fandomhighdorms | The Gym - After Classes

Dinah was a little bit late, having had to look for the right kinds of rope for this, and then some other things, and then running to get to the gym. "Liir! Hi! I hope you weren't waiting too long." She grinned at him, and put the ropes down. "You sure you're up for this?"

He shook his head with a faint smile as he flowed into a normal posture and walked over.

"Not long, no, and I don't really mind waiting."

He breathed in, then out, and considered everything else.

"I need this, honestly. My attempts in other directions aren't exactly going well and it'll be useful information to have. Are you sure you want to do this for me?"

"Oh, no problem, I love showing people stuff. I just-- is this gonna be too weird?" This had only belatedly occurred to her, after a comment Amber made had come back to her. "I mean, you have been tied up before. And it wasn't a good thing, I guess. This isn't gonna be something you can't handle?"

He shook his head.

"Completely different intent. It won't even feel like the same thing."

"Okay then. And remember, I'm just learning too. So I know tricks, but I'm not great at always making them work," Dinah said seriously. Then beamed. "Okay! Oh, what was the trick you were talking about, that you already knew? So I don't go on about something you already know?"

He chuckled and reached into his bag, pulling out a small length of rope. He tied it into a loose knot, counted rather visibly to himself, and then looked at the knot.

Slowly, like a tape playing backwards, the rope untied itself in his hand before laying flat as it had.

"But it only works at the five second mark at the moment. I haven't figured out how to, er, make adjustments."

"Ah! Oh, that is so awesome! Wait, so, it only unties itself five seconds after it's been tied?" Dinah took the rope, and held it up, grinning widely. "Still helpful, though, if you can make it wait longer, or something. Too cool!"

"I can remind it how it was," he corrected, mostly just so she didn't think he was more proficient than he really was, "but I can't really adjust to when yet. Standard seems to be about that long" though it was really closer to the last time it's status changed, not that he'd figured that out yet.

"It works with other things, but I'd rather not break something and not be able to fix it because of a miscalculation in seconds."

"Gotcha. That might be really helpful with this stuff." Dinah grinned, and picked up one of the ropes. "None of this is magic. Just tricks and cheating. My sister's dad is a cop, and for several reasons, he wants us to know how to get out of this kind of thing." Best lie she could come up with, and Dinah hurried on. "The master at this was a guy called Harry Houdini, who lived a hundred years ago. Not a lot has changed since then. He used to get out of overflowing milkcans, straitjackets, water boxes, you name it, he did it. Just ropes today, though."

She looped the rope around her wrists, back and forth, then tied a fairly loose knot. "Okay, first thing: somebody can tie you securely or safely. Not both. So there's always going to be some slack to work with."

He dropped his own rope into the bag, focused on her, and watched.

When she spoke, he nodded to let her know he was paying attention.

She shifted the ropes back and forth, so he could see the principle of it; get the knot to where you could mess with it, and then slip a loop over the hands. "So someone will tie you more tightly than this, right? But it's the same thing. Work a loop, or a knot free, and it's just a matter of time. Flat ropes," she toed the one at her feet, "You work up and down, against the width. Round ropes? Against the length. You've got friction to work with too, which, yeah, can burn, and hurt if they're tight. But that'll work them free too. Unless they put a rope on your neck."

Dinah turned very serious. "Do not mess with that, okay? Unless you can see the exact knot you need to get free, and you have a lot of slack, just don't. They'll come back for you eventually, if they tied you up to take you somewhere. Or to hold you hostage. It's not worth choking for." She grinned again. "Questions yet?"

He shook his head, still working things out in his mind. He didn't know enough to ask any questions. So he waited and he watched focused on the ropes and her voice.

Dropping the ropes off her wrists, she gave him the length, and said, "Okay, tie up my wrists here. In front of me. There's tricks for in back of you, but easy first, right?"

She grinned and held out her crossed wrists, looking very innocent.

He looked at the ropes for a moment before nodding and taking it into his hands thoughtfully. He knew how to tie a knot, after all.

After a moment, he did just that with her wrists as asked. The knot was sturdy, a tight timber hitch that he was well used to using on his brief trips outside the keep.

"Good one," Dinah said approvingly. "Right. Watch this."

She separated her wrists and turned them, and yay, there was a good centimenter's worth of slack between them now. "I tensed all the muscles in my wrists when I made fists. Most people aren't so experienced that they'll pick up on stuff like that. And I held them apart juuust a little bit too. Don't push it when someone ties you up; act all worried and compliant, and they won't look to see if you can get out as easily." She pulled one hand forward, and one back. "And see? Pinky finger's clear. Now I just have to keep messing with it, 'til I get a loop, and can untie the knot."

