SCW Television Championship
Derek Adonis vs. Ruby Amarant
Deadline: Noon ET Tuesday, April 2, 2019
RP Limit: 2 RP Limit for singles; 4 RP Limit for tag
Often times I've considered the possibility that I made a mistake with this whole endeavor... pondering that ultimately agreeing to join Scarlet Grey on this little idea of hers wasn't one of my brighter moments after all. The woman certainly has her quirks and fully admits to them, and it didn't take me very long to truly understand what my role was truly to be in her proposed empire. Scarlet seemed to have a lot of it all figured out to my surprise, but the exact “how” never seemed to be one of them. Withing those first few days alone she must've poured through no less than several hundred ideas without ever fully settling on just one for longer than perhaps five minutes at best, leaving me the task of being a second voice in the conversation to not only finalize something, but attempt to keep it on the rails as well.
As you might expect, this was easier said than done.
And yet, no matter how many times I question why I continue to stand by her side each and every day, it always comes back to the simple fact that Scarlet intrigues me for reasons I cannot begin to understand. Perhaps it's the fact that no matter what I've done up to this point I've never spent an extended amount of time in the presence of someone so... fragmented mentally and emotionally, and the opportunity feels too good to pass up to investigate firsthand as opposed to simply learning through secondhand material written by others with clashing beliefs and opinions. Maybe I'm tempted to see what happens at the finish line if her dream of this Red Empire concept actually comes to fruition, despite the doubts I possess that the world around us will ever be united for any reason. It could just as easily be a case of waiting for my moment to take everything from her...
It's not as far fetched as you might believe if you recall that emotional attachment isn't necessarily something I'm one hundred percent capable of.
Whatever the case may be, something about this woman convinced me to stick around, and before I knew it I was settled in and Ruby Amarant seemed to have a life all her own at this point. It was an adjustment period to adapt to my new surroundings in addition to my new “friend” but it wasn't a challenge I couldn't overcome. Within the span of roughly a month I had grown used to Scarlet's everyday escapades and memorized every inch I am aware of within her so-called castle. It would be easy to simply let things play out from here and essentially leech off of what she was offering to me, but curiosity got the best of me and I started to play along with her scheming to try and settle on anything even remotely sensible... a task in and of itself considering she proposed every avenue possible to reach her endgame without fully rationalizing how it would actually line up with exactly what it was she was after. I can still recall one of her earliest decisions she actually did become quite passionate about...
Amarant: Dare I question where this is going?
When Scarlet had told me that morning she believed she finally had the perfect idea, I was skeptical at best but decided to go along with it as I responded to her request to meet her in what I still preferred to call a “war room.” To some degree I was not surprised to find her walking around dressed in nothing more than one of her more revealing bikinis, but seeing the word “MOTIVATION” scrawled on the whiteboard behind her in bright red marker is where I began to try and figure out what exactly she'd concocted this time, especially when this seemed to have more of an effort poured into its creation for a change.
Grey: Hear me out Rubes... bikini-clad motivational speaking. It's the perfect way to not only reach the masses, but also play to what I know will get the attention it needs to bring us one step closer to our goal.
I don't know if it was the nickname she'd taken to referring to me by or the full idea in general that got me to raise an eyebrow, but I was going to need a lot more than this to see where she was hoping to go.
Amarant: Forgive me, but how does this achieve your hopes of a world unified under your rule?
Grey: You mean it isn't obvious?
She couldn't resist doing a little twirl before sticking her hip out in the kind of fashion that was trying to draw attention to her body, but while I could see what she was hoping to accomplish I remain stone-faced as to the method behind the madness.
Grey: Seriously?
Amarant: Perhaps you'll have to enlighten me, since you certainly seem... motivated to tell me all about this.
Grey: Well, it's pretty simple really. If there's one thing people will always lose their minds over, it's someone hot wearing barely anything at all. I've kind of proven for years now that the moment you introduce a scantily-clad bombshell in someone's presence and their brain basically just turns to goo.
Amarant: That's how most human beings tend to work.
Grey: So I thought: “What if we use that as a means of getting a bunch of people together and taking that puddle of goo to mold it into something more worthwhile?” Think about it: if they're not using their brains because they're too busy eyeing the goods, then that gives us a blank canvas to work with to impart our ideals upon them through the power of positivity or something along those lines. Draw them in, then motivate them to want to try and change the world, and before you know it we've got crowds upon crowds of men and women who believe the Red Empire is, in fact, the right answer for a world standing in unity.
It was unorthodox logic to say the least, but I had to admit she seemed to be on to something. Human minds were very fragile in the presence of something that tempted their desires, after all, and if you use the lapse in their ability to use rational thought, you might be able to exploit that gap to effectively reprogram someone into whatever your heart desired. She certainly thought this one over extensively, and the fact that I had yet to say anything against this idea had her face lighting up like a proverbial tree from a certain holiday, but I wasn't about to give her the green light that easily.
