It Takes Time <To Be Properly Taken Apart> - Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Chapter Length: 7,000~ wordsLandamaeri Domestication Guide
"I-" Punica spoke slowly, the rhythms in her voice representing at least half a dozen different flavours of confusion and bewilderment. "I am not entirely certain how to respond to this. ...I have never heard of anything called a 'Domestication Guide' before. You- You say that it is this which introduced you to the Compact?" She genuinely had no idea what Raqi could be referring to right now. Going by the name, a 'domestication guide' sounded like the sort of thing an affini would write; likely something intended as a resource for other affini interested in learning how to take and care for pets from a particular species. She would not be surprised if someone somewhere in the Compact had written a xenra or a Terran domestication guide, but the issue with a landamaeri one was that the affini hadn't met the landamaeri yet. How, then, could a guide to domesticating them have already been written? While she was still pondering this, Raqi, meanwhile, had spent an equivalent amount of time wincing in deep embarrassment. Yeah, that's- that's about how I expected her to react. Damn, even knowing in advance that this was gonna be be awkward didn't make it any less bad. Seeing that the confusion on Punica's face showed no sign of receding, she reluctantly accepted that a proper explanation was in order. "Yeah, so, uh: 'LDG', as most people abbreviate it to- because the whole thing is kind of a mouthful to say- was originally a xenofiction import. I can't remember if I've explained xenofiction before, but basically, xenofiction is a term we use for stories and literature written by other races. It's almost all imported by nature, since the Mobile Fleet is largely monoracial, and we get most of it by trading with other civilisations when the Fleet is parked near to them. Most of it is, y'know, fairly normal stuff; tends to be pretty weird by our standards, since it's made by an entirely different race, but that's the whole appeal of it. It's a lens into a completely different culture, and people really like that. It's part of why Terran stuff was and still is so popular, for example." Ah, so it was based off of works not made by the landamaeri themselves? Punica kept her surprise to herself. That does make more sense. She could not think of any example in which a civilisation had, by trade with other societies, become aware of the Affini Compact without also making the Compact aware of it; but she supposed that in the case of a nomadic society such as the Mobile Fleet, it could theoretically be possible? Presumably, then, the xenofiction stories originate among species which we have domesticated. That raised a question, however, and she broke her silence to pose it: "What kind of stories were these xenofiction originals, exactly?" Raqi suddenly shrank. "Uh, w-w-well... So, um: the original xenofiction inspirations for LDG apparently got imported to the Fleet a really long time ago. 'm talking like, decades at least; maybe as long ago as a century; and in all that time, nobody really paid any attention to them. The reason why is that none of them were translated: See, most of the xenofiction that gets imported to the Fleet comes in its native language, and it's up to someone on our end to translate it. It took ages for the original xenofiction to actually get translated, probably because of the, uh, nature, of the material in question." For reasons opaque to Punica, the xenosophont was getting visibly more nervous with every word which she spoke. "The nature of which was?" "W-well. Uhm. Y- You know... I mean..." Raqi had begun swirling her jaw around, and one of her hands was fidgeting with the hem of her dress. "It's a domestication guide, right? S-so, it deals with, well, domestication." "Raqi, the word 'domestication' in Terran standard is incredibly broad; to the point that you saying that does not narrow it down at all." Punica was frowning openly now. "Do you mean it was a guide on the principles of domestication at a societal level?" She could perhaps imagine something like that having been written by a xenosophont. The post-scarcity living standards of the Compact were, after all, one of its greatest draws; and it made sense that it would be something a particularly enamoured floret might want to share the details of with the wider universe. "Er, n-no." The speed of Raqi's fidgeting increased. "I mean, like... individual domestication. Like, the process of d-domesticating individual xenosophonts." The look which Punica gave Raqi at the end of her sentence was enough to double the girl's heartrate. "T-they, uh... They were basically all stories of how i-individual people got domesticated. The general format usually starts with the protagonist as an independent, then either their ship gets captured by the affini, or their planet gets invaded, and it, uh, follows the story of how they end up domesticated." Her cheeks had now turned a bright red. "The stories usually go into, um, a