The gym, Sunday afternoon

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah got to the gym earlier than she'd *handwavily* told Liir, put her gear down by the wall, and went to practice her TK on the weights. 350. 400? 425. Ha. Lift. Put down. Lift. Put down. Hmm, how long can she do this before she gets a headache?

[expecting one, but open]

Comments

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir was there on time, as per usual, and he had with him a bag that held a few square, book-looking type things in it, though none of them were quite clear to see.

"That's rather impressive," he admitted as he glanced over at the weights.

He could lift things that he could practically touch, but he'd never tried at a distance before. And certainly nothing made of metal. If he tried his method on metal, it would most resolutely go down. Possibly past the floor.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hey Liir! Thanks. I've been practicing," Dinah admitted. "I'd like to know what the heaviest thing I can lift is. So far it keeps getting better if I practice." She gave the bag he'd brought with him a curious look, and let the weight fall back to rest. "What's in there?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Nothing you need worry about until after," he said with a little grin.

There was another glance at the weights before he made a mental note to ask Lady Glinda about that sometime soon.

"Did you want to practice some more? I can wait."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Naah, I'm good. Already did enough reps." Dinah hopped off the bench, and walked over to the backpack with the handcuffs and other restraints, grabbing it and heading to one of the mats. "Maybe we should do some stretching first, so you can be limber enough for a couple of these tricks. It's all in the arms, mostly."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I warmed up on the way over," he admitted, mostly because it'd recalled memories of his old training sessions on Sundays.

"But a stretch would do nicely."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah grinned and started stretching out her arms over her head, behind her back, as far in front of her as they'd go, stretching out her fingers and joints. "Have you been back home since the last time we did this? Anything changed there?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He followed suit.

"Just the once," he admitted, "for a bit of business. And to let Amber meet Nanny. I wonder what she'll think when I tell her Amber's gone."

He sighed and breathed out.

"Trism'll be disappointed, but hopefully he'll like Joan well enough. If they should ever meet. Other than that, though, it's just been letters, a note here or there. I'm... reasonably certain he's started working for the Home Guard again. Trism, I mean."

Which had strained things between them.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"That's your friend, that got on some people's nerves, you said," Dinah remembered from before. "I hope he's okay? I know things are unsettled there."

She cracked her neck, and gave him a serious look. "You still wanna do this? Still gonna need it?" She fished out a pair of standard police handcuffs, and handed them to him to look over. "Are these anything like the ones the people back in Oz would use?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"The ones they'd use are heavy iron, thicker but not nearly as tight to the wrist," he admitted as he looked at the handcuffs.

"And I'm certainly going to need it. I'm still the son of a known terrorist, as well as the nephew of the Emperor... who'd probably like to see me killed or tortured at this point, come to think of it."

He said it with a quick, brittle smile.

"Trism's fine. At least, he says he's fine. He's working in animal husbandry for the military, though don't ask me what that could be as I don't know."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Maybe he gets cows for them, for milk?" No, that didn't make sense to Dinah either. Weird. "I'm glad he's okay, though."

And she definitely needed to show Liir how to do this right, then, if there were still WANTED posters with his face out there, or the equivalent.

She pulled out a set of cuffs for herself. "Okay then. These may not be too similar, but some of the tricks are probably the same. There's three ways out of cuffs. Picking them, breaking them, and slipping out of them. If you can get a set of their cuffs, and have a key made? They usually use ones that are all the same. You could hide it on yourself in case you get caught." Dinah held up a bobby pin. "If you can't, one of these, maybe a little stronger or thicker for a heavier set of cuffs, should work."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He nodded to what she was saying, all of it really.

"I'll see about the keys. I might be able to ask Lady Glinda about some of this, considering."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Professor Glinda? Who was in the play?" Dinah frowned, trying to remember if she'd known they were from the same place. "Cool. Yeah, I mean, you said these soldiers, some might be professionals, some might not, so they might not search you for a key, thinking you wouldn't even have one. There's sneaky places to hide them on yourself, too." Dinah grinned. "Okay, all of this involves you remembering how to get your arms from behind your back to your front again, or getting them to cuff you in the front." She snicked the cuffs onto herself, and turned them so the keyhole was visible, then put the bobby pin in her mouth. "And getting left alone for two minutes."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Lady Glinda," he told her with a little nod to say yes, the one who was in the play.

