12-15-2022, 11:17 PM
OOC: All characters appear with permission
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It's been a while since either member of The Light In The Darkness has directly addressed the SCW audience in this fashion, but La Pequeña Luz seemed to be taking that in stride if the grin on her masked face was anything to go by. It might be a bizarre sight to see no sign of Amelia Blythe, but as Luz sits in the locker room of a gym in Houston to take a breather from the training she'd been doing, she looks to be at peace with the circumstances that have her and her alone under the spotlight regarding her tandem. She takes a moment to lean back against the lockers and catch her breath before she gets started.
“When Amelia and I first came to SCW, it goes without saying that we wanted to make an impact and leave our mark just like anybody else breaking into this company. We were a promising new tag team that got a fair amount of attention early, and some of the wins we picked up could definitely be considered huge upsets. Unfortunately, when our first opportunity to prove we were ready to take that next step up and look towards tag team gold came around, a serious of unfortunate events left the both of us on the shelf for quite some time. I won't lie... our confidence got severely rattled for a time because of that, and a big part of us thought that maybe we just weren't ready for SCW. You know what we did? We took a step back, rebuilt ourselves and chose to give this another try to know for sure.
Will it work out? Only time will tell.
One thing that certainly came as a surprise was the upcoming Trios Tournament. Don't get me wrong, Amelia and I are familiar enough with SCW to know about it and the prize everyone is fighting for, but for me to actually be drawn into it wasn't something I was expecting. I'm sure some of you schemers lurking in the brackets might be salivating at the idea of me having to prove myself without my usual partner by my side, but let me fill you in on a little secret: Amelia and I are just as capable of performing without one another as we are teaming together. True, this will be the first time one of us will have to prove it in an SCW ring, but we all knew that challenge would have to happen eventually.
That said, while I may not be teaming with my usual partner, that doesn't mean I'll be fighting alone.
With all of the teams for Trios being randomly drawn, it does pose the question of whether or not they can actually work together. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them have come out to say that they'll be able to do that exact thing, but saying is always easier than doing. In the heat of the moment, how many of them will actually be able to keep their cool and remember that they have to play nice with someone they've been at odds with for weeks or even months? How long can those who have prided themselves on being 'lone wolves hated by everyone' fight under a counterintuitive mindset?
I consider myself lucky because I can sit here and honestly say that I don't have a single issue with either of my partners for this thing. Maybe you can chalk that up to the fact that I just returned, but the fact of the matter is that I have no reason to have any issues with either Hairless Penguin or Calvan Greene. True, on paper we look like a rather unorthodox team given that Calvan is... unique and Penguin comes off to most people as a gimmick Lexy is trying to sell, but that doesn't change the fact that they've both accomplished something here in SCW. Better still, we all work similar styles so the chances of us being able to gel in the ring is even better. Maybe you think I'm being a little naive about this because I haven't been back for very long, especially since there's a good chance Penguin and I will one day stand on opposite sides of the ring in the hunt for the tag titles, but I'd rather be honestly optimistic as opposed to trying to pretend that everything's alright when it clearly isn't.”
The irony of that statement is not lost on Luz as she pauses for a moment to grab a drink of water, but her ordeals outside of the ring are nobody's business but her own. As far as SCW is concerned, La Pequeña Luz has no reason to be anything but focused on the opportunity before her.
“I know that the odds seem like they're stacked against us right out of the gate, considering the trio waiting for us in the first round, but I'm no stranger to being considered the underdog in a fight and I know the same can be said for Penguin and Calvan. After all, did anybody think I had a chance with Amelia by my side when we faced the Golden Boys in straight-up two-on-two action in our first run? Or when we were given the task of having to overcome Syren and Christy Matthews? That didn't stop us from fighting with everything we had and earning those wins, just as it won't stop my trio from doing the same come Breakdown.
That said, I can understand why the smart money would be on our opponents considering one of them is the new world champion himself. Owen, congratulations on being able to fight your way back to the top of the mountain, and unlike some people I mean that sincerely with no strings attached. As much as I was surprised to be drawn into Trios, I was even more surprised to learn that I'd be testing myself against one of SCW's very best so soon in my return. You are living proof that if you fight hard enough and want to make your mark the right way then you can make it a reality, and that is exactly why I'm looking forward to be able to turn up the tempo against you and see how well I match up. I know people are talking about who you might have to defend that title against at the end of the year and I could possibly end up filling that role, but between you and me? I don't think I've proven myself worthy of that yet, so I'm considering this the one and only chance I'm going to get right now to prove myself against Owen Cruze, world champion, and I plan on impressing enough that maybe someday down the line a match between you and me for that title could be a very real possibility.