lot of detail about the domestication process, is the thing. L-like, that's the main draw of the stories. They, uhm, spend a lot of time talking about all the, uh, m-m-methods that the affini use to do it, a-and what it's like for the person getting domesticated, a-and uh- uhh- s-some people just... really enjoy reading... about that?" Punica's face went through several, almost completely different expressions. It was as if the affini could not decide what she ought to look like, and it was a while before she finally settled on what was - to Raqi - an expression that was alarmingly interested. As the affini spoke, her voice was low and measured, but filled with a subtle curiosity. "In what way do they enjoy reading about it?" "Uh." She looked at Punica, and her stomach began to sink. The plant knew. A second later, the corners of Punica's lips started to curl upwards. The plant knew that she knew. This, Raqi realised, was the exact moment in which she became cooked. For a moment, she wondered if, if she didn't respond for long enough, Punica might just move the conversation along. But she realised after a few seconds that the affini was offering no such mercy. Her smile only grew wider the more time passed, and she shifted her standing posture into one of patience, intentionally clasping her hands in front of her and allowing her body to relax; making it clear that she was willing to wait for as long as it took for Raqi to answer. Fuck. After a few more moments, Raqi could stand it no more and broke eye contact with her, her cheeks feeling like burning coals. "W-well, y-you know how d-domestication u-usually involves a lot of... a- a lot of... s-s-sex? Y- y- yeah. O-or, well, I don't know if it actually does, but- like- ninety-nine percent of these stories f-feature the main affini using, uh, s-sex to um, t-t-tame their floret, s-so uh- I don't know how actually realistic that is, but uhm-" "I believe ninety-nine percent as a figure may be somewhat inflated-" Punica's voice was now filled with a predatory amusement as she spoke. She was not even trying to hide how much she was enjoying watching Raqi squirm, and that fact only made the xenosophont squirm even more. "-but it is true that the exploitation of sexual reward responses is indeed a commonly employed strategy in many species' domestication. Very many sophont species possess extremely strong reward processes that are tied to intimate behaviours, and these can make for highly efficient tools for use in training and conditioning." Oh Inos fuck- Raqi had to bite down on her tongue to stop herself from whimpering. "R-r-right. Yeah. That. Uh... Basically a lot of people f-found that hot. And they, um, wanted to write their own takes on it, and that's how you got the Landamaeri Domestication Guide community." Raqi straightened herself back up again, adjusting her feathers in a bid to regain her composure. "I get all of my information about the Compact from those stories. I thought they were pure fiction, at first, but eventually some of the details in the xenofiction originals started feeling too realistic to be made-up. I ended up looking deeper into it, and, long story short, I found out the Compact was real. It was only a couple months between figuring that out and deciding to head out here." "So, let me be certain that I am understanding this correctly." Punica affixed Raqi with a very, very amused gaze. "You read a series of stories about a race of aliens that utilise sexual conditioning techniques, drugs, and powerful hypnotic effects to render other sophont species into their docile and pliant pets, and your near-immediate response to this was to leave your home civilisation to go and look for them." "Uh- W-well- Uh-" A bead of sweat dripped down Raqi's face. "That is not why I came to the Compact- I- I came here because of the whole 'post-scarcity non-discriminatory utopia' thing! Th- The domestication methods had nothing to do with that!" "Yes, that would be the other half of why you travelled here." Punica's lips quirked upwards. "Your search for a partner, as I recall. So this is what you meant by that." The urge was there to begin toying with Raqi once again, but it was tempered by the knowledge of what had happened the last time she had tried such a thing. Punica had been careless in indulging her instincts to play with the xenosophont many times already, and it had badly hurt both of them. She had told herself time and time again that she would not make the same mistake, but this time she actually meant it. Despite that, she still could not keep herself from at least some light teasing. "Y-y-yeeeeahhh, th-that's what I meant by still, um... wanting to be dominated, a bit..." Punica's vines twitched. I- Perhaps I may need to refrain from teasing her at all. I do not think I am going to be able to hold myself together if she keeps doing that. Fortunately for her, it seemed as if Raqi may have thought the same thing, because she recovered much faster than she normally did. "As part of the whole 'LDG' thing- specifically the wider context it exists in- some