A Change of Champion Heart - Lillian Byrne & Ember Sykes

[ADarlingDucky]

Things had been tumultuous lately. At least, that was probably the most mild way to describe the current situation that Lillian Byrne had found herself in. Truthfully, she hadn't been inside the LAW building for quite some time, ever since the stripping of her title by management. It was quite controversial, but at the end of the day, they hadn't much cared to listen to any reasoning other than their own, and so Lillian's title was gone, without the brunette having even lost it in a match, as most champions would. In some ways, it was something of a comfort. After all, she hadn't been beaten. And yet Lillian had found herself brooding, morose, and far more self-reflective than at any other point leading up from all the way back when she started wrestling, to right now. And so she was here, in the backstage area of LAW, sitting up against a wall in a quite tucked away location.

What sort of turn had she taken to get here? The thought plagued her mind as she sat down against the wall, eventually going so far as to curl her knees to her chest and wrap her arms around them, as withdrawn as she could be! She was looking downright sorry for herself when as she continued to ponder, unaware of the incoming presence that was going to take her moment of solitude away!

Without that knowledge, however, she was left for the time being stewing on why she had lost the belt, if the people even cared, if she even had a single person around her that was in her corner, that wanted her to succeed. Had she made the wrong choice in life? Where had she gone wrong to put herself in such a position that she couldn't find a friend if she tried?

[Darius 2.0]

Another day, another successful trip to the gym! Having had a thorough workout where she built up a good sweat, Ember Sykes was now on her way back home! She wore a smile on her face as she walked down those backstage halls, dressed in her iconic attire. She was in a good mood because, for once, no one opted to bother her during her workout, allowing her to pump her iron in peace! Ember had lost count of the number of times she had to put some arrogant wrestler in their place after they challenged her to a spar, or demanded her workout equipment, or was just plane rude to her! It was annoying, gross, and frankly unprofessional behavior for pro-wrestlers!

And yet......lately Ember found herself craving these encounters more and more. Despite the trouble these bullies brought her, Ember couldn't deny that she enjoyed the feeling of totally crushing someone with her superior wrestling skills! That rush she got when her opponent realized that this 4'11" girl was stronger and better than they were, and that there was nothing they could do to stop her from smothering them unconscious under her butt was an exhilarating experience! It didn't just apply to bullies either! Whenever some hapless sparring partner of hers was outmatched, Ember couldn't help but toy with them until finally putting them out of her misery!

It was strange. Ember had always done what she had to do in order to be the best. To prove that a short, thicc girl like her had what it takes to compete with the best! If that meant she had to KO an amazon or two under her ass, then so be it!

Still though.....at what point did beating her opponents start to feel so good?

Ember shook her head of such though, her purple locks swaying side to side as she did! She could ponder such things later. Right now, she focused on getting home from the gym through her usual shortcut backstage. It was usually deserted at this time of day, though this time she would find someone sitting on the ground against the wall! Ember stopped in her tracks, her eyes narrowing curiously before they widened in realization! "Lillian?" she called out loud, her face spreading into a big smile! "Omigosh! It's so cool to see you again! What are you doing here?" The shorty would then approach the brunette where she sat, standing over her with a big grin on her face!

[ADarlingDucky]

Lillian was in the midst of continuing to stew when she realized, with a sudden start, that somebody had just called her name. The former champion would shoot up with a start, straightening her posture and pushing her legs out as if she hadn't just been curled up, head twisting to find who had yelled out to her, more than ready to put on a brave face and start shouting at who it was. She spun towards the sound of the noise, only to be met with a familiar face, one whom she had become acquainted with during her time as middleweight champion! Short, curvy, and purple hair, all the signs that she had been seen by her super fan Ember Sykes, one of her challengers for the belt while she had held it, and an utter simp for the champion herself!

Lillian, for half of a second, felt a strong sense of disdain, only for that very feeling to find itself questioned within her, as looking down on anyone right now had no real place given how she had been curled up a moment ago! And given that Ember was nothing short of a super fan, she would eventually relax and sigh, a far different emotion taking over her now, as she felt shame and embarrassment from her initial response!

Still, despite her clear position in a space that she wished to keep to herself, Ember was far too eager to see her again, and she'd soon be standing in front of Lillian, grinning down at her and greeting her as though the two were longtime friends!

"I... hey Ember." Finally came Lillian's weak reply, a clear lack of energy in her voice as she responded. In truth, she had to think on what to say. Ember's question, simple as it was, had her desperately searching for an answer to give, before she the inability to think of one finally won out, and in the end, saw her telling the truth! "I uh... I dunno what I'm doing here I guess. What about you?" She offered a response, the very fact that she cared to ask what Ember was doing showing that she was not herself!

[Darius 2.0]

Seeing Lillian hanging out in her shortcut home of all places was not what Ember had expected today, but she welcomed it all the same! The shorty was totally fine with admitting that she and Lillian had something of a special relationship, what with her being Lillian's biggest fan and all! Ever since she was a young woman, she had watched Lillian Bryne deliver some of the hardest hitting fights in LAW, delivering beatdowns with her signature 'bad girl' attitude! She was one of the reasons Ember had decided to become a pro fighter herself, with her swearing to be so good that she might stand side-by-side with her hero in the future!

