Half a Man

by **krzy** Wed Apr 10, 2024 5:51 pm

Multiple angles of Leon Garra’s crushing, humiliating, devastating, borderline career-threatening defeat at the hands of an eighth-time returning Ace Reeves plays on Tailcoat Val’s signature wall of monitors.

VAL: Perhaps my experiment worked a little too well.

As your failures continue to mount, in whose arms will you find solace? That desperate moment of reprieve? Will it all fall on your family to fill that hole, I wonder? How long before it wears on them and your ambitions drive them away as well?

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

VAL: All rhetorical, of course.

She whirls around.

VAL: I wouldn't expect you to have the answers.

On the other side of her desk, Amar’e Rivers is just SITTING there! Arms crossed, scowl on his face, staring daggers into Val who returns his glare with a disinterested look.

VAL: Well?

Rivers doesn't respond, instead opting to cross his arms even HARDER, doing all he can to look like he isn't scared…all while hoping Val had a good night's rest and a hearty breakfast to put her in a good (relatively speaking) mood.

VAL: For days you've been camped out in my office in this manner. Not that I enjoyed your presence before, but your company has particularly started to wear thin the longer you persist with these antics.

RIVERS: Antics?! Me?! You're the one with all your secrets and games and witchcraft, but when it's my girl fighting for her life in the hospital, you ain't got nothing to say about it??

VAL: Her life was never in danger.

RIVERS: Well it felt like it!

VAL: What it feels like—

She pauses a beat to choose her words carefully.

VAL: —is that you're forgetting your place in my Ars--

RIVERS: My place is by her side! And not by her side in some dinky hospital bed with some Santos lookin’ freak as a doctor! But by her side in the ring while she kicks ass and takes names! Now there are asses and names running free out there cause she ain't around to put a stop to it!

VAL: What is wrong with you?

RIVERS: Wrong?! Me?! What matters is what's wrong with my girl! She’s at home watching from the sidelines when she should be…the main attraction, if you know what I mean. No, forget that! What's wrong with YOU?! You have the footage, you know who did it!

VAL: I'm dealing with it.

RIVERS: Noo! It takes you foreeeeever to deal with things! We need to stop them before they make a name for themselves off the back of my girl’s hard work!

VAL: That won't be an issue.

RIVERS: It IS an issue, Val! I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't wrestle without her! And look, if you don't mind me saying, I wasn't a big fan of you using me to motivate her, but when I saw how happy she was when we won the Rising Star championship, I was willing to let bygones be bygones because there ain't a damn thing I wouldn't sacrifice for my girl!

Val takes a moment to consider his words and can't help but let the slightest bit of a bemused smirk sneak onto her face.

VAL: We?

RIVERS: Of course! Everything ARIA does, we do it together! Our failures, our successes, our everything! THAT’S what LOVE is about! So when she wins, I win; and when she's jumped from behind I'm just as hurt on the inside as she was on the outside…maybe even worse!

Val sighs.

Then almost as if he can sense Val’s growing fatigue and exasperation with this interaction, Subject: ZERO let's himself into the room.

Startled, Rivers pops onto his feet with the fair assumption he may be on the verge of a fight for his life.

In response, ZERO just…looks at him.

RIVERS: You gonna have me attacked again? That's not gonna make her heal faster! At least….I don't think so….you…you think it'll be worth a shot?

VAL: SILENCE!

RIVERS:...

VAL:....

RIVERS:...

VAL:....

RIVERS:...

VAL: Now. Consider him your babysitter while she heals and until I can find some use for you. I took for granted the role she played in keeping you out of my hair.