Ravyn/Ace vs. House of Frost

[supremecw]

Ravyn Taylor & Ace Marshall vs. House of Frost (Selena & Deanna Frost)
SCW World Tag Team Championship

4 RP Limit per team
Deadline: 11:59:59 pm ET Saturday, April 22, 2023

[Lt. Erect]

A fun new story beginning for Autumn here. Ace too although unbeknownst to him. Excited for this match, always wanted to team with Ravyn.

---> Click Me! <---

[Syren]

Been a while since I posted as Ravyn. Lots has changed since. I was going to just start over with a new story... but I've decided that I'll incorporate the story I started before into this new one as well. If you even remember what that story was.

Enjoy.



Ravyn Taylor's Diary
An excerpt from April, 2023

[SnowQueenSCW]

OOC: Plays off the last set of roleplays. The Royal Letter is meant to be a private recording emailed to the sendee to further CD/story. Enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of fiction and not to be confused as complete or accurate representation of any beliefs, religions, etc. Please refer to research/articles by experts for that.

The Witches of Alden

”Motherhood”

The Edison Ballroom
New York, New York
March 26th, 2023
6:37pm

Selena was feeling a mixed series of emotions as she beheld the woman standing before her mother – the woman she knew to be her grandmother. On one hand, she honestly could not believe that she was in the same room with such a woman…

As a child, Selena had known at a relatively young age that Anastasia DeCarlo was not her real mother. At first, she had merely suspected it – her ‘mother’ and her had very little, if anything, in common. No features that looked similar, no innate personality characteristics, and there was the obvious matter that her stepmother was beyond cruel to her – something she never believed any mother should be to her children (which she ensured with her three children back home). Still, with her childish mind (and her father’s golden nugget necklace around her neck), she had merely believed that it was some sort of magic, like an enchantress or the stork or something. However, before Donovan Frost had ‘disappeared’, the young girl – now old enough to understand basic mechanics of ‘procreation’ - had confronted her father, Donovan, about Anastasia. Looking back, Selena regretted putting such a conversation topic on her poor father’s shoulders, but to his credit, Donovan had not shied away, telling Selena the truth and promising that, when she was older, he would tell her all about her actual mother…

That conversation never happened.

Still, perhaps as much as she kept wishing for her father’s return to ‘rescue her’ from the evil/unfairness of Nome, young Selena also thought about what her real mother was like, out there in the world. I’ll bet she’s super-pretty! the child had thought. With hair just like mine and she has to be so kind if father still spoke so wonderfully of her.

Now, to be fair, Selena had never imagined a woman like Alejandra (given her own paler than snow complexion), but she had, indeed, managed to be accurate where it mattered most. Her mother was beyond kind and sweet, and fiercely loyal to her father and her – and, of course, she saw Deanna as her own daughter as well, which meant the world to the Snow Queen.

Still, on the one hand, where she had imagined for those many ‘Nome-years’ what it would have been like to have such a mother that loved her and cared for her, never had she imagined beyond that. Never had she imagined a grandmother on her mother’s side. It just… never factored into her ‘dreams and wishes’.

So, to be standing in front of the older, dark-skinned woman that had sired her mother, Selena was not entirely sure how to feel. There was no rush of positive feelings or sense of elation. The woman was her mother’s mother… and that was it. No different than meeting a stranger on the New York subway. That truth, however, brought a sense of sadness to the Snow Queen – to feel nothing towards her own grandmother, especially after being without one after so many years since the death of Irene Frost.

Part of her simply wanted to leave. They had been all but excused by the Alden-charter and its elders, the sentence being nothing more than a reestablishment of the facts.

Exile… from a family that they wanted nothing to do with. It honestly felt like a victory to Selena. The idea of being done with this group here and now? It was what they wanted! No more being spied on! No more cryptic business cards! No more blackmailing from billionaires or whatever Raphael Alden was! Things could finally get back to normal – just as they had begun to be since the death of Killjoy! Deanna and her could get back to normal in their lives – or what counted as normal to the Frost women – including raising their children, visiting Selena’s parents (free of this burden as well) and focusing on SCW.

And probably regaining the tag-team titles.

The thought came to the Snow Queen on its own and she did not refute it or even try to hide it. If their ‘dance’ in the ballroom down the hall had shown anything to Selena, it was that her wife was of the same mind as she was. The House of Frost stood for integrity – of giving everything you had in your passion and resilience to be the best wrestler and raising the standard of excellence and integrity within SCW.

By Kimberly’s own rules for her Trios Cash-in at Breakdown, that meant that aiming to retain the tag-titles together in a few nights was not only impossible, but a clear contradiction to that belief. They would have to ‘settle’ for the tag-team titles, aiming to finish not in first or even second place (which is what the tag-titles should have been for the ‘WORLD tag-titles’ in Selena’s mind). No, it meant that they would have to let other people beat them until they were ‘sitting’ in fourth and fifth place. Much like the match was made impossible for Kimberly to walk away without being the Underground title, the chaotic woman had effectively found a way to put an ‘end-date’ on a reign no other tag-team had managed to stamp out with the House of Frost – not because of ego but because of their own beliefs…

But with this Alden matter closed, the House of Frost could work on fixing that together! They’d get their rematch and challenge for the titles at the next Pay-Per-View! Whatever happened at Breakdown wouldn’t diminish their skills as a tag-team! They were still one of the top teams in SCW. And with all these distractions behind them, they could focus on regaining the tag-titles from whoever held them.

In truth, the mystery of that was far more puzzling to Selena. While she and Deanna’s integrity prevented them from ‘settling’ for the tag-titles, she knew of others that would leap at the chance to push their way up the ranks – accepting ‘any title’ they won. Glory Braddock wanted to be Supreme Champion and the tag-team title was the last one she needed. She was clearly on the list and probably would try and stay in that ‘range’.

What if it’s a pre-established tag-team? Like Datura and Bree? The Snow Queen thought, her thoughts moving a mile a minute. The odds weren’t likely, but maybe Light in the Darkness? Gods, if only… Selena thought, stealing a glance towards her wife, who kept her eyes on the embracing pair of Alejandra VanHohenheim and her mother, unaware of the tirade of thoughts that rapidly rampaged through Selena’s mind. A tag-team, an established tag-team in SCW, winning the tag titles could at least make for a quick salvage at the pay-per-view. The House of Frost would be the challengers this time, true enough, but at the very least, it would be another five-star tag match with the teams representing the division as it should have been! Like it was the grand prize in SCW that it was and not some fourth or fifth place prize in a demented woman’s mind!

Still, there was no denying the numbers that Selena continuously (and often not meaning to) ran through her head. As ‘hopeful’ as she could be that The House of Frost could salvage something out of this Breakdown match, just like the odds were high that their tag-title reign would end, the odds were equally (if not higher) that their ‘opponents’ would not be an established tag-team or even associated with one another, but a pair of wrestlers that just happened to fall into the rankings and score enough points. Names like Konrad Raab, Chance Owens, maybe Amelia Blythe, Bree Lancaster if she couldn’t retain the Adrenaline title, the list was a vast one of wrestlers – some world-title worthy – and others not quite so but would not hesitate at one ‘HELL of a consolation prize’ in the tag-team titles.

And yes, that did give the House of Frost an advantage in their rematch with the match restored to tag-team rules as opposed to the slock that was the Breakdown match coming up, but still… the whole thing infuriated Selena. She didn’t want any of this. She wanted to get SCW back on track. She wanted things back to normal – or what they were raised to when she had held the World title: That standard of integrity. With her and her wife fighting to be the best tag-team in SCW, stepping in to restore the bar of integrity in the other divisions as needed, and SCW actually standing for Supreme Championship Wrestling. But, by the way things were headed for by the end of Breakdown, not to mention the ongoing sale of SCW that O. was overseeing behind closed doors…

No, she needed this thing with the Aldens to be done with so she and Deanna didn’t have to be distracted by it and could, therefore, focus on whatever fallout Breakdown had. If they were distracted, then they would not only lose the tag-titles, but also the rematch and any other opportunity that came their way. If this continued, their rematch – if Selena’s prediction came to pass – would be wasted and they would be back to square one. And with Deanna getting passed over time and time again for singles titles despite her success in the ring, not to mention Selena having no clear direction outside of the tag-team titles as well (even though she had won the majority of her singles matches since Rise to Greatness, including beating Adam Allocco, Glory Braddock and Bree Lancaster) – the Snow Queen wasn’t entirely sure what the hell they were supposed to do should everything just fall apart from the ‘Chaos-Match’ and the aftermath of it at the pay-per-view.  

By sheer logic: the safety of her wife and mother, the House of Frost having the best chance at surviving the Chaos-match and the proceeding pay-per-view as the SCW World tag-team champions… she needed to just walk away here and now! Just turn around, take Deanna’s hand tightly in hers and march out of this opulent, overindulgent ballroom party and be done with it. Leave it all behind and not look back! Screw the Aldens and her grandmother!

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t ‘simply walk away’ despite so much of herself begging to. The elders of Alden had made that impossible by dragging her aunt and uncle, Caius and Sage, into their ‘punishment’. Subtly, Selena stole a glance at the two as one marched around the room angrily while the other sat in one of the many black chairs, neither sibling daring to interfere with their mother’s affectionate hug with her daughter/their sister, Alejandra. The two of them now stood at the great risk of sharing in the same exile as Selena’s mother possessed, though Alejandra had forty years to be without the Aldens and whatever ‘benefits’ lied therein. The platinum-blonde wasn’t sure it would be so easy for her aunt and uncle to adjust.

So, she was trapped in this situation, the cruelty and unfairness towards Caius and Sage keeping her in this room to discuss alternative solutions with the older Alden matriarch.

A clearing of someone’s throat caught Selena’s attention, pulling the Snow Queen back to the present time – the seconds that had passed since she had walked into the private, empty conference room feeling like an hour with the tirade of thoughts she had endured in that time, the mental debate to stay or just walk away rampaging through her.

“I suppose introductions are needed.” Alejandra VanHohenheim sighed as she guided the caned woman towards Selena. “Selena, I suppose you can guess-“

“Freya Alden.” Selena answered in regards to the black-dressed woman standing before her. “My grandmother.”

“Indeed I am.” Smiled the older woman towards her granddaughter. “And I suppose we have a lot to talk about…”

“Yeah, like how the hell can they do this?!” came the sudden spat of Sage. “How can they kick us out of the charter?”

The question was the elephant in the room and Selena didn’t mind that Sage had taken the attention to address it, staying quiet as the dark-haired woman ran a hand angrily through her ebony locks.

“I agree.” Came a reply from Deanna. “Caius, isn’t there something against the rules or… something? You’re the guy that’s ‘in the know’ right?”

The only male in the room took a deep breath before sighing out its natural exhale. “I appreciate the confidence, Deanna. But they can.”

“Seriously?” the redhead asked in surprise. “They’re that powerful that they can just decide who is in and who is out?”

“Deanna…” Selena whispered from beside her wife, gaining the redhead’s attention. “Was it any different than the Frostmeres? Or even SCW? A board of directors who can change a match or terminate a contract on the fly? A board… A clan of elders? They’re just fancy names for ‘those in power’. Besides…” the platinum-blonde sighed. “Did you see how casually those elders decided this, no hesitation or fear that they would be questioned by the majority.”

“I…” Deanna bit her lower lip. “I didn’t see that.”

“I did.” Selena remarked, turning her eyes towards her grandmother, Freya, who had left removed her gaze from her. “I suppose Caius is right and that they could easily remove you all?”

“They can.” Freya answered simply. “Not the brightest idea for their image, but they…” she seemed to search for the right words for a moment, her hand twisting her cane into the floor. “Sadly, they have to do something.”

“Why?” Alejandra asked from behind her mother, regaining the older woman’s attention. “Why do they have to ‘do’ anything? Selena, Deanna and I are happy to leave. Forget we were here or in the family. Move on like it’s been for the last forty years!”

“And what then, child?” Freya asked, her tone a little stiffer – a whiff of condescension within, causing Alejandra’s eyes to widen and her jaw muscles to tighten. “What about tomorrow? What about the next time the other charters meet up and this is known? That they let a known scandal and cause of that scandal off the hook with no punishment or something to restore dignity to the name? Hmmm?”

A moment of silence swept the room, all eyes on the oldest person – the same person that had called this impromptu meeting.

“Whether you like it or not, Alejandra.” Freya spoke strictly and directly. “You committed a grievous error – some would call it a crime – against all of us. That carries some weight to the other charters. And if we just ‘let you go’ with no punishment after that? What happens then? The charter gets questioned. More credibility is lost… the other charters may even dissolve this one.”

That last prediction, while meaning little to Alejandra and even less to Deanna and Selena, caused Caius and Sage’s heads to rip towards their mother.

“Can they really do that, mother?” Caius asked, the idea clearly upsetting him more than his potential exile. “Father would have lost his-“

“Your father isn’t here, Caius.” Freya remarked with a saddening sigh. “But he would agree with my assessment.” Beside her, the man gave a slow nod of understanding.

“So that’s it?” Sage huffed. “We do the right thing for our family and the charter in tracking down Alejandra – something father begged us to do – and we get punished for it? How the fuck is that fair?!”

It was the strongest déjà vu Selena had felt in a long time. In Sage’s words, suddenly, it was Deanna saying them to her privately as they shared a bath together – the redhead beyond confused by O. D.’s set of actions. It was Selena, herself, asking those same questions in the mirror after Retribution when she had heard of the ridiculous match Kimberly had created. It was her asking the same question every time she thought of D. and his behaviour towards her and Deanna with each passing week. Even her children – specifically her eldest, Elsianna, asking a similar question (minus the curse words).

How the fuck is that fair…

And the truth was… it wasn’t. None of this was. There wasn’t one thing fair about any of this. Not here. Not in SCW. Anywhere. It was unfair what was happening to her aunt and uncle and her grandmother. It was unfair what was happening in SCW, not just to her and Deanna, but to every champion and challenger (except Kimberly, of course). The whole thing was unfair…

But what could she do? What could any of them do? The Board had signed off on the match. The elders had made their decision. Rapahel had played his hand.

“It’s not fair.” Selena finally spoke, moving closer to Deanna to, once more, take her hand in hers. “But what can be done?” she asked. “We offered an apology. We offered money. We offered some kind of help or service – damage control.” She shrugged. “What else is there? They seem set.”

Hearing such an assessment, Alejandra turned her eyes over to Freya. “Mother?” she asked. “You called this meeting.”

Again, Selena could see Freya’s hands twisting the cane into the floor, as if she could drill a hole through the wooden panels with her clockwise and counterclockwise, slow movements.

“There is a way.” Freya began slowly. “The debt of the ‘crime’ could be paid.” She eyed Alejandra.

“What do you mean?” the taller, black woman asked, raising an eyebrow before both shot up in realization. “Mother, you can’t be seriously asking me to marry Raphael!” on instinct, she threw up her hand, revealing the wedding ring she wore. “I’m married, mother. I have been for a long time! There’s no way I’m doing that to Jonathan! Not in a million-“

“Alejandra, hush!” the command was emphasized with a strong tap of Freya’s cane on the floors, once more creating a sound and echo that silenced her daughter’s tirade. “I am NOT asking you to marry Raphael.” She stressed. “And I doubt Raphael would care for that either, given we’re soon to be exiled. However, if we could…” once more, she searched for the right word. “restore you to being part of the Alden family… if you could earn that right, then the matter would be closed and everything settled.”

“Except for the fact that mother would be, once again, trapped in the Alden family.” Selena countered. “What’s to stop any of you from just enforcing your will upon her again?”

“Selena…” Alejandra tried, but the Snow Queen pushed on.

“No, let me say this.” Selena interjected, eyeing her grandmother. “When she was in the family, you tried to pawn her off to a rich family for your own sakes.”

“You know nothing of that.” Freya replied with a bit of chill.

“The hell I don’t.” Selena’s eyes narrowed, the Snow Queen taking a step towards the older woman. “Because my stepmother took her from me.” She gestured to Alejandra. “Tried to do the same thing in Nome. Contracts, bargains, dealings behind closed doors? Arranged marriages for power? Yeah, I know all about it, but I’ll do you one better! Your family ever kill, drug, or kidnap those that didn’t comply?”

Freya’s eyes widened at the accusation. “Wha…no!” she defended. “We’re not…”

“Criminals?” Selena tilted her head. “Just words. Forcing someone to do your will? Not that far off from that. But I’ll tell you: my stepmother did. She and the Scythes are the reason I almost lost my mind. Lost my father to a mineshaft ‘accident’ when I was eleven. Lost my child for nearly five long years. Why it took me over twenty years to see my real mother again. Why I was miserable. Because I didn’t have the balls to do what my mother did and leave it all behind until I had EVERYTHING taken from me and nothing else to lose or live for. So don’t stand there and tell me that I don’t ‘get it’. YOU, Freya, are the one that isn’t qualified to speak to me of ‘justifying’ forcing your own child to your will and desires!”

She could feel the heat in her cheeks, the rage leading to her features glowing a little redder as she stood her ground against the startled woman. The two simply stared each other down for what felt like several minutes, but was, actually, only a few seconds.

“She has your temper.” Freya finally breathed, stealing a glance towards Alejandra. “I can see it.”

“I take that as a compliment.” Selena shot back, regaining Freya’s gaze.

“If…” came Caius voice, the man pushing himself to stand to allow himself to step in-between the two women. “If I may…” he had both women’s attention now, but he chose to focus on Selena. “Mother’s suggestion does hold some potential.”

Instead of answer, Selena’s sapphire eyes narrowed at the man, barely allowing him to continue.

“If Alejandra can be accepted back into the family, then the charter could claim that they solved the matter within their own ranks effectively and without further incident. This would appease the other charters, get us off the radar – everyone wins.”

“Except my mother.” Selena reminded him.

“It actually does.” Caius explained. “Yes, she would technically be a member of the Alden family again but there is no real ‘amount’ she needs to be involved to do so. Maybe attend a meeting here and there but she could be a recluse like some of the elders and no one would bother her.”

Selena’s head shot over to Freya. “Is that true?”

Freya gave a nod. “And you have my word that none of us would interfere in her life after it was all said and done. Although…” she turned her head to Alejandra, her eyes fair gentler than they had been when Selena had been ambushing her with her tirade. “I would like to take the time to get to know you again, baby. See if we can fix what’s been done between us…” there was a lift of hopefulness in her voice, a mother reaching out to her daughter, but Alejandra simply crossed her arms over her chest, saying nothing.

“That’s all well and good…” came the voice of Sage in a scoff. “But we seem to be neglecting one important piece of information for Allie and the Frosts.” She seemed to eye Deanna for a moment, as if she was looking out for the redhead. It was curious to Selena until the Snow Queen recalled the help her wife had given Sage months ago in trying to reconcile with Alejandra. “The initiation and orientation process.”

Immediately, the platinum-blonde saw Caius and Freya tense up, the latter tightening her hands around the head of her cane while the other’s jaw seemed to clench, showing the defined muscles of his jawline.

“What?” Selena asked, eyeing both of them one at a time. “What is Sage talking about?”

“Please tell me this isn’t some kind of – ‘only the special few can join our ranks – and MUST face a test’ or something like that.” Deanna huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. However, when neither Freya or Caius answered right away, her arms fell to their sides in a huff. “Oh come on! It IS like that, isn’t it?!”

“Alejandra will need to be trained.” Sage spoke up, the only person brave enough to be honest and forthright with the Frosts now, it seemed. “She’ll have to meet with the elders, relearn the basic lessons children do, probably at a faster rate cause she’s an adult, take part in all their customs – which let me tell you is far from ‘fun’ and then finally, her ‘initiation ritual’ when she has passed all the tests and trials.”

