Dinner With a Feud (for Killcarrion)

The food in the AFW cafeteria was pretty good, all things considered. Granted, Leonie wasn't ever one to complain about food anyway, but the all-you-can-eat style offerings here gave her more variety than she'd ever had back home. After all, the promotion's cooking staff had to cater to all sorts of different folks, from dedicated, musclebound athletes to fighters who'd come from the lap of luxury to managers and support staff who were always on the move. Foreign palates were another thing that AFW's kitchen staff had to consider; as quickly as Leonie had taken to Japan's street food culture, she figured that the transition might've been more difficult for some. And of course, AFW was just rich. They were a global phenomenon, the undisputed kings and queens of sports entertainment. They had access to the best chefs and ingredients that money could buy.

All of this combined to give Leonie way more options than chopped-up meat and roasted veggies. (Not that those weren't delicious, but Leonie had eaten them quite often as a kid.) Even if that weren't the case, though, Leonie lived just a building away, over in one of AFW's apartments. Access to the cafeteria was included in her contract. The food's deliciousness aside, it was just convenient for her to eat most of her meals here.

And so, like she had for much of the past month of living as an AFW wrestler-to-be, Leonie found herself seated at a table in the corner of the league's cafeteria. According to the chefs, tonight's dinner was "pan-fried branzino", apparently a fish from the Mediterranean, that was "seasoned simply with salt and pepper." Leonie piled on her usual sides of green beans and multigrain crackers. The food was great as always, but Leonie couldn't help but sigh. She'd been around this place for a month, and she still hadn't gotten a chance at a debut. All of her friends and teammates at Team Stanza had already been in some pretty cool matches, and her manager Christina had even landed a date (that totally wasn't one, according to her). For her part, though, Leonie was just training every damn day. Fans didn't even know who she was, so she didn't even have public events to go to or social media pages to upkeep.

All she could really do here on AFW's campus, other than exercise, spar, and eat, was peoplewatch. Ever since she first moved to a big city two years ago for college, Leonie had coped with her culture shock by... just sitting. Sitting and watching people, learning as much as she could about life in a city by pure osmosis. When she moved to Japan, she continued her little hobby, even though she couldn't understand what most of the people here were saying.

"... Ugh. I gotta keep getting on Christina's ass so I can get in that damn ring."

Leonie hoped that tonight, watching the various wrestlers, managers, staff, and VIPs mill about would calm some of her stir-craziness.

"Holy fuckin shit, did ya see how fuckin sloshed Becky got last night??!!"

"HaHaHa, OhMyGodOhMyGod than she tripped and fell on her ass right in the middle of the dance floor!!!"

"Well I fuckin tol' her ta be careful who she gets her X from but she don't wanna fuckin listen..."


In between cackling laughter and obnoxiously loud bubble gum snaps, a conversation that was meant for three women was effectively being overheard by more than half the cafeteria of personnel simply trying to enjoy their meals in peace. The trio was seated off and to the side of the cafeteria but were nevertheless the center of attention. Whatever discussions other people wished to have being drowned out by the sordid details of what was apparently a night on the town wherein one amongst them made some particularly poor life choices and was hopefully still at home recuperating with her face in a pillow and a waste basket beside her bed for vomiting purposes. Not that her supposed friends were showing much concern as they guffawed hysterically at her expense as their addle-brained gossiping trailed off to who was banging who and vapid fashion tips until one of them eyed a petite referee still in her striped apparel striding past them with a full food tray in hand. The tanned blond amongst them nonchalantly standing up and snatching a bottle of Vitamin Water off of her tray.

"Hey that's my drin-!!!"

"WELL IT'S MINE NOW, SKANK!!! THE FUCK YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT, HUH??!!" Mika snarled out with a cocked back fist that made the ref-girl balk timidly backward a step, afterwards flicking her pink tipped locks with the smug satisfaction of having gotten the poor girl to flinch. "GAWD, they're fuckin free anyway!!! Jus go back and get another one!!!" Those sports drinks were in fact, not, free in the slightest and came from a machine that dispenses them. But Mika nevertheless pointed back at the food lines and waited for the cowering official tah get tah steppin. The deplorable altercation being witnessed by the entirety of the bystanders within but hesitated to actually act upon the injustice being perpetrated as the ref-girl fearfully did as told and went back to pony up the cash for another beverage. Everyone was assuredly aghast at the bullying behavior but cast their sights from the display in fear of the repercussions from upper management if they started a brawling ruckus in a company they'd worked all their lives to become a part of.

