L.A.W. - League of Anime Wrestling

"fourty-four... forty-five... forty-six... hoo... haa..."

Oscar took some slow, deep breaths as a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead. Clad in black shorts and a tank top, LAWs resident Barbarian Prince was in the zone as he performed some squats with a big ol rack of weights over his shoulder. Staying in shape was something crucial for anyone in the pro wrestling world- but in Oscar's case, it was especially important with a tournament coming up. With so much on the line, Oscar was determined to push his limits and improve himself for the sake of LAWs intergender tournament. This wasn't just a chance for the young man to compete for possibly a second belt in his career (even though technically it's unofficial) but to meet other like-minded male fighters on the roster. Find what few men in the company who were here to seriously compete with some of the ladies. Even if he were to fall short, Oscar was thrilled to meet some potential friends in this tournament!

Of course- while Oscar's mind was on the tournament, his mind often found itself wandering around the local gym he was in. It wasn't just him in there, of course. There were a good number of people who were doing their own thing. Oscar would finish up his set with the weights and set them down before standing up and stretching his arms out, feeling the burn in them. Taking a swig from his thermos, Oscar idly looked around the gym to see if there was anyone that might look like a fellow wrestler- perhaps out of curiosity or maybe for a potential friendly spar to round out the day...

While Oscar was training. A disturbance started to happen outside the gym. Something that caught the attention of some of the people in the gym, who looked around to see what it was all about, at that moment a tall girl with straight blonde hair, burst into the gym while some guards tried to escort her to the site. It was Garlim, the former MMA champion who had recently made her debut in LAW, which needless to say was a complete disaster in addition to her recent altercation with Reina Isara in the locker room. This caused the guards to come to the site to try to restrain her, they had ripped off her bra and she had to put on another one on her way to the gym and take with her her her black sweater, which she had just put on.

"LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE ALREADY! I JUST WANT TO BE IN PEACE NOW!" Garlim shouted loudly causing security and some people in the gym to startle.

"Listen, we're just doing our job, you need to control yourself. It's not good for you to go around fighting with whoever you want, you're lucky we're not considering sending you to prison." Replied one of the guards.

"Just leave me alone!" Garlim exclaimed as she angrily went to sit down on the bleachers next to the ring, she put her hands to her face as her hair fell down covering her face.

The guards stayed for a couple more minutes as they notified the situation, they gave Garlim a warning before leaving through the front door. Some people in the gym were watching her uncomfortably and others laughed consciously at the situation, something that Garlim didn't care about. After what happened, some of them left the place, leaving only a few people. However, Garlim remained in the same position, about to burst into tears out of frustration, she went to the gym because it was the only place where she could go to be able to think clearly. So she simply did not move.

A startled Oscar almost fumbled his thermos out of his hand when he heard the shouting outside of the gym- his head snapping around to watch the scene unfold as the tall blonde stormed into the gym with what looked like security hot on her heels. The Barbarian Prince was as still as a statue, unable to look away from the scene before security left- leaving the mystery woman where she was. Oscar was familiar enough with body language to tell this woman, whoever she was, seemed to be at her limit and obviously upset. After giving some side-eye glances to some snickering people off to the side, Oscar frowned at the woman before digging into his bag for a spare bottle of water- something he typically packed in case somebody needed it. Now seemed the perfect time for it- even though he wasn't sure what the end result of this could be.

Takes a deep breath, Oscar walk on over to the blonde and held the bottle out to her- clearing his throat a bit to try and get her attention before speaking in a soft tone, trying not to overwhelm her more than she already appeared to be.

"Pardon me... here. You look like you could use this"

The air was getting very humid and hot between her hands and his face, Garlim did not want to burst into tears, but sensibly she could not stop her tears from streaming down her face. Helplessness, shame, anguish, frustration, a whole roller coaster of emotions hovered over a girl clearly overwhelmed by a very bad situation. Suddenly, she heard the voice of a boy approaching her, offering her a thermos of water.

Garlim didn't look up for a few seconds, she just didn't feel like seeing or talking to anyone right now. But on the other hand, she was tired of having to deal with all this weight, so she slowly raised her head as she looked in the direction of the strange boy. He looked nervous in her presence, and yet he was trying to be nice to her. Garlim thought about it for a second before slowly taking the thermos he offered her, revealing a bit of her flushed face from anger and a somewhat lost look.

"I... appreciate it."

