Post by Wade Moor on Feb 17, 2019 21:00:34 GMT -5
The maw of the forest opened like a giant gaping mouth. The red sunset looming over the skyline hung like hungry eyes. Waiting. Sniffing the air, longing to devour its willing prey. Two of them #beachkrew boys stood along the overgrown tangle of brush and deadwood on the forests edge.
“What the fuck are we doing HERE?” Alexander Pasternak groaned in Russian as he hucked a couple of sunflower seeds in his mouth. Ranch flavored, if you have to know.
“Somethings missing”, Wade replied, “Deep in the belly of the beast, we’ll find the missing cog.”
Pasternak look taken aback and almost choked on one of his seeds.
“You understood me?” Alex asked in Russian, his mouth hanging open.
“Yeah I speak Russian”, Wade replied nonchalantly, “Try and keep up.”
“That’s a good point, Wade”, Pasternak chimed in, “I know we’re partners going for the tag team championship belts, were all in #beachkrew and everything’s sick yeah...but honestly? I really don’t know the first thing about you.”
“So?” Wade asked as he pulled a joint from his shirt pocket and sparked a light underneath it.
“One moment you’re fucking losing it in the VolkSWAGGIN, like really fucking losing it you know?” Alex added, “Then the next you’re on some Fear and Loathing trip through this Mexican sewage trap.”
“This is the Florida Everglades”, Wade responded.
“You can’t tell me there isn’t AT LEAST one Mexican cartel hovel in these woods”, Alex replied looking like he’s raring to get in there all of a sudden.
“There’s more than one”, Wade replied, “Fuckin’ tweaker.”
Alex looked dejected for a moment but bounced back at the thought of hella coke in the woods.
“That’s not what we’re looking for though”, Wade announced, “Its something much more important than coke.”
“LIKE WH...?!” Pasternak nearly snarled but caught himself halfway, “I mean like what?”
“Something I’ve lost in the last few weeks”, Wade answered.
“Your wallet?” Pasternak asked, genuinely curious.
“Not my wallet! Smarten up, Alex!” Wade replied, losing his temper for just a moment, “Godnilla give me strength because with your help, I might just find it.”
“Then what the hell is it?” Alex asked.
“My killer instinct”, Wade replied, stoically.
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“Blaze, my son, how did it feel to eat that gigantic plate of shit last week? You really put it all on the line, didn’t you? You wore your heart on your sleeve, gave it your very best shot, and came away with absolutely nothing to show for it. Are you finally realizing what anybody with half a brain cell already knows? When you bet all your chips on a fucking loser like Zombie McMorris, then you know you’re coming away empty handed. ZMAC is a living legend in this business, but it does things to you, things he seems incapable of bouncing back from. It’s the inevitable cycle of his career coming round once more and you’re just getting swept up in the storm.
“Why you’ve chosen to learn anything from ZMAC is beyond my comprehension. Zombie was born to win and lose championships. He doesn’t have what it takes to break through that glass ceiling and ascend to that upper echelon in the business. He has longevity which gives him a stilted enough career worthy of a hall of fame induction sometime in the next 60 years. What of his protégés though? The Diablo Calzones, the Kaz Mazy’s If you will? Have they too gone on to have historied wrestling careers? These are names you’ve never heard because they’re names nobody hears any more. Once they too were taken under the wing of Zombie McMorris, but they didn’t make it out on the other side. What makes you think your story is going to be any different?
“I’ve seen people like you before, Blaze. The twenty somethings that think they’re something special because of some yokel farmhand strength they got from wastefully toiling away. The thing is, they just don’t have the IT factor. Nobody wants to watch you flounder in the midcard with as much personality as a sack of cornmeal. You thought biscuits and gravy made ya a man but when you go up against somebody with the actual sauce, you get caught out brother. Exposed for the fraudulent excuse of a wrestler that you actually are. This ain’t wrangling brainless steer with no pants on bruh, this is actual competition. You’re swimming with the sharks and you’re out of your fucking element.
