A New Helping Hand

[Dubski]

The Spanish Dancer was able to get that Surfboard locked in tight, biting her lip as she did so in order to keep a hold on her stronger opponent. She kept it in snug, but wasn't trying to hurt June too much. She kept a hold of them, as June was trying to muscle her way out. Grunting softly, she kept trying to hold onto it. But then the blonde asked about Alba's win record, and she instinctively scowled, tensing up and tugging on those arms hard to get them right back in place.

"No," replied Garcia, her tone terse as she kept the hold on her sparring partner. She opted to put more pressure on her with her knee as well. It was clearly a touchy subject for her, and being questioned about it right now wasn't leaving Alba feeling any better about her own skill. It only made her more tense, and it showed in the way she gripped onto that submission.

[Crossedes]

"Oh..." Okay, that last yank on her arms made it feel more like a proper surfboard. June scrunched up her face and stared at her own kicking feet as her arms and the middle of her back whined to her brain about the pain, and she didn't catch onto why the intensity of the hold had changed until she heard the stiff "no." Well, that would do it. She didn't intend to bring up a touchy subject by asking - she figured Alba knew that - but she had to have information if she was going to be of any help to the Spaniard. Before she got into that subject, however, she should maybe work on getting out of the hold.

Going for a more traditional escape rather than the strength test, the strong-legged heavyweight groaned and strained and shuffled to get her knees and a foot beneath her for a base so she could start to stand. "Don't... worry about it. It took me a while... too." Two matches, yes, but who was counting? She had been almost another person bigger than Alba back then, too. She had lost a lot of spars before that, so it totally counted. "Is there any sort of consistent-" She groaned as she pushed fully to her feet, interrupting her own question. "-pattern?"

Breaking her arms free once she was standing, the paladin swung around to deliver a weaker version of her usual spinning lariat, seeing if Alba could duck it.

[Dubski]

Alba Garcia kept a hold on that Surfboard, keeping it a bit more snug than she probably needed it to be. And as expected, June was able to slowly stand up, making the Spaniard groan out loud. What made her groan more than that was June continuing to ask about her losing streak. A very touchy subject that she didn't want to broach--especially with a stranger and especially during a sparring match. "I don't... want to talk about it," said Alba firmly before the hold was broken.

June wasn't wasting time striking back, and she went for a spinning lariat! Garcia was on the ready, swiftly rolling underneath it and ending up behind her taller adversary. Huffing out a breath of air, she kept moving and grabbed hold of the blonde's shoulders before swinging herself around to the front of June and attempting to wrap her legs around June's head! Then she would attempt a simple flying headscissors, looking to send June back towards the mat again!

[Crossedes]

June wondered if she had not made a breakthrough with Alba here... without an actual breakthrough. As one of many people who stood by the idea that people learned by acknowledging their struggles, she couldn't imagine Alba's desire to put her matches out of sight and out of mind did much to help her develop and improve. It also made her tense judging by the surfboard, and tension certainly didn't ever seem to help with anything physical. The subject did seem like a dead end, though, and as she watched Alba duck under her arm, she decided to save that approach for later.

She had to save most everything for later. Alba wasn't lacking in the athletics department. June couldn't guess what she was doing as she used the paladin's shoulders as a Springboard until the Spaniard's legs flew around into her vision and slinked around her neck. "Hrk!" June grabbed hold of them, and only a big woman's instincts, honed of years of smaller ladies flipping around her, kept her from falling prey to the headscissor takedown. Instead she braced, held onto Alba's legs, and tried to toss her up into the air, wondering if that agility translated into Alba's ability to stick the landing.

[Dubski]

Alba Garcia was doing her best to stay on top of her bigger opponent. And she had managed to evade her thusfar, showing her training was having good success on her right now. And as Alba swung around to the front of June and went for the headscissors takedown, but her more powerful opponent she held Alba as her body hung for a moment. The Spaniard gasped, but maintained focus. She was then tossed up into the air and started to fall.

But Alba would turn her body and then grab hold of June's arm on the way down! Then she would attempt to turn inward to use that momentum and attempt to throw June in a big arm drag! It was a counter that required timing, but she had practiced this sort of thing to keep from being a complete ragdoll in matches. In general, she wanted to be able to prove she had a way to fight back against those who overpowered her!

[Crossedes]

While her body coasted on automatic, going through the motions of wrestling without all the grit and determination of fighting for her life, Alba continued to ponder. It looked like Alba had the physical gifts and enough talent to deek, dive, and dodge her way around a woman of June's size who chewed up a lot of space in the ring. In fact, the pretty paladin was watching her right herself in the air after the toss - not panicking, not doing that weird tumble-twist thing a lot of wrestlers did, just gaining control back.

