Post by Charlotte Shimizu on Jan 22, 2024 5:56:25 GMT
The feed opens on a training area with the sound of a door slamming open and Charlotte stomping into frame. “Okay… What the fuck, guys? I got no problem losing, but for fuck’s sake, if I’m gonna lose, I’d like to… y’know, actually lose. Not this shit where I’m in a ring with two women and neither of them pin me or defeat me by the stated means… like… I dunno… putting me through a table, to cite a completely non-specific example… but I still lose.”
Charlotte sighs and steps back, revealing that she’s in her ring gear. “All I can do is hope that this shit ends soon, because, yet again, I’m getting thrown into a triple threat… It’s fine. It’s the job.” She irritably pushes one of the small braids back behind her ear. “So… One benefit of being in triple threats is it allows me to actually focus on the two women I’m up against.”
“So let’s get to it, and in no particular order… Let’s start with the 22nd Century Girl, Serenity Holmes… Girl… I can only imagine the grief you got with that name. Was your mom a Moonie or something? Into Greek Mythology? Whatever… Truth is, while I think you’re good, I don’t think you’re good enough to beat me alone. Let’s be real, if I’d not gotten side tracked dealing with April, you and O’Hara might not be having your little feud over that contract right now. You might still be fighting someone over it, certainly… but then again, maybe it would’ve been two others.”
Charlotte shrugs again, waving a hand as though to dismiss the young girl from her mind. “And then we’ve got the so-called demoness, the Lady Pain, Itami… I’ll admit, I don’t know whether to thank you for putting Hijou into the mats, or worry about you.” She pauses briefly, shaking her head. “Not because I’m afraid of you. No, honey… I worry about you because you’re clearly out of balance. Maybe it’s my priestess training coming out, but you’ve gone so far in one facet of your life… Do you have nothing else? What do you go home to that you cannot be yourself any more? What happened to your faith?”
Charlotte sinks down to sit on one of the benches in the room, peering up at the camera with a sad, pitying expression. “Are you Lady Pain to make others feel some fraction of what you feel? The pain that you hide from everyone because you have no one but Team MOD left to you?”
Her expression turns suddenly cheerful, smirking now with an amused glint in her eyes. “Or maybe you’re just as much of a bitch as Hijou, and it’ll be my pleasure to give you a flying lesson or two.”
Her hand comes up and starts towards the camera lens but then she stops. “Oh! Couple things before I go… First off, Nat! Welcome to IWF! It’s great to see a familiar face!” she says brightly.
Her cheerful smile falls away leaving a menacing, predatory expression. “And Brooklyn… You and me got unfinished business… All that talk, callin’ me out and you don’t even have the guts to actually put me through a table? You cowardly… Nah… I’d call you that, but you lack the depth and the warmth. Either way… You wanna talk all big and then not do a damned thing about it? Come at me, white bread. Leave the gold at home though. I don’t give a fuck about it.”
She pauses thoughtfully, then smirks. “For now anyways.”
Her hand finally covers the lens. The feed cuts.
It’s later released in both Japanese and Cherokee languages.
“How did I let you talk me into this?” Charlotte hissed out of one corner of her mouth, hoping her lips didn’t move enough to give her away to any of the surrounding ‘Beautiful People’ and the accompanying media.
“You wanted me to see your show, remember?” David replied in similar fashion as they waded through the mass of humanity at the International Market Square, pausing what felt like every other step to pose for a photograph or for David to answer some variation of the same question.
“Who is your date?”
So far, his short answer of “My sister, Charlotte” had been accepted and the reporters had allowed them to move on.
The bar was within sight, and Charlotte was mentally debating how strong her drink should be, and the desire for a straight shot was growing with each pause. She was a creature of movement, and standing in uncomfortable heels while keeping a smile on her face was not her ideal situation. Her only consolation was that she’d convinced her brother that her priestess attire was appropriate formalwear. After all, if it was good enough for Japan, it was good enough here. That it would remind everyone that her brother was not just Cherokee was an added benefit in Charlotte’s mind.
“Your sister looks familiar. Does she model as well?”
It was the first time a reporter had asked a follow-up question, snapping her attention back to her immediate surroundings as David laughed.
“No. Charlotte has a contract with IWF and has been with them since she came home from Japan,” David answered smoothly.
“Fascinating! How long have you been wrestling, Miss Shimizu?”
Charlotte hoped her wince hadn’t been noticed but she turned a too bright smile on the reporter in a tasteful three-piece navy blue suit. “I started seven years ago in Japan.”
“Our cousins would argue she started sooner than that though,” David chimed in with a beaming smile.
Charlotte shoved at her brother, her brow furrowing. “Don’t you go talking about the cousins. You were right there with me!”