As much as I wish this match could be a genuine showcase of talent for all involved and nothing else... I do wish you didn't have to be caught in the middle of whatever powder keg exists regarding your partners.
Ravyn, you are an absolutely vile human being. I know you're probably just grinning at hearing that, but I truly have to ask what is wrong with you. I'm familiar enough with SCW and its history to know you've pulled a lot of morally reprehensible stunts over the years, but taking someone who's in a system and treating them like they're some sort of lab rat all because you were bored and needed something to do? I think the only positive thing I can say about that whole thing was that you screwed around and found out, and with any luck you actually realized that while you were away after that whole fiasco resolved. I honestly feel bad for Nicole for having to be in any proximity to you again because of random chance, just as I feel bad for Owen for having to try and weather whatever storm may still arise from that just so he can do what he actually wants to do and that's compete.
As for Nicole, or whichever alter of hers will be present... I swear to you, on my mask and the lucha libre honor associated with it, that aside from trying to deny your team a place in the next round, I mean you no harm. The only thing I want out of us meeting in that ring is to give our very best to one another, something I know I can get considering you won this tournament last year. I know you have no reason to trust me and one of my partners has history with you, but I'm not here to do wrong by you. All I want is to compete and prove myself, and I'm looking forward to being able to throw down with such a unique individual who deserves all the respect in the world.
You all might think the idea that Calvan, Penguin and I could advance past this challenge sounds farfetched, but crazier things have happened when Trios gets underway. Regardless of the challenge, the three of us are ready to put our best feet forward and see what happens. And if that happens to move us past the reigning world champion, one of last year's Trios winners and one of the smartest and most dangerous woman to ever set foot in an SCW ring?
Well, maybe that'll make us a team to keep an eye on as opposed to being written off by everyone.”
Luz grins and nods in acknowledgment of this possibility as the scene fades.
As Luz finished filming, she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It was one thing having to wrestle in front of an audience that hasn't seen you in quite some time, but competing in the ring was almost second nature to her now so even if she and Amelia hadn't competed back in their old stomping grounds for a bit to work off the ring rust, she felt like they would have fallen back into the familiar rhythm fairly quickly once the bell rang. Addressing the fans and her opponents was a different matter that she hadn't tackled in what felt like an eternity, and she silently hoped her nerves over that and the opposition she found herself facing hadn't shown through too much. Still, she hoped that with time it would come back to her as well.
“Guess I should go check on how Penguin's doing with Amelia,” Luz said to herself as she got her stuff put away and grabbed a drink of water. She thought they had been making pretty good progress considering that Penguin, unfortunately, hadn't been kidding about needing quite a bit of help. Still, what he lacked in immediate knowledge and skill he more than made up for with his heart and tenacity, and even though she knew that Penguin wasn't going to become a top tier athlete in a short amount of time, even if her team's Trios run somehow made it all the way to the finals, she was confident that training with her and Amelia was going to help Penguin go a long way even beyond this tournament.
It was a thought that affected her more than she thought it would, though that wasn't a bad thing. The idea of the couple actually training someone themselves, passing on the knowledge imparted to them by their parents, made her feel a sense of pride she hadn't truly felt before, and she couldn't help but appreciate the idea of Amelia being able to pass down some of her family's 'elite' techniques to someone else aside from her that existed outside of that circle. The mere idea would definitely piss off her parents if they found out, which was a win in Luz's book. Maybe if they were lucky, Penguin might want to keep training with them even beyond Trios, as dangerous as the idea sounded considering he and Dancing Bear would no doubt be itching to try and get right back into title contention.
Though she was hesitant to admit it out loud just yet, deep down a part of her was also hoping that this stroke of fate would be beneficial beyond being able to say she actually had a student. She recalled the conversation she and Amelia had at home prior to their first match back about wanting to make some friends, something they'd both admittedly struggled with. Honestly? Penguin was a good enough guy that Luz wouldn't mind a genuine friendship with him beyond Trios, though whether or not she could actually have that was up in the air since he had to sneak around Lexy and Bear to even train with them because of the former's obsession with conspiracies and possibly thinking her and Amelia would be in on it somehow for just trying to help.
