Post by Coda on Nov 23, 2017 6:23:35 GMT -5
CREDIT: Callum (Josh Kennedy)
DATE: 10.29.17
LOCATION: Chicago, IL @ United Center
CAMERA STATUS: OFF
Josh stands against the wall of the United Center in Chicago, propping himself against it in a lazy slouch. He’s remained out there since his exchange with Coda, the sounds of the ongoing Dissension show still muffled by the layers of concrete separating him from the action. Examining his situation, Josh continues to eye the burnt down home of Slaughterhouse from his position, longing for better days in the comforts of solitude. His fists ball up by his side as he feels a presence behind him, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. The air is cold, and a blast of wind prompts him to pull up the hood of his sweatshirt. It’s not enough to take the sting away, but it helps somewhat.
Josh Kennedy: “Can I help you?”
Mara Moon: “Can I help you?”
Josh seems puzzled at the woman in the thin button-down jacket standing in his eyesight. She crosses her arms and switches her stance to focus more of her weight on her opposite leg with an equally inquisitive expression dancing against her delicate features.
Josh Kennedy: “I’m sorry, whatever you’re gonna pitch me, I’m not interested.”
The stranger shook her head back and forth as she looked up at the pale, wiry-looking man. He scratches the thin beard on his face for a moment.
Mara Moon: “You misunderstand. I’m Yu— Coda’s sister… My name is Mara… and I saw everything you were saying earlier on the monitor. I don’t mean to pry or anything, but…”
Josh Kennedy: “Oh… Sorry, Mara. Y’know, you reach a certain point and all you get are random sponsorship deals for shitty products on infomercials. What do you wanna talk about then? I’m guessing you’re here for something.”
Noticing Josh had loosened up, Mara decides to lean against the wall beside him. Casually crossing her arms to keep warm, she watched the concrete below as she thought to herself before speaking hesitantly.
Mara Moon: “What do you want to talk about? You seem to be the one with a lot on his mind. I know sometimes my sister can be a handful but she means well when she was trying to help you back there. She just can’t grasp everything you’re dealing with right now. Not everyone would. And her being the way she is, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now… Well, nuances like that are even harder for her to comprehend than most people, y’know?”
Josh Kennedy: “Look, Mara, I don’t know you at all. I have a therapist to talk this kinda crap over with. I didn’t mean to shovel all my issues on your sister, and I sure as hell ain’t gonna put that on you after 30 seconds of conversation. I get that it’s hard for her. Hell, I told your sister she shouldn’t be trying to understand all this. I barely know her either, we’re not friends, we’re barely even acquaintances. Far as I’m concerned, I respect her for the badass shit she does between the ropes. The rest is her own business.”
Mara nodded, tilting her head slightly as she glanced in Josh's direction.
Mara Moon: “I get that. I don’t expect you to all of a sudden unload all of your problems onto me. I just figured… Maybe someone to talk to right now would be good for you? Especially now.”
Josh Kennedy: “Better than sitting here on my own, I guess.”
Josh concurred with a wry laugh. Silence enveloped the two for a moment, hanging in the air with no remorse. Mara's eyes flickered in Josh's direction and she lurched forward, blurting out the words repeating in her mind like the whistle of a tea kettle.
Mara Moon: “I don’t think you’re replaceable.”
Josh gave her a strange look with eyebrows raised and mouth slightly agape.
Mara Moon: “I mean, not you. Not me. Not my sister. Not anyone. And the fact that you think so strongly that that’s true without a doubt discounts all we are as people. We’ve changed the world over thousands of millennia. We’ve changed the environment drastically from where it started. We’ve done so much as a species that considering us all replaceable just makes it seem like you don’t see the way we’ve gradually changed things in our lifetime.”
Josh scratched the back of his head while processing the sudden shift in subject matter.
Josh Kennedy: “I’ve been in this business for nearly eight years now. I’ve seen people way more talented than any name and face you’d recognise in this industry fall into obscurity, people with more capabilities than I could ever dream of having, dyin’ in shithole motels in midwestern towns from drug overdoses with not a penny to their names, nobody special in their lives to remember them… Those people could have changed the world too. But they never got the chance. We’ve progressed, sure, but what about all the others that could have done the same things, or more? The ones that never got the chance? There are just as many of ‘em lost to time. Those names in the history books coulda just as easily been replaced by somebody else.”
He casts his eyes downwards. There was something just a little too personal about the anecdote for it to have just been plucked from thin air, and his facial expression betrayed that fact all too transparently.
Mara Moon: “You’re looking at this too narrowly. Sure, there were a lot of wrestlers who should have made it to the big time, not that I’m particularly interested in the sport, but you really think someone else would have stood at the podium and gave the “I Have A Dream” speech? You really think someone else could have freed the slaves? You really think anyone else on the planet could have become president of the united states and asked for a wall to be built to separate us from Mexico? There are some people in history who are irreplaceable, whether we like it or not.”
The passion in Mara’s voice far exceeded Josh’s own. Her energetic demeanor on display, she tried to debate her side of the argument to the best of her ability, all the while knowing maybe a conversation such as this might have been good for Josh too.
Josh Kennedy: “It’s not just about the industry, that’s just what I’ve seen with my own two eyes. Yeah, I do. Who’s to say there wasn’t another young man who coulda given a speech that had the same impact as Martin Luther King Jr. decades before, and never got the chance? As for Trump? There are a million dumbasses on this planet, I’m sure there are plenty more who would have built a giant concrete monolith to their own ego if they had the power to do so.”
