Kennade Starr
“Good god you’re terrible, K.”
There was a sense of exacerbation in his voice. It was almost as if he’d said these words over and over again over the past few months. The first few times really stung. They sat in the bottom of her stomach like a stone, refusing to to do nothing but settle in and develop into an uncomfortable lump that would creep up to the back of her throat.
“Seriously, you’re going to have to get better if you ever want people to watch you for more than being a cute girl,, K.”
She hated it when he talked to her that way. She idolized her older brother Caleb. At the end of the day, it was hard for her to believe that he saw her as anything than his cute younger sister. Her brother had been uploading videos to YouTube since he was in grade school, and now he was 18. She had been watching him and his best friend’s start out making silly videos in the back yard, then graduate to long-form video game reviews. He had ridden the coat tails of such industry icons like the Angry Nintendo Nerd, and the Nostalgia Critic. She could remember sitting on the basement floor, eagerly waiting for the next video to finish buffering so she could watch their latest outing with her big brother.
Kennade had grown up knowing that she wanted to be just like her brother. When it was nothing but streaming and making videos, that seemed like a real possibility.
But the landscape had changed now.
Now people were more interested in playthroughs of videogames, rather than just talking about this and making cheeky jokes. She had always watched her brother play, but she never really had gotten the hang of it. For her twelfth birthday her brother had promised to teach her how to start playing games.
Since her brother had been competitively playing Mortal Kombat X since it was released, it was only natural that he would try and throw his baby sister into the deep end for her first go. It had been going about as well as anyone could imagine that it would.
Caleb played with a style that matched his natural arrogance and bravado. Johnny Cage had been his favorite character for as long as he could remember, and he never played with anyone else. Kennade had struggled round after round as she had picked nearly every character on the roster, sticking first to the women on the roster, before branching out to some of the more flashy characters. The combos confused her and her brother was merciless. Caleb never let up on the gas pedal, remembering the times that their father would brutalize him at Madden and Street Fighter. He would always ask Caleb, “What will you learn if I let you win?”
Caleb seems to never break his focus on the screen, hurling insults at his baby sister in between Brutalities and Fatalities. After the third match in a row of watching Mileena’s torso split open and Johnny’s face emerging through the center of it, Kennade finally tossed her controller on the floor. Crossing her arms in front of her, Caleb breaks his attention from the screen and picks the controller up from the floor.
“K…”
Kennade pulls away from her brother as he attempts to put the controller back in her hand. For a moment, Caleb gets a look of concern on his face, thinking that he may have pushed her just a hair too far.
“In life, no one is going to give you an inch, K. You’ve really got to fight for everything that you want. I know that you think that being a cute girl will ge you everything that you want, and to be fair, there is a lot of doors that will be open for you because of it. But the truth is, you always have to be willing to search all of the angles, really make sure that you are always looking for a path to victory. Don’t expect anyone to take it easy on you. I wont. And neither will anyone else out there.”
Kennade drops her arms down to her side and takes the controller back from her brother. A few tears rolled down her right cheek before disappearing into the dimple just beneath her cheekbone.
“Just remember, when you try the same thing over and over again and it doesn’t work, that doesn’t mean give up. That just means that you haven’t found the right angle yet. Keep looking, You’ll get it.”
Back to the character select screen they went. Of course, Johnny Cage was the selection for Caleb. After searching for a few moments, Kennade put her selector on a character that she had looked over several times. He had seemed “ugly” or “Big and slow.” He was a hulking brute with a rag over his face. Nothing much to look at. So she decided to give it a try. Ferra/Torr even sounded like a silly name. But it was a different angle. Just like Caleb had told her.
As the match started, she could hardly believe what she was seeing. It was hard to see if it was the practice that she had been getting with her older brother, or if it was just the addition of the new character for her, but she was actually doing well. Counters, X Ray moves. Then it happened. Round one: Ferra/Torr.
