Post by stj on Jun 7, 2008 19:14:48 GMT -4
Having come off another win over Sabur, I had walked through the arena looking for one person in particular, Kristina fucking Blackwell, how dare she show her face back here now? Anyone would think that the warning off that I had given her would have been enough, not many people come back after getting their face rammed over and over again into the cold fucking concrete. I hadn't told Diana what I had done, she hadn't needed to know, it had been me that had failed to stop Kristina sending her to Belle Vue and it had been my problem to deal with.
Diana was more than my partner, she was my sister, she was someone that I would look out for. I would put her safety before my own, and if I had awakened something inside of Kristina...well, all the better, grinding the mall rat's skull into the cold floor had not been enough, I had not done it to the Kristina that had hurt my family, the Kristina that had told Skylar that her mother was ill and was going away. Kristina had not even given me the satisfaction of being that same twisted woman, she had run away.
But she was not here, and in a way, I had expected that, she would keep me guessing, looking over my shoulder, and I realised with the rush that ran through me that I wouldn't have it any other way, it was the Kristina that I knew, the Kristina that I wanted to destroy. I let out a quiet laugh, turning upon the camera that had followed me in my frenzied searching, gave it a smile, took the camera from the cameraman and threw the camera into the fucking wall, causing it to fizzle to black.
It was a couple of days later that the cameras found me, dressed in white and the streak that was in my hair green rather than blue. I stretched my shoulders as I saw the camera coming towards me, it was a dark night and I found myself in an alley, one that very much reminded me of those I had spent a couple of years in, even in the warmer months, cloudless nights held a chill, one that you would never forget. It smelled, no, it reeked of alcohol, piss and vomit, that was was perhaps giving it the better of it. So why was I taking a trip down memory lane where any one of the shadows might detach from the wall and draw a blade? My own blade twirled between my fingers, old habits die hard.
I turned upon the camera and I could almost see the manic look behind my cold blue eyes reflected back at me from the lens, the smile on my face was more than a little manic and the laugh that echoed from my mouth could have chilled the blood in the veins of an Arctic wolf, my eyes were drawn to my blade still spinning as I heard a movement behind me and my voice came in a singsong tone, “Round and round she goes, where she stops, no...body...knows!” The blade stopped spinning as I span and thrust my arm out, it pointed at the shoulder of a kid, couldn't have been more than sixteen, a blade hung from his arm, hung almost limp from hunger, shock and fear. It took me two seconds to see that he was a newbie and another three to know that what had driven him here were not the demons that had driven a scared fourteen year old girl from an abusive father, above everything he looked as if he wanted to be in his nice warm bed back at home. My lips twisted into a snarl as I took even steps, forcing the kid back into the wall and taking his blade with my free hand, “Not as easy as you thought it would be out here, is it?” He shook his head desperately as I slid his blade into its sheath and slipped it into my pocket, taking out instead a line of tightly twisted notes, “Don't look at it until you get into a taxi home, kid, you don't belong here.” I slipped them into his pocket and took my own blade away from his shoulder, my gaze following him as he stumbled out of the alley. My blade began to spin again as I watched the shapes in the darkness that the cameras could not pick up.
When he was nothing more than a dark shape in the distance, I looked towards the camera once again, “I know what everyone is asking right now, what is 'Spirit' Tara Jacobs doing in an alley? Why is she revisiting a part of her past that is better leaving there? I have an answer to that but first there are a couple of small things that I have to deal with.” My eyes fixed into a hard stare, fire dancing behind the irises, “Kristina, I gave you a warning, it might not have been vocal and it might have left you out for a good couple of days, fuck, weeks with the number that I did on you, but it was a warning none the less. I told you to get the fuck away from me, to get the fuck away from my family, and I see that that warning has not been heeded. So you say that I must die? Bring it little girl, but I give you one warning more, you had better bring the girl I want, you had better bring the girl that sparked this whole shit off, what I have planned...I don't think that she will survive, and that means that the simpering weak mall rat that the APW has come to know will be murdered, I am not running anywhere, little girl, come and get me. And then there's Sab-wah. Let me tell you this right now, get your head out of your fucking ass and in the game. I have victories over you for two very simple reasons, one, because to you I am a woman first and a wrestler second and two, because I simply am that damn good. Now you go and think on that, you go and earn another shot at me and you think about what you are. Because as soon as you start blaming politics, you take another step down the path that has turned you into a living breathing cliché...the one where if it all goes bad, it can't be your fault for just plain sucking. Either find the dummy you spat out or grow a set of balls, come back to me then.”
