Chapter 13: Relocation
Chapter CW: talk of self harm
“So, let me get this straight: We’re going to simply ‘merge’ the two hab units and we all live under one roof, basically?” Emma said.
“Basically…” Lilium replied, glancing around at the hustle of the coffee shop the six of them sat in.
Tori sipped her coffee and looked at the five others sitting around the large table. “Can I ask why this idea was brought forth and why now?”
“We watched the readings of the four of your heart rates and other vital signs the day you all went to the library and the park and the ice cream shop and they were the lowest we’ve ever seen from any of you either in pairs or alone.” Lavi said. “The same thing happened the night that everyone came over after your implantation surgery, Tori, we went back and looked at the data.”
“So what does this mean in terms of owners?” Willow asked, her voice quiet and wavering a bit.
“Well,” Lilium said, a vine reaching across the table to hold on to Willow’s hand. “Nothing would change there at the moment, but if it does, we will discuss it. The biggest change at the moment would be that you would have to listen to both of us…”
“So would you two be getting married or something?” Rachel asked, speaking for the first time. “And how would you want us to address Lavi?”
“I guess you could say we’d be getting married, in a way.” Lavi replied. “And you can call me Lavi, Miss Lavi, Ma’am, as long as you’re respectful, I’m good. This isn’t going to change much except for the fact that we all are going to be living in the same hab.”
“What if this is something we don’t want?” Willow asked. “I feel like this was sprung on us and we weren’t given much of a chance to process it before it was happening.”
Lilium anticipated this question and had a response prepared. “Do you trust us to take care of you and do everything in our power to do so?”
“Yes, Ma’am.,” Willow said, her ears were back like she was displeased. “I trust you completely.”
“Are you opposed to this?” Lavandula asked.
“No, Ma’am,” Willow said. “I’m just nervous that things will change with the way we are treated. I have grown accustomed to a very pampered life…”
“You are going to be even more pampered…” Lilium said. “Not just by me, but by Emma and Tori. We saw how you four were sleeping the other night.”
“We have not filed the paperwork to do this yet,“ Lavandula said. “We wanted to talk to you before we did it…”
“So what would the new hab look like?” Rachel asked. She had already been through this once. Lilium and her had increased the size of the hab they were in after Willow had been domesticated by Lilium.
“Well,” Lavandula said, dipping one of her vines in a bowl of nutrient soup. “We had some ideas and wanted your input before we submitted the requests…” She pulled her datapad out of her vines and started tapping. An overhead rendition appeared and she sat the tablet up where it could be seen by everyone. “There are two things we could do: one is simply take the two habs, have them located next to each other and have a doorway between them so we can come and go as we please.” She swiped to a blank slate. “Or we could design the hab from the ground up as it were…”
“What do you mean?” Tori asked.
“Well,” Lavandula said. “Obviously we would have the living room, kitchen and bathroom.” She tapped the screen and a hab started to build itself on the screen. “Lilium and I would need our offices.” Two more rooms joined the ones on the screen. “Would you each like your own rooms or a pair of rooms, or one big room that the four of you share?”
The four florets looked at each other. “If we decide one thing now, and change our minds later, how hard is it to do something else?” Willow asked. Tori could tell that she was thinking something.
“It would be a matter of just filing some paperwork…” Lilium said. “Why, what are you thinking, little one?”
“Do we have to decide now?” Tori asked, she really wanted to know what Willow was thinking.
“Nope,” Lavandula said. “It will take about three days to build one from scratch. If, however, we simply move the two existing habs together that will only take a day…”
“Do we have a deadline that you would like to have us let you know?” Rachel asked, she too wanted to know what Willow was thinking.
“In about four days time?” Lavandula said. “We’re goign to request that the hab be placed as close to the midpoint between where my office is and where Lilium’s office is as possible.”
“May we go to the park and just sit and talk about this?” Emma asked.
“You girls may,” Lilium said. “Please be in one of the two habs by dark.”
“We can handle that,” Rachel said. “See you after bit.” The four florets rose and walked out of the coffee shop in pairs.
