Post by MW on Oct 29, 2023 19:52:44 GMT -5
“Okay, is everything set?”
"I think so."
“Case of Butterfingers in the Champ’s corner?”
“Check.”
“Sugar-free treats in case Catalina wants to indulge her sweet tooth?”
“Check.”
“A big sign that says ‘Sorry about the Mix’ waiting for SEB to let him know that...well, the sign says it.”
“Check.”
“A Team Welsh championship belt for Dickie to make him feel more comfortable. The man isn’t used to being at these things without a giant championship belt, after all.”
“Check.”
“Okay...and pizza and punch to keep everyone happy?"
“Check.”
“Pepperoni pizza, right?”
“Uhh…”
Adi opens one of the pizza boxes.
“PINEAPPLE!”
“I thought you said Thad wanted pineapple!”
“I said he probably likes pineapple because, well, you know how often he does that thing he likes to do.”
“Oh...yea.”
“Hey, what’s going through your mind right now.’
“Nothing…” Adi opens another pizza box.
“MORE PINEAPPLE!”
“They all have pineapple.”
“This is our first official team meeting and you’re going to present them with pineapple pizza? They are going to think I’ve lost control of this entire operation. Throw them all away we’ll...I don’t know, give them some of those peanuts you bought.”
“No, no, I got this.”
Adi starts picking all the pineapple off each of the five pizzas.
“That’s going to take awhile.”
“I said I got this.”
Welsh watches. To her credit, she’s very quick and efficient at picking toppings off of pizza. Only problem...it leaves the pizzas looking a little...anemic.
“Oh right..’ Adi says flicking a piece of pineapple into the trash. “I jam packed your youtube playlist with some tunes. I assume we can all agree that a best of Blind Melon is the perfect music for us to all get to know each other.”
Adi begins laughing. “What if we hid behind the furniture.. And when they arrive we can spook them!” Welsh shakes his head ‘no’ as Adi nods’ “Yeah.. that’s a stupid idea. I was only kidding. UNLESS YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND! But other wise… stupid idea. So stupid…?”
“Yea, I don’t think scaring the shit out of them as our initial encounter is a great idea…I mean what if the champ messes her hair up?” Welsh tries to push the horrific images of Sahara having a bad hair day from his mind. His eyes wander over to Adi as she picks one piece of Pineapple off and throws it into the trash, picks another, and throws it into her mouth. “Are you about done?”
Without so much as a knock, the front door kicks open and Sahara Duke stands beneath the threshold looking about the room with her husband behind her. Head to toe, she's dressed to impress, and her hair is on point much to no surprise. She ever so slightly nods in approval at the sight of the box of Butterfingers before entering... and the moment she does, Welsh approaches with a freshly shaken slightly dirty vodka martini with a skewer of bleu cheese olives, just as he knows she likes it.
With a nod of approval she accepts the drink, taking a sip as she flashes a smile at Adi. “Superb, Mr. Welsh.” As she passes the abundance of cheese pizzas, she remarks, "No Hawaiian?" Which causes Adi's eyes to widen as she discreetly motions toward the trash where she threw all the pineapple. Welsh shakes his head, as he knows better than to feed the Champ trash. Adi quickly blurts out, “He told me to throw all the pineapple away!” before covering her mouth as Welsh shoots her a look.
Lauren’s eyes narrow as she looks about the empty room. Lifting her wrist, she looks at her watch...
"Am I seriously the first one here?"
“Early bird gets the worm, champ!” Welsh rushes over to place an extra cushion on a chair near the Butterfingers. “Take a seat, champ. We don’t want you to over exert yourself. Sit down, enjoy your drink and a few Butterfingers! And don’t be afraid to eye gouge Catalina if she makes a move for those delicious candies.”
Catalina Cortes stands in the open doorway, the hoodie on her hoodie pulled up and a checkerboard backpack over one shoulder. “Sup?” she says to nobody in particular as she skulks in and eyes the food spread, before eying Sahara, then Adi, then Welsh. She drags a chair to one wall and places it there so she can watch the whole room, then sets her backpack in her lap. Unzipping it and taking out a water bottle covered in Nintendo sticker. She takes a sip, then sniffs the room. “Why’s it smell all pineapple-y in here?”
