Kira awoke the next day with Venisin’s vines still curled around her feet. They’d been placed there last night, hanging down from Venisin’s very large Affini bed and extending into the somewhat unique piece of furniture Kira found herself on. Kira struggled with what to call it, maybe a dog bed? It was small for a human, surrounded by plush barriers that encouraged curling up into a ball, and, like everything Kira got to be on, very low to the ground.

 

Kira had slept in a few different configurations in past domestications and had to begrudge Venisin that although this was one of the more demeaning, it was also her favorite.

 

She figured she had a few minutes to herself before Venisin would wake up and took the time to check in with herself. So far the plant had kept to her word. Nothing suggested any kind of covert use of xenodrugs, and the casual petting she’d gotten towards the end of yesterday evening had been nice. She let out some of the tension she’d been holding since she’d been captured. She wasn’t in danger–for now.

 

And Venisin’s casual air of dominance…

 

As if summoned by thought the vines casually encircling her legs tightened, and Kira’s breath hitched.

 

“Good morning little petal, did you rest well?” Venisin asked.

 

Kira surprised herself by sounding actually upbeat: “Better than usual Master, thank you for asking!” 

 

“Great, then we’re going to eat breakfast together.” One of Venisin’s vines scratched Kira’s neck. “And then we’ll have another conversation about your needs and how this is going to work.”

 

They left the bedroom. Kira tried to walk to where Venisin kept her utensils, but a vine grabbed her wrist.

 

“From here on out you only eat what I’ve given you. I may occasionally allow you to use utensils when the alternative is inconvenient, but for now you should assume that I’ll feed you by vine.” The vine Venisin used to pat Kira’s head added just a touch of condescension.

 

Kira shivered at that. 

 

“Yes Master.” Kira’s voice dropped to a near whisper. “Thank you Master.”

 

Venisin fed her a bit of something that reminded her of cheese, and Kira decided it was time to learn a bit more about her plant overlord.

 

“You said you were eight blooms old, right?” She asked. “What is that in human years?”

 

“I’m not sure. Memory gets kind of hazy between blooms and I’ve never been one to count the passing of time. There’s certainly ship records somewhere.” Venisin paused to feed Kira another bite of not-cheese. “I will say because of my time on a very toxic world the Compact had recently domesticated I’m much closer in age to many Affini who are on their second or third bloom.”

 

“What made you travel there?” Kira asked.

 

“Hmmm,” Venisin paused, “the answer to that begins to stray into the conversation we almost had yesterday, so in exchange I’ll have to ask you to be more open with me.”

 

Kira tensed, and could feel Venisin watching her, calculating.

 

Venisin tapped a vine to her neck before opening her not-mouth. “If I kept my question to just your responses to various stimuli, such as pain, would that alleviate some of your poorly hidden fears?”

 

Kira took a breath and nodded. “Yes Master. Sorry for being so difficult. Master.”

 

Venisin gave her another evaluating look, then continued her story.

 

Well, as you might have noticed, Affini culture puts an extremely high premium on taking care of our adorable little florets. In fact, you might say that it is our reason for existence. 

 

“I certainly enjoy taking care of florets, but drugging them up, turning them into compliant little pets via chemical means… It bores me. There’s something about the drugs that doesn’t connect with my spirit. In part because I think it impacts your spirit. I’m not opposed to drugs as a tool, but when all you have is a leaf everything begins to look like sunlight.”

 

Venisin’s corporal form got a little fuzzier as she seemed to get lost in memory.

 

“There’s a sophont species in the Kvėnzrkrom system that communicates via pain. It’s an artifact of the toxins on their planet. They’re absorbed into the bodies, filtered, and then repurposed for communication. We theorized it was because their first evolutionary drive was warning each other of areas of higher toxicity. Anyway, it’s not important, the point is they communicate via pain and that’s something that I found very natural. The toxins also meant the species was resistant to our usual battery of xenodrugs. So my predilections and talents were valued there, and I stayed, even if it meant needing to rebloom more frequently.”

 

Venisin suddenly reformed , half a foot taller and looming over Kira.

 

“I enjoy controlling via pain. It’s not a typical Affini affection, and one I felt self conscious about in my first bloom. But there’s something about it I find satisfying. I enjoy the reaction, the power, the acceptance. And you, little leaf, are delightful to control.”

 

Kira struggled to breath for a moment as her entire body tensed up. She felt herself leaning towards Venisin. She seemed so big in moments like this, like she had her own gravity well and any moment Kira would get sucked in. 

 

“But that’s enough about just me.” Suddenly Venisin was totally normal again. “I want to hear about your responses to pain. They’re clearly there, it’s clearly something you know something about.”

