Post by emmanuelle on Jan 19, 2022 23:56:34 GMT -5
January 9, 2022
Columbus, Ohio
Nationwide Arena
Not a single soul would understand quite what Emmanuelle had just gone through. Winning the Grand Champion was one thing, but after the catastrophic (at least in her eyes) end to 2022 with no championships and no trophies in her grasp this was nothing short of a must-win contest. There was no way she could look at herself the same if she couldn’t beat Arata again. She had just walked from the entrance ramp and was right by all of the equipment and hustle and bustle of the backstage area, the Grand Championship finally in her grasp. All she could do was simply fall to her knees and cry. Why was she crying? Wrestling was a shitty profession to her anyway, one that she had sworn to get away from as soon as possible the second she broke into it. Why did winning a championship bring out such an outpouring of raw emotion? Most of the others around didn’t know what to make of things either, deciding to give the new champion space as she processed exactly what she had just achieved. One of the younger make-up artists, Emmy’s personal favorite, reached out to her, hearing the wild sobs and checking to see if the new champion was injured.
“Emmy, are you alright?”
The new champion wiped her eyes with one hand while clutching that championship belt with the other. That little outpouring of emotion was all that she would ever give them, the only sign of weakness she would dare show anyone. She collected herself, giving a few sniffles as she steadied her breathing.
“I’m fine, thank you…..”
“I see. Well, they’re waiting for you in the press conference area when you’ve had a moment to gather yourself.”
“Right….”
Emmy rose up to her feet, clutching her ribcage for a moment. There was no way she could ever forget how hard Arata could hit but even she had to admit he was in rare form now. There was no way for her to take anything for granted now. As the top champion on Proving Ground, she had earned herself a large bullseye on her back. From here on, she had to expect the absolute best out of everyone she came across by default. There would no longer be anyone overlooking her or questioning her credentials. Everyone and their mothers would take any match against her seriously. No one on Proving Ground could ever overlook her again.
That’s exactly how she wanted it. With a slow trudge she made her way to fulfill her speaking obligations. She gave them a taste of the bitchy, snarky, wealthy little asshole that the fans had come to know and love. This moment, the moment where a little girl who no matter where she went always felt like a misfit with something to prove, the moment where she FINALLY felt happy…she would keep this moment to herself. Now and always.
This is where she always belonged.
January 18, 2022
Cleveland, Ohio
Oh, how she adored running this poor kid through the paces! It was a dojo tradition when she was training with Carlos: surprise workouts at one in the morning. Sena was silly enough to assume that because he was a dojo graduate now that Emmy wouldn’t inflict the same sort of punishment on him, but her young understudy was sadly mistaken. With a showering of expletives she woke him up from his bed and forced him to get dressed. Thankfully for them the hotel in which they were staying had a good sized gym with 24 hour access. That meant the little blonde could torture poor Sena with workouts. For over an hour and a half, she had run the poor kid through a gauntlet of cardio exercises, stretching and anything she could think of to keep him busy and eventually wear him out. While she certainly didn’t cruise through a training session by any means, she purposefully took a break as she forced Sena to do push-ups….with her using his back as a resting mat. As Sena struggled to rise up from the floor, straining and grunting like a wild animal, Emmy kept herself quiet, thinking about her first match as Grand Champion. She would be teaming with one of her best friends against one of Project Honor’s hottest tag teams. Even though Myo was X-Factor Champion and she was Grand Champion, she took the opposition seriously. Would she let THEM think that? Absolutely not.
“Emmy, this….UHHHHHHH….ITS BULLSHIT! C’mon, get off!”
“First off, who told you that you could call me Emmy? Second of all….”
She pointed towards the Grand Championship belt that she had brought with her. She didn’t typically bother carrying title belts around, but when she started training Sena she kept it around as a reminder of what kind of success he could possibly achieve if he stuck it out.
“.....do you have one of those lying around anywhere? Have you even had a match yet?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Then stop whining and keep pushing.”