I spat on the floor behind me before walking through the alley a small way, “As for you, Doctor Phate...or is it, what? The Twisted Schoolgirl? Ms. Twisted? Whatever you call yourself, let me explain just what I am doing here of all places. You see, I watched your promo last week, I heard your words on masks and people who wear them, and it is something that I understand, everyone wears a mask, at least one, and unlike some, I know what is beneath mine. I understand what it is to construct a mask, people have known me under, other than such colourful tagnames as Your Friendly Neighbourhood Psychopath and The Matriarch of UltraViolence, Spirit, STJ or 'Spirit' Tara Jacobs, never simply Tara Jacobs, and there is a simple reason for that. Tara Jacobs has never stepped into the ring. Tara Jacobs stepped onto the street and from there constructed a new her, the person that she needed to be to survive. The girl that would not take the blows thrown at her without meeting them in kind, the girl that would get up when she should not be able to. And then that girl was taken in by a wrestling couple that had been on the same streets, and there she became a wrestler and there she found an outlet for her anger, there she found a reason to fight. Wrestler, street kid, broken teenager and on top of that, the Dark Paladin of Kaos. And those parts of me that earned the other tagnames I have worked under, the Hardcore Degenerate, those that I mentioned earlier, they are still around. This isn't a matter of me blacking out, but it's a matter of where the mood takes me and when.”
I smirked at the camera, “You know something, girl, I find it funny that an attack on Doctor Phate's masculinity is what brought you to the surface, because like me, you are a layered person, you are a mindset that has been forged out of necessity. So what brings you out of a man like Doctor Phate? What part of it, the part that gives you your urge to survive, from what have you been forged? Or are you Doctor Phate in drag trying to mindfuck the opponent?” The blade stopped spinning just long enough for me to tap it against the wall of the alley, “So let me do a little analysis here, the schoolgirl is a measure of fantasy, it's something that lies under the desires of most any man that you will ever see, and for that same reason it is predatory, you come out in a uniform and, like men like Sabur who can't see past a pair of breasts, they forget that you are a capable wrestler. But to dress like a girl, or for his alternate state of mind to dress like a girl, the guess a lot of people would come up with is that you are a woman trapped in a man's body...but no, I certainly didn't have the street kid within me until she was forged. There was a strong woman in your life would be my best guess...but then if you're a different person altogether, then you're the wrong person to ask. Still, I understand you more than others might or would care to, because you see, the thing about my masks is that they are multi-faceted, they are seamless, you never quite know who you are dealing with.”
A shadow moved at my side,stalked closer to me, and again my voice came in a singsong pitch, “Round and round she goes, where she stops, no...body...knows!” I twisted and slammed a hand into the wall, once, twice, a knife dropped from it as my knee met tender flesh and my knife lashed out of its own accord against the now broken hand, digging into the flesh, I twisted the blade, and though the cut barely deserved to be called shallow, it brought out a scream, with my free hand, I took a jaw in a vice like grip, and this kid was one that I could see would mug his own grandmother. My head reared in, the forehead catching him on the jaw as I let my blade move back to let him slide into a whimpering mess on the floor, “That, was a warning.” I turned my head to look at the other form that I knew was there and it was clear that my words were not directed to the mess at my feet. My voice took on a rawer edge, “I know that you like to mindfuck people, sister, I've done my research, your problem is, whose mind are you trying to fuck with? When you meet a single-minded person, you can find your way in, but then you meet one who is faceted, one who, when someone threatens to get under her skin, sheds it and becomes someone else, someone else to figure out, who am I? What are my levers? What is the key to unlocking me? And when you have that, I shed once more. So then, little girl, it comes down not to a battle of the minds, but to pure talent and there, there I am willing to meet you and there I shall overcome you. For whoever I am, whoever you stand against in the ring, whether she is the Dark Paladin, whether she is the street thug, whether she is Your Friendly Neighbourhood Psychopath, she is someone that will do anything to win, and then rub it in your face because it only has to escape notice for three seconds. Yes, I screwed Sabur, in a very non-sexual way, it's on camera and I ain't denying it.”
