01-07-2023, 09:36 AM
01-10-2023, 10:07 PM
The Witches of Alden
”Rehab”
Frost ‘Forever Home’
Manhattan, New York
January 7th, 2023
2:04pm
“I don’t wanna…” the redhead grumbled in a half-whine/half-plea for mercy from the demand that stood before her.
In front of her, standing in the private training-house that stood in the far corner of their Manhattan property, Deanna saw her wife standing there, the Snow Queen wearing simple black track pants and a dark-gray t-shirt, a contrast to the blue shorts and dark-green shirt Deanna had changed into, begrudgingly.
“Geez, Deanna.” Selena sighed, shaking her head at her wife in mild disbelief. “You’re worse than the kids.”
Before her, Deanna saw the platinum-blonde holding up the dark-purple resistance band, the thin, stretchy, yet durable fabric mocking the redhead with its mere existence. “I am not.” Deanna pouted, crossing her arms over her chest, feeling the slight imbalance of size caused by the air-cast she still wore around her arm.
“Oh please.” Scoffed the older Frost, adopting Deanna’s crossed arm pose, though she looked far more intimidating with it than the shorter Deanna. Dammit… thought the Queen’s Guard. “That pout…” Selena continued. “You look just like David when he won’t eat his broccoli. Or his peas.” She thought about it for a moment. “Actually, also his spinach and-“
“I get it.” Huffed the redhead, choosing to walk around the room of weights and cardio equipment. “But come on, Selena!” she returned back to her wife. “It’s just so boring!”
“And necessary.” Chastised the former world champion.
“No, it’s not!” she didn’t want to admit how childish the sound coming from her was, even to her own ears, but that didn’t stop Deanna from hopping on the spot in frustration. “The cast is coming off tomorrow!” she implored. “I’m basically ready to go now! I could do it myself-“ to try and prove her point, Deanna reached over to the black material covering her arm, her fingers clumsily finding the notch that kept the brace tight against her forearm. Her fingers had barely touched the hard plastic of the knob before a pale hand was suddenly in front of her line of vision, grasping the hand tightly to cease motion, Deanna taking a mere moment to notice the contrasting tones between her shaded skin and the stark pale of her wife’s.
“Don’t you dare.” Warned Selena, squeezing Deanna’s hand strongly, though not painfully. “You promised me that you’d follow the doctor’s orders 100%.”
“And I have!” Deanna sighed in frustration, her voice lifting a little, keeping it’s almost child-like whiney tone. “But come on, Selena!”
“It’s just one more day.” Selena tried gently.
“But it’s so boring!” Deanna whined. “All we do is ‘pull the band’, ‘extend the arm’, ‘hold the stretch’, ‘wiggle the fingers and thumbs’, on and on and on and on!”
It wasn’t that she was ungrateful to the platinum-blonde. Far from it. Since The One had injured her arm inside that hellacious chamber at Under Attack, Deanna had gone from “Queen’s Guard” to, essentially, ‘Queen of the Castle’ in how Selena waited on her hand and foot. It was almost ridiculous! Her wife, one of the most decorated superstars in SCW, easily a Hall of Famer in the future (which she hoped to one day share in such an honor), the longest reigning SCW World champion… waiting on her hand and foot, cooking and making meals, helping her clean (Deanna actually didn’t mind that part one bit – she admitted silently, fighting the blush that threatened to creep its way into her features), and assisting her with all the physical therapy their doctor had advised. If Deanna was ‘following the doctor’s orders 100%’, that paled in comparison to the near-religious following Selena had kept them both locked on.
“I feel like I can do anything now.” Deanna sighed, shrugging her shoulders. “I mean, I wrestled with this thing on!”
“Yes.” Selena sighed. “And you were protected by it.”
“That’s not fair.” Deanna pouted.
“I’m not saying you didn’t do well.” Selena held her hands up to stop her wife’s defensive behaviour. “You did! You were amazing! But that cast protected you from Lexy and the others.”
