2013.06.28 - Madri Flora

Taking his time checking out the Baroness's estate on Madripoor, 'William Bard' was taking his time patrolling the grounds, busying himself here when he should have been there. Most of them, at least not terribly suspicious, involved keeping an eye on the Baroness, which, one would suppose, was -perfectly- ordinary and in keeping with his... proclivities.
Still, there was -one- area where it was perfecly -natural- to avoid... the greenhouse slash lab where Ms. Pamela Isley was busy setting up.
And then came a time when there was a special delivery, and Roy Harper regarded said delivery suspiciously. What it was, he didn't know... some sort of special package that had to be loaded on a cart and brought to the botanist. And knowing -her- tendencies around Gotham, at least from the underground rumblings...
"Ms. Isley?" Roy calls out from the greenhouse door, starting to wander...
There's always more to do in Madripoor. It is to low-lifes and contract killers what Vegas is to the drunk and the careless, if one can tolerate the environment then they will keep coming back. Domino's had some more business back in the New York City area though, as before, she's a woman of divided attention. Numerous targets are being tracked and engaged from either corner of the globe. Even jetlag isn't bothering her so much anymore, it actually gives her a chance to be tired.
Today has her back at the Baroness' villa, with some spare time on her hands. Where Roy may be keeping close tabs on their rich, sociopathic host, she's been keeping tabs of the layout of the grounds, security details, and headcounts. The place really is a fortress, and like any good fortress it has its share of secrets.
One of these secrets is the greenhouse. Normally this wouldn't be any huge secret, but knowing the kinds of people she's now working for, or with? It merits further investigation. All her luck that she happens to be arriving at the same time as Roy at almost the exact same moment, yet from a different entrance. It's all in the timing.
The lab door were the same as they had been in the previous incarnation of the lab, the heavy metal and security pad as uninviting as before save that now a small digital screen and cam were added which blinked and flashed to life at the unwelcome house call. Dr. Isley was framed in the screen, obviously being cammed from some small mobile device that she cared with her, attentions mildly deverted in yelling the last of something across the room before you glanced down. Maybe the camera colors were off, or the greenhouse lighting playing tricks, because she looked /green/ - though to anyone with a clue that wouldn't be too shocking.
"Yes?...Who is it? Very busy at the moment." the greeting was chilled in a very calculated fashion, no time to waste and clearly no f**ks given to things that didn't directly involve her lab.
In the small glimpses behind the wild whisps of red that escaped the loose knot she pulled it into the transfroming lab was already starting to look like a jungle, massive growths of green and dark browns filling out the from of the display screen as somewhere in the background a half mumble human voice grumbled rather lathargicly.
"Dommie, hey," Roy greets as he pushes the cart with the suspicious crate forward. "Gimme a sec... hey, Ms. Isley? There's a crate here for you, something special delivery. You want me to leave it out here, or do you want me to bring it in?" Having already met Pamela Isley for a brief moment, there was something about the woman that had Roy curious... and it wasn't certainly her librarian-esque bookish appearance. It was -what- she was up to in there, given her background...
How many red haired, green skinned women that had an affinity for plant life did Domino know? They don't exactly grow on trees. Or, in this case, maybe they do...
There's another matter on her mind, as well. "Bard? The hell are you doin' here, kid?"
By now she can only assume that it's down to her luck, and Roy's being a world-class jinx, that she'd happen to bump into him right out of the blue once again. It's plain scary how frequently they end up meeting like this. Sometimes she's left to wonder if she might be cursed.
"I didn't realize you became a postman. Got anything for me?"
It does nothing to put her mind at ease, both with the chance encounter and with Greenie Testa Rossa in a lab environment.
Tsking at the answer that greeted her back she waves a hand, the camera panning a skew to reveal the modified sunlight sunk into the roofing beams and then clicks off without another word from the inside. Seconds pass into a couple minutes and then the series of heavy locks in the door roll and shift until a vacuuming sound like an environmental seal hisses apart and pressure equalizes. That outside panel blinking green to signal the door is open. Ivy was letting the courier decide if he was going to brave being shot.
From what air leaks out around the door there is a smell of richer oxygen levels mixed with the moist humidity like that of Mandripoor's own deep jungles. Beyond remained to be discovered..enter the witch's forest or turn back now...
"Delivering a package... and hell no, not unless you're redheaded and dressed like a librarian," Roy retorts. Hey, he'd stayed perfectly out of the way, for the most part. That Domino showed up -just- then was her own luck, darn it.
As the door buzzes open, Roy motions for Domino, offering a wide grin. "Ladies first."
Regardless of if she went first or not, though, Roy pushes the cart in, and tries to find a way to navigate towards Ivy. "Hey, where are you?" he calls out. Damn, it -was- a jungle. A hot sweaty jungle.