There was a whimpering by my foot and the thug reached for his blade. I laughed as I kicked it away, my voice taking on a mocking edge, “Sparkling angel I believed you were my saviour in my time of need. Blinded by faith I couldn't hear all the whispers, the warnings so clear.” I moved on and stepped out of the alley and the sounds of the Biloxi nightlife could be heard in the distance, my voice returned to its original tone, “Phate, let me give you a warning, I know that you are undefeated in the APW, and I myself have an unblemished singles record here, it is a record that I do not intend to lose any time soon and if I have to defend that record by breaking you, then that is what I am going to do. Now, I know that this sounds a little cliché such as I have been accusing Sabur of becoming, so let me clarify this. If I have to pull your little panties for some leverage, if I have to put my feet on the ropes, if I have to knock you out with a steel chain, I am going to do it. If I have to lock you in a submission and use it to twist your body, to break you in half, then I shall do so, I am not someone that makes threats like 'I will do whatever I have to to win' without backing them up. I am not someone who makes threats period, I do not make promises, I do not lay out guaran-damn-tes, I am someone that lays down the Cold Hard Facts. I know a little of your record and from that little, I know to be wary, I know that you can be dangerous, I know to look past the school uniform and see the wrestler that will break me in half if I let whatever pronoun you happen to use, that is why I am undefeated in singles action, because unlike those who see a woman when they look at me, I see a wrestler. I see someone who can harm me, so I analyse how, I work out what I need to do and when I have that answer, I know all that I need to to smite their gameplans, to shatter their hopes of pulling out the victory.”
I slipped my blade into its handle and walked through the alleys into the more populated areas of Biloxi, the lighting becoming more frequent, “So how are you going to get under my skin, Phate? How do you intend to frighten someone who has been left broken and remoulded herself, how do you intend to put away someone who has fought with dislocations until she could pop the joint back into place halfway through the match? Kaos is around and within all and I am one that embodies that, how do you intend to resist the irresistible force that is Kaos? I am asking you this because, Phate, this is not personal, I am not looking to destroy you so you need to know that Kaos is not something that you can stand against, you need to know your limits and know just when to quit otherwise you are going to get hurt, badly, and I say this as someone who knows how capable you are, someone that does not underestimate her opponents, but also as someone that speaks Cold Hard Fact. I want you to think about, for your sake, what you are going to do in the ring this Monday, oh I know you are going to turn up, I am not expecting words to stop you, but for your sake, they had better sink in.”
I blinked and my voice dropped as the light from the streetlamps hit my eyes, “When we meet, it will not be for the faint of heart, it will not be for the faint of Spirit, when we meet, Kaos shall rip and roar, never satisfied, always lusting for more. Outward shows hide inner cores, when two meet one may be damaged, the other more. The forces shall tear and rend, never sated, when this is over, one shall be ill Phated. These are the words of the Dark Paladin, may Kaos have the mercy on your soul that I will lack on your body, for I am the Dark Paladin, for I am she of many masks, pro ego sum Spiritus.”
I looked at the camera, blinking again, and then straightened my duster over my shoulders and walked away into the night, leaving the scene to fade into black.
Diana was more than my partner, she was my sister, she was someone that I would look out for. I would put her safety before my own, and if I had awakened something inside of Kristina...well, all the better, grinding the mall rat's skull into the cold floor had not been enough, I had not done it to the Kristina that had hurt my family, the Kristina that had told Skylar that her mother was ill and was going away. Kristina had not even given me the satisfaction of being that same twisted woman, she had run away.
But she was not here, and in a way, I had expected that, she would keep me guessing, looking over my shoulder, and I realised with the rush that ran through me that I wouldn't have it any other way, it was the Kristina that I knew, the Kristina that I wanted to destroy. I let out a quiet laugh, turning upon the camera that had followed me in my frenzied searching, gave it a smile, took the camera from the cameraman and threw the camera into the fucking wall, causing it to fizzle to black.
It was a couple of days later that the cameras found me, dressed in white and the streak that was in my hair green rather than blue. I stretched my shoulders as I saw the camera coming towards me, it was a dark night and I found myself in an alley, one that very much reminded me of those I had spent a couple of years in, even in the warmer months, cloudless nights held a chill, one that you would never forget. It smelled, no, it reeked of alcohol, piss and vomit, that was was perhaps giving it the better of it. So why was I taking a trip down memory lane where any one of the shadows might detach from the wall and draw a blade? My own blade twirled between my fingers, old habits die hard.
I turned upon the camera and I could almost see the manic look behind my cold blue eyes reflected back at me from the lens, the smile on my face was more than a little manic and the laugh that echoed from my mouth could have chilled the blood in the veins of an Arctic wolf, my eyes were drawn to my blade still spinning as I heard a movement behind me and my voice came in a singsong tone, “Round and round she goes, where she stops, no...body...knows!” The blade stopped spinning as I span and thrust my arm out, it pointed at the shoulder of a kid, couldn't have been more than sixteen, a blade hung from his arm, hung almost limp from hunger, shock and fear. It took me two seconds to see that he was a newbie and another three to know that what had driven him here were not the demons that had driven a scared fourteen year old girl from an abusive father, above everything he looked as if he wanted to be in his nice warm bed back at home. My lips twisted into a snarl as I took even steps, forcing the kid back into the wall and taking his blade with my free hand, “Not as easy as you thought it would be out here, is it?” He shook his head desperately as I slid his blade into its sheath and slipped it into my pocket, taking out instead a line of tightly twisted notes, “Don't look at it until you get into a taxi home, kid, you don't belong here.” I slipped them into his pocket and took my own blade away from his shoulder, my gaze following him as he stumbled out of the alley. My blade began to spin again as I watched the shapes in the darkness that the cameras could not pick up.
