Post by Finn Kühn on Oct 20, 2022 16:17:11 GMT -5
19 October 2022
Brooklyn, New York City
“Would you believe I’ve never been to Hawaii before? Let alone on a boat?”
It was an innocuous question. And yet it was one that earned me a dignified snort from the equally sweaty yet terrifying woman beside me, giving me a glare up and down as if she were dissecting every part of me and reassembling it with just her eyes alone. Being under the glare of Skyla Hawkins was intimidating by itself, but doubly so when you’re her student.
“Well, in that case, you should be thankful the show this year isn’t on a cruise ship. For that matter, I’m surprised that when you heard you’d gotten booked on there by Buster Gloves, your next move was to sign yourself up for the Rumble match as well,” Skyla said as she crossed her arms. Her latter statement could be misconstrued as almost that of a small nag, but rather it was accompanied by a smile, revealing it was more of an approving sort rather than anything else.
“You know what they say,” I shrugged before heading out of the ring we were training in, hopping to the side in order to grab a water bottle and get a sprayed burst of nourishment into my mouth before continuing. “No pain, no gain. And I intend to get plenty of gain here with this supercard.”
“There's plenty of gain to be had with all the eyes that will be watching, surely, but in the meantime... what charity were you going with?” Skyla asked with a raised eyebrow.
It took me a while to find my voice again as soon as the question sunk in. Right... I knew this was going to be coming up, but I knew that wasn't going to make talking about it any easier. Slowly, I closed my eyes before I managed to speak.
“The Alzheimer's Association,” I said simply.
“I hadn't expected that from you,” Skyla said with her curiosity piqued and with her interest placed solely on me in the exact manner I had been wishing wouldn't come. “Why the Alzheimer's Association, of all things?”
Faced with the difficult task of needing to come up with a proper answer quickly, my mouth immediately began moving. “It's... simple. The notion of Alzheimer's is... unnatural. It is something that comes to many people - over 3 million cases a year and all - but... it's not just your life that slowly withers before your eyes. Your mind decays along with it. Forgetting your name, your identity, your family, everything that you are piece by piece by piece... Over three million people each year know there is little they can do to stop it. Over three million family members are forced to watch before their eyes as they're forgotten by one of the people they love.”
“It's a fate I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Now, may we get back to the match?”
Skyla stared at me for a moment, pursing her lips in interest towards me before nodding. “Yes, let's. While I admire your tenacity, I think it's also prudent we come up with a gameplan. Rumbles are tricky after all, and it comes down to making sure you have eyes in the back of your head at all times and know to expect the unexpected.” As soon as the words “Expect the unexpected” came out, I immediately felt goosebumps shoot down my spine with a shiver as I gave Skyla a cautious look. My coach had a habit of taking an absurdly large crimson spear and hitting me over the head with it in an attempt to sharpen reflexes, and... you guessed it... expect the unexpected. Somehow, it always seemed to come in the most absurd of moments.
As if sensing my anticipation, Skyla delivered to me a Cheshire Cat-sized grin with a haughty chuckle before speaking. “Relax. I wouldn't plan on doing anything right now. There's no point to it if you know it's coming.”
Quite honestly, it did very little to ease my nerves around a woman like her, but I took a deep breath regardless. Getting down to business right now was far more important.
“Anyways,” I sighed out before beginning to pace around the worn mats of the area of the gym we were occupying in between gulps of water. “This match is going to be hectic. A lot of different people, placed into one ring and forced to fight it out. To many of these people, I'm a complete and total stranger. I only properly knew of two people in here myself before this happened. But I think there's a certain... magic to it all.”
I stopped right against the ring steps, leaning on them and turning around to face Skyla as I went on. “In a massive free-for-all like this, there's no excuses, nothing getting in the way. All you need to do is eliminate as many people as possible. And I intend to do just that - see, I don't know them, but they don't know me. We're about to get very acquainted though. They're going to learn that I'm a dedicated, driven competitor that will not stop until he reaches the pinnacle of this industry. They're going to learn that they can stop me, but there is nothing that's going to stop me from getting back up. They're going to learn that on Night One, of one of the biggest supercards throughout the year for the sake of charity, they're going to have to feast their eyes on a King in Rags who had to scrape from the bottom, from nothing and becoming a brand new rising star once again and is going to show everyone here that he has arrived.”
“And they will learn that although this may be my first time outside of the halls of the XWF, I will not make it my last. They will learn that I will either be the best, or be broken.”
