Divine Wind RP: Huge In Japan

[Mr. PerpetuaLynch Motion]

Part 9: Huge in Japan

It’s a saying that has entered the American lexicon. I’m big in Japan. It’s often taken to be in reference to the male anatomy however in my case it’s taken on an entirely different meaning. I’m not just big in Japan, I’m huge in Japan. Then again, there aren’t many people living in this country that are almost seven feet tall and weighing over three hundred pounds but here, I get reminded just how gigantic I am everywhere I turn. And it’s not just in stature either, for some reason there are wrestling fans that have started to take a shine to me here in this country despite having only competed in three matches total in my life and that I have associated myself with one of the biggest pricks in WFWF history for my own financial gain. For a person just getting used to what some might consider “superstardom”, coming here has been trial by fire. Justin has decided to take the trip over here with me as he has worked in Japan on numerous occasions throughout his career and he’s doing his best to keep me grounded.

Trust me Lucas my boy, you best not be too worried about what the people of this country think of you. There’s a reason the WFWF only comes around here once in a blue moon.

I don’t tend to put a lot of stock in what people think of me JT.

And you’d be well suited to continue that way. Personally, I’m starting to regret jumping through all the hoops just to get you out of the States. The sooner we get back home, the better. This whole thing seems like a waste of time if you ask me.

I have to disagree.

Justin looked at me quizzically.

You disagree? Tell me then, what purpose is there to fly across the world to a country that does not speak English to compete in a match with no title implications-

Every match I compete in has title implications Justin. You know this.


Justin must have sensed the anger and frustration in my tone because he backed off.

All I’m saying Lucas is that you’re out of the Tag Team Title tournament now. That’s squashed and over with. But remember what I’m paying you for? That’s something that we’ll work towards at a later date. Right now though… I mean crap, you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not seeing the bigger picture here big guy.

I could sense a touch of frustration in Justin’s voice too. He paid a lot of money and had to deal with a lot of legal bullcrap just to make sure that his golden ticket could fly across the world for a match that on the surface has little to no meaning.

You don’t see the bigger picture here? Allow me to pull out my paintbrush then and paint you the picture. Since coming to the WFWF I have had three matches total. Actually I have had three wrestling matches total in my life. Two of them were Tag team matches and one was a single match. Are you with me so far?

Justin chuckled and motioned for me to continue.

The only match I have won so far in my career was a tag team match in which we won entirely on the back of me. Right?

Justin nods in agreement

Alright so then we go on to the second match, my only singles match to date. Do you recall what happened in that match boss man?

Justin smirks a bit and shakes his head in disbelief at this rendition of story time.

You lost.

I lost. But I lost in spectacular fashion. I took a legendary competitor in this business that many seem to look past simply because she’s a woman. I stepped into the ring with her at a severe experience disadvantage and I showed the world that I could hang with her in a one on one situation even in a loss. That match had no title implications but it sure as hell put the entire locker room on notice that this Lucas Crowe kid might be for real.

You will get no arguments from me, my friend.

So then we fast forward to last week. I stepped into the ring in another tag team competition in a match that had direct title implications like my first but this time I was entering that ring with the current, reigning WFWF Heavyweight Champion of the world and his tag team partner is the only man in this company that can claim to be bigger than me. What was the end result of that match?

You lost. Well I mean you didn’t lose but your useless tit of a partner…

But we lost. We lost this match that had direct title implications. But I put the WFWF Heavyweight Champion on notice that Lucas Crowe is a serious competitor with serious ferocity and serious drive and I let him know that he may be the current WFWF Heavyweight Champion but one day will come when I meet him again face to face, one on one and we are going to go to war. I let the only other man in this company that rivals me in size know that the next time we meet each other in that ring they are going to have to add extra supports because there is no way that ring can contain the kind of vicious battle that will ensue.

As my words leave my mouth I can tell I’m not only firing myself up but Justin is slowly starting to get amped up as well. Usually it’s Justin that is doing this kind of pep talk but for some reason I can feel my confidence swelling.

And at the end of the night when it was all said and done I let everyone in that business know that I don’t carry dead weight and that I am not someone that allows you to with my plans and get away with it. When I choked the life out of Jonny Hess and his body went limp I knew right then that even that loss meant bigger and better things for Lucas Crowe.

