milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Dinah comes up from the garage, wiping grease off her hands onto a rag, which she leaves with the bar in exchange for an egg cream. It's not really a fair trade.

She's dressed for shop work: hair pulled back from her face, dirty jeans and a Green Lantern T-shirt that's stained from where she's wiped her hands as she went.

Go on, ask her if she can recite the oath.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dinah shakes her head, finishing the folding of her napkin into a little origami bird.

"I think I'm offended," she says, in a light tone that totally isn't offended. "You'd think I said a stupid green hat. Or a black cowl."

"Green hats just end up turning into archery contests," she says into the bar top, "I can do archery contests."

After you've seen Canary slam Superboy into the floor again and again it leaves a couple of different kinds of impressions. Mostly that any fights should be started with total and overwhelming surprise as much as possible.

The thing about Canaries though, is their tendency to scream when surprised.

Well, not too often, fortunately.

"You forgot about the long speeches about poverty and injustice," Dinah points out. "Much worse than projectile weapons."

She could deal with Steph's excitement. This is less than optimal.

The narration thought the part about 'as close to overwhelming force that could be scrapped up' was understood. Apologies.

At the mention of speeches Artemis snorts and comes upright again.

"I've never been good at paying attention to speeches," she admits, "And, I'd figure, that passing notes in class has nothing on Martian telepathy. Hypothetically, of course."

It's also much more comfortable than the earpieces they have to use otherwise and orders of magnitude more secure.

"You're talking to the wrong girl if you want to learn how to pay attention to lectures," Dinah says cheerfully. "I dropped out of college the minute a handsome man smiled at me."

Oh the heady days of... two and a half years ago.

There's a lot that can happen in that length of time. Possibly even too much.

"Tisk. Tisk," she says, "I guess it's just hands on instruction then."

Hands on, fists on, pretty much the same thing right?

"Pretty much," Dinah agrees. "I don't learn anything unless I'm doing it for myself."

Like beating the crap out of people, for example.

"That explains so much."

"You know other-me quite well, huh?"

"She does some of the hand to hand training," says Artemis, "Mostly non-powered stuff. Plus she's got a psych degree or something. I haven't looked into that."

'It's good enough for Batman,' isn't what most sane people would consider a recommendation for anything involving mental health, but that's a problem for sane people.

"I can see me doing the former," Dinah says slowly. "Never thought of myself as a psychologist."

That would require college.

And she would never suggest 'good enough for Batman' was a way to live your life.

It does form an extreme point to cut off your paranoia, but there are limits to how much you can relax without superpowers.

Artemis shrugs. "I'm not even sure other you is even another you," she says, "And there's no way I'm asking for civilian identities from the League to check that."

Dinah grins. "Yeah, that would be a problem," she agrees. "But I can tell you, I'm gonna be pissed if someone else took that name."

That's her Mom's.

That conversation is just looming in potential between Helena and Artemis.

"Yeah. I don't know what I would do if something like that happened to me."

Rant with dramatic gestures maybe.

"That depends if it's another hero or a Goddess, right?"

"I've had the last one happen already. Here I mean."

No one was transformed into anything! Artemis's grasp of Greek myth calls this a win.

"It was... vaguely awkward."

"Well, you do have the excuse of it being your name," Dinah says. "Lots of people are named after gods."

"And most of them never meet," counters Artemis, "But being able to blame Dad is convenient if nothing else."

"When in doubt, blame your parents," Dinah agrees. "It gets me through a lot."

Artemis snorts. That goes on the list of things she never expected to hear from any color of Canary.

"That is a terrible plan for a whole host of reasons I'm not going to go into."

"Alright," Dinah says easily. "I won't ask."

She has some sense, after all.

"Thanks."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only