Nem bounces slightly as they are the one left behind to watch over Crim post surgery until Delfi arrives. Their gaze drifting over the girl’s head a few times, it’s almost entirely covered in vines, red flowers growing off of points where the surgery had been more intense, as well as bandages in specific spots to keep the bee girl from moving something she shouldn’t.

They gently roll a vine down the back of Crim’s hair, satisfied with the scarlet coloration and thickness that they’d achieved, having it fade slowly into the yellow fluff that now covers her entire face. Watching as the two mandibles on the front twitch ever so slightly as a response to the input. “Shhhh, you’re fine petal, just sleep and your friend will be here for you soon.”

After a few minutes of petting, Nem pulls away noting that Crim is firmly asleep, electing to simply sit down and go over the notes of safe foods, making sure nothing in the list would have a hard time going down through a straw or risk a choking hazard.

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

Solosia looks over from their spot in the art room, struggling to break their gaze away from Nix during one of her art projects. “Nix sweetie, I’m going to need to go and speak with another one of Crim’s friends, will you be okay if it’s only Celly here with you, or do you want to come with me?”

Nix for her part, barely even notices Solosia’s words at first, not in an attempt to ignore. She couldn’t ever block out the sound of her owner’s voice, but processing words while working on a project was more difficult than she’d be normally willing to admit.

After one last splash of red paint, she turns around to face her owners. Her smock, and a majority of her tail smattered with all different colors of paint. “Uhhh… can you repeat the question?”

Solosia shakes their heads, leaning down and using a vine to gently rub off a piece of pink paint that had dried onto one of Nix’s horns. “Do you wanna continue painting, or come with me to meet one of Crim’s affini friends.” 

Nix puffs her cheeks out, crossing her arms and humming. “I’ll… uhhhhhh…” She starts to space out, staring into the distance for a moment, her eyes locked on her first painting. “Uhhhhh… uhhhh…” As she tries to make the choice, her tail starts thumping against the ground.

Celosia at this point peels her mass away from Sola’s, her form quickly reconstructing itself into its normal red companion dress outfit, as she leans down scooping Nix up. “I’m going to say that me and Nix will be taking a bath, you go have your meeting, and if she’s still over by the time we’re done, I’ll bring Nix to say hi for a moment.”

Sola giggles a little bit. “Thank you, take your time and enjoy the bath.” She moves in and gives Nix a little kiss on the forehead. “Be good for Celosia Nix, I shouldn’t be too long if you two decide to stay here by chance.” She then leans in to give Celosia a hug. “I’ll have my pad on me if you need to call.”

“I’m sure you’ll have a full set of pictures of Nix in the bath by the time your appointment is done.” Celosia slowly cups the back of Nix’s head in her hand, before walking off toward the family’s bathroom.

After a few more minutes, there’s a light chime at the front door. Sliding open to reveal Delfi standing there patiently, her form bundled up around itself due to the shock, and anxiety, of being informed she’ll be Crim’s caretaker for the next few weeks.

Looking up at Sola, Delfi shudders slightly. Resting a foot and a half smaller than the other affini, and barely half as wide. Alongside the fact that this form is very notably lacking the affini’s other half, hanging off of her. “Hello, you’re Solosia Versa correct?”

“Currently I am just Sola, my partner is giving our floret a bath at the moment.” She smiles and steps aside. “I’ve been the one putting together Crimson and Raven’s recovery exercises, and I’ve gotten the notes on her final body mods, as well as you being her caretaker for this Miss Delfi. Please, take a seat and I’ll help you get organized on their overall care as well as the new specialized care routines that will be needed.”

Delfi nods slightly, walking over to the bright blue couch in the middle of the living room. Avoiding the half that is covered and rips and claw marks, assuming it’s the pair’s floret’s favorite spot. “Indeed, it was actually dumped on me at the last minute, but Crim seemed to want me to take care of her rather than being left with you, so I’m going to try my best.”

