Angelica had the extremely annoying habit of putting off things until the last possible second. And even though she knew this about herself, and even though it had come back to bite her in the hiney on more than just a few occasions, it hadn’t been something she had been able to unlearn. It wasn’t something she was particularly proud of, mostly because it often put others in a difficult spot, or that it gave the impression of laziness, but she had looked it up and apparently this ‘procrastination’ thing was compulsory and therefore not really her own fault.

But the fact that she knew how horrible it was to use that argument as an excuse not to do better, meant that she couldn’t even hide behind it. Even so, she also realized that it was probably the most toxic trait she had, which… You know, there were worse toxic traits to have.

With Sarah still AWOL, and likely to be so for the near future, it was about time she had a heart-to-heart and face-to-face with her dear old granddad. After all, he was the one with the most first-hand experience when it came to dealing with *his* own father, Thomas Hightower. The old man’s health was deteriorating, and even though she knew the both of them had never gotten along, maybe now was the time for them to make amends.

Okay, maybe that was a worse toxic trait of Angelica, trying to think she not only COULD fix everything, but HAD to fix everything. And that, more than anything else, had gotten a lot of people in trouble over the years, despite her best intentions.

So she made her way to the patch of land that her grandfather and his hippie commune were currently occupying. It was on the very outskirts of her ranch, but also closer to the Lacklanland core than the ranch house, barns, greenhouses, distilleries, orchards and all other things were. In hindsight, that was the very worst place for them to be, but it had also been the biggest patch of land as-of-then unoccupied. She had wanted to use it to grow fresh tomatoes, but tomato season was almost over already, so there was little reason to try and force them off, other than not wanting the powder keg to explode and suffer a full conflict with the people of Lacklanland. Because while the Lacklanlanders had always loved and respected Angelica for being the daughter of Jean-Paul Lacklan and little (but taller) sister of Sarah, they didn’t extend those same courtesies to Angelica’s maternal ancestors.

As soon as she left the house, her two cats jumped up and started to follow her. They’d been sleeping on the porch in their tailormade cat castle. Angelica had deemed it necessary to provide them with some extra shelter outside, since the weather in Maine wasn’t exactly like that of Texas. While Angelica welcomed the more humid climate and lower temperatures, she had a pretty good feeling that both Sers Bobby and Alex much preferred the sweltering heat and blistering sun for their nap sessions. Of course, *they* had a nice bit of fur and couldn’t get terrible sunburn from direct contact with the sun for more than two minutes, *unlike* a CERTAIN SOMEONE whose alabaster skin turned her from a pearly white to blood orange red in a matter of minutes. Sarah’s medical grade sunscreen had helped tremendously with that over the years, but Angelica felt uneasy about the fact that she wouldn’t reveal its ingredients. Roxy had once joked that it was adrenochrome that made it so effective and Sarah had ignored it, which... was very unlike Sarah to begin with.

Thankfully, it was cloudy with a chance of meatballs rain, so there was no need for any of that. Angelica made her way towards the field where her grandfather and the rest of the hippies were staying. As soon as she approached their encampment, she noticed that mostly everyone she saw was in the exact same position as she had last seen them in. Lying in a lawn chair, sleeping. Sitting on a picnic blanket on the grass, smoking and drinking. Some were near an open fire, roasting vegetables for a snack. A few of them were playing music, noodling on a guitar or some odd foreign folk instrument that Angelica didn’t recognize.

”Does anybody actually do any work in here??"

She was wondering if it would be a good idea to introduce them to the wondrous world of vuvuzelas when she finally arrived at her grandfather’s trailer. She knocked on the door, but it was her grandmother who opened. Lizzie Hightower, née Mulligan, was a slender woman who was clad in mostly shawls, bangles and bracelets. Her skin was probably looser than it would’ve been had she not chosen this particular lifestyle. Still, her eyes were full of kindness which made up for almost anything. As she opened the trailer door, a cloud of smoke escaped and Angelica had to cough straight away. She recognized the dank smell unfortunately, from back when she’d had a stoner friend. Not all of them were good memories.

”Gangie! Ew, the place smells! You really need to open a window from time to time."

Angelica’s grandmother chuckled as she took a swig from a flask. She had clearly been drinking too. It wasn’t even noon yet.

"Now that, my dearie, would kind of defeat the purpose wouldn’t it? Don’t you know what a hotbox is?"

”Like, an oven? I don’t see why you can’t crack open a window when you’re making your special brownies again, gangie. Think of your lungs!"

Angelica put her hands on her hips, and her grandmother sighed. She was probably the only grandmother in the world who was disappointed that her offspring didn’t do drugs, as it meant they were voluntarily depriving themselves of some of the greatest things life had to offer. Angelica waved the smoke away and tried to peek inside the trailer but was hesitant to stick her head inside for fear of another cloud of smoke coming her way.

