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Roleplay Boards => Archived Roleplays => Climax Control Archives => Topic started by: finnwhelan on December 06, 2024, 11:52:10 PM
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PARADIGM SHIFT XXIX // STOLEN OMEN
I SEE YOU LIVE DELUSIONS, PAINT YOUR LIFE WITH YOUR CONCLUSIONS. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO TELL YOU THIS PATH HAS LOST ITS VALUE. I CAN’T FEEL FALSE IDEALS, ANOTHER FOOL THAT’S BLIND TO WHAT’S REAL. I SING FOR THE HOPE THAT’S BROKEN – THEY LIVE FOR FOR A STOLEN OMEN.
BLACK VEIL BRIDES .
••••••
Everything was the same after High Stakes. He was still champion. Kayla was still the champion. They moved forward through their lives as champions and they maintained stability that was reserved for normal people. Monotonous dinners at home, friends coming and going from their apartment. In and out of his work at the gym, in and out of the home. Cuddling late at night with Kayla while they watched movies and training when they could otherwise. Everything was obviously fine. Normal. Regular.
Except for the whole fact that there was Yakuza standing at their doors and the Romani literally lurking around every corner.
Kallie wanted to have a girl’s night in the apartment, as Dax was with his Australian grandparents. And while Kayla complained loudly about how she didn’t know how to sit around in her pajamas and watching stupid girly movies and paint each other’s nails, she still kissed him on the cheek and left to join Kallie and Amelia in the apartment upstairs. This left Finn by himself, and while he enjoyed that on a regular basis, something settled in his brain that he just didn’t want to be by himself.
The Wayward Home for Wrestlers had become regular…not a nuisance, but a regular occurrence that he’d grown used to. Hearing Dax, Aiden and Kallie’s muffled voices from the other apartment, seeing his little brother regularly, watching as Kallie’s brother showed a complete disinterest in everything else. Kayla’s family moving about had become regular too.
But the threat was real. The threat was escalating. The Romani were watching now, but what about when they decided to strike? They were sitting ducks. Part of him wanted to mount an attack on the compound and just get rid of the menace that had begun to settle in their lives, but he knew that could be just as dangerous as it was foolish. He could put himself in danger, but he wasn’t willing to deal with the cost, nor was he willing to place Kayla in that place either. Eventually, there would need to be a showdown, a final fight that ultimately ended this entirely. But until that moment, they were waiting…and the waiting was getting to him.
Now he sat in his little brother’s apartment in Queens, looking out upon the floor length windows while his brother and his best friend messed around on Call of Duty. Aiden was particularly smug, sitting on the floor in no shirt and a pair of basketball shorts, having had a higher kill/death rating than Dickie. Dickie sat above him on the couch, his blonde curls bouncing as he moved in sync with his little avatar on the game.
“You…little…” Dickie muttered, sticking his tongue out childishly and biting down on it as he navigated a particularly difficult spot.
“Oi mate, you gotta watch your six.”
“No, you’re behind me. You’ve got to watch my shit.”
“Oh yeah, yeah, nah, yeh!” Aiden nodded, shooting someone over Dickie’s shoulder. “Fuckin’ need lasik, hey.”
“Listen, I’m not blind…”
They continued arguing over and over again. Finn shook his head, shoving his hand into the popcorn and taking a large bite of it. He chuckled a bit to himself, enjoying the chaos that his friends brought into his life. It was good. It was natural. Just as natural as he and Kayla. He didn’t want to mess that up, didn’t want to screw with anything that existed in this time.
But still, the thought remained. Jace had told him exactly what he hadn’t wanted to hear, and since that night, he’d been continuously playing it in his head. Until he’d confronted Kayla about it, he hadn’t been quite sure what her full intentions were. But he could surmise. Oh, he knew that it had nothing to do with Jace’s proclamation that she still loved him — but he knew she thought she could change the world. She thought they could change their fate.
But there was no changing it. Not when the cogs continued to turn and turn and turn.
The only solution was to escape it. Not to run, but maybe…to misplace themselves. Just for a bit. To throw off the scent. To do something unexpected.
“Have you ever thought about leaving New York?” He posed the question as the lobby screen came up for the next round.
Dickie and Aiden both turned their heads, looked at one another, and then snapped them back to Finn like sycophantic surprised elves.
“No…” Dickie muttered, furrowing his brow. And that made absolute sense to Finn, because at the end of the day, New York City was Dickie’s life. From FIGHT, to living here because of Wolfslair. It was astonishing that there could be any change to be thought of. Ever since the dissolution of Kei’s life, it was difficult to realize that he was also the leader of a Yakuza clan. Could he change their location? Yes. But would it be worth it?
