"And a distribution center here... overnet linkage... and, last but not least, cultural accommodations," I said, playing one token after the other on the big map of the Local Bubble. "And that'll do for us, I think?" I glanced over at Karyon, and she nodded. "Okay, end of turn."

"You put a distribution center on Aldebaran?" Rebel complained, leaning back against the nest of pillows they were sharing with Rio as their skin shifted into a striated canvas of frustrated blues and purples. "Now I'm going to have to restructure my entire Hyades network!"

"But think of the efficiencies!" I said, winking at them.

"Yeah, that you'll get the points for! Ugh! Damn your Affini paperwork brain, you're too good at this game!" They added a flush of yellow, and to make it extra clear they were kidding, they stuck out their tongue for emphasis.

"You think this counts as paperwork?" Karyon said, laughing. "This reaches memo levels of complexity at best."

"If you want that kind of complexity, we could play Sections & Signatures next time," Senna chirped. "I play it with my florets all the time, I certainly don't mind facilitating!"

Jill looked up from her playsheet at her partner with confusion written all over her face. "What the hell is Sections & Signatures?"

"It's a game about office culture, paperwork, and getting things done!" Their leaves rustled happily. "Oh bother, Tam, what's the English word for the kind of game it is?"

"It's a LARP." I knew the answer mostly because this was not the first time Sections & Signatures had come up in conversation with Senna; it was one of the few non-Terran-shaped things they were fixated upon. "It's a paperwork LARP."

"Yes, LARP! You collaboratively create a department of the bureaucracy, outline its responsibilities and practices, generate official memoranda, track relevant issues, and so forth. It's great fun!"

"Let me get this straight," Jill said, "you work in an office doing paperwork all day?"

"Mmhmm!" Senna nodded, which for them mostly meant moving their entire body up and down in a little hopping motion.

"And when you get done with that, you go home and for fun, you do... fake paperwork?"

"Exactly!" They reached down and ruffled Jill's hair — which, given the amount of product she'd feathered it with, didn't mess it up too much. "You've got it exactly!"

"... Affini are weird," she said, shaking her head and smiling.

"Sections & Signatures is a very old game," Ophrys said, her musical voice providing a counterpoint to Senna's — one of those little subtleties of Affini language that didn't translate terribly well, and that most Terrans probably didn't pick up on. I was only just starting to understand how melodic linguistics worked myself, and trying to make it work in English was well beyond me. "In fact — and correct me if I'm wrong, Senna — there are actual offices of the bureaucracy that started out as Sections & Signatures games, right?"

"Absolutely! I always get a little tickle when I come across a circular that includes the Department of Floret Intramural Entertainments," Senna said, their leaves shifting with remembered delight.

"Oh, to have that kind of dedication to your game," Ophrys said, the brilliant multicolored blooms on her head spreading out to display even more incredibly vibrant hues — she'd discovered the bird-of-paradise flower a few months ago, and had redesigned her entire aesthetic around them. "Oh, and we're running Interdepartmental Cooperation for the next three cycles," she added, turning one of the cards in her play area sideways.

"Oooh, good play," I said, making a quick evaluation of how much that'd affect my logistical network — Ophrys and Elena were clearly aiming for procedural primacy in the near rim. Karyon and I spent the next two cycles trying to secure a variance to keep administrative control of my network from being commandeered upstream, but Ophrys and Elena had done their setup too well. There was a brief threat from Anthemis, who, after having seemingly puttered around putting together little micro-networks for most of the game, suddenly managed to connect them all in a last-second bid for an expansionist win, but he came in a close second.

"Yeah!" Elena shouted when the win became official, pumping a fist and holding her other hand up to Ophrys. "High five!"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I know this one, high fave!" she replied, holding up a hand for Elena.

"... close enough, I'll take it!" She reached up and slapped Ophrys' hand, and was promptly swept up into a massive vine hug.

"You'll take what?"

"Gah!" She squirmed, laughing and trying to extract herself, the latex leggings she was wearing making occasional squeaking noises as they rubbed up against one another. "Woman, what the heck?!"

