Chastaine/Lyman vs. Light in the Darkness
#1
Amy Chastaine & Simon Lyman vs. Light in the Darkness


4 RP Limit per team
Deadline: 11:59:59 pm ET Monday, April 24, 2023
#2
OOC: We all agreed to go CD only for this match since we've all had a rough time of it this past weekend.
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Legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said: “It's not whether you got knocked down; it's whether you get back up.”

Amelia and Luz were more than happy to prove that while they'd been knocked all the way back down to the bottom of the tag team mountain, they would gladly get back up and prove they deserved to be here, no matter how long it took or what they'd have to endure to get there.

After the hectic chaos that had resulted from Kim Williams' Trios cash-in, the couple had walked into the last Breakdown ready to truly start rebuilding themselves into the duo they needed to be in order to cement their place on the roster of arguably the greatest wrestling company in the world today. After scoring three of their collective five falls in Kim's Underground Rules insanity over Chance and Kelsai, they had put the exclamation point on it with a proper tag team victory over the new tandem. They had done so knowing that nothing was set in stone for them at Playing the Wildcard, but the plan had been to figure that out once they'd overcome the challenge in front of them to figure out what direction they needed to go in next on their journey. Would Kim acknowledge what they had pointed out and defend her title against Luz and The One, especially considering a tweet prior to the show made it clear she'd heard what they had to say? Would someone decide they had an issue with the two of them and try to pick a fight? Perhaps they'd find themselves involved in some other crazy-yet-revolutionary match concept to prove themselves?

As it turns out, it would be a simple challenge that would open the door for The Light In The Darkness to not only continue to test themselves but also be a test for a huge return to the company.

They may not have expected to find themselves face-to-face with an SCW Hall of Famer and being challenged to oppose her for her return match, but they would be crazy to back down from such an opportunity.

Knowing that they had time to do so between Breakdown and Playing the Wildcard, Amelia and Luz had decided to return to their home in Anaheim to rest and prepare for the fight they knew they were in for with Amy Chastaine and Simon Lyman. There wasn't a doubt in their mind that not only would Amy want to make a statement in her first match back but she and Simon would want to make a statement in their first official outing as a team, and the couple were determined to be the kind of challenge necessary to help both sides figure out where they stood on the proverbial ladder at the moment.

If anything, focusing on training for this match and making sure they were both at their absolute best was a welcome distraction from all the mysteries surrounding them right now that were slowly consuming every facet of their lives.

One drawback that came with it, however, was something that both women had forgotten about, likely because up until a few months ago it had just been the two of them against the world. When they were locked in on a task, they would both hyperfocus on it to the point where they blocked out everything around them until they were finished. It was a mindset that had been drilled into Amelia by her father that Luz had helped her repurpose into something a little more positive by making sure she knew to stop when she started pushing herself too hard. Granted, Luz had little room to talk since being neurodivergent meant she was just as prone to tunnel vision in general, but unlike Amelia, she'd had the good fortune of being trained by people who helped shape it so that she paid enough attention to her body that she wouldn't crash and burn.

This would explain why they didn't acknowledge the presence of the four people who had just walked into their home gym, even when they called out to the couple to try and get their attention. They just kept repeating the motions for a double-team maneuver, finding some kinks to work out and then continuing the cycle.

“They're... really focused, aren't they?” Gage asked the others.

“Amelia was always like this whenever dad trained her,” Emily noted. “I guess Luz is the same way... at least they're acknowledging each other and hopefully they've got a healthier approach to this.”

“Should we wait until they're done then?” Ivy questioned.

“Nah, I've got this,” Edward said with a grin as he approached the training ring, while Emily just sighed as she knew her twin was about to do something dumb. Once he was close enough, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA IS AN AWFUL ANIME!”

Luz and Amelia seemed to twitch a bit at hearing that, subtly glancing over to where Edward stood looking proud of what he'd said. Suddenly, Luz moved to put herself on all fours as Amelia bounced off the ropes and Thorn Vaulted off her back, soaring over the top rope and tackling her brother as he turned to run. She quickly put him in an armbar as Luz stepped out of the ring and squatted down beside the siblings, both her and Amelia immediately launching into a joint tangent about how wrong he was about one of the things they both loved as he frantically apologized.

“Alright, alright, I think Ed gets the point about how stupid that was,” Emily cut in as she moved to pull her brother away, with Amelia reluctantly letting go as she and Luz finally realized they had company.