“I mean, but to where? Wolfslair is here.”
Finn thought for a moment, and shook his head. “I can make that change. Wolfslair is a state of mind, it doesn’t have to necessarily be in our forefront all the time. And even so, I bet I can talk to Alex and get that changed to let me lead a gym. He’d be happier with my absence.”
Dickie looked at Aiden, and then he looked back at his brother with an eyebrow raised. “What are you thinking about?”
“This shit with the Romani…”
“That you started.” Dickie reminded him, tilting his head.
“Shush – I know.” Finn rose to his feet, pacing slightly. But it’s getting ridiculous. I think we could move. I think Kayla and I, at least, will leave and move somewhere else. Somewhere where we can start our own life…and I mean, it just makes more sense if you guys come with us. I haven’t exactly…” He moved from one side of the room to the other. “I haven’t thought of where, but I think we should go. And maybe we can stop this shit with…them. I’m worried about Kayla. I’m worried about us. All the time. Jace shows up constantly, and this might just be a way to put distance between us all.”
Aiden shrugged, “Nothin’ saying he can’t follow.”
“Prob will.” Dickie agreed, also shrugging. But he narrowed his eyes and peered at his brother as he moved back and forth across the room. “If you think it’s a good idea though…I mean…you’ve never steered me wrong.”
Finn looked at him. That was the agreement that he needed. Not that he needed it really, but it was what he wanted to hear. If they were willing to move, he could continue to protect them. And he could erase the problems that had been created with Wolfslair, with former friends, with the Yakuza, with the Romani. At least, he could do that for a time.
And even just a little bit of time was better than nothing.
••••••
“This isn’t what you wanted. This isn’t what you expected.”
A throne room. Or at least, what looked to be the remnants of one. The crumbling ruins of a castle sat upon a hill on the mountainous front range in Colorado, a tower and some remaining walls. No glory, no grandiose finery. Nothing but a ruin on a hill overlooking the sprawling Denver Metro area below. In the crumbling remains of throne-like chair sat the SCW World Heavyweight Champion, one leg draped over the armrest while the other was planted on the floor.
Whelan raised his hand nonchalantly, gesturing to the crumbling ruins, while the other laid against his mouth as he appeared to be contemplating. But what? The other hand clutched tightly upon the championship belt laid across his chest, and he tapped lightly against it as he spoke.
“High Stakes was supposed to be the moment that David killed Goliath. The time in which the good little underdog was able to topple the monolith that everyone hated. Perhaps the very moment hope could be realized, that everything wasn’t for naught, that the world would be righted. Miles Kasey, finally reaching the zenith, so that he could topple the god that wreaked havoc upon the industry.”
He dropped his hand from his lips, turning his head and looking away for a moment.
“Except I never claimed to be a god.”
Setting his eyes upon the camera, a smirk rose up upon his features. He propelled his body upwards, pressing his feet firmly into the floor as he righted himself.
“David could not find a rock sharp enough to embed in my skull; and so, here Goliath continues to stand, tearing down the walls that are built every so often in an attempt to cage him. But I refuse to be caged, and I refuse to be hemmed in. While the thought was that finally a challenger had finally laid siege to the rule of Finn Whelan, the assault ended in a brutal realization that even those with the best intentions to meet expectations fall short. And that is a hard, calamitous reality that rarely do people want to recognize.
“Instead of recognizing his own shortcomings, my former teammate tried to paint a picture of me as a domineering tyrant of the ilk of Kim Jong Il, believing myself to be a deity to the wrestling ring. It’s easier to project a devilish motive to someone that you end up stabbing in the back than facing the reality that you need to take accountability for your own actions, and that’s what happened. I have never claimed to be a god, and I certainly don’t need to claim that I am a king.
“I am merely what I have always said: good at my job, and continue to be every time I step into the ring.”
Finn rose to his feet then, gesturing around him to the ruins of the castle that once sat prominent upon the mountainside.
“If anything, if I were a king, this would be the apt visualization of what that kingdom would look like. I don’t need frivolous finery and gold to be a domineering leader. I don’t need to raise myself higher than my peers. I don’t feel the need to fall to base and disastrous betrayal to maintain my record. I don’t need to delude myself that I am anything more than a fighter who does his utmost to succeed in every part of my life. I don’t need to be a king. I don’t need to be a monolith.”
He paused and tilted his head to the side.
