Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2021 15:15:01 GMT
Home of Cara Strader
Redwood City, California
December 3rd, 2021
Cara was doing what she did every Friday evening, and that was watching and supporting her twin sister from the not less crazy mister but a nicer crazy mister (Cara’s father, Ryan, is a monster). Plus, she loved making Knox and Victoria uncomfortable by calling him daddy or Papi, depending on her mood, which resulted in whichever one she picked.
Jake was out at his Graveyard shift job he slugged out because he wasn’t going to be a stay-at-home spouse, but he knew Cara was the breadwinner. Cara prodded him, hanging onto a barbaric need like that, but she knew that was because of his dad and how ‘old-school’ he was. The grandfather she never knew made sure she was taken care of for the rest of her natural-born life as well as Victoria’s.
The money was very dirty, mostly cocaine and weapons trafficking, but Cara made a vow to be good with the money and make sure it helped the world in some way; she just wasn’t sure when that would happen with everything going on or even how but she would figure it out.
In her favourite pair of purple baggy sweatpants and a Sports Entertainment Xpress hoodie, she was snuggled into her comfy brown couch with a bowl of buttery popcorn and was ready to watch TPW’s Friday Night Fury.
“Come on, babe, you got this,” she says out loud to her lonesome.
She got through the first two matches, but she was itching to see her sister right the wrong of falling to APEX’s Drew Archyle. Even if it was close and he had years of experience over her, they had both heard the mantra their mamabear instilled into them “close only counts in Horseshoes and hand grenades.” Cara had zero idea what the analogy meant, but she understood that indicated you do or you do not. It’s what made the original Straders that were still alive who they were. They dig and claw to get everything they want without giving a damn about the consequences.
How well has that worked? The old man head of the family was dead, and Meghan’s reign as Matriarch was on shaky grounds, especially since the Cowgirls From Hell retired, leaving Victoria and Cara in the wind, but they needed to learn how to stand on their own two feet. Besides, she was Victoria’s manager, so she wasn’t completely alone, and Cara had Bert and Ahyma.
Although not everything was equal in the world of their individual careers, and both sisters knew that.
One sister had done better than the other in that regard where Cara soared, and Victoria would start to do well, and something would always get in her way, sometimes herself, other times not. Great Purge, anyone?
Cara slumped in her seat as Oliver Main pinned her sister, and her heart was in her throat as she watched her Vee shove their mother’s consoling arm off her shoulder. She may be the fry-bag of the family, but it didn’t dim how much she has grown to love her ‘mamabear’ fiercely and how much she loved Victoria, being childhood friends without ever knowing they were sisters.
“I know where you are going. You just stay put until I can get there.”
She probably should’ve stayed home.
Parking lot Across from OCW Arena
Key West, Florida, USA
December 9th, 2021
Cara sits in a black Escalade rental with tinted windows with oversized sunglasses in an effort to disguise herself. At the same time, she sees if she can find a pattern in how these secretive bastards operated. Watching for the person she was once *wombmates* with revealing that Veronica had kept her promise to Cara all those years ago and she had returned in total control (or so she thought, she didn’t realize how long Veronica had been chipping away at Victoria). The thought made her sick to her stomach.
“Did I just see a guy dressed as Michael Myers? Oh, that must be Knife-Man. Gotta make sure to avoid that guy. They will all be loyal to one another.”
When it came to public knowledge about their birth fathers, Matthew sat down with Victoria and explained the affliction that was more than common among the Rivers bloodline. Cara remembered all those years ago and realized it was different for all of them. Matthew was the most even-keeled in the Knox/Rivers bloodline (scary thought, eh?), but he didn’t know that Veronica was a dangerous woman, as made evident by the way he put down and shamed Victoria for letting it win.
“There are fans constantly coming and going… It should be easy enough to sneak in with the crowd….”
She just wished she was paying better attention, but she tried to give her space after the debacle with the Greek-Irish woman. Plus, she was dealing with a career that was struggling to find solid ground and the fact her buddy was her real-life daddy, never mind how improbable the odds are.
