InsaneJournal

There was a little mini war raging between hydroponics and the Arboretum. The self-proclaimed 'sith lord' who frequented the latter spent enough time there that she'd become somewhat territorial, which both amused and irritated Ivy. There was room enough for them both, as Ivy was only interested in the further improvement of the plants, including some new hybrids she'd been working on.

If she could make a human/plant baby, why not a plantdog? Today, she was taking a bit of a break, strolling through the trees and thankful Lomea wasn't present. If she had to listen to that woman whine to the willow one more time about Elsa, she'd scream.

Though the willow was quite the gossip. "Nothing new today? That's a relief. Yes, I know. I almost feel something for her. She hides it well."

Isabela was roaming, currently looking for something to distract her. Whether that was in the form of sex, conversation or something else, it didn’t matter. She just needed something to do. Drinking was always an option, but she’d rather be doing something else first. The drinking would come later.

She was walking through the Arboretum, not particularly interested in the plants. Though she couldn’t help but have some fabulous images of her time with Thor run through her head. He certainly had been good with his hammer. She smirked a bit, suddenly feeling an itch to find someone for sex. At least until she heard someone talking. Blinking, she looked and saw a redhead seemingly talking to...no one?

“I’m sorry, were you talking to me?” She asked, wondering if she’d been too absorbed in her memories to have heard the woman properly.

Vines sprang from the tree, curling around Ivy’s arm as she ran her fingers through red hair. She seemed to almost float across the ground towards Isabela. “I was speaking to the tree. You’d be surprised at how much gossip they’re privy to. I know too much about how good a certain god is with his hammer.”

Isabela blinked, watching the woman be moved towards her by vines from the tree. She then shook her head and reminded herself she’d seen a lot of weird things in her life. Maybe nothing quite like this, but still weird. “So you talk to the tree and it talks back?” Was the tree possessed by a demon? Was that even a thing? Though at the mention of Thor’s hammer, Isabela couldn’t help but to smirk. “It’s not my fault he’s good with his hammer. Seems as though the tree knows a lot of things.”

“Yes,” she said simply. In the lighting of the ship, there was almost the faintest green tinge to her skin. “In excrutiating detail. He seems to have latched on to the scientist. I’m sorry for your loss, I hear it’s tremendous.”

Ivy smirked, eyes twinkling. She very consciously did not offer her hand, and kept just enough of a distance to prevent casual contact. It wouldn’t look good to poison someone on board, after all.

Isabela laughed. “Tremendous, yes, but I wasn’t playing for keeps. I never do. I’ll find another hammer eventually. Though perhaps not one who’s a god, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.” She shrugged a bit. Or she’d just stick with women, it tended to depend on who caught her eye on one day.

And she refused to think about Lara too much. Thinking about her too often would be a very dangerous thing, and Isabela wasn’t going there.

“You remind me of my friend, Harley.” Ivy was looking Isabela over appreciatively. “I can’t keep a leash on her, but that’s fine. She always comes back to me, and me to her. Its an arrangement that works. So I’m glad you can find another hammer.”

“Oh really?” Isabela asked, arching an eyebrow curiously. She returned that appreciative look, only now realizing that there seemed to be a green tint to the other woman’s skin. Interesting, but she hardly questioned it. “See, now I tend to think that people would be happier if they had an open arrangement like that. Just come and go as you please. I like you already,” she said with a grin. “I’m Isabela. Captain Isabela, but without my ship the title rings a bit hollow.” She gave a little bow, reminiscent of how she’d initially greeted Hawke when they’d first met.

“Pamela, but most people call me Poison Ivy.” Ivy folded her arms, tiling her head thoughtfully. “I have some fancy titles, but nothing like Captain.”

The green seemed to disappear from her skin as she took control over her poison. Maybe, if she liked someone enough, she’d give them immunity to her (and all) toxins, but she didn’t just hand that out willy nilly. So it was a good idea not to accidentally poison the woman.

“Poison Ivy, huh? I like it. So you have an affinity with plants?” She asked, having noted how Pamela had interacted with the tree. While she’d seen magic that manipulated the earth, she hadn’t quite seen what Pamela had done before. Call her curious.

