Who: Rhiannon Rhodes and Tawny Strange What: First meetings. Where: Gotham City, New Jersey When: Monday night, November 1st 2010 Warnings: Uh, it’s the Joker and Harley Quinn. Bitches, plz.
It was dark by the time Rhiannon reached Gotham. It was her first time here, but considering she’d only been Harley Quinn for about a month or so now that wasn’t so surprising. Of course Harley had wanted to come here the second she’d appeared, but Rhiannon had had better things to do, like search for her missing brother. Rowan had been missing for over two years now and it seemed like everyone else in the family had already given up on him. That stung her more then she’d ever cared to admit, but she kept it to herself for the most part. She’d never given up on him, and becoming a reincarnate while a thoroughly freaksome experience had definitely had it’s immediate upsides. She’d been abusing the hell out of the MTN system, getting her missing person’s fliers out farther and wider with the new found ability to go pretty much anywhere she wanted.
She’d been hesitant to come on the boards though. Rhiannon was usually of the mind that you shouldn’t take candy from strangers any more then you should talk to them. She’d eventually caved though, for the sole purpose of getting the word out to yet another internet source about her brother. What she hadn’t expected when she logged on was to find him, and strangely it had been all down hill from there. Her memories of the sequence of events were already pretty fuzzy, Rhiannon had what some people might call rage black outs. As soon as she started to freak out, that was it, but she remembered Rowan being a gigantic raging asshole and giving some shitty explanation on his part for why he’d let her think he was dead this whole time. She also remembered a more thorough and yet still completely nonsensical explanation from a complete stranger named Sasha, and after that she’d gone into her typical Rhiannon hysterics and had eventually shut the computer down. That wasn’t all that had happened though, at the same time she’d struck up a conversation with a somewhat peculiar but very attractive woman, and a combination of her own curiosity and present anguish had led her to agreeing to meet said stranger in Gotham City.
... She was meeting someone she’d never met before in Gotham. On some random ass street no less, she hadn’t been given any more details other then that. As soon as Rhiannon set foot in the place, she knew how stupid she was being, but it was too late now. She was already here. Harley was ecstatic, practically bouncing around in her skull at the prospect of visiting all their old spots but Rhiannon was just anxious to find this ‘Tawny Strange’ and get the hell out of these creepy side streets that she’d somehow managed to wander into. There was a sudden crashing sound behind her that made her jump practically out of her skin before she realized it was just a stray cat knocking over some garbage cans. But when she turned back around she immediately bumped shoulders with someone walking in the other direction and Rhiannon reacted on instinct. “Hey, watch where you’re going dick head!”
In a word, Tawny was impatient. She’d been following Mrs. Batman for a few weeks now, and she was nowhere near close to getting what she wanted. The happy family had beefed up security. Hired a couple of supers to keep the baby bat safe. Frustrating and highly inconvenient. The way things were going, she was never going to kill that stupid bitch.
And then, just when she was about ready to give up, a revelation: Harley was here. Harley Quinn, the Joker’s therapist turned psychotically obsessed girlfriend. Maybe this was just what she needed. Back-up. And maybe a little fun on the side as well. When she wasn’t plotting, she was bored as hell, and she was sick of moping over Eli. She missed him more than she liked to admit, if only because he always knew how to keep her entertained, whether it was killing a couple of bats or fucking her brains out. God, she missed that. She missed sex. The Joker was about asexual as a villain could get, but not Tawny. When she wanted it, she wanted it, and it was always better with two. Taking care of it herself just made her feel pathetic and lonely afterwards, and there was nothing she hated more than that.
