Post by stj on Apr 14, 2008 9:07:01 GMT -4
I walked slowly in the inky blackness of night. Two years ago, I would have given anything just for this activity that people take for granted, two years ago, I had been told that I might never walk again.
There are times that change a person's life, experiences that define them, that will leave them...not as they were before.
Two years have been hell, physical as I worked my leg mercilessly and mental as I flushed away the anger, the pain that I have carried, only to be replaced by the mental torture of those consigned to the sidelines.
People have been through worse, one without my drive may have never walked again, one without my determination would have never run, one without my hunger would have never again flown. To step into the ring with the noise of the crowd around you is to fly, not in the literal sense, not even as one that comes from the top of the turnbuckles, but inside, it is to soar. I had sat at home for too long, I had lost the sense of flight, the thrill of the adrenaline rush. I had become...stagnant.
The dreamer and the wine
Poet without a rhyme
A widowed writer torn apart by the chains of hell.
One last perfect verse
Is still the same old song
Oh Christ how I hate what I have become.
With that time behind me, I knew that I should look to the future. The passion of the flame that had been stoked within me had been unbridled in the tag match that had been my reintroduction to the ring, to the wilds, and with those passions, that flame that would gorge itself on any that it was released on, there spilled Kaos. My next opponent, my next canvas, Justin Job. Another tyrant for me to unseat and enslave.
I pushed aside a lock of black hair from my eyes, gone was my natural soft blonde, gone the girlish pink that had been dyed into the fringe, gone the last remnants of who I once was. The girl who wore those once features of mine had disappeared, as evanescent as the morning dew, what was left was a warrior.
I slowly raised my head as the wind that whipped through my hair brought with it the sounds of one following me. I stopped, turned my head and my cold blue gaze took in the camera that had invaded upon my private moment. My black painted lips moved, I spoke, whispered, “Nevermore.”
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of 'Never-nevermore.'”
I turned my gaze away from the camera and continued my slow walk and with that, one word having been spoken, here I know the scene faded away into one of those zany commercials.
~Insert a youtube video or a 'commercial' that mocks the fallacies of the opponent or an issue as a whole within the federation here. Insert it for some of us, namely me, have better things to do~
The scene came back upon me walking through the tall Gothic gates of a cemetery, they creaked as gates in the darkness to a place such as this surely must, clichés abound. As I walked the path, I picked up on the thought that one word had voiced, “They told me that I may never walk again. I said 'no'. They told me that my leg would not hold to more strain than a walk, I said 'no'. They said that even with my recovery, I may never wrestle again, I shook my head and told them, 'no'. For two years, I have sat and I have waited, I have been left upon the sidelines. Now that I am back, I shall not be placed in that situation again. Nevermore.” I walked between the lines of graves, not aiming to walk anywhere in particular. I walked wherever my feet took me and so long as that was not into a grave, who was I to care?
My steps and the wind were the only sound that my voice had to compete against and so, I kept it low, “People have been telling me that, despite the fact that my leg has shown that it can take the strain of the wrestling life, at least for one week, that I will never be the same, that I will never be the wrestler I once was. They are telling me that in my day, I may have been able to fight, perhaps to defeat Justin Job, but that now? I should just stay home.”
Who the hell are you to tell me
What to do, why to do, why bother
Leech in a mask of virtue
Such waste to ever think of you again.
I gave a laugh as cold as the wind that stormed across my bared arm. The old scars of times past, scars inflicted in the ring and by my own hand, were plain for all to see. “People have been telling me all of my career that I should stay away, that I have no chance of coming out of matches alive, let alone the winner. I have made it my career, my life to prove people wrong, because there will always be those that doubt, those that have no faith. Are you one of these people, Justin, who write me off before I have even stepped foot into the ring? Are you one of these that look at height and weight on paper and forget the simple fact that we do not fight on paper, that statistics such as these are meaningless? I do not know the answer to this question, so I will have to assume that you are not, I shall have to give you the respect, whether you deserve it or no, of working myself at my hardest, both in training and in the ring. So the first point that I have to make, Justin, is simple. Respect me, take me seriously, bring everything that you have to the ring. If you do not, then there will be no saving you from the passion, the fury that two years have stoked.”
