Don't Mess with a Girl who's got Instagram!

[Darius 2.0]

It was another day in the gym for the pint sized powerhouse known as Ember Sykes. She had always made a habit of working out after learning martial arts, but now that she was here in LAW it was pretty much a necessity. Not having the experience or even the stature of the other wrestlers here meant that she would have to work twice as hard in order to compete. Fortunately, Ember was no stranger when it came to hard work! It had taken a lot of man-hours to get her body into the shape it was in now, but it was time well spent. It was because of her dedication that she was able to stand in the ring with some of LAWs veteran wrestlers, and there was no way she was giving that up by slacking off now.

"Hrgh!" Ember grunted as she tossed her partner around; her partner in this case being a weighted training dummy. Normally Ember would have opted for a more mobile opponent, but the gym was mostly empty today and those that were there weren't interested in sparring with the violet haired beauty. So with no other choice Ember grabbed the stuffed dummy and hit the mats to start practicing her ground work.

Attire

Ember was clad in her usual gym attire consisting of yoga pants (with just a little bit of thong peeking through) and sports bra. She was already sweating, having been practicing her takedowns on the heavy human-shaped bag. Since most of LAWs wrestlers were taller than Ember, knowing how to take them down to her level was essential. "Okay, five more minutes and then cardio," Ember would pant before standing the dummy up again. Once again taking the dummy off its 'feet' Ember would slam it hard to the mat, demonstrating a real understanding on using her own opponents weight to her advantage.

[Winter]

Spoiler

The confident strut of Nathalie Christiaens carried her through the fringes of the gym - the gait of a woman plainly satisfied with her lot. Her first weeks in LAW could have scarcely gone better, and despite a certain family member's claims that she was lazy and lacked a sense of responsibility, Nat well knew that her sweet taste of success wouldn't persist without sparing some of her free time in the gym. Besides, in between photoshoots and interviews, Nat saw fit to maintain a presence in the gym... let the other wrestlers know she was there.

Though, there weren't many here to witness her. In her white sports bra and fitted blue shorts, Nathalie strolled past no more than three or four figures, leveling a pretty but dismissive smile on those she passed. The machines most of them occupied didn't interest her; the Sapphire Stunner would much rather spend her time mangling a dummy than making repetitions.

That was why the warm amber of her eyes took on a coldness when she rounded for the mats and saw... what looked to her from a distance to be a small dumpling of a girl occupying space playing with the body dummy. Nat gave a distasteful pooch of her lips. She was occupying a prime spot, she had the dummy the middleweight wanted, and she didn't look as if she belonged in the LAW gym. This was the kind of lass that Nat wanted to remember her name; one who might want to learn to respect her. Now was a fine time to inform her.

The Belgian strolled her way to the edge of the mat just as she heard the purple-haired stranger and the dummy smacked into the mats again, but with no interest in the girl's training activities, she witnessed none of the power or technique behind the slam. She merely attended to stuffing her corded earbuds into the strap of her bra and pulling a towel from her bag that she planned to use to wipe the little interruption's sweat off the training dummy. Whatever the stranger was doing, she could do it elsewhere, and Nat planned to have her out of her hair before she had to care what sort of training filled the girl's afternoon.

While the girl rolled off the training dummy, Natalie padded nearer until her bare feet dented the mats mere inches behind the girl's back, and there she towered with a fake smile beaming. She believed she could stand over the other woman with her toned and far taller figure on display and possibly run her off without having to speak, but Nat didn't waste time in waiting.

"Hi there, you," she greeted, all too sweetly, the French twinge of her accent pouring even more sugar into her words. "I've got a proposition - you move along to your next workout and free up that training dummy for a professional. She has a winning streak to maintain and needs her practice."

[Darius 2.0]

While a warm body would have been more preferable for Ember, particularly when it came to conversation, she couldn't deny she was getting a good workout with the grappling dummy. It was just as heavy as an average person, so when she tossed it to the ground it was the equivalent of throwing a real human, without the risk of potentially injuring the other party. The doll smacked into the mat with a loud 'crash' echoing through the mostly empty gym. Quickly, Ember would move to cover it up, hooking one of the 'legs' for an attempted pin. "1...2...3!" Ember counted aloud to herself, and once reaching the nd of that count she kneeled up off the dummy and raised her arms above her head. "And the crowd goes wild! Rahhh! Rahh!!" Ember gave these self celebratory cheers in as much a whisper as she could, not wanting to disturb the other gym patrons with her silliness.

