Tennis: marginal counterpuncher, phenomenal Eschaton-honed lob, doubles with Orin, the European clay junket

texture · UNDATED (E.T.A. years, B.S.)

• When: UNDATED (the boys' E.T.A. playing years)
• What: On court Bain is one of the marginal counterpunchers of E.T.A.'s first generation: he, Orin, and "two or three other marginal counterpunching boys" all had "phenomenal lobs, honed through spare P.M. devoted more and more to Eschaton" — the game Orin game-mastered first at E.T.A., played in those years mostly by "marginal and deafflatusized upperclassmen" (scene 068). He is Orin's Academy doubles partner (scene 082: "Orin’s Academy doubles partner."; scene 160 styles him "Orin’s old E.T.A. doubles and chemical-mischief partner"). And he travels with the Academy's touring contingent: Avril's later letter to Orin remembers "seeing you, Marlon, Ross, and the rest off on the European clay junket," the maternal beak pressed to the terminal glass (n110).