"Maybe I'll just take you as the spoils of victory, hmm?" Ophrys purred.

"Daaang, Tam, your girl Ophrys moves fast," Rio said, snickering and rolling over in Rebel's lap. "They met, what, like three hours ago?"

"Oh, I don't know," I said, leaning into Karyon as I watched the display. "I find Ophrys to be very methodical in her approach."

"Why thank you, Tam!" Ophrys said. "Anyway, time is meaningless in the face of a cutie like Elena." She gave the squirming Terran a squeeze.

"I'm not your dang floret!" Elena protested lightheartedly, trying in vain to untangle herself. "We just played a game of Link It! together. I'm an old fashioned girl, I expect dinner and a movie before the clothes come off."

"You're wearing clothes?" Rebel's wry jab was on-target — Affini material science left Terran applications of latex in the dust, and Elena had constructed a wardrobe that left very little (if anything) to the imagination over the last two years. I could feel her nipples getting erect in my skinsight, let alone see it with my eyes. I couldn't help but feel proud of her — she'd blossomed so beautifully, not just since the Affini had come, but in the time that I'd known her. I couldn't claim credit for all of it, of course, but I had certainly done my part.

"And don't knock being a floret!" Clara added from Vanda's lap. She and Vanda had played a quiet game, aiming for an office culture victory, but alas, Ophrys and Elena's command economy had beaten them to the punch.

"You think I should I let the little cutie go?" Ophrys said, pouting theatrically. "She hasn't asked to be let go."

"Let me go!" Elena said immediately.

"Awwww." Her vines loosened as she set Elena down. "Fine, fine. But Petal, next time you're this cute around me, I'm not going to be able to resist giving you a little bit of Class-A to see how much cuter you can get~"

"Yeah, yeah," Elena said, smiling and swatting away the last of Ophrys' vines. "You're just lucky I have years more experience than most Terrans when it comes to dealing with grabby Affini."

"I'm not grabby," I protested. "I just like hugs!"

"You like to mash womens' faces into your tits, you mean."

"In my defense, they usually like it," I said primly. "Speaking of florets, I'm going to go look in on the den and make sure they don't need anything. Short break while we figure out the next game?" After a round of general agreement, I rose, a process of slowly disentangling my vines from Karyon's.

I'd always had to duck a little to enter Judy's den, even at the old townhouse, but with the new endoframe I really had to bend down to squeeze myself in. Inside, perfectly replicated, was the soft carpeting, colorful LED wall panels, shelves full of knickknacks, and an entertainment center that shamed even the one I'd spared no expenses on for her before.

There was also, of course, an embarrassment of florets. Sammy was sprawled out on the pillow pile, staring with glazed eyes up at the screen and sandwiched between Lysander and Roman, who were playing some kind of cartoonish fighting game. It was good to see Roman being taken care of — he'd been an OTD case, years of incarceration leaving a mark that not even wellness checks and assistance had been able to help him with. Senna had taken a personal interest in his case, then promptly fallen for and adopted him when it was clear he wasn't getting better.

Senna's other florets were in a pile of their own nearby, Luke and Grace snuggling into one another, Grace still all hard edges even after a year of domestication off a feralist destroyer but sweet as sugar beneath all the bravado. She liked being in shape, and from what Senna had told me fitness was actually part of how they'd broken her — they'd taken charge of her workout routines and used them to entrance her on her own endorphins. She had Luke wrapped up in her arms and was squeezing him, and from the look on the little softie's face the Class-A in his system meant he felt every erg of force in the most erotic way possible. He was a little bit of a masochist, but then, everyone felt like a little bit of a masochist next to Clara, so maybe I was a touch biased.

Then there was Celeste, Grace's polar opposite, all soft curves in every dimension — Class-G xenodrugs and a steady diet of something besides Synthcubes had done wonders for her, and even when I had first met her two years ago her military bearing was already all but worn away. Now, she was a happy little cuddleslut, and was indulging herself by playing with my wife. Judy was sprawled on her back between Grace and Celeste, tummy bared, and Celeste was giggling to herself as she rubbed it. I'd given Judy a slow-release Class-A treat of her own before our guests had arrived, and she was still riding the high, squirming and whimpering and bucking gently, her chastity cage keeping her deliciously constrained.

