Xara walked through the garden district, buzzing, glowing, vibing.

Artificial light as pure as a warm spring day cascaded through the excessively high, even for Affini, dome.
Flowering leaves of a series of trellised star jasmine vines woven and grown together in complex geometric patterns which accounted for the specific biological branching ratio underlying the jasmine’s growth.
There were a few plant weavers tending to their park, sometimes directing growth to a beautiful shape, sometimes talking together while unwinding their vines into architectural structures made of living cables twisted and overlapped to arches, planning for the weaving of the tree canopies before them.

There is an interactive screen besides the jasmine sculpture, with a lovely mini documentary ‘of all the sophonts who contributed, big and small’, (along side a clip of an Affini carefully lifting up a very fluffy Rinian planting a small spilling shrub of flowers high up in a flower pot).
There was a really cute bring your floret to work, with a big picnic in the final stages of the sculpture. The Affini are really clever, of course they could have done everything, but they left a small part undone at the end, like baking to let the floret put the icing on the cake
Seeing their raptured faces at delicious Affini cooking, I bet they put flavour super enhancers in the food
The surrounding flowerbed was a blank canvas for florets to plant within, the video showing so many trowels and so many varied ornamentals, the bed ending up covered in a surreal pastel colour scheme brighter than biolumenescent neon-popart. The leaves and stems just as vibrant as all the flowers.
The timelapse is Xara’s favourite part of the sculpture’s infoscreen, showing in fast forward the very gentle shaping needed to transform the jasmine from their bushy mass into a sprawling and twisting star of vines.
Tapping her wrist-pad to the infoscreen she copied the timelapse.

Xara had her ratan ball, woven wicker flicking up and down in her fingers as she strolled with nowhere really to go. Space-step playing in her implants. They had been a necessary intervention on the Affini’s parts, as through their monitoring they recognised Xara liked to really blast her music, to let the sound take over her mind, drown out the world in sound in sensation.

It was damaging her inner ears, and even with commandments to stop “the cheeky petal” couldn’t resist falling back into that bad habit, so that choice was removed from her. Electrical signals directly stimulate her nerves rather than going through all the effort of her inner ear having to interpret physical sound waves.
She can still hear physical sounds just fine, or mute them if wanted, for quiet time.

The sun pours down like honey, spilling through the perfumed air like the fingers of a vision of a pre-Affini divinity.

Since the Affini Compact existed in her life Xara abandoned her anti depressants, stopped taking her oestrogen, her T blockers.

Switching to the care of her Affini support workers. They dosed Xara with all she needed everyday, spending a good while chatting before administering their medications, getting a feel for what mood Xara was in, and what she would like to acomplish in the day, if anything at all.

It’s impossible to forget to take your medications when someone more responsible remembers for you.

Today, Xara was dosed on some strong perfume that made her head feel light, that made the colours behind her eyes dance in twirling cascades and flowing trajectories along to the fat sounds singing in her implants.

She wasn’t with her support workers right now, but her carers knew were she is. Her flexible wrist snapping data pad ornamenting her arm, connecting her to her support worker’s organisation.

Xara can’t get lost while wearing her bracelet, not even if she were dosed up to her ears and caught in a fey mood.

The curved screen showing shifting architectural ornament patterns one could, (and she commonly does) stare into for hours, never seeing the same pattern again in a sea of simulated art. Infinite art, more details, more diversity, more beauty, more everything in this wrist mounted computer than the greatest human artists directing the most advanced art generating AI could have produced prior to the Affini annexing Humanity into their cosmically large Compact..

Feet feeling fleet, bouncing upon them, the light artificial gravity putting a pop in her hop. Flicking her wicker ball through the air, watching it tumble down towards the thick meadow plants underfoot, tickling her toes.

The ball rotating, met above the ground by her metatarsal bones. Imparting enough force to kick the ball back into the air, again it falls, and again she pops it up, making it rotate just enough for the magnus effect to keep the ball from drifting away from her feet.

She can see the whole ball at once, every part as if her vision was focused on each aspect, seeming to rotate in slow motion though at normal speed.

Seeing every blade of grass below her, mind sharp but drifting, body clear but buoyant.

Just feeling physics, feeling what it means to exist. To have a body, to be.

To be.

That is all she is, the music, the balance of her form, her proprioception, her ball, her breath, the way it tickles her lips, the grin she shares to nothing in particular. It’s all together. A state of deep flow for flow’s sake. Absorbed in her art, dancing to her music, kicking the ball between toes, foot tops, knees, shoulders and head.

The ball falls every now and then, everything is an experiment, trying new ways of imparting force on the ball she’d never done before, sometimes it works, accidentally doing something brilliant in a string of actions which lead into each other thoughtlessly, ending in an explosion of surprise that thrills and shocks even Xara, for she didn’t know beforehand what she was doing or to do next till she landed from that trick in self amazement! Starting a trill of thrilled laughter.

