Participants:
Scene Title | Each Other's Favorite Former Terrorist |
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Synopsis | Asi and Godfrey celebrate their first post-prison reunion, catching up over various topics personal and otherwise before getting down to some important business. |
Date | February 6, 2021 |
Sometimes familiar ground is the best ground. In a way, meeting here fulfills the long-awaited keeping of a promise, too.
City Slickers is only slightly more bearable for Asi during sun-up hours when the crowd is relatively non-existent within these walls. She sits at a high-top while spinning a rather tacky-looking boot-shaped mug around by its toe, an absent expression on her face. It's been… too long since the last time she saw Godfrey in person.
She hopes he's been well. Hopes he doesn't see right through her, and how she hasn't been. She lets out a hiss of a sigh between her teeth before perking up in her seat, straightening her posture and also tipping her mug back to consume what surely has to be half its contents in one go.
Asi looks more relaxed, even at ease, as she smacks her lips on lowering it, and that indeed was the goal.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite former terrorist,” croons that familiar voice just behind her, before Godfrey Wells slides onto the barstool next to her. He offers the woman a bright, cheeky smile. “I was quite pleased to get the invitation to our favorite spot.” He was well-groomed like his old self, but he was lacking the tailored suit. He had dressed down to a lavender button down under a brown leather jacket and jeans.
All designer labels no doubt.
Leaning on the bar, Godfrey calls out to the elderly asian woman behind the counter. “Jade, luv! The usual, please, and another for my friend here.”
Once his first drink is ordered, Godfrey turns his attention to his friend, giving her a once over. “Something is different, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
"Freedom is a nice look on both of us," Asi ventures, eyebrow quirking at Godfrey daring him to make a challenge to the contrary. She smiles at him without so much as moving her mouth, the corners of her eyes tightening in a familiar, friendly way. She looks tired, though, like she's not gotten great rest. The movements of her left hand while she spins her mug seem more dextrous than her right.
"It's good to see you, Godfrey," she tells him much more quietly than his boast. "I didn't know where your new stomping grounds were these days… but it's good to know that here you're still well-known enough to have a usual." Asi sports a tight smile at this as she looks over to Jade behind the bar, then back to the Brit himself.
"How are you? How've you been?" Asi wonders of him, laying aside tiredness for a softer earnest.
“I can barely stand the place.” There is no malice in his voice, more amusement than anything. “But it has it’s charm and I must admit, I like the owners,” Godfrey smiles brightly to Jade where she is down making drinks, offering him a smile in return. “Even took a ride on the ol’ bull over there for old times sake once I got out.”
His glass slid in front of him, Godfrey thanked Jade and takes a sip. “I don’t have a regular stomping ground per say - I move about for m’fun - and this place is so very….. not us that it’s perfect, really.”
When Asi is not looking, there is a flicker of concern, but it’s gone before she looks at him again. “’m alright, luv. Ms. Dawson made good on her promise of a job after she got me out of there. A bit borin’ at the moment, but there is that brute of a man that we saw in Japan. He cleans up rather nicely and fills a suit quite impressively.” Brows waggle rather suggestively.
“But ‘m more interested in how you’ve been,” Godfrey says after a sip of his drink. An odd question from him, since he tends to keep things focused on himself. “The lack of technopathic intrusion has left a rather large and noticeable void in m’life.”
With Godfrey and his euphemisms and him just being the way he is, it's hard to immediately if he means something beyond the face value of stringing liking the owners and riding the bull together nearly in the same sentence. Asi considers the thought for a moment as she tips back her half-drank beer again, considers who he usually tends to spend his night with, and lays the thought aside along with the empty glass. She murmurs her thanks to Jade before she takes the old glass away in place of a new one.
She's suitably ready for the question Godfrey has for her now, enough into her cup to shave off complete dodge of his question. She does lift her brows at him. "Come now, I'm more polite a technopath than that. I've never barged into your business beyond sending you the vague no-number text message to let you know I'm doing just fine, haven't I?"
She cants her head at him with a teasing touch of reproving, but her smile strains and fails as she looks away. The tiredness returns. "—But I haven't, at any rate, because I've not got my ability."
