January, 2557

Somehow, even after nearly three years of them being around, my fellow Affini still find ways to surprise me. If it wasn't for the fact that emoting still required a conscious effort for me, I'd have been goggling the entire time I was aboard Hesperoxiphion. The command ship that was hosting the Symposium on Terran Wellness Logistics was enormous, the curvature of its habitat rings so gentle that it was almost difficult to believe that the rising arch above was connected to the 'ground' that one stood upon. The top of that arch even faded into atmospheric invisibility, the expanse of air and the brilliance of the sunline running down the cylinder's central axis scattering the light so that not even my foliage could pick out details from it.

And then there were the urban centers — multiple! — of the ship. I was accustomed to seeing a blend of Terran and Affini styles, the essential character of a Terran city preserved even as the buildings were replaced and the parking lots torn up for new parkland. Here, things had been built along the Affini model from scratch. There weren't any odd turns or roads that seemed to go nowhere here — everything was connected in a logical manner by transit and footpaths. I seemed to be no more than twenty minutes from anywhere in the entirety of Hesperoxiphion at any given time.

My co-workers, of course, thought it was amusing that I was acting like such a tourist. They'd arrived on Earth in ships like these — to them, it was nothing special.

The symposium itself was held in what I would have called a convention center, if convention centers were entire towns unto themselves rather than a single massive climate-controlled building with mazelike interiors and only a few entrances and exits. Some presentations filled entire auditoriums and had dedicated multimedia experiences associated with them, while others consisted of no more than a handful of Affini resting on a grassy commons talking shop while their florets played around them.

Regardless of the setting, it was all endlessly fascinating and very informative. I felt as though I'd been drinking from a firehose of information for the past two weeks, and more than once I'd woken up in the night from a strangely vivid dream where I'd been reliving one or more of the presentations from the previous day. Maybe it was the nootropics, or maybe it was just the relentless pace of learning, or maybe a combination of both, but the experience of living, working, and learning in a purely Affini environment left me feeling like my brain was being turned inside out.

Not in a bad way, mind you, and not even a surprising one — I'd felt twinges of something like this before over the last year or so, ever since the phytocortex went in and joined the nootropics I was on in reorganizing the way I thought, and even the physical structure of my brain. Camassia had shown me a scan at my last checkup, and the inside of my head looked nothing like what it used to. It was hard to tell where the meat ended and the phytocortex began. It still gave me a happy little shiver right down to the tips of my vines to think about it.

But alas, all good things must come to an end — much as I'd loved the symposium, loved simply being part of the flow of countless Affini all gathered for the sole purpose of figuring out how better to ensure maximum wellness for every Terran, eventually we all had to get back to doing that vitally important work. That last day, as I had every day after my schedule of presentations was done, I called at the daycare kennel near the town's outskirts where Judy had spent most of the last two weeks in a blissful haze of xenodrugs. Every evening, I'd come to pick her up, and she'd greet me with a sweet, mindless gaze and a flurry of puppykisses, not a single worry or thought in her adorable little head. Every night, I'd bathe her, play with her, and bed down with her, and she'd nuzzle into my vines and fall asleep on top of me; every morning, I'd feed her, groom her, and drop her off at the kennel again, where she got to spend the day playing and cuddling with the florets of other visiting Affini.

This time, I had to wait around a bit — the kennel's vet, a very kindly Affini named Nyctalia who didn't ask too many questions of me, had to finish administering the counteragent to the Class-J cocktail Judy had been on — and that's how it happened. One minute, I was sitting in the public-facing side of the kennel, giving some much-needed affection to the handful of Terrans clustering around me, and the next my boss walked in with another Affini in tow.

"...and so I said to her- oh, Tam!" Vanda smiled and waved. "Here for Judy?"

"Mmhmm." Part of me vocalized using the meat's old trachea, though Camassia had reworked that significantly; the rest of me used the phytotech biorhythm prosthetics she'd grafted into my vines once they'd grown to a sufficient degree. The effect was remarkable — I sounded so much more like an Affini when I spoke the language, now, able to generate and modulate harmonies just like anyone else. "She's in back getting the counteragent. I take it you're here for Lysander?"

"Just so. Have you seen him?"