Calvan was still a bit of a question mark admittedly, as much as Luz was hoping to maybe find something to truly bond with the man about. She'd at least gotten a good laugh out of Amelia telling her about Calvan trying to “let her down gently” thinking there was any chance whatever their team had would be ruined by either one of them being interested in him in any capacity beyond a professional one. It was clear the idea of Amelia being a lesbian while Luz, as a bisexual, was the only half of the pair that could even be interested in him in that way, as well as the obvious fact that the two ladies had already forged a deep romantic connection with one another, flew right over his head, but maybe that was something they could attempt to discuss at some point. Sure, Calvan was a bit odd, but admittedly so was Luz and she had just gotten painfully good at hiding it over the years.
If things worked out, then maybe Amelia wouldn't be the only one she could feel comfortable not having to hide parts of herself around.
“Is this the best you've got? Please tell me this isn't all you have to offer or else you are definitely going to let Luz down after coming to us for help!”
Luz froze near the door to the locker room, recognizing the icy tone her girlfriend hadn't used in quite some time as a sense of dread began to wash over her. She quickly headed back out into the gym and her eyes went wide at the sight that greeted her.
Penguin was down on the mat they had set up, squirming in agony as Amelia had his arm in one of her patented joint manipulation holds. Luz really wanted to hope she was using it as a means of teaching Penguin how to actually do it, but as she approached it quickly became clear that she was using it like she would against an actual opponent in the ring. Her eyes held a cold focus that caused Luz to flash all the way back to the very first time they'd crossed paths, and she felt like she'd swallowed a lead weight at how she was approaching this endeavor.
“You wanted us to train you,” Amelia said harshly. “You wanted our help to not let your Trios teammates down, one of them being my partner! You can't honestly tell me you're going to be able to pull your weight when-”
“What the hell are you doing, querida!?”
At the sound of Luz's voice, Amelia seems to snap out of it. As she looks up into Luz's eyes, she feels her heart sink, not because she sees anger from her partner towards her, but disappointment. She immediately lets go of Penguin's arm and scoots away from him, allowing Luz to kneel down beside him as he starts to get up to his knees.
“You alright, HP?” she asks.
“It hurt like hell, but I think I've taken worse,” he tells her. “I had two crazy women trying to flay me alive back at Rise to Greatness, after all.”
Luz nods at this, though Penguin can tell she's concerned about how casually he tried to sound in admitting that. She still looked over his arm and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Amelia hadn't gone too overboard in her joint manipulation. With a nod and a pat on his shoulder, Luz then turned her attention to Amelia, who was sitting on the mat staring at her trembling hands like she'd seen a ghost.
“Is she going to be alright?” he asked. “And what was that all about?”
“I'll take care of her,” Luz said with a sigh before she crawled over to sit beside her girlfriend. Amelia slowly turned her attention toward her as she carefully reached out a hand, pausing before she made any sort of contact. Amelia understood the silent question and nodded shakily, and Luz's hand quickly found itself resting on her shoulder before trailing slowly down her arm until it softly took hold of one of her hands, the back of which found itself subjected to Luz's thumb gently rubbing circles into it.
“You want to talk about it?”
Amelia let out a shaky sigh and nodded again. She took a few moments to slowly recompose herself as Luz waited patiently until she was ready.
“I know we've talked about what it was mean if you were able to come out this with a Trios contract,” she started, “and I knew once we started that he wasn't kidding about needing a lot of help. I tried to hold it in for as long as I could, but... I kept worrying about what could happen, I kept thinking that if I stepped things up that it would help. I know that's how my parents trained me and we've already talked about how wrong it is that they prepared me for this by basically treating me like a live opponent until I actually started learning and toughening up, but I let myself get consumed by insecurity and before I knew it I was back to who I used to be, except this time I was in my father's place and Penguin was in mine. I didn't... I didn't mean to...”
“Hey, hey, it's OK Ames,” Luz said as she pulled Amelia into a hug, massaging her back to try and help comfort her as she could feel her partner's tears start to fall across her neck. “I know you're going to say it's not OK, and you do owe him an apology, but it's my fault for not talking to you more about this and realizing this might be something that could happen. I could have held off on speaking my piece on our first round match if I'd have known...”
“But... Luz...” Amelia chokes out before Luz gently shushes her.