But this Harley – Rhiannon, her name was – offered her a unique opportunity. Tawny had experimented with girls before, and she didn’t consider herself a lesbian by any means, but this girl was Harley. This was different. Plus, she was hot. And painfully naive. Meeting a stranger in Gotham after dark? This girl was asking for trouble. Tawny was happy to oblige her. She set up the meeting, and headed straight the street where she’d told Rhiannon to meet her, lurking in an adjacent alley. It wasn’t too far from her apartment, but she was too wired to stay there until Rhiannon arrived. For the moment, she was content to play with her knife in brimming anticipation. Waiting for Harley. Fucking Harley. What a delicious prospect.
As it got closer to time, Tawny started wandering around, not quite aimlessly but keeping an eye out for Rhiannon nonetheless. How she missed her as they ran into each other in the alley boggled Tawny, but no matter. She could roll with this. She whirled around and pointed her knife defensively at the girl, then lowered it as she realized who it was. She laughed mirthlessly. “Sorry, sugar. If you’re looking for a dick, you’re in the wrong part of town. I’d try Wayne Manor if I were you.”
Rhiannon recovered quickly from the collision, though she immediately jumped again when her eyes caught the all to distinctive glint of a knife in the guy’s hand. The fuck? Wait, a knife in the woman’s hand, she corrected herself once the distinct femininity in the stranger’s voice clicked. Definitely not a dick at all. She backed up a step but she didn’t make a run for it, far from it. She took a more solid stance where she stood, brushing long hair out of her face and crossing her arms defensively over the fitted black hoodie she was wearing.
Not that the other girl had given anything even remotely in the form of a confirmation yet, but Rhiannon was pretty sure this was the girl she’d been foolishly coming here to meet in the freaky alley ways of Gotham long after dark. Blame Harley Quinn for Rhiannon’s lack of regard for such obvious idiocies, to her meeting someone in Gotham felt about as natural as breathing. Whoops. If this was Tawny Strange, they were lucky, if she wasn’t... Well, they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. This girl in front of them had to be Tawny Strange. At least that’s what Rhiannon was hoping, otherwise she was just some random creep with a knife and Rhiannon liked that scenario a whole lot less.
“No thanks, can’t say I’ve ever had much of a bat fetish. Too uptight,” Rhiannon countered with a wavering grin, squinting at the other girl in the growing darkness with a curiosity that was an even mixture of her and Harley’s. “Tawny Strange, I take it? You couldn’t have picked somewhere more populated to meet? Or at least a little less creepy as fuck?”
“The one and only,” Tawny answered with a mock bow, and she stuffed her knife back in her pocket. That was about the only gesture of good will you could expect from her, and anybody who knew her? Knew that it meant a lot. While she didn’t exactly trust this girl, she was pretty confident she could take her, if it came to that, knife or no knife. The poor thing looked so out of place here, like a little lost kitten, that Tawny couldn’t help but laugh a sort of low variation of the Joker’s manic giggle. She bit her lip to stop herself, though, and gave Rhiannon an aloofly appreciative once over. Promising. Very promising.
“Looks like we’ve got that in common. Clowns are more your thing, right? Me too.” Her comment was casual, but her eyes flashed wickedly. If Harley was smart, she’d catch on... but then again, it was Harley they were talking about here. When it came to the Joker, she tended to get stupid. She flipped some hair over her shoulder and glanced around the alley. It wasn’t creepy so much as deserted. Rhiannon was lucky. If she hadn’t been feeling so lazy, she could’ve picked a much creepier meeting spot.
Shrugging, she turned around and started walking away. “It was close by. I didn’t feel like bringing the theatrics tonight.” She looked back over her shoulder at Rhiannon. “You coming?”
Rhiannon wasn’t so oblivious that she didn’t notice the once over the other girl gave her, and it actually made her feel good. She was naive, yes. Inexperienced? Hell no. Rhiannon had been experimenting and pushing her own limits since high school. If she wasn’t supposed to do something? She usually did it. Smoking, drinking, sex, rock and roll. Well okay, not really. She’d smoked a cigarette maybe three times in her entire life, never smoked weed or did drugs, she didn’t really do the whole ‘get wasted thing’ though she did drink, and she could count on one hand how many people she’d had sex with. For the most part Rhiannon was all talk though she had made a pretty good habit of pretending otherwise. How convincing it actually was really wasn’t a main concern of hers. Though at least she could boast that she’d tried both sides of the pond. Even with as little sexual experience as she had, Rhiannon knew without a doubt that she preferred both. Maybe girls more so then boys, but sometimes you couldn’t afford to be picky.
