Owner	Pose
Brooke Harris	The martial arts studio is run down and in a forgotten corner of Chinatown, run by an elderly Chinese gongfu master and his granddaughter. The granddaughter tends to keep the place a bit more female-friendly, so the women at the martial arts classes have actually heard of the place. Still, it's sort of a commercially unsuccessful hole kept open almost as a hobby. They offer a free class to try it out.. but the class size is tiny. The floor is bare wood with a few splinters. The air smells like plaster. The furniture is plywood.
Carrie Kelley	After being told not to come back to the Gotham U advanced self-defense course due to getting a bit overzealous in the fight, Carrie had been looking for somewhere else to learn. Somewhere that, she hoped, would be a bit more serious about it so far as practical skills went. A recommendation from a student on a bulletin board at the college had led her here. Pausing in front of the door she takes a deep breath before entering to take in the sight of the run-down dojo with a slow back and forth sweep of her eyes. Huh. "Hope I'm not late," she mumbles as she moves further in.
Brooke Harris	Inside the class, a group of students are going through some sort of form, taking steps forward and drilling with a series of solid, deep punches and techniques linked to the steps. Deep stances, very solid strikes. Some of the students are doing the exact same drills, but using a spear. The granddaughter is calling out movements while the master sits in a chair on the side. Occasionally he calls a student out to correct their form. One of the students steps away and goes to greet you. "Hello, is this your first time? We're doing our warm up forms now. Here, I can show you the basic movements we are practicing."
Carrie Kelley	Carrie Kelley watches quietly from the sidelines feeling a bit unsure of herself. Yet the motions they were going through were far more of what she was looking for than the usual 'jab for the eyes, elbow the stomach, scream for help' routines that she'd attended prior. When the student steps forward to greet her she smiles with a look of relief as she hadn't wanted to interrupt. "Yes, it's my first time. Thanks. I appreciate it." She follows the student in and sets to the motions as they're shown to her.
Brooke Harris	Brooke steps in the door, a Black girl in a black hoodie and jogging pants. She coolly looks over the students, pulls back her hood, and drifts around the edge of the room toward the instructors. She holds out a package to them and smiles softly, murmuring a greeting in Chinese. The teacher looks half pleased, half alarmed, and after a short interaction, she has Brooke fall in with the rest of the class. The next part is paired drills with set movements, one of the specific strikes on either side defended by the mirror strike. Brooke gets paired with you and smiles peacefully, all cool calmness and peace. She looks you over carefully. "You haven't done this art yet, have you?" She readies herself for your punch. "Do the movement, full power. Relax."
Carrie Kelley	Carrie Kelley flashes her new partner an apologetic smile at the question with a little shake of her head. "No, I havent. First time," she admits. At least she wasn't out of shape in any way. It was a start. Her head tips to the side regarding Brooke and the suggestion she go full strength. "Okay," she agrees taking a deep breath. The motions are followed again, and she swings forward with the punch putting her weight behind it.
Brooke Harris	Brooke softly floats up to parry your punch away at your elbow and raise her fist toward your jaw. No apparent effort at all. Your fist just misses. She doesn't release her counter, because that isn't the drill. Brooke contemplates your posture. "Your throat and shoulders are looking a bit hurt. Did something happen? And your neck, that's not affecting you as much.. That's a very sharp blade though..." She looks over your stance. "Can I touch you? I want to adjust your posture for this." as she visibly runs through the dynamics in her head of how that cut might have gotten there.
Carrie Kelley	The movements from this girl were more than a little impressive reminding Carrie just how much work she had to do yet. Still, if this was what the dojo offered, she felt far more secure in coming here than in her prior choices. When caught she offers a smile to Brooke with a little dip of her head in acknowledgement. Then the bruises are mentioned. "Ah... Yeah I had a run in with some trouble last week. That's why I'm trying to learn now," she admits. A half step is taken back to regain some room between the two as her hands start to come down before pausing. "Sure. If you have any pointers that's great."
