Thread: Batting Practice (Attn: JTM and whoever he brings)

JTM pulls up in the clunker car with his usual standard gear with him. The Ottomobile has a few more little dings on and in it.

Hopefully he won't notice that too.

He gets out of the car after he parks it back two blocks and walks to where Otto should be.

“Sup Otto….got your message. Did you tell the other two my message? I hope you did. So what are we doing here? Biz I hope.”

Otto smiles and gets out of his chair when JTM arrives "Oh, actually it was ment to be fun, well, at least I"m excited about it" there is a certain gleam in Otto's eye "I thought about how you use a bat, and it made me think that it might be a good idea for me to increase my coordination. I was a miner in my mortal days, so swinging for power is something I understand, but walls don't generally move..." wow Otto reallly does seem to have a spring to his step "Anyway, I was hoping you would help me break in my new batting cage, your probably stronger then I am , but I thought it would be good to be prepared. " he breaths, well, not so much breaths but puts air in his lungs so he can talk "Are you interested in batting practice? If it would bore you I understand, and I'll appoligize for wasting your time."

(OOC: just noting I tumbled this alltogethersoastomakeitseemthatOttowasreally excited, please do not take it as indicative of my writing style )

JTM waits and follow Otto. "Lead on."

Otto nods "Follow me, stick close it may be somewhat confusing" and he scurries off into the sewers, he leads JTM through a very confusing set of turns and twists and goes through a reasonably concealed passageway and just when you thought it would never end, it continues.

Otto chats along the ways, but it isn't of real consequence, most just to keep JTM's mind off the long walk.

Eventually, after a few comments from the guy who complains about a two block walk, a small bit of light appears up ahead. Otto tosses back the door highlighted by the light without, it blangs with the sound of a very stout steel door that would scoff at tornados. As the two of you leave what appears to be a tornado shelter you enter a courtyard defined by a great deal of stonework.

JTM comes out into a courtyard. It is surrounded by an old, but well maintained stonewall, with added security features on top. Next a large stone house takes up another side of the courtyard as well as the 'back' of what might be a large five-car garage.

An in ground pool, capable of holding it's own on any that may have been seen on 'life styles of the rich and famous', is off to the side. Opposite the house in the courtyard is a full sized batting cage with automated pitching for both soft and baseballs.

It isn’t apparent at first, but the netting is reinforced with wire running through and Otto beams as he takes you towards it. To the side and behind the cage is a reasonably well landscaped lawn though it has been encroached upon by the latest addition to the courtyard.

"What do you think, isn't it Wizzer"

Great job Otto. I’m walking through the shit again. Are we there yet? Damn….this is taking forever. Fuck I’ve got to get that cleaned too. Maybe wonder titties Kharma shines boots.

They finally get there and he views the place thoroughly over.

“Wizzer? You mean….. like to piss on it? Nah, it’s something the Gangrel do to mark their turf. I figure you and me wouldn’t do that. We got more style and class.”

He laughs a bit. He sees the batting cage is missing something by the pitching machine.

“Batting practice?, in this cage?, and you have no targets to hit let alone destroy...whats up with that?”

He seems disappointed. He thought he’d have live targets to hit.

“You might be wasting my time,... maybe, but I can show you a few tricks. I sometimes get rusty too. But nice cage you got here over all. You got your own bats right? This one that I have is mine….and mine alone. Nobody touches it. So let’s get this thing going k. Watch this, and stay back.”

He unlocks the cage and enters. No helmet for him, looking at the pitching machine, filling it up with baseballs. He walks to the other side by the home plate. He pops down some money to get the thing in motion to throw some pitches to him. He chokes up on his bat, pulling his strength back to connect with the first pitch. A resonating BONG is heard from the ball striking his bat, and then sailing to the right of the pitching machine, making the nets and steel shimmy somewhat keeping the balls in the cage. The ball now has the word “Bitches” tattooed on it.

"See Otto..that's how you do it. All in the wrist and the hips. Get a good grip and good eye contact....you will never fail."

He waits for the next pitch.

Otto chuckles and mentions to JTM as he gets his change out "Not a high traffic area, you won't need to pay for it." he smiles at an inner joke, probably the near frenzy he entered at the public cages that caused him to buy his own, at least here he can frenzy and only break his own things.

"Just hit the black button, and it is like you put in change. And I have a few bats of my own, I don't think they are as nice as yours, but hopefully will get me the practice I need."

As you are batting Otto explains "Oh, Wizzer...yeah, I am trying to catch up...I think the modern term is Dope or Totally Awesome" he says both of these as if he is trying to remember what he was told previously by someone else.

