Everything appears like a normal evening behind the scenes at Turmoil 301. Rookies are roaming around, most wrestlers are getting catering and sitting with their fellow locker room members, and producers alongside other members of the production team are keeping the show running smoothly.
Amidst the chaos of the weekly events that are involved with the OCW television show we see El Parca roaming the corridors aimlessly. He comes up near his locker room as suddenly he bumps into someone he wasn’t paying attention toward while walking. Catching himself on the wall so he doesn’t fall down Parca notices it’s Anthony Martin he bumped into.
Quickly throwing away the stoic, deadpan look Parca originally had on his face; he now is smiling at his new friend Amart as the two give each other a fist bump.
Parca: Listen man… Last week? That stuff Mad Dawg did to you wasn’t cool. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to stop it, I was handling some business and my mind was just so scattered..
Amart immediately puts his hands up trying to calm Parca down and reassure him that it’s all okay.
Amart: Parca, cmon bud. All is good my man. I understand how it is to have some freak come around and try to ruin your life. I might have been here recently but this place still stays the same with the folks around here.
Amart: The stuff with Mad Dawg? It is what it is. I’ll be able to handle him in due time. Right now though? You gotta keep your eye on the prize of KC.
Parca motions for Amart to follow him as the two men walk toward Parca’s locker room. Parca opens the door and invites Amart into the locker room and the two men sit in chairs as they continue their conversation.
Parca: I didn’t get to thank you for that save. That meant a lot to me and… to be honest? I really wasn’t expecting anyone to come help me. Not that I really deserve it after all.
Amart: Everyone. Deserves a friend, Parca. It doesn’t matter what you did in the past, what matters is you’re trying to make it right. I told you, I got your back whenever you need it and I meant it.
Parca drops his head down for a moment as he feels like tears begin to well up in his eyes. The realization that once again he has a friend he feels he can trust is an unsettling feeling but a welcome one. Parca looks back up with a warm smile again at Amart.
Parca: You don’t understand what that means to me Anthony. I seriously can’t thank you enough for all of this. These games that KC is playing have been eating away at me. It feels like everything is closing in on me.
Amart: It’s what friends are for man. They’re there for you when times get tough and you need someone by your side through it. I’m a man of my word and I stick to it.
While the conversation continues the door to the locker room opens up again as Parca’s longtime confidant, manager, and pseudo father, Dennis Dillinger walks in.
Parca notices Dennis and stands up motioning for Amart to stand up too as he looks back to Amart.
Parca: I don’t mean to be rude, but I do gotta cut this a little short. I’ve been waiting on Dennis to bring something to me and it’s a very private matter. I hope you can understand amigo.
Amart fist bumps Parca and smiles at his friend while walking to the door and passing Dennis.
Amart: Ain’t no thang but a chicken wang my dude. I’ll see you around Parca.
Parca smiles as Amart leaves the locker room and looks over to Dennis. The two embrace in a hug as the cameras pan down and fade to black.
OCW camera crew finds The DarkNet Society in the server farm. Madd Dawg and Samsin are sparing inside the ring, while #Bash is inside the lab at the computer.
At ringside stands Sammuel Omen whom stands with his arms folded, and JynX, whom is holding a creepy doll that resembles Paul Harris, JynX grips the doll with hate before speaking while standing near Omen.*
JynX:"We have been labeled "brainless idots" to an unknown adversary.
JynX:
The insult is rather comical considering the threats afterwards. Our quest into intoxicating everyone with the infection will commence one way or another."
Sammuel Omen:".....(slight grunt)..."
JynX:"They're attempt to install fear is equivalent to a giggle from an innocent child. DNS will not fall, in fact, this will be our rise and message to the rest of the OCW.
JynX:
The Worm is infectious yet so satisfying, I can feel the tingling sensation in my veins, it cools the blood, wouldn't you agree?"
Sammuel Omens blinks then cracks his neck then exhales and looks at JynX while the liberator of The DarkNet Society drops the doll and steps on it.
JynX:"A testament to our journey of supremacy starts with a response to this threat... [Autotune] we will respond..[Autotune]
Camera zoom away slowly displaying the whole DNS Server Farm facility before zooming out to a static screen.
We fade from black and into a hallway where we see a bathroom door. You can hear water running and then someone turns it off as if they were done washing their hands.
The door unlocks and out comes one half of The Perfect Storm, Harvey Hamilton Ocean. He bends his head forward and flicks it back real quick to get the hair out from the front of his face. With his hands still wet, he takes both of them and strokes his hair back.
???: Washing off the rest of paint you still had from your previous owner ?
Harvey looks up towards the ceiling while while looking annoyed. He recognizes the very familiar voice and turns slowly towards the side of the bathroom door.
