Statute of Thorns [Ivy] [Flashback]

[Deleted]

Around 7 o’clock when the guards came in to check out Harvey’s cell. Each day, Harvey would imagine killing them and storming off. But each day that dream seemed more and more like a fantasy and less and less like a reality; a futile reality at best. Ray and Maude were the guards for the A block that Harvey was staying in. Harvey had moved around a few times in the last six years. From solitary confinement to Block AV then to Level C then back down to solitary every now and then. He didn’t get along with the inmates very often. He’d often break bones during recreational activities. He didn’t talk to anyone for the last two years, socializing for fun meant nothing to Dent. He had been diagnosed with Schizoid personality disorder. This meant above all things, that he was devoid of actual attempting, keeping, or starting a relationship of any significant purpose. Women were for sex after dinner, Men for protection or termination.

Maude, a woman in her early thirties came around. She was pretty redhead, rare and likely good at sex, a seductive villain of some sort. But she dubbed her looks down to a degree that made her intimidating but not entertaining. Ray on the other hand was an older gentleman, lanky but where he lacked in muscle he made up for in flexibility and quick thinking. Neither could actually stop Harvey, that is if they didn’t have their stun guns. Arkham had authorized the use of stun guns on inmates, regardless of special circumstances or legal consequences. Arkham was free from any prosecution.

Harvey had been transferred to a new cell, still his demands were not met. No sofa and no cigars. He’d like to spend the remaining decades of his life smoking and cursing about the rattlers who ran Gotham’s criminal world into the ground. Almost as bad as the TSA: designed to achieve protection and domination, but really accounting for higher death tolls and political corruption.

“Six years and no goddamn cigars… shit hole we live in…” said Two face in a trailed off voice. He was aware that right across from him was a woman best described as an amalgamation of distortion and hate: pretty, bitchy, mocking, confident, obsessive, violent, and lacked a serious brand of comedy worth hearing and practicing. The woman was obsessed with plants, she called them her “babies”. What a relationship that went down the crapper after she tried to kill him. This was when he was District Attorney Harvey Dent and she was Botanist Pamela Isley. He’d love to bottle her up and bury her in the ground, set her on fire, and drown her. She’d continue to be a thorn in his side, often coming up whenever he went to sleep or whenever he kissed a girl. A reminder of the past and the power of deception.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Lounging on the bed in her cell, Poison Ivy isn't paying very much attention to the goings-on outside of it. She doesn't have to. After all, she's practically living in the lap of luxury in her cell. Though she certainly has a temper, she can keep it in check if she has to and she's been spending the months she's been incarcerated taking full advantage of that. Good patients are allowed to have good things, so she's naturally done everything she can to make sure that she is viewed as a good patient by the system in place. Which is a far cry from actually being a good patient - she's simply made sure that someone else gets the blame for anything she does.

And even beyond the fact that she's achieved full privileges and therefore can have anything outside a short list of forbidden things, is that she's actually able to obtain the things that she's allowed to have - much of it courtesy of her good friend Selina Kyle. Her vast store of cosmetics and other beauty products, for example, and the privacy curtain around her cell's bathroom. And the extra pillowtop padding on her bed, the extra comforter that's actually thick enough to thwart the often over-zealous air conditioner, and the small collection of entertaining electronic gadgets.

Including the tablet she's using now to browse an electronic magazine. It wouldn't do for her to get behind on all the latest gossip and fashion trends just because she's been unfairly locked up in here, after all. Quite calm and content at the moment, when she hears the words of the patient across the way, she looks up from the tablet long enough to smirk and say, "Speak for yourself, Harvey." The sheer contrast in the amount of comforts in their respective cells is quite significant, after all. He only has himself to blame if he's been here for as long as he has and yet hasn't figured out how to work within the system. But then, he's a man, and a particularly contemptible one at that - he probably can't help but be a violent brute.

