Match of the Millennium

Description: Upon the base of the Great Wall of China, the dancing fighter Mian expects to bring a dignified, cultural demonstration of core Chinese values to a world audience. Which would be the case, except siying777 is on the scene. Bringing in her own personal team of online camera crew, the vlogger is ready for the camera light on -her-. And she is more than eager to start up her livestream of her first public match on the Saturday Night Fights. Will she come to learn and respect the masked fighting style of Mian? Or will she look to gain subscribers by knocking her on her ass every time a donation is sent in by the chat?

[SIYING]
This SNF segment is led by...

si ying seven seven seven! The introductory graphic montage is about as tasteful and subdued as a slot machine declaring you to have gotten all lucky 7s, and was probably from a similar source. The fifteen seconds of colorful mayhem fades into a twenty-second montage of glamor shots from Siying's trip to the mainland! Then we go live into.

"Hello! Hello - okay! Sound check, check~ Hi, everyone! This is meeeeeeeee SiyinghuangcominglivefromtheGreat. WALL. Look at it!!"

Siying jumps up and down. She is wearing a vaguely cheongsam-looking top that leaves her midriff bare. Underneath that is what is probably meant to be something like a skirt or a sarong but is really mostly just kind of inappropriate, worn over a pair of red spats to keep things from getting a little *too* Jezebel.

"Alright so we're doing an exciting LIVE PARALLEL with the Saturday Night Fight people so I know a lot of you are first time viewers! That's siying777 - sing it with me everyone -" And her support crew sing the cheerful little ditty that is, in fact, just 'Siying 7 7 7' and then 'Siying nana nana nana' to what is almost certainly the old Batman theme.

There is an interlude then of introducing the crew, who consist of

* A camera guy
* A live commenter who will be joining the SNF commenter team but will be talking direct to the stream and, he promises, live-translating it if they go from English into Chinese
* Someone of unclear purpose who is basically a skinny guy who looks a lot like Siying and sounds sort of like her and is wearing a similar outfit minus the skirt... for now
* Scooter
* A tough-looking guy with mirror shades who is always smoking and has a laptop open. Regular viewers would know this guy serves as a barker for stream updates.

"So let's go over and meet my big first battle rival. I hear she's in opera or something! I wonder if we'll be friends... OR ENEMIES," Siying says as the camera guy follows her towards where Mian has had the opportunity to gather herself.

"Say hi to the stream!!" ("Nine hundred viewers," calls the guy with the laptop.)

[MIAN]
The contract was explicit.

Mian would arrive at the base of the Great Wall of China. She would be in full garb, dressed in the rich wear of Bian Lian. She already arrived in the flowing green robes tinged in gold leaf; her mask of choice was a stylized mask of purple and black, indicating a noble presence, with long antenae stp She had upon the top of it. She had brought her fans, and she was ready to carry out the contract was clear: you dance, you fight, and if you win, you get 100%; if you lose, 25%. In and out, very quick and easy. But when the young chinese lady arrived... her opponent was not here. Dressed in hot robes, she placed her fans down, and decided to have a seat. It wouldn't be a long wait, or rather, shouldn't be. But time passed, until finally?

The -thing- is jumping around. Mian's expression is concealed. But as she stares through her mask, she crosses her arms, tilting her head in disbelief. The contract was -vague- on her opponent, and judging by what she was wearing? It was one of -those- girls. And when the crew spreads out, Mian could not understand... why. What was this. Why was this. And as all the attention is on her, Mian realizes that now she was expected to -talk- to the camera? And what's worse?

Mian was a little camera shy.

As the camera is on her, she looks around nervously, before standing up, gripping her fans. "Sichuanese Opera." She corrects curtly, her mask on. "It is specifically Bian Lian, which focuses on the dancing, and mask changing. I... I..." She lifts her arms, as if she's about to demonstrate. With the mask, you could not see her blushing. But lifting up a fan, she suddenly shakes her head. "I do not like bubbly people. Pl-Please take that camera out of my face." She pops open her fan, covering her face. With a sweep, she shakes it, before walking away, towards the center of the clearing.

Continuing to hide her face away from the camera, nervously.

[SIYING]
"Ohhh! Bian Lian! That sounds great! I have a lot of viewers in the US so can you tell us - hey!" Siying says.

