The Competition - Katsumi and Tina Armstrong

[CyanDimitrik]

The timer is constantly going in Katsumi's head. It's like a bomb ticking away. The more she thought about it, the more her stomach twisted in knots. It was mostly excitement at the idea of wrestling prime-time material opponents, of winning an even bigger crowd, gaining fame, fortune, and eventually even a title! This morning, she took some time just to shriek into a pillow. No one may ever know.

It's also nervousness. She knows she's skilled, she knows how well she's performed in the past, and she's confident in her athleticism. But she doesn't know anything about her upcoming opponent. She doesn't know anything about anyone, really. She got to get up every day and tell herself she's top tier not even a week ago. How different could these chicks be? It's a nagging dread she has to keep biting back; this concern that her opponents will be superpowered compared to her woefully mortal capabilities. There are those knots again.

When in a new location, surrounded by complete strangers and anxious, it's best to work with something tried and true. Gaming or working on music would do the trick, but that'd be a distraction at best right now. She'd feel no more prepared, no less pressure. The third option has always been working out - and that one actually would make her feel more prepared.

Normally, the energetic girl would be all over the place during a workout. This evening, she's focused. A pair of cordless earpieces synced to an MP3 player pumps a personal selection of music that gives her jump-rope phase an extra peppy rhythm. And despite her genuine enjoyment of what she's doing and the steady bounce of her head in beat to the music, those dark green eyes are nothing short of focused. She's worked up a sweat, the skin left bare by her hot pink sportsbra aglisten with a light sheen. To complete the ensemble, she wears a pair of white sneakers, short fluffy ankle-socks, and white shorts.

She's seen a few others around the gym today. She's kept her distance and closed off from them as much as possible. It's LAW's gym, the information packet told her. She's welcome - and encouraged - to use it as often as she likes/possible. She passingly wondered if that was a reflection of how big their roster might be, but that thought was quickly abandoned in favor of working off her stress. That was the goal here.

Her debut has to be a special one. Another chance may never come.

[Highfly]

Tina had been on a roll lately and the smile on her face said it all. She walked with a confident strut as she went about her business... a leg day before she made her way to the punching bags.

Glad in a black sports bra, powder blue form fitting short shorts, and sneakers she felt like she was on top of the world as she finished out her last set of squats, dripping sweat. She would absolutely need a long shower later.

As she took a drink of water she looked around and saw a new face she had never seen before. Tina observed her from a distance for a time, and she seemed to know her way around a gym pretty well. Tina walked up and smiled, raising an eyebrow as she looked over this new woman. "Are ha a new lady 'round these parts per chance?" Tina asked as she tried to strike up a conversation.

[CyanDimitrik]

At this particular moment, Katsumi has shifted into a calf focus with single-legged double toe-hops, alternating from one foot to the other every second beat without letting her heels touch the floor. It's a good burn. She remains trenched in concentration, the wear on her body doing wonders for taking away the tension that had been mounting inside of her. And though this workout may not break any new ground, she'll feel like she's not let herself slip before her debut match.

For as glib and snarky as she behaves in the ring, the astute Kat-watcher would note she actually takes her in-ring performance very seriously.

She doesn't hear the other girl approaching; her earbuds saw to that. But she feels it. She's far from psychic, but it's that unnerving feeling that steadily builds until it's finally satisfied with an over-the-shoulder glance. Sure enough, there's a girl who looks to be about Kat's age apparently wanting to address her. Without missing a beat, the nimble wrestler gives her head a quick shake to jostle an earbud loose so she can hear what she has to say without losing the rhythm of her workout.

"Hahah.. wow..!," laughs the Japanese girl between breaths. "Get a load... of the Queen of England..!" Katsumi does not have a lot of experience of exposure to people from the British Isles. Tina's accent is not only a novelty, but an open invitation to tease. But that's all it is here - just teasing, and the smile to accompany is playfully wry.

She wants to get a better look at this interloper, so with each change-up of the foot, she rotates a degree in Tina's direction. "Yeah! Signed me on... three days ago?"

Finally, she's turned to face the tan girl. Her dark green gaze dips to take her in detail and- "Jesus!" -the rhythm is lost and the ropes whap against her ankles. Katsumi is blatantly staring at Tina's ridiculously ripped form. "Holy sh-.. what's that for? Good lord!" She doesn't even have a snark for that. It's impressive, and though she doesn't think she'd want a body quite like Tina's, just a little more definition couldn't hurt. So she might be a twinge jealous. But mostly impressed, and unabashedly so.

[Highfly]

Tina let's out a little bit of a snorting laugh when the new woman calls her the queen of England. "If ya think I look that old or rich, ya may have taken too many hits to the head already." Tina says as she watches Kat keep up the pace as she repositions herself. "Three days? Damn, you are either a total greenhorn with talent or ya came from somewhere n' have a pedigree."

Tina's chest swelled slightly with pride as she stood tall to react to Kat's expression upon eyeing her figure. Tina did a fitness muscle pose, her one leg lifting slightly as one hand went to her hip, and her other flexed her bicep. "I hope ya understand these ain't gym muscles lass. They are all about performance."