“Hello, little one. Your voice calls out like birdsong.” An Affini hums with mirth, smile upon her entwined lips.

Xara turns down her implants for the Lady, letting her ball come to fall onto her foot, to rest on the ground cover.

“Heya” Xara smiles with a wave. She recognises the woman, though isn’t sure of her name.

“Hello, my name is Xara. What’s yours?” she states, looking skyward at the woman silhouetted by streaming rays. In her high state Xara can’t help seeing her as a striking vision of beauty.

“Ohh, I know your name, Xara.” she purrs “I heard of through the grapevine. I just adore watching you play in this park.” whilst picking up the ratan ball with her tendrils.

“I love spending the afternoon watching you have so much fun by yourself, and I decided we could multiply that fun together..”

The Affini slowly moves the ball through the space between the two, bringing it in her vine tips in an arc high above Xara’s head, causing the girl to tilt her head upwards, resting the ball on Xara’s hairline, like a seal balancing a ball on its nose.
Pleasure rose in the Affini’s core.

Xara doesn’t see, her eyes focused cross eyed to stare at the ball on her forehead, but the Affini is mirthfully smiling at the girl, so focused and easily compliant.

Just a vine tip fingering on the edge of the ball

At first the Affini keeps the ball balanced and centred on Xara’s head, but quickly realises that Xara is beyond able to keep the ball steady between her head and the tip of a tendril. The tendril tips itself just a little off centre and Xara moves her whole body underneath the ball to recentre it.

The Affini’s core pulses with pleasure, leaves involuntarily shivering at feeling power over the girl. Curving the ball in an orbit around it’s balance point on Xara’s head, the Affini drinks in the form of the young woman before her rolling her entire body so sumptuously, unconscious of the show she’s inadvertently giving to the plant playing with her. Her whole body contorting and writhing to just the slightest touch beneath the Affini’s tendril.

Possessiveness rises in the 4 metre tall woman, flowers unfurling with pleasure as entirely innocent thoughts grow in her mind.

Her little plaything dancing beneath her, such a clever girl! She knows so many tricks! It really is impressive how agile and coordinated and flexible this little one is, especially when most humans she’s been in close contact with have been pets dreamily drifting with adorably slow reaction times.

The ball slips just a little above Xara’s hairline, making her tilt her head back to get under it again, but the ball is determined. Bending her body backwards, just nearly, nearly getting the ball over her balance point again, but the ball has other ideas..

Rolling just a little away, agonisingly close Xara contorts her body further, arching her back, her form threatens to tumble, something soft slides up her curving spine, supporting her just enough to keep her from falling.

Her support is moving backwards with Xara, her feet pedalling of their own accord just to try to stay balanced and upright, thumbling backwards teetering without all her weight on her feet.

Her footfalls are landing heavily and out of control, reversing blindly. Her support lightening it’s load a little, raising the anxiousness in Xara’s heart. Drifting away till it is but a feather’s touch along her bare neck.

Falling

Time hangs in the air, along with the heart caught in Xara’s throat. The canopies of trees spinning over head leaves and flowers, vines entwining themselves as Xara falls bodily into a bush, no..- the woman she was playing with, falling into a bed of violet flowers and soft leaves cushioning her. Catching her, wrapping the girl so securely.

Staring up at the Affini wide eyed, heart a’fluttering from their aerobics. The Affini looks down at her, with such a motherly gentle expression, just a hint of a predatory curl in her lips.

Xara’s whole body a mess of sensations, the bed of soft and tiny leaves she lays upon pressing their thousand selves into her, massaging her form, supported by just the leaves without even sensing the scratch of a single twig. Feeling very much like a bee caught in the splendid embrace of a flower that doesn’t want to let go.

“You’re such a precious petal, darling.. You know lots of Affini love to talk about you. Doing tricks out in the park most days, climbing trees with your carers.

Such a busy little Xara.”

Vines weave their way through Xara’s hair as she is relentlessly complimented, petting her with her mind drifting away at the touch, blushing brightly into the face of the woman face above her, body surrounding her, the Affini deeply humming with pleasure.

“You know little Xara.. You really could make an Owner very happy..”

“I know, Miss.” Wriggling a little.

“Would you please let me go please?”

The Affini looking down at Xhriaza as innocent as the cat who ate the canary.

“of course, flower.”

She helps Xara to her feet, lifting her with coiling vines that coalesce into a spring of a spiral carrying the girl as if her feet were upon a small moon, flinging in even further reduced gravity than that of the Affini cruise vessel, tossing the young lady a whole metre in the air, just to land in the shock absorbing springs bringing the girl to a rest on the soil so gracefully to not crush a single stem.

