[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Sunny Slater + wearing

Paladin was not in the least surprised when Sunny jumped at the chance to remain the 'girl' in the dance. If she'd been any more girly then… well Paladin couldn't actually think of any way Sunny might manage to be any more girly than she already was. The heels she was wearing had to be nearly five inches, and her suit was pink for heaven's sake. It couldn't have been any more tacky if she'd tried. Although saying that, maybe she had tried. The Heroine seemed so obsessed with good publicity and image that she'd probably run through hundreds of possible costume designs. Paladin's was still pretty similar to the original designed for her by Stephen back when she'd first started out, they were a lot higher quality now though. The class was almost full, with mostly older kids and adults standing in pairs. There were a couple of much younger kids, though it seemed that they were there for the experience, they didn't seem to be learning that much. One of them had a finger up his nose while staring, mouth agape, at the recently arrived Super Heroes. The dance teacher needed a moment to recover from their surprise, but resumed the class with remarkable alacrity. They were learning the initial dance steps and it didn't take long for Paladin to pick them up. It helped that she could simply absorb the kinetic energy from any misstep, and that Sunny barely had any weight to balance thanks to their respective abilities. She spoke once they paired up to try out their new dance moves as partners. "Have you ever done anything like this before?"

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[Sunny Slater]

"This is gonna be great for my profile!"

Two Heroes Unite!

Sunny smiled and listened to the dance instructions, and soon was following them. Perhaps surprisingly, given Sunny's total lack of aptitude at anything that didn't involve putting on make-up or posing for selfies, she wasn't entirely bad at it, with at least a decent sense of rhythm, even if she didn't quite manage the momentum that was expected of them or the athleticism of the other moves. And it seemed Sunny was shockingly unfit for a superhero, short of breath incredibly quickly. After all, Sunny hated exercise. Sweat was gross and yucky and nobody had ever made a gym outfit with heels so she wasn't interested.

"Oh, well, like, never Salsa, but well, I did ballet and ballroom dancing when I was younger in school, like, obviously, and I've done a few modern dance classes." She answered, speaking with a tone that suggested she thought everybody learned ballroom dancing and ballet. After all, Sunny was totally unaware of what life was like outside of her protected little bubble.

"What about you? Did you do, like, dance classes? Like, apart from the normal ones, of course." She added, again because Sunny thought learning ballet was normal. Again suggesting her total inability to read people.




Alice Morrow

"We should be, like, BFFs!"

ulla

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Sunny Slater + wearing

Paladin would have been more surprised at Gravity Girl's dancing abilities had she not held a default high opinion of all Heroes. After all, it was pretty hard to become a Hero, not just anyone could walk into it, and the training that was required was intense. Despite the fact that her own ability allowed her to bypass most of that same training, the thought that anyone would actually do so flew her mind. She wasn't forward thinking to realise this, but undoubtedly it would eventually lead to some serious issues within the Program. "Ballroom? That's so cool, I wish I could have learned ballroom dancing in school." Paladin was a confident and independent woman, but there was definitely a part of her that wanted to be the Princess at the ball. And what kind of ball would it be without dancing? It helped that she had a natural sense of rhythm and enough training and exercise to overcome any lack of experience. "I did a bit of like, modern dance classes at school though, it totally wasn't my thing. I'm a lot less clumsy now than I used to be." She laughed as she nimbly dodged one of Gravity Girl's surprisingly hefty boots. It must be the heels that gave them that weight, and the blue haired Hero did not want to receive one of those to the shin. She shrugged as they stepped back, then paused as the teacher explained the next movement, a spin for the woman in a partnership. She watched, then as they turned to each other to practice the movement, she explained, "that's about all the dance I've done before this though. Other than in like, nightclubs and things." She looked around, Jeez, it's a relief to be away from the Paparazzi, what do you think they'd say about this?"

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[Sunny Slater]

"This is gonna be great for my profile!"

Two Heroes Unite!

Sunny was surprised to hear that Alice had used to be clumsy. She always seemed so calm and confident. Sunny could be a bit of a ditz, it was true, and definitely wasn't beyond a bit of clumsiness, but her natural popularity (thanks to being, well, rich and blonde) in school had led her to various dance classes, and yes, even a short time as a cheerleader, although she thought it involved too much gross sweat and exercise to keep it up for long, so she also had a natural graceful performer in her. It helped that she had been pretty much on stage one way or another since birth too, whether as a child model, teen model or now as a superhero. She was always at home on stage, even dancing, and was learning the Salsa moves pretty easily, despite her impressively unwieldy boots.

