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Tunnel-Vison
Long Beach, CALIFORNIA - Court’s House
19th JANUARY 2024
OFF-Camera
COURT: How are you not going to be home? At least at rehab I knew you were going to be there when I showed up….
The whole point of Jaycee moving so close by was accountability. When the guy was out on his own, he spiraled out of control. I offered him a place to stay so that he would have someone to look over his shoulder on the days that he wasn’t doing so well but, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember the last time that I actually saw him. Granted, he was an adult. He didn’t need direct supervision, and Prudence and I were back on the road together for SCW. I hadn’t thought anything of it until I was packing up for Colorado.
JAYCEE: That’s what you get for showing up unannounced.
It was Jaycee’s voice, but coming from the doorbell camera. It made me crazy when Prudence used them to talk to me, which I had apparently mistakenly mentioned to Jaycee.
COURT: Unannounced? You see the big house over there? That one’s mine. Technically your residence is in my backyard.
There was a long pause, and he almost had me convinced that he was actually gone before he finally responded.
JAYCEE: Yeah… well, not there. Sorry you had to walk over for nothing, but you should really call first.
The sarcasm in his voice made me want to rip the damn thing off of the door frame.
COURT: Do you even have a phone these days?
This time there was absolutely no pause before his answer, but he was definitely stifling a laugh.
JAYCEE: No.
I tried to grit my teeth and hold back what I really wanted to say, but it was no use. I was at home. Where am I allowed to be myself if not here?
COURT: Then how the hell am I supposed to call you!?
The laughter on the other end stopped immediately. He had probably just been pushing to see if he could get me to snap at him and now that he had gotten what he wanted, he was done with the conversation. It was a nasty personality flaw that he definitely picked up at Jet City.
JAYCEE: You’re not. Is there actually something you need?
I sighed, defeated.
COURT: Where are you, Jaycee?
He gives that answer freely as well, clearly having lost all interest in the game.
JAYCEE: Seattle.
Of all of the places that I expected to hear, that wasn’t one of them. I figured that Eiley and Oz had pulled him away somewhere on their seven month vacation, but cold, snowy and rainy didn’t feel like their style. It took a couple of seconds of processing before everything snapped together in my head.
COURT: When you said you might do some work at Jet City, I assumed you meant San Diego. What the hell are you doing at Jason’s gym?
JAYCEE: The real Jet City needed a fill-in for a few weeks. I am just doing what I can.
The “real” Jet City was an insult that I was going to let slide for now. I could kick his ass for it when he got back, but mentioning it now would just get us off track.
COURT: You better tell Kris’ brother that he can’t just come down here and poach my talent.
I was hoping that something about my words would strike a nerve, but he blew them off with a casual indifference that I found frustrating.
JAYCEE: I can’t do that. Jet City South isn’t yours, and I am not a student anymore. I’m basically a free agent.
If his goal was to offend me, he had succeeded once again, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction this time. Instead, I chose to focus on correct his error.
COURT: You’re not even one of those! In case you’ve forgotten, you work for Sin City.
He went silent for almost as long as he left me hanging the first time, and then responded with more uncertainty than I had ever heard in his voice.
JAYCEE: Yeah, well. We’ll see.
I wasn’t just going to let that go either. The guy was being groomed to be a big part of Sin City, and I wasn’t going to just let him throw that away because he got scared of the bright lights.
COURT: When are you coming back? I might actually need you for something important.
JAYCEE: It’ll be a few weeks. They were looking for someone with Blast from the Past experience to work with some of the new kids up here. I think Jason’s trying to get one of his newbies a spot in the tournament since nobody from South is going to step up this time around.
COURT: That’s not for a lack of trying….
Coby was doing what he could with the new crop of students that he had to work with, but he was unbelievably short-handed as well. Kris and Mikah basically ran away to Hawaii and rarely show up in San Diego. I was competing full time, and stopping having the time to work with the newbies. It might be the first year in a while that Jet City doesn’t enter anyone in the tournament that we have dominated.
JAYCEE: None of the new kids are ready. The only person that would actually be worth Jet City throwing their weight behind wants nothing to do with the gym.
I was almost too lost in thought about the gym to catch what he meant, but his words were sobering enough to snap me out of it.
COURT: ...and the gym wants nothing to do with her either.
I can’t believe that I have to keep having this conversation with people. First Prudence, and now Jaycee. How many people in my life has she successfully gotten her claws into?
JAYCEE: No, you want nothing to do with her.
I shrugged.
COURT: You’re not wrong…
There was another laugh from the speaker.
JAYCEE: So, have fun with that I guess!
I was confused, and waited for him to elaborate, but nothing else came from the speaker. I finally broke down and asked.
COURT: Have fun with what?
Another few moments of silence passed before I realized that he wasn’t coming back.
COURT: ...and he’s gone…. Great.
