The Million Dollar Bet (Storm - End of Days)

[ForeverKuroi]

Fade in. Michael Storm is local in Bethesda. He is in the parking lot of the nearby Safeway grocery store. He is outside of his black Lincoln Navigator SUV with a cart nearby, filled with several plastic bags filled with an assortment of random grocery items. There is milk here, bread there. Oh, hey! Storm's favorite brand of cereal is Lucky Charms. Why? Probably because they're magically delicious. Storm is about half-way filled with the process of loading his trunk when his phone rings. Storm sighs as he looks at the caller ID. Guess who it is. You already know.

: "He-"

: "MEET ME AT YOUR HOUSE IN TEN MINUTES."

: "What the hell are you talking abo-"

Click.

: "Damn it all to hell..."

Storm knows a lot about his best buddy and trainer, Michael Clarke Duncan, and if there's one word to describe him, it's reckless. Storm hurries up, expecting the worse from him. He simply throws the rest of the groceries into the trunk. To him, it doesn't matter. His bananas could bruise and his eggs could crack, but MCD could do so much worse. He jumps into his car and peels out as he hopes he wouldn't get pulled over.

---

~Thirteen Minutes Later~

---

Storm finally gets to the driveway. There, he finds Michael Clarke Duncan wailing on the door like a mad man. Stop quickly gets out of the truck and calls out to his bud.

: "What the hell are you doing, you psychopath!?"

: "I told you to be here five minutes ago! Where were you?"

: "Are you so stupid to believe that I can simply teleport anywhere in the world with a single thought? You can't just command me to be somewhere and -POOF- there I am! What if I was doing something somewhere that needed me to be there longer. As a matter of fact, I was at the grocery store and I was lucky enough to be putting things into the car before I got your incessant demand of a phone call."

: "Excuses. Excuses. Storm, my man - if you want to go places, you got to know that you got to be on your feet. On your toes! You got to be able to get shit done!"

: "I have all the money I want! I have all that I need! In fact-"

Storm interrupts himself as he realizes that Michael Clarke Duncan is still smashing on the door.

: "Mike, will you cut that shit out already? I'm right fucking behind you! There's no one else inside of that house!"

Finally, MCD stops. He turns around to finally face Michael Storm and frightens him with this grotesque appearance:

: "Oh my- Mike! What the hell did you do to your face? It looks disgusting - more so than usual!"

: "What the hell, Storm? You think because I'm black, I can't have no feelings to hurt?"

Storm was taken aback by that question.

: "What makes you think- Mike, do you know that- ...IDIOT, I'M BLACK TOO!"

: "And I'm here to teach your punk ass a lesson. If you gotsta beat the man, you gotsta be the man!"

: "I don't know what you're talking about. Are you trying to prevent yourself from having cancer by dressing up as a cancer patient? Because that's not how that works. I mean, you really look ill, but if you want to prevent cancer, you should start by having a good diet. Takeout pizza isn't going to kill you every now and then, but have you seen my kitchen? Next to the trashcan, there's enough boxes to make a fort out of it."

: "No there ain't, I've tri- Look! It's not about my diet! Shit, my doctor says I have serious healthy shoes!"

: "I think what he meant to say was, 'Serious health issu-"

: "But what I be here to tell you about is beating Ezekiel!"

: "Ezeki- Oh, you mean Ezriel?"

: "Yeah! See. So this mothafucka is some kinda Insane Crown Pussy reject, so if we want to beat him, we gotsta get into his head!"

: "No."

: "And then we be having all the mental health issues he has! Then we can knock him outta the tournament and we can worry about Curtis Jackson!"

: "No. No. No-No-No. First off, that's now how I am going to beat Ezriel. I'll beat him the same way I've beaten M.G.K. and the same way I've beaten Lilith Bernia, and the same way I've beaten everyone else I've beaten - by relying on my skill, training and instinct. I'm not going to paint myself white-face the same way that you have. If anything, that's incredibly insulting. Lastly, when I win, I won't be going up against Curtis Jackson; I'll be going up against Curtis or Jackson. Curtis Jackson is the real name of 50 Cent."

: "Shit. I think you be right fo' once!"

: "For once? You mean- ...You know what? I can't believe I'm going to do it, but I'm letting you inside so you can take a shower. First off, you smell like shit."

: "Yeah. Yous know, I can't break into your house from climbing in the septic system."

: "Sec- ...Secondly, I want you to wash that paint off of yourself. I can't have you being sent into the hospital twice in a year."

: "Yeah. Let's get inside! I'm starving! By the way, Storm - what kind of pizza toppings do you like?"

: "..."

---

~Ten minutes later.~

---

Storm is in the living room. Adjoined to the living room is a bathroom. In the backround, sounds of water filling a tub can be heard. And no, Michael Clarke Duncan isn't taking a shower - he's actually filling up the tub to have a bubble bath. Back to the living room, Storm presses "PAUSE" on the remote as he finished watching the latest Ezriel promo.