It was not long before I came to a monument, a vast stone crypt. With nothing else to do for now, I leaned against the stone wall, my hand playing across the dust of a stained glass window before I turned and my gaze once again took in the camera. “So you won yourself a pretty little title, Justin, I have to say that other than the fact that Diana was one of your opponents, I am not impressed. One is not defined by a single night, a title yours one day can be taken away if you are complacent, not that I accuse you of being such. It is merely that I have met those who have won titles, who have been the first to hold them, who have only held them because I was not there to beat them to it, these people have come, been swept aside and then lost to the darkness.”
The albatross is flying
Making him daydream
The time before he became
One of the world's unseen.
“We are talking about people who are one hit wonders, people who think thought that the hard work was behind them only to find out that it had only just begun, people who would cave to the pressure of the expectations that they had put on their own head. It might be that you are one of these people, it might be that you're not and, to be honest, I don't really care one way or the other, because there is only one thing that matters this week and that's that you have been thrown into the ring with me. The title isn't on the line and, this being my first singles match back, I wouldn't want it to be, but even with that fact, I am still the one with nothing to lose. Justin, people don't expect me to win again right off the bat, I can take a loss and I'll come back stronger, but when it comes to you, title match or no, you have to perform, every week. So I would say there's a fair bit that you have to worry yourself with coming into this match, being as all eyes will be on you to perform.”
I pushed myself away from the monument, stretching my shoulders, “Justin, I didn't perform to my best in that tag match, let's face it the first match in a while, it was always going to be that way. I have seen you at your best in the APW, I know exactly what you are capable of, but while I am proficient in tag competition, I have made it a habit to excel in singles, where there is no having to stand on the apron for five, ten minutes but where I am in the ring, toe to toe with the opponent. You don't know me in that situation, Justin and that is going to be your downfall if you think that you can cruise through this first match since winning your Championship.” I looked at the camera for a long moment and a hard edge found its way into what had been my almost whispered voice, “I'll tell you what I plan to do, Job, I'm going to take you for a ride that will make you think that cage match was a picnic, I am going to be in your face from bell to bell and when all is said and done, Justin, whatever side of the result you end up on, you'll know that you have been in a war, and then Justin? Then you are going to have to make the hard choices.”
I walked towards the camera a couple of paces, “I know all about hard choices. I know about having to decide if you can go on, having to put your job before your body, I know all about the choices when it comes to step in the ring or make sure you don't lose your leg, I also know about the hard choices when it comes to allegiance and that was something that I was not going to bring up but needs to be. You see, Kalayla, don't get me wrong, until the moment, I was going to pull the trigger, but the fact is that you are one of two people that I have known since I started out in the States, the other of those being Hurricane Jeff. I couldn't do that without you knowing the score, as for the rest of it, did I turn my back on you? Yes. Did I turn my back on the fans? They choose to believe so. This whole thing, it was not easy, but I made a decision long ago that I make my choices and I have no regrets. I had a choice, Kalayla, I could stand in Trevor's shadow while he and his cane get involved in matters that don't concern him, I could watch him whittle down the roster and have the fans cheer him for it, and with that do what was best by you, or I could follow those who decided to make a stand, if the fans don't want any part of it, fine. They want to judge me? Fuck them! Let them judge, but they will have the luxury of doing so while still watching APW programming, I chose to do best by Diana, someone who is my sister in all but blood, and for Jeff, the man that I met in the UK, the man who brought me to the States, the man who despite our past differences, drew up a contract for me, because what you guys are doing? You're damn well on the path to destroying this company. Yes, I gave you a free pass, now you know the score. I decided to make my stand and now, nothing, other than the first sensible thing that's come out of Tony's mouth in the three years that I've known him, that being Skylar, is sacred. That girl has virgin rights as far as I am concerned, she's out of all of this, if anyone breaks that, I break them, as simple as that. But if you and the rest of Sex & Violence want to bring a war to the Church of Kaos, then consider it an even playing field, consider us ready for war.”
This is my Church of Choice
Love's strength standeth in Love's sacrifice
For the rest I have to say to you
I will dream like the God
And suffer like all the dead children
I walked past the camera and it turned to keep me in view, “Justin, with that little diversion out of the way, let me make this clear for you. You are stepping into the ring with the Dark Paladin of Kaos, you are stepping into the ring with a woman who has nothing to lose. You are stepping into the ring with a woman that has ended careers and will go into this match bringing everything that she can throw on the table, you are stepping into the ring with someone who will show no pity, no remorse, someone who will ask no quarter and will treat requests for such with the derision they deserve. You are stepping into the ring with 'Spirit' Tara Jacobs and that is a Cold Hard Fact. I will bring the reign and you will hail the Church of Kaos.”
