05-30-2020, 11:09 AM
OOC: Decided to bring good old Thirteen back with my battle royal slot. I was probably going to do this anyway if I didn't just decide to give up my spot to focus on the World Title match, but when I formed my plan of attack for that I realized just how vital this RP actually is for it. I did my best to put something together to at least give him a fair chance in this, but Thirteen's CD for this is, more than anything else, meant to serve as a bit of a bridge between my first Blackbourne piece from last night and the second one that will be going up later today. I'm highly doubtful this is going to get Thirteen the win here, but I still wish everyone the best of luck as always in this insane and highly competitive match.
--------------------------------
Sometimes, all it takes is one spark to ignite the flame.
That was a phrase the man known as James Marsh-Asher was all too familiar with, and he could define it through his own personal experiences in several different ways.
He could define that spark as the switch where James is no longer in control, but rather his twisted split personality Thirteen, who had far less regard for the well-being of others and would do whatever it took to reach whatever his endgame was. The spark could be considered how he would define the moment when someone reached the point where they would need to seek out his help through his current profession as a therapist, considering he had a lifetime of psychological issues of his own to draw from that allowed him to help others in ways that very few others truly could. Perhaps the spark could even be his desire to return to the wrestling ring, as over the course of his long and storied career there had been several periods where he’d stepped away and even seemingly been retired, only to find some reason to end up right back where he ultimately defined himself as one of the greatest pure wrestlers to ever step between those ropes.
No matter what spark you may be talking about, somehow there would always be a trail the flame would follow that would inevitably lead back to him.
Still, even he knew that fire was not meant to burn forever, and that was starting to become more and more clear after his past few appearances in the wrestling business. He had a surprisingly strong showing in the 2019 Taking Hold of the Flame battle royal but ultimately fell short, and then he’d stepped back again before resurfacing to take a shot at Adam Allocco’s 2019 revival of the old God of Wrestling tournament, where despite his best efforts he’d been eliminated in the very first round by the eventual winner Alban McConnell. Since that time, he’d faded back into the shadows, although he always kept his eye on SCW, knowing that things could always change under the right circumstances.
As much as Thirteen still desired the feeling of competition, however, James was able to justify the decision to primarily stay in retirement these days with the life he’d managed to build for himself. While Thirteen would always be known for his wrestling career, James was coming to be well-regarded in his own right for his work in helping others.
Many throughout the United States were coming to recognize and respect James’ knowledge and application when it came to getting into someone’s head in order to be able to help them. While there were some who questioned some of his approaches, it was hard to argue with the results or how he would justify doing what he did. Through his own experiences, most therapists tended to draw from studies that had been done or what they’d picked up from textbooks, but James was a rare breed in this field who not only had that to fall back on, but also his own past experiences. Somehow, there was a benefit buried beneath the years of childhood trauma and fighting for control of his own mind with his other half, and while it had brought him notoriety all its own through some of the work he’d been able to write detailing his experiences with some matters that were still enough of a rarity in the field to cause even the brightest of minds to struggle when actually faced with it, the real enjoyment for him was the satisfaction of knowing he’d been able to help someone who truly needed it, as it was help he himself hadn’t been able to get that almost caused his whole life to be forever lost to darkness.
That was the same line of thinking that made his other job enjoyable as well.
Today was one of the days where James was tending to said other job, that being the current co-owner of the Anderson Orphanage in New York City alongside his sister Kelly. While business had staggered a bit due to the current events of the world, it was never enough to make losing this place or the children in their care a concern. After all, James had well over a decade of wealth stashed away from his time in the ring as well as what he earned as a therapist, and Kelly had her own on-and-off wrestling career to help pay the bills as well. It wasn’t easy watching over so many children during these tough times, but life had never been easy for the Marsh-Asher siblings and they’d grown used to the challenge. With the country slowly reopening, for better or worse depending on who you asked, they’d been able to return to the primary task of trying to get these kids into loving families and were just finishing up the paperwork that would allow the couple before them to be able to go home with a little boy they had grown to love during their visit that they knew would be very happy with them. Once signatures were inked out onto the papers and handshakes were exchanged, James and Kelly saw the couple and their newly adopted child off before returning to their office.
“I’m so glad they took a liking to little Billy. He’s going to be so happy with them, I just know it.”
“Me too. It was starting to break my heart seeing the poor kid losing hope that he was ever going to leave here. Every child deserves the chance to be part of a loving family, lest they turn out-”
“James, I know it ultimately worked out for you, but please don’t go beating yourself up again about our past. We’ve been free for so long and forged our own lives, and I’m sure our parents are rolling over in their graves over how well we’re doing now despite their best efforts.”
“It’s kind of like I told a patient who’s had some family issues recently: you can accomplish anything if you just take the chance and not blame everything and everyone else for your setbacks.”
Once they’d gotten to their office, James took a seat at his desk and pulled open one of the drawers to grab a folder he had stashed away, opening it up to scan through its contents. It was his files on the couple of Aaron Blackbourne and Liane Forte, who were arguably his highest-profile patients at the moment. Considering Liane was an up-and-coming comedian and Aaron, despite being fairly well known for his art and design work, was gaining a lot of recognition as a current member of the SCW roster, it would be easy to find himself swarmed with people looking for answers or hoping to unearth some kind of details they could run as a scandal of some kind, but this entire situation had been kept quiet for the benefit of all parties involved and James was grateful for it. While years of letting Thirteen drive the proverbial ship in wrestling had long since prepared him for dealing with people who did not have his best interests in mind, he knew that outside of potential critics and hecklers these two were good souls who didn’t deserve that kind of harassment. He’d brought the file to give himself something to work on between appointments with prospective parents as he was hoping to get in contact with the two of them to set up another session at some point likely after the next pay-per-view so as not to hinder Aaron, who was on the verge of a World Title opportunity he surely wanted to have his undivided attention on.
“Sooooooo?”
