Post by D on Mar 5, 2016 4:15:59 GMT -5
As we cut to a commercial break, the all-too-familiar title card of Rated X appears on the screen.
Just as before, the Bullseye voice-over is heard.
Bullseye: Yo this message ya'll are about to receive is from Rated X and 'dem mark-ass fools in the XWA ain't got nuttin' ta' do with 'dis shit.
The voice-over concludes and the title card cuts away leaving only black. It is at this moment that music kicks in and a second title card appears.
A Day in the Life of Rated X by Matthew Werner
Chapter III: Dance With the Devil
The title card fades to black which consumes the screen for several moments. We emerge from the darkness to the shore of a beach; Filmed in the trademark black-and-white, grainy footage of previous Rated X segments. We see at first something of a montage; Quick cuts showcase a well-sized house right at the shore, the vastness of the ocean spanning across the horizon, a sizable fire pit located between the two. We see the members of Rated X meandering about with beers in their hand, the sweat on the bottle matching the sweat on their backs as we endure this insufferable heat wave. We finally stop at Alex Sean and Matthew Werner sitting beside one another several feet before the shoreline, Werner in his traditional button-up with folded sleeves and Sean wearing a wife-beater and some beaten-down cargo shorts. The two stare out at the horizon, a calm silence between them juxtaposed to the music in the background, the sounds of a strong fire crackling behind them, and the occasional playful bark of a dog; The metal loop on it's collar jingling as the hound runs about.
Matthew Werner: So this is where you've been staying?
Catching Sean in a swig of his beer, the patriarch of Rated X nods approvingly for a moment, taking the time to swallow the brew.
Alex Sean: Yeah... These are my haunts, as they say.
Matthew Werner: I never thought Ocean City would be your scene.
Alex Sean: It's not... But it's nice out here... Quiet. You can kinda forget that there's even a world around you if you spend enough time watching the water.
Matthew Werner: You do have a tendency to do that.
Alex Sean: What's that? Sean sips from his beer.
Matthew Werner: Forget that there's a world around you. It's always been kind of all or nothing with you. You show up, do something big, then disappear for a while.
Alex Sean: Heh... Well what's that proverb about longing?
Matthew Werner: I... Don't know off-hand, actually.
Alex Sean: Ah. Well it's something like you appreciate things more when you don't have them.
Matthew Werner: I see.
Alex Sean: I guess that's not really true but it's a nice thought.
Matthew Werner: Right... So... About this whole thing...
Alex Sean: What? Sean cocks his head backward, one can only assume to his compadres out of frame. Them? That thing?
Matthew Werner: Yeah... I just can't seem to shake this feeling of... You know I've known you for a long time.
Alex Sean: Is that literally how you're going to start every question you think I might not like?
Matthew Werner: I'm just saying.
Alex Sean: We both know the context of why I pay you to do these things. I wouldn't have you hear if I didn't want you to ask questions.
Matthew Werner: Fair enough.
Alex Sean: So let's have it.
Matthew Werner: Well all I'm getting to is, this whole situation you've created... Patching up or whatever you'd call it with E... Coming back so you can basically pull wings off of flies. This isn't like you. I expect these sort of things from those guys but you've always been more than that. You've always been... I don't know... About something.
Alex Sean: I feel like I've explained where I stand on stances... So to speak.
Matthew Werner: That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that you used to embody something greater than just winning titles and getting paid. I'm saying that whether it's genuine or something you're trying to convince yourself of... You're playing the role of something that you aren't. It's... I dunno.
Alex Sean: Nah man you clearly have an opinion. I'm not gonna beat you up Matthew, speak.
Matthew Werner: It's disappointing.
Werner's words fall out of his mouth in a way that he seems to instantly regret. He peers toward Sean anxiously, each moment seeming to feel like an hour wondering how he will respond. Sean's poker face finally breaks in a rough, stunted cackle, his mouth grinning but in a way that is a thinly veiled facade; His eyes speaking a different set of emotions entirely.
Alex Sean: Heh... Disappointing. Let me tell you about disappointment Matthew. You asked me... What was it? A few weeks back right? You asked me about the whole thing with E and I.
Matthew Werner: I did.
Alex Sean: You know what's... Funny... Even ironic, I guess, about that whole situation? I was so confident, man. Like a different level of confident going in there. After everything that happened, everything that him and Kraig and all their flunkies put me through. I mean shit man, he betrayed me, took my belt, I got sneak-attacked it seemed like every single week... Who knows how many concussions I got, how many bruised ribs... Uh... He fucked my wife.
