Christmas Past
Dec 18, 2014 11:12:33 GMT -5
Post by Yun Goeun on Dec 18, 2014 11:12:33 GMT -5
"Where the hell is this place?" Tomoko says to her self, as she looks down at her phone for a second, then up to try to find what street she was on. It was pretty cold out and she did not dress the warmest, so she was getting a bit annoyed that RJ picked such an out of the way bar to meet up at. Tomoko looked up and down the street she was on, for a New York City street at near peak hours it was pretty deserted, which weirded her out a bit.
She was almost expecting to get mugged like any minute as she walked down the street. According to the map route on her phone it should be around here, but yet she still had problems locating the building.
"Jesus RJ, could you have picked a more out of the way bar? Is it in some assholes basement?" she says aloud again, as she walks past a group of homeless people. She debates on asking them where the bar is, but before she gives it a second thought one of them asks her something.
"Spare money for the poor, fine lady? Its quite cold out." the guy asks her.
"I'm sorry, I'm pretty broke right now." she lies.
"Sorry to bother you, Merry Christmas." the homeless man says.
"Merry Christmas? Bah! What is so merry about it? The cold? The fact that every one of you people feel the need to come up to me and SAY Merry Christmas? The nonstop shitty music? Just what is SO merry about Christmas? Just an excuse to part hard workers from their money." she snaps at the man then starts heading back down the street.
"What ever happened to you, Tomoko?" a voice came from behind her.
She stopped in her tracks and turned to the homeless group, raising her voice almost at once "How the fuck do you people know who I am?" she stares daggers at them, all of whom look confused.
"Over here, yo." the voice says again, coming from behind her again. She turns around to find a familiar figure standing before her, a child. Standing in front of her was what looked to be an 11 year old girl, her long hair pulled into pig tails and wearing what appears to be kitty cat pajamas. "It is far to cold out for that outfit." was the first thing she thought to her self.
"How do you know me?" Tomoko says to the little girl, "Are you a fan? Look, I'm flattered but I am in a bit of a hurry." she says to the girl.
"You are always in a hurry, Tomoko." the girl says to her with a smile. "What happened to you?" she asks again, kind of giving Tomoko chills as she speaks.
"... Listen I don't have time for this, go home your parents are probably worried about you." Tomoko says to the girl and she walks past her. But just as she passes the girl, the girl grabs Tomoko's hand. Almost at once an icy chill runs through Tomoko's body, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. The homeless people near by are giving her weird looks.
"Hey, are you alright, ma'am?" one of the guys asks her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she says in response to the homeless man. "I'm just talking to this little girl, listen I'm very busy. Could you see this girl home?" Tomoko says, turning to the homeless man, fishing for her wallet.
"What girl?" the guy asks, sounding very confused.
Tomoko turns to look at the little girl next to her, who is smiling at her. Tomoko points to her and the man just shrugs. "Listen, there is no one there. Are you sure you are alright? There is a great clinic down the..." he starts to say, but gets cut off by Tomoko.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she says, walking off with out a second glance back at the guy or the little girl. The little girl smiles and walks after Tomoko, matching her stride pace for pace. Tomoko seems very un-bothered by this, but she was getting far too used to talking to people who were not there.
"So, who are you?" Tomoko says to the girl.
"You don't remember?" the girl says in response.
"Should I?" she responds coldly, still walking down the street, she will only come to realize it in a few minutes but she just walked past the bar she was set to meet Dante and RJ at...
"Considering I am dead because of you, yes." the little girl smiles up at Tomoko, who looks down at her in shock.
"Well, that is a new one... It has been too long, Aya. You are looking good, not as big of a smile on your face as the last time I saw you though. I believe it was ear to ear..." she laughs to her self at this. The girl before her does not though. She smiles a bit though in return to Tomoko.
"You are not afraid of me?" the girl asks Tomoko, looking a bit shocked.
"Should I be?" Tomoko responds cooly, stopping in her tracks to look at the girl now.
"Most people who see ghosts are." the girl responds.
"Ghost? That is a new one for even me." she says with a huge smile on her face, this seems to amuse her a great deal...
"You doubt what you see?" The little girl asks Tomoko, who waves her hand in response to her kind of dismissing the question.
"I always doubt what I see. Incase you did not know, killing you kind of left me a bit... fractured. I see things all the time, what makes you any different? I listen to music that reminds me of my childhood, and boom I see something. I smell something that makes me think about ANYTHING and I suddenly see MORE things. I eat a bit of bad sushi and I have whole conversations with intimate objects... You may be a bit of undigested beef, a blob of mustard, a crumb of cheese. Yes. There's more gravy than grave about you." she says with a sarcastic smile on her face.
"So be it, but I will not be the last ghost you see this night. I stand by what I asked earlier, what happened to you, Tomoko?" the girl asks again.
"What a FUCKING joke?! What happened to me!? YOU HAPPEND TO ME! You, your fucking friends, your little crew happened to me. Every FUCKING day I would go to school, you would throw things at me, trip me, call me names. I never had more than a handful of friends because no one wanted to be friends with me because of what you fucking... what YOU did to me." she yells at the little girl, almost on the top of her lungs, feeling the blood rush through her veins as she yells.
"Look what my choices in life got me... But you have let one moment of your life define you. I'm not angry with you Tomoko, I never have been. I got what I deserved, that is my chain to bear now. But you, look at you. You have become a monster, you were such a kind, and gentle kid when I knew you. That is why we targeted you, you were so easy. But now, you are no better then me... Take heed Tomoko, or my chain will soon become yours also..." the little girl says as she suddenly vanishes before Tomoko's eyes.
Tomoko shakes it off, having been through this many times in her life. "I've become a monster? Perhaps I have, Aya..." she says as she turns from the spot the girl was and looks down at her cell phone, realizing she passed the bar. She smacks her head couple of times then turns around and heads to the bar trying her best to shake off what just happened...
