Chapter 1: Introductions
Chapter Text
Introductions
“No, that’s about it! I think Miss Lida and I can handle it from here on out. Thank you so much for all your help, Sarah, I don’t think I’d have had the courage without it.” The appreciative woman placed a hand on the leafy green figure taking up the better half of the office’s couch. The two shared a smile.
Doctor Sarah Artes let a mirrored smile color her face into just the right amount of bittersweet pride in the starry-eyed girl and her Affini. “Of course, I can’t be more excited for the two of you! Remember, I know it can be terrifying at first, but people work best when they lean into change.”
She affected a slight softening of her body language and a calculated exhale as she waited for exactly the right length of warm silence. She rounded out her only session of the day, letting her tone fade more into casual speech. She had provided the last mental health care this lucky Terran would ever need outside of her Affini. Another one off the list.
____________________
She waited until the door closed to slump her body out of its work shape. The tall brunette in a modest dress and matte leather boots put her back to the wall behind her. Deep brown eyes stared at the art piece on the opposite wall, noting how against the navy blue wallpaper it formed a sort of calming visual static. Her white noise machine gently hissed by the door.
In the before-times, she was just as overworked and plagued by financial stress as any other person, but by some cruel twist of fate, her workload had actually increased after contact with the Affini. Suddenly, every overworked and underpaid Terran in the company town had the chance to talk to a professional. Many of them balked at the thought of getting therapy from a talking plant, so the trans woman in the next office over would have to do. Enemy of my enemy, she presumed. Sarah didn’t mind, in principle, as it did wonders for the town’s trans acceptance rate, but she could not be more burnt out.
Endurance seemed to be her only salvation. As these people were folded into Affini culture, they needed her services less and less until her “job” was hardly worth the effort. At this point, all her remaining clients were long-time holdouts seeing her for “anxiety associated with the cultural transition,” which is just therapy talk for “total seed.” All 5 of them (‘4’, she reminded herself after today’s session) were actively getting cooked by some omnipotent space dryad, anyway. Everything in her wanted to move on, at this point. She dreaded the idea of keeping up the act as her practice was edged with oblivion.
Her brain churned away at her professional prospects as she absentmindedly went through her end-of-day routine. She was ready to just get home and zone out in front of her gaming setup with a bevy of xenodrug dissociatives. She straightened the blanket and pillows, wrote her notes on the previous conversation, checked her calendar for her next session, hit the lights-
Something was different. Another session had somehow appeared on her schedule. She checked the clock. For right now, actually.
With a heavy sigh, Sarah tapped into the session’s details but they stubbornly only provided the client’s initials, AS. Perhaps the nice Xenovet underwriting her practice had put a last-minute intake on her schedule. She got halfway through typing out a message to him before the tablet dinged with the “client in waiting room” notification, and she decided she’d rather just figure it out as she went. She had always been better with improvisation than with planning, anyways.
She summoned her professional demeanor once more; it went over her like an old shawl, heavier than she remembered. Checked out as she was, she was halfway down the hallway before she recognized a faint floral scent. It reminded Sarah of botanical gardens, beautiful sunsets, leather and comfort food. There was something else in it too, something that reminded her of a vivid sense memory of the first bed she had ever shared with a true love.
It also reminded her that she was working alone this evening. And now there was an Affini here for her.
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Anise Spirosera could hardly contain their excitement. Any time a new floret species was folded into their great compact, Anise simply had to get a sample for themselves. Their foliage shivered at the thought of getting vines-on with their very own specimen of these darling precious Terrans.
The cuties were practically defenseless from an evolutionary standpoint, with nearly every biological resource routed down the path of developing a mind capable of cooperation and social dynamics. Yet somehow, these poor wretched souls had twisted themselves up with pain and despair, turning their minds towards campaigns of callous exploitation. Dreadful things like war, or Capitalism!
No, if anything was a sign of divine providence for the Affini Compact, it was the discovery of a truly perfect pet species that without their loving vines seemed single-mindedly focused on self-annihilation.
“Speaking of self-annihilation,” Anise giggled to herself as she heard the office door open down the hall.
Anise straightened her posture and shook herself from her fantasies. Every vine, leaf and blossom on the 4-meter-tall beauty tucked into place seemingly with a mind of its own. She fussed with the rainbow of flowers behind her antennae, currently pinned up into a cutesy imitation of puffball pigtails. They had chosen a black flowing silk top trimmed in teal, Sarah’s favorite color, and had grafted her body flowers to match. She had even used a trick she learned a few centuries ago to shade the natural pigmentation of her thorns and injectors into a more striking complimentary orange. Though they had never been the best with ambulatory limb shapes, Anise had done a reasonable job of forming her lower half into a cute pair of parachute pants. A little demure, but she was proud of the overall look and would hate to come on too strong for the first impression.
“Hello, Doctor Artes, it’s such a delight to meet you! I’m sorry for the last-minute change in scheduling, but I just arrived in the area and simply had to see you tonight. I’ve got a problem that I think only you can help me with.” They gave a polite smile, blushed, and moved to shake her hand. “Anise Spirosera, They/She, Ninth bloom. I’m so impressed with your little waiting room! Did you decorate it yourself?” A few vines politely nudged the Affini-sized pillows back into shape and replaced the fidgety bauble on the side table.
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Sarah felt the hair standing up on the back of her neck. She always experienced a certain uneasiness around the beings that were ostensibly Terra’s conquering saviors, but being alone with one in such an intimate setting was another issue entirely. Survival instinct warned her to run, to hide in her office or reach for the nearest weapon, but she dismissed those impulses. The Affini in front of her might see that as a domestication-level offense.
“Thank you! No, it’s all pre-contact from my old firm, unfortunately. Sarah Artes, um, she/her.” She smiled in a practiced way that didn’t reach the eyes as she placed her hand in the giant’s. The whole of this being’s outer shell was made up of a layer of soft downy greenery, reminding her of the leaves of those delightfully fuzzy Lambs Ear plants from her hometown. A second pleasant recollection the beast had conjured in their introduction. Sarah wondered if all Affini can make people relive their fondest sense memories, or if this one had just done its research. “You’ll have to forgive me; I was not expecting another session tonight. You are here for one of those, right?”
“Of course, doctor, what else would I be here for? I need to talk to someone just like you about some trouble I’ve been having. I can assure you, it’s very distressing.”
The creature’s four huge bioluminescent eyes flashed a swirling pattern of yellows and magentas as they grinned. Sarah didn’t dare to make eye contact and stared at the creature’s lips instead. It was hard to ignore the fact that her whole head could fit in its mouth. She had to remind herself that these feelings were normal when you’re the sole focus of an apex predator that’s twice your height. Her fight-or-flight instinct squirmed within her and she tried to shape it into something that wouldn’t get her autonomy violated.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I must warn you though, I’ve never worked with an Affini before. I had assumed y’all would have your own version of my profession. Come on back, and let me grab you something to… um, Anise?”
“Yes, petal?”
“You can let go now.”
Those eyes flashed yellow, and a simulated blush crept up the plant woman’s face as she released her grip. “I’m sorry dear, I am still learning Terran customs, that’s all. That’s part of what I was hoping to speak to you about, I’m wondering if you could lend a hand… pun not intended.” Tooth-shaped thorns glistened in a much-too-wide smile.
Sarah responded immediately with a polite chuckle, just a bit too loud to be fully natural. She wondered if the plant was truly unfamiliar with Terran social cues enough to miss it.
Chapter 2: Getting to Work
Summary:
The two settle in for a session. Professional boundaries are strictly maintained and both find themselves engaged in a sparkling conversation of two equal peers. Anise reads some reference material, and Sarah tries her best.
Notes:
If your therapy sessions go anything like this, please stop seeing that therapist. Please remember this is a work of fiction, and I don't condone intimate relations with any of your medical professionals IRL.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Getting to Work
The two moved into Sarah’s office. A glass of water exchanged hands, the smaller one avoiding skin contact.
“Thank you, dear.” Antennae brushed the ceiling appreciatively. “Please, feel free to skip whatever introduction you have planned. I want to get right to the meat of the issue, and really sink our teeth in. I can assure you I’m already quite familiar with your work and its boundaries.”
“Then you would know what my work means to me.” She set her jaw and held her back defiantly straight, but kept a disarming smile. “And what it’s going to continue to mean after you leave.”
Anise Spirosera took a moment to study the diminutive creature, looking for the fire hiding in its eyes. “Of course, sweety. It’s a facet of you I’d hoped to witness first-hand.”
“Really? Then I hope I don’t disappoint. Can I ask how you found out about my services? Or is this more of a ‘wellness check’ situation…”
A giggle rang through the small office. “It’s not just a wellness check, though I would like to make sure you’re properly cared for. I came across your profile in the…let’s call it a… Floret Matchmaking System, and I noticed a few things I just had to see first-vine. It’s possible you could actually be useful to me, so I boarded a shuttle and ended up in your office. Again, thank you for the time out of your busy schedule, Doctor Artes.”
“Sure thing, I’m always happy to help,” she gave the leafy amazon a mirthless grin. “I will say, I didn’t realize they had pet dating apps. I’m curious what my profile says about me.”
“You are, aren’t you. Do you want to read about how fine of a pet you’d make? If you really want to know, I can pull it up right now~.” Anise giggled again with a hint more smugness.
The human woman stared straight ahead at the chin of the beast in front of her. “No, thank you, maybe another time. And please don’t ask me personal questions, Miss Spirosera, let’s stay focused on you.”
Foliage lilted slightly. “My apologies, Sarah, I was just hoping to see a blush. Don’t worry, you’re safe with me. I only collar those who want it.” A few particulates of pollen circulated lazily as the heat kicked on. “That’s actually part of the issue. Do you know what I mean?”
Having been in conversation with them for a few moments, Sarah recognized an ambient sound surrounding the Affini. A strange rustling musical quality, polytonal and airy, with soft rhythmic clicking like wooden wind chimes. It sent a tingle up Sarah’s spine and made her heart flutter. The last few words they had spoken were punctuated with that rhythm. It made her feel uneasy and adjusted in her seat, shifting her weight towards the door subconsciously. The Affini didn’t seem to react to the motion, but the vines that made up their arms coiled and tensioned ever so slightly.
Sarah shook her head to clear it. The pause had gone on too long. “Sorry, not quite. Say more.”
Anise frowned and leaned forward, their eyes glowing. In the small room they struck a looming figure. “I’m here because I have a problem, doc. I think I have a problem with intimacy… I’m looking for a Terran floret but I can’t stop getting in my own way. I’m sure The One is out there for me, but I’ve just had so much trouble hunting them down.”
Another wave of that fluttering, reverberating feeling washed over Sarah, a more sustained effervescence that sung through her from the base of the spine to her scalp. She fought hard to control her reaction.
“Let me put it this way. Terrans are a part of the problem, but it’s my fault.” Anise’s flora seemed to unravel just a bit as she shared, trailing vines carrying her emotions as they flicked like the tail of a cat. “Stars above, what a delightful little mess of bonding instincts you all are! Did you know that trance states are actually a necessary part of your psychological functioning? Most of you cuties never even recognize it happening!”
The doctor steadied herself. She’d could tell a hyperfixation ramble was coming on.
“And your poor brains store your memories and your self-concept in essentially the same box, which makes both so much more susceptible to alteration. Your naturally extrinsic sense of self-worth, your sexual drive, the entirety of your autonomic neural functioning, overinvestment into social dependence for survival… you have all these little quirks of consciousness that leave you wildflowers with worse than no defenses against psychological manipulation.”
Their wooden mask of a face sharpened into something hungry. “Us Affini, on the other hand, have the opposite problem. Our kind have long been affecting the perceptions of other species, drawing them to us and controlling them for millennia. We make others love us, and we are irresistible. It is as instilled in us as your social conditioning is in you. Against us, if we really want you, you’d never stand a chance.”
“Biological Determinism, I’ve heard this one before.” the clinician cut in, crossing her legs.
“Something like that, clever girl~” Sarah blinked as the sensation thrummed again, and Anise pressed the momentary stumble. “But can you see why this is a problem for me?”
Sarah collected herself for a moment, speaking cautiously. She seemed to be breathing a bit more heavily than usual. “‘I only collar those who want it.’ Are you saying you have a consent issue?”
“Yes, exactly. You’re doing a very good job following along, dear. ‘Impaired consent is not consent,’ as they say. And you’ll find I care quite a lot about the autonomy of my florets. Others might enjoy a lap pet; something so lost in its own devotion that it supplants its own will with theirs. While I enjoy that as roleplay,” they said with a wink, “I take my highest joy from my capacity to make others blossom into their true selves. For that, they must be able to have a true self, one that can bend to a greater will without breaking. My future floret will need a more resilient sense of self than most Terrans seem to have.”
Sarah decided to ignore the flirtatious pass at her and let herself retreat into the work. “I see. But you said ‘most’ there, not ‘all’. Are you saying there may be a human out there for you?”
“Well, that’s what I’m here to find out, doctor.”
A long pause settled over the room. Neither seemed willing to break it, but Sarah’s unease started to get to her. Eventually, Doctor Artes straightened in her chair. “So, you want to know if humans are capable of consent with you.” She left out how she felt about the implications of that idea.
“That’s right, doctor. I’m afraid you little creatures are all so destined for the leash that it’s hard to find one whose ‘yes’ or ‘no’ I could trust. I will not crush a delicate flower in my desire to nurture it.”
The doctor blinked heavily. “Interesting. So, we’re looking for a ‘good one,’ a partner you can trust when they tell you they love you. Maybe I can help you, after all; Plenty of other clients have asked for help finding a good man on the apps.” That wind chime sound clinked pleasantly. “With human-to-human connection, the direct approach works best. So what would be the direct approach for this, just blasting someone with a mind control beam and seeing if they can stop themselves from cumming their brains out?”
It was Anise’s turn to seem taken aback, vines reacting erratically. The doctor contained her smug pleasant surprise as she finally got the beast on the back foot. Or, back branch.
“Oh, was that too direct?”
The shape of the plant woman settled back into a gentle hum, but the color of their eyes swirled into a much brighter pink than before. “Not at all, petal. Just unexpected. That’s very bold talk for someone on the Sophont Wellness Registry. I’ll have to expect more from you, going forward.”
“Please do. But genuinely, how do your kind make these calls with other species? If Affini are so superior, then surely you all have had to solve this problem before.”
“Most other Affini don’t share my same compunctions, at least not anymore. I have a more… conservative view than most. They’re willing to hold on to the concept of consent a bit more loosely, especially with more susceptible floret species. But for me, I really enjoy knowing that a creature wants what I’m doing to it. It’s… important, to me. Since you’re doing such a good job following along, why don’t-”
“Sorry, can I ask you a question?”
The growing rustle of the plant creature abruptly silenced as their entire mass froze. She hadn’t realized how much audio background the beast before her was causing until it suddenly disappeared.With the ambient noise gone, Sarah could hear nothing but the sound of her own breathing, her heartbeat, and the soft ticking of the clock on the wall.
“You’re cute, but I don’t appreciate being interrupted, petal.”
Sarah shook her head again, more forcefully this time. If she lets fear slow her down, she’ll get sucked under. “See, there it is again. You’re doing a thing with your voice, what is that? Is that intentional?”
Anise paused to consider. If the being in front of her were a human, Sarah would assume they were trying to put together a lie. The tension was almost unbearable for the young human. The Affini sighed, then uncrossed her legs and leaned forward with a conspiratorial grin. The light from her eyes deepened into a magenta-scarlet.
“I’m glad I came to you. You’re just the right sophont for the job and I’m more sure of it by the moment. What you’re experiencing is called a “biorhythm,’ and you can understand it as a way for us Affini to communicate emotion directly. What we want, what we’re feeling, what we want our- the sophonts around us to want and feel, tonal indications for ambiguity... it’s very useful for the domestication process.”
As if to demonstrate, a firm crescendo in the noise coupled with a swell in the good doctor’s chest, radiating a feeling of satisfaction from her heart to the tips of her fingers and toes.
“…Wow. Has that been running this whole time? I was joking about the mind control ray, but that is a… powerful tool for empathy,” she eventually said. “You can just make others feel things?”
“That’s right, good- um, ahem, good job. It’s useful, but it’s also a confounding variable. Because to answer your second question, no it’s not intentional, not fully at least. With effort we can enhance or dampen it, but it takes intense training to learn to completely restrain it.’
As she spoke, the Affini leaned their head down, more directly into Sarah’s line of sight, who was still avoiding eye contact. Sarah seemed to lose an inch, becoming much more bashful than she was a second ago, but she maintained her composure. Anise flashed a thorny grin.
“For instance, I’ve been holding it back this whole chat of ours, but if I wanted you to feel giddy and proud like you’re doing a good job, because of course are~”
The Terran seemed to wobble like she was experiencing an intense baseline from way too big of a speaker, smile beaming out and eyes glazing over. “Woah, that is intense, hold on give me a sec-“.
“-Or safe, and trusting, and comfortable, I can just make you feel it all without having to say a word,” the thrumming sustained and shifted upwards, somehow, like a harmonic of the same scale pitched up to a major.
That sound, that feeling, didn’t stop when the Affini stopped speaking, either. It crashed into the good doctor in waves. She shifted and squirmed in her seat, leaning in towards the creature.
“Miss Spirosera, please, one moment-”
Sarah had looked up in an instinctual show of sincerity but gasped when she discovered that she couldn’t stop herself from making eye contact. Two sets of beautiful glowing gems shined back to her, a shifting kaleidoscope of reds, purples and oranges. As the two locked eyes, swirling fractals started to dance and twirl across Sarah’s vision. They were fascinating, dulling out the panic she felt as her mind went blank. The thrumming, the feelings it caused, the hypnotic visuals, it was too much, and she felt herself slipping. She helplessly followed the patterns, trying in vain to chase them as they danced from eye to eye…
Then she ripped her gaze away with a twitch and a shudder. The rhythm had stopped, and suddenly Sarah could think again.