[Deleted]

The voice of his dreams and nightmares spoke, crisp and raspy. This was the mermaid in the moonlight, hanging with the boys while the girls swim back. Goth makeup and lips that killed every time you liked at them. She was electricity to every man’s manhood. Harvey’s was no different at that time, but he was controlled. Their sex life was a different matter, rough and rancorous. She couldn’t be tired out and that skin… luminous and sparkly in the darkest night. Those eyes like cats but greener. All redheads had that charm, the one’s marked to stand out. Hot tempers that stay with them wherever they go.

“Pam, what a pleasure to hear your voice.” said Harvey in a mournful way. She had attempted to kill him on multiple occasions. She always had her plants though. Even when they were close to moving in together or if they were at Harvey’s place. She beautified everything, natural water, no heavy use of electronics. She had someone renovate the windows and ceilings. Even in bed, she would mention something about an agribusiness and how Harvey could target them as District Attorney. She hated them all, and in those vulnerable moments he hated them too. That hate fueled the drive, the hunt, and the catch so to speak. But god was the woman annoying after a while. She left him as soon a few weeks before his court case with Falcone. Even then she was supported, even though it had nothing to do with plants. Strange but in hindsight she was losing interest; maybe she had lost some. The coin flipped in the dark, tails. She had lost interest.

“Pam. Fancy seeing you here. But I’d be lying if I said that you’re lucky these bars and a few feet separate us.” Harvey’s muscles tightened. She had pissed him off and his rage and his power to destroy often had her on his hit list. She was second only to the Bat. Hell Hath no Fury like a eco-terrorist plant whore scorned. But clearly whoever said that had never meet Pamela Isely.

Dressed in the tan usual prison clothes, his hair dirty from the dirt and rust from the cell. He was laying on his bed, feet on his pillow.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Somewhere deeply hidden inside of herself, Poison Ivy cringes at the name he calls her. While politeness would dictate that one should allow ones long-time acquaintances to call you by the name they knew you as before, she hasn't been Pamela Isley for what seems like ages to her, even if it's only been a few short years. And she'd been but a seedling back then - full of potential but small and unsubstantial. She's grown so much since then that she hates being reminded of what she was, and she never did like her name to be shortened even then, but of course she won't let Harvey know that. Not when she's unable to back up her objections with immediate retaliation, anyway.

Instead she continues to smile as she simply says, "I wish that I could say the same, but you've never managed to give me pleasure of any kind." Having said that, she turns her attention back to her tablet as if she intends to ignore him - though of course that's not true. Because her statement certainly isn't true: Harvey does give her pleasure - just not in any way he'd want to be doing so.

It had been a very different time in her life when they'd been together. Though she had come to realize that she would never be satisfied with her own efforts to use legal means to accomplish what she wanted, she'd still been naive enough to believe that perhaps she could obtain her goals while remaining (mostly) on the right side of the law by using her ability to manipulate others who were in a better position to do what she wanted done. And so began her involvement with one Harvey Dent. Which involved absolutely no real feelings for the man at any point, though she'd certainly managed to fool him into thinking otherwise!

Though she's sure that he saw her true colors by the end - one generally doesn't try to kill someone that one cares for, after all. He's lucky that had also been during the time before she'd learned to kill with such finesse - he certainly wouldn't have survived if she'd had her present skill, she's quite certain. Why she's never tried to finish the job is simple: she no longer wishes to see him dead. Not because she'd begun to feel in any way positive about him - he simply doesn't matter that to her very much anymore. After she realized that even with him wrapped around her little finger she couldn't get what she wanted and would have to explore her less-than-legal options, he went from being a tool to a waste of space. Especially after he went from being a powerful District Attorney to a half-crazed lunatic - that may have made him substantially more dangerous, but it also made him one of many criminals in the city that she could turn to if she ever actually found herself in the unlikely position of needing anything from someone else. He is now redundant.

