Beware of Dog!
Dec 9, 2018 23:39:03 GMT -5
The Very Big Śpainards, Bonnie Blue, and 1 more like this
Post by Teo Blaze on Dec 9, 2018 23:39:03 GMT -5
As the scene fades in from black, the viewer is greeted by a sight that may or may not be familiar, depending on the viewer’s personal background.
The screen is almost completely filled by a large wooden sign. Its face is painted completely white, and large, black letters fill it with a simple message.
The scene hangs on the sign face for a few moments, allowing the viewer to take in the sight, and really let the message sink in. Finally though, from one side of the screen, a hand comes across the sign face, attached to a white-sleeved arm highlighted by a cuff-link molded in the shape of a television. The hand taps the words carefully, letting each one sink in as the camera slowly pans up to reveal the smiling face of the WCF Television Champion, Teo Blaze.
Teo Blaze: You know, I’ve never been the kind of guy who gives these warnings much thought.
The Television champion is standing outdoors, in a rather sparse looking field. In the distance, a structure, lined by barbed wire and humming with electricity can be seen. Except for that structure, however, the field is completely barren.
Teo Blaze: You show me a sign like that, you tell me that I shouldn’t do something because it’s dangerous?
Teo lets out a sound that is halfway between a chuckle and a snort.
Teo Blaze: Well, let’s just say that it’s not going to have the intended effect.
Teo turns and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper as he begins walking up the road towards the fenced-off structure. Slowly, deliberately, he unfolds it, the camera panning in as he does so. He turns it playfully upside down, and away from the camera coyly, but finally lets it come fully into view. It is a flier, advertising the main event of Slam. Teo Blaze vs. Vincent Augustine for the WCF Television Championship.
As the document comes into view, there is a quick cut to Teo’s face, which is grinning ear to ear. The smile is...slightly off. Manic, as though he were standing at the top of a roller coaster looking down at the next drop.
Teo Blaze: They tell me that Vincent Augustine is a dangerous man. Wild. Untamed. Cracked. They tell me that I need to be careful with him.
What do you do when you’re given a warning like that?
As Teo speaks, he has made considerably good time, and now stands before the large, steel electric fence. It hums with a warning more frightening than any sign could impart. Teo looks up at the thing, and with a shrug, lets go of the flier advertising the match. It catches the wind, flying up towards the fence. A slight updraft pushes it right to the top, where a mound of razor wire is waiting, it catches instantly, and is practically pulled into the spiny maw, shredding from the mere contact, raining down pieces of paper over Blaze, whose smile has only grown.
Teo Blaze: What do you do when every single sign shows that you are about to be put in a grievous situation, torn to pieces, burned to a cinder, or otherwise maimed, mangled, and destroyed?
Teo stares at the fence for only a moment, before reaching into his coat. He pulls out what can only be described as a larger version of his trademark sceptre, folded over itself to tuck into the coat. Teo shakes it, causing it to extend to its full length. With the elongated sceptre in one hand, he slowly removes his coat with the other, then carefully considers the wall.
Teo Blaze: Most people, even if they don’t turn and run immediately, give some level of consideration, some kind of hesitation. Some thought to the potential danger surely!
...But me?
The words have barely left Teo’s mouth before he lunges forward in a full sprint, the camera barely able to keep up with the sudden shift in movement. A sharp musical sting plays as Teo approaches the deadly wall…
But with one fluid motion, Teo stabs the end of the sceptre in the ground, pushing himself up into a flying leap! The sceptre holds, and as though he had been launched from a catapult, Teo propels himself up the nearly ten foot high wall. Without missing a beat, he slams the jacket that was firmly held in his other hand in the razor wire, using it as a fulcrum to launch himself to safety, where like an olympic gymnast he lands on a sandy floor.
Teo Blaze: I don’t do danger.
You see, there are two forces at work here. There is the-
Teo looks at the jacket, which now lies almost as shredded as the flier at the top of the fence.