The reporter and David both laughed at her scowl, smiling good naturedly. “Well, enjoy your evening.”
“Thank you. We will.”
With that, David pulled Charlotte away, and mercifully towards the bar. “At least at a fan event, I’m mostly sitting,” Charlotte grumbled as her shoes pinched her toes. These weren’t her tabi, or even her ring boots, which irritated her even more because she’d wanted to wear either of those. Unfortunately, both David and Hannah had nearly lost their minds at the idea, and insisted she wear dress shoes despite the fact that her hakama would hide them.
“Ah shit, it’s Bianca,” David cursed, pulling Charlotte’s attention away from the menu of drinks available. Charlotte turned to follow where David was looking and saw a young woman that practically bounced with each step making as straight a line as possible given the mass of humanity milling around.
She looked as though she’d stepped right out of Shibuya, a living Japanese Youth fashion plate. Charlotte frowned, noting that this woman lacked any sort of signifier that she had any Japanese heritage, but shrugged it away. She and David didn’t look particularly Japanese, but they were, so she would withhold judgment, even if far too many white American girls decided that being as Japanese as possible was in vogue.
“You’re too big to hide behind me, Davey,” Charlotte muttered, sotto voce, as she returned her attention to the list of spirits and the special mixed drinks for the evening.
“I don’t care. That’s Bianca Branch. The woman has the worst sort of yellow fever,” David replied, switching to their mother tongue. The tones rose and fell easily over the incessant chattering of the others at the gala. It didn’t hurt that Charlotte always had her ears honed to pick up the language, since she heard it so rarely, even back home.
“Shall I drive her away for you then, Yona?” Charlotte asked, glancing at him sidelong so as to seem unaware of the approaching menace.
“If you can while garbed as a miko, I’ll be doubly impressed and infinitely grateful.” David seemed doubtful that such a feat could be accomplished.
Charlotte merely chuckled, flicking her eyes towards the incoming blonde. As she approached, Charlotte couldn’t help but start to feel angry at this insipid bit of fluff. Bianca’s hair was decidedly blond and Charlotte could see messy attempts at coloring her brows darker to give the impression that she wasn’t naturally blond. It was clear she attempted to use foundation to change the tone of her tan that even the dimmer lighting of the IMS atrium couldn’t disguise.
“Davey-chan!” the idiot called out in a pitch that was too high. She’d heard girls in Japan do the same thing, thinking that the breathier voice was more attractive. It wasn’t. It just sounded like whining to Charlotte.
“Get me a red wine. Don’t get anything for yourself. We will need to leave after this…” Charlotte murmured to her brother. David groaned, but left her side to do as she requested.
Bianca pouted as David beat a retreat, because that was what it clearly was, before turning her eyes on Charlotte. Charlotte knew she’d grimaced noticeably, but how could she not when this Bianca person was wearing color contacts for the sole purpose of changing her eye color… and they did a shoddy job of hiding the fact that her eyes were actually blue, not brown.
“Miko-chan! You are just so kawaii as a shrine maiden!”
Bianca’s words set Charlotte’s teeth on edge and Charlotte quickly clenched her jaw to bite back her knee-jerk response. Few realized that miko were actual priestesses, and the shrine maidens were called itako.
“Thank you,” Charlotte managed politely, waiting for her brother to return.
That was all Bianca needed, apparently, to launch into a rambling monologue that required absolutely no input from Charlotte.
‘My god… Will she ever shut up?’ Charlotte thought as the girl prattled on about everything she loved about Japan. Part of her wanted to ask if the twit had ever actually been to Tokyo.
She knew her mask of polite attention was slipping, especially with how often she was looking towards the bar to check on David’s process. She only barely restrained herself from cheering when she spotted him making his way back.
He handed the flute of red wine to Charlotte wordlessly, his face a carefully blank and formal mask. Charlotte could see the pained expression in his eyes though as Bianca turned her attention onto him.
“Arigatou, onii-san,” Charlotte said before Bianca could launch into her grating adulation for all things Japanese, and took a quick sip of the wine. Charlotte saw him wince at her use of their father tongue, but it was all part of her plan.
“Iie, iie,” he replied softly.
Bianca’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Should I call him Onii-san too?”
Charlotte stared, slack-jawed at her. Of all the opportunities to come of this, this was almost too much to be true. Even David was boggled at how forward the question was.
“Ojou-chan…” Charlotte finally managed to say, remembering her plan. “Yellow really isn’t your color. I wonder if you’d look better in red.”
David cringed away half a step, guessing what was coming. Charlotte had no regrets about the ruination of Bianca’s ensemble. The red splashed across cream fabric.
Charlotte stepped up to Bianca, still frozen with her mouth open in a silent scream. “Stay away from my brother or I’ll put you through a table. I can do it without killing you, so don’t test me.”
