pistil dhoop, second floret of Hibiscus Dhoop, Fourth Bloom, curls up contentedly on a fluffy blanket. it’s green. there are big puffy gray cushions like boulders to nestle inbetween, and above lies a peaceful dark blue, dotted by a single glowing white moon amidst a slowly twinkling sea of yellow and white jewels.

“miss hibby”, as she likes to be called, “this is very comfy.”

the moon in pistil’s sky lights up. most florets do not get to have glowy moons to nestle under, but Hibiscus is a very special Affini who really liked the idea. especially since her leaves were glowy anyway when she wanted them to be. right now they were stars. it was very nice. her core made an excellent moon.

“Yes, Pistil cutie! That’s the idea. I’m sorry we didn’t get to go to the station today, but everyone from the shuttle is safely being dealt with now.”

“are we going back to the hibbyhab because um actually i sort of um”

the blanket pistil is lying on is pulled taut by sneaky, stealthy vines, and in a very sudden series of movements, rolled up with the floret inside of it. and then, with only her head sneaking out, there is a gentle brushing of her hair. the undulating glowing star leaves wobble to and fro. there were all kinds of nice places to relax, but inside miss hibby was basically the best. 

“Mmhmmmm?” there’s an excitement. an anticipation to the voice. pistil wiggles in place satisfiedly, bangs firmly curled over her eyes as she settles into the attention.

“well its just um i think something doesn’t make sense and i want to go investigate where the station came back because”

perhaps a lesser floret would be distracted by the ear rubs. but pistil is a very serious floret who takes her life very seriously, and as such, she only nuzzles into them without doing something silly like cutting herself off.

“Investigate? Why, Pistil, darling. It’s very dangerous. There’s sharp bits of metal, who knows if there’s anything explosive around. Abiete would have a fit if I was suggesting bringing a floret in there! Why, they’re just setting up the paperwork to have it all broken down for compilers in a couple of days! It’d be an absolute unthinkable scandal!” the moon glitters and glimmers in tune with Hibiscus’s words. it’s very easy to focus on them that way.

“oh so what you’re saying is we are absolutely going to go isn’t it i know you miss hibby you cannot fool me”

“We are absolutely”, Hibiscus resonates throughout her insides, “going to go. I’m already filing the paperwork now. You’re alright in there?”

“oh yes gosh um, is it a lot of paperwork because i don’t want to be a problem its just that”

“Shh. You already know the price of your indulgences, Pistil cutie. No getting out of it now, you know...” and slowly, the blanket cocoon is constricted by further vines within Hibiscus’s center. 

“its worth it miss hibby i think because um it might actually be really gmgmgpmph”

the best way to describe it is like a thick honey but with the texture of cotton candy. the dissolution is slow. miss hibby had described the drugs involved once, but it was a very unique cocktail and probably some of them weren’t official. 

it didn’t matter. it was always nice. it was always nice and it was impossible to chew it because your mouth just wouldn’t work anymore. the jaw muscles were just too warm and soft and then the softness would
d         and    d
 r          and              r
  i          and             i 
   p        and          p

down the throat and then there just weren’t any words anymore that would come out, it just wouldn’t move. you could breathe through your nose maybe but not because you meant to. there wasn’t control of that anymore. it was how you knew miss hibby had you. 

and now the night sky was changing and all of the leaves were slowly turning purple and pink and colors meant something different slowly, like how when you hear a noise sometimes you feel a nice feeling in your head, except now the colors made sounds and felt like being touched

in a real sunrise the sun wouldn’t still be there where the moon was but in a real sunrise
 the sun
 wasn’t the most important thing that had ever happened to you and it wouldn’t talk and you wouldn’t have forgotten what the words meant

but it doesn’t matter what the words mean because they’re good words about how good you are. they’re not
commands. they’re not requests. they’re just nice sounds that make your whole body shiver and now there’s vines inside the blanket and even if you wanted to squirm you cant anymore, that’s not your job, everything is warm and you can hear your heart because the fading stars are twinkling and the lights feel like being loved but also each one of the fading stars was something you’re thinking about

and then they’re gone and there’s nothing to think about. you are loved and good, and the softness is down in your hips and you can maybe move your toes if you want but there’s no reason to. 

