Jaaf wasn't certain but shhee thought this whole event would only lead to disaster. However, the two androdoms before them seemed honest enough. The much taller and darker, calling ... him self Vanya of Zekira was quite polite and sedate, and rather more contained than the still tall but shorter than ... his companion, named 'Crazy Doc' Sanger. Was that his name? A title? Well, it could be explained in time. The gyndom that showed up a bit later to thank Jaaf and hir group for keeping Ivahn safe only served to perpetuate Jaaf's belief that worlds ought to remain separate... They could never get the right pronouns...
***
"He'll be more than safe here," Crazy Doc said, and Vanya beside him muttered something.
"She," he said.
"He," Crazy Doc iterated again, and it looked as though they'd be having this discussion for a while. Baeris on the other hand welcomed the 'obviously'-female Sanger into the fold with a brilliant smile. Ivahn prefered this gyndom to the other pair, if anything because ... she ... wasn't going to start some weird comedy routine. (Ivahn had never heard Baeris and Dulath go off on one another, had shhee!)
"The Abstract Destiny really could use your expertise, they do a lot of your work," Baeris said, while the two males were duking it out with words - he, she, what did it matter? They only got one gender? What a gyp! Ivahn brought hir attention back to the woman, who announced, "they'd like it if you would stay on for a while. Could you do that?"
"Well Jaaf thought so," Ivahn said, pushing hir fingers through dark hair that mirrored the others in the office. "Maybe shhee's just trying to get rid of me." Shhee gave of a sigh, "I hope shhee takes care of the little brats."
The androdoms looked up, confused. "You have kids with Jeff?" They both said at once.
"... two, yes," shhee replied, "Maartin and Kyyl, then there's Simone and Kaazandar."
"With Daverin and Brianna," Crazy Doc said, a curious look on his face.
"Well, you are pronouncing their names wrong, but yes?" Ivahn smiled and laughed. It was still their own smile, and their own voice, with or without the weirdly Scandanavian accent. Hir voice lilted a bit more than any of theirs, perhaps because it was a mixture of deep and light. They wondered if shhee sang at all, and what hir range was...
"So, wait," Baeris said, "how could you have kids with Daverin and Bri?"
Ivahn blinked once, pulled hir tongue through hir mouth to investigate something between hir teeth. "I thought you all were meant to be the experts on multiple-genre inhabitation... Did you not research my world?"
"It's got a lot of immortals," Vanya pointed out. "But beyond that, we rarely look much over other than whether one of us is alive or dead."
Ivahn nodded, but said, "then you don't know really, do you?"
"But you're a girl, they're girls," Baeris said, and immediately regretted it. Only in the presence of Kalkin, Vanya or another of the bothersome Sanger Men did she ever feel in the slightest like a moron. This time, it wasn't her fault. Vanya thought Ivahn was a female too.
Ivahn did something then, shhee pulled hir shirt (which was a nice blouse in a subdued green-grey color) out from hir modest chest, nodded, and then pulled hir trousers away from hir waist... and nodded again. "I am both, Baeris Kshau, not just one gender. All of my people are such. It was a conscious effort in the late nineteen fifties to embrace all the necessary changes we had to make."
While Baeris paled, trying to wrap her mind around it (and being reminded in the back of her head by Dulath that some of the 'Naughty' dragons and others hatched on their sands were hermaphrodites as well), Crazy Doc and Vanya glanced at one another and nodded significantly.
"Why these changes, then?" Asked Crazy Doc. "Aren't there any-" he was about to say 'normal' but then realized that would be a major mistake, "single gendered people left?"
"Perhaps," Ivahn said, shrugging, "if there are, I pity them. They will never get to learn the joy of birth, nor have the ability to ... write one's name in the snow at a distance..." Hir shoulders were a little more narrow and softer, hir hips more fleshed out than the androdoms. Shhee certainly didn't have the expansive chest and narrow waist that the gyndom Baeris had, hir face was somewhere between. Always a strong face, big teeth, long narrow nose. The little bits of Sanger Humor seemed to be passing over the heads of all the Sangers in the room. What a pity.
"Then," Crazy Doc said, fishing for new information, "Jaaf... is also a ... both?"
"Yes of course, didn't you notice?" Ivahn chuckled. "Shhee is very attractive, very distracting. I will admit that."
"Okay, okay," Baeris said, waving her hands in the air, and shooing the others out of the room. "Take Ivahn out to the Destiny, will you? I've got work to do, you're in the way, yadda yadda."
Thus they moved a little more quickly to get Ivahn to hir destination where shhee was to remain on board consulting with the local scientists and perhaps, finding a few dragons to sneak home...