“Yes. Years ago a man injected me with a syrum. He used me as an experiment, made me partly a plant. But I got the last laugh.” A branch snaked out from another tree and tapped Isabela on the shoulder. “Plants and trees are alive, and I am their steward, and their defender. They feel, just as we do.”

Isabela turned when she was tapped on the shoulder, and she looked at the branch for a moment before looking back at Ivy. “Good for you making the best of it. Sounds like it comes in handy at times.” She wondered if the Dalish would love that sort of ability. It would be a good way to keep people from bothering them, at any rate.

“Oh, it does. For both business and pleasure.” Another vine twirled it’s way around Isabela’s leg as if on cue, and Pamela chuckled as she ordered it to move away. “I wouldn’t want to be anyone else now.”

Isabela shivered a little when the vine wound around her leg. “Well now, aren’t you a tease?” She chirped with a smirk. “Though the uses for pleasure would certainly make tying someone up a bit easier. Never thought that plants could be used in such a way. Now I have to consider it.” How scarlet would Lara turn at the thought of a vine being used in place of silk ties or rope during sex?

“They’re very handy for that,” Ivy assured her. She sat down, one vine conveniently catching her like a seat. Or a throne. Queen of Vines, anyone? She crossed her legs and smiled happily. “Among other things, with the right kind of vine.”

“The possibilities are nearly endless. I’m a bit jealous of your partners if you ever use that on them.” Of course, now that the images were planted in Isabela’s head, they weren’t going to leave. Not that she minded, of course. Sex tended to be on her mind frequently. It was just a matter of finding someone else who was in the mood.

Where did Lomea stand on restraints?

Ivy gave her the kind of smile that probably answered Isabela’s suggestion without actually admitting to anything. “I was not expecting this kind of conversation tonight.”

As for Lomea? She was not restrained. She did the restraining.

“I definitely like you,” she responded when she saw that smile. “Lucky for you I happened along. This sort of conversation is pretty normal and frequent with me.” There may have been a saying that those who talked about sex a lot didn’t actually have much sex. In this case, Isabela definitely had sex as frequently as she talked about it.

Isabela could be on board with being restrained. Though she’d have to put the feelers out on who liked to be tied up.

“You and Harley would get along amazingly,” Ivy decided. While there would always be this teensy part of her that didn’t want to share, it was overruled by knowing exactly who Harley was and the kind of freedom she needed. And Ivy’s own preferences in the matter. “Free spirits.”

“I do enjoy free spirits. No one should be shackled in any way if you ask me.” Isabela didn’t like how mages were confined to the Circle Towers. She didn’t like slavery. She didn’t like oppression in general. “What about you? Are you a free spirit as well?”

“I am.” In more than one way. Ivy reflected on that. Batman had once suggested to her that she find other ways to reach her goals than what she’d been doing. And she had to agree, terrorism had not actually affected any change. She’d ended up here before she’d been able to put much more thought into it. But she doubted Isabela meant anything more than Ivy’s original meaning. “Though a very picky one.”

“Nothing wrong with being picky. We’ve got to have standards, otherwise there’s little difference between us and prostitutes.” She pointed out as she crossed her arms. Isabela had had a discussion about that distinction with Aveline before. Isabela did wear the badge ‘whore’ with pride. Plenty of people tried to insult her with it, but it wasn’t something that insulted or offended her. She owned what she was.

“Less picky with women, then men,” Ivy admitted. Batman? Yes. The original one, that is, not those times when it was obvious one of the Robins had taken the mantle, though the oldest of them had very nearly fooled everyone.

“There’s probably a few big differences.”

“I hear you on that. Women are just better than men.” Isabela commented. She had a preference for women, if she was to choose. But sometimes you just had to be hammered like a bent nail as well.

“A few, yes. Had to explain the differences to someone back home once. She was confused, so I had to explain it to her.” Isabela chuckled. Sometimes she missed Aveline. But she wasn’t going to let Varric get wind of that.

