ご無沙汰

Participants:

asi_icon.gif marlowe2_icon.gif

Scene Title ご無沙汰
Synopsis It's been a while for Asi and Marlowe.
Date March 5, 2021

Yamagato Park

March 5, 2021

10:26 pm EST


From the edges of where the corporate campus meets the sovereign soil of the neighborhood proper, Yamagato Industries’ main building looks like a shined, luminescent pearl gleaming white against a sea of blue and purple neon. Flowing outward towards the Safe Zone, the streets spill forth in a visual mixture of urban Japan filtered through the lens of New York City, a brackish combination of brick and tech buildings constructed from the resources cobbled together out of two countries.

Along this portion of Cropsey Ave, the civil engineering takes on a Tokyo suburb aesthetic that normally puts the would-be natives mostly at ease. Yokocho-style alleyways branch off into asphalt rivulets that lead to restaurants and pachinko parlers tucked between izakaya bars, and mysterious doorways lit by LED lanterns wrapped in paper and Japanese calligraphy. The smell of yakitori and open air pots of stew and soups from the occasional food stall tempt one to reminisce of the city nightlife lived across the ocean. Different levels along the buildings show off signage indicative of varied business meant to keep both corporate workers and foreign nationals within the park occupied and entertained on the off hours.

Yet, sometimes that variety too, is not enough to differentiate the New York from Japan.

Asi Tetsuyama knows this now, having spent enough time in both countries.

“ねぇ、かわいいお嬢ちゃん、一緒にビール飲まない?1

The cat calls are the same in any language.

A group of four salarymen loitering outside the corner of G2G Bar have probably already partaken in said beer consumption as part of another ritual involving after work drinks with coworkers and friends. They’ve blocked off most of the sidewalk by pairing off to left and right, allowing pedestrians only a narrow gauntlet one and a half persons wide to navigate through their sake-wafting waters.

ジンツ艮 and G2G written lanterns flutter in the light, chill breeze, casting a warmer sheen of red-orange and yellow light around.

The man addressing her with such bold familiarity leans forward enough to bend his wiry frame and reedy height to where he can get a better look at Asi’s face. His button-up white shirt has already loosened by two top holes, concealed beneath a black down winter parka worn over the work clothes.

Her path now blocked, she stops in her path forward and turns her head only slightly in the direction of the drunk man, hands already fists in the pocket of her leather coat. Asi's eyes flash in the dark.

"どいて2" she tells him curtly. It's the only warning he'll get.

But like essentially all drunk men in women's ways on sidewalks, he doesn't take kindly to being brushed off, especially not in the cold tone Asi brokers with him.

"Oi—" he starts to drawl back at her.

Asi's icy veneer vanishes in a drawn-lip scowl, her arm snapping up so she can grab the hand that had started to reach for her. She takes hold of the offending wrist and twists roughly, venom in her expression.

"動きなさい…って,3" she seethes with calm directness, uninterested in letting up in applying pressure even after man titters out stammered notes of pain. When his friends begin to react, split between apologies and sympathetic anger, she snarls at them, "Don't fuck with me," in clearly-articulated English.

“手を放せ!4 Let go!" Another man on the same side as Asi's catcaller barks out a hesitant warning, even as he steps in with a hand dropping on her shoulder.

Instantly, a sudden throb of pain shoots up her own wrist in the same manner as if she herself had twisted a limb. Even as the man releases his grip, the sensation lingers.

In the next moment, the original salaryman wrenches away from her pain-weakened grip, staggering back a couple of steps while holding his aching hand. Mouth curled in a toothy sneer, he looks pissed at her audacity to commit first assault, fists balling. The other pair of men glance at each other in conflicted response, ultimately deciding to help their buddies save face against this sudden spitfire. "«Watanabe, wait, it's not worth it,»" one starts to say.

If it weren't for the hand to her shoulder, Asi might've thought the pain to be a sign of another medical attack's onset. But she staggers back, sees that lifted hand, and sets her jaw.

Well, that was unpleasant. She likes her odds less against them now.

"«Listen to your friend, drunkard,»" Asi warns anyway. "«I'm just here to see someone, and it's not you.»"

"Oi!" A fourth, more feminine voice albeit recognizably filtered through the familiar sound of a helmet, calls down from above. As faces turn up a cloaked figure drops from a higher story balcony down onto the sidewalk near the cluster of five. As the helmeted figure straightens up from the superhero landing, the hooded cape adorning their shoulders pushes back to reveal gleaming bits of metal, matte fabric kevlar weave, and a futuristic suit of armor covering the form.

