3403/The Dancing Star

The Dancing Star
Date of Scene:	17 September 2020
Location:	Sion - Nightclub
Synopsis:	Harley and Spiral do an impromptu duo for a dancing competition at the Sion. Go team!
Cast of Characters:	Harley Quinn, Spiral

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Harley Quinn has posed:
Sion isn't exactly a club where people can normally find one Harley Quinn. But tonight here she is! A change of routine? Or a complete lack of any routine whatsoever? Who knows?! The truth is perhaps simpler, because there she was, minding her own business while returning from Gotham, a stroll through the streets and ..., lo and behold! Some advertisement to a dancing competition at Sion?

First thing was .., discover where this Sion was. Google it! But soon enough she was coming in, and fully ready to rumble! A black tank top with gold lettering spelling 'BITE ME', shorts and fishnet stockings. Pair of black boots with gold motifs as well. Dazzlin'!!! And of course, the glasses. Dark, large, square, the rim with studded faux diamonds on.

Her hair was up in two pigtails, differently colored and she was making her way in as if she owned the place, taking in a deep breath and immediately getting that scent of a nightclub.., smoke, booze, dancing sweat.. Now this was the life!

And just in time for the competition to be starting! Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

Spiral has posed:
Who knows if Spiral knew the provenance of this place, or has been here before, or if she planned all this in advance somehow. Maybe even she herself doesn't know, though it doesn't involve Google most likely. The club is bustling with the upcoming night's entertainment, the dancers are being separated from the onlookers, the judges are just settling in. The atmosphere is pretty lively and pleasant.

And then, right above where the dancers are lining up, space distorts momentarily, and Spiral herself pops into existence - a couple of feet too high, appearing in mid air, and dropping immediately to the floor with a thud, indeed seemingly faceplanting on the floor in a heap.

Though then, in one sinuous motion, she somehow manages to rise to her feet, her arms held up high. "What a nice place." she says, scanning the place with her white eyes, and one hand points at the nearest judge, while two more go to her hips. "Sign me up! I'm going to be a star tonight for a change, rather than the star's chauffeur!". And she stands on the tip of one foot, ballerina style, arms spread for balance.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Easy peasy! That's what Harley is thinking while she sashays her way through the various tables and those turning to look at the dancing competition to begin. Hey, they told her confidence was half the battle! And besides is there even anyone out there who can challenge her *moves*? Not in here there ain't! So she has this big, wide grin on her face while making her way closer.

Her idea was just the same as Spiral's, wave her way through, approach the judges. She is midway through a, "Sign me u---" when...

*THUD*

Dramatic hero landing by Spiral. She rotates on her feet to stare at the faceplant, head tilting to the side. "Well, shit. Did ya just land from outta space oh somethin'?!?!" she reaches up to lower her glasses and look at this newcomer with her actual eyes. Yep, six arms! Nifty!

The jury looks at both Harley and Spiral, one of them clearing their throat. "This competition is for pairs. Do you have a partner to sign up with you?" The man is quite the professional apparently, trying to stay calm even with the .., teleportation.

Harley immediately points towards Spiral. "O'course! We will be partnahs foh this!" There! Instant team-up!

Spiral has posed:
"Pairs?". Spiral tilts her head forward a bit, the spikes on her helmet forming an ominous shadow around glowing white eyes. She holds out two hands to the judge - and then another two. And then another two. "I'm a triple all by my own." she scowls. She doesn't really feel like she needs anybody else with her.

But apparently Harley sees opportunity where Spiral does not. She looks over at Harley - having no irises makes reading her expression quite hard, but it looks kinda - neutral. Though then she smirks a bit, recognising something in Harley's own eyes, and tiptoes over to stand next to her in a ballerina walk.

"Very well. I think this one has put on a few shows in her time as well." she says, either to the judge or Harley, it's not easy to tell, as she's already twirling in place to an extent, mostly on one foot, her arms spread out and hands forming odd, almost hypnotic shapes as they circle and point in the air seemingly with a mind of their own, perhaps forming some abstruse pattern.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Paehs!" Harley exclaims, echoing Spiral's single word and with excitement in abundance to compensate the lack of it on Spiral. "I can ask foh 'em to put on Dancin' with Myself if ya wanna.." the clownette says back to Spiral about she being a triple. But the grin is only widening, even if those on the audience have some .., reservations. Look, six arms isn't normal!

"Ya look like a Shiva.." Then a moment to ponder. "Well, maybe a Durga instead." she bobs her head from side to side. "I am Hah'lee." she pointing with a thumb at herself, pivoting in place in quite the elegant, practiced manner before offering a flourished bow to Spiral. "Good ta meet ya!"

