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Roleplay Boards => Climax Control Roleplays => Topic started by: Alexander Raven on July 10, 2026, 07:35:25 PM
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Alex had spent a long time battling his own paranoia. He had finally got to a place where he wasn’t looking over his shoulder all the time. Wasn’t constantly afraid that there were people watching him. That the ghosts of his past were just waiting in the shadows to torment him. With facing his pent up grief, came a release from all the torture his mind had been putting him through.
Unfortunately, being face down in the gutter with a gun pressed to your skull does a real good job of bringing that paranoia surging back to the surface. Harrison had suggested that Luna not be told about what would happen. There were a few reasons for that. The most prominent of which being that it would just cause her undue worry. Undue stress.
Luna lived as carefree as she could, and that was something that neither of them wanted to strip away from her. Alex didn’t want to see her struggling and paranoid like he had spent so much of his life. There was however a nagging feeling at not telling her. At not letting her know what had happened, and what danger was around them. Harrison said it wouldn’t happen again, that they were going to be more proactive. That he was going to do something about it.
Alex had his doubts.
There was a part of him that didn’t want to let her out of his sight. That every time she went out shopping by herself, or went for drinks with friends. Took Duchess for a walk, or said she was going to visit Harrison, that she could be the next one with a gun to her head. That whoever these people chasing Saoirse were, that they wouldn’t be so reserved next time. That they’d take action in a place where there was no chance that they could be stopped.
Paranoia based in reality it felt. He was afraid of what could be coming, that fear. That fear was palpable. Standing in the shower he was battling with himself, battling over his silence. He wasn’t even really sure if Harrison was right. That keeping this from her was the right thing to do. They told each other everything these days. They were honest, they were open. It was a necessary part of the marriage.
He’d promised not to keep the things that tortured his mind secret. It was the biggest danger to their whole relationship, but here he was. Keeping a secret again. A secret he shouldn’t even have had. Alex wanted Saoirse to experience as close to a normal life as she could. There was no doubt in his mind that she deserved to be free of people who could do things like that. He was happy to have Harrison back in their lives.
Their true social circle was incredibly depleted these days. Friends of the past were essentially whittled down to Adrienne and Harrison at this point, and the risk of not having either of them was suffocating. At the same time, if Harrison had stayed away. Kept away from them until whatever horseshit was going on for them was buried. That would have been the best thing for them.
Selfish, he thought to himself. Selfish, but justified.
He reached up and touched his temples, rubbing the spot where the gun had been pressed. He could hear the gunshot ringing in his mind. He’d been so certain he was going to die in that moment. The fear, the adrenaline. His body frozen in terror, completely unable to change what was about to happen.
He could still feel the barrel pressed to his head. He could still feel the weight of the two people on his back and his legs. Phantom pains of a sort. It was hard to push it from his mind when the feeling of it was ever present. The paranoia was creeping back in, and the fear. The fear of things he didn’t even know to be real was rearing its ugly head again.
Alex shook his head, trying to cast aside the thoughts. To throw the sensations out of his body and mind. He tilted his head back and let the stream of hot water flow over his face. Washing the sensations out as he stood there. Stood there under the stream of water, and breathed. In and out, slow and focused. Attempting to centre himself a little. He could hear Luna elsewhere in the house. Cupboards banging, heavy thumping footsteps as she stomped around their home.
The thwack of a tail against the same cabinets. If Duchess could talk, Alex just knew she’d be telling Luna what had happened. It made him wonder if it was something that Duchess even had a real concept of. He knew she couldn’t actually rationalise it all, but still. He wondered if she would have nightmares too about what she had seen. Poor dog, he thought. She was probably as unable to deal with things as he was.
At least she had the never-ending dopamine of being a loved on domestic animal to keep her floating on a cloud. Luna had clearly lost something this morning, because she was rampaging around the apartment. The same cabinets being slammed shut over and over. The repetitive pacing of her trying to trace her path. He lowered his head from the stream of water, and leaned against the tiled walls of the shower. Her phone was on the counter.
He suspected that was what she was rampaging around trying to find. He smiled a little, and reached out to the taps, slowly turning off the water. He didn’t really want to leave the warm and hot stream, but he had to face life eventually. To get out of his head for a minute and face the world again.
“Have you seen my phone?!” Luna yelled from the adjoining bathroom, hearing the shower come to a stop. He smiled a little, wiping his hands off with his towel as he stepped out of the shower. He grabbed the towel and wrapped it around his waist, tying it there for the moment. He reached down and grabbed her phone. It lit up as he did. A picture of them together with Duchess, sitting outside James’ bar. A joy filled scene. She looked radiant that day.
