In The Garden of Eden
Chapter 14: Familiar Melodies
by JustALittleOne
Tags:
#cw:CGL
#D/s
#f/f
#Human_Domestication_Guide
#pov:bottom
#sub:female
#transgender_characters
#cw:death
#cw:partial_blindness
#dom:internalized_imperialism
#hurt/comfort
Oh boy, this one is the start of the really out there experimentation. Lore wise, that is.
I hope you enjoy!
Amity froze. It was almost as if she was back in that escape pod, and the entire universe around her blurred into a chilled haze of nothing but her own thoughts. She wanted to say something. Anything. But no words would come to her mouth, as she buried herself into Hyacynthia's lap instead, keeping her face in the soothing dark of her Affini's form.
She didn't want to hear that name. She wasn't ready. She just wanted to exist without having to feel the burden of betrayal. She didn't even understand why she felt such feelings. The captain had treated her with nothing but disdain, and yet… Some part of her refused to see it otherwise. She betrayed them. And now she had to take the brunt of the responsibility. All while tearing up and curling more and more, until she felt vines creep along her back, reassuring her and keeping her safe.
"Shh…" She heard a voice. Her owner's voice. Her Mistress and loving caretaker came down here to comfort her through her pain. "Just breathe, my dear. Just breathe. It's alright, you've done nothing wrong."
The voice sank deeper into her mind than her conscious self could realize. Deep breaths filled her lungs with air infused with that familiar floral scent, and then exhaled them out. In, and out. Like the beating of a heart, she slowly fell limp and relaxed, no longer quivering or curling tightly. "Good girl." She felt the vines across her body slowly recede. Slowly revealing the world outside. However, she wasn't turned back right away. She was given the time to fully adjust to her own bursting emotions before the question fell once more.
"Are you ready now, my dear Amity?"
She nodded, slowly, and Hyacynthia lifted her back up, letting her sit. And she saw… A girl. Like her. She looked rather timid, and slightly embarrassed. Her hair was now deep blue and she was wearing that collar she saw on plenty of other florets. And yet, through that, she could also see the same Engineer that she used to work with back there.
"So… Let's make some introductions." She nodded and Hyacynthia spoke on her behalf, letting the girl rest a little longer. "So… This is Amity Whitebloom, 1st floret. I know you knew her by an older name, but please don't use it anymore, okay?"
"O-Okay. I'm sorry." She never heard them be so timid. Amity watched as the blue colored girl looked up to Argonia, who for her response nudged her gently forward. "I-I… I'm Aqua Ireleph, 8th floret." She looked up, as if to ask her Mistress if she did it right, and once she got a nod, looked back at Amity. "I…"
No words came after that. They both just stared silently at one another, each one trying to say something before falling just short.
Somehow, the words would just not come. Amity had too many thoughts on her mind and no way to actually express them. However, as it seemed, the other floret got the drop on her and managed to say something.
"I'm… Sorry."
Amity tilted her head. "...Sorry? But… What for?"
Aqua looked away. "For… How we treated you on the ship, I guess? After we got caught… the engineers decided to give up willingly, and the reason we're even alive is because the Affini shielded us from the captain's calls for death. Not to mention they stopped our ship from blowing up and killing us all. And after spending my time here as a floret with m-" it became evident the word was still hard on her. "With… Mistress, I kinda realized that you may have felt this way all this time and were too afraid to talk to anyone. And… I'm sorry we all pushed you away…"
At first, Amity wasn't even sure how to respond. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to be vindicated within her own right. Maybe a bit of her was angry, even past all the turmoil she went through. She waited for that bubbling urge to explode, shout, scream, and yell to come over her.
And yet… It didn't.
She knew why, it wasn't a surprise. She didn't want to hurt. And she'd hurt this now girl if she did. Hyacynthia was right, her soul really was gentle when one stripped away all the hatred that was imbued into her very soul. But she could still do something to make it right. She could give life. And happiness, just like her owner taught her.
Amity nodded, and scooted off of Hyacynthia's warm lap. She walked towards the other girl, and reached out to slowly take her hands. "Okay. I forgive you."