: "Ezriel, I have to give it to you. I'm actually sort of enjoying you. I have to tell you, this is why I enjoy wrestling. With all the personal bullshit I've been through with M.G.K., it's sort of easy to forget why I entered wrestling in the first place. You think rationally, logically, and understand the finer points of variables and risk taking. I mean, with no offense intended, you have to be taking a big risk to dress with your face painted like that. But you know that I know that I'm not guaranteed a victory just because the numbers favor me. You also know that you're not infallible either. And you're right - likelihood in theory isn't always likelihood in practice."

We hear the sounds of water filling up the bathtub to stop. Storm exhales in relief, as the sound can be kind of loud. Perhaps he should insulate his home better.

: "I'll give you an example. So a bunch of oversized children came up to me a couple of years ago. They wanted to pitch a business proposal to me. The idea was kitten mittens. That's right. He's telling me that in order for our cats to stop tearing up our furniture, that we should put mittens onto them. It barely stuck on, it pissed off the cats, and the cat actually fell off a table. It was an incredible liability, and I really saw no way how this was going to work long term... or short term, for that matter. When I said no, they all got really uppity. One of them threatened me with some sort of... implication, to what I didn't know what he meant. Another was trying to intimidate me by besting me in bird-law, whatever that means. I had to get them rejected."

We hear the sounds of Michael Clarke Duncan slipping into the tub. He exhales and says, "It's a bit too hot for my nipples."

: "But that's neither here nor there. I know that I've been running off on a tangent. I honestly blame a lot of it on Mike. I know it doesn't sound like he has his uses, but if it weren't from him, I wouldn't have gotten the will to get my ass back into the ring. If it weren't for him, people like Alex Jones wouldn't be saying anything nice about me, or have reason either. I want you to know that I've seen your matches, if I hadn't said it already - you're good. Really good. To be quite honest, I'll even extend a compliment as high as I can offer it; I think that this round one match is essentially the finals of the tournament and thus, it decides its fate."

Michael Storm even stands up, and solemnly extends his hands.

: "I'll even make a bet right here and right now for everyone to see. I, Michael Storm, entrepreneur and investor, offer up one million dollars of my own money to the winner of the End of Days tournament, if I am wrong in that the winner of the tournament will be you or me. I know - at least of everyone in the tournament. I've seen Jackson Steele move. I've wrestled Curtis Kanyon first hand. Scorpion is a legend of wrestling, as far as I'm concerned. Nelly Angel and Hyperion are both obviously talented, but us? We're the top two, Ezriel, and I've just created video evidence of me backing up my words - proverbially putting my money where my mouth is. I'd pull out a briefcase of money to accentuate the point, but that's only really done in the movies. I'm sure you understand."

If Storm were in front of a crowd, we'd hear 'Oooohs' and 'Aaaahs.' Do we hear that? No. Instead, all we hear is Michael Clarke Duncan humming 'The Wheels on the Bus'.

: "The Ezriel Factor - it's an interesting concept, I'll give you that. There's the thing about it though, and it might ruin your day... It doesn't exist. Look, I'm really not interested in trying to bring down your spirits. I don't want to do that, because if I do that, you won't give me your best and in that case, what's the point of even getting into the ring? I should probably clarify. You see, everyone thinks that they're different from the rest. Everyone thinks that they're the 'Whole Damn Show.' Everyone thinks that they have what it takes to go the whole nine years and that they can perform all these feats that people chock up as superhuman, as impossible even though it's happening. And I'm not going to deny that you're skilled. The thing is that... you're believing what you want to believe. You're believing something because you want to believe it's true. Your mind is disconnected to reality - and I don't mean that in a derogatory way, because the same is true for nearly every single wrestler that has even stepped through these rings. It's what toddlers believe. You put a cape on them and pick them up over a fan so that they can feel the wind and suddenly, they believe that they're superman. In fact, you believing that you can do something is probably - in part - what helps you do the things that you can do. The thing is that ultimately, it's false. An illusion."

Storm is interrupted as he hears MCD yelling from the other side of the other side of the door. 'SHUT UP, STORM. I CAN'T HEAR MR. DUCKY OVER THE SOUND OF YOU!' Storm rolls his eyes.