“I think that went well…” Lavandula said, watching the four of them go. “How much you want to bet that they decide a single room with two beds and a lot of closet space?”
The four of them sat around a fountain at one of the many parks aboard the Scorpiris. Even though Emma and Tori had been aboard the Scorpiris for close to a month, they were still finding things that they didn’t know could be on a ship or that the Terran Accord had ever thought to put on a ship.
“So, where did they come up with this idea?” Emma asked.
“Well, according to our owners, we help relax each other…” Rachel said. “They are going to do this regardless of if we want it or not, as they perceive it to be the best for us. I’m not opposed to it; I rather like the idea, personally.”
“I agree…” Willow said. “We do seem to compliment each other.”
“So, one, two, or four rooms?” Tori asked, her gaze drifting to a couple of florets running around and doing what looked like playing tag.
“One.” Emma said. “With bunk beds…”
“They will have to be large enough for two people to lay in…” Rachel said, giggling. “I can’t sleep without my kitty or my teddy bear.”
“That sounds fine to me…” Willow said, her face slowly turning red. “Um, do you think that maybe we could trade off sleeping with each other?”
“You mean like you with Tori and me with Emma?” Rachel asked. Rachel watched as Emma blushed.
“Yeah…” Willow said. “I would like that…”
“So are we in agreement, one big room with two beds?” Rachel asked.
“Yes.” Willow said, her voice quiet.
“I agree.” Tori said.
“This is going to be fun…” Emma said. “We just need one bed to be large enough for all four of us to sleep in, or the ability to move the beds together…”
“Do we want to have the option of a another bedroom just in case we want some privacy?" Willow asked.
“Probably not a bad idea…” Rachel said. “I would want a little reading nook, maybe with views of outside…”
“Ooh!” Willow and Tori said at the same time. “I like that idea.” The two of them looked at each other and smiled.
“Do we want it in the room or outside of it? Like in the living room ?” Emma asked.
“Both?” Willow asked.
“I like that idea…” Rachel said. “Book shelves, we’re going to need bookshelves…”
“Maybe for you and Emma…” Willow giggled. “Tori and I will carry all of our books right here…” She held up her datapad.
“Yeah, but Emma and I won’t have to worry about our batteries dying…” She giggled. “We could go back and forth about this until we’re blue in the face…”
“We can…” Tori said, “But our way is better… Do we have anything else that we would like to see in our new hab?” Tori’s question was met with silence.
Lavandula and Lilium were sitting in one of the parks filling out the forms that they needed to in order to acquire a new hab unit. “So a large bedroom with two large beds, and a smaller bedroom with a single large bed?” Lavandula asked.
Lilium looked at the note that Rachel had sent her.”That’s what Rachel said…“ She looked at Lavandula. “And they want reading nooks… One in each of the bedrooms, and one in the living room. They also want the reading nooks to look out into space. I think they will get too distracted by looking outside…”
“Should we just have a library in the hab?” Lavandula made some notes on her own datapad and wrote a few things on the paper.
“I mean, the hab is going to be large without having our own library…” Lilium said. “Rachel has a lot of books and it seems like Emma would collect them as well, so…”
“Bookshelves in the living room?” Lavandula asked. “Although that will put all of their books out where everyone can see them… Maybe a library would be a better idea…” Lavandula paused. “What are your thoughts on cameras in the hab so we can check in on our little ones when we are out for some reason?”
“I’m ok with that, it’s something I’ve thought about having the current hab retrofitted with. I suspect Willow won’t have an issue, but Rachel might… Let’s take a walk to the ring that we think would be the best for the new location.” Lilium replied. “I think I know the perfect place for it…” The pair stood and joined vines and wandered off to the ring that they thought would have enough room for their new hab unit.
The six of them gathered in the Lilium, Rachel and Willows hab. The four florets had cooked dinner for the four of them and their two Affini. “This smells so good…” Tori said. “It’s been years since I’ve had good spaghetti.”
