[OPEN] I got friends I haven't met yet

[raptorcanaria]

Characters: Dinah Lance - OPEN
Date: Various times between June 4th and 16th
Location: Everywhere and anywhere
Situation: Dinah exploring the city and the turtle, meeting people she arranged to meet with, settling in. Bothering people.
Warnings/Rating: Will add as they come up.

Dinah needs to find something to do. She did manage to find a job in retail, but outside of that she's been finding herself becoming restless quickly and that never feels comfortable.

So she's dedicating some time to exploring, getting to know the city and the the Turtle, and meeting as many people as she can, just to know who is who.

Comments

Water Sector - a cafe (closed to Kara)

[raptorcanaria]

After her poor experience with the sea prunes, Dinah committed herself to finding the absolute best cafes. Having no experience of pre-rationing cuisine, she's happy enough with what she's found, and it takes her only a couple of days to find an adorable cafe with friendly staff. It's this place that she sends in a message to Kara, along with a time and date.

She's early, having scouted out a table by the window with a view of the canal, where she can people watch while waiting.

[notdreaming]

Although Kara will always be partial to the architecture of the Fire Sector that reminds her so much of home, she has to admit that the Water Sector is an entirely other sort of beautiful, and sports some of her favorite places to eat. The one Dinah picks out she's actually been to before, though it's been a while. She knows a few items on the menu, even if she still can't read about half of it.

She spots her companion easily in the window before she's even very close to the door. She had flown this far, but chose to walk along the scenic canals and approach the cafe at a more human pace. She waves at her new friend through the window before entering.

"Have you ordered yet?"

[raptorcanaria]

New friend! It's both weird and not weird at all to be starting a friendship with a third version of Peej/Supergirl. Dinah waves back cheerfully.

"Just a drink and an appetizer I really enjoyed last time. I wasn't sure if you had a preference."

Since she can't read the menu, she's been trusting the staff to recommend things, which has been hit and miss.

[notdreaming]

She took a seat opposite the other blonde and waved a waiter over. The kedan were very friendly here, likely because it was the Water Sector and they had always been more laid back than they were elsewhere. She ordered a drink that someone had told her was a lot like spiced Chai, not that she had any idea what that was.

"Not having to eat saves me a lot of money, but I'd like to try more foods while I'm here. I hope we don't have to keep rationing for too much longer."

[raptorcanaria]

"I hope so, too," Dinah agrees. When her appetizer arrives she pushes the plate to the middle of the table so they can share.

"I've tried dieting exactly once in my life, and it was a miserable experience for everyone involved. A hungry Canary is a moody Canary."

[notdreaming]

Kara thanked her before taking a modest taste of the dish. It wasn't one she had tried before, and she decided it was rather delicious.

"Can I ask, your name, 'Canary'. What does it mean?"

[raptorcanaria]

"It's a small songbird," Dinah explains. "Mom used to like them. Honestly, though, I think she just thought 'Black Canary' had a nice cadence to it."

[notdreaming]

"Oh." A songbird was nice enough, and rather a lot like the bats she'd heard about. She wondered if Dinah could fly. From her understanding that didn't have much to do with the choosing of names.

"I'm sure it must sound nice in English." Of course, she only heard 'black' in Kryptonian.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah's name actually predates her superpower. Otherwise she probably wouldn't think of it as a 'birdcall' or 'Canary Cry'.

"Of course, the translation... magic, or whatever it is. I like it. 'Black' has one syllable, 'Canary' three. DUH duh-duh-duh."

[notdreaming]

"Oh," she blinked, surprised by the syllabic translation. "It's one syllable in Kryptonian too." Which meant it sounded more or less like it was meant to. "It is a nice rhythm."

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah's a very aural person. Also it seemed like the easiest way to describe cadance.

"And 'black' also ends with the same 'K' sounds that Canary does. That might help."

[notdreaming]

She nodded her understanding. Single letters, at least, seemed to stay in their original sounds. It was when you added them together that it became difficult.

"In my language, it ends with 'lah'. Um... I think it's 'el'?" She was still learning her alphabet.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah grabs a napkin and uses the edge of her knife to inscribe an 'L' into it, turning it around to show Kara.

"Llllllll," she says, drawing out the sound. Then offers the knife to Kara.

[notdreaming]

Kara took the knife and drew for her the Kryptonian letter 'lah', though she struggled a bit with the dot and ended up ripping the napkin.

"You can see why it's been hard, learning to read English." The alphabets were completely different, and she had no choice but to memorize entire words.

[raptorcanaria]

"So that's what Kal's alphabet looks like."

Kal, not Clark, because Clark, obviously, is a human who only knows English.

"I'd really like to learn Kryptonian, actually. You never know when it might come in useful."

[notdreaming]

"I could try to teach you," she offered cheerfully. She was already teaching a small handful of people, and adding one more to the mix wouldn't hurt anything. Besides, not needing to sleep left her with a lot of free time.

"It won't be easy, but I'll try."

[raptorcanaria]

"Well, I never back down from a challenge," Dinah says. "It can't be much harder than you learning English."

[notdreaming]

Kara just laughed. "Well, I would only teach you the most basic and polite language. Guild talk is hard enough when you already speak the language."

[raptorcanaria]

"What's Guild talk?"

[notdreaming]

"Members of each guild use special words and language to communicate with each other," she explained, struggling a little to describe the phenomenon. "I'm not sure if you do the same on Earth."

[raptorcanaria]

"Maybe technical language to describe specialized concepts," Dinah says thoughtfully. "I don't know if it's to the same extent, but I can imagine.

"And no, I don't think I need to learn that. But I don't know much about Guilds on Krypton. Does everyone belong to one?"

She's never chatted to Clark about the world he was born on.

[notdreaming]

She made a face, trying to think of a better way to explain. Specialized concepts weren't really the extent of the idea.

"It's like... I could ask you what your day has been like as though you were in the Science Guild, but if you were in the Artist's Guild you wouldn't understand me. Not unless you spent a lot of time around scientists, anyway. Just about every adult is in a guild. It's unusual to find someone who isn't." If Krypton were still around, they would have been scandalized to find that Kal-El wasn't in any guild at all, moreso than they would be to learn he had grown up on Earth.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah nods.

"I think I understand," she says. "Obviously we have no languages like that on Earth, so I'll probably stick to the basic language.

"You were in the Science Guild?"

She didn't know this! Karen never mentioned it. Although it does make sense.

[notdreaming]

"I would have been." Her smile turns sad as she lowers her gaze to the table in front of her. The life she could have had would always be a sore point.

"Both of my parents were. I was just about to graduate when..." She hoped Dinah knew the end to that story.

[raptorcanaria]

Oh.

Dinah nods quickly, cutting off any need to finish that sentence.

"Right."