"There was an accident," Asi starts to explain, before her brow draws together and she quickly overwrites what she herself has just said. "But that would imply it wasn't meant to happen, wasn't it?" Drawing herself up into a better sit, she looks at him directly. "No, I was kidnapped and my genes were changed. My entire body, too, is the running theory— into one where I'm powerless."
"Whatever was meant to happen to me was far more nefarious than the actual, because a fellow technopath intervened and crashed the plane I'd been kidnapped on before I arrived at whatever foul destination and additional rewrites awaited me." The smile that flickers over Asi is a touch more bitter this time, and she lifts her drink— with her right hand, which has to grab onto the glass a little too tight for her to be sure she's got enough of a grip on it. "Which might have actually fucked me over, because this body I've got now is resilient— except when it fails. And myself, and the others who were kidnapped with me, are experiencing those failures in the form of seizures, strokes, and death."
"May Kimiko Nakamura rest in peace," Asi appends to the end of that thought, sealing the story with a respectful sip off her second glass. She sets it aside, folds her arms along the table, and looks over across it at Godfrey.
"But believe it or not," she admits a touch wistfully, no self-pity or wallowing to be had for her situation. Not today. "I didn't come here to talk about me or my problems."
Whatever smile Godfrey may have fades away as Asi starts to ramble on about all her problems. He hadn’t expected that, really. He honestly expected an ‘I’m fine’ like most women do. Unlike with most women, he actually seems like he’s trying to listen and doesn’t zone out.
Godfrey holds up a hand, looking rather perplexed. “A moment, luv. You mostly lost me after ‘There was an accident.’ You’re saying someone took your ability… permanently?” He almost seems like he doesn’t believe her. However the look on her face tells him that she’s not bluffing. “How is that even possible?”
Asi only tilts her head, shoulders lifting upward along with her brows. That's the hundred million dollar question, isn't it? "As soon as I find out who did it, and how, I plan to make them undo it," she informs him placidly. She smiles again but she shakes her head, looking off to the side. It's clearly a distressing topic, but one she tries to wade through as bravely as she can manage. "The how perplexes me. There's this… process called Gemini which Mazdak leverages that robs people of their genetics to forcibly transfer abilities from one person to another. It eventually causes catastrophic genetic breakdown in those exposed to the 'treatments', but we were tested and it was proven that wasn't what happened to us."
Gamely, she poses, "If you're interested in delving into that mystery, I wouldn't hate having another set of eyes on it, but…"
She trails off. She'd not meant to talk about herself here, after all.
A brow tips upward at all that and Godfrey turns thoughtful. The mention of Mazdak and Gemini has his eyes narrowing slightly. There was a familiarity at the mention of how it worked. He had once been offered power for loyalty. “It’s amazing how much they kept us in the dark about, especially, me.” Shedda Dinu he means. “You know more about all of that then I do, since you helped them. I do know Garza wanted to keep in the good graces of Mazdak’s leadership.”
Godfrey takes a sip of his drink and considers, “Have you thought to talk to your handlers about it? If it seems like the process might be similar, maybe they know something.” He gives a shrug. “Or are the lot of you not on speaking terms anymore?” It’s an innocent question of course. A thought offered, since she did ask.
“Either way, of course, I’ll help you wherever you need, luv. We’re drinkin’ buddies after all.” As if that explains it all. It’s very Godfrey to twist a term to mean something else and elevate it to a level not really meant for it.
Asi laughs without meaning to, muttering, "Handlers." under her breath before she shakes her head. "Mazdak's MO has been to leave me high and dry, with no contact except the kind they deem to afford me. Ever since—"
She has to catch herself, carefully winding back in time. Her eyes glance to and fro before settling. "They didn't really talk to me before the raid on Praxia. And after, they gave me nothing but radio silence. It's a behavior that's continued to date. Even what happened in Japan— the prison break— it was entirely without their resources." He knows, but she avoids saying aloud his involvement with that affair. It's just safer that way. "I'm just a pretty tool in their box, as far as they're concerned. And should they find out I've lost my ability? Less than that."
