Post by Andrew Jacobsen on Aug 30, 2015 22:56:34 GMT
There’s a line. A line between the personal and the professional, a line where we recognize that at the end of the day this is our job, and we can leave our work AT work. It’s one I try not to cross, because that would be unprofessional of me.
You don’t seem to have a problem with that, Jake. There’s no division line, despite your protests that you keep it so firmly in place. You’ll weaponize your status as a father, you’ll use it and turn it against someone if you feel like it’ll give you an edge. Well, congratulations. If you wanted to hit me where it hurts, you damn well succeeded.
I don’t give a damn if you understand why I made my choices. Do you know one of the reasons I agreed to do this? Alex came to me. He asked for me specifically, and you can try to spin that as wanting to control me all you like, but he went to me and he asked me to fight with him. Knowing how he felt, that meant quite a bit. And honestly…I’ve made a lot of enemies in this business. When someone asks me if I’ll have their back, promising to have mine, it’s one of those things that I’m loath to pass up.
I thought you might understand revenge, Jake. I thought you might understand wanting to get one back at someone who had been a thorn in your side. But you’re nestled right in there with him. I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked. Given Kathy’s position, you two being tight as can be was only natural.
And I was willing to ignore all of this. I was willing to walk in there and wrestle you with the same heart and strength that I enter every match with…and then you had to do it. You had to bring her up, you miserable bastard. That’s when I decided you needed more than just the Andrew Jacobsen the world usually sees. You need to suffer.
I don’t know how to explain to Solitaire what’s going on. I don’t know, Jake. But how dare you put that on me? HOW DARE YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH?! You’re a loathsome bastard, Conway, and that showed me you at long last have left no sense of decency.
You’ll have to figure it out yourself, Jake. You’ll have to tell Solitaire why I’m such a bad man in your own words, because I can’t raise your children for you. And it hurts to know that little girl, the one I would have done anything to make happy, is being told by her father that I’m not a good person anymore. Jake, you know as well as I do that I’m fighting for something better, for all of us. Nobody needs the corporate stranglehold on the top of the heap…well, maybe some of us do.
I would never accuse you of being a good man, Jake. That would be a horrible insult to you as a wrestler and a self-proclaimed villain. No, what you are is detestable and honorless. I wanted to believe you were better. I wanted to have faith. But as always with this business, that faith was betrayed and subverted by ego and callousness. You’ve dealt me a raw hand, Jake, and I don’t intend to let that remain unanswered.
End of the day, Jake, it’s just you, me and that ring here. We’ve both got sins we need to answer for, and I intend to bring that karmic debt back into balance. Jake, your sins will be on your head…and at the end of the day, you’re in my path. That means you’ll be just one more for the Body Count.
…good luck, old friend. You’ll need it.
We open on Andrew staring at his phone, crouched on a bench in the locker room of the arena. The locker room around them is empty, and Andrew sighs, flipping through the photos. They appear to be an album: Andrew and the Ace backstage after an NCW event, Andrew and Jake hoisting Solitaire up on their shoulders as she holds the NCW World Title belt in the air, the dinner he and Emma had with the Conways what seems like a lifetime ago…
He locks his phone, angrily sighing, and stands up, pacing over towards the door. As he exits, he finds himself staring into the face of his sister Callie. Andrew opens his mouth to speak, but gets cut off by Callie.
”Save it, Andrew. I came here to wish you good luck because you’re my brother, but…you abandoned me. Again. You went running off with the first group of assholes who thought you’d be useful, and you threw in with Alex Jones? That’s just…”
She sighs, throwing her hands up. Andrew interjects before she can get rolling again, eyes suddenly afire.
”Callie, don’t be like the rest of them. You know what it’s like to want to feel wanted. I did what I had to do for the right reasons. Just because nobody else sees it, that doesn’t make it any less true.”
Callie explodes at Andrew again, shouting back and actually causing him to shrink back a step.
”So that’s all?! You don’t know me, don’t judge me?! You’re ANDREW JACOBSEN! The voice of the voiceless! The guy who’d help out anyone who asked, no matter the inconvenience! I can’t believe I’m saying this, but where the hell did the Boy Scout go?! This…this isn’t you! At all!”
Andrew snaps back at her, a vein beginning to throb in his forehead as he barks at his younger sister.
”Maybe you just don’t know me like you think you did, Callie! Maybe this is the real me. You don’t know, and I don’t think you’ve ever known. I’m not incorruptible. Nobody is in this business. Everybody’s got a price. Mine was just blood, not gold.”
Callie takes a step back from Andrew, expression suddenly growing somewhat fearful. Andrew looks down, realizing that as he was speaking, his hands had balled into fists. He immediately relaxes them, looking up at her again and trying to take a calmer tone.
”Hey, Callie, it’s okay. I’m sorry. I…it’s just that nobody understands. I got tired of being taken for granted. They think they know me, and…they don’t.”
He offers a hand to his sister, but she recoils from it, taking a few more steps backward.
”Right now…I don’t think it’s them who don’t know you. Check your head, Andy…and take a long look in the mirror. Maybe Jake’ll be able to knock some sense into you.”
She turns, walking down the hall and away from Andrew. His expression shifts rapidly, going from bewilderment to confusion to angered betrayal. Andrew shouts down the hall after her.
”Fine then! Walk away! WALK BACK TO HIM! I DON’T NEED YOU! I’VE GOT PEOPLE! PEOPLE THAT WON’T ABANDON ME! I’LL NEVER BE ALONE AGAIN!”
Andrew watches her go, turning and walking into the locker room again. He pauses, looking at his phone again, and angrily flings it into his bag, stalking over and sitting down on the bench, muttering to himself.
