“Keep your eye on the ball!”
Concept: semi-deranged, former major league baseball player, with a fervent love of the game. He was on the cusp of getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame (one of the youngest to do so in the game’s history, at age 30), before being snatched up by a member of the Gentry for his prowess at the sport.
Background on Gentry ‘Baseball’: Deep within the ever-shifting ether that makes up Arcadia, its monstrous, alien occupants known as the Gentry (or True Fae), began to grow increasingly interested in a popular mortal sport known as baseball. Given the capricious and envious nature of the Faerie, they attempted to mimic or ‘recreate’ this Baseball, applying only the loosest concepts of teamwork and rules from the game to their ‘sport’. This resulted in a devious amalgamation that defied explanation. Many changelings who remembered it could only recall its barest details, claiming that the sport was a lot like rugby, but with weapons and often brutal penalty of death for the losers (depending on the whims of the Fae). Others claimed it was more similar to a game of capture the flag, where opposite teams would to extract a ‘ball’ (often with the appearance of miniature, twinkling star) from a hollow in the center of a vast field, and then return with it to their base to win.
All agree that whatever form the sport took, it was a horrible game that forced teams into situations that often led to terrible ultimatums and self-sacrifice. Worse yet, those chosen by the Fae to champion their sport inside the game (coaches, team captains), were given the ‘honorable’ position of breaking new members to participate, giving them access to many methods of torture by their Keepers. If such methods were refused, their Keepers would take it upon themselves to ‘demonstrate’ methods of training. This was not generally inflicted on team leaders, but members of their teams. Those forced into such demonstrations were never the same again. Thus, many captains when put into these positions, often chose to take up their responsibilities to break in new members to spare them the hand of their Keepers. Such individuals, if they ever managed to escape to Earth, were never the same either.
My character would be one such ‘champion’, possibly a Fairest or a Beast.
Background on Casey Allan: Most people might remember those evenings with their pop, when he’d whip out a couple of dusty baseballs gloves, throw up a ball, and gesture them to the backyard to play catch. For Casey, the experience was no different when playing with his mother. Casey’s mom loved the game, and had seen over four hundred Sox games since her dad first took her to Fenway Park when she was old enough to hold up her head. That hadn’t changed with Casey, her firstborn, and they shared many happy memories bonding over their favorite starters, sitting in the nosebleed seats to watch the opening game of the season, and discussing the team’s stats as the season went on. Neither talked about the empty seat between them, bought and paid for, and that was okay.
Many couldn’t deny that baseball was major aspect to Casey’s life, but many overlooked his other passions. The boy had a love for travel, a wanderlust inside that many claimed was hereditary, but many were tight lipped about why this was so. Regardless, the urge to go places was always underneath Casey’s skin, and he was never in one place too long.