After a few moments of looking over what he knew so far about Liane, his head tilted up at the sound of his sister’s voice. Apparently, instead of returning to her own desk right next to his, she decided to instead lean over him until he noticed, only speaking up when that didn’t like it would be happening anytime soon.
“Yes Kelly?”
“We both know Taking Hold of the Flame is coming up here pretty soon. How long were you going to wait until telling me Thirteen’s going to resurface once again?”
He knew what his sister was trying to get at, and he carefully leaned back as the two of them locked eyes, Kelly’s grin meeting his emotionless mask. It was true that outside of the periods when he was still active Thirteen had a tendency to surface in this battle royal for one reason or another, and James had certainly given the matter some thought this year like he always did. He knew this wasn’t going to be a trend that continued forever, though, and it seemed like even Thirteen was starting to become content with the idea of potentially leaving the wrestling world behind for good at long last. He’d had his time to make something of himself, after all, and now it was only fair if James got his chance to do the same.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be happening this year Kelly. I know I’m free to come and go as I please, a perk of being considered alumni, but SCW seems to be doing well enough without Thirteen trying to remind everyone of the terror he was once upon a time. Besides, I’m not sure if Sasha would be particularly pleased to see me show up to the arena that night.”
Kelly’s grin slowly disappeared, but she understood her brother’s reasoning. He’d told her all about his recent attempt to talk with SCW officials about potentially working with the company in a non-wrestling capacity, especially since he could put his expertise to use providing assistance if necessary for any talent that was potentially considered mentally unfit to be in the ring without being a threat to themselves and others. While the Board of Directors was certainly all in on the idea, things hit a brick wall when it came to the current owner. While her father had been willing to forgive him and let their past issues become water under the bridge, Sasha had been firm in the grudge she held against Thirteen for the hit and run that started those issues with Mr. D in the first place, and because she could cite a conflict of interest on the matter because of this, not even the Board could necessarily overrule her decision to try and keep him as distanced from SCW as possible.
“She still won’t let that go, huh?”
“To be fair, if you were hit by a car and knew full well it was intentional, would you forgive the person behind the wheel so easily? I’m still surprised her father and I put all of that behind us somehow. I’d love nothing more than to just talk things out with her, but that’s easier said than done when she-”
James found himself being cut off by the sound of his mobile phone, which caught him off guard a bit as very few had that number and most looking for him for business that couldn’t reach him at either of his offices would call the orphanage’s number at that point. When he looked at the screen, he did recall there being one set of patients he had given his personal number to, just in case, and it made him glad he’d brought their files with him. Kelly turned and began to leave, but James motioned to her that she could stay if she wanted so long as she kept quiet about whatever came up as he answered the call and put it on speaker to allow him to take notes easier, as it wasn’t often she got the chance to see her brother do this kind of work.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Marsh-Asher?”
“Aaron! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to get in touch with you until after Taking Hold of the Flame. Congrats on the World Title shot, by the w-”
“I need to talk with you about something, and it can’t wait.”
Needless to say, James immediately let the smile that had slowly been forming on his lips disappear. He’d been trying to be nice and certainly help give Aaron a confidence boost if he needed it heading into the huge challenge that stood before him, but the frantic tone of his voice was cause for concern and James knew better than to beat around the bush upon hearing it.
“Is everything alright? Did something happen?”
“You mind telling us what the hell your assistant or apprentice or whatever was trying to pull?”
Hearing Liane’s voice join the conversation not only revealed that Aaron’s end was also on speaker, but she sounded a lot more upset than her husband-to-be did, and this sent a chill down his spine. He did raise an eyebrow at the mention of an assistant, finding his gaze slowly moving towards Kelly who quietly mouthed the words ‘You have an assistant?’ to which he shook his head in response.
“You’ll have to pardon my confusion, but I’m afraid I have no idea what you guys are talking about. There are several doctors I work with and highly respect what they’ve done to help me get to where I am now, but I wouldn’t necessarily call any of them my assistant, per se.”
“But… the woman said she was working for you…”
Liane continued to talk, but her words became somewhat unintelligible at this point either due to being on speaker or just trailing off in general in disbelief at this response. Something had happened, that much was for sure, and James was determined to get to the bottom of this.
“Alright, let’s all take a deep breath and go back to the beginning for a moment. What’s this about a woman claiming to be working as my assistant, and what happened involving her?”
There was no immediate response, though James could hear Aaron and Liane faintly conversing with one another on the other end of the call, presumably to try and calm one another and figure out how to proceed in answering the therapist. Whatever had happened had truly rattled them, and the thought of these two suffering any kind of setback when he was starting to make progress even in the short time he’d been helping them was infuriating to the point where he could almost hear Thirteen demanding to get his hands on whoever this mysterious woman was. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Liane finally began speaking again.
“It… it was a few nights ago. I’d just finished a show and Aaron was wrapping up with Breakdown. While I was waiting for him to pick me up, this woman approached me. She… she said her name was Nancy and she worked for you as some sort of intern or something in trying to get her degrees. She said you sent her to check and see how I was doing… I thought it was a bit odd she was willing to do this out on the street, but I didn’t think too much about it and I probably should have. She started asking me about my… my other self… she was really getting in my face about it too, almost like she was trying to upset me enough that I lost control so she could meet ‘psycho Liane’ for herself. She kind of succeeded…”
“When I pulled up to the curb, Liane had lunged at this woman and ended up punching through the window of our rental car. They weren’t happy about the damage we had to pay extra to have fixed, but Liane’s had her hand and wrist bandaged up since. This woman didn’t seem too bothered by having to avoid being attacked, but the moment she saw me get out of the car she bolted and I lost track of her. We tried getting a hold of you the next morning, but I’m guessing you haven’t been in your office for a few days and I had to track down where we put the cell number you gave us as an emergency option.”