Sena didn’t have much of a choice in the matter so he kept pushing. Not without a few grumbles and very discreet swears that he kept very much under his breath. After about fifty push ups with Emmy draped over his back as extra weight, she decided to get off of him as a silent signal that this particular exercise had come to an end. An exhausted, sweaty mess, he put his body up on a knee and watched Emmy move over to another section of the gym, doing some pull-ups. Yeah, her body was still a bit sore from dealing with Arata, but by this point in her young career she had started to build up enough of a tolerance to such nagging pain to keep herself in top condition. Sena didn’t realize it, but Emmy was trying to condition him to build up a similar tolerance.
“So, Carlos used to do the whole 1 AM surprise training thing to you all too?”
“Yep. I didn’t care. Most of the time I didn’t sleep anyway at night so it gave me something to do so I didn’t just stare off to space in bed.”
“I was the same way. A little homesick, yanno?”
“Poor little baby….”
Sena walked off in a huff but noticed that Emmy’s phone was going off, an alert about a text message. After Emmy had finished her reps on the pull-up bar she went to retrieve her bag, giving an irritated glance over at her trainee.
“What? I didn’t even touch your bag.”
“Shut up.”
Emmy picked up her phone and checked the messages, but eyed the phone a bit curious as she opened the text and saw exactly who it was from. Eyebrows raised, she bit her lip a bit as she walked off to answer. Sena, ever the busybody, tried to follow up behind her to see who had sent the message and what it was about. His snooping was rewarded with a VERY stiff elbow to the stomach.
“Hey that fucking hurt!”
“Stop being fucking nosy then!”
This was a bit unexpected. Very unexpected. She knew that Tara was a threat to her title reign, but that was strictly business inside the ring. Outside of the ring….Emmy was starting to get a bit of a fondness for the woman. They had become pretty fast friends and a text like this in the middle of the night was a bit of an enticing prospect. The blonde after all had a voracious appetite when it came to women anyway. Still, she couldn’t just pounce straight away. Deciding to play around a bit, she positioned the camera on her phone, at a high angle. The cleavage in her pink sports bra and the way the matching shorts clung to her body were on full display. She even made a little kissing gesture towards the camera before sending a response.
Well, here I sit, Grand Champion. Most of you probably didn’t think this would happen, huh? Well, here I am, Big Match Emmy, standing on top of the heap after pulling off one of the biggest “upsets” in Project: Honor and Proving Ground history. I’m sure now that most of you would expect me to big-time the whole roster now that I’m holding the top belt now, huh? That I wouldn’t have time for the little guys and that I would just walk around like some of the other guys before me thinking their shit doesn’t stink.
This isn’t that kinda movie, boys and girls.
You see, I have a pretty interesting philosophy when it comes to professional wrestling, this sport we all know and love: When you’re at the bottom, keep your eyes on the top. When you’re at the top, keep your eyes on the bottom. Simply put, when you become champion, you have to keep your eyes open for even the smallest of threats. As Arata Asakura found out in Columbus, even the things we perceive as the smallest of threats can bite us in the ass and cost us everything. So, as of now I don’t plan on taking much time to myself as Grand Champion. Especially since there’s so many people gunning for this top spot. There needs to be a bit of stability restored to this belt, a sense of stability restored to Proving Ground in general in my humble opinion.
Myojin and myself will provide that.
Phantom Troupe, DJ Hunter and Kyle Valentine, right? You boys haven’t done too badly for yourselves. You’ve put together a very decent record for yourselves in the tag team division. You participated in the Collision Course event looking for the tag titles. There’s certainly no shame in losing to a Havoc/Arata Asakura tandem, I’ll give you that much.