~~~~~~~~~~
Tomoko enters the bar and looks around, to find that neither Dante nor RJ has showed up yet. She was actually relieved to see that, as she was a bit shaken up by what just happened, more than she wanted to admit aloud. She had visions all the time, heard voices more than that, but that one bothered her more than it should have, "I will not be the last ghost you see this night." rang in her head a few times.
She takes a seat at the bar, just as she sits down the bartender, a young woman, walks up. Tomoko answers before the woman ever has a chance to introduce her self. "Rum, the strongest you have, just bring the bottle." she says, and gets lost in thought. She could not figure out why this bothered her as much as it did, because after all she was used to things like this. But this felt different to her, no mater how many times she tried to shake it off as just her mind playing its normal tricks.
When the bartender returned with the bottle of rum, she pours Tomoko a shot, and put the bottle down. Tomoko not making eye contact with the woman, still kind of staring off into space, reached blankly into her wallet and handed the woman a couple of hundred dollar bills. Something she will regret later, it pays to look when you grab money from your wallet.
Tomoko does not notice RJ Palmer arrive as she downs the first shot, still lost in space. RJ sits down at the stool next to Tomoko, which causes her to jump as he says hi.
"Woah, a bit jumpy tonight are we?" RJ says to her, laughing. Then notices the entire bottle of rum in front of her. "You okay?" he asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she responds, "Just one of those nights. Where the hell is Dante?"
"Running late, as per usual." he jokes with her.
Just as he says that though, they hear a familiar voice from the entrance to the bar. "Hey losers. What's good?" Tomoko and RJ both turn around to see Dante standing in the doorway, amused that they responded to being called losers.
"Everything until you showed up," RJ responds with a bit of a smile, "You're late. Where have you been?"
"Awwwww," Tomoko says aloud in sing song voice, "You two are cute. Just like an old married couple." she laughed out loud just as both RJ and Dante shot her a death glare. She stopped laughing but was still amused by her self.
Tomoko's mind quickly slips back to what happened before the two of them arrive, and she blanks out for a few moments as RJ and Dante exchange insults again. Dante finally sits down with them and notices Tomoko lost in space again.
"She okay?" he asks RJ, who just nods, "I think so." he responds looking at her also.
She remains mostly quite while the group chats, she mostly does not heard much of the conversation that RJ and Dante are having, and only answers when she is asked a question, her mind very much still on what happened before she arrived. If anyone walked through he bar and noticed them, they would look the sight of Christmas Joy, not one of them looking into the holiday cheer going on in the rest of the bar.
If she was paying attention she would have noticed that Dante and RJ were aware something was up, but neither of them asked her. Finally after thinking about it for a few minutes, she decides to bring it up to them.
"Hey, I need to tell you guys something..." she starts to say, but just as she does, Dante interrupts her.
"Can you actually hold that thought?" he starts to say, "I have to go to the bathroom."
"Yeah, sure." Tomoko said, actually kind of relieved as she was not quite sure how she was going to phrase this. "Hey guys, I'm crazy, I saw some shit earlier." - Just as she started thinking about this, RJ spoke up too.
"Then I'm going out for a smoke, I'll be back." he says to the group as both him and Dante walk off. Tomoko begins to think to her self how when they get back she is just going to pretend she didn't say anything.
As she waited for the two to return, she decided she may as well get some fresh air, so she got up and headed to the door. As it opened she was hit by the cold chill of the air almost at once. She spotted RJ the second she walked out the door, just kind of staring into space, a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Tomoko looks him over a bit then decides to just leave him be, her night was going weird enough as it was. As she starts to walk away though, her night decided to get even weirder.
~~"Merry Christmas, bitch!"~~
~~~~~~~~~~
Tomoko let out a sigh, as before her was her Elmo Doll. An old tickle me Elmo doll that has been through the ringer with her over the years... Only that was left back at her hotel and this was quite in front of her... with angel wings and a halo none the less... Fuck, she thought, she was seeing things again.
~~"You ain't seeing shit! I'm right fucking here, bitch! How many times do we have to go through this shit of you ignoring my ass? Not only am I here, but I'm like fucking Elmo 2.0, I'm the Elmo of Christmas Past, mother fucker!"~~
Tomoko tried to count in her head how many shots of that rum she had when suddenly she was no longer standing out front of the bar, but in her bedroom... her bedroom from when she was 11 years old. Only you would never really know this was a girls room at first glance. There were no tell tale girl signs, the bed sheets were "Super Sentai" with the words "Jetman" all over it and pictures of the 5 rangers from that year. Above the headboard was a Jetman poster, and scattered around the room were dozens of Super Sentai action figures. There was an old pre-windows computer up against one wall and a small TV with a Super Famicom hooked up to it on another...
~~"Fucking tomboy, I knew it."~~
"Hey, Jetman was fucking amazing..." she said in defense of her room, before realizing how odd it was to be standing in her childhood room. Now she REALLY started to count the number of shots she had... But just as she started to do that, young Tomoko ran by her and jumped into the computer chair in front of the desk.
"I am going to write the best letter to Santa-san EVER, he is going to love it so much I am going to get EVERYTHING I asked for..." she says out loud, with a glee. Tomoko could feel her self blushing at this sight...
~~"How fucking old are you here? 10? 11? Don't kids stop believing in Santa like... half that age?"~~
"... I loved Christmas. I kind of always knew it was just my parents bringing me the presents I asked for, but I loved getting engulfed into the whole Christmas thing." she says, opening up like a book. No longer worried about how bad she was tripping or how many shots she had. "No, that is actually not true... I always wanted Santa to be real... I thought he was busy, that he would give the toys to parents and they would put them under the tree... Like it was some sort of pact between Grownups..."
She watched for a few seconds as the young Tomoko started to pen a letter to Santa Claus.
