ArchivedLogs:Flowers in the Mirror

Flowers in the Mirror
Dramatis Personae Tag, Tian-shin
In Absentia	2014-02-04 The Hua children have an awkward reunion in the family bookstore.
Location <NYC> Jin Hua Yuan - Chinatown
This bookstore occupies a prime location off Canal Street, crammed in with other bustling immigrant-owned businesses. A print on the door depicts ethereal women in traditional Chinese outfits playing traditional Chinese musical instruments among flowers blooming in the snow. Inside, the store is claustrophobic, tall shelves packed just a little too close together. Long fluorescent tubes in the drop ceiling keep the aisles well-lit, though one of them is aging and visibly flickering. The scent of paper and incense linger in the air. A counter beside the entryway boasts a cash register, a brush rack, an inkstone, and a PC monitor. “{It probably has a virus,}” Hua Tian-yi says. The lanky young man wears a red turtleneck sweater, black blazer, and khakis, a combination he probably got out of some magazine article on the proper attire for young professionals. Arms crossed, he looms over his sister and looks unimpressed. Sitting at the counter in front of the computer monitor, Hua Tian-shin rolls her eyes and coaxes the cursor over to the the Start menu. She has not changed out of work clothes--a black pinstripe pantsuit of masculine and red satin blouse. Her hair is meticulously done up in a bun secured with a red jade hair stick, its broad end fashioned into a stylized horse mid-capriole. “I really doubt that. I’m just going to reboot it.” “{That’s what you /always/ do!}” Tian-yi sticks to Mandarin and shifts his weight onto one hip in a futile attempt to look even more unimpressed. “That’s because it /works/ most of the time,” replies Tian-shin. She clicks ‘Restart’ and sits back on the stool for the long wait. “You know I have work of my own to do, right? Anyway, if Tag were here, he’d actually be able to do something...” “{Bullshit.}” Tian-yi snorts. “{/Big sister/ left us for good, you forget?}” Tian-shin does not rise to the bait. “I would, too, in his pace.” “{And it’s her fault that Ba isn’t coming back, either.}” “{Good riddance,}” Tian-shin mutters, pouring herself a cup of tea from the thermos under the counter. Her younger brother looks as though he is working his way up to an outburst when the front door swings open. Both Huas turn toward it, struggling to arrange their expressions into something acceptable for customer service purposes. Something small and colorful blazes through the door and shuts it against the blast of cold. Tag wears a pale blue jacket and bright yellow cargo pants, rainbow hair spilling from beneath a purple gradient knit cap. A scarlet neckerchief peeks out from the jacket’s stand collar, and makes his rosy cheeks look even redder. “{I got your email,}” he offers by way of explanation before throwing his arms around his sister. Tian-shin recovers quickly from her shock and embraces Tag. “You could have told me you were coming, we would have had something ready for you.” “{You’re not welcome here,}” Tian-yi says, his voice cold and flat, his eyes narrowed. Tian-shin shoots him a sidelong glare. “{You don’t have any say over that. Ma owns the shop, you just work for her.}” “But I’m the /man/ of the house.” Tian-yi stands fully upright and strikes his chest with a closed fist to punctuate the word “man.” Tian-shin groans. “I think he just gave us permission to ignore him.” She releases Tag and holds him out at arms’ length. “You look well. How are you doing?” Tag shrugs, pulling the cap from his head and shaking his multicolored mane back into place. “Okay, I guess? Been working my ass off, but finally took some days off for Lunar New Year. I kept wanting to come and see you, but...” He shrugs again, then suddenly smiles, his entire person literally brightening in the blink of an eye. “Anyway, here I am! Gong shi fa tsai!” Looking past Tian-shin at their younger sibling. “You, too, Mister Man of the House.” “Gong shi fa tsai.” Tian-shin smiles and hugs Tag again. “I tried to find you, before the outbreak. And after, well... You have no idea how worried I’ve been.” “{You can’t tie your own shoes without falling down the stairs,}” Tian-yi adds. “{You would have been safe here, and Tian-tian would have been safe, too, if she hadn’t run off looking for you.}” Tian-shin closes her eyes, sucks in a deep breath, and releases it. “Hua Tian-yi,” she says, leaning deliberately on each word, “would it kill you to shut your mouth for a few minutes?” “I’ll say what I like.” Despite his bravado, Tian-yi sounds appropriately chastised. “The way I hear it, they were shooting people just for being the wrong place at the wrong time round here. No, I’ll take where I was, even if I had to go foraging in zombie infested streets. But...” Tag wrinkles his magenta eyebrows at his sister. “You came looking for me?” His attention is drawn to the monitor when it finally stops displaying the animated Windows ‘loading’ icon and shows the CG Year of the Horse desktop image. “Wow, that is a /slow/ boot, guys, you might wanna invest in more RAM. Or install something that’s /not/ Windows Vista. Cuz Vista sucks.” Tian-shin levels a vindicated eyebrow in Tian-yi’s