“Awww, that's sweet.” Sola smiles and takes a seat in an armchair across from the couch. “Indeed while we could watch her, I always encourage being cared for by a close friend.” She begins looking over her notes. “Alright, so the largest thing to know is that even if they are prepared, being blind can be very scary. They will need near constant physical contact while awake, although I would recommend keeping that contact through sleep as well.”

"Alright, that shouldn't be too difficult, I'm also going to be grabbing a few of her plushies to take with us to my hab, hopefully holding them will comfort her." Delfi slips her datapad out, starting to take notes about the recommendations. "So what about food, I know she got a lot of work done in her mouth, so anything solid could be liable to be a choking hazard."

“Well, I would advise making her smoothies, everything should be in a smooth liquid form for the first week. After that week, she can have solids, but I would make sure it is small and soft.” She begins pulling up some smoothie recipes. “Here, these should get Crim and Raven their nutritional requirements while also being very yummy.” Sola grins and leans forward. “I also made sure to include honey in all the recipes, it should do well not only for taste, but being more bee they should with the help of their mods get a little more from honey than normal.”

Delfi nods a few times, starting to schedule out what and when Crim will be fed while healing. Putting the meals with honey in them during the evenings, while having the more varied meals interspersed between breakfast and lunch. "Alright, so the first week she won't be able to see. Then for week two she will be, do you have any recommendations on how to keep them from trying to explore too much during the healing process? From past experiences, I am concerned that Crim will try and force herself to move when unsafe once she has her vision back."

Delfi lets out a weak chuckle, shaking her head. "I swear the first week when I brought her to her hab, she was on bed rest. So I put her there, planning to stay the week to make sure she'd be fine. I swear I'd turn my head for two seconds, and she'd be about to try to climb down from the bed, and overexert herself, over and over again."

“Alright, my recommendation there is to have some railings installed on any bed she is in, that and I wouldn’t let her out of your sight if you can help it.” Sola begins to get several documents put together before sending them to Delfi’s pad. “Alright, here are some basic exercises for you to do with Crim and Raven, on the second week we will be coming over so I can show you some more complex ones to do with them, but it would be best to keep it simple, and do your best to not let them do things alone until they are healed.”

“Got it, constant vigilance, and hopefully the sound of documentaries about beeple will keep them both nice and docile for the healing process.” As the pings come through onto her datapad, Delfi looks at the time on it tensing up slightly from shock. She must have spent more time than she expected wandering the ship aimlessly before arriving. 

“Oh rot, I’m going to be late to pick Cim up from the appointment, is there anything else I’ll need to know before I head out or do the documents cover everything?”

Sola giggles, and shakes her head. “No, you have our contact info, so I can send you more, or you can call for help at any time. Right now we aren’t seeing any patients, so don’t hesitate if you need it.” She stands up and helps Delfi toward the door. “They will be sedated for a while, so you have time to get over there. I know Anemone will make sure they are safe until you get there. I’m sorry if I took too long describing what you would need.”

“Oh no, this isn’t your fault, I spent a while exploring the ship on my way… I had a lot to think about after this morning.” Delfi nods slightly, allowing herself to be led out by Sola, surprised with how gently Sola’s vines intermingled with hers while they walked to the door. “I’ll message you if there are any emergencies, thank you.”

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

The world is nothing but an ever present yawning darkness, despite the feeling of her eyelids being up, nothing not even faint colors grace her vision. 

Alongside this, the world around her is quiet, beside the slight ruffling of leaves next to her. Causing her to start to try and lean towards the sounds, a mixture of curiosity and immediate abject boredom from her lack of sight overtaking her. “Bzzzzzzzzzzt?”

“Hello, I’m glad you are awake. It’s Delfi right here.” A vine gently loops around her wrist before another circles around her waist. “I’m right here with you, just listen to the noises around us.” She lifts Crim into her lap before starting to pet the bee. “I’m going to have a bee documentary playing, we can play little games that don’t need sight. If you understand, buzz once, and if you need something, just give some pulls on one of my vines.”

Crim wiggles a little as she’s lifted out of the comfort of the bed, and into the warmth of Delfi’s vines. Starting to absentmindedly buzz, her wings lazily beat against Delfi’s chest, as each of her arms find themselves wrapped up in vines. “Bzzzzt.”

