Party Hard vs. Novae - Starstruck

Something was wrong, here.

Or, at least, something felt wrong. On paper, everything was going according to...well, Tatiana didn’t have a plan, she was mostly just doing what came to her on whims, but this seemed solid enough. She had Belle locked in, wasn’t getting to much of a fight, seemed to be in control.

That was the weird thing about it - Belle was strong. Really strong. Tatiana had opted for this hold more to get the brunette standing than anything, wanting to lift her up so she could batter her around a bit. Tired as they both were she knew this woman had more fight in her than that. For a second, it seemed like Tatiana was going to win through a chokeout. Given all that had gone in with this match, the only worse way to end it would’ve been with a countout.

She was just considering letting Belle go to keep the match alive when her foe made that point moot, driving her hard across the ring with a powerful, backpedaling push. Tatiana couldn’t hit the brakes, she had scarce time to even try, before they both hit the turnbuckle hard. She hissed as she was sandwiched between Belle and the unforgiving corner, enjoy it much more from the front than the back.

The strength was knocked out of Tatiana, and she wound up leaning against the ropes, breathing heavy while she tried to catch her breath. And yet, still, she was smiling. ”Heh. Enjoying this as much as I am?”

Belle hadn't ever had the opportunity to charge someone down from behind. Likely because if it were anyone else she lightly would have just thrown back elbows at them until they let go or their skull caved in. As it stood, she managed to make the most of this, backing Tatiana's hard into the corner, hard enough to shake the woman loose. She stepped forward before throwing her backside into the girl's midsection one more time for good measure, making sure she made the most of this. She brought up a fist as she turned, shoving a palm into Tatiana's chest to force her back against the turnbuckles.

"Uh... yeah, of course." When she said enjoying, how did she mean it? She was having fun or...? She held the girl at arm's length with a palm awkwardly pressed firm to the other girl's chest. She hadn't really thought anything of it, even when she found herself distracted by how she had the redhead draped in the corner. The looming threat of her raised fist never came, by the time she had snapped out of her daze it had retracted. Belle's features seemed to often a bit as she pulled away from Tatiana... before she leaned in to drive a forearm into her mid section, She shoved her shoulder in to keep the girl from being bent inward

From here, in the corner she could have done a great many devastating moves. She wasn't interested in that now. She wanted something else at the moment. She reached an arm up and around, hooking an arm around Tatiana's head. Stepping back she twisted, pulling the girl towards her hard to meet her hip. From there she would flip the girl to the mat in a headlock takedown, laying herself across Tatiana's chest as she wrenched the girl in the hold. She seemed content to keep the girl controlled more than anything. While the hold was painful, it was far from the crushing potential Belle could apply. She spoke low and soft, putting on a rather convincing show of looking like she was straining. "What's your deal?" She had a bit of an accusatory tone to her voice.

Trapped in the corner with one of the strongest women she’d ever been within five feet of, with a body that was already worn out from the longest match in their admittedly short career. No, this was not a good look for Tatiana.

She wanted to take a moment to catch her breath, but Belle was about even given out that smaller luxury, as she thrust her backside out and slammed it in Tatiana’s gut, winding her and leaving her wide open for what seemed certain to be a pummeling. She saw the fist coming back and winced, knowing she was about to get a repeat of the Kaylee craziness, only with a woman who could hit like a sledgehammer.

But that didn’t happen. Instead…

”Whoop!” Tatiana blurted out as she was sent rolling, head over heels, coming down right on her butt. A headlock takedown. Just about the simplest move Belle could’ve done, and she didn’t even apply it all that hard. Tatiana was quite capable of getting her shoulders off the ground, and she probably could’ve fought her way out if the intensity hadn’t increased. Before she had the chance to, though, Belle spoke, whispering her way with an interesting question.

Tatiana took her cue, putting up more of a struggle, a flailing show to keep up the illusion. She had a fair idea of what Belle meant, but at the same time, she didn’t want to presume. ”Deal?” She blinked, highly aware of how close their faces were. ”What do you mean?”

