BROKEN PANOPTICON
Backstage, and Angelica Brooks is standing by with one of the competitors in tonight’s qualifying matches for Tropical Turmoil, The Anglo Luchador. The background is simple, just one of the outsides of the locker rooms. The luchador is in his gear for the night already. Angie stands by with the microphone.
Angelica Brooks: I’m here with one of the qualifier contenders for the titular scramble match at Tropical Turmoil, The Anglo Luchador. You’re going up against Jared Sykes in what many consider to be a dream match here in PRIME so far. What are your thoughts?
TAL: Well, Ange, I couldn’t ask for a better opponent. If you’re going to stake a claim for the Universal Championship, might as well go through the best to get there.
Angelica Brooks: Are you concerned at all about Arthur Pleasant making his presence felt?
The luchador’s shoulders slump, and he exhales deeply.
TAL: Look, I…
Voice offscreen: …choose your words carefully, Mask.
Into the frame walks Arthur Pleasant, followed by his mammoth Russian muscle, the Siberian Silencer, Yuri Reznikov.
TAL: What’s your problem, man? Are you really that down bad because I called you “Artie P?”
Pleasant cackle-laughs while Yuri stares at TAL with a spine-tingling emptiness.
Arthur Pleasant: Of course you’d think it was something as trivial as a greeting. No, there are reasons, and I’d be a dime-store villain if I told you what they were. Be that as it may, you’re in the mire now. You’re playing my fucking game, Mask. And oh what fun we’re having, right Yuri?
Yuri Reznikov: Da.
TAL: Look, man, I have a match tonight, can you not do the cheap rudo bullshit and just let me have this? Like, I deserve something…
Arthur Pleasant: HA! Mask says cheap rudo bullshit like I believe in that whole tough guy shtick as much as he believes in being the técnico of PRIME. Of coooooourse he would, the self-serving sanctimonious prick!
Pleasant again gives a cackle-laugh, piercing the hallways so mightily with its excruciating pitch.
Arthur Pleasant: Yuri, he doesn’t hear the whispers of people backstage who also share the same alignments as he does, including people who may be affiliated with people he might be wrestling tonight. How they scoff at him and…
TAL: I’m right here, dickhead. You can address…
Angelica Brooks: You know what, this is getting heated. I’m outta here.
As the senior reporter for PRIME makes a wise business decision, Arthur turns around from Yuri to face him again.
Arthur Pleasant: Right, Mask. Of course. You can see me now, but what about the things you can’t see?
The luchador’s startled face can be seen through his mask.
Arthur Pleasant: Just remember, Mask. You can’t see everything all the time. You can’t be everywhere you want to be all at once. Come, Yuri, before I have to hear this técnico shitbird plague the backstage area with his soft serve, good guy words.
Pleasant and Yuri walk off as the luchador snorts and appears to be on the precipice of shouting the loudest profanity in PRIME history before the truck wisely cuts elsewhere.