Post by Pax Stormcrow on Jul 19, 2024 4:46:37 GMT
Pax lifted his hand to knock politely at the hotel room door as he lifted the to-go cup of coffee and took a drink from it. He had finished his morning workout beforehand and had himself a sizable breakfast from one of storied 7-11’s in the city and reflected that there were certainly some advantages towards working for gains.
The moment stretched on before the door slowly opened revealing Kate on the other side. His handler stared up at him with bleary eyes from behind her glasses, a plush white cotton robe with a towel wrapped around her head and a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.
“Why are you so early?” she muttered around the plastic toothbrush in her mouth.
“You told me to come over first thing in the morning?”
“I meant a reasonable time. Like 10 o’clock.”
“Kate, I’ve been up for like 4 hours already.”
“Athletes…” she muttered like a curse as she turned and shuffled into the hotel. “You can at least be a gentleman and pour me a cup of coffee while I finish up.”
“You want to drink coffee after brushing your teeth?”
“No, I don’t want to, but someone is making me work early, aren’t they?”
Pax wandered over to the little hotel coffee maker and filled one of the cups there and walked it over to set it on the coffee table on the couch with a heavy sigh. Then he pulled a chair over and took his seat while he pulled out his phone. He cleared out his emails quickly before he popped open his messages and tapped on the chat he had with Charlotte.
She’s not even ready yet
That done, he went to his socials to reply to his earlier posts from his workout and breakfast this morning until Kate returned to the room. She had managed to put her contacts in and extract the toothbrush, but remained in her robe with her hair wrapped in the towel. He opened her mouth but she lifted a finger before she secured the belt of her robe and took a seat on the couch and took a long drink from her cup of coffee. Then she leaned back on the couch and looked at him.
“The boss is pleased with you, Pax. You’ve done a lot of good work in IWF and people were very impressed with your business meetings. Your fan appearances are pulling in good numbers too. All around, we are very happy with the work you’ve done.”
“I mean, I should hope so. I’ve been busting my ass in and out of the ring.”
“You have, and it’s been doing amazing things for you, you can be sure of that. We gotta keep the pressure on. We still need to work on some makeup work. The board isn’t entirely convinced.”
“Well what the hell do I gotta do to convince them, huh?”
“Winning back that fancy cumberbund of yours for a start. The company was out a bunch of money from you losing so quickly the first time. This is a two way street and they want a return on their investment. You know that.”
Pax felt the soft cardboard of his coffee cup beginning to collapse under his fist and he took a deep breath to force himself to relax.
“Right. Well it’s not like I’m not working on that.”
“We know. But there’s still a lot of road to make up. You gotta understand that. Besides, there’s other things that we can do that will help out. Like getting you and Charlie out in public more.”
He straightened in his chair, feeling a frown on his face.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Get out in public. Be seen. The relationship is doing great numbers for you.”
“Look, this isn’t some publicity stunt for y’all to milk. This is my girlfriend we are talking about here!”
“We know.” Kate looked up at him evenly as she took a drink from his coffee. “Why do you think it’s so popular? The world can see that the two of you are head over heels for each other. A cute, all american pair of gorgeous and stupidly fit people in a blossoming romance. The popularity sells itself. Plus there’s a lot of interest from Ishikawa’s article and the interview she did. That was top notch work. Almost as good as if I organized it myself. Look, just go out. Be seen on dates. That’s all I’m talking about.”
“You know she doesn’t like her personal life being in the spotlight.”
“Well she picked the wrong business for that. Hit up a festival in something. Wear some of those cute kimonos. People will love that.”
“I dunno Kate. Seems pretty forced.”
“It doesn’t have to be. You don’t even have to acknowledge the press. Just go out and be a couple. Have fun.” She smirked then and touched the tip of her tongue to her upper lip for a moment. “There’s one up at Sapporo next friday. We would be willing to get you train tickets and a hotel room.”
“Wait really?” He frowned slightly as he took a drink from his coffee. “I’ll have to talk to her about it. But maybe.”
“That’s my boy.” Kate settled back on her couch with a self-satisfied look on her face. “Now let's go over your events for this week. Big match ahead of you. Unless you think she’d do a reality show. We got a director…”
“Absolutely fucking not Kate.”
“Damn, can’t blame a girl for trying. Don’t gotta bite my head off. It’s cute when you get all protective and huffy about her though.”
