Post by Magdalena Lockheart on Aug 4, 2021 7:32:46 GMT -5
- Prologue -
May 28th -
"So what do you say, Am?" Magdalena said as she perked up. "I give you the money to start your own tattoo parlor as an investor with no say in the day-to-day operations whatsoever, and in return I simply take the smallest slice of your profit margin to put back into my own savings eventually."
Amber leaned forward. "Until the loan is paid off, right? I assume with interest, since this is supposed to be mutually beneficial."
Maggie nodded her head. "Of course. But it won't be a lot, I promise. And I won't hound you to pay me back, either. If the new shop never makes a dime then you'll never be forced to pay me back out of pocket."
"Oh really? Wow." Amber replied as she leaned forward across the table. "You'd be willing to do that for me... why? Because you trust me that much?"
"Amber..." Maggie smiled. "I trust you implicitly. I want so badly for us to just work together again."
"...you really do?"
"Of course I do, Am. I love-"
Amber finished her martini and sat the empty glass down between them.
"Then the answer's no."
::: 6/10 Studios Presents :::
MML.2021.014 - Amber
They say that when two people discuss an issue between them, that each of them holds half of the truth.
Amber Caldwell was well aware that her half of the truth sometimes hurt the person hearing it.
But that's who Amber was, in essence; who she had always been. Am never pulled a punch for anyone, didn't matter what their relationship status was beit girlfriend or coworker or boss or even her mother and father. The lanky, dark-haired girl with earthly eyes and her own collection of tattoos covering her alabaster complexion would attest that there was a certain magic in pure, unfiltered honesty.
Every job she's ever had, every person she's ever dated, and anyone she has ever told that she loved could rest easy in the fact that nothing untrue ever passed the threshold of her lips; painted or otherwise.
She felt it a virtue, being generally unafraid to speak her pure truth. But she wasn't unaware of the costs, either.
Since that fateful night where she told Magdalena no, the better part of a month went by without a single call or a word. Sure, Am was well aware of the Black Dawn fiasco, that an actress who vaguely resembled her person donned period garb and pretended to prosecute Maggie in what could only be Magdalena Lockheart acting out in frustration.
It tempted her.
She could have called... could have bitched her out. Could have contacted 1-800-LAWYERS to get the promo taken down. But she didn't. Truth was, even though she knew she had to tell Maggie no that night, it didn't stop her from feeling guilty about doing it.
She knew Maggie well enough to know that sometimes the artist struggled to express herself by conventional means. She knew that whatever relationship that they had left was on thin-ice the moment that they met up in that bar in SoHo. She knew saying no that night and walking out of the bar empty-handed might have been the last time that she and Maggie were ever going to speak to each other.
Either way though, the message from her former lover was loud and clear:
Stay away. Stay far the fuck away.
Message received.
July 25th -
It wasn't long after Amber's mother had passed from old age that her father soon followed.
It was the perfect end to a perfectly horrific twelve-month period in Amber's life. A tattoo artist by trade, everything seemed to be going so well on her move into the big city until fate and/or circumstance seemed to upend it at every turn.
With the Paper Street Tattoo parlor now a fading memory, and the impact of the global pandemic being felt industry-wide, there was nowhere for her to turn to get back on her feet financially. Even as skilled as she was, there was nothing available for her to do.
Making matters even worse was the reading of her parents last will and testament which officially left her a farmhouse seated upon acres of land in upstate New York. The only problem with that was, Amber had no living siblings and moreover no ambition whatsoever to carry on the family farm.
Feeling stranded, she had little options, none of which were inherently good. But even a meager waitress's salary could potentially stop the bleeding long enough until a spot in a local parlor opened up. She might not have wanted to be a farmer, but she wasn't going to lose her parents' farm without trying to save it first.
The only problem with that was now she was located out in the middle of nowhere. Jack's Tattooapalooza up the road had one artist, and his name was Jack. She gave it a shot anyway. If the worst came to fruition there was always Applebee's, she reasoned.
