Post by Andrew Jacobsen on May 29, 2017 4:21:28 GMT
Every profession has its pinnacle. Every sport has its apex. The Stanley Cup, the Olympics, the World Cup...everything has a point that, if you reach it, you can look back and say "I finally made it." No matter who we are or what we do, everyone has that end goal. For us here in IWF, there's only one name we can give it: Night of the Immortals.
This night forges legacies. This night is a showcase of everything that makes professional wrestling what it is: the gold, the glory, the guts and gore, and the grit. You don't get to Night of the Immortals by mistake. You earn your place here. And the main event? You have to survive twenty-nine other men. You have to survive one of the most grueling contests in our sport to earn your spot as one-half of the main event of the biggest show of the year. And that's what I knew I had to do. I knew, from the moment Todd Williams was pinned all the way back at Metamorphosis, that to get another chance to climb the mountain, there was only one path: the Roulette.
And after the hell that Spike Kane put me through...I hope Warren does to him what he's done to so many others...after that match, I wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to make it out there. But I knew I had to. I knew I had to, because I was going to be damned if I didn't. Since I came back, all I've been able to think about is everything I could have done if I had stayed true to myself. Becoming Imperial Champion is right at the top of that list. And if I hadn't been able to make it out there for the Roulette...I would have been proving Spike right. I would have let him win. I would have let that lesson he thought he was teaching become true: heroes never win.
And you know what I thought to myself? "To hell with that. Heroes do win." So I gritted my teeth, I bore the pain, and I walked out there. And when I dragged Spike Kane over those ropes...when I heard the bell ring, and it finally hit me, all of that pain was gone. I knew I was hurting, but all of a sudden, it didn't matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was...well, where we're about to be. The only thing that mattered was that I'd earned my chance to summit the mountain. After all this time, after a career of almost there and narrow misses...I had my chance. There was only one thing standing before me...one person between me and everything I'd ever dreamed of.
Cable.
We open in Danielle Chase's apartment, where Andrew is standing in the trophy room. He stares at the case in front of him, replicas of every title he's ever won during his career gleaming back at him. Andrew's gaze isn't fixed on any one of them, though. Instead, he seems to be deep in thought, almost losing himself in the stillness of the room. From behind, Danielle quietly creeps into the room behind him, walking up and gently resting a hand on his shoulder. Danielle follows his gaze, beaming with pride. "One hell of a haul, isn't it?"
Andrew grins, nodding briefly. His eyes don't seem to waver, and when he speaks, it has something of a distant quality to it. "Yeah. One hell of a haul." He inhales through his nose, slowly exhaling as his gaze finally settles on the NCW X Division Championship. He reaches out, hand gently resting on the glass, and chuckles to himself. "Two months. I had been wrestling professionally for...two months before I won my first title. Hard to imagine, right? All the trash Rob Diamond wants to talk about me, he can't change the fact that I beat him when I was still a rookie." Andrew sighs again, drumming his fingers on the glass lightly.
Danielle grins, her hand sliding down Andrew's arm to take his hand in hers. Their fingers quickly intertwine, and Danielle leans into his side. "Yeah. And here you are. Main event. I always knew you had it in you."
"I didn't." Andrew replies casually, as if by some unconscious reflex. Danielle looks up at Andrew, a confused expression on her face, and Andrew keeps talking, tone nothing but conversational. "For a long time, I didn't know I had it in me. I didn't have any reason to. I kept falling and failing, never quite getting there while people passed me by. We're our own worst critics, I guess...well, Jake's a pretty damn good critic. After a while, I started asking questions...and I guess I never really stopped."
Danielle shakes her head, moving around to Andrew's front while keeping hold of his hand. She blocks most of the case from Andrew's view, forcing him to look down at her. Danielle stares up into Andrew's eyes, squeezing his hand as she speaks. "From the first time we spoke, Andrew, I knew you had something special. Even when you were trying so hard to be something you weren't, I could see the potential there. Getting away from the Young Guns was the best thing you could have done, and I'm glad you finally realized it."
Andrew looks down at Danielle, blinking. "Wait. You...wanted me to leave? Then why didn't you say something to me?"