The small child on the back of Torr was like a wild animal. She lead her beast, Torr into battle in what could only be described as graceful ferocity. Kennade was entranced. She finally had found her angle…
Images of Ferra and Torr flashed over the screen as the scene changes, until it is blurred over the image of Mr. Bubbles standing in the dressing room at ReVival 33. Kennade is standing behind him, boosted on a bench, adjusting the shoulders of his trench coat and putting his fedora hat back onto his head. Kennade giggles as she hops up on his shoulder, arms around his neck in a hug. Ferra and Torr finally merge into the image of Kennade and Mr. Bubbles. Kennade hops back down onto the floor from his shoulders and reaches into her pocket, getting out a set of car keys. She hands them to her stoic partner and then begins to skip out of the locker room as he silently follows behind her.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kennade Starr: Hiyeeeee!! How are all of my StarrShines doing today? I just wanted to give a special shout out to everyone who made the special trip to both ReVival 32 and 33 to see yours truly in action. And I wanted to make sure to let everyone know that the Meet and Greet event exceeded all expectations that we could have had! We nearly sold out of all of the merch that we had set out, including the special plushies that were infused with K-Starr’s Luvv!
Kennade is in her chair, camera nearly in her face in the standard “Streamer set-up.” She has her led glow over-ear headphones and this time she has added a hoop earring to the left cat ear. She is as expressive as ever, making sure to use exaggerated arm movements with every statement.
Kennade Starr: This week we have even more special merch available for purchase for ReVival 34! Since the plushies were so successful, we’re moving on to more special merch just for my most dedicated StarrShines! Of course there will be all of the stickers, t shirts, hoodies, and throw blankets that you’ve come to know and love, but this week’s special surprise is to commemorate all of the super hawd training that I’ve been doing this week for my big match against Logan James!
A steady stream of comments and emoji can be seen coming from the bottom of her screen along with several cash register sounds. Kennade makes sure to smile while pointing her index finger into her cheek every time another cash donation comes her way.
Kennade Starr: You know, it’s been super duper difficult getting myself ready for another match in such a short time. I never knew how hawd this wrestling thing was gonna be until I stepped into the ring and made my big debut. Then that big mean Rocky came and tried to ruin my first big Episode of StarrPRIME. Can you believe that? Mostly I just wanted to apologize to all of you guys for letting you down this past few weeks with my streams. I know that you guys have gotten used to seeing me almost every day with that special K-Starrshine content that helps make each and every one of you smile, and I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give that to you. I’ve just been so super duper busy in the gym making sure that I can give you guys the show of a lifetime this week when I get back into the ring. I want to make sure that you guys can shine all the way to the top of the rankings with me. Together we’ll make PRIME SHINE!
Kennade puts both of her arms in the air and really milks the word “Shine” for all that it’s worth. She gives her chair a few spins in a circle before coming back to rest in front of the camera. The screen lights up with a steady stream of subscribers messaging “#StarrPRIME” or “StarrShine” or some other variation.
Kennade Starr: So, to commemorate all of the hard training that I’ve been doing, I’ve been wearing a special, limited edition, special made pair of trunks every training session. Each one has a pattern that was hand selected by me to make sure that I shine even in the training ring! So this week we’ll be offering a special drawing for the rights to purchase a pair of trunks, guaranteed to be worn by me in a training session! All you have to do is buy a raffle ticket for the low price of $50 then show up to the drawing at the convention center that I’ll release on all of my social media pages! If your number is drawn, you can purchase one of the seven pairs that are up for sale! But don’t worry, StarrShines, If your number isn;y called, there’s still plenty of yummy K-Starr merch up for sale and I’ll be there signing anything that you buy for one hour before ReVival and one hour after ReVival! Don’t have tickets? Don’t worry, we’ll be showing the whole show there! I hope to see each and every one of you there this week! And remember to always Hashtag StarrShine!
Kennade makes the sign of a hashtag with her index and middle fingers when she says “hashtag.” She keeps the pose for a second before dropping her shoulders in relaxation and taking the headphones from her head. She reaches in front of her and turns her computer monitor off. As she spins her chair back around towards her room the door opens, Susan walking in with a stack of papers.
