Fenris turns around from where he was standing at the forefront of the Go Gym's interior, turning away from the six-sided ring where he had first learned to take what he already knew in the world of Mixed martial Arts, and adapt them into a style that helped him become one of the more feared and dominant Superstars in the entirety of Sin City Wrestling.
“Things haven't exactly been going the way that I had envisioned when I came back. I left for my home country of Iceland to both be with family during the height of this fucking pandemic, and to get my head on straight as far as where my career was at that point in time. I knew that when the time was right, I'd be back and I'd go straight back to the top, right where I belonged."
He leaned back against the ringside, his hands resting on the ring apron and arms outstretched back behind himself. He frowned, a pondering expression on his face and he shook his head.
"Only, it hasn't quite worked out the way that I had wanted, and the only thing worse than not getting to where I want, when I want - was the realization that I really had nobody to blame but myself. Not my brother Aron who acts as my business manager. Not the fans and not any of my opponents. Me."
He tapped a forefinger to his chest, giving the camera a knowing look.
"Some might try to soothe my raging ego and pin the blame for my stalled career on Aron, as he is my business manager. But he's learned from past experiences that if I don't make some noise, he takes it as disinterest on my part. And I have stated in the past that as I already proved to the world that I'm the best with one of the more impressive title runs, I had little reason to hold the belt a second time. But the truth was - that I did want it. I wanted it more than I ever really let on. I just didn't feel like listening to all the whiny bitches who made my first reign less than favorable with their whining about my holding the championship for so long, if at all. I knew damn well there were people who didn't want me at the top, who didn't feel like I belonged there, so I didn't even bother. I don't respond to drama and I have little use for it in my life, personal or professional! I got into the habit of just showing up, fighting whoever they put in front of me, and I just left it at that. I got complacent, and now? I think it's time to turn loose the Wolf and remind people why I am, who I am!"
You've heard of flashback promos, right? Well welcome to a rarity in the world of professional wrestling with the even more unique flash FORWARD promo! After all, it's all about Valentine's and that's not for three days!
Las Vegas"Okay, next question!" Danielle's cheerful voice piped across the foyer of the Baltasarsson brothers' condo. Kristjan groaned audibly as his head fell forward from where he was sitting beside his and Aron's 'little sister' on the spacious sofa. Kristjan reached up with his right hand, massaging his temples as if he was experiencing a headache or one was fast coming on. Dani, on the other hand, was beside herself in working with Aron to help "romanticize" grumpy ol' Kristjan in time for his first Valentine's Day with David.
"I need a beer!" He declared as he stood up from his seat on the sofa, but found his younger brother catching him by the shoulder from where he sat on the back of the sofa, pulling him back down where Dani kicked her feet up onto his lap to keep him in his spot. He looked down at her feet, and then up at Aron, shooting figurative daggers out of his eyes. But this just bounced right off of the younger sibling because deep down, he wanted his brother's first Valentines with David to be a success.
Plus watching the big and tough Fenris squirm while being interrogated by Dani and her collection of Cosmo quizzes was EXTREMELY entertaining!
Danielle asked, "If you could choose any movie genre to watch with your partner, what would it be? A: A romantic drama. B: A romantic comedy. or C..."
"C." Kristjan blurted out without taking the time to listen to what the third option would have been. He looked pointedly at his personal inquisitor and stated simply, "Romantic movies SUCK!"
"They do not!" Danielle declared hotly.
"Pay him no mind, Dani." Aron said with a smile as he reached over to massage her shoulder. "K's idea of romance is a man, a bed and a cigarette afterward."
Danielle giggled as Kristjan shot his brother a withering stare and declared hotly, "Bullshit! I don't even smoke!" He then looked back and forth between them and sneered, "You know I'm only putting up with this shit because you said you'd be each others' Valentines Day dates if I didn't!"
"Oh well we were doing that anyway." Aron said simply as he slid off the edge of the sofa's back, and a good thing to because Kristjan's head whipped around and he shot a hand out to snatch Aron by the arm, but the younger brother deftly avoided. Kristjan shouted, "What!?"
