Andrea got bullied by her online friends into finally going out all femmed up. She is fucking terrified. Going out when she was boymoding was already pretty scary! Now she is at a bar, for gays, where people meet, dressed in real clothes to actually accentuate her femininity for once.

This is the scariest thing she has ever done in her entire life, why did she listen to her friends? Just because they were so supportive about how she looked she thought this would be fine to do. Stupid Andrea! Obviously you can’t trust anything non anxious you plans! Only trust the opinions of you when you are anxious! That way you never do anything scary!

Andrea has to remind herself that if she thought like that all the time she would never have started hormones in the first place,  that anxiety Andrea is actually full of terrible opinions and should not be trusted, and to stick to ideas she had when she was calm.

Andrea is supposed to be here to maybe meet someone or have fun but instead she is at the edge of the bar trying to look as small as possible and nursing a drink full of artificial citrus flavours and sugar.

Here is someone wearing an obvious shipboard uniform; The one-size-fits-all pressure suits with emergency helmet hookups. She stops a bit past the end of the bar, wobbling slightly in the way that people used to zero-gee sometimes do.

"Hey, are you alright? You look kinda..." Shrug. "Scared."

Oh god someone is talking to her, internal eeeeeek. “I uhhh… it’s my first time… ever coming to anywhere… like this.” Wether regular bar or gay bar, socialising is very scary. She never would have come here if her online friends didn’t push her to.

“Or going out… dressed like this either.” It’s a regular skirt and tank top combo, there’s literally more revealing outfits on the billboards outside. Andrea still feels practically naked like this. She is used to just wearing the uniform unisex work jumpsuits all day, or comfy hoodies.

"Well, you look nice! Now I sort of wish I'd bothered to change... Aheh."

She rubs the back of her head a bit.

"Uh... Mind if I sit there?"

The pressure suit does nothing to hide how pretty this girl is though. She would probably still look good in a burlap sack. “You also look nice!” Wow… smooth going Andrea, that’s not awkward at all, might as well swallow that foot in your mouth and choke on it. “Uhm sure, sit where you want.”

Talking is so hard, especially to girls who are pretty, this is why online friends are easier, you don't find out how pretty they are until you already know them.

Oh yay she's not making it worse. She gives a small grin and thus sits.

"I did bother to do makeup, on the other hand! Or have an expensive doodad do it for me, anyway. It's a nice doodad. I think I'm also just... Incredibly used to the suit?"

The bartender is eyeing her. Not suspiciously or anything, just a paying-attention signal. Lenora nods in that direction and starts browsing the tablet menu in front of the bar seat.

“The suit works for you! 10/10 suit.” Whyyyy does she have to be so laaaaaaame. That was so dummmbbbb. Andrea tries to put aside the usual thoughts of ‘you suck at this and will scare off anyone you talk to by being a loser’ to be polite and actually pay proper attention to this girl and make proper eye contact while they talk.

“Your makeup looks great, I think, I’m new to makeup… is mine okay?” Actual girl opinion from a real girl would be good, she’s been worried about having messed it up. Andrea thinks she followed the video tutorial okay… but also what if she didn’t and its ugly somehow.

She puts on a thinking look after selecting a beer, more closely inspecting Andrea's face. "Hmmm....."

Oh gosh, close attention, being stared at by someone so pretty is going to make her blush, and thats embarrassing, wich will make her blush more!

Andrea has been on hormones for a few years at this point, her face still has a bit of boyishness to it, probably will have that boyish edge for a few more years at least, but with the makeup doing it’s best to contour certain lines she thought she looked pretty good. Good enough that before she started panicking, she felt bold enough to go to this bar. Now, she is rethinking everything and dreading that she looks terrible. Listening to her panic brain is something she mostly tries not to do, but it is being very insistent right now.

"...Looks pretty natural! None of the big amateur mistake of using way too much, for sure. You look like you had a way you wanted to look, and hit it. Though I'm not exactly an expert."

Oh no validation, endorphins, Andrea is going to be unable to not smile. Even if she feels like it looks goofy. “Thanks….”

Oh no, what does she talk about now. Help. Why isn’t there some kinda of social rulebook to follow for this. Ahhhhhhhhh.

She wants to kiss that grin but woah there, slow down tiger. Don't be pushy when you literally don't know her name.