~~"Jesus, this gets easier every single year. I usually have to go on some whole speech about being the Ghost of Christmas past, then they usually don't believe anything is really going on and that they are drunk or hallucinating. Then I have to bring out the fucking retrospective and out come the tears... This is like almost a record for me... I have to do more crazy chicks, you just jump right into not questioning what you are seeing... I may actually be able to clock out before Present shows up for once."~~
Tomoko realizes she is indeed crying as she watches the young Tomoko write. "So, Aya really was...?" she asks, a bit unsure how to finish the sentence.
~~"A Ghost? Yeah, you see that is how this bit works, we show up as people or things familiar to you, and you have some retrospective and boom, you suddenly love the fuck out of Christmas again."~~
"So... this is just like The Christmas Carol? Will there be three of you then...?" she asks.
~~"Yes, just like that fucking book. See, I told the others we should have left Dickens alone, but no they felt he needed some Christmas cheer and lo and behold now everyone knows about us and it is near impossible to show up and NOT hear about how much they loved that damn story... But to answer your question, no, you only get me. You see, this is a special case. We are trying something new this year...."~~
"Then what do you want of me spirit?" Tomoko asks, no longer questioning how much she had to drink.
~~"You lost something important to you, I am here to help you find it again. As we just established, you used to love Christmas. So, what happened?"~~
Before Tomoko can answer the scene changes. She is at her school, the young Tomoko looks happy. She is wearing a shirt with Santa Claus on it, and a red and green skirt. She is holding in her hand her letter to Santa, unsure if Santa spoke Japanese she wrote the letter in English and wanted her English teacher to proof it to make sure Santa could understand it. Just as she is about to enter the school she is hit from behind by a rock.
"Ouch!" she screams out in pain, as she suddenly gets shoved from behind and goes falling face first into one of the 3 steps that lead up to the front door of the school. Tomoko cried out in pain again, as she looked down and saw her blood pooling on the step.
A shrill laugh broke the silence as more people joined in laughing. As Tomoko managed to get her bearings, she noticed that Aya, her personal bully, had shown up with her flock. But more than that more students had gathered around, hoping to see more violence.
"Don't make me watch this..." the real Tomoko says to her Elmo Doll, who says nothing.
The young Tomoko gets back to her feet and picks up the letter she had dropped, it is partially covered in blood now. She let out a loud sigh and tried to clean it off some. Before she could, Aya screamed out "What do you have here?" and snatched the letter from Tomoko's hands.
"Dear Santa-San!" Aya reads out loudly, laughing, she proceeds to read the whole letter to the group of students gathering around as Tomoko started to cry, looking around as everyone laughed at her. As Aya got to the end of the letter she ripped it up and tossed it to the ground.
"You fat pig, don't you know Santa isn't REAL?" Aya just starts bursting out laughing but Tomoko having heard enough runs away from the scene as fast as she can, heading into the school crying. The group that had gathered just starts to laugh uncontrollably.
"That happened. I was never able to look at Christmas the same again." She starts to say, "But it doesn't help I ended up locked up by the next Christmas. We never got to celebrate Christmas in the institution. So, as I grew up, I grew away from Christmas... Man, I really did love it as a kid. Once December 1st hit, it was like a whole different time of the year. The decorations would go up, the music. Everything. I just loved that, but it was a childhood wonder. It holds none of that for me now." she says very stern, looking down at the doll.
~~"Because one miserable little girl made fun of you?"~~
"...Yeah. It made me realize how stupid I was." she responds, sounding very defeated.
~~"But you were not stupid, if only everyone could look at Christmas through the eyes of a child, the world may be a better place. Hell, YOU might be a better person if you could. Just try it, take one step back into the life of that adorable tomboy Tomoko, writing a letter to Santa."~~
"I'm quite happy." she says curtly.
~~"Are you? I was watching you in that bar, hell I've been watching you for a week. You were right, December 1st hit and a new time of the year DID start. The how to be as miserable as fucking possible, and it stars you and your two buddies... I know deep down you can still feel Christmas, Tommy is still apart of you Tomoko."~~
"... That part of me died with Aya." Tomoko says.
~~"But did it? How will you know if you never step back into the shoes of little Tomoko. You may find your lost Christmas Spirit, but more than that you may find something else you have been sorely lacking these many years..."~~
"What...? What have I been lacking?" she asks, confused.
~~"I am afraid our time has come to an end, Tomoko. Try it for me, I have a good track record with these visions and I am on kind of a winning streak so don't fuck it up for me, just step into Tomboy Tomoko's Shoes. See how it feels."~~
...before Tomoko could respond she was back in front of the bar. The moment gone, her mind quickly fell back to the rum and trying to count how many drinks she had. "Fuck, that was the weirdest thing yet..." she said, and turned to see if RJ Palmer was still outside with her. He was not.
So Tomoko went back into the bar to find RJ and Dante sitting down at the bar looking a bit silent, and very much how she looked before she left to get some fresh air. Tomoko walked up to them and patted them both on the back with a big laugh.
"Hey, I got to go guys." she says with kind of a cheer in her voice. "I'm going to buy a Christmas tree..." she laughs as she says this, and does not wait for RJ or Dante to respond, and just walks off looking very happy. RJ and Dante exchange looks, both still looking a bit out of it.
"At least she didn't say she was going to buy a Christmas Goose..." Dante says flatly to RJ...
Outside the bar, Tomoko hurries away from the bar, trying to find the homeless guys she passed on her way here. She may be drunk, and she may be crazy, but this was the best she had felt in ages, and she wanted to do something nice for a change. As she came up to the group, they looked a bit shocked to see her again.
"Wanted that address for the clinic after all?" the guy asks Tomoko.
"No, actually I was wondering if you knew of a good Christmas tree lot. I have a shitty hotel room that is in dire need of some Christmas Cheer and I wondered if you guys could help me out." she asks, the guys talk among them selves for a moment.
