“We all have scars.”
“Everything in our lives, from the simplest knick to the most grievous wound is forever immortalized on our skin for the world to see. The deeper the cut the more prominent it appears upon your once untouched form.”
“But wounds don’t simply stop at physical. Some wounds? They etch themselves upon your very soul, the sins and failures of your past carving themselves into your brain, leaving a permanent mark on your heart that the whole world can see.”
“It’s an ever visible damage that reflects not just on your skin but on your face.”
“The way you walk, talk, and act all influenced by those old, festering wounds that never seem to go away no matter how long it takes them to heal.”
“And try as you might, you can never truly hide those scars.”
“Makeup on your skin leaves an outline of the damage below.”
“The façade on your face barely disguising the anguish sitting beneath.”
“These scars define us.”
“Yet so many of you refuse to acknowledge them.”
“I’ve been with you all for so long. And one by one we’ve left these beautiful scars upon one another in front of crowds of roaring fans. They’ve seen how deep the blade goes, the world knows exactly the kind of destruction that weighs so heavily upon your souls.”
“Jensen, dear friend. You’ve been ravaged by DTR, left broken and twisted at his hands. Your body has been changed irreversibly, your psyche sliced to pieces and stitched back together. Yet, you merely call yourself Vengeance and try to conceal the pain that sits so plainly in your eyes.”
“And Lux, the man I could never visibly break. That mask doesn’t simply hide your face, it hides the scars of your past. The battles with Solomon, the loss of your father… You’re a walking tragedy that has refused to let the world see the real you all this time. You’re a warrior, yet the world isn’t allowed to see the way war has ravaged you?”
“Yet, with all I’ve said, no one is as egregious an offender as Mike Lane himself. The man who has taken everything OSW can throw at him on the chin. You watched as I gutted Destiny, were forced to fight for your life every single day! And as the wounds piled up, the scars running deep, you simply chose to endure.”
“The difference between us, you see, is I don’t simply endure my scars. I don’t hide them, I don’t ignore them.”
“I embrace them.”
“Every broken heart and laceration has made me who I am. They define me, the wounds of my past lay plainly, beautifully, on my skin and my soul.”
“From the smile on my face to the demise of my beloved Jonathan, they’ve shaped me.”
“I don’t dwell on them, I love them.”
“And as we fight for our lives in that ring?”
“Giving scars and trauma to one another?”
“You may grimace, you may cry.”
“But I’ll do as I always have.”
“And just… Smile.”