Post by Selena Frost on Oct 1, 2023 8:34:47 GMT -5
Once more, Selena finds herself not inside the Compound housing ‘Last Man Standing’, but outside of it, as she walks the streets. With her bad luck following her, she knows better than to travel too far from the buildings, having no desire to take a wrong turn and end up in a bad alley.
Still, the Compound was ‘too easy’ to her. An estate where so much luxury is handed out? It makes her feel ‘overly spoiled’ and complacent, something ‘The Snow Queen’ cannot afford to be right now.
Switch teams…
That had been the big announcement for the next event of the tournament. The ability to ‘switch sides’, meaning any member of the red team, like her, can go to the Blue Team and vice versa…
Switch teams. She’d be lying if the idea hadn’t struck her earlier – specifically upon meeting some of her ‘teammates’ on her first day. Sure, Daniela Raye-Weathers had been very kind to her, but CJ O’Donnell had hit on her immediately, despite knowing Selena is married. Adding to that, while Selena had completed the first event with flying colors, her team still lost, with her and CJ the only members that completed the event. No one was eliminated, but Selena still quietly blames herself for the team’s loss. Nobody after her had managed to succeed in the challenge – maybe she had rubbed her bad luck or whatever it was she had on the platforms… like a black cat crossing the path!
And then there is Jessie Lee… How the hell had she managed to be teamed with the woman she despises! More bad luck…
Maybe that was why Selena was walking the streets in the city near the Compound. She is simply searching for answers, a sign, anything-
“MEOW!” the sound comes from an adjacent alley, causing Selena to look up in time to see a black cat scamper across the sidewalk, effectively crossing her path.
“Perfect…” she mutters under her breath. She has never been a superstitious person… but even she and her wife, Deanna, were willing to think there was some ‘divine prank’ at play here in this place. Maybe it’s because Selena, for the first time in her wrestling career, is doing something for herself rather than for a company or fanbase.
“Or maybe Deanna is right and I really was cursed by a gypsy.”
The small little shop to her right catches her attention, with signs and pictures of mystical eyes and hands, a crystal ball sitting on the front display, and big words reading ‘House of Oricalcos’.
The Compound doesn’t have a psychic or anything ‘supernatural’ in its abode. Maybe that is why she finds herself pulling the door open with her free hand – the other holding a dark blue thermos of black tea – and walking inside.
“Ooooorabbbooodoeeeeee!” the yell is almost enough to send the young woman packing and heading back to the Compound. What keeps her rooted is her desperation to find an answer to her current dilemma of what team she should be on – what team will serve her best interests of not only finding her passion for this sport again, but also break this string of bad luck that seems to follow her.
“Uh…hi?” She calls out as she hears the door close behind her. The curtain of silk at the back of the room is parted, revealing a lean and tall woman, wrapped in shawls and cloths.
“Oooorabbbodoee…” the woman breathes out.
“Uh…no…” Selena shakes her head, pointing to herself. “Selena.”
The dark-skinned woman gives a bow. “I understand.” She answers. “I was merely greeting you in a chant and phrase of welcome. Welcome to the ‘House of Oricalcos’. How may I serve you today?”
It takes Selena’s entire being not to fire some smartass remark about ‘not ‘knowing’ that she was going to show up or what she wanted’. How can this woman know what Selena Frost wants when Selena has ZERO clue?
“I’m…seeking some advice?” she offers the woman lamely.
“Then you have come to the right place. My name is Claira. What sort of medium do you seek? We offer crystal-ball-seeking, tarot cards, palm-“
“I don’t really know.” Selena answers bluntly. “But I… I face a dilemma about betraying some new friends for a ‘better team’. And I… I am beginning to think I have some sort of bad luck curse on me.”
“Ah… I see.” Claira gives a nod. “Right this way, please.”
Despite her trepidation, Selena follows the woman past the silked-doorway and into a room filled with stars and moon decorations. There is a small table where the woman sits, taking a sip out of a thermos that is the same make/color as Selena’s. She moves so fluidly, it is almost enchanting to the platinum-blonde, prompting her to sit in the chair opposite the table and woman. A dark hand of Claira’s sifts through a deck of tarot cards.
