Scars & Stripes - A Participation Roleplay (continued)
Aug 22, 2022 18:48:16 GMT -5
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Post by Prophet of Ash on Aug 22, 2022 18:48:16 GMT -5
Scars & Stripes 2022
A Participation Roleplay to Meet the Bare Minimum Needed to be Considered an Official Participant in the Annual Battle Royal
a/k/a Don't Call it a Comeback
Ya know, it's been a while.
This was the reasoning I was given for the impromptu change of heart, the sudden change of emotion, and the reignited vigor. This was the only reason I was given for my friend stepping back into the ring for the first time in over eight years. Ya know, it's been a while. I'd say eight years is longer than a while.
I'd say eight years is longer than a while.
Yeah! That was right! But it's been since 2014. And a LOT has changed since 2014.
Don't call it a comeback, Perce. I know I'm too old to do this full time. I'm a grandfather. I'm finally a family man, for once in my life. I'm catching up on lost time. And even if I wanted to, I can't fly out of the country too, ya know. I can't go to Japan, the UAE, all the exotic places they like to go. But I need to do it for me.
Alright so let's catch things up to speed, shall we? Foot notes. There's a couple missing books here;
- Samantha is not gay. Samantha Schneider also doesn't exist any more. Sam transitioned in 2019. And he has a lovely wife and daughter of his own. Because before Sam transitioned, Sam briefly had a boyfriend and that boyfriend helped spawn the third generation of the Schneider legacy, little Caroline Schneider. Sam is the father his father never was.
- Phil wasn't there for the birth of his granddaughter. And found out Sam was transitioning through bulletproof glass. All that time being completely out of control? Yeah, it caught up. Phil spent seven of the last eight years in federal prison for a number of crimes. I think the biggest one being a connection to murder. They couldn't say he did it, but they know he knows enough about it to say he should be locked up. There were also drug charges. Cause ya know, of course there were.
- Ashley is dead. Phil didn't kill her, a needle did. I'm 50/50 if he gave her the stuff that did it in. And 70/30 if he's the one who tainted it with fentanyl. But Sam's daughter doesn't have a grandmother and that sucks.
Hell yeah! Caught that Machop!
Oh, and Phil plays Pokemon Go now. I suppose there's that too.
You wanna go get some food, Perce?
If you're going to do this, and I'm not telling you that you should or shouldn't, that's your call, shouldn't you be watching what you're eating? Maybe working out some? Ya know, doing something what a wrestler normally does?
What exactly do wrestlers do, Percy? I won a World title and all I did was stab people with skewers and needles and throw people on boards covered in dog poop and stuff.
Dog poop?
Ya know, the legacy is bigger than the man. But there's time. And trust me, prison changes a man. I spent two thousand six hundred and thirteen days working out, building up my cardio, working on my strikes. I'm not out to win the thing, man, I don't want a run out of this. I just want to get out there. Let me show face, ya know? Legend appearance?
Some money?
Look, that's your job, you gotta figure that one out.
Eight years is a while, but at the same time, not long at all
Pulling into a business park not far off of the interstate, I'm surveying the area. There's a granite manufacturing or distribution facility of some sort near by. Some sort of food distribution business across the way, but we're pulling into an extremely non descriptive warehouse. Stone walls, a long concrete ramp leading up to a dented metal door that's clearly been hit by trucks a few times. There's sun burnt marks where a few previous tenants have left their mark on the building, sun bleached into the framework of the building. Phil hops out quickly and heads up the ramp.
I'll be back to help you out, Perce. I don't really trust the area so I'm going to pop the door and move my car inside.
Helpless, I'm stranded in the passenger van. There are benefits to not having working legs. Well, there isn't, but there's definitely downsides. Phil heads up the ramp and grabs the bottom of the door, flinging it upwards. I can peer inside the building to see high ceilings and florescent lighting, a pretty generic warehouse space, but that's more or less what I expected. Phil's quickly back into the car and throwing it in reverse, flying backwards up the ramp. You know the part about drawbacks about your legs not working? Having Phillip Schneider as a driver is probably one of the biggest. For years, I was the one handling the rental cars so that they were hopefully returned in one piece, but since we've reconnected following his stint with the state of Illinois department of corrections, Phil has taken it upon himself to get me where I need to go. I suppose he sees it as somewhat of payback for the years I took care of him or possibly he has some sort of remorse for the way he treated me for years.
Or it's that I have a car and he doesn't and he needs a way to get around.