Mara Moon: That’s just it. They never got that chance. The people with the chances to make the speeches, to make it to where you are right now in the wrestling world are the only people who could have made the same trip. You’re here for a reason. My sister started scribbling wrestling moves in a binder when she was ten years old because she had an interest in wrestling, no one else. If I believed we’re all replaceable, then what’s the point of literally anything?”
Her hope hadn’t wavered but Josh quickly countered back.
Josh Kennedy: “No, we’re not. We just got lucky in the draw. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the most of the chances we got. Just like your sister, I spent years dreaming of doing this. I grew up wanting to be the fiercest warrior around. Conan the fuckin’ Barbarian, y’know? And I got the chance to live that, in my own, tiny, fractured, imperfect little way. Not many get to have the career I’ve had so far, and I know the only thing that separates me from the guys that end up face-down in the gutter is chance. But that’s ok if you take that ball and run with it. We’ve been given this opportunity, for no reason at all, it’s our duty to make the best of it. Otherwise, we’re just spitting in the faces of the people that don’t get that chance.”
His fatalistic musings weren’t for nothing. But without belief in a higher power, Josh could only frame life through this lens, it was the only way he could find his own purpose. Mara nodded.
Mara Moon: “I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”
She thinks for a moment, absorbing the words Josh had said and looked back at the reason she meant to talk to him in the first place.
Mara Moon: “You were taking notes when my sister met you in the hallway, weren’t you?”
Josh Kennedy: “...I mean, that and like 30 other things at once, but yeah.”
Mara Moon: “Have you ever thought that maybe that’s one of the reasons she’s grown an interest in you as of late?”
Her words were matter-a-fact, pride swelling within the syllables for having come up with the theory.
Josh Kennedy: “I never really thought of that. It was just another thing I was doin’, I sure as shit didn’t expect her to pick up on it.”
It was a minor detail to his recollection of that moment, more to the point, with the amount of things he was doing at once at that time, he’d figured that was the last thing Coda would have noticed. But as Mara pointed it out, the thought seemed to cement itself as a possible explanation. He, just like most in the industry had grown up with posters of wrestlers on his wall, sending his head to the clouds as he dreamt lofty dreams of being a middle-of-the-road wrestler with mediocre success. A level he had already surpassed, and yet by his own standards, still wasn’t satisfied. It was something everyone who wrestled could relate to, the one truth shared between them all, he’d never really thought much of it.
Mara Moon: “Her awareness is… more acute than most when it comes to things like that. When we were little, she heard the bus coming in our direction FAR before I could hear it! I guess it’s an added benefit to everything she was handed in life. She just gets overwhelmed when too much is going on at once.”
Josh nodded, no stranger to being overwhelmed himself at times. A mere half an hour ago, he was feeling his own, minute version of it, too many things running through his mind at once. He’d found it had eased with his time outside, his conversation with Mara distracting his attention from the thoughts that played through his head like background noise.
Josh Kennedy: “That I can get. Too much going on at once, I mean.”
Mara Moon: “Then you understand the two of you are more alike than you might have thought.”
Josh Kennedy: “There’s some common ground, maybe. But what does that really matter?”
Mara paused to process the information before blurting out her energetic response.
Mara Moon: “It matters because she’s found an interest in you. When she was talking with you earlier, she was trying to help you in her own unique way. She just doesn’t have the social tools to do it right now, that’s all.”
Josh Kennedy: “I guess I can see that. But I told her I didn’t want to put this on her, I’ve given you the same spiel. If she’s not equipped for it, all she’s gonna get out of it is frustration. So, what do we do?”
Mara Moon: “I know. I told her the same thing. All I was trying to do was help you better understand my sister’s perspective.”
Josh Kennedy: “It makes a little more sense now, I suppose. Just… Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. Once I’ve gotten myself straightened out, at least.”
Mara Moon: “Straightened out?”
Josh Kennedy: “Do I seem like a guy who has his shit together?”
Josh asked, attempting to stray away from this line of questioning with a small joke.
Mara Moon: “... Is that a trick question?”
Josh Kennedy: “That’s what I thought.”
Mara sighed, realizing she wouldn’t be able to penetrate the walls Josh built around himself that easily.
Mara Moon: “There’s nothing you can do except try to live up to her expectations, I suppose. That’s what you were going to do either way, right?”
Josh Kennedy: “Well, that seems to be easier said than done. I mean, maybe? I don’t know what she expects of me. Other than ‘better’. That ain’t really all that clear-cut.”
Without missing a beat, Mara responded as the two continued their back and forth.
Mara Moon: “Maybe she wants you to straighten out just as much as you do.”
Josh Kennedy: “Maybe so. I don’t expect her to know what it takes to do that, but it doesn’t just happen overnight. It comes in waves. Sometimes that’s just how I’ve gotta deal with it.”
Mara Moon: I know it’s more complicated than she makes it out to be. I don’t think she expects an overnight change where you have a handle on your life by morning. I can’t be for sure but I think she wants you to be in a better place than you are right now.”
Josh Kennedy: “I’ve got plenty of people in my life I’m trying to do that for already. It’ll happen when it happens. She just doesn’t see that I’m working on that. She doesn’t have to, none of this should be her concern anyways. But like you said, I guess it just is now, for whatever reason.”
Mara Moon: “I guess you’re right. Her mind processes things differently than most do, you have to remember. She gets frustrated when things don’t fit into the mold she imagined in her own head in social situations and… Well, you get the idea.”
Josh Kennedy: “I do. I just… I’ll do what I can.”
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