Vindication
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:00 pm
The door to the Marsden home swung open and bounced off the doorstop. A rush of cool air followed Tyrell as he stepped inside. The house wasn't much warmer than outside, given his mother's manic penny-pinching. Where some people might've been reasonably frugal, she took things to an uncomfortable degree. They were poor, but they weren't that poor. Ty kicked off his shoes and strode into the house, adjusting the antiquated air conditioning dial on the wall back to something warmer than a fridge.
((Tyrell Lahti continued from on a quick sick rampage))
The house had a kind of antiquated nineties décor. It was the sort of thing that came about from his parents being too stubborn to buy new furniture unless they absolutely had to. The walls were sparse, with only family photos and the odd painting hanging on the walls. Ty's grandfather had been a rather talented painter; his favorite subject was the upper peninsula of Michigan, on the coast of Lake Superior. They just fell short of photorealism.
Taking in the beige monotony for a moment, Ty's eyes wandered to a half-open door off the living room. It used to be a study, now it was his father's bedroom. The plaid bathrobe and the edge of one of his slippers were just barely visible.
A sense of apprehension loomed over Ty, and he took a deep breath before turning away and heading to the basement.
It was a walkout, though he rarely used the small concrete patio other than to park to his father's 1980 Triumph Bonneville. Since his father was beyond ever using it again, Ty had more or less appropriated it to his own needs taking it to and from work as it was a much further distance than school. As much as he despised the man, he'd always thought the bike was fascinating. It frustrated Ty that his father never used it, choosing instead to drive around town in his pickup truck. They sold that a few months ago to help pay off some bills, though he was able to persuade his mother to keep the bike. "It would help me be independent" he told her. He'd be able to "help out more" if he had his own way to get around town, of course. It didn't take much to convince her. It helped that he was telling the truth, though convenience wasn't really the main reason he wanted it.
Mostly, it looked cool and he rode it to spite his father. Those were probably the two major reasons things like motorcycles even existed in the first place.
Ty shed his jacket and tossed his backpack lazily onto the floor as he dropped onto his bed. The room was chaotic, and that was how he liked it. There were no windows. The walls were painted a deep red, the ceiling completely black. It hadn't always been this way, but Ty had been making an effort to make it his own in the last year or so. Band posters adorned the walls in a haphazard fashion, some old and others brand new.
His favorite was a vintage "Mechanical Animals" poster, Marilyn Manson's then-androgynous visage staring down to where he slept. A few of the girls who he'd brought home found it unnerving, as the bed sat low to the floor and the paint on the walls made it seem like it was hovering in a dark void. Some fucked-up part of his brain almost found it hot, though despite his father's repeated insults, he'd never actually had more than passing interest in men, let alone rock stars'. Some of the time it reminded him sadly of the man's precipitous downfall after the Holy Wood album, what Ty considered his last decent work. He would do terrible things for a chance to travel back to the late nineties and see him live, but it was a waste of time now that he'd completely burned out. The early work was still awesome, and so the poster would remain.
Next to the bed, his old desk was littered with handwritten notes and strange things Ty had accrued in his day-to-day life. One page was the Finnish lyrics to "In the Pines" that he'd heard online, one of the more strange takes on the song; it fit well, though. Trying to learn Finnish was unreasonably difficult, though simply figuring out the pronunciation to sing it was a more manageable challenge. It certainly sounded better than his attempts to speak to Finns over Discord; the language's grammar was absolutely maddening.
A bundle of string sat in a mess on the corner, the remains of an attempt to make a bracelet in a fit of boredom. After failing, he decided to set fire to it. The scorch mark in the center of the desk was all that was left. Ty cared little for the desk's appearance; he felt those kinds of things next to pentagram carvings, other scorch marks, and the notch he liked to stick a knife into added character to the otherwise unremarkable wooden surface.
Lying in bed, he noticed his sparring gloves on the floor nearby. They were meant for practicing on the heavy bag that hung in the other corner of the room. Years of vented frustrations had meant it now had to be wrapped in duct tape. Though he'd initially resented his father's forcing him into a kickboxing gym, it was probably the only productive thing he'd done as a parent.