The more James listened to what had happened, the more he found his hands tightly gripping the pencil he’d grabbed to jot down some notes until it finally couldn’t take any more pressure and snapped in two. He barely paid it any attention, though, as he’d jotted down all he really needed to hear and was finding it quite difficult to focus on taking notes when he was being told about someone not only trying to seemingly cut in and steal his patients but do so with such a reckless disregard for the well-being of the patient themselves. He needed to take a moment to collect himself, helped by a drink of water that Kelly had silently gotten for him feeling he’d need it, but when he finally spoke to the couple on the other end of the call it was clear how much he was trying to restrain his own anger, leaving them thankful it wasn’t directed at them.
“Forgive me if I sound like I’m suddenly not in the best of moves, but this person is playing a dangerous game that they really should not be playing in a field they clearly do not belong in. First, let me make this clear to you guys for future reference: I do not have any sort of assistant at the moment, nor does anybody else I work with in this field. A secretary is one thing, but that’s not what this woman was claiming to be and this would be beyond her job description even if that was the case. There is also no woman going by the name of Nancy that I or any of my associates work with. What is clear, however, is that this woman is trying to use information she does not have any right knowing for reasons that are clearly not in your best interests as patients… MY patients at that, which also means she shouldn’t be trying to pull this stunt unless I officially referred you to her, which is not the case.”
James needed to stop and take another drink of water as he slowly began to feel himself losing control again, and that’s certainly not what Aaron and Liane needed right now. A few deep breaths later, and he was slowly starting to sound like his normal self again, which was vital for trying to put out this fire that someone had apparently tried to start in his name hoping he’d be taking the fall for it.
“If you know what this woman looks like, then I think it goes without saying that you shouldn’t engage her in conversation any further. Whatever she’s hoping to gain, you need to starve her of it so she can’t build on whatever she already has for whatever purpose she seeks to use it for. Liane, outside of your physical injuries, how have you been feeling since that night? Anything I need to know right now in regards to your other personality?”
“Aside from hearing her screaming like a banshee about wanting to break this woman’s teeth, I’ve been fine. Just… shaken by the whole ordeal and how easily I snapped when she started prodding me about losing everything I’ve worked so hard for because I’m hiding this dangerous mindset I don’t even have full control over.”
“The fact that you do still have control is at least good news coming out of this situation, and it proves how strong-willed you truly are Liane. Speaking from experience, it’s not easy to be able to reign in a volatile alternate personality when they just suddenly take control like that. Always keep in mind that you are stronger than the other Liane, and we’ll certainly work on making sure it stays that way and ensuring you don’t lose control again. Remember that you can always call if you absolutely need to get a hold of me, and if I’m not in the office my cell phone is only off the table if I’m in the middle of something else, but I’ll definitely get back to you as soon as I can. As for our uninvited guest… I’ll check with some of my colleagues and see if they might know anything about her and we’ll get to the bottom of this and put a stop to it before anything else happens.”
“Thank you, doctor. And… I’m sorry for lashing out the way I did. She sounded so convincing-”
“There are many in the world who know exactly what to say and do to get whatever they want, and those same people tend to refuse to listen to whatever logic would normally invalidate their ways. The best way to deal with them is to simply focus on what’s most important to you and ignore them. I know that’s harder for you to do, Aaron, given the way things work in wrestling, but as long as you carry yourself in a way that shows how committed you are to your goals, no one can ever stop you, no matter how much they try to tear you down. Ignoring them will bother them so much more than trying to resort to counter-arguments or blindly lashing out.”
“Thank you Dr. Marsh-Asher. We’ll keep that in mind… I think you helped us both out more than you may know.”
James was kind of surprised by this response from Aaron, but before he could pry into it to see if there was something the creative soul needed to discuss as well outside of this issue, the call came to an end as they had something they needed to do. Still, what he’d heard out of this phone conversation clearly bothered him, and Kelly picked up on it immediately as she moved to sit at her own desk briefly before wheeling the chair over to be right beside her brother.
“You know a little more about this than you’re letting on, don’t you? I can tell by the way you’re drumming your fingers against the desk.”
“Maybe… I don’t want to jump to any conclusions without a clearer picture, but my primary concern is the well-being of my patients first and foremost, always. I didn’t want to give them any false hope or speak out of turn since this is as shocking a development to me as it is to them.”
James ran a hand through his hair as he let out a long sigh, stopping the motion as he rested his elbow on the desk to keep his head propped up. The name Nancy certainly rang a bell or two as far as this field was concerned, but he was having a very hard time trying to piece together where he’d heard it and why they’d be willing to create so much trouble for what he could only assume was their own personal gain. The more he thought about that in particular, though, the more an old conversation from a while back began replaying in his mind, his eyes widening at the possible connection.
“What is it? Did you figure something out?”
“Maybe, though I’d have to get a hold of Dr. Sharpe to double-check a few details and confirm for sure that I’m right on this assumption. I remember a conversation we had back when I was still working to become a therapist about someone else he once had that was trying to do the same, back before he ever took on our case in the first place. I don’t remember the person’s name, but I remember he told me they had a lot of promise but ultimately got blinded by the more ‘fame and notoriety’ concept that can come with this job sometimes. The idea of publishing works that could earn them rewards and praise the world overtook priority to them over actually helping their patients, and they had a bad habit of being very pushy and in-your-face about trying to get information. I think I recall Sharpe saying he put his foot down with one session where they managed to convince a patient to share a lot of crucial information about themselves and what they were dealing with and the only thing they did in return was just prescribing them medication. That’s where he drew the line and terminated her.”
This caused Kelly’s jaw to drop, her skin crawling at such blatant disregard for the mental well-being of another human being in a field where that’s supposed to be the number one concern above all else. James slowly got out of his chair, needing a moment to walk around the office to try and keep himself collected.
“You think this is the same person?”
