12741/Biking Break

Biking Break
Date of Scene:	20 February 2021
Location:	1407 Greymalkin Lane - Breakstone
Synopsis:	Xiang is almost run over by a bike.
Cast of Characters:	Red, Xiang Zhao

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Red has posed:
Alice had grabbed an old bicycle to get to the bus station down in Breakstone. Sure, she might have grabbed a car, but then the car would rest down at the station and she didn't own her own car, so she just took a bike. Allowed her to get down the road just as much to hitch the bus to the Big Apple...

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Feet. Feet are what Xiang Zhao uses to get down the road himself. Though in his case, he's just emerging from the trees, rather than walking along the road. He comes out of the forest about halfway between that wrought iron gate and Breakstone, from the southeast. As he stops and looks at the road for a moment, his expression is curious. Such that he may not have realized there was a road here. He carries in his right hand a closed Chinese style folding fan. His left hand is tucked behind his back. He glances first to his right, toward Breakstone. And then to the left. "Zhècì wo qù nalile.." The words are soft, and spoken like he's wondering something at himself.

Red has posed:
Alice hits the breaks as that person is pretty much on the road, blocking it partly. The shriek of rubber rubbing over metal and tires scraping the loose gravel fill the air as the cycle slows down, the driver gritting her teeth as she sees an imminent crash..

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Something, perhaps a sound, or perhaps something else entirely, draws Xiang Zhao's attention toward the cyclist just as those breaks are hit. And he moves, without any thought seeming to be behind it, turning to the side. Slightly further from the road, toward the trees he'd emerged from. His robes flutter around him with the motion. That motion was just enough to avoid the imminent crash. For a moment, his back is to the cyclist. Then he finishes the motion, and the turn, so he's facing the same direction he'd started out looking, but a few feet further back than he had been. "Ni hao ma?"

Red has posed:
"Dangit, look where you stand!" Alice scoffs as the cycle ground to a halt, her fingers white as they still clamp down on the break. "You could have ended run down."

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao turns a bit more, until he's properly facing the person on the bike. He lifts his hands and cups them before him, fan clasped more or less between, and half bows to her. "My pardon," he says. "I was not expecting a road. You are unharmed?" His voice, by contrast, remains soft and calm. The near miss doesn't seem to have upset his calm in the slightest.

Red has posed:
Alice nods as she gets off the bicycle, knees shaky. "Y..yea, but the path is marked. I mean, over there and there and there." She points to some waymarks and that indeed the ground is fortified in such a way that it indicates a dirt path through the woods. "What're you doing cosplaying out in the woods? Lost your photo crew?" there's a mild chuckle as she eyes him over. "I mean, that costume must have cost a fortune."

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao straightens and thent urns to look toward the waymarks indicated. "Ah. I was unaware of what those were. I will be more careful in the future." Then there's a question, and Zhao's expression holds both confusion and curiousity as he turns his head to look back at her. With that motion, some of his long hair falls over his left shoulder. "Cos... playing? This is what?" His accent, while relatively good by the standards of his people, marks him as Not From America. Then, "Photo crew? This is people who take pictures?" He glances down at himself, then back to the other. "My robes? They were a gift from my mother."

Red has posed:
Alice sighs a moment. "Of course people taking pictures. After all why go out to the woods in costume unless you want to make photos?" She shrugs a moment, sorting the jacket a moment to allow warmer air to get out of the neck of it. "Your mom supports your cosplaying? Nice! What movie is your persona from? Must be a china one... hmmm, Shaolin? Taichi Master? Hero? 18 Bronzemen?"

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao looks down at his robes again. "I... am not in costume?" He definitely sounds confused. As he looks back, he very carefully does not let his eyes stray lower than her lips. Mostly, those dark eyes stay on her eyes. Or above them. "I do not know what cos playing is." That is spoken distinctly as two words. Cos, and playing. The word is somewhat stilted as well, as though it's not something he's ever said before. "My mother made my clothing. So.. um... shi?" He shakes his head. "China is where I am from. You know of Mount Shaoshi? It is very far from Namcha Barwa." He doesn't seem to understand the referrals to 'Hero' or '18 Bronzemen', but obviously, Shaolin is familiar.

