Tell Me Why (Feat. Alix Jacques and Nathalie Christiaens)

[DSX93]

Alix Jacques

Her Office

"Oh no."

The afternoon had been good. Another list of promising prospects had crossed her desk, and all had been signed thus far. Alix was even beginning to figure out what to do with them already. Yutani Oshima? Set her up with Dizzy. She had one Elvira Velour asking for her too after catching that first match against Lacramioara. That girl's gonna swear it's Christmas. Dalia Nadeen Mahmoud? Get that woman in some oil, stat!

Renee Barnier's done some cosplay as a deadly assassin. Maybe she could get her to do something with Starboy. Beatrix Reynolds? That was a particularly sensitive one. She actually had a name in mind for a match with her: Asp. But she's been a hard woman to reach.

Alix was looking forward to seeing what that last name was. The slam dunk. The cherry on top, she was sure!

And then she saw it. Nathalie Christiaens. After she'd spoken to her sister, she was eager to have a conversation with her too. Maybe do a "brothers vs sisters" series of matches with her being booked against King D since Arlise had taken on Black Severin. But she didn't like what she was finding when she took a look into the Sapphire Stunner's background. And it wasn't just hearsay. She wouldn't have made a call to cancel that contact order if it was.

But the memo had been missed, and the meeting had been arranged. Alix sighed and waited for the knock at her door. This probably wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation.

[Winter]

Nathalie Christiaens could swear she smelled sex on everything.

Her mouth twisted with derision. While she could assign part of the scent on the expectation that a pornographic actress' office and the surrounding rooms smelled like sex, she refused to believe that she imagined it all. One might claim she had no reason to care considering she worked for LAW, a company built around sex and sexuality, Nat could somehow separate "adult actress" from "erotic wrestler" in her mind well enough to place her own status on a pedestal while imagining that someone had bent Alix Jacques over every piece of furniture in the building.

She shook it off as she neared the woman's door. Whatever her standing on "porn stars" in general, this one at least knew her business well enough to have, well, promoted her own. For all her aversion to any and all porn-related titles, she respected people who found power and success, and it sounded as if Alix had done precisely that. Nat even forgave her for the act of mistaking Arlise with someone worth employing.

Nat did not consider herself a "hentai-style" wrestler by any means - types like Alix and her sister surely opened their legs plenty to make up for Nat's restraint - but After Dark seemed to cater to all types willing to put on a little show to emphasize their wrestling. And if they sought someone like Arlise with her naivety, they would long for someone with Nat's spunk. The opportunity seemed to fit, and she wanted to sink in her talons. She had even dressed up a touch more than she would have for any other meeting - she didn't typically care to bother impressing stuffy suits behind desks, but a fresh manicure, pedicure, and clothes after her long weeks settling into Japan had her feeling fresh and set to impress.

Her heels announced her arrival before she had even knocked, but she rapped on the door a few times anyway.

Nat

Attire

[DSX93]

It wasn't often that Alix had to fake a smile. She certainly had her days: The long photoshoot that stretched on for hours, requiring her to maintain the look of a vixen when all she wanted to do was go home and sleep. Playing the part of a cheating girlfriend in a scene the day after a college girlfriend had cheated on her. Sitting down for a scheduled interview for the Erotic Combat Club's website just minutes after a confrontation with Raven -- a bullying newcomer -- that almost came to blows.

But that's what the business calls for sometimes; there's a reason why they're called models and actresses. And she'd learn to do it well on those occasions. Never has she had to fake it in a scene or a match, however. A fact that she found pride in being able to state. It was a large part of why her popularity grew to the level it did. One of the primary factors in getting awards in her hands.

When Alix opened the door to greet Nathalie, she was looking every bit as radiant as she normally does, greeting her with the same smile and handshake that everybody else was met with. "Hello! Nice to meet you, Nathalie! I'm Alix." She stepped aside to let her in, gesturing towards the cloudlike couches that adorned the homey setting. "Come right on in! Get comfy."

Shut the door, take a seat across from her, and the usual "How are you today?" Since she's here, Alix wanted to at least try. She hoped that something would be said or done that would make her feel that she's wrong on this.

[Winter]

Ugh. Disgusting.

Despite Nat's respect for those who came into power and money through effort, she also judged how one reflected that money. She didn't know if Alix had independently furnished the room that revealed itself as the shorter woman opened the door, but woof. Nat hated everything she saw at first glance, the color most of all. Fortunately, she had a wealth of experience maintaining a straight face - run-ins with the police throughout her life ensured that - and as her eyes darted from the room down to the face of the adult actress, who proved at least more pleasant to look at, she smiled sweeter than sugar and accepted the outstretched hand.

"The pleasure is all mine." Ugh, she hated sounding like that, but to be in business with people who could ensure LAW filled her pockets, she had to play the part, which meant "getting comfy." "Thank you." She hated to tell her, though, that her eyes might start bleeding anytime, no matter the "comfiness" of the furnishings. Still, Nat did sit and crossed her legs, reluctantly acknowledging after a few wiggles of her butt on the seat that, sigh, it did feel cozy.

