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Off Camera
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I truly
despise and detest Thanksgiving. So many
ignorant people with smiles on their faces and visions of stuffing their guts
with an assortment of food, all coming up to me and in a cheery, sing-song
voice, sounding out the too-familiar “Happy Thanksgiving, Sophie!”
What’s so
damn happy about it? Everyone speaks of
being with family but all of mine is dead save my brother Mark and his
meddlesome girlfriend Ashley Murray. The
food is of no consequence to me. I do
not need nor do I care to indulge myself like a gleeful glutton. And I damn sure do not have any desire to
watch American football.
The worst
thing about this is how the Americans treat this damnable feast. They shove it in our face as if it is a
holiday to be proud of and yet the truth of the history behind it is far more
menacing. Contrary to what generations
of American students have been taught, the background behind the first
Thanksgiving meal between colonists and native Americans were not peaches and
cream. Pilgrims and natives did not just
look past their differences to break bread.
The Wampanoag tribe saw in the Pilgrims, a group of Europeans armed to the
teeth with English weaponry, including guns, strong allies to help them fend
off their rival tribe, the Narragansett.
Thus the
friendly feast of Native and Pilgrim wasn’t a happy time of putting aside
cultural differences to break bread. It
was an alliance of politics and war. And
what happened to the Native Americans in this alliance?
Betrayal. Their friends, the Europeans, would
eventually betray them. If they weren’t
being massacred they were having their land taken from them, slowly but surely,
inch by bloody inch. Once the Natives
had outlived their usefulness, the new Americans would eventually wipe out the
Native American culture and Native American way of life.
That is the
true meaning of the first Thanksgiving.
It is one of the lessons of war.
Use everything and anything, or anyone, to their fullest extent, and
once that individual has outlived his or her usefulness, get rid of them. It is a beautiful lesson, if I do say so
myself.
So why would
I hate Thanksgiving so much? It is
because the message of Thanksgiving is lost on the idiotic dolts running the
world today. They would rather sweep it
under the rug and pretend that history doesn’t exist. The world, and Americans in particular, do
not want to recognize that part of history because it ultimately proves me
right. It proves my point about
humanity.
Humanity is
fallen, it is ultimately dark and evil, just like me. Anyone who tries to prove otherwise is just
fooling themselves. That is what
Thanksgiving means to me.
“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”
It’s just
moronic troglodytes like my brother, Mark O’Brian, who continue to drive my
stress level up into the outer atmosphere and continue to make me detest this
wretched holiday with his dumb little gags.
I had been sitting quietly at a nice mahogany desk in the study of his
and his girlfriend Ashley’s house, preparing strategy for what could very well
be a long night on the next Breakdown, when I heard that gobbling coming from
the hallway. Mark pretending to be
turkey is bad enough, but therein lies the greater problem…
…that did
not sound like Mark.
“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”
The gobbling
continues as I watch the door. It
becomes evident that whatever it is now stands outside of the study. I watch as the door is pushed open and Mark
walks into the room carrying a turkey…
…a live damn
turkey.
Immediately
I shoot up out of the chair I had been sitting in and stare daggers across the
room at my brother.
“What in the name of sanity are you doing?!”
I point to the turkey. “What the hell is
that?!”
“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”
“It’s our new pet turkey!” Mark declares
with a sense of pride etched across his face. “Her name is Ravyn.”
“No.
Just no…” I shake my head vehemently.
“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”
“Shut the damn thing up before I shut it up!”
I exclaim.
“She’s very vocal today.” My idiot
brother winks at me. “I think she likes
you.”
“I do not like it.” I sigh and shake my
head with disbelief written across my face. “This
isn’t happening. This isn’t true…”
“Yeah, it’s true!” He insists as he
brings “Ravyn” closer to me. “This is our
pet turkey. Ravyn, meet Sophie!”
I glare
angrily at the bird. “I’m going to eat
you or one of your friends in a few days.”
“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”
“That’s not nice!” He jerks the turkey
away from me quickly. “You scared her!”
“It’s a turkey, you oaf!” I exclaim.
“But she has feelings!” He looks down
sympathetically at the bird. “It’s ok,
Ravyn. She doesn’t mean it.”
“You are an idiot, Mark, and I am going to
tell you why, because there are several things wrong with this.”
I hold up
one finger. “First of all, you named that
damn thing after my opponent on Breakdown.”
I step away
from the desk and menacingly approach Mark his turkey, all the while holding up
a second finger. “Second, that’s a turkey…not
a raven…”
“Yeah, and…?”
“You don’t see what’s wrong with this?”
I roll my eyes. “Bloody hell, Mark, it’s
like naming a dog ‘Cat’ or naming your pet cat ‘Dog’.”
“Yeah, but Ravyn Taylor isn’t a raven
either.”
“That’s not the point, you Neanderthal.”
I smack him in the back of his head. “And
that brings me to point number three…”
I touch the
bird, “Ravyn”, on its beak. “Turkeys are
meant for eating. Not meant for having
as pets.”
“You honestly think that?”
