The door to the long distance visits room slid open. The sticklike affini named Erias entered with a look of interest on her face. She scanned its contents, and she didn't need to do it for long to find what- or more accurately, to find who- she was looking for. A human sat at a desk, wearing one of the room's signature helmets and completely entombed in similar looking equipment. In one hand she grasped a pink vine. That vine was part of Cordelia- and it was Cordelia that the ancient being had come to speak with. Erias drew near to the two, her tightly interwoven vines wriggling with chaos and intent. 

"Aida said I could find the two of you here?" Said Erias, her voice sharp and distinct. Cordelia knew her just well enough to know this was her business voice- and her biorhythms reacted accordingly; sputtering out of beat for a moment. Cordelia had to recollect herself before she could say anything. When she did, it was with little in the way of confidence. 

"Ah! Erias! H-hello there. What brings you onto the Crest?" Erias sat and writhed for a second in silence. Thoughts raced across her core. Did Cordelia really not know, or was she just checking to make sure she was up to date? If she didn't know, then whatever this was that she and Melody were up to, it…must be terribly important. Perhaps, as well, she had been caught up, but only briefly such that this matter took precedence in her short term memory. 

"Arliss, a military affini from this general area, he…he's breached multiple barriers that nobody with good sense would tread on, regarding Mane. Confronted her and Effus outside of their hab. I've been collecting signatures for a petition to be rid of him. Came to see if you'd wish to contribute yours." 

"You don't…generally get this involved?" Asked Cordelia, her voice incredulous. She did reach out awkwardly with two pink vines, though, which Erias entrusted with her clipboard and a pen. Cordelia swiftly signed her name onto the petition and then skimmed over its contents to see if any details jumped out at her. In truth, lots of them did. 

"Oh stars…" Cordelia whimpered with pity. "That's…why would an affini do that?"

"Because they didn't stop to think about the violent little Terraspawn," Erias spat with an almost knife-like edge to her voice. Cordelia shriveled and practically went greyscale for a second before remembering that Erias was harmless and regaining her color. "I swear to the void, I'm about to borrow Thunder's media library and sent eighty billion terrabytes of hardware to the core galaxy with nothing on it but trillions of replications of Jacob's Ladder."

"I'm…not familiar." 

"Really? Huh. Don't you collect Terran media as a hobby?" Erias inquired. 

"Writing, mostly," Cordelia answered sheepishly.

"Interesting," Erias noted. "Well, I'll have to have him send you a copy, I think you'd find it validating." Erias took back the pen and clipboard, then turned on a dime. "When your floret comes back, tell her I noticed how supportive she was being in my lobby. And give her extra dessert tonight!" Erias made her way out of the room. She continued on her way down the hall, passed a statue that was also a fountain, and mulled over the other things she aimed to do while on the ship. Mane was asleep with her head in Ursula's lap (d'awwwww) so that visit had to be pushed back a bit. She wouldn't confront Arliss without Mane's permission, as well, so that also had to wait. 

She opened her chat interface and messaged Ursula.

Erri Erri Erias: Hello darling. Is Mane's condition improving?

Ursa Pager: Yes!! She relaxed and had a snack (and tacos for lunch!) and we talked a while and cuddled and…y'know. She fell asleep.

Erri Erri Erias: her nap's not over yet, I take it?

Ursa Pager: no, and waking her would feel…wrong. 

Erri Erri Erias: of course! Much like a pet, disturbing a Terran that trusts you enough to doze on your body is a vicious betrayal :3

Ena Ena Aeneid: Very funny. 

This gave Erias pause, but not for long. This was Ena, one of Ursula's headmates. She didn't usually poke into conversations midway through. 

Erri Erri Erias: Hello Ena. Did my jest wake you from your slumber? 

Ursa Pager: no, we've just been…co-fronting. She was almost as angry about that other affini as I was and waited until…Effus, right?

Erri Erri Erias: Yes

Ursa Pager: until Effus was out of the picture to surface. Which is good, I don't think we'd have enough restraint to hold back our combined disdain for her. 

Erri Erri Erias: That makes sense and I'm sure Mane appreciates it. Also, your wording makes me suspect co-fronting is either new to you or an obstacle in some other way. I hope that it hasn't been too unpleasant? 

Ursa Pager: Not really, no. Some aspects of our thoughts mingling have been uncomfortable, but it's nothing we can't handle. 

Ena Ena Aeneid: Hate to interrupt but I think Mane might be having a bad dream.

Erri Erri Erias: What makes you say that?

Ursa Pager: She's grimacing and the cute little snores have been supplanted by…other, less gentle noises. 

Ena Ena Aeneid: Other things too

Erias would frown if she had a mouth. If bad dreams the day before meeting with her continued to be a trend, it would certainly corroborate with Mane's apparent fear for and distrust of Erias's station. As for the reasoning of the two…when they said "other things" in a text or chat message, it was usually code for "I don't trust the affini not to read this somehow." Erias elected not to press the issue until later. She put her tablet aside and-

"Miss Erias!" Cordelia's voice came from behind her. She turned towards its source and saw Cordelia not far away. How curious…should she really have been leaving Melody behind? 

"Should-" Erias started. Cordelia's body shifted to the side, revealing that a single vine was stretched far off into the distance and behind a wall. So she was still holding her floret's hand, was that it? Erias chuckled internally. The lengths younger affini went to for their pets restored some of the sand to the dwindling hourglass that comprised her faith in them. "I see. Yes, that answers my question splendidly. What brings you after me, young one?" Cordelia's flowers reacted wildly to the utterance of the phrase "young one," and that made Erias smile. It was cute. 

"Well, you see…Melody is…" Cordelia pulled out her tablet and started typing. Was it a secret, Erias wondered? 

