HKYA! HKYA! RP - Sink Or Swim

[Johnny Mason]

---

Two years and Three months

That is how long I’ve been the Vanguard Champion.

For almost half of that time it has been taken away from me.

Stolen from me.

I thought it couldn’t get any worse after that but I should of known better.

I finally get signed by the WFWF and my son passes away shortly after.

I scratch and crawl and work my a** off to improve and get better and I earn the Vanguard Title.

Day in and day out I try my best to make it mean something by taking on anybody and everybody.

Hell some matches I might of been in over my head but by the end of the match I have earned everybody’s respect.

My opponent’s.

The fan’s.

The people backstage.

And even my own.

I thought I was at the top and I was going hard and I was living fast but somewhere along the way I let my guard down only for that bastard to betray me and take everything I’ve ever worked for.

Everything I’ve earned for my son.

Up to this point I thought I’ve hit rock bottom before.

I thought there was nowhere to go but up because if I went any lower I’d be f*cking dead.

I was on a mission.

I went from hotel to hotel, bar to bar, every single one we ever went to.

Just hoping to find that son of a b*tch.

There were times I’d be forced to stop and think,

Look what he’s done. Look at what he’s driving you to.

That’s when I realized he wasn’t driving me to do anything.

Every mistake and every decision I’ve ever made,

I’ve drove myself.

I’ve never had a hero.

Neither parent has ever been a hero to me.

I’ve had wrestlers that I’ve looked up to somewhat but none I would call a hero.

Tyson was definitely not a hero.

I’m my own godd*mn hero.

So I picked myself up and dusted myself off.

I got in the gym and put as much work in as I possibly could and gave all of myself that I had inside me.

I awaited the call of who i was stepping into the ring with next.

Hell I can have another championship made.

I don’t care.

As long as Tyson is out of my life for good.

But that call never came.

I was never afforded an explanation.

Everyone knows now what happened.

And I now know what is next for me.

But at the time I knew in my head that my life was over.

The WFWF had abandoned me

---

Sink or Swim

---

Johnny Mason awaits his name being called as he sits in his own personal ringside seat.

He sticks to the black leather from his own anxious sweat which is an unwanted contrast from the otherwise cold room.

Focused in and avoiding eye contact with the other people around him, he stares at the objects on the wall across from him.

One is just a picture of some flowers.
Daisies perhaps.

Simple but delicate.
Innocent.

The other is just a clock.

It’s white with a black border, but the face of it is cracked.

It’s still working, but barely it seems.

They should probably throw it out and get a new one.

Johnny?

Like an alarm clock that awakens you from your euphoric, yet fraudulent dreams, the bird-like screech of his own name causes him to jump up as it could only signal one thing.

“It’s go time” he mumbles under his breath as he makes his way down the hallway.

You can do this! You can do this!

You’re Johnny Mason!

You’re the f*cking champ!

I got this!

I got th-

“Here we are!” She says in a jovial tone, as she motions Johnny into a room.

“Take a seat wherever you would like!”

There’s a blue couch with three gray throw pillows placed ever so flawlessly on top of it to the left and a small black leather chair that looks identical to the one he had just sat in to the right.

He picks the black chair.

“It’s so nice to see you back again, Johnny!”

He cancelled the last two appointments out of anxiety the morning before each one.

“It’s good to be back.” He sheepishly says.

“Well great, that makes me happy Johnny!”

“This is your safe place, a place where you are always welcome!” She says through her Gary Busey like smile.

She stands four foot eleven, weighing in at around one hundred pounds.

With puffy gray hair, teeth like a horse, and also a menacing beak!

She is the Devourer of Souls!

The Head Lice of Nice!

Not So Big Bird!

She is Gertrude Brown !!!

“I appreciate that.” Johnny says. “Thank you.”

“You’re ever so welcome young man.”

“How’ve you been feeling lately?”

Wanting to leave, and avoiding eye contact he manages to get a simple “I’ve been alright.” out.

A vanilla candle in the corner is lit but overpowered by the smells of whatever Gertrude had for lunch.
Spaghetti perhaps.

“That doesn’t sound like you’re alright Mr. Mason. Tell me how you feel.”

“I don’t know, I’ve just been feeling down I guess.”

“You guess, or you know?”

Johnny moves his head to make eye contact.

“I know.”
Before his eyes dart back away to some diplomas on the wall.

“Have you been having anymore suicidal thoughts.”

Johnny pauses

“Yes.”