Grinning to herself for her own tomfoolery, Ember was about to set up the dummy for another round of tossing, when suddenly she heard a voice behind her tinged with a French accent. Ember blinked in surprise, looking over her shoulder to meet the eyes of a rather stunning raven-haired woman. From where Ember was kneeling in the mat, the woman towered above her. Though if Ember had been standing she was sure the same would be true as well. "Oh...hi?" Ember said cautiously. She had never met this woman before and wasn't sure what to expect before it was laid out for her.

Ember frowned uncertainly when it was. Apparently, the dummy she had been using was the same one this woman wanted to use. She had put it in a civil enough way but Ember was pretty sure this lady just told her to get lost.

"Uh....well, I just need it for a few more minutes," Ember offered to the taller stranger. "I'd be happy to give it to you then. So, you know.....excuse me." With that Ember would turn back to what she was doing, hoping that would be the end of it. But from the dismissive look she had seen in the other woman's eyes, she somehow doubted it.

[Winter]

Nathalie found the little obstacle to her convenience less a shapeless dumpling than she first thought. There was an attractive face beneath that purple hair, and that body was filled with curves rather than just rounded. The more accurate picture of the short girl didn't do her any favors in Nat's mind, of course; in fact, knowing that the girl was in possession of some looks further urged the Belgian's desire to shoo her along. Not because she felt threatened - with her trim figure and long legs, she felt confident she attracted more attention - but because she had grown up with another "attractive person" and they always rubbed her the wrong way.

Shorty didn't seem as if she was willing to listen to Nat, however. As the taller woman leaned onto the hand on her hip, she blinked with a projection of pleasant incredulity while fighting off the urge to roll the woman off the mat with her foot and tell her to scram. But this didn't even need to become this physical; she could still talk some sense into her.

Though it did irk her when the girl rolled away, seemingly trying to end the conversation. Nat quickly wheeled on her, stepping back in front to cut her off. "Do I need to say it again? I'm a professional wrestler here, with ring success, and you can spare a few minutes a lot more easily than I can. Nathalie Christiaens. You've probably heard of me." The sweetness was still there, tempered by a great deal more firmness than her first appeal. And she made sure to get close to the shorty and stare down at her.

"I'm sure you can better spend your time with one of the machines," she added, before her voice lowered and took on a sarcastic coolness as her nature got the best of her. "You know, something like a stretching rack..."

[Darius 2.0]

Turning back to the training dummy in hopes of continuing her practice uninterrupted, Ember's suspicions about the stranger not leaving her alone would turn out to be correct. The shorter girl would look up in astonishment at the woman when she suddenly appeared in front of her, and instead of waiting an extra five minutes, the woman (Nathalie Christiaens, apparently) made a second demand for use of the grappling doll.

The more forceful approach made Ember's shoulders slump and an exasperated sigh pass her lips because she realized this situation was starting to become all too familiar to her. Back in high school, Ember had to put up with her fair share of bullies who saw in her an easy target for ridicule. She suspected that was exactly the kind of person she was dealing with now, if the sense of superiority and mean girl attitude were anything to go by. Maybe Nathalie truly wanted the training dummy. Maybe she didn't. But Ember was sure it was less to do with the practice equipment than it was getting in Ember's face.

"Sorry, 'Nathalie Christiaens'," Ember said back, a little bit more edge in her tone of voice now. "'Ember Sykes' has never heard of you. And if you stop bothering me I can get it done a lot faster. Now if you don't mind..." Throwing just a bit of her signature sass towards the taller woman, Ember turned her gaze back towards the dummy. She would have been content to leave it right there so she could complete her exercise and move on to the next one.

