Gaiety! Glory! Glamour! vs Izzy Anders
Dec 22, 2016 19:49:49 GMT -5
Post by Noelle Smith on Dec 22, 2016 19:49:49 GMT -5
=[on cam]=
Gaiety! Glory! Glamour! The strip of text was antique, what remained of a movie poster from 1939, blown up large and turned into someone’s idea of art. Bright, garish colors that outdid even the original, served to highlight the woman that stood there in front of them. Noelle was of course glad still that Final Frontier would be held here in New York because she had to be in Canada for weddings and it was easier this way. Not much came easy in her life, so she actually appreciated those rare times things went right. Her hair was up, loose curls that would be transformed into something elegant tomorrow, but today just seemed carefree. Her clothes were nothing special, yoga pants and a warm winter jacket, unzipped because for now she was inside. Her face was bare of makeup, save for a slick of gloss on her lips, and yet she seemed just as confident as ever as she put her hands on her hips and parted them to speak.
“People love to forget things. Things that aren’t convenient to remember, or things that make them look bad, or just plain flat out unpleasantness. It happens, it’s a part of life. No matter how hard we may try, not everyone is going to like us. Most of us learned that as children, but some of us, some of our worst behavior is rooted in the fact that no one wants people to hate them, not really, not deep down. Right? Hide behind some fast ass words, a veneer of civility, at least as long as it serves to do it.”
Noelle tipped her head down, and looked up at the camera from under her lashes. She paused a moment, relaxing by degrees despite her fixed look.
“At least, that’s how some people conduct themselves. No matter how talented we may be, no matter how hard we may fight? There’s always someone better. Someone who claims they’re the best, and sometimes they can even sort of prove it. I say sort of, because there’s always a catch. How much of who we really are, do we repress to get to our goal? Or how much of who we really are do we let out, take that risk, to just be purely ourselves? No makeup, no fancy clothes, no putting on airs, just down to earth. Down and dirty. Rage, hope, whatever we have to spare. But ask this, like I’m asking you Izzy.
Are we growing? Evolving into something new, something better? Or are we just polishing up our shells and hiding the treasure inside until someone is brave enough or strong enough to break us? Or rather…”
She straightened up, dropping her hands to her sides, hands loose now, palms facing her thighs, her head tipped just a little to the left.
“Maybe break, was a poor choice of word. I get the concept, you know, I really do. It’s been around a long time. The US Marines are notorious for it, break a man down and then rebuild him from the ground up into what you want. A soldier, a ruthless individual who will stop at nothing to complete the mission. I wonder if that’s what this is, if it’s more than just you wanting revenge on a company that shoulda cherished you but let you drop off the radar like it didn’t matter because we’re all warm bodies in spandex to the suits. We are dollar signs that just happen to live and breathe, not that they care all that much if we happened to not because nothing gets stale merch to fly off of the shelves like a good old fashioned tragedy.
But there I went all off on a tangent when I’m really asking what’s the endgame Izzy? Are you going to burn FGA to the ground for what happened to you or are you going to break and rebuild, create yourself a little strike force all your very own, to impose your wishes? I’m really, really asking you this Izzy. Maybe this talk seems dark coming from me, but then you… you said a few things that stuck with me hard. That maybe I should talk to Ruby because at least she knew how to beat you. That I needed to do something to set myself apart from my sisters, more than just being a good person even when they weren’t.”
She took a deep breath, and let it out slow.
“Despite the teasing words, and I’m choosing to take them as teasing instead of something else, you’re getting one hundred percent pure Noelle when we face in that ring. I don’t hate you, Izzy. I don’t hate anyone no matter what my ex and his peons, minions, and butt kissing fluffers have to say about it. Which I guess makes it seem that I’m bitter because let’s face it there wasn’t anything nice about what I just said. Honest, sure, but nice… not even close. You’re getting the Noelle that is, me, right now. I’m not the Noelle that beat Fujiko Mine for the Mid Atlantic Legacy Championship. I’m not the same Noelle that watched you take what I’d worked so hard for and found myself unable to stop your effort. That’s a feeling I wish I could forget, but I learned from it. I’m not the same Noelle that beat Neon, or Annie, or anyone else. I’m not the same Noelle that failed to get that shot at the Pride title I wanted so bad, or any of those other matches I’ve lost. If you cared enough you could go back and look and see how hard I’ve always fought, win or lose. We both know though, why I wanted that Pride shot, because I told you.
When I get you in that ring I want you to understand that to me, that was the bigger prize and if that’s a sin to admit, well here we are.”
