Our story begins just days after Dolly Waters won the XWF Television Championship for the third time in her career. After a grueling extreme rules contest, the polished wrestling veteran of only twenty-one years in age, took down the white-hot rookie CRAM. A man who nearly quadrupled her in size. But in the XWF victories are rarely long lived, and thus she’s already preparing for her first championship defense, where she faces an entirely different challenge altogether. A challenge where the size difference is made up by her opponent’s psychotic megalomania, and incessant desire to be loathed.   

What an absolute freak. Patel Gagendepp intones, while taking in some additional footage of Michael Graves’ greatest in-ring blunders on his cellphone.

Patel, Dolly’s assistant and trusted confidant, is a pro wrestling analytic wonk by not only trade, but by passion as well. Though he’s already prepped with copious notes, including a full detailed scouting report on Graves, including a surefire strategy on how Dolly will defeat her nemesis, even a man as methodic and shrewd as Patel can’t help but get caught up in the sheer dumpster fire that ensues everytime Michael Graves speaks into a microphone or steps foot in a wrestling ring.

Stopping on the sidewalk outside of the entrance to he and Dolly’s meager office space, the Indian man in his early thirties, pauses the Graves footage on his phone, and slides it into his back pocket. Patel approaches the door to the office and grabs for his keys. But as he moves to slide the key into the deadbolt, he’s paralyzed by a familiar scent leaking through the door frame,

Sage? he snarls, while his nostrils flare with annoyance.

Patel cranks at the key in the deadbolt, and swings the door open, and in the threshold to the office he’s immediately overpowered by a suffocating cloud of white sage smoke. He retches, and hacks, and spits, and groans, and screams out in frustration as his welling eyes settle in on the reality of his terrified suspicion: Dolly Waters is back on her gypsy fuck-shit.

In the center of the room, he spots the XWF Television Champion. An array of healing crystals and lit candles circling her while she sits with her eyes closed and legs folded. A deck of tarot cards spread out before her.

Nooooo!

Patel cries out, falling to his knees. A manila folder of notes and strategies on Michael Graves falling to the floor before him and scattering about the office.

Dolly startles from her meditative state, and looks up to see her assistant rolling around in the floor, clutching vicarious pieces of the notes, wadding them up and hollering with the dismay of a person who’d just buried a loved one.
  Oh my god, Patel! Dolly begs, before her face twists with a genuine curiosity when asking: ... you high or sumthin’?

HIGH!?

He rolls over onto his stomach, facing Dolly and damn near foaming at the mouth like a stupid and wild beast,

Yeah, I mean I was just-

HIGH! he roars again, cutting Dolly off and crawling up first to his knees and then standing upright. He stomps toward Dolly and spits at near her meditative circle,

The fuck is the matter with you?!

{blue]You dare insult MY integrity, Dolly? Am I high?! What is the matter with ME?! No-[/blue] he barks out while motioning his hands around Dolly’s metaphysical trinkets, -what is the matter with you?!

It was a fair, even if a little melodramatic, line of questioning. Just weeks ago when Dolly and Patel reunited in the lead up to her match against CRAM, Dolly swore to Patel that she had changed. Her long suffering former assistant took her at her word that she had sworn off the use of black magic, and her scheming gypsy ways for good. It was some much needed reassurance, afterall, Dolly had spent the better part of last year entangling Patel in one malevolently irreverent plot after the next. Kidnappings, fraud, terrorist negotiations, the smuggling of ancient artifacts, and chakra tea pyramid schemes to name a few.

Are you drinking the tea again, Dolly? he demands, stomping even nearer toward her now, knocking over a candle or two and kicking a crystal on his path. Patel leans over her, You promised me this was behind you… he cries, dropping to his knees, and meeting Dolly at eye level. He begins pleading, It’s Graves isn’t it? All of the torment over the years that monster has put you through- Patel assumes, while bringing his trembling hands to hold Dolly’s face, trying to channel genuine care and concern into her emerald eyes -Dolly, it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to stoop so low to defeat scum such as Graves.