The camera remains some distance away and Siying looks at it, pursing her heavily-rouged lips and pouting emphatically. P O U T. "Geez! I guess maybe I should go easy on her, but what do you think? Tell you what - vote for LEFT to leave her be, or for RIGHT to get up there and make friends!"

Mian has a full minute of blessed silence as Siying sloooowly tilts her hands down...

The guy with a laptop raises his right hand.

"Ooo! Alright! Here," her left hand goes down, fingers held with index down and thumb crooked out to form a 70-degree-or-so crook, "we," down comes the right hand to stretch an index finger across this improvised seven, "GO!" and then the entire thing is held over her midriff at an angle with a mostly deniable view of her low-cut shorts. "Winnah! FRIENDSHIP!"

Twirling on her heel, Siying puruses Mian. The camera follows. "Hey hey hey come on! It's not that bad! Everyone wants us to be friends!"

Her eyes gleam as, facing away from the camera, she bares her teeth. Her lipstick looks blood-red for a moment, not just marginally tarty. "Don't you /want/ to be /friends/?"

COMBATSYS: Siying has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Siying           0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Mian has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Mian             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Siying

[MIAN]
Mian fan, fan, fans herself, furiously.

She couldn't believe it. How many people were watching? 900? And she had no faces to play off of, no proper audience. Just a cast of strangers, and this.... this woman! If Siying could see her body language, it was basically the universal language of 'no' followed by 'hell no.' As finally, she bares her -teeth- at Mian? The chinese girl -stomps- her foot, bringing her fan to her side. And she turns to face at Siying. THe mask remains unchanged.

But the voice was practically scolding.

"I do not want to be friends!" She says, almost incredulous at the entire show. "I come to fight, not be on the internet, so some creepy losers can look at me and vote for my mask colors! And if Americans want to learn Bian Lian..." She sweeps her fan around, shutting it close. She passing the closed fan over her face... and the mask transforms, shifting into a green, glowering visage in a blink of an eye. Tucking the fan into her robe with the smooth flow of motion, she brings her hands up, dramatically milking the invisible cow as she draws her leg in to stand in repose.

"Watch."

And strikes.

Mian leaps through the air, almost gliding as her robes flutter around her. It would almost be like wire fu, except well, there is no wires. What there is a kind of soap-bubble film of chi over her, shimmering iridescence that flows around her as she glides. Hurling at Siying, she 'greets' her new friend by turning, unleashing a staggering slam on the spin of her arm. The moment she touches the ground, she unleashes a second blow; sweeping the opposite hand into a palm strike right for her overly proud and livestream positive chest to knock her away.

All with that shimmering chi -exploding- straight into her with the flow.

COMBATSYS: Mian successfully hits Siying with Houyokuten.
- Power hit! -

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Mian             0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0           Siying

[SIYING]
Siying's mouth hangs slightly open as she is given the voice of the justice of a proud and rising nation to her sassy Taiwan ass. She seems to be reaching for something to say or to do when Mian leaps forwards in a glossy-sleek burst of chi, twisting around as she goes.

Siying is raising an arm up as if to wag a finger at Mian which means that she gets jerked to the side. A moment later she is socked dead on in the chest with sufficient force to rip the silk and send it falling partially away as Siying herself goes flying back a good three yards, hitting the ground with sufficent force to throw up steppe-adjacent dust.

The SNF organizer says, acidically, "Oh, good, something else to pack the stream. I sure love how the fighting world is all about women smacking each other out of their clothes and whackin' on each other with their tits instead of what it ought to be which is about HARD, MUSCULAR"

"Three thousand five hundred," announces Mr. Viewer Count.

The SNF organizer shuts up.

Siying rolls to the side, heavily, and sits upright. "Hoooohhh," she says, shaking her head. Is she going to surrender? That would be the sane thing to do because that was a hellacious bump. "Wow, you are... you are really mean, huh. I like that."

Siying looks up and her eyes narrow to venomous slits, her cheeks starting to bloom with little spiderlilies of blush. "I really - I really like that. Ha ha ha - you're super mad at me, aren't you? I got you really upset just by being on stream like this..." She pushes herself upright, dusting herself up comprehensively and tying up the tatters of her top. ("Inshallah," says the SNF organizer.)

"You really hate this, huh? You're probably super mad because... hehehe - because this is totally the future... and you, /are totally awesome/, and /really/ strong, and I can tell you've got some great tricks, but-"

"You're the past? Aren't you?"

