Spoiler
Now Casey stood, a young woman tortured by having to do her job, holding her coffee in both hands. A single tear dripping down her face as the last chair was set up for her interview. It dripped off her cheek and into the coffee, sending ripples throughout the tiny mug. Like ripples of a time far more simple, where she was merely an incompetent intern rather than an incompetent interviewer. Where she could just hide for hours and nobody knew where she was, and she wasn't needed to be hunted down. Where her nepotism hire was a simple part of her life where she could just catch up on her positively atrocious reality television without anyone asking her to do anything. Now she was a part of the show, and Casey Kiernan loathed it more than anything.
"...Casey?" asked a stage hand simply.
"Asami... I need you to tell me it will be okay," said Casey, bowing her head sadly.
"It's still Izumi, and... what will be okay?" replied the stage hand flatly.
With a heavy sigh, Kiernan looked up. "Tell me that this fleeting life of interviewing people will be fine... that one day maybe it will be... no work at all." Taking a deep breath through her nose, Casey took a sip of coffee. "Tell me that one day, it will be automated by robots, and that I'll never need to be on a stage again, asking questions nobody cares about to people nobody cares about."
Giving Casey a strange look, the stage hand looked behind her to someone overhearing, getting a shrug in response before looking back to the lamenting interviewer. "I mean... I guess it's possible that robots will take the job at some point...?"
"...Do you mean that?" asked Kiernan, glancing back at Izumi, hope in her eyes.
"...Not really?" replied Izumi honestly.
"...Thank you. Your barely committed answer will help me through this," said Casey, wiping another tear away. "Just do me a favor and... don't let them play my music."
"They have to play your music."
"But if they don't play my music, I--"
"You do need to go out regardless. It's your segment. And it's starting now," said Izumi, deflating slightly.
Almost on cue, Get Over It by OK Go started to play, making Casey Kiernan shake her head and say solemnly, "I'll remember this betrayal..." And then she began to walk out to the stage, taking one more large sip of coffee to steel herself.
"I don't control the music!" shouted Izumi before sighing and rolling her eyes, letting the segment begin.
Stepping through the curtain to face the crowd, Casey Kiernan instantly smiled cheerfully, waving to the crowd, briefly dancing to the song with coffee in hand and blew kisses to the waiting crowd. The stage was loud, tacky, and had two cozy chairs and a small table between them, with a giant sign hanging from the ceiling that glowed saying "WHAT'S HAPPENIN'! With Casey Kiernan" on it. She waited for the song to end before greeting the crowd with a big smile on her face, waving at them with her non-coffee-holding-hand. "Hello everyone! Thank you for joining me for Whaaaaaaaat's Happenin'! with Casey Kiernan. And I'm your loveable host, Casey Kiernan, and today I have a treat! Maybe! I actually don't know! it could be awful! But we're being optimists today, because we're about to find out Whaaaaaaat's Happenin'! with Bella Blakedonna!"
The crowd slowly clapped, mostly looking a bit confused, prompting Casey to pull out her notecards, then nodding in understanding. "I meant Whaaaaaat's Happenin'! with Blake Belladonna! That's just a joke I have with my guests, not knowing their name sometimes until we're out here live. We have fun. It's fun." Clearing her throat, she held up her notecards as she continued to speak into the mic attached to her shirt. "And we're going to learn all about how Blake... God, I know she's at least a wrestler, right? She's got to be. We'll find out if she is or not. And uh... that she has a family too. Like a lot of us. So we can try to... relate with that... or something... Oh, and I just double checked and her name is Blake Belladonna and not the other thing. So that'll... be nice to get a further understanding of... that. ...And..." Blowing air out of her mouth, Casey continued looking through her notecards before briefly looking bewildered and looked back up, smiling. "Well I'm not spoiling everything! Otherwise why have an interview!? Instead, everyone just welcome me in... welcoming Blake Belladonna! Come on down!" Casey set down her coffee and began clapping before gesturing to the stage entrance, allowing her interviewee to join her!