She’s trying to help me

Maybe I should tell her the truth.

“Have you came up with any plans?”

“No , not this time.

Just the feeling is there, but no plans.”

Okay I lied.

But I can’t tell her the truth on that one okay?

The WFWF just restarted. I can’t go away.

“Please contact someone if you ever start to feel that way.”

I feel that way now and I have nobody

“Of course”

She lets out a slight smile before getting onto her computer.

“And you’re still taking your medicine?”

“The prozac? Yes.”

“Okay we’re going to bump that up to eighty milligrams.”

“Okay.”

And just like that the appointment ends.

Johnny can take a sigh of relief until next week.

As he is walking out, Gertrude places her hand on his shoulder.

“Things will get better soon. Just keep trying.”

He nods his head as he walks out.

---

Mesh when I seen you out there at Ascension my first thought was that you will never go away.

After the match was over and you got your hand raised I then realized that you will never die.

I came down to that ring to end this once and for all.

To shake your hand and give you the respect that I thought you deserved.

For the first time in my career I mean this with no malice.

If you’re not ready to jump back into the shark infested waters that is the WFWF please don’t.

I don’t want to see you get torn apart again.

My opponent for the next show reminds me of you quite a bit actually.

You’ve beat him before to become the first ever Vanguard Champion.

Shuggy it’s simple.

I have something to prove.

I don’t want to hurt you anymore than I have to, to get the win.

I’m not underestimating you.

I’m not disrespecting you.

This is not personal.

I do not step into that ring for fun.

Toughen up and take this serious.

I’m afraid if you don’t, at the end of this match the fans are just going to know you as the bleeding red man.

The ice is going to break below our feet And it’ll be time to see if you sink or swim.

As for me, they don’t call me the Icebreaker for nothing

---

[sonstuds]

I've always been a fan of your monologues and this was no different. I always felt like they had a very moody and effective undertone to them that I can appreciate. Admittedly I don't know where your angle is going and if Tyson Watts is going to be brought back into the fold, but if he isn't Mason feeling abandoned and resentful towards the WFWF for shutting down and taking away his closure is a very interesting and unique direction to take. I dig it.

I do feel the therapist scene was a little underdeveloped and sort of ends before it gets going. You're incredibly effective at depicting what's going on in Mason's head and how he's often lost in his own thoughts and I sort of feel like that would have been a perfect avenue to help further explore that. I'm pretty sure what you were going for was Mason refusing to open up and instead just getting further prescribed more medication, in which case you succeeded getting that point across but I think you could have let the scene linger a little bit longer either way.

Similarly to what I said to Mark's RP, I liked the closing monologue wasn't about dissing Mesh or Shuggy but I felt that one also kind of ended before it got started which I was admittedly a little disappointed in cause I'm a fan of your monologues. It just seemed a little basic and not particularly specific to the character you were facing, which hurt it's overall effectiveness imo.

[Johnny Mason]

sonstuds

Yeah in the therapist scene what I was going for was to have Johnny not open up, and get prescribed more medicine as it ends abruptly.
Everything about it was supposed to be unsettling and unfulfilling for Johnny.

And in the closing monologue I wanted it to be simple and short.
It wasn’t overly specific to my opponent because in Johnny’s head while he is looking forward to his first match back, he is kind of looking past Shuggy because of how he doesn’t take this as serious as Johnny does.

Im not making excuses, just trying to let you know my reasoning for doing things the way I did.
I just need to get that across in my rp better.

Im trying to get better so thank you for the feedback and the kind words. I do understand what you are trying to help me with and I appreciate it and I’ll try my best to apply it to my work in the future.

[Swarm]

I liked what you were going for with this. Beginning with a prologue that establishes his mindset followed by the therapy scene being portrayed as if he is about to compete and concluding with a monologue more focused on his actual upcoming match is a solid structure. I liked his perusal of the waiting room and fixation on the broken clock and I think overall it feels to me like you have a really solid idea of his mindset right now.

I think my main critique of this RP is while I do believe the structure for a cohesive, singular work is there, I think it could have gone a lot farther in accomplishing being a cohesive, singular work. It feels, in this form, as an RP made up of three, individual scenes that do not require each other to be fully appreciated. The question to ask was, what connects these scenes? Why do you, as a writer, feel these three scenes need to be together? Quantify that, and then establish that through line. How does the first monologue inform our reading of the last monologue? What from that closing monologue would, upon reading it, recontextualize the therapy scene that would give us a greater appreciation of it? I don't want to get to deep into the weeds on that here but if you ever want to discuss these concepts in more detail feel free to message me on here or Discord.