landamaeris do kind of watered-down versions of floret-owner stuff with each other; detached from the context of the affini. We tend to call it 'pet play' or some variant on that, and pet play itself is a subgenre of wider dominance & submission and power exchange in general. These are the kinds of things we call 'kinks', and D&S at least is normalized enough that even most ch'ikan know what it is. Pet play, though, definitely not; that's still firmly into weirdo yuyayni territory." She looked up again at Punica, and to the plant's surprise, didn't seem to hesitate or stutter as she continued speaking. "I do want to be hypnotised by you, and to do other D&S-kink stuff with you. But the problem is, I've seen people try that in stories, and it never really stays at just that. It always ends with the xenosophont getting florted in the end; whether it's by biorhythms, or drug addiction, or just succumbing to wanting to feel that way all the time or something else." Punica frowned. "Just one moment- What does 'getting florted' mean?" "Oh, that?" Raqi blinked. "Uh- it's basically like, a slang term for 'getting turned into a floret.' Like, a joke term." "Ah, I see." She had to admit it had something of a ring to it. "Do continue." "Mhm. Anyway, yeah: My point is, it always ends the same way. It is virtually impossible to be in an intimate relationship with an affini and not get domesticated by them, apparently. One way or another, that's what you do to people." The levity that had been in her voice now faded. "And there arises the problem. I can't let myself get domesticated, because I have to be responsible for ensuring that the Mobile Fleet gets properly domesticated and that it doesn't end up going the way that I've heard things did with the Terran Accord; and I can't do that if I'm a floret." Punica let out the first rumble Raqi had heard from her since she'd rebloomed. "That... is indeed a concern, yes. What you are referring to is a well-known phenomenon. Regardless of what form their relationship takes, a xenosophont who remains around an affini for an extended period of time will grow entrained to their biorhythm. They will become conditioned to find pleasure in pleasing their affini, and this in turn will naturally incline them towards acts of submission and deference; creating a cycle which inevitably pushes them towards florethood." It was this fate which Punica had been so afraid of subjecting Raqi to. No matter what she did to try and separate her rhythms, some degree of influence would still slip through, and gradually begin twisting Raqi to desire her pleasure. It was not an outcome that, as far as she knew, could be avoided. The thought was enough to darken her expression, and her tone grew grim as she continued. "Raqi, merely refraining from submitting to me directly will not avert this outcome; it will only delay it. So long as you remain close to me, you will find yourself gradually warped to desire my happiness and approval above all else. It does not matter whether you wish for that outcome or not; it does not even matter whether I myself want it- it will happen nonetheless." Raqi stared uncomfortably at Punica. On one hand, what Punica was describing - the idea of having her personality slowly, subtly altered in a way that she could not even observe, let alone fight - was almost unimaginably hot. On the other hand, Raqi could not conceive of an existence solely dedicated to the pursuit of another's happiness, and beyond the inherent kink value of the concept, it was not something she would ever want for herself. Not now, at least; but if it works the way she says it does, how long before something that sounds appealing for kink reasons starts sounding appealing in general, as well? A small shiver ran down her spine at the thought. "How much warning would I be likely to have, before it got to that point?" Punica shook her head. "I do not know. There is every chance that you are already somewhat affected by my rhythm; although it is difficult to to what extent, given your already submissive disposition." Raqi almost thought Punica might have been teasing her with that remark, but she could tell somehow that the plant was being genuine. Being referred to as having a 'submissive disposition' was in equal parts insulting and deeply arousing, and she found herself struggling to decide which she ought to feel. "Well, I can certainly say that right now, the idea of doing things solely to please you doesn't sound appealing whatsoever." She hesitated. Though it's not like I don't enjoy being praised by her... She thought of how she always started to glow with delight any time Punica said something remotely nice about her. Shit. But I'm like that with almost everyone, aren't I? Inos, how would I even tell the difference between biorhythmic entrainment and my normal level of being subby? Fuck, this is a problem. She shook her head. "Let's shelve this for now, alright? We can come back to this when we're done talking about other stuff." Punica nodded. "Yes. I do believe that, whatever the case, there is little risk of