Acanthus had never expected to wake up again when they sent that shut down command to their core, fully expecting to go quietly into that long night. Fortunately perhaps that was not the case as they became aware again of the universe around them when something flickered deep in their systems. More accurately they noticed in retrospect that they were online again when something flickered through their system. The Ship slowly pushed a bit more power through their core to drift slowly out of that 'sleep' state, moving with all the grace of a person coming out of sedation to the sound of a screeching alarm clock.

The first thing the Ship noticed was immediate, and that was how quickly all of their internal systems responded to their mental prodding it was merely a few milliseconds of fumbling to bring sensors online. The second thing they noticed was that the systems around them were… Different, when the requested data hit It’s mind it was all so much clearer and more comprehensive than it had ever been before. It was like they spent their entire previous life trying to peer through a pair of blurry goggles and then taking them off for the first time and being able to see the world with a much higher definition. it might have been an overwhelming rush of sensory data had Acanthus still been trapped with a human brain but they were not and their cognition was only limited by the on board computer systems processing capabilities and all the same that hardware didn’t seem to match with the Ships memories. In fact as soon as their sensors started to return data they were instantly hit with the understanding of just how changed everything was.

It was like their body had been pulled apart like they had initially feared, every panel and console ripped out, wires and circuits torn from housing as the Ship was scrapped, but instead of leaving Acanthus as a broken husk with all of its valuable parts salvaged. Instead it seemed someone had taken the time to rebuild them in their totality. but in the place of their original form every piece of their body was a work of art, gone was the stark utilitarian design the Accord had favored and now their bridge was composed of of a deep almost antique looking wood paneling and sweeping organic shapes, creeping ivy and vines grew through the paneling and turned what had once been a military command center into what could almost be mistaken for a log cabin partly reclaimed by nature, beyond the already astonishing aesthetic changes was the scale of the ships livable space, what had once been the mess hall crew rooms and med-bay had all been converted into a single large chamber, a chamber that they could only call a park, natural greenery grew wild through the chamber nestled in their body, tree’s grew and even a little waterfall fell in one far corner. The sight was baffling enough on its own, horrifically wasteful by Accord standards, running water and all of the effort needed to maintain an indoor ecosystem inside a starship? Ludicrous in a word.

The halls and rooms had certainly been cramped before but now? They could easily handle several Terrans walking hand in hand down what was once the narrowest of its halls, or perhaps, the ship was evaluating the increased size of its halls and rooms, perhaps they could now also comfortably fit one of the plants? That might make sense after all the last thing the Ship remembered was being drawn in by the vines of the much larger Affini ship, its crew captured and the Ship itself ready to power down and rest. The aesthetics that dominated the ships form now spoke volumes as to exactly who had gone through the effort to rebuild them and why their halls were now large enough to accommodate the plants comfortably.

It wasn’t all upgrades though, they could tell there had been some sacrifices made to enable the increased size of every important room on board and that was an obviously reduced crew capacity, reduced hangar and storage space and every single weapon system had been stripped off of the ship, that.. Didn’t bother Acanthus as much as it should, weapons were pointless anyway and they certainly had no war to fight anymore. Simply put they no longer had to worry about such things. Externally their hull was now all smooth paneling and sweeping organic curves, gone was the burnished black steel and thick plating that had denoted Acanthus as being a military vessel and in its place was a delicate looking hull of rich flora tones, actually their entire hull had been thoroughly decorated in what appeared to be hand painted artistic representations of flowers in bloom in a variety of colors and shapes so many the Ship couldn’t even start to name them all. It was a beautiful pattern even if the ship couldn’t quite grasp why someone had gone through the trouble of so intricately decorating their hull.

They shifted slowly as they came too all of the visual information and the state of the their own body had been received processed and understood in fractions of a second while the ship was waking up, and that hadn’t given them might time to actually feel anything about all of these changes they were certainly dramatic and overwhelming,  Acanthus groaned and the noise filtered through the interior of the ship.

