Post by Charlotte Shimizu on Jan 28, 2024 23:27:24 GMT
The feed opens on a short montage of a plane taking off and landing, short clips of activity at a clearly Japanese airport, and views of a city from a car until finally it goes to a slightly shaky frame of Charlotte, clad in blue jeans and tan leather jacket, walking up long temple steps and passing under a tori onto the temple grounds.
“Hey folks, since I had to go to Japan anyways, I figured I’d show y'all around my old stomping grounds. This is Sapporo Hachimangū, the temple where it all began for me.”
The camera follows Charlotte around the buildings to an outdoor ring. Charlotte turns to the camera with a fond smile on her face. “This is where I started, in this ring.” Charlotte reaches up to lay a hand on the ring post, her eyes far away in reminiscence. “I’m sure everyone has a place like that; that place where you discovered your calling, where something just clicked inside you and made you never want to leave.”
Charlotte shakes herself out of the memory and turns back to the camera, hopping lithely up to sit on the apron. “After my father’s family made it clear they wanted nothing to do with their haafu kin, I wandered the islands. I didn’t want to go home. It was akin to admitting defeat in my mind, and if y’all know anything about me, you know that I don’t back down if I can find a way around. That’s when I wound up here. The head priest took me in as a shrine maiden, helped me find my feet in Japan, and my wings in the ring.”
Charlotte leans back against the ropes that creak slightly against her weight. “I made some good friends that first year. Some of them even went to Neo-Honshu at the same time as I did… But the best stories were here. I miss those times, when it was just for the joy of putting on a show.”
Sapporo Hachimangū
Sapporo, Hokkaido - Japan
May 5th, 2017
It was the annual Sakura Festival for Sapporo, pink blossoms swirling on gentle breezes, and the Hachimangū Dojo was putting on a show for the festival. Paper lanterns and torches lit the ring.
It was the final match of their show which had been going on throughout the day. Charlie, in her altered priestess garb to allow for better movement in the ring, stood on the apron in the corner for her team, waiting eagerly for Rini’s tag. The sound of the match-callers over the loudspeakers and the gathered crowd’s cheers and boos were a muddled noise in her ears, all her attention focused on her teammate as Shiori and Jiro traded off pummeling the smaller girl.
Charlotte knew Rini wasn’t actually hurting; she trusted Shiori and Jiro to not get carried away in their roles. This is what they’d spent the last month training for. Rini managed to get Shiori out of the ring, but Jiro was still there. Rini dove towards her, her hand out-stretched for the tag. It was her cue.
Their hands met with an audible crack of flesh-to-flesh contact, and Charlotte virtually hurled herself into the ring over the ropes while Rini rolled under them. She ran by Jiro, aiming for the ropes at the far side of the ring. She quickly slingshot herself off them, dropping and sliding along the mats on her knees towards Jiro’s legs. She’d aimed perfectly, her shoulders catching both knees and putting Jiro on his back.
Charlotte quickly got to her feet, and made a mad dash for the ropes where Rini was waiting. There was only a brief second for Rini to tag herself in and make the pin while Charlotte dove through the ropes to tackle Shiori to the ground.
“Why am I always the one catching you when you do these stunts, Charlie?” Shiori murmured near Charlotte’s ear while they feigned being out of it while Rini rolled Jiro into a La Casita pin after her falling headbutt.
“Because you’re the only one big enough to take the bump from my heavy gaijin ass, Shiori,” Charlotte replied, keeping her smile for the older wrestler hidden.
“I could go on for hours about that first year; how my training partner became my best friend, and we created a story to form a team; how we went undefeated against even the male tag-teams because we played to our strengths to cover each other’s weaknesses. I miss that camaraderie, my first true friendships, the eager crowd of locals cheering or jeering as the story called for because it was their friend or kinsman in the ring…
“Those stories will always be a favorite of mine…” Charlotte says, her tone wistful as she looks up at the cloudy sky overhead. “But that’s the past. The past is part of who we all are, but it doesn’t define what we do today, or what we’ll do in the future. I may miss those days, but I also know that if I cling to them, I will lose all the todays and tomorrows.”
With that, Charlotte leans forward, crossing her arms and resting her elbows on her thighs. “And that brings me to my next opponent. Shea… I don’t know whether to thank you, or to be angry at you. On the one hand, you did me a solid and because of that, I’ve got my first win since I pinned Stepanov… But on the other hand, your interference has tainted that victory. I don’t enjoy that feeling, Shea.”
Charlotte lightly hops down from her seat on the apron. She takes a brief moment to tug her leather jacket down before recentering her gaze towards the camera. “And these conflicted feelings are added to the fact that, in the end, we’re the same. We’re both here to prove something. I want nothing more than to prove I can be more than what Neo-Honshu made me, and you’ve got that chip on your shoulder from your years-long injury hiatus, to say nothing of the ignominy of a tie in Queen’s Gambit.”
Charlotte pauses briefly to allow herself a small smile. “I think, despite my current irritation with you, I like you Shea… That doesn’t mean I’m gonna make it easy for you to set the terms of your fight with Serenity. It’s because I like you that I’m going to give you everything I’ve got in me; so if you do wind up pinning me before Serenity pins La Bolsa, you can hold your head up and be proud because no one will be able to say it was handed to you.”
The slight smile turns into a grin. “And if you win, the first round will be on me at the afterparty.”
A voice calls from off screen. “MAASU!!!”
