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 Pride Without Prejudice

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Kenzie Rydell




Posts : 3
Join date : 2016-07-15

Pride Without Prejudice Empty
PostSubject: Pride Without Prejudice   Pride Without Prejudice I_icon_minitimeSun Jul 24, 2016 8:11 pm


PRIDE WITHOUT PREJUDICE


__________

"When did wrestling change?" Kenzie Rydell stood firmly in front of The Trench's signature red wall. It was a room specially designed with promos in mind, the aucustics expertly adjusted to make sure voices were loud and clear without any background noises. Brushing the hair out of her eyes, she continued. "When did wrestling become all about sophomoric insults and attention seeking? What happened to actually walking down the isle and backing it up in the ring?"

"When I first came on the scene in October, I was signed to Inferno Wrestling. One of the biggest blights of my whole career happened when I fought a man known as Joey Miles in the middle of that ring and lost to a move he called the 'boobplex.'"

"Before that match, I should mention that we weren't unfriendly towards one another on social media. We cracked jokes, talked to each other, and I even named him one of the most exciting upcoming talents when he signed an Inferno contract." Fists clenched at her sides.

"Of course, in my inexperience, when I saw his name on the card, I smiled. 'This is it,' I told myself. 'Me versus my buddy Joey Miles! It's time to show that crowd what we can do. The winner earns bragging rights, and maybe afterward, we can hang out, eat some pizza, give each other pointers. It'll be great.'"

"I wished him good luck with a smile, prepared myself, and then it happened. And once it was over, I realized that wrestling was just a glorified extension of high school in its purest sense."

"Not only did he criticize me for losing, but he took the time to openly mock the size of my breasts," she muttered. "The fact that I even have to acknowledge that at all is a testament to the kind of manchild I'm dealing with right now."

"Congratulations, Joey. You wasted my time," she added, looking directly into the camera.

"And to show that he's desperate for attention and plagued with the mind of a perpetually horny teenager held back a couple years," she continued her speech, looking straight into the lens with her arms crossed over her chest. "you need to know there was even a long stretch of time where all he did was tell me - in various colorful languages and mediums on social media - that I should kill myself."

The previously red wall behind her suddenly bursts to life. A wave of white ellipses the red, quickly moving south to cover the whole entire wall. Standing to the side, Kenzie watches as a pie chart labeled 'What The Public Knows About Me' pops into existence. In real time, sections were carved into the circle, a black line separating each one. On the upper left-hand corner, the key resides. Two squares pop up. One is pink and striped while the other is a dull dark gray color.

"Do you see that pink sliver?" It filled approximately 8% of the circle. "That's the percentage people on the internet know about me. And considering the fact that I've never spoken to Joey in real life, he knows - at most - that much about me."

"Frankly, his comments don't even bother me anymore. They're just words, attention seeking phrases that expect me to feel bad," she nodded, the chart still beside her. "I learned recently that comparing myself to other people, spending my whole life obsessing over proving people like Joey Miles wrong about me isn't the way I want to live my life. It's not worth a second thought. He's just saying whatever he thinks he should say to get my attention, to get other people's attention, that's the facts. And who knows? Maybe he's telling the truth, but do I care about how much he supposedly hates me worse than anything else? No."

"You can't please everyone. You can't be everyone's friend. You try to do that, you're lying to yourself and then you just look like a fool afterward," she noted, remembering something Ashleigh Jericho told her. "The fact is, I don't know Joey Miles. I may know what he gives us in his videos and on Twiter, but am I ever going to know what the man is truly like? No. There's a chance he could be a thoughtful, kind-hearted dreamer just beyond that hard outer shell, but I'll never get to see it. The only people who see the real man are the people in his life, his real friends, his family. Not me."

"See, the trick is, you have to stop comparing yourself to other people and start comparing yourself to your own standard," she explained the best she could for anyone watching. "You have to look at your life and objectively see what you're doing right now and say, 'hm. Have I gotten better? Am I where I want to be in life?'"

"Let me back up a little bit," she took a deep breath, looking down at her shoes and then the camera. "I own up to what happened at NGW City Of Sin. I had the chance to earn myself two championship belts on the same night and I had a breakdown."

"My dad's a drinker," she acknowledged, the pink section of the graph almost comedically growing to 8.5%. "I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't be like that, wouldn't drink until... Well, you saw it first hand, I'm sure. It was a mess, but I own up to it. I accept that that was the lowest night of my whole career thus far, but when I think about it now, it taught me something."