Hackles take another moment to come back from being raised. The thought that Garza might know something more than they do about Mazdak, or potentially, what might've happened to her, gives her some pause. Her eyes glaze over before she returns to the moment. "Anyway," Asi murmurs in apology. "I need to … what's the phrase … bend your ear on another drinking associate of ours. Kay."
Her dark eyes flit back up to his. "Her daughter reached out to me. Worried about her mother."
“You know it’s funny you should mention her,” Godfrey says with furrowed brows, turning his gun shaped mug with two fingers. “She tried to sleep with me,” he says, sounding rather insulted by that. “Kaydence that is.” Just in case Asi might think he was talking about the daughter. “Like we haven’t even had a conversation about the very reasons why I wouldn’t sleep with her.”
Godfrey had standards and rules about partners after all.
“This was interestingly enough, followed by a rather conversation with Eizen about her,” Godfrey says, picking up the glass and swirling the contents. “Or… who she isn’t.”
Asi's eyes begin to narrow, her own drink left aside for the moment. One fingernail taps against the side of it mutedly. "Trying to sleep with you? Definitely another mark for the alien category," she murmurs nearly incomprehensibly under her breath. She lifts her head to speak more clearly.
"So those she works with have noticed her behavior, then," she notes without particular emotion. "It wasn't just me, and it wasn't just 'Ella either. Whoever she is, she doesn't speak any Japanese, even poorly. And given the strides she's made over the last year on that front…" That was suspect on its own.
"What does Eizen believe is going on?" Asi wonders in that same calm, a sharpness in her eyes.
“Not, believes, luv. Eizen knows for a fact that…” Godfrey trails off and glances around the busy bartop. Pressing his lips together, he picks up his drink and offers a hand. “Come, we’ll take a booth.” Too many ears at the bar.
Godfrey aims for the booth in the corner with the wrap around seat, with the louder music and their ability to huddle close at the back of it, they should be able to talk quietly.
Asi frowns as she picks up her drink in her left hand, using her right to brace herself against the side of the table as she comes to her feet. She takes a second to be sure her right leg is on the same page as the left, then makes her way to the booth with a more openly stern expression to her than before.
It's sinking in that for Kay to not be herself, something had to have happened to her. And where was the real Kay?
"All right," she says with a short gesture across the booth's table. "Talk to me."
Settling into the booth, Godfrey leans close enough she can hear him over the music, but not loud enough for others to eavesdrop. “Simply put, that person… whomever they are is not Kaydence,” Godfrey watches her reaction carefully. “Most concerning is the fact that they seem to have the ability to convincingly replicate her biometrics.” Godfrey uses the word Eizen used for it.
“It was good enough to fool Jiba even.” His brows tip upward, because they both know how sophisticated Jiba is.
“Who they are or why are there, we don’t know yet. But plans are in motion to capture her and to retrieve Kaydence,” Godfrey says rather seriously, fingers playing along the rim of his glass. “I’ve been tapped by Eizen for both, along with Wolfhound to retrieve her,” he explains.
“If Ella is suspicious, that could put her in danger. She needs to keep up the illusion that nothing is amiss. The last thing we need is her to become an.. Asset to our adversary.” Godfrey actually looks concerned for the young girl, but it also looks like he’s leaving it to Asi to take care of that bit.
Leaning back in the cursed seat, Godfrey looks thoughtful. “To have someone that can fool technology so convincingly, but not enough knowledge to pass as Kaydence,” he pauses a moment to take a sip from his cup, “Then they think us stupid or it may simply be a rush job. I’d be rather interested in finding out why the switch and what they were after.”
Asi's eyes flicker in a familiar way, save for the shift in hue from brown to blue, on hearing there are already plans in place to retrieve Kay. Her right hand flexes slowly, first as a whole, then slowly pulls each finger into toward her palm while she thinks.
Wolfhound would be sent to retrieve Kay. Shit. She needed to be at her best for it, or close enough to it Wolfhound leadership wouldn't question it. And she needed to do so fast.
'Ella was another issue. Asi only nods to echo Godfrey's concern that the teen could be in harm's way if she revealed she suspected Kay wasn't actually herself. She lifts her hand to rub it along the side of her nose.
