Post by Astrid Hall on Jul 28, 2017 21:47:46 GMT
At a developmental House Show before Lineage, Astrid surprises the crowd by taking the stage. The crowd erupts with excitement as the home-grown girl takes to the ring, not in her competitive gear, but a simple pair of jeans and t-shirt. After smiling into the crowd for a while, taking in their cheers with nostalgic eyes, she signals for them to quiet down a bit as she begins to speak.
"I tell you, it is so good to be back home!" The audience cheers her again for continuing to call developmental home, and a Shield Wall chant rises among them. Astrid laughs and beams warmly as she looks around the smaller, more intimate arena before the crowd lets her speak again. "I've missed this. I've missed you. I wanted to come back, see the old stomping grounds, and remind you and everyone here that I haven't forgotten my roots, haven't forgotten these people, and haven't reached that headspace that so many main roster performers do where they see themselves as having outgrown their time here, somehow better than those who haven't yet been called up. You will always be my first IWF family, and this will always be my home."
The smile shifts, almost sad for a moment. "It's always important in times of challenge to look back to where your journey started. How else can you appreciate how far you've come if you don't look back to where you took your first steps? Everyone has a journey that they take through their lives, full of twists and turns, challenges and setbacks, opportunities and wonders beyond comparison. Everyone here - whether you're in the ring or in the crowd - will find chances in your lives that could lead to disaster or elation. It's that uncertainty of the journey, not knowing what comes next, that keeps us all walking. With every step comes a chance for something new, something glorious... and even if the last dozen steps brought hardship and pain, we all keep walking because of that glimmer of hope for a better turn ahead in the road."
She chuckles. "I had more than a few. When I first left here to go to the main roster, I found that my road was suddenly a lot rockier than I thought it would be. It wasn't easy. I got beaten down again and again, and for a while the chance that the road was going to get easier looked pretty slim. But I kept walking. I kept walking because I remembered you all cheering me on. I remembered you all encouraging me, standing at my side! I looked back to the journey that brought me to where I was, and all of the thousands of people who brought me there. I kept walking... and even though the road was full of challenges, I stood tall... and since the new year began after Night of the Immortals, I haven't lost a match. I've stood strong, smiling into storms and laughing over thunder, which brought me to that one moment... where I was told that at Lineage, I would be the number one contender to the Shieldmaiden Championship."
The crowd roars its approval, cheering mightily as chants of "You Deserve It!" sprout up here and there. Astrid smiles bravely at the crowd, letting them cheer for a short while before speaking again.
"And yet... the moment was bittersweet. Since coming to the main roster, there's been a woman who's stood by me through everything, cheering me on and keeping my heart burning even when things looked their bleakest... apart from Emma, of course, who has never left my side. No, this woman was unexpected. A hero in her own right, who had recovered from grievous injuries to overcome the most impossible of adversities. A woman I am proud to call my Shield Sister... and my best friend on this earth. Shea O'Hara. Shea's been there through it all, through injuries and losses, always keeping me going, cheering me on. I'd do anything for her, because I know she'd do anything for me. I couldn't ask for a better friend to stand beside me through the long night."
She smiles sadly. "And she's the one who I'll be fighting at Lineage. I know how much the Shieldmaiden means to you, Shea. I know how hard you fought just to get to the point where you COULD take it from Eternity. I the pain, the blood, the tears you went through to recover from what she did to you, and how hard you've fought to hold onto it since. It represents everything you've fought for, everything you've overcome... a symbol of just how much you deserve to be at the top of this company."
She looks dead into the hard camera, the smile vanishing. "In my heart of hearts, I realized one truth when I was told it would be you and me at Lineage, Shea: I don't want to take that away from you, Shea. I don't want to be the woman who ends your reign as Shieldmaiden."
The crowd doesn't know how to react to that, and there's a mix of confused muttering and silence from the astonished audience. Astrid lets her words sink in for a few long moments, looking down at the ground and shaking her head very slightly. Finally, slowly, she looks back up at the camera... and smirks.
"But I'm going to."
The man was jogging late at night, in no small part to clear his head. So much had been happening over the past few weeks that he just needed time to wrap his head around, and it seemed almost impossible to do so sitting comfortably indoors. Jogging was helping him focus, as it so often did. He was just glad it was possible again. He would have likely continued jogging for many more hours into the night had something off not caught his attention at the IWF training center. He knew the building well, better than most anyone in the Imperial Wrestling Federation did, after the countless long hours he had spent there. The building had been closed for hours, and should have been firmly locked down for the night… and yet, here at 4 AM, he saw a flickering light from inside one of the windows. Curious, he slowed down and walked towards the building’s front door… to find that a small piece of paper had been left in the latch, keeping it from properly closing.
