Tokyo Blues

Eka never really had a Roman history course. It was considered a bit of a prestige course at Tokyo University and Eka was a few semesters away from it. She desperately wished she had taken it anyways as now she knew she was completely out of her depth. Some of the things Alicia mentioned in passing rubbed her the worst way possible Of course Eka knew what the Second Punic War was. The Georgian girl was not a complete moron and did not appreciate that the redhead was being so patronizing. Her eyes narrowed as she continued to listen. Her good mood had gotten shaken a little bit. She had been right about when it was, but Alicia felt the need to show that Eka did not really know much.

The ravenhaired girl sighed. It was fair, after all. She was the one who asked the question so maybe it was absurd to expect that Alicia would take it easy on her. It was a rare event when Eka took it easy on herself, after all. In wrestling, in history, in anything. This was the real world now, and she was half a world away from away she had lived in. There was no back up plan, and there was no one to help her. She would just have to get used to this sort of stuff, she supposed.

As it turned out, she was kind of right. When she dangled the things she knew about this king she got a few bites. The man wasn't all the way Greek but he was half Greek, which was fine in the grand scheme of things. But unfortunately he was a little bit prone to massacres, rendering her statement about how great he was silly. Hitting .500 wasn't that bad, but Eka demanded more from herself especially when it came to matters of history. "Didn't he live in the woods for a long time?" The question sounded so insipid as it tumbled out of her mouth, but she felt like she had to contribute in some appreciable way.

"My father took it to a history professor in Birmingham, and he said that they were from the early third century. Some were from the reign of Elagabalus, but others were from a bit earlier. Someone from the Severan line, but I can not remember his name at the moment." Her embarrassment was pretty obvious. How could she not have known...

It was time for a ploy to get this back in her wheelhouse. "The first Rome's history is somewhat recondite to me. The second Rome I know more about, but the Third Rome," her smiled belied her growing confidence, "I know all about. It is a shame that Sofia Paleologos did not bring the tradition of logic and knowledge with her when she brought her retinue to the north." She took a sip of her coffee. There was no way she knew who Sofia Paleologos was, that redhead. "Otherwise I reckon we would all be better off."

Eka’s question about Mithridates got her a nod.

”I don’t remember the details but he had to go into exile because someone was trying to murder him. Which probably explains the whole obsession with poison, I suppose.”

She shrugged and took another sip of tea.

”Wouldn’t mean much to me anyway,” Alicia sat back, looking a little disappointed before she waved it off, ”Anything much past Nero – you know, fiddling while Rome burns-“ She pretended to play a violin in a way that would have any actual violinist trying to strangle her, ”-And I probably know about as much as you. I’ve heard of Elagabalus, but the only thing I remember is that he was one of the crazy Emperors.”

Was he one of the ones who thought he was a god? She truly couldn’t remember but she really didn’t think Eka needed to be embarrassed.

The redhead frowned – recondite took her a moment to work out – as the Georgian turned the conversation presumably more to her own area of expertise. And that most certainly wasn’t Alicia’s, though she knew enough to make a stab at things. Let’s see…

”Paleologus is a Greek name and the second Rome is Constantinople,” She mused, trying to work through the stuff Eka had thrown at her. ”So we’re talking about Byzantine history? And I’m guessing late Byzantine but, beyond that, we’re about a thousand years outside my comfort zone. So, mind translating all that?”

Alright, Alicia did know a bit about Byzantine history, having picked up a bit about the Comnenus dynasty at university while studying the First Crusade. But she was honestly stumped by Eka’s comments and now she was definitely curious to hear her explain it.

Eka smiled. It wasn't the nice, friendly smile that she wore on her face earlier. It was a somewhat condescending one and she looked at Alicia over her coffee. The Georgian girl was done talking about Rome and was happy she managed to steer the conversation back onto topics she knew about. She had little intention of letting the topic swing back to territory she was unfamiliar with.