"They didn't teach ballroom at your school?" Sunny's tone was one of surprise, again suggesting the big divide in the upbringing of the pair. Sunny's expensive private school had of course done ballroom dancing as a natural part of their classes.

"I can't believe you were ever clumsy, You're Paladin! You're like, the toughest hero around!" She remarked, and yes, despite Sunny's self-absorbed nature, it was a genuine compliment. She would of said 'badass' but Sunny didn't like using bad words, she'd always been taught not to, and was still a massive Momma's girl when it came to doing what she was told. At least when it came from her Mom. She often found ways to get out of doing anything that she thought was too hard work or might compromise her appearance as a hero.

"You get to go to nightclubs? Wow! My Mom still won't let me." Sunny remarked when Alice made the comment about nightclubs. Sunny liked the idea of going out partying, but her Mom had always been afraid of the pictures making the news, or Sunny getting drunk and being caught doing something silly. "Isn't it, like, mega scary though?" She asked. Yes, her Mom also always told her they were dens of load, crude music and drugs and horrible things, and that the dance floors were gross and your shoes stuck to the floor and that Sunny would hate it, and so the girl who actually fought criminals for a career thought that nightclubs sounded 'scary'.

"Aw, I wish they were here. Pics of us two together would go viral, and be great for my profile!" She beamed when Alice seemed to be sad there were no paparazzi there. Sunny, of course, was disappointed. Here she was with Paladin, one of the most famous heroes on the planet, and there weren't even going to be any pictures in the newspaper? Sure, they were dancing together, but that just showed community spirit. Sunny, who of course often read every article about her, knew that the big negative thing people tended to say about her (apart from the fact she was vain, self-centered and wore too much perfume, all things she disagreed with) was that she was a spoiled rich kid with no idea how other people lived.

By being at a community centre, and taking part in their programs, surely that proved that criticism wrong? Or it WOULD, if it could reach the papers....






Alice Morrow

"We should be, like, BFFs!"

ulla

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Sunny Slater + wearing

Paladin laughed. She learned more and more about why Gravity Girl was the person she was with everything the pink clad Hero said. "Yeah, no, I don't think Ballroom would have gone down so well at the shitty public school I went to." Presumably Gravity Girl had gone to the kind of school that would offer ballroom, which meant it was either much more upmarket than the one Alice had attended, or private. Paladin was betting on the latter. She shrugged as they followed the moves that were being demonstrated by the class teacher. "Tough doesn't mean graceful, and it takes a lot of work to do well as a Hero. I bet you understand that." She smiled to herself anyway, so much of what Gravity Girl said seemed to be either unconsciously judgemental or backhanded. A genuine compliment seemed rare, it was nice to hear something genuine from someone like her. "Thanks though. Although you're pretty tough too. I saw you stop that car." Carefully, she spun the pink clad girl back towards her, replicating what the teacher had just demonstrated with a volunteer. She grinned, putting a finger to her lips, "Don't tell anyone, my agent would fricking kill me, and you don't want that death on your conscience." She had to revise her opinion a little again. Evidently Gravity Girl had lived something of a sheltered life. Paladin wondered how much of that was as a result of the girl's mother, who was clearly beyond controlling. "Scary? Sure. But not for people like you and me. What's the worst that's going to happen? It's not like you go in full costume, so most people don't even know who you are." "Once the mask is off most people don't even look twice." She winked, "Unless you want them to." And then the publicity obsessed Gravity Girl returned. It took a lot of effort not to roll her eyes as the blonde started babbling about pictures and going viral. She was right though, they definitely would. Thank god there weren't any members of the press in here. They'd been allowed a tour with the Heroes earlier, and taken plenty pf pictures then, as they also had when they'd officially opened the centre. She'd hoped that meant they'd all be gone by the time the two Heroes had to leave, but she knew that hope was probably in vain. She returned to the previous point of their conversation. "Maybe we should do it sometime?"

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[Sunny Slater]

"This is gonna be great for my profile!"

Two Heroes Unite!