“Yeah, you left it in here.” Alex shouted back, flipping it in his hand as he walked slowly toward the door. Bad decision-making. Luna threw the door open in her frenzy. He was standing just a tad too close to it, and it cracked him straight in the face. It took a mere moment, his battered nose wasn’t quite what it used to be. The blood began to flow, and he groaned in pain. Luna gasped and instantly ran to the sink to grab a dry towel.
“Thanks Iron Mike.” Alex managed to say, as she pressed the unfortunately pristine white towel under his nose. Broken noses were nothing new to Alex, but in the very least, he was actually certain it wasn’t broken this time. A solid whack was enough to turn the blood faucet on however. He took the towel from her and held it under his nose, applying just a bit of pressure to held stave off the fountain pouring from his face.
“I’m sorry! I’ve been looking for it for the last half hour, and I… I’m really sorry sugar.” Luna said softly, a clear panic in her eyes. It was a funny concept moment, really. But it did make one thing absolutely clear in his mind. The near death? That was a secret better kept. If a bit of a blood nose was enough to etch clear agony and concern on her face. The idea that he had almost been shot?
Alex didn’t know he could even look her in the eyes with what that news would do to her. He stretched out his arm and handed her phone to her, groaning a little again at the pain in his face. The worst part of it was he had just showered, and now his face was covered in blood. That and they had definitely ruined this towel. Why did people always choose white towels?
Luna ran off quickly, grabbing a bunch of tissues to replace the towel. She tore them in half and twisted them up, handing them to Alex in quick succession. Duchess decided she also needed to see what has happening, and came trotting in. Tail wagging as she looked back and forth between the two of them. Not a worry in the world. To be as carefree as a fat beagle.
He pushed the tissue into his nostrils and placed the bloodied towel on the counter. He grunted a little with the pressure of putting the tissue in his nose, and breathed out slowly. Trying to find the centred peace that he had, just moments before. Luna was peering at his face, trying to assess if she had broken it or not.
“People are going to think I’m beating you up.” Luna said somewhat playfully, trying to alleviate her own stress and panic with the situation. Alex laughed a little, and shook his head, slowly moving past her with a kiss to the forehead. Moving into the bedroom to find clothes for the day.
“I don’t think people will keep believing I ran into a door at this rate.” Alex said softly, but that primal sense flared in the back of his mind. He turned on his heel, and looked at Luna who was staring at something on her phone. The narrowing of her eyes, the loss of concern and now a bubbling point of… anger? Frustration? Nervousness? He wasn’t quite sure of the emotion. He wasn’t as good at reading it as he’d lead people to believe.
“Hey, I just got a message from Saoirse. Why is she telling me to tell you she is sorry? What happened, Alex?” Luna spoke precisely. Emphasis on the absolute worst syllables. Fucking Saoirse. An instigator, just like Harrison.
Alex took a deep breath and sat on the edge of the bed, patting the spot next to him. The choice to keep what had happened a secret, had been stolen from him. What a shitshow of a morning. Luna stalked over to him, and knelt down, staring him directly in the eyes. Her face is a knit of conflicting emotions. Anger, frustration, fear and worry.
“We need to be more careful, for a little while. When I took Duchess over to James’ the other week. To drop her off. I had an unfortunate run-in with the people that Harrison is apparently trying to protect Saoirse from.” Alex spoke softly, slowly. He maintained eye contact with her, despite every instinct in his mind screaming at him to look away. To avert his eyes. To keep the truth from her.
“What. Happened. Alex.” Luna demanded more than asked this time. Her face was still a whirlwind of mixed emotions, but she was probably leaning more into the anger now. Not one that liked being kept in the dark, and definitely not one to have secrets kept from her. Not now. Not at this point in their relationship.
“Harrison and Saoirse stopped them, but. I was attacked outside the door. They took me to the ground, and they held a gun to my head. They were going to kill me, there and then. Harrison and Saoirse stopped them. I told Harrison to fix it. I told him that this couldn’t happen again. I screamed at him, demanding to know how it could happen. That if it had been you…” Alex explained slowly, his eyes struggling to remain looking at her, but he kept them there as he spoke.