“I’m not sure. The last Dr. Sharpe heard of them, they’d actually managed to earn all their doctorates, so he assumed they got their act together. But I can’t deny how well the pieces fit together in this puzzle and the idea of seeking to publish anything about Aaron and Liane’s problems purely for the sake of trying to get some sort of recognition out of it is crossing every line there is to cross.”
“So what’s the plan?”
James glanced at the clock, knowing that he wasn’t going to have time before their next appointment for the day to do the detective work he wanted to, but he knew what his first course of action was going to be all the same. Still, that wasn’t going to stop this woman in the meantime from no doubt trying to dig for more dirt, and he was growing concerned about the lengths she would go to in order to get what she was after. If she did have the certification that she clearly didn’t deserve somehow, what was stopping her from trying to potentially find a one-on-one opportunity with Aaron just when he was on the verge of his biggest opportunity yet? Or worse, use that as a way to somehow get backstage during an SCW event to see if she could get anyone on the roster to cough up anything that could either ruin Aaron or even SCW as a whole if she wanted to. That thought made his eyes narrow into a glare as he knew what he had to do, his resolve on this even putting Thirteen in a state where he could practically hear the demon salivating over the prospect.
“I’ll be getting a hold of Dr.Sharpe as soon as I can to discuss this so we can see if everything lines up and how we can shut this illicit practice down before someone gets hurt. But just in case this Nancy woman thinks she could snake her way into SCW because of Aaron to try and find a fire to start… I think I may have found my spark to go through with Taking Hold of the Flame this year after all.”
Maybe it’s not that much of a surprise anymore, considering the allure of Taking Hold of the Flame tends to be too much for most to resist. Hell, my old pal Shilo Valiant even found his way back into the spotlight hoping this match with be the springboard back to where he always feels he belongs, and the same can be said of other names from the past like Matt Hodges, Adam Allocco and Josh Hudson to name a few. Sure, you could pose the argument that we shouldn’t even be here and the stars of today should be getting all the attention, but if you ask me? More and more members of the SCW roster I see each and every week these days prefer to act like they’re entitled to the world and beyond just because of who they are, and you’re just supposed to accept that and kiss their asses until your lips are tired hoping that maybe, just maybe, you’ll find your way into their good graces.
Forgive me if I find that entire idea pathetic. Kind of happens when you grow up having to scratch and claw to earn your place in the world instead of being born with a silver spoon shoved up your ass or your mouth attached to the bosom of someone who will coddle you until you’ve learned all they’re willing to teach to make you think you’re suddenly so damn good that nobody else compares.
I think the thing I find the most amusing in all of this is the sheer number of people that continues to grow with each passing day who will stand in front of a camera and tell you until they’re blue in the face that they are the greatest wrestler that ever lived and no one could ever compare. Even if I narrow that field down to pure wrestling abilities and nothing else, there are still far too many making this claim because they’ve been doing this for a long time or they were trained by so-and-so. If I really wanted to, I could throw my name into that list because I’m willing to bet that out of everyone making the same argument, I’m the only one who started with absolutely zero training and still worked my way up on my own to being one of the most feared grapplers to ever set foot on the canvas.
I could… but I’m not going to push that argument.
I’ve already proven myself time and time again throughout my career to the point where words are no longer necessary, and even beyond that, this isn’t the match where such arguments hold any weight. How well you can take someone to the mat and try to remove a body part or choke the life out of them is irrelevant when you’re in the middle of a moving pile of bodies all trying to simply throw one another out to the floor to clear some space. That’s the name of the game in a battle royal, after all, and technical ability only gets you so far when you have to worry about throwing people out just as much as you need to be concerned about how well you can avoid being thrown out yourself. This is the kind of match where just about everything you know and trained for goes out the window, especially since nothing is off-limits to anyone so long as they are the last wrestler standing, punching that golden ticket to main event Rise to Greatness and challenge for the World Championship.
That includes stabbing close friends in the back if necessary.
Just because I haven’t been around for a while doesn’t mean I having been keeping an eye on the state of affairs around here. I know there are several tag teams who will no doubt try to counter my claims by reaffirming their bonds, or stables that will try to shove down my throat the belief that they are a perfect unit and nothing will ever change that. All I hear in these cases are desperate attempts to latch onto something familiar in hopes that if they keep saying it’s true, then it must be so. Maybe in your own little worlds there’s some truth to that, but how well would such claims hold up if, say, two members of the Beauty Factory made it to the very end and someone’s ego would have to take a hit from being denied what they all believe they deserve. Or perhaps a small little team that’s built a sense of trust in one another finds the opportunity to eliminate one another to be one step closer to that precious prize. Would that trust survive?
The more I lay this out, the more I enjoy the idea of entering this match as a proverbial man without a country. The idea of Thirteen against the world isn’t a new concept to me, and it’s one I’ve already overcome in SCW once before to stand atop the mountain. Suddenly returning and going right back to that position is certainly a tantalizing thought, and I’m sure it would be quite the reality check that so many people desperately need in this day and age. I’m sure that thought is getting under the skin of at least a few of you, and that’s what I want to see. After all, conquering a field of thirty-nine other people isn’t as fun if you don’t have the challenge of so many bloodthirsty hounds offended by the mere notion that they aren’t the one and only who can emerge from the pack.
I think the most amusing thing about all of this, however… is the fact that I can stand here and say such things even though I don’t really need this.
Would winning this battle royal be nice? Absolutely, especially since it’s one of a very small number of things I haven’t done in my long and storied career. Would becoming World Champion be incredible? Of course, and anyone who says otherwise is clearly not in this sport for the right reasons. But none of these are things that I absolutely NEED at this point in time. I’ve already established that I’ve pretty much seen and done all there is to do, including being SCW World Champion at least once, a claim that many in this match can’t even make despite all their cries of being the best. I could be the one standing tall with my arm raised high at the very end, or I could have very little impact on this match as a whole… in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t ultimately matter to me.
So why would I bother coming back then, if that’s the case?
Well, somebody has to make sure this isn’t too easy for all of you.