"So, I'm Lenora. I'm a rock hopper, mining equipment technician formally. Nice to meet you!"

“I’m Andrea, I keep shopping around new names but none seem to suit me so I keep going back to my original name… it sounds femme enough to non italians anyway.” She probably doesn't need to over explain her own damn name to this stranger. Why do you always do this Andrea. She hopes it wasn’t too weird.

”Being a spacer of some kind would be cool. I just temp, mostly in hydroponics. At least it’s warm down there.” She tries not to sound bitter, it’s a job she is vastly overqualified for, simply because she actually went to college, sure it was for a literature degree but most of the people working in hydroponics never even did high school and are always very high.

"Mmh... I don't like it when people look down on 'ponics. Everyone's got to eat. Everyone's got to breathe. Other 'low skill jobs' too." She makes air quotes.

New names...? Oh. ...Oh.

Unless she's leaping to conclusions again.

Her beer is served. She sips at it to stop herself from saying anything weird like 'I really thought you were a girl'.

Andrea is completely unaware of Lenora’s realisation because she thought it was obvious. That theres no way she ‘passed’ and Lenora was just being a cool and supportive ally.

”The job is mostly fine… I guess. Feel like I could be doing more than just checking that the automated system or my very very stoned coworkers haven’t fucked up the settings. A less cheap automation system wouldn’t even need my job.” Sure everyone needs to eat, but some jobs really are for robots. Also the vibes down in hydroponics suck, half the people working there still call each other ‘gay’ as an insult. God she misses being in college where people were less ignorant. She doesn’t want to seem like a dick to this girl though so she doesn’t say anything like that though.

"Really good automation is really expensive, and tends to need expensive replacement parts or software updates. But sometimes the job really is so stupid and so is the boss and trying to excel isn't worth it."

Sigh.

"But enough work stuff! I'm being boring and contrary, and that's just rude of me."

Well what do we talk about now! Aahhhhhh! Work is a safe topic. Now Andrea has no idea what to say. “Your job sounds cool though. I mean maybe it could be boring day to day but you know…. Spaceships are cool. You get to be on them. Go places.” Despite being a introvert shut in who hasn’t even bothered to explore the whole space station she is on, being able to go somewhere new sounds cool.

"Oh, it's not bad. Kind of... Hurry up and wait sometimes. Not much to do until we get to a work site and then it's really busy for a while. Long time out, and then I can cut totally loose and party or, more likely, do nothing resembling work, for a while. And yeah, see new stations. Meet new people. Like you! It's fun."

Eeee, like her. Endorphins from validation. “I wish I was brave enough for parties, took me an hour to psych myself up just to come here.” Extroverts are obviously actually a different species, how do they even do it.

"Well, was it worth it? Too soon to tell, maybe?"

“I mean talking to you is nice, if scary, nobody has called me a slur like I was scared of. I’ll probably have an adrenaline crash when I get home, swear to never do this again, and still think it was the most fun I’ve had in years.” Way to overshare Andrea. She is too used to being online. Normal people don’t say that kind of thing.

"Aww maaaan I want to hug you about that. Anxiety is bad. I had to deal with... Some stuff like that a while ago. Uh... Long story, but the solution is 'I'm saving up for my own ship or a share in one at least'."

It’s nice she didn’t hug without asking. Some family do that, and it’s always weird even when you’d still like a hug. “Hugging is allowed if you want to.” Was that forward? Andrea’s just giving permission if Lenora wants to, not actively asking for hugs. That’s probably fine.

”I know the reviews said the owner was cool, but coming to a lesbian bar is stil aaaaahhhhhh. First time ever going out all femme anywhere. My monkey brain wants to hide under a rock. But if i listened to it I’d never do anything so… here I am.”

There's a couple of things to unpack there, but first: Hug. A proper hug, if one inhibited by the jumpsuit which, form-hugging as it is, is still a vacuum-rated garment.

"...That's brave. Uh, if it matters I'm pretty much pan, or at the very least bi. Or... Omni? I don't judge about any of that. But yeah bars aren't for everyone, you kind of threw yourself out without a tether huh, cutie."

As oblivious as Andrea is, even she can’t miss those signals. Oh good lord this girl was definitely flirting with her, ahhhhhhhh! And a hug! And Lenora is so pretty! “ohmygosh, eep!” Andrea is reduced to a blushing mess who cannot figure out how to react or what to say. Her heart is racing so much it feels like it’s gonna explode. 

