The Trouble With Polls (EH Trios Championship RP v Outliers)
Feb 5, 2017 15:34:52 GMT
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Post by Everyday Heroes on Feb 5, 2017 15:34:52 GMT
CAUSE FOR CONCERN
Wally Stravinsky shook his head as he appraised the Twitter poll currently visible on his smartphone screen, and relative to his team's chances at the upcoming Guerreros of Lucha event;
'Aw, maaaaan,' he muttered. 'Not good.'
'What's the matter, babe?' Lyndsey Matthews turned over from her lazy position on the couch to gaze at her boyfriend. 'Something wrong?'
'No,' Wally stammered.'Yeah. Kind'a. I dunno.'
'Let me see.' Lyndsey hit the 'Pause' button on the Wii U, causing multi-colored squids to freeze mid-jump, and walked over to peer at Wally's screen.
'Aw, man,' she said, as she took in the poll. 'Seriously?'
Wally nodded forlornly.
'Still?'
Another nod.
'After all this time?'
Another.
'People are idiots,' Lyndsey spat. 'Don't worry about it, babe. You'll show them on Sunday.'
'Are we, though, Lyndz?'
'Um, yeah?' The brunette stared at her partner in disbelief. 'Just like you did every other time...!'
'Not every other time,' Stravinsky pointed out. 'Jason...'
'...was fighting by himself and was unlucky,' Lyndsey cut in. 'If y'all would'a been there, it would'a been a whole different story. And you know it,' she pre-empted, seeing her boyfriend was about to reply'
Wally shrugged. 'Maybe. But these people still got a point...'
Lyndsey groaned. 'Whatever, Walter! I got a game to finish!'
Wally winced as she stalked back to the couch, plopped down, and resumed her game. He immediately began to compose an apology, but before he could so much as put a sentence together, his attention was drawn by the sound of the front door opening.
'Careful with that bag, hon,' he heard a female voice say. 'I think it's ripped at the bottom.'
'I got it,' another replied. Wally heard the rustling of plastic bags being brought in as the two women brought in what he imagined would be the week's groceries, and stepped through to the hallway to help. Before he could take more than two steps, however,, he was nearly bowled over by an enthusiastic young blonde barrelling in the opposite direction, yelling at the top of her lungs.
'LYNDSEY, ARE YOU PLAYING SPLATOON? I WANNA PLAY TOO!'
'Hey, Cherry. Bye, Cherry,' Wally called out, as his friend whizzed past in the direction of the living room. He was still shaking his head in amusement as he entered the kitchen.
'Need a hand, Jen?'
Jenny Lindberg flashed her pretty smile up at him as he seized the nearest bag and began to unpack. 'Hey, Wally. Thanks.'
'No problem,' Wally said, shoving a box of cereal into a nearby cupboard. 'Where's Jason?'
'Helping Mrs. Graves to her door,' Jenny replied. 'He'll be up in a minute. Why?'
'Need to talk to him about something...'
Before Jenny could probe any further, however, their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of the very man they had been discussing.
'Here you go, hon,' Jason O'Ryan said, adding his own plastic bag to the pile on the counter. Then, turning to Wally, he grinned:
'My ears are burning, bud...'
'Uh, yeah,' Wally muttered. 'I was just asking where you were. I need to show you something.'
Without waiting for prompting from his partner, he whipped out his phone, once again bringing up the browser window displaying the Twitter poll.
'Look,' he said, passing the device over to Jason. To his surprise, however, his partner merely chuckled.
'Seriously, bud?'
'What?!' Wally bristled at what he perceived to be a condescending look from Jason.
'You're seriously worried about what some people on Twitter have to say?'
'Well, yeah,' Wally snapped. 'And so should you. In case you didn't notice, we lost fan support!'
'What's up?' Alarmed by both men's raised tones, Jenny had made her way over, and was now looking over Jason's shoulder at the phone. To Wally's increasing irritation, she, too, laughed.
'Oh, sweetie,' she said. 'Jason's right! You shouldn't be losing your mind over something like this! This means nothing!'
'Does it really?' Wally did not want to yell at hs friends, but they were making it very hard to keep composure. 'Does it really, Jen?! Because the way I see it, GOL put up that poll. Which means it's GOL's fans voting on it. Which means, when we go out there on Sunday to defend our titles, fan support is gonna be on The Outliers.'
'So what?!' To Wally's surprise, Jason's tone was just as cutting as his as he rounded up on him. 'So freaking what, Walt? First of all, how do you know it's fans voting on that, and not just The Outliers asking all their friends to go vote for them? I thought you were supposed to be the Internet guy! And secondly,' the leader of the Everyday Heroes cut in over his partner's protestations, 'and second, if people are that fickle, I don't think I want them as fans of ours anyway!'
Jenny nodded. 'Jason's right. You don't need fairweather people like that.'
Despite his still considerable annoyance, Wally was still lucid enough to grant his friends a point. He did not want people who would abandon them at the first setback as fans, either.
'Fine,' he muttered. 'I guess y'all are right. I was overreacting.'
'Hey.' Jason placed a hand on his partner's shoulder, smiling. 'You had a point, bud. If those people who voted in that poll had a name? I'd be worried too. But they don't. They're just random Internet people. It doesn't mean anything. Okay?'