“I sensed a great deal of burdens on you.” She starts, eyeing Selena. “And another energy covers you – something foreign to your being. Cursed energy…”
“Yeah…” Selena shrugs, more nervously. “I ran into a black cat on the way here.”
Ignoring her words, Claira flips over one of the tarot cards. “Reversed Emperor.” She gazes at the card. “Speaks of rigidity. Inflexibility. An obsession with control.”
“And what? That’s me?” Selena scoffs. “I’m not that way anymore! I walked away from SCW. I came here to let that all go and maybe find a purpose in wrestling again.”
“Calm, child.” Claira explains. “This relates to your past. Your past is filled with rigidity and a need for control. Times where you desperately clung to whatever beliefs you could.”
Selena closes her jaw. It was true! Even within the first World Series of Wrestling, she sought to be always in control, refusing to make a mistake in the tournament if she could help it.
“Just…go on.” She quietly whispers, watching Claira flip another card.
“Reversed lovers. It means there is much disharmony within your life – or within you. That is your present.”
“Obviously.” Selena huffs. “I don’t know where to go, what to do – I’m struggling just because I don’t want to hurt my…” she doesn’t know what to call CJ and Daniela. She doesn’t give a damn about Jessie Lee, but those two? “New friends?” she shrugs awkwardly. Despite it all, she liked them both. CJ is a little rough around the edges but he seems okay and Daniela has been kind to Selena since the start of this whole tournament. Selena doesn’t want to hurt them, but she doesn’t want her ‘bad luck’ to follow them to elimination and disappointment. What if her bad luck causes one of them to be eliminated? Or hurt from one of the challenges? Or one of them to leave the Red team?
“What do I do?” Selena sighs, watching Claira flip over the third card.
“Reversed Chariot.” She breathed. “Means isolation and loneliness. That’s your future at this point.”
“Oh THAT’S comforting!” Selena spats out, understandably frustrated. “Nice to know my future means I’m screwed no matter what I do!”
“Not necessarily.” Claira tries to explain. “The future is always in motion. Fate can alter with but a decision. But a decision must be made!”
“Well… You’ve been super helpful.” Selena remarks a bit too sharply, the platinum-blonde tossing down a few dollar bills as payment for the ‘service’. Without thinking the woman reaches over for her thermos, the Snow Queen taking a quick sip of her tea, so focused on her frustrations that she doesn’t see the ‘psychic’ waving her arms at her and saying something.
“What?” Selena asks after swallowing.
“That was MY thermos.” Claira explains. “And it’s not tea. It’s a rather potent drink to help me see the markings of the universe.”
“What?” Selena shook her head, eyeing the thermos in her hand.
“It has a drug in it.” Claira explained, causing Selena’s eyes to go wide.
“You drugged me?!”
“You drank it!” Claira defended. “I didn’t do shit!”
Despite herself, Selena feels a panic rising in her. “How long do I have?”
“Not long. Especially if you have an empty stomach.”
“I do.”
“Yeah…not long.” Claira adds. “But it will fade quickly. Just get somewhere familiar and you’ll be fine.”
Quickly, Selena rushes out the door, sprinting down the street. She needs to get back to her room in the compound. If this thing hits while she’s out and about, she could end up lost in the streets or somewhere in the middle of nowhere!
She manages to reach the compound gates and slip into the large estate. She is about to breathe a sigh of relief when she sees the grass is purple… and the sky is red. “Oh geez…” she barely manages to breathe as she struggles to keep her balance, stumbling across the field. Before her, she suddenly sees a regal Emperor standing before her!
“You lack conviction!” he declares.
“I don’t lack conviction!” Selena retorts back! “I know who I am! I have fought for years for what I believe in!”
“Yet, you cower away from taking responsibility for your team! You seek to abandon them rather than lead them to victory!”
