YUYO versus Melissa Killgraves

[thisisemerge]

DEADLINE ONE - 3250 ROLEPLAY 15TH MAY 2020 2359 EST

DEADLINE TWO - SHOOT / SEGMENT 17TH MAY 2020 2359 EST

[Ruppy]

Another show, and another reason for Melissa to be irate.

She walked into the main event of the previous show knowing full well it was meant to be some sort of punishment by pitting her against three people who had a lot of hatred towards The Unforgiven, and she was more than ready to fight those odds and make a statement. For the most part, she accomplished that, even earning a reprieve when she began forcing situations where Helms, Wasley and YUYO had to turn on one another to prioritize the victory over anything else. After all, Helms arguably had the most to lose as anyone else winning that match would possibly line up her next challenger with Invasion on the horizon. Despite Melissa’s best efforts, however, she found herself getting caught and pinned by YUYO, of all people, and that very thought would’ve been enough to set her off all on its own.

The attack by Annabelle Burchard only made things worse.

On one hand, you’d believe the sight of Annabelle snapping and embracing the darkness that caused The Unforgiven to target her in the first place would be considered a victory in and of itself. Cindy certainly believed that rationale as Annabelle was exposed and all her talk of redemption revealed to be nothing but a web of lies. Melissa, however, didn’t take any solace in this fact. Between the loss to the woman who believed she’d jumped straight out of the pages of a manga and the attack, she was beginning to doubt both her decision to join The Unforgiven and her desire to continue wrestling as a whole. After all, the whole point had been to serve as an act of defiance against her father, but with the man now locked away and watching his pedestal crumble behind his prison bars, what point was there to indulge in this any longer?

Why continue with something that was clearly starting to become a waste of time and a test of her patience in an environment that only sought to leave her feeling broken and worthless?

“Because giving up would prove I’m too weak, even if pushing forward just means I keep following part of a path he paved for me,” was what Melissa had to tell herself.

As much as she hated the idea of clinging to anything her father had forcibly instilled within her, she knew how the world worked well enough to know how the human race perceived those who gave up even in the face of impossible odds. There would be no sympathy for being forced to survive when there was no way to do so, only scorn and disdain that she crumbled in the face of this challenge that was build to break her down and grind away at her until she appeared as worthless as she felt. That was why she chose to keep going, regardless of whether or not she had The Unforgiven in her life now. She knew she was strong… stronger than many would willingly admit because it meant going against how they would keep her down and hopefully be rid of her soon enough.

In the face of everything that had been happening, however, sometimes a breath of fresh air would do wonders for a mind that needed to be clear.

To this end, Claire and Jennifer had been asked to spend a day out with Melissa. Perhaps it might seem odd to someone on the outside looking in that these three were being given a chance to indulge in their former lives and appear as normal as possible right now, but Cindy had her reasons and there was no arguing with her orders. Jennifer seemed a bit skeptical about it but let it go, especially since Claire was certainly happy for the chance to go out and about for a while. The three ladies went out to eat and do a little bit of shopping, but all the while Melissa almost seemed like she was a zombie just following along for the ride. No words were spoken and nothing beyond a blank stare ever graced her features. This wasn’t lost on the redhead, nor was the fact that Claire seemed to be ignoring it despite the fact that she was usually the first one to be on anything that would be considered a problem with her longtime friend. The three of them were walking down the street with a few shopping bags draped over their arms when Jennifer finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“Melissa… is everything alright? You’ve been really quiet since Cindy let us have this day out.”

Melissa’s eyes slowly moved to stare into Jennifer’s for a moment, but one blink later and they were back to just staring off into space, earning a sigh from the redhead.

“Relax Jennifer. Melissa’s just trying to sort out her thoughts right now. That’s why Cindy let us have this little break, to clear our heads so things will be a lot clearer going forward.”

Claire gave Jennifer her usual million-dollar smile, but her girlfriend could tell right away it was the smile she used to force herself to wear while acting that everything was fine and perfect during public functions she had to attend with her family.