you becoming entrained in the immediate future if you are not already." She affixed Raqi with an appraising look. "The fact that you are still able to act this independently around me after everything which we have done together is a good sign." It was also more than a little surprising. She had been convinced that subjecting Raqi to her full rhythm would doom the girl, but their present conversation had her reassessing that assumption. Once again, she proves herself remarkably resilient. I would have thought that the extent of her submissive desires would make her far easier to enthrall, but, perhaps not? She wondered if there could be some other external factor that was rendering her more resistant to outside influence. For all that her experience with hypnosis has taught her how to more effectively internalize suggestions, perhaps the opposite is also true? Though she couldn't know for sure, it did sound plausible enough when put that way. She had no doubt that another part of it was that Raqi was simply naturally strong willed; she could not recall ever meeting another xenosophont with such headstrong determination as this one. The presence of strong self-guided desires, as well as an established sense of self, do help substantially to safeguard against enthrallment; and both of those are things which she has in abundance. She felt a gentle warmth spreading throughout her core. She truly is an exceptional creature. Such incredible strength of will, indeed... How good would it feel, she wondered, to pry her apart and strip every ounce of that independence away from her? Punica flinched. Dozens of her flowers suddenly clamped shut, and it was only after a moment that she found the wherewithal to relax them. "Hey, uh, are you okay?" Raqi stared up at her with concern in her eyes. "Everything alright?" "Yes." She knew by now that it was useless to try and lie to Raqi; the girl was well-attuned enough to her biorhythm that her attempts at deception consistently fell flat. This time, however, there was no need to attempt to conceal her present feelings. "I am merely feeling frustrated. My lack of experience in managing my biorhythms has made interactions between us complicated, and I am finding it..." Her softened, almost to her own surprise. "Upsetting." "Ah, yeah." Raqi nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry. I can't really imagine what that's like, but it does sound frustrating. If it makes you feel any better, I, um- I'm not holding it at against you at all." "It is quite alright, petal." Punica swiftly reached out with a vine and began ruffling the girl's feathers, soliciting a surprised yelp from her, before she quickly yielded to the motion. "I very much appreciate you saying so. But please, do not worry yourself for my sake: I will be just fine, I assure you." She withdrew the vine, allowing Raqi to stand back up properly. "Now: I believe we were discussing the domestication of the Mobile Fleet. I had meant to ask why it is you who must be responsible for overseeing it, and also in what ways becoming a floret would pose a problem to that." "Ah, right, yeah." Raqi nodded, her voice returning to its previous somber cadence. "The simple answer is: Because there isn't anyone else who can do it. To my knowledge, I'm the only landamaeri that has actually figured out the Compact isn't fictional- and even if not, I'm the only one that's made contact with them." The xenosophont grew contemplative for a moment. She looked up at Punica with a measuring gaze, seeming to remain silent. The affini could sense a strong discomfort in Raqi's rhythm. The girl wanted to say something, she could tell, but for one reason or another she was hesitating. Eventually, though, her resolve seemed to harden, and she brought herself to speak. "I don't know if you've ever considered this, but... The affini are considered nightmare fuel by a lot of people. For every person in the mobile Mobile Fleet who thinks domestication is hot, there are probably ten other people who read about it and think it's the most horrifying thing they've ever heard of." She up-turned one hand. "Presuming that you hold what the stories depict as the typical affini view on this subject, then your response to this is probably a mix between thinking it's understandable but misguided, and 'aw cute.'" "I lean substantially more towards the former than the latter," Punica replied, feeling somewhat ruffled for reasons she couldn't place a vine on, "but I do have colleagues who have expressed the latter views, yes. In general I am quite well acquainted with the ways in which the thought of domestication can be anxiety-inducing for xenosophonts who are not familiar with the Compact." If she hadn't been when she had come onto the Rending Talon, Punica very much was now. "Right. So-" Raqi broke eye contact, and abruptly began pacing up and down the room. "-the general take among people who actually like the Compact is basically that you're all concerningly imperialist and that that is relatively inarguably bad, but the whole 'overriding consent and autonomy' thing