of communication. You escape your Darkest Self when someone acknowledges your presence, and demonstrates how much they want you around.Darkest Self When you have sex with someone, you both get to ask a question of one another. This can be asked in character or player-to-player. They must answer honestly and directly.Sex Move Moves Whenever something brings to mind your death, you choke up and gain the Condition traumatized if you don’t have it already. Whenever someone helps you resolve this Condition, you both mark experience.Unresolved Trauma When you help someone resolve a Condition, gain a String on them.Helpful Spirit You can walk through walls and fly.Limitless

[NoizePollution]

Quinn Hot -1 Cold +1 Volatile +2 Dark -1 Exp 0/5; Harm 0/4; BullyQuinn, the Ghoul "I guess I more kicked it. Across the room. And knocked a bunch of books off the shelf." In truth, it's surprising to Quinn that she's come as far as she has without seriously disciplinary infractions. Her new 'take no crap' attitude had been an adjustment for a lot of people and she'd blackened a few eyes before people learned to leave her be. At her old school she probably could have skated by a lot more. People were always beating the crap out of each other or breaking things. But the academy isn't like that. "Luke just walked out. Didn't say a word. Would have felt better if he'd just told me off." She works the braid between her fingers, worrying at the end of it for a moment. Listening to Ash talk about her feelings toward Morgan, muddled and complicated as they are, Quinn feels like the words are all too familiar. Completely relatable. "I love Morgan but I've never seen her commit to anything more serious than pizza toppings. Well, maybe we both can just admit we've got a blind spot and not talk about it? For tonight, at least?" Quinn feels bad about it. How much she's leaned on Ash recently. Just because they're both dead doesn't mean Ash owes her a shoulder to cry on. And that crap she pulled in the library? Turning her death into some kind of sick verbal foreplay? Ash deserves better. Something she says sticks with Quinn, though, and she drops the braid to set her hand on top of the other girls. "I want to say something real honest now and I don't want it to sound like I'm being judgy or trying to control your feelings, okay?" She glances over her shoulder, noting the distance between them and most of the rest of the crowd. Outcasts for life. "When you talk about how you're dead, you make it sound so final. And I guess it probably is. Neither of us know if we will even grow older from this. But it makes me so sad cause it sounds like you've kind of...given up?" She takes her hand off Ashs and rests the back of her fingers on the other girls cheek for a brief moment. "You feel alive to me, Ash. And you sound alive. And you make music, and you laugh, and you kiss girls." She doesn't turn away at the crack of the bat, but the sound tells her its low and inside, likely a single. She won't have long before she'll have to take the field and there is so much she wants to say. "You are so much braver than I am. I wish we'd been closer friends before all this happened. I guess I was so wrapped up in my own stuff...I didn't really see you." She cups her right hand in her left, resting them on her lap as she turns her eyes away. To the field, but she's staring far beyond it at some uncertain future. Then back to Ash, with the brightest smile she can manage. "But I see you now, and I'm so grateful that you're here."

OOC Per our OOC conversation, I've added a Turn Someone On roll for this post. It was a 5, because of course it was.

[HexCursed]

Originally Posted by Acathala

His mobile goes off. "Hello?"

"Oh, hey. Are you being a stick-in-the-mud and saying home?" the caller said, not identifying herself but from the voice and word choice it was clearly Cynthia. "That's too bad, 'cause like I wanted to talk with you about something that I could use your help on. I guess over the phone would be okay or something. People talk about people talking, you know? So... yeah, there's that.

"Anyway, so would you consider doing something for me, or am I meowing up the wrong tree? Do you hate me?"

[Acathala]

Tommy’s guard is instantly up. Cynthia really shouldn’t have his number, but Beatrix probably gave her it. Speaking of Beatrix, he wouldn’t be surprised if Cynthia had her listening in, as some sort of test of him, her, or even both of them. Still he is curious to why his archenemy is calling. "Oh right you’re Beatrix’s friend Cynthia. If she’s there, tell her I say hi. What do you need help with?"