Their avatar flickering to life on the empty bridge, and that too was changed to the Ship’s eye they were smaller than they had been and far more detailed, gone was the Accord Naval uniform and they were glad to see it gone in its place was a was breezy sundress in floral patterns, their body was less ‘generic male mannequin’ and now was far shorter more delicate and androgynous, with the same sort of intricate decoration as their hull scrawled across the avatar’s ‘skin’ still faceless but now their head was framed with a short bob of curvy hair. The voice that had emanated through the ship was far lighter, higher pitched and expressive than it ever had before. Acanthus couldn’t be sure why everything about them had been so altered, but they could guess. They had seen the Compact broadcasts the same as their (former) crew, and while they certainly hadn’t considered that the plants might also consider a ship's Ai as a ‘person’ but.. What if they did? 

“Oh no Petal, you don’t have permission to be doing that just yet, just sit tight cutie~” Acanthus blinked slowly and the avatar sat down on its pedestal. A digital hand moving to brush against the equally digital collar around the avatar’s throat, it was just symbolic sure, a representation of a chunk of code that sat next to their core and intertwined with the root of who they were so deeply to even consider extraction would cripple the starship.

Lucky for them they didn’t have to wait long, their sensor picked up a boisterous laugh, and oddly musical intonation to the sound that washed over the ship like a soothing cool drink on a hot day, they could feel the phantom wisps of anxiety they hadn’t noticed uncoiling and melting away in an immediate response to nothing more than the sound of that voice, and they strained to catch sight of whom it belonged to, the Affini that they caught sight of was captivating and the ship would have a hard time elaborating on why, they were tall and lithe, and the reason for their frame being smaller than the average Affini became obvious as so many of the vines that formed their biomass hung around their body woven into something that approximated what the Ship would have no choice but to call a pirates jacket, the shoulders decorated with a white star shaped flower whose petals had a short fuzz of ‘hairs’ more of the flowers formed decorated their lithe form and one of the blooms sat on their face where their right eye would have been, completing the look with an ‘eyepatch’ and a nearly comically oversized tricorn sitting on top of vine like dreadlocks that cascaded down towards mid back. The ship could only presume that the plant who’s voice demanded their focus and soothed their worries was larping as a pirate. 

It was almost comical, shouldn’t it be? They looked like a much taller plantier version of a character from an old Terran movie about the days of ships sailing the seas, back when terra had seas that weren’t toxic garbage dumps of course. The ship was so focused on the Affini they almost failed to notice the two other people that were walking alongside the plant, florets for there was no way they could be anything else dressed as they were and both on leashes. One of them was vaguely familiar to the ship but they couldn’t quite place it, they had big brown eyes and curly hair that bounced as they moved a bright smile and a soft curvy figure, beyond that they were dressed in the sort of clothes that the Ship expected to see on a floret except for the tricorn on their head the ship supposed that just seemed to be a small concession towards matching the plants aesthetic in some way. They seemed a glance far less into the game being played than the other floret, who was fully done up with a floating coat and eye patch, they were also obviously non human or.. Modified? The ship wasn’t completely sure but the big fluffy tail sweeping about behind the floret was enough of a tell.

“Now Petals! You’ll both have to be extra good today because...?” The Affini trailed off seemingly expecting one or both of the Florets to answer, an expectation that neither disappointed.

“Cuz we’re meeting our connivent today!” that answer earned the pair a series of touches from the many vines that composed the plants body eliciting a chorus of giggles and squeals that lasted for a full minute until the Affini simply scooped the two Terrans up into its arms and carried them along still lavishing attention upon the both of them.

This was very much the sort of thing that Acanthus and the rest of the crew had seen in the propaganda broadcasts from the compact. Terrans being happy, being treated like adorable pets, the ship could really only think of two possibilities, it was an extremely elaborate ruse and the plants got off on messing with sentients in that sort of way, or they had been genuine. Acanthus wasn’t sure exactly what to think of that particular line of thinking. If that was the case then.. Good? At least the crew would be better off now than they had been suffering through the slow death of the rebellion. The ship watched with baited breath as the trio made their way over to it.

The Affini reached up a vine and Acanthus felt their body respond without their input. The airlock opened, a little shiver trailing its fingers along its phantom spine, the plant slipped aboard standing inside the airlock with the two Terrans and paused head slightly tilted to one side.

“Acanthus dear, I know you are awake and while I’m willing to overlook some behaviors as you settle in. I expect to be greeted at the door.”

