Post by Kyle Shane on May 28, 2017 21:09:02 GMT -5
The Struggle Within.
She was shaken out of bed by the storm.
Kyle was already up, and he had something in his hands, some unfamiliar device. "No, no, no, no," he growled. The apartment continued to quake like it was in the throes of some terrible disaster.
Array pulled her pants on, yelling in confusion as she couldn't make out what was happening over the cacaphony. She should have known something like this would happen. Life in this world wasn't allowed to be quiet, subtle or low-key. The past few days had been a whirlwind of emotion as her and Kyle finally consummated something that had begun when she was 15. She gritted her teeth, feeling decades older. As if she was someone who had lived through a hundred lifetimes to get to this point. There was part of her that accepted this by rote, knowing it was just part of this life, knowing that with Kyle the boring adult relationship stuff was always in the backseat for whatever crazy nonsense, but there were times that it gave her the worst anxiety. That they'd never talk their issues out amid the adventures, that life would always be this way. In a way, it felt like more running away, and she felt uneasy about it.
She pitched and nearly fell as a crackle of energy split the sky. She yelped. The rumbling outside was growing worse. As she twitched a Venetian blind aside, she felt her jaw going slack. Because what was outside was so much worse than just a storm.
There was a split in the sky.
"Kyle..." she felt herself calling back.
"Chad said that the effects would be localized to our personal timelines if the emotional ripple was kept manageable, but he never told me about this," Kyle was mumbling. Array couldn't even make sense of what he was saying. "The quantum instability is too high, and the world couldn't compensate..."
Array was going mad. This was too much. It was too insane. Looking into the sick purple energy bleeding from that wound, it made her eyes feel like they were melting from their sockets. She knew she was seeing something that human minds couldn't process and she -
Oh, God, it was connected to Kyle, because of course it was.
Furious, she grabbed his X-Box controller and pegged him with it across the room. He looked distracted, but that woke him up. "What did you do?!"
Kyle looked stricken by indecision, standing there in the middle of the floor, and he sputtered to try and find a way to answer her. She noted that he had on a wrist bracer with hard light screens and holographic pop-ups. He innocently, surreptiously hid it behind his back when he saw her looking. Array marched over to him and grabbed his wrist, yanking it out.
"What the hell is this tech, Kyle, is this another weird experiment, is this some shit you cooked up at MIT, what are you -?!"
"I don't know what happened, Array, I swear to you, we never accounted for this!" He said, panicked, looking at the sky. The wound in the atmosphere was not only spreading, getting wider as it looked like the entire world was ripping apart, it was shooting forth energy from the crack that was hitting all around them.
"Full disclosure... I jumped back into this body using tech from decades in the future. This wristband stays with me," he said, holding it up, "And allowed me to relive any point in my life, and I... I came back to meet you and fall in love with you all over again. But I kept messing it up, and I had to leave."
He held her hands, looking deep into her eyes, "But you found me, and we're together again."
She retracted her hands, looking at him like he'd just said he had two heads. "You're... not my Kyle?"
"I am your Kyle, I'm every version of Kyle because I travelled up and down my timeline trying to win you back." He looked over his shoulder at a close blast of the energy from the bleed. It blew a hole in the side of the building, and glass and woodwork came flying inward. "Look, Array, the readings are telling me that I've made the timeline start falling apart because of the instability inherent in our relationship, the quantum entanglements that brought us together at this point in time, but I just want you to know, I have never felt more stable in my life. I'm in the perfect place and time here and now. With you. I don't want to be anywhere else!"
And yet, the storm raged on, as she tried to comprehend the reality of everything he was saying. "You came back, from the future, using technology you can use to leave at any time and jump somewhere else... and you're telling me, that you jumped to every point in time where we were together... and you still left me all of those times before?"
"No, Array, that's not - Listen, I'm here now, baby!" He reached out for her, pleading.
She turned, stiffly, "Am I being unreasonable here? You left, Kyle... just because you said the right things and went through the right motions now... doesn't make up for the fact that you left those times before."
He looked so infinitely, pathetically sad. He knows, and he knows it hurts her.
"And now it's all on me, all of reality is tearing apart because you're uncertain about us still? About whether you want to go, or stay? You're telling me so much hangs on me?"
She snarled, and turned. She punched Kyle in the gut, with a force and ferocity he wasn't prepared for. "You asshole!"
