Somebody to Love - Shimmerlace Snuggleblossom vs Audrey Trovita

[Malkavia]

It was a satisfying enough splat, but she thought she could do it one better. Say she jumped to her feet, for instance, as soon as she'd bounced off Audrey's gut, and planted her boots on the crumpled body below? Then she could stand on her already once-abused gut, throw her arms out, and—

Tadaa! Jazz hands!

—Well. Soak in the moment. Lights, noise. Groans from beneath her soles. Enough of God's various and sundry blessings to make her huff a breath, hug herself, and smile.

Then she slid off Audrey and popped a squat next to her.

"Well. You have been lovely so far, miss Audrey." Speaking low enough only Audrey would hear, she grabbed a handful of dear red-head's red hair, tilting her towards Shimmer's face. "What would you say if we played a game now, ey?"

The Feychild was on her guard for funny business. As a bug who'd known her own SPLAT or three, she was well aware how deceptive they could be...but not in this case. Poor thing was a sack of rice. Shimmerlace yanked Audrey by her scalp until the two of them were standing side by side.

"Now this should go without saying, but..."

A certain...anticipation started to flutter in Shimmerlace's chest. A kind that made her bite the tip of her tongue and lid her eyes. She tried to do a few quick things at once: Capture Audrey's arm within her own armpit, lever her head towards the mat, then step up and curl her pale, fey leg around Sweetum's neck—An Octopus Stretch, in the common parlance.

Octopus Hold

"...Rule one is—Absolutely do not fuckin' tap."

And then she pulled it tight.

[ThurmanMermanPlx]

The pink comet left little and less time for Audrey to recuperate. After her knees crushed the redhead's gut, Audrey barely had a chance to suck in a deep inhale before that air, for the second time in as many moments, was forced out of her once again by Shimmer popping right up to stomp two boots in the exact same spot. Again, Audrey's limbs jolted into the air, just to come flopping down again.

And then she didn't move, standing on Audrey like a welcome mat, while the pained expression on the redhead's face said everything needing to be told about her appreciation for the move. The redhead kicked her legs, raising her fists to hammer the fae's ankles, trying to dislodge the pink menace.

Whether due to Audrey's flailing or simply having completed her performance, Shimmer did indeed move. But Audrey needed time, once again, to recover her breath, and, though she had no choice, doing so left her vulnerable to a follow-up. Shimmer grabbed her by the hair, forcibly tilting her head and drawing out a yelp of protest and a hand to try to pry the offending grip apart. The faechild's words were in one ear and out the other as Audrey was forced to her feet, hastened by that ever-present strain on the roots of her hair. Something about a game? The redhead found herself at Shimmer's side, bent over slightly in effort to curb some of that pain...

And then she had a leg over her head before she had a chance to lament letting her opponent drag her around like a doll. As the pressure came and her body was bent sideways, Audrey screamed. While Shim wasn't huge, Audrey was no heavyweight, and trying to support not only her entire body weight but also the added pressure of a leg over her neck wasn't the most comfortable position she'd ever been in.

With most of her limbs trapped, there was little the redhead could do aside from release a constant string of grunts and groans as her body endured the awkward stretching she was being forced into. All her energy was being spent trying not to sink down to her knees. But one thing was for certain... she'd endured enough by this point to not immediately consider tapping out.

[Malkavia]

As Shimmerlace tightened the hold, her hands slipped up to Audrey's wrist—and so there she was, yanking on the arm, squeezing that neck under her thigh, and the view was just...lovely. Shimmerlace liked to watch her lips, noting all the ways they'd tremble and pout as those beautiful whimpers poured out of this girl like kidney stones.

"SHE'S HOLDING ON, BUT I DON'T KNOW! GOD DAMN I DON'T KNOW IF THAT WILL BE ENOUGH!" Ah, ringside commentary. Every moment a crisis. But nah, as much as Shimmerlace was savoring the way Audrey knit her brow, her shoulder trembling while sweat ran down her cheeks and dripped onto her pretty tits...nah. Shimmerlace could see the glare in her eyes, the spirit in her shaking frame, there was no fucking way she was gonna break here. It almost made the Feychild smile herself.

"TRO-VI-TA!" And theeeere were the cunts in the seats again. They clapped in time with the chant, which got louder by the second. "SHAKE. HER. OFF! TRO-VI-TA! SHAKE. HER. OFF!" Apparently, Shimmer wasn't the only one who could see the spunk.