Her tenacity ended up getting her a shot at the Middleweight Title Belt that Lillian had long held onto; a dream come true for Ember The first meeting she had with her idol would be telling her that she would be her next opponent in the ring, something she believed Lillian was very excited about! They had even come up with this silly narrative where Lillian acted like she couldn't stand Ember as a way to sell the drama to the fans! To her credit, Lillian played the part really well! The brunette even had Ember believing she detested her! Ha! Good times!

The championship match didn't work out for Ember in the end. Lillian once again displayed why she was still top dog in the league, handing Ember a sobering defeat in their smother KO match, which to this day Ember still holds the seat as Ember's 'best loss ever'! The fiery passion Lillian had put up that day was something to behold, a far cry from the woman she now saw sitting on the ground before her! Lillian was curled up on the floor like a sullen teenager, and when Ember had greeted her she gave but a half-hearted reply! It made Ember frown. This was not the Lillian Bryne she was used to! For one thing, she should be a lot more excited to see her good friend Ember Sykes again!

"Oh, just finished up at the gym! I take this way as a shortcut to get to the parking lot," Ember explained, before cocking her head questionably. "What.....are you doing here? You seem a little down. Is everything okay?"

It seemed like an inopportune time to ask Lillian for a selfie so Ember repressed that urge for now!

[ADarlingDucky]

Lillian had hardly expected any interruptions today, as even in a place as busy as LAW, there were always a tucked away corner and that rarely saw use, and it was in that place that she had made herself comfortable, for some time to think. It was in that very corner that Ember had discovered her sitting, and being the superfan that she was, she had walked directly over to Lillian and begun to talk to her, interrupting the brunette's moment of brooding, but at the same time, offering someone to speak to! Lillian wasn't much of a fan of speaking to others, but given the mood she was in, she wouldn't chase Ember away, instead opting to actually engage with her! And sure enough, her number one simp seemed to sense that something was wrong right away, very quickly shifting the conversation away from what she was doing to asking Lillian what was wrong!

Ever the open book, Lillian hadn't been able to hide that she wasn't feeling herself, and as Ember asked the question, she was forced to do another round of self-introspection, something she wouldn't consider herself good at. She mulled over her feelings for a moment, before deciding in a rare moment of vulnerability, to just be honest and straightforward with Ember, by responding with a question of her own!

"Do you think... that being a good wrestler is what makes you champion?" It was a bit of an abstract question, but one that felt important, even if Lillian couldn't decide why. If being a great wrestler made you champion, then what had happened to Lillian that the belt was so quickly whisked away, and with not even one person seemingly on her side after it had happened? What had gone wrong?

"Or maybe... is being liked makes you a champion?"

[Darius 2.0]

This was not the Lillian Bryne that Ember knew. The Lillian Bryne that Ember knew was larger than life, a real force of nature! She was the rudest and crudest lady in the league who didn't let anything stand in her way! But the woman before Ember now didn't look like any of those things! This Lillian looked tire, and frankly, sad! Ember hadn't seen the brunette since their match together so she couldn't help but wonder what had happened between then and now. In fact, she was so out of it she didn't even respond to Ember's question about if she was okay, instead coming back with a question of her own!

The question in particular caught Ember off guard, and initially she didn't know how to respond! "I...." she started before she managed to stop herself. From the look of it, Lillian was clearly going through something. She didn't feel like she could answer her question carelessly, so the shorty thought long and hard about it for a minute. "I think it's the skills that make the champion," she finally responded, trying her best to choose her words carefully! "Why care about what other people think, right? As long as you're racking up the wins, you shouldn't care how you're perceived!"

As the words left her mouth, Ember found herself realizing that they might even pertain to her own thoughts from earlier. Huh. Why didn't she come to this reasoning before?

Lillian in no way asked her too, but regardless, Ember would walk over and take a seat next to the brunette, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them much the same Lillian had! "What made you ask this?" Ember would question, turning her blue eyes to Lillian's gaze. Whatever was wrong with her idol, Ember was determined to get to the bottom of it!

[ADarlingDucky]

She really hadn't expected to just spill all her problems like this, especially to someone who had ostensibly humiliated her in their last encounter, even if Lillian had been victorious in the end, but here she was, doing exactly that as she spoke to Ember! Her words just seemed to flow out of her and before she knew it she had finished asking her somewhat confusing philosophical question, leaving Ember to think about it as Lillian returned to her sullen position, leaving the purple haired woman some time to think. And eventually, Ember would indeed give her a response, but it wasn't exactly the one that she was looking to hear, the frown on her face only deepening. Perhaps it was because it was what she was expecting to hear that she didn't like it, or perhaps it was because it was something she thought already, but it didn't bring her any clarity!

"I had the skills. But they didn't... they didn't matter here. I thought that if I became the biggest bully here, I'd finally not be the one getting bullied. And for so long I did that. But now, I lost, and there was nothing I could do about it. And what did it even get me? Do people even like me? Or did I just isolate everyone for something that would have never made me feel better..." Once more, thoughts just came to the surface with no way to stop them. But this time, she would at least find another question to ask a bit faster!

