xp_logs | Mansion Baseball! Garrison and Adrienne

Garrison tries to nurse his pitcher through some troubles in the bottom of the second inning.

"Ball four!"

"Shit." Kane pulled off his facemask as Scott trotted up to first. He took the relay from Vanessa and called time. He was tempted to argue the call, but sadly, the Professor had a surprisingly good eye at the plate. He confessed to Garrison once that he used his powers to merge the sight perspectives of a half dozen people on each play; a kind of surface skimming telepathy that made him extremely accurate in calling games from his chair. But, like all baseball players everywhere, during the game, Kane was convinced that he was half blind and in the pay of the opposite team.

Out on the mound, Adrienne scuffed the rubber as he walked up. "You're overthrowing your fastball. Stop trying to aim the ball."

"Did I ever tell you about the time I helped fuck up a crazy-ass robot by throwing a bunch of concussion grenades exactly where I aimed them?" Adrienne asked, tone inquisitive, which hopefully helped sell the snark of the comment better. "That's a good story. About how I kick ass at pitching. Maybe if someone was framing the ball better we'd get more calls?"

"I can't frame a pitch that I have to lunge for part way up the first base line." Kane squinted against the sun, sweat streaking past the two horizontal blocks of black on his cheeks. "I've been watching Wanda swing. Too many years in Europe. High and tight, high and away. And please don't try throwing that curve again."

Adrienne glared daggers at the comment about lunging, fiddling with her Sox cap. It wasn't as comfortable as the Jays one, she sadly had to admit, but she couldn't wear a Jays hat with her Sox jersey. "Don't take your obvious lack of athletic ability out on me and my pitches," she teased, "my curve is just fine. It's supposed to go over the backstop like that! You should be better prepared, clearly. Maybe someone needs to be shooting at me for me to hit the targets," she admitted without missing a beat. "Can we arrange that?"

"Talk to Marie-Ange. I'm sure her boyfriend is armed." Kane gave her the ball. "Remember, up and in, up and away. Make her chase." He trotted back to the plate and crouched down behind it as Wanda took her warm up swings in the box. He set up at belt level on the inside part of the plate and called for a fastball.

About to make the comment that if Marie-Ange's boyfriend was armed at a mansion baseball game where there were kids around she would kick his fucking ass, Adrienne bit it back when Garrison gave her the ball and trotted away. "Thanks, Dottie Henson!" she muttered in response, his comment about where to throw reminding her of League of Their Own.

She managed to get the first two balls up, the first inside and the second outside, where Garrison had set up. But then she started thinking about how uncomfortable her cap was and how damn hot it was and how Scott might be thinking about stealing, and then she started thinking about how Garrison could squat all this time and how strong his legs were, and before she knew it the next four pitches had alternated between hitting the dirt in front of the plate and sailing over Wanda's head. Another walk.

"Time!" Kane called, pulling off his mask in disgust. He held the ball as he walked out, seeing Scott settle in at second. "This is getting interesting, you think?"

"It's just first and second," Adrienne answered with false bravado. "And Jean's coming to the plate. I got this. Double-play ball, coming right up. I'm gonna try a slider."

"Why? You don't think you're walking them fast enough?" Kane looked Scott back to the bag at second, mask under his arm. "Jean's going to bunt. You throw a slider, she's got a better chance of getting it down. Which means you need to make the play on it if she does."

"How do you know she's gonna bunt?" Adrienne asked, surprised. "Does Jean even know what a bunt is?"

"You haven't seen the pictures by the kitchen? They've been playing on this diamond since Xavier started taking kids in. Doc McRedhead knows her way around a bat." Kane said. "And I know that the Professor prefers the NL, so I'm expecting smallball."

Adrienne had never noticed the pictures, no. "See, this is why you're the big-shot Mountie-slash-FBI agent, and I'm still in PI training," she commented. "Your observational skills are finely tuned. Okay, so... fastballs if she's trying to bunt? Probably not a good time to try my knuckleball?"

