Just dropped the first chapter of my very own HDG story, Entheogen, with a huge shoutout to my partner (and Mistress) @hotghostshibari for their help writing Myconia! This story follows a burnt out corporate xenobiologist who finds her way into the vines of an equally neurodivergent plant who, for some mysterious reason, has mushrooms instead of flowers! Will she learn to see the world with wonder again? Will she get florted? Will she get absolutely slammed down by a giant mushroom womanthing? Come find out :3
CW: noncon drugging, anxiety, deadnaming, xenophobia
18+ only, minors DNI, as always
Full story beneath the cut, thread in betas in the hdg discord if you'd like to talk to me about it, please enjoy!
Hurried voices echoed through the corridors of the Corben Bioworks corporate survey vessel, CBS Rains of Proxima, occasionally joined by the mechanical accompaniment of doors sealing, weapons being readied, and controls being toggled. They were the sounds of a ship preparing for battle, something Madii Lunae had hoped to never experience. She glanced nervously up from her screens as multiple crew members glided past her door, held aloft by the microgravity of near-interstellar space. She lowered her gaze back down to the screen mounted on her desk, reading and re-reading the ship wide alert at the same time the comm’s officer came over the intercom.
'RED ALERT. RED ALERT. ALL CREWMEMBERS PREPARE FOR MILITARY ACTION. XENO WARSHIP SPOTTED NEAR EDGE OF SYSTEM. EVASIVE MANEUVERS ENGAGED'
Madii swallowed nervously and fiddled with the magnetic stylus on her desk. Even in microgravity, her leg twitched up and down rapidly as her head filled with anxiety. The ship was supposed to be a research vessel, stars, it was literally in her contract from Corben Bioworks that they couldn’t use any of the weapons on board. And yet here they were. She guessed the dissolution of government and outlawing of corporations made those contracts not really matter anymore, but the same now went for the contracts guaranteeing her safety.
“I can't just float here” Madii mumbled to herself, not really realizing she said it out loud. She grabbed hold of the handle on her desk and used it to push herself across her lab, or at least it was the room that used to be her lab. Over the past few months her lab, along with all others on the ship, had been hastily retrofitted to act as a medical bay and the scientists within them as medics. Where tanks of alien flora and shelves of xenobiological catalogs once stood, now sat cots and monitors, prepared to take on any crewmember who gets injured while fighting the Affini threat. Not that they’ve gotten any reports of ships being attacked and making it out with crew in the first place.
Madii glided across the room to the small viewport on the space-side wall of her office and gripped the handles under it to stabilize herself. She looked out past the array of antennae on the side of the ship to see a larger part of Gliese, the binary system they had been orbiting on the edge of. They had hoped that the xenos wouldn't check a largely uninhabited jumpthrough system.
They were wrong.
In the far distance, illuminated by the red glow of the sputtering twin suns, hung a pink starburst shape. It was practically glowing against the void behind it. Stars, how could they have missed that? Madii felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had never seen an Affini ship in person, and she could only help but wonder what horrific monsters were glaring back at her from across the darkness.
-
Myconia glanced passively through the window of Its office. It wondered what could be going on on that little ship as it no doubt suddenly made signal contact with the Bromelia. It, unlike the little terran across the void, was not panicking. It was gazing out the window with one eye while focusing the other three on an otoscope currently deep in an adorable little floret who had complained to her owner of ear pain.
“Yeah, seems to be a common side effect of the Class-M’s she’s on, especially with Terrans with a predisposition for patulous eustachian tubes.” Myconia said, speaking over the girl’s head at the Affini behind her. “Something to do with prolonged slackening of the muscles around it. There’s some specialists on Summer Station researching it right now, I’m sure it’ll be fixed soon. I’d suggest a week long Class-M detox, and I’ll have some heavy Class-H’s ready at the front desk. You’ll be able to ‘doll her out’ with them, but it won’t be as rigid.” Myconia said, looking down at the little blushing Terran who was trying her very best to stay still, despite the constant twitching and stimming. Myconia pulsed the glow of the large mushroom caps on Its head in a soothing pattern, helping the little cutie slacken a bit. “Does that sound okay, little one?”
