A Steel Town Girl on a Saturday Night...

Blossom walked into the Friction gym and took a deep breath, sucking in the raw smell of sweat and probably one or two other bodily fluids. It had been a while since she'd tasted it. Months. Way, way too long.

Despite the ankle injury that had been keeping her out of the ring for the past season, Blossom had kept in shape at home, doing what she could with her upper body. Situps, push-ups, curls, pull-ups - if it could be done without an expensive weight machine, she'd been doing it. So she didn't have to worry about burning off any flab after her little break. She'd actually put on more muscle in her absence and gained some weight because of it. She ate better, refused to be sedentary, and it paid off. She was hardly a hulk, but she was quite a bit stronger than when she'd left. Her ankle felt like new, and even though her lower body could use more work before it could up with the top, she felt ready to compete once again.

Physically ready, anyway. Mentally ready? That might be another story. But there was only really one way to test that.

She made her way into the gym with her bag hanging off her shoulder, dressing her old training outfit - baggy gym shorts, her wrestling shoes, and a loose white t-shirt with Gorillaz on the front, giving her favorite band a little love. It was getting late on Saturday, so there weren't too many people around, but Blossom was hoping she could find someone willing to do a good spar. She'd been studying up in her absence and she had some new moves to try and a style she wanted to perfect, but she had to actually get into a ring, first. At the moment, it was all just theory, and she wasn't even sure she could do the things she'd been looking over.

Figuring she'd run into someone game enough if she waited a while, Blossom made her way to the mats and started warming up with a few abdominal stretches, lAying on her stomach and arching up, compressing her back and doing a silent count.

Jessica walked through the ring room on her way from the weights. Leg day. She always hated leg day. Sweat was still oozing from every pore and her purple hair clung to her forehead. Every footfall in her sneakers was heavy, and each one was heavier than the last. Jessica was a newcomer to AFW and was still pretty desperate to make a splash. Her basketball shorts hung off her loosely and her white sweat soaked tanktop wrapped around her torso. The thoughts in her head slowed to a steady trickle as the tended to after a workout. Her autopilot kicked in and she buried her face in her towel. When Jessica's face emerged from the linen she saw a woman stretching.

"Hell, I have only been fighting since I got here." she reckoned. "Why not make a friend, or to have more fun, another rival?"

Jessica flung her towel over her neck and looked the woman up and down. She looked incredibly fit despite her diminutive stature. This woman was completely unknown to Jessica but she had the bearing of a wrestler.

Jessica approached the woman and gave a quick nod. "I'm Jessica." she said.

Blossom had moved onto her exercises, specifically starting on the tripod, one of the harder moves she'd learned from her wrestling training in high school. She laid on her back, folded her arms, planted her feet flat and lifted up, balancing her body and putting the weight on her legs and, more importantly, her neck. Not easy, and it was a bit harder than she remembered it being, already feeling the burn after a few moments. But she endured.

She was rolling from side to side when she saw someone coming over, a girl she didn't recognize. Which wasn't saying all that much, Friction's seemed to have a new wrestler every week, but Blossom was sure she would have remembered this one if she'd ever seen her before. Purple hair tended to stick out.

"Heeeeeey Jess!" Blossom flopped down and sat up, giving the girl a little wave. She was certainly pretty, and it wasn't every day that someone just came over and introduced themselves straight up like that. A good sign. "I'm Blossom, Blossom Fields. Nice to meet you."

She returned the nod and extended her hand, both for a shake and to pull herself back up to her feet.

Jessica smiled a faint, vulpine smile at hearing this woman's name. "Blossom Fields? Were your parents hippies or just retarded?" she queried. Jessica met her handshake with a handshake of her own and pulled the girl up, half to be polite, half to feel how heavy this girl was. Jessica always considered one of her best traits to be finding out whether or not she could toss them quickly. Jessica was almost entranced by Blossom's pretty eyes but quickly relieved herself of these feelings with a slight shake of her head.

"Are you new here?" she asked. She was surprised at how inarticulate she sounded, how muddled all her words were. Dang. She must have worked out harder than she thought.

Blossom's face blanched for a moment at Jessica's response, but she didn't hold it for too long. That was rude. Incredibly rude. But she seemed to think she was just being funny, so she was ready to let it go. Blossom just hoped it wasn't going to be a trend with this woman.

"They, um..." She hopped up with Jessica's help and dusted her back off while she straightened up. "They were hippies, yeah. Woodstock and everything." She even had a few pictures in her wallet to prove it, shots of when they first met and her Dad was living out of a van that looked suspiciously like the Mystery Machine.

She wasn't about to show them to Jessica, though. Not now.