I couldn't help but sigh happily as I watched. It wasn't just Judy being played with, though obviously my own floret commanded my attention, but just how content everyone was. This was what the Compact offered — ease, tranquility, and happiness — and it felt so good to see so much of it all in one place. They all seemed quite fine, so I let them keep playing, backing out slowly so as not to disturb them.

We played a quick game just to change things up after that, a deckbuilder about staffing a domestication center and ensuring good matches for all the cute little sophonts that came in looking to find an owner. The art was all incredibly adorable, and there was an awful lot of cooing and wibbling over it (and not just from the Affini, either). Once that wrapped up — it wasn't the sort of game where anyone really won, the experience was the point — we ate dinner (hand-prepared, of course; I wasn't going to compile things for my friends), then settled in for another long game.

"Oh, Everbloom, look at this cutie!" Vanda said as she perused the playsheets. "Like a pointy beeple! Oh, and they have a little story about them, too. They travel faster than light by...flinging themselves at....oh my." She trailed off, her vines going still. "No, no, absolutely not. Domestication for all of them."

<I think tonight was a wonderful success,> Karyon said as she fed a stack of dirty plates into the compiler — she'd volunteered to help me clean up as the evening wound down. <Everyone got along so well! And the florets definitely had a good time,> she added, punctuating her sentence with a giggle and a squeeze from the vines she had wrapped around me.

<You think so?> I grinned and passed her another stack with my vines. <Well, if everyone got along so well, it's just because I have great friends.>

<I'll take what credit I can there, I suppose,> she said, smiling down at me as she loaded the last stack of plates and shut the compiler. <All done! Which means-> She suddenly turned me around and pulled me in close with both vines and arms, and while I might have gotten taller recently, Karyon still had a head and then some on me. This must be what it was like for Terran women I flirted with before. <Oh, I like you at this height,> she said, her harmonic undertone a warm and inviting trill.

<I like you at any height,> I replied, looking up at her, <but I have to admit this is a pretty good angle on you.> Karyon had sculpted her body to look more or less Terran when I'd met her, but she'd refined it further over time, and by now she'd developed a very good eye for detail — her breasts weren't just vague shapes suggestive of mammalian anatomy, but sufficiently realistic that she'd taken to wearing a mossy shawl draped around her shoulders to cover them. Mostly cover them, anyway. I'd tried to explain the concept of 'underboob' to her, but she laughed it off every time and joked that her eyes were literally anywhere she had foliage, same as me.

<I can think of a better angle,> Karyon said, her vines tightening as she lifted me off the ground and kissed me. Her lips were flower-petal soft, and her scent was thick and sweet enough to make me inhale reflexively, my body craving a deeper experience of it. It wasn't the first time she'd done this, but it was the first time she'd done it when others were around, even if they weren't in the kitchen with us. I let my eyes slip shut, purely by reflex, but her beauty still filled my skinsight.

For someone who claimed not to have any practice, Karyon was a good kisser; when her mouth opened, her psuedo-tongue explored my lips gently, the wet and drippy sap coating it leaving a floral bitterness in my mouth when my own tongue rose to meet it. When we broke the kiss, a long and sticky strand of it stretched out between us for a half-second before snapping under gravity's weight.

<That was...really nice,> I said, feeling my face flush just a little. I wasn't any less a top for having Karyon around, but I will admit she had a knack for taking my breath away from time to time.

<It was, wasn't it?> Her vines began to tangle up in mine; were I any other Affini, I'm sure she would be going for my core, but unfortunately all I had inside me was a bunch of useless meat. If we were alone, I might have gone for hers, but that felt like something I should save for when I had time to really explore her interior. It would be a big step forward in our — well, to even call it a relationship would be a step forward, really.

<If you like it so much, we should do it more often,> Karyon said. <And, well....if I were to, say, share your hab, we could do it whenever we wanted.>

Oh. Dirt. She must have sensed the sudden stiffening in my vines, because hers relaxed immediately, and her confident demeanor immediately folded.

<Th-that's only if you want to, of course, I just... maybe that was a bit much all at once, it just seemed like->

<No, it's fine, you just surprised me a little,> I reassured her, my vines chasing hers down as they withdrew and clinging to them. <And it's not- look, I like that idea, I really do...>

<I sense a 'but' coming,> Karyon said, unable to disguise the somber notes in her harmony.

<I like you a lot, Karyon,> I told her, stretching my vines out to gain just another few centimeters of height, so I wasn't completely face-to-tits with her while trying to have a serious conversation. <And, in a perfect world, I'd leap at that, I really would. But-> I smiled awkwardly, and we shared her silent 'told you so.' <But I can't not think about how others would see it. What they'd say. You understand, right?>

<I'm afraid I really don't,> Karyon said. Her harmony shifted ever so slightly, a hopeful note awaiting conclusion — if there was a reason, an insecurity, I'm sure she felt she could solve it, and things could proceed unhindered.

I really hated to dash that hope. <If we move in together, with me the way I am, everyone will look at me and say 'Ah, there we go. Knew that one was a seed.' They'll look at me and they won't see an Affini — they'll see your floret.>

<...ah.>

<And, Karyon, if I was going to be anyone's floret, I'd want to be yours, alright? I mean it.> I enfolded several of her vines with mine and squeezed them, even as my hand found hers. <But that's not who I am, and we both know it.>

<I worked that out fairly quickly, yes,> she said, smiling weakly down at me. <Though, for that first month or so, I was thinking about it. Can you blame me? I meet this stunning sophont the very day I land on this planet, who promptly throws herself right into the very same work I'm here to do, and she's brilliant and funny and fascinating and loves the work and- well. Look at you, is what I'm saying.> She reached up with her free hand and cupped my cheek. <But of course we connected at once. I simply didn't recognize that it was the Affini inside you, waiting to show herself, that I was seeing.>

My cheeks betrayed me with a deep flush, and I couldn't help but look away. Frosting dirting roots, I thought. How dare she be so suave? <Y-yeah, well... you see the problem, anyway.>

<I do. I think you're overstating the likelihood of others reacting that way, but your comfort is important to me — to be entirely clear, not because I see you as a xeno in need of care and protection, but because I care about you. I am more than willing to wait until you feel comfortable and secure enough in your identity, socially speaking, for us to move forward.>

<That's just for moving in together, mind,> I told her, taking back the conversational initiative. <Everything else is still on the table and up for negotiation.> I snuck one of my vines between hers, slipping it into her midsection — no more than a few centimeters, and certainly nowhere near the thrumming heart of her biorhythm that I knew had to be her core, but enough that she'd feel it, and I'd get a response out of her.

And oh, what a response: she let out a chord of surprise as her vines practically lost cohesion for a split second. <You little-!>

<That's what you get for trying to top a top,> I said, giving her a wink.

<You have some very interesting Terran friends,> Vanda said as she waved goodbye to Senna, who was carrying all four of their florets in their vines as they stepped into the elevator. The central atrium of this floor of the apartment tower was a beautiful, vaulted space with artificial skylights that showed an enhanced version of the night sky over Vancouver-Victoria, the light pollution stripped out and the colors enhanced. The Milky Way was a brilliant swathe across the southern sky.

<I think they're pretty neat, yeah,> I said, stroking Judy's hair. She was still coming down off the Class-A treat, squirmy and giggly, especially when Clara reached over from Vanda's lap and ruffled her hair. She and Vanda had really bonded after they'd been paired up for the first game, and Lysander certainly didn't seem to mind sharing lap space (of course, from the look of him, Vanda had loaded him up with something that made him good and spacey in the last few minutes, so it was a fair bet that Lysander wouldn't mind anything right now). <You had a good time?>

<Oh, yes, very much so. Your hospitality is always impeccable!> We were close enough together on the bench, grown in that shape from a single piece of glossy, polished wood, that our vines were casually intermingling — not in an intimate way, just the way that vines did sometimes. <Though it's a very different experience with so many sophonts in one place at one time.>

<I like having others around,> I replied. <And I'm glad I finally got to introduce you to everyone, and vice versa.>

<Mmm. I will admit, I was curious to see what you're like around Terrans you're not on-the-job for, given your history.> She was delicate about it when she brought it up, at least. <I expected there to be a certain amount of code-switching. Imagine my surprise when you were simply you with them.>

<Who else would I be?>

<Perhaps that's not the best way to say it,> she said, squeezing a soft, very baked 'meep' out of Lysander. Under the stars and in the dim, silvery lamplight, the white sprays of her little flowers shined with surprising brilliance. <What I mean is, you're in the middle of something that is, if not unprecedented, so rare that we have no established procedure for it. One would expect that to influence your behavior at the office, for example, to make you feel as if you had to be perfect at all times, to force a certain persona, the you that I see at the office, or when we socialize via messenger. I expected to see that persona drop, even just a little, in the presence of old Terran friends.> She laughed and shook her head. <I am, instead, coming to realize that you may just be this way.>

<Only took you, what, two years?> I said, gently ribbing my supervisor. A risk, maybe, but she seemed to be opening up a little. A friendly poke might entice a little more.

She didn't seem offended, but she was quiet for a moment, looking up at the stars. <That's something else, of course,> she went on. <Two years is a long time for you, I'm sure. To me, it still feels as if I just got here. But, you know, despite your youth, I am very happy to have you at our office. You do good work, you learn as quickly as any other sprout, and you come pre-trained on interacting with the local xenosophont species.>

Was this acceptance Vanda was offering? <That...means a lot to me. Thank you.> She'd never been so open with me; usually, she was all business, quick to point out errors but just as quick to show me the right way to do things. I'd learned a lot about the bureaucracy's methods from her, more than from any other Affini probably, but I'd never felt as if I really had her in my corner for the inevitable bureaucratic scrum I knew I'd have to fight way my out of at some point in the not-too-distant future. <I am probably going to end up causing a lot more problems than I solve,> I added, and I didn't have to wonder if she knew what I was talking about.

<You're a sprout. Sprouts are like that,> she said, very matter-of-factly, and as much as it was a gentle dismissal it also felt incredible. <You'll shake out your branches and find your shape soon enough.>

<Not soon enough for me.>

<That's also a very sprout thing to say,> Vanda replied, a note of polite teasing working its way into her biorhythm, a very Affini way of making it perfectly clear that the sentence she'd just said should be read with "you absolute dork" at the end of it.

<Well, as we used to say in the Accord,> "guilty as charged." <Good thing it's literally our job to make sure carceralism isn't happening, huh?>

We shared a laugh at that. It wasn't long before the elevator door slid noiselessly open again, revealing another Affini, tall and long of limb with red-tinged leaves. I waved with one hand and gently prodded Clara with a vine. "Hey, guess who's here?"

She perked up in the most adorable way imaginable, going from relaxed ease to alert, excited pet in less than a second. "Maestro!" she said, a big grin breaking out on her face.

"Hello, my perfect little instrument," Tecta said, crossing the courtyard at what I would have called a dash at one point in my life but now recognized as the natural magnetic attraction between pet and owner. Xe lifted Clara from Vanda's lap and swung her around before pulling her in close and squeezing her, earning first a laugh and then a soft gasp as xer thorns dug into Clara's skin. "Did you have a good time, petal?"

"Mmmhmmm," Clara moaned, her eyes already glazing just a little as she stared up into Tecta's.

"Good girl~" Tecta cooed, stroking her hair gently. <And my thanks for looking after her, Tam.>

<Always my pleasure,> I replied. <Oh, have you met Vanda? We work together at Transitional Decarceralization.>

<Vanda Thryptomene, Third Bloom,> Vanda added, inclining her head just a little. <And this tuckered-out little cutie is Lysander.>

<Tecta Gethyllis, Fourth Bloom. Lovely to meet you!> Xe chuckled and lifted Clara's chin with a vine, and added, <Sorry to leave the moment I arrive, but this beautiful little creature needs her rest. She has a lot of screaming to do tomorrow.> Xer biorhythm sang with harmonies of pure anticipation and predatory need, and if I didn't already know and you told me in that moment, I'd never have believed that xe was a veterinarian.