She will unhug shortly after so as not to overwhelm the smol tiny Andrea too much. Right in the open in the middle of a bar is...

"I think... Uh... Well, it's resisting being put into words, but I guess the sentiment is 'everything's gonna be okay'? The people who'd object to you dressing how you want are self-righteous bastards and I'll give 'em the finger for you if everyone else here doesn't beat me to it."

"Amen!" calls out another woman who happened to be walking by at that moment.

Andrea wants to cry, but happy tears. Wow people are so nice. But crying would be embarrassing so she rubs her eyes. “You’re so nice, everyone is so nice.”

Andrea squirms on her seat. “I uhhh… it’s the first time anyone has like… you know, in this context… the gay bar… and you called me cutie… and made sure I knew your sexuality was compatible… I…am reading this correctly right?” Because she was oblivious enough about these things that she had to make sure. “I don’t really know what to do now… or how any of this works….” WHY IS THERE NO RULES FOR MEETING PEOPLE LIKE THIS THAT SHE COULD FOLLOW.

"I meant that as... I mean, I don't think things through all the time but it was like 'hey, liking girls is fine, so do I! Boobs are great!'. And I don't think through my words so 'cutie' was... Oh god I'm embarrassed now."

She shakes her head.

"...I do think you are cute. The nervousness but trying anyway, and imagining how you'd react if- Uh- But I don't wanna do things that make you uncomfortable? That would be bad."

“You can just… ask? If there are things you wanna do. And then I can just say if it’d be uncomfortable.” Wow that sounded kinda lewd in retrospect. “I’m a very blunt person. I’d prefer that to like… bad guessing where nobody knows whats okay.”

This is the second time Lenora called her cute… she should reciprocate. “And uhhh… I think you are incredibly pretty and being called cute by someone as pretty as you is the opposite of uncomfortable.”

She attempted clear communication but whatever is going in is in fact less clear to her now. Is she being flirted with? She is trying to flirt back if so. Aaahhhhh! This is why talking to women is scary! She is too gay for this!

"Aww, thanks! It's always nice to be complimented. Mm... Okay. Totally clear, huh...? I would like to chat some more and get to know you a little bit. More than just what we do for work. I would kind of like to kiss you and watch you go red and babble-y, but I think it'd be better if that waited a bit. I bet I'll have more to kiss you about later, and you can anticipate it. Cutie. Hehe."

“Eeeeeep” Help, a pretty girl wants to kiss her. What do? Welp, Lenora wanted red and she got red. Andrea is rather pale like a lot of station born are, so the blushes show up very strongly on her skin.

“I uhmm… yep I consent to that in advance.” Andrea is both is ecstatic and also wants to die at the same time. She is way too gay to deal with this! It’s not fair!

"Cuuute. What do you do for fun? Hobbies? I do sports when I can, and video games when I can't."

“Reading a looooootttt of webfic, videogames. VR sims mostly.” Less VR games and more getting immersively ASMR pampered by tall monster girls, but obviously she’s not going to admit that part. “Or rythm games, I like being able to zen out and let muscle memory take over and just be objectively consistently getting better at something.”

"Ooh, I tried a couple of those, rhythm games I mean, but they didn't really keep my attention. I get antsy easy. I've never been great at reading. I mean, I can read fine, but it's not fun. Kind of a dumb jock here..." 

“Reading gets me out of my head and into someone elses. Also I wasn’t great at making friends as a kid so I had nothing better to do. I also wasn't even allowed AR goggles until I was 16, which is insane, I had to do schoolwork on a handheld. My parents were weird about immersive media in general in a vaguely religious way. Books and reading were seen as safe and wholesome hobbies, hah, morons.” So much gay romance, mountains of shitty girls love stories, continents of fanfiction smut. Andrea consumed way more filth BEFORE she got access to AR goggles, not after.

”Books are actually the real vehicle for the gay agenda.” She jokes.

"Aww, that stinks. Growing up is hard. Parents can be... A whole tangle of feelings. Huh. I mean no disparagement against book enjoyers. AR is better. I am just a very..." She deliberately leans close and purses her lips, tapping them with a finger and smirking to draw the eye there, and winks. "A very physical person. Hands on, you could say."

“Eeep!” The blush is maintained.