While Ivahn busied hirself with duties and settling in to the station, shhee noticed a number of interesting things and people. And the dragons! With wide bright peacock-blue eyes shhee watched a hatching (having just arrived but not in time to be included, or shown beforehand duties) of some of the most incredible multi-limbed dragonets! There was talk of how truly unique they were, how odd both sexes were combined in several... Such was the oddity of living in a world like this, shhee supposed.
But there was one thing that kept showing up, well, thingS. Little furry creatures, slightly bigger than a dog, draconic by nature and apparently hatching. They were adorable things, and shhee eventually learned that they were called Terigon. Though Ivahn had never owned a pet, though shhee knew that these were more than mere beasts. They often spoke, and carried themselves with a self-aware attitude.
After being at the ship for a number of days, and growing restless to see some of the real work being done, Ivahn decided to meet up with Dr. Schroeder and ask about things. ...He seemed pleasant enough, though he did remind Ivahn a bit much of Yuli with his blond hair and sturdy build. But he was very friendly, and a brilliant mind - and had little or no interest in destroying anyone's life.
"May I ask how to ... acquire one of those Terigon creatures? I think," shhee looked away shyly, having never really done this kind of request before, "I think I could use a companion to grow with here."
The Doctor nodded and shuffled some papers, noting that there was a randomly created clutch waiting for more people to apply. Ivahn tried to contain hir excitement, this was something new, something that shhee could discover and learn from that no one on her world ever had! Well, people had pets but they weren't like a dog or cat!
"Then I would certainly like to apply for one. It would be staying with me, so you could keep track and... well, perhaps give me some tips on how to raise them." Shhee chuckled nervously, "I'm positive it isn't quite like raising a child either."
"Not exactly, no," the Doctor replied as he showed hir the way to the clutch area. "But similar enough, feeding and making sure they're clean as they grow, but once they are old enough you soon won't have to worry about those things. It will certainly give you something to do while we wait for the next set of Biosynth requests, eh?"
Ivahn nodded, following along and trying to remember where they headed. Even though shhee was from a significantly advanced 'genre', Ivahn was quite like hir otherworldly dopplegangers and had a truly horrible sense of direction. Shhee hoped that that feature wouldn't rub off on the new addition to hir life!
The egg was much smaller than Ivahn expected it to be, but quite heavy. Hard, how in the world would something break out of this? Yet by the time shhee got it home, it was wobbly in hir hands and ready to shatter. Shhee got it to the little spot on hir work table that shhee'd set aside, no important papers to get shredded or anything.
Shhee looked away for half a moment, trying to find a towel or something just in case the Terigon was cold or - more importantly - wet and gooey. Eggs were like that, gooey, right? Shhee turned back and discovered that little noise shhee had just heard? It was the egg being broken! But... Where was the Terigon? Shhee cast about, and smelled the distinctly 'alive' smell of open-egg. But it wasn't all that bad, and besides when one had been exposed to the things that shhee had in hir past, that smell was just fine.
"Come on out," Ivahn said, softly. Hir voice was a bit trembly - shhee hadn't expected it to hatch right now! Maybe in a day, an hour... but, within minutes of being brought in? What about all the other eggs back at the hatchery? There hadn't been all that many people looking like they were lined up to get one!
But shortly, soon enough because shhee kept calling gently out, and looking under things, Ivahn saw a pair of glowing eyes. Amber-brown, big eyes. Under the bed, of course. "Now come on out of there. I have something for you to eat! And you don't want to miss your first meal now do you?"
The Terigon paused, sniffed, and then sneezed. Carefully and casually, Ivahn set down the bowl shhee'd gotten and placed three smallish pieces of meat in it. "You can have more, if you finish that," shhee cajolled. "I do not even know what to call you, I wonder what I should-"
"Teirotu!"
Blinking, Ivahn looked back under hir bed. "Bless you," shhee said.
"No, that is my name." Then he proceeded to stand and marched toward the bowl. He came out from the bed, and at last in the full light Ivahn could see his pretty markings. Not that shhee couldn't see perfectly well in the dimmer area below the bed, but it was nice to see how the Terigon's fur shone. All but dry, Ivahn looked at the creature scarfing down his first meal, and set the towel down beside him. Rewarded suddenly by the fact that Teirotu walked straight from the bowl to the towel, rolled on it, and proclaimed himself 'done', Ivahn chuckled and sat on the edge of hir bed.
"Well that's ... that's perfect! Teirotu, I am Ivahn Sangar, would you like to stay with me here?"
Predictably, the sleepy Terigon muttered, "'s long as you keep the meals coming and a nice clean bed..." as he drifted to sleep.
Name: Teirotu
Gender: Male
Height: 2'2" to shoulder
Abilities: Telepathy. Teleportation. Verbal Speech.
Genetic Code: Ss E3E4 WW TT Y4Y4 C4C5 Ll X3X3 Uu I2I5 Nn P4P4 R2R3 AA