[Open]

[raptorcanaria]

Characters: Dinah Lance and OPEN
Date: July, all after Clueventure
Location: Wood Sector, and wherever you need her.
Situation: There are ideas and commitments that Dinah started before being distracted by detective work. Now she intends to follow up on them.
Warnings/Rating: Blood, wounds in the Arthur thread.
I started with prose, but will switch to action if you'd like.

General Starter: She found it in the wood sector, a courtyard formed by four trees growing from each corner, growing and intertwining together above, walled by hedges that have been growing out since the last master left. As soon as she had a spare morning and the presence of mind to do so, it is here Dinah returns.

She keeps the name and cleans first the sign painted so neatly in Chinese: “The Jade School of Kung Fu, overseen by Grand Master Shifu.” She doesn't know what happened to the Grand Master, but a dojo cannot be left unused, and she plans to honor this Master she never met by returning his space to the use it was intended.

She sent messages to the people she knew were interested in training with her, to let them know where they could be found, then she set about trimming the hedges, sweeping the building and the courtyard, and transforming it into a usable dojo again.

Comments

[alphatar]

“If you really think so.” As always, Korra just wanted to dive in head first. Her logic was to do it soon and get it over with as soon as possible.

Leaning on the doorway, Korra watched Dinah go through the forms of Water, or T’ai Chi. Normally she would have joined in, but she was still cooling off from her flare up.

“I’m getting some pointers from someone I met. They really know a lot about it, more than anyone I’ve ever known.” And that was quite a list since Korra had been taught by various masters that were brought to the South Pole by the White Lotus, specifically to train her on control. Which had been a waste of time from her point of view.

“It’s different from everything I’ve been told. But it makes sense to me, and I’ve been doing a better job of keeping myself in check.” Earlier, Korra normally would have just stuck around for a yelling match and thrown herself hoarse just trying to hammer her feelings and point of view into Dinah. Instead, she had simply opted for leaving without discussing the subject. A little bit got out, well it was little for Korra, and she managed to stem the flow.

[raptorcanaria]

"Alright."

Well, if Korra's convinced this new technique will work, Dinah's going to let her try it out.

"If you need more ideas, that's what I'm here for. But that doesn't mean the rest of your training gets to take a break."

She jerks her head, beckoning. "Get over here."

[alphatar]

Korra blinked a few times at Dinah’s response. A line of questions about who was helping her, how, and why had been what Korra was expecting. With the full intent of avoiding them of course, she knew Bruce was a private person and she didn’t want to bring him to anyone’s attention if she could help it. And yet, she got nothing but acceptance.

Standing there for a moment in stunned silence, Korra was unsure of what to do or say. That kind of thing never happened with her.

Finally she nodded and at Dinah’s request she made her way into the courtyard. Assuming the stance Dinah was in, she fell into step near her.

“…Why are you helping me?”

Korra knew the whole thing with Damian, which was obviously one of the factors, and that led Korra to believe that there was some other reason than the original one Dinah gave when they first started, before the clinic, back at the hydroponics garden. There was the paranoia she had developed after her mission for Evandau, or the conversation she had with an anonymous man over the network in regards to the Green Lanterns, or simply because Amon was at large and she felt she was the only one that cared. But really, the biggest thing that had affected her was last night, on her way home from the pizza party with the turtles. The dark figure wearing the black mask and cape that had chi-blocked her left Korra with a feeling that Keeliai wasn’t nearly as safe as she had assumed it was.

All of this because one of her triggered flare ups over Amon caused more damage than she had intended.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah looks over at her, not losing her rhythm, but honestly questioning. Why on Earth shouldn't she help her? She hangs out with Bats and former Bats and Helena, who has Battish tendencies despite professing not wanting to join that stupid club, but she's not used to people questioning her motives.

"Didn't you ask me to be your teacher?"

That's a powerful word, in Dinah's vocabulary.

[alphatar]

“Sort of, yeah.” Korra answered sheepishly. That wasn’t the answer she was expecting. “It’s just that I’ve always had people watching me and making sure that I was doing the best I could at, well, everything. And that was back at home.” She didn’t fall out of her cadence with Dinah.

“I just, I don’t know. It just feels weird when I think about it being the same here even though I’ve never been here before.” A pause before she realized that was an inadvertent lie. “Or rather I don’t remember being her before. All the people that were watching me back home, I knew them since I was a kid. But here, I haven’t met any of them except Lin.”

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah isn't really sure what to make about the idea Korra's been here before, but she lets it go: she's heard similar things before.

"Do you want it, here?"

[alphatar]

"Is it that bad?" Needing an appropriate location sounded bad. Giving a second to wonder whether she'd like it or not wasn't enough time, Korra needed more than that to come to a logical conclusion.

Which is why just suddenly said "Yeah, I should know this stuff." If there was stuff. There had to be stuff, or else Korra wouldn't have felt so weird about it.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah doesn't think that things need to be bad to want a teacher. She'd never turn down a teacher, even here in Keeliai. Especially here in Keeliai, really, with the range of other world styles available to her. It gives her pause, that Korra needs to think she's bad at something to benefit from a teacher.

But when she says yes, the frown disappears.

"Then I'll be your teacher."

And all that means, from helping her improve her existing bending skills, to taking responsibility for her use of those skills, to helping her face her fears and being able to hold her own against chi-blocking.

And as far as Dinah's concerned, that's that.

