Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Vice's Virtues 29: Paternalism; In which Jared doesn't sleep, and the Squad discusses family
Topic Started: Jun 25 2016, 02:07 AM (23 Views)
DSI
EWA Tag Team Champion
June 19. 2016

Lou grabbed the makeup case from the vanity in the bathroom, opening it up, and rubbing some eyeshadow onto her finger. The blue was too dark. If she wanted the effect she was going for, she was going to have to work a little harder.

She swiped a small container of white eyeshadow as well, and stepped out into the “living room” of the suite in Chicago. They had gotten there early, hoping to settle in a little and maybe even train before the big show. Almost as important was perfecting the image.

Jared was there, sitting on the couch, drinking a cup of coffee and staring at the TV. It was off. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.

“You look like shit, J.”

“I’ve more or less been on the phone since last Thursday, Lou.” His eyes half-closed, until he forced them back open.

“...why?”

“Because CJ destroyed my servers, along with half the goddamn server farm for the company I was using. Besides the obvious technical difficulties involved in getting a fifteen-year-old website with damn near weekly back up and running with a working archive, I had to find a new web host. There are only so many who are willing to work with adult content. And when word gets out that a fucking lunatic with a chainsaw might show up and start destroying your property, webhosts get a little hesitant.”

“That’s rough.”

“That doesn’t even take into account the customer service problems that come along with the fact that nobody on the globe can access your site. I have… well, had subscribers all over the world. I’ve lost about 35% of them so far. The rest are barely hanging on.”

“Don’t you have a customer service team?”

“Yeah. And they’re working overtime. And it’s not enough. So I’m answering calls. From customers, from Sung Hi, Sung Li, and Dahlia, wondering why their websites are inaccessible as well… I’m going to be looking at breach of contract suits soon if I don’t get this fixed.”

Lou stood in silence for a second.

“So why aren’t you on the phone now?”

“I can’t. I need a break. And a nap.”

“Good luck. And… uh, Happy Father’s Day.”

~~~~~

Lou opened the door to the bedroom, sliding the makeup on the desk. She pulled a mirror out of a drawer, a small, freestanding makeup mirror, and sat in the shitty office chair that hotels seemed to love.

“Well, that was a trainwreck,” she said, looking over her shoulder at Jane. She was sitting in the bed, back against the headboard, with her arms crossed. An old episode of SHOOT Project’s Oblivion was playing on the television, hooked into Jane’s laptop. Lou couldn’t tell who was wrestling, as the sound was muted, but it didn’t much matter. Jane’s face told the story: eyes were red and puffy, her nostrils flared at random moments, and the corners of her mouth were unconsciously turned down further than she’d seen them in a while.

“What’s wrong, sugar? Not having the best Father’s--” Lou caught herself before she finished. It was incredibly obvious in retrospect. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive.”

“It’s not your fault, Lou. It’s been ten years. I thought I’d be used to it by now, but it seems like no matter how many dads I have, they’re all going to abandon me eventually.” Jane wiped her eye. “First Dad, then Sean, and CJ… a never-ending parade of men deciding I’m not important enough to stick around for.”

“Jared’s right outside the door, ya know, at least--”

“For how long, Lou? He’s so involved in his own shit that we haven’t really rated a training session, much less management. And you and I both know there’s no way in hell he beats CJ in any match ever, so unless CJ just decides to give up, we know where this is going.” She dropped her head, mumbling mostly under her breath. “Besides, he has his own daughter now. I’m disposable.”

Lou grabbed the mirror, bringing it over to the bed with her. She sat next to Jane, holding the mirror between her knees, as she started brushing the eyeshadow over her chin. “I’m sorry, Janey. I… I’d love to tell you I know how you feel, but I don’t. But I get that it sucks, and I’m sorry.”

“I just miss my dad, Lou.” She sniffled. “Stupid, stubborn, headstrong... but still my dad. He never met Andrew. He only met Jared once. He never knew you… never got to see the woman I’ve become. Every big accomplishment of my life, and there’s a big gap where he should be. And Sean… I mean, that’s even worse. He took me in, made me think I meant something to someone, and then just up and disappears. Another big gap where someone who’s supposed to love me should be.”

Lou frowned, partially to streak the eyeshadow over her top lip, partly to dissolve her own bad memories. “Hey… I know it’s tough, but at least you can focus on the good memories you had with them, y’know? They were there for you once. They supported you… helped you. Even if they’re gone, they loved you.” She was not going to cry. No. Not tonight, not over this, no. That sack of shit didn’t rate shedding a tear. “I… I’m kinda jealous of that, honestly.”

Jane rubbed her eyes again, ignoring the TV. “You know… I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything about your family.”

“They don’t really warrant a mention most times, doll.” She was pulling back the emotion. Keep up the shell. Don’t fucking cry. “Daddy wanted a Southern belle, a debutante. Instead he got me. That never really went over too well.”

“Did he…” Jane didn’t want to finish the question. She didn’t need to.

“No, no. Nothing sexual. Thank whatever for that small miracle, I guess. But if he got colorectal cancer tomorrow, I’d probably throw a party.”

“Wow.”

“Hard to feel empathy for someone who tried to exorcise you at 11. Said my love for sports and metal was obviously the devil in me and it needed to be purged. Got the whole family involved, too… from my six-year-old brother all the way up to my mom.” She closed the makeup case. “Seriously, fuck that guy.”

“How did your mom feel?”

“I don’t know. I mean, she and I never really talked about it. She was usually too busy being drunk. Or on Valium. Or whatever else. But the way she looked at me… she knew. She had to know. And she just went right along with it. Didn’t question anything, didn’t stop it, just looking out for number one, I guess. Sometimes I wonder how she felt when I disappeared.”

Jane opened her arms, her face softening. “Do you ever feel… like, sorry for her?”

“I used to when I was younger. I’ve got 4 brothers. I can only imagine what she actually went through. But if I left at 14, she could’ve left at 35. I guarantee I had a harder time than she would’ve.” She licked her pinky, erasing a bit of eyeshadow next to her mouth. “Maybe if she had come with me, I wouldn’t have had to suck dick for cash. But you know what they say, do what you love and it isn’t really work.”

“I’m sorry… at least you found Sean eventually, right?”

“Yeah, I found my actual family. That said, Sean never really felt like a dad to me. Did I tell you about the time he used me as a pawn in a mind game with a psychopath? That kind of thing tends to sour you on a person.”

“I had no idea.”

“It’s whatever. I still loved the job as his ‘personal assistant,’ which is to say I typed memos and fucked him and his wife when I got the opportunity. Wouldn’t give that up for anything. But after dealing with Spiral… yeah, never really got too buddy-buddy with him anymore.”

Jane looked down at her hands. “I feel really stupid about complaining now.”

Lou turned her head, looking at Jane for the first time. She had a teal eyeshadow goatee. “Sweetie, no. You miss your dad, you miss Sean. That’s completely reasonable and understandable. It’s apples and oranges. No, it’s apples and… I dunno, skateboards. It’s not the same, and my experiences don’t make yours any less valid.” She leaned over and kissed Jane’s forehead, trying her best not to leave any teal marks on her face. “Now let’s be done being sad. How does my face look?”

It looked like she had smeared teal eyeshadow around her mouth. It wasn’t pretty… it more resembled an intimate encounter with Smurfette than a goatee.

Jane smiled, her eyebrows raising. “Oh, sweetie, no. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right. There’s gotta be a costume supply store around here… it’s Chicago. We’ll get some fake white hair, and some Rit dye, and spirit gum… it’ll be awesome.”

Lou smiled, tossing the mirror aside and straddling Jane’s legs. “See, this is why I love you, Janey. You always have the best ideas.”

