Post by Jack of Blades on May 10, 2006 16:06:43 GMT -5
Tyler Hale vehicle pulled through the estate skimming past high-rise houses and privileged children playing together in their over-sized gardens. It was a surreal experience to drive in this area of New York. Jack had specifically asked to be situated here saying that he would make his own way to Philadelphia. The WCF had found him a high-rise mansion-esque construction past the city and typical suburbs. It was as if they had transplanted a portion of California into the abrupt and smoky place that is New York. They had originally attempted to settle Jack at some avant-garde apartment in the city where presumably he could plan his machinations and idle away his hours until his next booking. But the wrestler had turned this down and proposed his abode as being Hollywood-esque. The board eventually agreed to go along with this as an attempt to placate their new signing in the hope that this would be the only set of demands. It was later worked out that Jack was just testing the ramifications of his actions on the board and the extents they were willing to go to in an attempt to secure his services.
Tyler Hale looked at his inbuilt monitor of the laptop and confirmed the complete sum. It had cost the WCF $2.4 Million to entice Jack of Blades to sign to the company. This was not including the $800,000 fee that would make up Blades’ annual wage. A star of Jack’s calibre would have brought half that but due to management’s insistency; he managed to secure a much healthier sum. Then there was the request of housing which was problematic in that Jack had a ‘fine sense of taste.’ The stipulations that Jack placed upon the search were great and extrodinarily stern in their flexibility. He ended up with a four-acre space where a four-storey house was situated. Its construction was a combination of neo-tech utility and architectural orgasm. That had cost half of the $2.4 million. Along with this Jack demanded a reasonable space in which to construct a television programme. This had completely surprised Tyler Hale and his associates. The negotiators suggested that Jack used the facilities intrinsic to WCF but he was not having any of it. Thankfully, the company managed to find a redundant cleared-out factory the size of several military hangars at an extremely cheap price due to the fluctuating economy. They purchased it and it was thought that they should keep it to themselves but a ‘higher authority’ reprimanded their selfishness and handed it over to Jack of Blades. They also furbished the space with Jack’s demands and purchased $100,000 worth of vehicles to pre-empt Jack’s lifestyle. These vehicles would become more of a whimsy than a necessity in Jack’s existence and by extension the board thought of this as a waste. This brought his total up to $2,000,000 and combined with Jack’s $400,000 fee, the board were extorted by a simple ‘puroresu’ who was meant to be nothing more than an undercard performer. But the investors always treated Jack of Blades’ hiring as a high priority.
And now, they were regretting the decision. As Tyler Hale’s vehicle drove into Jack’s drive after being allowed through the gates, he looked at his purpose for being at the home of Jack of Blades. The investors had brought three complaints against Blades to the attention of the company that catalysed their action against him. Firstly and most pressingly, Jack’s challenge to Kikyo Daioh had caused a titanic stir amongst the owners. Although her father had not passed comment on Jack of Blades, the higher-ups were flustered by the risk of losing someone of his stature. Secondly, their had been numerous complaints about Jack of Blades’ persona. One audient complained that his character was too ambiguous in that one day he would be a sinister mastermind and on the next show, an excitable trickster. Another stated that his character was just too heavy for a wrestling show with him spouting philosophy and providing convoluted parables. But the most common complaint was that he was not based around the adolescent audience in that many could not care about philosophy or sociological satire. Tyler Hale had been sent to request that Jack tone down these traits somewhat. He thought about this mission as he looked once more at his laptop and re-examined the facts. It was true that the shirt issued without Jack’s concert by the marketing side was this month’s top seller. However, the higher-ups used this fact as evidence for the argument. Marketing stated that the people who had purchased the top were overwhelmingly teenagers of twenty-somethings. They knew this through a series of customer surveys and the fact that most of the cards used to purchase the shirts had the buyers name on it as opposed to a parent or a greater fiscally responsible relation. The third and final complaint was the one that Tyler Hale predicted would go down the least with Jack of Blades. They wanted the feud with Ellis to stop. Jack’s fixation and Ellis’ irritation had both gone too far. Admittedly it was Ellis who had last drawn her opponent’s blood, literally in this case, but going to her was useless. The fact that Kikyo was her manager with all those connections made it impossible to truly get through to Ellis. Besides, Jack was seemingly the more articulate participant if the least rational. Maybe Tyler Hale could inspire debate with him.
