San Francisco International Airport
The American Airlines flight from Las Vegas had landed only moments ago, and the passengers disembarked into the terminal of the airport's interior. It was a normal, every day routine for the attendants and various employees of the airport, and for those coming to and fro on vacations or trips of business and/or pleasure, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Save for the certain passengers who had made full use of the flight's first class accommodations; namely Synn and Despayre, along with Gabriel and his wife, Odette Stevens, and their protege (and Odette's tag team partner), the rookie sensation, Evie Baang.
There were many fans of the sport of professional wrestling, and many who recognized this group on the spot. But as much as they wanted to rush up for autograph and picture requests, the glare from Synn warded off those who would intrude. There were just certain times and places where one should not ask a wrestler for such a thing, even if you think with all your heart that they wouldn't mind. The airport was Synn's biggest pet peeve, as once they arrived in the intended city, all he usually wanted to do was grab their luggage and get to the hotel where his son could sleep off the remainder of his sedative.
Despayre was terribly afraid of flying, but in this business, such was a given to get to where you needed to be in a timely manner. So his doctor prescribed for him an addition to the other medications he was condemned for life perhaps to take for the remainder of his years. This one simply made him sleepy enough to doze off before the flight even took off, and he would usually sleep for most of, if not all, the flight. It was best for those around him so as to prevent a possible panic attack. And even after landing, there were times where it was difficult to rouse the little sleepy head. This sedative simply had to be slept out of his system.
"Was it necessary?" Evie whispered covertly while eyeing as Synn helped steer Despayre around a row of chairs and settled him into a vacant one where there were few if anyone nearby so as to disturb him. "The flight wasn't even two hours."
Gabriel nodded as he watched Synn set a carry one on the chair to Despayre's right to prevent anyone from getting too close. "Despy can't handle flights like we can, even if they're short ones. He can be awake a bit while in the air, but the take off is what really frightens him."
"Gabriel," Synn's voice drew the magician's attention to him where he said, "I need to go find him a Coke or something to rouse him at least a little bit. Otherwise I'll be carrying him through the airport."
Gabriel chuckled and nodded, knowing that the funniest part of Synn's jest was the fact it was not a jest at all. Synn would carry Despayre if it came down to that, and a part of him hoped privately that he would have to. The sight alone would be worth it. But he resigned himself to a slight delay while Synn walked off to fetch a soda for his son, and he and his wife and protege took the three seats around Despayre to better surround him and protect him from the confines of strangers.
Minutes passed and they noticed Despayre's eyes were open, but still filled with sleep. Gabriel was surfing the Internet on his smart phone when he felt someone nudge his shoulder. He turned his head to find his wife, Odette, smiling and indicating he should look. Gabriel turned to see a Hare Krishna walking towards them, his eyes focused on the most innocent one of the group; Despayre.
"Pardon me," The Hare Krishna said, holding out an orange flower in his fingers. "Would you like to buy a flower?"
Despayre raised his head and looked up at the man addressing him. He blinked back the sleep and gazed at the bald man (save for the ponytail) in the colorful robes and sandals and his eyes opened wide.
"Does your mother know you're doing this for a living!?"
Odette clapped a hand over her mouth, but not before a bark of ladylike laughter escaped her lips at their Despy's classic line directed at the poor Hare Krishna! Gabriel snorted back a laugh of his own but it soon erupted freely and he wrapped a single arm around Despayre's shoulders in a fond embrace. Never a dull moment where his Despy was concerned! Even Evie's eyes widened a little and a smile found its way to her lips as Despayre watched the man turn and hurry away.
Gabriel's head fell on his wife's shoulder as his whole body shook from the laughter while Despayre settled back in his seat and closed his eyes again....
Across the stage walked Angel, clad in a graduation gown and a monocle over his right eye. Yes, you heard me right, well, read me right if you have to be technical. Angel walked across the stage and calmly took his place at the very center, before all in attendance. His paws clasped behind his back, he glanced slowly from left to right while he rocked back and forth on his feet. The very epitome of calm relaxation. He brought a paw up to his mouth and coughed lightly, but just loud enough for all murmuring to come to an end so that we might give him our full and undivided attention.
"Hello. And thank you for joining me here today. I'm sure that you have noticed that our time together this week may have been somewhat different. I am well aware that each time our good friend Despayre is booked in a match, people tune in by the billions to see what sort of wacky adventures he'll end up in. That is the norm, but this week, we are going the abnormal route and trying something just a little bit different."
Angel reached over toward the small, round table at his side and picked up a glass of water and had a drink before setting it back down. He then picked up an extendable presentation pointer stick. He drew it to its full length as he continued on with his speech.
"And why is that, you may ask? Well, I'm glad you did! It is because this week in his scheduled match, it is no laughing matter. The time for levity is at an end, and the time for business is to begin. And you have the disappointment of not experiencing another Despayre comedy-fest on one and only one person."