Phil pops open the cargo door and gets my ramp into place and it's at this point I can really get a grasp of the environment. Towards the center of this warehouse, sitting on stained concrete floors is the a single wrestling ring, maybe 18x18, but looking microscopic in this massive warehouse space.
So this is Sam's place, huh?
He's barely paying attention to me as he climbs into the ring.
Yeah man, I'm proud of the kid. This place is massive. She's got so much room to grow.
He
F**k, force of habit. He's got so much room to grow, and his business is really taking off. Oh f**k that hurts.
There's an unusual oof of air expelling from his lungs as he hits the ropes and comes to an abrupt stop.
Have you seen the kid's printer? Thing's huge.
How can Sam afford this place though? It's huge.
Pandemic, man. This used to be a brewery, I think? But it closed down from the pandemic. Non-essential business. And landlord was willing to rent on the cheap. Plus Sam's got some great credit. And I may have helped him out. *thud*
Flat bump in the center of the ring. It's those type of bumps that took my legs. Humans aren't meant to fall down for a living and I know it's gotta be jarring to the system to be falling down on plywood for the first time in a decade.
So where'd the ring come from? Is it Sam's?
No Perce, but you aren't in the business for as long as I have been without knowing where to get a rental ring.
Have been?
Was.
Past tense?
Don't call it a comeback. It's one and done.
Phil starts running the ropes with a viciousness. The clattering and clanging of the turnbuckles echos through the cavernous warehouse, the bumping of the posts banging off the concrete floors. Phil's sprinting. He's clearly trying to prove something to me. I don't think I've ever seen him run the ropes like this, it was always just skewer the head, smash a light tube, do some sort of horrible head droppy thing.
So buddy, what's Sam actually do here?
Print on demand t-shirts. Big business man. People want stupid crap on a t-shirt, they go through Sam's site, upload all of their art. Sam prints it directly on a t-shirt, throws it in a bag, and makes $15-$20 profit. Kid's making like $60-$90 an hour on a good day. Election was huge. If only all the butthurt Trump maggots knew they were pumping money into a trans Jew's pocket, huh?
Hah, yeah.
And the best part, Sam can work whenever she, err, he wants. So he's got time to spend with the baby whenever he wants. I wish I had that. When Sam was a baby, we were sleeping in a Winnebago and on that grueling schedule.
Then they trashed our bagel!
I don't miss the hotel rooms at all. Ya know, I haven't been in a hotel at all since I left. Not once. For any reason.
Cept your 8x8 concrete and iron hotel?
He shoots a venomous stare in my direction. I should know by now to leave that one alone but a massive gaping hole in the armor of Phillip Schnieder is too much for me to resist jabbing at.
You think I still got it Perce?
How's your knees feel?
Good as ever. Left knee got scoped in 2018, right knee got it in April 2020. They almost didn't do it because of the pandemic, but I could barely walk. Didn't want me to end up like some sort of cripple. So the state fixed me up, good as new. Hey, maybe you should sell some crack so the state will fix you.
I deserve that?
Look, I'm not aiming for a run off of this. I like being home on the weekends. I've had my time on TV. I just wanna show people I'm not dead, ya know.
And get a payday.
*laughs* Someone's gotta pay for this warehouse, huh?
He says as he takes another bump in the center of the ring.
A legacy is a really weird thing. History is written by the victors and when you walk away, when you stop fighting the war.. You've lost in this industry. The war is a never ending battle and history is quick to be erased. Two Hall of Fame inductions, a triple crown of championships, an unreasonably long reign as World champion, it really only means something to the type of people that it means something to and if those people don't care, well, perspective is subjective, right?
But it's my history. It's a big part of my life and a body of work that I'm proud of and something that I feel like has shaped me in my life. It's been character building, the trials and tribulations of the WFWF were harder than anyone is really prepared for, especially at a high level, but it's impossible when thrown into the flames to not be toughened up. You're either forged in the flames or burnt up. Or both.
To me, stepping back in for the Scars & Stripes battle royal is righting a few wrongs of the past. It's showing that I do still have it, to my contemporaries, to the fans, to myself. It's showing I'm not going to be like the dinosaurs that I grew to resent so much at the peak of my run, too. You know the types. The guys that'd pop back in and have a couple matches and then disappear again. I don't want that. The battle royal will help hide a lot of my weaknesses, too. I was never a catch as catch can grappler. I don't think I could go thirty minutes of arm bars and chin locks and arm locks and chin bars. But I can dump some fools over the top rope. I can punch and kick to wear people out. Heck, I may even pull out some skewers, you know, just for fun.
