Post by Tara on Dec 30, 2021 13:04:07 GMT -5
June 1998
Anchorage, AK
DEFEAT.
The students murmured amongst themselves while all were crowded up outside of the ring, all around the same side; Tara had lingered near her brother, Saul, with William hovering over both of them as he seemed to be giving both of them tips and tricks that he had learned along the way. His eyes had lingered on Tara momentarily with a sense that he may have seen something in her, perhaps the same thing that Bill had seen. Perhaps he could tell that she was naturally gifted inside of the ring. Whatever the case was, he seemed drawn in by her.
“Alright,” Bill said while clapping a single time; the clap garnered the attention of everyone in the room and caused many to even stand at attention as if they were in the military. He pressed his hands together whilst gently rubbing his palms together. He grinned from ear to ear while his eyes scanned over the students. He reached his hands up to give a curl to his mustache; he didn’t focus on any one single student, but rather kept his attention to everyone, “Today, we are going to have a couple shoot matches.”
Many of the students nodded their heads and a few pumped their fists into the air as they were excited for what was going to happen. There were a few that were puzzled by the idea of a shoot match; Tara and Saul were included among that group but Bill had resumed to clarify to all the newcomers that have yet to participate in this drill. Bill raised his hands in a gesture to signify for some of the ones who knew to settle down.
“For those of you who do not know, this drill is going to be you are going to go into that ring…unscripted, and you are going to compete to find out a winner,” Bill explained.
Tara’s eyes widened with excitement as she could recall a couple weeks back how that boy, Blair, had tried to legitimately hurt her, and so she fought back and almost broke his leg in the process. She couldn’t help but glance over at Blair; he had already glanced back at her and sneered, but took a step back as if to indicate that he had no desire to be back in the ring with her.
“All I ask you to do is be safe! Remember all of your training, and act accordingly. Some of you–” Bill glanced over at Tara, “--are skilled submission artists,” Bill’s gaze went back over the entirety of the students that were still crowded together, “and I am just going to warn all of you that if you get into a hold: tap fast. Do not risk getting yourself injured by trying to act macho and think that you can handle it! That is how people’s careers end early, or end before they even begin: people being stupid by refusing to tap out when they are locked into a hold! You decide: your career, or tap out.” Bill gave a reassuring nod to the students in hopes that the message was received loud and clear.
“First up will be Tara, and…umm…let’s have you go against William.” Bill said.
Tara and William locked their eyes on one another’s before giving each other a nod of understanding; this was one of the students that Tara had sort of liked; he was old fashioned, polite, and seemed to get along with almost everybody. He was the first one on the apron and without hesitation held the ropes open; Bill was the second one up and first into the ring, “I will act as the referee.” Bill said with an excited smile. Tara was the third one up and second into the ring. William finally joined them inside the ring and cracked his neck before sniffling. There was an aura to him that seemed to radiate his own confidence.
“I won’t go easy on you,” William said with a smug look.
Tara rolled her eyes, “Don’t insult me.” She answered.
Both of them awaited for Bill to call but he took a moment to ask both if they were prepared; with a nod, Bill finally called for them to start, and Tara and William moved across the ring toward each other…
He said that he wasn’t going to go easy on me, but I had been watching him for a while now and I could tell that he was only moving at a portion of his speed… He was only using a portion of his technique. If he wanted to play around, then that was on him: I would have to take every advantage against him as I could.
The match between the two only lasted five minutes, and William had Tara in a cobra clutch! Tara had tried to fight back and resist letting him get the hold locked in as she snarled and sneered her way; she almost went to bite his forearm to free herself…a dirty tactic, but she had wanted to impress Bill, and a victory in this drill would have done just that. What do I do? What do I do?! Tara thought to herself and still struggled. Bill was constantly asking her to just tap out and reminding her of his words at the beginning. This didn’t stop Tara from trying to look for something, anything, to have a solution to get out of the hold. To William’s surprise, she began to push toward the ropes even to Bill’s dismay… William opted to transition out of the hold and dropped her with a cutter! The move was able to knock Tara down long enough for William to roll her up with the cover as Bill counted the three.
MODERN DAY
Tara could not erase the scowl. After her success as the winner of the Clive Darling Memorial Cup tournament, she did not see the same success at another recent tournament: Heiress to the Throne at the Imperial Wrestling Federation despite making it all the way to the finals. She had a recent personal dispute with her sister that only added to her frustration. She did not get the victory that she had promised she would have over Arata, and worse… She now had to live with the fact that Arata had taken her glory away from her in his most recent acquisition of the Grand Championship; a belt that she had personally wanted to take off of Ozymandias herself.