I pushed my hand into the lens of the camera and stalked turned, stalking away into the chill of the night.
There are times that change a person's life, experiences that define them, that will leave them...not as they were before.
Two years have been hell, physical as I worked my leg mercilessly and mental as I flushed away the anger, the pain that I have carried, only to be replaced by the mental torture of those consigned to the sidelines.
People have been through worse, one without my drive may have never walked again, one without my determination would have never run, one without my hunger would have never again flown. To step into the ring with the noise of the crowd around you is to fly, not in the literal sense, not even as one that comes from the top of the turnbuckles, but inside, it is to soar. I had sat at home for too long, I had lost the sense of flight, the thrill of the adrenaline rush. I had become...stagnant.
The dreamer and the wine
Poet without a rhyme
A widowed writer torn apart by the chains of hell.
One last perfect verse
Is still the same old song
Oh Christ how I hate what I have become.
With that time behind me, I knew that I should look to the future. The passion of the flame that had been stoked within me had been unbridled in the tag match that had been my reintroduction to the ring, to the wilds, and with those passions, that flame that would gorge itself on any that it was released on, there spilled Kaos. My next opponent, my next canvas, Justin Job. Another tyrant for me to unseat and enslave.
I pushed aside a lock of black hair from my eyes, gone was my natural soft blonde, gone the girlish pink that had been dyed into the fringe, gone the last remnants of who I once was. The girl who wore those once features of mine had disappeared, as evanescent as the morning dew, what was left was a warrior.
I slowly raised my head as the wind that whipped through my hair brought with it the sounds of one following me. I stopped, turned my head and my cold blue gaze took in the camera that had invaded upon my private moment. My black painted lips moved, I spoke, whispered, “Nevermore.”
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of 'Never-nevermore.'”
I turned my gaze away from the camera and continued my slow walk and with that, one word having been spoken, here I know the scene faded away into one of those zany commercials.
~Insert a youtube video or a 'commercial' that mocks the fallacies of the opponent or an issue as a whole within the federation here. Insert it for some of us, namely me, have better things to do~
The scene came back upon me walking through the tall Gothic gates of a cemetery, they creaked as gates in the darkness to a place such as this surely must, clichés abound. As I walked the path, I picked up on the thought that one word had voiced, “They told me that I may never walk again. I said 'no'. They told me that my leg would not hold to more strain than a walk, I said 'no'. They said that even with my recovery, I may never wrestle again, I shook my head and told them, 'no'. For two years, I have sat and I have waited, I have been left upon the sidelines. Now that I am back, I shall not be placed in that situation again. Nevermore.” I walked between the lines of graves, not aiming to walk anywhere in particular. I walked wherever my feet took me and so long as that was not into a grave, who was I to care?
My steps and the wind were the only sound that my voice had to compete against and so, I kept it low, “People have been telling me that, despite the fact that my leg has shown that it can take the strain of the wrestling life, at least for one week, that I will never be the same, that I will never be the wrestler I once was. They are telling me that in my day, I may have been able to fight, perhaps to defeat Justin Job, but that now? I should just stay home.”
Who the hell are you to tell me
What to do, why to do, why bother
Leech in a mask of virtue
Such waste to ever think of you again.
I gave a laugh as cold as the wind that stormed across my bared arm. The old scars of times past, scars inflicted in the ring and by my own hand, were plain for all to see. “People have been telling me all of my career that I should stay away, that I have no chance of coming out of matches alive, let alone the winner. I have made it my career, my life to prove people wrong, because there will always be those that doubt, those that have no faith. Are you one of these people, Justin, who write me off before I have even stepped foot into the ring? Are you one of these that look at height and weight on paper and forget the simple fact that we do not fight on paper, that statistics such as these are meaningless? I do not know the answer to this question, so I will have to assume that you are not, I shall have to give you the respect, whether you deserve it or no, of working myself at my hardest, both in training and in the ring. So the first point that I have to make, Justin, is simple. Respect me, take me seriously, bring everything that you have to the ring. If you do not, then there will be no saving you from the passion, the fury that two years have stoked.”
It was not long before I came to a monument, a vast stone crypt. With nothing else to do for now, I leaned against the stone wall, my hand playing across the dust of a stained glass window before I turned and my gaze once again took in the camera. “So you won yourself a pretty little title, Justin, I have to say that other than the fact that Diana was one of your opponents, I am not impressed. One is not defined by a single night, a title yours one day can be taken away if you are complacent, not that I accuse you of being such. It is merely that I have met those who have won titles, who have been the first to hold them, who have only held them because I was not there to beat them to it, these people have come, been swept aside and then lost to the darkness.”