It was true. While, despite being injured and cast-covered, Deanna had not only fought in the Trios tournament first round of matches but had even retained the world tag-team championship with her wife against the Farmstead Friends ‘chomping at the bit’ trying to get back the titles they had lost to The House of Frost weeks prior. As Lexy had trained to manipulate things to weaken Deanna before that title match at Under Attack, she had tried again to play to Deanna being the weak-link in the group, trying to coerce a rematch while Deanna was, admittedly, less than full strength.
Well, it hadn’t worked, and, while difficult, The House of Frost had managed to retain the titles, allowing not only their first reign together to continue, but for Selena to end the year as she began as a world champion and for Deanna to finally succeed in retaining a championship after failing to do so with the Television and the Underground title. Even so, any idiot that knew wrestling could tell that had Deanna been forced to wrestle without the cast, things very easily could have ended poorly. While Hairless Penguin had been respectful and, dare Deanna say, noble in his approach in their matches, Dancing Bear had been the exact opposite, doing all he could to reinjure or aggravate Deanna’s arm along with Lexy Chapel. The cast had helped in keeping that from happening, though Deanna refused to use it as a weapon despite Lexy and Bear’s claims to the contrary.
“I’m just saying…” Selena continued, moving Deanna’s uncast hand away and wrapping the resistance band around the palm of the redhead’s injured arm. “That you can’t afford to slack off now. No matter how boring it is.”
With a tug, the Snow Queen pulled the band’s ends down to the ground before placing a foot on each one, effectively adding moderate resistance to the band, while keeping the Snow Queen standing closer to the irritated redhead. “Need I remind you.” She continued. “That you’re not just entering the new year here.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Deanna huffed, holding her arm bent at the elbow (against her side) and lifting and lowering her band-wrapped wrist, performing the flexion exercise.
“Don’t ‘yeah, yeah’ me.” Selena shook her head. “Have you really given any thought to this, Deanna? Or do you think you’re just going to breeze through your Breakdown match?”
She opened her mouth to respond but closed it almost immediately under the scrutinizing glare of her wife. In truth, she hadn’t given the match much thought. It had just been announced yesterday following Breakdown and… yeah, okay… she knew the traditional ‘never underestimate your opponent, blah blah blah…’ but was it wrong that her focus was on the bigger picture? That she was finally going to get her hands on The One at the next pay-per-view?
It was that woman, who Deanna still couldn’t quite figure out, that was responsible for her injury and the weeks and weeks of therapy and recovery in the first place! The One that had made it so Deanna had spent her Christmas, her and Selena’s anniversary, and her wife’s and daughter’s birthday in that damn cast, unable to even unwrap her presents without Selena’s help. The One that had made it impossible to full embrace her children or her wife when they were so happy in receiving their gifts – or in Selena’s case, celebrating Yuletide with her beloved. The One that had made Deanna a target for people wanting to ‘put her on the shelf’…
Even with Kimberly Williams, who was more of an annoyance and fraud with the while ‘chaos’ angle, Deanna had never really felt a sense of ‘personal’ grudge on an individual level. With the Farmstead Friends, it was personal to them as a tag-team and family. With The One, this wasn’t about family or even Selena – though she had been brought into it… okay, it was about Selena as well, but it was different!
The redhead truly felt that this was far more her fight than her wife, a part of her even guilty that the Snow Queen had been dragged into it. Still, the idea of defending the tag-team championship against The One and a partner of her choosing, assuming she could find one, with the greatest SCW superstar in the federation today behind her, Deanna just… she couldn’t wait! She didn’t want to wait! She wanted to beat down The One with her wife watching her proudly as the Queen’s Guard represented the House of Frost and the SCW tag-team division!
“Hey!” the voice broke through her mental ramblings, forcing Deanna to return to the present, her wrist still lifting and lowering on auto-pilot.
“I was paying attention!” the redhead quickly responded on instinct.
“Okay…” sapphire eyes narrowed, causing Deanna to gulp. “What did I just say?”
“You were talking about my match on Breakdown.” Deanna answered, recalling the last thing she remembered hearing Selena say.
“Uh-huh.” The platinum-blonde gave a tilt of her head. “And what part, exactly, was I talking about in your match?”
“Uh…” Deanna tried, opting to guess rather than admit she wasn’t paying attention. “The importance of the match and how I need to focus and how I can’t-“
“Yeah, you weren’t listening.”
