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X-treme Wrestling Federation »   » Archives » March Madness 2021 PPV Board
Ned Kaye is Fine
Author Message
Ned Kaye Offline
per cogitabat, per facis
TITLE - Tag Champion



XWF FanBase:
The IWC

(gets varying reactions in the arenas, but will be worshiped like a god and defended until the end by internet fans; literally has thousands of online dorks logging on to complain anytime they lose a match or don't get pushed right)


#1
03-20-2021, 08:50 PM


March 19th, 2021


How many times had he stood before this door? How many times had Ned worried over a puppet show or a Broadway musical? Why was he desperately hoping for one of those juvenile escapes today?

Ned’s hand trembled in front of the door to Urias’s office. He wanted to just reach out and open the door, but he just couldn’t push his hand forward. He could feel the tightness in his chest, his mind swirling around, paralyzing every thought with a single image. The image he saw through the gaps in his fingers at Warfare. The image of himself, smiling and taunting Edgar. Ned’s mind felt like a twisted hall of mirrors, the perverted reflection of himself, warped and numerous. And there was no end to the vision. No amount of looking inward that found a solution. Only the infinite eyes of whoever had decided to torment Ned in this way.

The door opened, startling Ned somewhat. Urias stared back at him, attempting to put on his upbeat demeanor, but failing to disguise the genuine discomfort and concern behind his faint smile.

"Hey, buddy. You wanna take a seat and get a drink of water?"

The doctor was visibly put off by Ned's appearance. To put it bluntly, he looked like shit. Ned was aware of it, but it was a struggle enough to pick himself out of bed these past few days. The incident sat on him like a weight that sank him further into his bed and his worst impulses of self isolation. Kaye stepped into the room, feeling disgusting in someone else's gaze. As if there was a thin layer of muck that enveloped him and the more he grabbed at his own flesh, the more it swallowed him whole.

"Ned?"

Pheelanruff snapped his fingers in front of Ned's face, successfully bringing Ned out of whatever trance he had found himself in. Ned stepped into the office past Urias, falling into the chair and holding his head. He couldn't describe the sensation with words, but he felt trapped, held hostage in that moment, gazing helplessly at the X-Tron as Edgar peered down at him with condemnation and betrayal. R.L. had given a swift response, but it was clearly theater. A hard exterior to mask the hurt. Ned was familiar with it.

"Yeah-uh… thanks, Urias. Could I-uh…" Ned snapped his fingers to focus on the current thought, "could I please get that water?"

"Here ya go, bud. Drink up." Urias handed him a glass of water. Ned hadn't noticed Urias grab it or even step next to him, but he disregarded his lapse of attention and took a deep gulp of water. When Urias finally sat down into his own chair, he looked more professional than he ever had before. It was a far cry from the happy-go-lucky Urias he was so used to seeing. The Doc was worried.

"You… haven't been answering calls, Ned."

Ned hesitated answering.

"It's been a tough week."

"Kid, you haven't been answering anyone's phone calls. This incident has really affected you. I know I ain't a regular Freud, but… I really need you to tell me what's going on so we can get you past this."

With a strained sigh through lightly gritting teeth, Ned responded.

"Nothing is going on. Somebody is just… messing with my head and it's gotten me a little scatterbrained. That's all. I'm fine."

"I'm fine."

Urias gulped, scanning his eyes over Ned.

"Are you sure?"

Looking up at him, Ned changed how he was sitting, taking deep breaths and focused on acting normal. He was completely fine.

"Yes, I'm sure," Ned forced through a smile.

The Doc gave him an unamused expression.

"Even though you were spaced out for a while there?"

Ned chuckled, rolling his eyes somewhat.

"I'm stressed and I just got lost in my head for a minute. It happens."

"Ned," Urias responded flatly, "you were standing at my door for thirty minutes. I asked you if you wanted to sit and you were catatonic for another five. Something… something's wrong."

What?