But boys……GODDAMN! You must have pissed off those foodie guys an awful lot for them to make sure that me and the Heavenly Star get our hands on you! You see, there’s two things going against you boys. Firstly, we’re obviously more talented as individuals. No disrespect intended whatsoever, but….look at us and look at you guys. A decent set of tag team guys who know their role and fill in time, but their ceiling is at best MAYBE being contenders for the tag titles. That’s it. Look on the other side: the best Champion that Proving Ground has arguably ever seen in Myojin…and, um, you know, the woman who just won the Grand fucking Championship. Second, I’ll admit you two are a decent team and if these were different circumstances when you were facing two people who weren’t used to teaming with each other, you may get the jump on us.
Unfortunately for you, Platinum and Gold has been a thing before. We’ve teamed together on four occasions and won three of them and I don’t think Lance Williams or Tara Fenix is walking through that door to help you guys out. I fully expect to have my calendar full as Grand Champion, but maybe Myo and I can send a message to the Tag Champions. I mean, my name came unprovoked out of their mouths recently and honestly that’s all I need to take things personally.
You’ve got all the heart in the world, you’ve got one of those strong bonds that all tag teams have. It’s not going to matter though. Because I’ll be damned if my first match, during my big coming out party as Grand Champion is going to be interrupted by a middling tag team. You two should be thankful for the payday that you get for brushing elbows with two of the top stars in this sport. Heh, if I were you, I’d find that rat face and the foodie guy and smack some sense into them for putting you through this. This just isn’t fair.
Don’t worry though, fellas. I have some pressing engagements to keep elsewhere, so I’m not going to be bothered playing with you two clowns for long. I’m not sure if Myo feels the same, but I have a lot more pressing matters to attend to than playing around with you boys. I just want you to take a moment. Close your eyes and envision this: My music hits, you hear the crowd chanting for me. You see The Platinum Standard making her way to the ring, side by side with the X-Factor Champion.
At this particular moment, you both should realize that you are fucked.
To the rest of the tag teams out there, you damn well better hope my calendar gets full and Myo and I have to focus on our responsibilities as champions. This beatdown that we’re going to hand out, it should be a reminder to all of you that we’re more than capable of being Tag Team Champions any time we goddamn well please.
End fucking scene.
Columbus, Ohio
Nationwide Arena
Not a single soul would understand quite what Emmanuelle had just gone through. Winning the Grand Champion was one thing, but after the catastrophic (at least in her eyes) end to 2022 with no championships and no trophies in her grasp this was nothing short of a must-win contest. There was no way she could look at herself the same if she couldn’t beat Arata again. She had just walked from the entrance ramp and was right by all of the equipment and hustle and bustle of the backstage area, the Grand Championship finally in her grasp. All she could do was simply fall to her knees and cry. Why was she crying? Wrestling was a shitty profession to her anyway, one that she had sworn to get away from as soon as possible the second she broke into it. Why did winning a championship bring out such an outpouring of raw emotion? Most of the others around didn’t know what to make of things either, deciding to give the new champion space as she processed exactly what she had just achieved. One of the younger make-up artists, Emmy’s personal favorite, reached out to her, hearing the wild sobs and checking to see if the new champion was injured.
“Emmy, are you alright?”
The new champion wiped her eyes with one hand while clutching that championship belt with the other. That little outpouring of emotion was all that she would ever give them, the only sign of weakness she would dare show anyone. She collected herself, giving a few sniffles as she steadied her breathing.
“I’m fine, thank you…..”
“I see. Well, they’re waiting for you in the press conference area when you’ve had a moment to gather yourself.”
“Right….”
Emmy rose up to her feet, clutching her ribcage for a moment. There was no way she could ever forget how hard Arata could hit but even she had to admit he was in rare form now. There was no way for her to take anything for granted now. As the top champion on Proving Ground, she had earned herself a large bullseye on her back. From here on, she had to expect the absolute best out of everyone she came across by default. There would no longer be anyone overlooking her or questioning her credentials. Everyone and their mothers would take any match against her seriously. No one on Proving Ground could ever overlook her again.
