Post by Admin on Feb 17, 2023 19:47:12 GMT
Strader Ranch
Strader Estate, Texas
The master bedroom on the bottom floor of the home was fairly similar to Netflix’s The Ranch. Veronica was looking through clothes to pack because she had made a difficult yet not so difficult decision. It was quite the conundrum she found herself faced with: go through that PORTAL back to Night City dimension and have her child or stay and risk the pregnancy by wrestling? Plus, she had to worry about Strader enemies and her pregnancy was a vulnerable situation. Veronica returns to the bed from the closet, places her hands on her stomach and sits down quickly, with a look of terror. Veronica didn’t scare easily, but being pregnant with Outcast’s child with him 6 feet under made her feel incredibly alone.
“It’s ok, Veronica. You can do this. Mom is gonna help, well, as much as her psyche can from Vee’s apartment’s OS… so weird having a digital copy of mom. No one would ever believe it, little one.”
She gently taps her fingers on her belly when she hears her iPhone 12 Mini play “Just A Girl” by No Doubt. Vee’s ponytail and smiling face fill the phone screen.
“Hey, I am almost done packing. How’s the promo going?”
“Good, good. Brook is flabbergasted at our ‘stone age’ technology, haha, but good.”
“You really think you can pull off pretending to be me?”
“You might’ve been in control for months when we were trapped together in the same body, but it doesn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention. I got this. You just go have a safe pregnancy. ‘Mom’ will be there, and Rogue owes me more than one.”
“It’s weird calling her mom. Is that what you call it? I mean her or…?”
“Don’t get hung up on the semantics of it, Ron. I call her mom, but she suggested what Auntie Teebag would call mom.”
“Megz… ok, yeah, I can do that. Thanks again for doing this. And smart thinking of giving me the PORTAL control.”
“Go and get set up and just be back to face Vaughn, and I got Vebbins. Before you ask, yes, I went over your notes on Vebbins. I will put her in her place. Love you, Ronnie.”
“You too, Vee. Thank you.”
They disconnect, and Veronica finishes her packing. Looking around her room, she walks over to her dresser and grabs the photo on top of her Christian doing the pre-show arrival to Luck of the Violent March 2022. She lifts her wrist up to a device that looks similar to an Apple Watch and a portal opens up in front, much like something from a Dr. Strange movie, and steps through with her belongings into Victoria’s Night City condo. The portal closes and, just like in Blade Runner 2049, ‘Meghan Strader’ appears via holographic technology.
“Welcome home, babygirl.”
“Thanks… Megz….”
‘Meghan’ activates the combat turned housekeeping roboguard and it takes Veronica’s begs to the open bedroom upstairs, leaving Veronica with her mother’s engram. This was sure to be an interesting time for the pregnant Veronica Strader, and her thoughts with Victoria.
Carnival Funhouse
Unknown Location
Victoria Strader stands in the centre of the mirror section of the creepy presumably abandoned Funhouse, setting up for the promo as masquerading as Veronica. A gorgeous redhead, with her cherry red lips, comes up behind her, wrapping her right arm around her neck and chest while her left holds her midsection, fingers wandering to her waist. Victoria hangs her hands on the woman’s arm.
“Nervous, lover?”
“Yes, but not for me, Brook.”
“Listen.” Brooklyn turns Vee around, putting her arms over her shoulders, coming in close. “Ronnie is gonna be preem. She has ‘Megz’ and Rogue. Plus, if she’s anything like you, she’s stone cold tough.”
“(Chuckles) Yeah, I know. I know. Just that she’s pregnant with the love of her life’s child, and he’s dead. Plus, the overwhelming confusion of having a digital perfect copy of mom there and not being able to lean on us?”
Vee frowns slightly but shrugs.
“The family has enemies. Ronnie has enemies. Outcast definitely had enemies, so this is just the best course of action.”
“Don’t you feel like a bit of a gonk? It’s real shimra and you’re a nova sister for doing this.”
Vee has to laugh at Brooklyn’s slang and kisses her gently on the forehead.
“We are gonna have to work on your choice of words while we are in disguise, Luv.”
“Yes, ma’am. So what’s a wrestling promo?”
The Strader Sneer, the one thing Victoria doesn’t have to fake, creeps across her face.
“Press the button on the camera with the red dot that has the letters ‘REC’ beside it and I will show you.”
~ START TRANSMISSION ~
“CU:LT, things just didn’t go as planned at Ladder Day Saints, and I want to say to Chester, you got one over last round but after Bangers and Mash, and I’ve earned my shot at the SNUFF Championship, I’ll know what to expect, but something tells me you won’t.”
Is that a smirk?
“But first, I have someone I need to get through. Someone that is well known and loved by our peers in this industry; Azurine Vebbins.”