Amarant: Have you considered the fact that as it stands, this plan might only work in terms of the male demographic? I'm not going to rule out the possibility of females who may lean in that general direction, but that number is likely minuscule compared to the sex that possesses an instrument they are always overly proud of between their legs. I'm not doubting the possibility of making that work, but if your ultimate goal is a world united then I fail to see how adding gasoline to the wildfire of the proverbial gender war that seems to be snaking its way through humankind would help more than hurt.
Grey: Are you saying you doubt my ability to get even women to pay attention to me while their jaws are on the floor?
Amarant: I'm simply trying to rationalize the potential for a scenario where you simply aren't able to have that effect on someone. Even if I were to be involved as well, though I cringe at the idea of having to be so public with my body-
Grey: Even if I think you've got no reason to hide what you've got.
Amarant: -the fact remains that it would take more than the two of us to be able to accomplish this feat in any meaningful fashion.
Despite the shudder I gave at the implication I knew she had of trying to have an excuse for me to strip down in a more public setting, and going along with my desire to stick to my guns and what makes me who I am without having to weaponize my proverbial “assets” as freely as she has, she didn't seem to pursue that fantasy any farther for the time being as she seemed to be pondering the facts I laid out before her. Somehow the bridges in her logic hadn't been fully formed in the confidence she had in her body and free sexuality, and it was this reason why if this was the plan we were going to actively pursue first, I had to be the voice of reason to try and fill in those holes before she blindly walked into one of them.
Grey: I'm sure it'll work out. The simple solution is to find guys that look amazing in maybe nothing but a speedo and we've got our solution!
Amarant: And what makes you so certain you can just convince two men who barely have any idea of what runs through your head to preach those very thoughts on a consistent basis in barely any clothing at all? I needed some convincing of your logic before I agreed to any of this, and it might seem more ideal if we had more people like me that fully understand and accept what you want for the best possible effect as opposed to the first attractive males you can find and try to hypnotize.
Grey: Don't worry, I'll sort that out myself. I did find you after all, so you just worry about finding the hottest thing you can squeeze those curves into so we can start taking this show on the road!
As much as Ruby wanted to move on to the conclusion of the memory she was writing down today, she just had to put her pen down and move her hand to cover her face. If you've ever attempted to do virtually anything handicapped with the sense of smell in an oppressive environment, then it wouldn't be hard to understand why Ruby had to put the brakes on her train of thought. Her eyes glanced over from her notebook to see Scarlet in the buff, not caring that she was in the middle of their living room like this as her body radiated the kind of shine that would make crystals in the sunlight jealous. It didn't take long to find the source of the offending odor as the bombshell buried her hands in another squirt of an oily substance from a bottle before slathering her body in it to try and become more reflective than any mirror.
Scarlet may be a happy user of MANSauce, but Ruby would be happy if she could just bury the product and the man responsible for it so it stopped trying to terminate her senses.
Amarant: Scarlet, is it necessary that you apply that awful substance out here?
Grey: Sorry Rubes, I didn't mean to interrupt your little English class with yourself. I just needed to get out of my room for a moment after addressing that bitch who sat idly by and didn't stop Sasha's team from winning Tactical Warfare.
Amarant: I still fail to see why that means you have to waltz out here and cover yourself in more oil than the Deepwater Horizon dumped into the Gulf of Mexico almost a decade ago.
Grey: You mean you don't enjoy this goddess-like view?
Scarlet couldn't resist moving her body in a slow and seductive fashion, abusing the glimmer she knew her skin was giving off to further enhance everything she had on display. While anyone else might easily fall for this, Ruby managed to maintain her somewhat annoyed stare that clearly told Scarlet she wasn't interested in the smell of MANSauce assaulting her senses right now.
Grey: Look, maybe I was trying to help a bit. You did deliver on your promise to bring the TV title to the Red Empire, and now you have to start defending it against guys like that oversized tub of jelly who thinks he's attractive for who knows what reason. Manvel clearly produces a better product that than KABLAMasutra garbage which proves he truly was the brains behind the operation-
Amarant: Then maybe you should find him and discuss a new business avenue for the Red Empire then in addition to wrestling. I appreciate the attempt to help, but it's hard to think when all I can smell is that... stuff...
