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Post by Jana Rikar on Jun 12, 2017 16:20:34 GMT
1 RP / 1750 Words
Deadline is 6/20 Noon EDT
Thanks!
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Post by Aidan Carlisle on Jun 14, 2017 20:13:42 GMT
844 miles from Milwaukee was Wilmington, Delaware. At 1903 North Van Buren Street was a lovely two story house with stonework facing and a porch that spanned the front of the structure. Though she hadn't actually lived there since March—since Shamrock Showdown, in fact—Aidan still considered it home.
On a small wrought iron and glass coffee table in front of the leather couch Heidi Thompson's match versus Patrick Carson at Resurrection was finishing up playing on a lap top. Aidan unsteepled her fingers, having been watching intently, and stretched her shoulders. That she was being filmed almost seemed to catch her off guard as she stood and the shot panned back.
The room was decorated as something of a trophy suite, with all of Aidan's past championships mounted on the wall. In a row down the middle was the Tough as Nails Title—her first—from back in England, the EOW Heavyweight Championship, the spot where the DWF Defiant Championship would eventually go, and finally at the bottom was the UWF United States Championship. Framing them on the left and right were the Boardwalk Internet and 4CW Pride Championships. Beneath those were both Tag Team Championships, the one she had held with Belinda in the UK, and the one she had held in 4CW with Bryan Williams.
Pictures of other highlights in her career were mingled throughout. Among them were shots of her being helped up the ramp by a pair of referees after the Nine Circles of Hell match; EZ Punk quitting after losing to Aidan for the seventh time; Aidan curbstomping Dazielle Molaroni onto the steel stairs; an overhead view of the blood-soaked trio of Synnum de la Cruz, Julliet Brooks, and Aidan after the Monsters' Brawl; sending Declan Black flying from the top of a cage; and—most recently added—Kasey Summers dangling upside down from the top of the Thunderdome as Aidan sits atop, victorious.
Aidan stood before the wall, the Defiant Championship fastened around her waist. Brown eyes roamed over the pictures, a small smile on her lips as she reminisced. Lifting one hand, she drew down a picture from near to the top. It was older, the color not as vibrant as some of the others, taken in a day before digital photography was the norm. In the center was Aidan, younger; leaner; and with shorter, lighter hair; fresh-faced but frowning.
“Moments like these are the important ones.”
She finally spoke, though her eyes didn't lift to the camera.
“This one was taken after my very first match, ten years ago. I lost that night. So many people have asked why I hang this picture up with all the rest, but it's one of my favorites. See, it doesn't remind me of the loss, it reminds me of what came after.
“I was disappointed, I was angry, I almost cried. But what I didn't do was give up. I let all those things fuel me to do better. I studied that match, and I adjusted my training. I hit the gym more, and harder. For two months after that first night, I went undefeated.”
Aidan paused to put the picture back in its place, adjusting to be sure it hung perfectly level. With her back to the camera and her hands on her hips, she took a few more minutes to admire the collage.
“Heidi doesn't have a wall like this yet, nothing to reflect on. She doesn't have eight championships and a ten year career behind her. She doesn't have a list of moments that helped define her career or marked turning points therein—she hasn't had turning points yet. I've had winning steaks longer than she's even been wrestling.”
Turning back to the camera, she leaned her hip against the back of the couch in the room. The fingers of one hand traced over the leather of the Defiant Championship almost idly while the thumb of the other hooked in the pocket of her jeans.
“I don't dislike Heidi. Quite the opposite in fact. She reminds me of myself when I started in a lot of ways; Excited, vivacious, determined... but ultimately unprepared. There are a lot of lessons this business will teach you that only come with time, and Heidi just hasn't had that time.”
For a few moments she looked up at the picture she had just returned to place. She thought back to the Aidan Carlisle that hadn't yet learned those lessons and all the mistakes she had made. But mistakes were good, because mistakes were how you grew. Setting the reverie aside, she looked at the camera again.
