All Costume, No Core - Printable Version +- X-treme Wrestling Federation (https://xwf1999.com) +-- Forum: Anarchy Boards (https://xwf1999.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=118) +--- Forum: Anarchy RP Board (https://xwf1999.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=116) +--- Thread: All Costume, No Core (/showthread.php?tid=50169)

All Costume, No Core - Miss Furry - 06-07-2026 Location: Boneyard "Just invite me in and let's talk..." Furry's eyes dart from her, to the threshold, then back. "Oh!" Atomic Bat stiffens. "Oh, what?" "I didn't realize your kind actually needed invites." "What?—AHEM— No!! That is not what this is." "Then what is it, hmmm? Another garlic allergy?" "I'm just being polite." "Sure... and management was just being polite when they decided to book this match?" The Bat frowns. "I asked for it." "Yeah, I got that part on my own. I want to know why." "You have been operating under a name associated with unresolved criminal history." "You're still hung up over that? Because people keep confusing me with a dead woman? I thought we were past this." "We are, to some degree... But look at you. You dress like her." "I dress like me." "You took a name that pays tribute to her." "I was given a name to mock her." "You went as far as to say that you embody her spirit." "Not my exact words, but I have taken some inspiration." "It all makes me just a tad uncomfortable." "I let you live." "You did, and I chose not to follow you to Mars. Now I want us to work as a team." "Why?" "To find out who Miss Furry really is underneath it all." "It's not hard." "What isn't?" "Finding out who I am." Furry steps back from the doorway, leaving Atomic Bat standing there. "My real name is on the company bio." "That is not what I meant." "It says Emily Grant. Right there. Real subtle stuff. Might need a magnifying glass if you don't know how websites work." "A name is not a person." "No. But it's usually where people start when they aren't trying to be weird about it." Atomic Bat's jaw tightens. Furry notices. "You know what I am asking." "No, I don't. Enlighten me, please." "I want to know the truth." "In my experience, that's what people say when they're caught elbow deep in somebody's trash." "That's not fair." "Neither is showing up dressed like second rate superhero, asking me who I am 'underneath it all'." Atomic Bat stares. Furry waits. "May I come in now?" "Are we still pretending this is manners?" "Yes." "And not a vampire thing?" "Correct." "Say it without your eye twitching." "My eye is not twitching." "Sure." "Excuse me?" "Come in." Atomic Bat hesitates. "What? You wanted the invitation. There it is." "That was very sarcastic." "Yeah, well, it's a door, come in or don't. Up to you." Atomic Bat steps over the threshold. "There. Historic moment. Bat enters gym, and nobody bursts into ash." "I never said that would happen." "You didn't need to." Atomic Bat looks around the Boneyard. The mats are worn thin. Lockers are dented. Walls are covered in photos, flyers, and a few blood stains. "This is where you train?" "This is where people learn." Atomic Bat carefully walks a few steps farther in. Furry notices that. She notices most things. "So this is it?" "What?" "You show up unannounced, in the middle of the night, tell me we have a tag match against a couple of posers—and you also still think I might be evil." "Well, when you say it like that—" "It comes off a little weird, yeah?" "It is not weird to want answers." "It is when your plan for getting them involves a midnight visit and a no-rules match in my own gym." Furry leans against the ring apron and folds her arms. "One guy couldn't make it as Graves, so now he's stapling a half rotted Vinnie Lane face over his own, and hoping nobody notices. The other one is running around calling himself Michael Graves because apparently this company had a BOGO sale on bad ideas." "If I know Gravy, he will not be pleased to learn of a new imposter." "No. He won't." "Is he here?" "No." "Where is he?" "Out." "Out where?" "Doing whatever it is he does when he's away. What's it to you?" Atomic Bat seems surprised. "You don't know?" "No." "You don't keep track of him?" "Why would I?" "Because he's Micheal Graves." "Yeah. I know who he is." "That seems like something you would do." "Keep tabs on my mentor?" "Yes." "You really do think I'm just a smaller, cleaner version of Miss Fury..." Atomic Bat says nothing. Furry pushes off the apron. "I trust Graves. I'm not his babysitter, and I'm not digging through is things like a creep." "Micheal Graves has left a lot of people broken. Some of them were even standing next to him when it happened." "Yeah, but you're only looking for the worst parts of him." Furry glances toward the photos on the wall. Her eyes lock on one in particular.  Graves standing like a proud papa with Miss Furry after her first match. "Everything I have today came from him. He helped me belong when I didn't. Took me in when people were still trying to figure out whether I was a joke, a replacement, or just a dumb rookie in cat gear. He took the cat people laughed at and made something out of her." "And that makes you loyal." "That makes me honest." "About him?" "And me..." Atomic Bat hesitates, unsure if the person in front of her is a threat, a victim, or something in between. "I do not think you're anything like him." "You don't know me." "I know enough." "Assuming that could prove to be your downfall." "You are not cruel like he is." "I can be." "Not in the same way." "There isn't anyone like Micheal Graves." Furry walks to the cracked mirror and looks into it. Atomic Bat steps out of view so only the furry mask stares back. Black fur