"The whole reason I had the meltdown in the first place was because I was trying to be something I wasn't. I held myself up to the standard that I needed to keep all my opinions and thoughts inside, that I needed to be everyone's friend. I relied on Spencer, Gavin, Ashleigh, Adam, Corey, Shelley, Ally, Kaden, my family..." Her voice trailed away, her eyes looking down towards her Sketchers, flickering back into the camera. "No offense to any of them, but I needed to rely on myself instead. And that makes me stronger than I've ever been."

Pausing, she thought for a second. She lost her train of thought. That is until she boarded another.

"That's something you taught me, Joey. I spent all that time trying to be your friend when it really wasn't even worth it," she smirked, finally focused again. For the first time in a long time, she was brimming with confidence. Looking beside her, the wall showed a sideways profile shot of Joey Miles' face. With a soft fade transition, his face turned into a silhouette. From there, it showed what hid beneath the skin, his skull cut open in the illustration to show a cartoonist's representation of his brain. It was the size of a peanut, hanging lopsided onto the brainstem by a thread.

"I don't care if you like me or not, Joey," she laughed at the sight of the picture beside her, giving Spencer a subtle thumbs up for his drawing ability. "The fact is, nothing you have to say matters to me anymore. You're just one guy in a world of nearly 8 billion. You're just a vehicle for the insults that come my way, a metaphor embodied. You're an obstacle, something I've been struggling to get past for months, but now you're hardly even a threat."

"This isn't a match, it's a test. It's a test to see if I can overcome other people like you, that I can take all those insults right on the chin and fight back," she grinned. "I'm the strongest I've ever been, and if I can beat you, fair and square in that Reverence ring, that proves it and that's a weight off my shoulders."

"And let me get something else clear," she smirked. "When I beat you, I don't really expect you to stop insulting me. I'm sure you'll find a way to twist it and keep making fun of me no matter what the conclusion. So I'm not asking for your respect. I don't want your respect. I just want to kick your ass and prove a point."

"So, I ask you. When did wrestling change?" she repeated, a bookend reminder of the beginning. "It's a race to see who can insult who the best without a conscience. And in that war, you'd win. But in a wrestling match? Considering the only thing you've ever done that's even been remotely memorable is win a gold ring in HKW while I've been the second longest holder of the NGW Five Lakes Championship in just my rookie year..."

"It looks like I win," she grinned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Oh, and Joey? Good luck."

With that, the YouTube video came to an end. In the suggestions, Joey Miles recent rant was an option as well as some other excellant Revergence promos from the likes of Blyss and Gavin.

__________

"That sure was adequate," a stranger spoke up, ice cold blue eyes boring into Kenzie from just outside the camera shot. Flinching, Kenzie's eyes flickered towards the woman with a lithe body and pale flawless skin. Her jet black hair shined and her face was caked with dark makeup, eyes smokey, lips black. Tall. She had a certain natural presence about her, an aura that couldn't be put into words. Why did she look so familiar?

"Adequate? How much did you see?" Kenzie didn't know whether to be proud if this mystery woman had high standards or to feel insulted.

"Enough," she gave an almost black widow-like smirk, controlling the room. Spencer took his headphones off and left the laptop behind, choosing to tower over the two instead.

"Kenzie, this is Coda. She's one of The Trench's best and brightest acquisitions," he introduced. That's when it clicked. Coda? The crowd was chanting when she made it to Spencer's office earlier that day - Coda! Coda! Coda! Kenzie's eyes widened.

"Coda, you know—"

"Save your breath," Coda interrupted Spencer, already knowing Kenzie fairly well from simply watching her cut that promo tonight. Reaching forward, her gloved hand reached towards Kenzie for a handshake. Hesitating, she looked to Spencer for a reaction as if to say 'could I trust her?' He just shot her a smile. That was all she needed to know.

"Hey," she nervously chuckled, shaking Coda's cold hand until the raven-haired vixen pulled it away.

"Give me a favor," Coda began, her voice slightly monotone, an almost miserable inflection mixed with an unyielding confidence. "What you said, about once wanting to be everyone's friend. Don't. Be yourself. Don't be afraid to piss people off."

"I- I will. I mean, I won't. I—"

"I know what you meant," she helped Kenzie, her unique way of talking making her almost sound smug about it. Turning to leave the room, Kenzie stopped her.

"Hey... Hey, you saw what I said, didn't you? Do you think... Do you think I can win?"

Looking over her shoulder, she only had one answer.

"Do you?"

Gone, Kenzie watched as Spencer followed, heading back to his office. Standing alone, Kenzie was left to think for herself, looking up at the ceiling above.

"... Yes. Yes, I know I can win," she finally realized, smiling wide and running out that same door herself.

__________


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