“I uhmm want to give permission for that but also part of my brain is going ahhhhhhhh so uhm… Casual touching should precede anything so I can get used to it without flinching?” God she sounds like such a fucking loser dork. But just going to get haircuts is incredibly uncomfortable because strangers touching you is scary even when you want them to. “Sorry. I’m not used to like…. Everything.”

"Heeee. Sorry-not-sorry. I will be clear and specific about touching."

She leans back and considers her drink and orders something fruity and non-alcoholic next. One is enough, today.

"Hmm... Have you experienced zero-gee much?"

“Low G near the center of the station and not like, actual weightlessness, but it’s pretty close. Is your ship tiny enough it doesn't spin at all? Or are you doing vacuum trips? Vacuum is terrifying you’ll never catch me outside of a pressurised area.” Actual space is scary, thank you big ass rock that she lives on for protecting her from space. Agoraphobia is common and understandable for people not born on a planet.

"Oh yeah, I do a lot of exo work. Construction, salvage, maintenance. I have a maneuver unit and double tethers. It's not much worse than being on a small ship. And yeah, rock hoppers aren't like the big liners with gravity decks. It's all zero-gee."

“Wow, no way could I do that. Even just in VR space walks make me feel exposed. So you probably work out alot huh? If you are in Zero-gee alot, you look too fit to have the usual tone loss.” Mhhmmm yes fit lady who could definitely lift her, Andrea has specific tastes and Lenora is matching them.

"Ahehe... Yeah, it's uh... Meditative? And there's not a lot to do on trips, they don't like burning more fuel than they need to or transiting at high relative velocities. Safety issue. Still, I might go for a gene treatment about it some day. I already have a muscle and bone lace treatment. If I'm gonna invest in stuff, it's me I invest in!"

“Well uhm… it works for you. Well from what I can tell under the suit. Muscles hot. Wish I had them, but exercise that isn't a rythm game is not effort I can manage.” Honestly the rythm games probably are the only reason she isn’t either fat or a skeletal twig, that and walking to work.

"Aheh..." She's feeling a little - bashful, actually. Yeah, some people like strong women but it's not universal. "Yeah, thank you... Uh... Do you want to feel my arm?"

The gloves are off right now, and she can pull up a sleeve with some effort.

“If thats not weird?” Mmm yes squeeze strong arm, hot, that arm could totally lift her by the hair, shut up internal pervert, you don’t even know if you are even a real masochist, you just like reading about it. 

“Maybe it’s bad gender tropes influencing me, but being the weaker one appeals to me. Brains are weird.” Over sharing again…

"Brains are weird! And arm touching is fine by me." Especially since Andrea seems like she needs to get used to touch.

She pulls up the vac-suit sleeve. And flexes a bit. It's not a bodybuilder's arm but that's definitely muscle.

Hnnhh hot. Feeling it flex is very hot. Andrea squeezes her thighs together. “Hot….” Aw damn she said it out loud. Now she’s blushing again.

Nice. She is smug about this reaction.

"What kind of VR games are you into? I have a pretty high bar for ones that include spacewalks, seeing as I do real ones, so not those preferably. Also I'm going to kiss you on the forehead now."

She waits a few moments for an objection before doing this (and also ruffling Andrea's hair a little bit with one hand).

Hair touching will make Andrea freeze up because oh gosh wow usually having someone (the hairdresser) touch her hair was awful, but this is weirdly dumping dopamine directly into her brain. What the fuck, how is it this nice. She absolutely does not tell Lenora not to smooch forehead and Andrea has to bite her lip when it happens, to hide any embarrassing sounds she might make. 

“I might actually die. I’m too gay for this. Aaahhhhh.” She has completely forgotten the question was about VR games because pretty girl kissed her, even if its on the forehead thats still! Things! Stuff! Shiny! Excite! Panic? A little bit of panic but mostly Yes! Good!

"Hehe. I'm glad you're having fun."

Andrea needs to calm down. She needs to calm down also. No getting boners in a public bar! Think unsexy thoughts, deep breaths.

”I feel like… anything more intimate than that probably needs to be not in public. I’ll probably react super embarrassingly.” Not that she is asking for anything more intimate than that, just… you know. For future reference just in case. 

"Sure, sure. Don't want to scandalize anyone, even if it's cute." She smirks.