“There ya are, sista of mine,” she says with a grin. “That’s the two women she’s been seen with… must follow her like lost puppies.” She didn’t know it yet, but she would come to regret being so dismissive of Roxxie and Marcy.
She thought she was hidden, but she wasn’t, as Veronica had already made her and been watching her the whole time. Cara didn’t know it, but she would be walking right into a trap.
Don’t play the game if you can’t handle the situation at hand. The family had tried to warn her, but like every other Strader before her, she learned her lessons the hard way.
The Scorpion’s Tail
Houston, Texas USA
December 10th, 2021
Cara sits inside one of the hangouts of John’s Brothers of Mayhem MC and the Bandido MC, who her grandfather rode with as the National Sgt At Arms. She was treated like royalty when she came in or like any other family member as she was one of two Strader princesses. She sits in a far booth in a pair of knee boots, faded blue jeans, and her favourite Larry Tact shirt. He won’t sign it, apparently. She has a white bandana on, and big gold hoops hang from her ear lobes. She watches Jake play an old Terminator 2 Pinball machine like a crack addict across the bar and drinks from her bottle of Miller High Life as she checks the time on her iPhone 13 Pro. Using the camera, she makes sure her crimson red lips are perfect. She puts her phone up on the napkin holder, hitting record.
~START TRANSMISSION~
“Wassup my Level Uppers? I know you all have missed my crazy antics in my favourite Larry Tact T-Shirt I totally bought from Merch a couple of shows back and not a bootleg store. I am gonna get your signature one day, Lare Bear.”
A small pucker of the crimson red lips, showing her likeness to her ‘mamabear,’ followed a small right wink.
“Don’t worry, Uppers; I will get it done. ANYWAY! EXP17 has come and gone… and I did exactly what I planned. I didn’t sign up to Level Up for a run with the Multiplayer Gloves, and besides, everyone and their great granny knows the only person I would pick as a partner has gone a bit cuckoo, and that cuckoo side is not the biggest fan of me. Plus, I know I am an acquired taste as is, and that’s putting it lightly. But hey, I enjoy being different.”
“So this next card for EXP18 they put me up against Kat fuckin’ Jones. Friend of that ever-living shit bag who played a major role in getting my sister heartbroken so he could get his dick wet where many many dicks have been before (I know, pot meet kettle, but I do it for my man) and the only people stupid enough to actually get involved with those two, that blue-haired,” Cara stops herself before saying something rude, “lovely woman, and my sister. I would guarantee those two were fucking before either couple split. The heart wants what the heart wants, but even once in a while, we need to pull our heads from our asses and realize it’s not love; it’s probably lust. Unfortunately for Tara and Victoria, they didn’t see it. But to anyone watching who ends up sleeping with your brothers tag partner and the James Raven fanatic, be prepared to eat two antibiotics so it doesn’t burn when ya take a piss.”
“Anyway, Kat, surely you remember me though. I’m the one that gave you the lowdown on Sugar Valentine before OCW purged all y'all.”
She stops, pursing her lips as she takes a healthy swig of her beer.
“You were all ‘I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME RAWR,’ and I respected that, ya know? I deal with slut shaming and masculine toxicity all the time because of the dynamic of my own relationship with my Jakey, so it was great to watch you beat his ass just like Victoria did the very week before. Although, much like Valentine I bet you'll have a few choice words for me. I hope it's coward like he called me, because saying eat me to the tag team division is cowardice.”
Cara shakes her head.
“I don’t even need to see your promo to know you are going to take your jabs at my sister. Your instability on the socials already told me that. The one that called you on for wanting to watch her daddy get knocked around a bit for whatever pleasure that gives you. I’m guessing you went for a ride once upon a time, but who hasn’t? Oh right, me. I haven't. That's rude Papi-Knox.”
She winks into hoping he's telling the TV the conversation is over.
“Victoria calls you out on wanting to watch her dad get knocked around, making you blow a gasket like someone said you were evil incarnate and the proof is on the Twitterverse; it’s even surely in a purge archive somewhere. You act like an indignant teenager and I am supposed to be the young one in this industry. So you cry, cry, cry that you somehow trump a relationship with his own flesh and blood. Imagine being that fucking ignorant.”