"She was the ruler of my country, before the Scarecrow" who hadn't been the right one anyway, "and the Emperor. Someone who stepped in after the Wizard left. She's been, well, teaching me magic as she can. Shiz magic. It's a little odd, but I seem to have a knack for it as well."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

It was Sunday afternoon. Of course Cal was going to make it to the gym, even with all the hair-goose drama. It was just a little later than normal, and with a few changes. As in his hair being cut down short and several bandages across the bridge of his nose.

He was a little surprised to see people already there, and was about to say hi to both Dinah and Liir, but stopped somewhere in between the H and the I once what they were doing sort of processed in his head. Then he seemed at an utter loss for anything to say or even think at all and just sort of turned on his heels and went straight for the weight machines, innocently whistling all the while.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah managed to notice they had an audience after she turned around again, and immediately turned bright red. Then took a breath and wandered over at an opportune moment. "Hey, Cal."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"You're going to be quite the expert with those at this rate," Cal commented from behind a chest press, glancing over at her when she came by,

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

The red didn't fade, but Dinah's voice didn't get squeaky or anything. Yay, victory. "Well, this is professional interest. In case Liir gets arrested by creepy people back home. Not... anything else." She cleared her throat and grabbed a weight, just for the sake of doing something. "Since I already know how to do that, in case creepy people who should be arrested try to grab me back home." And then, "Why'd you cut your hair?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal opened his mouth to say something about all that first stuff, then then stopped. He settled the weights down so that they didn't go amiss and his toes or anything, and fought strongly against the urge to check the bandages on his nose.

"Split ends," he said. "And where was all your expertise those times I got arrested?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"In New Gotham skipping class, probably," Dinah said, then leaned a little closer to peer at his nose. Still kinda wondering what he got arrested for, too. "Ow? Did you got to the clinic for that? I know how much that can hurt."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

And she hadn't even heard about the latest addition to his record over the summer, either. Cal's hand went up to his nose, leaning back as if that could prevent Dinah from looking at it after she'd gotten an eyeful. "It's fine," he said. "I just..." He considered making something up, but realized that even the truth sounded made up. "I got hit in the face by a goose. If it starts hurting too much, I can just go to Ino to heal it. Clinic is not needed."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah had to just boggle at that a moment. "A goose?" She folded her arms, since he seemed a little nervous about his nose, and said, "Okay, this island? Just went up a notche for weirdness that I did not expect." She bit her lip. "Ino can fix it? You're sure?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal snorted. Which he instantly regretted, because ow. He sucked in a breath through his teeth.

"She'd better be able to," he said, "for how much crap she gives me about letting her heal things."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah winced in immediate sympathy, ow ow, and reached out in immediate sympathy to rub his shoulder, not realizing how that was maybe not a good idea, maybe a little too pushy or... something, until after she'd done it. Um. She didn't drop her hand but managed to turn even redder. "Yeah. I hope so." Right. Annnnd...? "Anyway, yeah. Escapology. Not all that difficult, really. Just making sure Liir's going to be safe and all."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Initially, Cal tense when Dinah reached for his shoulders, but once his brain caught up with what she was doing, he tried to make himself relax. Because, hello, shoulder rubs. Those were nice.

"Yeah, but, if he's being arrested, would that mean he did something wrong? Or are we talking, like, corrupt government and all that stuff?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah almost pulled her hand back when Cal tensed up, but when he relaxed, she decided that would draw too much attention to it. So she let her fingers lie there a minute, and only after he'd asked his question did her fingers rub his shoulder in sympathy, then absently press a little harder on one muscle knot.

"Corrupt government, from what he's said, that's out for his blood anyway, because he's related to a part of a royal family that mostly got killed off when he ws a kid." She paused. "Which sounds ridiculous and very soap opera. But he obviously doesn't care if he's believed or not, so I'm leaning toward it being true."