DEADLINE 1 - 1X 3,250 word limit RP, in whatever format you choose
FRIDAY 2nd AUGUST 2019 2359 EST
DEADLINE 2 - 1x 750 word limit SHOOT / SEGMENT rp, to be used in the show. This rp must be sent to the EMERGE PM box before the deadline of SUNDAY 4th AUGUST 2019 2359 EST
Most kids grow up in the world with a solid understanding of what this word means. They are born to a mother and father who love them very much and help guide them through life until it’s time for them to leave the nest and used what they’ve been taught to forge their own path forward. On occasion, they may have siblings joining them on the journey to give one another a sense of support that you aren’t alone in this endeavor. Perhaps most importantly, however, was that you had a small group of people you could always turn to whenever you were in desperate need of support and help because things went in a direction you simply couldn’t handle alone.
Melissa Killgraves was a rare case of a child who grew up not knowing any of these things, so it should come as no surprise that her view of the world and this concept had long since been warped.
Most of the issues should be pretty common knowledge to you by now. For most of her life, Melissa was raised by her single father, who treated the situation more like training a new recruit for the military in hopes that he would develop her into the kind of strong woman who would follow in his footsteps of serving their country, ignoring the fact that his daughter never actually wanted to pursue this path and simply wanted a normal life like what many of her classmates growing up had. It was a heated topic of discussion for many years up until Melissa was old enough to live on her own, and she wasted no time in moving out and trying to establish her own life. While it wasn’t easy at first, she now had everything stabilized thanks to using what she’d been forced to learn to great effect in the world of wrestling to carve out a shockingly successful rookie year thus far, though it didn’t make things between father and daughter and calmer. If anything, it only exacerbated things even more considering it was her desire for freedom pitted against his disdain that what he’d forced into her brain was being used for a purpose opposed to what he intended.
One colossal question mark that still lingered in this story, however, was the other half of the parental equation.
For most of the time that she was old enough to retain memories of her childhood, Melissa could only recall the overbearing presence of her father slowly molding her into a ruthless military machine just like himself. She knew she had to have a mother, considering those classes in school that teach teenagers on the verge of puberty all about where babies come from and so on, but there was nothing more than one big blank in her mind when it came to the subject. Naturally, there were many plausible explanations: her mom could’ve passed away for reasons only God would truly know, she and the sergeant could’ve had a falling out and divorced… she’d always pondered the thought but was usually kept busy between school and her father’s strict regiment to seek out the answer. It was one of those things that slowly eats away at you though… a burning question demanding to be answered, and the young woman remembered the day she finally threw caution to the wind and asked the one man who would be able to provide it for her, even if she wouldn’t like what she heard.
“Dad… what ever happened to mom?”
16-year-old Melissa stared up at the imposing figure of her father as she carefully stood up, being careful not to get her hair caught on the barbed wire from his makeshift backyard obstacle course again. Three laps through the grueling course had earned her a small break, but even Bridgeport’s resident war hero hadn’t expected that to be the first thing out of his little trainee’s mouth after he gave her the OK for a moment’s rest. The way he stared at her almost made it seem like she had three heads in his eyes, but he quickly shook this off and regained his stone-cold demeanor.
“Why do you ask Melissa?”
“Well, I’ve never known who she was. Anything I can remember has always been from you raising me… maybe part of me wonders that if she was here now how she’d react to what you’re doing to me thinking this is what my life’s supposed to be.”
Brett let a low growl escape his throat as his daughter retrieved a water bottle from the small cooler near the back door and chugged it down greedily to fight off dehydration from the scorching summer day. The older she grew, the more she began to fight him on what he wanted for her future, believing it to be the best course of action not just for her, but for this country as a whole. Having another Killgraves enter the military with more than enough prior training already felt like a guarantee in his mind that any enemies of America would immediately regret crossing the stars and stripes on the battlefield, but he needed her to be one hundred percent dedicated to this cause for any of this to mean something.
As Melissa cracked open a second water bottle to use as a makeshift shower head to wash away the sweat, dirt and blood leaking from the cuts accumulated thanks to the barbed wire, Brett could feel his own mental defenses crumbling at the desire to simply shrug off the question. There was a reason he never discussed Melissa’s mother with her or anyone else, and the last thing he needed was the desperate shame of an action taken out of fear that he may not return home alive and would never know the experience in question coming to light. There was no telling how the teen girl would react once she knew the truth and the possibility of turning it against him to destroy everything he’d earned down the line if things continued to sour between them felt like the equivalent of giving an enemy nation the arming codes to America’s entire supply of nuclear weapons. But he knew better… the determination and stubbornness he instilled into her would never let this die until she knew what she needed, and she already hated him plenty at this point. Maybe it was a risk he was simply going to have to take, especially if it did somehow get her to realize she was better off like this than she realized.