She rolled her eyes, her smile collapsing into a more poisonous smirk as her eyes narrowed.

"Nice, nice. Glad to see you have grit, Audrerz. Couldn't have me playing the job to some gutless pheasant-snipe, could we? Tsk tsk tsk. HRMPH." She squeezed her gut and gave another wrench like she wanted to stretch the arm into putty and tie it like a bow around Audrey's heaving waist. As her thigh closed tighter around Miss Trovita's neck, she could feel the girl's pounding pulse—a fact that sent a certain thrill up Shimmerlace's navel.

"Buuuut nah, I think you'll do fine. So listen, kiddo. This is the second thing I need. I'm gonna let you go here in a sec, mmmkay?" Shimmerlace was talking low and quiet, juuuust loud enough for her tinkling voice to register in her opponent's hearing over all the crowd's din. Her arms started to shake from the strain of torturing the hold. "And when I do, I need you to get down and fuckin' dirty. Mean, you dig? Kick my cunt, hard as you can. Scrape my eyes out! Talk about how you wanna peg my mum and stomp on my precious rabbit."

"Make it good, and I'll let you put on a show. Hell—" Shimmerlace chuckled, her tongue flicking over her teeth. "I might even let you scrape a win...So, cunt." And on the word cunt, she stretched the hold to her gut-aching limit. "...Nod if you're in."

[ThurmanMermanPlx]

Groans and whines continued to pour out of the frustrated redhead. That leg over her neck in particular was highly painful, and having her arm wrenched backwards while the rest of her body was being pushed forwards and down made for a nasty combination. Somehow, though, Audrey remained on her feet rather than falling to a knee; Either Shimmer was lighter than she expected, or she'd built up some upper body strength without realizing it. Either way, the discomfort was real, her body trembling with the strain of it all.

But for all her discomfort, she'd endured worse. Not that she welcomed this any more than she had any other techniques used against her, but if there was one thing the redhead had in spades, it was endurance. And, truth be told, it was easier to tolerate pain than pleasure, and there was nothing pleasurable about this position.

Her whimpers had shifted to grunts, and she realized something else; the crowd was behind her. Cheering for her! Maybe it was just because they wanted to see some magic against the fae, or maybe they really did want the redhead to put together a victory in her own right. But whatever the reason, Audrey focused on it, clung to it like a rope and started pulling her way out of this quicksand pit she'd fallen into.

Shimmer, of course, could see it, too, and started talking, wrenching harder on her limbs all the while. There was a promise of letting her go, but then...

"And when I do, I need you to get down and fuckin' dirty. Mean, you dig? Kick my cunt, hard as you can. Scrape my eyes out! Talk about how you wanna peg my mum and stomp on my precious rabbit."

Even though the strain of resisting having her neck snapped, Audrey saw this for what it was. Of course she fully intended to beat the stuffing out of Shimmerlace once she got free, but this... the fae wanted Audrey to go heel on her. But then, that would make her no better. That's not who the redhead was, not a label she wanted her fans to slap her with. The very thought made her blood boil.

Besides, would anyone in this crowd actually believe Audrey would stomp on a bunny?

Her legs were beginning to buckle, the strain of supporting both of their combined weights taking a toll on the freckled girl. But - there! That trembling in her arm wasn't just her own. Apparently, either keeping the hold locked in for so long was wearing Shimmer down, or she'd distracted herself with her proposal enough to lower her guard early. Either way, it was an opportunity.

"I might even let you scrape a win... So, cunt. Nod if you're in."

Audrey's resolve broke for just a moment as Shimmer tried one more time to snap her arm out of her socket, a quick but loud gasp of surprise, but she grit her teeth quickly after.

Audrey wasn't sure she could nod at all with the way her head and neck were angled, but it didn't matter. She could still speak, if a little forced, but found her voice getting stronger as she went on. "You want... a beatdown? You got it. You just lit a match, time to watch the firecracker pop!"

She punctuated her statement by snapping her arm forwards - out of Shimmer's grasp. With a struggled heave, Audrey forced her weakened knees to lift her to full height, while gravity swung Shimmerlace around without her prop to keep her in place. Her legs remained around Audrey's head, and damn, that was a pressure she hoped not to experience ever again, but it only lasted a moment; her arms now free, she caught the swinging fae around the midsection, letting gravity and momentum help shift her to plant her feet on the mat.