: "You then mention one more thing to me, something that I found interesting. It's the monster within me. You're, of course, referring to the beast that I've caged and put away all those years ago. I should probably go into a little bit of the history so you can understand something. Almost a decade ago, I ran with a group called "Darkside" that nearly overtook the XHF. Together and involving many people that hang around the AWF today including CK Owens and M.G.K., we have captured almost every single championship. To say that we dominated would have been an understatement. I was ruthless. I was merciless. I was a disgusting human being. I've since changed since I've learned that being a good person does not preclude you from also being a good wrestler. M.G.K. didn't agree. He wanted me to join him. To bring Darkside back. To devolve me into the monster I once was. And he was willing to do things I hope you wouldn't dare to go. He attacked me and ruined my chances from being the AWF Champion on the first episode of Prestige. He ambushed me more than once. He even took Mike and attacked him, sending him into the hospital where he needed surgery on his leg and nearly died before ambulances were able to save him. You know that an attack was bad when our lucky break was that his brain damage was reversible. His swelling went down, but he spent months where he couldn't get off a wheelchair. So you see, I've already been tested. The monster has already been rumbling through the cage, trying to break free. The difference between others, who may break under your persuasion, and myself is that when I locked the monster away, I threw away the key."

The sounds of water dripping indicating to Michael Clarke Duncan getting up from the tub is heard. He flips a lever and water begins to drain.

: "The beast may not be released, but believe me, the bite is there. I can still wrestle and I can take you to your limits. Likely, I'll take you past your limits. I'm sorry for disappointing your urge to face me in some sort of crazed bezerk mode, but I am every bit the wrestler that everyone says I am. I still am willing and able to pin you. I am still The Prince of Pain, and you will still kneel to me."

Storm smiles. He turns his head as the bathroom door opens. Storm left a pile of clothes inside the bathroom earlier for Duncan to switch into, but he evidently didn't see him. Instead what we saw was... Well...

: "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WEARING ERIN'S CLOTHES!?

: "Well you didn't leave me shit!"

Storm points a finger past MCD. He turns around and finds some clothes on top of the sink.

: "...Shit. My bad, dawg."

: "How did you even find those cl- You know what? I don't want to know..."

Storm walks away. Fade out.

[Hyperion]

Two things;

1- how do you put images into the text like that?

2- Lol at Ezekiel

[ForeverKuroi]

Photoshop magic.

[Mongo the Destroyer]

The images so it looks like the people are talking? He has a small pic and he just does the usual [ image ] sort of stuff with it

Over and over and over again, lol.

At our old board it used to be super easy because we could program it into the board as emoticons, so like Storm would be :storm and then show up as

It's less easy a proboards, or less convenient anyway so we haven't set it up for it. However, Kuroi is an old-schooler and knows that pics help people connect to the characters easier so he's putting them in one by one, DT is doing it as Shogun-Tron too.

I might have to start doing it again if you guys keep this up, lol

Nelly's former emoticon:

[Hyperion]

I thought as much. I type my whole RP and then go back and add italics, bold, colors etc. I can only imagine how long it takes to run posts with pics too!

[¥Ezriel¥]

Sick RP, and god damnit you just had to bring the Ezekiel debacle into it... damn you to helllll!
Also, that Always Sunny reference brah. I'll have to return the favour.
Gonna say it again, this is gonna be a slobberknocker.

[Steele]

z4.invisionfree.com/FIWII/index.php?showtopic=14782

I've posted it a couple times but this program has really helped with coding roleplays and matches for me. It looks like a lot to get used to at first but once you get used to it then it's a breeze.

It doesn't really speed up the process of adding things like bold and italics but I find that it doesn't take much time to add the little brackety things as I go anyway.

It does help with adding in dialog and colours though, cos you can check boxes in the option to have dialog displayed as white or with colour, or in italics if you want, and if you like to put your narrative text in italics like I do then you can do that easily with asterisks.

You can set up groups so for example I have one for Steele, one for AK Andrews, one for AWF Matches and everyone who regularly pops up in those scenarios is coded already with their colours. When I'm writing a match all I need to do is type "@cr:" and it puts "ROMANO:" in the correct yellow colour. Saves a hell of a lot of time changing each line of dialogue after the fact.

It has a live preview that updates as you type, as well as being able to switch to BBCode view to just straight up copy and paste your finished and coded piece right into proboards.

Back to YOUR main point though: it does work with pictures, but it does need a bit of tweaking once you lasted it into proboards. To do this you would put, for example, @h: as your shortcut and then for the "displayed text" field put the image link? I would recommend scaling down a picture of him to maybe a couple hundred pixels square and saving it to a personal imgur (or other image host) account.

Then when you typed your shortcut (@h:) into the program, it would automatically insert a BBCode-friendly imgur link and voila, you don't have to copy/paste it in every time.

Like I say it does need a little tweaking once you copy it into proboards but I'm sure it's gotta be preferable to going back and copying a link in for every line of dialog, especially if you have multiple people talking. Plus it's a LOT more stable than writing directly into proboards, you can type half a match up and turn your computer off for a few days, it'll still be there when you come back to it. Definitely takes a lot of the effort out of writing.

[Hyperion]

Awesome dude, thank you!