TOUCHING BASE [OPEN]

MADE BY ★MEULK OF THQ

A girl walked into the common room, a bowl in each hand. She wore yellow flats, a black skirt, and a yellow jacket with black sleeves hanging over a black tank top. Luckily despite the colors, she was neither a buzzing insect or an ancap, but I repeat myself. Nah, if you were close up the jacket it’d plainly read “Tigers”. This was a fan. In fact, the biggest Hanshin Tigers fan in the academy, Hinata Ueno. The first bowl Hinata set down on the table was curry on rice with a spoon sticking out while the second was simply edamame, boiled an salted soy beans. These were the kinds of thing she would normally being eating in the stadium. In fact, this time in a long while that Hinata couldn’t show up to a home game for the Tigers. It was her first game alone, without her ‘rents or sister Nanami. Well, Nanami was in the dorm, but she wouldn’t be caught dead with her “brother”. And so alone and away from home, Hinata wanted to at least make sure today felt like a live game in other ways. Hinata had on a stern face as she dashed quickly back to her room and soon enough carried a laptop under her arm back into the common room. She thanked her luck stars she had gotten the teacher’s okay earlier. As Hinata was hooking up the computer to the common room projecter, she looked a little different than when she last entered. Much sillier, really, though perhaps cuter. While in her room, she had managed to attach a stripped plush tail to her skirt and had put on cat eared hairband. Soon enough the catgirl had navigated to the right streaming site and the old box started to hum and flicker. Pre-game commercials flashed onto a blank wall in front of her as she fiddled with the nobs to adjust the picture just right. The young woman plopped down the couch right behind the table. She then started to stretch out her arms and legs. She pushed the fake tail aside as she got herself situated. She’d be there a couple hours and wanted to feel comfortable. It’d all be starting soon an that brought a dumb smile to her face. Today the Hanshin Tigers would be facing the Toyo Carp, and well, anybody with eyes could tell who Hinata thought was gonna win. WORDS:404 Theora Katou

Rehearsals often ran late, that was the way the world worked. Worse still, they were often late without warning and there was very little one could do to avoid all the extra duties that came with it. And, when you were young and intended to be serving as a gopher for, what was supposed to be work experience, people expected you to go the extra mile and pull a bit more than your weight. And if you didn't, well, you might get a bad performance review, and the managing director wouldn't sign off on your paperwork, and then you'd fail the work study portion of class.

Normally Theora wouldn't mind staying extra, after all, she would expect any of her loyal troupe to do the same. But today was important. The Carp were playing and she hadn't missed a full game in, well, basically ever. Even if it required her secretly playing the video on her phone. Which was starting to look more and more likely as time passed and she wasn't back at home, which was to say, her dorm. Almost all her good luck charms were back there. She checked her phone, the stream was going strong and the game was still in the pre-show period, but it would start soon and her phone was nearly at 4%.

Maybe she shouldn't have gone to the shops on her way home, she should have known it would cut everything close. And maybe she shouldn't have been letting the pre-show play while she was at work study. So many should-have-dones and should-have-not-dones. But that didn't matter now, what mattered now was getting there. She dodged conversations and girls in the hall to drop her time-sheet off at the theater office and slipped out the back passages of the theater room for a shortcut to the dorms.

Theora finally made it into the building when she heard the opening music start to play that signaled the teams were moving on to the field. She cursed and took three steps before she stopped, realizing that she should not have heard that. Her phone was on silent, in the vain hope that it would save battery life it she didn't make it play the audio from the stream. She looked down at her jacket pocket, the sound wasn't coming from there. Her head darted back and forth, ears trying to pinpoint the sound. The common room. Other people must be watching the game. Maybe it was a whole party. As much as she would have preferred getting comfy and setting up her things, there was no time and being judged by others would be the price she paid. Worth it.

She pushed the door open and walked in with a very purposeful stride. "Pardon the intrusion." Which was more said out of politeness than any real penitence. She ignored the minor details, like the set up, the person, or everything that wasn't the screen just to make sure the right game was on and it wasn't just her imagination. It was, and she wasn't late. Theora breathed a sigh of relief. Then she looked at, well, the only other person there and her expression soured. Well, better a Tiger's fan than a Giant's. She narrowed her eyes at the girl and adjusted her Toyo Carp baseball cap. "Hello."