~_~
The scene opens up with Pax sitting outside of a rock garden, cross legged on the ground. He is dressed in a simple white tank top and a pair of jeans. He also wears a simple silver wrap around bracelet with a hawk on his right wrist. He grins brightly at the camera as the sound of running water can be heard in the background.
“What up Neechies, it’s ya boi! Forgive me if I hop into this without much preamble. I’m facing off against a tall glass of Red Pill and you can bet I got a lot to say about him.”
He laughs, pushing his hair back from his face before looking at the camera.
“What’s good, Cyrus? I mean what’s real good? You think you could dodge me forever? Tytus found out real quick that he couldn’t and now it’s your turn. I said I asked for the winner of your match and I meant it. But truth be told? I wanted it to be Tytus. For the sake and honor of our sport I wanted it to be Tytus. But actually? Deep down? In the dark places of my soul, the place we don’t talk about? I wanted it to be you, Cyrus.
Because I settled my tab with Tytus already. Sure he’s still owed an ass whoopin, but I beat him. But I ain’t beat you yet. And now I get to do it, one on one, in front of the entire world and prove once and for all that you are nothing but a big man with no skill. Like it’s laughable. You are a garbage wrestler Cyrus. All brawn with no brains. Cheating to win whenever it suits you. You really are the example of someone who took advantage of the format this year and let your partner carry you.”
He laughed and shook his head.
“Who are you to me? I’m a Joker in the Pack. Heir to the Throne. World Champion, Television Champion, Extreme Champion.”
He smirked at the camera and sat back then.
“Oh right, you were too weren’t you? For how long again? Right. I forgot. 7 days. A 7 day championship. That’s what you got to your name. Oh, and I guess you trained the world champ. We can tell. He also likes to pretend that he’s a good guy to get what he wants.”
A look of disgust crosses his face for a moment and he shakes his head to banish it.
“I’m not gonna talk about your relationship. Sure, we all know how it’s going to wind up. Sure everyone that actually cares about Vivienne has been telling her to run.”
He pauses for a moment.
“Well, beyond that. I’m not gonna talk about it beyond that. But that’s not my business. Beyond the fact that of all the relationship teams left in this little tournament there are two left, and ain’t that just sweet. But I’m not gonna talk about it. No, Cyrus, I’m gonna stick to you, and the person that you are in the ring. Which, once again, is a garbage wrestler.
Now don’t get it twisted. I don’t mean just a hardcore wrestler. I was trained by a hardcore wrestler. Meanest and deadliest son of a bitch in the game. He’s a lot like you actually. Big as a fucking house. A criminal. A ruthless bastard that is just out to hurt other people. All around a reprehensible human being. But hey, at least he wasn’t a bigot. He’s got that going for him. See that’s the thing that you gotta understand Cyrus. Everything you are? Your whole alpha male bullshit? That was my introduction to pro wrestling. Spoon was you in every single way except he was better at it, You are incapable of coming at me in anyway that I haven’t trained for since I took my first steps on this pro wrestling journey. You’re bigger than me, sure. Stronger than me. But I’ve been fighting that since I first stepped through a pair of ropes.”
He laughed easily and gave his trademark winning smile at the camera.
“Plus the 13 years of freestyle wrestling training I had before that. Lets not forget that. Because unlike you, Cyrus, I actually know how to wrestle. I started shortly after I could walk. Been doing this most of my life and I can say with no ego that I am damn good at it. So do you have 8 inches on me? Sure. Do you have 87… Wait, hold on…”
Pax reaches down and tugs his belt open and tosses it off camera. Then he carefully pulls off his shirt to reveal a slightly thicker and well muscled torso than when he was last seen.
“79 pounds on me? Absolutely. But I’ve got years of skill on you. And that’s what truly matters in this business Cyrus. Skill. You already found that out when Dean Harper’s twink ass beat the hell outta you. And I’ve beaten Dean Harper.
So you can sit here with your alpha dog bullshit, talk your shit about how I’m happy being a token…”
He leans towards the camera, glances back and forth before holding up his hand as if he is shielding a secret.
“That’s the joke by the way.”
He leans back and pushes his hair out of his face.
“But the truth is you are still just a scared little boy. This whole macho attitude? It makes any real man sick to their stomach to share a gender with you. You’re no real man. You’re just cosplaying toughness while deeply afraid of being that you might come off as vulnerable. I'd pity you, if you hadn’t decided to try and make a name for yourself off of better men. This one is for my boys. This one is for every true person that has to demonstrate real strength in the sort of toxic culture that people like you propagate. But mostly? This is for me.”