“What?” Deanna’s emerald eyes widened. “Was I wrong?”
“You just spouted out the most generic thing you could think of!” Selena countered. “You don’t think I can tell when you’re not paying attention, Deanna? After how many years of marriage?”
“Uh…” she tried to quickly do the math in her head-
“Eight, Deanna!”
“Eight! I knew that!” Deanna shot back. “Just not as fast with math as you are.”
With a sigh, Selena stopped Deanna’s hand from its workout, removing the band and quietly turning the arm to press her own hand, cooler than Deanna’s, into a bent stretch. “I was saying…” she began. “That this is more than just a ‘match’ for you. You’re the Rookie of the Year now. Do you know what that means?” She didn’t wait very long for a reply from the shorter Deanna, opting to turn her sapphire-gaze up to stare into her wife’s eyes.
“It means that you can’t just ‘fly under the radar’ or have ‘nothing to lose’. You proved last year what I always knew. That you’re not only amazingly talented, but you are your own woman. And, while it’s terrified me, you proved just how well you can take care of yourself in the ring. But you’ve always had that doubt from the world of being associated with me.”
“Yeah…” Deanna grumbled a little. “’Just the wife of Selena Frost’.” While she loved being said wife with all of her heart, to be known as ONLY that within SCW and hearing it over and over again from the SCW roster last year had grown beyond infuriating. Because she was also more than that – and only Selena was willing to see it.
“Well, that’s done now.” Selena half-barked. “In case you didn’t realize it. Now, you’re not just a ‘rookie’ anymore. You’re a former champion. You’re a current champion. You’re out of the ‘rookie’ phase and are now a target in your own right. People are going to be expecting things from you-“
“You mean like the board and management?”
“No.” Selena shook her head patiently, the far more experienced wrestler calmly explaining as she stretched and pushed against Deanna’s wrist with her hands. “I mean the SCW Universe. The expectations are higher now. Need I remind you that they were the ones that voted for you as the Rookie of the Year. They chose you over The One and Wolf and the others. Whether you like it or not, their expectations have risen and you need to be ready to meet those expectations this year, not just as a tag-team champion but also in your own right.”
“Well…I can…” Deanna replied, though she felt the shake in her voice.
“I’m serious, Deanna.” Selena pressed, her eyes locked on her wife. “It’s not enough to simply ‘win’ titles, okay? You need to defend and retain them. You need to stand up and power through matches that are scary. The risks will be higher, the stakes greater… It was the same for me after 2016.”
The Year of Selena Frost… Deanna recalled. She could still remember that year. Nearly a year into their marriage and Selena had exploded into the main-event picture, even becoming the world champion before the year was through. But it was also after that that everything changed. Suddenly, Selena wasn’t just some ‘knockoff from Disney’. Now she was the world champion, the female wrestler of the year, and ‘the future of SCW’ according to many. Now? She was a target, meaning things were only going to get harder.
That was what Selena was warning Deanna about as the Snow Queen worked her wife’s wrist gently. It wasn’t that she believed that Deanna couldn’t take care of herself, but rather that she would have to more than ever now – because now? SCW was finally figuring out what Deanna Frost could do and be on her own. By next year? Who knew? Star of Tomorrow? Match of the Year? Tag-Team of the Year? Maybe even a contender for the world title- No… Deanna didn’t want that. That world belonged to her wife at this point, the Snow Queen keeping a watchful eye on the division, especially with the current shenanigans between Owen, Lexy, and now Kimberly.
“I know you are thinking about The One… but you’re going to take a huge step back if your first match of this year is a loss to someone that just came back.”
Despite herself, a scoff escaped Deanna. “Selena… maybe I’m oversimplifying this, but Amelia’s been back for over a month and hasn’t had one single match since then! I’ve had two even with a cast!”
“Uh-huh. You can sound certain all you want, Deanna.” Came the chastising tone. “But I thought the same thing when I fought Giovanni. And he beat me.”
“Cause he had some paid-fan rush in and attack you!” Deanna countered.
“And what about Glory?” Selena hissed, recalling her former respected friend, a topic that was still a sore spot for the Snow Queen. “You know she wants to become Supreme Champion like me. Hate to break it to you, but our titles are part of that. What if she teams with One as her partner? This match could be her way to make that happen. You think she won’t hesitate to go after your arm to better that chance?”
