Dreamwalk
Aug 18, 2016 18:15:17 GMT -5
Post by Fujiko Mine on Aug 18, 2016 18:15:17 GMT -5
The stage is set for dreams to play out.
The stage is set for eight competitors to go to war.
The stage is set for one of those eight to convert those dreams into reality.
I am one of the two to have the honor of participating in this for the 2nd time. Last year, it passed me by. I admit, I wasn’t ready. Tony wanted it more, and he proved it.
But I’ve been given a second chance. I’ve been given a chance to prove that I’m out here to be the best, and build a legacy to stand here in FGA. I’ve broken down the door, becoming the first woman to hold a singles title in FGA. I’ve become the first to hold both the Mid Atlantic Legacy and Pride championships, and now I have the opportunity to win the Frontier Lions’ Cup and achieve what others have tried to and failed:
Becoming a dual champion in FGA.
I’ve already proven that I can hang with the top of the top in FGA. I’ve shown that Quinn Goodrich needed to save his client from tapping out to me. That man is your current World Champion in Johnny Cannon. I've hung with Zero, Cannon, and Tony. They don't like talking about their matches with me. Why? Because they had to push themselves to be better than me. Because they needed to go outside their norm to beat me. I showed each of them that they can’t just cruise past me with a winning formula.
Perhaps it’s a bit premature of me to focus on what awaits on the other side of Above & Beyond and the Frontier Lions’ Cup. Dom Harter and Chandler Scott: Former World champions. Johnny Karma: Two time Pride champion and the only other member of the field to have attempted it before. Reid, Storm, Yun, and Taylor: All hungry for the chance to prove themselves as future permanent flag bearers at the top of the FGA mountain. They aren’t being ignored. I could end up facing Savannah, and then move on to face off against Johnny Karma once again. Or Molly Reid. Winning there could present me with Storm, Yun Goeun, Dom Harter, or Chandler Scott.
I’m sure that there are people inside this tournament who are gunning for me. Savannah Taylor is, for sure. She’s got to go through me if she wants to have any hopes of reliving glory days of standing in the ring, the top championship over her shoulder. She wants to replicate the success she found elsewhere, and she is more than likely tired of waiting for it to come to her. She’s going to want to grab the bull by the horns, steer her destiny towards the world championship, and show people why they should have never doubted her in the first place. She gets her name in the conversation even by making it out of the quarterfinals. She could find herself gunning for the Pride championship regardless of a win or a loss. I know that she’s got her focus on the big prize, but she’s set up to be where Skylar Cloud was a few weeks ago.
Savannah, I hope you can get over whatever it is that’s been holding you back. By my count, you should’ve already been a champion here in FGA. But there has been something there, something getting in your way. What that is, I’m not sure. Could it be the pressure you put on yourself? Could it be the pressure to be the woman who managed to secure her grasp on the EXODUS world championship? Or could it just be something else? You and I both know I was where you are. You know that I got here by overcoming everything placed in my way. You know this, so don’t be surprised when I go through you just the same.
I don’t have the answer for your troubles, Savannah. But what I do have is an L with your name on it, and a ticket out of the Frontier Lions’ cup. I mean no disrespect, but you’re not going to find the answer to your problems in this match with me. You can try and find that missing gear that you need to start collecting wins, but you’re gonna find that you don’t have enough cylinders in your engine to keep up with the machine that goes by the name of Fujiko Mine.
You’re only motivated to catch up to the rest of the competition. I’m driven, I’m forced almost mad by the urge, the desire, the impulse to do what Cordy Stevenson and Tony Carmine have done. Unlike them, though...I know I can and WILL finish the job and win the big one afterwards. You’re fooling only yourself if you think I don’t want this enough.
There is too much history for me to create, too much of an opportunity on the table for me to mess around. This isn’t about me glossing over you and your accomplishments and deciding that you’re not going to win because ‘insert generalization or insult here’. This isn’t about why you don’t deserve to win, because you do.
This is about why I need to make history.