“Hey, it worked in getting their attention, didn't it?” Edward replied as he rolled his shoulder a bit.

“What are you guys doing here?” Luz asked.

“We wanted to come by while you both were home and figure out our next course of action regarding all these lies going around about you,” Gage told them. “Weren't expecting the door to be locked, or for you guys to not hear the doorbell.”

“Sorry...” Amelia mumbled, blushing in embarrassment. “We... might have gotten a little too focused on training for Amy and Simon.”

“We're facing two bona fide legends after all, and Simon at the very least has watched us from the commentary table for the early months of our return,” Luz added. “He knows a lot of what we're capable of that he and Amy can build from, so we want to be prepared for that.”

“Wait... how did you guys even get in?” Amelia suddenly asked.

“Let's just say that Em and I still know a thing or two about picking locks from all the times we tried breaking into your room over the years Am,” Edward admitted, rubbing the back of his head with a nervous chuckle. Amelia simply huffed and shook her head in response.

“Before another sibling fight gets started,” Ivy cut in, “Have you guys seen any of the latest developments?”

“Not really,” Luz admitted. “After Breakdown, we kind of locked ourselves into focusing on our pay-per-view match and training for it once we came back here, with the occasional break to make sure we weren't pushing ourselves too hard physically or mentally.”

“Well, the good news is that my little suggestion seemed to work because a lot of fans are in an uproar right now trying to figure out which side's telling the truth,” Gage proudly boasted.

Before the couple had set out to record what they had to say for their match against Chance and Kelsai, Gage had made a very simple suggestion that would ultimately turn out to be very effective. Luz and Amelia had wanted to address all the lies and deceit surrounding them right now in some fashion, but Gage had talked them out of it on the grounds of it becoming a “he said, she said” situation that could potentially be turned against them if what they'd seen so far of this ploy from Caleb and the Blythe parents was anything to go by. Instead, they had turned on a simple setting on the camera that displayed the exact date and time they were recording at. Gage's reasoning for the idea was that the false La Pequeña Luz was very clearly being booked in a manner that wouldn't conflict with the real Luz's SCW bookings, and with no clear way to tell when they recorded themselves beyond show time they could exploit that window to build on whatever lies they were trying to sell to the fans, especially with the latest wrinkle claiming that Amelia was engaged to marry a man she had never met and sure as hell wasn't interested in anyway because “Luz” was too focused on Empire matters for a relationship.

By putting a concrete date on when they'd filmed, Luz and Amelia had caused a lot of confusion that was casting doubt on the validity of anything The Empire was trying to sell to fans. Gage explained that the time they'd recorded had ended up conflicting with a match that “Luz” was in the middle of down in Mexico. Caleb had wasted little time in trying to claim it was fabricated with video editing, but a few fans had done a bit of digging into the video's metadata and pointed out that everything lined up with the date and time listed on-screen throughout everything the girls had to say. While it wasn't a perfect solution as now things were at a point where arguments were breaking out over who was the real Luz, a significant amount of fans were starting to realize just how little sense The Empire's claims and presentations made given how drastically they went against how The Light In The Darkness had presented themselves for years, especially since it all had come out of nowhere and with no warning.

“That's progress on solving one problem at least,” Amelia admitted as the group had migrated to the living room, with Luz briefly splitting off to go grab some water for herself and her girlfriend to stay hydrated following their interrupted training session.

“I'd like to think this created enough doubt that they might reconsider this whole scheme,” Luz added, “but if Caleb is anything like Aleister and Ophelia then we're going to need to keep applying pressure somehow until it becomes painfully clear their plans have failed. The real problem is that we don't know enough about Caleb to know how exactly to go about that.”

“I know he's got an impressive track record from the days when he used to be a wrestler himself, but that doesn't give us much to go off of to match up with anything about this whole scheme he's spearheading,” Gage lamented.

“Well, we know Dad crossed paths with him a few times when he was getting started in the business and Caleb was kind of going into what everyone thought would be the final years of his career,” Emily pointed out. “It's kind of why he holds the man in such high regard. He feels that Caleb White laid the foundation for the Blythe name to start building itself in the wrestling world.”

“I guess that makes sense why he'd want a union between our family and Caleb's, but it doesn't explain why dad thinks he can just say Amelia's marrying this 'Golden Prodigy' and it'll just happen,” Edward pondered. “He and Mom have no control over any of us anymore and they can't expect us to just do as they say when we've been trying to go no contact with them for years now.”

