Steel Cage Match: Arcane v Waechter

[UKWF]

Post your RPs for the match below. 2 RP cap, max 500 words per RP.

[CraigTheCylon]

[We open to the gentle sloshing of a tap running into a filling tub, and slow breathing.]

"We live all our lives in cages."

[Cut to: Magdalena, her back turned to us, eyes closed. A ray of light through a portcullis'd window highlights a collection of years-old scar tissue crisscrossing her bare shoulders and back, plus the yellow-and-purple stains of bruises from far more recent assault. She remains eerily still as she continues...]

"Society. Law. 'Science'. They encircle us all and fence us in, letting us grind our souls against the cold bars until we understand our place at the foot of the hierarchy. Ach, even our bodies..."

[Her blue eyes open and look to the open palm she raises. It's covered in fresh blood, with no sign of a wound.]

"What are they but cages of flesh, limiting us to the shape and means chosen by the ultimate betrayer? Oh, to be a free soul, drifting the stellar winds unhindered, in silent awe of the infinite cosmic machine in its unceasing revolution..."

[The Canoness lets slip a single, indulgent sigh, before her hand curls into a fist and her demeanour becomes businesslike.]

"Instead, I am confined to a cage of flesh and a cage of fools. My former controller and her New Management halbhäutig prove that only a group effort on their part can hope to halt me, and then choose to leave one of their own alone with me where his fellow scum cannot aid him? I expect duplicity, but past ineptitude does make me wonder if New Management would send a single man before a thousand archers armed with a dry twig, and tell themselves they are on the path to victory."

[She chuckles drily. The tap has ceased to run now.]

"Doubtless they expect the arena of battle to make a difference. Another mistake. What is that cage compared to the one they call life? What are bars and wiring of steel next to the ceaseless horror that this is all we shall ever be - vermin play-acting as monarchs? Valiant, Chalmers-Blythe, I laugh at your entrapment. All you have done is gifted me a convenient tool with which to part Arcane from the stinking, breathing, beating cage he knows most intimately. He will shake the bars like a man driven mad - he will weep and beg for your aid - but his spirit will shatter against the walls of his living corpse before you can reach him. And for his sins I will claim a price, counted in the oil of his cage..."

[Magdalena tilts her head back and begins to sink into the tub. The camera swings down slowly to follow her - revealing that the entire bath is filled not with water but blood. It covers the Canoness until only her face is visible...]

"...which I will put to better use."

[...and a ghostly smirk is the last thing to disappear under the red tide.]

[Arcane]

Fade in. Arcane is sat on a single bed in a small, squalid cell. He looks out through the barred window and begins speaking.

Arcane: Funny how things come full circle, huh?

In prison, I was forced to find a substitute for humanity. You've heard the cliché: you don't know what you have until it's gone. Oh how I missed the scent of a woman, the softness of her skin. It was truly maddening; starved of affection and denied the most primal of urges. Thank GOD I served 18 months and not the full sentence.

Well... I thank Stella; she is my savior. She took a chance when no one else would, welcoming a convicted felon to UKWF. As if that wasn't enough, she then offered the warm embrace I longed for each and every one of those nights alone - 547 to be precise.

He turns to the camera with a heavy sigh.

Arcane: Magdalena... have you ever loved? Have you ever made love?

As a woman of the church, you've chastised yourself to a lonely, frustrated existence. You've suppressed natural instincts and supposedly maintained your innocence, but at what cost? What have you now become? Love cannot be fostered in a blackened heart; one must have purity of mind but hate courses through your veins. You're an empty vessel, a soulless husk of a woman living on the misery of others. You call it schadenfreude, I call it pathetic.

With narrowed eyes, he shakes his head in disgust.

Arcane: Does it hurt to see others love? Is that the root of our discord?

It's such a shame, Magdalena, because we're formidable as individuals but together, imagine what we could have achieved for New Management. Alas, it was not to be. I suppose the blossoming romance between Stella and I only served to remind you of your own impotence and inadequacies.

Now we are destined for destruction, to be locked within the cold, unforgiving bars of a steel cage. Broken bones and torn flesh; two bodies becoming one, baptized in blood - like it's your first time. With NME unable to interfere, you might think a cage is to your advantage but lest you forget: this is my element. This is where society thinks I belong - confined like a dangerous animal. They ain't wrong, but you know an animal is never more dangerous than when it's backed into a corner...

He rises from the iron frame and walks towards the prison bars, clasping them with both hands.

Arcane: Christ could not save you but violence won't either. Breaking me won't deliver your catharsis. My pain cannot set you free, because there is no escape from your demons, the prison walls of your own mind. But Stella... she brings me to closer to GOD, betwixt her legs lies my altar.

