Become the architect of your future
Oct 19, 2015 10:21:08 GMT -5
Post by Johnny Karma on Oct 19, 2015 10:21:08 GMT -5
As the cream of the Lion's Den crop are preparing for Frontier to the Future, we see Shintaro Majima sat on a chair surrounded by several other Lion's Den trainees, because even though he has a match with Jason Bronco in his near future he is still a trainee, and today is interview skills day - and it is clear by his body language that Majima has little interest in being here, as he would rather focus on the match itself than sit through half a dozen trainees all trying to find a new catchphrase that will help them stand out from the pack. However, with the heaviest of hearts he must endure...
...so if you do not believe I have this "killer instinct" which people believe I lack, you should ask Valcone if he agrees. After all, for that most fleeting of moments, the look on his face told me that I had found it - and he had just long enough to realise this, before I dropped him head-first onto the mat for the victory.
As soon as he has finished, Majima looks to get out of the seat and leave - but just as he does, he hears one of the trainees whispering to the other, so he sits back down, crosses one leg over the other, and narrows his eyes in the direction of the gossiping trainee
Do you disagree?
There's a brief moment of confused silence, as it slowly dawns on the trainee that he is being asked a question in front of his peers, but in the entire time Majima's fixed glare does not flicker for a microsecond
Well...I was saying...
Yes?
Well, a few of us are wondering why you get to be on the show when others aren't.
At first there's an eerie silence in the air, not least because a few of the other trainees clearly look displeased that this one person has put words they never spoke into their mouths to try and save their own ass - but it's not helped by Majima slowly but surely sitting back in his seat, rubbing his palms together, with a look in his eyes that indicates that somebody might be taking a couple of days off training this week due to a serious beating
After what feels like an eternity, Majima turns his head slightly towards the trainee and calmly responds...
Have I ever seen you in a match? As far as I know, the only time you have ever been in the ring is here in the dojo, which is not the same as competing in an actual match.
Yeah, well...
No.
The mere thought of having to raise his voice gives Majima a second of pause, before he continues
What you are doing is learning what wrestling is. That is not the same as being a wrestler. If you were to set foot in the ring tomorrow, you would likely embarrass yourself. After all, if your trainers believed you were ready, why are you not on the Lions Den roster yet?
The sheer thought of this trainees' insolence causes Majima to shake his head
I am on this show because I have the right to say I should be on it. On the other hand, you have not - and if this were Japan, you would consider it an honour to be holding open the ring ropes for those that do deserve to be on the show.
Having said what he needed to say, Majima flashes with withering glare in the trainee's direction, before he gets up from his seat and walks away without saying another words
It's a couple of days after the verbal sparring at the presentation skills seminar, and we see Shintaro Majima sitting in the quadrangle of Greensboro College, with the red bricked dormitories behind him while, somewhere across the campus, the James G. Hanes Physical Education Building is being prepared for Frontier to the Future - but that is not what is on Majima's mind, instead he is thinking of something far different
There is a word I have heard spoken about this college many times since I have been here: tradition. This word means different things to different people, for example back in Japan a "traditional" weekend means driving many hours into the mountains around Mount Fuji, visiting the local onsen, before spending the night sleeping in a ryokan before driving back to the city the following morning, be it Tokyo or Osaka or any other major city. People say that this is keeping in touch with what Japan really is, before spending the rest of the year doing what Japan supposedly is not.
Another tradition I can think of is that wrestling is a sport that measures the man, be it working their way up from the dojo, taking beatings like a man in their rookie year, and eventually starting to climb the ladder one hard-fought victory at a time against opponents who hold nothing back. As you may have guessed, the second tradition describes me much better than the first. And with this tradition comes something else I have had on my mind these past few days: honour.
Majima shifts the padded jacket he's wearing around his body as a cool wind blows through the trees
As you will no doubt know, some of my Lions Den compatriots are representing the company against people from other companies at Frontier to the Future, and they are looking to make themselves and this company look good in victory. After all, their peers will not be impressed if they return to the locker room having lost a match on a Lions Den show against somebody who does not work here, as that could be seen as a sign of disrespect. As you will also no doubt already know, my opponent for this show is another Lions Den competitor, Jason Bronco. On the one hand, that reduces the pressure on the pair of us to succeed, because win or lose there is no way that it can be said Lions Den looked "weakened" by the result. But this is not how I am looking at the match at all. The way that I am looking at the match is that while the other Lions Den competitors may struggle to contend with their opponents, I will be looking to decimate mine so that the crowd are left with the impression that I can dominate any opponent whenever I so wish, and this is important to me given how much time I have been concerned about whether or not I have this "killer instinct" that Hana Song suggested that I lacked - although I am sure Valcone will beg to differ, as I left him a broken shell of a man in the centre of the ring as my hand was raised in victory.
A lesser man would take their opponent's apparent lack of confidence as an excuse to assume victory, as Bronco himself has listed the many ways in which he is inferior to any member of the roster you care to name - but assuming victory is something for fools who do not realise they are walking towards defeat with an air of superiority. He himself has spoken of the future, and is looking to make an impression and believes the best way to do that is to defeat me, so I am going to take the challenge of Jason Bronco very seriously - and this is what Bronco does not want to hear, because that means I will be doing everything I can to extinguish the fight that burns within him one strike at a time, and when the fight is extinguished I shall then continue the attack until his body accepts the defeat that his mind is unwilling to consider, and the last ounce of strength he has within him will serve only to keep him standing long enough for me to end the match decisively.