Brooklyn, New York City
“Would you believe I’ve never been to Hawaii before? Let alone on a boat?”
It was an innocuous question. And yet it was one that earned me a dignified snort from the equally sweaty yet terrifying woman beside me, giving me a glare up and down as if she were dissecting every part of me and reassembling it with just her eyes alone. Being under the glare of Skyla Hawkins was intimidating by itself, but doubly so when you’re her student.
“Well, in that case, you should be thankful the show this year isn’t on a cruise ship. For that matter, I’m surprised that when you heard you’d gotten booked on there by Buster Gloves, your next move was to sign yourself up for the Rumble match as well,” Skyla said as she crossed her arms. Her latter statement could be misconstrued as almost that of a small nag, but rather it was accompanied by a smile, revealing it was more of an approving sort rather than anything else.
“You know what they say,” I shrugged before heading out of the ring we were training in, hopping to the side in order to grab a water bottle and get a sprayed burst of nourishment into my mouth before continuing. “No pain, no gain. And I intend to get plenty of gain here with this supercard.”
“There's plenty of gain to be had with all the eyes that will be watching, surely, but in the meantime... what charity were you going with?” Skyla asked with a raised eyebrow.
It took me a while to find my voice again as soon as the question sunk in. Right... I knew this was going to be coming up, but I knew that wasn't going to make talking about it any easier. Slowly, I closed my eyes before I managed to speak.
“The Alzheimer's Association,” I said simply.
“I hadn't expected that from you,” Skyla said with her curiosity piqued and with her interest placed solely on me in the exact manner I had been wishing wouldn't come. “Why the Alzheimer's Association, of all things?”
Faced with the difficult task of needing to come up with a proper answer quickly, my mouth immediately began moving. “It's... simple. The notion of Alzheimer's is... unnatural. It is something that comes to many people - over 3 million cases a year and all - but... it's not just your life that slowly withers before your eyes. Your mind decays along with it. Forgetting your name, your identity, your family, everything that you are piece by piece by piece... Over three million people each year know there is little they can do to stop it. Over three million family members are forced to watch before their eyes as they're forgotten by one of the people they love.”
“It's a fate I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Now, may we get back to the match?”
Skyla stared at me for a moment, pursing her lips in interest towards me before nodding. “Yes, let's. While I admire your tenacity, I think it's also prudent we come up with a gameplan. Rumbles are tricky after all, and it comes down to making sure you have eyes in the back of your head at all times and know to expect the unexpected.” As soon as the words “Expect the unexpected” came out, I immediately felt goosebumps shoot down my spine with a shiver as I gave Skyla a cautious look. My coach had a habit of taking an absurdly large crimson spear and hitting me over the head with it in an attempt to sharpen reflexes, and... you guessed it... expect the unexpected. Somehow, it always seemed to come in the most absurd of moments.
As if sensing my anticipation, Skyla delivered to me a Cheshire Cat-sized grin with a haughty chuckle before speaking. “Relax. I wouldn't plan on doing anything right now. There's no point to it if you know it's coming.”
Quite honestly, it did very little to ease my nerves around a woman like her, but I took a deep breath regardless. Getting down to business right now was far more important.
“Anyways,” I sighed out before beginning to pace around the worn mats of the area of the gym we were occupying in between gulps of water. “This match is going to be hectic. A lot of different people, placed into one ring and forced to fight it out. To many of these people, I'm a complete and total stranger. I only properly knew of two people in here myself before this happened. But I think there's a certain... magic to it all.”
I stopped right against the ring steps, leaning on them and turning around to face Skyla as I went on. “In a massive free-for-all like this, there's no excuses, nothing getting in the way. All you need to do is eliminate as many people as possible. And I intend to do just that - see, I don't know them, but they don't know me. We're about to get very acquainted though. They're going to learn that I'm a dedicated, driven competitor that will not stop until he reaches the pinnacle of this industry. They're going to learn that they can stop me, but there is nothing that's going to stop me from getting back up. They're going to learn that on Night One, of one of the biggest supercards throughout the year for the sake of charity, they're going to have to feast their eyes on a King in Rags who had to scrape from the bottom, from nothing and becoming a brand new rising star once again and is going to show everyone here that he has arrived.”
“And they will learn that although this may be my first time outside of the halls of the XWF, I will not make it my last. They will learn that I will either be the best, or be broken.”