Maybe, if we’re lucky, one of those high and mighty individuals demanding to be handed everything will actually learn something about humility and actually earning their keep for a change.
I’m doubting it, but at least the idea humors me.”
--------------------------------
Sometimes, all it takes is one spark to ignite the flame.
That was a phrase the man known as James Marsh-Asher was all too familiar with, and he could define it through his own personal experiences in several different ways.
He could define that spark as the switch where James is no longer in control, but rather his twisted split personality Thirteen, who had far less regard for the well-being of others and would do whatever it took to reach whatever his endgame was. The spark could be considered how he would define the moment when someone reached the point where they would need to seek out his help through his current profession as a therapist, considering he had a lifetime of psychological issues of his own to draw from that allowed him to help others in ways that very few others truly could. Perhaps the spark could even be his desire to return to the wrestling ring, as over the course of his long and storied career there had been several periods where he’d stepped away and even seemingly been retired, only to find some reason to end up right back where he ultimately defined himself as one of the greatest pure wrestlers to ever step between those ropes.
No matter what spark you may be talking about, somehow there would always be a trail the flame would follow that would inevitably lead back to him.
Still, even he knew that fire was not meant to burn forever, and that was starting to become more and more clear after his past few appearances in the wrestling business. He had a surprisingly strong showing in the 2019 Taking Hold of the Flame battle royal but ultimately fell short, and then he’d stepped back again before resurfacing to take a shot at Adam Allocco’s 2019 revival of the old God of Wrestling tournament, where despite his best efforts he’d been eliminated in the very first round by the eventual winner Alban McConnell. Since that time, he’d faded back into the shadows, although he always kept his eye on SCW, knowing that things could always change under the right circumstances.
As much as Thirteen still desired the feeling of competition, however, James was able to justify the decision to primarily stay in retirement these days with the life he’d managed to build for himself. While Thirteen would always be known for his wrestling career, James was coming to be well-regarded in his own right for his work in helping others.
Many throughout the United States were coming to recognize and respect James’ knowledge and application when it came to getting into someone’s head in order to be able to help them. While there were some who questioned some of his approaches, it was hard to argue with the results or how he would justify doing what he did. Through his own experiences, most therapists tended to draw from studies that had been done or what they’d picked up from textbooks, but James was a rare breed in this field who not only had that to fall back on, but also his own past experiences. Somehow, there was a benefit buried beneath the years of childhood trauma and fighting for control of his own mind with his other half, and while it had brought him notoriety all its own through some of the work he’d been able to write detailing his experiences with some matters that were still enough of a rarity in the field to cause even the brightest of minds to struggle when actually faced with it, the real enjoyment for him was the satisfaction of knowing he’d been able to help someone who truly needed it, as it was help he himself hadn’t been able to get that almost caused his whole life to be forever lost to darkness.
That was the same line of thinking that made his other job enjoyable as well.
Today was one of the days where James was tending to said other job, that being the current co-owner of the Anderson Orphanage in New York City alongside his sister Kelly. While business had staggered a bit due to the current events of the world, it was never enough to make losing this place or the children in their care a concern. After all, James had well over a decade of wealth stashed away from his time in the ring as well as what he earned as a therapist, and Kelly had her own on-and-off wrestling career to help pay the bills as well. It wasn’t easy watching over so many children during these tough times, but life had never been easy for the Marsh-Asher siblings and they’d grown used to the challenge. With the country slowly reopening, for better or worse depending on who you asked, they’d been able to return to the primary task of trying to get these kids into loving families and were just finishing up the paperwork that would allow the couple before them to be able to go home with a little boy they had grown to love during their visit that they knew would be very happy with them. Once signatures were inked out onto the papers and handshakes were exchanged, James and Kelly saw the couple and their newly adopted child off before returning to their office.
“I’m so glad they took a liking to little Billy. He’s going to be so happy with them, I just know it.”
“Me too. It was starting to break my heart seeing the poor kid losing hope that he was ever going to leave here. Every child deserves the chance to be part of a loving family, lest they turn out-”
“James, I know it ultimately worked out for you, but please don’t go beating yourself up again about our past. We’ve been free for so long and forged our own lives, and I’m sure our parents are rolling over in their graves over how well we’re doing now despite their best efforts.”
“It’s kind of like I told a patient who’s had some family issues recently: you can accomplish anything if you just take the chance and not blame everything and everyone else for your setbacks.”
Once they’d gotten to their office, James took a seat at his desk and pulled open one of the drawers to grab a folder he had stashed away, opening it up to scan through its contents. It was his files on the couple of Aaron Blackbourne and Liane Forte, who were arguably his highest-profile patients at the moment. Considering Liane was an up-and-coming comedian and Aaron, despite being fairly well known for his art and design work, was gaining a lot of recognition as a current member of the SCW roster, it would be easy to find himself swarmed with people looking for answers or hoping to unearth some kind of details they could run as a scandal of some kind, but this entire situation had been kept quiet for the benefit of all parties involved and James was grateful for it. While years of letting Thirteen drive the proverbial ship in wrestling had long since prepared him for dealing with people who did not have his best interests in mind, he knew that outside of potential critics and hecklers these two were good souls who didn’t deserve that kind of harassment. He’d brought the file to give himself something to work on between appointments with prospective parents as he was hoping to get in contact with the two of them to set up another session at some point likely after the next pay-per-view so as not to hinder Aaron, who was on the verge of a World Title opportunity he surely wanted to have his undivided attention on.
“Sooooooo?”
After a few moments of looking over what he knew so far about Liane, his head tilted up at the sound of his sister’s voice. Apparently, instead of returning to her own desk right next to his, she decided to instead lean over him until he noticed, only speaking up when that didn’t like it would be happening anytime soon.
“Yes Kelly?”
“We both know Taking Hold of the Flame is coming up here pretty soon. How long were you going to wait until telling me Thirteen’s going to resurface once again?”
