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James Raven · (09-07-2019)

“... you didn’t ‘burn it down’, coward.”

RAVEN: Oh shit... this isn’t happening.

“It’s happening, buddy boy.”

RAVEN: No, I’ve sobered up now, whatever that guy slipped me at the fair has worn off… you’re still dead and this isn’t real.

“Oh, it’s real. The drugs opened the door, little brother. I can walk through it whenever I want to now, and you’re asleep… sooo… Freddy Krueger in this mother fucker you underachieving twat.”

RAVEN: Leave me alone! I don’t want to hear anything you have to say! You were wrong at the fair, T.J.! I haven’t hurt my legacy, I haven’t given up on my career. APEX just set the record, we’re the all time longest reigning champions! That means something to people! It wasn’t a cake walk.

“Good fucking Christ. Was it any FUN?! Did you enjoy yourself, showing up month after month and pretending that Rain and Snow were viable contenders? Did it feel good when Theo Pryce returned and personally gifted you the belts back after you got worked by a team nobody can even remember the names of anymore?! Don’t be fucking dense, James! Nobody gives a shit about your tag reign, or the record. There’s a giant asterisk painted across both and they're hollow, so don’t try falling back on them.”

RAVEN: No. You’re lying. You’re full of shit. People recognize the work I put in to defend the tag titles, and it matters! It was hard work!

“Why are you obsessed with the degree of difficulty, James?! DID YOU HAVE ANY FUN?! Look at Unknown Soldier, look at everything he’s done since coming back… now that guy looks like he’s having fun! Snatching Xtreme and Universal titles like flowers from an unwatched garden, curb stomping the top names until he’s the last one left… DRESSED LIKE A MOTHER FUCKING PIRATE?! That could have been you, but you decided to adopt the People’s G.O.A.T. monicker instead of getting out there and earning it. Do you think Main or Engineer would have had the Universal reigns they had with you here to hold them in check? Do you think Robbie Bourbon would have the clout he currently does if you had put in an ounce of effort? You can blame Shane

and anybody else you want, James… but YOU let the XWF go to shit when you walked away. Now you’re trying to clean up your own mess before it’s too late, or else all you’ll be able to do is… burn. It. Down.”

RAVEN: Cut the “burn it down” shit. It’s getting old. I’m not going to torch a damn thing, I will not destroy anything I’ve worked the past six months to build. Not the company, not Apex, not ANY of it!

“Don’t try to lie to me, little brother. The truth is coming out. As much as you want the world to believe that you and Apex have kept Chris Page in check… you brought him in! You didn’t think we’d find out but he told EVERYBODY before he tossed your companies top prize into a river of sludge. What were you thinking, injecting that cancer in your own veins? Ticket sales and buy rates? Some sort of blood feud to get everyone talking about? It was a valiant effort, but you couldn’t keep him on the leash and now you’re running a shit show, kid! Besides, let’s not think about the fact that you let Robert lose his Universal title…”

RAVEN: Oh, that’s too far! I didn’t let that happen! There was nothing I could do, Soldier had a briefcase and I was caught by surprise.

“Caught by surprise?! BY PETER FUCKING GILMOUR?! On a pirate ship from the rafters?! I’m sorry then, it’s time to fucking retire, because that’s fucking pathetic. The real James Raven would have never fallen for that. The true Legend would have dropped Gilly like the bearded sack of lard that he is and superkicked Soldiers skull off of his anorexic fucking frame! Be honest, had it been Big Shank and Robert Main… do you think you could have done something? Do you think you’d have found a way to protect him?”