'Okay,' Wally grumbled, after a moment's hesitation. 'Dang it, Jason! Why can't I stay mad at you?'
Jason grinned.
''Cause we're friends.'
Then, shifting his hand from Wally's shoulder to his back, he began to gently lead him towards the hallway.
'But hey,' he said, as he did so. 'Hold on to that anger. Let's use that for our video.'
Wally gasped.
'Our video?! Now?!'
Jason nodded. 'Yup. Go get dressed. I'll get Cherry.'
'Get me for what?!'
Wally and Jason both whirled around as the sound of their third partner's voice came from the living room door, startling them. Wally's heart sank as he took in Cherry's wide-eyed, bewildered expression, and her tinny, quavering voice as she asked:
'Jason?! Guys?! What's going on?!'
'Nothing's going on, Cherry,' Jason said, soothingly. 'Me and Walt were just talking about something. But hey,' he added, his face breaking into a grin, 'go get your uniform. We're gonna go make a video.'
'What, right now?!'
'Yeah. Go tell Lyndsey. We'll wait for you guys downstairs.'
'Um...okay,' a still-bewildered Cherry stammered, as she turned on her heels and ran back into the living room to warn the group's official camerawoman.
As the two men once again found themselves alone in the hallway, Jason once again turned towards Wally.
'You ready, bud?'
The big man nodded, and Jason smiled.
'Awesome. Let's go.'
THE TROUBLE WITH POLLS
'Somebody once said there are three types of lies: lies, danged lies and statistics.'
Jason barely gave Lyndsey time to bring the camera into focus before stepping forward, a determined glint in his eyes.
'Now, I don't think that's entirely true. Sometimes statistics are right. Like when they're used in scientific studies and things like that. But I can see where that person was coming from, too. Because when statistics aren't put together by scientists or researchers, most of the time, they're wrong.'
The leader of the Everyday Heroes halted himself briefly, for effect, before continuing:
'Take polls, for example. More often than not, those turn out to be wrong. I mean, look at what happened right here in America, during the election! If you looked at the polls, you'd think one of the candidates was going to win easy. And what happened in the end? The other guy won.'
Jason's two fellow heroes stared in disbelief as their leader made a blatant political allusion, but the Vanilla Midget simply kept going.
'My point is, just because a poll says something, doesn't mean it's true. Just because election polls said one candidate was going to win, that didn't make it true. And just because the polls for GOL Hecho in Mexico say the Outliers are going to win the Trios Championships...that doesn't mean they will, either.'
Orion stepped forward once again, the glint in his eyes intensifying.
'See, the problem with public opinion is that it's just that – an opinion. It should be respected, sure, but it's not the gospel truth. Things could always turn out differently. And if we have any kind of say in the matter...this Sunday...things will turn out differently.'
Behind Jason, the other two Heroes nodded, their faces finally taking on a confident look as their leader continued:
'See...this is nothing new to us. To any of us. We've spent our entire careers being seen as underdogs. No one ever gave us a real chance. We were always too small, too young, too green, too out of shape. But do you know what we did?
We turned around and defeated the odds. Every. Single. Time.
Owl Man and Sailor Cherry nodded again, even more enthusiastically, as Jason turned to gesture towards them:
'A few months ago, this man right here was seen as a joke. A try-hard. A never-was. Somebody who'd never amount to anything. But now? Now, no matter what happens on Sunday, he will have gotten to call himself a Trios Tag Team Champion.'
Jason stepped over to stand beside Cherry.
'A few months ago, this girl right here was seen as just another ditzy blonde in out of her depth. Somebody who meant well, but who would never have the tools to get where she wanted to get in this business. And now, no matter what happens on Sunday, she will have gotten to call herself a Trios Tag Team Champion.'
Jason grinned.
'Do you see? Do you see why polls don't matter? Polls don't matter because we don't go by what other people say. If we listened to other people, I would still be retired, Walt would still be in his mother's basement, and Cherry would probably be waiting tables somewhere. But because we didn't, we are about to headline a professional wrestling event, over even their top singles title. And we will be walking in as the reigning and defending Champions.'
Smiles broke into Cherry's and Owl Man's faces as Jason extended a closed fist for a fist-bump. Once both his partners had indulged, the Midget quickly continued:
'Outliers...you may be favorites for this one. People may think you're bigger, stronger, more ruthless, more cunning, more resilient. But remember...you were favorites every other time, too. And yet, there's a reason we're here right now, about to do this for the fourth time. And that's because, every other time, the underdogs beat the odds. Every other time, we put our hearts and our minds and our efforts together as a team, and defeated the odds. And this Sunday won't be any different. This Sunday, everyone may be expecting you to take OUR GOL Trios Championships...but we'll have a word to say about it, too. And if it's up to us, we're going to make sure you need a fifth try before you get what you want.'
Jason leaned as close to the camera as he could, his expression brimming with confidence as he concluded:
'If it's up to us...this Sunday...we're going to make absolutely sure we, the Everyday Heroes, the reigning, defending and record-breaking GOL Trios Champions...
...are the last...
…team...
….standing.'
With that, and without even waiting for an indication from his camerawoman, the short but sweet wrestler strode out of frame and back towards his apartment building, leaving the rest of his crew to exchange puzzled looks fpr a moment, before following him back inside.