The albatross is flying
Making him daydream
The time before he became
One of the world's unseen.
“We are talking about people who are one hit wonders, people who think thought that the hard work was behind them only to find out that it had only just begun, people who would cave to the pressure of the expectations that they had put on their own head. It might be that you are one of these people, it might be that you're not and, to be honest, I don't really care one way or the other, because there is only one thing that matters this week and that's that you have been thrown into the ring with me. The title isn't on the line and, this being my first singles match back, I wouldn't want it to be, but even with that fact, I am still the one with nothing to lose. Justin, people don't expect me to win again right off the bat, I can take a loss and I'll come back stronger, but when it comes to you, title match or no, you have to perform, every week. So I would say there's a fair bit that you have to worry yourself with coming into this match, being as all eyes will be on you to perform.”
I pushed myself away from the monument, stretching my shoulders, “Justin, I didn't perform to my best in that tag match, let's face it the first match in a while, it was always going to be that way. I have seen you at your best in the APW, I know exactly what you are capable of, but while I am proficient in tag competition, I have made it a habit to excel in singles, where there is no having to stand on the apron for five, ten minutes but where I am in the ring, toe to toe with the opponent. You don't know me in that situation, Justin and that is going to be your downfall if you think that you can cruise through this first match since winning your Championship.” I looked at the camera for a long moment and a hard edge found its way into what had been my almost whispered voice, “I'll tell you what I plan to do, Job, I'm going to take you for a ride that will make you think that cage match was a picnic, I am going to be in your face from bell to bell and when all is said and done, Justin, whatever side of the result you end up on, you'll know that you have been in a war, and then Justin? Then you are going to have to make the hard choices.”
I walked towards the camera a couple of paces, “I know all about hard choices. I know about having to decide if you can go on, having to put your job before your body, I know all about the choices when it comes to step in the ring or make sure you don't lose your leg, I also know about the hard choices when it comes to allegiance and that was something that I was not going to bring up but needs to be. You see, Kalayla, don't get me wrong, until the moment, I was going to pull the trigger, but the fact is that you are one of two people that I have known since I started out in the States, the other of those being Hurricane Jeff. I couldn't do that without you knowing the score, as for the rest of it, did I turn my back on you? Yes. Did I turn my back on the fans? They choose to believe so. This whole thing, it was not easy, but I made a decision long ago that I make my choices and I have no regrets. I had a choice, Kalayla, I could stand in Trevor's shadow while he and his cane get involved in matters that don't concern him, I could watch him whittle down the roster and have the fans cheer him for it, and with that do what was best by you, or I could follow those who decided to make a stand, if the fans don't want any part of it, fine. They want to judge me? Fuck them! Let them judge, but they will have the luxury of doing so while still watching APW programming, I chose to do best by Diana, someone who is my sister in all but blood, and for Jeff, the man that I met in the UK, the man who brought me to the States, the man who despite our past differences, drew up a contract for me, because what you guys are doing? You're damn well on the path to destroying this company. Yes, I gave you a free pass, now you know the score. I decided to make my stand and now, nothing, other than the first sensible thing that's come out of Tony's mouth in the three years that I've known him, that being Skylar, is sacred. That girl has virgin rights as far as I am concerned, she's out of all of this, if anyone breaks that, I break them, as simple as that. But if you and the rest of Sex & Violence want to bring a war to the Church of Kaos, then consider it an even playing field, consider us ready for war.”
This is my Church of Choice
Love's strength standeth in Love's sacrifice
For the rest I have to say to you
I will dream like the God
And suffer like all the dead children
I walked past the camera and it turned to keep me in view, “Justin, with that little diversion out of the way, let me make this clear for you. You are stepping into the ring with the Dark Paladin of Kaos, you are stepping into the ring with a woman who has nothing to lose. You are stepping into the ring with a woman that has ended careers and will go into this match bringing everything that she can throw on the table, you are stepping into the ring with someone who will show no pity, no remorse, someone who will ask no quarter and will treat requests for such with the derision they deserve. You are stepping into the ring with 'Spirit' Tara Jacobs and that is a Cold Hard Fact. I will bring the reign and you will hail the Church of Kaos.”
I pushed my hand into the lens of the camera and stalked turned, stalking away into the chill of the night.
