Caroline vs Maddie: Scream Match!

Match Type: Scream Match
Rules: Standard
Victory Condition: The wrestler who forces her opponent to scream at a volume of 90 decibels or more will be crowned the winner. Referee will be equipped with a listening device to determine when this condition has been met.

Caroline Brookes, the Untamed:

Caroline was waiting in one of the Friction arena's changing rooms, frowning at her reflection in the mirror. Her cheeks were already flushed with a bit of rosy coloring, and not just because of the heat in the poorly ventilated room. Was she more embarrassed than she was irritated, or the other way around? It was hard to tell. The rookie wrestler, normally so upbeat and kind, wasn't in a good mood tonight, and her second match in Friction was to blame.

As far as she knew, there had never been one with quite so strange a victory condition, but management had roped her into being one of the participants for its debut. It was a quirky match type, well outside the small-town Tennessee girl's comfort zone, where the victor would only be crowned by making their opponent scream at the top of their lungs, loud enough to satisfy the microphone attached to the referee's clothing.

What would she have to do to obtain the scream, and what depths would the other girl sink to? Would it be a scream of pure agony, or one of shock and indignation? Any way Caroline sliced it, the match seemed likely to devolve into the sort of crass spectacle that did the entire sport a disservice. She didn't want to be a part of it, but the only match type she was allowed to back out of was hentai, and that was only thanks to the leverage provided by her manager.

How would Lina react if she saw this farce? What if Kelly saw it?!

“Deep breaths, relax. It'll be okay,” Caroline thought to herself as she continued to bore holes in the mirror with her gaze. She stood up from her seat and continued the stretches she had been cycling through earlier, practicing the pre-match warm up that Kelly had taught her and blinking her eyes to make sure her contact lenses were nice and centered. “I just have to be stronger than the other girl. Just like any other match.”

Whatever happened, though, no matter how imposing the other girl turned out to be, nothing could take away this next moment. The moment that had been earned with every risk the rural town girl had taken since her teenage years.

As the opening vocals for her intro song progressed to the first refrain, Caroline got her cue from the staff and took confident bounds out into the rancor of the arena, smiling under the spotlights as the audience cheered her arrival. Their enthusiastic greetings never failed to cheer her up, and she lowered her upper body in a bow that saw her pigtails sag to her knees before she straightened back up and jogged down the ramp, waving to the onlookers until she arrived at ringside. Climbing up on the apron, the young wrestler straddled the middle rope and rolled underneath the top one to enter the ring.

Caroline's mood settled along with the crowd's as her music faded. She took a moment to glance at the ref, and the tiny microphone nestled into her striped shirt. The opponent was a newcomer to the Friction promotion, but that didn't mean she was as new to the sport as Caroline was.

It wouldn't be a mystery for long. That subtitle that her name was announced with, the Untamed, had always made Caroline a little nervous. It had been added by Lina to make her wrestling persona more interesting, but it was also an implicit challenge to any opponents she was booked against, to make the upstart country girl scream for mercy.

Maddie Lux, who is totally gonna tame Caroline like a little puppy or something:

Maddie's opponent might have been fretting and obsessing over the stipulations of the match, indignant at the crass nature of it. Maddie was in quite a different mood about it, bouncing around in her dressing room wearing her tight little bikini bottoms, her baseball cap, and her sailor-style tie-off top, which served as her unorthodox attire for standard matches—as "standard" as a scream match was. She spun around, wiggled her butt in front of the floor-length mirror, then spun around again and struck a strongwoman pose, arms out and flexing, showing off her biceps.

Yeah, she looked good. And she felt good, too. Dancing like this, just having fun and letting off steam, was the absolute best way to warm up for a match, and it was probably thanks to that boundless energy and enthusiasm displayed therein that Maddie was a very tough girl for even veteran opponents to beat. Many had tried and very few succeeded back in California. Even though this was just her second AFW match, she didn't see things being much different here! Tougher opponents just meant Maddie had to be tougher herself.

A staff member knocked on her door, signalling that it was Maddie's time to enter. She whirled around and gave the staff girl a smile and a wink as she trotted over to her. They walked down the corridor to the top of the ramp. Soon enough, her opponent's music had ended, and her own music began. Maddie appeared at the top of the ramp, shifting her weight from foot to foot in time with the music, looking positively giddy as she bounded down the ramp, one hand up waving to the crowd, her eyes focusing on the ring and the opponent inside of it!