Angel reached up and drew down a cord that pulled down a rolled up poster of "The So-Called original Sinner" aka Chris Shipman. Angel gave the poser a hard whack with his pointer.
"This is why, or rather, who is why."
Angel gazed upward and pondered, rubbing his chin with his paw for a moment.
"No, on second thought, I had it right the first time. Chris Shipman is definitely more of a what than a who. He's definitely more animal than man, but to say that is also an insult to animals. Animals do not act as rabid as Chris Shipman does. Animals do not attack with the intent to hurt just for the sake of it. Chris Shipman does. Animals fight to defend their young, for food and survival. Chris Shipman fights because he enjoys the sensation of inflicting pain on an opponent. He enjoys the sight of blood, even if it were to be his own. In short order..."
Angel looked around, then leaned in and cupped a paw around his mouth to whisper.
"Chris Shipman is nuts."
Angel stood upright once again to continue.
"You know, I look back on how all of this started and I can't help but feel just a hint reminiscent on so many years having been wasted so thoroughly. As far back as I can recall, from the very beginning of our tenure in the Asylum Wrestling Alliance, there has always been the Seven Deadly Sins. And right then and there, in the AWA, there was the one known as Chris Shipman. One-time foe, then ally, and now foe again. I watched it all happen back then, and you can bet I kept a close eye on you. It's part of my job, after all. And looking back on those good times and bad, I can't help but wonder where it all went wrong. I can't help but wonder if it was indeed a gross error on our part to induct you into being a member of our little family."
"Do you remember those times, Chris? Hm? One has to wonder if you think back to the very moment you declared your 'allegiance' to the Sins and wonder why you did it, and to what extent your deceptions held true. Oh you say that you were playing us from the very beginning, and you were toying with Synn's affections from the brink of your time with us, but I really do have to wonder if what you're 'claiming' is true or not. You are, after all, a master deceiver and you could be lying to everyone about that. you could have been lying from the start, but the simple fact is, you're a liar in general. You proved that the very moment you declared to one and all that you were capable of defeating Despayre and walking away with his Internet Championship."
"Let's look back, shall we? take a little stroll down Memory Lane and look at how all of this first started. We may have a few people here and there who remain unaware of our original history together, and it'd be only polite of us to help them catch up."
"It all started in a tag team match in the AWA, where Despayre and Gabriel were taking on Chris and his own tag team partner. I wish I could recall what the names were of Chris's two stable teammates at the time, but the fact was that he was the only one of any notoriety. Sad, isn't it? But the end result was the same. The Sins emerged victorious, but it was an action during that very match that sealed Chris's fate. When he and his tag partner decided to engage in a friendly game of 'Keep Away,' tossing yours truly back and forth to each others' waiting hands while poor Despayre was caught in the middle, jumping up and down, trying to save me."
"And just when Chris and company thought all was forgotten, that's when the devious mind of Synn struck. Fantasia lured Chris to her private dressing room for a little tonsil hockey make out session, which led to ..."
Angel looked closer at his notes and put a paw over his mouth.
"Oh my! Can I tell this part?"
He shrugged.
"Ah well. What can they do to me? It led to a little BDSM session that would make Christian Grey green with envy! Fantasia got Chris stripped down and wear nothing but a neon pink thong, showing his gingerbread and everything. Then she had his handcuffed to the pipes on the ceiling so that he was stretched so tight, his feet barely touched the floor. Ol' Chris thought he was in for something really hot and heavy, and boy was he right! That was about when Fantasia slapped a piece of duct tape over his mouth to keep him quiet, and left the dressing room. The door opened back up and in walked Synn! Synn locked the door and walked over to Chris and ..."
<marquee>The following portion of this promo has been censored by the Teddy Bears For Clean Living Society...</marquee>
"But Shipman must have loved it because the very next week? When his two stable mates attacked Synn in the ring, Chris showed up and turned on the two, attacking them and solidifying himself as the newest member of the Seven Deadly Sins!"
"And from that moment on, you were relevant again. Oh it's true that you held your fair share of championship gold and success before the Sins ever even arrived in AWA, but for the longest period of time, you were simply stuck in the proverbial rut. You were going in circles like those teens in the Blair Witch Project, with no clear destination, and no end in sight. But once you joined the Sins, once you shared Synn's bed and gave him your body, you knew you had something good going. That's why I think you're full of baloney when you claimed it was all for show. Everybody knew what you and Synn were doing in your private time. No straight guy does the things you did just to get ahead."
Angel blinked, then shook his head.