Susan: I have to say, K, of all of the “plans” that I had in my head as to how you were planning on handling this wrestling thing, there was no way that I could have ever guessed that were going to bring out a full blown avatar to the ring.
Kennade smiles as she grabs a hairbrush from her desk and begins to brush her blonde hair down to her left shoulder, with her head tilted to the left.
Susan: So, here are all of the numbers from your merch stand at the last two ReVivals. I have to say, we are starting to get a little bit of attention from the staff at PRIME. How many times do you really think that we can do these special events across the street before they start to say something to us about it?
Kennade shrugs her shoulders but offers no real response.
Susan: Well I guess we’ll just table that for a different time then. How about this? I got the script for your show today, how exactly do you plan on selling “Training-used trunks” when you have done exactly zero training?
Kennade stands up from her chair. The camera angle had been hiding a pain of neon pink and blue wrestling trucks that she had been wearing the whole time. She does a cute little bounce and a giant smile while twirling a strand of hair in her hand. Susan rolls her eyes as Kennade’s expression immediately drops, back to a more uninterested vibe. She sits back down in her chair.
Kennade: I’ve just been wearing a pair of these under my clothes all week while I do my normal exercise routine. Trust me, this is going to go over HUGE. Besides, I’ve been training. I got a keycode for the Demo of MK1 and I’ve been playing that all week. I’m already behind, you’ve seen the playtesting on TikTok already. The people will expect to see me playing it, but I just can’t seem to get a handle on it. The last thing that I need is to look like trash when I don’t know any of the moves.
Susan gives Kennade a bit of a shocked look on her face and she pulls out the next sheet of paper on her stack. It is a transcript of the promotional video released by Logan James earlier in the week.
Susan: That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it! You have a match against Logan James coming up and you’ve done absolutely nothing to prepare for it! You don’t need to be practicing Mortal Kombat, you need to be practicing wrestling!
Kennade tilts her head to the side, seemingly confused.
Kennade: But…I know all of his moves.
Kennade begins motioning as if she is piloting her VR “Avatar” and Susan responds by putting the stack of papers down on Kennade’s bed and putting her hands on her hips like a disapproving teacher. Kenade doesn’t seem phased, continuing her performance.
Kennade: Listen, I got this. I’m sure that Logan is a pretty good wrestler. He ma even be awesome. But he doesn’t Shine. Not like me. Did you see how hard I blasted that guy in m debut? It was pretty epic. Now I’m gonna go through Logan, then I’m gonna set my sights on that Rocky guy. He RUINED my show! I haven;t gotten the numbers back or anything, but I’d say that it had to be at least one of the highest rated segments of the night right until that turd started squawking at me and tried to take my phone. He didn’t even answer any of my questions!
Susan shuffles a few of the papers to the side and grabs one to pick back up.
Susan: I have seen the numbers. StarrPRIME did…not do great. You’re really going to have to step it up if you want to get traction here. I know that a lot of your viewers followed you here, but for the most part this is brand new territory for you. This is a whole different kind of audience that you are trying to appeal to. I’m not positive that your bubble-gum approach is going to work the way that you’re hoping it will. And, before you start to focus too hard on Rocky, I’d really, really like you to focus more on Logan. This isn’t his first match, just his first in PRIME. From the sounds of things, he has a passion for this business that might just be enough to rocket him past whatever shenanigans that you have planned for ReVival.
Kennade lifts an eyebrow and stops her shadow boxing.
Susan: I’m just saying. Maybe you should have some sort of plan beyond what you’ve been doing.
Kennade puts her hand on her chin for a moment, obviously mocking deep thought, before grabbing her imaginary controller again.
Kennade: I do have a plan!
Kennade starts shadow boxing again, mixing in some ridiculously fake martial arts moves. She lowers her voice to as deep as she can make it go.
Kennade: FINISH HIM!
Kennade drops to the ground, doing a split and fakes an uppercut. She mimics crowd noises for a moment before getting back on her feet, arms raised in the air.
Kennade: K Starr wins…..FATALITY!
The scene fades to black with Susan dropping her head and rubbing her temples in frustration.
~~~ FIN ~~~