Tales of Doom 1-1: The Awakening
* The Druid RP for C01.
New ERA of Wrestling Presents...
TALES of DOOM
Featuring... The Druid as Himself
Episode 1-1: The Awakening
(CUE UP: “The Druid” by Sleep.)
(The camera slowly fades in from black to not-quite-so-black... a dimly lit room, circular in shape and destination unknown. In the center of the room, an orange pillar of fire flares out from a pit. Around this flame, the camera slowly circles around, taking in the horrific statues that line the walls of this chamber like a underground pantheon of destroyer gods and demons.)
“FAR WITHIN THE OAKEN TOWER
“EXISTS THE ONE WITH EVIL POWER!
“MAGIC CHANNELER OF EARTH’S FRUSTRATION
“THE DRUID SLEEPS IN MEDITATION!”
(Shadows dance across the crude effigies of a four-armed Kali, a goat-legged Pan, a squid-faced Cthulhu, a bull-headed Moloch, and a three-faced Satan surrounding the pit of flame in the shape of a pentagram, causing the hideous un-gods to appear as living monsters. The camera comes to a stop on a robed figure facing the pit.)
The Druid
MAD.
That’s what they called me when I came to New ERA of Wrestling, many moons ago, speaking truths and revelations never before spoken by mortal tongues. Truths and revelations they called the idiotic ramblings of
a stoned maniac.
They called me
MAD... when I said I didn’t care whether I won or lost. They called me
MAD... even as one opponent after the next entered the ring, and fell into OBLIVION at my chaotic hands! They called me
MAD, when I dove off the top rope with one of the sickest spots to ever be witnessed in the history of professional wrestling, and claimed the New ERA Television Championship!
An undefeated streak... a belt... and yet all I could ever be in their eyes was just
a loser dope-fiend with no sense... crediting all success to nothing but stupid luck.
...mad...
(The hooded head of the figure rises just a bit, as if raising his eyes from the fires in front of him to look into the Cosmos millions of light years beyond the walls of this room. There’s the sound of something just below the hum of music.)
(Laughter?)
The Druid
Well... over the dormant period of time that followed when the investors pulled the plug, I’ve had a lot of time to meditate on those events that happened right around this time last year... and over my reflections, I’ve come to realize something...
I’m
not mad. In fact...
(The figure slowly turns around to face the camera. Upon seeing him, there is little to recognize of the man that was once known by the Christian name of “Erik Black” beyond the grizzled veil of a thick beard and sagging, reddened eyes peering out from below an utterly ridiculous ceremonial headdress made out of a goat’s head. THE DRUID – sleeping no more – offers the viewers at home a small, evil smirk.)
The Druid
...I’M the only
SANE person that’s left!
(The Druid pulls back the hood as the camera pulls back slightly to reveal more of the chamber in the frame. He stands with his back now to the fire, casting an eerie orange glow around his body to accompany his infernal scowl.)
The Druid
And by the Will of the Cosmos,
THE DRUID has been brought back to (
yet another) New ERA of Wrestling... to spread a message of WOE and MISERY to any of those who still yet refuse to see the
TRUTH!
DOOM is coming to the professional wrestling universe... and I am
its Prophet.
(He holds his arms out to his sides – more specifically, gesturing to the five pagan deities along the walls of the chamber – and his eyes roll up at the same time, as though he were looking to the aligning stars and constellations in the godless skies above.)
The Druid
The Elder Gods demand DESTRUCTION and SACRIFICE... and I am
HELLBENT on bringing them both!
(He unleashes a cackle from his smoke-charred lungs that again defies his sanity. As his arms drop, his eyes find the camera again.)
The Druid
Just like the last time, I can probably expect a many of you – the
weak and the
simple-minded – to cast DOUBT upon the all-encompassing, all-knowing, completely
BAD-ASS mojo of
the Escape Artist.
Just like last time, I’m sure there are those of you who in the coming weeks will call me a rambling fool... a raving and redundant
dope-fiend, completely lost in his own head, no remaining grasp of reality whatsoever.
Who knows... you may be
RIGHT...
(The devilish smile on his bearded face seems to broaden.)
The Druid
...but in the end, it won’t matter... because one thing you WON’T call me is a
LIAR.
By then, of course... it will be too late. By then, you will ALL have been witness to
the BLACK ARTS of DOOM unleashed in that ring... all the work of this supposed dope-smoking, demon-worshipping
maniac with nothing better to do other than hurling himself through flaming tables and torching his meager life away through a bong. It may be all that I am, but I have long been comfortable with the knowledge that life and longing are insignificant. ALL is insignificant in the wake of the destruction that awaits us all when
the Elder Gods RISE to retake this planet.
What, though, would it say of all of
YOU, who so proudly tout your strengths and skills as though they could never be bested? So great, so grand, all of you... yet nothing more than
ANTS skittering around in
THE DRUID’s dark shadow when I enter the ring and let loose the MIND-BLOWING Will of the Cosmos. All of the insults will not matter when the finest and the fiercest are overcome by this mere wretch of a man. NOTHING will matter when this meaningless blue planet turns to
BLACK ASH, and mankind goes with it.
(Turning away from the camera, the Druid begins walking a slow circle around the fire, eyes lighting up orange as the flames reflect off his dilated pupils. He looks rather otherworldly. The camera remains fixed on his slow but eventual passage to the other side of the pit.)
The Druid
The beginning of the end will take place at
Cyberstrike... and among the many returning New ERA stars from the “
Old ERA” is my opponent, Jason Payne. The man who fancies himself as “The Dog of War.”
(A smirk crosses his face.)
The Druid
No, not quite...
just a dog. Just something to be KICKED when disobedient. And should Jason Payne prove to be stupid enough to disobey the Will of the Cosmos, then I will do
more than simply kick.
Old dogs like Payne think they’ve been around and seen it all... but the inherent flaw in that is that old dogs seldom see the things that will eventually be. I’m sure he’s already got a nice speech in the works to ham up his mediocre professional wrestling career, chock full of you standard tough guy cliches and one-liners... but words will have no meaning against
THE DRUID as soon as that bell rings and I once again transcend the scope of reality.
(Reaching the other side of the fire, the Druid raises his arms again, glimmering eyes piercing right into the camera from just above the flame.)
The Druid
Jason Payne is merely
the first sacrifice of
many that will inevitably follow.
The Elder Gods will drink from the blood of the ignorant... and I know in my black heart that their thirst will not be slaked until all of New ERA know and understand the unerring prophecies of
THE DRUID.
Still, so many of you will refuse to listen... stubborn to the end, even as the fires of hell consume you. Cling to your weak and foolish faith for as long as you can, until I rearrange your MIND and reveal
the dark truths on the other side of reality.
I invite you all to personally witness
the earth-shattering revelations that await you all. Just come to the Agganis Arena in that wretched city they call Boston... see for yourself the inevitable
DOOM that awaits us all as I do things in the ring never before thought possible in the sport of professional wrestling.
And to those few of you with the vision and the mind to hear the
CALL...
(The dark smile spreads across his face once again, the light from the fire casting horrible shadows across his visage.)
The Druid
Come... and JOIN ME in becoming
ONE with
the Will of the Elder Gods! A harmonious future of
DOOM and
OBLIVION awaits!
(To the drone of stoner metal, the Druid slowly lowers his arms to the fire, and as though by command, the flames recede... ebbing further and further down into the void, until the waning, flickering light gives way to only BLACK.)