A Participation Roleplay to Meet the Bare Minimum Needed to be Considered an Official Participant in the Annual Battle Royal
a/k/a Don't Call it a Comeback
Ya know, it's been a while.
This was the reasoning I was given for the impromptu change of heart, the sudden change of emotion, and the reignited vigor. This was the only reason I was given for my friend stepping back into the ring for the first time in over eight years. Ya know, it's been a while. I'd say eight years is longer than a while.
I'd say eight years is longer than a while.
Yeah! That was right! But it's been since 2014. And a LOT has changed since 2014.
Don't call it a comeback, Perce. I know I'm too old to do this full time. I'm a grandfather. I'm finally a family man, for once in my life. I'm catching up on lost time. And even if I wanted to, I can't fly out of the country too, ya know. I can't go to Japan, the UAE, all the exotic places they like to go. But I need to do it for me.
Alright so let's catch things up to speed, shall we? Foot notes. There's a couple missing books here;
- Samantha is not gay. Samantha Schneider also doesn't exist any more. Sam transitioned in 2019. And he has a lovely wife and daughter of his own. Because before Sam transitioned, Sam briefly had a boyfriend and that boyfriend helped spawn the third generation of the Schneider legacy, little Caroline Schneider. Sam is the father his father never was.
- Phil wasn't there for the birth of his granddaughter. And found out Sam was transitioning through bulletproof glass. All that time being completely out of control? Yeah, it caught up. Phil spent seven of the last eight years in federal prison for a number of crimes. I think the biggest one being a connection to murder. They couldn't say he did it, but they know he knows enough about it to say he should be locked up. There were also drug charges. Cause ya know, of course there were.
- Ashley is dead. Phil didn't kill her, a needle did. I'm 50/50 if he gave her the stuff that did it in. And 70/30 if he's the one who tainted it with fentanyl. But Sam's daughter doesn't have a grandmother and that sucks.
Hell yeah! Caught that Machop!
Oh, and Phil plays Pokemon Go now. I suppose there's that too.
You wanna go get some food, Perce?
If you're going to do this, and I'm not telling you that you should or shouldn't, that's your call, shouldn't you be watching what you're eating? Maybe working out some? Ya know, doing something what a wrestler normally does?
What exactly do wrestlers do, Percy? I won a World title and all I did was stab people with skewers and needles and throw people on boards covered in dog poop and stuff.
Dog poop?
Ya know, the legacy is bigger than the man. But there's time. And trust me, prison changes a man. I spent two thousand six hundred and thirteen days working out, building up my cardio, working on my strikes. I'm not out to win the thing, man, I don't want a run out of this. I just want to get out there. Let me show face, ya know? Legend appearance?
Some money?
Look, that's your job, you gotta figure that one out.
Eight years is a while, but at the same time, not long at all
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pulling into a business park not far off of the interstate, I'm surveying the area. There's a granite manufacturing or distribution facility of some sort near by. Some sort of food distribution business across the way, but we're pulling into an extremely non descriptive warehouse. Stone walls, a long concrete ramp leading up to a dented metal door that's clearly been hit by trucks a few times. There's sun burnt marks where a few previous tenants have left their mark on the building, sun bleached into the framework of the building. Phil hops out quickly and heads up the ramp.
I'll be back to help you out, Perce. I don't really trust the area so I'm going to pop the door and move my car inside.
Helpless, I'm stranded in the passenger van. There are benefits to not having working legs. Well, there isn't, but there's definitely downsides. Phil heads up the ramp and grabs the bottom of the door, flinging it upwards. I can peer inside the building to see high ceilings and florescent lighting, a pretty generic warehouse space, but that's more or less what I expected. Phil's quickly back into the car and throwing it in reverse, flying backwards up the ramp. You know the part about drawbacks about your legs not working? Having Phillip Schneider as a driver is probably one of the biggest. For years, I was the one handling the rental cars so that they were hopefully returned in one piece, but since we've reconnected following his stint with the state of Illinois department of corrections, Phil has taken it upon himself to get me where I need to go. I suppose he sees it as somewhat of payback for the years I took care of him or possibly he has some sort of remorse for the way he treated me for years.
Or it's that I have a car and he doesn't and he needs a way to get around.
Phil pops open the cargo door and gets my ramp into place and it's at this point I can really get a grasp of the environment. Towards the center of this warehouse, sitting on stained concrete floors is the a single wrestling ring, maybe 18x18, but looking microscopic in this massive warehouse space.
