Cordelia slinked into her habitation pod, where two florets (both human) greeted her. She watched them both as her body came unwound and spread all throughout the expanse that was her living room. The first, Melody, was a tall trans woman of the age of twenty one. She dove into the mass of vines that was her owner and, in a fit of giggles, tangled herself all up in them with zero hesitation. Feeling Melody get all mixed up with her put joy in Cordelia's flowers. She absolutely loved how soft Melody's skin was, so much so that it expunged stress from her almost like a drug. The other, more recently acquired florette, stayed seated on the couch and chirped a little at the sight of her owner. That was Aida. Aida was about five feet and seven inches tall, and she had soft auburn hair in a bun and sharp cheekbones. Tendrils of pinkish plant matter spread and unfurled and came to rest splayed across Aida's thighs. Then they started stroking those thighs. Aida moaned from somewhere deep inside herself. 

"Good evening sweethearts," said Cordelia in a low ruble that came from her entire spindly spaghetti mess of a body at once. The pill bottle made its way from what had previously been her hand to an end table where it was set down gently and securely by some of Cordelia's stray ends. Their mission complete, the ends in question flopped down onto the ground where they laid down at rest. Cordelia relaxed and enjoyed this moment in time as a formless shape piling love on two sweet little humans. With Melody all wrapped and tangled up and Aida happily letting her thighs be pet, the three souls in the pod were all safe and relaxed. 

"Only two today?" Asked Aida. She picked up a heavy vine and squished it eagerly against herself. It was rubbery and squishable and full of friendly. 

"Yeah," Cordelia answered in a heavy thrum. "Well...yes and no. One was...unfortunately...dead." 

"Oh noooo!" Cried Melody. Her giggles stopped. She frowned heavily as a sense of fear and sadness gripped at her. "Is the other one okay?" 

"I...I can't say, darling," Cordelia answered. The vines around Melody rearranged into a cozy snuggly cocoon which scooped her up into itself. She was caressed lovingly all over from all angles. "They killed the other." 

"A murder?" Aida looked down at Cordelia. She took the bit of Cordelia between her arms and squeezed it against herself gently. "Do you know why?"

"I don't know, darling," said Cordelia. She tried not to imagine that poor human so afraid and angry she'd kill one of her own. The image was no less chilling than it tended to be when another affini painted it in her mind. She wanted to be able to answer, because she never liked being unable to answer her florettes' questions. At the same time, she didn't want to know them herself. She didn't like reminders of what humans were capable of inflicting on each other. 

"Are they rebels or something?" Aida asked instead, trying to pry out information. It occurred to Cordelia she didn't know what her precious pets did and didn't know. 

"May I ask what you two know of them, sweeties?" She asked. The cocoon came unfurled and a pouting Melody was deposited onto the mat of vines and flowers which now constituted her owner. She pouted and went quiet. Aida, on the other hand, still had her vine to snuggle. 

"Two humans taken in today," Aida said simply. "Small ship. No more detail than that. Was it a personal shuttle or a proper ship with zero crew somehow?" That was a good question. The flowers twirled and the leaves rustled before Cordelia's body gave an answer. 

"It was a shuttle. It's yet to be inspected. One of the humans killed the other on the way out of space around the station we're stopped at and sent out an SOS. They were father and daughter, too! It's tragic, really!" Something was off. Melody wasn't saying anything. "What's the matter, sweetheart?" Cordelia's body started to reform but Melody threw herself down in the middle of it to muddy the effort. Cordelia got the memo and stopped. 

"Do we know their names?"

"The family name is Greshul." Immediately something was wrong. Melody tensed. She had Cordelia's full attention now-sating Aida's curiosity could wait. 

"What's wrong dear?" Asked Cordelia's voice through her countless shivering leaves. Her body converged in on Melody but didn't form into anything. Plant matter slid around her fingers and engulfed her arms and wrapped around her torso. She was shoulder deep in her owner in seconds and quickly relaxed.

The streams of weak xenodrugs being vented in her face (and similar puffs of not-actually-psychoactive-but-nevertheless-very-pleasant-feeling chemicals being applied to her skin) helped. Her compliant mind relaxed quickly and all stress vanished. "Goooohohoooosh, warn meeeee!" Melody softly mock-complained. "Feels niiiiice~"

"That's right sweetie, it does," cooed Cordelia. She raised a vine so it held a flower to Melody's nose and the human took a whiff of it by instinct. She immediately felt soft, limp, and empty. Another vine started to pat her head. 

Melody was happy. Melody was safe. 

"Does that name mean anything to you?" Asked Cordelia directly into Melody's ear. Vines rubbed and patted and massaged her head and neck. Softly, gently, with care and soft loving intent. 

"That was my ex's last name…" Melody sighed with a vacant smile. "It probably isn't them. The odds of that are astronomically low." 

"Not gonna add a cheeky 'literally' to the end of that?" Cordelia lovingly teased her first florette. "You're slipping dear~"Her second floret rolled her eyes on the other side of the room. 

"Cordelia she's high, that's cheating."

"No it's not!" Cordelia protested. "Right, Melody?"

"Riiiiight," Melody agreed. Once again, all Aida could think to do was roll her eyes. 

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

Effus returned to her pod. She was a little upset to leave her post early, but anything that made Airy this upset was an emergency. The immense doors slid open and allowed her to enter. She came in and saw Mane ripping into some of Airy's snacks.

"It's okay!" Aria reassured her almost immediately. "She asked permission and I gave it!" 

Now, normally, Effus would scold one of her pets for eating with the...frankly bestial ferocity that Mane had going on. She was muttering angrily under her breath like she could see ghosts. Hopefully she wasn't. That would be a new and more complicated issue to adress. 