Pfft! Quit being such a baby. With a biting scoff, and a roll of her eyes, Dolly dismisses Patel’s entire premise. Pulling his hands down from her face, I ain’t worried about Michael Graves… Michael Graves ain’t even worried about Michael Graves.

What number of incarnations of Gravy are we on now anyway?

You think I’m sitting around pulling tarot cards on some attention-crazed, insignificant worm like him? After everything I’ve been through over the years, after all of the battles I’ve fought in my personal and professional life, you think I’d waste even an ounce of sweat worrying about a man who only hyper-fixates at the moment? I’ve battled against that man enough times to realize that he relishes for the attention. Hell, I spent nearly a month living in his body, and working miracles just to get that burnt bulb of his brain to function. Why waste the time stressing when next week he’ll just be obsessing over someone else. Spare me, Patel. Please… fucking spare me.

Patel is simultaneously excited by Dolly’s confidence, and confused by what appears to be an incongruence with her actions.

But the crystals, and the cards, and the- his eyes go wide, Candles! Dolly shouts while running over and stamping out a small fire that’s begun burning through some of Patle’s research on Graves. 

Dude- she lets out an annoyed sounding pant while stomping out the flames from the candle Patel knocked over, -just because I’m not doing the gypsy, widdly-woo witchy stuff anymore doesn’t mean that I don’t still appreciate tarot, and positive manifestations- Patel listens on with a turn of the head, and curious intent, -ya’ know, all of the more… gentler things I learned from Madame Maluna

Well thats… fine, I suppose, but- he continues while watching Dolly start to clean up her meditative circle, -I guess if Graves isn’t such a big deal, I’m having a hard time understanding the need for all of these- - - he pauses, looking for the word as Dolly stops and meets his eyes waiting for him to finish the thought, - - -theatrics?

Her eyes roll harder than Patel rolling on the floor a moment ago,

You still don’t get it- she sighs, handing Patel his disheveled, burnt up documents, -It ain’t about theatrics anymore. It’s about balance. Patel raises an eyebrow, Look, I know you never believed in this stuff, but it really does help me. When I feel myself getting too anxious, or unsure about a situation, if I can just get quiet and listen to something other than the chattering of the world, and other than the chattering in my own head, the answers I seek usually will present themselves.

And what answers are you seeking now?

Well… Dolly walks over to a stack of papers and envelopes on a nearby desk, I got a weird letter today- she says picking it up and reading over its contents again, -and something about it is nagging at me, I just can’t really put my finger on it. She hands the paper over to Patel,

It’s from a bank. Something about them defaulting on a trust that's been funded by a portion of my XWF salary over the years. The money was entrusted to some entity called S.E.E.R.S? …I don’t really know what it means. But I don’t feel like it’s good, ya know?

Beads of sweat form on Patel’s brow, his face turning pale, his tongue drying. It takes nearly all of his restraint to keep the paper from rattling out of his hands. Unbeknownst to Dolly, the ambiguous worry she feels over this letter is now manifesting ten fold inside of her trusted assistant. And at this moment he can only think of one thing to say: Maluna!

He shoves the paper back toward Dolly,

I don’t know what that paper means either, bu- but maybe we should get in touch with Maluna.

Dolly smiles at the thought of seeing her old friend again, and making some proper, long due amends. The former owner of a metaphysical shop who Dolly, in her more nefarious days, kidnapped and commandeered her shop to practice the darker elements of metaphysics. Through all of that Maluna remained a shining light in Dolly’s life, positive that Dolly would overcome her wicked ways and find the balance within herself. And now more than ever, it seems as if Maluna was onto something all along…

In The Divinest Of Timing

Some hours later, Patel is watching over a ritual, but barely able to focus as he’s still shaken regarding the letter Dolly received.

In front of him, Dolly is lying on her back, her eyes closed, as Madame Maluna’s hands carefully wave with rhythm just above the surface of Dolly’s body.