And with that Siying lunges forwards. There's something stiff about how she moves, almost like she herself is being propelled forwards, but... maybe it's just intense derangement powered by passing amounts of native talent. Either way she says "Hwah!" and throws her hands up as she gets near, aiming to smash her arms in a rising armbar against the face/mask of Mian.

In the stream, there are a lot of :kasaneate: spammers now.

COMBATSYS: Mian full-parries Siying's kasaneate!!

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Mian             0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0           Siying

[MIAN]
Mian hates Siying's words, in the pit of her heart.

Upon landing, Mian strides, sweeping her arms as she circles around the grounds. Twirling once, her robe sleeves billowing as she gives the dramatic display of dance. It was... very traditional. And it is only when she finishes the circle, does she turn to face at Siying again. "Yes I do not like this! I am the old ways, and I do not care if it is the future. Traditional can merge with the progressive evolution, I know, but- Oh!"

The arm bar surges at the dancer's masked face.

Mian sweeps her arm, passing it over her face, as the mask transforms, almost a tiger-like visage of orange and black stripes. The flash comes as she catches Siying's strength, her whole self shifting with the impact of power. Up close, it's very easy to feel the flow of chi like invisible rivers of water in the air around her. She slips under the arm, flowing past Siying as she repositoins.

And she is at Siying's side.

The dancer begins to sweep her arm as she dances into Siying, directing the shimmering iridescence chi with the smooth swings of her arms. Like a living windmill, she unleashes a hand chop with the left, a palm strike with the right. That much might have from the channel of :kasaneate:, accidentally. But the overhead blows of her fists comes, as she finishes the assault with a sudden sharp push, attempting to launch herself backwards with a spinning body of delicate elegance. Mian was a dancer first, a martial artist second. But both were merged in perfect harmony.

For some reason, though, the stream begins to :sakura: in chat.

COMBATSYS: Siying blocks Mian's Karin EX.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Mian             0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0           Siying

[SIYING]
"I don't think you have to merge at all! I think it's actually super noble," Siying says as that water flows past her, around her - metaphorically of course - and

where is it all going?

Sure, Mian's channeling a lot of it but there's a feeling of it being somehow lessened in the course of this passage, as if something is drawing that material away. A river emptying out into dry land instead of reaching the ground.

"Because, you know, instead of living a normal life and being part of the real world you're totally sacrificing everyday pleasures and normal stuff in order to support, like, Sichuan opera, right? Like when you're old, and alone, and your voice is all shaky and you're still wearing the masks you didn't sell off to pay for rent and a bowl of dry barley to eat on your little stove with rain water, and you're asking for donations, to keep the art from totally DYING off and being CHOKED under -"

Siying's patter is interrupted by violence. Chop, strike, Siying moves with clumsiness but great speed, blocking with sufficient skill to avoid getting socked in the mouth or blooded further, not blocking with enough agility to avoid jiggling like a slapped blancmange.

And then one of her hands snaps out to try to grab at Mian's ankle--

COMBATSYS: Siying successfully hits Mian with Give The People What They Want.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Mian             0/-------/-======|=======\=------\1           Siying

It grips like cold steel.

Emphasis on the cold. A spiritual cold.

"Hey," Siying says. "I was PRAISING you. Didn't you ever learn to TAKE A COMPLEMENT?"

[MIAN]
Mian could just feel something wrong.

She was often content with watching and performing, the shy girl letting her art being her voice. And Siying kept insisting on meeting the girl under the mask. As Siying rants on about her future, however, that triggers hot anger from the woman. She wansted to get away. But that hot headed surge is met with sudden cold. She does not get away, but is caught hard, as she is captured by the woman. Unceramonously, she comes crashing to the ground, the dance ended.

And she is writhing, turning back around to look back.

"Are you- are you making fun of me?!" Mian sputters out, struggling in the grips of the woman, struggling in that vice grip. "You are making fun of me! Probably to encourage some boys online! You read about you girls in Business Weekly! You date hundreds of men from video blogs online, where they give you money so you can make kissy faces! Stop pretending to be nice, you awful woman!" Her leg is numb, as the dance comes to a sudden halt. The flow and rhythm was broken hard. And without it, Mian was far more limited in what she could do.

But she was not out of options.