The first few weeks were nothing but terror, as if his father was throwing him into the deep end and expecting him to learn to swim. His instructor figured out fairly quickly the kind of place he was coming from, as did his peers - they were kids from the worse parts of town, who saw through the brave face he put on without much effort. They knew what he went through, and worse. Seeing the level of skill and commitment that they brought in spite of what they lived every day caught him off guard.
He'd never thought of himself as a victim until that point. At least, he didn't think consciously of it. Those first few months he fell short of breath every time he walked into the gym and listened. It made him realize that on some level, he felt like prey. Some animal that had to run and hide as its primary mode of existence, that would only ever be on one end of the violence the world had to deliver. Seeing the others made him take a second look at himself. Reckoning early with his self-perception was the only way he ever managed to change. Learning to fight meant it didn't necessarily have to be that way. He didn't have much of a choice in attending anyway.
After the first few months, he started to really take to it. Losses turned to victories, and as his frame filled out he began to establish a reputation for ferocity. At his height, his reach was somewhere in the realm of eighty-four inches, which made him able to easily throw strikes without having to leave his comfort zone. Eventually he didn't have to be dragged to the gym, as he began to leave to go straight there from school. While his looks made him stand out among the crowd there, he felt very much at home by the third year. As much as he resisted, his father's effort to toughen him up worked, at least a bit.
Not that Dad would ever stick around to see how I was doing. Only a few times, and he barely said a word.
Of course, Tyrell's father eventually started complaining about paying for it, so Ty got a part-time job to cover the cost, which at least led him to discover he loved cooking. His coach noticed this one afternoon, and proceeded to go out of his way to tell Ty's parents how he was doing. A gruff man who didn't mince his words, Ty could still remember trying not to grin as he overheard him over the phone:
"Look Bill, your kid's got talent. Hits like a damned freight train and he's got the reach and stamina to boot. If he ain't fixin' to compete, he should be."
That's a hell of a compliment coming from Coach, so what does Dad say?
"Huh. Well, that's good to hear. Thanks Al." And that was it. Barely said a word to Ty himself, pleased as he could have been.
Initially enraged that his father seemed to care little for the only thing he really could've done right in his eyes, Ty eventually gleaned the real reason behind his father's reticence. For the first time, Bill Marsden was afraid of his son. For years he'd been able to intimidate him, but now Ty could do more than defend himself. At the time Ty had long surpassed his father in height, taking more after his mother's family in that regard. After showing up for one tournament match, he began to give Ty a wide berth. Bill's physical deterioration was in full swing by then, and combined with the incident with the spanner, they spoke even less from that point on.
Then Elliott goes and takes most of Dad with him, so here we are still sharing the same fucking roof.
Ty ran his hand over the scar on his face. He could still feel it, and he was sure it was one of the first things anyone saw when they looked at him. The sharp edge of the wrench cut deep. Maybe it was menacing, or it made him look exotic. Ty never got used to it, and hated making up answers to questions about it. It was at least easier to adapt to that than the idea that a few of his teeth were now made of titanium. They never felt quite the same.
A teenager with a motorcycle and dangerous looking scars. The surest sign that shit went wrong somewhere down the line. What a stupid fucking cliché.
Their financial situation ended whatever career he might've had in competing; though he wasn't especially interested in taking it further than an outlet to vent his aggression. If he made it out of Chattanooga, he told himself he'd get back into it again. After all, punching people was pretty fun.
On that thought and the faint memory of what the gym smelled like, Ty found lying down and ruminating decidedly uncomfortable. It seemed like a good idea at first, especially after the day he'd had his interaction with Ivy Langley had left him emotionally exhausted but now it just felt altogether too idle. The room was too quiet, and the inside of his head felt anything but. Ty needed outside noise to keep the din at a minimum.
He sat up, tossing his shirt to the floor and grabbing a tank-top out of a nearby drawer. It was rare that he wore anything to reveal his arms past the elbow, as they were a map of every physical manifestation of emotional harm he'd experienced in the last eighteen years. There were cigarette burns, cuts both deep and shallow; some he made himself, and others in fights well outside the boundaries of the gym.
Still, he didn't want to sweat through a band shirt. Too many washes and the designs tended to fade. Ty pulled rings from his knuckles and tied his hair back into a band, then pulled out most of his jewelry and left it on his nightstand. The sparring gloves were a bit tight, but they fit.