“Come on Claire, you can’t tell me you’re not even the tiniest bit concerned. I know what happened at the last show, but Melissa’s got a chance to get that win back one-on-one coming up. And the Annabelle thing…”

“She’ll realize the mistake she made soon enough, but Melissa can’t make her pay if she’s got other things she’s worried about, right?”

“I guess…”

Something was still off, and Jennifer knew it. Her girlfriend clearly knew more than she was letting on and was trying to hide it, even if she did have a point about Melissa’s focus. She looked back at Melissa again, who had closed her eyes and was trying to take deep breaths now as if she was making an active attempt to force her mind to become clear. Jennifer wanted to just stop and pull Melissa aside to see if she could come up with a better way of helping with whatever was going on, but all three ladies suddenly stopped as they rounded a corner and finally found their ears locking in on a loud noise they had somehow missed until now, the sight before them finally breaking Melissa’s silence.

“…what the hell is this?”

The trio looked surprised as sprawled out before them along this section of the street looked like an outdoor equivalent of a convention of some kind. There were stands set up selling various merchandise, stages put together where someone was doing some kind of performance or hosting some kind of discussion. Most noticeable of all was the fact that almost everybody here was in some kind of costume. After a bit of examination, Jennifer’s eyes slowly lit up as a realization dawned on her.

“That’s right, I think there was supposed to be some kind of anime and pop culture convention happening today and over the weekend, but I heard it got canceled. I guess all these people decided to host their own version of it anyway”

It was certainly understandable, considering how passionate a lot of these people tended to get towards their preferred medium of entertainment. You shut something down for whatever reason, and they will find a way to do it themselves as a sign that they will not let their plans die that easily. It was certainly a commendable effort, but obviously it wasn’t what these three really wanted to see right now. One glance back at Melissa was proof of his disgusted she was looking over everything that was laid out before her. Her friends looked concerned, especially Claire, who looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack.

“Let’s just go a different way. It’ll take longer to get back, but maybe we can avoid-”

“Hi there! Welcome to our little anime street convention!”

Claire had started to turn away while talking, but she was completely stopped as a young woman who looked to be in her early 20s bounded towards them, dressed in full-on Sailor Moon cosplay and displaying a friendliness so sweet it could cause cavities. Clearly she was trying to get them to pay and then wander on through what they had set up, and normally she could be forgiven for simply doing her job, but Claire kept looking from her to Melissa and back again and trying to think of the most polite way she could manage to let this woman down easy so they could just go some other way.

“Listen sweetheart, it’s nice that you’re trying to get us to come in and join you guys, but…”

“Oh, there’s no need for that word here. We’re a friendly, all-inclusive bunch and proud of who we are. And we aren’t charging that much for admission if that’s what you’re worried about. Probably less than whatever you’ve already got in those bags there.”

“No, you really don’t understand-”

“There’s no reason to be afraid or shy. The power of love conquers all, and in the name of the moon we shall-”

The woman was cut off and let out a little squeak as Melissa dropped her bags and shoved her way past her friends, grabbing the woman by the collar of her cosplay top and dragging her into a nearby alleyway. Jennifer quickly went to stop Melissa, but to her surprise, Claire held out an arm to stop her, giving her a look that clearly asked not to bother trying. It wasn’t long before the two of them slowly moved to block the only way in or out of the alley, watching as Melissa suddenly snapped and began to mercilessly beat the poor girl without remorse. The girl’s cries of pain and pleas for help were drowned out by the noise of the convention she was meant to be helping with, and the military maiden certainly wasn’t having a change of heart in the face of her begging. Jennifer just looked at Claire, whose face had been overtaken by the dark and determined look they’d both developed since following Melissa into The Unforgiven.

“Claire… I know we’re Unforgiven now and all, but you can’t tell me you’re alright with this.”

“If it helps Melissa get it out of her system, that’s all that matters right now.”

“I know Cindy probably wouldn’t care, and she was getting a bit pushy about trying to invite us in, but all this just because of YUYO from the last show and-”

“She’s worried about bigger problems right now Jennifer, and YUYO’s win is just something that put her in an even worse mood about it.”

