HtH102 – The Success Of Minara Incognito
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Minara walks the talk.
The three figures sit around a tiny table covered with a dirty checkered green tablecloth. There are no lights in the house; if it could be called that, just a solitary unromantic candleflame, lit up by desperation and choked by stale air.
"And above all; don't put your trust in humans," The shadowy figure at the head of the table closes the thick, leather-bound book with runic designs that run its entire front, returning it to its upright display rack. Reciting the second half of the prayer-like lines from her memory,
"... for they will always disappoint you in the end. - The【Rules of Broadcast】"
"... and now we eat!" Little Minara Incognito dives into the stainless steel plate before her, biting her teeth into a hard ball of mashed potatoes slathered in mysterious, gooey, and impenetrable sauce. She scarfs down what she is given without question, and barely stops, if not for the final figure across the table.
"... ..."
"What's wrong, big brother?"
Had her elder brother always been this tall? In this specific memory his height loomed over the tiny table, his face hidden in memory's darkness where the candlelight did not shine. That face is right now as shadowed as Mother's,
"You know, Mother, surely there's more to life than this."
There big brother goes again. Talking back to Mother led to predictable results; thin stainless steel plates were flipped, upturned potato balls were caught, and a perfectly normal scene at the dinner played itself out at max volume, piercing through the thin apartment walls. Why couldn't Big Brother just be normal? Like Mother and her! There he is, putting on his black coat at the apartment entrance again...
... running, as always.
A door slams; a fitful peace returns to the family table.
Cutlery clatters back on the table, and Mother's shadowed face does not betray any emotion through the inky darkness. Just a pair of narrowed golden eyes, swimming with swirls.
"... as the 【Rules of Broadcast】foretold." While Little Minara rolls her Big Brother's uneaten mashball along the table, Mother looks in her direction, causing Minara to freeze like a little animal caught in headlights!
"... try not be a disappointment like your brother."
Present time, Bitsborough Gym.
"...I'm telling ya, she's sellin'!"
"(indecipherable)..."
"... ain't seen anyone get a concussion bumping into the bottom rope before..."
Returning from the dreamy, blurry vision of memories past, Minara's focus sharpens around the small crowd of gymgoers surrounding her. She finds herself sitting up against the side of the ring apron, hand clenched unconsciously tight around something.
Oh, right.
It's all coming back now.
The poster for Opening Day.
When Domino-Mask there sounded the alarm, her head snapped upwards, right onto the bottom of the ring ropes she was crawling under!
Embarrassing! Embarrassing!!
Embarrassing!!!
Why did that particular memory come floating back to her just now?
Why did she agree to do this in the first place? She could have stayed a safe distance, and just watched the girls carry their posters off wherever they led?
But she still did ask in the end.
And she could not understand why.
Now, she had once again opened herself up to being...
"Hey...! Hey...! Heyyyy...! Can you see the number of fingers I am holding up?"
The girl with twinned long braids is holding up three fingers while crouched down. She had the bright, sunny smile that went from cheek to cheek. How odd! Minara believes she has seen it repeatedly in recent memory, but she has no idea where. Still, she holds up a pair of shaky fingers...
"She's alive, folks!" The golden-braided one raises Minara's outstretched hand in the air!
A cheer goes up amongst the gym-going crowd!
She was alright!
But Minara really wasn't! Not because she was physically unwell, but because she knew!
That all the attention she had on her was fast dispersing! The highest point was now past, and it was like at the point of a livestream where the just chatting part moves into the gaming part, and more than a good chunk of viewers simply fall off!
If she had to put a word in, she had to do it, and do it now!
"Ah... Erm! The truth is... I want to hang up an advertisement, if that is okay..."
The moment she let those words out, Minara immediately regretted it!
This went far beyond embarrassing!
She does not normally advertise on her own of course, she would have her mods infiltrate the baking of discussion threads on discussion boards and put her image out there constantly. Maybe bump the thread with an inconspicuous image of her. Totally organic and in line with the 【Rules of Broadcast】! This way, she insulates herself from mean comments when people react negatively, like now...
"What?! Ya' one of those no-good corporate stoogies thinkin' a smearin' ads on the ring all over again?" Domino-Mask is livid, stamping the floor with her boots! "Haven'tcha know by now da canvas is sacred? Why, Rie-tan oughta boot ya outta the place, right here, right now!"
No good!
She had been seen through!
Now she had exposed herself as having an ulterior motive, someone in the crowd is going to ask her to 'buy an ad' for sure!
Of course it wouldn't work out.
For the first time, Minara's nervous, sweaty palms loosen their grip.
...
... ...
... ... ...
The poster flutters onto the floor, face-up.
"Now, hang on a sec, Dee!" The girl with the braids, Rie-tan, snatches the poster up, studying it carefully. She flattens the badly crumpled paper on the canvas, showing off the smudged pastel drawing of Mistrál carrying a stack of books in the oval frame. "When's the last time you seen corporate advertise local events?"
...
...!
Dee, the domino-masked girl looks Minara up and down, to the poster on the side of the canvas, then back again! In true heel fashion, she gives a loud harrumph, crossing her arms and looking away red-faced, not willing to admit fault!
"Well! Ah, never! When did da house on the lake open itself? And... I ain't ever seen mucha you in town in da first place!"
"Th... that's because I don't go out much..." Minara's back clutches a corner ring pole while she twirls the bottom of her skirt, uncertain of the outcome! She was sure that something had changed in the atmosphere, since Dee was saying something incomprehensible in her strange accent while showing off the poster to the rest of the gym-goers.
"I think... she just wanted to paste the poster up on the front window there."
Minara nods with ferocious conviction! Finally! Someone had caught onto what she wanted to do, and of all people, it was this 'Rie-tan' girl who was reaching under the ring apron... for something!
"Yes...! Yes! Yes!" Minara wrings her hands in the air, grasping at the sliver of success that had been offered to her! This was the big break she had been waiting for! She winces a bit, almost as if afraid that this slight moment of being seen would fade away like the spring rain.
But it did not.
It did not.
It did not!!
Nothing is going wrong at all!
She steadies herself, the brace in her body dissolving!
[[Loud clattering of aluminum]]
Rie-tan had pulled out from underneath the ring a metallic object of savagery, setting it upright beside her, the blond-braided one watches Minara gulp, eyes spinny from the towering metal ladder!
"You know... No matter how tall you are, if you are gonna reach the top of the window, you are gonna need this!"
Rie-tan opens up the ladder next to the front window, holding it in place to keep it from wobbling.
There it was.
Endless thanks creak up the aluminum steps, and the Opening Day poster takes its place in the top corner of the window. With Rie-tan holding the ladder steady, the blue-haired girl climbs back down to solid ground.
"Hang on, I got to ask something really important!" Rie-tan scratches the back of her head, looking right into Minara's auric gold eyes. "Why my place specifically? I saw you staring across the street for ages!"
Oh.
That's all? That's it?
The girl exhales a breath of relief.
Alright, the truth then.
The wringing of her hands start up again, but the words that came out were true and sincere,
"Actually, you guys are wrestlers, right...?"
The girl pauses, like savoring a fragment of a cherished memory.
Then, she gives off a genuinely big smile with the words,
"... my big brother... he loves wrestling!"
"When you are interested in other people, other people will be interested in you." - The Stage-Saint, 'Book of Dramaturgy'
