1835/Playing Catch

Playing Catch
Date of Scene:	18 August 2016
Location:	Mitakihara/Pikarigaoka - King Penguin Park
Synopsis:	Ariel, Yuzuki, and Hoshi run into each other in the park.
Cast of Characters:	Ariel Theodore, Yuzuki Amemori, Hoshi Kogane

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Ariel Theodore has posed:
    It's a pretty nice day. Good enough to go to the park and relax! Though in the case of some people who LIVE in the park, it's a good enough day to enjoy what is, ostensibly, home. By this point, it's not out of the ordinary to see the little foriegn girl and her MASSIVE dog around King Penguin Park, most people might assume she's just the outdoorsy type. Technically this is true of Ariel, but right now she is...
    Playing with her dog. This involves a stick. Throwing it a short distance-- and then having it brought back to her-usually getting pounced heavily in the process each time, with a bleat.

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori has just left the library, having been doing her summer homework to make sure it's all caught up and finished. Pack slung over her shoulder, she's taking the long way home, wearing a skirt and loose button up blouse. Spotting the giant dog, she initially dismisses it as a trick of her eyes. It isn't until she hears the bleat that her curiousity is perked. Mostly because she thinks this might be one of those hidden video things. The one where pranks are played on innocent girls and posted online with funny reactions!

What this means in short is that she starts making her way towards the two, but she seems to be looking around for something else. That dog /is/ fake right?

Hoshi Kogane has posed:
"Theodore-san~" Hoshi greets eagerly as she notices the girl and her massive dog, eagerly bouncing over that way, one of her stars popping in the sky next to her. That star is holding a baseball glove and a baseball, and when the distinctly yellow-shaded girl gets close enough to the dog, the star throws that ball a good long distance, "Enjoying your break from classes?"

She hasn't noticed Yuzuki yet.

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    Nope! No cameras, no wires, no strings attached. The giant hound moves a little too smoothly to be animatronic, too. There might be someone taking a cellphone video or something, but it's probably not going to get uploaded as one of those videos. There's really nothing out of the ordinary here; just a little girl playing with a dog that is, literally, bigger than she is.
    There's a moment or so of struggling, with the shaggy dog pinning her and licking her face endlessly, but Lucky stops that after a moment, head lifting with ears perked. HE Notices Yuzuki; a low inquisitive 'Wurf?' barked her way in a deep tone. This allows Ariel to sit up though, hair a mess, and having to spend a moment wiping the slobber from her face. "Uwah!"
    The call of her name, though turns her head, golden eyes finding the familiar sight of her classmate easily enough "Oh! Kogane-san!" She pipes, before looking to the star. It doesn't seem to surprise her in the least, considering she replies without missing a beat. "Yeeeees! I was just giving Lucky something to do, he's been kind of restless lately." She answers.
    And then that star helps. In an instant, Lucky is BOUNDING after the ball at top speed.

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori doesn't manage to find the cameras, but that's okay because she's currently seeing a girl with stars following around behind her. Slowing down as she nears the three of them, she pulls her bag from her shoulders, checks around inside of it before pulling a bottle of water free. The cap is removed without any ceremony. Then she sniffs the water a few times. It doesn't smell spiked and she's sure she would have remembered otherwise.

Sure her dreams have been odd lately, but that doesn't mean she should be hallucinating right? She looks around, finds a bench and sits down heavily, rubbing her eyes behind her glasses. They're lifted and examined as well. Finally, she decides to accept that she's seeing things. Her reverie is interrupted by the bark. Looking at the dog curiously, she calls out, "What breed is that? Do those-" she tries to remember the dog. Saint Beethoven? That can't be it. She cups her hands like she's holding something up at her throat, maybe a barrel, "One of those dogs, the kind that you see with the barrels on their collar?" She sounds honestly curious. Full acceptence that she's dreaming again. At least it's not about samurais for once.

Hoshi Kogane has posed:
Hoshi giggles as Lucky chases her star's ball, and sits down on the ground near Ariel, though far enough away that she ought to be at low risk of slobber. "Those are Saint Bernards." She answers Yuzuki casually, "No clue what breed Lucky is, though~"

The ball-playing star, however, claims a spot on Ariel's shoulder. Another one of her stars pops up in the air, this one holds a book bigger than itself, labelled 'Dog Breeds for Dummy Stars' it flips through it rapidly, as though trying to find Lucky in that book.