"Hi, welcome to Applebee's," she said as a couple of farm boys took a seat at one of her assigned tables. "What can I get for you?"
Of course, her mind was elsewhere most nights. Having a bar in the restaurant was convenient in helping her drink most of her tips away. But again, some nights were worse than others.
"Hey, do y'all get wrestling pay-per-views on the TV?" One of the men asked. "WrestleStock Day 4 is on."
"Wrestlestock?"
"Yuup, it's the big night, the one the whole week's been building towards," the guy in dirty denim overalls explained. "Hall of Fame Induction. World title's on the line. The open finals are set to happen too."
The Open.
"Uhh yeah, umm, sure. I'll see what I can do about getting that on for you guys," She replied with her mind so aloft that she nearly forgot to take their drink orders. "So uhh... you wouldn't happen to know who is in the open finals this year?"
"Yeah uhh, Pierce is one. Travis Pierce. Also that guy who just upset the Avenger the other night... ohhh... was it Duncan? It was Duncan something... Duncan Shepard, Ryder... I don't remember."
"Oh," Am nodded at him. "So it's Pierce vs. Shepard then. Sounds like a good final."
"There was one other though, right?" The second man added. "It was supposed to be a triple threat... waddinit?"
"Yeah, you're right," The first farm boy replied, "it was that chick who beat the crazy chick in the semis."
"Haha, which one? They was both crazy."
Amber rolled her eyes. Please don't say Maggie. Tell her it was anybody but Maggie.
"Oh yeah, I remember! They's fightin' that Jehovah's legacy Witness chick... Maggie Braveheart!"
Over the course of their meal Amber's fears had been realized.
Risking her own job, she couldn't pull herself away from the screen. She could tell just by the look of Maggie when she first walked through the curtain that she had been through hell. Amber was well aware of what Bert McAlroy did to her at Dead by Daylight just a week ago.
To anyone watching it should have been clear that Maggie was in no condition to compete, but Amber knew that nothing was going to stop her, the least of which the signals from her own body screaming at her to just stop. Am watched as her ex-girlfriend, her ex-best friend, her ex-lover and boss continued down along the path to self-destruction... all the way to the moment where Duncan Ryder threw her head-first into a ringpost and dumped her on the outside of the ring.
The boys in the booth cheered as Travis Pierce tapped out to the Ryder Lock all the while Maggie herself was lunging for the pair in mid-air. They cheered as the referee held up Duncan Ryder's arm in victory while Magdalena laid at center canvas broken in humiliation and defeat.
"I knew my boy could pull it off, I just knew it!"
"Yee-haw!" The men exclaimed in adoration for their hero.
"Hey baby, how's about a round for the whole joint, huh?" The first farm boy said as he smacked Am on her ass. "Drinks are on me!"
But Am picked up his Coke and tossed the beverage in his face.
"You're right," she said as she slammed the empty glass down on the table, as well as her apron that she ripped off at that moment. "The drinks are on you. Get 'em your damned selves."
No matter how much Amber tried to keep her distance it felt as though fate kept pulling her back in. She kept telling herself that she couldn't feel guilty over Maggie's ever-growing chain of masochistic choices. But Am never thought that telling Maggie "no" would equate to this... never thought that Maggie would reach the point where she'd actively try to get herself injured again.
Searching for information was like pulling back the curtain and peering through the blinds only to see a disaster going on just outside of the window. With hell week done, perhaps Maggie would fly home. But no, come to find out, Maggie didn't have a home in Maryland to go to anymore, and even if she did, she was choosing instead to defend the Revo1 Horrorcore Championship the next night in Knoxville.
First, the Blood Web. Then four full days of WrestleStock. Now, an anything-goes match against Aphrodite IX? It was like Maggie wanted to die.
And it was all her fault.
Clearly, saying no wasn't what was best for Maggie after all.
Amber picked up her phone to dial Maggie's number, but the phone didn't ring. Hell it didn't even send her straight to voicemail.
Maggie had blocked Amber's number completely.
Now what was she going to do?
