Post by Travis Pierce on Oct 24, 2014 11:11:08 GMT -5
Rob Cartwright is reluctant as he stands outside the door, uncertain of whether or not to proceed. He turns away from it not once, but twice, each time ultimately turning back. It is after several minutes of indecisiveness that he finally raps on the door with his knuckles.
After all, he has no choice.
Cartwright: ...hi.
Travis stares at him through the open doorway, but finally smiles and steps to the side.
Pierce: Come on in.
Rob enters the apartment and Travis closes the door behind him, before leading him into the living room and taking a seat on the couch. He gestures for Rob to sit as well, but Rob shakes his head.
Cartwright: I shouldn’t stay long.
Pierce: Why not? It took you long enough to get out of there, you should enjoy it.
Cartwright: That’s the thing, Trav. I didn’t leave.
Pierce: I heard Gian led a major walkout, cleared out everybody.
Cartwright: Not really. Most of them just happened to be headed out to the food trucks for lunch at the same time.
Pierce: I miss those trucks. Paco’s Tacos, hit the spot every day.
Cartwright: I can’t afford to leave this job. I need it, my family needs it.
Pierce: You could get a job doing what you do for any major media company.
Cartwright: You priced me out a long time ago, and even if you hadn’t, the no-compete clause in my contract is suffocating.
Pierce: I never gave you a no-compete.
Cartwright: Eden renewed my contract the week before Sin City. I didn’t have any reason not to do it.
Pierce: No, of course not. Shit, Rob, I’m sorry.
Cartwright: You didn’t know what was coming. Nobody did.
Pierce: I promise you, I’m going to make it all right. First I take Battleground, and then I take Eden.
Cartwright: Why aren’t you and Jet challenging her together? Or going into Battleground together? The Piercing Weapons were an unstoppable force for years.
Pierce: I told him that what I do now, I have to do on my own. I made this mess. It has to be me that cleans it up.
Cartwright: He accepted that?
Pierce: No. Maybe. But he’ll respect it. He needs to.
Cartwright: Is that why he’s supporting Holden?
Pierce: Holden?
Cartwright: There was talk backstage at Synergy that Jet is lending his support and guidance to Holden Orson in Battleground.
Pierce: Yeah, okay. If Holden Orsen won Battleground, he’d use it to give himself a Wooden Cage 3D Chess Match at Horizons against Howard Schultz, and he’d make it the opener. Jet has enough to worry about, facing Eden with Remi lurking like a snake in the grass. To be honest? I don’t care what happens in that match. I don’t care if Eden still has the title afterwards or not. The headline the next morning is going to be that Travis Pierce was the winner of Battleground.
Cartwright: Well, I can guarantee it won’t be that.
Pierce: You’re right, it’ll be Zeke, and he’ll use it to set up an Iron Man match against his own conscience. Come on, Rob, you really don’t think I could do it?
Cartwright: Travis Pierce can’t win Battleground.
Pierce: Wow. That is cold.
Cartwright: No, I mean…
He hands Travis an envelope that he has been carrying this entire time.
Cartwright: Travis Pierce can’t win Battleground.
Travis stares at him, puzzled, but tears the envelope open and quickly reads the letter contained within.
Cartwright: She made me be the one to bring it to you, I’m sorry.
Pierce: She can do this?
Cartwright: I guess if it’s possible to murder someone on a live broadcast with no repercussions, it’s possible to do that.
Travis drops the letter and buries his head in his hands.
Cartwright: What are you going to do?
Travis takes a deep breath and rests his chin on his folded hands.
Pierce: I suppose she thinks that if Travis Pierce can’t compete at Battleground, that her pet Zane might be able to coast to victory, and since he can be trusted to do whatever she wants, she gains control of the main event of Horizons.
Cartwright: So what are you going to do?
Pierce: I’m going to win Battleground.
Ooley: Do you have any concept of the shit storm Ol’ Bob is digging his way out of right now, because of you?
Pierce: Maybe?
Ooley: No, fucking don’t. Let me explain it to you.
The Director of Human Resources picks up a stack of paper and drops it on the desk directly in front of Travis, such that several pieces slide off and into his lap.
Ooley: I come into the office on Tuesday to a nice heap of cease and desist letters, all regarding you. I don’t know what you did to that broad but you went and pissed her off good. We can’t use you now. Travis Pierce is worthless.
Pierce: I think you’re overreacting.