Maddie hopped up and rolled under the bottom rope into the ring, quickly getting her feet underneath her and then sprung upward, bouncing back up onto her feet right in front of her opponent, smiling as she straightened up to her full height, which was just about equal to her opponent's. "Hey, how's it going?" the Los Angeles native asked the country girl, leaning in and raising an eyebrow as she put them nearly nose to nose. "I'm Maddie."

As the Friction arena got flooded with some of the lousiest music Caroline had heard in her life (her community's disdain for unconventional music genres had rubbed off on her), Maddie Lux burst into view. When Caroline first got a good look at her, the girl's image projected on a jumbotron situated above the stadium entrance, her eyes would remain glued to her until she was finally in the ring, only snapping away from the giant screen to focus on the real person as she stepped closer.

The country girl was all analysis at first, trying to size Maddie up, both her demeanor and her possible capabilities. Even though Caroline could tell that she and her opponent had come from very different walks of life, the two of them were actually really similar on the surface. They both had a taste for vibrant, stylish wrestling outfits, and they both attracted similar reactions from the crowd, given that they were both entering their second match in Friction. Same size, same build, albeit with the muscle distributed slightly differently. Maddie had a firm core, and those toned arms looked like they could exert a lot of strength.

Unfortunately, as soon as Maddie slipped into the ring and positioned her face mere inches from Caroline's, she stopped noticing anything relevant to the upcoming match and started noticing...well, the gorgeous color of Maddie's eyes. A deep blue, shimmering like the surface of a lake at noon. Her own eyes wandered up and down from there, taking in the sight from Maddie's wild hairstyle to the curvature of her hips...

Uh oh. Caroline's hormones were acting up again. The match hadn't even started, and her confident, enthusiastic opponent's looks were already putting Caroline off her game. It was nothing new, an unfortunately common occurrence for the girl who had never been allowed to explore her feelings growing up. Her parents had a lot to answer for.

“It's nice to meet you, Maddie. Caroline, or Carol. I, uh, like your outfit,” Caroline stammered softly, shuffling back a little nervously to put some personal space between them. Once she started talking, though, her confidence began to return, and her voice grew sharper and clearer in the hopes that Maddie wouldn't notice how flustered she had just been. “Almost makes up for that assault on my ears a moment ago. I guess it's better that I get used to some jarring sounds, though, since I need you to yell like a lawnmower for me.”

As Maddie bounced down the ramp, her eyes focused on the opponent waiting for her below, and that didn't change as she climbed into the ring. As energetic and bubbly as she was, Maddie still knew how to do fast analysis on an opponent, the same way she figured her opponent was doing to her, staring at her so intently. Maddie noted their similar size—probably meant they would be a close match in speed and strength—and she actually really liked the girl's wrestling attire. It was cute! Something Maddie herself might wear.

The Californian sidled up almost casually to her opponent, and the two blue-eyed American blondes met face to face, eye to eye. Maddie noted, now that she was closer, the lighter color of Caroline's, or Carol's, hair, which was closer to canary yellow than to the sort of caramelized banana color of Maddie's, even though both fell somewhere on the blonde spectrum. And Caroline's eyes were a piercing, vivid blue, like the sky over the desert, one which her own slightly deeper blue eyes were glad to explore as they locked onto each other. Maddie greeted her opponent. Her opponent greeted her back, albeit in a kind of preciously awkward way which almost made Maddie swoon.

"Heh heh, it's really nice to meet you, too, Caroline. Or Carol. I like your outfit a lot, too. Might have to steal it!" Maddie stuck her tongue out, chuckling as her reserved opponent took a step back. Not having any of that, Maddie would step forward, keeping them close, even reaching out with one hand to poke the other girl's cheek! "You're, like, trying to run away already, huh?"

The comment about her music kind of surprised Maddie, though. Maddie actually thought of her music as pretty tame and innocent. "Okay, for real, what was it that, like, is tough for you? 'Cause I think it's a pretty bangin' song, y'know? Simple, fun..." She could have mentioned the little taunt that Caroline had made about yelling like a lawnmower, but first things first.

Caroline's eyes popped wide open momentarily as Maddie slid back into her personal space, actively defying her wishes and throwing out some teasing remarks as she did. The California native was trying to compete with Caroline for authority before the match had even started. It was a contest that the more disciplined blonde hadn't wanted to participate in, but she experienced a rapid change of heart when Maddie reached out and jabbed a finger into one of her increasingly rosy cheeks.

“Mng!” Caroline gasped in shock, keeping her lips sealed tight to muffle the squeal of indignation that had threatened to escape. One hand went up to rub the spot where Maddie had poked her. It wasn't painful, but the sharp jab had caught her by surprise, and she could still feel a tingling sensation in the spot where Maddie's finger had left its mark, leaving Caroline flustered, self-conscious, and a little worried since there was no way Maddie wouldn't see how easily she was getting under her skin.

