PROMO: "Footnote."

[Guest Fire and Knives]

PROMO: “Footnote.”

 

 

 

Flesher, for his part, is shaking off the impact of his clean loss to Fasaki. The belt is covered with his blood after he was dropped onto it, but Mak Francis offers him a hand. Flesher stands up, still shaken, but clasps Mak’s hand. He pointedly looks down at Francis’ hand and pumps it, giving him a respectful handshake and mouthing, “Thanks.”

 

The crowd cheers, and Flesher and Francis stay in the ring for a moment, but as SWF Lockdown fades out, the last thing we see is the SWF World Title belt…

 

stained with the blood of Tom Flesher at the hands of Ejiro Fasaki. It is, it seems, only a matter of time.

 

===

SWF Lockdown. December 5, 2003.

© White Apple Productions. All rights reserved.

The Smarks Wrestling Federation: “Raising Workrate by Typing Faster.”

 

 

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The VCR clicks, whirs, and ejects the tape; the television flickers and dies. Nathaniel Kibagami sits alone on the bed of a shabby studio apartment – and for a painfully long moment, he sits in total silence.

 

The show goes on without him, of course. The show always goes on, no matter who is injured or sick or crippled or dying. The performers are replaced, and the show itself remains the same. It’s been months since he appeared at an SWF event. It’s been months since he worked out, wrestled, even spoken to someone in the front office. He was only released from the hospital a month ago. He hasn’t left his apartment in two weeks.

 

He’s put on at least twenty pounds in those months - one of the hardest men in the federation finally going soft around the edges. He reacts a little slower, he speaks a little softer. There used to be flames in his eyes, a terrible fire that made everyone around him tread a little lighter. Now he stares at nothing for hours at a time – empty, vacant. Like a man who is drowning and simply cannot bring himself to swim.

 

The steroids are gone, but the painkillers are still keeping him going. He has enough money to keep himself medicated for a long time. What happens after that…well, he’s never considered it. The pills make more than one problem disappear.

 

Stevens sent his termination letter in the mail – treated him like a rookie that hadn’t put in a good enough tryout match. There was no mention of his dismissal on television – he was simply gone. An antique, a footnote, a loss that was cut without a second thought. He wanted to get angry, he wanted to tear things apart – but he didn’t. He drank more, he slept more, he took another set of pills, and everything seemed to go away.

 

Everything has gone away, in fact. Angel is gone, Yuuichiro is gone, Edwin is gone. The SWF is gone, and the Clan is gone. The trenchcoat, the Demonstar, the chants, the hate, the fear...even the cane is gone, discarded along the way.

 

Silent is gone, and so is Nathaniel Kibagami – one more casualty of the wrestling business, people think. But there is more to it than that; more to it than Phoenix or Jessica or Edwin or all of them together. Somewhere along the way, he lost everything but hate, and now he doesn’t even have that.

 

The pills will kill him eventually, or maybe the drinking. Maybe both of them together – he isn’t very careful. He’s not trying to kill himself, but he’s not trying to live his life anymore, either. Nathaniel Kibagami is a very empty man, and as he stares at the blank black screen, one wonders what it is he sees. Maybe he’s reminiscing about his career. Maybe he misses the few friends he’d found along the way. Maybe he’s thinking about another pill or another beer or maybe he’s about to fall asleep. Maybe he simply wishes that none of this had ever happened.

 

And maybe he thinks to himself late at night that he has spent everything he had to give of himself, and despite that, James Canterbury is still walking.

 

Maybe he wonders if he spilled his blood for anything at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe he wonders, just a little, what salvation really means.

 

END PROMO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrath can return to joy.

Rancor can return to delight.

An extinguished state cannot return to existence.

The dead cannot return to life.

 

-Chapter Twelve of the Sun-Tzu.

[the.weej 0]

I figured it was Kibagami's long-delayed farewell promo. Nuts. Guess this means I don't get to cash in on the "Silent's Return" pool.

 

Solid as always, if short, but what's to be expected? I liked the 3rd person narrative, which is something I don't recall ever really seeing in a promo. At least, left as the only part of the promo, anyway. A much better final contribution to the SWF than a chat topic, methinks.

 

-Z

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

omg i was in this nice work homez

[Crowe 0]

Cry.

[Thoth 0]

Wow.

 

To think it would end like this.

[Above Average 0]

Good idea.

 

Silent is left with nothing but the pain. He doesn't even have the hate anymore. It would be tradgic if he didn't try to kill, in the words of Chris Raynor, Edwin Mac-Fucking-Phisto.

 

Color me impressed.

[5_moves_of_doom 0]

Sad endings rule.