"I think he's on that Terran tree over there," I said, pointing with a vine at what might have been the scruffy mop of his hair just visible from the cozy little spot on top of the soft, carpeted climbing structure he was napping on. Once I got my eyes focused on it, I was even more certain.

"Ah, yes, there he is. He likes to feel tall," she added in an aside to the other Affini. "Oh, but I'm being rude. Tam, this is Ardisia Rhexi, Fifth Bloom, they/them, Deputy Director of the Terran Protectorate Sub-Regional Branch Office of Transitional Xenolegal Management. Ardisia, this is Tamara Slaine, she/her, one of my subordinates at Transitional Decarceralization."

"Very nice to meet you," I said, keeping a tight lid on my reaction. Transitional Decarceralization was but a small part of the broader umbrella of Transitional Xenolegal Management; Ardisia wasn't just my boss's boss, but more like my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss, with responsibility over the whole system. (Boss, of course, was a very Terran way to look at it, I told myself. Nevertheless, Ardisia was significantly superior in the bureaucratic ranks, with much greater and broader responsibilities.)

"Likewise," Ardisia said. There was a note of curiosity underlying the word, and I could sense their vines shifting to get a good, long look at me. I returned the favor, watching the brilliant sprays of flowers in virtually every color turn with their foliage. They maintained a scrupulously Terran-like appearance save for the extra pair of eyes, foliage coiffed to give the impression of something like a pixie cut,

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I see a very good boy who needs to come down and get a snuggle," Vanda said, stepping away. Almost at once, Ardisia's eyes, all four of them, focused on me. I looked right back up at them, and tried to feel for their biorhythm to get a sense of how this encounter would go — so far, at least, no one at the symposium had said anything untoward. I learned nothing from the effort, for their biorhythm was like a drumbeat, endlessly steady, perfectly controlled. I was honestly jealous. I aspired to that level of self-control.

They broke the silence first. "What manner of sophont am I speaking to, precisely?"

I made my face smile — it still took conscious effort, but it was getting easier by the day. "Why don't you tell me what manner of sophont you think I am?"

"Please don't play games," they responded. "I'm quite serious."

"So am I," I replied. One of the Terrans at my feet whined, and I resumed the petting that I'd let trail off in my distraction. "But to answer your question, I'm an Affini, same as you."

"If that's true, you have the weakest biorhythm I've ever felt," they said, "and you should probably seek medical attention because you're probably unwell. But something tells me this is more complicated than that."

"Life is always complicated. But, if you're curious-" With a bit of concentration, I unhinged the jaw of my mask and let the mouth yawn wide, exposing my face and the network of vines surrounding it. "-I can show a little skin."

Finally, I felt a waver in their biorhythm — I'd shocked them, just a little. I watched their attention flicker back and forth across my face, no doubt staring at the little microvines running to the corners of my mouth, up my nose, in my ears, and especially in and around my eyes, traveling through the tear ducts to access my optic nerves. "That's-" They paused, collected themselves, their biorhythm coming back into time. "And you're not a floret?" They said it like they knew the answer.

"I'm not, no. No implant. I had to learn to use all of these the hard way." I gave an extra scruffle to each of the Terrans surrounding me, for emphasis, and Everbloom, the noises they made were absolutely lovely. I needed to spend more time in Class-J cuddle cafes.

"I recognize your name, you know," they said. "You're not the only Terran working as a clerk, but it's rare enough that I keep tabs on them. I had no idea that- who did this to you?"

"My vet?" I said. I was a bit surprised that someone as highly placed as Ardisia recognized my name. In any other situation, I'd have been flattered that my work had been noticed. "With great care and deliberation, I assure you — if it were up to me, we'd be going significantly faster. And, for the record, please refrain from referring to me as a Terran." I closed the mask back over my meat-face. I'd made my point, and I didn't need to leave that hanging out.

"My apologies there," they said, inclining their head ever so slightly. There was a ring of honesty underlying her voice, there — she wanted it perfectly clear that it was a genuine apology. "But...you cannot be an Affini."

"I think I do a pretty decent job of it, personally." A bit of movement caught my attention — Nyctalia, coming back into the playroom with Judy in her arms. "Ah, excuse me." I disentangled myself from the Terrans around me and stood, arms wide. "There's my girl!"

