Post by NoOnE on Mar 30, 2016 15:17:22 GMT -5
OOC: Like last time, this is set after Conflict. Likewise it does not take any RPs written after Conflict into account (I purposefully haven't even looked to see if any exist. Quantum physics and shit)
--------------
Are you ugly?
Kem felt dirty, and she didn't know if it was from the sweat of exertion or more from the mud she saw from the other side. They tried so hard, drawing with charcoal pencil a world where you can say whatever you want and, if you do so with a smile, it's positive encouragement.
A user, a lost soul?
Now, thanks to her boss's decision of what was best for business, Kem faced her and her one-woman cult following a second time, with gold on the line. Kem washed her hands in the sink, but knew that for another week she couldn't wash her hands of Team Totes.
A sickness so pure
Kem looked up into the mirror, still expecting her reflection to animate and attack her. She knew she was sick. She didn't know the specific medical term for "so afraid of being judged by strangers that she couldn't trust that she didn't want to ever leave her bedroom", but she knew that she was dealing with something that Jennifer and Ingrid couldn't understand.
She couldn't tell them, either; they counted on her.
Beyond that, Kem knew that EVERYONE has some kind of problem. Those who tune into IPW, those that would soon pay to see her vie for the newly-christened tag team titles, they had their own lives hovering over their heads: stress from a taxing job, doubt from a rocky relationship, encumbrances of shame and regret that they too found overwhelming. However, those people watched her and somehow within that, found temporary abeyance from their suffering. Remembering those thousands in need, Kem walked out of the bathroom, fearful of what lengths Lilly and Morgan would go to vilify and dehumanize her and Jennifer just to calm their own self-doubt, but knowing all to well that Kem's pain meant nothing...
...only her obligation as a Dynamo to fight through it.
Turn a blind eye
Why do I deny?
You'd think Jennifer would be thinking about Lilly Gibson and/or Morgan Russo, given that they'd just closed the "Go-Home Show" by battling them to a double pin, and now the last match before Equinox would be the first match TV subscribers would witness when Indy Pro reclaimed their attention.
However, she knew there was a week of hype promos between recent history and it repeating itself, and trying to imagine what those girls had lined up for her next kept sending her thoughts to an email a fan sent Shakedown's public Gmail account:
"Venus, you say you want everyone to not be so mean to each other during the build-up to matches, and that's noble of you. But if that's really true and not just a gimmick, why do you let Io get into Twitter fights or let Kem say not-nice things in her promos?
Do they ever make you feel like they're working against you?"
From the mouth of an opponent, it's worthless trolling, a desperate David Tactic to chip away at Shakedown's yin-yang chemistry. From a fan, however, it creeped into the "valid point" file. Kem and Ingrid meant well, but while Jennifer endeavored to offer respect even when it was undeserved, her roommates were not nearly so forthcoming with their positivity.
A strain of cancer
Chokes the answers
Fixated on the question swirling in her mind, Jennifer quickly reached into her gym bag and pulled out her phone. After punching in 0-2-8-5 (the weight limit for heavyweight wrestling in Nevada high school), she pulled up her "Notes" app, not wanting to forget her thoughts in the time it would take to get to a computer.
First of all, Kem and Io are their own people, and a big part of what makes us formidable is that we are three different people who've come together and become friends. We respect our differences because we're better for having them.
As for the things they say, you have to remember that Io is protecting us. Twitter can be a harsh place because anyone who wants to speak harshly can do so, no matter if what they say is wrong, mean-spirited, or worse. Io is a very sweet person, and she wants just as much as me for the wrestling world to be a place for respectful competition.
As for Kem, she wants it even more than I do, so much so that, while I try and take a "set the example" approach, she'd rather try to get people to look in the mirror and see their wayward selves.
Sadly, though, some people are blind, so the struggle continues.
Satisfied, Jennifer pushed the button that locked her phone just as Ingrid walked up.
Meeting. Now.
