fandomhighdorms | The gym, Sunday afternoon

Dinah nodded, bit her lip, and popped her thumb back in, shaking out her hand, and then holding it to her chest. "If you do that, there's a good chance you'll break your thumb, or sprain it, I should warn you. And it's going to hurt no matter what, even if you do it right, and hurt for a while." Ow. "But. It's a good way to get out of cuffs if you absolutely have to, like, you really don't wanna be there whenever your captors come back." Better a broken thumb than other things.

"You can't really pull the same trick on leg cuffs, but all that stuff I told you about wearing boots and heavy clothes, and working your way out of them, still applies." She smiled and rubbed her hand. "My sister said that the guy who trained her had her work her way out of a straitjacket. Hanging upside down. I can't do that yet, but it's the same principle. Dislocate a shoulder, shrug out of it, then pop it back in."

He took the cuffs from her thoughtfully, put them on tight, and without a second thought, dislocated his thumb to pull his fingers through. He swallowed, a touch of pain in his eyes, before popping it back into place. He winced just a little, but once he was done, he nodded.

"I've had to put myself back together a time or two. I just wanted to see if I could."

He wiggled the thumb a little and stashed the pain away to be dealt with later, in private.

"Is your hand all right?"

"Liir!!" Dinah's jaw dropped and she almost hit him for doing what she just said not to, gesturing with the hand that was still sore. "Dude, you could've -- yes, my hand is okay, just owie." Muscle torsion, bruise underneath from doing that. As usual. "And I guess it's good you know, but still!"

"Better to find out now," he said quietly, unperturbed, "than to find out when I need to know. I'm sorry I startled you."

Dinah blew out a breath, and sighed. Terrorists. Right. Evil government. Also right. "Yeah. I know. Just... get it checked out, put some ice on it. If it starts turning funny colors, go to the Clinic, okay?" She shook her head. "And that's as much as I know now. Everything else is just practice." She folded her legs up and picked up the cuffs again. "Better to not get caught, though."

"It'll be fine in a few hours," he told her with the authority of someone who'd once had all of his fingers on one hand dislocated before the maunts got there in one rather terrible afternoon.

"And hopefully, I won't get caught, as you say. Best to be prepared, though, especially with my luck."

"Yeah." Dinah grimaced. Tony had seemed to think that Liir *really* needed to be careful around those guys. "When's the next time you go back, do you know?"

"Whenever I decide to go back. The Princess's eyes and ears should make things a bit safer for me, but I won't rely on them. And Cats aren't exactly easy to spot from the sky."

"... you know you make no sense to me when you talk like that, right?" Dinah checked. "'Cause I'm guessing a Cat is something you don't want to run into, and you're going to use your broom to fly, but I have *no* idea why."

He looked at her for a moment, shook his head, and pointed to the ground before sitting.

"I've no trouble explaining things, it just seems as if it's a lot of bother for most people. If you'd like to know, ask. If not, I'll try not to mention it anymore.

"But when I say a Cat, I mean a cat much like those you know here except that it can speak and think as a man might. And when I say that they aren't easy to spot from the sky, I mean that the other Animals, those with similar abilities in thought and speech, won't be able to spot him easily to let me know when he's about."

"I like knowing," Dinah told him. "So that's not a bother." She grinned. "Ohhh, he's a friend of yours. Gotcha." She frowned. "Or not. Wait, are you trying to avoid him? Is he on the Emperor's side?"

"He was the Witch's pet for a time," and the calmness of his tone, combined with the green-glass quality of his eyes said he was speaking impersonally because there was something beneath, something he wouldn't let show, "and it was he who reported my father's involvement with her. As well as their location, to the Gale Forcers."

Fiyero was dead because of the Cat.

"I need to avoid him. Whatever side he is on, it is not my side."

"Okay." Dinah was somewhat disturbed by that expression-- that was not a I-am-dealing-okay expression, but a I-don't-wanna-talk-about-it-more expresion-- but thought she had an idea of the players now. Mostly. She'd kind of had the impression that his dad was at the theater, but also... maybe gone? "Your dad was here for a while, right?" she checked. "So that's a timeline thing... and okay. Emperor, Cat, Gale Forcers. Trism, you, Glinda. Different sides correct so far?"

"He was at the theatre before deciding that he had to try and change what happened," and there, just the smallest hint of something else, more hidden emotions and flat facts, "knowing what he knew then. And so he left here, hoping to prevent his own death and the attack on the Witch.

When she listed the names...

"That's about right, yes. Though Glinda did employ Captain Cherrystone. And Trism is even now working in the Home Guard. Things are rarely simple, after all."

That came with a touch of a smile, though if it was to make her feel better or just because it was all he could do was anyone's guess.

