Take What You Can Get

"~Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight we have a great match for all of you! Our rookie attraction of the night... you saw her at the AFW beat the clock challenge, the former champion of a no-name league in Portland, Oregon! She talked a big game but failed to deliver against #1 Contender for the Friction World Champion Belt, Taylor Parker, getting knocked out in a record 39 seconds! Now she's here to try and prove she's a champ, not a chump, but can she live up to the hype? Introducing, in her debut match... Saaaandaaaaalwoooood, Cooooooper!~"

Fog machines. Laser light devices. Kickstart My Heart playing at full blast. (She had chosen the song as her theme--probably fit pretty well.) She'd had to beg, cajole, and hunt through trash to get permission and help to set everything up (although the themesong was standard) but it was definitely, totally worth it. Coop ran down the runway, whooping at the top of her lungs, crowd hooting and hollaring. She was excited. They were excited. It didn't matter how catty the announcer was; she'd show them all, in time. Probably tonight, actually. This shit was gunna be hype.

"♫Ooooh, yeah, kickstart my heart hope it never stops! Oh, yeah, baaaabyyyyyyy!♪"

Sandalwood slid under the ropes and lifted her arms to the sky, microphone clutched tight in her right fist. "Gooooooood morning Tokyo! Hope you guys are ready to be frickin' SCINTILLATED!" The crowd cheered. Maybe she was a blowhard jobber, made she had a bad break, but she was excited and exciting and talked to the crowd. She was already a little popular. "This night, lemme tell, is gunna be legendary. Y'all are gunna remember it, mark my words!" Amid the cheering, a voice from the crowd shouted 'Like the last one?'. Coop whirled and pointed at him, yeah, him. "That night was legendary, ya asshole!" She shouted into her mic cheerfully, shit eating grin on her face. "Just not like I expected!"

The crowd roared again. It was time for the next opponent. Sandalwood spun around, hands on her hips, ready to do battle against anyone, no matter how tough, no matter how famous, no matter...

Jesus Christ, she was fighting kawaii's. God dammit.

Some of the audience burst into laughter after four dimunitive figures made their way down the ramp, the contrast between the cutesy music and the tiny wrestlers, compared to Sandalwood's bombast and hard pumping rock, humorous enough to draw howls of mirth. Others cheered and shouted their love for the kawaii's. Sandalwood's face twisted like she'd bit into a lemon, giving the ref a 'Really? Really?' look.

"~The match will be a handicap pin match! Anyone who's pinned for three seconds are instantly eliminated! If Sandalwood eliminates all her opponents, she wins--and if any of her opponents pin her, she loses!~

It didn't matter. It didn't frickin' matter. She was gunna kick ass anyway. As the bell rang, Sandalwood took off like a shot. She wasn't going to humiliate herself again...


Sandalwood was sweaty. And tired. And her arms hurt. And her neck dammit. And her legs hurt. Most of her hurt, actually. She pulled a thick, beige hoodie over her body, scooting into a pair sweatpants to boot. Maybe she'd get a respectable opponent for her next match, and not a war against a veritable swarm of midgets. The fight shoulda been easy, but... head shake. Head shake. Let's think about something else, shall we?

And a perfect distraction presented itself. Coop overheard two wrestlers chatting about a dojo. Sandalwood's head popped up--dojo, eh? Ehhhhhhh? Sounded like something she might be able to use! At this point, the former small-time champ was ready to admit that her skills were a touch improvable. Some sorta fancy training might be just what the wrestling doctor ordered. She approached the duo and expressed interest. Easy peasy. They explained that the dojo was being ran by Taylor Parker and was very exclusive.

Oh, well, Taylor Parker, that was fine, she was a pretty good--God dammit, she hated Taylor Parker. She did not want to go crawling to the blonde haired--pig tails, really? C'mon, wear it in a ponytail, she looked like a 16 year old!--wrestler, begging for a spot on her fancy exclusive dojo. No, she'd maintain her pride. Self respect, yo. It was important.

...She could really use the training, though.


She checked if Taylor Parker had twitter. Couldn't find it. Facebook? No, too needy. She'd just check her information page on the AFW website. Favorite cafe's? Ah, she liked a little one. Cool. Sandalwood would hang out there for a while. Scoop out the place. Get some instant noodles. Maybe a cup of joe. Something might happen, something might not. No skin off Sandalwood's nose, she told herself, snuggled up in one of the corner seats, eyes peeled for a sight of the famous wrestler. No skin off her nose.

It had been a brutal morning. Early training was high intensity cardio, and Junko always found new ways to push her past her limits. She sometimes ended up puking by the end. Late morning training was lower intensity, but heavy weights. She did that with Johnny, and after several passes through that circuit, she could feel fatigue and soreness way down deep in her muscles, in places other workouts didn't touch.

It was pretty awesome. The afternoon would be easy by comparison. Wednesdays were her half days, though sometimes she took the afternoons to do something fun. Today, she was going to train with a gymnastics team at a Tokyo college, some of whom were Olympic hopefuls. Though her technique was squeaky clean, she stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of the group due to what she described as her "street-style" technique. She had spent the past three Wednesdays with the group, and it was great. She was learning a lot.