"Somehow that sounded better in my head before I said it aloud. But I digress! Despite the fact you probably thought having something going with Synn would propel you to the top of his priority list, you didn't take into account that there was more than just a mentor/wrestler relationship between him and Despayre. They were father and son, and even though it was unknown at the time, nothing could or would come between that blood relation. Not even you. And over the course of time, as the years slowly passed, that dawning realization just started to eat away at you, didn't it?"
"Maybe you weren't as good as you liked to think? Personally or professionally. And while Despayre and Gabriel won championship gold in the singles and tag team ranks in both AWA and SCW, what did you do? Well at first you didn't even follow them to SCW. You stayed behind and languished without the support of what had proven to be a very dominant stable. You fought and struggled to remain in the spotlight, and only after a number of years had passed did you finally arrive in SCW to pick up right where you left off."
"Being a loser."
"Oh you cried foul and favoritism that Synn gave all the main events and title shots to his son and Gabriel, but we all know the truth. The truth that you, Chris, continue to bury beneath the sand along with your head. Synn got you title shots. He got you chances at both the World and Roulette titles. But every time you made the attempt to wrest gold from the current champion, you choked and walked away with as much gold as an out of business jewelers. But did you blame yourself? Did you cast the cause as the man who was inside of the ring, doing the wrestling? Nooooo! You blamed Synn, and that's when everything you built up to that point came crashing right back down. And it's why you'll continue doing so, until you can admit a simple truth: you're not as great as you like to pretend to be."
"Heck! I don't even think you're as frightening as you want the world to believe that you are! Anybody can grab a weapon, toss around some barbed wire, and shed some blood and call themselves a psycho! Those types of men in this business? They're a dime a dozen. Go on and check the rosters of any one of the many wrestling promotions that can be enjoyed world-wide (though you'll never find one as great as SCW), and you'll find at least one so-called loudmouth psycho. What makes you so different, hm? What makes you a cut above the rest and the real menace of the wrestling industry? For all the claims made about your mental stability, a lot of the same people have also said the exact same things about Despayre. Difference being, Despayre does not advertise it. Despayre does not remind us at any given time that he's ... special. And you know what they say about lads like that."
"Beware of the quiet ones!"
"You know what I think? I think you were more than caught off guard by just how hard Despayre fought you in your match at Inception II. You walked in there, thinking that your size and ferocity would allow you to overwhelm him, but when he proved you wrong, you were incapable of adapting. You thought size and power meant certain victory. You thought your past stint as so-called 'Stepmom' would give you an intimidation factor against Despayre to exploit, only it didn't. I was so proud of Despayre when he met you right there on the floor and fought you man to man! He matched you fist for fist and tooth for claw, Chris, and it seems that you just wasn't able to get enough. Like any sore loser, after losing, you want another go in a sad attempt to erase that result from the minds of those who witnessed it."
"And as soon as you made your special challenge, as soon as you wanted Despayre in your little House of Fun, I knew he had you. For all your mind games, I knew that it was Despayre who was in your mind, eating away at your subconscious! I never thought I would see the day where the high and mighty 'man monster' known as Chris Shipman was intimidated by someone -- anyone, but it's become painfully clear to me that you are. You are intimidated by Despayre. If you weren't, why would you go to such lengths to have a match against him where the deck was stacked completely in your favor? Or is it?"
"After all, you have to remember that for every little sadistic plan you have for Despayre, he has one in equal measure, ready for you. You hurt his father. You made that critical error the moment you put Synn through a table, and no son can ever forgive such a thing until the past is dead and buried. And as that cage you will be surrounded will prevent anyone from getting in, oh poor, single digit IQ Chris. It will also prevent you from getting out. For each weapon you plan to inflict harm upon Despayre's body, there'll be many more for him to use against you."
"Plainly said, anything you can do in that match, Despayre can do better. And after that? It will all be over. There'll be no going back. No more tries. Your past with the Seven Deadly Sins will be a thing of the past, but reliving the shame of Despayre beating you in two matches back to back? Oh Shipman..."
Angel pulled on the poster's cord and released it, letting it roll up in a loud 'flap flap flap'!
"That memory will linger on forever."
*snort*
Despayre's head sunk low against his slim chest and that caused him to rise, alert. He blinked his wide, gray eyes, and looked around as if he were having a momentary lapse of memory in realizing where he was. He looked up and around, and wiped at his sleepy eyes as he saw that he was still seated in the chair he had occupied in the San Francisco airport.
Just as Synn was approaching with a large bottle of cold Cherry Coke, Despayre yawned mightily and exclaimed, "Well! That was certainly convenient! Now I don't have to do a promo!"
And while Evie, Gabriel and Odette exchanged confused glances, Despayre turned to the teddy bear at his side and shook a forefinger at Angel.
"But no more of that naked news for you mister!"
Synn offered the Coke over to Despayre who grabbed at it greedily, and looked to Gabriel.
"Do I even want to know?" Synn asked.
"Probably not." Gabriel managed to answer between chuckles.