Step one, complete. Step two, then; she had to act fast to get the drop on Shimmer and keep her down, even for just a moment. To that end, she dropped to the mat, crouched low, and swept her leg out, knocking the feet from under the fae.

And then, what did she come up with to go for a stun?

"I don't need you to let me do anything. I know how to put on a show."

And she stomped, raining her sneaker-covered foot down on that pretty pink skull, the lights in the soles changing color with each impact. Maybe it was the frustration or the anger or just because it had been on her mind, but once she started it would be foolish to stop; hopefully would keep the fae down long enough to come up with something more... flashy.

[Malkavia]

While Shimmerlace waited for Audrey's response, her smile began to ache. There was a hollow, heavy space in her throat the expanded into her stomach. It had been lingering in her chest throughout the match, an undercurrent beneath all the twirls and bright-faced poses.

"TRO-VI-TA! SHAKE HER OFF!"

Another fucking verse. She tried to tune it out. Easy, right? Just listen to the sounds you can squeeze out of this poor girl instead.

...But why? That was the bit she could never fucking fathom. It made her jaw set, made her stomach curl, made her dig her nails into Audrey's skin until it was ready to split. TRO-VI-TA! She was dominating! With the big flashy moves and the wide, genuine smile, after the whole caper with the cheapshot went off flawlessly, so what the fuck did these—

She sensed a shift in Audrey's movement and realized the red-head had been talking. Saying what Shim didn't know, but she wrenched! Shimmerlace's breath caught in her throat. Her biceps rolled like steel rope. Her back clenched. But she was slipping — no no — and as her breath caught in her throat she put every ounce of her into keeping her arm taut—and after less than a second of trembling, gasping struggle, Audrey slipped out of her fingers.

"God DAMN it—!" The outburst was a mistake. The crowd roared before her feet even hit the floor. "You fuckin' cu—"

She was livid when her boots hit the mat, but she was also gasping in breath, her legs numb and sluggish after all the effort she'd put into that hold. Audrey hooked her leg and down she went. Her back hit the mat with a plap, the whole world suddenly whirlamajig, and as her nails dug into the mat and she scrambled to find her bearing, she got one moment of clarity, staring up at Audrey.

"I don't need you to let me do anything. I know how to put on a show."

"Ooooh yoooou—" Shimmerlace found a trembling grin on her face the same moment that hollow in her throat was sinking roots and thorns into her insides. TRO-VI-TA! Were they even cheering anymore? Or was that in her head? Her face burned as she rolled to kip to her feet.

Then she saw the bottom-side of her opponent's sneaker.

BAM!

Her mouth bobbed, open, closed. A tremor shook her body, and her legs curled inward like a bug.

BAM!

There was a ringing in her ears. Like a bug, ey? thought some backmost part of her brain, as she raised her hands to shield her head. That second piston-blast from the hot end of Audrey's leg had smashed her snout, and the pain from her crushed nose erupted like wildfire into her sinuses. She made a noise somewhere between a snort and a squeal.

BAM!

This one caught her on the backside of her skull, and as soon as the wave of pain propagated down her neck, her extremities went numb. She felt as if she'd fallen into a shallow pit somewhere at the base of her skull. Her body twitched, but it felt like something just outside of her, barely out of grasp. That backmost part of her, meanwhile, imagined the bug on the mat—crushed and ground into a jelly beneath a white sneaker's heel.

"F-fuckin—nnng..." Shimmerlace's voice was a garbled mumble, wet, muffled by her uncooperative lips as her eyelids sagged and blinked.

[ThurmanMermanPlx]

Shimmer's sudden exclamation triggered a small smirk from the redhead. At the time, she'd still been mid-counter, but she'd known the moment she heard the voice that it was going to work; Shimmerlace hadn't expected her to escape. Or maybe it was from not accepting her ridiculous offer. Either way, score one for the redhead.

Brief moment of triumph aside, this redhead was seeing red. Audrey knew well her own reputation in this league. She knew how others saw her. That was likely why Shimmer had tried to bribe her in the first place. But she also knew she was quite capable of holding her own when she got into the right mindset. Audrey's problem, then, was getting there.

Rage was one way, for sure, and an easy one at that. But this wasn't how she wanted to be seen, either. Rage was too often uncontainable, evidenced by the rather brutish stomping she was dishing out to Shimmer's skull. In the heat of the moment, she didn't question whether or not she should; she just did.

