Trust That I Want Wings

The scene is how it usually is with these things, in his home in the living room with him on his old weathered couch and his table in front of him. This time however, he is alone. All the lights have been turned off and the only indication Lipnick is even here are the five candles burning shoulder to shoulder on his table. The certainly not the most handsome face is lightened with a warm light, it’s almost like he’s going to tell a spooky story or something. Maybe he could but it’d be overlapped by something more scary going on.

He isn’t smiling.

Sure not everyone is walking around everywhere with a smile glued on their face with no release but it’s bizarre since the only times John isn’t smiling is when he’s caught off guard or he’s failed in something. Neither of these things happened at Validation. Renascence beat Kliq and Lipnick is the one that took down Slate and Luger. First lost then an astounding failure at the hands of Josh Wolf aside, there’s nothing that we know of that would be making him seem so…

Upset right now.

John Lipnick:
I fell.

His eyes are unable to remain steady as they dart across the room avoiding eye contact with the camera. Eventually they fall on his hands which he has held together on his table, warm from the fires inches ahead of them. Everything John does is calculated and planned usually. He always knows where the camera is, he always plans twenty days ahead. Yet his posture and twitchy eyes say the opposite.

Maybe being called a cult by people he never interacted with DID bother him?

Perhaps his first loss still dwells in his mind?

Or probably, how it usually is, he’s doing this on purpose.

Who knows? It’s hard to believe the so-called “trustworthy” guy.

John Lipnick:
Rode through the neighborhood with no hands on my bike screaming deafeningly “no hands”. No helmet, no protection, just self-belief in I’ve got it down. Forfeited security to show that I’m one of the neat kids around the parts. Rode smug showed I’m brave to my peers. Then that big towering hill popped up on the horizon and I felt a sense of danger that only propelled me to continue. Peddling up to the peak of it, took one heavy gulp and let momentum take me down. Quicker quicker quicker I went and I enjoyed it so dearly. Y’all I’ll say it, it was the time of my life! For the twenty seconds it was happening anyway. Written on my scroll was that on that day, I wouldn’t brake. Lil Johnny took flight and kissed a rock. My mama came runnin out after that. She heard me bawling my eyes out screeching and kid you not the next thing she did was spank my butt harder than we spanked those Kliq bastards and that’s an impressive amount of force coming from such a small lady. Course right after I went to the hospital, I got some help and got a scar on my forehead. Mother wasn’t cruel and too discipline focused just never wanted me to do it again. She never suffocated me with safety tips after that but she always reminded me never to go no handlebars again. Obviously after that I kept falling and messing myself up like every other loveable kid but y’know I never made the same mistake again. So I thought anyway.

Inevitably I’d ride that bike again and I’d crash again eventually. I knew that was written in the cards. But never once did I have to ride in the car with my mother almost crying for her baby again. Horrific things are going to happen to me and those around me and the only countermeasure I have against those things is how I shape them. John turned Tiny Becky forgetting to tie her shoes and tripping into gaslighting Becky to doubt herself and thinking she was dumb. Turned the dirty water river into the chocolate milk river for Gullible Billy.

Built myself up on that idea. I could lead anyone because I could make them feel loved or loathed. Maturity hit and I figured it ain’t right to pick on others for no reason and I was straight as a pole. Whenever someone cried I was there. Whenever someone failed their test I gave them confidence to study. Folk like Tenra and Val like constructing this narrative where I manipulated those closest to me. It's all libel. I’m a natural leader that is courteous to people and finds self enjoyment by helping them recover from the lowest lows. That’s the whole story there is nothing else to it, no deep dives awaiting you. There is one slanderous thing I would like to explain further however. Something I brought upon myself. The lie I made to myself.

I went without handlebars and lost my Undisputed Championship. I rode with no security and with no backup plan or awareness of the future.

His breath that’s being exhaled from his mouth is unsteady after acknowledging the day he was the loser in one of the biggest underdog victories that ever took place. No false acting or masks can hide that he’s bothered so much by that.