"Sofia Paleologos was a Byzantine Empress. The Tsar of Muscovy," Eka took great care to say all of the words with the correct pronunciation, "married her in 1472." She waved her hand as if what she was saying was the most obvious thing in the world. "It was after the fall of the Second Rome, but it gave the Muscovites some legitimacy. The legacy of the Roman Empire is very powerful, yes?" She took another sip of her coffee and pursued the topic with renewed vigor. "At the time, Muscovy was a backwater state on the fringes of the civilized world. It grew and grew and soon encompassed area greater than the planet Pluto." It wasn't actually soon but Eka had heard too many stories in her youth to stick to just the facts. "She brought the lavish Byzantine ceremonies and the court intrigue with her, and was very very influential in the rise of Moscow. The Russians dubbed Moscow the Third Rome as both the center of Orthodoxy and an imperial focal point. That moniker came and went," she could go on about that to but opted against it, "but the glory was forever. She was the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible." Her last comment was a bit desultory, but it was a good point to end on, she thought.

The coffee that ran over her tongue was still hot. Whenever she drank coffee of any sort a sharp acidic taste was left in her mouth and she had never gotten used to it. She weighed her words for a second. Throughout her little speech, she had clearly been talking down to Alicia. She had never been anything other than friendly, and Eka still felt the need to lord over her. The ravenhaired girl looked down and sighed. The casual arrogance she displayed meant that she was in this too far and there was no backing out now.

It was in the air now. The best she could do was try to do was lift Alicia back up again. "What do you do for fun?" She blinked. "Besides history, I mean." Her little lecture wasn't going to keep the conversation going, and Alicia seemed interesting.

Her reputation, perhaps, to the contrary, Alicia was very intelligent. She might not know Eka that well, but she’d been patronised before and she did not much care for it. As far as she was concerned, the Georgian had asked for her to elaborate and there was absolutely no call for her to get offended when Alicia did just that. Or perhaps she wasn’t offended. All the redhead knew is that the previously friendly young woman was getting all ‘look at how smart I am’ and Alicia didn’t appreciate that one bit.

Alright, so she might have been showing off a bit but she hadn’t been talking down to Eka while she did it.

The history itself was pretty interesting, actually, because she knew almost nothing about Russian history and not that much more about late Byzantine history. Neither was her field, hence why she’d asked for the help. So having it thrown back in her face, the snooty edge she thought she could hear to Eka’s voice and the sudden guess that she’d been set up for this… Well, they wiped the smile off her lips almost immediately, her back straightening in irritation.

That seemed uncalled for and that was why the uncomfortable silence that followed the end of the little lecture until Eka broke it with her question.

For a moment, Alicia considered her options, both for answering it and just cutting the conversation off there, before shrugging. She couldn’t exactly say ‘beating people up’ and she didn’t feel like explaining her day job. Certainly not after that little rant, because the next time Eka treated Alicia like an idiot, she was getting called on it. They’d call that one a freebie.

”I’ve got…” She paused, picking her words with care, ”A physically demanding job so I spend a lot of time in the gym. Plus I do kickboxing and MMA.”

Alicia took a considered sip of tea, curious to see Eka’s response to that little revelation.

Eka sighed. The awkward pause seemed to be of interminable length. The sip she took of her coffee could not drown out all of the doubts she had in her head and her brilliant blue eyes were downcast. Alicia had been nothing but friendly with her and the Georgian girl felt the need to step up on the podium. The redhead even divulged history, information she so desperately coveted. Why had she been arrogant? It was almost an instinct for her at this point. She was feeling down in the dumps and decided to take out her self esteem issues on Alicia. A sense of shame came over her and she sighed again.

Her eyes turned upward. Alicia was still there. She would not have blamed her if she had grown sick of Eka and had left, but she was still there. She weighed her options: she may not have been as arrogant as she seemed. When she heard about Alicia's hobby a wave of emotions hit her. Her string of losses were not the most pleasant thing to talk about, but she did truly love wrestling. It was more than a hobby for her.

"That is quite good." She nodded as she said the words. Eka's voice was a little bit more humble now, quieter and more measured. The bouncing Georgian accent began to melt away into a more American sounding pattern. "I fight. You know of AFW, yes? I am a wrestler there. You probably haven't heard of me..." The words that came from her mouth sounded almost wistful. "But my style is Greco-Roman." The word Roman came out with heavy emphasis, as if that would make up for how much of a prick Eka had just been. "I am hoping to get into more matches as I have more free time. No classes over the summer." There were a few AFW fans in her classes, but she was known only vaguely, even amongst the die-hards. She was being earnest when she said she wanted more matches. The road to redemption was going to be long and Eka would have to go through a few women to get it.

