Summary:Duc and Jon meet in central park, and plans for future martial arts training are made. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's a warm late spring evening in Central Park and the light is starting to fade a bit. Families have gone home, leaving the park a bit quieter than during the day time when people mill about everywhere. Someone is moving swiftly through the park, however. Jon Gallo is dressed for running, and run he does, through the park, over benches, leaping the railings of the bridge to jump onto the bank below, and then running along the side of the pond. He seems to be free-running just for the sake of doing so, his movements quick, agile, and easily changing course and dodging other occupants of the park with ease.
Follow the bank up a bit and you'll see an open glade where people are milling about. Some lie on light blankets, others sit in tight circle, chatting. Duc No Tranh is finishing up a class with a younger woman, her hair tied back in a ponytail.
"I'm gonna be sore tomorrow," she tells the Vietnamese man, stretching first her back, then her arms high over her head.
"Just make sure to take it easy," he responds. "Maybe some yoga." His attention is drawn by Jon Gallo and he makes a motion toward him. "Soon enough you'll be showing up people like him."
"Yeah, right!" The woman laughs and gathers her things into a small white athletics bag before heading off. "See ya next week, Donnie!"
Jonathan Gallo comes to a stop not far away and flashes a grin at the woman as she laughs and lifts a hand to wave to her before glancing over toward Duc. "Bold claims," he says, with a laid back sort of grin and an up-nod of greeting. "You teach parkour?" he asks as he draws closer, stretching a bit before settling onto the back of a bench, his feet resting on the seat, elbows onn his knees.
The woman waves and flashes a bright smile to the stranger. Her ponytail bobs to and fro as she walks, with purpose, to some other part of the park away from the men. Donnie, as he was just referred to, rests his hands on his hips as he turns from her to Jon.
"No, this was a self-defense class," he clarifies with a serious look. Dressed in loose shorts and a sleeveless hoodie, he looks the part of a personal trainer. An open gym back with towels, a water bottle, and some hand wraps backs that up. "But she's," and here he searches for the right word, "springy."
Jonathan Gallo raises his brow at the serious look, that grin not vanishing from his lips at all. "Springy," he repeats with a bit of a chuckle. "Is she?" He glances after the woman for a moment before looking back to Donnie and asking, "Am /I/?" He is, and he knows it, but he seems vastly entertained for some reason. In his running shoes and shorts, and plain grey t-shirt, with his bleach-white hair and tattoos, he looks like some random punk, and little more.
Without the gym bag and the little bit of context Donnie gave, the two would probably fill similar first-impression roles, though with notably different demeanor. "Looks like you might be," he says, letting his gaze rest on the other man for a moment before he turns to pack up his things. He presses a stray towel against the side of his bag and lays a pair of cushioned hand pads on top of everything else. After spraying some water into his mouth from his bottle, he checks to see if Jon is still lingering. "What's up?" he asks, not exactly annoyed but certainly curious.
"Nothing," Jon says with an amused smile. "It's an open park, and you seemed to claim that someone was going to be able to show me up, so it struck my curiosity. Now I'm just taking a breather." He pulls himself up again, then and hops down from the bench, rolling one shoulder and then the other. "Time to get springing again, I guess." The very serious man seems to be busy, and he wasn't particularly there to bother anyone.
The Vietnamese man watches Jon carefully as he hops off the bench and ontothe ground in front of him. His nostrils flare slightly, and he leans over to pack away his water bottle. "Where did you learn that?" he asks, not looking as he makes to zip his things up nicely. His tone is neither especially friendly nor antagonistic. Pretty much what you might expect from the average New Yorker. He does, however, present at least a glimmer of interest in Jon.
"Years of practice, correspondence courses, and pure natural talent," Jon returns with a grin, then a shrug of his shoulders. "Youtube videos, mostly, and trial and error. Lots of falling off of things. Some of it just comes natural." Due to his mutation, but he doesn't add that part, of course. He remains where he stands, though, not quite running off just yet.
