Blowing Off Steam (for Valyn)

This year had been a long, strange trip for Lily Belle. She had arrived at the AFW with a lot of grand schemes and hopes. This was supposed to be so easy, to just keep a stable full of professionally mediocre wrestlers and just rake in cash for placing them in the path of up-and-coming titans. Unfortunately things never went the way that they were supposed to, now did they? Bringing Lamya in to the organization should have been like tossing a hen in the fox-house, but she had never imagined that a group of women whose profession included involuntary fisting would be so squeemish. Add to that Alexis' legal troubles and the management's new proclivity for scheduling her for jobber matches and you had a pretty crumby year.

With all of this in mind Lily had found herself at 'Gorilla', or at least she was pretty sure that was how the name translated. It was a nightclub not far from the AFW offices where many of the fighters, managers, promoters, gamblers, and groupies flocked after the day was done. It also attracted a fair few local celebrities and criminal sorts as well, but those always followed after money. Adorned in a blue halter-dress patterned with gold 'knuckle-dusters' the weary manager sat with her bare back against the edge of the bar staring out at the dance floor. Crossing her ankles she let her six inch stiletto heels click absently against her stool as she sipped at a neon green cocktail. She wasn't really sure what it was, but it contained a lot of Midori and wasn't getting her drunk nearly fast enough.

Strobe lights and colored rays of light cut their way through the darkness of the club as the crowds undulated to the house music in what, at times, looked like spastic fits. The place wasn't anything terribly fancy, but it had a reputation as 'the place to be' in this part of the city. At least if you were in the fight business. Well, this still beats spending the night jobbing.

When this all started Valyn was unsure of how it was going to go. Now that he was living it he felt satisfied in his choice, yea he had barely any screen time and had lost his match to a dirty low blow that the ref conveniently ignored but it didn't bother him. He was trying to keep a low profile for a lot of reasons and just wanted to enjoy his matches when he had them. Granted, he had to take sleeping pills lately so he could sleep a dreamless sleep far from his past, rather yet far from "Leon's" path.

So in a rare moment of excursion and wanting to do something different and extreme boredom he decided to dress on up and head out. He didn't really have a set destination in mind so when he found himself outside the loosely translated 'Gorilla' he shrugged and walked on in. He was dressed in a pair of black slacks with a black button down that he didn't keep tucked. He made his way over to the bar leaning against it and ordered straight scotch something he only did on those nights to actually get drunk.

He sipped his drink turning around watching the dance floor with a small smile his eyes moving over the floor. He turned his head at the sound of the clicking his eyes running over a stunning woman in a blue dress. He smiled to her raising his glass in salute and in an old fashion way of inviting her over. Normally he wouldn't but she seemed like she could use the distraction.

Lily watched the dancers as she tried to discreetly hurry through her drink so that she could get around to ordering the next round. Honestly, this thing had to be watered down or something, right? In an undignified manner she slugged the last of the fruity green concoction down and turned to set her glass back down on the counter. As she did so a gesture from the new arrival caught her attention. She smiled politely in return and lifted her empty glass in a coy salute of her own as she waited for the bartender to return. She ordered in heavily accented Japanese, not bothering to call the drink by its proper name, 'the rusty nail'.

While the bartender went about her work Lily would slip down from her stool and sashay her way over to the dark stranger, leaning against the bar beside him without sitting. A pair of miniature handcuffs, rendered in gold, dangled from her ears just below her jaw length hair as she overtly looked the man over. She would be silent a moment, as if appraising his worth or maybe his potential, before leaning in and holding out her hand, "It's Valyn, right?" She tried to keep abreast of the new fighters, even those on the Tension side, as building up the newcomers was her stock and trade. She would not be surprised in the least, however, if the man didn't know who she was. Managers were often invisible in the glamorous world of sports-entertainment.

He smiles as she calls him by his name setting his drink down on the counter, reaching out to take her hand in his nodding. "Yes, you would be correct and it's Lily if I'm not mistaken?" He had been given a run down of most fighters and managers when he first joined and he made sure to keep up on who they all were. Sometimes it was hard to recall from faces he never met but then again he had an excellent memory. Though soon the scotch would take care of that.