”I mean,” Emma said, putting noodles in one of the six plastic bowls for someone to take. “Everything is better than synth cubes…”
”Oh jeeze…” Willow said, her ears flattening against the top of her head. “Don’t remind me of those things…”
Rachel giggled at her fellow floret. “I, somehow, managed to never have to deal with them…” the other three florets looked at Rachel.
”How…” Tori’s voice trailed off. Her implant had done something, and she wasn’t sure what.
“How did you manage that?” Willow asked, glancing at Tori confused as to why the girl had suddenly stopped speaking.
”Hi…” Tori said, reentering the realm of the rest of the group. “What… What just happened?”
”Your implant stopped you from saying things that you shouldn’t be saying, little one…” Lavandula supplied from the couch in the living room. “It is set to suppress what you humans call ‘naughty words’…” she paused, “Emma’s will be set to do the same… It works by removing the thought of the naughty word before it makes it any further than a thought.”
Tori smiled as Emma blushed. “I have had an issue with language…”
“You know, Lavi,” Lilium said. “That does not sound like a bad idea… Although Rachel and Willow are good girls that do not really say inappropriate things that often.”
”Mistress, Miss Lilium,” Emma said. “You can come grab your food…” The four florets stood on one side of the kitchen so that their owners could come grab their food before the florets did.
”You girls get yours first,” Lilium said. “You need the nutrition out of that meal more than we do.”
“Yes, Ma’am” The four florets said in unison. They looked at each other and giggled. Once the four of them had sat at the table, Lavandula and Lilium came in and got some food. Adjusting their bodies to be able to sit at the table with the humans.
“So, we talked to the clerks today…” Lilium said. “And we’re going to be able to get you everything that you would like to see in the new hab except for…”
”Your reading nooks with views of outside.” Lavandula finished. “So we requested view screens to be able to have the views of outside for you.” Lavandula reached over to wipe spaghetti sauce off of Emma’s face. “We will probably be able to have the moving crews move the stuff into the new hab tomorrow”
”That’s fast…” Emma replied, her mouth full of spaghetti.”Do things in the Compact normally happen that fast?”
”They do, little one…” Lilium said, giving a tiny bit of a chuckle. “And you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full…” Tori and Willow giggled at Emma blushing. “So you can either chose to stop doing that, or we can just cause that little mouth to not work when you are eating.”
”She doesn’t talk as much when she’s being fed…” Lavandula replied. “Neither of mine do.”
”So,” Rachel said, after swallowing the spaghetti in her mouth. “Are we, like, going to be sisters or something?”
“I guess…” Lavi said. “If you four are sisters, we’re going to have to start treating you like you are a bunch of little ones…” She paused, and made a sound similar to a chuckle. “Wait, never mind, we already do…”
“Wait,” Tori said. “What?” She wasn’t sure that she had heard that correctly. She had heard what could best be described as static and could only partially hear Lavandula though it.
“I said that we already treat you like a bunch of little ones.” Lavi repeated. “Although, I suspect that you were not able to grow up the way you wanted to have done so, Tori…”
”I didn’t…” Tori mumbled.
“Willow didn't ether…” Lilium said. Now it was Willow’s turn to blush. She had been hoping to avoid being targeted by something that would make her blush.
”So, what are you going to do, turn us into babies again?” Tori asked, her voice having a slight waver to it. She trusted Lavi and if that is what Lavi thought was best for her then so be it. It wasn’t like she had much of a choice anyway. She had already signed all of her autonomy away. She had no choice in the matter; any choice she got was simply an illusion of control and she knew that. Willow and Tori shared a glance. Rachel and Emma just looked apprehensive; they suspected that whatever happened to Tori and Willow would also happen to them.
”Not quite,” Lilium said. “Basically, we simply treat you like children and we can reteach things that you didn’t learn how to do correctly for the gender you present as. For instance, makeup is something that neither of you wear, presumably because you don’t have any experience with it to know what to do. So we teach you. We teach you everything that you don’t know that you need to know.” She glanced at Lavi. “On the plus side, we have Pinnates… We don’t have to worry about dating…”
”What?” Rachel said, surprise evident in her voice.
“You four haven’t realized it yet?” Lavi asked, amusement evident in her voice.