“Meaning?” Selena asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It means I’ll have to be a witch again.” Alejandra sighed knowingly. “Or at least viewed as one within the clan.”

“Are you serious?” Selena huffed, earning a slow nod from both Freya and Caius. “Good gods!” she shook her head. “And what if she doesn’t want to be a witch? What if she doesn’t believe in that anymore?” Despite herself, Selena tried not to remember the books and pictures and items her mother had shown her in the week leading up to Retribution, not to mention the charm she had made to prove herself to Selena.

“I’ll do it.”

The voice came from Alejandra, causing Selena to turn back to her mother, stunned. “Mother- why?”

“Cause it’s the only way, Selena.” Alejandra reasoned. “A few months of training, working some tasks and trials and we’re all let off the hook? Everything goes back to normal for Jonathan, for me, for Caius and Sage – for you and Deanna…” she sighed. “If I have to endure that, then I will. Easily. I’ll be an A+ student or whatever they want me to be and then be done with it once and for all.” She shot a glance towards her brother and mother. “Right?!” she stressed the last word with a slight growl and narrowing of her eyes.

The two nodded in confirmation. “It should appease the other elders and charters.” Despite herself, Freya could not entirely hold back her excitement. “And I can help. We can get to know each other again, baby…”

“Easy.” Alejandra warned, holding a hand out to stop the woman’s advance. “I’m only doing this for Caius and Sage and so that my daughters never have to deal with this again. I’m not promising you anything more than that. Understand?”

Selena heard Deanna whisper beside her towards Alejandra. “Thanks… mom.” Clearly hearing the plural of ‘daughters’ in that previous statement. Freya, meanwhile, seemed to deflate a little, though she nodded her head in understanding.

“Shall we approach the elders now?” she offered, gesturing towards the door from which they entered.

“Might as well.” Alejandra breathed. She took one step forward before she felt Selena’s hand grab hers, holding her back for a moment. Turning towards the wrestler, Alejandra said nothing as her daughter eyed her.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked earnestly.

Turning to glance at the Aldens in the room, Alejandra turned her attention back to Selena before giving a nod. “Yes, I am.” She simply said before gently removing her hand from Selena’s grasp. She then lead the group, with Selena and Deanna taking up the rear, as they walked out of the room, down the hall and back into the ballroom.

“She’s very brave.” Deanna whispered.
“She is.” Selena whispered back. “Are…” she eyed her wife. “Are we okay?” she recalled the ‘power dance’ they had gone through no more than an hour ago.

“We…” Deanna breathed. “We’ll deal with that later.” She turned her emerald eyes towards Selena. “This isn’t the time now.”

The platinum-blonde nodded her head in agreement. She could already feel the beginnings of a headache coming on from the stress she was carrying. Her mother was taking a bullet for all of them when she had done nothing wrong. SCW was spiralling out of control. Her wife was losing her faith in all of it and Selena… was powerless to stop any of it from happening… including her own doubts taking root about it all.

Still, she kept quiet as the six people re-entered the ballroom, the party back into a semi-celebratory state from what it had been at the start of the whole event. Seeing the group enter, however, it did not take long for the dancing to cease, the music to stop and for all eyes to be on them. If it wasn’t so off-putting, the situation that is, Selena could almost have likened it to walking down the ramp during her entrance. She immediately felt Deanna’s arms wrap around the closest of Selena’s as they followed Alejandra and the Aldens further into the room until they were standing in the center of the dancefloor again.

A quick glance around the room showed the Snow Queen where the elders were (near the elevated platform) and where Raphael was (still on said platform, with a patient smile that she just wanted to superkick off his face).

“Ah, you’ve returned.” Raphael smiled. “Some of us were wondering…”

“I respect this family too much to not keep my word, Raphael Alden.” Freya shot back. “And you’d be wise to leave the snide remarks for your own business meetings. Not Alden meetings.”

Despite his smugness, Raphael bit back a comeback with a swift smile before nodding his head. “Shall I surrender the podium to you, Mrs. Freya Alden?”

“No need.” Freya, turning around to face the surrounding crowd and elders. “My daughter and I have reached a counteroffer to your decision, elders.” She eyed each one as she spoke, a very commanding presence that even Selena, with her years in front of a crowd, envied. “Rather than exiling the entire family and further marring our charter’s reputation, Alejandra would like to earn her place back into the family.”

Immediately, a chorus of murmurs, some interested, some hostile, filled the room. For a third time that night, however, Freya earned silenced with a swift slam of her cane onto the floor.

“Alejandra’s only crime is choosing to leave the family, thus creating the scandal in the first place. If she were to earn her place back in the eyes of the elders… as recompense and restitution, then would that not only appease everyone in this room but the other charters? That we solved this matter in our own way? With the dignity and grace of the Aldens?”

Again, a faint murmur formed, but not enough to drown out one of the elders – the short Asian woman that had spoken earlier. “You say the word ‘earn’.” She started. “Do you understand, Freya, what that means?”

“Orientation, trials, and, should she prove successful… the initiation ritual.” Freya answered simply. “My daughter has agreed to all of it.”

Why does that make me uneasy… Selena thought, hearing those same words again, though she did not have time to dwell on them.

“She has agreed to be retrained as a witch?” asked the taller, fairer-skinned Alden in disbelief.
“She has.” Freya stated. “In return, this matter needs to be closed and the Frost and VanHohenheim respected in their solitude from us. What say you?”

The elders turned to one another, whispering amongst themselves. Despite straining to hear, Selena could not pick up a word from them as she stood by her mother and Deanna. For several minutes, not a word beyond the huddle of the elders was heard, the entire charter waiting on baited breath to hear. Even Raphael did not dare utter a word from his place/’perch’.

Eventually, the elders turned back to the Aldens, Frosts, and VanHohenheim, the taller male stepping forward to speak.

“We are of a mixed opinion on this.” He stated. “While we can appreciate your attempt at such an endeavour, we doubt the sincerity of it. Furthermore…” he continued, eyeing Alejandra as he spoke. “Mrs…” he caught himself before continuing. “VanHohenheim made her choice clear forty years ago. To even consider re-entry into our ranks would open a cavalcade of issues – setting a precedent that could haunt this charter for years to come in ways that we cannot, presently, even consider.”

Selena felt her jaw clench at the assessment. It was accurate. They didn’t know her mother like she did – what Alejandra was offering was a gamble at best for the Alden charter.

“However…” the man continued. “We do see merit in a new entry being considered. Particularly to one that wasn’t given a choice in the matter to begin with.”

Slowly, all the elders eyes turned away from Alejandra to land towards Selena and Deanna.

“No!” Alejandra spat out. “No! That isn’t part of the deal – Freya!”

Immediately, Freya moved in front of the elders’s gaze. “I’m afraid my granddaughter is not part of this ruling.” She quickly pressed. “They shall remain ineligible.”

“Ineligible of what?” Selena asked, gaining the attention of the others, the shorter female-elder speaking up to answer.

“We believe you were denied the choice to become a witch, yourself, Mrs. Frost.” She explained. “Your mother’s actions and abandoning you-“ Selena saw her mother wince at the cold words used by the elder. “Prevented you from learning of your own heritage. Should your mother wish to have this matter dropped and her family’s – and this charter’s – state in this matter cleared, you could take on the orientation and initiation in her place and her name.”

Selena’s eyes widened, her head jerking over to her mother, who swiftly shook her head left and right at the Snow Queen.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Muttered Deanna, turning her head back to Selena, who gazed at her. “Just say no.” she whispered. “We can help Caius and Sage ourselves. We don’t need them.”

We don’t need them… The phrase echoed in Selena’s mind, adding to the never-ending urge to ‘walk away’ that had plagued her all night. That feeling was stronger than ever. The elders wanted her to join their family, not her mother. They wanted her to study to become… it seemed ludicrous! It wasn’t like SCW where she had suffered scars, falling off scaffolds and crates dropping on her. She had survived all that because she BELIEVED in SCW – she still believed in it… at least she thought she did.

This? Being a witch? She didn’t believe in it for a second. Nothing against those that did but… in her mind, it was in the same vein as Santa Claus and the concept of ‘God’. Where were they when she had needed them? When her father had disappeared and she had begged every person she had been taught existed to please do something to give her father back… and all had failed. When nothing had been done through the hell of Nome she had endured until she had taken her own fate into her hands.

It hadn’t been witches that had saved her, or good luck charms, or the energies of the stars and the moon, it had been her. Her will. Her desire to stay alive.

Still…

Her eyes found her mother standing there, the same woman that was now shaking her head towards Selena, who had, just moments ago, agreed to the same punishment Selena was being asked to undertake – for family members that had tried to force her to marry someone she didn’t want to. A punishment that would, ultimately, get her nothing but would spare those same members a fate that, quite frankly, was, at least, partially deserved!

Caius, Sage, and Freya had forced Alejandra to run away and had only made attempts to look for her at the bequest of her father, who probably just wanted to find her and force her back into a marriage with Raphael. She owed them nothing! Just as Selena owed nothing to Anastasia, Malcolm or Ryan Scythe. If anything, they deserved to live a fate that they had forced on Alejandra!

The thought brought Selena’s eyes to shift over to Caius, Sage and Freya, the three of them staring at her. Two of them were unreadable but Sage’s was of utter misery and unfairness – Selena knew that expression well. Sage was hating this – every second of it – and for what little it was worth, Selena was at least appreciative of her sympathy.

She sighed. She already knew the answer she was going to give – had probably already made it the second the offer had escaped the elder’s lips. She hadn’t walked away when she had the chance before… she couldn’t do it now.

“Fine.” She announced loudly. “I’ll take it on.”
“No!” Alejandra interjected, marching the few steps towards her daughter. “I will not-“

Selena’s turned to stare at her mother. “It’s the only way, mother.” She stated, repeating her mother’s earlier words. “A+ student, remember?”

Desperately, Alejandra cast her glance from Selena, to the elders, to her mother, to her siblings, before finally returning back to Selena, not able to say a word in that entire journey. “I… you can’t do this alone.”

“She won’t have to.” Came the stern voice beside her, which equally rose in volume as it was thrown towards the elders. “Hey! I’m going too.”

The elders were distracted by this, turning their heads towards the shouter. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” Deanna Frost spoke up, taking a few steps forward towards the elders. “Selena is my wife. That makes Alejandra my mother, too! They are my family. So, if you’re pulling Selena into this, then you have to deal with me too! Otherwise, no deal and we walk!” she barked, crossing her arms over her chest. “We’re a packaged deal, see?”

The elders looked at one another, somewhat confused before returning their gazes towards Deanna. “The invitation…” the tallest elder spoke. “Was meant to be open to you as well, Mrs. Frost. Spouses are more than welcome to join with their partners.”

“Oh…” Deanna’s eyes widened, her voice a little sheepish as her head jerked towards Caius, Freya, and, lastly, Sage, who gave a shrug/nod combo as if to say ‘Yeah, it’s true…idiot.’ at the redhead. “Well…alright then. Good! School days! School days!” Deanna sang the notes of the song before scampering back to Selena’s side, ignoring the reprimanding look from the Snow Queen.

“Was that entirely-“
“Yes.” Deanna answered briskly. “It was.”
“They only needed-“
“Do. Not. Care.” The redhead stressed each word. “You’re stuck with me and I’m sticking to you like glue. Understand?” She clung to her wife’s arm again, tighter than before, as if to emphasis that statement.

For a moment, Selena simply glared at her wife before releasing a sigh, whispering under her breath. “We could have just gone for a second or third honeymoon or something.”

“I would love that.” She answered simply, though she kept her eyes locked on the elders. “Gerda can watch the kids or something.”

Though Selena nearly rolled her eyes at Deanna’s outburst and quick comebacks to her own assessments, the Snow Queen could not help but make a mental note about the honeymoon thing – she still had to apologize for keeping Deanna in the dark about this entire event, which had not gone at all like she had hoped! Still, looking around the room at the various expressions of the other members of the Alden family charter, her fears of a more gruesome outcome grew less and less. Sure, some were still giving the entourage of her, her wife, mother, aunt and uncle and grandmother some harsh glares but none of them screamed ‘immediate danger’ to her.

“Then we are in agreement?” came Freya’s voice, loud enough to be heard. “My granddaughter and her wife shall be trained. And once they have passed the trials and completed the initiation ritual, they will be full-fledged witches.”

“We are in agreement.” The short, female elder remarked. “The Aldens of Freya and Brisben’s sect can assist the two Frosts as necessary as well. We will reconvene after their trials have been concluded.”

Turning her head, the woman gave a nod to the platform where Raphael stood. With a grin, the wealthy man leaned forward to speak into the microphone at the podium. “Meeting is adjourned.” He remarked. “Please continue to party and help yourselves to fine drink and food! Musicians!”

Once again, the orchestra were playing their instruments, the waltzing music filling in the room as the mass of people dispersed. Some left the room, some stayed for more food, drink and dance.

Deanna and Selena, stayed put as the others in the group turned to them.

“You should not have done this.” Alejandra sighed, gazing at her two daughters sadly. “This-“

“No time to worry about what-ifs, dear.” Freya interrupted. “What’s done is done.” She added with a sigh, eyeing the Frost wives. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten into, do you?”

“Not a clue.” Selena remarked, feeling her wife squeezing her hand.
“But when has that ever stopped us from doing something crazy?” Deanna finished with a smile.

The older woman simply gave a shake of her head before gesturing for Caius and Sage to follow her out. She stopped to glance at the two women one last time. “We will help all we can… but your success will ultimately depend on both of you. I…” she eyed Alejandra, her daughter, once more before returning her gaze to her grandchild. “I wish you luck. I truly do.”

Without another word, she was heading for the exit, Sage and Caius in tow.

“Well…” Selena sighed, shaking her head. “She’s pleasant.”

“Yeah like a cactus.” Deanna huffed before turning to her wife and mother-in-law. “So… we’re going to be witches.”
“Apparently.” Selena sighed, rolling her eyes. “Whatever that even means.”

“It means you’re in for a difficult time.” Alejandra sighed sadly. “And there is nothing I can do now to stop it.”

“We’ll be fine, mother.” Selena tried, reaching out to take her mother’s hand tightly in hers. “We survived much worse than this, remember?”

“I…I suppose.” Alejandra sighed. “And I’ll be able to help you as much as I can. Least we’ll be able to spend more time together.”

“Yeah…” Deanna remarked before asking one last thing. “Just one question… at what point do we get to wear the pointy hats?”
_______________________________________________________________

The Royal Letter

Mr. Drach… O.…

Maybe this isn’t the most professional thing for me to do, sending you a private ‘Royal Letter’ like this. Cause, usually, these are meant for my upcoming opponents for whatever match I am in. Doesn’t exactly scream ‘professional employee/employer decorum’, I realize.

However, after having to deal with you while you were lying on a medical bed with your pants down, getting a staple out of your ass, I think ‘decorum’ can take a backseat for this. Because, as much as I want to talk about Ace and Ravyn to Ace and Ravyn, you left me in a rather difficult position last time we talked.

I’m not going to apologize for knocking Ace to the ground during that mockery of a title ceremony. I did what I did because he insulted my wife and my tag-team reign with Deanna. He sauntered into the ring and insinuated being a better partner “inside and outside the ring” than the woman I have been married to for nearly eight years. You brought my daughter into our last conversation, O., how would you feel if somebody like Ace Marshall or Adam Allocco promised to be a ‘better father and SCW-owner’ than you ever were? If he said he’d be “Sasha’s ‘new’ Daddy-D?” or whatever? Maybe you wouldn’t punch his lights out but I sure as hell would! So, I’m not sorry for it and I’d do it again if I had to!

But this letter isn’t about that – least not the core of it. This is about me and you. This is about everything that’s been going on between you and me for the last few months. And, I’ll start off by confessing something on my part. Something that I wouldn’t tell anyone else but you and Deanna.

After our last ‘talk’ on that Breakdown in Iowa? After the show? I broke down. Yeah, I saw a few fans, signed some autographs because they deserved that for coming to see the show. I was the good “Face of SCW” that I have tried to be for years. I then walked into my “Believe It!” bus and proceeded to chuck the world tag-team title against the wall and cry my eyes out.

Isn’t that interesting, O.? I’ve had Vixen Cain kidnap my child. I’ve had Xander Valentine break my bones. I’ve had Trinity Street crack my ribs. Regan Street, my sister, scarred my back with barbed wire cat-o’-nine-tails. Sienna Swann dropped a crate on my foot. Giovanni Aries threw me off several feet of scaffolding. My head’s been smashed with a monitor. None of that has ever broken me. None of it truly made me think twice about what I was doing here in SCW and what it was worth.

But you look at me and say… THAT… to me?

And I actually break down. I cry. I think about…

I think about a lot of things. And poor Deanna has to coach me through it all. She has to endure me blubbering like a child because of you. I’m embarrassed when I think about it but… I needed it. I needed to have a good cry to get my head on straight. To be able to sit down like this and talk to you about what I should have said in that arena-medic room in Iowa.

How I should have, after you tried to call me out and call my wife out – how I should have called you out, O. D.!

Because you keep talking about how I “don’t know everything”. That I don’t know all the details of you selling SCW. Of who is running the Board and making the choices. But you know what? Who’s fault is that? Who’s the one keeping me in the dark? Who’s the one keeping all of SCW in the dark! Face it, you wouldn’t have said anything to the fans and the people RESPONSIBLE for the success of SCW and the billions of dollars you have, if it weren’t for Deanna and I hounding you. You’re the one that’s been lying and hiding things from all of us, fan, roster and crew member alike, and you want to use that as some kind of ‘defense’? That we are ignorant while you’re making closed-door dealings?

And you talk down to me like you have the high ground? That I have no right to talk to you like this. Like who the hell is Selena Frost?

You want to know who I am, O.? I’m the woman that stayed here while superstar after superstar, every main-eventer you’ve backed for the past decade, left. When Regan had to leave, when Amy had to leave, when Bree had to take a leave, when Shilo had to leave, when people like Xander and Adam and Kennedy and Shaun Cruze weren’t around, when the Braddocks and all their relatives came and went on and off. Cid left, Asher left, Chris Cannon left, Syren kept taking breaks, Christy left – on and on they all left: I’m the one that stayed behind. I held it down. No injury slowed me down. No attack put me on the shelf for months or ‘indefinitely’. Whenever SCW – whenever YOU – needed someone to protect SCW, I was there! I was the one that stepped up time and time again for SCW, for the SCW Universe, the True Believers and for YOU and your vision of SCW that I BELIEVED in!

I’m the one that held the fort even when you, yourself, left! I’m the one that raised the bar, even when it hurt like hell for me to do it. Even when it cost me time with my wife and children. Even when my wife was in prison for a crime she never committed, I STAYED here! I did all I could to push SCW to the next level. Hell, you came to me to represent SCW in the World Series of Wrestling and I made the world even more aware of SCW and what it could be by finishing 8th out of 65 of the best wrestlers in the world!

I didn’t do movies.
I didn’t do part-time schedules.
I didn’t take time off.
I didn’t ‘do other things’.
I was here.

You think there weren’t times that I wasn’t happy or times where I felt I was on the short end of the hockey stick? Or felt that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be? I spent FOUR YEARS trying to get back to the world title picture because the Board didn’t see me there, no matter who I beat! But being in SCW, caring about SCW, was more important to me than being pushed to some title.