"Rush job…" she murmurs, brow ticking into a furrow. Her head shakes, eyes closing briefly to center herself before she looks back up to Godfrey. "This is going to sound crazy, but I'm worried this has something to do with what's happened to me. This… not-Kay stopped by my apartment several weeks ago asking for my take on some information she'd found."
With a quirk of her head to one side, she shifts her shoulders in a small shrug to show her uncertainty. "Some of it's a little… hard to recall, but she was investigating my situation and the other victims like me. There's this company that was stolen out from under Yamagato's umbrella— Renautas Corp, which was purchased by Weiss Nanotech. Renautas had been working on theoretical nanotech such as the kind that's in my blood now."
Her eyes narrow as the details start to come back to her. "She wanted help tracking down someone who might know more about it." Her fingers twitch, remembering she left notes for herself on the topic— and abruptly she pulls out her phone to consider it. "An IT person who split from the company after exfiltrating data about those projects…"
Hesitantly, she wonders, "What if she wanted to track him down not to find more information about our state— but to silence him before he could tell us?" Asi glances back to Godfrey to see if he thinks she's off the deep end with this, or potentially on to something.
“And there within lies the quandary,” Godfrey says with a small smile at her question.
Godfrey turned truly thoughtful. Clueless on much of what’s going on in her life or the conspiracies surrounding it, he can only guess. “Is she tracking down a stray thread? If so, it seems like a hole you may benefit from falling down. Especially, if it could give you answers to what happened to you.”
Clearly, it had to be something important, if someone might be looking to squash it.
Moving to rest his arms on the table, Godfrey watches the revelry beyond their table of serious discussion. He might be a wee bit jealous. “If you are correct and she is looking for a particular person… you need to get to them first. You are planning to, right?” His head turns to where he can angle a questioning look her way, “Because, after we apprehend her… well… I doubt it will end there.” It rarely ever does.
“Her employer will send more for this loose thread.” Godfrey lifts his glass to drink, only pausing long enough to add, “It’s what I would do in their place.”
She is— planning to— right?
Asi had trouble recalling the lead with clarity until moments ago with everything else— the stroke, the realizations that came after it, various as they've been. She looks momentarily overwhelmed before she closes her eyes to guard her reaction a little too late. "Yes," she promises firmly on opening her eyes again. "Of course."
Making some cold calls wasn't out of the question. She could do that, with her current time off work.
"I'll see what I can turn up alone. But I might need to request help if I run into some dead ends," Asi admits, glancing aside and then back. She begins to frown, still speaking in the mild quiet appropriate for the booth. "I'll have to… see what comes up. From what our impostor told me, the man was a missing person."
"At any rate, I will notify 'Ella not to go prodding the wasp nest. And I hope Erizawa knows what he's doing, letting whoever that is continue to have access to sensitive resources … to Jiba." One corner of her mouth quirks back thoughtfully.
There is a little knowing smirk that tugs at the corner of Godfrey’s mouth. “Sometimes, we need a fresh pair of eyes to see the things we missed when we can barely keep heads above water, luv.” He gives a shrug.
“And as much as the man is not fond of me, nor I him, I trust Erizawa,” Godfrey says after a moment of thought, back to watching other patrons. “Especially with the security of those working and living underneath Yamagato’s umbrella.” It might sound odd coming out of his mouth, but it’s the truth. “He is an honorable man and takes his duties seriously.”
"He does," Asi acknowledges in return, a touch of rue to it— still remembering the time that loyalty meant he needed taken off the board in order to corner Kam, remembering how she was the one to be the one to do so. After another moment of reflection she murmurs more softly, "I wonder how he's… doing since Kimiko's death. His loyalty to her in particular was quite strong."
She lets out a slow, long breath, one that takes her shoulders down in a sag with it before she drinks again from her mug. "I still can't believe that out of all of us, she was the first to die." Even with Nicole Miller having sent electricity through her head that likely should have fried every cybernetic helping keep them alive.
Abruptly, she turns away from that topic, facing Godfrey with a small press of a smile. "I'm glad you're well. I'm glad you're out. And I'm glad that when we find Kay, you will be there."
