October 1st, 2022

The atmosphere of the interview studio was particularly uncomfortable, feeling more akin to a police interrogation than a typical interview segment. Ned hadn't heard much of this new XWF crew member, but she was apparently particularly adept at her craft. Her name was Silvana Nightingale, based on some chatter Ned had managed to pick up, and she took great care in making each particular element of an environment suitable to the narrative she wished to tell. Still, there was a discomfort in knowing how gray and empty she wanted the interview to appear. Several harsh lights brightly shone upon Ned in the somewhat rigid chair he was given. She was a rather slender woman, sitting in a far more comfortable seat than Ned had been offered, rolling it across from him as she sat just beyond the lights, her purple-dyed hair that was neatly tied up into a bun just barely visible past the bright, shining bulbs pointed his direction.

“So, this is for some promotional material for the XWF?”

“Yes,” she curtly responded, seeming to refuse to elaborate further without prompting.

“So, what exactly are we promoting here...? I'd like to have a little bit of an idea before we begin. All I've been told is that this is a part of my contractual obligations with Theo.”

Silvana quietly jotted a few notes down, uninterested in the slight babble that left Kaye's mouth.

“So, are you going to tell me what we're doing here or am I supposed to just shut up and answer questions?” Ned asked, a hint of frustration entering his tone.

“You are doing absolutely everything I intend for you, Mr. Kaye, no less,” she replied, adjusting her jaw slightly before her narrow eyes peered up to stare at him, finally finishing whatever she had been scratching down. There was a slight accent, almost German in nature, but hard to truly tell. Ned's head tilited, slightly amused by the whole situation.

“Isn't this a bit artsy for something meant to advertise an upcoming match?”

“I don't believe I ever stated that we were promoting a wrestling contest, Mr. Kaye.”

“Then what are we promoting?”

“You.”

His head shooting up as he adjusted his posture, Ned struggled to speak for a moment before she stole the chance from him.

“You've been rather infrequent on this company's programming for some time. They considered it a good idea to re-familiarize the audience with your presence and personage. They contacted the firm I work for and I personally accepted this job after reading over your file.”

“Wait, why?”

Silvana rolled her eyes, unamused by the constant questions her subject tirelessly tossed her way. Choosing her words carefully before she spoke, she returned to her notes as her lips parted once more.

“I assure you that the audience is far less interested in my motivations than they are your own. Please give us a brief synopsis of your career.”

There was still something uneasy about the whole situation, but Ned took a breath and simply focused on doing his best to fulfill whatever weird request Theo had signed him up for.

“I've been a fan of the XWF for about as long as I can remember. I watched it growing up and decided that one day I wanted to be a pro-wrestler and after a lot of struggling and bullying because of my physical limitations at the time, I broke into the indie scene. Then, following more hardship and work at that level, I eventually got on the XWF's radar and got my dream job. Now I'm here.”

“That's simplifying a great deal, isn't it, Mr. Kaye?”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“Firstly,” she confidently asked, “you didn't mention your father's role in your childhood interest in the sport.”

Ned sighed, already feeling as though he was being put under a microscope by this woman, before shoving the emotion down and replying, “you are correct. My dad was into wrestling when he was a kid and we watched it together while I was growing up. My brother wasn't really into it, so it was one of the things that me and Dad kind of just enjoyed together. Y'know, he used to call me after every match, win or lose, and tell me what he thought and that he was proud of me. He wasn't perfect by a long shot, but he was a lot damn better than most kids get.”

“Is your father still with us?”

Ned peered at her softly, understanding that she was fully aware of the answer as he strained to speak it, “No. He is not.”

“My condolences. Would you care to discuss the period of your career where you went by “Nefarious” Ned Kaye.”

“I would not.”

“Why not?”

Ned's fists clenched somewhat the entire aura of this god-forbidden interview beginning to strain him.

“Because it was a bad period of my life where I used people and fell into substance abuse issues I had previously gotten past.”

In the face of this comment, Silvana chuckled loudly. The laughter was like a blade to Ned's heart, his confusion leaving a few words in its wake.

“What the hell is so funny?”

Silvana placed a small glass on the table before she responded, calming her laughter with a hand hovering over her jaw, “You have become rather proficient at walling up your feelings on matters, Mr. Kaye, but I've studied you close enough to know that most of what you've said is so inhuman and unfeeling, but it is not your true opinions on the matters. We both know you wanted to persue the behavior you exemplified during your stint as “Nefarious,” but what you refuse to say is why. That's what I want to know, Ned.”

“Why what?”

“Why create a persona instead of just doing what others choose and simply embracing awful habits? Why hide behind a mask? Were you really that concerned about viewers that you made that whole facade?”

“You think that was for anybody else but me? You wanna know why I did it that way? Because I needed to think- to know it wasn't me doing it. Because if I was doing it, I could have and should have done better, but I didn't. I chose to hide myself over so many layers of misdirection and uncertainty because I didn't want to know what Dad would think if he saw me become the same kind of trash that we rooted against when I was young.”

Pulling a bottle of wine from one of her bags, Silvana quickly uncorked it and poured herself a glass as Ned watched in awe.