That’s who I am, O.. I may not be as pretty as Kelcey or as rich as Blake Mason or Jenni Anderson. I may not be ‘deserving’ to share your VIP lounge when you show up for TV shows and Pay-Per-Views like them. But when they all left you, or turned on you, or left SCW to live or die on its own, I was still here! I’m the one that cares about the place more than any other superstar in this company and I’ve proven it – I’ve lived it – day after day, night after night, for nearly a decade!

So, yeah, maybe I felt I DESERVED better than your constant dismissals and constant shutdowns about my ignorance or whatever. Maybe I deserved better than your vague answers and you insulting my wife simply because she wants to try and be better around here and has more guts than I do to call you out on things where I’ve kept my head down and just powered through. Maybe I, after my near decade of work, just like all the SCW Universe, deserved a little fucking transparency from the guy who we made into a billionaire!

But you want to look at me and turn it around on me. You want to say I’m, how did you put it? ‘Not the Selena Frost I hired’. Same with Deanna, right? Why? Because we care that the tag-team titles are held with some integrity and prestige and not some ‘consolation prize’? Let me make it clear, O. D.! If the tag-titles had been put on the line in a match where the BEST person/team won the tag-titles, where the WINNER or WINNERS became the tag-team champions of the world, you wouldn’t hear a peep from me. I’d have accepted it and worked with Deanna back up to get a rematch. Simple as that. That’s NOT what YOU and the Board of Directors allowed that night. You allowed the winner of the match to become the world champion and all the losers to be given consolation prizes. You told ALL of SCW and the entire world that titles like the Adrenaline and the Underground and the Tag-Team titles – titles that people, including me, have won tournaments for, fought for months to acquire, broke their bodies and risked their lives for, were ‘good enough’ to be door prizes for the runners-up in that chaos match!

THAT’S what made me angry! Because Deanna and I worked our asses off to become tag-team champions, just like we will this weekend to try and be tag-team champions once again! Josh Hudson, though I hate him, worked his ass off to regain the United States title from Glory Braddock. And Bree came back from a pregnancy to be good enough to win the Adrenaline title! You’re telling me that all of that effort and sacrifice really only amounts to second to seventh place in the grand scheme of things? That your Tag-Team champions of the WORLD only amount to the fourth or fifth placed best in SCW and not the definition of integrity and tag-team wrestling that should be putting SCW on the goddamn map?!

You think Light in the Darkness faced their demons and came back here for fourth or fifth place?
You think Bree and Datura became number one contenders for fourth or fifth place?!
You think my sister fought to the bitter end of her career in a tournament for fourth or fifth place?!! DO YOU?!!

Pfft… I’m not the ‘same Selena Frost’ you hired.

You know what, O.? You’re not the same O. D. that hired me! There! I said it! You’re the one that isn’t the same! The man that told me that you could achieve anything if you work hard enough and strive to be the best! The man that told me that SCW was about integrity. Of representing the best talent, passion, and hard work in professional wrestling! In being ‘the leading force in sports entertainment today!’. Remember that? You only play it every show and pay-per-view!

And you have no idea how long and how much I’ve been dying to call you out on that! Want to know how long?

January 26th, 2023! Breakdown. You remember that date? That was when you came back from another hiatus. Do you remember what you said? Don’t worry, I’ll spare you the time tracking the video down on YouTube.

You said you’d ‘be damned if SCW has to stoop so low to Slapfight Championship Wrestling, damn it!’. Forgive the impression. I’m not a voice actor. You said meddling would have consequences in SCW! And who could blame you for saying that. Lexy steals the SCW World title, people are fighting up and down the halls – utter chaos. You come out and say you’re going to restore order. That actions will have repercussions. Do you remember that?

I do. Because I was watching that segment. THAT was the O. D. that hired me! That was the man that stood by his beliefs that integrity and skill should be the definers of SCW, not chaos, bedlam, politics, and whatever sells the most pay-per-views! That was the man who’s vision I believed in and spent nearly a decade fighting for.

You know why that night is emblazoned in my mind, O.. Because it was the same night that, after making that vow to all of SCW – and to me – you turned around and let Kim Williams meddle in my wife’s match – scratch that! YOU meddled in my wife’s match! You turned it into a highlight for the pay-per-view. Another stepping stone for the world title match. Not for her sake, but for Owen’s sake over a choice that HE made!

You meddled. As the officials said – it was BY YOUR ORDER.

…

Where were the repercussions? Where were the consequences?

And fast forward to now and what has happened? How much have meddlers like Ravyn gotten their consequences? How about Lexy meddling? Or James Evans interfering? Where are the consequences? You know what? Let’s not even put that out there. Let’s get back to you and our last talk.

Let’s talk about how you where there, standing in front of me, freshly ‘unstapled’. Let’s talk about how you, the man that vowed ‘meddling would have consequences’, were now bumbling and fumbling, DEFENDING all the meddling you and the Board have allowed, not the least of which was by the hands of Kimberly Williams!

“It’s not my fault!”
“I don’t have the authority!”
“You don’t know what’s going on!”

You know what I realized was missing in that entire rant of yours, O.? What was absent while you kept trying to turn it all on me and blame me? The same thing you accused me of not having. Accountability. Not ONCE did I hear you take responsibility for the shit YOU allowed. Kimberly stapled you! Where were her consequences? You ALLOWED it. Ace Marshall stole Konrad’s car and defaced it with a ‘Believe it!’ spray-painted on it – another stab at who I am and what The House of Frost represents. You ALLOWED it. But you want to feign innocence because you don’t have ‘the authority’ anymore?

You know what? Maybe it’s not so much me changing that has you upset with me, O.. Maybe it’s the fact that you’re the one that’s changing. You sound the same and you say the same things that inspired me, but one thing you proved as you were getting that staple out, is that your words aren’t beliefs for you anymore. They aren’t backed up by actions. They’re just words. Words that you spiral and spin and backtrack on the second someone calls you out. Especially someone that can see through the BS you spew and, in her heart, knows what is right and what is wrong, regardless of the source.

I believed you in January that accountability would return to SCW by your hand. I don’t believe you now. I don’t believe you give a damn about that. I don’t know, maybe you were trying to shine up SCW for the buyers so that the buying price could go up. Maybe you were trying to put some edge on some sale or buy-ins or whatever with some ‘keywords’, or maybe you actually believe that the fans actually want this kind of chaos all the time in SCW – delusional as such a concept is. But, whatever the reason, you made and broke your word in one, single night and you’ve been breaking it ever since, all while having the audacity to hide the truth from me and the SCW Universe.

So, maybe it’s up to me to actually do what I’ve always done and clean up this mess. Maybe it’s up to me to do what I did with the likes of Xander, Vixen, and The Brand. Maybe it’s up to me to be one that issues accountability in SCW again.

Because do you expect me to believe that Ravyn and Ace Marshall – yes, MARSHALL – will believe in any of that? You think they’re going to care about accountability or integrity where the tag-team titles are concerned? You heard Ravyn. She’s going to do ‘whatever it takes’ to win the tag-titles. She’s got Lexy getting involved, Ace has Konrad getting angrier, probably get him involved. Deanna and I? None of that. We don’t want people involved, even to help us. We want to regain the tag-team titles on our own skill and by being the best team in SCW. But if your own commentators, Jonathan and Adam, are any indication, we’re looking at another mass interference just like in January – incited by Ace and Ravyn. So, what the hell are you going to do about that meddling, O.?

You’re gonna sit at home and nurse your bruised ass. That’s what you’re going to do. Because I realized that ‘accountability’ from you only applies when it benefits you and what the Board wants. Not necessarily what benefits SCW and what SCW is meant to stand for.

Well, this weekend, O.? Whether you stay in the back or at home, only speaking when The Board gives you permission to, I’ll be out there with my beloved wife, doing what you SHOULD have been doing all this time. Defending SCW’s name and SCW’s standard of integrity. I’ll be doing what I’ve done for almost ten years non-stop. Towing the company line and raising the bar higher and higher to help this company stand above every other company. I’ll be the one doing what you, clearly, don’t have the guts to do any more. Saying ‘No’ to the meddlers and those that want to win by any cheap trick, cheat or plot and standing up for this company!

Enjoy your meetings and fancy champagne while you watch Playing the Wildcard on your padded seat, O.. Because at least you can rest easy knowing someone is still fighting for your company and what it stands for… even if you won’t!

With regards,
Selena Michelle Frost
‘The Face of SCW’

[SnowQueenSCW]

OOC: Deanna’s roleplay.

DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of fiction and not to be confused as complete or accurate representation of any beliefs, religions, etc. Please refer to research/articles by experts for that.

The Witches of Alden

”Breakdown”

Wells Fargo Arena
Des Moines, Iowa
April 8th, 2023

Deanna watched quietly as Selena signed the last item of the last fan that had been standing outside the parking lot just outside their “Believe It!” tour bus, waiting for them. It wasn’t an uncommon sight. Quite often, after Breakdowns and Pay-Per-Views, the Frost wives would see fans either waiting for them in the main ‘lobby’ of whatever arena they were wrestling at, outside in the parking lot, at the exits of the arena or, in this case, waiting outside their bus, merely wishing for a picture or an autograph.

Quietly, the redhead stayed a few steps back, leaning against the side of the bus as she waited for Selena to finish. She had changed into her street clothes of black jeans and a baggy green sweater, which prevented her from feeling the cold metal of the bus against her back as she watched the fans interacting with her wife. Truthfully, she wasn’t thinking too much about the fans asking for Selena’s autograph and not for hers. I mean, she was thinking about it, but it didn’t hurt her or bother her. There was no delusion in her mind. Selena was the bigger star, a more beloved person in the eyes of the SCW Universe, especially recently. Now THAT was something that stirred in Deanna’s mind as it came to her.

She had really ‘screwed the pooch’ on this. She had hoped that not saying anything regarding Kim’s trios cash-in promo-wise and opting to simply show up at that match and make the best out of a bad situation would have spared her from opening her mouth and being taken down a peg by O. D. again, as he had previously. Yes, she had mouthed off after Kimberly had strutted on Twitter over and over again about her ‘regaining’ of the Underground championship, but come on! That wasn’t fair to blast Deanna on that! It was a blatant cheap-shot! If Kimberly had played by the rules of her own game, she wouldn’t even be the Underground champion. The One or Luz or someone like that would. But because of a ‘special clause’ that was only allowed for Kimberly, she had gotten the title after one pin – NO! Not even a pin! A damn rear-staple!

Hell, if I had gotten the same pass as she did about ‘leaving the arena’, I might have had a chance at staying the tag-team champion with Selena… Deanna thought bitterly, but quickly caught herself. This was the kind of thinking she had tried to express professionally, failed miserably, and gotten booed for it tonight, which was why she wasn’t surprised to see a smaller crowd around the bus tonight compared to other nights.

She had watched the segment between Selena and Mr. D. in that medic room where O. was getting a staple out of his rear. Had heard every word her boss – or whatever he was or pretending to be at this point – had said about her and about Selena. About people liking what Kimberly had done in her cash-in; liking the disrespect she had shown the other ‘non-world titles’. People even liking Kimberly stapling the current owner of SCW in the behind!

Serves him right…

The thought came on its own and the redhead did all she could to shut it down. Still, there was no denying that after weeks of being insulted, disrespected, and talked down to in terms of skill and worth by the old man, there had been a spike of satisfaction in Deanna every time she imagined him being stapled like that. A spark of contentment that his decision to ‘let Kimberly do what ever the hell she wants’ literally coming back to bite him in the - ah hell! I’ll say it! – ass!

She felt the smirk sneak into her features the same time a cooler, night breeze blew past her. Turning her head over to the side, she saw her wife giving a nod of her head before placing her duffle bag down on the ground, the Snow Queen moving around to stand against the “Believe it!” logo on the bus, the fans, a couple, it seemed, moving with her – the man holding a cellphone up like a selfie.

“Here.” Deanna offered with a smile, at least the best she could manage, as she moved closer to the three. “I can take the photo.”

Gratefully, the man, wearing a San Jose Sharks t-shirt and jeans, smiled before setting a few options on his phone and handing it over to Deanna. Backing up a few spaces, the younger Frost centered the phone/shot, waiting for it to focus automatically. As she did however, her eyes spotted the expression of her beloved wife – or, more specifically, the part of said expression that neither of the fans were seeing.

Of course, the platinum-blonde was smiling. Regardless of how things were in SCW, Selena Frost would never begrudge a respectful fan her time or be anything but kind to them. She saw herself as the same as them, having come from humble beginnings like so many of the SCW fanbase. She had never wanted to be some arrogant snob like Sienna Swann or “I’m better than you” mentality that so many people in SCW had, like Josh Hudson, Ravyn Taylor, and Adam Allocco. She had always, from the moment she had stopped worrying about having enough money to get by, focused her passion in this business to wanting to be a ‘wrestler of the people’. Someone that listened and cared about what the SCW Universe thought and what they believed in.

No, Selena’s smile was genuine as she stood there with the two fans and it wasn’t what caught Deanna’s eyes as she was taking the picture. Rather, it was the sapphire eyes under the parking lot lights. They looked… they looked so tired. Exhausted. Mentally, spiritually… drained – that was the right word! As if so much of the light that she usually saw – what made her wife’s eyes sparkle like blue stars – was nearly gone. It almost made the redhead forget where she was and drop the phone, though she recovered quickly, blaming the near fumble on her joints being a little stiff from her match with Selena against the Playgirls. Quickly, she took a few pictures, which seemed enough to placate the fans, the couple even thanking both members of The House of Frost (taking back the phone from Deanna) before they were off, talking about ‘not believing they just met Selena’ and ‘what a great show!’. The zeal was enough for a small, distracted and grateful smile to come to Deanna, but spying movement in front of her brought her back to present as she watched Selena, still in her wrestling attire from their earlier match, make her way to the door of the bus, where it was opened from the inside by their driver and friend.

“Thank you, Eric.” Deanna heard Selena whispers as the Snow Queen made her way up the few steps to enter the luxury vehicle, Deanna, herself, slowly following her wife. Reaching the inside, she suddenly saw Eric’s arm slowly reach out to nudge her arm, gaining the redhead’s attention on the chauffer and friend.

“Is…” he eyed the back of the older Frost woman, who was making her way to the back of the bus, where her and Deanna’s bed and bath were located. “Is she okay?” he asked.

“I’m…” Deanna breathed, gazing back to watch her wife’s retreating form. “I’m not sure.” She answered honestly. “Work’s been really hard on her lately, Eric. I don’t… I really don’t know how to explain it.”

What she meant to say was that she wasn’t sure how she could explain to someone that didn’t care much for the sport of professional wrestling, when the boss and so many others that did just weren’t getting it. Some people, from Dracehwych to certain roster members to even some of the fans, were thinking this whole ‘attitude-shift’ regarding the Frosts was about their ‘place’ in SCW. That Selena was whining about not being where she wanted to be with titles and whatever.

Do they even know her at this point? Deanna asked with a hint of bitterness. This had nothing to do with titles and positions and accolades! For her, sure! She still had so much to prove and so much she wanted to do on her own in SCW! But Selena, especially, had more than enough accolades to match with any icon or legend in the business. Hell, if she wasn’t inducted into the Hall of Fame in the future, it would discredit the institution! This had nothing to do with accolades or ranks and EVERYTHING to do with what her wife believed in!

Still, she had never seen her wife so deflated… so defeated. Even losing the big RTG match against Regan Street years ago or being trampled by Xander Valentine – Deanna couldn’t recall a time that her wife had looked so… tired. Like she was on the verge of break-

The sound of a loud crash was suddenly heard, gaining both hers and Eric’s attention, coming from the back of the bus. Immediately, the casually-dressed man shot to his feet, but it was Deanna’s turn to hold out her arm and stop him from continuing further into the bus.

“No, Eric.” She ordered in a whisper. “I’ll take care of this. Just get us going.”
“But what if she’s-“
“Eric!” Deanna pressed. “Trust me. I’ll take care of this. Just get us back to Manhattan, okay?”

Her directness seemed to snap him back to reality in terms of his ‘position’ in their lives, the young man giving a swift nod before settling back down in his seat and firing up his GPS on his cellphone, which sat in a holder on the dashboard. “Maps say we’ll be there in about 16 hours. So… tomorrow evening it seems.”

“Okay.” Deanna nodded. “Don’t be afraid to stop for a break or a rest if you need a few hours.”
“I already slept throughout the day.”
“Regardless.” Deanna pressed, moving her still-extended arm to reach down and squeeze the man’s shoulder as he fired up the engines. “Selena and I are perfectly fine waiting a few hours where necessary.”

With that matter taken care of, Deanna braced herself and quickly marched across the length of the bus, tossing her own duffle-bag onto the couch she passed it before opening the door to the bedroom and entering, immediately closing said door behind her.

The first thing she saw was Selena – or rather Selena’s back to her – the black of the Snow Queen’s wrestling-attire contrasting with the white of the embroidered snowflakes on the shoulders and back of the jacket and the platinum-blonde of Selena’s hair. The next thing she saw was the golden shimmer coming from the floor. Casting a quick glance at it, she spied the SCW World tag-team championship belt – Selena’s – on the floor on the other side of the room, surrounded by a series of books that had been on the small desk there.

It didn’t take much to figure it how the title and the books had ended up on the floor, considering the crash she had just heard.

“Selena!” Deanna gasped as she marched around the room, though she stumbled a bit as she felt the bus suddenly lurch a bit as it moved out of the large parking lot of the arena. Carefully, she gathered up the title and books – taking a second to look at them. They were textbooks covering the various elements of witchcraft – specifically of Wiccan and Pagan studies – and it made Deanna grimace a little.

The Frost wives were set to begin their ‘schooling’ soon and had been given those books by Freya, Selena’s grandmother, for a ‘general education’. Both were required to read as much of the books (there were at least four covering various subjects) as possible before their ‘classes’ would begin.

Now THAT was a task in and of itself. Because of the ‘special nature’ of the situation that had occurred weeks ago in that ballroom in New York with the Alden family, Selena and Deanna couldn’t just ‘attend school’ like other Alden children. Their schedule as wrestlers wouldn’t allow it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on who you asked, they would attend classes on the weekends they weren’t needed for pay-per-views, meetings, or house shows – private sessions meant for adult-learning. With a sigh, Deanna tore her eyes away from the books, shoving them into the drawer of the desk before gently picking up the SCW world tag-team title.

It was identical to the one she held - used to hold. The redhead reminded herself. She wasn’t the SCW tag-team champion anymore. She had failed to keep up with Selena, allowing Ace Marshall to weasel back into SCW and back into championship status. Despite her wife’s name on the title, the Queen’s Guard felt a pang of anger and frustration at the sight of it but swallowed it down. It was her own fault, she reminded herself. She had gotten too close to the arena exit and not paid attention to Polly. And while tonight had gotten her some solace with their victory over that same woman and Aisling, it didn’t couldn’t get her back the title she shared with her wife – or wished to share again with her wife.

No, to do that, they would have to not only beat Ace Marshall, but the partner he had picked in Ravyn Taylor. With a sigh, Deanna stopped the train of thought there, placing the tag-team title securely on the desk. “You really shouldn’t be throwing that, Selena.” She sighed, shooting a quick glance at her wife’s form. “If it gets damaged, you KNOW management’s gonna be fining you and gods know what else-“

“I…care…” She heard Selena in a mutter, causing her to turn around to, now, fully regard her wife, the Snow Queen’s back still to her.

“Sorry?” Deanna asked. “I didn’t get that.”

She heard a staggering breath come from the older woman’s small frame. “I said… I don’t care.”

