Alert, Alarm, almost giving way to panic. Mrs. Hansen face was drawn, haggard. The resemblance to her daughter, which Ray had to steel himself for every time he visited, was far less pronounced. She had no words for him, only hysteria. When she grabbed his elbow, Ray reacted with instinct. He folded...

((Raymond Dawson continued from SOTF: Version 4)) It wasn't often Ray got to come home anymore. Either he was training for a fight, or helping someone train, or he was fighting, and the schedule just didn't permit it. But when he got to come home, he savored it. Seeing the faces, the locales, feelin...

Jennifer received the call at about 2 in the afternoon on a Monday. If she hadn't been home from work grieving, she wouldn't have even seen it until hours later. She almost didn't pick it up anyway. As far as she was concerned, the whole world could fuck right off. But when she looked at it, she rec...

Ray glanced up at the clock as he grabbed an end of the mat and started rolling. He almost didn't hear what Stacy was saying. It did ring in his head though. Fucking 'voluntary' practice. Last time they did that, he didn't get home till like 8:30. He really just wanted to see his sister today. The l...

Ray smirked. "Never had the 'pleasure' of facing a girl in in my division before. Usually they cut down to like 110 to 120. I would think I could handle it." He paused, then added, "Maybe." Ray followed Stacy's eyes up to the clock. "Shit. Guess my breaks done. Least we're w...

((you're fine. I didn't do too much better. Sorry.)) Ray let go of the wrist. The windmill action wasn't what did it to him; people had done that before to break arm drags. It was the noise Stacy made with it that killed his focus. He found himself trying to stifle a laugh, but it managed to sneak o...

Ray moved in carefully now, wary of Stacy's speed. Guys around his weight were among the faster grapplers, but Stacy likely had to base a huge part of her style on it. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to shoot on her. She was low to the ground, and could probably bury his head into the mat with her ...

Ray's eyes widened. He probably should have expected Stacy would bail on the hip toss, but he'd been acting on instinct so he hadn't quite been acting coolly at the moment. If he'd had the whizzer tight that would've been all she wrote and Stacy would've gone mat-down, but she had plenty of room to ...

Ray was, of course distracted when Stacy took her shot. He was, of course, not entirely ready. He was also, of course, pissed. Oh hell, HELL no. The tennis ball went flying out of his hands as the little female wrestler drove into him. He didn't have time to sprawl or get his hands down to check her...

Ray was about to start reaching a hand out to gauge Stacy's reaction when something hit him in the ribs, not nearly hard enough to hurt, but enough to distract him for a second. He looked down, and saw he he'd been tapped by a tennis ball. He looked up and saw the owner coming towards him. He'd been...

Ray rubbed the back of his neck as Stacy jogged over. He couldn't just work takedowns on her, at least not straight. If he did, all he'd be learning was how it felt to use muscle to compensate for a lack of technique. Unless she could tell him when he was fucking up. "Yeah, takedowns. Just resi...

Ray had moved on to miming takedowns from the clinch now, and he almost didn't notice the girl come in as he worked. His back had been to her when he came in, and when he had finished practicing shrugging off an opponent's collar tie to drop for a single, he saw her out of the corner of his eye. He ...

Ray sometimes felt like he didn't even know school existed, that he flew on autopilot through the whole thing and that his life didn't start till he was back home, or in the gym like he was now. Damned if he remembered anything school-related, just enough apparently to grade high enough to keep his ...

Ray gave Sable a last wave and a nod and turned back on his heels, heading back out. He felt good about the day, even though he hadn't done what he'd been intending. This wasn't a loss, by any means. That girl Sable looked a damn sight better when she was actually smiling, even cute when combined wi...

Ray flipped Sable a thumbs up. "Hey. Confidence is almost always a good thing. You got time and another shot at it, might as well do what you can with it." He slipped another glance at his phone, and then pushed himself off of the balance beam. One of his hands swept his gym bag up and ove...