 

Kira formulated her answer carefully. 

 

“I… react positively to pain. It’s cleansing,” she began. 

 

“I’ve certainly experimented with sadomasochism in the past, though naturally never in the context of being…” Kira shivered, “domesticated.”

 

Venisin’s face was a carefully neutral mask, and Kira felt pressured to say more.

 

“The power you hold over me, the control aspect, speaks to me in some way too. But it also scares me. I’m worried I’ll lose myself to you.”

 

Venisin finally spoke. “Some would say that is the very point of domestication.”

 

Kira looked away. 

 

“I– hmm. I’ve worked very hard to become what I am. Years ago I transitioned genders and everything since then has been a long fight to be myself and find my place in a universe that honestly never gave a shit about me. I don’t mind you controlling where I sit, or making sure I’m following you in public, or deciding what I eat. But there’s deeper things that are important to me.”

 

Kira felt herself become more passionate, the words coming easier.

 

“Like for example, I like tinkering. I’m fascinated by how things work. I’ve put a lot of work into learning that sort of thing. It’s a part of who I am. I don’t want that to just disappear, whether from xenodrugs or from getting conditioned to associate disassembling things with pain. You Affini–and yes to be fair I’m speaking about Affini broadly, but the difficulty in speaking about you specifically is part of the point–take independent living entities, give them to someone they barely know, and then stamp out their personality to turn them into a pet.”

 

Kira took a breath. Venisin still wasn’t reacting, something that both encouraged and scared her.

 

“I don’t really know you. We both know that I react to your control. I like the way you wield pain, and I’m sympathetic to what I know about your past. But it’s been two days, and here you are talking about me losing myself to you. I can’t give my identity, the control over the very essence of my being, over just like that. And I know to some extent you can just take it, by drugs or by violence, but that's not something I can avoid fighting."

 

Venisin wasn’t taken aback, exactly, but Kira recognized the shift in her leaves that meant she was thinking through something carefully.

 

“Hmm, I agree that our methods, especially the xenodrugs, don’t weigh sophonts' identities as the highest priority. But in the case of forced domestication, identity is already being destroyed. If your identity is ‘Terran rebel’, then there’s no way for us to make you a safe member of society without fundamentally altering you. Alternatives that preserve identity, like barbaric Terran prisons, don’t actually preserve identity, and lead to unhappiness and suffering.”

 

Venisin’s vine tapped her neck again.

 

“Perhaps the most dramatic aspect of our domestication process is the way we make our sophonts enjoy the process. The gap between compliance and joyful compliance is often the biggest leap. But that’s the requirement if we want to maximize happiness."

 

“I don’t care about being happy," Kira interrupted. "I obviously don’t want to be miserable every second of my life, but I’ve suffered plenty in my life and it’s never scared me away. I care about being me.”

 

“Alright Kira,“ Venisin was unusually sober. ”I will do my best understand and preserve you, within the requirements of making you safe and keeping you well.”

 

Kira's gratitude was instant, and the exhaustion from the emotional tension hit just as fast. 

 

"Thank you, Master," she whispered.

 

Kira felt a wave of warmth and safety roll through her, and when Venisin’s vines crawled up her body moments later, she let herself sink into the touch.

 

Venisin picked her up and lifted her to the couch. She didn’t get placed onto one of the lower parts this time, instead Venisin drew her into her side. The leaves there sunk inwards, tucking Kira into a slight depression in Venisin’s body. In that moment, Venisin felt firm, stable, warm, and was exactly the sort of comfort Kira needed after a somewhat vulnerable conversation. There was always the possibility with this sort of thing of being told “no” or even worse “you’re just a silly floret” and the acknowledgement of importance together with the thoughtful care did much to solidify Venisin’s already positive impression on Kira.

 

They stayed there a while, vines slowly running down Kira’s body, Kira’s hands sometimes squeezing them. At some point later–it could have been minutes or it could have been hours–Venisin’s tablet made a dinging sound, and Kira was disentangled from the vines before Venisin went to the door of the hab unit.

 

“Oh good, it’s already here.” She looked down briefly as her vines grabbed something from outside the hab unit. “I do love how fast our fabricators are.”

 

Venisin came back with a cubic package about as long as Kira’s forearm on each side. Her leaves were shimmering in a gesture that Kira was just starting to learn meant excitement.

 

"So, I’d guessed at least a little bit about your masochism earlier. Here’s the thing, little flower:" Venisin placed the package on a small table in front of the couch.

