The door to Crimson Saventa’s hab slides open, as Delphinium Idra steps inside. While it’s not all that uncommon for Crimson to be out of the hab during one of her impromptu bi-monthly at this point visits, this one is a good bit different.

Several of the affini at the apiary have reported that Crim simply stopped showing up to check on the hives. Which to say it is unusual for Crim’s standards would be an understatement, that girl would get a cold and still go to at the very least sit near the window and watch them every day until she was well enough to return to working formally.

Taking small steps through the hab, Delfi looks up slightly. “Hab, when was the last time Crimson was here?” As she asks this, the lights to the hab flicker on, causing the place to look far less ominous, and more… empty. The stark refusal to decorate being a choice that she’d chided Crim on time and time again.

“Crimson has not been here for approximately one month! She’s currently staying on the affini vessel the Equabloom.” Chirps from overhead, the hab AI being set to sound like a beeple. 

Delfi pauses as this is stated, her entire body tightening up in response. She takes a few more steps toward the bedroom, opening the door, and looking inside to see that what very little possessions Crim has have already been moved. “What…”

With shaking vines, she slowly pulls her datapad out, hoping that Crimson hadn’t just run off one day and accidentally gotten herself domesticated. Sure, if she’d submitted unwillingly due to reckless behavior, she would have been informed due to her letters of intent, but if she’d just hopped on a ship and been pulled in by another affini. 

Delfi shudders, the poor girl is too clueless on her own, always rushing into things without fully grasping the concepts. As Crim’s file finally pops up on her datapad, she can’t help but let out a shuddering sigh of relief. Undergoing body modification.

Well at the very least that explains this behavior, Crim’s lack of comfort in her body was always as obvious as her need for someone to watch over her. The girl running off without a second thought to get a body more comforting to her is by far one of the least cataclysmic options that she could have picked.

“Alright, just a few messages to… one Anemone Agalia, well it’s good to see Crimson interacting with any vet at the very least.” Delfi slowly scrolls down the updated medical notes, only to have her eyes nearly fall out of her mask as she’s met with the information that Crimson is not only on board the Equabloom, but is also headed directly to attempt to live on a hive moon.

“WHAT IN THE EVERBLOOM!?”

*************************************************************

Vinca Xenathrum leans back in her seat, one eye on each screen in front of her. Casually running through a few different files for patents she’s going to be seeing later today, only to hear slamming at the front door of her office. “Hab, please open the door for my unexpected guest.”

As the door slides open, it reveals Delfi standing there, her body so wound up that it appears to be just about ready to cut itself in half. 

“Oh… oh my, Delfi what’s got you like this, I’ve not seen you this upset since you started your work with Crimson.” Vinca gets up looking around Delfi into the hallway, trying to make sure that Crim isn’t somewhere in the area, whether it be on a stretcher, or just high out of her mind. Mostly keeping her calm to give Delfi at least some level of assurance. “Or is there another hurt sophont you need help with?”

“Crim-” Delfi walks into the hab practically vibrating with tension. “She ran off after my last check in with her to go to the Equabloom to get body mods, which that part I am happy for her taking some initiative to be happy with herself…but her record has her intent on riding it to the nearest hive moon and moving there!”

“Okay and?” Vica sits back down at her desk as Delfi walks up, starting to pull up Crim’s file to look through everything. “I mean as long as she’s got an affini or two watching over her, she’ll be fine, and eventually likely be pulled out or finally go through with domestication I’m guessing.” She keeps two eyes on the screen, as the top four look up at Delfi. “Or are you taking issue with another part of this development?”

“What if someone takes advantage of Crim? She is so focused on bees that all it would take is an affini with a beeple to lure her in, and sucker her into domestication, even if she doesn’t really want it.” Delfi leans in while wiggling. “I don’t want her to get hurt or just…anything bad at all. She is my responsibility.”

“Actually, she’s currently the responsibility of one Azalia Quist.” Vica twirls the screen around to reveal a picture of Crimson after her first set of mods, with an additional set of arms resting in Azalia’s vines. “And she’s had two new letters of intent put down in her file, the first by Azalia, and the second by…” She taps her way through a second monitor, pulling up a picture of the honey pot with Ipheone holding bramble in her vines. “Ipheone Alba tenth bloom, she runs the Honey Pot, and apparently Crimson has become fast friends with her floret bramble!”

“But luckily for you, it seems she’s still kept herself fully independent. Even against an affini wiggling a beeple in front of her.” Looking up from her screens with a wide smile, she’s given pause by the abject horror on Delfi’s face with this new information. “I see that you’re not seeing any of the positives here, are you?”