RAVEN: …

“HA! That’s what I thought! If that was Shank you would have ripped through every body in that goddamn arena to keep his reign intact… but it wasn’t Shank, it was Robert… and hell, how close are you and Robert really? Sure, you and Drew have become friends, I’ll give you that… Centurion is an old mentor and Ned is a protege, I’ll even give you that… but Robert? He’s a threat, James. He’s always been a threat to you, and your records. He’s always been a threat to you for the spotlight in your silly little ‘brotherhood’ and you know it. What are you going to do when people remember bitch ass Robert Main as the greatest of all time? You can’t have that… so let his reign end before he goes in any sort of record book right? Poor James, sitting back and letting everything he cares about get smashed to pieces and he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it! Main lost his belt because of you. Unknown Soldier will run roughshod because of you. Chris Page is poisoning your federation and it’s because of you. Centurion turned his back for Lux because of you! APEX IS GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF YOU! You never should have come back to this place, Jimmy. They were all better off without you.”

RAVEN: Fuck off! Just fuck off, OK? You have no idea what you’re talking about! The XWF is better with me around! Apex is better with me around! Centurion had an opportunity that he was right to take, and I want Robert to succeed more than anyone!

“Uh huh, keep telling yourself that.”

RAVEN: It’s not my fault that you’re so out of touch! What you think would be fun for me is the worst case scenario for everyone I care about. Kick rocks. My legacy is set and I care about them more than I care about it at this point anyways…

“Really?”

RAVEN: Of course!

“REALLY?!”

RAVEN: Yes!

“So, what about Betsy?”

RAVEN: Oh, fuck yourself. Betsy is fantastic, and I love her, and we’re happy. I haven’t been this happy with someone since I was married, and-

“And we all saw how that turned out.”

RAVEN: …

“Awww… cat got your tongue? It’s OK, little brother. You’re not the first man with a wandering eye. Who has your attention right now? Is it Georgie Nickles? She’s feisty, she keeps you on your toes. You can’t pretend there’s nothing there when you look at her. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed how jealous Betsy gets each time you mention her. Or is it one of the Sugay sisters? LOOK at them! Tell me you haven’t slipped into their DM’s yet, liar! Tell me they don’t look like they’d be fun to grapple with in the dead of night, sticky and sweaty flesh sticking together as you two roll around the floo-

RAVEN: WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP?! Stop it!

“Whoopsie. Did I touch a nerve? Did you finally realize you made a HUGE mistake? I’ll say this for you, James… you’re a handsome guy… you could have had your pick and snatched any piece of pussy in the industry. Caedus told you what Tala was like in bed, you could have probably swung BOTH sisters… but no… no… all work and no play makes Raven a dull gay.”

RAVEN: Seriously?

“What’s the matter, pal? The gay jokes aren’t funny to you anymore? You built a career off of them! You built a legacy off of them! You and Big Shank implied half this roster was somehow on the receiving end of some horrific homosexual acts, but just because the times have changed you want to play high and mighty and pretend you were ahead of the curve? Fuck. Off.”

RAVEN: Shut up, asshole.

“Ooooh. Clever.”

RAVEN: SHUT THE FUCK UP

“...”

RAVEN: …

“Did you think I was finished?”

RAVEN: Shit.

“Surprise, bitch! I can do this all night. You’re asleep! You can’t control shit! I can rant and rave and you can’t do a thing about it! You couldn’t force a line of narration or scene setting if you tried!”

RAVEN: …

“Oh my God, did you just try?! That’s adorable! Don’t get me wrong, it’s pathetic as well, but adorable.”

RAVEN: What do you want from me?

“Say it again, I can almost smell the pussy in the air. I’m serious, say it again but slower.”

RAVEN: What… do you want from me?

“

. I don’t mean that as a simple or basic homosexual slur, I mean it in the way that Peter Gilmour throws it around when aimed like a

crossbow by Soldier and Shane

… hateful, spiteful, with contempt and too hurt. I’ll tell you what I want from you… I’ve told you a half dozen times. Burn. It. Down. Apex dies. Chris Page gets put to sleep like the feral hound he is. You fire a shot at Unknown Soldier before he fires a shot at you. You think hiding in the tag division will stop him? He wants your head mounted on his wall and it won’t be Gilmour he brings with him… it’ll be Shane ‘suck this promo girth’

! You know they’ve both been feeling you out, you know they’ve both been plotting this! Don’t get caught. Fuck Drew Archyle and call in Big Shank, reunite the Suicide Kings and bend the XWF over a desk like it’s one of the Sugay sisters! Who knows! The company might even like it! You were always a more benevolent champion than I was.”

