Post by Dean Harper on Nov 14, 2024 4:09:46 GMT
The camera comes on to Dean sitting on a couch in a nondescript room, leaning forward with his hands at his side.
“So we’re doing this? Really doing this?” Dean breathes, “Okay. Fine.”
Dean waits a beat, “I am the monster you created. You made me who I am today. I’m not going to deny the craft you put into breaking me apart and reforging me into the tool you could use. I was pathetic. I was soft. I was nothing. Just a guy with a camera and a traumatic backstory who wanted to get his big break. I’d been shooting wrestlers for a while, doing their promos, editing them, sending them in. I didn’t have any classical training. I hadn’t gone to a school or been mentored. I was nothing. I just wanted to be the guy who got an interview with IWF’s newest monster wrestler. I wanted to know what made Rowan MacDonnough tick.” Dean laughs, “And ho boy, did I. You grabbed me. You beat me and you shoved me in a car trunk. I got taken to the compound. I got shown the wonders–your wonders–of pain. The others got broken by it. But I was the first thrall to come out the otherside whole. Well, broken but of my own mind at least.”
Dean runs his hand through his hair, “I loved you. I worshipped you. You were my sun and my stars. You were everything to me. I was your great example and I went out to that ring and I ruined lives in your name. I recruited for you. I recruited hard. And we made a family. I even tried to kill my father for you. I lived and breathed for you.”
“And then…Max died…Warren fucked off… I wanted my father’s love too…” Dean looks off to the left, “ …Like all empires we got too big. Maybe it was my ego. Maybe I really wanted to prove I wasn’t just your most loyal I should be your favorite too. I went into that match with Verona assuming I would win and everything would be yours. And I failed. I failed hard. So yeah, I bent the knee and swore my loyalty to him to save you and the rest of the family. And you swore I would have everything turn to ash in my mouth. Not that you care about why I -”
s̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“LIAR.”
The word echoes through the room, the lights flickering as Dean falls silent.
“We stand now at the end of things. Let us not poison this final moment with deceptions. Your justifications are hollow, and fall on ears as deaf to your mewling now as they were then. So, Dean. Let us discuss what truly brought about the moment you let. Us. Down.
You were my most loyal. My most successful. You were always the most devoted and most eager, the ruthless savant who called himself the one who understood my path the most. But you are, as you always have been, your father’s son. As much as I tried to break you from him, as much as I fought to shatter his influence on your soul and make you a true man… you never let go of the thing that binds you and Angel Blake together in your eternal whirlwind of self destruction and crippling loneliness.
You had to be the FAVORITE.
You were my proudest achievement, Dean Harper. You were my most Loyal. But the cracks in that loyalty appeared the second Brooklyn Maddox showed the world that you were not my most loved. You did not betray me out of hopes for victory. You betrayed me the moment you let jealousy poison your heart… and the truth is etched in how easily, how eagerly, and how jubilantly you unleashed yourself upon her. You did not beat her to teach her to grow. You did not break her with hopes to reforge. You did so out of vengeance… because I love her more than I have ever loved you.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
Dean licks his teeth, “So I don’t even get this moment of privacy? Really? THANKS MOM.”
He crosses his arms across his chest. “Fine. Honesty hour it is. Yes, I was jealous. Yes, I wanted to be loved above all others. It’s one of my flaws. I spent a lifetime licking love off a knife begging for something. If we really are being honest the fact that when Devlin and Xavier kidnapped me and held me…kept me away from you…you didn’t burn the whole company down to get me back. That it was Caleb and Warren who did.. That was the beginning. So yeah, maybe I went out to that ring looking for my own power. My own ability to stand there and not be called just your lap dog.”
Dean looks down, “And if we are being really honest I have been chasing that feeling of when I was the most important and most loved person in the room ever since. I wasn’t Verona’s favorite. I wasn’t my father’s favorite. I wasn’t even my own fucking husband’s favorite. What’s the saying? Looking for love in all the wrong places? So yeah. I did. I’ve done things in this business no one else has. I’ve gotten achievements and accolades no one has. I’ve beaten gods and monsters and all of that. And all of it was to chase a feeling you put in me.”
