Up The Garden Path RP - [What I Am}

[Deleted]

Sometimes I feel like Jesse James,
Still tryin' to make a name.
Knowing nothing's gonna change what I am.

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SCENE 001
- Lebanon, TN
- House Of Justin Tyger
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We fade into the darkness of bedroom of Justin Tyger, where we find Tyger and Amy Cooke lying asleep in bed. Tyger begins to toss and turn rapidly. His muttering to himself slowly grows louder and louder, which begins to wake Amy up. She sits herself up, and begins to shake Tyger’s shoulder.

Amy Cooke
Hey… Hey… You need to wake u-…

Tyger violently wakes up, jerking up and nearly screaming. His wide eyes dart back and forth across the room as he pants for breath. He slides his legs closer to him and rests his arms on his knees, wiping the sweat off his forehead, still breathing heavy.

Amy Cooke
Ar-… Are you ok? Did y-…

Tyger quickly slides out of the bed, not saying a word. He runs his hands through his hair as he hurries to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him, leaving Amy sitting in the bed, a worried and sad look obvious on her face.

Amy Cooke
…Oh no.

Inside the bathroom, Tyger stands against the door, hands on his face, as he begins to slide down to the floor. He lets out a heavy sigh as he lands, leaning his head back. He rests his elbow on his knee as he lays his forehead in the palm of his hand, staring down at the floor as his breathing begins to settle.

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SCENE 002
- Later That Night
- Nashville, TN
- House Of Mercennario
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We cut to outside of a small home, the inside dark, only illuminated by the light from a window near the center. A familiar El Camino speeds up to the house, haphazardly turning into the driveway. Justin Tyger jumps out of the car and jogs to the door carrying two bags. He gets to the door and begins rapidly knocking for a brief moment before the door opens, revealing Chris Danielson. Tyger walks inside and walking to the living room and sits the bags down on the coffee table. He tears the bags away to reveal a six pack of beer and root beer. He throws the bags on the table and grabs a beer before throwing himself down on a couch, leaning his head back and rubbing his forehead. Danielson slowly walks up and grabs a root beer before sitting down at an adjacent chair. The two sit in silence, as Danielson takes a drink from his bottle and looks over at Tyger.

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
You alright, man?

Tyger sighs and slides his hand off his face, leaning forward. He takes a long drink from his beer before staring at the ground.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
I don’t know dude. I di-… I didn’t think these would come back, Merc.

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
Well, we talked about this. You said you’d be fine if they did.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
I didn’t think they’d come back, dude. It’s been so long I thought I was fine. I don-… I just don’t think I can deal with this again.

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
What are you going to do? You going to stop wrestling again?

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
No. No dude. I… I can’t do that. I just… I can’t do that.

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
Well, looks like we’re going to have to find out a way to deal with them then.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
Eh, I just don’t know how, Merc.

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
You just have to quit worrying so much, man. You’re driving yourself crazy doing that. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that once you stopped wrestling and got to relax they went away.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
You know me, that ain’t possible. I just… I’m worried I ain’t gonna get this done, dude. This is the one thing I gotta get done. I’m just worried I ain’t good enough to get it done anymore.

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
Oh, that’s a bunch of crap and you know it. You’re as good if not better than you’ve ever been.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
I’m sure there’s enough people that would debate that.

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
Well those people are idiot blind or don’t know you. You’ve had two matches there damn good, that could have gone either way, and you’re the one that won, and you’re the one that’s going to keep winning. I’ve known you long enough to know that.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
Those are just two, it’s gonna get a hell of a lot harder now, and if I barely got those two done imagine how I’m gonna be with these next ones, eh? I just don’t know, Merc, and you see who I got next time?

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
Yeah, Magnum, I saw that. That’s gonna be a good one, I know you can get that one. You know him good enough to get it done again.

Tyger sinks down into the couch, to the point he’s nearly lying flat. He takes a gulp from his beer, before pointing his finger in the air and spinning it around.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
This is just what life does, eh? ‘Round in circles. It’s like a broke record sometimes. Just can’t get out of it.

Tyger lets out a slight chuckle over his situation, before taking another drink from his bottle.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
It’s crazy, you know. You can do all you want, and try as hard as you can, but everything just comes back around and catches up with you anyway. I guess there’s no use in worryin’ about it. If there ain’t nothin’ you can do what’s the point, eh? I guess when you get to that, what’s the use in me even tryin’ this then.