As the group debated whatever options they thought might be available to them, Luz found her thoughts drifting in a different direction. She thought back to her and Amelia's encounter with Lily Clauson a few weeks ago and the cryptic words she'd left them with, having initially buried the whole thing in her memories because she understandably didn't fully trust the words of a member of The Empire even if her girlfriend could vouch for her. As she finally contemplated Lily's claim that the answers they wanted were buried at a point in the past before either of them were even born, she realized something that might be possible given that Caleb's career had lasted long enough that even Aleister Blythe had supposedly encountered him in the ring at some point. Did that mean...?

“Hey, Gage,” Luz jumped back into the conversation, drawing all eyes to her. “You're the wrestling historian among us, and there are still a few things I admittedly don't know about some of the early years of my dad's career... he once told me that there were some things from those days he felt I was better off not knowing and I never questioned it until now. Do you know if my dad ever met Caleb in the ring?”

Gage thought it over for a moment, mentally pouring back over the encyclopedic knowledge he'd gathered of the sport in his bid to earn a place on some company's commentary team at some point. After about a minute, his eyes finally lit up in recognition.

“Actually, yeah!” he exclaimed. “It was shortly after your dad really started making a name for himself and garnering all the support that would elevate him to the status of lucha libre legend. He and Caleb had both been invited to Japan to take part in a big tournament and your father knocked him out in the very first round. They had a couple more matches after that, both in England and in Mexico, and your dad won every single time. He was the one and only wrestler who seemed to have Caleb's number, and Caleb never seemed to let that go. In fact... the only time he stopped bringing up the name of El Espíritu Angélico was after he was sidelined for months with a serious injury that almost ended his career because of a backstage attack that had no witnesses and everyone thought was just some sort of angle for the longest time. When he finally recovered and returned to action, Caleb had already retired and virtually gone into seclusion.”

“That would've been the injury where he ultimately met my mom while he was recovering at the hospital she works at and they eventually fell in love,” Luz noted. “And now I'm starting to get the feeling my dad kept that part of his career from me as best as he could because of something involving Caleb. Maybe that's what Lily meant by looking deep into the past...”

“You think your mom might know something about it?” Amelia asked.

“Even if we were on better terms, I doubt it,” Luz admitted. “The phone call where she put me on full blast for my 'betrayal of papá's memory' back before Retribution revealed that when she last tried to talk with 'me' that our imposter was quickly led away by Caleb and she didn't recognize him. It could be that she just didn't recognize who he was since he kind of disappeared after he retired, but she and my dad always told me he'd ended up in that hospital because of a wrestling injury... I'm starting to think that whatever actually happened is something papá might've hidden from even her, and he never kept anything from us without a very good reason.”

“Hang on a second,” Ivy interjected. “Who's Lily?”

Luz and Amelia exchanged glances before they realized there had been some developments they'd forgotten to bring their friends into the loop on.

“Sorry, I think we were so focused on our last match and then preparing for our next one that it must've slipped our minds,” Amelia admitted. “Before we left Edmonton we ran into Lily Clauson, a former acquaintance of mine that my parents tried to have keep an eye on me early on in my career before I met Luz. Apparently, she's a part of The Empire but serving as a mole to try and take them down along with her sister. I don't know why she was there, but she told us that the answers we're looking for are buried deep in the past and that we can look for her sister Marilyn if we need any more help.”

“That actually makes a lot of sense now!” Gage exclaimed, getting a few raised eyebrows from Ivy and the twins. “I thought it was a bit weird that she suddenly joined up with them to try and reignite her years-long feud with her sister when they finally seemed to be on good terms again after Marilyn beat cancer, but that makes it all so clear now! If she and Marilyn already have a plan to deal with this then maybe we should reach out to her. When she's not wrestling she runs a wrestling school out in Connecticut that her sister used to help with before this whole Empire thing started taking off.”

“I don't know if I trust her word though,” Emily admitted. “The fact that she was meant to kind of keep Am in line until she stepped away from the business for a bit doesn't exactly put her high on my list of trustworthy people.”

“Truth be told, she actually tried to subtly steer me away from what mom and dad wanted me to do so I could choose my own path,” Amelia revealed. “Obviously she had to hide it so mom and dad didn't cut those ties to keep her away from me.”