“You promised to ruin my life and as much as I wish I could blame you for everything that has gone wrong I can’t. I did it myself. You attacked me first this time. Your little yanking of the chain to remind me exactly where I belonged, right under your boot. So I put you down. It should have been for good. I put you down because if you couldn’t and wouldn’t let me move on then you better be in the fucking dirt. Happy? All honest. Your turn. You left me. YOU. LEFT. ME. Twice. Once when O’Hara ripped you out of that meat suit and once when I got stolen from you. And you didn’t come for me. You abandoned me.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“Contradictions. Conflictions. Which is it, Dean? Did you betray me, break yourself away from me so that you could prove that you could stand on your own? Or did I abandon you? Leave you behind? I am not the one who made the decision to shatter our family. That was you, Dean Harper. You from the beginning. You undid everything I had spend years building in an instant, and you never even had the strength to look me in the eyes and tell me why. Should I have welcomed you back into my home after you stabbed me in the back? After making me see the depths of my failures with you, as you - not for the last time - attacked me through cowardice and subterfuge? I am not mad at you for destroying The Pack, Dean Harper. I am not even mad at you for putting me in the hospital.
What I find unforgivable is that you were too craven to look me in the eyes as you did so. You attacked me from behind, where you could not even risk a moment of retribution.
The Gall.
I raised you better than that. Or at least, I thought that I did. You, who espoused yourself as the one who understood me most? You have proven with every step since that you never listened to word I told you. Was it only ever for power? Was I teaching you… or were you using me? The purpose of The Pack was family, Dean Harper. A family you betrayed. A Family you never even tried to rebuild, even with new faces and new followers. You only ever cared about your own glory, and the idea of sharing it with anyone was so anathema that you sabotaged every effort to unite that you were ever given. Your father. Your brother. Your Husband.
Do you know why I am here, Dean? What I am here to give you?
Because there is only one left you have not turned on. One who will, if the story continues as it has. It is like I said, Dean - We create that which we dread. We create that which will destroy and supplant us.
Will you destroy your own son because you cannot imagine sharing your spotlight with him when he becomes a man? Or will you make him put you down like an old, decrepit hound who is clinging to the last fragments of his pride?"
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“Okay, first off, fuck you. I did apologize for The Pack breaking up. I tried apologizing multiple times. You just wouldn’t listen-
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“Because you hid the true reasons why. Apologies demand honesty Dean, and only tonight, at the end of our story, did you admit the truth.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“Can I complete a sentence? Would that be alright with you? Fuck.”
Dean glares at the camera, “And second, I did try to rebuild a family. I tried to rebuild it with my father. I tried to rebuild it with Warren. I TRIED. I’m just…not good at it.”
“And third? THIRD? You keep my son’s name out of your mouth. I would never do that to Damien…I would never do that to him. Not ever. I have spent his whole life showing him he doesn’t need to compete with anyone to be my number one. If he grows up and, hell forbid, wants to join this business I would have no problem stepping aside to let him find his way. I am not that kind of monster. Unlike some people I could name, I have also never used him as bait or as some kind of backdoor to hurt someone else. I love him. He is my whole world. And you have been going behind my back and talking to him like you talked to me as a child. All voices and influence. So don’t talk to me about repeating mistakes when you were planning to make him your next big project.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“You are wrong, Dean Harper. I have never had designs to turn Damien as I turned you. You taught me the lesson of what doing so made me become.
We are being Honest, yes? Well here is my display. I was becoming no better than God. And it took me seeing that I was turning you into me to realize it… and I would not have come to that realization without Her.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
The lights in the room flicker, and when they return, Rowan is sitting in a chair across from Dean, her fingers latticed together and her elbows resting on her knees.
“But you don’t have anyone to force you to see it. Not anymore. Not after you have systematically destroyed and alienated everyone in this company who ever cared for you over the last few weeks. I am the only one left. And despite everything you have done? Everything you have taken from me? I will never turn my back on you so wholly.
That is what you could not understand, Dean Harper. I love Her most… but that does not mean I ever stopped loving you. But you are too far gone to listen through words. There is only one way this ends, now.”
“And that’s the abyss?”
“You and I have worked together to forge you into a strong enough weapon that no other heat burns hot enough to break you.”
“And if I don’t break? What then? You’re really just gonna leave the company?”
“Yes, Dean. Because if I cannot break you in the Abyss… if I cannot save you from what you are becoming? Even I do not have the strength to see you become the next Wolf of the Abyss. I will not watch you make the same mistakes I did. I… cannot watch you become me.”
The lights flicker again, and Dean is alone.
Dean’s head goes into his hands. “Fuck.”
The camera feed ends.