Fine, then – if Maddie wanted to rope her into this pre-match posturing, she would have to oblige. Before Maddie could finish talking about the song she had entered with, she would be greeted by the sight of Caroline reaching out to grab both her forearms, gripping them tightly. Their budding argument about music would need to wait a moment.

“Maddie, personal space is a basic courtesy that most people understand,” Caroline enunciated her words with stern clarity, lecturing her rude opponent. “And until the bell rings, I insist that you respect mine.” Slowly, Caroline started pressing her arms forward, trying to use her hold on Maddie to force her back a step! The other girl would probably refuse, but she couldn't be allowed to believe that the country girl's shy demeanor meant she was a pushover.

With Maddie's act of disrespect addressed, Caroline would turn her attention back to the only passion of hers that predated her interest in wrestling: music.

“I mean, it wasn't even really a song. Just one loud, repetitive beat with nothing backing it up. Was it written by a machine?” Caroline asked, trying to keep a stern gaze no matter how tempted her eyes were to start coasting up and down Maddie's smooth curves again.

Maddie almost felt bad for Caroline, as she was clearly one of the most anxious girls on the AFW roster. And here she was, going up against the most shameless girl to ever grace this grand stage. If just a poke on the cheek was enough to make her light up like a stop light, Maddie shuddered to think what Caroline would do if Maddie gave her a wedgie...or tickled her...or did pretty much, you know, anything remotely sexual to her.

When Maddie pulled her finger away from Caroline's facing, watching the shocked, embarrassed expression spread like wildfire over those cute features, Maddie couldn't help but blush lightly a bit, too, as the intense effect that her teasing had on Caroline now had an effect on her, too, getting to watch the other blonde's face contort in such adorable ways. She moved her hands down to her hips, trying to give Caroline a bit of a respite. Maddie was playful, but far from cruel.

Though it seemed the country girl thought differently, because as Maddie moved her arms back, Caroline grabbed at them—and then tried to push Maddie, forcing her to back up a step. Maddie furrowed her brow and grit her teeth as the girl started lecturing her about...personal space? What? Did she...know where she was? "Do you...know where you are?" Maddie would give voice to her internal monologue. Meanwhile, she stomped her feet down right where they were and leaned forward, refusing to budge. "I wasn't, like, trying to hurt you or humiliate you or anything. We're going to be all over each other in a few seconds anyway. All I did was poke your cheek!" She snorted and rolled her eyes, as she would keep pushing herself forward for as long as her foe tried to push her back.

"Look, I just want to have fun. And win, I mean, too, but I don't like matches with girls who are gonna be nasty. So maybe let's just, like, cool down and get to know each other nicely?" She shrugged, then switched to the music topic: "And I think something like that is good for entrance music. Repetive, catchy, but you still, like...are watching me, instead of focusing on the music, y'know?"

While Maddie imagined how Caroline might react to some of her more titillating offensive options, Caroline herself was undergoing the same considerations. She had walked into this fight hoping to treat it as a simple variation of the venerable submission match, with harsher requirements for surrender. Maddie seemed too eclectic to tolerate a fight so simple, though, and that got her timid opponent wondering what she might try to pull instead. She'd spent enough time in high school receiving the attention of an especially playful bully to know how shocking – and how surprisingly exhilarating – a good wedgie could be.

Caroline thought she was pretty justified in not appreciating having her face poked, but Maddie didn't seem to think so...and neither did the referee, who was now scowling at Caroline for laying her hands on her opponent before the bell. Flustered by her opponent's refusal to fess up to her rude behavior, Caroline released Maddie's arms and crossed her own, striking a haughty pose and listening to her opponent's retort until she capped it off with an infuriating assertion.

“Nasty?! I'm not the one being...mmm!” Caroline pouted, feeling some heat build up under her collar as she fumed silently. This boorish city girl needed to learn some manners, but when Maddie went back to talking about her music, Caroline snorted a deep breath through her nostrils and exhaled, calming herself down. Her frustration would be better expressed after the bell rang.

“I mean, I guess I see your point...about people watching you...er, y'know, instead of focusing on the music,” Caroline spaced out for a moment as Maddie's comment tempted her to gaze up and down her opponent's body once more, only snapping her eyes back up after they'd gotten away with several seconds drifting from Maddie's midriff to her hips. She would never admit it out loud, but Maddie was hard not to look at.