 

"I see the way you look at me when you let yourself go. But I also see the doubt, the hesitation, and the calculation. Normally we solve for overthinking little florets with a dusting of xenodrugs. But we’re not doing that here, are we?” Venisin seemed to be growing in height with every sentence, and while Kira wasn’t sure where this was going she was absolutely past doubting Venisin’s ability to find some way of controlling her.

 

"I’ve been doing more research on your kind, and in the process learned so many interesting things about how your sexualities work. In particular how arousal can become such an overwhelming drive for you. And then I stumbled on this Wikibase article on something Terrans call a ‘chastity belt’.”

 

Kira felt her fight or flight instincts kick in, and settle immediately on freeze. A hot cold chill ran down her spine. Thrill, together with fear.

 

"So, I had our fabrication hub make one. But I also read something about maintaining arousal levels. Apparently unless regularly stimulated the arousal sometimes goes away."

 

Kira knew she was… less susceptible to this than a cis person would be. GCS had come far in the past couple hundred years, but as with anything that was only a priority for an oppressed minority there was still a lot to be desired. 

 

But this was going to be hell. And at that realization, at just how out of control she was of this whole situation, with this plant monster she barely knew, Kira felt the early stages of a panic attack bubble up in her core.

 

She’d felt safer, like she could come to find–not peace, but–something sustainable with Venisin. And here was the cruel reminder of what this actually was. She was still a prisoner, Venisin was still her warden, and although she was free of the xenodrugs she was not free. As much as the Affini might find her cute, Venisin had been sent here from millions of miles away because Copiwhatsit thought she’d make the perfect jailor, suited just for her.

 

Just as Kira started struggling to breathe she felt a vine crawl up her side, then another one up her back, and suddenly she was surrounded. These didn’t zap, but they felt warm, pulsing with their own internal energy. The pressure and warmth stabilized Kira’s nerves somewhat and brought back at least a bit of the safety that Venisin’s ability to read and understand her had brought about earlier.

“Shhhh, I’ve got you.” Kira felt one of Venisin’s vines snake up her arm and curl around her cheek.

“I’m going to make you needy, yes, but I’m going to take such good care of you. I need to control you, but I’ll make sure you don’t suffer more than necessary. Shhhh.”

 

As she spoke, Venisin dragged Kira into her lap. Kira let the soothing words wash over her, and dug her head into the soft leafy expanse of Venisin’s chest. Venisin’s whole core was warm, probably as a result of the pulsing-pain-vines that seemed to come out at the most opportune times. But now the warmth was comforting, and the wide flat leafs bent to let her lean in, but also formed a solid surface for Kira to push herself against.

 

Venisin’s vines held her close, and they stayed there for a little while Kira calmed down.

 

But then it was time for the inevitable, and Kira did her best not to be difficult.

 

She looked up. "I’m ready, Master."

 

"Good girl, here you go."

 

Venisin deposited her back on the ground some distance away, and gave her the ounce of dignity of letting her put the belt on herself.

 

Out of the box the belt had a kind of flowing, organic elegance that Kira found typical of Affini creations. It was about an inch wide on the waist, and split in the back so her ability to poop wouldn’t be impinged.

 

The belt looked comfortable enough. It was made of plant materials, just like everything else, and Kira briefly wondered if the material had come from Venisin. The idea was… kind of hot. But then she recognized the shade of wood was slightly different. What little of Venisin’s bark she’d seen was almost black, this was more of a cherry brown.

 

The belt went snuggly around her hips and tightened slightly when the two sides came together. The part that went over her crotch did the same, and then she felt it: it was just a little nub, sitting over her clit, like a knife hanging over her throat.

 

Venisin tapped something on her tablet, and the nub started vibrating. Not in any way that was going to be satisfying, just enough that, especially in the presence of a domineering plant woman, it was bound to get extremely frustrating.

 

She looked up at Venisin miserably.

 

Venisin made a cooing sound and dragged her back into her arms. Moments later, as Venisin tapped away on an unseen tablet, the vibrations started changing, sometimes more, sometimes less, in a way that was sometimes and Kira pulled herself closer.

 

She was going to suffer and she was helpless to stop it. The emotion settled into a kind of weight in her core and spread out from there, suffusing her limbs with a sort of charged tension, magnifying the arousal, and planting in her soul exactly the kind of relentless neediness that Venisin wanted from her. 

 

Her hands tried to hold tighter.

 

“Shhhh, it’s ok little flower, you’re going to be alright.” Venisin spoke in hushed tones as her vines slowly brushed down Kira’s back. “You’re going to be alright.”

 

"You're going to be alright."