"Let... Let go of me!" She finally exclaims, as she pushes herself forward at Siying. Without the flow of the dance, her movements were driven into the based foundations of kung fu. For her, however, that meant an explosive, direct kick pistoning back. With the burst, she would attempt to stagger the woman backwards, and break away as she makes -another- chest shot, aiming a kick as she flows with a wave of barely visible chi, a faint rainbow of energy surging to splash upon her body. And should she connect?

She would break away, to restart her dance anew.

COMBATSYS: Siying endures Mian's Medium Kick.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Mian             0/-------/=======|=======\====---\1           Siying

[SIYING]
"Thousands," Siying says mildly as Mian more or less gets her dead to rights, but she's beaming as she says it and when that bursting kick smashes forwards she does not flinch away from it. She does /jerk/ back, not least for it hitting her square in the breast in a way that, from the grimace on her face, hurt like a motherhubbard.

But after that, she giggles. That rainbow shines...

... and fade, as if underneath the touch of a total eclipse of the heart.

Because she didn't let go.

The camera guy zooms in on her hand gripping Mian's leg even now!!

We go to the stream chat.

<@BrotherSung> here we go, haters vacate
siyingfan109> fuck i'm excited
siyingfan627> is she bitching about the stream?
siyingfan888> ((incomprehensible Sinosphere meme))
siyingfan227> GRAB HER
siyingfan227> HOLD THE LEG
siyingfan109> can't handle
siyingfan666> siyingchuan gonna drink her blood
siyingfan627> DRINK THE BLOOD
siyingfan109> DRINK THE BLOOD
siyingfan269> DRINK TEH BLOOD
siyingfan227> DRINK THE BLOOD

IN REAL LIFE, Brother Sung calls out something in slangy Cantonese. What is it translated? 'Drink the blood.' Mian, being a proper maiden who has gone to school and stuff and also not from the kind of places where they talk Cantonese all the time like it's going out of style, may not get this, but she may get the idea.

Siying has, improbably, been holding up Mian for several seconds here and does not seem strained or in pain. This tension seems to be breaking though as she aims to twist Mian around and sling her down, like she's snapping a towel. Towards the ground? Not... quite.

She is trying to get Mian's head between her knees.

siyingfan269> can't handle
siyingfan888> same
* siyingfan269 has donated 666 NT$
siyingfan269> please step on me
* siyingfan109 has donated 666 NT$

COMBATSYS: Siying successfully hits Mian with g e t o w n e d.
- CRAZY Hit! -

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Mian             1/----===/=======|====---\-------\0           Siying

And after that comes the twist and the inversion. Mian's back gets stretched but what's probably more troublesome in some ways is Siying putting her cheek on one hopefully-pants-clad leg, looking upwards as she inchworms up Mian's back, grinding her spine and neck with her knees and saying as she does, her breath /feeling like ice water/ against that skin despite the fabric:

"I just made sixteen hundred American dollars. Wanna see if I can hit five?"

Her arms then hug Mian's legs and she pulls. This is incredibly unsafe! This is like writing a letter to a chiropractor asking if he's going to put his kid to Harvard or Yale with these bills! Can the power of Sichuan opera and that gorgeously subtle chi survive in the face of this cold, grinding mockery!?

"Three thousand American," says Brother Sung. He's happy. He gets three percent after expenses.
The cameraman thinks he has the same deal, but Brother Sung's deal is from the gross, not the net. As Freakazoid teaches us: The net is fiction.

[MIAN]
No no no no NO NO NO!!!

Mian's kick doesn't break the grip; and as she turns and writhes, she tries to build her moment, she tries to get her momentum. She was wiggling like a trapped piglet; and for a moment, it looks like she was going to at least catch those murder thighs as she is slipped around on her back. But there was a mistake. A single mistake, that comes with the jostling. One too many blows to the head, and it happens.

Her mask slips.

Mian does everything to keep the mask on, bringing both of her hands up. At that moment, the knees latch on. And she's trapped. There is a pained groan as her back is twisted, as she is held in a pose. And worst of all, her mask tumbles off, revealing her face right. Into. The camera. Mian's expression is absolutely blank. There is a glimmer of terror, of fear. She was exposed. Practically naked, as the consuming numbness spreads. She shuts her eyes, even as the chill runs to her very spine. There is a deep breath.

And a sigh as it releases.

"Unforgivable." She states with a low growl, eyes still shut. Tightening them, she suddenly opens her mouth wide as she continues to declare it, her tone cold and clam. "This is blood money. This is smut. There is no class, no elegance, no talent. It is unforgivable, and I will show you how it should be." The energy begins to whirl, as she twists. She wasn't going to wriggle out of the grips. No, there is a single snap, as slams her legs out from

And she spins.