and pink ears. Ridiculous if you don't know better. Dangerous if you do. "You look at Graves and you see the obvious stuff. Blood. Trash mouth. Bad decisions that somehow work in his favor more often than not. A walking punchline with a knife." "That is very obvious, but what am I missing?" "The rest." Furry turns away from the mirror. "He's stubborn. He's loyal. maybe that loyalty is ugly, but he's loyal nonetheless. He knows what it's like to be laughed at until laughter's all that you hear. He knows what it is to have a name people spit out like a joke and he keeps showing up anyway." "And you?" "Him and I are more alike than you realize." "How?" "I was handed a joke name. A rib on this woman you're so obsessed with. I had every excuse to disappear, run from it, but he showed me a better way. A way to turn that baggage into an advantage." A small smile tugs at her lips. "So I took ownership over it." "Why not just change your name?" "Because he also taught me that people hate when the thing they laughed at learns how to bite back." Furry turns back to the mirror. "So yeah. I know what it's like to get laughed at. But I also know how it feels when they stop laughing and start shaking." "And you believe our opponents don't?" "No. I think Lionel Pennyfarthing gets laughed at every time he walks into a room. Difference is, he thinks that's fanfare." Atomic Bat tilts her head. "Well, he is an actor." "He's a ham actor. One who signed up for wrestling and still thinks this is the gig of a lifetime, but with bruises." "That's not totally inaccurate." "It's stupid, just like him." Furry leans back against the apron. "Lionel quit the school and tried to out-Graves Graves. He had one job, and it played to his talents.  Pretend.  And he still wasn't good enough. So now he's running around as Lane-'l Pennyfarthing. A second-rate knockoff of a second-rate wrestler and third-rate owner." "Are you really referring to Vinnie Lane as second and third rate?" "I'm referring to the guy who let three billionaires hijack his company and slap their branding over everything while he stood there smiling, waiting on the check to clear so he could fly off with Roxie to never be seen again." "That does seem negligent." "It seems like Vinnie." Furry shrugs. "So congratulations to Lionel. He failed at being Graves, and his big comeback is pretending to be a man whose greatest recent skill is letting richer people redecorate his house in his absence." "That is harsh." "It gets worse." Furry looks toward the photos again. "Because all the acting classes, all the Shakespeare hands, all the bodacious little Vinnie noises in the world don't make Lionel dangerous. They make him loud, they make him committed, but most of all, they make him embarrassing." "Commitment can still be dangerous." "Not when it's commitment to the wrong thing." "He is a performer, and he's performing." "Exactly, and that will not hold up here. Not in the Boneyard. Not against me. Not against you either, apparently, since you showed up and made this my problem." "You're welcome." "Didn't say thank you..." "And Michael Graves?" "That's the fun part. We don't know what the hell that is." "A second role by Pennyfarthing?" "Crazier things have happened." "Another actor from the same theater class?" "Possibly." "Mark Flynn." Furry's eyes cut to her. "Don't get dramatic." "It is possible." "Sure. It's also possible he crawls out from under a desk dressed like Elvis and starts throwing candy at children. Doesn't make it likely." "But if it is Flynn?" "Then it's still not Micheal Graves." Atomic Bat says nothing— "And that makes him less dangerous." —then almost chokes on Furry's bravado. "Mark Flynn is not harmless." "Never said harmless. I said less dangerous. Flynn played Graves for what? A year? And it wrecked him. Took a toll on his body. Chewed him up until he had to walk away. Micheal Graves has been Micheal Graves for fifty-four years." "Jesus, he's that old?" Furry ignores her. "Flynn wore the skin and found out it didn't fit. Graves lives in it. Sleeps in it. Bleeds in it. Shows up every week and still asks who's next." "The imposter seems pretty crazy." "Still not enough. You can copy Graves being ugly, being loud, or saying something stupid before the bad things happen, but you can't copy the years. You can't copy the damage, the baggage, or all the times people decided he was done, only to look stupid when he came back tougher than before." "You respect him..." "Yeah, I do, and that fake Michael should be glad the real Micheal is working Warfare." "Why, Because Graves would make it all about him?" Furry looks around the gym. "Yeah, but this one's mine." "Because I dragged you into it?" "No. Because this is where I stopped being somebody else's joke." Atomic Bat follows her eyes. The worn ring. The stained walls. The weirdly wholesome photos of Graves and his students. "I see... they picked the wrong place to play pretend." "Yeah, and because Lane-'l Pennyfarthing is just a failure hiding under a bad wig and tired catchphrases. He and Michael Graves are nothing more than bad ideas in cheap masks." "What's that make us?" Furry looks back at Atomic Bat. "Guess that makes us the ones with something more dangerous under ours." "And that is?" "Fangs.  And Thursday night, they'll learn it too. Lionel can bring every voice he knows. Michael can bring whatever he thinks makes him scary, but they should know that the real one taught me how to finish things." Atomic Bat cracks a smile. "Well, they can't say that you're scared." "Of fake skin?" She ponders for just a moment. "The Boneyard will reveal whatever's underneath. But my prediction?  There's nothing worth being scared of."