I blame you, you blame me
I’m bitter, you’re angry.
You don’t care, I don’t care
You love you, like me
She could tell in their faces that they were in shock at her assertiveness. Oh well. Too late to change it. Might as well roll with it for now, and she'd figure out how to walk it back later.
So look, guys, I've been watching from the sidelines this entire time and I'm not okay with it anymore.
Kem started to interrupt but, furthering the unexplained backbone Ingrid had managed to grow, she held up her hand to cut her off.
I know. I'm still not ready to compete, and I'm not saying that's wrong. But you tell everyone that I'm the manager of Shakedown, and it's about time I pulled MY weight the same way y'all've been pulling yours.
As expected, while Kem wanted to interrupt to reclaim control of the argument - even when none existed - Jennifer would find her moment to be maternal. With a soft voice and gentle squeeze to Ingrid's arm, she offered a calm reassurance of the status quo.
Io, babe, no one thinks you don't pull your weight. All the camera stuff you do...
Ingrid once again asserted herself by grabbing Jennifer's hand with her other hand, carefully avoiding an expression of frustration while immediately catching her attention and causing her to stop mid-sentence.
It's not enough. Trust me. You guys work SO hard but there's only so much two people can do compared to three.
Kem lets out a quick laugh, but it's clearly one of frustration.
And what is it that you think we're missing? What piece are you supposed to help us recover or whatever?
Your selves.
Kem and Jennifer both stopped and looked at Ingrid, their raw, awkward, antisocial wallflower of a friend that was now standing before them in a practically Siddharthan posture.
So much time spent focused on your opponents of the moment...Kem, do you even remember why you came to IPW?
I wanted to be a hero for...
YOU WANTED TO BE THE BEST!
Jennifer recoiled. Ingrid paused and took a breath.
I've sat back and watched you two care more about fans cheering you than winning. Now, I know, turning into lying, cheating scoundrels does nothing. The two of you are unlike anything this country has ever seen, and the simple fact that y'all're getting positive support could really make a difference!
But it's time to go win. Most fans want the good guy to win, but I can hear the crowd: Team Totes got their share of cheers, Untouchable doesn't get 100% boos, and "Dark Emma" is currently the "role model for girls" even though she pretty much looks like every other model type. Sometimes they want the good guy to win, and sometimes they make the winner the good guy.
Jennifer looks incredulous.
I'm not following those footsteps!
Though it wasn't earning the shocked facial expressions, Ingrid suspected that her roommates were just as bewildered by her refusal to back down and implode into herself when faced with their challenges.
No, you're not! You aren't following ANYONE's footsteps. Not Dylan's, Not Dynamo's, not ANYONE! We are not the "Next" anything, we are the FIRST Shakedown, and you are about to be the FIRST IPW Tag Champs, just like we were SUPPOSED to be the first NSFW Trios Champs! You two are getting a second chance to be the face of chemistry and cooperation, and you're going to win...
...but that starts NOW. Build them up, yes, burying them does nothing except trash the entire tag division! But WE know what they are, and what they're trying to hide, and WE can bring it to light - ALL OF IT! - and force them to play out of OUR playbook! Make them hate us, not because we belittled or bullied them, but because we figured them out. THAT is what changes the game! You figured out Kaylee Kassie when she teamed with Jacob, and you figured out Emma and TURNED HER DARK! The difference is that Green-Ass Lilly and Brainwashed Morgan ARE NOT gonna be ready to fight you unmasked. Lilly's only play is "pretend to be nice then surprise you with viciousness". That's who she is: inside the ring and out. But thanks to you, people are seeing her true self, and whether she decides to wrap herself in a pretzel twisting words back into her manufactured narrative, or come clean and sacrifice her intended element of surprise, she's beatable. You execute, and she's down
And when SHE goes down, Morgan follows. Russo is the stronger competitor but her mind makes her the weak link. How do I know? Because the only person that ever explicitly called her one of the best in IPW - not just "nice" or some genetic "she's talented" crap, but EXPLICITLY labeling her as an upper-crust IPW star - is the two of you, and she has a pin on each of you, the same girl that led the league in "I might quit because I suck" tweets has covered EACH of you!