Seeming to come out of his own shock, David quickly grabbed Charlotte’s arm and guided her away. Impressively, they didn’t hear Bianca start shrieking until they were almost out the door.
Charlotte sighs and steps back, revealing that she’s in her ring gear. “All I can do is hope that this shit ends soon, because, yet again, I’m getting thrown into a triple threat… It’s fine. It’s the job.” She irritably pushes one of the small braids back behind her ear. “So… One benefit of being in triple threats is it allows me to actually focus on the two women I’m up against.”
“So let’s get to it, and in no particular order… Let’s start with the 22nd Century Girl, Serenity Holmes… Girl… I can only imagine the grief you got with that name. Was your mom a Moonie or something? Into Greek Mythology? Whatever… Truth is, while I think you’re good, I don’t think you’re good enough to beat me alone. Let’s be real, if I’d not gotten side tracked dealing with April, you and O’Hara might not be having your little feud over that contract right now. You might still be fighting someone over it, certainly… but then again, maybe it would’ve been two others.”
Charlotte shrugs again, waving a hand as though to dismiss the young girl from her mind. “And then we’ve got the so-called demoness, the Lady Pain, Itami… I’ll admit, I don’t know whether to thank you for putting Hijou into the mats, or worry about you.” She pauses briefly, shaking her head. “Not because I’m afraid of you. No, honey… I worry about you because you’re clearly out of balance. Maybe it’s my priestess training coming out, but you’ve gone so far in one facet of your life… Do you have nothing else? What do you go home to that you cannot be yourself any more? What happened to your faith?”
Charlotte sinks down to sit on one of the benches in the room, peering up at the camera with a sad, pitying expression. “Are you Lady Pain to make others feel some fraction of what you feel? The pain that you hide from everyone because you have no one but Team MOD left to you?”
Her expression turns suddenly cheerful, smirking now with an amused glint in her eyes. “Or maybe you’re just as much of a bitch as Hijou, and it’ll be my pleasure to give you a flying lesson or two.”
Her hand comes up and starts towards the camera lens but then she stops. “Oh! Couple things before I go… First off, Nat! Welcome to IWF! It’s great to see a familiar face!” she says brightly.
Her cheerful smile falls away leaving a menacing, predatory expression. “And Brooklyn… You and me got unfinished business… All that talk, callin’ me out and you don’t even have the guts to actually put me through a table? You cowardly… Nah… I’d call you that, but you lack the depth and the warmth. Either way… You wanna talk all big and then not do a damned thing about it? Come at me, white bread. Leave the gold at home though. I don’t give a fuck about it.”
She pauses thoughtfully, then smirks. “For now anyways.”
Her hand finally covers the lens. The feed cuts.
It’s later released in both Japanese and Cherokee languages.
“How did I let you talk me into this?” Charlotte hissed out of one corner of her mouth, hoping her lips didn’t move enough to give her away to any of the surrounding ‘Beautiful People’ and the accompanying media.
“You wanted me to see your show, remember?” David replied in similar fashion as they waded through the mass of humanity at the International Market Square, pausing what felt like every other step to pose for a photograph or for David to answer some variation of the same question.
“Who is your date?”
So far, his short answer of “My sister, Charlotte” had been accepted and the reporters had allowed them to move on.
The bar was within sight, and Charlotte was mentally debating how strong her drink should be, and the desire for a straight shot was growing with each pause. She was a creature of movement, and standing in uncomfortable heels while keeping a smile on her face was not her ideal situation. Her only consolation was that she’d convinced her brother that her priestess attire was appropriate formalwear. After all, if it was good enough for Japan, it was good enough here. That it would remind everyone that her brother was not just Cherokee was an added benefit in Charlotte’s mind.
“Your sister looks familiar. Does she model as well?”
It was the first time a reporter had asked a follow-up question, snapping her attention back to her immediate surroundings as David laughed.
“No. Charlotte has a contract with IWF and has been with them since she came home from Japan,” David answered smoothly.
“Fascinating! How long have you been wrestling, Miss Shimizu?”
Charlotte hoped her wince hadn’t been noticed but she turned a too bright smile on the reporter in a tasteful three-piece navy blue suit. “I started seven years ago in Japan.”
“Our cousins would argue she started sooner than that though,” David chimed in with a beaming smile.
Charlotte shoved at her brother, her brow furrowing. “Don’t you go talking about the cousins. You were right there with me!”
The reporter and David both laughed at her scowl, smiling good naturedly. “Well, enjoy your evening.”
“Thank you. We will.”
