Andrea got bullied by her online friends into finally going out all femmed up. She is fucking terrified. Going out when she was boymoding was already pretty scary! Now she is at a bar, for gays, where people meet, dressed in real clothes to actually accentuate her femininity for once.

This is the scariest thing she has ever done in her entire life, why did she listen to her friends? Just because they were so supportive about how she looked she thought this would be fine to do. Stupid Andrea! Obviously you can’t trust anything non anxious you plans! Only trust the opinions of you when you are anxious! That way you never do anything scary!

Andrea has to remind herself that if she thought like that all the time she would never have started hormones in the first place,  that anxiety Andrea is actually full of terrible opinions and should not be trusted, and to stick to ideas she had when she was calm.

Andrea is supposed to be here to maybe meet someone or have fun but instead she is at the edge of the bar trying to look as small as possible and nursing a drink full of artificial citrus flavours and sugar.

Here is someone wearing an obvious shipboard uniform; The one-size-fits-all pressure suits with emergency helmet hookups. She stops a bit past the end of the bar, wobbling slightly in the way that people used to zero-gee sometimes do.

"Hey, are you alright? You look kinda..." Shrug. "Scared."

Oh god someone is talking to her, internal eeeeeek. “I uhhh… it’s my first time… ever coming to anywhere… like this.” Wether regular bar or gay bar, socialising is very scary. She never would have come here if her online friends didn’t push her to.

“Or going out… dressed like this either.” It’s a regular skirt and tank top combo, there’s literally more revealing outfits on the billboards outside. Andrea still feels practically naked like this. She is used to just wearing the uniform unisex work jumpsuits all day, or comfy hoodies.

"Well, you look nice! Now I sort of wish I'd bothered to change... Aheh."

She rubs the back of her head a bit.

"Uh... Mind if I sit there?"

The pressure suit does nothing to hide how pretty this girl is though. She would probably still look good in a burlap sack. “You also look nice!” Wow… smooth going Andrea, that’s not awkward at all, might as well swallow that foot in your mouth and choke on it. “Uhm sure, sit where you want.”

Talking is so hard, especially to girls who are pretty, this is why online friends are easier, you don't find out how pretty they are until you already know them.

Oh yay she's not making it worse. She gives a small grin and thus sits.

"I did bother to do makeup, on the other hand! Or have an expensive doodad do it for me, anyway. It's a nice doodad. I think I'm also just... Incredibly used to the suit?"

The bartender is eyeing her. Not suspiciously or anything, just a paying-attention signal. Lenora nods in that direction and starts browsing the tablet menu in front of the bar seat.

“The suit works for you! 10/10 suit.” Whyyyy does she have to be so laaaaaaame. That was so dummmbbbb. Andrea tries to put aside the usual thoughts of ‘you suck at this and will scare off anyone you talk to by being a loser’ to be polite and actually pay proper attention to this girl and make proper eye contact while they talk.

“Your makeup looks great, I think, I’m new to makeup… is mine okay?” Actual girl opinion from a real girl would be good, she’s been worried about having messed it up. Andrea thinks she followed the video tutorial okay… but also what if she didn’t and its ugly somehow.

She puts on a thinking look after selecting a beer, more closely inspecting Andrea's face. "Hmmm....."

Oh gosh, close attention, being stared at by someone so pretty is going to make her blush, and thats embarrassing, wich will make her blush more!

Andrea has been on hormones for a few years at this point, her face still has a bit of boyishness to it, probably will have that boyish edge for a few more years at least, but with the makeup doing it’s best to contour certain lines she thought she looked pretty good. Good enough that before she started panicking, she felt bold enough to go to this bar. Now, she is rethinking everything and dreading that she looks terrible. Listening to her panic brain is something she mostly tries not to do, but it is being very insistent right now.

"...Looks pretty natural! None of the big amateur mistake of using way too much, for sure. You look like you had a way you wanted to look, and hit it. Though I'm not exactly an expert."

Oh no validation, endorphins, Andrea is going to be unable to not smile. Even if she feels like it looks goofy. “Thanks….”

Oh no, what does she talk about now. Help. Why isn’t there some kinda of social rulebook to follow for this. Ahhhhhhhhh.

She wants to kiss that grin but woah there, slow down tiger. Don't be pushy when you literally don't know her name.

"So, I'm Lenora. I'm a rock hopper, mining equipment technician formally. Nice to meet you!"