More pleasantries. Nat left her adherence to societal expectations on autopilot. "Oh, tired, but no complaints. LAW has kept me so busy since I arrived." She raised her eyebrows as if Alix might "understand," planting the seed that the Sapphire Stunner was a hot commodity - not at all an exaggeration. "What about you?"

[DSX93]

There it was. The smile that hooked them all in. The most dangerous types, of women and men both, had it. Immediately disarming if you didn't have your wits about you; who wants to believe that someone with such a beautiful smile is capable of what she's done? Alix didn't want to believe it herself.

But it sounded all too familiar. Reminded her of her cousin.

She caught that subtle touch. A quick sell of a fact that was known to them both: Nathalie Christiaens is a popular name. Both she and her sister are held up as success stories, and there have been arguments that Nathalie herself is even more so. Single mother, with a father in prison. A difficult upbringing where they had to grow up fast. Arlise was the responsible sibling while Nathalie fell in with the wrong crowd, ending up becoming a familiar face to law enforcement over the years. And then she discovered wrestling...

It's a classic underdog story that one could see across all combat sports. Boxing, MMA, wrestling...And it never fails to get people projecting their wishes to see that happy ending: The big win that puts them at the top of the mountain, celebrated with the loved ones they've mended fences with. And having outgrown their past, they live their lives in a way that has them shining like a beacon to those who are now where they used to be.

And Nathalie's shown that she has the skills to make that climb. Her work in the ring has been phenomenal.

"Ooh, girl, same!" She breathed out a deep "phew!" that said everything that needed saying. There was a silver lining to all the hard work: It leaves her so wiped out, and so often, that she's been getting the best sleep she's had in her life. "Running a show while still being an active competitor..." And trainer, but Alix felt it prudent to keep that detail close to her chest for now. "It's a lot. It's a lot. But enough about me." She clapped her hands together. Time to get back to the point. "I'm not surprised at all to see your name cross my desk. You and your sister both, but you..." She leaned forward in her seat, elbows propped up on her knees, her chin atop interlocked fingers. "Your story -- the way you're rising up -- it's the sort of thing that everybody loves to see, myself included. Growing up in such difficult circumstances, experiencing as much as you have when you did, having to grow up as fast as you had to...I can only imagine what that was like. How much work you had to put in to get here."

A solid start. Introduce some flattery to make the mention of her background more palatable. Nathalie could respond with any number of things, but Alix could count on her response being quite telling regardless.

[Winter]

Ugh. Alix's words reminded Nat that she had another reason to resent her sister, and perhaps to a lesser degree, their mother.

She knew Arlise had... disclosed some information about their past with their mother's encouragement. Their mother believed they should share their story and express to the world how they had finished school, taken care of their mother, trained for the wrestling ring, and overcome their circumstances. By that, both of them had mostly meant how Arlise had done those things. While Nat did think something of their mother, unlike Arlise, and she had stuck with the Sapphire Stunner through her time in trouble... she still did not love hearing about primarily her sister's exploits.

She raked her tongue across her teeth and picked at her fingers to stifle any emotions that might have well, and she only nodded an understanding, "appreciative" nod when Alix finished her diatribe. "Well, I do not like to spend much time thinking on the past, or at least the parts of it I can avoid with any success." The Sapphire Stunner had seen the confused chatter about her parting words to Arlise during that match with those Irish fucks, and she would layer that on as long as anyone would listen - the one part she could not avoid, after all, happened to be her sister.

"But thank you. I do like to hope my work speaks for itself, now, without people seeing me as an underdog. It can feel like a crutch." No, no. She wanted to be queen of the kennel, not a sob story. Let Arlise act as the sob story - Nat wanted to move past it.

[DSX93]

There was no missing her meaning there. And the way Nathalie shifted past the topic, not even raising any concerns or grievances about Arlise wasn't sitting right.

"Right. I respect that. And you most certainly are on a class of your own. However..." Alix's smile gave way to something more serious. Their history painted the picture of a powder keg waiting to explode. Try as the amber-eyed beauty might to avoid it, it had to be discussed. "On the mention of avoidance, I'm afraid that there's a topic where that isn't an option: I strive to maintain a...stable space for everyone in After Dark, in order to ensure that the erotic action we focus on here is of the highest quality. I won't presume to tell either you or Arlise how the two of you should settle your differences outside of taking any potential fights to the main show, and I won't delve any further into the matter than absolutely necessary. But in light of the incident with the match against the Irish Oldschool, I must ask you the same question I asked her: Are there any concerns or grievances you may have with her presence that could prove to be especially exacerbating?

You don't need to be buddy-buddy, but I'll need the two of you to be able to co-exist in a shared space."

After Dark was by no means a kiddie pool, so to speak. It still has its good guys and bad guys, and differences are going to come up. But when it gets to the level present between the Christiaens sisters, she puts her foot down: Either settle it on the main show as she mentioned, or keep your distance.

"So if there's anything you'd like to mention -- anything at all -- I would like to hear it now, so I'm best able to accommodate you moving forward."