Teo Blaze: ...Admitted potential for injury. For failure, for catastrophe, for devastation.
But the other side of that coin? Well baby, it’s all in the mind.
As Teo continues onward, there is another sign now. A larger, much less neat sign, covered in what can only be described as vicious animal bite-marks. The message here is much more clear beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Teo Blaze: You see, most people, when they’re faced with a potentially threatening situation? They make it worse for themselves without even realizing it. When I see the Vincent Augustine of recent months, the man who returned to WCF with an attitude more unhinged than the last door that Oblivion leaned on?
You see a man who is capable of anything, who has gone off the deep end, who has devoted himself so much into becoming a threat, into this new persona of a calculating, mad genius that any opponent who faces him ends up psyching themselves out before they even begin. They’re so damned curious just what the hell is wrong with Vincent Augustine that they start inventing fears, inventing ideas of just what a mind like that is capable of.
Teo shakes his head dismissively, practically rolling his eyes behind the red lenses.
Teo Blaze: It’s intimidation, pure and simple. Every single thing that he does? It’s mind games. Whether you have him isolating himself in the woods hunting metaphors or putting together fancy video diaries with medical “professionals” talking about how he’s become the ultimate killing machine.
Every single thing that Vincent Augustine has put on the air, bar none, has been about one thing and one thing alone, and that is planting the idea in your head that Vincent Augustine is a dangerous man.
It’s a good smokescreen. Quite a few people have bought into the idea, and an embarrassing amount have let themselves be shaken by it.
Teo’s face suddenly curls into a wicked smile, the kind of smile reserved for those moments, those instances when Teo has had a particularly vicious thought.
Teo Blaze: Well that shit stops now.
You want to intimidate me? You want to scare me, Vincent Augustine? You want me to look at you and see a puzzle with no solution, an unsolvable riddle of a human being?
You picked the wrong fucking mark, kid.
Teo’s nostrils flare as the words leave his mouth. His breathing has started to become heavy, his fists clenching as he walks forward.
Teo Blaze: There is nothing in this world that gets under my skin more than some punk who thinks he’s smarter than he is.
You think that little word-search you did last week was clever, Vince? Spelling out an insult that would be laughed out of the average grade school?
Teo turns his head to the side, spitting on the ground.
Teo Blaze: You think that it makes you look scary, intimidating to literally pick on a little boy and his pet dog, you son of a bitch? Like you’ll do anything and have no guilt about it?
You are nothing more than a coward in every sense of the word. You are weak, pitiful, and worthy of nothing but contempt. You have no honor, no strength, and you take pleasure in harming those too scared to fight back.
As if on cue, a new sound fills the sandy complex that Teo has walked into. A loud, roaring sound familiar to only the most unlucky humans. The roaring, sharp sound of a dog’s bark.
But this is no chihuahua.
Standing before a large metal gate, chained to a post, is a large bulldog. The chain has been stretched to its limits, and the animal is practically lunging towards Teo, its jaws outstretched. Sharp teeth stretched out towards Blaze.
Teo Blaze: You want to see a metaphor for Vincent Augustine? Look no further. Listen to the way it growls, listen to those vicious, animalistic sounds. Look at the way it stands, fangs first. This is an animal that is poised and ready to attack.
Even as he speaks though, Teo does not break his stride. He begins walking towards the gate. With each step the dog’s barking grows louder. But as Teo walks, something peculiar begins happening. The animal looks...confused. Its eyes widen as Teo continues his gait, not even hesitating as he approaches the animal. The beast is taken aback, not used to such behavior, and continues barking. But where before the noise sounded territorial, intimidating, it has begun to shift slightly. It sounds...desperate at first, but with each bark it moves closer to something resembling panic.
Finally, Teo reaches the gate. He looks down at the dog, which is still barking, but it does not know what to do. For so long it has stood unchallenged, all it has ever had to do is bark. With a final moment of panic, the dog lunges forward, its jaws coming down on Teo’s outstretched arm.