Maluna is performing some type of reiki ritual on Dolly, which is said to improve the flow of one’s positive energy through their body, to enable relaxation and reduce stress, among other common ailments. Yes… Maluna intones, swaying back and forth to the rhythm of the gentle, lo-fi tunes that are buzzing throughout this little metaphysical study where she’s set up shop. All of that angst, all of that anger, all of that fear that once consumed you, Dolly, it’s of no use to you anymore- Maluna whispers next to Dolly’s ear, It’s like it was never there at all.

A relaxing smile stretches across Dolly’s lips as her eyes remain closed. Maluna places a ritualistic gem on Dolly’s forehead and whispers to her again,

You knew the truth all along, Dolly. Michael Graves holds no power over you. There’s not an ounce of fear, or resentment in your chakras dedicated to Michael Graves. That was a battle you conquered long ago. You have a new path now. Let your dreams show you where it leads.

With those words, Maluna waves her hands over Dolly’s face once more, whisking her old friend into a deep, relaxing sleep.
Maluna looks up at Patel as the reiki ritual ends. The two share a smile, as Patel feels a bit of ease.

She’s come a long way, my dear.

Maluna speaks with a gentle, warming glow to her tone, as she appears to nearly float over to a kettle. She pours herself and Patel a cup of tea and approaches her old co-hostage from Dolly The Gypsy Queen.

For a moment I was afraid she was falling back into her old ways.

The Chariot only moves forward, my dear- Patel chuckles at the notion he once ridiculed, this divine astrological assignment with which Maluna always referred Dolly as, “The Chariot”, -so what are you afraid of now?

He takes the tea from Maluna’s hand, and put it to his lips, raising his eyebrow for a moment,

This isn’t Divine Timing is it? He begs with at least a half-seriousness to his question, referring to the brand of disgusting chakra-tea that Dolly used as a get-rich quick scheme last year, It’s all divine timing, my dear. Just not that silly tea.

Patel chuckles and takes a sip, as the two sit down at a small table in the corner of this candle-lit study,

Maluna watches Patel as he can barely keep his eyes off of the sleeping Dolly across the room.

She’s very special to you… Patel sighs in response, and turns to Maluna nodding his head, More than you would understand. It’s why I was so frustrated with her last year, all of the gypsy queen, black magic nonsense. She was better than that, and I knew we were squandering a real opportunity for her to finally see her will come to fruition.

You mean wrestling?

There’s nothing else, you know? She’s a Waters. It’s in her DNA. There's a birthright to it all for Dolly. A claiming of the mantle. Wreckage to clear. To restore one of the most physically, mentally adept bloodlines where it belongs…

As Patel spoke, a smile befitting a stroked ego cracked across Maluna’s aging features. Hearing Patel speak so highly of Dolly and her ability was a beautiful thing to hear,

-and where exactly does it belong, my dear Patel? She blushes, Atop the mountain of professional wrestling… it may as well have been foretold.

Patel takes a long drink of his tea, and it warms his chest. And his nose. And his head. And his tongue.

How was it you came to know her anyway?

... Patel paused, and looked over at Dolly once more, thinking about telling the same old tired story he formulated in case he were ever genuinely asked. The story where he was just a wrestling loving boy from Bangladesh who struck gold with a resume that was luckily picked up by someone of Dolly’s caliber during a time in which her judgment wasn’t the best. But he felt comfortable with Maluna, afterall, the two had been through so much together while working with Dolly last year, and for some reason, he felt like he couldn’t lie, even if he wanted to,

Five years ago, Dolly started a non-profit think-tank. She was young and brash, and didn’t really know what she was doing. She hired in a few dozen of us from India, and put us to work on silly little assignments.

The smile from Maluna’s face fades, her brow twisting with curiosity,

Go on…

But just as mysteriously as she arrived, one day she was gone. Leaving us all to work on these aimless projects, all of which coincidentally circled around the concept of predicting future outcomes. Predicting winning lottery tickets, weather patterns, trendy memes, silly stuff, you know? But especially the outcomes of wrestling matches. We began to call ourselves The Seers.

...