 

——

 

Hours later Kira did not feel alright in the slightest. In some cruel way the system definitely worked. She had no interest whatsoever in removing herself from the proximity of Venisin, and the possibility of relief that it afforded her. They had ended up in a loop, repeating the same conversation over and over again.

 

"Venisin~~, I need to cum, pleaseee."

 

“No.”

 

“Please!!”

 

“No.”

 

Every once in a while, for no discernible reason, the answer would be yes, and Venisin would give her the much sought after orgasm. Kira certainly knew what a Skinner’s Box was, and it seemed like Venisin did too.

 

But that was fine. She felt herself slipping, drawing closer to Venisin, hanging out in her proximity, hoping for an orgasm, but it wasn’t penetrating deeper. Even if Venisin got stingier, this was well within the range of what she could handle. She’d be drawn in, but nothing she needed to hold inside would leak out.

 

She was still safe, for now. She went back to messing around on her tablet, and read bits and pieces of an article on Affini construction methods between bouts of arousal-torture-arousal.

 

——

 

Three days into the denial regiment Venisin reflected on how much harder this was without xenodrugs. Human emotions were definitely not the most stable of sophonts, and if her combination of reading and discussion on the Arboritis’s net were anything to go by, reacted to restriction in such dramatically different ways. Even Kira seemed to alternately glow under it and go straight from zero to panic attack. There were definitely advantages to the drugs’ ability to blunt such things.

 

At least the denial was mostly having the desired effect. Kira was distracted, less functional, and, especially when she fell into distress, clingy. But it was… superficial... in some way that Venisin couldn’t quite put a vine on. There had been so much depth in Kira’s eyes when they’d first met, and this felt like… less. It was all surface level, simple reactions, call and response, not the challenge that she was expecting given the history of a sophont that had managed to resist pacification under a broad spectrum of xenodrugs.

 

Some of the lack of push back could definitely be attributed to the way that Venisin listened and seemingly understood Kira better than her previous owners. But her gut told her it wasn’t everything.

 

It was later that evening when everything finally came to a disasterous head.

 

Venisin decided it was time for another learning-about-each-other session. They’d covered a lot of the basics already in the last few days. Venisin knew that Kira liked salty food more than sweets, that she liked night times more than mornings, and that she wasn't a fan of a kind of Terran food called blueberries. Venisin had told Kira all about her past traveling through Accord space, and explained the different colorings of her leaves and how they had come about–which parts were grafted on from far away places and which parts were part of her natural bloom. Kira had opened up about her experiences around gender, which Venisin found especially interesting given the cultural gaps around something any Affini would find superficial and flexible.

 

But, while interesting, that was still a pretty clear diversion from Kira needing to reciprocate by talking about her own past. And when earlier that day Venisin tried to keep her comfortable by learning what she could from Cantilop–thereby avoiding Kira’s clear discomfort in talking about it–Venisin was surprised to find that the Accord hadn’t been able to match Kira with any Terran records. She’d been captured on a military ship, so the likelihood that this was an oversight was extremely low. In the midst of all the other difficulties, no one had really worried about the information gap.

 

So now it was up to Venisin to fix it.

 

Kira was sitting on one of the low couches again, the ones she was allowed onto, and trying to distract herself from her arousal with the tablet. Venisin had left the belt on a setting that would intermittently stimulate her, but not necessarily bring her right to the edge. Even so, if would detect any oncoming orgasm and stop, so while Kira wouldn’t necessarily be edged, she also certainly would not go over one.

 

But Venisin needed her focused for this, so she triggered an orgasm from her tablet, watched as Kira briefly tensed up and let out a low throaty sigh, and then tapped her on the shoulder with one of the vines she always kept nearby.

 

"Little leaf, it’s about time for dinner, and more talking."

 

Kira tensed briefly, as she always did when she sensed a deliberate conversation, but then relaxed and nodded. Venisin detached herself from the jungle tree she’d been lounging on and went over to the kitchen.

 

“Would you like something crunchy or something soft today?” Venisin asked.

 

“Crunchy please, Master." More and more Kira had slipped into a kind of soft, respectful almost-whisper. 

 

Venisin did a pleased ruffle and entered the settings into the food fabricator. She briefly considered getting more hand cooked food at some point. Venisin didn’t like cooking herself, but there was something different about food when it came from a fab. In Venisin's opinion it lacked spirit.

 

She requested a recipe that her tablet told her was analogous to an Earth dish called latkes, and augmented that with a healthy salad. The nutrients in the latke dish itself would be augmented for Kira’s health profile, but Venisin felt that it was good to get something that seemed as healthy as much as it was healthy. For herself she opted for a nutrient tea today. She was going to go digging, so this wasn’t a conversation she wanted to be digesting something heavy like meat for.

