What's Happenin'! with Sparkling Idol Barbara

[Dubski]

Spoiler

Casey Kiernan, generally agreed upon as LAW's worst interviewer, curled against the wall in a sitting position as she sipped down her coffee. It was one of life's greatest joys, that coffee. At the very least, she had to savor it today, because she had an interview to do, so as far as she was concerned, it was not a great day. She had tried to get out of it, first by faking a sickness, then by faking an injury, then by trying to fake her guest's sickness, then by trying to actively leave the arena before she was stopped no less than three times. So now, she was stuck doing the worst thing she could imagine: Her job.

It was very fortunate that her father invested in LAW, and probably just as fortunate that she was pretty.

While people were busy setting up her show, Casey continued to chug down her coffee until the inevitable, when a stage hand walked up to her, smiling. "Heeeey Casey," she said in a bubbly, yet very cautious tone. "We're just about ready for you to go out there!"

The interviewer pouted, holding out a hand, saying in a miserable tone. "Help me up." The stage hand then grabbed Casey's hand, attempting to help her up, only for Casey to deadweight her on the first tug, the second tug, and then finally the girl grabbed Kiernan's hand with both hands with pulled with her might to get her to her feet. With a big sigh, the blonde stood, finally, and said loudly and dramatically, "Thanks. I guess I'll just... go out and conduct an interview!"

The stage hand smiled largely and then nodded. "...Yup! That's... what you do!"

Then, Casey held out her mug and said, "Asaki."

"Izumi," corrected the stage hand.

"Izumi," Casey repeated. "Can you... please make sure I have a refill?"

"Of course, Casey," answered the stage hand patiently as she took the mug.

With last minute touch ups to her make-up and hair, Casey waited until her show was about to start, pouting backstage. And then, she heard the countdown until a loud, generic, poppy song played and Casey took a deep breath. Stepping through the curtain to face the crowd, a switch was flipped and she beamed happily, waving to the crowd, briefly dancing to the song, and blowing kisses to folks. 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.

Finally, the music stopped and Casey Kiernan took a seat and then eyed the only thing that mattered in her life right now: her coffee refill on the table. She took a sip before placing it back on the table and speaking. "Hellooooooo LAW! Thank you for tuning in to Whaaaaaaat's Happenin! With Casey Kiernan, and I'm your host, obviously, Casey Kiernan! And today we're going to find out together Whaaaaaaat's Happenin'! with none other than the Sparkling Idol Barbara!"

Casey smiled and then took out some note cards. "You might know her as a wrestler, but she's also........" Kiernan trailed off, fishing through her note cards. "...She is a girl," she stated before nodding confidently. "She has... blonde hair. And..." More shuffling until finally she lets out a sigh. "...And she's a wrestler! Let's give it up for Sparking Idol Barbara!" She then clapped as Barbara's theme song hit, signaling her cue!

[pu-level-up]

Spoiler

Barbara was no stranger to interviews. After becoming an idol, she had to go through them fairly regularly on a variety of different programs, mostly doing so to promote future shows and advertise for her sponsors. After becoming a wrestler at LAW, she expected no different. And, just as she expected, it didn't take long before she had to go onstage again to be interviewed.

Though she didn't expect anything too different, she did hear a few things about the reporter that gave her pause. Casey Kiernan would not have been Barbara's first choice to be interviewed by, as she had a reputation for being lazy and unprepared. Being known as the "Worst Interviewer" when she had barely any interviews to speak of was actually quite impressive to the idol, giving her a sense of morbid curiosity towards what was about to take place.

None of that showed though as Barbara took the stage. Like Casey, the idol stepped out with a bright smile on her face, bouncing with energy as she waved to the crowd. Casey hadn't given her the best of introductions, but judging by the crowd's reaction many of them already knew who Barbara was. The idol wondered if any of them watched her most recent livestreams as she blew them a few kisses, before turning around to greet Casey.