<Oh, I understand,> I said. <Don't let us keep you.> Clara really had found the perfect owner, and I felt such joy on her behalf to know she was being taken care of so well — even as I also felt a pang of frustrated jealousy at how easy it was for Tecta to make a proper floret of her. My vines coiled just a little tighter around Judy.

<Have fun!> Vanda added. <And again, nice to meet you! Let's exchange pictures of these little cuties sometime!>

<What a lovely idea! I'll have to do something really special for that, then, won't I, little one?> Xe squeezed Clara again, the thorns digging in deeper, and the whimper that Clara let out sent shivers up my vines and right into my phytocortex. They lingered, even after Tecta left with Clara, and even after Vanda made her goodbyes, leaving me alone in the atrium with a slowly-sobering Judy in my lap.

"Mmmm....Tam?" she mumbled as she finally realized she was only getting attention from me. "...everyone gone home?" She blinked and looked around. "Oh, we're outside..."

"Mmhmm. Lovely night, isn't it?" I smiled down at her and tried to ignore the longing feeling, the empty need inside me that I desperately wanted to fill with a biorhythm just like Tecta's, eager and hungry. How could I feel so strongly and yet not be vocalizing it? "Did you have fun with the other florets tonight?"

She nodded and buried her face in my chest. "They were nice," she mumbled. "I like Celeste."

"You looked like you were having a good time," I told her, stroking her hair. "Should I arrange more playdates for the two of you?"

She hesitated for a moment before nodding, and when she did, I tasted the salt of her tears landing on my vines. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?" I said, lifting her chin — sure enough, her eyes were brimming over. She tried to blink them away, shaking her head, but I held her firm. "Peopletalk, Jude."

"Mmmmf." She screwed up her eyes, squeezing out all the tears at once to roll down her cheeks. "Just... I feel bad. Like... like I'm bad."

"You're not bad, love," I reassured her. "You're good and sweet and wonderful and the best pet anyone could ever hope for." I had a feeling I knew what this was about, but I wanted to let her talk her way through it.

She sniffled and nodded. "But... you look like this. And that's good!" she added quickly, looking right up into my eyes. "That's good and it's hot and I like it! But...I'm still the same." She sniffled again, and wiped her eyes. "I have a tail and I love it and I love my ears and I love my tongue but I'm still just me. And it's not fair, and I get jealous, and I get mad, and...and that's being a bad girl."

"Flower," I whispered, brushing the tears from her cheeks with one vine, "Having feelings doesn't make you a bad girl. I understand this must be so frustrating for you, seeing how much I'm changing while you still have to wait. If I could skip all of this and just give you the implant, you know I would, right?" She nodded again, and I squeezed her close with arms and vines. "But every step forward is a step closer to giving you what you deserve — and you do deserve it, because you are a good girl. The very best. Understood?"

Through sniffles and tears, she whispered, "Yes, ma'am."

"Good pup," I told her. "Do you want a little Class-E to calm down?" She nodded again, and I opened up my vines to tug her inhaler free. I'd compiled a sleeve for it that looked like a flower, so that when I held it, it almost looked like I had a proper graft and everything. "Deep breath now, pet," I whispered, squeezing the button with my vine and delivering a hefty dose of xenodrugs, which Judy obediently sucked down. I felt her tension slacken, felt the exhausted sigh of relief slip out of her, and pulled the inhaler away. "Better?"

She nodded once more, sniffling to clear her nose and clumsily wiping her eyes dry. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"You have nothing to apologize for," I said firmly. If I didn't stop her now, she'd apology-spiral all night. "Now, take a few deep breaths, and then we're going to go inside, and then I'm going to make you forget all about this, okay?"

"...I thought you weren't allowed to use Class-Bs?" she said hesitantly.

She was right, and it hurt a little, but nevertheless, I grinned down at her. "I'm not using Class-Bs, pet," I said, pinching her jaw just a little with my vine and leaning in close to purr in her ear. "I'm going to make you forget the old-fashioned way."