Deanna’s eyes widened. She hadn’t even thought about Glory – assuming the former UK champion was too obsessed with Owen Cruze and becoming the world champion again, her last reign lasting mere minutes compared to the months that Selena had held it. Still, the redhead had seen the tweets and messages posted by the British Bombshell or whatever she was calling herself now and there was no denying the woman’s desire to become Supreme champion, which included a reign as the tag-team champion…
The idea was quite upsetting. As the United States champion, Glory had unveiled the UK Championship, proclaiming it as some kind of way of ‘restoring honor’ to the title like Selena had for the world championship – when in actuality, it had been nothing more than a self-primping ‘Britain is Best’ campaign to overcompensate for her failures at capturing the world title! And the idea of her bringing THAT into the tag-team division? Of making “The SCW UK Tag-Team titles?”
“Oh gods…” Deanna shook her head. “I don’t want to think about that.”
“Well, you’re going to have to.” Selena warned, finishing up her wife’s stretches and bending down to pickup the resistance band. Walking over to the nearby wall, the Snow Queen hung it up on one of the nearby black hooks, others placed nearby to hold up other bands and jump ropes. “Because now? We have something everyone wants. YOU have something that everyone wants. Even One. You have value – and she wants it.”
Despite her feelings regarding the awards and becoming Rookie of the Year, Deanna could not deny the spike of smallness she suddenly felt at her wife’s words. It was one thing to wish for individuality and respect in SCW, but what came with it? Envy? A higher-standard to be compared to? Expectations? It all felt a little…much?
“It’s going to be for awhile. Until you get used to it.” Selena stated, turning around to meet Deanna’s eyes.
“What?” Deanna asked. “How did you-“
“You said it out-loud, Deanna. You said it was all a bit ‘much’. And I agreed with you. It’s going to be until you’re used to it. Until you realize that you can meet that standard and continue to evolve and improve as it does. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy because it never will be. But you will learn…”
The Snow Queen crossed her arms over her chest. “But that isn’t going to happen if you think you can breeze through your opponents just because they’re new or lack recent experience. And it’s not just you.” Selena shook her head. “You’re representing us: The House of Frost. We need to take every opponent seriously, even if they won’t do the same for us.”
“I…” Deanna started before giving a sigh in defeat. She knew her wife was right. There wasn’t an argument she could make to prove otherwise. She knew she had just been lazy, not wanting to do her physical therapy cause it was boring, not thinking about Breakdown because she wanted to think about The One and also because Amelia had been little more than a bag-girl to Braddock…
But it was all laziness… and she was supposed to be the world tag-team champion! She was supposed to be the Queen’s Guard. She was supposed to be all about grit and a new standard for SCW along with Selena!
“I think I’ve been pampered too long.” She stated more to herself. “I think I let the last few weeks of rest and recovery get to me.”
“Do you want me to apologize for that?” Selena asked. “Because I won’t apologize for caring for-“
“No.” Deanna shook her head. “It’s on me. It’s all on me. I should have been working and finding new ways to stay on edge, but I wasn’t. I was content after we retained the titles and I let myself enjoy being pampered too much. I let myself enjoy slacking off… and it was fun… Gods it was fun!”
She saw Selena smile a little knowingly at her words.
“But…” Deanna gave a sigh. “It’s time to wake up and come back to reality, isn’t it?”
“Afraid so.” Selena nodded, reaching out to take her wife’s uncast hand into her own. “Because I can’t make the tag division better on my own… and I can’t make SCW better on my own.”
Her smile became warmer, almost an invitation, causing Deanna’s to grow until she was smiling at her wife. “Is that an invitation?” she asked playfully.
“It is.” The older woman gave Deanna’s hand a squeeze. “Think you’re up to it?”
Biting her lower lip, Deanna could only give one honest answer. “I’m the Rookie of the Year, Selena… I sure as hell can give it a try!”
01-11-2023, 10:18 PM
The Guard Tower
Hey guys!