“I doubt your mother would give a rat’s ass about how I’m raising you if you want the honest truth sweetheart.”
“Is that because you still think your way is the only way and you’re hoping I realize that and give in to your version of torture before I’m old enough to simply walk away?”
“It’s because outside of the day she showed up at my doorstep and shoved you into my arms the last time I saw her was on a street corner outside a bar where I was stationed for basic training!”
Melissa dropped the water bottle, coughing at the liquid she’d sent down the wrong pipe thanks to gasping right as she was trying to get one last drink before she was ordered back to the grind. Her wide eyes at this revelation locked with the disappointed, hate-filled gaze of the man who was half-responsible for her very existence, but he quickly turned his back to her with a frustrated sigh, knowing he’d opened Pandora’s box now and there was no going back.
“I wasn’t in the position you’re in because of all my training for when you’re a legal adult Melissa. When I first joined the Army I was undisciplined and only saw the benefits of coming home a proud and celebrated veteran. The more I endured during boot camp and the more I heard the horror stories from those who had actually served before me, the more the glamor began to wear off. One night when I was out drinking with some of the guys before we were due to graduate and deploy for the first time, I let them talk me into losing my virginity just so I could ‘check that off the bucket list’ in case I never made it back in one piece. They found this woman named Krystal loitering nearby, and one thing led to another…”
He spat at the ground as though it would somehow remove the images from his head before turning to face his daughter, the stern look returning to his face as she seemed almost horrified by what she was gathering from this little story.
“After that night, I spent the next few years overseas, entrenched in combat and unaware of the consequences of that night. It wasn’t until my tour was done and I returned home a hero that I saw her again, shoving you into my arms and telling me you were my problem to deal with. Plain and simple, your mother was nothing more than a whore and a mistake I never want to relive again, and if you ask me… I think you’re better off like this instead of following in her footsteps, parading around in alleyways with barely any clothes on under some ridiculous name just to scrape together a little money and a hollow sense of a good time-”
“Melissa! Focus!”
The next thing she knew, Melissa found herself losing her grip on the memory she’d become engrossed in, but it wasn’t enough to prevent her from crashing head-on into a metal fence. She tumbled over it and nearly landed on her head before she finally began to get her bearings, growling in frustration as she used the offending blockade to help her back to her feet, a little banged up but nothing more. She vaulted herself back over the fence and into the confines of the high school soccer field where Matt had brought her to work on cardio, storming over to where he stood near the bleachers with a ferocity that was more aimed at herself than anything else. With her eyes to the grass at her feet, she failed to see the clear concern cross her trainer’s face as she closed the distance.
This was the last thing she needed now of all times, but ignoring it was easier said than done.
Only roughly seven months into her wrestling career, Melissa was not only still undefeated and now sporting championship gold, but found herself on the verge of her very first main event, which all together sounded like a fantasy if she didn’t have the stats and printed material to back it all up. That said, this main event would see her clashing with the monstrous Sundown once again, and while there was no danger of her title reign coming to an end with how the match was booked, she vividly remembered the bloody war she went through the last time she went one-on-one with him and this time didn’t have the extra leverage of a match the night before to capitalize on. She needed to bring her absolute best to solidify the Invasion results and leave no doubt this time on being able to get the job done, but how could she focus on doing that when her thoughts were plagued by new developments in her struggle to comprehend why the ‘family’ hand she’d been dealt in life sucked so hard, for lack of a better term.
“You alright?”
“Yeah. I’ve felt worse from that big bag-headed bastard, so it’s safe to say I can probably take whatever he can throw at me a little better this time around.”
The former military general couldn’t help but crack a smirk at the snide comment, which was all the proof he needed to know she was telling the truth about being alright. Still, he knew full well he saw the blank stare in her eyes when she ran past him on that last lap, and combined with not seeing the fence that enclosed the field until it was too late, he knew exactly what was plaguing her thoughts and serenading her away from reality. While he wasn’t completely filled in on the new details originating from just before she came back home after Invasion ended, he’d noticed in her training for the tag match she and Tommy Cook recently won that she was becoming more easily distracted as of late, something that had even come dangerously close to ending her unbeaten ways if Cook wasn’t the athlete he constantly proclaimed himself to be. That match was forgivable if only because she had a partner looking out for her, regardless of whether it was driven by his own ambitions or not, but she wouldn’t have that luxury against Sundown. If this happened on August 5th, the end of her perfect record would likely be the least of her concerns.