“You brought that in here... after talking about one of the most alcohol fueled meltdowns in my life...?”

“It's not as if I planned to serve you any.”

Ned turned away from her the light primarily illuminating the left side of his face as he kept his gaze away from the wine.

“What made you stop the “Nefarious” stage of your life?”

“I have a friend named Drew Archyle that I faced about a year ago at Relentless. I beat him until he couldn't get up. I beat a friend, a man who served with my father, so bad that by the end of it he was unconscious, but throughout the entire match, he didn't give up on me. I couldn't run from who I was anymore... the guilt became too much.”

“So, you left all that behind?”

“I'm trying... but it's hard.”

“Explain.”

“...I recently decided to abandon the “Notorious” moniker I had been using for basically my entire career because... I would visualize this perfect version of me that I could never live up to and it would just taunt me all the time. It was like having the perfect you in the back of your mind everyday and just reminding you of each failure and mistake you've let happen. So, I gave it up. Marketing be damned. And yet... when I return to Warfare, how do they book me? “Notorious” Ned Kaye. Not a care for my wishes. It's like the whole world wants me to be something I can't and no matter how I hard I try to reiterate that, there's something that tries to drag me back to it.”

“So, what motivates you now, Mr. Kaye?”

“I don't know... it's not money or fame... I did bad by the company I dedicated my entire adult life to being a part of and I watch as others treat it as badly, if not worse than I did. That's not right. I don't want my legacy to be some mask I wore to protect my self from my own bad decisions, I want to be remembered as me. I want to go out there and do the right thing not because it is easy, but because it's right and for no other reason at all. When I look at my friend, Raion Kido, I don't get scared because I think he's better than me or he'll take eyes off me. I get so fucking anxious that he might fuck up in ways that I have and no one should have to be haunted by the worst parts of their life. That's what motivates me. I don't want the worst parts of my life to be important enough to haunt me for a moment longer.”

Silvana took a large sip of her wine, swishing the liquid around her mouth to get the finer points of flavor before swallowing, her lipstick slightly staining the glass.

“So, when you go out there and you fight, are you fighting for the memory of your father, or The Trilogy, or what exactly? The fans?”

“I'm fighting for me.”

Silvana smiled and stood up, walking over to Ned to shake his hand.

“Thank you very much, Ned Kaye, I believe I got what I wanted.”

“Seriously? That's it?” Ned asked, taken off-guard.

“For you, at least.”

“Then... what else do you need?”

Silvana chuckled again, this time the laugh not nearly as ominous.

“Isn't it obvious? You don't learn about a subject only through the words it speaks alone. It requires contexts.”

“It requires eyes to view it through.”

---

---

---

“Okay, wait, you're doing that trash talk thing, right?” Darcy asked, holding up her phone, pointed squarely at Ned.

“No. Not for this match.”

“Why nooooot?”

“You know damn well why not.”

“Look, it's gotta be a guy in a costume. No fucking way they actually have you face a literal gorilla.”

“That is what they are doing. Do not ask me how I am so certain, Darce.”

“Well, give him a piece of your mind! Something like “hey you, gorilla boy, I'm gonna totally kick your ass on Warzone!”

“Warfare.”

“Whatever! You knew what I meant! Show that gorilla guy who's boss!”

“I am not insulting an animal for television.”

“It's not an animal, it's just a costumed guy! No athletic commission in the world is going to approve of a human v. animal match!”

“You're really underestimating the depths that the XWF can go.”

“Lighten up, Ned! It's really not that big a deal!”

“Darcy, I don't know how else to describe this to you, but I am facing a real fucking great ape in a wrestling match. That is genuinely happening.”

“Noooooo.”

“Yes!”

“Pshhhhh.”

“Oh fuuuck offff.”

“You fuck off!” Darcy laughed as the words came out, “You're so caught up in the gorilla thing and they're probably just gonna have a costumed guy give you a free win for your return match! That's silly!”

“It would be at a circus! The XWF is going to put me in a wrestling ring with an animal that has proportionally greater strength than the strongest humans, which I am not a subset of! I have to pin an animal! I'm not happy about that and I'm certainly not gonna smack talk the beast, too!”

“Then lose to the gorilla if you're so upset about it!”

Ned stayed quiet.

“Did you hear me? You could always just-”

“No.”

“Wait, what?”

“I'm not losing a match to a literal gorilla.”

“Oh my god, you're too proud to lose, even though you think it's messed up to shit talk a gorilla!”

“Darcy... can we please just get coffee and stop talking about this?"

“Only if I get to promote the show!”

“...Fine,” Ned replied, smiling somewhat as she excitedly turned the camera on herself.

“LIVE ON SUNDAY-”

“-Wednesday.”

“WEDNESDAY AIRFARE! NED'S FACING A GORILLA FOR MONEY! WATCH IT! WOOOO-”

The camera shakes violently as Darcy attempts to turn it off, but narrowly misses the recording button.

“So, how did I do?”

“Well, you nailed the bravado of the style, I'll give you that. Did you really have to be so over-the-top?”

“C'mon, if I'm gonna tease you, I'm gonna have a little fun with it. Oh shit, I'm still recordi-”

The feed cut.

"You can't run from yourself."