Post by Rowan MacDonnough on Apr 30, 2017 23:02:38 GMT
Kilkenny, Ireland
"You... you brought me out here to see a... to look at a road?"
Dean shivered slightly in the cold breeze of Ireland Spring as he stood on a dark and lonely road, well outside of Kilkenny proper. Rowan stood beside him, tall and gaunt, still as a statue as she watched him with those cruel, golden eyes. There was something inhuman about her, something that sent instinctual panic screaming down his spine... but he didn't dare run. He stayed not just because of what she might do to him if he tried - for he had no doubt that she would catch up to him eventually - but also because of something more... primal. Rowan was a monster through and through, without a shred of compassion or what might be mistaken for humanity left within. People always talked about her in ways that Dean had thought impossible, ways that made him sure that it was all just an act... but he had been with her for weeks now. Kept by her at all hours, living in her home and going where she traveled. Nothing about Rowan MacDonnough was for show. The Wolf of the Abyss wasn't just something she put on display when people were looking... it was her, every moment of every day.
And it was... magnetic. Impossibly so. The more time he spent with her, the more bound to her he felt. The more time he spent with her, the more he found himself obsessing over her, like she was wriggling his way into his brain and driving out anything that would make him resist.
He was hers. An instinctive obedience, as though simply being close to her was... indoctrinating him. Part of him deep down knew that he should try to run, try to escape... but he couldn't. No matter how much he knew logically it would be safer, he wanted so desperately to stay close to her... and the power she held over him because of it. terrified and exhilarated him in equal measure.
She turned her eyes back to the black road, almost seeming to glow under the moonlit sky. "It is more than just a road, Dean Harper," she hissed insidiously, her voice making his hairs stand on end. "This is the cradle into which I was born."
"You were born here?" Dean whispered. "I thought you'd have been born in a hospital... did your mother go into labor too soon?"
Rowan laughed darkly, the sound of it seeming to almost come from the bowels of the earth below them. "I am more than mere flesh, Dean Harper. A hospital came later, to be sure... it is where I embraced the future and opened my eyes. But I was born, screaming in the dark, here on this road... my mother was pain, my father hatred, and my cradle naught but cold tar and twisted steel... and this is what remains."
Dean remembered reading about Rowan's past before meeting her that fateful day not long ago. "This is where the car crash happened," he whispered in horrified awe. "The one that killed your parents and your sister."
"Yes," Rowan whispered harshly in reply. "I wanted you to see it. To... understand. You have lasted longer than any other has in my presence, Dean Harper, but you are still... soft. To endure, you must change. Evolve. Submit to the Abyss, and embrace it without fear. Only then will you understand in full. Your journey begins here."
"But... with respect... shouldn't you be focusing on the match? Preparing to fight Shae and Astrid alongside..."
He was silenced as he felt Rowan's anger roll off of her like a palpable wave. He had almost said aloud the forbidden name, the name upon which all of Rowan's considerable ire was focused. The last time he had done so had been... uncomfortable.
"We are preparing," Rowan replied tersely. "Reminders of what is important drive me forward. It has been too long since I returned to the cradle. Too long since I felt the air around the place where the Abyss opened and invited me to leap. I did not embrace the darkness then and there, of course... that came somewhat later. But it is valuable to return to the point of genesis. After all, many religions focus on a pilgrimage... why not I? And through me... you."
"So the Abyss you always talk about... its a faith, then?"
"The Abyss is reality. All religions focus on the belief that their gods and legends are truth, not myth. To Abigail Spencer, her god is as real as the Norse Gods are to Astrid Hall. They have been deceived into a belief that their gods will protect and guide them... but there is only The Abyss. It is the reality that all must face in the end... but a reality that almost all reject."
"And what happens when they reject it?"
"Most run," Rowan snapped back with venom, golden eyes turning again to Dean, making him quail back in fear. "Many more break, either physically or mentally. The Abyss has even touched a few here in the Diamonds of the Imperial Wrestling Federation... but I am the only one among them who has embraced it. Although I suspect that one of the men may have done so... though I cannot be sure without speaking to him."
