The rest of the day passed Petal by in a blur of love and bliss. Petal and Millie thanking each other quickly devolved into cuddling, which then quickly devolved into squirming against each other in Delphinium’s vines. That lasted for quite a while, though. Probably. It’s kind of hard to tell. 

Petal was pretty sure that she wasn’t supposed to just be drugged into insensate bliss while she was recovering, which left a few options. Delphinium technically could have lied to her, but if she did, it was almost certainly for her own good. She could have decided that Petal was in too much pain or discomfort, which Petal didn’t think she was, but maybe she would be if it wasn’t for the xenodrugs, or… this could actually just be a standard dose now. She probably was higher than this that one time she had the whole whatsit in basically one go, it’s just so much more intense when her Mistress is with her. Electric shivers of thought-stopping bliss flaring up wherever her Mistress touches her, wherever Millie touches her, wherever her implant ‘touches’ her, and she feels her body tense around its exploration.

Maybe her Mistress isn’t just doing it to make her feel good. Maybe it’s to make her experience her implant even better, to be even more aware of every little thing it makes her body do. She’s so overwhelmingly aware of sensation that she can’t even conceive of time, maybe it’s also to make it feel even longer. So that Petal can feel every tiny moment, feel every miniscule twitch of her implant learning her body better than she ever could, feel every last part of her everything becoming completely her Mistress’s in exquisite detail, in perfect clarity. 

“Thnk’oo M’str’ss.” Petals voice comes out as a barely audible whine. She’s pretty sure Millie didn’t even notice. For a moment, she even thought that Delphinium didn’t notice, but the moment passes as she feels Her love beaming down on her in recognition, and a pulse of affection in the grasping rhythm of Her vines.

‘Thank you’. There’s something about that. She’s… supposed to be thanking someone, right? There’s a twitch in Petal’s arm, and she grabs onto Milie’s wrist for just a moment. Millie! She’s supposed to be thanking Millie!

“Mmnmm… thnk’oo mill’ f’r be’n’… gay”

“What was that, dearest?” Delphinium’s vines don’t stop, but they slow down, just a bit, and Petal can feel her mind latch onto her Mistress’s attention like a cuddly plushie in a soft bed.

“Um, w-well, I… uh… I think I was saying, um… ‘thank you Millie for being gay’?”

“Awww! You’re welcome. Thanks for being gay, too! It’s, like, super hot!”

“B-but, I-” Dirt, why does it have to be so much easier to give compliments than to receive them.

“Petal, dearest, are you trying to deflect a compliment?”

“W-well, I… I…” Petal slumps in Delphinium’s vines. “M-maybe? I-I’m sorry, Mistress.” Hopefully Delphinium isn’t too disappointed in her.

“Don’t worry, my dearest.” Delphinium strokes a vine gently across Petal’s brow before leaning in to plant a gentle kiss on her forehead. “We’ll train you out of that yet. Perfection is an on-going process, and we’ve barely even had a chance to get started on you, have we?”

“I, um… yes Mistress, thank you Mistress. I- … I love you, Mistress.” Petal feels herself being compressed, squished from all around as her Mistress tightens her grip.

“I love you too, Petal.” Petal feels a smile spreading across her face. Or maybe it was already there. It’s getting hard to keep track of whether or not she’s smiling, given how much of it she’s done since, well… becoming a pretty pet. A cute pet. A delightful pet.

…

A normal spectacular pet.

That has to be the implant, right? Petal’s used to having her mind interject self-deprecation into her thoughts, but never compliments. She’s almost tempted to see what would happen if she tried to think that she was a bad a very good girl. Petal shivers and squirms in her Mistress’s vines. Is this what She meant about perfection being an ongoing process? It’s not going to take long, at this rate.

“While I have you in a relatively cogent state though, there is something that I’ve been meaning to discuss with you, my dear.”

“Hmm, yeah?” Wait, that’s probably too casual. “I- I mean, um… y-yes, Mistress?”

“My love, it’s adorable to see you try so hard to please me, but you are allowed to relax, you know. Encouraged to, in fact.”

“I, um… yes, Mistress.”

“Petal, dearest…” Delphinium sounds almost a touch exasperated.

