There is no such thing as justice

30 ❦ Video

Mon, 15 Jun 2015 20:14:34 GMT

[Ivy is sitting in the lovingly upgraded greenhouse, on the edge of the fountain pool she's created at the centre, and absolutely nobody was surprised. There's a plant/animal hybrid on her lap; anatomically a small rabbit, but what it's covered with is more like moss than fur and its eyes are completely black.]

The first greenhouses used on Earth were recorded by Pliny the Elder, two thousand years before my time.

The Roman Emperor Tiberius wanted cucumbers all year round, so, his gardeners made it happen. Their specularium predated the invention of glass; they used oiled cloth or sheets of mica. They weren't used constantly, only at night, to protect the plants from the cold after they'd had the benefit of the sunlight during the day.

More sophisticated versions appeared over a thousand years later. The Vatican, in the thirteenth century, to house plants brought as trophies from tropical exploration. Korea, two centuries afterward. What my contemporaries would consider a modern greenhouse didn't appear until the eighteen-hundreds.

By my time, commercial technology allows plants to be grown out of season, thousands of miles from the environments where they evolved, untroubled by parasites or predators or the vagaries of the weather. Even the most diseased specimens can heal in a place designed for precisely that.

[She falters, briefly, gaze going out of focus. It looks like she's fighting something off, consciously or otherwise.]

Which is perfectly fine, if all you want is something that will thrive in an artificial environment. But when you return it to its home -- with all the threats and dangers that plant is subject to --

[Ivy tunes out again, gaze going flat and empty.]

The following Warden and Inmate have been paired:

A.J. Crowley // sauntervaguelydownwards → Arthas Menethil // darknessb4me

The warden should expect a file to be delivered to his cabin shortly. Please familiarize yourself with the information therein and introduce yourself to your new Inmate as soon as possible.

[She blinks slowly, coming back to herself.]

Sometimes the rot runs particularly deep, of course. I hope you'll be very happy together.

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29 ❦ Video

Sat, 02 May 2015 09:24:58 GMT

[Ivy's in the greenhouse, which is looking a lot more green than usual - the window frames and crossbeams seem to be organic in and of themselves, occasionally throwing out green shoots and leaves, as if a huge plant has simply been grown into the same shape as the greenhouse itself and the glass planted into the spaces between.

Things in the greenhouse itself seem a lot more lively, as well - small, brightly coloured birds flutter between branches, insects crawl over the leaves, bees hum and buzz in the air around her. There's the sound of running water coming from a pond and waterfall fountain now installed in the centre of the greenhouse.

This post comes about half a day after the structural changes, which she spent getting over the post-Admiraling lethargy. Ironically, changing the greenhouse made her care less about plants, which was worrying, but she thinks she's feeling better now.]

In Zane's apparently permanent absence [i.e. someone went creeping round to his cabin when he stopped showing up for a while longer than she was happy with, and found it back to Barge normal], I'm taking over management of the greenhouse. Again.

If you have a problem with that, please, keep it to yourself because I don't care.

[OOC: If your character applies for greenhouse head this month, please let me know because Admiral Ivy will try to cockblock that pretty vigorously.

Also, to avoid confusion, Ivy has been unpaired from Venus following OOC discussion but this is unrelated to the ongoing Admiral shenanigans.]

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28 ❦ Private Text + Spam

Fri, 03 Apr 2015 21:57:02 GMT

[Private to Morgana]

Let me into the Enclosure, please.

( Open Spam - Greenhouse or Enclosure )

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27 ❦ Video

Mon, 23 Feb 2015 14:56:52 GMT

[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.

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26 || Video + Spam

Fri, 09 Aug 2013 15:22:36 GMT

[WELP all this was gonna come a little later but then Jones pressed her 'threatening children' button until it cracked.]

[Non-Affected Filter]

I am offering the greenhouse as a safe haven. If any of you try to enter without prior arrangement before the flood is over, I will take that as hostility.

[I.e. she will drug you and toss your ass in an empty cabin until the flood's over. Or kill you in whatever way she can think of that'll result in the most debilitating Death Toll.]