Whirling like a top, she lashes her arms out, attempting to batter Siying with the whirling power, her fists carrying along a -surge- of invigorating energy. The first hit would be to break apart the grapple; the second would come after she lands on her feet with the first one. A sweep of her arms would pass over her exposed face, and in a moment, her face would be concealed with a white mask, bound in a glowering visage. A second blow would come, attempting to knock Siying back up, away. There was no third hop, no third break out. She just needed to get back on her feet.

And get her dance beginning again.

COMBATSYS: Siying interrupts Hiren Enbu from Mian with When's Spangles?.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Mian             1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\1           Siying

[SIYING]
Something happens.

Something awful.
Do you have stairs in your house, Mian?

Siying ducks down low as Mian moves clear, away from her. When she gets in close Siying does not try to dodge her or brace against her attacks but just bunches up both of her hands in fists and rises upwards as if she's going to strike the "Y" in a "YMCA" pose or as if she could somehow execute a leg lift. It's ridiculous. It's incredibly bad form.

If she did not do it with demoniac force and speed, it would not have worked.

And there are /cheers/. Perhaps that's the worst part, Mian. The people who Siying brought with her, her miserable little gang, cheer. They even shout, if not in unison, "SPANGLES!"

The chat is not worth rendering. It is a sea of emotes, interrupted by more donations.

And so in the end Mian is struck in a rising, grazing blow that clips her in the hams and then turns into a rather clumsy twist to toss her back to the ground. The shame is probably worse than it all. As she shakes out her arm, Siying says, "Are you really going to show me how it's going to be? Hmmm?"

She pivots on her heel to face Mian. She leans forwards then, raising her un-hit arm up to tap her lips with a finger, pursing them, kissy-facing almost towards her.

"Wanna try that again? Or are you tired of playing? If you say you're sorry for saying such mean things about all my dear sweet little friends, maaaaaaaybe I'll forgive you... But wouldn't it be kinda embarrassing to just admit defeat in front of a live audience AND on the SNF highlights? Hehehehe... you'd have to live with that forever, like a sliver of radioactive material wedged in your SOUL. The knowledge that you LOST. But hey,"

She grins again. "At least you'll still have your LOOKS."

[MIAN]
The damage was instantanous, though it wouldn't be obvious at first.

RIt would begin when you were going too deep into google searches. Maybe you clicked 'I feel lucky' at the wrong time. Maybe you were the doting mother and father, stern and solemn, quietly supporting your daughters hard work, and you wanted to check up on her. And then you see it, burning like a hot iron brand. It looks like it, it is the same shape as her. But the chaps, the expression on the masks, the... dancing characters alongside her, designed by someone named minus8. And then you realize the name, that is not her name, and yet is her shape.

Mian Spangles.

It doesn't take long before you realize how many fandoms involve masks, how many connected pathes. It isn't just shy girls for your shy girl, oh no. Soon you start, digging deeper and deeper. The depths of the Spangles fandom, that oozed and seeped into the memories of your little girl. Your dreams for her, your hopes for her, tarnished, destroyed. And then it ends. And then you finally settle upon the three way between The Mysterious Stranger from The Adventures of Mark Twain, Lightning Spangles, and Mian done in color pencil touched in up Ms Paint, and you realize the sheer damage. And for Siying, she might not even be fully aware of how deep she's mangled Mian's public reputation for years and years to come.

Until she sees the first piece, submitted to the Siyinboru.

Mian is spread eagled right in front of the world; fortunately, she wears slacks. If she was dressed like how the countless Mian Spangles fanarts, dressed in a too short qipao, or worse, 'office wear' with suggestive tones, then she might have been embarassed to death. Instead, she is more ashamed by the sheer lack of grace and finesse that slams her back. She gets up much slower now, instinctively flattening her puffy robed pants, as if there was a skirt to flatten. Her fingers trace to her mask. She doesn't say anything. She couldn't. Siying had made her speechless; she was practically radiating heat. And yet, she forces herself up into a stand, swaying as she comes upon one leg. She doesn't say anything, she couldn't. But with a swing of her arms, her face is revealed for a moment, exposed, beet red. Defiantly, she shows her looks.

She wasn't going let her shame her out of this fight.