"Relax, brother mine." Aron sighed as he walked around the sofa and had a seat in the living chair, but leaned forward at the waist. "We're just going to a movie and maybe dinner afterwards. Neither one of us has a social life right now, so where's the harm in keeping each other company?"
"Aside from the fact you two blew smoke up my ass for the past forty minutes with these ridiculous quizzes and tips!?" Kristjan asked with no small amount of annoyance to his voice.
"Well what can we say?" Aron leaned back, kicking an ankle up over his knee as he did so. "Blackmail is a many splendor thing."
Kristjan stared right at Aron, muttering beneath his breath as he shook his head. he then stole a glance at Dani who peeped over the rim of her Cosmo and smiled comically. "Look, K..." Aron leaned forward again, but this time to draw his brother's attention away from Danielle and back to him. "I know how uncomfortable the idea of anything even remotely romantic makes you..."
"And...?" Kristjan growled, knowing the exact opposite were true. Kristjan actually COULD be romantic if he put any effort into it. He just simply did not see himself as the sort of man who had the need or desire to do so.
"And Dani and I just want you to be happy. Seriously..." He added as Kristjan gave him a silent "Oh give me a break!" expression. Aron went on as Danielle slipped her legs off of his lap and rather turned inward to snuggle up against her pseudo 'big brother.' Kristjan grimaced at the act but Aron could not help but notice he made no move to pull away or shoo her to her side of the sofa.
Aron said, "David is the first person you've been serious with since Ty. You're happy and that's all we want." Danielle looked up at Kristjan and nodded in agreement. Aron went on, "We were just trying to help so your first valentine's day would be special."
Kristjan frowned and shook his head, "So what the hell do you expect me to do, hm? Give David flowers and candy?"
"That's the spirit...!" Danielle sat upright with a proud, beaming smile on her face, but was brought short when Kristjan declared, "NO!"
Aron and Dani exchanged huffs and annoyed glanced with each other as Kristjan said, "You know damn well I don't go in for that, and you should know David well enough to know he's not the sort either! Flowers make stupid presents - they die! And even if I did lower myself to some shit like that, where would I end up!?"
"Oh come on K..." Aron smiled teasingly. "Even Kyssa knows where you and David will end up!"
Dani fell back onto the cushions, giggling as Kristjan shot a hard and cold glare at first, then resigned to a shrug of indifference. It was the truth, after all.
"Come on Dani." Aron said as he slowly stood up, prompting Danielle to sit upright and slide off of the sofa.
"Where the hell do you think you two are going!?"
"I told you, we're going out!" Aron answered. "Why? You and David want an audience? Call Bobbie! Just go get ready!"
"What?" Kristjan looked down at his clothes, which consisted of a white muscle shirt open at the arms to expose his tanned, muscular upper body, his faded jeans and of course, his favorite form of footwear; flip flops. "I'm ready!"
The door to the condo open, Aron and Dani look to each other and roll their eyes simultaneously.
"He's hopeless!" Before they shut the door behind them.
“Now and then, I like to look back on when I first set foot out of MMA and into SCW and I can't help but notice that there is a world of difference between now and then. Not in SCW itself, but in myself - and what value those in power have for me. Now I don't know; maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm reading too much into how much progress or lack thereof my career has had since I returned from Iceland over a year ago - which is virtually nonexistent. What have I done? What have I accomplished -really! How much progress have I gotten going from here…”
He had his hand parallel to the floor at waist level, then brought it up to over his head.
“...To here!”
“None. Four years ago, I walked into this business and I had the entire world at my fingertips! I had everyone sitting up and taking notice of who I was and what I could do. I was either in the Main Event, or pretty damn close! And I had men out there who would rather feed their manhood to the crows than step inside of the ring with me. When I left for Iceland in `20, Mark and Christian were offering me open contracts to remain. name my terms. That seems like a lifetime ago. And now? You have a bus load of entitled assholes who think their past reps in other promotions should carry over here! They just walk into my backyard, acting like they're the shit, and deserve to have the world handed to them on a silver platter! While men like me, who have been here for years and busted our asses to carry this promotion through the pandemic and beyond, are shuffled to the back and left fending for scraps! Was I full of myself when I first showed up in SCW?"
