Amanda woke up with a start in an unfamiliar, strangely-proportioned room rather than her tiny, grimy bedroom. She blinked and squeezed her eyes closed and then looked again, and it all flooded back at once. This is where her impulsive decision had landed her. Achy, alone, and friendless in a hospital run by alien plant people -- with a mind altering implant already in her head and no idea what would happen next.
She ran over the decision in her mind for the millionth time. She was already worthless, living a pointless existence full of rules that made her life worse but that felt like risking death to break. She had no friends, a lover that she had finally admitted to herself was abusive, and parents who only liked to pretend for appearances and didn't really know her at all. It really was a choice between ending her own life, and turning it over to someone else in the hope that they'd be better than death. Rather than letting herself chicken out or avoid endlessly in the process of searching for the "right" Affini, she'd opted for the "express route" of turning herself in at a domestication center as a potential self-destruction case. There really was no other choice.
Still, she was feeling panic rise as the intensity of the unknown became as real as the bump on the back of her neck.
The door opened and a massive, overwhelmingly broad plant creature paused in the doorway. It was seemingly made of dark green vines with moss, lichen, and fungi all over in every shade of green. Its face was made of overlapping leaves, and hornlike branches jutted up and back from its forehead, with strings of succulent leaves wrapped around and dangling from the branches. It had broad shoulders, large breasts (are they breasts? Amanda wasn't sure what to call the lumps on the chest of the decidedly not mammalian being), wide hips, a round belly, and thick thighs, which were revealed by the narrow, pointed skirt with high side slits that the creature wore. As the creature moved into the room, Amanda realized that its lower body was joined together as it slithered forward like a snake. Its powerful arms ended in relatively small hands with clawlike thorns at the fingertips.
"Holy fuck I hope this isn't mine" Amanda thought to herself, with a sinking feeling. The creature smirked, flashing pointed teeth.
"Well, it's more that you're *mine*, little pet."
Amanda gawked. What..? How..?
The creature seemed amused by her confusion and explained "I just finished my scan of your mind to check that the connection is complete, so I can still 'hear' your thoughts right now as if you've spoken them. Now I will turn down the sensitivity so that I only hear you when you are at an extreme emotional peak. It's more fun for both of us that way."
Amanda was still reeling. How could this be real?
"Oh, yes, introductions. I already know you so well it feels moot. Vetivert Curio, 13th bloom, it/its. And you are now Vinca Curio, 20th floret."
Amanda shook her head in shock and annoyance. "I don't even get to keep my name? I chose it! It's important to me!"