”Never alone again…never alone again…”
We fade to black on Andrew, trying to reassure himself and visibly shaking as he does so.
You don’t seem to have a problem with that, Jake. There’s no division line, despite your protests that you keep it so firmly in place. You’ll weaponize your status as a father, you’ll use it and turn it against someone if you feel like it’ll give you an edge. Well, congratulations. If you wanted to hit me where it hurts, you damn well succeeded.
I don’t give a damn if you understand why I made my choices. Do you know one of the reasons I agreed to do this? Alex came to me. He asked for me specifically, and you can try to spin that as wanting to control me all you like, but he went to me and he asked me to fight with him. Knowing how he felt, that meant quite a bit. And honestly…I’ve made a lot of enemies in this business. When someone asks me if I’ll have their back, promising to have mine, it’s one of those things that I’m loath to pass up.
I thought you might understand revenge, Jake. I thought you might understand wanting to get one back at someone who had been a thorn in your side. But you’re nestled right in there with him. I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked. Given Kathy’s position, you two being tight as can be was only natural.
And I was willing to ignore all of this. I was willing to walk in there and wrestle you with the same heart and strength that I enter every match with…and then you had to do it. You had to bring her up, you miserable bastard. That’s when I decided you needed more than just the Andrew Jacobsen the world usually sees. You need to suffer.
I don’t know how to explain to Solitaire what’s going on. I don’t know, Jake. But how dare you put that on me? HOW DARE YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH?! You’re a loathsome bastard, Conway, and that showed me you at long last have left no sense of decency.
You’ll have to figure it out yourself, Jake. You’ll have to tell Solitaire why I’m such a bad man in your own words, because I can’t raise your children for you. And it hurts to know that little girl, the one I would have done anything to make happy, is being told by her father that I’m not a good person anymore. Jake, you know as well as I do that I’m fighting for something better, for all of us. Nobody needs the corporate stranglehold on the top of the heap…well, maybe some of us do.
I would never accuse you of being a good man, Jake. That would be a horrible insult to you as a wrestler and a self-proclaimed villain. No, what you are is detestable and honorless. I wanted to believe you were better. I wanted to have faith. But as always with this business, that faith was betrayed and subverted by ego and callousness. You’ve dealt me a raw hand, Jake, and I don’t intend to let that remain unanswered.
End of the day, Jake, it’s just you, me and that ring here. We’ve both got sins we need to answer for, and I intend to bring that karmic debt back into balance. Jake, your sins will be on your head…and at the end of the day, you’re in my path. That means you’ll be just one more for the Body Count.
…good luck, old friend. You’ll need it.
We open on Andrew staring at his phone, crouched on a bench in the locker room of the arena. The locker room around them is empty, and Andrew sighs, flipping through the photos. They appear to be an album: Andrew and the Ace backstage after an NCW event, Andrew and Jake hoisting Solitaire up on their shoulders as she holds the NCW World Title belt in the air, the dinner he and Emma had with the Conways what seems like a lifetime ago…
He locks his phone, angrily sighing, and stands up, pacing over towards the door. As he exits, he finds himself staring into the face of his sister Callie. Andrew opens his mouth to speak, but gets cut off by Callie.
”Save it, Andrew. I came here to wish you good luck because you’re my brother, but…you abandoned me. Again. You went running off with the first group of assholes who thought you’d be useful, and you threw in with Alex Jones? That’s just…”
She sighs, throwing her hands up. Andrew interjects before she can get rolling again, eyes suddenly afire.
”Callie, don’t be like the rest of them. You know what it’s like to want to feel wanted. I did what I had to do for the right reasons. Just because nobody else sees it, that doesn’t make it any less true.”
Callie explodes at Andrew again, shouting back and actually causing him to shrink back a step.
”So that’s all?! You don’t know me, don’t judge me?! You’re ANDREW JACOBSEN! The voice of the voiceless! The guy who’d help out anyone who asked, no matter the inconvenience! I can’t believe I’m saying this, but where the hell did the Boy Scout go?! This…this isn’t you! At all!”
Andrew snaps back at her, a vein beginning to throb in his forehead as he barks at his younger sister.
”Maybe you just don’t know me like you think you did, Callie! Maybe this is the real me. You don’t know, and I don’t think you’ve ever known. I’m not incorruptible. Nobody is in this business. Everybody’s got a price. Mine was just blood, not gold.”
Callie takes a step back from Andrew, expression suddenly growing somewhat fearful. Andrew looks down, realizing that as he was speaking, his hands had balled into fists. He immediately relaxes them, looking up at her again and trying to take a calmer tone.
”Hey, Callie, it’s okay. I’m sorry. I…it’s just that nobody understands. I got tired of being taken for granted. They think they know me, and…they don’t.”
He offers a hand to his sister, but she recoils from it, taking a few more steps backward.
”Right now…I don’t think it’s them who don’t know you. Check your head, Andy…and take a long look in the mirror. Maybe Jake’ll be able to knock some sense into you.”
She turns, walking down the hall and away from Andrew. His expression shifts rapidly, going from bewilderment to confusion to angered betrayal. Andrew shouts down the hall after her.
”Fine then! Walk away! WALK BACK TO HIM! I DON’T NEED YOU! I’VE GOT PEOPLE! PEOPLE THAT WON’T ABANDON ME! I’LL NEVER BE ALONE AGAIN!”
Andrew watches her go, turning and walking into the locker room again. He pauses, looking at his phone again, and angrily flings it into his bag, stalking over and sitting down on the bench, muttering to himself.
”Never alone again…never alone again…”
We fade to black on Andrew, trying to reassure himself and visibly shaking as he does so.
Well howdy there pardner.