[Affected Filter]

[Ivy's voice is a little softer and warmer but on the authoritative side - kind of school-teacher-y. She has to balance the needs of the chldren on board now with what she's disclosing about herself to the adults they'll be in a few days. She’s sitting in the center of the greenhouse, cross-legged on the floor.]

Some of you may already know where you are. This is the Barge - a ship meant to act as a prison. That you are here is...a mistake. In a few days' time you will return home. You won’t have been missed.

Until then, be careful. There are people here who will not need an excuse to hurt you or worse, and they won't pull their punches because you're younger. Try and keep your threats and smartassing to yourself - it is very likely they can follow through better than you can.

In one hour’s time, you can come upstairs onto the glass house on deck. There will be food and drink there, and you will be perfectly safe and allowed to stay as long as you like, as long as you respect the plants and each other.

My name is Ivy.

[Her expression hardens a little.] And if you are hurt by any adult on board, name or describe them to me and I will make sure it doesn’t happen again.

[Private to Bruce Banner]

Bruce?

[Open Spam]

[Ivy spends her hour pragmatically - checking on Bruce, visiting the library to pick up some child-appropriate literature and checking the halls, public areas and any half-open cabin doors for any kids too young to be able to use the network (or to have the sense to).

After that she returns to the greenhouse. It’s a little brighter than usual - flowers in bloom, bioluminescent bracket fungus lighting up the shadier corners - and there are several small berry bushes, apple trees and grapevines in full fruit. Her half-plant, half-animal hybrids are around, the songbirds in the branches and her rabbit twitching around her ankles as she does one final check that there’s nothing lying around that could do damage to small curious hands.]

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25 || Video

Sun, 21 Jul 2013 22:53:11 GMT

[Hiii Barge. Ivy's in the men's showers, a couple of spots of blood on her face.

Behind her, a tangle of her vines lift Harvey Dent's bleeding, unconscious body into view. His mouth is acid-burnt - both sides - both his arms are hanging at weird angles and his fingers are all heavily bruised. The unscarred side of his face is bruised. ~~And that's just the stuff that's visible~~.]

I found this beating Cassel Sharpe. Whoever it belongs to might want to come deal with it.

[She makes a sharp gesture and the vines drop him. Sorry about any major fractures that might have aggravated, Harv.]

Cassel's in the Infirmary.

[And she clicks off. All done. By the time anyone comes to scape Harvey off the floor, she'll be gone.]

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24 || Spam for Sokolov

Thu, 27 Jun 2013 22:30:05 GMT

( Read more... )

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23 || Video + Text

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 01:34:40 GMT

[Private to Bruce]

[There's a few moments of video, furtively shot from across the deck, of Barge Father Of The Year 2013 wasted in ~~her~~ the garden with a stick he's torn off one of ~~her~~ the plants.

Then text.]

You have two minutes to give me a good reason not to, and after that he and I are going to have the sort of encounter I'm going to enjoy a lot more than he will.

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22 || Text + Voice + Spam

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 23:06:10 GMT

[Private to Vesper; text]

I need to apologize for what I did to you in March.

I'm not asking for your forgiveness, and I don't expect it; I just want you to know that I'm sorry for what I did. I know it's long overdue. After what I was put through in Zero I was far too hasty in putting that week behind me.

[Friends Filter; voice]

[Ivy's definition of 'friend' for this purpose is '2+ civil conversations while not under mind control'.]

I doubt I'm the only person who needed a while to recover from the port; still, I'm sorry if I worried anyone. If it hasn't already been made obvious, I'd like to hear that you made it back safely.

[Open Spam - Greenhouse & Garden]

[Of course she ends up back out here eventually. The rain's tailed off; seasonality is muted here but nonetheless the light falling onto the deck is a little brighter, a little warmer, and it's brought a fresh flush of growth to the greenhouse and rows of planters just outside. Ivy's mostly busy with making sure that the (her) plants have the space and support they need: repotting seedlings, staking out climbers, and moving the more delicate plants outside now it's warm enough to sustain them.