”Is errrr… Is pop-pop around? I need to talk to him. It’s kind of important-ish."

Suddenly, her grandmother became a bit defensive. She put a hand on her chest and avoided eye contact.

"I… Pop-pop you say? Why, I… Haven’t seen him all morning, I have no idea where he could POSSIBLY be!"

Angelica was, unfortunately, rather oblivious to her grandmother’s rather obvious deflections. But that didn’t discourage her one bit. She looked over to her cats, who were rolling around on their backs, and leaned over towards them, putting her hands on her knees.

”That’s okay, gangie. Ser Bobby! Ser Alex! Find pop-pop! Go on! Find pop-pop!"

Lizzie raised an eyebrow.

"Dearie, those are cats, not dogs. I’m sober enough still to see that. They can’t track people."

”Sure they can! I taught them how. Cats have a MUCH stronger sense of smell than dogs, and they can distinguish smells more easily too. It’s just harder to train them so they respond to your commands, but I did that aaaaaages ago!"

Indeed, Angelica’s cats were something special. Bobby, the fat grey British Shorthair, and Alex, the down-to-earth Scottish Fold, had been raised and trained by Angelica ever since they’d been the tiniest of kittens. They had gone through a lot together and had been her most loyal companions for many years now.

Ser Alex started to sniff the ground, and so did Ser Bobby. It didn’t take long until their noses veered in the same direction and they scurried off, forcing Angelica to pursue them straight away.

”There they go! See ya, gangie!"

"See ya, dearie. Well… crap."

Angelica was already out of earshot by the time her grandmother responded. The cats managed to pick up the trail immediately and it didn’t take them long for them to arrive at a greenhouse that Angelica didn’t recognize, nor did she immediately recognize the crops and plants inside. It wasn’t one of hers, that was for sure. She hadn’t come around to putting them up here, as her plans for tomatoes hadn’t come to fruition (hehe) yet, but it was also a very different greenhouse from the ones she used to grow her habaneros, scotch bonnets, Carolina reapers, and many other chilies in.

”What’s this, then?"

She approached the greenhouse and knocked on the door. She was about to enter when a rather panicked Brian Hightower emerged from the plants inside and burst out of the door, halting in front of his granddaughter in order to obstruct her view as best he could. He was wearing a colorful set of loose cargo shorts and a Cypress Hill T-shirt.

"ANGIE! What errrrr… What are you doing here?"

He laughed rather nervously, which made Angelica sort of suspicious. She tried to look past him and through the glass but his body swayed with hers to make sure she couldn’t look over his shoulder. If only she were a bit taller.

(Disclaimer: not that Angelica isn’t tall-as-flame, obvs, but Brian Hightower was well over six foot – perhaps even closer to seven - the family name was well earned)

”I came to talk to you, but… What are you doing in there? I didn’t know you had a greenhouse installed, why didn’t you ask me to help you? What are you growing, can I see?"

"It… really is nothing."

”You’re acting weird. Now step aside please and thankies, this is still my land, you know."

"Oh maaaaan, do you have to? What about my privacy, duuude?"

”The walls are literally made of glass, now let me have a clear look!"

Angelica was never known for her in-ring agility or anything, but she was certainly agile enough to maneuver past a man in his early sixties. She went up to the greenhouse and pressed her face against the glass, and then gasped.

”POP-POP! Tell me that isn’t what I think it is!"

She opened the door, went into the greenhouse and immediately became captivated by the heat from the newly installed overhead lights and the intense, unpleasant smell that she had smelled only minutes before at the trailer. She did as she always does when she got upset: place her hands on her hips.

”MARIJUANA? Really, pop-pop? What are you, twelve??"

"No way I could’ve grown it when I was just twelve, dude. That’s just when I started using it."

”This is so…. Juvenile!"

"Look dude, this stuff is expensive you know. We don’t have much of a reliable income, so we gotta grow this ourselves if we wanna…."

”If you wanna what???"

"If we wanna abide by our lifestyle choices, man!"

Angelica was upset. No, not upset. Angry.

”This is a direct betrayal of my trust! I am very disappointed in you."

"Don’t be dramatic, it’s just some damn weed. Like, everybody does it."

”Do you have any idea how much trouble this could get me in?? I am trying to operate a totes legit business out here, and you’re growing illegal substances on my land! They could shut me down over this! That’s not even to say what Bordy and Sar-sar would do if they know you guys were growing DRUGS! They’d have all of Lacklanland drive you out with torches and pitchforks and probably tell me to airlift my ranch the heck out of here and find someplace else to stay! I canNOT beLIEVE you would do this to me! This is so incredibly selfish, do you really think of nobody but your own self? Maybe great-grampaw was right about you!"