Welsh sniffs and looks around, “It does smell like pineapple.” He turns his head to the side, “LEO!” Leo emerges, covered in filth. He’s been doing some of those ‘chores’ Welsh assigns on a daily basis. “Take out this trash! My gosh it’s like you live on the streets!”
Leo nods and heads for the trash can, “Ohh, pineapple.” He reaches in but Welsh slaps his hand. Leo frowns and struggles to yank the bag out.
Welsh heads over to Catalina. She looks up at him. “Okay, now, listen...I know we didn’t really see eye-to-eye last go around and I may have put a bounty on your knee…” he stops and looks down at the knee in question. Behind him we see Adi helping Leo try and pull the trash bag out of the can. “How’s it holding up, by the way?”
“Great, never better,” Cat grumbles.
“Never fear! Sebastian is here!” Came a loud voice from the doorway. Eyes turn towards the newcomer, who - surprisingly - is Sebastian Everett-Bryce.
“Oh hey Barry.” Says Lauren. Thad breaks out into a wide grin.
“Stop that.” Said Seb scornfully. It was a moment before everyone noticed that Seb was carrying both the Pro Wrestling Valor and UGWC World Heavyweight Championships over his shoulders.
“Do you take them everywhere?” Asked Thad.
“Only in rooms in which I wish to assert my dominance.” Said Seb quietly. “But to be honest, I thought I was going to get a pedicure and hoped these would encourage a discount.”
“You don’t need a discount.” Said Thad.
“It’s not about need, Thaddeus. It’s about want.” Said Seb. “Other than sex and steaks, everything's better when you pay less for it.”
“You’re a pig.” Said Lauren.
“Please, please!” Said Welsh, trying to ensure that there aren’t any hostilities.
“You don’t need to beg, I’ll sign whatever it is you want me to sign.” Said Seb.
“Uhm… This is Marcus.” Said Thad.
“Ahhh, Well, hello Marcus.” Said Seb, glancing up at Thad. “Is this some kind of charity event?”
“Marcus Welsh.” Said Thad. “You know, the guy who drafted you to be on his team… For the Strength Trials.”
“Ohhhhh Marcus!” Said Seb. “Pleasure for you to meet me.”
“And its a pleasure to meet you t… Wait…” Said Marcus. But Seb let go of his hand and immediately pulled out hand sanitizer. He turned on the spot and spotted Cat.
“Catalina.” Said Seb.
“Barry.” Said Cat.
“Stop that.” Said Seb, before shimmying his titles on his shoulders. “Ooooo pizza. Does anyone have any pineapple for this?”
Cat nodded. “I think they did, but then they un-pineappled it, even though the pineapple juice already soaked in. Probably a mind game or something.”
“Well whose moronic idea was that?” asked Seb, before turning his head away from Cat towards Thad. “It was Marvin wasn't it?”
“No, Marcus.” said Thad. Seb turned towards Marcus.
“I do apologise, Marvin. It appears that I erroneously blamed you for the Great Pineapple Debacle.” said Seb.
“No, THAT’S Marcus.” said Thad.
“Who is?” asked, Seb, looking around.
“THAT!” said Thad, pointing.
“No, that's Marvin.” said Seb. “Do keep up Thaddeus.”
“Thats fucking Marcus, Seb!” said Thad, with a wide grin on his face. “Marcus Welsh.”
“Then where’s Marvin gone?” asked Seb.
“There WAS no Mar…” Thad began, before exhaling slowly and turning to Lauren. “No wonder the two of you get along.”
“I resent that.” said Lauren. “I can barely stand him.”
“Liar.” said Seb with a smirk.
“Idiot.” said Lauren, but she too couldn't hide her smile.
“Okay, but seriously, who was Marvin?” asked Seb.
If you’re familiar with Marcus Welsh then you know by the look on his face he’s doing everything he can to not lose his shit. Teetering on the brink of rage, the fate of Team Welsh is temporarily saved by a loud crash.
Heads turn to spot Leo face down in a pile of discarded pineapple spilling out of a trash bag. Welsh smiles and throws a thumb in Leo’s direction, “That’s Marvin.”
“I’m Marcus Welsh, your team leader and it’s great to meet you, Mr. EB.” Adi is in the background helping Leo to his feet and regathering all the pineapple back into the bag.