And once the very *late* sign-ups are done the competition appears ready to begin. Some dancers start to flock to the dance floor, all partnered up, chit-chat now in abundance and the attention not fully on the six-arm wonder, instead the various people starting to mingle and mix.

Harley is a small ball of excitement right now, bouncing while she waits for it to begin. What kind of dance will it to be to start?! Some club music? Easy! Hopefully not some fox trot.., she can't handle those! (Without a good number of drinks already down)

Spiral has posed:
"Shiva, Durga, Time Dancer... SPIRAL." Spiral declares, and curtseys low, arms spread out around her legs forming a sort of skirt briefly. She doesn't really acknowledge Harley's own name. She doesn't even offer a hand, though she surely has plenty to spare.

As it's a mutant club presumably the arms aren't actually such a draw on the eye, so the crowd moves on. Maybe if anybody knew who the two dancers were it would be more of an issue, but apparently none of them do so far, so all's good.

Spiral for her part lifts two arms above her head, and spins around like a top, managing to elegantly tiptoe across the dance floor to be alongside Harley. The judges declare for the crowds benefit (and latecoming supervillains) that the competition is to begin! And the rules, of course. The rules though are quite freeform - acro, ballet, even hip hop if you want. Spiral naturally is pretty happy with any of them, and spends a moment watching what the others are doing - and apparently waiting for Harley to take the lead, even though she barely seems to register her being there.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Spiral, eh?" Harley rests her arms around her hips. She clicks her tongue. "Don't tell me ya one o' those do-gooders with codenames!" because evidently Spiral can't be her real name! Well, neither is Harley Quinn her real name but .., it's close enough! "But hey, I ain't judgin', nope. Will leave that ta the guys and gals ovah theah." she pointing with a thumb to the judges..

Yet as the dance competition truly starts going she observes as well, eyes squinting like a bird of prey, peeking out at the competition, mind running at 200 mph, the perfect plan being set in motion ....

"Shit, I got nothin'..." Nope, no plan! Wing it! "So we gonna improvise. And damn right I intend ta make good use o' those arms o' youse tonight." followed by an eyebrow waggle and a wink. She makes way to the center of the dance track, not walking of course, instead cartwheeling her way over in a perfect form before spinning to face Spiral.

"Let's go!" and go she does, starting a frenetic kind of dancing, loose and free. If there's a pattern to it? Very hard to discern! For now at least.

Spiral has posed:
Harley cartwheels away, and when she turns around to face Spiral once more finds that Spiral has followed her, so she's surprisingly close. Definitely within arms reach, anyway, and leaning forward a bit. "Do gooder? Give me some respect." she hisses, eyes glowing faintly for a moment.
She's not even sure what Harley is doing when she dances. I mean, it's improv, really, right? In any case Spiral does her own thing, which is mostly twirling around on the spot ballerina style, while her hands continue to form shapes and sweeping arcs around her. There's some sort of repetitive pattern to it all which is almost hypnotic, but quite hard to discern due to the complexity of all the extra limbs.

She's certainly not paying much attention to Harley, or even looking at her as she keeps spinning around, first on one leg with the other knee held up high, then on the other, the tassles on her calves adding to the performance. In any case, much less energetic or even chaotic than Harley's effort.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Heeeey, buy me a drink first eh?" Harley replies at that proximity but doesn't seem too intimidated, even with the glowy eyes! If anything she just laughs loud, winking, "Let's win this shit and ya gettin' my respect, Spiral!"

At first that dancing is indeed frenetic, wild, loose, letting go. Much like this woman appears to see life, or at least at a first glance but soon enough she begins to adjust, finding the pattern there on those hypnotic, repetitive motions from Spiral and doing her own take on them.., a complement to that exotic motions..

She spins in place as well, arms wide and encompassing, clearly some kind of formal dancing having been part of her past. And really, whoever heard of an harlequin who couldn't dance?!

"When we start gettin' ready foh the finale I have an idea!" Oh no... "I am gonna jump up to yoh arms and ya gonna spin real fast. It's gonna be great." she assures, bobbing her head back and forth.

Spiral has posed:
As if Spiral would buy /anybody/ a drink. But she mostly just ignores Harley, who is, after all, not someone she knows at all. Someone she's been lumbered with by the judges. In truth she doesn't really care about winning, because she doesn't really care about said judges - Spiral already knows she can dance through souls, what more is there to prove?

All these thoughts go through her head while she's twirling and spiralling around, and when she's finally drawn back to the present she sees Harley Quinn somehow dancing with her, and matching her own odd movements quite well, which causes one eye to quirk. Maybe a kindred spirit after all, you have to be at least a bit crazy to get her dance so quickly, after all.