Once Delfi flicks the show on, the affini starts to go over the intense biological compatibility between beeple and Affini. In particular the ability for an affini to put their roots into a beeple in order to interact with one on a more intimate level. 

As the speaker goes on, explaining different examples of uses of the concept, Crim starts leaning forward ever so slightly. Trying to get a better look at the documentary despite her inability to see, desperate to see a beeple interfacing with an affini in that way. And immensely frustrated that she can’t. “Bzzzzzt!”

Delfi giggles and brings one of her thin roots that would be used for the described process to the back of Crim’s neck. “Alright sweetie, I’m going to imitate the process as best as I can, just feel it out. Next week we can rewatch this one so you can see it too.” In time with the description, her root slithers down the back of Crim’s neck and down her spine a little bit.

“At several points along a beeple’s body there are almost slots, pieces of compatible flesh that are capable of having vines take root in their bodies.” As the affini explains this, more of Delfi’s vines roll down Crim’s back, probing up against the lower center spine, the left and right shoulders, and the base of Crim’s neck. Rubbing up against the spots lightly given their inability to actually take root. 

Crim shudders openly in response, her wings starting to buzz more aggressively. An unstoppable excitement overtaking her as despite the lack of compatibility, the description, combining with a heavy layer of drugs, she starts to feel roots burrowing their way warmly into her. “Bzzzzz…”

“My precious cute beeple, I’ll do everything I can to help you enjoy this.” Delfi lets her vines brush along Crim’s limbs. “My cute buzzy girl, so nice and docile while I’m connecting with you. Such a good girl being so patient while we work. Maybe tomorrow or the next day I’ll see about having your hive of friends over to cuddle with you.”

At the mention of her friends, Crim shifts from passive squirming to excited bouncing and fighting against the vines, her mandibles twitching slightly, unable to move fully with the restraints on them but trying their best. 

Requiring Delfi to tighten her vines slightly, unable to keep Crim in place fully with such a passive hold. Especially without risking the bee hurting herself in her sudden burst of excitement. 

“Alright sweetie, I get that you are excited, but you are just starting to heal, so staying calm is important, do you understand?” Delfi keeps her hold as firm as possible while petting Crim a little bit. Trying to avoid restricting her to the point of pain. “Would you like something to drink? I have some recipes from Sola that should be tasty and filling while you can only have liquids.”

As the vines press down around Crim she continues her escape attempt, wiggling around and searching for a hole in Delfi’s grip. Only to find herself at the end of the struggle sandwiched between three layers of vines and petals, unable to do so much as twitch her wings without permission. Only relenting to Delfi’s offer once her stomach starts to growl. 

“Foooood.” As Crim forces the word out, it’s at a slightly different pitch, as if the inside of her throat is vibrating ever so slightly, adding a slight buzzing to her words. 

“Of course Crim, let's get you fed.” Delfi stands up, keeping her vines around Crim in the form reminiscent of a child harness for terrans before starting to gather things to put in her blender. Crim would just feel movement and hear some shuffling, paired with several pets before a few vines loosely cover her ears, muffling the sound of the food blending up. 

After about a minute, Delfi poured the mixture into a cup before putting a lid on it and walking back to the couch. Crim would find a straw probing her mouth lightly. “Sip at whatever pace works, although I would recommend slowly sweetie.”

The smell of berries hits her nose as the straw is pressed up in front of her mouth. Allowing Crim a chance to lean forward and wrap her mouth around the straw, starting to take tiny sips of the mixture.

The progress is obnoxiously slow, Crim taking as deep of inhales as she can manage, as it slowly slides into her mouth, and with the help of a napkin, and Delfi starting to gently massage her throat. Slowly sliding down her throat and into her stomach, barely satiating her need, and causing her to try to sip more quickly.

“Careful, there is enough for you to be full, no need to rush too hard.” Delfi giggles a little bit, while making sure she isn’t drinking too quickly and risking choking. “There we go, just like that. You are doing great, just keep going.” She rubs Crim’s back, being careful of her wings all until Crim finishes the smoothie. The napkin comes up to gently dab at her chin, wiping away the spots where Crim was unable to close her mouth enough to prevent spillage. “Good girl, how was your meal?”

