Green Mother PT5:

Pamela had no idea how much a few sheets of paper could brighten her day. No wonder the more stable residents of Arkham so looked forward to their letter. She had received a few letters in the past, of course, but those had been from fans, journalist, and creepers.

But this letter was different, special. It was from her son.

His first letter to her, just as he promised. Pamela would not deny the stupid grin that bloomed onto her face as she read the three pages over and over again.

Christopher was rather blunt in his writing, almost robotic in his delivery. It was almost like reading an incident report of his week but she loved every word of it. She learned he had friends, one of them a girl he seemed to spend an awful lot of time with, and that he seemed relatively happy.

What was likely the best part of the letter, the part that made her smile the most was that he had gotten a plant. Nothing large or fancy, just a cactus. And he was asking her for advice!

'And, really, who better to ask' she thought rather smugly, replaying the letter's lines in her head. She was sure he smile was doing nothing for the guards or attendants nerves. Especially not those of the mousy little librarian who was shelving the books not too far away.

She simply did not care. She smiled on as she skimmed the asylum's meager selection on botany. She, of course, knew more than nearly all the hack writers printed there but she wanted to help nurture Christopher's interest. She didn't want him to do botany just because of her, she wanted him to genuinely enjoy it.

She was still going to give her own advice but giving him some independent reading material couldn't hurt.

She selected the three books she thought to be the most promising for a beginner and made her way towards the front desk. She wanted to check out the books, to review them before she truly recommended them to her son. It just wouldn't do for her to give him a book that appeared fine but was secretly trash.

But as she made her way to the counter her smile started to wither as a little voice started to worm its way into her ear. "... Thirsty…" Every step she took made the little voice loud and louder.

"Thirsty."

"Thirsty, dry."

"Dry. Thirsty. Dry."

The pain in the voice squeezed at her heart and pricked at her eyes. Her doctor's had originally theorized that she had a form of schizophrenia, a psychosis that made her believe she was hearing the voices of the planets around her. Likely brought on by her accident and changed biology.

The chemical treatment and her subsequent break disproved this theory.

A STAR Labs scientist, newly brought on retainer, proved that the voices she was hearing were actually a side effect of her powers. He compared her "Empathy to Plants" to what he called "False Telepaths", people who could feel the emotions of others but read too much into them. Making them believe they were hearing the other person's thoughts.

The Scientist and her doctor theorized that her empathy was much like that. That she inferred too much from what she was feeling. That she was trying to put human sense to something that just wasn't human.

Something that didn't think, feel, or sense like they did. Pamela was sure that made a type of sense, maybe they were even right, but that didn't stop her from hearing the screams.

The moans of pain as healthy limbs were cut away.

The pleas for water as they starved to death.

The shivering voices that called out for sunlight.

How could she possibly be expected to ignore these sounds? How could she possibly do so when there were humans there were plants in agony?

She gritted her teeth as she arrived at the foot of the desk, taking in the fern's yellowing leaves. Her eyes must have burned something awful as the little librarian made a sound not too unlike a 'meep' as she took the books from Pamela.

"Have a nice day." The woman said in her meed voice that told Pamela she wasn't going to last very long at Arkham.

Pamela did her best, tried to remember that humans didn't understand plants like she did, but she still snapped. Slapping her hands to the desk with gritted teeth as she growled, "Water your damn plant you dumb piece of-"

Again the woman made her 'meep' sound and pressed the emergency response button she wore around her neck. Pamela could only groan as two guards immediately rushed in, grabbing her by the arms as they dragged her away.

She knew she had just ruined things.

AN:

I'm regrettably having troubles with this one. There is near no planning to it and I'm going to need to work on that, still, there are plenty of fluff and drama scenes I can think of.