Danielle sighs, biting her lower lip for a moment before answering. "Because you wouldn't listen. You were convinced that you needed to be something else, and nobody was going to be able to tell you otherwise. I had to let you figure that one out for yourself." She shrugs, managing a cheeky grin. "Call it a teaching strategy?"
Andrew pauses for a few long seconds before shaking his head, laughing and facepalming with his free hand. "I don't...I don't believe it. You let me stupid myself out so I'd realize that being a jerk was a bad idea? I don't know what's worse, that you thought that was a good idea or that it worked. I must have been a real idiot."
Danielle shrugs, looping her arms around Andrew's neck with a smile. "Maybe. But you're the idiot I fell in love with. Me, and a whole lot of other people." She pats his back gently. "I know you have a lot on your shoulders....especially given everything that's happened in the last week. Sunday, I have to share you with the world again. You've got a big moment ahead of you. Tonight, though...I have you all to myself. I know you'll step up when you're needed. Right now, though...how about we leave business at the bedroom door?"
Andrew grins ruefully, nodding. "So I guess I'm NOT getting that last-minute tape review in, am I?" Danielle shakes her head, and Andrew sighs, feigning disinterest. He looks towards the wall idly, only for his arms to whip out and snatch Danielle up in a bridal carry.
Danielle yelps, her confusion quickly turning to laughter, and she pulls her self up to plant a kiss on Andrew. Andrew returns the kiss for a moment before pulling back and carefully negotiating their way to the door. "You're a cruel man, Jacobsen. In the very best of ways." Andrew just shoots his million-dollar smile back at Danielle, eyes twinkling. He shifts his grip slightly, using the arm beneath her legs to open the door.
Andrew and Danielle step out through the door, and as Andrew turns to close it again, his eyes linger on the trophy case for a moment. His lips work almost unconsciously, as he whispers to nobody in particular. "Time to be a hero." The moment passes quickly, though, and he shakes his head, smiling down at Danielle as he flicks the lights and closes the door, plunging us back into the black.
Cable Arcane. The self-proclaimed Best in the World. Do you have any idea how many people I've heard use that title? How many times have I heard someone declare that they're the best in the world, or the best period, or the greatest that ever lived? Cable, I've been looking back at everything you've said since Laura Howlett plunged that knife into your back. You're still the same man you were while she held your leash, Cable. The only difference is that you don't have anyone directing you now. You're still playing the same line about only fighting for yourself, only caring about yourself. And that's great...for you. But you seem to think that it's how everyone should be. You don't have anyone, so nobody else should either.
Let me tell you what it's like to have nobody. Having nobody is sitting in hotel rooms, staring at the ceiling at four in the morning, asking if you've spoken to your family for the last time. Having nobody is watching someone who's been your best friend since you were fourteen years old slam a door in your face because you decided that chasing success at any cost was more important. Having nobody is sacrificing everything you thought you had, cutting every tie and string you could find in a desperate grasp for power...and then having to pick up the pieces when your bluff gets called. Have you ever felt that, Cable? Have you ever really felt that sense of despair?
As far as I can tell, you haven't. You came back to IWF a blank slate, no ties to be cut. The House of Howlett worked for you, because all they were to you were a means to an end. You don't care beyond that, Cable. You don't have a life beyond these ropes. I've been there. I've lost myself in wrestling, and I have always been the poorer for it. You know what pulls me back up, each and every time? You know what shakes me from that complacency and reminds me of who I am deep down?
Them.
You may not care for the people in the stands, you might not give a damn about them or what they think, but I DO. I always have. Men like you, Jake Conway, Roberto Verona, you see that as a weakness. You think I'm giving myself away by fighting for them. It's everything but a weakness. When I walk out from that curtain and I hear twenty thousand people screaming their lungs out because they're happy to see me, because they want me to win...there's nothing like that on God's green earth. There's nothing that makes me push harder and longer than them. I do this for them. I do this because I love them, and they love me. And at Night of the Immortals, I have the chance to reward their faith in me.
I'm doing this for them. I'm doing this for all the guys that never had this chance. Guys like Seth Evans, guys like Aaron Owens...guys like Nighthawk. So you see, Cable, I'm not just walking into that ring alone. You're not just facing me. You're facing the thousands, the millions, everyone all over the world who's wanted to seize that dream and just needed that one chance to take it. I'm walking into Columbus with all of them at my back, and when we step between those ropes, in front of the entire world...I'll show you that heroes are real. I'll show you that heroes can win. And I'll show you that we...are...