And she was headed there next, right after a well deserved lunch. She sat in her favorite cafe, near the AFW building, wearing full-length black workout pants that hugged her lower body like a second skin, black-and-purple sneakers, and a black warmup jacket over her bright red tank top. Her blonde hair was tied up in two pigtails, and she wore a small ring in her eyebrow and a little stud in her nostril.

@TaylorIsOverrated wrote:Just another thing I do better than Angel...

Attached to her tweet was a snapshot of her enormous lunch. Water with lemon, green tea, tuna steak, thin-sliced beef, brown rice, a sweet potato, a bowl of sauteed dark, leafy greens, and a salad with seaweed, avocado, and cold green noodles. Hell. Yes.

Taylor grabbed her chop sticks and dove in, without even a little bit of hesitation. For most of her life, until very recently, she had been unable to eat in front of people, especially if she had an attention-grabbing portion of food in front of her. But not anymore! Now she was fully comfortable eating no matter who was around!

Though when she spotted Sandalwood, she froze in mid-bite of green noodles. Huh. Her?

She finished chewing and gave the girl a smile and a wink, since she seemed to have her attention. Why was she looking at her? This was weird. Hey, remember when I knocked you the fuck out so fast I set an AFW record? Fun times.

Sandalwood opened up swinging. It was four on one--she wasn't gunna go easy on them just because they were kawaii's. Nah, nah, she had to prove she was for real. She just punched the first one right in the face and knocked her down on her ass. Her first real punch of the AFW. She'd put that one in the scrapbook.

Then one of them jumped onto her back. And bit the shit out of her neck. "JESUS CHRIST!" They were like a frickin' hyena pack. One of 'em jumped on her front and bodily tackled her onto her back, the one at her back gnawing at her like gorram vulture or some shit, and another was scratching the shit out of her arms. Jesus Christ. This was horrible.


Aw, shit. Taylor had noticed her first. Apparently. Oh well. Whatever. Seize the day, as they say. Coop stood up and walked next to the famed wrestler's table. "Yo. Hey. Taylor Parker. You probably don't remember me--at the AFW Clock thing? You kicked me in the face like, twice. Whatever. Probably do that all the time, amirite?" Sandalwood suddenly screwed up her face--she was getting off tangent. What was she--right, right. "Yeah, yeah, anyway, though, I heard like, you were doin' some dojo or shit, yeah? And I want in."

Sandalwood stopped again. Dammit. That was rude and abrupt, wasn't it. "Eh, I mean, like..." She raised both her arms. Taylor was a friction possible champ, and she was like, a no-name kinda gal right now, right? Maybe show her some respect--but then again, she really didn't want to show anyone much respect, she was kinda going for an image, didn't wanna spoil that--maybe happy middle ground? Yeah, happy middle ground.

She blinked. Dammit, what was she doing? "Yo, uh, that isn't to say, like, I'm like, orderin' you or shit--shit, wait, no, fuck, that just makes it sound worse--Jesus fuck, you know what, never mind." She slapped her hand to her face and sighed angrily into her palm. "OK, forget all that shit, just, like... dojo. Openings? I'm interested."

"Three times. But I guess the third one was a knee..." Taylor shrugged. Her chopsticks hesitated halfway to her plate.

"Okay..." Taylor said after Sandalwood's opening barrage. She looked longingly down at her food. Not that she minded it getting cold, but... food.

"You're interested, huh? I mean, I get why and everything. But why would we be interested in you?" She raised an eyebrow at Sandalwood and leaned back in her chair, folding her arms over her chest.

Nah, nah, no way in hell was she going down like this. Not to a bunch of kawaiis. Not even if they bit the shit outta her neck and scratched the shit out of her arms and legs and kicked her in the sides. She was not going to get her ass kicked again. That would be the embarrassment of the century.

She punched one of them in the face, kicked another in the stomach, and elbowed the one beneath her. Fast and hard. Then she kicked up onto her legs and took a step back, as the kawaii's started to regroup, the sounds of the raucous audience filling the arena. Maybe some wrestlers would step back and regroup, but Sandalwood wasn't most wrestlers. She was going whole ham.

She charged 'em again, and headbutt the first one in the face.


"Eh, who's counting?" Sandalwood said with a shrug, plopping down opposite of Taylor. "You can go ahead and eat n' shit and talk with your mouth food, I don't care. God frickin' knows I do it all the time." She cracks her knuckles, grinning. "Look, I know you might think I'm like, the chump to end all chumps, but I'm goin' straight to the type. Frickin' world champ is my destination, baby, and I sure as hell will get there--might take me awhile, but I'm gunna get there. And when I do, I'mma be all like, 'yoooo, Taylor's dojo, hella rad place, y'all should shower those peeps with money and attention and affection!', and then you'll get all this prestige and shit, and my massive fanbase'll donate, like, fifty thousand dollars, and you'll retire to an island and have like four butlers and a yacht. How sweet'll that be?"