“I know it, Mark.”
Mark sighs
and gazes sadly down at “Ravyn”. “Sophie
isn’t in a good mood today, Ravyn. You
should probably run along and find mommy.”
“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”
Mark sets
the turkey down and it quickly waddles away, bolting out of the room. I gaze back up at Mark and shake my head with
utter disgust.
“Mommy?” I blink my eyes with some
confusion. “Ashley?”
“Yeah…” he nods his head “…Ashley.”
“Bloody hell…” I shake my head “…you’re really going to let that thing run
rampant in your house?”
“Well, yeah,” he chuckles “it is my house after all. I can do what I want.”
“True enough.” I nod my head in
agreement. He has a point on that one, as
much as I hate to admit it and despite thinking that he is an idiot.
A sigh
escapes my lips as I slowly walk back towards the mahogany desk. I sit down in the chair and lean back and
relax. Mark approaches the desk,
watching me closely. He tilts his head
to one side and studies me closely.
“You ok, Sophie?”
“Am I ok?” I ask somewhat incredulously
as I sit back up straight and stare at my brother intensely. “This is one of the holidays I hate most,
not to mention the fact that very soon I will have to walk through the very
fires of hell if I want to leave Breakdown as the SCW Television Champion. I’m a little stressed, Mark. So no…I’m not ok…”
“Listen to me for a second, ok?”
Mark sits
down on the edge of the mahogany desk. I
look at the desk and then back at him with a frown on my face.
“Get off of the desk, Mark.”
“Sorry.” He jumps up off of the desk. “Anyway, just listen to me for a
second. You are the absolute best pure
wrestler in the world today. I don’t
care about Ravyn Taylor’s reputation. I
don’t give a damn what she’s done in the past.
She hasn’t dealt with anyone like you before and the one time she did
she couldn’t get the job done. Now here’s
your second chance.”
“That’s the thing, Mark, it shouldn’t
require a second chance. If I really am
as good as you say I am then I should’ve beaten Ravyn the first time we fought.”
But there was outside interference.” My
brother, God bless his soul, counters in a vain attempt to make me feel better.
“The best military strategists in the world
never made excuses. Sun Tzu, William
Tecumseh Sherman, Genghis Kahn, Julius Caesar, none of them had to make excuses
because they just got the job done. But
me? The great Sophie O’Brian?” I
shake my head with disgust and disappointment in myself. “I couldn’t get the job done because of outside interference.”
“But she also didn’t beat you.” He
counters. “He never pinned you and he
never made you submit.”
“It doesn’t matter!” I exclaim, banging
my hands on the desk loudly. “It’s still
an excuse at the end of the day. And
saying that she never beat me is just grasping at straws in an attempt to save
face. I graduated from the Braddock
Wrestling School, trained by the greatest wrestler that ever lived, Glenn
Braddock, and I learned everything from him.
I am supposed to be the heir to the Braddock Wrestling Legacy and yet I
couldn’t get the job done against Ravyn one on one?”
“No, Sophie, you’re looking at this all
wrong.” Mark shakes his head incredulously. “You’re setting your standards too high. You seem to think that you need to be perfect
but no one is perfect. You just need to
do the best you can.”
“Right, well the best I could do clearly
wasn’t enough the last time I fought Ravyn.
And now I fight her again and sure, maybe this time I can beat her, but
if I do successfully take the title from her I have to turn around that same
night and defend against Jake Starr because the bloody bastard invoked his
trios contract and wants to face all the champions? How can I…”
I sigh and
drop my head onto the desk “…how can I do
this, Mark?”
“Because, Sophie…” he pats me on the
back “…you are the best in the world.”
“I’m glad you think so, Mark.” I sit up
and look him dead in the eyes. “I’m not
as certain about that any longer.”
“Confidence, Sophie. That’s all you need. Confidence.”
I gaze at
him with a somewhat curious look, curious as to why he is doing all of this,
curious as to why he is saying all of this to me. It just doesn’t make sense. None of this makes any sense.
“Mark, may I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Why are you being nice to me?” I ask
plainly.
“Well, you are my sister so that’s part of
it I guess.”
“Oh come on you doofus,” I snap back at
him “I am mean to you, I am nasty to you,
I insult you, and yet you’re always so uplifting and kind to me. It makes no sense to me.”
“Oh yeah…well, I kinda figure that you don’t
mean any of it…”
“How do you know that I don’t mean any of
those things say about you?” I ask with a smirk.
“I’m just assuming you don’t because I’m
your brother. Siblings gotta stick
together, y’know? Besides, even if you
did mean it, I’d still love ya. Normal
human beings are like that, you know?”
“Yes, well, I am not a normal human being
and we both know this.”
At this time
the door to the study opens yet again.
Mark and I turn around to find we are now being greeted by the arrival
of Mark’s girlfriend, Ashley Murray.
Mark immediately gets this puppy-eyed gleam in his eye as he hops up and
walks over to greet Ashley with an embrace.
“Hi, Ash!” He kisses her in a
sickeningly sweet manner on the lips.