Ooley: Am I? You’ve spent your career building a brand, and loathe as I am to admit it, you did a pretty damn good job. Then you went and gave somebody else control of it, and now a company that started and got yourself fired from owns everything about you. I have a stack of letters here threatening legal action if UGWC utilizes any of the intellectual property associated with you. We can’t use your name, can’t play your music, can’t do anything. Do you know how many “You just got Pierced” shirts I have in a box in the back? I’d be afraid to use them to wipe my ass at this point.
Pierce: She can’t do this.
Ooley: Why not? A guy got away with murdering people on the air and nobody gave a crap.
Pierce: Why does everybody keep making that comparison? That’s a horrible comparison.
Ooley: The point is she did it, it’s done, and now Travis Pierce can’t appear on any UGWC broadcasts. It stuns me as much as I’m sure it stuns you that I’m about to say this, but I actually feel a bit sorry for you.
Pierce: Thank you?
Ooley: But as much as I’m sorry, that’s about half as angry as Louis is that we’ve been served with a bunch of fucking legal documents because of you!
The Director shoves the remains of the stack of paper over into Pierce’s lap.
Ooley: You’re out of Battleground.
Pierce: You need me in Battleground.
Ooley: Right, like I need a knife in my eye.
Pierce: And have you thought about what might happen if I’m not in Battleground? Do you know what Harley Addams would do if she won Battleground? She’d pinch herself and wake up. Zam wins Battleground, and Remi Monroe backdoors his way into the Horizons main event whether he wins this week or not. The credibility issues you guys are having with the World Title, what happens then? No, you need me in Battleground, and you need me to win it, because after I do that, I’m going to Horizons and taking this entire mess and shoving it right down Eden’s throat.
Robert Ooley says nothing, contemplating what has been said, as Travis stands up from his chair.
Pierce: There is more to me than just “Travis Pierce” and you know that. A few years ago I was the centerpiece of your Human Resources Department for a reason. You saw something then, and everyone is going to see it now. I’m going to Battleground, and you’re not going to stop me.
He starts to leave.
Ooley: You can’t be Travis Pierce.
Pierce: Yeah, I get that.
Ooley: So what do you expect me to tell the production team? The announcers are just supposed to mumble when you do something?
Travis stops at the door, and there is a hint of a smile as he looks back at the Director.
Pierce: Call me Trevor Sharp.
After all, he has no choice.
Cartwright: ...hi.
Travis stares at him through the open doorway, but finally smiles and steps to the side.
Pierce: Come on in.
Rob enters the apartment and Travis closes the door behind him, before leading him into the living room and taking a seat on the couch. He gestures for Rob to sit as well, but Rob shakes his head.
Cartwright: I shouldn’t stay long.
Pierce: Why not? It took you long enough to get out of there, you should enjoy it.
Cartwright: That’s the thing, Trav. I didn’t leave.
Pierce: I heard Gian led a major walkout, cleared out everybody.
Cartwright: Not really. Most of them just happened to be headed out to the food trucks for lunch at the same time.
Pierce: I miss those trucks. Paco’s Tacos, hit the spot every day.
Cartwright: I can’t afford to leave this job. I need it, my family needs it.
Pierce: You could get a job doing what you do for any major media company.
Cartwright: You priced me out a long time ago, and even if you hadn’t, the no-compete clause in my contract is suffocating.
Pierce: I never gave you a no-compete.
Cartwright: Eden renewed my contract the week before Sin City. I didn’t have any reason not to do it.
Pierce: No, of course not. Shit, Rob, I’m sorry.
Cartwright: You didn’t know what was coming. Nobody did.
Pierce: I promise you, I’m going to make it all right. First I take Battleground, and then I take Eden.
Cartwright: Why aren’t you and Jet challenging her together? Or going into Battleground together? The Piercing Weapons were an unstoppable force for years.
Pierce: I told him that what I do now, I have to do on my own. I made this mess. It has to be me that cleans it up.
Cartwright: He accepted that?
Pierce: No. Maybe. But he’ll respect it. He needs to.
Cartwright: Is that why he’s supporting Holden?
Pierce: Holden?
Cartwright: There was talk backstage at Synergy that Jet is lending his support and guidance to Holden Orson in Battleground.