Then Nathalie went and said something about a stretching rack that made the violet haired girl bristle. A flash of anger rose up Ember after the comment, making her stop whatever she was previously doing before turning her blue eyes upwards at towering woman. Ember's face was scrunched up into a glower as she addressed Nathalie again. "What's that supposed to mean....?"

[Winter]

She didn't take a hint, this one. Ember. Nathalie had caught not one whiff of the girl's name if her invoking it was supposed to mean anything to her, and given Ember's stature, the raven-haired beauty imagined she shouldn't be surprised. In fact, she wondered what could have possibly given the shorty an excuse to have such a sharp tongue with a woman who towered nearly a foot over her and clearly hadn't missed her share of days in the gym. Must have caught some of that contagious disease, cockiness without merit. Maybe Ember believed having a thick ass made her special.

Whatever the case, Nat was fighting back to the top of the conversational hill almost as soon as Ember had finished, ensuring she stayed straight and tall all the while to whittle away at this petite's sassiness. "Then, 'Ember Sykes,'" Nat began, putting far more flat, derogatory French lilt into the pronunciation of the name than was necessary. "I can't help your being ignorant of me, can I? You should stay abreast of the threats on the roster."

None of Nat's verbal battery seemed to have as much of an effect as her snide comment about Ember's needing a stretching rack, though. While the fire rose in Ember's eyes, Nat's own lit up with a cold satisfaction, and she leveled nothing but a smirk and a shrug at the girl. "I dunno. Sounds like the type of thing to help with your verticality problem," she said, the feigned sweetness returning.

And the Belgian opted to double down, while she stoked the fires. "Come to think of it, are you even a LAW wrestler, or are you some veteran's kid here playing with the toys?"

[Darius 2.0]

Ember was normally pretty level headed at the best of times, but when it came to people making fun of her height the girl couldn't help but get triggered. Ember was still in her teens, and the days when the other girls in school mocked her for her size not that far behind her. Back then, Ember learned to own it and that usually avoided a few confrontations. Today was a different story. Today a complete stranger came up to Ember, who hadn't been bothering anyone, and decided to get all up in her face because she couldn't wait five minutes for her turn with the training equipment.

Things would only further escalate when the French sounding woman further belittled Ember, calling what she had a 'verticality problem'. Ember's baby blues narrowed dangerously on Nathalie and she let out a low growl at her words. The French sounding woman was really testing her patience. The final would come with Nathalie's last derisive comment, namely referring to Ember as a child. It was after that little insult that Ember's patience had finally run out.

Almost immediately after Nathalie had said it, Ember would stand up from her kneeling position and storm her way up to the woman, the dummy left on the mat and forgotten. Ember would march her way right up to Nathalie, stopping just short of plowing into her so she could glare into those brown eyes. It was only now that Ember was standing that the height difference between the two of them would become readily apparent. Nathalie stood nearly a foot taller than Ember, yet despite this the violet haired girl showed no signs of being intimidated.

"Listen lady," she growled up at Nathalie. "I'm not looking to get into a fight here. But if you keep pushing me, I won't push back. I'll just kick your ass! So why don't you do us both a favor and go away?!"

[Winter]

Every button Nat pushed brought a new series of sharp angles onto Ember's cute face; satisfying, really, to watch such softness harden. She was growling, even. The Belgian couldn't understand why such a thick little hobbit would have the gumption to show ire to a woman who could so clearly dominate her or the belief that Nat should find her growling and glaring intimidating, but it somehow added to her cuteness... and to her absurdity, in Nat's mind. Unperturbed, Nathalie never stopped smirking at the shorty with all the respect a parent would give to a tantrum-throwing child.

If the scowling, the growling wasn't enough, Ember stood and marched straight up to Nat. Eyes twinkling with mischief, the Sapphire Stunner straightened, flicked her hair back over her shoulder, and dropped her bag to place her hands on her hips just so Ember - and anyone watching - could bear witness to the absurdity of their size mismatch. And when Ember stepped up, her forehead barely clear of Nat's cleavage, the Belgian snickered through her growing grin.