Something I'd also add is the value of research. Now, I don't dismiss the possibility that there are therapists as bad at their job as Gertrude Brown. What I would say is anyone who's ever had a therapist as bad as Getrude needs to find a new therapist. For the most part, therapy does not work the way we see it portrayed on TV and film where a therapist asks a hyper-specific question prompting a singular response. One of the core tenants of the therapeutic process is that a therapist's job is to facilitate the environment for you to do to the therapy-ing to yourself. So it's often a lot of asking really general questions to get you to just talk a lot about things and, through that process, you became aware of the things you are thinking and feeling, and start to actually examine them yourself. The trick there is of course if the person does not want to open up that day, there really isn't much that happens. As such, I think a realistic bad session would actually have accomplished your objectives much better. I can imagine Johnny sitting there in silence, laconically answering Gertrude's questions then being consumed by his inner thoughts.

In that, I honestly think the framing device of a bad therapy session could have been more optimally used to have both the opening and closing monologues occurring during his inner thoughts while not externally processing his troubles. In other words, I think this was a really good, one-scene RP that got chopped into three scenes that, as a result, felt kind of disconnected.

So overall, I liked parts of this but I don't think it entirely came together as a satisfying, singular piece of work. I think there's a lot to like in how you seem to think about writing and how willing you are to show your character struggle, what I'd like to see is you reach a little higher in terms of literary language as a means of showcasing your strengths.

[Markw]

Jul 11, 2022 0:35:58 GMT -5 Johnny Mason said:

She stands four foot eleven, weighing in at around one hundred pounds.

I thought this was just such a good line. Funny, helps to establish the idea that Johnny’s frame of mind is that he’s working against her rather than with her, keeps the scene feeling relevant to pro wrestling. I thought that was a really nice touch.

There were a few other things in that scene that are quite off my experience of therapy and didn’t feel that realistic, but that may well just be an America/Britain difference. What I would say is if you have experience of something like that and it’s relevant then it’s great to include, if you don’t then spend a lot of time researching how therapists/psychiatrists are trained to talk to people (or go get some therapy, everyone needs therapy) before you write about it. But again it’s probably just that Americans are crazy, therapists are upping drug dosages without asking patients how they feel about it and not talking through why someone feels suicidal, I don’t want to believe that but I definitely could.

Edit: Ok based on Alex's response it's not an America thing, so yeah, write what you know and if you don't know it find out before you write it.

Agree with EBR on the monologues. I thought the first was really strong at setting the scene, letting us into Mason’s mindset and where he’s been at. The second could have done with fleshing out more. It’s perfectly valid for Mason to be looking past Shuggy, but there were still areas where expanding on points could have helped. Eg. Saying ‘My opponent for the next show reminds me of you quite a bit actually’ but then not expanding on it is a real missed opportunity, how/why does he? That can lead into really easily making points about both your current and future opponent (and should be easy enough to do, because he’s right, there are a ton of similarities there to play on – but I’m left just guessing what in particular he’s referencing). I did really like the Bleeding Red Man line too. You’ve got some good lines, know how to write an interesting monologue, just keep expanding on the points you make because they’re good and you want to highlight your strengths as much as you can.

Overall good stuff, looking forward to seeing more from you and very excited for the clash with Mesh.

[Johnny Mason]

Obviously not all therapists are like what I portrayed but I’ve been going for 10+ years with 4 or 5 different ones.

It was a psychiatrist to be exact.
Someone who literally was just there to give me medicine and for me to talk for 30 minutes, with not much of her talking back.
She was an outlier, but 100% real so I don’t need to do much research unfortunately.

[Swarm]

Jul 13, 2022 13:51:13 GMT -5 Johnny Mason said:

Obviously not all therapists are like what I portrayed but I’ve been going for 10+ years with 4 or 5 different ones.

It was a psychiatrist to be exact.
Someone who literally was just there to give me medicine and for me to talk for 30 minutes, with not much of her talking back.
She was an outlier, but 100% real so I don’t need to do much research unfortunately.

Oof yeah that was why I couched what I said with "anyone who has had that experience needs to find a new therapist". I hope you ended up finding/have found much better help cos that's horrible bro.

[Johnny Mason]

Thank you Swarm.

