8973/There's Ivy On My Mind

There's Ivy On My Mind
Date of Scene:	06 December 2021
Location:	The Broken Spine
Synopsis:	A misunderstanding! It's books, and shoppers, and ...I can't really explain. But if Cass tackles someone they're evil, right?
Cast of Characters:	Pamela Isley, Cassandra Cain

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Pamela Isley has posed:
    Poison Ivy has been keeping a low profile lately. Almost too low, really. She hasn't been seen around the Biodome, she hasn't even been putting on any brazen displays of displeasure with the various corporations dumping chemicals at the docks. The last mention of her was a random social media post from NYC about her and Harley Quinn running across some ninjas, with only one fatality! (It was the ninjas, they killed a mobster).
    Now Pamela's in classic 'Even more obvious than just showing up wearing vines and leaves' undercover, a long tan overcoat buttoned from throat to thighs, a wide brimmed hat, and some dark sunglasses covering most of her face. And she's browsing books that can't possibly be good! Space travel? Hydroponics? Biochemistry? Clearly, she is up to something. It's the only possible explanation.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
If it were any other Bat that was trailing Pamela, they might be worried about the content of what she's perusing. There are some things that this Bat does well, but reading isn't on that list. She's outside the window looking in, and watching. If there was anything more boring than -reading-, Cass hasn't heard of it.

"Go. Track." One of the others gave her that order. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN. Not...this. Ugh. I mean, who reads?

She isn't saying any of these things, but the asian girl plastered to the window is fairly visible. It takes her a minute, then another minute, then ten minutes to offset her natural dislike of these book-places to actually sigh, then look at the entryway. Her hangdog expression as she decides she'll have to actually go in is sadness incarnate.

So, she heads toward actually being in a bookstore, the door sliding open with horrible cheery bell-jingling. Bleh.

Pamela Isley has posed:
Pamela's got to be torturing Cass, no matter how inadvertantly, as she walks towards the cash register only to turn and admire some little bricabrac, back towards checking out... only to stop at the clearance book table. The little fancy chocolate display. Finally, after what feels like days but is really only about 10 minutes (Because of the customer ahead of her arguing about the price of a book), Pamela checks out just as Cassandra gives into the necessity of entering a book store.

    But it seems to pay off, once her purchases are carefully placed inside her bag, Pamela's off, but not out the front door. The plant-controlling ecoterrorist glances around and makes her way towards the back of the store and out a side exit, even as she's rummaging in the pocket of her coat, pulling out some sort of bulky device, too heavy to be a smart phone, but not distinctive enough to tell what it is at a glance.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra Cain is, in essence, the best body reading expert ever to be born on this planet. She can tell whether Pamela intends to do something dark, or something less violent, by her very posture. She can tell things at a glance that real mindreaders would be astounded at. There's only one problem. This is a bookstore and she's busy hating her own life.

A person passes by prattling on about how Julia Childe was an unsung master of the arts, or something about wolves. The group of parishioners berating something about something else gets in her way, and she only catches a glimpse of Pamela with her hand in her pocket. Something...no, that's not right. Not a phone. Then fifty thousand idiots with books are in the way and she nearly punches them all in their collective throats!

It may have only been two or three, but right now Cass is in no mood. She ducks back out the way she came in, running around the building! It's so much faster without...oh god, someone was using incense. This neighborhood is horrid! So much faster when she can just run.

She whips around the building, but...where? She looks left, right, up? Oh no.

Pamela Isley has posed:
Pamela's not really giving off 'I'm doing something fiendishly evil that I'm overjoyed about' vibes. But she's broadcasting 'I am deeply uncomfortable and shifty and trying not to draw attention and am up to _something_ shady AF' vibes.

And they just get more and more blatant as she slips out the back of the building. She's fiddling with that mystery device in the middle of the alley, shoulders hunched up with tension, fingers tapping, swiping, her voice barely heard, "Oh come the fu... why's it need so many options and... preferences? Wallpaper? Goddamnit!!"

Which means Ivy's totally unprepared when she turns around in frustration and her mouth falls open at the figure in the alleyway entrance. Oh, sure, she's nowhere near as good at reading body language as her huntress is! But it's not difficult to put two and two together, "Hey, I'm... just... trying to-"

And then she's cut off as Cass leaps into action!