So, here we are! First match into the new year! And I mean, I’ve seen enough of these kind of promos throughout the years around this time. A whole “New Year, New Me” kind of thing or maybe singing “Auld Lang Sine” like I’ve seen before. Maybe some declarations of the new year… Okay, maybe I’ll do that one a little bit, I think it’s important.
But really? I just want to say thank you again to you guys. I know, ‘again?’. I did at the End of the Year event and again on Twitter, though I wish I had the eloquence my wife had in hers – but even so, cliché as it sounds, I just… I mean this past year…
I mean, I came in thinking two things: One, how amazing it was to actually be trying to be a wrestler like my wife is – the job and place the one where I first saw her on TV years ago… I mean, that’s what I was before any of this. I was a fan of SCW. For a young girl realizing who she was and being shunned for it in a small town of Kentucky, watching SCW with all the brave men and women embracing who they were, it was like watching Saturday Morning Cartoons with all those superheroes and such – you know, before Marvel decided we needed it 24/7.
But anyway, part of me always wanted to be like them. Like the Marina Trents, the Regan Streets, even the people like Syren – not that I wanted the whole back and forth of morality with the later but I mean, these were people that constantly embraced who they were and put it on display on a global scale. And were celebrated for it. And… it was through SCW that I first saw my future-wife, met her, married her, made a family with her-
I’m rambling, I know. The point is that, for years, I was happy just to be part of that world of SCW as a manager. But part of me always quietly wished for more – to fulfill that dream and become a wrestler. To stand tall and take pride in who I am. And for the past year, it’s been a nonstop roller-coaster to be part of that. From the people I’ve fought, the lessons I’ve learned, the titles I’ve won, to finally becoming a world tag-team champion with Selena…
There is nothing that can be done that will ever take all of this away from me. I’ll always have this time. I’ll always be able to say “I did it!” because all of you let me be here. You let me get in the ring and let me show you what I can do, what I am capable of and, more than anything, you all made me believe that there is more I can do! More I can learn! More I can accomplish! So…yeah… for all of that, thank you so much, guys!
Okay! Sappy stuff out of the way, right! You guys want to get back to the WRESTLING part of SCW, right?! Truthfully, so do I! Because I’ve been itching to be back full force ever since Under Attack. To be able to get in the ring and take on anyone and everyone with everything I’ve got, without an air-cast slowing me down or getting in my way!
And I’m not taking anything away from those I fought during December or parts of November. But, for me, personally, from retaining the tag-championships with Selena to competing in the Trios tournament, all I’ve been thinking about is getting back at the ring at full strength. Competing at a level that I know I can compete at.
Especially with The One watching.
And let’s face it, if there is one thing that woman has proven time and time again, it’s that she’s definitely watching Selena and I. And maybe I should be flattered at that, but when she’s attacking innocent people? Putting them in the hospital? And for what? Because she’s a walking hypocrite that isn’t doing a damn thing she’s promised all of us? That she’s too much of a coward to fight so she relies on sneak attacks and whatever? That she’s jealous that both members of The House of Frost have more spine than she ever could and can do more than she can?
I mean, how hard would it have been to simply challenge me? Or Selena? Or the two of us together if she felt so inclined? It’s not like we run and hide from problems. No, we face them head on! That’s what we’ve always done! And, for me, personally, it’s not like I don’t want to face The One after she fractured my arm in the chamber. Are you kidding?! I was injured for over a month because of a cheap shot! But no, Selena and I have to be the ones to make the challenge, which by the way, she STILL hasn’t properly accepted.
What are you waiting for, One? Are you waiting till Breakdown to give your answer? Are you waiting to see how far along I am when I take on Amelia Stone in my first singles match since that injury? Or is this more of your little cowardice? Where you see me beat Amelia and you go back to hiding, back to the proverbial drawing board and talking about yourself in the third-person?
Well, if seeing me in action is what it is going to take to get you to come out of your little hiding place and give me – give the SCW world tag-team champions – an answer one way or another, then I will be more than happy to oblige, as well as give you a definitive display of what you have brought upon yourself.