"どんな犬でも一度噛み付く権利がある。ね、アスィ?5" The familiarity of tone strikes harder once Marlowe steps closer.

The confused salarymen recoil, backing away from the approaching featureless figure and beat a hasty retreat to less populated parts of the park.

Now that the blockage of bullies is cleared, the pedestrian traffic appears to resume its casual flow around them. Typical New York City.

Marlowe sighs, shoulders drooping slightly in disappointment. “Man, I was hoping they’d might put up more of a fight. Do they even know how long it took me to get into this thing? No wonder Moni just wore a hoodie and jeans.” The grumbling is minor as she turns back to Asi and holds out her gauntlet-ed hands open palmed. What can you do?

At first, the superhero drop earns a shied half-step back from Asi. For all she knows, some kind of automated police force was about to chastise the lot of them. But then she hears that voice— one that speaks to her directly.

Then her hands lower down and an incredulous laugh leaves her. "Marlowe?"

The scattering of drunks is like music to Asi's ears, and she shakes her head while looking her long-missed friend over. "«I nearly clobbered you, you crazy daredevil,»" she laughs, too impressed to do anything aside from that. A technically-minded once-over of Marlowe's person happens before she realizes, "What am I even doing?"

She doesn't dole hugs out frequently, but that doesn't mean Asi's not great at them, and she sweeps Marlowe up in one. "When were you going to tell me you're moonlighting as Batman? Is this what you've been up to out in Tokyo?"

Well, she did give herself away by immediately calling down to Asi while wearing the not-quite-a-disguise. Marlowe strikes a pose, a powergloved hand on her hip while the other is held up in a bicep curled fist. "«Oh no, wouldn't want you to hurt the tools of your livelihood,»" she says, the grin audible in her tone.

But then hugs are exchanged, a little awkwardly given the suit and helmet covering Marlowe's form. Once free, she backsteps to get out of pedestrian traffic and tugs Asi's hand with to take them to a nearby side alley and further out of public view. "Yes, and no," is Marlowe's reply when they're out of easy earshot.

"And I'm not Batman. My parents are very much alive and safe, thank you very much." But that all said, she gestures to the suit again, and makes it a point to swish the cape a little dramatically with her hand like she were expecting a friend's opinion on a fashion choice for a night out. Just not quite the same night out that had been implied by Marlowe's emoji-riddled texts.

More soberly, Marlowe notes, "HQ was just so full of complications after Kimiko…" Briefly, she shoots Asi a sideways glance heavy with many things unsaid, apart from genuine upset and concern over the recently deceased.

"Very stylish," Asi has only barely confirmed before the mood shifts. Her brow settles, shoulders falling. Her arms similarly come to a low fold across her torso. Kimiko's death meant many things to many people.

"I can't even imagine," she admits with a slight turn of her head toward the lights of the street. "Politics is never easy. I'm not sure what I think of Kawahara, either. With luck, his time in New York will be just short enough to appoint a new US CEO before leaving. With hope, whoever that is won't jeopardize the relationship with the Safe Zone. Hayate Kawahara appears to be a numbers man— a man of the old guard. If there is a place to relegate him, it is to Tokyo. Even then… I hope he retires before long."

Glancing back to Marlowe, Asi wonders, "How are you doing with all this? Do you think the… complications will get to be too much to deal with?"

"Considering that this was one of the last things I got to develop with Kimiko's blessing, I'm just glad I got this finished long enough to take it for a real world test run before Kawahara decides he wants to create the New Japan Army," Marlowe sighs long, head bowed briefly. "I'm not naive enough to think the complications are going to get fewer before they get better."

When her head lifts again, the opaque coating on the visor of the Kisaki's helmet dissipates into a clear window, revealing Marlowe's face more fully. Concern writ on the angles of her brows, she looks nevertheless glad to see Asi. She motions with a hand, bidding the woman to follow as they approach a side service door to the bar. "What about you? How are you holding up, with… your complications?" Marlowe's hand waves in front of a dimly lit security pad, eliciting a small beep before the door unlocks and pops open with a soft click and pneumatic hiss of an actuator.

Seeing Marlowe's full expression when she shows her worry somehow heightens its impact. Asi's eyes flicker away, more than happy to look where they're going rather than at her friend directly. "I'm back, more or less, to normal now. Back to work, even— and as far as I can tell, stable physically."