“Even still, I'm sure we could find Marilyn and ask her for ourselves to know for sure,” Luz added. “They might know more about how to deal with Caleb than we do, but I don't know how much either Clauson would know about exactly why they're going to the lengths they are.”

“Maybe we should try reaching out to Ryan Lumis then?” Ivy suggested, which immediately got sour looks from the couple. “Look, I know you guys have issues with him because he was hired to feed information to The Empire that they're not supposed to have about you two and you're right to hold it against him, but he did offer to do some investigating for you guys pro bono to make up for it. Since parents seem like a dead end for any of these answers from the past we're supposedly looking for, having him work on that while we try to sort out how to proceed from here might not be a bad idea.”

Luz and Amelia looked at one another and it was clear they weren't exactly fans of this idea, but as much as they hated it, they really couldn't argue against the logic Ivy presented. Ryan did technically owe them for everything he'd contributed to getting them into this mess in the first place, and Amelia especially knew she'd be a hypocrite if she didn't give him the same opportunity to make amends that Ivy had given her.

“I suppose since he kind of got us into this mess,” Luz noted, “it's only fair that we give him a chance to get us out of it.”

“I think I still have his card around here somewhere,” Amelia said as she started walking off to look for it. Her siblings followed her offering to help but she tried to wave them off on the grounds that she didn't want them looking through her and Luz's room. Luz just slumped on the couch and ran her fingers over her mask with a sigh.

“You alright, Luz?” Ivy asked.

“Why did things have to get so complicated?” she lamented. “Things in SCW are iffy right now with all this stuff of a new owner hanging over everyone's heads and the possibility that Ames and I will have to fight to both keep our place on the roster and try to help make it into a place we can just wrestle without worry. Things outside SCW are a mess with all this nonsense regarding some stable that originated in England that shouldn't even have anything to do with us and yet we're right in the middle of this whole storm. I'm just so tired of it all.”

“It doesn't seem like an easy path, that's for sure. Probably why I realized pretty quick that I'm not cut out for actually getting in the ring,” Gage said, which earned an annoyed glance from Ivy over how little it seemed to help. “My point is that wrestlers seem to have a lot they have to endure both in and out of the ring these days, and I can almost guarantee that anyone else on the SCW roster has their own problems they have to sort out when the cameras are off. The fact that you and Amelia are weathering this storm and still getting into the ring for one of the biggest companies out there and giving it everything you have against the best wrestlers in the whole world who are probably doing the exact same thing... for someone to not think you belong among those ranks and can go on to become a pair of legends yourselves, they'd have to be pretty fucking stupid, if you'll pardon my language.”

“He's actually got a point,” Ivy nodded, earning an annoyed glance in return from Gage. “Maybe stuff like this is relatively new territory for you and Amelia, even if you both have already faced so much in your lives already. If you ask me, though? You two have been doing such a good job of overcoming all of it so far, and you'll always have us in your corner to pick you up if it starts becoming too much. I mean... you're the reason I actually got my very first friend back, and I can't thank you enough for all you've done for her Luz. Together, there's nothing you can't overcome.”

Luz took a staggered breath as she fought back tears that threatened to spill. This was the kind of thing she'd heard so many times from Amelia ever since they'd really started getting to know one another, but to hear it from two people who were still relatively fresh friends after a lifetime of having none? It meant so much to her to remember that she and Amelia didn't have to just be The Light In The Darkness for all around them and others could serve that role for them if the burden became too much.

Luz opened her mouth to thank Ivy and Gage for their words of support, but she was cut off by the notification sound of her phone. Reaching over to where she'd left it on the table, she was surprised to find a text message from her mom. Opening it up, her jaw slowly dropped at what had just been sent to her.

“OK, we'll be sure to meet with you as soon as we can to discuss the details. See you then.” Amelia ended the call she seemed to have been on for the past few minutes as she re-entered the living room, her siblings following behind her with hopeful looks on their faces. “Well, Ryan's a bit tied up at the moment with another job he took on, which I can't blame him for, but he said he might be able to meet with us in Kansas City at some point either before or after the pay-per-view so we can...” She trailed off as she saw Luz in some kind of trance looking at her own phone while Ivy and Gage turned to look at her in confusion and concern. “What happened?”

“We don't know,” Gage admitted.

“Gage and I were giving her a bit of a pep talk about how you two are much stronger than you realize for fighting through all of this and still putting on the kind of matches that you do,” Ivy told her. “Then her phone pinged and she's been like this for the past few moments.”

