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The Cemetery
June 14th, 2021
Continues…
“What do you want?”
Sandy Reed Lawson walks over to Steve and rubs his left arm, “to pay my respects,” she says softly and begins walking in front of him.
Steve sighs to himself and begins following behind Sandy. The sun illuminates the gravestones giving off long shadows that Steve cannot help but stare at. A slow wind blows some leaves in the air, Steve pauses his walk and watches as the leaves seemingly put a dance on in front of him. He reaches out but they escape his grasp. “Tracks.”
Sandy looks back, “did you say something?”
Harrison begins walking again with a shake of his head not believing she needs a response. He continues to walk and then sees one man standing in front of a casket attached to the lowering device. There was no priest, there was no pastor, there was no shaman, there were also nobody but the man controlling the device. To say it was a small service would be an underestimation.
“Where is Jack?” Sandy asks a few feet away from the eternal place for William Morris.
“He is grieving in his own way. I have given him some time to himself until he is ready to return,” Harrison responds as they both get within ten feet of casket and stop.
They both stare at the casket and Sandy takes some lilies and roses out of her large purse and places it on top of the casket. She looks at Steve, “did you bring anything?”
“No.”
“Oh, so why are you here?”
Harrison looks up at the sky. A few birds fly by and he chuckles to himself, “I think I need to understand the finality of it.”
She nodded and brushed some hair from her eyes, “it is ok to seek survival even if you leave a foolish dream behind, Steve.”
Harrison turns his head quickly and looks back at Sandy with a confused look on his face, “what are you getting at?”
“My husband retired at a young age as well. After everything you have been through nobody could fault you for quitting and trying to escape from everything.”
The Miracle Man grits his teeth angrily from that comment. Sweat begins to form on his forehead, he wipes it off and shakes his head, “Will once told me that being capable in wrestling doesn’t always mean you are going to win…you also need to fight.”
CUT
—
April 10th, 2009
I had been training for over four months at the home of my trainer. I was his first and what would ultimately be his only wrestling student. It did take many years after this to discover why he trained me but at the time I was in awe of him and listened intently to everything he said. This day we were going over submission moves but it was not something I took to naturally to. Most know this if they look at the Bio Rebecca put together and made a joke about my poorly applied STF. Back then it was even worse, and I did not really understand why someone my size would need to learn how to apply submissions. I would come to understand that if you can apply one you have a better chance to escaping one.
“Dammit!” I leaned against the wall of the dojo lookalike building he created to practice his art. The wrestling mat showed a few scratches and indents from large usage of bodies being hurled and landing in duplicate areas.
My trainer had put his hands up in annoyance at my misunderstanding of submissions and walked out on me that day. William Morris walked into the building showing his scars from years of jail fights and battles as a killer before that. He went right towards the punching bag in the left corner of the dojo and started hitting it repeatedly with just his bare hands. It was a sight to behold, it did not even seem like the bag was hurting him at all but after about five minutes I could see a drop of blood fall to the mat. He looked at it and stopped and then looked towards me.
“Don’t tell him about this, I promised I wouldn’t bleed all over his pretentious training ground.”
I stood up from where I had been sitting in a trance, “Uh…yea no problem. Do you like…not feel pain?”
Morris looked down at his bleeding right hand and shrugged. He started walking towards me which was a tad surprising because during my four months he had only said a few words to me. He was an intimidating if not scary looking person. “Years of use or maybe years of training before I even became a wrestler made it, so pain doesn’t really affect me.”
My eyes got big in surprise, I was literally near a monster of a man who was still dripping blood on the wrestling mat as he walked closer and closer to me. “Still bleeding,” I said as I pointed to the mat.
He stopped and looked down and laughed, “I will get Jack to clean this up,” he put his finger to his lips letting me know it was a secret between us.
I couldn’t help but laugh, “hahaha, ok.”
William now stood in front me and looked down at me. It was rare to be around someone taller than me and looking up at him was an odd feeling for me. “You pissed the boss off huh?”
I looked down to the mat and nodded, “that obvious?”
He laughed and it was bellowing, and echoed inside my body, it was a surreal moment. “He is an asshole but still one of the most successful wrestlers of his era to the point he retired in his mid-twenties.”
I kicked a rock that had gotten into the dojo, “I know but I just cannot get a feeling for submissions.”
He nodded at me as he ripped a piece of his shirt off and wrapped it around his bleeding right hand. “To be a complete competitor you need to know all disciplines…Steve? Is that your name, sorry I forget?”
“Um–YEA!” I was excited he had remembered my name.