"Yeah, about 4 blocks down, you'll find 32nd street. Take a left onto it, after about 5 or 6 blocks you'll come to one of the best Christmas Tree Lots in all of New York, "Santa Claus Trees."" The guy says to her. Tomoko laughs out loud and pulls out her wallet and starts handing the guys a couple hundred dollars each.
"Thank you, thank you very much, Merry Christmas." She says with a wide smile, and starts running down the sidewalk, following the directions the guy just gave her. The homeless men look confused, but start to count how much money she gave them after she is out of view.
~~~~~~~~~
Hold the fucking phone, just right there. I have zero fucking way to segue this, so I am just going to start right here... Cordy, Jesus fuck did I just really hear you say "You are not Jocelyn Camden." like that was supposed to back some sort of merit? I want you to know how low you just set the bar for your self, because Jocelyn Camden is one of the -worst- fucking wrestlers I have EVER had to step into the ring with...
So congratulations, you just set the expectations of this match at like their lowest fucking value. I am going to just stop right here and slow clap for about five minutes.
...
....
......
SLOW. FUCKING. CLAP.
Okay, now that, that is out of my system. No, Cordy, you are not Jocelyn Camden because some how you manage to end up -worse- than her, which is saying something because my opinion on Jocelyn is about as low as it can come. You know how you can hit the bottom of the barrel? Well Jocelyn proves you can actually lift up the barrel. But hey, she has at least held a World Championship. So I think on the totem pole of life that puts her above you and fuck, that is a SCARY thought.
...and then you referenced Kyle Shane and... hell I don't even remember who else you mentioned but you just gave like the greatest reasons I am not in WGWF anymore. You are really setting the bar pretty low in your comparisons, so I would HOPE you guys are not them or I am wasting my time here pretty much.
But, hey I'm happy for you and Imma let you finish, but you guys keep bringing up my past. Bringing up the feds I was in. Bringing up the accomplishments I had in them. Have you heard them come out of MY mouth once? Maybe if you stopped focusing just on the World Title and maybe I don't know "cared" about your opponents as you put it, you would have seen I'm not here passing off past accomplishments. I don't need to, so I never will. This is not WGWF, and what I did there means jack shit. But its funny because -I- know that, yet everyone else seems to just keep bringing it up...
Hey Cordy, since we ARE discussing my past for the moment?
I've been World Champion also.
You know, that reminds me. This "I don't care" about my opponents shit. I get it, you are focused on winning the World Title, well good on you. But what happens if you DON'T get through me and the Infinite Empire as easily as you seem to think you are going too? I think that drops your stock about... oh I don't know quite a bit. When answering questions about how you lost defending FGA, you going to tell them you didn't care also?
Man, that must be great for team chemistry.
But its cool, you don't have to be here for the Infinite Empire.
We'll be here for you.
You come from the stance that we CARE that we backed our selves into a corner... From day one we wanted to establish that we are better then every single one of you on this roster, so we are fine being where we are because we will fight our way through the whole roster if it takes.
I sure would imagine Dan Herrera cares that you are so focused on everything else that you don't care about your opponents. Wrestling Cliche 101 in the house folks. Because no one else came to defend Dan when he came to defend FGA, so I am sure he feels comfortable in his choice to back him up.
Which you know, brings me to Dan... Seriously, you were like the ONLY one to come to the defense of FGA, so what does that tell you? Well it tells you that you had to bribe two little bitches into helping you out, but it also tells me you are fighting a losing battle.
See the way I look at it? You care about FGA, Dan.
But here we are, The Big Bad, call it a hostile takeover, call it what ever you want, we came out and made a statement. We expected you know, the talent to rally to a cause and give us a great challenge. But all we got was you... and people who talk shit about us when they are ya know, not in front of us...
Hell, most people wrote us off as we continued to blaze our trail through the FGA. Then when asked to come to its aid... Seriously how sad is it that only one person shows up? I almost feel sorry for you Dan, you have to go face to face with a well oiled tank, when all you have is a rusty bicycle with a broken wheel in the back...
I mean, I would love to believe that even though you had to dig deep to find anybody who wished to help you, and you found a cohesive tag team. But come on, is Sex Sells really a tag team that you want to trust your back too? You have one who is just... yeah and another so focused on the world title that it is driving her mad. Sex Sells would turn on each other in a heart beat, what makes you any different?
The only one I can't just sit here and rip into is Cindy Parker because truth be told, I kind of like her. I see a bit of my self in her, but hey there I go on Wrestling Cliches also. I don't know if I would sit here and call her the strongest link in this match or the weakest... And now don't get me wrong, I say that with some semblance of respect.
I would call her unstable, but that would be kind of funny coming from me.
The only difference I think I can spot between my unstable and her unstable...
I know where to channel my wrath... I don't really know if I can say she does?
What Cindy are we getting?
Hell, what Cindy is FGA getting?
Could she snap and attack Dan? Cordy?
Hell, could she go Beast Mode and give us the fight of our lives, almost single handedly?
Its like a roll of the dice, and I don't know how good that is for FGA.
Sure, on one hand it could end up going pretty well for them... But what if Cindy REALLY loses it?
Hey, lets not think about that though. After all they are banking on you to help lead the tribe over The Big Bad... Will Sex Sells come together as a cohesive unit or will they crash and burn? I mean the last time I've seen you guys -you were on the brink of killing each other. Now sure I've not seen you in ages since you're wasting away on DVD Sales instead of Live TV like you could be... but that is a hard image to get out of my head.
Either way, it is of no consequence to us.
Dan could have gotten Page and it still would not have mattered.
We came to FGA to prove a point, and we are well on our way to that point. You've seen what me and RJ can do, you've seen what RJ and Dante could do. Now it is time for you to see what the whole group can do... because if you thought it was bad when you just had to worry about 1 or 2 of us in a match? Now you have to worry about all three of us.
No Empire may last forever, but we have not even planted our steaks into the ground yet. We have only just begun our march. And that march now goes through FGA's Sole Defender and the two little girls he managed to talk into helping him. Call it a stepping stone, call it planting our flag. But after Final Frontier the Infinite Empire will only expand.