Somehow that seemed to make Aqua surprised. Like she was expecting some vitriol or smug affirmation that she's truly in the wrong. "...You do?"
"I do. I don't want to continue hating and being afraid, and it made me feel better hearing you apologize. So I forgive you."
Somehow the moment felt rather anticlimactic, but earned all the same. She could talk to her. "And… I see you discovered what girls were too?"
Amity couldn't help but chuckle. "Yep. Hyacynthia explained it to me after she helped me. Frankly… it feels like I finally found a way to be happy with myself."
The two of them exchanged a look, and began chuckling together. Somehow… She knew Aqua understood too.
Once the Affini saw their florets were able to talk, the two of them moved back a bit to give them space, with Argonia keeping more intent watch than the other. <"She's doing so well under your care.">
<"I see a bit of myself in her."> Hyacynthia mused, grinning to herself while watching Amity tell her new friend all about her adventures post-escape. <"She was tormented, but now I can make it stop. I just want to make her happy, that's all.">
<"I'd say you succeeded by quite a huge margin."> The silver and white Affini shared a gentle chuckle, and resumed watching over their pets, who were engrossed in a deep discussion of water and what happens when you fall into it.
"I-I mean Mistress didn't really let me close to so much water… It sounds kinda scary." Aqua flinched a bit. Amity smiled, and continued. "At first I thought I saw metal, I never thought water can be so reflective. I'm lucky to even be here still…"
"And that's not to mention your heart, right?" Aqua poked at her chest. "Mistress told me that they had to take some of your Mistress' old tissue and make a new heart for you? I don't really know all the details, but I know that it saved your life. I'm still shocked, it's all because we're clones…"
"Y-Yeah…"
An awkward moment of silence passed between the two humans as they attempted to think of something else to say that didn't involve their frankly horrific origins. It was Aqua that first managed to break the silence, however. "Can I… listen to it?'
"To what?" Amity looked a bit confused.
"Your heart. Like, your heartbeat. I learned that every human has a different one, and I was wondering if you'd let me listen to yours?" It seemed like a slightly weird but rather innocent request. "If you want. I don't mind." Amity thought about it as she laid down on the grass. There wasn't any real harm. In a sense it was like the checkups that her vet used to do to make sure she was doing okay.
She watched as Aqua leaned in, and pressed an ear to her chest. Then she frowned, and seemed to be confused by something. Aqua put a finger to her wrist, focused for a moment, and then leaned in to listen again, and seemed even more bewildered. At this point Amity's confusion turned to worry. "Is… Everything okay?"
Aqua tried to answer, but upon being stumped she walked over to the two Affini and tugged at Hyacynthia's side. "Ms. Whitebloom? I think Amity's heart is…"
"...Singing." Dr. Xaxavex would've banged its head against the wall several times if it didn't know better. "Amity's heart is emitting a biorhythm. Your biorhythm." It pointed a vine towards Hyacynthia, who seemed even more clueless then it was. "I should've thought about it, dirt and rot I should've seen this coming…" It slithered over to a big holographic white board, and began to write down a myriad of words in Affini Amity had no way to decipher.
"And… What does that mean?" The white Affini wasn't even sure what to make out of it, and the doctor turned to explain.
"It means that giving her an implant just became a whole lot more complex. Have you ever heard of the Sepal phenomena?"
Hyacynthia, Amity, Argonia and Aqua, who accompanied Amity to the vet, shook their heads.
"It was named after an incident many cycles ago in the Terran Protectorate where, upon being abducted by rebel forces, a certain floret's heuristic implant began to, for a lack of a better word, evolve into its own being. Even going as far as to developing its own biorhythm. While it's an extremely rare occurrence, it was that instance of a floret's implant developing its own will that coined the term. Fascinating subject to read on, if I may."
The other four stared at it blankly, as if waiting to hear what the point was. "Anyway… This presents a significant risk to Amity's implant surgery." It lowered a panel and showed them an image on the holographic screen. It was a scan of Amity's body, and it seemed that the heart… Has taken quite a literal root. Several, in fact. "I should've seen this coming, of course the heart would grow. It was being nurtured all this time." One look at Amity's scared expression made it err somewhat. "T-This isn't lethal, if this is what you're worried about. If it was, Amity would have either died by now or been in great pain. No, I believe that her heart has grown in response to her will, much like the Sepal Phenomenon indicates can happen with an implant. The issue now is that if we insert an actual implant, even from the same Affini…"
Hyacynthia seemed to be the first to catch on. "Her heart could reject it."
