27 ❦ Video

[chlorophylliac]

[Ivy appears in the video feed surrounded by plants. It’s all a little more sparse than it looks like it could be; this is because the Admiral kindly confiscated anything that could be considered dangerous. Thanks for that, guy. She looks like she’s been in a fight recently but her deep green skin doesn’t really show much bruising.]

...This again.

[She touches her fingers lightly to the bridge of her nose. The frustration is washed out of her voice; she just sounds tired. She’s struggling to reconcile her time on the Barge with two days spent at home that as good as eliminated those memories; it’s wearisome.]

I left in August, it appears I’ve returned in February, so the question now is whether my absence can be measured in months or years. I’m dying to know.

[You wouldn’t be able to tell.]

For those of you who recognize me, I’m pleased to say that my memory is intact. [Largely. Not as much as she’d like.] For those who don’t, my name is Poison Ivy. I have previously been an Inmate here for almost two years, so rolling out the welcome wagon isn’t necessary. I would like to know whether the greenhouse has finally fallen into Warden management, and if so, whose.

[Friends Filter]

['Friends' is too strong a word in most cases but those remaining on this filter are: Morgana, Zane, Iris, Arthas and Barbara.]

If you can see this message I would appreciate a response. Thank you.

Comments

[private]

[routemistress]

Bugger me, Ivy!

I'm as glad as I can be to see you, considering 'ow you feel about being 'ere.

And them seeds are on a moon with atmosphere, belonging to a planet with some very strictly enforced laws about who gets to go near its moons. They're doing well. It's been more'n a year; Zane looks after the greenhouse.

Anything you need, my love?

Private

[chlorophylliac]

[Zev's seedlings. Thank God she had the foresight to get them off the Barge. Her cabin has been reset, essentially; everything she accumulated in her time here previously has gone. As for Zane, that's. Interesting for a number of reasons. Hopefully her attempts at plant appreciation training paid off.]

Not yet. Thank you.

..Is Banner still here?

Private

[routemistress]

No. Disappeared after the last run-in with the mirror barge. Quite a few of us did. Harvey went too - graduated, mind you. I've seen 'im since, on my travels. There's 'ardly anyone left from your time any more, I should think, only oldtimers like me and Riddick and Arthas. Babs is still 'ere, of course, and Steph, but a different version.

Private

[youwillgotohell]

Are you in the same cabin?

['Appreciate a response,'what is this nonsense. Morgana is 100% planning on a hug.

P.S. someone looks a lot younger/healthier/saner in general.]

Re: Private

[chlorophylliac]

[The smile at the news of Banner's disappearance is small and fleeting but it's there. Harvey's graduation she'll take with a pinch of salt.]

Any structural changes that I ought to be aware of?

[She should really go out and establish this for herself, but her plants are feeling a bit 'mommy what's going on, where are our friends :(' so she doesn't feel she can leave them alone just yet.]

Private

[routemistress]

[There's a little wry flash in Iris' smile: she knows perfectly well she and Ivy felt very differently about Harvey, except for that one time Ivy saved her from being demoted by delivering a righteous beating. They were perfectly in accord then, all right.]

Greenhouse is bigger: basically the whole of what used to be the garden's inside it now. CTS and CES got amalgamated into one big environment you can program a lot more than we used to back in the day. We lost the teaching annexe, ice rink, music room and the spa, but Ben 'as the music room attached to 'is cabin and I've got the spa attached to mine. And the ...I don't know, the flavour of the population's changed some. A lot more youngsters. Fewer 'ard cases. Let 'ope it suits you better, eh?

Private

[chlorophylliac]

[...So she does.

Ivy immediately comes to the correct conclusion on what this means for Morgana's progress and has 0% idea how to feel about it.]

...no. Eight-sixteen.

[ENJOY YOUR NEW NEIGHBOR.]

[Spam]

[youwillgotohell]

[Ivy may be bad at coping, but Morgana isn't thinking of that now; she's missed Ivy every day she's been gone, and she's not wasting time worrying about the way things might have changed. Time has made it easier to forget some of the sourness that had arisen between them.

So Morgana laughs, kills the feed, and just heads across the way to knock on Ivy's door.]

Re: Private

[chlorophylliac]

[Last year she might have gotten a bit bristly at the suggestion that 'fewer hard cases' would suit her; she'd have taken it as an accusation of weakness. Now, she accepts that's Iris is referring to her mom instincts and she can't deny those.]

Let's hope.