”Realized what?” Willow asked.
”The four of you are Pinnates….” Lilium said. Tori felt like they were playing good cop, bad cop the way that they were bouncing back and forth.
”We…” Rachel said. “We are?”
”Very much so. That was part of the reason for us to combine the habs…” Lavi said, tapping on her datapad. All four of the floret’s datapads beeped as a message was sent to them. “This is just some of the data that we’ve collected which further backs up that this is the right thing to do for the four of you.” The four humans picked up their datapads and looked at the data that Lavi had sent over.
”Wow…” Tori said quietly; She had seen the data when her and Emma were together at first in the adoption center and the data that Lavi had just sent showed that they were even calmer when together. “This isn’t manipulated, is it?”
“Nope.” Lilium said. “We want to take care of you, not trick you…”
Tori breathed a sigh of relief. She felt, for the first time in her life that she had a family that she belonged in. The family wasn’t formed by blood, but by a common goal: to take care of each other. There was nothing that she wouldn’t do for her fellow florets, and she was sure that there was nothing that they wouldn’t do for her.
Tori and Emma were alone in the hab that they had spent their entire time with Lavandula in. Lavandula was at work and they were packing up the stuff that they wanted to personally make sure arrived in the new hab in one piece. There wasn’t much, but a few items, such as Emma’s small collection of books that she had acquired since she had been taken aboard the Scorpiris. She had found a little shop on the ship that could take anything she wanted and put it in a bound volume.
“I should probably let Marissa and Allison know that things have changed a bit and we now have…” Tori started, the thought trailing off. “Siblings, roommates?”
”For them, I’d just refer to Rachel and Willow as roommates. I think their heads might blow up if we try to explain this four floret pinnate sibling thing to them…” Emma placed the last of her books in a box that sat upon a cart. There was more weight than she should carry so the cart would let her still get her books to where they should be. “I’m just glad that we got our little reading nooks.”
”And we got a total of four of them…” Tori placed a few items on the bottom of the cart. “We each can decorate our nook how we see fit.”
”And they are big enough that we could have a cuddle pile in them too…” Emma said; they hadn’t requested that the reading nooks be large enough for that, but after watching the way that the four of them had bonded, Lavi and Lilium had slightly redesigned the reading nooks.
”Didn’t you say something about wanting to call Marissa and Allison soon?” Emma asked.
”Yeah. That kinda slipped by the wayside with the move…” Tori said, picking up a small stack of clothing and placed it in a box. One of the things that being on a remote outpost and being assigned to the Cosmic Navy had taught her how to do was travel light and pack small. She only had the small bit of stuff that she had acquired since being brought aboard the Scorpiris. Compared to what she had before she had enlisted, the amount of stuff now was a fair amount of stuff. “Maybe once we get settled, I can call them…”
”You could send a message over the Outernet…” Emma suggested, closing the box with her books.
”Yeah, but that seems so… impersonal.” Tori said. “And this is a pretty big thing…. I guess it’s good that we have the extra bedroom in the new hab…”
”Yep,” Emma said, watching Tori carry the box that she packed over and placed it on the cart. They looked around the now empty hab. “This was a nice home, hopefully another Affini and their floret find it homey…”
Tori looked around the hab again, emotions coming to the surface this time; she reached up to wipe a stray tear away as it fell down her cheek. “So many good memories here…” She smiled at the memory of the evening she and Emma had signed their autonomy away. Everything in their lives had led to that moment, and it was like a load had been taken off of their shoulders.
”Penny for your thoughts?” Emma said, looking at the way that Tori was smiling. “What’s going through that pretty little head of yours?”
”I’m thinking about the night that we signed our autonomy away…” Tori said, reaching up to play with Emma’s {Find out color of her hair} hair. “Every decision in our lives up until that point had led us to that, and now, we get to spend the rest of our lives together…” The two joined hands and walked out of the hab, ready to face the future both together and with their new Pinnates.
Lavandula and Lilium led the four florets to the new hab unit, having covered their eyes with vines as to keep it a surprise. The vines were removed once the four of them were standing in front of the door which remained closed. Lilium pulled her data pad out and tapped a button, enabling the computer in the hab to take control of the locks. Once she hit the button, the door slid open silently. “Welcome to your new home, cuties!” The habs voice said. “All of the settings from the two independent habs have been merged together and I am online completely. All hab systems are operational; current occupants of the hab are Rachel and Willow Octal, First and Second Florets Pinnate, and Tori and Emma Trell, First and Second Florets Pinnate.” The hab seemed to pause for a second to take a breath. “To change names or identifiers, please have your Affini log into the Hab system to make the changes.” Lavi and Lilium’s datapads both chimed at the same time.
“Well, that part works, at least…” Lavi said quietly to Lilium. The pair entered the hab, having stood outside the door so the hab could speak to the florets. “Would you girls like a tour?” The four florets nodded and came to stand around Lavi. “We set this up so that we could stand in one spot and do the tour. These two doors over here,” Vines went over and tapped on two doors, Both had a red light in the door jamb indicating they were locked. “Are our offices in the hab. These rooms are locked unless we are in there due to the nature of the information we deal with on a daily basis in our work. If you are permitted entry to these rooms, datapads are not permitted. Lillum’s also has an entrance to the corridor so if it is necessary, she can see patients in there. These rooms are soundproofed as well.”
“So…” Willow said. “They’re SCIF’s…” Emma and Tori nodded, understanding. Rachel looked confused and the simulated eyebrows on Lilium and Lavandula both raised at the same time.
“What are…” Lilium started “SCIF’s?” Instead of being pronounced ‘skiff’, it came out sounding like ‘scuff’.
“Secure rooms for the purposes of handing information that is classified, sensitive or higher.” Willow said. “It’s something that the three of us have experience with them due to being in the OCNI.” Rachel nodded, now understanding the term. She had been in similar rooms when she worked for Linden when she was on Xenia, although she couldn’t quite recall what she was doing in them…
“I have vague recollections of something similar from when I worked for Linden…” Rachel shrugged, blinked, and just stopped talking.
“Next we have four small offices.” Four vines went toward four doors. “Each one of you has one, and they can be used for if you need time alone. They are also your reading nooks, and like our offices are soundproofed. With the way that we requested that they be set up, you can go as far as making everything except the wall where the door is appear as if you are sitting outside.” She glanced over to see the four of them all smiling at each other. “This door,” a single vine tapped the door. “Is the bathroom, with a tub big enough to bathe the four of you at once if we wish to….” The single vine moved to the last door. “And finally, behind this door is the bedroom you four asked for.” The door remained shut when the vine tapped on it. “This, as well as your reading nooks, are your spaces. We will not enter without asking first unless there is an emergency. Does anyone have any questions?”
“Which one of the reading nooks is which?” Willow asked, glancing toward the four doors for the reading nooks.
“Your collars will each open one. If you wish for someone else to be able to enter your reading nook, you can choose to allow them access and we will set it up. You can also grant entry from your datapads.” Lilium said. “For the two of you that prefer print books, your existing libraries are in your reading nooks. For the other two of you, there are chargers for your datapads as well as larger screens to read on and remote page turning devices.” The four florets looked at each other and then walked up to the four doors. The only one that opened was Emma’s, located closest to the bedroom door. The other three shuffled around until they had all gotten their reading nooks to open. The order was Rachel, Willow, Tori, and Emma. Without the screens on, the rooms looked like single bunk rooms on Terran Cosmic Navy vessels, complete with a cot.
“You can choose to sleep in the bedroom or your reading nooks.” Lavandula said. “There are cameras all over the hab, so we can check on you whenever we need or want to.”
The existence of cameras didn’t phase the three former OCNI operatives, they were used to being watched; it came with what they were tasked with; Rachel, however, was not keen on the idea of being watched. “Why are there cameras?” She stammered. “We’ve never had them before…”
“We talked about it while we were doing the paperwork to build the new hab,” Lilium said, softly. “We kinda figured that you four would be ok with it so we didn’t discuss it with you. Rachel, what’s the issue you have, sweetheart?”
