Post by Caitlyn Wright on Mar 1, 2018 18:20:42 GMT -5
"It'd be so easy."
The camera clicks on, revealing a pile of wrestling gear, crowned by a small mountain of goggles of varying types and designs. It slowly pans up, revealing Caitlyn Wright standing in an abandoned lot, a jerry can of gasoline sitting next to her. She exhales slowly, staring at the gear.
"It'd be so easy," she continues, "to just...light the match. Walk away. Be done. Try to go back to college. After all, I've choked...pretty hard since I got here. Everyone, from people I never knew to my childhood hero, has told me I'm annoying. Worthless. That I don't belong here. That I'm just a prop in THEIR story. Well..." Caitlyn manages a faint, weak smile. "Everyone except one. And don't think I haven't appreciated that. I guess it's true: it's always darkest before the Dawn."
"But as for the rest of you...I understand why you're saying those things." Caitlyn pauses, reaching into her pocket, and pulls out a matchbook. "I hear every single thing you say, and I take them to heart..." she opens the matchbox, fishing one out and lighting it with a pensive expression on her face. Caitlyn looks at the match, staring into the flame for a long second before letting it go. The match tumbles end over end...and lands in front of the bin, flickering and guttering in the wind.
As she watches the match burn out, a slow smile spreads across her face. "And I'm going to throw each and every one of them right back in your faces."
Sun knocked on the door of the bedroom, sighing. "Caitlyn. Come out. I'm done slipping food through the door. You need to actually get up."
"What's the point?" Caitlyn's voice weakly floated through the door, muffled. "I'm gonna go out there. Someone's gonna be a bitch at me. Say I'm worthless and I've wasted. I'm gonna lose. They're gonna be right. I don't want another reason to hate myself."
"I have something I need to show you, Cait. It can't wait." Sun tapped her foot. "So get your ass out of bed before I go in there and drag you out." She leaned against the doorframe, an irritated look on her face. "Now would be nice?"
The sound of shuffling and muffled cursing filtered through the door, and Caitlyn swung the door open, eyes narrowed with exhaustion and annoyance. "Sun, I love you, but this had better be important."
"Oh, trust me." Sun shot back, taking Caitlyn's hand and leading her down the hall. "It's important." Sun maneuvered Caitlyn into the living room, directing her to a table where a laptop sits open, screen filled with a paused video. Sun gently pushed Caitlyn down into the seat in front of the computer. "Sit. Watch. Listen."
Caitlyn opened her mouth to protest again, but Sun shushed her, patting her shoulders. Caitlyn sighed, squaring up to the table. She unpaused the video, and as it came to life the form of Vivienne Rodgers, a competitor in the Imperial Wrestling Federation. Vivienne's eyes are a little puffy, as if she's been crying, but her voice is admirably composed.
“Sometimes your heroes are not everything they are cracked up to be. Sometimes your heroes rip out your heart and stuff it in a blender. That sucks. When you see that the person you put up on a pedestal is actually the same kind of girls that made life hell in middle school?” Vivienne took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
“It can feel like there’s no point in going forward. It can feel like there’s no point to anything. Rip down the posters. Set up a tiny little bonfire of all your hopes and dreams. Lock yourself in a closet and cry until it stops hurting.” She looked down, twiddling her thumbs for a moment before looking back up into the camera.
“And that can help. But you want to know what helps more?" Vivienne smiled, and Caitlyn suddenly felt very thankful she was sitting down. "Proving them wrong. So your hero is a jerk? They lost that shine? Well, you look at where life led them to turn into that shadow of their former self and you make a promise. Not me. I’m not going to become that. I’m going to be better than that. They were my hero but now I have to be my own. It’s hard but I believe in you to do it.”
Vivienne smiled, waving at the camera, and the video ended on a still of her smiling face. Sun sat down next to Caitlyn, putting an arm around her shoulders. Caitlyn stared at the screen, shoulders heaving silently, and Sun patted her shoulder. "I, uh...I thought you might appreciate seeing that. I know you're a fan."
Caitlyn nodded, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks. Sun turned, cradling her friend in a hug, and Caitlyn clutched tight to her, burying her face in Sun's shoulder. After a few seconds, Caitlyn looks up at Sun, a half-smile on her face. "Th...thanks, Sun. I, uh...I think I needed that."
"No shit, bunny." Sun cocked an eyebrow, grinning. "You needed that hard...I mean, it's not the ONLY thing you need hard..." Caitlyn gasped, mock-swatting Sun's shoulder as the Korean girl grinned. "Look, I'm just saying! You need to get laid BAD. Like, REAL bad. You've got the nastiest case of blue balls I've ever seen, and I know my brother."
Caitlyn cracked up, shaking her head, and looked back up at Sun, a surprisingly taunting grin spreading across her face. "Then you've got two choices: stop teasing me about it and help hook a sister up, or put your money where your mouth is and just screw me yourself."
Sun let out a surprised laugh, almost more of a bark or a yelp than a laugh. She grinned at Caitlyn, pulling her back up to a standing base. "Alright, wiseass. Go take a damn shower. You've got a pay-per-view appearance coming up, and you've gotta look your best. Looking like revenge, feeling like a ten, you know."
Caitlyn nodded, cracking her neck. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. And I've got a whole lot of revenge bottled up." She winked at Sun. "Thanks for the pick-me-up."