Maluna’s eyes move down to the floor in contemplation,

But even after Dolly left us, the money continued to come into the bank account, funding our work. So we stayed. We were dedicated to the mission, whatever it was… which eventually just turned into all of us trying to interpret Dolly’s will.

Why did you leave?

Things got… contentious. Factions were formed. A group of radicals walled off a portion of the office, and began deviating from the mission. They became obsessed with developing the power to not only predict, but actually manipulate the future.

I stayed on with the more traditionalist faction, who stayed to do our work of trying to interpret Dolly’s purpose for our work. But tensions were still rising, with the extremist getting more power. So I took it upon myself to go rogue. To find Dolly, and to figure out once and for all what she had planned for The Seers.
And what did you report back to your team?

- - -nothing.

Patel begins to break down,

I don’t have the heart to let them know that we were just under the employ of a naive teenage girl, who’d ran off, gotten addicted to methamphetamines and forgotten all about us.

Tears are rolling down from Patel’s eyes now, as Maluna places a hand over his,

Oh, my dear. Surely they’ll understand?

...possibly- he sniffles, -but the extremists. I fear they've harnessed a power with which none of us will understand. Especially Dolly if she were to find it, especially when she was acting crazy last year… but now I fear that day of her knowing is coming sooner than I ever expected. I fear what she might do if presented with what the extremists have unlocked.     
 
I don’t. she says looking at Dolly, How can you be so sure? 

It’s like you said, Patel… it was all foretold.
 

Later...

Dolly gasps, choking on a crackling, ember filled smoked. She tumbles from Maluna’s ritual table in confusion, as she looks to find Malnua’s study partially ablaze with an exploded wall where Maluna and Patel were sitting.

PATEL!?

… she chokes, and cries,

Ma-MALUNA!?

From under a pile of rubble, Dolly hears the groans of Madame Maluna, and spots an outstretched arm.

Help! P-Please!

Dolly stumbles forward and pulls Maluna from the partially burning rubble. She looks into her eyes, and though Maluna is bleeding and bruised, she doesn’t appear to be mortally wounded.

What the fuck happened?! Where’s Patel?!
He’s - he’s still under there! I don’t think he’s going to make it!

Dolly darts into action and begins slinging the burning bits of wood, and stone away from a large pile, appearing to be the epicenter of an explosion. The sound of freitrucks and ambulances can be heard just as Dolly pulls away enough wreckage to reveal Patel. His face bloodied, and appearing lifeless.

Dolly falls to her knees, weeping,

D-dolly… Maluna groans, It was him…

Dolly turns her head on a dime to face Maluna’s haunted, traumatized features. A look of fire raging in Dolly’s eyes,

...It was Michael Graves!

XWF Office Of Human Resources

The camera opens up on Dolly’s expressionless, char smeared face. Her arms folded, and her knee bouncing up and down under a large table separating her and some smug XWF official in a suit and tie.

“Miss Waters, as you know, the XWF is all about building inclusiveness, from our talent, to our executive leadership, and even within our viewership. The company has made great strides over the years to clean up some of the more… troubling content that was once presented on our programming- - -”
 
The corporate suit pauses, expecting some form of acknowledgement from Dolly. But she remains without expression. Her arms still folded. Her knee, still bouncing. Only having just left the ICU, where her dear friend Patel is barely clinging onto his life.

“- - -ah-em-” he clears his throat and continues, “Even our newest Pay-Per-View extravaganza, FREE FOR ALL! Is about building bridges across the industry, welcoming in new, fresh faces to our talent pool, and new viewers to the XWF. So, in a continued effort for the XWF to foster an environment that is friendly, and welcoming to all of the new people who will be viewing our content- it is of the utmost importance that we bring you in today for a discussion.”

...

“Can you guess why?”

...

“Okay-ahem" the suit stands in frustration, “You see it all over the wrestling industry these days, Miss Waters. Prestigious companies crumble under the weight of wrong doings, dirt that drifts out into the public that should’ve been swept under the rug…

At Free For All, you’re booked in a match against Michael Graves for the XWF Television Championship. A man who audiences just watched, having his head blown off on international television seven months ago.