“You’re so deep down in the mire that you’ve probably talked yourself up into thinking you actually have a chance of fending us off come #beachkrew’s #EffinRager. I’m kind of going through it right now, but even I know that’s impossible. Even if we didn’t whimsically stack the deck against you, The Cowboys From Hell are getting sent straight back to Hell at our hands. The look on your stupid fucking faces will be worth it alone, but to take your Tag Team Championship belts too? The only shot at relevance you have? Man, that’s a pretty fucking sweet reward in of its own, don’t you think? Are you capable of thinking? If you were, you’d know that to step into the ring with #beachkrew is folly. Just ask #fightsmart. They’re arguably some of the best on this roster but they’re still categorically below us by miles. The two of you fall so deep under them that the idea of an even championship match is laughable.
“Just look at yourself, Beau. You’ve been kept so hard under Zombie McMorris’ thumb that you’ve decided to k-k-k-k-keel over and call him daddy. The dirtsheets even say you spurn your women’s advances in favor of ring knowledge you’ll ‘gain’ from ZMAC? Is that true? Or are you holding your virginity for your sister? Whatever the case is, the only thing you’re about to learn in this next match is how to get fucking mollywhopped. I’m going to SON you so bad you’ll be calling me dad next. That might actually make it a little easier for you, considering the rumors swirling the primordial Action Wrestling undercard toilet, right?
“It’s like I look around and I see ‘wrestlers’. You all look the part but nobody fits the bill. #beachkrew backpacked Cowboys From Hell and Jaice Wilds to their first Action Wrestling main event. You guys pretended like it was your time to shine, but it was all an act. It’s a fucking plague, I tell you. Bunch of wannabe, ineffectual nothings harboring resentment for the actual talents. That’s why the days leading up to Monday, Jaice couldn’t keep his stupid mouth shut on social media. He shot hard all fucking week on the interwebs, but when it came time to show out, he got shut down and put right back in his place. He’s ready to call #EffinRager a fucking wash as we speak. He’s literally scribing a notepad worth of god damn excuses right now.
“What’ll be yours, Blaze? Zombie McMorris just couldn’t keep up? Our special referee ‘fast counted’? I’ll go ahead and give you one right now; you’re just not good enough to beat me. Cowboys From Hell aren’t good enough to beat #beachkrew. You’re looking down the barrel at a former World Champion. The 2019 Wrestler of the Year - active competition, I might add. What pitiful accolades do you have on your rap sheet? Television Champion and some bum fan vote Rookie of the Year trophy? They just don’t measure up. You just can’t measure up and stand toe to toe with Wade Moor in any iteration.”
Wade sighs heavily.
“It’s not entirely your fault, though. You’ve only been in Action Wrestling for so long. You’re still ‘cutting your teeth’, as the saying goes. Despite choosing a miserable example of someone to look up to, your professional career has only been about seven months long, so you’re still learning. You’re learning the harsh truths of the wrestling business. You’re experiencing them first hand every night when you walk out to that ring, stand backstage, or when you cut a promo. You realize that there are just levels to this shit. You gave your very best last week and it just wasn’t good enough. You couldn’t match the intensity. For all the farmcel gusto and bravado you spouted, you were subconsciously taught that one watery boy is going to fuck you up every time. This week, next week, it doesn’t fucking matter. You’re about to learn some life lessons in the hardest way imaginable.”
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The swamp was still unmitigatedly hot for the time of year. As if Wade’s very presence in it was summoning Hell itself up to the surface to meet them. He kept checking over his shoulder at Alex, who didn’t seem to be wary from the heat, almost as if it weren’t effecting him at all. Wade turned once more, his brow sweltering, his face as red as hot iron.
“Are you ok?” Pasternak asked, his voice sounding a hundred miles away, “You holding out on me? The only time I’ve ever seen anyone look that way, they were overdosing.”
Alex seemed to be transported to a different mind space, uttering the words out loud allowing him some inner reflection.
It didn’t bring him peace.
“Is it hot all of a sudden?”, Pasternak asked.
Wade didn’t answer. He couldn’t answer. All he could do was forge a path ahead, his destination still unknown, his theory questionable, that voice nagging in the back of his mind. What was he looking for out here in this sweltering shit hole? Why did he feel the need to come? He closed his eyes and tried to breath but his lungs kept sealing up in the heat, causing him to fall to a knee. He heaved for breath and finally caught a gasp in his lungs as he felt the vise grip of Alex’s hands clinch underneath his arms. Wade couldn’t give him anything. His eyes fell to the murky Earth which seemed to be opening up underneath him.
