A claim to a throne of a kingdom that stands on wobbly legs is a null and void claim in the end. To say that a person has no weaknesses is to be blinded by the fact that at the end of the day, weaknesses small or big are what make you human and it is simply in the human way to make errors. Learning from those errors are what make us the version of ourselves that we become and that Mr. Williams is something that we both know. We neither one want to be shoved under the umbrella of a flash in the pan as the forecast has called down for a thundering match of blitz and advancement, but in the end the one thing that the forecast and we both have in common is that, what is expected to happen and what will happen is something we will truly not know until the match is over.
Hello.
"I expect that you do not know who I am and that is fine, for I am not in this tournament to win, just for fun but you, well you do not have anything yet so I expect that you are not only in it to win it but to bring it as well. I do not mind that for this might be only the third time during my time here in IIW that I can say someone might actually test me. However do not find yourself excited by these words for these words could always fall on death ears in the end but you Mr. Williams, I ask only one question of you. Are you a king who truly can carry yourself to said throne or are you just a piece of this ever moving and ever consistent IIW puzzle that has absolutely no real solution to it in the end? Let me know which you are when you figure it out, for there is a slight curiosity sneaking itself up my spine ever so delighted to find out your answer."
He realized that he was not Deandre and that Deandre was not him but that was good because while it seemed Deandre loved to boast proudful about what he had did, that was where the similarities between the two ended. To be loud and also to back it up, got you nothing but unwanted attention and it was through that wave of attention that the pressure became immense and right now it was only on the time of exact clockwork that Deandre of course might start to feel as if he were undefeatable, but his fall from grace should it happen in this match or the next, well Maverick did not think that was going to be so gentle but it was not Maverick's back side that would feel the immediate burning of knowing that you had fell, only Deandre when the time came. It would not be something that should be looked back on by others as a "long time coming either," but simply looked back on by Deandre as nothing but a concurrent moment where even if he lost, Maverick would still be one of the two current Keys 2 Success winners. Laugh at it if you must, speak of how much "easier" he had it and how it was nothing without a cash in, one can not simply deny how it still happened.
"Mr. Williams, there are so many ways I want to address you. So many ways that I want to make sure that you understand that I hope your fate is not sealed to be stopped here and at the same time, should you dig deep and find a way to defeat me, it will not come without a miniscule price." Not one that Williams would recognize in the beginning, but a slow ravel over the course of ever moving time that would eventually have these two, Maverick and Deandre circle back around to one another. For that was the way of IIW, a way that Maverick assumed for all that he proclaimed was his claim to said throne, Williams was well aware of. "I am afraid that if you want to be proven wrong, well that is not in any part of the description of my job, only to be better than you on the next Mayhem, thus not necessarily better than you all the time." Just once and let the rest of the chips fall for both of their careers as they would. Still Maverick as he did every other match, wanted to make it special, give it that small inkling of 'wow' factor, but how?
He had mused through his thoughts and still he currently sat, open legged as the colors of ink found themselves staining the palm of his left hand as he drew in the sketch book, for he was still so artistic in the way that he had grew up and learned to see the world that it was a part of his foundation and slowly pouring itself onto the canvas of not only his social media feed which was a laugh in itself of that which was a work of art all over the internet but his life and career also. One hand caresses the other to remain grounded, and balanced, and most important of all focused. Three traits he also, perhaps stupidly assumed that Williams had inside of him as well though he was one hundred percent sure the way that they reached back around to use those traits was different. At the end of the day, art was art, even if how the creator got around to making it could be so vastly different.
As he felt the colors begin to mesh under his palm and watched as the inks begin to splatter into the sketch book, it did pull his mind back to Deandre. A part of him wanted to draw a cyclone, powerful winds that could come through and catch anything up before they had time to remain grounded but that still did not feel as if it were enough so he swerved a bit, but that ink that connected itself via his palm and on the pages of the sketch book still left it's stained trail in it's wake. "I suppose I should give you a simple moment of honesty Deandre for I could care less about what you have done up to this point and what you do after. In the moment you, as much as neither of us wants to admit it, are just in my way as I am in yours. This tournament has reared it's ugly head and pitted you and I against one another when if it were not also for the same tournament we might have never crossed paths but much like the king who puts claim to his thrown, there is not one, but a multiple amount of targets on our heads but it is not just us those targets find themselves on the other participants of the tournament heads too but we shall not be like frogs, Mr. Williams."