“I, um- sorry Mistress! I-” This isn't relaxing! and her Mistress is disappointed, and-

Petal feels a sharp pressure under her chin. She looks down to see one of her Mistress's vines, but she can't see what's attached, what's pressing against her. What particular threat or temptation she's offering now. "Your desire to be so perfectly obedient is delightful, my dear, but for now, let's focus on what you want, okay?"

Petal nods, ever so slightly. She’s still very aware of the pressure under her chin. "Yes, Mistress! I want you, Mistress!"

"Yeah! Me too!" Millie interjects. 

Delphinium ruffles both of her florets’ hair. “And you have me, both of you, but I had something more specific in mind.”

“Oh! Um, what, um…” Petal takes a long, but shallow, calming breath, before continuing a bit more slowly. She hasn’t been told to let whatever her Mistress has pressed against her pierce her skin, yet, so she can’t afford to risk it. “What did you wanna talk about, Mistress?” It’s okay for Petal to be relaxed. To sound relaxed. But she still can’t imagine calling her anything other than Mistress. Not anymore.

“Well, my dearest, I was wondering about what you were hoping for in terms of your inhumanity. I’m sure Verne would be more than happy to help us with the paperwork, but what about your body~?” The pressure at Petal’s chin gets ever so slightly firmer as Delphinium talks, but relaxes slightly to let Petal respond.

“W-well, Mistress, I, um… uh…” Petal shouldn’t be making Delphinium figure this out for her, she should be able to express her own desires about her own body, right? She should at least be able to decide what she wants. Shouldn’t she? “Um… what if I don’t know, Mistress?”

“Then I’ll have to find some way to drag the truth from you, won’t I~?” Petal feels the sharpness against her chin turn to a pleasant stinging. “Since you seem fairly lucid at the moment, you’ve probably been wondering about this. I had a suspicion that you might have some difficulty expressing yourself, so I took the liberty of preparing some Class-D xenodrugs.”

“Oooh, Class-Ds are really fun! It’s like, uh… like a truth serum!” Millie helpfully adds.

“Fuck. That’s hot. I probably won’t even be able to stop myself from telling you everything. Not that I can really hide anything, anyway, but still. Fuck.”

Delphinium and Millie are staring at Petal, they both look incredibly amused. 

“Why are you looking at me like that? Is- is there something on my face? Did I do something wrong?”

“Petal, babe, you just said the whole thing about how hot it is that you won’t be able to hide anything out loud.”

“What? But, that’s… that’s really hot! And embarrassing!” Petal feels her blood rush to her cheeks. “And now I’m blushing and that’s embarrassing and-” Petal is cut off by Delphinium putting a vine to her lips, and lets out a needy whine. How is she supposed to tell her Mistress all her secrets if she’s not allowed to open her mouth!

“You really are so receptive to everything I do to you, aren’t you, dearest?” Delphinium brushes her vine along Petal’s lips, before gently caressing her cheek with it.

“Yes Mistress! I’m so receptive to everything you do to me! I love being receptive to everything you do! I love being yours! It’s so fucking hot to be owned by you! It’s so fucking hot that I can’t even try to hold anything back anymore! It’s-”

“Ooh, ooh, what about me?” Millie interrupts.

“You’re so fucking hot! I still don’t get why anyone as hot as you could ever be interested in me, and that goes for Mistress, too, and I know I’m not the one who gets to decide who you’re interested but I’m just so happy that it’s me because you’re both so wonderful and amazing and hot, and both of you have really helped me find who I’m supposed to be and you’re just so fucking amazing and you’re really, really hot with a sword, and it was super hot when you and Mistress fucked me and-” Petal is stopped by the vine coming back down her cheek to press against her lips again.

“Breathe, Petal.” Petal lets her lungs fill with air at her Mistress’s command. “Your body still needs to breathe, and it’s very important to me that it remains undamaged until I decide what changes I’m going to make to it.”

“Yes Mistress, thank you Mistress,” Petal tries to say, although with her lips held firmly closed by the implied command from her Mistress, it comes out as a series of needy whines.

“In terms of what changes I do make, though, there are a lot of decisions to be made. And if I’m being honest, once I’ve started, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever quite be done.” Oh, fuck, that’s hot, Petal doesn’t think she’d be able to keep her desire for this off her face if she was stone cold sober, but the Class-Ds aren’t even letting her try. “Long term projects can be so rewarding, after all, not to mention how much I have adored your reactions to being operated on.” Petal can’t stop herself from whining needily, or embarrassedly, or both, at how much she’s enjoyed her own body’s reactions to being operated on.