He watched, sort of fascinated. He hadn't even noticed, but she had tensed. He'd thought it was just because she didn't like being tied up.

"That's brilliant," he said with obvious wonder.

She grinned, and bounced on her toes. "Yay! And it's the same for everything else. It helps," Dinah cautioned, "if you're strong. Obviously. Houdini was really bulked up. You can really tense a lot of muscles, and get more slack that way when you relax. So you should maybe do some weight training. Do you want to try, now?"

He looked at the rope for a moment before finally nodding.

"Yes. I'll only learn if I try, after all."

"Cool. Cross your wrists. Make fists. Really tense them. You'll want to be subtler about this if it happens in real life, but you need to figure out how much it takes to get free, first," Dinah said, carefully looping the rope around his wrists, without wrapping the rope between them. "There's another trick for rope that works for handcuffs, too, but it's a little more painful and you probably won't need it so much, for these." She tied off the rope, and stepped back. "Now, do what I did."

He nodded, moving slowly and carefully. He'd watched her the once, so he had to recreate it as best he could until it was in the skin and the muscle, remembered by his body as well as his mind. It took him longer, but as he followed her steps, he eventually slipped the rope off with a smile.

"Yaaay!" Dinah cheered, gleeful that he'd gotten it. And wasn't freaking out, or looking worried; so her second thoughts here seemed to be groundless. "And after that, it's just practice. So that's if they tie your hands in the front." She turned around. "Okay, time mine behind me, and I'll show you how you go." Fists again, arms tense, wrists crossed, shoulders waaaaaaay forward, and taking a deep breath.

Edited 2009-02-12 19:51 (UTC)

He looked at her for a moment before he did just that, tying the knot carefully.

"You've done it with your shoulders as well. And you're breathing in, making yourself as large as you can."

"Exactly." Dinah released her breath, and pulled her shoulders back. "Now, I could probably get out of this with my hands behind my back. But obviously it's harder. So." She sat down on the ground, and wriggled, and then lifted her butt off the mat... and carefully threaded her arms over her hips, down and over her feet. "I think you're skinny enough that you could do that, with some practice. Wanna try it with a loose set of ropes? Just to get the hang of it?"

He nodded and put his hands behind his back for her to do the same.

"What if you're in a chair?" he asked curiously.

Dinah grinned, and peeked around him as she carefully started tying his wrists, loose enough to give him something to work with. "You knock it over. And work a rope off the bottom legs. Or the top. It's just shifting back and forth, right? I mean, if they tied you up, they want you alive. They'll never tie it so tight you can't get free. It's just the timing; it could take a long while." She stepped back. "Okay, try it."

Edited 2009-02-12 20:06 (UTC)

He nodded and did as she'd done, again moving slowly as he slipped his arms past his feet and up to the front. The knot itself was easy enough.

"I suppose the best bet would be distraction, if you were in a situation where you were guarded."

"Uh-hunh. Or just slipping out enough to get free when you need to. Or putting the ropes back on with a slip-knot if they leave you alone for long enough," Dinah agreed. He was taking this really well. Given it was kind of a grim subject. "I have to ask... are they going to be using ropes like these? Whatever they can find, or just kind of normal? Or really thick ones? What kind of people are you facing off with?"

"I'm hopefully 'facing off' with no one and nothing," he said honestly as he held out the rope to her.

"I'd like to get things done with a minimum of trouble. I'm just planning that things won't go how I'd plan them.

"The ones in question are those who have taken over things since the Wizard's reign, more than likely also those who helped him in his rule to some degree. They've the power of the government behind them, secret agents of all shapes and sizes, and they mean nothing good for the Animals, the poor, or anyone else who doesn't fit what they want in Oz."

He breathed in a little.

"To answer your question a little better, though, they used a rope like that to hold me the last time. So this should be fine."

Dinah gave him a sympathetic look on that, and coiled up the rope, thinking. Hard-core creeps. But... spread out. Too varied to know who he'd run into, really. If he looked harmless, and acted harmless, they would hopefully make mistakes.

It was all pretty disturbing, but if he wanted to know....

"Yeah. Probably they could use anything then." She nodded decisively. "Cuffs next week. In case they have some. One last rope exercise, and one last trick." She leaned down and tied her ankles together, then straightened, grinning. "Okay. You tell me. How'm I going to get out of this?"