Was The Devil finally coming to collect?
One last upheaval - a feat of near superhuman strength - and Alex pulled Wade back to his feet. His second wind came, his lungs refilled with air, and the stars swimming in front of his eyes started to fade away...
But something else came in and quickly took their place. Wisps of light, almost like blue fire rent forth from dead space in front of him. Something sounded in the distance. Alex looked up as if a horn just blasted and his eyes went nearly milky white.
“What the fuck was that?!” Alex shouted, visibly shaken. A bead of sweat dripped from his hairline.
Wade heard something different, entirely. His eyes went a shade of night as a mellow singing heralded in the distance. His feet began to move of their own accord, taking him closer and closer to the sound.
“Where...going?” Alex asked, “I...hear...no...please...”
Alex’s voice faded into the ether as they walked through brush into a clearing. The sky opened up through the trees above them where the sun shone, but the clearing was dark, nearly freezing. Wade’s breath appeared in front of his face. He looked down and peered into a murky body of water...and a pair of ice blue eyes peered into his soul. Half a face creeped over the edge of the water. Wade thought he heard someone yelling, but the rest of a head came up after the eyes.
She was strikingly gorgeous. How could he think that was yelling? (WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT) The aria of her voice was beautiful, floating in between the wind, through echoes in the forest. He felt like he was crying but his face was entirely numb. Somebody grabbed his shirt but he brushed it off as she approached the women. She (looks like) held her arms out to embrace him and Wade reached out to meet her.
“WADE!!!”
His vision cleared as Alex’s voice snapped Wade back to reality. He caught sight of an eldritch tentacle splashing down into the swamp water before his eyes blacked out once more and he fell in after it. Pasternak watched as he sunk beneath them waves, bubbles formulating on the surface one after the other...until they stopped. Alex cursed aloud, pacing back and forth across the edge of the water. He yelled fuck once more - for good measure - before he yanked his shoes off and dove in after him.
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“I don’t know who I am anymore.”
Wade’s mouth moves and bubbles float upwards. His voice sounds ethereal. His long hair swims about his pale face. His eyes a mixture of grimy green and jet black seem far away.
“Maybe I never knew who I was. There was a time there, minuscule as it was, where I actually thought I had an idea. My career was on an upward trajectory - which had become par the course - but there was something else too. Someone else. She was my whole world. We did everything together, physically, emotionally, spiritually. I think it was the first time in my life I ever felt love. Now I barely remember the feeling, like someone cut into my head and made carnitas out of that part of my brain. I can barely remember her face now. Or her name. I’m sure you can relate to that?”
Alex’s (dead?) unconscious body drifts towards Wade, coming center view in front of him.
“I don’t know what’s wrong, or what to do, but if there’s one thing I’m fantastic at is unhealthily processing emotion and lashing out physically. You get it, right? I knew you would understand. There’s always a similarity between us boys in #beachkrew. I would never say it out loud but I’m pretty sure this is either a dream or I’m legitimately dying so I don’t mind saying it - just this once. For all of our bolstering and chest pounding, we’re all just misunderstood S a d B o i s. High IQ’s and athletic abilities likely lead to early childhood success. The real world beat us down, yadda yadda. The typical story, you know, except we managed to subvert this trope by genuinely achieving something, regardless of if anyone thinks it’s ‘right’ or ‘fair’. We’ve flipped the script on its motherfucking head in the best way possible.”
Alex’s eyes are glossed over, no movement, though they whisper (W a t c h) “T h e S k i e s T h e L i m i t” or some shit.
“The probably with that is, eventually the cycle repeats itself. Now, once again, I’m just that misunderstood kid on the brink of...what? Where do you go after success? Hall of Fame? Legend? All meaningless titles without...what? I can’t remember for the fucking life of me what it feels like or what it’s called.”
Alex just stares into the abyss.
“Why am I telling you all of this? Earlier you said you didn’t know anything about me so I’m just kind of explaining to you where I’m at mentally and spiritually. Wherever we are it offers multiple platitudes for pensive reflection within oneself.”
Still no notable response from Alex...but it’s like Wade has a ninth sense right now and he’s picking up what the boy is putting down.