Xara looks over at the Affini with a glare so potent it could have a hardwood crumple in shame.

“Miss, you know full well that wasn’t what I meant. You have a funny way of wrapping me up tighter in your vines when I ask to be released.”
Vines retracted from Xara’s legs, giving her a little space.

“Oh, sweet seed. Nothing gets past you. You have a mind sharper than a microscope.”

Xara’s cheeks rose at the supposed compliment.

“HEY!! I’M NOT A MICROSCOPE MIND!”

“It’s good that I hadn’t called you that, then, isn’t it sprout?” the Affini calmly stated.

“Yes..”

Xera looks down at the roots of the Affini afront her

“I’m sorry I yelled…

I don’t need time out.

You just made me feel really indignat, like you were playing a trick on me,,”

“Don’t worry little mouse, I know you’re a good girl. You aren’t in any trouble.”

A smile slowly spreads up her cheeks

“Thank you Miss!!”

With that the Affini reaches an arm of coiling ropes towards the young woman.

Reaching out to tickle the top of her head

The tendrils of fingers splitting to comb their way through the 3 dimensional surface of the girls head

Tracing idle patterns of advanced trajectory geometry on the curved scalp of the girl’s head.

Time slowing to a crawl in Xara’s mind, emptied of all thoughts.

Nothing to life but the idly seeking vines wrapping their way around the hair follicles of the girl.

tens of thousands of miniscule roots barely visible to a sophant’s eye in the best of conditions.

Those seeking roots, weaving their way through the hair.

Tugging just a little at the flower’s hair, pulling the skin of her scalp just a little.

Tending to the microscopic environment, feeling deep satisfaction with getting the sweetheart’s strands of hair as clean and well tended as her own well ordered vines.

Whisking away all the tiny things that do not pass the plant’s inspection of the flower’s hair. Polishing each strand to shining.
She couldn’t help it, just wanting to take care of everything.

Some of her bigger tendrils ease their way to the sides of the sophant’s head, massaging her temples.

Tracing in vine touch language the starlight patterns that get pulled into the realm of a black hole.

The swirling cascading photons unable to escape such strong gravity, just staying right there safe and sound in their new home, to be held forever in the comfortingly embrace of its attraction to those forces so much larger and steady

Calming it, soothing the photon with the compression of a hug, held on all directions, so still and calm.

No need to zip around the place anymore.

Not when one can be still.

And the little wave/particle of light lay there leaning against the very pretty Miss in a state between sitting and slipping into laying down there gazing into middle distance with her lovely vacant expression. Time dilating just a touch more than that precious girl’s pupils.

A whole star is being drawn into that black hole, pulled further into its embrace, a billion trillion photons inexorably drawn into that hole of gravity.

The star being slowly pulled into the black hole in an arm of star matter.

All manner of wonderous chemistries occurring in the heart of a black hole, where physics acts so unlike that of even the miniscule world, let alone how something as large as an insect experiences.

The woman is starting to run out of new patterns with which to keep the unowned sophont stimulated in novelty.

‘Ummm, what did Obethia say? If you ever don’t know what to do when massaging a sophonts head, and you can’t think of how to remain interesting and spontaneous, just draw the alphabet in touch’
“heeeeey” the little seed spoke.
“my names xara, what’s yours?”

Trying to remember the terran alphabet.
Tracing with a thousand vines the letter Α.
“Hmmm? Oh, I’m sorry seedling. My name is Anacardiaceae, First Bloom”
“Annacardaydeydayciyday, Annacardina, Annadecardisay”
Smiling at the rhythm of Xara’s little sing song playing on her name, she has such lovely music in her heart.
“You can call me Ana, sweetie.”
Switching over to tracing the letter Β
“Anna bananna savannah pyjahmma”
“Yes! So many rhymes!”

“Anna, what do you like to do?”
“I like sitting here with you!” Giving Xara a big squeeze, twisting from side to side, as if Xara were her teddy bear.
Feeling that completely relaxing deep tissue pressure, shutting Xara’s brain down to a thick hazey goop “Hnnngggggh”
“Do you like being squished, little one?”
“MMmmmmmn”
Her head turned to the side to start gently mouthing on Ana’s vines.
Ana started tracing the letter Γ, letting the little floret rest.


******

The day was passing as if in a dream, Xara's feeling so cozy with the pretty lady in the park.
Just being held. Quiet time in the shade.
Miss wrapped her up a little tighter when the cutie pulled herself deeper into the blanket of leaves and vines.
So many massages and touches and almost tickles
The soothing sounds of leaves rustling, birds chirping, a soft song of the wind murmuring kind words.
As if some goddess of nature was looking over Xara, protecting her, keeping her safe and warm in an everloving embrace.

******