Silis

(By Satsukii on FurAffinity)

Name: Silis Aloe
Universe: Modern Fantasy
Official Reference: Here (By Philly)
Power: Succulent
Canonical Age: 20
Height: 5’4
Weight: 120
Personality in Three Words: Caring, sisterly, patient
Official Partner: None
History:
Silis was born to a man and a woman who lived simple lives with a low income and a small house. But as a baby, Silis came out looking pale and weak. Her skin was a very pale green, and her perfusion was poor. The hospital did everything they could, and she lived, but as time went on, her parents noticed that she wasn’t really thriving. They weren’t properly equipped or educated with how to care for a child who was half…plant, it seemed. While mutations and powers and other odd hybridization of DNA was getting more common in their world, they had to accept that their child needed a better chance. A chance to thrive. So they decided to find new parents for her; while it broke their hearts, they knew it was the best choice.
They searched for a pair of parents who would be good for Silis; what they found instead was a pair of parents who would be PERFECT for Silis.
One woman, Rose, was a professor of botany at the local university.
The other, Isa, owned her own flower shop in the city.
Not only were the two head over heels in love with Silis, but they were in love with each other, loved their jobs, made good money, and wanted a child more than anything in the world. It seemed meant to be; thus, Silis was adopted.

Silis grew up knowing how loved and wanted she was, and how her biological parents made the decision to give her up rather than have her struggle. Silis was very much loved by her parents, and had access to amazing things. She went to the best schools, went to greenhouses and zoos and aquariums and botanical gardens all over the world, and had all the pets and plants she’d ever wanted. Her parents always taught her to be humble and caring and kind, and so Silis grew up volunteering for dozens of organizations, doing charity work every weekend as soon as she was old enough to ride the bus on her own. When she got her first car, she was even more dedicated to the community and the less fortunate. It was her hobby and passion at this point.

Silis knows the world can be a cruel place. But she hopes that she can at least alleviate some of the suffering in the world by doing one good deed at a time.

—

James Aloe was a botanist. He graduated high school at age sixteen, finished his undergrad at nineteen, and finished his PhD at twenty four.
By twenty five he was engaged to his fiancé, Isa, and by twenty six he was married.
By twenty eight, James was now Rose.

Isa and Rose’s marriage has always been a happy one. Isa was a florist with her own shop, and Dr. Aloe was a very important professor at the local university. Money was never a problem; however, despite the couple wanting to fill their house with children, it turned out that Isa was sterile.
Those plans were put on hold for a while.

Then, James told his wife one day something that he’d recently realized and that terrified him. On the inside, he said, he felt like he was meant to be a woman. That he knew he was a woman on the inside. He wanted to be a woman on the outside now. He wanted to stop fighting this. He, he insisted, was supposed to be a she.
Expecting heartbreak, she was surprised when Isa simply shrugged with a smile and asked her when she wanted to go dress shopping. And would she be wanting a prettier wedding ring to replace the boring old band?

Life was great. Isa and Rose didn’t much care for judging eyes, but luckily their families were either supportive, respectful, or neutrally quiet. Everything was fine and they were happy. Their large house was full of plants of all kinds, they had a huge greenhouse in the back, and many kinds of pets- birds mostly, with a few cats and a St. Bernard, and a few aquatics sprinkled in the mix. Their house was nothing short of a paradise, and they’d worked hard for it.

One day, they received a call from the local child services- they’d been cleared to be foster parents, but, there was something the administrator wanted them to come and see.
A child, pale in all the wrong places and pink in even more wrong places. Her face was a pale green, but her finger tips were pink. And she was covered in tumors- well, maybe not tumors, but…they looked like- like buds, maybe?

The child was willingly given up by a couple who felt that they couldn’t care for her properly. She was first generation supernatural- neither of her biological parents had powers. So she was unique, alone, and new to the world as just an infant. Days old.
Having dealt with first generation children before, the administrator took a look at the waiting list for the best possible match.
And who did they find, but a couple of happily married, financially well off, beautiful women- who just happened to work with plants night and day.

Rose and Isa accepted the child happily. They were up for the challenge.
The first year was difficult. The child, whom they called Silis, was very hard to care for. Unable to communicate, they had to be alert for any signs of distress- especially since Silis didn’t cry much.

They found that leaving the baby in the dark for too long would cause her to weaken- but as she grew older, her tolerance grew as well. They had to balance light and dark, set up a UV light, make sure that the baby was getting enough light. They had to figure out if she would drink formula or if she would only handle water. They had to try bathing her in all different temperatures of water. Could they use soap on her skin? Would a long bath cause any cells to rupture? Why did she have yellow patches on her skin? Sometimes? Was this how anemia presented in her, like a plant?

It took years of care and caution, but the pair figured their baby out. Silis was a perfect hybrid of plant and human. Her cells were practically checkerboarded, in a sense- her plant cell walls couldn’t function properly because they were spaced next to animal cells. Silis, for this reason, was not hard and rigid like a plant. She could thermoregulate. She had organs, but her body  had special vessels for water transport next like a second lymphatic system. Her bones were nearly unbreakable. Her blood wasn’t thick, but watery and partially transparent.

The hardest part was figuring out a diet. Silis needed water AND formula as a baby. She needed light to photosynthesize, but she needed dark to sleep. She needed supplements for extra nutrients her plant parts needed that she couldn’t find in food. Rose and Isa developed pills she could take- plant food tasted disgusting!
Silis produced much less human waste than normal, and hypoxia was never an issue. She was interesting and fascinating and difficult- but together, Rose and Isa figured her out.
And they’d never been happier.
Silis was difficult to raise but once they got it down, they got it down. Their child was happy and healthy and loved to run and play. She’d run around outside with the dog while her parents tended to their gardens, and come up to them when she wanted a sprinkle of water.