And yet still so amusing! Back when they'd been together he'd amused her to no end at how easily he'd fallen to her wiles, though of course she'd kept that hidden from him. But ever since he learned how she really feels about him there's no point in pretending - tormenting the man further is simply too much fun at this point. Especially since she's arrogant enough to believe that she'll forever be able to gain the upper hand on him, which means that she has absolutely no reason to fear upsetting him too much.

So when he comments on what keeps them separated, she bursts out laughing and turns to look at him again as she comments, "Sorry, I shouldn't laugh - I apologize! After all, you've been languishing in here for so long that of course you'd have no idea how much has changed - how much I've grown. Those bars offer me no more protection from you than I already have, and offer you no protection at all. Fortunately for you, I have no reason to kill you - as evidenced by the fact that you're still alive." Having said that, she casts a smile across the distance separating them - one that he's all too familiar with. It's one that would suggest that she has a feeling of more than a little warmth and fondness for the receiver, if you don't already know that she feels no such thing and is in fact probably laughing at them in her head instead.

[Deleted]

An eye roll attacks Dent’s face. Choreographed and effective. Pompous, deceitful, spiteful being. There is no trick no prophecy that tells of a future where Pamela Isley is a charitable woman who enjoys people. That wasn’t her and in retrospect, Harvey liked that about her. She didn’t give anything to anyone. Her mere presence was enough for others. She liked that but - she didn’t like them. She liked wearing expensive gowns and jewelry but that was a hobby. Her real passions were the weeds in the gardens across Gotham.

Her power derived from her obsession with cleansing the weak and all humans in favor of plants. She enjoyed being the protector or activist turned criminal. She was easily insane, much more so than Dent. But she was not as dangerous as he was. He hadn’t attempted to kill her in this six years. But if these bars were gone, she would be a mangled carcass, hair torn out of her head and legs gutted into with a knife. That was the movie that Harvey played in his mind again and again when he was upset.

But he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction that she so had believed gained. Apparently she was comfortable. Coin flip tails. Yes, she was comfortable. But she didn’t plan on being here, she was a woman (one of those creatures that attempts to climb the social latter in order to get to the top, using whatever tools are necessary).

Her hubris blinds her just as his did, but he wouldn’t admit that to himself. He shifted his weight, a last sun ray hitting his beautiful Harvey side, illuminating the old flame and shifting the passion of hate into nostalgia. But he was not a tomb nor a vigil to be remembered. That ray provided a moment of what he was thinking. He was not the same person either. He was no longer weighed down by his multiple ideals and his naiveté. No, he was strong, stronger than any criminal and vigilante in gotham. His physicality said so, and his mind echoed another volley.


Her giggling is counterpointed with silence. Not a short, controlled silence. But a long chaotic one. He cracked his knuckles, she would likely interpret this as her winning. He flipped the coin: Heads. No this was his time, a time to resume the power that be - the one true, righteous man who is better than all. Her little snickering on keeping him alive does indeed make him smile, only after a five minute long silence precisely ending it when he says, “Fate has kept me alive. Just as you have been kept alive. You’re going to be important in this lifetime, a pawn in someones game.” Harvey’s voice is raspy now, so different from his tenor usual. He flips the coin: tails, continuing, “Or you’ll be the plant eviscerated at the burning stake, destined for darkness, drowned in your own panties gasping for life, screaming for the plants that have ultimately sown your mouth shut with the lies you’ve put into the ground.” He shifted his eyes away. Continuing to read The Once and Future King.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

If Harvey believes that killing her would be as simple as getting his hands on her and crushing her with his brute strength, he's horribly underestimating her. True, she's not immune to physical trauma, though she does have a few ideas about how to make herself less vulnerable in that regard as soon as she escapes, but she's also quite inventive - both in the sense that she can create new things that help her, but also in the sense that she can think on her feet and would probably manage to find a way to reward him properly for any injury he may attempt to cause her. At the very least, she'd find a way to take him down with her. In fact, he's probably stupid enough to get himself killed in the process of attempting to kill her even if she did nothing.