She said before taking a sip of water, as she drank she let out a few half-hearted sighs of sadness as she drank. This calmed her down a bit but the tears kept falling, it was a deep anguish no doubt, she didn't feel like seeing anyone but she also didn't want to be pedantic with someone who seemed to try to comfort her a bit, she wasn't in a position to refuse because she really needed just that.

Oscar nodded his head at the woman as she expressed her thanks for the water, continuing to take it slow with her as he watched her emotions leak out through her eyes. A part of Oscar was concerned he was sticking his nose in someone's business but the other part of him felt like it was wrong to leave someone like this- when they're so upset that they're crying like this woman is. Oscar would continue to try and calm her down as she had the water.

"Take some deep breaths. In... hold it for five seconds... then out. Then repeat"

Oscar would do the steps himself as he explained them, trying to help show the woman more ways to calm herself down. Unfortunately, Oscar didn't have anything to help her with her tears- so he hopped they'd just stop on their own.

Garlim was a little embarrassed when Oscar explained how to inhale and exhale to relax. From her own experience, she knew that would only make her brain hurt, but she couldn't blame him for trying to help her a little. As soon as she cleared her throat after drinking some water, she handed the thermos back to Oscar as she nodded her head a little.

"Hug, you didn't have to bother.... I'm sorry about what just happened if you're uncomfortable with all of this.... I really didn't have a good time, I knew how to go to war, I knew how to fight.... It's what I had studied".

Garlim tried to express himself properly, although her voice was cracking. So she took a deep breath before speaking again. "Hmphh... You're not by any chance one of the LAW wrestlers?" She would say trying to bring up some topic of interest, she needed to clear her mind right now, so knowing something more about the red-haired boy, maybe this would make a good time to talk about certain topics.

Hearing an opportunity to shift the subject, possibly toward something that would make the woman feel better, Oscar beamed at the blonde and nodded his head.

"Oh- it's ok! I mean- whatever it is sounds rough, but I don't mind. And yes, I do wrestle in LAW among a few other promotions. I got started in LAW, actually, in their training program. Been in the business for... maybe two years now? A rough estimate, really. Why do you ask?"

Oscar found himself a place to sit across from the woman, placing his hands on his knees as he gave her his full attention.

As Oscar explained a little about his career in professional wrestling, Garlim wiped her face to wipe away the tears. She was a bit emotionally drained after everything she had been through today, but she would try to calm down a bit as she cleared her thoughts.

"I just had my debut today, and I lost to a girl that under normal circumstances I would have easily blown to smithereens. When I entered the stage, I was wearing a headset, so I didn't really hear anything that was going on around me, at one point my opponent got out of the ring and since no one was surprised by that action, I decided to follow her and at one point she threw me out of the ring. But when I had returned back, she had won.... I don't know what that was all about, I feel like the rules played against me at that moment. By any chance could you clarify that for me?"

Garlim wasn't really familiar with professional wrestling, she didn't bother to research or practice the art of it before debuting. She just thought it would be similar to MMA rules but with people doing flashy stunts to make themselves look better, so she didn't really understand what happened when she lost at that very moment.

Oscar blinked at the woman as she explained the circumstances, everything clicking together in his head as she told him about a difficult debut she had. The young man scratched his chin and hummed as it suddenly dawned on him that maybe, just maybe, this woman was totally unaware of the rules of wrestling...

"Hm... well... it sounds to me like you were counted out. You said you debuted today, right? Well... I don't want to assume you don't know the rules of wrestling, but like- while fighters are allowed to get out of the right and fight on the outside padding- they only have until a slow count of ten before a count-out happens. You get counted out, you get disqualified. I'm not sure why you had headphones on but maaaaybe they kept you from hearing the referee count?"

Oscar idly scratched his cheek, trying to think of how to best ask the upcoming question

"... Out of curiosity, how much do you actually know about wrestling?"

Garlim listened carefully to Oscar's explanation, suddenly everything had become clear in her head. Apparently leaving the ring was grounds for disqualification, however not immediately as usually happens in MMA, but rather they gave you some freedom of movement for a certain period. She began to wonder if maybe there were rules that removed that limitation, although she didn't have time to think about it until Oscar mentioned whether she was wearing headphones. She didn't know exactly how to respond to that without it sounding stupid or how Oscar came to that conclusion, but she didn't intend to lie about it.

"In fact yes, I was wearing headphones during the fight... I used them so I didn't have to listen to the public." Garlim would say with a certain melancholic tone.