Amelia stirs awake from a surprisingly peaceful nap considering how awful the last 24 hours had been. Before she can pull her eyes open she feels warm tendrils playing with her hair as they softly brush through the knots. The first thing she sees as she awakens is a beautiful face of wood, cracked on the right side. Oh my stars it wasn’t a dream. “Holy shit! You are real!” she can’t help but exclaim in shock.

Dahlia gives a deep reverberating chuckle that rocks Amelia lightly back and forth in the vines. “Well of course I’m real darling, I hope you enjoyed your little nap. I would let you sleep more but you really should eat. It’s not good for your body to go so long without sustenance.”

Amelia gives a blush that only deepens as she remembers all of what happened before she fell asleep. She really needs to stop embarrassing herself in front of this goddess. “Eh I’ve had it worse, I grew up pretty poor for a while so not eating for 24 hours isn’t the biggest deal for me. I don’t wanna make a fuss! There are so many more people that would need it more so I can take just a small amount of rations.”

Dahlia’s face twists into a look of raw sadness, oh no did I say something wrong? “That’s awful dear, no one should have to go without food for their body! None of that about putting off your needs for others, as selfless as that is you need to take care of yourself. We Affini are post-scarcity anyways, I’ll just compile you some food, we have enough to feed all humans.” With that, the vines lift Amelia up and put her on a soft surface as Dahlia struts off to a panel on a nearby wall.

Now that Amelia finally has a chance to look around the room she realizes she’s in some kind of high tech living quarters and it’s BIG. The couch she’s sitting on must be large enough to fit over 10 people and she would have to take a running jump to get up on it with how tall it is. Scanning the rest of the room, she doesn’t see much of note besides various weapons mounted on the wall that make her a little nervous with how intimidating they look, such variety too. Melee weapons, plasma cannons, she even thinks she sees what looks like an oversized rifle that splits in half like a tuning fork. What the hell is that?

The only other notable things in the room are a monitor built into the wall, a writing desk and the table in front of her that she can now see has some photos. They seem to all be of Dahlia or another Affini that is nearly as breathtaking as her. She can’t help but laugh at how polar opposites they seem, just a large intimidating mass of black and red next to a much shorter affini covered in a sea of colorful flowers. She almost loses her breath as she notices that Dahlia looks even more enchanting in the photographs. She has flowers of black and red blooming all over her body, with a high concentration around her head, which made a beautiful approximation of long hair. Even the stalks on Dahlia’s head she sees now are fuzzy little antennae, covered in dark red fuzz. I wonder why she looks different now?

“What are you laughing at over there little one? Also what would you like to eat, I can make literally any food you can imagine at this console,” Dahlia says as she taps away at the console.

What? Really? Like, I can have anything I want? Amelia’s need to try and break this system overrides her desire to immediately sate her growing appetite. “Oh yeah? Anything huh, how about this. A few years ago the fast food chain Bigby’s had this thing. It was like cheese fries but it wasn’t a cheese sauce like normal fast food cheese fries. It was just a nice dusting of melted cheese that was super good. I think it was like a mozzarella topping.” Amelia stifles a laugh at the idea of the Affini actually being able to find that holy grail of fast food goodness.

Dahlia pauses for a moment without moving at all and Amelia starts to get worried that she might have pushed her luck with the alien. Thankfully after about half a minute vines begin to furiously type away at the console. A few minutes later Dahlia comes back with a plastic tray. No fucking way. Sure enough she drops the tray in Amelia’s lap, hands her a fork and a glass of water. “That… was a very unexpected and specific request. You are really lucky we have already archived all data from recent years on your planet. Was still a nightmare to track down, my apologies for the wait, you should eat!”

Amelia intended that request to be a joke but this seriously looks just like she remembered. She takes a bite. Oh my stars. “HOLY FUCK, THIS IS ACTUALLY IT!” Amelia can’t contain her reaction. Dahlia bursts out into laughter at the sight of Amelia’s wonderment, “Well I am happy I did not disappoint, now eat sweetie. That should be enough to tide you over until after we get you a check up.” Amelia smiles widely at Dahlia, devours the tray of delicious, discontinued fries in front of her and chugs the glass of water. She lets out a sigh of relief, hands the items back to Dahlia and collapses onto the comfy couch in total bliss.

Dahlia lets out an audible aww before starting to run her hands through Amelia’s hair. Stars, her head scratches are incredible. I could just melt into them. Dahlia coos, “You look so adorable with that happy little smile darling. Looking for that recipe was worth it. Now you never told me what you were laughing at earlier” Crap. Amelia realizes she never answered that question earlier; she was too distracted by trying to break the alien tech. Amelia sits up suddenly and points at the photos on the table “Sorry! I just couldn’t help but laugh when I saw some of these photos. You and your friend are so different from each other that it caught me off guard.” Dahlia gave a slight head turn and smirk. “Not in a bad way! If anything, the contrast is really cute!” Before she can embarrass herself further with that train of thought she continues “Who is she by the way?”