When he was nothing more than a dark shape in the distance, I looked towards the camera once again, “I know what everyone is asking right now, what is 'Spirit' Tara Jacobs doing in an alley? Why is she revisiting a part of her past that is better leaving there? I have an answer to that but first there are a couple of small things that I have to deal with.” My eyes fixed into a hard stare, fire dancing behind the irises, “Kristina, I gave you a warning, it might not have been vocal and it might have left you out for a good couple of days, fuck, weeks with the number that I did on you, but it was a warning none the less. I told you to get the fuck away from me, to get the fuck away from my family, and I see that that warning has not been heeded. So you say that I must die? Bring it little girl, but I give you one warning more, you had better bring the girl I want, you had better bring the girl that sparked this whole shit off, what I have planned...I don't think that she will survive, and that means that the simpering weak mall rat that the APW has come to know will be murdered, I am not running anywhere, little girl, come and get me. And then there's Sab-wah. Let me tell you this right now, get your head out of your fucking ass and in the game. I have victories over you for two very simple reasons, one, because to you I am a woman first and a wrestler second and two, because I simply am that damn good. Now you go and think on that, you go and earn another shot at me and you think about what you are. Because as soon as you start blaming politics, you take another step down the path that has turned you into a living breathing cliché...the one where if it all goes bad, it can't be your fault for just plain sucking. Either find the dummy you spat out or grow a set of balls, come back to me then.”
I spat on the floor behind me before walking through the alley a small way, “As for you, Doctor Phate...or is it, what? The Twisted Schoolgirl? Ms. Twisted? Whatever you call yourself, let me explain just what I am doing here of all places. You see, I watched your promo last week, I heard your words on masks and people who wear them, and it is something that I understand, everyone wears a mask, at least one, and unlike some, I know what is beneath mine. I understand what it is to construct a mask, people have known me under, other than such colourful tagnames as Your Friendly Neighbourhood Psychopath and The Matriarch of UltraViolence, Spirit, STJ or 'Spirit' Tara Jacobs, never simply Tara Jacobs, and there is a simple reason for that. Tara Jacobs has never stepped into the ring. Tara Jacobs stepped onto the street and from there constructed a new her, the person that she needed to be to survive. The girl that would not take the blows thrown at her without meeting them in kind, the girl that would get up when she should not be able to. And then that girl was taken in by a wrestling couple that had been on the same streets, and there she became a wrestler and there she found an outlet for her anger, there she found a reason to fight. Wrestler, street kid, broken teenager and on top of that, the Dark Paladin of Kaos. And those parts of me that earned the other tagnames I have worked under, the Hardcore Degenerate, those that I mentioned earlier, they are still around. This isn't a matter of me blacking out, but it's a matter of where the mood takes me and when.”
I smirked at the camera, “You know something, girl, I find it funny that an attack on Doctor Phate's masculinity is what brought you to the surface, because like me, you are a layered person, you are a mindset that has been forged out of necessity. So what brings you out of a man like Doctor Phate? What part of it, the part that gives you your urge to survive, from what have you been forged? Or are you Doctor Phate in drag trying to mindfuck the opponent?” The blade stopped spinning just long enough for me to tap it against the wall of the alley, “So let me do a little analysis here, the schoolgirl is a measure of fantasy, it's something that lies under the desires of most any man that you will ever see, and for that same reason it is predatory, you come out in a uniform and, like men like Sabur who can't see past a pair of breasts, they forget that you are a capable wrestler. But to dress like a girl, or for his alternate state of mind to dress like a girl, the guess a lot of people would come up with is that you are a woman trapped in a man's body...but no, I certainly didn't have the street kid within me until she was forged. There was a strong woman in your life would be my best guess...but then if you're a different person altogether, then you're the wrong person to ask. Still, I understand you more than others might or would care to, because you see, the thing about my masks is that they are multi-faceted, they are seamless, you never quite know who you are dealing with.”