"Only in your wildest dreams," Domino nonchalantly counters Roy's response. Yeah, maybe this one is all on her instead of him being involved. It doesn't change how she feels about it any.
When the door is opened and he motions her through she says "I'll be sure to let you know if I see any," though she does head in first. Because why not! She's doing a scouting run, here. Free access to an otherwise secured lab? Maybe it really is her luck at play. It's not breaking and entering if the door is unlocked and held open for you, is it!
And here she thought the rest of Madripoor was uncomfortably hot and humid. It's become tradition to have the sleeves of her armor rolled up a quarter of the way and the front zip dropped about a quarter of its length. Being inside of this greenhouse, she'd probably strip off her own skin if she could.
At least it's more interesting to look at than the typical city slum. "Colorful... And oh so aromatic."
/Wildest dreams/ might just be the terms to discribe the scene that unfolded as the door folded away to let the cart enter and just as unexpectedly as it peeled open so to it slide shut with a ghetto style lockdown sealing them inside with an exit route insight. The interior vastly different than the lab space it had once been, where tables and computer once stood now were tangels of running vinesm planters, and watering systems the tile floor over running with a spreading carpet of brightly colored leaves and flowers some of them familiar and others all too alien.
Dr. Isley was perched against a examination table, the microscope she focused on still very much the sterile style look that clashed with the first third they'd venture through. "Here..." a wave of hand and she pulls away from the study to turn and lean back on the table's ledge. Brilliant green gaze a stranger hue under the odd mix of lighting in the lab. Such is the garden of good and evil here in the shadows of Mandripoor.
"Beware of strangers bearing gifts...who is this?" a cast of gestures motioning toward the new face of Domino.
"Dommie, if I were dreaming about you, you dressed as a librarian wouldn't be it. Maybe something in a hot frilly... whoa!" Roy pauses, looking at just how little room there was to navigate. "Uh..."
Too much vines, too much plants... "Hey, do you want me to just go ahead, or... nevermind." Roy calls out, examining all the different paths available. Sighing, Roy glances at Domino. "Make yourself useful, give me a hand..." he says as he moves over to prepare to lift half the crate, so that they could steer through a lot more carefully over to Ivy.
When the request is made Domino initially responds to it by staring back at Roy, one eyebrow hooked upward a few degrees. "Hey, this is your delivery to make."
Meeeeeh... Despite the curt response she still catches the front of the crate and helps haul it inside. It'll give her a modicum of credibility as to why she's here in the first place.
"Just another hired ..hand," she replies with a momentary hiccup in her words. Yeah, because settings like this one are so common in her life. Complete with green-skinned scientists.
Curiosity is soon getting the better of her. Once the crate is dropped off she's going to get a closer look at one of the more bizarre looking species, completely oblivious as to what it is, or what it might do if provoked. "Like a botanical zoo in this place..." Which begs the question, what interest does the Baroness have in all of this? Some sort of home-grown biological weapon research?
Pamela was all too amused to watch as the man stared in a confused manner around at the room and the floor..this might be a bit like disarming a bomb as he picked his path. Carefull not to step on the blue vines, or was that the red? There were a couple of those and a purple one that seemed to disappear in the middle of it all. "Well hired hand do becareful, those are endangered species."
A brow rose in mock of the one Domino lifted before a smile small smile curved at the corners of her mouth. Hired hands didn't dress for combat usually and with a little digging there might be information available to name off the oddly pale woman...after all, how many women could be a monochromatic beauty with a rather identifying face mark.
As she said that some of those more /colorful/ lot seemed to inch out of the blind steps that came near them - nothing of note if you weren't directly staring at them, but yet the central path seemed to widen just before a pair of lab coated assistants materialized to help moved the crated to the table.
Trying to be respectful of the plants was proving to be a difficult task, and Roy ends up doing the 'grunt' work, leaving it to Domino to steer him as they moved along, before the two lab assistants helped steer the crate onto the table.
Breathing a small sigh of relief, Roy glances at Pamela Isley, about to complain before eyeing her once again. "Huh... you let down your hair?" he comments, tilting his head. "Looking good, Red."
Knowing that they're endangered species only makes them more interesting. Domino's familiar with the exotic, she can appreciate that much. The weapons might suggest a more thuggish attitude that accomplishes tasks via brute force but her hands are more akin to those of a surgeon when it comes to other matters. She stands nothing to gain by attacking a bunch of plants. Really, now. That would just be mean.
When Roy's insightful inquiry leaves his thoughts and enters the world at large she can think to do nothing more than hang her head with a tiny sigh. Out of all of the things that he could say, he ends up talking about this other woman letting her hair roam free? "Real smooth, Bard."
Then, getting back to Ivy's former observation, the albino says "Have you seen the company Ana keeps around here? I'll bet even the butler's packing heat."