[alphatar]

"Hey, I can live with that." Korra said, a small smile trying to fight its way through her mood. "Just out of curiosity, what are the calming techniques you were thinking of?" Korra doubted they would be any different from ones she had tried back home, but maybe on the off chance that they coincided with what Banner had taught her, then she could openly work on the techniques he discussed with her.

[raptorcanaria]

"There's a technique I use in some of my styles called Seishin Toitsu," Dinah explains. "Pure concentration from the gathered mind. It's the nearest thing to an actual meditation practice I've ever been able to do regularly."

[alphatar]

Korra nodded her head slowly while thoughtfully sticking out her lower lip.

"Nope." she said in answer to herself now that she compared the method to Banner's. Maybe one day she could do that, after doing the smaller steps he outlined for her. "Let's give that a shot later on. Much later."

When Korra finished the one kata and began the next, she looked over at Dinah.

"Did you want to yell at me?" Korra knew Dinah didn't, but she was now wondering if that was because Korra had already gotten her fair share or if Dinah just didn't see it as anything worth yelling over.

[raptorcanaria]

"Ha, no."

Dinah grins, shaking her head. "If I want to yell at someone, they know. The whole block would know, actually. My yelling tends to come with structural damage. When I want to yell at you, your first clue would be meeting me in an open space.

"I just wanted to hear your side and figure out what we can do about keeping people safe in the future."

[alphatar]

"I'm the one that keeps people safe." Korra muttered as she went through the kata, her moves having more of a whipping motion to them than required.

"So who's side are you taking?" she asked flatly.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah's pretty sure Korra doesn't need to be reminded that burning down clinics isn't compatible with keeping people safe.

Dinah glances over at her, her smile fading as she keeps moving.

"What does that mean?"

She's teaching Korra. She's breaking off all contact with Amon. How obvious does she need to be?

[alphatar]

Korra raised her eyebrow, not sure if Dinah was actually asking that as an honest question or was being offended.

"It means just that. Whose side are you taking: Mine or the Lantern?" Amon's side wasn't even a factor to Korra. Taking his side instead of hers would have been a disaster in and of itself.

[raptorcanaria]

"I didn't know I had to take a side," Dinah says. "Kyle's a colleague. He's my step-son's best friend and he's been a good friend to me since I arrived. Are you planning to draw battle lines?"

Kyle was in his rights to defend his clinic, but Korra was clearly triggered. Dinah's not planning to raise her fists against either of them.

[alphatar]

"I thought they were kind of drawn as it is." Half of that was Korra feeling like she had just been challenged over whether she could or not. In fact, she stopped mid-kata to put her fists on her hips.

"What do you mean colleague?" Reflexively Korra's eyes look to Dinah's, searching her fingers for a ring.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah's wearing leather gloves to train in. Her wedding and engagement rings are locked in a safe in the office.

She notices when Korra stops and comes to a halt again.

"I mean we both save the world on a regular basis," she says. "We've both been members of the Justice League. He would have been at my wedding, except he was busy off- planet."

Three Green Lanterns turned out to be only just enough.

[alphatar]

Lost at the save the world part, Korra just got even more so at the Justice League part, something she's never even heard of before, and the wedding just kind of knocked Korra for a loop. She had no idea Dinah was married.

"Whoa, whoa. That's-" Her eyes widen for a second as she tried to process all that. "So you work with them in their League and you're married?" Because the marriage is just as important as the saving the world part.

[raptorcanaria]

"It isn't their League," Dinah says with gentle firmness. "It's our League. And yes, we usually have at least one GL on the roster.

"And what does my marriage have to do with anything?"

[alphatar]

"So you guys are like, Team Avatar. Got it." Korra left anything she wanted to say about the Lanterns out. Mostly because she was blinking at the question Dinah gave her.

"I just didn’t think you were married. That’s just surprising to me. "There wasn’t anything teasing in her tone, just honest confusion. "The only married people I knew were just a couple of my masters and my mom and dad."

[raptorcanaria]

"Except we don't name ourselves after any one member."

She can only imagine the dick-waving contests that would result from that idea. And the boys have enough of those as it is.

"Really? It's that rare on your world? Or you just don't know that many adults?"

Either is possible, of course. When Dinah was seventeen most of her friends were married or divorced or widowed, but most of her friends were from the Justice Society.

[alphatar]

"Hey, the name’s a tradition." Korra said, though it wasn’t without a smile.

"Oh no, it’s not that it’s rare. It’s just, my friends only have one parent or none at all." In fact, Korra could only list both her parents and Tenzin and Pema as being a part of any intact marriage. She couldn’t place Katara there since it would have been impossible for her to see her with her husband.

That’s the whole scope of marriage as Korra understood it.

"So, I just kind of thought that you never mentioned him…" After a moment Korra blurted out embarrassedly. "…or her. "

She rubbed her arm with her hand.

"That’s just, I didn’t know if you lost anyone."

[raptorcanaria]

"Him," Dinah offers her. Although the idea of a female Oliver amuses her greatly, there's a definite streak of maleness to that guy.

But that's the only thing she can find to smile about.

"And I have lost him. Or rather - he's missing, right now."

[alphatar]

Korra ducked her head a little. "Just missing though, right?" She was kind of hoping it was just that and that Dinah was one of those exceptions like her parents were.

"So no kids to worry about either?" It was odd asking that question for Korra, Dinah always seemed like just a slightly older sister. The adults she thought were cool usually were knocked down an age bracket in her own little world.