One Rocker To Another

[Dubski]

Mickie just shrugged in response to Katsumi wanting to stay exclusive to the wrestling portion, looking as though she didn't necessarily agree. But Mickie was already very successful in one field, and with a lot of good luck along the way to get her there. But as Katsumi continued to talk, the rockstar couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright, hold up now," said Cooper, holding up her hands. "You're the baddie? I'm always doing dumb shit that gets publicity. And dude, I just saw you see a hot naked chick in your living room and run away hiding and locking the door." She leveled an incredulous look at Katsumi and shook her head.

"How are you about to tell me you're the baddie here? What you'll need to worry about is people asking bullshit questions and trying to dig in, and then the weirdo shippers already planning our wedding. But all that will pass eventually, quicker if you just ignore it," explained Mickie, leaning back on the couch again. She had been through this situation with the press rags more than enough times to know how it goes.

[CyanDimitrik]

"Ch'heh," scoffs Katsumi at the incredulity. "Sweetness, you don't even know. I make chicks cry just by talking to'em. I'm a vicious, soul-destroying monster. I'm what good wrestler-girls check for under their bed before they sleep." She fingersnaps. "I know what we're gonna do. You're gonna sit through one of my matches."

Nevermind how she feels incredibly guilty if she realizes she's taken it too far. That doesn't matter. The only thing relevant to the moment is her opponent and the crowd's reaction to her. She's made peace with being booed. She feeds on it. She'd prefer to be celebrated for liberally being herself, but if the very best she'll ever get is a mixed response from the audience, she'll take it and lean hard into it.

She's leaning forward, fetching the remote. "My glow-up didn't do anything to change who I am. It just made me better at it. And maybe piss off the audience more for being this hot and this rotten."

She dials into wrestling on-demand, going to LAW's archives.

"Hell, you might even hate me after seein' this. But best you know now than find out later~!"

She pulls up a match of hers; a somewhat recent one, with her facing against a bright-eyed spunky babyface. One Katsumi had developed feelings for, no less; but the point here remains showcasing Katsumi's unchained personality.

And so it begins: The Punk Princess, Katsumi Oshiro, versus "Red Hot" Chiyo Hamamoto

"As for me? I ain't worried about a little tabloid talk. They're always sayin' the worst stuff about me, because I am the way I am. This? This is like a compliment."

[Dubski]

Mickie Cooper gave Katsumi a weird look, sneaking as she talked about what a cruel badass she was. A bold claim after she watched her shrivel under the idea of a sexual encounter not too long ago. She would simply let her talk though. She saw Katsumi with any layers pulled back, and she knew she wasn't that hard of a girl. However, when Katsumi suggested throwing on one of her wrestling matches, Mickie couldn't help but laugh. 'You're seriously putting on one of your matches?" asked Cooper, nudging her host with her shoulder. "That's like if I put on my own music to impress you," said Mickie, half-joking about it. At the very least, this had a purpose of helping Katsumi make her point.

"Well, if you're not worried about what tabloid and Twitter, then fly baby bird fly, and deal with it how you want," said Cooper, focusing on match that Katsumi put on. As she did so, she idly ran her hand along that thigh, making small talk as it went on.

"I mean, you act nasty, you act hard... But... You're putting on a performance," said Mickie, turning to face Kat a bit, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Like I would have smacked the fucking taste out of your mouth if you did or said any of that to me, but yeah. You're performing. I'm performing. Even that chick you're smacking around is performing. And it's cool."

Leaning in a little more, Mickie grinned and added, "You're not really a baddie. You just play one on TV," said the rockstar with a wink. "Which is fine. We all put ourselves out in the public how we want to be seen. I'm mostly me just amped up in the ring, on the stage. But it's show business baby. You got to do that." Mickie concluded, giving Katsumi's shoulder a squeeze as she glanced back to the TV.

[CyanDimitrik]

"If I were trying to impress you, I wouldn't put this on," Katsumi posits. "This is about understanding."

The hand petting doesn't bother her. The arm around the shoulder doesn't bother her. What bothers her is what she's hearing. It causes her to pull away from her, brow knit. "You think that's the performance?," she asks. "No, no, no. This is the performance. Me tryin' to be a good person, helpin' someone out when I see they're getting heated. That all takes a conscious effort from me. That," she says, nodding once to the screen, "is me when I'm not performing. When I'm doing what I want. The ring is the only place I get to be me, unapologetically, without worrying about the aftermath. Because in the ring, people like me have a place."

"You put wa~ay too much importance on how someone reacts to sex, baby bear. A tsunami doesn't wanna fuck you. It just does what it does naturally - wreck shit and get on t.v. for it. Catchin' it now?"