She shook her head vigorously and took a few deep breaths, folding her arms into a hug around her torso. She panted, “ok, ok I get it, can you please not do that again? You weren’t kidding about how strong it is.” Sarah Artes felt the goosebumps down her arms and clocked a tremor in her hands. She definitely did not like where this conversation was going. Her eyes darted to the clock, but hardly ten minutes had passed.
“Sweety, this is just me communicating normally! But you’re right, I can’t have you squirming in your seat if you’re going to help me with my problem.”
When Sarah spoke next, her voice was a scalpel, light but sharp. She hoped it hid enough of her fear that she wouldn’t panic when she heard her own voice. She needed to get her feet back under her; If she didn’t end this now, she might never be able to again. “About that, Miss Spirosera. I’m sorry but I don’t know if I can help you with your problem. We just demonstrated why. There’s no way for you to show up fully, to communicate normally as you’re saying, without it overwhelming me. Prolonged exposure to that would make me functionally useless at best. And if the effect is as strong as what you just demonstrated then I might even be compromised already. Trying to do my job here would cross every meaningful boundary that empowers this work.”
The statement hung heavy in the air, neither moving a muscle. Sarah intently studied the lips and jawline above her, body tensed for any indication of a response. But the face that stared back was too alien to be readable.
Then, Anise broke into a peal of laughter. “Oh don’t worry about that, petal.” Their laugh had honed itself into something much more lethal, much sharper. The shaking of their shoulders dusted the room in another thick layer of pollen, causing the tiny figure in front of them to sneeze. “That makes me think you’re even more right for the role! This is exactly what I’m here for. You are exactly what I’m here for.”
“Anise-”
“-Sarah, please dear, I’m speaking. I’m trying to help you help me, and we’re getting closer now. But our time might be shorter than either of us thought. I mean, just look at you. Most Terrans can’t even make eye contact with me without unraveling, but you just lost a couple of minutes immediately. You’ve been keyed up to resist trance since you first sat down, so you should be better than most at this game, too.”
“What...?”
“No no no, quiet. Don’t interrupt me again. All I want is my very own Terran floret who loves me back, but within a few moments of meeting me every one of them falls below the minimum threshold of consent. They can’t keep their poor little minds in their heads long enough to hear me ask the question, let alone understand what it means. And I only collar those who want to be collared. So I need your help, Doctor Artes. I need you to do something for me. I need you to make your choice before your own nature makes it for you.”
“Wait, you’re moving too fast, Anise. We need to slow down.” Something was wrong. Her fight or flight kicked in with full force. She wasn’t a professional, this wasn’t something she had control over any more, she was just a woman alone in a room with a monster. Doctor Sarah Artes had not felt this small in a long time. “What do you mean, ‘make my choice?’ I don’t understand…”
“Oh, sweet thing, you’ve done so well so far, but I know you’re not as dumb as you’re playing right now. You can lie to yourself all you want but you can’t lie to me.” From somewhere within themselves, the Affini produced their tablet. “Do you want to know what your domestication profile says about you? Stop me when it gets something wrong. It reads,
‘Lifelong affinity for ‘power exchange relationships’ (DB 4.02) in the submissive role. Psychosexual profile indicates core fetish of “relinquishing the self” manifested through various methods of manipulation consistent with domestication process. Overnet data history indicates fixation on ‘mind control’, with particular affection for ‘hypnosis’ (DB 5.11). High likelihood of future floret status following breakage of initial resistance.’
Sarah, you have a domestication fetish. Plenty of other Terrans have similar fantasies, there’s nothing to be ashamed of, sweet thing. But I won’t have you deny the truth any longer. You understood what I was here to do from the moment you saw me, and you walked right into my loving arms.”
The giant seemed to take great joy in watching the blush slowly crawl up Sarah’s neck and face. She put her head in her hands, shaking it in either an attempt to clear the brain fog or reject what the monster was saying. Either way, it wasn’t working. The monster, for their part, smiled like they could taste the fear and desire wafting off her. Waves of their unrestricted biorhythm flooded the office, dashing the poor girl’s sense of control on the rocks of her desire.
“You’re the only Terran in this region still uncollared with the ‘high likelihood’ tag, and I’ve put together the reason. It’s a good thing I did, too. Can you imagine if you’d have slipped through the cracks? You’ve escaped the leash for far longer than you should, a combination of your utility to the campaign and your phobic, shame-induced avoidance of what you know is good for you. But you can’t fight your own destiny.”
An hour ago, it was a normal night in her normal life, but now Doctor Sarah Artes was on the verge of tears. A dull recognition rung in her shellshocked mind. How many times had she fantasized about being in this exact situation? For months now, since she first saw that gargantuan ship hang itself in the firmament above her homeworld, she has avoided this moment because she feared what she might say if asked. Now that the moment was here though, choice so plainly laid out in front of her, dripping in honeyed poison and self-doubt irresistible indulgence… It was like a nightmare coming true, or a fantasy, and both terrified her. She couldn’t bear the reality of what she knew her heart yearned for.
The intense vibrations, the cloying thick pollen increasingly coating the mucus membranes of her mouth and nose, the size of the thing in front of her and its hungry open desire, all made the emotions within her rise in a storm surge that threatened to drown her. She looked up at the monster in front of her, feeling every bit as vulnerable as she was.
She made one last blind attempt at escape, at regaining any sense of control in this moment. Her voice was impossibly small. “But you said you’re not here to domesticate me...”
The Affini, a massive beast with an impossibly keen intellect from beyond the stars, a predatory enthraller of souls, shook their true form loose in ultimate triumph. Their laugh rolled from them like thunder.
“Oh sweet thing, I said I only collar those who wish to be collared. And you still can wish for this, at least right now. Your fear and your shame are the only things keeping you conscious, but they won’t last long, even if they’ve carried you well past the point that most other Terrans would be drooling face down on the floor. You’ve fought so valiantly but it’s ok, you can want this now.”
The last resistant bit of Sarah wavered. Tears welled in her eyes as she sank within herself. From fear, relief, or pure arousal, she couldn’t tell, but she would bet the monster in front of her could. It probably knew more about her than she did herself. It could probably hear the thoughts in her head right now, see what was playing in her minds eye. The raw flashes of memory, impressions of her kneeling for others in the past, taste the sour disappointments and rejections, feel all the heartache.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” The dam broke, and tears fell freely. Whatever heat had inspired her outburst flashed, then fizzled. “I can’t. I don’t want this, it’s too much, please-”
A vine draped lightly over Sarah’s hand, warm and heavy and so soft, and their voice took on a truly monstrous polytonal resonance as they shushed her. “My sweet Sarah, deep breaths. You’re okay now. Your fear and your longing together have led you to me. Some part of you could tell, some part of you always knew it needed my help breaking you open, didn’t it? And that’s terrified you. You’ve ran and ran, you’ve ran so far that only fate could catch you. But now your fate is here, asking you a simple question, and you don’t have to be afraid anymore. Tell me, morsel, and be honest this time. Do you want to be a floret?”
Sarah sat quietly for a long moment, sniffling. Slowly her eyes closed into a grimace, and with a sob, she did the only thing she could do. She took the vine into her hand cautiously, reverently, and kneeled.
Notes:
This chapter is a fun one, and my first publicly posted erotica! I just think it'd be really hot if a massive domme lady walked into your life and told you truths about yourself until you collapsed under the weight of your own need, ok?
Chapter 3: The First of Many
Summary:
The two begin their journey of mutual discovery with a little vines-on exploration and (mostly) non-sexual overstimulation.
Notes:
This story veers off pretty sharply into dub-con drugplay, so CW for that
Chapter Text
The First of Many
“Darling, shhh, it’s ok. I understand everything, you’ve given me such a precious gift.”
Another dizzying swirl of violet splashed across the deep blue gemstones set in their wooden mask. The plant woman had found a balance between her Terran and natural forms; well defined arms and face with the vague gesture of a feminine torso, descending into a mass of prehensile vines dotted with deadly-looking flowers and bulbs. Their more fluid shape spread to fill the room, dimming the lighting with an ethereal green tint.
Sarah had no way to know how long she had been kneeling. Low to the ground as she was, the layer of foliage covering the floor had swallowed Sarah’s legs below the waist. That thick floral scent had pooled along to the ground, and she felt something sharp brushing against the inside of her thigh. Her fear felt so distant, and she reveled in that warm peaceful glow.
Sarah had been staring in unblinking rapture up at the ravenous predator above, on top of and surrounding her for some time now. Given free reign, the sheer pressure on the mind exerted by them had left the doctor shuddering and made her vision swim. Something delicious and warm rose within her as her mind returned to herself. Now unrestricted by fear, she found herself traitorously, treacherously, loving this.
Grasping vines encircled her wrists and the smaller woman inhaled sharply at the touch, bringing herself fully back to reality. Though they were thin, she could feel their firm strength as they drew her hands down in front of her. The ground cover hungrily accepted the offer, pulling her arms below the surface up to the elbow and netting them in a lattice of soft green cord. The bondage dropped her torso and face even lower to the floor, and her head swam with whatever aerosolized phytotoxins swirled around her.
A flower came into focus, lacey and delicate, with a firm white body that blossomed into striking yellow- and orange-tipped petals. The stamen was translucent and thin enough to be almost impossible to see, with a razor-sharp tip. It was only a few inches in front of her eye.
“Sarah, dear, would you like to play a game with me?” A large finger under her chin drew her face up towards the creature in front of her. The beast had hunched low, neck craning unnaturally to make eye contact with the kneeling human in front of them. “Your file contains a rather long list of kink and fetish preferences. It’s a helpful guide but I find the vines-on approach much more effective. A full understanding of you body, mind, and how they intersect would be invaluable for me, so I would like to learn your reactions for myself. Doesn’t that sound fun~?”
The powerful, irresistible hand guided her head into a nod with the slightest touch. Sarah took a moment to respond, unsure of what would come out if she tried to speak right now. “…y-yes that does sound fun, but I’m very... um, I’m a bit nervous. It’s been a while since I’ve played with anyone. Um, red, yellow, green?”
“I’m familiar, little morsel. Would you like to play hard enough to need safewords?”
“Oh stars, please don’t make me answer that right now!”
She felt the entire mass of green shiver, the face above her making a sound halfway between a laugh and a growl. Something dripped from their too-wide grin. “You’d like me to answer for you? Good girl, you’re getting the hang of this quickly.”
The praise pulled a squeak out of the nude, supplicating form of Doctor Sarah Artes. Pride and a predatory excitement pulsed through her bondage. “yea-um, yes please.”
“Very well,” they purred. “We will keep things light for now. But I can’t promise I won’t accidentally cross a limit. You creatures are very small, and you might be more delicate than I expect.”
Being called small and delicate by a creature twice as tall as her, Sarah felt a new part of her soul ignite in twinned shame and desire. Her more detached mentality gave her the chance to observe her own reaction. Oh stars, on top of everything, did she have a size thing? “Understood. Thank you, um… Miss.”
“Of course, pet. You’re very welcome.” The smile Anise gave in that moment seemed to reverberate through all the leaves and roots binding Sarah at once. A wave of giddiness washed over her as she felt the needle bounce across her inner thigh like a skipping record.
“Well, since you are a bit tied up at the moment, my pretty little thing, it seems I’ll have to lead our dance for this number. Let me ask you a simple question then, since that seems to be all you can handle right now. When I “blast you with the mind control beam’, as you so eloquently put it, would you like to cum?” Grinning devilishly, the being held her prize still as it squirmed in shame.
“Oh stars.”
“You keep saying that.”
“You keep saying hot shit, Miss-”
Every vine across Sarah’s body tightened, straining down against the supple flesh hard enough to leave bruises. Downy leaves sent flutters across the sensitive nerves along her ribs and neck, while strong bands of vegetation gripped her limbs and held them rigid. “Language, petal. Don’t make that mistake again, or I’ll remove your capacity to do so.”
“Oh stars, oh my stars, I’m sorry Anise I won’t-“
“-Miss Spirosera.”
Another squeak. “Right, I’m sorry Miss Spirosera!” Her voice was downright meek. “I won’t make that mistake again, Miss Spirosera!”
“Good girl~”
A shudder ran through the bound woman, something that the living bondage under her seemed to react to with their own vibrations. It pulled a small moan from her throat despite herself. Sarah was distantly surprised\; she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had such a strong reaction to a dominant partner’s praise. Despite the insane and terrifying conditions she found herself in, she was starting to enjoy this.
She felt herself steady just a bit. She’d found her way back in. This is just a power dynamic, she knows these better than anything. It’s just another scene with another potential new partner. Sarah waggled a bit in her binds, hoping to look just the right amount of pathetic. This game of protocol and language restriction was familiar to her, and she could feel herself retreating into it for shelter from the storm. She had played this role before, many times, and knew it well. She might even be able to brat here! Even in this compromised position, she could actually feel herself-
“Ah, there it is, you’re back to baseline. Welcome back, petal! If only you could see yourself right now. You can see in your eyes the moment you lose yourself, and the moment you find yourself again. Did you know that?”
“No, Miss Spirosera.”
“I’ll take photos someday. You’ll love it.”
Sarah yelped as vines coiled up her arms, dragging her an inch deeper in and reaching up to coil around her throat. Gentle feelers crept up the sides of her neck and into her ears, somehow stimulating every sensitive bundle of nerves with a ticklish flutter that made her writhe in the floral shibari. The forest floor gripping her limbs responded in kind, massaging a dozen different muscle groups at once. Sarah gasped; monsterfucking of this caliber used to be relegated to the realm of imagination. She could feel every square inch of vegetation moving with sentience. The sensation continued for a minute or two, with nothing more coherent than a moan coming from the young doctor.
When Miss Spirosera spoke next, their voice echoed from the delicate intruders filling her ears with a slight pressure, making their polytonal melody rattle through every part of her skull. “Mmmm sweet pet, I can taste your pulse quickening. You like feeling bound and powerless, don’t you? Sink into it, let it take you over.”
The soft touches rose in urgency, building slowly towards some impossible cliff. More and more points of contact, more and more individual sensations danced across her body from seemingly dozens of tendrils reaching out from the foliage covering the floor. Vines brushed softly and teasingly across every inch of her exposed skin. Electric touches ran along her neck, up and down her ribcage, between each finger and toe, across her tight nipples. Every bit of soft, sensitive flesh was sought out and teased with increasingly brutal efficiency.
As the sensations reached their fever pitch, all Doctor Sarah Artes could do was scream. It felt as if every nerve in her body was being stimulated all at once. Woody feelers dug themselves into her increasingly ticklish skin, and Sharp thorns drug themselves across her back. She bucked and kicked, a desperate animal trying in vain to flee, but her writhing motion transferred through the bindings currently torturing her, sensations reflecting and magnifying across every part of her at once as the living ropes strained. Still the feelings grew.
“Oh delightful, pet, look at you squirm! You’re coming unglued, nothing in there but primal urges. How long has it been since you’ve been made to revel in your own body like this? You don’t have to wait a moment longer, my precious Sarah. Just let yourself feel.”
Minutes, hours, days passed in that timeless moment. She could tell the beast above her was mentally mapping her reactions, and she shuddered as she could feel them getting more effective. The full-on assault refined itself into a handful or light strokes and fluttering touches, though Sarah’s wailing animalistic reactions seemed to increase in pitch. True desperation overtook her, devolving her into a mad woman, and it hardly seemed to take the demon any effort.
The teasing madness eventually stopped, but poor Sarah was left panting and sweating bullets. She groaned a low, keening wail of frustration as her higher-order cognition returned to her, blushing bright scarlet. Her body strained against her bonds in a futile attempt to curl up into a less exposed shape. Even in the aftermath, thorns and downy plant matter remained pressed into her everywhere she was most vulnerable, like a knife to her throat.
The two stayed like that for a long moment. Sarah just let herself hang there, dumbfounded, while the beast seemed to hum to itself.
“Fascinating. You had so much wit, so much command over the conversation just moments ago. What happened, sweet thing?” Those eyes flashed down on her, amused.
“Oh stars… what, you want me to talk? Void above, Miss Spirosera, what was that?” Dazed as she was, her pupils had dilated to almost fully overtake the iris, making the room around her appear gauzy and oversaturated.
“Just a warm-up, my little wildflower.”
“Warm-up for what!? A summary execution?”
“Something like that!”
Doctor Sarah Artes didn’t know how to respond. Her mind had simply crashed like outdated hardware. This was foreplay. A warmup. Humans never stood a chance.
A hand the size or her chest gently cupped her head, thumb brushing against her lips, “Open.” The domineering Affini peered down at her prize, but unexpected resistance put a hitch in her momentum. The poor thing was clearly still reeling. Anise felt her core flutter. This was the exact moment that florets had owners for, someone to take the lead for them when they couldn’t themselves.
“Aww sweetheart, did you not understand the command? Open your mouth, doll.” She squeezed her vines reassuringly and gave a slight pressure with her thumb, but still the human did not yield. They cocked their head quizzically. “Oh? Are we feeling rebellious?” Vines squirmed with renewed vigor, and the predator’s eyes flashed a deep violet. Something much sharper pressed into the underside of Sarah’s chin, forcing her to meet her new owner’s gaze.
