OOC

Out of character.

Sometimes we do things that don’t gel with our normal behavioral patterns. Sometimes we do things that raise eyebrows and bring fingers to chins for the scratch. Sometimes, we do things that we can’t even explain. We don’t know why we did it, but we did it. Sometimes, we portray ourselves differently in the eyes of everyone who gets the pleasure (or displeasure) of seeing it.

That is what many considered that outburst. As they all turned and looked, many of them thought that it was "out of character".

Daniel Rose was always a well spoken guy, respectful, got along with everyone and made the office laugh. He always pushed his co-workers up, and even in his worst days never wiped off his smile.

Now, with the entire office, his entire office, the only world he'd known for the last half decade, was staring directly at him. All eyes on him. Piercing.

Judging.

Jealous.

Nobody said a word, their eyes did enough. Their expressions said enough. As he looked back into their eyes, they waited with baited breath for him to explain himself.

He looked over at this man, the man they all reveared, the man they all looked up to. The man whom he had just thrown coffee on. The man whose books and papers he had just shoved onto the floor.

The man who was a mountain, that he had just thrown a pebble at.

IMAN Rodriguez, if that was even his real name, had become a god-like figure around the steno pool and Daniel had become the one thing he feared the most.

Also-ran.

Just another guy.

Just another face in the shadows.

As he looked around to each face, looked each one of them in the eyes. A figure who was once so strong and meant so much was now a symbol of weakness and monotonous......a symbol of what USED to conform to the standards of greatness but has become outdated in an ever-progressing world.

IMAN looked at him as well, burning a hole through his very body. Like all the fires of hell had simultaneously sprouted up inside of him and were sorching their way through from the inside.

His throat was hoarse, his lips felt like they were sticking together.

"F U C K Y O U"

At this point, Daniel didn't care anymore. All grace and civility was gone. All professionalism. All humanity.

He grabbed his bag and pulled it over his shoulder.

"Fuck you, and you, and you, especially you, and fuck this fucking place."

Many of the people in the room were now coming to IMAN's side, helping with the coffee stain and picking up the books and papers on the floor.

"I WILL find out who you are!" he said, his voice cracking a bit.

"I WILL take my spot back in this company. It may not be now, it may not be this year but damnit if I gotta kill myself to do it, damnit I will!"

He walked out of the office, slamming the door so hard a picture fell off the wall, making a small shatter sound as it hit the wooden meeting room floor.

"Well, that was out of character," Timothy Barnes was looking at Charles Henry now. "Are you happy?"

"He has always been a loose screw, and I am glad we sorted it out now and didn't let this bullshit continue. Fuck me? Fuck ME?!"

"Especially you, he said."

"If he ever walks back in this door again he will be the luckiest man on planet fucking Earth."


He flipped through pages, so many pages that he thought the ink would never leave his fingers. Document after document. His eyes strained to read the small print on most of them. Boxes upon boxes littered his home office. His dress shirt was disheveled and unkempt. His tie sat loosely over his collar. The ash tray was a graveyard for double digit cigarettes by this point.

As he ran a hand though his hair he began to think, maybe this wasn't about figuring out who his opponent was....it was about figuring out who HE was. Maybe he needed to take a step back. Literally back. And look at the fact he was so stressed over a company where weird outcasts from society are trying to tell each other they're better than you. They're dorks. Losers. People to laugh at.

Yet the only ones laughing are them.

He needed to figure out just exactly who this ALIAS was. And why?

But that's the point of an alias, right? Its a FAKE name. People make fake names for real reasons. People with alias's are either strippers, or hiding something.

Or strippers who are hiding something.

Tanya had sent him a text, he didn't even bother to answer it.

All of this pressure of being the top. He had never felt this pressure before. He set the files down, and slammed a fist on the table, making his whiskey glass jump.

Failure was Out of Character for him. Or was it?

Perhaps failure was his own personal alias......fear of failure which he was hiding away so far and deep in the bowels of his own soul.

It hit him like an anvil dropped off a cliff.

Lighting up another cigarette and grabbing his checking account ledger book, he leaned back in his chair.

Maybe there was something to this failure thing after all.

He picked up his phone and immediately called his accountant.


"You may have all of these friends and allies, Alias, but whose counting? I have just as many, if not more, enemies. It's what drives me, motivates me, makes me tick. Do you find dancing with Betsy or frolicking with Dolly makes you Joe Cool on the block? That Corey doesn't want to cash in until your reign is firmly established.......it doesn't make you respected hell it doesn't even make you liked........it makes you convenient.

You're the new hit show, the new restaurant on the block, the big feature smash hit movie, the expansion team breathing life into a desperate city........you're all the rave right now but you will soon be forgotten and a new character will be around. People come, people go, its a revolving door around here. You may seem to think that you're wanted and popular but as soon as that back is turned the blade is inserted.

Me? I count the number of enemies like I do your number of friends. Hell, I could have had them come on and do cameo appearances and talk shit and kick my ass and throw shit at me.......

But what would that accomplish?