“Of course, I’d be there,” Godfrey chides her gently, “Kaydence is just as much m’friend as you are, luv.” He picks up his drink and smirks rather impishly, “Though you’re much more fun to hang out with, even if it doesn’t end in sex.” His brows give a bit of a suggestive lift.
That smile of his widens, a hint that he’s simply messing with her as per usual.
The wickedness is quick to fade though when his thoughts turn to other matters, especially the death of his former boss. “I’m not sure how to take what happened to our dearly departed boss, I’ve always had the utmost respect for her, so a part of me was saddened to hear the news.” He takes a drink from his glass.
“However,” Godfrey starts, setting the glass down, “then I remember seeing Ms. Nisatta laid out on a slab dissected and chopped up like a side of beef in a butcher's shop.” Dark eyes shift from staring off into the distance. “Leaves me feeling less so. She deserved better than that.”
Asi hides a smirk of her own in the press of her mouth when Godfrey compliments her, shaking her head once at him. But soon her eyes half-lid and the stern line of her mouth attempts to not trend down. Her jaw shifts, a moment of hesitation given. Then her eyes close all the way.
"She's been resurrected," she admits quieter than even the rest of what she's said. "A powerful Evolved sought her, found her, terrified her back to life." Uncertain just how much to say about that, she settles for, "It wasn't a kindness." Asi glances at Godfrey from the corner of her eye. "I saw her in February. In Iraq. Mazdak have her under their thumb now.
"She's different now. Eyes like ice rather than…"
Abruptly, she decides to shift the topic back. "No matter what Kimiko did in the shadows, she lead Yamagato itself with a fair head and hand. Especially when it came to the legal situation here in the US. I fear what anyone else would do with as much power as Yamagato truly possesses. In the wrong hands…" Asi looks off herself. "It could be another Praxia all over again. Or worse."
Godfrey scoffs at what she tells him, looking at her like she’s pulling his leg. “Resurrected like bloody Jesus Christ? You’re kidding?” His eyes narrow at her and then widen. “No… you’re not.” He sounds almost surprised. “Not something I expected to hear. No wonder Garza wanted to keep in Mazdak’s good graces.”
That bit of news deserves another drink.
“Hard to believe they were able to with all those bits and pieces carved off of her. Including the bit that Garza made me get, for Adam’s insane plan.” Probably a good thing Godfrey was kept so deep in the dark about the plans to create a weapon to kill everyone. He liked living thank you very much. “But after seeing what Adam could manage, I guess it shouldn’t be so bloody unbelievable.”
Yet, it was.
Godfrey’s head shakes slowly, “Why do I feel like we’re in some sort of lull, with somethin’ big just lurkin’ around the corner ready to pounce?” His lips press into a line and he sighs out through his nose. “Makes me almost miss the simplicity of the Dead Zone.”
Asi finally does smile openly, apologetically. She knows better than most what looms on the horizon should they fail to intercept it. Eve spoke of Armageddon at the hands of the Entity nearly a year ago, and it's unsettling how much has stood in their way of understanding what's being done to advance that goal. She doesn't know herself how that threat looms and nears even now.
"Speaking of Monroe," she recalls with a fade of her smile. "Should you run afoul of him anywhere, know he's not himself anymore. The last I heard was he crossed an Evolved specializing in possession and ended up playing host to it. Since then, I don't really know what's happened. Presumably he's on better footing with Mazdak while possessed, but what do I know, anyway."
"You're right though," she laments wistfully. "One thing or another, it does feel as though some shoe is waiting to drop somewhere. As nice as it is to have company, I wish it wouldn't have reached you, too— that feeling."
Lifting her drink, she quirks an eyebrow at Godfrey. "Not much to do about it except drink and face it together, right?"
Godfrey gives her an odd look at the mention of Adam not being who he seems, before saying, “Noted,” in a drawn out tone. “Luckily, I have no wish nor do I need to hunt him down. So steering clear shouldn’t be a problem.” It was disturbing to think someone else was in that dashing, unkillable body.
He doesn’t linger on that thought long.
“I quite like how you think, though,” He says with a grin at the mention of drinking and facing it together.