He turned to face the heavy bag, chained to the ceiling and still. As the first blows landed on the bag, rattling the chains above, Ty began to feel comfortable again.
((Tyrell Lahti continued from on a quick sick rampage))
The house had a kind of antiquated nineties décor. It was the sort of thing that came about from his parents being too stubborn to buy new furniture unless they absolutely had to. The walls were sparse, with only family photos and the odd painting hanging on the walls. Ty's grandfather had been a rather talented painter; his favorite subject was the upper peninsula of Michigan, on the coast of Lake Superior. They just fell short of photorealism.
Taking in the beige monotony for a moment, Ty's eyes wandered to a half-open door off the living room. It used to be a study, now it was his father's bedroom. The plaid bathrobe and the edge of one of his slippers were just barely visible.
A sense of apprehension loomed over Ty, and he took a deep breath before turning away and heading to the basement.
It was a walkout, though he rarely used the small concrete patio other than to park to his father's 1980 Triumph Bonneville. Since his father was beyond ever using it again, Ty had more or less appropriated it to his own needs taking it to and from work as it was a much further distance than school. As much as he despised the man, he'd always thought the bike was fascinating. It frustrated Ty that his father never used it, choosing instead to drive around town in his pickup truck. They sold that a few months ago to help pay off some bills, though he was able to persuade his mother to keep the bike. "It would help me be independent" he told her. He'd be able to "help out more" if he had his own way to get around town, of course. It didn't take much to convince her. It helped that he was telling the truth, though convenience wasn't really the main reason he wanted it.
Mostly, it looked cool and he rode it to spite his father. Those were probably the two major reasons things like motorcycles even existed in the first place.
Ty shed his jacket and tossed his backpack lazily onto the floor as he dropped onto his bed. The room was chaotic, and that was how he liked it. There were no windows. The walls were painted a deep red, the ceiling completely black. It hadn't always been this way, but Ty had been making an effort to make it his own in the last year or so. Band posters adorned the walls in a haphazard fashion, some old and others brand new.
His favorite was a vintage "Mechanical Animals" poster, Marilyn Manson's then-androgynous visage staring down to where he slept. A few of the girls who he'd brought home found it unnerving, as the bed sat low to the floor and the paint on the walls made it seem like it was hovering in a dark void. Some fucked-up part of his brain almost found it hot, though despite his father's repeated insults, he'd never actually had more than passing interest in men, let alone rock stars'. Some of the time it reminded him sadly of the man's precipitous downfall after the Holy Wood album, what Ty considered his last decent work. He would do terrible things for a chance to travel back to the late nineties and see him live, but it was a waste of time now that he'd completely burned out. The early work was still awesome, and so the poster would remain.
Next to the bed, his old desk was littered with handwritten notes and strange things Ty had accrued in his day-to-day life. One page was the Finnish lyrics to "In the Pines" that he'd heard online, one of the more strange takes on the song; it fit well, though. Trying to learn Finnish was unreasonably difficult, though simply figuring out the pronunciation to sing it was a more manageable challenge. It certainly sounded better than his attempts to speak to Finns over Discord; the language's grammar was absolutely maddening.
A bundle of string sat in a mess on the corner, the remains of an attempt to make a bracelet in a fit of boredom. After failing, he decided to set fire to it. The scorch mark in the center of the desk was all that was left. Ty cared little for the desk's appearance; he felt those kinds of things next to pentagram carvings, other scorch marks, and the notch he liked to stick a knife into added character to the otherwise unremarkable wooden surface.
Lying in bed, he noticed his sparring gloves on the floor nearby. They were meant for practicing on the heavy bag that hung in the other corner of the room. Years of vented frustrations had meant it now had to be wrapped in duct tape. Though he'd initially resented his father's forcing him into a kickboxing gym, it was probably the only productive thing he'd done as a parent.
The first few weeks were nothing but terror, as if his father was throwing him into the deep end and expecting him to learn to swim. His instructor figured out fairly quickly the kind of place he was coming from, as did his peers - they were kids from the worse parts of town, who saw through the brave face he put on without much effort. They knew what he went through, and worse. Seeing the level of skill and commitment that they brought in spite of what they lived every day caught him off guard.