He scoffed - then nodded.
"Yeah! And I still am! Ask anyone! I am the most conceited bastard you'll meet! The key difference here though is the fact I more than earned the right to be! I didn't just expect the world be handed to me just because I was success in MMA. I worked my way up, one win after the other. One victim, right after the other. That was I knew there would be less know-it-all assholes questioning whether or not I earned anything. Nobody can question my capabilities! Nobody could question my success rate because I am just that damn good at what I do - whether it be the wrestling ring or the Octagon!"
“Now where am I? One step above the opening match. Not the opener which sets the tone for the whole evening. Not the Main Event which brings everything to a close. Mid. Fucking. Card! Let that sink in for a moment, and you'll understand why I am not a happy man right now, and why Alexander Raven should be praying to whatever deity he holds dear that something will come between now and then to save his ass!”
"Alexander, when you first showed up in my yard, you gave everyone the impression that you were the next big thing. Hell! I was starting to believe it myself because you can cut a serious promo and you have a way with words to where people feel little alternative but to watch you and hear what you had to say. I mean, I found myself watching you when you were on camera and you talk a good game. The problem is, you don't always have what it takes to back up a damn thing you say with results where it matters the most; inside of the ring where it's just you and whoever crosses your path. You can cut a line of bullshit, wrap it up in a pretty pink ribbon and gift it to the world, but in the end, it's still bullshit."
"You earned a shot at the big time when you challenged "Bulldog" Bill for the Roulette title and you had a great many people thinking you were going to walk out of Inception VI with the gold. With as much respect as I have for Barnhart, a part of me bought into your fanciful tales and promises. But when the chips were down ... you choked. Oh, don't mistake my honesty for tough love because it's anything but...!"
He held up a hand and shook his head, his long, blonde hair falling down over his shoulders and into his eyes. He reached up to brush his hair back behind his ear.
"You gave Barnhart a good fight. Nobody is denying that. But you can give someone the fight of their life as often as you can, but if you can't wrap things up in your own favor by the time that bell rings, what the hell is the point?
"Now, I understand that you fancy yourself something of a boxer. Hm?"
He smiled, showing off a dazzling set of early whites, nodding his head eagerly as a flash of manic glee appears in his eyes.
"Good. I always get a cheap thrill when I get to face someone who thinks themselves a proper fighter. Makes things even sweeter (for me) when they wake up an hour later, wondering what the hell happened? How did they get from the ring to the first aid station? Did I win? Those are the questions you're going to be asking yourself in only a matter of time."
"I find your surname somewhat prophetic. Ravens do factor heavily in Norse 'mythology,' and more so with Odin. Huginn and Muninn are two ravens that fly the world over to bring information to the Al-Father, the god who gave an eye so that he could 'see'. And here we have a Raven standing before me that can't see far enough ahead to see just how fucked he is!"
Las Vegas*ding! dong!*
The door bell to the condo rang, followed by a heart rapping of knuckles on the solid oak door. Emerging from his master bedroom just off of the main hall, Kristjan stepped out and despite his protests and everything he said to the contrary, he made the effort to appear quite smart. Dressed in a casual, cream colored suit jacket and dress shirt with matching slacks, he appeared to be taking this evening a little more seriously than he let on with Aron and Dani earlier in the afternoon. He crossed the threshold of the condo and upon arriving at the front door, he pulled it open - and there stood an equally impressive sight of David Shepherd in a gray suit with lavender dress shirt.
Fenris could not help but take in the handsome sight standing before him, and a satisfied smile creased the corner of his lips upward, while David was equally as pleased - right up to the point he looked down and saw the flip flops on Kristjan's feet. David snorted back a laugh and tried deftly to disguise it as a cough, but Kristjan was not fooled.