“I wanted to do all of this with Crim!” She huffs before gripping the table. “I can’t believe she would just…leave without telling me or asking if I would help her. I would have arranged for someone to come and handle things for me here while I transferred to the Equabloom with Crim.” Delfi’s voice drifts to a discordant tone, her vines tugging against one another in a mess of uncoordinated movements.

“Well… I’d say that you know Crimson better than anyone else at this point, and that means that you should be aware of the fact that she may have been… running from you.” Vicna slowly stands up, walking around her desk, to pull Delfi into a hug. “And this doesn’t mean that she hates you, but it conforms to my theory that she was scared of getting close to you.”

“I haven’t read the most on her updated file yet, but it does seem like getting away for a bit has allowed her to open up in a way she was unable to while here.” Vinca slowly pulls Delfi away from her desk, if only to stop the woman from snapping it in half. “So I’m going to recommend… you take a break from wellness checks, go on vacation, if you’re really that concerned about her, if you don’t want to lose her. Head over there, and find out what possessed her to do this yourself.”

Delfi shudders and loosens up. “Of course I am concerned, I feel like Crim was slowly becoming my friend, and I always did my best to make her feel like she could come to me with wants, needs, and problems. It just… hurts that she didn’t.” She leans into the touch before nodding. 

“A vacation sounds kind of nice, while things have stabilized around here, I have been feeling like I’ve been spread a little thin. Maybe if I could have visited in a less formal manner more, Crim may have eventually opened up to me about all of this.”

“Did… you really only ever visit her during wellness checks?” Vinca wraps her arms more tightly around Delfi’s sides, hoping that she’s simply misunderstanding, as she pulls her datapad out, starting to scroll through the details on what ships are currently on world and where they’re heading. 

“No wonder she just ran off, that girl only ever saw Wellness Checks as anything other than a threat. Probably convinced herself your attempts to know her to be manipulation, or some other fantasy.”

“I visited her more often than just the wellness checks, but not by much. I went 2-3 times a month, although one of those was always a wellness check. But after we were able to reduce the checks, I did my best to have even those be more casual. It’s just been hard, I’ve been doing multiple checks a day every month since we got here.” Delfi shudders slightly. 

“I probably have wilted a little bit with how little rest I’ve been able to get in really.”

“Well then who knows, next time you see her you may be, Delphinium Idra, third bloom.” Vinca shakes Delfi ever so slightly. “Ah ha, sooooo it might be more than a little uncomfortable but… how would you feel about riding with me in my personal ship? It’s going to be the fastest way to get onboard the Equabloom, before they arrive at Nyria that is, but I doubt you wanna wait a whole year with how wiggly you’ve been today.”

Delfi pauses, a small grin cracking onto her mask. “You are too good at figuring me out. If you are able to, I think I would like that though. We are supposed to be getting more affini for infrastructure, and who are picking up their adoptions, in the next ship stopping by, so things will be lightening up enough for me to stop anyway.” She looks over a few of her leaves that were out of place and half wilted. 

“A vacation really does sound fantastic, and getting to see Crim in a more casual setting will be really nice too.”

“Then why don’t we meet back up here in one week, you can go and find a nice place to rebloom, or if that’s not necessary recover, and I will start putting everything together for our trip to the Equabloom.” Vinca gently releases Delfi from her ironclad grip. 

“You don’t need to worry about anything other than showing up at the station on time, and hey… maybe go grab some videos of Crimson’s old hives. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see them.”

“Thank you, that sounds like a wonderful idea.” Delfi begins to put in her vacation time statement and the request for her pre-existing cases to be transferred upon more case workers arriving. “I’ll be reblooming at the apiary around the bees, that should be nice and relaxing.”

Vinca nods, patting Delfi a few times as she sends her off. "Then I'll see you then, I'm glad you came to me about this instead of simply running off in a tizzy." She takes a small step back, allowing the door to her office to close back up in front of her.

************************************************************

Vinca sighs, moving the seats inside of her normally private vestle around. Now having two seats up front, rather than the normal formation of leaving the second seat in the back to have more privacy. "Delfi, how's packing all of your gifts for Crim going? I'm ready to take off when you're done."

Delfi comes up, looking much better than she had a week ago. Her vines a more lush green, with blossoming petals. “I just finished, sorry for the wait.” She situates herself in the seat before smiling up at Vinca. 