With that, David pulled Charlotte away, and mercifully towards the bar. “At least at a fan event, I’m mostly sitting,” Charlotte grumbled as her shoes pinched her toes. These weren’t her tabi, or even her ring boots, which irritated her even more because she’d wanted to wear either of those. Unfortunately, both David and Hannah had nearly lost their minds at the idea, and insisted she wear dress shoes despite the fact that her hakama would hide them.
“Ah shit, it’s Bianca,” David cursed, pulling Charlotte’s attention away from the menu of drinks available. Charlotte turned to follow where David was looking and saw a young woman that practically bounced with each step making as straight a line as possible given the mass of humanity milling around.
She looked as though she’d stepped right out of Shibuya, a living Japanese Youth fashion plate. Charlotte frowned, noting that this woman lacked any sort of signifier that she had any Japanese heritage, but shrugged it away. She and David didn’t look particularly Japanese, but they were, so she would withhold judgment, even if far too many white American girls decided that being as Japanese as possible was in vogue.
“You’re too big to hide behind me, Davey,” Charlotte muttered, sotto voce, as she returned her attention to the list of spirits and the special mixed drinks for the evening.
“I don’t care. That’s Bianca Branch. The woman has the worst sort of yellow fever,” David replied, switching to their mother tongue. The tones rose and fell easily over the incessant chattering of the others at the gala. It didn’t hurt that Charlotte always had her ears honed to pick up the language, since she heard it so rarely, even back home.
“Shall I drive her away for you then, Yona?” Charlotte asked, glancing at him sidelong so as to seem unaware of the approaching menace.
“If you can while garbed as a miko, I’ll be doubly impressed and infinitely grateful.” David seemed doubtful that such a feat could be accomplished.
Charlotte merely chuckled, flicking her eyes towards the incoming blonde. As she approached, Charlotte couldn’t help but start to feel angry at this insipid bit of fluff. Bianca’s hair was decidedly blond and Charlotte could see messy attempts at coloring her brows darker to give the impression that she wasn’t naturally blond. It was clear she attempted to use foundation to change the tone of her tan that even the dimmer lighting of the IMS atrium couldn’t disguise.
“Davey-chan!” the idiot called out in a pitch that was too high. She’d heard girls in Japan do the same thing, thinking that the breathier voice was more attractive. It wasn’t. It just sounded like whining to Charlotte.
“Get me a red wine. Don’t get anything for yourself. We will need to leave after this…” Charlotte murmured to her brother. David groaned, but left her side to do as she requested.
Bianca pouted as David beat a retreat, because that was what it clearly was, before turning her eyes on Charlotte. Charlotte knew she’d grimaced noticeably, but how could she not when this Bianca person was wearing color contacts for the sole purpose of changing her eye color… and they did a shoddy job of hiding the fact that her eyes were actually blue, not brown.
“Miko-chan! You are just so kawaii as a shrine maiden!”
Bianca’s words set Charlotte’s teeth on edge and Charlotte quickly clenched her jaw to bite back her knee-jerk response. Few realized that miko were actual priestesses, and the shrine maidens were called itako.
“Thank you,” Charlotte managed politely, waiting for her brother to return.
That was all Bianca needed, apparently, to launch into a rambling monologue that required absolutely no input from Charlotte.
‘My god… Will she ever shut up?’ Charlotte thought as the girl prattled on about everything she loved about Japan. Part of her wanted to ask if the twit had ever actually been to Tokyo.
She knew her mask of polite attention was slipping, especially with how often she was looking towards the bar to check on David’s process. She only barely restrained herself from cheering when she spotted him making his way back.
He handed the flute of red wine to Charlotte wordlessly, his face a carefully blank and formal mask. Charlotte could see the pained expression in his eyes though as Bianca turned her attention onto him.
“Arigatou, onii-san,” Charlotte said before Bianca could launch into her grating adulation for all things Japanese, and took a quick sip of the wine. Charlotte saw him wince at her use of their father tongue, but it was all part of her plan.
“Iie, iie,” he replied softly.
Bianca’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Should I call him Onii-san too?”
Charlotte stared, slack-jawed at her. Of all the opportunities to come of this, this was almost too much to be true. Even David was boggled at how forward the question was.
“Ojou-chan…” Charlotte finally managed to say, remembering her plan. “Yellow really isn’t your color. I wonder if you’d look better in red.”
David cringed away half a step, guessing what was coming. Charlotte had no regrets about the ruination of Bianca’s ensemble. The red splashed across cream fabric.
Charlotte stepped up to Bianca, still frozen with her mouth open in a silent scream. “Stay away from my brother or I’ll put you through a table. I can do it without killing you, so don’t test me.”
Seeming to come out of his own shock, David quickly grabbed Charlotte’s arm and guided her away. Impressively, they didn’t hear Bianca start shrieking until they were almost out the door.
Well howdy there pardner.