"I may be skilled at dispatching the garden variety villains and such, but I can't fight something called Doomsday by myself without either suffering severe injuries or dying...", Dinah continued with a nonchalant shrug.
"How can you be so nonchalant about that?", asked Faith while she finished setting the beaker to boil. "How can you stay calm in those types of situations?"
"It's because I trust in myself, my training, my knowledge, and my experiences. Everyone fears death, but that fear is what helps keep me alive. The difference is that I don't let my fear overwhelm me.", Dinah replied with an encouraging grin.
There was a comfortable silence that permeated the room while Faith and Panacea digested the young mother's words.
When the tea was finished, Faith poured a cup for both herself and their Goddess. It was then that Panacea spoke up once again. "I'm very confident in your prowess, Songbird. However, I want you to stay safe..." Before she continued, she took a small sip of tea. "It sounds like you've unlocked your Canary Cry and you may have found a way to use your Voice of the Canary Development Ability. You've got one trump card ready to use just in case; which is always welcome. Like your Runic Understanding, you need to find out more about your Voice of the Canary at a safer venue. For now, you should avoid using it. I'll tell you where and when you'll be able to practice with it soon. Got it, Ms. Leather Jacket?"
Dinah nodded in agreement, but before she could speak, Panacea held up her free hand to silence her.
"When you deem both Faith and Lianne ready, then they'll be accompanying you to the dungeon from now on. This is non-negotiable. I'll feel better knowing that you've got your sisters-in-arms by your sides down there." *Sigh* "I can't wait until more of my children ask you to train them as well as accompany you in your dungeon diving. But it has to be their choice."
"Mother, it can't be helped. You know that.", Faith said softly. "Little Lianne and I chose this of our own volition. There's a chance that Kimberly might want some training as well, but she's mainly the lab rat. Now that we've got Dinah hauling in monster parts, Kim's not going to be leaving her lab unless it's for food, recreation, emergencies, and for her very short breaks; as rare as they are. Isabella is always spying on our training sessions, but she hasn't asked to be part of it yet. You know it's her dream to be a renowned tailor, leather worker, and to find numerous ways to use her Thread Magic for things other than it's apparent purpose. Most are still on the fence, but I'm hoping that they'll eventually come around."
"Don't forget Gil. He's always skulking around and asking Lianne what she's been doing at her training sessions. Nuit's there sometimes, but most of the time we don't really know where she is before breakfast. There's a chance that she watches it too.", said Panacea fondly.
As they talked, Conner finally fell asleep. This is the moment when Conner enters what everyone's been calling his "heavy duty sleep mode". He wakes when he wants to and sleeps when he wants to. No one decides for him. Dinah just tucked him to her bosom even more, and he automatically buried himself into her warmth like he always does.
"Eventually... I can see everyone asking to be trained for their own reason or another. They probably want to see the results from both you; Captain, and Lianne. For Kim, sooner or later she'll want that Mixing Development Ability. If she wants to get it, then becoming Level 2 would be her goal.", informed Dinah with a shrug and a small smile. "I need to get to know everyone better until I can make further deductions, but I'll just wait and see what happens. The wait and see approach has worked for me most of the time."
"They're slowly warming up to you, especially Jayne and Camille.", said Faith with Panacea nodding along. "So don't worry too much about it. Most of them call you big sis already."
Dinah smiled very brightly at that. "Very true."
After another comfortable silence; with Panacea and Faith enjoying their tea while Dinah drank some cold water from one of her leather water skins, the Goddess of Cures and Universal Medicine said, "Now then, Songbird, what's your haul for the day?"
"Hmmm... I was able to get 1,037 tiny magic stone slivers from the Goblins and Kobolds, 710 slightly larger magic stone slivers from the Dungeon Lizards, 635 Goblin Fangs, and 428 Kobold Nails.", Dinah answered with a shrug. "It's not too bad of a haul."
*Sigh* Faith exhaled, closed her eyes and sipped more tea while Panacea just had a gobsmacked look to her before she shook her head and smiled at Dinah proudly. "That's amazing, Songbird. Kimberly's going to be so happy. I'm proud of you."