The girl smiled sheepishly up at It, knowing exactly what to say after being asked a question she didn’t even hear. “Yes, Miss Myconiaaa” She said, twisting back and forth in her skirt adorably. “Good girl.” Myconia said, patting the floret with a vine and slipping a lollypop packed with Class-A into the little stoner’s mouth. The owner smiled, picking up her rapidly melting pet and giving Myconia a few words of thanks. The pair left just as a notification appeared on one of Its office monitors.
“Terran cuties located and locked on!! We’ll have them in our loving vines in no time! Please prepare for grapple and boarding action!!” The screen read out in scrolling Affini glyphs.
Myconia made the sound It learned from being around Terrans so much, a sigh, it was called. It let a quick breeze ruffle through Its vines and dimmed Its fluorescent mushroom-dotted body, as if to display a release of energy. A new rebel ship means more Terrans rescued, but it also meant first time pet owners, and that meant more ‘what should I do if my pet swallowed this-or-that’ questions. Myconia finished the paperwork of the pet It just treated, and filed a request for the strongest Class-Hs they had on vine. After a quick moment of enjoying the feeling of a happy pet well cared for, It switched the feed on Its monitor to the adorable floret hobby video about zen gardens It was previously watching. It reached with a few fine tendrils and drug a little rake across the sand in the small desk box. Myconia loved these cute little Terran things, they were so useful for detangling after a long day. Just as It was finally starting to relax, Its mushroom dotted vines gently uncoiling around the base of the chair, a second notification from the ship’s consciousness appeared on Its screen.
“Apologies everyone!! Seems like the little ‘Free Terran’ ;;;;;) cuties have spotted us, and are attempting to flee. We’ll be entering hyperspace for a moment so we can pounce on em! Please brace your florets, and thank you for your understanding!!"
-
Madii gasped, eyes wide, and pushed back from the window. She blinked a couple times, rubbed her eyes, and pulled herself close again. The ship just vanished. It winked out of the void right as she was looking at it! Had it gone into hyperspace? It couldn’t have! Cosmic Navy ships jump with noticeable lensing as they tear through spacetime. From straight on, the Affini ship seemed to simply shrink to a point and vanish from the void, as if it had never been there in the first place. Could they have gone? Maybe they didn’t see the ship and they left. Madii’s mind flooded with possible explanations, spinning its wheels until it was interrupted by a blaring intercom.
“RED ALERT. RED ALERT. LOSS OF VISUAL CONTACT WITH XENO VESSEL” Madii twitched at the sudden loud noise, but quickly began to move. She had been so bored during her first weeks on board that she had actually read the ship’s protocol manual. She might have been the only one, including the captain, to have done so. “ENGAGE SAFETY HARNESS AND PREPARE FOR EVASIVE MANEUVERS AND HYPERMETRIC KICK IMMEDIATELY”
As the message finished, Madii glanced across the room and pushed off the wall, headed towards one of the many harnesses across the ship. As she passed her desk, she nabbed a medical tablet off its magnetic mount, tucking it under her arm while she flew. She had landed against the harness on the opposite wall and strapped herself in. As the belts clicked into place, she felt the rapid flow of panic swelling up in her mind. She hated the feeling of hypermetric kicks, but hated the idea of falling into the Affini’s grip even more. She needed to calm down, she told herself, hyperventilating would fix nothing. In fact, hyperventilating was exactly what you weren’t supposed to do during a hypermetric kick, and jumps always hit her gut particularly hard. Needing a distraction, she decided to focus on the tablet. Her eyes flowed over every biometric readout on the ship. Nothing out of the ordinary, of course, other than a collectively increased heart rate among the crew. Madii closed her eyes as she felt her head start to spin with anxiety.
“It’s gonna be okay. It’s gonna be okay.” She repeated to herself, trying to pull in the reins on her spiraling mind. It didn’t work.
-
At nearly the same moment the notification appeared on Myconia’s screen, it heard little gasps from the Terrans outside Its office. The small pockets of air between sand particles collapsed, and the whole pattern of the zen garden broke down.