She took a deep breath and cocked her head to the side, but those piercing blue eyes were like daggers against the audience that watched from their respective devices. She could not force that traditional Docherty smirk that she was known for having; that illuminating confidence that she felt when she entered the ring…the confidence that loomed inside of her that let her know she could step into the ring with the best that the industry had to offer, and she could defeat each and every single one of them.
“The last time,” Tara began, her voice had come out almost as a low growl; her eye twitched momentarily, and she opted to close her eyes in turn. She let out a heavy sigh in recollection of what had happened that night.
I had him in my grasp… I felt him fading. Just a couple more seconds. I just had to hold on for a couple more seconds. Tara’s gaze had faltered from the camera while she clenched her fist; her nails dug into her own skin while the hand began to tremble from the frustration that she felt. He was going to tap out! How many times am I going to make that mistake? The next time I get someone in a hold, it’s locked in until they tap out… Tara sneered.
“The last time,” Tara repeated while turning her head back toward the camera and cocking her head back to the side, “I was in the ring I had the brand new Grand Champion locked in T-P-T. The Phoenix Triangle. I felt him fading into unconsciousness…I know that he will never confess to it, but Arata knows, deep down, he knows that he was beaten! He knows that he was going to have no choice but to tap out…and he should have. He should’ve been pounding that mat as fast as he could, and as hard as he could until he would beg–” Tara hunched forward with her elbows placed on her knees, “--me to release the hold.” Tara snickered.
She fixed her posture and leaned back in her seat while stretching her arms out across the back rest, “But… Do you know what I do? I learn. I learn fast, and that’s exactly what happened after that tragic loss to Arata, and make no mistake that I am going to be paying close attention to what happens between you and Emmanuelle… I want to root for Emmy; I really do, but there’s just that little part of me that wants Arata to be able to retain just as I hoped that Ozy would have retained! The difference between wanting to topple the monster that is Ozy, and now wanting to dismantle you is that Ozy and I never fought. I never had a score to settle with Ozy. But you,” Tara finally did get that smirk and wagged her finger a few times, “I have a score to settle with you.” She let out a chuckle at the mere thought of getting Arata locked back into a submission and continuously applying pressure until he tapped out…and a lingering thought that she may hold it for a couple extra seconds anyway. For good measure.
“Throughout my career, there has been one thing that is absolutely true for me… It’s just one thing that I could never get accustomed to! And let me go ahead and say it, with one-hundred percent honesty: it’s not something that usually happens to me back-to-back. Losing. I do not like the feeling I get when I lose; I do not like to let a score go unsettled. I was told a long time ago that you are never going to win them all; I was told a long time ago that you need to be graceful in defeat, and–” Tara chuckled, “--that’s something that I’ve never gotten the hang of. Don’t get me wrong! I know that I’m not going to win every single match… I know that it’s impossible to win every single match… There is not one person throughout this industry that is sitting undefeated throughout the entirety of their career. I can deal with what comes with the loss…I can roll with it, I can come back stronger, faster, better than I was the first time around, but I also come back with a chip on my shoulder. Every single time.” She said with an ending hiss off her tongue.
“I can accept it, but I do not have to like it. So the next time that we do meet in the ring, Arata, expect to know that you are not going to get the same version that you met the first time. You are going to get the version that is going to even the score.”
She licked her lips and scrunched her face momentarily before finally resuming, “I will get back to you, but let me go ahead and focus on one…Kurtis Slayne.” She said and clicked her tongue a few times.
“Kurtis Slayne…” She gritted her teeth while shaking her head, “You are one of those typical troublesome boys, aren’t you? One of those people who had a troubled childhood and thinks that’s going to make you– oh, what’s the word? More dangerous? More susceptible to pain? Aren’t you?” Tara snickered at the thought, “This is an old tale: a person arrives, says how dark and dangerous they have lived their entire life only for you to sound like nothing more than the king of the edgelords. Somehow, you think your story matters more. Somehow, you think it makes you more and more dangerous because you can bark out a few threats and try to sound intimidating when in reality the rest of society recognizes you for what you are: a failure. A loon. Someone full of hot air and empty threats. That is everything that you are, Kurtis!” Tara said with a sneer.