Majima briefly looks towards the camera as he considers this
That will be your immediate future, Jason Bronco - but after that your future is not yet written, and there will be many stories for you to tell. As for me, I am looking to write my own story, a story that starts with me defeating you, and it continues as opponent after opponent is placed in front of me and all of them are defeated until there is just one opponent left, and that opponent holds the Apex Championship. That is the future that I am interested in, and it starts tonight.
Word count: 1436
...so if you do not believe I have this "killer instinct" which people believe I lack, you should ask Valcone if he agrees. After all, for that most fleeting of moments, the look on his face told me that I had found it - and he had just long enough to realise this, before I dropped him head-first onto the mat for the victory.
As soon as he has finished, Majima looks to get out of the seat and leave - but just as he does, he hears one of the trainees whispering to the other, so he sits back down, crosses one leg over the other, and narrows his eyes in the direction of the gossiping trainee
Do you disagree?
There's a brief moment of confused silence, as it slowly dawns on the trainee that he is being asked a question in front of his peers, but in the entire time Majima's fixed glare does not flicker for a microsecond
Well...I was saying...
Yes?
Well, a few of us are wondering why you get to be on the show when others aren't.
At first there's an eerie silence in the air, not least because a few of the other trainees clearly look displeased that this one person has put words they never spoke into their mouths to try and save their own ass - but it's not helped by Majima slowly but surely sitting back in his seat, rubbing his palms together, with a look in his eyes that indicates that somebody might be taking a couple of days off training this week due to a serious beating
After what feels like an eternity, Majima turns his head slightly towards the trainee and calmly responds...
Have I ever seen you in a match? As far as I know, the only time you have ever been in the ring is here in the dojo, which is not the same as competing in an actual match.
Yeah, well...
No.
The mere thought of having to raise his voice gives Majima a second of pause, before he continues
What you are doing is learning what wrestling is. That is not the same as being a wrestler. If you were to set foot in the ring tomorrow, you would likely embarrass yourself. After all, if your trainers believed you were ready, why are you not on the Lions Den roster yet?
The sheer thought of this trainees' insolence causes Majima to shake his head
I am on this show because I have the right to say I should be on it. On the other hand, you have not - and if this were Japan, you would consider it an honour to be holding open the ring ropes for those that do deserve to be on the show.
Having said what he needed to say, Majima flashes with withering glare in the trainee's direction, before he gets up from his seat and walks away without saying another words
. . .
It's a couple of days after the verbal sparring at the presentation skills seminar, and we see Shintaro Majima sitting in the quadrangle of Greensboro College, with the red bricked dormitories behind him while, somewhere across the campus, the James G. Hanes Physical Education Building is being prepared for Frontier to the Future - but that is not what is on Majima's mind, instead he is thinking of something far different
There is a word I have heard spoken about this college many times since I have been here: tradition. This word means different things to different people, for example back in Japan a "traditional" weekend means driving many hours into the mountains around Mount Fuji, visiting the local onsen, before spending the night sleeping in a ryokan before driving back to the city the following morning, be it Tokyo or Osaka or any other major city. People say that this is keeping in touch with what Japan really is, before spending the rest of the year doing what Japan supposedly is not.
Another tradition I can think of is that wrestling is a sport that measures the man, be it working their way up from the dojo, taking beatings like a man in their rookie year, and eventually starting to climb the ladder one hard-fought victory at a time against opponents who hold nothing back. As you may have guessed, the second tradition describes me much better than the first. And with this tradition comes something else I have had on my mind these past few days: honour.
Majima shifts the padded jacket he's wearing around his body as a cool wind blows through the trees
As you will no doubt know, some of my Lions Den compatriots are representing the company against people from other companies at Frontier to the Future, and they are looking to make themselves and this company look good in victory. After all, their peers will not be impressed if they return to the locker room having lost a match on a Lions Den show against somebody who does not work here, as that could be seen as a sign of disrespect. As you will also no doubt already know, my opponent for this show is another Lions Den competitor, Jason Bronco. On the one hand, that reduces the pressure on the pair of us to succeed, because win or lose there is no way that it can be said Lions Den looked "weakened" by the result. But this is not how I am looking at the match at all. The way that I am looking at the match is that while the other Lions Den competitors may struggle to contend with their opponents, I will be looking to decimate mine so that the crowd are left with the impression that I can dominate any opponent whenever I so wish, and this is important to me given how much time I have been concerned about whether or not I have this "killer instinct" that Hana Song suggested that I lacked - although I am sure Valcone will beg to differ, as I left him a broken shell of a man in the centre of the ring as my hand was raised in victory.
A lesser man would take their opponent's apparent lack of confidence as an excuse to assume victory, as Bronco himself has listed the many ways in which he is inferior to any member of the roster you care to name - but assuming victory is something for fools who do not realise they are walking towards defeat with an air of superiority. He himself has spoken of the future, and is looking to make an impression and believes the best way to do that is to defeat me, so I am going to take the challenge of Jason Bronco very seriously - and this is what Bronco does not want to hear, because that means I will be doing everything I can to extinguish the fight that burns within him one strike at a time, and when the fight is extinguished I shall then continue the attack until his body accepts the defeat that his mind is unwilling to consider, and the last ounce of strength he has within him will serve only to keep him standing long enough for me to end the match decisively.
Majima briefly looks towards the camera as he considers this
That will be your immediate future, Jason Bronco - but after that your future is not yet written, and there will be many stories for you to tell. As for me, I am looking to write my own story, a story that starts with me defeating you, and it continues as opponent after opponent is placed in front of me and all of them are defeated until there is just one opponent left, and that opponent holds the Apex Championship. That is the future that I am interested in, and it starts tonight.
Word count: 1436