The car stopped as it ascended Jack’s drive. Tyler Hale finished his coffee as his bored driver removed himself from the car to open the door for his passenger. Tyler Hale left the vehicle without sharing a pleasantry to the driver as he considered the requests put forward by the board. The first task of securing Kikyo’s safety at ‘Timebomb’ was originally going to be a simple one. Although Jack’s announcement shocked at first, the WCF eventually came to its senses realising that legally Jack could not construct the match. Firstly, Kikyo was not signed as a wrestler and thus would have to sign a temporary contract to actually have the match. Secondly, Kikyo had financial and legal support from her father’s business to keep her safe from any competition in the ring. And thirdly, Kikyo was underage to actually wrestle in the state and thus Jack cannot organise what he wanted. When the board realised this, they laid back and jovially discussed their golfing trip. That was until the coffeeboy who was busy sharing out donuts between his employees asked that if ‘Jack was so diabolical, so despicable in his head, then won’t he just attack Kikyo whether he’s allowed to or not?’ A hush came over the board before they dismissed the boy and shared their worries for his actions. Quotes like ‘In this country there are no laws or boundaries’ did nothing to qualm the board’s concerns. All this led to Tyler Hale knocking on the doors of Jack of Blades.
The first knock caused the white varnished door to slide open but missing the creak akin to any horror movie. Tyler Hale stepped inside to be greeted by two dogs circling his feet. Tyler Hale had not been told that Jack of Blades had dogs and thus tried to shoo them away before he gave up and began to call for Jack of Blades. Well, Tyler Hale began to call for ‘Blades’, ‘Jack’ and ‘Mr Blades.’ He was unsure of what to call him. Although Tyler Hale was technically at a higher position in the company than Jack, he was careful not to anger the Television champion with the belief that he would soon surpass him in terms of worth to the company. Tyler Hale had been told not to refer to him by his birth name of ‘Jack B. Nolan’ as had been warned by the original recipient of his task who had rung Tyler Hale from a local hospital. After a few calls for Jack, Tyler Hale became fully aware of the constant whispering coming from upstairs. Tyler Hale knew that this was not produced by conversation but was mechanical in its construction. Tyler Hale begun to move up the stairs as it become more and more obvious that the source of this interruption was the stream of water from a showerhead.
Tyler Hale followed the marble floor leading to the second floor bathroom and tentatively knocked to see if Jack of Blades was washing the bruises away from Slam. Like his previous effort of knocking at doors, this too slid open as stream rushed to meet the nasal passages of Tyler Hale. A few splutters later, and Tyler Hale called once again to no response. Tyler Hale was forced to perforate the vapour as he made out a figure standing in the ornate shower. Thoughts of the board came to Tyler Hale’s mind as he was close to revealing a WCF wrestler in his consummate glory. Tyler Hale’s disturbed the settled cloud on the patterned glass of the shower door as he drew it forward. For this one second in time, Tyler Hale was Norman Bates not Jack of Blades. But before Tyler Hale could massacre Jack of Blades’ Janet Leigh, Tyler Hale was shocked to find a plastic manikin showering.
Regaining his composure at Jack’s sense of humour, Tyler Hale resigned to going back to the headquarters and claiming that Jack was uncooperative. But as he went down the stairs and passed the room with the large indent where Italian silk furniture was situated, Tyler Hale noticed a figure on the furthest sofa cradling a fashionable cane between his index and central finger. Tyler Hale approached the figure and offered his card.
Tyler Hale: Uh, I’m Tyler, Tyler Hale from the WCF. I’m here to, well…my card.
The man on the sofa offered the same luxury.
Tyler Hale flipped the card over to find that it was a playing card. A Jack playing card. The figure ascended from his stationary positioned and moved over to Tyler Hale acknowledging his presence and reason for being within his abode. He signalled that they move upstairs before he leant on the banister barricading Tyler Hale’s movement. The figure removed a remote control from his jacket pocket and pointed at the stairs causing them to uncontrollably emit a high pitched screech. It was later revealed that this signalled a stair lift which the figure perched himself on and zoomed off upstairs chuckling. It became obvious to Tyler Hale that this person was Jack of Blades.