Both of them take exception to this, but have seemingly come to the conclusion that whatever pill Ingrid took to make her become a boss wasn't wearing off before this "meeting" was over.
That'll be one more card they play, especially when they try to rewrite their own personal history in case no one else noticed how desperately Morgan hangs on Lilly's every word.
WE know the truth. WE know that even though we played by their rules and let Lilly pretend to be Barbie rather than Maleficent, in the end, Lilly was taken out of the equation and Morgan got DROPPED! That double pin was the biggest fluke in IPW history but it's the best gift they could've given us. All you have to do to be the champs is take a team you already beat and extinguish any doubt who deserved to get pinned.
Bottom Line: they're good to get this far, but this ends NOW. Not at Equinox, but RIGHT NOW! Lilly and Morgan want us to be ugly because they can't BEAR their own reflection, but you will dance around their vitriol like swans. When you're finished with them and Equinox rolls around, Team Totes will have to sell their souls to have amyone believing in them.
And it WON'T...BE...ENOUGH!
Kem and Jennifer look at each other, partially to avoid an unsettling intensity that continues the trend of being completely unexpected coming from Ingrid.
You ready?
You know it!
Good! Let's do this!
With a nod, Jen and Kem start to gather their bags to leave. Meanwhile, Ingrid goes over to get her phone. You can see the screen. The conversational partner is listed as "Blocked", and there is only one message in the conversation, sent a half hour earlier:
"Call me now. You need to be given a new strategy. Your "awkward unrequited lover" shit is NOT working, and I don't have time to play the long game, and neither does your family."
Ingrid hurriedly sends a response: "I told them. Just like you told me to."
A new message enters almost immediately. "Good. Hope they win.
Ingrid's eyes widen, but she forces herself to close them and shove to some internal corridor her worry. "Bosswoman Io" couldn't afford to show fear.
--------------
Ugly pt. 0
Kem
Kem
Are you ugly?
Kem felt dirty, and she didn't know if it was from the sweat of exertion or more from the mud she saw from the other side. They tried so hard, drawing with charcoal pencil a world where you can say whatever you want and, if you do so with a smile, it's positive encouragement.
A user, a lost soul?
Now, thanks to her boss's decision of what was best for business, Kem faced her and her one-woman cult following a second time, with gold on the line. Kem washed her hands in the sink, but knew that for another week she couldn't wash her hands of Team Totes.
A sickness so pure
Kem looked up into the mirror, still expecting her reflection to animate and attack her. She knew she was sick. She didn't know the specific medical term for "so afraid of being judged by strangers that she couldn't trust that she didn't want to ever leave her bedroom", but she knew that she was dealing with something that Jennifer and Ingrid couldn't understand.
She couldn't tell them, either; they counted on her.
Beyond that, Kem knew that EVERYONE has some kind of problem. Those who tune into IPW, those that would soon pay to see her vie for the newly-christened tag team titles, they had their own lives hovering over their heads: stress from a taxing job, doubt from a rocky relationship, encumbrances of shame and regret that they too found overwhelming. However, those people watched her and somehow within that, found temporary abeyance from their suffering. Remembering those thousands in need, Kem walked out of the bathroom, fearful of what lengths Lilly and Morgan would go to vilify and dehumanize her and Jennifer just to calm their own self-doubt, but knowing all to well that Kem's pain meant nothing...
...only her obligation as a Dynamo to fight through it.
Venus
Turn a blind eye
Why do I deny?
You'd think Jennifer would be thinking about Lilly Gibson and/or Morgan Russo, given that they'd just closed the "Go-Home Show" by battling them to a double pin, and now the last match before Equinox would be the first match TV subscribers would witness when Indy Pro reclaimed their attention.