“I mean, who doesn't know who Vebbins is? She’s that buxom redhead, glasses wearing, ‘australian’ (what? I was raised in OCW) who lives to tell us what national day it is. Plus, she parades herself around the stripper’s pole at the Velvet Rabbit in her free time. Apparently sexploitation is alright these days, as long as it's ran by a wrestler.”
Vee shrugs.
“I am not shaming, that’s not what I do, just laying out the facts. Huh, facts. Such a dirty word in the business and the entire world these days. But I am gonna lay some down for people. Facts a child could understand just by watching.”
“Fact number one, Vebbins seems to have a hard time holding down or honouring a contract. How many promotions have you wrestled for? For me approaching three years I have been around, two in the ring. But you, how many? I started my wrestling career in OCW in late 2021, but you? I wouldn’t even want to sit down to count them all because honestly? I have better things to do, like when I held my first championship for one hundred and seventy-six days. I’ll have to find out how many ‘National Day Of’s happened during that period, eh?”
Her left fist smashes the distorted mirror on the far left, removing the short Vee. Even with the flickering lights of the old funhouse, the blood dripping from her hand is quite visible.
"Is it because you are eager to learn and experience? So you jump place to place? Or is it the more likely scenario that you lost a match or two, tucked tail and ran away? But not before telling the company whose contract you didn’t hold up that maybe you were too busy, right? But we can always count on you showing up in another place not long after.”
"For example, weren’t you just in Thunder Pro Wrestling? A place I used to own actually. Did ya have a match, lose that match, dishonour your contract to only sign with Limitless Wrestling where my Auntie Teebag is about to become their World Champion? And of course here, where I am going to cut you a new and beautiful smile. Because....”
“Why. So. Serious?!”
The far right mirror of warped Vee shatters. This time, her right hand is the culprit and bleeding.
“I am here to shatter the image that anyone should take you seriously."
“See, wrestlers like you? They piss me off. People adulate themselves as these great competitors and talk massive shit, but can’t handle it when their egos get slightly bruised. You think you can do something as fucking arrogant as saying you are gonna hip-toss me onto shards of glass and that is gonna knock me out? Surely you're joking or at the very least trying to sound tough because I have fought men and women that would eat you for all three meals of the day. I’ve been put through part of a house being brought down on top of my head, to being electrocuted with a cattle-prod, to facing the Supreme Machine in a jungle all the while coming out the winner.”
“I can count on one hand how many times someone has gotten the better of me since my career started a year and a half ago. People seem to forget I am the product of ‘The Raven’ Matthew Knox and the late, great ‘Cowgirl From Hell’ Meghan Strader.”
“And of course, my own hard goddamn work.”
Now the short and wide Vee has dissipated with the sound of the glass bouncing off the rotting floor.
“All of us Straders? Our cores are of a similar base, Vebbs. We all have our own distinct personalities, but our actions speak volumes louder. Like Ver- -(cough, cough) like myself, we all prefer to stand in the ring and let our actions tell you what we think. Tell you what’s about to happen to you. Unfortunately for you, Vebbs, I’m not a lot of the slugs you end up in the ring with.”
“Our dedication to this hasn’t wavered since the days of Great Grandpa William Strader. We might have other ventures, right after family… but this business might as well be family because it is a part of us. Your focus, on the other hand, is out of focus. It lies in teaching meaningless classes at that damn Rabbit, swinging your ass around the ‘ballet’ pole, flirting with whoever your girlfriend is at the time or flirting with other girls you deem pretty.”
“Like I said before, I’m not here to shame you. My sister Cara is in a cuckold relationship. Victoria has a gorgeous girlfriend.” Vee looks to be winking to someone off screen, but it’s hard to tell in the last mirror that gives us the Strader-Slenderman fusion. “And I am not shaming your lifestyle choices. I am shaming your dedication to this grand sport. And for thinking you were stepping into the ring with a pushover. That was disrespectful to me and you really pissed me off when you said that.”
“See... I will plant your face, face-first with My Friend of Misery, or maybe Blackened, into those shards of glass. Then I am going to take said glass and cut you into fifty pieces and mail you to all 50 states.”
The final glass shatters, sending pieces into the camera, disrupting visibility for a few seconds when Veronica steps through the smashed out mirrors. The Strader sneer is etched across her face. She bends down, picking up a shard, gripping it tightly almost to the point of skin piercing.
“God forgives, Azzy.”
“I don’t.”
The scene fades as she walks to the camera and carves “V.S.” into the lens.
~ End Transmission ~
“I know, Veronica is… rougher around the edges than I am. Needed to pile it on, and besides… She disrespected my sister. I’m going to make her regret it. Alright, let’s clean this up and I’ll take you down to the ranch. It belonged to our mom.”
“I can’t wait to see a non-apocalyptic wasteland for the first time!”
Vee smirks, kissing her lover gently. Things were gonna be different.