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    Lucky is fast- kind of frighteningly fast. For a beat it looks like he'll reach the ball before it lands, and with a bounding leap, the massive hound snatches it out of the air. Were it possible for a dog to look smug... Well Lucky certainly pulls the look off, tail and head held high as he trots his way back to dump the ball out at Ariel and Hoshi's feet.
    Thankfully there is less tackling than before, he knows how to be polite i company, but that doesn't spare Hoshi a singe big lick up the face, before his snout prods one of the little stars. It's not THAT slobbery, but none of Ariel's friends are safe from Lucky's love, ever.
    Though Ariel herself scrunches her nose. She can't quite just up and say 'He's a star!', which Hoshi's little stars would probably be able to recognize easily anyway. "Ah, no, he's not one of those." She knows at least that much about earth dogs. But there's a funny look that crosses her face as she struggles to find a good, reasonable, 'totally normal person' answer.
    That book might have one though. Lucky's ginourmous self seems to match the Irish Wolfhound the closest.

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori drums her fingers against her knees and says, "He's huge, how big was he as a puppy? I bet his paws were massive!" She seems to be rationalizing it as anything other than 'Star Dog'. Mostly because her mind wouldn't even remotely approach that line of thought yet.

The answer from Hoshi gets a snap of her fingers along with, "That was it! Why was I thinking of a composer?" She's trying not to look at those stars too closely. However, should one get close enough, it would find something flicked at it by her thumb after she reached into her pack. It was a sunflower seed shell! She's chewing on the good part!

One gets the feeling she's trying to see if they bounce of if they are, in fact hallucinations of which, she's pretty sure sleep deprivation has finally cuaght up. They're not nightmares though so she's not complaining yet.

Hoshi Kogane has posed:
To complicate that attempt at determining this, the sunflower seed neither goes through the star nor bounces off. It dodges the seed deftly, making a frowny face at Yuzuki. It clearly didn't like that. Hoshi doesn't appear to have noticed that star doing anything out of the ordinary.

"Maybe Lucky is a mutt?" Hoshi suggests, petting the dog while her ball-throwing star makes sure to hover in its face and throw another, far into the distance, accurately aimed at a tree, going at unreasonable speeds. Good thing that ball is magical and ignores such petty little things as 'going past the speed of sound will cause shockwaves' or 'that kind of force should leave a mark on a tree'

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    Well, while Ariel tries to think up an answer, she's pulled from her thoughts, when a sunflower seed goes flying. The shell anyway. What with that star on her shoulder and all, when it sidesteps, the kernel plinks off the pale girl's shoulder and spirals to the ground, where it disappears into the grass. She just kind of... Blinks curiously at that, before looking to Hoshi. Though she doesn't say anything, the expression on her face should probably speak well enough for her.
    I think she can see them.
    That kind of look.
    Good thing a convenient distraction is raised. The ball is thrown again. Super fast. Lucky... Stares off after it, without moving, before looking to Hoshi's star. He harrumphs at it, before picking himself up to chase; getting a good pace after it but not full tilt this time, plucking the ball up after it bounces off the tree and already starting to trot back.
    Alas, Ariel has not seen old children's movies about intelligent Saint Bernards named after composers, and such she can really give Yuzuki no answer as to why 'Beethoven' popped to mind. "Mmm. He was already pretty big when I found him. But I was a lot smaller, then, too so everything looked big to me! But I'm pretty sure he's gotten even bigger since then." She answers, leaning back in the grass and propping her weight on her hands. On the topic of mutts: "I don't really know a lot about dogs, I just know a lot about him."

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori looks embarassed when the shell seed bounces off of Ariel rather than the star. She knows the girl is real, or she's sure enough that she's not trying to test it. She misses that look shot at Hoshi, what with her watching the dog dart off instead. It WAS a convenient distraction for all involved it seems. "

"Mutt would make sense, he's huge for any breed I could think of off the top of my head." She slowly stands up and asks, "Could I throw him the ball?" Hey, that's a good chance to test if the stars are real. And it's not too strange, since the dog is clearly chasing something. Maybe she can just pretend she didn't see it too well.

Hoshi Kogane has posed:
The look Hoshi sends Ariel is one of 'You think so?' And while Hoshi seems unsure how to test it, or how to answer Yuzuki's question for that matter, that very star has the answer to both those questions, dropping the pebble-sized baseball into Yuzuki's hand and waving to her excitedly.

That ball is impossibly light, like it has no substance whatsoever. It doesn't even way as much as a speck of dust, but it can be thrown, no doubt about that. Pretty fast, too. "I don't know much about dogs either. I can tell you all about stars, though!"