Charlotte looks towards the voice in a slight panic before calming and quickly turning back to the camera. “Gotta go folks. Don’t wanna spoil my surprise for y’all! See ya Tuesday!”
Charlotte’s hand comes up to cover the lens of the camera. The feed cuts.
“Hey folks, since I had to go to Japan anyways, I figured I’d show y'all around my old stomping grounds. This is Sapporo Hachimangū, the temple where it all began for me.”
The camera follows Charlotte around the buildings to an outdoor ring. Charlotte turns to the camera with a fond smile on her face. “This is where I started, in this ring.” Charlotte reaches up to lay a hand on the ring post, her eyes far away in reminiscence. “I’m sure everyone has a place like that; that place where you discovered your calling, where something just clicked inside you and made you never want to leave.”
Charlotte shakes herself out of the memory and turns back to the camera, hopping lithely up to sit on the apron. “After my father’s family made it clear they wanted nothing to do with their haafu kin, I wandered the islands. I didn’t want to go home. It was akin to admitting defeat in my mind, and if y’all know anything about me, you know that I don’t back down if I can find a way around. That’s when I wound up here. The head priest took me in as a shrine maiden, helped me find my feet in Japan, and my wings in the ring.”
Charlotte leans back against the ropes that creak slightly against her weight. “I made some good friends that first year. Some of them even went to Neo-Honshu at the same time as I did… But the best stories were here. I miss those times, when it was just for the joy of putting on a show.”
Sapporo Hachimangū
Sapporo, Hokkaido - Japan
May 5th, 2017
It was the annual Sakura Festival for Sapporo, pink blossoms swirling on gentle breezes, and the Hachimangū Dojo was putting on a show for the festival. Paper lanterns and torches lit the ring.
It was the final match of their show which had been going on throughout the day. Charlie, in her altered priestess garb to allow for better movement in the ring, stood on the apron in the corner for her team, waiting eagerly for Rini’s tag. The sound of the match-callers over the loudspeakers and the gathered crowd’s cheers and boos were a muddled noise in her ears, all her attention focused on her teammate as Shiori and Jiro traded off pummeling the smaller girl.
Charlotte knew Rini wasn’t actually hurting; she trusted Shiori and Jiro to not get carried away in their roles. This is what they’d spent the last month training for. Rini managed to get Shiori out of the ring, but Jiro was still there. Rini dove towards her, her hand out-stretched for the tag. It was her cue.
Their hands met with an audible crack of flesh-to-flesh contact, and Charlotte virtually hurled herself into the ring over the ropes while Rini rolled under them. She ran by Jiro, aiming for the ropes at the far side of the ring. She quickly slingshot herself off them, dropping and sliding along the mats on her knees towards Jiro’s legs. She’d aimed perfectly, her shoulders catching both knees and putting Jiro on his back.
Charlotte quickly got to her feet, and made a mad dash for the ropes where Rini was waiting. There was only a brief second for Rini to tag herself in and make the pin while Charlotte dove through the ropes to tackle Shiori to the ground.
“Why am I always the one catching you when you do these stunts, Charlie?” Shiori murmured near Charlotte’s ear while they feigned being out of it while Rini rolled Jiro into a La Casita pin after her falling headbutt.
“Because you’re the only one big enough to take the bump from my heavy gaijin ass, Shiori,” Charlotte replied, keeping her smile for the older wrestler hidden.
“I could go on for hours about that first year; how my training partner became my best friend, and we created a story to form a team; how we went undefeated against even the male tag-teams because we played to our strengths to cover each other’s weaknesses. I miss that camaraderie, my first true friendships, the eager crowd of locals cheering or jeering as the story called for because it was their friend or kinsman in the ring…
“Those stories will always be a favorite of mine…” Charlotte says, her tone wistful as she looks up at the cloudy sky overhead. “But that’s the past. The past is part of who we all are, but it doesn’t define what we do today, or what we’ll do in the future. I may miss those days, but I also know that if I cling to them, I will lose all the todays and tomorrows.”
With that, Charlotte leans forward, crossing her arms and resting her elbows on her thighs. “And that brings me to my next opponent. Shea… I don’t know whether to thank you, or to be angry at you. On the one hand, you did me a solid and because of that, I’ve got my first win since I pinned Stepanov… But on the other hand, your interference has tainted that victory. I don’t enjoy that feeling, Shea.”
Charlotte lightly hops down from her seat on the apron. She takes a brief moment to tug her leather jacket down before recentering her gaze towards the camera. “And these conflicted feelings are added to the fact that, in the end, we’re the same. We’re both here to prove something. I want nothing more than to prove I can be more than what Neo-Honshu made me, and you’ve got that chip on your shoulder from your years-long injury hiatus, to say nothing of the ignominy of a tie in Queen’s Gambit.”
Charlotte pauses briefly to allow herself a small smile. “I think, despite my current irritation with you, I like you Shea… That doesn’t mean I’m gonna make it easy for you to set the terms of your fight with Serenity. It’s because I like you that I’m going to give you everything I’ve got in me; so if you do wind up pinning me before Serenity pins La Bolsa, you can hold your head up and be proud because no one will be able to say it was handed to you.”
The slight smile turns into a grin. “And if you win, the first round will be on me at the afterparty.”
A voice calls from off screen. “MAASU!!!”
Charlotte looks towards the voice in a slight panic before calming and quickly turning back to the camera. “Gotta go folks. Don’t wanna spoil my surprise for y’all! See ya Tuesday!”
Charlotte’s hand comes up to cover the lens of the camera. The feed cuts.
Well howdy there pardner.