Scarlet couldn't resist taking a sniff of the bottle but didn't seem fazed by the scent. Still, she seemed to adhere to Ruby's request anyways as she made her way off to somewhere else in the building to, if Ruby had to wager a guess, continue “shining” herself up to go out and have some fun in order to take her mind off whatever clearly bothered her from addressing her own match. As she took a moment to let her senses clear so she could resume writing, she couldn't help but ponder Scarlet's attempts to “help,” and the more she thought about what Derek Adonis represented and pitched to the public, the more she began to see a parallel with her current story and knew exactly where it was going. Derek may not see it quite yet, but that would change soon enough once she could park herself before a camera. Before that however, she couldn't let Scarlet's distraction derail her writing endeavors this time, and as she wrapped up this chapter of her memories she couldn't help but start plotting all the parallels to the match she was about to have in the process.
Despite the potential of the idea, Scarlet's attempts to solve the problem I presented to her didn't turn out as well as she'd hoped. Even if she had succeeded in finding men that wanted to be on board, trying to convince any public officials to allow her the space necessary to legally host such events proved to be an obstacle even I could not resolve for her. It wasn't for a lack of trying however, but even what she was able to attempt did not produce the results she was expecting, so it was back to the drawing board.
I don't think she came out of it as downtrodden as I would've expected, however. She seemed to find value in what she was able to gain out of the event, and I wouldn't go as far as to say this concept won't surface again someday with some retooling to get around the previous issues. In fact, to some degree I have noticed others attempting their own versions of the same idea to varying degrees of success, though there does come a time when eyes need to be opened to the truth that compared to what Scarlet was aiming for out of her efforts, all these others are mere charlatans only concerned with being able to pull the wool over the eyes of others. Clever... but not clever enough to avoid someone like me setting fire to their entire foundation and watching them scramble to salvage whatever's left in the aftermath.
*
Tick... tick... tick...
There's no doubt that sound is probably grating on your nerves right now, but Ruby Amarant is well aware of that and doing nothing to stop it. As we open up, we find that the source of the sound is a clock on the wall that clearly has no problem making its presence known with how loud its ticking is, though it could just as much be due to how quiet it is in the room otherwise. After all, aside from that we see Ruby sitting in a black metal folding chair with the TV title resting in her hands as she looks down at it in intrigue, and the rest of our scene is pretty barren. Just grey concrete walls that look like they've seen better days and that's about it. Still, it draws our attention to the fact that Ruby seems interested by the prize she's holding before she carefully moves to place it over her shoulder like a champion would, letting this sight sink in with the rhythm of the clock before she finally lends us her voice to spare us from that sound one second longer.
Amarant: Do you hear that? The sound of precious time ticking away as it grates on your nerves in the process? That is the perfect symbol of how much time has passed since Scarlet and I first came to SCW before something finally went our way. Granted, certain so-called “sociopaths” who haven't the faintest idea of the rhetoric they spew might be quick to point out that it took me “abandoning” Scarlet to do it, but the fact of the matter is that this title is now the property of the Red Empire, something that not a single soul can properly wrap their heads around if what I've seen so far is any indication. Humor me... did you honestly believe a man like Konrad Raab was actually going to prevail over me? I would hope the answer is no, because otherwise that proves just how misguided you all truly are when it comes to which horse you believe to be the most noble steed for your precious white knights that continue to fail with each passing day in their mission to “save” a company that does not need saving.
Amarant: Perhaps it might be baffling to you that I'm not sitting here jumping for joy like my partner might be if we switched positions or gloating more about the fact that I am your new TV champion. That is merely a sign of what separates me from the rest of you. To put it simply, what you're seeing now was inevitable. It was never a question of if, but when, and to be honest I don't feel any different finally being able to call myself a champion compared to how I did before I walked down to that ring to send the Iceman's reign down in flames. People make such a big deal out of being a champion and what it means, and yet in the long run I find that I don't have any more power still than anyone else on the roster. This just means you'll have to see me each and every week and nothing more... nothing really new there, if you want my honest opinion. I don't have any power to suddenly give people like Scarlet, Autumn and Kandis matches for the other titles, I have no ability to decide for myself who to defend this against and I don't even have the luxury anymore of knowing in advance who will be waiting for me the following week since apparently even the eliminator matches are no longer a thing even with the guard changing back to the concept of “earning your place” around here.
Amarant: I suppose that could explain why I went from outsmarting someone who was trying to substitute me for another woman straight into the position where I could gain this... and why my first challenge is a man who is so desperate to get this title back that he might actually forget about the proverbial “greasy monkey” still clinging to his back for a change.
Ruby pauses to let that sink in for a moment, slowly crossing her legs as she waits. Of course, this causes the ticking sound to be unfiltered once more as it bores into your mind and soul, and the subtle hint of a smirk makes it clear Ruby's enjoying the idea of what that might be doing to you.