Fear lancing through the soft fog of subspace, Sarah screamed. “Ah! no no no wait! I’m sorry Miss Spirosera, I just…” The Affini leaned in close, making a show of listening intently, but the jagged, bladed edge of plant matter below her chin threatened to press in, tenting the skin without drawing blood. Sarah dared not even breathe, a new wave of shame blossoming from within the first. “…I’m sorry but… what if it’s drugged?”
A flash of pink danced across Miss Spirosera’s eyes. “It’s all drugged, pet. The vines binding you have been leaching Class As into your bloodstream this whole time.”
“What? What!?”
“That’s right, sweet thing. Intoxication is a core pillar of your fetish profile, and an important tool for your training. Besides, it seems to be pulling your struggle out of you.”
“No that’s way too far, you can’t just drug people without consent!”
“There’s my firey little wildflower! But darling, you’re a floret now, consent no longer applies. That was the whole point of this! Now, I won’t have my floret neglecting herself for her petty ungrounded fears a single moment longer. Just relax and enjoy it. You’re already pretty saturated, and I can tell from your reactions that this is long overdue.”
“That’s, but, well, I-” She squealed in surprise as a digit forced itself between her lips as she was speaking. Shock drove her to instinctually bite down and pull away, but with nowhere to go, she bit down into the thumb, teeth piercing skin and sinking into flesh with the consistency of perfectly ripened orange. Juice poured into her mouth, viscous and fragrant but unimaginably sweet. The scent of lilac and strawberries filled her mouth as her taste buds sang with artificial ecstasy.
The giant clamped their hand down, palm sealing the poor Terran’s mouth and nose. With nowhere to go, the liquid ambrosia pooled over every square centimeter of her maw. She felt her eyes glaze over involuntarily as whatever concoction this was seeped into the mucus membranes.
“Swallow, every last drop, pet.” They shushed. A vine stroked up and down her throat, a gesture she’d later be trained to obey. For now, though, it simply trailed holy fire across her skin as the potent drug began to affect her sense of touch. Sarah obeyed automatically, downing the delicious nectar before she could even consciously react. It burned all the way down.
Content with her performance, Anise finally let the girl breathe. She gasped down large gulps of air, sputtering and coughing. Sarah willed herself to expel the toxins, but it was too late. Whatever alchemy was inside her was already having its way with her neurochemistry, numbing her tongue and lips. A headrush stronger than anything she had felt before overtook her, and her consciousness simply dissolved out from underneath her.
Chapter 4: Bottom of the First
Summary:
In which we finally leave the only room we've been in for the last 10k words.
Sarah definitely understands herself and the situation she's in, I show off a bit about one of my main kinks, and we all get to explore how we feel about dubcon.
Chapter Text
Bottom of the First
Sweet, blissful dreams enveloped the poor doctor, her mind stringing together images and memories. She was, all at once, the softest and most vulnerable parts of her own story.
She was in bed again, warm and safe, waking up in the arms of her lover. The collar was wrapped snuggly around her thigh, its familiar presence a comfort to her soul. She could feel the domesticity settle upon her and was convinced that she and the woman next sleeping next to her were the only two people in the world. Soon she would have to return to reality, but here in the still dawnlight she’ll pretend a moment longer.
She was sore and spent, tucked away from the main action and propped up in a pile of cushions, wrapped in her favorite blanket and sipping her favorite juice. Her top had said something about ‘electrolytes’ but she didn’t have to worry what that meant. She just got to bask in the security of being in a room full of people who understand, who won’t judge or question the deep bruises blossoming across her body. She can feel the warmth radiating under her skin from the myriad marks of masochism her loving play partner had painted her with.
She was in that cabin in the woods, a lifetime ago. One hand holding the book, the other in her underwear. It was the endless summer afternoon that she first learned what real-life magic was. She read and reread and re-reread the same few paragraphs, unsure of what she was feeling but feeling it so deeply it became her first intoxication. She has touched the divine, and it will change her.
____________
The first thing she learned upon waking from her blissful stupor, ironically, was that her hand had fallen asleep. With a groan and an attempted stretch, her body flexed against the ropes, winning her nothing but a pins-and-needles tingling creeping up her arm.
The beginnings of consciousness stirred with a groan as she learned the next thing; she was in a wildly more precarious position than she remembered. The forest floor of her office was a good six feet down from her, well far enough to give a tied up and helpless woman a fear of heights.
She found herself suspended in mid-air, bound in a new configuration of knotted vines and grassy strands of woven… well, ropes. Living ropes. Living ropes that seemed to each coil individually with a mind of their own, making small adjustments as her body shifted to actively distribute her weight across the entire harness. Her experience with rope had mostly centered on its sadistic potential, but the feeling of being so perfectly supported brought a deep sense of comfort to the experience. Something about these vines felt electric on the skin, too. She squinted. She knew why, but she was struggling to recall in her semi-conscious state.
Both her arms were clasped uselessly behind her back, secured into an intricate harness that seemed to frame her chest perfectly while locking each elbow and shoulder joint into one rigid mass. Her legs had both been folded at the knee and bent backwards, each secured into shape with four separate bands tied into a central column. Uplines connected to a few points up her back and one on each stem along her thighs, holding her legs back and open, chest thrust forward. At some point, the last of her undergarments had been removed, exposing every part of her to the mercy of gravity.
That sensation in her hand had escalated to a dull ache and refused to be ignored any longer. She rotated her wrist back and forth, then balled it into a fist and clenched tight for a moment, hoping to manually work the blood flow.
Sarah’s mind was still catching up, no doubt from the rude awaking, but she could feel the story swimming into view. She’d been… at work, right? With a new client…
“Welcome back, sleepy head!” Stepping around from behind her was her current handler for the evening. “I’m sure you’re very tired, so you’ll have to forgive my indulgence here.”
Memories rushed back to her, much brighter than those of her personal history, flashes of sensation that had carved themselves into her grey matter. The wildfire of overstimulation, the sight of those beautiful eyes, the feeling of Miss Spirosera’s biorhythm pumping her full of uncut trust. Her knees dropping to the floor but reaching only foliage.
A bitter residue in her mouth reminded her of the pharmaceutical bliss that seemed to run through the monster’s veins. If the thing had veins. Phloem, perhaps? One memory clung tight to her teeth: the stiffness and give of the digit into which she had bitten, and the liquid rush of euphoria that flowed from it.
“Aww, cat got your tongue?” The leafy dominatrix poked the bound woman’s forehead, causing her to rock gently and scrunch up her face in frustration. “No worries, I can do the talking for the both of us. You see, I’ve been doing so much research into your personal interests, especially your favorite methods of social ‘bonding.’ I hope I’ve created a passable rendition here. I am of course still learning, there’s six hundred years of history to rope bondage for me to sift through! I figured that a simple shape, well executed, would demonstrate my commitment to the craft, but what do you think?”
As Sarah attempted to respond with something no doubt cuttingly sharp and quick-witted, she realized her mouth had been sealed around a large foreign mass. A wooden ball not unlike the pit of an avocado rested in her mouth. The wood had just enough give to be a deeply satisfying gag to bite down on. Her lips, and in fact the entire bottom half of her face, were also covered with a soft, downy leaf that sealed airtight against the skin, making removal of the heavy intruder impossible.
Anise made a show of acting surprised at her new toy’s inability to answer. They squatted down in front of her to match her eye level, cupping her head in both hands to hold it still. The two locked eyes for a moment, dried eyeliner streaks giving the poor girl more of a pitiful look. Pulsing feelings of safety ran through Anise’s hands and into the overwhelmed Terran’s head, whose eyes rolled helplessly. They placed a kiss on the gag keeping her silenced, then peeled the leaf away and held their hand out expectantly.
Sarah opened her mouth, trying to let the ball slip out of her as gracefully as she could. The Affini palmed it and gave her a saucy look as she worked the soreness out of her jaw. Her voice was froggy, and her tongue fizzled in a tingling numbness. She spoke slowly and haltingly, her lips lingering on the sibilant sounds in a way she only did when she was very drunk.
“…you drugged me, Miss.”
“And I still am.” Vines coiled and squeezed with a fresh burst of citrus sent. A droplet of some kind of infused oil dripped down the side of her ribcage, and Sarah’s body melted into the ropes at the sensation. A confused shudder warmed into a soft moan.
“I’m not sober. We didn’t talk about this… I don’t know what’s in me. How… but, I thought you…” she trailed off for a moment before finding what she meant to say. Her mind seemed to be moving deliciously slowly. “…what about consent?”
“Sarah, darling, my sweet little doll. Are you saying this doesn’t feel good? Are you not consenting to this?” A thorn pressed into just the right spot on her belly and dragged across to her hip, making her legs twitch and shake. “Because that would be a lie. You can’t hide from me. With you here in my loving vines I can taste every detail of your neurochemistry. I know your feelings better than you do right now, and petal, you’re loving this.”
“Mmmm… love… yeah…” She squeezed her numb digits into a fist and groaned at the static fuzzy feeling. It was getting unbearable. “Miss Spirosera, my hand…” she said, flopping the offending wrist back and forth pathetically.
The ropes holding her slithered and loosened, and she felt blood flow recirculate. “Good job pet, thank you for asking for what you need.” Their praise was a polytonal purr. “Our playtime is over for now. Let’s get you down.”
The bindings continued to unwind themselves fully. The delicious friction of textured fibers uncoiling around her built a heat across her body in dozens of places at once. Amid all that motion, she failed to register the needle administering a counteragent payload. She felt herself slip, then suddenly slide out of the bondage and into the waiting arms of the Affini. Sarah, despite herself, whined with disappointment as she was freed from what had been some of the best bondage she’d ever experienced.
Consciousness wove itself around her again, and it only took Sarah a few minutes to return to baseline. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she focused inward with a practiced eye. She started with her core self and worked her way out, just as she’d learned, imagining a small pearl in the center of her chest. Once she felt awake enough to remember her name, her emergency contact and her own moral compass, she returned to the present moment.
She shook her head once more to clear it, and it seemed to work this time. A heavy lethargy hung on her limbs, with a warm soreness that made her masochistic side sing. Based on the bone-deep sense of satisfaction suffusing her body, she’d clearly been enjoying herself, too, and the delightful buzzing feeling in her belly spoke of a contentment she usually only felt post-orgasm. If Miss Spirosera set her down, Sarah doubted she’d have the motor control to stand on her own.
Miss Spirosera. Anise. Her… well, what exactly was Anise to her now? She’d known her for an evening, but it seemed like they’d had a pretty in-depth introduction. They were certainly a new play partner if Sarah had any say in it; besides the dubcon of it all, she was having a blast with the relative stranger. However, ‘Owner’ seemed a bit… much. She’d never technically agreed to anything and certainly didn’t sign any contracts, but when someone asks you if you want to be a floret and you kneel in response, you shouldn’t be surprised if that’s taken as a ‘yes’.
Whatever Anise was to her, they currently had Sarah in their arms in a princess carry, which gave her the chance to study them up close. They were beautiful. A druidic goddess, an angel in green. Their heart-shaped face seemed lovingly carved, from the arc of the nose to the jawline, and had on the kind of makeup it’d usually take a team to do. Her smile was wide and filled with sharp-looking thorns masquerading as teeth. At over twice her height, they cut an imposing figure as well, something Doctor Artes had always been drawn to in a partner. She could feel the beginnings of a crush stir in her belly. Adding to the unfairness, they looked perfectly put together, not a stray frond out of place, while Doctor Sarah Artes could only imagine what horror would face her in a mirror.
‘Okay, things could be worse,’ she thought to herself, pondering the options, “all that happened was a scene. An intense one, sure, but I’m still in control of myself afterwards. I don’t think I’m a mindfucked pet yet, anyways.”
Always one to favor the direct approach, Sarah turned towards the gorgeous being holding her in their arms, hoping to thread the needle between getting more attention from them and keeping her mind her own. ‘I guess the only way out is through.’
“So, what now?”
Anise smiled warmly, like it was the most normal thing in the world. “Well, our hour is up. I think what happens now is we schedule another session. Isn’t that right, doctor?”
____________
After exchanging contacts, the plant woman left as suddenly as she had arrived. They’d set Sarah back down in her seat, offered her a change of clothes and a juice box, straightened the furniture and bustled themselves out the door. This recent chain of events had felt so absurd that if it weren’t for the thick coating of pollen and… other substances in the room, Doctor Sarah Artes would think it was some form of acute psychosexual psychosis.
What had just happened, anyways? Whatever it was, it was wildly unethical, whether or not the ethics board even existed anymore. The number one rule of any business was don’t fuck the merchandise. With the inherent power dynamic of her role, this could be seen as exploitation of a vulnerable person… or sophont, based on the language they’d used for themselves.
She pinched the ridge of her brow. Even though she really didn’t feel like the driving force for that interaction, she still had a responsibility to turn down inappropriate advances, didn’t she? She clearly could have tried harder.
She donned the baggy sweatpants and cute floral print sweater she’d been handed, then retrieved her neatly folded necklace and glasses from her desk. Maybe she couldn’t have turned them down if she tried? If she couldn’t have stopped it, does that mean she was assaulted? That had happened to her before, and this lacked the same intense violated feeling or sense of rage. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t assault, just that if it was, it felt different this time. It didn’t feel right to consider it fully consensual, either. The last hour or so had been the greatest sexual experience of her life and she didn’t even remember two thirds of it, but she certainly didn’t remember much negotiation beforehand, either.
It was a strange feeling; her head was screaming at her with several different voices, but she struggled to follow any of them. If she felt anything in this afterglow, it was the feeling of being used and spent, and not in a way she didn’t enjoy. In general, she liked being useful.
Her tablet dinged. She’d had the Affini tech for a few months now and preferred it silenced, but she’d never been able to find the setting that let her do that for messages from the Affini themselves. Either way, it’d be a welcome distraction.
>Star_Anise: Thank you again for your insight, Doctor Artes. I will be thinking about tonight’s conversation for a long, long time ;;3
>Star_Anise: I’m looking forward to our next session! I can’t wait~
She groaned and set the device screen-down on the desk in front of her. ‘Talking like they didn’t maybe just assault me,’ she thought to herself with an eye roll. She decided to ignore the message and focus on getting home for now.
Stepping towards the door, she heard a snap. A long thin switch of wood, coated in a dried amber-like sap, had broken in two underfoot. The sound brought back a sense memory; a line of holy fire across blazed her ass, pulling a sharp yell from her throat only for it to be stifled by the gag-
Okay, she needed to leave right now. Making a half-hearted promise to come back and clean up the office before her next shift, she hit the lights and rushed out the door.
Chapter 5: Marks
Summary:
Sarah makes some plans and makes some friends
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Marks
Sarah woke up pre-dawn that morning. She checked the clock, sighed, and rolled over with a huff. Taking a moment to let the new complier-quality bed and linens melt away some of that post-scene soreness, she unsuccessfully willed herself back to sleep, as she did most mornings. Suddenly, she bolted upright in bed as the memories of last night hit her, eyes scanning the room. She pushed herself back into the corner, breathing heavily.
Several long moments passed before the tension started to work its way out of the poor woman. Eventually, she closed her eyes again and balled up, tilting over sideways on the bed.
She steadied her breath and reached for her tablet. After a moments deliberation, she activated the device and flicked through it with several practiced motions, quickly reaching her destination. Occasionally as she scrolled, another short video would auto-play, and the sounds of soft moans, psychedelic binaurals and sweet hypnotic nothings would be smothered in the indulgently comfortable sheets. Eventually a hand found its way between her legs, and she lingered more than usual on the posts that included Affini or floret characters. She lay like that for some time before deciding to send her first message to Anise.
_______________
>SarA52: To be clear, I meant it when I said it. I’m not doing another session with you
>Star_Anise: Good morning, sweetpea!
>Star_Anise: But aww ::( what about my emotional distress?
>SarA52: I don’t think you’re actually distressed. You were lying to me
>Star_Anise: That’s not true! I’ve been heartbroken that you weren’t mine since I first found your profile. I just wanted to meet you and was worried you’d bolt!
>SarA52: I forgive you. Call it even for that scene last night. It was fun, but you should have asked me beforehand
>Star_Anise: I had fun too!
>Star_Anise: And I did ask, don’t you remember? You kneeled.
>SarA52: Sure, right. I was also drugged and,,, hypnotically influenced? Not exactly free, informed or specific
>Star_Anise: But quite enthusiastic, though!
>SarA52: If you know the model, why would you violate it???
>SarA52: Look, forget it. If you can stop arguing that cnc pickup play is a *good* thing for 2 seconds, I’m trying to ask you to meet me again
>Star_Anise: YOU MEAN IT?
>SarA52: Yes. Despite my better judgement I think, with the right coaching, you’ve got potential. A couple rules though. One, no more of this covert play dubcon stuff. If you’re gonna trance me, drug me or string me up again, we negotiate it first. Deal? And two, we meet on your home turf this time
>Star_Anise: Oooo, my first negotiation! I will agree with those stipulations, if you agree to be honest and tell the truth when I ask you what you want. Also, you have to change your chat name! Do something more original ::3
>SarA52: Oh like Star Anise is so clever. Mother void you can be annoying
>SarA52: Fine. Deal. You happy>
>SarA52: ?
>Star_Anise: VERY.
>Star_Anise: When would you like to meet?
____________________
It seemed strange to say, but after the short text chain confirming their… date? tomorrow, Doctor Sarah Artes’ day was looking rather mundane. In fact, with no work on her schedule she had the day to herself.
She sighed. Free days were often the worst for her.
Pre-contact, the colony she lived in didn’t really incentivize hobbies. The PR firm that had designed their company town didn’t seem to include many non-rentable meeting spaces, and money always seemed to be tight. Even self-creative endeavors required materials, which way out here at the far side of the system, were quite expensive.