[Dubski]

Mickie felt Katsumi pull away and gave her a skeptical look as she listened to her speak. That skepticism doesn't leave her face either as she listened to the entirety of it. She flat out didn't buy it. She's seen plenty of people put on this too hard act, especially in wrestling. The thing was, Cooper could tell who lived it and who put it on TV. And despite everything that Katsumi had to say, everything else was telling Mickie that she was acting it.

"Yeah huh," said Cooper simply after Katsumi was done. "It's not about sex. It's about the little things. The way you come to my aid like you did, and the way you seemed to really want a friendship. Now that--that ain't bad. The bashfulness, nervous at another woman's touch, not even being able to face one when she's right there in front of you looking fine as hell. That's not what someone who is bad does either."

Then, Mickie gestured to the screen. "What that is, is trying to get the bag. Get the popularity. Yeah, it might be you a little more unleashed than normal, but it's you. You're ambitious, and I get that. But does that bug you, knowing you ruined that girl's day? I'd wager it does. But it's showbiz. Eat or be eaten. And you get that."

With a shrug of her shoulders, Mickie continued. "Like why are you trying to convince me of all of this? I've seen you in all your glory all night. You want to convince yourself? Because if you were so bad, you wouldn't be trying to make a friend of me. That's just how it breaks down." Mickie would then smile in a good-natured manner. "Or maybe you just don't give yourself enough credit. And maybe you should."

[CyanDimitrik]

As Mickie continues to refute her assertion, Katsumi's expression turns from earnest to annoyed. She weathers the assertion to til the end before finally speaking. "Nothing I say is gonna change your view of me, huh? You think you've got me figured out based on how I didn't wanna fuck you as soon as you got naked," she replies. "I told you. You don't know a thing about me. I'm tryin' to fix that. Not convince you of anything, but let you see what you're looking at."

She pushes up from the couch, leaving the television on and running. The frustration can be seen in the rigidity of her shoulders, the way her hands have balled into small fists. "This was a mistake," she says, more to herself before continuing. "I know what I am. I've lived what I am for as long as I've been around. I have a lifetime of bullshit to back it up, before I ever got into a ring. And it's so fucking patronizing being told I'm not what I am, because I'm not a hoe."

She makes her way to the island counter, putting some physical distance between her and the guest. "It's fucked up that you think I want to be the way I am. Fact is, I don't. I hate it. Being some fucking stupid socially-idiotic jerk who pisses people off all the time. Y'know how many friends I have? One. Fucking one person who can stand to be around me. But it's the only me I have. And the ring's the only place I'm not walking on eggshells. The reason I helped you? To try to be less like me."

That was far more of a personal outpouring than she intended to do tonight, and it's fraying on her nerves feeling this exposed and airing out her own personal self-loathing. At this point, she needs the night to end. Odds are, she's going to spend it crying into a pillow.

"But I think you're probably chilled out enough at this point. I'll call you a cab."

[Dubski]

Mickie Cooper was listening to Katsumi say her piece, trying to convince her that she was every part as bad as she made herself out to be. And she listened, propping her head up on her fist, occasionally rolling her eyes, but otherwise let her go off. This wasn't the plea of someone bad--it was the plea of someone hurting. Someone who truly believed everything they were saying. And a lot of Mickie felt sorry for Katsumi.

And when her host suggested she leave, Mickie let out a sign and stood up. "First off, all of this, you should be telling a therapist," said the rocker, starting towards her discarded skirt, stepping through it to tug it up to her hips. "Second, it is not patronizing to say that you're not the asshole you think you are. Sorry if that somehow offends you. Because assholes don't really care that they're assholes, dude. And all of this seems to be a hell of a lot of caring about being an asshole," explained Mickie, tightening her belt around her waist before heading to her boots.

"If deep down, you were this bad and this rotten, you wouldn't be hitting me with you having no friends, or you wishing you weren't so bad, and wanting to be more socially acceptable and all that. That is you, deep down, wanting more of that. This entire night, you were cool. You were friendly. And that wasn't forced. That was pretty fucking natural," continued Cooper as she started putting on her boots.

"Be pissed at me all you want for seeing more of you than you apparently see in yourself, I guess," said Mickie, letting out a sigh as she straightened up. "But until you lean a hell of a lot more into the good you are, and the good you want to be, not a whole lot is going to change. I've met a lot of people who are real nasty pieces of shit, and sorry. But you ain't it."

Then Mickie grabbed the door handle, opening it up to with a shrug and a frown. "Thanks again for the save. And the food. I can get my own ride. Catch you when I catch you," concluded the singer, making her way through the door, and her leave from Katsumi's apartment.