“I told him, I’d kill him if anything ever happened to you.” Alex said softly, and lowered his head. He couldn’t keep looking in her eyes as they searched his. Her hands gripped his wrists tightly, and squeezed. Squeezed far too hard, and her nails dug in far too deep.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Luna asked.
“I don’t want you to turn into me.” Alex said.
“Lexi…” Luna said.
“We don’t both need to be paranoid and delusional.” Alex said.
And for a moment, they sat there, Luna staring into his face. Alex raising his head a little, to meet her gaze again. The locked eyes, and he breathed in deeply. What a sight to be hold. Wet and wrapped in a towel, nose filled with blood soaked tissue, and fear etched onto both their faces.
“Did Duchess help?” Luna asked.
“She woke the world to protect her dad.” Alex replied.
And for the moment, that was enough. A conversation to be revisited, but not right now. She lowered herself down a little more, and rested her head on his lap, arms wrapped around his legs.
This would have to do, for now.
“It’s funny, you know? In the moment, the win. It is… cathartic. There is relief in the outcome. In knowing that the confidence wasn’t mislaid. That in that moment everything I worked towards was good enough. It was the first time in… years. In years that I felt that the victory was entirely my own. A win that I earnt. That I had built with my own two hands.”
“On that ship, there were moments where I could see what everything the last two decades have been about. That the outcome was not one that people dreaded or disdained me for having. That for the first time, I won because I deserved it. That I had done what needed to be done to do it.”
“No shortcuts, no cheating. No manipulation or dirty tactics. No cascades of interference, or unreasonable brutality leading to an outcome of my own choosing. No, this time, I did it for myself. I did it for the people watching. I did it for the crowd’s adulation. There wasn’t resentment in the win, but acknowledgement and cheer for the success in it. Two decades being the bad guy. A multi-time World Champion, and this time. This time meant the most to me. There’s no hitches on it, no caveats.”
“Alexander Raven is the Sin City Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion, and that feels good. It feels right. It feels… earned. Validating.”
“Validating.”
“Now I won’t pretend that it was an easy journey. I won’t pretend that it was an easy night. I know exactly how hard it was to get there, and the truth of it? A breath longer and things may have been completely different. I used my knowledge, my acumen. I used two decades of experience to turn the tide just long enough to get what I needed from that match.”
“I won, but I can’t openly say that I beat Miles Kasey.”
“That is why this match is happening. That is why we are immediately being thrown into another outing. A chance for me to tie up our one on one record, and to solidify myself as World Champion. I talked a lot about how I was sorry that I was taking your moment. I talked a lot about how I was sorry for you.”
“I was sorry for you Miles. Sorry that I was working towards taking away what you had spent so long trying to earn. I know that feeling because I have experienced it for years here. Always so close, but just short each and every time. You were spending your time working out what it takes to be the man with the championship. I was… finding out what it meant to be Alexander Raven.”
“That’s the key point here though. You said something that I need to correct you on. I’ve always known who I am. I’ve always known I was the timid, scared, and battle-hardened little nerdy kid. The kid who wanted nothing more than to be the characters in my games, and my comics. Hell, when I started this all. I was the Raging Raven. You know where that came from?”
“Some would tell you it was the unbridled anger that was boiling beneath the surface. True to a point. I was, and still am, a very angry man. Angry at the world, at my circumstances. Angry at the life that I had to live to get to the point of where I wanted to do anything to silence those who would laugh at me. But the truth of it? I just really liked Metal Gear Solid.”
“Dumb, right? I think so. I think back on it, and I laugh. I laugh at that eighteen year old kid who thought using that nickname, that moniker, was cool. That it would endear him to the crowd. Sometimes I wonder how different things would have been for me if I hadn’t met Alexander Remington. If he hadn’t beaten the childlike joy out of that young man, and put me on the path to who I would become.”
“There’s been a lot of iterations of Alexander Raven. The Raging Raven. The One True King. The True False King. The Broken Messiah, the False Prophet. The Napalm Kingslayer, which is a personal little favourite of mine. Twenty years of my life, moving from mask to mask, to hide the man who existed behind it. The scared man who just wanted to be a Metal Gear Solid character. It’s funny to look back on, but it is important too.”
“It’s important because I have always worn those masks. I have always hid behind who I wanted to be, because being me? I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to be Alexander Rabenschwarz. I wanted to be something special, I wanted to be seen. I wanted to leave a legacy, and fuck anyone who tried to stop me. Ego, narcissism, drive and arrogance. Look at it any which way you want, the fundamentals of it stay the same. I wanted people to remember Alexander Raven, and not the man behind the masks.”