I don’t need to make history to prove myself anymore. I’ve already hit on feats that I’ve done that no one else in the history of FGA ever has. I’ve proven that I am a top force in Frontier Grappling Arts, and I haven’t even come close to showing how good I’m going to get. You can try and diss my title defense, but coming from someone who hasn’t won a title yet in FGA? It’s just a pathetic attempt to cast doubt on me.
You can bet your last chips I’m going all in in just a few short days. I’m going Above & Beyond the competition, whether it’s another round against Johnny Karma, or my first ever meeting with Dom Harter or Chandler Scott; I’m leaving Anaheim as the second ever woman to win the cup, and the first woman to win it and then win the World title.
Making history.
I need to.
Because I need to do this to accomplish my goal of making the Pride title something truly great again. Beating the best that FGA has to offer all in one night is the best way that I can do that. I can elevate the Pride championship and myself in three installments of three seconds, and I’ll stake my claim to the world championship in those same nine seconds.
Because I know that I can.
I know that I can be the best that FGA has to offer, and I can do it better than Johnny Cannon, Zero McHannon, Tony Carmine, or anyone else in the Frontier Lions Cup. I can stand in the middle of that ring, and give the fans a reason to believe that they don’t have to constantly be subjected to the droning and circle jerking of these three kayaks filled with douche solution for the foreseeable future.
I can make them believe that a woman who stood up for them, and gives her blood, sweat, and tears for them will keep her promise and take them with her on that ride to the top.
I can make them believe that they can have a World champion that brings them pride, that brings them joy, and brings them true entertainment. Not a trio of idiots so engrossed in their own egos that they need to make twitter polls about their ratty beards or christen themselves as royalty.
I can give that to them, all while building that legacy.
It’s not just a legacy of impressive feats here in FGA that I’m talking about, either. Anyone can be great in wrestling. Few others, like Cordelia Stevenson, can be great AND do it all for the right reasons.
I can do that. I can stand in the middle of that ring at the end of Above and Beyond, the brand new winner of the Frontier Lions’ Cup, and know that I am on the track to changing everything for the better.
The Frontier Lions Cup represents new beginnings, and honors those who persevere through the toughest challenges in order to open that brand new chapter of history.
That’s the kind of history I am prepared to make.
A veritably intense chess match played out in Fujiko’s mind as she gazed out at the restaurant that rolled out in front of her. She sat, stationed with a sense of poise in a flowy white blouse and a pair of faded blue jeans. She kept her eyes forward, but they remained unfocused; the mental battle within occupying all of her attention.
She laid out her strategy for each match she could endure in the war room of her mind.
A small part of her felt remorse for allocating the same amount intensity and focus on the Frontier Lions’ Cup as she did the Pride championship. She could hear the Fujiko of a few months ago proclaiming to the world that she was going to put her focus on that belt, and do what Karma said he was going to: elevate the championship. Truth be told, she hadn’t broken her promise. She’d hopped the pond for her debut visit to SSWA and managed to defend the title against a very game Elizabeth Lannister. She avoided the disastrous outcome of losing the championship to someone outside of FGA. In positive news, she’d become the first person to defend an FGA singles title outside of the company. But she couldn’t hold her focus long on that. She returned to the various plans she had laid out in front of her to dispatch Savannah Taylor and move on to the semi finals.
That is, until the voice of her date, Donnie Behati, caused her eyes to cross for a flash before they focused on him.
"A-are…you ok?"
He asked with a bit of concern as he stared at her, taking in her beauty before trying to focus. He could tell that something was heavily on her mind, and hopefully he could help lift whatever weight was on her shoulders.
"Smothered lamb chops and loaded potatoes?"
He had learned early on how much of a food connoisseur Fujiko was, and normally, when she was distracted by her own thoughts he tried to get her attention with delicious dishes. He gave a bit of a chuckle to see if it worked this time.