It must REALLY be painful to know there is nothing, or nobody, you can throw at us to stop this march right now. It has been a pleasure, but our parting will be such a sweet sorrow for you FGA...
She was almost expecting to get mugged like any minute as she walked down the street. According to the map route on her phone it should be around here, but yet she still had problems locating the building.
"Jesus RJ, could you have picked a more out of the way bar? Is it in some assholes basement?" she says aloud again, as she walks past a group of homeless people. She debates on asking them where the bar is, but before she gives it a second thought one of them asks her something.
"Spare money for the poor, fine lady? Its quite cold out." the guy asks her.
"I'm sorry, I'm pretty broke right now." she lies.
"Sorry to bother you, Merry Christmas." the homeless man says.
"Merry Christmas? Bah! What is so merry about it? The cold? The fact that every one of you people feel the need to come up to me and SAY Merry Christmas? The nonstop shitty music? Just what is SO merry about Christmas? Just an excuse to part hard workers from their money." she snaps at the man then starts heading back down the street.
"What ever happened to you, Tomoko?" a voice came from behind her.
She stopped in her tracks and turned to the homeless group, raising her voice almost at once "How the fuck do you people know who I am?" she stares daggers at them, all of whom look confused.
"Over here, yo." the voice says again, coming from behind her again. She turns around to find a familiar figure standing before her, a child. Standing in front of her was what looked to be an 11 year old girl, her long hair pulled into pig tails and wearing what appears to be kitty cat pajamas. "It is far to cold out for that outfit." was the first thing she thought to her self.
"How do you know me?" Tomoko says to the little girl, "Are you a fan? Look, I'm flattered but I am in a bit of a hurry." she says to the girl.
"You are always in a hurry, Tomoko." the girl says to her with a smile. "What happened to you?" she asks again, kind of giving Tomoko chills as she speaks.
"... Listen I don't have time for this, go home your parents are probably worried about you." Tomoko says to the girl and she walks past her. But just as she passes the girl, the girl grabs Tomoko's hand. Almost at once an icy chill runs through Tomoko's body, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. The homeless people near by are giving her weird looks.
"Hey, are you alright, ma'am?" one of the guys asks her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she says in response to the homeless man. "I'm just talking to this little girl, listen I'm very busy. Could you see this girl home?" Tomoko says, turning to the homeless man, fishing for her wallet.
"What girl?" the guy asks, sounding very confused.
Tomoko turns to look at the little girl next to her, who is smiling at her. Tomoko points to her and the man just shrugs. "Listen, there is no one there. Are you sure you are alright? There is a great clinic down the..." he starts to say, but gets cut off by Tomoko.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she says, walking off with out a second glance back at the guy or the little girl. The little girl smiles and walks after Tomoko, matching her stride pace for pace. Tomoko seems very un-bothered by this, but she was getting far too used to talking to people who were not there.
"So, who are you?" Tomoko says to the girl.
"You don't remember?" the girl says in response.
"Should I?" she responds coldly, still walking down the street, she will only come to realize it in a few minutes but she just walked past the bar she was set to meet Dante and RJ at...
"Considering I am dead because of you, yes." the little girl smiles up at Tomoko, who looks down at her in shock.
"Well, that is a new one... It has been too long, Aya. You are looking good, not as big of a smile on your face as the last time I saw you though. I believe it was ear to ear..." she laughs to her self at this. The girl before her does not though. She smiles a bit though in return to Tomoko.
"You are not afraid of me?" the girl asks Tomoko, looking a bit shocked.
"Should I be?" Tomoko responds cooly, stopping in her tracks to look at the girl now.
"Most people who see ghosts are." the girl responds.
"Ghost? That is a new one for even me." she says with a huge smile on her face, this seems to amuse her a great deal...
"You doubt what you see?" The little girl asks Tomoko, who waves her hand in response to her kind of dismissing the question.
"I always doubt what I see. Incase you did not know, killing you kind of left me a bit... fractured. I see things all the time, what makes you any different? I listen to music that reminds me of my childhood, and boom I see something. I smell something that makes me think about ANYTHING and I suddenly see MORE things. I eat a bit of bad sushi and I have whole conversations with intimate objects... You may be a bit of undigested beef, a blob of mustard, a crumb of cheese. Yes. There's more gravy than grave about you." she says with a sarcastic smile on her face.
"So be it, but I will not be the last ghost you see this night. I stand by what I asked earlier, what happened to you, Tomoko?" the girl asks again.
"What a FUCKING joke?! What happened to me!? YOU HAPPEND TO ME! You, your fucking friends, your little crew happened to me. Every FUCKING day I would go to school, you would throw things at me, trip me, call me names. I never had more than a handful of friends because no one wanted to be friends with me because of what you fucking... what YOU did to me." she yells at the little girl, almost on the top of her lungs, feeling the blood rush through her veins as she yells.
"Look what my choices in life got me... But you have let one moment of your life define you. I'm not angry with you Tomoko, I never have been. I got what I deserved, that is my chain to bear now. But you, look at you. You have become a monster, you were such a kind, and gentle kid when I knew you. That is why we targeted you, you were so easy. But now, you are no better then me... Take heed Tomoko, or my chain will soon become yours also..." the little girl says as she suddenly vanishes before Tomoko's eyes.
Tomoko shakes it off, having been through this many times in her life. "I've become a monster? Perhaps I have, Aya..." she says as she turns from the spot the girl was and looks down at her cell phone, realizing she passed the bar. She smacks her head couple of times then turns around and heads to the bar trying her best to shake off what just happened...
~~~~~~~~~~
Tomoko enters the bar and looks around, to find that neither Dante nor RJ has showed up yet. She was actually relieved to see that, as she was a bit shaken up by what just happened, more than she wanted to admit aloud. She had visions all the time, heard voices more than that, but that one bothered her more than it should have, "I will not be the last ghost you see this night." rang in her head a few times.
