Work Text:
Barbie and Nikki walked into Raquelle's party, chatting as they walked in through the gates. It was certainly weird for Raquelle to invite them, but they were excited to join. Upon arriving at the party, in their everyday clothes, Barbie and Nikki were surprised to see that all of the other women there were wearing ballgowns, a stark contrast to the outfits they had on. Immediately, the others at the party began judging them for not matching or fitting the dress code.
Nikki was immediately up in arms about the lack of dress code expectations in their invites, certain that they weren't included. After some calming from Barbie, they changed into their (arguably magical) outfits that matched the formal gowns of the others. However, by the time they returned to the group, everyone was in their bathing suits, and once again judging the two.
Nikki, was once again upset, especially when Raquelle rubbed the way they were out of place in their faces. Barbie, once again calmly kept the peace, encouraging Nikki to roll with the punches and just continue, rather than dwelling on Raquelle's cruelty.
For a third time, when they returned, everyone was wearing fairy costumes and mocked the two for wearing their swimsuits to a costume party.
Raquelle laughed at their misfortune, mocking their outfits and monologuing about how the focus of the party would finally be all about her. However, when she turned around, it was to find the attention no longer surrounding her, and instead...what?
Barbie and Nikki sat beside the pool, both in gorgeous mermaid costumes, certainly drawing attention away from all of the fairy costumes. Raquelle was so distracted that she fell into the pool in her anger.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"And that's the general storyline of this episode," Jason explained to Barbara as she sat for her hair and makeup to be done. "Does that work for you?"
"I mean...sure," Barbara said. Something about this episode felt...off, but she wasn't sure why.
"Great," Jason said. "We'll record that one at 6 p.m. Don't get into any trouble before then."
+++++++++++ Post Filming +++++++++++
Barbara sat in her trailer, scrolling through the comments on her most recent Instagram post and debating turning them off. If there's one more slur on here, I will be turning them off.
The post she was looking at was her "coming out" post. A simple one, all things considered, an image of the lesbian flag and a caption that read:
"I don't have a lot to say about this, but someone reminded me recently about how the importance of representation and the privilege that I carry. I hope this helps someone see themself on screen."
As much as it was a weight off of her shoulders to have shared her identity with her fans, it was still...a lot. While the overwhelming majority had been brilliant comments, some were discussing whether she should still play Barbie, claims that she was grooming her younger fans and other equally awful things. Notably, an influencer who'd had issues with her before, MandyDandy, was oddly vocal in claiming that Barbara shouldn't have come out in the first place.
Mandy had been a loud voice of critique for Barbara since she first rose to fame, often encouraging her fans to go comment on Barbara's page and spam her notifications. Luckily she hadn't told her fans to do that yet, otherwise, Barbara didn't know if she'd have been able to handle it. Thank goodness for Ken's support through all this.
Y'know what? Self-care time. Barbie thought as she pressed the buttons she needed to turn off the comment section on the post. Coming out is supposed to be about me, they don't need to be able to comment. With that, she shut down her phone and picked up a book. I don't need to be angered, I can just move on.