[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]

Without a sound, Korra mouth slid open like a gash on her face. Never had she assumed Dinah would have had kids.

“Kids. You know. Like how I’m my parents’ kid, Mako’s his parents’ kid.” Laboring under the assumption Dinah literally meant to ask for Korra’s definition. “The whole man and woman have a kid thing. You know: kids.”

She was not going to give Dinah the lizard-birds and scorpion-bees explanation.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah holds up her thumb, counting 'one.'

"Roy was Oliver's ward and partner before I even meat either of them. But shortly after Oliver and I started seeing each other the first time, he came to me with a problem he was having a hard time with and I helped him out. He's as much a son to me as he is to Oliver, and I'm the godmother to his daughter Lian."

The index finger extends, joining the thumb: 'two.'

"Connor was Oliver's son from a long time ago, and I didn't even find out about him until..." too complicated to explain about Oliie's death? Probably. "...Oliver last went missing. Zatanna says he's been here; you might have met him? He's the step son I was talking about... Kyle's best friend?"

She's been smiling anyway, but it brightens when her middle finger comes out.

"Mia is about your age. She only really came into our lives a few years ago but she's really worked as Oliver's latest partner. I think you'd get on with her a lot, actually."

And last, but definitely not least, Dinah's ring finger extends: 'four.'

"Sin's eight. I found her when I was... well, it doesn't matter what I was doing, but she was being treated poorly by some very bad people and Oliver pulled some strings to get her into the country. She's not had a very happy life, but we're working on giving her something as normal as possible."

It kills Dinah that 'normal' means not living with her and Oliver, but the fact that she's safe is the important thing. And Dinah will never not think of her as her daughter.

[alphatar]

“Wow, so no kids but, yeah, kids.” Korra had bitten off more than she could chew with that question. From Korra’s look, it was probably clear that she didn’t recognize a single name listed off. The mention of being Kyle’s best friend only got a furtive look away before looking back.

“So you and Oliver just kind of find kids then.” Korra folded her arms over chest, a small smirk on her face. “And here I thought you were just looking for someone to hang out with.”

[raptorcanaria]

"That's about the size of it."

And then she blinks, confused, before breaking out a grin that's been absent on her face for a few minutes now.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves with that one."

[alphatar]

“Fair enough.” Korra said loftily, she wasn’t about to poke Dinah on the subject. More important things came to her mind.

“Any way we could speed up those chi-blocking defense lessons?” She gripped her arms as she spoke. “I could really use them.”

[raptorcanaria]

"Okay," Dinah agrees. "I'll expect to see you here every day, then? Same time work for you?"

[alphatar]

Korra shifted her weight onto one foot and rubbed her arm, suddenly averting her eyes to look at the dark sky between the trees along the horizon.

“Um, actually I was kind of hoping you could teach me now. Before I go home.”

Her voice was even, but it didn’t match her body language at all.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah starts in surprise.

"You want to master a technique in a single evening?"

[alphatar]

“Yeah.” She felt stupid and childish when Dinah worded it that way. “I think Amon’s been teaching chi-blocking to someone before he even started at the clinic. Someone I’ve never seen before in my life used it. And they did it better than anyone I’ve ever faced.”

Squeezing her elbow, she looked at Dinah as she chewed her cheek and furrowed her brow.

“Please.”

[raptorcanaria]

That puts everything into a different perspective. Dinah's confusion disappears and she just nods.

"We'll get started now, and see how far we get, okay?"

She'll ask more about this mysterious chi-blocker when Korra's in a better place.

Training handwaved?

[alphatar]

Grateful that she didn’t have to explain more, Korra nodded.

“Okay. I’ll stay here all night if I have to.” Half determination, half hope that it would actually take that long; Korra took off her jacket and rolled her shoulders.

“Let’s do this.”