#2ndComingIlusiveFrog was always in the shadows. Minding it's business, sitting on it's lily pad forever watching, soaking in the rain and thus becoming more and more comfortable as the wetness of the raindrops that fell down into it's life made it feel good. The water made the frog feel as if it could literally open up it's mouth and speak the words that those around it needed to hear. Use the legs that were known as the back ones to leap forward and straight into that cyclone and take it on and not only hang in there but eventually take it down, for the wind will eventually die down and the sounds and effects of a pouring rain will take over. We all have no choice but to get wet in our life, for getting wet is how we not only see things clearer but it also teaches us to refresh that which one has come to know and swallow everything that has become our pride and put ourselves first. "When that rain catches up to the cyclone that you have created Mr. Williams, I do hope you have remembered to bring your umbrella and more importantly I do hope that you are able to hold your breath until you are able to pull yourself up out of the water and when you do and it is I, who you see standing across from you, rubbing my beard and giving you my 'fuck boy' smirk, I do hope it is in that moment that you realize that I never say never when it comes to tournaments."
He would bitch, but he would train just as much. He would literally dance and dash around the subject but in the back of his mind, even now as he sketched in his book, sitting like it was no one's business he simply knew that the task that lay ahead of him was difficult. However if it would not be difficult at this point in the tournament then you see the overall picture of the tournament would find itself laughable, and gold, any chance at gold is no laughing matter. "I do not plan to attempt at even doing anything that would get inside of your head Mr. Williams, for that, those kind of mind games are not me. I am a social media guru and through each and every post I have threaded a community following of people, not a cult mind you, that want to see you and I go the rounds by punching each other and kicking and maybe, just maybe a smidge of cheating on my end." Maverick took a minute to slowly blink his eyes as he looked at the outline of the sketch and then down at the palm of his hand. "Fuck that bleeding ink," he said. He needed to stop cheapening out on the pens but the extra fine tips were a classic that even he could not deny. Still he picked up the wet cloth next to him and wiped his hand as he used his dry hand to turn the page in the sketch book.
The smell of fresh canvas would always be an unexplainable high to him as he looked down at it and wiped his wet palm and began to sketch again. The outline of any line of thought was critical, perhaps even the most important to him as he spoke again. "I am sure that you have spoken numerous times on what you want and what this tournament means to you, so I am not interested in that either and I feel now is a more than appropriate time to fill in the lines of black and white foundation sketches to let you know just what it is that interests me the most about not only the match, but your career from here forward Mr. Williams."
A blank canvas, is what you are, and I am the color that chooses not to fill in your lines of what if art, for why would I allow anything to out do me?
"I once was like you Deandre. I once thought that somewhere deep inside of myself as long as I spoke it, as long as I proved it match after match that it would slowly start to spread like an untamed wildfire through the IIW locker rooms, that a change was in the air. That a person who had such skills naturally could be a difference maker and while I still do believe that, you are loud enough for the two of us but son, you are wasting what breath you have built up in your lungs because it all falls on deaf ears, or in this case a blank canvas. The structure of IIW cares not about how you want to fill it in, how you want them to accept you because deep down inside you know you are good enough and yet here you are trying to prove it for what?" Maverick took a second and shook his head. Poor Deandre Williams, full of bright ideas and even more grit but beating on a blank rigid canvas that was not going to conform itself for him or anyone else, though Maverick thought that perhaps Deandre might be so caught up in all of what he thought was going to happen that he had foolishly tricked himself into thinking that it could go no different. We have all been there, and we have all felt that cinder burn of reality when it smacks us into realizing what Maverick already knew. An already formed canvas no matter how blank, will not allow the creativity to flow as it should and thus the creativity, the loud boasts of what Williams is claiming will eventually find itself caught up in the darkness of a void of emptiness and truths, as his loudness slowly finds themselves engulfed into nothing and leave not even a sound of a whispering defeat. Being caught up in the clutches of knowing that said 'Kingdom' would not only live but thrive to it's fullest no matter what you did, well that was no way for anyone to get a reality check.
At this point the only thing he had managed on the page was a stick man. The basic form of drawing complete with the circle for a head, the half lines for arms and legs and the square/rectangle for a body depending on preference. "Mr. Williams you are a lot like the ever alluring yet repulsive concept of the basic stick man. Now before you get all emotionally involved in something that you can not understand and then turn around and take it out on me like I am your average person please understand that while it may seem to insult, it is far from that. There are a lot of parts to you as it is with every human but it does not make you special. The same has and will continue to be said about me so I too, understand that. What seems to baffle me though is how much like the stick man you have gotten as far as I have? Maybe you are doing something different, something more to the normal but it, whatever it is that has guided you this far will not be what helps you weather the storm that is I. Now you see there is no particular name for my storm. It just comes and goes through out all four seasons as it pleases and kicks ass and has great social media presence at it's will. People slowly learn to gravitate toward my unique greatness and eventually everyone wants to either get in the ring with and defeat, or simply say that for once they did have a match with me. You, you have stood semi-respectfully so on your own two feet but this is where I knock you off of them."
