deathsmajesty | The Creepy And Now Holiday-Appropriate Mansion, Thursday Evening

Once again, the gate that blocked off the bottom end of Phoenix Way was opened, inviting everyone to the creepy (though much less abandoned) mansion. This time, however, instead of being guided around to the gardens, the lit path led them to the front door, where the a tall figure in a tattered robe and deep cowl gestured for them to step inside the door and get onto a...boat? Once people had climbed in settled themselves, the ferryman began to guide the ship down the River Styx. Or, okay, their long entrance hallway, with blue lights to either side of their boat to mimic water and bathing everyone in an eerie blue glow. (Yes, okay, the boat perhaps wheeled down the hallway rather than floated, but they had not refinished this house just to flood the hallway for verisimilitude. Even if Liliana had considered it for a few minutes.)

The double doors leading to the ballroom were opened, with thick fog rolling out of the doorway. And through that doorway, people could descend the stairs into the Underworld proper. Black and gold were the prevailing color, with deep red nods to a pomegranate motif. Gold coins and loose gemstones added to the decor, a nod to Hades' wealth - but even amidst all the dark opulence, touches of other colors could be seen: tucked away in various corners and small niches were flowering plants, a surprise kiss of springtime to be found in the least likely places. Rather than one large chandelier, they had several, creating areas of both light and shadow around the ballroom.

Welcome to the Underworld, dear friends.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Surgeon," Don told her proudly. "Officially licensed to practice now--in New York, anyway. I've got the ball rolling on the transfer to Maryland, but." He shrugged. Bureaucracy clearly hated him.

Well, could be worse! See: the following. "Oh, congrats! They're never gonna give me my license back." Big ol' eyeroll right there, before Harley beamed at him again. "Doctor Harley Quinn at your service! Psychiatry, before ya ask."

"Hey, don't give up," Don told her. "I was dead for ten years and I got mine back!"

Yeah, no, Don, Harley Quinn was not getting her medical license back.

"Nice to meet you, though. You run the antique shop, right? I bought a cane there one time, but Gambit was working." Wait, she might not know that name. "LeBeau, I mean."

"Who?" Harley asked, because she didn't actually recognize that name, either. It was only Remy, or -- "What, you mean Frenchie?"

"I thought he was Cajun," Don said, and if he was partially not addressing that to Harley, well, he was also partially addressing it to her, so there was that. "Or...Creole?" Creole was from New Orleans, right? His understanding of this was very vague and might be based on a Zatarain's box.

Harley gave a big shrug.

"Sometimes he says French things, and he's annoying," she explained. "That's good enough for me!"

"Fair enough," Don said. Sorry, Gambit. Universal solidarity only went so far, and it wasn't like Don actually knew you. "I hope the antique business is treating you well. I went for teaching as an alternate career, and it hasn't been so bad, except this semester I'm co-teaching with my ex from another universe, so that's...a thing."

It was exceedingly obvious from the change in the expression on Harley's face that something in that had really caught her attention. There may as well have been a giant exclamation point hanging over her head.

"You had an alternate universe ex show up, too?"

"Technically, I was the alternate universe ex that showed up," Don explained. "Do you know Jane? Dr. Foster?" Don looked around to see if she was present to point her out, and oh, wow, she looked great in that costume and he would not be pursuing that thought any further, thank you very much. "That's her over there in the...goth ballerina look. We dated in my universe, and I guess in hers, too. So it was a real surprise for her when Thor and I showed up...uh, we got here at around the same time, and he's also her ex from a different universe." Totally nothing weird or suspicious there!

Harley did her best to follow all that. Including the easy part of checking out who Don pointed out, and yes, that was a very attractive lady!

"Wow, that sounds convoluted," she noted, blinking. "I think maybe I like my situation better, now."

She might also develop an incorrect theory about how being a doctor was somehow relevant to the likelihood of AU exes showing up.

Don had done his best to explain it, but it was...a thing! "It's definitely awkward," Don agreed. "What's your situation? Your alternate ex showed up?"

The island's other doctors had better watch out.

"Okay, don't be obvious about looking," Harley said, as sternly as she was able to, while also pointedly inclining her head sideways in the general direction of where Pamela was. "But there's a real pretty redhead over there in a hot jumpsuit? That's Pam."

She paused for a thought.

"She might prefer Dr. Isley, actually. I dunno."

Don nodded. "Hot redhead in a jumpsuit, Dr. Pam Isley, got it." He was not being at all obvious about looking, but, listen. He had eyes.

"We dated in college," Harley added, now that this important baseline had been established. "Or, where I'm from, we dated in college. Where she's from, it was way more recent, and it's weird!"

She pulled a face.

"I mean, not 'cause the timelines don't add up, although that is weird, and ya can't convince me otherwise!" Why would he try to? Unclear. "But, just, the whole thing. Her showin' up here out of the blue, older, knowing me but not knowin' me..."

"I totally get you," Don told her. "I don't know about the timelines--we didn't get into that too much, because too much else was different. Apparently I was...really different where Jane's from. And where I'm from she's a nurse--or, she was a nurse. She went back to school and I hear she's a doctor now. The Jane here is an astrophysicist. And also Thor. It's so weird. I'll expect her to know something, or react some way, and she doesn't, because she's different, but she's still...Jane."

"Yeah," Harley agreed, half wistful, half exasperated, all feeling. Also totally darting a look towards Pam, across the room. "I mean, exes are complicated enough bullshit without these -- these extra layers of it not even technically bein' your ex!"

She huffed and made another face.

"'Cause the weird things in the chest are too stupid to listen to technicalities."

"Tell me about it," Don said, his own expression more toward the wistful end of the scale. "Plus I was dead--well, I didn't exist--for a while, so that sort of...makes it all even weirder." And on top of that, "She also didn't exist for a while, but for a totally different reason." Comics-based canons, why were you like this?

The Creepy And Now Holiday-Appropriate Mansion, Thursday Evening

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