Magdalene Greshul was finishing her shift. The affini takeover of her home planet had gone swiftly and for the common man, painlessly. Not a shot was fired by either side. She hated the weeds for the same reasons every level-headed human being with a spark left in their brains did: they were awful, evil invaders who lied as easily as they breathed. They promised infinite kindness in exchange for complete surrender, an offer only the stupidest would ever consider. But their superior might meant that acceptance was the only option; those who resisted simply had the strength taken straight from their bodies. She liked the changes on the ground level, of course: no more taxes, free housing, free food, all the things the weeds could offer thanks to their vastly superior means. There was a catch, of course- nothing, not even birth or air or food or water, was ever truly free. The invaders simply hadn't yet revealed the metal hook concealed by their scrumptious worm. 

Perhaps they harvested human organs, or desired a database of alien brain tissue or genetic material. Perhaps they merely conquered for the obscene joy of crushing another living thing under one's might. Perhaps once humanity grew idle, this hostile domestication would escalate to its logical conclusion- reducing her kind to cattle. She read Cave Blue World, she knew how these things went. Nevertheless, she tried to keep those thoughts out of her mind as she worked.

Her job was optional, of course. She could quit at any time, free from the obligation to gather funds for use dodging death. Still, she had nothing better to do with her time. It was better than listening to her mother panic about Chris every hour or watching her friend's social media posts about their damned 'owners.' She was alone, and one might say it was by her own doing, but this work in this hospital helped her pretend otherwise. She was finished with a patient and walked over to the receptionist. 

Somehow, the facility still had no affini within the ranks of its faculty. She knew better than to say so out loud, for fear of inviting the worst. She didn't know what she'd do with herself if one of those perverted horrors appeared in the one place where she felt any sense of importance. She did relish each passing hour free of the fuckers. Her ailing body would no doubt invite unwanted attention from the condescending fucking filth, after all, what with her ruined bones and autoimmune disorders. She could have them fixed, probably, but if her grampa died without help from these abominations then she would too, God damnit. 

She shook her head free of those dark thoughts and tried not to ruminate. She was protecting Christian by keeping away from those bastards, after all, even if she was unfortunately shielding Cain at the same time. Sometimes one simply had to make those sacrifices, after all. Plus, if the plants get a hold of him he'll be girlier than me, muttered some part of her mind with a sick sense of amusement. There was a shadow of genuine bitterness mixed in, which she felt ashamed of but nevertheless lacked the power to shut out completely. 

Florets were lucky, in a sense, because for all the horrible brutality inflicted on their minds and bodies they were left perfectly sterilized at the end. It was a fate worse than death- for women especially- but it meant no more periods, which on its face was almost enough to justify surrender on its own. She chased off her thoughts yet again, annoyed with herself. The receptionist traded words with her and gave her a folder full of paperwork that needed doing. Rumor held that these aliens had a sexual…thing for paperwork. 

The thought was far more confusing to her than anything else. Like…did they have plant vaginas? Did they fuck pens? How exactly was that whole…disaster…supposed to work? She knew not to believe everything she read on the internet, sure, but this…it was such a nonsensical lie that if someone said it, it had to be true, right? Who in their right mind would just up and say, "I don't like these guys so I'm going to start a rumor that they fuck pamphlets!" It was so fucking weird! Nobody would just make that kind of shit up!

"Hey, Mag. You have a visitor."

Magdelyn blinked rapidly and felt her heart pick up speed. Was that…? Had her little brother come to visit her, then? She turned with her eyes bright, only to freeze when she saw the look of grave worry in the speaker's face. She hesitated a moment before she found it in herself to ask what seemed like the only possible question. 

"It's the enemy." 

She gulped. They had Chris? That was…no no no, clearly they were trying to use her to find him! She would resist, no matter what they did to her! She would make them crack her open like an egg before she allowed him to come to harm! She grabbed a pen as subtly as her shaking hands would allow as she made her way past the desk and followed the one who had called for her. The receptionist's gaze cast over her as she walked by, though…made it clear her little stealth maneuver hadn't exactly worked. She gripped the impromptu weapon, hoping she would not need to use it. 

—-----

The facility's garden was new. Packed with botanical wonders from across the stars, it represented human cooperation with the damnable weeds. Many found it relaxing, but Magdelyn hated it. She suspected that the abomination visiting her knew that she did, and had intentionally chosen it as the site of their meeting for that reason.  She stepped inside and was struck immediately by just…what a clusterfuck the alien visitor was. It stood nine feet tall, a horrific mass of faded glittery gold vines and wood and thick dark purple spines a third of a foot thick at the base. The shambling horror's body was shaped overall mostly like that of a human, but with multiple key differences. 