Matthew Werner: Ex-wife.
Alex Sean: Right... Either way; Fucked Rebecca... Taped it, put it out there for everyone to see, hell just a couple weeks out he legitimately stabbed me in the back. I gotta be one of the only motherfuckers walking the Earth who can say they've been both figuratively and literally stabbed in the back.
Matthew Werner: I'd imagine it's uncommon.
Alex Sean: The point is, even after all that... Man I was certain I was gonna win because in my mind I knew for a fact that everything E was doing, all that B-S was nothing more than a manifestation of his own weakness, that with every new low he stooped to it made me stronger. So, that whole time, I stayed the course. I didn't drop to his level, I didn't get my hands dirty, I just trained hard and mentally prepared myself as best as I could cos I knew in my heart that in a straight-up fight I was gonna win.
Sean exhales loudly, then takes a long swig from his beer.
Alex Sean: And you know the truth is, it wasn't even really about the W... Like don't get me wrong, I wanted that belt and I wanted the win, but I knew that Kraig was gonna do whatever it took to make sure I didn't walk out of that building with that belt. I knew there was a chance that I would get fucked but you know what? If I could go out there and prove I was the better man... Win, lose or draw, I felt like I could sleep easy because it's like you said Matthew; I stood for something more than just getting the win, getting a belt, and getting paid. My whole career I've been fighting against the current, I refused to play the game even when it meant I was inevitable gonna get fucked but that night was gonna be where it was all worth it because I believed in something. I believed that it's better to lose with honor than win without it... Heh...
His dry chuckle resonates with a clear sense of bitterness like venom exercising itself from his diaphragm. Sean takes another swig from his beer, then continues.
Alex Sean: We both went into that ring on that night and... There wasn't Kraig orchestrating the ol' dog and pony show, there wasn't any salt in the eyes... Ref bumps... Holding the tights... We went out there and in the middle of the ring EBR beat me. Pinned my shoulders... Sean reaches down with his free hand, grabbing a palm full of sand. ... Finished. Emphatically, Sean tosses the sand toward the ocean, watching as the speckles disappear from the glow of the moon into the depths of the water. ... And that was it. That was all-she-wrote for Alex Sean. That's how the story ended. I went back to Baltimore... Bought this house... Got myself a dog and you know, I managed; I got by. I spent the last two years waking up at noon, grabbing a cold beer and taking my pup to the beach. Simple shit, you know?
Sean takes another swig from his beer.
Alex Sean: This place was my way of escaping the world... Escaping the reality that I already recognized but couldn't bring myself to look in the mirror and face. A reality so... Hurtful... That it was easier to just forget that the world even existed.
Matthew Werner: And what's that?
Alex Sean: ... That I had been a fool, Matthew. A damned weak fool. I spent my whole career fighting the current, swimming upstream. Even when I knew how easy I coulda had it, even when I had the chance to jump in filth and mine the diamonds with my bare hands... Shit even when I knew, at least to some level, when I was gonna get fucked, I didn't compromise who I was because I had my fucking honor and all it ever did was make me more vulnerable, all it ever did was work against me. I thought everything E did made him weaker and it wasn't until he beat me right there in front of the world did I even begin to realize that regardless of what happened, whether I was stabbed or whether he crippled Adam... It didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was willing to do whatever it took... Willing to cross any line to win and I wasn't.
Sean takes a long swig of his beer, finishing what's left then digging the bottom of the bottle into the sand to keep it upright.
Alex Sean: And even worse than that... When you really look at it as a whole... Everyone who truly knew Alex Sean, my peers, my competitors, all that... They knew how good I've always been. It's always been right there to a point where I genuinely believed I didn't have to chase titles and accolades to prove it, I didn't have to play the game because I actually fucking believed that people would remember who I was and what I accomplished and would know that, maybe I didn't win the most belts outta anyone who ever did it, but everything I ever did I did the right way, I did it cos I was truly the better man. But the reality is that's not how the world works. It's like D was saying man... People don't remember the finer details, they don't absorb the subtleties. Hell most of these cats in the XWA prolly ain't even watched me do my thing more than a couple of times. I had my one chance when I faced EBR to get a win that woulda validated everything, that woulda stood forever as my defining victory and I fucking blew it because I let myself just get weaker and softer and more compassionate year by year. Talking myself up like I had the same edge I did when I was twenty-three like I wasn't waking up hurting more and more each year, getting a little slower, able to lift just a few less pounds for a few less reps. I was so delusional that I spent eleven years gradually and carefully creating a legacy that nobody would ever fucking remember or give a single shit about.