She gives only a moment's pause before admitting, "But between you and I, this has been a hell of an emotional rollercoaster, Marlowe. The latest drop on it's left me feeling…"

Inhuman is how she wants to end that sentence, but instead Asi smiles softly as she looks back to Marlowe. "It's good to see you, is all. I'm glad you're back."

"こちらこそ。6 I don't miss the leering public nuisances at all, of course." Marlowe pushes into what looks like a short hallway that makes up the back of the building. The sounds of a back restaurant kitchen and music echo muffledly through the walls. It isn't as finished as the front of house, but it's at least clean and quiet. Supposedly devoid of listeners. But they do pass by a security camera hovering in the corner, dark glass lens pointed at the pair.

When they round the corner turn, there's a set of stairs that Marlowe climbs. Her ease and range of motion in the suit indicates its advanced engineering. Once they reach another door, this one with the far more common security of a mere turn key lock, she simply reaches over to open it and steps into a normal looking large supply room with shelves lined with food and drink stock. Just off center is where Marlowe's set a couple of chairs, a spare foldable table, and a cooler. "I know, it's not fancy. Grab a chair. I wasn't about to not show you this suit, though. They can cry to legal about IP protection." Marlowe herself sits in another chair, proceeding to pull off the helmet with a series of soft clicks and disconnections. "We're safe to talk here, though. I know the owner." Her smile comes back, cheeky, genuine. "And what exactly are you doing nowadays? You said work?"

Honestly, not having to have this conversation out in public works. Asi's resigned at least some of her privacy away just by entering the Park— she doesn't think for a second that Jiba's not checking in on them, if it pleases it— but the space to themselves in the middle of a storage room certainly helps. When they reach the doorway, her brow lifts and she invites herself in with a dip of her head. A chair is grabbed with her left hand instead of her usual, dominant right, turned around for a better angle to lower herself into a seat.

"Listen, it doesn't need to be fancy, just serviceable. And this, already, is better than a few of the places I was staying in the Safe Zone for a while." Her eyes lift up to Marlowe again to appreciate the suit when she declares it's hers and she's doing what she wants with it, glad for that as much as she is wondering if there's a quick way she pants to get out of it. "As for what I've been up to…"

She wobbles her head for a moment, wondering where to first tear into it. It's been a long time, longer than she thought, since the two of them had gotten together for drinks. "Last year, an opportunity came up to partner with Wolfhound on something— back when I was digging into Praxis. I was there with them when they landed at Praxia, helped stop the thing from turning into even more of a disaster zone than it would have. Afterward, they offered me a job, offered to help clear my name up with the US, and I took it." Her eyes flit up to Marlowe as she adds more subdued, "I still do contracting with Raytech under the table; same with Kay over here. She stood up for me in front of Nakamura before all this happened, said she wanted to have me on her team."

With a momentary narrowing of her eyes, she admits, "That's one job I'm not sure I'll have anymore…" For more than one reason. She looks back up to Marlowe with a small nod. "But being with Wolfhound meant I was there when they pulled her out of Weiss' headquarters in Canada. Eizen had approached Godfrey about it, and Godfrey let me know when I went to him with some of 'Ella's concerns about the way her 'mom' had been acting, so I fought even harder to make sure I was in fighting shape so I could go."

"We really got to get you some decent housing, girl," chides Marlowe lightly out of concern for Asi's housing situations. She tidies her hair a bit while Asi's considering where to begin, using the reflection of herself on the helmet visor to corral a few ends back where they belong. Pulled back together, Marlowe then moves on to serving drinks. There's no hesitation in reaching for the cooler and popping up the top, extracting two beers and setting one in front of her companion. The caps? Easily popped off with dextrous handling despite her gloved hand, or because of it.

“へぇぇぇ、ワルフハウンド共に働いていたか。マジカッコイ。7" But the mention of Kay and that whole operation, the mention of Eizen and Godfrey, leads to a longer pull from Marlowe's beer. "君たちは無事なの良かった。8 Even Godfrey. And I'm sure 'Ella will be glad her mother… 'Ella's smart. Pretty sure she caught on a lot earlier than the rest of us when her mother, well, you know."

There's also the matter of Marlowe's acting, currently not so much so that it's unnoticeable, that beneath the casual face and posture is a stiffness of anxious worry. Her head shakes once, some kind of back of the mind thought being dismissed as she turns to a different rivulet in their stream of conversation. "What did you find out there? Any more clues about the status with the abducted?" She could find out from Eizen, perhaps. But his sudden termination from the company had left her reeling, and the level of trust for Asi had been slowly rebuilding and patching.

At the mention of concern about housing, Asi allows her smile to come back in a wry, upward kick of one side of her mouth. "Wolfhound quarters are a step up, theoretically." You know, save for not being kidnapper-proof. "But the shitholes served their purpose, too. Namely, not being found by anyone I didn't want to be." And that's something she'll drink to.

To such an extent she drains a good percentage of the bottle in several gulps, the decision either careless or carefully thought out, given their choice of conversation topics that lie ahead. There's mines in every direction, might as well resign herself to them.

Her mouth feels dry, not her own, as she admits, "We've found out a few things, yeah." She swallows hard on nothing, looking back up to Marlowe. The lip of her beer bottle tips back and forth, trying to show the movements of her thoughts while she actively dissociates. It's impossible not to, given the subject. "I'm hearing two things at the same time. With a friend's help, I was able to dive deep into my memories— found an entire interaction I'd forgotten that took place between the kidnapping and when the crash happened. An old friend who goes by v.iris told me I shouldn't doubt my humanity. That I'm me, despite what's happened to me."

Asi looks down at her beer then, tacking on in a voice that barely carries, "And then I found out I'm basically an android now. Robotic. I'm— I'm not me. We're not us. The medical tests that tell us we should be dead but aren't— we're fine, because we're not human anymore."

It's grudgingly she lifts her head. "Yamagato knows, too. They've known, out here, and didn't tell us. ハチロまで何も言わなかった, マーロー9." Her hurt is a flicker, replaced by the numb she feels about it all. "«They opened up one of our heads, saw our brains are inhuman now, and didn't so much as breathe a word of that in the results.»" Asi's eyes half-lid before she takes another drink. "But as for progress beyond that— no. We're no closer to tracing who did this to us. Still theory-chasing. Weiss seemed suspect, perhaps implicit, but even then…"

She rolls her tongue before admitting blithely, "I don't know, Marlowe."

The mention of Hachiro Otomo draws up a predictably defensive press of Marlowe's lips, holding a temporary seal before she gathers her thoughts. "You're talking about Dr. Yeh's exploratory surgery," she references, thus making clear she was aware of the procedure as well. "The results were baffling. But, we were told not to trust anybody outside, and led with the assumption that somehow all of this was already being tracked. それはハチロのせいじゃなかった。しかし、私たちはまだ手がかりがない。10"

Marlowe clicks her tongue against her teeth out of rueful embarrassment, shoulders shrugging once. But in the next beat, those shoulders set determinedly. "We're going to get to the bottom of it, Asi. このクソ野郎はふざける所をつづくなら、すぐ報復がいっぱいある。11" A swig of her beer turns into a finishing swallow of alcohol more fitting for the end of a SEAN night rather than just the beginning of their conversation.

"But, listen." The empty bottle turns this way and that in her hand as she continues, "There's a lot I still don't really understand, even though Richard's told me enough. Unfortunately, the support I can give outside is limited. And with Kawahara at the helm now, I'm afraid the company is going to experience some upheaval, from the inside. Especially once Kam Nisatta reappears." Her voice dips into the quiet, as if wary to speak of the dead. Even, if her tone suggests, they may not actually be.

With a mark of frustration, Asi gestures violently back and forth between the two of them. "We are not outside the matter. I am not outside the matter. The people most impacted by this are the people who deserve answers."

She catches herself only then, hearing how her voice has raised. She breaks eye contact, finishes her own beer, and leans forward with forearms on her knees. An apology doesn't come, but it's clear she doesn't want to press the topic. Doesn't want to argue and somehow jeopardize the mending nature of their relationship. Asi lets out a difficult sigh.

Her eyes lift at the mention of Kam, conflict yet in them. "I saw her in Iraq, the time I was spirited there," she admits without particular affect. "She's not herself anymore. If she's moving anywhere, it's not of her own free will. I'd be concerned about Mazdak's hand in her activity and anything she might do. Has she threatened to return to the States?"

Weathering the lambasting remarks, Marlowe shakes her head slowly to indicate her lack of further answers. She can't help the small shrug, an apologetic dip of her head in the space between them. "I don't know, but I am sorry. About all of this happening, and there's just so much happening, I—" She stops herself before there's an outpouring of useless excuses, pushing back up to grab a new drink.

"When Moni finally told me what happened with her, I didn't know she was even alive until she - or maybe someone else assuming her identity - played her hand in the paperwork that was signed in the Praxis takeover." She leads with that following the soft hiss-pop of the bottlecap coming off. "Between her, Lucien Crane, and Cecilia Weiss, あの人達に気になることがあげさせられた。12 That doesn't even begin to touch what Kawahara brings to the table, or considering what Kimiko wanted me to do." The pull Marlowe takes from her beer is long, lingering. And maybe too fast to be wise.

Propping herself up slightly on her arms further, Asi's head lifts back up. She lets out a tone of sympathy when Marlowe more or less admits to being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things happening. All she can do is agree.

The topic of what Kimiko wanted is something that she hesitates on for a moment, aware that this perhaps is knowledge she's not meant to know. Like perhaps she's not wanting to broach it first without offering something up in return. "Eizen made it back safely to Japan, by the way," she admits distantly. "After the suddenness of it, I and others were concerned it was a Kam situation all over again. But… he's there. He's…"

Asi frowns. "He's safe," she clarifies, even if there's discomfort involved in that. Being an Evolved of his caliber without the protection of megacorporation, in a country like Japan… she wishes she couldn't imagine what he's going through, but she knows it's nearly like prison. "I wish there were more I could do for him, but…"

There's not much she could. The progress Kimiko was making in getting her name cleared died with her. All she can hope is that whatever his plan is pays off before the jaws of the government close in on him.

She shakes her head, looking back to Marlowe. "What did Kimiko ask?"

Marlowe's pause in swallowing the news about Eizen follows with a rough cough. The tip of the bottle pulls away, although she considers the neck looking like she'd simply down the rest of it, she lowers it back down to the table. The rest of her follows with a dejected lean against her seat and the tip of her armored elbow. All she can do is nod heavily and look upon Asi with worry in her gaze. Tears threatening, she sucks in a breath to steady herself. "Anything you have done already is more than what I could do," she sighs. "Unless he reaches out indirectly, somehow, I'm not sure what could be done."

The stalling about Kimiko is more than obvious when she straightens again, only to shift uncomfortably around. Eventually Marlowe meets eyes with Asi, in her gaze a silent, desperate plea. For help, or forgiveness? Both, perhaps.

"君子さんはあたしに新しい体を作かせて欲しい。13"

Suddenly she grabs up her drink again, fully downing the rest of the bottle like it could drown the rising sick and anxious feeling. But what comes up isn't sick, just words. "Hachiro… he was able to partially digitize her consciousness from her body. The company doesn't know and we've been doing everything to… to keep her safe. But if what was digitized wasn't even really Kimiko, then, what have we done? And, what is it going to do to Jiba?" Her head shakes slowly, still in disbelief of the weight of all the implications and possibilities.

Asi's eyes slowly begin to widen. "何?" comes from her on the edge of an incredulous breath as she leans up and back. "まさか, ジバがホストして14。。。"

She sinks back in her seat, for a moment too stunned to say anything. Then her gaze hardens. "君子は君子ではないなら私も私じゃないよ15," she points out before clarifying bluntly, "そういう考え方を蹴飛ばします16" Asi looks like she might go on with more opinion before reaching for her drink instead. "After what they did to us— putting us in these bodies— I don't know what we are anymore. But I'm me."

The alternative is too much to think about, much less bear. She drinks to avoid it, both now and generally speaking.

"Whatever Jiba is, he's not meant to hold two heads at once. If she's somehow transcended death, we need to get her off of the network as soon as possible. Being trapped inside a machine, without a body, it—"

Asi can't help but sound haunted for all her attempts not to. "It does things to you. You fixate on things. Obsess, when you're not depressed. You…" She pauses, troubled. "I don't know that it's as easy as finding a moving frame to stick her in, though."

Marlowe tips her head back to stare to the heavens, finding what clarity limited to her blurry, teary-eyed view of the dingy storage room's ceiling. "It's not easy, no… but not impossible." A gloved hand lifts and dabs away her tears, and a hard sniff forces a bolstering measure to her weakened composure. She sits up again. "But from what I understand, Jiba is not the host. Jiba shares the space. How much there is, that is what concerns me. So we've already ordered the parts. Designing, no, concealing the hardware is the challenge. It isn't entirely my area of expertise. Prosthetic limbs? Artificial organs? I can do that all day. But the brain…"

She shakes her head, turning to Asi, leaning in. "I need to get a closer look at Ms. Yeh's medical procedure details, maybe," she considers. "Or my hands on Kimiko's body." The hand that had wiped tears before opens and closes into a fist. But then she opens again, palm out, gesturing to the former technopath. "レーテックのシアーシステムを使うのは覚えたか?17 I'm thinking maybe I'll ask Richard if with that sort of connection, we could… or maybe a direct download is enough? What if it's not enough? What if she doesn't like it? What if something goes wrong, and she really…" The woman frowns, thoughts spiralling through chains of possible scenarios. "Dies? Because of everything that can go wrong. Because of me."