“It’s all of you who make me that deity. Your projections, your jealousy, your words uttered to try and get under my skin. Time and time again, I post from random places with simply my voice because I don’t want to use visual metaphors to try and make a point. I don’t need to tie things in. I don’t need to do anything other than speak the truth as I see it. It is all of you who sit there and call me a tyrant, a dictator, a king, a god. You project that onto me and expect me to fall in line.
“But I question you this: When the fuck have I ever fallen in line?”
Finn took a few steps away from his original spot, stepping over the remnants of a wall and forward, away from the castle remnants entirely and out into the wilderness of the mountain range. Pine trees rose high over the towering and lanky figure of the World Heavyweight Championship. Following him into the trees, the view moved from deadened plains to darkened forest, dense brush and foliage covering surfaces of the ground. The Seattle Saint’s back was the only thing visible as he descended into the trees, except for the glint of gold draped across his shoulder.
“For nearly a year, I’ve held this championship, coming up against every single person who has tried to tear me into nothing. Every time, I’ve come out swinging and strong. For nearly a year, the Wolves of Gheimhridh held the Mixed Tag Team Championships. Not only did we pass the record for most defenses, we also passed the longest reign. This comes as a testament that Finn Whelan and Kayla Richards – despite how monotonous and boring that may seem – are dominant champions. Until one shitty little night in October.”
He paused in his movement.
“Until the moment I failed to see the bigger picture. Until the moment that I was unable to capitalize on my own words.”
He turned his head and looked behind him, his blue eyes settling on the camera..
“I never said I wasn’t infallible. I never said I was unstoppable. In fact, I make a point of that frequently throughout the entirety of my reign. Anyone can be defeated at any time. So no, Eddie, and literally to anyone else watching, I don’t sit here and believe that I’m undefeatable. And I don’t kick myself in the teeth because I’ve failed once. I get up, and I come back harder. I think that would be evident in my two losses since September of last year, considering I was undefeated for a year.
“But you know, perspective.
“Now, I have a chance to right a wrong that I created. A moment where I get to take back the championships that Kayla and I worked so hard to attain in the first place, and retain. And while that may be so monotonous and mundane, it is still the fact of the matter of honor, integrity and a lot of hard work was put into those championships and since we’ve had to wait until everyone could be patted on the back and given their singles shots to rise above…we waited. We salivated in the corner like Pavlov’s dogs, waiting for the bell to be rung so we could get our meal.”
He smirked, turning his head and whole body to face the camera. “Lions and wolves: you put that into the world of animals and nine times out of ten, the lions would win because of sheer size and advantage. But…small, itty bitty fact…” Finn raised a hand and gestured for everyone to get a closer look, until they were right in front of his face. “This isn’t the jungle, this isn’t animalis – this is life, and as much as you want to wimoweh your way through it, unfortunately, the Lyons will sleep tonight.”
“Retribution, Eddie. Victoria. That’s the goal. That’s the only goal in retrieving the championships that I failed to keep. Not revenge. Not anything more than retribution for myself. For Kayla, and our legacy we’ll forever leave in this company long after everyone is gone.”
••••••
The room at the Denver Convention Center was one of their more quiet rooms at the end of the hall. Not that it would stay that way, but for now, it was calm. They’d arrived sometime in the afternoon and headed straight for the hotel from the airport, which proved to be a three hour ride in itself. They’d flown in with Kallie and Aiden, who went straight to Aurora to visit her family for the time that they decided they needed to be in the room.
Finn deposited his luggage in the room, walking across the room and opening the curtains to look out on the city. He paused as he stared out over the front range, looking at all of the mountains with snow coating all of their peaks. Every fourteener, every beautiful, statuesque mountain with its crowned glory. He’d missed this view, missed this place. Living in the mountains hadn’t been anything like what he’d known on the coasts, and being here made him wish that he was back in this environment, back in the world that he’d once been a part of.
“The shower is tiny,” Kayla complained, coming out of the bathroom and stretching her arms out as she walked over to Finn, joining him at the window and looking outside. “I don’t know how they advertised this as a resort hotel, I would have thought they would have had a bath at least.”
“No bathtub?” Finn questioned, though his eyes stayed glued upon the mountain range.
“No, but I suppose that’ll be fine if the bed is nice.” She glanced up at him, before stepping forward once more and slipping her arms around his waist. He raised an arm, wrapping it lightly around her waist from behind, and smiled as she pressed her cheek into his shoulder. “What are you thinking about?”
“There’s a lot of snow on the mountains…looks like little crowns sometimes when you look at it from a distance. A lot of people put a lot of stock in beaches, but there’s something different about actual mountains as opposed to miniscule little hills. I know it’s not like it’s Everest, but it’s still beautiful.”