The words felt more like the foulest curse words in Deanna’s ears – a shock that dwarfed what she had felt when she had seen Selena deck Ace Marshall earlier tonight during the ceremony, halting it prematurely. The redhead stopped dead in her tracks. She couldn’t have heard her wife correctly. No, she must have misheard her again. That was the only reasonable explanation for Deanna to have heard what she thought she just heard.

“Come on.” She tried to laugh it off. “Of course you care! That’s what you do. You care about everything-“

She was stopped as she heard a different sound coming from her wife. It wasn’t another sentence or declaration. It wasn’t even another word. It was a sound. A sound that came with a shaking of her wife’s frame. Slowly, Deanna moved around the room, circling around her wife until she was facing the platinum-blonde at last. Before her, the ‘Face of SCW’ stood with her arms crossed over her diaphragm, her head cast down, and tears streaming down her face as quiet sobs racked her frame.

“Selena…” It was more than enough for Deanna to leap into ‘protective-wife’ mode, rushing over to wrap her arms around the taller woman’s frame – though from Selena’s current, slightly hunched-over position, Deanna was the slightly taller one presently. Without a word, Selena gripped onto her wife’s arms so tightly that it almost hurt the younger woman, the redhead almost sure there would be bruises on her arms tomorrow morning but not caring in the slightest. “What is it? Please tell me…”

“I…” more sobs came from Selena as her frame shook. “I…” she kept trying to talk but she was too overcome with emotion, as if, upon being alone in the bus, everything she had been ‘bottling up/holding back’ had hit and the dam had burst or something. “I don’t want to do this anymore… I can’t do this anymore…”

Again, more words Deanna never thought she would hear. “Do what, Selena?” she tried, petting her wife’s back with her hand while the other arm held her steady. “I don’t understand what happened.”

Was it Ace picking Ravyn? That was the last thing they had did ‘on-air’ regarding SCW, and Deanna could almost understand that being the issue. After all, the Dark Fantasy member had been nothing but a constant torment to Selena throughout the years – her most recent act being unleashing Luna on SCW and Selena having to step in to protect not only Nicole Kinneck but also Ravyn herself. Deanna remembered what Luna and Ravyn had driven Selena to do in that match last year at Apocalypse, the Snow Queen having no choice but to use a weapon - a taser! Something she was staunchly against in all her beliefs – during the match to subdue Luna before the madwoman possibly crippled Ravyn or worse. Her wife had had no choice and yet… it still was a sore spot for Selena to recall. That had been the last time the Snow Queen had REALLY feuded with the ‘Bad, Bad Girl’ or whatever Ravyn was calling herself these days.

Still, while it sucked and was disgusting that Ace had chosen her, Deanna couldn’t believe that such a choice had been the reason for Selena’s current state, the Snow Queen breaking down within her wife’s arms. Was it Ace? No, Selena had beaten him so many times – yes the man was annoying as hell, but… he wasn’t Adam Allocco. He could be annoying and over the top and WAY too much at time, but the redhead was sure Ace wasn’t going to do anything bad the likes of what Vixen Cain or Xander Valentine had done in the past, and certainly she couldn’t think of anything Ace had said or done that would make Selena into this. Knocking him on his ass? Sure, absolutely! But break down in tears. No, he wasn’t THAT good at pushing Selena’s buttons. Was… was it the other stuff she had seen on the monitors earlier tonight? Was it what O. had said?

“Selena…” she tried to push her wife back a little, relieved when she finally managed to, gaining an inch of distance between them, though Selena refused to open her eyes and meet hers, the older woman’s sobs quieting to mere sniffles. “Look at me, please.”

Slowly, after several slow breaths, the former world champion lifted her head a little to gaze down at her wife, causing Deanna to gasp as she saw, not only the same exhaustion and lack of light in her wife’s eyes that she had seen when that taking that photo for the two fans, but now able to see the red from the woman crying. “Please, tell me what happened.”

“He…” Selena sighed. “He won’t listen to me.” There was no need to elaborate on who ‘he’ was. It was beyond clear the one person that was having such an impact on Selena. The only person in SCW that could affect the woman on this level – moreso than any Cain, Valentine, Allocco, or even Wallace or Street.

“I… I saw the segment.” Deanna sighed in understanding. “All of it…”

Selena’s eyes widened. “Don’t listen to what he said about you-“

“Forget it.” Deanna sighed. “This is about you now. I’m not the one having a breakdown here.”

“I just…” Selena shook her head, moving away from Deanna as she paced around the room, her pale hands wiping furiously at her eyes and face.

“Did you really mean what you said?” Deanna asked. “That you don’t want to do this anymore?”

“I don’t think I CAN do this anymore, Deanna.” Selena cried, turning back to Selena. “You saw it. O. wouldn’t listen to me. He wouldn’t care to listen. All he wanted to do was call us whiners and ignorant and keep us in the dark! He just kept throwing it back on me. Like it was my fault all this shit is happening!” she huffed. “That it’s my fault we’re in this shitstorm! I’M not the one selling the company and keeping it all in the dark. I’m not the one allowing that BS of a match to happen last week! I’m not the one that’s letting Kimberly and Allocco and so many others get away with whatever the hell they want but I have to smile and just be the good girl and do whatever he says?! Just let it happen cause it’s ‘funny’ or a few fans like it? Why?! Cause I’m ‘The Face of SCW’? Because if I don’t, suddenly I’m selfish or ‘acting out of turn’? Or I’m ‘not the Selena I hired’!”

The Snow Queen’s impersonation of her boss at the last sentence was a piss-poor impression to Deanna – very to snobby and obnoxious to be O. D., but the platinum-blonde clearly didn’t care as she let out a yell before slamming her fists onto the nearby desk, the SCW tag-team title rattling a little as it sat where Deanna had placed it.

For a moment, there was silence before Selena turned back to Deanna. “What’s the point?” the platinum-blonde asked. “Am I just trying to save an SCW that only we believe in? Why don’t I just walk away? We walk away?”

“You don’t meant that.” Deanna sighed, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I actually do…” a sad laugh escaped Selena, as did an equally sad smile as she ran a hand through her hair, tugging and pulling at her iconic braid until it was freed and now a main of white in the lights of the room. “I really do, Deanna. Think about it! I’ve got offers from XWF, TIA, UWWA, and they want you too! Several companies want us! Companies that will appreciate us raising the bar of integrity there. People that will listen to our experience and what we know. People that will appreciate what we bring to the table and not just scoff at us and call us whiners. People that will give you-“ she eyed her wife in sad understanding. “Any title shot you ask for. Any opportunity to become a real singles champion…” she looked away from a moment, seeing the buildings and cars whizzing by her as the bus continued to travel down the roads. “Why…” she tried with a shaky breath. “Why stay on a ship that’s sinking when no one wants to listen to us as we’re screaming that it’s going down? Why stay when the damn owner is already abandoning ship?”

“Selena… I…” Deanna tried to find the right words. It’s not that the idea didn’t appeal to Deanna. Because it did. Aside from Trios cash-ins, Deanna had not received a singles title opportunity since last July. Yes, she wanted to be tag-team champion with her wife – moreso than every after that ‘chaos-match’, but if Owen could get two double-title matches and be a double champion, when couldn’t she? And not only that, but she would be lying if she said it didn’t hurt how ‘small’ she felt in the eyes of management. Still, this was not the solution! Running away over something like that was NEVER solution.

“I…” she tried to explain, speaking slowly. “I don’t think it’s as bad as all that.” She held up her hand as her wife’s head jerked back to stare at her in shock. “I agree that things are going downhill. I do. I hate what Kim did. I hate what O. is doing. I hate what the Board is doing… But I don’t think we’re as… as powerless as you think we are. I think some people really DO believe in us and what we are doing. I honestly think that the SCW Universe can see that what we’re talking about is about more than just titles and ranking. That it’s about SCW. It’s about SCW’s survival.”

“Did you not hear them?” Selena laughed. “They were chanting ‘Kim’ while you wrestled.”

“So? Some of them were, sure.” Deanna shrugged. “But many others were cheering us!”

“Deanna…” Selena sighed. “O. called you a damn ‘cog’. He called you my shadow! On top of everything, he insulted you-“

“Oooo!” Deanna gestured, unimpressed. “One week, he said I acted like a rookie. Last week, he said I was a whiner. Now he’s saying I’m a bigger whiner and I’m your shadow – Selena, who the hell cares what he thinks?!”

“I do!” Selena shouted back, her voice echoing a little within the small space. “I do, okay?!”

“Well, don’t!!” Deanna spat, equalling her wife’s intensity. “Do you have ANY idea how embarrassing it looked to see him talking down to you while he’s lying on the couch with a damned staple in his butt?!” she shot back. “You’re the friggin’ ‘Face of SCW’, Selena! And he’s insulting you while he’s got his pants down! It was pathetic! He’s…” she took a slow breath, calming herself in front of her wife. “He’s not the perfect mentor or boss you think he is.”

“I…” the Snow Queen tried. “I know.”

“No, you really don’t.” the shorter woman stressed. “You’ve always looked the other way while he did nothing to help you. While he left you to suffer. Against Regan, Xander, Vixen… while he was pandering Kelcey in his VIP rooms and grooming Owen late last year, where was he for you? Nowhere! Now that you’re raising your voice and not ‘in line’ with him, now you’re ‘the bad guy’? Now you’re the whiner because you don’t agree with him or believe everything he says or what he’s doing is wrong?”

Selena’s mouth hung open, unable to form the words that seemed to flash before her eyes.

“I know without him and SCW, we may never have met.” Deanna sighed, reaching out to take Selena’s hands into hers. “I get it. It’s my love story, too, sweetheart. And I’m just as grateful to everyone for that – for you…” she reached up to cup the side of her wife’s face, guiding her wife to stare deeply into her eyes, refusing to let her look away. “But you don’t owe HIM anything. You owe SCW… not him….” She took a slow breath. “I didn’t become a wrestler here because I believe in him or what he says like you do. I became a wrestler because I believe in you and what you believe SCW could be.”

She gave the pale hand she still held an affectionate squeeze. “I… I want to be there when that SCW comes to pass. I want to be there when some other lost girl decides to join one day, looking to change her life and we can be there to help her. I want to be there when we leave, not because you’re broken like this.” She gestured towards her beloved wife. “But because you’ve done all you needed to do to make that dream and belief a reality.”

Silence enveloped the two for several minutes, Selena no longer able to gaze up at her wife, instead focusing her eyes onto the floor as more quiet sobs threatened to overtake her, the Snow Queen being pushed to her emotional limit.

“What if I can’t?” she finally whispered. “What if we can’t save SCW?”

Despite her desire to refute such a statement and smother her wife in positive reinforcement, Deanna couldn’t bring herself to lie like that. D. has done enough hiding and lying as it is. she thought darkly, feeling a bitter distaste for the man that had brought her wife to such a state of emotional breakdown. How dare he talk down to Selena after all she had done for him and for SCW. After fighting his battles for him! After protecting him and his company from so many people! After bringing more fame and prestige to SCW with the World Series of Wrestling! Hell, without Selena, D. wouldn’t have even had a damn company to sell in the first place! It would belong to Katya or The Brand or, gods forbid, Ravyn Taylor and Infamous! Was that worth NOTHING to him? Was a decade of scars and pain and all that came with it worthless in his eyes? Deanna’s jaw clenched in frustration at the thought of such a mentality, but her wife’s focused gaze on her brought her back to the present and the question Selena had posted to her wife.

“We…might not.” Deanna shrugged. “Maybe things will only get worse from here on out. The Board can very well arrange things to have us look like the bad guys.” Deanna shrugged. “From the announcers to the publicity… it wouldn’t take much.” She sighed, moreso at the validity of her words. The idea of someone being ‘clever’ and ‘desperate’ was but an opinion – like her match with Owen Cruze had gone – and when spoken with the power of someone like Jonathan Knots and Adam Sharper… it could sway thousands. Someone besides O. calling them whiners and ‘not good enough’ – not superstars that they could beat and disprove, but critics like those in SCW and around the world that were basically untouchable...

Again, Deanna sighed, this one more of a hum than anything else. Who knew what next week would hold? Would there be more boos? More words to insult their worth from the boss? Or would more fans not believe in their words? “But…” she shook her head. “If this is the end for us, don’t we want to go down fighting together? With integrity – then to run away?”

Selena said nothing right away, which said far more than a quick “Yes! Of Course!”. Maybe Deanna was naïve or foolish for thinking her words could produce that kind of affect from someone with nearly a decade of experience as her wife had. This would not be something that could be so easily ‘reset’ like some of their previous issues with things in SCW or some of their past arguments with each other. In fact, the question that came into Deanna’s mind was far more terrifying and hurtful than anything she had heard from D..

How much more can she take?

The thought was beyond terrifying. Because it was the only thing that actually made her want to contemplate listening to Selena and leaving SCW with her. For so many years, even during her time in Frankfurt Prison III when she had to rely on the stories her wife provided her (‘updates’ Selena would call them), Deanna had witnessed the same kind of ‘stories’ emerge. ‘Retribution’ or ‘Last Chance at Redemption’ like Owen and Adam Allocco, ‘Against all the Odds’ like her wife or Regan, or the most common: when someone turned their back on SCW, usually over something petty like ‘not enough title shots’ or ‘losing the big match and blaming the company’. Names like Glory Braddock, Syren five or six times (all of Infamous actually), the list was a long one of people with such stories, including good friends like Regan and people of incredible integrity like David Helms.

That was the scary part of this particular ‘story-type’ to Deanna. No one was immune to it. The highest of the high, the lowest of the low in terms of morality, it could happen to anyone. All that was required was a ‘breaking point’. A ‘crack’. And ever since she had known Selena – before the Snow Queen had even known Deanna existed – the redhead had never seen that breaking point. Not from people trying to take her hair, question her integrity, threaten her and her family, steal titles from her, screw her out of matches – not even people like Malcolm Scythe or Killjoy had made her reach it.

Yet… what had she just seen? A crack? A break in the armor… from the man Selena had respected on a level that was close to the Snow Queen’s own father.

Blinking her eyes to escape her thoughts, Deanna spied the floor, now, suddenly, littered with discarded clothes. She quickly recognized the snowflake designs of her wife’s wrestling attire on some of the clothes and, as the seconds ticked by, her ears picked up the sound of something in the adjacent bathroom – a loudish patter like dozens of little stones being dropped on the floor, but the former tag-team champion recognized the sound immediately as ice cubes. With a quiet sigh, Deanna quickly gathered up the discarded clothes, finding Selena’s pants, boots, bra and underwear. Carefully, she placed them in the hamper on the far side of the room before quietly undressing herself. She had taken a shower back in the arena changeroom, and while she would have been happy to have another with her wife (under normal circumstances), she was sure that such a thing was the last option in Selena’s mind. Tossing her own clothes into the hamper, she quietly drew out her dark-green nightgown, throwing it over her frame before lying out her wife’s favorite magenta one, lying it on the bed where she knew her wife would find it. Sometime during that, she had heard the water go on and run for several minutes before being turned off. Standing by the door that lead into the bathroom, which was slightly ajar, the young woman waited until she heard the sound of water moving and ice-cubes shifting, signaling an occupant inside the large tub.

Bet she forgot to lay down towels for herself… Deanna sighed before quietly pushing the door open. She quickly spied her wife in the tub, the ice-cube water just starting to settle before Selena ducked her head down into the water, submerging herself to let the cold seep into her – her ‘ice bath’ in full effect. Eyeing around the space, Deanna spied no towels laid out, causing her to shake her head knowingly before she quietly stepped further into the bathroom opening the secure drawer and pulling out a floor towel for Selena’s feet and a large black towel for the Snow Queen. She had just set the floor towel in front of the bath before she heard and saw Selena’s head pop up out of the water and ice, her features soaked. Blinking back the water, the former world champion’s sapphire eyes quickly adjusted, spying Deanna right before her.

In response, Deanna merely held up the large, black towel for the woman before placing it on the floor next to the other towel. She saw Selena’s eyes flash in realization at forgetting them, shift to a mental curse, and finally, offer a small smile of thanks to the younger woman before Deanna was pushing herself to her feet. She was stopped, however, when a cold, wet hand took hers, her attention, once more drawn to the drenched blonde. Before her, she saw Selena’s eyes gaze into hers before slowly shifting towards the unoccupied space in the large bathtub, the silent request hitting Deanna after a few such glances back and forth from the Snow Queen.

For a minute, Deanna merely shook her head, but after the fourth or fifth glance, she finally groaned before marching out of the bathroom. Back in the bedroom, she pulled her nightgown back over her frame, tossing it on the bed beside her wife’s. That complete, she marched back into the bathroom, flicking her hand at Selena to get her to move back a bit, which the platinum-blonde quickly did. With a slow inhale through her nose, Deanna placed her foot into the tub, immediately wincing at how cold it was and making the redhead, not for the first time, question how her beloved wife could possibly like this. Still, wordlessly, she managed to drop herself into the tub.

Immediately, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, drawing her gently towards the soft form of Selena, the older woman holding her beloved to her and quickly rubbing her hands over Deanna’s back and arms to keep her semi-warm amidst the cold water. Despite the discomfort in the cold, Deanna said nothing, merely resting her head in the crook of Selena’s neck above water as her wife held her.

They didn’t say anything all night, even when they actually would go to bed. They didn’t have to. Everything had been left in the previous room. But for Deanna, while she knew she wouldn’t find anything but scars and bruises on her wife’s body (the latter from the hard-fought tag match with the Playgirls), she kept searching Selena’s pale form secretly for something else. Something far worse than the ‘badges of honor’ she wore on her back and sides. Far worse than any bruises she endured fighting for SCW’s integrity.

Rather… she was looking for cracks in her wife’s very being. Fissures in her wife’s beliefs and a ‘breaking point’ in her trust of O. D. and, more terrifyingly, in SCW.

Because more terrifying than anything else – more than being in the Underground division, being in Selena’s shadow all her life, and even more than the idea of SCW being sold…

It was the idea of an SCW with Selena Frost against it…

[SnowQueenSCW]

OOC: Selena’s second.

DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of fiction and not to be confused as complete or accurate representation of any beliefs, religions, etc. Please refer to research/articles by experts for that.

The Witches of Alden

”Recourse”

Frost ‘Forever Home’
Black Arrow Neighbourhood
Manhattan, New York
April 15, 2023
1:12pm

The children were playing quietly in the next room, or as much as they could for a ten, six, and a four year old (although two of their birthdays were fast approaching: Amiliah in another two months and David in three). The noise, slight words that sounded muddled and distant and the occasional ‘beep’ and ‘boop’ (and all variations within) of video games or cartoons, didn’t bother Selena Frost as she paced around the room on the other side of the basement-floor, specifically her ‘office-space’. Her sapphire eyes kept scanning the pieces of printed paper in her hand, her head giving an occasional nod here and there or a wince and a tilt – her animated form of reading the text on the paper as she paced. Occasionally, she would stop, her eyes would squint, and she’d even silently word whatever she was reading a few times, her voice coming in and out as if to try the sentence out verbally before going right back to pacing.

Deanna did her best not to say anything as her wife continued the requested review. It had, actually, been a rather funny approach for this request. Deanna had marched into the room while Selena was finalizing their tax-statements for the year (of all things), double-checking her notes and numbers before submitting everything to the family’s accountant, Pierre, when Deanna had burst in. ‘Can you review this?!’ she had asked, holding up eight pages of single-sided paper. She had looked so in need of help, standing there in green-shorts, a gray t-shirt and her dark-red hair in a ponytail, as Selena’s was, though the Snow Queen had chosen a floral-designed, spaghetti-strap summer dress that went down to just below her knees. Around her neck, like Deanna’s, was their ‘Frost Crest’ necklace, Selena’s dragon an arctic blue as it protected the snowflake behind it and Deanna’s blood-red as it protected its own.