"Right...for a start." She smiled as she placed her hand on the table in front of her. She put forward a gluttonous grin, reserved for when she had an inhuman amount of food in front of her ready to be eaten. She admonished herself for falling back into her pattern of hyperfocusing on matches. She was here to enjoy herself in the company of an attractive personality and a jumble of oncoming food.
"Yeah, I’m good. Just a little hungry. How like life, right?" She cackled, a little too hard before peering around Donnie to look for a waiter. She knew there was little chance he’d buy it, but she wasn’t about to gush out to this guy that she’d known only a few weeks about the variable things that made constant traffic in her head. It seemed like a poor move for a first date.
"On second thought, that does sound good."
He smiled at her, hoping to ease her mind even if for a little while. It was abnormal for him to not be in the studio, but, he enjoyed spending time with Fujiko. It beat being locked up from the world, drowning in piles of music produced by his signed artists. He’d often spend sunrise to sunset in the same place, filling his ears with music and head with ideas.
But tonight, he was in the company of a beautiful woman. He wanted to make sure that his music was completely out of his head. Over the past few weeks, he’d started seeing Fujiko more often. There went any deadlines looming over here, so Fujiko had his undivided attention.
"I heard the steak smothered with onions and gravy here’s pretty good as well."
Fujiko forced her eyes downward towards her menu and scanned over it. She’d never been to the restaurant before; she agreed to try it on Donnie’s request. She’d felt like her comfort with the music producer she’d met on a random hangout with Arkia Fisk-Jones was a little alarming, but so was a lot of things in her present situation. While her eyes were trained on a sentence she couldn’t read, her mind once again thought of Savannah Taylor, and how she was probably preparing for the match right that very second. Or how Chandler Scott was likely out penning the finishing touches on his comeback story. Her hands unconsciously balled into fists, and a small roll of anxiety crept up into her tummy.
"Yup, sure does." She responded, her autopilot doing its best to save her from looking like an absolute bimbo encountering difficulty with a simple menu.
Donnie’s ever changing eyes scanned through the menu as well, wondering what exactly should he order. A Lot of women were self conscious about eating in front of men. Sometimes, he’d suggest a nice chicken salad, or something light so they could feel comfortable and not starve themselves.
However, he wasn’t out having a business lunch with some female artist. Instead, he was out with a woman he was extremely attracted to, and he had found out that she had no issue putting away food in public. Most guys might have thought it was weird or out of the norm, but, he admired it. His eyes scanned the the outline of her shoulders before he snapped out of his zone.
"Would you like to do appetizers? The lobster stuffed shrimp looks promising."
An embittered sigh poured out of her as she drew her eyes away from the menu. She avoided eye contact with Donnie as well, glancing out the window as her nerves began to get the better of her. She felt, uncomfortable. It was even more unsettling considering how, as she was sure Donnie knew, she was normally quite at home in their current surroundings. But even the seductive dishes that she could choose from weren’t strong enough to shake her from the urge to worry that she wasn’t doing enough. Even still, she forced a normal response out to keep Donnie in the dark about her distress.
"Do I want to do appetizers? It’s like you just met me!" She winked for emphasis before she moved back into pretending to stare at the menu. Truth be told, the obsession with taking the Frontier Lions cup had nearly evaporated her normally unrelenting appetite. She resolved to go with the food choices Donnie had mentioned, and try and make it through the meal without appearing rude or inconsiderate.
"The Lobster stuffed shrimp, two plates of steak with onions and gravy, and the lamb chops with a couple of loaded potatoes. I’m decided." She let the sentence pour from her mouth as casually as asking for a glass of water.
Donnie smiled at her and gestured for the waiter to come to their table.
"For the appetizer, we’ll take the lobster stuffed shrimp. For the main course, we’d take two of your smothered steak specials, and two of the lamb chop platters, please."
"And what are you going to eat?" Fujiko (half) joked, eliciting a smile from him. He glanced away as the waiter wrote their orders and returned to the kitchen. Donnie tried to think of something to say as unrolled his utensil set. He’d never admit it, but he was pretty nervous when it came to in-person interactions with Fujiko. He was more relaxed with calls or texts, but personal interactions left him a bit speechless at times. And no, it wasn’t because of her wonderful assets.