John Lipnick:
Everything I thought I wanted I assumed I possessed when I held those pounds of gold. Believed I was the patriarch of the company if I had that belt and there was nothing above that. One title win and I believed I was the one above all. I'm humble, I admit flaws and that was my championship defining flaw, losing perspective. The toxin wasn't failure, it was being conformable. Kwame capitalized, good on him even if I assure you if we had another match I'd put him to sleep. He capitalized while I did not.

Course many said during that domination of the better-off retired club Kliq that it was about me getting my "groove" back and while I promise through my entire core that seeing that defamatory insult slinger bastard Josh Wolf get his face degraded with scars artistically placed by my dear friend Diamond did make my body gleeful like the most pleasant music. All that match did was make me reconfirm something.

I want more than my title, I require more than my title. I'll get it back trust me but it'd be unfair of me, to myself and to this globe if I did not pursue further. Beyond glory and beyond my dying thirst of being the first name on the credits.

I want wings.

John laughs in such an improper way after his own comment. As if this was a misplaced input for a character in a game or there was an error processing all of this. It wasn’t a genuine underplaying of his own wish at all but rather a failing attempt at making said wish seem dismissively silly. But knowing who he is and the things he said before, it comes off as an actual wish. That attempt at coming off relatable fell on its face and is only put in agony by the salt on wound that comes with Lipnick’s cold silence right after. Just like it was an accidental button press, his expression goes to idle. His eyes return to where they began, on his hands. It’s an odd chilling feeling down the spine with how easily he can switch through the motions, how this is something he feels he needs to put makeup on before it’s shown off.

John Lipnick:
I want wings to rise to the tip of the sky. I want wings for those around me to see me fly, to look up to me. The living angel would be considered me. Children would draw art of me in class and the news would cover me. Religion would worship me and nonbelievers would question their faith. I’d be the figurehead of the world for the longest time, I’d be above so many literally but also mentally. How could I not guide the waves when I am the one that no one else could hope to replicate? That responsibility, all of it, I crave. That attention, those eyes, I lust. Besides being so clearly superior, I would not disregard my humanity. Charity work and appearances would be constant. Everyone would look up to me.

I believed I already claimed the wings I deserve when I had that championship but I was falsely guided. I had nothing because the only wrongdoing I have committed to those on this roster and to myself was forgetting my humanity.

I forsaken all drive by thinking I had what I wanted. I rode down the hill with no handlebars and crashed again so I apologize for lying to my mother, apologize for lying to all of you. I was misguided by my own hand to believe I was beyond who I truly was. My goal was and will not be achieved by a streak. I have learned that the hard way but I appreciate the lesson.

For now, I am still just an idol.

For now, I am still just a man.

But I take pride in knowing I am the leading star of all the unpleasant fungal discharges that y’all know take room on Supremacy and Crossfire.

I’m a better man than Bob Luger The Bitter.

I’m a better man than Walter Bolek The Cold.

I’m a better man than Amber Reed The Disgraced.

And I’d bet my wings on the fact that in every single possible way, just the mere dawn of my existence that began when I was pushed out the womb was more beneficial than Tailcoat Val’s experience of living up to this point.

Did I destroy all you hold Val? Couldn’t tell ya. But if it turns out I didn’t? I regret not doing such a noble thing first.

As Tailcoat Val’s hunt and mystery continues and only approaches closer to its conclusion, Lipnick’s reaction to it only reinforces itself to be the exact same every time. Clearly he’s doing that on purpose. Same again with what happens when he discusses anything relating to the destruction of Val’s property, he goes to leave. He stands himself up and walks in front of the camera but turns his back to it. One by one he blows out the candles he lit, each one being extinguished only coating the house in black even more.

John Lipnick:
I am just the best man.

I am just the one true leader.

I am just the noose around everyone’s neck that at anytime can hang them if I decide it’s worth it.

I am the magnum opus of humanity. By choice.

I am the one that will achieve wings.

If you trust me, maybe I’ll hold your hand and show you what it’s like to fly.

Then his lips approach that final candle but he hesitates for a moment. Instead he turns one last time to meet the camera and forces a curl into his lips. If you’re going to send them home, don’t send them home thinking in any way shape or form you may be vulnerable. Then that last candle meets its end.

It’s dark.