Welcome to the Palaestra! [Summer Splash Open Event]

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Summer Splash is arriving fast! The host country is the United States, a pleasing prospect for some of the AFW's more enthusiastic business investors. They have recently invested in buying, renovating and renewing part of a luxurious resort casino in the middle of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Before it is open to the public, the wrestlers of the AFW have all been invited to stay as guests while Summer Splash is going on. After the big event, the casino will be open to the public.

Modeled with ancient Greek architecture in mind, the Palaestra has everything the heart could desire. Exceptional food, lavish suites and some of the loosest payouts in the city! The wrestlers can make themselves at home and spend the few days before the event in lavish opulence while being blessed by the goddess of wrestling herself, Palaestra!

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(This is an open RP where characters can mingle. It will be, essentially, the backstage area for SS while it is going on and before it is going on. It will be moved to the SS section once Summer Splash starts! Have fun, everyone ^ ^

Please feel free to use this thread as a springboard into other threads. So as not to clog up things TOO much, try and keep interactions brief. (take it to another thread if it starts to become something ^ ^ ) I will post day breaks on ocassion if it seems like things need to be sped up a bit!)

Valley could have made a lot of guesses where she would be and what she'd be doing after she joined the AFW. Few of the involved a pay-per-view. Very few of them involved having a girlfriend. Absolutely none of them put her in New Jersey, of all places. Life was full of surprises.

Atlantic City would have been her first choice, but then, she was a Cali girl, used to being a lot closer to the equator this time of year. This wasn't a bad choice. Good climate, not too hot, and she'd never been on the East Coast before. For good reason, too - getting there would pretty much require her to fly.

She had done a good job of not flying before she came to Japan, and when survived the fateful flight, she thought she wouldn't have to repeat those five hours of panic attacks ever again. She'd planned to spend a long time in the land of the Rising Sun, and cross-continental flights were certainly not in the plan. But she had a match to do and a girlfriend to do it with, and two really evil bitches that needed a lot of smacks in the face. Business to do. Having Ace around her arm made the trip a bit more bearable, at least.

They had a few days before the match, though so Valley was doing a little sight-seeing in the interim, hanging around the Palaestra, and currently under Palaestra herself, looking up at the statue while she read the Wikipedia article on her phone.

"Palaestra, goddess of wrestling. Did not know that." She muttered under her breath, looking up at her new favorite nonexistent deity. "Palaestra, lover of Hermes. Cute. Palaestra, daughter of Hermes. Creepy...oh, okay, there's two of them, that makes more sense. Slightly."

Lucy Grange had arrived in the United States about a day ago, she was looking forward to the PPV she was to be a part of. The young girl was slated to be a part of a triple threat match to decide who would get a shot at a certain title down the line. The last PPV she was in had her in a dark match, against a girl called Gail Hatzis.

Now that was a name she was familiar with, they had their debut together too. Both times Ms Hatzis had been floored by the young blonde, and since then her popularity rose. She chalked it up to being in tension as well as friction, not to mention forming the United Kingdom Elite with her Brother and his best friend. The only thing she was worried about was the third person in her match, she had no knowledge of that person.

But Britain's baby girl wasn't one to be worried about the small details, she was more of a deal with the bigger problem and the smaller one will be fine sort of gal. She'd deal with Gail and the other girl when the time came. And now she was kicking back in the casino, trying her luck at a slot machine with her Brother.

"JACKPOT!" she yelled out as the machine belched out the rewards for her.

"That's it! Get out the pair of you!" a member of the staff said, that was the third jackpot they had today!

Mr Knight came out the casino with a big heavy bag full of cash, pretty much everyone in the lobby would see it. He went upstairs to get to his place. Lucy meanwhile was so happy she was actually skipping around, dressed in a red floral skirt and red bra with blue sandals. She didn't care who was watching her, and then she moved towards the pool area. Sitting down after taking her footware off, dipping her feet into the pool.

Kei is at one of the blackjack tables and the young dealer asks her if she wants at hit and she says she's fine. The Dealer then asks what's going on as there's a camera recording what is going on, not directly one of afw's, but one she knows about. "Don't worry, when you've been in the sport for as long as I have sometimes you forget they're even there. Want 'em to go away?" The Dealer shrugs. "It's harmless." Kei tells the dealer as she then takes a moment to address that she is being watched.


"It would be nice for once to sit back and enjoy the finer things in life and not worry about all the negatives, but you know, as I look around this casino, as nice as is, as great as it would be to just kick back and have some fun, something won't escape my mind." She hears someone yelling out about some recent success, she turns in that direction for a moment and shakes her head. "Well another being today's youth but that's another story for another day. The last time I was in this city was over ten years ago. Wrestling fans were blessed by Palaestra that day as I faced my long time rival Yamato Takeuchi. We've fought maybe times before, and even more since. But that day, things between us became more heated." She then points in what looks like a random direction. "Remove that wall, go down someways and you'll find the Atlantic Ocean. You won the battle in the ring that day, but for some reason you wanted to win the war. I don't know how many rivalries this promotion has that a match can get so out of hand that the police get called because we literally tore up the place along with each other, which the people that were on the street might not understand, that and because one wrestler tried to drown the other in the waters of the Atlanic Ocean. I have to thank Palasetra that you didn't succeed." Kei smiles a little bit, noticing that is distracting the dealer a little but, which she reassures her everything's fine.


