Chapter Text
Between the stage and the bouncing crowd held at bay by barricades, Tabi walks a thin strip of limbo where he is neither performing nor partying.
To the right is a neon blue ocean that ripples and rocks to the beat. Every drop causes a tsunami of hands to wave.
Wave after wave, the ocean threatens to overflow, slosh up the walls, crest over the barricades, and spill into the streets.
Tabi came down from the stage to be alone but now he's seasick.
Not to discredit Dalia's genre of expertise, but somehow the shallow lyrical pool EDM draws from is further nauseating.
- BASS!
- Come on!
- Whoo!
- Drop that beat!
- Dance!
- Wait a minute!
- Go man, go!
- Something about hands and putting them in the air, to the sky, or to the ceiling!
To the left, up on stage, Ayana is hardly any reprieve from the lyrics as she'll nab Dalia's mic just to yell and command the ocean. She thinks she's Poseidon.
They're behind the DJ booth; its strobing lights show snapshots of a couple caught in a flirty game of keep away.
Flash.
Dalia holds the mic away from Ayana clamoring over her shoulder. A strategy to keep it out of reach and to feel boobs pressed against her back.
Flash.
A blush spreads to the tips of her elven ears as Ayana whispers into one of them.
Flash.
Dalia blinks at her now empty hand.
Flash.
Tabi can't see what happened next cause a cassette tape and a folded twenty get thrust in his face.
"Hey! Hey, man! Can you ask DJ Dalia to play my mixtape?"
He turns to the fifth over-zealous up-and-coming musician to wave a bribe at him and just as the four before her, she shrinks under Tabi's blazing glare.
"I'll see what I can do." He will not. He pockets the tape and the twenty anyway, just as he's done with the others. So far he is 85 bucks richer with five tapes wedged in his pockets. He'll keep the money. Maybe Agoti'd like the tapes.
Walking up the stairs, Tabi considers retreating to the ocean again, rather than being a reaper creeping behind the flirty fun on stage.
People often flinch when they turn to see a skull staring back, but Ayana's always ecstatic to see him. She detaches from Dalia with the stolen mic in tow to shove at his face. "Tabi, wanna say something to the crowd? They'll take anything. Watch this."
She clears her throat and toes the edge of the stage. "Everybody put your motherf*ckin' hands up!" She hypes into the mic. Obediently, everybody put their motherf*ckin' hands up.
"Hands down!"
Hands down.
She snickers, jabbing her elbow at Tabi's side,get a load a' this!"Now everybody put your fatherf*ckin' hands up!"
Another tsunami.
Her head goes back with a cackle and a glossy hair toss. "Come on, a little Simon Says?" Tabi glares at the mic now tapping on his nose and smacks it away. Feedback whines through the building sharp and shrill, followed by a chorus of surprise. The ocean stagnates.
Intuitive DJ that she is, Dalia scratches the record, switches up the song, and the crowd is lulled back into a trance.
She marches over to snatch the mic back from Ayana and brings it back to the booth. "Everybody doing good tonight?" she calls. The crowd wooo's, placated.
She looks over her shoulder, still bouncing to the music, but with a stern look "I don't think he wants to play Simon Says, babe."
Ayana scoffs, hands on her hips. "He doesn't wanna do anything fun. He just wants to keep stroking his hateboner for Girlfriend!"
Tabi turns Ayana around by the shoulder, no need to talk about him like he's not here. "I almost had her. She was right there!"
She groans with great exaggeration. "Who cares where she is? I don't!" Dalia doesn't fight it when Ayana nabs the mic again to address the crowd, "Show of hands, who also doesn't care where Girlfriend is?" She timed her question perfectly to some anticipatory buildup. When the bass drops, the ocean waves to her will, hundreds of hands that just don't care.
Tabi grumbles, wishing the club had a drought. "You should care. She's dangerous."
"She's an idiot. Boyfriend is an idiot. And he did some dumb things when we dated. Like this one time-" She glances over at Dalia spinning and scratching her records, and just like that her ex is a distant memory. How enviable. "Well never mind all the dumb things he did. The point is I move on!" She wraps her arm around his shoulder, glowing with pride as they watch the raver elf she moved on to.
He knows she's not rubbing her happy relationship in his face. That's not her intention. But this is one of those moments where Tabi wonders how a reaper and some college girlie ever became friends.
Whereas Tabi wants to get back at his ex, Ayana once wanted to get back with hers. One failed seduction attempt and a chance meeting with a local EDM DJ later, Ayana has moved on quite nicely.
Since Tabi's kidnap-torture grossly glossed over as a "breakup", he's thoroughly turned off from producing music since it led to his downfall, he's generally unemployed, and now he's third wheeling on a Friday night. He could be tracking down Girlfriend. He knowsexactly where she'd be right now. He had everything planned out! Instead, Ayana insisted he stop "stroking his hateboner" and just kick back with her. She also promised pizza afterward if he'd be Dalia's record boy for the night. He's hardly needed; Ayana knows the contents of her girlfriend's DJ bag better than him.