A man, who you have a very long, and… sordid history with in the XWF. A history most assume is so vile, that if any of the finer details were revisited, say, in a promo, or vignette, or in any type of promotional content leading up to you two facing off, it might give some of our new talent, and new viewers the wrong impression. Do you understand?”

...

“Good! So what we have for you today is an NDA.”

The suit slides a piece of paper in front of Dolly

"Do you know what an NDA is? They’re all the rage in professional wrestling these days. It stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement. And what we’re asking for you, and Mr. Graves, is that you two sign this NDA stating that neither of you will allude to, or directly speak of, the more… disturbing portions of your history in XWF during the lead up to Free For All.”

Without breaking her cold gaze at the HR Official, Dolly swipes the pen from the table and signs the document, causing him to laugh with joy and clap his hands.

“That's easy, huh?! GREAT! Of course you two will be compensated with a n undisclosed sum of money that we may or may not decide to pay you based on the parameters of-”

Are you done?

“I’m sorry?”

So I’m not allowed to speak about what a sick piece of garbage Michael Graves is outside of this room, right?

“Egggg-xactly!”

Fine. Water under the bridge anyway.

“Really?”

Really.

“I mean there were some pretty awful-”

Some awful things that this company allowed to happen to me at the hands of that lunatic? Agreed. They also just welcomed him back, presumably from his death, after he murdered several children last summer. So, if I may be so bold, I don’t think anything I might say about that freak would give any new viewer a bad impression of this company.

The proof is in the pudding.

Michael Graves is an attention whore. And he will do and say anything to make himself appear intimidating. But truly, he’s just an ancillary buffoon in a grander scheme of this company. A man so inept at building himself, and producing an endearing narrative, that he has to latch onto the genuine, substantive talent that surrounds him.

Just like with Mark Flynn last summer. Or his undying need to thrust himself into conflict with Centurion and Ruby. Or just like me back in 2017, and 2019, and 2021… Michael Graves is nothing without having someone better than him to exploit.

People like you, Mr. HR Guy, and people close to me, keep finding it so amazing how I’m not rattled by the thought of having to face Graves again. It’s because he’s quite literally nobody. There’s no one there to be rattled by.

One moment he’s a humble rancher's friend.

The next is a scorned family man who lost his way, but also kidnaps and abuses children.

Next he’s a Skeleton Key body jumper.

Then he’s a transgender woman.

Then a robot, a homeless man, a child murderer.

There's only a few things that Michael Graves hasn’t portrayed himself as yet, the things that probably best describe him, like a clown. Or a worm. Or stolen 2020 Trump ballots in Pennsylvania. 

How could I ever hold onto a grudge with a person who doesn’t even truly exist? The man who did those horrible things to me was just as hollow, and vapid, and utterly non-existent then as he is now? So I’ll tell you what… don’t you worry about me saying a word about mine and Gravy’s past, m’kay?
   
“Great!”

But do me a favor? When he comes in here to sign this NDA, you let him know that at Free For All I’m going to do far worse than he’s ever done to me. I’m not going to end him, or seek vengeance, or try to destroy him… nah.

Dolly pulls from her pocket burnt up strategy report that Patel prepared for her match against Graves, and reads the final sentences verbatim.

”Be professional, and treat Graves like any other opponent. Wrestle him for 15 minutes, outclass him with your superior skill, and walk away. Showing him no extra attention, and no added emotion throughout the course of the match will crush him more than any devastating maneuver, because it will crush his incessant need to be validated.”

Remind him for me, will ya? That Michael Graves is nothing.

I’ve got a mountain top in XWF that’s been patiently waiting fer’ my arrival.

3x XTreme Champion
2x Tag Team Champion (w/ Vita Valenteen, w/ Charlie Nickles)
2x Hart Champion
2x Television Champion

3x Star Of The Month
August ‘21, May ‘17, October ‘16

3x RP Of The Month
What light through sonder... my perception breaks.
Tranquility: For Old Times Sake
Manifest Victory

my loves:
[spoiler]