"Thank you for having me on Casey!" Barbara said, extending her hand to greet her interviewer, "And thanks for the... ah... Interesting introduction!" She bit back her comment about how unprofessional it was that Casey did nothing to prepare, deciding for now not to antagonize her too much.

[Dubski]

Casey tended to her coffee as Barbara made her entrance, looking through her notecards again briefly while her guest made her way to the seat. She was able to pluck a little bit more from the girl's information, which was fortunate given that she had to force her way through this interview. But when Barbara had managed to sit down, Kiernan met her with a big smile of her own, taking a look at Barbara's hand, ready to shake it, but instead making a fist and bopping it on the top of her hand, then the front in what probably looked awkward to those watching.

"No, thank you for being here. And that introduction wasn't just interesting," said Casey, turning to give a big smile to the camera. "It was downright awful." She was honest, at least, and part of her thought that with honesty came less opportunities for her to do these in the future.

Then, the interviewer took another sip of her coffee, reclining in the seat as she idly swiveled it from side-to-side. "Mm. That's good coffee," Casey said, closing her eyes with a smile on her face and setting the mug back down. "Anyway, I'll start this off like I start all of my interviews off, Barb. And I'll ask you... Whaaaaaaat's Happenin'!?" She then cheerfully smiled, holding a hand out to Barbara, giving her the floor. It was an incredibly open-ended question, and sometimes her guests would find it easy to bounce off of, while others would be completely befuddled. For Casey though, it was her opportunity to give the lowest effort question possible as she continued to formulate how to put together the rest of what she was sure would be a disastrous segment.

[pu-level-up]

Barbara was taken aback by Casey's admission that her intro was terrible. "Did she do that on purpose?" the idol thought. She maintained a pleasant smile, but it didn't reach her blue eyes. Those flashed with anger, as the idol felt like she was being made into some kind of joke by this interviewer.

Barbara was a professional though, and she kept her emotions in check. Taking a seat next to Casey, the idol picked up her coffee as well, taking a little sip. Casey seemed to enjoy it, though to Barbara it was rather mediocre. Perhaps that was a purposeful choice as well, Casey keeping the good stuff while giving her swill. The idol's senses were on high alert now as the longer she stayed the more she felt like she was being made fun of.

At least the first question was a wide-open softball that anyone could catch. "Haha wow, that's a pretty broad question!" Barbara said, "Quite a lot has happened since I joined LAW. I'm still quite new here, but in this short amount of time I've had several matches, made a bunch of friends and some enemies, and I've gotten a lot of new fans! Or at least I hope I have!" She turned to the audience, who, led by those she recognized as her fans, gave her an appreciative response. Smiling in satisfaction, Barbara turned back to the interview. "I really appreciate LAW giving me this chance to keep on performing for everyone!"

After providing her relatively safe answer to the safe question, Barbara waited to see what Casey would ask her next. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, she thought, though it heavily depended on where Casey would take this interview.

[Dubski]

Casey seemed to barely be paying attention as she looked over her notes casually, pursing her lips. She was trying to formulate her next question and didn't have a clue, and frankly she didn't actually care about whatever Barbara had to say in response to that question at all. And then, something clicked with what card she was looking at and what Barbara had finished saying.

Then, she looked up to Barbara with a big smile. "That's great, Barb! Really great stuff. And I think all of us can say that we're very happy to be gainfully employed by LAW, but I'm thinking that you might appreciate it a little bit more because you were actually disgraced out of your dream job, right?" asked Kiernan, still smiling despite the biting word that she had used. "Is disgraced a good word? I went with disgraced because that's what it sounded like it was, and that's what at least three articles about you had stated when I hit the Google search for you. Can you tell us more about how you were disgraced from being an Idol, Barb?" asked Casey, leaning in to take another sip of coffee, letting out a soft sigh of contentment as she did so.