What he probably fails to realize, even as he attempts to avoid doing so, is just how difficult it is to avoid encouraging Poison Ivy when its her goal to upset someone. Like the roots of a tree following the slightest hint of moisture to its source, she seeks the sweet taste of victory. Which she does assume she's achieved when he goes for so long without attempting to speak again - though it's not a very satisfying one. Far too easy! Did the man she once knew so well lose half his balls to that acid in addition to half of his once-attractive face?

When he speaks up again, and upon the same subject, there's a grin on her face as she lifts her gaze from her magazine. "Oh, no! He called me a pawn! I am so offended!" she states rather dryly, not bothering to add any sarcasm to her voice when it's so readily apparent in the words alone. Having said that, her knowing smirk renews itself as she simply adds, "I love you too, Harvey." If anything, the detailed threats to her life mainly serve to amuse her further.

[Deleted]

Harvey snaps back, not an angry snap but one of enjoyment, like her he is willing to go to the ends of the ends of Earth to defeat any opponent that fate has decided to kill. She is someone who should have been baked and stewed up into little tiny pieces. Whose plants should have been pulled from the ground, whose weeds and experiments burned with gasoline and cheap candles. Harvey does believe killing her would be simple. In order to kill someone you must destroy everything they hold dear.

The only thing Pam cares about is her plants. Without them she is just another political activist with a body perfect for prostitution and a mouth better suited for day-time soap operas. “You’re far fatter than you were when we dated, I guess Arkham hasn’t taken in your artichoke recipes and plant extravaganzas. For a woman who preaches her skinny ass and curves, you’ve become a spitting image of a cow. A depressed, insane gigantic cow who frequently eats their own shit that comes out of it’s mouth. “ Harvey was particularly proud of that one. This was a game of who can outdo the others. She would attempt to piss him off and he would counter with something stronger. This was their relationship and it made him laugh. Her smirks and her hubris were part of this game. Imagining her dead isn’t satisfying, the process of getting her there is…completely satisfying.

“For a redhead you surely are a bimbo blonde girl. Not willing to think and not willing to clean or do anything useful. Even when we dated you preferred shopping or going out with your friends. Maybe it was your chlorophyll instincts that made you such a buzzkill, such a dimwit with small breasts.” said Harvey in a loud and planned manner. If you were going to kill the plant, you had to burn it bit by bit.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

As eloquent as he believes that he's being, Poison Ivy doesn't seem to be particularly bothered as he proceeds to insult her figure. And there's a simple reason for that. "Oh, I look as stunning as ever and you know it," she replies with complete confidence. Because, well, look at her - even in the asylum's hideous patient uniform she's the epitome of ideal feminine beauty. Not that stick thin, size zero sort of beauty that you see going down the runway - that's just a modern fad anyway - but the classic curves of wide hips, slender waist, and generous breasts that draw men in on an instinctive level.

She may have an ego to rival the likes of even Eddie, but unlike him she's completely self-assured about it. When she was growing up she never had anyone telling her how smart and pretty she is, so she told herself. And now that she's grown anyone who doesn't agree with her is either an idiot or a lying, manipulative bastard - and either way they're not worth any of her energy giving a damn about what they think.

"And isn't it halfway hypocritical of you to speak of how I've changed since we broke up? You're only half the man you used to be. And while you've spent years laying dormant in this place, I've been living the good life on the outside. Which I'll return to soon - these walls can't hold me. Unlike you..." she remarks, her expression shifting into a mocking smirk at the end. And she's not exaggerating either - she'd had a good plan in place to escape from the asylum within days of her arrival. The only reason why she remains here now is because she has other reasons to want to stay in the asylum for the time being.

[Deleted]

The barrage of comments reminded him of their old relationship. This vs that, grabbing the knife as she grabbed a pot. Then these cooled out. She wasn’t someone who was willing to give in to compromise. She wanted everything, old Harvey didn’t have the balls at the time to see her for who she really as. The coin flipped in the air illuminated the light as it came down on Heads. He imagined the guards taking her out of her prison cell, her not screaming but docile in her manner of pleasing.