She didn’t have much time to contemplate the rest of this so far only brief encounter though, because then Tawny was turning away from her and making her way back down the long, dark alley way. Well, Rhiannon wasn’t about to get left behind, especially in a place as creepy as this. “Hey, wait up!” She didn’t waste any time in catching up to her with a few short sprints and settled into a walk beside her, looking frequently between Tawny and the path in front of them. Something about what Tawny had said back there was nagging at her in a way that confused her, so instead of bothering to try and figure it out herself Rhiannon decided to just ask. “So you’re into clowns? You know you never told me who you have. You don’t have Ivy, do you? Because I gotta say, I’m not sure I’m really down with the whole plant loving thing. Too itchy.”
The small smirk on Tawny’s face abruptly fell when Rhiannon mistook her for Ivy. She scoffed and glanced over at the girl in disgust. “Please. I may have some weird kinks, but I like my lays human, thank you very much.” Maybe this girl was even dumber than Harley. That would be disappointing. Still, without the makeup and the purple suit and the deformities, Tawny didn’t exactly scream ‘The Joker.’ No, she was much more subtle than that, and Harley was the kind of person who needed a giant hammer to knock anything into that thick skull of hers. Maybe the extra brain tissue was dulling her senses. Not all that surprising.
Tawny quickened her pace, and within a minute or two they arrived at her apartment building. It was abandoned, save for her own apartment on the third floor. It had been empty when Tawny first came to Gotham, before the fictional citizens had repopulated the place, and for whatever reason, it had stayed that way. Tawny was grateful for that. She wasn’t above forcibly evicting people for the sake of her privacy, but it seemed like such a pain.
At the very last second, Tawny abruptly turned around and blocked the doorway to the building. Her smirk had returned, and it slowly grew into a wide, unmistakable grin. “Besides. When did Ivy ever have a clown fetish? I seem to remember her hating my guts, Harley baby. Because you kept coming back to me.” She leaned in close, eyes dark and voice low. “Am I ringing any bells yet?”
Rhiannon had actually been wondering where Tawny was taking her and was about to ask when they very suddenly arrived at what looked like an abandoned apartment building. Aaaaand the creepy just kept right on coming! She didn’t let it show on her face though, no, she was playing it cool. Except when Tawny turned around again of course, and her eyes widened considerably as she backed down just a step in surprise. Her hand gripped consciously on the railing of the stairs that led up to the doorway and she looked on Tawny critically. Was she for real?
After only a seconds pause her mouth split into a wide grin and she regarded her new found friend with open awe that wasn’t just hers. It had clicked for Harley at the same time as it had for Rhiannon so it might have been unclear who this reaction was actually coming from. It was actually pretty even. “No. You’ve gotta be freaking kidding me. Mister Jay?!” She quickly amended her statement with a throat clearing and a flipping of her hair. “I mean, Misses. You are definitely not a mister anymore.”
She could hardly believe that the striking female standing in front of her was actually the reincarnate of the Joker himself, it just seemed so surreal. Harley was so happy about it that it was impossible for Rhiannon not to be, even if her general reaction to the news was all sorts of strange. No pun intended. She was still getting the hang of this reincarnate thing, but she honestly didn’t think there was anything she needed to be worry about. What’s the worst that could happen? “Well shit. Why didn’t you say so?!”
Tawny quirked an eyebrow, on the surface mildly amused at her reaction but secretly loving it all the same. This is what she’d been missing. The ego boost. The adoration. It had only been a few seconds, but suddenly Tawny knew exactly why the Joker had kept Harley around. This was going to be fun.
