Post by Leonardo on Oct 29, 2024 11:12:04 GMT -5
Location: Florence, Italy
The day had finally come to the group called Renaissance, in one violent showing of power and grace they had stepped into the EPW ring and taken out three of the best teams that EPW had to offer and laid them out to make a statement that would shake the company to its core.
Alea iacta est
Much like Caesar crossing the Rubicon to walk his army into Rome in brazen defiance of centuries of pre-established tradition, even the most noble would have to use force to achieve their goals. Leonardo had been no different, whilst his soul was a sensitive one with truly noble goals of uplifting the unwashed masses to follow a more artistic path in life… He had known beforehand that the only way he could achieve such things was with an iron fist.
Unsavoury ilk like Wrestlers didn’t know better, they weren’t smart enough to appreciate a velvet glove, and fortunately his followers had been loyal enough to understand what they had to do to help Leonardo achieve greatness.
Whilst the man himself was deep in contemplation, delicate fingers wrapped themselves around his tense shoulders “You’re tense again…” the feminine voice spoke to him to a reply of silence. “You made the right choice, and both of them understand and trust in your wisdom.” she soothed him as she massaged the tension away.
In the distance, his two proteges were busy flexing their mental muscles as the two of them were nothing if not positive rivals to one another’s artistic ways. Leonardo seemed to take some solace from it, as the things they had to do hadn’t weighed them down.
“Thank you for the kind words, my sweet muse.” Leonardo finally answered as his words betrayed the weight of his emotions. “If it wasn’t for the three of you, I do not think I would have the resolve to do the things I am doing.” he’d reveal.
The reality for a general was that for all the care they could have for the people underneath them, there would always come a day where he would fail to protect them to attain a greater good. And for as much as Heracles and Achilles were his most devoted protégé’s, they were also his soldiers for the renaissance, who’d give their body mind and soul for the greater good he had in mind.
But this time it wasn’t Rome about to fall to the Vandals at the gate, this time around Rome was going to get saved from the Vandals within. Wrestling had never been much, but perhaps at one time in the world it had been something better, something innocent where the young and foolish could show their skills for the glory of Olympus. But such years were long gone, Greek and Roman civilisations had fallen and thousands of years had gone by until the circus freaks had taken the long dead corpse of a sport and turned it into a carny freakshow.
A hundred years later, that carny freakshow had reached its mudshow crescendo where men and women wilfully bled one another for raw visceral entertainment of masses that relished the bloody spectacle and would violently act against anybody who didn’t deliberately give it to them. There was nothing clean about it, it had become a disgusting game.
Even Nero would’ve been disgusted by these games.
“Can you call them to me?” Leonardo asked as he glanced at Artemis, his muse, the image of innocence and grace that steeled his frayed nerves and brought him the power to do the things he did.
Artemis was the best amongst them all, for they didn’t have to get their hands dirty, they were their symbol, their banner of their faith. Like a blessed virgin Mary of the modern age, she empowered the weak around them into believing there was a better tomorrow.
And dutifully, she relayed her message to the two men in the distance, who eagerly made their way to Leonardo, like Golden Retrievers who dutifully hung to every word that would come out of Leonardo’s lips, a loyalty earned through kindness and care.
“My protégé’s, I know what you did before were deeds most unsavoury. And whilst I didn’t wish to use the tactics of our enemies against them, I simply had to so that we could make our opening statement. A salvo to the non-believers to understand that we are here, and we are prepared to take action to change this ‘business’.” Leonardo stood, stoic yet vulnerable, warm and open yet also cold and closed off. Ever the enigmatic leader who had to stand above his men to lead them.
“They might’ve laughed us away at the Louvre, and those hacks do not understand the art we bring to the world. The jaded eyes of so-called ‘experts’ and the uncaring opinions of the mindless masses do not move us. But our mission is one of beauty and grace, this thing called wrestling is sick to its core and we are the only ones that can even see it. So we are going to act, perhaps foolishly so, perhaps knowing that this sickness has been terminal, but we shall act nonetheless, for we are believers in a better wrestling. An artistic wrestling. That is what the renaissance is about, and what we shall strive for.” he orated with the best of them, that brute Patton had nothing on his skills. He wasn’t going to be stuck on the mainland whilst lesser generals took the glory.
Putting his hands on the shoulders of Achilles and Heracles, he’d imagine giving them the power to succeed, if they didn’t already have plenty of it themselves.
“Your first test… Our first test is an important one. We must not only win, but we must show the superiority of our movement. These two… fools… Shawn Savage and that blasphemous ‘HYPE Moses’ need to be made a message of. They are symptoms of the disease of wrestling, where untrained, uncaring, and brainless fools are too focused on harassing women than being wrestlers. They’d rather drink vile liquids than perform to any sort of artistic standard. And on Wednesday you shall emasculate their ways in front of the simple-minded Canadian masses that will flock to the arena with their simple-minded expectations that you shall give them a bloody spectacle…” His voice turned more sinister, perhaps even implicative of what he finished on.
But as he took his hands off their shoulders and turned away from them, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Be better than what the masses want you to be. You have power, you have skill, you can be as dirty and violent as any of them… But you are better, you are part of a movement that stands above it all. The renaissance is better than what this EPW tries to be. You are my protégé’s, and I know that neither one of you needs to devolve themselves to garbage mudshow wrestling to succeed in any of your endeavours, whether they are your own or the Renaissance’s.”
Smiling, he’d gesture them to stand up. “Make our statement known again, and soon we shall finish our first conquest. Our goals are lofty, but with every conquest we shall wrest control from the non-believes, and the Renaissance shall grow stronger in its wake. Send the two fools back to where they came from, and soon the ‘tag titles’ shall be in your grasps to be beacons of the better path.” Letting a pause fall between the four of them, Leonardo glanced at all three before nodding. “Rest up, make merry, for tomorrow our campaign shall begin!” he’d exclaim with a clap in his hands.
Achilles and Heracles would make their way down the hill again, talking amongst each other about how they will do better than the other like the true rivals they were. Leonardo stood still as he looked over to them with a hint of guilt on his features.
“They’ll succeed, Leonardo.” his muse spoke as she stood next to him.
“Of course they will, but war changes everyone in different ways. And I am not sure I am ready to lose who they are.” he’d say in finality.