Dean paused for a moment before speaking again, afraid of the answer his words would draw. "And... what do you do to those who have rejected it?"
Rowan tensed like a predator, turning her eyes to the moon above. "They must be annihilated," she replied with a terrible chill. "Nothing is more important. Should the opportunity arise to destroy one who has rejected the Abyss, then they must be dragged back through pain and terror at all costs. And the opportunity has. And I will do what must be done."
Rowan turned and walked briskly down the road, not even needing to give Dean a gesture to follow. "Wait... what opportunity?" he called after her. "What opportunity are you talking about?"
He was met only with her cold, echoing laughter.
BACKGROUND MUSIC
"I see the Imperial Wrestling Federation fears the lashes of torment as much as any who have never been truly tested. Good. This will be remembered well, as our... relationship develops.
You have given my Charity Crowne. You have given her to me in ways that I had not expected... but in was that force her fear to the surface in ways that a mere tormenting could not draw forth alone. You are to be commended. Now she is forced into a position where she simply cannot win... and the hoplessness of her situation surely gnaws upon her heart. She could lose this week at Sacrifice along with me, lose and feel the lies of her broken pride weigh upon her... so damaging are losses to those whose pride and vanity are held to such heights in their hearts. She would blame it in me... perhaps rightly so, following my abandoning her in the ring to our opponents... but the defeat would bring pain nonetheless, pain that surpasses the physical by far.
Or we could win. Take a victory over our lauded opponents... and then she would be force to stand with me again, but as enemies unleashed. Nobody else to use as a scapegoat. No life line. No escape.
Both options are... intoxicating. No matter the result, Charity Crowne will know pain and fear in terrible measure before the Night of the Immortals. She will be dragged down into the Abyss no matter the result... because she knows that though she has survived me by offering sacrificial lambs, she has never - and can never - beat me.
But even to me, I who crave her annihilation more than any other, there are some things more important than resolving a grudge and punishing the Diamonds Division's avatar of Pride. I care nothing for the Shieldmaiden title... but she who holds it?"
Rowan leans close to the camera. "The Abyss hungers for its escaped prey. Eternity must be destroyed."
Her eyes flash with malice before she continues. "And thus, Charity Crowne... I defy my nature to offer you something alien to me - comfort. While I will be a force of destruction and pain that rips you apart by the gut, that pain will not come in this battle. In this battle you dance with the Abyss instead of facing its hungering Maw. If I must drag you by the throat to victory against Astrid Hall and Shae O'Hara, I will... because the rewards of victory are greater than the thrill of being the architect of your immediate annihilation. I can be patient, and I will wait... for now.
And instead turn to those who would challenge the Abyss... Shae O'Hara and Astrid Hall.
Shae. You have already been beaten and broken by the demented abortion that calls herself Eternity. You are fooling yourself if you think that you can do so again. Your foolishness in thinking that doing the same thing as before can result in anything different hints to delusion. You do not belong in this match, as any attempt to claim vengeance is doomed to failure. You are nothing, and your insignificance will be put on display for all to see. Your best hope for a legacy is to be forgotten, so that none can remember the shame of your defeats at the abomination's hand.
Astrid. You pretend to be something you can never be. You want to be a hero, but you are lying to yourself if you think you can ever attain it. Strip away the hypocrisy and you are nothing but an angry girl, flailing despondently at a world in which you do not belong. This is not a world for heroes. This is a world of pain and fear, and you will be swallowed whole by it sooner or later. However you might grasp, fumbling in ignorance, at a world in which you fit - you will never find it. It is best that you be removed from it now, so that your anachronistic irrelevance may be stripped and lost.
You will enter the ring. You will suffer. You will regret. You will break. You will be swept away.
Your condemnation to the Abyss is inevitable. You cannot escape this fate. Your only hope for a future is to embrace the Abyss, let it sink into you, and be reborn from the pain. Beyond that, there is only oblivion.