~~~~~

(We fade in on Lou and Jane Doe, the Vice Squad, as they stand in front of the familiar black background in their ring gear, T-shirts over the top. Lou is wearing a shirt for the old SHOOT Project faction, the Law, while Jane’s shirt bears the title “King of the Iron Fist.”)

Lou: And we come to Path of the Warrior, the first EWA supershow since the tag titles were reinstated where Jane and I aren’t walking into it as the champions.

Jane Doe: And who are the champions, exactly?

Lou: Well, according to the records and the card, the champions are the Latino Powers.

Jane: The Latino Powers? That legendary tag team from yesteryear, Jorge Martinez and Jose Ramirez?

Lou: I think it’s actually Jorge Ramirez and Jose Martinez.

Jane: Well, I think it’s actually Racist Stereotype #1 and Racist Stereotype #2.

Lou: Well, I think it’s Alexander Haven and Chris Kage.

Jane: Is it, though? It was pretty clearly not them, given that they were pinned for the belts. And one of them had a broken arm.

Lou: Which one?

Jane: #2.

Lou: And come to think of it, #1 had the Network Title…

Jane: Is it, can it, could it be?

Lou: Tyler Morris and Martin Robertson?

Jane: I was going to sing “your very own mermaid from the sea,” but yeah, that’s pretty much where I was going with that.

Lou: But they’re wearing maaaasks, Jane, how could we ever teeeelllll?

Jane: I guess that’s the thing, isn’t it? Who knows what Latino Powers team is going to show up? The Youth? The Youth’s B-Team? A drugged Joe Lemon and Serpent Man?

Lou: I don’t think you’d even have to drug them, honestly, just get the a 20% off coupon at Old Country Buffet.

Jane: But then, it doesn’t really make too much of a difference, does it? If it’s Alex Haven and Chris Kage, then Haven will be just off of a match with Grady Smith, which, whether he wants to admit it or not, is not going to leave him with a full tank.

Lou: And Kage will probably want to save some gas in his tank, too, given that he has to defend his title against Laura Seton and Azrael Goeren later in the evening. And, uh, contrary to their belief, we are not going to be rolled over.