The Emperor melts before Selena, becoming part of the purple grass before suddenly morphing into-
“Deanna?!” Selena remarks in shock, seeing her wife/lover before her, the redhead covered in little but a slip of dark-green silky cloth.
“It’s not wrong to care for others.” Deanna explains. “Your love for those you trust and believe in is what makes you strong in the first place.”
“But I…” Selena isn’t given time to answer as a sound from behind her catches her attention. Turning, she sees a familiar black man sitting on a chariot, which is carried by two blue skeletons and two red skeletons. The man climbs down from his ride and approaches Selena, his leather coat billowing behind him.
“Marius from ‘The Matrix’?!” Selena asks in disbelief.
“What shall it be, Neo?” Marius asks holding his hands out, a colored pill in each hand. “The red pill…and you stay where you are. The blue pill… your mind is open to new possibilities.”
Despite herself, Selena eyes both offerings before slowly shaking her head. “Gods know what I look like to other people right now in this state… but I am not a quitter. I never have been. Maybe I AM cursed. And yeah, maybe I am setting myself up for failure with this plan, but what kind of teammate would I be if I just defected because of one loss? One failure in the last event? CJ believed in me in the last event! Daniela cheered me on! What about them? Maybe…. Maybe they can help me break this curse or whatever it is! Maybe we can help each other. Maybe… maybe we – I – need to be the one fighting the uphill battle so I can appreciate it better…”
“My point is…” she huffs before eyeing ‘Marius’ again. “Is that I don’t want to change things! I don’t want to ‘switch teams’, no matter how appealing it may be! I want to stay on the Red Team! I want to make a comeback with my…with my… with my new friends!”
Without thinking, Selena grabs the red pill and swallows it… immediately tasting… chocolate. In a flash, everything warps and twists as Selena is ripped back to reality – to the private bedroom she had made it to just before the drug fully hit. All around her on the floor, where she lays, is a pile of M’n’Ms and ripped bags from the minibar.
Looking around at the scene of discarded candy, Selena picks up another piece of red M’n’M, eyeing it carefully.
“I choose to stay on Red Team.” She whispers to herself before plopping the candy into her mouth. “For my friends… and for me.”
Still, the Compound was ‘too easy’ to her. An estate where so much luxury is handed out? It makes her feel ‘overly spoiled’ and complacent, something ‘The Snow Queen’ cannot afford to be right now.
Switch teams…
That had been the big announcement for the next event of the tournament. The ability to ‘switch sides’, meaning any member of the red team, like her, can go to the Blue Team and vice versa…
Switch teams. She’d be lying if the idea hadn’t struck her earlier – specifically upon meeting some of her ‘teammates’ on her first day. Sure, Daniela Raye-Weathers had been very kind to her, but CJ O’Donnell had hit on her immediately, despite knowing Selena is married. Adding to that, while Selena had completed the first event with flying colors, her team still lost, with her and CJ the only members that completed the event. No one was eliminated, but Selena still quietly blames herself for the team’s loss. Nobody after her had managed to succeed in the challenge – maybe she had rubbed her bad luck or whatever it was she had on the platforms… like a black cat crossing the path!
And then there is Jessie Lee… How the hell had she managed to be teamed with the woman she despises! More bad luck…
Maybe that was why Selena was walking the streets in the city near the Compound. She is simply searching for answers, a sign, anything-
“MEOW!” the sound comes from an adjacent alley, causing Selena to look up in time to see a black cat scamper across the sidewalk, effectively crossing her path.
“Perfect…” she mutters under her breath. She has never been a superstitious person… but even she and her wife, Deanna, were willing to think there was some ‘divine prank’ at play here in this place. Maybe it’s because Selena, for the first time in her wrestling career, is doing something for herself rather than for a company or fanbase.
“Or maybe Deanna is right and I really was cursed by a gypsy.”
The small little shop to her right catches her attention, with signs and pictures of mystical eyes and hands, a crystal ball sitting on the front display, and big words reading ‘House of Oricalcos’.