Kayla looked up at him, tilting her head a little and listening not only to his words, but also his tone. He loved it here. She could see that. She saw it every time they were in Colorado. He seemed more at peace here than he did in the city, than he even did in the ring. She chuckled lightly to herself, imagining him in flannel shirts and jeans, boots up his ankle to keep the snow out as he went outside to chop logs. Not a vision she wanted to have, and one that she preferred wouldn’t come back to haunt her dreams. But one that made sense right now.
“You like it here.”
“Yeah.” Like he always was, he never quite responded with more than one word answers when it came to his own emotions. She knew his ex-wife had made him like this, and she accepted it wholeheartedly. She’d gotten used to it.
“What if we moved here?”
He turned his head finally to look at her, and raised his other hand to press it softly against her cheek. A smile rose up on his lips. “No.” He shook his head.
Kayla’s brow furrowed. “No? Why not? It’s obvious that you like it here, and honestly…” she didn’t know if she could finish that sentence just yet. She didn’t like the rain, or the snow, but if it made him happy, perhaps she could learn how to deal. That’s what relationships were supposed to be like, right? Sacrifices for one another?
“Kayla, I closed my chapter in my life that involved Colorado a long time ago. With a stupid blue haired bitch who nearly destroyed me. As much as I love it here, I don’t want to dredge up those stupid memories.”
Kayla pursed her lips slightly, and then leaned in. “Make new memories here. With me.” She offered, a small smile now slipping upon her lips. “I know that you were broken by all of this…but you have a chance to change that now. With me.”
Finn contemplated this, and then nodded slightly. “I’ll think about it. That’s all I can really give you.”
“I know,” she laughed slightly, standing then on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. She pulled away from him then, heading back behind where they stood and grabbing her wallet out of her purse. “I’ll be back, okay? Going to go get some food from the little bistro I saw. Do you want anything?”
“Nah, we can go to that pizza place later if you don’t mind walking a couple of blocks.”
“Listen,” she said, opening the door and turning to look at him, “I fucking love that pizza place. It’s a date.”
He snickered as she shut the door, shaking his head as he did so. He sighed, turning away from the window and heading to sit on the bed, intending to turn on the television. But he was stopped by his phone ringing. He glanced at the screen as he pulled it out of his pocket, and then instantly rolled his eyes as he read the name of the person on the phone.
“What do you want?” He asked, quite snippily, setting it on speakerphone and then onto the desk.
“I thought you might be missing my voice, so I figured I’d call…” the sound of Aaron’s voice infected the room. She tried to sound cute, tried to sound alluring, but Finn was over her shit entirely.
“I haven’t missed it for five years, so I have no idea why you think I would now.”
“I had a dream, okay. You liked me there.” She snapped back, and he could hear her roll her eyes. “I saw the card. Facing the Lyons again, are ya?”
“Yep.”
“Long history I’ve got with them…” she giggled slightly. “I’d be willing to help you…you know, get some intel on them, on their trainer. We’re friends. I can do that for you. You know…for a cost.”
Finn stared at the phone. He dropped to the bed and shook his head.
“No deal. I’m not interested in your schemes, Aaron. Get fucked.”
••••••
Let’s talk about you, Eddie. I’m not discounting Victoria, but my focus kind of needs to be on you. I’ll get to your cousin in a bit, but for now…it’s all about you. Which is what you want, right? I know you want a shot at my championship. And yeah, you’ve earned it, Eddie. You’ve earned it in a far different manner than your predecessor did, and that I can respect. You know, I’ve talked about it since day one, how it’s important to earn the rights to the battles that you get. Goth earned it. Hell, as much as I didn’t like him, Sean Parker earned that shot. Even Vaughn earned it, though he fucked up when it came to utilizing it. Kris Ryans earned it. I continue day in and day out saying the same thing.
You have to earn it.
When you won that last little battle royal, it solidified you as a fighter, Eddie. The field was powerful, and there was a ton of talent in that match. You earned this spot.
But I feel like you have this false sense of solidarity within yourself. A boost of confidence that might be a little displaced. And that is why I wanted this match. That’s why I wanted the opportunity to show you that your win, though warranted against me, that when you pinned me, it was a completely different situation than the complexity you face now. I was distracted, I was struggling with a bottomfeeder, and that is absolutely my fault that I dropped the ball.
At Climax Control, you’re going to get the World Heavyweight Champion that you deserve to have face you. You’re going to get the man that should have been out there in October when we lost those championships.
But you need to understand some things about me that might be a little displaced and incorrect.