Like he knows what to grab when Dalia asks for her records "by vibes" rather than by title or artist. He doesn't know what the hell "purple synthwave sunrise with orange palm trees" is! He literally fumbled the bag, yelled in frustration, and tromped downstairs to cool off, but all the weird looks he got from the crowd further set him ablaze.
"You weren't reduced to bone." Tabi peels Ayana's smooth, manicured, fleshy hand off his shoulder.
She goes quiet for a bit, not intending to make light of all he's been through. "No. I didn't get it as bad as you did, but a breakup still hurts. You know what I think the greatest revenge is?"
"Guns?"
"No, it's-"
"More explosives?"
"Living well!" She grips his sleeves. "Just, living like nothing is holding you back."
Tabi hates that he allowed himself to get hopeful, thinking Ayana would actually take a more hefty role in his revenge plans. He needs ammunition, not this live laugh love bullsh*t! "I'd rather drop dead."
"You just might! No dumb weight's holding me back anymore. But your dumb weight is dragging you all over the place. Wearing you down. To. The. Bone." Tap-tap-tap goes her finger on his forehead. Now her pretty face looks worried, searching within his sockets. "I can tell that you're tired. Your eyelights are more faded nowadays. And you may be all invisible now but I can still see you're wearing yourself thin." She tugs at his hoodie. It outlines his waning frame.
Ah, that's where the after-party pizza plans come into play.
Tabi gently pries her hands off again. "Ayana, if you really wanted to help me, you'd be more serious about taking out Girlfriend."
"I am helping you! This is me helping you!" Ayana throws her hands in the air and it's not because the current song commanded her to put your hands in the air right now!
He wishes he still had hair so he could pull it out in frustration. "How is pulling me away from all the planning I did this week helping me? Cause it all feels like a waste of time."
"See you could be simmering in your own anger and dwelling in the past. Or you could hang with me and Dalia more often! We don't see time with friends as a waste, right Dali?"
Looking for backup, she looks to her girlfriend who is torn between hyping the crowd and assuring Tabi. "Yeah, Tabi- LET THE BEAT DROP!- Ain't this fun?" Dalia throws over her shoulder in a whiplash of divided attention.
The ocean bobs, everyone bounces. Tabi stands perfectly still, feeling he's hindering Dalia's focus. Just a rock that can't be swept into the tide no matter how hard Ayana goads him to go with the flow. She slides up beside him, doing a little cha-cha-cha in her platform heels. "Tabi it wouldn't kill you to dance a little. The Dearests couldn't kill you, a little dance will be nothing!" He's still a statue. It bums her out enough to break out of that idle Newgrounds bounce and subside into something serious and stable "I mean, when was the last time you did something that wasn't motivated by Girlfriend? Something just for you. When was the last time you just sang for non-rap-battle purposes?"
Tabi mulls this over, feeling hollow. The last time he sang at all was at the restaurant he blew up. The whole fiasco motivated by hatred for Girlfriend. When they dated she was his reason to get out of bed and face the day. She's still his motivation. He can't rest until Girlfriend is in pieces, even if it feels like he'll fall apart first.
"Well?" Ayana asks in his silence, getting in his face, searching for a glimmer of the musician he used to be, the one she still idolizes, "Did the Dearests take the music out of you?"
Tabi gets close to her face too, wanting her to back off, but she stands her ground. He might think to be thankful thatsomeone's willing to look him head-on without fear but he's feeling as stubborn as a goat, bowing his head and rearing his horns-
"No headbutting." Dalia doesn't even need to turn her head to see.
Up close he can see the quick flash of hurt before it's blinked away. Ayana's lips twist with sourness, arms crossed. "Bonehead." A glossy toss of brown hair as she turns to slink back over to Dalia and lean against her side.
"Airhead..." Tabi mutters.
He thinks of walking away, maybe submerging himself in the crowd this time instead of drifting between the barricades. The ravers' blissful happiness can rub off on him as a contact high. He could aimlessly tumble and toss in the ocean til this jagged rock is smooth enough for all his troubles to slip off him.
Maybe he can get 17 bucks richer if he goes down to take that bribe a kandi-coated arm is waving.
She may be frustrated with his stubbornness, but she'd never truly turn his back on him. Ayana looks back at Tabi ready to retreat again, worry weighing her brow. She whispers into Dalia's ear with a plan, "Quick, play the new track! The new one!"
Dalia's head bop turns into a doubtful shake, "I dunno, Aya."
And she immediately melts as her girlfriend's lips purse into a perfectly kissable pout against her ear while whining a heart-tugging, "Come ooon, Dali!" As if she could deny a pretty girl what she wants. Ayana calls out to Tabi before he can dare to take another step, "Wait, don't go back down! You've got to hear the new track she's been working on!"