“They really should warn us earlier about that. Poor little things get spooked every time.” It grumpled to Itself before shaking the sand flat and starting again. As It started to rake, a small drop down opened on Its screen, a readout of information about the Terran ship currently being trapped. ‘Terran Megacorporate Survey Corvette, 170 meters, two rotational rings..’ It had heard concerning rumors about Terrans coming out of megacorp ships. Just as bad as the military ships, with Terrans coming with crushed souls rather than hyperferalist ideologies. For the sake of the little sophonts on board, It hoped they were just rumors.
-
A monotone whirr began to fill the emptying corridors of the Rains of Proxima as the jump drive began to spin up, preparing to launch a spear of exotic matter through space and time. Madii squinted her eyes and cringed preemptively. She always hated this part.
“PREPARE FOR HYPERMETRIC JUMP.” The navigator’s voice called out over the intercom, which was growing increasingly staticky as the ship’s electric fields began to warp with space. “JUMPING IN T-MINUS… 5.. 4.. 3.. T-” A gasp came over the intercom, accompanied by the sound of everyone else in Madii’s hallway gasping. She herself, already cringing, jolted in her harness as the kick hit her like a punch to her sternum and her stomach cramped. She wasn’t ready for that. That happened early. Why did it happen early. Madii forced her eyes open, wiping tears that microgravity formed into bubbles. As soon as she did, she let out a gasp and looked around, eyes wide. The ship's lights were completely off, as if someone had just flicked the switch off. The darkness of the ship allowed a cascade of crimson Gleitian light to paint the inside of Madii’s lab. The normally sterile walls of the ship illuminated only in red had an eerie sort of alien beauty that Madii had scarcely seen before, if she wasn’t gasping for air, she might have taken a moment to appreciate it.
“J-JUMPING!” The worried voice of the navigator broke Madii out of her thoughts. Wait, that wasn’t our jump? The ship shook as the suddenly very loud jump drive unleashed its payload, tearing a hole in space that would.. Wait.. Madii looked around rapidly. The room was still bathed in crimson light. Why didn’t she feel anything? Where was the kick?
“What’s going on Micheals?” The voice of the Captain barked, still sharp through the muffled intercom. It’s clear the navigator didn’t turn off his mic.
“d-don’t know sir. I initiated the rump, ‘says the drive released the payload. I don’t d-d- .. oh… STARS IT’S HU—” The navigator’s voice suddenly cut out as the intercom filled with static and the ship shook against her back. She had to squint as the sterile lights suddenly winked back on and looked around the room for some semblance of understanding. Madii untucked her tablet from under her arm and stared at it, eyes flicking wildly about the screen. Dozens of error messages filled a panel on the side. No injuries reported, but huge sections of the ship were marked with red, indicating catastrophic damage. She fumbled to unhook her harness, flew back to the widow, and moved her head around, trying to use every angle through the small window. There was nothing out of the ordinary in her limited field of view, other than the presence of the Gleitian suns and the distant sta-
Madii froze in shock. In almost the same moment she turned her attention to the twin stars, a massive, spiked tendril shot up between them and her. Madii reeled in horror as the vine cast a dark shadow over her face. Oh stars. Oh fuck. The Compact has arrived.
-
Myconia heard the characteristic excited shuffle of second and third blooms rushing past Its office, all making a butterflyline towards the tunnel to the bay the Terran ship was being docked at. It shuddered a groan and pretended to roll Its eyes, an expression It very much liked borrowing from the cuties around It. As much as It might enjoy taking care of Terran patients, It had never really found the right sophont to domesticate, and this far into the Terran Pacification, a new ship meant more medical processing and less researching, rather than an opportunity for adoption. Its friends always looked at It with pity in a way It detested when It expressed such feelings, but It told Itself they were the consequences of Its dedication to Its work. Sacrifices for discovery, eh?
All the introspection was making Myconia wish It had something to focus on decomposing. It tapped on Its tablet a few times until It found a suggestion for the pizza place (adorably named ‘Petperroni’) a team of Beeple had started after becoming fascinated with Terran cuisine. Its next appointment wasn’t for 80 Terran minutes so It tapped through a few options and placed the order. A little graphic of a dancing Beeple spinning a sign that said “Thanks for ordering!!” appeared on Its screen, drawing a small smile from the Affini.