"Do I blame you for it? No. Did it make things more, shall we say, interesting between us? You're darn right it did. Knowing the past and why Atlantic City will always have a historic feeling to me, the question is now that I'm back, what should I do." She ponders a bit. "Do I sit back and watch the ladies here do there thing in the ring and take it in as a fan? Do I pay no attention to it and just have some fun here and see what happens? Or, do I sit at the waters' edge and hope you come to try to finish me off again?" She shakes her head with a slight grin. "It doesn't have to be like that though, you know me, we can get along. We would play a few hands of blackjack or texas hold 'em instead or take in another form of the casino's entertainment. When got the invite to come out here I heard that I was not booked to wrestle, which is fine. A little R and R on the company dime never hurt, but you know me, I was born to wrestle, I was born to fight. Should you want to take a trip down memory lane together, baby I'm not hard to find."


She grins then turns back to the dealer, who still hasn't gone since, but is about to, and busts out. Kei grins as she takes her winnings and gets up. "Looks like I won there, I wonder what will happen next time, but that's not up to me. It's your move Yamato." She then goes to find something else to do.


Elsewhere, Lina is handing out room keys to her group as they are just arriving. From what she knows none of her crew were booked for any matches but the opportunity to scout possible future opponents and maybe potential allies was one she couldn't turn down. Sion wasn't the type of guy that loved casino gaming, but he figured he'd find something to occupy his time with and he turned on the tv until he could think of something. Daisuke joined Lita in her room as she was changing, wanting to show a little bit of class out there before the two of them headed out. After Lina checked her room out she gave Jay a ring to see if he was going to make the trip down and that she has a room key for him.

Ahh America. Though Ace had only spent a few months here working for an indy league in Chicago, it was still nice to come back. The Palaestra was big and fancy resort all right, even the rich Ace surprised at just how lavish it was.

It was so big and lavish in fact, that Ace had been having trouble finding her way around. Valley had told her to meet her by the statue of the resorts namesake goddess, but Ace had already been wandering the place for half and hour now without finding it, passing the various recreation rooms, casino areas, eateries,lobbies and restrooms, over the course of two floors, before she finally pulled her cell phone out, hitting her speed dial to call her girlfriends number.

"Uhhh...hey Val....I know you said to meet by the Palaestra statue...but um....Well....heh...[size=85:2ng09sdv]I'm kinda lost."

She blushed, glad Val couldn't see it.

Valley swore she could almost hear the blood rushing to Ace's face over the phone. She couldn't help but smile as she nestled the phone in her shoulder and started to backtrack, figuring she would bump into her girlfriend if she just retraced her steps.

"I don't blame you, this place is a labyrinth. Would've thought you'd be a little more accustomed to the space, though. Little Miss Moneybanks." Valley snatched up a map as she passed the costumer information desk, only to turn around after a few steps and snatch up two more. Couldn't hurt. "I'll come to you, just stay where you are. And welcome back to America, by the way."

"It's not my fault! You could fit my entire apartment in one of the lobbies!"

Ace replied, a slight whine in her voice that possibly carried over the phone. While what she had said was no small feat, it still rang true. Either AFW, or Atlantic City or whoever was in charge of this place had clearly spared no expense in its creation.

"Heh, thanks. Last time I was here, it was only for a few months working in some little indy league in Chicago. Not a bad little league actually, the CWF. I might check up on them while we're in the country, see if their still around and kicking."

Following her orders and staying in place, the silver haired girl adjusted her shorts, the tight pair clinging to her backside and stopping while still on her thighs, showing off her full length legs. In addition to her tank top and sandals, she looked less ready for the ring, and ready to go clubbing. Which wasn't far from the truth, given the resort probably had dancing somewhere within it's incredible amount of activities available.

Besides, it was hot.

"Yeah, you could, couldn't you?" She spun around as she moved on, marveling at the massive dome above, covered in a fresco painting of wrestling through the ages. "With enough space to fit in about half of mine."

Ace wasn't kidding, either, and for someone like her to be impressed by this? No small feat. Valley had spent quite a few nights in hotels around California when she went with her mother on the road, and while they didn't stay in the finest hotels, they didn't stay in the cheapest, either. But nothing - nothing - came even close to this. It was a stark reminder just how high her paygrade was, these days.

She found Ace near the gift shop, and started to call out to her...until those hot pants gave her a better idea. She slid up behind Ace and gave her a little squeeze on the behind, before reaching up and giving her a playful reverse bearhug. "Reflexes are a little slow. Gotta work on that before our match."

"EEP! I feel threatened!"

Ace yelped in surprise, about to turn and attack when she heard her girlfriends voice, calming her quickly as she let herself fall back in the hug, enjoying the feel of Valley's arms around her.

"Biiitch, you made me jump. I almost decked you."

She smirked, turning her head and leaning in to kiss Valley's cheek.

"Don't even worry about the match. We've got those bitches on the ropes already, and we haven't even put on our ring gear yet."

"Yes, I could tell by your totally threatening chipmunk 'EEP!' that you were about to throw a truly devastating haymaker." She took a few steps back, pulling Ace to the side so their lovey-dovey time wouldn't get in the way of passerbys.

She returned the kiss with a quick nip on Ace's lip, shivering a bit as she leaned back against the wall. "Oooo, I like it when you talk all aggressive. Sexy." She gave her a little squeeze, glad they could finally stretch out a bit after the flight. "And yeah, I'm not worried about winning. We just have to make sure you look as good as possible while doing it."

That wasn't totally true - Valley did have a few doubts about the match. While she and Ace had more experience than their opponents when it came to singles matching, no contest, Gold Hawk and Jade Lioness...or was it Gold Lioness and Jade Hawk? Whatever. Both of them had more experience as a tag team. Still, she hoped that the gap wouldn't be too wide for their individual talents to bridge the gap.