“Because... I didn’t want to.” As if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She turned to her side and pushed the door in with a nudge of her hips, then held it open for Rhiannon. “More fun this way. I get bored.” She reached out with her free hand and brushed the line of Rhiannon’s jaw, uncharacteristically affectionate (completely on purpose) and unknowingly taking all her cues from Eli. She didn’t normally do this. Usually she was the one playing hard to get. The prey. But maybe this would be a nice change. Being the hunter instead of the hunted. Wouldn’t hurt to try.
“Besides. I thought you might like it here. Ain’t nothing like reliving the glory days, huh?”
“Oh. Right.” Rhiannon shrugged, accepting the explanation as if it didn’t even need to make sense. Huh. That was weird. It felt like she was falling back on old habits, but of course they weren’t actually her habits. They were Harley’s. Eh, whatever. She’s hot and this sure as shit beats being alone right now, Rhiannon reasoned to herself as she followed Tawny up the steps to the door. She was still too wound up and wounded from her conversation with her brother and she needed a serious distraction. Tawny surprised her again by stopping, only this time she didn’t only do that, Tawny also reached out and touched her. Rhiannon hadn’t been exactly prepared for that, but she felt rooted to the spot as the other woman traced a delicate finger along her jaw line. It made her swallow ever so slightly. She could feel Harley in her head practically swooning which was a whole new level of weird and unsettling. What had she gotten herself into?
Despite the confusion currently resting in the pit of her stomach, Rhiannon smiled outwardly and a little bit wickedly at the female Joker, the bottom corner of her lip getting caught in between her teeth as she did so. It wasn’t even registering to her that this could possibly be the worst of all the worst ideas. Honestly, she didn't care if she was being used right now. She was just pissed at her dick head of a brother who after two years of being missing turned up like it wasn’t the biggest fucking deal in the world. It hurt her more then Rhiannon was prepared to admit, but fuck it. If he wanted to act like he didn’t give a fuck? So would she. It helped that the combination of Harley’s encouragement and Rhiannon’s own considerably peeked interest in the beautiful girl next to her made the decision for her. She was going inside.
“You know? The thought hadn’t ever occurred to me before, but now that you mention it, that sounds like a damn good time.” She grinned, holding Tawny’s gaze for a moment longer before sauntering on past the door frame and inside the apartment building. “Lead the way, boss!”
Tawny grinned and sprinted up the steps without another word, flashing Rhiannon a look that said catch me if you can as she passed her by. She flew up the stairs feeling uncharacteristic light, maybe even happy, and her laughter echoed throughout the empty staircase. It was almost as if Harley brought out the best in her, which was stupid. Tawny was just glad not to be alone anymore, and the Joker was keen for some of that unconditional adoration she seemed to do so well. They both needed something from Harley, and here she was, eager as always to oblige. How... fortuitous.
Within a few minutes she reached her apartment, and she threw the door open and marched inside. She never kept the door locked – no reason to. No one would find her here. She whirled around in a circle, taking her jacket off and throwing it on the floor while simultaneously bringing her knife back out of her pocket. Merely a habit. She knew better by now to sit down with an unsheathed knife in her pocket. Safety first. “Here we are,” she announced with a slightly wicked edge to her voice. “Home sweet home.”
Rhiannon was quick to give into the chase, the minute Tawny ran by her and flashed her that look Rhiannon let out a squeak and took off after her up the stairs. It was a good thing she wasn’t a clutz, or she might have fallen on her face taking the stairs at the speed she was, but thankfully she managed. All darker thoughts that had been in her mind earlier were all but wiped clean as she gave into the thrill of the chase, and the high she was feeling was definitely not all Harley. A good chunk of it was, though. It was even making her giggle under her breath uncontrollably, they were acting like five year olds but neither Tawny nor Rhiannon seemed to care.
