Mane woke up from her nap physically comfortable but emotionally at about halfway. She sat halfway up, the plushie that the affini had rescued from her father's ship once more clutched in her arms. Had Effus gone and given her a proper tucking in while she slept? It seemed like the only logical explanation. Mane felt a small pulse of warmth traverse her face as she thought about that and gave the stuffed animal in her arms a gentle squeeze. He was soft despite his spikes and had a pleasant shape to enwrap with your arms. Mane liked that. She had always liked that. Mane got out of her bed and saw a sticky note on the wall next to her coat, the latter of which was hanging from some kind of hook. She took the note and read it to herself out loud. 

"Your tablet's under your bed," Mane muttered under her breath, "the password is-" Mane scowled and crumpled up the note. Was there a trashcan somewhere in the hab, to toss this into? There had to be. There was no way a race of specifically plant creatures, which had THIS level of commitment to due process and this level of a saccharine air about them, did not have at least five proper waste disposals in each of their living spaces. She grumbled to herself as she paced the hab in search of one. Had she explored it on her own before? She was fairly certain she hadn't. Airy or Effus or both had been basically glued to her during her every waking moment that she'd spent there, so far. It was spacious and oversized, as she had noted already. Kind of messy too, but she was used to that. 

Ah! She found a trash bin in the kitchen. She put the sticky note inside and scoffed at it. The password was Floretseedmane:), was it? She wasn't sure which offended her more, the boldfaced assertion that she was a "seed" or the fact Effus was so tacky she slapped a fucking smiley face on the end. She returned to the bed and reached under. There her fingers found a smooth rectangular shape with the familiar texture of a handheld computing device. Mane retrieved her new communications tool and took it to a couch. 

Sure enough, the password on the now-trashed sticky note got her into the tablet on her first try. The background…

The background was cats. An adorable photograph of a bunch of small kitties snuggling in an object clearly not designed with that use in mind. She shouldn't have been surprised, she supposed. Melody had probably told Effus more than just what foods she liked. She looked over the installed icons: a familiar browser, the affini intranet and overnet chat applications, a search bar, a video platform…

Oh. There was a text document labeled "Readthispleasesweetie." Effus was...well, she sure did call it that. Mane rolled her eyes and opened it. Inside was a list of the rules about the tablet.

1- Effus has the right to restrict most uses, but she cannot take the tablet away. The intra- and over- net communications are non-negotiable: Mane has a right to them.

2- Mane is encouraged but not required to keep some kind of diary recording her feelings. She is to be rewarded for doing so but NOT for sharing it. She is not to be punished for abstaining from either. 

3- Due to a history of unhealthy patterns, Glimmer is off-limits. 

Mane rolled her eyes and groaned angrily. She'd LOVE to counter that Melody knew her from years ago and her habit of getting into heated arguments with assholes and horrendously misguided people on there was outdated, but she knew she would just have her account pulled up to (humiliatingly) prove otherwise. 

4- Effus is not allowed to contact Ursula. 

Huh. That was...an interesting one. Here was where Mane realized that her rules seemed to be written in third person. Well, more specifically, they weren't in "Effus speaking to Mane" third person, they were written in "an actual third party addressing both of them as external actors" third person. Drafted up by Erias and Effus working in tandem, she supposed. Part of her gurgled with hate at the idea of the two speaking, but...it seemed Erias was willing and ready to exert her authority, and not prone to letting Effus bowl her over. That was...a different dynamic than she was used to. 

5- Effus, as of the time Mane receives this tablet, may not request information or audience from Erias without Mane's express consent. Asking for said consent more than once a month, or applying any kind of pressure for her to give it, is forbidden. 

6- Effus may ask Mane's vet for advise on how to handle her. Disregarding this advise to a certain degree is technically within affini law but will prove hazardous to Effus' health. 

Were...were all of the remaining rules going to be about those two?

7- Mane is not to use this tablet as a means to harass or emotionally harm other sophonts.

8- If Mane emotionally self-harms by getting into or needlessly protracting arguments that fowl her mood, it qualifies as a violation of rule 7.