The sound of a ‘YES!’ temporarily caught both women’s attention, the two staring out the open door of the office, which lead past the ‘cinema room’ and into the main of the basement, towards the sound of David as he continued to play his video game – Selena was sure it was Metroid or something. He had been on a kick for that franchise the last few days. The thought caught her – giving her a temporary smile as she pictured her little prince playing. Of course, she had her own ‘stash’ of a few video games that only she could play, specifically of her favorite video-game franchise: Castlevania-

Quickly, the Snow Queen shook her head, resuming her pacing through the room as her eyes caught sight of Deanna sitting in the chair by the door, having remained quiet for the last fifteen or so minutes (which amazed the platinum-blonde). There would be time for her to dig out her collection of games and storm Dracula’s castle after the weekend, when they were the SCW world tag-team champions again… which is why this was so important.

Pretending to be back in the ‘critiquing’ mode, Selena stole another glance at her beloved wife and partner. It had been nearly a year since Deanna had requested her wife to review her promo material for ‘The Guard Tower’. After Rise to Greatness, and Deanna getting her first non-Television singles title victory, the redhead had tried to write her own promos without any help, desiring to build her singles career while they awaited their chance to challenge for the world tag-team championship. Not that Selena could blame her wife. RTG had been an incredible weekend for them both as singles wrestlers, and while a victory in the main-event had eluded the Snow Queen, she had refused to let that ruin what had been a series of worthwhile events for her and Deanna. Still, she had respected her wife’s decision and gave her space, only collaborating with the younger woman when a ‘joint promo’ with the both of them speaking was planned – sometimes even leaving the house to go for a walk or workout in the pool/gym house while Deanna dressed and filmed her promo in another part of the house. There were even times – Selena recalled – that she would not even get to see Deanna’s promos until they were aired on SCW or YouTube, having to have a genuine first-time-viewing reaction like the rest of the SCW Universe.

Still, there was that nagging feeling in the back of Selena’s brain as she continued to read. Why now, after all these months? Deanna was a very capable shoot-writer and was getting better every day. Was she nervous? If what she had read so far was any indication, that certainly was possible to Selena. By and far, there was so much more riding on this match than their previous battles for the tag-team championship. While the Frost wives had respected Light in the Darkness – Selena so proud that they had taken her words to heart and continued to improve as they had last Breakdown against Chance and Kelsai – and they had been pushed to the limit with One and Pro, not to mention their battles with Farmstead that had established them as tag-team champions at the start, the words of Ravyn Taylor had some validity to it.

The House of Frost had never fought former world champions before as a tag-team. Now they were facing two. And while Selena had more experience than most in regards to Ace Marshall and certainly in regards to Ravyn Taylor, the same could not be said of Deanna. Again, Selena stole a glance at her wife, who was distractedly eyeing her own hands as she rubbed them together. Was that it? Had Ravyn’s words last Breakdown gotten to Deanna? The Infamous member, Selena had to admit, was beyond amazing at turning a phrase and attacking a weak-point or an insecurity with her words. With those and little else, she had unleashed Luna upon SCW, riled up names like Xander Valentine and Vixen Cain, and had made Hall of Famers like Christian Savior and Shilo Valiant wallow in defeat. Mind games were her bread and butter, and the only reason Selena was not overthinking what those two could be ‘planning’ together, assuming they could co-exist together like Ravyn bragged, were distractions like this and taxes.

Reaching the last page, Selena scanned the last set of paragraphs, her tongue pushing against the inside of her cheek before giving one nod of her head, turning to gaze at Deanna, the redhead seeing her wife’s eyes on her.

“Well?” the smaller woman asked, a hint of hopefulness in her voice. “Any good?”

Opening her mouth to speak, Selena turned to look at the paper. “You’re going to say all of this?” she asked, holding up the sheets.

“Yeah.” Deanna shrugged, before her face adopted a sunken look. “Why? Is it bad?”

“No!” Selena quickly remarked, marching over to her wife to take one of the seats beside the former Underground champion. “It’s just…” she held the papers out before them, her other hand gesturing up and down towards it. “It’s a lot.” She settled on explaining. “You’ve got eight pages here and… that’s about twenty to twenty-five minutes. Not including emphasis or pauses. I mean… that’s asking a lot to put on the fans, Deanna.”

Biting her lower lip, Deanna nodded her head, not crushed by the critique but still a little disappointed. “I got into a groove.” She admitted. “Maybe I got carried away.”

“I can see that.” Selena smiled, reaching out with her free hand to take Deanna’s closest hand, squeezing it gently. “Not that that’s a bad thing.” She explained. “But there’s a time and a place for it. And if you go on and on like this, you’re actually doing the opposite of what I think you’re intending to do.”

Her head jerking in a few movements this way and that, Deanna seemed to try and process the platinum-blonde’s words. “I… I don’t really understand.” She glumly admitted after a few seconds of thinking.

“Okay, well…” Selena scanned through a few pages before settling on one. “See, right here…” she gestured to one of the middle paragraphs. “You go on and on about how many times I’ve beaten Ravyn and how you learned from me and how you get her style and how you were the one that leveled the playing field years ago when I beat Syren.”

“Yeah.”

“Well… who cares?” Selena shrugged. “Me beating Ravyn does nothing for you. Everyone knows I’ve been training you since the get-go. And who cares about a match two years ago?”

“I…” Deanna tried to find the words but seemed to come up dry. “You do?”

“I do.” Selena nodded slwoly. “I feel that was the real start of getting to the world title, but also you becoming a full-fledged wrestler… but no one will else will think that and no one will care. In fact, if you show Ravyn that you’re obsessed with throwing the past back in her face after she accused us of that last Breakdown, she’ll think she’s got you in the mind games and that will make things so much more difficult for us. Like immensely.”

She gave a quiet sigh. “This…” she held up the papers again. “This is solid. It’s good, Deanna. But we’re not just against another tag-team. These… take it from me… they’re former world champions. Both are extremely dangerous. Ace has gotten past me so many times that it’s almost scary.”

“You’ve beaten him too.”

“Yes, I have.” Selena nodded. “But again, almost two years ago. He TIED me, Deanna. Not got sixth place with four points. Tied me. And he came into that match later than even we did. That’s terrifying.”

It was something that had been playing in Selena’s mind. She knew better, speaking of her own experience, to dismiss Ace simply because he enjoyed being a ‘clown’ in SCW, looking for whatever entertained or amused him with his antics. No, she had made the mistake in the past and he had embarrassed her during her second reign as world champion. Yes, she had gotten a measure of revenge against him over the years, but still, she had learned really quick how, beneath that ‘joking, aloof’ personality he brought to SCW, there was an intelligence and, dare she believe, viciousness that actually could match Ravyn Taylor’s – though far more subtle than the ‘Bad, Bad Girl’.

Hell, the second she had decked him in the middle of the ring during the ‘title presentation ceremony’, she had mentally cursed herself at forgetting that. Ace had strolled in and played her with ease – pushed every button with incredible precision with his antics of ‘Ace Frost’ and ‘The New House of Frost’ and ‘replacing Deanna’…

In every way… part of her shuddered at the crudeness the man had inferred. Would SCW had booed her if they knew what he had said to her? Would D. had looked at her in such shock and, eventual, disappointment if they knew the disrespect Ace had shown her and her marriage? Doubtful. Selena thought. If anything, the owner of SCW – current owner, she reminded herself – would have probably just spoken down to her like he had later that night about being ‘played’ by Ace for the umpteenth time.

“Ace and Ravyn…” Selena spoke slowly, trying to keep her mind on the present, trying to focus on helping her wife. “They know how to play me. I’m certain at least one of them knows how to play you if the other night in Washington was any indication. We can’t just…” she held up the sheets of paper. “We can’t just rant at them. We have to be precise. Choose our statements carefully and, above all, not show too much emotion or weakness – or that they have gotten to us.”

Giving a slow nod, Deanna slowly took the papers back from Selena, eyeing them silently for a moment before speaking. “Is that why you recorded that message and sent it to O.?” she turned her head to see the surprised expression on Selena, the Snow Queen’s mouth hanging open a little.

“Late last night.” Deanna continued. “I couldn’t sleep without you, so I searched the house… looking for you.”
“I didn’t…” Selena tried, looking away a little. “I didn’t see you.”

“No. When I reached the office, I could hear you shouting, but your voice…” Deanna sighed. “Your voice was shaky. Like in Iowa. When I heard you coming out of the office to go to the bathroom, I hid in the dark in the other room. When you passed me… I heard you sniffling again. Like you were crying again.” The Queen’s Guard worked her fingers a little, perhaps in guilt or perhaps trying to not make a big deal of her own feelings of what she had concluded. “I snuck back upstairs when you came back and waited for you in bed after that.”

Biting her lower lip, Selena stared down at the floor. She did NOT want to tear-up in front of Deanna again! She had hated herself for breaking down like that back in Iowa weeks ago. And while the redhead had become a ‘voice of reason’, more so than before, for her, Selena had had to watch her wife try and hide her own insecurities and fears with this massive match coming up – fears of being chunked down the ladder of tag-teams. Fears of having to wait months and months for any rematch, like they had for all their singles title reigns – Selena still on ‘the waiting list’ for a world title rematch. Fears of proving Ravyn right and being ‘the weak link’.

Last Breakdown had been that eye-opener for Selena, the Snow Queen realizing just how much more was on her wife’s smaller shoulders than her own.

“I…” she tried to explain. “I needed to get through that.” She admitted. “My thoughts about O. and SCW… they were distracting me. Seeing Ravyn put it all-“ she gestured outwards with her hands. “Out there like that? It made me realize where my priorities need to be right now.” She gazed back at Deanna determined – even taking her wife’s fretting hands into hers strongly. “On us. On getting back the tag-team titles this weekend.”

“Can you imagine?” Deanna suddenly thought wistfully. “Deanna Frost – two-time tag-team champion. Selena Frost, FIVE time world tag-team champion.”

The Snow Queen laughed at that. “I don’t know if they’ll count it or not.” She shook her head. “But the numbers don’t matter, Deanna. I’m not Syren. Actually…” she looked ahead a bit towards the bookshelves that lined the circular office space. “I was talking about getting back the titles because of… Amy and Simon.”

“Oh my god! I know!” came the joyful remark. “Now we’ve got Hall of Famers coming into the division!”

It was beyond adorable to see her wife get so giddy, bouncing a little on the chair, but Selena could not help but feel more excited about the idea herself.

“How long has it been since you fought Amy?” Deanna asked, earning an exhaled ‘huff’ from Selena.
“Oh gods… years. I think 2016? With the Shot of Adrenaline tournament? But I don’t think I ever really fought Simon before…”

Even her voice was catching in the excitement. Because it was exciting! After 2022 being the year the tag-team division had been put through the ‘ringer of embarrassment’ with the Farmstead Friends making jokes and gimmicks the ‘definition’ of the tag-team division, the House of Frost had taken the tag-titles and watched as things slowly started to change.

First, Light in the Darkness had returned, eyeing them for a shot. Then her old rival, Bree (easily one of the biggest rivals Selena ever had) and Datura had entered into fold, standing presently as the next contenders once this matter at Playing the Wildcard was concluded. Then there were The Playgirls, Kelsai and Chance if last Breakdown was any indication, and now Simon and Amy Chastaine…

“Gods…” Selena breathed. “We REALLY have to win this.” She whispered. “Like REALLY really.”

Deanna gave a nod for a moment before, once more, casting her eyes down to her paper before flicking them up in her grasped hand. “I’ll get back to work on this.” She determined resolutely, pushing herself to her feet. “Thanks for reading it.”

“No problem.” Selena smiled, pushing herself to her feet to gently kiss her wife’s cheek. “You’re on the right track.” She added. “Just focus on that confidence I saw the other day. Use her words to motivate you, not mess with you.”

“Oh, good one.” Smiled Deanna, who rushed over to Selena’s desk. Grabbing a pen that rested on it, she quickly scribbled. “’Use her words to motivate you… not mess with you.’ Got it!” Turning around, she gave a bright smile before she was moving past Selena, stopping only to give a bright, pressing kiss to her wife’s lips, the sound of it gentle and cute. “Thanks, minx.” She whispered again. “I’m going to the gym to work on this.”

“You can use my office-“ Selena offered but the redhead was already on her way, pen in hand, and gone in seconds.

With a slow sigh, Selena allowed a grateful smile to cross her features. She needed this place, her Forever Home, and moments like these to keep her sane. She couldn’t tell Deanna how honest and raw she had been on the “Believe It!” bus – or how much she actually meant her words, both on the bus and in that recording she sent to D., not just born from frustration and despair, but actual consideration.

Quietly, she cast her eyes back over to her computer, which sat on her desk. She didn’t want to tell Deanna the truth of the matter. How she was stealing a page out of O. D.’s book and quietly vetting offers. It had started after they had come home from Iowa, Selena still dealing with her breakdown and feelings of hopelessness regarding the future of SCW. And while a good night’s rest with her wife, not to mention a little TLC from the beloved redhead in gentle love-making, had brought Selena back to some semblance of normalcy, the feeling of ‘doom’ had still persisted.

And if O. D. – as Selena had put it – was willing to abandon ship over a supposed need for ‘family’… what about her and her family?

That had been the start for her, just casually and hypothetically, putting some feelers out. From TIA, who had put together the World Series of Wrestling, to XWF, UWWA and a few others. Nothing promised. Nothing guaranteed. Just a ‘hey… what if I have some extra time on my hands for a more prominent role in your roster with my wife?’ kind of thing.

The response had been immediate and incredible. In the days and weeks that followed, several offers had been made to the Snow Queen for both members of the House of Frost, from one-night only events to full contracts. It was humbling, exciting, and yet… an eye-opener to Selena.

For despite the financial offers, the promises of title opportunities, and so much more and better than what SCW was currently offering/treating her and Deanna… the emails she received had – rather than make her hopeful for the future – only cemented her frustration with SCW! She didn’t want to go anywhere else! She wanted to stay! The guest appearances and supershows across the world was one thing and she loved doing those, but she didn’t want to leave SCW completely! She wanted to stay as ‘The Face of SCW’! Hell, even if she couldn’t be that, she still wanted to stay! Even if the ship was sinking, her heart still wanted to go down with it.

No… Deanna didn’t need that weighing down on her when she already had enough pressure heading into this match. With the stakes as high as they were, the future of the tag division and The House of Frost in the balance. Not to mention Ravyn basically calling her the weak link…

With a long exhale, Selena stepped away from the office space. She didn’t want to think about this anymore and she certainly wasn’t in the mood to finish doing taxes today. She would have gone to the pool/gym house to get a cold swim to clear her head, but Deanna was there and needed her space to think. Besides, someone had to watch the kids.

That decision made, Selena quickly ducked out of the adjoining cinema room and into the main space of the basement, making her way down to the playroom section where she spied, sure enough, David playing his Metroid game with Amiliah playing with her Legos, building some kind of tower, it seemed, and Elsianna with her book, watching Amiliah mostly (in case her little sister got a hankering for some plastic-candy-pieces).

Without a word, Selena walked into the room, sitting down beside Amiliah. The small, redhaired child looked up to see her mother looking down at her before Selena leaned in to kiss her small forehead.

“Eeee…” Ami shook her head playfully at her mother’s kiss, which only prompted Selena to blow a playful raspberry-kiss on her daughter’s skin, causing an even greater reaction, a laugh and a ‘no no no!’ by the child. The sound caused Elsianna to lift her eyes from her book before the eldest simply returned to reading.

“What are you building, fireball?” Selena asked Amiliah, picking up little pieces of tree-legos and seeing the assorted… well, mess… her daughter had made.

“I’m trying to build Regorala…” the last word came out as a bit of a slur and, if she wasn’t a four-year old child, Selena would almost have thought her daughter was having some kind of stroke with how her lips warped and twisted, trying to say the word. “Algeematrigoo!”

“I’m sorry?” Selena half-laughed, casting her eyes along the expanse of figures and building pieces.

“She means ‘Altragoraix’.” Came Elsianna’s voice, the young blonde turning her head to gaze at her mother, having the Snow Queen’s attention. “It’s the world Asuna and I created for our DnD group.”

Selena tilted her head towards the girl. “And you couldn’t go with ‘Magicland’ or ‘Fairy Fountain’? Something in English?” she teased.

“It’s Elvish.” Elsianna shrugged.

“It’s got pretty trees!” Amiliah explained. “And fairies! And evil monsters that the elves fight!”

“Is that so?” Selena smiled at her youngest, reaching over to ruffle the little one’s hair before casting her eyes at her son further down the room, sitting on a couch as he made the character in his video game jump and shoot. “How’s the blasting, David?”

“Great.” He replied. “Except this Space Pirate is messing me up.”

“Did you try jumping on his head? That always worked when I was a kid.”
“That’s Mario.” Despite not seeing his face, Selena could feel her son rolling his eyes at her.

“Mother.” The voice came from Elsianna, the eldest pushing herself up. “Are we still going today?”

The question caused a slight panic to rise in the platinum-blonde, Selena racking her brain trying to remember every conversation she had had with her child. Think, Selena! she desperately tried. It’s a Saturday so… a walk? A show? A game? No… I would have remembered those!

“Umm… Elsa…” Selena sighed, a look of guilt washing over her features. “Can you please be more specific?”

Folding her book up and placing it on the floor beside her chair, the young girl gave a nod. “Destination Cosmos opened this week over at the Hall Des Lumieres.” She spoke the French part amazingly well – Selena made a quick reminder to thank the child’s French teacher at the school later. “It’s that big art exhibit-“

“Oh!” the memory was like a mental kick in Selena’s brain. “The Space immersion thingy! It was a big tour through space or whatever, right?”

The eldest daughter gave a nod.

“Elsa wants to go to space!” Amiliah exclaimed, picking up a large tower of white legos. “VROOM!” she exclaimed, lifting it up into the sky and ‘defying gravity’. “Rockets away! Save the world from Martians!”

“I’m doing that.” David shot back. “And they’re called Space Pirates.”
“SPACE PIRATES!” Amiliah exclaimed. “Pew pew!” she added, simulating the rocket-ship apparently having lasers built-in as well like a Star Wars movie.

“So, mother…” Elsianna tried. “Can we still go?”

Reaching into the pocket in her dress, Selena was, temporarily, surprised when the pocket was empty. Must have left my cellphone in the office. She quickly concluded, choosing then to cast her eyes towards the wall where the analog clock was placed. The black circle with silver numbers and arms quickly told the time.

“Is it still open?” she asked, earning a quick nod from Elsianna.
“Until 10pm.”
“10pm?!” sapphire eyes went wide. “No way you’re staying up that late, young lady.”

Quickly, she pushed herself up to her feet, dusting off her dress. “Either of you want to come? David? Space exhibit?”

“No thanks.” David quickly said before resuming his ‘blasting’ on the television screen.
“Okay. Ami?”

To answer, Amiliah shook her head. “I’m gonna build Elsa a big ‘Moon Castle’… ON THE MOON!” She was instantly grabbing pieces and getting to work.

“Ooookay…” Selena smiled, a light chuckle escaping her before turning her attention to Elsianna, who was hopping up and down on her feet, perhaps the most excited Selena had seen her in a long time. “Guess that just leaves you and me.” She grinned before gesturing with a sweep of her arm. “Go make empty and get your coat. I’ll get your mom so she can watch the others.”