"And yes, well...no. Sort of." Blossom chuckled and straightened out her hair. "I'm semi-new. I was new, a few months ago, but I had a little injury that put me out for a while. But I'm back!" She clapped and hopped on her heel, testing out her ankle. Yup, still good.

Jessica's eyebrows peaked with the Woodstock comment. Jessica was a little disappointed that the woman didn't laugh at her remark. Oh well. In the indies, Jessica cut her teeth and got banged up a few times. Only sprains, nothing too serious but she couldn't help but feel a little empathy for the girl. Not like she would show it though. She was mildly irked at Blossom's bounciness and rolled her eyes when she clapped. This is the big leagues. If you don't take it seriously, you would get your ass whooped, or stripped and fucked, or both. Time to see if she could straighten this girl out.

"Yikes. What happened?" Jessica's mind starting picking up again. She could spar with this girl. Nothing too serious she hoped. She took a step back and brought her right arm across her chest to stretch with her left. She gave a curious look to the woman standing across from her. She seemed like a complete ditz but surely she would get the idea.

Blossom's faced soured when Jessica asked the natural question. This one wasn't her fault, it was perfectly normal question to ask. Harmless. That didn't make it any easier to think about, though. She'd replayed the incident a dozen times a dozen times in her head, and it never got any easier to ponder.

"I had a match." She closed her eyes, reliving the memory and relieving the stress. "I came in a little naive, I think, and the girl I was fighting went overboard. I didn't quit when I should have, and..."

She let that sentence finish itself and held her foot out, shaking it a bit for emphasis. "But I'm better now." Her typical smile returned, only a little faded. "And I'm hoping to get into the swing of things. Starting fresh. Maybe even make a try for the Entropy title, if I'm lucky."

Jessica frowned. She had been in the exact same situation. Too proud to tap, not slippery enough to get out of a hold. She hated that feeling of helplessness, of knowing something you worked hard for would come to an end because of a dumb mistake. Jessica reached her left across her right and pulled on it, probing for any muscles that weren't up to a spar. Her shoulders were still stiff from squats and her hands were raw and red. Every muscle in her legs cried out for rest but she chose not to worry about it.

Jessica shrugged. "It happens. And the Entropy Title? Which one is that? There are the kawaiis, the hardcore kiddies, the hentai fighers. This place has more titles than 17th century king."

Jessica put her right arm behind her head and stretched it with her left partly to stretch her triceps and partly to show off her body and gauge a reaction.

'It happens'. Blossom raised an eyebrow at that response, but she supposed it was true. It wasn't like injuries and time off were a rare thing, nothing to dwell on too much. Still, Jess had a rather blunt way of putting things that was taking a little getting used to.

"The Entropy Title is...the Entropy Title." She returned the shrug. "It's sort of, like, the newbie belt, for anyone that's just coming into the company. But it's cool, it has this little stipulation on it, where the Entropy champion can challenge anyone she wants, but the person she challenges can have any stipulation to the match she wants. So it keeps things interesting, you get a lot of whacked out matches. Neat stuff." Blossom wasn't even sure she would ever want the belt, but just going after it seemed like a lot of fun, and it would be a good way to see if she was up to snuff.

She bent back, doing a few stretches herself and looking Jessica over. She seemed strong. Really strong. And even though she was sweating a lot from her workout, it looked like she had plenty left in the tank. Maybe... "Say, you're not busy for the next little bit, are you? I was hoping to get a little spar in to see how well I hold up now, could really use a partner."

Jessica perked her ears at the explanation. The woman with the title can challenge anyone she wants, huh. That would be an excellent way to move up in the world. But in her brief time in the league, she had seen some incredibly odd stuff. Girls who looked like the were twelve years old battled it out and goons beat the shit out of each other with blunt objects. Jessica bent down to stretch her legs and back. This was a very far cry from Iowa City. But Jessica knew she would not be able to restrain herself from chasing the title. It sounded too fun. Jessica then stood up. She towered over this girl, more than half a foot. She lowered her eyes to Blossom as she made her request and sneered. This girl was a pipsqueak. Jessica felt sorry for whatever poor janitor had to peel this girl off the mat.

Jessica flung her towel aside with a flourish. "Oh, sweetheart," she began in a condescending tone, "I always have time to fight." She got into a fighting stance and desperately hoped her knees didn't pop. Dang. Jessica hoped her protein shake would give her the energy she needed to get through this. "Do you want to practice something specifically or do you just want to throw down?" Jessica mused that she lost to Miyumi because she could wriggle her way out of a hold or throw at the worst moment and wondered if her sweat drenched body could do it now.