“So we’re doing this? Really doing this?” Dean breathes, “Okay. Fine.”
Dean waits a beat, “I am the monster you created. You made me who I am today. I’m not going to deny the craft you put into breaking me apart and reforging me into the tool you could use. I was pathetic. I was soft. I was nothing. Just a guy with a camera and a traumatic backstory who wanted to get his big break. I’d been shooting wrestlers for a while, doing their promos, editing them, sending them in. I didn’t have any classical training. I hadn’t gone to a school or been mentored. I was nothing. I just wanted to be the guy who got an interview with IWF’s newest monster wrestler. I wanted to know what made Rowan MacDonnough tick.” Dean laughs, “And ho boy, did I. You grabbed me. You beat me and you shoved me in a car trunk. I got taken to the compound. I got shown the wonders–your wonders–of pain. The others got broken by it. But I was the first thrall to come out the otherside whole. Well, broken but of my own mind at least.”
Dean runs his hand through his hair, “I loved you. I worshipped you. You were my sun and my stars. You were everything to me. I was your great example and I went out to that ring and I ruined lives in your name. I recruited for you. I recruited hard. And we made a family. I even tried to kill my father for you. I lived and breathed for you.”
“And then…Max died…Warren fucked off… I wanted my father’s love too…” Dean looks off to the left, “ …Like all empires we got too big. Maybe it was my ego. Maybe I really wanted to prove I wasn’t just your most loyal I should be your favorite too. I went into that match with Verona assuming I would win and everything would be yours. And I failed. I failed hard. So yeah, I bent the knee and swore my loyalty to him to save you and the rest of the family. And you swore I would have everything turn to ash in my mouth. Not that you care about why I -”
s̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“LIAR.”
The word echoes through the room, the lights flickering as Dean falls silent.
“We stand now at the end of things. Let us not poison this final moment with deceptions. Your justifications are hollow, and fall on ears as deaf to your mewling now as they were then. So, Dean. Let us discuss what truly brought about the moment you let. Us. Down.
You were my most loyal. My most successful. You were always the most devoted and most eager, the ruthless savant who called himself the one who understood my path the most. But you are, as you always have been, your father’s son. As much as I tried to break you from him, as much as I fought to shatter his influence on your soul and make you a true man… you never let go of the thing that binds you and Angel Blake together in your eternal whirlwind of self destruction and crippling loneliness.
You had to be the FAVORITE.
You were my proudest achievement, Dean Harper. You were my most Loyal. But the cracks in that loyalty appeared the second Brooklyn Maddox showed the world that you were not my most loved. You did not betray me out of hopes for victory. You betrayed me the moment you let jealousy poison your heart… and the truth is etched in how easily, how eagerly, and how jubilantly you unleashed yourself upon her. You did not beat her to teach her to grow. You did not break her with hopes to reforge. You did so out of vengeance… because I love her more than I have ever loved you.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
Dean licks his teeth, “So I don’t even get this moment of privacy? Really? THANKS MOM.”
He crosses his arms across his chest. “Fine. Honesty hour it is. Yes, I was jealous. Yes, I wanted to be loved above all others. It’s one of my flaws. I spent a lifetime licking love off a knife begging for something. If we really are being honest the fact that when Devlin and Xavier kidnapped me and held me…kept me away from you…you didn’t burn the whole company down to get me back. That it was Caleb and Warren who did.. That was the beginning. So yeah, maybe I went out to that ring looking for my own power. My own ability to stand there and not be called just your lap dog.”
Dean looks down, “And if we are being really honest I have been chasing that feeling of when I was the most important and most loved person in the room ever since. I wasn’t Verona’s favorite. I wasn’t my father’s favorite. I wasn’t even my own fucking husband’s favorite. What’s the saying? Looking for love in all the wrong places? So yeah. I did. I’ve done things in this business no one else has. I’ve gotten achievements and accolades no one has. I’ve beaten gods and monsters and all of that. And all of it was to chase a feeling you put in me.”