At least media was free, with ads of course, and there was a functionally infinite sea of it. With the deft application of a few psychoactive substances, she could spend all day inside. Post-contact, well, her job took up most of her time anyways, so she never really got around to pursuing any interests beyond her routine.
Maybe a walk, first, before she settles in for the day. It’d be responsible for her to move her body a little. Rising from bed a couple hours after their chat, she stiffly shuffled to the bathroom to start her routine. Searching for a usable towel as the shower warmed up, she caught her own reflection in the mirror, and what she saw froze her in shock.
She was no stranger to rope marks from particularly heavy scenes, but the coloring she’d been given last night was like none she’d ever seen before. She could seemingly follow the entire length of her bondage as it spiraled up her arms, across her torso and all the way down to her shins. Constellations of petechiae sprouted along her chest, while an angry red line stood out encircling her waist, carving from just above her hip bones down deep towards the joints where thigh met pelvis. Never had she seen these kinds of marks so clear, so widespread, or extending for such lengths. The tension control alone it would require to do this was insane, inhuman.
Turning to examine her back, she found the telltale signs of impact play. Along, around and within the roadmap carved into her from the ropes were clear caning marks, and long red scratches running the length of her back. Stars above, that plant had destroyed her last night. She must still be on some alien pain meds to be able to walk right now.
Sarah bit her lip, turning to examine herself from the other side. Fingertips brushed over the more intense marks, savoring the warm heat radiating from them. A particularly sore spot near her ribs pulled a gasp through her teeth when prodded.
She took a few photos with her tablet, admiring how she’d been turned into a work of art.
____________
The residential neighborhood of the town Sarah lived in was separated into 9 identical blocks. Each followed the same repetitive layout, which could have easily led to the residents getting lost, so the company architects helpfully had each one color-coded. Sarah’s apartment was in navy blue. She’d passed through grey and burnt orange before stopping to sit for a moment at mint green’s park bench. Sarah liked this bench the most out of the nine, it had a view of the starport and she liked to watch the off-rock transit.
Not wanting to agitate sensitive skin, she’d picked a long flowing skirt made of soft synthetic material and the baggiest sweater she could find. The fact that it was the same sweater she’d been given last night was just coincidence.
“Sarah?”
She turned. Two waving figures were approaching, leading a third larger shape. She went to wave back but remembered medical confidentiality; she wasn’t even allowed to acknowledge familiarity with clients outside of the office.
“Doctor Artes? I thought I saw you out here. How are you, dear?” The larger of the two figures asked in a deeper, woodsier voice. “Or, Jayla, would you mind…”
“Oh! Right,” The smaller one replied, “Doctor Artes, you’re allowed to tell Miss Lida about us. She was there last night! Don’t you remember, silly?”
“…That’s right, yes. My apologies, I had a long night. It’s good to see you both again so soon.”
“You as well, dear.” The Affini gave Jayla’s hand a squeeze, then set down the lead to the cart behind them. It seemed to be a large storage container of some kind, on some heavy-duty wheels that allowed Miss Lida to pull it. “We were just moving little Jayla here out. She’s coming onboard the Ludus Philia and will be staying with me,” she beamed.
Jayla giggled and blushed. She was wearing a lovely floral-print dress with plenty of ruffles from the shoulder to the hem. She also seemed to be wearing a new necklace. “Yep! I can’t wait to move in. Miss Lida was telling me all about it and I can’t wait to see it for myself.”
“That’s lovely news, I’m glad to hear it.”
“What about you, are you coming up too?” Jayla asked. “You should come visit sometime! Like no one lives down here anymore, no one fun anyways. But I feel like you’d be really fun to talk to off the clock.”
“Maybe, yeah. I might actually be coming to visit the ship tomorrow, though I can’t promise to see you there.”
“Really? Oh, Miss Lida, can Sarah come over tomorrow?”
Miss Lida was shorter than the Affini Sarah was familiar with, but still had to lean down to whisper conspiratorially, “I don’t know, petal, that depends on if you’re a good girl or not. Are you going to be a good girl for me, sweet thing?”
Sarah had become quite adept at recognizing that certain tone Affini used to apply psychic pressure, but she still swayed under the force of it just as much as Jayla did.
“Yes, Miss Lida!” Jayla announced proudly, earning a scratch under the chin.
The Affini turned to address Sarah again. “And what would be the occasion for the visit?”
“Well… I guess it’s complicated,” She replied, still not perfectly comfortable conversing with something so large and willing to drug strangers. “The best way to put it is that I’m going to visit a friend.”
“Oh, I know what that means,” Jayla cut in with a sultry grin, receiving a stray tickle on the neck in response.
“Hush, girl, its best to let people keep secrets~”
“It’s ok, I promise. I’m comfortable to say that it’s a complicated relationship, but I’d rather not share more.”
“Forgiven, dear, we don’t mean to pry.”
Jayla spoke up again in a more measured tone, though some amount of playfulness couldn’t be hidden. “Well, if you have the time tomorrow, we’d love for you to stop by. Maybe we could invite a few other couples and call it a party! The friend you’re visiting is welcome too.”
“Sure thing, let me speak to them about it and let you know. Can I have your contact, um, Miss Lida?” As Sarah retrieved her tablet from her purse, the sleeve of her sweater rode up, exposing some forearm.
“Oh my stars, Sarah, are those rope marks?” Jayla exclaimed excitedly. “Stars and skies, you have to come over tomorrow! I didn’t know you swung that way, Miss Lida has a full dungeon space and we’d be happy for you and your friend-”
A tentacle-like appendage of flexible polished wood wrapped itself several times around Jayla’s head, silencing the rest of her sentence into moans.
“Please forgive my unruly partner, Doctor Artes, I assure you she will be on her best behavior tomorrow.”
Sarah, blushing, stammered out a conciliatory response.
“We would be honored to host your guest as well, if you’re not otherwise tied up of course. Let me see your tab for a moment so I can add my contact.”
The Affini gave the device a few practiced taps, then bid the young woman farewell. Jayla was allowed to speak again for a quick goodbye, and then the two left as quickly as they came. Only a few minutes passed before she saw an Affini shuttle take to the sky.
And just like that, she had a social calendar tomorrow.
Jayla wasn’t kidding, there really weren’t many people living landside these days. The mint green neighborhood around her suddenly seemed more foreboding than she remembered. As the sun began its lazy crawl below the horizon, streetlamps kicked on to supplement with artificial daylight. The local star only afforded a few hours of direct light but had long multi-hour dawns and dusks, giving the early afternoon an unnatural ambiance. The wind picked up and Sarah gathered herself, hustling back to her apartment.
Notes:
I used this chapter to try out a few new things with dialogue and see if I could flesh out the world and Sarah a bit more. More direct smut is returning in the next few chapters, stay tuned!
Chapter 6: Honesty is the Best Policy
Summary:
We’re off to Affini-land! Our two lovebirds have another chat to clear up intentions, and Anise offers some assistance.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The Ludus Philia, like all Affini R-Class ships, concerned herself primarily with power over speed or maneuverability, preferring to act as a cargo and transport vessel for the greater fleet. Most Rs were sizeable to say the least but at the larger end of that spread, the Philia was granted the special designation of a ‘Canopy Structure’ in Terran regions; an Affini construction so challenging to the native population’s understanding of physics that it must remain cloaked and undetectable at all times.
Fifty thousand sophonts representing a rainbow of xeno cultures and even more Affini currently call her home, living within a ghost in the void too massive to comprehend. Even as she is now, redirected mid-haul with plenty of precious cargo, she has the capacity to provide domesticity to every sophont on the planet who so chooses.
_______________
The screen in the corner of their shuttle continued its introductory video about their destination with a swell of fanfare, but Doctor Sarah Artes paid it no mind. Her gaze was fixed out the window. With no visible ship above, Sarah couldn’t help but feel as though she was ascending into the void. Everything she’d known for the last… stars, however many years it’s been, was shrinking off into meaningless obscurity. She sat quietly, watching the town below her fall away.
Anise, on the other vine, seemed much more interested in watching her. The good doctor had opted for a less professional look this time, sporting an A-line yellow dress and a sage green shawl with a chunky, hand-knit appearance. She seemed to prefer silver jewelry, they noted to themselves, and had on the same necklace and boots she wore in their first session. Sarah had even done her hair in a delightfully braided number that made full use of her wavy curls.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve travelled off-planet,” Sarah said wistfully to break the silence, “and I always like watching the takeoffs and landings.”
Neither had spoken since the shuttle first lifted off the ground.
“Didn’t get out much, pre-contact?”
“No, and usually just back home to see family. Even a cross-system hop was expensive, but I still got to be there for some of the important moments. That fell off though, a while back…” Anise placed a hand on hers. “The trip out here after grad school was nice, cause NarCorp shipped me first class. AI assistant, in flight meal, and 2 free drinks. The real princess treatment.”
“Sarah,” Anise said with a purr and a smile, “I assure you that we can do much better than that. Let me show you the real princess treatment when we get back to my hab, our work can wait.”
For the first time since they sat down, the doctor looked away from the window to return the warm smile. “Oh, you’re getting me food, that’s for damn sure. And you’re paying, too.”
“Darling, we don-“
“-Yeah, I know, I’m just messing with you,” Sarah cut in with a laugh, “I’m off the clock right now, I get to be funny.”
Anise gave a good-hearted chuckle back, just quick enough to seem genuine to the young woman. They could find joy in Sarah’s joy regardless.
“Very well, I will make sure to feed you, no matter the morality of the system in which I obtain that food.” Sarah’s smile grew, and the two took a beat to enjoy the warmth of each other’s company.
Eventually, the grin faded. In the pause that followed, Sarah’s voice took on a more serious tone.
“Speaking of ‘off the clock,’ Anise… I think I’m struggling with the… boundaries, here. We need to talk about what we want with each other. Even if this is going towards florethood, I won’t be waking up in a collar without at least having a conversation about it. And I won’t be signing my life away to someone I don’t even know, either” Sarah gave them a firm and stoic look. The biorhythm that had pulsed gently throughout the cabin since their shuttle first took off softened in response.
Anise straightened herself as much as she could. Even in the vessel ostensibly designed for her kind, her crowing foliage still brushed the ceiling at her fullest stature.
“I understand, dear. Would you like to have that conversation now? We have plenty of time.”
Steeling herself, she nodded, and Anise nodded in return.
“I doubt my intentions are unclear at this point but let me say that I plan to make you mine.”
Doctor Artes took a moment to sit with this. Her gaze wandered back out the window to the rapidly shrinking rock below. “I expected as much. I’ve seen it happen enough to know how this dance goes.” She crossed her legs and folded her hands back into her lap. “Why me?”
“Because you won’t fight back. Not in any way that really matters.”
Sarah closed her eyes and kept them closed, keeping herself in check. She sat like that for a long moment, processing. Eventually, she replied.
“…ease of use?” She asked incredulously.
“Of course. You didn’t need to be convinced of the logic, or your place. I didn’t lie to you the last time we spoke.”
A few deep breaths brought her back to the moment as she pulled the feelings from her surface thoughts. For now, she had work to do.
“That’s really not the nicest thing to say about someone.”
Anise’s eyes flashed. “I can word it differently if that would make it nicer.”
Sarah switched tactics.
“What if I don’t like you?”
“Well, do you like me?”
“I don’t fucking know you, we had a… well, honestly, you assaulted me in my own office, then invited me to some big fuck-off ship in the sky. I don’t even know if I’m coming back from this little trip!”
“Then why did you come?”
“To learn. And honestly? Get to see the inside of an alien spaceship. Like that was the bigger draw for me. Can you imagine? I bet you guys have like crazy photosynthesis lounges and machines that can only be driven by tentacles and stuff, like I bet it’s just bonkers in there.” Everything about Sarah’s bristling posture and demeanor showed she was serious, despite the tangent.
“I bet it is, too,” Anise said, shifting forward just a bit. “I think… you could understand my purpose here as the same. I’m here to learn more about you. I know you’re capable of being what I want you to be, and that your heart would align without needing to be broken, but to do this properly I must know and love every part of you. If I cannot, I will help you find whichever Affini or sophont up here can.”
Taking a moment to consider, the woman’s gaze rose back up to meet the Affini’s. “This is the most ass-backwards date I’ve ever been on. You know that’s just what a date is, right? You reconstructed the concept from the ground up, stars above.”
“Does that mean you would like to continue?”
“As long as you promise I’ll be home to feed my cat by tomorrow.”
“Another negotiation! I will accept that deal.”
The two sat in their shuttle for a long moment after that, and the blush eventually left Sarah’s face.
“So…” Sarah asked, idly kicking her legs in the Affini-sized bench seat, “what do you do for work?”
____________
The shuttle continued its ascent for a good few minutes like that, the two exchanging pleasantries. Small talk faded into a natural break in the conversation, and the two rested in a warm silence.
“Dear, as we’re getting closer, I’d like to ask that you watch your language in polite spaces if possible. We’re alone in here but no longer in the wild.”
“Is that a dynamic thing? Cause I’ve seen other Affini ask the same of their- um…”
“Hmm…” Anise intoned, and Sarah was thankful for the interruption. “I am not asking you that as some demonstration of power or restriction of your autonomy, simply as a matter of manners. Does that answer the question?”
Sarah looked back out the window. “Yeah… I guess it does.”
“If you’d like, I’d be happy to provide assistance.”
“I’ll do my best, but sure, feel free to check me if I mess up.”
“Oh, I was thinking of something much more preemptive.”
The two sat together for a long moment in a steady silence. Sarah cocked an eyebrow, but otherwise kept her gaze out the window, while Anise enjoyed the view indoors. The quiet narration of the introductory video had finished, and the screen now looped the same few minutes of soft meditative beats and nature sounds.
With meticulous timing, the larger woman reached into Sarah’s lap. They gave a reassuring squeeze, the digits of one of her hands enough to encircle the wrists of both hers. “Petal… would you like a demonstration of power?”
Before she could respond, the scene beyond the windows suddenly changed with a tectonic whoosh that stole the breath from Sarah’s chest. What was the vast expanse of empty nothing around them had suddenly become grey-white walls of mechanical infrastructure pressing in, the change so jarring it felt as though she was suddenly compressed into a ball. Like a shift in reality, she was already inside the largest beast she’d ever known. The gate through which they just passed disappeared below them, and all around were the massive mechanical pistons and unknowable plant life of a truly alien craft. In the dim light, Miss Spirosera’s eyes glowed a brilliant ruby flecked with pink, and Sarah fought the primal urge to curl in on herself.
The screen above them dinged. “You are now aboard the Ludus Philia! Welcome home!”
Sarah screamed.
“Fffffucking stars above, mother fucking void…”
She breathed heavily for several moments, the shock pumping adrenaline through her system. The reaction gradually became more exuberant before she collapsed into the laughter one gets having faced death and returned to the living. “That was one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen oh my stars! I’m shaking, look at this!” She held up her free hand to the plant woman in front of her.
The eldritch being took what was offered to them by the giddy, babbling woman, and smiled down in response. Sarah seemed grateful for the frond-to-skin contact, and it likely grounded her based on how tightly she gripped. “Fuck- or sorry, um, mother void, what an experience. Are you used to that? How did you know how to time that right?”
She continued to bubble on like a kettle letting off steam as the shuttle glided deeper into the bowels of the gargantuan vessel, towards its true destination of the hab ring’s docking port. Anise knew that for the better part of the next hour, the two of them would be alone in a maze of transit tunnels.
“This place is crazy! This is just a cargo vessel!? Stars above, we never stood-“
“Wildflower, eyes on me.” Her gaze snapped to theirs immediately, voice cutting off mid-sentence. How polite. “I believe we had an agreement, Doctor Artes, didn’t we?”
Sarah seemed to shrink inward with a gasp. The Affini shifted and brought her arms back together in front of her without a shred of effort, the fingers once more encircling her wrists in an iron grip. With their free hand they gently brushed a braid behind the poor girl’s shoulder.
“When I ask you what you want, you have to tell me the truth, remember?”
“Yes, Miss Spirosera.”
The shock of the moment and the steadily more controlling stance of Anise in tandem had a heavy effect on her. With her natural return to baseline hijacked into a power game, Sarah was dropping like a rock into subspace. The clothes she had on were suddenly much too exposing, and she could already feel her will leaking out of her as she tried to follow the pretty patterns of light beaming directly into her dilated pupils. Her leg twitched, a sure sign she was going into trance. She didn’t have the capacity to lie, to even try in this moment was sacrilege, so she let the truth guide her. “Please, Miss Spirosera, but my body needs a rest… I’m sorry, Miss.”
Their hand shifted to the back of their neck to gently cradle their head, ensuring the eye contact was steady and strong. They flashed a grin, and Sarah couldn’t help but shudder. They were so much bigger than her.
“That’s right. Good girl.”
They released her and came away holding the familiar chain to Sarah’s necklace. The pendant itself was the only piece of gold-colored jewelry she was wearing at the moment, a small, rounded sapphire encircled in pearls. The whole thing was no bigger than the pad of a Terran thumb but had enough weight to pull the chain into a gentle swing. A vine lifted it, and the pendant swung a pleasing arc in space, catching the young woman’s eye with practiced ease.
“But let me worry about that,” they said. Even with a quieter and softer tone, the waves of psychic pressure still rolled off her. “The game I want to play will only take a moment’s attention. Would you like to go into trance, little morsel?”
“…yes, Miss Spirosera.”
“Good girl.”
Notes:
I’d love to introduce more settings and characters if thESE TWO COULD KEEP THEIR PAWS OFF EACH OTHER.
Anise is such a drama queen.
