Post by Alex Kincaid on May 16, 2018 18:15:06 GMT -5
OOC: Using this opportunity to something a little different this week! Excuse me if this feels a little self indulgent!
*~*~*~**
It is a beautiful 83 degrees in Platinum Coast, Florida and the sun is shining high overhead as the Union Battleground cameras make their way down to the 6 mile white sand beach that gives the small city its name. It’s early in the day and the tourists have yet to hit the sands, and so Alex Kincaid feels more than comfortable taking in a surfing lesson from his daughter. The cameras find him balanced haphazardly on his board, riding a mediocre looking wave toward the sand with an intense look of concentration on his face. Beside him, Maggie Clark laughs at furrowed brow. The laugh breaks his concentration. That’s all it takes. He wobbles, tries to correct, overcorrects and falls into the water as she breaks out laughing and hops off the board as she sails into the shallows.
A moment later and The Bullet King pops his head out of the water with a scowl. He heads off the beach, wiping his long brown hair out of his face and shaking his head. He points at her, dragging the board back to the sand ”Oh, yeah, laugh it up. Don’t think I won’t throw you in this water.”
Maggie rolls her eyes and turns to walk back from the beach. She drops low to the sand, pulling the leash attached to the surfboard from around her ankle. The cameras move a bit closer and she snaps her head upward, dark brown eyes locking with the lens in front of her. She frowns
”Alex.”
”Look, I don’t know how many-“ He looks away from his board as well and sights the cameras. There’s a moment where, as he has for months, he gets immediately defensive of his family. A keen eyed viewer will see muscles tense, cobra tight, under tanned skin. He balls up a fist and steps forward toward the camera. He’s nearly past her when Maggie looks over her shoulder uncertainty at him. He pauses in place and fakes a smile as best he can. He takes a breath and relaxes his posture, walking toward her ”It’s alright. Cameras probably freak you out a bit, I get it. But you know…maybe it’s time they met you.”
She looks to the camera and then kneels in the sand again. Alex makes his way over to her, staring daggers into the camera. It’s a simple message – loud and clear even it’s nonverbal – and it says you’re on dangerous ground. He’s never appreciated having their privacy violated, even for the company he takes great pride in representing.
”You know, I’m so excited for this upcoming Lights Out show. I can’t even think straight. South Africa? I haven’t been to South Africa in years. You know him I’m wrestling?”
His daughter nods ”That Owen guy right...Gonzales?”
Alex laughs and shakes his head ”Gonsalves. Gonsalves. Jesus, don’t let him hear you say that. Everybody says it wrong. Drives up the damn wall. But the point is...I don’t know. You know, despite the cameras and the profile. I wish you could see us. I wish you could come with us for this show.”
She shrugs ”I mean, I’ve never been to South Africa either. I’m pretty sure that-”
”I’m pretty sure you have exams, but nice try.” Alex smirks, and the two of them share a look. In the two years she’s been with him he’s learned to pick up on her tricks and she knows it. Whether she’s really trying to get one over on him or just playing a joke is harder to nail down ”I’d love for you to get a chance to see what we do. To see me wrestle.”
Maggie seems confused, turning toward him ”I have seen you wrestle. I was there, i saw you beat Kira.”
Alex goes quiet for a minute. He watches the water, listens to the waves washing against the sand fo a second. Then he shakes his head again ”You were there. And you helped. But that...that wasn’t wrestling. Jesus, kid, I tried to drown the guy. He went too far. He made it personal, and I thought he threatened you and Alyssa. And that meant that the first shows you went to you had to see a side of me that I never want anybody to see. That wasn’t wrestling. That wasn’t me. It might not seem like it, but I really love this thing.”
”Given that ‘wrestling’ is like, every third word out of your mouth, I kinda figured.”
That draws her another pointed glare from Alex and she laughs as he gives another threatening point toward the water and continues ”I thought the secret to keeping our family safe was to try and separate us from this. To try and draw this line and every time anybody had the balls to step anywhere near it to go after them. But that was a mistake. Because all that’s going to do is put up this fence between the thing I love most in the world and you guys. It’s going to make you resent what I do. And I don’t want you to, I want you to...I want you to see what I see, and what Alyssa sees, and what this thing can be when we do it right. But that means you’re getting exposed a little. That means..we live in the public eye a bit. That means, sometimes, cameras. That means sometimes people who are dangerous to me becoming dangerous to us.”
They’ve ignored the cameras for the last few minutes, but now Maggie looks uncertainly toward them again. Alex puts a hand on her shoulder to get her attention back and smiles, as reassuring as he can.
”I need to get back to normal. And I’m going to go to South Africa, I’m going to wrestle Owen and it’s going to be something special. It’s going to be what wrestling is supposed to be. Clean, classy, like nothing else in the world. I’m going to test myself against someone I respect. Someone I consider a friend. Someone I wish I could be more like sometimes. I want you to pay attention to me and Alyssa. And I want you to see how this makes us feel, what this does for us. Because I’m excited, kid. And it can be like this all the time if I do it right. It can be something special and it is worth all the garbage that we sometimes have to put up with to get us there.”
Maggie considers his words for a moment and the two of them watch a pair of joggers run by. Then she clicks her tongue, an idea suddenly occurred to him and she turns back to face him ”Oh my god. Oh god, I didn’t get it. Dude, is this just because you don’t want to try and surf again?”
Alex’s eyes widen at the accusation ”I’m trying to be real here! I’m trying to have a moment! I meant every word of that.”
”You’re trying not to drown.”
He scowls and stands up, snatching her surfboard away from her. He takes a trio of steps toward the water and hurls it into the ocean. Maggie laughs and heads into the water after it. Our cameras close on him jogging in after her, with two-thirds of the Kincaid family looking happier than they have in a long time...
