Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2020 23:39:09 GMT -5
OOC: This is a collaborative effort between Matt Knox "The Raven" and myself. These link in with the previous two collabs this week involving Silvio Leon, Adrienne Levi, and Matt Knox.
Matt Knox stood, leaning against the railing that surrounded the unimpressive in his West Coast opinion. The Atlantic roared over the rain, the waves crashing in an intimidating, fitting display. He closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh air. The rain beat down upon him, dotting and running down the leather jacket he wore. His hair soaked and sticking to his face, lips clutching a cigarette that fought the good fight to stay lit.
At his feet was the ancient Adidas gym bag. He was glad it was waterproof. Or it was, in 2003. He turned his gaze upward to the gray sky which had successfully nullified the sun. He removes his cigarette, turning it out on the post and opting instead to breathe in more of the stormy harbor air.
“C’mon Levi. Don’t tell me you got lost.” He mused quietly as he awaited his friend.
Adrienne came bounding through the door from the interior of the lighthouse. The hood of her long yellow slicker made her look like she could be working on a boat if it weren’t for the leggings and sneakers she had on, too. The rain pattered on the jacket as she joined him at the rail, speaking softly, “Was waiting for you in there but … saw you through the window.”
“In there? And miss this? While simultaneously dignifying this stumpy, joke of a lighthouse with my presence? No thanks.” He turned, and halted a laugh in his throat. She looked ridiculous in the slicker. Like a big kid. “Whole week huh? You bring this rain up from Florida with you?” Adrienne grinned at his chirp. He kneeled down and picked up the gym bag, unzipping it and hurriedly reaching in, shifting through all his junk.
“Before we start in on strategy, or whatever the case..here.” He produced an iPad, and hands it to her. It’s boxed, price tag still attached. Very thought out in the gift wrapping.
“I figured I owed it to you. But i’m not buying you another remote control car. Besides, my money says the fox boy kept it. Seems the type.”
Her eyes widened as she received the gift. She had coordinated the effort to get involved very early on with her currently cracked one and a RC car she picked up at a gas station. Her impression is that she weirded people out but Adrienne so desperately wanted to meet and see people. Gasping, she thanked Knox graciously while producing an oversized handbag to stow the iPad away. Although, with a chuckle, she corrected Knox, “I’ll have you know that he’s the one who returned the car to me.”
Despite the surroundings, Adrienne didn’t want to dampen the mood. She hadn’t seen Kohaku since he teamed with Silvio over a few weeks ago. She wondered what was going on but information had been scarce. Instead, she changed the subject, “Sorry, I don’t pay attention to the forecasts much. Guess we should have picked a better day to do this.”
“I don’t think there is a better day than today, kid,” he offered, turning back to lean against the railing, “It’s fitting. Too fitting. All this shit going on, beyond us, beyond Insidious. It was stirring up a figurative storm. Guess God just figured a literal one would only be fitting.”
He took in a deep breath once more, before letting it out.
“Not surprised. Kohaku is a boy scout, emphasis on boy. Hence why I thought he had ditched us to go race that RC car. But that’s beside the point...are you ready? Because you know, you KNOW that Thor is in their ear, wherever they are, telling them to hurt us the best they can,” a smile broke over his features, a chuckle escaping as he turned his gaze from the sea to his friend, “Especially since you pinned him.”
Adrienne didn’t get that. Sure, she felt pretty demoralized after those first three matches. She had thought that she tried her best but at the end of the way, she was still alive. She shook her head, saying just loud enough for him to hear, “I’m sure you get him, but I don’t. Clearly, he’s capable of terrible things. But then, he acts pretty magnanimous. Acts like he’s doing me a favor. I felt pretty outmatched in that fight, Matt. When he had tried to put me in that hold, I could feel his intentions. I could feel that he wouldn’t let go.”
Looking down in the water, she sighed, “He didn’t take me seriously.”
“He made a mistake. And you made him pay for it.”