He still sketched adding little clouds to help make his kindergarten level picture appear as if it were going to be some great work of art but all in all, it was just a sham. An illusion of what art could be if he put even half of his effort into it and drew it into this sketchbook but just like Williams, the design did not deserve the effort, at least at this moment. Perhaps in a few days his mind would be changed but Maverick was fickle as could be and proud of it. "Originally for this art piece that you have so lazily inspired me to do, I started to do a cardboard cookie cut out, but that would have lead to me insulting you and that is just not how this should go. Besides I get ahold of a pair of scissors and everything else just goes awry if that makes sense." He leaned over and scratched the stick man out. "Hell you even deserve better than this, so I am going to go back to the drawing board and give you something great but until then I look forward to what you are bringing."
Surprise was also something that had caught Maverick about Deandre Williams because as far as he was concerned the two of them had gotten here easily. Deandre had someone who Maverick could not even be bothered to remember and Kasey Vex while Maverick had a bit harder not in Clyde but having to go one on one with Rhett, that had truly messed with his head. Luckily the two seemed to be able to work past it, and now Williams was next. Maverick took a minute and closed his sketchbook as his palm was once again covered and he took a second and decided to screw it. "I know that you see me as just another stepping stone because that is what the business does to us and that is fine but you will want to watch your step Deandre, for I plan to wrap my hand around your ankle and pull you down so hard that it not only breaks your angle but shatter that confidence. I am not sorry that I have been the one chosen to do this but the tournament has put us against one another for what has to be this very reason alone. Only one of us can go on and while neither of us wants to get this far and fall, it has to be you." It was how the dominos needed to fall for if not now, Williams' confidence might get even more built and then Maverick could have the right to say that he popped that confidence, much like a little child does once they have become annoyed with a balloon though they asked their parent for the balloon in the first place.
Still a deep part of him was proud that he had this chance but he did not want pride to be his undoing so for now he remained humble as he finally stepped out of his hotel room. He made his way out and as the sun beamed down on him, he took a second and nodded to the small crowd of people who waved at him. Though he had not scheduled any meet and greets in a while; it was nice to just have people simply coming out to see you. Some of them had signs and naturally some of them had sadly glued themselves to being fans of Williams because they did not like Maverick, but that thought and way of thinking was the one thing that made him laugh the most. He finally turned the corner and let out a sigh. It seemed he had still never quite cracked the shell of therapy but Williams did not deserve that either, so what he simply turned into was a gym, but it was not for training, no that would be very WTF of him and he did not feel like that at the moment; this was the quickest way to the pond.
As he used the back door to exit because even though he did thrive off of them, now was not the time for fans and all of their antics, now was simply allowing himself a clear mind to be prepared for Williams at least as much as he thought that he could, as he took a seat on the bench, located just a few meters from the pond. "Deandre I do hope you are sitting on something so spectacular as far as your in ring skills go that it will, let's say astound me. I am only saying this of you because I, well if I were to reach into my pockets and try to pull such said wool over your eyes, you see I am not foolish enough to think that I could get away with it. I do not want to be that which pulls your eyes down and blinds you to any sneaky tactics but simply that which opens them, rinses them and shows you that for others the road that they must carve out is simple. It lays itself straight but the road that you and I are on," Maverick took a minute and pointed directly to the pond as he noticed that he had accidentally left a little blue ink right on the tip of his index finger. "Crap," he said but he continued on though that was not a part of his original plan. "It's a simple hop Mr. Williams," he said as he stood up.
"People like to talk about how one can not jump before they walk and this is similar, quite scary in the amount so but you see Mr. Williams I find myself willing to leap, shock, and simply astound because the canvas of that which is IIW has yet to slightly curve itself to my artistic needs and yet, being so close to this new era that is slowly finding itself ushered in through this cyclone bomb of time passed, to let you be shown to be better than me, I must not. I can not for you are the skewered piece of abstract and atrocity that has walked himself up to my gallery, and dare think that any creation of yours will be better than mine and no, it's like you are the frog who has come into an abundance of lily pads and instead of playing nicely and finding your own, you want to come and sit on mine."
Territorial was not his usual forte but you had to play the hand that you had been dealt even if the cards were not the usual ones that you liked. "Not today, not a few days from now and damn sure not on Mayhem. I mean it is not going to stop you, my words are going to bounce off of your ears as if they were covered in rain repellent and that is fine but once we are inside of that ring, the actions that will follow these words, well let's just say you were warned. It is business, it is glory, and although I am sure that if you were given lessons you could craft a hell of an art piece that would be known as your career, no one buys tickets to see you. They come to see me, they come to see #2ndComing, and while you will be able to pick yourself up and go play with all of the others who are not in #2ndComing, the one thing you will not do is have it so easy when our match comes around."
Call it whatever you wanted, at the end of the day, Maverick Tatum was simply miles ahead of Deandre Williams and once their match was done everyone would know it. Tournament this, and Tournament that, Mr. Williams your days are done and everyone is now aware of that.
END