Choose."
Dean shivered slightly in the cold breeze of Ireland Spring as he stood on a dark and lonely road, well outside of Kilkenny proper. Rowan stood beside him, tall and gaunt, still as a statue as she watched him with those cruel, golden eyes. There was something inhuman about her, something that sent instinctual panic screaming down his spine... but he didn't dare run. He stayed not just because of what she might do to him if he tried - for he had no doubt that she would catch up to him eventually - but also because of something more... primal. Rowan was a monster through and through, without a shred of compassion or what might be mistaken for humanity left within. People always talked about her in ways that Dean had thought impossible, ways that made him sure that it was all just an act... but he had been with her for weeks now. Kept by her at all hours, living in her home and going where she traveled. Nothing about Rowan MacDonnough was for show. The Wolf of the Abyss wasn't just something she put on display when people were looking... it was her, every moment of every day.
And it was... magnetic. Impossibly so. The more time he spent with her, the more bound to her he felt. The more time he spent with her, the more he found himself obsessing over her, like she was wriggling his way into his brain and driving out anything that would make him resist.
He was hers. An instinctive obedience, as though simply being close to her was... indoctrinating him. Part of him deep down knew that he should try to run, try to escape... but he couldn't. No matter how much he knew logically it would be safer, he wanted so desperately to stay close to her... and the power she held over him because of it. terrified and exhilarated him in equal measure.
She turned her eyes back to the black road, almost seeming to glow under the moonlit sky. "It is more than just a road, Dean Harper," she hissed insidiously, her voice making his hairs stand on end. "This is the cradle into which I was born."
"You were born here?" Dean whispered. "I thought you'd have been born in a hospital... did your mother go into labor too soon?"
Rowan laughed darkly, the sound of it seeming to almost come from the bowels of the earth below them. "I am more than mere flesh, Dean Harper. A hospital came later, to be sure... it is where I embraced the future and opened my eyes. But I was born, screaming in the dark, here on this road... my mother was pain, my father hatred, and my cradle naught but cold tar and twisted steel... and this is what remains."
Dean remembered reading about Rowan's past before meeting her that fateful day not long ago. "This is where the car crash happened," he whispered in horrified awe. "The one that killed your parents and your sister."
"Yes," Rowan whispered harshly in reply. "I wanted you to see it. To... understand. You have lasted longer than any other has in my presence, Dean Harper, but you are still... soft. To endure, you must change. Evolve. Submit to the Abyss, and embrace it without fear. Only then will you understand in full. Your journey begins here."
"But... with respect... shouldn't you be focusing on the match? Preparing to fight Shae and Astrid alongside..."
He was silenced as he felt Rowan's anger roll off of her like a palpable wave. He had almost said aloud the forbidden name, the name upon which all of Rowan's considerable ire was focused. The last time he had done so had been... uncomfortable.
"We are preparing," Rowan replied tersely. "Reminders of what is important drive me forward. It has been too long since I returned to the cradle. Too long since I felt the air around the place where the Abyss opened and invited me to leap. I did not embrace the darkness then and there, of course... that came somewhat later. But it is valuable to return to the point of genesis. After all, many religions focus on a pilgrimage... why not I? And through me... you."
"So the Abyss you always talk about... its a faith, then?"
"The Abyss is reality. All religions focus on the belief that their gods and legends are truth, not myth. To Abigail Spencer, her god is as real as the Norse Gods are to Astrid Hall. They have been deceived into a belief that their gods will protect and guide them... but there is only The Abyss. It is the reality that all must face in the end... but a reality that almost all reject."
"And what happens when they reject it?"
"Most run," Rowan snapped back with venom, golden eyes turning again to Dean, making him quail back in fear. "Many more break, either physically or mentally. The Abyss has even touched a few here in the Diamonds of the Imperial Wrestling Federation... but I am the only one among them who has embraced it. Although I suspect that one of the men may have done so... though I cannot be sure without speaking to him."