That acknowledgement from the person that was becoming a very powerful pillar of support for her made Dinah smile brightly. The Canary also flushed a little while she scratched her cheek in slight embarrassment. Faith just watched this with a slightly amused smirk.
"I agree with mother. Kim's gonna be very delighted to receive more monster parts to experiment with. When she's ready with something interesting and functional, then she'll have a gift for you to take to the dungeon for your dives. It could prove useful.", said the Half-Elf with a slight smile. "She's having the time of her life jumping between idea after idea. From what I saw earlier, you just gave both Kimberly and Isabella more inspiration. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you."
"You're very welcome. I just thought of a few things I might need while I'm down there and informed them of some of my thoughts. My old world had a lot of innovations and technology, so I just mentioned a few things to them about it. I'm kind of excited to see what they'll come up with. Batman and the Bat Family always had their gadgets, tech, and trinkets, which helped them in almost every situation. A lot of the very powerful Magic users or Magic oriented people I've befriended had different artifacts and such with them that helped them in their endeavors. I'm kind of taking a few pages from their book and hoping to stack the deck in my favor. Plus, I don't want to have to keep buying clothes... My fishnet leggings need some sewing and one of my tops are also in need of fixing. My combat outfit is my first concern because I'd rather not fight nude... not again...", Dinah finished with a slight shiver.
The end of what she just told them made both Panacea's and Faith's brows rise in surprise and intrigue. Dinah could practically see the curiosity burning in their eyes.
"Well then, Dinah. Would you care to share with us this curious tale?", Faith asked nonchalantly while her emerald eyes held a glint in them.
"Yes, Songbird, would you care to tell your amazing Goddess this intriguing story...?", Panacea added on with a cute tilt of her head.
'I don't think they'll leave this as is without breaking down my willpower... I can already tell that Panacea will slowly wear me down until I tell them about the times I've fought nude... but does it have to be the most embarrassing one?'
Dinah carefully thought it over while Panacea's lips grew a pout. After a few minutes, Dinah released a small *Sigh* and then she began her tale. Panacea smiled to herself in triumph while Faith hid her grin behind her tea cup.
"Okay. This particular adventure happened when I was with the Birds of Prey. A group I helped form alongside my friend Barbara. We were patrolling the city of Blüdhaven at night when we saw...-"
This went on for almost an hour. The Black Canary told them of her tale and her adventure that night with Huntress, Batwoman, and Vixen while they had Oracle working overwatch and communications for them. It was a night full of stopping petty criminals, a few robberies, and other crimes. However, it turned on its head when they stumbled upon Bane and his gang. If that wasn't bad enough, a group of assassins showed up during their battle and it quickly escalated from there. They found out later on that the assassins were hired to kill Bane.
During that scuffle, Dinah fought a Master Assassin who had a weird disposition against his opponent's clothes. He deliberately targeted her clothes to get ahead of his enemies. When things died down, the assassin was knocked out with a bloody face while clutching his family jewels. On the other hand, Dinah's leather jacket was torn, her crop top t-shirt was practically in strings by that point, and her bra was gone. She stood there half-naked while trying to use the tattered remains of her jacket to cover the top half of her body nonchalantly. Thankfully, the bottom half of her outfit was still mostly intact... mostly.
The girls never let her live it down for 7 months straight. It was terribly embarrassing for her. When she finished, Panacea was left awestruck while Faith's cheeks were slightly flushed in embarrassment for her fellow blond.
While Dinah watched her Goddess and her Familia Captain with a raised brow and a small smirk, she thought to herself, 'Hopefully they won't figure out that it's the tamest story amongst my... what did Ollie call it again? Ahh yes, my exhibitionist chronicles... That doofus... I'm not an exhibitionist. I've just had several unfortunate moments... I hope my unlucky streak with clothing malfunctions don't follow me here. I hope...'
