Chapter Text
When Olive Pruitt first found herself on board the Arctotheca, she was thrilled. Of course she’d heard the things the Accord said about the Affini, she would’ve had to have lived under a rock these last couple years not to hear anything – but the things she heard, uh, didn’t seem likely to say the least.
“The Affini eat humans for breakfast, bones and all”
“The Affini want to put humanity to work in their dark, horrible mines”
“The Affini will make you their brainless pet and never let you free again”
Well actually, they didn’t dispute that last one. But as for the rest? She knew propaganda when she saw it. Even if half the things she heard were true, they couldn’t be that much worse than the Terran Accord. Plus, if she had to spend one more day doing pointless jobs to make megacorporations .01% more revenue on their balance sheet, she was going to scream.
The reality of life in the Compact was essentially a paradise in comparison. No more capitalism, free access to pretty much anything she wanted, and the things she’d heard about what Class G’s could do compared to the HRT she was on now were exciting to say the least.
Olive hadn’t resisted or shown feralist tendencies when the Affini first arrived, so one quick orientation meeting later she was shown to her new hab. She could have stayed on board the slowly dying asteroid station she’d been stuck on for most of the war (albeit in much better newly renovated housing), but literally why would she ever do that. Olive was excited for her new life as an independent, finally able to explore who she wanted to be when she didn’t have to devote all her energy to survival.
Independents. They held an unusual place in affini society, which is to say in close proximity to the Affini, but not living life as floret pets blissed out of their minds.
Not that she was particularly opposed to being a pet.
Or being blissed out of her mind.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t given it much thought either. She’d thought about submission extensively and in great detail , but there were things about it that just nagged at her and made imagining going down to the domestication center fill her with anxiety.
What if she didn’t like her new owner? What if they disagreed about what was best for her? What if she enjoyed herself at first, then changed her mind? It was completely permanent, and her life was already so tumultuous lately. Wouldn’t it just be better to play it safe?
So she’d committed to exploring the Arctotheca and picking back up her old hobbies. After all, it wasn’t like she had to do anything anymore. She’d spent her first week or so seeing the sights, and every new thing she came across awed her more. Sure it was technically just a ship, but the Affini had spared no expense (metaphorically, money wasn't a thing anymore) and she didn’t know how to begin to describe the size of the ship and amenities it had on board. No Terran ship could have ever justified installing an actual, fully sized water park just for fun. But they’d done so, apparently on one sophont's request.
Probably her greatest boon in settling in had been Iris. Technically her name was Iris Veltantha, Fourth Bloom (they/she), but they’d become close enough she wasn’t too worried about the formalities. Meeting new sophonts had never been her strong suit, so when the first affini she met seemed interested in staying in touch she wasn’t about to pass up the chance. Iris had helped her find opportunities to socialize without pressure or stress, and was perfectly happy taking a backseat role to keep an eye on things.
It helped too that Iris seemed to have no interest in taking anyone as a floret. In many of her interactions with other affini there was this sort of undertone? Like they’d pet or compliment her, which was nice, but she always felt like she had to watch her reaction or they’d decide she was interested in being theirs. Iris seemed to take everything in stride, and she could just be herself around her.
That being said though, she was still careful in any interaction she had not to give the impression she was a seed (their cute nickname for someone who doesn’t realize they want to be a floret). The last thing she needed was more affini acting hotly condescending and deciding they knew what was best for her. So she had absolutely no idea what in the world had gotten into her and made her say something like this within 10 miles of an affini.
It started on one of her nights out with Iris. Before she left, Olive made a quick stop by her mirror to make sure everything was in order. She didn’t want to go out and suddenly realize she was a mess, or that she was wearing a shirt that said “I am a danger to myself and others and I’ll eat this plastic I found on the ground unless I'm domesticated posthaste”.
Everything seemed in order. Dark green cardigan? Check. Comfortable pants? Check. Curls somewhat tamed? Check. Glasses? Well not check, actually, she sometimes forgot she didn’t need them anymore. Her watery blue eyes stared back at her, and she gave herself another once over before heading out.