You expect me to know a ton of things about you because of what little you know about my relationships. I know that your coach is the same person who helped train my ex-wife and that there is a strong bond there. However, where you’re wrong is that my ex-wife is a fucking selfish cunt and doesn’t share shit if it doesn’t has anything to do with her. So the most I’ve heard? What I’ve given to you at the beginning of this statement. You’re a member of The Lyons Den, which was part of the Lyons Wrestling Academy started by…Vincent Lyons, but not your cousin.
The rest comes from PWE and PWS…and here.
While you never walked the halls of PWS, your life was discussed briefly. Wolfslair and The Lyons Den have been going back and forth for years at this point, and honestly…I mean, I don’t care. You guys bleed your gym, but for me, Wolfslair is just simply a mindset. We back one another up, but obviously, you can see that love can be completely lost. We’re a team, until someone steps out of line.
Eddie, you’ve fought hard for your place here in SCW. But that doesn’t mean you weren’t capable of doing great things. You were a Roulette Champion, winning it in a buried alive match. It was taken off of you almost four months later in the great Hot Potato of 2024 by Aiden Reynolds, then Alexander Raven…and then back to Aiden. You had gold, for a time, but you were never able to reclaim it. And then…you got my gold because I fucked up.
It’s not going to happen again, I hope you understand. I hope your confidence allows you to understand that this isn’t really going to be a time where you push buttons and make your way across the field. I hope you understand that some people just have really off nights and they come back swinging, because that is exactly what’s going to happen here.
Perhaps you can see this match as a minimal preview of what will happen at the Christmas Show when you and I face each other for my World Heavyweight Championship. I know you haven’t quite confirmed that as of now, but I already know it’s coming. And that is why I wanted this match. I wanted you to understand that your boost of confidence for yourself to come against me might be a little displaced because you think that you have the option to face me for the championship that you think you’ll be able to wrest from my hands because you did it once.
If you think that’s the case, you might want to look at the four times I knocked former friends into the ground for coming after my championships. I lost against him, and I refused to let it happen again. He came after my championship, and I ended his failed betrayal and attempt.
That doesn’t mean that you’re anything like him. Doesn’t mean that you’re anything like anyone else in this company, and I’m not a fool to believe any different. But the fact of the matter is that you’re getting a different person. And I will prove to you and your little cousin that this was simply a fluke. It’s okay.
She’s already Dululu.
Aren’t ya, Victoria?
You know, it was cute when you first came onto the field and seemed like a cult-goddess-leader slash I don’t know what else. Your brother followed you around a bit, and now, because you won Queen for a Day, you think you have royalty status.
Guess what? Just because you’re part of the Lyons family doesn’t mean that you’re recognized as royalty. But I’m sure you recognize that when you go home every night. Kayla fucking knocked you out, and you were unable to continue. That’s your own fault. You failed and as always, Kayla loves to lord that over anyone who makes that mistake. I have no worries in this match, Victoria, on your part in this match because I already know that Kayla is exactly like me and will refuse to let someone that got a win over her ever do it again.
We adapt and we change. We don’t live in delusional land. We don’t create characters out of the people in our lives or the inanimate objects that exist. But we do understand the glory that comes in holding those championships. Perhaps you don’t. Perhaps you think it’s a means to an end.
At the end of the day, those championships will come back to us. The Wolves of Gheimhridh do not play nice when we’ve been usurped, so you can absolutely expect that we’re going to be coming for blood. Please realize that your false confidence is misplaced because of a win that you got once…and to be fair, will never do again.
Kayla and I are fighters. We are passionate about our careers, about what we have done and will continue to do until the time we rest our heads. And don’t think that because there is a parallel between the two of us where SCW throws unlikely competitors together to make great teams that succeed…Kayla and I always have succeeded, both in singles competition as well as tag. We do read each other well, we know how the other functions, we know how we continue to move forward and do well.
You’re not going to be the first to learn this. All of the teams that we’ve faced have been the best of friends or almost lovers, family, whatever you want to call it, and even the best of them were unable to capitalize against us. Why? Because when we’re on…it’s on.
No ifs, ands, or buts.
We’re coming back for those championships, Eddie. Victoria. We’re coming back to reclaim them, and at the end of the day, there’s nothing that you can do other than attempt to keep us from getting them. And the keyword there is attempt…because we will have them in our possession once the bell rings after that next 1-2-3. And you best believe, Eddie, that I will pin you.
A preview of what’s to come.
Don’t act like you didn’t know this was coming. We’ve been salivating at the start to get back here. And now we are.
And in one of my favorite places as well.
Broomfield is going to love us when we stand tall, raising both championships to the heights of the 1stBank Center once more.
You can bet on that.