The mightiest Oak rose from the clay

[Ethan Bennett - Clayface]

    Clayface had taken one of the many forms in his mental library, a twenty something man in the ugliest windbreaker you've ever seen, a mess of neon pinks and yellows and disgusting shades of green highlighting it. When Ethan first saw the man walking the streets of Gotham all those years ago, his outfit was so appallingly colorful that he couldn't help but permanently remember it, like someone was stabbing you in the eyes with the worst of what the seventies had to offer. He'd always hoped that the man was wearing it ironically. Now, he knew for certain that he, for one, was.

    Poison Ivy. One of Gotham's most potentially dangerous criminals, and that was saying something. Sure, someone like Joker or Bane was probably actually more dangerous, as they actively made plans to ruin everything for everyone and as far as Clayface knew, all Ivy really wanted was her plants, and only every now and then would she go tearing up Gotham as a part of some greater scheme. Of course, that doesn't mean someone who has complete control over any kind of plant should be pushed off to the side as no problem. For now though, she did seem pretty content with the little kingdom she made out of the park. 

    He looked around wearily, wondering just where she was. He'd never actually got the honor of seeing her face to face prior to his transformation, so this would be the very first time. He had no business with her, he was simply...curious. What the heck is the deal with this ginger plant goddess I've been hearing so much about? If the rumors he'd heard about her personality were to be believed, she'd probably be in some kind of massive impossible to miss throne made of a giant lotus blossom. Then again, if the rumors were to be believed, she would probably drown anyone who came into her park for no real reason in a giant pitcher plant. Filled with poison.

    He shook his head. He was getting too into character. He wasn't some normal person in an ugly jacket, he was Clayface. He could get run over by a steamroller and then pick it up and throw it. Considering her powers, she could only maybe defeat him, as opposed to someone like Freeze, who could definitely defeat him. And as for the mind controlling dust, or lipstick, or any of the weaponized venoms she would engineer...well... He would just have to hope his powers included an immunity to chemical weaponry. It'd probably make sense, seeing as it was chemical weaponry that got him the way he is now. 

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Plants are much more sensitive to their environment than most people give them credit for. After all, they just sit there, doing nothing, apparently unaware of the world. But that's merely because most don't react to their environment in a way that humans can sense and understand - their language is chemical. At least it is when they communicate among eachother - the way that Poison Ivy communicates with them is something else entirely. Of course, either way plants don't care at all about color - they make it and use it on their flowers and fruits, but that's for the benefit of animals, not themselves.

But though Poison Ivy is much more like a plant than she used to be, she does still care about color, so when she sees with her own eyes what her plants have told her is moving amongst them, she cringes - well, that's certainly an affront to all that is fashionable, isn't it? She doesn't bother greeting him the moment that she sees him because thanks to that horrible windbreaker she can spot him easily from quite far away.

So it isn't until he continues to wander close enough that he'd be able to hear her if she speaks with a loud voice that she asks, "And what are you, darling?" Not who, but what. If she didn't already know that he wasn't just some average citizen wandering carelessly into the park in spite of the fact that most of the people who do wind up dead, then he'd be perfectly right that she'd probably drown him in a giant pitcher plant full of poison. Well, perhaps not quite that dramatic, but poison would almost certainly be involved.

If he follows the sound of her voice, he may be able to spot her. She's currently lounging on top of one of the large, lower branches of a large tree - a Quercus rubra, or northern red oak, to be precise. Her expression betrays nothing but simple curiosity and she appears to be quite relaxed, though of course she's one who keeps her thoughts and emotions mostly to herself so who knows what's going on in that head of hers?

[Ethan Bennett - Clayface]

   Clayface jumped slightly, before turning to face the source of the voice. It took him a second of flicking his eyes about searching, but he spotted her without much difficulty. It was hard to miss a green woman in a red tree. He briefly analyzed her body language and facial expression, noting that she didn't seem to be particularly angry. Perhaps she had been keeping an eye on him for a while, only now making her presence known, so any surprise or frustration she might've felt towards an intruder had long since worn off. Then he stopped his train of thought to consider her word choice.

   'What are you', great. She could somehow tell he wasn't human. Except, wait, he is a human, not a normal human, that's what he meant. She could somehow tell he's not a normal human. Or, could she? Was it possible she was just being pompous? It was no secret her general disdain for humans, after all, maybe the remark had been nothing more than a little snide indication of how lowly she regarded him to be. But that seemed to be clutching at straws, taking it too literally. She wasn't Nygma, her exact phrasing wasn't integral to her intended message. 

   After deciding it wouldn't be worth it to stay in character for this, because if he did and she actually did know, she might be insulted, thinking he took her for a fool. And, even if she didn't know and he was fine, he wouldn't really loose much of anything revealing himself. "Well, Miss Ivy, I've got to give you at least one thing,"  as he spoke, the random Gothamite in the ugly jacket melted away, folding in on itself, the colors becoming muted and the concrete form melting to a liquid like consistency, before solidifying again as a perfect replica of Ivy herself, down to the exact vine patterns on her skin. Speaking in her voice he said, "I suppose it was inevitable, but you didn't even get to see what an awful actor I am." Once more, the form melted away, this time remaining that solid gray liquid, but taking a humanoid shape, with two bright green piercing eyes the only break from the dull color he now consisted wholly of. He was showing her his true form, as it were. What could be approximated to a relaxed smirk pulled at his melted lips, "So what did tip you off? Do your powers include being able to tell someone's biochemistry on sight? 'Cause, I'm not gonna lie, that'd be pretty cool."

