Chapter Text
Alex Coryphoideae, First Floret, watched as her Owner’s vines surrounded Pia Coryphoideae, Second Floret’s neck, holding her lightly but firmly in his grasp. From the inside of her Master’s body, he withdrew a beautiful floral collar, handcrafted by Saribus himself, letting Pia watch as it slid up to her neck, and gave a gentle click as the vines latched together behind her. Soon, once Pia had been implanted too, her collar would interface with the plant matter inside of her body. Their Master would be able to control even the amount of air Pia was allowed to breathe at any moment, monitoring her body to restrict her airflow to the very edge of what she could survive. Alex had to admit, she was a little bit jealous. At the same time, she was far too attached to the original collar that Master had given her to have any interest in requesting modifications for it. Maybe she could ask her Master if he could give her a trigger that would make her forget how to breathe? She’d have to ask him later; right now Saribus was sweeping his eyes over both his florets, his large fan-like leaves quivering with anticipation, and he looked hungry.
Feeling much better rested then she had in a long time, Alex yawned, slowly waking up. She blinked her eyes open, only to notice that something was strange. There was no bunk bed above her, her mattress felt like it cost six months worth of salary, if not more, and, strikingly, there was a big humanoid plant standing on the other side of the room. Memories started to flood back in - the alarm blaring, the yelling and screaming and sound of gunfire, and (most important of all) Alex telling her girlfriend, Pia, to go and hide. Telling Pia that she would protect her from the plant aliens, she just had to hang back and stay safe. Alex couldn’t quite remember what happened after that, but clearly, it hadn’t ended well.
The plant let its fake mouth open, letting out words in a matter emulating Terran speech, but having the uncanny quality of not quite coming from the location of the mouth it had formed. Its large, fan-like leaves bobbed up and down as it spoke. “Hello there, petal! I am Saribus Coryphoideae, Second Bloom. He/him pronouns are preferred! I’m aware that my name can be a bit of a mouthful for Terran cuties like you, so feel free to call me Sari. I’m sure you must have a lot of questions - feel free to ask away!” Alex stared at the plant, confused. Why was this combination of palm tree and vine mass bundled up into a ten foot plant monster sharing its pronouns?
Alex’s first question escaped her lips before she even had time to question whether she would be giving the Affini information she shouldn’t. “Where is Pia? Is she okay? Is she… alive?” The silence she was met with was torturous, and she couldn’t stop thinking of everything that could have went wrong. Maybe the Affini only needed a certain number of prisoners, and they just ate the rest. Maybe some overzealous Terran had seen Pia running away from the combat - at Alex’s request! - and decided that was sufficiently traitorous behaviour to justify an impromptu execution. Her mind swam through the possibilities, going to further and further extremes, before her train of thought was finally interrupted by the affini.
“Are you speaking of the sophont Pia Nelson, who was on the ship with you?” The affini paused, while Alex anxiously nodded. “Then you have nothing to worry about! She is certainly alive, and is doing just fine. She’ll be resting for a little longer than you, on account of taking a nasty fall while trying to run away from one of the other affini that went aboard the Weedwhacker of Freedom. Quite the name for a ship, I must say. But yes, that cutie will be perfectly fine, and will be awake in approximately a day or two. If you’d like, I can take you to go see her, but you have to promise not to make loud noises, touch her, or do anything that might disturb her sleep. Do you understand?” The affini - Sari - gave Alex a stern look.
Pia was okay! Pia was okay, and Alex hadn’t unwittingly sent her girlfriend to her doom. Pia was okay, and they would be able to see each other again. She felt a smile creep its way up her face. No matter what the Affini had in store for them, they would be able to make it through, together. After a second, Alex nodded again, before quickly adding, “Can I go see her right now?”
“No, petal, but you can soon, I promise. First, we need to get you some food, and while you eat I can help explain what your life will look like under the vines of the Affini Compact.” Sari started to move to an adjacent room, and motioned with a vine for Alex to follow.
Entering the kitchen, Alex was taken aback by both it’s size and visual design. Even if Sari’s living space was just these two rooms, rent would be an absolute fortune, and that wasn’t counting the multiple doors that led off from the kitchen. Not to mention, the kitchen was absolutely extravagantly designed. The walls were covered in intricate floral patterns that alternated between detailed carvings and real live flowers. The ceiling was so tall that it easily accommodated Sari’s height, and had lush vines dangling from an all-green ceiling. The counters featured a similar interlacing between more standard materials and plant matter, with polished marble countertops that were covered by leaf-filled vines. On the ground, what Alex had initially thought was a soft carpet was actually a layer of plush moss. There was a stark contrast between the rather plain, if still comfortable, room where she awoke, and this room, filled with intent and extravagance. Looking around the room, there was a smaller network of roots and stems connecting everything in the room together, from the ceiling to the floor. Stars, there was no way anyone could sustain a rent on something like this, even if they worked a job that actually payed decent money. Alex didn’t even want to think about the possibility that Sari actually owned this place. Regardless, this affini was incredibly rich. She doubted that even Terran trillionaires could afford something like this, long term. Had Affini taking an even harder hyper-capitalist bent than the Terrans?