Before she knew it, they’d reached their destination, Tawny already at the door with Rhiannon in hot pursuit. She skidded to a stop just as Tawny got the door open and made quick to scramble in after her, stopping to catch her breath once she was inside the apartment. She unzipped her hoodie and took it off as well, casually brushing through her long hair to get the tangles out of it that had no doubt formed while she’d been outside in the cold. “Nice digs,” she commented lamely, ever so casually looking around the place before setting her own jacket down on the floor and shrugging. She definitely didn’t have a problem with this kind of living, she was a bit of a slob herself. “Just you? Too good for evil henchmen these days? Doesn’t seem to be many other people around these parts. Must be nice. Good bit of real estate right here.”
“Just me.” Her bangs fell over her face as Tawny nodded, covering her already hooded eyes. She wasn’t going to mention Eli for the same reason that she hadn’t even told Holly that he was dead – she just didn’t want to talk about it. Didn’t want to think about it anymore. Once she killed Batman’s baby mama, she wouldn’t have to. All would be right in the world, and she could get back to doing what she did best. Antagonism. Mass chaos. The usual. Maybe she could even get Rhiannon to help her. Didn’t seem like the girl would need much convincing. She was already here, wasn’t she?
Casually, Tawny tossed her knife on the bed and took a few steps closer to Rhiannon, arms crossed over her chest now. She shrugged. “I don’t really do henchmen. We freed all the crazies a while back, but I don’t want them working for me. Besides.” She grinned suddenly. “Nobody knows who I am without the makeup. I intend to keep it that way.”
She stopped about a foot away from Rhiannon, cocking her head to the side and giving her a more obvious and much more scrutinizing once-over. “I wonder if they’d recognize you,” she mused. “You don’t look like Harley, but that doesn’t seem to matter. If you were a guy, they’d call you Mr. Quinn. I wonder if you need the makeup to keep your face a secret.” She closed the space between them in what seemed like a second, almost pouncing on her, but that wasn’t her intention. She was close, much closer than before, but she stayed far enough way to trace the outline of Harley’s mask around Rhiannon’s eyes. Her own eyes were fierce and calculating, her mouth partway open as she made an approving noise. “Either way, it’d be a good look on you. The red and the black.”
“Oooooh, so you’re being all ‘secret identity’ these days. Cool.” Rhiannon responded with the appropriate finger quotes, smiling at her companion though she was still a little unsure of herself. Otherwise she was pretty much trying to appear just as at home here was Tawny was. The last thing Harley wanted to do was disappoint ‘Mistah Jay’ and Rhiannon found herself experiencing similar feelings for this Tawny Strange. Odd. But then again, Rhiannon had always been painfully impressionable, and a total sucker when it came to looking up to someone. Even someone as twisted as the Joker, and whoever his reincarnate was these days. She and Harley apparently had more in common then Rhiannon had originally thought.
When Tawny stepped closer to her, Rhiannon had to fight the urge to gulp, the second once-over she gave her was much harder to ignore then the first one. Tawny’s eyes were something to behold, within seconds Rhiannon was already lost in them. Tawny was so close to her that she felt like she could really see Harley’s Joker behind them. There was that subtle but very unmistakable glint of something in her irises. She idly wondered if Tawny could see the same thing in her eyes, but from the way Tawny was currently looking at her Rhiannon was prepared to wager that she could. As it were, Harley was practically fighting tooth and nail to jump out of Rhiannon’s skin, as impossible as that actually was. “Oh yeah?” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow. Her ‘touch chick’ act needed some work. “If you’re wantin’ us to play dress up for you, the polite thing to do is ask.”
Tawny let out a bark of laughter. It was cute, the way she was acting. Cute and entirely transparent. She could see the longing behind Rhiannon’s wide-eyed innocence – whether it was just Harley’s or just Rhiannon’s or some combination of the two of them, Tawny didn’t care. All that mattered was that it was there, and that Rhiannon was curious in spite of herself. That was good. That was very good. It would only make all of this that much easier.