"Do you think that... being a bad person is necessary to be on top?" Lillian asked, her own question coming out after Ember's, leaving it in the wayside for now. If she had been asked this question before, her answer would have been a resounding yes. But now, she wasn't sure if that was the same answer anymore, or even if being a bad person had truly been what led to her success... or if it had led to this failure.

[Darius 2.0]

Damn it! Lillian looked even more sullen now after Ember had answered her question! Had Ember not said the right words? Did she perhaps misunderstand what the brunette meant when she asked what makes a champion?! She was just giving her opinion on what she thought a champion should be! These were the panicky thoughts swirling in Ember's head when she saw how dejected Lillian continued to look after her answer. But how could she know what advice to give if she didn't know what the problem was?

Then, as she settled in next to Lillian on the floor and the woman began to open up to her more, it started to become more clear. Lillian was mourning the loss of her Middleweight Title belt. For reasons unknown, management had seen fit to strip the brunette of her belt without her ever losing it in a match! It was all done very quietly, with Ember never having learned the full details, but she remembered being completely floored when she found out! It had made no sense! Lillian was the greatest Middleweight champ in recent memory!

As soon as Ember had come to this realization, Lillian asked her another question: is being a bad person necessary to be on top? It was yet another question that took Ember of guard! From the sounds of it, it looked liked Lillian was having a crisis of identity! The reason this surprised Ember greatly because the shorty was going through something similar herself, having been pondering it just before encountering Lillian. This time, she would really have to consider her words.

Frowning, Ember would look off into the distance before responding. "Maybe stop worrying about things like good and bad," she finally said, the words tumbling out of her. "Maybe stop thinking about who you should be.......and just start being who you are...."

Something seemed to dawn on Ember Sykes in that moment, as if the advice wasn't just for Lillian alone.....

[ADarlingDucky]

Perhaps Lillian had delved too far into the mental rabbit hole that she was in at this point, but there was a big credit to given to Ember, as the shorty didn't end up shying away from the conversation, staying to think with Lillian despite her sullen state! Despite being downtrodden, Lillian was still trying to find the answers, and so when the didn't come to her despite all her searching, she couldn't help but feel lost, a state that Ember was currently trying to help her with, despite seeming stumped herself! However, after a long while of thinking the shorty would begin to respond, offering her own thoughts on the situation, and who Lillian ought to be! And her response was that perhaps the champion should simply be who she was at heart, instead of worrying about how to act and why she would need to be bad or good for any other reason!

In hindsight, it might have been a simple answer, but Lillian paused upon hearing it, thinking deep on if she had really thought about it before. Long ago, long before Lillian had really even started wrestling properly, she had been confronted with a choice about who to be. And back then, she made the choice to be someone she felt she needed to, and not who she really was. It was an odd thing, to be struck by an epiphany so suddenly about who she needed to be, but when it did, she shot bolt upright, standing to her full height in just a second!

"You're right... you're right!" As if suddenly gripped by an idea, Lillian would turn this way and that, as if unsure to begin, before realizing there was something else she needed to do. Something she hadn't done in a long while!

"Thank you Ember!" The champion would reach out and wrap her arms around the shorty, pulling her into a warm embrace, the kind that she hadn't given out in such a very long time! After which, she would suddenly break away, and begin to dash down the hallway, having places to go and things to do if she were going to get out of this funk and act on what she had realized! "I'll see you again! Sometime really soon!"

[Darius 2.0]

Lillian wasn't the only one experiencing an epiphany in that moment. Ember's own words seemed to have stirred something within her! Just a short while ago, she had been pondering her feelings towards dominating her opponents; namely, how much she enjoyed it! At first, she thought that was crazy! After all, there was no way she could enjoy the suffering she caused another wrestler! No matter how good it felt when she forced them to apologize while kissing her butt, or smothering them unconscious under said butt, or taking selfies with their sleeping bodies....

Where was she going with this again?

Oh right. Someone like her couldn't possibly enjoy such activities as much as she did! Ember was a good girl! An hornorable wrestler! A woman who would never indulge in the pain and humiliation of her rivals!

Wasn't she?

As both woman experienced something of a reawakening, Ember suddenly snapped out of hers by a big hug from Lillian! At first, Ember blinked in surprise, but after a beat she melted into the hug, a somewhat dopey smile on her face as she did so. After all, it wasn't every day you got hugged by your idol! It was a shame she couldn't enjoy it for longer, because Lillian soon jumped to her feet with eyes filled with renewed passion, thanking Ember for her advice! "U-Uh, you're welcome?" she stammered, but Lillian at that point had already turned her back and run off! Whatever was going through the brunette's mind, she had clearly shaken off the funk she was in! Just what that meant, exactly, would remain a mystery to the purple-haired shorty!

Ember was then left alone in the silent hallways, her only company her ever swirling thoughts. Soon though, she would get to her feet and start making her way home again. There was much to think about. One thing was for sure, LAW would never be the same again, and all of it was caused by a meeting that just happened by chance. ".....just start being who you are...." Ember mumbled to herself.


THE END