His gaze traveling around the room, Ned laughed to himself as he tried to process the information. That was impossible. He was standing right in front of the door for just a moment before his anxiety kicked in, but thirty minutes?! It was impossible! It was ridiculous! Ned's laughter transformed into near tears as he tried to take everything in. Breathing became so much harder. Why couldn't he fucking breathe? He was fine. Ned was fine. He was fine. His left hand clutched against his scalp.

"Buddy, I need you to be open with me here. Who is The Nefarious One?"

Hearing Urias utter the words pierced Ned's hysteria with an angering sobriety. Through frustrated, shaky breaths, Ned answered.

"I don't know."

"I need you to be honest."

Ned stared daggers through Urias, who adjusted himself in his chair.

"I am."

With a deep inhale, Urias asked another question.

"When was the first time you saw the-uh… the hallucination of yourself? I think you call it the spectre?"

"At the mountain during the avalanche. In March of last year."

Urias looked at Ned, seemingly hurt by Kaye's answer.

"What?"

The doctor paused, looking away from Ned unlike he ever had before.

"What's wrong?"

"Ned, buddy… I love ya, but I-I can't help you you unless you're truthful with me!"

"I am!" Ned rose to his feet, his voice raising, visibly scaring Urias who shook his head.

"No. No, you're not! You saw the hallucination in a dream back in December 2019!"

Ned turned pale. His heart raced in his chest. He didn't expect Urias to have any clue over that dream, considering Ned had made a point not to mention it.

"How do you know that?"

Urias avoided eye contact.

"Answer me!"

"...You wrote about it in one of your journals. The blue one."

Pheelanruff's words were like a hot knife in the flesh above Ned's spine. The emotion began to surge in Ned, tears leaking from his eyes as his breath became difficult again.

"Those journals aren't for you!" Ned shouted as his inner panic started to become unmanageable, "How could you violate my privacy like that?"

"I'm trying to help you! Don't get me wrong, I love all the activities and everything, but I thought they were helping you get comfortable and open! I thought you were getting better!"

"I was!" Ned yelled back. He stopped to try and calm down, correcting himself.

"I am getting better. It's just all of this going on is… it's getting to be too much. I'm getting asked everywhere about why I betrayed Edgar! And I didn't even do anything! I just- I need someone to trust me, Doc. Please, trust me when I say I don't know what's going on here!"

"I wanna! But you have to tell me what The Nefarious One is. I know you've written about him before. I read the journals, Ned, but I need the lying to stop. I know you have one kept more secret than the five I found."

Pressing his lips together and turning away from Urias, Ned answered, his eyes closed, as if not seeing the world made the information easier to discuss.

"The Nefarious One… it-..."

He couldn't put the words in the right order and he felt that rush of adrenaline. That sense of danger of panic. He looked crazy. Everyone thought he was a crazy liar and he could feel each and every glare on him since that Warfare. He felt like he was drowning in filth, his lungs filling less and less each time he took a breath. Despite his closed eyes, Ned could swear he was being blinded by a dizzying array of lights that became distorted under a thin layer of ice. As if he was trapped beneath a frozen lake, waiting for his last bit of air to expire.

It was Urias's hand on his back that snapped him out of the vision. That helped Ned crack through the surface for a gasp of air.

"It's okay. You can do this."

Once his racing heart had settled, Ned began once more, though he kept his eyes shut.

"The Nefarious One was… a fantasy I came up with when I was getting bullied back in the day. Everyone… everyone has thoughts and desires they don't want to think about, so I just gave them a name for if I ever was to act like that. But I'm not that, I've never been that, I just write it to get it out so I don't linger on it, I-"

Ned had a realization. A possibility he hadn't given more thought due to his mental instability following the shock of looking face to face with himself.

"I don't remember writing in it for several months! I haven't seen it since I last wrote in it!"

An excited laughter left Ned's lips as he began to feel a little more clear.