“Trauma doesn't just go away Ames,” she replies. “For as much as we've helped one another overcome it, there's still a lot we're dealing with even years later. Heck, we may never get over it, and that's alright. Every mistake we made proves that we're human—not machines, not just an addition of someone else's legacy—humans who can learn from this and do our best to keep getting better. We're fighters... just like Penguin is. Look at half the stuff he's been through! He's about our size and he's lacking in both experience and training, but he literally puts every ounce of his being into every attack and he's got an incredible heart that's taken him farther than anyone would have expected. Those two qualities sound familiar?”
Amelia chuckles as she wipes some of the tears from her eyes, slowly gaining strength from the smile Luz is giving her to punctuate her speech. The sound of clapping hits their ears as they turn to find Penguin as its source.
“That... that's beautiful...” he says, sounding a bit choked up. “If Lexy didn't have the final say on how our shows run, I'd give anything to have you both on as guests because there's so much that I think kids could learn from you guys.”
“Something for us to keep in mind I guess,” Amelia softly chuckles. “I'm sorry for pushing you too hard and treating you like that Penguin. If you want to call it early today, I wouldn't blame you.”
“I'd like to keep going actually,” Penguin says, to her surprise. “Your past and whatever it did to you is none of my business, but if you're willing to try again, then I am.”
Luz can see the gears turning in Amelia's head as she comes to terms with a scenario she hasn't faced since she suffered her very first loss at the hands of her now-girlfriend, and slowly she finds herself nodding and grinning as she resumes teaching Penguin some of her grappling technique, this time being more mindful of how she goes about it while her partner watches to make sure she doesn't slip again. Seeing some of Amelia's walls start to come down around Penguin gives her more hope about him becoming one of their first real friends.
She really hoped that would be something that could happen, for both of their sakes.
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It's been a while since either member of The Light In The Darkness has directly addressed the SCW audience in this fashion, but La Pequeña Luz seemed to be taking that in stride if the grin on her masked face was anything to go by. It might be a bizarre sight to see no sign of Amelia Blythe, but as Luz sits in the locker room of a gym in Houston to take a breather from the training she'd been doing, she looks to be at peace with the circumstances that have her and her alone under the spotlight regarding her tandem. She takes a moment to lean back against the lockers and catch her breath before she gets started.
“When Amelia and I first came to SCW, it goes without saying that we wanted to make an impact and leave our mark just like anybody else breaking into this company. We were a promising new tag team that got a fair amount of attention early, and some of the wins we picked up could definitely be considered huge upsets. Unfortunately, when our first opportunity to prove we were ready to take that next step up and look towards tag team gold came around, a serious of unfortunate events left the both of us on the shelf for quite some time. I won't lie... our confidence got severely rattled for a time because of that, and a big part of us thought that maybe we just weren't ready for SCW. You know what we did? We took a step back, rebuilt ourselves and chose to give this another try to know for sure.
Will it work out? Only time will tell.
One thing that certainly came as a surprise was the upcoming Trios Tournament. Don't get me wrong, Amelia and I are familiar enough with SCW to know about it and the prize everyone is fighting for, but for me to actually be drawn into it wasn't something I was expecting. I'm sure some of you schemers lurking in the brackets might be salivating at the idea of me having to prove myself without my usual partner by my side, but let me fill you in on a little secret: Amelia and I are just as capable of performing without one another as we are teaming together. True, this will be the first time one of us will have to prove it in an SCW ring, but we all knew that challenge would have to happen eventually.
That said, while I may not be teaming with my usual partner, that doesn't mean I'll be fighting alone.
With all of the teams for Trios being randomly drawn, it does pose the question of whether or not they can actually work together. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them have come out to say that they'll be able to do that exact thing, but saying is always easier than doing. In the heat of the moment, how many of them will actually be able to keep their cool and remember that they have to play nice with someone they've been at odds with for weeks or even months? How long can those who have prided themselves on being 'lone wolves hated by everyone' fight under a counterintuitive mindset?
I consider myself lucky because I can sit here and honestly say that I don't have a single issue with either of my partners for this thing. Maybe you can chalk that up to the fact that I just returned, but the fact of the matter is that I have no reason to have any issues with either Hairless Penguin or Calvan Greene. True, on paper we look like a rather unorthodox team given that Calvan is... unique and Penguin comes off to most people as a gimmick Lexy is trying to sell, but that doesn't change the fact that they've both accomplished something here in SCW. Better still, we all work similar styles so the chances of us being able to gel in the ring is even better. Maybe you think I'm being a little naive about this because I haven't been back for very long, especially since there's a good chance Penguin and I will one day stand on opposite sides of the ring in the hunt for the tag titles, but I'd rather be honestly optimistic as opposed to trying to pretend that everything's alright when it clearly isn't.”