Ivy would happily point out that one didn’t need to be a man to hammer Isabela like a bent nail, and part of her wanted to demonstrate. “Explained it intimately?”

“No, sadly she’s not into women. Though she’s really just absolutely hopeless when it comes to romance.” Isabela recalled the entire thing with Donnic. That made Isabela laugh a bit at the memory. She’d never seen so much flailing in all her life!

“Sounds like some other people I know.” Harley’s obsession with the Joker, and Selina’s with the Bat. “I take it this one was particularly bad?”

“Bad in the sense that she had no idea what she was doing. Apparently she couldn’t just straight up tell the man she liked him, so she was doing all of these strange things to tell him. Like she gave a medallion to our friend that she was supposed to give to the guy. It had copper marigolds on it. The guy didn’t get it, but Aveline thought it was supposed to be obvious.” Isabela chuckled and shook her head. “There was a few rounds of awkward encounters and liaisons like that before our friend intervened and finally got the two to talk and hook up.”

Even Pam, the ultimate plant lady, couldn’t make the leap to copper marigolds. “How did you manage to convince her to stop being such a total disaster?”

“I was the one who first figured out that she had a crush on the guy and pointed it out. From there on, our friend Hawke tried to arrange for Aveline to meet Donnic for drinks, but she was a no show. So finally Hawke arranged something for Aveline and Donnic to talk while on patrol and we cleared the way ahead so Aveline could tell him. He didn’t, I made a sexual innuendo, they both ran away and eventually he seemed to get it that she liked him so they talked it out. Happily ever after. Well, as far as I know, anyway.”

“You’re a very helpful person,” Pamela observed. “I need to introduce you to Harley, I may regret that but I absolutely need to introduce you to her.”

It hadn’t even happened yet, but she regretted it already.

“That’s me, I’m a helper!” Isabela beamed. “I would definitely like to meet Harley. And regret or not, some things just need to happen.” Of course, Isabela thought it would be for the best that she meet Harley, but of course she wasn’t Pamela.

“Harley is a very special woman, who’s very special in the head,” Pamela said, dryly. And yet there was a touch of fondness to her voice as she said so. “She’d find you hilarious.”

“She sounds like quite the woman. And I don’t mind special in the head. Have a friend back home who’s also special in the head.” Merrill was more innocent than anything else, but she also tended to have a more innocent outlook of the world in general. Though she was also a blood mage and Isabela worried for her that it would lead to very bad things for her.

“Then I’ll introduce you.” Pamela nodded, then reclined further in her vine throne - or hammock at this point. She rested her arms behind her head, eyeing Isabela suggestively.

“I look forward to it.” Isabela responded. As Pamela reclined further, Isabela couldn’t help but to run her gaze over her, more than appreciating the sight. “You are quite an attractive woman,” she complimented.

“The most attractive things are often the most deadly,” Ivy said, tone cryptic. “I’m not called Poison Ivy for nothing. But Harley is immune, and I can tone it down with some effort as necessary.”

“Poison, huh? Well, I’ve got an eye for treasures that are worth the trouble. Goes with being a pirate,” Isabela said with a wink. Of course, she was wearing plenty of gold jewelry and ornamentation that spoke to that.

“I can see. It suits you.” Another mark for Harley liking her, though Ivy was less enamoured by shiny things she was still attracted to shiny things. As long as those shiny things didn’t damage plants, or allowed her to pursue her goals of protecting nature. She held up her hand and crooked her finger. “Do you want to gamble?”

Isabela wasn’t one who damaged nature if she could help it. If nature attacked her, she’d fight it, but beyond that? She didn’t go about destroying it needlessly. At the question, she smirked. “I always want to gamble.” Of course, Isabela tended to cheat when she played cards, but she never cheated when it came to sex. That would just be rude. But she’d gamble with poison if it meant a good time was to be had by both of them. She stepped closer to Pamela.

A vine wound around Isabela’s waist, and started to pull her closer. “I hope you like the taste of poison.”

“Coming from you, I’ll bet it tastes sweet, and I’ll love that,” she practically purred, letting herself be pulled closer and more than happy to tempt fate.
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