Brooke Harris	Brooke nods. She moves over and adjusts your hips a bit, centering you a bit more, then your shoulders. "This punch is more of a straight. You want to drill in along the center line. Aim it at my spine; if it is off to the side I can roll it around. This one, aim for the breastbone. That will knock the wind out of somebody. You can aim lower, it works good too, but you might have to push in deeper." She takes her stance in front of you again. "What kind of trouble? And is it something you worry might happen again? Attack again."
Carrie Kelley	Carrie Kelley follows the advice given with a stern, studious expression. Foot there. Hip there. Arm here. Her focus was rather resolute on the moment trying to get as much right as she can from this hands-on advice. It would do much better for her than any youtube videos she could scrounge up. "Oh I don't think it'll happen again but I didn't like how it went to begin with. I took self-defense courses before. None of it helped." Before she explains too much more she moves to punch aiming as she was told for Brooke's spine to center her punch. "I don't think you'd believe me... but I got used as a shield by some ninjas that Batman was fighting."
Brooke Harris	Brooke softly brings her arm up to deflect your elbow slightly, stepping in along the inside of your arm and bringing her other hand into position to strike at your jaw. "Much better. Just like that a few more times and then we'll switch." She steps back to repeat the exercise a few times with the same outcome. "Yeah, the self defense works fine on people who don't know how to fight." Repeat, parry. "Ninjas, huh? There's a lot of those lately. It's getting better, though. There was a change in management in the distribution level on the gangs." Another parry. "Okay, switch."
Carrie Kelley	"Really? I guess that's... good? I really only knew much about the gang in my neighborhood but I think they broke apart a year or two ago," Carrie responds with a thoughtful frown. How does this girl know about gangs? Then again this was Gotham. The movement continues again, and again, until the switch is called. Moving back to take up the defensive stance she asks, "How long have you been coming here? You seem very good at this."
Brooke Harris	Brooke ohs, "I trained under Shifu for a bit a couple years ago. This is a Xingyiquan class, and I needed his help with a form. I'm mostly a Qigong practitioner, and I am mostly Taijiquan, but Xingyi is one of the three Taoist sister arts, and they mesh really well. I'll start out slow. Pay attention to what you feel, not just the mechanics." Her face suddenly blanks, suddenly deadly serious and a bit scary, intention linked through her fist. Her attention flashes to your ribcage, and she slowly extends a fist toward you, keeping her arm along her center line and sliding her foot in for the strike. An unstoppable object seeking you out.
Carrie Kelley	That went serious quickly. Carrie blinks at Brooke as the list of styles are rattled off, none of which mean anything to her. Time to Google things later as she usually did when she needed to learn something. "I see," she responds not sure what else to say. Another smile is flashed and she nods. "Okay I'm ready." It's a good thing she is. The change in Brooke's appearance causes her to pay attention quickly. Her arm comes up just as Brooke's had to deflect the punch as she had with her own. It wasn't quite as good, but she had been watching.
Brooke Harris	Brooke smiles and flashes back. "Good! I'll write it down after this if you need." She flicks her eyes down. "Remember to step boldly. Foot forward, rotate. Your power is in your feet, not your arms. Keep your hips under you. Again." She resets, then blanks and slowly launches another punch, straight down the center, radiating imminent violence.
Carrie Kelley	"That'd be great, thanks. I tend to read a lot." Carrie smiles with relief at finding someone who knows what she's doing, and is willing to share. It made her feel so much better about stepping outside of her usual comfort zone to try and find a better way to learn. Another nod is given, and she moves into position again to repeat the motions. Strength in the legs, hips under. It wasn't that dissimilar to dancing, or some of her old gymnastics. Just different motions. Even the sense of violence that Brooke seemed to give off becomes familiar as she works through it.
Brooke Harris	Brooke repeats over and over through the drill, back and forth. The movements change a bit a couple times as extra steps are added, then a water break is called. "I teach taijiquan at a studio in Canada, if you ever get up that way. I can vouch for the Sifu here, though." She gives you a card. You have a background in something else. Dance, maybe? It all fits together." She looks you over again and thinks a bit. "I get down this way sometimes, though. This was a welfare check, kind of." She considers you. "Can you show me what the attack that got you bruised up looked like? No two attacks are the same, but maybe I can help you think your way through this one. Debriefing is really important."