"Do you fight UFC? When I trained I tried MMA once or twice. It if very difficult, yes?" The more Eka looked at Alicia, the more it made sense that she was a fighter. The Georgian girl would not have been surprised if someone told her the redhead had kicked someone's head clean off with those powerful legs. She adjusted and sat up a little straighter. Her body was not a source of pride the same way her mind was, but Eka worked hard on her figure. And it wasn't as if she were timid about showing off in the slightest.

Well, the redhead hadn’t expected that answer, as demonstrated by her eyebrows rising slightly as Eka spoke. She hadn’t heard of the Georgian in AFW, but that wasn’t really a surprise – if the other woman hadn’t been fighting because of classes, maybe that’d change over the summer for the reasons Eka suggested. She would be looking her up later though, see what matches she’d been in and how Eka fought.

Graeco-Roman wrestling, huh?

Expression thoughtful, she nodded in answer – yes, she’d heard of AFW.

”I never got that far,” Alicia confessed with a slight pout, ”My parents were fine with me training but they wouldn’t let me go competitive. So, it was all local stuff, same at uni and, well, no. Not UFC.”

She’d have liked to, oh yes. Admittedly, at 21, she’d only just have qualified to join but she could have done a lot to prepare and get her name out there. As it was… Well, she’d wound up somewhere she enjoyed and things were certainly a bit more interesting here at the AFW.

Speaking of which…

Alicia tilted her cup at Eka in a salute, deciding it was probably best not to mention that she’d never had much trouble picking stuff up in her MMA lessons or in the matches she’d fought. The little wrestling she’d done at uni had been… well, not another matter but it hadn’t really been as much fun somehow. Alicia liked striking and submissions, which the Graeco-Roman crowd at her university at least hadn’t.

Not that she thought any the less of them or their style for it, it just wasn’t her idea of fun.

”And I’ve heard of AFW. In fact, I’m with them too. Small world, huh?”

She leant back in her chair, her gaze unapologetically assessing now.

”Friction or Tension?”

There were very many things outside of Eka's control. Her wins and losses theoretically were events under her influence, but as her record evinced she was not very good at controlling that. The immutable laws of physics acted on the universe without her consent and apparently without much of her knowledge. This conversation, and the things Alicia did and said, similarly spiraled outside of her comfort zone. She did her best to curb her emotions but they too were moving out of grasp. Earlier she had felt shame and pride and curiosity and a healthy dose of joy, but now she was not sure what she felt. The way Alicia looked at her made her feel like a cadaver on the operating table, as if she were being sized up and scried for any discernible weakness. The Georgian girl might have invited this sort of examination by offering too much both in her words and her posture, but she was slowly coming to regret it.

It turned out this woman was a fighter at AFW. That was good. She associated with that milieu both consciously and unconsciously. If Alicia had said she fought in the UFC, Eka was not sure how she would have followed up, as she knew little about UFC. When the redhead mentioned that she was in AFW, well, she became the subject of her interest in a way she hadn't been before. She tilted her cup back at her 'friend', recognizing it as a salute and engaging in a bit of fair play. AFW was a topic that sent her into a tizzy emotionally but she tried to fight back the welling tide of feeling.

"You have had your debut, yes? I would very much like to see it." She leaned forward in her chair, teetering near the edge of falling off of it completely. "I just wrestled in state Greco-Roman tourneys in Alabama before I jumped to some indie pro-wrestling promotions. Just small things, like you." She paused for a second. "I kind of miss it sometimes." She looked askance for a second before turning back to her conversation partner. "But being in the bigtimes is not all bad, yes?"

Her coffee was almost completely gone now, but she took a draw of it. She was pulling mostly dregs at this point. "I do Friction. I even met the GM. She is, uh, not very....nice." She finished pretty weakly. "I have fought boys before," she picked up again, "And I was quite good at it. But there was no art in it. Having bouts with women is much more enjoyable." She finished with a flourish of her hand.

”It wasn’t anything worth watching,” Alicia blew out a sigh, still less than content with how that one had gone, ”They threw me into a squash match against someone almost as new as me and I just ran right over her. I’ve had a couple of better matches since though. Like you say, it’s definitely not all bad being here. I suppose the great thing about local tournaments was also the worst thing – I knew everyone, pretty much.”

Which meant, lots of friends and people she liked seeing and catching up with but no surprises which meant the fights had been getting dull by the end. Coming to AFW had been awesome, in that regard.

