During lunch time, the same woman from the previous day came to pick Roselyn up from the orphanage. They forgot she was as old as she was so assumed she ate during the earlier lunch wave. Unfortunately for Roselyn, she hadn't eaten yet and was stuffed into a car. As nice as this woman seemed to be, she was cold towards the young girl. It was obvious she put on a show for the orphanage when they must have called up the asylum to dump off their problem child for a couple of times a week.
The ride was quiet and neither spoke a word. It was obvious this woman worked with adults and didn't really know how to talk to children despite how fake she had been the other day. Roselyn was fine with this and enjoyed the quiet car ride. She was used to the loud orphanage with the little ones screaming and the older kids stomping around like the hormonal teenagers they were.
They got out of the car and entered the gothic styled building. The doctor, who quickly introduced herself as Dr. Klein, hesitated to take her hand to pull her out towards the garden. Instead, she took the too long sleeve of her jacket and pulled on it to bring her through. "Have fun," the doctor smiled and left Roselyn out on her own. So much for giving her therapy, the girl thought, and rolled her green eyes.
But the garden was nice and so much bigger than what she was used to back at the orphanage. However, they hadn't left anything for her to garden with and she opted to just sit outside and enjoy the fall flowers. There was an apple tree in the distance and her stomach growled just thinking about it. The girl didn't think much of it when she got up and went over to the tree to grab an apple. She barely ate her lunch the previous day and skipped dinner entirely since she couldn't even identify it.
Roselyn climbed up the tree to reach the apple. It wasn't difficult for her to climb and she didn't need to go that high to grab an apple. She crawled along one of the branches and grabbed an apple, snapping a twig off with it. She grimaced slightly at the loud snap, but climbed down the tree. She sat down to lean against it smiling as she bit into the fruit.
A woman in an orange Arkham jumpsuit came storming towards her, her fiery red locks intimidating. Her skin was tinted green and Roselyn looked at her horrified as she came over to her. This was one of the criminally insane, she could tell, because of the way she was approaching her. The eleven year old stood up and hugged herself closer to the tree. Why did Dr. Klein leave her alone in the garden?
"Look what you've done!" the woman roared and picked up the twig that had snapped off the apple tree. Roselyn was terrified as the woman yelled at her irrationally. "You have no respect for Mother Nature, do you, girl? And you have no right to be in this garden if you treat the plants so carelessly!" The woman was ready to strike; Roselyn cried and hugged herself around the tree. The branches of the tree suddenly rustled and made a protective barrier around her.
With the help of the tree, the brunette was lifted up into the branches so she sat on the highest branch away from the danger below her. The woman looked up at her completely baffled by what she just witnessed. Roselyn began to cry as her secret she tried so hard to hide was discovered yet again. She appreciated the fact she could get help from plants when she desperately needed it and they were happy to help her. She liked that she could talk to them since no human ever wanted anything to do with her. At the same time, she hated this ability because it was ultimately what isolated her from the general human population. Being part plant separated her from the species she so longed to be: human.
As the insane woman stared at her in shock, one of the doctors approached her and detained her. She was put into handcuffs. She didn't struggle because of what she had just witnessed. Roselyn hoped she wouldn't tell someone and if she did, perhaps they'd think the idea was crazy. "Stay right there, Roselyn!" Dr. Klein yelled up to her. "We'll get you down!" The girl shook her head and began to climb down. The smaller branches hidden within the tree helped her down making it look as if she climbed down herself.
"I am so sorry," Dr. Klein said once Roselyn got herself down. "Poison Ivy isn't particularly the most rational person. She shouldn't have been outside at all; I have no idea what she was doing outside of Arkham. But obviously she can't be trusted if she uses her plant mutations to put people in trees." Plant mutations? Poison Ivy? Roselyn had to wrap her head around that there was someone else out there like her. Was she also part plant? Did she also have a hard time fitting in? Why was she in an asylum? She'd have to somehow sneak into the little library they had in the orphanage after dinner. "I'm going to take you back now. I'll bring you back in a couple of days once we get a handle on the whole Poison Ivy situation and find out who let her out of her cell."
