"Mm?"

"Okay, so after Shaw was dead, some idiot decided to fire missiles at the commotion on the beach. Erik stopped them. Erik was going to throw them back at the people who fired them. Papa objected. They ended up wrestling, and someone decided to shoot Erik in order to stop him from causing an international incident. He deflected the bullet. He did not deflect the bullet enough. It hit Papa in the spine. Words were exchanged. They were not, in the heat of the moment, well-thought out words. Erik took Aunt Raven and Shaw's former cronies and went off to sulk for a while. Then it became apparent that Edie--and I--existed, and this led to the two of them being stuck in a room together long enough that it came out that no, the things Papa said when he had just been hit in the back with a bullet were not his objective opinions, and they reconciled."

"I see. Out of curiosity, are you dancing awkwardly around the family situation of the four of you or is there something else going on?"

"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."