can kind of be justified in the event that you are actually as much better at caring for people as you make out to be." She stopped and turned to stare at Punica. "And from your perspective, that's the justification you use as well; right? Essentially, your superior capacity to care for sophonts and ability to reduce harm inflicted onto them justifies overriding their personal autonomy and consent." "Yes." Punica nodded. "I would clarify that we do not consider it a justification, as calling it a justification would imply the action in question is considered immoral ordinarily; which is not how we see it. The overriding of one individual's autonomy or consent in order to ensure their well-being is considered by most affini to be a moral good; even if it frequently causes discomfort for the recipient. This view is not limited to merely sophont well-being, and we extend it to encompass interactions in all other spheres as well." The plant began gesturing with her vines in time with her words; swishing them up, down, or around in time as she spoke. "As you may or may not know, the Compact lacks laws in the traditional sense. Although we sign domestication contracts with individual species, these contracts are separate legal entities kept distinct from any actual, overarching 'laws' in the ways that they are often implemented in other societies. What we do have, though, are established precedents for how to act in certain situations; as well as case law from times when an issue has been taken to tribunal." She raised one of her own hands, mirroring Raqi. "These precedents are the closest thing we come - other than our domestication treaties and contracts - to fully binding and impermeable rules." Raqi noticed while the plant was talking that all of the colour had now come back to her leaves and blossoms. Not only that, but her vines had begun swaying noticeably faster than usual. The sight caused her to quirk an eyebrow: Huh. Is she enjoying this? "However, these precedents are very frequently broken. It is not uncommon in the slightest for an affini - particularly very young blooms, and also very old ones - to find themselves in an exceptional situation which merits a departure from precedent; in which case they may decide to act against it. In these cases, the rule of vine used to decide whether this breach is acceptable or not is usually- though not always- whether it ends well or not. This reflects the value we put upon competence: In essence, we consider it fine to breach rules if you have a good reason for doing so, and no harm comes from it." She lowered her hand. "We do also account for the fact that sometimes a person may take a precedent-breaching action with good intention, and it may end poorly anyway. In these cases, the situation is often judged based on whether the breach was in fact a good idea or not. If an affini does something ordinarily considered inappropriate and has a good reason for it, but it ends up backfiring because of something they could not conceivably have foreseen, then they will not be considered to have misstepped in doing so." Her lips pursed. "This has, at times, lead to some... questionable situations. I am reminded in particular of a case on Terra where, in the time shortly after its domestication, a particular floret was allowed by their owner to hack into an affini warship stationed above the planet. After successfully taking control of the ship's weapons system, they proceeded to do nothing whatsoever with it. This example - although it fits with the rule of having not done any harm - is the farthest I have ever heard of this principle being pushed, and I believe the owner of the floret in question was given a rather stern talking to when it was found out about." "...Huh." Raqi blinked several times. "Yeeeeah, uh- I can imagine they would be. Still, it's pretty neat their owner actually allowed them to do that. I am more than a little surprised they okayed that." "Though the scope and severity of this particular incident goes far beyond that of most others, the principle of it - doing something that directly breaches Compact precedent for the benefit of a floret - is actually extremely common overall." Her voice grew lighter. "The purpose of the Compact is, after all, to bring joy and the fulfillment of desire to all xenosophonts. It only makes sense that its systems should be able to bend to accommodate that goal." Raqi's eyebrows quirked upwards in a look of surprised approval. "Huh again. That is surprisingly based and anarchist-pilled of you." Punica frowned. "I beg your pardon?" "Uh." The look vanished from Raqi's face. "Sorry, slipped into fleetnet lingo for a second there. Forget I said anything." She made an exaggerated coughing sound, then returned to pacing. "Anyway, so: I'm actually fairly inclined to agree with most of this. Landamaeri society was filled with instances of people getting their consent or autonomy overridden, but ninety-nine percent of them weren't for a good reason and were just people being shitheads. Every now and then, though, it was genuinely necessary to do something like that. We have a much higher bar for when it's considered reasonable than you do, but as a society, we still agree in principle that overriding peoples' autonomy in some situations is fine." "The problem is..." Her pacing began to slow, and she then stopped. "I don't think the affini actually do always know what's best for their xenosophonts." Punica felt her core vines tense abruptly. Almost before she could stop herself, the urge had risen up to contradict Raqi and declare that she was incorrect and that the affini did always know best. Even though she was able to restrain herself, it took a few seconds before she could beat it back entirely. Instead of an immediate dismissal, she decided it would be worth at least hearing the xenosophont out. "What basis do you have for saying this?" "So, I can't say for sure that any of these things actually happened; I don't know how reliable any of the xenofiction originals are. For all I know they may just be fiction as well, but some of them struck me as accounts of things that actually happened. And within those, I've seen some stuff that was just-" She shook her head. "Things that just felt inarguably to me like the affini in question was not doing what was best for their pet. Most of them, ironically, are from human domestication guide xenofiction. There are a couple examples I can think of off the top of my head: One was about this heavily bodymodded Terran girl who got stuck on a pirate vessel, I think it was? And she ends up connecting to a computer and it just, basically gives her an affini virus- or well it wasn't a virus, it was a malfunctioning logistics program- and it erases her entire personality and just turns her into a task machine, basically." "That is..." Thorns were out all across Punica's body. "That is not something any affini would ever knowingly allow to happen. Perhaps, in the case of an incredibly troubled sophont who could not be helped by ordinary means, a personality transplant might be considered- but creating a virus for such a purpose?" One of her vines whipped the ground. "Absolutely not. I cannot conceive of any one of us ever doing such a thing, for any purpose." "Yeah," Raqi nodded. "It was admittedly accidental in that case; it was their floret that did it. But they still allowed it to happen by not keeping a close enough eye on them. Anyway, the other one... ugh, Inos, I hate this one so much." Punica watched as a shiver ran down the xeno's body. "I read one story about an independant Terran artist who had this creep of an affini basically stalking them... They ended up causing a panic attack in them, and using that as a pretext to domesticate them. Again, they didn't do it on purpose, but-" She grimaced. "It was incredibly fucked up. They ended up messing up one of their paintings afterwards, too, which just..." She shook her head once more. "The latter one is a good example of a particular phenomenon I've noticed. The affini seem to go in to domestication campaigns with virtually no nuanced understanding of the behaviours and psychological profiles of the species that they're domesticating. They understand how to domesticate them, but not anything about how they actually work; and it almost seems like they don't even care, because they know they can just change them to work however they want them to." Raqi gesticulated. "To go back to the Terran domestication campaign again: The amount of stories I've seen where affini don't understand why Terrans would be afraid of sharp pointy objects dripping with foreign chemicals - by which I mean your injector needles - is absolutely staggering. In the same vein, you fuckers straight up do not seem capable of conceiving of the fact that some species do not like being touched without their consent. And I don't mean 'don't like' as in 'they're just shy about it and they'll start liking it after a second or two', I mean in the sense that it causes them genuine distress and is physically unpleasant. Like you are all so fucking touchy-feely and it doesn't even seem to process to you, even when someone says it out loud, that xenos can exist that don't like that sort of thing." Punica was very careful with her tone as she spoke next. "You sound rather angry about this particular issue, Raqi. I may be wrong, but... Is this something you have a personal reason to dislike?" The girl's eyes went wide for a moment. "...Yeah, actually. I really, really don't like being touched by strangers. It's very uncomfortable for me; physically and mentally." Her eyes flicked groundwards. "It was one of the things I was most worried about when I thought of ending up in-person with an affini; the fact that almost none of you seem to respect personal space." She turned her gaze back on Punica, and her tone returned to its previous level of anger. "And as well: When you do go ahead and touch someone or threaten to inject them, and they very understandably get freaked out by that or react badly, you just fucking double down and threaten to inject them more! And then that of course makes them worse, and the cycle