ximilia | video; un: toxicodendron

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video; un: toxicodendron

[The woman who appears on the video feed is new, and notable for a couple of reasons. First and most obvious, she is fairly notably green. Not just a little green, either. Her skin, eyes, even her lips are clearly and distinctly chlorophyll green. The second, and somewhat less remarkable, is her expression which falls somewhere between irked and uneasy.

If you guessed she's not much of a public speaker, you'd be right. A fact which becomes abundantly clear when she addresses her audience.

Don't you feel smart.]

Hello. Hi. I know there's a bunch of us who just showed up and started filling up your network with, I don't know, I'd call them introductions but I'm not really sure what some of these assholes are doing. Anyway, I'll try to keep this short and no more awkward than necessary.

[Her tone is dry, and the words clearly enunciated and a little louder than natural. As though she's worried the people watching will have a hard time following and she doesn't want to repeat herself.]

I am Dr. Pamela Isley, a.k.a Poison Ivy. You can call me Ivy. I'm not here to stand on formality or wave around my degrees.

[Time to find out if anyone has heard of her. There's no way they'll be lucky enough that no one has heard of her, right?

Deep breath, and:]

I bring it up because I'm a botanist and a biochemist. Trying not to step on any toes here, but I'd like to find out a few things.

One—who can I talk to about using the lab? Are we like assigned space, or is it a free-for-all in there? I don't want to touch anyone's ongoing projects, because I know how I'd feel if someone started poking through mine without checking with me first.

Two—similar question, this time substitute "hydroponic garden" for "lab." You might have noticed... plant theme. Botanist. Like, my thumbs are literally green. It's sort of my brand. If I could get in on that, it would be aces.

[She is trying very, very hard to play nice where the garden is concerned. Ivy is smart enough to know she's not going to get very far making enemies on her first day. So sort of the opposite of prison. Or boarding school.]

And speaking of plants, three—if anyone has any seeds or any cuttings or starts I could persuade them to part with, then I would owe you a favor.

[Each of those last words is drawn out deliberately, her voice growing quieter as she hesitates between words. When she follows up, it's light in contrast:]

I would kill for a spider fern for my room.

[She's joking, but like, is she joking?]

And that about covers it. Just, reach out to me here with any answers. Thaaaanks.

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Short on seedlings or any answers about labs and the like, but I do have access to tea and tea is a plant. Can I offer you a cup?

[ He's like a cat. The more you narrow your eyes and look away, the more he takes it as a sign that you want his presence in your life. ]

Oh. It's you again.

[He does seem to have that cat aptitude.]

Not the kind of plant I was looking for this time.

What kind of tea?

It's a pleasure to connect again! [ Oh, he knows what she meant with those words, but his smile is in his tone and he just doubles down on the good mood. Much the way he had the first time they met. ]

I've unearthed something that promises to be close to a pu-erh when steeped. I was going to give it a try and see if the packaging could be trusted. Come and help?

Huh.

We could have used you on the last mission.

[Viveca and Degar have shit timing. Or the orbs do.]

If no one else can help, you could probably talk to the people in charge about getting a spider fern. Apparently they’re pretty accommodating.

That's a Hell of an introduction, Ivy.

( oh he likes her. )

I'm Dr. McCoy, I can help you with all of the above, if you'd like to meet me in the lab.

I've got a few bonsai on the station you can take care of. They're varied.

[nb4 she asks 'what kind']

We just got back from a planet with a whole ecosystem of flora that had mushroom people, too. Sorry you missed it. But I brought back some plants from that world and I just want to point out they're pretty delicate so if you come across the little garden in one medium sized pot in the sunlight room... please be careful. And don't try to replant them, they're not going to get any bigger.

[Goddamn it, that does sound like something she'd like.]

That's a lot to promise. Not going to get my hopes up over advertising, though.

[Oh, she's grumbly about this.]

You better not be bullshitting me, kid. If I show up and you're serving me some Lipton stems, I'm going to take it personally.

Speaking of that—

[She didn't want to make her introduction even longer and more needy than it already was.

How cliche. Villain monologues and makes demands.]

I've heard there were people out there taking samples of alien plants. If I'm late, I can't do much about that but if anyone has samples or notes, maybe I could still learn something.

Doctor.

[That sounds promising. Maybe a little too good to be true, but who the hell is she to get mad when someone is this responsive.

It's a pretty new experience.]

I can be there... basically now. Do you mind if I ask your field?

I know there are some in the sunlight room. There might be others around, too.

Have I yet to fail delivery on a promise? [ Has he actually promised anything? Eh, just ignore that fact. ]

How about I brew up a pot and bring it to the sunlight room? I've been meaning to visit there myself, just haven't had a moment yet.

I can work with bonsai.

[Maybe not exactly what she'd have chosen for herself. She tends to favor enormous plants to small ones, manicured ones. But who better to baby a tree, and considering the space constraints, it might not be the worst compromise.]

I know better than to replant them. They would be an excellent source of samples though.