“Heidi's got a 4-3 record in DWF, which is a little better than fifty-fifty, but still respectable for so early in her career. I won't try to deny that. When it comes to stepping in the ring with me, however, Heidi is unprepared. She wants to beat The Champion, because she wants to be The Champion. Of course she does, but she's not ready for either of those things, and the evidence bears me out.
“Breaking down those wins and losses tells the real story of Heidi Thompson. She's beaten Nora, Patrick and Alice, Coral, and Patrick again. Nora, Patrick, and Alice are all brand new to the wrestling scene just like she is. Coral is her friend and even admitted her heart wasn't in the fight against her. She's lost to me—beside Faith and Trixie—in the Savannah Streetfight, Nora and Patrick in a tag team match, and Max in the fourway contendership match.”
As she spoke, Aidan absently ticked off each of the matches on her fingers. Somewhere along the line she had gone from leaning against the back of the couch to sitting on the armrest.
“When she's faced with a situation outside the standard singles match, where she has to think on her feet and develop a strategy, more often than not she folds. When she steps into the ring with someone that has experience and is bringing the fight, like Max or myself, she folds. I have no doubt that someday I'll be facing Heidi in a championship match in DWF. But she's not going to earn it in Little Rock, and she's not going to earn it by beating me.”
With that trademark intensity burning in her brown eyes, Aidan leaned slightly toward the camera, resting her elbows on her knees. Strangely, she shrugged.
“I don't have anything to prove. I won the company's top championship on opening night. I've held and defended that championship for three months. I'm undefeated in Defiant Wrestling. There is no argument; I am the Alpha Bitch here.”
Her fingers tapped against the gleaming faceplate of the Defiant Championship once again to punctuate her point.
“But that doesn't mean I've fallen into complacency. I'm not sitting back on my laurels every week. Regardless of the fact that this isn't a championship match and that I know Heidi doesn't have what it takes to beat me right now, I'm still training like the toughest opponent of my career is getting ready to try to pry my championship from my cold dead fingers.
“Why? Because when you cease moving forward, you immediately start to move backward. I may be at the top in Defiant, but I'll never call myself the best. I never want to stop trying to be the best. I refuse to stagnate.
“That is where Heidi is failing right now. She beat Patrick in their little grudge match at Resurrection and now she's fallen into the trap of thinking she's hot shit. It's a rookie mistake, one that I made myself more than once a decade or so ago.”
She pointed back up to the picture at the top of the collage.
“Just like that girl up there, Heidi has a lot to learn. Hard lessons, painful lessons, but lessons she needs if she's ever going to move forward. Come June 22nd I'm going to be the one to start teaching her. I'm not going to hold back or go easy on her because I like her. On the contrary, I'm going to give her everything I've got, because that's what she needs to grow in the business.
“She's going to feel what it's like to be outclassed in every way. She's going to see that moxie alone isn't enough to stand up against experience. Everyone is going to see that youth doesn't mean shit. I may be twelve years older but I am still faster than she is. I am stronger than she is, and I can still hit a hell of a lot harder than she can.
“She needs a loss, a real loss. She needs a crushing, devastating defeat that leaves her questioning her life choices. She needs to come within arms' reach of her goal, only to have it snatched away so she knows what it feels like to really fall. When she knows all of that, we get to see if she has what it takes to get back up again, so one day she can have a wall of her own.”
She didn't really know if she actually trusted him in spite of things she'd done. Yet she was spending more and more time with him, against her better judgment. Because it was dangerous. Wasn't that always the crux of it? Simple and safe were unlikely to ever have a place in her life.
“All that, eh?”
His smooth English accent filled the small room as he looked over the photographs and championship belts on the wall.
“All that.”
She nodded as she repeated his words.
“And quite a bit more, but there was only so much wall and some of those pictures aren't fit for civilized company.”
He laughed at that, a deep, rumbling sound from within his chest.
“Well then I suppose it's good I'm not civilized company, isn't it?”
He wasn't wrong.
“So, this show's going to be in Arkansas, yeah?”
Texarkana, the same territory as Twin City Wrestling where he was teamed up with his rugby buddy Boyd and making a mess of things. She already knew what was coming.
“Mind if I show up?”
“...Yeah, sure.”
No pressure.
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