"It's a lovely moon. Perfectly suited for late night strolls."

"I hear the eclipses are something else, but haven't had any in the hemisphere since I've been on the planet. It's gorgeous just doing standard moon operating procedure, though."

"It really is. I've never seen a solar eclipse, but the lunar ones are awesome too."

"Most moons aren't the right size to do those things very neatly. It's one of Earth's more famous features. Top three."

"What are the other two?"

"Birthplace of humanity, cultural center of the galaxy. There's richer planets, I think Tau Ceti and Escobar compete on population, but Earth has the good novelists and musicians and so on."

"Oh, I thought you meant like physical features. Birthplace of humanity, bit obvious."

"Physical features it's the moon first, and second I guess the biodiversity - there are planets with native life but it tends to be inconvenient, fragile relative to terraforming, and not usually as well-developed as Earth's, and nobody puts all the kinds of beetles without missing any on a new place they're terraforming."

"Oh, that makes sense. Now I'm imagining some poor terraformer crying over the difficulty presented by all these blasted beetles."

"There are really too many! I don't know a whole lot about terraforming but I imagine they must skimp on the plants, too."

"I don't think anyone's going to cry over leaving behind poison ivy."

"I've never even heard of that, and based on the name I imagine you are right."

"It produces chemicals that itch for weeks if you touch them. There's an urban legend about a guy who--never mind, it's not delicate."

"Is there a sign? Please do not be indelicate in this bar?" asks Ivan, looking around.

"No, but in my experience men don't like stories involving nasty chemicals and a man's sensitive bits."

"This is true," Ivan admits, "but not for reasons of delicacy."

"I feel like there's an innuendo there about the delicacy of the relevant area but the specifics are escaping me."

Ivan thinks for a moment. "I can't come up with anything," he sighs.

"Tragic. Such a perfect opening, and neither of us enough of a cunning linguist to take advantage."

...sporfle. "That - only sort of works, I think the bar is translating, but it comes close enough. So to speak."

"I hope there's no one who's going to take offense at you hearing such things from strange girls."

"I am currently quite lacking in anyone who might fear attempts on my virtue, myself included."

"Ooh."

"And how about yours, do you have virtue-guarding dragons and a moat or anything?"

"Nothing of the sort. I'm unattached at the moment, and anyone else who thinks it's their business shall find themselves entirely disregarded."