"You know what I'm talking about." But did she? She couldn't bring herself to be more direct with this girl for some reason. Belle normally spoke her mind, it wasn't like her to be so vague. It was hard to hide who you were when people watched you daily... Maybe that was it. The missing piece. She was reading to much into this. The girl was a fan after all. She knew her from Coming Together, and got to know the real her through her YouTube channel. That wasn't strange. To the redhead, Belle was maybe already like a friend to her and this was just her chance to be buddy buddy. Belle was just misinterpreting it. That made more sense.

Glancing to the audience she huffed, giving Tatiana an actual squeeze in the hold. "Sorry, just out of it." She whispered softly, lifting the girl beneath her slightly before leaning her weight back down, keeping the struggle of the show going for the crowd. "Just overwhelmed with everything lately, has me on edge or something." She breathed out heavily, glancing sidelong down at the redhead. "Go ahead and just break out of this, and we can get rolling again for real." She felt so foolish having sidetracked their match over this. For what really? The sooner she could finish this off the better. Maybe after she could humor the girl with a chat about a collab or something. A thank you for putting up with this high school bullshit phase she hit mid match. After that she could put this all behind her.

This was starting to get weird. Even by wrestling standards. There was clearly something here that they both weren’t saying, but it was like they were too afraid to just spit it out. Tatiana doubted she could blame it on the head trauma, either, though that wasn’t helping things.

Yeah. After this match was over, there would be Skyping or DMs or something.

For now, focus. ”Right, right.” Tatiana took a deep breath. God, Belle’s hair smelled nice. ”And a-one, and a-two, and-”

She threw her legs up, then kicked them up hard, pushing off Belle’s arms to break the hold with a powerful jerk. From there, Tatiana rolled forward and popped to her feet fast - as fast as she could at this point, anyway. She spun about with her fists up, ready to start bringing this to an end. No more shenanigans.

Tatiana's rather non-chant air sealed it for her. This had all been in her head. She was glad she hadn't said anything else on the matter and just let it go. People things were Kaylee's area of expertise. Reading people beyond what they were going to throw at her next in the ring was well outside of her wheelhouse.

She lad left the hold loose enough a struggling baby could wiggle free if they had wanted. The tricky part was trying to sell the escape for Belle. She made it convincing, she was an actress after all. Perhaps better than people ever really gave her credit for. As her arms were thrown wide she let our a surprised gasp, reeling as she reached out to try and recapture Tatiana to no avail. She grit her teeth, pounding the mat with a fist hard enough to shake the canvas. "You slippery little!" Alright so maybe she was overselling just a bit, it wasn't as if she was going to be nominated for this performance or anything.

She rolled to the side, slipping onto her knees and back to her feet in two quick rotations in a mostly smooth motion. It was a bit dizzying, but she could manage. Her feet were planted as she tucked her shoulder forward, arms up. There was enough room between them she could get some momentum running... so she did. She ducked inward step dashing forward, breaking her stance as she moved in on Tatiana. Trying to grab the girl or floor with a clothesline was a fools errand, not with opening the redhead up. But that was the idea. Next to throwing herself at Tatiana, she did have one simple tool to help her out, one that she didn't use nearly enough. When she found herself in range, she stepped wide to thrust out a mighty push kick in the redhead's direction.

Her stride didn't stop with the kick, she carried her momentum forward turning that into just another step as she charged in. Hopefully she had actually managed to open up her opponent with the kick because if she missed what came next she was in for some punishment. She moved in close, drawing back he arm as far back as she could. Almost... NOW! She came whirling around with "Closing Time", her signature lariat. Her weight, her power, everything she had was always cocked back into this before she blasted her opposition point blank like a sawed off shotgun. She carried her momentum all the way through, bringing herself to the ground as she swung for the fences to try to bring Tatiana down again, this time for real.

If she missed, she would have thrown herself face down onto the mat, recovering on her hands and knees, open to a counter attack of any kind.

It took a serious effort not to just start laughing at Belle’s reaction when she escaped the hold, loving the way she just oversold it to the maximum. Even though she’d grown up watching this woman’s show with religious dedication, it was easy to forget that Belle had been acting long before she’d seen the inside of a wrestling ring. She knew how to fake it until she made it.

