Meltdown 128: M vs. Diabolos

[Richard Blonoff]

Deadline is Wednesday, March 23rd, at 11:59PM. Extensions available according to new extension rules.

 

[M]

Hi Hayden!
Your dad told me you're quite a fan of mine! I haven't quite come up with a marvellous name for my Fanbase yet, so I can't hand you out any majestic cards saying "Welcome to the Maniacs" or anything. Hopefully a personalised letter makes up for it

I haven't done this before so I don't know what to write... Ummm... how are things with your dad and his girlfriend? They're doing swell? That's magnificent!

...How did that read? You're getting a window into the mind of M here, so that means both the charismatic wacko you know and love as well as whatever it is that's writing this - 2 for the price of 1! Actually I think I'm doing this for free so it's a bargain! Man alive do I need The General to make all this chat seem believable or what!

Anyway, I'm doing alright, Prince Purple told me he'd give me "the location of General Green's whereabouts correct to the nearest millimetre" after my match with Diabolos so that'll all be wrapped up just in time for Gold Rush and then we can get Teru back! Yay!

That does mean I still have to face Diabolos, though.
That's not exactly something I'm looking forward to. I know he beat your father a few weeks ago, so you might be a little predisposed to disliking that particular monster, but if you look back through your history of WZCW you might have been a massive fan of his. That's before he changed, though.

The old Diabolos was someone else in both the figurative and metaphorical senses (heheheh learned those words in school yet?), he had things he cared about, people he loved, fun little battles with tentacle monsters... The old Diabolos was human. I can't say that about this monster using his name, though.

Lots of people compare me to that thing that uses his name, but I've never been like that. I'm a monster, of course, but I'm also majestic, I'm also a mastermind, I'm also a motherly figure to cute little woodland critters. We're both madmen with desires to take over the world, but that's where our similarities end. Diabolos went off the deep end a long long time ago, and I don't know if anyone can pull him out of the darkness in which he now resides. Besides, would Diabolos be able to sit here and write a letter to another wrestler's son without giving him nightmares? Nope.

Actually there's another similarity between Diabolos and myself. We both go knocked out of the Gold Rush tournament, though at least I put a teensy bit of effort in. I have no idea what that means on Diabolos' end, but I've at least got a plan. You know I've only really lost once since I came back. People always seem to forget I do alright for myself sometimes... Anyway, back on topic, I know it sucks that both your father and I lost our chance to leapfrog the competition, but neither of us can dwell on that. Everyone is pushing themselves so hard to try and scramble up the mountain before everyone else that they don't realise a fair chunk of the gold can be found in the streams at the base. Rather than kill myself trying to catch up, I'm just going to quietly accumulate modest gains, make some smart investments, and before anyone else realises it I'll be on top of the world! I'll be on the other side of the mountain, waiting for the losers to come falling down with a smile on my face. They can win their no.1 contenders match and even go on to win the world title, but I'll be the guy that takes it off them while the 7 other guys sit around thinking about what they could have done to get up the mountain faster.

That's free advice to both your father and everyone else, don't let melancholy feelings bring you down! Like I always say: when the city council says 12 storeys is too tall for a lair in the local neighbourhood, they never realise you could just build it underground!

Tell your dad I said hi!

Sincerely,
M

--------------

Deep within the Oregon wilderness lies a creature known only as an "M". Many ancient cultures gave names to this creature - "Majestic" - "Mysterious" - "Magnificent" - but to save confusion, we in the scientific community simply refer to him as the common letter in his name - "M".

The M often prefers to live underground, emerging only for wrestling matches, occasional trips to Milan, and sometimes a good old fashioned sit down at the local cafe. It is at that local cafe that we have been so lucky to see a glimpse of this previously thought to be mythical creature.

The M appears to be writing a letter of some sort, possibly to one of his many fans. We'll call this fan "Hayden McAllister". Imagining that M has some sort of connection to this Hayden McAllister, we'll say that he's the son of a fellow wrestler. We'll call that wrestler "Logan".

The M seems to be enjoying writing this letter to his fan, perhaps this could be nature's way of releasing the frustration associated with being knocked out of a hypothetical tournament of some sort. We'll call this tournament the "Gold Rush". Continuing on from our knowledge that the M emerges from time to time for the occasional wrestling match, let's say the hypothetical tournament was for some sort of glory. We'll call this glory "a shot at a world championship".

Let's include another possibility. Imagine this M happens to have some close friends, maybe even a bride of some sort. Let's call this bride "Teru" and let's give him a friend called "General Green". Maybe M is frustrated that his friends are away from him? Maybe M wants his friends back, and to compensate for the time being he's writing a letter to someone he knows would like to also be a friend? From the outside looking in, we cannot tell.

What we can tell, however, is that this particular M seems to shudder after writing a certain word in his letter. Using our knowledge of pen strokes we can conclude that this shudder comes after the notation of an 8 letter word. Combining that with the aforementioned knowledge that the M occasionally wrestles, we can make an educated assumption that the word is the name of another wrestler - maybe even the wrestler the M is to face at his next outing. Let's call this wrestler "Diabolos".

Now we must ask ourselves, why would the M be shuddering at the mention of something related to a thing he is known to occasionally do? Let's assume it's related to the hypothetical Gold Rush tournament from before. Maybe this Diabolos also was knocked out in the first round, and maybe the M is scared of how they will react? But that is inconsistent with the fact that the M occasionally wrestles, of course he has encountered situations like that before.

Let's try and use some of the other knowledge we have. Let's assume the Diabolos resembles the M in some way. Maybe this Diabolos reminds the M of himself? Maybe this Diabolos once lost their friends and loved ones too? Maybe this Diabolos was also frustrated, and maybe that turned this Diabolos into something that the M doesn't want to be?

The M appears to have stopped shuddering at the mention of this "Diabolos". What could this mean? The resolve shown in the M's eyes would suggest he has come up with some sort of plan. Considering it is hard to believe he had some sort of epiphany regarding the location of his friends, let's assume it is related to Diabolos. In fact, let's go one step deeper and assume it is also related to the glory of a shot at a world championship that the M is missing out on. Maybe the M has resolved that in order to not fall into the darkness and become this Diabolos, he must defeat Diabolos himself? Maybe the M also believes that defeating this Diabolos is necessary to achieve the glory of a shot at a world championship?

Let's treat this all as fact.
Let's watch as M defeats Diabolos.