[HexCursed]

Cynthia Cynthia smirked. And yes, that was audible over the phone. "No, no. This has nothing to do with Bea or your neediness. No, this is about Balvinder. Have you talked with him?" She only paused a half of a second before continuing. "What am I saying. Of course you haven't; Boys don't have real conversations. Well, the thing is: he seems to think that I know something. A like deep, dark secret. Which honestly, I don't. But I've noticed that he's super-serious when it comes to honest. And I don't need him thinking that I'm not telling him stuff."

[Starflier]

Ash Hot -1 Cold +2 Volatile -1 Dark +1 Exp 4/5, Harm 0/5, Take 1 Forward, Conditions: Foolish, Morbid, TraumatizedAsh, the Ghost ”Giving up? No, it’s just that I…” Ash doesn’t get much else out in response to Quinn’s concerns before she feels fingers caress her cheek. The flush in her cheeks, the sharply inhaled breath, yeah she felt that, and it left her reeling. Ash hears the rest of what Quinn says, but her head is somewhere other than words right at that moment. She wished she knew what the right thing to do was, but for the second time that day she was knocked akilter. Ash wanted to say something, reply in kind, and yet she wasn't nearly as brave as Quinn said. It felt like everyone behind her was staring at her, waiting for her to say something, do something. Instead of saying what she wanted to say, how she wanted to say it, she laughed nervously while her cheeks remained flush with color. ”Lean into it, next time” Ash finally said as Quinn finished up what might have been the nicest thing anyone had said to her. Lean into it? What the f!@# is that? Say something not stupid. She looked up into the other girl's eyes, ”She likes to pitch inside, so turn into a close one and take the hit for the free base. You've got the speed to steal a base or two; should be able to get to second base, or third base, easily.” ”Small ball. You don't need the big hit, just keep doing the little things right.” Ash wanted to crawl into a whole and die, or maybe run out into traffic. She had managed to turn a perfectly nice moment into something awkward and uncomfortable. She had to fix this, and soon, but Quinn would have to get back to the game shortly, and Ash worried she wouldn't have another chance.   The Ghost Skin: The Ghost Look: Pained eyes Origin: Murdered in hot passion Stats: Hot -1, Cold 2, Volatile -1, Dark 1 Exp: 4 / 5 (Accepted temptations from Morgan x2, Unresolved Trauma x1, Accepted temptation from DP) Harm: 0 / 4 Conditions: Foolish, Morbid, Traumatized Take 1 forward (Shutdown on Balvinder) Strings on others: Tommy - 1 Luke - 1 Morgan - 1 Quinn - 1 You become invisible, unnoticeable. No one can see you, feel you, or hear your voice. You can still affect inanimate objects, but this is your only avenue of communication. You escape your Darkest Self when someone acknowledges your presence, and demonstrates how much they want you around.Darkest Self When you have sex with someone, you both get to ask a question of one another. This can be asked in character or player-to-player. They must answer honestly and directly.Sex Move Moves Whenever something brings to mind your death, you choke up and gain the Condition traumatized if you don’t have it already. Whenever someone helps you resolve this Condition, you both mark experience.Unresolved Trauma When you help someone resolve a Condition, gain a String on them.Helpful Spirit You can walk through walls and fly.Limitless

[Acathala]

"uh huh. So insulting someone just before asking them for a favour, is such winning stratagem." Tommy snarked back. He listens. Apparently Balvinder had somehow managed to uncover a secret of Cynthia’s, and had unwisely shot his mouth off about it to her. He should probably find out what that was. Even if things might be awkward because of Daiyu. "I fail to see why you care about what he thinks. I’m sure the sweet blameless angel that you are, would be able to soon prove he’s full of crap." Tommy tries and fails to hide the sarcasm. "What do you expect me to do? He’s going to think you are actually worried, if you sent me to talk to him."