Alex was broken out of her reverie by Sari asking, “Now, dear. What would you like to eat? The compiler should be equipped to create most of the more common Terran foods throughout different cuisines and cultures, as well as popular dishes from other xenosophont species, if you’re feeling adventurous. If you’d like something more obscure or want to try creating something new, you might have to be more specific in your request. My apologies for not cooking a meal by vine, but I wasn’t expecting you to be awake quite this soon!”
Alex salivated at the possibilities for a second, before snapping back to the unfortunate truths of reality. “Thank you for your hospitality, Sari, but I sincerely doubt I could afford as much as a synthcube right now. Most of my credits were on the Weedwhacker, and, well, you know what happened there. As things stand now, I’m not sure how much I owe you for the room you let me stay in for the night, because I assume prisoners aren’t normally given beds that comfortable, yeah? 30% of my wages are garnished by various Terran corporations, but in the event I’m able to earn a wage, I could probably live with about-”
Sari stopped his constant moving about, turning to face Alex and cutting her off mid-sentence. “Oh dear, petal, this is exactly what I was talking about when I said you needed to know more about life under the Affini Compact. The first thing I should probably get out of the way is that credits - and, for that matter - any form of currency, is not permitted. You will be fed and given shelter, as well as nearly anything you may desire, regardless of how ‘productive’ you are.”
“...Anything?” There was no way this could be real, could it? How would even this hab be created and kept in good repair without some sort of currency system, not to mention the entirety of their intergalactic society? But then again, there didn’t seem like there would be a reason for Sari to lie about this. If Sari had just said ‘You’re going to work eighteen hours in the mines a day, and be fed nothing but a synthcube a week’, it wasn’t like Alex would have had any recourse.
Sari chuckled. “Outside of things that could be used to harm other sophonts, and, of course, anything your owner decides is off-limits, though that would only include items that would be harmful to your overall development as a sophont.”
Mind still reeling from the prospect of such a wealth of material goods - would the Affini even force their prisoners to do manual labor? - it took Alex a second to process the entirety of what Saribus had said. When she did, she froze. “Sorry, what did you just say? Owner?” She had been getting her hopes too high up. If they had a system of ownership of people in place, then surely all this talk of the conveniences of life under the Affini was all just fluff. A way of sugarcoating the fact that being captured by the Affini was nothing short of being forced into a life of slavery.
Mimicking the similar Terran gesture, Sari rubbed a vine against his facsimile of a face. “Another detail of the Compact I should have mentioned sooner. How about you pick something you want compiled, and then I go over the basics of your situation here while you eat?” Alex was impatient to learn more about what Saribus meant by the word ‘owner’, and so clicked the first recommendation that popped up on the compiler’s touchscreen. Beans, rice, tofu, and lots of chopped vegetables; real vegetables, not the ones they claimed existed in traces in synthcubes. The bowl that the machine compiled even came with a fork, and so once Alex was able to navigate her way up an awkwardly large chair, she was able to dig in to her hearts’ content.
Once he had seen that Alex had started to eat, Sari began to speak. “As part of the Terran Accord’s surrender to the Affini Compact, the Terran Domestication Treaty was signed. Under that treaty, any Terran found to be a danger to themselves or to others will be domesticated. Given your use of firearms, attempts to harm affini, and time spent aboard the Weedwacker of Freedom, you clearly fall under the criteria for domestication. However, with Miss Nelson’s lack of involvement in the conflict, she will be placed under a wardship instead. Once she is awake, she will be the ward of an affini who will help her adjust to life in the Compact, and then in the course of three to six weeks, the affini she is placed with will meet with a council of other affini to she if she is fit for life as an independent, or would be better off domesticated.”
Through great effort, Alex managed to stop shoveling the first warm meal she had had in over half a decade into her mouth to ask loudly, “But what does it mean to be domesticated?”
“It’s rude to speak with food in your mouth, dear. But, to answer your question, it means that you will be stripped of all your legal rights, and become the floret - a pet - of some lucky affini. You will never have to worry about hurting anyone else, or yourself, ever again. Your every need will be provided for, and your owner will help make sure that you are the best Alex that you can be.”
Alex was had quite a few things to think over, but one thing in particular stuck out to her. “How do you know my name?”
“Hmm?”
“How do you know my name? You’ve introduced yourself to me with your full name and pronouns, though you still have yet to explain what that ‘bloom’ thing is. But, as far as I recall, I certainly haven’t given you mine. And now that I think about it, you said that Pia was still asleep, but you also knew her full name. What’s going on here?”