He felt he could connect with her on levels he simply by conversation. He never just sat and talked to women, due to his time consuming work. However, when it came to Fujiko, he didn’t care to think about the early morning studio sessions he had scheduled.
When he was with her, work simply didn’t exist.
After fiddling with the napkin, he looked back at Fujiko. He glanced at her nose in hopes to minimize eye contact, and his nervousness.
"I like the blouse you’re wearing, it’s a really nice color on you."
The comment just barely made it through the figurative barrier. "Well, you know. I don’t mind wearing white here and there. I probably shouldn’t have worn this, considering what we’re eating...but, I’ve got a change of clothes out in the car." She admitted sheepishly. She immediately went back to her thoughts.
A slightly larger twinge of guilt rang through her as she continued to pay less than half of her attention to her date. To make her guilt worse was the fact that she wasn’t having a bad time. She was just so preoccupied with making sure that she was mentally in the finals before she was physically there.
He stared at her momentarily before looking away; the familiar tingling feeling of nervousness creep over him again. He wondered if this date was sinking before it could even swim, and if so, was he the cause of it? Did he suggest the right food? Provide the right compliments? He wasn’t sure. He could only stay still right there, like a mannequin in silence, not wanting to say the wrong thing. He smiled at the people who passed their table, absentmindedly placing the silverware side by side before continuously switching them around, trying to keep his mind off of how nervous he was feeling. A thought crossed his mind, and he gave it a shot.
"H-have you uh, ever tried the Cracker Jack Blondie surprise? It’s the cracker jack popcorn that serves as the topping to a caramel cheesecake. You should, uh, try it…"
There was a slight pause as Fujiko ripped her attention away from the hypothetical match she was having in her mind against Johnny Karma. She winced a bit, trying to parse out what exactly was missed. After realizing she hadn’t a guess, she scrunched up her face and sighed.
"I...I’m really sorry, Donnie. Can you excuse me a moment?" She winced and then pushed out her chair. With a short, apologetic nod, she rushed away from the table and towards the nearest bathroom. She approached it at a controlled pace, as to not arouse suspicion, and once inside, she wrenched the ‘cold’ faucet open and splashed water on her face.
"What is wrong with you?!" She hissed at herself, keeping her voice low on the chance that someone else was in range. She stared in the mirror, as if she expected her reflection to answer the question. Predictably, nothing came of it. She just stared, and it stared back into her until she placed her hands on her hips and walked in a short circle.
Donnie was kind enough to take her out to a nice dinner at a decent restaurant, and she was repaying him by being a jerk and basically ignoring him. What was she, a machine?
The answer to that question didn’t come from her reflection either. She remembered the Pride championship, sitting on the top of her dresser at home (so Henry couldn’t chew at the leather). She thought about what she went through to win that championship. She’d found a winning formula: Relax, let the match come naturally.
Stressing herself out before she even placed her foot in the ring that awaited her in Anaheim was only going to help Savannah advance. It wasn’t going to help herself. She could beat Savannah. She could beat Molly Reid. She could beat Johnny Karma, Yun Goeun, Mark Storm, Chandler Scott, and Dom Harter. She could.
But she wasn’t going to like this. There was a good chance that they thought they were ready. But she knew they weren’t. They weren’t ready for what Fujiko had already prepared. So why was she stressing herself? She knew what she was capable of come Above & Beyond. They simply, did not.
"Just go back out there and have fun with Donnie. Above & Beyond will get here when it gets here."
Her creamy brown eyes forged a promise to herself through the mirror. She stared for a moment, and then she assured herself that she could look back at this moment, after she’d won the Frontier Lions’ Cup, that she could laugh about this.
Moments later, Fujiko was back at the table, looking down at the still seated Donnie with a confident smile.
"Sorry about that, I just needed a little to clear my head."