"Home Guard, are they different from Gale Forcers, or, different branch?" Dinah asked, then, "And Cherrystone is a bad guy, I take it?"

The stuff about his dad... well. She know how much losing a parent sucked. No matter how brave-faced he tried to be about it. "I'm sorry about your dad. I wish it had turned out different."

"He might be alive. He might have made it. I'll never know, unfortunately," he said with a shrug.

"But thank you."

The two questions were harder, though. He tapped his jaw with one finger and licked at his lips a few times before speaking.

"I've never been in the military, but yes, they're two branches of Oz's troops. The Gale Forcers were used during the Wizard's regime. I spent a year or so with the lot of them camped just below where I lived, squatting at Red Windmill.

"As a boy, I'd go down and visit with them. They taught me the rudimentary start to boxing, how to load and shoot and care for a rifle. Bawdy songs, wicked stories... whether it was because I was an oddity or from pity, I couldn't tell you. Cherrystone was their commander and he took a shine to me.

"When they finally stormed the keep and took Sarima, her sisters, Nor, and Irji away, he was kind enough to tie me in a bag and leave me in one of the barns on the way. Otherwise, I'd probably either be dead or I'd have spent most of my life in Southstairs prison, as Nor did. What that says about him when he had a wife and child of his own, well, that I will leave up to you."

Dinah found herself gaping a bit, then shut her mouth, trying to sift through that for a coherent thought. Part of the problem was how mild, but deeply bitter, Liir sounded; not upset emotionally, but judgmental and dismissive in describing it. Another "I'm sorry" would seem repetitive and pitying.

"Okay," she said, as steadily as she could. "So. People you grew up with got taken away, you survived because the head guy liked you... which doesn't make him a good guy, necessarily. And ... why won't you ever know what happened to your dad? There's no way to find out? Or is that another timeline thing?"

"I would think that if he had changed anything in my world, I would know by now. If he hadn't, I'll never really know, unfortunately. It's a nice thought, that some other Liir might grow up with a father, but not one that does me much good, I'm afraid."

He ran a hand through his hair.

"I have the assurance that he is my father, and his written word given to me before he left that makes me legitimate in the eyes of Arjiki law. He taught me the customs, the language, many things. I am grateful that I got to meet him at all, considering. He was everything I ever wished for in a father."

So of course he went away.

"I'm sorry if this is a bit jumbled. I've learned to talk about it as little as possible of late; it tends to be depress people."

Dinah was quiet a minute after that statement, and said, "Yeah, it would a bit. For most people. And I'm glad for that other Liir. Sorry you didn't get to keep your dad, though."

Because getting answers and a heritage-- like being told your mom is the superheroine Black Canary -- is not at all the same thing as having a person there. The one who's supposed to love you more than anything.

"The past can't be changed. Looking back... well." Dinah shrugged. "I'm glad you've got plans for how to deal with your country in the future." She reached over and picked up the handcuffs. "And the worst case scenarios."

He didn't know if his vague 'get Shell out of power' idea was really a 'plan' so much as a revenge fantasy run amok but he thought it was nice that she did and it gave him a bit of confidence.

"I have to do something."

"The past is the past, though.

"Which... brings us to the future, I suppose. Or the soon to be present." In more than one sense.

"What kind of food do you generally like?"

"Yup." Dinah got that, pretty much. She hoped that he didn't get caught at all, and that he got a support network together... but did understand that he had to do something even if it was just as one guy.

She immediately brightened at the mention of food, giving him a hopeful look. "Spicy! Um, the spicier the better. I know the stir-fry you taught me, and I cooked it with George once. I really like Italian food too, though. So maybe that, for a change?"

He grinned, glad that he'd thought to get one of the more interesting little texts that he'd seen at the store the other day, and reached into the bag to find it. A moment later, he presented her with a small yellow book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584794119/theglobalgourmet).

"A little present, to get you started. We can find something in there that you'd like to try."

"Oooo! Liir, thank you!" Dinah immediately paged through it, bouncing a little, and saying aloud, "Flaming Cognac and Green Peppercorn sauce... Okay, now I have the munchies." She beamed at him widely, darker mood dispelled, or at least put aside in favor of being distracted. "Awesome. This is going to be great."

He grinned and nodded, picking up the handcuffs and handing them back to her before holding out the bobby pin.

"Then we should get going on the cooking portion so that you can enjoy some of those things.

"Join me on the top floor?" and he offered his arm to her.

"Happy to do so, sir," Dinah said, tucking the bobby pin into her pocket, and twirling the cuffs with a flourish. "Lead on to the learning about fooooods!"

The gym, Sunday afternoon

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