MADE BY ★MEULK OF THQ

The game was finally starting and it still felt strange for Hinata to be alone for it. The plan had been to watch it with her sisster, but that certainly wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be helped. Hinata heard somebody enter, apologize, and sigh but didn’t give it any mind. She was occupied and people would naturally would come in and out frequently. But soon enough she heard somebody greet her, and she turned around to see a tall blonde gal about here age. Hinata might had might had found her cute if she wasn’t giving Hinata a funny look. Though looking at her cap it was obvious why. “I take it you ain’t gonna vote for me next year, huh?” Hinata asked with a chuckle and a shrug as she stood up. Hopefully there wasn’t any real animosity there since she honestly felt she could use the company. Though mentioning she was the student council pres. while wearing wearing a cat girl outfit probably wasn’t the best idea, but it didn’t occur to her at the time. She then smiled and patted the arm of the couch. “But, seriously, sit down! I was hoping other folks would join in!” Before she could really even get a response though, she walked off a bit until she reached a pair of vending machines; one for snacks, the other drinks. She fiddled around in her purse, produced a coin, and a cola dropped to the bottom of the machine with a satisfying thud. After he picked it, Hinata looked back and called to Theory. “Do you want anything? It's on me.” WORDS Theora Katou

A rival fan, it would seem, had set up this very acceptable viewing room. Despite her incorrect support, it would be rude to just walk out again, and Theora would probably miss the first pitch. The latter was slightly more important to her. She dropped her carrier bag and purse onto a side chair and slung her bag of foodstuffs onto the central table. "I wouldn't say no to a coffee, but I've brought my own snacks. I don't mind sharing, so long as you don't mind some Carp staples." She pulled out two boxes, one of takoyaki and the other of taiyaki. Takoyaki being basically the official food at the stadium back hom and taiyaki being, obviously, shaped like fish.

She walked back to her carrier bag and unzipped it to pull out a small box and an old, stained, quite battered carp doll. She walked back to the table and set Sasa the fish beside her. She was pretty sure that somebody who would go far as to wear a silly outfit like that for their baseball team wouldn't mind her own eccentricities for the Carp. "You look familiar." Theora said as she opened the box and pulled out a deck of cards which, when flipped over, turned out to be baseball cards. "Were you making out with a brunette last tuesday, about third period, out behind the old tool shed?"

Theora couldn't place the face, but she knew the girl was familiar. Theora tended to give the most attention to her underlings and those she wanted to acquire. The only others who fell out of the haze were the couples she enjoyed watching from a distance to inspire her next play. Theora dealt out a number of the baseball cards and set each card out in the position that player would be in for this game.

MADE BY ★MEULK OF THQ

Hinata put in another coin and grabbed a canned coffe out of the vending machine. She instantly felt her hand getting warmer from the can, they tended to be heat them up a bit this time of year. As she walked back to the couch with both cans in hand, and nodded towards Theora after the mentioned of taiyaki. “Thanks! No problem as long it ain’t not the chocolate kind. But I bet you can already tell I have my own snacks.” She responded jollily. She knew she might later get carried away in the excitement of the match, so she was glad it at least was being made clear now that there wasn’t any beef over the teams. “You might be right. I swear I’ve heard your voice before...” Hinata mused as she set the drinks down on the table. She scratched her chin for a moment. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but was sure she could figure it out. But before she could really think it through, Theora had made a connection of her own that was quite the shock. “How did you… How dare you!? You were watching us!?” Instead of denying it, Hinata straight up snapped at Theora. She raised her voice and furrowed her brow as she glared at the girl beside her. The girl that kissed Hinata then didn’t seem to want anything serious. But for Hinata it was the first time she did anything like that with somebody since the break up with her boyfriend. It was an intimate, pleasant moment to her, and yet somehow this stranger, this god damned Carp fan just watzed on in and announced to having seen it. It was as if Theora had stepped on sacred grounds. “So, you were watching us?” Hinata asked again, now quieter and a bit flat. “Don’t tell a soul about it.” There was a sudden worry about her reputation as the student council president. But instead of looking towards to Theora then, Hinata was just staring at the projection screen. It was time for the first pitch. Instead of a celebrity, a former player, or a mascot, it was thrown this time by a lucky fan. In this case, a small boy. The kid tried his best, but had to get up close to the catcher. It was pretty cute. WORDS: 392 Theora Katou

Theora nodded. "If you want to do secret things, you should do it locked up in your room, though that would make it more annoying than anything." Theora stared at the screen as the game began going through the paces. She envied everyone who got a chance to throw the first pitch, maybe she could sneak her way onto the field that way, once she was the greatest Director of all time, obviously. "So that would mean you're" Theora paused, she wished she had her notebook where she'd documented the girls. "Figgy and she was Pudding." The announcer on the game made an offhand comment about a small shift in the lineup for the Carp batting team and Theora tsked and had to do a quick rearrangement of her cards.