“Hi there, Mark!” Ashley says in a
rather chipper tone, more chipper than usual for Ashley, which I find rather
odd. Why is she so damn happy? Especially considering there is a damn turkey
running around the house.
“Is Ravyn causing any problems, Ash?”
“If you mean your stupid turkey then no, he
isn’t causing any problems. I put him in
his room for the night before he could break anything.”
“Stupid turkey, eh?” I remark, arching a
brow and smirking at my brother. “I take
it you don’t like this Ravyn anymore than I do.”
“No, Sophie, I don’t.” Ashley sighs. “But if Mark wants another child, then by
all means, he can have another child I guess.”
Ok, now that
was an odd choice of words. “Another
child?”
“Yeah, another child.” Ashley frowns. “Didn’t he tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Ashley looks
at Mark. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”
“I wanted to wait until you were here so we could
tell her together.”
“Tell me what?!” I ask, my frustration
depleting by the second.
“Sophie…” her voice trails off for just
a moment “…how would you feel about being
an aunt to a sweet little niece or nephew?”
My eyes grow
wide as I take in the enormity of what she just suggested. “You mean…?”
“Yes!” She nods her head quickly and
excitedly. “Mark and I are having a baby!”
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On Camera
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The Army of
the Potomac and The Army of Northern Virginia would encounter one another several
times during the American Civil War. Now
the Army of Northern Virginia was led by a fierce commander, a famous military
strategist named Robert E. Lee. Many
thought Lee was unbeatable. Many thought
he was invincible. And that feeling of
invincibility was on display in the Civil War.
In the early stages of the war, the two forces met in the field of
combat in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In
that battle, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia beat and humiliated the
Union forces. The South proved to the
arrogant Union forces that this war would not be as easily won as they thought
it might.
Oh but
things would turn around rather quickly for the Union. One year later the same two armies would
clash in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and this time the Union nearly obliterated
the great Army of Northern Virginia, humiliating that once feared fighting
force and humiliating its leader, Robert E. Lee, proving to the world that this
commander was not as unbeatable as so many people thought. That invincible warrior, that invulnerable
fighter, was brought to his knees by the Union forces of George Meade.
I can
honestly say I felt the humbling feeling of Robert E. Lee felt after his loss
at Gettysburg. I was on top of the
world, a multi-time world champion, multi-time tag champion, and I prided
myself on being the ultimate strategist and one of the greatest technical
wrestlers in the game. I had the same
feeling of invincibility that Robert E. Lee felt when he marched into
Gettysburg and got stomped. I had that
same feeling of invincibility when I saw that I was facing Ravyn Taylor for the
SCW Television Championship.
I failed to
capture the championship, much like Lee failed to win at Gettysburg. Now I had excuses lined up, the primary one
being the fact that outside interference led to the match being thrown out. I even grasped at straws by claiming that
Ravyn never pinned me and never made me submit.
But I’ve since done some reflection and realized that those were just
excuses…and I was just grasping at straws…
…I also
realized that a great warrior must always be ready, willing, and able to change
and adapt to a new battlefield. In
warfare the battlefield never stays the same.
It’s always evolving, it’s always changing, and if you are not able to
adapt and evolve with it, then you will fail.
William
Tecumseh Sherman said, “Every attempt to
make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.”
Ravyn,
coming up on Breakdown you will not face the same Sophie O’Brian that you went
toe to toe with several weeks ago, the Sophie O’Brian who took you to the limit
and yet still failed to capture the Television Title. You will face a new
Sophie O’Brian, a Sophie O’Brian with a new focus and a new intensity. You will face a Sophie O’Brian who will throw
everything she has at you and will leave the battlefield bloody with carnage
and gore…
…your blood,
my carnage.
Breakdown
the tables will be turned. No longer
will I be playing the role of Lee being humbled and humiliated at Gettysburg,
but instead it will be you playing the role of Robert E. Lee, and it makes perfect
sense, does it not? The great Ravyn
Taylor, the invincible Ravyn Taylor, the supposedly unbeatable Ravyn Taylor,
brought to her knees and humbled by Sophie O’Brian.
Ah but this
war is unlike any other, for you definitely will be wrestling more than once in
one night and me, if I do manage to finally climb the great mountain and defeat
you for the SCW Television Championship, then I have to defend it one more time
that night against Jake Starr.
Jake, your
bravado is one to be admired. You truly
are shooting for the stars. You are
going to try to reach as high as you can and grab that brass ring. To put yourself in such a match, a true test
of endurance, is admirable.
While your
actions may be admirable, you still become my victim as soon as I defeat Ravyn
Taylor for the SCW Television Championship.
If you had any hopes or visions of facing Ravyn then cast them to the
side immediately, my friend. Ravyn will
be an afterthought after I am done with her.
And I refuse to have my championship taken from me the same night I won
it.
Just like
Sherman famously “made Georgia howl”, I will make Ravyn and Jake howl on
Breakdown as I cement myself as the newest and greatest SCW Television Champion
of all time.