Roselyn had done a little bit of research on Poison Ivy, also known as Pamela Isley. She couldn't find much due to time constraints, but she found out she was one of the Rogues which were infamous in Gotham. She hadn't found anything about her past, but she did find out she did indeed have some kind of abilities affiliated with plants. Her kiss was poisonous and she had immunity to all toxins. She also had the ability to manipulate plant life and supposedly communicated with plants. She could produce pheromones which would make people love her and do whatever it was she wanted when they were under the influence. In regards to mental illness, she saw herself as the reincarnation of Mother Nature and was supposedly hypersexual.
Roselyn wasn't particularly sure if her own abilities. She wasn't sure if her kisses were toxic or if she was immune to all toxins. She didn't recall ever getting sick, not even having a head cold. But maybe that was due to being part plant and there weren't viruses which could successfully attack both animal and plant cells simultaneously. She knew she definitely didn't produce any pheromones which was okay by her since that creeped her out a bit- being able to manipulate plants was one thing, but manipulating humans freaked her out.
And then there was the whole Asylum thing. Roselyn knew she herself didn't need to be in an asylum since she never harmed anything or anyone intentionally. She also didn't think she was the reincarnation of Mother Nature, either. In fact, she didn't even think there was a Mother Nature or any kind of unseen being in general. The life she led didn't give her anything to believe in. That, and she knew she wasn't anything special because of her uniqueness.
Roselyn wasn't sure what hypersexual meant and looked it up. She wished she hadn't and was weirded out by it. She closed the browser and changed her thoughts to why the orphanage had internet, even if it was still outdated like everything else in the building.
Despite their obvious differences, Roselyn finally didn't feel so alone. She smiled as she left the library with her newfound knowledge. It was the first time she dared to hope and smiled when she went to sleep.
A couple of days later, Roselyn was taken back to the asylum despite the incident that occurred. The girl grabbed her old backpack she found in the lost and found during her stay in one of the many orphanages. She knew this meant she stole it, but what choice did she have when nobody provided her with anything? Roselyn put the plant she had obtained from the small orphanage garden. She thought Poison Ivy might like it.
When she got to the asylum's garden, she was provided with a shovel and gardening gloves this time so she was able to garden. She carefully lifted the plant out of the pot, being sure to keep all of its roots intact. Dr. Klein was nowhere to be found and she wondered why she was being brought here for therapy when the doctor never spent any time with her. She wasn't going to argue though since she didn't want to be around the other orphans who weren't very nice to her.
After she put the plant in the garden, Roselyn made her way over to the apple tree that had protected her and provided her with an apple. She smiled up at it and hugged it. One of the branches lowered so she could take an apple. She happily took it and ate it after quickly inspecting it. She leaned back against the tree when she sat as she ate her apple. She wasn't really in the mood to garden anymore, so she decided to sit and wait for Dr. Klein to bring her back to the orphanage.
As the days went on, Roselyn continued to add plants from the orphanage garden to the asylum's garden where the land was larger and attended to by gardeners paid with the money Bruce Wayne provided. The brunette continued to sit by the apple tree whenever she was done adding a plant and hoped Poison Ivy would come back so she could talk to her. But that didn't happen.
"Hey, Roselyn. How would you like to come here an extra day? You seem to really enjoy it out here," Dr. Klein smiled warmly. The eleven year old nodded; she needed to spend as much time here if she intended to talk to the woman who was similar to her. Whenever she was at Arkham, she didn't feel as alone. Someone was just like her and that made her happier than she had ever been.
As Roselyn was led away, she smiled at the apple tree which looked as if it waved goodbye to her when nobody else was looking. She heard the plants thanking her for bringing them to this land which had richer soil than where they had come from.