Pausing for a moment, Sean exhales deeply.
Alex Sean: So I was sitting there... For two years I sat on my ass and I hid behind my own reality I had created for myself and then one day I'm flipping through the channels and I see that XWA Massacre's on. So I'm like, fuck it, let's see what's going on. I'm watching the show... I don't even know half of these dudes but then I see someone that I did know; I saw Trace Demon. I watched as he walked out to that ring wearing two belts that I never held cos I wouldn't play the game and I watched him throw one away cos he believed he was above it and threaten to take the other cos he was too big a fish for too small of a pond. I watched as this fucking guy who's never even touched the precipice of beating me talk like he's the fucking king of all shit. Heh... King of demons, right?
Sean smirks, a clear sarcasm in his decree of Trace Demon's title.
Alex Sean: I'm watching this dude who I've pinned more times than I can count and I start getting that feeling. That same feeling I always get when I know it's time to go wrecking ball on some clowns. That same feeling I had in the Summer of '06, in 2009, XWA in 2010... You know the deal. And I'm looking over at the phone knowing that this is the point where I call up D, I call up Cal, Hutton, whoever's playing the Claven position... Knowing this is where I'd call E up. I start thinking about everything that went down, all that he put me through... Still closed off from that reality, still not willing to face up to the truth of it all... And I just turned off the T-V. I shut off the lights, went upstairs and I tried to forget about it but... I couldn't shake it. I couldn't shake the feeling and I couldn't keep my mind from racing, all these thoughts... Conflicting with one another... And I remember after a couple'a hours tryin' to get my brain to shut the fuck up... I got up and I went to the bathroom...
Sean's eyebrows arch, his composure growing with intensity and conviction.
Alex Sean: ... And I just... Looked at myself. And man it was fuckin' wild; Practically psychadelic. I looked at my face and I saw these lines in it more defined than they'd ever been before, saw those dark circles around my eyes... I looked fucking old and worn out. That's what I had become. Just another forgotten, retired wrestler who never amounted to what he coulda... I faced the reality that I had kept locked up inside as long as I could stomach it and I came to grips with the truth in it all... And Matthew... That was the day the Alex Sean you knew died forever. In those few moments I came to an understanding that in thirty four years prior I could never recognize. I realized that at the end of the day, this world is run by crooks and con artists and that shit just keeps trickling down and you can either join in the hustle or be the guy at the end of the line getting fucked like the rest of 'em... Sean defiantly nods his head from side to side. ... Nah... Not me man. That ain't what my life's gonna be, that ain't how it's gonna end for me. I'm not going out like that, man, I was meant for more than that.
Sean's tone shifts, speaking in a gravelly near-whisper.
Alex Sean: All these motherfuckers who played their games spent an accumulative lifetime tryin' to destroy me... Since I was just a little man havin' motherfuckin' guidance counselors tell me I wasn't gonna amount to shit to dudes like King Kraig... They all tried to kill Alex Sean and you know what? They finally did it. It took thirty four years but after everything I've been through... I'm just tired man... I'm tired... And I'm so sick of carrying a torch that wasn't ever lit to begin with. So now... Now it's fuckin' on man. Now I'ma make 'em all burn. I'ma scorch everything in sight cos frankly? I just don't have any fucks left to give... Heh... Yeah man. I'ma scorch the earth Matthew and when it's all said and done?
Sean reaches over, grabbing Werner firmly by the shoulder to help himself to his feet. He leans down, grabbing his empty bottle, then turns to Matthew coming uncomfortably close to his face.
Alex Sean: I'm gonna be the king of the ashes.
An eerie smile creeps across his face, eerie only due to the genuine nature of it. He gives Werner a supportive pat on the shoulder to Matthew Werner, then turns away, proceeding away from the shoreline and toward the sand.
Alex Sean: Shouting for the rest of the group to hear. 'Ey yo! Who's in for some badmitten?
The camera pans to find DGX, EBR, and Bullseye meandering about. Sean's words draw their attention and the men begin to converge. As the group assembles, we pan to the fire pit, slowly focusing in on a large piece of wood, clearly old and dry as the ashes dance around it like fireflies in the night. The image maintains until gradually, we fade to black.