RAVEN: … and the tag belts?

“FUCK THEM! Useless! All they do is hold you back and tether you to a group of people that you don’t need. Let Drew take on the Arm Collectors by himself.”

RAVEN: Absolutely not.

“Coward.”

RAVEN: Not an asshole. Drew has been a true brother… I’d never abandon him. Maybe I can vacate my position in Apex? Maybe I can just opt out of defending the tag belts, and… and… maybe Main loses his rematch and we need a new contender and THEN I can go after Soldier… but I may have to vacate my ownership position, I don’t know, it’s not a good look for an owner to go after the top champion is i-

“WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?! JESUS CHRIST! No wonder Mia left you, always pussy footing around and trying not to hurt anyone else's feelings! If you had taken all you could have maybe she wouldn’t have lost interest… like Betsy is going to. Don’t lie, James. You know it’s coming. She’s barely around anymore, she doesn’t speak to you like she used to. Is that spark still there? For either of you? LEAVE THE BITCH! You’ll save yourself the heartache in the long run… and like I said, those Sugay sisters look like they could suck a mean-”

RAVEN: No.

“Lose the tag titles.”

RAVEN: No.

“You think you’ll beat Hanari? You think you’ll beat Steve Justice?”

RAVEN: Of course I do. I know I will.

“Tell me why.”

RAVEN: Ha! Seriously? Because I’m better than them.

“Be specific.”

RAVEN: Because Steve Justice was a handpicked experiment of Atticus Black, and Atticus has essentially abandoned him. He beat Tommy Wish for the Xtreme title and turned it over quicker than I normally do on a backstage rollup, and essentially got carried to this point in the tournament by Hanari with literally no effort of his own. I know he’s talented, I know he could have a future in the XWF if he wanted one and applied himself… but I don’t give a shit about the hypothetical. Right now he’s an inconsistent prospect who got lucky against a weak champion, and he’s going to get fucking murdered if he tries to pretend he or Hanari are remotely close to my level.

“Good. More. Tell me how you feel about Hanari.”

RAVEN: Disgusting. Probably offensive. Easily smashed.

“Why?”

RAVEN: Does anyone actually think he’s going to take my arm?! I’m a brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, I don’t get submitted! I will snatch a heel hook and shred every tendon in his leg before I let him take my arm, I will catch a d’arce from angles you didn’t know were possible and squeeze him out quicker than Dolly Waters cums to her own promo, and I will-

“Don’t name another submission just to prove you know them. Tell me why Hanari doesn’t stand a chance.”

RAVEN: Because he’s trash, T.J.! You know it, I know it, everyone knows it! I was married to a puerto rican and grew up around hispanics and have never once heard someone talk the way he does… he’s a fucking charicature, not a Universal contender!

“You make a compelling case. They aren’t in your league.”

RAVEN: NOBODY IS! Nobody in the company, past present or fucking future! What other demon do you want to try and confront me with here, T.J.?! I’m not scared of any of them. I’d have finished Steve Jason or The Brand at XX if I’d booked myself the opportunity. I’d have fucked up Chris Page, Dante Anglais, Ranma Saotome and the rest of them too! Steve Justice, Hanari Carnes, Kenzi Grey, Lacklan, Slater, Famine of the fucking Vile… roll them out in a gauntlet match and I’ll eviscerate them in short order. Fuck it. Bring out Robert Main. I’ll murder him too.

“Good. Remember that.”

RAVEN: Huh?

“You feeling any different? More confident? More… aggressive?”

RAVEN: …

“You’re welcome. Now go out there… and burn… it... down…”

RAVEN: … OK.

FADE

TO

BLACK

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