“Yes, mother.” Elsianna was off like a shot, disappearing in seconds and earning another chuckle from the older platinum-blonde. “You kids don’t get into any trouble, okay? I’m just going to get mom.”

She quickly made her way out of the basement and up the stairs to the main floor, opening the front door just in time to see Deanna running down the stone and grass path from the pool/gym house at top speeds!

“Selena!” she called out, holding her phone up. Within seconds, she had reached the taller Frost wife.
“Deanna.” Selena smiled. “You look like you just got a great idea. Writing going okay?” she didn’t wait for an answer. “Elsa and I are heading to this space exhibit – can you just move your work inside to watch the other-“

“Tannis had another episode!”

The remark caused Selena to halt all speaking as the breath was literally ripped out of her lungs. She stood there for what felt like an eternity, but was only a few seconds, as she tried to speak.

“She…she what?”

Deanna held up her phone. “Paul just called me. They were having a late breakfast – brunch –“ she seemed distracted for a wisp of a second before she continued on in a rush. “-and she collapsed onto the floor! She’s at the hospital right now!”

“Gods…” all thoughts fled from Selena’s mind as she pictured that poor girl – the one she and Deanna had been helping for weeks with their medical expenses and residence in the guest houses near the hospital. Again, she instinctively reached for her phone, but the pocket was still empty. “Can you call Gerda? I need her here to watch the kids.”

“On it.” Deanna nodded. “Let me grab my purse.”
“Just get my wallet while you’re there.” Selena pressed. “I’ll get the car-“

“Mother?”

Turning around, Selena spied Elsianna standing on the stairway, a look of confusion on her face. She had changed from her black skirt and black shirt to blue jeans and a dark blue shirt with a galaxy designed on it. Her gloves, still covering her hands and forearms, matched the orange within the galaxy image.

“What’s going on?” asked in confusion.

For a moment, Selena was at a loss for words as Deanna bolted around them to make the phone call and grab the requested items. The Snow Queen, however, could only gaze at her daughter for a moment before she snapped herself back to reality.

“I need you to stay here, Elsianna.” She ordered. “Gerda will be here soon to look after you and the others.”

“But…” Elsa’s confusion only grew. “I thought we were…”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Selena assured. “The little girl in the hospital I told you about? Tannis?”

“The one that’s really sick?”

“Yes. She’s having a lot of trouble and she needs your mom and I.”
“But…” Elsianna bit her lower lip. “But you promised…”

“And I will keep that promise.” Selena stressed. “But right now, this is an emergency, okay?”

“I…” the child tried before settling back a little. “Okay…” she whispered before turning around and heading back up the stairs towards her room. Despite so much of her wishing to follow the ten-year old and explain everything to her, Selena simply didn’t have the time as Deanna came rushing back to her side.

“Gerda’s on her way. Here.” She handed Selena her wallet. “What’s wrong with Elsianna?”

“I’ll explain on the way.” Selena sighed as she spotted Gerda’s car pulling into the vast driveway that lead to their house, opting to veer wide and give the Frosts ample space to leave. “Let’s go, quickly.”

The two were out of the house, in their Jeep Liberty and barrelling away before Gerda had fully left her own car. “Gods, I hope she’s alright.” Deanna whispered, clutching her phone to her chest after firing off a quick text – to Paul and Sara, Selena assumed.

“She has to be.” Selena whispered as they merged onto traffic, zipping along the highways en route to the hospital. “She has to be…”
_____________________________________________________

The camera opens up to the Ky-Vee Arena in Kansas City, the site of perhaps the most unstable pay-per-view of the year: Playing the Wildcard. And while that instability could be from the name, the SCW Universe has witness it as being because of a Trios-Cash-in that has turned SCW up and around on its head. And like ‘damage control’ in a bad scandal, SCW management has some fixated on ‘correcting’ some of the changes made by it. One such change involves the SCW tag-team championship, which is why the familiar lights of ‘Frozen Central’ shine down on the empty arena. Why the mist rolls into and out of the ring. And why, inside, there stands familiar platinum-blonde. She wears black pants, a white shirt and a black leather jacket. Her hair is in its iconic braid and the SCW world tag-team title rests over her shoulder. Surrounding her, however, speaking change, are eight face-down, large playing cards in two groups of four. Two are above her, two are below her, two are to the right and two are to the left, all within the SCW ring.

The image set, the camera focuses on ‘The Face of SCW’ as Selena Frost lifts her head and gazes at the camera.

Been a crazy couple of weeks, hasn’t it? she offers an amused smirk before adjusting the title on her shoulder.

And perhaps that is a bit of an understatement. I know some would prefer the term: chaotic. Others would say it was ‘insane’. Others still would say ‘entertaining’. And me? Well, I’ve not been shy in voicing my disgust over the match that is the source of it all.

But whether you agree with me or you disagree with me, you cannot deny how things have drastically changed in terms of the landscape of SCW. New champions, new teamups, backlash, the fallout, SCW scrambling to restore some semblance of order in this grand mess of things.

She takes a second to look around the empty arena. Which leads me to where I am standing tonight. And where I will be when the show starts. Tonight, I plan to regain my wife’s tag-team title and for The House of Frost to, once again, become World Tag-Team Champions.

And the funny thing about it is, the guy responsible for this whole mess – the guy that my name is linked to for all of history as having a tag-title reign with – he doesn’t even want to use that name, does he? she gives a shrug, almost in disbelief. I mean, week after week, even when I turned him down – I assume that doesn’t happen very often in his personal life, but let’s face it. I know I can do better – but every week, he’s come in flashing my name, flashing my catchphrase, borderline stalker, right? All to get my attention. All to get me to talk.

So… let’s talk, Ace. That’s what you said you wanted from me, so let’s do it. Let’s talk about you. How long has it been, huh? And I don’t mean since we fought and I beat you to the ground at Rise to Greatness. No, I’m not allowed to talk about the past with you saying to ‘let it go’ and Ravyn slamming me if I do, right? Bad Selena, right? No past talk. she grins.

So, let’s talk about the present. Let’s talk about how you, once again – almost like a tradition and a trademark for Ace Marshall – disappear for months and months, you come back, and then proceed to take SCW by storm. You appear out of nowhere and are instantly on the minds and lips of so many of the SCW Universe. You are discussed, you are approached, you are even goaded back to the ‘way things were’ with Lexy Chapel, right? ‘Back to Neverland!’ – I mean ‘Back to Lexy’s World!’, right?

And for me, Ace, that wouldn’t have bothered me. It wouldn’t have. You around has always kept me on my toes. We’ve traded victories, titles, moments, even t-shirts. So you in SCW, much as you annoy me? You bring something that SCW needs.

And do you want to know the truth, Ace? For about a day, I actually contemplated teaming with you. I actually gave it some serious thought. The day after that match, when I learned what had happened and who I was chained to now? I gave it some thought. Not for me, not for the tag-team division, but honestly, for my wife.

Selena gives an honest shrug at the confession. Say what you will about me, Ace, but I’ve proven myself here time and time again just like you have. I’ve earned my rank, earned my scars, and I stand here as one of the best because I earned it. But on that night? During that match? I saw my wife not only pin Josh Hudson twice but make Owen Cruze submit! Did you do that? Did Ravyn do that? No. Not even I did that! But Deanna did.

And while I’ll probably hear Hudson and Ravyn complain that it ‘didn’t count’ because she fell through a door, Deanna proved that she could, at least, do it. That she could be good enough to pin and beat the top contenders. So… I thought, maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. Maybe I should just say nothing and just go with the flow of things. Maybe this was bigger than me and my desire to do right by this division. Maybe the right thing to do was to give you a proper chance and see if you could stand on grounds of integrity and honor and allow my wife the chance to further prove herself as a singles competitor!

Looking away for a moment, Selena gives her head a shake. And it’s not like it wouldn’t work in terms of technique and ability, Ace. You’re the only person to win the Taking Hold of the Flame Battle Royale twice over. No one else has done that. You’re a multi-time world champion, believe me, I remember that. And, back to that RTG main-event, you brought out the best in me in terms of stamina and pushing the limits of what I had to endure to get past you. So, yes, on paper, it did make sense to a degree. We could probably have done really well as tag-team champions while my wife went off to conquer the Adrenaline or the United States division or, dare I dream, the World title division…

Clenching her teeth, she gives a quick inhale as she strolls around the ring and large playing cards. But… like I said, that kind of thinking only lasted a day, Ace. Because I DO know you. I knew what was headed my way. It wasn’t integrity. It wasn’t honor. It wasn’t you looking to make SCW and the tag-team division something worthwhile again. It was you doing whatever the hell you wanted, screwing over or pissing off or burning as much or as many or whatever as you could and then, when you had had your fun, you’d be gone again… like always.

She gives another simple shrug. It’s true, Ace. You know it and I know it. It’s the same with the Alloccos, it’s the same with all of Infamous, especially with Ravyn. Flash in the pans, and then half-ass, and then gone. Over and over again. The neverending cycle of the ‘part-time’, ‘half-ass’ flavours that you embody, Ace.

And the idea of being paired with that. When my dreams for SCW or so much bigger than that. When my vision of SCW requires more than such fickle attendance? The idea of me condoning that in the tag-team division, the division that my wife and I put our hearts and souls into for months and months to get to… I couldn’t do it. It would be a slap in the face to me, to Deanna, to Light in the Darkness, to Amy and Simon, Bree and Datura, Chance and Kelsai, the Playgirls – hell EVERY SINGLE tag-team that has come out of the woodwork and are now busting their asses just for a shot.

She seems to think about that for a moment before continuing. And while we’re on the subject here… Did you even think about them, Ace? All those teams that are waiting for this… she gestures towards herself and the camera. To be resolved? Did you think about them and facing them next? Or how many teams the House of Frost has drawn back into SCW? Or how they reverie this division now? Did that cross your mind while you joyriding and committing grand-theft-auto?

Because I’ll tell you a little story, Ace. Before Deanna and I held these titles, they belonged to a couple of guys in bird and bear costumes. I’m sure you know of them. Talented as they were, they didn’t take what being tag-team champion meant seriously. They were more interested in singing their songs and playing their games and gimmicks. The result? Fewer and fewer tag-teams wanted anything to do with SCW’s tag-team division.

A division that once housed such great teams as Black Cell, Karnivale, Dark Fantasy, The Next Level, The Cashmere Mafia… Frozen Hell. She throws a wink towards the camera. Now had next to nothing. Hell, it got so bad that SCW management was LITERALLY throwing teams together like Kimberly Williams and Sarah Wolfe on Rise to Greatness! – the most important pay-per-view in SCW’s year – and they were just throwing teams together for the division just to have SOMETHING for it to do!

The division was seen as little more than a joke, Ace. And that’s when Deanna and I stepped in. We stepped in and we changed all that. Because we believed, we TRULY believed that the tag-team division was meant to be more than that. That the tag-team division and all the matches therein were meant to be more than jokes. More than gimmicks. More than mere ‘ornaments’ for a bigger ‘story’. We believed that the wrestling WAS the story. That the tag-division WAS the story.

Now? There’s so many new teams and developed teams returning that we’re booked solid all the way to Rise to Greatness, maybe longer. We had several tag-teams literally fighting the hell out of eachother just to become the number one contenders last pay-per-view!

A look of excitement flashes across Selena’s features. You want to talk to me about believing, Ace? I don’t believe you when you say that. I believe when I see that happening in the tag-team division and I believe when the SCW Universe are on their feet for teams like House of Frost and Light in the Darkness and the clinic that we put on at Retribution. THAT is what I believe. her voice echoes a little within the empty space.

And I knew that you would never honor that, Ace. Why would you? That’s not ‘entertaining’ to you. That’s work. That’s hard, months-putting in, staying when times are tough, honest work. And then, you bring the crème de la crème, the piece-de-resistance. You come down to the ring during that title-ceremony and you prove me right.

Selena’s expression changes to one of irritation and slight disgust. Because you weren’t selling me on Ace Marshall, were you? You couldn’t even do that, could you? No! You were trying to sell me on ‘Ace Frost’. On ‘The New House of Frost’, right? First night with your tag champion and you’re already mocking my WIFE and everything she and I went through to be here! You strolled in, pinned a few people and you managed to steal a tag-team title and you think that qualifies you to do that?! her jaw clenches.

That was the cold-blast of reality I needed, Ace. That’s what I needed to hear to fully know that I was right, because if you thought so low of what Deanna and I did for this division, if you thought so low of it that you could just easily ‘replace’ my wife and take on MY last name – the name I am so damn proud of – if you thought that this division was deserving of FUCKING Ravyn Taylor?! Then you know what? Not only did I do the right thing by knocking you flat on your ass, but clearly, I didn’t hit you hard enough.

Sapphire eyes narrow. Because I should have knocked you out the goddamn door that you crawled through to get back into SCW! she points up the ramp, to the backstage area before lowering it to return the attention to the camera.

Because every time those tag-titles have found there way into the hands of Lexy Chapel’s camp, they have been disrespected. They have been discarded. They have been underutilized and just as easily forgotten.

Zero Fucks to Give? Played hot potato with them over house shows just to give Christy that Supreme Championship status.
Farmstead Friends? I already talked about them.
And you? You are a two-time tag-team champion, Ace, and your reigns lasted a month on the lucky side. Sneeze and they were done. Take a nap and the titles were somewhere else… just like you.

Slowly, Selena gives a slow shake of her head and a bit of a shrug with her shoulders. You’re good, Ace. So’s Ravyn. But when it comes down to it, if this was about the tag-team titles for you? If you thought great things could be done for the tag-team titles, you never would have picked her and you know it. Cause, let’s face it, you’re not even on her list of ‘people she’d like to tag with’, or did you miss all the weeks and weeks she’s been gaslighting Syren, begging to get ‘the band’ back together.

Selena tilts her head. Yeah, you thought you had me there, didn’t you, Ravyn? All that talk about ‘the past’ and living it. You think I’d be angry at that? After all these years, you’re still whining about what? A nickname? A name I earned?

Let me ask you something, Ravyn. What the hell have YOU done to earn that nickname? Better yet, let me ask you, what the hell has Lexy Chapel done to earn that nickname? Better yet, what the hell has Syren done in the last… four or five years to earn that nickname?

I mean, you want to talk about the past? How long has she been on this kick of hers to ‘have O. D. drape the world title around my waist’ while she fails chance after chance, opportunity after opportunity to get the world title? Hell, didn’t she just lose to The One a couple of weeks ago? The woman that my wife knocked out earlier this year?

Selena holds up a hand. You know what? Let’s not go there. I’m sure she’s recovering just fine. She’s got a great match against Bree Lancaster and I am sure she will be able to pull herself together and give us a bit of that old ‘Syren magic’ and put on a barn-burner. I truly do.

But you? You want me to move on from the past, right? I mean, does this mean we won’t hear the words ‘phony’, ‘fooling’, ‘manipulating’, and ‘fake/fraud’ from you? You know, the same words I’ve heard every time you’ve managed to talk about me? Or is this going to be the same ‘Infamous blueprint’ that seems to run through the old group members whenever they deal with me, because that’s worked SO well in the past right?

Selena shakes her head knowingly, able to almost quote verbatim the old ‘catching points’ of Infamous’ promos against her (from Christy all the way to Syren). You know what? Let’s switch the questions a little bit again. Because I do find it funny, Ravyn – Ace Marshall kind of funny, actually, that you’re telling me to ‘step out of the past’ when you’re trying so hard to recreate it. I mean, Dark Fantasy? Reforming a tag-team that, while maybe the best tag-team that’s ever been in SCW, hasn’t won the titles in what? Over a decade? she gives a fake incredulous look. Really? And I’M the one living in the past? A knowing grin forms on her features.

You know, Ravyn, the more and more I think about it, the more and more it seems like you’re not really coming after the tag-team titles. You’re coming after me. You’re coming after me because… I’m the Face of SCW and Syren isn’t. You’re coming after me because… I’m the longest reigning world champion and Syren isn’t. You’re coming after me because I’ve raised this place to a standard where people like The One and Gavin Taylor can BEAT your wife!

And you’re coming after me because, while I can stand here with my wife as the world tag-team champion, your wife, despite all of that, wants nothing to do with you in SCW.

Her head tilts the other way. Like you said, Ravyn, the truth hurts. And the truth is, I finally can stand here and look at you with 100% certainty and say: Ravyn Taylor is jealous of Selena Frost… Selena takes a deep breath, as if savouring the notion for the first time in nearly ten years. Wow, what a feeling. All these years of feeling like I wasn’t smart enough for you – and now I’ve got you figured out as easy as a children’s book. And continuing on that, there’s a reason Dark Fantasy is merely a note in the history books now. There is a reason that the tag-team division doesn’t need you or Ace Marshall in it. There’s a reason that I am, indeed, ‘The Face of SCW’ despite your gripes with that.

And that’s because this isn’t 2011 of 2012. SCW is NOT your playground anymore. SCW is NOT a place for your disrespect and screwing around. That’s not how SCW works around here anymore. We’re about accountability. We’re about integrity. We’re about overcoming all the odds for Supreme Championship Wrestling! And you want to drag your drama into the ring, you want to tell me the same old line about how you’ll do ‘anything to win’? Drag in Konrad? Lexy? I say… she shrugs. Do your best, Ace… Ravyn.

Because the last time you came with a plan, Ace, I knocked you out and made history at Rise to Greatness. Last time YOU came up with a plan, Ravyn? Not only did I beat you, but I saved your life from Luna and you ran off scared.

She looks around the ring and then down at the large playing cards. Playing the Wildcard? I’m putting your ‘plans’, this chaos and all this crap behind The House of Frost. We are moving on. We are back on track to making SCW stand for those letters again. We are going to move on to be better champions. Better wrestlers and provide five-star matches for EVERY tag-team that is waiting for this shit to be done and over with! Matches THEY all deserve that you will never give them! the accusatory tone is clear in her voice.

Because I don’t have a ten-step plan, guys. I don’t have a thousand different ideas. I don’t have backup plans. I don’t have pals waiting in the back to run in…

I only have one plan. she holds up her hand and one finger.

And that is to overcome it all and do what I say I am going to do. Restore integrity and the tag-team division for all of the SCW Universe!

That’s my one plan. And unlike you two, who will just shrug your shoulders and move on or move out the second it suits you… I’m willing to risk everything for this one plan.

Carefully, Selena lays the SCW world tag-team title on the ground. Either I restore the House… or The House will die trying. Because I’d rather be without this title than tied to either one of you while you promise to bring it back to the joke it was before Deanna and I came along. Believe it!

Slowly, Selena backs away from the tag-title and the large cards in the ring, the camera locking on the title for a few seconds as Selena’s shadows is seen moving away from the ring… a second passing before another shadow comes and another hand reaches down and picks up the title… the camera moving up to the redhead that now stands before it and holding the title that once was hers.

So… guess it’s my turn…

[SnowQueenSCW]

OOC: Deanna’s 2nd roleplay. Promo takes place immediately following Selena’s (in 2nd roleplay).

DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of fiction and not to be confused as complete or accurate representation of any beliefs, religions, etc. Please refer to research/articles by experts for that.

The Witches of Alden

”Innocence”

Frost ‘Forever Home’
Black Arrow Neighbourhood
Manhattan, New York
April 15, 2023
1:52pm

Deanna sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, surrounded by free-lifting weights, dumbbells, treadmills – the basic ‘necessities’ of an at-home gym. Her ears were filled with the notes of fantasy music with soft ‘fairy vocals’ (as the title suggested) that pumped in through the Bluetooth speakers. She didn’t want her usual, high-octane, get-your-butt-moving music that she often listened to while in the family’s gym-room. She had tried that the first time when writing the promo and Selena had basically told her the result of that.