Suddenly tense, he carefully opened the door as silently as he could, slipping into the dark building and making his way through the halls. He could have navigated it blindfolded, and knew exactly what steps to take to make his way to the room that held the window he had seen the light through. He found the door to that training room propped open, with dim, moving light shining through… not unlike that from a smartphone in motion. From inside he could hear movement and the clanging of metal on metal, punctuated almost silently from the faint sound of rhythmic breathing.
He slipped into the room and crept up behind the large figure in the center of the room, working on one of the machines. He wasn’t concerned that the intruder might be armed – the man was confident that if the intruder had a weapon, the Master of a Thousand Holds would be able to handle it. They didn’t call Nighthawk the Man Without Fear for nothing, after all.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
Astrid yelped with surprise as she whirled around to see the slightly shorter man standing behind her, and she stammered like a child whose hand had been caught in the cookie jar. Nighthawk was surprised as well, expecting the intruder to be some random kid who thought it’d be a cool dare to break into the IWF Performance Center – not the number one contender to the Shieldmaiden.
“I… uh, well I wanted to get some… work in. I haven’t been sleeping and… well, the girl at the front desk, she let me stay late and left the door open for me so I could leave, and…”
Nighthawk frowned. “Why don’t you just do it at your home? Don’t tell me you don’t have equipment there."
Astrid smiled nervously. “I… live in my car.”
Nighthawk blinked. “What.”
Astrid shrugged. “I live in my car? And hotels.”
“You’re Astrid Hall.”
“…Yes?”
“The number one contender to the Shieldmaiden.”
“Yes.”
“You… you make money doing this.”
“… Yes.”
“How do you not have a house?”
Astrid blushed. “… I have a really high food budget. And armor and weaponry of properly forged steel isn’t cheap.”
“… Please tell me you’re joking.”
Astrid shook her head. “No, sir. Usually I don’t need to train this late, but… well, this match is important.”
Nighthawk moved close and sat down across from her. “How do you mean?”
She shrugged. “It’s a title shot. My first in the IWF… and it’s against my best friend. I want to make sure that I honor her, our friendship, all the help that she’s given me along the way… I want… need… to give her the best match of her life. I owe it to her. So I can’t exactly rest on my laurels right now. So…"
Nighthawk frowned very slightly… but not from displeasure. He knew what it was like to be so consumed to be the best one could be that it made you do crazy things to keep the fire burning. Hell, he was only out here in the first place because of exactly that. So often he saw new kids come through the IWF who didn’t seem to take the art of the job seriously, blithely waltzing through the opportunities handed to them like they cared more about being rock stars than artists. And yet, here in the ring, was this girl working at 4 AM because she didn’t want to let a friend down by performing at anything but the best she could be.
After staring at her for a few moments, he smiled. “I don’t think that you particularly need to build a strength or endurance advantage by working out,” he said at last. “Honestly, those are things you already have in spades. If you want to truly excel… then you need to focus on where you’re weakest rather than strongest. Shea’s one of the better technical wrestlers in the Diamonds division. She wouldn’t have gotten to where she is if that weren’t true. Technical wrestling isn’t your strongest suit… but I can help you try to change that.”
Astrid looked at him, somewhat confused. “What do you mean?”
He chuckled. “They don’t call me the Man of a Thousand Holds because I’m a striker. Get in the ring. Let me show you a few things.”
The crowd explodes into cheers as Astrid begins to pace around the ring, fired up as her eyes blaze with determination and fire as she roars into the microphone.
"Oh, you bet it'll be bittersweet! You bet it'll make me sad to knock you to the mat and take the Shieldmaiden from you, my Shield Sister, but that's not going to stop me from keeping my promise to you. I promised you once, when we first stood against one another in the ring, that I'd hold NOTHING back! I promised you that I would give you everything that I had to give in that fight, and you'd better believe that that's exactly what I did. I fought you with every inch, every breath, every drop of sweat and blood in my body, and it wasn't enough. But that was then, sister. That was long ago, when my road was rough and I hadn't found my sea-legs on the main roster. Now? Now you're going to be facing a very different challenge."