Gripping Valyn's hand in a firm, professional, and obviously well practiced handshake she took up a seat on the edge of a nearby stool. "I see my reputation precedes me." She said with a wry smile. "Nothing too good, I hope." Moments later the bartender returned with her drink and a fresh barmat. Accepting the drink with a polite nod she took a long, greedy sip off of the top. She wasn't quite hard enough to drink her whiskey straight, but the slight sweetness of the Drambuie (essentially just sweetened scotch) mixed with more, different scotch made it grand.

She wondered if she really had warranted someone's homework, or if Valyn had just seen her rather embarrassing sauna match with Daisuke. Reflexively taking another slug of her cocktail she tried to banish the memory along with the looming prospect of future matches. Somebody needed to tell the producers that she really wasn't a wrestler... but of course they already knew that.

Valy grins as he looks at her as she takes another drink, doing the same with the one in his hand taking the rest in one gulp. HE sets it down, the bartender quickly refills it even though he didn't ask, might of been something with the tip he hoped to get at the end of the night. He grabs his drink looking at her with a small smile "Well nothing bad that's for sure, just that you're a manager here and that you occasionally get out on the ring. I'm surprised you know me seeing as I haven't been involved in much."

He looks back out onto the dance floor for a second before looking to her again "But to be fair, I came here to forget about work and just enjoy the night. So want to relax and enjoy the night with me as well?"

Slender shoulders lifted in a careless shrug at Valyn's comment about being surprised that she knew him. She took another long sip of her drink before speaking; clearly trying, and failing, to nurse this second drink. "Well, I've had more dealings with Tension than I used to... than I'd expected to, but surprisingly its where most of my girls' challengers come from." She takes another quick sip.

Lily turns her head, her dark eyes following the man's gaze out towards the dance floor with a wry little smile. "Well, then, Val; can I call you Val?; it sounds like we're here for the same thing. So! Let's stop talking about our jobs and start enjoying ourselves!" The slight rosy color filling the woman's fair features suggested that the alcohol was already starting to work its way through her system. The advantage of being small: drinking was cheap. Taking another long swig from her glass Lily's smirk bloomed into a full-blown smile as she was nearly through two stiff drinks and was feeling pretty good. Attractive company helped, and that thought was clearly conveyed through the look in her eyes as she watched Valyn over the rim of her glass.

Valyn smirked as she shortened his name though he didn't seem to mind too much, honestly it made him sound like a girl but what ever life rolls on. "You can call me Val. And yes let's enjoy ourselves!" He wasn't normally this energetic but the two glasses of scotch were going straight through his system, it had been over seven months since he even tasted alcohol. Also a beautiful woman did seem to make things a lot better. He set down his empty glass with a smile as he looked at her.

He'd offer his hand to her with a small grin "Well then, care to join me on the dance floor, I can't dance worth anything and I really don't seem to mind at the moment.

Lily hadn't really planned on dancing tonight. She viewed dancing to the music at these places about as enriching as an evening doing karaoke. Ironically, however, both of these activities became immeasurably more fun after a few drinks! After a couple of jagerbombs she could even be compelled to perform a rousing rendition of "Through the Night". It sounded terrible, but it was the only song she knew in Japanese.

Laying her delicate hand in his she would slip down from her stool with hardly any stumbling at all. "Yes! Let's..." Her momentarily bubbly personality came to a crashing halt as she looked down at her drink with a look of consternation. After a moment of silent repose she poured the rest of the glass down her throat and sharply deposited the empty glass down on the bar. Her bright smile returning she started making her way out to the dance floor to the cadence of stiletto heels. "Okay, now we can dance!" That may have been ill advised, but the reality was that the drink had never been long for this world.

That's the spirit! He normally never danced, especially to music like this but here it was about to happen and Lily seemed to be the same way. He led her out onto the floor, it was not to packed but there was still enough people on there to be slightly cramped which would push the two close together.

Valyn was true to his word, he didn't know how to dance, in fact some would say he was downright terrible well...okay not that bad. HE was able to move at a decent rhythm he didn't do anything fancy so there was no worries about that. His hands would move onto Lily's hips if she didn't seem to mind as they danced, the music seeming to pulse around around them.