Kristjan himself then noticed what David was holding in his hands, a dozen long-stem roses, stating, "Those had better not be for me!"
"What better not be for you?" David replied, casually tossing the flowers back over his shoulder and giving his man an impish grin, before holding up the oversized box of chocolates, and asking, "Should I assume these better not be for you, too?" And he playfully made to toss those back as well, only for Kristjan to snatch them from out of his hand...
"Give me those!" David knowing his man well enough to know just how much of a choco-holic he was. Kristjan stepped aside to allow David entrance to his home, shutting the door behind him and latching it with a flick of the wrist.
"Surprised you dressed up." Kristjan observed but could not help but have his eyes glued to just how nicely the suit shaped up around the curves of David's backside. David could feel the stare at this part of his anatomy, and took no small amount of pride in the fact before he turned and had a seat. He countered with, "I could say the same about you. At least I had Esther on my back, drilling into me everything I should do or how I should dress..."
"Yes, well..." Kristjan countered, "I had Aron and Dani doing the same with me. Trying to teach me the 'art of romance.'"
David chuckled as Kristjan tore the cellophane off of the box of candy and practically threw the top off of that he could dig in, but first took the initiative to offer David some. A gesture David both accepted as well as appreciated. David shoveled a handful of chocolates into his gaping maw, before saying, "Yeah well, Esther wasn't going for romance. She was going for full blown, hardcore seduction."
And THAT certainly captured the attentions of the hot-blooded "White Wolf" as he slowly turned his head to David with renewed interest. "Is that so? And what sort of filth did she put in your head?"
"Not filth..." David then paused and looked up with a contemplative smile, before resuming his train of thought. "Well, not exactly filth. Here... Let me show you. Take off your shirt."
"Excuse me?"
"Did I stutter?" David laughed. "Take off your shirt!"
"We haven't even gone out to eat and you already want me naked!?"
"Kristjan, I want you naked even when we ARE out to eat but that's beside the point!" David then calmed himself just enough that one could feel the heat radiating off of his body and he slid that much closer to where his man was seated on the sofa so that Kristjan could feel it as well. Not that Kristjan had any complaints about being pressed so tightly against David. David said, "It's not like we were actually going to end up back here anyway, so why not just cut out the middle man and just get naked?"
Well - you didn't need to ask Kristjan twice as before David realized it, Kristjan had deftly removed his suit jacket and dress shirt, both of which got thrown over the side of the sofa. And now? Now Kristjan was straddling David's lap and kissing him deeply. David was giving as good as he got, but as he reached behind Kristjan's bare back to hold him, he had in his hand a jar of chocolate edible body paint. The lid removed, David dipped his fingers into the jar and proceeded to run the paint covered digits down Kristjan's pecs -- and Kristjan jerked off of his lap, staring at the streaks running down his chest and onto those sculpted abs...
"What the fuck...!?" He started, to which David called out, "Relax! Would you!? It's just this..." And he held up the palm-sized jar for him to see. "It's just body paint - edible, body paint."
Kristjan stared at the jar, then at David with a wondrous expression on his face. He stated, "David, in case you haven't realized, I'm not Carter! Or Holly Wood! You know damn well I don't go for that shit! Body glitter or body paint..."
"It's EDIBLE body paint you jackass!" David countered, trying to get it through Kristjan's thick and stubborn skull at what he was attempting to do.
"I don't care WHAT the fuck that shit is!" Kristjan said. "Why the hell would I let you paint me with that!?"
"Because..." David leaned in with a smarmy smile, looking his man up and down as if he were something good to eat... which wasn't altogether so far from the truth. He finished, "...I get to lick it off of you."
Kristjan stared at David. David winked at Kristjan. And Kristjan slowly leaned back on the sofa and stretched his body out, resting an arm behind his head an he finally yielded with a smile and a suggestive wag of the eyebrow.