I didn’t even get to tell him what I needed him for in the first place, and now he ghosted me. I would have to remember to text Jason about forcing him to get a phone while he was up there, but that was a task for later. I had to finish packing or I was never going to make my flight. I started to turn away from the door, but was startled as I did. It didn’t take me very long to realize what Jaycee’s last words meant either.
ROUX: You always spend all your free time talking to doors?
I didn’t even have to ask how long she had been standing there. Jaycee wouldn’t have even brought her up until after he spotted her on the camera. Making her the topic of conversation was bait, and I had taken it thoughtlessly. However, that wasn’t something I could get back at him for right now. I had an angry teenager to deal with.
COURT: Do you just pop up everywhere that you aren’t wanted?
She shrugged, choosing to brush off the insult and continue this forced conversation anyways.
ROUX: Harsh. Couldn’t help but overhear your conversation there. You lost your drug addict?
I shook my head, and moved around her in order to head back towards the main house.
COURT: He’s not lost. He’s in Seattle doing something productive with his life. That doesn’t explain why you’re here though.
She followed me, sarcasm heavy in her voice.
ROUX: Well, we all used to live here, remember? You know back before you inherited it… just like everything else.
I sighed, it wasn’t a discussion that I could have again. I never wanted anything, and I tried to throw it all away, but I’m apparently not even allowed to do that. Now that I was stuck with the house, apparently it was a bad thing that I was putting it to use.
COURT: As fun as a trip down memory lane wouldn’t be, you didn’t answer my question.
I was trying not to get lured into yet another fight, especially with a big weekend ahead of me.
ROUX: I still have some stuff stored in the attic above the garage. I was kind of hoping that nobody would be around, and I could get in and out without causing any problems. Then I saw you arguing with a door, and got interested.
I got to the backdoor of the house, and turned back to her. I wasn’t about to let her follow me inside, because things would eventually get broken. This needed to end out here, preferably with her fucking off.
COURT: Strange. The moment you showed up, I lost interest.
She shrugs again, having heard me say the line to her on several previous occasions. She had built up a type of immunity to it I guess.
ROUX: Good, because you should really be focused on Krystal and Tempest.
I wasn’t about to have her try to explain something to me that she knew nothing about. She hadn’t even made her official debut yet.
COURT: That’s not something that I need you to tell me. Tempest put her hands on my wife. Krystal had the audacity to break Prudence’s arm and end her time as a competitor in Sin City. I’ve never been more focused on two individuals in my life.
That wasn’t a satisfactory answer for her though.
ROUX: That’s awfully short-sighted, don’t you think? Tunnel-vision is just going to give Luna the opening that she needs to blindside you.
Nothing I said was going to be good enough. That was her whole game. No matter what my answers were, she was going to try and find a different one just to tell me that I was wrong. It was the way that she has always gotten under my skin, and it somehow still worked.
COURT: Are you under the impression that I need your fucking help or something? I have been doing this for years without needing your precious guidance. At what point did you decide that you were better at this than me?
I got another cold, emotionless shrug in response.
ROUX: Better? I’m not. I’m definitely a lot smarter about it than you’re being though. You just keep running in blind and angry. I got you all riled up a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden you were ready to rip Ariana’s arms off. Eventually someone is going to use all that rage against you.
I bit down on my tongue, and forced a smile onto my face.
COURT: I’ll keep that in mind.
I tried my best to make it sound sincere, but fell way short of convincing her.
ROUX: No you won’t, and that’s your problem. You’re too good for help. You look down your nose at good advice, and you push down anyone that you perceive to be a threat to your spotlight. It’s all going to catch up to you eventually.
It was my turn to try and shrug her comments away like they didn’t matter.
COURT: Not today.
She shrugged, but caved in and started backing away from me towards the garage.
ROUX: Maybe not today....but maybe Sunday…
She turned around and disappeared into the side door of the garage. I wasn’t going to stick around until she came back either, going inside and slamming the door behind me.
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>It’s About Time
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”Finally…”
”I know that I have been giving the cold shoulder to social media lately but it really does come in handy on occasion….”
”Had I known that all it was going to take was a few tweets, I would have talked about dismembering Krystal a whole lot sooner than I did. I know that the card writing interns are going to blame the scuffle last week for this little supercard preview, but we all know that what I had to say about Krystal on X is the real reason that the two of us are going to be standing on opposite sides of the same ring this week. I have been patient. I picked my spot. People thought that since time had passed, and it was a new year, that all was forgiven. All it took was one reminder about the unfinished business that the two of us have, and the bosses did what needed to be done. Krystal and I haven’t been in the same ring since Keira got rid of Sin. Now I get to finish what Keira started…”
”...and I know that we are not going to be the only two in this match. Krystal is going to be able to run away and tag in Tempest any time that she can’t take the beating that I am going to put on her. She gets to run and hide behind the most dominant force in the Bombshell division. The only problem with that is, I have just as much of a reason to square up with Tempest as I do Krystal. Sure, she didn’t break my wife’s arm or anything but she does always seem to be a threat lingering in the background of all of my matches. Tempest’s name gets used as a threat any time my wife is in the building with me. She has seemed to enjoy her role as Mark and Christian’s Bombshell enforcer, but that is because she’s never had to deal with any of the ramifications of her actions. She just gets to stroll out and put her hands on whomever she wants. Correct me if I am wrong, but she has even somehow gotten away with putting Christian through a table, right? That’s in addition to putting her hands on one of my students after she failed in the Mixed Tag Team division in her latest attempt….”