A shadow moved at my side,stalked closer to me, and again my voice came in a singsong pitch, “Round and round she goes, where she stops, no...body...knows!” I twisted and slammed a hand into the wall, once, twice, a knife dropped from it as my knee met tender flesh and my knife lashed out of its own accord against the now broken hand, digging into the flesh, I twisted the blade, and though the cut barely deserved to be called shallow, it brought out a scream, with my free hand, I took a jaw in a vice like grip, and this kid was one that I could see would mug his own grandmother. My head reared in, the forehead catching him on the jaw as I let my blade move back to let him slide into a whimpering mess on the floor, “That, was a warning.” I turned my head to look at the other form that I knew was there and it was clear that my words were not directed to the mess at my feet. My voice took on a rawer edge, “I know that you like to mindfuck people, sister, I've done my research, your problem is, whose mind are you trying to fuck with? When you meet a single-minded person, you can find your way in, but then you meet one who is faceted, one who, when someone threatens to get under her skin, sheds it and becomes someone else, someone else to figure out, who am I? What are my levers? What is the key to unlocking me? And when you have that, I shed once more. So then, little girl, it comes down not to a battle of the minds, but to pure talent and there, there I am willing to meet you and there I shall overcome you. For whoever I am, whoever you stand against in the ring, whether she is the Dark Paladin, whether she is the street thug, whether she is Your Friendly Neighbourhood Psychopath, she is someone that will do anything to win, and then rub it in your face because it only has to escape notice for three seconds. Yes, I screwed Sabur, in a very non-sexual way, it's on camera and I ain't denying it.”
There was a whimpering by my foot and the thug reached for his blade. I laughed as I kicked it away, my voice taking on a mocking edge, “Sparkling angel I believed you were my saviour in my time of need. Blinded by faith I couldn't hear all the whispers, the warnings so clear.” I moved on and stepped out of the alley and the sounds of the Biloxi nightlife could be heard in the distance, my voice returned to its original tone, “Phate, let me give you a warning, I know that you are undefeated in the APW, and I myself have an unblemished singles record here, it is a record that I do not intend to lose any time soon and if I have to defend that record by breaking you, then that is what I am going to do. Now, I know that this sounds a little cliché such as I have been accusing Sabur of becoming, so let me clarify this. If I have to pull your little panties for some leverage, if I have to put my feet on the ropes, if I have to knock you out with a steel chain, I am going to do it. If I have to lock you in a submission and use it to twist your body, to break you in half, then I shall do so, I am not someone that makes threats like 'I will do whatever I have to to win' without backing them up. I am not someone who makes threats period, I do not make promises, I do not lay out guaran-damn-tes, I am someone that lays down the Cold Hard Facts. I know a little of your record and from that little, I know to be wary, I know that you can be dangerous, I know to look past the school uniform and see the wrestler that will break me in half if I let whatever pronoun you happen to use, that is why I am undefeated in singles action, because unlike those who see a woman when they look at me, I see a wrestler. I see someone who can harm me, so I analyse how, I work out what I need to do and when I have that answer, I know all that I need to to smite their gameplans, to shatter their hopes of pulling out the victory.”
I slipped my blade into its handle and walked through the alleys into the more populated areas of Biloxi, the lighting becoming more frequent, “So how are you going to get under my skin, Phate? How do you intend to frighten someone who has been left broken and remoulded herself, how do you intend to put away someone who has fought with dislocations until she could pop the joint back into place halfway through the match? Kaos is around and within all and I am one that embodies that, how do you intend to resist the irresistible force that is Kaos? I am asking you this because, Phate, this is not personal, I am not looking to destroy you so you need to know that Kaos is not something that you can stand against, you need to know your limits and know just when to quit otherwise you are going to get hurt, badly, and I say this as someone who knows how capable you are, someone that does not underestimate her opponents, but also as someone that speaks Cold Hard Fact. I want you to think about, for your sake, what you are going to do in the ring this Monday, oh I know you are going to turn up, I am not expecting words to stop you, but for your sake, they had better sink in.”
I blinked and my voice dropped as the light from the streetlamps hit my eyes, “When we meet, it will not be for the faint of heart, it will not be for the faint of Spirit, when we meet, Kaos shall rip and roar, never satisfied, always lusting for more. Outward shows hide inner cores, when two meet one may be damaged, the other more. The forces shall tear and rend, never sated, when this is over, one shall be ill Phated. These are the words of the Dark Paladin, may Kaos have the mercy on your soul that I will lack on your body, for I am the Dark Paladin, for I am she of many masks, pro ego sum Spiritus.”
I looked at the camera, blinking again, and then straightened my duster over my shoulders and walked away into the night, leaving the scene to fade into black.