She took her seat across from him and gave him her full attention, alongside a cheeky smirk.
The stage is set for eight competitors to go to war.
The stage is set for one of those eight to convert those dreams into reality.
I am one of the two to have the honor of participating in this for the 2nd time. Last year, it passed me by. I admit, I wasn’t ready. Tony wanted it more, and he proved it.
But I’ve been given a second chance. I’ve been given a chance to prove that I’m out here to be the best, and build a legacy to stand here in FGA. I’ve broken down the door, becoming the first woman to hold a singles title in FGA. I’ve become the first to hold both the Mid Atlantic Legacy and Pride championships, and now I have the opportunity to win the Frontier Lions’ Cup and achieve what others have tried to and failed:
Becoming a dual champion in FGA.
I’ve already proven that I can hang with the top of the top in FGA. I’ve shown that Quinn Goodrich needed to save his client from tapping out to me. That man is your current World Champion in Johnny Cannon. I've hung with Zero, Cannon, and Tony. They don't like talking about their matches with me. Why? Because they had to push themselves to be better than me. Because they needed to go outside their norm to beat me. I showed each of them that they can’t just cruise past me with a winning formula.
Perhaps it’s a bit premature of me to focus on what awaits on the other side of Above & Beyond and the Frontier Lions’ Cup. Dom Harter and Chandler Scott: Former World champions. Johnny Karma: Two time Pride champion and the only other member of the field to have attempted it before. Reid, Storm, Yun, and Taylor: All hungry for the chance to prove themselves as future permanent flag bearers at the top of the FGA mountain. They aren’t being ignored. I could end up facing Savannah, and then move on to face off against Johnny Karma once again. Or Molly Reid. Winning there could present me with Storm, Yun Goeun, Dom Harter, or Chandler Scott.
I’m sure that there are people inside this tournament who are gunning for me. Savannah Taylor is, for sure. She’s got to go through me if she wants to have any hopes of reliving glory days of standing in the ring, the top championship over her shoulder. She wants to replicate the success she found elsewhere, and she is more than likely tired of waiting for it to come to her. She’s going to want to grab the bull by the horns, steer her destiny towards the world championship, and show people why they should have never doubted her in the first place. She gets her name in the conversation even by making it out of the quarterfinals. She could find herself gunning for the Pride championship regardless of a win or a loss. I know that she’s got her focus on the big prize, but she’s set up to be where Skylar Cloud was a few weeks ago.
Savannah, I hope you can get over whatever it is that’s been holding you back. By my count, you should’ve already been a champion here in FGA. But there has been something there, something getting in your way. What that is, I’m not sure. Could it be the pressure you put on yourself? Could it be the pressure to be the woman who managed to secure her grasp on the EXODUS world championship? Or could it just be something else? You and I both know I was where you are. You know that I got here by overcoming everything placed in my way. You know this, so don’t be surprised when I go through you just the same.
I don’t have the answer for your troubles, Savannah. But what I do have is an L with your name on it, and a ticket out of the Frontier Lions’ cup. I mean no disrespect, but you’re not going to find the answer to your problems in this match with me. You can try and find that missing gear that you need to start collecting wins, but you’re gonna find that you don’t have enough cylinders in your engine to keep up with the machine that goes by the name of Fujiko Mine.
You’re only motivated to catch up to the rest of the competition. I’m driven, I’m forced almost mad by the urge, the desire, the impulse to do what Cordy Stevenson and Tony Carmine have done. Unlike them, though...I know I can and WILL finish the job and win the big one afterwards. You’re fooling only yourself if you think I don’t want this enough.
There is too much history for me to create, too much of an opportunity on the table for me to mess around. This isn’t about me glossing over you and your accomplishments and deciding that you’re not going to win because ‘insert generalization or insult here’. This isn’t about why you don’t deserve to win, because you do.
This is about why I need to make history.