Crim buzzes, barely managing to nod her head in response to the question as vines hold it mostly in place. “Yezzzzzzz!” She manages to mumble out, allowing her body to be pulled fully into a resting position and enjoying the nice warm feeling of a full meal in her gut.

Delfi slowly walks over to her couch, leaning back and resuming the documentary. “Good, now you just get some rest petal, and I’ll be right here if you need absolutely anything.” She gently runs vines up and down Crim’s chest, rocking the bee gently until the squirming shifts in her vines, going to the nice passive pressure of Crim asleep.

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

Raven grumbles lightly, starting to roll from side to side as sleep begins to elude her, despite how comfortable the vines she lays atop feel, her entire body craves input, or interaction in some form.

She agonizingly slowly forces her eyes open, getting her eyelids to release one another feeling like ripping duct tape off of bare skin. “Nzzzz…” She tugs her arms a few times, trying to rub her eyes to get the gunk off, only to have them be pulled tighter by the vines that she’d not noticed are wrapped around them. 

“Sorry petal, I can’t have you taking your bandages off yet. How was your sleep?” Delfi carefully gives Raven’s face a few rubs, making sure not to mess with her bandages. “Does anything feel funny? Need me to do anything?”

Raven squeaks, her head wiggling from side to side as Delfi rubs her cheeks. “Noooooooo.” She gradually starts to squirm more and more in her bonds, as she shakes away her exhaustion, not attempting to escape like Crim would, and instead simply searching for a form of stimulation. 

Delfi smiles and lifts Raven to give her a playful kiss on the cheek. “Not trying to escape, you are Raven for sure. How is my little cutie?” She rubs some vines down Raven’s sides before pulling her in close. “Being greedy for cuddles and attemtion? I’m willing to give you all that you want petal.”

Raven's wings start to buzz lightly as Delfi's vines wiggle their way under and rub at their bases. "Mhm!" She allows herself to be bundled up to her head, aside from her wings, her hands slowly tapping and grabbing at the closest vine to each. 

“There we go, enjoy the feelings while I take care of you. You are such a good bee, yes you are petal.” Delfi brushes some of Raven’s hair back before kissing her on the forehead. “I hope you don’t mind me stepping into Azalia’s place a little bit as your caretaker, I really care a whole lot about both of you and I’m so excited Crim gave me this opportunity.”

Most of Delfi’s ramble ends up being lost on Raven, who’s busy messing with the few vines that she’s managed to pull into the palm of each of her hands. 

“I guess I should have figured that this wouldn’t be the most interactive conversation.” Delfi chuckles slightly, standing up and starting to walk out of her bedroom to prepare breakfast for Raven. “But at the very least it seems like I won’t need to worry about you trying to jump off of the couch today.” 

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

Very slowly, bandage after bandage is peeled off of her face, allowing Crim to get a glimpse at the room she’s in for the first time. Despite the dim light, the nearly pitch black, room feels like it’s the middle of the day to her. 

She winces, looking forward and being met with the sight of Delfi looming over her. A small amount of light trickling in under the door to the bathroom. “Huh?” She reaches up toward her face, mandibles chittering slightly in confusion due to the sudden input, only to have Delfi reach out and slowly shove her hands away. 

“Careful Crim, just because you are healed enough to have the bandages off, you still will need to be careful.” Delfi giggles a little bit. “Bee careful”. She shakes her head before helping Crim up to the bathroom mirror. 

“There we go, look at yourself.” She rubs Crim’s back before continuing. “Your foods can be soft now, but we should still be gentle before you can go up to full solids. I’m also going to be keeping my hab lights dim. We can brighten it a little bit each day, but not too much at once.”

In the dim light of the bathroom mirror Crim stares deeply at her reflection, long red hair swooping down ever so slightly in front of her forehead, fluff coating every inch of her face, and body all the way down. Two antennae drooped in front of her, gently sparkling a plethora of colors. 