”...so for me it doesn’t matter. I will take my opportunity to dismantle Krystal in the center of the ring, but if she runs, and the only person I can get my hands on is Tempest, that’s fine with me too. When I saw the card for this week, I wasn’t intimidated. I was thrilled. I have a very short list of people that I want to share the ring with, and both of their names are on it. No matter what happens this Sunday, I get what I want…”
”....as for my partner… who knows what she wants?”
”I sure don’t. I can only assume that she is going to be waiting for the opportunity to stab me in the back because it means she is going to have a better shot at taking the Bombshell Internet Championship from me in a few weeks. It tracks, right? She picked her perfect spot to attack me without provocation last week. The problems my wife and I have with Tempest had nothing to do with Luna, but she still found time to show up and take a free shot at me. Then again, none of us can really be sure which version of Luna is going to show up to team with me on Climax Control. Is it going to be the one with the potential to be the Bombshell Internet Champion, or is it going to be the version that can’t seem to rise out of the bottom tier of the division? Is it going to be the person that seized their opportunity backstage last week, or the one that is so entirely forgettable every other week? Is Luna going to be motivated to show that she belongs in the ring with the rest of us, or is she going to be the weak link that costs us this match?”
”I hope that it is the former, and she better pray that it’s not the latter.”
”See, Luna is the only one in this match that can stop me from extracting the pain and anguish that I so desperately want to inflict on our opponents. For that purpose alone, I am willing to forgive and forget about last week. She can come along with me for the ride, and we can have our hands raised at the end of the night. We can take out these other two, and deal with one another at a later date. Why not? I can be an adult about things. I can see that last week was more about the cheap championship belt that I am carrying around than some kind of personal attack. Certainly she can put her aspirations aside for a night if I can find it in my heart to let her off the hook for getting involved last week.”
”Then again, maybe she sees it as more beneficial to try to serve me up to our opponents on a silver platter. Maybe she realized last week that it is going to take a whole lot more than she thought it was to take me out. It’s possible that Luna is just looking at this match as an opportunity to let Tempest and Krystal soften me up for her. I honestly don’t think I could blame her if that was her plan, but I can’t make the choice for her. Even worse, I doubt that any of us will really know what side of the line she is going to end up on until the match is already underway. That being said, I do have a warning for you Luna. I want you to stand on the apron for a few minutes before you make your decision. I want you to wait and see up close what I am willing to put both of our opponents through. I want you to witness the agony they have earned because of what they have done to me and the people that I care about. I want you to be able to feel the rage that I am going to unleash. I want you to understand how far I am willing to go when people cross me. After that, if you want to add your name to my shit list, go right ahead. I’ll have no problem teaching you the same lesson when you come for this championship that I don’t even want.”
”...because that is what this is all really about, isn’t it? All of you actually WANT to be the Bombshell Internet Champion. All of you would be bubbling over with excitement to represent the MIDDLE tier of this company. Sure, you’re a step above the unadulterated violence of the Roulette division, but the only thing that the Bombshell Internet Championship actually represents is that you aren’t good enough to carry the big championship. That is why I carry it begrudgingly. That is why I don’t make a big deal out of it. I took the championship away from Ariana because as long as I exist in this company, she isn’t allowed to have nice things. I don’t actually care about it though. I don’t see it as some kind of crowning achievement. I think about it as ten pounds of gold and leather that I have to worry about forgetting at the fucking airport, and that is what separates me from these three women. None of them are Bombshell World Championship caliber talents. The championship that I carry represents the very best that they could ever hope to be in this company.”
”...but just like Ariana, they won’t be able to do that for as long as I am here. They can’t rise to their full potential, because I’m lowering the glass ceiling. I’m not out here like J2H, trying to give opportunities to the next round of up-and-comers. I know how good I am. I know that I could easily play keep-away with this championship until this company closes it’s fucking doors forever. Unlike him though, I am not going to take myself out of the equation. I am not going to give anyone an opportunity, whether they deserve it or not. I am going to carry this stupid fucking belt down to the ring with my for this tag match, so that I can rub it in their faces. I am going to taunt them with it, and while they are focused on taking the belt, I am going to be extracting my revenge. Then, after the dust settles, I am going to get ready to beat them all over again if they can drag themselves to the next supercard. I’m not moving out of the way anytime soon because I’m not in the business of doing my lessers any fucking favors anymore. There was a brief, fleeting moment where I thought that was what I was supposed to do in this division, but that’s not my job.”
”I should have never wasted a second of my time trying to lift this roster up..”
”From now on, all I’m doing is laying bitches out.”
”Sorry not sorry.”