“Hey…thank you for this trip…and dealing with me being worn out and stressed, it has been a huge help having you be calm through everything.”

“I’ve always been of the headspace that we should more intimately watch over those in their younger blooms. Everything is a learning experience, and having someone to lean on is always a necessity.” Vinca uses her right three arms to pull Delfi into a hug, while her left set starts to power up the ship for their trip to the Equabloom. 

“Luckily it will only be a month max, I’m taking a slower path in order to line up with Crimson healing from her second set of mods. The last thing we need is you running in, and being met with a drugged out version of your favorite problem sophont.”

Delfi giggles a little bit before nodding. “Most of my teachers were very devoted to the idea that we are able to handle anything. It kind of always stressed me out, but I never really felt like I could say anything or I would get looked down on. I feel like for as much as I’ve been overworked recently, I’ve learned the most from the couple of times you’ve given me some back up on understanding a situation.”

“As they say every community in the compact is different, and expectations can get to us all. Especially when we’ve first sprouted.” Vinca hums as the ship slowly stirs to life around them, some uncharacteristically cheery music starting to jingle through the cockpit. 

“Back when I was in my first blooms, I swear. I had no idea what I wanted to be. If you’ll believe it, I was actually hyper focused on how capturing ferals worked, and hunting them down. It took actually ending up with my first floret, and taking some time to just experience the universe for me to realize my love of helping the little ones heal.”

The ship slowly takes off from the ground, gliding past a few hills on its way to getting enough acceleration to break the atmosphere. “I’ve never really looked back since then, and that brings me to a question for you, did you just start working Wellness Checks because you thought it was expected of you? Or is it something that actually makes your petals bloom every sunrize, does it make you happy?”

Delfi nods slightly, as she looks away from Vinca. “I do enjoy helping all the little sophonts we meet, but I’ve not really known how else to help them. I like seeing sophonts doing a little better with every visit, but for how often I visit, I don’t really feel like I’m actually doing that much. Honestly pushing through extra visits with Crim was more enjoyable for me. I just…I’d like to do more one on one help, I just don’t really know how to get situated to do it.”

“It sounds to me like you’re looking for a… floret?” Vinca flashes a grin over at Delfi as they pierce the atmosphere. “I mean you definitely do a lot of one on one work in your job, if you want my theory, what’s bugging you is that you don’t actually get to see where all that work leads, you just either trust them to their own devices, or find them owners that will care for them properly. Then the one sophont that you really wanted to see where their life is going hopped on a ship, and ran away from your relationship.” Once they are outside of the atmosphere, Vinca slows them down. Just to sail past the newest affini vestle that’s stopping in to stay at Helios 201 for now. 

Delfi huffs, and looks away briefly, her gaze locked on the vessel next to them, as her vines bundle more tightly around one another. Nowhere near as aggressively as the previous week, but still tight enough to reveal her nerves around the topic. 

“I mean… I do want a floret, and I would like for them to be Crim, I just haven’t really felt like I’ve been able to give the sophonts that I work with the attention I would like to, with how much of a mess Helios’s takeover has been. Like… if I could have a floret, then maybe do something similar to wellness checks, but perhaps only seeing like, 3 a week, maybe twice a week minimum for those three. I guess what I’m getting at is that I’ve not really felt like I’ve been able to give individuals the attention they need.”

“Mhm…” Vinca nods to herself a few times, leaning back in her seat as she takes one last look at Helios on the way out. “I can see what you mean now.” Her smile falters ever so slightly, more than a little concern about Delfi slipping into her voice. 

“Then perhaps you can search out cases like those, find sophonts who need more personal attention, and dedicate your time to them. I can assure you that you’ll be met with nothing but support from me with any path you choose, roots you could go back to school to learn something entirely new if you really want to.”

“Learning more could be nice, maybe I could find and get situated with something that would give me what I want out of helping others. I think aside from seeing Crim, I could look around the Equabloom for any inspiration on what I could personally learn to do.” Delfi smiles at Vinca while wiggling some of her vines. “Thank you for believing in me.”

“I’ve believed in you since we first met during the invasion of Helios. I’m simply happy to be seeing you blossom into yourself.” Once they’ve passed by the few ships in their way, Vinca starts to crank up the pace of their trip. Leaning back, and simply watching the stars in the distance roll by. 

“Even when I was perhaps more hard on you than you needed, during the Crimson situation, it was admirable to see how far you were willing to go to try and make something good out of what had started as a rather vicious argument.”

