Jungle of the Times

Mercy tapped her fingers against her desk. She'd finished up the paperwork she had to do before lunch and was now waiting on a meeting with a prospective applicant. Rally was out for the day but that never stopped her from taking on appointments. Rally's casual style of executing in general never interfered with her work or play. It was the reason Mercy was around, after all. All the things Rally hated, Mercy loved. She also gave the pink haired paralegal quite the vote of confidence when she said that she trusted her opinion on any prospective employees.

She was waiting for one such girl to appear. A Chinese girl named Yi Lan. She didn't look very impressive on paper but she had intriguing blonde hair. Mercy thought she might bring something to the table. There were a lot of girls in the league who were all but useless in an actual wrestling match. A lot of times skill didn't even matter. Well, it didn't matter to some people. She wondered what might happen if Lukretia actually had unobstructed ability to hire and fire people in the company how thousands of girls might instantly be out of work. She would have chuckled if not for the fact that her own neck might be on the chopping block.

But it wasn't like that and Yi Lan had as much chance of getting into the wrestling ring as Mercy might if she wanted to. But even so, Mercy still had to check the girl out and make sure she wasn't a bad fit for AFW. She was still trying to figure out what that even MEANT. She shrugged and turned up the speakers on her computer which cranked out some [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuqqOrwpLow:1luy4bes]music[/url:1luy4bes] that she was bobbing along to.

She was feeling a little old school.

Yi Lan made her way through the narrow hallways of this part of the AFW building, passing offices belonging to several lower-ranking members of the promotionâ€s management as she made her way to the appointed place for her entrance interview. She was focused as could be, eyes staring straight ahead, arms glued to her sides as she marched through those corridors. She couldnâ€t afford to let her mind wander. If she let her mind wander, she might double-guess herself, and she might find that she no longer had the courage to go through with her plan of joining AFW.

She would have had good reason to turn back right now. Out of three AFW wrestlers who she had met, one had manipulated her emotions and tried to make her into a plaything, while another had thrown food on her and run off in the middle of what Lan had sort of hoped would turn into a lunch date. There didnâ€t seem to be very many normal girls here. The thought of having to interact with such crazy people on a daily basis terrified the reserved Chinese girl.

Lan forced all of that to the back of her mind. She didnâ€t want to be distracted for her interview. She came to a halt in front of a wooden door, glancing from it to the piece of paper in her hand and back to ensure that it was, indeed, the place she was looking for. Slowly, shakily, Lan would raise her hand and rap on the door, waiting to be allowed entry.

Mercy had barely heard the timid knock while her music blared int he office. She was expecting whoever was supposed to show up for her appointment would just show up. Mercy was a secretary. People waited in her office when they wanted to see Rally.

When her song finished, Mercy blew a lock of pink hair out of her face. The girl wasn't here and Mercy was thirsty. She decided to run down to the lounge real quick for some coffee. She straightened her tie, clicked her music off and then walked to the door. She put her headphones on and turned up the music. She closed her eyes as she began to hum and opened the door. She took a step before her body slammed into something soft. She fell on her butt and looked at what the problem was. She knew it was a person but she wasn't expecting the blonde Chinese girl. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" She said it loud enough so she could hear her own voice. Unfortunately it probably sounded like Mercy was screaming at Lan.

Lan lowered her hand to her side after knocking and waited. There was no response. After two or three minutes had passed, she would close her hand into a fist and knock on the door again. The seconds seemed to pass by as slowly as minutes, for still, the woman inside didnâ€t open the door to allow Lan entry. The Chinese girl was starting to get very nervous now. She had come to the right place, hadnâ€t she? Her eyes darted to the number next to the door, then down the hall the way she had come, and then back to the door. Her cheeks took on a faint red hue. She wasnâ€t quite sure what to do now. She felt very lost all of a sudden—naked and exposed in an unfamiliar environment, with things already not going very smoothly.

Thankfully, she did not have much time to dwell on that, as the door was opening. Lan straightened herself up to her full height and forced a smile onto her face, but, before she could say anything, the pink-haired woman who emerged from the office rammed right into her, knocking the Chinese girl back a step until she bumped into the opposite wall. “Ooof!” Lan groaned, looking down at Mercy with some surprise. She turned a little pale when she was yelled at by the fallen secretary. Wasnâ€t this the right place? Wasnâ€t this pink-haired woman the person she was looking for? But, if she was, then why her seeming surprise at Lanâ€s presence, and why the yelling?

“I…Iâ€m sorry!” Lan apologized quickly. “I was…waiting for my, uh, m-my interview!”

Mercy looked at Lan incredulously and then opened her mouth. "WHAT!?" She barked. Her music was too loud. She then held out her hand and waved. "HOLD ON!"She took off her headphones and then looked at Lan "WHAT!? Eep!" Mercy squeaked as she screamed loud enough to make herself flinch.

She then stood up and brushed herself off. She tilted her head. "You're Yi Lan, eight? The three o'clock?" Mercy huffed and turned. She opened the door. "Well, lucky you showed up. I was just about to grab some coffee. Here." Mercy said and waved Lan inside. "We can conduct the interview now. Coffee can wait." Go head and have a seat." She said, motioning to the chair in front of her desk while she swung herself around and plopped in her own comfortable and ergonomic office seat.