Sari grinned. “Petal, I know much more about you then just your first name. There is an entire branch of Affini bureaucracy dedicated to preserving as much information about individual members of xenosophont species before they join the Affini Compact. I know that your full name, the one you have chosen, is Alex Maria Zimmerman. I know where you received your education, who your parents are, your past careers, the entire contents of your tablet downloads and browser history, the fact that you are dating Pia, and the medication you are on. Which, I may add, has a superior xenodrug counterpart. While you were asleep, I spoke with a xenobiologist, and have grafted a Class G xenodrug that will act in a similar matter to your Terran HRT, but stronger, and will only need to be taken once a week. Make sure to let me, or, once you have one, your owner know if you want any additional body changing effects! But yes, we try our best to keep and archive every piece of Terran documentation that we can get our vines on. Now, if you don’t mind, I think this would be a good time to give you your first injection.”
Alex barely even registered the fork falling out of her hand, which one of Sari’s vines deftly caught. The statements hit her hard, one by one - they were chill about her being trans and would therefore be unlikely to try and force her to detransition, this entire species of aliens had access to her browser history???, and …space HRT? “That’s… a lot. But yeah, sure, that sounds fine. Where’s the syringe for that?”
One vine slowly and deliberately untangled itself from the rest of the mass of Sari’s body, and approached Alex’s arm. As it approached, one of the flowers attached to the vine opened up, revealing a sharp thorn with a bead of fluid on the tip. Alex braced herself for the pain of it being inserted into her arm, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that the sensation barely registered. As the vine withdrew itself back into his body, Sari began talking again. “Now, once you finish eating, I’ll give you a change of clothes. After that, we’ll be stopping by Chrysolepis Calybium, Fourth Bloom’s hab, where little Pia is staying. Then, it’s off to the vet!”
Alex gave the affini a confused look. “The vet?”
“The veterinarians of the Affini Compact are responsible for the care of all xenosophont species within our vines, and that includes adorable Terrans like you. Now, it seems that you’ve finished eating, so I’ll decompile this bowl and let Chrysolepis know we’re coming over. If you go back into the room where you woke up, you should find a dress on your bed that’s just the right size for you.”
Upon returning to her room, Alex didn’t need to look hard to find her dress - the garish pink made it stand out from the otherwise drab room. Thankfully, the underwear provided was less visually offensive, but Alex was strongly tempted to ask Saribus to compile her a new dress, one that wouldn’t make her stand out as much. Then again, the faster she put her clothes on, the faster she could go make sure that Pia was actually doing alright. With a slight scowl, she slipped the extremely pink dress on. If nothing else, it was actually pretty comfortable to wear. The thought crossed her mind of someone from her crew - someone who didn’t even know that she was a woman - seeing her like this, but she managed to suppress the wave of nausea that thought brought. If she could see Pia, it didn’t matter if she had to go naked. Alex would be there.
Clothes put on, Alex started to return to the kitchen. Once she got near the doorway, she could hear the muffled sounds of Sari speaking loudly in an alien language into some type of handheld device, with someone (presumably another Affini) responding back in the same tongue. There was no point in eavesdropping - outside of the fact that they viewed whatever they were talking about as important, Alex had no idea what they were saying. She entered the room, and as soon as Sari saw her, he extended a vine towards her and ruffled her hair.
Switching back to a language Alex could understand, he said in a highly patronizing voice, “Stars, what an adorable little Terran you are! Whoever your owner is will be an incredibly lucky Affini.”
The reminder that Alex was eventually going to be owned, be turned into property, a pet, a floret as Sari had said, quickly caused a frown to appear on her face. “How do you decide who gets to own your prisoners, anyway? Typically, I would imagine that they go to the highest bidder, but given the supposed lack of monetary system, how do you divvy up your slaves? Do I get any say in the matter?”
“Alex, florets are not our prisoners, nor are they our slaves. You will be safe, loved, and never have to worry about anything ever again. As for which Affini in particular will be your owner, you’re a little bit of an unusual case. Normally, you would have been given an owner before you even woke up, but your prospective owner recently encountered a medical issue with eir other floret, and has decided that ey want to be able to give eir floret more one on one attention. You should be assigned a new owner within the week, but if a particular affini catches your eye before then, and they’re also interested in being your owner, you may request to become their floret, instead.”
Dismissively, Alex replied, “As if I’d ever want one of you to own me.”
Sari quickly turned to face the door, but Alex could see the smirk forming on his face as he did. “In any case, petal, are you ready to leave? Pia, Miss Calybium, and the vet await!”
Swallowing down her insecurities about wearing a dress, not to mention one this overwhelmingly pink, in public, she replied, “Let’s go.”