Dahlia leans over and takes a look at the photo. “Oh that’s actually going to be the vet I’m taking you to. Her name is Violetta but I just call her Vi, we’ll make proper introductions in just a little bit.” Amelia gives a slight nod of understanding. Oh wow, I’m going to have two of them in the same room. “No need to worry, she's very nice, far nicer than me.” Dahlia says that last bit with a tiny bit of tension in her face that makes Amelia’s heart break just a little bit. “I doubt that! You’ve been so wonderful to me. I’ve known you for less than an hour and you are already in my top 10 nicest people I’ve ever met,” Amelia says with absolute confidence. Dahlia gives her a bemused look “...That’s very sweet of you to say little one. Now we should get you to her office. She needs to give you a check up and then can figure out what’s next for you.” Dahlia wraps her vines around Amelia and chuckles at the little chirp that comes from the tiny human as she sets her on the floor.

Amelia looks up at Dahlia towering above her and remembers another question she had for her, “I wanted to ask as well, what happened to those beautiful flowers you have all over you in the photos? The fuzzy antenna too. Not that you don’t look wonderful right now! I was just curious if it was like a personal choice or something else.” Dahlia looks back at Amelia with surprise and starts to speak before stopping herself and closing her eyes. Suddenly the black-red flowers bloom all over her body and around her head just like in the photo. Her antenna hair comes next with a shake of her head before peering down with a smile at Amelia. “Your curiosity is absolutely adorable, I retract my blooms when I’m working. The sleekness of my vines makes it a bit easier to move around at high speeds and makes me a bit scarier to cute little sophonts like you so you’ll surrender.”

Amelia can barely catch her breath at the radiance in front of her. That seals it, she absolutely has a crush on this giant nature goddess. “T-thank you for showing me that, I’m sorry I’m just a bit stunned. They look even better than in the photo.” Dahlia gives a mirthful laugh and wraps a vine around Amelia's hand. “You are such a charmer little one, you have nothing to be sorry about. Now let’s go get you that check up.” They walk out of the room with Amelia having to power walk to keep up at all. It’s worth it to have that soft vine wrapped around her hand.

Amelia spends the next several minutes just looking in awe of the ship as they pass through its halls. They pass by rows of windows and she can see Terra, from up here it almost looks beautiful. She’s never been on a ship before, she had a chance to travel off Terra for a conference but the university wouldn’t foot the travel bill so she stayed home.

She passed by more and more Affini as she made her way through the ship with Dahlia and she couldn’t help but notice some had humans following them with collars around their necks. Some were even being carried in the Affini’s arms! A massive blush broke out across Amelia’s face that Dahlia couldn’t help but notice with her keen eyes. “What’s wrong little one? Oh this must be your first time seeing florets.” Amelia had never heard that word before in reference to a person. “A floret? No, I can’t say I’ve even heard that word used like that…I can’t help but notice the collars.” Her stomach drops out from under her as she makes a disturbing assumption. “They… they aren’t like slaves are they?” Amelia looks to Dahlia with pleading eyes. Dahlia stops and stares at Amelia in horror for a moment before regaining her composure. “No, no sweetie, not at all! Florets are cherished beyond all measure by their owners. They would be much closer to what you humans would consider pets. We Affini love nothing more than caring for other beings so often we take cute little sophonts as pets! We give them all the love and support they could ever desire and help form them into their best happiest selves.”

After hearing this Amelia’s mind snaps in half. The Affini like to keep humans as pets? Her face grows the deepest red imaginable and she starts to breath heavily. Pets. They like to keep people as pets, they provide for all of their needs and it’s just built into their culture. Those humans I saw were pets. Happiest selves, best selves, they sound so caring. Amelia’s mind drifts to her end table beside her bed back at her apartment. Inside the table is Amelia’s own collar, she had unsuccessfully tried to get her past girlfriends into the idea of treating her like a pet for fun but they always thought she was a weirdo for it. Memories flooded back of wearing it around the house just to feel comfortable wishing she could just be a cute puppy for someone. Oh stars, if I don't stop thinking about this I’m going to soak my pants. CALM DOWN. The giant hot plant people keep people as pets there is no need to be a colossal pervert about it.

Dahlia looks on at the hyperventilating human with total worry reaching out her vines and pulling her into a hug “Shhh it’s okay this must be a lot for you at the moment, you seem very smart and can care for yourself, don’t worry no one is going to make you into a pet against your will!” Amelia explodes at that and can’t help but blurt out, “No! It’s just really hot!” Oh stars, what did I say I could die right now. Dahlia’s look of worry turns to one of confusion as she pulls away and starts to fan her hands into Amelia’s face “The ship should be just the right temperature for little humans like you! Here let me cool you down.” The gust of air from the force of Dahlia's hands does help chill Amelia’s face and the sheer silliness of the situation helps calm down her growing arousal. “T-that’s not what I meant, sorry, it’s fine, you can stop! The temperature is fine. Let’s just go, I wanna meet your friend!” Amelia lets out an awkward laugh and wraps her hand around a vine to encourage Dahlia to continue their walk. Dahlia seems satisfied by this and they continue to Violetta’s office.