ArchivedLogs:Thinking Makes it So

Thinking Makes it So
Dramatis Personae Tag, Yuehai	2016-04-24 "{Did you do /that/ by thinking about it really hard, too?}"
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. The streets of Chinatown are perhaps not quite as bustling today as on any given Sunday, despite the lovely weather. Though the neighborhood has seen few protests and even less in the way of associated violence and property destruction, the general unrest in the city has had an impact on tourism and even business on a more local scale. The shop is empty at the moment save for Tag, and he has come out from behind the counter to shelve some new books. His shoulder-length hair is divided into six wedges in bright rainbow colors. He wears a t-shirt patterned like the sky--currently a vibrant blue scatterd with puffy white clouds--frayed black cargo pants with yellow lightning bolts down the outseams, and hot pink sneakers with glittery purple laces. Kneeling beside a carboard box containing new books, he has stopped to leaf through one of them (/The Flying Fox of Snow Mountain/ by Jin Yong), a slow smile finding its way across his face. Yuehai ducks into the shop (not that she /needs/ to duck), peering about in the sudden dimness, her eyes not yet adjusted from the bright sunlight outside. She is nicely dressed in a scarlet satin stand-collar tunic covered with peonies and sleek black trousers, her long black hair in a single braid down her back and a pair of black cateye glasses perched low on her nose. Only five steps into the store, she has already stumbled into the stack of shopping baskets (it does not topple; she takes one) /and/ the umbrella holder (which does fall over). "{Sorry, sorry!}" in quick, quiet Mandarin as she ducks her head and stoops to right the steel cylinder. "Huan yin guang ling!" Tag pipes, greeting the customer as he rises. His Mandarin has a heavy northern Chinese twang. "{Oh, don't worry about that, I'll get it.}" He flutters his free hand at the umbrella holder--he's still holding the wu-xia novel in his other hand. "{Not going to rain this afternoon anyway.}" He pads back over the counter, setting down the book. "{Were you looking for anything specific? Or just browsing?}" Yuehai rights the umbrella holder and looks up at the brightly colored man, staring at him kind of blankly. "{Oh! No, it's -- I fixed it. I mean, it's not broken!}" She rights herself now, too, gripping the shopping basket in both hands as if she expects Tag to /charge/ at her. "{I'm looking for some light reading, I guess? Nothing specific.}" Licking her lips, she peers down one of the narrow passages between bookshelves. "{Do you have any recommendations?}" Tag chews on his lower lip, bright magenta eyes looking up toward the flaking acustic ceiling tiles as he mulls over the question. "{Light reading, huh? So, contemporary fiction. Any genres you like?}" He waggles the famous Jin Yong book in his hand. "{My sister reads wuxia constantly for entertainment and de-stressing.}" Yuehai is staring with undisguised interest at Tag's eyes. "{Oh, no particular genre. I read a lot of wuxia when I was young, it was entertaining, but I read more science fiction now.}" She finally recognizes the book in Tag's hand. "{I have read that one! Maybe something with a little more structure? How did you get your eyes that color?}" The last question comes with no change in her intonation or slightly-forward-leaning body language, as if it were all of a piece with her previous inquiry. "{Oh, sci-fi, that's up my alley!}" Tag brightens at this. Somewhat /literally/--his hair grows a few shades more vivid, the clouds on his t-shirt whiter, the unnatural violet-pink of his irises almost gleaming in their intensity. "{Have you read /Three Body/, by Liu Tsi-shin? It is a new twist on the old alien invasion tale, I highly recommend it.}" He's drifted out from behind the counter again and toward a bookshift, eyes skimming around in a practiced search pattern. He spares a glance back at Yuehai, though, at the question. "Hmm? {Oh, my eyes--I...just think about it /really/ hard.}" There's only the hint of jest in this reply; he sounds mostly sincere. Yuehai stares at...all of Tag, now. "{Did you do /that/ by thinking about it really hard, too?}" The question /almost/ sounds rhetorical, but by the width of her eyes and the wonder in her voice she sounds quite serious. "{Oh, that is /The Three Body Problem/ in English, right? I've heard a lot about those and kept meaning to read them, but haven't gotten around to it.}" She peers past Tag at the bookshelf. "{Do you have the whole series?}" "{Do what?}" Tag cocks his head at Yuehai like a quizzical dog. "{You mean the hair and such? I--well, I can turn things different colors. I have a business, actually.}" He produces a glossy black business card from a pocket of his cargo pants to hand to Yuehai. The metallic rainbow heading on it reads "Neon & Chrome: Color Services by Tag" above some contact information in smaller print. "{If you ever want anything dyed or painted or whatever. And yeah, we have all three.}" He rises onto tip-toes and looks at the shelf holding the books in question. "{We have it in both simplified or complex script. Your accent sounds Taiwanese...}" "{You can turn...}" Yuehai accepts the business card and studies it intently. "{Oh! With your brain? That's...}" She looks at Tag's hair, which, despite its bright colors, is as glossy and thick as her own. "{...a lot better than having to bleach your hair two or three times!}" Nodding with a smile somehow both shy and proud. "{Ah, yes, I'm from Taiwan, so complex script, please. You are from Shanghai?}" "{With my brain!}" Tag agrees, flashing a quicksilver smile, his hair and outfit brightening yet further. "{It sure is. In fact, I work part-time at a hair salon down the street--Chio-Shui, great place to get a haircut whether you want colors or not.}" He pulls three neat, crisp volumes from the shelf, the abstract motifs on their covers similar in design but one in blue, one in red, and one in green. "{Shanghai, yes--good ear! I've been living in the U.S. most of my life now.}" He holds the books out, but does not put them into Yuehai's hands just yet, "{Do you want to look through them? I can put them on the counter if you want to look around.}" "{Ah, I will keep this in mind!}" Yuehai flushes slightly at the praise. Pushes her glasses up, out of danger of falling off her nose. "{Oh! Thank you, please hold them for me. I would like to look aorund some.}" She bows quickly. "{Thank you!}" "{Sure, no problem.}" Tag bows back kind of reflexively and brings the books with him back to the counter, setting them in a neat stack beside the computer there before he returns to his big box of as-yet-unshelved-books. "{Let me know if you have any questions, but take your time.}"