Lan shriveled a little more as the girl continued to yell at her, but, when she took out her headphones and quieted down, the Chinese girlâ€s fears of having come to the wrong room were, at last, put to rest. The pink-haired secretary began modulating her voice, too, which Lan was very thankful for. “Th-thatâ€s right! Thatâ€s me,” she confirmed, when Mercy asked if she was Yi Lan. She followed the secretary meekly into the office, taking a seat in the chair in front of the desk while her interviewer sat down in the comfier one behind it. Lan wiggled a little to get as settled in as she could, then folded her hands in her lap and looked up at Mercy.

“Th-thanks for meeting with me,” Lan said, smiling a little as she tried to make a good impression on the woman who would play a large role in deciding her future employment status.

"Mhmmmm." Mercy said as she folded her hands on the desk and began to click on her mouse, scrolling through something on her computer screen that flashed in her glasses. 'Girls meet up for this all the time. Really, they pretty much let anyone in. Sometimes they make them come in, sometimes, well, whatever." Mercy said and shrugged. She adjusted her glasses and looked at Lan.

"You don't look like much of a wrestler. I'd ask if you were joining the kawaii division but you look tall. Ok, so basically." Mercy said, "If you want to join you have to sign a waiver. The AFW Corporation will not be held responsible for any injuries, ailments, loss of limbs, sicknesses, deaths. Nor will your family, should your death be the result of an accident that occurred on the job, on location, because of or by the proprietor, be able to sue for damages caused by financial set backs or for grieving purposes."

Mercy slid Lan a form and looked at her like she had spoken perfectly normal things. "So, why are you getting into wrestling? What's your gimmick?" Mercy narrowed her eyes. It says you're from China? What brings you to this magical place?" She asked sardonically.

“Y-yes, I did hear that it isnâ€t…isnâ€t too difficult to get in, or anything,” Lan said, looking back up at Mercy, her gaze passing just over the secretaryâ€s right shoulder before, with some effort, she would move it a few inches to the right so as to meet Mercyâ€s blue eyes. She was still not very comfortable with making eye contact, but she would do her best to seem personable. Sure, they accepted almost anyone, but that only made the criteria for entry into AFW all the more mysterious. Lan did not want to inadvertently set off any red flags by appearing to be completely unsocial. She kept her gaze on Mercyâ€s face with some effort as the secretary explained the contract Lan was to sign. The Chinese girl also took note of what her interviewer had said before that—that she didnâ€t look like much of a wrestler, and that she could be signed up for the Kawaii Division, save for the fact that she was too tall.

Lanâ€s cheeks reddened a little upon hearing that. “I…” she began, then trailed off, letting the secretary slide the form over to her and ask her why she had come to Japan to get into wrestling without interruption. Then, after perfunctorily signing the form, Lan would look back up and reply: “I…actually h-have some, uh, fighting…training,” she began. “I didnâ€t originally come to Tokyo t-to wrestle, but I m-met some wrestlers here, and they seemed, uh…uh…” Intimidating? Mysterious? Emotionally disturbed?

“…nice. S-s-so I wanted to join myself.”

Mercy looked at Lan with a skeptically raised eyebrow. She felt like she might be able to take the timid Chinese girl in a fight. But that wasn't the most peculiar thing Yi Lan had said.

"Nice!?" Mercy repeated and leaned on. She felt her head shaking a negative response to Lan's words while she debated whether or not to scold the blonde or laugh derisively. "Who could you have possibly met that was nice?!" She asked. There were a few girls who were nice. Herself included, but the actual wrestlers? What scenario could have possibly have brought Lan to the conclusion that wrestling at the AFW was some kind of pick nick. She had to know more.

"No, really... I want to know why you're actually joining. There's no way one of our wrestlers recruited you." She said, leaning forward and looking Lan seriously in the eye, expecting quite the tale.

After trying so hard to look collected and confident, Lan could not help but wither a little when Mercy fixed those skeptical blue eyes on her. She smiled meekly and let her head droop, just sitting there like a wilted flower until Mercy spoke again, asking a series of questions that the blonde Chinese girl was at a complete loss for how to answer. Even Lan herself could not have pinpointed one exact reason she was joining AFW. It was a confusing cocktail of emotions that had led her to this decision, and, as socially awkward as she was, she knew she had no hope of properly articulating them.

“Umm…w-well, maybe…maybe not nice, I g-guess…I guess?” she stammered, trying to qualify her earlier statement. “Uhh…interesting, maybe? Is that a better word? I mean…th-they did seem n-n-nice. Mostly. But, uh, as f-for why I wanted to join, I…” She paused. All sorts of possible answers were swirling about in her head, but she needed to pick one, and pick one fast.

“They…no one recruited me, really. I met some wrestlers who work here, and I th-thought it sounded like…a challenge. Like I said, I d-do have training in th-this sort of…stuff, so I sort of wanted to prove m-myself.” That was true. The initial reason she had become interested in AFW was because Allison had told her that she was not a fighter. Lan wanted to prove otherwise, mostly to herself, but maybe to Allison, as well. But then Jocelyn had entered the mix, and things had become much more confusing. Should she mention her? No, probably not.

But should she, though? Lan was so confused. Her mouth hung open an inch, but no words came out, as a light blush appeared on her cheeks as she thought about her countrywoman.