I don’t need to make history to prove myself anymore. I’ve already hit on feats that I’ve done that no one else in the history of FGA ever has. I’ve proven that I am a top force in Frontier Grappling Arts, and I haven’t even come close to showing how good I’m going to get. You can try and diss my title defense, but coming from someone who hasn’t won a title yet in FGA? It’s just a pathetic attempt to cast doubt on me.
You can bet your last chips I’m going all in in just a few short days. I’m going Above & Beyond the competition, whether it’s another round against Johnny Karma, or my first ever meeting with Dom Harter or Chandler Scott; I’m leaving Anaheim as the second ever woman to win the cup, and the first woman to win it and then win the World title.
Making history.
I need to.
Because I need to do this to accomplish my goal of making the Pride title something truly great again. Beating the best that FGA has to offer all in one night is the best way that I can do that. I can elevate the Pride championship and myself in three installments of three seconds, and I’ll stake my claim to the world championship in those same nine seconds.
Because I know that I can.
I know that I can be the best that FGA has to offer, and I can do it better than Johnny Cannon, Zero McHannon, Tony Carmine, or anyone else in the Frontier Lions Cup. I can stand in the middle of that ring, and give the fans a reason to believe that they don’t have to constantly be subjected to the droning and circle jerking of these three kayaks filled with douche solution for the foreseeable future.
I can make them believe that a woman who stood up for them, and gives her blood, sweat, and tears for them will keep her promise and take them with her on that ride to the top.
I can make them believe that they can have a World champion that brings them pride, that brings them joy, and brings them true entertainment. Not a trio of idiots so engrossed in their own egos that they need to make twitter polls about their ratty beards or christen themselves as royalty.
I can give that to them, all while building that legacy.
It’s not just a legacy of impressive feats here in FGA that I’m talking about, either. Anyone can be great in wrestling. Few others, like Cordelia Stevenson, can be great AND do it all for the right reasons.
I can do that. I can stand in the middle of that ring at the end of Above and Beyond, the brand new winner of the Frontier Lions’ Cup, and know that I am on the track to changing everything for the better.
The Frontier Lions Cup represents new beginnings, and honors those who persevere through the toughest challenges in order to open that brand new chapter of history.
That’s the kind of history I am prepared to make.
A veritably intense chess match played out in Fujiko’s mind as she gazed out at the restaurant that rolled out in front of her. She sat, stationed with a sense of poise in a flowy white blouse and a pair of faded blue jeans. She kept her eyes forward, but they remained unfocused; the mental battle within occupying all of her attention.
She laid out her strategy for each match she could endure in the war room of her mind.
A small part of her felt remorse for allocating the same amount intensity and focus on the Frontier Lions’ Cup as she did the Pride championship. She could hear the Fujiko of a few months ago proclaiming to the world that she was going to put her focus on that belt, and do what Karma said he was going to: elevate the championship. Truth be told, she hadn’t broken her promise. She’d hopped the pond for her debut visit to SSWA and managed to defend the title against a very game Elizabeth Lannister. She avoided the disastrous outcome of losing the championship to someone outside of FGA. In positive news, she’d become the first person to defend an FGA singles title outside of the company. But she couldn’t hold her focus long on that. She returned to the various plans she had laid out in front of her to dispatch Savannah Taylor and move on to the semi finals.
That is, until the voice of her date, Donnie Behati, caused her eyes to cross for a flash before they focused on him.
"A-are…you ok?"
He asked with a bit of concern as he stared at her, taking in her beauty before trying to focus. He could tell that something was heavily on her mind, and hopefully he could help lift whatever weight was on her shoulders.
"Smothered lamb chops and loaded potatoes?"
He had learned early on how much of a food connoisseur Fujiko was, and normally, when she was distracted by her own thoughts he tried to get her attention with delicious dishes. He gave a bit of a chuckle to see if it worked this time.
"Right...for a start." She smiled as she placed her hand on the table in front of her. She put forward a gluttonous grin, reserved for when she had an inhuman amount of food in front of her ready to be eaten. She admonished herself for falling back into her pattern of hyperfocusing on matches. She was here to enjoy herself in the company of an attractive personality and a jumble of oncoming food.