She seems - calm, all things considered, moving fluidly and talking to the plants in indistinguishable murmurs.]

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21 || Voice + Spam

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:55:10 GMT

[ Ivy's voice is muted and a little rough, as if she hasn't had cause to use it for a while - which is exactly the case, of course. ]

I don't suppose I've had the good luck to sleep through whatever it was we're sailing toward.

[ The arid dryness of her tone suggests she already knows the answer. ]

[Private to Bruce Banner ]

Was it necessary to use my sex life as an educational anecdote? [ Yes, this is rhetorical. ]

[Private to Tyrion - backdated to the end of the flood]

[This is awkward. She's not exactly sorry but she's not in the business of poisoning her lovers, either. Not unless they are really, offensively terrible in the sack, anyway.]

Have you recovered?

[Open spam - Infirmary]

[ Ivy's not especially interested in hanging around but with the madness beyond the infirmary being what it is, she's in no great hurry to leave either. She passes the time for now rather idly flicking through network entries she's missed during her coma. ]

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20 || Video + Spam

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 14:54:19 GMT

Since the vampire and now the angel have both resigned their posts but thoughtfully left the door unlocked, I'm adopting the greenhouse and garden.

At least, until one of you idiots decides I'm turning them into my own personal fortress and threatens to hose me down with herbicide.

[Or, more pragmatically, until another Warden gets a key. Of course she can't access the gardening tools, but…she's not the kind of person to be inconvenienced by that.]

( Private to Zev )

( Private to Morgana )

( Open Spam - Greenhouse )

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19 || Spam

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:12:52 GMT

( Spam for Bond )

( Open spam in Zero, backdated to yesterday )

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18 || Voice + Spam

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 03:45:24 GMT

[OOC: Backdated to the morning after the flood ends.]

[Private to Bruce Banner]

No, we won't be discussing the flood.

I'm glad we had this talk.

[Open Spam]

[Harley left two notes behind: one for Ivy and one for Banner. Ivy doesn't read the former and scans the latter, finding it a sample of Dr. Quinzel at her most articulate and observant. She feeds them both to a pitcher plant and leaves her cabin.

She finds she doesn't feel angry, as such. It could go that way with only a nudge, but…not yet. Haring what happened between Eddie and Zev made her angry. Hearing Megamind taunt her after Redemption made her angry. Spending days in the skin of the woman she loves and hates the most just leaves her feeling….numb.

She wants air and sunlight and the embrace of the Green, as she always does when her necessary acquaintance with humanity has drawn too close. But she doesn't want to talk to anyone to request CES access; the thought of Harley in her cabin - rifling through her things, sleeping in her bed - makes her utterly disinclined to stay.

The gardens on deck, the greenhouse, have to be enough. It's easy, familiar and simple, to walk between the rows of plants and feel the air dense with their voices.]

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017 || Voice + Spam

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:18:16 GMT

( Private to Bruce Banner )

[Private to Leslie, some time later]

A 'gardening project'.

[Open Spam]

[A day and a half into the Death Toll, she still feels tired and sick, and her chest hurts like she should be able to touch her skin and still feel the rended flesh. The lack of scars - of any mark - makes her feel strangely resentful. Cheated. And as much as she knows the more rational course of action would be to confine herself to her cabin and wait out the illness, she knows herself too well. If she lies down now she's never getting up again.

She visits the library, eschewing her normal haunts around botany and ecology, and lets the shelves take her weight for minutes at a time in the guise of particular interest in a certain row of books. She takes the elevator from the fifth level to the first and leans heavily into one corner, catching her breath.

Later she's sitting on a bench on deck with a cup of tea, reading from a volume of Emily Dickinson poems and soaking in the 'sunlight' and it helps, a little.]

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016 || Voice

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:29:29 GMT

[Private to Rorschach]

Tell me what you want or stop following me.

Actually, no. Tell me what you want and stop following me.