She smiles boldly. "I'm stronger, faster, tougher, smarter, and braver than I was then. Since last we stood against one another, I've brought down everyone who stood in my way. Alicia Lukas, Maxine Valentine, Rowan MacDonnough, Charity Crowne, Lizzy Dalmon, Crystal Millar, Sara Garcia.... all of those women have gotten in my way, and NONE of them walked away as the winner of any match I fought in. I've taken beatings, and I've fought monsters, but NOTHING has kept me down - and nothing EVER will. I've grown as a competitor and a wrestler in the last few months, Shea - grown more than I ever thought I would, or even could. But now, as I stare down Lineage and see you standing on my road... I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I've got your number.
You're one of the best wrestlers in the Diamonds Division, and I am proud and honored to have shared as much of this journey with you as I have. I've watched you defeat countless fighters who have come to take that belt away from you, and I've seen you slap down every one. But while I watched and cheered you on as you beat them all, I saw what worked against you and what didn't. I know where you're strongest and where you're vulnerable. I know how to fight you, Shea... and I know how to beat you. So I will. I'll use everything I've learned about you to put you down at Lineage, and take my place as the next IWF Shieldmaiden."
She looks again into the camera. "And it's because I owe it you you to give you my best, Shea. I owe it to you to do everyhing in my power to break you down and stand victorious over you. Nothing lasts forever, Shea. Not my undefeated streak in developmental, which ended in this very ring... and not your Shieldmaiden reign. Some day it has to end, Shield Sister... and when it comes down to it, you deserve to have it end at the hands of someone who loves and respects you, and who will help you go out with a bang that nobody will ever forget."
She smiles, gesturing to someone at ringside who offers her a pewter flagon. "So I hope that you'll all join me in a toast, with whatever beverages you have on hand tonight. Join me in a toast to friendship. To sisterhood. To bonds forged in battle. To Shea O'Hara's Shieldmaiden Reign - and to the Diamonds Reign that she will hopefully earn some day before too long. Join me in a toast to Lineage, to all the fighters who will give it their all that night in Germany. And lastly, and more importantly... to the Shieldmaiden Match that will take place that evening, right in the middle of the show - where Shea O'Hara and I will bring the house down."
She lifts the flagon into the air, looking into the camera. "Shea? if you're watching a recording of this - SkĂĄl, Sister!"
"I tell you, it is so good to be back home!" The audience cheers her again for continuing to call developmental home, and a Shield Wall chant rises among them. Astrid laughs and beams warmly as she looks around the smaller, more intimate arena before the crowd lets her speak again. "I've missed this. I've missed you. I wanted to come back, see the old stomping grounds, and remind you and everyone here that I haven't forgotten my roots, haven't forgotten these people, and haven't reached that headspace that so many main roster performers do where they see themselves as having outgrown their time here, somehow better than those who haven't yet been called up. You will always be my first IWF family, and this will always be my home."
The smile shifts, almost sad for a moment. "It's always important in times of challenge to look back to where your journey started. How else can you appreciate how far you've come if you don't look back to where you took your first steps? Everyone has a journey that they take through their lives, full of twists and turns, challenges and setbacks, opportunities and wonders beyond comparison. Everyone here - whether you're in the ring or in the crowd - will find chances in your lives that could lead to disaster or elation. It's that uncertainty of the journey, not knowing what comes next, that keeps us all walking. With every step comes a chance for something new, something glorious... and even if the last dozen steps brought hardship and pain, we all keep walking because of that glimmer of hope for a better turn ahead in the road."
She chuckles. "I had more than a few. When I first left here to go to the main roster, I found that my road was suddenly a lot rockier than I thought it would be. It wasn't easy. I got beaten down again and again, and for a while the chance that the road was going to get easier looked pretty slim. But I kept walking. I kept walking because I remembered you all cheering me on. I remembered you all encouraging me, standing at my side! I looked back to the journey that brought me to where I was, and all of the thousands of people who brought me there. I kept walking... and even though the road was full of challenges, I stood tall... and since the new year began after Night of the Immortals, I haven't lost a match. I've stood strong, smiling into storms and laughing over thunder, which brought me to that one moment... where I was told that at Lineage, I would be the number one contender to the Shieldmaiden Championship."