Justin was now smiling his full blown, creepy car salesman smile. He puts his arm around my shoulder.

Lucas my boy you’ve said all I need to hear. Every week you continue to remind me of the diamond in the rough that I discovered when I stumbled across you. Every week you go out there and compete you not only add to your own credibility but you also add to mine as a manager. And you are wise beyond your years. Not many other people can look at the positives in two straight losses but here you are convincing an older warhorse like me just how valuable those experiences are.

We’re not done here boss man. Not by a long shot because now we’re here in Japan. We’ve flown across the world now for test number four.

Right you are Big Luke. And it’s an interesting test you have ahead of yourself too. It just so happens that you’ve pulled the long stick from the pile. The only good thing about this next match being here in Japan is that it has allowed for us to put together a scouting report on someone that we ordinarily wouldn’t be able to gather one on. New guys to the company are typically hard to scout but this fellow is an accomplished competitor here in Japan.

Justin takes off his travel backpack and reaches inside and pulls out one of his usual dossiers and hands it to me. Pulling it out I notice the name “Nitro, Phoenix” scrawled across the top of the report. I begin to read what it has to say:

Phoenix Nitro spent his adolescence growing up in Atlanta, Georgia so you two have had similar upbringings. There are a lot of parallels between your lives to be found. He spent a lot of his later teens training become a professional wrestler while you were spending most of your time training in mixed martial arts and boxing. Where the biggest fork in your lives comes in the form of while you were incarcerated and limited to the amount of combat training you could actually partake in, Mr. Nitro was over here in Japan honing his craft. Phoenix had a point in his career where he endured what you’ve just recently gone through where he entered into a Tag Team tournament and used it as a platform to springboard him into superstardom due to his “never say die” attitude.

As far as strategy against Phoenix Nitro goes, it’s a coin flip. I’m not convinced that you’ll be able to beat this fellow just on size alone despite the fact you are almost a full foot taller and about one hundred and thirty pounds heavier then him. If I might suggest it, I would go the route of incorporating much more of your past Mixed Martial Arts experience into your arsenal for this match rather than the straight ahead brawling mauling that you’ve attempted in the past. Force him to give you his back and strike quicker than he probably expects you’re capable of. Lock in that choke and it’s game over for Mr. Nitro.

I pull out the photo inside and I see a lean competitor that looks capable of giving me a serious fight.

Justin?

Yes, Lucas?

Can I tell you what I’m thinking?

Absolutely, I would love to hear what is on your mind now young lad.

I’m thinking that Phoenix Nitro is coming into this match expecting to use it as a springboard for his future.

I’m thinking that you might be right in that one.

And I would wager that Phoenix Nitro is now coming into the WFWF looking at this as an experience mismatch that is going to be a cakewalk for someone with his history and pedigree.

I’d buy that for a dollar!

And I really, really believe that he thinks that Stranglehold is just a song to me when in actuality it’s title is a spoiler for how this match between us is going to end.

I believe that you might be right. Got you in a stranglehold baby, you best get out of the way!

Justin began vocalizing the guitar riff from Stranglehold for me. I couldn’t help but laugh at what a ridiculous sight it was. He did a powerslide and everything. I’m starting to think it might be a good idea to find a new theme song before it becomes an even bigger target on me.

You see Mr. Nitro, geeze I’m starting to kind of sound like you here now Justin. You see Phoenix Nitro after this event in Osaka the WFWF fans are going to find out something new about Lucas Crowe at your expense. They already know that I don’t carry dead weight, I proved that at Choke Hold. This time the lesson is going to be that Lucas Crowe does not just allow someone to stroll into the WFWF and attempt to use me as a springboard. We’re both on the same trajectory but only one of us can get there first. Sorry about your poor timing though captain because your time isn’t here yet.

I could not have put it any better myself my friend! Come, let us grab some drinks and celebrate in advance!

We had promised the US consulate that I wouldn’t drink while visiting Japan. However Justin has this inexplicable influence on the people around him called his wallet that makes people forget the things that they see. So for the first night in I don’t know how long, Justin and I shared a drink or twelve.

Part 10: Liquor? I don’t even know her!