"Yeah, Figgy." It had been not long after one of her theater classes had her examining a ballet based around holiday food. It had been a bit weird altogether and she'd been food oriented for the rest of the afternoon. "You're new though. Most of my couples have been doing it for awhile. Even if it's just the occasional touching of hands or kisses on the cheek." Theora spoke without really looking at Figgy, she only had eyes for the game.

"Though if you have discovered some hides hole, do tell. I thought I'd found them all." She reached over and scatched Sasa's head. "But if you're worried about other people finding out, I wouldn't worry. You're hardly the only one around campus sneaking around to have some private time. Though, if I had to recommend, there's a good spot in the library where you're very nearly out of view of everyone with the added bonus that you'll spot the feet of anyone coming near the area with plenty of time to button up." It was all very mater of fact, and it was equally obvious that Theora meant it when she said nearly out of view, though she herself wouldn't say how the spying worked.

"I mean, if you get seen, everyone is going to know. You were cuddling up, obviously. But they won't catch you for sure." She shrugged. "But like I said, there are tons of you running around and half of them aren't nearly so good about hiding their relationship as they think they are." Theora winced as a pitch went wide, that wasn't a good sign so early in the game.

MADE BY ★MEULK OF THQ

So not only did this Carp girl actively spy on Hinata and Pudding, but it wasn’t the first time doing something like that. This was just a frequent regular thing thing she did, apparently. Like bird watching, just with the other kind of bird. Plus she had the audacity to just talk about it openly, casually, without any guilt or shame and thought she was in the position to give advice. It has left Hinata flabbergasted. Though what referring the girls as ‘my couples’ was what made Hinata scoot off to the edge of the couch and give Theorga the stink eye. Hinata had only just met this girl and didn’t even know her name, but already had already grown to hate Theora’s guts. “Woah,” Hinata let out softly, surprised at seeing such a goof this early. It was also the reminder that there was the game and that it was likely for the best to ignore Theora and focus on the screen until it was over. Didn’t want interrupting anything, and better yet not start a scene in the common room. No. 5, Tsuyoshi Nishioka was up at bat. Meanwhile the team’s lead off was on first because of the wild pitch. The young pitcher Ken Sasaki was ready to redeem himself and so a fastball whized by Nishioka. First strike. Next, he planed a slider, which looked like a fast ball but was actually a rather weak pitch, a perfect feint. There was a loud crack as the lead off and Nishoka high tailed it . By the time the outfielders were able to track the ball down, it was too late; Nishoka already hit second base and his team mate had scored. Clearly, he had called the pitcher’s bluff. “Awww yeaaaah!!” Hinata howled as she pumped a fist into the air. She knew this early luck wasn’t going to last, but still savored it and let it make her bold. “By the way,’” Hinata tapped Theora on the shoulder to get her attention before showing her a cold gaze and a stern voice. She had forgotten the reservations she had before. “The name is Hinata, Hinata Ueno. Not ‘figgy’ or whatever that nonsense was. And you better make damned sure I never catch you peeping on me or any of the other girls ‘round here. You got that?” Though the most Hinata would really follow up on the threat was to warn other students and tell a teacher. Both of which would be hard without a name to attach. It was emptier than the display might have seemed. WORDS Theora Katou

Theora didn't pay much attention to the emotions flowing on the girl's face, something she normally did. Theora could be abrasive, demanding, annoying, and even charming, but usually it was on purpose. She liked testing people, finding out how they behaved, learning their tells so that she might use them as future icons for her work. At least, when she wasn't actively prompting them to join her collection and work for her in the theater. But right now, she was just being casual, friendly, non-confrontational as far as she was concerned. There was baseball on screen, after all.

She watched intently as the game began. Sometimes a game could be decided in the first inning, if that was the case, Theora was in for a long and disappointing run. But there was always hope. The last thing to die was hope and she would keep her candle burning until the end of time. She sighed as she turned the pitcher's card sideways. What a shame, but he could always redeem himself before he was subbed out. At least the first throw of the game hadn't been a home run, that could demoralize a team like nothing else.