Lots of ordnance. Blades. Custom armor. Custom equipment rig. Zero patches or insignia to be found. Then there's the attitude. She's probably a gun for hire. One of several that roam these grounds of late.
Pamela's attention focused of the zombie like movements of her help as the lumbered back off into the shadows of the lab, tending to installments that still needed to be completed. She was going to have to rework their specialed diets and see about getting them something to perk them up but that was a matter for another time. Making a mental note she pushed away from table to step toward the box, flicking at the labels attached to the side and sighing a bit at the comment from the male help as she realized his name had completely slipped her mind. "I find it helps me think a little better...less tension to help the blood flow as it were."
A smile was offered his direction before her attentions snapped to keep a mother hawk's eye on Domino so close to her babies. "There is a certain amount of security needed for a place like this...but still, mail services being armed... Well you do know where the term 'postal' came from. I can't have my lab being blown to kingdom come or my subjects sneaking out the door to the other scientists on the grounds."
Roy's crooked half-grin meets Pamela's brief smile, before the archer grins at Domino. "See, you should let your hair down more..." he comments, before regarding her hair. "Or grow it out more." Not that she would, because long hair was -so- easy to grab, and Roy knows it, judging by the twinkle in his eyes.
A glance was cast at the crate they'd had to carry in. "So, uh, nevermind going postal, what -is- in this thing?"
He'd noticed the location of it earlier, but without any idea of what was in this... well... "And should we be expecting a lot more like this too?"
Subjects? Sneaking out? Domino gets a curious look about her, turning to look back at Ivy. "They're plants. They're not going to get up and walk outside for some fresh air."
Yeah, she really doesn't have a clue who she's dealing with yet.
"Don't worry, your lab isn't scheduled for detonation anytime this week that I've seen. Some of the deliveries this guy's had to make, though?" she mentions while thumbing back to Roy. "Armed escort barely begins to cover it."
She's totally making that part up. A little misdirection so frequently helps her cause, whether subtle or obvious.
Roy quickly gets targeted with another puzzled look. "My hair's always down." It's also short enough that it might be hard to tell sometimes, but that's beside the point. "I used to have long hair, once upon a time. Down to here," she says while holding an open palm near the small of her back. "Bitch and a half to clean."
Those two can check out the crate all they like. Dom may not be a huge fancier of flowers but with some of the ones she can find around here? It almost seems a shame to not lean in and give them a sniff or two. Roses get to be so boring.
Another glance passed to the box and a slight shrug of her shoulders was offered as she searched for a crowbar to open the thing. "This one is just a set of specialty lamps for some of my more delicate subjects...ie the specimens that you're looking at, miss." Cracking open the box she began to unpack a few armored tubes and lighting rigs. "But yes, there will be a few more deliveries I'm sure."
Their banter about hair and such is dismissed as she just shakes her head, counting out some of the items against a checklist until she /felt/ the woman's closeness to one of her babies a twitch making her brow tick in response until she set down the items and turned to move toward them.
They are all very select species of their families... they could easily be removed by the wrong persons and do to their delicate nature right now taking them out of this controlled environment would be dangerous." Nevermind just how dangerous and to who, a pale hand came up to guide Dom's shoulder back away from the amazonian orchid she'd been sniffing. Not dangerous, but ironically the ignored roses might well have killed her.
Helping to open the packaging, Roy examines the lamps. "You really need them in -this- weather?" Hot, humid... what could she need more lamps for?
With the crate gone, Roy's pretext for looking around is gone, though, and so the young man adjusts his shirt. "So anyway, you haven't been out of this lab for like, the whole time. You, uh... you should check out the sights. At least, the evening festivals..."
Aaand Domino's being guided away from the flowers. Scientist types, always so blasted paranoid about their research. It's not like the albino's mutant power is to cause plantlife to wither and die in her presence!
"Don't take it personally, he hits on everything with a rack," she asides to Ivy as if it were no more shocking than discussing the weather. "Get enough drinks into the guy and he'll try to ask my gun cabinet out."
While the local collection of flora is all sorts of interesting from one standpoint, it fails to strike her as being particularly critical information. They're plants. They're endangered. Maybe Baroness has eclectic tastes in rare pieces, who knows? All that Dom can conclude is that it doesn't affect her any.
"C'mon, Swift. Delivery's made, time to roll on."
As they drew out of the lab space and toward the door she held her ground by the orchid that Dom had been sniffing, maybe she was a little protective..but then there were things growing in this personal Eden that could doom anyone straight to Hell. The cuffing of Roy as he's tugged along though did make her smile and with it that smile followed them out the door.
"Until the next shipment... maybe you can show me around that outside world then." A flutter of fingers as a parting gift and then the door would seal as...were those plants shifting to glide along her side like pet dogs? Nahhhh...
Door Sealed-Lab Sercured
"... well, at least -someone- is willing to go to town with me, not just her legs!"
Category:Log