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of crow and crown #2; a bustle in the hedgerow
Topic Started: Apr 21 2018, 11:43 PM (116 Views)
Wadjethotep

He sat quietly and solemn. Earbuds in and at a volume where it could drown out everything around him. When the plane was ready someone would come up and let him know. For a long time life seemed to be moving so fast. It felt like after every blink it was a new day in a different ring somewhere across the world. It was enjoyable, if anything for the belief that the faster it went meant the sooner it would all be over. Lately that had all come to a screeching halt. Time’s gears now slowly moved and it made him feel every single agonizing second. There wasn’t any sure feeling on what caused the change but he assumed it might have to do with finally getting the match he wanted against Fel. He had been pushing for it for so long that now when it’s here it’s almost hard to believe. Or it was the nerves.

Those Fucking Nerves.

He hadn’t been really nervous about a match since Kol. This was even worse. Maybe it was knowing that this was a defining moment. If he pulled it off then he’s finally over the hump. There’s more proof to his claims about being one of the best in the world. If he loses then he just goes back to being Ty who can’t pull off the big one and who knows how long he’ll have to go without another chance at taking on a true elite level world beater talent. At times he tried to tell himself he was putting too much pressure on the situation. At others he told himself it wasn’t enough. It was pure madness in a sense as he was driving himself to be a wreck and he didn’t know what to do. Then there was a nudge on his shoulder.

Flugzeug ist fertig

Ty just gave a nod and stood up to follow where to be led. Within a few minutes he was on the plane. He opened up one of his bags and dug in and pulled out a portable DVD player and a stack of DVD’s. All labeled Fel along with a corresponding number. There wasn’t even a count anymore to how many times they had been watched and analyzed beyond belief. He pops in the first disc and it’s a match he’s probably watched a thousand times since it happened.

Brandon & Felicity Banks vs. Tyberius King & Cailey Carter 4/16/17

The realization hit him that it had been a year now. A year since the last time the two shared a ring together and now he was getting another shot. The nerves were coming back and they were as worse as they’d ever been. Maybe he needed a moment. Maybe he needed a break. The phone on his lap slipped of and eye contact was made. Soon it found its way to hands that unlocked the home screen and a name was pressed off of the favorites page inside the phone app. As it started to ring he wasn’t sure if there would be an answer

There was, that sort of static drop of transatlantic telecommunications and then a very low voice, feminine, Oh shit and a thud, or rather a few small ones. That same female voice calling out a bit louder. “One sec, dropped the phone Tyberius.” A bit of random shuffling then, a small dog barking and then “No! Merlin you put that down, bad ferret! BAD!”

Finally there’s a sigh and then much more clearly. “This is unusual, what’s up?”

“Hey….just...checking in.”

He knew it sounded awkward right at the moment he paused. He knew she would pick up on it too, almost as if she had a second sense of things

A distinct pause. “Hm.” Then he can hear things like children laughing and more animal sounds before she murmurs a thank you to someone and returns her attention to the call. “Well now that you’re checked in, what’s actually up? I’ve got tea, and Nina has the kids with Aubrey doing… some… I should probably look, but it’ll wait.”

At that point it just became a scramble to think of what to even say at this point. Honestly he wasn’t even sure why he picked her name to call. Jackson or Goron would have been fine, even one of his cousins in Russia. “How is Lass doing?”.

“He’s still… off in his own mind. They’ve moved him into a home care setting though, and that’s just infinitely better all the way around, especially with Heather pregnant. But I have a feeling while it may take time, he’ll come through this. They don’t call him the things they call him for nothing.” Aurora pauses again and chuckles low. “How did your show go? I’m guessing you were working and not idling about wood carving or learning how to kill with a slingshot.”

Ty recalled on the night for a moment. “I lost which sucks, but the crowd was really into it. It was an awesome atmosphere. I’m excited to go back.” Then unbeknownst to him he got lost for a second and thought of his small house behind the mansion overlooking Baikal. “I’ve never done wood carving but I’ve built a house before”, he always blurted things out to her without realizing it or paying attention. Likely cause she never really passed judgement on him. Which he just viewed as he hasn’t been close enough to her to let her down yet.

“That’s always a good thing. When the fans are into what you’re doing, that is. Though sometimes I have to wonder because they cheer just as loudly when we’re broken and bleeding, as long as we still fight.” There’s more background noise, something Aurora laughs about before she continues. “But then, hasn’t that always been the way.”

“It’s what we do to make them happy….I guess ourselves too”, he looked at the screen and saw himself standing across from Fel. As the screen was paused he tried to remember what he was feeling in that moment. He knew he wanted that win so bad but at the same time he was nowhere near ready for that match. There was still doubt he was ready now. There wasn’t anymore time to beat around things. Something made him call Aurora about this, he might as well say something while there was still a bustle in the hedgerow. “Rori, I’m really nervous about Fel. I’m afraid I’m gunna fuck this up”.

“Why?” There’s a hum then, after, as if Aurora was thinking of some tune or other before she continues. “I mean, it’s just Fel, and you shouldn’t be nervous. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be excited, you should definitely be excited. Banks is a big name, and there are those that would argue that Felicity made the most of it even over what her own brother did. That she truly stepped out of the shadow and did her own thing. Which is admirable in its own way. But she’s just what you are too, you know. At the end of the day, no matter what she’s done, or what you think she can do, she’s still just a person. And she fronts, and she fronts hard.”

Another pause, in which nails tapping, it just has to be, is heard before she speaks again “What you need to worry about most? Is the fact that she can take a beating like I’ve rarely seen and still have something left in the tank. That’s impressive enough, for someone her stature. People don’t expect it, but she’s got that on lock.”

She didn’t say anything to Ty in that moment that had made him feel any better about the situation. If anything it almost made him more nervous. This was an iron man match and Fel was able to take crazy amounts of punishment before she ever loses. While he knows he’s been dumb in the past and allowed himself to rather be beat unconscious than lose. Both of them had an unnatural ability to just eat damage and find ways not to give up. Ty rested it on his belief that only he got to choose when it’s his time, until then he’ll push as hard as he has too.

“She’s one of the best in the game Rori. There’s only a handful at the same level. It’s just I want to be up there with the best of them. I want to have my name among the best around”, he almost said like you but he didn’t want her to think that he was flattering her to get something out of it. Aurora knew how good she was, she just didn’t have to gloat about it like some of the others.

“Then that’s what you focus on, not the rest of the baggage that comes with it. The match, not even who it’s with, but yourself. Are you, can you really, deep down say you’re ready for an Iron Man Match? I trained extra for about a year for the one that I had with Molly Reid, and it was worth it. I learned things about myself during the process too, so again… worth it. Change how you look at things, if you really want to take that step up that you say you do. Don’t…” there was a bit of a sigh, and then she continued. “Don’t compare what you do, with how someone else did what they did. You’re not them, nor should you want to be. It’s that simple. You should want to be the best you, not the best impersonation you can do of someone else. If you can’t see yourself leading the pack, so to speak…” she shrugged, even though he obviously couldn’t see that. “You have to know you can. Don’t say think, and damn sure don’t say maybe.”

He had never thought about it like that. For years it had always been chasing someone else. Trying to be better than them, it was never about trying to be a better self. That was probably because of how much he really didn’t like who he saw in the mirror. When it came to personal matters he knew that he didn’t have the best tendencies. He tended to push and pull and move about in his desperate attempts to fit in and be liked amongst the world. Most of these would wind up failures by his own hands. Another thing he despised himself for, that he couldn’t seem to get out of his own way. So how does he be the best him? Maybe it wasn’t about looking at him in a personal setting but as a wrestler. Since the last time he met Fel in the ring he has felt like his skills have gone through a massive transformation. His grappling had now reached peak levels and his skills as a shoot style wrestler were really taking shape, and then there was his endurance. The one constant in his career that couldn’t be questioned. This wasn’t Ty’s first iron man match. It was well known endurance type matches were his forte. The longer a match goes on the better the chance that when the winner is named it’s Tyberius King. There was times the entire strategy was to make the match go as long as possible to tire out the opponent to give him a better chance. Thirty minutes was nothing. It was knowing that it was a match between two people who were more than able to be beat half to death and keep going that now had him nervous. This was going to be a war.

Yet it was the war he wanted. He craved, he said he was willing to die for. If all he has ever wanted to be was the best then why was he afraid of grabbing the brass ring when it was so close? Those words of you’ll never be a success ran through his head. Even though he was from a career standpoint it was that he knew that there was still things he needed to do to prove to himself that he had made it. After all it was asinine in the first place to go on a quest to become the best in the world when he knew it was impossible, but if a goal is impossible it always has you trying out new ways of trying to achieve it.

“Maybe you’re right Rori. If I don’t have any confidence in this then there’s no way I’m going to win. I’ve beat some of the best to ever do this. I beat Kol, shit I beat you even if it was a tag match ….no offense”. He cringed a little on that one, hoping he hadn’t said the wrong thing to upset her.

“Even if it was a tag match. People are so weird about that. It’s a shared win or loss. Nothing more or less. Of course most people like to shit on tag team wrestling as being less as well.” There was a significant pause and then a sigh. “Never say no offense, after saying something. It makes it seem like you mean offense but don’t want to own it or you assume the person is too thin skinned to take a little harshness. I know you didn’t mean it in that way. But the true thing you need to take away is what you said before any of that got out into the world. If you don’t have any confidence going into something, then there’s no way. Don’t walk on eggshells, walk like you’ve got a right to be where you are. Confidence is key, every coach in the free world will tell you this and well, they’re not wrong.”

Her words sat for a moment so that they could really process. Whenever she spoke he tried to pay real attention, especially if it was about wrestling. She was right, the only reason he ever beat Kol was because he was confident he could do it. Every preconceived notion of failure he had was thrown to the wind and he went to war and came out on top. Now he was letting his head get the best of him. All the preparation was done. He knew all of Fel’s steps and tells. Everything had been prepared for. Now it was time to pull off another upset.

“I know what you mean. I know I can do this. I really know I can beat her. I’ve got everything it takes to be at the top of that company. Now I just need to show them that. I need to toss the queen off of her throne. You’re right Rori.”

She laughs. “Of course I am. I’m going to go see what they’re doing in the other room, it’s too quiet. Have a good flight.” She ended the call and let him collect his own thoughts, she had had a long day herself after all with all of the Chicago goings on.

A slight grin came upon him as she ended the call. Maybe it was that night’s loss that had him worked up. Maybe the loss came from him being so bent out of shape about this match, but he wasn’t going to make excuses about it. He lost, that’s it, be better next time. At Burial Grounds there might not be a next time. It took a year to get another match with her and the one before that took place in 2015. This could be his last shot and he’s not letting her get a 3-0 sweep.

There’s only been a handful of people in this world that seem to have Ty’s number. Kickass Smurf, Zack Jones, and Felicity Banks. The fast forward button is hit on the DVD player until the end of the match is reached. Brandon catching him on the jaw with a superkick while Fel got him with a knee to the back of the head. Then came the cover. Felicity made it and right as the referee hit three his shoulder lifted off the mat. Just milliseconds too late. The grin turned into a smile. Last time it took two Banks’ to beat him. This time he only had to face one. The confidence began to flow back to him. Filling his lungs as if he had been suffocating and now had air. It was time to get his number back.

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