“You promised to ruin my life and as much as I wish I could blame you for everything that has gone wrong I can’t. I did it myself. You attacked me first this time. Your little yanking of the chain to remind me exactly where I belonged, right under your boot. So I put you down. It should have been for good. I put you down because if you couldn’t and wouldn’t let me move on then you better be in the fucking dirt. Happy? All honest. Your turn. You left me. YOU. LEFT. ME. Twice. Once when O’Hara ripped you out of that meat suit and once when I got stolen from you. And you didn’t come for me. You abandoned me.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“Contradictions. Conflictions. Which is it, Dean? Did you betray me, break yourself away from me so that you could prove that you could stand on your own? Or did I abandon you? Leave you behind? I am not the one who made the decision to shatter our family. That was you, Dean Harper. You from the beginning. You undid everything I had spend years building in an instant, and you never even had the strength to look me in the eyes and tell me why. Should I have welcomed you back into my home after you stabbed me in the back? After making me see the depths of my failures with you, as you - not for the last time - attacked me through cowardice and subterfuge? I am not mad at you for destroying The Pack, Dean Harper. I am not even mad at you for putting me in the hospital.
What I find unforgivable is that you were too craven to look me in the eyes as you did so. You attacked me from behind, where you could not even risk a moment of retribution.
The Gall.
I raised you better than that. Or at least, I thought that I did. You, who espoused yourself as the one who understood me most? You have proven with every step since that you never listened to word I told you. Was it only ever for power? Was I teaching you… or were you using me? The purpose of The Pack was family, Dean Harper. A family you betrayed. A Family you never even tried to rebuild, even with new faces and new followers. You only ever cared about your own glory, and the idea of sharing it with anyone was so anathema that you sabotaged every effort to unite that you were ever given. Your father. Your brother. Your Husband.
Do you know why I am here, Dean? What I am here to give you?
Because there is only one left you have not turned on. One who will, if the story continues as it has. It is like I said, Dean - We create that which we dread. We create that which will destroy and supplant us.
Will you destroy your own son because you cannot imagine sharing your spotlight with him when he becomes a man? Or will you make him put you down like an old, decrepit hound who is clinging to the last fragments of his pride?"
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“Okay, first off, fuck you. I did apologize for The Pack breaking up. I tried apologizing multiple times. You just wouldn’t listen-
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“Because you hid the true reasons why. Apologies demand honesty Dean, and only tonight, at the end of our story, did you admit the truth.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“Can I complete a sentence? Would that be alright with you? Fuck.”
Dean glares at the camera, “And second, I did try to rebuild a family. I tried to rebuild it with my father. I tried to rebuild it with Warren. I TRIED. I’m just…not good at it.”
“And third? THIRD? You keep my son’s name out of your mouth. I would never do that to Damien…I would never do that to him. Not ever. I have spent his whole life showing him he doesn’t need to compete with anyone to be my number one. If he grows up and, hell forbid, wants to join this business I would have no problem stepping aside to let him find his way. I am not that kind of monster. Unlike some people I could name, I have also never used him as bait or as some kind of backdoor to hurt someone else. I love him. He is my whole world. And you have been going behind my back and talking to him like you talked to me as a child. All voices and influence. So don’t talk to me about repeating mistakes when you were planning to make him your next big project.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
“You are wrong, Dean Harper. I have never had designs to turn Damien as I turned you. You taught me the lesson of what doing so made me become.
We are being Honest, yes? Well here is my display. I was becoming no better than God. And it took me seeing that I was turning you into me to realize it… and I would not have come to that realization without Her.”
S̸͙̃t̷̢͍̕a̵̰̹̍͊̈́t̸̟͊͆i̴͓̍c̷̼͇͈̑
The lights in the room flicker, and when they return, Rowan is sitting in a chair across from Dean, her fingers latticed together and her elbows resting on her knees.
“But you don’t have anyone to force you to see it. Not anymore. Not after you have systematically destroyed and alienated everyone in this company who ever cared for you over the last few weeks. I am the only one left. And despite everything you have done? Everything you have taken from me? I will never turn my back on you so wholly.
That is what you could not understand, Dean Harper. I love Her most… but that does not mean I ever stopped loving you. But you are too far gone to listen through words. There is only one way this ends, now.”
“And that’s the abyss?”
“You and I have worked together to forge you into a strong enough weapon that no other heat burns hot enough to break you.”
“And if I don’t break? What then? You’re really just gonna leave the company?”
“Yes, Dean. Because if I cannot break you in the Abyss… if I cannot save you from what you are becoming? Even I do not have the strength to see you become the next Wolf of the Abyss. I will not watch you make the same mistakes I did. I… cannot watch you become me.”
The lights flicker again, and Dean is alone.
Dean’s head goes into his hands. “Fuck.”
The camera feed ends.
(Written by Bri and DJ)
Well howdy there pardner.