Tyler Hale followed the mode of transport and then the swaggering Jack to an office where Jack of Blades slumps onto a leather office chair, switches on a music player that produces some crescendo of Italian descent and kicks a wooden antique towards Tyler Hale in the plea that he joins him. Tyler Hale does so bringing his laptop and briefcase close to his chest as he felt a sharp pain rupture his rump cheek. Tyler Hale begins to describe his reason for approaching Jack and the fact that certain people had sent him there in the belief that Jack had gone too far.
Jack of Blades: Have you met the big bad Daioh, then?
Tyler Hale said that he had. Tyler Hale lied. He had not been allowed near to Daioh. His senior had told him that he did not what his patheticness to spread. Tyler Hale knew that patheticness was not even a word. Tyler Hale continued to explain his reasoning behind confronting Jack of Blades even though Tyler Hale knew he was doing it for Tyler Hale’s benefit. Jack of Blades was not listening to a word he was saying instead enjoying a cigar that was given to him as a complimentary gift for signing with the company. He had offered one to Tyler Hale but Tyler Hale had kindly refused. As Jack of Blades smoked his cigar, Tyler Hale noticed his jacket sleeve career down his arm revealing a bleach bandage. A possible sign of Ellis attack and a definite conclusion that this war between the two of them had to end. This drove Tyler Hale onto his next point. He confronted Jack about being more child-orientated to the expected response.
Jack of Blades: So, you’re idea of hiring child-situated wrestlers was to hire a anorexic self-harmer, a drunk whore, an idiot savant manager, a former gambler, a religious zealot and a should-be asylum inmate in Moi? Heck, the only wrestler who could be considered child-friendly is Biggs. Plus, with JJ Kids bringing a crack addict into the mix it seems your plans haven’t exactly gone the way you wanted, now?
Tyler Hale nodded in his head in appreciation of Jack’s opinion. As he did so, Tyler Hale’s head felt heavy. Tyler Hale’s eyesight was dreary and Tyler Hale’s spatial awareness was disturbed as Jack’s face blended with the magazine in front of him. Tyler Hale rose from his chair as the pain retracted itself from his buttock. He slurred his head to face the chair and noted the bloody butt of a hypodermic needle protruding from its skin. Tyler Hale placed his hands down his trousers and to his rear before bringing them up again as he watched his newly-red digits fall to the ground with Tyler Hale’s head soon to follow.
Tyler Hale looked at his inbuilt monitor of the laptop and confirmed the complete sum. It had cost the WCF $2.4 Million to entice Jack of Blades to sign to the company. This was not including the $800,000 fee that would make up Blades’ annual wage. A star of Jack’s calibre would have brought half that but due to management’s insistency; he managed to secure a much healthier sum. Then there was the request of housing which was problematic in that Jack had a ‘fine sense of taste.’ The stipulations that Jack placed upon the search were great and extrodinarily stern in their flexibility. He ended up with a four-acre space where a four-storey house was situated. Its construction was a combination of neo-tech utility and architectural orgasm. That had cost half of the $2.4 million. Along with this Jack demanded a reasonable space in which to construct a television programme. This had completely surprised Tyler Hale and his associates. The negotiators suggested that Jack used the facilities intrinsic to WCF but he was not having any of it. Thankfully, the company managed to find a redundant cleared-out factory the size of several military hangars at an extremely cheap price due to the fluctuating economy. They purchased it and it was thought that they should keep it to themselves but a ‘higher authority’ reprimanded their selfishness and handed it over to Jack of Blades. They also furbished the space with Jack’s demands and purchased $100,000 worth of vehicles to pre-empt Jack’s lifestyle. These vehicles would become more of a whimsy than a necessity in Jack’s existence and by extension the board thought of this as a waste. This brought his total up to $2,000,000 and combined with Jack’s $400,000 fee, the board were extorted by a simple ‘puroresu’ who was meant to be nothing more than an undercard performer. But the investors always treated Jack of Blades’ hiring as a high priority.