Noelle gracefully lifted her hands, palms up and open towards the camera.
“I feel sometimes that I’m just shouting into the void, Izzy. That no matter how hard I work, and I work hard as hell - that in the end it’s just going to be what it always is. Except…
...not really.
There’s a reason I do what I do. Why I won’t give up, why I let my passion command me the way I do, because that is the one thing no one can deny when they look at me, and that is that I am passionate about wrestling. About my life. Because that little cliche people like to spout about how almost dying changes you is actually true. Fancy that, right? Thing is Izzy, how we approach life after something that alters everything… that’s what defines us. Maybe I’m not all rainbows and flowers that are missing the sunshine. I think you knew it, the moment you really looked into my eyes back there in that hallway. I think you knew that something in me, understood something in you.”
Noelle smiled almost gently and turned to walk out of the shot, pausing just before she was entirely out to look back.
“Oh. Before I forget? I want you to talk hard, Izzy. Harder than you did on Twitter. But this time I want you to do it in the ring, with your fists. Much love.”[/color]
=[off cam]=
Location: Looks like Oz. Date: 12/22/2016. Maybe. We’re pretty sure.
The sky over the Emerald City was a brilliant palette of rainbow hues, the path leading towards it was brick, though the yellow wasn’t as brilliant as you might expect. Starting at the beginning it had swirled with red from a center point and Noelle had briefly wondered what would happen, where would I go, if I followed the red brick road instead but then, this was merely a backdrop, a metaphor, a mental construct provided by her dreaming mind. At least, that’s what she told herself as she put one foot in front of the other and managed not to hum that song the entire way.
There was no Scarecrow, there was no Tin Man, and while from time to time things rustled in the forest or fields that the Road ran through, there was in the end no Lion - Cowardly or otherwise. Noelle had a basket that swung idly from her fingers as she walked, but the pupper that walked with a sassy step next to her was her own Welsh Pembroke Corgi, Maxie not some little black yappy Cairn terrier.
Upon reflection she’d have chosen something a lot more travel ready than a blue and white checked gingham dress, and no matter how cute these red shoes were, they weren’t rubies and they were making her toes ache.
On the upside of this, despite her lack of traditional companions this wasn’t so bad, and thus far there had also been no flying monkeys and no Wicked Witch. She reflected on that as she walked ever closer to her goal, and wondered who she knew who would best fit that bill. Her subconscious apparently had refused to simply cast her next adversary in that role, which was she supposed reassuring to some degree. It made her glad that even dreaming she hadn’t decided to just go with the expected, though on the flip side of that lay the theory that maybe she hadn’t decided that Izzy was in fact the Wicked Witch because part of her felt that Izzy might be right.
No matter, she was definitely at least heading towards something, a goal that even seemed ultimately achievable at that. She could see it, she could judge from here about the distance and the time it would take. Noelle shaded her eyes before looking that way again, she’d learned her lesson the first time as the sunlight reflected off the polished stones was dazzling and a little headache inducing.
At least she remembered the story well enough that when they came to the red poppies she’d scooped up Maxie into the basket, slid her feet out of the shoes and set them with him so she could run for all she was worth.
Forward. Towards. In motion. Progress. Evolution.
She left the shoes in the basket and really didn’t mind so much that Maxie chose to chew on the heel of the right one. It made him happy, and well barefoot was a whole lot more comfortable. Natural, unfettered, unburdened maybe. It made her curious too, about what else she could just let go of. Or rather, were there things she should just let go of but hadn’t? Possibly. She’d learned not to hang on so tight to the bad things that had happened in her life. She didn’t forget, she just chose not to repeat them, to step out of that ‘lather rinse repeat’ that so many got caught up in.
Even so, she had no intentions of becoming a walking inspirational quote. Especially since at the end of the day she’d realized that all that work she was putting in wasn’t for other people. It was for her. That was sort of liberating too. She’d spent a lot of her life trying to just be different from her sisters, mostly because they were identical to her. The problem was, in her efforts to be different she’d decided that was what she needed to do - whatever it was she did. It was no surprise then that she’d become someone she didn’t recognize.
It simply stood to reason. Being good because you were expected to be bad, that was fine in theory but was it really real? Noelle chose to believe it was, because she was never so much herself as when she let all the worries go in the gym and just put in the work. What to someone else might seem simple repetition wasn’t that at all. It was the tool put into her hands to change herself, change her path, change her present so she’d be ready for the future.
Whatever that might be.