He pounds his fist against his bare chest and holds his hand out as if he is going to toss out his usual peace sign, but instead runs it through his hair.
“No peace, bitch. Skoden.”
The moment stretched on before the door slowly opened revealing Kate on the other side. His handler stared up at him with bleary eyes from behind her glasses, a plush white cotton robe with a towel wrapped around her head and a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.
“Why are you so early?” she muttered around the plastic toothbrush in her mouth.
“You told me to come over first thing in the morning?”
“I meant a reasonable time. Like 10 o’clock.”
“Kate, I’ve been up for like 4 hours already.”
“Athletes…” she muttered like a curse as she turned and shuffled into the hotel. “You can at least be a gentleman and pour me a cup of coffee while I finish up.”
“You want to drink coffee after brushing your teeth?”
“No, I don’t want to, but someone is making me work early, aren’t they?”
Pax wandered over to the little hotel coffee maker and filled one of the cups there and walked it over to set it on the coffee table on the couch with a heavy sigh. Then he pulled a chair over and took his seat while he pulled out his phone. He cleared out his emails quickly before he popped open his messages and tapped on the chat he had with Charlotte.
She’s not even ready yet
That done, he went to his socials to reply to his earlier posts from his workout and breakfast this morning until Kate returned to the room. She had managed to put her contacts in and extract the toothbrush, but remained in her robe with her hair wrapped in the towel. He opened her mouth but she lifted a finger before she secured the belt of her robe and took a seat on the couch and took a long drink from her cup of coffee. Then she leaned back on the couch and looked at him.
“The boss is pleased with you, Pax. You’ve done a lot of good work in IWF and people were very impressed with your business meetings. Your fan appearances are pulling in good numbers too. All around, we are very happy with the work you’ve done.”
“I mean, I should hope so. I’ve been busting my ass in and out of the ring.”
“You have, and it’s been doing amazing things for you, you can be sure of that. We gotta keep the pressure on. We still need to work on some makeup work. The board isn’t entirely convinced.”
“Well what the hell do I gotta do to convince them, huh?”
“Winning back that fancy cumberbund of yours for a start. The company was out a bunch of money from you losing so quickly the first time. This is a two way street and they want a return on their investment. You know that.”
Pax felt the soft cardboard of his coffee cup beginning to collapse under his fist and he took a deep breath to force himself to relax.
“Right. Well it’s not like I’m not working on that.”
“We know. But there’s still a lot of road to make up. You gotta understand that. Besides, there’s other things that we can do that will help out. Like getting you and Charlie out in public more.”
He straightened in his chair, feeling a frown on his face.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Get out in public. Be seen. The relationship is doing great numbers for you.”
“Look, this isn’t some publicity stunt for y’all to milk. This is my girlfriend we are talking about here!”
“We know.” Kate looked up at him evenly as she took a drink from his coffee. “Why do you think it’s so popular? The world can see that the two of you are head over heels for each other. A cute, all american pair of gorgeous and stupidly fit people in a blossoming romance. The popularity sells itself. Plus there’s a lot of interest from Ishikawa’s article and the interview she did. That was top notch work. Almost as good as if I organized it myself. Look, just go out. Be seen on dates. That’s all I’m talking about.”
“You know she doesn’t like her personal life being in the spotlight.”
“Well she picked the wrong business for that. Hit up a festival in something. Wear some of those cute kimonos. People will love that.”
“I dunno Kate. Seems pretty forced.”
“It doesn’t have to be. You don’t even have to acknowledge the press. Just go out and be a couple. Have fun.” She smirked then and touched the tip of her tongue to her upper lip for a moment. “There’s one up at Sapporo next friday. We would be willing to get you train tickets and a hotel room.”
“Wait really?” He frowned slightly as he took a drink from his coffee. “I’ll have to talk to her about it. But maybe.”
“That’s my boy.” Kate settled back on her couch with a self-satisfied look on her face. “Now let's go over your events for this week. Big match ahead of you. Unless you think she’d do a reality show. We got a director…”
“Absolutely fucking not Kate.”
“Damn, can’t blame a girl for trying. Don’t gotta bite my head off. It’s cute when you get all protective and huffy about her though.”
~_~
The scene opens up with Pax sitting outside of a rock garden, cross legged on the ground. He is dressed in a simple white tank top and a pair of jeans. He also wears a simple silver wrap around bracelet with a hawk on his right wrist. He grins brightly at the camera as the sound of running water can be heard in the background.