If you want that spider fern, too, I'd ask Viv-chan. She's pretty cool about getting us things to make us feel comfortable here.

[His favorite AI-chan. Viveca was such a charm. He knows it's already been brought up already elsewhere in a reply, but he can't help but reiterate it for emphasis.]

Yeah. I had a few more but the Hivawei needed them more than I did. It was only right to give them some of their world to take with them...

But if you want, I can show them to you and talk about what I noticed about them on their home world.

Hiding a few real plants in with the fake ones?

[Is she huffy about that? More than a little. It does make sense the plants would need a broad spectrum of naturalistic light. Just like the crew.]

Better than nothing. Can't expect you to have a whole ecosystem smuggled onboard.

[She sounds like she'd like him better if he did, though.]

Hello, Doctor Isley. It's very lovely to have a botanist on board — I'm a hobbyist in that venue as well.

I do have a selection of cuttings and seeds if you wish — I take duplicates of everything, and I am happy to share should they prove useable for you. No spider ferns, unfortunately.

It does sound like there's some bonsai trees in there I should check on.

[Slowly. This isn't because he made a good first impression. She'd hate to give Lockwood the wrong idea.]

If you're there, we'll probably run into each other anyway.

[ No worries here, Ivy. He's well aware of the impression he can leave on people. He might like to live in the land of wrong ideas, but he's surprisingly grounded in reality.

He's not looking for them to be bestest buddies. They need to be able to work together, and he recognizes that working with people may not come as easily for her than working with nature. He can't turn himself into a plant, but perhaps by exposing her to lots of little doses of his company, he might grown on her. Like moss. ]

Sounds splendid. I hear there is a stream in that room. Think that would be the perfect spot to sit and have a cup. I'll bring a tray.

[ There. A peace offering. If she genuinely wants to avoid him, she can still come to the sunlight room and just avoid the brook. Otherwise, now she knows where to find him. ]

[There's a lot not to like there, and she feels viscerally what Chishiya said about how she would have been useful on the last mission. Carrying plants from their own world to an entirely new, potentially incompatible one has a lot of potential to go badly.

What if something they're bringing turns out to be their version of kudzu?

On the other hand, she can't exactly blame anyone for saving plants that would have gone extinct otherwise.]

I—I would like to hear more about that.

[Look at her, not leaping to conclusions.]

Especially any information they gave you about the needs of the specimens. If they're the last of their kind, I'll need to know everything I can.

Now that is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to hear. Were you on the last mission? I've heard I missed a lot of very interesting samples.

[Beggars can't be choosers. Right now, an amateur botanist sounds like Ivy's new friend. Figuratively. She doesn't have that many friends.

But it is getting on her good side.]

Spider fern is just an example. I do like a good fern, but I'm not that picky.

I wouldn’t know how to do that. I’m not a botanist.

[That is not an area of science he knows a lot about. He was faking it hardcore on the mushroom planet. He also wasn’t one of the ones who brought back samples. He just knows Zhao put some in a pot in the sunlight room.]

[She doesn't respond again via the network. Was she supposed to? Should she have signed off to let him know she got the message? If it were a text message she would have sent a little 👍 to show she got the message without just leaving him on read.

A little later, though, she does show up in the sunlight room, and she does happen to wander that way.

There's no reason to waste tea.

Assuming it's any good.]

Are those cookies?

[Other important questions.]

[Yeah, that's why she can't expect it. She stops on saying that though, because it reminds her she probably ought to ask something else—]

Just who are you, anyway?

[ He hadn't held any specific expectation, and luckily for her he comes from a world that has never known cell phones so he has no understanding of 'left on read' culture.

His long tailed coat is spread out under him, lanky limbs artfully arranged so that he manages to look casual and unconcerned, rather than watchful. Though he hadn't held any specific expectation, he still smiles broadly when she appears, quickly and gracefully bounding to his feet to be polite. ]

Hello! Cookies? [ Give him a minute to translate that word into 'biscuits' and the smile beams brightly. ] Oh yes! I found a package in the pantry and thought they looked a good compliment to the tea.

[ Plus it meant he didn't cook anything, which was a win for both of them.

Stepping aside, he motioned towards his coat, folded on the ground. ] Please, have a seat.

[ Yes, yes. He understands she might be offended by the offer and tell him to shove it, but that will be her choices. For him, manners must. ]

[ the voice that comes filtering in after ivy's broadcast sounds young, yet somehow unabashed. ]

Wait — we're supposed to share the lab?

Welcome aboard. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of research would you be doing on any donated plant samples?

[ He does have a small collection of Ciraiwei seeds sitting in lab storage, but given they're now the last of their kind, he'd at least like to know how this person intends to use them before deciding to fork them over. ]

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video; un: toxicodendron

audio: Lockwood

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Audio; un: 苣屋

audio; un: mccoy

audio; un: mafioso

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audio; un: toxicodendron

voice; un: toxicodendron

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voice; un: toxicodendron

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voice ↪ un: unohana

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voice; un: toxicodendron

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voice | un: iris

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