"Yeah, I’m good. Just a little hungry. How like life, right?" She cackled, a little too hard before peering around Donnie to look for a waiter. She knew there was little chance he’d buy it, but she wasn’t about to gush out to this guy that she’d known only a few weeks about the variable things that made constant traffic in her head. It seemed like a poor move for a first date.
"On second thought, that does sound good."
He smiled at her, hoping to ease her mind even if for a little while. It was abnormal for him to not be in the studio, but, he enjoyed spending time with Fujiko. It beat being locked up from the world, drowning in piles of music produced by his signed artists. He’d often spend sunrise to sunset in the same place, filling his ears with music and head with ideas.
But tonight, he was in the company of a beautiful woman. He wanted to make sure that his music was completely out of his head. Over the past few weeks, he’d started seeing Fujiko more often. There went any deadlines looming over here, so Fujiko had his undivided attention.
"I heard the steak smothered with onions and gravy here’s pretty good as well."
Fujiko forced her eyes downward towards her menu and scanned over it. She’d never been to the restaurant before; she agreed to try it on Donnie’s request. She’d felt like her comfort with the music producer she’d met on a random hangout with Arkia Fisk-Jones was a little alarming, but so was a lot of things in her present situation. While her eyes were trained on a sentence she couldn’t read, her mind once again thought of Savannah Taylor, and how she was probably preparing for the match right that very second. Or how Chandler Scott was likely out penning the finishing touches on his comeback story. Her hands unconsciously balled into fists, and a small roll of anxiety crept up into her tummy.
"Yup, sure does." She responded, her autopilot doing its best to save her from looking like an absolute bimbo encountering difficulty with a simple menu.
Donnie’s ever changing eyes scanned through the menu as well, wondering what exactly should he order. A Lot of women were self conscious about eating in front of men. Sometimes, he’d suggest a nice chicken salad, or something light so they could feel comfortable and not starve themselves.
However, he wasn’t out having a business lunch with some female artist. Instead, he was out with a woman he was extremely attracted to, and he had found out that she had no issue putting away food in public. Most guys might have thought it was weird or out of the norm, but, he admired it. His eyes scanned the the outline of her shoulders before he snapped out of his zone.
"Would you like to do appetizers? The lobster stuffed shrimp looks promising."
An embittered sigh poured out of her as she drew her eyes away from the menu. She avoided eye contact with Donnie as well, glancing out the window as her nerves began to get the better of her. She felt, uncomfortable. It was even more unsettling considering how, as she was sure Donnie knew, she was normally quite at home in their current surroundings. But even the seductive dishes that she could choose from weren’t strong enough to shake her from the urge to worry that she wasn’t doing enough. Even still, she forced a normal response out to keep Donnie in the dark about her distress.
"Do I want to do appetizers? It’s like you just met me!" She winked for emphasis before she moved back into pretending to stare at the menu. Truth be told, the obsession with taking the Frontier Lions cup had nearly evaporated her normally unrelenting appetite. She resolved to go with the food choices Donnie had mentioned, and try and make it through the meal without appearing rude or inconsiderate.
"The Lobster stuffed shrimp, two plates of steak with onions and gravy, and the lamb chops with a couple of loaded potatoes. I’m decided." She let the sentence pour from her mouth as casually as asking for a glass of water.
Donnie smiled at her and gestured for the waiter to come to their table.
"For the appetizer, we’ll take the lobster stuffed shrimp. For the main course, we’d take two of your smothered steak specials, and two of the lamb chop platters, please."
"And what are you going to eat?" Fujiko (half) joked, eliciting a smile from him. He glanced away as the waiter wrote their orders and returned to the kitchen. Donnie tried to think of something to say as unrolled his utensil set. He’d never admit it, but he was pretty nervous when it came to in-person interactions with Fujiko. He was more relaxed with calls or texts, but personal interactions left him a bit speechless at times. And no, it wasn’t because of her wonderful assets.