However, she knew there was a week of hype promos between recent history and it repeating itself, and trying to imagine what those girls had lined up for her next kept sending her thoughts to an email a fan sent Shakedown's public Gmail account:
"Venus, you say you want everyone to not be so mean to each other during the build-up to matches, and that's noble of you. But if that's really true and not just a gimmick, why do you let Io get into Twitter fights or let Kem say not-nice things in her promos?
Do they ever make you feel like they're working against you?"
From the mouth of an opponent, it's worthless trolling, a desperate David Tactic to chip away at Shakedown's yin-yang chemistry. From a fan, however, it creeped into the "valid point" file. Kem and Ingrid meant well, but while Jennifer endeavored to offer respect even when it was undeserved, her roommates were not nearly so forthcoming with their positivity.
A strain of cancer
Chokes the answers
Fixated on the question swirling in her mind, Jennifer quickly reached into her gym bag and pulled out her phone. After punching in 0-2-8-5 (the weight limit for heavyweight wrestling in Nevada high school), she pulled up her "Notes" app, not wanting to forget her thoughts in the time it would take to get to a computer.
First of all, Kem and Io are their own people, and a big part of what makes us formidable is that we are three different people who've come together and become friends. We respect our differences because we're better for having them.
As for the things they say, you have to remember that Io is protecting us. Twitter can be a harsh place because anyone who wants to speak harshly can do so, no matter if what they say is wrong, mean-spirited, or worse. Io is a very sweet person, and she wants just as much as me for the wrestling world to be a place for respectful competition.
As for Kem, she wants it even more than I do, so much so that, while I try and take a "set the example" approach, she'd rather try to get people to look in the mirror and see their wayward selves.
Sadly, though, some people are blind, so the struggle continues.
Satisfied, Jennifer pushed the button that locked her phone just as Ingrid walked up.
Meeting. Now.
Io
I blame you, you blame me
I’m bitter, you’re angry.
You don’t care, I don’t care
You love you, like me
She could tell in their faces that they were in shock at her assertiveness. Oh well. Too late to change it. Might as well roll with it for now, and she'd figure out how to walk it back later.
So look, guys, I've been watching from the sidelines this entire time and I'm not okay with it anymore.
Kem started to interrupt but, furthering the unexplained backbone Ingrid had managed to grow, she held up her hand to cut her off.
I know. I'm still not ready to compete, and I'm not saying that's wrong. But you tell everyone that I'm the manager of Shakedown, and it's about time I pulled MY weight the same way y'all've been pulling yours.
As expected, while Kem wanted to interrupt to reclaim control of the argument - even when none existed - Jennifer would find her moment to be maternal. With a soft voice and gentle squeeze to Ingrid's arm, she offered a calm reassurance of the status quo.
Io, babe, no one thinks you don't pull your weight. All the camera stuff you do...
Ingrid once again asserted herself by grabbing Jennifer's hand with her other hand, carefully avoiding an expression of frustration while immediately catching her attention and causing her to stop mid-sentence.
It's not enough. Trust me. You guys work SO hard but there's only so much two people can do compared to three.
Kem lets out a quick laugh, but it's clearly one of frustration.
And what is it that you think we're missing? What piece are you supposed to help us recover or whatever?
Your selves.
Kem and Jennifer both stopped and looked at Ingrid, their raw, awkward, antisocial wallflower of a friend that was now standing before them in a practically Siddharthan posture.
So much time spent focused on your opponents of the moment...Kem, do you even remember why you came to IPW?
I wanted to be a hero for...
YOU WANTED TO BE THE BEST!
Jennifer recoiled. Ingrid paused and took a breath.
I've sat back and watched you two care more about fans cheering you than winning. Now, I know, turning into lying, cheating scoundrels does nothing. The two of you are unlike anything this country has ever seen, and the simple fact that y'all're getting positive support could really make a difference!
