Enlightenment (for Poet)

[Crossedes]

Some people simply proved hard to catch.

At nearly full speed even on her heels, Kimberly bobbed and weaved through a busy backstage on show night, trying to find the subject of her search before she had to get back to gorilla and try to pick up some post- and pre-fight quotes. Six-foot-something with a mane of blonde hair should have made Darina Daybreak an easy target, but alas, Kimberly couldn't track her down despite one of the stagehands mentioning she had come. "Darina Daybreak? Do you guys know where she is?" she asked a few medical staff members she passed, and they all mostly looked confused except for one redhead who pointed out an adjacent room. Kimberly thanked her before taking off in that direction.

She shouldn't have tried to multitask quite so much, but with her busy schedule clashing with the busy schedules of the wrestlers, she needed to make contact with people when she could. Kimberly badly - badly - wanted a piece on a wrestler who had switched careers from mixed martial arts to the wrestling ring, and she couldn't fathom finding one with a more interesting look than Darina. A few brief interviews with the blonde revealed her as a good speaker and an interesting character, too, who didn't appear reluctant to speak her mind or work with people like Kimberly who worked their hardest to make the people in the ring present themselves to fans.

If she had her way, the blonde would agree to a more thorough piece - a deep investigation of what merited her career change, what might cause struggles, what perhaps worried her, if anything. Kimberly had a thorough portfolio, but she lacked work on crossover athletes. Most martial artists didn't make for great interviews; they tended to be some of the more stern and stony-faced wrestlers around. The brunette hoped she had judged Darina well enough as an exception to that rule.

When she reached the door, she poked her head in, scanning the small scattering of faces. "Daaa... rina? Daybreak? Are you in here? I wanted to talk to you for a sec."

Spoiler

[FreestylePoet]

Life in LAW was pretty busy, but Darina had bounced around from promotion to promotion back in her MMA days. Sometimes she'd even fought in multiple countries in the same month. She was used to a lot more hubbub than this. Still, running around backstage when she didn't even have a match would leave any fighter frazzled!

Tonight was a bit of a walkthrough, kinda like what an American football team might do before a game. Darina was meant to get familiar with one of LAW's other stadiums. While she was here, management said, she might as well meet with fans and the media. So here she was -- with her responsibilities for the night now done, she was off in a side room somewhere in the bowels of the arena. Staff and press were still milling about, but the room was largely clearing out.

Easy enough, she decided, to get on her way back home. As she got up to leave, however, the door suddenly opened right in front of her! "Whoa. Careful, there," Darina cautioned, letting the newcomer into the room. "Poking around random doors is risky business in LAW." She flashed a cheeky grin, tongue out and all. "Never know when you'll run into the aftermath of a hentai match or some backstage jumping."

"But, uh, yeah. I'm Darina. Who's asking?" Dare looked the woman up and down -- looking for a press pass or staff badge, of course. She wasn't that far gone yet.

[Crossedes]

That was easy. Kimberly had made a living off of asking questions before fully confirming that they needed asking at all, but she should have probably tried with the particularly tall blonde in front of her rather than giving her question to the room. At the confirmation that she had indeed found Darina, she gave the woman's face a cursory scan that she hid behind a sociable smile. Pictures always didn't do a woman justice, but Darina certainly had a face for the camera. Body, too. Between that and the hint of irreverent charm behind Darina's greeting, the brunette believed she had made the right choice.

She blew a raspberry. "If it's fallout from hentai, that'd be the second time tonight," she assured, brushing it off. "I'm Kimberly Kulp. I'm on payroll as a writer, journalist, and correspondent." Gauging that the woman might want some confirmation, she pulled out the staff ID on the lanyard that had disappeared into her cleavage sometime during the night, as always. "I'm actually on the latter job at the moment, so that gives me about... seven minutes to run this past you assuming those two are as evenly matched as they look on paper." She thumbed over her shoulder at a monitor showing the in-ring action.

"But I wanted to catch you before you left tonight, because-" Realizing a few too many greedy journalist ears might be listening, she stepped back so Darina could join her in the hallway and shifted her head to that effect. "-I'd like to write at least a piece on you or have a few interviews or... basically, anything you're willing to offer. We've had lots of wrestlers come from a mixed martial arts background, but you stand out as a personality."

[FreestylePoet]

Darina took the lanyard in hand. "Kimberly Kulp..." Sure sounded like a byline. And LAW -- no, the whole damn wrestling world really rolled out the welcome wagon for new talent. Dare flashed the journalist a wry grin. "I dunno. You sure you know the sport? Those two are amateurs. I'd say you've got nine minutes at worst." She followed the newcomer into the hall before sticking out her tongue. "I kid, I kid. Far be it from me to doubt the fourth estate."

"But, uh, yeah, sure, I've been in a media scrum or twenty in my time. Hell, probably that many in the last few weeks." Darina narrowed her eyes before deciding she couldn't keep the skeptical mask for too long. She snickered. "Anyway, you all know when I'm gonna be around the stadium for comment, and you've got my socials. But I get the feeling that you're looking for something a little more... long-form?" Darina's chin rested into the crook of a finger and thumb. "Most of my sit-downs have been with... angry MMA types. Rich, middle-aged sports gamblers with worse volume control than me. Haven't really gotten to know this side of the landscape yet." Not that it could be all that different, but hey. Any segue to keep the conversation going.

She snapped her fingers, one-two-three, then pointed at Kimberly. "You know what? I dunno if you're freelance or not, but you've gotta convince someone to run your stuff. Of course-" Two frantic, often-active hands waved between athlete and reporter. "We both know how rockin' that story's gonna be. With the two of us, how could it not be? Still. I gotta know. What's your game with this? So-" Darina waved Kimberly Kulp on with her whole hand, as if asking an opponent to try a dropkick on her. "C'mon. Gimme the elevator pitch, Ms. Kulp."