“That’s easy to do because not only did you spit on womankind by laughing at a misogynistic-semen joke about my MOTHER with a pathetic tag line from an even sadder little pricked who should’ve been- - - no, I will take the high road, pun totally intended and not just coming out (phrasing) and say those that live in large glass houses shouldn’t throw stones or something like that. Mamabear has more of them for me, I am sure.”
Cara leans back, shaking her head. She pulls a joint out from the inside of her Larry Tact t-shirt producing a cigar-wrapped blunt. She lights up and knows it’s ok, cause as said before, she was basic royalty to both MCs.
“You know Kat, the worst part of it all? I liked you, I really did, but then you had to go and show your true colours. Like how do you hang out with Tara yet still laugh at pathetic teenaged semen jokes? I kinda get it, friends of the family; it can be sticky, gross pun not intended but to show so much disrespect all because you felt slighted and thinking your friendship with Papi-Knox is above his kids… that is just plain sad and says a lot about you. Papi really needs to re-evaluate who his friends are because he has really terrible judgement.”
Cara holds her right hand in a motion for him to call her.
“In my short career, I have amassed a rather large winning percentage, and while as of late I haven’t been on the ball like I should’ve been, I corrected course and pretty sure the AI knows I have zero interest in the Multiplayer division now. I have one goal, and that’s to show my fists are ready to swing.”
“I should probably put it out there that I am not underselling your skill or overselling my ring work, but my record in my first nine months of actual wrestling says a lot. I really hope you don’t underestimate (as judging by what your promo was labelled) me because of the joint hanging from my lips, or some silly pathetic joke from a guy who, from what I hear, doesn’t have a pot to piss in considering who he was balls deep in.”
Cara leans forward, taking a hard haul, holding in the smokey goodness of God’s Green Crack. She leans back again, exhaling the smoke from deep in her lungs.
“I am gonna make something very clear… I am not a joke. I am not a one-trick pony. I am 11-3-1 in my first eight months competing professionally between Uprising, Revolution1 and right here in Level Up. While I enjoy my dope,” she says, displaying her more than half gone spliff, “and like to have fun, it doesn’t mean I don’t take getting into the ring shape seriously. This is my career, this industry is my future, and it runs in my blood. I take every opportunity, outside of a division I want no part of like last EXP had put me in, very fucking seriously. I am sure you do as well with having not just your man but your brother in the same line of work. I can even say you are definitely the biggest challenge outside of the Rumble of thirty wrestlers that I finished in the top ten in Revo1 where I held their futures title for a hot minute. My biggest challenge AND my biggest victory will be you, Kat.”
She lifts her brow, reaching for her beer. She takes a swig, another toke, before continuing.
“So this is what I am gonna do, Jones: I am going to dedicate this match to my mom, the dried semen flakes and the oldest child of your supposed ‘friend’ Papi Knox and my sister Victoria. I know my sister and my best friend are gone for the moment, but that won’t stop me from giving my all and kicking your ass in their honour.”
“In our family, more specifically my mamabear and auntie teebag, when they were still wrestling and not retired, had a saying as the Cowgirls From Hell, which I started my career in Uprising under and that is: God forgives, we don’t.”
“See ya on Tuesday, Kat, and may the best woman win.”
Cara takes a long haul off her spliff and exhales three large smoke circles, and blows a straight line of smoke through them, giving us a wink and the Strader sneer as the feed cuts to an advertisement for Final Fantasy.
~ END TRANSMISSION ~
Cara picks up her phone and puts it in her purse to edit later before uploading. Her tall and dark-haired, handsome boyfriend, Jake Thomas, slides in on her right as she takes the spliff from her, pulling a deep haul. He places his right hand on her thigh under the table, squeezing it.
“Filmed your promo, babe?”
“Mmm, I did. Edit it when we get back to the Ranch,” she says, taking the spliff back, referring to the third home on the massive compound estate that belonged to her mom, “After we have a little fun of our own, hmm? But just us, doll, ok?”
He nuzzles gently into her ear, kissing her lobe.
“Of course, Cara. Let’s get out of here then.”
She finishes her beer, and they head back to the ranch.