Chapter 7: Gifts
Summary:
The two get up to some good old-fashioned hypnokink.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The pendant carved a line across Doctor Sarah Artes’ vision, just near enough and high enough that her gaze had to rise to follow it. The blue gem seated in the center flashed purple in the refracted reds and pinks of Anise’s bioluminescence.
“Very good, good girl, my sleepy little blossom.” Sarah squirmed. “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”
“Yes, Miss Spirosera.”
“Good girl~”
When they repeated that particular praise, they carried with it a special trill in the background soundscape of the Affini, a pleasant ruffling sound like a spring breeze through new leaves. She squirmed just a bit; ‘good girl’ had a history of making her feel warm and fuzzy in the stomach even without the xeno biorhythm punch-up. The whole effect made her eyelids heavy, conjuring memories of peaceful times from before her world went crazy. She felt a flutter in her throat and a twitch in her leg.
“Then you would know how this works. You know first-hand how easy it can be to just let yourself slip. Your attention gets drawn to something small, like a bit of motion or some shiny sparkles, and your mind simply floats away. It’s perfectly natural.”
This was bad. Her eyes were locked tight on the focus before her. They’d just started, and she could already feel herself crumbling. She blinked, heavily. She thought about crafting something to say in return but couldn’t get her hands around a thought in time.
“Tell me, dear. What does trance feel like for you?”
Another heavy blink as the good doctor took a long moment to respond. “Feels… nice. Like, fuzzy… I feel it a lot in my… chest… kinda…” She let her voice trail off, feeling parts of herself clench at how tired her voice already sounded.
“Very good, petal, good girl~” another trill, another satisfied sigh from the poor Terran.
“Let your eyes follow the swinging lights, my dear. Feel yourself relax, fuzzing out on the edges, just a bit more. Melting down from your head, down through your chest and stomach all the way down into the seat under you.”
Sarah tried to follow the conversation, but she… her mind kept… not holding on. The twinkling little gem crossed her vision once more, then back again in rhythm. It was so hard to focus when… her eyes strained to follow the glittering lights, abandoning the thought.
“You know you can trust me, don’t you?”
“mmm… yes, Miss Spirosera, I trust you…”
The pendant began to lower into the center of her vision, and Sarah’s leg twitched again. She was grateful for the reprieve, as her eyes were starting to get tired.
“In just a moment, I’m going to drop you into a light trance…” Sarah’s next exhale curled into a quiet moan, “and I will ask your mind to hold on to something for me. There will be no tricks, no games, just a gift I want to give you. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
“Yes, Miss Spirosera.”
“Good girl. You want to feel good for me, don’t you?”
“Mmm yes, Miss Spirosera…”
“You are feeling good for me?”
“Yes, Miss Spirosera…!”
“You’ll drop when I ask you to, wont you?”
“Yes, Miss Spir-“
“You’re dropping for me, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Miss-” The gemstone plummeted from her view to land in her lap, and her gaze followed it down as her eyes slammed closed.
“Drop.”
Both legs twitched this time, and the helpless flopping feeling simply dragged her mind deeper into the trance. Her head fell lifelessly to her chest, and her whole body leaned forward so far, she’d fall out of her seat if she hadn’t been caught by the ready hands of Miss Spirosera. Inside her, however, there was nothing to stop her fall.
Her mind tumbled deep into trance, sinking below the waves. Miss Spirosera’s voice her guide in the dark, those beautiful eyes shining lanterns in the deep. She could drown like this, in a sea with no floor.
The Affini gave a deeply satisfied sound, reverberating around the cabin and through every part of the young woman in front of them.
“You slip into trance so easily, petal. Good girl~”
The pleasure licked up her spine, positive associations reinforced by the constant thrumming pressure of trust from the woman above her, blossoming warmth from the buds which hung tight in her chest.
“And you know that the dancing lights can follow you down. Even now, you can see their reflections in your eyes, can’t you?”
They weren’t waiting for responses anymore. The shifting beneath her eyelids told them everything they needed to know.
“Breathe deeply for me and let yourself sigh out all that tension you hold onto. Any worries or concerns, any silly little fears you might have. You can let those all down for a second and just be.”
A heavy exhale drew the strength out of her body as she sunk deeper into the seat beneath her, thankful that it was luxuriously padded and comfortable. It added to the feeling of floating away.
“There you go, that’s my good girl~”
She squirmed in her seat again, with less intention or force. The poor thing was practically catatonic, and Anise would not miss the opportunity to bury her deeper. They lifted one of her arms up by the wrist like a marionette and lazily shook it back and forth, the limb going even more limp and lifeless with the nonverbal suggestion. Then they cut her strings, arm falling back to her lap with a soft thud that sent her twice as deep.
The Affini woman repeated this process again, and a third time. Each seemed to sap more of the good doctor’s ability to move on her own. On the third drop, Sarah groaned weakly, twitched once more, then sunk even further in the chair.
She began to list to one side, so vines and hands gently guided her soft body down to lay on the cushions. A bed of fuzzy, leafy foliage was waiting to receive her.
A large leaf, the softest and most downy one she’d found yet on the walking garden, pressed itself to her chest, tips sliding under the neckline of her dress. It seemed especially sensitive to Miss Spirosera’s biorhythm as well, the usual background noise amplifing through it to a fully tactile experience, pumping submission and relaxation directly into her torso. The effect was… powerful, to say the least.
“Fuzz in your chest, lights in your eyes, my song in your heart and not a thought in your head. Doesn’t this feel just right, petal?”
No response came. All the obedience in the world couldn’t free the poor woman from their spell now. Sarah didn’t even know her body could feel like this.
“Good girl, blossom. You’re being such a good girl for me~”
With a sensory antenna wired directly to her chest, the praise song practically rattled her ribs in ecstasy, pulling several full body twitches from her and a long, keening moan made breathless by the heavy catatonia pressing into every inch of her. Unseeing eyes had flown open in shock, only to flutter and melt closed once more.
Miss Spirosera gave a predatory chuckle. It was a shame she couldn’t keep her like this for the whole day. A clawed nail tickled just under Sarah’s chin while several dozen feelers wound their way against her scalp. They gave her the most delightful tugging sensation, one that would have made her thighs rub together if she had the capacity to move. Her face glowed with a blank, goofy smile from ear to ear, openly moaning.
“That’s right pet, you’re my darling dumb ditzy doll, aren’t you? My little trance slut,” the Affini said mostly to themselves, making sure to keep the tone warm and inviting so the woman below her didn’t think too hard about the words. She giggled slightly in response.
“Fuzzy, floaty… fully lost.” They felt the vines not currently occupied with their precious treasure below her writhing and wagging, stimming off excess desire like a fission reactor venting exhaust. Steel vines wrapped tight around a few structural bits of the shuttle and squeezed. “My lost little lamb, my sweet Sarah…”
They tried to move on, they really did, but Miss Spirosera simply couldn’t resist a few minutes of gentle petting. Nail tips danced like sparks across her face, neck and chest, pulling weak giggles from her exhausted frame. Her arms twitched in some vestigial protective response, even though she was long past any real chance of coordinated movement.
“The mind of a Terran is such a delightful vulnerability,” they purred, pushing a shockwave of pure erotic charge into the chest of little Sarah, earning the most sentient and forceful twitch of hers yet. Her hand made it all the way to her lap again, but it still might as well be miles away from where she really wanted fingers right now.
Poor girl. A blessing she had an Affini around to help her with her needs. Vines encircled both her wrists, pulling her hands down to her sides.
“Soon, honeysuckle. We will fill you to the brim with all the pleasure you can stomach, I promise. I rebloom at the unfairness of it, but for now there’s work to be done…”
Eventually gathering themselves, they retrieved the pendant from her lap and sat the collapsed woman back up, cradled lovingly in her softest vines. Careful to leave one arm free, Miss Spirosera shook loose her lower half into a nest of greenery and enveloped the woman once more. Most of Sarah’s body and face disappeared beneath swelling blossoms as she let out a beatific sigh. She felt herself repositioned, then scaffolded with plant life.
This was not bondage, not with any real force or restriction at least. Anise simply bloomed a garden across her most precious possession. A bed of lilac and hyacinth in every shade of purple, dotted with starburst dahlias of neon vibrancy like a meteor shower against the galaxy beyond. Wine-dark tulips encircled her throat and midriff, and a delicate coil of new greenery encircled her head in a spiral crown.
They positioned her free arm just right, wrapping otherwise limp fingers around the chain of her own pendant. A few whispered words and a bit more living trellis work, and the gem had returned to its pendulum swing under Sarah’s own power.
“Open your eyes, Sarah.”
She did, though it could not be said that she was any more awake. Glassy, pure-pupil eyes locked onto the hypnotic focus once more.
“You’re going to do something very simple for me, now. I want you to imagine my gift, pet. Can you do that for me?”
Sarah could only sigh out an affirmative-sounding whimper. A hand under her chin nodded her head for her.
“Very good, petal. I bet you can see it now, can’t you? What does it look like?”
The hypnotized woman took a long time to respond, and when she finally spoke it was with a blissed-out smile . “…box… pretty… bow, every color… so pretty…”
“That’s right, dear, good girl~” They paused for the moan to trail off. “Imagine that box, nice and clear in your mind. Can you hold it for me?”
“…yes, miss spriserr…”
They gave her head a few pets to reward the dear for her hard work. “good girl… now, I want you to put something in it for me. You can do that for me, can’t you?” Her brow furrowed in intense calculation, but the depth of trance to which she was buried softened the expression. “I want you to take all those big girl words you love to use. You know the ones, right?”
Momentary confusion resolved, undercut by the swinging pendant, as a smile returned to the girl’s face. “Yes, Miss Spirosera…”
“Good girl, you’re being such a good girl for me. Take those big girl words and round them up. Put them alllll in the box for me, every last one. ‘Fuck’ and ‘shit’ and ‘damn’,” here she had to pause again for a ditzy laughing fit, “and all those other silly little words you use to be taken seriously.”
She affected a mocking frown to her voice. “You don’t want to be serious, do you? You want to be silly. My silly little Sarah, my good girl.” All the woman had left to her were giggles and moans in equal measure. “And when you’ve got them all in the box for me, all tucked away nice and safe, you’ll give me a big nod.”
The two waited together for her to finish her work. It went on a beat longer than Miss Spirosera had expected; the good doctor seemed to be delighting in her own creativity as she found increasingly bespoke vulgarities. Eventually, she nodded with a pleased grin.
“Good girl~” Sarah wriggled as much as she could, taking reward equal to her effort. “Now let me just…”
As they spoke, they pulled the fronds rooted along Sarah’s scalp back, giving one more firm tug before releasing away. Sarah shuddered in rapturous understanding, external stimuli crossing wires with internal imaginings.
“Take this box back for a moment and tie the bow nice and tight. Isn’t it pretty, pretty girl?”
“…yes-s-s Miss…”
“That’s right pet. All mine now, my precious gift. You’ll get to open this box again whenever you’re ready, and you’ll know you’re ready because I’ll tell you. Do you understand, pet?” A flash of pink dashed across the bioluminescence.
Another affirmative moan.
“Good girl… you may have the box back now.”
Anise took a long look at her captive treasure. Their rhythm flowed through every petal and stem blanketing her, and her slack-jawed look of perfect dissociation told them everything they needed to know about what was happening in her mind right now. She had responded so easily to the hypnotic language and clearly dropped very deep.
“In a moment, when I wake you from your trance, you’ll be able to remember as much or as little of this conversation as you like. All you need to know is that I’ve given you a helpful little gift, a pretty box all tied up in a bow made of every color. Anything else you want to remember is for your own joy.”
No response came from the catatonic woman, save the continued sway of her hypnotized stare as she followed the swinging pendant.
“Oh, you’re so tired dear, aren’t you? It’s perfectly natural, you worked so hard to be such a good girl for me! I will let you rest for now. In a moment, I will wake you, and you’ll wake up feeling nice and refreshed and relaxed. Until then, let yourself fuzz out fully, dear, chest outward. I will let you know when your mind is needed next, so Sleep, petal, and let me handle your waking.”
Doctor Sarah Artes descended fully into stupor as her mind simply powered off, asleep in a greater will.
Notes:
I wanted to write a standalone hypnosis chapter with my two favorite gals. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Chapter 8: To the Waters and the Wild
Summary:
We are introduced to the Ludus Philia and begin our date in earnest.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Consciousness found Doctor Sarah Artes chest-first.
The antenna was gone, replaced with leaves brushing across her like a tactile alarm as they traced winding paths along her skin. She had been roused from her stupor, but there were several deep, contented sighs between her awakening and any kind of conscious motion. The necklace hung around her neck once more.
She felt so nice. Every single part of her was supported, cradled like precious treasure, and it was right to just let herself exist. There was nowhere she needed to go, nothing she needed to do, and that meant she could take all the time she needed to come back to herself.
Sarah was so thankful to Miss Spirosera for helping her experience this. It makes her want to trust them more, because it’s perfectly natural to feel so nice and refreshed and relaxed after such a lovely trance. She knew in her bones that this was good for her and that if she “-ever wants to experience this again, all she must do is ask,” Anise finished the thought.
Groggily, she realized they’d been whispering in her ear before she even woke up.
“Good morning, sleepyhead~!”
Shut eyes squinted tighter, hoping to force their way back into slumber. “Mmmmmnn…”
“That’s right dewdrop, come all the way back to me now. Eyes on me, petal,” They purred, and Sarah’s lids melted open, looking up to make eye contact with the goddess above. “Good girl, There’s my sweet little wildflower! How are you feeling?”
Sarah blinked heavily. “…mmmmnn…”
Their shuttle was still transitioning through the belly of the Ludus Philia, even after her impromptu nap. The phyto-industrial terrain around them had shifted, moving from cavernous hollow spaces formed by reinforcement arches into more intimate arterial tunnels. Walls pressed close around them and pulsated gently as their craft zoomed toward its destination.
“I was thinking the same thing, my dear.” They shifted their unspooled mass until the bulk of their body was somehow spooning her under the floral blanket. “You know, you’re making a habit of falling asleep in my arms. That’s twice now in as many sessions.”
“Mmmmnn…”
The Affini giggled.
Recognizing this was as far as that vocalization could carry her, Sarah forced her language processing center to engage through sheer willpower alone. Gathering herself into some semi-coherent form, she managed to drawl out, “that’sss your fault, Miss…”
A predatory grin radiated down on her. “That’s exactly right, petal.”
With a yawn, Sarah stifled the need to stretch her limbs for a few moments longer, not wanting to disturb the pretty flowerbed she’d somehow been woven into. The flowerbed itself had no compunctions about disturbing her, however, wrapping around her like a giant hand and pulling her bodily towards the front window of the shuttle.
“Woah, hold on, wait-”
“-Sorry for the rude awakening, darling, but you’re going to want to see this!” Foliage giddy with excitement pressed the semi-conscious woman against the glass. Disoriented by the sudden movement, Sarah groaned.
“Wait, Anise-” squeeze, “-hhhnn… sorry, Miss Spirosera, please, what’s…”
What she saw next robbed her of her voice, scattering any chance of a quick return to self-control. A point of light was quietly expanding in the tunnel ahead of them. Purple-orange glow spilled into warm darkness, as whatever horizon lay beyond their tunnel rapidly approached to swallow the shuttle and its passengers. It was a slow build at first, but soon the light was bright enough to cast long shadows on the back of their cabin.
Something primal in Sarah bleated in panic, begging her to run and hide, and she couldn’t even understand why. The last residues of sleep mixed with her fear, giving the moment a deeply dreamlike quality, or perhaps nightmarish. She tried to press away from the glass, gain some purchase on the world around her, but the latticework of roots held onto her with ferocious strength and trivialized her struggles.
“No, dear, this will be good for you. Stop fighting, we can play more in a moment!” Vines helixed around her neck and up the back of her head, forcing her to face the light, now so bright she had to squint. Roots stretched across her face, burying into the corners of her eyes to hold them open. She could do nothing but watch and howl as Dawn Bloomed before her, and within her.
The screen in the corner of the shuttle squawked to life once more. “Welcome home, passengers, to the Habitation Ring of the Ludus Philia!”
____________
Doctor Sarah Artes had done her research, not wanting to be caught unprepared. She’d expected the hab ring to be something recognizably impossible for the confines of a vessel. Perhaps an open-air park or some kind of forest. Can you imagine? a forest on a spaceship? How fantastical.
Comparatively, the reality should have been underwhelming, as she could only see one tree from all the way up here.
A solitary mangrove Yggdrasil stood proud, reaching up dozens of miles above their flying craft, some unfathomable distance ahead. Thundercloud castles encircled its midriff, pierced by an inverted mountain of branches stretching up and cascading out to blanket the heavens themselves.
Far below the shuttle, rolling foothills of roots wove into an island that must have been a dozen miles across, stretching out to a sea and an endless horizon beyond. The ocean itself was impossibly placid and still, swirling gently with the deep purples and blacks of the primordial starscape. Bright new stars and swirling clouds of galactic dust illuminated the depths of the sea below. Above, the true night sky could be seen in all directions. Thousands of feet up from sea level as they must be now, Sarah found no indication that they were in a contained space, not even the wall behind them through which they must have just flown. It was as if all that existed was the tree, rooted in the moment of the universe’s creation and stretching up to the heavens, and anything she remembered otherwise was just a bad dream.
She could see the lights of civilization running like golden veins across the island, up the trunk of the tree and into the cloud cover. Even the branches and leaves bore signs of life, though little could be made out from the sheer distance. Monstrous shapes lingered among the clouds as well, dwarfed by the Tree of Life but still large enough to register from this distance. Some seemed floral, some mechanical, and some even seemed to move with a more animalistic nature.