”Too slow!” She managed to call back through her snickers, as she deftly got back to her feet. There wasn’t much time to recover, though, because Belle was on the move. Serious, now.

The better half of Party Hard wasn’t a speedster like Tatiana, but she was hardly slow, either, coming at her like a runaway freight train and hitting nearly as hard. The move of choice was a kick, one that nearly sent her flying into the ropes instead of stumbling. She bounced off the ropes, came running forward, and-

Oh. Hello again, clothesline.

Knowing full well how devastating Belle’s arm could be in that position, Tatiana ducked under as quick as she could manage, avoiding the crash by the skimpiest second. ”Love your lariats, huh?”

She popped up behind Belle, but she didn’t go far. Instead, she flipped backwards, tossed her legs up, over, and down, and tried to take her foe on the noggin with a Pele Kick.

Belle came crafting to the canvas like a meteorite, but hardly seemed deterred. She was already pushing herself up. "I do!" Tatiana's kick whistled up and over, cracking Belle across the head and back enough to send her back to the mat flay, arms outstretched. Her fingers clawed at the canvas as she grit her teeth, hissing. "Jealous? Got plenty more love to give if you'd just stand still." She didn't really think anything of her words, just banter between them, a poor attempt at a witty response for Tatiana to eat her move. She seemed unflustered by how it might be misconstrued, only because she didn't put any real thought behind it, it had just come out.

Staying on the ground facing away from the redhead had proven to be a terrible place to be in all but one instance this whole match, so she rolled onto her back to capture the girl in her gaze before moving to stand. She tucked in one leg, a visible threat she would use to kick back Tatiana if the girl tried to rush her down right away. She scooted back on her backside, slowly positioning her one planted foot to push herself upright and get to her feet if the moment presented itself.

And direct hit!

Tatiana could feel the rush as she landed the move, the sheer exhilaration that came when she was running on all cylinders. Suddenly she was back at the Cosmic Circus, flying through the air with her sister, dazzling audience across the Europe, soaring boundless above them. Wrestling mixed her two favorite things in the world: showing off and fighting. Why hadn’t she gotten into this sooner?

”That’s not the kind of loving I’d want from you!” Tatiana quipped back, not thinking too much about the words when they came pouring out. She could process more later, now was the time to move.

She held back for a moment, waiting for Belle to rise and shine, fearing that cocked back leg of hers at first, but when her opponent got standing again, she came in with vigor. Determined more than ever to press her advantage and close this, she lifted her leg with a quick snap kick aimed at Belle’s chest, then turned on her heel, stepped in, and shot a side kick towards the same spot.

Advance, advance, advance.

As Belle rose to her feet, there she was, the unrelenting ball of energy and kicks coming at her again. She expected as much. If there was one thing Tatiana did well it was stick to her like glue. While she would ordinarily find the persistent buzzing of another speedy wrestler on her case, it was new to find someone so fast, and arguably fragile, rushing her down like this. She hadn't ever been put on the ropes by someone who couldn't match her in brute strength. Normally these speedy people were flips and dodges, squirrely little annoyances. Tatiana took the fight right too her, so hard in fact she was having trouble even mounting a resistance. She was loving it.

As she backpedaled the redhead ran her down, but Belle wasn't about to let her keep her momentum. Her hands came up, held opposite each other she caught Tatiana's first kick between her palms, holding it close to her chest. She stepped in on the girl quickly as she held her at the heel, quickly snuffing out any thoughts she might have on turning this into an enziguri She knew better than to let her hop around to keep her balance. She had something with far more flash in mind, though not for her. Belle kept it simple, and would here as well, but appeal to the showboaty nature of Tatiana to make her pay. "Huh, caught a small fish."

"Better throw her BACK!" Belle launched both of her arms upwards to throw Tatiana up and back, half the work was already there for the girl to flip with all the style and grace she wanted. Belle certainly wanted that. It gave her a chance to get in on the woman and finally get her mitts on her. She'd look to intercept Tatiana, assuming she did manage to land upright. Her arms held wide, she would attempt to engulf the woman in a massive bear hug. While it wasn't necessary, if possible she would try to envelop the girls arms as well, making sure to cut down on possible avenues of retaliation.