ArchivedLogs:Winning

Winning
Dramatis Personae Lyric, Yuehai
In Absentia	2016-07-25 '
Location <NYC> Central Park South
Central Park South is home not just to the park itself, but also to the Belvedere Castle, the Alice in Wonderland statues, and the Central Park Zoo. These areas tend to draw tourists like a magnet - it is, perhaps, for that very reason that places like Bethesda Terrace tend to attract more New Yorkers than not, if just to escape the press of tourism that infiltrates the whole city. It's been a blazing bright day, and the falling of evening has not broken the sweltering heat. Even so, Central Park is full of joggers, skaters, and walkers, with and without dogs. By dinner time, though, there's hardly anyone lingering on this particular slalom course on the south trail loop. The small knot of women in roller skates who had been gathered there just a while ago are dispersing. Yuehai sits in the grass, gingerly cleaning off a reddish scrape on the outside of her left forearm. Her hair has been tied up, but is damp with sweat and the bun has mostly unraveled. She wears a bright pink athletic tank top and purple bike shorts. She has taken off her much-scuffed silver helmet but still wears matching elbow pads and knee pads, as well as an ancient pair of hot pink roller skates. Lyric is just zipping over from where she's been chatting animatedly with a much taller beanpole of a girl, fetching up into the grass with a few wobbly steps once she moves from smooth surface to earth. She is wearng long grey and pink track pants, a breezy light pink long-sleeved shirt over top of a green tank top, a neatly folded green and pink scarf wrapped over her hair and under her chin. She drops to her knees, first, before turning around to sit in the grass beside a duffel bag. Slipping a small blank tablet from the side of the bag, she prints on it with a stylus: 'Had fun?' Yuehai looks up when Lyric approaches. Caps her water bottle. Waves. Tilts her head slightly at the tablet, then reads the words written on it. She looks up from the question to Lyric's face, then back down to the tablet, then back up. Opens her mouth to speak, closes it. Then, finally, "Oh yes, very fun, /thank you./" The last words come out in Mandarin. Then she hastily adds, nodding at the stylus in Lyric's hand and making a scribbling gesture, "I should write this? Not to use the English?" Lyric studies Yuehai's face closely, lips pursing thoughtfully. She nods eventually, pushing a button at the top of the tablet to clear it before writing again. 'This easier yes. Glad you have fun that's the point good to destress. Interested in sticking around?' She tips the tablet out to Yuehai, offering the stylus to the other woman. Yuehai's dark brown eyes follow Lyric's words as she writes them this time. She nods enthusiastically even while accepting the tablet. Her grip on the stylus looks a little awkward, and her handwriting is jagged and blocky. 'I very much want to! Is it a problem, that I am not good at the skating?' Lyric is shaking her head even while she watches Yuehai write, a quick bright smile lighting her face. Her breath of laughter is rough, a little hoarse, fingers and thumb closing in together as her head shakes. She takes the stylus back, jotting down quickly: 'Not problem. Most of the team never skate before. Nobody has done derby before. Maybe we won't win. Still fun though right?' Yuehai's eyes widen, though her expression remain otherwise unchanged. She nods jerkily, taking the tablet back. 'Never skate before? But you skate very good!' Her head tilts to one side. Her eyes flick up at the row of cones running down the middle of the slalom course. 'I like fun, but,' a grin spreads across her face, 'like to win, too.' Lyric glances over at the course, too. Her nose crinkles up, smile brightening. She leans back, palm planted against the grass and her toes wiggling, toestops clacking together. The bob of her head is cheerful agreement. 'OK settled then. We'll have fun winning.'