This is a situation where even a win is a loss, Asi surmises. But she's sure to remind Marlowe, "Every minute she has now is extra. She already died, Marlowe. You're doing what you can to— prolong that extra piece. It doesn't change the emotional weight of what you're tasked with, but… I hope that adds perspective."

She drinks again before setting aside the bottle. "I've worked a lot with the SEER system since then, I'm very familiar with it now. I know the people who had Kay manipulated it, turned it into something called Structure, and were working on…" Asi continues on, even though she looks unsettled. "Replicating, digitally, human consciousness. I… I have the files, potentially. When we got Kay out, we grabbed a lot of data, too. Could be put to use here."

"Far better use than it was," she surmises, anyway.

The armored woman sucks in a breath and nods slowly to her friend's reassurances. Empathic guilt for uncontrollable circumstances is but one of the motivations of Marlowe Terrell, and a drive to problem solve yet another. "Can't say this isn't all very unexpected, even so," she says, tipping her beer bottle side to side. "But then, what else can I expect after learning that the reality as we know it isn't even the only one? And this one is the one with superpowers." Setting her beer down, Marlowe sighs heavily as she leans back. Apology writ into her expression, she realizes belatedly the comment's insensitivity to Asi's current condition. "Sorry, Asi."

"Richard said Kimiko and he were working on some kind of device to identify things, people even, from other places or times? But with Kawahara now also aware of this, I feel like there's some terrible, looming deadline over us all to figure out what's coming and solve it before whatever plans he's designing… happens." She catches herself rambling, pauses, and glances down at her gloved hands before looking back up to the other woman. "何よりも、友達が少ないになったの気がする。18 And there's barely anything at all I can do about it."

The mention of other realities somehow brings a softening to Asi's expression. That complicated truth isn't as deeply personal for her, and one she could get lost in. "No, it's— it's okay. It's a lot, and compartmentalizing the mess of it feels impossible at times. It's okay to have feelings about and be influenced by more than one thing at any given point." She arches an eyebrow, a wistful look on her face. "It's what makes us human, right?"

The news about the other-reality-scanner is one even she needs a minute to process. "You're the one out of us all that's closest, who stands the most chance out of finding out what Kawahara is planning. He's dangerous, but we don't even know how dangerous yet." Asi looks across at her friend apologetically. "I'm sorry it falls on you, and I'm sorry you feel more alone. I'm… I am pretty firmly stuck on the outside of things now, there, Marlowe, but I'm cheering for you. And I can tell you I'm fighting to make sure you don't lose me."

After a moment's consideration, her gaze wanders around the room and she says, "We should get together more often. Drag Godfrey. Maybe Kay, if she is up for it. I know Monica has been occupied, but with the world determined to tear us apart, we should at least make it work damn hard for it."

"Right?" she asks brightly, sitting a little more upright.

Right?

The simple question bears a much larger and complicated one over it for Marlowe, whose gaze averts in an embarrassed, downward tug of shame for displaying such worries so blatantly. Her gloved hand flexes into a fist briefly and releases slowly. She stares into her palm in pregnant pause. Her smile, wan and wry at first, relaxes after some thought.

"そうしようね。四天王はまだ仕事があるかも。19 Even though getting the band back together might be a little tricky with all our… current unusual circumstances," she delivers with a rise to her feet, grabbing the helmet off the table and holding her free hand out to Asi. "But first, I didn't lure you all this way out to make you sit and get drunk with me in a windowless storage room. Let's go somewhere where we can have a good time, and I've gotta show you what this baby can do."

The flicker of mischief and eased smile in the woman's gaze is much more like the Marlowe she's used to.

Asi looks up to the hand offered to her, brow lifting. She quickly drains the rest of her bottle before accepting the hand up, rocking to her feet. "Yes," she agrees, warmth entering her voice and her expression only after. "I want to see everything this thing can do."

"And if I properly get to see you strike a superhero landing in the process this time, I'll chalk that up as an additional win for the evening!"


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