Amelia exchanged glances with her siblings before carefully moving to sit by Luz's side, gently resting a hand on her shoulder which slowly seemed to snap her out of it.

“Is everything alright Luz?” Amelia carefully asked her.

“Yeah, I... just got a text from my mom,” Luz revealed, which immediately changed the tone in the entire room.

“...what'd she say?” Amelia cautiously asked.

“She...” Luz started before pausing for a moment and deciding to just read the text out loud. “'Mija, I may have jumped to conclusions when we last spoke and I cannot apologize enough for that. Your recent wrestling promos have shown me all I needed to see. I managed to find out that mentirosa's upcoming schedule here. If anything lines up then please show her why she shouldn't have messed with our familia.' She then attached a little schedule she had to have gotten from my old boss or one of my dad's friends with a bunch of upcoming shows down there where my name is booked.”

She passed her phone to Amelia who carefully looked through the schedule and compared it to the SCW touring schedule she pulled up on her own phone, a realization clear in her eyes.

“There's at least a couple of these shows that, pending how we're booked for SCW, we should be able to swing,” she grinned, though it faded a bit as she handed Luz her phone back. “What does this mean for you and your mom though?”

“Good things hopefully, if we're able to use this as a chance to finally talk with each other about everything,” Luz breathed a sigh of relief. “Just as important, though, is that we might be able to get to the bottom of this fake Luz issue ourselves, or at least get enough information for Mr. Lumis to be able to work with.”

Everyone nodded and began to discuss how to proceed, especially once they got the private investigator in the mix as well. The one thing they knew for sure was that the centerpiece of The Empire's entire plan at the moment was this wannabe Luz. If she was exposed as a fraud, then the only claims holding The Empire's lie of Amelia marrying someone else in their ranks and she and Luz no longer being a thing at all would collapse and maybe they'd get the message to leave them alone.

They could only hope, but ultimately it would depend on what mysteries they hadn't solved yet about this whole situation and how deep they truly ran.
[Image: VU13RwA.png]

Tag Team Record: 16-7*
La Pequeña Luz Solo Record: 8-5
Amelia Blythe Solo Record: 4-5-1

*The tag team turmoil on the 9/14/2023 Breakdown is counted in this record as the three separate matches LITD had in the gauntlet up until their elimination.

Breakdown 3/30/2023 - Kim Williams' Trios Cash-In
La Pequeña Luz: 3 Falls
Amelia Blythe: 2 Falls
*Neither one finished high enough to win any championships in this match
*Result listed separately and not counted in records due to lack of clarity on how to count falls

SCW Accomplishments
SCW Television Championship (Amelia Blythe - 29 Days)
SCW Television Championship (La Pequeña Luz - 98 Days)
SCW World Tag Team Championship (81 Days)
SCW World Tag Team Championship [2] (Current)
2023 Tag Team of the Year
2023 Match of the Year (Kim Williams' Trios Cash-In)
#3
Playing the Wildcard
[Image: wsCL05V.png]
[Image: aHCDa8X.png]
#4
OOC: Not AT ALL what I planned, but life kicked my ass this week. Guest with approval.
----------

Playing the Wildcard
[Image: Bree2022.png]

SCW: 87 - 48 - 8 || Career 97 - 60 - 9
>>>>>*<<<<<
SCW Television Champion
1X SCW Adrenaline Champion
2X SCW World Champion
3X SCW United States Champion
2X SCW Tag Team Champion

(1X W/ Blake Mason; 1X W/ Scott Burnside Andrew Raynes)
1X SCW Women's Champion
-----
Supreme Champion
2020 Female of the Year
2016 Star of Tomorrow
*****
Only 2X VWA Evolution Champion


=====
~~ Amy Chastaine ~~
SCW: 63 - 30 - 6 || Career: 120 - 75 - 15

1X SCW Tag Team Champion - W/ Kennedy Street [B.A.E.]
1X SCW Adrenaline Champion | 1X SCW United States Champion
1X SCW Television Champion | 1X SCW World Champion
SCW Hall of Fame Class of 2020
Supreme Champion * First Female * Fastest Time
2017 Female of the Year | 2017 Shot of Adrenaline Winner
2015 Star of Tomorrow | 2015 Rookie of the Year
*****
Final VWA World Champion

=====
Total (All Characters):
323/226/35

http://www.hardygirl.net/


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