The poor little sophont stares up at me with a core wrenching frown, folding her arms. My little Enya’s curled up and asleep on some Class Z’s more than makes up for Jennifer’s mood, her haustoric implant reading out some minor details from her dreams to my overnet uplink. Something about snacks, aww! My rhythm nudges her towards all sorts of indulgences while I dote on her, before returning to the sophont at hand. 

“You’ve been waiting for this to happen, haven’t you?” Jennifer asks while turning her body away from me, only to take a few needy peeks back at me. She can’t even keep her eyes off me, adorable. 

“Yes, Petal. I’ve been getting some quibbles about you from neighbors and the bureaucracy. I know that you would never harm anyone, but the affini around see a different picture.” I know that most of the complaints I’ve been given are from first blooms, the poor things have likely never seen a real Free Terranist feral in person before, so an ‘anarchist’ might be threatening to them.

The cutie holds her breath while she thinks, then lets it out after a second. She thinks so fast, it makes my petals rustle. Terran cognition is so adorable. “So I’m just supposed to not say anything about the problems I see, and let them walk all over me??” 

Oh dear, I think that’s an expression for something. I imitate drawing in a breath and begin petting Jennifer with a vine. She doesn’t even consider swatting it away. Progress. “You can always talk about problems you see, little one, the proper way is to submit forms for it, not vent to florets about it.” One trick to calm down a feral is to use an expression wrong, or mention horses. “Isn’t the expression run you over, though?”

Jennifer turns back to me with a stare of utter confusion, her rhythm punctuating her body language with shock. “No.. That’s for cars hitting someone. Walking over someone means to do something to someone without caring about what they think!” Perfect, That trick reset her mood and I learned two expressions. 

“And that’s why cars aren’t allowed on the street any more. Now, when you describe it like that, wouldn’t you be the one walking over other people’s florets?” 

Turning her logic back to her momentarily confuses the cutie, but that appears to spark something inside her. “Wait, why do affini get to decide that I’m walking over florets??” She asks while leaning against the couch’s backrest, every ounce of her attention is on me. 

There we go, there’s her misunderstanding. Time to press the spark. “Petal, I think I’ve figured out your feral ideology.” That spark inside of her rhythm brightens, she could burn something if it got any bigger. She listens intently. “You see the compact as a force that destroyed that which you oppose,” I pause for her to nod, then continue as my rhythm overlaps with her’s. “And one that brought that which every sophont requires to survive, prioritizing the protection of life, and a powerful state that crushes any opposition.” 

I stay quiet for Jennifer to elaborate, one of my vines gently tilting her to look into my eyes. “Yeah, the compact saved all of us, but trapped us in a situation where no one will ever want to be free!” Oh dear, she doesn’t get it at all. This poor thing. 

“Little one, we didn’t come to free anyone the way you see it. They’ve been freed from starvation, capitalist slavery and their own self destructive tendencies. Terrans will never be free to hurt themselves, ever again. We came to stop our soon to be pets from hurting each other, and to help every terran become their best self.”

Jennifer’s voice raises while that flame begins to flicker. “Wait, wait, but that’s.. That’s not justified at all!” I pull her close to my core, and never once does she look away from my eyes. It’s time to put out that fire once and for all. 

“I’ve domesticated six sophonts before Enya because my core aches with want when I see an adorable sophont, and when I see adorable sophonts who harm themselves or hurt each other, I’m filled with pain. One could say this is for you, or out of empathy, but that justification didn’t matter to you. My view on our domestication campaign is to make that ache stop, then to replace it with joy, and I am happy with our methods.“

The spark dims away slowly, the flame that drives self destruction smothered away so she can finally grow into her best self. I can feel the tension in my vines loosening, any future worries about her and Enya vanishing. My newest pet cries into my vines while I smother the poor thing in much needed hugs. I can correct her world views later, my floret needs attention. 

The poor thing fell asleep shortly after catharsis hit, both my florets held in my arms. Jennifer isn’t registered as my floret yet, but any affini who looked at her could be forgiven for the mistake. I give her a few days before the little thing decides to ask me herself. These adorable sophonts can’t ever be left alone, especially when they believe their social group is drifting apart from them. 

*** 

Most of my form is completely untangled to do some of the chores I’ve neglected for the last few hours, while holding my two florets. Some Terran food prep requires enough work that would take me an entire half hour if I only had hands, today I’ve settled with making another pizza from scratch. I’ll have to figure out something special for when Jennifer signs her paperwork. 

I put the uncooked pizza in my stasis unit, and then move on to making some cookies for when the two cuties wake up. These ones are going to have little candied chocolates in them, I remember Enya’s attention moving to some when I walked her past a bakery once. 

Jennifer begins to stir awake, one of my class Z counteragents find Enya and prick her. While I quietly fold my vines back into a humanoid shape, Little Jennifer’s eyes blink open first, all cuddled with Enya. After, Enya wakes up and gasps when she smells the cookies! Aww! Jennifer smiles at Enya, then looks up at me with a less than hostile frown, before cuddling up to her pinnate without a complaint. I decide to wait for Jennifer to ask me before I put her down, Enya at this point wouldn’t dream of asking. I’m so proud of how she’s taken to my training. 

One of my vines gently rubs Enya’s head, sending her rhythm into a pleasant, absent minded disarray. Jennifer looks back up to me with a more flustered pout, I gently squeeze her in response. “Are you feeling alright, little one?” Both of them answer ‘yes’ at the same time, and adorably blush again before Enya notices the stove clock.

“Heck, it’s four PM? I napped a long time..- Are those cookies??” Enya’s unrepressed joy melts my core, and even gets a smile from her pinnate. Roots, my pet is lovely. There’s a few minutes left on the timer, and I have to do the unthinkable, putting my florets down so neither of them get burnt by the tray. Jennifer stands on her feet just fine, but Enya needs a little help standing up without stumbling. 

“Enya, wait on the couch for cookies please.” She chirps out an adorably obedient ‘yes mistress!’, then I look down to Jennifer, “Would you like to help, or cuddle Enya?” I can’t help but smile as I watch her weigh the choices and quickly settle on running after Enya, helping her up the couch. I turn back around to mind the cookies, and take the prepared pizza out of the stasis box, sneaking a few glances at the adorable terrans as they cuddle and whisper at each other.