The crowd roars its approval, cheering mightily as chants of "You Deserve It!" sprout up here and there. Astrid smiles bravely at the crowd, letting them cheer for a short while before speaking again.
"And yet... the moment was bittersweet. Since coming to the main roster, there's been a woman who's stood by me through everything, cheering me on and keeping my heart burning even when things looked their bleakest... apart from Emma, of course, who has never left my side. No, this woman was unexpected. A hero in her own right, who had recovered from grievous injuries to overcome the most impossible of adversities. A woman I am proud to call my Shield Sister... and my best friend on this earth. Shea O'Hara. Shea's been there through it all, through injuries and losses, always keeping me going, cheering me on. I'd do anything for her, because I know she'd do anything for me. I couldn't ask for a better friend to stand beside me through the long night."
She smiles sadly. "And she's the one who I'll be fighting at Lineage. I know how much the Shieldmaiden means to you, Shea. I know how hard you fought just to get to the point where you COULD take it from Eternity. I the pain, the blood, the tears you went through to recover from what she did to you, and how hard you've fought to hold onto it since. It represents everything you've fought for, everything you've overcome... a symbol of just how much you deserve to be at the top of this company."
She looks dead into the hard camera, the smile vanishing. "In my heart of hearts, I realized one truth when I was told it would be you and me at Lineage, Shea: I don't want to take that away from you, Shea. I don't want to be the woman who ends your reign as Shieldmaiden."
The crowd doesn't know how to react to that, and there's a mix of confused muttering and silence from the astonished audience. Astrid lets her words sink in for a few long moments, looking down at the ground and shaking her head very slightly. Finally, slowly, she looks back up at the camera... and smirks.
"But I'm going to."
The man was jogging late at night, in no small part to clear his head. So much had been happening over the past few weeks that he just needed time to wrap his head around, and it seemed almost impossible to do so sitting comfortably indoors. Jogging was helping him focus, as it so often did. He was just glad it was possible again. He would have likely continued jogging for many more hours into the night had something off not caught his attention at the IWF training center. He knew the building well, better than most anyone in the Imperial Wrestling Federation did, after the countless long hours he had spent there. The building had been closed for hours, and should have been firmly locked down for the night… and yet, here at 4 AM, he saw a flickering light from inside one of the windows. Curious, he slowed down and walked towards the building’s front door… to find that a small piece of paper had been left in the latch, keeping it from properly closing.
Suddenly tense, he carefully opened the door as silently as he could, slipping into the dark building and making his way through the halls. He could have navigated it blindfolded, and knew exactly what steps to take to make his way to the room that held the window he had seen the light through. He found the door to that training room propped open, with dim, moving light shining through… not unlike that from a smartphone in motion. From inside he could hear movement and the clanging of metal on metal, punctuated almost silently from the faint sound of rhythmic breathing.
He slipped into the room and crept up behind the large figure in the center of the room, working on one of the machines. He wasn’t concerned that the intruder might be armed – the man was confident that if the intruder had a weapon, the Master of a Thousand Holds would be able to handle it. They didn’t call Nighthawk the Man Without Fear for nothing, after all.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
Astrid yelped with surprise as she whirled around to see the slightly shorter man standing behind her, and she stammered like a child whose hand had been caught in the cookie jar. Nighthawk was surprised as well, expecting the intruder to be some random kid who thought it’d be a cool dare to break into the IWF Performance Center – not the number one contender to the Shieldmaiden.
“I… uh, well I wanted to get some… work in. I haven’t been sleeping and… well, the girl at the front desk, she let me stay late and left the door open for me so I could leave, and…”
Nighthawk frowned. “Why don’t you just do it at your home? Don’t tell me you don’t have equipment there."
Astrid smiled nervously. “I… live in my car.”
Nighthawk blinked. “What.”
Astrid shrugged. “I live in my car? And hotels.”
“You’re Astrid Hall.”
“…Yes?”
“The number one contender to the Shieldmaiden.”
“Yes.”
“You… you make money doing this.”
“… Yes.”
“How do you not have a house?”
Astrid blushed. “… I have a really high food budget. And armor and weaponry of properly forged steel isn’t cheap.”
“… Please tell me you’re joking.”
Astrid shook her head. “No, sir. Usually I don’t need to train this late, but… well, this match is important.”
Nighthawk moved close and sat down across from her. “How do you mean?”