and now there’s just bands of pink and purple and you can feel that warmth and the sensations of being massaged and rubbed and some of its just the vines and some of it is just the colors pressing into you and it doesn’t matter which ones are which because it’s all for you, the more you soften and the more you sink into it the better. anything else in your mind is just that slowly vanishing patch of night sky and you don’t need any of it right now, it’s safely tucked away, and all you need in your mind

is the sun

shining down and taking care of you, growing you, nurturing you, even as you’re rooted more firmly and permanently into place, becoming the best you that you can be

the sun is rising and it feels so good

and everything is just softer and warmer and you’re being hugged all over and then there’s just the pulse and its hard to describe honestly. it’s like noticing it’s a warm sunny day when you first step outside and feeling it from your head to your toes and then you suddenly forget and then you’re noticing it’s a warm sunny day when you first step outside and feeling it from your head to your toes and then you suddenly forget but it’s okay because you just feel those sensations over and over again 

you could try to think, but there’s always too many words passing through already. it’s like a busy street, but none of the words are for you, so you don’t really know what they’re saying. you don’t need to, they’re going somewhere important for you later. 

the sun 

is talking to something deep inside of you, and it’s not your business, you’re just a little flower being nurtured and grown by 

the sun

and with every pulse it just gets warmer and more tingly and flowers don’t move or think they just exist and that’s okay. 

the sun

says it’s okay to feel good and then you do and then you do and then you do and it all blends together and then you dimly remember you get to do all of this again so many more times

and then its time to take an afternoon nap.

and then

wake up again

to the peaceful moon and float back a little from the floret, making quiet noises in a little blanket burrito before a vine nudges her face gently.

“Alright, Pistil sweetie. I hope you still want to do all of that investigating with me, because it’s just about time to go.”

pistil dhoop, second floret, yawns. there’s a stirring. almost a moment of concern, before she settles down, slowly unrolling herself from her burrito.

“okay miss hibby i will be ready as soon as i can and i love you lots just let me find my clothes oh there they are you already got it thank you” there’s a bag ready. one fluffy suit, and one second oversuit designed to handle the vacuum of space.

“I love you too, Pistil. By the way, before we go out to a mass of broken equipment, jumbled metal, and possibly malfunctioning Terran jump drives, do you have any idea what you’re looking for?”

“kind of”

“Excellent. Oh! And do you have any idea how Terran ‘tenders’ work? There’s a very distinct chance I’m ‘escaping’ with it.”

“miss hibby why are you taking the shuttle there are a lot of better ships to”

“Because, Pistil, I decided it was the funniest thing I could do that would undoubtedly improve Abby’s day. Abiete needs more humour in her life, Pistil. Did you know she doesn’t even have a floret?”

“yes miss hibby”

“Exactly. We’re doing her a favour.” there’s the gentle, but snug securing of one(1) floret to the inside of Hibiscus with vines. the spherical area starts to shrink and compress, as likely, outside, miss hibby is trying to get in somewhere not meant for an Affini hellbent on being as round and spherical as possible. “We are making her life interesting.”

“yes miss hibby also can i use the bag to put the stuff in from the station please because i have a lot of important questions and that means i need to take some stuff from where everything fell apart because um i dont know how much you know about terran jump drives but theres a lot of”

“They’re -adorable-,” Hibiscus interjects briefly, and helpfully. “Now, which buttons do I press to start this thing?” there’s a helpful vine holding a tablet with a picture of --honestly, by terran standards, a borderline expensive setup. there are touch screens. nothing is dirty, and it looks like everything functions as intended.

“oh um you want to use the green screen first and set the number of expected delta vs and then the projected cost of the fuel is going to come up but if you press the lower left and lower right buttons for three seconds at the same time it’ll activate the factory default override so you wont have to have an accounting firm justify the costs oh and um if you need how many delta vs you just use the red screen and type in the coordinates and it’ll give you an estimate there.” in a rare moment, pistil dhoop actually stops to take a breath.

“You’re so good at these things, Pistil,” Hibiscus says, “I thought you never were a pilot?”

“i wasnt. i dont really like the idea of flying stuff myself. its scary. i just know how they work because i used to--”

there is the kick of a jump drive. it’s very nice being secured safely and snugly while that’s happening.