Ivy's CES Adventure!

[chlorophylliac]

Who: Poison Ivy, Kirk, Black Jack, Rex, Prefect, Hoffman, Ariadne; later Gaheris, Dick, Stildyne, Narvin, Will
When: Tuesday afternoonish
Where: The CES
What: Ivy attempts to conquer the CES.  And fails.  Obvs.
Notes: I'll be rounding up all the relevant threads up here but I won't put up the takedown thread until a little while after her network post

Comments

Hoffman

[chlorophylliac]

She found the next one asleep under a tree and reached out, vines stretching from her wrists to comb across his face. He was vulnerable, and in her low-boiling anger she would have liked to kill him, but he was more useful currency alive. Kirk and Prefect stood behind her, flanking her like bodyguards, obviously dazed.

Re: Hoffman

[expectremorse]

Hoffman was dreaming.

In his dreams, Sarah was with him and she was telling him to let go and that it was all right (but it was rather hard to focus when he had felt so safe with her.) He'd been lost and wandered into the CES to try and calm himself down before sleeping-wrapped in his coat and inhaling fragrant flowers all night had been...the best night's sleep he'd ever had.

He was picturing other good nights that he could have and things he could do when Sarah's fingers reached down again and they were rougher. Another name crossed his mind and he blinked-sleepily.

Then sat up straight. Isn't that...What on earth..

His heart began to beat a little faster. Those are vines. And who was that there?

[chlorophylliac]

Her vines crept around his neck, circling his throat, not squeezing - she'd learnt they had kept most of their tensile strength but lost most of their ability to constrict without a helping hand.

She watched him, expression cold, as he came to.

"Get up."

[expectremorse]

You have me at a distinct disadvantage seems kind of...wrong to say. He remembered talking to David then. The best thing you can do is stay alive. That's all I need to focus on.

A flash of very real anger crept up his neck and he started to climb to his feet, raising a hand to rub sleep from his eyes. He lowered it and raised his other hand, palm out with the vines around his neck.

"...Who.."

[chlorophylliac]

It had been years since anyone had asked her that and meant it. Years since she had had make a name for herself, and it hadn't failed to occur to her that she could have used a new environment to turn over a new leaf.

"Poison Ivy."

The thought had passed very, very quickly.

[expectremorse]

Mark Hoffman knows that name.

"...No way." And all he can manage is a purely fanboy response. Poison Ivy, the scourge of batman and robin-femme fatale and plans..

"...Let me go." Hoffman raised a hand to the vines on his neck, "I'm serious. I'm not a threat. Do it and nobody gets hurt."

[chlorophylliac]

She inclined her head and smiled viciously. "Oh? If you're not a threat, then you're in no position to be handing out ultimatums."

[expectremorse]

Hoffman hesitated then-put on his cop face. His best cop face, a face that he hasn't used in years.

So he looks slightly out of practice. She's beautiful after all. Beautiful and terrible and green and she has vines around his neck.

"...I have friends. Powerful..." He gulps, "Powerful friends."

[chlorophylliac]

Cop-face wasn't the worst thing to present to Ivy as a defensive tactic but it was in the top three. She leaned forward.

"Then they're about to make a powerful enemy."

She pressed into his mind with her pheromones, clouding the air invisibly.

[expectremorse]

On one part of Mark Hoffman's mind-he was furious-a vine wrapped around his neck and choking him.

On another part of his mind, he wished he had listened to Narvin who had told him to go back to his room. Who had given him something useful to do and who had been...kind.

On another part, a small part of him was grinning. Poison Ivy. The femme fatale, the earth mother. Good lord she was pretty.

A stupid grin filled his face slowly. Then he relaxed-visibly in the gloom.

"...That's okay. I doubt any of them could do anything against you."

[chlorophylliac]

She released the vine - it had never been tight enough to choke - and stepped back.

"You're right. Tell me your name."

[expectremorse]

"I'm Mark."

His tone turned dreamy, "Markity Mark Mark Hoffman ma'aaam. and I'm an inmate but before that I was a cop but I was bad."

He sounds contrite and sad, like a child, "...but what about you?"

[chlorophylliac]

"Never mind about me." Thanks to Kirk, she was already mindful that anything she said to them in this daze, they'd remember afterwards. "Follow me. What did you do?"

[expectremorse]

"I killed some people who were criminals mostly." He stumbled before grinning-sheepishly- "...Revenge in some cases and then I guess I went crazy a little bit, but you know...that happens right?"

He rubbed his hands together, following her, "I tortured them. I could torture people for you if you wanted."

He paused, "Has anyone told you that you have the prettiest eyes?"

[chlorophylliac]

"Frequently. Keep an eye out for anyone else."

She crossed the ground in long strides. He couldn't torture people for her. If she ordered him to hurt anyone, it just wouldn't sink in, he'd be deaf to the words. Knowledge gleaned from another Kirk experiment.

Anyway, she could do her own torturing. Not that she had for a long time - 'questioning' Selina didn't count, that was self-defence - but there was an especially black place in her heart for corrupt cops. Hypocrites - abusers of power. Even with her powers as they were, she could hurt him like he'd never been hurt before...tie him in place over a strong sapling, force it to grow from beneath him until his weak traitor's spine bowed and snapped under the pressure, feed his blood to the soil...

It was a darker place than her thoughts had been for a while; she brushed it off. It had been a hard couple of days but her old habits were just that. She'd moved on.

[expectremorse]

"Yes ma'am."

Hoffman followed her-stumbling and smiling stupidly. She really was pretty. Later on he'd be angry about it. Later on once it had all sunk in.

"I know you' You're famous. I'll keep a good eye out. You'll see. I'm observant gorgeous."

He grinned, his scar stretching on his cheek.