Post by Aurora Graves on Apr 6, 2017 20:43:08 GMT -5
Time-Out Sports Bar & Grill
Las Vegas, NV
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Damon: Rack ‘em up, Harley...
Aurora looked across the table at her husband, smirking as she placed the rack on the pool table’s green felted surface. Two at a time, she loaded the balls into the triangular frame, then slid it into position as Damon stood in wait on the opposite end of the table, pool cue in hand. As Aurora removed the rack, she stepped back, trading the rack for a pool cue of her own.
Aurora: Break those balls, babe!
Damon paused, staring at Aurora with a slight grimace on his face. She giggled, knowing full well that her words had a rather brutal double meaning.
Damon: Did you really have to phrase it like that?
Aurora: Just shut the hell up and break, already!
Damon: Here goes....
The cue ball collided with the other balls, sending all 15 clattering across the felt. A single ball, labeled with the number 13, rolled into the corner pocket, prompting a nod from Aurora.
Damon: Guess I’m stripes, then.
Aurora: Take your next shot, Puddin’.
He looked at the table; he could bank off of the far side and sink the 12 ball into the side pocket, or he could take a straight shot at sinking the 15 ball into the opposite corner. With a wicked grin on his face, he positioned himself where he could properly line up his shot, took aim, and sent the 12 ball into the pocket.
Aurora: Showoff...
Damon: Welp... looks like I get another shot.
Once again, Damon scanned the table, looking for any and all possibilities. As he studied the layout of the balls, a Redemption camera crew entered the bar, approaching their direction. The Redemption Tag Team Champions watched them set up their equipment around the pool table, with Aurora shaking her head.
Damon: Well, so much for date night....
Aurora: Don’t worry... you can go back to hustling me after they leave, Mr. “I Suck at Pool”.
Damon scoffed as he stood back from the table with his fingers wrapped around the pool cue, staring at the camera as the crew began to film....
Aurora stood beside her husband, leaning against the edge of the pool table, her long, red-tipped fingers wrapped lightly around her pool cue as she stared into the camera. Damon fixed his eyes onto his wife, smiling as “Roses” by Outkast began to play over the bar’s sound system.
Damon: Ooh... talk about timing! I love this song!
Aurora: Alright, so our first title defense didn’t exactly go the way we would have liked. Hardly an auspicious beginning to our second reign as the Redemption Tag Team Champions, I know. But that doesn’t matter, because the fact remains that Damon and I – Rebel Ink – remain the reigning Redemption Tag Team Champions, and if we have anything to say about it, that’s the way it’s going to be for a VERY long time! So, with our last match behind us, the only thing we can do is pick up and move on; on to our next set of challengers.
Now, this is where things get interesting. This go around, we will be standing across the ring from both the current New Generation Champion, Caroline O’hara Burchill, and the former champ, Martin Karloff. But it’s not the people themselves that make it interesting – oh, no. It’s the fact that Caroline is notorious for not playing well with others, while Martin... well, let’s just say I’m sure he’d rather be going after her to get his title back, not teaming up with her. But hey, why turn up a chance to compete for a title, eh?
Damon: ♪Caroline,
See she's the reason for the word
Bitch!
I hope she's speeding on the way to the club
Tryna hurry up to get to some baller or singer or somebody like that
And try to put on her make up in the mirror
And crash, crash
Crash into a ditch♪
Aurora had to put a hand over her mouth to keep from bursting into a fit of laughter as Damon continued to sing all the way to the chorus. Once he realized Aurora was staring at him – and the camera was still rolling – he shrugged his shoulders, a smug expression on his face.
Damon: What?
Aurora sighed, shaking her head. After a moment, she tapped Damon on the shoulder.
Aurora: I’m suddenly reminded of an old joke my Dad used to tell me when I was little. Why is a queen’s wand called a scepter?
Damon rolled his eyes at the corny joke, but nodded his head, indicating a mild willingness to play along.
Damon: I don’t know, Harley... why IS a queen’s wand called a scepter?
Aurora: Because everyone works, except her! But yeah, getting back to the matter at hand, Caroline likes to call herself a queen, but this isn’t the first time she’s had to stand across the ring from us. And as I recall, you didn’t want to bother getting your hands dirty then, so you skipped out, throwing your partner to the proverbial wolves, and ran away with your tail between your legs. Well, now what the hell are you going to do? You gonna pull that same shit with Karloff? Leave him twisting in the wind to get the shit kicked out of him while you run off and look for someone to lick the sock lint from between your toes?