Cassandra Cain has posed:
DYNAMIC ENTRY! Cass leaps forward, all darkness and menace. She grapples with Pamela, knowing too little and making too many assumptions. The fact that it's a job mixed with her own unease, added into the mix Pamela's own shifty-ness, she's not taking any chances. So it becomes time for the two to battle!

She leaps at Pamela, aiming to take her down with body weight and inertia. She uses her shoulders, elbows, but not her hands. Her hands jab at important places, trying to disable, disarm. She's trying to get Pam's hands off whatever evil devices this is! She reaches, trying for Pam's own grip. And she comes away with...

Pamela Isley has posed:
Well, Pam can't say she wasn't expecting it. Harley's got crazy and chemicals and all sorts of... well, okay, mostly just the crazy and usually a bat or something for close combat. Pamela's got a whole lotta nothing! Especially when she's not actually trying to fight. Well, not trying to fight Cass. She might throw down with this stupid communicator if it survives.

She yells out an entirely undignified noise, as there's an intense rustling sound, vines erupting from weeds in the cracked sidewalk, rushing forward with intent! But the intent is merely to break the fall of her and her assailant, allowing them to thud into a pile of gently writhing plant matter, "Ahh! Truce! Time out! Hey! I'm not... it's just... a thing!"

She gives up the device, it's like a bulkier smart phone, with the Brotherhood of Mutants symbol on it. "I'm just trying to like... get a ride! Jeeeeesus!"

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra doesn't wear a mask. This makes it easy to see her face as she looks at the ...thingie. She has this confounded expression on her face as she looks at it, puzzling, as the two land on the soft-er-than-expected ground.

She glances up at Pamela, her shoulders tense and worried, and reads what the woman is saying from her movements. She tenses, she tilts her head. She slumps, letting her head bang off the concrete behind her. Or it should have been concrete. The sudden and minor raise of her left eyebrow suggests that she's not entirely sure about this detail, but moves on to more important things.

Laying there, she gets off of Pamela. Then sits crosslegged, holding out the communicator with one hand. It looks like she's no longer in assault mode, which is likely an improvement.

She also looks like she's really, really angry. But it's directed down, at the ground between her knees.

Pamela Isley has posed:
Pam reaches out to take the communicator and frowns at it... she's got her own anger, focused more at the communicator than Cass. She just stays kneeled on the vines, as they relax and sway, and generally just act as supportive cushioning. "...You're like, tech savvy right? All you bat vigilantes are!" She swipes the communicator, enters her little pattern swipey passcode thing and frowns, "I bet _you_ would've known how to call down one of the teleporters and not get tackled..."

She flashes a crooked little grin, even tosses a wink, "Pretty good tackle though. Sorry I wasn't doing anything _super shifty_, I'm... trying something new. But hey! Who knows, maybe another mob group will torch the biodome and I'll go on a bloody trail of revenge. You want me to like, light a giant signal in the sky if I do so you can join in hunting me down?"

It's probably a joke. Pam's probably joking. At least about the signal. 'cause if anyone burns the biodome down again she's straight up going on a murder spree.%

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Lacking a full grasp of English, Cass gets that Pam isn't upset at her. Much. She doesn't totally get whatever's being offered, what with Pam making word-noises again, but it's apparently something about the com device. until it isn't.

She leans over, looking a the thing, and spots a few fairly recognizeable symbols. How she uses most tech: pattern recognition. So when she doesn't answer the idea bout the biodome, or the fire signal, or whatever? It's because she didn't really get it in the first place.

She actually looks calmer now, as if the overall tone is no longer super-threatening. Her dark eyes glance up to Pamela's face, then study her a moment. It's almost as if she's learning the woman's features, taking her in deeply. It's a moment of pure study, watching Pamela speak, and move.

Then she points to the communicator, and reaches for a button.

Pamela Isley has posed:
Pam reaches out gently to stop that reaching, bracing herself and mumbling out, "Well, I hope this works..." And taps the button!

And in an instant, there's the sound of teleportation power! A mutant appears, presumably via that teleportation, places a hand on Pam, and she and her bag of books. And possibly Cassandra?

Well, it's not like Pamela meant to be kidnapping a member of the Batfamily, and if Cassandra _does_ get whisked along, at least she can be brought back! It probably won't cause any horrible misunderstandings. It'll be fine! It's Monday, how dramatic can anything be on a Monday?