You'll come to realize that you knew it all along... love always wins.

As the scene fades to black, Arcane smiles wryly.

[CraigTheCylon]

"I am feeling like I have...ignored Arcane somewhat."

[All cleaned up, Magdalena is found shrugging her ornate robes back on over her usual chainmail outdoors wear.]

"That is to say, it can be difficult to separate the lapdog from the lap it rests on. But I shall try. It is important to note that he actually requested this contest - insofar as I can respect anything human, I respect the courage necessary to choose the place of one's demise. A gallant act."

[As she talks, the Canoness walks to a very old-looking stone chair - throne, really - and sits upon it, betraying no discomfort at her clothing or the seat's lack of padding.]

"What I do not respect is yet another misreading of my faith. Christ is a lie. What you call 'god' - "

[Magdalena is moved to spit on the floor.]

" - a liar, the worst of all. My lord, the one true lord of all, offers me no love, nor hate. Why should he? A being so massive we are less than ants under its gaze has no business even acknowledging our existence, but acknowledge me it did, Arcane. Do you know what it said to me?"

[Her voice is dropping to a whisper again.]

"It told me humanity is plague. We were not meant to exist, and are crafted in the image of the deceiver, whose vanity knows no bounds, purely so the deceiver could see his own face reflected back at him billions of times over."

[The Canoness shakes her head at this.]

"I had hoped, once, that you would understand. You were incarcerated, and are unrepentant. You know your own evils, and likely saw worse while inside. Yet you expect better from others. You think they reach out with...love. Hmph! Love is the meeting of two pure souls, and you will not find even one of those if you scoured this entire world. Love is for a better people than us, Arcane, and whatever it is you think Chalmers-Blythe is extruding through her vagina, it is nothing more than another damnable cage for you to rot within! Scorn my hatred all you like, it is genuine, it is divine and it is all you deserve! All ANY of us deserve!"

[Magdalena pauses, to let herself calm down.]

"I did not come to UKWF with any higher purpose than...well, I came here as a slave to the will of creatures less than me. Of course I had no purpose. But the more time passes, the more I think of building something greater than I. A temple of thought to tower over New Management's altar of the self. An empire of blood. And why do I tell you this, Arcane?"

[The Canoness offers a barely-visible shrug.]

"Because I think I will begin building it over your bones. Have to start somewhere, ja?"

[Arcane]

Arcane drops his cigarette to the ground and enters an old Catholic church in Northwest London. The doors close behind him with a creak as he surveys the golden statues of Christ, beautiful stained glass windows and ornate tapestries. He walks over to the confessional booth and slips inside with a deep sigh.

Arcane: Padre, I have sinned. My last confession was 7 years ago.

Padre: Continue, my son.

Arcane: I have done some terrible things in my life... I've pimped women, I've defiled and degraded them... I've sold drugs to desperate men, profiteering on addiction... perhaps I am beyond redemption. Why should GOD forgive me?

Padre: Do not worry, my son. Keep GOD in your heart and he will find a place for you when the time comes.

Arcane: But Padre, in just a few days, I will commit another terrible sin.

Padre: There is no sin Christ cannot forgive except unrepentance.

Arcane: For this, I will not repent. I will have no remorse.

---------------------

Arcane walks through the churchyard, among the old tombstones, with a solemn expression.

Arcane: As a child, I was told to turn the other cheek, but an eye for an eye always made more sense. My mother used to bring me here, hoping to instill the teachings of the Lord, but it was the trap gods who raised me. The allure of the street proved too much; I took the easy way out but ended up serving hard time.

I guess you lost your way too Magdalena. You turned away from GOD, allowing evil to misshape and contort you into some kind of monster.

But I'm not a child anymore - I no longer fear the darkness. To survive, I was forced to embrace it... but never let it consume me.

He stops at a particular headstone with a bouquet of dead flowers at its base.

Arcane: I have risen from the ashes and been reborn in UKWF, but if I could, I would reset and start over. I would walk a different path, one which made my mother proud, one which uplifted our community. It's too late for these dreams to become reality, and so I strive to be a better man - but for Stella.

She welcomed you to UKWF with open arms, and in return, you've offered nothing but scorn and contempt. I hope you realize when you snapped her fingers at Faceoff, you condemned yourself, because I will not submit. I will not succumb. I will not stop until the stain of your presence has been wiped from UKWF once and for all.

Within our cage, I will have my retribution. You have wronged Stella for the last time - now pay for your transgressions. These days, I only deal in bloodshed.

Lead me, O Heavenly Father, in the path of light
I walk alone and stumble in the dark
Show me the light and I will go there
Let me find peace in my heart and protect me from my enemies