"Move it around, see if we can make her foul a couple off and take the bunt away. And no knuckleballs."

"Aye aye, Captain," the brunette replied good-naturedly. giving him a snappy salute. "Also, she prefers Doctor Lush, just, y'know, fyi. You should call her that when you go back there. We can use any edge we can get right now."

Kane settled back in behind the plate, giving her a target on the outside edge.

Adrienne hit the target the first time, when Jean did indeed show bunt, fouling the ball back. And then she couldn't seem to get the thought out of her head about how pretty Jean's hair was and how maybe she should try dyeing hers red, and her second pitch leaked out onto the centre of the plate. Jean connected, dumping it down the third base side, and Adrienne was so frustrated with the pitch that she wasn't paying attention to making the play. By the time she got to the ball all hands were safe.

"Is there some other game that you're watching right now?" Kane said as he ambled to the mound. "Because your mind is not in this one."

Adrienne frowned. "Do you think I should dye my hair red?"

"What? The bases are loaded and you're trying to decide whether to colour your hair?"

"Wait... you mean I should actually be focusing on the game?!?" Adrienne's eyes widened. "Ohmigawd! That's such a good idea! I think I'm gonna try that! Y'know, now that I think about it, I bet that's how the pros do it." She squeezed the rosin bag between them, sending up a puff of whatever was inside it. "My mind's in the game. I'm gonna strike Doug out. Dude's a Rockies fan, right? It won't be that hard. Then I'll get the double-play ball on Vance and we'll be fine."

"Great, you just turned into Bill 'Spaceman' Lee." Kane groused. "Look, Doug is taking big cuts in the batter's box and he's got a long swing. Keep it down and in, and make him put it on the ground."

"That's right, I'm super stoned right now. Don't tell my sponsor." She looked over at Amanda holding Scott at third and gave her a finger wave. "Okay, down and in. Yeah, I can do that."

Kane just gave her a look as he headed back to the plate. Doug stood there, squeezing the bat like it was someone's neck in his hands, and wondered whether or not a competitive game was such a good idea to blow off steam. As for him, normally, this would be him at his happiest, but he didn't feel it. It was like the enjoyment had been squeezed into a trickle, dribbling against the detachment he'd felt since Genosha. He shrugged it off and set up behind the plate.

Frowning in concentration, Adrienne exhaled loudly and wound up. She blew a fastball past Doug, down and in, and could barely bite back a whoop. Garrison threw the ball back, she settled herself again, and whiffed another past him. The ball came back, but she closed her glove too soon, causing it to bounce off, and had to pick it up off the dirt. "Whoops!" She cleaned it off on her pantleg, rolling it around in her palm. It squirted out and hit the dirt again. "Damnit!" She settled on the rubber again and tried to get back to that place, mentally, where she'd been on the previous pitch. Huffed out a breath. Delivered. Ball high, stretching Garrison out behind the plate. "Shit!" The next two were balls, as well. "Low and in, low and in. I got this." The full count pitch hit Garrison's target, but Doug went down to get it. Adrienne knew just from the sound that he had clobbered it, possibly sent it into the quarry.

She was still staring at home plate in shock as Kane ambled out to the rubber. "I think he guessed fastball." Kane said quietly as the others rounded the bases. "I mean, that thing got out of there in a hurry. Anything going that far that fast outta have NASA on the side of it, eh?"

"Yeah," Adrienne mumbled, sounding defeated. She huffed out a dejected breath. "At least the bases are empty? I mean, really, it can't get any worse than that, it's gotta get better, right?"

"Not with that slider." Kane said, handing her over the ball. "Let's see what you got, meat."

"Why are you calling me meat?" Adrienne replied immediately, "I'm the one driving a Porsche!" Having completed the quote, however, she mumbled, "okay, yeah, not so much with the Porche. Whatever. At least I don't shake off your calls!"