Mian charges in a flash, bursting towards Siying, attempting to give a fairly nimble lariat. SHould it connect? She would immediately spin around her, as the sound of music would fill the air, as the swirling rainbow-like energy would flash and flow around them both. THree times, she would flash around her, rushing past her. Whether she avoided it, or defended it, she would finally come to a stop right before her, fan in hand. She would look her in the eye, and finally say something. "I've fought and won before."

"What have you even done?"

And she would open and close the fan, the a crimson mask replcing over her face, before she would backflip kick away from Siying, right across that face.

COMBATSYS: Siying fails to interrupt Zesshou Shisen Enbu from Mian with Smash That Button!.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Mian             0/-------/---====|

COMBATSYS: Siying can no longer fight.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Mian             0/-------/---====|

[SIYING]
The tendrils of memetics have seeped into the noosphere of this sinful world. In darkness blooms a spider-lily of interaction and the change of shape and the mutation of form. Masks and paths and routes and spotted-up destinies.

Siying will see these later and she will feel pleasure.

Right now she does not. She stays partially leaned back, a hand on her hip as she grins sharklike at Mian. "Oh ho ho, charging in again? That's not going to work," she says, drawing back one foot and raising a fist.

<@BrotherSung> smash that button
siyingfan772> smash it
siyingfan918> smashin it
siyingfan696> smash her ****
* Siyingfan696 has been banned for saying a LEWD! :o This is a FAMILY FRIENDLY STREAM mister! ::chiding-siying.gif::
siyingfan117> smash it!!!!!
siyingfan199> SMASH IT
siyingfan918> lol @ 696

She draws back that hand, winding up once, and then with a single blow Siyi

That was an abrupt break.

Siying herself does not fully understand what happened. Something in her shudders, vibrating violently in confusion as she is struck with a spinning lariat. Music fills the air, sweet music without any false plastic glitz overlaying lurid drama. Siying is hoisted up and spun around into the air, smashing her once - twice - throwing her up in the air on the third blow, leaving her spinning in the air.

She is upside down when Mian looks her dead in the eye. There is a look of sheer monstrous fury there for a moment. But then comes the final KICK - and she hits the ground, throwing up dust as she skips twice across the sere earth of the Chinese steppe. Landing and laying still in loess-borne dust, she croaks wordlessly.

The SNF ref guy blows a whistle. "Winner - Mian!"

<@BrotherSung> OH NO
<@BrotherSung> WE DIDN'T SMASH HARD ENOUGH

The internet wailing is immense. The get-well fund is established immediately, with donation tiers pre-assembled for meat buns, balloons, stuffed panda bears and other such treats. In many ways Siying probably made more money losing to Mian than she did winning...

But even as she lays there in the dust, even as idiots and oil workers and lonely otaku throw money into accounts where they are hoovered into another account, Siying feels no joy. One of her hands is palm down on the grounds and she - when rolled over gently by the medical team - takes an entire handful of dirt with her. There's a bloody mark on the palm of her hand.

FURY.

But she doesn't speak until a camera is pointed at her, at which point the waterworks starts, along with the wailing and the pleading of fear and anxiety and all those happy outcomes.

It is certainly a victory with honor, against a fow with very little.

[MIAN]
Mian does not linger long.

Oh, she planned on lingering. Talk to some cameras, wearing the mask, give a little dancing, demonstrate some of the mask swapping tricks. Give a light interview, shake her opponent's hand, and then, get the check. She rehearsed it in her head a hundred times. It was so intuitive.

And Siying ruined it.

She killed the joy, the magic. At best, Mian had the smug arrogance of beating Siying. But even that victory felt hollow. Because in her heart, she knew. She knew, that in this fight, it wasn't about Sichuan opera fighting, as she hoped. It was about an internet celebrity, and the funny chinese girl in a mask that got bent over and *spangled* by a spangle. It was shameful for Mian.

But Siying was shameless.

Mian -glowers- at the smoldering Siying, silent as the camera lingers on -her- over her. And with that, without even a word, a 'good fight', a 'thank you,' she turns her back on the Taiwanese girl. She limps away, the dance out of her step. She was done. As the organizer approaches her, hand extended, plastic smile stapled on his lips, the dancer just pushes away his hand.

"Just give me my money!"

COMBATSYS: Mian has ended the fight here.

Log created on 23:40:31 07/20/2018 by Mian, and last modified on 12:57:28 07/26/2018.