Donnie Tranh stands again, this time with his bag gripped in his right hand. It looks to be a strong grip the way his forearm muscles flex and his veins become more pronounced. "YouTube videos," he repeats. "That's probably why you fell off so many things."
He starts to walk toward and then past Jon, turning his head to eyeball the man as he does. Though it seems there was a joke in what he said, his mouth doesn't so much as quiver. "Still, there's something to be said for not giving up."
"Pretty sure everyone who learns falls a few times at the beginning," Jon says, not seeming to have any shame or regret for that period of trial and error, or the resulting bumps and bruises. He studies Donnie as the man moves toward and then past him, not moving from where he stands. His lips curl amusedly and he says, "Yeah, says that I'm more stubborn than I am smart most of the time."
Donnie doesn't have anything to say about that, and he doesn't slow his meandering pace as he continues past Jon. "I know how that goes," he says about being more stubborn than smart. "So what else have you got?" he asks casually, nodding ahead of him to a series of parkstacles - benches, street lamps, garbage bins. A challenge or just a curiosity?
Jonathan Gallo glances around the park in the direction that he had already been going. There's an arched brow and a glance from the bins and benches, street lamps and street vendors, back over to Donnie. He considers for a moment and then cracks his neck, before launching into a run once more. He takes off and gets his momentum going, and then it's up and over benches, up onto low walls, utilizing the top of a street cart to hop up to a tree limb, and walk across that before leaping from that a good distance to a street lamp, clambering down it to land on the ground, and once more hit the ground running. He clears several more obstacles with ease, certainly not looking like he's fallen off of anything in quite some time, before eventually circling back around.
Donnie tosses his gym bag over one shoulder and lets it hang off his four fingers and against his back. Watching Jon's display, he actually cracks a rare grin, though it's gone by the time the other man makes it back to him. "You look ready to make some Youtube videos of your own," he says, continuing on his way toward the path ahead. "What's your name?"
Jonathan Gallo laughs at that and shakes his head, "I'm not much for being in front of a camera. Behind, maybe, but I do this for me, not really for the internet." He barely seems to be exerted despite all of his running and acrobatics, as though it were almost as natural as breathing. "Jon," he says when Donnie asks for his name. "And you?"
"Duc No," he says with a heavier accent than he has been speaking with up until now. "Most people call me Donald or Donnie, though. Go with that if it's easier. For some reason Duc is still too strange." He stares straight ahead as he walks off the grass, onto the path, and then east alongside some of the objects Jon just vaulted on and off of.
"Duc isn't all that strange. It's Vietnamese, right?" Jon asks, actually pronouncing it close to accurately, not turning him into a duck or a duke while doing so. "Do you prefer that? Or do you prefer Donnie?" Because it seems he's willing to use whatever the man actually prefers to be called rather than what is easy for him. He glances over at Duc and follows him with his eyes even if he doesn't follow after him, waiting to see how far he's going or if he's just drifting nearby. "So, you teach self-defense in the park?"
Donnie glances sidelong at Jon and says, "Duc if fine." It seems like he approves of the pronunciation in the way his voice rises a little, though you wouldn't tell from the way his mouth drops a bit. "I taught self-defense in the park today," he notes. "Mostly I go to gyms or sometimes to a client's home. I don't have a place of my own right now."
"You got a card?" Jon asks, curiously. "I was thinking about learning some self-defense. I've got some other skills, but I'm shit if someone actually gets ahold of me. Would probably be a good thing to learn, all things considered." He doesn't really elaborate on any of that, but he seems genuinely interested.
Duc (now that that's decided) shakes his head. "I work on word of mouth." He does, however, take out his phone and open up an app so that he and Jon can connect directly. "And I don't just work with self-defense either. In fact I prefer teaching martial arts. If you have any interest in that, you might find Vovinam right up your alley. It can be a very springy art form."
"I do, actually," Jon says with some interest, and tugs out his phone. He exchanges information with Duc and then slides the phone back into his pocket. "I'll give you a call and we can discuss times and rates. Unfortunately, I've got another appointment I need to bounce for. But, nice meeting you!" He gives a grin and a little salute, and then he's off like a shot.