01-02-2020, 11:48 AM
01-11-2020, 12:35 AM
Quote:OOC: Well, I did it. I pulled the trigger on this, and honestly? I couldn't be happier with how this turned out. This is the start of a significant turning point for Melissa Killgraves going forward, and hopefully it becomes obvious why when you read this. All characters that aren't my own appear with permission.
If you asked Melissa the question of whether or not she was sure of what she was about to do, she would be hesitant in her response, with even a ‘yes’ carrying a clear tone of uncertainty to it.
Now? There wasn’t a doubt in her mind.
Ending her first year with Emerge in the opposite fashion of how it started was bad enough, between the string of losses she suffered as well as failing to regain her RUSH Championship from Jennifer Helms. That had been bad enough, but losing to the same woman in the memorial tournament because of an injury? What should have been her chance to not only completely destroy the woman’s confidence by beating her in a tournament that meant far more to her than it did to Melissa but also make a clear statement that she could beat Helms and therefore deserved one last shot at getting her title back was taken away from her. So what if she was having some difficulty putting weight on her ankle after a bad landing? She was a bloody mess and in far worse pain after her first battle with Sundown, and not only did she finish the match she still won the damn thing!
Melissa was starting to believe Emerge was seeing her as some sort of joke, and she was done playing that game. Nobody treated Melissa Killgraves like a joke.
“Are you really sure about this Melissa?”
A simple nod was all the answer Jennifer got. Melissa had never been more sure of anything in her entire life. Not even trying to break free from her father was a decision that carried as much certainty as this did, and that in and of itself spoke volumes.
“I don’t know girls. I know we followed the address, but this place doesn’t even look like anyone’s been inside for ages.”
Claire had a point, and the idea of blindly following directions wasn’t sitting well with Melissa as it was, but she was willing to play along if it got them what she knew they deserved. Her initial attempt at making this happen was derailed by the necessary trip for the tournament, and after she’d been allowed back to her locker room to retrieve her stuff after what felt like an eternity of trainers unnecessarily fussing over her ankle, she’d found another business card with a new address on it, no doubt in response to the announcement that Emerge was moving its operations to England moving forward. The idea of having to take up residence in another country was itself one that was already proving to be easier said than done for the lifelong Connecticut native, although she did enjoy the thought of being as far away from either of her parents as humanly possible right now. Still, a feeling of doubt hung in the air as the trio stood outside a seemingly deserted pub in Blackpool, and even though the address matched the one on the card it was starting to seem like this had been a waste of time.
“Well, only one way to find out.”
Melissa marched right up to the door and opened it, surprising all three of them that they could go inside when all logic said a place like this would probably be locked up tight. Closing the door behind them, Claire and Jennifer stayed close behind Melissa as the three of them slowly strolled along, taking in the sight of a place that still had a ways to go before it would be ready for the public. The military maiden could feel how creeped out her companions were as they tightly held each other by the hand, and even she felt a bit unnerved by all of this, but she shrugged it off to the best of her ability. She’d stared down monsters twice her size without flinching, so a seemingly abandoned pub shouldn’t even faze her.
“It’s nice to see you found your way here.”
Melissa steeled herself as her friends jumped a bit, doing their best to stifle their gasps as they stayed behind the fighter in their little group. Seated near the back of the room on a chair that may as well have resembled a throne was Cindy Todd, a smile on her face as she locked eyes with the former RUSH Champion. Despite her calm demeanor, there was a palpable tension in the air that only seemed to thicken when several people slowly began emerging from a room behind her. The women that composed Seraglio made their way around to kneel down in front of Cindy while Sundown moved to stand to her right, and despite the mask, it was clear he was staring a hole straight through the military maiden, which was no surprise given their history. To Cindy’s left is where Willow Wilkes and Samael would stand, the former glancing at the EMERGE Title that rested over her shoulder before locking eyes with Melissa, the knowledge that the two of them could be on a collision course for that very title after the first show of 2020 being very clear to everyone in the room. Melissa turned her gaze back to Cindy, who looked unfazed by all the potential hostility surrounding her.
“I see you brought the entire welcome wagon out to greet me.”
“But of course. Considering we all know why you came here, this meeting seemed too important to just be between the two of us. If there’s a problem with that, then I could question why you came with an entourage of your own.”
Cindy motioned to the girls standing behind Melissa, and a small part of her was regretting wanting to bring them into this. She maintained her firm resolve that this was necessary to help all of them, and despite any issues they may have had in the past she knew Claire and Jennifer both deserved better than where they were at right now in life.
