[Christian Underwood]

Post your roleplays here by deadline. Good luck and have fun!

[Jet City]

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Don’t be a Dick
London, England
2 MAY 2023
OFF-Camera

A couple of months had become more than a year and a half a little too quickly. The worst part though? Sticking around was never part of the plan. I was supposed to be well paid and long gone by now. The Blast from the Past tournament was the last step of the plan. It was the lure to bring in Jaycee for the second time. Once he showed up, all I had to do was make one phone call. After that, I could fade back into the background. I wouldn’t have to work nights anymore if I didn’t want to. I had designs of living it up for the next few decades, and none of it involved seas of screaming, faceless idiots in arenas week-after-week.

It was fun, but I played my part. A year and a half ago, I got my foot in the door of their gym as just a pair of eyes. Once they came for Jaycee, I just needed to stick around long enough to not be suspicious, and then drive off into the sunset. That got sideways when bullets started flying around. A guy got shot. That meant I couldn’t leave, no matter what I wanted. I came in too quickly before it all went down. If I disappeared immediately afterwards, I would have just been painting a big target on my back. I had to stick it out at Jet City, and of course, that ended up working to their benefit anyways. Jaycee gave everyone the slip. Suddenly I wasn’t just lingering without a purpose. Instead, I was right back to square one. The only difference was, I couldn’t fly under the radar anymore. I needed Jaycee’s attention.I acted as their billboard week-after-week.

I can’t even say that he caught me off guard in Scotland. I knew that he was coming. That was the whole point. Maybe I could have even put up a slightly better fight. Maybe I didn’t want to. The guy never did anything sideways to me. Years ago, I might have even considered him a friend. It wasn’t that I wanted him to suffer any kind of grim fate, I was just stuck in a hard place myself. He was supposed to be my ticket out, not a nearly two-year nightmare. Sure, he had smashed my phone, but I hadn’t taken any step towards getting the thing replaced. He took that as a sign that I didn’t really want to make that call. I knew better. I still wasn’t sure making that phone call was a way out. They already fooled me with that once. I’ve never needed to learn the same lesson twice.

Luckily for me, Jaycee lost interest looking over my shoulder every minute of everyday about a week in. I think he realized that if I really wanted to get away from him and make that call, there was nothing that he could really do to stop me. Short of locking me up, there would always be an opening for me to try and slither away, and he couldn’t really do that while I was scheduled to show up to Sin City shows and fan events. Hence, being involved in Into the Void. Yet another thing to do that was never part of the plan. I guess it is a good thing that I am adaptable.

OZ: That should do it….

I wasn’t quite sure how much of which currency I had laid on the bar, but I was certain it would cover the tab. Onlookers might have accused me of being lost inside heavy thoughts. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. I was relishing in being lost in the crowd. There was nobody from Jet City trying to get me to take things seriously. There was no Jaycee trying to convince me of the morality of his situation. There were none of Eiley’s flirtatious mind games. Nobody knew where I was, and I had no way to reach out to them to tell them. It was like the bar was a blindspot in reality. None of the other shit existed until the place closed.

Last call had already come and gone and the place was basically empty. I knew that the bartender was only a few minutes away from running out of patience with me and tossing me out onto the curb. The floor shifted under my feet when I got up from the stool. My hands went out from my sides to catch balance. I stumbled a single step, but didn’t fall. The world stopped spinning, and I managed to keep my feet under me as I made my way through the door and out into the alley. I was just glad that it wasn’t raining anymore. I scouted the bar before booking a room just down the street, but that didn’t make the walk back any less creepy, just shorter. Most everyone else in Sin City was busy trying to uncover some kind of Jack the Ripper mystery with their time here, but not me. That seemed a little too much like asking for trouble. The forest had been more than enough for me. I turned off of the sidewalk and went through the rotating glass doors of the hotel into the lobby. It was only sparsely populated with others getting back from their night of fun, but I wasn’t trying to be noticed. I slipped into an elevator that was already closing, hoping to find it empty.

I didn’t see the guy at first. I was already two-thirds of the way through sliding between the doors before I caught his outline out of the corner of my eye. He had dark sunglasses on, and a hat pulled down overtop of them. He was looking the opposite direction, down at the panel of numbers for each floor.