If Eka felt the need to watch any of her matches, she’d really rather it was one of the good ones, not just the one where she’d stomped Gallium flat.

Alicia was also coming to the end of her tea now, her thoughts turning to the possibility that she and Eka would end up across from each other in the ring one day. She’d definitely have to look up the other’s matches now.

”I can’t say I’ve met the GM but I’m in Friction too,” she agreed, taking one last sip and setting her cup down firmly, ”Not that I’ve got any problem fighting anyone, but I like my matches competitive and half the time Tension seems to be…”

She pressed her lips together and shrugged, letting Eka draw her own conclusions.

”What matches have you been in so far?”

Eka listened intently and even forced a long tumble of black hair behind her ears so that Alicia's words rung even more clearly. Her blue eyes showed her interest and Eka was leaning forward now, more than before. She nodded along to the redhead's words and then finally was asked a question.

"Squash matches are so...blech." Eka considered her words as her previous words were so vapid. "But I would still like to see yours. The matches in Tension do not interest me to be perfectly honest, and I have never had much desire to see Kyoto. For work, I mean." Eka rattled the remainder of the coffee in her hand. She spotted the trash can out of the corner of her eye. "But I have never won a squash match. I beat a woman named Shiki and another named Syd, but those were not easy." The rest of her words were going to be painful for her, and she knew it. "Then I lost to Mariam, this giant Brazlian woman." She held five fingers up, then put one down. "Ashura, a giant Russian woman." Another down. "Avery Shields. That was a submission match." Once more. "Cecilia Northman, who everyone has heard of." Just her index finger remaining now. "And Bunny Bomber. She is a vile cheater." Eka was back in the dumps now. Having to recount all her losses was pretty heart wrenching. "It would be nice to pick up even one win. To help me get back on track."

The Georgian girl grabbed her coffee cup and held it over her head. The high arcing parabola she sent it in was clearly aimed for the trash can, and went in after bouncing off of the lid. "Two points!" She fistpumped theatrically. It was time to get her groove back.

"You do not need to study over the summer too, yes? Maybe we can practice together." Even though there was a smile on her face, internally she was full of doubt. There was little this woman could learn from Eka, and surely would be reticent to accept given that Eka had just rattled off all of her shameful losses.

Eka got a nod of firm agreement at that, possibly for different reasons but squash matches were dull as dishwater. Still, if she was sure, it wasn’t like Alicia could – or wanted to – stop her watching it.

More immediately interesting was the Georgian’s list of matches so far. Alicia’d heard of Cecilia Northman, had met and was training with Cecilia Northman, but not the rest. That said, if she looked up Eka’s matches, that ought to solve that problem. That said, the recounting of the brunette’s losses was putting that seemingly throw-away comment about never winning a squash match into perspective.

So, that would put Eka at two wins to five losses, which would be enough to have even Alicia miserable and she wasn’t all that fussed about her record. Losing to Cecilia, not that big a deal. The rest of them… She’d have to wait until she saw the matches, she supposed.

Was it just because Eka wasn’t very good or because her opponents were better? She didn’t know.

Still, the redhead reflected with a grin at Eka’s nice shot, it’d be fun to have someone else to train with, particularly if it let her expand her own repertoire of grappling moves. Losses or not, the idea - as the film said - had merit.

”Sure,” She agreed, toying with her own cup, ”I mean, I’d like that. It sounds like fun, to have someone to talk history and train with. Me, I’ve had four matches now – three wins, one loss.”

One hand came up and she started ticking them off as she went along, raising one finger as she mentioned each match. Presumably, seeing as she’d said she wanted to see Alicia’s matches, Eka wanted to hear about them. Either way, she was going to get to hear about them.

”My debut was against Gallium Heart, Silver Ace’s protégé, and I flattened her. Then a win against Jesse Rogers – don’t know if you’ve met her, I think she’s new here too? But her sister’s apparently been around a while. Oh, then I lost to Valley Doll. I nearly had her but I made a stupid mistake and she pinned me. And then it was a triple threat hardcore match with Liberty Velle and Abattoir. Won that too.”

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. ”It helped that they kept going for each other but I don’t think I’ve ever been so sore after a match. Abattoir took some putting down, I’ll tell you. I had to nearly crack ribs before she’d tap.”