Mane watched as Ursula sat in the sand and stretched out. She didn't remember the last few minutes very well, probably because she spent most of that time spacing out in light of her little eureka moment just beforehand. At some point, somebody had asked her if she wanted to join them for a game of volleyball. Mane, distracted by the prettiness of the one asking, had agreed without fully understanding the question. She awkwardly smiled at the trio of girls on the other side of the net. They all looked way more fit than she felt, which didn't actually make her feel any more like she was going to lose. She'd never been good at volleyball anyway. 

The other team consisted of a blonde girl, a redhead, and a brunette. All three of them had brightly colored irises which matched their hair colors perfectly. Colored contacts, perhaps, or the result of affini bioengineering. Mane assumed they were independent but her only evidence was the lack of affini in close proximity. She knew that didn't necessarily prove anything, what with Ih-

"Serve's up, cuties!" The blonde tittered and sent the ball over the net. Mane's teammates reached it before she did. One of them, a cute boy of small stature who had introduced themselves as Han, stepped beneath the ball and set it. His sloppy scrambling footwork left him off balance, so had to kinda scramble to the side a few paces. The ball hopped lazily to a height just above the net and started falling again. The last member of Mane's team, a nonbinary individual named Calth, lept into the air and spiked it with a heavy swing delivered using his entire back. The ball blasted screaming into motion like a bullet.

Mane wanted to marvel at Calth's magnificent execution but she didn't have the time. The ball's rocketing descent met a brick wall in the form of the redhead's arms. She bumped it, and after a scary-looking impact the ball jumped away into the air. The girl stumbled away and shook her arms like she'd knocked into something. The other team wasted no time at all following up on this opening: instantly, the brunette zoomed across the court to the ball. 

"Great job, Ersha!" She complimented her orangish-haired teammate as she bumped the ball a second time. The blonde ran to the ball as well, all three of the girls' bodies moving in a unison just flawed enough not to make them seem like professionals. The blonde set, sending the ball in a tall arch towards Mane. It moved pretty slowly, so Mane had plenty of time to get into position. She arranged herself to hit it, and-

Mane hit the ball with the wrong part of her arms. It jumped to the side at a bad angle and landed out of bounds. She laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head as the other team cheered and exchanged high fives. Apologies jumped up to her mouth but she didn't get a chance to use them. 

"Damn they're good," Calth giggled with an easygoing, confident grin. They winked in Mane's direction before turning to check on Han. The latter was all giggles, and as he brushed sand from his body something hit Mane. Had she…seen him somewhere before? She shook her head. Her suspicions held no basis in rational thought and allowing them to convince her otherwise would ruin her day. He was cute, anyway; probably just reminded her of one of her submissives from back on Gisk. Oh…that was an option, wasn't it? Nothing in the rules stated she couldn't become a domme again. She had nothing stopping her from collecting loved ones again. Maybe things were better than she thought. 

"Great set, Min!" Mane overheard the redhead saying to the blonde just as she snapped out of her introspection. 

"Thanks, Ersha!" Min giggled. "That was a fantastic block from you too. Are your arms okay? That looked like it must have really hurt."

"Oh, my arms sting like a bitch," Ersha answered. "Great followup bump from Rietta too. Don't think even you could've salvaged that without her." Rietta must be the brunette, Mane thought to herself. The three girls giggled and got back into position. 

"The ball, dears?" Asked the girl whose name Mane now knew to be Rietta. Han skipped adorably over to the net and handed off the object in question. Rietta kissed him on the cheek as they exchanged. "Good boy, thank you!" Han blushed as she took the ball from him and tossed it to Min. The blonde caught it easily and took up position to serve. 

"Ready, guys?" Min asked with an easy smile and a flutter of her eyelashes. Mane blushed but nodded. Both of her team members replied to her in kind. She served. The ball went straight to Mane as if it had somehow inexplicably become laser-guided in between rounds. She gulped- it seemed they knew she was the weakest link now. She ran in circles a little trying to position herself, and set it. She was in the back, though, so it didn't help much. 