KRIS: Seven, right?

He illuminated the number on the panel with one hand before stepping back against the back wall of the elevator. I reached up and pushed the bill of the cap up out of his face before taking off his glasses and hooking them on the front of his shirt. I knew who he was immediately. His face had been all over Jet City South like a ghost that haunted me for the last year. Except, in the last few weeks, I had learned that while he wasn’t a ghost, he definitely had been watching me. He and Jaycee both had. I sent up the signal for Jaycee to come running into a trap, without realizing that I was stepping into theirs. I should have been relieved that I hadn’t actually gotten the guy killed, but it someone made everything worse.

OZ: I was wondering when you were going to show up.

He shrugged. I had expected anger. When Jaycee showed up he had taken several of his best shots at me before deciding that it wasn’t going to make him feel any better. When Court had learned the truth she came after me as well. I got a pass that night in Romania because she passed out the moment that Kris stepped through the door. Maybe Court was actually important enough that my presence didn’t even register to him that night, but I had a hard time believing that. I think he wanted to spook me, and let it simmer. He wanted me to think about how I was going to explain myself the next time he showed up; this time.

KRIS: I figured we have put it off long enough. The cat is already out of the bag. Before too long the whole world is going to know that the rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated.

Those last few words came out in a grandiose movie trailer announcer’s voice, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from rolling my eyes.

OZ: You’re really going to make a comeback from all of this? I’m surprised.

He wasn’t bothered by the question, and I still couldn’t see any sign of anger on his face. It would have made the whole situation somehow less tense if he looked like he wanted to kill me. I would have understood that feeling. The ambivalence of his whole being made my stomach uneasy.

KRIS: A real comeback? No. I have come to enjoy the new life that you gave me.

The elevator chimed at the two of us and the doors opened. The hallway in front of us was empty, but neither of us made any move to take our back off the elevator wall.

OZ: Well then I guess I did you a favor.

It was the first time that he actually turned his head to make eye contact with me. I had been wrong before. His body language may not have seemed hostile, but the hostility in his eyes made all of the color drain from my face. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up, so I sprung forward from the wall of the elevator and forward, into the hallway. He followed with his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie.

KRIS: Unfortunately, I can’t hope to stay hidden forever. One way or another I would have eventually been found out. I shouldn’t surprise you that I would want to control the way that information comes out

I tried not to look at him at all. Instead, I became hyper-focused on finding the keycard to unlock my room before we made it to the end of the hall. The last thing that I wanted was to be stuck out here with him any longer than I needed to be. I was still holding out hope that he wasn’t specifically stalking me, but staying on the same floor.

OZ: Well your former co-workers are sure to spot you walking around London if you aren’t careful….

He didn’t seem interested in having that conversation at all because he shut it down quickly.

KRIS: I’m not an idiot. Nobody knew that I was alive until I wanted them to know that I was alive. For fuck’s sake, my brother was minutes from stepping into a Sin City ring in my memory before I told him. Some of my closest friends still don’t know. I was in the elevator because you were going to be in the elevator, and you would have noticed me heading that way if you weren’t barely on your feet.

From the moment he had taken off the glasses, I had forgotten where I had been coming from. The brilliant numbing effect created by the alcohol had faded the moment my nervous system picked up the potential ass kicking I was about to receive. The adrenaline that pulsed through my veins had cleared everything up quickly.

OZ: ...and here I was thinking that I was pulling it off.

He didn’t even attempt to hide his contempt for my state of being.

KRIS: You aren’t. You smell like you were bathing in it. It’s literally burning my eyes just to stand next to you, which makes me doubt that you are going to remember having this conversation at all tomorrow.

Then clearly he didn’t know everything about me. I tapped my temple on the right side of my head with a smile.

OZ: This thing’s like a steel trap. Nothing gets out, so don’t worry about me….

It shouldn’t have been, but for some reason that was funny for him.

KRIS: That thought hadn’t come close to crossing my mind. You’re a walking disaster. No matter what I say or do, you’re only headed one direction. Unfortunately, before all that happens, I need something from you.

I stopped in the center of the hallway. First Jaycee. Then Court. Then Kris. I had already been given this speech several times. Maybe it was the alcohol talking for me, but I wasn’t in need of a repeat lecture.

