Pamela Isley | Poison Ivy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chlorophylliac) wrote2012-09-05 09:41 pm
chlorophylliac) wrote2012-09-05 09:41 pm
Entry tags:
011 || Video
[It's been a long while since Ivy last surfaced on the Barge network. She's sitting on deck, one wall of the greenhouse at her back; her mood's taken a swing for the contemplative. Or rather, a swing for the 'let's talk about plants so I don't threaten you all with the ludicrously OP superpowers I totally have now, thanks T'Pol'.]
Nikolai Vavilov.
No, I don't anticipate anyone knowing the name. He was a Soviet botanist and geneticist, most famously credited with Vavilov Centers - the eight geographical regions he identified as the origin points for the human domestication of crop plants. He was also an academic colleague of William Bateson, who I hope at least some of you know was first on Earth to use 'genetics' to refer to the study of heredity.
His ideas didn't go down well with Stalin. Naturally, his ideology had no time for the notion that a living thing could be innately superior to its siblings - genetics was the science of fascism, at the time. He was alternately marginalised and blamed for massive food shortages, not least by a former protégé who invented a more palatable theory.
[She pauses for thought.]
Vavilov died in prison. Of malnutrition, ironically. But that's not my point.
His other legacy to the world was one of the planet's first seedbanks. He had collected almost half a million seeds and roots from across the globe in the hope of making that diversity easily available to his successors, and perhaps to protect those species from the predations of an increasingly hostile, polluted world.
[Her tone's darkened and a moment she looks like she's about to derail into something angrier and less educational, but her brow smooths out and she goes on.]
The Soviets didn't recognize its significance, of course. Even as they were emptying out their museums, they had no idea that Hitler was more interested in the real treasure hidden in Leningrad. When the city was besieged, they didn't even try to protect it. Twelve scientists - unsupported by their government, followers of a man already dying in prison - these men took it on themselves to guard the bank for over two years.
Surrounded by tens of thousands of seeds they knew to be nutritious, nine of them voluntarily starved to death.
[She sounds about as impressed by this as Ivy will ever be by the self-sacrifice of a male human, i.e. 'not actively disgusted'. The vines around her wrists shift and writhe as if they're fidgeting.]
It isn't widely known. One small anecdote in a greater story - but what if things had been different, I wonder. If they hadn't died, but killed, in defence of the riches of the Earth. Not martyrs, but guardians. Would history have marked them as villains, or elevated them as heroes?
[She gives the camera a look which suggests she already has some strong ideas about the answer, and then her communicator switches off.]
[Private to Erik; Text]
My abilities have been restored.
Nikolai Vavilov.
No, I don't anticipate anyone knowing the name. He was a Soviet botanist and geneticist, most famously credited with Vavilov Centers - the eight geographical regions he identified as the origin points for the human domestication of crop plants. He was also an academic colleague of William Bateson, who I hope at least some of you know was first on Earth to use 'genetics' to refer to the study of heredity.
His ideas didn't go down well with Stalin. Naturally, his ideology had no time for the notion that a living thing could be innately superior to its siblings - genetics was the science of fascism, at the time. He was alternately marginalised and blamed for massive food shortages, not least by a former protégé who invented a more palatable theory.
[She pauses for thought.]
Vavilov died in prison. Of malnutrition, ironically. But that's not my point.
His other legacy to the world was one of the planet's first seedbanks. He had collected almost half a million seeds and roots from across the globe in the hope of making that diversity easily available to his successors, and perhaps to protect those species from the predations of an increasingly hostile, polluted world.
[Her tone's darkened and a moment she looks like she's about to derail into something angrier and less educational, but her brow smooths out and she goes on.]
The Soviets didn't recognize its significance, of course. Even as they were emptying out their museums, they had no idea that Hitler was more interested in the real treasure hidden in Leningrad. When the city was besieged, they didn't even try to protect it. Twelve scientists - unsupported by their government, followers of a man already dying in prison - these men took it on themselves to guard the bank for over two years.
Surrounded by tens of thousands of seeds they knew to be nutritious, nine of them voluntarily starved to death.
[She sounds about as impressed by this as Ivy will ever be by the self-sacrifice of a male human, i.e. 'not actively disgusted'. The vines around her wrists shift and writhe as if they're fidgeting.]