She walked out only to be hit with a club as the guards hit her again and again. She didn’t scream but she held her breathe, waiting for them to get tired of her. She believe she was invincible - not to the point but just enough so that she could outlast her opponent. This was Two-face, he had twice the odds that she did, he would outlast her, he would outblast her, and he would outdo her.

He eloquently smiles and remembers the esoteric nature of their past relationship - if it can even be called that. “What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get out.” It wasn’t a matter of it, it was a matter of when, especially in Dent’s case. He would get out of her and make her rue the day she ever talked to him, let alone seduce and manipulate him. The gods of luck and chance would do so to her. They would make him carry out their wishes of destruction and judgment. Her plants didn’t even care about her, he would pity her… if he had pity. But instead he has his rage, his powerful rage dormant now as to not let her win.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

At his question, Poison Ivy's mind naturally flickers to exactly what she's planning on doing - stealing her car back from the police impound lot. Well, maybe that won't be the first thing since she'll want to make sure that her old hideout is secure and a safe place to take it, but though her car isn't really her highest priority in the world she does love it. And the time between her escape and when it's discovered and when someone thinks to keep a better eye on her car in case she comes looking for it is limited. She'll most certainly want to steal it before anyone realizes that she might - easier that way.

But of course she's not going to say that here. Partly because Harvey doesn't need to know the real answer to her question, and partly because the gossip is that this whole place is rigged with eavesdropping devices - she's not going to be mentioning that she wants her car to anyone because if she does then they'll be prepared for her when she comes to take it, and she can't have that. In fact, since she's not going to be telling him the truth, instead she picks to answer it with a goal in mind besides honesty: giving him the one that will be to her best benefit personally. "I'm going to kill Batman," she says matter-of-factly, guessing that he'll believe that she's incapable of that and laugh. Which may likely be the truth, she must admit, but she does intend to become capable of it soon.

But that's hardly her highest priority - she feels no compulsion to go after the man like some rogues, but it surely would be a convenience if he were out of the picture. Her highest priorities are much grander - she has a planet to save and restore from the blight of humanity. Compared to that task the defeat of the dark knight is nothing, yet she refuses to believe that she's unequal to it.

[Deleted]

Kill or be killed. Those were the only rules that this city abided by. No matter who was elected, who escaped from Arkham, or what new villain revealed himself… they would all play by it. Life was reductive. So when Pamela says she plans to kill Batman he doesn’t react – at least not externally. She’s not alone in that plight and she won’t be the last. Batman had made enemies out of all the “rogues”. He had been a thorn in both of their sides, but he Dent (with an ambivalent stance, now getting on the ground deciding it was time for a work out…)… He was interested in making his mark. That is the pinnacle of human existence, to mark one’s mark and die.

Millions of people scrambled to do this, ninety percent of those people would die without leaving their marks. As soon as he reached thirty pushups and took one hand away and continued. In fact, he was in better shape now then when Two-face entered. He had trained himself to the best of his ability to allow his physical body to be reshaped, scarred, torn, and then reshaped again. He finished at ninety, then switches arms and continues till one hundred thirty. He sticks his tongue on the ground (in the dark so to speak).

The floor was damp and cold but with an nice fragrance. No doubt either Pamela’s pheromones or some new cleaning solution, either way he grumbled and hocked a logy. He flips his coin as the sweat drips from his brown-red hair down, “Fate wishes you luck, Pam”. He laughs and stares at her, the moonlight showcasing his scarred face.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Though she didn't expect him to not react at all to her answer, as far as she's concerned that's not an unpleasant sort of a response to receive. And when he starts to work out her attention once again shifts quite easily over to her tablet - her magazine isn't that engrossing, but it's far more interesting than watching a man sweat.

It's certainly common for the other inhabitants of this facility to work out like that - though not often for the cliche reason of preparing themselves for the day when they can leave and settle something outside of these walls with their newly built strength. More often it's simply a way to pass the time in a way that feels at least somewhat productive. But Poison Ivy isn't known to spend any time at all with it. She is preparing herself for the day when she'll leave, but her preparations aren't physical.