Just as before, the Bullseye voice-over is heard.
Bullseye: Yo this message ya'll are about to receive is from Rated X and 'dem mark-ass fools in the XWA ain't got nuttin' ta' do with 'dis shit.
The voice-over concludes and the title card cuts away leaving only black. It is at this moment that music kicks in and a second title card appears.
A Day in the Life of Rated X by Matthew Werner
Chapter III: Dance With the Devil
The title card fades to black which consumes the screen for several moments. We emerge from the darkness to the shore of a beach; Filmed in the trademark black-and-white, grainy footage of previous Rated X segments. We see at first something of a montage; Quick cuts showcase a well-sized house right at the shore, the vastness of the ocean spanning across the horizon, a sizable fire pit located between the two. We see the members of Rated X meandering about with beers in their hand, the sweat on the bottle matching the sweat on their backs as we endure this insufferable heat wave. We finally stop at Alex Sean and Matthew Werner sitting beside one another several feet before the shoreline, Werner in his traditional button-up with folded sleeves and Sean wearing a wife-beater and some beaten-down cargo shorts. The two stare out at the horizon, a calm silence between them juxtaposed to the music in the background, the sounds of a strong fire crackling behind them, and the occasional playful bark of a dog; The metal loop on it's collar jingling as the hound runs about.
Matthew Werner: So this is where you've been staying?
Catching Sean in a swig of his beer, the patriarch of Rated X nods approvingly for a moment, taking the time to swallow the brew.
Alex Sean: Yeah... These are my haunts, as they say.
Matthew Werner: I never thought Ocean City would be your scene.
Alex Sean: It's not... But it's nice out here... Quiet. You can kinda forget that there's even a world around you if you spend enough time watching the water.
Matthew Werner: You do have a tendency to do that.
Alex Sean: What's that? Sean sips from his beer.
Matthew Werner: Forget that there's a world around you. It's always been kind of all or nothing with you. You show up, do something big, then disappear for a while.
Alex Sean: Heh... Well what's that proverb about longing?
Matthew Werner: I... Don't know off-hand, actually.
Alex Sean: Ah. Well it's something like you appreciate things more when you don't have them.
Matthew Werner: I see.
Alex Sean: I guess that's not really true but it's a nice thought.
Matthew Werner: Right... So... About this whole thing...
Alex Sean: What? Sean cocks his head backward, one can only assume to his compadres out of frame. Them? That thing?
Matthew Werner: Yeah... I just can't seem to shake this feeling of... You know I've known you for a long time.
Alex Sean: Is that literally how you're going to start every question you think I might not like?
Matthew Werner: I'm just saying.
Alex Sean: We both know the context of why I pay you to do these things. I wouldn't have you hear if I didn't want you to ask questions.
Matthew Werner: Fair enough.
Alex Sean: So let's have it.
Matthew Werner: Well all I'm getting to is, this whole situation you've created... Patching up or whatever you'd call it with E... Coming back so you can basically pull wings off of flies. This isn't like you. I expect these sort of things from those guys but you've always been more than that. You've always been... I don't know... About something.
Alex Sean: I feel like I've explained where I stand on stances... So to speak.
Matthew Werner: That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that you used to embody something greater than just winning titles and getting paid. I'm saying that whether it's genuine or something you're trying to convince yourself of... You're playing the role of something that you aren't. It's... I dunno.
Alex Sean: Nah man you clearly have an opinion. I'm not gonna beat you up Matthew, speak.
Matthew Werner: It's disappointing.
Werner's words fall out of his mouth in a way that he seems to instantly regret. He peers toward Sean anxiously, each moment seeming to feel like an hour wondering how he will respond. Sean's poker face finally breaks in a rough, stunted cackle, his mouth grinning but in a way that is a thinly veiled facade; His eyes speaking a different set of emotions entirely.
Alex Sean: Heh... Disappointing. Let me tell you about disappointment Matthew. You asked me... What was it? A few weeks back right? You asked me about the whole thing with E and I.
Matthew Werner: I did.
Alex Sean: You know what's... Funny... Even ironic, I guess, about that whole situation? I was so confident, man. Like a different level of confident going in there. After everything that happened, everything that him and Kraig and all their flunkies put me through. I mean shit man, he betrayed me, took my belt, I got sneak-attacked it seemed like every single week... Who knows how many concussions I got, how many bruised ribs... Uh... He fucked my wife.