He knew what his sister was trying to get at, and he carefully leaned back as the two of them locked eyes, Kelly’s grin meeting his emotionless mask. It was true that outside of the periods when he was still active Thirteen had a tendency to surface in this battle royal for one reason or another, and James had certainly given the matter some thought this year like he always did. He knew this wasn’t going to be a trend that continued forever, though, and it seemed like even Thirteen was starting to become content with the idea of potentially leaving the wrestling world behind for good at long last. He’d had his time to make something of himself, after all, and now it was only fair if James got his chance to do the same.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be happening this year Kelly. I know I’m free to come and go as I please, a perk of being considered alumni, but SCW seems to be doing well enough without Thirteen trying to remind everyone of the terror he was once upon a time. Besides, I’m not sure if Sasha would be particularly pleased to see me show up to the arena that night.”
Kelly’s grin slowly disappeared, but she understood her brother’s reasoning. He’d told her all about his recent attempt to talk with SCW officials about potentially working with the company in a non-wrestling capacity, especially since he could put his expertise to use providing assistance if necessary for any talent that was potentially considered mentally unfit to be in the ring without being a threat to themselves and others. While the Board of Directors was certainly all in on the idea, things hit a brick wall when it came to the current owner. While her father had been willing to forgive him and let their past issues become water under the bridge, Sasha had been firm in the grudge she held against Thirteen for the hit and run that started those issues with Mr. D in the first place, and because she could cite a conflict of interest on the matter because of this, not even the Board could necessarily overrule her decision to try and keep him as distanced from SCW as possible.
“She still won’t let that go, huh?”
“To be fair, if you were hit by a car and knew full well it was intentional, would you forgive the person behind the wheel so easily? I’m still surprised her father and I put all of that behind us somehow. I’d love nothing more than to just talk things out with her, but that’s easier said than done when she-”
James found himself being cut off by the sound of his mobile phone, which caught him off guard a bit as very few had that number and most looking for him for business that couldn’t reach him at either of his offices would call the orphanage’s number at that point. When he looked at the screen, he did recall there being one set of patients he had given his personal number to, just in case, and it made him glad he’d brought their files with him. Kelly turned and began to leave, but James motioned to her that she could stay if she wanted so long as she kept quiet about whatever came up as he answered the call and put it on speaker to allow him to take notes easier, as it wasn’t often she got the chance to see her brother do this kind of work.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Marsh-Asher?”
“Aaron! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to get in touch with you until after Taking Hold of the Flame. Congrats on the World Title shot, by the w-”
“I need to talk with you about something, and it can’t wait.”
Needless to say, James immediately let the smile that had slowly been forming on his lips disappear. He’d been trying to be nice and certainly help give Aaron a confidence boost if he needed it heading into the huge challenge that stood before him, but the frantic tone of his voice was cause for concern and James knew better than to beat around the bush upon hearing it.
“Is everything alright? Did something happen?”
“You mind telling us what the hell your assistant or apprentice or whatever was trying to pull?”
Hearing Liane’s voice join the conversation not only revealed that Aaron’s end was also on speaker, but she sounded a lot more upset than her husband-to-be did, and this sent a chill down his spine. He did raise an eyebrow at the mention of an assistant, finding his gaze slowly moving towards Kelly who quietly mouthed the words ‘You have an assistant?’ to which he shook his head in response.
“You’ll have to pardon my confusion, but I’m afraid I have no idea what you guys are talking about. There are several doctors I work with and highly respect what they’ve done to help me get to where I am now, but I wouldn’t necessarily call any of them my assistant, per se.”
“But… the woman said she was working for you…”
Liane continued to talk, but her words became somewhat unintelligible at this point either due to being on speaker or just trailing off in general in disbelief at this response. Something had happened, that much was for sure, and James was determined to get to the bottom of this.
“Alright, let’s all take a deep breath and go back to the beginning for a moment. What’s this about a woman claiming to be working as my assistant, and what happened involving her?”
There was no immediate response, though James could hear Aaron and Liane faintly conversing with one another on the other end of the call, presumably to try and calm one another and figure out how to proceed in answering the therapist. Whatever had happened had truly rattled them, and the thought of these two suffering any kind of setback when he was starting to make progress even in the short time he’d been helping them was infuriating to the point where he could almost hear Thirteen demanding to get his hands on whoever this mysterious woman was. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Liane finally began speaking again.
“It… it was a few nights ago. I’d just finished a show and Aaron was wrapping up with Breakdown. While I was waiting for him to pick me up, this woman approached me. She… she said her name was Nancy and she worked for you as some sort of intern or something in trying to get her degrees. She said you sent her to check and see how I was doing… I thought it was a bit odd she was willing to do this out on the street, but I didn’t think too much about it and I probably should have. She started asking me about my… my other self… she was really getting in my face about it too, almost like she was trying to upset me enough that I lost control so she could meet ‘psycho Liane’ for herself. She kind of succeeded…”
“When I pulled up to the curb, Liane had lunged at this woman and ended up punching through the window of our rental car. They weren’t happy about the damage we had to pay extra to have fixed, but Liane’s had her hand and wrist bandaged up since. This woman didn’t seem too bothered by having to avoid being attacked, but the moment she saw me get out of the car she bolted and I lost track of her. We tried getting a hold of you the next morning, but I’m guessing you haven’t been in your office for a few days and I had to track down where we put the cell number you gave us as an emergency option.”
The more James listened to what had happened, the more he found his hands tightly gripping the pencil he’d grabbed to jot down some notes until it finally couldn’t take any more pressure and snapped in two. He barely paid it any attention, though, as he’d jotted down all he really needed to hear and was finding it quite difficult to focus on taking notes when he was being told about someone not only trying to seemingly cut in and steal his patients but do so with such a reckless disregard for the well-being of the patient themselves. He needed to take a moment to collect himself, helped by a drink of water that Kelly had silently gotten for him feeling he’d need it, but when he finally spoke to the couple on the other end of the call it was clear how much he was trying to restrain his own anger, leaving them thankful it wasn’t directed at them.