About the same as their cameo's did with yours. Superficial and fake. You're trying too hard. For someone whose entire mantra is to be mysterious you sure love to socialize. You have such high hopes, and high expectations. Somebody please toss Kurt Cobain a 12 gauge....I think he just spotted where on the ceiling he'd like to leave himself. But for real, between the pubescent beard and the ketchup-stained shirt I bet you are killing it with the middle school girls in your trailer park!

You can claim to be 'consistently inconsistent', I call you not good enough to be considered the best. Do I consider myself that way? Eh, maybe not so much anymore, I know damn well how dangerous I am inside the ring and how I can push a superstar to the very edge......every single time. There is an order of things around here, and in order to be great, you gotta go through me. All of the greats have launched their careers having gone against me. I seem to be that launch pad. I seem to be the step stool. That's fine with me, because like you, I have a goal, too. I have a purpose, a meaning, a reason

I am not back here to win the title off the rip and hold it over everyone’s head like I did before. Do I WANT the Uni title? Yes. Do I plan on taking it? YES. But, for once, it’s not 100 percent about that. I am here to shake things up. Theo gave me this match for the sole reason of showing to all of you that he can do what he wants, when he wants. I am his hit man, and I have been hired to hurt people. To take people out. I have been hired to strike fear in the hearts and minds of XWF superstars, keep them constantly watching over their shoulder. Sure, the Universal Title would be nice…..but in time…..in…..time.

Time has always been a friend of mine.

You see, Alias.....I should be used to failure by now, right? I should be used to being the laughingstock, the punching bag, the simpleton who refuses to learn the error of his ways after such a dreadfully long time.

You said it yourself, as has everyone else.

CHRIS CHAOS IS A LOSER.

But look what Chris Chaos does.....he keeps coming back, getting thrust into the title picture over and over and over again only to be beaten down just to be stood up and beaten down again. It's become a trend.

And its trending.

What do I mean?

Well....its quite simple.

We are lightyears apart. I am sharp dressed, have enough money to make everyone I know a millionaire, have the support of management on my side (but they support all sorts of unsavory characters, so why do I feel so special?), and I have the ratings war in my back pocket. You? You're like somebody's forgotten experiment in gender nonconformity. Like they gave you both testosterone and estrogen, made you listen to the Ramones and Tori Amos, and then forgot all about you and left you by a Goodwill dumpster. Yet, you're the champ and I am the lowly old sap whose been fed to you.

EAT CHRIS CHAOS.

Boy, you certainly have an apatite. Maybe our goals are different. Maybe our end game isn't the same. Maybe, juuuuuuuuuuust maybe, the bigger picture is harder to see than you realize. You fight the good fight. But do you know what you're fighting against? Do you know what is coming on the horizon? Do you know the war that is brewing? I'll be sitting back counting money while you're doing all the heavy lifting. You see, Alias, you're popular now but when shit hits the fan........are you truly the one to lead us into the storm?

Your forehead is bigger than your future.

I am liquid. I will be here until the end of time. I will win another belt here, have another reign, and I will break this company down little by little until all that is left is dust. You, you'll keep fighting because that is all you know how to do. The grunt work soldier who can never get ahead because he is too busy coming from behind.

You want to talk about ME not learning from my mistakes? I am going to sit back and puff on a Cuban while you doggy paddle, trying to keep your head above water, and when the opportunity arises to throw you that life raft.....

Best believe I'll let you fucking drown.

Damn right I am bitter. Damn right I am salty. And damn right I am the best in the world at what I do........

BEING AN ASSHOLE.

I always come out on top. If Neil Patrick Harris and Andy Dick had a child you'd be the outcome. You look like a second grade art teacher that inevitably gets convicted of child porn. You are the top selling item on Amazon right now but a new trend, a new fad is coming.

I went into this match wanting nothing more than to be champion. I want now, nothing more, than to watch YOU fuck it up.

Has Chris Chaos lost a step? Or three? Or ten?

No. Chris Chaos has gotten smarter. You do all the work, I'll reap the benefits. Don't you see? The worse I look, the better it makes you look. I thought you had all those cameo apperances because you needed to be boosted by those around you to stay relevant.........

...............I've been a loner since jump street and I am STILL relevant. You need to rely on others to pat your back and tell you how good you are. I need to be hated to realize how good I am.........

When this company burns to the ground in a flaming blaze who will emerge from the rubble? When the lights turn out and the key is turned for the final time, who will be there for one last salute? Who will stand on the sidelines, watching the others beat themselves to oblivion and then swoop in for the game winning pass when the rest of the bodies are too broken to do it?

CHRIS FUCKING CHAOS.

I shoulda been gone years ago. Nobody on this roster gives a single fuck if I live or die.......yet here I am, another notch on the belt, another opportunity taken away from a more deserving individual.

Chris Chaos.............the best in the world at being better at survival. Who'd a thunk it?

Call me what you want, have any opinion you so choose of me. We have that right until Biden and buddies take that from us completely, too. Chris Chaos..........the asshole, the shit stain, the clown, the punching bag, the loser........

..............looks like I have finally found my alias..........

Sometimes, you gotta go out of character to truly become one."