Post by cjphoenix on Aug 12, 2023 17:40:06 GMT -5
I was invited to crash a party. A celebration of a couple of snakes in the grass managing to sink to new lows. Oh if only they knew how much of a grave mistake they made. This is worse than not saying goodbye after using a ouija board. They've unleashed a pandemic into the wrestling world. A global despair. You see, for the last three years, I've been staying within the confines of Action Wrestling. I breathed new life into every division I stepped into. I made championships actual championships when they were meaningless trinkets. I made myself a household name to the point where I gained a sense of comfort there. However, save for a match or two, I've never really ventured out and competed in different companies while being signed to a different one. However, now that I have been summoned to WGWF to rip the smiles off of two surprisingly familiar faces, I've decided that I won't stop there. I won't stop until the light of despair has reached all of wrestling!
Date: July 25th, 2023
Time: 5:11 AM
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Standing at the gates of Hope's Peak Academy, we find the Luminary of Despair, CJ Phoenix, talking to a mental projection of the Ultimate Despair, Junko Enoshima.
Phoenix: It's hard to believe that Hope's Peak Academy is about to have its second ever school year.
Junko: Wow! You're getting old!
Phoenix: Shut up.
Junko: Time flies when you're having fun reveling in the wonders of despair! I wonder what chaos this next crop of children will create.
Phoenix: I'll pretend you said change instead of chaos and agree with you.
Junko: What's the difference? Chaos brings out the best kind of change. Isn't that why you accepted Spencer's offer for that match? You haven't had an official match in almost nine months and he's got a second match to worry about. Imagine you work out too much the day before. Now neither of you are 100% and you haven't teamed up in a year. The nerve of not one, but BOTH of you making such wild choices to potentially put yourselves at significant disadvantages is.... intoxicating! The feeling of both of you seemingly biting off more than you can chew on paper. The despair of trying to overcome an unfavorable circumstance. It's all so delicious!
Every time I'm alone with my thoughts, they find ways to bring things from the depts of my soul to the surface. They keep me from running from my problems by laying them right in front of me to face. Junko's right. It is unfavorable. I won't be able to gauge what kind of condition Spencer will be in until just before the match. I don't know how long it'll take in the match for us to get that in-ring chemistry back that made us tag champions in AW. Then there's my own condition that could be an issue. I've been out of the crowd-flanked squared circle for a while. It's not like I'm dipping a toe in the shallow end to get a feel for the place. I'm diving into the deep end off rip. I can gameplan for our opponents, but not for us. I'll have to do what I do best and adapt. Take things one sequence at a time and work from there. As I return to reality from my state of deep thought, I notice Junko is waving a hand in my face.
Phoenix: Huh? What happened?
Junko: You missed my idea on how to use this place to bring despair all over the world! Idiot! What do you remember last?
Phoenix: You rambling about my match and despair being intoxicating.
Junko: ........okay. I can work with that. AS I WAS SAYING, they're gonna be ecstatic to see you wrestling again. It's gonna fill a lot of those students with hope. A hope that'll be destroyed for many of them once they graduate and hit the REAL world....if they even graduate.
Phoenix: If?
Junko: Come on! You know it's been in the back of your mind. What's gonna happen to all of the people who don't become huge successes after they leave here? No one's perfect, so logically someone's gonna fail. Imagine the burden to bear of being the first person to not graduate on time, or worse, not graduate at all. Same goes for the grads who don't become huge successes afterwards. The more your best grads achieve, the more sorrow it will inflict on those who end up with dead end jobs. No matter how much you provide for those kids, you're also providing an equal or higher level of despair due to the weight that's on their shoulders. Life's a zero sum game, you know?
Phoenix: I know, but if I do nothing, they gain nothing, and I gain nothing. The risk of despair is worth the reward of hope when it comes to building a better future. Besides, I can only lead the horses to the water. I can't make them drink.
Junko: That's not how the media will see it. One slip up by any of them and this place's reputation that you're attached to takes a big hit. You know that they're waiting for any excuse to take shots at you. And now you're about to give them a mountain of ammo. It took forever for that false memory fiasco to blow over, but as soon as you go out there in that match, it's all gonna resurface. 'CJ! How's your ankle!? CJ! How's your mind!? CJ! What's your contract situation with AW!? CJ! Will we see you here again!?" Are you sure you're ready to step back into that world? A world where every success is dismissed while every failure is magnified?
Phoenix: Yeah....