"Bend yourself up to work on it with your hands?" he guessed.

A small smile.

"Or very tiny steps."

She giggled, and said, "Little of this, little of that... annnnd..." She toed off one gym shoe, then the other. "Ta da! Slack!" And wriggled one foot out of the loop, then stepped out of it. "See? We cheat! It's not about beating the knots. It's about beating the ropes."

"So I'm learning," he said thoughtfully as he looked at the shoes on the floor.

"Shall I try that one as well?"

"Sure!" Dinah crouched down and looped the rope around his ankles. "If you wear big boots, and they don't have time or smarts to take them off you, you can almost step out of them. Same with big jackets. Shirts. Easier to shrug out of than ropes, sometimes." She grinned up at him, then jumped up. "I should be timing you. Barbara always timed me."

"On the second go around," Liir agreed.

"I'm always slow the first time. I have to break it down piece by piece before I really understand it."

But he was wearing relatively large shoes that came off soon enough and he slipped one foot, then the other, out of the ropes.

"What about if they hogtie you?"

"Never fun," Dinah said, making a face. "Sideways tip over, so you can get some slack. Then you have to work on getting your wrists free, behind your back." She dug into her pocket, and came up with a Swiss Army Knife. "Or you hide one of these on you somewhere, and *really* cheat."

"Knowing my luck, it'd drop out of my pocket about when I was almost free and alert them to what I was doing," he said with a self-depreciating smile.

Dinah snickered, and said, "And that was the last trick for today; hide a blade of some kind on you, if you can. Slipping it all off is fine, but we're not stage illusionists. If you can find a sharp thing, or bring it with you, cut the stupid ropes and run for it." She grinned, and bounced to her feet. "There! Wow. I didn't realize I knew this much. It's all mostly practice and strength, once you know it."

"Something I'll keep in mind.

"What's, er, 'strength training' incidentally?"

Dinah blinked, non-plused, then pointed to the free-weights and machines on the other side of the gym. "Doing reps? Um, repetitions. Lifting weights to build up muscle. If you don't have a job here that includes a lot of physical work, you can use those?" She sounded uncertain to herself, not sure if she'd interpreted Liir's question correctly.

He nodded to that, not really familiar with the idea but figuring it was worth a shot.

"I'll give it a try?"

He didn't much know how it might help but she was the expert. He'd learned to do things for Ino. He'd give Dinah the same respect as a teacher.

"It's not hard," Dinah encouraged him, then tilted her head. "C'mon, I'll show you. Free weights are probably easiest." The weight machines might look like torture devices or ... tick-tocks? To Liir. At least the ones with the dials.

She picked up a five-pound weight, and handed it to him, then picked one up herself. "Bicep curls!" She lifted it to her chest, then carefully down. "Fifteen of those, each arm. Every other day. Build up to more gradually." She grinned, doing it again. "There's leg weights here too. You use more weight for more muscle mass, more reps for more flexibility and strength."*

[*Don't rely on this for anything. Nope.]

Liir nodded and did the repetitions that she's prescribed with the handweight as she spoke.

"I'll do that," he agreed as he watched her.

"Anything else I should do?"

It was belatedly occurring to Dinah that Liir was looking at her as some kind of expert. Which was so not the case. "There's tons of books about escapology. I can show you the handcuff thing next week, and maybe straitjackets. But there's a whole lot more out there, if you go looking. You should read up on that too, if you're serious about getting out of stuff."

"I'll check in the library sometime next week. Or perhaps the bookstore tomorrow."

He blushed a little.

"Thank you. For spending your time. I do appreciate it."

Though now he was grinning.

"If we're done, however, it's time for your cooking lesson. If you stil wanted one, anyway."

"I do!" Dinah grinned, then grimaced. "Only, can we not make it tonight? I'm supposed to rehearse the play with Cal, and we never said what time, so I have to track him down."

"The weekend would be fine. Whatever you'd like. I'm pretty flexible."

"Cool!" Dinah beamed at him. "If I can go home and cook a little for Alfred, he'll be thrilled. Especially if it doesn't suck. Thanks."

Edited 2009-02-13 01:10 (UTC)

"I have a feeling you've fallen to the same sort of troubles that most people have," he said with a faint smile.

"But I won't take up any more of your time today. Give me a call when you're free and I'll see you then, hmm?"

The Gym - After Classes - Thursday, 2/12

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject