Full disclosure: I am biased in favor of the tiny trees. In case you missed my avatar and my username, you should also know that I have a giant tattoo of a tree on my back. I would personally never get a facial piercing or have a tattoo anywhere it couldn’t be easily covered up, but if it was possible to have a bonsai tree grafted onto my body, I’d probably do it. Therefore, take my comments as you will.
Some have said the story didn’t have enough conflict for them - “The trees would have died. So what?” - but it was enough for me. As someone who loves trees (though, admittedly, not as much as the main character loves them – I mean, good lord!), I really thought the disease was going to win and all the trees were going to die. That made me genuinely sad. I was pleased with the happy ending and the renewal / regrowth implied by the orchid.
However, I couldn’t get behind the advertising angle. It didn’t fit with the nature of this story at all. (See what I did there?) To me, love of nature involves voluntary simplicity and the minimalist mindset and is usually in direct opposition to all the things advertising represents. When Saruman said “The old world will burn in the fires of industry,” he was being a villain: we’re not meant to emulate him. Also, he was later stomped by a bunch of angry trees. Karma’s a b#$%h.
You all had me worried this story was going to be embarrassingly graphic (I saw the thread about lesbians before I had time to hear the story), so I was surprised at how tame it was. Other than the bit with the dildo, I didn’t hear anything that made me blush. As Talia said, the skin-trees were a fetish for the main character and (to me, anyway) that overshadowed the lesbian elements considerably. The character was so focused on the trees, it was almost as if there wasn’t another woman involved. The sex scenes emphasized that the trees were beautiful and sensual, literally body art, and their loss would be lamented.