“You want to talk about it? I don’t want to force anything, but I’m familiar enough with your situation to know the signs of PTSD over your upbringing when I see it.”
“I’d rather not, but…”
She cut herself off with a sigh as she dropped to a knee, grabbing her water bottle and drenching herself with its contents just like in her memory. If nothing else, she vainly hoped it would wash away the inner turmoil of trying to figure out who she was in a world where she wanted nothing to do with either parent and what they wanted from her. Sundown at least had his ‘Tombstone’ group to talk him out of decisions that would cause them to lose a valued member of their little clan, but her? She had no one she could fully see as family to fall back on when overwhelmed by what stood before her beyond the near seven-foot nightmare. Matt was close, but she wasn’t fully comfortable explaining everything just yet when she herself was still struggling to figure it out, so she decided it might be better to hide behind a different subject that was bothering her.
“Sir, you’ve been on both sides of the proverbial fence in your career. Good guy, bad guy… how did you put up with anyone who tried to downplay your accomplishments just because it wasn’t a clean win?”
Matt scowled a bit, primarily because that wasn’t what he wanted to hear from her right now. True, the question was an important one, but he wanted to get to the root of the more pressing concern first. Knowing Melissa wasn’t comfortable discussing it for the time being and hoping he could ease her into it depending on how he directed this little chat, he let it go for the time being and focused instead on how to best answer her question. After all, despite the natural attitude she flaunted in public that made it hard to perceive her as anything other than confident and driven, she still didn’t have a full year under her belt yet in the business and there were still some aspects she was struggling to fully grasp, such as the fact that the fight she put up in her previous encounter with her upcoming opponent is being all but forgotten about because all the focus was on how the match ended.
“Well kid, it’s not always easy. You’ve probably guessed by now that human beings are fickle creatures that prefer to focus only on what they feel is important. Some fans are forgetting about what Emerge is capable of as a company because they’re too preoccupied with voicing concerns about all the attempts to break it away from SCW, for example. And if Sundown’s ego is bruised too badly because of the interference at the finish line to remember everything you threw at him before that point, of course he’s going to focus only on that and people are going to ride that bandwagon all the way home.”
“It’s not like I asked for any help to beat him! I’m not Dex’s biggest fan either, in case you’ve forgotten, and I can’t be blamed for him picking too many fights beyond me.”
“Exactly, but people are always selective with their memory. You just have to remember that no matter what actually happens, others will always choose to focus only on what fits the story they want to tell. Your father, for example, may have legitimacy to his claims that he’s helping with a major case in another city right now, but the timing is too convenient to ignore the possibility that he took it on to make sure he didn’t have to deal with you when you came back home after Invasion. Sundown and company will only focus on the fact that he got ‘screwed over’ and won’t bother with anything else. The easiest thing to do is just try to put that all out of your mind and deal with the task at hand. If he doesn’t respect you because he forgot about everything before that behemoth got involved, then remind him of why he should respect you even if he won’t admit to it publicly.”
“…why can’t people just be simple to figure out? Between my dad’s obsession over making me walk his path, Sundown being an overgrown baby about something beyond my control and my mom deciding she wants to be part of my life again now that I’m making some decent money doing this… I feel like I want to puke from how much it’s making my head spin.”
Despite some concerns that there might be more truth to those last words, Melissa shakes off Matt’s attempt to stop her as she resumes the laps she was running beforehand, wanting to lose herself in her workout hoping it will be enough to keep her head clear, despite its failure to do so moments before. Matt watched her warily, his worries hard to hide. The revelation that Melissa’s mother was now in the mix wasn’t a comforting one, especially with what he knew about her from the civil conversations he’d managed to get out of Sgt. Killgraves in the past. Melissa was a strong young woman, there was no doubt about that, but every human being had their limits no matter how much they tried to hide them. Sundown’s humanity was exposed by her at Invasion, after all, and nothing would overshadow that fact no matter what he’d try to claim to her this time.
He feared Melissa was drawing close to her own mental limits, however, and this situation needed to be diffused sooner rather than later not just for the sake of her career, but her entire mental well-being going forward in her life.
![[Image: sundownsplsh.png]](http://ukodonline.com/Goddard/sundownsplsh.png)
![[Image: sundown_zps9pquj1n4.png]](https://s90.photobucket.com/user/ogbuddha/media/sundown_zps9pquj1n4.png.html)
![[Image: yC0vuyj.png]](https://i.imgur.com/yC0vuyj.png)