"I can hear it down there just fine." Tabi's nearly about to descend the stairs when the current song melts into something new. No, wait...it's new but it's built around something old...
The two girls smile to see Tabi pause.
"This...christ haven't heard this in a while." Much as he dwells on it, he hates being dragged into the past. But this song pulls him through all the bullsh*t he endured and straight to a simpler time. Before his rise to fame. Before he even met Girlfriend.
Dalia shares a triumphant look with Ayana and twists a dial to turn the vocals up. "Not even you could forget your first song to go viral. I sampled the beat. Hope you don't mind." A sly smile, "It was all Ayana's idea." And she chuckles to see her girlfriend flush with flustered emotion. Bad bitch energy aside, Ayana is still a raging fangirl. "It's still in the works, I know it's kinda rough." She rambles to apologize for the work in progress.
"No, it's fine, Dalia." Tabi's stuck at the stage's edge. Stuck in the past, but in a place where he could call this feeling nostalgic. "Didn't think anyone cared about my old stuff anymore..."
"You've still got fans out there, Tabi. Number one's right here."
"Shut up!!!" Ayana seethes, hiding behind her hands.
Tabi can't deny it has a good beat. The bass surges through the building like blood through an artery. The club is alive.
Tabi's blood rushes through his veins. He's alive.
Despite all he's been through, he's still alive, but now he feels alive.
Voices across the ocean hoot over the new track with approval. The people nod their heads. Tabi nods along with them. A wave of validation washes over Dalia, but unlike Ayana's mini meltdown from hearing two of her faves on the same track, she keeps a cool front and focuses on mixing. She keeps a keen eye for his reaction.
His hand pats out the beat on his leg. His fingers twitch. The lyrics come back to him and his jaw drops. Something is rising within him. Overflowing.
What did he do when he was swelling with emotion and needed to vent? Back when he was some novice with a microphone and a laptop full of unfinished songs.
He didn't plot revenge. He didn't waste sleep tracking down some girl. He didn't blow up restaurants. He didn't skip meals. He didn't drift away from friends.
He sang.
Many things feel out of his control nowadays, but he can still sing. He still has this.
He steps away from the stairs.
Dalia is astonished when her mic is taken by a bony hand this time.
She and Ayana look at his opening jaw and hold their breath as hebreathes in.
Then, he breathes out with life, his life, the life that the Dearests couldn't take away.
He was tortured and disfigured beyond recognition, but now he is free to freestyle.
The crowd doesn't just bounce or bop.
The ocean rages. It overflows.
So this is what it's like to be Poseidon. He gets why Ayana loves yelling at the crowd so much. All the people who looked at him funny can't rip their eyes away. They hang on his every word.
He sang of heartbreak and they understood.
He sang of deceit and they felt for him.
He sang of anger and they screamed with some of their own.
"Who's that guy!"
"Looks like a goat?"
"He's the goat alright!"
"I love you, Mr. Goat!"
"No, wait! I know that voice!"
"Is it...is it really him?"
"How long has it been since-"
"Oh my god."
"Holy sh*t is that-"
"Tabi!!!"
"What?"
"Who?"
"Tabi! That's Tabi!"
His name sails from shore to shore.
And when he's gotten out all he has to say, panting from the catharsis, the ocean roars and crashes.
He plays a little Simon says.
"What's my name?" he holds out the mic and the crowd answers, "TABI!"
Ayana has dropped all pretty-girl pretenses to scream. Her inner fangirl jumps forth to latch onto Tabi and she jumps and screams and screams.
She squeezes him so tight he drops the mic. Her bracelets dig into him. A light airy feeling overcomes him, only interrupted when he hears sniffing and hiccuping. "Ayana, you're not-" He holds her out from him to see her gushing with tears. There's mascara stains on the front of his hoodie and he doesn't care. "Are you seriously crying?
"It's just,"sniiiiiff, "I love your music so much! And I love Dalia's music! And like," she brings her hands together, intertwining her fingers, "My worlds are colliding! Don't laugh at meee!"
She bonks her head against his chest to hide and Tabi didn't notice until then that, yeah, he was laughing.
"Come here, cry on my shoulder." Dalia pulls Ayana from him and wraps her in a hug. She looks to Tabi, a hopeful spark lighting up her dark eyes. "You know...this track is still unfinished. Wanna help me complete it? Get your name back out there?" She nods the crowd still chanting his name. Then she tussles her girlfriend's hair. "And to get Aya to stop happy crying?"
She bites her tongue and holds her breath when Tabi says nothing.
At first, he's guarded. Baring his soul through his music is what got him taken advantage of and left for dead.
But if his music can still reach people. If he can reach those who've been used up, cast aside, and show them that they're not alone. That there is hope.
Slowly, he nods, "Yeah...let's finish it together. It's a good song."
Ayana squeals, Dalia's pointed ear twitching from the sound, "It's incredible! It's the greatest song ever!"