[Private to Blonsky]

If you've recovered from the influence of the port, I'd like to discuss a mutual acquaintance.

I can also rehome the Antirrhinum, if they no longer hold your interest.

[Private to Arthas]

You were asking about carnivorous plants. [Why was this aimed at Blonsky, dude was clearly stoned.] What do you want to know?

[Private to Zev]

How much have you been told about me? By Banner, the others from my homeworld?

[Private to Prefect]

You've been quiet. Are you still even here?

[Though Ivy's uncertainty either way might be informed more by the fact that she's not been getting out much.]

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-- || Video

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:14:01 GMT

[There's a staticky blur of green and red on the screen, and then it shakes like someone's tapping the side of it. The irate, muttering voice that comes through is decidedly not Ivy's.]

Oh for the love of - you'd think the future would be a little bit more intuitive? Come on -

[The picture clears aaaand Shego will be recognisable to anyone who was around before August. She's not really looking older, but decidedly healthier than she did on the Barge; her hair's pulled back into a thick braid and she's wearing a red jacket with a gold Star Fleet insignia on the collar. She looks bewildered for a moment, glancing away from the camera to look at recent transmissions, and her eyebrows lift in recognition.]

Oh. Oh, hey.

[She looks back to the camera and smirks, leaning back in her chair a little.]

Hey, kids. Never thought I'd be around for one of these from this end. How's my very favorite flying rehabilitative facility?

...aaand sorry to whoever's update I just totally ruined, I guess.

[OOC: Ivy's purposely staying away from this event except to creep on other people's messages so have Shego!haxx instead. B| Having said that, do let me know if you want Ivy for anything and I'll make her available!]

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015 || Text + Spam

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:07:46 GMT

[Private to Zev]

Are you alright?

[Private to Dick]

How long have you been here?

[Private to Bruce Banner, later]

I need to revisit something we discussed last week.

[Open Spam]

[Ivy's reduced her movements to a limited cycle. She doesn't bother going to the dining hall for food, and she's keeping her visits to the deck to twice a day or so. She visits the Inmate showers, and the library on occasion, and she makes damn sure nobody observes her visits to Erik's but otherwise she keeps herself to her cabin. She has Zev's seedbank to work on, and her own research, and otherwise her need for human company is being solidly ignored until hopefully it'll just starve to death.

She's not hiding from (either) Bruce; that's a ridiculous idea. She's just reached a point where her sadness and anger - her homesickness, God help her - are bleeding into each other, feeding each other. The result is a brooding, isolating not-quite-depression that won't have an outlet until she snaps and destroys something. But what would the point of that be? She'll lose her plants, her powers, what little privacy she's clawed back from a place that offers none. She assumes Banner wouldn't hesitate, anyway, why would he? His passive aggression is insincere and manipulative by its very nature. She doesn't know or care to know what it conceals.

There's a green woman walking the decks, barefoot and purposeful, but her face is flat and empty.]

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014 || Voice

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 01:02:30 GMT

( Private to Bruce Banner )

[Private to Dick]

If you have any pressing questions for your not-quite-mentor, you'll find him unusually forthcoming on deck for the next....two or three minutes.

[It may be less than that. And then he might be looking to kill her maybe.]

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013 || Video

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 17:26:11 GMT

[Video: Ivy is sitting somewhere in her cabin, one elbow propped on a workbench. There's a yellowish vine winding its way up her forearm, growing slowly but at a rate more than visible to the human eye.]

This is cuscuta europea - the European dodder vine. An unusual breed, in the plant kingdom: it has negligible levels of chlorophyll. Since it's unable to produce food for itself, it is parasitic by necessity - a seed will grow towards a likely host, penetrating its stems to absorb its nutrients. Unlike more aggressive parasites, the host survives, though inevitably it's weakened.

Still, the names it's attracted....'Devil's hair'. 'Hellbine'. Humans are so predictable in attaching the idea of 'evil' to something that simply does what it must, in order to survive. It's simply one part of an ecosystem that has been exploited and mutilated by the hands of men, and its perception moulded by their expectations.