"I got it miss!" Han scrambled over and bumped the ball, sending it closer to the net. Again his run lacked grace, and he stumbled past where he probably intended to stop. He'd still hit the ball, though, so it arced through the air towards the net. Moments before impact, Calth planted themselves beneath it and set the ball past the net. Rietta prepared to meet it on the way down, but she misjudged where it would land and it fell just past her. 

"Ayyyyy!" Mane yelped.

She celebrated too soon. 

Rietta strafed to the side and Min dove where her companion had just stood, her arms striking the ball milliseconds before it could hit the send. Its trajectory altered, the ball popped into the air. Min's body struck the sand and instantly rolled to the side, giving Rietta space to strafe back to her previous position and bump it again. She dropped to all fours. Mane only had a quarter second's worth of time spent confused before Ersha ran in, jumped off of her teammate's back, and spiked the ball with tremendous force.

Calth met the missile with his arms, but they couldn't control where it went. The ball ricocheted wildly and blew straight against the net. Again, all three girls celebrated amongst themselves. Mane stared in awe at the ball as it fell from the net and bounced once or twice off of the ground (or was it a floor, being on a spaceship and all?). 

"You're doing great, haha," Calth reassured her. He smiled and stretched and lazily rolled each of his shoulders. They had shiny green eyes and a long, slender neck. "These girls used to be pros."

"Yeah, in high school! Years ago!" Min yelled over with a playful tone of mock annoyance. "High school women's volleyball isn't exactly the big leagues, you know?" 

"It's something!" Ersha bit in, a sarcastic smile lighting up her face. "And clearly we've still got it!" She hopped up and down a little bit. It was cute, and definitely not hot. Nope. The rich dark red wetsuit that practically encased her body didn't do anything for Mane. Okay mostly it actually didn't, but owing to what she could only assume to be an affini flex of engineering, the suit was far jigglier than it seemed should be possible in something so tight…and THAT, that part of the deal made her brain sing. Not that the others didn't have the same effect on her; Min's tight athletic body had more visible muscle than her tastes usually responded to, but she was nevertheless a tight, slender, fit blonde with a decently large chest. Mane responded to that. 

"Yeah, don't downplay us like that! Especially in front of strangers who agreed to play with us, geez," Rietta chirped with a teasing smile of her own. She had more fat to her than either of her teammates did, her build more evocative of a rugby player or a weightlifter than the average volleyball player. She seemed very huggable and dependable, something her soft red eyes accentuated. She wore a flashy red bikini seemingly tailor made for her, which Mane was absolutely over the moon to see- it meant not only were those available, she felt comfy wearing one in public and Mane was so very happy to see that. She also enjoyed it for other reasons.

 All three of them were an absolute delight to get to meet in person. 

"Ey! Mane! Look out!" 

That was…Ursula talking? Why did she-

The ball was coming right for Mane's head. Instinct took over-

Mane twisted her body and threw her head down at an angle. Her knee rose on its own and snapped out, striking the ball with her heel. Mane froze, head inches from the sand and a single palm splayed against it for support. The ball flew farther than she could ever send it with her arms. Too far, even, her stunt of a kick launched it well out of bounds. 

"Damn, girl!" One of the girls on the other team giggled. Mane, only just now lowering her offending leg and pulling herself up so she came into position standing up, didn't know which of them had spoken. She hopped up and down and flapped her arms, fingers loose. Whatever animal instinct had taken over fled just as quickly. 

"Three oh!" Reported a visibly amused Min as she got into position to serve yet again. "You guys ready for the next one?" 

"I am!" Chirped Han.

"Me too," added Calth. He turned to Mane, their face intrigued. "You?"

"Just uhh, one second," Mane muttered as she flapped and hopped from one foot to the other and back again repeatedly. She felt stressed, but…excited. She hadn't practiced her kicks since what…a week before the incident, probably longer than that? It seemed unlikely that her little hiatus had been less than a month, probably closer to a month and a half. She laughed awkwardly. "Sorry friends! I know that's not, like, allowed probably, but…"

"Nah friend, it was cool!" Rietta said merrily. 

"And besides, it helps us out- Hey!" Ertha stopped for long enough to roll her eyes. Rietta had elbowed her.

"Haha," Mane laughed. "Kay. I'm cool now." 

"Aaaaalley-oop!" 

—----

Daisy emerged from the room with her shower, her body dry and clothed. She wore garbs which little resembled the stuff favored by most florets- it was plain, greys and dull greens and modeled after casual human fashion. A t-shirt, a light vest jacket, and cargo pants. Her massive body necessitated that anything she wore be custom made, so she was used to that part. Still, she would have felt out of place- downright restrained- in the floral patterns and whacky colors and nightgowns of the plants' favored companions. As such, she demanded any clothes made for her adhere to this down to earth aesthetic. 

Perhaps other affini would simply warp her mind with drugs until she saw it their way, but this one had no such wishes. She walked on understandably thudding footsteps across a chrome hallway to a large door. The door served as the entryway to a new part of the station. She opened it and stepped into a vast, silver chamber. The walls and floors shined pure, pearly white and glittered almost like snow. So Erias had suggested a compromise, had she? Daisy chuckled. The last time she walked into a psych specialist's office, she left with a bunch of institutionally abused teenagers and burned the entire damn installation to the ground behind her. Erias seemed different from those who she'd overpowered that day, but who was to say how trustworthy the one-alien vineyard really was? 

She approached a pedestal in the center of the room. It had an octagonal shape, and two rectangular platforms led up to it like a small set of stairs. She ascended them with ease and paused to take a deep breath. Was she…ready for this? She squeezed her eyes tight and flexed her fingers one after another. Counted to ten, like her uncle taught her before the authorities imprisoned him on laughable charges. She beat back the emotions in her gut and opened her eyes. Before her stood a piano. She approached and sat down. The piano bore all kinds of marks of wear and abuse. She knew it was brand new, brought into the world beaten and broken. 

Her body felt almost cartoonishly oversized for this device she sat at. The piano was an ancient symbol of prestige, of dedication, an instrument-ass instrument that required a whole engineer to build, let alone play. The only instrument more closely entwined with aristocracy was the piano's eldritch brother the organ, which required multiple engineers to build and resembled what a piano might turn into after seizing control of heaven and transcending its mortal shell. She rested her massive fingers on the keys. She didn't quite have enough mass that she couldn't play one note at a time due to the size of her fingers, but…she did have to try. This instrument wasn't made for her. 

Daisy tapped at a few keys experimentally. None jingled the parts of her mind that she'd hoped they would. Her hands danced across the keyboard, jabbing at random in hopes of capturing even a single note of that memory in crisp, modern detail. None rang the right bell, no matter what she tried. 

"Damn it…" she muttered as she fought the urge to flip this nuisance over and stomp it to pieces. What did she need to do that she'd yet to try!? Her fist banged on the upper deck of the device. It looked like Thunder was right: repeatedly constructing these things with various damage wasn't going to eventually yield the exact sound she needed to remember. She needed to figure out the song instead. "Aaaaagh!" She bellowed, leaping to her feet and seizing a fistful of her hair in frustration. She took a few deep breaths…and then she let go. 

"So that's what they were for! You play piano?" Piped Avel from behind her. Daisy turned to face Thunder's green haired little lad and shook her head no.

"No. Never once played a key in my life, before I set foot on this station," she answered as she crossed her arms and bit the nail of her thumb. He stood in the doorway, and after she spoke his face turned awkward and apologetic. 

"Oh…my apologies, ma'am. It's just, uh…Thunder found some of your old fight tapes. From, ya know…" Avel trailed off, raised his fists, and performed a rudimentary pantomime of someone boxing. 

"Ah." A chill attacked Daisy's spine. "Is that all?"

"He thought we could have a movie night and watch it together. I-in the home theater! He was very, WEIRDLY even, insistent I get that across to you!" Avel explained. His arms waved wildly when he said the second and third sentences, as if to physically remove any uncertainty. 

"Tch. Hhhhr, hahaha!" Daisy laughed. All of the tension left her…for now. "That dork knows me so well." She muttered under her breath, "small intimate film is sacred." Then she smiled and said, louder this time: "a'ight, I'm in. Let's go."