Pierce: Yeah, okay. If Holden Orsen won Battleground, he’d use it to give himself a Wooden Cage 3D Chess Match at Horizons against Howard Schultz, and he’d make it the opener. Jet has enough to worry about, facing Eden with Remi lurking like a snake in the grass. To be honest? I don’t care what happens in that match. I don’t care if Eden still has the title afterwards or not. The headline the next morning is going to be that Travis Pierce was the winner of Battleground.
Cartwright: Well, I can guarantee it won’t be that.
Pierce: You’re right, it’ll be Zeke, and he’ll use it to set up an Iron Man match against his own conscience. Come on, Rob, you really don’t think I could do it?
Cartwright: Travis Pierce can’t win Battleground.
Pierce: Wow. That is cold.
Cartwright: No, I mean…
He hands Travis an envelope that he has been carrying this entire time.
Cartwright: Travis Pierce can’t win Battleground.
Travis stares at him, puzzled, but tears the envelope open and quickly reads the letter contained within.
Cartwright: She made me be the one to bring it to you, I’m sorry.
Pierce: She can do this?
Cartwright: I guess if it’s possible to murder someone on a live broadcast with no repercussions, it’s possible to do that.
Travis drops the letter and buries his head in his hands.
Cartwright: What are you going to do?
Travis takes a deep breath and rests his chin on his folded hands.
Pierce: I suppose she thinks that if Travis Pierce can’t compete at Battleground, that her pet Zane might be able to coast to victory, and since he can be trusted to do whatever she wants, she gains control of the main event of Horizons.
Cartwright: So what are you going to do?
Pierce: I’m going to win Battleground.
Ooley: Do you have any concept of the shit storm Ol’ Bob is digging his way out of right now, because of you?
Pierce: Maybe?
Ooley: No, fucking don’t. Let me explain it to you.
The Director of Human Resources picks up a stack of paper and drops it on the desk directly in front of Travis, such that several pieces slide off and into his lap.
Ooley: I come into the office on Tuesday to a nice heap of cease and desist letters, all regarding you. I don’t know what you did to that broad but you went and pissed her off good. We can’t use you now. Travis Pierce is worthless.
Pierce: I think you’re overreacting.
Ooley: Am I? You’ve spent your career building a brand, and loathe as I am to admit it, you did a pretty damn good job. Then you went and gave somebody else control of it, and now a company that started and got yourself fired from owns everything about you. I have a stack of letters here threatening legal action if UGWC utilizes any of the intellectual property associated with you. We can’t use your name, can’t play your music, can’t do anything. Do you know how many “You just got Pierced” shirts I have in a box in the back? I’d be afraid to use them to wipe my ass at this point.
Pierce: She can’t do this.
Ooley: Why not? A guy got away with murdering people on the air and nobody gave a crap.
Pierce: Why does everybody keep making that comparison? That’s a horrible comparison.
Ooley: The point is she did it, it’s done, and now Travis Pierce can’t appear on any UGWC broadcasts. It stuns me as much as I’m sure it stuns you that I’m about to say this, but I actually feel a bit sorry for you.
Pierce: Thank you?
Ooley: But as much as I’m sorry, that’s about half as angry as Louis is that we’ve been served with a bunch of fucking legal documents because of you!
The Director shoves the remains of the stack of paper over into Pierce’s lap.
Ooley: You’re out of Battleground.
Pierce: You need me in Battleground.
Ooley: Right, like I need a knife in my eye.
Pierce: And have you thought about what might happen if I’m not in Battleground? Do you know what Harley Addams would do if she won Battleground? She’d pinch herself and wake up. Zam wins Battleground, and Remi Monroe backdoors his way into the Horizons main event whether he wins this week or not. The credibility issues you guys are having with the World Title, what happens then? No, you need me in Battleground, and you need me to win it, because after I do that, I’m going to Horizons and taking this entire mess and shoving it right down Eden’s throat.
Robert Ooley says nothing, contemplating what has been said, as Travis stands up from his chair.
Pierce: There is more to me than just “Travis Pierce” and you know that. A few years ago I was the centerpiece of your Human Resources Department for a reason. You saw something then, and everyone is going to see it now. I’m going to Battleground, and you’re not going to stop me.
He starts to leave.
Ooley: You can’t be Travis Pierce.
Pierce: Yeah, I get that.
Ooley: So what do you expect me to tell the production team? The announcers are just supposed to mumble when you do something?
Travis stops at the door, and there is a hint of a smile as he looks back at the Director.
Pierce: Call me Trevor Sharp.
