03-31-2021, 04:11 PM
“What’s up guys, it’s Ethan Ray Schiffler here, bringing you another impromptu episode of Hard Talk News!”
The Hard Talk News animated logo plays across the screen, fading into an image of a man sat at a desk with a backdrop of a loosely-drawn map of the United States. The man is wearing a sport coat and a silk shirt, but the shirt is more open than buttoned, revealing a bit of both muscle definition and chest hair alike. His blue eyes shine with a glint of humor and an air of understanding, out from underneath a pair of expensive-looking sunglasses pushed up onto his forehead, keeping his long dark brown tresses back from his face.
Ethan’s personal presentation, including the set and backdrop, exude an intentional mashup of business and casual, someone who can absorb the hard news and regurgitate it back to the masses in a method they both understand and enjoy. He just passed two million subscribers as of Wednesday. He leans back in his chair and faces the camera, eyebrows lifting inquisitively.
“You know me, I usually open up with some jokes or some kind of skit, you know, something hilarious from the News Dude to get you into a News Mood, but there’s some real waves out there in the Information Supersurfway that I just had to get in front of, you feel me? So this is gonna be a bit more of an off the cuff, Ethan-Unplugged sort of video so just bear with me.”
Ethan grins apologetically and leans forward, his arms resting on the desk in front of him.
“So there’s this new… thing going around on social media. Red star emojis in Twitter names, red star icons on Insta pics, hashtags like #TheStarsWatchOn and #TruthShinesRed trending across the country. I did some digging, and get this – you guys remember that whole thing with the HWA wrestling federation? If you weren’t aware, a live show at Madison Square occurred and went so completely off the rails, both fans and critics of the sport still argue over exactly how much was part of the spectacle and how much was a look into something much more real.”
He nods and gestures, presumably to a tech on hand. A video feed layover appears next to his head, displaying some footage of HWA’s One Night Stand event, focusing particularly on the havoc during the main event.
“One of the biggest known factors to have come out of the One Night Stand debacle, however, was the story of one Danny Starr, multi-millionaire and former pro-wrestler who was prominent in organizing the events that lead up to the show, including, maybe, the less-staged ones.
All that we know are two things: Danny Starr was sent to prison, and in prison, Starr committed suicide rather than face his crimes, leaving us to forever speculate on what really went down that night.”
The screen-like display next to him swaps to a video of Danny Starr in an orange jumpsuit being led into a holding facility, followed by an image of a Hartford Courant headline “Prison Investigation States Disgraced Pro Wrestler’s Death Ruled Suicide.”
“Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty fishy to me too, and it’s not like these sort of things don’t happen all the time. Somebody a little too powerful gets locked up and next thing you know, oops. Somehow this person can’t come clean to the world anymore, how sad.”
Ethan rolls his eyes and sits up a little straighter in his chair.
“But according to these Red Stars, there’s more to this than the big government seems willing to divulge.”
The display shows a twitter post from @eyesonstarrs, cryptically reading “Scarrs on Starrs #TruthShinesRed” with red star emojis on either side of the text.
“There exists some footage that, supposedly, is taken from the security cameras the night of Starr’s attested suicide. We’ve obtained this footage, and we’ve decided to say, screw it, we’re getting demonetized for this anyway, let’s put it up. Before I do though, just to warn you, this is, potentially, actual footage of the guards removing the dead Danny Starr from his jail cell. If that disturbs you, look away until you hear my voice again.”
The display switches to semi-grainy, washed out footage of a prison security camera viewing an open cell door. There are some shadows within the cell before two guards exit the cell slowly, dragging the lifeless body of a man that appears by all rights to be Danny Starr. Once he has been dragged out of the cell, one man props him up while the other goes to fetch something to take him out with. This goes on for about a minute until the other guard returns with a wheeled table, and they set the body upon it, cover it, and wheel him out of view of the camera.
“Seems normal enough, right? Apparently, though, the angle shows a particular scar on the back of Starr’s neck.” The display scans back to the first sight of the scar and plays it back, pausing and zooming on the scar. It is a relatively small scar, about 4 inches long, angled from left to right downwards.