They’d met up with a handful of other affini, their florets, and one or two other independents and headed out to a club. She knew some sophonts in her position would have been apprehensive interacting so much with affini, but (fears of coerced domestication aside) the affini were just sophonts like her. Sure they might be a bunch of semi-immortal giant plant beings older than her society, but that didn’t mean they had nothing in common to talk about.
The evening had started like many others in the time since she’d moved aboard the Arctotheca, with most of them grabbing drinks, drugs, or fancy alien drugs and going out to the dance floor. As for Olive? She’d happily take the drugs, but the dancing wasn’t exactly her favorite. So like usual, she’d scoped out a quieter corner and spent her time talking with Iris; holding down the fort (and drinks) for the others as they migrated back and forth from their booth.
At first she’d talked about her latest hyperfixation, an old Terran game called In Stars and Time. Olive probably could have kept talking about it for most of the evening, but she tried to have at least a little restraint.
Eventually, the conversation had taken a turn to their latest stop, a Terran rebel hidey hole on a small ice dwarf. One laughably one-sided fight later and they’d picked up a new batch of soon-to-be-florets for domestication. Their former leader had been seen just a day later, collared and leashed, happily being taken for a walk in one of the ship’s beautiful parks.
Blame it on being wizard high on affini drugs she couldn’t quite recall the name of, but something slipped out before she could stop herself.
“I mean the rebels can’t have been trying that hard, breaking after just a day around the Affini is a little sad”
She froze immediately after saying it, already regretting her words, but Iris just tilted their head at her.
“And you believe you would fare differently in our vines?”
She froze, then averted her eyes while blushing, but whatever had come over her wasn’t done.
“I- uh. Well all I’m saying is I wouldn’t surrender that easily, I’m strong willed and so powerful and um. stuff like that.”
If she was panicked before, now she was kind of losing it. Brushing on topics of domestication around an affini that wasn’t interested was one thing, practically taunting her about it was entirely different. But maybe Iris had more restraint than she feared, because they just said one word.
“Interesting.”
Her memories of the evening after that were blurry, but she remembered stammering out a change of subject and hanging around a bit longer before heading back to her hab. As she walked home, she’d started to relax. Sure she’d said a whole lot more than she meant to, but that was one of the great things about Iris. They knew her judgement had just been compromised by the xenodrugs, and weren’t going to press her about it. By the time she’d laid down to rest, she’d practically pushed it out of her mind entirely.
Until the next morning, when she checked her inbox.
[VerdantV]: You made quite the interesting claim last night Olive.
Uh oh. She had better nip this in the bud.
[OliveBranch]: Oh gosh ignore that sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking last night.
[VerdantV]: Of course, petal. So you don’t stand by what you said?
[OliveBranch]: umm, well
She knew she was being stupid right now, but was she really going to say "of course I take it back, I would break in a heartbeat" to an affini? Besides, she was strong-willed! She could resist! In her mind she imagined one of the affini trying to break her, pulling out all the stops only to be pulled up short by her ironclad will. They'd be so impressed and admit that she was just too strong to be tamed.
[OliveBranch]: I don't mean to be dismissive of your people's prowess at making sophonts submit, obviously you're quite good at it. I just don't think it would go down like that if it were me in that situation
[VerdantV]: Interesting.
Olive immediately knew she'd make a mistake. Again.
[VerdantV]: Perhaps you'd be open to proving your claims? Not that I doubt a strong-willed sophont like yourself, but bold statements like that should be backed up surely?
Normally this is where she'd back out. She was all for a bit of fun, but she didn't want to do anything that could end with her in a companion dress. But this was Iris they were talking about, she didn't need to worry. And at this point, why not dig the hole even deeper?
[OliveBranch]: I don't know what you have in mind but I can handle it. You're on.
[VerdantV]: Very well then, I'd like to see you at my hab this evening at 6. I'm sure the experience will be quite enlightening.
Fuck.