UNBREAKABLE!
This night forges legacies. This night is a showcase of everything that makes professional wrestling what it is: the gold, the glory, the guts and gore, and the grit. You don't get to Night of the Immortals by mistake. You earn your place here. And the main event? You have to survive twenty-nine other men. You have to survive one of the most grueling contests in our sport to earn your spot as one-half of the main event of the biggest show of the year. And that's what I knew I had to do. I knew, from the moment Todd Williams was pinned all the way back at Metamorphosis, that to get another chance to climb the mountain, there was only one path: the Roulette.
And after the hell that Spike Kane put me through...I hope Warren does to him what he's done to so many others...after that match, I wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to make it out there. But I knew I had to. I knew I had to, because I was going to be damned if I didn't. Since I came back, all I've been able to think about is everything I could have done if I had stayed true to myself. Becoming Imperial Champion is right at the top of that list. And if I hadn't been able to make it out there for the Roulette...I would have been proving Spike right. I would have let him win. I would have let that lesson he thought he was teaching become true: heroes never win.
And you know what I thought to myself? "To hell with that. Heroes do win." So I gritted my teeth, I bore the pain, and I walked out there. And when I dragged Spike Kane over those ropes...when I heard the bell ring, and it finally hit me, all of that pain was gone. I knew I was hurting, but all of a sudden, it didn't matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was...well, where we're about to be. The only thing that mattered was that I'd earned my chance to summit the mountain. After all this time, after a career of almost there and narrow misses...I had my chance. There was only one thing standing before me...one person between me and everything I'd ever dreamed of.
Cable.
We open in Danielle Chase's apartment, where Andrew is standing in the trophy room. He stares at the case in front of him, replicas of every title he's ever won during his career gleaming back at him. Andrew's gaze isn't fixed on any one of them, though. Instead, he seems to be deep in thought, almost losing himself in the stillness of the room. From behind, Danielle quietly creeps into the room behind him, walking up and gently resting a hand on his shoulder. Danielle follows his gaze, beaming with pride. "One hell of a haul, isn't it?"
Andrew grins, nodding briefly. His eyes don't seem to waver, and when he speaks, it has something of a distant quality to it. "Yeah. One hell of a haul." He inhales through his nose, slowly exhaling as his gaze finally settles on the NCW X Division Championship. He reaches out, hand gently resting on the glass, and chuckles to himself. "Two months. I had been wrestling professionally for...two months before I won my first title. Hard to imagine, right? All the trash Rob Diamond wants to talk about me, he can't change the fact that I beat him when I was still a rookie." Andrew sighs again, drumming his fingers on the glass lightly.
Danielle grins, her hand sliding down Andrew's arm to take his hand in hers. Their fingers quickly intertwine, and Danielle leans into his side. "Yeah. And here you are. Main event. I always knew you had it in you."
"I didn't." Andrew replies casually, as if by some unconscious reflex. Danielle looks up at Andrew, a confused expression on her face, and Andrew keeps talking, tone nothing but conversational. "For a long time, I didn't know I had it in me. I didn't have any reason to. I kept falling and failing, never quite getting there while people passed me by. We're our own worst critics, I guess...well, Jake's a pretty damn good critic. After a while, I started asking questions...and I guess I never really stopped."
Danielle shakes her head, moving around to Andrew's front while keeping hold of his hand. She blocks most of the case from Andrew's view, forcing him to look down at her. Danielle stares up into Andrew's eyes, squeezing his hand as she speaks. "From the first time we spoke, Andrew, I knew you had something special. Even when you were trying so hard to be something you weren't, I could see the potential there. Getting away from the Young Guns was the best thing you could have done, and I'm glad you finally realized it."
Andrew looks down at Danielle, blinking. "Wait. You...wanted me to leave? Then why didn't you say something to me?"
Danielle sighs, biting her lower lip for a moment before answering. "Because you wouldn't listen. You were convinced that you needed to be something else, and nobody was going to be able to tell you otherwise. I had to let you figure that one out for yourself." She shrugs, managing a cheeky grin. "Call it a teaching strategy?"