One of her stomps crushed Shimmer's nose, and as Audrey watched her curl up into a ball, she felt her anger waver. The fae was virtually defenseless like this, and it sent a pang of guilt through the redhead's brain. She didn't stop - what's done is done - but already she was subconsciously putting less force behind each follow-up.

Sympathy could be a pretty large weakness in the ring - but it didn't have to be. All this situation required was a change of approach. Violent or not, her sneaker-prints all over Shimmer's face would keep her down for a bit, as intended. Audrey paused for only the briefest of moments to observe her results - catching sight of the ropes on the opposite side of the ring in her peripheral vision and in doing so, immediately knowing what her next move was.

The redhead reached down to Shimmer's curled limbs, snatching a wrist in one grip and an ankle in the other, figuring if she could support the girl's entire body weight and still stand on her own two feet, then dragging her should be a cakewalk. Doing so was surprisingly easy, now that she'd harnessed the adrenaline and was channeling it into something besides stomping.

With her target splayed out on the ground at a more reasonable distance, Audrey did a 180 and bolted for the ropes. A quick leap forwards, a two-fingered salute to the nearest spectators. The middle rope sagged as her body weight landed on it, and as it rebounded, Audrey kicked off, arms extended outwards, sending her arcing through the air like a red comet as she executed a picture-perfect moonsault.

Her target remained, exactly where she'd planted it. At the apex of her arc, Audrey brought her knees in; after all, her goal was not a splash landing, but an impactful one - right into Shimmer's waiting gut.

[Malkavia]

Something had Shimmerlace by the leg and was carrying her somewhere she didn't want to go. The lights shifted perspective. Shadows danced like demons on the ceiling. Her back, soaked with sweat, clung to the mat. These somehow felt like two disconnected facts, as if her vision rested in one world of painfully bright, judgmental lights, while her sense of touch inhabited an alien planet.

Fwump. She got dumped in the dirt. The mat. Her thigh bounced. Meanwhile, there was some kind of drumbeat shivering the whole mat. VUMP VUMP VUMP VUMP— Like a fast, almighty metronome. Hands clapping the mat. Feet stomping the in the seats. She knew there was something pathetic about the way she should have been moving, which stung her throat in part because of all the spinning confusion.

When it clicked, it clicked like a boat going over a waterfall. Her vision recentered, and although her head was spinning, she managed to curl up her legs and lift her head from the mat—

What she saw was Audrey flipping through the air. Shimmerlace went cold, except for a tiny ember in her chest. Wow. Images flashed across her mind. Angelina mid-slice in a moonkick, carved through the Fight the LAW sky until it—

Audrey's knees sank into Shimmerlace's gut, and from the sensations that followed, she just about snapped her in half. She screamed, but that scream caught in her throat. Audreys thighs were a hammer against her diaphragm, choking her as well as a hand across her throat would have done. As the woman bounced off her, Shimmerlace rolled onto her side, wordlessly gagging, pressing her beet-red cheek into the cool relief of the mat.

She couldn't even roll into a kneel, since that required her core to clench, and the attempt to do that sent a painful spasm up her shoulder and down her thigh. She lay instead in a crumpled pile, one thigh under the other, breast to the ground, arms tight around her abs—which felt like so many crumpled cans.

Her eyes bulged, and she slammed a fist into the mat hard enough to sting. Her fingers then splayed and clawed at the fabric, white as chalk at the fingertips around her pink nails. Her mouth was still too tight, her jaw too clenched to scream the FUCK. FUCK. FUCKIN' BULLSHITTIN PIGSHIT FUCKS spinning fire in her head.

Finally, her lips pulled apart, dry and quivering, and she gasped for breath and let out quavering, growling sound that started as a wail, rose to a roar, and simpered out in a whine.

[ThurmanMermanPlx]

Audrey's legs had endured a lot of strain over the last several minutes. Supporting the weight of both girls took a heavy toll, and the stomping that followed couldn't exactly be taken as a rest.

But despite feeling like jelly, they weren't finished yet. Fueled by rage and spite, they supported the redhead as she dragged her opponent along the ground. They supported her as she charged towards the ropes. They supported her as she leaped onto the ropes and kicked off, sending her sailing through the air.

And they supported her when she drew them in and let gravity pull them in right to Shimmer's core.

The impact did send a shock of discomfort through her body, her legs buckling from all the effort, but after landing Audrey rolled of her stunned foe and repositioned to get a quick look at her handiwork.

Shimmer was curled up into a ball, arms around the point of impact that had clearly left her reeling, like a little bug trying to take shelter from the wind. She looked beside herself as she scraped wildly at the mat, finally letting out something akin to a strangled howl.