And now, they were regretting the decision. As Tyler Hale’s vehicle drove into Jack’s drive after being allowed through the gates, he looked at his purpose for being at the home of Jack of Blades. The investors had brought three complaints against Blades to the attention of the company that catalysed their action against him. Firstly and most pressingly, Jack’s challenge to Kikyo Daioh had caused a titanic stir amongst the owners. Although her father had not passed comment on Jack of Blades, the higher-ups were flustered by the risk of losing someone of his stature. Secondly, their had been numerous complaints about Jack of Blades’ persona. One audient complained that his character was too ambiguous in that one day he would be a sinister mastermind and on the next show, an excitable trickster. Another stated that his character was just too heavy for a wrestling show with him spouting philosophy and providing convoluted parables. But the most common complaint was that he was not based around the adolescent audience in that many could not care about philosophy or sociological satire. Tyler Hale had been sent to request that Jack tone down these traits somewhat. He thought about this mission as he looked once more at his laptop and re-examined the facts. It was true that the shirt issued without Jack’s concert by the marketing side was this month’s top seller. However, the higher-ups used this fact as evidence for the argument. Marketing stated that the people who had purchased the top were overwhelmingly teenagers of twenty-somethings. They knew this through a series of customer surveys and the fact that most of the cards used to purchase the shirts had the buyers name on it as opposed to a parent or a greater fiscally responsible relation. The third and final complaint was the one that Tyler Hale predicted would go down the least with Jack of Blades. They wanted the feud with Ellis to stop. Jack’s fixation and Ellis’ irritation had both gone too far. Admittedly it was Ellis who had last drawn her opponent’s blood, literally in this case, but going to her was useless. The fact that Kikyo was her manager with all those connections made it impossible to truly get through to Ellis. Besides, Jack was seemingly the more articulate participant if the least rational. Maybe Tyler Hale could inspire debate with him.
The car stopped as it ascended Jack’s drive. Tyler Hale finished his coffee as his bored driver removed himself from the car to open the door for his passenger. Tyler Hale left the vehicle without sharing a pleasantry to the driver as he considered the requests put forward by the board. The first task of securing Kikyo’s safety at ‘Timebomb’ was originally going to be a simple one. Although Jack’s announcement shocked at first, the WCF eventually came to its senses realising that legally Jack could not construct the match. Firstly, Kikyo was not signed as a wrestler and thus would have to sign a temporary contract to actually have the match. Secondly, Kikyo had financial and legal support from her father’s business to keep her safe from any competition in the ring. And thirdly, Kikyo was underage to actually wrestle in the state and thus Jack cannot organise what he wanted. When the board realised this, they laid back and jovially discussed their golfing trip. That was until the coffeeboy who was busy sharing out donuts between his employees asked that if ‘Jack was so diabolical, so despicable in his head, then won’t he just attack Kikyo whether he’s allowed to or not?’ A hush came over the board before they dismissed the boy and shared their worries for his actions. Quotes like ‘In this country there are no laws or boundaries’ did nothing to qualm the board’s concerns. All this led to Tyler Hale knocking on the doors of Jack of Blades.
The first knock caused the white varnished door to slide open but missing the creak akin to any horror movie. Tyler Hale stepped inside to be greeted by two dogs circling his feet. Tyler Hale had not been told that Jack of Blades had dogs and thus tried to shoo them away before he gave up and began to call for Jack of Blades. Well, Tyler Hale began to call for ‘Blades’, ‘Jack’ and ‘Mr Blades.’ He was unsure of what to call him. Although Tyler Hale was technically at a higher position in the company than Jack, he was careful not to anger the Television champion with the belief that he would soon surpass him in terms of worth to the company. Tyler Hale had been told not to refer to him by his birth name of ‘Jack B. Nolan’ as had been warned by the original recipient of his task who had rung Tyler Hale from a local hospital. After a few calls for Jack, Tyler Hale became fully aware of the constant whispering coming from upstairs. Tyler Hale knew that this was not produced by conversation but was mechanical in its construction. Tyler Hale begun to move up the stairs as it become more and more obvious that the source of this interruption was the stream of water from a showerhead.