Red has posed:
"Not a costume? But you look like you hopped right off a movie screen. Maybe sans the wood bench or hat you would expect from a Jackie Chan produciton. So your Mom's a seamstress?" Alice stretched the fingers a little. "I have no idea where Shaoshi is, but I know the movie Shaolin. And Like the dozen other movies that have that word in the name. That's like the monks kicking ass, right?"

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao shakes his head. "Not a costume," he says. There's a faint smile, just one corner of his lips curling up. "My mother is.. complicated." He takes a moment and tucks the fan into his sash again, then clasps his hands at the small of his back. "Shaoshi is in China, in the Henan province. Movie. Is moving pictures, yes? I have not seen any. But yes. There are monks at Shaolin monastery. There are also monks where I grew up. I suppose some of them do..." He pauses here, as though uncertain of just what to say. He finally finishes with, "... fight well."

Red has posed:
Alice nods. "Yea, movies are moving pictures, best shown on a silver screen with a projector and enjoyed with friends, but a TV also works fine, often even with a better quality unless you can get a good projector. You're not one of those shaolin monks that train to perform, crack bricks with their hands and stuff?"

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao listens curiously, nodding here and there. "I have seen these.. TVs you mention. They.. do not like me so I keep away." Many businesses have TVs in their windows these days. There's a quiet chuckle at her question, and he shakes his head. "Shaolin monk, no. Some of my training came from monks, though. Mostly Taoist. A few Buddhist. I have never attempted cracking bricks with my hands."

Red has posed:
"Tv's can't like or hate anyone. They're just machinery. Comeon, don't day you blow those up or something. Taoist... isn't that the plot of TaiChi? Some guy learns from taoist monks with his sworn brother, then they split at the army, one goes powerhungry, the other looses his mind and in the end goes and beats the life out of his former brother to redeem him." Alice knows her movies. "And Buddhist monks... Bulletproof Monk style?"

Xiang Zhao has posed:
"Technology does not react well around me," explains Xiang Zhao. Did that really explain anything though? He listens curiously to the story being told, and shakes his head. "I am not familiar with a story called TaiChi, but I have heard tales similar to what you describe." Clearly, Zhao does not know his movies nearly so well! "I am not bulletproof. Nor a monk. I might be able to stop a bullet if I knew it was coming." That's the key though, isn't it? It's hard to know a bullet is coming if it comes from a distance.

Red has posed:
"Eh, that *is* Bulletproof monk. Biting a bullet out of thin air. Movies stuff." Alice remarks, checking her watch. "So you are a movie monk, are yea? Even though you claim you break technology."

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao blinks, and blinks again. "Biting a bullet? No. That I cannot do." He glances around. At the trees, the sky overhead, the path he still stands on the edge of, then back to the woman. "If I get close enough to technology, I do not break it so much as mess it up. The best result is usually things shutting off and refusing to turn on." There's a pause, and then an offering of a name. "I am Xiang Zhao," he says. The pair of words said more like a single word, as if the whole thing is his given name, rather than a family name and a given name.

Red has posed:
"Ah well, there's possibly people that can." Alice notes, once more checking her watch before straddling the bike properly again. "Alice, but I got to catch a bis. I mean, it's going in like twenty minutes and I need to be downtown to get my ticket before that. Have a good one..."

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao nods. "Possibly," he agrees. 'Bus' and 'ticket' seem to be concepts he's at least familiar with, and he nods once more. "It was good meeting you. Take care." He waits for a few moments, and then, looking both ways carefully in case of further bicycle traffic, crosses the path. Once on the other side, Zhao disappears into the forest. Continuing to.. wherever it is he was going.