Jane: And if it’s Robertson and Morris, all the more reason we’re going to win. After all, Marty’s got two other matches this show, first against NOTHING and Grace Goeren, then against what is sure to be a pissed off Michael Draven the next night. Right after our match, it would appear..

Lou: And, I don’t know if you guys noticed this, but Tyler Morris has a fucking broken arm. That has a tendency to hinder one’s ability to wrestle a little. I might be little, but I’m not toss-around-with-one-hand little. Well, maybe to Dredd.

Jane: So somebody explain to us how this isn’t--

Lou: What about the third option?

Jane: What?

Lou: Lemon and Serpent Man.

Jane: In the unlikely event that Joe Lemon and Serpent Man have come down as the Latino Powers, I will lay down in the middle of the ring like my name is Rub Rice.

Lou: ...legs spread and everything? Damn, girl.

Jane: Look, there’s about a hundred things we could say about why this is going to be a goddamn farce of a match. We could talk about how absurd it is that there is literally nobody on the Youth that is younger than I am.

Lou: And actually, Robertson’s a week older than me, too.

Jane: Or how Haven and Kage can make STD jokes and call us whores…

Lou: As if nobody in the history of ever has tried that before. Women who have their own agency? NOT IN THE RASSLIN’ BUSINESS.

Jane: ...and without a trace of irony, literally whore out Alyssa Marie for the sake of… what? Ruining Michael Draven’s life? Really? You guys are a Jerry Springer episode from hell.

Lou: Seriously, it’s like watching a car wreck. It’s horrendous, but I can’t look away.

Jane: Or how Martin Robertson will never be able to get out of his dad’s shadow because he associates himself with a bunch of pussies who think the secret to success is to just keep doing what worked 15 years ago.

Lou: Well, as long as Michael Draven is part owner of the company, it’s going to keep working, Janey. And Tyler Morris… his arm is broken. He got bitched out of his Tapout Championship, and rightfully so, and basically he’s done nothing since, because again, he has a fucking BROKEN ARM. I feel like that’s something that really needs to be emphasized here.

Jane: We could even go into the terrible “promos” that the Latino Powers are known for.

Lou: There’s only so many ways one can say the word “poop” before it just isn’t funny anymore.

Jane: So you’re just going to gloss over the racial insensitivity and massive stereotyping?

Lou: It was a different world 15 years ago, Jane… we were so young and foolish, then, and thought that wrestling could only be good if it was XTREME and SUPER EDGY and we electrified cages and wrestled on a sheet of ice.

Jane: That’s fucking ridiculous.

Lou: That fucking happened.

Jane: But we’re going to ignore all of that. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t change one very important fact:

Lou: We are better than you.

Jane: We’re younger, we’re faster, we’re more driven. We broke records in our first 6 months in the big leagues.

Lou: And we did it with the supposed disadvantage of weighing 100 lbs less and having vaginas.

Jane: We’re prettier, we’re more charismatic, and we’ve got a whole lot more style.

Lou: Jane here is an iron fist in a velvet glove. Soft to the touch, but she’ll break you without a second thought.

Jane: And Lou is a fucking diamond. She’s the hardest, prettiest thing in the EWA, and if you disagree, she’ll fucking cut you.

Lou: And we. Will. Not. Break.

Jane: So bring it, Latino Powers. Throw all the half-assed, Taco-Bell-eating promos at us that you can handle.

Lou: Bring out the live mariachi band playing Ricky Martin--

Jane: --who is fucking Puerto Rican, by the way, which I’m sure is the joke but is still goddamn awful--

Lou: --and just… give up.

Jane: The Youth’s hold over the EWA is coming to a close, and I couldn’t be happier.

Lou: And our reign as two-time EWA Tag Team Champions is just beginning.

(Fade to black.)

~~~~~

He watched them from an alleyway, the shadows concealing him. Not that they would’ve recognized him anyway… a scraggly blond beard, thick and matted, along with his just as dirty blond hair, dressed in a tattered hoodie and jeans; he was anonymous, another street person in Chicago. The two girls finally sauntered into costume shop, a theater supply store that helped the local professionals gear up.

“You could take them so easily,” said the man in the crisp black suit standing behind them. “A quick move, and they’d snap like twigs in your arms.”

“You underestimate them, Milton,” he responded. “They’re not children anymore.”

“Milton…” the man in the suit scoffed. “You think you’re so subtle. Is that why you left them copies of Paradise Lost? Do you really think they’ll make the connection?”

“Hopefully not until I’ve sprung the trap.” He scratched his chin under the dirty beard. “For a voice in my head, you sure seem unaware of my plans.”

“Please. You’re the one who’s unaware of your plans. I’m the architect. At the end of the day, you always end up doing what I say anyway.”

He couldn’t tell Milton he was wrong, so instead he turned around, heading further into the alley. It was late. He needed to get shelter for the night.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
ZetaBoards gives you all the tools to create a successful discussion community.
« Previous Topic · The Warrior's Den · Next Topic »
Add Reply