Sandalwood slammed her fist into her chest. "And all that for the low, low price of dealin' with ole' Coop for, like, however the hell much your dojo trains. What a frickin' bargain, am I right? And, besides." Sandalwood leans down, almost conspiratorially. "I'm serious about this shit, yeah? I ain't gunna be the problem child, if ya catch my drift."

Taylor blinked. "Wow." Where the hell was this girl from again? Why was she talking like some kind of rapper-turned-used-car-salesman?

"Well, look, man. Everybody wants to be champ. A lot of people think they can be the champ. But what can you do that they can't? A big mouth isn't gonna win matches."

Even as she said the words, they seemed foreign. She could hardly believe that Taylor Parker, of all people, would criticize someone for having a big mouth. The irony.

"Er, I mean like, I don't even know if you can throw a punch or wrestle at all. It might be like, a little... premature to just bring you in like that, man. You've got to show that you can do the work, because the last thing we need is to waste time on someone who's just gonna puss out. Not for nothin', but you didn't really catch our eye the other day."

Punch. Kick. Dropkick. Sandalwood was stronger than them, and faster, too. She could win this. It was stupid that she was even in danger of losing this, but, whatever. She just had to win. Easy peasy.

You get an elbow to the face. You get kneed. Dodge the biting one who's trying to get on your back again. Catch your breath. Grab Scratchy McScratcherton and throw her into bitey, leaving the kawaii's on a big pile on the floor.

They were starting to get up. Coop was running out of breath. They were gunna run her over unless she did somethin' quick. Without further ado, she ran towards the nearest turnbuckle...


"Yo, but, like. The first step towards bein' the champ is believin' you can be the champ. If ya don't, then ya won't, simple as that." Sandalwood folded her arms, frowning. "Y'all gotta nurture that positive self image, dog! Make it grow! Look in the mirror every mornin' and say 'screw you, I'm rad as hell!' even if you're lyin' to yourself, cuz if you say it enough, you'll start to believe, ya dig? You gotta have a big mouth and be confident, or you ain't got the drive to make your way to the champ spot! 'Least, that's my philosophy on it."

Sandalwood slouched back in her chair, glancing at Taylor's food. Specifically the thinly sliced beef. She discretly slipped out her fork--always carry a fork if you don't know shit about chopsticks--and went for a stealth snag, leaning forward at the same time. "Well, shit, yeah, I didn't catch your eye, and that was my bad, all the way! Should not have opened up with a flying sidekick. Risky move. Always worked where I came from, but I guess this ain't where I came from! But I'll be pleased as punch to show you any moves you wanna see, pigtails!"

Coop slowed down for a sec. "Oh, yeah, 'nother note; pigtails? Why pigtails? They make ya look, like, sixteen. Why don't you shave your hair short? That way peeps'll be like, 'whoa, she takes wrestling seriously!' and when your vicious foes try'n grab you by the mane, they won't have anythin' to grab at!"

Taylor took Sandalwood's exposition as an opportunity to wolf down some tuna. It was a little depressing, really... So many girls showed up with high hopes, excited, eager, full of hopeful feelings that would likely all be squashed before long. Friction had a way of doing that, and even the ones who made it to the top were broken along the way. It made her a little sad to know that all the fresh-faced rookies had that to look forward to, but she was still sure that the benefits outweighed the costs.

She cocked an eyebrow at Sandalwood's sneaky fork. "Sure, have some steak, or whatever," she said. She wasn't going to make a big deal out of it.

But that last bit... wasn't that interesting. She leaned back in her chair again and looked across the table at the redheaded newcomer. Her cool exterior played against her unyielding indigo eyes, challenging Sandalwood's gaze and daring her to come out and play.

"Oh yeah?" She tilted her head to the side. "You gonna pull my pigtails?"

The rest of the match was kind of a blur, to be honest. Coop remembered jumping off the turnbuckle onto the pile of kawaiis. There was a lot of crowd-cheering. She remembered the ref raising her arm up. There was more cheering. Than she left.

She was sore. She was frustrated. She was kinda bruised. But... she had still won. That was worth something.

If she wanted to win against legitimate opponents, though, she was gunna need some help.


"Thank ya kindly!" Sandalwood said cheerfully, stuffin' her gob with the animal bits. Say what you want about the Japanese, they did food right. She could get chubby living here. Not that she intended on it, but she could. Food was cheap and tasty.

Sandalwood glanced up at Taylor's next words, taken slightly by surprise. "Me? Pull 'em? Well, like, maybe! When we have our epic rematch, if you still got 'em, and like, if I pull on your hair, its the difference between winnin' and losin', how could I not pull 'em? Or..." Cooper frowned, propping her elbow up on the table and holding her face up. "Well, actually, maybe not? I dunno, I ain't never had to do anythin' underhanded before. Last league wasn't quite ever that tough, ya feel me? I dunno, maybe I would! I guess I gotta find out more about myself 'fore I can really answer that question."

Blink. Blink. "Oh, wait, no, you were askin' about it like if I was challengin' you or somethin'. Shit." Sandalwood sat back up straight. "Sorry, still kinda new to this whole wrestlin' thing! Its gotta be smacktalk, all the time, right? i'll totally pull 'em, in that case!"