A master of creation and a magical girl meet (For RedCosmicFox)

☆ Alice Starr  ☆:

Meanwhile, across the city on one of the local transit busses, Alice could hardly contain her excitement. She had just recently signed up with AFW, and she was on her way to the facilities to do a small self-tour. Finally, she had a great opportunity to live our her dream of being the cute magical girl she always wanted to be! She was probably creating a bit of a scene, bouncing around in her seat, but she was just so over the moon she just couldn't help it.

She was so in her own head that she almost missed her stop, but when she realized her mistake she shrieked out and pushed the button. The bus driver only barely slammed on the brakes, jerking all of the passengers forward.

"Sorry, sorry!! This is my stop!!!" She called out, jumping to her feet and running towards the front of the bus. She hopped out the door down to the sidewalk, turned around, and waved to the bus driver, who was already closing the door. "Thankyousomuch!!!" she cried out as the bus pulled away, with at least a couple of the patrons giving her stares or a dirty look from the window. Alice didn't seem to notice, however, she was still in her own little world.

After the bus pulled away, she turned around, her eyes lighting up when she saw the building. There it was, one of the AFW Gyms. She definitely was going to hang out there a lot -- she was going to train, she was going to practice, maybe she'd even make a new friend!

Ignoring the butterflies gathering in her stomach, she walked inside, taking in her surroundings. The equipment, the rings,  the air conditioning...this was a really nice facility!

As she scanned her surroundings, she saw what seemed to be the only other person around -- a potential new friend! She quietly watched him from the doorway and noticed he seemed to be...drawing?

Letting her curiosity get the best of her, she walked over to him. She didn't intend to sneak up on him, but she was relatively small and light on her feet, so it was pretty likely he didn't hear her coming.

"Hi!" She said, leaning in and looking over his shoulder at his sketchbook. "Whatcha drawin' there?"

As energetic as Alice was, she was also rather jumpy herself, and the Brit's sudden reaction caused her to let out a small shriek and a tiny jump of her own. When he turned around to look at her, she had a sheepish smile on her face, rubbing the back of her head in an almost cartoonish fashion.

"H-hey...sorry..." she quietly murmured. She was about to unleash a big bowl of word salad for an apology, but as soon as she saw his smile, she immediately calmed down. Her eyes lit up a bit, and she returned a warm smile of her own.

"Hi there! Is it okay if I call you John??" she asked him, but before he could respond, she immediately jumped into another excited ramble. "I'm Alice, Alice Starr! I just signed with the AFW the other day and I'm so excited to get started!"

She took a step back and spun around a few times, letting her dress twirl around before she showed him her best magical girl pose, mimicking one of her favourite childhood cartoons.

"How long have you been a wrestler?" she asked him, her eyes almost sparkling with excitement. "I love your drawings, by the way!!!"

Perhaps one day, Alice would be able to carry on a proper, one-track conversation when she was excited. Today was not that day.

Alice giggled, her painted cheeks flushing a little bit as he complimented her pose. She had spent many more days in front of her full-body mirror at home practicing her magical girl mannerisms than she cared to admit, so she definitely enjoyed the kind words.

"Aww, thank you! I've heard good things about Jojo but I haven't seen it yet. I've always been much more of a Madoka Magica girl, myself"

As energetic and prone to rambling as Alice was when she went on one of her excitable tangents, she was definitely a good listener when she wanted to be. In almost a stark contrast to her actions just moments earlier, she stood there and listened to John tell her about himself, sparkles in her eyes the entire time.

"That's super cool!" she exclaimed, her face lighting up. "You must be pretty good at this if you were a champion! Between wrestling and art, save some talent for the rest of us, will ya?"

She playfully stuck her tongue out at him, then nodded and gently picked up the sketchbook he handed her.

"I'm actually just here to visit and see what the place is like! I guess I'm not against the idea of working out or sparring with someone, though. Mind if I sit?" she asked, patting an empty space beside him on the bench. Before he could answer, however, she plopped down beside him, then opened up his sketchbook and began to flip through the pages.

As Alice was flipping through his sketchbook, John could likely notice that her hands were rather jittery, to the point where he couldn't necessarily be sure if she was still working with an excess of energy, or if she was actually relatively nervous. In spite of this, she made sure to be extra gentle with his sketch book, taking care not to damage or ruin it or any of its contents.

"I really like these..." she mused, gently running a finger over one of the pages. "You have a really great eye for detail! I especially like how you can see the little wrinkles in the ring apron, and all of your little smudgies are in the right places!"

When he made his offer to her, Alice looked up at him, her already upbeat and happy face seeming to light up even more. Suddenly, without even realizing what she was doing, she gently placed his sketchbook down and leaned in, clinging to his arm.

"Really?? That would be super cool!! You've already been successful here, so it would be great to be able to pick your brain and learn from a champion!"

She would never explicitly come out and admit it, but on the inside, Alice was actually a very anxious girl. The jitters in her hands were actually a side effect of pure nerves rather than unbridled energy, but when one was as much of a spark plug as she was, it was quite easy to hide the true reasoning.

She had quite a hard time making friends for a multitude of reasons growing up -- she was bullied at a young age, and she actively tried to avoid social situations as a result, prefering to stay inside and watch various magical girl cartoons as a child. If she ever did find friends, she would often overcompensate by being extra kind, energetic, or affectionate toward them, and a lot of the time she ended up "scaring them off".

When she moved to Japan, she treated it as a fresh start of sorts. She put herself out more, she made an effort to step outside of her comfort zone more often, but most importantly, she tried to spend her days spreading kindness, happiness, and joy. Being a real-life magical girl wasn't just some sort of childhood fantasy she was trying to live out. To Alice, it was more of a life goal -- to help others and spread joy across the world, these were things that she truly wanted to accomplish. She still had the occasional bout of anxiety to deal with, but in her quest to shine some light in the lives of others, she was finding that she was slowly finding the light in hers, as well.

As John patted her shoulder, Alice smiled warmly, and appeared to calm down a little bit. She didn't necessarily have any intention behind her actions, but he certainly seemed nice. Calming, in a way.

Once he stood up and motioned toward the ring, however, Alice was back in full force. She hopped up to her feet and began to bounce around a little bit from side to side. "Yeah! That sounds like a lot of fun!!! I'm actually pretty fresh out of wrestling school, I've been doing this for just under a year or so now. My trainer said that I was pretty feisty if not a liiiiiiiiitle bit reckless." She giggled a bit, flashing John a small wink. "Shall we begin?"