Ah, she thought, there they were. 

9- All means which allow Effus to monitor Mane using her tablet are disabled by default. Effus' tablet has had its ability to change these settings disabled, except for location tracking, which she is only to use in emergencies.

10- If Mane uses her tablet in ways that are rude or mean-spirited towards Effus, she will be punished. Punishment is to be gentle and corrective, but dissuade further incidents. 

Mane closed the file. She could skim the remaining rules whenever she felt like it. At the moment she was more...annoyed, she supposed. She rose from the couch and opened the video platform. There she-

Wait.

Rule 4 mentioned Ursula. 

Mane opened the appropriate messenger and procured the business card she'd been given while she was on the ARGOS. She frantically entered Ursula's information and tapped a brief message into her tablet to send. It read, "Hello it's me it's Mane I have a tablet now! Hiiiii! Rawr!" She felt a warmth in her chest as the client almost immediately cycled from "sending" to "sent" to "read." Within seconds she got a message in return. 

"CUB HI!!! RAWR! <3" Mane giggled and blushed and physically hugged the device against her chest as the queer squirming overtook her which was associated with the emotion of, as some Too Far Gone terrans called it, being "noticed by senpai." She squealed to herself, wiggled her toes, the works. She hadn't spoken to Ursula in...years. It had been entirely too long. Mane was awash in the soft glow of warm emotions, and her face sported an appropriately large smile. Her tablet beeped as another message arrived from Ursula. "I'm glad you got Erias," it read, "She's...a lot more willing to compromise than most affini are. She'll take care of you, I promise." This message, Mane noticed, had an attachment. She opened it: it was a photograph. Of Ursula's beautiful hair and neck. It took a second for Mane, who was presently very gay and heavily flustered, to understand the implied meaning. The photograph gave a view of her back, which notably didn't have haustoric implant scars on it. There were scars of some kind, and they looked similar, but it wasn't difficult to tell that they weren't the same as Aria's or Melody's. Ursula was telling Mane that she could be trusted...in a characteristically gay way. Mane blushed as she typed her reply. 

"Oh! You're pretyyyyyyyy," it read, and it was followed by another: "And no implant!"

"Sorta," Ursula responded. "I had a temporary...sort of one, to grow the ears, but it's gone now."

"Gone?" Mane asked. She was intrigued. If it was gone, wouldn't the scars be worse?

"Yeah! Mine was like, temporary. Intended to do its purpose and fade, but it can be done with the standard kind to. Neat, isn't it?" Mane felt a kind of relief...which she imagined to be the point. Still, the thought of having to get one at all filled her with dread. She opted for a change of topic. 

"Neat! How do you know Erias, by the way? I'm curious." Shit, was that okay for her to ask? Mane didn't want to be invasiiiiive-

"She's just a cool unusually affini! I help out at the vetpsych clinic cause I like being helpful, you know? I met her when I came on the ship. She helped me with my various baggage. She's soft, and patient, and good at respecting boundaries even if they shift around and stuff. Kinda like you, cub!" 

Mane had to fight not to flinch at the comparison. Not because she was loath to be compared to an affini, though there was some of that, but…

"I...really, Ursula, I'm nothing special." Mane scowled at her reflection in the tablet. 

"Cub…" The words didn't sting with betrayal or shame coming from her. Ursula wasn't disappointed or hurt or angry. "Cub, would you like to come to the ARGOS sometime to visit me?" The invitation struck Mane like a gust of wind. She could...see Ursula? In person? She already had that day, but- "I never got to kiss your little head, and that feels like a shame." Mane spasmed and felt a physical heat in her ears.

"Y-yes please very much," Mane typed out. She could practically hear Ursula giggling and cooing over the message on the other end. God. 

-------------

"So. Ummmm," Melody murmured. She was laying down on her stomach, pink vines draped loose and comfortable over top of her. "I wanna talk about...earlier, Cordi. If that's okay, I mean?" Cordelia's body wriggled and literally turned inside out in its haste to point her face in Melody's direction as quickly as possible. 