The wound in the fabric of spacetime loomed larger than ever, crackling with purple menace, as she walked away from him. "I won't live like this, on and off. When you decide to leave again. Letting it all break down. Tearing me apart with these outrageous concepts. I- " she gulped, and tried to gather strength for what she was going to say. "I don't think I can do it anymore."
The entire building was rocked and energy lanced out, purple enough to make her sick. It split the floor in half, and an entire floor of the building began to fall away. Kyle was calling her name as she fell, spinning out, dangling into the ether, and the purple cloud was all encompassing.
with a grim face, he ripped the arm bracer off and patched it onto her wrist. "Wait, what are you doing?"
His voice was calm, sorrowful, as he said, "If it was me being so indecisive that did this to the world, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I'm going to send you far away from the breach, so that you can start a life without me."
"No, you can't -" she protested, but he pushed a button and slid his finger down a dial on the holoprojection.
"Goodbye, my love."
And then, as the world around them filled with fire, she was somewhere else, warm, safe, and travelling, like she was wrapped up in a comfy blanket on a long car ride while she dozed... and she was off, the uncertainty and madness far behind.
The God That Failed.
I know that people are lining up for this. Frothing at the mouth, clamoring to be the ones that dethrone the God of Game.
Ever since I determined to fight against my better nature and come back to improve my Wrestlewars record to 6 and Oh. Ever since I determined that the Intercontinental title needed some love and some luster restored back to it after the shitshow of it's being dormant or used as a pawn.
Ever since I blatantly told Chris Page and Flash Rotten that I'm coming back, but I don't want to ever get involved in the petty power plays and high school level drama backstabbings that came with being afforded a seat at the table in the World title scene. All of that and more, I know it's a lot to take in.
I say Kyle Shane business and hand-wave it off a lot these days, but it really is just like me to come in, cause several seismic shifts in the natural order and get everyone riled up.
Point was, I showed at Wrestlewars why I call myself God of Game again, and that's Kyle Shane business.
But people think they're educated enough, they think just because they see the parts of me that I choose to present that they know what's going on.
And in so "knowing" they think they can predict the next time I'm going to fall, the next time I falter, and so they watch me like a hawk. Because that label also comes with its downsides.
The God has his human sides and his flaws, after all.
Maybe I'll get injured and tear my ACL like the injury that ended my World title reign in 2014, or maybe I'll get worn out by the grind and the strain and have to go into a mental health clinic like in the early stages of 2015. Maybe I'll just drop the belt in a match that means nothing to me like I did against Mic Ferrari last summer.
I've had my share of controversies and slip ups. I've broken bones and let people down, and people have seen it all play out there.
Vultures like John Cable are champing at the bit, salivating, watching my limbs for each twinge of pain shown in a match for them to exploit.
Because as long as I've been here in the WGWF, I know that when you make as much of a name as I have, people want to see you torn down. They want to see you the very first time you fuck up, and they want to be right there to swoop in the second you're kicked down so they can take your spot.
I know it's part of the game, and I know I've invited a lot of it to come with my record. And the simple truth is those instances are the only times when those scavengers even have a chance of winning against me. When I'm worn down to the bone. When I have a limp in my leg or extra tape on my shoulders... they think I'm still not capable of putting an entire division across my shoulders and holding the world up.
But when I'm on my game, there's been times when I'm nuclear hot, and nothing can stop me.
So I will just sit back and laugh at men like Cable, who are waiting for the slip up to come. Who are waiting for me to wither and break under the pressure. To be the God that failed.
But I've never felt hotter in my life.
I'm ready.
I'm ready to hit the ground running on Brawl and strut my stuff as the real champion here, the one with a belt that means something.
Because if you're talking about the gods that have failed you, it's the shit you've had to endure on this godforsaken show during a long, cold winter.
Paul Frost has somehow evolved his name from a God to a Warrior King. Tristan Slater has upped his game from the absolute best Kyle Shane impersonation that his limited mind could muster to something... "Glorious" which entails him coming out with as much pyro and Ric Fliehr robes as he needs to make himself feel important.
These are the ones that have failed you, that have left this company's buyrates plummeting, that have left recruiting for this fed a barren wasteland.
I get to grin with satisfaction at the reality that is this is what the show's revolved around. I feel embarrassed that you've all had to put up with this. And I feel sorry that I left now.
But I'm here to carry the bulk of the show now, and for those of you waiting for me to drop the ball, now... keep watching. Keep envying. Keep thinking your time will come when I've stepped back or gone away. You're going to be watching a while.