“I’m Andrea, I keep shopping around new names but none seem to suit me so I keep going back to my original name… it sounds femme enough to non italians anyway.” She probably doesn't need to over explain her own damn name to this stranger. Why do you always do this Andrea. She hopes it wasn’t too weird.

”Being a spacer of some kind would be cool. I just temp, mostly in hydroponics. At least it’s warm down there.” She tries not to sound bitter, it’s a job she is vastly overqualified for, simply because she actually went to college, sure it was for a literature degree but most of the people working in hydroponics never even did high school and are always very high.

"Mmh... I don't like it when people look down on 'ponics. Everyone's got to eat. Everyone's got to breathe. Other 'low skill jobs' too." She makes air quotes.

New names...? Oh. ...Oh.

Unless she's leaping to conclusions again.

Her beer is served. She sips at it to stop herself from saying anything weird like 'I really thought you were a girl'.

Andrea is completely unaware of Lenora’s realisation because she thought it was obvious. That theres no way she ‘passed’ and Lenora was just being a cool and supportive ally.

”The job is mostly fine… I guess. Feel like I could be doing more than just checking that the automated system or my very very stoned coworkers haven’t fucked up the settings. A less cheap automation system wouldn’t even need my job.” Sure everyone needs to eat, but some jobs really are for robots. Also the vibes down in hydroponics suck, half the people working there still call each other ‘gay’ as an insult. God she misses being in college where people were less ignorant. She doesn’t want to seem like a dick to this girl though so she doesn’t say anything like that though.

"Really good automation is really expensive, and tends to need expensive replacement parts or software updates. But sometimes the job really is so stupid and so is the boss and trying to excel isn't worth it."

Sigh.

"But enough work stuff! I'm being boring and contrary, and that's just rude of me."

Well what do we talk about now! Aahhhhhh! Work is a safe topic. Now Andrea has no idea what to say. “Your job sounds cool though. I mean maybe it could be boring day to day but you know…. Spaceships are cool. You get to be on them. Go places.” Despite being a introvert shut in who hasn’t even bothered to explore the whole space station she is on, being able to go somewhere new sounds cool.

"Oh, it's not bad. Kind of... Hurry up and wait sometimes. Not much to do until we get to a work site and then it's really busy for a while. Long time out, and then I can cut totally loose and party or, more likely, do nothing resembling work, for a while. And yeah, see new stations. Meet new people. Like you! It's fun."

Eeee, like her. Endorphins from validation. “I wish I was brave enough for parties, took me an hour to psych myself up just to come here.” Extroverts are obviously actually a different species, how do they even do it.

"Well, was it worth it? Too soon to tell, maybe?"

“I mean talking to you is nice, if scary, nobody has called me a slur like I was scared of. I’ll probably have an adrenaline crash when I get home, swear to never do this again, and still think it was the most fun I’ve had in years.” Way to overshare Andrea. She is too used to being online. Normal people don’t say that kind of thing.

"Aww maaaan I want to hug you about that. Anxiety is bad. I had to deal with... Some stuff like that a while ago. Uh... Long story, but the solution is 'I'm saving up for my own ship or a share in one at least'."

It’s nice she didn’t hug without asking. Some family do that, and it’s always weird even when you’d still like a hug. “Hugging is allowed if you want to.” Was that forward? Andrea’s just giving permission if Lenora wants to, not actively asking for hugs. That’s probably fine.

”I know the reviews said the owner was cool, but coming to a lesbian bar is stil aaaaahhhhhh. First time ever going out all femme anywhere. My monkey brain wants to hide under a rock. But if i listened to it I’d never do anything so… here I am.”

There's a couple of things to unpack there, but first: Hug. A proper hug, if one inhibited by the jumpsuit which, form-hugging as it is, is still a vacuum-rated garment.

"...That's brave. Uh, if it matters I'm pretty much pan, or at the very least bi. Or... Omni? I don't judge about any of that. But yeah bars aren't for everyone, you kind of threw yourself out without a tether huh, cutie."

As oblivious as Andrea is, even she can’t miss those signals. Oh good lord this girl was definitely flirting with her, ahhhhhhhh! And a hug! And Lenora is so pretty! “ohmygosh, eep!” Andrea is reduced to a blushing mess who cannot figure out how to react or what to say. Her heart is racing so much it feels like it’s gonna explode.