 

She sat down at the table and started drinking her tea, while a few of her vines grabbed a fork and a knife and began the process of feeding Kira. Her adorable little floret-to-be dutifully opened her mouth. Venisin spoke up as she deposited the first bite.

 

“So, it occurs to me that I don’t really know much about you.”

 

Kira paused her chewing and visibly tensed.

 

“Relax, I don’t know what it is that has you so nervous,” Venisin spoke steadily, “but we’re going to take this slowly. So, at least for today, possibly in the future, if you don’t want to talk about an area of your life, that’s fine. But we need to make some progress.”

 

Kira relaxed a little, but still looked on guard. There was this way her shoulders clenched when she was feeling unsafe or cornered and she was definitely doing it now. Venisin proceeded with caution.

 

"So let's start with something simple: What’s the name you went by in the Terran military?"

 

Kira opened her mouth, a flash of confusion briefly passing over her face, then answered: “I have no name.”

 

Venisin leaned back and blinked. 

 

“You must have gone by something? What were your records kept under."

 

Kira glanced off to the side for a longer moment, like she was trying to figure out a complicated math problem.

 

“I have… no name.”

 

Venisin tensed her vines. This was even more obstinate than Kira usually got, and it was not acceptable. She tried to give the benefit of a doubt.

 

“Is that something you feel the need to say to protect something or someone? Because then we can start elsewhere.”

 

Kira had the gall to look annoyed at the question, and Venisin almost strung her up right then and there.

 

“No Venisin, I just have no name.” She nearly slammed her palms on the table as she spoke.

 

“Little Kira, you’ve been pretty good to me so far, and I’m grateful for that.” Venisin let her tone drip with warning, and added the genuine frustration she was feeling. “But unless you can explain your answer to me I’m about to consider this behavior defiance.”

 

——

 

Kira didn't understand the frustration she was feeling. Her name was —. She– No, she was allowed to go by Kira, but her name was —. She needed a moment to sort out what was happening in her head, but now this stupid controlling plant was digging in all the wrong places and–

 

“NO!! I just don’t have a name! Leave me alone!” Kira shouted as she pushed the vines away. 

 

That last moment had been a mistake, something Kira realized immediately when she closed her mouth.

 

But it was too late. Venisin did not brook disrespect, and before she could blink vines had wrapped around her wrists and lifted her to the ceiling. It was strange, momentarily, to see the world the way that Venisin did, with her towering figure. Of course when Venisin was this high she was also touching the ground, a privilege not afforded to Kira.

 

The first blow of Venisin’s vine brought Kira out of her shock.

 

It wasn’t the mildly shocking touches that Venisin usually used to control and correct her. These were like electrified bullwhips.

 

The second and third blows elicited screams.

 

The pain was making it hard to think. What did Venisin want from her?!

 

By the fifth blow Kira was sobbing.

 

Venisin didn’t talk, and a few blows later–Kira couldn’t count–Kira panicked. 

 

She struggled and pulled…

 

…but the vines didn’t budge…

 

…and Kira felt herself haze in panic..

 

…and haze…

 

Until suddenly a nasty wrap around to the front of her chest cut through the fog.

 

The panic paused, as if Kira’s brain realized it wasn’t going to fix anything and gave her a reprieve. But Kira still didn’t understand what was happening. Venisin was hurting her, she needed to answer, she needed to make it stop. Venisin wanted the truth but Kira had already given it but what was the truth? Venisin wanted to know her name, and her name was –,  –, – she had no name. That wasn’t right?

 

She had no name.

 

“PLEASE”

 

Her distress at that realization was temporarily eclipsed by another slash of Venisin’s whip vines.

 

Her mind felt like it was exploding, it was the wrong answer, it was the only answer, it didn’t make sense, it was the truth.

 

“I’M SORRY I’M SOR–AGHHH!!”

 

Another slash of the vines, another scream.

 

“I HAVE NO NAME I HAVE NO NAME I PROMISE I’M TRYING I HAVE NO NAME”

 

Kira felt like she was collapsing. Suddenly the hurting stopped, and comforting vines caught her limp body. She curled into them, then pressed herself into the warm, soft, leafy surface as Venisin pulled her into her chest, and began sobbing. Comforting vines stroked her, comforted her, and the sobs gradually shrank, until eventually they were eclipsed by exhaustion and the feelings of safety she felt in Venisin’s arms. The magnitude of those feelings was something to consider later, but for now she was just… tired.

 

“I have no name… I’m sorry Master,” it came out in a whisper. “Thank you Master.” 

 

Kira felt her consciousness slip away.