Biting her lower lip as she adjusting her shorts a little and then scratched her temple, the redhead worked her lower lip with her teeth as she stared at the slew of eight pages on the ground surrounding her in a semi-circle. She had to admit that her wife’s advice had made a lot of sense. She had started thinking about this promo late last night, when she had awakened in the middle of the night and fought her bed devoid of her favorite sleeping-companion – aka her wife.

Now, to be clear, normally waking up at 3:12am with no Selena Frost wasn’t usually a cause for alarm for the redhead. The Snow Queen was often an early riser (sometimes as early as 4 or 5am) when she was home in-between SCW shows. It could be she wanted to get a solitary workout in, or maybe a swim in their private pool/gym house further down their property. Or maybe, with the spring FINALLY here (much to Deanna’s delight), the platinum-blonde was enjoying the large lake that filled the middle of the circular Black Arrow Neighbourhood, the cold, outdoor waters often reminding the former world champion of her ‘polar-bear swims’ in Nome, Alaska. Or maybe she was back in her office, working on her own stuff for SCW – or taxes like she had been on and off the last few days.

The point was, there were half a dozen reasons why Selena was not where Deanna wanted her to be in that moment, which was in bed, snuggled up in her arms, and the logic part of Deanna’s brain KNEW this and tried to remain calm as her empty hand touched the absent side that belonged to the older woman. However, a part of her brain immediately recalled that night in Iowa – on their ‘Believe it!’ bus. Part of her mind, feeling Selena’s current absence, instantly drew up that image of her wife crying in her arms, actually considering leaving SCW for good. Leaving it behind and letting the new owners and the vague/elusive D. thrive… or burn… without The House of Frost.

And despite herself, it was that memory that had driven Deanna to search the house for her beloved wife, even if it met earning her ire and frustration at disturbing what she was doing. So, after checking in on their sleeping children, she had made her way quietly throughout the house, stopping at each room first until she had, finally, reached Selena’s office in the basement… where she could, as she had approached the entrance of the room, hear her wife’s shaky voice as she emotionally dumped so much of her soul into that ‘Royal Letter’ towards the SCW owner, O. D..

For Deanna, who had heard dozens, maybe hundreds, of Royal Letters in her life with Selena (eight or so years), she had never heard something so raw and emotional from Selena. She couldn’t even be sure what emotion it was from Selena. Was it anger? Was it heartbreak? Was it surrender? Was it revelation? It had sounded like all of those to the redhead – only adding to her own heartache as her heart reached for her wife. Still, she stayed in the dark of the adjoining cinema room, waiting for the platinum-blonde to exit to go to the bathroom and then return later before sneaking out of the basement and returning back to her empty bed, contemplating everything she had heard her wife speak about.

She hadn’t slept much after that, her mind immediately trying to work out the beginnings of her first draft of the promo that lay strewn before her in pages – Deanna’s emerald eyes scanning them as she sat there in the gym space.

Selena had been right in her assessment. The Queen’s Guard had talked about everything in those pages. She had gone after O. (about two pages on the far left) and his interpretation of her, even chastising him for how he was treating her wife. She had then targeted Ace and how he didn’t care about the tag-team division. And then she had gone after Ravyn, merely instilling her belief from last Breakdown that the woman didn’t deserve a chance at the tag-team titles, while heaping on the losses Ravyn had suffered at Selena’s hands over the years. And as she read the whole thing again, Selena’s feedback kept ringing true in her ear: the message Deanna had scribbled onto the end of the last page when she had finished in Selena’s study.

Use her words to motivate you… not mess with you!!! She had added the three exclamation marks herself, as if to tell herself that message with gusto! Because it was true! She had written this draft emotionally because… she sighed as her ears continued to pick up the soft music and vocals of the background melodies. She HAD written this draft emotionally, because all she wanted was to make Selena feel better. She wanted to get things back on track for them in SCW, and it killed her to see her so troubled over the potential sale of SCW, their tag-team reign cut-short by an absurd match, and then to have to deal with Ace AND Ravyn mocking all their work and their journey as a tag-team like that, with Ace Marshall acting like some kind of ‘Frost-Zealot’ or something and Ravyn being the arrogant brat she always had been. She wanted to get things back to normal for them, like they had been when Light in the Darkness had fought them.

Why had that match been seen as a ‘break in reality’ for the four of them? Deanna wondered. As a glimpse of what they were fighting for and what they wished to be the norm in SCW, rather than the exception to all the chaos, title-for-title matches, and the insistent ‘meddling’ (Gods, I wish I had never heard that word from Selena last night! Now it’s stuck in my head! O. the meddler…). Why couldn’t that match, with audiences out of their seat and cheering for both teams because of the effort and passion, be the standard of SCW and tag-team wrestling? Deanna wasn’t entirely sure The House of Frost was going to get that – she could agree with her wife on that assessment. Between Ravyn having Lexy getting involved because of the ‘wife-drama’ between Ravyn and Syren and Ace continuously harassing Konrad – gods…

Deanna winced at that reminder. Konrad. THERE was the true wildcard, not Ravyn. The redhead remembered her last match with the Burned in Blood man, or Iced Blood or Blood Blood or Ice, Ice, Baby – whatever his name was nowadays, it didn’t matter! What mattered was what mattered then, and that was the damn mace he had nearly sliced her face open with last time she and he had crossed paths. He had sliced open the turnbuckle thanks to her quick maneuvering, but what if he had gotten her arm, or her leg, or had actually gotten her face….

Instinctively, a hand raised up at that idea, resting on her cheek. And would Lexy be working against Ravyn this time? Or would she work with Ravyn at the behest of Syren? Over some demented plan by one or both of them to get the tag-titles back on Dark Fantasy or, at the least, in the camp of LexyCorp?

She sighed at the familiar surge of emotions, heartbreak being one of them. There was no way the House of Frost would have a match this weekend like they had had with Light in the Darkness. There was no way that she would have the chance to truly test herself against two world champions for the first time in her tag-team career – both Ace and Ravyn had, pretty much, guaranteed that. Still, even though she had no idea how… they had to win.

Again, Selena’s words rang through her ears as clearly as the music. So many teams were entering the division now. So many of them wanting to fight for the tag-team titles. Bree and Datura, Amy and Simon, Chase and Kelsai, The Playgirls again, Deanna was actually losing track at how many teams. But The House of Frost wanted to defend their titles against all of them. It was exciting! So much potential for more classic matches! Devoid of the mind-games and simply about talent and… and…

She exhaled, clapping her hands together to refocus on the task at hand. She needed a better promo! She knew that. She needed to be better than what everyone was seeing in her. She needed to be more than a cog, or a shadow, or the weak-link! She needed to be someone worthy of being the SCW World tag-team champion with ‘The Face of SCW’! She needed to be someone that was ‘good-enough’ to be The Queen’s Guard. Gathering up the papers, Deanna eyed the first page of typed words, having no idea where to start to do that.

The sound of her ringtone: that of an upbeat version of Cascada’s “Everytime We Touch” (her ‘first-dance’ song when she had married Selena) broke her out of her thoughts as the phone rang beside her. Quickly, as if somewhat grateful for the distraction and hoping it could bring some inspiration to her, Deanna grabbed it and hit the screen with her finger to accept the call.

“Hello?” she answered brightly.

“Deanna?” the voice was gruff, a little winded, and perhaps a touch upset, but it was the fact that he had used her first name and she hadn’t recognized the voice that raised her alarm slightly.

“Yes?” she spoke slowly. “Who is this?” the last thing she wanted was another ‘Killjoy’ stalking them via phone.

“It’s Paul Parks. Tannis’ father.”

Immediately, Deanna’s lungs exhaled the air she did not know she had been holding in relief. “Oh… hey!” she breathed. “Sorry, I was… just working out…” she answered lamely as her eyes gazed at the papers in her hand. “What’s up, Paul? How’s Tannis and Sara-“

“Tannis is in the hospital again. She collapsed.”

Emerald eyes went wide as Deanna took in the words. “She collapsed?”

“Yes. We don’t know why, but we were having brunch-“
“Brunch, okay…” Deanna nodded her head, though her brain instantly snapped to a thought. Who still has brunch these days? Why can’t we have brunch? Pancakes AND Tacos… FOCUS! “Then what?”

“She was talking about seeing you and Selena next week and then she just collapsed onto the table.” Paul explained, his voice growing more and more panic.

“Okay…okay…” Deanna breathed. “You’re at the hospital now?”
“Yes.” Paul answered. “Sara is with her and Dr. Kern is on his way.”

The request was unspoken but it might as well have been yelled in the redhead’s ear. There was a reason he had called the Frosts. It had been them that had made their residence in New York possible in the first place, paying for it with their own money from being SCW wrestlers and tag-team champions for the months they had been. Maybe it was for them to use their influence, or maybe they just wanted the emotional support for them, and especially, Tannis, but Deanna wasn’t stupid.

“I’ll get Selena.” She spoke strongly. “We’ll be there as fast as we can.”
“Thank you.” Was all the father could get out.
“Okay, we’ll see you soon.”

Immediately, she hung up the phone and stuffed it into her shorts-pocket. Jumping up to her feet, she tried to ignore how asleep her legs were. “Come on, guys!” she ordered them as she tried to run, managing an awkward stumble-run out of the gym. “Move it!” a few more strides, and a near stumble into the damn pool, and she was rushing out of the gym/pool house, her strides landing her on each flat stone of the trial between that house and their ‘Forever Home’. She had managed to get to the third stone when she saw the front door open and Selena step out, the Snow Queen’s sapphire eyes turning towards Deanna with, Deanna could still notice, a beautiful smile as she recognized the redhead and her speedy approach.

“Selena!” she called out, holding her phone up as she reached the porch Selena stood on, not winded from the run, but still feeling frazzled.

“Deanna.” Selena smiled, perhaps a little playfully. Deanna couldn’t tell. “You look like you just got a great idea. Writing going okay? Elsa and I are heading to this space exhibit – can you just move your work inside to watch the other-“

“Tannis had another episode!” Deanna blurted out, not really listening to whatever her wife had been saying. This was not the time to be so easily distracted by Deanna’s stupid ADHD. She needed to focus – TANNIS needed her to focus.

She saw Selena’s breath stop, sapphire eyes widened, and her mouth hang open for a second as she tried to speak.

“She…she what?”
Quickly reaching into her pocket, Deanna held up her phone. “Paul just called me. They were having a late lunch and she collapsed onto the floor! She’s at the hospital right now!”

“Gods…” to her wife’s credit, it only took a second for Selena to register everything she had heard, establish the shock and implications of Deanna’s statements before her face adopted a serious expression – driven, passionate – similar to the one she had shown that night in the ballroom when she had accepted her fate to become a witch with the Aldens. Pure focus: what is happened? What needs to be done? What is the next step? Deanna could almost see the thoughts forming behind her wife’s eyes at a mile a minute. Gods, she wished she could be that quick and calculating in SCW, in the ring – then she wouldn’t have gone through that door. She would have been able to keep up with her wife. She would still be tag-team champion and the House of Frost would be facing a real tag-team, like the number one contenders in Bree and Datura and not this mess of a- FOCUS! her mind screamed as she saw her wife’s lips moving.

“Can you call Gerda? I need her here to watch the kids.”
“On it.” Deanna nodded quickly, though her brain took a second to full register the order from her wife. “Let me grab my purse.”

“Just get my wallet while you’re there.” Selena pressed. “I’ll get the car-“
“Mother?”

Hearing the voice, Deanna saw her daughter Elsianna standing on the stairway, seemingly confused about something. She was looking, not at her, but at Selena with such an expression. “What’s going on?” asked with a tilt of her head, her orange-gloved hands nervously interlocking and releasing.

Focus… Deanna’s mind reminded her, prompting the redhead to quickly move up the stairs and around Elsianna with a quick, “Excuse me, dear.” She was in her room in less than four seconds, her fingers working her phone to speed-dial Gerda, and placing the phone on speaker.

The device rang four times before it was picked up.

“Hello?” came the familiar voice.
“Hi, Gerda.” The redhead spoke loudly as she began stripping out of her shirt and shorts. “Where are you?”

“Just outside having some lemonade. Are you okay?”
“Yes…” Deanna answered quickly as she pulled out blue jeans and a dark-green long blouse that ran down to her thighs. “Well… no.” she called back to her phone as she pulled her hair out of its ponytail and its long mane of red. “Can you get here now and watch the kids?”

“I- yes.” Gerda answered quickly. “Is everything alright?”
“That kid Selena and I were helping? Tannis?”
“The one with the cancer?”
“Yes.” Deanna answered quickly. “She collapsed and is back in the hospital. The parents want us there.”

Her change complete, the Queen’s Guard kicked the discarded shorts and shirt she had work to the side of the wall. She would pick it up later when she got back home. Giving herself a quick glance at the mirror hanging on the wall, she grabbed her purse and Selena’s wallet as instructed and was out of her room quickly; making her way down the stairs just in time to have Elsianna rush past her, the older woman just barely able to move into the wall to avoid running into the child as Elsa ascended the stairs and into her own room. Deanna only had a moment to watch the child before turning back to see her wife standing at the foot of the steps, a sad expression on the former world champion’s face.

“Gerda’s on her way. Here.” Deanna spoke, reaching the main-floor and handing Selena her wallet. “What’s wrong with Elsianna?”

The Snow Queen merely shook her head. “I’ll explain on the way.” She turned her head to the outsidem past the open door as they heard the sound of a car honking and approaching them, Gerda’s. “Let’s go, quickly.” She ordered, prompting the two to leave the house, jump into the Jeep Liberty, with Selena driving. They were out of the driveway quickly and nearing the main roads in minutes.

“Gods, I hope she’s alright.” Deanna whispered, clutching her phone to her chest after firing off a quick text to Paul – letting him know they were on their way.

“She has to be.”  She heard Selena whisper, though she wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince Deanna or herself with that statement as they merged onto traffic, zipping along the highways en route to the hospital. “She has to be…” she repeated, confirming the previous uncertainty Deanna had in favor of the latter. “Why do you have that?”

The question caught Deanna off guard, causing her to stare into her hand… where she still held the pages of the first draft of her promo. “I…” her eyes widened in surprise. Had she changed while still holding the papers? Or had she absently just placed them near the purse and wallet when she had gathered them? Or had she just grabbed everything in her hurry to get to the hospital – she couldn’t recall, but there was no denying that the papers that were clutched in her hands. “I have no idea.” She settled on saying, placing them all on top of the dashboard without thinking.

The driving continued without interruption for another twenty or so minutes until the Frosts parked in one of the public parking spaces near the hospital. Selena was out first, the wind causing her sundress to billow a little as it reached her. Deanna was barely out of the vehicle before she heard Selena lock it with the remote. Quickly, Deanna offered her hand to her wife, who took it tightly in hers before they jogged into the hospital, the doors opening automatically for them.

The pair didn’t have time to really look around the familiar setting of white walls and tiled floors. Instead, they were, almost immediately called upon by the tall man in blue jeans and red-black flannel. “Selena! Deanna!” they instantly recognized him as Paul, Tannis’ father, prompting the wives to renew their jog to close the short distance to the man.

“Thank you for-“
“It’s nothing.” Selena promoted, cutting off the man’s gratefulness. “Is she okay?”

“We don’t know.” Paul sighed. “Sara and Kern are with her now.”

He was quick to move after that answer, and the Frosts were just as quick to follow him as they made their way through the halls and to the elevator, taking it to appropriate floor. For Deanna, she barely noticed the movement of the elevator or the dings it made as it hit each floor. Instead, her eyes kept stealing glances towards Selena, the Snow Queen’s jaw clenching and unclenching - When had she re-braided her hair? Deanna suddenly noticed, but then again, Selena had noticed Deanna changing her clothes so…

She’s alright. Deanna sighed at the thought, echoing her wife’s earlier words. She has to be.

The difference was, however, was that Deanna needed Tannis to be alright, not just because she was young and deserved to be in good health to enjoy her childhood, but also because of Selena. She had assessed this earlier. Tannis was the symbol of ‘control’ that Selena was trying to keep a hold of in her life. With SCW spiralling out of control more and more with each day, with the sale still up in the air, with D. leaving and talking down to her and her beliefs, with everything with Kimberly and now Ace and Ravyn, helping the Parks beat this cancer in their child was one of the few things Selena felt she had any control over outside of her family. It was one of the few things that made her feel like, well, like she was making a difference in people’s lives – a real difference in the world she lived in. A feeling that was dwindling in SCW with each passing day.

And if Tannis were to take a turn for the worse… Deanna wondered, once more stealing a glance towards Selena… what would that mean for her wife? If the last vestige any good Selena tried to do amounted to… well, nothing?

Again, that gripping fear of that ‘third story’ that SCW was so fond of airing for the SCW Universe – the fall of the hero. The turn of good to evil… the fear of that happening to her beloved gripped Selena, causing a hand to fly to her green blouse to shift it a little, allowing her breathe easier, though there was no issue with the shirt to allow that in the first place. Suddenly, she couldn’t get out of the elevator fast enough, and she wasn’t the one with claustrophobia like her wife had.

The last ding filled her with relief as the doors opened, Paul getting out first but Deanna almost jumping out of the elevator, breathing as quiet a sigh as she could and refusing to look back at the metallic-box-thingy. She didn’t even want to see her wife’s reaction to such a small antic. Instead, she waited for Paul to start walking again before following him, staying only a few steps behind him as they travelled the last of the short distance of halls until they were standing outside the patient room. As seemed to be the case today with the redhead, she had only to look at the door before it suddenly opened before her eyes, this time allowing the tall, dark-skinned Hindu man to walk out, observing the chart in his hands. He wore a white lab coat and his hair was naturally curly.

“Dr. Kern!” Paul called out, earning the man’s attention, giving an extra burst of speed to reach him a second or two faster than the Frost wives. “How is she? How is my daughter-“

“Mr. Parks.” The doctor held up his hands. “She is fine. She just had a fainting spell.”

“A fainting spell?” Paul asked, earning a nod from the good doctor.

“This happens from time to time as we begin new medication with cancer patients. The altered blood pressure, thinning of blood, there are numerous possible reasons why, but they are not as serious as they seem.”

“You’re sure.” Paul asked, the father clearly still a bit on-edge, which the doctor tried to calm with a slow, understanding smile.

“I’m sure.” He explained. “We’re just keeping an eye on her and analyzing her medications for now. We will make some slight alterations to avoid such spells.”
“Can she go home then?” the father asked.

Slowly, almost sad to do so, Kern shook his head. “Standard policy says we need to keep her here for at least two hours before discharging her.”

“I see.” The taller man nodded his head. “Is she okay?”
“She is.” The doctor explained. “And she’s awake now. I recommend not getting her too excited or emotional. A spike could cause another episode today.”

“Thank you, doctor.” Paul reached out to shake his hand.
“I will be make in a short while.” Kern added before making his way down the hall to a pair of nurses, who were already approaching him – probably to discuss another patient.

Alone with Paul once more, Selena and Deanna glanced at one another. “Should…” Deanna tried. “Should we go then?” she asked slowly. “What if seeing us gets her too excited?”

Turning his head, Paul offered a kind smile to the two women. “It’s alright.” He nodded. “We’ll be careful.” He added before reaching the door and turning the handle enough to open it and enter. Slowly, hesitantly, Selena and Deanna moved closer to the door, neither daring to go in right away. They could hear voice on the other side.