This was it; Audrey could steal this match right from under the fae's nose!

With a grunt of effort, she forced her shaky legs back into service, pushing off the mat and all but diving onto Shimmer, seating herself on the pink-clad girl's stomach, facing her legs. Audrey reached down, wrapped her arms around those fae legs, and heaved them into the air, leaning and wrenching back, going for the pinfall while Shimmer was still trying to remember her name.

As the referee appeared by their side, slapping their palm against the mat, Audrey couldn't help but throw a taunt at the fae girl.

"And stay down, sucker!"

"ONE...!"

[Malkavia]

"ONE...!"

Out in the seats, scattered like pepper over a dish, were the handful of fans who knew Audrey—the fans who followed her ever-downward arc from one defeat to the next, some embarrassed perhaps of their interest in such a confirmed losing prospect, others proud to hoist their hipster flag behind a girl who seemed to have the world set against her.

They had never seen Audrey straddle a girl like this before—seated on her opponent's wrecked stomach, hoisting her limp legs back until Audrey's body eclipsed her opponent's face. The enemy was a helpless, weakly flailing pair of calves,

, while the fans got to see in Audrey's face something that made them want to stand up from their seats.

What kind of person cheered for Audrey? Hipsters, romantics—and losers. People so used to defeat in their own lives that they identified with it.

"TW—"

Shimmerlace made like a bull and bucked. Her legs popped out of Audrey's grip, slipping out with sweat-lubricated ease. Her shoulder popped up; she rolled thirty degrees onto her side. Panting, still clutching at her core, the Feychild gave a twisty, blushing kind of grin like the cutest boy in the world had just begun to lap between her legs.

"Hooooooly SHIT..."

The crowd groaned—though for the moment Shimmerlace managed to miss the collapse in atmosphere. Christ was she ever out of it. Her gut felt like a bowl of spaghetti stirred with such storm and thunder that the noodles had been shredded down to rice-sized grains. Her head was spinning—aching and spinning. Her eyes slid up to Audrey's face, glittering. She couldn't quite laugh. That would have driven the daggers unbearably deeper into her tum. But when she instead wheezed, pained and shaking, Audrey would be able to see the delight twinkle in her pink fey eyes.

[ThurmanMermanPlx]

Indeed, rare was the occasion that Audrey managed to take control of a match, and rarer still was the opportunity for a pinfall. She typically preferred forcing her opponents' submissions instead, in those cases; it just felt more satisfying to have her foe at her mercy, when the reverse was more often than not the reality.

But Shimmerlace had lit a fire somewhere deep inside, and right now all the redhead wanted was for her to be out. A quick, sneaky pin while she was stunned was the norm for many a wrestler; here, for Audrey, it felt like an unusual, yet somehow very appropriate ending for the trickster fae, having drawn her opponent into pulling out a strategy otherwise unseen!

And she really wrenched back, yanking those legs far, bending the body beneath her. Part of her wanted to strike a pose for the crowd, something to let them know 'this one's for you'. But part of her also told her she'd be better off just holding still, kept her focus, and making sure she completed her comeback before acting cocky.

As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered. A sudden jolt from below, and the legs she thought she'd held on to so securely burst out of her arms like water through a broken dam. The twisting body below shook her, but with enough leverage against the mat, Audrey managed to maintain the high ground, for the moment.

The redhead gave a low grunt, mildly irritated. Of course it wouldn't be so simple. A girl can dream.

She twisted in place to get a good look at Shimmer's status, only see her looking... amused? Irritation spiked. Audrey grit her teeth, a low growl rumbling in her throat. Well, Shimmer did ask for a beating, and Audrey had been providing. But if this was some trick or ploy, Audrey couldn't see it. How could she be playing into a trap, when her opponent was sprawled out like a hungover drunkard?

Still, while she'd been stunned, clearly she had not been stunned enough. What this situation called for was further blending of the pink-haired trickster's brains. And Audrey needed an outlet for her growing frustration. The solution, then, was easy; kill two birds with one stone.

"You asked for this!"

Audrey readjusted, lifting one leg over Shimmer to spin herself around, kneeling down now over her chest. Her hands curled into fists, and with a shout, they rained down like tiny comets onto Shimmer's skull. Fists, forearms, elbows, whatever part of her happened to be closest, Audrey didn't quite care as she tested out her new punching bag.