Carrie Kelley	Carrie Kelley almost loses track of time until water is mentioned. Suddenly she feels rather parched from the workout. Repetitive though it was, it was working a lot of muscles she hadn't necessarily used in awhile. A deep breath is taken, and she shakes out her arms a few times to loosen them up again. "I do dance but nothing much. I took gymnastics when I was younger," she explains with a smile. The card is taken looking it over before she slides it into the pocket of her own hoodie. "Thanks so much. I can try to show you but I was kind of... Hard to see." She starts to step around Brooke before pausing. "Do you mind if I touch you to show you then?" She waits for a confirmation before approaching further. It's a choke hold pinching against the artery rather than the trachea which had left her with one heck of a head rush. "And then there was a sword held here..." she explains further.
Brooke Harris	Brooke nods, "Go ahead. Do you know how tall they were? Where their feet were?" She just leans in slightly to feel the details. "Try this in dancing. Touch your partner and close your eyes and you can feel where the rest of their body is." She hmms. "You're the ninja. Notice, your feet are narrow, so you can lift, because you have to get your arms around my neck. So you want to drop your weight, but not just straight down. You want to get them off their base." She bucks with her hips and twists to launch herself a bit away from you. "Now if your ninja tries to hold on, they have to do a lot more moving around, and they're going to have more things you can take advantage of. They step, you can go for the side of their knee. Or other things."
Carrie Kelley	"Mm. Taller... His collarbone was by my ear I think." Carrie closes her eyes contemplating those details. How had it been? She hadn't thought this much in detail about the situation since it had happened. When Brooke leans forward she feels it break her grip and balance causing her eyes to open again with a soft 'oh' of realization. "Yeah, I did the 'pretend to faint and become dead weight' thing I'd been told in some classes. It brought me back..." Which put HER off balance. "I see now." Suddenly it all made sense. "Move forward and use your hips like a fulcrum to get an advantage."
Brooke Harris	Brooke nods, "Right. I've had to deal with ninjas before." She grins. "Yeah, as soon as they grab you, you are sharing a center of balance with him. So you have to take control of it. If you just go limp, they can just adjust and hold you. They're hoping for a docile target." Brooke thinks. "Plus, it takes them off book. You want to be the one making THEM react, not the other way around. You can do that with defense, you try to get them to attack the way you want and then make things go how they don't expect, but you are still trying to keep them reacting to you."
Carrie Kelley	Carrie Kelley looks thoughtful as she regards this potential way of handling future issues. Absently her hand rubs at her bruised throat recalling it. Now she looks much more assured of herself than she had at first though. "That makes sense. A lot more than what I'd been told before. Thank you, again. Oh... geeze I haven't even introduced myself." The realization causes her to cringe comically with a little chuckle at herself. "I'm Carrie. It's been really great to meet you."
Brooke Harris	Brooke smiles. "Brooke. The teachers here know all this stuff. If anything weird comes up with them, go ahead and let me know. I try to keep up with the masters around here. There's some levels of culture at the high end that most people never see. Costumes and gangs and craziness like that." She hmms, tilting her head a bit. "Most people don't push for the top levels in this stuff. They go for a rank, maybe, but not the skill." She frowns, obviously having had some other thought drift through her mind. She sighs a little, then comes back to attention. "I'm going to need to talk to the Sifu. Keep an eye out in this city. Learn what the people you are afraid of want, and think like them to see where they will pay attention to."
Carrie Kelley	Carrie Kelley nods solemnly at the advice given. Some of it was a bit unusual she had to admit. Still it was good advice. "I will. Thank you again, Brooke. This is... A lot to take in but I think I'm on the right track now." Though she hadn't quite figured out yet what it was she was on track for. At least not obviously. It would come in time. "I'll let you go do your thing. I should probably check in about classes and such as well." She opens her mouth to thank Brooke again before just shaking her head with a chuckle. She was getting really repetitive. "Enjoy your time in Gotham."
Brooke Harris	Brooke smiles. "I hope so! Last time I was in town, I had to beat up a bunch of ninja." She grins and winks at you playfully. "Let me know if there's anything else I can help."
Carrie Kelley	Carrie Kelley laughs warmly at the remark. Was she serious? Who knew. "I'll keep in touch," she assures with a solemn nod.