“Exactly~.” Fuck, Class-Ds really are fun. “So, the question remains, how much would you like to be changed, and what parts should I change? There’s a lot that could be done with your internal workings to smooth out certain evolutionary eccentricities that are completely unnecessary for your new life as a pet, assuming we don’t simply replace it all with something better.” Petal nods emphatically. Her body hasn’t ever really worked the way she wanted it to, so she certainly wouldn’t complain about her Mistress improving that for her, even if it does mean replacing her ‘internal workings’ maybe even especially if it means replacing her ‘internal workings’. She certainly wouldn’t complain about having more of her Mistress’s handiwork inside of her. Or should that be viniwork?

“Roots, you’re just so adorably enthusiastic, aren’t you?” Petal feels her head being tilted up and down. Fuck it’s so hot to be forced to agree with her Mistress, and she wants to tell her, but she’s still not allowed to talk, and so she has no choice but to let out a long, needy whine.

“Yeah! Petal’s super adorable!” Petal whines some more. It’s not fair having the two of them ganging up on her like this. It’s so unfair having Millie and Delphinium pile so much praise on her. She doesn’t deserves all of this. She’s not that special, and they deserve someone so much better than as wonderful as her.

Okay, having her own mind take their side is also really, really hot, and so completely unfair.

“As are you, my marvelous Millie. I don’t expect either of you will have much specific input on what I decide to do with Petal’s internals, though. Her externals, however… well, there’s a lot I can do with that~.” Petal nods eagerly, already softly whining in desperation. “Oh, you like the sounds of that, do you~? Of having everybody see you for the delightfully inhuman pet that you are?” Petal’s nodding grows more insistent, her whining louder. “I could even reshape your body until nobody could ever mistake you for human. The Affini have encountered so many sophonts, with so many body configurations, not to mention the non-sophont species that your body could be made to resemble~.” Petal pauses, her needy whining falls silent, and Delphinium pulls her vine back from Petal’s lips. “Not that, then?”

“I, well, um… I don’t know? It’s not exactly not what I want, but… I still wanna look like, well… like a girl. Maybe if it were just, like, a sometimes thing? Or maybe as, like, a later thing. Like, after I’ve had the chance to enjoy where my body gets with all the class-Gs and stuff. And I kinda want to look like, hmmm… I wanna look like a plantfucking traitor to humanity, yeah. Like, I want anybody who knows what a human is to see me and go ‘wow, that thing used to be a human, but now it’s just an affini’s pet’. Like when I woke up when you were using me to fence Millie, and I had your vines all over me. That felt so right. Ooh! Maybe I could just be wrapped up in your vines forever!”

“Oh, you like the sound of that, don’t you, precious?” Petal nods emphatically. “Well, my dearest, I have some delightful news for you~.” Petal feels one of her Mistress’s vines trail up her spine, starting from her tailbone and working its way up to the base of her skull. “You already will be. Even if you aren’t held quite so closely to me as you are now, you’ll still be all wrapped up inside, won’t you~?”

“Fuck. Yes, Mistress! That’s so hot, thank you!”

“As for the rest of it, well, I can definitely work with that. We’ll keep your form recognisably human. For now, at least~. Which still leaves us with a lot of options for what to change. We could make some additions or subtractions to the form, which still leave what it was obvious, while demonstrating that you’ve moved beyond that. Some sort of tail, perhaps? And of course we could change some details about your pigmentation. The colour of your eyes, perhaps? Or your hair, or skin. Any part of your body you care to name, changing its colour would be trivial.”

“Um… That’s a lot. Like, how am I supposed to decide on any of that? There’s way too many choices.” 

“Oh, my dear, don’t worry about that, any decisions you aren’t prepared to make, I can just make for you~. This is just your opportunity to make sure that I know of any things you particularly want, or particularly don’t want.” Delphinium strokes a vine possessively down Petal’s cheek. “But don’t worry, my dear. If there’s ever anything that’s too much for my poor little Petal, you can always just leave it to me~.”

Petal whimpers needily. “Um, yes Mistress, thank you Mistress! You’re, um…” Petal frowns. “No, no, I’m not supposed to say that, but I can’t not say it, can I?”