It took both of them a few more minutes to collect themselves, before one of them spoke up. "I'm gonna visit Kimberly and Isabella tomorrow. I'll inform them of the importance of making you an outfit that won't leave you in such... disarray." *Cough* "I'll tell them to make you several changes of them. They can then focus on their other experiments afterwards. I'm sure they'll come up with something amazing.", Faith finished with a minor blush to her fair cheeks.
"Good idea dear.", said Panacea with a small smile. "Now then, before we talk some more, I'd like to update your Status."
"Sounds good. Oh, uhh, Faith, would you like to hold my sleeping baby bird while this happens?", Dinah asked as she got up from the couch.
Faith also got up from her seat and answered, "I'd be honored.", with a gentle smile.
While Dinah handed off her sleeping baby boy to Faith and coached her into how to hold him properly, Panacea just sat on her couch and watched their interaction with a loving gaze. 'Awww... my two eldest daughters are bonding. I'm so happy!'
With Faith cradling Conner, Dinah joined Panacea on her couch and began stripping. She took off her black t-shirt and undid the strap on her lacy green brassiere. She then sat down with her back turned to her Goddess; with her long hair going over her shoulders and covering her front, who began the process of updating her Falna.
While this was happening, Faith was busy watching over Conner with a minuscule smile. 'Adorable... simply adorable.'
——————————————————————————————
As Panacea saw her blood and Falna do it's work, she was proud of what she saw. The Falna she gave Dinah spoke to her and showed her everything that her daughter accomplished and she felt nothing but pride. Since her Familia is connected to her through her Falna, it took only a few moments for her to update her Songbird's Status. By her estimates, Dinah has a good amount of Excelia stored up, but their theory seems to be holding up. 'It seems like only a certain amount are actually translating over... while the rest are still being stored up in the Falna... hmmm. Odd, but it is Falna. The essence of my Divine power is reacting in the way that Dinah theorized. These numbers don't lie... This is all very fascinating.'
- Status -
- Dinah Laurel Lance -
- Level - 1 -
-- Power -- I 35 --> I 73
-- Endurance -- I 49 --> H 102
-- Dexterity -- I 31 --> I 65
-- Agility -- I 23 --> I 69
-- Magic -- I 0 --> I 73
-- Stored Excelia -- ¡¿2,810?!
- Skills -
-- Enhanced Ear Membranes -- [D]
-- Fighting Spirit -- [I]
-- Martial Arts Mastery -- [G]
-- Peak Human Pain Tolerance -- [H]
-- Trained Reflexes -- [H]
-- Mentor -- [I]
- Developmental Abilities -
-- Voice of the Canary -- [I]
-- Runic Understanding -- [I]
- Magic -
-- Canary's Cry -- [D]
'I've never heard of Stored Excelia before, but maybe I'll be able to do something with it once she stores up more. Or maybe once she Levels up.'
"Just like you said, you've unlocked your Canary Cry, Songbird.", she said aloud; getting Dinah's and Faith's attention.
"I'll get your updated Status sheet and I'll show it to you both. You'll be as fascinated as I am, once you see what I've seen.", she said with a bright grin.
——————————————————————————————
With Dinah now fully clothed, she sat next to Panacea and Faith; with Conner still cradled to her bosom, who was sitting down on the other side of their Goddess. Panacea had Dinah's updated Status sheet laid out on the square foot table in front of them.
"I expected the numbers and my Canary's Cry being unlocked, but Stored Excelia?", asked Dinah with a raised brow.
"How fascinating...? Your theory seems to be holding up. But what I find even more fascinating, is that we just talked about this yesterday. Dinah, your theory seems to be sound, however, don't you find it interesting that your Status now shows it to be true?", Faith had a very fiery gleam to her eyes when she mentioned this.
'Oh no. I know that look. It looks like none of us won't be sleeping any time soon. Faith's gone into scholar mode...', the Goddess of Cures thought to herself with an internal sigh. 'Oh well... we might stumble upon more interesting theories in this brainstorming session... but Faith does make an interesting point. How did this happen? I'm the one who blessed Dinah with my Falna, yet I've got no idea at all as to how this came to be... hmmm...'