Andrew pauses for a few long seconds before shaking his head, laughing and facepalming with his free hand. "I don't...I don't believe it. You let me stupid myself out so I'd realize that being a jerk was a bad idea? I don't know what's worse, that you thought that was a good idea or that it worked. I must have been a real idiot."
Danielle shrugs, looping her arms around Andrew's neck with a smile. "Maybe. But you're the idiot I fell in love with. Me, and a whole lot of other people." She pats his back gently. "I know you have a lot on your shoulders....especially given everything that's happened in the last week. Sunday, I have to share you with the world again. You've got a big moment ahead of you. Tonight, though...I have you all to myself. I know you'll step up when you're needed. Right now, though...how about we leave business at the bedroom door?"
Andrew grins ruefully, nodding. "So I guess I'm NOT getting that last-minute tape review in, am I?" Danielle shakes her head, and Andrew sighs, feigning disinterest. He looks towards the wall idly, only for his arms to whip out and snatch Danielle up in a bridal carry.
Danielle yelps, her confusion quickly turning to laughter, and she pulls her self up to plant a kiss on Andrew. Andrew returns the kiss for a moment before pulling back and carefully negotiating their way to the door. "You're a cruel man, Jacobsen. In the very best of ways." Andrew just shoots his million-dollar smile back at Danielle, eyes twinkling. He shifts his grip slightly, using the arm beneath her legs to open the door.
Andrew and Danielle step out through the door, and as Andrew turns to close it again, his eyes linger on the trophy case for a moment. His lips work almost unconsciously, as he whispers to nobody in particular. "Time to be a hero." The moment passes quickly, though, and he shakes his head, smiling down at Danielle as he flicks the lights and closes the door, plunging us back into the black.
Cable Arcane. The self-proclaimed Best in the World. Do you have any idea how many people I've heard use that title? How many times have I heard someone declare that they're the best in the world, or the best period, or the greatest that ever lived? Cable, I've been looking back at everything you've said since Laura Howlett plunged that knife into your back. You're still the same man you were while she held your leash, Cable. The only difference is that you don't have anyone directing you now. You're still playing the same line about only fighting for yourself, only caring about yourself. And that's great...for you. But you seem to think that it's how everyone should be. You don't have anyone, so nobody else should either.
Let me tell you what it's like to have nobody. Having nobody is sitting in hotel rooms, staring at the ceiling at four in the morning, asking if you've spoken to your family for the last time. Having nobody is watching someone who's been your best friend since you were fourteen years old slam a door in your face because you decided that chasing success at any cost was more important. Having nobody is sacrificing everything you thought you had, cutting every tie and string you could find in a desperate grasp for power...and then having to pick up the pieces when your bluff gets called. Have you ever felt that, Cable? Have you ever really felt that sense of despair?
As far as I can tell, you haven't. You came back to IWF a blank slate, no ties to be cut. The House of Howlett worked for you, because all they were to you were a means to an end. You don't care beyond that, Cable. You don't have a life beyond these ropes. I've been there. I've lost myself in wrestling, and I have always been the poorer for it. You know what pulls me back up, each and every time? You know what shakes me from that complacency and reminds me of who I am deep down?
Them.
You may not care for the people in the stands, you might not give a damn about them or what they think, but I DO. I always have. Men like you, Jake Conway, Roberto Verona, you see that as a weakness. You think I'm giving myself away by fighting for them. It's everything but a weakness. When I walk out from that curtain and I hear twenty thousand people screaming their lungs out because they're happy to see me, because they want me to win...there's nothing like that on God's green earth. There's nothing that makes me push harder and longer than them. I do this for them. I do this because I love them, and they love me. And at Night of the Immortals, I have the chance to reward their faith in me.
I'm doing this for them. I'm doing this for all the guys that never had this chance. Guys like Seth Evans, guys like Aaron Owens...guys like Nighthawk. So you see, Cable, I'm not just walking into that ring alone. You're not just facing me. You're facing the thousands, the millions, everyone all over the world who's wanted to seize that dream and just needed that one chance to take it. I'm walking into Columbus with all of them at my back, and when we step between those ropes, in front of the entire world...I'll show you that heroes are real. I'll show you that heroes can win. And I'll show you that we...are...
UNBREAKABLE!
Well howdy there pardner.