Or are you actually going to get off your ass and actually DO something besides bitch and moan about how you hate having to share the ring with anyone? You know what? It doesn’t really matter, because either way, there’s no way in hell you’ll be walking out of Milwaukee with double gold, not when the gold you’re chasing after belongs to Rebel Ink. You might as well just stick to trying to hold on to that belt you do have, before someone comes along and takes THAT from you, as well.
Aurora shot a sly smile into the camera as she nodded her head as Damon started to walk toward the bar.
Aurora: Where are you going?
Damon: Gonna order us a couple of beers; I don’t know about you, but I’m thirsty!
She shrugged, then gave Damon an approving nod as he walked away. She then turned back to the camera, a huge smile on her face as she clapped her hands together.
Aurora: Oh... hi there, Martin! We haven’t spoken since that time I faced you one on one. You know, that match where you only won because I got counted out. This time, you’re stepping into OUR domain, and with my husband in my corner, I can guarantee you that things are going to turn out differently than they did last time. But the way I see it, as I look at the other side of this little shindig, you might as well be coming into this match 3 on one, since that bitch you’re being forced to team with would probably rather rip your head off than have to tag you in. There’s a small part of me that feels genuinely bad for the hand you’ve just been dealt, but that’s about as far as that goes. You’ve been in the ring with me before; you know I’m not the type to show mercy or pity in the ring.
You know, I’m not surprised in the least that the New Generation Championship is around someone else’s waist right now, because lately, your performance in the ring has been a bit... well, lacking. Maybe that’s why you had to settle for a countout win against me, because you knew that the only way you’d be able to survive with your pride intact would be if you could keep me out of the ring. Congrats on that, by the way, but this next time will NOT be so easy. This time, I know exactly what you’re capable of, and I’ll be more than ready for whatever you can throw at me. And with you having to look over your shoulder, wondering not if – but WHEN – your so-called “partner” is going to throw your ass under the bus, I know you won’t have your head fully in the game. Pity, really. You had promise at the beginning, but slowly and surely, your armor has started to crack, and we can see bits of the human beneath the shell of the “monster” you portray yourself to be.
She shook her head.
Aurora: I know Damon and I said we would take on all comers when it came to defending our titles, but I certainly hope that this isn’t going to be a habit – slapping together volatile tandems and tossing them in our direction. Damon and I want REAL competition, from REAL teams that actually know what the fuck they’re doing and can actually function as a team, not a couple of selfish fuckheads who would sooner fight each other than fight the people on the other side of the ring.
Damon and I are prime examples of what happens when the members of a tag team can’t get on the same page. That’s the same thing that cost us these titles before, but we fixed that problem, and we’re not about to give up these titles without one hell of a fight. But if the team that’s facing us was never on the same page to begin with, how in the hell do they expect to stand even the slightest chance of beating us?
Simply put, they don’t.
She smirked into the camera, her eyebrow arched as she shook her head one last time. The camera slowly zoomed in on her face as the scene faded to black.
As the camera crew began to pack up their equipment, Damon returned from the bar with two bottles of Deschutes Obsidian Stout. He handed one of them to Aurora, smiling as they clinked bottles. He watched as the crew filed out of the bar, a bit of a pout on his face as he followed them out the door with his eyes.
Damon: Aww, man... and I had a few more jokes to crack.
Aurora: Maybe next time, Puddin’. Anyway, where were we?
Damon: I believe I had sunk two balls, and was about to score a third...
Aurora: We’ll see about that, mister....
Damon set his beer down on a small round table a few feet behind them, then grabbed his cue and took aim at the cue ball. He crouched down so that the table was near eye level, then took his shot. The cue ball bounced off of one side, then another, then a third, before finally colliding with the 11 ball. The red-striped ball rolled toward the side pocket, inching ever so slowly toward the mouth of the opening, only to stop just short of falling in. Damon stepped back from the table, his mouth hanging open in shock. Aurora simply took a drink from her beer and smiled.
Aurora: Looks like your luck just ran out, Puddin’....
Damon said nothing, but scrunched up his face in response to his wife’s wisecrack.
Aurora: I believe it’s MY turn now...
Damon took a seat at a chair by the table as he watched Aurora line up her first shot....