“What up Neechies, it’s ya boi! Forgive me if I hop into this without much preamble. I’m facing off against a tall glass of Red Pill and you can bet I got a lot to say about him.”
He laughs, pushing his hair back from his face before looking at the camera.
“What’s good, Cyrus? I mean what’s real good? You think you could dodge me forever? Tytus found out real quick that he couldn’t and now it’s your turn. I said I asked for the winner of your match and I meant it. But truth be told? I wanted it to be Tytus. For the sake and honor of our sport I wanted it to be Tytus. But actually? Deep down? In the dark places of my soul, the place we don’t talk about? I wanted it to be you, Cyrus.
Because I settled my tab with Tytus already. Sure he’s still owed an ass whoopin, but I beat him. But I ain’t beat you yet. And now I get to do it, one on one, in front of the entire world and prove once and for all that you are nothing but a big man with no skill. Like it’s laughable. You are a garbage wrestler Cyrus. All brawn with no brains. Cheating to win whenever it suits you. You really are the example of someone who took advantage of the format this year and let your partner carry you.”
He laughed and shook his head.
“Who are you to me? I’m a Joker in the Pack. Heir to the Throne. World Champion, Television Champion, Extreme Champion.”
He smirked at the camera and sat back then.
“Oh right, you were too weren’t you? For how long again? Right. I forgot. 7 days. A 7 day championship. That’s what you got to your name. Oh, and I guess you trained the world champ. We can tell. He also likes to pretend that he’s a good guy to get what he wants.”
A look of disgust crosses his face for a moment and he shakes his head to banish it.
“I’m not gonna talk about your relationship. Sure, we all know how it’s going to wind up. Sure everyone that actually cares about Vivienne has been telling her to run.”
He pauses for a moment.
“Well, beyond that. I’m not gonna talk about it beyond that. But that’s not my business. Beyond the fact that of all the relationship teams left in this little tournament there are two left, and ain’t that just sweet. But I’m not gonna talk about it. No, Cyrus, I’m gonna stick to you, and the person that you are in the ring. Which, once again, is a garbage wrestler.
Now don’t get it twisted. I don’t mean just a hardcore wrestler. I was trained by a hardcore wrestler. Meanest and deadliest son of a bitch in the game. He’s a lot like you actually. Big as a fucking house. A criminal. A ruthless bastard that is just out to hurt other people. All around a reprehensible human being. But hey, at least he wasn’t a bigot. He’s got that going for him. See that’s the thing that you gotta understand Cyrus. Everything you are? Your whole alpha male bullshit? That was my introduction to pro wrestling. Spoon was you in every single way except he was better at it, You are incapable of coming at me in anyway that I haven’t trained for since I took my first steps on this pro wrestling journey. You’re bigger than me, sure. Stronger than me. But I’ve been fighting that since I first stepped through a pair of ropes.”
He laughed easily and gave his trademark winning smile at the camera.
“Plus the 13 years of freestyle wrestling training I had before that. Lets not forget that. Because unlike you, Cyrus, I actually know how to wrestle. I started shortly after I could walk. Been doing this most of my life and I can say with no ego that I am damn good at it. So do you have 8 inches on me? Sure. Do you have 87… Wait, hold on…”
Pax reaches down and tugs his belt open and tosses it off camera. Then he carefully pulls off his shirt to reveal a slightly thicker and well muscled torso than when he was last seen.
“79 pounds on me? Absolutely. But I’ve got years of skill on you. And that’s what truly matters in this business Cyrus. Skill. You already found that out when Dean Harper’s twink ass beat the hell outta you. And I’ve beaten Dean Harper.
So you can sit here with your alpha dog bullshit, talk your shit about how I’m happy being a token…”
He leans towards the camera, glances back and forth before holding up his hand as if he is shielding a secret.
“That’s the joke by the way.”
He leans back and pushes his hair out of his face.
“But the truth is you are still just a scared little boy. This whole macho attitude? It makes any real man sick to their stomach to share a gender with you. You’re no real man. You’re just cosplaying toughness while deeply afraid of being that you might come off as vulnerable. I'd pity you, if you hadn’t decided to try and make a name for yourself off of better men. This one is for my boys. This one is for every true person that has to demonstrate real strength in the sort of toxic culture that people like you propagate. But mostly? This is for me.”
He pounds his fist against his bare chest and holds his hand out as if he is going to toss out his usual peace sign, but instead runs it through his hair.
“No peace, bitch. Skoden.”
Well howdy there pardner.