"O-oh, um, right, of course." Sunny nodded, pretending that she already knew every school didn't teach ballroom dancing. She had just thought it was a normal part of the curriculum, but was now aware it was another sign of the divide between the two. For all of her vanity and media obsession, Sunny never wanted to come off as a rich snob, especially to Alice, who she was desperately hoping would be her friend, and she was a little embarrassed to have said anything.

Fortunately, Alice moved on, mentioning the difference between 'tough' and 'graceful'. It was a nice difference for her to notice, and Sunny certainly thought that she was on the 'graceful' side, while Alice was on the 'tough' side. Not that Sunny's powers weren't formidable, but Sunny herself was about as tough as a wet paper bag. This meant she laughed off Alice's comment that she was tough with a little dainty wave of her hand.
"Oh, I'm not tough. I mean, my powers are pretty strong, but I'm, I'm not tough. Not like you." She was, however, as graceful as she had estimated, twirling elegantly when Alice span her around, perhaps still more ballroom than salsa, but nobody could argue with her form or grace. Sunny was obviously used to being twirled in formal dance situations.

She giggled when Alice joked about her agent though. It was nice that Alice joked with her. Although she wasn't sure about keeping secrets from agents. Then again, Sunny's Mom was her agent and she told her everything. Keeping a secret from her Mom was a completely alien thought to Sunny, but she was still pleased that Alice told a joke with her. Sunny, despite her wealth and popularity, didn't have many true friends anymore, and she was hoping that Alice would be one. Even beyond the publicity of Gravity Girl and Paladin being friends. She just wanted somebody to talk to and be friends with.

"Well, um, I don't, like, wear a mask." Sunny reminded Alice. "And I do lots of publicity shoots and interviews and stuff out of costume too, so, uh, pretty much everybody knows who I am." She pointed out. Yes, Sunny and forgone the secret identity for her fame. "But I don't mean scary 'cause of that, I mean, they look loud, and sweaty, and kinda icky." She explained her dislike, wrinkling her nose a little at the thought. Clearly Sunny had only ever seen nightclubs on television.

When Alice said they should do 'it' sometime, Sunny's face lit up, although she wasn't sure what Alice was referring to. Whatever it was though, it meant that Alice was asking her to do something with her, and that meant they were real friends, right? Especially after Alice had turned down coming to visit Sunny's manor. She was just excited to have a friend!
"Do you mean ballroom dancing, photos, or going to a club?" Sunny asked, confused but excited anyway. "'cause yes to the first two but my Mom won't let me do the last one." She said, trying to make it clear that she WANTED to go, but knew she wouldn't be allowed.



Alice Morrow

"We should be, like, BFFs!"

ulla

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Sunny Slater + wearing

Paladin frowned as Gravity Girl spoke. She wasn't sure if she was putting herself down, throwing another of those seemingly unintended insults, or simply stating what she saw as fact. "I think you're probably selling yourself short on that. People can be tough in different ways." After all, Paladin hated being in front of the cameras, whereas Gravity Girl positively seemed to revel in it. There had to be some aspect of toughness in that, a resilience to the desperate, hungry predations of the press. Paladin could feel energised after a fight. A simple interview left her exhausted. Sunny seemed to positively bounce from talk show to talk show, from journalist to journalist. It was almost a wonder she wasn't bigger than Paladin. She was snapped back to reality when the mask was mentioned, and she looked back at the other Hero's face. The woman was, as had been pointed out, not wearing a mask. It seemed so strange to Paladin that someone would make that decision. With all of the dangers that they went through, it seemed to make sense to wear the costume, to wear a mask. Even so, Paladin bet Sunny was rarely seen out of her costume or the latest designer clothing. And she was probably never seen in a night club. When she'd been in New York people had mistaken her for a fan of Paladin, rather than the Hero herself. One person had even said she was too short and had the wrong colour hair! Putting Sunny in normal clothes would probably make her invisible. Shrugging, she responded, "They are loud, and they are sweaty, but that's half the fun. You won't understand until you do it, I swear." Laughing, she stepped back as the dance teacher told the class to take a rest. A few people eyed the two Heroes, while one or two snapped surreptitious photos on their phones. "I definitely don't know how to ballroom dance, and I think I've had enough photos for today. But…" She tapped a finger against the girl's pink chest, "…I'm definitely sneaking you out to go clubbing."

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