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still garden

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Set in the Human Domestication Guide universe. TW: statuefication, mind control, drugging, edging

The garden looked like something from a fairy tale. Wildflowers in every size and color swayed gently in the breeze, nestled among lush, willowy trees that overlooked the narrow pathway. Jewel-toned butterflies and lazy bees flitted between the pollen-drenched flowers. Creeping ivy was dripping off of every available branch, and Eve was fully occupied just with pushing it off her face. The air was thick with the smell of damp soil and sweet nectar. The only sounds were the wind rippling through the leaves, the distant burbling of a fountain, and Eve’s own footsteps.

The garden also looked like something from a fairy tale in that it was completely full of entranced, trapped humans, expertly posed and frozen in space. Their skin had an unnatural sheen that mimicked stone, so that anyone who didn’t know better might assume they were disturbingly realistic statues. It was only by touching one of the statues that their true nature was revealed — the stone-like skin was supple and pliant, and warm in a way that didn’t come from the sun.

Even knowing what the statues really were, Eve couldn’t help but stop in front of a particularly striking one. It was a naked woman, preserved perfectly in the act of reaching for a ripened fruit that dangled just above her head. Her hand reached, her body stretched, but her eyes were serenely closed, and her facial expression bore the same look of bliss and peace as every other statue here.

Eve simply had to touch her, to confirm the statue’s nature for herself. First, an innocuous poke to her arm, watching in wonder as the statue’s skin gave way before her finger. Then, a worshipful caress of her belly, the soft folds yielding easily. And then, when she was sure that the statue would not wake, Eve took each of her breasts in the cups of her hands, gently weighing and bouncing, marveling at her beauty and transfixed with horror.

The statue’s eyelids did not twitch, but Eve heard a low moan that could have been the wind.

With difficulty, she pulled herself away, walking deeper into the garden, past more and more humans trapped in uncanny perfection. Other alien creatures were here, as well, their fur and claws and tentacles preserved just as well as human flesh. Her heart was pounding in her chest, anticipation and anger making her stomach roil. The pathways led her deeper and deeper into the garden, arranged in a sort of spiral that led her to the center, and there, in the center, she found her aim.

Hedera Helix, sixth bloom, a creature that appeared to be nothing more than a vaguely solid mass of ivy with swirling, glowing eyes embedded in it, was sitting in the center, not occupied in any task. Waiting. Waiting for her.

“Why, hello, little one. Welcome to my garden,” she said in a voice smooth as honey. “Please have a seat and enjoy yourself.” She gestured to a flat rock covered in springy moss and tiny purple flowers.

“I’m not here to enjoy myself,” said Eve, tightening her fists. “You destroyed my friend.”

“Destroyed?” The ivy rearranged itself in such a way as to suggest an innocent smile. “Surely, that can’t be correct. I haven’t destroyed a single sophont in my life. But if you’d like to tell me about your friend, perhaps I can clear up this misunderstanding.”

“Her name was Amelia,” said Eve through gritted teeth. “And she was a fighter, one of the best of us. She helped us stay one step ahead of your patrols, jamming our comm signals, making well-timed jumps — until you goddamn plants finally caught up to us and dragged us here.”

“I see,” said Hedera. “I don’t quite see what that has to do with me, though.”

“You turned her into one of your fucking statues!” Eve’s frustration boiled over. “She spent months trapped here, and we were all too chickenshit to try and rescue her. And when she finally got out, she was changed.”

Hedera’s face lit up in recognition. “Oh yes, I believe I remember little Amelia now. She made a lovely ornament on my fountain, and I think she quite enjoyed the sensation of cool water running down her back. But tell me, how did she change?”

“You took away her fire,” said Eve. “She was the kind of person who was always ready to fight injustice, never able to rest as long as her people were suffering. She would give you the coat off her back if you needed it. And she never gave up, not ever.” She took a deep breath, trying to control her emotions in front of this infuriating, unfeeling monster. “After she came back from your garden, she was calm. Quiet and docile and totally subservient to the plants. And she signed up for so-called voluntary domestication right away, and now she has one of you fucking plants as a Mistress. It makes me sick to see her following at her Mistress’ heels with her head bowed, when the Amelia I knew wanted to set every one of you plants on fire.”

The ivy nodded. “It sounds like your friend has become a very good floret indeed.”

“You can’t just do that to —”

“It sounds as if Amelia used to be upset all the time at things that she couldn’t control and that weren’t her fault, ignoring her own needs and refusing to rest. And now she’s able to relax and be happy.”

“That’s not real happiness. That’s fake. She’s not happy just because you pumped her full of drugs and put a vine in her brain. The real Amelia would hate everything about it.”

“Perhaps,” said Hedera, “although I knew her throughout her time in the garden, and I can say that she was very happy indeed.”

“You can’t really think that turning living, breathing people into statues is helping them. You destroyed everything she was.”