"Mane," Effus said simply. Mane froze stiff and cast two frightened eyes up at her. Oh. Right, she was a ten foot tall alien menace right now. 

Effus' body unwound itself and reconfigured into a humanoid shape standing four feet tall. It was...dense, of course, it had to be to avoid shedding. Behind her facade of a person made out of shrubbery was a condensed labyrinth of tightly packed, tightly wound vines and leaves pulled in as hard as it could. She approached gently and spoke again, softer this time. 

"Was there anything valuable left on the ship?" Mane looked away. Gears turned in her head. 

"No." She answered. Effus' bark imitation of a human face frowned. Her plant bits writhed, hidden behind her. It was almost painful to be like this. The lack of cooperation wasn't helping.

"Mane. Please. I can tell you're lying. I will get the truth out of you." 

"What are you going to do?" Spat Mane with a look of angry defiance in her eyes. "DRUG me? Drug me until I tell you every stupid sentimental object I've left behind so you know I haven't smuggled in a bomb? Or are you just concerned with the 'truth' here? I left EVERYTHING!" She shook. Tears. Lots of them. Her chest heaved with heavy violent sobs. "It doesn't matter what's left in that awful fucking thing! Blow it to hell, I don't care!" Effus glanced at Airy. Airy was clearly upset. Effus started unwinding and readjusted into the same human shape but a more manageable, eight feet tall version of it. 

"Dear," she murmured. "Deaaaaar." She reached out for Mane with an arm that Mane pulled away from and glared daggers at. Effus' flowers pulsed dark reds for a moment. Was that emotion anger?

Once more the rage burning inside of Mane quickly ran out of fuel. Her sobs became less restrained. She fell to her knees and scrunched up her face. "Two...two things. I left two things in there. I wasn't sure if I would be allowed to bring them in."  Effus hummed with her vines. The flowers on them became a pale blue and shook up and down a bit, almost like they were nodding along. "A hoodie...a-and a knife that my grandma gave me. They're in the glove compartment." 

"Theeeere, there," cooed Airy. She ran over to Mane and helped her up to her feet. She pulled out a handkerchief-handmade!-and dabbed away Mane's tears. Mane clung to her like a piece of driftwood keeping her afloat. 

Good, thought Effus. She had been worried Mane wouldn't be affected by Airy's infectious willingness to show care. Visitors who resisted that were invariably made much more difficult to help. Mane, though, she allowed Airy to lead her to the kitchen. 

"Let's get you something to eat," said Airy. "What kind of pet foo-er, I guess it's not pet food to you is it? What kind of human foo-er, I guess it's not that either for you is it? Just...food? Real food…?" Mane grasped at a shoulder and looked down. 

"I'll take anything," she grumbled. "Don't bother." 

"Don't...bother?" Airy froze where she was, leaning over the fridge with one arm holding its door open, and turned a confused-looking face towards Mane. "I don't understand, sweetie. What shouldn't I bother with?"

"Just heat up whatever's there," Mane sighed. "I haven't eaten today. I can deal with whatever."

"But Maaaaane!" Airy stared at the cuffed girl with bleary eyes and a big sad frown. "I wanna make you food that makes you happy!" Mane clutched at her chest like she'd been shot in the heart and whined. But, the whine...it sounded...like a good thing…?

Sometimes the mannerisms of humans confused even Effus. She was glad she had Airy as a faithful pet that loved all the other girls she brought home, and was so eager to help patch their bruised and scratched up little hearts. She made a note to give Airy a bath with the extra potent xenodrug shampoo tonight. 

"I-I, uhhhhh," Mane's mind seemed to be stalling out. Whatever she didn't like about telling people what she wanted seemed to be outweighed by her desire to please Airy. Effus took note of that. It was useful. 

"In the meantime-" she cut in. She felt bad-this was PROGRESS-but, alas, the affini bureaucracy had her on a time limit here. "I didn't ask in search of specific things. I ask because I requested access to the ship and there's not much of a window. I expect you not to want to come but-"

"Take me." Mane sprinted to the door and shook next to it. "Please. I want to get my things." 

"Your mood's been...erratic," said Effus, making a deliberate effort to be gentle with her choice of words. "Are you SURE that you don't want any xenodrugs? You're clearly in a bad place and-"

"I will -" Mane caught herself. She shot a pained glance at Airy. "....fine. I'll-" It was Effus zipped across and stooped to be face-to-face with Mane. It was her turn to use that word that practically defined the two's relationship.

"No."

"What!?" Mane almost looked offended. The face she pointed at Effus was one contorted into the shape of contempt. She growled. "What do you mean, NO?" 

"You are NOT letting me drug you just because you don't want to inconvenience Aria!" Effus growled back. In any other circumstance she would have taken this oppurtunity in open vines, but she wasn't having it whatwith how belligerent Mane was being. "I...I'm sorry." She deflated and her vines and leaves drooped limp. "That was cruel of me." Was that why? Or was she frustrated with this human for thinking they were in any position of power here? 

She expected this from rebels, of course. They would go down kicking and screaming. They would relapse. They would look reason in the face and spit in its eyes, purely out of spite. But Mane WANTED to be a pet, yet she seemed to think she was the one in control even though she couldn't even say what she wanted. Effus wanted to help her. 

"Y...yeah. I would've regretted it anyway." Mane balled her hands into fists. "When do we have access to the ship?"

"Now. It ends in twenty minutes." 

"B-but-" Mane panicked. "It's so far! The ship is so big! C-come on we can barely reach it in time!" She was crying. "I'm sorry I yelled at you this isn't funny please I'll do anything you can-" 

"Shhhh." Effus tapped a button. The door slid open. "It's okay, dear. I forgot how short your legs are. I can get there in three minutes carrying you, is that okay?" Mane took a deep breath. 

"Yes...yes, that's alright. Please carry me there."