Dean paused for a moment before speaking again, afraid of the answer his words would draw. "And... what do you do to those who have rejected it?"
Rowan tensed like a predator, turning her eyes to the moon above. "They must be annihilated," she replied with a terrible chill. "Nothing is more important. Should the opportunity arise to destroy one who has rejected the Abyss, then they must be dragged back through pain and terror at all costs. And the opportunity has. And I will do what must be done."
Rowan turned and walked briskly down the road, not even needing to give Dean a gesture to follow. "Wait... what opportunity?" he called after her. "What opportunity are you talking about?"
He was met only with her cold, echoing laughter.
BACKGROUND MUSIC
"I see the Imperial Wrestling Federation fears the lashes of torment as much as any who have never been truly tested. Good. This will be remembered well, as our... relationship develops.
You have given my Charity Crowne. You have given her to me in ways that I had not expected... but in was that force her fear to the surface in ways that a mere tormenting could not draw forth alone. You are to be commended. Now she is forced into a position where she simply cannot win... and the hoplessness of her situation surely gnaws upon her heart. She could lose this week at Sacrifice along with me, lose and feel the lies of her broken pride weigh upon her... so damaging are losses to those whose pride and vanity are held to such heights in their hearts. She would blame it in me... perhaps rightly so, following my abandoning her in the ring to our opponents... but the defeat would bring pain nonetheless, pain that surpasses the physical by far.
Or we could win. Take a victory over our lauded opponents... and then she would be force to stand with me again, but as enemies unleashed. Nobody else to use as a scapegoat. No life line. No escape.
Both options are... intoxicating. No matter the result, Charity Crowne will know pain and fear in terrible measure before the Night of the Immortals. She will be dragged down into the Abyss no matter the result... because she knows that though she has survived me by offering sacrificial lambs, she has never - and can never - beat me.
But even to me, I who crave her annihilation more than any other, there are some things more important than resolving a grudge and punishing the Diamonds Division's avatar of Pride. I care nothing for the Shieldmaiden title... but she who holds it?"
Rowan leans close to the camera. "The Abyss hungers for its escaped prey. Eternity must be destroyed."
Her eyes flash with malice before she continues. "And thus, Charity Crowne... I defy my nature to offer you something alien to me - comfort. While I will be a force of destruction and pain that rips you apart by the gut, that pain will not come in this battle. In this battle you dance with the Abyss instead of facing its hungering Maw. If I must drag you by the throat to victory against Astrid Hall and Shae O'Hara, I will... because the rewards of victory are greater than the thrill of being the architect of your immediate annihilation. I can be patient, and I will wait... for now.
And instead turn to those who would challenge the Abyss... Shae O'Hara and Astrid Hall.
Shae. You have already been beaten and broken by the demented abortion that calls herself Eternity. You are fooling yourself if you think that you can do so again. Your foolishness in thinking that doing the same thing as before can result in anything different hints to delusion. You do not belong in this match, as any attempt to claim vengeance is doomed to failure. You are nothing, and your insignificance will be put on display for all to see. Your best hope for a legacy is to be forgotten, so that none can remember the shame of your defeats at the abomination's hand.
Astrid. You pretend to be something you can never be. You want to be a hero, but you are lying to yourself if you think you can ever attain it. Strip away the hypocrisy and you are nothing but an angry girl, flailing despondently at a world in which you do not belong. This is not a world for heroes. This is a world of pain and fear, and you will be swallowed whole by it sooner or later. However you might grasp, fumbling in ignorance, at a world in which you fit - you will never find it. It is best that you be removed from it now, so that your anachronistic irrelevance may be stripped and lost.
You will enter the ring. You will suffer. You will regret. You will break. You will be swept away.
Your condemnation to the Abyss is inevitable. You cannot escape this fate. Your only hope for a future is to embrace the Abyss, let it sink into you, and be reborn from the pain. Beyond that, there is only oblivion.
Choose."
Well howdy there pardner.