The teeth sink down into Teo’s shirt, covered only by a long silk sleeve. Teo keeps his hand firm as the jaws clench down, and the dog’s eyes, clenched shut, slowly open to look up at Teo, who is staring at the dog with a large, twisted grin.
Teo Blaze: Boo.
The dog leaps back in surprise, letting go of Teo’s arm as it tries to recover, but it is too late, and Teo is through the gate as the dog looks around in confusion and embarassment.
Teo is now safely inside the last gated area, and as he shakes off the bite, he continues to speak to the camera.
Teo Blaze: Does it hurt? You’re goddamned right it does.
That animal is capable of everything that you imagine it is, but here’s the secret.
When an animal knows that people are afraid of it, when someone like Vincent Augustine knows that people are wondering just what the hell he’ll do next? Then he starts to get comfortable. He starts to get complacent. He has a realization.
He doesn’t actually have to do anything but intimidate. Once he gets in his opponent’s head, once he has them on the back foot, and thinking about anything except the actual match? The work’s already halfway done.
But you see, what Vincent Augustine didn’t count on...what he couldn’t have seen coming is someone like me. Someone who has been around the block a few times, someone who has dealt with bigger, badder, and you better believe crazier than Vincent Augustine.
And in my final analysis? I have no choice but to conclude that Vincent Augustine is just like that dog out there.
His bark is worse than his bite.
Teo has now reached the final room of the gauntlet. Unlike before, there is no sign proclaiming any kind of danger, instead there sits, on a small coffee table… a large, iron bear trap, the kind built to take down vicious killing machines. Teo eyes it carefully, the cold metal reflecting in the glass of his red lenses. Sitting directly in the trap, right on the triggering mechanism, is none other than the WCF Television Championship.
Teo Blaze: I don’t like bullies, Vincent.
I don’t like people who rely on intimidation, on fear to get the job done.
When I see someone like that… Quite frankly the only thing that I can imagine is punching that bastard square in the nose.
I don’t believe in fear.
I don’t believe in intimidation.
They exist only to mislead, to throw off.
The difference between you and me, Vincent Augustine?
Teo chuckles, reaching down to slowly roll up his sleeve. As he does, the bite mark, still fresh, still dripping blood onto the sand can be seen visibly. Teo begins stretching his arm as he walks towards the table.
Teo Blaze: I don’t have the luxury of fear. Every week is a threat, every single match could be the difference between being a champion and a has-been. For all of your smoke, mirrors, and bullshit, for all of your talk of how dangerous, of how unstoppable you are?
You’ve spent the better part of your return picking your spots. Every single win you’ve had, (not counting a desperation roll-up against the punchline that was Lovely Watanabe) has been over a veteran in a downward spiral, like the poor Night Rider, or someone too green to be able to sniff out just how full of crap you are, like James Wolf.
But me? I’ve been fighting actual wolves. Alex Richards, Kennedy Matthews, even someone like John McCarthy turns into a bona fide killer when faced with the potential of being a champion.
The reason I’ve been champion for over a month now, when so many have let this belt slip away in their first defense? It’s not because I’m bigger, because I’m badder, because I’m scarier than anyone else on this roster.
Teo Blaze is not a predator.
But he is a survivor.
And guess what, Vince?
A survivor is a hundred times worse.
What can you do to me that Dune has not? That Richards has not? That John Rabid has not!? I came back from being thrown through a sound stage to defend my belt, and that’s just my most recent accomplishment! What about you? You pick on little boys and chihuahuas and call it a metaphor! You take pride in the fact that you can unnerve the innocent, that you can prey on the emotions of those who don’t know any better. You are a bully, a coward, and you have a reckoning coming, you smug son of a bitch! You can act as crazy as you want, you can pick as many easy targets to intimidate as you want, you can bring all the fear that you want to our match this week!