“According to some Red Star rumors, that doesn’t jive with the last known footage of Danny Starr, from that very same One Night Stand that set all of this in motion. Do we- do we have it? We do? Okay, yeah guys, thanks, we’re trying to pull it- oh we got it? Great, I guess let’s see what we’ve got!”
The chaos of One Night Stand erupts onto the display again, until a shot from behind Danny Starr is displayed. The footage pauses and zooms, displaying a scar on the back of his neck, visible thanks to a tear in his shirt collar. It is harder to see, thanks to the extra fabric covering most of his neck, but the scar in the image appears to be angled right to left, downwards.
Keith looks down at a monitor on his desk, presumably watching the same footage in real time. His eyes widen and he blinks a few times before looking back up at the camera, the expression at least a little put on for the audience’s sake.
“Wild, huh? Apparently, the Red Stars believe that Starr’s suicide was faked, that his wealth, or his connections, or even possibly a Satanic Doomsday Cult’s interference saw fit to keep him from his jail sentence, protecting him for the sake of more dangerous things to come.”
A large smile spreads across his face.
“And I don’t know, guys, if this is all the evidence they’ve got to go on, I’d be the first to say it’s probably a load of hooey. But…”
His smile turns into a performative thousand-yard stare.
“The man’s millions have also seemingly disappeared.”
Another news report headline is displayed near his face, this one reading “Assets Seized in Starr Indictment Much Lower Than Projected.”
“A death ruled a suicide, a body no longer in a jail cell, and over twenty million dollars simply disappearing overnight?”
Ethan cringes and shrugs in a show of acquiescence.
“Something isn’t adding up, and not just at the IRS when it’s time to give us our returns! I can’t say I know one way or the other what’s going on here, guys, but I know we need to be keeping an eye on how it develops, for sure. Once we have a solid view of the whole thing, though, you can bet there’ll be some Hard Talk involved!”
His left hand takes the shape of a gun, his index finger barrel ‘firing’ his zinger home in an almost subconscious addition to the phrase.
“Be sure to like, comment, subscribe, you know the spiel. Our regularly scheduled Hard Talk is still airing this week, so check back in two weeks for that, too!”
The Hard Talk News animated logo plays across the screen, fading into an image of a man sat at a desk with a backdrop of a loosely-drawn map of the United States. The man is wearing a sport coat and a silk shirt, but the shirt is more open than buttoned, revealing a bit of both muscle definition and chest hair alike. His blue eyes shine with a glint of humor and an air of understanding, out from underneath a pair of expensive-looking sunglasses pushed up onto his forehead, keeping his long dark brown tresses back from his face.
Ethan’s personal presentation, including the set and backdrop, exude an intentional mashup of business and casual, someone who can absorb the hard news and regurgitate it back to the masses in a method they both understand and enjoy. He just passed two million subscribers as of Wednesday. He leans back in his chair and faces the camera, eyebrows lifting inquisitively.
“You know me, I usually open up with some jokes or some kind of skit, you know, something hilarious from the News Dude to get you into a News Mood, but there’s some real waves out there in the Information Supersurfway that I just had to get in front of, you feel me? So this is gonna be a bit more of an off the cuff, Ethan-Unplugged sort of video so just bear with me.”
Ethan grins apologetically and leans forward, his arms resting on the desk in front of him.
“So there’s this new… thing going around on social media. Red star emojis in Twitter names, red star icons on Insta pics, hashtags like #TheStarsWatchOn and #TruthShinesRed trending across the country. I did some digging, and get this – you guys remember that whole thing with the HWA wrestling federation? If you weren’t aware, a live show at Madison Square occurred and went so completely off the rails, both fans and critics of the sport still argue over exactly how much was part of the spectacle and how much was a look into something much more real.”
He nods and gestures, presumably to a tech on hand. A video feed layover appears next to his head, displaying some footage of HWA’s One Night Stand event, focusing particularly on the havoc during the main event.
“One of the biggest known factors to have come out of the One Night Stand debacle, however, was the story of one Danny Starr, multi-millionaire and former pro-wrestler who was prominent in organizing the events that lead up to the show, including, maybe, the less-staged ones.
