redrighthanded | IC; Duplicity Inbox

you saying these are gonna be pity pancakes?
or maybe you just want me covered in syrup

well truth be told i hadn't even thought of that
see now you're just givin me good ideas

ask anyone, I'm full of them

hmm
think i might just ask you instead
so you can tell me another one of those ideas of yours

I have an idea I should take you out for breakfast
maybe see if I can cheer you up a bit
give you something else to think about than this trouble

on the one hand
i can't believe you're not sick of me yet
on the other
i'm never gonna say no to you taking me out anywhere

how could anyone get sick of you?

[ wow was that ever the right thing to say on so many levels. ]

if you take the big elevator to the up i can meet you there
walk you over?

sure
I'll let you know when I'm there

[ He's as good as his word, though negotiating the elevator takes a little time once he finds out that an uncontracted submissive isn't exactly allowed to move as freely as he can in the Down. The guards at the bottom eyeball him all the way up to the doors, then demand to see his contract, then his ID, then his collar. He's got one out of three and makes an effort to rein in his temper in the name of being able to meet Harley at the other end without a citation, though it's a close call when, after some private discussion, a heavy metal and leather band is slapped against his chest and he's told to put it on.

The ten minute ride into the Up is enough to let him cool off a little, though he's scowling to himself when he steps out into the fancier part of the city. The collar is pretty basic, a thick band of black leather with an iron ring attached to the front which bounces and swings against his chest when he moves. It might actually be someone's belt. It's not comfortable, which he's pretty sure is the point. He pauses to shoot off a quick message to Harley, ignoring the attention from the SIN guards posted nearby. ]

[ if she'd even known about half the hassle he'd been put through, she would've offered to ride the elevator down first to vouch for him there, but as it stands, she's here relatively on time, which can be credited to the fact that she's literally roller-skated over in her red-and-black skates with their yellow stars painted all over, a remnant from her time on the gotham flamethrowers derby team.

she skids to a stop a short distance away from the elevator and when her device pings in the back pocket of her denim shorts she fishes it out, immediately searching the area with her eyes after she finishes reading the text. ]

Hi! [ she adds some height by pushing herself up onto her toe stoppers, waving one hand up above her head, and then decides to skate the short distance over to him anyway, rolling over on her wheels and greeting him with a beaming smile. ] Good, you made it. Hope you're hungry.

[ He's not sure what he's expecting, they've only seen each other in person twice and neither of those occasions seemed very normal to him, but the roller skates manage to surprise him anyway. Despite his discomfort, he cracks a faint smile at the sight of them, mentally slotting that jigsaw piece into the increasingly mysterious and intriguing puzzle that is Harley Quinn. ]

Starving. [ He looks down at her, eyebrows inching upward as he takes in her bright and perky self. He's known people with a host of magic on their side that couldn't make themselves look nearly so good after a long night and the amount of booze they'd put away. ]

This place far? [ He indicates the skates with a nod. ]

[ she mostly prefers the skates because they help her get around the city faster, and seeing as how she doesn't have a car (although she has flirted with the idea of borrowing one), strapping wheels on her feet feels like the next best thing. besides, she's good enough on them to stop on a dime, turning so she doesn't crash right into him. ]

Oh, me too. It was like as soon as you said breakfast it was all I could think about. [ but she slides into place beside him to guide them in the right direction, briefly resting her hand against his forearm. ]

Nuh uh. You know the main square yet? It's just tucked in there, so we'll get there soon. [ she isn't skating too quickly, more like pushing herself off every now and then and rolling along until she has to push off again, glancing to him with a sidelong smile. ] So, big pancake lover, huh?

[ The skates definitely give her an advantage in maneuverability as well as speed, and they mean that Hellboy doesn't have to check his stride as much as usual as he walks along, his tail swinging idly behind him. ]

Yeah. [ He doesn't directly return her smile, but the corner of his mouth goes a little crooked and wistful as he takes in the sights of the city around them. ] Since I was a kid. My dad would make them for me. Still trying to find a place that makes them as good as he did.