“Maybe IT IS my own soul. Relatively dark, wet, filled with sea beasts? Sounds right up my alley, in fact. Pretty sick, actually. Anyways, where was I? Right, yeah, I’m done staring into the abyss. I’m finally in it. Send Spencer Baddams, my regards. ZMAC too. Turns out we do float down here.”
No response from Alex.
“No response? Was the reference that bad? Doesn’t matter, we’re probably dead anyways. I don’t know what I saw, but something else you should know about me if we are - or were - going to be bruhs and tag team partners is that I have a proclivity for attracting trouble, particularly of the supernatural persuasion. It’s all become a part of my life so much that I hardly stop to blink. This is actually pretty tame compared to the rejection of my own human nature I’m currently dealing with.”
Alex’s mouth moves but stops ajar. Death rattle probably.
“Is that a suicidal thought? They say they’re not always particularly about overdosing or biting a bullet. Maybe you don’t even have to kill yourself t...”
Wade’s chest jumps. Alex starts to spin around in the water.
“You felt that too? I think we finally arrived at my destination. I th...”
Wade’s chest lurches again and he has trouble catching his breath. The water starts to fill his lungs from bottom to top. His chest bounces one more time...
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...and his eyes opened to a blur of bright sunlight as a geyser of muddy water escapes his lungs. His vision hazes over but he catches the outline of someone leaning over him, a firm slap on his cheek and a knee tucked under his head. Wade vomited at least another gallon of swamp stream before finally catching a real breath and the wonders it entailed.
“...ok?” A voice cut in.
Wade blinked in an attempt to gain his bearings. Another jolt of a slap on his cheek finally rounded him out and Wade looked up into the face of Alex Pasternak.
“Are you ok?” Alex asked.
“Are you?”, Wade answered weakly, “I thought you died?”
Alex didn’t respond immediately. Wade could feel the gears turning in his mind. Something happened to him under that water too, something he couldn’t quite recall or comprehend.
“What the hell is going on?” Alex asked.
“It was a Dank Baptism”, Wade replied, “ Whatever happened down there...it’s not over. For either of us.”
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“The Wade Moor you thought you knew is dead. Gawdnilla once presided over all of you, a vision of the future so clad in gold with diamond hem...but I killed him and took his place. He did everything he could for you, but now I’m going to do everything he can’t. It had to happen, needed to happen to give Action Wrestling the future it deserves. That emerald city replaced with nothing but destruction, cinder and ash as far as the eye can see. Can’t you see it? Close your eyes and imagine it...it’s piss and shit for days, my disappointments.
“Beau Blaze, you unfortunate soul, filled with hope, with wonder. Wonder what it would be like to have a future being able to stand on your own two legs, let alone a future in Action Wrestling. You’ve been leaning on Zombie McMorris since day one, but you never stopped to think that he’s the one who leans on others. It’s how he’s always operated in his career. You’ll find that out at #EffinRager.
“Let’s take a look back on our separate Action Wrestling careers; if you were on the outside looking in, who do you think stands a better chance? An AW World Champion, 2018 Wrestler of the Year, leader of the most dominant stable in wrestling history? Or the guy who not only lost to Red, White, and Bruised, but ate the fucking pin too? Karlie Nash and Nikki Vaughn are veritable garbage so losing to them is laughable at best. If I was in your boots, I’d likely be rethinking if I’m even cut out for this shit. I know Zombie McMorris definitely is. Losing that match probably made him look back on his long career and wonder what in the fuck he’s actually accomplished.
“The Tag Team Championship belts are definitely just a visual for Cowboys From Hell at this point. You don’t carry yourself as champions. You’ve been exposed as weaklings, incapable of wrestling singles competition so the subtle nuances of tag team wrestling absolutely escape your feeble minds. #beachkrew just went through the most devastating match in Action Wrestling’s history and came out on top, What chance do you have at #EffinRager? I’m about to seal the deal Alex made when he pinned ZMAC last week, let him know that unlike the Cowboys From Hell, I’m a legitimately capable partner that he can depend on. Weird how that works, right You’re about to get a master class in talent, bring your notepad if you want, but I think you’re going to have a hard time writing with that concussion pounding in your head.”