“I wanted to be able to go down to that ring and say… ‘Hey! There’s nothing personal between us, so let’s go ahead and make this a quick match, and you can walk out and maybe have a future in this business if you just take my advice!’ But I don’t really think that I can see that happening after I decided to do what I do for everybody else that doesn’t really stand out to me: I prepare. I take notes. I look to see what it is that you can bring to the table that may make me perceive you as some sort of threat, and after one little detail–” Tara said while holding one finger up, “--that made me cringe. One little detail that sealed your fate.” Tara paused and licked her lips. She brought her hands down to her lap.
“Torturing animals…” Tara’s face cringed when the words came out, “I have had my own share of trauma in my life, but do you know what I’ve never done? I’ve never tortured an animal. Do you realize who you are getting into the ring with? I own a number of non-kill shelters; I own a number of sanctuaries. When I had the Tara Fenix Charity Cruise there were a record number of adoptions made because of that event! And they are putting me in the ring with someone who has reportedly had a history of abusing animals?” Tara raised her hand in a questioning gesture.
“That is a late Christmas present for me… To be able to torture the torturer; to break the true animal that is going to stand across from me who had better not be looking for any type of mercy from me! Who is not going to receive any mercy from me! This is just someone that is coming from this new thing…this…Project: Underground, in which it’s time to step up to the big leagues, and all that happened is you were sent to the slaughterhouse! It was already bad news that you got put into a match with me, but it’s even worse that you have given me a reason to dislike you. You have given me a reason to want to break you. You have given me a reason to not want to end this by pin fall, Kurtis: I want to make you TAP. THE. FUCK. OUT.” Tara bit down on her bottom lip as a means to squelch the hatred that she felt for her opponent with the alleged animal abuse from a troubled past. There were many things that people could say about Tara, about how much of a bitch she could be; how much of a perfectionist she was; how self-centered she could be…but one thing that she would never accept would be an animal abuser.
“This is what I am going to look at for what it is: two birds, one stone. It is going to give me a chance to hurt you, pretty badly; force you to tap out…and go back to that little Project: Underground where maybe you’ll think twice before venturing out into the ocean a second time, as well as sending a message to Arata…that the next time I have him in that hold: I am not letting go until that bell sounds…or I hear something break. As far as Kurtis Slayne goes: I may just hold on until I hear something break. Tough break, Kurtis.”
Tara raised her fingers to her hand and gave a gentle kiss to them before blowing the kiss forward to the camera signifying its closure.
June 1998
Anchorage, AK
DEFEAT. (PART 2)
After Bill had counted the three, Tara had stared up in a daze. William was already back up to his feet and he reached a hand down to help Tara up, but Tara swatted his hand away with aggression behind her slap! She sat up with a scowl on her face; some of the students on the outside began to laugh amongst themselves as they realized that Tara was not thrilled with the defeat… She got up to her feet and began to stomp her feet while rubbing her neck in pain.
“Come on, Tara, it was nothing personal…” William argued in an attempt to get Tara to calm down.
Bill gestured for William to hold off, as he couldn’t help but let out his own hearty chuckle; he had seen some of the best in the business come through his own training course and knew that they were no different in having their tantrum when they had believed themselves to be a prodigy…it didn’t make them any less a prodigy, but they felt that they were invincible and could not be stopped.
“Tara, Tara,” Bill said while putting a hand to her shoulder; the touch on her shoulder seemed to give her a bit of a relapse as she fired back and shoved him off. She gritted her teeth at him, and Bill raised his hands to ask her to stop. “It’s okay. It’s okay. You were great out there! William– he’s one of our best, okay? That’s why I wanted you in the ring with him.”
There was a look to Tara’s face, almost like an animal being cornered as she took a few deep breaths; she began to pull her hair back in frustration as a few tears began to well up in her eyes. In a comforting fashion, Bill stepped forward and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You did great, okay? You need to remember that there’s going to be times that life kicks you…this career is going to kick you while you’re down. You’re not going to win every time. That’s the name of the game, okay? You did good.”
Tara was still lost in her own mind as she recalled the events that occurred less than a year ago…she was stifling her sobs but did finally wrap her arms around Bill to hug him; Bill hugged her back as if a father were comforting his daughter.
“I understand that you’re upset. But you’re going to get through this… You’re going to be better for it.” Bill said reassuringly. “Everything is going to be okay.” Bill patted Tara on the back while holding her in the embrace.
END.