He felt he could connect with her on levels he simply by conversation. He never just sat and talked to women, due to his time consuming work. However, when it came to Fujiko, he didn’t care to think about the early morning studio sessions he had scheduled.
When he was with her, work simply didn’t exist.
After fiddling with the napkin, he looked back at Fujiko. He glanced at her nose in hopes to minimize eye contact, and his nervousness.
"I like the blouse you’re wearing, it’s a really nice color on you."
The comment just barely made it through the figurative barrier. "Well, you know. I don’t mind wearing white here and there. I probably shouldn’t have worn this, considering what we’re eating...but, I’ve got a change of clothes out in the car." She admitted sheepishly. She immediately went back to her thoughts.
A slightly larger twinge of guilt rang through her as she continued to pay less than half of her attention to her date. To make her guilt worse was the fact that she wasn’t having a bad time. She was just so preoccupied with making sure that she was mentally in the finals before she was physically there.
He stared at her momentarily before looking away; the familiar tingling feeling of nervousness creep over him again. He wondered if this date was sinking before it could even swim, and if so, was he the cause of it? Did he suggest the right food? Provide the right compliments? He wasn’t sure. He could only stay still right there, like a mannequin in silence, not wanting to say the wrong thing. He smiled at the people who passed their table, absentmindedly placing the silverware side by side before continuously switching them around, trying to keep his mind off of how nervous he was feeling. A thought crossed his mind, and he gave it a shot.
"H-have you uh, ever tried the Cracker Jack Blondie surprise? It’s the cracker jack popcorn that serves as the topping to a caramel cheesecake. You should, uh, try it…"
There was a slight pause as Fujiko ripped her attention away from the hypothetical match she was having in her mind against Johnny Karma. She winced a bit, trying to parse out what exactly was missed. After realizing she hadn’t a guess, she scrunched up her face and sighed.
"I...I’m really sorry, Donnie. Can you excuse me a moment?" She winced and then pushed out her chair. With a short, apologetic nod, she rushed away from the table and towards the nearest bathroom. She approached it at a controlled pace, as to not arouse suspicion, and once inside, she wrenched the ‘cold’ faucet open and splashed water on her face.
"What is wrong with you?!" She hissed at herself, keeping her voice low on the chance that someone else was in range. She stared in the mirror, as if she expected her reflection to answer the question. Predictably, nothing came of it. She just stared, and it stared back into her until she placed her hands on her hips and walked in a short circle.
Donnie was kind enough to take her out to a nice dinner at a decent restaurant, and she was repaying him by being a jerk and basically ignoring him. What was she, a machine?
The answer to that question didn’t come from her reflection either. She remembered the Pride championship, sitting on the top of her dresser at home (so Henry couldn’t chew at the leather). She thought about what she went through to win that championship. She’d found a winning formula: Relax, let the match come naturally.
Stressing herself out before she even placed her foot in the ring that awaited her in Anaheim was only going to help Savannah advance. It wasn’t going to help herself. She could beat Savannah. She could beat Molly Reid. She could beat Johnny Karma, Yun Goeun, Mark Storm, Chandler Scott, and Dom Harter. She could.
But she wasn’t going to like this. There was a good chance that they thought they were ready. But she knew they weren’t. They weren’t ready for what Fujiko had already prepared. So why was she stressing herself? She knew what she was capable of come Above & Beyond. They simply, did not.
"Just go back out there and have fun with Donnie. Above & Beyond will get here when it gets here."
Her creamy brown eyes forged a promise to herself through the mirror. She stared for a moment, and then she assured herself that she could look back at this moment, after she’d won the Frontier Lions’ Cup, that she could laugh about this.
Moments later, Fujiko was back at the table, looking down at the still seated Donnie with a confident smile.
"Sorry about that, I just needed a little to clear my head."
She took her seat across from him and gave him her full attention, alongside a cheeky smirk.