Near a bench sits a small rack with an assortment of a few base and soft ball bats, most of them 'look' nice, but may not be the best quality, the two wooden ones are probably not long for this world, but it is a good assortment. On the end is an Eastman Stealth, it still has clear shipping wrap clinging to it.


It may be funny to some, but each of the pats has a little tag on the, denoting if they are softball or baseball bats in very prim handwriting.

Sitting under the bench is a helmet that seems to have seen some use already though Otto makes not attempt to grab for it as he waits his turn.

After you take a few pitches and JTM turns around he will notice that Otto actually is wearing batting gloves and has picked out a lower end baseball bat.

JTM listens to his out of date street slang, not wanting to smack his head and miss the next pitch.

“The best term is cool, Otto. Just say “Cool”. Dope and totally awesome are like 80’s slang, and you don’t have the “hair band” look to pull it off.”

He sees the next pitch arrive and he swings and cracks this one with a resonating BONG and the ball hits to the left of the machine tattooed with the words “Ho’s” on it.

He hits the button on the machine to turn it off. He looks over at Mr. Otto Baseball Man in uniform with his Stealth bat and can’t help but chuckle. He steps out of the batting cage.

“So….uh…you gonna go out dressed like that? Some ladies dig a guy in uniform, but I think they were talking fireman, military or cop. Now it’s cool to add some fun in there right?…you know get some targets to hit, even the machine if need be. You know something we can break.”

Otto smiles "Ok...Cool?" he tries the word out "I think it will take some getting used to" he moves up to give the machine a try.

"No, the salesman suggested that having batting gloves would be a good idea so I thought I would give them a try"

The machine starts to wrrrrrrrrrrr and thlump.

Otto swings for the fences, and whishhhhhhhh

A small tick forms from the side of Otto's mouth, but he holds things together as the next ball comes.

wrrrrrrrrr......thlump

And again Otto swings......probably a little too hard .....

And a connection does form, but it is a very uneven connection..... not to say that the amount of energy tranfered between the various elements isn't even....in all likelihood uneven energy was the definately not the case, but in reality.......it was uneven in the sense that the ball rockets off, or would have, had the bat not broken from the force of the blow.... and equally had the balls elasticity not been comprimised by the unholsem connection...so if the ball did not rocket, it did certainly move at a good solid clip..

In the end, after the strange noise that had sounded, involving the bat being mangled and the ball being turned into something that is a bit less ball like, a slightly confused Otto stands looking at the bat smiling "That was very interesting.... " he glances over at JTM

"I'm glad I have more bats....though I suppose I'll need to swing a little lighter"

Otto lets the machine continue to pitch as he goes and retrieves what is left of the ball and tosses it down with the Bat near the bench, he pulls out another Bat and gets ready for the next pitch....

It takes some time, but with some guidance he learns not to use his potence on 'non potence friendly' equipment.

"I'll see what I can do about getting some targets made for next time"

He remembers to hit the button to stop the machine and looks to you "Did you want to try it again? I really appreciate all the pointers"

JTM smiles at Otto.

“Cool.”

I’ll have to teach him the street slang one of these nights.

The first pitch comes in and Otto whiffs it. He tries to hold back his laughter, the best he can.

Strike one! Screw the damn gloves…That whole outfit has got to go. Hmmmmm..maybe it’s the bat? Nope...nope...definitely Otto.

“It’s cool Otto, just keep at it. Stay in there and focus on the pitch. Watch that damn ball. Then swing and release. Simple as that.”

The second pitch comes in and Otto whacks the shit out of it, using a little more force than he should. He watches the ball and bat break each other with a resounding CRACK. Then the bat mangles and the ball doesn’t look in good shape either.

“What the fuck!!!!"

He gets an evil look on his face.

“Interesting?, no no no that was fucking awesome!!! But yeah you got that right Otto. Tone down the Potence, dammit. Otherwise you’ll put baseball sized holes through the cage. You need a tougher bat too.”

He watches Otto drop the bad bat and grab another one fearing the worst but excited to see what happens next.

“If you get some good targets, make em life-sized of Sabre and Cross for me. And, no offense, the numb nut twins too. That couldn’t hurt either. Pointers? Hmmmmm…get rid of the outfit, find a better bat, and tone your power down. That’s about it. ”

He sees Otto offer him his turn.

“Nah, you stay in there. You need the practice, just focus, k Otto-san. Hit the rest of em in the machine, I’ll watch, then I gotta jet…..cool?”

He turns to look to remember how he got here.

“And ummm..you are gonna have to show me how to get out of here too.”