It’s none other than one half of one of the most iconic tag teams in OCW History and one of his greatest rivals - That is Rust Cohle of CQC.
Rust is casually leaning on the wall as he is removing tape from his wrist.
Harvey steps up towards him and just as fast Rust Cohle steps right up to meet him in the middle of the hallway.
There’s no secret that these two men hate each other as they both share intense stares.
Then some more intense staring…
And some more intense staring….
Rust: I heard what you and your "brother" had to say about me. For whatever reason, you can't keep my name or the comparisons with CQC out of your mouths..
Harvey’s eyes don't leave Rusty for one second as Rusty leans forward.
Rust: I am here to tell you. We are all good. I don't care about what you or Ijitu are doing, as long as you don't put your nose in my business..
Rust: Stop spitting on my name, we all got business to attend on our own. And that's all I care about. So if you please, mind your own stuff, Harvey Ocean.
Harvey: I say what I want, when I want and whenever I want. So don’t let your emotions get in the way of The Perfect Storm. So if YOU would please.
Rust then turns around, stops, seemingly wanting to add something, but just gestures a thumbs up to Harvey while leaving. He turns around and accidentally bumps into his former teammate Ijitu Quartz.
Quartz stares down onto him as Rust Cohle chuckles. Rusty looks at Quartz.
Even though nothing was uttered between the two, there was a whole lot to be said between them. Rusty just steps aside and pats Quartz on the shoulder and walks away.
At a somewhat familiar home somewhere in upstate New York, we find Jasmin Kaffee, the former Women’s Champion, lying on her couch and staring at the TV.
A notepad sits next to her on the couch, with two hand-written notes on the same page. One, a notice that her son is going to be hanging out with some friends tonight, the other that her partner, Marcus McMichaels, is going to be visiting family.
As such, Jasmin is alone… staring. With the remote in her hand, she keeps rewinding, skipping, and occasionally changing to recorded episodes of OCW TV.
The common thread of everything she stops on is the people involved. Empress. Sue Plex. Shianne Lovelace. Kameyo Hada. Ashley Moore. All the same people, in different places.
Moving her other hand, Jasmin reveals herself to be holding what appears to be a bottle of pills, which she lifts up to look at, long enough for the camera to reveal them to be Haloperidol.
Seemingly upset at having to look at them, she tosses them across the room, bouncing them off the TV and onto the carpet, where the half-open top pops off of the bottle to reveal that it is completely empty.
Her phone rings. Jasmin lets out an annoyed sigh, digging into her shirt and pulling it out, before answering it and laying it on the couch, clearly content to just leave the thing on speaker and continue lying in misery.
Jasmin: What?
???: Is this Jasmin Kaffee?
Jasmin: …it is.
???: One of your coworkers gave me this number. I wanted to check in on Atlas. How’s our son?
Jasmin doesn’t say anything. She just… stares.
???: Jasmin?
???: Charlie-?
Jasmin immediately hangs up, throwing the phone across the room and into the TV, leaving a massive crack down the center of it.
After a few seconds of staring at the now-damaged appliance as if it’s somehow going to retaliate, she slowly gets up and walks over to it, grabbing her phone with an unsteady hand. There’s a few new cracks on it, too.
Jasmin: We needed a new TV, anyway…
Jasmin spends a few seconds scrolling through her phone, though from this angle it’s not clear what she’s doing with it. What is clear is her growing agitation, a slight tremble in her hands as she speeds up her scrolling, then, without warning, drops the phone, and hits the TV with a vicious punch that caves in the screen and leaves a small splatter of blood on the point of impact.
TRIPLE THREAT
K.C. BARRETT vs. HANZO YAMASHIDA vs. MAXX EDWARDS
We come back to the swimming pool where Chris is climbing out of the pool shaking his head, whipping his shaggy wet hair back and forth while Drago moves to a deeper part of the pool.
Drago: Everyone go but you now, Kass time to see if fear is factor for you.
Drago begins flailing his arms around like a madman,
Drago: Will GOOD PERSON come and save me?!?!?!
Kass tries to muster up the ability to jump in the water but quickly turns away from the pool,
Kass: This is unnatural and I shouldn’t be asked to do this.
Sheldon: It's for the greater good, it's a step to something, so please overcome your fear.
Chris: I can go again if you don’t, Kass.
Harper: …Me too.
Drago begins to sink to the bottom of the pool, Kass turns back to the pool and leaps in. Kass didn’t follow the correct diving form everyone else before performed and instead jumped in like he was performing a splash from the top rope resulting in a painful belly flop.
Between the pain of the belly flop, the original anxiety of water, and overall lack of swimming ability Kass immediately begins to actually drown. Drago looks up at Kass from his seated position at the bottom of the pool, hoping Kass removes his witts and conquers his fear.