-
Madii’s mind was moving at a million meters a minute. She stared, jaw held open in horror, as the massive tendril stretched up and over the ship before tightening around it. Bending metal whined as it struggled under the weight of the vine constricting around the ship. A massive impact shook the ship around her, jolting her hands which were wrapped tightly around a rung. The slam was followed by another, and another, and another, each impact seeming closer and closer. Madii looked back at the hallway, searching for the source of the sound, only to realize it was far too late. The world seemed to slow down around her as the hallway floor deformed as it was skewered from underneath. The metal tore at the panel seams like paper ripping, and a massive vine, evidently what forced its way through the hull, rocketed up to the ceiling, piercing a hole through the ceiling with just as much speed. Madii barely had time to scream before her voice was drowned out by the deafening roar of the void. The vine had punched holes in the hull, and the pull of space on the ship’s breached atmosphere was suddenly rapidly dragging out anything not bolted down. Unfortunately for Madii, she was not bolted down.
-
Myconia glanced at her monitor’s calendar. It watched in real time as various Affini started pre-booking examinations for their expected new florets. Maybe volunteering for this time slot as an auxiliary veterinarian was a bit too much of a workload, It considered. It was itching to focus on Its own research, but nothing short of adopting a floret would get it out of this commitment.
“Knock knock, bookannelid, mind pulling your antennae out of your communicator for a moment?” A familiar, tinkling voice spoke from the door, accompanied by the quiet rapping of wood on alloy. A slightly shorter, tightly wound Affini stood in the doorway, the friend of Myconia’s whom It initially offered to help at the clinic, Alphira Datura, 18th bloom. Alphira was formed from a tightly bound, luscious green cluster of vines, with small white flowers blooming across her body. In her current form, she had positioned the flowers to paint in her details, from expressive eyebrows to flashing eyelashes to flowing hair. She stepped into Myconia’s office without asking, half walking and half gliding across the floor. When she spoke, her voice sounded younger and sharper sounding despite her comparative age. She smiled sheepishly as she broached the topic yet again. She was the one heading up the medical on-boarding after all, she usually got first pick of the litter, as the Terrans said.
“Listen, I know you’ve said a hundred times that you aren’t interested in having a floret of your own, but I was looking through the manifest of this adorable little ship we just vined, -did you see that it was a science vessel?- Anyway, I found this cutie. I know what you’re going to say, but please, just look it over.” She spoke quickly, handing Myconia a tablet with a Terran Accord personnel file on it. “For its sake, if not your own."
-
The howl of naked void rang in Madii’s ears as she was sucked across the office and clawed uselessly against the flat lab floor. The world continued to move in seeming slow motion as she looked ‘down’ toward the void that pulled her closer and closer. She saw the handle on the door ahead of her and reached out to grab it as she slid past. Madii let out a yelp as her hands slammed against the handle and gripped as tight as she could. She could feel her nails digging into her palms as she held for dear life while styluses, bottles, and anything else not in containers got sucked through the holes and away from her sight. Madii saw her tablet slam against the wall next to the door, but by sheer luck it managed to get wedged against the raised edge of the door. Eyes stinging from the wind, hear pounding in her head, she turned her head upward to gaze through the hole in the ship.
She could see the endless blackness of space, dotted by the occasional star. This was her first time ever seeing naked void. Oh shit. People rarely, if ever, survive encounters with space, even in this century. She was going to die. She was going to die, wasn’t she? Her mind began to spiral, her thoughts spinning towards the void like a whirlpool in her head. She couldn’t bring herself to look any longer and tightly closed her eyes. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t real. She was going to wake up any second she was going to be okay it was all going to be okay please she didn’t want to die she didn’t want to die she-
Madii’s spiraling train of thought abruptly stopped in tandem with the cessation of the roaring wind. Had she died without realizing it? It almost seemed like the ship had re-sealed. She slowly opened her eyes, only to find her gaze met by a trio of fellow crewmates, all in some sort of holding-on-for-dear-life position. Two were across the hall, Lila and Johnny, visible from around the side of the vine, and the third was her coworker in the lab over, Vanessa, a stuffy girl who's usually straight black hair was now messed up and wind-blown. The four Terrans shared worried looks as their minds tried to catch up with their circumstance. It was Vanessa who spoke first, nodding to the tablet that was now floating behind Madii in the disarrayed lab.