She continues to twirl her serene dance for long enough to hopefully annoy Harley, but does eventualy go along with the plan, spinning around suddenly much more quickly, silver hair whipping around, and all six arms held out around her in something approaching a hexagon.

Harley Quinn has posed:
As they dance and spin, following their own kind of rhythm Harley's own grin is large, those blue eyes a manic blue, a giggle or another coming out at apparently random occasions. In truth she was enjoying this. Just dancing it out and not focusing on anything else. Mind just ..., free! And if a certain Spiral thought she'd be annoyed about the slower dancing..., NOPE!

She makes due and accompanies the serene dancing, at least until that twirling starts to speed up. Oh yea! "I knew ya were my kinda gal." another giggle as her head turns from side to side fast.., faster as the spin is almost too hard to keep up with. It requires precise timing!

She throws herself up at some apparently random time. Real high actually, and hoping that Spiral will catch her high up there so she can spin along, arms open to the side, legs elegantly back.

"Woooo!"

Spiral has posed:
Do-gooder, huh. Spiral watches her dance partner gracefully arc high into the air with the help of a shove from many hands, with a somewhat vicious smile. She's imagining a future where Harley comes back to earth with a thud, and Spiral is standing there, two hands on her hips, one hand on her chin, one hand scratching her back, zero hands anywhere near Harley.

For a long while it looks like that's exactly what she's going to do - and it's only because Harley's athleticism has been noted. She's not going to land and hurt herself or anything. She's going to land perfectly, and leave Spiral looking awkward. So at the last minute she does catch Harley, as Harley probably had planned, and even spins around.

But it's a pretty lacklustre spin compared to the enthusiasm of earlier. And you probably don't need to have a PhD in psychology to know what Spiral is thinking, her body language betrays her perfectly. She even sighs, right there at the finale of the dance.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Maybe it was all a test! To see what Spiral would decide or not. Because there's a wicked little grin to the woman's expression when she is caught up in the air. And yep, that indecisiveness on whether to let her go face first to the floor doesn't go unnoticed! But right now she is too busy laughing while they spin...

And even with Spiral starting to slow it's still an impressive move! At least for dance-club status. "Awww, losin' yoh steam already?" She can't help but toss a little jab. Those are important to establish their relationship afterall!

But even if Spiral wasn't slowing down the music is indeed coming to an end, Harley apparently in the clouds with it. "Hey, you ain't a bad dancer, ya know?" she still up there on her arms.

Spiral has posed:
Spiral flushes a bit. If it's a test, she failed it. And if Harley wants to jab the Time Dancer, well, she's not really concerned with looking awkward when she uncereomoniously dumps Harley Quinn onto the floor from where she was, held up high above Spiral's head. She can be petty. Very petty.

"I know." she replies to Harley. "You managed to copy me, I noticed.", she adds, eyes narrowing a bit, for Harley clearly is not your normal run of the mill random in the street.

She turns, to the judges, and walks over that way with purpose. "Lets hope the judges know. I'd hate to make my debut in the supposed mutant club and not win the dancing competition.". She waves, more to the security cameras than any crowds. "Darling Elisabeth, hello! And all the rest of my friends!". And then looks over at the judges, expectantly.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Or Maybe she did pass it! When Harley is tossed to the ground she does a little yelp, making sure to properly 'splat' on the ground, arms flailing a little before she finally stops and twists her head to look up at Spiral. Did she do it on purpose? Maybe indulging on Spiral's pettiness! The wicked little smile remains though. "Oh, ya a vicious one, I like ya." and with an effortless push of her hands she flips up and is up in less than a second.

"Hey, isn't copyin' the best form o' flattery? Mmmm?" She reaches to pick up her sunglasses from the ground (whoever brings sunglasses to a dance club anyway?), tucking them on the top of her head. "I like ta see the hidden patterns, ya have interestin' ones. They say a lot about who you are." her tone of someone who *knows* what she is talking about.

She then joins Spiral when she goes to the judges, finger-wiggling at them. "Yea, I bet you nevah saw those kinda moves before, judges. So cough it up!"

The judges look on with raised brows, then go back to talking between themselves.

Harley then asks Spiral quietly. "What do we even win if we go first anyway?"

Spiral has posed:
Spiral can certainly recognise a stunt when she sees Harley splat onto the floor. She lets out a little sigh. And to think, only just banished, and she finds herself in a show already. But then, it was the first thing she did, come here, so it probably says more about herself. Meh.

She gets a bit bored waiting for the judges, going back up onto a one legged tiptoe again, while looking at the nails of one hand closely. "Yes, we don't have all day." she lies.

As for Harleys' stage whispered question, she shrugs, hands spreading. "Fame? Ratings? The annoyance of whoever runs this place? Does it matter?" she asks, though she's clearly rooting for the latter option herself.

