>>18543274Carmody steps a little closer, looking at Sola Fire, studying her expressive blue eyes, her lightly-tanned face now slightly sweaty and carrying a reddish glow from her recent workout and maybe another reason? Sola keeps assuring her that "it's fine", but she's obviously very nervous. And was there a hint of an extra weight behind her stare just now, almost like..... no, maybe not.
Setting aside all that, though, Carmody can feel the sincerity of Sola's offer to help.
>"Sola, thank you. I'd be grateful to have you there, backing me up. You're right, Nika's probably not a direct threat..... yet, but it looks like she's got at least two other wrestlers, who'd probably jump in if she told 'em to. I could really use the support."Carmody is struck by the common circumstances of their situation: they're around the same age, wrestlers at the beginning of their career, (Sola can't be much older than her, if any), both shunned and dismissed by Colby, both menaced by Lightning Nika. They're really in this together in a lot of ways. And Carmody would like to have some friends here in Spaghetti Town.
>"I also wanna apologize for my sister. I can vouch for that she was raised better than that. We both were. Maybe it's true what people say about those Divine Angels, because she wasn't always like this. Well, let me offer you this: my phone number's (555) 123-9876, and I pick up when one of my friends wants to talk.">"Now, I know I've interrupted your workout, and you've been so patient and kind to not just talk about this with me, but offering to watch my back during our match. Well, I finished working out, and I was about to run to the Smoothie Tyrant down the street for my post-workout protein shake. If you wanna tell me what kind you like to get, I'll pick you up one too and run it back here, so you can have it once you're done. Maybe chat a little, if you've got time and don't mind the company?" 