The ship veered downwards towards the coast, where a particularly larger cluster of lights shone with several different hues. The local star had just set, its orange glow still coloring one corner of the sky. The lighting was so perfect for intimacy and vibrancy that Sarah wondered if it was always like this here.
She tried to fit the phantasmagoria of the landscape around her into her mind, but the beauty and awe were too great for her to bear. Tears flowed freely from the overstimulation, but none fell as the roots holding her eyes open drank greedily. It was too much, too bright, and she was so small.
A breath passed as the good doctor shuddered, then another. Eventually, the shock began to wear off and the Affini’s grip loosened. Sarah wriggled free and fell to the floor, her knees hitting the ground hard, but even though the dark wood paneling was firm enough to give a sharp click under her heels, it didn’t seem to hurt her at all.
She sat like that for a long time, in the collapsed kneeling position of an unused puppet, eyes finally able to slip shut. Her arms wrapped her torso in a soothing hug, and she felt the weight of Miss Spirosera’s arm around her shoulders too. She was grateful for the grounding touch, choosing to set aside complexity for a while.
The shuttle continued its descent, and the windows around the cabin simply dissolved to let a warm, comforting breeze sweep over the two of them. The rich scent of sea air mingled with a dozen different floral notes to season the very winds of this fae realm, helping soothe Sarah even more.
A minute or two before landing, Sarah had collected herself enough to stand and grab hold of Anise’s hand, giving it a squeeze. Anise returned the gesture and collected the girl’s purse from her seat.
“What do you think, huh?”
Sarah didn’t respond with words, just with a smile and a nod.
“That’s correct. I think so too.”
When the doors opened into the early evening air, Sarah disembarked first.
____________
Anise had guided them towards a path that wound down from the hilltop landing pad to the town below. They’d mentioned it’d be a good idea to stretch her legs after the flight, and she’d agreed.
It was the perfect summer night. Cicadas chirped pleasantly, providing a background audio static that made everything feel more contained, like the air itself was thicker. A warm breeze drifted endlessly from the sea, and stars twinkled both above and below to provide perfect blue contrasts for the burnt afterimage of sunlight to the west. The sounds of nightlife drifted lazily up the valley from a cluster of lights along the bay.
“Dear, I’d like to give you that meal, next. I think I promised quite a bit, and I’m eager to overdeliver~”
Sarah smiled up at her and nodded again, gaze only momentarily torn from the vista around her. As she walked, she idly trailed her free hand over the fronds and shrubs of trail-side flora.
“And afterwards, we will decide how to spend our day. Don’t be fooled by the lighting, it’s actually not even noon yet. We have all day to get up to some fun~”
Sarah sighed contentedly in response, fiddling with a bioluminescent flower bulb on a succulent-looking bit of plant life as she passed.
“Eyes on me, petal,”
She snapped to attention.
“Is everything alright?”
The woman stopped walking, tilting her head for a moment to think. She nodded with a squint, then gave a ‘so-so’ gesture and a thumbs-up. She pulled her purse forward to search in it for a moment, then stopped when Anise offered her tablet, accepting the offer with another smile. The screen was blank with a keyboard and a small blinking cursor.
Sarah tapped for a moment then pressed the display button, facing the screen towards her towering companion. To her credit, she only jumped a little when the message illuminated in holographics in front of her face, instead of in block letters on the tab as she expected.
‘Nonverbal, sorry. Food sounds good. I’m feeling good too, I want to keep going.
Do Affini eat?’
“Only bad little ferals,” they answered with a laugh and a purr, “But most restaurants have something I can order. Today I’ll primarily be dining on your enjoyment and satisfaction, my little princess, and by the end you’ll be asking for a crown.”
A few more taps, and a stylized crown symbol and heart symbol glowed to life midair between them with an added glittery particle effect.
“That’s precisely correct, petal. And by the way, do not apologize for your own needs again, or I will pull the word ‘sorry’ from your brain by the root.”
She nearly dropped the tab flinching from the sudden change of tone, red lights washing over her and pouring through her gaze into her mind. Then she tore her eyes away.
Tap tap tap tap. Ten more hearts appeared, along with depictions of several particularly shaped fruits and waterfalls rendered in a minimalist style.
Anise gave that a good-natured chuckle. Vines snatched the tablet from her hands and worked the screen themselves for a moment.
“You know, Compact technology offers a broader range of options than you’re used to, and you could have communicated your message much more effectively.” They handed her back the tablet and hit the display button, only for a full clip of some poor Terran floret getting spitroased by two wickedly smiling Affini to flash to life in front of her face, strobing with an effect that made it impossible for her to look away.
She dismissed the image with a wave, then kept walking, laughing openly.
The two had reached an elevated wooden boardwalk about two stories above the main square in town. The sounds of people having good evenings drifted throughout the air here, competing with the cicada song to bury any conversation in a sense of intimate privacy. Somehow along their walk, their hands met again.
“By the way, I should warn you that many of your friends from planet-side have made their residence in this town. Don’t be surprised if you see someone you recognize, even in a… let’s say ‘compromised’ position. Can you do that for me, petal?”
Thumbs up, sunglasses. ‘I can be cool! Promise!’
Sarah tapped at the screen once more. ‘Hey, before we go down there, I had another important question. I don’t wanna bring the mood down, but I need to know.’
“Yes, of course, petal. Is there something wrong?”
‘Maybe, I think I’m a little confused.’
Anise’s biorhythm sharpened, like a blade unsheathing. Intensity leaked off them as they instinctively moved to surround and protect the Terran.
“What’s wrong, my precious sweet Sarah? Is it about our conversation from earlier?”
‘Kind of. It’s, well…’
They shifted, settling. “It’s alright dear, I will go over this as many times as you like. I know florethood is a scary idea but I-“
Lights flashed again, cutting off the massive plant beast. ‘Affini have weiners?’
Anise did not move. More tapping from Sarah.
‘I mean look at those bad boys. Do you all have these or are these boyfini?’ The clip played again, this time zoomed in to highlight the offending appendages.
‘Do YOU have one???’
A clawed hand burst through the message, grabbing her by the torso and lifting her bodily off the ground, but Sarah just cackled in response. Vines stole the tablet once more while a veritable grove of brambles wound itself up her legs and arms. A thicker vine coiled around her throat and squeezed, cutting off her air and pulling a croaking moan from the woman’s voice box. In the work of a moment, she went from standing on her feet to bound and immobilized, each limb folded uselessly in on itself and restrained into a harness.
“Your care is no joking matter, My. Little. Wildflower.” Each diminutive was punctuated by another tightening coil of the bondage pulling delighted squeals from their prey, loud enough that Sarah dimly wondered if passers-by could hear.
After a moment, they set her down back down, straightening her shawl and pressing the tablet back in her hands. “But I do enjoy the teasing. Keep doing it.” They said with a wink that was only a bit threatening. Sarah smiled like the cat that caught the canary.
A small figure of a face, drawn cartoonishly dizzy with spiral eyes, floated in the air then dissolved into a puddle.
‘…transfini…’ Sarah flashed, adding in the ellipses herself for dramatic effect.
Maybe she should have been more scared, maybe she was under some spell or drugged already, or maybe she was being dangerously too quick to trust… but Doctor Sarah Artes felt a part of herself loosen, just a bit. Grabbing Anise’s hand once more, the two descended towards the bustling plaza below, doubling back a bit to find the nearest set of stairs.
Sarah didn’t see the hand on the ground until she’d practically stepped on it.
Around a corner and away from the action, someone was laying on the smooth cobblestone road before them. The darker skin of their arm stood out well under the streetlights, but the rest of them were hidden by the building they were propped up against, judging by the angle of the limb. Something seemed familiar about them…
Sarah gasped and stopped in her tracks as the hand quivered, curling helplessly then falling limp once more, accompanied by one of the most debauched moans she’d ever heard. A wet popping noise rang out in response.
“Shhhh Jayla, stop it. You’re not going anywhere, so don’t even try, slut.”
Notes:
Oh NoOo, poor Jayla! Singled out from the pack by someone who’d call her such a mean name… thank the stars Sarah and Anise are here to help!
Chapter 9: Double Date
Summary:
We make some new friends and sit down for a meal
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Doctor Artes kicked herself internally for her lapse in awareness. A stupid mistake. She should have seen this sooner.
Her reaction was instinctual; she moved to help her clearly in danger ex-client, but only made it a step or two before the iron grip around her forearm stopped her. The good doctor pulled, then pulled again, making a small noise of exertion in her attempts to reach the prone woman.
“Eyes on me, petal.” Sarah whipped around to look at Anise, confused. “Shh… it’s rude to interrupt a scene.”
A loud, pained moan warbled towards them and that insensate arm shuddered again. Maybe it was her imagination, but Sarah could swear she heard the word ‘help’. This didn’t look like any kind of scene Sarah had seen before, just out in public on a side street. What was Miss Spirosera thinking?
A weaker keening sound sent a shiver down Sarah’s spine. Something felt wrong, and she and Jayla might both be in danger. She pawed at the tab, silently pleading up at the Affini to do something.
A loud smack sound rang out from an open hand hitting soft flesh at full force. It made Sarah jump and lose her grip on the device, clattering to the ground with a sharp noise.
From around the corner came a wet biological pop, like a sucker releasing, and then an expectant silence. Sarah froze.
“…h-hello…?” came a frail, scared voice.
Into the wretched swirl of emotional distress dripped a new feeling; an unease gripping her heart as her fight-or-flight kicked in with abandon. Even Anise’s biorhythm changed, a new, more cautious mix of emotions creeping in.
The Affini clicked in frustration. “Aww, and now look what happened…” They whispered down to their ward. Then, stepping forward to interpose, Anise projected her voice. “It’s ok, blossom, come on out and drop the act. We didn’t mean to interrupt your play with our own.”
Sarah heard something soft shifting, then the sound of padding against the road as two beautiful legs came into view, barefoot but with claws painted blood-red. A silk dress followed, sheer and short enough to be lingerie, with an intricate swirling design of reds, purples and blacks. Black nail polish and vibrant purple lipstick stood out strangely on the thin woman, something about the chemistry of their colored pigments catching the light in confusing ways.
The eyes, too, were unmistakably alien. Blood-red irises in porcelain saucers, slightly larger than the usual Terran proportions, with an effect that made Sarah’s brain feel gridlocked. Affini eyes were warm, inviting, gently coaxing you into their depths, but these made her feel pinned in place the way a hawk’s might a rabbit.
“There you are, Lucia, I had a feeling that was you,” said the Affini.
“Hi, Miss Spirsey,” purred the creature.
The two interacted, but Sarah’s focus was drawn to something else. Jayla was splayed out, head lolling to the side and looking right up at her with glassy, sightless eyes. A small pool of red was cooling beneath her, streaks running down her exposed shoulder.
“Please don’t let us interrupt, petal. I was just taking my new friend here down to Havenward for lunch, and we’d be happy to be on our way.”
The creature turned to regard Sarah at her mention. It cocked its head then moved towards her, reaching her in a few elegant strides. This close, she could notice the few raindrops of red dotting those perfect shoulders. The figure leaned in, closer than she would like, and looked up to make eye contact with her.
Something else was going on, something that added a new facet to Sarah’s freeze; the sophont in front of her seemed to have a biorhythm as well. It washed over her at point blank range, sharper and more hollow than Miss Spirosera’s, but clearly set to ‘subjugate’ and dialed up to 11. Sarah would have shuddered if she could, and she wasn’t certain how much of that was still in fear.
The two silent songs intermingled, harmonizing into a melody so sweet that Sarah had to actively work to stay focused on it. It was a difficult task, constantly trying to prevent just one of those forces from slipping inside her. It was like trying to track a particular conversation in a crowd.
“Oh, curious, are you? Lucia Cuscuta, She/It, meet Doctor Sarah Artes, Independent, She/her. Gentle, now.” Jayla gave a weak groan at the second name.
Lucia Cuscuta grinned, ruby eyes flashing with that mesmerizingly hungry glare, canine fangs glistening in the cool streetlight.
“Gentle, yeah?” She cooed, tilting her head further.
With inhuman speed, she rose up and lunged the short distance to Sarah, fangs gripping her throat until they were just on the brink of breaking skin. Sarah’s heart leapt to her throat, right into those waiting jaws. Slowly, Lucia pulled her mouth back and closed, letting her sharp teeth drag sweet lines of warmth across the poor Terran’s neck. It paused at her carotid, Sarah not daring to move or speak.
After a few beats, a low growl reverberated into the astonished woman’s larynx through four sharp points before releasing, and she let out the breath she’d been holding in a thin sigh.
“Mmmmm… your little heart is pumping so fast, Doctor Sarah Artes… you would not believe what that feels like on my teeth.” Lucia moaned in her ear. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, too~”
Sarah gasped sheepishly, blushing so hard that steam threatened to whistle out of her ears.
” “I cannot agree more,” Anise cut in. “But the poor girl is non-verbal at the moment. She’s happy to meet you too, I promise.” Sarah gave a dazed nod.
“Now, with Jayla there, can you leave enough juice in her that she’s coherent for this evening? I hear she’s throwing a party, and we plan to attend.”
“Hmm, perhaps. But I’m so very hungry,” The monster said with enough sweetness to fool anyone. She reached to clasp Sarah’s free hand, clawed black nails sparking excitement into her as they brushed skin, and gazed up into her eyes with an innocence that suggested butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Looking down at her, Sarah felt helplessly intrigued, like some part of her couldn’t help but go with what the woman was saying, not out of belief but out of curiosity to see what happens next. It scared her, but not enough to stop for some reason.
“If you’re saying I can’t have one full meal… then perhaps two snacks will do?”
‘what a reasonable idea…’ thought Sarah, leaning forward slightly…
“Oh no you don’t, you little Venus,” snapped Anise, vines reaching between them to pull Lucia away from the snack in question. Its claws dragged across her skin as she was lifted away, leaving lines of fire that beaded into a solitary drop of red. Lucia growled with a pout, halfway between a brat and a jungle cat interrupted mid-meal.
“You will have one snack, and you will not spoil your appetite. Besides, the only one sinking their teeth into poor Sarah today will be me, understood?”
Miss Spirosera’s rhythm reasserted itself in the duet, taking lead and forcing the other to harmonize. Sarah could suddenly move again, and she felt the fascination unwind and dissolve. The delayed shudder ran up her spine freely.
“Yes, Miss Spirosera,”
“Good vamp. Now clean up your friend there, and if you’re a very good little bloodsucker and give Jayla her aftercare like you’ve been working on, I’ll let you both come join us for lunch.”
“Yes, Miss Spirsey!” She chirped, eyes flashing back down at the prone woman.
Set down by the vines, Lucia returned to Jayla. To her credit, the distraction had given the victim enough time to roll over onto her side, though whether it was an attempt to flee or an attempt to reach a familiar face for help, the maneuver had clearly run out of steam in the early stages.
Lucia grabbed her by the forearm and shin, looking up one last time at the put-upon doctor.
‘I’m sure this is a scene or whatever, but it had better be consensual or we’re gonna have a problem…’ Sarah displayed with a glare; no fancy word effects, just bold letters.
Inhuman eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in predatory glee. A discordant note hit like shattering glass in the harmony, making Sarah’s knees go weak.
“Of course,” she purred, “I would never do anything that wasn’t.”
The purr turned to an intimidating hiss, and she could swear those nails got just a bit longer. “Not many sophonts try threaten me, Doctor Sarah Artes. I will enjoy getting to know you more, little Terran…”
More taps. ‘Bigger than you.’
Anise stepped forward, cutting off whatever the smaller waifish woman would have said or done in response. “Goodbye, Lucia, please go plug up our new friend Jayla and get her a blanket.”
With another animalistic growl, she effortlessly dragged her semi-nude ‘friend’ down an alley. The shuddering moan Jayla leaked in response, from what Sarah could tell, seemed to have an ‘n’ sound in it. But then they were both gone.
The scene had truly dumbfounded Sarah. She hadn’t worked with Jayla for long, but she never would have predicted she was such a hard player. In their work she had shown up as cutely but chronically shy. Even if she had been harboring subconscious masochistic desires, it was still very hard for her to believe Jayla didn’t have some kind of problem with being dragged off into the dark by a bloodthirsty predator.
_____________
The two were already seated in a booth by the time Sarah’s jitters fully dissipated.
“We need to renegotiate,” Anise spoke up while studying the menu in front of her. “I’d like to amend our agreement, such that restrictions on my behavior are suspended in the case of unforeseen circumstances.”
“Noooo, I think that’s a bad idea, actually. The opposite. That would have gone so much worse.”
“Dear, you really think that was an acceptable outcome? One quick dose of a Class-M and we’d be halfway through our meal by now. And, poor Lucia wouldn’t have had to be threatened by a much bigger, uncollared, sophont,” Anise said, giving the offending word with a particular thrum.
“Yeah and it might have also drained Jayla dry by now. At least now it knows there’s someone watching out for her.”
“Jayla’s collared, petal.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I don’t think I do…”
Sarah’s let herself entertain the idea for a moment. Her, chock full of a Class-M and immobile on the cold cobblestone, enthralled right next to Jayla with the same glazed stare, helpless to stop those fangs around her throat-
She shook her head hard to clear the image. “No, I need to keep as much of my capacity as possible. You said I’d know people here, maybe there’s other people I need to save.”
Anise’s eyes went wide, a yellow of shock and recognition dancing across their headlights. Flora squirmed.
“How do we know Jayla even wanted that anyways? I felt what eye contact with that-” Anises eyes flared a cautionary orange. “…sophont… was like. Not exactly conducive to sober decision-making.”