Jennifer raised an eyebrow at this, clearly showing she’s not a fan of Claire hiding something from her. In response, she gave her girlfriend the kind of glare that threatened retaliation if she didn’t start talking, the kind of look they were supposed to use if they needed to get involved physically now that they were part of Emerge as well. Claire bit her bottom lip and tried to ignore it, but the more she watched Melissa hurl the anime cosplayer around the alleyway like a rag doll to vent her fury, the more she realized Jennifer needed to be let into the loop before things started to splinter if she kept pushing when things finally looked to be calm again.

“Alright… so, you know how before we basically walked away from living in America to join Melissa in seeking our freedom by joining The Unforgiven with Emerge’s move to England, we watched what went down between her and her father?”

“Yeah… he got arrested for abusing his authority among other things after that mess, didn’t he?”

“He did. And this morning, Melissa got a letter stating that she’s going to have to go back home soon to deal with that, whether she wants to or not. Since she’s the central piece to the puzzle, her testifying in court against her father is the only way there can be any guarantee he faces some kind of action for what happened, be it jail time or being forced to get help.”

One might question why this was such a big deal, even knowing all about Melissa’s history with her father since she’s made no secret about it. But after a little bit of thought, it began to dawn on Jennifer why this would have Melissa on-edge. While it was true Cindy was instructing her to harness her anger towards her father and use it as a weapon, it worked most effectively so long as Melissa didn’t have to ever deal with him again to re-open any old wounds, which was supposed to be a major factor in why Melissa had been more accepting than they first thought about moving to another country entirely to continue competing in Emerge. By the sound of it, this letter had effectively forced her to confront him again whether she wanted to or not: she could either stare him down in a court of law and speak her piece about their relationship, or she could ignore the whole thing and risk it causing him to go free and lead him right to her doorstep once again.

“When…?”

“They gave her a window since court proceedings are kind of iffy to schedule right now with what’s going on in the world, but if she does it, it’s going to be at some point just before Invasion. Cindy’s a little irritated at the fact that Melissa’s being asked to come back alone as well. That… that was why she gave us this day out. After the three of us talked since… no offense, but I’ve known about her issues with her dad for a lot longer and know full well what it does to her, Cindy told me to make sure Melissa came back with a clearer head and ready for the next show because she needs to put this out of her mind until the time actually comes.”

Jennifer bit her bottom lip as she looked back at Melissa’s continued assault of the innocent young woman who was just looking to enjoy an anime convention today. The unfortunate reference to YUYO was the obvious berserk button, but part of her wondered if that’s who Melissa was actually seeing as she continued to beat this poor girl down. For all she knew, she was once again picturing her father, doing what she knew she wouldn’t be able to do in a court of law without getting into trouble herself. In Emerge she could be restrained by her friends and newfound family if necessary, even though there were currently no plans to do that with YUYO and likely Annabelle on the horizon. On her own and face to face with the man who was the whole reason she’d become what she was today? That was a catastrophe just waiting to happen, and that was clear to everyone who had even the slightest idea as to the situation at hand.

“I want to feel bad, but… maybe this is for the best…”

Claire nodded, a bit of a somber feeling overtaking her as well as Melissa finally began to walk away from the girl, leaving her in a heap as the first signs of a smile seemed to appear on her lips at long last.

“Sorry, needed to get that out of my system. Let’s head back before I feel the need to burn this whole goddamn carnival to the ground. Cindy might not be too happy, but I kind of don’t care at the moment.”

Claire handed Melissa her bags and the three of them headed off down a path that wasn’t occupied by the street convention, with Jennifer taking one last look back at the poor girl before shaking her head and putting it out of her mind. She knew what she was getting into… they all did. And they all knew firsthand that the world was a lot more cruel and unforgiving than stories tried to make it out to be. That was why they had each other and why, for better or worse, they were part of something much bigger now.

As long as they all had each other, they could survive against the atrocities of the world by fighting fire with fire, and that’s exactly what they knew Melissa planned to teach YUYO come show time.