[pu-level-up]

Had Barbara been drinking something, Casey's next question would have caused her to spit out everything in her mouth. Her breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened as Casey not only asked a very off-limits question, but asked it in a way to purposefully infuriate her! And the way she was smiling after asking that question, Casey knew exactly what she was doing. Barbara wasn't going to stand for being made a fool of like this in front of her fans!

The idol had to act professional though, even though she wanted very badly to put Casey in a humiliating submission hold. "You know I can't talk about that Casey," Barbara said, "I'm under an NDA. All I can say about it is that the whole 'disgrace' thing was not how it happened." All the playful excitement left Barbara's tone, and the idol wasn't smiling any more. She was sending a very obvious signal to Casey to drop or change the subject, otherwise there would be some quite dire consequences for both the interviewer and the interviewee!

"Although, who's to say this isn't a dream job?" Barbara asked, her voice resuming it's bright and cheerful tone, "After all, now I have a lot more freedom to do as I wish, and I can provide all my fans the entertainment they really want! And isn't that what being an idol is all about, bringing joy to all my fans?" She turned back to Casey with a smile. "So really, I think I'm more of an idol now than ever!"

[Dubski]

Casey continued to smile during Barbara's response, eyes drifting over to the camera in the middle of it in certainty, then looked back at the former Idol by the time she had finished speaking. She had managed to upset her, and while that would never typically bug her, she could tell that she might not want to talk about it still. But then, she gave Barbara a sour look.

"Dream job?" Casey said instinctively before shaking her head. What an inconceivable idea to her. Kiernan would then clear her throat and add, "But... obviously you can't talk about it. That is a rule and a thing I definitely knew about..."

Casey fished through her cards futilely for a note like that before shrugging. "But you're not an Idol, as we established, and this isn't like being an Idol, as you were disgraced, which we also established..." said the interviewer, still looking through her notes. "And you won't talk about it, so I guess it is the word of people saying the word disgraced against the word of someone who doesn't want them to know she was disgraced, so that will be... up to interpretation, I guess."

Casey then looked surprised, holding up one of her cards briefly. "But that's great that you want to entertain people and bringing joy to people and all of that other... stuff. But surely you have other aspirations, interests right? But are you sure you're not just more interested in the fame than, I don't know, making people happy? Because that makes more sense to me." Casey looked content with her question, re-reading her note card again.

[pu-level-up]

Casey was really starting to get on Barbara's nerves now. "Wait wait wait," Barbara said, waving her hand to stop Casey from going on any further. "Since when have we established any of those things?" Barbara asked, "First off, I am too an idol! Sure, I might not work with any of the idol management companies anymore, but that doesn't mean I'm no longer an idol! I'm just independent now, which is much more liberating!"

"Second, all that stuff you read online about being disgraced are just baseless rumors!" Barbara continued, "Nobody outside a select few people know the details of what happened, and I assure you what happened wasn't disgraceful to me!" She held her tongue before revealing just who it was disgraceful to, as she was still bound by her NDA. "I mean, you can believe what you want, but do I really look like the type that would get disgraced?"

"Now, onto your question about aspirations," Barbara went on, "Honestly fame isn't what motivates me. I do enjoy making people happy, the fame is just a side effect of doing that. I mean, making people happy isn't my sole aspiration of course, but it is what motivates me to keep on being Sparkling Idol Barbara!"

[Dubski]

Casey Kiernan looked halfway unimpressed as she sipped her coffee, eyeballing her guest as she spoke. She didn't buy much of it, but she didn't really care, most times. Were she in a position where she could let go and not fill in enough time for a segment, she would have gladly done so. But she was forced to keep going, and digging she went. "It wasn't established? I could have sworn we just established it together. I'm sure people can just... Rewind this or something, but I'm sure they'll remember we established that it was a disgracing that happened."

