Post by Maxwell Mason Stone on Jan 25, 2024 16:18:22 GMT -5
maxwell mason stone
in
here
in
here
FBI Field Office
Portland, OR
Portland, OR
A loud irritating mechanical whirring hits our ears as mid quality coffee beans are dropped into a chute where they are ground into an espresso grind and doused in scalding water to create a piping hot cup of morning juice. A man reaches into the frame and grabs the kickstart he needs to face the day ahead of him. He attempts to take a sip but realizes that doing so would cause some potentially irreversible damage to the tubing under his skin.
Voice: Agent Weeks?
The concentration between man and coffee is broken when an elder statesman of the bureau approaches this fresh faced wide eyed young agent.
Agent Weeks: Yes, hello! Great to see you again, Agent McDowell.
Agent McDowell: Come to my office when you're settled in. And I'd suggest bringing your own coffee to work because the sludge that comes out of that machine is dreadful.
Weeks nods and McDowell walks away. Weeks approaches an ice dispenser and puts the steaming mug under it.
Moments pass and Agent Weeks sits across McDowell at his desk. Weeks takes a sip of the now drinkable brew.
McDowell: Paradox Pines. Ever heard of it?
Weeks: If memory serves correctly, those are those guys that hang out at college campuses with the watches around their necks. The ones that live up in the mountains?
McDowell: Yep. They started up in the 70s by some astronomer who led people to believe that he's discovered the secrets to going back in time and fixing old mistakes and preventing bad things from happening and all that jazz.
Weeks: Stewart Crestfield, right? My grandma used to watch those tabloid shows and they were always talking about him.
McDowell laughs and then reaches under his desk to procure three full binders of papers and hands them to Weeks. Before Weeks looks at them, he asks a question.
Weeks: The time travel stuff… obviously it's a ruse right?
McDowell: Hard to say. Let me know when you find out. Your first case is a wacky mountainous time travel cult. Enjoy!
Weeks opens up a binder and flips through the pages, quickly scanning through seemingly decades of intel. He gets to the pages towards the end and just as he's about to ask a question, McDowell interrupts.
McDowell: They've been harmless for years but the guy has always been very anti government and we're learning that his rhetoric is becoming increasingly hostile. We have reason to believe he's gearing up for something potentially dangerous. But that's for you to find out.
Weeks: Huh…what the?
McDowell: I take it you got to the part about the professional wrestler.
Weeks: Maxwell Mason Stone… I know that guy.
McDowell: Personally? Please say no. I don't want a conflict of interest getting in the way of me finally getting rid of this case.
Weeks laughs.
Weeks: No, I've just seen him on TV. From what I've seen he's an interesting fella. Once had split personalities and set a wrestling ring on fire when he didn't get his way. Seems he's been on the straight and narrow the last couple years though and people seem to be behind him. He's in this cult? Like a celebrity Tom Cruise kinda deal?
McDowell: He's not just in it… he's the heir apparent to the entire empire.
Weeks: Interesting. I guess I never made the connection but he does wear one of those watches around his neck.
McDowell: Looks like I assigned this case to the right guy then. Keep an eye on the wrestling shows this Stone guy is on. From what I've gathered there isn't much of a separation between wrestling and reality for this guy…
Weeks pulls out his phone and swipes around.
Weeks: Maybe the things he does on TV can serve as a window into the mindset of the Paradox. Setting my DVR for Thunder Pro Wrestling.
McDowell: Also the WGWF.
Weeks: Isn't he on Thunder Pro Wrestling?
McDowell: Pulling double duty it seems. Glad I got a wrestling fan on the case because lord knows I've watched enough of that stuff.
McDowell gets up from his desk and makes his way towards the exit, patting Weeks on the shoulder as he passes by. Weeks grabs another binder, opens it up and dives into his new assignment of learning about the people of…
Paradox Pines, OR
“So why are you here?”
Maxwell Mason Stone laughs at this question proposed to him by a child that sits across from him in the dining hall of the main house at Paradox Pines.
MMS: I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.
Child: People wondering why you are here?
MMS: People wondering why I’m everywhere, bud..
The kid looks confused as he takes a bite of his eggs.
MMS: Why are YOU here, kid?
Child: Because my dad decided we should be. Also my name aint “kid.” It’s Coop.
MMS: Coop?
Coop: Short for “Cooper” but everyone in my family calls me “Coop.” At least they did before we left…
Maxwell’s playful tone changes to one that’s a bit more serious as he recognizes that the child's tone has changed.
MMS: Do you like it here?
Coop: I guess. It’s nice and everything but there’s only 12 other kids here in the whole place and I kinda wish I had more friends. But I get it. We all have work to do here and it’s for a good cause.
Coop says that last part as if he’s repeating the words of someone else. Stone picks up on this.
Moments later, Maxwell is walking outside in the pouring rain walking away from the large Victorian house that serves as the main headquarters and centerpiece of the Paradox Pines lakeside village.
Coop (yelling): Maxwell!