As soon as Teo speaks, his hand rips out like a lightning bolt. In a motion so fast that it can barely be caught by the camera, he snatches the Television Championship from the bear trap. With a horrifying SNAP, the jaws slam shut, barely missing his flesh as he holds the belt. As he breathes heavily, he looks directly into the camera, a grin slowly spreading across his face as he looks at the gold.
Teo del Sol: Fuck fear.
Fear is for those who don’t know any better.
And with that, Teo slings the Television championship over his shoulder, and turns away, whistling as the camera slowly pans over the deadly iron jaws of the now closed bear trap.
The screen is almost completely filled by a large wooden sign. Its face is painted completely white, and large, black letters fill it with a simple message.
DANGER!!
DO NOT
ENTER
Teo Blaze: You know, I’ve never been the kind of guy who gives these warnings much thought.
The Television champion is standing outdoors, in a rather sparse looking field. In the distance, a structure, lined by barbed wire and humming with electricity can be seen. Except for that structure, however, the field is completely barren.
Teo Blaze: You show me a sign like that, you tell me that I shouldn’t do something because it’s dangerous?
Teo lets out a sound that is halfway between a chuckle and a snort.
Teo Blaze: Well, let’s just say that it’s not going to have the intended effect.
Teo turns and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper as he begins walking up the road towards the fenced-off structure. Slowly, deliberately, he unfolds it, the camera panning in as he does so. He turns it playfully upside down, and away from the camera coyly, but finally lets it come fully into view. It is a flier, advertising the main event of Slam. Teo Blaze vs. Vincent Augustine for the WCF Television Championship.
As the document comes into view, there is a quick cut to Teo’s face, which is grinning ear to ear. The smile is...slightly off. Manic, as though he were standing at the top of a roller coaster looking down at the next drop.
Teo Blaze: They tell me that Vincent Augustine is a dangerous man. Wild. Untamed. Cracked. They tell me that I need to be careful with him.
What do you do when you’re given a warning like that?
As Teo speaks, he has made considerably good time, and now stands before the large, steel electric fence. It hums with a warning more frightening than any sign could impart. Teo looks up at the thing, and with a shrug, lets go of the flier advertising the match. It catches the wind, flying up towards the fence. A slight updraft pushes it right to the top, where a mound of razor wire is waiting, it catches instantly, and is practically pulled into the spiny maw, shredding from the mere contact, raining down pieces of paper over Blaze, whose smile has only grown.
Teo Blaze: What do you do when every single sign shows that you are about to be put in a grievous situation, torn to pieces, burned to a cinder, or otherwise maimed, mangled, and destroyed?
Teo stares at the fence for only a moment, before reaching into his coat. He pulls out what can only be described as a larger version of his trademark sceptre, folded over itself to tuck into the coat. Teo shakes it, causing it to extend to its full length. With the elongated sceptre in one hand, he slowly removes his coat with the other, then carefully considers the wall.
Teo Blaze: Most people, even if they don’t turn and run immediately, give some level of consideration, some kind of hesitation. Some thought to the potential danger surely!
...But me?
The words have barely left Teo’s mouth before he lunges forward in a full sprint, the camera barely able to keep up with the sudden shift in movement. A sharp musical sting plays as Teo approaches the deadly wall…
But with one fluid motion, Teo stabs the end of the sceptre in the ground, pushing himself up into a flying leap! The sceptre holds, and as though he had been launched from a catapult, Teo propels himself up the nearly ten foot high wall. Without missing a beat, he slams the jacket that was firmly held in his other hand in the razor wire, using it as a fulcrum to launch himself to safety, where like an olympic gymnast he lands on a sandy floor.
Teo Blaze: I don’t do danger.
You see, there are two forces at work here. There is the-
Teo looks at the jacket, which now lies almost as shredded as the flier at the top of the fence.
Teo Blaze: ...Admitted potential for injury. For failure, for catastrophe, for devastation.
But the other side of that coin? Well baby, it’s all in the mind.
As Teo continues onward, there is another sign now. A larger, much less neat sign, covered in what can only be described as vicious animal bite-marks. The message here is much more clear beyond a shadow of a doubt.