Taking a deep breath, Casey lounged lazily in her chair, spinning it side to side, before speaking up again, looking directly at her notes. "You just want to make people happy. It sounds good for like an Instagram caption but you don't care about wins and losses and success here? Because I recall you lost your debut. Are you telling me you didn't care about that?"

Casey hucked the card over her shoulder, looking at the next one. "And haven't you been a sexual deviant scamp since your debut? I mean, dragging a girl to be your sexual prisoner for an entire live stream? Are you sure maybe you don't care about getting your rocks off more than making people happy?"

Casey threw a card over her shoulder again and then held up another card for Barbara to look at. "And this is a picture of a dog I drew," she stated, wobbling it back and forth as if it were walking. For a sketch of a dog, it was actually quite good.

Throwing it over her shoulder again, she set the rest down into her lap. "And you said you're not disgraced, but that someone else was disgraced and I am obligated to fill up time by asking... Did making people happy matter that much that you threw away the platform you had by disgracing someone else or acting in a way that was unbecoming of an Idol?"

Kiernan then pointed directly at Barbara. "Barb, these are the gripping questions that I need you to spend a pretty lengthy amount of time answering to fill up our requisite time out here!" she exclaimed, as exuberantly as she could despite the content of her words being indicative of wanting it over immediately.

[pu-level-up]

If Barbara thought her protests and monologue would shut Casey up, she had another thing coming. Casey fired off question after question, each one designed to poke deeper and deeper into Barbara's sensitive spots. The idol realized now why Casey had the reputation of being LAW's worst interviewer, it wasn't because the girl was too lazy to prepare, but rather she was too prepared to be infuriating! Though interviews were always a game of wits, a dance between interviewer and interviewee, this was the first time the idol had encountered someone who was this difficult!

"I... That's..." Barbara's mouth opened and shut as Casey fired off question after question, not giving her any chance to answer. Her face became redder and redder as Casey first brought up her disastrous debut, then her vindictive punishment of a rookie wrestler, and finally finished off with one of the most painful questions she could have asked. Her head was spinning after Casey's incredible combo, feeling like she had just taken multiple hits to the face!

Casey finally gave the speechless idol the floor. Barbara was seething, it was obvious from the way her blue eyes flashed with malice. Her fans in the audience watched in anticipation. Was Barbara going to drop all pretenses and deck Casey?

Surprisingly to all, Barbara remained in control. She took a deep breath to calm herself, the redness fading a little from her cheeks. "That was a lot of questions Casey," Barbara said, "Well, since you said you needed to fill time, I'll answer them all. I'll give you everything you need!"

"About my debut match," Barbara said, "Honestly, I don't care that I lost. The story for that match was Harmonia Edelstein, after all her hardship, had finally made herself into a superstar. So for the debut of her new persona, she needs to show off all the skills she obtained by fighting against a rookie. Me." Barbara pointed at herself. "I was expected to lose for the purposes of the show. I gave her a run for her money, but I know I'm not good enough to beat her yet."

"No, what bothers me the most about that match was how after it was all over, the blonde bimbo decided to fold me up and use me as her chair," Barbara continued, "Beating me in a fight, that's OK. But humiliating me is not!"

"As for that livestream," Barbara said, "I think everyone had quite a bit of fun in the end! Also, I can tell you didn't watch it, because if you did you would have noticed that I, in fact, did not 'get my rocks off' even once! My focus is on delivering what my fans wanted to see, not on myself!"

"And if you really want to know why I got kicked out of my previous company," Barbara said, leaning in a bit closer to Casey, "Well... I can't say anything about it. But I can show you, if you want!" Malice dripped from Barbara's voice. She wasn't trying to hide her intentions at all, everyone in the audience realized that despite her calm, Barbara was seething mad. And she was just inches away from taking all of it out on Casey.

But then Barbara leaned back in her seat. "Just kidding!" she said, laughing lightly, "I know you don't want to actually know. I mean, if you did, we wouldn't be here having an interview! I'd be meeting you in the ring instead!"