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X-treme Wrestling Federation »   » Archives » Relentless Day 2 RP Board 2021
Soft Deadline The Final Rope to Burn
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
09-17-2021, 10:58 PM

OOC: Formatting in the morning.



A Drowning - HtDA


There was an oppressive harshness to the lights in Kaye’s replica office, hidden behind a poster in Avalanche HQ. The Nefarious One sat alone in the room, his hands intertwined as he rested his chin upon his knuckles. The blinding radiance of the lightbulb bounced off of the desk Ned sat at. He knew why he had this room built in the first place. A small bandage to a much bigger issue at play. As much as The Nefarious One had touted proudly of his ultimate defeat and destruction of Ned’s mind in this body, he still lingered under the surface. He was certain that was the case. It was an impossibility that he had actually adopted some of Kaye’s mannerisms and behaviors. And it was clear to anyone and everyone that they were different, yet a few people still treated them as the same. As if The Nefarious One was just some mask. It was hard for The Nefarious One to truly process the anger he felt whenever the insinuation was made. Hell, even Cooper had been one to press on that particular button.


Steven Cooper. His friend. His friend who was dying while he behaved in this manner.


He shook the thought away. Raising the rim of a beer bottle to his lips and taking a swig. Ned had half a mind to inspect the bottle, considering he didn’t even recall grabbing it in the first place, but he was too many in to care. The amber liquid travelled down his throat, each rough gulp ignoring whatever meager approximation of flavor was in the beverage. He brought the bottle back down to the desk, the condensation pooling at its base as Ned continued to sit and to think about his predicament. All of this had begun with The Nefarious One rejecting Ned’s past in APEX and forming Avalanche, and while Avalanche had begun to struggle, The Nefarious One sat back for the perfect moment to strike; to destroy the last connection that he immediately saw to that weak willed excuse for a man that had squandered his potential under the boots of less talented, but more crafty “allies.” To erase the memory of a boy who honored his late father after it would have made him proud and couldn’t even manage to keep that prize for long at all. It was The Nefarious One that brought that belt back where it belonged. No longer on the waist pretender, at least for a short while. As his body began to sway under the drunken feeling intensifying within him, Ned picked himself up from his desk only to slump over upon it, his emptied bottle of beer toppling over and rolling to the floor. Kaye reached into one of the drawers as he leaned his weight onto the desk. His hand clumsily fumbled through its contents, feeling the texture of leather against his fingertips as he finally found what he had been reaching for. With a deep breath, he pulled the item out, collapsing back into his chair.


In front of Ned, was a small, worn black journal, one he had written in for over a decade now. Other notebooks he would just fill up for his own personal purposes, to combat the depression he had struggled to fight against for so many years. In all of them was a collection of events in his life, both the good and bad alike, but the black notebook was different. He didn’t write about events in this book, only feelings. Whenever he felt destructive or aggressive outside of the ring, he shut it away inside of the book to forget about it. But it had never forgotten about him, it seemed.


The Nefarious One lifted the cover, scanning through the book’s contents; through his book’s contents. Every word one Ned thought he had written, but had truly come from the other being waiting in the wings through all of this. Each word filled with contempt for everyone else, for Ned in particular. Each sentence loaded with a desire to destroy everything Ned stood for and cultivated. That chivalrous charade was just hiding the real Ned underneath. It had to have been… otherwise…


The thought was dismissed as quickly as it came, interrupted by another swig from a fresh bottle, its appearance as sudden as the last, but anything but unwelcome. It was then that the slightest glimmer caught his eye, something hidden off to the side. Ned lifted himself up, his shoes crunching the glass beneath his feet as he struggled to keep balanced, approaching the sight he was certain he didn’t see. One of the few things The Nefarious One made certain to avoid.


A mirror.


Ned’s eyes attempted to readjust to the ornament against the office replica’s wall. He had never placed one in here, to his recollection. Mirrors never showed The Nefarious One staring back, rather showing Ned Kaye. There was something in the eyes that had an unshakeable connection to his weaker self. Perhaps it was the dissonance between whom he felt like and what he saw. But what Ned gazed upon in the office at that drunken moment was far more terrifying than any set of off putting eyes. He adjusted his positioning in relation to the mirror, trying to ensure that what he saw wasn’t merely a trick of the light or some cheap carnival ruse. However, that didn’t seem to be the case at all as his gaze fixed more intently upon the mirror.


What stared back was nothing. No room. No wall. Just an empty space, void of light or sound. The closer he stepped towards it, a faint, chilling air began to slide across his skin. Shivering, Ned approached the vacant gateway, placing his hand upward to attempt to touch where the glass should normally be, only to be met by a decisive lack of such a divider. He reached his hand through, watching as it disappeared into the darkness. Confusion overcame Ned as he wiggled his fingers about, unable to see even the slightest bit of movement after the threshold of the mirror’s frame had been crossed. Carefully, he withdrew his hand, inspecting it. Nothing seemed to have changed, albeit a slight numbing from the frosty space on the other side. With a deep breath, he stepped into the mirror, turning his back on the warm, comforting office he had built.