[CyanDimitrik]

One inch. One inch in height difference, Katsumi realizes as she looks the flexing girl over from head to toe. Heck, that height difference could just be a visual trick courtesy of her hairstyle! She's seen some women look muscled, but those women tended to be much taller than her! A hand self-consciously places to her bare midsection - toned, but not comparable to Tina's level.

Then she says something that earns a blink. "Performance, huh?," she asks, putting the only two pieces of the puzzle together. "So you'd be..." A wrestler. More to the point, a potential, if not eventual, opponent. She can now add 'intimidated' to impressed and jealous. And 'intimidated' is something Katsumi is not accustomed to. Those knots start to form in her stomach again as her mind runs off to fantastical places where Tina is capable of tearing palm trees in half, followed by that same flex she's showing off now.

It's a very specific mental image, that.

Her hands raise to fluff up her choppy, punkishly stylish, albeit sweaty hair in an effort to distract from those thoughts. "They better be!," she says suddenly. "If you get in the ring with me, you're gonna need a lot more than just...," she pauses to motion over Tina's physique, "...an unbelievably good body. God, I hate you."

She really doesn't. There remains no sincerity in her barbs. The undertone to that last line is actually a little self-deprecating, but it's kept mild.

[Highfly]

Tina stopped the pose and slapped her thighs as she chuckled. "Well, if we faced off ya better believe I would come at you with everything I got, I can do a bit of everything inside them ropes." Tina said with a wink. "N' by that I mean athletically, not the weird sex stuff." Tina added adamantly, shifting slightly uncomfortably.

Realizing she may have just made things awkward or a bit goofy, she tried to recover with more straight shop talk.

"Ya ever hear of Alaina Sanders-Haines the amazon?" Tina asked, hoping Kat knew her. "O totally watched her when In was younger n' now I'm actually train with her since I went pro right when she announced her come back to ring action."

[CyanDimitrik]

Weird sex stuff...?

The statement made by Tina gets an innocent tilt of Katsumi's head. Her brow is knit, tiny, perplexed frown on her face. That was a little detail management forgot to mention in the contract, and a clause Katsumi didn't quite notice. But now that Tina's let the cat out of the bag, there's going to be one heck of a shock in store for Katsumi later tonight. She may need a break from the Internet after what she discovers.

"We'll just swing around and come back to that," says an unsatisfied Katsumi before letting the topic continue. Before she has a chance to even respond to whether or not she's familiar with Alaina, Tina's already touting her training buddy. The people who trained Katsumi were no slouches, and they were experienced wrestlers as well, but Alaina had more mainstream exposure - the name carried more weight, anyway.

"Wait, she's not retired anymore?" Now that she hadn't heard. Slender hips cock to the right, and her right fist props. Her left hand pops the remaining earbud from her ear. No more music.

[Highfly]

Tina shuddered and grimaced a bit when Katsumi mentioned bringing up anything that related to hentai. Tina was all about fighting, not hentai. However a little bit of a smile returned when she noted Katsumi's reaction to Alaina returning to the ring.

"For sure, she came back after 6 years off. I mean she is 42, is married and has 5 year old twins for starters. Not to mention she was a nasty, 167lbs of muscle leaner n' me before. Now she is a powerful 187lbs, still defined, solid muscular power.... just not as chisled as she was in her 20s." Tina said, trying to be accurate in her mentor recap.

[CyanDimitrik]

The grimace is noted, but she doesn't pursue it yet. She has something new to nag at her mind now, at least. Just what was this federation after? Or is she over-blowing it? Who knows, this chick could be a total prude and offer zero sex appeal to the audience. Katsumi, on the other hand, has no problems playing up her allure in the ring - within reason. That right amount of flirty and dangerous, that's her sweet spot.

All that aside, Alaina's the main topic at hand. She lets her explain while she catches her breath, her slender frame rising and falling heavily with each inhale and exhale. "Sheesh..." Her right hand crosses to her left shoulder, rubbing over the muscle. "Well, y'know, hats off to'er for keeping it up. That's a lady who knows what she likes." The hand drops to her side again. "And if she's training you, I'm guessing she's local. What fed's she with now?"

[Highfly]

Tina put a hand on her hip and used her other to motion to the gym all around her. "LAW, just like me. Its growing quickly n' has a lot of tough ladies on its roster. Its pretty fun from what I can tell! I just.. well, this is my first promotion bigger than a tiny old local one back home in the UK so I really don't know how good or bad other big, spanning promotions are." Tina said a bit ashamed of her lack of knowledge of other promotions. It was true, LAW was her first proper promotion at 19.

Tina saw that Katsumi looked pretty tired and worn out. "Musta been a hell of a workout there girl! Whatcha end up hittin' today?" Tina asked, genuinely curious to what Katsumi worked today at the gym, or really what she worked any day. It was clear she came from other places and wrestled before. Tina wanted to know more about how others did things.