“They’re here to join me in hearing you out. Say what you want about me, but I know they deserve better than what they’ve gotten in life thus far and I’ve heard stories about what you’ve done in that regard.”
Melissa nods towards the members of Seraglio, and while she didn’t have any concrete evidence to back up the rumors she’d heard, she had a feeling there was more to the concept of them standing by Cindy’s side when they didn’t really look like they belonged in the wrestling business as Willow and Sundown did.
“Fair enough Melissa. Tell me something… do you recall what I’ve said to you in the past?”
“You mean how you’ve shoved it down my throat that my one moment of success in Emerge was because I had help I never asked for to beat him?”
Melissa points to Sundown, and the big man starts to move as though he wants to start a fight but stops himself when Cindy holds up her hand to him.
“If that’s how you wish to put it, then that is a perfect place to start. You see Melissa, I know you’ll never admit to it out loud because I know what kind of person you are, but there’s only so much weight your argument holds of relying only on what the record books say for validation. Deep down, you know you were in way over your head and got lucky only because someone else decided to stick their nose where it didn’t belong. Even if I am wrong on that claim, would it be a lie to say that the thought of you not beating my monster all on your own ate away at you when nobody was watching?”
Melissa goes to protest this but ends up cutting herself off. With her hands visibly trembling in anger, she knows full well that no matter how much she hates to admit it, Cindy was right. She could stand in front of a camera and claim up and down for hours on end that she beat Sundown, but deep in her gut she hated the fact that her biggest accomplishment in Emerge was tainted by outside assistance. Not because she was finally grasping the same morals her father tried to force-feed her for years, but because she was robbed of her opportunity to truly prove, especially to him, that she could stand on her own two feet and build her own life and was left trying to simply spin a hollow truth into whatever she needed it to be in order to maintain the confidence she felt she had to display with her newfound position in the company. Cindy nods to herself, noting that she’s gotten through to the normally stubborn woman.
“When I told you before your rematch with my monster that you were the reason I came to Emerge, I wasn’t lying. I saw something in that first match between the two of you Melissa, and while I prioritized Sundown as he’d been embarrassed and lost far more in that defeat than you may realize, I saw something in you as well… something you’ve proven quite clearly to me as time has gone on.”
“And what’s that?”
“You have the potential to be everything you truly desire to be, that I will not deny. Physically, you are a powerful woman that has every right to be an imposing force, and despite what I’ve stated before, the fact that you did survive for as long as you did against Sundown on that fateful night proves you have the capacity to survive the kind of punishment and suffering we are all used to enduring. You possess all these tools, and yet those around you see you for exactly what I said they would: a condemnation of what a powerful woman should be. What you possess physically, you lack mentally.”
Melissa looks offended by this and takes a step forward, causing Claire and Jennifer to try and grab her wrists to stop her from doing something she’d regret considering what surrounded Cindy. The queen didn’t flinch at this, and Melissa managed to stop of her own accord as she spoke again.
“Do not take my words the wrong way Melissa, because I am not calling your intelligence into question. If I were, you wouldn’t have made the decision to consider meeting with me in the first place. Your real problem lies in how much you let your emotional attachments dictate your actions, something that became abundantly clear when you lost the RUSH Championship. Not only did you prove my initial claims right about your title reign only being due to help, but you began to unravel and exposed yourself more and more. No matter what you told the world, you were acting like a little girl desperate to prove daddy wrong, relying more and more on a past you claimed you were trying to leave behind to justify even being in Emerge in the first place. Does a truly powerful woman bemoan her upbringing silently praying that no matter how she acts because of it, the world will show her sympathy? Or does a truly powerful woman simply forget about where she came from if it bothers her that much and ignores the world that truly does not care about her plight to commit solely to making the kind of statement that forces everyone to fall silent and take notice of exactly who she really is?”
Melissa lowers her head, biting her bottom lip as she thinks over what she’s just heard. Like it or not, Cindy had hit the bullseye no matter how much she refused to admit it to herself. She’d allowed her desire to simply become something that was her own doing and not her father’s to grow into an obsession that bordered on being a parody of what she truly wanted to become, constantly mentioning that this was all to shove it in his face that she wasn’t the good little soldier he was trying to raise her into. When she lost to Helms the first time, she felt that she’d lost the proof that her statements were true, despite knowing deep down they never really were, to begin with. She hadn’t beaten Sundown on her own to win the title, and going it alone against Helms made it clear how hollow it all was. She got too into her own head from there, and the incident from the tournament had felt like she’d finally hit her breaking point.