He chuckled softly to himself at my excitement which made me blush a little in embarrassment, “it is fine to have some energy, Steve. It is also fine to be a technician inside the ring but when all fails what else can you grab?”
“Grab?”
“Someday you will face someone who is better at what you are best at. If that happens what do you do?”
I paused and thought to myself and watched the shirt around his hand become redder and redder. “Submit them?” I responded with no confidence behind my statement.
He shook his head, “you fight.”
“Fight?”
“I would grab a chair or a table or a goddamn light bulb, but I am aware you will probably not be involved in many death matches.”
I gulped. I did not even want to hear that word. To me death matches were what you did if you had zero talent and couldn’t do anything else with your life. I knew very little at this point on why he performed all over the world in these barbaric matches but even then, I would never tell him what I believed. “No?”
He rubbed his right hand with his left with the smirk on is face never fading. “What does fight mean then? Well you need to punch, kick, and knee your way around his skill. You attack his base; you attack his neck to weaken him, but the most important thing is that you fight with everything you have.”
“What does that mean?”
William took what seemed forever to respond as he continued to rub his hand, “you are a good kid, Steve. I am sure he has taught you that you are going to enter a business that eats up kids like you and spits them out. The greatest weapon for someone like you has to be their HEART.”
I grabbed a towel that I was going to use to wipe my sweat and handed it to William in hopes he could use it for his hand now since his ripped piece of shirt looked 97Red. “My heart?”
He nodded as he grabbed the towel from me, “it is fairly cliché, but I mean your desire to not give up. You have a good heart and with that you should be able to get others to gravitate towards you and that extra pressure should propel you to further your yearning to never let others down.”
I was always surprised he never followed up on this with me as he watched me align myself with The Best Alliance. My good Heart has been gone a long time, but he never judged me and maybe it is because I have had people gravitate towards me, they just so happen to not have a good heart as well. I suppose we can always build back what was once lost but I also realize Lee Best might not want a good heart but a strong heart for the unit and that is what I am working for at the moment.
I remember nodding in agreement with William, “anything I can do to inspire people will make wrestling even more important to me.”
He laughed again at me, “I cannot tell you that you will succeed but fight for everything you want regardless of what is in front of you. Don’t change…if possible, because when you lose who you are success will always feel hollow.”
I breathed his advice in as I continued to nod like a fool. He turned with the towel now wrapped around his hand and began walk away, “good luck, rookie.”
“Thanks, sir, I won’t let you down.”
Groan
I won’t let you down?
Nah, instead I will let you go six feet down in a grave because of my incompetence.
Fight?
Imma fight.
I WILL FIGHT FOR IT.
—
It is tough to compete against your fellow comrades in Arms. The same people you fought side by side with during War Games and worked together to take over HOW with, you now must concentrate on defeating.
It should be hard.
I said should because my opponent did not do any of those things for the group. He did everything for himself.
When Doozer laughed at me calling myself The Heart and Soul of The Best Alliance because we have Hall of Famers and champions it was not lost on me. It is not about the past or what you hold because when I say I am the Heart and Soul I am defining myself as the glue that is keeping this hodgepodge of selfish wrestlers together.
I am different then I was in December.
I am different then I was in June.
I accept my failures and I understand that some things I have done in my desire to be the best have hurt others or been horrible in general.
Heh.
Sigh.
I haven’t had many friends in my life and almost a third of my life was being in a medically included coma in some fantasy world. You can sure understand that me remembering things has put me in a place of youth. I look back at what could have been and then look at what is, and it is depressing. Therefore, as a member of The Best Alliance I try to be the glue now. Maybe it is because I now understand how lonely I was and fully understand pushing people away will never help in grasping that dream.
So, I will visit Jatt Starr and play along with his madness.
So, I hope Clay Byrd beats Sutler Kael, even though I had wished for Sutler to join the BA.
So, I hope Jace and Solex can shake hands after their match.
Cancer Jiles and I will high five and talk shit, it is normal, but we have each other’s backs through it all now.
Sad thing is that even though I know better, The Best Alliance has become the only family I have, and John Sektor has gone out of his way to disrespect our unity.
Please don’t take this as a shot across the bow towards John Sektor either. This business is about your desires and when he realized the tag titles are just too much trouble for him now, he pivoted to singles glory. I find it insulting though that he and Jatt took the tag titles from Jiles and I saying they would defend them and instead Sektor watched Dan Ryan destroy Jatt and pin him for MY tag titles.
It was too much trouble for him to help his supposed friend.