Still, though, Ember hadn't been driven to the point of attacking. Maybe some part of her realized that if she made this physical, Nat would have her womanhandled off the mat in seconds - or so the lithe beauty would choose to believe. Ember stuck to her continued barking instead, and Nat tilted her head down at her with more dismissive loftiness.

She didn't want a fight, but she wanted to claim she could kick Nat's ass? That wouldn't do. After a self-satisfied lick of her lips, Nat tilted over, letting her face hover mere inches from Ember's, close enough that their noses nearly touched, and her words poured out with derision rather than her usual mock sweetness.

"You're sure you can reach my ass? Are you worried you can't?"

[Darius 2.0]

If Nathalie was trying to goad Ember into a fight, she was doing a fantastic job so far. The little fighter was turning red from how furious she was becoming listening to Nathalie's words, fists clenched at her sides, her teeth bared in a angry snarl. She only became more upset when Nathalie made the height difference between them all the more apparent with a smug flick of the hair and shit-eating grin. Despite Ember's temper beginning to flare, she refrained from attacking the mouthy stranger just yet, instead choosing to give her a warning before things could escalate any further.

Nathalie did not take the out. The blue clad woman instead choose to give Ember yet another snide comment on her stature in a tone that just oozed with contempt, emphasized with a mocking display of her leaning down to Ember's level to deliver her smug reply.

That was the final straw. Something snapped within Ember, and the little voice that had been telling her to walk away was silenced. She had given Nathalie every opportunity to leave her alone, and every time her efforts had been met with derision and mocking. Ember had been pushed as far as she cared to go. The time for diplomacy was over. All Ember wanted to do now was wipe that stupid smile off of Nathalie's face!

Fortunately, Nathalie had unintentionally provided Ember the means to do just that when she had decided to lean in close to her. A few beats would go by after the French woman's comment before Ember would suddenly spring into action. Her hands would spring outwards towards Nathalie, attempting to grip both the straps of the woman's white sports bra. If Ember managed to catch her off guard with this attempt, she would next try to immediately roll backwards, using the grip of Nathalie's bra to pull her along too. As she rolled backwards, Ember would plant both her bare feet on Nathalie's stomach and attempt to send her flying overhead with a monkey flip, releasing the straps of her bra at the last second to send her sailing backwards through the air before crashing down back first on the practice mats!

[Winter]

Oh, Nat just couldn't wait. Somehow, her dismissive smile widened watching the little gaskets pop all over Ember's head. Would this little lass lose it and try physical retaliation, or would she back off and justify every word the Belgian bully had uttered her way? Either way, Nat supposed she got her way. A few eyes leveled in the direction of her little debate with the shorty, and people would get the message whether by a kick to the Ember's head or a well-timed retreat that Nat was someone to be respected backstage.

She almost reached up to boop Ember's nose to add more insult.

Instead, in a motion that came far faster than Nat could have dreamed the smaller, stockier Ember could manage, the Sapphire Stunner felt fingers slip beneath the strap of her bra. Her amber gaze shot down to see Ember gripping her there, and her grin became a glare. "You get your-" Before she could finish the thought, the raven-haired beauty was toppling forward as Ember dragged her with her to the floor. Nat could only dream of trying to stay upright, and she brought up her arms to catch her from a fall that never happened. Instead, she was flipped up and over Ember and toward the wrestling mats, letting loose with a small, embarrassing shriek she could not keep from leaving her lips as the move whipped her.

And on the mats she landed, the square of her back and her shoulders taking the brunt of the impact. She was so shocked by the suddenness and impact that she did not make a peep to complain about the pain shooting up her back, and she lay there several seconds staring at the ceiling.

Then she slowly came to grip with what had just happened. In part, anyway - enough to fill her with fury that this little bitch dare attack her. That Ember had perfectly executed the move was lost on the Belgian and along with it, any idea that she should take the shorter woman more seriously.

She shot to her feet, cursing in French, and despite the stinging pain in her back, whirled on Ember and marched up to her with a finger raised at her face. "You think you can just blindside me and get away with it!? I'm going to feed you your own-" She forgot the English word bra in the moment, so after a moment of hesitation, she spouted it at her in French.

And she swung at Ember, undisciplined, in an attempt to slap her square in the face.