"Urias, you got my journals! Do you know what this means!?"

The doctor gave him an unsure head shake indicating "no."

"Someone got their hands on my other journal! I'm not going crazy! Someone's messing with my head! It could be Chris Chaos! It could be one of the competitors for the Battle Royal! Whoever has that journal is behind all of this!"

Ned felt a renewed sense of agency, darting towards the door, halted by Urias's voice.

"Um… Ned?"

"Yeah?"

He swung around with the first real smile he had in days only to be met with Urias still not his jubilant self.

"I don't think it's any of those guys."

Dr. Pheelanruff fiddled with his suit's coat nervously.

"I think it's you. I think you have a problem, Ned. I don't know if it has to do with the possible concussion during the Warstein match, but I really don't think this is anyone's plan."

With a trembling lip, Ned tried to hold in his frustration, the accusation crushing any chance of stability his mind was about to achieve, plunging him back into the frozen depths beneath the ice of his worst anxieties.

"How… how could you say that?"

"I just think-"

"Think what?! That I'm some kind of basket case?!"

"No, I think-"

"You know what?! I don't care what some childish, thieving quack thinks about my brain! I'M FINE!"

Urias looked up at Ned, the words clearly having broken the doctor's heart. Ned stood in disbelief of what he'd just said. He gulped, shocked at the harshness of his words. That wasn't him.

"I'm… I'm sorry," Ned muttered as he darted out of the office.






I'm becoming less defined as days go by

"You know the thing about battle royals is-"

Ned stops himself, looking completely mentally exhausted. After a short moment of collecting his thoughts, he restarts.

"A lot of people think what builds you to success in a tournament is your-"

Again, he pauses.

"I can't do this right now. I don't know what you want from me, but I'm not in the state of mind to be doing this shit right now."

The camera operator breaks his silence.

"Look, we just need something from one of the top stars in the Battle Royal. I will not hear the end of it from management if we don't get this promo out."

"I'm sure if you just let them know that now isn't the best time-"

"Look, fella, we need this shit now or people don't get paid and I ain't leaving until we get a promo of some sort outta you."

Ned looks past the camera, giving an agitated glare.

"You want a promo?"

"Yeah-"

"You want a fucking promo?!"

"Yes, I do, sir!"

"Fine!"

"Let me address what everyone is talking about right now! All I hear from the locker room whispers and the constant badgering on Twitter is "What's going on with Ned? Why is Ned backstabbing his friends and working with a guy whose last decent year was when Ned was born?" NOTHING is going on with me! Nothing's wrong! I am fine! And if you think that whatever this smoke and mirrors shit torturing me is will make me less effective in the ring, you're about to have a rough March 28th!"

"The real question is which one of you is up to this? And I have my guesses, but make no mistake: I am winning this tournament. I brought Shawn closer to defeat than anyone expected me to for a reason and I'm going to finish that job. Hell, he'll spend more time tweeting at me, getting involved in my business, but he can't find time to cut a promo? You're a joke, Shawn. You're a great wrestler and an insufferable human being and I wouldn't be surprised at all if you put all of this shit together. You already have AIs built, why not deepfake a video of me to get rid of me as competition? Is that how scared I made when I kicked out of the Ego Trip? Is that why you send holograms to look me in the eye so you don't have to. Time will fucking tell, Warstein."

"Let's not forgot Doc, though, everyone's favorite giant creep in the XWF with a pre-established routine of dressing up as young men half his age! Maybe you wanted to pray on all of those devil tropes you find so enjoyable and decided you were going to come knocking on my door to get into my head. Well, congratulations, Doc, if you wanted to look like an even greater pervert as you stomped around the XWF, you certainly accomplished your goal! I will take a lot of enjoyment in kicking you down to size so you can feel as helpless as those you terrify!"

