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Cellulose & Steel	By : Not-Taylor Category: Misc Books > FemmeSlash Views: 1028 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own HDG or its characters and I don't make money from this work.

Chapter List
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Knock knock knock knock knock
True to form, whoever’s out there fails to wait for permission to enter. This time it’s Evlen. Song sits straight up. She adjusts her clothing hastily and makes eye contact. The anthropomorphic hedgehogmorphic xeno turns slightly purple and smiles widely. Song smiles back and waves gently. He isn’t pushing a cart this time as he enters. Instead, he walks straight past Verda without acknowledging her or turning in her direction, and hands Song a white paper bag with a gear on the side.
“Is that thing a gear? No… That’s… a hedgehog’s head. Wow,” Song thinks.
“Good evening.”
“Hello, Evlen, what’s this?”
“Fast food! If my research isn’t deceiving me, this is an ancient Terran culinary tradition. It’s a cheeseburger, french fries, and cola. You’re supposed to eat all of that with your hands.”
“Cola?”
“Apparently there were once a thousand flavors, but the compiler only makes one kind, so that’s what you get.”
“Oh. Nice!”
“It’s supposed to be eaten as fresh as possible. I hoped you’d like it, Song.”
“I probably will.”
She takes out of the bag precisely what she’d been told was in it, as well as a large packet of ketchup. Everything smells greasy and salty. The cheeseburger is in an aluminium foil wrapper, which turns out to have paper on the inside, and most of the fries have spilled out into the bag. The soda sits precariously in the middle, tucked between Song’s legs so it doesn’t spill all over the bed.
Evlen continues to stand there, watching. She slowly and methodically takes a single fry, dips it into the ketchup, eats it whole, letting her lips wrap around it on the way in. That’s something she learned from television many years ago, before the Affini compromised all the networks. Song can never forgive them for interrupting the last season of the only show she’d cared about the plot of. One more proof of xeno treachery.
Meanwhile in the present, Evlen seems fascinated by how Song is eating. She remembers there’s more to the dinner than fries and bites into the hamburger very inelegantly. There’s just no way to make that look good. If there is, Song’s memory banks lack that information. Thank goodness she thought to take a small bite…
After chewing thoroughly and swallowing with a sip of what tastes like Cosmic Navy issue cola, she looks up to see that Evlen’s still waiting for her judgement. He’s certainly patient. But there are no napkins. Oops.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of these. It’s good. Thanks.”
That’s enough to make him hop a little, and then go pale for a moment until he realize nobody cares about his hopping. Then he just looks pleased with himself.
“I didn’t actually cook that, in fact the compiler was difficult about making it for me. Apparently it’s extremely unhealthy.”
“Of course it is. That’s why it tastes good.”
“Is it true these are conventionally served on roller skates? The idea of attaching wheels to one’s feet is cool.”
Song laughs. “I’ve never even seen those in my life. Nobody does that.”
Evlen looks disappointed. “Really? That was in a bunch of videos.”
“Maybe that was the case before the Lunar War, but not anymore. What do your people eat? I don’t think you ever talked about that.”
“A lot of soups and porridges. Our grains aren’t textured the way Terran grains are, so they’re quite nice. Maybe I could make you something at some point…” He looks with a taut expression at Song.
“That would be nice. I haven’t had much of a chance to learn about anyone else. My keeper has been too busy trying to turn me into yorkie.”
“A yorkie?”
“It’s…” It’s a dog, which is a small animal related to wolves. Is Evlen going to find any of that relatable? ‘It’s a little furry animal kept as a pet. They’re loud but harmless.”
“Oh. I see. I understand why you’d want to resist, but my life got a lot better when I stopped fighting my mistress. Not that I’d tell you what to do, but- Think about-”
He trails off as Song glares at him. How dare he suggest that? After all she told him, how could he even bring up surrender?
“I need to get dinner for everyone else ready now. I’m not cooking that either. The administration feels I’m tiring myself out by cooking so much, so I have to take tonight off.”
“What?”
“I don’t understand either. It doesn’t make me feel tired at all. What else is there to do that’s as fun?”
“You could make videos for new florets about how happy and perfect everything is.”
“But why?”
“A lot of florets are into doing that. I don’t know why.”