Justin and I stumbled back into our hotel well past 3 am local time. Justin was staying in the suite down the hall from me so I bid him goodnight with a firm handshake before putting my card in the door and falling into my suite. I crawled my way across the floor and pulled myself up into the bed and lay there in a starfish pose for what felt like eternity. For some inexplicable reason I got the urge to check my phone where I saw three missed phone calls and two text messages. The three missed calls and one of the text messages were from Amy Sanders, the other text was from my friend Kevin. Kevin’s text was pretty inconsequential:

Hey bud! Good luck in your match. We’ll be cheering you on from home. Peace.

Kev

I smiled and sent a text back:

Rhsnls…. Thamks. I’;; swe uou spon Vig Lev!

I suppose that would roughly translate into "Thanks. I'll see you soon Big Kev!" Looking on to Amy’s text I felt my heart warm up (though given my inebriated state, it could very well have also been some of the liquor making its way back up (liquor? I don’t even know her!)). Her text simply read:

I miss you Luke. Text me when you get this.

Oh boy, this response was going to take one hundred percent of my concentration. I couldn’t let Amy know that I’ve been drinking. I started trying to type but it started to look like this:

Q nuaa tiu top

I wasn’t wasted enough to send that though. Deleting it I tried again this time with one eye sort of closed thinking this would somehow help me. Turns out it did because I ended up with this:

I miss you too. I’m gonna come visit when I get vack from Japan.

I set my phone down and looked to drift to sleep so I could wake up early and shake off the hangover and continue training. Just as I was about to completely fall asleep however my phone buzzed again, it was Amy once again. Her text this time was a simple smiley face followed by:

Well if you need a place to crash, you are more than welcome to stay at my place.

I could once again feel my heart get warm at the thought of being able to work things out slowly with Amy. My mind then went down the dark alley it usually goes down when I’ve been drinking and I started mulling over the idea that maybe she just wanted to reconnect with me because now I’m becoming a success making big money and she wants back into my life for that purpose.

her

I thought. Then I started thinking about how every time I’ve ran into her over the last month and a bit I was overcome with warm feelings mixed with these conflicting thoughts of anger and distrust. I started wondering if this was all part of a game being played on me by Justin.

I had a brief vision of walking down the hallway, kicking in Justin’s hotel room door and choking him out. I had a vision that I then stole his wallet with all of his cash and credit cards and used it to fly home to Detroit and I ran into Amy’s arms. The vision continued on to Amy and I getting married, having kids and me growing up to be an unsuccessful stay at home drunk and her quitting her journalist job to take care of the kids so I could drink all day. I envisioned myself one day drinking and driving with Amy in the car and with the kids sitting in the backseat. The vision had me crashing the car in a fiery spectacular fashion. I then rolled over in my bed, threw up all over the hotel room floor. I looked at my phone and saw that there had actually been no texts from Amy or Kev. No I miss you, no good luck in your match. None of that because my phones battery was actually dead. I tossed the stupid thing clean across the room and made the promise to myself right then and there that I was never going to drink ever again for the rest of my life. Drink, drank, drunk. .

[Mr. PerpetuaLynch Motion]

I tried something a little more different here partly because I am tired, partly because I wanted to give Lucas another couple edges to him. One where he's got a whole lot of confidence in himself that hasn't really had a chance to shine through which could be attributed to he's no longer the new guy in the WFWF so he's got confidence. Tried to make things a little more punchy with fewer walls of text. I enjoyed writing it for the most part outside of hitting a few walls several times... the lesson to be learned here though is that I need to stop leaving this crap 'til so close to deadline. Haha. But I was on a trip the last couple days down to Calgary to see Rush and went and visited my mother out of town on my last days off so there wasn't a lot of time I had to work with. Oh well, hope y'all can find something to enjoy here.

[Drakz]

Considering you were pressed for time this was real nice man. The way you use Justin to set up your profiling of opponents is great as it avoids feeling forced because that is genuinely his sole purpose for being there.

I personally think you could have made a little more out of the drunken dream at the end of this but that's no real issue. Keep working on forging a personality for Lucas, something that lets me know I'm reading from his point of view without ever having to see his name. You're getting there and I think you've got a pretty good grasp on the way he thinks.

Keep it up.

[Rated R]

While I fully agree with Drakz on forging a personality I have to say you did a really good job at making this read better in terms of flow. The walls of text have really been my only problem with your return stuff but this was a considerable improvement and I really think the entire piece benefited as a result. I still think there's a lot more to come from the character and every show just shows you growing into it, so keep it up.