“I couldn’t imagine any better company for whatever is comin’ around,” Godfrey comments with a small laugh, picking up his novelty glass filled with liquor and leaning over to clink it against her own. “Though I do think tonight would be much better with a bit of karaoke. Hmm?” He lifts his brows and tips his head towards the stage where a businessman was badly singing an off key rendition of ‘I’m Too Sexy.’
Asi looks rueful at the suggestion at first, but it's one that turns around quickly. She leans in and decides to acquiesce, under the condition, "As long as I get to pick the first song. We sing it together, no matter how awful, no matter how stupid."
Just what could it be?
With a wicked grin of her own, she's off out of the table and heading for the little stage herself. She approaches the man on the stage right away, fully armed with a lie and an apologetic hand lifted while she bows her head. She puts on the face of a stranger, worn only for this complete stranger, maybe only once in her whole life. Godfrey had a way of being the party she did that for, from the moment he encouraged her to juke her security detail and live for an evening the first time they spent a night out together.
Whatever it is she says to the businessman, interrupting the tail end of his rendition, it happens entirely in Japanese and he ends up acquiescing the stage right away, relinquishing hold on the mic to Asi immediately. She steps up onto the raised platform with her good leg first, spinning around and looking out from this new view with a small sway back and forth on her feet.
"「こりゃどうかな」って思ってたまらなくて1," Asi murmurs into mic directly, her gaze finally swiveling long back to Godfrey. "けど一人でダメでしょう2" Under the light, the alcohol has rosed her complexion, given her a grin she'd not have thought possible for all their earlier seriousness together. She beckons him with a single hand. "さ, Godfrey—"
"一緒にやらないのかい3," Asi asks with that grin.
Godfrey offers a cheeky grin to Asi as he moves to follow after downing the last of his drink. Taking another microphone that’s given to him, he hops on stage rather gracefully and gives Asi a bow, “それは私の喜びだろう4.”
The words are thickly accented and probably not quite pronounced right, but Godfrey gave it his best shot… having had very little practice since he left Yamagato. He turns a look out at the audience and gives them a brilliant and rather wicked smile, before turning back to Asi, “So, luv, what is on the menu for this evening?”
The answer comes in the form of a small piano trill, and a widening of Asi's grin. "A middle finger to anyone who's ever done us wrong," she tells him and only him over the top of the mic before lifting hers back up.
At first I was afraid, I was petrified
Thinking I could never live without you by my side
Of all things, who would have thought. But she eases right into the lyrics without hesitation, with all the confidence needed. There is a flat look leveled at her from her partner in crime as she starts to sing, like Really? This one? Mischief gleaming in her eyes, she gives him a few extra seconds to prepare himself mentally to join her.
But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong
And I grew strong
I learned how to get along
Asi beckons Godfrey along with her, her head lifting as she calls out, "So you're back," and waits for him to finish the call and join her in the duet.
“..from outer space.”
Godfrey has to be quick on his feet when she suddenly turns to him and he’s left to pick it up. Thankfully for her, he can sing… not to mention he isn’t even looking at the prompter as he belts out the lyrics. He winks at some of the patrons out on the floor, who’ve started to turn their attention to the stage.
I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face.
I should have changed that stupid lock.
I should have made you leave your key.
Suddenly, Godfrey pivots back towards Asi, ever the showman. She drinks it in, calling right back to him, "If I had known for just one second you'd be back to bother me— Go on now, go!" Grinning she throws her hand out, and Godfrey matches her for emotion in it. The hand that isn’t clutching the mic is animated, even throwing to point her towards the door of City Slickers as he continues on with the lyrics, giving her a serious look as he sings…
Walk out that door, just turn around now
Cause you’re not welcome anymore.
There is a wink and a cheeky grin as Godfrey leaves Asi to continue, sitting rather primly on a large amp and gestures at her go on.
There are plenty more moments in this song to bring him to solo, so she takes the lead here without argument or failure. She tries to capture the essence of the original singer as much as she can as she continues…
Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye?
Did you think I'd crumble? You think I'd lay down and die?
Oh no, not I
I will survive!