"Of course it's okay, Little Flower," Cordelia cooed and used a thin end of a vine to lovingly trace the side of Melody's face. "You mean Mane's outburst, correct?" Had Melody told Cordelia Mane's name? She supposed that if she hadn't, Effus probably would. It made sense. 

"Yeah, um, there was a reason for that." Melody hesitated. Was she...allowed to do this? Mane told this story all the time back in high school, but she wasn't...a killer, back then. 

"It's okay darling," Impy whispered to her in his most soothing voice. The fact it sounded like Mane's voice did in their days on Gisk did not evade her. "Please, you wish to tell her, so tell her. Cordelia is kind and forgiving. There's nothing to fear." 

"Mane was...um...she was kidnapped as a child. I wanna say it happened while she was in Elementary School." She paused again, this time to access memories she had not used in a while. They were dusty and faded and came with the acidic aftertaste of bad soda. "Her dad wanted to institutionalize her mom so...he kidnapped Mane and told his wife, 'I have your child.'" She was scanning her owner's face for emotion and she wasn't finding any. Cordelia was too absorbed to remember how to mimic human cues. 

"Go on, dear," Cordelia whispered. 

"Mane's mom was sent home by the people he took her to but...I don't think she's ever fully recovered." When Mane told the story back in high school it had always been as a biting humorous rant. She'd never dwelled on it in detail, even though she repeated the tale ad nauseum. "Please don't tell Effus this, but I...I think she flashed back to that when you grabbed me. It was...like him trying to take her mother again, or something." 

Cordelia gave a slow patient nod and frowned. "What a poor dear, to have to go through that. I am so very sorry. I promise to take that into account around her from now on, and not to tell Effus, okay?" Melody nodded. She couldn't tell what Cordi was thinking. Was...was she upset? Mane had...threatened to kill her, after all. 

"I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD!" 

Even at her nastiest, Mane had never been so blindingly angry at Melody. It was the kind of terrible venomous rage she usually reserved for the monsters she was forced to live with. A small mote of relief splashed across Melody's brain as she reminded herself that yes, Mane was in fact safe now. None of Mane's family could reach her, not with the affini to protect her. She was free to heal and grow and become the beautiful butterfly she deserved to be allowed to be. 

"Darling, you're crying."

"Huh?" Melody felt a tear roll down her face. She...she was. 

"There, there. It's alright, Little Flower. I won't let anyone punish Mane for trying to protect you."

"You...won't?" Cordelia pulled Melody into a sweet embrace of vines. She purred gently. 

"Of course not, my love. To protect a floret is the greatest cause one can have. Should a human be punished for finding the courage to challenge an affini that they see try to harm one?" 

A part of Melody wanted to remark that this was a very charitable reading. That this was the same Mane who, despite so fiercely opposing the domestication project that she feared implants more than death, still was angry when Melody left firstly that Melody was leaving her. The one that, once upon a time, spoke at great lengths about how Melody was hers and only hers, and-

"Dear, dear, is something wrong?" Cordelia squeezed softly with her vines. Melody squeaked. She didn't want to be scared. Mane had changed, and if she hadn't yet she would BE changed-

"Please, u-use the thing," Fears of telling the truth clawed free from the graves Cordelia had fought so hard to put them in. "I w-wanna-I wanna tell the truuth," Melody stammered. Cordelia slid a vine along Melody's back. It cradled the back of her head like a lover's hand.

It stung her.

Warmth flooded her. Melody's fear drowned instantly. The ghosts roaming her mind fled in terror instantly. Melody was okay. She was gonna be okay. 

"I was talking about her outburst and remembered how she used to have control issues," Melody reported with a vacant smile one might expect from a bored weather reporter. "I'll be okay, I promise. She's been better about it and if she hasn't improved than you guys will make her." 

"Not sure about your wording," muttered Cordi, "but yes, Little Flower. Whatever baggage caused those problems, we will tend to them. I promise." 

"Thank you." A second wave of drugs pumped through Melody. She quickly returned to normal and, feeling proud of herself, snuggled into her owner.

Everything was gonna be okay.