continues!" She spread her arms wide. "It's stupid and dumb as fuck and I cannot believe that a so-called 'precursor race' touting themselves as being 'more capable than everyone else' can make blunders this basic. Like okay, maybe you are more competent than most other species 99% of the time- but that fact has turned you complacent and made you think you can just do whatever the void you want because you're the affini and you know best, and so there's no need to even consider the possibility that another sophont might know better than you." Punica's vines fell still. Her mind reached for some kind of a rebuttal, a counterargument- but she did not have one. The pulsating of her core slowed, and her focus turned inward; mind reaching back to the events that had lead up to her reblooming. She's completely right. I ignored her telling me to stop because I thought that I knew better than her, and that I understood what was happening in the situation; and both of those assumptions turned out to be wrong. But surely, that was just because she was a bad affini. Their race's claim to superiority was founded on hard, empirical evidence, and the wisdom of the uncountable trillions who had come before them and who still lived. The problem was with her; not with her race's ideology in general. The issue was that she was simply not competent enough to live up to the mantle of affini. Other, better affini didn't make these sorts of mistakes... ...did they? No, surely not. It was just her that was like this, she was certain of it. Though she understood why her actions had given Raqi this perspective, the conclusion she had arrived at was an incorrect one. Understandably incorrect, given that the only sample she had to draw upon were the actions of the Compact's least competent affini, but incorrect nonetheless. Had someone else come aboard the Rending Talon, they would have had Raqi domesticated by the end of the day, and none of the awful harm she had done to the xenosophont would ever have happened. By now, Raqi would be happy and pacified in her new home, likely blissfully attuned to the biorhythm of her new owner, and so submerged in it that she would not even remember why she had needed that flame in the first place. Probably so submerged in it that she wouldn't even be her, any more. Punica's core lurched. This was the first time that she had actually stopped to examine in-depth how her encounter with Raqi would have gone if it had been another affini in her place. She had already thought multiple times of how any other affini would not make those mistakes, but what the lack of those mistakes would lead to was not something her mind had considered. If I hadn't hesitated, and had in fact injected her that day in the garden, would I have ever found out any of the things that I now know about her? She didn't know. Most likely, she would have simply kept Raqi pacified until she could find a way to signal the Compact, and then- And then that would have been it. She would have handed Raqi over to receive a new owner, and the two would almost certainly never have seen her again. All of a sudden, she felt sick. Her entire body felt wrong. Her rhythms had fallen into complete disarray, and she felt herself on the verge of- was she having a panic attack? She realised momentarily that that was indeed what was happening, and moved to push the imaginary scenario her mind had concocted from her awareness before she could slip any farther. Not now, not right now. This is not the time for such thoughts. Focus, focus; you must stay focused. She forced her rhythms back into line - she hoped before Raqi had noticed the disturbance - and spoke before she gave the xenosophont any further time to ponder upon her abrupt silence. "I... sympathise very much with what you are saying, Raqi. I know that I myself have behaved in that way towards you, and I am genuinely sorry for it. However, as for the others of my kind..." She froze. "N-no, never mind." "Punica?" The girl frowned. "Are you okay? You seem a bit-" "Yes. Yes, yes- I am fine." She knew what would happen if she froze up in front of Raqi, and she was not going to let that happen again. "Let us move on, please, if you are willing." "Oh, uhm; sure." The xenosophont continued to stare at her for a moment with a look that suggested she did not entirely believe what Punica had just said, but it seemed as if she had decided not to press the issue, because she continued speaking a moment later. "Well, uh, where was I... Ah, right. So, yeah: As I was saying, basically I have reason to believe the Compact actually don't know best in every area, and they're prone to messing up in at least some regards when domesticating new species. That's not something I want to happen to the people in the Mobile Fleet, and to that end, it's my responsibility to prevent it. To finally answer the second question you had: The reason I can't do that as a floret is that, if I'm an affini's pet, you'll all just see me as subordinate to you and won't respect my opinion, because I'll be a pet rather than anything approaching