Alls Well that Ends Bell (Lily and Leona)

Things were going smoothly so far, but it was still early. Plenty of time remained for something to go catastrophically wrong. The heels of Lily's pumps clicked on the hard floor of a backstage corridor as she attempted to walk off her jitters. The little teaser they recorded just broadcast a little while ago and had kicked up at least a little buzz. Ever since the girls, well mostly Anne and Ping had been texting her screenshots of social media posts they'd found. Not all of them were excitement, but any chatter was better than silence. There was a lot on the line and she couldn't afford any big mistakes, maybe not even small ones.

Dressed in her pencil skirt and blazer she looked down at her phone as she walked, checking yet another notification of Anne furious that people were sharing pictures of that time she cried in the ring. Send. She barely saw the people around her, mostly technicians and gaffs scurrying about the work of making the show run smoothly. Her eyes were on the small screen and her mind was back at the place she now called home. She wanted to be back with the rest of the girls, or to have them here for this moment, but discretion meant they couldn't all be here. Of course she had to be on site, there was business to be done and last minute documents to sign. Who knows, someone could come rushing up to her with a dump truck full of money and a sweet merchandising deal.

For Leona, not much has happened since she joined the Afw. Her cover as a rookie wrestler has been working flawlessly and none knew her real intentions. Giving her enough room to follow leads and rumors on the company’s shady dealings. However, there was another side to the coin. While being viewed as a rookie was a great boon, it also meant that she didn’t have the reputation to get close to the many executives and main eventers.

Clad in her casual clothes which consisted of her white T-Shirt, jeans and green vest. The undercover operative walked down the hall when something caught her eye. Before she joined the league, she made sure to do her homework, and the woman coming down the hall was definitely someone of interest.

Lily Belle, The head of a large stable of wrestlers in the Afw. They were a fairly standard stable, consisting of many members from all walks of life. But what made them interesting was that they disappeared a few years back, only to suddenly return to the public eye just a few days ago with little to no explanation. There was so few facts from the rumors that many simply didn’t believe it, but now that was no longer the case.

Subtly, Leona shifted in her path. Turning just enough so that her shoulder would “accidentally” bump into Lily’s shoulder. “Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there!” she feigned, putting on an embarrassed and abashed face.

Lily was one-handedly texting, the screen's light reflecting in her glasses, when she was bumped into by a tall, buff blonde woman. This was not the first time this had happened, as the 5'2" Lily was easily overlooked by her amazonian counterparts. Still she nearly dropped her phone, with a sharp inhalation and quick hands snatching it back out of the air. Dark eyes lifted to the stranger, one hand lifting to adjust her glasses as the other brushed against the button to send her phone to its lock screen.

In an instant her look of terse annoyance was replaced by a well practiced and cordial smile, "Not a problem, sweetie, happens all the time." The woman reminded her a bit of Liz, in as much as she was strong and blonde, "It's a hard life down here in the under five-five club. Are you... looking for the locker rooms?" Lily didn't recognize her, but she'd hardly had time to learn all of the new faces yet. The stranger didn't exactly have the look of a stagehand though, or was at least a very hot stagehand.

The bump was quick and Leona’s acting was quicker. Apologizing profusely to the woman she acted as if she didn’t know, Leona was able to see the flash of annoyance cross the Lily’s bespectacled face before it was covered up with a mask of her. Leona was forgiven for her accident and Bell would unknowingly give the blonde the opening to continue her plan.

“Yes actually! I can’t believe how much of a maze this place is! I swear, management was absolutely no help with telling me where everything was. And I just got signed on a few days ago.” Leona replied, scratching the back of her head and trying to look confused. Hopefully the woman took the bait and decided to give Leona a hand.

Pink lips pressed together in thought as Lily sized up the nervous seeming newcomer as well as her own situation. She really wanted to focus on the business at hand and wrangling these first few hours, but her soft heart urged her to multitask. Biting her lower lip as she went back and forth with herself, finally she relented, "Yeah, they really throw the new talent to the sharks. I feel like half of my time here is just spent walking girls between the ramp and the showers."

Passing her phone to her left hand she held out her right, "I'm Lily, by the way. Now c'mon, we should move before some producer comes looking for you... Let's rock and roll." She chuckles to herself, laughing at her own obscure little joke.

Her ploy worked! And all Lily thought was that Leona was a nervous newbie wrestler. Smiling gratefully, the blonde would begin to follow the smaller manager as she lead her to the locker rooms. The agent would keep her charade up for as long as possible, absentmindedly looking around as she followed and listened to Lily’s words.

“I-is it really that common? You would think that management would get that fixed at some point right?” she stuttered as she followed behind. “Oh! I’m Leona, Leona Hollow.” she replied before continuing on with some probing small talk. “So have you been in AFW long? I-I mean you’d have to know where everything is right hehe.” she giggled, making sure her giggle sounded unsure and nervous.

Lily wasn't exactly the paranoid sort, nor was she inherently distrustful of strangers, add to that her preoccupation with business matters and it wasn't hard to slip small lies past her. Walking Leona along she offered her most placating of smiles, "Pleasure to meet you, Leona. Hmm? Oh, I've been with the company for a number of years. Took a sabbatical for the last few seasons though. Probably why I'm not too familiar to you." Not that she was never that popular to begin with.

"I think this place is confusing on purpose. For security reasons, maybe? If you belong here they assume someone will show you the way around, and if not you'll get lost until they catch you. Keeps fans from hiding in the lockers with cameras." Not that one had to look hard to find scantly clad pictures of many of the wrestlers with better resolution.

“That makes sense I guess. Though would it kill them to offer their rookies a guide or something?” Leona replied, keeping the conversation going and paying attention to where Lily was taking her, she may need to remember for later when all lights were out. She made herself look like she was trying to remember every detail so she wouldn’t get lost again.

”So you must be a really good wrestler if you were here for so long huh? I mean, I always heard that you needed to be made of sterner stuff to survive in the AFW. And here you are saying you’ve been around for years! What was your favorite match? Or type of match?!” Leona asked, shifting her tone to sound like the excited rookie she acted like she was.

Lily gave a sardonic laugh, "I guess this IS the rookie's guide, aren't you lucky." Relying on the kindness of the cast wasn't exactly a good practice, but management never went out of its way to make things easy, did they?

At the question of her wrestling prowess she couldn't suppress a full throated laugh, "Oh, goodness no. You either need to be very talented -or- make losing look good. I'm in the latter category, although I'm officially a manager I chalk up as much ring time as most of my stable. " She tapped her chin with an index finger, "Favorite match? Probably mud wrestling with Aria. I've always been a sucker for anything Wet and Messy." They began to pass signs vaguely indicating the direction of locker rooms, imprecise enough to still allow the uninitiated to get lost.

Leona listened closely to every word Lily said. Putting it all into the back of her mind to remember for later. She was truthful when she told her guide that she wasn’t in AFW long, but from what she learned so far from Lily. It looks like the heads at the top have no problem with sending their new catches to the deep end.

Leona was also surprised to hear that Lily didn’t wrestle. Or rather, not as much as the rest of her roster. Though what she did say was rather true now that the blonde thought about it. Only the strong or those willing to grovel beneath them were the ones to survive in AFW. Unlike other promotions indeed.

That train of thought ended however when Lily mentioned her favorite matches. “I’m sorry, what? Mud wrestling? Wet and messy? I thought this was just usual pro wrestling with a hardcore twist?” Leona genuinely asked.