Delfi laughs a little bit. “Yeah, I was already being stretched a little thin with how much I was needing to do right when we landed on Helios, then Crim really took me off guard, on top of a lot of her situation being things I was really not well trained for. I think it is part of what made me so fascinated with Crim.”

“Indeed, it was quite the astounding state to hear that she’d paraded around refeeding syndrome in your little argument. She was actually correct about that need, just made me wonder why she even knew about it in the first place. I tried asking her at one of our appointments and she of course gave me the run around about it.” Vinca shakes her head once they’re on course, turning her seat to the side to enjoy a long chat with Delfi.

********************************************************

Vinca flops her head to the side, now in the passenger side seat, her body mostly detangled, as Delfi tentatively attempts to run the ship for the day. Having spent the last three and a half weeks straight teaching Delfi the basics of flight. “It’s gonna be fine, you’re doing great for your first time. We’re only three days away from the Equabloom, and I’d bet Crim would be impressed to hear that you actually did this.”

Delfi smiles and keeps the ship steady. “Thank you, I’m still a little nervous, but I enjoy actually getting the chance to try in a safe environment.” She looks over the various read outs before focusing back on the flight. “I honestly never expected to do something like this, even for a short time. It may be fun to do more, and it is making me think about all that shuttle pilots have to do and watch over.”

“Indeed, I personally recommend getting at least a general education in the subject. You never know when you’re going to want to just go explore the universe for a bloom.” Vinca traces her eyes over the consol, making sure that everything is working as intended. “That or in case you want to go chase another sophont across the stars some day, and you don’t have your good old friend to shuttle you back and forth personally.” 

“Thank you for shuttling me to go chase a cute sophont I grew attached to.” She reaches over to give Vinca a little rub. “I’m glad you are getting to relax through this a bit though, I wouldn’t want you to push yourself too hard for me.” She giggles a little bit. “And yeah, it is a good skill to be learning, and it lines up with me wanting to learn a bit of everything to find what feels best.”

“Indeed, and it’s been no stress at all, if anything going on a trip with a friend has been a goal of mine for far too long.” Vinca chuckles dryly as the ship takes a slight turn to the right. “So it looks like we’re both getting what we’ve needed.” She pulls her datapad out of the more tangled vines that protect her core. Starting to tap away at it to see any updates on Crimson’s file while they travel. Being met with picture after picture of Crimson’s new mask, as well as her shortened legs and wings. 

“Oh speaking of what we’ve needed, Raven Seventa will actually be formally speaking with both of us finally after we arrive. Anemone has consolidated their files now that they’ve openly admitted to being pluribus, and Raven actually seems to have a more calm demeanor on the whole luckily.” 

“That’s good, as much as I find Crim fascinating, I was always worried about Raven, especially with how little it seemed like she even tried to come out to say anything.” Delfi looks over to admire the pictures briefly. 

“We will be able to have a nice and calm conversation, we can figure out just how we stand together. I understand Crim is still very independent, but I would like to try and get some chances to talk in more casual settings than how things were on Helios.”

“Well the good news is we’re going to have more than enough chances to talk with her casually.” Vinca pulls the tablet away, as she goes back to getting Delfi to focus on the flight. “And I have gotten you signed up for a hab in the same ring, it’s a decent walk from the one Crimson is staying in, but it’s better than needing to travel between rings whenever you want to check on her I’d say.”

Delfi relaxes a little bit more. “Thank you, I hadn’t even thought that far yet. Where will you be staying by the way? I would like to experience the Equabloom with you too.” She adjusts their angle with the calculations from the flight computer, ensuring they will line up with the Equabloom. “Aside from Crim and Raven, do you have any plans?”

“Oh I’m just going to be enjoying the vacation! I’ve been looking for an excuse to just relax for a while, and this seems like the perfect excuse.” Vinca shrugs, her form starting to slowly bundle herself back together. “I might even go speak with Anemone, learn more about how she does biomods for those who aren’t florets.”

“That sounds like fun. I think I’m going to check out the green house facilities and maybe look into sophont care facilities. I know the class J cafe’s, but I’d like to see salons and other similar things. I never really had time during my previous classes, so I’m gonna just enjoy it, maybe see if there is anywhere Crim or Raven would like to go with me.”

“That sounds perfect.” Vinca slowly stands up, sliding over to Delfi’s seat. “Now you get outta that seat before you damage your vines again already, I’ll take it from here, and you can keep studying in a less… vines on manner.” She slowly uses three of her arms to scoot Delfi out of the seat, before placing herself down into it. Content to simply enjoy the sights of the rest of their flight.