Chapter 6
Evelyn's letter crawled along the abyss of lost emotions inside Poison Ivy. It had been so long since Ivy felt as if she was understood that the feeling was a brave sensation. Someone heard her. It meant the world to her to have someone actually support her. Over and over she had only known other human beings to insult and dismiss her to the point that she assumed that was all they had to offer.
This changed things, in the subtlest, yet most profound way. In the past, Ivy had established working relationships with others. She was accustomed to the company of subservient hired muscle, but more often than not, she reserved herself to her plants. There was Harley Quinn, who considered Ivy to be her friend, but Ivy hesitated to truly label Quinn as a friend. Through Ivy's eyes, Quinn was a helpless, hapless, fool who needed to be guided by Ivy away from her own incompetence. Her infatuation with the Joker sickened Ivy. She could not tolerate seeing a young, educated woman such as Quinn demean herself by fawning over the personification of everything wrong in society; a heartless, sadistic, and callow monster who values nothing but himself and pleasures in taking advantage of others.
Here instead, this woman was a kindred spirit, dare even a friend. Finally Ivy decided to take action and write back to this woman. After all, Ivy reasoned to herself, she looks up to me, she respects me; it is my obligation to write back to her. More sincerely, Ivy wanted this feeling to last forever, and after speaking with Arkham, she was granted pen and paper to write.
"Evelyn,
I appreciate the letter you sent me and your words of encouragement. I must disagree with one point you raised; I would not flatter Ray Adams by saying he is even a quarter as charming as he thinks. In reply to your question, I feel it is important for you to grasp that you must reach out for the changes you seek in life. The world will lust for any opportunity to subdue you; you must fight back and equally assert control over yourself and the world around you. Never forget that you are special. You are important. Our beliefs will prevail above all others, and as such, we must be willing to live, and die, for them. The folly you have endured in dealing with others is that you have innately placed too much power in those around you. You should not seek respect from them. They should be trying to seek respect from you. Do not wait to be heard; scream out. Make yourself be heard. Make them afraid to hear your voice. Command and intimidate them like the paper dollars they fear and worship. You are a woman. You are stronger, you are more beautiful, you are wiser than mankind will ever fathom. My advice to you is to permanently sever yourself from their parameters and institute your own. Do not try to be their equals, become their superiors.
Poison Ivy"
The words flowed from Ivy's mind, but the one part that did require the most thought was her signature. She did not know whether to sign as Pamela Isley, or Poison Ivy. She noticed how Evelyn had shown her the respect to call her birth name. It was yet another marvelous sign that someone valued her. Concomitantly, Pamela Isley may be who she is, but not what she is.
She was Poison Ivy, an instrument of destruction, an echo of creation. Finishing the letter, she reread it once, and then sent it in the mail. However, her words mildly troubled her. Was it a lie, she asked herself. Being here, being caged had stifled so much of the fight in her. Her venous beliefs and arterial ideals had become clogged with the fat of despair. Ivy knew her letter was hypocritical as it asked Evelyn to do that which Ivy had so repeatedly failed at doing. Still, Ivy justified her words by reminding herself that it was what she truly believed in. Though bound to this cell, Isley could faintly feel the Poison Ivy in her stir and begin to grow.