Despite the remaining bandages and vines protecting her face, Crim can't see anything but an injured beeple, there's not an inch left if her form that reminds her of what she once was. 

Her wings start buzzing wildly in excitement, leaning in to look closer as her eyes start to burn slightly from the tears leaking out and into her facial fluff. Even through the haze of xenodrugs unable, and absolutely unwilling to repress her jubilation at one simple fact. "Me! Me!"

“Yes petal, that is you.” Delfi brings a vine up to gently wipe the tears away. “You are beautiful, and healing very nicely. Once you are fully healed, I’ll help you go have some fun showing off.” She giggles a little bit and slowly pulls out the mask that Crim had given her. “What would you like to do with your mask Crim?”

Crim pauses for a moment, slowly twirling the mask in her grip, taking a look at the distinctly affini design to the woodwork. "Hmmmm…" She slowly reaches her hands up over her head, and gently attempts to slip it onto the side of her head. Her fingers fiddling with the strap slightly, as she forces it to take hold without getting in the way of her antennae. "Good!" 

Delfi nods, using her free vines to take pictures to show off to everyone else. “That looks wonderful. I’m happy that you don’t need the mask to feel good about yourself, but I also feel like it is a wonderful accessory.” 

She helps straighten it out a little bit, making sure the strap is fitting just right, while not scraping against any of the bandages. “There we go, maybe we can even extend the strap and make a bow out of it?”

Crim nods slightly, leaning back into Delfi’s embrace as she goes back to just watching her reflection. Buzzing her wings, and wiggling around, immensely entertained by seeing her own reflection without it causing a deep searing pain in her chest.

Delfi lifts Crim along with her wing buzzing, giggling at the faces that she is making. “So, would you like to watch that documentary again? You seemed really interested when you were blind.” She gently drags a vine down the back of Crim’s neck. 

“I can imitate the effects again if you want too.” She giggles a little bit before pulling her optimism back slightly. “Sorry, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Crim slowly looks away from her reflection, nodding slightly in response to Delfi’s question. Despite this, the moment they turn away from the mirror she starts pouting openly, already desperate to go and get a better look at herself again. “Bzzzzz…” She grumbles out, wings fluttering and filling the quiet walk with the sound. 

Delfi continues walking out of the bathroom, heading over to her couch and setting Crim down in her lap, giving the little bee a few pets. “Don’t worry sweetie, we can do all sorts of things that will let you look at yourself more later. After this I’ll sit in front of a mirror and brush your hair, and fuzz, if that sounds relaxing. Then we can do your recovery exercises in front of the mirror so you can see just how your body is moving, which should help with understanding it better.”

As soon as Delfi finishes explaining, Crim starts to try and nod as rapidly as she can manage. It barely coming across as a wiggle due to how stiff the vines around the base of her neck are keeping her. “Yes! More mirrors!”

Delfi shudders, trying to keep her vines from ruffling too much from laughter, as she continues to move her vines in time with the video. “Alright, be careful petal, I want you to relax a little bit. We need to do some eye exercises too, but I want you enjoying casually looking around first.” 

Delfi brings a vine with a crimson flower up to give Crim’s cheek a little ‘peck’. “After the documentary we will practice with this little flower. I got it special for you.”

Crim nods slightly as the documentary starts up once again, all the more fascinated a second time as she gets to actually watch the entirely painless process of a beeple having vines link up with their nervous system. Happily buzzing, and showing off how their mistress is actually the one controlling their wings rather than them doing it themselves.

This of course causes Crim to start buzzing her wings in time with the other beeple, the backs beating up against Delfi’s back over and over. “I wanna do that!”

Delfi smiles and brushes Crim’s hair, making sure to keep copying the vine movements on the screen. “I’m sure you do, we would have to ask Anemone about that, but I bet you the best way to imitate that would require the implant.” She tickles the back of Crim’s neck. “I don’t know if that is what you would want though.”

Crim wiggles around while Delfi’s vines start to tickle her, causing her to start letting out buzzing giggles, while her wings beat even faster. Her legs kicking from side to side, as her arms grab at the base of Delfi’s vines.