But it's time to go win. Most fans want the good guy to win, but I can hear the crowd: Team Totes got their share of cheers, Untouchable doesn't get 100% boos, and "Dark Emma" is currently the "role model for girls" even though she pretty much looks like every other model type. Sometimes they want the good guy to win, and sometimes they make the winner the good guy.
Jennifer looks incredulous.
I'm not following those footsteps!
Though it wasn't earning the shocked facial expressions, Ingrid suspected that her roommates were just as bewildered by her refusal to back down and implode into herself when faced with their challenges.
No, you're not! You aren't following ANYONE's footsteps. Not Dylan's, Not Dynamo's, not ANYONE! We are not the "Next" anything, we are the FIRST Shakedown, and you are about to be the FIRST IPW Tag Champs, just like we were SUPPOSED to be the first NSFW Trios Champs! You two are getting a second chance to be the face of chemistry and cooperation, and you're going to win...
...but that starts NOW. Build them up, yes, burying them does nothing except trash the entire tag division! But WE know what they are, and what they're trying to hide, and WE can bring it to light - ALL OF IT! - and force them to play out of OUR playbook! Make them hate us, not because we belittled or bullied them, but because we figured them out. THAT is what changes the game! You figured out Kaylee Kassie when she teamed with Jacob, and you figured out Emma and TURNED HER DARK! The difference is that Green-Ass Lilly and Brainwashed Morgan ARE NOT gonna be ready to fight you unmasked. Lilly's only play is "pretend to be nice then surprise you with viciousness". That's who she is: inside the ring and out. But thanks to you, people are seeing her true self, and whether she decides to wrap herself in a pretzel twisting words back into her manufactured narrative, or come clean and sacrifice her intended element of surprise, she's beatable. You execute, and she's down
And when SHE goes down, Morgan follows. Russo is the stronger competitor but her mind makes her the weak link. How do I know? Because the only person that ever explicitly called her one of the best in IPW - not just "nice" or some genetic "she's talented" crap, but EXPLICITLY labeling her as an upper-crust IPW star - is the two of you, and she has a pin on each of you, the same girl that led the league in "I might quit because I suck" tweets has covered EACH of you!
Both of them take exception to this, but have seemingly come to the conclusion that whatever pill Ingrid took to make her become a boss wasn't wearing off before this "meeting" was over.
That'll be one more card they play, especially when they try to rewrite their own personal history in case no one else noticed how desperately Morgan hangs on Lilly's every word.
WE know the truth. WE know that even though we played by their rules and let Lilly pretend to be Barbie rather than Maleficent, in the end, Lilly was taken out of the equation and Morgan got DROPPED! That double pin was the biggest fluke in IPW history but it's the best gift they could've given us. All you have to do to be the champs is take a team you already beat and extinguish any doubt who deserved to get pinned.
Bottom Line: they're good to get this far, but this ends NOW. Not at Equinox, but RIGHT NOW! Lilly and Morgan want us to be ugly because they can't BEAR their own reflection, but you will dance around their vitriol like swans. When you're finished with them and Equinox rolls around, Team Totes will have to sell their souls to have amyone believing in them.
And it WON'T...BE...ENOUGH!
Kem and Jennifer look at each other, partially to avoid an unsettling intensity that continues the trend of being completely unexpected coming from Ingrid.
You ready?
You know it!
Good! Let's do this!
With a nod, Jen and Kem start to gather their bags to leave. Meanwhile, Ingrid goes over to get her phone. You can see the screen. The conversational partner is listed as "Blocked", and there is only one message in the conversation, sent a half hour earlier:
"Call me now. You need to be given a new strategy. Your "awkward unrequited lover" shit is NOT working, and I don't have time to play the long game, and neither does your family."
Ingrid hurriedly sends a response: "I told them. Just like you told me to."
A new message enters almost immediately. "Good. Hope they win.
Ingrid's eyes widen, but she forces herself to close them and shove to some internal corridor her worry. "Bosswoman Io" couldn't afford to show fear.