“I’m fine, dad.” Came the sweet voice of the child they knew so well.
“I just don’t want you to get too excited again.” Came Paul’s voice.
“Can you just promise to be calm?” came an older woman’s voice, Sara’s, no doubt.
“I promise.” Tannis replied.

“Alright.” They heard Paul sigh, but it was more of a relaxed sigh than anything else, before he called out. “Come on it, guys.”

Slowly, Selena went first, leaning her head past the door and into the patient room. Deanna, slowly, followed suit, her head leaning in just below Selena’s. It would almost be comical if they weren’t terrified of overexciting the child. They were celebrities after all.

“Hi, sweetie.” Selena smiled, seeing the girl’s face light up.

“SELENA! DEANNA! I-“ immediately, Tannis eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed backwards onto the bed, all four adults immediately on alarm!

“TANNIS!” They all cried, almost at once, though Deanna’s was just a fraction of a second later as all four rushed towards the bed. Immediately, Deanna was desperately searching for the ‘emergency call button’ to get some help, emerald eyes scanning this way and that. She had just spotted it and begun reaching for it when the child’s torso sprung up, the brightest of smiles on her face!

“GOTCHA!” she laughed before dissolving into a small fit of laughter, falling against the bed with her giggles. Dumbfounded, the four adults looked at each other, each of their hearts still racing before a single voice rang through the room.

“TANNIS ABIGAIL PARKS!” came Sara Park’s sharp and commanding voice. The tone was beyond familiar to both Selena and Deanna, the latter leaning closer to her wife.

“Uh-oh…” she whispered, the tone very similar to one she adopted with her children. “Mom voice.”
“Yep.” Selena nodded, her hands reaching up to hold Deanna’s shoulders as she stood behind the shorter redhead.
“She gonna get it.” Deanna added.

Sara, meanwhile, had marched to the far side of Tannis’ bed, eyeing the child with the sternest of looks. “Don’t you EVER do something like that!” she ordered, causing the laughs in the child to suddenly cease and the laughter in her eyes dispel a little.

“It… it was just a joke.” She tried, a hint of terror in her voice towards her angry mother.

“It’s not a joke!” Sara pressed. “And it’s not funny! You almost scared your father and I AND Mrs. and Mrs. Frost to death!”

“And Selena’s old. She’s closer to it than me.” Deanna stated, trying to ease the tension caused by Tannis’ prank.
“Deanna!” Selena tried. “I’m only seven years older than you!”
“Yeah, and your hair’s already turning white.” Deanna gestured towards Selena’s head.
“My hair’s ALWAYS been white!”

“Therefore???” Deanna lead, gesturing with her hands as she eyed her wife.
“What?”
“Therefore, you’ve always been old.” Deanna concluded. “Tannis, back me up here.”
“Your hair’s whiter than my grandmother’s.” Tannis answered. “But it’s really pretty.”
“That’s true.” Deanna nodded.
“Neither of you are helping.” Selena narrowed her eyes at both of them. “And I believe, Tannis, your mother was talking to you.”

“Yes, I was.” Sara re-engaged with her previous ‘motherly-tone’. “Now, young lady, I want you to apologize to Selena and Deanna this minute for scaring them like that!”

Despite the slight pouting of her lip, the child did not hesitate to cast another glance at the Frost wives. “I’m sorry.” She quickly spoke, though Deanna could hear the earnest in her voice. She almost wanted to dismiss it out loud, laugh it off as a ‘great prank’ for the child’s sake, but she wasn’t the little girl’s parents. She wanted to respect their choice of reaction, so instead, she simply nodded her head, smiled at the girl and remained silent as Selena moved around her to approach the other side of Tannis bed, the Snow Queen kneeling down and taking the young girl’s hand into hers.

The ’scare’ having since passed, Deanna was able to fully observe the girl – the same age as her Elsianna but far more frail looking. Wait… I didn’t ask Selena why Elsianna seemed so upset when we left… came the sudden realization, but it hardly seemed the right time to bring up the subject. Instead, she merely watched her wife as she spoke to Tannis.

“What happened, dear?” she asked. “Your father said you fainted.”
“Yeah.” Sighed the child. “That’s what they told me too. I was talking about you guys visiting me after the weekend and the pay-per-view… Deanna promised to show me what poker is.”

“You what?!” asked Selena, Paul AND Sara, all three pairs of eyes suddenly on Deanna.

“I…” Deanna tried to explain. “She was asking about the pay-per-view title! ‘Playing the Wildcard’? So I explained what it was in reference to and she said-“ she began to speed up her speech as she spoke. “she said she heard of poker but didn’t know how to play – never played a hand. I promised I’d teach her how to play Texas Hold ‘Em if she promised not to use it to gamble at school!”

“And I did!” Tannis came to the redhead’s defense. “I did promise that, I mean.”

“Deanna…” Selena sighed. “Poker’s not really a game for an eleven year old.”
“I’ll be twelve soon.”
“Or a twelve year old.” Paul corrected.
“Couldn’t you teach her ‘crazy 8s’ or something?” Selena tried, earning a shrug from Deanna.

“Well…” Sara interrupted. “To continue, Tannis kept talking about meeting you and wanting to know about the pay-per-view. She got more and more excited and then passed out.”

“One minute, I was eating scrambled eggs, the next minute I was here! It was weird!” Tannis concluded with a smile.

Despite the young girl’s positive energy, Deanna saw Selena squeeze the girl’s hand gently, the only sign of worry that came from the Snow Queen. It wasn’t enough to get the girl’s attention, however, as she glanced at her father. “Can I go home now?”

“Not yet, dear.” Paul sighed, taking a seat in the chair Sara had occupied pre-prank. “Doctor said he’d come get you when you could.”

“How long would that be?” she asked, gesturing towards the monitors attached to her for heartrate. “I hate these things.” Her pout returned, once more a faint glimmer of her actual age.

“He said another hour or two.” Paul explained. “But we can watch TV on your phone.”
“And we can talk about SCW.” Selena tried, doing her best to get the child’s enthusiasm back.
“And I can teach you-“ Deanna caught herself. “A very safe and kid-friendly card game if we have any cards.”

With all those ideas in play, the two hours seemed to zoom by very fast. Selena and Deanna did their best to be positive regarding the pay-per-view match headed their way, exuding confidence that The House of Frost would, once more, be world tag-team champions completely, while leaving out the not so confident or pleasant facts of the company. Again, Tannis inquired about the selling of SCW and, again, Selena couldn’t answer her. What could she say? That it scared her? That she didn’t know what her future held?

How could she possibly say that to a child who doesn’t know if they will have any future at all… Deanna had sighed at that thought. She, eventually, had settled on teaching Tannis how to play Crazy-8s, but she had done it with all the ‘special cards and meaning’ behind them to keep it interesting for the child.

In short, the few hours almost flew by and when Dr. Kern returned to check on Tannis, he wasted no time in discharging her while giving Sara and Paul an updated medication-plan to assist in lowering the frequency of any future fainting spells. Relieved, the two families bid each other farewell till next week, the Frosts leaving first, heading back to the elevator, going down it and heading out of the hospital.

“Glad it worked out.” Deanna sighed as she gazed out towards the New York sky, the sun much lower than when they had entered the hospital. Beside her, Selena gave a slow inhale and exhale before nodding her head.

“Hope we don’t have to deal with anymore scares like that for the rest of the week.”

“So…” Deanna tried. “Don’t picture Ravyn and Ace as tag-team champions.”
“You are too spunky for your own damn good.” Selena shook her head, causing Deanna to stick her tongue out at the platinum-blonde as she fished out her cellphone for the first time since they had entered the hospital.

Probably got a few emails over where my promo is for the pay-per-view… she thought with a grumble as she turned her phone back on… stunned when she saw she had 47 missed calls and 13 voice messages… all from Gerda.

“What the-“ she almost cursed as she dialed the older woman’s phone. On the second ring, it was picked.

“Deanna!” it was Gerda’s voice but it was frantic, almost as if she was having a panic attack! “Deanna- I couldn’t get Selena and-“
“Gerda, slow down!” Deanna urged, gaining Selena’s attention immediately. “Selena is here with me, remember? We had to go to the hospital to check on Tannis and-“

“SHE’S GONE!” The voice, even without speaker-phone, rang loud enough to be heard by the nearby Selena, the next set of words causing both wives blood to run cold.

“ELSIANNA IS GONE! I LOOKED ALL OVER THE HOUSE AND I CAN’T FIND HER! SHE’S GONE!”

_______________________________________________________________

Inside the Ky-Vee Arena in Kansas City, Selena Frost, the Snow Queen of SCW, stands within an empty wrestling ring, which is filled with eight playing cards, two places at each primary direction like spots on a compass. Carefully, Selena takes off her SCW world tag-team title and lays it on the ground. Either I restore the House… or The House will die trying. Because I’d rather be without this title than tied to either one of you while you promise to bring it back to the joke it was before Deanna and I came along. Believe it!

Slowly, Selena backs away from the tag-title and the large cards in the ring, the camera locking on the title for a few seconds as Selena’s shadows is seen moving away from the ring…

A second passes before another shadow comes forward and another hand reaches down and picks up the title… the camera moving up to the redhead that now stands before it. She wears blue jeans, a dark-green sweater and her hair is a mane of red, emerald eyes glowing as she holds the title that once was hers.

So… guess it’s my turn… Deanna Frost speaks to the title before lifting her eyes up to the camera.

And what is there to expect, right? I’m sure Ace and Ravyn aren’t surprised. ‘Deanna following behind Selena’? Typical, right? But… really, this may shock you but, Selena felt that I needed to have the last word for our House in regards to this match.

She gives a light shrug of her shoulders before shaking her head, her eyes casting down to her wife’s tag-team title. And you know what? I’m glad she did, because there’s something that I have to say. Something that’s been weighing on my mind, weighing on my soul for some time. And the more and more I think about it, the truer and truer it has become.

Reaching over to the first pair of cards, Deanna’s eyes them. Because this isn’t some ‘random match’. This isn’t some ‘no idea what to expect’? This isn’t even some ‘game’ that Ace is making up and Ravyn is trying to take advantage of or even my wife is trying to help survive from. This is… this is the real life situation of EVERYTHING that exists for me right now.

With one shoe, Deanna flips over both cards on one side of the ring, revealing the Ace of Spades and the King of Clubs. The Aces are wild. Wild Ace. The man that no one can tie down. No man can predict. No man can really stop when he wants something bad enough – I emphasize man because… well, Selena made that clear. she smiles, perhaps a little amused at her own attempt at a joke. The king of debauchery. The man of a thousand plans and ideas. Will do ANYTHING to win. ANYTHING to get what he wants. ANYTHING to amuse himself.

Slowly, Deanna walks across the ring to the opposing pair of cards. With her shoe, she can manages to flip them over, revealing the joker card and the King of Hearts, the king’s sword just behind their head. The supposed wild card, herself. The Bad Girl Ravyn… Deanna eyes the king card beside the joker card. Someone that would as soon as stab you in the back than lend you a hand, sometimes one right after the other. Ever the planner. And…

Moving northward, Deanna reaches the top cards, flipping them over with her shoe, revealing the Ace of hearts and the Queen of Diamonds. The Queen of SCW. Its heart, its face. Its very definition and, maybe, its very soul…

Slowly returning to the middle of the ring, surrounded by the playing cards, Deanna takes a slow breath before speaking. You could not imagine a more loaded game. A more high-stakes match. And me, in it all… not even in the same league.

Because if you think about it, the differences are mountain-sized, aren’t there? It’s the lowest hanging branch, which is why Ravyn grabbed it last Breakdown, because it was easy. But there is a reason it is there. Because it’s covered in truth. It’s true, I’m the only one that isn’t a former world champion. I’m the only one that hasn’t main-evented Rise to Greatness. Hell, I’m the only one that’s never been a ‘wrestler of the year’ or won a third or second-tier title like the Adrenaline or the United States title. Never main-events a pay-per-view. Never won ‘the big match’ on my own… Last year, I spent my first Rise to Greatness event as a wrestler… on the preshow…

And that’s… that’s what you wanted me to know Ravyn, wasn’t it? You picked up on it so easily, didn’t you.

Because you didn’t come out on Breakdown to get in Selena’s head, did you? She’s way too good for that. She knows you too well – beaten you WAY too many times. No, you came to that last Breakdown to… to get in my head. You told the world what we already knew. That I am the least experienced. That I have the least accolades. That I’ve never fought and beaten former world champions before, but gods, you laid it on thick, didn’t you? Like wow…

A bitter smile forms across Deanna’s features.

I mean, for the past few weeks, I’ve had to listen to the boss of SCW, O. D. refer to me as a cog. As a disposable piece within the company that could just be bought or tossed away any day now. Little more than Selena’s shadow, that’s what he said – a concept that I have been fighting for over a year. A notion that I have struggled and fought tooth and claw to defy each and every time I entered the ring. The dream of standing in the ring not as my wife’s shadow but as her partner. As her equal. Not as her weakness, but part of her strength. To stand here within an SCW ring and say that I, Deanna Frost, belong here on my own merit and that I represent The House of Frost as strongly as my wife…

She pauses, letting her words settle.

And week after week, from the roster to the board, to the very owner, I have heard every contradiction to that statement. Every person denying it is so – certain that it could never be so. That the shadow of Selena Frost, ‘The Face of SCW’, is too large for anyone to get out of.

Biting her lower lip, Deanna looks down at her feet, as if trying to find the right words to say.

And I have fought that for so long, had my head buried so deep in the trenches that it took hearing it, not only from the man that hired me, but from both of you: Ace and Ravyn, for me to see things differently. Clearer.

She scans the Ace of Spades. I had to see you, Ace, tell my wife that you would go by “Ace Frost” and establish “The New House of Frost”. Her head jerking a little, the Queen’s Guard seemingly rather affected by that notion. Let me tell you something about that name, Ace. If you looked far enough back into her past, you would understand what her family name means to Selena. How it has driven her for years and years. One doesn’t simply become a ‘Frost’ in Selena’s family. It is earned, it is bestowed. And, should you be lucky enough to marry her, it is years of commitment, loyalty, of working through the hard times and worse times and overcoming every obstacle, fight and problem to stand together, united in love. The House of Frost, our tag-team, is a manifestation of that relationship, a representation of the trust and love she and I share both inside and outside of this ring.

But for you… you came in the first chance you had and established that all of that could be replaced with a new last name for yourself and a new team name – literally putting ‘new’ in Selena’s and my name. And the most incredible thing of it all, you legitimately believed it. You believed, you believed, you believed, that I was that easily replaceable. That all my years of marriage, of managing Selena, helping her to title victories, tournament wins, those years in prison in Frankfurt where I got by only on my belief that she was waiting for me, the children we have together, the dreams we’ve had for SCW together – you genuinely believe that all of that means nothing compared to you.

She stops to breath for a moment. And that I… am just a disposable cog.

Slowly, her head turns around to eye the Joker card and the King of Hearts. A weak link that can’t beat the ‘upper echelon’. Which I find interesting considering the source of that statement, Ravyn. Now, don’t get me wrong. There is some value and merit to what you said, you are definitely the upper echelon of SCW. I think you already made that clear. But the Herculean task of ‘beating you’… it sort of loses its luster when you lost to Cassie Wolfe just a few weeks ago.

Deanna eyes the camera, specifically the woman she is talking about. A rookie. A new face in SCW… beat Ravyn Taylor. Which means it CAN be done. It IS possible…

And with the amount of losses you’ve had over the past year or so and your absences from the ring, maybe, just maybe I’ve got enough in my own experience to overcome you with your and Ace’s ring rust. Because while you’ve come and gone, showing up but not wrestling, I’ve been here learning every second of every day. Testing the limits of what I can endure. Testing myself against the very best. I went toe to toe with Owen Cruze. I made him submit and pinned Josh Hudson twice, Ravyn Taylor. So IT IS possible. MORE than possible, it is an undeniable FACT that I can pin and BEAT the upper echelon! I know it! I believe it! I HAVE to do it!

Her voice echoes in the ring, louder than even Selena’s had been, the raw emotion on display from the Queen’s Guard.

Because if what you are saying is true, Ravyn – if it is true that I can’t handle the fires of the elite. If I can’t handle the pressures of the upper tier wrestlers. If I am forever doomed to live through embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss at that level. If my name is cursed to be synonymous with losing to “The Five Moves of Doom” – if all that you said is true…

Then everything Ace said and implied is true and I am an easy replacement.

If that is true than everything O. D. said about me is true. I am just a cog. A shadow of Selena’s. Disposable, replaceable…forgettable. Emerald eyes cast down to the two remaining, face-down cards.

And that changes everything. That changes everything about this match. That changes everything that this match stands for. If all of THAT is true than this is about so much more than integrity, the future of the tag-team division, or correcting a wrong by a coward in Kimberly Williams, or fixing a mistake, or even a dream between two wives! This becomes more than that for me! This is me fighting for everything that I believe myself to be! Everything I dream myself capable of! Everything that I have earned. Everything I have wished for. Everything that is MINE!

Tears can be seen brimming within the young Frost’s eyes, yet her voice never quivers.

You say I am a cog?! You say I am a shadow?! You say I am easily replaceable?! You say I am not ready for the fire?!

I CAN’T exist as a cog! I CAN’T exist as a shadow! I CAN’T exist as simply replaceable! And I HAVE to be ready! Because I have to believe that is who Deanna Frost truly is! A diamond in the rough! A World Champion in the making! A future star in this bright world of SCW!

That’s why I am the real wild card in this match, Ravyn. Because I’m not going to be simply fighting for the tag-team titles! No, Ravyn, Ace… O.… tonight is not me fighting simply for another tag-title reign! This will be me fighting for my very LIFE! My very IDENTITY! My very EXISTENCE in this world!

She pauses for a moment, her chest heaving a little. So, Ace, Ravyn… D. too! With all respects to your abilities and opinions and positions of power in the ‘upper echelon’, I don’t give a damn how unprepared or how ‘not ready’ I am to face the fire. I am going to face it! I am going to walk through it! I am going to take every burn, every plan, every jab, every slight, every notion you have about me and I will KEEP fighting until ‘the impossible’ is done and I defeat two former world champions in this very ring! Until the cog becomes an integral piece! Until I emerge from that shadow. Until the ‘replaceable’ becomes ‘irreplaceable’. Until ‘forgettable’ becomes ‘unforgettable’! Until Deanna Frost, the ‘wife of Selena Frost’…

Deanna’s eyes lower down to the two facedown cards, her foot inching out towards them, wanting to turn them over. Until Deanna Frost becomes something else entirely.

Slowly, she draws her foot back, not touching the cards, her head slowly rising up to stare into the camera. And whatever that is… will result in the one thing YOU are not ready for, Ravyn Taylor. One thing YOU cannot so easily replace, Ace Marshall.

And that is one more Frost surpassing the both of you!

Holding out the SCW tag-team title, the redhead holds it out towards the camera. Checkmate, bitches! before dropping it back into the center of the ring.

The camera slowly fades as it focuses on her, the title at her feet, and the two facedown cards standing before her – her cards – her very identity…

Uncertain… a wildcard that will soon be played… with EVERYTHING at stake.

[Syren]

Second RP. Continuing where the previous one left off. Should really remember my Ravyn password so I can log into that account on my MacBook. Weird posting on this account.

Enjoy.



Ravyn Taylor's Diary
An excerpt from April, 2023

[Lt. Erect]

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