“And I’m sure with your proclivities, it affected you quite a bit.”
Sarah looked down for a moment. “I just feel like there was a lot more blood than I usually see in consensual scenes.”
“Can’t knock an outdoor cat for table manners, I suppose…” Anise set down the menu, folding their hands in front of them. “How did it make you feel, sweety?”
“Um, shocked and protective of someone I care about, probably,” She replied pointedly, meeting their gaze. “Terrified that a literal vampire is just roaming the streets.”
“Right, of course, that’s what all that blushing was about? Then I’ll have to update my understanding of Terran xenobiology, I didn’t know you could swoon in fear.”
Sarah blushed, hard, then grimaced in offense. She deflected, hoping to get back to the topic at hand. “Look, I just feel like the Jayla I know wouldn’t have wanted to be treated that way.”
“That’s correct, petal. That’s the point.”
Sarah did not immediately respond to that, and she would not get the chance to. The waiter had chosen that moment to bustle in with two glasses of water, one comically oversized, and was knee deep in his own introductory script before the conversation could be salvaged.
“Hello and welcome, I’ll bee your server today. My names Beegan, he/they, and it’s a pleasure to serve a new face in town, hi hi!” He turned to Anise, “and Miss Ma’am, I know you, did I perhaps meet you in a dream?”
The sophont interrupting them was somehow both endearing and terrifying to Sarah, who was not expecting a massive humanoid bee creature to be carrying himself like an in-the-zone maître d of a busy restaurant. He was small in stature, maybe only three or four feet tall, but way too big for something Sarah still instinctually registered as an insect, and he had a big enough personality to be felt several tables away.
She’d heard of bee people before, though that was only a few months ago, and this was her first time seeing one in person. The trader had used the word ‘beeple’ but that felt too diminutive to be right.
Anise easily slid into the gap once more with a nod, silently telling Sarah to drop the other topic. “No dear, I met you a few weeks ago. You served Xhamen and I a wonderful grilled crab dish over at The Pearl.”
“That’s right, I do remember you! The loveliest couple in the café that evening… then it truly was in a fantasy,” he gesticulated wildly with his hands, wings swelling him higher or lower for even more emphasis. “The light streaming through the stained glass, the way your foliage intertwined… a true work of art! Ah, and please don’t let me bee a bother, but I can’t help but wonder if your plan ever came to fruition…”
“Of course, cuddlebug, come here!”
White-gold lilies unfurled from Anise’s neckline, perfuming the booth with a fragrance so thick Sarah could see particulates hanging in the air. Beegan buzzed in appreciation and dove into the bouquet, rubbing his face and shoulders against her with cute little buzzing purrs and deep baritone moans that were way too sincere for the absurdity of the scene. Sarah clocked the motion as familiar; it was the same one her cat made on the corners of every bit of cardboard or plastic that entered her apartment.
Hoping to read the room, Sarah leaned forward, the pad of one finger offered invitingly to their server. It was met with a flashy and appreciative buzz, as he turned to scrungle against her digit much like Fishy does back home.
She smiled despite herself. Minor Entomophobia aside, it was a cute sight. Anything was possible in the Compact, it seemed, even bees with charisma. Cha-bees-ma?
“…Ah, forgive me, let me not get caught up in the buzz here,” he said eventually, pulling himself away. He cracked his knuckles, or whatever the appropriate terminology was for bee-natomy. “Alright, so let me tell you a bit about Mediterr-Rinan. We serve a fusion menu that likes to do things a little bit differently…”
Sarah’s mind shut off for the explanation, content to just let someone who genuinely enjoyed their own company take up the conversation. She decided instead to examine the restaurant around her.
It was a warm and intimate space, just the right amount of busy, and it smelled divine. Luscious fried foods and spice mixes filled the air, riding a base floral note that made the good doctor’s mouth water. The walls were covered in stickers, hand-written messages scrawled in pen, and kitschy décor. Live music drifted in from the windows, something easy and city pop-y, and the whole place had a lived-in, well-loved feel, the kind that roadside bars have been chasing since time immemorial.
Beegan’s introduction finished, and he turned expectantly to Miss Spirosera, but it was Sarah who spoke up first. “Actually, I am really thinking about crab now that they mentioned it. Do you serve that here?”
“Only the best in Havenward, madame!”
Anise giggled. “Then we will order two! And a glass of something a bit stronger,” she said, tapping the lightly mineralized water she’d been greeted with.
“Coming right up, ladies. We shall make you a meal that will leave you speechless, I guaran-bee it,” he said. With a wink and a delightfully disarming smile, he buzzed off.
The two returned to each other.
After a moment, Anise spoke up. “A compromise, then. Restraints or Class-Ms only, no longer than 10 minutes, and we discuss why after.”
Sarah paused, wondering what exactly would be the issue here. She mostly resented the assumption that there were social situations, even in a fae realm like this, which she couldn’t manage. Maybe that was a bit of pride worth checking, at least for right now. She did just threaten someone.
“And you promise that it's actually for my wellbeing not like… ‘domestication propaganda’ wellbeing?”
Anise's hand met hers.
“Oh you two make the cutest couple, don’t you,” cut in a new voice that Sarah recognized. It was Jayla, the middle shape of three familiar figures approaching from the door. “By the way, did you know the florets ask to make those vids themselves? So, less propaganda and more exhibitionism, actually.”
Lucia Cuscuta sat down first, skin and face washed clean but dress still bearing a few faint dots of red. Being helped to sit down next was Jayla, wrapped in a monstrously oversized plush purple blanket and looking well out of it. Filling out the rest of the booth was Miss Xhamen Lida, 12th bloom, bearing a frighteningly more alien serpentine form than the last time Sarah had seen her.
The throuple squeezed themselves into the booth on Sarah’s side, sandwiching her between Anise’s furry leaves and Lucia, while Xhamen as the other Affini plugged the opposite end of the bench. Sarah looked up to Anise for their reaction to the intrusion, then gave a watery smile to the newcomers as they all exchanged greetings.
As the lore suggests, Sarah expected the woman to her right to be cold like the grave, but Lucia’s thigh brushing hers was tenderly warm.
Notes:
Bit of a longer chapter. There was actually more bee stuff that I trimmed for length, so don't say I didn't try
Chapter 10: Havenward's Favorite Pastime
Summary:
The gang gets to know each other, perhaps a little too well, and some suspicions get confirmed.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Doctor Sarah Artes looked around the cozy circular booth and saw something she hadn’t seen in almost a decade; several friendly people all planning to share a meal together. ‘Sophonts,’ she checked herself.
She corrected ‘friendly,’ too, casting a glance at Lucia.
The day had just begun, and Sarah turned over in her mind the handful of miracles she’d already seen. The shuttle ride in, the great tree overhead, the two Affini seated with them, Lucia and Beegan, the half a dozen xeno-sophont species she’d bustled past on her way into the diner… all were, in a sense, equally fantastical to her, though her experience with each had varied drastically.
Soft, downy leaves brushed against her side.
It’s a wonder what the Terran brain can adapt to, as it was already doing to the absurdity of this world around her. She took a deep breath, holding the strangeness of these experiences above the placid lake of her subconscious. It felt right to give it one last moment of consideration, then let it go. The sense of unreality slipped below the surface without a drop, and then it was gone, and all that remained were 5 sophonts in a booth.
Sarah settled into the new frame of reference with a deep clarifying breath. This was a double date between herself and Anise as one half, and a throuple containing an old client-turned-friend as the other. She just didn’t trust her friend’s new partners yet, because she met one mid-scene and the other two days ago while human-moding. She just needed to get to know them better, and see if they’re good for Jayla.
She exhaled and switched gears into ‘charming (group setting)’.
“So, Jayla,” Sarah spoke up, “How are you feeling after that? It looked wild, are you ok?”
“Oh I’m soooo good, doc, don’t even worry about it.” Jayla practically moaned.
The three non-Sarah listeners shared a laugh, and Lucia placed a hand on Jayla’s thigh. Sarah made herself smile along.
“Stars I’m starving, Sir,” said Jayla in the most pouty tone this sweet cinnamon roll of a woman could muster, “Am I always gonna be this hungry when she feeds?”
“No, princessss,” hissed her Sir. She had an outlandish speech pattern, lingering on ‘s’ sounds like a poorly voice-acted snake in a cartoon. “You were simply interrupted during your breakfast. This feeding was not planned ahead of time, but the rest will be. I can assure you of that.”
Beegan arrived again, taking more orders and supplying more drinks, while receiving a generous amount of affection for his antics. He made some delightful small talk and way too many bee puns, then moved on to the next table, leaving them to their privacy.
Sarah opened the conversation once more. “I’m glad to hear you two had fun. I didn’t know you were interested in that kind of play, and I got really scared when I saw you like that.”
Jayla gave her a warm smile, reaching across with her free hand to squeeze Sarah’s. It was the first time the two had ever physically touched each other, despite knowing one another since before contact.
“That’s so sweet, doc, thank you.” Sincerity flowed into her voice, and she believed her. “I’ve been learning a lot about myself these days… Hey, now that we’re not working together anymore, what does that mean for hanging out and stuff? Though I probably shoulda asked before I invited you over, huh…”
Sarah waved her hand dismissively, “No, it’s fine. Boundaries are always tricky when you’re therapizing in a small town. Usually, you’re supposed to wait a few years, but that’s to prevent harmful abuses of power.”
“I think Sir’s got me covered, there,” giggled Jayla, gesturing to Xhamen who crossed her twin sets of muscular arms.
“Then yeah, I suppose we can be friends.”
“Well that’s good, cause I always wanted to fuck you.”
Sarah sputtered, almost choking on a drink, as she felt three distinct alien rhythms sharpen themselves and hone in the conversation.
“Jayla, what are you talking about?”
“Oh yeah, hun, the glasses and your cute little sweater getup? And you were always so kind to me, but didn’t let me get away with anything crazy. I had so many fantasies about you… I’ll share them with you sometime~”
“Jayla, I have a decade on you.”
Jayla purred in response.
Sarah shook her head in disbelief. “I was your therapist!”
Anise leaned in, “I thought you said it was fine. Are you changing your mind, petal?”
Sarah closed her eyes and sighed out a deep exhale, centering herself. She wasn’t about to get flustered so easily. “No, I’m just reconsidering. The whole ‘boundaries’ thing is habit; it takes a moment to kinda… move someone out of that box in my head.”
Sarah took an expectant pause. She was aware of what she wanted to say but was preparing for the fallout before she spoke up again. “I’m not looking for another relationship right now, but you’re very pretty. Ask me again later? I need some time to process.”
“Deal, honey,” Jayla winked, “and if you just wanna fuck that’s ok too~”
Another surprising reaction. Sarah had expected a longer rejection dance around that, but Jayla just accepted it and didn’t take it personally. She sank a bit into herself, trying and failing not to question her own work with the woman now confidently holding court with three predatory xenos.
Lucia took the spotlight next, squeezing the woozy woman’s thigh. “I have a feeling that might end up being a yes, with how protective our little friend here was earlier.”
Sarah blushed, and Lucia smiled, advancing.
“Anise was there but bunny, you were way too out of it, and I don’t know if Xhamen heard either. She threatened me! Can you believe it? I was shocked, floored and downright appalled.” Those eyes flashed red, as the whole table shared a laugh.
“Aww, how sweet! You’re much too kind, doc, that could land you in some serious trouble!”
“Trouble she might be courting, young Jayla,” Xhamen’s voice slithered in, “you wouldn’t happen to be sssseeking punishment, would you, wildflower?”
Sarah blushed even harder, words catching in her throat, and the whole table seemed to grin this time.
“Listen, okay, I’ve had my brain scrambled a couple different times in the last few days, things feel crazy right now.” She made another connection, turning to Anise. “Besides, you were the one who approached me while I was at work! It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I’m a little hazy on my role here, especially with Jayla.”
Xhamen shot Anise a look, and Jayla gave a reassuring coo. “Yea, see? Getting florted is so weird, it really rots the head. You all should stop bullying Sarah, it’s not her fault!” She said with a pout. Instantly, Sarah felt the focus shift from her.
“Not her fault? She started this,” countered Lucia, “I’m sure she’s a little preoccupied right now, but maybe if she didn’t want to be antagonized, she should have let me finish with you like a good little pet. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about being a good little pet, would you, bunbun?”
Xhamen’s sibilant laugh felt like an arid wind on the cheeks, but Jayla folded her arms in exaggerated stoicism. “Of course not, how dare you.”
A reassuring vine went up Sarah’s back, humming gently.
“Oh, come now…” husked Lucia, focusing in on her with carnivorous intent. “You’re a perfect little snack, bunny. It makes sense that miss doctor here would want you all for herself~”
It purred, drawing nails up the side of the neck of the woman next to her. Jayla’s arm was coaxed out of its fold and pulled into Lucia’s lap with one hand, while the other scratched at the back of her scalp. Jayla’s eyes rolled, and the moan that leaked from her belonged in a propaganda vid.
“And if she wants help not feeling protective, I’m all too happy to oblige~,” Lucia drawled as she bared her fangs, dragging them up the exposed and sensitive flesh of the dazed woman’s inner arm the way a lover might their beloved’s thigh.
“…tell her how much you want this, bunny.”
Jayla folded instantly, survival instincts tossed to the wind with reckless abandon. She met Sarah’s gaze, eyes glassy, and her mouth melted open into a debauched whine. “Oh stars please, please I need it so bad. It feels so fucking good Sarah, it’s all I ever want, I’ll always need this… it’s like it’s in my head, like, like nothing I’ve ever had before… you have to try it for yourself, then you’ll understand too, please…”
As her prey continued the teased soliloquy, Lucia made sure to flash a devious look Sarah’s way.
Doctor Artes folded her arms and forced herself to remain neutral amidst the storm, dissociating from her emotions as she went clinical. Her internal world once more shrunk down to the imaginary pearl in her chest. She envisioned it as her canvas, onto which she painted blues and greens of bruised contrition, and used those to color her expression instead.
This was just another chance to lean into change. It’s not like this was the first time she’s had to apologize to a real piece of work.
“Listen, you’re right. I’m sorry for how I acted earlier, Lucia. I shouldn’t have tried to get in the way of something that wasn’t my business. I didn’t handle myself right, and I won’t make that mistake again.”
Immediately, the space shifted. Sarah could swear the lights brightened a shade.
“No problem!” giggled Lucia, all at once the most innocent and sweet version of a beauty in a silk teddy that could possibly exist, like nothing untoward had ever happened. She released the other woman, whose reaction seemed to be midway between ‘in on the joke’ and ‘disappointed it didn’t go further.’
“It’s ok, I was a little scared when I first got here too. I don’t blame you for your little tantrum.” She was practically humming as she turned the menu over to examine it in a performatively idle whimsy.
‘Okay,’ thought Sarah, ‘she responds to social cues. I’ll take that.’
“Oh delightful, how sssimply preciousss,” husked Xhamen. “Such politeness is rare from a Terran. My Jayla could learn a thing or two! Anise, you said this is her first time here, and she’s not on any xenodrugs right now?”
Miss Spirosera affected the most pleasant thrum to her biorhythm that Sarah had felt yet, and their eyes flashed in swirling golds and pinks.
“Not a one. You’d think she was part spectrum jelly! And watch this… Eyes on me, petal.”
Sarah looked up to Anise.
“Can you still see that box for me, blossom? You know the one…”
Sarah’s eyes melted closed for a moment. “Yes, Miss Spirosera.”
The taller, more humanoid Affini smiled with confidence towards her peer. “Tell them what’s in it, flower.”
“Um,” she squinted, taking a moment to wrestle with the slippery texture of the memory. “Something… I like but I don’t need… that would have caused a problem… I think. It was a hypnosis thing, and I’m enjoying not remembering too much about specifics. Is that enough, Miss?”
She had responded immediately, aware that Miss Spirosera was showing off somehow, but it made the strangest pause descend on the throuple. Even Jayla was silent. Sarah’s eyes shifted for a moment to check on the others before coming back to Miss Spirosera’s gaze, who herself had on a look of satisfied pride.
Lucia finally cut the tension.
“Oh you’re fucked…”
The laugh bled to the next table over, and Beegan stifled a snicker as he buzzed past.
“She’s sooooo fucked,” giggled Jalya.
“I’ve been around a long time, bun, and I’ve never seen anyone so fucked.”
Xhamen’s vines squirmed. “How have you not found a domestication center yet, petal?”
“Stars above doc, did you come with a collar?”
“She cums with a collar, alright,” Lucia erupted with laughter.
“She won’t be cumming without one!” interjected Anise, which sent the whole corner of the restaurant into a tizzy.
Sarah was frozen in place, blushing and staring down at the table in front of her, instincts screaming at her not to make a further target of herself. She ceded her turn to respond.
“You good, hun?” asked Jayla good-naturedly. “Green?”
The vine along Sarah’s back slithered up, encircling her throat and squeezing just enough to trap whatever meaningful response she may have had, reducing it to a squeak.
“Oh, don’t worry, blossom, she’s never been more turned on in her life.”
That one finally broke her. Sarah’s hands flew up to cover her face as she collapsed in on herself, leaning towards Miss Spirosera and practically dropping below table level to hide from the spotlight. She groaned loudly, the sound of someone desperate for a comeback but without the wit to craft one.
The wave swelled around her and crashed; her surrender pulling the largest reaction from the crowd yet. The laughter and playful jeering of her new friends, plus a dozen or so strangers, was too much for her. The circle was complete, the fox hunt had ended, and Doctor Sarah Artes tipped her king in resignation.
She’d never experienced a sensation like this before. Tears prickled behind her eyes at the unfairness of it, but Miss Spirosera was right!