BEWARE
OF
DOG!!
OF
DOG!!
You see a man who is capable of anything, who has gone off the deep end, who has devoted himself so much into becoming a threat, into this new persona of a calculating, mad genius that any opponent who faces him ends up psyching themselves out before they even begin. They’re so damned curious just what the hell is wrong with Vincent Augustine that they start inventing fears, inventing ideas of just what a mind like that is capable of.
Teo shakes his head dismissively, practically rolling his eyes behind the red lenses.
Teo Blaze: It’s intimidation, pure and simple. Every single thing that he does? It’s mind games. Whether you have him isolating himself in the woods hunting metaphors or putting together fancy video diaries with medical “professionals” talking about how he’s become the ultimate killing machine.
Every single thing that Vincent Augustine has put on the air, bar none, has been about one thing and one thing alone, and that is planting the idea in your head that Vincent Augustine is a dangerous man.
It’s a good smokescreen. Quite a few people have bought into the idea, and an embarrassing amount have let themselves be shaken by it.
Teo’s face suddenly curls into a wicked smile, the kind of smile reserved for those moments, those instances when Teo has had a particularly vicious thought.
Teo Blaze: Well that shit stops now.
You want to intimidate me? You want to scare me, Vincent Augustine? You want me to look at you and see a puzzle with no solution, an unsolvable riddle of a human being?
You picked the wrong fucking mark, kid.
Teo’s nostrils flare as the words leave his mouth. His breathing has started to become heavy, his fists clenching as he walks forward.
Teo Blaze: There is nothing in this world that gets under my skin more than some punk who thinks he’s smarter than he is.
You think that little word-search you did last week was clever, Vince? Spelling out an insult that would be laughed out of the average grade school?
Teo turns his head to the side, spitting on the ground.
Teo Blaze: You think that it makes you look scary, intimidating to literally pick on a little boy and his pet dog, you son of a bitch? Like you’ll do anything and have no guilt about it?
You are nothing more than a coward in every sense of the word. You are weak, pitiful, and worthy of nothing but contempt. You have no honor, no strength, and you take pleasure in harming those too scared to fight back.
As if on cue, a new sound fills the sandy complex that Teo has walked into. A loud, roaring sound familiar to only the most unlucky humans. The roaring, sharp sound of a dog’s bark.
But this is no chihuahua.
Standing before a large metal gate, chained to a post, is a large bulldog. The chain has been stretched to its limits, and the animal is practically lunging towards Teo, its jaws outstretched. Sharp teeth stretched out towards Blaze.
Teo Blaze: You want to see a metaphor for Vincent Augustine? Look no further. Listen to the way it growls, listen to those vicious, animalistic sounds. Look at the way it stands, fangs first. This is an animal that is poised and ready to attack.
Even as he speaks though, Teo does not break his stride. He begins walking towards the gate. With each step the dog’s barking grows louder. But as Teo walks, something peculiar begins happening. The animal looks...confused. Its eyes widen as Teo continues his gait, not even hesitating as he approaches the animal. The beast is taken aback, not used to such behavior, and continues barking. But where before the noise sounded territorial, intimidating, it has begun to shift slightly. It sounds...desperate at first, but with each bark it moves closer to something resembling panic.
Finally, Teo reaches the gate. He looks down at the dog, which is still barking, but it does not know what to do. For so long it has stood unchallenged, all it has ever had to do is bark. With a final moment of panic, the dog lunges forward, its jaws coming down on Teo’s outstretched arm.
The teeth sink down into Teo’s shirt, covered only by a long silk sleeve. Teo keeps his hand firm as the jaws clench down, and the dog’s eyes, clenched shut, slowly open to look up at Teo, who is staring at the dog with a large, twisted grin.
Teo Blaze: Boo.
The dog leaps back in surprise, letting go of Teo’s arm as it tries to recover, but it is too late, and Teo is through the gate as the dog looks around in confusion and embarassment.