“M-Milo, you have the readout. What’s going on?” The rattled looking astrogeologist asked Madii. For some reason, amidst all this, her head still caught on those four, cursed letters. She didn’t even have time to be frustrated at herself. She nodded and turned in microgravity towards the tablet, but as she went to reach for it something she hadn’t seen in months began to happen. The tablet, however slowly, fell to the ground.
-
Myconia mocked another sigh and turned toward the door, smiling with amusement. It took the tablet in a few vines and gave it a once over. The Terran’s name was Milo Lunae, a young adult, scored quite a bit higher on flimsy Terran intelligence tests and even published a paper on potential xenobiological medical advancements when it was at something called ‘Corben Institute of Biology’. As a nice plus, Alphira wasn’t kidding, it was pretty frosting cute.
“Fine, fine, I’ll go look with you, but I’ve told you I’ve never found the right floret and you know that.” It said, rising to Its full height and putting Its screens to sleep with a wave of a vine. It left a little note and a lollypop for the pizza delivery floret, and the two Affini exited the veterinary and joined the bustle of prospect owners moving towards the smaller petal-side hangers. It was a part of the ship Myconia rarely spent time in, as most of Its excursions were to the microgravity labs that line the ship’s stem. It glanced down at the tablet occasionally, reading about all the sophont’s little quirks and irregularities that it received write-ups for.
-
Madii and her crewmates slowly floated down to the floor of the ship, once again sharing concerned looks as gravity inexplicably reasserted itself. As her legs touched the floor, Madii felt the strain of momentum pushing against her like she hadn’t in months, and it took her a second to remember how to stand. She carefully pushed herself off the new ground on wobbly legs and grabbed the tablet off the floor. Her eyes grew wide as she stared down at the flimsy screen. The hull was reporting damage it shouldn’t be able to survive, and yet, the atmospheric readings were nominal. No, not just nominal, actually, better than that! The readings more resembled the scans of carboniferous worlds with plant scrubbed, oxygen rich atmospheres than a choked survey vessel.
“That doesn’t make any sense.” Madii says out loud to herself and her coworkers. She raised her eyes to see the confused look on her crewmates faces and answered their question before they could ask. “It’s.. It’s like we’re in the middle of a rainforest.” She said hesitantly. “And I don’t know where to start about the grav..” Madii’s voice trailed off as a warm, sweet smelling, humid breeze wafted over the group. Her crewmates, who had all also pulled themselves to their feet, took reflexive deep breaths of the refreshing air. It was much better than the stale, headache-inducing near 20% atmosphere they had been breathing. Madii’s thoughts began to rapidly spin up as she watched her crew fill their lungs.
-
“So how’d you figure out about this little thing?” Myconia asked her companion, still reading about the Terran while sidestepping the line of potential owners with Alphira’s clearance. The pair had followed the crowd into a tunnel that led to the outside of the rotating petal arcology they lived on, where docks suspended rows of ships above the lazily shifting void. Most of the ships here were of Terran or Rinan design, as the Bromelia’s grasping tendrils deposited their catch here, rather than the larger main stem hanger.
“I was searching through the archives of their ship, looking for anything that stood out. It’s a little survey ship from some megacorp, so there’s lots of planetary scans for the Neoxenoveterinary Archeobureaucrats to pour over. I did, however, notice a note from their Captain about acquiring a new biologist for their survey missions. Apparently the ship searched for new planets to exploit. Positively primitive if you ask me.” The shorter Affini scoffed and ruffled her leaves slightly. The pair of plants reached the hanger just as the vine-pierced ship was being hauled into place. A large wood lined screen by the start of the dock displayed readings of the ship; All lifeforms stabilized, no casualties, and proceeding as usual. Large pink words in curling Affini glyphs slid across the screen.