"Proceed...!"
An eternity later...The lights in the master bedroom were dark, and only the light from the nearby Vegas strip cast enough illumination inside of the room to see the two bodies in the bed together. Both young men had the faintest of traces of the edible paint left on their bodies, while they stared sleepily into one a other's eyes, David's fingers running through Kristjan's long hair. David rolled over onto his back and smiled, "I'm glad I went with this option. Esther had something else set up in my apartment that I was sure was going to cost me my lease and get me evicted."
Kristjan leaned up on his elbow and wore a curious frown and asked, "What?"
"A kiddie pool filled with warmed fudge is currently in the center of my living room." Was the answer that came as easily as if it were the most natural thing to say. Kristjan tried to wrap his head around this potential "gift," But it was obvious what the past hour plus between David and he had taken its toll on him and he wasn't thinking clearly enough.
"I don't get it." He shook his head. "I know I like chocolate but ..."
"It wasn't for us to eat." David turned his head just enough to look right into those baby blues and David smiled knowingly. Kristjan stared into those eyes until it clicked ... and he promptly grasped David by the wrist and jumped out of bed, pulling David up along with him...!
"Have you ever felt like you were backed into a corner from a professional standpoint? Like you laid out the groundwork from start to finish. You had everything planned out from top to bottom, envisioning exactly how everything was going to go - only to have everything go ass up and seemingly go to shit? Where it seemed like the fast track to success was either stuck in slow motion or going in reverse? Where the harder you worked to climb to the top, the more determined Fate worked at holding you back and keeping you down?"
Fenris tapped a forefinger to his chest.
"That's pretty much how I've been feeling and where I've been -- right here."
He tapped that finger to his temple.
"And I have a little bit of a newsflash for everyone out there. Fans. Friends. Family. And every single man in that locker room. I don't like it when things don't go my way, and I like it even less when circumstances cause me to doubt myself! Oh - don't say something stupid about doubting my ability inside of the ring because nothing could be further from the truth. I know damn well what I can do and how good I am at doing it, but lately all I've been doing is spinning my wheels and not getting ANYWHERE!"
"The last time I got anywhere close to the World title was that Triple Threat match to determine who would get to challenge Alex Jones at High Stakes XI. And, no excuses. I lost. Literally. Jack Washington got one over on me, and there's no shame in losing to someone when the win is earned, but let's face facts; Jack beat me because Marcus Cage got involved. And that was literally the last time I was involved in the World title picture in any way! A guy who's only ever been beaten by THREE men..."
He held up three fingers for emphasis.
"In the past four years, and that's what I get. So while Jack got the title shot, I was stuck teaching Mister Candy why he should have kept his nose out of my goddamn business. I thought that was probably the lowest point of my career. But things started looking up when I had to step in the ring with a giant. A giant who fucked with my family and I knew I was going to bring crashing down to earth! And I made no pretense that it was going to be easy. I'm not stupid or a liar! Supreme Machine fucked me up, but. I. Won!"
"I thought after that, things would finally be looking up in my career. Maybe even a shot at Mac Bane would be forthcoming once I was cleared..."
He closed his eyes and mockingly shook his head in the negative.
"No. After that hellish match, the higher ups decide instead to stick me in a meaningless match with one of those newcomers who've recently overrun the place, running his mouth and thinking he's all that. Now maybe there's a method to the madness that is Mark Ward and Christian Underwood. maybe they had their reasons for putting me so low on the card against someone who belongs there, when I do not! Maybe they thought I needed an easy match to ease me back into the thick of things after my fight with SuMa. Or maybe they were getting tired of the way some of these punk ass bitches
“Mercedes Vargas made a bold prediction. She said that before 2022 came to a close, I would once again be the World Heavyweight Champion. Well! Far be it for me to be one to prove her wrong. I am tired of waiting. I am tired of having to prove myself all over again! And YOU..."
He jabbed a finger at the camera.
"Alexander, you are simply the first casualty of many!"