Yeah I stopped after 4 appointments lmao

[jdfranchise]

Hey man,

So you are definitely trending upwards in your overall presentation, and this was a good showing of it. I can't really say much more than what's already been said, but I can offer you my thoughts that add to the points made:

You have found a nice voice in that neutral space, although I think your story does lend itself more towards the babyface side, and I believe I told you as much. What's not to sympathize with Johnny's mental struggle. Most everything in his life has found a black mark at some point or another, so him being mentally distraught would be a natural emotion. And how it he tries to resolve it without much success is an interesting direction to take. I can see there is an element of real life there, and I wouldn't mind seeing you taking it another crack at it down the line with some of the suggestions that were made above.

Promos are really becoming a strong suite of yours and I think that will only continue. I agree with E and Alex that you're finding a niche with your openers being strong frameworks for your later content. I think that's something you can double down on.

This very much felt like a tale of two halfs of the RP. Your first half was awesome with the first promo and the first half of the therapy scene. I think the second half of the therapy scene lost a little, perhaps it was seemingly abruptly ended. I do understand in the big scheme what you were trying to do with this being a dramatized version of a disappointing experience with a "professional". I use that term loosely because anyone who is that apathetic to there job has no business dealing in mental health. I digress, because the message did come across. What I want to see you do is don't completely write off that therapist yet, but in fact there is a way you can show how you believe it should go and what Johnny expects in return for his payment for service. Have Johnny call out that her only solution seems to be meds instead of helping him with strategies. This way, you have a supporting character you can work with for a while. It will require some research to get all the terminology down, but I don't think that's anything you'd mind doing.

The last promo on Shuggy was pretty good, but I do think you left a little on the table like was previously mentioned. You definitely had a good line with the Bloody Red Man, and I definitely think you were onto something with his call to toughen up.

I did notice some grammatical bits and I'm not sure what you use as a writing tool. That said, give your rps a run through on those tools and you'll catch those.

Overall dude, I definitely think you're making strides and have a good foundation of things that work for you to build off. And this was a step up from your last outing.

Nice job.

[Drakz]

My main gripe with this was I just wanted some more. I was just getting my teeth into it and then it was over. I dunno if that was down to the word limit or not though?

One overall emotion I took away from this, and one that was well written across the entire RP, was just despair. Not in an overly melodramatic way, but bubbling there below the surface was just a sadness and a sense that Mason has been left all on his own. I can dig that.

Like E said, I enjoyed that your monologue wasn't a scathing cut down of your opponent, because in his current mindset I don't think that would fit the character. He's a good guy that's been dealt a bad hand, and he wants his opponent to simply know: it's not you, it's me.

Very pleased you've stuck with us, considering the huge down time we had this last year mate.

[Deleted]

You have seriously made huge strides since coming back what seems like forever ago, haha and I couldn't be prouder!

This piece is strong, much stronger than your previous pieces were and that's a good thing. It means that we're chipping away at the block of marble and shaping it into the greatness that is Johnny mason. It took us a bit but we're getting there, that's the important part!

It's been said before but your monologues here were great. They really painted the picture of where Mason's headspace has been since the SuperBrawl: Revenge and the hiatus of the WFWF. Considering what happened to him last time anyone saw him, his mentality is definitely justified. He has become a more sympathetic character than before which I think is the best route. I know he's always been a tweener who leaned more towards the heel side but Johnny Mason is a great example of what a babyface character can be: do the right thing with a slight edge, the edge in your case being the aggression and anger.

My main critique will only echo what's already been said: scenes were over before they got started. One of my main points I would make whenever leaving feedback for your previous pieces was slowing things down and letting things marinate. While I get where you were coming from with the therapist scene, it kinda just comes and goes without any real weight or impact being made. I do like how you added the occasional internal dialogue from Mason, which is something we had discussed before but I feel like you could've gone even further with that. Aside from what Mason is thinking at that time, tell us what he's feeling, if anything. Is he anxious? Things like that go a long way in creating a tone in your writing. I feel like that is what is missing from your pieces - a tone.

The last monologue was another example. It was good, don't get me wrong. You played the babyface tune very well. You brought up Mason's thoughts on facing Mesh again and what that match means to him as well as address Shuggy. I LOVED The Bloody Red Man line. That was brilliant however, it was over before any real omph could be delivered. Again, don't take this as me saying this was a bad piece because it wasn't. You have seriously grown so much as writer and this is just another example of what you are capable of. With some more finetuning, you'll be the big time player I know you can be!