Contrary to appearances, her true strength lies in her mind and not her body. The body helps, yes, but if she didn't have the mind to go with it then the greatest achievement she could hope for in life would to become a supermodel and from there become some famous man's trophy wife. Instead she has a mind capable of conceiving all manner of things and bringing those things into existence, and she's been making excellent use of her time here doing the former so that the latter can happen quite rapidly the moment she's free.

Not that such preparation is at all visible, especially now when she's occupying herself with a fashion magazine. Which she doesn't glance up from when Harvey speaks to her again, but she responds to him by commenting, "Of course she does - she and I are the closest of friends. She sides with me so very often. We have an understanding: I scratch her back, she scratches mine." Her roundabout way of saying that she makes her own luck.

[Deleted]

Her words were carefully chosen because Dent did not react at all. Of course in his own way he believed that she was completely full of shit. But that was something they both thought of each other. But the crazier one usually is the one who’s right. Dent tilts his head after he finishes his workout, “You’re lucky your still alive Pam… Fate must have plans for your crude death. Burned alive? Shot in the privates,eaten by your own plants, suicide… All phenomenal options, but even in that list I know there’s a far more entertaining way for you to be cut up into stars.”

He flipped his coin, a curling smile grazed his face. This was fun to mock and attack her, even if she didn’t think it was worth it or if she thought it was fun that he was pathetic, so what. The whole world knew that he was better than her. Yes he had been kept her for the time being, but she had been as well. People have a way of connecting in unpleasant situations, this was no different.

Two-Face made it a point to get to know his enemies, extensively speaking. For all those yeas dating Pamela, he had never fully understood her. The façade was so strong that it didn’t matter if she was coming back to get the groceries or going out with friends. He had always believed her (but now he is something more pure). Without pausing he dove into the next topic, “If you had to do it all over again – the way you started your life, what would be different” He flipped the coin as he finished on tails, then he added with a hint of dark joy, “Who would you kill?”

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

When Harvey starts listing off all the horrible ways that he hopes that she dies, she can't help but sigh and roll her eyes. "I hope I'm there when you die. Not because it'll be my fault or because I really care if you die or not, but because the look on your face when you realize that I'll outlive you will be priceless!" she comments, pausing long enough to grin at him before she returns to scrolling through her magazine.

He may be enjoying what he's saying, but she sees no reason for that. He's yet to really bother her this entire conversation, and when he has it's only been because he's obviously of the opinion that several of the things that he's said are so very clever. The only thing more irritating than a half-wit is one who thinks that he's such a genius. He's lucky that they're both locked up where they are, or she'd have shut him up already just for that much.

Instead she's forced to tolerate him, but she can manage that easily. His question causes a smirk to come to her face, and as she answers her eyes flicker up to look at him. "You," she replies with one word, her eyes immediately returning to her magazine as if that's all the answer she needs to give, though her smirk lingers on her face much longer than it needs to.

[Deleted]

Instead of doing exercises, Harvey takes a piece of chalk and writes on the wall, “Good men are bad men”. This is the first time he has written his motto on something. Like an animal, marking his territory, this quote inspires him. For Harvey this quote is true. He was once a man, a bad man in Two-face’s eyes, but a man nonetheless. Having everything, being close to eternal glory in the Gotham city books. So close that he required a simple push into the abyss. One push and his life would be a simple dream. He was the nightmare incarnated, living, breathing death. One flip and fate spoke. One flip and his choices would be decided.

“I wonder how your parents would feel about you being locked up. About their mysterious “disappearances” that you told me about. What actually happened to them, Pamela. Did you drive them away with your environmental fanaticism? Did you piss them off with your many dead boyfriends? Always bearing the force, understanding that they would never be equal. Much like my parents, if that is the case.” This was the time to make small talk as the coin was flipped into the air again and again.