Compliments are Andrea’s weakness. It’s not like she’s stopped blushing in the past while but this will make her squirm in her seat also. “This feels unfair. That you can just push the dopamine button so easily like that.” She mumbles.

"Oh, well, know why it's like that? Because everyone deserves nice things, including you. Shoulder pat?"

Again waiting for an objection first, she gives a shoulder pat.

"The universe is vast and cold. People are warm and cozy."

“You are pretty cozy….” What does she even mean by that? Stupid brain just blurting things out. “God, I have no idea what to say now. Where does a conversation even go after something like that…”

Seriously how are they supposed to talk about normal things when a forehead has been smooched and Andrea’s heart is racing so fast.

"I asked what games you play a bit ago but I guess you missed it."

“Vr rhythm games. That make you dance or move in some way to hit the notes. Only reason I’m not completely out of shape. Or like… stuff on the more simulation aspect of things. There’s a remake of a power washing sim that’s relaxing. Or social apps, most of my friends are online. You get weirdly used to talking to unrealistic stylised avatars instead of normal humans. It’s sometimes weird when you see I.R.L. pics of them for the first time because mentally you associated them with a floating toy robot or a cartoon fox.”

And of course, terabytes of ASMR VR sims where she gets praised and pampered. It’s the majority of her hard drives. But she will die before admitting to that.

"Any good rhythm ones? I might try to get into 'em again."

“Uh yeah, Opensaber is a community project, you hit notes coming down a track at you with swords. Has beatmaps for most semi popular songs. You have to get real niche before you find a song without a beatmap someone made for it. Dance dance revolution knockoffs are usually fun. Cannonade has you directing artillery to the beat with a drum set. Necrodancer Returns Remake is a Rythm game meets RPG thing. You kill monsters to the beat by stomping in directions you want to go. Different monsters require different patterns. So it’s sorta dancy? But in a tactical way.”

Ah yes, hyperfocus knowledge, this is such safe conversation territory. She needs to not over explain things and seem like too much of a nerd though. People get off put when you go into too much detail or seem too excited about this kinda stuff.

"Ooh, the Necrodancer thing sounds maybe fun!"

“There’s a 2d flatscreen pixel art version of the remake with the same mechanics for relatively cheap if you want to try it, and the original Necrodancer games are free even if it’s super ancient and needs an emulator to play, from before I was even born. In VR it is kinda cooler though, more dancy.”

Andrea has to hold back from stomping her foot under the table in a muscle memory induced pattern as she remembers the first levels music in her head. It’s damn catchy.

"D'you think my phone can run the 2d version? And know where to get it on the station's net? Or is this more a workstation or full VR rig thing."

“It’s a 2d pixel game, my actual fridge UI can run it.” Don’t sound condescending… not everyone is a huge fucking nerd like you Andrea. “Just look up Necrodancer remake in whatever built in store your phone has. No needing to get stuff from alternate repositories or use emulators or anything.” Even someone like her mom could do that. “It’s like the price of a cup of really bad synth coffee. The 2d version I mean. The VR one is more a real game price.”

"Cool cool."

She brings out her phone here and now to try and do this thing!

It is the third result on whatever application store her phone has, after the two obligatory sponsored results. The first thing on its app page is “FULL GAME FOR ONE PRICE. NO MICRO’S!” Literally the first thing. They know who their audience is. The rest is pictures of cute little pixel art dungeon monsters in a dungeon on a checkerboard grid overlay. The trailer video shows the player character and the dungeon monsters alike taking one step on the grid to every bop of the beat, each monster with a different movement or attack pattern. “Now with 35 more songs than the original! Original levels have variant versions you can unlock! 10 more levels than the original w/ Variants! 8 more characters! And best of all a pettable dog!”. The mix of timing inputs to the beat and tactics seems to appeal to other players, the game has good reviews.

She buys it and sets it to downloading. "I'll check it out later! Any non-spoilery tips for the clueless noobie?"

“It’s pretty well tutorialized. Spears are my favourite weapon, can hit from two space away or hit two at once if they are lined up right. There’s a beatless mode where enemies only move when you move that you can practice with, but doing stuff to the music is like half the appeal.” This feels kinda awkward, just being a nerd at people usually puts them off. Andrea is worried that’s happening.

"Yeah I think I'll only play with the beat. Careful strategery isn't my thing."