He reached into his jacket, producing and empty pack of cigarettes.
“Fuck,” he muttered before shoving it back into his pocket, “You’re on a win streak kid. And it’s going to be a three win streak. So that self doubting angle, that has to stop. You’re good, you’ve been good. Just...unlucky.” He concluded, motioning with his hand.
“Between you, and your inability to stop no matter what’s hitting you, Silvio being a slippy jet fighter and my will to absolutely destroy these bastards...it’s going to work out for us. And you, you get to cash a winners purse check from a pay per view,” he chuckled, “And maybe you can finally just stay up here like the rest of us….some of us.”
He paused a beat, as if barely registering a part of what she said.
“That paying you your money stunt? That’s just gas lighting, my guess. At best, it’s a man paying his debts. Thor is an evil, heinous son of a bitch but he’s still a man and an old school one at that. But it’s good, you responded how you did. If you’d have given him an inch, he would have taken a mile and tried breaking your head open to twist whatever is inside to his liking.”
Her expression became solemn. Part of her wanted to spill her guts but she’d learned that dumping all of your baggage on people wasn’t cool. She’d known men like Nathaniel Grant all her life. More than she ever wanted to know. Her initial impressions of Matt’s ornery attitude were utterly incorrect. He was funny and kind to those who he deemed worthy of his good side.
“I know they’re going to come after me. And you,” Adrienne trailed off. That Monday evening after the show ended strangely. It was like they agreed to disagree and parted ways, “I know it's official on the sheet but you know the old adage: card subject to change. We need Silvio’s help.”
Matt nodded at the statement, “Yeah. I know. I already went and had a talk with him. Smoothed things over. He’s a good kid,” he trailed off, bowing his head momentarily as a smirk cracked his features, before raising his face up again and adding, “And besides, you seem to like him enough to shout at me to get him on the team. Who am I to go against that?”
The solemn look replaced the smirk, his eyes glazing a bit as they turned back to the water, “I’ll take the brunt of their bullshit. Not trying to macho man this bullshit, but you know they’ll want to hurt me the most. You two are going to get hurt for daring to be there to help. Me? Kyuubi is my sister in law, legally. Aaron is my brother in law. Poppy..Never even heard about her until Underground,” he exhales, shaking his head, “I’m sure they want to prove some kind of point, beat me down and send me packing so I can be a permanent non factor. Or try to gaslight me back in afterward...who knows. Doesn’t matter.”
His gaze returned to Adrienne, the glaze disappearing.
“Doesn’t matter because we’re going to win.”
“I can’t pretend to understand this. Only that hurt you and yours. And I don’t know what’s true or not. What his influences really are. He threw five grand at me like it was nothing. I felt gross spending any of it.”
Stepping back from the rail, Adrienne turned to look up into his eyes.
“But you think winning ends this? Gosh, I’m sorry if this is stepping over a line, but when are you going to live your life again?”
She had asked herself quite a few times lately. Suffering knows suffering, though.
Matthew averts his gaze away, the question biting deep. He nods though, and chuckles despite himself. Slowly, he lifts his arms up, outstretched
“This is my life now, Adrienne,” he smiles joylessly, “I can’t do what’s right, I fucked that up ten years ago. Best I can do now..is rip the mask off and hope that those who need to see the reality beneath still can. And after that…”
He trailed off, going silent for a second too long before adding, “After I end this, with Thor. I’ll just go about competing here. Try for titles, improve my image with the public..make up for the private one.”
Knox returned his gaze to her’s.
Not wavering, she replied to him in a clearly rhetorical fashion, “Aren’t we all?”
A silence settled between the two. Adriene broke that with something she’d been considering about Matt for a while.