OZ: Let me stop you right the--

He was fast; way faster than I expected. I didn’t get the whole sentence out before he spun around to be face-to-face with me in the middle of the hallway. The stupid half-smile that had been on his face was gone. He wasn’t laughing anymore.

KRIS: You aren’t capable of stopping me anytime, anywhere, understood?

He had a couple of inches on me, but I probably had a few pounds on him. If we were to square up in the best of circumstances I would be curious to see what would happen. In the middle of a hotel hallway was not the time though. Clearly my tone had overstepped the boundaries he had set for the conversation.

OZ: My bad….

He seemed done trying to make any effort to be pleasant.

KRIS: You’re right. It is your bad.

Only, he hadn’t screamed the words like Jaycee or Court. They came out direct, and intense, but he didn’t raise his voice at all. The restraint that he had was impressive.

OZ: I--

He shook his head, and my mouth slammed shut instinctively.

KRIS: It’s your fault, for only looking out for yourself. It’s my brother’s fault because he’s the one that told me to start a fucking gym. It’s Jaycee’s fault for running to my gym to hide. It’s my fault for not listening to him, and trying to throw him out. It’s the guy that shot me’s fault because he pulled the fucking trigger….

It should have helped that he wasn’t heaping the entirety of the blame on me, but it didn’t. When Court and Jaycee freaked out on me, it had been easy to disregard them. They were so quick to dump it all on my lap and absolve those that they cared about. I was an easy scapegoat. The fact that Kris placed the blame on several of us may not have buried me under the full weight of it, but it definitely made it feel more real.

OZ: An---

He raised a hand to cut me off. Apparently he would let me know when I was allowed to speak again.

KRIS: It doesn’t matter what happened. We can’t change it. I can’t get any of that time back. I can’t have my career back.

He was right. That’s what made all of these conversations so hard to have. There was nothing that I could do to change a decision that I made over a year ago. I never thought any of this was going to happen. I never wanted any of it to happen. I just wanted to be able to comfortably bail on this life. I wanted the existence that Eiley had hyped up so much. I wanted out. I thought that phone call was the only way that I could make that happen.

OZ: If I could go bac--

He wasn’t having that either.

KRIS: You’d do it all exactly the fucking same. We are who we are. Don’t second guess the decision that you made just because you don’t like the place that it got you. You made that choice. You fucking own it.

Now it was my turn to shrug. He clearly hadn’t come for an apology, but he didn’t want to hear any excuses either.

OZ: I don’t know what you want from me then.

That was apparently the right answer, because the scowl on his face became slightly less intense. He softened a little bit, potentially a little impressed that he had gotten me to his point despite all the alcohol in my system.

KRIS: You can’t change any of the shit that got you here, and it wouldn’t be fair for me to ask you to try. You just aren’t capable of it. You’re just another idiot kid in over his head. So I don’t care about the role that you played last year. Put it behind you.

I didn’t even try to respond, except for a nod of understanding.

KRIS: I honestly doubt that guilt is a thing that you are capable of feeling for a total stranger. And I know that there is no way to force you to do what we are asking you to do. If you wanted to turn this whole thing on its head, you probably could. I’m not naive, and I know that we can’t trust you.

He seemed to study my reaction to see if any of those words caused any anger to bubble up to the surface. It was much harder than that to get a rise out of me though.

OZ: If you can’t trust me, why show up at all?

He shrugged again, this time with that cocky smirk on his face that Court was always talking about hating. I could see her point. There was something immeasurably condescending about it.

KRIS: All that I can do is ask you to do the right thing this time around. I mean, it doesn’t cost you anything. They probably already gave you all your money last year. That’s the only reason they could have kept you on their hook this long. There’s nothing in it for you if you give Jaycee and I up… and they’ll never stop calling you for just one last thing.

I had to give it to the guy, he wasn’t as dumb as everyone said that he was. Instead of projecting all of his feelings about the situation onto me, he was trying to understand it on my level.

OZ: Maybe you’re right.

There was a long pause while he weighed that answer. He looked me over, and then shook his head, probably still uncertain. Either way, it appeared that his point had been made.

KRIS: Give it some thought… and sober up before you go out and embarrass my gym this weekend.