Tyler Hale followed the marble floor leading to the second floor bathroom and tentatively knocked to see if Jack of Blades was washing the bruises away from Slam. Like his previous effort of knocking at doors, this too slid open as stream rushed to meet the nasal passages of Tyler Hale. A few splutters later, and Tyler Hale called once again to no response. Tyler Hale was forced to perforate the vapour as he made out a figure standing in the ornate shower. Thoughts of the board came to Tyler Hale’s mind as he was close to revealing a WCF wrestler in his consummate glory. Tyler Hale’s disturbed the settled cloud on the patterned glass of the shower door as he drew it forward. For this one second in time, Tyler Hale was Norman Bates not Jack of Blades. But before Tyler Hale could massacre Jack of Blades’ Janet Leigh, Tyler Hale was shocked to find a plastic manikin showering.
Regaining his composure at Jack’s sense of humour, Tyler Hale resigned to going back to the headquarters and claiming that Jack was uncooperative. But as he went down the stairs and passed the room with the large indent where Italian silk furniture was situated, Tyler Hale noticed a figure on the furthest sofa cradling a fashionable cane between his index and central finger. Tyler Hale approached the figure and offered his card.
Tyler Hale: Uh, I’m Tyler, Tyler Hale from the WCF. I’m here to, well…my card.
The man on the sofa offered the same luxury.
Tyler Hale flipped the card over to find that it was a playing card. A Jack playing card. The figure ascended from his stationary positioned and moved over to Tyler Hale acknowledging his presence and reason for being within his abode. He signalled that they move upstairs before he leant on the banister barricading Tyler Hale’s movement. The figure removed a remote control from his jacket pocket and pointed at the stairs causing them to uncontrollably emit a high pitched screech. It was later revealed that this signalled a stair lift which the figure perched himself on and zoomed off upstairs chuckling. It became obvious to Tyler Hale that this person was Jack of Blades.
Tyler Hale followed the mode of transport and then the swaggering Jack to an office where Jack of Blades slumps onto a leather office chair, switches on a music player that produces some crescendo of Italian descent and kicks a wooden antique towards Tyler Hale in the plea that he joins him. Tyler Hale does so bringing his laptop and briefcase close to his chest as he felt a sharp pain rupture his rump cheek. Tyler Hale begins to describe his reason for approaching Jack and the fact that certain people had sent him there in the belief that Jack had gone too far.
Jack of Blades: Have you met the big bad Daioh, then?
Tyler Hale said that he had. Tyler Hale lied. He had not been allowed near to Daioh. His senior had told him that he did not what his patheticness to spread. Tyler Hale knew that patheticness was not even a word. Tyler Hale continued to explain his reasoning behind confronting Jack of Blades even though Tyler Hale knew he was doing it for Tyler Hale’s benefit. Jack of Blades was not listening to a word he was saying instead enjoying a cigar that was given to him as a complimentary gift for signing with the company. He had offered one to Tyler Hale but Tyler Hale had kindly refused. As Jack of Blades smoked his cigar, Tyler Hale noticed his jacket sleeve career down his arm revealing a bleach bandage. A possible sign of Ellis attack and a definite conclusion that this war between the two of them had to end. This drove Tyler Hale onto his next point. He confronted Jack about being more child-orientated to the expected response.
Jack of Blades: So, you’re idea of hiring child-situated wrestlers was to hire a anorexic self-harmer, a drunk whore, an idiot savant manager, a former gambler, a religious zealot and a should-be asylum inmate in Moi? Heck, the only wrestler who could be considered child-friendly is Biggs. Plus, with JJ Kids bringing a crack addict into the mix it seems your plans haven’t exactly gone the way you wanted, now?
Tyler Hale nodded in his head in appreciation of Jack’s opinion. As he did so, Tyler Hale’s head felt heavy. Tyler Hale’s eyesight was dreary and Tyler Hale’s spatial awareness was disturbed as Jack’s face blended with the magazine in front of him. Tyler Hale rose from his chair as the pain retracted itself from his buttock. He slurred his head to face the chair and noted the bloody butt of a hypodermic needle protruding from its skin. Tyler Hale placed his hands down his trousers and to his rear before bringing them up again as he watched his newly-red digits fall to the ground with Tyler Hale’s head soon to follow.