“We’ve never had cameras before,” Rachel said. “Why now?
“There are four of you, and while you and Willow have jobs, Tori and Emma don’t as of yet, and they may choose not to work. We, as your owners, need to take actions to make sure that you are safe.”
“We intend to do what we need to do in order to keep you safe,” Lavandula said. Her voice lilting. “This is what we have decided.”
”Is there anywhere without cameras?” Rachel asked, clearly not pleased about this new development.
”The bathroom is the only place, and it has the same arrangement that the one in Lavadula’s hab had for razors… That applies to everyone now.” Lilium said.
”What arrangement?” Willow asked, having never learned about the lockbox arrangement that was part of the bathroom in the old hab.
”Tori, would you like to explain?” Lavandula asked; It was phrased as a question, but it was a command.
”Um…” Tori started “Before Lavi found me I used to harm myself…” She paused, and looked at Lavi. ”Lavi built a system that required there to be two of us in the bathroom in order to open the lock box that contained our bladed razors. It uses our collars in order to determine if we both were in the bathroom. The door on the lockbox and the bathroom door couldn’t be open at the same time or alarms would go off.” Tori stopped and looked at Rachel and Willow. “I’m sorry that you two now have to deal with the consequences of my past.”
Rachel and Willow both walked over to where Tori stood and gave her a hug. “I’d rather you be safe…” Rachel said. “If that means that I’m a little inconvenienced, then so be it.”
“Rachel, going back to the cameras, you do realize that I can use the Hab’s AI to look anywhere in the hab, right” Lilium said. This caused Rachel to blush and the other three florets to giggle.
“I didn’t know that the Hab’s AI could do that, but I’m not surprised.” Willow said with a giggle, causing her tail to flick side to side gently. “I am so used to being constantly watched from my OCNI days that I just assume that I’m being watched all the time.”
“Same.” Tori and Emma said at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled..
“It’s not that we don’t trust you, it’s just to keep you safe…” Lavandula said. “Shall we take a look at the bedroom? The four florets left their reading nooks and walked to the bedroom, Lavandula and Lilium remained outside the door “May we enter?”
There was some quiet discussion in the room and then Tori’s voice came from within. “You may.” Lavandula and Lilium both walked into the bedroom and looked around. It looked just like they had envisioned it: one large room, two beds large enough for all four florets to sleep in at the same time, four spacious closets for their clothing, and two couches. The couches could be pulled out into beds, which would be handy if the little ones had friends over.
“What do you girls think?” Lilium asked, her vines moving in an excited manner.
“We love it.” Tori replied, speaking for the group. “But, I have a question…” Her voice trailed off.
“Yes?” Lavandula said, a hint of amusement in her voice. “What’s on your mind, little one?”
“So, we’re pets and have no rights within the Compact as such,” Tori said, her voice not showing any signs of emotion. ”Yet, you have informed us that our reading nooks and the bedroom are our spaces and you won’t enter without our permission. I mean, not to be disrespectful, but, which is it?”
“Let us go sit out on the couch and talk about this,” Lilium said. The request made sense, the furniture in the bedroom wasn’t really designed with an Affini In mind. Both of the Affini were slightly hunched over due to the lower ceiling.
”Ok…” Tori said, leaving the room, the others all followed her to the couches in the living room, “Why the sudden change?”
“We are…” Lilium paused, looking for words. “Trying something with the four of you.”
”We’ve been doing a lot of reading on Terran physiological development, and as such, we’re going to be using the four of you as guinea pigs, so to speak.” Lavandula said. “We want to see if you are happier being given a little bit of freedom or of it’s determinatal to your happiness. Since we have all of your vital data being recorded, we can use that to help us assess what’s going on with you.”
”We want to be able to help other owners be able to take better care of thier florets and any sophonts that might find themselves under a wardship.” Lilium said. “I have a lot of knowledge of Terran physiology, but this is an area I’ve been curious about. So we are going to use you four as a testing group, and will eventually expand this to other owners and sophonts.”
”Do we need to do anything to help with this… project?” Tori asked.