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    Well that settles that. The star just goes off and hands Yuzuki the ball. Now Lucky's attention is completely on her, ears perked, tail wagging slowly behind him. He waits, intently watching for when she'll give it a throw. Ariel purses her lips thoughtfully. "Mom said he was a hound of some kind, way back. I was kind of surprised she let me keep him, but I think she really liked him too, even if her way of showing someone she liked them was kind of weird."
    Well, she's not going to say no to someone wanting to play with Lucky, that would be rude.
    Her shoulders lift in a faint Iunno? to Hoshi. Only one way to find out!
    "Yep, Kogane-san knows a lot about stars! I'm Ariel, by the way; Ariel Theodore."
    She may as well give her totally normal earth human girl foreigner name, now that she's using it for cover. As a totally ordinary earth human girl foreigner. Also introductions are polite!

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori catches the ball out of reflex, not that she had intentions otherwise, but it's probably a dead giveaway that she can see the star. She watches the other two and when she thinks it's safe, looks at the ball. "I know some dogs, but there's so many kinds out there, you'd forget them if you weren't on top of it all the time, right?" She reaches out to gently pat the dog's head, scratching behind his ears. When she thinks they're distracted enough, she tries to throw the ball. Not too hard since she wants to have plausible deniability in case Ariel thinks she's picking on the dog.

Introductions! Ball's gone, she can do with that distraction. Trying to look innocent, she smiles warmly and says, "It's a pleasure to meet you Ariel-kohai." being polite to the younger girl and not wanting to use chan, even if she is cute. "I'm Yuzuki Amemori." There was a brief moment of using her alias instead. No not the henshin one. She'd get fewer weird looks from people if they're just trying to search her DJ name, right?

Hoshi Kogane has posed:
Hoshi looks towards Ariel and nods, a look of 'Yup!' She doesn't comment on it, however, as she's met people before who can see things but have no clue why, so she's not going to assume anything. "I am Hoshi Kogane, future prime minister of Japan." She sounds like she has total confidence that she'll make it.

"Nice to meet you, Amemori-san." One more star pops into view, this one wearing a suit and holding a towel over its arm, it bows towards Yuzuki.

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    Annnnnnd she caught the ball. That says it all. Ariel rubs lightly at the back of her neck. Another little glance to Hoshi. Yep. Definitely yep. Well, Yuzuki can clearly see magic. And she certainly doesn't feel threatening, so Ariel accepts it and leaves it at that. Besides, Hoshi's stars are super cute and not seeing them is just missing out on one of the nice things in life.
    Lucky on the other hand is fully accepting of HEADPATS, tongue lolling out in a big shaggy-dog grin, even panting a bit when Yuzuki finds that sweet spot behind the ears. He's off after the ball at a casual trot when she throws it. It won't talk him long at all to get that back.
    "Mm! Nice to meet you! Do you come to the park often? Lucky and I are almost always here." She notes. Before Hoshi gives HER introduction. "I don't doubt it."
    What reason has Ariel to not believe in her classmates and friends?

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori smiles as the dog trots off after the ball that didn't feel like anything. Either she's having a glorious halucination or all of this is real. She doesn't comment on it though. Maybe she can blame a funny drink from the show last night if it comes up as anything strange. Also the stars are super cute, but she's afraid to comment on them. The butler star though, that gets her staring. How do you get a suit in star shape? Maybe she did drink something off at the show. "It's nice to meet you as well Kogane-Kohai, that's a good goal to have! Certainly more responsible than what I'm working towards!"

Whent he ball is brought back, after looking around quickly for cameras, she throws the ball a bit further, a proper throw this time. "I don't actually. Between homework, clubs, my bike and work, I don't usually get as much time as I'd like. It's gotten easier this year though so I'm gonna change that up!"

Hoshi Kogane has posed:
The Butler star does not mind being stared at, instead it just floats in the sky. Hoshi glances towards Ariel and then makes a decision, one that might be totally ill-adviced, but she thinks nothing of it. "So you can see my stars, Amemori-san~?"

One more star pops up, this one holds a telescope and a tripod, it attempts to set up the tripod on Ariel's head, to look at the nearest star that isn't made out of chroma energy, Lucky. "Not many people can~!"

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    It's pretty obvious that everyone can see the blatantly pink elephant in the room. Or in this case, the little yellow stars in the park. But Hoshi asks the valid logical question more openly now. Which leaves Ariel crossing golden eyes upwards to peer at the one that has taken perch on her head. her nose scrunches as she tries to peeeeek up, but otherwise stays very still to not make it lose its balance.
    Lucky is already on his way back, by the way, a fact he makes blatantly obvious when he drops the ball at Yuzuki's feet. Star he too may be, but like this; in this shape, he is completely fine with enjoying himself with the simple repetitive act of playing fetch, and he's sure to make that known.
    "Eheh, I got all of my schoolwork done first thing, so I could enjoy the downtime."
    There are still no cameras around, seriously.
    "It lets me focus more on learning about the city and making new friends. And playing with Lucky."
    Lucky who is wagging his tail pretty demandingly.

