"I am dancing awkwardly around it. So you know how I mentioned that people could have blue skin and wings and stuff..?"

"Yes?"

"It's not only obvious, external physical differences that happen. From a purely medical standpoint my parents are both basically hermaphrodites. But they're both men in every other meaningful way."

"Did they know anything about this before the - I'm assuming accidental pregnancies? That must have been quite the surprise."

"It was. And no, they didn't. To make it even more dramatic, as far as anyone can tell Edie and I were conceived not very long at all before the whole beach fiasco."

Snort.

"And there was literally no barrier between Edie's brain and Dad's--Erik's--which meant that if nothing had been done about it she literally would have rendered him brain dead from projecting tiny baby love into his brain too hard."

"Well that's terrifyingly adorable."

"Yeah, that's actually why they were stuck together long enough to resolve their issues--Papa had to keep her contained and not breaking anyone's mind. Not that anyone besides Dad was at risk."

"Theoretically, I've got the same mutation in reverse, but since I'm not attracted to girls it's probably not going to come up."

"Unless you somehow manage to get a boy accidentally pregnant. One would think you'd have more cause than most to worry about the possibility."

"I did say the mutation's not externally apparent. In order to get a boy pregnant I'd basically have to grind my...bits against his anus. That's not a sex move I'm terribly interested in."

Mark giggles.

More blushing, this time of the "I am mortified I actually said that" variety.

"There's an established minority population of hermaphrodites on my mother's home planet, but they are the externally visible variety. And resulted from deliberate genetic engineering."

"That sounds very convenient for them."

"They run into a bit of trouble if they try to travel the galaxy; not everyone has heard of them, and of course there are planets like Barrayar where understanding the situation wouldn't make people any friendlier."

"Yeah. Ivan was pretty clear on that point."

"Yes."

"He was very nice about the whole thing though! A bit startled, but he recovered nicely."

"He does try, generally."

"I liked him."

blush

"He is very likeable."

"I know! He was very sweet. He has such pleasant facial expressions, and he was quite the gentleman. And he definitely...you know how some people just have a kind of emotional magnetism, he was like that, but with niceness. I'm really not coming up with a better way to explain it."

"I think I might know what you mean."

More blushing. "And he--no, you're his cousin never mind, sorry."