Post by Danielle Basch on Sept 9, 2017 16:22:49 GMT -5
Basch Residence
Carlsbad, CA
Thursday, September 7, 2017
The faint beam of light shooting forth from the projector shines an image onto the main screen dominating the far wall. Ominous music plays over the speakers as the screen shows a little boy following a little paper boat as it floats along the gutter, until it falls into a storm drain. An eerie voice calls out to the boy, beckoning him to join him in the sewer’s abyssal depths.
And when you’re down here with me, you’ll float, too!
Voice: Cerberus, pause video...
A deep computerized male voice responds.
”Cerberus”: Pausing video...
The screen freezes, and the brief flash of a large diamond can be seen as the camera pulls back to reveal the slender arm of a woman holding a smartphone in her left hand, the screen of which displays the familiar pause symbol. She sets the phone down, drumming her fingers against the armrest of the black leather armchair... one of several that sit in rows of three throughout the room. The walls, which just a second ago had been booming with the deep, eerie voice of Pennywise the Clown, now echo with the familiar sound of Danni LeBlanc’s laughter as she stands up, turning so that she stands at an angle, her face turning first to the screen and then into the camera.
Danni: Well, here we are, in just one of the many rooms that make up the humble abode that I share with my husband-to-be. Forgive me for not giving you the grand tour, but I’m afraid that will have to wait for another time. You see, I was deep into a Stephen King movie marathon, and I had just started getting comfy after popping in the original version of IT when you caught up to me. But since you’re here, I suppose a break is in order.
Now, I suppose you were expecting me to be skulking around, grumbling over the fact that once again, I’ve come within fingertips’ reach of championship gold, only to be denied for the umpteenth time. But, I’ve waited for a year to be put into championship contention; a little bit longer won’t kill me.
And you know what they say about “that which does not kill me...”
A confident smile graces Danni’s face as she stares defiantly into the camera with her hands on her hips.
Danni: Anyway, I find myself in yet again an interesting situation. On one side of the card, we have the three top superstars in the South Bay division, including the champion. Three friends whose bond has been forged both in and out of the ring... against three guys whose agenda is... well, let’s just say it’s nothing new to me. And they’ve taken up the most ironic moniker for their little group imaginable...
The Messiahs.
She rolls her eyes, a sneer of annoyance peppered with disgust pulls her lip upward, baring her teeth.
Danni: In one of those extremely rare moments, I actually find myself agreeing with Julianna DiMaria. We’re dealing with a bunch of goons that are so fucking boring that I get a bigger thrill listening to Ben Stein narrating a documentary on grass.
You call yourselves the Messiahs, but yet you seek not the salvation of the ones you claim to want to “save,” but the destruction of anything and everything around you. Sounds awfully counterproductive, if you ask me. But hey, if you want to “rule” over a kingdom of rubble, then more power to you. Except for the fact that I’ve dealt with people like you before.
It seems like not so long ago when I stood across the ring from another man that claimed to be beyond mortal... a man that liked to call himself “The Monarch of Mayhem,” and “The Deity of Destruction,” along with countless other annoying alliterations.
She pauses, raising an eyebrow as she smirks into the camera.
Danni: See what I did there?
She giggles a little bit before continuing, slowly walking up the aisle past the other two rows of chairs.
Danni: And just like you, he vowed to take the very figure that stands before you right now, and break my bones, spill my blood, and shatter my very soul. And just like you vowed to my fiancé at Unscripted, this so-called “god among men” vowed to alter the very essence of my being and end my career.
Well guess what... not only am I still standing, but I proved that that so-called “deity” was nothing more than just a man... just like the three of you. And just like him, the three of you will fall.
You see, this cause of yours, the one you tout every time you stand in front of a camera, it means fuck all to me. You’re not gods, you’re not even monsters; you’re just a bunch of creeps with a god complex that are in denial of the fact that they’re nowhere near as intimidating as they make themselves out to be. You stand there, and you play your little mind games, expecting to get under people’s skins, when in reality, all you’re doing is making your little group look like a bunch of fools. You say you want to destroy everyone on the roster, but to be honest, the only thing I see you guys destroying is the nearest buffet.
She smirks as she walks away from the chairs in front of the movie screen, behind the counter of a built-in bar. She ducks down, only to pop back up with a frosted beer mug and a tub of vanilla ice cream.
Danni: Go ahead, boys; blather on about how my looks and my good fortune mean nothing to you; keep telling yourselves that the only thing that matters is pain and destruction; shout out until you’re blue in the face about your precious little cause. Hell, you can even talk about writing your names in my blood. I’ve already handled worse than you could ever throw at me and I’ve come out of it unscathed. Death itself couldn’t break my spirit; what makes you think you’ll fare any better?
Actually, I’ve got a little cause of my own, and that’s to take my foot and stick it straight up your collective asses. You see, the one thing that pisses me off is when people come into this business with the idea that they can just walk over everyone in the company and head straight to the top. You talk about dominating the WCG Tag Team scene... please! How can you call it dominating when there were only two established tag teams, and one of those teams got promoted to Redemption? Perhaps that’s the problem... you see the only tag team in West Coast Genesis aside from you head up to the main roster, so you make up this bullshit about them being on the verge of destroying each other off in some corner of oblivion to mask your own jealousy; jealousy over the fact that they got the call-up before you did.
With an ice cream scoop, Danni drops a couple of scoops of vanilla into the mug, then turns around to place the mug under the spigot of a soda fountain. Pushing on the handle, she fills the vessel with the caramel colored beverage before stepping back out from behind the counter.
Danni: All I hear from you is how “one by one, all will fall for the cause,” blah, blah, blah, and it’s seriously getting old. No one’s buying it because honestly, no one gives a flying fuck, least of all, me! You want to hurt me? Bring it, bitches, because I can dish it out just as easily as I can take it, and I frankly don’t care how much you nutjobs outweigh me. At the last Road Show, it still took TWO of you to pin me, but at the end of the day, all it takes is three seconds. That’s all Ruby, Austen and myself will need to show you that there’s truth to the old adage...
She walks back to where she was sitting, stopping in the aisle beside her chair. She carefully raises the mug to her lips, slurping off a bit of the foam at the top.
Danni: “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
She giggles again as she sits back down in her chair, once again picking up her smartphone. But before she does anything with it, she looks up over her shoulder.
Danni: I’m sure you can see yourselves out.
Danni waves her hand in a dismissive gesture as the camera crew slowly start to pull back, but not before Danni once again lifts her smartphone until it’s a short distance away from her face.
Danni: Cerberus, resume video.
”Cerberus”: Resuming video....
Danni sets her phone back down, settling in to resume watching her movie as the scene fades out.