“Now, listen before we continue with this amazing bit of team camaraderie…love the connection you all have, by the way…but before we let our guards down, I think it’d be important to discuss some very important matters before we head to Cambodia and begin the Trials.”
The door opens once more and Dickie Watson steps inside. He seems slightly agitated as he arrives, but looks at everyone congregated already and realizes that he’s more than likely the one that’s late. In his hand, he’s got an extremely tight grip on his phone.
“You’re late,” Lauren chides him, as she always did back when they wrestled in the same company. Dickie’s eye narrow for a second, before he raises a middle finger, to which Sahara laughs and shakes her head.
“It’s kinda my schtick. Looks like there’s pizza and…oh hey, Butterfingers. Looks like you went all out, Welsh.” He pauses, and then he frowns as he looks down at his phone. A text message lines up on his phone that essentially screams TRIAD ALERT. Instantly, every phone in the locker room goes off.
Welsh’s eyes bounce around. He begins to sweat. We freeze frame on his anxious face.
“And it was at this moment where it all fell apart for Marcus Welsh.”
A still image of Marcus Welsh pleading as Thad walks around, grabbing folded papers from each team member.
“The news of Welsh’s deal with Vhodka broke. The team, obviously perturbed over Welsh’s potential ‘link’ with Vhodka Black decided to hold a vote on whether or not they could trust Welsh moving forward.”
Another still of Welsh on his knees begging as all the votes are scattered on the floor with the members of Team Welsh, arms folded, staring down at him.
“It was 3-1. Nearly unanimous. One lone vote for Welsh. A vote that caused teammates to temporarily eye one another, questioning who cast the vote. The momentary bout with paranoia quickly subsided as a vote of no confidence was official and Welsh was ousted as team captain.”
A final still of Welsh being dragged away kicking and screaming while Leo is handed some wet naps to wipe himself off. Cat is placing a ‘Team Captain’ pin on his shirt.
“And in the end, once again, his selfish acts caught up with him. Marcus Welsh was removed as Team Captain and Leo was named as his replacement. But, is he a true replacement or merely a patsy? I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.”
“Let the Trials Begin!”
"I think so."
“Case of Butterfingers in the Champ’s corner?”
“Check.”
“Sugar-free treats in case Catalina wants to indulge her sweet tooth?”
“Check.”
“A big sign that says ‘Sorry about the Mix’ waiting for SEB to let him know that...well, the sign says it.”
“Check.”
“A Team Welsh championship belt for Dickie to make him feel more comfortable. The man isn’t used to being at these things without a giant championship belt, after all.”
“Check.”
“Okay...and pizza and punch to keep everyone happy?"
“Check.”
“Pepperoni pizza, right?”
“Uhh…”
Adi opens one of the pizza boxes.
“PINEAPPLE!”
“I thought you said Thad wanted pineapple!”
“I said he probably likes pineapple because, well, you know how often he does that thing he likes to do.”
“Oh...yea.”
“Hey, what’s going through your mind right now.’
“Nothing…” Adi opens another pizza box.
“MORE PINEAPPLE!”
“They all have pineapple.”
“This is our first official team meeting and you’re going to present them with pineapple pizza? They are going to think I’ve lost control of this entire operation. Throw them all away we’ll...I don’t know, give them some of those peanuts you bought.”
“No, no, I got this.”
Adi starts picking all the pineapple off each of the five pizzas.
“That’s going to take awhile.”
“I said I got this.”
Welsh watches. To her credit, she’s very quick and efficient at picking toppings off of pizza. Only problem...it leaves the pizzas looking a little...anemic.
“Oh right..’ Adi says flicking a piece of pineapple into the trash. “I jam packed your youtube playlist with some tunes. I assume we can all agree that a best of Blind Melon is the perfect music for us to all get to know each other.”
Adi begins laughing. “What if we hid behind the furniture.. And when they arrive we can spook them!” Welsh shakes his head ‘no’ as Adi nods’ “Yeah.. that’s a stupid idea. I was only kidding. UNLESS YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND! But other wise… stupid idea. So stupid…?”