Asi can't help the triumphant grin on her face at this time, this place, this moment where she chooses to persevere over the many-layered darkness that surrounds her, sharing the stage with the light that helps hold it all at bay.
Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live, and I've got all my love to give
And I'll survive— I will survive, hey hey!
Without a care for anyone else, Asi drums to the beat of the song, doing a shimmy of a shuffle back and forth to the small break. When it begins to wind back, she indicates it's Godfrey's turn again by extending the mic his direction with a knowing nod.
There is a waggle of his finger when she tries to hand it back during the small interlude in the lyrics, instead he moves to grab her, looping a hand to press at her back and his other hand holding the one she has around the mic, like they were ballroom dancers. He does a couple of quick steps, before pulling her in only to twirl her out again. When their hands around the mic part, he has taken possession of it, and starts in on the next verse.
It took all the strength I had not to fall apart
Kept trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart
With a pull, Godfrey pulls Asi back to his side with a wink, before letting her go and taking a step forward. “And I spent so many nights just feeling sorry for myself,” he belts out with a hand upon his chest.
I used to cry, but now I hold my head up high
And Godfrey does, hold his head up high with that brilliant grin. If Asi thinks she’s getting the mic back yet, she’s mistaken.
And you see me, somebody new
I’m not that chained up little person still in love with you
There is something in his voice — a different sort of emotion — as Godfrey sings, almost like he’s singing to someone not there or from personal experience, even if he puts his all into it up there in front of everyone.
And so you felt like dropping in and just expect me to be free
But now I’m saving all my loving for someone who’s loving me
Remembering that they are doing this together, Godfrey twists back around to face his friend and makes his way over to her, with a devilish smile. She's there waiting, clapping and letting out a quiet whoop before she extends her hand out to take it from here. With a flourish and a bow, he hands off the mic to her again.
Showoff, Asi mouths at him before taking back the mic to sing the refrain with just as much power, if not exactly the presence Godfrey has. His is an exercise in refined excellence, where she prefers to stay in the proverbial shadows. But her voice commands, as it so often does. It's enough, along with lifts of her head to accent small movements of her arm to bring power to her song.
So yes now go— walk out the door
Just turn around now— you're not welcome anymore
You were the one who tried to break me with goodbye
You think I'd crumble— you think I'd lay down and die?
Asi turns to Godfrey, grinning at him as they come back together to join their voices once more to belt out in unison,
Oh no, not I
I will survive!
Oh, as long as we know how love, I know we'll stay alive!
I've got all my life to live, and I've got all my love to give
And I'll survive—
"I will survive," she croons with a flared hand lifted by her side.
“We will survive,” Godfrey adds when he looks at her, but the line is spoken, with confidence that yes… they will survive. He turns a look at her and gives a small bow of his head in reverence to her talent.
The end of the vocals brings Asi to drop her microphone by her side, her grin small but persistent, completely ignoring the rest of the bar. Who cares who heard or didn't hear. It wasn't for them anyway.
"うまいよ5!" she teases him as much as cheers him, batting at his arm with her free hand.
Godfrey gives her another wink, with a more meaningful softer smile as the crowd erupts around them. A small moment where the armor he’s built around him cracks and reveals something… a different person? A glimpse into an old version before it was broken by the world.
The mask falls back into place just as quickly and the smile widens into that familiar cheeky and rather wicked grin. “Of course I was, what did you expect?” But then he motions to her with a surprised laugh, “But you… you, luv, were a complete surprise. Why have you hidden such a talent away? You are amazing!” There are no lies in that praise.
“Come,” Godfrey grips her hand and pulls her into the full glaring glow of the lights, before he turns and bows to the cheering crowd, with a hand tucked neatly behind his back.
The most Asi allows for when she's pulled into the light is a tight nod of her head and a gracious lift of her hand, smile fading by grades once it's not just for herself. Her other hand frees itself of his only to wind its way around his waist from the back and lead them both off to the side again.
"それじゃ6," she declares, and for a moment, that seems like it might be the end of it.
Except she comes back with another iteration of "じゃ," once they're out of the light, just as wicked a grin of his own returning to her.
"次は7?"