It wasn’t too much trouble for them to yank away what was rightfully mine because they were an established team that beat absolutely nobody in their title defenses. I can move on from Jatt’s roll in this because God has already cursed him enough and he understands the strength of the Miracles. Maybe I am a tad bitter about it all, but I never once rooted against you guys.
But you…John Sektor, heh, nah man. I am certain you wouldn’t want it any other way because as a fellow technician you wish for the best competition. When I made a throw away comment about the LSD Title looking nice it was just that. I did not expect to get my rightful shot at a title that has evaded my grasp several times because of champions losing it before they face me.
I have not forgotten my first loss in HOW and that it was me tapping out to you. I know what you can do inside the ring and I know that when the Sektor Stretch is applied it is all over.
That is why I am going to take the advice from William and fight. For every submission attempt I will elbow my way out of it. I will use all my strength to reach the ropes. I will attempt to get away and go after your neck at every chance I have. If it is one thing Sektor cannot hide it is all his old injuries being large targets for my fury.
Suplex Saint is not just a title, it knocks people unconscious…ask Doozer how It’s a Harracle feels on a soft head.
The Lee and Sektor Division can easily be changed to The Lee and Steve Division, John. All it takes is for you make one mistake and I will leave you on your back and no it is not because I used GHB on you like you do to your dates. It will be because I am a dangerous wrestler inside the ring, and I feel like some of you have forgotten that.
You are one of those who seems to look down at me. I am not blind. I see how you look at those you think you are better then. I cannot say you are wrong though because you have beaten me but what have you done that is superior to me since then?
You won the Tag Titles. I am a Two Time and Forever Tag Champion and I never lost them. You sure as hell did, you dick.
You beat Dan Ryan, I retired him.
You beat Teddy Palmer. I was the last one to do that before you and let’s be honest with each other, I had him at his best while you…well it goes without saying.
So, you may think you have the advantage over me, but I have never lost to the same person two times. Maybe you will be the first to do that as well, but just like your MIA daddy routine I don’t think you have the HEART to be anything more then a man with a big mouth with zero responsibility for anything but some shiny toy that will be mine come Saturday.
I expect us to beat the hell out of each other and both of us will be injured and bloody when all is said and done. I don’t want it any other way, Sek and I will agree to shake your hand if you beat me, but I am not sure you have the ability to do the same. Prove me wrong because you will be the one losing, and I will be the new LSD Champion.
I am the Heart and Soul.
Steve Harrison: I win for us all.
You are welcome.
A dream deferred has become a dream to grab NOW!
Miracles, we all need them, but it is my time to cash them in.
—
PASTE
Sandy rolls her eyes, “fight for what?”
Steve walks over to the casket and puts his left hand on it and leaves it there for ten seconds. He takes it away and then turns and looks back at Sandy, “for my dream, for what was lost and for what I want to achieve. Giving up was something Will told me to never do, and I have already given up enough. I could not walk away without guilt eating me alive.”
She waves her hand at Steve, “that is absurd, Steve. You might not realize it, but I am trying to save you from this same future.” She points angrily at the casket.
Harrison scoffs at that remark and walks towards Sandy, “I am not stupid, I fully understand the situation I am in and I don’t see how I could ever defeat that man.”
She shakes her head, “then why?”
The Man wishing upon a star for the Miracles laughs softly, “it isn’t only for those I have lost but for those I need to save. I will do what I have to do, but I will never give up the dream again, Sandy. My life has been a joke and it is time to become the BEST Steve Harrison I can be, and it just so happens that wrestling is what I need.”
Sandy sighs and covers her eyes from the sun, “if you stay away, I suppose that will be enough.”
Steve shrugs, “no.”
“No… what?”
Steve signals for the man to begin lowering the casket, “when it is lowered, I need a meeting with my dad.”
Sandy shakes her head a horrified look on her face, “why?”
“I said, I cannot leave anyone behind, and you should feel just as guilty as I do about Rebecca’s fate,” Steve says his face becoming red in anger from thinking of Rebecca’s.
Steve watches as the casket finally stops at the bottom of the grave. He gives it one last look, points, and nods at the now departed William Morris and begins to walk away from Sandy. She stands looking worried, the sun beginning to have an affect on her dress with a little bit of sweat visible on her arm. Sandy stomps her foot and yells at Steve.
“Fine, but…don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
FADE
“All I know I wouldn’t sleep at night
Wouldn’t dream that dream
It’s all a nightmare to me
All I know I wouldn’t sleep at night
If I lived that life
Knowing their coming after me”
That Dream, Jo Mersa Marley