“Say what, my darling?”

“That you’re too good for me, Mistress!” Petal tries to clap a hand over her mouth, but she’s too late, and also her hands are still wrapped up in her Mistress.

“Is that what you believe, Petal?”

Petal can’t stop herself from sounding disappointed in herself. “Yes, Mistress, you’re just… so amazing and you deserve-"

Petal is cut off by a vine pressing gently against her lips. "My dear, I think we all know that it's not your place to decide what I do or do not deserve."

"Well yes, but-"

"It's my place to decide, dearest, and it always will be~." Delphinium's vine gently pets Petal's cheek. "Do you think you could repeat that for me?"

"Yes, Mistress! It's your place to decide, and it always will be." Petal blurts out before she even realises what she's saying. "But-"

The vine cuts her off again. "You wouldn't be disagreeing with me, would you? Or implying that I could possibly be wrong?"

"Um!" More vines join in, tilting Petal's head back until she's looking straight up into her owner's face, as a complicated pattern of colour flickers across the facets of Her eyes.

"So when I say 'you're a very good girl whom I adore', that must mean that…"

I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores.

Petal isn't quite sure if it's the implant, or if somehow Delphinium is moving the muscles of her mouth and throat directly, or maybe even if somehow she's doing it herself. But either way, the words spill from her lips. 

"I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores." 

Petal feels, rather than hears, herself reciting the words as she sinks into the gentle glow of her Mistress' eyes. For a moment, she thinks she hears an echo, or… maybe she was the echo?

"That's right! You both are. Such very good girls who I adore oh so much."

"I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores." It almost sounded like somebody else was saying it, but her mouth was moving along with the words.

A shimmer of gold crosses Delphinium's eyes as they continue to flicker in that captivating pattern, "Again."

"I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores."

"Again."

"I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores."

"Again!

"I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores."

"Again!"

"I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores."

Delphinium pauses for a moment, before continuing. "And I deserve to own, and care for, and possess good girls who I adore, isn't that right, my very good girls?"

"Yes, Mistress!" There's definitely a harmony, but maybe that's just the musicality of being with her Mistress.

"Which must mean that I deserve the two of you very much, isn't that right, my pets?"

"Yes, Mistress!" There's definitely another voice… It's Millie! She's a very good girl who Mistress adores, too, so of course she was also repeating that for their Mistress!

"I'm glad we're all in agreement, my precious pets. And, Petal, I'm glad you could tell me how you truly feel."

"Yes, Mistress! Me too!" Millie doesn't join in, this time. 

"Those class-Ds really are wonderful things, aren't they? Letting me hear your deepest held beliefs straight from your very lips, like how you're a very good girl, who I adore~."

I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores.

"I'm a very good girl who Mistress adores!"

"Exactly! And since you're on that delightful dose of class-Ds, I can be sure that you really mean it, too."

"Yes Mistress, I'm a very good girl who you adore. Thank you for making me believe it! It's really hot the way you can just say something and I get to feel my mind reshaping itself until I believe it completely. Thank you for changing my mind! Thank you for controlling my mind! Thank you for breaking me and making me your very good girl who you adore! Please keep fucking with my mind, with my thoughts! Please fuck with my brain! Please fuck my brain! Please please please!"

"Me too please Mistress! Please do all the hot things Petal just said to both of us pleeeease?"

"Yes please Mistress please fuck our brains together until we're both just an extension of your will pleeeease?"

"Dirt. You two really are just too precious. My magnificent Millicent, and my most precious Petal. Such very good girls, whom I adore so very much."

"Yes Mistress!" Petal and Millie chirp in unison. "We're very good girls who Mistress adores!" Petal continues. 

"Yeah! We're very good girls who Mistress adores!" Millie agrees.

"Oh yes, that's right, you two do come together now, don't you?"

Millie giggles. "Come together, huh?"

"Yes, please Mistress! If you want us to!" Petal blurts out.

"There will be plenty of time for that, my dears. For now though… You're very good girls whom I adore."

Petal and Millie don't even need to look at each other to respond in harmony. "We're very good girls who Mistress adores!"

Delphinium's eyes flicker purple and gold. "Again."

"We're very good girls who Mistress adores!"

"Again."

"We're very good girls who Mistress adores!"

"Again!"