The Compound doesn’t have a psychic or anything ‘supernatural’ in its abode. Maybe that is why she finds herself pulling the door open with her free hand – the other holding a dark blue thermos of black tea – and walking inside.
“Ooooorabbbooodoeeeeee!” the yell is almost enough to send the young woman packing and heading back to the Compound. What keeps her rooted is her desperation to find an answer to her current dilemma of what team she should be on – what team will serve her best interests of not only finding her passion for this sport again, but also break this string of bad luck that seems to follow her.
“Uh…hi?” She calls out as she hears the door close behind her. The curtain of silk at the back of the room is parted, revealing a lean and tall woman, wrapped in shawls and cloths.
“Oooorabbbodoee…” the woman breathes out.
“Uh…no…” Selena shakes her head, pointing to herself. “Selena.”
The dark-skinned woman gives a bow. “I understand.” She answers. “I was merely greeting you in a chant and phrase of welcome. Welcome to the ‘House of Oricalcos’. How may I serve you today?”
It takes Selena’s entire being not to fire some smartass remark about ‘not ‘knowing’ that she was going to show up or what she wanted’. How can this woman know what Selena Frost wants when Selena has ZERO clue?
“I’m…seeking some advice?” she offers the woman lamely.
“Then you have come to the right place. My name is Claira. What sort of medium do you seek? We offer crystal-ball-seeking, tarot cards, palm-“
“I don’t really know.” Selena answers bluntly. “But I… I face a dilemma about betraying some new friends for a ‘better team’. And I… I am beginning to think I have some sort of bad luck curse on me.”
“Ah… I see.” Claira gives a nod. “Right this way, please.”
Despite her trepidation, Selena follows the woman past the silked-doorway and into a room filled with stars and moon decorations. There is a small table where the woman sits, taking a sip out of a thermos that is the same make/color as Selena’s. She moves so fluidly, it is almost enchanting to the platinum-blonde, prompting her to sit in the chair opposite the table and woman. A dark hand of Claira’s sifts through a deck of tarot cards.
“I sensed a great deal of burdens on you.” She starts, eyeing Selena. “And another energy covers you – something foreign to your being. Cursed energy…”
“Yeah…” Selena shrugs, more nervously. “I ran into a black cat on the way here.”
Ignoring her words, Claira flips over one of the tarot cards. “Reversed Emperor.” She gazes at the card. “Speaks of rigidity. Inflexibility. An obsession with control.”
“And what? That’s me?” Selena scoffs. “I’m not that way anymore! I walked away from SCW. I came here to let that all go and maybe find a purpose in wrestling again.”
“Calm, child.” Claira explains. “This relates to your past. Your past is filled with rigidity and a need for control. Times where you desperately clung to whatever beliefs you could.”
Selena closes her jaw. It was true! Even within the first World Series of Wrestling, she sought to be always in control, refusing to make a mistake in the tournament if she could help it.
“Just…go on.” She quietly whispers, watching Claira flip another card.
“Reversed lovers. It means there is much disharmony within your life – or within you. That is your present.”
“Obviously.” Selena huffs. “I don’t know where to go, what to do – I’m struggling just because I don’t want to hurt my…” she doesn’t know what to call CJ and Daniela. She doesn’t give a damn about Jessie Lee, but those two? “New friends?” she shrugs awkwardly. Despite it all, she liked them both. CJ is a little rough around the edges but he seems okay and Daniela has been kind to Selena since the start of this whole tournament. Selena doesn’t want to hurt them, but she doesn’t want her ‘bad luck’ to follow them to elimination and disappointment. What if her bad luck causes one of them to be eliminated? Or hurt from one of the challenges? Or one of them to leave the Red team?
“What do I do?” Selena sighs, watching Claira flip over the third card.
“Reversed Chariot.” She breathed. “Means isolation and loneliness. That’s your future at this point.”
“Oh THAT’S comforting!” Selena spats out, understandably frustrated. “Nice to know my future means I’m screwed no matter what I do!”