“I’ve always felt there should be a balance in this business, Matt, Like why be here if you don’t want to succeed, right? But I’m starting to see some familiar stories. Jon and you are so similar. Except Jon is letting his chase consume him. You saw how he lashed out recently. Challenging everyone,” Adrienne paused. His threats were ones she had heard all her life. She had dared to call him out and apologized but then promised to destroy her. Jon seemed real sweet until one wronged him. Well, until he believed that someone wronged them. Adrienne just didn’t want to be reduced to an object to lust after, that’s all. She sniffled a little from the coldness of the rain, “Listen to him, like, really listen to him and you see how he’s replaced one addiction for another. I sacrificed a lot to finally do this. But I’m starting to see what I’ve missed this entire time, like my whole life. What is that for you? I don’t know. Don’t need to know. Just hope you find it.”
Matthew took what she said in. He was moved by it, more than he could say. Her words, they felt weighted and sincere. He stared silently, listening until she finished. He remained silent for a beat, before speaking once again.
“Jon Willis and I are doomed. People like us, who let the business consume them, then went down that other path…” he cut himself off for a beat, before speaking up again in a much more assured tone, “You chase gold, you get it, you lose it, you lose the fire. You lose the feeling of adoration. Then you replace it with a numbness. Any numbness you can find. You, Adrienne...you’re fresh. And your heart is good, better than mine ever was. Even at the start.”
He started to reach out, to shake his point into her but hesitated and thrust his hands in his coat pockets.
“Jon Willis and I, we’re doomed. The best we can hope to do is clear a path for people like you. For you. To make the business good enough to be your life, and not the thing that ruins it,” he let out a small laugh then, “Or we’ll go sour and kill each other...I mean, someone has to be the bad guy after Thor...and no one ever knows when they’re the bad guy, Adrienne. Remember that, if nothing else.”
She didn’t react externally. Words wouldn’t matter here. But one day, she hoped that Matt would be dead wrong about this. Letting the past define his future seemed like a dangerous idea. She quieted down a tiny voice in her head that told her to divulge that what he’s saying wasn’t the way. But what did she honestly know? Nothing much, she figured..
Instead, she backed away from the rail.
“Look, I’m going inside. There’s a museum here. You can join me if you’d like.”
Adrienne didn’t wait for him. She was done being rained on.
Matt Knox stood, leaning against the railing that surrounded the unimpressive in his West Coast opinion. The Atlantic roared over the rain, the waves crashing in an intimidating, fitting display. He closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh air. The rain beat down upon him, dotting and running down the leather jacket he wore. His hair soaked and sticking to his face, lips clutching a cigarette that fought the good fight to stay lit.
At his feet was the ancient Adidas gym bag. He was glad it was waterproof. Or it was, in 2003. He turned his gaze upward to the gray sky which had successfully nullified the sun. He removes his cigarette, turning it out on the post and opting instead to breathe in more of the stormy harbor air.
“C’mon Levi. Don’t tell me you got lost.” He mused quietly as he awaited his friend.
Adrienne came bounding through the door from the interior of the lighthouse. The hood of her long yellow slicker made her look like she could be working on a boat if it weren’t for the leggings and sneakers she had on, too. The rain pattered on the jacket as she joined him at the rail, speaking softly, “Was waiting for you in there but … saw you through the window.”
“In there? And miss this? While simultaneously dignifying this stumpy, joke of a lighthouse with my presence? No thanks.” He turned, and halted a laugh in his throat. She looked ridiculous in the slicker. Like a big kid. “Whole week huh? You bring this rain up from Florida with you?” Adrienne grinned at his chirp. He kneeled down and picked up the gym bag, unzipping it and hurriedly reaching in, shifting through all his junk.
“Before we start in on strategy, or whatever the case..here.” He produced an iPad, and hands it to her. It’s boxed, price tag still attached. Very thought out in the gift wrapping.
“I figured I owed it to you. But i’m not buying you another remote control car. Besides, my money says the fox boy kept it. Seems the type.”