Matthew Werner: Ex-wife.
Alex Sean: Right... Either way; Fucked Rebecca... Taped it, put it out there for everyone to see, hell just a couple weeks out he legitimately stabbed me in the back. I gotta be one of the only motherfuckers walking the Earth who can say they've been both figuratively and literally stabbed in the back.
Matthew Werner: I'd imagine it's uncommon.
Alex Sean: The point is, even after all that... Man I was certain I was gonna win because in my mind I knew for a fact that everything E was doing, all that B-S was nothing more than a manifestation of his own weakness, that with every new low he stooped to it made me stronger. So, that whole time, I stayed the course. I didn't drop to his level, I didn't get my hands dirty, I just trained hard and mentally prepared myself as best as I could cos I knew in my heart that in a straight-up fight I was gonna win.
Sean exhales loudly, then takes a long swig from his beer.
Alex Sean: And you know the truth is, it wasn't even really about the W... Like don't get me wrong, I wanted that belt and I wanted the win, but I knew that Kraig was gonna do whatever it took to make sure I didn't walk out of that building with that belt. I knew there was a chance that I would get fucked but you know what? If I could go out there and prove I was the better man... Win, lose or draw, I felt like I could sleep easy because it's like you said Matthew; I stood for something more than just getting the win, getting a belt, and getting paid. My whole career I've been fighting against the current, I refused to play the game even when it meant I was inevitable gonna get fucked but that night was gonna be where it was all worth it because I believed in something. I believed that it's better to lose with honor than win without it... Heh...
His dry chuckle resonates with a clear sense of bitterness like venom exercising itself from his diaphragm. Sean takes another swig from his beer, then continues.
Alex Sean: We both went into that ring on that night and... There wasn't Kraig orchestrating the ol' dog and pony show, there wasn't any salt in the eyes... Ref bumps... Holding the tights... We went out there and in the middle of the ring EBR beat me. Pinned my shoulders... Sean reaches down with his free hand, grabbing a palm full of sand. ... Finished. Emphatically, Sean tosses the sand toward the ocean, watching as the speckles disappear from the glow of the moon into the depths of the water. ... And that was it. That was all-she-wrote for Alex Sean. That's how the story ended. I went back to Baltimore... Bought this house... Got myself a dog and you know, I managed; I got by. I spent the last two years waking up at noon, grabbing a cold beer and taking my pup to the beach. Simple shit, you know?
Sean takes another swig from his beer.
Alex Sean: This place was my way of escaping the world... Escaping the reality that I already recognized but couldn't bring myself to look in the mirror and face. A reality so... Hurtful... That it was easier to just forget that the world even existed.
Matthew Werner: And what's that?
Alex Sean: ... That I had been a fool, Matthew. A damned weak fool. I spent my whole career fighting the current, swimming upstream. Even when I knew how easy I coulda had it, even when I had the chance to jump in filth and mine the diamonds with my bare hands... Shit even when I knew, at least to some level, when I was gonna get fucked, I didn't compromise who I was because I had my fucking honor and all it ever did was make me more vulnerable, all it ever did was work against me. I thought everything E did made him weaker and it wasn't until he beat me right there in front of the world did I even begin to realize that regardless of what happened, whether I was stabbed or whether he crippled Adam... It didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was willing to do whatever it took... Willing to cross any line to win and I wasn't.
Sean takes a long swig of his beer, finishing what's left then digging the bottom of the bottle into the sand to keep it upright.
Alex Sean: And even worse than that... When you really look at it as a whole... Everyone who truly knew Alex Sean, my peers, my competitors, all that... They knew how good I've always been. It's always been right there to a point where I genuinely believed I didn't have to chase titles and accolades to prove it, I didn't have to play the game because I actually fucking believed that people would remember who I was and what I accomplished and would know that, maybe I didn't win the most belts outta anyone who ever did it, but everything I ever did I did the right way, I did it cos I was truly the better man. But the reality is that's not how the world works. It's like D was saying man... People don't remember the finer details, they don't absorb the subtleties. Hell most of these cats in the XWA prolly ain't even watched me do my thing more than a couple of times. I had my one chance when I faced EBR to get a win that woulda validated everything, that woulda stood forever as my defining victory and I fucking blew it because I let myself just get weaker and softer and more compassionate year by year. Talking myself up like I had the same edge I did when I was twenty-three like I wasn't waking up hurting more and more each year, getting a little slower, able to lift just a few less pounds for a few less reps. I was so delusional that I spent eleven years gradually and carefully creating a legacy that nobody would ever fucking remember or give a single shit about.