Inside of the mirror was an indescribable sensation for a moment. As if he were both suspended in a tank of water, sinking downward in the air. And around him was miles and miles of endless void, its cold caress gently inviting him further into its depths. That was only for a moment, however. As soon as it had enveloped him, it dispersed before Ned, leaving him plummeting a short distance into the snow below. Taking a moment to get his bearings after an unexpected mouthful of snow, Ned stood up, trying to understand precisely where he had ended up, however, he already knew this place well. The mountain he had been stranded on during the avalanche the week prior to his title match against The Engineer. It was exactly as he had remembered it, except with the addition of a trail of footsteps leading towards the cave he had taken refuge in. Almost instinctively, Kaye began to follow them, placing his steps in the same spots that had been placed before him, finding his shoes fitting nicely in each crevasse of snow. Feeling the wind gush past his ears, he noticed how little the cold seemed to bother him. He had clearly been here before and done all of this prior, hell, the entire place seemed identical to his memory, except for the bitter frost that looked to kill him. That, and the sobering qualities of this place. Where just a few moments prior, his movements had been erratic and unsteady, he was now walking forward with uncertain purpose. It felt like a form of autopilot, as if he were following a set path. After an eternity of walking, he saw the cave ahead, the snowstorm surrounding him intensifying as he stepped into the cave, approaching a fire that had just been creating by the cave’s sole occupant: Ned Kaye.


The younger Ned looked at the Nefarious One, taken back by his appearance, yet despite a face deliberately intended to conceal the fact, The Nefarious One found himself equally unsettled by the sight. The other Ned who shivered next to the fire looked so close to him, but younger and less weary of the world even in this life threatening situation. How could he have anticipated that this is what he was going to transform into back then? And in a tense second, The Nefarious One spoke, words finding his mouth without a hint of thought or desire to say them.


“Hello, Ned.”


He took a bow, his face frozen in an unwilling smile, forced to play the part and say his lines.


"I hear you have an important moment coming up and, well, I just would love to offer my services."


The younger vision of Ned laughed, almost proudly. As if he knew he was stronger than to succumb to some strange offer by what seemed to be a delusion.


“So, you’re the devil, right?” The vision chuckled as he spoke.


“I don’t know.”


Ned meant to say more. He knew that wasn’t where his words stopped previously. He had seen this from the other side once. He knew this conversation. His veneer of devilish assuredness melted, his face showing the worry building inside of him.


“...Am I?”


The vision seemed to pause in time as the fire flickered in front of him until the fire seemed to stop itself, fading away and leaving Ned alone in the dark cave, sounds of snowfall pelting outside. Yet before he could inhale, the fire started again and in the cave wasn’t a younger vision of Ned Kaye, but an older one, the Universal Championship around his waist reflecting the moving campfire in front of him. The version of Ned that haunted him for far longer than any makeshift devil. The Notorious One.


“You’re starting to get it,” said the doppelganger wearing gold.


“There’s nothing to get,” responded Ned, “This isn’t some game. Ned’s gone. I’m not that person any more. I can never be him again. I’m only this.”


“Says who, Ned?”


Ned paused, uncertain how to respond as the fire warmed the air around them.


“I… I-...”


----


“And so it is you and I here, Archyle.”


The Nefarious One claps his hands together sarcastically, somehow not as amused as he typically is for a match.


“Although I had hoped to derail Robert’s little dream matches against a man who can’t hope to understand him, I instead was handed a much greater opportunity from you: the chance to rip APEX’s heart from its chest. Despite your place as weakest link of APEX, you do manage to do one thing particularly well, Drew: you manage to make the others around you buy into the nonsense you believe. That Jim is a worthy champion. That Robert isn’t just a desperate fool tricked by an egotist. That I am who you pretend I am. You are an expert at selling garbage, which makes a lot of sense given your year or so playing pirate. But the time for cosplay and booty jokes has long passed Drew. I’m not just here to beat you and take you away from your beloved stable. I requested a Last Man’s Standing match because I want to hurt you, Archyle. I want to force you up so I can send you those few feet tumbling back to the canvas. I want to make an example out of you.”


“The sad thing is that it will be the most you did for APEX since losing to Chris Page. And after I embarrass you at Relentless, not only will you be forced to turn your back on our old buddies, but you’re going to have to fight them, too. After all those years of using your endurance as a way to convince your friends in some greater cause, you’ll be subjected to preaching the good word of Avalanche. It’s almost all too perfect, really. APEX’s clown will be the first member to topple over so that the next few can do the same. And all I’ll be able to do is look around and laugh. All I’ve had to heard for years is how you and Robert recruited Ned and now I can finally return the favor, though with a little less in the way of hugs and undeserved pats on the back.”


“Let’s be frank here: you and Robert never really gave a shit about Ned Kaye. Sure, he was a nice little trophy to put on APEX’s shelf, but he was never a real friend to all of you. You never accompanied him to his matches. Hell, Robert didn’t care about giving a recovering alcoholic a swig of whisky considering it was out in the woods and he couldn’t care less how he looks outside of a ring. With all of your pearl clutching, all you ever proved is that you enjoyed Ned the same way one might enjoy the company of a well behaved cat. A fine pet, but not a real companion in the slightest. Allow me to remove any ambiguity, Drew. Allow me to show you who you’re facing and who you’re working for from here on out. I am not Ned. I don’t care about his little togetherness garbage, nor his self-righteous crusade to feel good. I’m here for the chaos. I’m here for hell, Drew.”

“And I will gladly be your personal devil.”

"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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