Junko: Are you suuuurrrrreeeeee???
Phoenix: I am. I'd be lying if I said it didn't take me a minute to be sure, but I am. I can't let my career, my journey, end the way it is now. I can't leave Spencer hanging either. Even with everything he's accomplished already, he's still finding new ways to quest for more. I should be doing the same thing. So that's what I'm gonna do. As the new school year cometh, so will a new arc for the Luminary of Despair!
Thought you had it all figured out, didn't you? Making sure his allies on the roster were busy. Dissuading anyone else that tried to step up. It was a good plan, but even the best plans can fall victim to despair.
Yes, there's Spencer Adams.
Yes, there's CJ Phoenix.
But the whole is very much greater than the sum of our parts.
King Shit stood side by side, stared down an army of tag teams, and ran through them all like a flaming sword through butter until we stood alone at the top as champions. We've endured the pressure of one of us being singled out by adversaries. We overcame the stigma of tag partners splitting apart due to being consumed by selfishness. In less than a year, we became a tried and true, good as new, dominant duo.
That is who you face. And who do we face? Two people that would give each other the bombastic side eye if they weren't standing face to face.
I know the thought has crossed your mind, Alice. That I've come to finish what we started back at Turmoil. The same match that I got injured in, you managed to win. You got a hold of the US Title, you know, the one I brought back into relevance long before you touched it, shouted to the heavens about how you were gonna be THE force in AW, and then went THE hell away before the company's biggest event. Those actions showed me the truth. What you really are is THE problem. You were overshadowed there, and I'm not mad that you left. I'm sad that you went somewhere else and showed that you hadn't changed for the better. You want to be seen as a franchise cornerstone. You want to feel SEEN and NEEDED so that you can have something to hold over others, and that's the REAL reason you showed up to attack Spencer Adams. You don't give a damn about Alexandra. She was just a catalyst for you to leap onto the stage. And now that you're here, you're already thinking of ways to push her into the background of our match. Tagging yourself in. Taunting at every opportunity. You'd be happier LOSING this match with her taking the fall than you would be winning with her scoring the victory. You'd rather point the blame at her than feel like you got carried in the match. Anything to salvage that HOPE of being the center of attention, right? Even at the cost of your "partner" feeling an immense amount of DESPAIR. She called upon you, hoping that she had found an ally with a shared purpose that they could work together to achieve. But all she got was Alice Gemini. A delusional, self-centered narcissist who's in for the rudest of awakenings.
Since we're on the subject of little miss Calaway, I've a few questions for you. Why this approach? Are you so intimidated by Spencer Adams that you couldn't just tell him how you felt to his face? Your pride wouldn't let you admit that you were tired of standing in his shadow? So you took the coward's way out instead. You stood behind Spencer to stab him in the back so you can feel invincible because when you stood beside him, you felt invisible. Like a candle standing next to a torch. Unfortunately for you, instead of snuffing out that torch, you just drew out a second one to burn your hopes and dreams away.
Of all people to call on....why Alice? Is it to use Alice as a scapegoat after your plan inevitably fails at Summer Madness? Yeah....I could see that being the case. You went and fed that already overinflated ego of hers so that you could pass the buck to her. Bad news, Alexandra. You're not as safe as you think because she's not the support main you think she is. She'll leave you to die and you'll be forced to show your hand as the backseat driver who doesn't even know how to navigate the road she's on. It's truly a shame. You could be so much more. Instead, you choose to poke bears that maul you in response. When you're crawling away, your spirit shattered and your confidence bleeding out, you'll be the one asking questions. 'Why did I cry for help? Why didn't I just try to face Spencer on my own and show the world that I AM as great as I say I am? Why did I subject myself to such a beating at the hands of King Shit?' Wanna know the worst part about it? This is something that not even you can hide and cower from. YOU'RE the one that picked a bad team player to try and use as a meat shield. Alice is just the Starscream to your Megatron, trying her hardest to usurp you and secretly hoping you'll fail. Unless of course this was all HER idea. In that case, you'd be even more of a mindless puppet than I thought. Letting that fiend trick you into believing you had a friend, if only for a couple of weeks. Regardless, King Shit is about to make you regret your decisions.
I was invited to crash a party, and so I did. In one night....in that one moment.....I got the attention that Alice begs for and the spotlight the Alexandra claws from the shadows to try to get into. Let that serve as a premonition to Summer Madness, where King Shit will personally serve you both an L filled with your despair!