“Not necessarily.” Claira tries to explain. “The future is always in motion. Fate can alter with but a decision. But a decision must be made!”
“Well… You’ve been super helpful.” Selena remarks a bit too sharply, the platinum-blonde tossing down a few dollar bills as payment for the ‘service’. Without thinking the woman reaches over for her thermos, the Snow Queen taking a quick sip of her tea, so focused on her frustrations that she doesn’t see the ‘psychic’ waving her arms at her and saying something.
“What?” Selena asks after swallowing.
“That was MY thermos.” Claira explains. “And it’s not tea. It’s a rather potent drink to help me see the markings of the universe.”
“What?” Selena shook her head, eyeing the thermos in her hand.
“It has a drug in it.” Claira explained, causing Selena’s eyes to go wide.
“You drugged me?!”
“You drank it!” Claira defended. “I didn’t do shit!”
Despite herself, Selena feels a panic rising in her. “How long do I have?”
“Not long. Especially if you have an empty stomach.”
“I do.”
“Yeah…not long.” Claira adds. “But it will fade quickly. Just get somewhere familiar and you’ll be fine.”
Quickly, Selena rushes out the door, sprinting down the street. She needs to get back to her room in the compound. If this thing hits while she’s out and about, she could end up lost in the streets or somewhere in the middle of nowhere!
She manages to reach the compound gates and slip into the large estate. She is about to breathe a sigh of relief when she sees the grass is purple… and the sky is red. “Oh geez…” she barely manages to breathe as she struggles to keep her balance, stumbling across the field. Before her, she suddenly sees a regal Emperor standing before her!
“You lack conviction!” he declares.
“I don’t lack conviction!” Selena retorts back! “I know who I am! I have fought for years for what I believe in!”
“Yet, you cower away from taking responsibility for your team! You seek to abandon them rather than lead them to victory!”
The Emperor melts before Selena, becoming part of the purple grass before suddenly morphing into-
“Deanna?!” Selena remarks in shock, seeing her wife/lover before her, the redhead covered in little but a slip of dark-green silky cloth.
“It’s not wrong to care for others.” Deanna explains. “Your love for those you trust and believe in is what makes you strong in the first place.”
“But I…” Selena isn’t given time to answer as a sound from behind her catches her attention. Turning, she sees a familiar black man sitting on a chariot, which is carried by two blue skeletons and two red skeletons. The man climbs down from his ride and approaches Selena, his leather coat billowing behind him.
“Marius from ‘The Matrix’?!” Selena asks in disbelief.
“What shall it be, Neo?” Marius asks holding his hands out, a colored pill in each hand. “The red pill…and you stay where you are. The blue pill… your mind is open to new possibilities.”
Despite herself, Selena eyes both offerings before slowly shaking her head. “Gods know what I look like to other people right now in this state… but I am not a quitter. I never have been. Maybe I AM cursed. And yeah, maybe I am setting myself up for failure with this plan, but what kind of teammate would I be if I just defected because of one loss? One failure in the last event? CJ believed in me in the last event! Daniela cheered me on! What about them? Maybe…. Maybe they can help me break this curse or whatever it is! Maybe we can help each other. Maybe… maybe we – I – need to be the one fighting the uphill battle so I can appreciate it better…”
“My point is…” she huffs before eyeing ‘Marius’ again. “Is that I don’t want to change things! I don’t want to ‘switch teams’, no matter how appealing it may be! I want to stay on the Red Team! I want to make a comeback with my…with my… with my new friends!”
Without thinking, Selena grabs the red pill and swallows it… immediately tasting… chocolate. In a flash, everything warps and twists as Selena is ripped back to reality – to the private bedroom she had made it to just before the drug fully hit. All around her on the floor, where she lays, is a pile of M’n’Ms and ripped bags from the minibar.
Looking around at the scene of discarded candy, Selena picks up another piece of red M’n’M, eyeing it carefully.
“I choose to stay on Red Team.” She whispers to herself before plopping the candy into her mouth. “For my friends… and for me.”