[ He looks over at her. ] You're pretty good on those.

[ it's more of a personal anecdote than she expected to get, and she finds herself drifting to a stop and accidentally letting him get a ways ahead of her before she remembers to catch up with another push-off of her wheels. ]

That sounds like a nice memory. [ she almost thinks about mentioning that she doesn't have half as many of those with her own dad, but that would be a real mood-killer and they've still got a little bit to walk — or skate — before getting to the diner.

besides, maybe she wants to use this time to show off, twirling around on her skates so she can roll backwards while still looking at him. ]

Thanks! I was on one of the ladies' derby teams back in Gotham. Flamethrowers' best jammer. [ she lifts her chin with a proud smirk on her lips. ] Mostly 'cause I played dirty.

[ It's nice to watch her move, and not only because of the way her clothes hug her curves as she swings around, bringing back pleasant memories of how they'd spent their time last night. Hellboy can appreciate anyone with that much confidence in their body, the economic way she moves like she knows exactly what she's doing in every moment. For someone who tends towards being more of an immovable object than an unstoppable force, it's something he's only ever seen in other people, and Harley sure makes it look easy.

He gives a faint grin at that smirk, unable to help himself, feeling his heart skip a little. ]

I bet you kicked ass. Gotham where you're from? Can't say I've heard of it. [ But then it sounds like there are going to be a lot of places he's never heard of in the communal backstory of Duplicity's residents. ]

Uh huh. [ she confirms his question with a series of nods and an encouraging grin, and maybe she is just sort of hoping that anyone coming from the other direction will get out of their way so she doesn't collide with them while she's skating backwards, but on the other hand, hellboy is enough of an intimidation factor just by existing that she imagines they're being given a wide berth regardless. ]

Big ol' city, home to all types. The richie-riches with old family money, the folks just tryin' to scrape by, and the ones causin' all the chaos. Oh, and then there's the Batman. He kinda tries to keep the rabble-rousers in line.

[ there's a knowing quality to her smile, even if she also knows that most of the times she'd personally tangled with the bat had been a byproduct of being involved with her ex; these days, he's either too busy to deal with her directly or doesn't think she's getting up to enough trouble to matter, both of which suit her just fine too. and he's not here that she knows of, even if she's tangled with plenty of masks besides. ] Where're you from, Red? Originally?

[ Even if the pair of them are parting the crowd, Hellboy keeps an eye out over her shoulder anyway, just in case. He's a little distracted, though, when he hears that name, mostly because it's so unexpected. Until now, he's been operating under the assumption that everyone he meets is from a different place, a different version of the Earth he knows, or not Earth at all. But maybe some are closer than he realised. ]

Batman? Stoic kind of guy, wears a cape and a cowl? [ He sketches the points of that famous headpiece in the air with a fingertip. ] Hangs out on rooftops waiting for someone to turn a lamp on?

That's the one! [ she doesn't know why she's so surprised to discover that he's actually halfway familiar with the bat himself, but maybe it's because it's the last thing she expected them to have in common.

her jaw drops slightly, and she glides over until she's poised in front of him, one of her hands slipping into his left one while the other steadies against the stone of his right wrist. but she's still on wheels, so she's basically letting him push her along as they keep walking. ]

So what, are you two pals or somethin'? Wait, no, that doesn't sound like him. Batsy doesn't really have friends. He's too busy bein' horny for justice or some crap like that. [ clearly, this is a story she needs to hear the details of, and she may not even be willing to wait until it happens over pancakes slathered in butter and syrup. ]

[ Hellboy raises his eyebrows at her as she skates into the space in front of him and takes his hand like it's the most natural thing in the world. He closes his fingers carefully around her slender grip, getting what she's going for after a moment. He's a little worried she's going to end up tangling her feet, distracted by the conversation, but she seems more than capable of handling herself. ]

Seems about right. [ He's both interested and a little sad to find his assessment of the guy wasn't far off. ] We worked together a while ago. Helped him take down a gang of neo-Nazis trying to summon an Elder God. The usual crap. You know him pretty well, huh?