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori actually looks relieved when she gets asked if the stars are visible. "I can. They're yours? Do you do shows? I need a new light setup anyway, it would probably make it easier to get work!" Pause. Pause. "There's not enough fog for those to be light shows. What are they?" Well she's a blunt one sometimes. "What's the difference between being able to see them and not?"

She crouches down and picks up the ball, giving Lucky a scritch on his chin, that turns into a scratch behind the ears. She doesn't know what he is after all. The ball is then thrown again while she answers Ariel, "I would, but Infinity seems to think that we have enough free time- I also work a lot on other projects though. I'm just about finished with the break homework though."

Hoshi Kogane has posed:
"People with a special gift." Hoshi answers the question as to who can see them, and that reaction, attempted rationalization and all, gives Hoshi all she needs to know about Yuzuki, she firmly nods towards Ariel, confident that the other girl gets it too. 'She's new.'

"If I hadn't done my schoolwork first week of summer, both my nanny and my tutor would've blown up." Hoshi confides, and she leans backwards, looking up at the sky. "I don't really have projects, but I do volunteer at the hospital one afternoon per week, to help cheer up sick people."

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    Oh yeah, Ariel leaves all star-related discussion to Hoshi, now, that the proverbial cat is out of its bag. So with that answer from Yuzuki, there's no questioning it at all; the girl can see magic!
    Hoshi puts it well enough though. 'A special gift'. It's an answer that not only usually works, but probably saves everyone a headache-inspiring explanation. So the small foreign girl simply puts on a big smile, at that.
    "They're not a light show." She at least points out, reaching up to pluck the star off her head and cradle the little thing gently in her palm. It probably gets some petting, too, while Lucky gets what HE wants, and near flops his massive weight against Yuzuki when she pays him his due attention in scritches, before going for the ball again. Slower this time, it looks like the big hound can only have so much energy. "What's Infinity like?"
    "Oh?" Now she's looking to Hoshi, "You do that? Do you think maybe I can go with you, sometime?"

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori sets the super light ball down and sets it to the side, now focusing mostly on petting the giant dog as that's something she can wrap her head around. The size problem can come later. Maybe after she's home, had some sleep, a new weird dream and some alone time with her sound software. "I spend enough time working on my homework, I maintai my grades, my family is alright with whatever else I do. It's cut down so much on trying to pull my hair out when you've got everything due because you're overloaded."

The explanation is given a slow nod. "So this 'special gift' isn't something in the water, a prank, light reflecting off of a weather baloon?" She makes sure to brace herself this time, should the dog try to semi-flatten her again. "Infinity is nice, but you have to work hard you know? I enjoy it."

Hoshi Kogane has posed:
"Your special gift is yours to figure out." Hoshi answers cryptically, "I'm sure you will in due time." There, no real secrets or answers given, thus if Yuzuki learns things she shouldn't, then it's not her fault. Being in the clear there is important.

A voice calls out from the distance, something about a tutor directed at an 'Ouji-chan', Hoshi looks over. "I have to go, sorry." She glances towards Ariel and adds, "I don't think there will be a problem, but I gotta ask first!" And then she starts to bound off, the little yellow baseball dissipates into a spot of yellow on theground.

Ariel Theodore has posed:
    That's it, then. No more fetch. This is all well and good as Lucky flomps down, tongue lolled out, panting good and hard now. There's no way the huge hound can be restless anymore after all that. And this is why he promptly decides to lay his head right on Yuzuki's lap and keep it there. In the meantime, Ariel nods at the explanation regarding Infinity. All well and good enough there, but she keeps quiet and simply beams rather brightly when Hoshi opts for the pointedly vague answer. She gives one of her own.
    "Whatever it is, is only limited by your dreams."
    Buuuut it looks like that's cue for Hoshi to go. Ariel sits herself up a bit better, head turning to the origin of the voice from afar. She sits perfectly still and staring, though; much like a deer staring down oncoming headlights. "O-oh. Alright- ah, bye Kogane-san~!"
    Ariel seems to take that as her own cue, standing up and slowly dusting herself off. "I think we should be going, too. Lucky's probably going to want to take a nap and do nothing else, for the rest of the day. And I need to handle supper for the both of us." Explained as the little foreign girl gives a formal little bow. She'll make her own way off momentarily, as well, the big hound close on her heels.

Yuzuki Amemori has posed:
Yuzuki Amemori brushes herself off, dog fur. Stuff like that. Smiling to both, she waves to Hoshi and says, "Have a good afternoon Kogane-chan." There's a brief moment when she considers just poking one of the stars to really, really make sure she hasn't lost it. That passes and she manages a smile for Ariel too. "You as well, have a good afternoon!" before scooping up her pack and hurrying off.