That’s exactly how she wanted it. With a slow trudge she made her way to fulfill her speaking obligations. She gave them a taste of the bitchy, snarky, wealthy little asshole that the fans had come to know and love. This moment, the moment where a little girl who no matter where she went always felt like a misfit with something to prove, the moment where she FINALLY felt happy…she would keep this moment to herself. Now and always.
This is where she always belonged.
January 18, 2022
Cleveland, Ohio
Oh, how she adored running this poor kid through the paces! It was a dojo tradition when she was training with Carlos: surprise workouts at one in the morning. Sena was silly enough to assume that because he was a dojo graduate now that Emmy wouldn’t inflict the same sort of punishment on him, but her young understudy was sadly mistaken. With a showering of expletives she woke him up from his bed and forced him to get dressed. Thankfully for them the hotel in which they were staying had a good sized gym with 24 hour access. That meant the little blonde could torture poor Sena with workouts. For over an hour and a half, she had run the poor kid through a gauntlet of cardio exercises, stretching and anything she could think of to keep him busy and eventually wear him out. While she certainly didn’t cruise through a training session by any means, she purposefully took a break as she forced Sena to do push-ups….with her using his back as a resting mat. As Sena struggled to rise up from the floor, straining and grunting like a wild animal, Emmy kept herself quiet, thinking about her first match as Grand Champion. She would be teaming with one of her best friends against one of Project Honor’s hottest tag teams. Even though Myo was X-Factor Champion and she was Grand Champion, she took the opposition seriously. Would she let THEM think that? Absolutely not.
“Emmy, this….UHHHHHHH….ITS BULLSHIT! C’mon, get off!”
“First off, who told you that you could call me Emmy? Second of all….”
She pointed towards the Grand Championship belt that she had brought with her. She didn’t typically bother carrying title belts around, but when she started training Sena she kept it around as a reminder of what kind of success he could possibly achieve if he stuck it out.
“.....do you have one of those lying around anywhere? Have you even had a match yet?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Then stop whining and keep pushing.”
Sena didn’t have much of a choice in the matter so he kept pushing. Not without a few grumbles and very discreet swears that he kept very much under his breath. After about fifty push ups with Emmy draped over his back as extra weight, she decided to get off of him as a silent signal that this particular exercise had come to an end. An exhausted, sweaty mess, he put his body up on a knee and watched Emmy move over to another section of the gym, doing some pull-ups. Yeah, her body was still a bit sore from dealing with Arata, but by this point in her young career she had started to build up enough of a tolerance to such nagging pain to keep herself in top condition. Sena didn’t realize it, but Emmy was trying to condition him to build up a similar tolerance.
“So, Carlos used to do the whole 1 AM surprise training thing to you all too?”
“Yep. I didn’t care. Most of the time I didn’t sleep anyway at night so it gave me something to do so I didn’t just stare off to space in bed.”
“I was the same way. A little homesick, yanno?”
“Poor little baby….”
Sena walked off in a huff but noticed that Emmy’s phone was going off, an alert about a text message. After Emmy had finished her reps on the pull-up bar she went to retrieve her bag, giving an irritated glance over at her trainee.
“What? I didn’t even touch your bag.”
“Shut up.”
Emmy picked up her phone and checked the messages, but eyed the phone a bit curious as she opened the text and saw exactly who it was from. Eyebrows raised, she bit her lip a bit as she walked off to answer. Sena, ever the busybody, tried to follow up behind her to see who had sent the message and what it was about. His snooping was rewarded with a VERY stiff elbow to the stomach.
“Hey that fucking hurt!”
“Stop being fucking nosy then!”
This was a bit unexpected. Very unexpected. She knew that Tara was a threat to her title reign, but that was strictly business inside the ring. Outside of the ring….Emmy was starting to get a bit of a fondness for the woman. They had become pretty fast friends and a text like this in the middle of the night was a bit of an enticing prospect. The blonde after all had a voracious appetite when it came to women anyway. Still, she couldn’t just pounce straight away. Deciding to play around a bit, she positioned the camera on her phone, at a high angle. The cleavage in her pink sports bra and the way the matching shorts clung to her body were on full display. She even made a little kissing gesture towards the camera before sending a response.
