fandomhighdorms | The gym, Sunday afternoon

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The gym, Sunday afternoon

Fight Club being canceled for the evening, Dinah decided to step up her workout that afternoon. After a session with the weights, she was now pummeling the punching bag. Kick-punch-strike, punch-punch-punch-kick!

Hm. And maybe some TK weight lifting when she was done with this.

[open like an open thing]

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"Cool," Dinah chirped. "So what do you think of Fandom so far? Is it really different from where you're from?"

"It is very different," Azula said, thinking on yesterday, "there's the food, the writing and the hair."

The hair, immediately after the foreign writing, was really getting to Azula. All she need do is look at Dinah for it.

Dinah paused, and pulled her ponytail around to look at it, then grin at Azula. "Not too many blondes or redheads back-- where? And what's the food difference?"

"There's only black and brown hair from my world," Azula said. Well, there was that Northern Water Tribe princess, she had white hair but she was, according to reports, touched by the moon spirit. So that didn't count. "I'm from the Fire Nation and our food is made differently mostly consisting of seafood. Also, the dishes lacked spice."

"Sounds a little like some of the Pacific rim stuff here. Shrimp and rice? Or sushi?" Dinah offered. "Mmm. Sushi. Ahem." She shook her (very blonde) head. "Yeah, that's going to throw you, as much as social changes would. Or the technology. We have people here from the past, or the future, who have a hard time adjusting to stuff. Or one's who've never seen magic or powers at all. Some of them king of go 'buh?' for days."

"Pacific rim? Is that where China is? I was mistakenly identified as someone from that country." She wondered why, her eyes were gold, it's enough of an indicative to show which nation she came from. "Yes, that's some example of our food. This world is advanced technologically but the Fire Nation isn't far behind."

She was very proud of that fact.

"We have vehicles and airships we just don't have this thing you call electricity." They really didn't need it since almost anyone in the Fire Nation can generate their own power.

"Yup. Along with some others. Japan, Korea. You might want to check out the Chinese place in town, or Sushi Station, if you're looking for familiar food. And cool, you'll probably adjust pretty fast, then, if the technology is familiar." Dinah tilted her head. "Do you guys have magic, in the Fire Nation?"

"I shall need to look up the countries you mentioned and the restaurants," Azula said, the list of things to do where growing. "I also need to purchase chopsticks."

"Some people could, I suppose, perform magic." The way she said magic indicated what she felt about such... parlor tricks. "But most of the people in my world can bend elements and as you may have guessed, my element is fire."

And how.

"Bending fire?" Dinah stopped punching and gave Azula a curious look. "Do you mean starting it, and controlling it? Like that?"

"Precisely that," Azula moved a step back and raised her hand and a small blue flame appeared in her hand. To anyone but her, the heat would be searing.

"Awesome," Dinah said, tapping her gloved hands together, watching the flame in fascination. "My friend Eleanor can do stuff like that too. She said she's a fire mage, but I guess they're similar."

The flame in her hand dissipated. "A fire mage? Someone like a bender? Here?"

Dinah couldn't tell if Azula was happy about that, or not. "Yeah. Eleanor's from England, not your Fire Nation. Red hair. British accent." She paused. "Which probably means nothing to you, but she doesn't sound like me." She shrugged. "A lot of people have powers here, of one kind or another. Magic or something else. Like me."

She turned to the bag and punched it without touching it, sending it swinging and spinning away from her.

Azula's hawklike eyes tracked the swinging bag, her eyes becoming very calculating.

"Interesting," she murmured. Then her eyes moved back to Dinah, "Very interesting."

Which was... distinctly unnerving, actually. And pressed Dinah's bibble-button in response.

"It's not magic. It's just something I can do. I've had it a bit over a year, now." Dinah reached out with her TK to steady the bag, and said, "I'm getting better at it, but it still needs work. I study with Professor Atreides to get better control." She looked back at Azula's very focused yellow eyes, and added, "There's some other stuff, but. Um." She shrugged. "Nothing with fire."

"Is this an ability one can learn?" Azula asked, her eyes very focused on Dinah. She was also walking a little closer to Dinah. "What other abilities do you have?"

Okay, that was even more so, and Dinah could occasionally be oblivious to certain sexual things but her unconscious was very good at pointing out threatening behavior. Or behavior that was riding that line very, very closely, like the third rail on a subway line.

So partly to get Azula to back off, she straightened, and kept her voice very level. "Touch telepathy. I can read people's minds when I'm touching their skin." She met Azula's eyes, so she could see she wasn't lying. "Which is why I wear gloves when I spar, even if it's not boxing. Not fair to the other person." She paused. "And the last one... Well. That's personal."

Azula was amused at Dinah's attempt but when she mentioned touch telepathy, Azula watched her with wary eyes but she didn't back off. Instead she moved around Dinah until she was behind the punching bag and it appeared Azula was peering at her from behind it. But her eyes were no less watchful.

"You can read thoughts?" Azula said, "That's very useful."

Creepy Intense Girl was now amping it up a notch, wasn't she? All the happy friendliness Dinah greeted new people with was now melting away to her this-is-the-job mentality of wary watchfulness.

"It is." She paused, considered punching the bag, but held off. "And no, as far as I know, you need to be born with the potential for it. You can't learn it otherwise."

And let's just forget Harley Quinn and the way she stole powers and god, no way was she ever giving this chick that idea.

"Just like bending," Azula completed her circuit. She shrugged and smiled, as if the earlier focused intensity didn't happen. "I suppose that's only fair. People can't have everything."

Not that it stopped her from attempting.

"Nope." Dinah smiled back, and her shoulders relaxed, but her eyes stayed wary. "Well. A few people here seem like it." She tilted her head, watching Azula carefully. "Peter Petrelli, he just graduated and left. He copied other people's abilities if he met them. Flight. Telekinesis. Fire too, I think." A looser shrug; whatcha-gonna-do. "One more reason to have the Magic reserves. To learn new ways to do things."

Pity he graduated. He's of no use to her if he wasn't here.

But she did focus on the useful thing that was *in* the island. "I think I might revise my opinion on magic." She smiled at Dinah, all charm, "I have you to thank for it."

"You're welcome." No reason not to tell her, right? No reason to suspect... heck, Dinah didn't even know what she suspected. Maybe nothing. Maybe it was just the danger-sense at the back of her brain, not anything psychic, just a year in New Gotham, telling her Azula was not someone to mess with if you weren't prepared. "It's helped me out." She deliberately turned back to the bag, and said, "I need to get back to this. Maybe we'll talk again later."

"Of course," Azula said, not put out. She had her hand behind her back and turned to leave the gym. She had a satisfied smile on her lips.

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The gym, Sunday afternoon

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