She takes a seat at the bar, just as she sits down the bartender, a young woman, walks up. Tomoko answers before the woman ever has a chance to introduce her self. "Rum, the strongest you have, just bring the bottle." she says, and gets lost in thought. She could not figure out why this bothered her as much as it did, because after all she was used to things like this. But this felt different to her, no mater how many times she tried to shake it off as just her mind playing its normal tricks.
When the bartender returned with the bottle of rum, she pours Tomoko a shot, and put the bottle down. Tomoko not making eye contact with the woman, still kind of staring off into space, reached blankly into her wallet and handed the woman a couple of hundred dollar bills. Something she will regret later, it pays to look when you grab money from your wallet.
Tomoko does not notice RJ Palmer arrive as she downs the first shot, still lost in space. RJ sits down at the stool next to Tomoko, which causes her to jump as he says hi.
"Woah, a bit jumpy tonight are we?" RJ says to her, laughing. Then notices the entire bottle of rum in front of her. "You okay?" he asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she responds, "Just one of those nights. Where the hell is Dante?"
"Running late, as per usual." he jokes with her.
Just as he says that though, they hear a familiar voice from the entrance to the bar. "Hey losers. What's good?" Tomoko and RJ both turn around to see Dante standing in the doorway, amused that they responded to being called losers.
"Everything until you showed up," RJ responds with a bit of a smile, "You're late. Where have you been?"
"Awwwww," Tomoko says aloud in sing song voice, "You two are cute. Just like an old married couple." she laughed out loud just as both RJ and Dante shot her a death glare. She stopped laughing but was still amused by her self.
Tomoko's mind quickly slips back to what happened before the two of them arrive, and she blanks out for a few moments as RJ and Dante exchange insults again. Dante finally sits down with them and notices Tomoko lost in space again.
"She okay?" he asks RJ, who just nods, "I think so." he responds looking at her also.
She remains mostly quite while the group chats, she mostly does not heard much of the conversation that RJ and Dante are having, and only answers when she is asked a question, her mind very much still on what happened before she arrived. If anyone walked through he bar and noticed them, they would look the sight of Christmas Joy, not one of them looking into the holiday cheer going on in the rest of the bar.
If she was paying attention she would have noticed that Dante and RJ were aware something was up, but neither of them asked her. Finally after thinking about it for a few minutes, she decides to bring it up to them.
"Hey, I need to tell you guys something..." she starts to say, but just as she does, Dante interrupts her.
"Can you actually hold that thought?" he starts to say, "I have to go to the bathroom."
"Yeah, sure." Tomoko said, actually kind of relieved as she was not quite sure how she was going to phrase this. "Hey guys, I'm crazy, I saw some shit earlier." - Just as she started thinking about this, RJ spoke up too.
"Then I'm going out for a smoke, I'll be back." he says to the group as both him and Dante walk off. Tomoko begins to think to her self how when they get back she is just going to pretend she didn't say anything.
As she waited for the two to return, she decided she may as well get some fresh air, so she got up and headed to the door. As it opened she was hit by the cold chill of the air almost at once. She spotted RJ the second she walked out the door, just kind of staring into space, a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Tomoko looks him over a bit then decides to just leave him be, her night was going weird enough as it was. As she starts to walk away though, her night decided to get even weirder.
~~"Merry Christmas, bitch!"~~
~~~~~~~~~~
Tomoko let out a sigh, as before her was her Elmo Doll. An old tickle me Elmo doll that has been through the ringer with her over the years... Only that was left back at her hotel and this was quite in front of her... with angel wings and a halo none the less... Fuck, she thought, she was seeing things again.
~~"You ain't seeing shit! I'm right fucking here, bitch! How many times do we have to go through this shit of you ignoring my ass? Not only am I here, but I'm like fucking Elmo 2.0, I'm the Elmo of Christmas Past, mother fucker!"~~
Tomoko tried to count in her head how many shots of that rum she had when suddenly she was no longer standing out front of the bar, but in her bedroom... her bedroom from when she was 11 years old. Only you would never really know this was a girls room at first glance. There were no tell tale girl signs, the bed sheets were "Super Sentai" with the words "Jetman" all over it and pictures of the 5 rangers from that year. Above the headboard was a Jetman poster, and scattered around the room were dozens of Super Sentai action figures. There was an old pre-windows computer up against one wall and a small TV with a Super Famicom hooked up to it on another...
~~"Fucking tomboy, I knew it."~~
"Hey, Jetman was fucking amazing..." she said in defense of her room, before realizing how odd it was to be standing in her childhood room. Now she REALLY started to count the number of shots she had... But just as she started to do that, young Tomoko ran by her and jumped into the computer chair in front of the desk.
"I am going to write the best letter to Santa-san EVER, he is going to love it so much I am going to get EVERYTHING I asked for..." she says out loud, with a glee. Tomoko could feel her self blushing at this sight...
~~"How fucking old are you here? 10? 11? Don't kids stop believing in Santa like... half that age?"~~
"... I loved Christmas. I kind of always knew it was just my parents bringing me the presents I asked for, but I loved getting engulfed into the whole Christmas thing." she says, opening up like a book. No longer worried about how bad she was tripping or how many shots she had. "No, that is actually not true... I always wanted Santa to be real... I thought he was busy, that he would give the toys to parents and they would put them under the tree... Like it was some sort of pact between Grownups..."
She watched for a few seconds as the young Tomoko started to pen a letter to Santa Claus.
~~"Jesus, this gets easier every single year. I usually have to go on some whole speech about being the Ghost of Christmas past, then they usually don't believe anything is really going on and that they are drunk or hallucinating. Then I have to bring out the fucking retrospective and out come the tears... This is like almost a record for me... I have to do more crazy chicks, you just jump right into not questioning what you are seeing... I may actually be able to clock out before Present shows up for once."~~
Tomoko realizes she is indeed crying as she watches the young Tomoko write. "So, Aya really was...?" she asks, a bit unsure how to finish the sentence.
~~"A Ghost? Yeah, you see that is how this bit works, we show up as people or things familiar to you, and you have some retrospective and boom, you suddenly love the fuck out of Christmas again."~~
"So... this is just like The Christmas Carol? Will there be three of you then...?" she asks.
~~"Yes, just like that fucking book. See, I told the others we should have left Dickens alone, but no they felt he needed some Christmas cheer and lo and behold now everyone knows about us and it is near impossible to show up and NOT hear about how much they loved that damn story... But to answer your question, no, you only get me. You see, this is a special case. We are trying something new this year...."~~
"Then what do you want of me spirit?" Tomoko asks, no longer questioning how much she had to drink.
~~"You lost something important to you, I am here to help you find it again. As we just established, you used to love Christmas. So, what happened?"~~
Before Tomoko can answer the scene changes. She is at her school, the young Tomoko looks happy. She is wearing a shirt with Santa Claus on it, and a red and green skirt. She is holding in her hand her letter to Santa, unsure if Santa spoke Japanese she wrote the letter in English and wanted her English teacher to proof it to make sure Santa could understand it. Just as she is about to enter the school she is hit from behind by a rock.
"Ouch!" she screams out in pain, as she suddenly gets shoved from behind and goes falling face first into one of the 3 steps that lead up to the front door of the school. Tomoko cried out in pain again, as she looked down and saw her blood pooling on the step.
A shrill laugh broke the silence as more people joined in laughing. As Tomoko managed to get her bearings, she noticed that Aya, her personal bully, had shown up with her flock. But more than that more students had gathered around, hoping to see more violence.
"Don't make me watch this..." the real Tomoko says to her Elmo Doll, who says nothing.
The young Tomoko gets back to her feet and picks up the letter she had dropped, it is partially covered in blood now. She let out a loud sigh and tried to clean it off some. Before she could, Aya screamed out "What do you have here?" and snatched the letter from Tomoko's hands.
"Dear Santa-San!" Aya reads out loudly, laughing, she proceeds to read the whole letter to the group of students gathering around as Tomoko started to cry, looking around as everyone laughed at her. As Aya got to the end of the letter she ripped it up and tossed it to the ground.
"You fat pig, don't you know Santa isn't REAL?" Aya just starts bursting out laughing but Tomoko having heard enough runs away from the scene as fast as she can, heading into the school crying. The group that had gathered just starts to laugh uncontrollably.
"That happened. I was never able to look at Christmas the same again." She starts to say, "But it doesn't help I ended up locked up by the next Christmas. We never got to celebrate Christmas in the institution. So, as I grew up, I grew away from Christmas... Man, I really did love it as a kid. Once December 1st hit, it was like a whole different time of the year. The decorations would go up, the music. Everything. I just loved that, but it was a childhood wonder. It holds none of that for me now." she says very stern, looking down at the doll.
~~"Because one miserable little girl made fun of you?"~~
"...Yeah. It made me realize how stupid I was." she responds, sounding very defeated.
~~"But you were not stupid, if only everyone could look at Christmas through the eyes of a child, the world may be a better place. Hell, YOU might be a better person if you could. Just try it, take one step back into the life of that adorable tomboy Tomoko, writing a letter to Santa."~~
"I'm quite happy." she says curtly.
~~"Are you? I was watching you in that bar, hell I've been watching you for a week. You were right, December 1st hit and a new time of the year DID start. The how to be as miserable as fucking possible, and it stars you and your two buddies... I know deep down you can still feel Christmas, Tommy is still apart of you Tomoko."~~
"... That part of me died with Aya." Tomoko says.
~~"But did it? How will you know if you never step back into the shoes of little Tomoko. You may find your lost Christmas Spirit, but more than that you may find something else you have been sorely lacking these many years..."~~
"What...? What have I been lacking?" she asks, confused.
~~"I am afraid our time has come to an end, Tomoko. Try it for me, I have a good track record with these visions and I am on kind of a winning streak so don't fuck it up for me, just step into Tomboy Tomoko's Shoes. See how it feels."~~
...before Tomoko could respond she was back in front of the bar. The moment gone, her mind quickly fell back to the rum and trying to count how many drinks she had. "Fuck, that was the weirdest thing yet..." she said, and turned to see if RJ Palmer was still outside with her. He was not.
So Tomoko went back into the bar to find RJ and Dante sitting down at the bar looking a bit silent, and very much how she looked before she left to get some fresh air. Tomoko walked up to them and patted them both on the back with a big laugh.
"Hey, I got to go guys." she says with kind of a cheer in her voice. "I'm going to buy a Christmas tree..." she laughs as she says this, and does not wait for RJ or Dante to respond, and just walks off looking very happy. RJ and Dante exchange looks, both still looking a bit out of it.
"At least she didn't say she was going to buy a Christmas Goose..." Dante says flatly to RJ...
Outside the bar, Tomoko hurries away from the bar, trying to find the homeless guys she passed on her way here. She may be drunk, and she may be crazy, but this was the best she had felt in ages, and she wanted to do something nice for a change. As she came up to the group, they looked a bit shocked to see her again.
"Wanted that address for the clinic after all?" the guy asks Tomoko.
"No, actually I was wondering if you knew of a good Christmas tree lot. I have a shitty hotel room that is in dire need of some Christmas Cheer and I wondered if you guys could help me out." she asks, the guys talk among them selves for a moment.
"Yeah, about 4 blocks down, you'll find 32nd street. Take a left onto it, after about 5 or 6 blocks you'll come to one of the best Christmas Tree Lots in all of New York, "Santa Claus Trees."" The guy says to her. Tomoko laughs out loud and pulls out her wallet and starts handing the guys a couple hundred dollars each.
