[Defiance promo booth.]

[Kai Scott is dressed to wrestle.  Black spats with white trim, black kickguards, black overcoat over his shoulders, chest bare.]

[Silver crutch present, but tucked underneath his armpit like an officer’s sabre.]

“Did you know that every time you decide to do something, you simultaneously decide not to do a dozen other things?”

[His tone is mild, conversational, he’s smiling slightly.]

“I’m going to do something I don’t do as a matter of principle right now, and I’m going to teach all you guys a bit about the method to my madness.”

“I don’t plan for every eventuality.  That’s not even possible.  I consider every eventuality.  I weigh likelihood, benefits versus risks, and base my plans on that.  And when I can’t make specific plans, I make general plans.  Having just one unknown quantity available to watch your back is a great advantage.”

“To go back to that tired old chess metaphor, I don’t try to play 12 moves ahead.  This isn’t chess anyway, this is wrestling, plan 12 moves ahead and on the seventh move some dumbass decides to start an impromptu game of football and tackles the board.  And I’d rather lose a bishop and be ready to jump back so that I don’t get knocked over with the rest of the chess game.  That’s all.”

“And if you don’t think that’s a winning strategy?”

[Scott’s mouth cracks open in a quiet laugh.]

“The Untouchables implode and less than one half season later, I’m on the cusp of a World Title shot even though I’ve only wrestled in one singles match and I tapped out during it.”

“Edward White states that I don’t have the nerve to put my money where my mouth is.”

“What do I need money for?”

“I said earlier, and I’ll repeat, that while Edward’s one trick is formidable, he neglects his others.  I’m not accusing him of lacking brains, brawn, or tenacity, that would simply be wrong - but I am pointing out that spending money doesn’t require any of the three.  He might be fiscally brilliant, but one of these days, money is going to fail him.  Whether some obscure legality interferes with an urgent purchase, or he gets his dozen bank accounts confused and bounces a check, or if Mother Nature herself decides to reclaim the island in the UAE he bought…”

“He, like the chess player, will be lying on the floor.”

“And although I don’t doubt he has the brawns, brains and tenacity to get back to his feet and teach Mother Nature a lesson by buying the Red Sea, I’ll be on the move while he’s picking himself up off the floor.”

[Scott scuffs his foot against the floor for effect.]

“People like Alceo Dentari, though, they mistake these things for lies.”

“I’m vague because the future is vague.”

“They say I twist the truth, but truth is an incredibly convoluted thing already. I’m not twisting it myself.  I’m just quoting it.“

[Scott frowns thoughtfully.]

“One of my favorite lines has always been to say that I’m not a genius, only a fool that knows how to relate to other fools.”

“I was a fool to abandon Claira St. Sure on the verge of her great success.”

“I was a fool to let egotism and nostalgia override common sense and go along with the Untouchables reformation.”

“I was a fool to let my friend Heidi travel so far down the road she has.  I should have seen, Jeff and Ronnie should have seen, that she was troubled beyond ‘wrestling troubled’. But the Untouchables brought the good old days back to color, and the trios title felt good over my shoulder…”

“And so I was a fool.”

“Python is quite right to give me the finger.”

“They say the biggest fool is the one who knows what is right, and does what is wrong anyway.  That would be me.  BUT…”

[And his face becomes flat, serious.]

“So are, in their own ways, White, Jiles, Dentari, and Python alike fools.  And they have not realized it yet.”

“That’s why I can consider for every eventuality and they watch me do it and don’t know what they’re seeing.”

“They call it malice.  Or myth.  Or posturing.  Or marijuana.”

“But they will never understand.”

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