The irony of that statement is not lost on Luz as she pauses for a moment to grab a drink of water, but her ordeals outside of the ring are nobody's business but her own. As far as SCW is concerned, La Pequeña Luz has no reason to be anything but focused on the opportunity before her.
“I know that the odds seem like they're stacked against us right out of the gate, considering the trio waiting for us in the first round, but I'm no stranger to being considered the underdog in a fight and I know the same can be said for Penguin and Calvan. After all, did anybody think I had a chance with Amelia by my side when we faced the Golden Boys in straight-up two-on-two action in our first run? Or when we were given the task of having to overcome Syren and Christy Matthews? That didn't stop us from fighting with everything we had and earning those wins, just as it won't stop my trio from doing the same come Breakdown.
That said, I can understand why the smart money would be on our opponents considering one of them is the new world champion himself. Owen, congratulations on being able to fight your way back to the top of the mountain, and unlike some people I mean that sincerely with no strings attached. As much as I was surprised to be drawn into Trios, I was even more surprised to learn that I'd be testing myself against one of SCW's very best so soon in my return. You are living proof that if you fight hard enough and want to make your mark the right way then you can make it a reality, and that is exactly why I'm looking forward to be able to turn up the tempo against you and see how well I match up. I know people are talking about who you might have to defend that title against at the end of the year and I could possibly end up filling that role, but between you and me? I don't think I've proven myself worthy of that yet, so I'm considering this the one and only chance I'm going to get right now to prove myself against Owen Cruze, world champion, and I plan on impressing enough that maybe someday down the line a match between you and me for that title could be a very real possibility.
As much as I wish this match could be a genuine showcase of talent for all involved and nothing else... I do wish you didn't have to be caught in the middle of whatever powder keg exists regarding your partners.
Ravyn, you are an absolutely vile human being. I know you're probably just grinning at hearing that, but I truly have to ask what is wrong with you. I'm familiar enough with SCW and its history to know you've pulled a lot of morally reprehensible stunts over the years, but taking someone who's in a system and treating them like they're some sort of lab rat all because you were bored and needed something to do? I think the only positive thing I can say about that whole thing was that you screwed around and found out, and with any luck you actually realized that while you were away after that whole fiasco resolved. I honestly feel bad for Nicole for having to be in any proximity to you again because of random chance, just as I feel bad for Owen for having to try and weather whatever storm may still arise from that just so he can do what he actually wants to do and that's compete.
As for Nicole, or whichever alter of hers will be present... I swear to you, on my mask and the lucha libre honor associated with it, that aside from trying to deny your team a place in the next round, I mean you no harm. The only thing I want out of us meeting in that ring is to give our very best to one another, something I know I can get considering you won this tournament last year. I know you have no reason to trust me and one of my partners has history with you, but I'm not here to do wrong by you. All I want is to compete and prove myself, and I'm looking forward to being able to throw down with such a unique individual who deserves all the respect in the world.
You all might think the idea that Calvan, Penguin and I could advance past this challenge sounds farfetched, but crazier things have happened when Trios gets underway. Regardless of the challenge, the three of us are ready to put our best feet forward and see what happens. And if that happens to move us past the reigning world champion, one of last year's Trios winners and one of the smartest and most dangerous woman to ever set foot in an SCW ring?
Well, maybe that'll make us a team to keep an eye on as opposed to being written off by everyone.”
Luz grins and nods in acknowledgment of this possibility as the scene fades.
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As Luz finished filming, she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It was one thing having to wrestle in front of an audience that hasn't seen you in quite some time, but competing in the ring was almost second nature to her now so even if she and Amelia hadn't competed back in their old stomping grounds for a bit to work off the ring rust, she felt like they would have fallen back into the familiar rhythm fairly quickly once the bell rang. Addressing the fans and her opponents was a different matter that she hadn't tackled in what felt like an eternity, and she silently hoped her nerves over that and the opposition she found herself facing hadn't shown through too much. Still, she hoped that with time it would come back to her as well.