"Of course, there are countless more people involved in the tournament, involved in the Battle Royal that I could address. Champ Sportsman who sweats opportunity instead of utilizing it. Liam Roberts, a name known only for his losses and not his single victory. Andre Dixon who is promising, but only recognized for someone else's career and not his own. The list goes on and on and on, but they aren't at the forefront of this Battle Royal. They aren't the story everyone is truly watching."

"Isn't that right, Demos?"

"Because you jumped at the chance to vilify me and make wild accusations in the locker room, pretending like I wouldn't even notice. I gave you a chance after you manipulated me and insulted my family, Charlie! I gave you the benefit of the doubt you didn't deserve and you turned your back on me in an instant! Because you think you are allowed to hurt people without discretion and then pull the angel nonsense for sympathy! But when I'm truly innocent! When I need a friend and an ally, what do you do? You decide immediately that I am guilty! For all I know, you are behind all of this, Charlie! You, who played games with my head by dragging my mother's image into this and then shoving it back into my face at your first opportunity! I never bought the angel shit, Charlie! I know what you are as much as you do! I know the man underneath that mask has no decency or respect for anyone or anything and just breaks things for the hell of it!"

"Well, fine, Charlie! You want something to break? Let's break you! Get rid of the mask and the undeserved mystery behind this angel persona and face me as the guilty, cruel son of a bitch you've always been! Tell me, Charlie, did your wrestling style change dramatically with your newfound enlightenment? Or did you continue to wrestle and be the same man with a veneer of comedy sidekick and plausible deniability? I am done giving you the benefit of the doubt. I'm done playing your game."

"I'm going to walk in there, win the tournament and clear my name. And everyone trying to muddy my reputation and hurt my friendships can go to hell. Starting with you, Charlie."






Ned walked into his old room. It wasn't somewhere he stayed often, but it was always nice whenever he felt the pressure of the world squeezing in on him. He had a few retro games that he kept in here, plugging them in for a quick escape in case he needed. A little safe box to keep himself in when the anxieties elsewhere caved in. His own little haven from the worst of the world and maybe even the worst of himself. He grabbed his old Super Nintendo, making sure to get the corresponding cords for his old TV. He had hooked it up countless times, so it was almost second nature at this point.

He perused his old shelf, eyeing over the limited collection he had preserved, running his finger over the aged plastic of the cartridges until his index finger and eyes fell upon one game: Final Fantasy VI. He knew that would grant him one night of comfort. Taking it off of the shelf, he inspected the little qualities it had picked up over the years. The dents, scrapes, little valleys where plastic had chipped off to be vacuumed and forgotten.

Ned placed the cartridge into the SNES, squinting his eyes to see through the piercing television light in the dimly lit room. He read the title screen and felt his heart drop in his chest. The words didn't seem real, but there they were.

"Ned Kaye in: Void of the Mind"

Ned reread the words, but they didn't change. Picking up the controller and pressing start, he prepared himself for whatever came next, but he only knew one thing at that moment as the screen faded to black.

He was not fine.



TO BE CONTINUED

"You can't run from yourself."
[Image: riNkNZw.png]
XWF
Wins | Losses | Draws
52 | 37 | 4


Indie Darling Eternal

#33 on The XWF Top 50(2021)
1x Tag Team Champion[with Isaiah King](Current)
2x [Image: CbviDqC.png] (Former)
1x X-Treme Champion(Former)
The Final Supercontinental Champion
1x Television Champion(Former)
Star of the Month - April 2019 | March 2021 | December 2022
RP of the Month - March 2021 (Void of the Mind)
Winner - Leap Of Faith Rafter Match 2019
1x 24/7 Briefcase Holder
Winner - War Games 2023(With Mark Flynn, Isaiah King, & Crash Rodriguez as G00D-B01)


All Time Career(Interfed)
Wins | Losses | Draws
52 | 38 | 4
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ALIAS (03-20-2021), Charlie Nickles (03-20-2021), Lycana (03-21-2021), R.L. Edgar (03-21-2021), Theo Pryce (03-21-2021)




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