Jackal in the Snow

[deezcastforms]

Ivy Aster walked into her local gym, and was greeted with her name by the receptionist at the front desk. It was a very nice gym, best in the area. More of a full-on sport's complex, really. The kind of place where a membership cost a pretty pence, and you'd still need some prestige at your craft or a meaningful connection to not get looked at like you were wasting that money when you showed up.

Fortunately Ivy had all of those covered, as one of LAW's fastest rising stars as well as the protege of wrestling legend Tiki Lowell. She was training here alone, for now. Tiki was to show up later, but she had other obligations at the moment. So Ivy would train on strength and conditioning for a time, then once Tiki got there they would work on the the young wrestler's hit taking ability, which was the biggest sore spot in her skillset.

Ivy Aster

Ivy stripped down her layers into her training gear. A much simpler, sports bra and shorts version of her usual match attire. She'd start with a few laps jogging around the gym's track and field area. The inner part of the track wasn't being used by anybody at the moment, so Ivy took a training dummy and set it a bit inside the track's rings. Every time she came around, Ivy would veer slightly off course to the dummy, leap at it, and attack with one of her aerial moves. Dropkick, Spinning Backheel, Flying Guillotine, Headscissors Takedown, Ivy would practice a different move on the dummy each time around. And barring interruption, she'd keep doing it until she had completed 10 laps.

[TheManVan]

One simply does not become a great wrestler with intent alone.

That was an ideology that Jackal followed her whole career, even if things weren't going the way she wanted, training was always going to be the one foundation that she could find solace in. She had already began her training earlier in the day, working her muscles and opening up her body as she set the bar of weights on the rack. The clatter of steel on steel rang out as Jackal stepped out after working her glutes and legs as she reached for her towel, wiping away the sweat off of her face and taking a drink from her thermos.

Now that her body was sufficiently warmed up, she needed to put it through the wringer even more with a spar. But in order for a proper spar, she needed a sparring partner. She looked around the gym as she made her way towards the ring, looking to see if she could find any woman who could fit the script.

Just looking would be incredibly difficult to describe skill level, especially in a local gym that had a variety of different types of experience. But Jackal always had an eye for talent and quickly she spotted someone out. A violet haired woman doing laps, with a well toned body and the way she moved Jackal could sense something in her. She wasn't demanding to stop her laps, watching the woman run as she waited for her exercise to come to an end, climbing into the ring set up as she watched her come to a stop.

Her lips curled into a smile, she liked what she saw in the woman, calling out to her.

"Ooooooooi. You there with the purple hair."

[deezcastforms]

Ivy wasn't bothered by people coming in or out of the area, or perhaps taking a peek inside. Unless the called out to her, entered her direct field of vision, or otherwise created a distraction, the Brit wouldn't even take notice of them. Ivy doubted that she completed her 10 laps without a single person seeing her do so, but this was a public gym after all, even if a bit more exclusive than most.

After the laps were done, Ivy would move onto weight work. Low weight, high rep exercises. Or at least that was her plan before she heard a long drawn-out call to attention before hearing a description that the purplette would reasonably assume meant her. Immediately once Ivy turned toward the sound which had called, her eyes widened in recognition and shock. The only hint of reaction upon Ivy's otherwise composed, stoic figure.

That was Jackal Tojo, standing in a ring, calling for Ivy. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say that this woman was to Japanese pro wrestling what Tiki was the British wrestling world; not just a champion, but a legend. Renowned for their technical skill and knowledge above all else. The woman of 1,000 holds was what Ivy believed Jackal was known as, after all. A wrestler who would see themselves on best of all time lists, rather than simply best of an era or generation.

Ivy approached the ring, but did not enter. Though Ivy did have an inkling that she may be soon stepping under the ropes to join Jackal in the ring in the coming moments. "Ivy. I am Ivy Aster," she said. The fact that she kept Tiki as frequent company protecting her from being starstruck by Jackal. Her natural tone of voice was rather cold, but still polite. "You are Ms. Jackal Tojo, if I am not mistaken? Seeing as you are alone in a ring, may I presume you are looking for a sparring partner?"

[TheManVan]

Jackal waited in the ring until the woman came closer, leaning on the ropes with her arms crossed on top of it. Ivy as she was, quickly picked up on what the Ace of the Galaxy was asking of her. Her lips curled into a small smile at the girl's eagerness and was much more interested in finding out just who this Ivy Aster was. "Right you are." she replied to the cold and mysterious beauty, gesturing Ivy to come join her in the ring.

She backed off from the ropes, walking across of the training ring as her foot steps echoed on the mat and the wooden panels underneath it all to relocate herself in the center of the ring, rolling her neck and loosening the muscles before their sparring would get underway.

"So Ms. Ivy, I'm looking for a sweat today with some wrestling sparring. You already passed the eye test, let's see what else you got underneath that beautiful face of yours." Jackal let out another smile, stretching herself one last time before dipping down into a grappling stance, feeling as if she found someone quite interesting with this incidental meeting.

[deezcastforms]

Ivy couldn't quite be positive, but she was pretty sure that Jackal didn't know who she was. Naturally the blonde hadn't called her by name in the first place, but she also hadn't seemed to express any recognition of the name once Ivy gave it. For most, having no inkling of Ivy would be a show of ignorance, considering her hype coming over from the British wrestling scene, and her subsequent career in LAW living up to that height. Jackal Tojo, however, was one of the few who could justify not having Ivy on their radar yet.

Even still, Jackal welcomed Ivy into the ring with her, an offer that she accepted. Though the purplette could guess why she had been invited. It wasn't uncommon at all for higher level fighters to have sparring partners who weren't in their league whom they could just do their thing against. The concept served its purpose; the stronger fighter could have live practice without much pressure, keep the rust off, and try out some things before they used them in real fights. And even the weaker wrestler gained the experience from fighting a powerful opponent.

However, Ivy already served that role to Tiki often enough. Here, she was more keen on upstaging Jackal if she was capable. She would face Jackal like an opponent that she had something to prove against. "For your sake," Ivy said as she entered the ring, "I hope your eye test was more than simply looking at my face." The younger wrestler entered her own stance as a signal that she was ready, and then go on the attack.

Ivy would run in at Jackal with blazing speed, then once she was close but not quite yet in range, the Brit would hop into the air and flutter her legs. Both to slow herself down significantly to throw of Jackal's timing, and to try to trick the champion into thinking a kick was coming. Two separate shows of misdirection in a single motion in order to mask an attempt at grabbing Jackal by the arm and Judo throwing the blonde over her shoulder. If that worked, Ivy would then drop down, Jackal's arm still in her grip, and lock it into an Armbar.