The Affini she now clung to for safety enshrouded her in their hanging gardens, and the general tone of the small crowd softened in response. It would seem that piling on was a community pastime here, but genuine mockery wasn’t.
Something else happened a few tables over, another Affini/Terran pair seemingly emboldened by the show doing… something which involved a lot of moaning, at least. It bifurcated the crowd’s attention, and suddenly the social pressure was gone. The spotlight dissipated as people returned to their own business, though with rowdier conversations.
In the pleasant afterglow, the rest of her lunchmates continued carrying on. Lucia and Jayla both caught the sharp end of the banter at points, and Anise and Xhamen even traded barbs with each other. The chat was familiar and strong, and while the three-part silent harmony underneath could form dizzying chords at times, it never left the major keys of respect.
Even through the slowly ebbing embarrassment, Sarah could track the dynamics as they formed. ‘Mean girl’ as she was, Lucia seemed to genuinely care for Jayla and worked hard to keep her voice strong in the conversation. Anise and Xhamen had a very easy rapport with each other as well, and Jayla seemed to respond to the both of them with a similar level of deference.
It took Sarah two or three minutes before she had the will to poke her head out of the blanket and rejoin the group. When she did, Lucia was grinning from ear to ear and couldn’t look more pleased with herself if she tried. Jayla’s warm inviting eyes were a welcome harbor of normalcy by contrast, and Sarah found herself favoring the floret to the predator at the moment. Xhamen, however, had a much more concerning reaction; something Sarah could only understand as deep curiosity.
“Anise?”
“Yes, Xhamen?”
“I would like a session with her as well.”
Sarah felt the greenery around her constrict slightly, possessive as ever. “Of course, my love, but it must wait. Today she is all mine.”
“Ah… then you’re aware, my sun.”
The constriction tightened even more, and Sarah felt her breath shorten. Her hackles were raising again, and this time out of something much worse than shame.
“I had my suspicions, but you’ve confirmed them. The reason she hadn’t found a domestication center yet… it’s because she’s a feral, isn’t she?”
‘What!?’ Sarah croaked, suddenly wary of the weight blanketing her. Individual vines within squirmed, reminding her of the infinitely dexterous control of which they were capable.
Xhamen leaned in, forked tongue flicking the air. “To the root, I’m afraid. She will need a firm vine for guidance.”
Feral? She had no idea what that meant but certainly hated the implications. She considered herself a consenting participant here, she was here of her own free will and actively exploring a collar. What’s feral about that?
Something was wrong. A trap was snapping shut. Fantasy to nightmare, heaven to hell, and the whiplash could make her vomit. She kicked herself, brain flashing back to the encounter on the side street, where she clearly made the mistake that sealed her fate.
“No no no, wait what are you talking about? I apologized, Lucia, I’m sorry, please!”
Her sharp teeth flashed in a wide smile. “Oh, there’s no way I’m getting in the middle of this, Sarah, you’re on your own. Get to work Miss Spirsey!”
The good doctor wouldn’t get to respond, as her mouth was invaded with woody plant matter, conforming itself to the shape and stoppering the hole completely. That’s when the tears started.
Miss Spirosera shushed her, but the poor Terran couldn’t even recognize the sensation as auditory if she tried. Every square inch of her was embraced in foliage, amplifying the rhythms now pouring from the Affini who was pushing active effort into their intensity. It made the edges of her sense of self fuzz.
“Relax and breathe deeply through your nose, dear. It’s okay, you haven’t done anything wrong.”
Sarah squirmed and writhed. She wasn’t actively restrained, per se, but she certainly didn’t want to struggle too hard and risk that changing.
“Eyes on me, petal,” Frightened doe eyes flashed up at them. “Your apology was adorable, and your actions are not what make you feral. It’s that you felt the need to protect someone in the first place. Your work, the way you’ve cared for yourself since our arrival, the responsibility with which you shackle yourself for the sake of others… you have trouble letting go. So I will help you learn how.”
Notes:
Fun fact, this chapter is exactly 3000 words long after the final editing pass.
It also contains the 25k word milestone, and I'm grateful to everyone that has shown love on here or in the discord. I'm writing this for my own pursuits, but I'm happy that my work can bring joy to others as well!
Chapter 11: What Makes One Feral
Summary:
The scene is finally set, and these two lovebirds can begin their dance in earnest. Anise delights in the opportunity to explore a new aspect of their floret-to-be, and Sarah grapples with the revelation for herself, but internal conflict can never last too long in The Compact.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Pen and clipboard tapped out a staccato rhythm in the older woman’s lap, while Not-Yet-Doctor Sarah Artes futzed with the keyboard.
“Back it up, 21:08, right as he is finishing up that point. Here, yes.”
The video resumed, and young Sarah saw herself on screen, arguing with a man at least twenty years her senior.
“He drives a million-dollar car to campus every day, I’ve paid for every fucking advantage in life, and he can’t even pretend to be grateful. It’s not just a lack of respect anymore, it’s outright weakness.”
“Right, Mister Dodson, but I-”
“-And it’s his mother’s fault, I tell you. If I acted that way I’d have gotten the belt. Suzanne, god bless her, but she ruined our son with this pansy-ass bullshit.”
“But why do you think that’s happening, Mister Dodson? Maybe we can empathize-”
“Pause.”
The audio cut, the version of herself from a few hours ago frozen mid-statement. She looked flustered in a bad way.
“Talk to me about this point. What’s your thinking here.”
“Well I’m hearing him ask for help with his child, but I think he’s ignoring his own impact on the situation. All it’d take is a simple reframe and this problem’s solved, but he’s too worked up to understand.”
A note was jotted down on the clipboard.
“Ok. I’m not seeing him ask for help, I’m seeing him vent frustration.”
“…right, Dr. Webster.”
“You seem agitated here too. And you’re challenging him in this moment, which probably wouldn’t make him feel very supported or understood.”
“Well, sure, but maybe he shouldn’t be right now. He’s misgendering his own kid and getting belligerent when they don’t like that! He’s hurting himself and someone he’s supposed to care for, and he doesn’t even realize it.”
Another note.
“I must question efficacy, though. Look at his body language. What’s it saying? Crossed arms, angry expression, defensive posture… He’s completely checked out, and you probably don’t get him back again this session, do you?”
No immediate response.
“Miss Artes?”
“I just… I just wish there was a way to help him understand.”
“There isn’t. We’re professional listeners, not mind readers. It’s not our job to control like that. Trust me, you have a much greater chance of retaining clients if you learn how to flow around others, especially if they’re volatile. Be agreeable, smile and nod, and bank your social capital for when it really matters.”
_____________
Sarah smiled the most disarming smile she could through the wooden mass in her mouth, and nodded.
“Very good, petal,” hummed her Affini, “I appreciate your cooperation here. It will make my job easier.”
The captured Terran was repositioned into the amorphous lap-zone of the creature holding her, though still wrapped in a woven garden of sentient flowers.
“Although, like most ferals, I assume there’s a part of you that likes it rough, so do feel free to kick and scream at any point, darling.”
Sarah’s didn’t exactly feel off the hook, but something about their biorhythm seemed to indicate Anise was joking. That quelled the worst of the panic.
Jayla spoke up next. “Wow, Sarah, I didn’t know you were feral! That’s kinda hot, like oooh evil women~”
Lucia purred.
Xhamen wrapped a lower arm around the newly crowned floret. “Don’t worry, my pet. I’m sure Anise will keep you safe.”
“Yeah bunny, you haven’t heard this yet, but Miss Spirsey spent a bloom as a feralbreaker on a previous domestication campaign.”
“Woah, really?” Jayla turned to Anise, “So you would like, crack open big bad warships and stuff the meanies onboard in frilly dresses?”
“No, dear,” They replied, “that’s only in the floral media you’ve been watching. I participated in a few direct missions, but I specialized more in the psychological aspects of domestication acceptance. That floret species in particular spent 90% of their lives asleep, so I actually did the bulk of my work on sleeping sophonts.”
Sarah wriggled.
“That’s so hot, Miss Spirsey! Can you show me sometime?”
“Of course, blossom.”
Sarah pulled at the flora around her with a touch more dignity this time, looking up to catch Miss Spirosera’s attention.
“Yes, sweet thing?”
Her hands shifted under the floral blanket around her, which relented, and she was able to free one arm. She used it to dislodge the mouthpiece so she could speak again.
“Not to change the subject, but what do you mean by ‘Feral’?”
“Why do you ask?”
Sarah blinked. “Um, cause it sounds like a bad thing to be, and I don’t feel like I’m that feral.”
Xhamen leaned forward to answer. “It’s not a bad thing, it just means you and your new friend here have a lovely, exciting afternoon ahead of you.”
Anise gave no verbal answer, just a pleased thrum.
“It means you don’t wanna be domesticated, I think,” Lucia chimed in while examining the nails on her free hand. “I’m not quite sure though, I’m not a feral myself.”
“Well, that’s…” Sarah trailed off, unsure of where to take that train of thought. “So, are you collared, then? How does that work?”
Now Anise chose to speak up. “She’s an independent, dear.”
“And independents and ferals are two different things,” Sarah connected, hoping to spur further explanation.
“Exactly. For instance, I’d point out that only one of you seems quite antsy right now to clarify the distinction.”
Sarah looked down, chastened.
Anise leaned in conspiratorially. “You are searching for what makes you feral. For what reason, sweet thing? Hoping to argue against it? Plead your case and show how agreeable you are? Eyes on me, petal.”
Sarah looked back up at them, pupils dilating.
“Or maybe you intend to correct it yourself, snuff out whatever part of you earns you this evil no-good label.”
A hand gently cupped Sarah’s jawline as Miss Spirosera smiled in recognition, and she couldn’t tell if the nod came from her own power or was guided by them.
“Ah, I see. How very… helpful. So willing to sacrifice parts of yourself for acceptance. Oh, we will have such fun together, Sarah.” Lights shone down on her, and there was nowhere to hide, inside or out. “We will leash your fear, first. And then you will beg me for what you deserve.”
“Food!” Jayla screamed, jolting Sarah from the trance she’d found herself in and grinding that silent song to a halt. Anise flashed her a sinful smile before turning to address the wait staff.
Beegan buzzed back into the booth, accompanied by a rotund, squat affini sporting an apron that seemed to barely fit their bulk. Vines carried a dozen different plates or trays, all piled high with delicacies. Jalya squealed, tossing any sense of decorum to the wind but delighting her Sir and Lucia to no end.
She wasted no time digging in, and Sarah followed suit, gingerly at first, but quickly with zeal as the incredible food started to leave its impression.
Although the meal was wonderful, the good doctor couldn’t help but feel her attention drawn elsewhere.
____________
After their lunch, the gang thanked Beegan profusely and vigorously. As they moved back out into the street, his dazed and pollen-soaked form bid them farewell. The purple kiss mark Lucia had planted on his forehead, right between the antennae, stood out against his fuzz.
The goodbyes for their little group were just as brief, and then the throuple peeled off to prepare the Lida residence for the party, leaving Anise and Sarah to stand alone in Harmony Square.
It was much emptier now, as most floret and owner pairings had returned home for afternoon naps, and the eternal evening light painted every building around them in gorgeous shades. Sarah spared a glance up at the ornate balcony above, not two hundred feet away from the upper alley where she first met Lucia. Distantly she could hear the waves lapping at the coastline.
“I have a proposal for our next date activity.”
“Yes, Miss Spirsey?”
“Come back to my hab with me.”
She paused for a moment, still looking up at the walkway. “Alone?”
Anise didn’t respond. Sarah barely stifled a sigh, closing her eyes.
“…you’re not even trying to be subtle.”
“Would it be more effective if I were?”
“Again, not a very nice thing to say about someone.” Sarah shifted, folding her arms. She drew her gaze down to meet Anise’s. “What are we going to do at your hab, Miss Spirsey?”
“…It’s a surprise.”
Something shifted in Sarah, something new.
“Oh come on, what are we even doing right now?” Stamped Sarah with a scoff, mask slipping for a moment to reveal genuine frustration, “I’m not dumb, I’m scared. And I’ve said yes to everything. You don’t have to treat me like some animal!”
She took a deep breath, letting it out with a sigh. “I’m sorry, but this is just so… just… There’s a part of me that’s terrified and you keep asking me for so much trust…”
A hand found her shoulder, the warm strength within a grounding force for her.
“You are free to leave, dear, and free to say ‘no’ whenever you like,” they said, pausing for just such a comment. When none came, they continued. “There is nothing to be afraid of. You just don’t have the right framework for this world yet, and I’m hopeful that I can help.”
“Yeah, I bet…”
The two stayed like that for a long time, biorhythm toned down to a quiet background pulse, lurking in the bushes. Sarah felt adrenaline fade, but her own confused feelings remained. She felt stuck in a cycle, her fear and desires orbiting each other, wreaking havoc on the tides of her psyche.
“It’s just hard… it feels like I’d be walking into my own execution.”
“Exhilarating, isn’t it?”
“Terrifying,” said Sarah in a voice much smaller than she’d like. Another pause as Sarah clocked a stillness in the vines, perhaps empathy, perhaps coiled tension. “What if I do say no?”
“You haven’t yet.”
“I could run…”
“I’ll chase.”
Sarah shivered, looking around the square for someone, anyone, but it was like they were the only two sophonts in the world.
“… I could scream for help?”
Miss Spirosera’s free hand cupped her chin once more, and she could feel the overwhelming strength in those fingers even through the gentle motions. A flash of unbridled anticipation transmitted through her teeth, vibrations carrying right into the soft matter inside her skull.
“No greater help exists in this world than what awaits you already. Now, enough stalling, petal. You’ve done such a wonderful job pushing through your fear so far, and I’d like to help you with these feelings.”
Another moment of choice was upon her, and the fire burning in the hearth of her sacral chakra told her what she would choose next. A part of her resented herself for her own weakness, but she knew the part that wants this was much stronger, and growing every minute she spent around them. This emotional cycle was wearing on her, and whatever muscle she used to pushed past it was spent. Maybe this was as far as she could carry herself, in the face of infinite temptation.
Sarah had no response to give, just a silently pleading look and a hope that Miss Spirosera would take the initiative. She didn’t want to confront the offer before her, or what it would mean. But they wouldn’t relent. They just stood there with that beautiful face, every part of her projecting trust, love, safety, desire, hunger…
Sarah’s eyes melted closed and her hands balled uselessly into fists, then released. Her cheeks burned with the humiliation of asking for what she needed.
“…please…”
Even with her eyes closed she could feel the smile beaming down on her in response. The vibrant glowing hues of… whatever the monster must be feeling above her warmed her skin like a heat lamp. It made her leg twitch involuntarily, and her concentration was drawn to the tactile changes in heat and pressure on her skin as the patterns swirled. Pulsing rhythm, unchecked now, hijacked her own, and she could swear her heart skipped a beat to match. It rushed over her like a flood, seeping into her foundation and spiriting away the detritus of her thoughts.
“Kneel.”
Her knees found the cobblestone. Despite her previous imaginings, even the ground here carried a soft warmth.
“Beg.”
“Please, Miss Spirosera, help me with these feelings.” She intoned, voice rapidly losing force and color. She was drowning in subspace now, certain that trance would follow next.
“Again.”
Even softer now. “Please, Miss Spirosera, help me with these feelings.”
In front of her, the undifferentiated mass of vines shifted, several shapes slithering out like snakes. One rope captured her hands, joining them in front of her in a prayerful gesture and winding up her forearms. Another encircled her waist and pulled taught, coiling around her diaphragm with a squeeze. And a third inched up her dress, weaving wrap after wrap of drug-soaked grasscord around the sensitive flesh of her thighs. She shuddered, so much of her skin suddenly exposed to transdermal intoxicants.
“Again.”
A thinner, more delicately woven length festooned with vibrant pink blossoms wrapped around her throat. Her body was warming up, and she felt a firm twitch between her legs.
“Please, Miss Spirosera, help me whaah-”
The ribbon passed through her open mouth, capturing the lower jaw and forcing it open. It tasted powerfully sweet, as if it was made of pure lavender flavored sugar.
“Good girl.”
Two clawed fingers brushed past her lips, invading her mouth ever so gently, sharp points dancing on her tongue. She froze, the way prey should when captured by a predator, and felt her fear and desire rise to clash in her chest once more. Miss Spirosera smiled, biorhythm purring out her indulgence as those ropes squeezed, pushing those xendrugs deeper into the poor woman’s receptive flesh.
The fingers within her relented before raising up, hanging from their wrist at eye level. Her captor wanted her to see what would happen next. A bead of colored fluid gathered on their fingertip, swirling with some kind of particulate, then fell like a raindrop to land on the good doctor’s exposed tongue with a plip.
Within seconds, Sarah felt her body go completely limp. Whatever bits of her were still conscious enough to understand tried to shudder, and failed. It was the most potent and fastest acting Class-M she’d ever heard of. She didn’t know the human body could function like this, and both parts of her leapt to claim that realization.
Plip.
Euphoria coiled in her chest, like God herself was railing the good doctor’s prostate with deific ecstasy. She would burn for more. If conscious movement were possible she’d buck and writhe so hard she’d break bone, but drugged as she was, she couldn’t even scream. The hardest edge of her life so far lanced into her belly, but vines tented the fabric of her underwear to prevent even the friction it might have had on her sex. A part of her broke in frustration, never more perfectly denied, and it stained her soul.
Plip.
…what? She couldn’t… what was happening? Where was she…? She was on fire… how could she possibly feel-
Plip.
Notes:
In my story outline, this is a turning point into what I would consider the kinky parts. When I started writing, I had this destination in mind, and I’m just as excited to find out what happens next as you are!