Post by Claire Hawkins on Dec 12, 2021 13:44:00 GMT -5
12/5/2021
Chicago, Illinois
United Center
Chicago, Illinois
United Center
Beaten...
Battered....
Broken...
A familiar place that she had been hundreds of times over; a place she had rebuilt herself back up a hundred times over. Yet, this wasn't like all the time before where she could simply wipe away the grime of despair away with a hot shower nor was it something so easily dismissed. She had given all she had to give and all it was met with was the undeniable failure that was rapidly becoming her identity. A stalwart of Action Wrestling? Greatest Television Champion in Action Wrestling history? None of that mattered when you were alone exhausted and defeated. None of that mattered when you were alone with the demons that played havoc within your head.
'YOU shouldn't be here.'
"Fuck you."
'YOU shouldn't BE he-'
"Fuck you......"
'YOU shouldn't BE.'
"FUCK. YOU."
'YOU shou-'
With a hard slap that echoed throughout the locker room to the wooden bench on which she sat, the raven-haired competitor banished the demon dancing upon the insecurities she felt. Even so, the phantom voice of that crotchety old crone wasn't something that she could rightly argue with. The trip to Ireland wasn't something that she should have done; it only served to make things more difficult and only solidified that which others willfully mocked her for. Then again, it wasn't exactly the ONLY thing that shouldn't be.
She shouldn't exist.
Hiding away the piercing crimson eyes beneath heavy eyelids, Claire took a deep breath to help steady a world that was spiraling further out of control. This was precisely what HE wanted; what every single arrogant fuck with delusions of grandeur and overblown perception of their worth wanted. They wanted to see her break; to succumb to the raw savagery that their ignorantly regurgitated words held. It was forever about jockeying for a better position within the hierarchy of the company even when they might have any right to do so. You didn't need to have the technical acumen needed to outwrestle your opponents; you just needed to say the right things at the right times and the entirety of your world situation would change when the higher-ups identified the amount of money that flooded in. Whether that was admitted to or not didn't matter; it was something that was ultimately practiced in every professional wrestling company. At least, the ones that she had been a part of prior.
However, that was a completely different set of inconsistent grievances that had the misfortune of being compiled.
Slowly releasing the air in which she had been withholding, Claire opened her eyes to the reality of the world that surrounded her. Long ago she had made the decision to never change who she was regardless of how much weight the world placed upon her to do so. She wouldn't bend to the misguided aspirations of the foolish nor would she allow herself to truly break. Reforge. Resharpen. Return stronger and deadlier to the next encounter.
That was the Metal Witch.
"Hellscape."
"For weeks, in not months, this mysterious event has been meticulously and deliberately presented across all manner of Action Wrestling programming that would maximize the hype generated while also maintaining its natural mystique. of the unknown. Yet, in the end, the grandiose and mysterious Hellscape is nothing more than an over-glorified race to the bottom; a race to determine which of the seven participants are desperate enough to traverse the unknown conditions of the four-story death trap commandeered for this clusterfuck and just how willing they are to tear through each other for a ludicrous amount of money that'll likely be taxed well into oblivion if it even truly exists at all."
"A quote-unquote duffel bag of money; a momentary distraction from the fact that the seven of us aren't being given anything meaningful."
"Perhaps it's just me being tired of being a part of these outrageously gimmicked matches that will never be spoken about again; King of Clash ring any bells; but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to determine what the bright side is to having crawl through for such an empty reward. After all, a million dollars in hard cash will not last long in today's fractured and broken economy. Even if the victor should donate their winnings to a deserving charity, the simple fact is that not even a million dollars is enough. Inflation and the general cost of living have become more than many can ever hope to bear and here we are, expected to be enamored by the opportunity at the notion of killing each other for a sum of money that isn't even a fraction of what some earn here in Action Wrestling?"
"Dismiss as you will, but everyone already knows it to be true. The Paramount Plus partnership has proven to be extremely lucrative after all."
"However, I have completely digressed from the situation at hand and I am fully aware that is not something anyone eagerly awaiting the guaranteed savagery of Hellscape has promised to bring. You would much rather listen to me verbally tear into each of my six opponents, expose their flaws, criticize and mock them, then explain to the world just exactly why their personal hells and this four-story escape room cannot fucking compare to the hell that's been my every waking moment for the last several months; if not years. You want me to mirror what I have done to the likes of Donovan Ryane, Rampage, and Neo by picking them apart piece by fateful piece and force them to realize that their supposed success is still nothing more than an exercise in futility; force them to acknowledge the cesspool forgotten irrelevancy that is ultimately their reality."