Her eyes widened as she received the gift. She had coordinated the effort to get involved very early on with her currently cracked one and a RC car she picked up at a gas station. Her impression is that she weirded people out but Adrienne so desperately wanted to meet and see people. Gasping, she thanked Knox graciously while producing an oversized handbag to stow the iPad away. Although, with a chuckle, she corrected Knox, “I’ll have you know that he’s the one who returned the car to me.”
Despite the surroundings, Adrienne didn’t want to dampen the mood. She hadn’t seen Kohaku since he teamed with Silvio over a few weeks ago. She wondered what was going on but information had been scarce. Instead, she changed the subject, “Sorry, I don’t pay attention to the forecasts much. Guess we should have picked a better day to do this.”
“I don’t think there is a better day than today, kid,” he offered, turning back to lean against the railing, “It’s fitting. Too fitting. All this shit going on, beyond us, beyond Insidious. It was stirring up a figurative storm. Guess God just figured a literal one would only be fitting.”
He took in a deep breath once more, before letting it out.
“Not surprised. Kohaku is a boy scout, emphasis on boy. Hence why I thought he had ditched us to go race that RC car. But that’s beside the point...are you ready? Because you know, you KNOW that Thor is in their ear, wherever they are, telling them to hurt us the best they can,” a smile broke over his features, a chuckle escaping as he turned his gaze from the sea to his friend, “Especially since you pinned him.”
Adrienne didn’t get that. Sure, she felt pretty demoralized after those first three matches. She had thought that she tried her best but at the end of the way, she was still alive. She shook her head, saying just loud enough for him to hear, “I’m sure you get him, but I don’t. Clearly, he’s capable of terrible things. But then, he acts pretty magnanimous. Acts like he’s doing me a favor. I felt pretty outmatched in that fight, Matt. When he had tried to put me in that hold, I could feel his intentions. I could feel that he wouldn’t let go.”
Looking down in the water, she sighed, “He didn’t take me seriously.”
“He made a mistake. And you made him pay for it.”
He reached into his jacket, producing and empty pack of cigarettes.
“Fuck,” he muttered before shoving it back into his pocket, “You’re on a win streak kid. And it’s going to be a three win streak. So that self doubting angle, that has to stop. You’re good, you’ve been good. Just...unlucky.” He concluded, motioning with his hand.
“Between you, and your inability to stop no matter what’s hitting you, Silvio being a slippy jet fighter and my will to absolutely destroy these bastards...it’s going to work out for us. And you, you get to cash a winners purse check from a pay per view,” he chuckled, “And maybe you can finally just stay up here like the rest of us….some of us.”
He paused a beat, as if barely registering a part of what she said.
“That paying you your money stunt? That’s just gas lighting, my guess. At best, it’s a man paying his debts. Thor is an evil, heinous son of a bitch but he’s still a man and an old school one at that. But it’s good, you responded how you did. If you’d have given him an inch, he would have taken a mile and tried breaking your head open to twist whatever is inside to his liking.”
Her expression became solemn. Part of her wanted to spill her guts but she’d learned that dumping all of your baggage on people wasn’t cool. She’d known men like Nathaniel Grant all her life. More than she ever wanted to know. Her initial impressions of Matt’s ornery attitude were utterly incorrect. He was funny and kind to those who he deemed worthy of his good side.
“I know they’re going to come after me. And you,” Adrienne trailed off. That Monday evening after the show ended strangely. It was like they agreed to disagree and parted ways, “I know it's official on the sheet but you know the old adage: card subject to change. We need Silvio’s help.”
Matt nodded at the statement, “Yeah. I know. I already went and had a talk with him. Smoothed things over. He’s a good kid,” he trailed off, bowing his head momentarily as a smirk cracked his features, before raising his face up again and adding, “And besides, you seem to like him enough to shout at me to get him on the team. Who am I to go against that?”