“Guess I should go check on how Penguin's doing with Amelia,” Luz said to herself as she got her stuff put away and grabbed a drink of water. She thought they had been making pretty good progress considering that Penguin, unfortunately, hadn't been kidding about needing quite a bit of help. Still, what he lacked in immediate knowledge and skill he more than made up for with his heart and tenacity, and even though she knew that Penguin wasn't going to become a top tier athlete in a short amount of time, even if her team's Trios run somehow made it all the way to the finals, she was confident that training with her and Amelia was going to help Penguin go a long way even beyond this tournament.
It was a thought that affected her more than she thought it would, though that wasn't a bad thing. The idea of the couple actually training someone themselves, passing on the knowledge imparted to them by their parents, made her feel a sense of pride she hadn't truly felt before, and she couldn't help but appreciate the idea of Amelia being able to pass down some of her family's 'elite' techniques to someone else aside from her that existed outside of that circle. The mere idea would definitely piss off her parents if they found out, which was a win in Luz's book. Maybe if they were lucky, Penguin might want to keep training with them even beyond Trios, as dangerous as the idea sounded considering he and Dancing Bear would no doubt be itching to try and get right back into title contention.
Though she was hesitant to admit it out loud just yet, deep down a part of her was also hoping that this stroke of fate would be beneficial beyond being able to say she actually had a student. She recalled the conversation she and Amelia had at home prior to their first match back about wanting to make some friends, something they'd both admittedly struggled with. Honestly? Penguin was a good enough guy that Luz wouldn't mind a genuine friendship with him beyond Trios, though whether or not she could actually have that was up in the air since he had to sneak around Lexy and Bear to even train with them because of the former's obsession with conspiracies and possibly thinking her and Amelia would be in on it somehow for just trying to help.
Calvan was still a bit of a question mark admittedly, as much as Luz was hoping to maybe find something to truly bond with the man about. She'd at least gotten a good laugh out of Amelia telling her about Calvan trying to “let her down gently” thinking there was any chance whatever their team had would be ruined by either one of them being interested in him in any capacity beyond a professional one. It was clear the idea of Amelia being a lesbian while Luz, as a bisexual, was the only half of the pair that could even be interested in him in that way, as well as the obvious fact that the two ladies had already forged a deep romantic connection with one another, flew right over his head, but maybe that was something they could attempt to discuss at some point. Sure, Calvan was a bit odd, but admittedly so was Luz and she had just gotten painfully good at hiding it over the years.
If things worked out, then maybe Amelia wouldn't be the only one she could feel comfortable not having to hide parts of herself around.
“Is this the best you've got? Please tell me this isn't all you have to offer or else you are definitely going to let Luz down after coming to us for help!”
Luz froze near the door to the locker room, recognizing the icy tone her girlfriend hadn't used in quite some time as a sense of dread began to wash over her. She quickly headed back out into the gym and her eyes went wide at the sight that greeted her.
Penguin was down on the mat they had set up, squirming in agony as Amelia had his arm in one of her patented joint manipulation holds. Luz really wanted to hope she was using it as a means of teaching Penguin how to actually do it, but as she approached it quickly became clear that she was using it like she would against an actual opponent in the ring. Her eyes held a cold focus that caused Luz to flash all the way back to the very first time they'd crossed paths, and she felt like she'd swallowed a lead weight at how she was approaching this endeavor.
“You wanted us to train you,” Amelia said harshly. “You wanted our help to not let your Trios teammates down, one of them being my partner! You can't honestly tell me you're going to be able to pull your weight when-”
“What the hell are you doing, querida!?”
At the sound of Luz's voice, Amelia seems to snap out of it. As she looks up into Luz's eyes, she feels her heart sink, not because she sees anger from her partner towards her, but disappointment. She immediately lets go of Penguin's arm and scoots away from him, allowing Luz to kneel down beside him as he starts to get up to his knees.
“You alright, HP?” she asks.
“It hurt like hell, but I think I've taken worse,” he tells her. “I had two crazy women trying to flay me alive back at Rise to Greatness, after all.”
Luz nods at this, though Penguin can tell she's concerned about how casually he tried to sound in admitting that. She still looked over his arm and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Amelia hadn't gone too overboard in her joint manipulation. With a nod and a pat on his shoulder, Luz then turned her attention to Amelia, who was sitting on the mat staring at her trembling hands like she'd seen a ghost.
“Is she going to be alright?” he asked. “And what was that all about?”