All that we know are two things: Danny Starr was sent to prison, and in prison, Starr committed suicide rather than face his crimes, leaving us to forever speculate on what really went down that night.”
The screen-like display next to him swaps to a video of Danny Starr in an orange jumpsuit being led into a holding facility, followed by an image of a Hartford Courant headline “Prison Investigation States Disgraced Pro Wrestler’s Death Ruled Suicide.”
“Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty fishy to me too, and it’s not like these sort of things don’t happen all the time. Somebody a little too powerful gets locked up and next thing you know, oops. Somehow this person can’t come clean to the world anymore, how sad.”
Ethan rolls his eyes and sits up a little straighter in his chair.
“But according to these Red Stars, there’s more to this than the big government seems willing to divulge.”
The display shows a twitter post from @eyesonstarrs, cryptically reading “Scarrs on Starrs #TruthShinesRed” with red star emojis on either side of the text.
“There exists some footage that, supposedly, is taken from the security cameras the night of Starr’s attested suicide. We’ve obtained this footage, and we’ve decided to say, screw it, we’re getting demonetized for this anyway, let’s put it up. Before I do though, just to warn you, this is, potentially, actual footage of the guards removing the dead Danny Starr from his jail cell. If that disturbs you, look away until you hear my voice again.”
The display switches to semi-grainy, washed out footage of a prison security camera viewing an open cell door. There are some shadows within the cell before two guards exit the cell slowly, dragging the lifeless body of a man that appears by all rights to be Danny Starr. Once he has been dragged out of the cell, one man props him up while the other goes to fetch something to take him out with. This goes on for about a minute until the other guard returns with a wheeled table, and they set the body upon it, cover it, and wheel him out of view of the camera.
“Seems normal enough, right? Apparently, though, the angle shows a particular scar on the back of Starr’s neck.” The display scans back to the first sight of the scar and plays it back, pausing and zooming on the scar. It is a relatively small scar, about 4 inches long, angled from left to right downwards.
“According to some Red Star rumors, that doesn’t jive with the last known footage of Danny Starr, from that very same One Night Stand that set all of this in motion. Do we- do we have it? We do? Okay, yeah guys, thanks, we’re trying to pull it- oh we got it? Great, I guess let’s see what we’ve got!”
The chaos of One Night Stand erupts onto the display again, until a shot from behind Danny Starr is displayed. The footage pauses and zooms, displaying a scar on the back of his neck, visible thanks to a tear in his shirt collar. It is harder to see, thanks to the extra fabric covering most of his neck, but the scar in the image appears to be angled right to left, downwards.
Keith looks down at a monitor on his desk, presumably watching the same footage in real time. His eyes widen and he blinks a few times before looking back up at the camera, the expression at least a little put on for the audience’s sake.
“Wild, huh? Apparently, the Red Stars believe that Starr’s suicide was faked, that his wealth, or his connections, or even possibly a Satanic Doomsday Cult’s interference saw fit to keep him from his jail sentence, protecting him for the sake of more dangerous things to come.”
A large smile spreads across his face.
“And I don’t know, guys, if this is all the evidence they’ve got to go on, I’d be the first to say it’s probably a load of hooey. But…”
His smile turns into a performative thousand-yard stare.
“The man’s millions have also seemingly disappeared.”
Another news report headline is displayed near his face, this one reading “Assets Seized in Starr Indictment Much Lower Than Projected.”
“A death ruled a suicide, a body no longer in a jail cell, and over twenty million dollars simply disappearing overnight?”
Ethan cringes and shrugs in a show of acquiescence.
“Something isn’t adding up, and not just at the IRS when it’s time to give us our returns! I can’t say I know one way or the other what’s going on here, guys, but I know we need to be keeping an eye on how it develops, for sure. Once we have a solid view of the whole thing, though, you can bet there’ll be some Hard Talk involved!”
His left hand takes the shape of a gun, his index finger barrel ‘firing’ his zinger home in an almost subconscious addition to the phrase.
“Be sure to like, comment, subscribe, you know the spiel. Our regularly scheduled Hard Talk is still airing this week, so check back in two weeks for that, too!”