The solemn look replaced the smirk, his eyes glazing a bit as they turned back to the water, “I’ll take the brunt of their bullshit. Not trying to macho man this bullshit, but you know they’ll want to hurt me the most. You two are going to get hurt for daring to be there to help. Me? Kyuubi is my sister in law, legally. Aaron is my brother in law. Poppy..Never even heard about her until Underground,” he exhales, shaking his head, “I’m sure they want to prove some kind of point, beat me down and send me packing so I can be a permanent non factor. Or try to gaslight me back in afterward...who knows. Doesn’t matter.”
His gaze returned to Adrienne, the glaze disappearing.
“Doesn’t matter because we’re going to win.”
“I can’t pretend to understand this. Only that hurt you and yours. And I don’t know what’s true or not. What his influences really are. He threw five grand at me like it was nothing. I felt gross spending any of it.”
Stepping back from the rail, Adrienne turned to look up into his eyes.
“But you think winning ends this? Gosh, I’m sorry if this is stepping over a line, but when are you going to live your life again?”
She had asked herself quite a few times lately. Suffering knows suffering, though.
Matthew averts his gaze away, the question biting deep. He nods though, and chuckles despite himself. Slowly, he lifts his arms up, outstretched
“This is my life now, Adrienne,” he smiles joylessly, “I can’t do what’s right, I fucked that up ten years ago. Best I can do now..is rip the mask off and hope that those who need to see the reality beneath still can. And after that…”
He trailed off, going silent for a second too long before adding, “After I end this, with Thor. I’ll just go about competing here. Try for titles, improve my image with the public..make up for the private one.”
Knox returned his gaze to her’s.
Not wavering, she replied to him in a clearly rhetorical fashion, “Aren’t we all?”
A silence settled between the two. Adriene broke that with something she’d been considering about Matt for a while.
“I’ve always felt there should be a balance in this business, Matt, Like why be here if you don’t want to succeed, right? But I’m starting to see some familiar stories. Jon and you are so similar. Except Jon is letting his chase consume him. You saw how he lashed out recently. Challenging everyone,” Adrienne paused. His threats were ones she had heard all her life. She had dared to call him out and apologized but then promised to destroy her. Jon seemed real sweet until one wronged him. Well, until he believed that someone wronged them. Adrienne just didn’t want to be reduced to an object to lust after, that’s all. She sniffled a little from the coldness of the rain, “Listen to him, like, really listen to him and you see how he’s replaced one addiction for another. I sacrificed a lot to finally do this. But I’m starting to see what I’ve missed this entire time, like my whole life. What is that for you? I don’t know. Don’t need to know. Just hope you find it.”
Matthew took what she said in. He was moved by it, more than he could say. Her words, they felt weighted and sincere. He stared silently, listening until she finished. He remained silent for a beat, before speaking once again.
“Jon Willis and I are doomed. People like us, who let the business consume them, then went down that other path…” he cut himself off for a beat, before speaking up again in a much more assured tone, “You chase gold, you get it, you lose it, you lose the fire. You lose the feeling of adoration. Then you replace it with a numbness. Any numbness you can find. You, Adrienne...you’re fresh. And your heart is good, better than mine ever was. Even at the start.”
He started to reach out, to shake his point into her but hesitated and thrust his hands in his coat pockets.
“Jon Willis and I, we’re doomed. The best we can hope to do is clear a path for people like you. For you. To make the business good enough to be your life, and not the thing that ruins it,” he let out a small laugh then, “Or we’ll go sour and kill each other...I mean, someone has to be the bad guy after Thor...and no one ever knows when they’re the bad guy, Adrienne. Remember that, if nothing else.”
She didn’t react externally. Words wouldn’t matter here. But one day, she hoped that Matt would be dead wrong about this. Letting the past define his future seemed like a dangerous idea. She quieted down a tiny voice in her head that told her to divulge that what he’s saying wasn’t the way. But what did she honestly know? Nothing much, she figured..
Instead, she backed away from the rail.
“Look, I’m going inside. There’s a museum here. You can join me if you’d like.”
Adrienne didn’t wait for him. She was done being rained on.