... huh. That almost sounds like him. [ sure, she can picture batman dealing with a group of skinheads just fine, but elder gods? she's never heard of him taking on the supernatural before; apparently the dark knight has been doing a lot more in his spare time than she ever paid attention to, but it's not like she tracks what he's up to when they're not crossing paths. ]

Well, he and I sorta tangled a time or two. [ no point in sugarcoating it, since it's not like she's ever shied away from talking about that part of her past. ] Mostly, he and my ex sort of have this thing where they're nemeses? Nemesises? [ she waves a hand dismissively, the one that isn't currently linked with his. ] They're basically each other's enemy number one. If ya ask me, J was always a little too fixated on Batsy. And really, how's a girl supposed to compete with that?

[ The feeling of her hand in his is almost enough to distract him from what they're talking about. It's been a long, long time since anyone has held onto him like that and it's so casual, just walking -- or skating, in her case -- along a street in search of a diner breakfast.

He pulls his attention back to the subject in time to hear her description. Between that and her tattoos, the other bits and pieces she's offered about her past, it's not difficult to reach back to that job and make a connection. ]

Your ex.. Joker, right? [ He glances sideways at Harley, hoping it's not a difficult subject. ] He was tangling with him while we were working. Had to go deal with something he was doing so he couldn't tag along for the last bit. Guy called Jack Knight stepped in. You know him?

[ casual affection isn't anything she ever pays that much attention to; her boundaries are somewhat nonexistent, and her focus can tend to be even more flighty, so it doesn't even occur to her that it's anything out of the ordinary for him as she swivels on her feet so that they're still walking hand-in-hand, her skating forward to match his longer strides —

— only to skid to another stop that results in him dragging her along by a few feet while her head tilts questioningly. ]

Guess I shouldn't be surprised you've heard of him, too, if you know about the Bat. [ but she shakes her head at the name he drops for her, resuming her skate again. ] Doesn't ring any bells. But... yeah, Joker and I were a thing. Almost inseparable, really, until we weren't. Sometimes I think Batman didn't even care that much about botherin' with me, though, 'cept by association. [ now she's off on a specific tangent, though, launching into another admission. ] You know, I came up with some of his best plans. But J always took all the credit for 'em.

[ That sudden stop makes him regret pursuing that note of curiosity; he's relieved when she comes back to his side. The idea of her being with someone that causes the kind of chaos the Batman has to deal with isn't particularly worrying for him. He's used to negotiating the arbitrary lines in the sand that tend to get drawn around what people consider "bad guys", usually with him on the other side, and knows better than to assume things are that black and white.

He glances over and down at her, giving her hand a tiny experimental squeeze. ]

Sounds like a real great guy. [ He lets the irony hang heavy in his tone. ] You think this other version of you is still with him?

Oh, I'm almost positive she is if she's rockin' that whole harlequin aesthetic still. But yeah, we —

[ she stops herself before she can let the lie spill out, the lie she's let herself tell so many people so many times, the lie where the breakup was mutual and that it was both their decision rather than what the truth actually is, that he tossed her out on the curb like just another piece of garbage. ]

He... dumped me. [ it's out there now, no takebacks, and maybe she feels better about saying it because of how hellboy's holding her hand, giving that brief squeeze, like she can trust him to not blab that secret. ] And before I mighta thought that we could get back together, but it was for good this time. Honestly, it ended up bein' the best thing that could've happened, in the long run. 'Cause I got to do me, finally.

[ Hellboy makes a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat as they walk along. He's tempted to offer his opinion on what he'd like to do to this guy who uses people and throws them away, but he decides to save it. As it is, he finds he can sympathise; his last and, really, only meaningful relationship had ended in a similar way, feelings on his side unable to be returned, and he'd had to accept it and move on whether he wanted to or not.

He rubs his thumb over Harley's fingers, trying to be comforting. ]

Get out on your own. I can understand that. [ He's spent most of his life that way, after all. ] Sometimes you're the only person you can rely on.

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mahem - 2020-11-29 20:30 (UTC) - Expand

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