Maxwell turns around and sees Coop running towards him.
Coop: You never answered my question!
MMS: What question?
Coop: I asked you what you’re doing here.
Maxwell extends his arm to cover Coop with his umbrella.
MMS: Well my father…
Coop: Yeah your father runs the place. That’s why you’re here?
MMS: What’s with the interrogation?
Coop: I just feel if you’re supposed to be the big leader someday, you should at least be able to answer a simple question with some conviction.
MMS: Jeez, you pull no punches. I’ve got a lot on my mind, buddy. Ask me later.
Maxwell offers his umbrella to Coop and he accepts. Maxwell makes a hand motion, shooing off the kid.
Coop: What’s it like out there? In the world?
Maxwell is once again caught off guard. He takes a moment to plan what he’s going to say.
MMS: It’s… cold. It’s difficult. People are always out to get you and watch you fail. Everything is expensive and a whole lot of things that used to be awesome are gone. This place we’re lucky enough to live in here is real. It’s colorful. It has optimism. We control our destiny here. When they’ve all destroyed each other out there, we will remain here. Oh, and everybody drives a white Tesla. Thousands upon thousands of white Teslas on the road.
Not the answer young Coop wanted to hear. Coop gives a disappointed nod and starts walking home under the cover of the umbrella.
Later in the day, Stone sits in his office flipping through a wrestling magazine in front of a grand window overlooking the lake. His attention is half divided between his reading material and the children playing outside. The rain has cleared up and the kids are running around but they don’t look cheerful. They’re going through the motions. He notices Coop sitting by the lake and skipping rocks across the lake but he doesn’t look excited to be doing so. Stone flips through the magazine some more and sees a photo of John Blade and Stone laughs to himself…
Monday
We’re in the Paradox Pines schoolhouse and “Miss Aubrey,” as she’s known to her students, points to a whiteboard with a long ruler as she’s teaching a lesson on how to solve for X. The kids methodically take notes as their soft spoken teacher continues to give the lesson. Coop sits towards the center of the room but he’s doodling a picture of what looks to be a cityscape with cars driving on a road below.
“YO, YO, YO!!!!”
Bursting in through the schoolhouse door is Maxwell Mason Stone donning a ballcap, a bright orange shirt, a boombox over his shoulder and his Thunder Pro Wrestling American Championship belt draped around his neck.
MMS: Yo, yo Paradox Pines school! It’s your boy…. MAX BLADE, BABY!
MMS waves his hand in front of his face and the class has woken up and are smiling and laughing. Miss Aubrey looks quite confused.
MMS: I’ve been looking at my clocks…. And you know we gotta lotta them!! My clocks are saying that John Blade’s time is up and Max Blade’s time is now! Do any of you kids think that John Blade has a chance against ME?
Kids: NOOOOOOO!
Miss Aubrey is trying not to smile, attempting to remain in some kind of control.
MMS: Now everywhere I go, the people be askin! Maxwell…. Why you here man?! What you doin around these parts, bro?! Wassup with that?! People finna know why I’m in the WGWF on dat Smash show.
Maxwell’s ridiculous impression has awakened these children and has them laughing and giggling.
MMS: You see, the WGWF been calling my name for months now! Everywhere I go people be telling me I gotta go check out the WGWF and since my home of Thunder Pro Wrestling is going to be doing a little collab with WGWF, Max Blade thought it might be time to come get a head start in scoping out the competition! Ima be fighting the new Intercontinental Champion Dubois when we do a little champions showcase. But first I gotta get through the guy who puts the G in the WGWF and that’s John Blade! But Johnny B will be my first victory to get my feet wet then I gotta train hard because ima let the Smash champ Enigma know that I’m comin for ya, boiiiiii!!! I already took this American Championship off the guy who hijacks all the shows and maybe I can just cool down the Fortunate Ones over here too!
“John Blade, you goin down BRO!”
“John Blade, you goin down BRO!”
FBI Field Office
We catch back up with Agent Weeks. He’s surrounded by several empty coffee mugs and he gulps down the rest of what’s left in the last active one. His desktop is covered in papers and the white board has all kinds of non discernible writing. The glow of the laptop reflects off of his glasses and he’s been rewinding the same video over and over again, pulling his face closer each time.
He rewinds once more and we get a look of the video and see that it’s security camera footage from what looks to be a hallway in a facility of some sort. Weeks enhances the image and we see Maxwell Mason Stone, contained in a room behind a sheet of glass like a zoo animal, speaking with a man on the other side. Abruptly, Stone and the man he’s been speaking to switch places. The man pounds on the glass and Stone walks back down the hallway and smiles at the camera. We can see that the man that took his place is Fred Debonair, now known to WGWF fans as Devlin Knight. He pounds on the glass, yelling as he now finds himself captive.
Weeks: What the hell happened there?
Weeks sits and tries to make sense of the situation but ultimately decides to save this for later. He pulls a pen from behind his ear and makes a note on a sheet of paper.
Weeks: There sure is some weird shit going on with this guy. What’s his next move?