"Cordelia," said Erias, "if you break a promise by texting me something instead of saying it, I will make you listen to the audiobook of my biography. The narrator was specifically chosen for how slowly and emotionlessly they read. It's a full week long." That was probably Erias's favorite joking threat: no harm, no foul, and reminding herself of that absurdity reminded her of times long gone. 

"W-well, no," Cordelia explained, "I just don't want to be overheard. I promised not to tell anyone without permission and I…have that permission, but only for you." 

"..." Erias focused in. Cordelia seemed bothered. "I already have permission to read your floret's history and mental health files, given by both herself and you." She hadn't read them yet, and wouldn't touch them either without Mane's consent. That information didn't have any immediate bearing on Cordelia, though, so she left it out for simplicity's sake. Cordelia finished tapping her message into her tablet and pressed send. Within seconds, the information arrived at Erias's own device and elicited a satisfying little beep. 

"I just…it felt wrong to deliver something of this sort, and not to do it in person," mumbled Cordelia, "that's all. I'm going back to Melody now, these visits…they take their toll from the poor thing." Erias, in lighter circumstances, would correct that phrasing. To take a toll "from" something certainly made more sense to say than to take a toll "on" it, but that was still the phrasing Terrans used. In any case, however, now wasn't the time for such trifles. 

Cordelia turned and made her way back where she'd come from. Erias considered digging through whatever had been so important immediately, but ultimately chose not to. She had more pressing things to attend to. The old affini tucked her tablet away under a spindly arm and decided to make one small detour to grab some nutrient slurry with affi-drugs mixed in. 

Heh. Affi-drugs. She hadn't used that term in a while. Not since her first floret passed away. She found an old, cold feeling threatening her with fangs that were much smaller and duller than they'd seemed in her youth. Envy of religious creatures, for the thought that a comfortable Afterwards awaited those who'd passed. In her old age the feeling was…quaint. Adorable, almost, for what a distant and irrelevant thing it had become when it had once been so menacing. 

"I remember you, Khih-darrin." She muttered to herself. She'd have to give some of the ARGOS's stores a few of her recipes sometime, for when she felt nostalgic. It was a custom of hers to do that every time she found herself on a front, but she always hesitated for a while before she did it. It just wasn't the sort of affair that was okay to rush, was all. 

—--------

Ursula looked down at Mane. The blonde girl lay looking less comfortable than she had before. Her cute little snores had given way to rumbles and snarls. Her face scrunched up with a kind of bad emotion that…well, seeing it on Mane's face made Ursula's heart hurt. She contemplated waking the girl up. 

"I really think we ought to," said a familiar voice that had not spoken up in a while. Much like its owner, the voice had a kind of majestic hiss to it underlined by confidence and power. This was Ena, one of her headmates and the only one that had revealed themselves to an affini- though whether out of respect or hubris, it was hard to say. The voice added, directly into Ursula's mind much like last time, "See? She's um. Look at her hands." Ursula didn't need to look. She and Ena saw out of the same pair of eyes, after all. Mane's hands were curled with intent, flexing intermittently as they mimed out the action of strangling some invisible adversary. 

"Hey, cub," Ursula whispered in the most gentle and soothing tone that she could. "Hey, sweetheart, wake up." She placed a hand lovingly on Mane's shoulder and pressed gently. The nudge was just enough to wake Mane. 

Mane spasmed violently as terror overtook her and then vanished in seconds. She thrashed with her arms and legs. She threw her head all about and yelped in terror. Then she froze and seemed to collect herself. She rose to position sitting up and cast a guilty looking expression Ursula's way. 

"Oh…um…hey. Bad…bad dream, is all." 

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Asked Ursula. Mane shook her head, then froze. She stared into Ursula's eyes with a mix of curiosity and mild dread. It took a moment for Ursula to realize what she was responding to.

Ena figured it out faster. 

"Hello there, precious," Ena purred. It was a different purr from when Ursula did it: lower, growlier, yet somehow also smoother. She sounded less like a great mammal and more like a monster one would ask a knight to help with. But like, a benevolent one which was currently amused, and the sound had affection to it as well. "Sorry, the eyes thing is…we have collored contacts that change according to which of us is fronting. This is Ena, currently. Do you remember me?" 

Mane turned a much deeper, more cherry-like shade of red than she ever did for Ursula. Both of the sophonts looking at her found it deeply amusing. Mane stammered for a second, gave up, and took a deep breath. 

"I um. Yes, hi! It's nice to meet you in person, Ena!" She smiled at both of them with a warm, pure, gentle expression. Both of them, independently of one another, arrived within microseconds at the same thought: this expression suited the little lion far better. "I um. Wow. So yours are red?" 

"Yeah, heh. Mine are red, Ursula's are the color you're used to, Ermire is light brown and Treamt is a vibrant sea-green. Cool, huh?" Ena giggled, taking great joy in Mane's look of adoration and enraptured interest. Goddesses, she's adorable, she thought to herself. She made a request to have some time fronting solo and Ursula granted it. Sure enough, one of her eyes- the one that hadn't already- appeared to turn red. 

"Holy crap…that's so cool!" Mane muttered under her breath. Ena giggled to herself. The bear ears wiggled with delight and their fur, too, changed to a reddish purple color. 

"Unfortunately the contacts only work in conjunction with some stuff left over from that implant. I WANTED the ears to turn scaley, but it wasn't clear whether that was viable with a temporary-and-swiftly-removed one, and…you know." 

"I do." Mane nodded. "Can…can I hug you?" 

"By all means," Ena purred. "Please do." The two embraced. 

Somewhere in the hab, the doorbell rang.