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

If he watches her closely enough, he'd see an answer or two to his unspoken questions - when he changes before her very eyes, her eyebrows lift in slight surprise. Which means that she wasn't necessarily expecting that and she hadn't known that he was Clayface. But that reaction is so small that either she's not very easy to surprise at all, or she'd already expected that something was up. Maybe not that she was speaking to someone who could change their shape, but definitely something.

And if he's wondering about how she feels about being mimicked, he'd see the answer to that to - her lips purse in slight annoyance. No, she's not going to actually say anything about it, but she's not amused.

But when he stops that and shifts into a form that she's somewhat familiar with - she does like to keep up with news about other rogues, after all - her expression clears of that. In fact, when he asks how she knew he wasn't some random normal guy, her lips curve into a self-satisfied smirk. "Oh no, not me, darling. But my babies can be little tattle-tales, and they have no eyes to fool," she answers easily.

Having said that, she has a question of her own, "And what brings you to my humble abode, where few men dare to tread?" Though in spite of the reminder of what she normally does to people who trespass, she doesn't seem to be interested in living up to her reputation at the moment. Instead she appears to be completely relaxed in the tree, laying on the branch as if it were some sort of a hammock or something along those lines. Her voice too is entirely friendly in tone - perhaps even flirtatious.

Then again, she almost never says anything that doesn't sound at least a little bit flirtatious, even when she's angrily threatening someone. Of course, if he's heard of her he shouldn't be too surprised by that - she has a reputation for being... well, attractive.

[Ethan Bennett - Clayface]

   Clayface paused for a moment to consider what to say next. He'd have to think of something good to say. If he were to tell the truth, it'd just be he was curious and had nothing better to do, but he seriously doubted Poison Ivy would be even remotely satisfied with a weak answer like that. Maybe he could say...he wanted to get a good look at her, so he could replicate it later to...no...no she'd take offense to that, surely. She probably wouldn't appreciate a snide little joke like 'just wanted to check out the local flora' either. Heck, maybe that  last one would be racist to plant.

   He then realized if he took too long of a pause to think, it'd get awkward, he'd look like an idiot. He had to say something. Well, he'd been having practice acting recently, he'd have to improvise. "Well," he said slowly, "I used to come to this park a lot. Had lunch breaks every now and then, I'd even shoot some hoops with a friend when we were both free. Now I hear it's been all overgrown like this, and, well, got a little nostalgic and decided to see what you've done with the place." He realized as he spoke, that this was literally no better a reason than 'I was bored'. He had to tack on something else, something even remotely substantial to his reasoning.

   "Besides, figured that this'd be as good a time as any to get a good look at you. You made your debut after I left the force, and since I've been...underground, for a while, I figured you'd be as good a place as any to try and start catching up." A small part of him was thankful for his inhuman body at this moment, if he was still just normal old Ethan Bennett he'd probably be sweating, or, at least making an involuntary nervous expression, or twitching or something. But now, as Clayface, he was almost pretty sure he didn't have nerve endings. Probably.

   "Also, one more thing," he said after a moment, speaking now out of legitimate curiosity rather than desperate anxiousness, "talking about this park, I've been wondering, did you take it over just so you'd have your own little place, or do you have some larger goal in mind? Like... I dunno, you're growing roots under the sewers and you're gonna...tear up Gotham's foundations or something." He glanced at a small collection of plants growing in a clearing for a moment, seemingly in thought, before looking back to her. "Also while I'm asking you stupid questions, why are there mushrooms here? Were those here before? Because I'd've figured, mushrooms aren't plants, so you wouldn't have them around, but," he gestured towards the area he was just looking at. "There's some."

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Not failing to notice the fact that he doesn't seem to have an immediate answer, Poison Ivy nevertheless appears to be quite patient as he attempts to explain his prescence in the park. And it's difficult to tell what she makes of his words because her expression doesn't change at all until she responds, though privately she finds the first part of it to be incredibly boring - she simply doesn't care about his nostalgia. That he wanted to meet her is far more interesting, but she can't say that she appreciates the way in which he explains that.

Sighing softly to herself, she asks, "You don't respect me very much, do you darling?" And as she says that her expression shifts into a rather pouty frown, showing sadness and disappointment. Which is definitely a negative reaction, though probably not the one that he was expecting if he knows the least bit about Gotham's most dangerous female Rogue.

Fortunately for her mood, she finds the second question he asks her to actually be somewhat intelligent and interesting, at least compared to the caliber of question that she's used to fielding when someone gets the opportunity to ask her something. Even if it is rather random. So she indulgently decides to actually answer both of them. "Neither of those reasons - I took it over to protect it. They've been treating the plants here horribly since the foundations of the park, but what they did to the botanical garden was the final straw," she says, her voice clouding for a moment with anger. And he probably has no idea what he's referring to - naturally the police didn't care to elaborate on what what had started the whole incident, and none of then wanted to risk asking her for her side of the story.

But the anger in her voice doesn't last, and she sounds just as relaxed as before when she continues, "Of course, I have other plans - but this park doesn't really have anything to do with them. And it's a terrible place for a hideout - everyone knows where I am." Which she's sure is a point he'll instantly recognize as true. But she's willing to risk herself for these poor babies who need her help.

Having said that, she turns her attention to his last question. "And there are birds in the trees too, darling - they aren't plants either. There are also bacteria in the soil. This is an ecosystem - plants do benefit from other forms of life, even if I personally don't have the same... connection with them. It's all connected," she answers, making a vague gesture with her hand to indicate the entire park.