“I need to thank you, Miles. I need to thank you for making me look at myself. Making me look at who I am, and making that decision. Making the decision to be better. To be different. To not leave a legacy for men like Brandon Hendrix, Logan Hunter, Alexander Lyons. There is no joy, there is no love. There is no redemption in men like that. In men like me. The best I can do is try and atone for the sins and the legacy built upon broken bodies that I have carved.”
“So now the roles are reversed. You are the man seeking to take what I have earned. Now you have to look inwards and ask yourself that poignant question. What does it take for Miles Kasey to be World Heavyweight champion? The same question, but a different one all the same. You were confident you had the answer. You were confident that you had the answer and in that. The confidence that you would beat Alexander Raven.”
“Focus is an important thing here, and focus is what we both need. I have my eyes no further than my own feet, for I refuse to let this slip away from me again. I refuse to let this be another flash in the pan for Alexander Raven. This is about proving that what I did on that cruise ship? A breath of difference may have been the deciding factor, but. It wasn’t a fluke.”
“It wasn’t a moment of luck. It wasn’t a matter of me being smarter for those three seconds. No, this Miles. This is about proving that I am far more capable now, than I have ever been. In the hardest days of my career, I am better than I have ever been. I am smarter, I am stronger and I am more determined than ever.”
“I refused to let it be my swansong, and I refuse to be nothing more than a two-week transitional champion. I won’t let it happen, and I must apologise to you again Miles. I must apologise for the fact that it is at your cost that this must come. But as remorseful as I am, that does not change what I must do. It does not change that I will beat you, again.”
“When we step into the main event, a place I have become incredibly familiar with. When we step into that ring, the outcome does not change. This time I walk in as World Champion, and I will walk out World Champion. I will hold that championship high, and this time. This time I will offer my hand to you. To the man who forced me to be better.”
“I apologise, but I also thank you.”
“Do not mistake my softened heart, however. I won’t lose to you again, Miles. I refuse to let you take my hard work away from me. I want you to work harder than ever. I want you to want it more than ever. I want you to push me to limits I don’t know I have, because that is what I desire. I desire to be the best, and to be the best I must continue to beat the best.”
“I want you focused, Miles. My fear is that you weren’t focused. A reversal of roles, really. I’m afraid that your personal life, things happening outside the ring. The quiet in your mind, is your undoing. That you are not focused on what it takes to beat me. That you aren’t focused on what it takes to be World Champion.”
“I’m afraid of it, because it disappoints me to think that you won’t bring your best. That you won’t be the best you that you can be. That you won’t give me what I want, and what I want. What I need, Miles, is for you to be focused. To shut the world out, to close the door on the personal and look at what is before you. Redemption and a chance to shut me up, one more time. To put a definitive nail in this proverbial coffin.”
“Come Climax Control, in the main event, I won’t accept anything less than better than you have ever been. Better than you were on the cruise ship. Better than when you were in Japan. Better than you were when you beat me for the Roulette Championship all those years ago. If you’re not better than you have ever been, then don’t waste my time. Don’t waste the fans’ time. If you aren’t focused, if you aren’t putting everything you’ve got in taking the World Championship away from me, then you aren’t worthy of even wondering what it means to be the man with the gold.”
“Because one thing hasn’t changed for me. The championship does not define the man, it does not make him. It is still a prop. A prop that makes every single person step their game up. A prop that makes every person want to be better than the man holding it. Better than the man who is the measuring stick. Make no doubt about it, with or without, I am the measuring stick. I am the ring fucking general.”
“Ego doesn’t just go away, but the way I think about it? The way I channel it? That can change. I am a narcissist, but I am also one of the best at everything I do. On the mic, in the ring, in my marriage, in the world. I fight every day to be better than I was the day before. I had my doubts, I had my moments of fear. I felt the sting, the pain and the agony. I was tired, and I thought I was done.”
“You made me realise, I’m far fucking from it. So I need you to be better than you think you can be, because that is the only way. The only way you are taking this championship from me again.”
“I will make sure there is no question about it, Miles. Alexander Raven is the face of Sin City Wrestling. Alexander Raven is the man on top of the mountain in Sin City Wrestling. Alexander Raven is the man to beat, and if you have even the slightest of doubts. The slightest of fears. The slightest lapse in focus, then you won’t be able to come close to stopping me this time.”
“I had my moment, Miles. Now I’ll build my legacy. I’ll see you at Climax Control.”