Smirking, Tawny began to circle Rhiannon, taking her in from every angle. She didn’t care if she wasn’t being subtle; she didn’t need to be anymore. Rhiannon’s tank top was rather transparent, and as she hovered around her back, she brought a finger up to lightly trace the line of her lacy bra where it just peeked up above the thin material. Her finger went under the strap, over her shoulder, and back down as she circled back in front. Then, surprising even herself, she began to trace her chest, just where it started to curve. She was staring unabashedly now, and her breath was tellingly shaky. She wanted her. She wanted her now.
Both of her hands creeped under her bra straps, slipping them off her shoulders as Tawny dipped her head into the crook of Rhiannon’s neck. She kissed and bit her gently, again and again, traveling upwards until she reached her ear. Her lips barely grazed her skin as she spoke in an unmistakably lustful whisper. “Maybe later, baby. I wanna play a different game.”
Rhiannon stood perfectly still as Tawny circled around her and started touching her. It was safe to say she’d never been a situation quite like this and normally Rhiannon was sure she would have jerked away from being touched like that by someone she didn’t know. The problem with that was, Tawny wasn’t exactly someone she didn’t know. Not really. Harley knew the Joker, so that made this all the more confusing. And the way Tawny was currently touching her wasn’t scaring her off so much as making her want more.
She was so lost in thought that she didn’t see Tawny coming. Before she knew it the straps of her bra were hanging off her shoulders and Tawny was looking at her in a way that nobody had ever looked at Rhiannon before. It made her dizzy. She was caught in Tawny’s intense gaze like a defenseless animal caught in a hunter’s trap, returning the look with one of her own as her own breathing grew a little more shallow. Something swelled within her that after a moment could only be characterized as a deep seeded lust. It made her blush, quite furiously, but she didn’t have a lot of time to react before Tawny dipped her head and Rhiannon felt her lips on her neck.
“.... Oh.” Her mouth dropped open in an ‘oh’ of surprise, unable to stop the way her body immediately reacted to the sensation of Tawny’s mouth trailing up her skin oh so delicately, even her bites were somewhat gentle. Teasing. The heat radiating from Tawny’s lips and tongue forced a soft moan to escape Rhiannon’s mouth, reacting instinctively and placing her hands on the other girl’s hips as Tawny whispered in her ear and she responded. This was insane. “That’s okay. Think I like this game better.”
Tawny grinned wickedly as Rhiannon’s body responded to hers, and she bit her neck a little harder when she moaned. Thank god for Harley Quinn. Tawny was so desperate for a fuck that she was aching, and Rhiannon was already putty in her arms. She changed directions abruptly, going back down her neck and getting a little more forceful with each kiss. Her hands held Rhiannon’s shoulders firmly in place, and she pushed her pelvis up against hers, which became more noticeable as she bent her knees slightly to kiss the beginnings of her breasts. But then she stopped, briefly, considering something. She straightened up again, cupped Rhiannon’s breasts, then abruptly yanked the tank top down with a manic laugh. It pooled around her stomach, and Tawny let it for the moment. She had other things in mind.
She took Rhiannon’s face in her hands and kissed her ferociously, pushing her backward until they hit a wall, which caused her to gasp in pleasure for the first time in months. She attacked Rhiannon’s mouth with a hunger that she’d been repressing for what felt like ages now, but couldn’t any longer. Her hands traveled down to Rhiannon’s hips, pulling them against her so that she could get access to her back and get rid of that bra. It only took her a second to unclasp it, then she ripped it off too, and she broke the kiss with a devilish smile. “I like this game, too,” she whispered, and she knelt down slightly, rubbing her hands down Rhiannon’s sides as she did so. Then she did what she’d originally thought of, mere minutes before.