It isn't widely known. One small anecdote in a greater story - but what if things had been different, I wonder. If they hadn't died, but killed, in defence of the riches of the Earth. Not martyrs, but guardians. Would history have marked them as villains, or elevated them as heroes?
[She gives the camera a look which suggests she already has some strong ideas about the answer, and then her communicator switches off.]
[Private to Erik; Text]
My abilities have been restored.
And now that crazy busy-ness is over, spam or assume?
Spam works for me if it works for you <3
[Spam]
I've never seen any of these worlds before his Shadow occupied them. They may look very different. [And she strides over to the CES door and aims the more than ridiculous robot head at the door to open it.
The world is Klaagia, and as Wist had described it, was plentiful and beautiful and very alien. Fortunately Ivy doesn't know the world became a dumping ground. Zev doesn't either, though- it's completely unrecognizable.
The plantlife immediately evident is alien, with less woody growth and more ferns. But it is still a familar green.]
[Spam]
It's beautiful here.
[She sounds more genuinely calm than she has in a while.]
[Spam]
I don't remember where this could be, though. Maybe one of the worlds the Lexx saw. A lot of people went into making it. [She means that literally. And hates it, but it makes the ship mean more to her.] I like that this room can remember things for us.
[Spam]
[The CES is pretty much the only thing she likes about the Barge for this reason.]
What is the Lexx?
[Spam]
[She rolls again, and looks behind her as if that might tell her what she's doing wrong.]
[Spam]
How did you accomplish this the last time you did it?
[Spam]
[Spam]
The air was drugged. Your inhibitions would have been lowered, your higher cognitive functions slightly impaired. [A short pause. She wouldn't feel the need to explain this to anyone else.] I was expecting hostile company.
[Spam]
[That entirely dismissively as she's thinking really hard on times that she's called up the Cluster Lizard. She doesn't want to be traumatized just to be able to do this.
Something does appear, but it's just a relatively insect/arachnid type of thing wanting to dabble its long front legs into the new flowers.]
[Spam]
I could put you under the influence again. A lower, controlled dose may allow your other aspect to assert itself while letting you remain aware of your actions.
[Spam]
I think it might help. I don't think the Cluster Lizard is affected by it. It seemed to like the heat, too.
[Dry heat. Desert heat. Where it was normally impossible for anything except the most hardy of vegetation to grow and then it was hard pressed.]
[Spam]
[She touches her fingertips to her lips.]
I'll need to transfer the drug directly to best control your response.
[Spam]
[Spam]
[A step closer. She keeps her tone clinical.]
My body synthesizes the chemical and its antidote, if necessary. I need to kiss you.
[Though not necessarily for this specific reason.]
[Spam]
She nods and walks up to Ivy.] Okay, I trust you. But be careful. [Her accented voice softens.] I don't always trust me.
[She didn't want to attack Ivy because she couldn't control her darker instincts.]
[Spam]
[Her lips tingle with the drug, and she kisses Zev's mouth with unusual care, letting her skin absorb the dose.]
It'll start in a few seconds.
[Spam]
She pulls back, and her expression is relatively serene. But there's a slight noise behind her breathing when the effects begin to sink in, a growl that's not even mammalian (though it's not meant to be unfriendly).] How do you do that?
[She asks, even though she knows she won't understand the answer.]
[Spam]
[Spam]
She just is.
Then, with a bright grin she hunkers down and rolls at a speed that would rival some of the heros of Ivy's world (and thankfully without damaging the ferns more than making them spew seeds from the undersides of their leaves as she passed over them).
When she comes back, unlike a normal person she doesn't even look dizzy. She looks like she might bowl Ivy over playfully, but not dizzy. She ends up just clinging to her arm and laughing, still under the influence.]
Look! Look, I did it.
[Spam]
You did.
[Despite herself she cracks a slight smile.]
Do you know how, this time? What you were thinking beforehand?
[Spam] One of these days, Zev, you're gonna poison yourself by being overeager.
[Spam] 'Ivy what did you -' 'SHE HUGGED ME UNEXPECTEDLY >C'
Before what gets away?
Re: [Spam] She would forgive you, Ivy. Her bad!
Just something. I don't know what it was. But I wanted to catch it. So that's it! [She suddenly is excited, as if she's figured something out. And she has! She'd prefer to do this without psychological trauma accompanying it, thank you.]
Spam