He'd never thought of himself as a victim until that point. At least, he didn't think consciously of it. Those first few months he fell short of breath every time he walked into the gym and listened. It made him realize that on some level, he felt like prey. Some animal that had to run and hide as its primary mode of existence, that would only ever be on one end of the violence the world had to deliver. Seeing the others made him take a second look at himself. Reckoning early with his self-perception was the only way he ever managed to change. Learning to fight meant it didn't necessarily have to be that way. He didn't have much of a choice in attending anyway.
After the first few months, he started to really take to it. Losses turned to victories, and as his frame filled out he began to establish a reputation for ferocity. At his height, his reach was somewhere in the realm of eighty-four inches, which made him able to easily throw strikes without having to leave his comfort zone. Eventually he didn't have to be dragged to the gym, as he began to leave to go straight there from school. While his looks made him stand out among the crowd there, he felt very much at home by the third year. As much as he resisted, his father's effort to toughen him up worked, at least a bit.
Not that Dad would ever stick around to see how I was doing. Only a few times, and he barely said a word.
Of course, Tyrell's father eventually started complaining about paying for it, so Ty got a part-time job to cover the cost, which at least led him to discover he loved cooking. His coach noticed this one afternoon, and proceeded to go out of his way to tell Ty's parents how he was doing. A gruff man who didn't mince his words, Ty could still remember trying not to grin as he overheard him over the phone:
"Look Bill, your kid's got talent. Hits like a damned freight train and he's got the reach and stamina to boot. If he ain't fixin' to compete, he should be."
That's a hell of a compliment coming from Coach, so what does Dad say?
"Huh. Well, that's good to hear. Thanks Al." And that was it. Barely said a word to Ty himself, pleased as he could have been.
Initially enraged that his father seemed to care little for the only thing he really could've done right in his eyes, Ty eventually gleaned the real reason behind his father's reticence. For the first time, Bill Marsden was afraid of his son. For years he'd been able to intimidate him, but now Ty could do more than defend himself. At the time Ty had long surpassed his father in height, taking more after his mother's family in that regard. After showing up for one tournament match, he began to give Ty a wide berth. Bill's physical deterioration was in full swing by then, and combined with the incident with the spanner, they spoke even less from that point on.
Then Elliott goes and takes most of Dad with him, so here we are still sharing the same fucking roof.
Ty ran his hand over the scar on his face. He could still feel it, and he was sure it was one of the first things anyone saw when they looked at him. The sharp edge of the wrench cut deep. Maybe it was menacing, or it made him look exotic. Ty never got used to it, and hated making up answers to questions about it. It was at least easier to adapt to that than the idea that a few of his teeth were now made of titanium. They never felt quite the same.
A teenager with a motorcycle and dangerous looking scars. The surest sign that shit went wrong somewhere down the line. What a stupid fucking cliché.
Their financial situation ended whatever career he might've had in competing; though he wasn't especially interested in taking it further than an outlet to vent his aggression. If he made it out of Chattanooga, he told himself he'd get back into it again. After all, punching people was pretty fun.
On that thought and the faint memory of what the gym smelled like, Ty found lying down and ruminating decidedly uncomfortable. It seemed like a good idea at first, especially after the day he'd had his interaction with Ivy Langley had left him emotionally exhausted but now it just felt altogether too idle. The room was too quiet, and the inside of his head felt anything but. Ty needed outside noise to keep the din at a minimum.
He sat up, tossing his shirt to the floor and grabbing a tank-top out of a nearby drawer. It was rare that he wore anything to reveal his arms past the elbow, as they were a map of every physical manifestation of emotional harm he'd experienced in the last eighteen years. There were cigarette burns, cuts both deep and shallow; some he made himself, and others in fights well outside the boundaries of the gym.
Still, he didn't want to sweat through a band shirt. Too many washes and the designs tended to fade. Ty pulled rings from his knuckles and tied his hair back into a band, then pulled out most of his jewelry and left it on his nightstand. The sparring gloves were a bit tight, but they fit.
He turned to face the heavy bag, chained to the ceiling and still. As the first blows landed on the bag, rattling the chains above, Ty began to feel comfortable again.