It doesn't matter what they call it. It's no more evil than anything else.

[Private to Zev]

I don't expect to be able to access the Enclosure again for ninety days.

There was an incident. I acted -- rashly. I didn't consider the impact it would have on our project.

[It's not an apology, but she'd never be able to articulate how horrible she feels anyway. The one thing that's been keeping her centered over the last two months, even through the breach - the one thing that should be more important than her pride right now - and she was so angry she'd forgotten about it.]

I'll continue analyzing and cataloging the seeds we already have. You should continue. I can instruct you in taking samples nondestructively.

( Spam for Erik )

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012 || Text

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:50:20 GMT

One Warden down. The first of many, I don't doubt, though anyone saddled with the task of my reeducation would do well to ask the Admiral what they did to deserve it. More qualified people have tried.

[She and T'Pol actually parted on fairly amiable terms but nobody needs to know that.]

Out of curiosity, what record should I be aiming for?

[Added a few minutes later:]

Oh, and on the subject of hopeless cases, I notice Riddler's cabin has disappeared.

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011 || Video

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 20:46:24 GMT

[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.

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010 || Text

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:45:02 GMT

[Private to Dick]

Has the Joker of our Gotham or any other ever been on this ship, for any length of time?

[Private to T'Pol]

So. How might I debase myself to you in exchange for the restoration of my abilities?

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009 || Voice

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 15:04:10 GMT

[Backdated about 1-2 days, to her release from Zero.]

[Private to T'Pol]

Where. Are. My. Plants.

[Private to Prefect]

Meet me on deck. I need you to let me into the Enclosure.

[Private to Erik, immediately after speaking to Prefect]

Where are you?

[OOC: TW - discussion of rape and torture.]

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008 || Voice

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:11:46 GMT

[Backdated to yesterday]

She watched her forest slaughtered and called it compromise. Hundreds of years ago she made a truce with a man who had nothing to offer her, out of pity, and he repaid her with the slow inevitable exploitation of her family. Of everything that she was. And in exchange for petty, fleeting pleasures, she accepted it.

I am not her. I will never be her. And I do not apologize.

[Oh wait, there were some recent events, weren't there?]

For anything.

[Private to Gaheris and Hendricks but strangely enough not Loki or Erik]

Put it from your mind. It will not happen again.

[Friends Filter]

I'm in Zero for the next seven days.

~~I need someone to look in on my~~

[OOC: Maybe 'friends' is too strong a word in some cases but this filter currently comprises Erik, Loki, Barbara, Prefect, Arkady and....Charles, why not, they had a reasonably civil talk about science once.]

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007 || Voice

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:07:50 GMT

[Ivy - just Ivy, no Poison here - has been politely but firmly asked not to do video posts since it became obvious she was never going to dress for the occasion (or, you know, at all), so this is audio. She has a low, velvety voice that tends to sound like she's propositioning you regardless of what she's actually saying; there's birdsong in the background, and the sound of wind moving through trees. She posts around mid-morning.]

Mmmm....

Good morning, babies. Did anyone else have something of an unsettled night? I was positively trembling when I woke up; must have been an unseasonal chill. Still, there's no frost on my petals and we're all fine today, aren't we?

Now, I was hoping to ask a favor. I'm looking for a someone or someones to bring me a book or two from the library. Something from Fiction or History, I'm not fussy; even if you bring something I don't care for, I shan't grow thorns, I promise. [And here, briefly, her voice becomes less playful and more 'I am a semi-deity and I will ruin your shit':] Just be very, very careful as you come into my woods. My children have been here longer than you and have just as much right to live here unharmed.

[More, in her opinion. Aaand normal service resumes.] Mmm. Not that my visitors need to come bearing tribute, mind, but the children are more than capable of taking care of themselves this month and I'm in a literary sort of mood. I'm more than happy to receive guests just to talk, or to sit, or for some....intellectual intercourse.

[It is completely obvious exactly what kind of intercourse she's talking about.]

Ta-ta.

( Open Spam )

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