"Thank you, thank you very much, Merry Christmas." She says with a wide smile, and starts running down the sidewalk, following the directions the guy just gave her. The homeless men look confused, but start to count how much money she gave them after she is out of view.
~~~~~~~~~
Hold the fucking phone, just right there. I have zero fucking way to segue this, so I am just going to start right here... Cordy, Jesus fuck did I just really hear you say "You are not Jocelyn Camden." like that was supposed to back some sort of merit? I want you to know how low you just set the bar for your self, because Jocelyn Camden is one of the -worst- fucking wrestlers I have EVER had to step into the ring with...
So congratulations, you just set the expectations of this match at like their lowest fucking value. I am going to just stop right here and slow clap for about five minutes.
...
....
......
SLOW. FUCKING. CLAP.
Okay, now that, that is out of my system. No, Cordy, you are not Jocelyn Camden because some how you manage to end up -worse- than her, which is saying something because my opinion on Jocelyn is about as low as it can come. You know how you can hit the bottom of the barrel? Well Jocelyn proves you can actually lift up the barrel. But hey, she has at least held a World Championship. So I think on the totem pole of life that puts her above you and fuck, that is a SCARY thought.
...and then you referenced Kyle Shane and... hell I don't even remember who else you mentioned but you just gave like the greatest reasons I am not in WGWF anymore. You are really setting the bar pretty low in your comparisons, so I would HOPE you guys are not them or I am wasting my time here pretty much.
But, hey I'm happy for you and Imma let you finish, but you guys keep bringing up my past. Bringing up the feds I was in. Bringing up the accomplishments I had in them. Have you heard them come out of MY mouth once? Maybe if you stopped focusing just on the World Title and maybe I don't know "cared" about your opponents as you put it, you would have seen I'm not here passing off past accomplishments. I don't need to, so I never will. This is not WGWF, and what I did there means jack shit. But its funny because -I- know that, yet everyone else seems to just keep bringing it up...
Hey Cordy, since we ARE discussing my past for the moment?
I've been World Champion also.
You know, that reminds me. This "I don't care" about my opponents shit. I get it, you are focused on winning the World Title, well good on you. But what happens if you DON'T get through me and the Infinite Empire as easily as you seem to think you are going too? I think that drops your stock about... oh I don't know quite a bit. When answering questions about how you lost defending FGA, you going to tell them you didn't care also?
Man, that must be great for team chemistry.
But its cool, you don't have to be here for the Infinite Empire.
We'll be here for you.
You come from the stance that we CARE that we backed our selves into a corner... From day one we wanted to establish that we are better then every single one of you on this roster, so we are fine being where we are because we will fight our way through the whole roster if it takes.
I sure would imagine Dan Herrera cares that you are so focused on everything else that you don't care about your opponents. Wrestling Cliche 101 in the house folks. Because no one else came to defend Dan when he came to defend FGA, so I am sure he feels comfortable in his choice to back him up.
Which you know, brings me to Dan... Seriously, you were like the ONLY one to come to the defense of FGA, so what does that tell you? Well it tells you that you had to bribe two little bitches into helping you out, but it also tells me you are fighting a losing battle.
See the way I look at it? You care about FGA, Dan.
But here we are, The Big Bad, call it a hostile takeover, call it what ever you want, we came out and made a statement. We expected you know, the talent to rally to a cause and give us a great challenge. But all we got was you... and people who talk shit about us when they are ya know, not in front of us...
Hell, most people wrote us off as we continued to blaze our trail through the FGA. Then when asked to come to its aid... Seriously how sad is it that only one person shows up? I almost feel sorry for you Dan, you have to go face to face with a well oiled tank, when all you have is a rusty bicycle with a broken wheel in the back...
I mean, I would love to believe that even though you had to dig deep to find anybody who wished to help you, and you found a cohesive tag team. But come on, is Sex Sells really a tag team that you want to trust your back too? You have one who is just... yeah and another so focused on the world title that it is driving her mad. Sex Sells would turn on each other in a heart beat, what makes you any different?
The only one I can't just sit here and rip into is Cindy Parker because truth be told, I kind of like her. I see a bit of my self in her, but hey there I go on Wrestling Cliches also. I don't know if I would sit here and call her the strongest link in this match or the weakest... And now don't get me wrong, I say that with some semblance of respect.
I would call her unstable, but that would be kind of funny coming from me.
The only difference I think I can spot between my unstable and her unstable...
I know where to channel my wrath... I don't really know if I can say she does?
What Cindy are we getting?
Hell, what Cindy is FGA getting?
Could she snap and attack Dan? Cordy?
Hell, could she go Beast Mode and give us the fight of our lives, almost single handedly?
Its like a roll of the dice, and I don't know how good that is for FGA.
Sure, on one hand it could end up going pretty well for them... But what if Cindy REALLY loses it?
Hey, lets not think about that though. After all they are banking on you to help lead the tribe over The Big Bad... Will Sex Sells come together as a cohesive unit or will they crash and burn? I mean the last time I've seen you guys -you were on the brink of killing each other. Now sure I've not seen you in ages since you're wasting away on DVD Sales instead of Live TV like you could be... but that is a hard image to get out of my head.
Either way, it is of no consequence to us.
Dan could have gotten Page and it still would not have mattered.
We came to FGA to prove a point, and we are well on our way to that point. You've seen what me and RJ can do, you've seen what RJ and Dante could do. Now it is time for you to see what the whole group can do... because if you thought it was bad when you just had to worry about 1 or 2 of us in a match? Now you have to worry about all three of us.
No Empire may last forever, but we have not even planted our steaks into the ground yet. We have only just begun our march. And that march now goes through FGA's Sole Defender and the two little girls he managed to talk into helping him. Call it a stepping stone, call it planting our flag. But after Final Frontier the Infinite Empire will only expand.
It must REALLY be painful to know there is nothing, or nobody, you can throw at us to stop this march right now. It has been a pleasure, but our parting will be such a sweet sorrow for you FGA...