“Forgive me if I sound like I’m suddenly not in the best of moves, but this person is playing a dangerous game that they really should not be playing in a field they clearly do not belong in. First, let me make this clear to you guys for future reference: I do not have any sort of assistant at the moment, nor does anybody else I work with in this field. A secretary is one thing, but that’s not what this woman was claiming to be and this would be beyond her job description even if that was the case. There is also no woman going by the name of Nancy that I or any of my associates work with. What is clear, however, is that this woman is trying to use information she does not have any right knowing for reasons that are clearly not in your best interests as patients… MY patients at that, which also means she shouldn’t be trying to pull this stunt unless I officially referred you to her, which is not the case.”
James needed to stop and take another drink of water as he slowly began to feel himself losing control again, and that’s certainly not what Aaron and Liane needed right now. A few deep breaths later, and he was slowly starting to sound like his normal self again, which was vital for trying to put out this fire that someone had apparently tried to start in his name hoping he’d be taking the fall for it.
“If you know what this woman looks like, then I think it goes without saying that you shouldn’t engage her in conversation any further. Whatever she’s hoping to gain, you need to starve her of it so she can’t build on whatever she already has for whatever purpose she seeks to use it for. Liane, outside of your physical injuries, how have you been feeling since that night? Anything I need to know right now in regards to your other personality?”
“Aside from hearing her screaming like a banshee about wanting to break this woman’s teeth, I’ve been fine. Just… shaken by the whole ordeal and how easily I snapped when she started prodding me about losing everything I’ve worked so hard for because I’m hiding this dangerous mindset I don’t even have full control over.”
“The fact that you do still have control is at least good news coming out of this situation, and it proves how strong-willed you truly are Liane. Speaking from experience, it’s not easy to be able to reign in a volatile alternate personality when they just suddenly take control like that. Always keep in mind that you are stronger than the other Liane, and we’ll certainly work on making sure it stays that way and ensuring you don’t lose control again. Remember that you can always call if you absolutely need to get a hold of me, and if I’m not in the office my cell phone is only off the table if I’m in the middle of something else, but I’ll definitely get back to you as soon as I can. As for our uninvited guest… I’ll check with some of my colleagues and see if they might know anything about her and we’ll get to the bottom of this and put a stop to it before anything else happens.”
“Thank you, doctor. And… I’m sorry for lashing out the way I did. She sounded so convincing-”
“There are many in the world who know exactly what to say and do to get whatever they want, and those same people tend to refuse to listen to whatever logic would normally invalidate their ways. The best way to deal with them is to simply focus on what’s most important to you and ignore them. I know that’s harder for you to do, Aaron, given the way things work in wrestling, but as long as you carry yourself in a way that shows how committed you are to your goals, no one can ever stop you, no matter how much they try to tear you down. Ignoring them will bother them so much more than trying to resort to counter-arguments or blindly lashing out.”
“Thank you Dr. Marsh-Asher. We’ll keep that in mind… I think you helped us both out more than you may know.”
James was kind of surprised by this response from Aaron, but before he could pry into it to see if there was something the creative soul needed to discuss as well outside of this issue, the call came to an end as they had something they needed to do. Still, what he’d heard out of this phone conversation clearly bothered him, and Kelly picked up on it immediately as she moved to sit at her own desk briefly before wheeling the chair over to be right beside her brother.
“You know a little more about this than you’re letting on, don’t you? I can tell by the way you’re drumming your fingers against the desk.”
“Maybe… I don’t want to jump to any conclusions without a clearer picture, but my primary concern is the well-being of my patients first and foremost, always. I didn’t want to give them any false hope or speak out of turn since this is as shocking a development to me as it is to them.”
James ran a hand through his hair as he let out a long sigh, stopping the motion as he rested his elbow on the desk to keep his head propped up. The name Nancy certainly rang a bell or two as far as this field was concerned, but he was having a very hard time trying to piece together where he’d heard it and why they’d be willing to create so much trouble for what he could only assume was their own personal gain. The more he thought about that in particular, though, the more an old conversation from a while back began replaying in his mind, his eyes widening at the possible connection.
“What is it? Did you figure something out?”
“Maybe, though I’d have to get a hold of Dr. Sharpe to double-check a few details and confirm for sure that I’m right on this assumption. I remember a conversation we had back when I was still working to become a therapist about someone else he once had that was trying to do the same, back before he ever took on our case in the first place. I don’t remember the person’s name, but I remember he told me they had a lot of promise but ultimately got blinded by the more ‘fame and notoriety’ concept that can come with this job sometimes. The idea of publishing works that could earn them rewards and praise the world overtook priority to them over actually helping their patients, and they had a bad habit of being very pushy and in-your-face about trying to get information. I think I recall Sharpe saying he put his foot down with one session where they managed to convince a patient to share a lot of crucial information about themselves and what they were dealing with and the only thing they did in return was just prescribing them medication. That’s where he drew the line and terminated her.”
This caused Kelly’s jaw to drop, her skin crawling at such blatant disregard for the mental well-being of another human being in a field where that’s supposed to be the number one concern above all else. James slowly got out of his chair, needing a moment to walk around the office to try and keep himself collected.
“You think this is the same person?”
“I’m not sure. The last Dr. Sharpe heard of them, they’d actually managed to earn all their doctorates, so he assumed they got their act together. But I can’t deny how well the pieces fit together in this puzzle and the idea of seeking to publish anything about Aaron and Liane’s problems purely for the sake of trying to get some sort of recognition out of it is crossing every line there is to cross.”
“So what’s the plan?”