“I certainly don’t think I destroyed her at all, little one,” said Hedera. “and I don’t think that you truly believe that, either. Otherwise, it would be very silly of you to come here to my garden alone, with no real object other than reprimanding me.”

Eve scowled. “I know it was probably a stupid idea,” she said, “but no one’s going to bring any of you plants to justice for what you’ve done to us. I can’t just watch what Amelia’s become and do nothing. You should at least have to hear how much you’re harming people, even if it doesn’t change anything.”

“And so I’ve heard you.” The ivy shifted. “I can tell that you cared for your friend very much, and I can see how much you’re hurting. You were very much alike, weren’t you? Never able to be at peace as long as there’s an injustice to correct.”

“We were alike,” Eve confirms. “Except that she was always better than me, and now she’s gone.”

“I don’t think either of those things are true.” The ivy was inching closer to Eve, the tendrils from above almost near enough to tangle in her hair. “I think you were just as dedicated in your own right, and I don’t think Amelia is gone at all. I think she was finally allowed to blossom.”

“That’s not blossoming. That’s stagnation.”

“Fighting an unwinnable battle with no respite is stagnation. By allowing her to rest, I opened her up to change.”

Eve looks around at the statues, their perfect poses and closed eyes and blissful smiles. “And you say this is rest?”

“Yes, little one, this is rest,” said Hedera, as tendrils of ivy wound around Eve’s fingers, teasing, toying. “And I think you knew that. I think you knew exactly what would happen to you if you came to scold me in my garden.” The ivy surrounding Eve began to blossom with deep blue, shimmering flowers, each one as large as a soup bowl. “After all, if you were to come here to give me a piece of your mind, disregarding all consequences, and happened to become ensnared by one of my lovely flowers, well, then — it wouldn’t really be your choice at all, would it? Just a mistake borne of passion and love for your friend.”

Eve swallowed hard, staring at the swaying flowers. “I don’t plan to be ensnared.”

“Perhaps you don’t. But you’ve been breathing in my pollen ever since you entered my garden, and that will render you still just as easily as my blossoms.”

“I’m not —” Eve realized that she had been rooted to the same spot ever since she’d entered this clearing, not moving even as the ivy drew closer and began to entangle her limbs, only free to talk and flick her eyes about. And now that she realized it, and thought of stepping back, she found that the idea of walking away, of doing anything but standing there and swaying lightly in the wind, seemed like far more than she could handle. “What are you doing to me?”

“I’m helping you, dear. Now don’t move a muscle.”

Eve’s eyes went wide, staring at the shimmering flower that was moving to engulf her face. Something within her was telling her that she didn’t need to move away, not yet, that she had all the time in the world and could take this moment to stop and be still. The silky petals brushed her cheeks, and she breathed in deep, and a sense of utter peace and belonging washed over her, impossible to resist.

“There you are,” whispered Hedera, whose ivy was now surrounding Eve. “That’s much better.”

Something dim and distant in Eve’s mind wanted to respond, but it seemed so much simpler, so much more pleasant just to relax, and accept, and exist. The tendrils of ivy were delicately tugging on her shirt, and now her pants, pulling off her clothing piece by piece. She didn’t feel any chill — instead, the warmth inside her was only growing.

Eve was cradled gently in Hedera’s the vines as she was brought to a secluded place deep in the garden. She was set down next to a tree, and carefully arranged as though she was peeking around the tree, one hand on its rough bark.

“You’ve always been searching for something, haven’t you, little one?” asked Hedera as she posed Eve’s head. “I think this look suits you well.”

Her feet felt comfortable as they sank into the earth, and her hand did not drop from where Hedera hung it, seemingly content to remain suspended. Satisfied with her work, Hedera allowed her ivy to descend from the tree, wrapping around Eve’s arms and breasts and thighs.

Soft tendrils began to ply at all of her sensitive areas, and pleasure was rising within her in a way that would normally make her moan and squirm, if she weren’t so still. She was used to being impatient in the face of pleasure, eager to climax as quickly as possible. This was different. There didn’t seem to be a climax, just pleasure that built and built and built, bringing her to the height of ecstasy without tipping her over. It might have been torturous if she weren’t so unnaturally calm.

Her mind was losing itself in a rapturous haze, unable to focus on anything but pure sensation. Just as the last of her thoughts dissolved away, Hedera was there, blowing tiny petals in her face, petals that smelled of lavender.

“Rest,” she whispered. “Rest, and feel nothing but bliss.”

Her mind grew heavy with sleep, as did her eyelids, fluttering and closing down. The dark felt comfortable, and she could still feel the sunlight and wind on her face, and see flowers dancing in her mind’s eye. She was sinking, sinking down into the deepest of sleep, a peaceful smile on her face as she stood beside the tree. And in that quiet of sleep, she finally felt content just to exist, to allow herself to blossom according to her deepest instincts, and not to worry about what she would become.

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