“Yea, I don’t think scaring the shit out of them as our initial encounter is a great idea…I mean what if the champ messes her hair up?” Welsh tries to push the horrific images of Sahara having a bad hair day from his mind. His eyes wander over to Adi as she picks one piece of Pineapple off and throws it into the trash, picks another, and throws it into her mouth. “Are you about done?”
Without so much as a knock, the front door kicks open and Sahara Duke stands beneath the threshold looking about the room with her husband behind her. Head to toe, she's dressed to impress, and her hair is on point much to no surprise. She ever so slightly nods in approval at the sight of the box of Butterfingers before entering... and the moment she does, Welsh approaches with a freshly shaken slightly dirty vodka martini with a skewer of bleu cheese olives, just as he knows she likes it.
With a nod of approval she accepts the drink, taking a sip as she flashes a smile at Adi. “Superb, Mr. Welsh.” As she passes the abundance of cheese pizzas, she remarks, "No Hawaiian?" Which causes Adi's eyes to widen as she discreetly motions toward the trash where she threw all the pineapple. Welsh shakes his head, as he knows better than to feed the Champ trash. Adi quickly blurts out, “He told me to throw all the pineapple away!” before covering her mouth as Welsh shoots her a look.
Lauren’s eyes narrow as she looks about the empty room. Lifting her wrist, she looks at her watch...
"Am I seriously the first one here?"
“Early bird gets the worm, champ!” Welsh rushes over to place an extra cushion on a chair near the Butterfingers. “Take a seat, champ. We don’t want you to over exert yourself. Sit down, enjoy your drink and a few Butterfingers! And don’t be afraid to eye gouge Catalina if she makes a move for those delicious candies.”
Catalina Cortes stands in the open doorway, the hoodie on her hoodie pulled up and a checkerboard backpack over one shoulder. “Sup?” she says to nobody in particular as she skulks in and eyes the food spread, before eying Sahara, then Adi, then Welsh. She drags a chair to one wall and places it there so she can watch the whole room, then sets her backpack in her lap. Unzipping it and taking out a water bottle covered in Nintendo sticker. She takes a sip, then sniffs the room. “Why’s it smell all pineapple-y in here?”
Welsh sniffs and looks around, “It does smell like pineapple.” He turns his head to the side, “LEO!” Leo emerges, covered in filth. He’s been doing some of those ‘chores’ Welsh assigns on a daily basis. “Take out this trash! My gosh it’s like you live on the streets!”
Leo nods and heads for the trash can, “Ohh, pineapple.” He reaches in but Welsh slaps his hand. Leo frowns and struggles to yank the bag out.
Welsh heads over to Catalina. She looks up at him. “Okay, now, listen...I know we didn’t really see eye-to-eye last go around and I may have put a bounty on your knee…” he stops and looks down at the knee in question. Behind him we see Adi helping Leo try and pull the trash bag out of the can. “How’s it holding up, by the way?”
“Great, never better,” Cat grumbles.
“Never fear! Sebastian is here!” Came a loud voice from the doorway. Eyes turn towards the newcomer, who - surprisingly - is Sebastian Everett-Bryce.
“Oh hey Barry.” Says Lauren. Thad breaks out into a wide grin.
“Stop that.” Said Seb scornfully. It was a moment before everyone noticed that Seb was carrying both the Pro Wrestling Valor and UGWC World Heavyweight Championships over his shoulders.
“Do you take them everywhere?” Asked Thad.
“Only in rooms in which I wish to assert my dominance.” Said Seb quietly. “But to be honest, I thought I was going to get a pedicure and hoped these would encourage a discount.”
“You don’t need a discount.” Said Thad.
“It’s not about need, Thaddeus. It’s about want.” Said Seb. “Other than sex and steaks, everything's better when you pay less for it.”
“You’re a pig.” Said Lauren.
“Please, please!” Said Welsh, trying to ensure that there aren’t any hostilities.
“You don’t need to beg, I’ll sign whatever it is you want me to sign.” Said Seb.
“Uhm… This is Marcus.” Said Thad.
“Ahhh, Well, hello Marcus.” Said Seb, glancing up at Thad. “Is this some kind of charity event?”
“Marcus Welsh.” Said Thad. “You know, the guy who drafted you to be on his team… For the Strength Trials.”
“Ohhhhh Marcus!” Said Seb. “Pleasure for you to meet me.”