"Except I can't."
"I shouldn't have to stand here and proclaim to the world that Holden Ross' entire identity is predicated upon the fact he has daddy abandonment issues that would make any fatherless cunt jealous or that Mister Maxwell Daemon should be doing far better than allowing Corey Black's discarded sloppy seconds play half-assed mind games with feverish abandon. I shouldn't have to tell you that the recent runs of parallel dominance that both Addy and Dionysus have had the joy of experiencing have been generated by those around them than by the efforts they have made by their own hands. Not should I have to mention that Corey Bull's retirement tour is as much of shit-filled lie as CJ Phoenix pretending to masquerade as some sort of silver-tongued snake oil salesman."
"I shouldn't have to."
"So I won't."
"Don't twist my words and presume that my refusal to do what it is you expect to be some sort of admission of defeat or some admittance of cowardice. No. Every single one of these six deserves my full and undiluted ire for the asinine hypocrisy that they refuse to acknowledge but perpetually peddle every time they open their mouths. Their ring work and talent are things that deserve a certain amount of respect despite the personal feelings I harbor. Even so, doing that which I normally would isn't something that I feel pertains to the situation at hand"
"This isn't about THEM as much as it is about ME."
"I am the woman that has been with Action Wrestling since year one; the one that never left or sold out to some half-hearted corporate job that, in the end, got me fired. I am the woman that shed literal blood, sweat, and fucking tears in order to recreate and build the Television Championship division from the outlandishly pathetic fucking state that the company seemed keen on keeping it in. Fuck, I am the woman that is constantly mocked and looked down up for doing things that nobody else in this Good damn company seems able to fucking do! They'll criticize and poke fun at the accomplishments that nobody ever imagined I could obtain or wanted me to have and those same arrogant shills consider a paltry victory as validation for the regurgitated words they hadn't the brain cells to concoct on their own accord."
"Yet, here I STILL am."
"Many of you assume that doesn't mean anything; that I'm nothing short of a masochist for pain both physical and mental. Yet, despite my victories and successes; despite my losses and numerous defeats; I am the ONE thing that cannot be swept away or driven out. I am the one constant that nobody dares to mess with outside of the occasional match in which they HAVE to take their sad little shots. In fact, as much as they are loathed to acknowledge or even consider it, I am the only one that is keeping that dark part of my heart from wholesale ending their very fucking lives; something they keep clamoring for but don't actually want."
"It isn't about bastards or monsters."
"It's not about showing how dominant one can be."
"It isn't even about the money."
"This match; this four-stories of hell; isn't about who can be the biggest asshole going in or whom can deliver the most punishment unto the others. It's about proving to an uncaring world that I am here; that I SHOULD be here. It's about the struggle that others place upon you that seem impossible and the strength needed to conquer that struggle; to show the world that my existence isn't something they can acknowledge or dow away with as they please. It's about standing face to face with devils and making them blink."
"Once those helicopters drop the seven of us off on that rooftop a war will be ignited with a thunderous flare that'll call the attention of everyone in that locker room. We'll bash, beat, and attempt to murder each other in the bloodiest fashion possible as we each try to scramble down through each grueling floor. Bodies will be broken and normally ironclad wills shall be shattered. Yet, at the end of it all, it isn't going to be some former whore or generic self-proclaimed bastard that'll be making it out through that door first. It won't be a decaying monster without a future or a half-baked Daemon that cannot seem to decide his own that will earn that suspicious as fuck duffel bag of money. Hell, it won't even be Downfall's pale shadow or the asshole that despair is worth fighting against."
"It's going to be me."
"It's going to be Claire Hawkins."
"I'm going to step through that door after battling six other supremely skilled and outrageously driven individuals in a blood-filled war that will undoubtedly stand as a match of the year candidate for twenty twenty-two. I am going to reforge the pieces that CJ and so many consider to be broken and useless. I will reforge them; sharpen them, and I will do what so many deemed impossible for me the moment that the participants of Hellscape were revealed. Whether it be through victory or defeat, I WILL remind those that have forgotten and those yet to learn just what exactly the Metal Witch is."
"Quoth the witch......"
"Forevermore."