“I'll take care of her,” Luz said with a sigh before she crawled over to sit beside her girlfriend. Amelia slowly turned her attention toward her as she carefully reached out a hand, pausing before she made any sort of contact. Amelia understood the silent question and nodded shakily, and Luz's hand quickly found itself resting on her shoulder before trailing slowly down her arm until it softly took hold of one of her hands, the back of which found itself subjected to Luz's thumb gently rubbing circles into it.
“You want to talk about it?”
Amelia let out a shaky sigh and nodded again. She took a few moments to slowly recompose herself as Luz waited patiently until she was ready.
“I know we've talked about what it was mean if you were able to come out this with a Trios contract,” she started, “and I knew once we started that he wasn't kidding about needing a lot of help. I tried to hold it in for as long as I could, but... I kept worrying about what could happen, I kept thinking that if I stepped things up that it would help. I know that's how my parents trained me and we've already talked about how wrong it is that they prepared me for this by basically treating me like a live opponent until I actually started learning and toughening up, but I let myself get consumed by insecurity and before I knew it I was back to who I used to be, except this time I was in my father's place and Penguin was in mine. I didn't... I didn't mean to...”
“Hey, hey, it's OK Ames,” Luz said as she pulled Amelia into a hug, massaging her back to try and help comfort her as she could feel her partner's tears start to fall across her neck. “I know you're going to say it's not OK, and you do owe him an apology, but it's my fault for not talking to you more about this and realizing this might be something that could happen. I could have held off on speaking my piece on our first round match if I'd have known...”
“But... Luz...” Amelia chokes out before Luz gently shushes her.
“Trauma doesn't just go away Ames,” she replies. “For as much as we've helped one another overcome it, there's still a lot we're dealing with even years later. Heck, we may never get over it, and that's alright. Every mistake we made proves that we're human—not machines, not just an addition of someone else's legacy—humans who can learn from this and do our best to keep getting better. We're fighters... just like Penguin is. Look at half the stuff he's been through! He's about our size and he's lacking in both experience and training, but he literally puts every ounce of his being into every attack and he's got an incredible heart that's taken him farther than anyone would have expected. Those two qualities sound familiar?”
Amelia chuckles as she wipes some of the tears from her eyes, slowly gaining strength from the smile Luz is giving her to punctuate her speech. The sound of clapping hits their ears as they turn to find Penguin as its source.
“That... that's beautiful...” he says, sounding a bit choked up. “If Lexy didn't have the final say on how our shows run, I'd give anything to have you both on as guests because there's so much that I think kids could learn from you guys.”
“Something for us to keep in mind I guess,” Amelia softly chuckles. “I'm sorry for pushing you too hard and treating you like that Penguin. If you want to call it early today, I wouldn't blame you.”
“I'd like to keep going actually,” Penguin says, to her surprise. “Your past and whatever it did to you is none of my business, but if you're willing to try again, then I am.”
Luz can see the gears turning in Amelia's head as she comes to terms with a scenario she hasn't faced since she suffered her very first loss at the hands of her now-girlfriend, and slowly she finds herself nodding and grinning as she resumes teaching Penguin some of her grappling technique, this time being more mindful of how she goes about it while her partner watches to make sure she doesn't slip again. Seeing some of Amelia's walls start to come down around Penguin gives her more hope about him becoming one of their first real friends.
She really hoped that would be something that could happen, for both of their sakes.
![[Image: VU13RwA.png]](https://i.imgur.com/VU13RwA.png)
Tag Team Record: 20-8*
La Pequeña Luz Solo Record: 9-5
Amelia Blythe Solo Record: 5-5-1
*The tag team turmoil on the 9/14/2023 Breakdown is counted in this record as the three separate matches LITD had in the gauntlet up until their elimination.
Breakdown 3/30/2023 - Kim Williams' Trios Cash-In
La Pequeña Luz: 3 Falls
Amelia Blythe: 2 Falls
*Neither one finished high enough to win any championships in this match
*Result listed separately and not counted in records due to lack of clarity on how to count falls
SCW Accomplishments
SCW Television Championship (Amelia Blythe - 29 Days)
SCW Television Championship (La Pequeña Luz - 98 Days)
SCW World Tag Team Championship [2] (1 - 81 Days) (2 - 109 Days)
2023 Tag Team of the Year
2023 Match of the Year (Kim Williams' Trios Cash-In)