Character is like a tree and reputation like it’s shadow.

The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

I have to wonder what Abraham Lincoln, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, and more than that one of the greatest exponents of freedom that this poor World has ever seen, would think if he knew that something he said over one hundred and fifty years ago would one day be used by me?

Who am I?

Well that is a damn good question, one that I can answer both simply and with more complexity.

The simple answer is that I am known as Ember.

What?

Oh, you want the more complex answer too do you?

Well you see that would take us into the blurry realm between the tree and it’s shadow … between my character, who I actually am, and my reputation, what you THINK that I am.

The truth of the matter is that Ember is all that you need to know for now about who I am, because reputations … just like shadows … can actually be deceiving, and why let something like that get in the way of a perfectly good introduction?

You see asking who am I was a good place to start, but to be honest a better question would have been what do I want?

… but seeing as you didn’t ask me that I am going to take the liberty of answering it anyway.

I have decided that I am going to put Mr Abraham’s theory to the test and the best way that I can do that is to build a reputation from scratch, and see if what people think that I am mirrors in anyway at all what I actually am.

Interesting don’t you think?

Well actually it doesn’t really matter what you think, because that is what is going to happen, because I had a thought.

An epiphany if you please.

You see a few short hours ago I was flicking through some channels on the television … having found that one can only train so much in one day, and one can only read so much Nietzsche before it feels that the brain is ready to implode … and I came across one of those little wrestling federations that passes for entertainment for the masses.

World Wrestling Alliance was the name, and after only a few seconds I decided that a brain implosion was much more preferable to what it libellously called sports entertainment, but before I could change the channel something caught my eye.

Unfortunately for WWA it wasn’t one of their matches, but instead it was one of their employees … what was it they called him, oh yeas one of their ‘superstars’.

… well who am I to argue pedantics and cry false advertising?

… but I digress.

I saw an advert that mentioned one of their new signings, and I have to say that it garnered my interest.

You see I find life to be so mundane these days that a little something out of the ordinary is just what I need sometimes to wake my senses and make me realise that I haven’t died yet.

… soon I am sure, but not yet.

There is no point waiting around for the after life to catch up to you you know, time … as esoteric as that concept is … needs to be filled so that ennui doesn’t take over and make a bad situation even worse.

Sorry, forgive the melodrama, you don’t need that much of a glimpse at my psyche really, so let me get back to the point.

I am sure at this point that you assume that I am talking about Aidan DeLaCroix don’t you?

Well you know what they say about assuming anything, so I don’t really need to go into that.

Actually no it wasn’t DeLaCroix, it was someone else completely, but that is another topic for another day but suffice it to say that without DeLaCroix I wouldn’t be talking about our for now mystery person that attracted my attention to the WWA like a moth to the flame.

… and what a pretty thing that the flame is as well …

So why is it that DeLaCroix is so important to me?

Simple, it seems that the WWA are so impressed with their own propaganda that they require a little test before they let anyone join their hallowed ranks … I am positive that they wish they had thought of that before the ink was dry on the majority of their current roster, but hindsight is … as they say … always clearer.

So for this little moth to get to his flame he had to run the gauntlet that the powers that be in the WWA set up for him.

… and in case anyone has been lost along the way, by that I mean that I had decided to join the WWA and they … in their oh so infinite wisdom … had decided that I had to pass their test first.

A test by the name of Aidan DeLaCroix.

What joy.

You see though I have to be honest here and say that for me ignorance is bliss, as apart from the name I know nothing more about this DeLaCroix. Nothing more apart from the fact of course that I have to go through him in order to get accepted into the WWA itself … and unless I am in the WWA then mothy doesn’t get his flame.

What sweet irony that I am being forced to actually work for my supper so to speak, that my ultimate goal is now going to be something that is just out of reach until I take care of a little bit of business first.

Congratulations Aidan DeLaCroix.

Oh excuse me.

Did I just confuse you all?

Silly me, I must have let my mind slip for a moment, and forgotten just the level of people I am dealing with here.

Let me put it simply.

I finally have a chance to live my life the way that I want to without any other voice telling me how to do so, or worse trying to live it for me. I finally have a chance to live my own destiny and walk my own path rather than being forced and constrained to wear someone else’s boots and look out through eyes that don’t even seem to be mine as I watch my body perform tricks for the masses. The WWA has something that I want, and all I have to do to get to it is one simple thing.

Beat Aidan DeLaCroix.

So you see that is why I am really congratulating him, it is because I have decided that he is to take a place in history.

My history.

I have decided that through him I can make a new reputation, I can build my character.

I have decided that Aidan DeLaCroix is simply a means to an end and almost beyond sparing a second thought.

Egotistical I hear you say?

Perhaps

… perhaps not.

You see simply because you do not know me or what I am capable of does not mean that I do not have the ability to back my words up.

Consider this, my friends.

I … and my dear friend Abraham Lincoln of course … have discussed trees and shadows, well while people ask what sound a tree makes when it falls if no-one is there to hear it I ask something different?

Is a shadow still there if no-one sees it?

Is a reputation … is talent and excellence … still there if hidden behind a mask and unseen?

Don’t rush to answer it right away, wait a while and see.

I am sure that Aidan DeLaCroix will be keen to see what happens when he looks into the shadows.

I am sure that he will be confident in his own abilities to come and face me in the ring …

… won’t he?

I hope so, because I can’t wait to see his face when the shadows stare right back.

… and laugh.