James glanced at the clock, knowing that he wasn’t going to have time before their next appointment for the day to do the detective work he wanted to, but he knew what his first course of action was going to be all the same. Still, that wasn’t going to stop this woman in the meantime from no doubt trying to dig for more dirt, and he was growing concerned about the lengths she would go to in order to get what she was after. If she did have the certification that she clearly didn’t deserve somehow, what was stopping her from trying to potentially find a one-on-one opportunity with Aaron just when he was on the verge of his biggest opportunity yet? Or worse, use that as a way to somehow get backstage during an SCW event to see if she could get anyone on the roster to cough up anything that could either ruin Aaron or even SCW as a whole if she wanted to. That thought made his eyes narrow into a glare as he knew what he had to do, his resolve on this even putting Thirteen in a state where he could practically hear the demon salivating over the prospect.
“I’ll be getting a hold of Dr.Sharpe as soon as I can to discuss this so we can see if everything lines up and how we can shut this illicit practice down before someone gets hurt. But just in case this Nancy woman thinks she could snake her way into SCW because of Aaron to try and find a fire to start… I think I may have found my spark to go through with Taking Hold of the Flame this year after all.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Let’s have a quick show of hands… how many of you were expecting to see me emerge from the darkness this year?Maybe it’s not that much of a surprise anymore, considering the allure of Taking Hold of the Flame tends to be too much for most to resist. Hell, my old pal Shilo Valiant even found his way back into the spotlight hoping this match with be the springboard back to where he always feels he belongs, and the same can be said of other names from the past like Matt Hodges, Adam Allocco and Josh Hudson to name a few. Sure, you could pose the argument that we shouldn’t even be here and the stars of today should be getting all the attention, but if you ask me? More and more members of the SCW roster I see each and every week these days prefer to act like they’re entitled to the world and beyond just because of who they are, and you’re just supposed to accept that and kiss their asses until your lips are tired hoping that maybe, just maybe, you’ll find your way into their good graces.
Forgive me if I find that entire idea pathetic. Kind of happens when you grow up having to scratch and claw to earn your place in the world instead of being born with a silver spoon shoved up your ass or your mouth attached to the bosom of someone who will coddle you until you’ve learned all they’re willing to teach to make you think you’re suddenly so damn good that nobody else compares.
I think the thing I find the most amusing in all of this is the sheer number of people that continues to grow with each passing day who will stand in front of a camera and tell you until they’re blue in the face that they are the greatest wrestler that ever lived and no one could ever compare. Even if I narrow that field down to pure wrestling abilities and nothing else, there are still far too many making this claim because they’ve been doing this for a long time or they were trained by so-and-so. If I really wanted to, I could throw my name into that list because I’m willing to bet that out of everyone making the same argument, I’m the only one who started with absolutely zero training and still worked my way up on my own to being one of the most feared grapplers to ever set foot on the canvas.
I could… but I’m not going to push that argument.
I’ve already proven myself time and time again throughout my career to the point where words are no longer necessary, and even beyond that, this isn’t the match where such arguments hold any weight. How well you can take someone to the mat and try to remove a body part or choke the life out of them is irrelevant when you’re in the middle of a moving pile of bodies all trying to simply throw one another out to the floor to clear some space. That’s the name of the game in a battle royal, after all, and technical ability only gets you so far when you have to worry about throwing people out just as much as you need to be concerned about how well you can avoid being thrown out yourself. This is the kind of match where just about everything you know and trained for goes out the window, especially since nothing is off-limits to anyone so long as they are the last wrestler standing, punching that golden ticket to main event Rise to Greatness and challenge for the World Championship.
That includes stabbing close friends in the back if necessary.
Just because I haven’t been around for a while doesn’t mean I having been keeping an eye on the state of affairs around here. I know there are several tag teams who will no doubt try to counter my claims by reaffirming their bonds, or stables that will try to shove down my throat the belief that they are a perfect unit and nothing will ever change that. All I hear in these cases are desperate attempts to latch onto something familiar in hopes that if they keep saying it’s true, then it must be so. Maybe in your own little worlds there’s some truth to that, but how well would such claims hold up if, say, two members of the Beauty Factory made it to the very end and someone’s ego would have to take a hit from being denied what they all believe they deserve. Or perhaps a small little team that’s built a sense of trust in one another finds the opportunity to eliminate one another to be one step closer to that precious prize. Would that trust survive?
The more I lay this out, the more I enjoy the idea of entering this match as a proverbial man without a country. The idea of Thirteen against the world isn’t a new concept to me, and it’s one I’ve already overcome in SCW once before to stand atop the mountain. Suddenly returning and going right back to that position is certainly a tantalizing thought, and I’m sure it would be quite the reality check that so many people desperately need in this day and age. I’m sure that thought is getting under the skin of at least a few of you, and that’s what I want to see. After all, conquering a field of thirty-nine other people isn’t as fun if you don’t have the challenge of so many bloodthirsty hounds offended by the mere notion that they aren’t the one and only who can emerge from the pack.
I think the most amusing thing about all of this, however… is the fact that I can stand here and say such things even though I don’t really need this.
Would winning this battle royal be nice? Absolutely, especially since it’s one of a very small number of things I haven’t done in my long and storied career. Would becoming World Champion be incredible? Of course, and anyone who says otherwise is clearly not in this sport for the right reasons. But none of these are things that I absolutely NEED at this point in time. I’ve already established that I’ve pretty much seen and done all there is to do, including being SCW World Champion at least once, a claim that many in this match can’t even make despite all their cries of being the best. I could be the one standing tall with my arm raised high at the very end, or I could have very little impact on this match as a whole… in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t ultimately matter to me.
So why would I bother coming back then, if that’s the case?
Well, somebody has to make sure this isn’t too easy for all of you.
Maybe, if we’re lucky, one of those high and mighty individuals demanding to be handed everything will actually learn something about humility and actually earning their keep for a change.
I’m doubting it, but at least the idea humors me.”
![[Image: yC0vuyj.png]](https://i.imgur.com/yC0vuyj.png)