Realizing Kass was not going to recover, Drago swims up and grabs Kass, who was just floating at the surface face down, dragging him to the side for Sheldon and Chris to pull up his limp body. Kass quickly begins to cough up the water he has swallowed when you can hear screaming,
RYU: KASS! MY BABY BOY!
RYU comes running over but slips, due all the water that was splashed out around the pool and not wearing any shoes, falling to the ground. RYU is knocked out from the fall and slowly begins to descend into the water.
Kass sees RYU in need and leaps into action, He properly dives into the water like everyone else had done earlier and doggy paddles his way to RYU.
Drago: See, he need correct motivation.
Sheldon: He sure did…
Harper: Has he… always been this way about water?
Kass manages to make it over to RYU but has a hard time keeping his "fahza" afloat while guiding him over to the shallow end. Sheldon and Harper jump in and help them make it over to safety. RYU is unresponsive on the floor,
Harper: I got this!
Harper starts performing chest compressions, but RYU is still not responding.
Kass: No, no, no!
Drago tries to think fast, and looks at his hand for a second.
Drago: Move!
Harper moves out of the way as Drago winds up and strikes RYU in the chest with a vicious chop.
RYU: AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! F***!!!!!
RYU springs back up to his feet and runs out while holding his chest. Kass breathes a sigh of relief.
Kass: Is that proof enough for you?
Drago smiles.
Drago: Plenty!
Kass slicks back his hair,
Kass: Someone get me a Kass Damn towel!
After the two men embrace with a hug and separate. Dennis and El Parca take a seat in the locker room as Dennis pulls out the Manila envelope given to him from Feinstein. Dennis looks up to Parca as he spreads out all the paperwork.
Dennis: So I knew this was gonna take some time… But last night I cracked it. I found our way in.
Parca looks at Dennis all giddy as he’s about to find out what he can finally do to get payback on Aries.
Parca: So? What is it!? What can we do to exploit it so I can get an ounce of payback on that boat captain.
Dennis: It’s… Well… Should I really be saying this out loud?
Dennis clears his throat as he peers around the room at the various cameras set up. Surrounding him and his client. Parca, still yearning for the information, is trying to get Dennis to budge.
Parca: The cameras? Who cares about the cameras!? We can finally stick it to him and get the payback he deserves!
Parca: All the shit he’s put me through, all the hiding, and sneaking around. He refuses to face me like a man! Instead, he hides behind fat security guards and a comic book knockoff lawyer!
Parca slams his hand against the table on the top of the pile of paperwork. He shoves the table away with frustration but knows Dennis is right in his suggestion.
Dennis: Hey, this is GOOD NEWS. I’ve got your answer. I know that fat, inbred ferret Feinstein is sitting somewhere on the other side of the screen licking his chapped lips waiting for me to spill it.
Dennis: So relax, Primero. We’ve got plenty of time to go over the details and get you the prize you’ve been waiting for.
Parca: Which prize though Dennis? I thought I handled KC, nope. I thought I’d be able to get Aries, nope. I’m tired of their games. I'm tired of all the antics.
Parca: What do you want me to do Dennis? Cause for once? I don’t have the goddamn answers. And I’m really REALLY close to losing my shit.
Dennis puts a hand on Parca’s back trying to calm him down. He gives Parca a moment to collect himself before continuing on.
Dennis: Kiddo, I told you I’d always be by your side. All this fire, especially towards me, that’s not helping anyone… Especially not you.
Dennis: I - WE - approach every situation with a deft hand. I’m not some roided up brute like so many of these meatheads you share a locker room with. We are… As the kids say… “Built Different”.
Parca: For once, you’re right and I hate it. Usually you have all the answers and I don’t mind but this? I just wanna act. I just want to show them, all of them not to mess with us ever again.
Parca: At least out of all of this I have found a new ally. A-Mart has been someone I wouldn’t have expected to follow through with what he said. But that’s on me for not believing anyone around here.
Dennis looks a bit dismissive over Parca’s comments on A-Mart. Dennis looks over to Parca with a concerned look on his face.
Dennis: Trust is a funny thing, as I’ve learned first hand. What’s this guy’s deal?
Parca: I mean… he did save me against KC the one week. I was gonna get my head knocked off and no one else came out there… why? Do you not trust him?
Dennis: My boy, I’ve made enemies in this world that I don’t even know about yet. I’m just watching our backs. You never know what kind of snake is willing to put on a smile to rub shoulders with El Primero.
Parca leans back in his seat exhaling deeply as he looks over to Dennis again.
Parca: Well how about this, you’re an incredibly smart man. Why not ask your people what they can find about A-Mart, then you can see for yourself that he’s a good guy.
Dennis breaks out in his traditional laugh while slapping his leg a bit dramatically. He grabs his lapels as he gathers himself.