For one, it looked almost like a dragon. The armored outsides of its hide would be imposing enough without the spear-like thorns that stuck out all over it, and the "hand" on its right side was like if a venus fly trap was wearing a dragon-shaped halloween mask. The torso of this awful creature was shaped like a turtle, and it had feet on its two thick tree-trunk like legs that looked more like combat boots. There were even little vines crossing in appropriate places along its shins to complete the look. 

But most striking was the creature's face. It had a mask, but it wasn't the mask mask of an affini mimicking a human face, nor the face mask of an affini sculpting its face into something describable as a mask. This was…it was like a grotesque gas mask intended for a gargoyle or a demon. The beast glared down at her with two predatory eyes like a horse would have, but they were sunken and cold. The "face" around them was a harsh, armored, triangular snout with a jagged line across it which evoked a great fanged maw. Two thick cylinders protruded from this face, one on each side, that seemed to extend straight from its jaws. 

"Good evening, human," it less said than hummed. Its voice rumbled directly across Magdalene's bones and made it feel like her brain was shaking. "A beautiful day outside, isn't it? Not a bad planet, either. Makes you thankful for the stars." 

Magdalyn nodded along, trying to focus on this enemy's intentions. That blank visage gave her very little to work with, but she'd have to read it somehow if she wanted to make it through this in one piece. The creature slouched into a position that Magdalene could only assume was seated. She took a seat herself on a bench a few feet away, her eyes locked onto the weed all the while as she did so. It seemed to follow her movements with the tip of its…mask? Beak? Whatever that horrid thing was that served as its face. 

"Yes, quite," Magdalene muttered passive aggressively as her hands violently quaked at her sides. "An absolutely beautiful day outside, you're totally right. And you're spending it…here." Her words weren't quite venomous, but they had been sharpened by intent on their way out of her mouth. The monstrosity regarded her for a few seconds. Its arm- the one with the dragon head for a hand- lifted off the ground. It seemed to take an obtrusive amount of effort for the beast to accomplish this task, which made her think that perhaps the hand was too big for it, or that its arm on that side suffered some kind of debilitating rot. A parasite, perhaps, if she could only be so lucky. 

"...." the creature turned its attention from Magdalene to itself, specifically to its own body. It curled its right arm- which she now realized was disproportionately long and thin- so as to make the "head" on its tip stare into the face of its body. There, in that contemplative pose, the being sat silently for a while. Its body moved subtly, kind of like how an otherwise still human's did because they breathed, but it was not the same motions as breathing. The jaws of the monster's right hand noisily pulled open, revealing a set of red tapering spines resembling teeth which each had a small shiny sphere of fluid capping their tip. The spines slid against each other until their tips pressed together, and after a moment's resistance, those gel-like tips popped away from one another with a satisfying sound reminiscent of a giraffe or a zebra clicking its teeth together. The spines wiggled one after another in an undulating kind of wave motion. 

"Well?" Magdalene asked with fire in her eyes. If she hated anything more than lazy people benefitting from what they didn't earn, it was having assholes like this one waste her time. "What, do you want to abduct me? Stick a bunch of-"

"Does the name Ayle ring a bell?" The monster asked without changing its posture. Magdalene scowled. No, of course not. That was a stupid name! What kind of-

Wait a minute. 

That was…

A fury came over Magdalene as a single vague memory fizzed up to the top of her mind. She recalled hearing the name a single time. She recalled being absolutely livid. 

"That bitch," she growled under her breath. She remembered her brother, beset with himself, stumbling around and not eating, how she had to pick and tear and wear him down before he'd admit what was wrong, the four hour game of verbal cat and mouse he'd tried to escape from multiple times…was that embellishing the length? It was hard to tell. She'd probably spent that long venting and only switched to guidance counselor mode near the end. He was lucky to have her- most siblings would have given up. "That's the bitch who stole his girlfriend." 

"Her," the horror bellowed so hard that the glass planes of the garden flexed and the pots holding the smaller plants jittered. Magdalene jumped to her feet and almost fell backwards over the bench in shock- but she caught herself. She sat back down. 

"But it's so hard to remember what to call them," she laughed, "and when I try to use she, my parents get mad at me, and they haven't picked a name anyway-"

"Are your parents here?" 

"Well, no-"

"Then why should it make a difference? And if you're as protective as you say, then certainly you wouldn't be cowed so easily about something you-"

"DO NOT CALL ME A COW."

The abomination let out a noise somewhere between a turtle biting into an apple and someone who was already on their last nerve stubbing their toe. Its awful dragon mouth snapped all the way open and shook violently. 

"Cowed. Verb. To be made to cower. I apologize for the confusion. REGARDLESS. I, am Vanciti, Sixth Bloom. I am Ayle's owner." The alien relaxed its hand-mouth again and placed it on the floor. Magdalene's mind pulsed with a cold electric fear. What was that girl's owner doing here? 