He pushed past me, and headed back down the hallway towards the elevator that we came from. We were just a few doors away from mine when we stopped, so I quickly moved to it without looking back at him. With one swipe, I was inside. In another second, the door was locked and braced by all four of the mechanisms on the inside of the door. I put my back to it and took a deep breath. He had told me to give it some thought, but every cell in my body was screaming at me that there had only ever been one answer to this problem.



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>Fight a Ghost

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”What the fuck am I supposed to say?”

“I mean that literally, not sarcastically. I know that I am supposed to flip the camera on and say a little bit about my opponent each and every show…”

“...I get the schtick and all that. It’s actually one of the better parts of the job. If you take this away, it seems like this job is a whole lot about who can punch the other person in the face the best.”

“Maybe that is an oversimplification, but I don’t think that it will matter in the least. See, back when I was still in the Blast from the Past tournament, I knew that my opponents were real. Because of the prize that we had on the line, I knew that whoever I stepped into the ring with was going to be coming to maim me. I knew that once the bell rang, whoever stood across from me was going to want to tear me apart for the opportunity to challenge one of Sin City’s top champions. See, those matches had purpose. They gave the competitors direction, and a goal to strive for.”

“Every person in Blast from the Past had to sign up for the damn thing directly. They had to specifically declare their interest. There was even some kind of screening process to make sure that everyone was legit. When the brackets went live, you basically had any and all information that you needed on your opponents. It made it really simple to look back at their careers and see what you were getting yourself into. I mean, even in my case, people knew that I was coming out of the Jet City system. They could see the contract that I signed with Sin City. They had a little bit of something to go on before stepping into the ring blind.”

“That is not something that I can relate to heading towards Into the Void.”

“I am fighting a ghost.”

“... and I don’t mean Jack the Ripper. Although, it is not like that guy would have been any kind of big deal. The guy is a horror story because of all of the unknowns about him, but he is a whole lot less scary if you think about the shit that we do know. I mean, the guy only made his moves at night. He likely ambushed his victims, who never really had a chance to defend themselves. Even worse, it was likely a guy that targeted women. A guy who had to surprise attack smaller victims in the dark isn’t someone that inspires a whole lot of genuine fear. It’s like he picked off the easiest targets under the best possible cover. I guess it was smart since we still don’t know who the guy was, but it all seems too fucking cowardly to inspire some real fear.”

“... which brings me to my actual opponent. No, he is not Jack the Ripper. No, he is not even a real ghost unfortunately. Maybe his name is Saul like the card for Into the Void says. Maybe his name is actually Sal like the limited info I got about him says. But if the place paying you to step into the ring can’t even get your name right, that doesn’t speak much about the impression you made on them, does it? Maybe he has the impressive credentials that Sin City alleges that he does, maybe he has exactly what he has shown us so far: nothing.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter much. Come this Sunday, I will be stepping in the ring with whoever the hell decides to show up. I don’t care if it is Saul. I don’t care if it is Sal. I don’t care if it is a ghost, or one of Jack the Ripper’s descendants. I am going to do the same thing that I do every single time that I step into that ring. I am going to do the same shit that allowed me to rise to the top of Jet City South’s graduating class this year. I am going to do the same thing that allowed me to be successful in Blast from the Past….”

“...and make no mistake, I was successful. Nobody gave my team a chance to make it out of the first round. Nobody thought that I could stand in the ring and square off with J2H without getting embarrassed. Nobody saw me coming, and I have raised the bar each and every time that I have come down the aisle. The greatest competitor in the history of this company couldn’t put me down, and needed his partner to get the job done for him. I didn’t get eliminated from the tournament. I didn’t lose. I was never pinned. I never gave up. I was never beaten.”

“The fact remains that you people haven’t even really gotten to brush the surface of what I am capable of inside a Sin City ring. For the tournament I was saddled with a partner that got to share the spotlight with me. Any success that we shared was split in half. Each victory was something that we were going to have to share. At Into the Void, I won’t have to share. There’s not going to be anyone able to take credit for the things that I do in route to picking up this win.”

“....and there’s no way anyone will be able to underestimate what I am capable of after you see what’s left of Saul or Sal or whomever the fuck when I am done with him.”

"Trust."