Dennis: Ahh, but why do you think I’m so calm right now? I’ve already got my network on the case. Quite frankly, what I’ve heard has made me even more sick than I could have imagined…
El Parca perks up again and leans forward in his seat, looking intrigued.
Parca: What?! You mean A-Mart’s not on the up-and-up?
Dennis: Ugh. Even worse… By most accounts, he seems to be a “stand up, taxpaying family man.”
Parca rolls his eyes and once again leans back.
Dennis: Makes me SICK!
Dennis: …But onto more pressing matters.
Dennis looks over to the cameras.
Dennis: Alright, alright you gaggle of goofs. I’ve got some confidential information to speak to my client in private about. I gave you your little segment, you’ve got no more contractual reason to be here.
Dennis: So scram, before I bankrupt you faster than you can say “yes sir”.
The cameras drop down suddenly as it looks like the cameramen run out of the locker room cutting to commercial as the show moves on.
Young upstart and latest Kasstianity member Harper LeRoux walks down the street with her phone in hand, and old wired earbuds in her ears.
She stops after walking for about a minute and looks up at the building next to her. She slowly takes the buds out and begins to wrap them around her phone, “Hunter’s Moon” by Ghost can faintly be heard coming from them.
Harper: Whoa…
She walks up to one of the windows and takes a peek inside.
Harper: That's a lot of people.
She carefully pulls the door handle and steps into….
Harper: The Cesar Dojo….? Like the…
A few dozen people are seated on the floor in a circle formation, talking amongst themselves. Harper is slightly overwhelmed and contemplates leaving for a brief moment. However, she's stopped by a friendly face handing her a book and a small sheet of paper.
Dragana Cesar gives the rookie a welcoming hug.
Harper: Oh, hey! Miss Cesar…!?
The Silent Queen leads her to her spot in the circle. Harper has herself a seat between two other students, awkwardly waving to them.
Harper: Um… hey guys?
She looks down at the book given to her, a copy of The Art of Peace by Morihei Ueshiba. After reading the back, she pulls out the small sheet of paper Dragana gave her. It reads:
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
Dragana takes a laptop and sits at the head of the circle as the crowd hushes. She starts typing.
Speaker: Good afternoon everyone! Hope you all have had a lovely day so far. My name is Dragana Cesar. You might know me from my journey in OCW. Throughout all the years, I've met so many interesting and wonderful people who have and continue to inspire me to this day. I want to teach you what I have learned from them, and spread their messages of love and kindness.
Speaker: These classes will teach you defensive techniques, meditation, and other self-care methods to help you through the obstacles of life.
Dragana lets out a deep breath before continuing to type.
Speaker: I understand this text-to-speech method may be unusual, but please bear with me. Before we get into today's class, I would like for us to get to know each other. Please tell us your name and a little bit about yourself.
Regina Tacet points to Harper.
Speaker: You can start!
Harper: Oh uh!... This is awkward…
Harper isn’t quite sure about this, but caves as everyone around her gazes expectantly. She takes a deep breath.
Harper: My name is Harper, um, Ojistah… but Harper is my English name.. Y’know… um. Phew, wow. Okay.
She pauses briefly, taking another deep breath.
Harper: I’m in my early twenties, and I’ve always dreamed of wrestling, right? I’m from Toronto, in Canada. I’m indigenous, y’know, that’s where the uh… the original name comes from. Um… heh… that’s really all there is to me, I guess.
She glances around after her awkward introduction, hoping to get things moving on.
LATER…..
The students are all reading from The Art of Peace.
Speaker: "The true meaning of the 'samurai' is one who serves and adheres to the power of love." Such powerful words, what do we all think?
Harper slowly raises her hand.
Harper: Adhering to one’s love for themself and others is the key to obtaining inner strength…? I think? This old stuff is… a little confusing.
Dragana: Mmm!
Speaker: I am glad you took something from it!
Another student raises his hand.
Student: So when are we gonna learn how to wrestle and suplex people?
Dragana smiles for a moment before typing.
Speaker: Before we learn how to fight, we must learn why we fight. And who or what we fight for. This will all come with time.
The student awkwardly scratches his head. A growl is heard from the corner of the room. Bubba emerges and positions himself in the center of the circle, laying on his back. He shakes his paws with excitement.
Speaker: Before we conclude our class for today, I would like to introduce you to Bubba. He may seem frightening, but he has a heart of gold. Right now, he wants some belly rubs. Do not be afraid to indulge him.
Dragana puts her laptop to the side and rubs Bubba’s tumtum. The lion closes his eyes and bares his teeth. Harper slowly approaches the big cat. Dragana notices her, giving an encouraging nod. Harper carefully places her hand on the lion’s tummy, then proceeds to give him some scratches. Bubba flails his limbs in happiness as the students start crowding around the lion, taking turns giving him belly rubs.
