Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I'm glad we're in agreement," Beatrix said, "we seem to have the same sort of taste. Flannel is banned from my house. Even in the form of pyjamas. Does this mark as hopelessly femme?"

You didn't get much more feminine than Akuti and Beatrix combined, anyway, even if they were two distinctly different types of feminine.

"So growing up in a household of men didn't make you a tomboy."

"No, not at all," said her date. "I come from -- London, on Earth, if you've heard of it. I only came to Gaia with my best friend around two years ago." No need to mention the 'lunatic asylum for ten years' thing; it was not a good second-date statement. She was still trying to figure out what kind of father encouraged his daughter to wear shirts saying Playground Pimp. "I was the eldest of two girls; my mother died when I was quite young. My father was a professor -- I attempted to follow in his footsteps. My real family now is Jack, I suppose."

"Jack is my best friend," said the blonde woman, "I used to think of myself as something of his minder -- his driver, anyway." Why driver was somehow a title, and why it brought the ghost of a rueful smile to Beatrix's lips, was not really apparent. "We're both rogue academics. Who's in your social circle? You seem family-oriented."

"He is definitely the type to always need minding," said Beatrix, and there was the same ghost of a smile on her lips. Her arm tightened over Akuti's without seemingly thinking about it very much. "Jack is the type of man trouble goes looking for. In fact, trouble seems to have his address, phone number and schedule handy."

There was a slight pause as they crossed another road. "If you like," the slight blonde woman said after a while, "I'll introduce you. Jack is interesting. I know what it's like to have no social circle. And -- I was rather thinking you're in mine now."

Briskly, to follow this up: "After all, nobody else goes with me to the university concerts; I'm afraid you're a hot commodity." She tilted her head up, and because their proximity had gotten closer, accidentally brushed her cheek across Akuti's arm. She seemed -- or pretended well -- to not notice, or just passed it off as being a tiny Smurfette.

That actually elicited another short laugh from Beatrix. "I understand," she said, "though that's an apt description for -- well, meeting up with my family. My daughters are more than a little -- well, you can guess."

The mezzanine of the university music faculty was also pretty, though of course she could hardly appreciate anything but the layout and the architecture; there was already a sign up detailing the time that the orchestra would begin playing, though she would have to be closer to read it. "Jacoba brings new meaning to tomboy," she said, "and Wisp brings new meaning to both low attention span and lifelong flirtation with diabetes. You'd probably run screaming back into the arms of your own parents."

"I've heard it is," said her companion, as they made their way towards the entrance -- the orchestra were still tuning up, not bothering to hide that. The university kids all dressed in university clothes -- no dress uniforms or orchestra shirts -- and there were already some other people chatting in the tiered seats of the small ampitheater, as Beatrix -- without asking -- shuffled into one of the back rows with Akuti. "Six brothers? And I thought Jack was bad. I'm surprised you didn't grow up an incurable tomboy."

There was a pause as she sat herself down, smoothing out her clothes, and there was a wry smile on her pale face as she said: "My wit?"