Teo is now safely inside the last gated area, and as he shakes off the bite, he continues to speak to the camera.
Teo Blaze: Does it hurt? You’re goddamned right it does.
That animal is capable of everything that you imagine it is, but here’s the secret.
When an animal knows that people are afraid of it, when someone like Vincent Augustine knows that people are wondering just what the hell he’ll do next? Then he starts to get comfortable. He starts to get complacent. He has a realization.
He doesn’t actually have to do anything but intimidate. Once he gets in his opponent’s head, once he has them on the back foot, and thinking about anything except the actual match? The work’s already halfway done.
But you see, what Vincent Augustine didn’t count on...what he couldn’t have seen coming is someone like me. Someone who has been around the block a few times, someone who has dealt with bigger, badder, and you better believe crazier than Vincent Augustine.
And in my final analysis? I have no choice but to conclude that Vincent Augustine is just like that dog out there.
His bark is worse than his bite.
Teo has now reached the final room of the gauntlet. Unlike before, there is no sign proclaiming any kind of danger, instead there sits, on a small coffee table… a large, iron bear trap, the kind built to take down vicious killing machines. Teo eyes it carefully, the cold metal reflecting in the glass of his red lenses. Sitting directly in the trap, right on the triggering mechanism, is none other than the WCF Television Championship.
Teo Blaze: I don’t like bullies, Vincent.
I don’t like people who rely on intimidation, on fear to get the job done.
When I see someone like that… Quite frankly the only thing that I can imagine is punching that bastard square in the nose.
I don’t believe in fear.
I don’t believe in intimidation.
They exist only to mislead, to throw off.
The difference between you and me, Vincent Augustine?
Teo chuckles, reaching down to slowly roll up his sleeve. As he does, the bite mark, still fresh, still dripping blood onto the sand can be seen visibly. Teo begins stretching his arm as he walks towards the table.
Teo Blaze: I don’t have the luxury of fear. Every week is a threat, every single match could be the difference between being a champion and a has-been. For all of your smoke, mirrors, and bullshit, for all of your talk of how dangerous, of how unstoppable you are?
You’ve spent the better part of your return picking your spots. Every single win you’ve had, (not counting a desperation roll-up against the punchline that was Lovely Watanabe) has been over a veteran in a downward spiral, like the poor Night Rider, or someone too green to be able to sniff out just how full of crap you are, like James Wolf.
But me? I’ve been fighting actual wolves. Alex Richards, Kennedy Matthews, even someone like John McCarthy turns into a bona fide killer when faced with the potential of being a champion.
The reason I’ve been champion for over a month now, when so many have let this belt slip away in their first defense? It’s not because I’m bigger, because I’m badder, because I’m scarier than anyone else on this roster.
Teo Blaze is not a predator.
But he is a survivor.
And guess what, Vince?
A survivor is a hundred times worse.
What can you do to me that Dune has not? That Richards has not? That John Rabid has not!? I came back from being thrown through a sound stage to defend my belt, and that’s just my most recent accomplishment! What about you? You pick on little boys and chihuahuas and call it a metaphor! You take pride in the fact that you can unnerve the innocent, that you can prey on the emotions of those who don’t know any better. You are a bully, a coward, and you have a reckoning coming, you smug son of a bitch! You can act as crazy as you want, you can pick as many easy targets to intimidate as you want, you can bring all the fear that you want to our match this week!
As soon as Teo speaks, his hand rips out like a lightning bolt. In a motion so fast that it can barely be caught by the camera, he snatches the Television Championship from the bear trap. With a horrifying SNAP, the jaws slam shut, barely missing his flesh as he holds the belt. As he breathes heavily, he looks directly into the camera, a grin slowly spreading across his face as he looks at the gold.
Teo del Sol: Fuck fear.
Fear is for those who don’t know any better.
And with that, Teo slings the Television championship over his shoulder, and turns away, whistling as the camera slowly pans over the deadly iron jaws of the now closed bear trap.