She glanced at Sundown, knowing she couldn’t see his face behind the mask but knowing full well that he’s likely stopped caring about seemingly abandoning his former family in Tombstone in favor of the absolute monstrosity he’d now become. Her gaze drifted over to Willow, who seemed quite intrigued in a twisted sort of way at how this was all playing out. Despite the well-known public scrutiny she’d faced from her falling out with the Beauty Factory right before the death of Ricky Octavius and what had seemingly happened to the man who was miraculously still standing behind her, she had never once presented herself as anything other than a lunatic who would go to any lengths imaginable and cause any harm conceivable in order to not only remain atop the mountain but make sure everyone else was afraid to challenge her over that spot. They never questioned who they were, and any guilt about what they were doing or why they were doing it was now nonexistent.
“…I need that…”
“Come again?”
“I need that… what they have…” She motioned between Sundown and Willow. “You’re right… you have no idea how much I hate saying that, but you’re right Cindy. For as much as I wanted to prove I can survive on my own and decide my own fate without my father’s influence, I made it so clear that’s what I wanted that I let him influence me anyway! I made myself into a joke and never realized it, not thinking that when I even brought it up that I was doing anything besides trying to prove a point that didn’t need brought up in the first place. I could care less about what people think about me, and yet there I was practically begging them to care about me and see me as a victim they should side with without actually outright saying it word-for-word!”
Melissa dropped to a knee, slamming her fist into the floor without any regard to whatever pain it caused her or the damage it could’ve done that Cindy could bill her for. She bit down on her lip harder, refusing to let herself shed any tears over how weak she’s truly been this whole time, ignoring the feeling of blood beginning to trail down her chin from tearing into it. She barely even reacted when she felt a pair of comforting hands on her shoulders from the two women who had accompanied her and watched her slowly be broken down before their very eyes.
“You’re not a victim Melissa… even if they didn’t see it, you proved as much when you fought back against your dad and knocked him out while exposing his own obsession to his fellow officers. His heroic reputation is no doubt ruined by now. I wish I had that kind of strength to stop being forced by my daddy into being seen as nothing more than a stereotypical ‘dumb rich blonde girl’ and being treated like my existence is a stain on his own reputation just because I love Jennifer and not some handsome upper-class guy.”
“You’re also not having everything you’ve worked for be dragged through the mud by the members of your own family that wanted nothing to do with you otherwise because you’d rather be in a relationship with another woman over being convinced to try and restart a relationship with a guy who cheated on you just because you weren’t ‘appealing’ enough for him or being on the same rung of the social ladder as he ended up climbing to.”
While Claire shot Jennifer a look that clearly showed how appalled she was by the idea that the redhead wasn’t attractive just because she favored wisdom over appearance, Cindy raised an eyebrow that made it clear she was intrigued by the information she’d just discovered. It wasn’t much, but perhaps there was something to these two she could work with after all, especially if it helped to lead Melissa to where she truly should be.
“Melissa, I want you to listen to me clearly.” Once Cindy had the military maiden and her friends’ undivided attention again, she continued. “What you seek is something that I can help you obtain, but I want you to understand that this is not an offer to be taken lightly. From this day forth, all three of you will abandon any semblance of your former lives. You will all be reborn and welcomed into the family of The Unforgiven, and all I ask in return is that you do not question my methods. You will do as I wish, and in return, I promise you will all become the kind of women that you not only desire to be, but also the kind of women that deserve to be feared and respected by anyone who do not understand what you truly are. If there is a problem with this, then you’re free to leave, but do not expect an audience with me again.”
Melissa glances back at Claire and Jennifer, and despite the nerves they’re showing far more clearly than she is, they both nod their heads, willing to go through with this not only for the sake of their friend but each other and their relationship as well. With that said, Melissa locks eyes with Cindy and the next words out of her mouth make it clear how badly she wants to truly start anew and become what she deserved to be.
“There is no problem… my Queen.”
“Then we have a deal.”
Melissa slowly rises to a stand as Cindy rises as well, silently admiring the look in her eyes as she takes in the sight of the newest additions to The Unforgiven.
“And what of the possibility of a title match between her and I?”
Cindy glanced back at Willow, the smile never leaving her face.
“With this, we ensure that title will stay with The Unforgiven no matter the outcome. And once I have Melissa on the right path, perhaps Kali will fully comprehend the futility of her attempts to stand against us and no longer continue her senseless fight against monsters she cannot handle.”
Willow grins at this answer as she looks over Melissa, who continues staring at Cindy as she slowly comes to terms with what she’s done. She knows she’s made a proverbial deal with the devil, but at this point, considering how she’s been treated by both fans and even Emerge staff through no fault of her own for showing weakness?
She’d gladly sell her soul to finally be free of the woman she used to be.