‘RELEASING ATMOSPHERIC PACIFIER’
“Well, we haven’t had a Terran scientist here that wasn’t traumatized into believing that ‘for the greater good’ rubbish in a while, so if this Terran is the exception I’ll be glad to meet it.” Myconia said, looking deeper into the file. The Terran had multiple therapist visits and reprimands from captains for things that, the more It looked at them, simply seemed like signs of the rather limited Terran term ‘neurodiversity’. Myconia felt a little bad as It read, then a lot bad. This wasn’t the way It usually felt about sophonts. Though It couldn’t put a vine on why. It felt not just pity, not just the will to help, but the physical need to help. “Alright, you win, Alphira.” It chuckled, vines twitching slightly as It began to mentally prepare for what was to come. “I can’t believe it, but I’ll see em. At least for their initial checkup.”
-
Something wasn’t right. Madii watched her friends take deep breaths. Something wasn’t right about this at all. Madii took shallow breaths of the saccharine air as she looked down at the tablet again. Why would a hostile alien force give them air? “Guys, I’m not sure we should be..” Her mind rapidly ran through a hundred possible options as she spoke, right up until the moment she spotted it: A flashing alert in the life support panel.
“WARNING. UNKNOWN AEROSOLIZED XENOLOGICAL COMPOUND. SEEK BREATHING APPARATUS IMMEDIATELY.”
Madii’s eyes grew wide as she stared at the screen. All at once, crew biometrics were beginning to wink out, as though they were all going to sleep at once. She felt a knot tighten in her stomach. Oh stars. Madii raised her eyes right as Vanessa, now with a huge smile on her face, collapsed to the ground with a thud. The other two of her coworkers gasped in horror as the woman dropped, then each began to look drowsy as well.
“DON’T BREATH!! HOLD YOUR BREATH! HOLD YOUR-” Madii shouted, but it was too late. She had already turned away before she heard their bodies hit the ground. She clapped a hand over her mouth and pinched her nose shut as she felt a slight tipsiness at the edges of her mind. She stumbled across the room, legs struggling to adapt to the new gravity, to a panel on the wall with a gas mask symbol below the Corben Bioworks logo that had been ever present in her life. She slammed it open, almost knocking it off its hinges, and yanked the gas mask off it’s clamp. She pulled the mask over her face and breathed out to clear the diaphragm. It was just like the diving regulators she had read about in preparation for her imagined future as an intrepid explorer, and each consecutive breath felt less and less stuffy through the filter. Once she was confident the mask wouldn’t suffocate her, she looked out to the hall and passed out Terrans on the floor. Tiny, scintillating specks were now drifting through the warm air, swirling in little sparkling vortexes as the breeze from above spread it around the ship. It was probably the toxin that had knocked out her crew, her anxious mind told her, and this time it was probably right.
Madii silently cursed herself as her mind added yet another horrifying realization onto the pile: She had left her pistol in her bunk. It wasn’t like she had wanted the weapon, the rebels had practically forced it into her hands when they took control of the ship, but that was before she felt the alien menace breathing down her neck. Now that she was alone, her mind swam unbidden toward the horrifying future. Her crewmates were dropping all around her and she had no way to fight off the coming swarm of surely ravenous xenos. She tried to remember everything the rebels had barked about the Affini. They would tear her apart, they would melt her mind with drugs, they would send her to the mines, they would.. they… Wait a minute.. Why did the air smell so sweet?
-
“Ahh!! That’s so exciting!!” Alphira cooed, shaking her lush foliage quickly, mimicking the way Terran florets shiver when they get all excited. “I finally did it, I, Alphira Datura, finally broke the great and stoic Myconia!” She giggled and nudged Myconia goadingly with a loose bundle of vines. She tapped a few times on her tablet, then grinned at It. “I’ll have a medical room prepped for you and your little scientist to get to know each other. You know how feisty the sharp ones can be- or,” She paused with a knowing smile. “You’ll find out!”
At just that moment, the dark screen above the door flashed with a cheerful, bright pink message. It seemed like Myconia’s cue.
“PACIFICATION COMMENCING AS EXPECTED!! BOARDING MAY NOW BEGIN!!”