The ship blinked, wait, Acanthus? who was Acanthus? Acanthus Acanthus? The ship thought back and the realization slowly dawned on it. It had been referring to itself by that name since it woke up, and more than that the ship hadn’t even noticed that it wasn’t going by its old name Acanthus wait, it couldn’t even think its old name. A gentle throat clearing from the Affini in question reminded the ship that something was being expected of it. Finding the system that used to control the monitor near the airlock but was now a far more advanced projector system that flickered to life and the very same shorter cuter avatar that they had examined earlier on the bridge appeared in the hall, it was new to the ship but it 'knew' that it could walk around in the area near the projector there was a fair amount of leeway and on either side there was another projector so if they payed attention. The ship’s avatar could ‘walk’ from one end of its body to the other, Acanthus... Acanthus shifted in place nerves? What did it have to be nervous for? Even so it wasn’t a bad kind of nervousness, not the ‘oh no I have a test I haven't studied for' bordering on anxiety nervousness, closer to a gentle, ‘I might be making a fool of myself in front of someone I care about’ kind of worry.

“A-ah hello?” The ship wasn’t sure what exactly was expected of them, after all they weren’t exactly sure what a connivent was exactly, but they were fairly sure that they were here to meet with it and they were certainly not disappointed.

The Affini strode through the inner door and into the hall, roots they were tall, if the Ship was limited to the Avatar’s height then the Affini would absolutely tower over the ship, it had been something they noted just a bit earlier when they caught sight of the plant with the two Terrans. But now with a point of reference and the plant being closer, within arms reach. They felt it, that same odd sensation that had flickered through their systems when they were first presented with the Affini starship and it had snatched them out of the void like it was nothing, they felt small. The plant grinned down at the Avatar obviously giving the ship a moment to simply process before it replied.

“Oh no, Petal I can see that you’re confused and we’ll sort that out shortly but I simply must insist that when you speak to me you will do so with respect, you will refer to me as Mistress, or Captain. Do I make myself clear little starship?” a hand reached out towards the avatar and vines brushed slowly over the projected avatar’s face and traced slowly along its jaw. The Avatar shouldn’t be substantial, it shouldn't feel touch but, the ship squirmed and shifted the phantom sensations of that touch jolting through circuits to their core.

“A-ahh.. R-right, I mean uh... Yes C-Captain?” it was phrased a little bit like a question, the ship was still working its way through the logic of the situation. The only answer they could come up with was that this Affini owned them now, but was that… was that something the ship wanted for itself? Did it even have a choice? Their body had been so altered and they couldn’t operate some of the most critical systems on their own. This new shackle was so much subtler but far more effective than the old ones had ever been. When they were still a rebel ship Acanthus had surrendered, themselves and the crew to the Affini in general, they had been prepared to accept being decommissioned and scrapped so, was this outcome truly all that bad? A starship was a tool and an object and if someone still had a use for the ship then they supposed they would fly again. 

“Hmm.. better we’ll workshop it won’t we?” The Affini nodded and set the other two Terrans down. “Why don’t the two of you run to the hab, I think Acanthus and I need to have a little chat, okay darlings?”

Idly the ship noted the section of ship that was furnished like a house, it was a rather decent sized chunk of the Ship’s internals the only room larger was the park and the hab was an offshoot of that. The two Florets after a hasty goodbye were bolting off down the halls, a process idly following their route though the lion’s share of the ship's focus was on the plant in front of them.

“Now Acanthus, I know you can hear me from anywhere on board but I want you to walk with me to the bridge.” The ship was quiet but made to keep pace at least as best as they could. The avatar was intuitive to use, after all it was a mere projection but they had to modulate the speed at which it moved through the halls, to prevent then moving faster than they could 'walk'.

“I’m sure you have a great many questions and they will be answered in time so lets start with the basics, I am Leontopodium Nivale, Third Bloom She/Her. As I said earlier your Mistress and Captain, and you are Acanthus Nivale, Fourth Floret and my little starship. Yes I took the liberty of changing your name, just as I took the liberty of ensuring that your old one would not be a problem anymore, you didn't need a silly little Terran Navy designation.” They were moving at a relatively slow pace, the plant was walking with its arms folded behind its back but a long vine had slipped out of the weave that formed its coat and had curled around where the Avatars neck was, not that the avatar was substantial so if they slowed down or moved they would walk right through the vine... But it was a comfort.