"Waaah?" Judy still had a dazed, not-quite-there look in her eyes, but she recognized me after a moment. "Awaaaah!" She laughed and reached out for me, squirming, and Nyctalia handed her over to me. My vines coiled possessively around her, squeezing my little pup happily.

"She should come down completely in a few hours," Nyctalia said, "so she'll still be nice and cuddly for a bit. You know the drill, I'm sure."

"Oh, no, this is Judypup's first Class-J vacation. Isn't that right, pup?" Judy, for her part, was too busy giving me eager puppykisses to reply. Also, words were still well outside her wheelhouse.

"Really?" Nyctalia said. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. We're going to miss her, you know! She's just such a sweetheart, so docile! Do you have the implantation scheduled yet?"

"Alas, that's a work in progress," I said. "We're still not sure how to make that happen."

"Make that-?" Nyctalia stared at me for a moment, then made a show of blinking in confusion. "Oh," she said. "I... I hadn't noticed."

"Don't worry about it," I said, smiling. "We'll get there eventually. Won't we, Judypup?" I lifted her up and nuzzled into her soft, bare tummy, setting her giggling uncontrollably.

"Right, well... I have to go get Lysander ready to go, so..."

"Don't worry about me, I know the way out," I said, winking at her. "And thanks for taking care of Judy for me."

"Of course," she said, excusing herself. Her biorhythm was saturated with confusion that hadn't been there before, let alone her body language. The depth of expression available to an Affini was nothing short of astonishing, once you learned to watch for it, and in every way I knew to look, Nyctalia clearly had no idea what to do about me.

"What, precisely, is this?" Ardisia said from behind me. There was that drumbeat again, keeping perfect time, and their vines were tense like they expected something terrible to happen any minute. I turned to face them — if I could have reversed myself on the spot, like I'd seen some Affini do, I'd have done that just to prove a point, but alas, the meat didn't bend that way.

"This is my pet, Judy," I said, turning the little Terran to face the other Affini. "Cute, huh?"

"Very, but-"

"Greenlit by Xenosophont Wellness, before you ask," I interrupted them. "They came and checked me out very shortly after the Compact arrived, and while they had some pointers, which I happily accepted, they agreed that I was responsible enough as an owner that we could continue. I can even show you a digital replica of the paperwork, if you like."

"That...won't be necessary," Ardisia said. "Not right now, at least. But Tamara, you didn't look like this when they did that inspection, did you?"

"I did not," I admitted. "And please, call me Tam."

"Because if you had, things would have gone quite differently," they continued. "It's one thing for a xenosophont to play at ownership of another xenosophont — we accept that sort of thing all the time, provided it's healthy and there are emergency procedures in place in case things go poorly, but it's quite another for a xenosophont to try to ... to intrude on the Affini-floret relationship."

"By definition, an Affini cannot intrude on an Affini-floret relationship," I said. My biorhythm might have been weak, but it was surely perceptible enough that she could read the cool anger I was radiating.

"There is a significant difference between an Affini and what you are," Ardisia responded. "I am not judging you, but I am concerned, both for you and Judy and for other sophonts. This goes beyond just the two of you."

"I'm well aware of that, I assure you." I thought of Argall, and of how the minute he'd worked out what I was he'd tried to claim the same privileges for himself. It wasn't hard to see why Affini so jealously guarded their unique status in the Compact — without it, the Compact would never work. Someone had to assume that mantle of ultimate responsibility, and to ensure that no one was ever in a position to misuse it. "Nevertheless, I am an Affini. I have known this with absolute clarity my entire life; I simply didn't know what an Affini was, didn't have the words or the concept for it, until the Compact arrived, and until I met another Affini. We often overawe xenosophonts, and we work quite hard to be pleasing for them, but I feel comfortable in saying that most xenosophonts, when they see an Affini for the first time, do not think 'Everbloom, I wish that was me!' I have had so many surgeries, Ardisia, to try to correct the things that are wrong about me, to try to achieve even a little bit of peace and comfort with my own body. I'm not done yet, either. This isn't some lark — this is who I am."

"Very eloquent," they said, "and of course I'm pleased you've found a way to better align your body to your self, but that is entirely beside the point. Do you realize that many Affini probably assume you are also an Affini? The veterinarian here certainly did!"

"If they assume that, they happen to be correct."

"But you are not an Affini. Not in the same way that the rest of us are, at the very least. We have the necessary training to look after xenosophonts, and our minds have been shaped by billions of years of evolutionary imperative to care for them. You do not have these thigns, surgical augmentation will not give them to you, and to pretend otherwise is actively dangerous to xenosophonts who may be placed in a position of reliance on you as a result."

"I'm sorry, is everything alright over here?" Vanda had returned, and she hadn't failed to notice the tense atmosphere.

"Just a little disagreement about whether I possess certain ontological qualities of being Affini," I said, wavering my biorhythm in a dry staccato.

"Have you been encouraging her?" Ardisia said, their attention turning to Vanda.

"No!" Vanda insisted. "That is- at first, I was very skeptical of her, yes. She was a very driven sophont, apparently Terran, who wanted to work at Transitional Decarceralization. I let her have low-end, non-critical work to start, and she proved she could more than handle it, so I began to give her more important work and kept a close eye on her to make sure it was done properly-"

"I'm not talking about her clerking," Ardisia interrupted. "I don't care about that. Every bit of paperwork I've seen from her has been exemplary. That's not the issue." I couldn't help myself; even in the middle of an argument over my nature, I got a little excited when I heard that someone as highly placed as Ardisia had seen enough of my paperwork to form a good opinion of it.

"I'm coming to that," Vanda said. "Yes, what she's doing to herself is...unusual. I grant you that. But her commitment to it, and to Judy in particular, does quite a bit to offset my worries. Yes, this is potentially problematic, I understand that, but, well... it's the kind of problem that's well above my station, she's never once given me cause to doubt her ability to care for her pet or her devotion to the task, and I didn't want to stifle a young clerk's career by getting everyones' vines in a knot over her!"

"So you just ignored the issue entirely?"

"As opposed to what? I'm not even sure what office I would bring this to the attention of, had I elected to do so!"

"...yes, well, that is a point," Ardisia admitted. "This...really isn't in the remit of any particular office I can think of. Xenosophont Wellness, maybe..."

"'Cute pet' really doesn't describe me," I put in, emphasizing the word xeno with a biorhythmic flourish to make it entirely clear what context the word should be understood in.

"That's debatable," Ardisia said. "But I take your meaning nevertheless. For now, I'll take point on this matter. I'm highly placed enough that I can coordinate with multiple branches of the bureaucracy and see if we can't cultivate a process to deal with this."

"To deal with me, you mean," I said. I clutched Judy just a little tighter. I'd known this fight was coming, but that didn't make staring it in the face any easier.

"Please understand," Ardisia said to me, "I carry no animus against you. I'm simply concerned for your welfare, for Judy's welfare, and for the welfare of other sophonts who may be affected by what you've done."

"I understand that," I told her, "but I'm not going to stop being me."

"And I would never demand that of you. But there must be a structure in place to... to give context to this." They gestured at me and Judy with a vine. "We have no procedure for what you're doing. It's not supposed to happen."

"I assure you, I would rather have bloomed naturally," I said. "But then, being born the way I was let me meet Judy, so I suppose I can't complain too much." I smiled and rocked my wifepup gently, and she made the sweetest, most adorable little sound, her eyes fluttering as she looked up at me. "She's worth everything I've had to endure and quite a bit more besides."

Surprisingly, Ardisia relaxed just a little. "Regardless of the issues at stake... I can see she's in good hands for now. And I have Vanda to keep an eye on the two of you, so we'll put this off for now. I'm going to need to prepare, to do some research, before I begin to tackle this officially. May I have the name of your vet?"

"Camassia Lathrys, Seventh Bloom."

"She's our veterinary liaison for Transitional Decarceralization," Vanda clarified.

"I'll check in with her, then." They shook out their vines, something like a frustrated sigh. "And I'll be in touch with you to schedule a formal meeting on this subject, Tam," they added.

"I look forward to it," I replied. "Until next time?" They nodded, made their goodbyes to Vanda, and left as quickly as they'd arrived. "Well," I said, taking a seat and cuddling Judy in my lap. "That was unexpected."

"I'm so sorry about that," Vanda said, sitting down next to me and draping a few vines across my shoulder. "I had no idea they would react that way."

"It's alright," I told her, leaning into the touch and letting my own vines entangle with her hers. "I knew this would happen eventually, and I'm ready for it. That's all I can do, you know?"

"I suppose," Vanda said. "For the record... yes, it's a bit odd, what you're doing, but to be perfectly honest, from what I've seen of you over the last couple of years, you're more of an an Affini than a couple of Affini I've known."

"I appreciate that," I said, forcing a smile. "It means a lot, really." Judy stirred in my arms, and I gave her a few gentle scritches behind her ear. "She's coming around. I should probably get going."

"Are you sure? I can keep you company if it would help."

"No, I'll be fine. You'll have Lysander to look after in a moment, anyway." I stood up, slowly and gently disentangling myself from her. "I'll see you back at the office, I suppose?"

She nodded. "If you need to take a sabbatical to deal with this, just let me know."

"I don't think it'll be necessary, and I'd hate to miss out on all the good paperwork, but I'll keep the offer in mind, thanks." One last little touch, vinetip to vinetip, and then I was out the door, thrumming a gentle biorhythmic ballad to my floret. My floret. All mine, and frost what anyone else had to say about it.

We were nearly to our temporary lodgings before Judy achieved any kind of awareness of her surroundings. <Tam?> she mumbled, her eyes finally managing to focus on me for more than a second.

"Hey, beautiful," I said, giving her the warmest smile I could. "Welcome back. Did you have a good time?"

She giggled and buried her face into my chest. <Stars, it's really hot when you speak Affini.>

Behind the mask and the lenses of my artificial eyes, my half-lidded eyes fluttered, a reflex born of confusion. "Did I-" Oh Everbloom, I thought. <I'm sorry, love, I didn't realize,> I went on in English. <I've been speaking nothing but Affini for two weeks, you know?> It felt weird to be speaking English again, like I had to think before I spoke or I'd slip back into Affini again. My brain must have just gotten used to it. <Did you enjoy yourself?>

<Mmmmyeah,> Judy said, glomming onto one of my vines with her mouth and laughing. <Ih wazh greah.>

<Did you have fun playing with all the other florets~? Did you enjoy being extra puppybrained~?> I tickled her with a few of my vines, setting her giggling and squirming as I waved the door open. The temporary lodgings were much like any habitat — a bit smaller, since they weren't intended for long-term living, but still much nicer and more complete than any Terran hotel room I'd ever seen in the inside of. <Should I arrange for you to be on Class-J more often~?>

<Mmmmmaaaaybe~> Judy squirmed, but I held fast to her as I lowered her gently to the ground, holding her so her toes were just skimming the tiles. With one vine, I gently took control of her head, and made her look up at the full-length mirror in front of us.

<What do you see, little pup~?> I whispered. I'd carried her to the bathroom, like I had every night of the symposium, but tonight would be a little different — tonight, Judy had enough of a mind that I could tease her, and I was so pent up from her being a soft little cuddlepup for two weeks.

<Us...?> She tried to look up at me, but I held her head in place firmly. I seized her arms and held them up above her, a gentle stress position.

<Details, pet. What do you see?>

<Nnnf... a Terran? She's, uhm... wearing short-shorts a-and a halter top...?>

<And a very cute little chastity cage, too, don't forget,> I whispered, tracing it with a vine. She shivered and squirmed and let out a little whimper. <And some very, very cute puppy ears, and a wag-wag-wag tail~> Her tail was wagging excitedly — she knew what was coming, surely. <What else do you see?>

<You,> Judy whimpered, licking her lips and gasping. <Tam, please->

<Describe me.> I slipped a vine into her halter top and delicately pinched a nipple.

<Mmmmmf! Big! Tall! Hot! Affini!> She had to feel the shiver that ran through me, all the way from my meat to the tips of my vines.

<Good girl,> I purred, flexing my biorhythm in a heady tremolo — it wasn't much, certainly nothing equal to the kind of biorhythm my peers could produce, but it was enough for her to feel it, and for her to shiver in time with it. <You see an Affini and her floret.> Judy whimpered, struggling in my vines as I teased more and more of her body, her toes brushing the tile as she tried in vain to gain purchase and leverage. I hooked a few vines into the waistband of her shorts and, in a single swift motion, tugged them down to her knees, twisting and knotting them to serve as a makeshift restraint. I could see, through her panties, she was beginning to strain against her chastity cage. That would need to come off, too.

In the mirror, I watched myself pull the key from inside myself, where it still rested on a chain around the meat's neck. An Affini and her floret. That was what Judy saw, and it was what I saw, too. There was nothing about me that was remotely Terran in this moment, the meat buried under a thick sheath of vines and foliage, under fashion grafts of colorful leaves and perfectly sculpted flowers. Down came Judy's panties, and off came the cage with the soft click of a lock turning. One vine teased her backdoor, while others gently enfolded her length as it began to stiffen just a little.

<You see an Affini,> I whispered, bending down to whisper in her ear, <who is going to fuck her floret silly.> I tightened my vines around her hungrily, and she gasped out loud, then moaned as I began to stroke her. I tasted every inch of her, the scent of needy Terran filling the air, and watched myself in the mirror as I brought her, moment by moment, to the screaming peak of ecstasy, eyes rolling in her head as she struggled helplessly, unable to grind, unable to seek release as I held every part of her body tightly in place. I knew how to read Judy's body before; now, with my vines able to feel the subtlest twitching of her muscles, the blood pumping in her veins, I could bring her right to the brink and leave her there, whimpering and begging for release.

And I did. Over and over and over and over. Every touch was as gentle and as firm as it needed to be, no more and no less — she'd end this night without a mark on her skin, but her body would be wrung out like a limp noodle. "Watch yourself fall to pieces, little floret," I murmured to her in Affini as she approached climax once more. "Even if I spoke in English, you're beyond words again, aren't you? Who needs Class-J when I can do this to you, hmm~?" She let out a moan that became a scream, then settled back down into a moan once more. I squeezed her breasts, pinched her ass, stroked her thighs — I expertly teased each and every one of her most sensitive points. <Are you a good girl, Judy?>

<Yyyyyyeesss,> she whimpered, eyes only just managing to focus on mine in the mirror — two shining points of hammered gold, the centers marked with dark pits. Everbloom, I loved my eyes, even if they weren't quite standard.

<Are you mine, Judy~?>

<Yours!> she gasps. <Yours forever! P-please, I...I need it!>

<My Judypup needs it~?> I laughed and bore down on her. It was time to give her release, but I was going to have my fun right up until the last moment. <She neeeeeeeds it~? Helpless little puppy wants to come~?> She didn't answer with anything more than a long, keening cry that might have been a long-drawn out 'please.' <Well, I know there's a very important rule we always have to follow,> I purred. <What Judy wants, Judy gets.> I squeezed her tightly all over, bearing down on her as she bucked against my vines and pushing her up against the mirror. <Now, Judypup, watch the little floret come her sweet little puppybrains out~> Her body seized as she crested, and she left a long, dripping smear of translucent issue on the face of the mirror (not to mention my vines). I kept her there for as long as I could, teasing her nipples as she moaned, relaxed, then stiffened again in turn as I coaxed orgasm after orgasm out of her limp little body. <Good girl, Judy. Such a good puppy!>

<Aaaah... mmmmmfuuuuuck!> Everbloom, what beautiful noises Terrans made. I cuddled her back up into my arms and stood, stroking her hair and letting the gentle wash of my biorhythm soothe her.

<What a good girl you are,> I whispered, smiling down at her. <I'm so proud of you, and I love you so, so much.>

<Love...you...too...> She was sweaty, her hair plastered to her head, red in the face and utterly wiped out. The fingers of her left hand just managed to close around one of my vines. <So hot...>

<You definitely look a bit overheated, yes,> I said, winking. <I think it's Judypup bathtime.> "Hab, run a bath, 30 degrees, and compile a light Class-A shampoo, please."

"Working," the hab replied politely. Water began to rush into the tub, the sound filling up the relatively small (but still palatial by any Terran standard) bathroom.

<Are we...going home after?>

<In the morning, pup,> I told her. <You've had a very long day of being dangerously adorable, and you need your cutie sleep. Bath, then Judy-treat, then sleepy-time, okay?>

<Okay,> she said, letting her eyes slip shut. <Thank you.>

<Darling, it is, as it has ever been, my pleasure.>