It rolled all four of Its eyes at Alphira and shuffled Its leaves in exaggerated annoyance, before pulling Itself along the dock toward the ship alongside a fair few other Affini, all of whom probably had similarly specific sophonts in mind. One by one, they slipped and slithered through the vine-punctured hull. The ship was cramped, sterile white and reflective, with no pizzaz or decor. It had seen sets like this in Terran media, but It hadn't actually believed that they’d really force themselves to work and live in structures as tight and dull as this. How could anyone work in a place like this, let alone live in it? It looked down cramped corridors and into utilitarian bunks as It moved, looking for Its sophont of choice. Ah, there it is. Myconia paused at a hall that had once been labeled “0-G Sample Labs”, but had since been christened “MEDBAY 3” in hastily scribbled, oily ink.
-
Madii’s eyes widened as she breathed the sweet smelling air through the mask. Her head had almost shaken off the fog of her first breaths, but it suddenly started to get fuzzy again. Was the gas mask broken? Oh stars. Oh stars oh shit oh fuck. Her breath started to quicken, and as much as she recognized that she shouldn’t be hyperventilating poison air, she couldn’t stop the panic from taking over her. Her suspicions were all but confirmed as scintillating specks floated up into the face portion of the mast. The cheap mask was probably never designed to work in the first place. Probably some cost saving measure so the corporate higher-ups could afford another bonus.
“Ohhhhh fffuck youuuuu Corbenn” Madii groaned, watching pixies swirl around the mask as she breathed out. Wait, what was she doing? Why was she watching the little sparkly things instead of.. instead.. Oh.. my… She slumped forward and pushed the faulty mask up her face as she leaned on her hand. She looked up with lidded, rapidly glazing over eyes as a massive, nightmarish abomination of green and blue shapes swayed into the room through her blurred vision. A little drool dripped from her mouth as she watched the xeno approach, and Myconiai thought it looked quite cute.
“YoU aRe MiLo, CoRrEcT?” It asked, trying to make Its voice as soothing as possible. It stepped forward towards the Terran, tilting Its head slightly as It watched the little thing slump. The Terran looked absolutely adorable, but It could tell that the cramped conditions had not been kind to it. “i CaN gEt YoU oUt Of ThE gAs, If YoU dOn’T fIgHt Me.” It said softly. “OtHeRwIsE, i’Ll HaVe To LeT tHe PaCiFiEr Do ItS jOb.” It sighed and outstretched a vine. Myconia let Itself hope a little, but It had doubts that were quickly confirmed.
A shiver shot through Madii as the monster said her ‘name.’ Its voice was melodious, but in an incongruent way, like It was speaking in time with a tune she couldn’t hear. She flinched weakly away from the dark shape of the daemon’s grasping vine.
Myconia watched her eyes lazily unfocus and the mask fully slip off her face. Dirt, the Terran’s head fur was gorgeous, even if a bit matted and more than a little in need of a proper wash. It doubted that this ship had anything close to a proper grooming station. “PlEaSe, I wIlL nOt HuRt YoU.”
Madii’s limbs were growing heavy and her head was starting to wobble. She groaned quietly, using all her willpower to push words to her lips. “Fffuu.. xxxeno…” She mumbled to the monster's disappointment. Good. She was glad It was disappointed. She wouldn’t give in. Her eyes drooped. This couldn’t be it. This wouldn’t be it. She wouldn’t let It take her. She wouldn’t be like those thoughtless puppets she had heard about.. She wouldn’t.. She..
The curious little thing mumbled something incoherent before fully slackening in its seat, a display of sheer adorability that brought a sad smile to Myconia’s face. It couldn’t bring Itself to part with the little feral. To the dirt with consequences, It couldn’t leave the poor thing like this. With a little extra willpower, It forced Itself forward, gently wrapping Its vines around the Terran’s body before hefting it into the air with ease.
Madii’s world darkened from the edges, a tunnel closing in around her as the cosmic horror bound her tightly in Its disgusting tendrils. As the vines tightened, a feeling of strange secureness washed over her. She felt her mind relax as though climbing into a bunk after a long day, followed by.. … contentedness?
And then she fell asleep.
That's all for now folks! thanks for reading, and please do let me know what you think! <33
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