an equal. I need the ability to actually argue my case like I am right now, and I'll lose that if I become a floret." To what extent was Raqi right, Punica wondered? She knew that there were affini who greatly valued the opinions and input of their florets, but even in those situations, they were still very much voicing their opinion as pets. Whether such opinions were taken at all seriously or acted upon was entirely up to the discretion of their owner, and although independents themselves had very little ability to force an affini to do anything, they did still have more tools available to them in that regard than florets did. "I do believe I can see where you are coming from here, and... Though it pains me somewhat to admit it, I do think that in this case, you are likely correct. I myself would not change how I viewed you or your statements if you became a floret, but I know that many other affini would not act the same way. I can imagine there would be many of them who would be less inclined to see your words as those of a peer if you became a pet." In truth, Punica knew most affini would never see Raqi as anything approaching a peer even if she remained independent; but this was not the time to bring that up. "Yeah, exactly." Raqi was relatively pleased with Punica's answer; she had half expected the plant to try and give her some kind of diatribe about how the affini 'ackshually cared about their florets' opinions very much', but she had agreed more or less outright. Inos, I'm so glad I had the luck to accidentally kidnap a fairly open minded one of them. If she'd been almost any of the ones I've read about in stories, I would'be been domesticated ten times over by now. "That's basically everything." Punica nodded. "I understand. The concerns which you raised with me some days ago make much more sense in light of this new information." She had to stop herself from apologising again for overriding Raqi at that time. "While I trust in the Compact's ability to both know and do what is best for xenosophonts as a whole, this does not mean we are perfect. We do, indeed, make mistakes. And it is possible that you have succeeded in identifying one in how we treated- and, still do treat Terrans. I can definitely see why you would want to avoid this happening to your own species, and I cannot see any reason to disagree or oppose you." She hesitated momentarily, wondering for a moment if what she was considering saying was the right thing to do, but then decided to do it. "Whenever the time comes to begin planning the Landamar Domestication Campaign, I will assist you in conveying these concerns to whatever authority is in charge of the process. They will be much more likely to listen if they think that an affini also supports your suggestion." Immediately, Raqi began beaming at her. "Thank you! Yeah, they'll probably be a lot more likely to listen to you than to me, given everything we just described. That should help a lot, I think." The sight filled Punica's core with warmth. This time, she was not able to stop herself from extending a vine outwards and running it through the xenosophont's hair. The pleased trills that Raqi released were like the sweetest music to her, and she lost herself for a few moments just dragging her vine through and around the individual feathers upon the girl's scalp, watching the way her gaze lost focus and her expression shifted down into a pleasured vacancy- She stopped abruptly, pulling her vine back into her main mass. The look of abrupt confusion on Raqi's face as she woke up from her half-trance stung her, but she knew that what she had done was for the best. She realised as well that she had demurred and detoured for long enough. It was now time to discuss the subject which they had put off earlier. "Raqi," she spoke. "If you do indeed want to avoid becoming a floret, then we need to talk about your ongoing exposure to my biorhythm." She watched as the girl's posture grew uneasy. "Ah, right, that..." It lasted only a moment, as she quickly drew herself up to her full height and schooled her appearance into composure. "Yeah. Let's talk about that." Punica had tried her best to avoid speaking to Raqi of biorhythms, and it had done nothing but make the situation worse. A discussion about how the two were to orchestrate their relationship going forward was long overdue, and it was time that they had it.
A L E R T : : t h o u g h t f o r m s_d e t e c t e d
I D : : Hypnotic Centres :: The Domestication Initiative :: Book 2
withering away :: The Prism System :: Intoxicants :: Plurality :: please believe me :: Landamaeri Domestication Guide ::
Book 1
TerraTranslate :: Raqi Marr :: Punica Granatum :: The Affini Compact :: Landamar Mobile Fleet :: Hormone Replacement Therapy :: The Chimera Module :: Affini :: Intersidera :: Posters :: Magnesium :: Wonderland :: The Hundredth Time: Part I :: Communication :: aftermath :: Physical Confrontation :: Garments :: Interspecies Comparisons :: Touch :: Equality :: Hypnokink :: Speaking :: ahftrojn,lpijmnhfkg :: Pretheya :: Magic :: scared :: Materas Marr ::