Idol Worship (For Acuya)

What was once a barren and derelict stage atop the ramp leading towards the ring was now noticeably more...colorful. The set designers for this particular debut having transformed what was once a drab metallic gateway underneath the Titan-tron into a radiant wonderland straight from the annals of a 7-year old girls sugar-addled mind and what she would sketch into her notebook. Four foot-tall plastic spiraling sunflowers, fanciful unicorns, stuffed animals galore, and scattered toy dolls were just a few of the colorful props in this rainbow collection of girly knick-knacks decorating the stage.

The average wrestling fans and audience members were left scratching their heads at this bizarre presentation that seemed horribly out of place, while those who religiously followed the Japanese idol scene were already wearing their trademarked pink cat-ears and readying their pink glow sticks in each hand. They were quite frankly making the more subdued fans uncomfortable with the level of fawning apparel they were wearing that had Lucky Chloe's name and face plastered all around them, and this was before they would get out of their seats to cheer wildly upon hearing the chipper and high-pitched vocals of their worshiped idol.

LUCKY CHLOE DESU!!!:

Accompanied by two backup singers and dancers prancing out from somewhere amidst the pile of colored kitsch, Lucky Chloe would spring out of a gigantic present box in the middle of the stage. Booming confetti and a dazzling light show kept her grand unveiling momentous and cheerful as the well-choreographed dance number played out bombastically before Chloe would come skipping down the ramp towards the song's conclusion. She would be hugging and taking selfies with as many die-hard fans as she could before jaunting up the steps and between the ropes as her song faded away. She didn't need to be handed a mic thanks to the headset she was singing in to serving a dual purpose that night, all while her backup dancers were giving out free Lucky Chloe swag to ringside fans while she spoke.

"HiHi, everybody~...Are you readddddy~...It's Luckyyyyy..." Chloe would wind her arm in a wide circle in a gesture mimicked by all of those aforementioned diehard fans before striking her cutesy pose by winking through her fingers. "...Chloe, desu-yo~...*giggle*...I can see all my fans out there showing me all their love and support, and I just wanna say that I appreciate each and every one of you~...but I think I'm gonna need all your support this time to make sure we have lots of fun today!!! This might be my first match, but I think with all of you wishing me well, we can show AFW that we idols can really kick butt!!! So, to keep things all fair and make tonight more exciting, I've decided to hold an OPEN CHALLENGE to anyone backstage who wants put on a real dazzling show!!! I just hope whoever answers the challenge takes it a little easy, since it's my first time and all. So~...whoooooooo's it gonna be?!?!" Chloe chipperly asked while spinning her arm before pointing straight at the top of the still decorated ramp...

Liberty Vella wanted a match.

Liberty Vella was not getting what she wanted.

Liberty Vella was not happy about this.

She’d come to Friction today, for what had to be the third week in a row, trying to get something going with management to start a match. Not some random, vanilla, standard thing with some random newcomer like, she had with Estela last month, but a real match, a serious contest. A hardcore brawl. She was a former hardcore champ, and it had been a long time, far too long, since she’d had the chance to properly dig her teeth into something tasty.

But today didn’t seem like it would be the day. They gave her the usual runaround, before they told her that, no, they didn’t have any spots open for the night and wouldn’t be able to get her in for anything. Great. Just fucking great.

She was on her way out for the nigh, contemplating spots she could go for the night, someplace she could go for a hard drink or some good music or a wild fuck or all three in succession. On her way out, though, she couldn’t help but notice one of the video screens, which just so happened to have the physical embodiment of everything she hated in the world on it.

Liberty looked up at the screen with a growing sneer. ‘Lucky Chloe’ ticked all the boxes. Annoying, high-pitched voice. Uber cutesy clothes. Redecorating the stage to look like something out of a Candy Crush commercial. She was every single thing that was wrong with wrestling in one, neat little package, and all the sudden it made sense - management was keeping her from matches, pushing her aside for this crap. The Blonde Conspiracy in action once more, pushing another one of their lily white idols over real talent...and...and..

She was issuing an open challenge.

The words only had a second to come out of Chloe’s mouth before Liberty took off at full steam barreling through the hallways at top speed. Off came the jacket, off came her track pants, and by the time she made it to the top of the ramp she was in her full wrestling gear, with a microphone she’d snatched off one of the stagehands...and she was completely out of breath.

”Hey!” She came out as the crowd broke into confused mutters, and she needed a moment, standing there with her hands on her knees. Eventually, though, she was able to stand straight, compose herself, and breathe.

”That’s right!” She threw her fist into the air. ”You want a challenger, princess? You’re getting me, Liberty!” She gave her chest a hard thump and started to make her way down to the ring. ”You, me, hardcore match. Right here, right now.”

...all the sparkles and glitter that surrounded Chloe's chipper idol persona suddenly dampened into a dour sullenness, even her normally upright cat-tail deflating downward from what looked and sounded like an out of shape construction worker popping out amongst her candy-land playset. Chloe remained frozen stiff in her pointing position while she cocked an eyebrow with a visible twitch to her other eye. This expression of sheer bafflement was shared by both her and the muttering audience members trying to parse this altogether, but no sooner was Liberty catching her breath than Chloe would break free from her rigid pointing to scamper over towards ringside where her back-up singers had huddled around.