Chris "mercennario" Danielson
What’s the name of that movie you love? With Jude Law? Where the dude’s fighting with destiny and free will and all that? Maybe you should watch that again, sounds like you need it. You can stop that circling, you just gotta keep trying. Hit life in the face with a free will knee.

Tyger lets chuckle, staring at his beer bottle.

Justin "soulfire" Tyger
Sure don’t seem like it sometimes, man.

Tyger stares at his beer bottle for a second longer, before taking a drink out of it and staring in front of him.

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SCENE 003
- Journal
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It seems that no matter how hard and fast you run away from your past, it always catches up with you, doesn’t it? Ever since I returned here, it’s all that I’ve done. All I’ve done is try to run from my past and my failures and the person I used to be, yet, here we are. Thing’s just keep spinning right back around. The second I think I’m starting to make some gains, to start that I’m starting to get to where I want to be, boom, a slap in the face with something else from back then that finds it necessary to catch up with me. I decide to do this, I start worrying like hell again. I win my first match, I can’t barely get out of bed again. I win my second match, and here we are with me having my war nightmares again, and now? I’m heading into my third match, and wouldn’t you know, it’s another thing from the past trying to keep me from going down the road.

Johnny Magnum, yeah, a lot of people know the history we have. I’ve seen you mention it on the show, I’ve seen a lot of people pigeonhole my name with yours and with Roy’s, and I don’t know what story people are trying to make out of nothing, but I just want it to be known, and I want to make myself clear on this situation. I do not want anything to do with you Johnny, or anyone else that might crawl out from under the rocks from them days. I’m aggravated that I even have to go through you to get to the Title I have my eyes on. You are nothing but a road block, and a reminder of times I am trying to forget, Johnny. After our match, I will be better off never hearing your name of seeing your face again. You are the past to me Johnny, and in case you haven’t been listening to me lately, the past should stay in the past and away from my future.

There is one thing from the past that will stay true. Like I said before, life goes around in circles, no matter how hard you try things seem to stay the same, right? Well Johnny, that same thing will be true when we have our match. No matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you try to escape your fate, history will repeat itself, and I will stand above you the victor as I have time and time again.

I’m about sick and tired of trying to run away from and avoid old things. To avoid the past. Nightmares, knee pain, you, Johnny. After I beat you, and leave you in my past and out of my future, and advance to the finals of this title tournament? I’m gonna focus on a new thing. I’m gonna focus on my future.

I’m gonna focus on being National Champion.
~”Soulfire” Justin Tyger

[Johnny Wrestling]

GATTACA!

[Drakz]

Not bad mate, not bad.

I felt as though each of the scenes were cut a little short though. Just as they were gaining some momentum and you were finding your stride we cut to the next scene and it had to begin again.

The whole "I can't do this" vs the ever optimistic friend thing is a little played out, and down the line you'll need to bring your own spin to it to make it stand out from all of the others I've read but hopefully telling you that now will fuel you to think of how to make the concept more original.

I feel like I've been saying this a lot in reply to the RPs for this show but I'll do it again for you anyway:

"The second I think I’m starting to make some gains, to start that I’m starting to get to where I want to be"

First of all this sentence makes no sense but secondly the word start gets used 3 times in less than a line. That doesn't make for a fun read, and makes the whole thing a chore. You're not the only one guilty of it though, this is literally the 3rd or 4th time I've mentioned it this week.

[Dex]

I liked this piece. I agree with Drakz in that the scenes were too short, I didn't really understand the purpose of the first scene, and if it had been longer it really would've helped the theme out. The next scene was pretty good but if you added more depth you could have really knocked it out of the park and push the theme even further. Their were some grammar mistakes as Drakz also pointed out, but I did like this for the most part. The monologue was pretty solid, despite a few repeats. Good job man it's a shame Magnum didn't hand in but i'm excited to see more of you.

[jdfranchise]

First off Tyger, it sucks that Mags flaked on you because I think it would've been a good match in a tourney that has went crazy from the jump. Your piece was good bro. I like that you dug a little bit into the military background with the PTSD episode. I think you missed just a hair by cutting it off just before it started getting interesting. Maybe something of a hallucination in which he calls Amy a different name and is on edge (as is really symptomatic of PTSD patients, having friends who have served). What the PTSD scene really did for me was make Tyger sympathetic, though the scene with Merc did kind of bring me down a hair because he was over the top "oh its ok buddy" to me. I thought you brought it back pretty nice with the monologue on Mags bringing some of the past to light.

Solid work bro, and I think the best representatives of the National Title tourney are in the finals. Good luck to you.