She shrugged. “It’s a title shot. My first in the IWF… and it’s against my best friend. I want to make sure that I honor her, our friendship, all the help that she’s given me along the way… I want… need… to give her the best match of her life. I owe it to her. So I can’t exactly rest on my laurels right now. So…"
Nighthawk frowned very slightly… but not from displeasure. He knew what it was like to be so consumed to be the best one could be that it made you do crazy things to keep the fire burning. Hell, he was only out here in the first place because of exactly that. So often he saw new kids come through the IWF who didn’t seem to take the art of the job seriously, blithely waltzing through the opportunities handed to them like they cared more about being rock stars than artists. And yet, here in the ring, was this girl working at 4 AM because she didn’t want to let a friend down by performing at anything but the best she could be.
After staring at her for a few moments, he smiled. “I don’t think that you particularly need to build a strength or endurance advantage by working out,” he said at last. “Honestly, those are things you already have in spades. If you want to truly excel… then you need to focus on where you’re weakest rather than strongest. Shea’s one of the better technical wrestlers in the Diamonds division. She wouldn’t have gotten to where she is if that weren’t true. Technical wrestling isn’t your strongest suit… but I can help you try to change that.”
Astrid looked at him, somewhat confused. “What do you mean?”
He chuckled. “They don’t call me the Man of a Thousand Holds because I’m a striker. Get in the ring. Let me show you a few things.”
The crowd explodes into cheers as Astrid begins to pace around the ring, fired up as her eyes blaze with determination and fire as she roars into the microphone.
"Oh, you bet it'll be bittersweet! You bet it'll make me sad to knock you to the mat and take the Shieldmaiden from you, my Shield Sister, but that's not going to stop me from keeping my promise to you. I promised you once, when we first stood against one another in the ring, that I'd hold NOTHING back! I promised you that I would give you everything that I had to give in that fight, and you'd better believe that that's exactly what I did. I fought you with every inch, every breath, every drop of sweat and blood in my body, and it wasn't enough. But that was then, sister. That was long ago, when my road was rough and I hadn't found my sea-legs on the main roster. Now? Now you're going to be facing a very different challenge."
She smiles boldly. "I'm stronger, faster, tougher, smarter, and braver than I was then. Since last we stood against one another, I've brought down everyone who stood in my way. Alicia Lukas, Maxine Valentine, Rowan MacDonnough, Charity Crowne, Lizzy Dalmon, Crystal Millar, Sara Garcia.... all of those women have gotten in my way, and NONE of them walked away as the winner of any match I fought in. I've taken beatings, and I've fought monsters, but NOTHING has kept me down - and nothing EVER will. I've grown as a competitor and a wrestler in the last few months, Shea - grown more than I ever thought I would, or even could. But now, as I stare down Lineage and see you standing on my road... I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I've got your number.
You're one of the best wrestlers in the Diamonds Division, and I am proud and honored to have shared as much of this journey with you as I have. I've watched you defeat countless fighters who have come to take that belt away from you, and I've seen you slap down every one. But while I watched and cheered you on as you beat them all, I saw what worked against you and what didn't. I know where you're strongest and where you're vulnerable. I know how to fight you, Shea... and I know how to beat you. So I will. I'll use everything I've learned about you to put you down at Lineage, and take my place as the next IWF Shieldmaiden."
She looks again into the camera. "And it's because I owe it you you to give you my best, Shea. I owe it to you to do everyhing in my power to break you down and stand victorious over you. Nothing lasts forever, Shea. Not my undefeated streak in developmental, which ended in this very ring... and not your Shieldmaiden reign. Some day it has to end, Shield Sister... and when it comes down to it, you deserve to have it end at the hands of someone who loves and respects you, and who will help you go out with a bang that nobody will ever forget."
She smiles, gesturing to someone at ringside who offers her a pewter flagon. "So I hope that you'll all join me in a toast, with whatever beverages you have on hand tonight. Join me in a toast to friendship. To sisterhood. To bonds forged in battle. To Shea O'Hara's Shieldmaiden Reign - and to the Diamonds Reign that she will hopefully earn some day before too long. Join me in a toast to Lineage, to all the fighters who will give it their all that night in Germany. And lastly, and more importantly... to the Shieldmaiden Match that will take place that evening, right in the middle of the show - where Shea O'Hara and I will bring the house down."
She lifts the flagon into the air, looking into the camera. "Shea? if you're watching a recording of this - SkĂĄl, Sister!"
Well howdy there pardner.