"Whoa… Dude… Come on now."

That was an insult that Brian had not seen coming. Not from his own grandkid at least. Angelica crossed her arms as she walked back outside, and he followed her.

"Where did that come from?"

Angelica swiveled around and put a finger on his chest.

”He told me this is what I could expect from you. How you couldn’t be relied on. How you couldn’t be trusted!"

His demeanor seemed to change a bit. He stood up a bit straighter and his tone of voice became more stern.

"So you saw the old bastard, huh?"

”Sure did. And you know what he did? He put his FAITH in me! Like I hoped you would too, especially after I let you and your commune stay on this piece of land, with all of the personal risks involved. I shouldn’t even be talking about this, I shouldn’t even be worrying about this! I should be preparing for a wine cellar brawl with Dionysus, defending my Television Championship so I can have my reign be up there with that of Charlie Nickles. I wanna grow, as a person, as a competitor, as a business owner,… All you want to do is grow marijuana, consequences be darned, long as you get your high in, right? I should go straight to Ava and tell her what you’ve been doing, before she finds out herself and blames it on me!"

"Wait, wait… Rewind a bit there. What do you mean, he put his faith in you?"

”He made me his sole heir! Because you’ve NEVER been trustworthy, and because you couldn’t give mom the necessary education and values."

"You surprise me, Angie. You really want his blood money? His blood business? You really want to taint your own legacy with his?"

”…what do you mean?"

"Everything he ever built was done so on a foundation of blackmail, extortion, bending the law, breaking his promises, and bleeding dry the common man. I never wanted a single damn cent from him, and I wouldn’t want it now. And if you’re telling me that you do, then well… Maybe I am the one who’s going to be leaving this conversation as the disappointed one."

”…look, don’t try to turn this around on me, you’re the one who…"

"I’ll get rid of it! And then we’ll get out of your hair. Wouldn’t want to ‘sole heir of Thomas Hightower’ to be disappointed in me as well…"

Angelica didn’t know if she was being gaslit or if her grandfather actually had every right to be upset with her.

”Look, pop-pop… He’s dying, you know."

"Oh, his body’s dying is it? His soul died a long time ago, anyway."

Brian Hightower shrugged, put his hands in his pockets and wandered off, leaving Angelica alone by the greenhouse. She sighed. How had it come to this? Why couldn’t everything just… work? Why had she tried to get one over on her grandfather by being so… boastful? So vain? Maybe he was right. Maybe *she* was the one to be disappointed in. She didn’t know anymore. All she knew was that she could really hit something or someone right now. Warfare couldn’t come soon enough.

---

---

”Hiya, friendaroos! And also friends who don’t live in Australia, obvs! Welcom back to another exciting episode of #CoolTube, aka the time where Angelica Vaughn talks about her upcoming matches and adds in some other gibberish. It’s not been the easiest week for me ona personal level, sooooo all I can say is that I wish we could start my TV title defense right NAO! Have the ref lock Dion and myself into that wine cellar and let the two of us fight it out until one of us emerges as the Television Champion. I already talked up Dio last time, and my feelings haven’t changed. But there is one aspect of his own promotional video that I would like to address.

Dionysus, you called me a show-off. And, I mean, I get why you would think that. But I’m not. I am someone who wants to challenge myself at every twist and turn. If I simply wanted to show off, I would’ve come up with match stips that I *know* I am good at. I know I’m a horrible cook, which is why I went on Masterchef: to try and improve! I know I am bad at boardgames, which is why I did the Connect 4. I know I am bad in extreme environment matches, which is why I put Alex Richards and myself in a cage. I am not ‘showing off’, I am digging the deepest into my being that I can in the hopes of becoming a more complete person. Everything I do is to achieve growth. I am a grower, not a shower! I hope you know I’m telling the truth, Dion, because I value the good opinion of people I have come to respect. I would count you amongst them.

In any case, matches like these are what makes wrestling fun. And the fans should be overjoyed, too, because whoever emerges victorious will be a champion they can be proud of. But mistake yourself not, kind sir, for I fully intend that to be me. Relentless is right around the corner, and I am going to go into that PPV as the Television Champion so I can walk out of it as Television Champion. I didn’t fight tooth and nail for so long just to miss out on the biggest event of the year.

But pardon me, I’m getting ahead of myself and that would be like dismissing the challenge you pose, and therefore disrespecting the hard work you’ve been putting in. And though we will be fighting in a cellar, I know one thing for sure: you and I will tear the roof off the heckin’ building. And whoever emerges from that cellar victorious will have earned it.

But if you thought July was my month, well… I fully intend for August to be even better. See you, Dio! See you, my Vaughnstars! It’s gonna be #Vaughnemous!"

-fin-