Right in the now however, she was standing before the gate and bantering back and forth with a guard, though really she deserved some recognition for not laughing at his extremely curly moustache, the big loops at the end quivering with each word he spoke. Of course, he didn’t want to let her in. Not really. She could tell, she knew the attitude, the tone of his words behind what he actually meant. Everyone knew that one guy didn’t they? Ask them what they want to do they have no idea but want to shoot down any idea you have. Yeah, that guy, but dressed like a Christmas Nutcracker covered in glitter.
His last question snapped her out of her inner reverie. “I said, how do you even know you’re in the right place girly?”
Noelle took a deep breath, pausing long enough to put her pupper back in the basket and stand up, holding him up a little for maximum cuteness effect. “Oh well, I thought that was obvious? This has to be the Emerald City.”
Contentious still. “No, it isn’t. Can’t possibly be.”
Noelle felt her jaw drop but quickly controlled that reaction, her voice staying sweet. “Can’t? It’s literally made of emerald, it’s brilliant green, practically blind someone at a distance. I’m pretty much extremely reasonably absolutely sure that this is in facct, the Emerald City. Which means you have to open the gate and let me in, because there’s someone I need to see in there.”
He vanished out of sight behind the big door, she could hear the whispering and barely managed to control the roll of her beautiful dark eyes before he popped back up and peered skeptically at her through the little square window. “Well, what if he doesn’t want to see you?”
“Oh he wants to see me. He told me so himself. So you should in fact, let me in and then he’ll be most delighted with you.” So careful with her expression, so very very careful.
“Delighted you say? Really?”
“Really, very truly most delighted.”
“Oh well why didn’t you just say so!” He vanished from the window and then the heavy door creaked as it swung open. She got to see him scramble down the ladder so he could bow most professionally before her, and gestured with one hand towards where the brick road continued. “Welcome to the Emerald City...er, what was your name?”
She’d already walked past him by then, drawn to the largest building she could see, the spire rising up high into the heavens like an acid trip inspired unicorn horn, every now and then it would shoot a plume of glittering smoke into the sky. “Oh that’s easy. I’m Noelle, and I’m here to see the Prince, remember? Or the Wizard. Whatever he’s calling himself, I’m here for Kamijo.” She paused, turning back towards the guard and Maxie barked once at him. “I mean come on, didn’t you… you know what, nevermind.”
Noelle flounced her gingham skirt more because she could then out of any real need, heading further down the road until she reached the fancy stairs that would lead her up into that unicorn horned palace. She fluffed her hair a little and wished she had a mirror though she suspected that she might at this point look a wee bit bedraggled. The stairs were a bit of a trial, there had to be at least a hundred of them, maybe more, but she lost count about halfway up when she paused to let Maxie down out of the basket. At least he didn’t run ahead of her more than a few steps, pausing to bark little encouraging barks at her until they were finally at the top. The doors were flung wide open, and now she finally put those red shoes back on her feet. The heels, even the one that Maxie had chewed on clicked on the marble tiles and she sort of missed the tones produced by those yellow bricks - though certainly not enough to go back down those stairs from hell to hear them again!
Finally she stood in a grand ballroom, everything was gilt, gilded and golden. There were fountains of champagne, soft music, gigantic silk floor pillows, sheer curtains decorating the high narrow windows. The buffet that was spread along one long table was enough to get her mouth to water, she couldn’t have said right then when the last time she’d eaten was. A voice suddenly boomed out.
“I AM OZ.... the Great and Powerful!”
Noelle whirled around, and her little gingham dress transformed into a ball gown, yards and yards of flowing taffeta and lace, little sparkling crystals sewn all over it, her hair was up and perfectly curled, and she could feel a weight that said tiara on her head. Her lips parted and she laughed, holding her hands out as Maxie barked and played with the hem of her dress, and he stepped forward out of a blinding light. “I’m not so sure about that, you look an awful like Prince Charming right now. I think you’ve got more sparkles on your suit than I do, and check out that gold thread.”
He laughed with her, taking her hands and stepping in close to twirl her in a waltz around the room. “Here we go, mixing our fairy tales again.”
“Well either way, I’m sure that clicking these heels together isn’t getting me home so we might as well dance.”
Oz: I'm afraid I can't give you what I know you want most of all. All I can offer you is this: us. I know it's not the family that you had in mind, but…
China Girl: It's perfect. Thank you, Oz.
=[tbc]=
Any character who appears in this RP does so with full permission.
Quote from Oz, The Great and Powerful
Word Count: 2998
[/font]