Pausing for a moment, Sean exhales deeply.
Alex Sean: So I was sitting there... For two years I sat on my ass and I hid behind my own reality I had created for myself and then one day I'm flipping through the channels and I see that XWA Massacre's on. So I'm like, fuck it, let's see what's going on. I'm watching the show... I don't even know half of these dudes but then I see someone that I did know; I saw Trace Demon. I watched as he walked out to that ring wearing two belts that I never held cos I wouldn't play the game and I watched him throw one away cos he believed he was above it and threaten to take the other cos he was too big a fish for too small of a pond. I watched as this fucking guy who's never even touched the precipice of beating me talk like he's the fucking king of all shit. Heh... King of demons, right?
Sean smirks, a clear sarcasm in his decree of Trace Demon's title.
Alex Sean: I'm watching this dude who I've pinned more times than I can count and I start getting that feeling. That same feeling I always get when I know it's time to go wrecking ball on some clowns. That same feeling I had in the Summer of '06, in 2009, XWA in 2010... You know the deal. And I'm looking over at the phone knowing that this is the point where I call up D, I call up Cal, Hutton, whoever's playing the Claven position... Knowing this is where I'd call E up. I start thinking about everything that went down, all that he put me through... Still closed off from that reality, still not willing to face up to the truth of it all... And I just turned off the T-V. I shut off the lights, went upstairs and I tried to forget about it but... I couldn't shake it. I couldn't shake the feeling and I couldn't keep my mind from racing, all these thoughts... Conflicting with one another... And I remember after a couple'a hours tryin' to get my brain to shut the fuck up... I got up and I went to the bathroom...
Sean's eyebrows arch, his composure growing with intensity and conviction.
Alex Sean: ... And I just... Looked at myself. And man it was fuckin' wild; Practically psychadelic. I looked at my face and I saw these lines in it more defined than they'd ever been before, saw those dark circles around my eyes... I looked fucking old and worn out. That's what I had become. Just another forgotten, retired wrestler who never amounted to what he coulda... I faced the reality that I had kept locked up inside as long as I could stomach it and I came to grips with the truth in it all... And Matthew... That was the day the Alex Sean you knew died forever. In those few moments I came to an understanding that in thirty four years prior I could never recognize. I realized that at the end of the day, this world is run by crooks and con artists and that shit just keeps trickling down and you can either join in the hustle or be the guy at the end of the line getting fucked like the rest of 'em... Sean defiantly nods his head from side to side. ... Nah... Not me man. That ain't what my life's gonna be, that ain't how it's gonna end for me. I'm not going out like that, man, I was meant for more than that.
Sean's tone shifts, speaking in a gravelly near-whisper.
Alex Sean: All these motherfuckers who played their games spent an accumulative lifetime tryin' to destroy me... Since I was just a little man havin' motherfuckin' guidance counselors tell me I wasn't gonna amount to shit to dudes like King Kraig... They all tried to kill Alex Sean and you know what? They finally did it. It took thirty four years but after everything I've been through... I'm just tired man... I'm tired... And I'm so sick of carrying a torch that wasn't ever lit to begin with. So now... Now it's fuckin' on man. Now I'ma make 'em all burn. I'ma scorch everything in sight cos frankly? I just don't have any fucks left to give... Heh... Yeah man. I'ma scorch the earth Matthew and when it's all said and done?
Sean reaches over, grabbing Werner firmly by the shoulder to help himself to his feet. He leans down, grabbing his empty bottle, then turns to Matthew coming uncomfortably close to his face.
Alex Sean: I'm gonna be the king of the ashes.
An eerie smile creeps across his face, eerie only due to the genuine nature of it. He gives Werner a supportive pat on the shoulder to Matthew Werner, then turns away, proceeding away from the shoreline and toward the sand.
Alex Sean: Shouting for the rest of the group to hear. 'Ey yo! Who's in for some badmitten?
The camera pans to find DGX, EBR, and Bullseye meandering about. Sean's words draw their attention and the men begin to converge. As the group assembles, we pan to the fire pit, slowly focusing in on a large piece of wood, clearly old and dry as the ashes dance around it like fireflies in the night. The image maintains until gradually, we fade to black.