The Gym, Wednesday afternoon

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah had spent the whole morning on-line with her science course (Helena's jacket was so hers now!) and decided to reward herself with a workout.

Eskrima, though, not just boxing. More music blasting through her ears - Jonathan Coulton, "Re: Your Brains", at the moment.

whap whap whap whappity whap kick whap whap smack smack whap

[ooc: open, but slow, as I am back at work pretty soon, and busy.]

Comments

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Missed you yesterday," Triela said without preamble, leaning against the wall by the door. She didn't sound upset about it, more as if she was just making conversation.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Triela, hey," Dinah paused, twirling her sticks in her hands, and taking a breath. "Sorry about that. My Big Sib came up with an adventure on almost no notice at the same time." She grinned, bouncing up on her toes. "How did Girls With Guns go?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It was good," Triela smiled softly. "I was handwavily out of town most of last week, so it was nice to get back and see everyone again."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad. I liked them, they seemed cool. I'll be there next week, definitely." She flipped one of the eskrima, and caught it. "Were you back home?" On a job?

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Triela nodded the affirmative to both the spoken question and the unspoken one.

"So what is this adventure you went on without me?" she asked, voice teasing.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah nodded at that answer, feeling a little sick again. She really had to talk to someone about Triela eventually. Who, that was the question. She pushed the subject aside now as something she couldn't do anything about.

"Rapelling off the roof!" Dinah grinned, rising up on her toes. "If you'd been around, I would have dragged you along, Jamie had extra harnesses. Top of the dorms down to the ground floor."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela laughed. "I haven't rappelled off a roof in months."

She shook her head. "Any particular occasion or reason, or just for the fun of it?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Nope, he just said he had to show his Little Sib around the dorms." Dinah grinned, and gave the bag a short sequence of hits and reverse blocks before turning back to Triela. "Such a blast. Scared my roomie a little, I think. When did you do it, and who else was there? Reno?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"You know," Triela mused, "I haven't actually rappelled from any buildings in Fandom." Usually she was on business when she rappelled. "I should probably do something about that."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Seriously!" Dinah repressed her awareness of why Triela had probably been rapelling before. "Although maybe off something besides the dorm next time. Maybe the school?"

She did another set of hits and kicks, coming around to smirk at Triela. "We could get a group. Do it at midnight or something?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"We could." Triela grinned in a way that made that sound like 'we should'.

After a moment she added. "You know, you work out in here a lot."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"We could."

Dinah's hits to the bag with the eskrima slowed a little, and she took a breath. "Hmmm. Yeah? I guess. Every other day for the sparring. And some kind of cardio every day." She spun the sticks in her hands, coming back to rest. "I need to keep in shape."

Bad guys don't take days off, sidekicks can't either.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Does it help?" Triela asked curiously. "I mean, I do some endurance training, but the rest of it isn't really necessary for me."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh, definitely. Muscle memory, especially. Flexibility. You lose speed, if you're not, well, enhanced, and you don't keep up with your training." Dinah thought about how it had been explained to her, and held out her arm. "It's like your nerves, your muscles, can do it before you have to think about it, just react, like extra coding." She dropped her arm, thinking. "Does your cybernetics do that for you?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela pursed her lips and considered the question. "I don't think so? I'm just so much faster than everyone else that I don't need that?" She shrugged, "I think that's how it works, anyway."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah frowned. "Wow. How much faster?" She tilted her head. "And do you get any martial arts training with that, or do you just... make it up as you go along?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"The reports clock us at about twice as fast. And that with the strength enhancements means that I don't really need any training. If I hit people, they go down."

Not that Triela would ever admit it, but the truth is that she was lucky. Most terrorists weren't really martial artists, after all.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"My sister's like that. Super-strength, super-speed, super-resilient." Dinah made a wry face. "Super-cleavage." She tapped her sticks against each other, still watching Triela. "She still trains. There's always somebody faster, you know?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Not that I've ever run into," Triela retorted with the easy confidence of someone who had never really been challenged in life. And one day canon is going to teach her how wrong she is.

"Wait," she said suddenly. "Suepr-cleavage?" She looked down at her own skinny build. "What do you use that for?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Oh God. Dinah now got some of Helena's attitude toward her. Because Triela sounded like she sounded talking to her sister, claiming she could handle anything.

She grinned at the question. "Distracting guys. Or surprise. Guys don't fight well when they're looking at the wrong thing." She looked down at her own chest, and repressed a sigh. "I didn't get that power either."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

The difference is that Triela is right about being able to handle anything. (... sure she is)

"I would think they'd get in your way as much as help," she frowned. "Sometimes I think they made mine small on purpose." It was the sort of thing the Agency thought about, after all.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which kind of gave Dinah that sick feeling again. But she kept her voice light when she answered.

"Well, you're only fourteen. You've got time, right? And it's not like you're really tiny or anything."

She turned and hit the bag several times, hard, because she seriously needed to hit something at that moment. The eskrima slapped the bag hard, sounding like drums for a few minutes until Dinah started to tire.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela fell silent herself, content to watch for now. She didn't really know enough about martial arts to know how good or bad Dinah was, and she wasn't the sort to think of people as impressive, but she could tell that the other girl had some idea of what she was doing.

For all of her arrogance, Triela could recognize competence.

She decided not to tell Dinah that she wasn't really going to grow any bigger. Fourteen for life. However long that ended up being.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah slowed down again in a few minutes, and took a breath. "Would you like to learn this stuff? Do you think?"

Would that be enabling? Or wrong? Maybe. But maybe it would keep Triela alive?

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I don't really see a need to," Triela's tone was relaxed. "Like I said, I'm strong and fast enough not to need it." And one day she was going to seriously be regretting that attitude.