”Well,” Lavandula said. “Since we can’t read your minds, even with the implants, maybe keeping journals or diaries would help; this will let us have insight into what is going on in your heads. You can have two diaries, one shared with us and one that is private.”
”I think we can handle that…” Tori said, looking at the other three florets, who were nodding.
”Also, Emma,” Lavandula said, opening her body and pulling out a clear box that had a haustoric implant in it. “This is your implant. You will have a follow up with Asterid later this week and then early next week, we will get you in for the surgery.” Tori watched as Emma’s eyes lit up.
”May I hold it?” Emma asked. Tori was looking at the implant wiggling in the clear box. She didn’t get to see hers, it was cultivated and implanted while she was out after her breakdown in Lilium’s office.
”It’s very fragile right now, so I think it would be best if you were simply look at it from a distance.” Lavandula said, using a vine to reach out and place the implant on a shelf that looked over the living room. It was roughly head height for the four Terrans, so they could gaze at the implant when they wanted to. “We are kinda letting you four off leash as it were. Please don’t make us regret it.”
”We won’t, Mistress.” Tori and Emma said at the same time.
”We won’t, Ma’am…” Rachel and Willow said.
“We do have one more thing that we want your opinions on…” Lavandula said. “Rachel and Willow, you two know this because of the number of times I’ve pet sit you, but Lilium and I have been growing rather fond of each other and we have been discussing possibly filing paperwork to have our relationship recognized as us being a couple.” Rachel and Willow gasped.
”We wondered when this would happen…” Rachel said.
”What would this mean for us?” Tori asked.
”Well, the biggest change,” Lilium said. “Would be that either one of us could sign off on medical things, and we both would be your guardians. The only other thing that would change is the last names, we would pick one and that would be the one that we all used. Once that happens, you all might be first, second, third and fourth florets pinnate.”
”The order would be determined by the order in which you became florets,” Lavandula said. “So, it would be Rachel, Willow, Tori, and Emma Octal, first, second, third and fourth florets pinnate.”
”That’s…” Emma said, giggling. “That’s a mouthful…” Tori and Rachel started laughing; Willow purred. Lilium made a sound from her core that resembled a laugh.
”Yeah, it is…” Lavandaula said. “That’s why it would only be used if we were introducing the four of you at once, which probably wouldn’t happen that often.”
”What last name would we go with?” Emma asked, glancing at the two Affini after glancing at her implant.
”We haven't really discussed it yet, but we would probably go with Octal, as Lilium is an eighteenth bloom. She’s been around a lot longer than I have…” Lavandula said. Lilium and Lavandula joined vines. “So, do any of you have any objections?”
”No.” Tori replied for the four florets. It wasn’t clear what objecting to the effective marriage would do for the florets, and it was likely to happen regardless. “I do need to call Marissa and Allison and let them know what all has transpired, cause, uh, a lot has…”
“Who?” Lilium asked, not familiar with the two sophonts that Tori knew from the old days.
“They are friends of the little ones from her past,” Lavandula said. “They aren’t feral and I’ve already filed notices for them. Hopefully they will come around after around soon enough and realize that being taken care of isn’t all that bad.” Lavandula glanced at Tori, who blushed. She was staunchly against being domesticated up until she was forced to realize that it would be better for her. “I predict that they will see how good being a floret is…”
“One can hope…” Lilium said. “Do you girls have any other questions for us?”
“If you to do happen to get married, is there some kind of ceremony or party or something?” Rachel asked. “Because didn’t Ophelia and Garez do this and they had a big old party…” The thought trailed off.
“They did, and they did…” Lilium said, answering both questions. “We will arrange something.”
“That means…” Willow said, her tail flicking rapidly. “We need to search for dresses….”
“Well, the good news,” Lavandula said, a chuckle escaping her core. “Is that you can now wander the ship…”
“Yeah!” Willow said excitedly. She picked up her datapad and looked at her fellow florets. “Uh, do y’all wanna go to the library again?”
“We’ve not read what we picked up the other day…” Emma said, with a giggle. “But, I’m game…”