She is clearly getting impatient though, one hand idly reaching back to grab a bunch of her silver hair and shaking it in a circle, so it forms a spirally silver stream in the air.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Harley purses her lips together as if she had just been let in on this big secret. "Oooooohhhh..." then she leans in to the six-armed one, uncomfortably close, "Got a beef with who runs this?" she asks. "Do they need ta get theah knees wacked?" she is probably joking on that last part. Probably! Her eyebrows do waggle as if the offer was genuine, but then she is laughing it out.

"One sec." Harley then says, one finger lifted and she approaches the judges. She leans in, starting to talk to them in a very low tone. She waves her arms about from time to time, point at Spiral, then back to talk... *whisper* *whisper*

Whatever is she talking with them?!

And finally she stands back up, offers a wink.. The judges have gone from amused, to terrified, to confused to ..., well, you get an idea! Whatever Harley was saying it was going all over the place! And it involved Spiral too! For when the judges get to the announcement they say, "The winners of tonight's dance competition, Spiral and Harley Quinn!"

It makes Harley jump up! "Yay, we won!" a grin. "Drinks on me!"

Spiral has posed:
Well, Harley is more subtle than Spiral would've been if the judges said otherwise. After all, dancing is kinda her thing. Imagine what would happen if someone dared to insult her so in a dance-off?? But probably just as well.

"Thank you so much." she tells the judges silkily, and pirouettes down the line, giving each judge a handshake or a shoulder tap or some other vaguely uncomfortable acknowledgement. Then she goes into an exagerrated curtsey, arms doubling as a skirt again.

"Drinks?". Spiral looks a bit surprised at that. Though she pirouettes over to Harley. "You seem like a woman who can get things done. And tell me what's going on around here. Where would you like to go?" she asks - and starts dancing again.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Ya don't even know the half o' it!" Harley suggests in that manner of hers that could mean anything really. But there's a big, wild grin still there framing her expression when Spiral appears to accept her drink offer. Yay for drink buddies! "And well..." a pause. "... the judges say the prize was free drinks tonight so when I say I am offerin'..." her shoulders lift. "But what mattahs is the intention, right?!"

"And ya askin' that, about what's going on heah as in I just dropped in from the sky and I got no idea or are ya sorta from outta town. I am goin' to guess both. Bit o' a fish outta the watah you are."

Harley moves in closer again, offering to put an arm around one of her, well.., six.. "Come, I will get us to a table and ya can tell me all about it while I babble about heah. Unless ya just wanna blow this joint and go somewheah else. Woiks with me too."

Harley is easy like that to make plans with!

Spiral has posed:
Spiral is happy to show up in some mutant cafe and dance around for a bit just because she can. But drinking their drinks? Even free ones. That's probably a bit too much. "I've been here before... but may be recently to some, not so recently to me." she explains to Harley. "Much may have changed from the many memories I have of this Earth. Out of town, all over town, all over everywhere...".

She trails off, and looks around the place again. "But lets go somewhere else. Somewhere less... do gooding.". That insult is apparently being nursed, Spiral has a reputation to maintain after all, with almost perverse pleasure.

Harley's infectious enthusiasm seems to have an effect anyway as she doesn't promptly get punched when she puts an arm around Spiral - though after some embarassing find-the-shoulder one of Spiral's hands grabs at Harley's and pushes it away.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Jumbled memories.. Ooooh, I know aaaalll about that. Sounds like a story ya'll need ta share." Harley offering a nod in return. Sadness there on her smile? Well, maybe for the split of a second. Yet there is some kind of kinship to it from Harley, the way her madness protects her from ..., certain memories. But she is quick to return to that enthusiasm.

The refusal to be drinking at this place makes Harley hrm, looking about. She leans over to whisper quietly. "Do they spike 'em? The drinks?" she asks, narrowing her eyes. Another look given down to the bar. "Yea, let's get outta heah. Don't worry. This ain't Gotham, but it's mah new turf so I know aaaalll the places. Even those where bad gals like us can get a drink."

And she is about to be bringing Spiral by the arm out when she pushes her away. "Oww..." she rubs at her arm. "Bit strong ain't ya?"

Not that it stops her from leading the way, time to find adventure! "Let's go. I feel like this is the beginnin' o' a beautiful friendship!"

------------

Close by, on a table, a couple of men in suits are sitting by, watching the bar but more noticeably Harley and her new companion. They are rather inconspicuous, unnoticeable, even when they speak to their comms. "Commander, we just spotted the asset. She is with a six-armed woman, called Spiral. Maybe an accomplice." the man hears whatever is said on the other side.

"Of course, Commander Waller, we will keep our eyes on them."