“And its a pleasure to meet you t… Wait…” Said Marcus. But Seb let go of his hand and immediately pulled out hand sanitizer. He turned on the spot and spotted Cat.
“Catalina.” Said Seb.
“Barry.” Said Cat.
“Stop that.” Said Seb, before shimmying his titles on his shoulders. “Ooooo pizza. Does anyone have any pineapple for this?”
Cat nodded. “I think they did, but then they un-pineappled it, even though the pineapple juice already soaked in. Probably a mind game or something.”
“Well whose moronic idea was that?” asked Seb, before turning his head away from Cat towards Thad. “It was Marvin wasn't it?”
“No, Marcus.” said Thad. Seb turned towards Marcus.
“I do apologise, Marvin. It appears that I erroneously blamed you for the Great Pineapple Debacle.” said Seb.
“No, THAT’S Marcus.” said Thad.
“Who is?” asked, Seb, looking around.
“THAT!” said Thad, pointing.
“No, that's Marvin.” said Seb. “Do keep up Thaddeus.”
“Thats fucking Marcus, Seb!” said Thad, with a wide grin on his face. “Marcus Welsh.”
“Then where’s Marvin gone?” asked Seb.
“There WAS no Mar…” Thad began, before exhaling slowly and turning to Lauren. “No wonder the two of you get along.”
“I resent that.” said Lauren. “I can barely stand him.”
“Liar.” said Seb with a smirk.
“Idiot.” said Lauren, but she too couldn't hide her smile.
“Okay, but seriously, who was Marvin?” asked Seb.
If you’re familiar with Marcus Welsh then you know by the look on his face he’s doing everything he can to not lose his shit. Teetering on the brink of rage, the fate of Team Welsh is temporarily saved by a loud crash.
Heads turn to spot Leo face down in a pile of discarded pineapple spilling out of a trash bag. Welsh smiles and throws a thumb in Leo’s direction, “That’s Marvin.”
“I’m Marcus Welsh, your team leader and it’s great to meet you, Mr. EB.” Adi is in the background helping Leo to his feet and regathering all the pineapple back into the bag.
“Now, listen before we continue with this amazing bit of team camaraderie…love the connection you all have, by the way…but before we let our guards down, I think it’d be important to discuss some very important matters before we head to Cambodia and begin the Trials.”
The door opens once more and Dickie Watson steps inside. He seems slightly agitated as he arrives, but looks at everyone congregated already and realizes that he’s more than likely the one that’s late. In his hand, he’s got an extremely tight grip on his phone.
“You’re late,” Lauren chides him, as she always did back when they wrestled in the same company. Dickie’s eye narrow for a second, before he raises a middle finger, to which Sahara laughs and shakes her head.
“It’s kinda my schtick. Looks like there’s pizza and…oh hey, Butterfingers. Looks like you went all out, Welsh.” He pauses, and then he frowns as he looks down at his phone. A text message lines up on his phone that essentially screams TRIAD ALERT. Instantly, every phone in the locker room goes off.
Welsh’s eyes bounce around. He begins to sweat. We freeze frame on his anxious face.
“And it was at this moment where it all fell apart for Marcus Welsh.”
A still image of Marcus Welsh pleading as Thad walks around, grabbing folded papers from each team member.
“The news of Welsh’s deal with Vhodka broke. The team, obviously perturbed over Welsh’s potential ‘link’ with Vhodka Black decided to hold a vote on whether or not they could trust Welsh moving forward.”
Another still of Welsh on his knees begging as all the votes are scattered on the floor with the members of Team Welsh, arms folded, staring down at him.
“It was 3-1. Nearly unanimous. One lone vote for Welsh. A vote that caused teammates to temporarily eye one another, questioning who cast the vote. The momentary bout with paranoia quickly subsided as a vote of no confidence was official and Welsh was ousted as team captain.”
A final still of Welsh being dragged away kicking and screaming while Leo is handed some wet naps to wipe himself off. Cat is placing a ‘Team Captain’ pin on his shirt.
“And in the end, once again, his selfish acts caught up with him. Marcus Welsh was removed as Team Captain and Leo was named as his replacement. But, is he a true replacement or merely a patsy? I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.”
“Let the Trials Begin!”