Pick Your Poison, Friday Afternoon

[joan_of_bark]

Well, Adrian was a plant, so dinner wasn't happening tonight. Pam could live with that. It gave her time to finish up the salve she'd been working on for Octavia.

Which meant spending most of the day upstairs, messing around with chemicals, but... eventually, it was done.

Done and tested, if in a limited way.

She eyed the little container, and let out a breath. Right. Time to go downstairs, make some coffee, and blow off some steam.

Maybe, she reflected, once finally downstairs, she could get Adrian some fertilizer, as a treat.

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[totalwildcard]

Harley gave her another very serious nod.

"I'm not that bad anymore, either," she added, after a beat. "But I'm more like kinda somewhere in the middle? 'Cause I'm not great yet, either. Maybe one day! But not yet."

[joan_of_bark]

"Well," Pam said. She finally straightened herself, tugging on her ponytail. "And I'm... sorry for leaping to conclusions."

She'd already said so, but it was Harley; repetition wouldn't hurt. "I'm... genuinely glad to hear it."

[totalwildcard]

"And I'm sorry for runnin' away, after," Harley replied, earnestly - only to reconsider, her head tilting quizzically to the side. "Oh, right, you don't even know the extent of it!" And her head straightened again. "But it was pretty bad."

[joan_of_bark]

Pam's hand found her hairtie, and tugged it loose. She immediately bundled all the red hair that fell out back up into her hand.

Just... redoing that ponytail for no reason at all.

"How bad?" she asked.

[totalwildcard]

That was kind of a familiar sight. One that had Harley watching it sort of transfixed - for a few seconds, anyway, before she shook it off. "Uhhh, kinda holed up with the kid for like a week?"

No, Pam probably didn't know who 'the kid' was. And no, Harley did not realize that.

She gave a big shrug.

[joan_of_bark]

Yeah, as Pam worked the scrunchie back around, she looked at Harley. "You haven't told me about the kid yet," she offered.

Gently.

[totalwildcard]

Harley's eyebrows quirked, like she had the gall to be surprised. "The kid's... the kid?" she offered. "Cass. I've got het set up with her own pad on the mainland!"

That explained enough, right?

[joan_of_bark]

"Which is where you stayed for a week," Pam said, because prompting for more information wasn't likely to help much. "Why, Harls?"

[totalwildcard]

Oh look, another big shrug! An even bigger one, actually, one that involved the arms in the action, not just the shoulders.

"I dunno?" Harley said. "Felt right."

[joan_of_bark]

"Well, I really didn't mean to chase you away to the mainland," Pam said.

And finally picked her almost-forgotten coffee mug from the counter. "Hearing you talk like that just triggered something. Which... you already figured out."

[totalwildcard]

And her tattoo artist had all but had to tackle her to at least be able to put the protective film on his work before she'd taken off for it, too!

"It's fine," she said, waving a hand. "We've all got deep-seated psychological stuff that can be very tough to rein in when we get startled by it, it's human."

[joan_of_bark]

"A little too long to make it the new Arkham motto," Pam said wryly, and brought her mug up for a sip, "But they could fit it on there as an acronym."

[totalwildcard]

"Oh, I don't give a shit what those people do, anymore," Harley replied, much too seriously again. "They're the ones that got my licence revoked!"

Through no fault or malpractice of her own, of course!

[joan_of_bark]

"I know," Pam said, "But you-- her-- we haven't always had a choice in whether we get to give a shit."

[totalwildcard]

Wait, what?

"You haven't been in there," Harley said, slowly, by Harley standards, "have ya?"

She sounded concerned.

... And looked it. Her face had never been particularly subtle, after all.

[joan_of_bark]

Pam lifted her coffee to her mouth.

"It's where we met."

[totalwildcard]

Harley blinked.

And then made such a face, offended and appalled. "Jesus Christ," she said. "Really?! They put ya in there? What for?"

[joan_of_bark]

"Initially? Because I threatened to release bio-toxins into Gotham if they didn't send the industrialists poisoning our earth packing," Pam said. She gave an idle shrug. "And also for killing a few cops who tried to get in my way. The Bats showed up. You know how it is..."

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah, he's treatin' Arkham like his personal pocket universe," Harley replied, still deeply offended, with the huffiness to prove it. "And always sticking his big bat nose in other people's business!"

[joan_of_bark]

"I hate him," Pam said flatly. Something like passion snuck into her voice. "So high and mighty, so full of his own moral greatness, and yet what does he do with it? Run around town, helping the cops, covering for the real bad guys."

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah!"

Granted, Harley didn't have as much of a 'moral greatness' stance on it, but it was always Hate on Batsy o'clock in her timezone!

"Stupid winged jerk, I mean, who does he think he is?"

[joan_of_bark]

"A nosy, self-involved dick with delusions of grandeur who can't leave well enough alone," Pam muttered.

It was also always Hate on Batsy o'clock in her timezone. What a surprise.

[totalwildcard]

Harley crossed her arms, clearly on a roll now. "Yanno, he's the one that got me sent to Belle Reve, that secret max security shithole in Louisiana?" she said. "Louisiana! Wouldn't even let me stay in Jersey!"

[joan_of_bark]

Pam raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I think forcing you to go to Louisiana violates the Geneva Convention," she said.

Harley was built for the city. Northeast city.

[totalwildcard]

"I mean, I coulda been in the center of the Earth for all I really knew," Harley conceded, sort of, shrugging even if it was with a scowl. "They don't want nobody findin' ya out there, that's how deep they buried us."