[Somewhat dryly:] ...There was an ice rink? After my time.

Private

[routemistress]

There was! I loved it, but you know 'ow it is, we never get to keep nice things.

[And then, as though it's the first time it's occurred to her (which it is)]

...mind you, the new Enclosure ought to give us frozen lakes on demand now, I never thought of that till this second. Maybe I can get that ice hockey team started after all.

[tucky]

So what are you now? Still an inmate?

[lydiascreams]

I've been here since March last year and I don't remember you, so I think years is probably more accurate.

[She's never met anyone green before. Blue, yes. With glowing eyes, fangs and facial hair that grows at will? Definitely. But not green. She's not really staring though, but she is looking at her a little more curiously because-- she looks kinda familiar? Probably from something she's watched before.]

I'm Lydia.

[Spam]

[chlorophylliac]

[....that certainly didn't take long.

Ivy appears at the door looking tired, bruised and unhappy. The latter is typical; the first two are attributable to a brief stint in Arkham followed by a brawl with Catwoman, Batman and (later) the good men and women of the Gotham City Police Department.

The unhappiness, though, is slightly alleviated when she sees Morgana. The last time they spoke, she was a child. The source of their sourness was two months gone, even then, and now? It's been a testing few days, and something in her has shifted. She's not so apt to simply turn away in disgust, or - not that she'd ever call it this - in fear.

She steps back to let her in. Her cabin has been stripped of half its plants; the laboratory largely empty of equipment. She hates being here but she's not ready to step outside and review the limits of her rediscovered captivity, not just yet.]

When did you graduate?

Private

[chlorophylliac]

[Ivy makes a short, amused sound.]

Has the flavour of the population changed so much we have to orchestrate our bloodbaths?

Re: [Spam]

[youwillgotohell]

[The question doesn't startle her, not exactly. It takes her aback a little, it makes her wary but not entirely on guard. She's already done this with Roderick: she doesn't want to wander the same path with Ivy.

Stepping inside, Morgana notes that there have been changes against her hazy memory of last being here, but her attention slides back to Ivy. She doesn't like those bruises.]

I'm not sure. I went home for a time, first. It's been some months, at least.

[The wariness comes back, and she considers her first instinct - to harden her voice, to be aggressive, to ask if that will be a problem or if she should have bothered to come here at all - but decides against it.]

May I? [She gestures at the bruises.]

Re: Private

[routemistress]

Pretty much, aye. I did 'ave to arrange me own murder, last time.

[This shouldn't be funny, but it is and Iris grins unashamedly.]

Last real bloodbath round 'ere was when we 'ad a bad case of the clowns. Got across from the mirror barge with parasitic nanites, the gobshite.

[maytakecenturies]

[She sees green skin and immediately thinks Orion Syndicate. They have been an occasional thorn to the Empire in the past, but were largely divided by their desire to ply their slave trade, and their poor position between the Terran and Romulan Empires.

T'Pol doesn't care about that. She's more interested in another member relative to her time period, perhaps from her own universe - one who can tell her the fate of Vulcan, under Sato's rule. (If, she reminds herself, Major Reed is to be believed. But it's pointless: she believed him the moment he sneered his answer at her.)]

That is an unusual name. [For an Orion, anyway.]

Re: [Spam]

[chlorophylliac]

[The question wasn't, Ivy's surprised to find, an accusation. Part of her is angry, the part of her that would tear this place into pieces if she could, the part that utterly resented her captivity and couldn't bear the thought of being consumed and reformed by a corrupt, ineffective system.

But she's been gone for a year. Longer. And Morgana looks healthier and happier than she's ever seen her. She's angry, but it's difficult to use Morgana as an outlet for that anger.]

You may. Thank you.

[chlorophylliac]

...Yes.

Returning home without graduating is rare but not unheard of.

[tucky]

Yeah, I know. You go back to being dead, right? Is that what happened?

Private

[chlorophylliac]

...I assume the 'mirror Barge' is what I'd expect it to be.

[Since she's mentioned it twice now it probably merits an explanation.

Ivy managed to be here for exactly the window of time in which there were no mirror floods. Hooray?]

[chlorophylliac]

[...]

How long have you been here?

[tucky]

Couple months. But I heard that's what happens.

[chlorophylliac]

[...hair's looking good there, buddy.]

I considered T'Pol an unusual name when I heard it first.

[chlorophylliac]

Sometimes.

Sometimes you didn't truly die. The Admiral only requires the possibility of it.