So was it all mental by now? The lack of proper training didn't help, but it could be that the lack of training hung over the head of a woman who could go in the ring after gaining experience. June was not so good at helping with the mental stuff outside of beating positivity into people. Maybe she needed to read a book-

Alba caught her by the arm, and again June watched the gym flipping upside-down as the smaller woman's momentum was enough to carry the unprepared blonde onto her back on the canvas. The landing stung her in the thigh and hip, but mostly, she lay stunned by the quality of the move. This was a woman down on herself? She must have had the right guess with the mental battle!

"Whew! That was sweet," she cheered. "You realize you've got a heck of a lot of skill, right?" Positivity hammer, meet head.

[Dubski]

As Alba Garcia came down from June's attempted throw, she managed to grab hold of the blonde's arm on the way down and sent her to the mat in a lucha libre-inspired Arm Drag. Upon landing, Alba would get to one knee and take a deep breath, looking at June. She smiled slightly at her compliment. They didn't come often, but Garcia nodded a bit and said, "Thank you..."

Mulling over that thought though, she shrugged. "I don't have that much skill though. I can just do some things..." muttered Alba. She certainly didn't consider herself skilled by any stretch, and she didn't feel there was a mental block keeping her from winning quite yet. It was just bad luck after she started the training.

Alba wouldn't move to attack June again, instead staying on one knee in order for her to get up herself. "Just... getting attacked hurts. Especially from someone bigger from me. So... I've just tried not to get hit or thrown by them, that's all..." explained the Spaniard, a little smile on her face as she pushed up and stood now, running a hand through her green hair.

[Crossedes]

Pretty smile, too. June could see why the League would take a look at Alba and think they had to get her in the ring. At least they found talents with the right look and physical skills to have a chance to succeed in the ring, but leaving her without the proper training to develop those skills and avoid a flattening amounted to a crime. June would call it dangerous, too. She had even learned how to fall to avoid breaking something through training with people who understood she didn't know how to fight yet.

Catching onto Alba's bringing their wrestling to a pause, she grunted and sat up. In good shape nowadays or not, June still carried enough weight in the chest to feel like she had smuggled sacks of walnuts into her shirt. She brushed her hair and gym bra back into place, and what Alba shared - and she would count that sharing as a breakthrough! - made a ton of sense. And it felt like an area where June could offer some help... far better than she could have figured out anything going on upstairs.

"That lines up. The two of us are a tiny bit different in size." She pinched her fingers close together and peeped at Alba through the space. "But I had to learn how to get thrown around. I was a slob in high school, so the biggest hit I had taken before training was dropping chicken tenders on my feet." Another exaggeration, but it didn't fall far from the truth. Falling over in PE didn't count. "Getting hit was a nightmare until I got knocked around for a few months and learned to deal with it. Do you think it would help to just... train to take some hits with someone who isn't actively trying to break you in half?"

[Dubski]

Alba walked to June as she spoke, continuing to smile at her as she spoke. She followed most of what she was saying, at least until the chicken tenders comment. Her English was good, but she wasn't sure what those were--it seemed immaterial to the story though, so she only let it pass with a briefly confused look.

She would then take a deep breath, looking even more alarmed at what June was suggesting. To be attacked? Willingly? Her brow wrinkled as she recoiled slightly from her."You want to... hit me with moves? Like on purpose...?" asked Alba worriedly.

She had some rather unfortunate memories of being thrown around, put into submissions, and otherwise pummeled by her opponents. The Spaniard certainly didn't feel comfortable being a training dummy. "I don't know about that..." said Garcia with uncertainty in her tone. As nice as June was, she felt that might be a bit much for her.

[Crossedes]

June gently peeled herself off of the canvas and stood, brushing off her butt. That last question went over about as well as she would have thought it might, but... "Not trying to push! It's just... I can't claim to be the brightest person in the world, but it's one of the only ways I can think of for learning to take a hit if that's what's stuck in your gullet," she admitted, with an apologetic shrug, not realizing she might have broken the Spaniard's brain a second time with vague English lingo.

"It wouldn't even have to be me - even though I can promise you I never hurt anyone in training outside of a bruise or two." She winked. That one? Not an exaggeration. Tripping and falling on a girl was the most damage she had done. The bone-crunching holds and devastating slams she saved for people who deserved it. "Just if there's anyone you trust for that kind of thing. They try to throw you around in training, too, and they don't always like to be gentle." In June's experience, new wrestlers ran into that crap in smaller promotions where people developed personal power trips. In a place as big as the League, though, that kind of thing could happen without anyone noticing, too.

She clapped her hands together. "But, whatever you want, it's up to you! I'm just happy to help. I don't like seeing anyone down, and you've already got the dream package for making it in wrestling."