"Any time." Sun chuckled, watching Caitlyn vanish into the bathroom. She turned, closing the laptop, and sighed, flopping back onto the couch. "Any time..." We fade out on Sun staring at the ceiling, exhaustion in her eyes.
"So many arrogant rich jerks to work with. Let's start with you, Lizzy." Caitlyn waves at the camera. "How's things? It sure must be nice to live your life, right? Rich, beautiful, a dedicated brother by your side..." Caitlyn winks. "Hi, Landon! And all of the perks that come with being a Dalmon. You do this because you're bored. It's your idle curiosity. For me?" Her eyes narrow again. "This is my dream. And I'll be damned if the mean girls swoop in and crush my dreams again."
"I knew girls like you all throughout my childhood. Blonde, tan, rich, pretty, arrogant. I hated them, because they thought they could just coast for their entire lives on their parents' work." Caitlyn smiles, a bit of a Cheshire cat grin. "And that's part of why I like it here so much. Everyone's on their own. You find ways to succeed, but you have to find them yourselves. You don't get to just buy your victories, you have to sweat and bleed for them. And trust me, you'll be doing plenty of both. I know the company we keep, and if you think your spoiled ass is going to make it out unscathed, you're as dumb as you look."
"On the subject of delusional rich girls, hey there Crystal." Caitlyn begins to pace slowly. "Are you happy being down here, among the peons? I know you're not. I know it eats you up that you're here, in the consolation round with the losers. But hey, at least your best friend is here with you, right?" She smirks. "Doesn't that make it all better?"
"I know how desperate you are for the spotlight." Caitlyn continues, anger in her voice. "I know how much you wish it was your name on the marquee, your face on the poster, instead of the people who earned that spot. I know how you think you're supposed to be an A-lister. If you were ever really A-list, that time passed a long time ago, and no amount of spitting on the people that were there for you when things got rough or desperate reinvention will turn the clock back. You're not exactly complicated. You want attention, you get angry when you don't get it. So get ready to be mad, Crystal...because I'm going to be disappointing you one. More. Time."
Caitlyn pauses, tapping her chin. "Now, the one that confuses me the most is Gwen Price-King. See, my first instinct is to write you off like Lizzy. But...something about you makes me pull up. I know you're a jerk. I know you're arrogant. But, like...you back it up. You put up one hell of a fight against Dawn, and you didn't back down. It was kinda impressive, and..." she shrugs. "The more I think about it, the more I think there's more to you than meets the eye."
She begins to rummage around in the bin. "Maybe it's just me being delusional, but I think you could be someone. Maybe it's just positive associations with the name Gwen. But I've learned that sometimes, the best surprises come from the most unusual places. And on that note, I figured I'd get..." she fishes a hoodie out of the bin, unfolding it to reveal it as a Spider-Gwen hoodie. Caitlyn flashes a big grin at the camera. "A little peace offering? I know you're going to put me through the paces, but that doesn't mean everyone in this company has to hate everyone else. I want to listen to the part of myself that says 'four for you, Glen Coco! You go, Glen Coco!' Don't let Glen Coco down."
Caitlyn pauses, taking a deep breath. "And speaking of none for Gretchen Weiners...hello, Zelda." Caitlyn looks to the camera, fire lighting in her eyes. "I'm going to ask you the same kind of question I asked your bestie: how's it feel? How does it feel that for all your bad behavior, you're still down here with the NPC? The Zubat? I bet you don't feel so good. And to that, I say GOOD." Caitlyn's eyes narrow. "You don't deserve to feel good. Not now, not after you've become this terrible person."
She begins to pace faster, voice picking up in volume and intensity. "Because you're a mockery of your former self, Zelda. You're a Nobody. You're what happens when someone's heart is taken from them, a hollow shell that goes through the motions because it's all you know. And the worst part?" Caitlyn stops in her tracks, fuming with rage. "The heart you ripped out? It wasn't even yours! IT WAS MINE!"
She stabs a finger at the camera. "I opened myself up to you because you were my hero, you were my idol, and you STOMPED ON IT! Because it's easy to not care about anyone else! It's easy to be a jerk, it's easy to destroy, and you don't know how to work hard anymore. You're just like Lizzy, coasting on a name and a reputation. You're like Crystal, convinced you should be a bigger name than you are. You're not the hero of this story anymore, because you're not a hero! And you know what?! If you won't be a hero, then SOMEONE has to be!"
Caitlyn squares up to the camera, eyes alight with intensity. "So I'll be that hero! I'll be the person little girls can look up to and work hard to be like, I'll be the one that inspires people! I'm going to do great things, I'm going to help everyone I can, and there's nothing you could teach me about that!" Her frame is trembling with fury as she speaks. "You stopped being Zelda Knite a long time ago, and if nobody else is going to fight the good fight, I'll take up the Master Sword that you threw away. The world could always use more heroes...and when your heroes fall, you rise to replace them. Good will triumph, because I will NOT do nothing!"
She takes a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. "I will not do nothing. I'll go out there. I'll fight. And I'll win. Because when it's darkest, that's when the light has to shine the brightest." Her eyes shine with determination. "Nightfall brings the moon with it, and the moon has always meant justice to me. So for your wickedness, for your greed, for your vain cruelty..." Caitlyn grins, striking a pose. "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!" She settles down, still smiling. "Good luck. You're going to need it." With that, Caitlyn scoops up the bin of gear, turning and walking out of the lot as we fade to black.