"You can pry my brother from my cold dead hands!" Magdalene growled as she clutched her pen. The beast moved its mask-mouth in a way that suggested it would roll its eyes if they could do that. Its spikes flexed and shook as if thirsty and tempted by the arousing smell of blood. Magdalene's heart beat furiously, motivated by mountains of anger and oceans of fear in equal measure. She stood no chance- obviously- but if this obnoxious fuckface thought he could fuck with her family consequence-free, he was in for a rude awakening. 

"Did you ever actually think to ask your sister what was bothering her?" The beast asked. Its voice sounded bizarrely human this time, possibly because now it was actually moving its jaws and talking, rather than whatever bullshit method it had previously been using. "About Ayle? The whole…situation?"

"Yes, obviously, you dumbfuck," Magdalene growled, "and she compromised her morals to support a toxic relationship and it bit her in the ass! Do you seriously think that bitch of yours would-"

The dragon's mouth rumbled up off the floor in a growl that seemed almost involuntary. Fear like an injured rabbit cornered by a cat overtook her and she went quiet. After half a second or so, though, the monstrosity quelled whatever had animated its hand-mouth and rested it on the floor again. The beast's cylindrical pieces pumped in and out of its mouth like pistons and even ejected some sort of vapor before they stopped. Magdalene stared, ready to drive her pen into the beast before it bit off her entire upper body.

"No, that was not at all the issue," Vanciti chastised, "Ayle isn't a big fan of yours, as is clearly mutual, although from my perspective her motives are much purer than yours." Magdalene rolled her eyes but stayed put. She gripped the pen even harder now. The two locked eyes, neither wearing a pleasant expression. "Part of our…agreement was that I see Ser and tell her that it wasn't her fault." 

"Pah," Magdalene spat, "my…" she glanced left and right with her eyes. "...my sister would never feel guilt about getting some floozy domesticated!" The creature tilted its head…and used the vapor from the two protrusions in its mouth to emulate a sigh. 

"You clearly don't know her very well. In any case-" here Vanciti paused for a second and clicked the dewey tips of its hand-mouth's teeth together before continuing- "I've read months of correspondence between my pet and your sister, and I know what you've done, what it's like to live with you. I know that you doll up your sister to feel better about yourself and then tell her father that she's a faggot because he raised her wrong. I know that every piece of aid or shelter you offer has a pricetag, that you hold them up forever as debt, even as your actual financial debt rose higher and higher. We affini are not vengeful creatures, but seeing just how much you hurt your sister's loved ones- well." The monster spoke out of its hand-mouth this time. Its voice was crystal clear, a hiss lined with the crackling of flame and the majesty of a mighty oak's branches standing strong in a hurricane. 

"There are things my floret would wish upon you that no affini could ever stomach, because of how you've hurt someone she loves, and reading those made me see why. Consider yourself lucky that I am level-minded enough to see better." 

The sound sliced through Magdalene like a knife. She stared defiantly, but her fire was gone. She knew her little bitch crybaby of a brother complained to his trans friends every time she asked him to do his share of anything, but now it had reached the invaders. She was going to die, wasn't she? Sliced open on a metal table to sate the twisted whims of a human weak enough to sell themselves to the enemy by choice. 

Damn them! 

"Oh, go to hell," Magdalene sneered. "What, are you here-"

"I could have you investigated with a click of my fangs, Magdalene Greshul. You'd be put under probation in a week and in all likelihood forcibly domesticated in the span of a month, maximum. I could do this, and I know that to you this would be a punishment, but my floret forced me to promise I wouldn't get you forcibly domesticated." 

"Oh, look at miss goody two boots!" Magdalene cackled, indignation and adrenaline drowning her better judgment beneath a planet's worth of impulsive barbs. "What, you think you're better than me just because-"

"It wasn't what your sister would want," Vanciti hissed. "And to Ayle, having a hand in giving you a happy life…well, without her former paramour's consent, she wouldn't want that. And affini code says that letting you go undomesticated would be unethical, but here's the thing." It glowered. "If you do not get your shit together, you will be domesticated by force, with OR without me. In that sense, giving you a chance to better yourself is a form of mercy- but, knowing that you will not, I don't have to worry about letting you go without something you need, and therefore not domesticating you ceases to be an act of revenge."

"Those are a lot of words to call yourself a pussy."

"Like I said," Vanciti snickered, "within the week." It stood up. "Anyway, Ayle wanted me to give your sister this. It has a message from her on it. Give it to her when you see her, kay?" Vanciti tossed a metal disk- shaped like a twenty first century fire alarm- onto the bench beside Magdalene. "And if you try to trash it or hide it from her- we will know." Vanciti stood up and turned. As it walked away, Magdalene picked up the disk. Anger boiled inside of her, but…she couldn't just get rid of the thing. 

But what if…

What if she just didn't give it to him?