"...pfff, you fuckin see that?! Buncha fuckin pussies in this company, I swear to gawd~..." Not that the perpetrator herself displayed any remorse as she sat back down among her gaggle of designer clothes wearing friends, clearly establishing herself as the Alpha of the group as she opened her ill-gotten beverage and started chuggin down. Peace somehow being restored to the cafeteria as the bullying trio continued their inane gossiping for several more minutes until the petite referee started walking by them once again. She'd had no choice in the matter given the other aisles were clogged with people and a janitor mopping up a mess. The confidence rattled ref hoping her day wouldn't become anymore rotten before a purposefully extended leg from Mika callously tripped her up to a splattering plummet of all of her food being scattered on the floor. "Oops...I did it, again~..." Giggled laughs being repressed from the trio covering their mouths as Mika honestly started tearing up from laughter at the sorry sight just beside her.

Admittedly, it didn't take much to set Leonie off. She was proud of how she grew up, and the lessons she'd learned in rural Minnesota stayed with her to this day. She liked to think that her upbringing taught her how to go about things the right way, but the downside of that, she recognized, was that people who went about thing any other way really ticked her off. Her friends and teammates knew that all too well. Julie was pretty wasteful sometimes, and she always got an earful from Leonie in return. Louise's terse attitude, especially towards their training in their shared profession, usually led to a bit of bickering. Brooke was... well, she was just too cute to be made at. But if she wasn't, then Leonie would probably find something to nag her about, too!

There were two things that pissed Leonie off the most, though. One was rich people; for some reason, she'd just never been able to get along with someone who grew up in the lap of luxury. Even on the (she'd say) rare occasion that they were more or less "normal," they just always rubbed Leonie the wrong way.

The other major pet peeve of Leonie's was simpler: Bullies. She hated it when people punched down.

Leonie really didn't want to get fired before she'd even had a match, though, so when some blonde, loudmouthed, dolled-up bitch had the lady-balls to steal some poor ref's drink... She let it go. It all happened too fast for Leonie to intervene, and whether she liked it or not, the staffer had already walked away. The situation looked like it was over.

That is, until the referee was forced to walk right back past said bitch... who then proceeded to trip her, sending both the girl and her food tumbling all across the floor.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Leonie didn't even realize what she was saying until she was halfway to the ref's side already. It was as if a flash of red had burned across Leonie's eyes, and a split second later, she was walking across the cafeteria, a napkin dispenser in one hand and a balled-up fist in the other. The orange-haired rookie knelt next to the girl on the floor, dabbing at her clothes and the floor with a bunch of wadded-up napkins. "Are you okay?" she whispered softly to the girl. After receiving a teary-eyed nod, Leonie pointed to where she was sitting just moments ago. "Go have some of my plate. I'll take care of things here, 'kay?"

Her next words were much less soft, more of an enraged bark than anything else. Leonie looked up at the sitting gyaru with a deep scowl on her face, then stood up and fixed her with an even angrier glare.

"Where do you get off treating people like this?"

Alright Mika takes back whatever notions of outright boredom she may have felt about AFW up until this point, because THAT was about the funniest shit she'd ever seen in her entire life. OMG, is everyone in this crappy little federation as much of a gullible dweeb as this sad little girl? Because if so, than it turns out that Mika was going to have a fuck ton more fun here than she'd initially figured. She couldn't have planned that out any better if she tried, and it sure as shitfire reminded her of all the joyous pranking she'd perpetrated back in her high school days. Coincidentally enough primarily in the cafeteria where the teacher's attention where at their most divided and where no one can hear her bullied prey amidst the cacophonous chaos in your typical high-school lunchroom. That little snippet of nostalgic hilarity almost brought a tear to her eyes from all her laughter. Rudely interrupted by...

...well Mika didn't even give a shit who she was. Just that she was spoiling her fun. "Wha!? S'not my fault the little tart can't watch where she's freakin steppin~..." Mika remarked out as she chuckled alongside her like-minded and similarly dressed friends, none of them daring to lift a fingernail polished finger to aid the whimpering referee who was being mollycoddled by this weirdo country girl. The trio continuing to be unsympathetic and uncaring to their plight and instead watched the sad little display transpiring right beside her. It all reminded her of that one phrase she miraculously remembered from her Literature class about the blind leading the blind or some bullshit like that. Actually maybe Mika was giving them too much credit, since even blind people could probably cobble together something more fashionable than whatever this short-haired little scrub was wearing. The Gyaru Queen raised an eyebrow at this girl's question with a chuckle suppressed by her sputtering lips.