Maybe another time, honey?
Babysitting and taking care of my late-night cardio. What do you think of my new workout clothes? Not too revealing, hmm? 
Well, here I sit, Grand Champion. Most of you probably didn’t think this would happen, huh? Well, here I am, Big Match Emmy, standing on top of the heap after pulling off one of the biggest “upsets” in Project: Honor and Proving Ground history. I’m sure now that most of you would expect me to big-time the whole roster now that I’m holding the top belt now, huh? That I wouldn’t have time for the little guys and that I would just walk around like some of the other guys before me thinking their shit doesn’t stink.
This isn’t that kinda movie, boys and girls.
You see, I have a pretty interesting philosophy when it comes to professional wrestling, this sport we all know and love: When you’re at the bottom, keep your eyes on the top. When you’re at the top, keep your eyes on the bottom. Simply put, when you become champion, you have to keep your eyes open for even the smallest of threats. As Arata Asakura found out in Columbus, even the things we perceive as the smallest of threats can bite us in the ass and cost us everything. So, as of now I don’t plan on taking much time to myself as Grand Champion. Especially since there’s so many people gunning for this top spot. There needs to be a bit of stability restored to this belt, a sense of stability restored to Proving Ground in general in my humble opinion.
Myojin and myself will provide that.
Phantom Troupe, DJ Hunter and Kyle Valentine, right? You boys haven’t done too badly for yourselves. You’ve put together a very decent record for yourselves in the tag team division. You participated in the Collision Course event looking for the tag titles. There’s certainly no shame in losing to a Havoc/Arata Asakura tandem, I’ll give you that much.
But boys……GODDAMN! You must have pissed off those foodie guys an awful lot for them to make sure that me and the Heavenly Star get our hands on you! You see, there’s two things going against you boys. Firstly, we’re obviously more talented as individuals. No disrespect intended whatsoever, but….look at us and look at you guys. A decent set of tag team guys who know their role and fill in time, but their ceiling is at best MAYBE being contenders for the tag titles. That’s it. Look on the other side: the best Champion that Proving Ground has arguably ever seen in Myojin…and, um, you know, the woman who just won the Grand fucking Championship. Second, I’ll admit you two are a decent team and if these were different circumstances when you were facing two people who weren’t used to teaming with each other, you may get the jump on us.
Unfortunately for you, Platinum and Gold has been a thing before. We’ve teamed together on four occasions and won three of them and I don’t think Lance Williams or Tara Fenix is walking through that door to help you guys out. I fully expect to have my calendar full as Grand Champion, but maybe Myo and I can send a message to the Tag Champions. I mean, my name came unprovoked out of their mouths recently and honestly that’s all I need to take things personally.
You’ve got all the heart in the world, you’ve got one of those strong bonds that all tag teams have. It’s not going to matter though. Because I’ll be damned if my first match, during my big coming out party as Grand Champion is going to be interrupted by a middling tag team. You two should be thankful for the payday that you get for brushing elbows with two of the top stars in this sport. Heh, if I were you, I’d find that rat face and the foodie guy and smack some sense into them for putting you through this. This just isn’t fair.
Don’t worry though, fellas. I have some pressing engagements to keep elsewhere, so I’m not going to be bothered playing with you two clowns for long. I’m not sure if Myo feels the same, but I have a lot more pressing matters to attend to than playing around with you boys. I just want you to take a moment. Close your eyes and envision this: My music hits, you hear the crowd chanting for me. You see The Platinum Standard making her way to the ring, side by side with the X-Factor Champion.
At this particular moment, you both should realize that you are fucked.
To the rest of the tag teams out there, you damn well better hope my calendar gets full and Myo and I have to focus on our responsibilities as champions. This beatdown that we’re going to hand out, it should be a reminder to all of you that we’re more than capable of being Tag Team Champions any time we goddamn well please.
End fucking scene.