Doctor Xaxavex zoomed in on the growths that now came out of her heart. Some of them have wrapped around her spine, in areas a regular implant might grow. "Indeed. Worse yet, an Implant not carefully integrated into her body could very well hijack the now natural rhythm Amity exudes and force us to remove it."
A silence crept across the room, as no one seemed to know what to say or do. Aqua and Argonia in particular, looked at Amity with both sympathy and worry, while Xaxavex seemed more disappointed in its own medical failure than anything else. Amity in particular sat up on the patient's table and hugged her knees, closing her eyes and just listening to that comforting song. She didn't care if it came from her, or from her owner. It was something that soothed her heart and made her feel at ease.
Still, Amity put a hand to her chest, realizing what the vet said. Her own will. She wanted to give life, and imbue that love into other things as well. Perhaps… It was that will that allowed her new heart to take root. A scary thought, but also comforting, in a weird sense?
Which is when Hyacynthia of all people got up, clapped her hands, and smiled. "Well doctor. It would seem that we've reached the limit of what we can do here. At least, using purely the standard methods. But I think you'll agree this calls for a less…" She tried to think of the words, twirling her hand in place with a mischievous grin. "'Modern', approach."
Xaxavex just looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. "What do you mean? If you offer that we use less than the cutting edge of medical science, than I will heavily object to-"
Before it could finish, Hyacynthia put a finger to its mouth. "No no no. Of course not. I wouldn't expect anything short of the best for my darling Amity. But… Do you know how implants were bonded with our florets before medical science? Before heuristic implants were capable of such feats, before we had the technology we have today?"
The doctor scoffed at her, and shook whatever close appendage it had that was close enough for a head. "No, I do not."
Hyacynthia grinned. Amity knew that grin. It was the grin she had when she got to do things her way. The old fashioned way. "Well… Keep in mind I was a wee sproutling when I heard these stories. But long, long ago, when an Affini would take a beeple as a floret, there was no real way to get the implant to bond with their host. We didn't have the technology that we do now, that allows such clean and simple growth alongside the spine. So what an Affini would do instead, is implant a raw piece of plantmatter into their floret-to-be's back, and take them to…"
It seemed to catch the idea quickly enough. "You're not serious. This is madness! You're suggesting practices that were used in barbaric times!"
"Do you genuinely have a better idea?"
"B-But the ramifications! Exposing her to Its song could-"
"Perhaps. But I trust in the old methods, friend." She gave it a cheeky smile. "As her owner, the decision does fall upon my shoulders. But for what it's worth, this isn't about petty glee. I do genuinely think it would be the best option we've got. Amity needs an implant to allow me more direct monitoring capacity, not to mention an actual xenodrug regiment. So… How about this." She extended a vine. "We do the operation there. The song should be able to drown out her heart long enough for it to not be able to resist. And, should things go well, we can meld the two of them together, to properly ensure her safety. What do you think?"
"This is madness. Madness!" Xaxavex went through its board, scribbling and making notes and muttering to itself as it thought more and more through this. However, by the end, somehow the doctor convinced itself, and it turned around. "Fine. But I want all the proper documents filled out to a tee before we even attempt taking Amity there. I refuse to be held accountable for the mad ideas of another Affini."
"Consider it done." The ancient nodded, and the Doctor let Amity down, walking to make arrangements. "So… What was that all about?" She finally asked, having just watched her vet go in a huff over something she had no idea.
Hyancthia smiled. "Now?" She pat her floret's head.
"Now I get to show you where I was born." A sentence that Argonia seemed moderately surprised by.
"The Everbloom."
Well... yeah, that was an ending. I'll see you all next week, when Amity goes to get her implant.
...Hopefully.
If you liked it, do let me know! It helps motivate me to write more <3
Oooooooo! Also seeing Amity and Aqua interact was really sweet ^^