“I don't care if people watch my entrance closely. Better to get the crowd excited with something lively and exciting, not some repetitive...” Caroline was cut off by the sound of the referee clearing her throat audibly, tapping her wrist with one hand to indicate that the match needed to start. Feeling a little remorseful that her outburst had left them with no time to get acquainted, Caroline looked back at Maddie with a blush. “M-maybe we can get to know each other after the match...if you're not too hoarse to talk, anyway,” the Tennessee native cooed, not too shy to throw one more competitive jab into her concluding comment as she settled into a crouch, ready to grapple with Maddie when the bell rang!

Maddie had some limited experience with nasty, bratty, or bitchy girls from back in California. Not a lot, of course. Cali girls tended not to be as tightly wound as girls from, say, the south or the east were. But she had known a few. She handled them, and beat them down decisively, with notably less fooling around and silliness than usual. If she could, she always enjoyed challenging a girl to butt-to-butt pushing contests, and tickle fights, and wedgie wars...but if she had to, she could just focus on a serious, pro-style beatdown, and she was ready to do that to Caroline if she really had to.

And she might have to. Caroline actually reined herself in right now, biting her tongue and controlling what was obviously a pretty fiery temper. Maddie sucked in a deep breath, then blew it out, just trying to move past that and ignore her opponent's idiosyncracies. The country girl seemed to be willing to try to do the same, which was progress.

"Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I don't think using one of my, like, favorite songs as an entrance is the best way to go, but as long as a song is fun I think it's worthy of an opening. Really as long as the girl using it likes it." Her opponent seemed to be trying really hard to not burn bridges before the match began. Maddie smirked a little bit. After that initial outburst, she hadn't had much hope for Caroline, but now she was starting to feel differently. Heck, the girl was even talking about getting to know one another after the match! And she was trying to sneak a peek at Maddie's body! Now that was what the West Coast blonde was used to!

"That's more like it. I think we're gonna have fun," she would coo back at her opponent, glancing at the referee girl and then back to Caroline, bending her knees and lifting her arms, glad to grapple with her foe as soon as the bell rang...and, when it did, Maddie would launch herself right at the other wrestler, trying to grab onto her shoulders and shove her backwards right from the start!

Caroline shouldn't have been surprised by Maddie's eagerness to take the fight to her, but she was startled enough by the tomboy's haste that Maddie was able to shove her back a couple steps before Caroline could even grab her arms to start pushing back. The bashful blonde wasn't a pushover, though, and she wanted to make sure Maddie knew that. With muscles straining and upper bodies colliding, Caroline slowed Maddie down until the two came to a halt, and the fight for an early advantage began.

The crowd cheered as Caroline and Maddie did their dance, shoving against each other and struggling to push each other backwards. Seconds passed with the two grinding against each other, and Caroline, emboldened by her opponent's infectious confidence, didn't notice that she was slowly losing the fight. Her feet weren't budging, yet, but she was starting to tremble, breathing heavily. If she'd been willing to put everything she had into this test of strength, maybe the outcome would have been different, but she was afraid of letting her Maddie wear her down right out of the gate.

“Hnk...gnh!” Caroline growled, keeping her eyes locked on Maddie's as the country girl took a small step backward, followed by another. Both women had pivoted a little during the pushing contest, and now Caroline was being bullied into a corner. With an indignant sigh of defeat, Caroline's back touched the corner post, the flustered girl still wriggling defiantly as Maddie gained the initiative to punish Caroline's stubbornness.

Caroline was obviously not expecting the sort of massive collision which Maddie precipitated. But the ash blonde Californian rarely did things by half-measures, and the result was an early lead for the girl from the West Coast, as she slammed hard into her opponent, hands on Caroline's shoulders, throwing the brighter-blonde girl backwards several steps, a big grin on Maddie's face as her competitive juices were already flowing!

But Caroline didn't just break down like a fragile flower. She got her hands on Maddie's arms, initiated a true lockup, and managed to bring Maddie to a halt, with their chests slamming together as the two of them jockeyed for position. Maddie had a head start, which was great. But she couldn't just rely on that. She buckled down and shoved hard, trying to keep the momentum on her side! Caroline wasn't making it easy, of course. Sweat was condensing on Maddie's head, and she grunted and groaned as the two of them twisted around and both looked to shove the other back.

But there was just no stopping the Cali tide, as Maddie would force her foe back again, and again, until the Tennesseean was trapped against the turnbuckle! Maddie chuckled, feeling pretty tired already, but triumphant nonetheless! "Alright...let's get this...going!" Maddie would growl, as she would pull her body back for a moment, keeping her arms on the ropes, then launch herself forward, trying to splash her body down onto Caroline's, chest first, to flatten her deeper into that corner!