direction at the comment about the computer. “Yes, I did leave the neighborhood--initially in search of you, but after the first day or two, I didn’t hold out much hope.” she admits. “Things were so chaotic...I did not hold out much hope of finding you, even if you were still alive. I worked with Heroes For Hire; it gave me something useful to do, and access to the casualty lists, such as they were.” She gives a small shrug, then tugs on her jacket reflexively to seat it on her shoulders again. “{She got some use out of that sword Ba gave her,}” Tian-yi adds, heedless of the hurt look in his sister’s eyes at the mention of their father. “{The computer has a virus. Tian-tian says you can fix it.” Tag puts a hand on Tian-shin’s shoulder. “Yeah, you were always the badass one. But I had people looking after me. I was looking after them best I could, too.” Oranges and yellows swim out of the shadows of his red scarf, making it look like a twist of fire captured in fabric. “I’m sorry you went through all that and didn’t find me, but I’m glad we both made it out alive regardless. As for this dinosaur…” He ignores the mouse and just hits a few macros to call up the system information. “{I really doubt it has a virus. Probably just a lot of} bloatware and spyware chewing up cycles. I’m not gonna fix your computer, though. Madness that way lies. {If you don’t feel like upgrade either hardware or software, a clean install of} Vista {will still help.}” A childish smirk twists the corner of his mouth. “You know, even though it sucks.” Tian-shin nods. “I bet it’s from Tian-yi playing all those Facebook games or something.” Ignoring the youngest Hua’s arm-flailing, she continues, “Anyway, you don’t need to fix the shop computer, I’ll try the clean installation. If I somehow mess that up, I’m sure we can /hire/ someone whose job it is to do stuff like this. At least the cursor isn’t stuttering across the screen at the moment.” She stands up, quite a few inches taller than her older brother--especially in her chunky winter heels. “Stay for dinner, Tag. Ma got fresh-made shui-jiao from Zhang Po-po up the street. You know, the groundskeeper for the Guan-yin shrine...” “I /know/ who Zhang Po-po is.” Tag puffs his chest out, but doesn’t look at all offended with a bright smile on his face. “{And I know she makes awesome shui-jiao. Vegetarian, too!} But me and Ma...we’re not ready to just sit down and have a meal together. Not sure we ever will, but I don’t wanna get into that right now. {It’s Spring Festival, time for family, not for the filially impious like me.}” The smile widens into a grin. “I’m OK with that, though. Got some gaming with friends tonight anyway. Just let Ma know I’m fine.” He rises onto the toes of his hot pink sneakers and gives Tian-shin as tight a hug as his small frame can deal out, then offers a fist for Tian-yi to bump. “{Alright, big brother.}” Tian-shin turns her face into Tag’s polychromatic hair and only reluctantly lets go. “Happy New Year. At least take some nian-goa with you, it’s auspicious.” So saying, she takes a box from a shelf behind the counter and pushes it into Tag’s hand. “And take care of yourself out there. It can be brutal, and I don’t just mean the weather.” Tian-yi looks at Tag’s proffered fist the way one might regard a harmless but unsightly insect. For a moment he seems tempted to accept the gesture of friendship, but Tian-shin’s fussing about nian-goa gives him a moment to harden his heart. He turns partly away, though not without an awkward glance back his older, but much shorter, sibling. “Yeah, don’t get killed.” Tag accepts the box with a slight bow and stuffs it into the backpack he has slung over one shoulder. “Thanks, Mei-mei.” His smile, and his whole person, dims a fraction when Tian-yi snubs him. “I’ll try not to, OK? You guys take care, too. Don’t drink and light firecrackers. All that.” He hefts the backpack up onto both shoulders and is off again, a slightly different set of colors than when he walked in through the door. “Bye.” Tian-shin waves. She blinks her eyes several times in rapid succession to clear them and draws a deep breath. “{She thinks she’s so much better than we are.}” The disdain in Tian-yi’s voice is palpable. “{Just some crossdressing freak who can’t hold down a job...}” Tian-shin bristles, her hands clenching into fists and her whole body shaking with the effort of containing her fury. The tea, long cold and still resting beside the mousepad, starts to bubble as if in a fierce rolling boil. “{What the...}” Tian-yi jumps back, staring wide-eyed and gape-mouthed at the cup. Tian-shin covers her own mouth with one hand and takes one uncertain step toward the counter. The bubbling has begun to subside, but a good quarter of the tea has gone. “I thought...I thought I had dreamt that. Or it was a side effect of something Baba did to my mind. But this...” “{You...}” Tian-yi’s gaze turns wary as comprehension dawns. “{You’re one of them, too.}” He does not give her a chance to discuss or refute, but snatches up his trenchcoat and storms out. Tian-shin stands alone in the empty bookstore, stretching out a tentative hand to touch the teacup and not flinching away once she reaches it. “Uncanny,” she whispers. “Thanks a lot, Baba.”