That makes Evlen laugh in a genuine way. It’s a clean, full sound and he looks much less nervous than before. “That’s true. They’d rather talk about their owners than anything else. But as I said, I need to move along. See you tomorrow if I don’t run into you before then.”
“Goodbye, Evlen.”
After he leaves in a normal way that isn’t driven by anxiety, Verda turns to her prisoner and smirks. Of course she does. In reality, rather than a deranged and perverse weed’s imagination, Evlen has simply accepted the weeds for what they are:enemies. Maybe his people could’ve fought them off with Terran support…
“I won’t say anything about that. You know everything there is to say.”
“I appreciate that.” She eagerly starts on the rest of her dinner, which she’s been more than ready for for the entire conversation. It’s just been sitting there, mocking her with its aroma. Now, it belongs to her. It’s just as good as it was a couple of minutes ago.
The culinary xeno has been growing on Song. With how he acted, did he think they were actually on a date? That deduction wouldn’t have been insane on his part, nor was how things progressed inconsistent with that. He even brought her dinner before he brought anyone else’s (if he wasn’t lying). That’s something couples do. Song can’t be part of a couple. Her time with Ginger-
He hadn’t called it a date. He called it a tour, so that’s what it must’ve been. That way, Song doesn’t have to wonder about what it means that she went on a date with a man and didn’t mind to the point where she let him kiss her. That’s what straight people do, and Song isn’t straight at all. In fact, not being straight is part of who Song is: a proud starship of the Cosmic Navy. Not really. Song’s just another Terran who failed to protect her world from the xeno menace.
But… How could Verda think that using xenodrugs to change its sexual orientation was acceptable? It’s barbaric! There have to be regulations against that! Even more importantly, why would she do that when there was no need? What possible benefit could there be? She said it was a side effect, but Song doesn’t believe that. Side effects don’t change fundamental parts of people’s character.
She knows all about curative movements and how their members think, but Verda doesn’t seem interested in cleansing society of filth. In fact, wasn’t Artemis the one who knowingly denied Song treatment, despite knowing how she was? That’s what Verda said they’d been talking about. If Verda isn’t lying after giving her word (minding that all xenos are deceitful by nature), she chose to deny that treatment, not attempt countermeasures, and not even use Earth style HRT, which they ought to be clever enough to replicate, or even just compile.
The excuse Artemis made wasn’t satisfactory to Verda, evidently. It’s not satisfactory to Song either, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to take Verda’s excuses seriously either. It’s so messed up.
Didn’t Verda call the alterations to avoid “fixing” Song an antidote? That’s strange. That would mean reduced effects in general, wouldn’t it? That can’t be good. So why wouldn’t she just give Song the xenodrugs to make her gay again? That would be simple. They have to have those, don’t they? Or do they? If they did, they wouldn’t need a “partial antidote.” And that’s to stop her from being into guys. So does that mean they don’t have a proper sexuality alteration xenodrug? Song doesn’t believe that. It would be too useful in torture situations now to develop.
But again, how would Verda benefit from messing with her property? She couldn’t have known about Evlen in advance, or that Song wasn’t already bi. Her reaction seems to only be in response to something she claims to observe. She didn’t seem even slightly upset about Ginger, except for the part that Song agrees is wrong.
And then there’s Evlen. The Terran knows that anything it feels toward him is an artifact of xeno trickery and not to be taken seriously. She also knows that she'll probably never see him again. He’s just a xeno, but… No, it’s wrong to think that way. It’s not even his fault he’s being used in Affini schemes. His mistress and Verda are working together to make them submit to their foul will. It’s a conspiracy between weeds against their betters. Evlen is too good for such treatment.
Song won’t let itself deny that it does feel something that it knows it shouldn’t. It didn’t mind what happened earlier. If Verda were trying to force that, she could’ve done so more efficiently, couldn’t she? None of that makes sense… And doesn’t Terran HRT cause those kinds of shifts too sometimes? That would mean Verda hadn’t done anything wrong. But she’s a xeno!
What if Evlen didn’t exist? Would Song still not want the “antidote?” Probably… It doesn’t mind the change, for some reason. That could be xenodrugs. Everything could be xenodrugs. The entire hospital could be a xenodrug delusion used to extract Terran military secrets! This isn’t productive to think about. Song plays music loudly through its headphones to try to drown out the offending thoughts.
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Cellulose & Steel