"HEY!!!! What the hell is going on?!?!? She's not supposed to be here!!!! Where's that pint-sized runt from the Kawaii division!?!?!?! Did that ditzy idiot miss her cue??!?!" Chloe menacingly barked in a much more commanding voice while clamping onto the mic of her headset so her fans wouldn't get to hear what was being said, and would prevent them from getting a glimpse of the behind the scenes tyranny that was Lucky Chloe. The bubbly and adorable idol having a bit of Jekyll and Hyde conundrum where backstage she ruled over her exasperated dance troupe as a stringent perfectionist with an iron, cat-pawed fist. The profuse apologies and attempts at passing the blame onto each-other clued Chloe in to the fact that her frightened performers obviously didn't have the answers to any of these questions. Chloe sucked her teeth and turned her head back at the encroaching Liberty who was just then stomping up the steel steps, the cutesy idol letting go of her mic to try and talk some sense into whoever this Liberty person was.

"Uh, Hiii~....Li-Liberty-san...umm....I'm so very very very very sorry, but uh, I think there was a bit of misunderstanding..." Chloe innocently squeaked out while bowing humbly to punctuate the profuseness of her apology, the Lucky Idol than springing back up to clap her fluffy-pawed hands together. "You see...we...uh...we..." Chloe's eyes darted around the stadium while she scrambled to think of a way of excusing herself from all of this while not losing face in front of her fans, until her eyes shot wide from the lightning bolt striking her. "OH!!! We wanted to use this challenge to give other, NEWER wrestlers a chance to meet their favorite idol and get some name recognition by having a cute little tussle for all the good people here. But, you uh, obviously don't NEED the exposure since you're already a big big star, right?~..." Chloe patted herself on the back for coming up with a logical reason to avoid the match while also shamelessly playing into Liberty's ego. A two for one way of trying to weasel her way out of this mess.

"But I wanna thank you being such a big fan that you wanted so desperately to come out and meet me~...How about after my match with the next person who comes by, I give you free concert tickets to my next performance, and a signed pair of official Lucky Chloe kitty cat earphones!!!" Chloe said in her sugar sweet voice and smile while putting up her index fingers behind her head to mimic the cutesy headphones that could be Liberty's if she kindly stepped aside...

Liberty didn’t mind the fact her future opponent was a taking a moment to sidebar with her dance troupe. She was kind of grateful, actually. Gave her the time to catch her breath.

Despite popular opinion, she wasn’t in bad shape. She did work out, just not in the usual way. Most of her build came from running away from things - the police, guard dogs, overzealous security guards, that sort of things. Most of her sparring came from her time in the mosh pits, trying out moves on her fellow fans. She’d always been a hands-on kind of woman. But it didn’t do wonders for her cardio. Definitely an area she needed to work on.

She was just getting her stamina back when Lucky Chloe - god, what a dumb name - spoke up and explained what was going on, breaking into a stuttering fit. Liberty’s eyebrow seemed to rise a fraction of an inch with every word she spoke, and by the time she was finished, it was all the way up.

Was the audience buying this?

A quick glance told her that, yeah, they seemed to be. Lucky Chloe had quite a few fans out there, guys and gals eager to cheer on the living embodiment of sugar that was prancing around the ring.

Was she buying this?

”Fuck no.”

That got the audience fuming, but Liberty could’ve counted all the fucks she gave on a single hand. They couldn’t see what was going on here, but she could smell the bullshit a mile away. Or kitty litter, as the case was. ”You think I don’t know what you’re trying to do here? Think I don’t know what you and management are-”

Liberty had started to walk down the ramp, only to trip on a misplaced unicorn plushie and stumble. She responded to this by backing up, drawing her leg back, and kicking it out into the audience like a field goal.

”Anyway.” She coughed, getting a few chuckles from some of the smarter audience members.  ”This is exactly the kind of crap I’m talking about, more of that softcore, kawaii, cutesy-bootsy bullshit that people like you keep trying to turn the AFW into. Well, guess what, Princess Blondie? It’s not happening on my watch.”

Liberty gave her chest a hard thumping as she came down the ramp, proudly wading her way through the sea of confetti and unfiltered cuteness.

"You wanna be a wrestler? Fine. I'll show you how a real wrestling match goes."

Chloe's eyes trailed into the sky and into the wave of outstretched hands as her Lucky Unicorn plushy went flying into the hands of an audience member gifted a free souvenir for the night. There was definitely something about seeing one of her over-priced merch get punted into the atmosphere that was ominously foreboding in terms of the kind of trouble she had gotten herself into, a gulping of her throat helping to bottle her fears as she imagined her face on that flying unicorn.

Chloe couldn't help but cock an eyebrow at Liberty's conspiratorial ramblings until it all just boiled down to this stocky, bulky, raven-haired loon not taking any of her freshly conjured up excuses for an answer. Chloe was positive her last offer was more than enough to sweeten the pot, especially considering how her Lucky Chloe Neko Neko headphones are priced at almost 50,000 yen on her official website, even more if they were signed!!

The true backstabbing came when her ferociously loyal fans started cheering enthusiastically in support of their favorite kitty-cat idol, but they we're in actuality just backing her up further and further against a wall. Chloe mumbled nervously while tapping the fingers of her furry pawed hands together. She found herself fresh out of ideas, and with even less time to think of any more ways weasel her way out of this mess once she spotted a referee come jogging down the ramp. Eventually, Chloe could only think of one thing to do...commit.

"Um, a-alriiiight...But, uh d-don't say I didn't try to warn you!!!" Chloe suddenly finding her courage as she theatrically pointed at Liberty with her legs spread far apart, hoping no one notices the slight quivering in her spine from how nervous she was. "Maybe this Princess will be the one showing you a thing or two about wrestling, and a few of those lessons will be that you don't have to be big, sweaty, and icky to win matches, and you can be never too cute to be hardcore~..." Chloe flashed a cherubic smile and cutesy wink that practically had a starry sparkle to it, her pointed finger than changing into a peace sign with her other hand propped up on her cute hip.