Her thoughts and predictions were interrupted by the tapping of Figgy. She turned and looked at the girl who seemed upset for some reason. "Hinata." She said, without much feeling. "Hinata." Again. "No, that's no good at all. Figgy and pudding, the perfect meld of deep dark brown hair and lighter brown, coming together into a sweet scene. Cloying perhaps, but it sticks in the mind like syrup. A metaphor for you and your girlfriend. If I were to call you Hinata, I would have to know you and you can't simply write about people you know. Real life is far less interesting than the stage, and far more inscrutable."

She looked back at the screen, there was a commercial so she felt free to continue. "But you, Hinata, want to dictate to me on how to behave. You, Hinata, who was sneaking around sharing a sweet tender moment with a beauty as if it was something you, Hinata, were ashamed of." She tucked her bangs behind her glasses and shook her head. "I admit, Figgy isn't as darling as Matches, nor as elegant as Dove or the Princess, but they presented as themselves to me. You appeared as a simple pair whom I might never truly encounter again. Locked in the moment as lovers, forever and a day. But here you are and you want to be called Hinata."

Hinata noted that it took till commercial for the blonde girl to even look at her. The poetics could hide the contempt for a second. As Theora droned on about her act of voyuerism being her finding and capturing some once in a life time moment, Hinata looked down at the baseball cards and crunched her face into a grimace. Hinata theorized that’s all she and ‘pudding’ were to Theora. Her eyes darked back to the projector an her laptop. It was doubtful she could talk some sense into Theora and thus Hinata just not even bother wasting her time and trying and finish up the game away from this creepazoid.

Hinata groaned as she picked herself up from the couch and stoop up straight, her head hugn low. The plush cat tail flapped around for a second from the sharp jolt upwards. She turned around only to face Thoera. Hinata scowled as she leaned towards the sitting girl to meet her at eye level. Though, the cat ears surely dulled the intimidation. Regardless, Hinata has moved to Fukui Academy to get away from classmates who dehumanized her, so she refused to sit there and take it.

“What if I don’t want you to write about me?!” Hinata shrilly shouted. "What if you based your story on your own romantic life?! What if, spoilers, I’m a human being and I’m sick and tired of clods who don’t have the basic decency to call me what I want to be called?! What if, maybe, just maybe you ain’t entitled to the details of other people’s personal lives?!” With each question she stomped her foot. Even when not singing she thought in beats.

“And who the hell do you think you are that it’s any of your business in the first place?!” Hinata finished by taking an about face towards the table, and then scattered the baseball cards across with the room with a quick swipe of the arm. She was sick of looking at that cardboard already.

Theora sighed, she wasn't trying to be diplomatic, nor did she feel like putting any effort in to doing so for somebody as upset about nothing as this girl was. Obviously she just didn't understand, and Theora just wanted to enjoy herself, not get all bogged down in the theology that was theater, or her own philosophies that allowed the world to turn and that which could be controlled to be drawn out of chaos. There was very little like theater for chaos, after all. Suddenly, the girl was shouting at her.

Theora was caught by surprise and jerked back. Whatever rot that drained the whimsy and romance from the girl was obviously a far more deep rooted problem. But Theora was nothing if not a problem solver, even now when all she really wanted to do was watch her baseball. Theora pushed her glasses higher on her face and looked the angry Hinata in the eyes. "None. It's none of my business, nor was I trying to pry into anyone's personal lives. In fact, very much the opposite."

Theora reached over pulled Sasa into her lap. "I did not know you then, and all I know now is what you've provided to me. I did not ask for your realities. I write fiction, reality filtered through the lens of a liar." She raised her voice slightly. "I am that liar, I am the Director." Director was spoken in english, it was so important to her. "I make sure that the ending comes, be it happy or tragic. I make sure the lights are on, that the costumes get made, that the lines are known. Figgy is not who you are, Figgy is a prominent councilman and Pudding is the wife of another. Or perhaps Figgy is a a company manager and Pudding an aspiring intern."

Theora tilted her head. "You are a senior student, she was your junior, so you hide your love for fear of the consequences should your love be revealed. I could be wrong, I could be right, but it doesn't matter." She waved her hand dismissively. "Your tryst stands as the candle igniting the log, the first spark, required for the bonfire but lost among the details. I don't write Hinata, nor do I write of Diedra, Himeko, or Reina. I write of Figgy, Dove, the Princess, Matches. I saw two brunettes sharing a kiss and I gave them identities, a drama to unfold in a world entirely of my own making. Hinata and her life did not enter into it until this afternoon."