So this is Sam's place, huh?
He's barely paying attention to me as he climbs into the ring.
Yeah man, I'm proud of the kid. This place is massive. She's got so much room to grow.
He
F**k, force of habit. He's got so much room to grow, and his business is really taking off. Oh f**k that hurts.
There's an unusual oof of air expelling from his lungs as he hits the ropes and comes to an abrupt stop.
Have you seen the kid's printer? Thing's huge.
How can Sam afford this place though? It's huge.
Pandemic, man. This used to be a brewery, I think? But it closed down from the pandemic. Non-essential business. And landlord was willing to rent on the cheap. Plus Sam's got some great credit. And I may have helped him out. *thud*
Flat bump in the center of the ring. It's those type of bumps that took my legs. Humans aren't meant to fall down for a living and I know it's gotta be jarring to the system to be falling down on plywood for the first time in a decade.
So where'd the ring come from? Is it Sam's?
No Perce, but you aren't in the business for as long as I have been without knowing where to get a rental ring.
Have been?
Was.
Past tense?
Don't call it a comeback. It's one and done.
Phil starts running the ropes with a viciousness. The clattering and clanging of the turnbuckles echos through the cavernous warehouse, the bumping of the posts banging off the concrete floors. Phil's sprinting. He's clearly trying to prove something to me. I don't think I've ever seen him run the ropes like this, it was always just skewer the head, smash a light tube, do some sort of horrible head droppy thing.
So buddy, what's Sam actually do here?
Print on demand t-shirts. Big business man. People want stupid crap on a t-shirt, they go through Sam's site, upload all of their art. Sam prints it directly on a t-shirt, throws it in a bag, and makes $15-$20 profit. Kid's making like $60-$90 an hour on a good day. Election was huge. If only all the butthurt Trump maggots knew they were pumping money into a trans Jew's pocket, huh?
Hah, yeah.
And the best part, Sam can work whenever she, err, he wants. So he's got time to spend with the baby whenever he wants. I wish I had that. When Sam was a baby, we were sleeping in a Winnebago and on that grueling schedule.
Then they trashed our bagel!
I don't miss the hotel rooms at all. Ya know, I haven't been in a hotel at all since I left. Not once. For any reason.
Cept your 8x8 concrete and iron hotel?
He shoots a venomous stare in my direction. I should know by now to leave that one alone but a massive gaping hole in the armor of Phillip Schnieder is too much for me to resist jabbing at.
You think I still got it Perce?
How's your knees feel?
Good as ever. Left knee got scoped in 2018, right knee got it in April 2020. They almost didn't do it because of the pandemic, but I could barely walk. Didn't want me to end up like some sort of cripple. So the state fixed me up, good as new. Hey, maybe you should sell some crack so the state will fix you.
I deserve that?
Look, I'm not aiming for a run off of this. I like being home on the weekends. I've had my time on TV. I just wanna show people I'm not dead, ya know.
And get a payday.
*laughs* Someone's gotta pay for this warehouse, huh?
He says as he takes another bump in the center of the ring.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A legacy is a really weird thing. History is written by the victors and when you walk away, when you stop fighting the war.. You've lost in this industry. The war is a never ending battle and history is quick to be erased. Two Hall of Fame inductions, a triple crown of championships, an unreasonably long reign as World champion, it really only means something to the type of people that it means something to and if those people don't care, well, perspective is subjective, right?
But it's my history. It's a big part of my life and a body of work that I'm proud of and something that I feel like has shaped me in my life. It's been character building, the trials and tribulations of the WFWF were harder than anyone is really prepared for, especially at a high level, but it's impossible when thrown into the flames to not be toughened up. You're either forged in the flames or burnt up. Or both.
To me, stepping back in for the Scars & Stripes battle royal is righting a few wrongs of the past. It's showing that I do still have it, to my contemporaries, to the fans, to myself. It's showing I'm not going to be like the dinosaurs that I grew to resent so much at the peak of my run, too. You know the types. The guys that'd pop back in and have a couple matches and then disappear again. I don't want that. The battle royal will help hide a lot of my weaknesses, too. I was never a catch as catch can grappler. I don't think I could go thirty minutes of arm bars and chin locks and arm locks and chin bars. But I can dump some fools over the top rope. I can punch and kick to wear people out. Heck, I may even pull out some skewers, you know, just for fun.