Amarant: Now, I understand that some of you might be looking at this match and believing it's a case of Sasha simply “righting a wrong.” I wouldn't blame you for believing that, considering you all need a reason to assume that because of which horse I decided to back in that race that there are still loose ends that need repaired. Of course, that leaves you still scratching your heads over why I was allowed a TV title opportunity in the first place, though perhaps you've drawn the conclusion that Sasha's trying to prove she can be just as fair to those that stood against her as she is with her own little flock of golden children. Whatever the reason may be, I know it doesn't change the fact that the idea of me holding this title does not sit well with any of you and the hope of Derek Adonis returning to prominence as the bearer of this belt is all you can think about right now.
Amarant: Allow me a moment to bring you back to reality.
Amarant: I can understand why you all love this man, because you can identify with him. The grotesque appearance and general attitude fueled by his overly sexual desires makes him the perfect idol for every adult male in the audience to identify with, even though his mere presence should fall in line with the current social norm of the female counterpart falling back on the #MeToo ideology to see this man removed from the SCW roster and incarcerated for crimes against the opposite sex for this very reason alone. The fact that this has not happened allows you a moment of reprieve to feel safe in your masculinity by letting your mind wander to every inch of your perverted fantasies as you devote yourselves to the idea that this one man somehow knows the secrets of a better and healthier life when compared to men and women in far better condition who have spent years developing their own respective techniques and methods to achieve the same end result. It is safe to assume that you simply ate up every second he disgraced your television screens during his previous reign as nobody seemed capable of taking him down for whatever reason while he lavished the opportunity to continue to extort you of all your hard-earned money with his clever little ponzi scheme.
Amarant: For those of you incapable of keeping up, you've fallen for the charms of a con artist who is relying too heavily on exploiting your typical make fantasies to make a quick buck at your expense, and I can only assume the only reason women haven't spoken out against what he's selling yet is because of the woman he's brainwashed into abandoning her dignity to sit near the top of the pyramid with him.
Perhaps it might be a stretch that she's making such accusations, but considering the proven fact that Derek Adonis has knowingly used SCW air time to promote his KABLAMasutra and made money off a book that effectively disguises sexual positions as “exercise techniques” on top of his SCW salary, Ruby knows she's justified in these claims even though she's expecting backlash from the blindly devoted who actually believe in what the man is trying to sell them, and she can only shake her head in disbelief at this thought.
Amarant: Now, I'm sure you might consider this as your big moment to rise back to the top of your former mountain Derek... the chance to dethrone me while my reign is still in its infancy and perhaps claim some semblance of “vengeance” in the process. After all, I'm sure there's a part of you that thinks back to Making Things Right and the stunt Scarlet and Kandis pulled using your... competitor's product, for lack of a better term I suppose. Now, I could care less about what either you or Manvel are trying to sell to the mindless masses who don't know any better despite my partner's clear preference, but this isn't the first time someone's looked at me and perceived an opportunity to gain a measure of payback for something perpetrated by another in my little circle, and it doesn't make your job of being able to prove you have the capability of taking this title away from me any easier if that's what you're going to delude yourself into believing as a form of motivation.
Amarant: The fact of the matter is that you are in way over your head this time Derek, tasked with facing someone who sees straight through your charade and will expose it a hundred times over before I leave New Orleans on Wednesday night with this title still in my possession.
Amarant: I could proceed to lay out every fact as to why this is the case despite how obvious it may seem because I know you will fail to understand it, but allow me to take a different approach to this task. Let me pose an honest question to you Derek: do you believe that Manvel would allow you to claim this title that easily and return to a position that he perceives as building your proverbial empire on top of an idea he pitched to you? I don't recall things looking like they were finished between the two of you at Retribution, and if you believe I am your only concern come Breakdown then you might want to ask your “other half” if she can hold up the largest mirror she can find behind you. I alone already do not plan on parting with this title so easily as it is counter-intuitive to the endgame of the Red Empire, but once you include that minor little x-factor you begin to realize just how slim your chances truly are of walking away with what you seek on this night.
Amarant: Just as the clock was ticking down to the eventuality before you, so too does it count the hours before I can put your attempt at a challenge behind me Derek and you can return to trying to resolve the remnants of your former friendship while I move on to the next task at hand. It is a fact that all of these things are simply a matter of time in the grand scheme of the world, and I'm afraid yours have ultimately run out and all that remains is to watch as every lie you've built yourself on collapses beneath you, and SCW is left to watch as you plummet into the abyss, never to be seen again. Such is the fate of the man whose greatest attribute is deceiving the people he claims to help.
Ruby allows herself the chance to show a more clear smile, something we don't see too often from her, before our shot fades to black, leaving us with that perpetual ticking sound to haunt our dreams forevermore before it, too, is finally silenced, just as Derek Adonis will be in due time.