Which means that I’ve got to beat you, Amelia. And while that isn’t a personal thing, I just… I can’t lie and say I’m not looking forward to it. Because I just don’t get you, Amelia. I mean, you started as a fan like me and become somewhat of a manager to your idol, Glory Braddock. Now, you didn’t go all the way and marry her like I did – which I DO NOT recommend unless you are 200% sure like I was. Yes, I said 200% sure – but anyway, you were A LOT braver than I was because it didn’t take you long to become a wrestler! What was it? A few weeks of following Glory around? A few months? And you were already exploding onto the wrestling scene! I mean, you even faced your hero and beat her in a match! I don’t think I could ever do that with Selena. I mean… we wrestle in our training sure… but it’s not like we’re training to hurt each other, and if I’m completely honest, it always ends up…
NOT IMPORTANT!
What is important is that you were leaps and bounds ahead of me in the steps department. Like if I was the slow-and-steady one in my path to becoming and SCW superstar, you were the damn roadrunner! Going “Beep-Beep” and zipping away!
Only to come back last month and going back to being a manager – oh no! It was actually worse than that! You were basically a glorified coat-rack for Glory, holding her “title” for her and – I mean, holy cats, you were just her crash mat during Trios!
What happened, Amelia? Where was that drive you showed? Where was that passion to being a wrestler? Where was that drive to excel? To be awesome? I genuinely want to know because I just don’t understand how you could go back a step like that! I just don’t get it. I mean, you’ve been back for over a month and now, finally, you’re competing in a match. After Under Attack, when everyone thought I was too broken to continue – ‘Oh! Deanna’s first injury! Now the fantasy is over! Watch her crumble!’ – I couldn’t wait to get in the ring and prove everyone wrong. I couldn’t wait to keep going.
What about you? What happened to that enthusiasm? Even now, I’m not sure if you’re facing me because you want to or because Glory is telling you too. Do you know how frustrating that is for me? That I’m one half of the world tag-team champions and I feel like I’m facing someone who’s heart isn’t 200% in it beyond a ‘Yes, Glory!’?
I don’t want that, Amelia. I don’t want Glory’s hype-girl or belt-holder. I want the girl that beat Glory. I want the Amelia that started taking SCW by storm when she got here. I want the Amelia that was being talked about when she showed up in SCW. I don’t want the glorified cheerleader! The SCW Universe doesn’t want the glorified cheerleader. Cause I KNOW I can beat that woman. I don’t want to fight a woman I know I can beat. What’s the point in that? I want to fight the woman that could beat me. I want the woman that is going to challenge me! That WANTS to fight and beat me! That’s what I want!
Because I intend to have 2023 be bigger and better than 2022. That year was my introduction to the world of being a wrestler. The good, the bad, the scary, the painful – all of it. And I’m still here. I didn’t disappear or crumble and I didn’t walk away like you did, Amelia – for whatever reasons. I’ve been here, just like my wife has, fighting in the trenches to make SCW better, rather than just promise it like The One keeps doing.
And I want that to be moreso this year. I want to hit the ground running and storm through SCW! I want to do bigger and better things than I did last year. I want to fight more and more dangerous people. I want to beat people that I couldn’t last year. I want to beat people that never took me seriously. I want to hold championships and fight the best of the divisions! I want to go from “Rookie of the Year” into maybe the “Star of Tomorrow” or the “Tag-Team of the Year” or be a candidate for Feud or Match of the Year – hell, maybe even be the “Female Wrestler of the Year”, who know?!
You know what isn’t missing from my voice, Amelia? What’s clearly devoid in you? That passion! That ambition! That spark that I saw in the eyes of those women when I watched SCW for the first time all those years ago. I have it! Just like they did! I have it and I refuse to lose it like you have. Because I know, somewhere, there’s a young girl that’s dealing with her own issues right now that will be tuning into tonight’s Breakdown and – darn it! – I want her to be inspired by me! I want her to be inspired like Selena inspired me!
And I want those people to know what to do when people like The One oppress you or life holds you down!
You fight back! You keep fighting! You grit your teeth and you show that GRIT! You show it and show the world what you are capable of and you remind the world of it every damn day!
So, The One… Amelia… get ready for the rudest reminder you have ever seen! Because 2023 belongs to the SCW Universe and belongs to The House of Frost! And tonight, you’re not just going to see it… oh no…
All of you, Amelia…and especially you, The One… will believe it!
Checkmate, bitches!