"Pfffff...Okay, MOM. Let's get some shit straight first, honey. Firstly, treating people like that...is actually exactly, what gets me off." Mika lusciously insinuated with a purred undertone to her provocative vocals. The Boujee Princess rising up off of her chair to continue her lesson for the day, hand propped on her bangin hip that was cocked to the side for extra sass. "Secondly, I do whateva the hell I want, and ain't no one gonna tell me othawise. That includes basic bitches like yahself who oughtta keep her nose oughtta mah gahddamn biness. So lastly, why don'tcha get tah steppin back to the boondocks before I slap the taste out yah mouth?" Mika shooing Leo off with smug and condescending smirk.

Leonie had barely said twenty words to this girl, and she was already getting on her last nerve. Part of that was because the blonde had said way more than twenty words back. But that was just annoying. No, what really pissed her off was what she said and how she said it.

This bitch really checked all the boxes. An overwhelming belief that she owned the place just by virtue of being her.  A blatant disrespect for anyone who wasn't her. The haughty, arrogant air of someone who'd bought all of their good qualities. Leonie grit her teeth just at hearing her talk. But she managed to unclench her jaw just enough to reply. After all, chicks like this needed to be put in their place.

"Yeah? A dolled up chick like you? Probably flexed more muscles carrying clothes than lifting weights, right?" Leonie knew the type. She'd seen a hundred of girls just like her when she moved to the city for college. "What do you even do here? Are you, like, an extra for the calendar shoots? Backup dancer for someone's entrance?" Leonie's arms went up in an exaggerated shrug. "I mean, no shame in that. But maybe you shouldn't set up a high horse where someone can knock you off of it."

"What I'm trying to say is..." Leonie stepped forward, her pressed-together lips loosening into a sidelong, smug smirk as she threatened to all but press into the gyaru's space. Miss Rich Bitch loomed a few inches over her, but faced with someone like this? Who so clearly didn't know that her world wasn't as small as she thought it was? She felt taller than ever. "You can try."

UGH. Why hasn't this scruffy haired little pig farmer already started backin' down? Instead she further got all up in her grill with fuckin hysterical insinuations as to what Mika could be doing for the company when she knew goddamn well what the Gyaru Queen was here to do. Scowling irritation painted on her face along with her copious makeup due to not only this puke's suggested job titles, but that Mika just so happened to have indeed been a backup dancer in the early stages of her pop-idol career before snatching the mike out of the lead singer's hands once she grew to the ripe old age of 25. But what Mika would love to snatch right about now is this bitch's moptop and slap the taste out of her mouth...but instead she'd raise her hand and wiggle her index finger side to side.

"NuhNuhNuhNuh, pig farmer. This fly girl ain't bout to risk scuffin up her Gucci shoes smackin yer ass around if I ain't seein some cash for my troubles. Jus got ma nails done, too~..." Mika showcasing the back of her hand so the country bupkin can see the glittery pink and know she wasn't bullshittin, afterward snapping her fingers to prompt her friends at the table to stand up beside her. "I'm talkin bout us doin this in the ring, if ya need me to dumb it down for you. I'd be stoked to take you to school than. Shit I'll even do all the legwork, you just gotta not flake on me. Till than, Ciao Boo Boo~..." Mika pursed her glossy lips and blew Leonie a smirking kiss before glamorously strutting off with her lackey lady friends in tow. The bullied referee meekly standing beside her heroine to utter "...thanks again for helping me. You'd be surprised how many matches get started this way...b-but I'll be rooting for yah!!"

"Pig farmer?!?" Leonie roared indignantly, her voice echoing throughout the cafeteria. "Grrgh, I oughta just-" She had already taken a step forward and reared her fist back when she noticed that Mika had already started walking away from her. "Get back here!" Then the referee beside her spoke up, reminding her what had started this whole thing. Leonie turned to her, pinching her nose bridge for a second before giving her a determined nod. "Don't worry, I won't let her get away with this."

The fire never left Leonie's eyes. She stepped towards Mika and her posse, calling after them with a smirk. "Oh, come on! You think I'm gonna let you just stack the deck in your favor?" If Mika stopped and turned around at her outburst, then they'd find Leonie standing a few meters away, arms wide open in a gesture to the assembled crowd. "You seem to like attention, girlie. I'm fine with settling this in a match, but why not throw your challenge down in front of all these nice people?"

She cocked an eyebrow for effect. "Or are you scared of a crowd that doesn't like you?"