fandomhighdorms | Saturday morning, the gym

Liir had spent the last weekend in his room, for the most part, so he'd decided to make a pointed effort not to do that this weekend. As such, he'd ended up at the one place he used to visit every weekend.

Dinah, as such, got a wave before he put down his things and started kicking around a soccer ball on the other side of the gym.

Dinah waved back, smiled at the guy she didn't know, and went back to kicking the bag, imagining it was a certain person's face.

Wham!

After a bit, she took a break, sitting down next to her gym bag and grabbing her water bottle. She pulled down her ear phones, techno chattering very low around her neck, and said, "Hey. I'm Dinah."

Liir knocked the ball against a wall to bounce right into his hands.

"Liir," he offered as he walked over, only a little sweaty. One hand was outstretched for a shake.

Dinah wiped her own wrapped hand off on her leg, and with some caution, shook his, hoping she wouldn't get any flashes of info. The last couple times that had happened here had been a bit unnerving. "Amber's boyfriend?" It wasn't like that was a very common name. "I met her at Turtle & Canary this week."

If she got anything, it would be a view of training Makejoy, since he'd been thinking of the next thing to teach the puppy.

"Yes, I'm Amber's," and he didn't put any other words to it. "A pleasure to meet you. New this semester? I ask as I'm not the most social of lads."

A quick flash of an adorable black puppy, and that was it, to Dinah's relief. Her smile widened.

"Yup! Two weeks today. And boy, did I not know what I was in for. Disappearing clothes, washing and coffee machines that go on strike--" She shook her head, taking a drink of her water. "Did you know to expect that kind of stuff when you got here?"

"My confusion had more to do with telephones, computers, and all the other tik tokityness people here take for granted," he admitted with a brief chuckle.

"My world isn't exactly... well, it's not much like this one, in some ways."

"Ohhh. I know a couple people here who aren't used to machines either," Dinah said, thinking of Merlin. Ack. Merlin. Someone else she had to talk to. "So, where are you from? Do they have horses and carriages there, or something else? " She pointed to the soccer ball. "Did you play soccer there?"

"Gooseball," he corrected with a faint smile, "and yes. I learned a few months before coming here. And there's horses and carriages, yes. As well as talking Animals and animals. Oz is a bit odd, but it's home."

"Gooseball. Okay. So you have animals that talk, and animals that don't talk?" Dinah didn't pick up on the audible difference there, but the phrasing helped her a bit. "I think everyone here is from somewhere odd to someone else, almost. Even the ones that are kind of similar. You'd probably hate New Gotham City. It's big and loud and dirty... but hey, it's home." The pride there was could probably be heard without the use of capitals.

"Big and loud and dirty sounds very much like the Emerald City," he admitted, "but I think those are the same all over.

"And yes, we have animals and Animals. Magic as well, if that would be odd for you."

"I'm... getting used to it?" Dinah said, balancing her water bottle on one foot. "We have something similar, but not just like it. People with meta-abilities. And I've talked to Tony and Ronan about it." She took one last sip from her bottle, then capped it and put it back in her bag, getting to her feet. "Someone back home told me we have magic, but that it's mostly pretty difficult to do, and you'll barely ever see it." She stretched one of her arms, thinking. "Do you guys use it every day? The way we use machines?" She grinned. "Tick-tocks?"

He shook his head.

"There's a sorcery school at Shiz, but those are minor things, small enchantments. Witches and Faerie Queens and such are the thing of myths, now."

Now. He shook that off.

"Mostly, we just use manpower. We've got some machines, though. There's machines and then there's tik-toks and there's a difference between the two. No one'd call the Gilikin Railroad pleasure pfaithism, after all."

He looked around.

"But you're doing all right here?"

Dinah took that in, interested, then turned red at Liir's last question. "Aside from a case of terminal embarrassment yesterday, yes. The classes are great. People are nice. Mostly." She shook her head. "I'm just a spaz."

"I tend to awkwardness like a duck to water," he admitted with a blush of his own.

"Consider yourself in, well, I suppose my company. You'll find it good or bad on your own, I'm sure."

Beat.

"Mostly?"

"Enh." Dinah turned redder, then muttered, "Get over it, Lance," under her breath. "Welcome to my club, Liir," she said more loudly.

"I ended up with no clothes, suddenly? Yesterday? In front of someone who laughed at me. But then was nice enough to give me his shirt. When he's got a busted arm. So. Mostly?"

"Ahh, yes. I was very very lucky yesterday, but I know a few people had trouble."

And he kept his 'I told them all!' to himself.

"At least he gave you a shirt. I'm sure the laugh was... reflexive or something."

"His reflexes suck," Dinah said succintly. Then grinned, because in retrospect, parts of the mess were funny. "But at least I wasn't on stage like poor Mr. Algren. Wow. I'd still be hiding in my room if that had happened to me."

He snickered as well.

"Yes, I..."

Snicker.

"Yes, there was that. Poor man."

"And poor Miss Bennett!" That was not a giggle. Well, yeah, it was. "I mean, at least we didn't have to do anything, but she had to..." Ahem. Heh. "Get through the rest of it."

Dinah gulped, and tried not to grin. "So, yeah. I guess I owe Arthur a pass on this."

Ah. Arthur. He wasn't the type to hold a grudge--

Wait a minute, yes he was. He really really was. But he wasn't one to try and influence others with it. His issues with the 'prince' were his own matter, after all. He couldn't quite help his look of irritation, however quick he wiped it off his face.

"I did feel sorry for Miss Bennett," he said quickly, since it was a neutral topic, "she's always been very kind in class."

Dinah caught that, but figured hey: someone else who'd met the guy. He was such a charmer, wasn't he?

"Yeah. Oh, wow, and she has to teach people next week. And so does Mr. Algren." Dinah's eyes widened. "That'll be difficult. For everyone."

Now she was really, really glad only three people had seen her. "They should get hazard pay for teaching here."

"To be fair, one of the Professors in my first semester got turned into a singing, dancing Scarecrow for a weekend and still had to teach," he pointed out.

...not that living Scarecrows were so odd, really.

"Whoa. I'd heard of people turning into animals and dolls, but -- I hadn't really thought about it being teachers and people in charge." Dinah shook her head ruefully. "Is there anything we can do to avoid it? Because honestly, being mortally embarrassed once already this semester is fine by me."

"...once is, er, low. It'll probably happen a few times in the semester. This place once turned me different colors for a week. And I'm a kitten every once in a while."

Beat.

"I hope Amber didn't mention the brownies."

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