Tenta-chan considers for a moment, then decides against joining Maxine in the bath. 

However...

<Um, excuse me?> She sends to Missouri. <Maxine's feeling really unconfident in her body, as you can probably tell, even though she's gorgeous. And I'm not sure how to exactly help her - going and hugging her about it right now seems like it would just aggravate things.> Tenta-chan curls her tendrils together. <Do you have any ideas?>

When Morrison sees Maxine getting into a hot tub, she gives her the most adorable, hopeful, wide-eyed, pouty expression she's ever seen.

Fletcher looks up, instinctively drawn by some sense destroyers share, spots Maxine way over there, and promptly joins Morrison in pointing a weapons-grade pout at Maxine.

<I'll nudge things along if Destroyer Eyes don't manage it,> she sends back, slipping into the pool herself, Nola beside her.

"Now you've done it," Lexi says with a laugh. "No one on base can resist the cuteness of pouting destroyers."

And indeed, the two destroyers are dangerously cute, pouting up at Maxine like that.

... She really really really doesn't want to go over there, but she's going to anyway. They clearly want her to, and... it's important that she fit in. Her instincts are telling her this is the right thing to do, even though she's blushing INTENSELY. 

She takes a slow breath, and a small bikini appears on her body with a swim skirt. It's a little easier to get out of the pool wearing it, and then she's able to come over to the main one and slip into the water and very carefully not look at any of the various places her eyes are tempted to go. 

"Yay! Ooh, that's such a cute bikini! But yay!"

"Welcome to the main pool, dear. You've got nothing to worry about, you know. You're easily even more of a stunner than we are, and we're already quite gorgeous."

OH NO COMPLIMENTS

She ducks her head and blushes. "Um. Thank - thank you?"

It super doesn't feel like she's earned that. Despite the fact that she's, um. Like this now. Somehow she knows that the compliment is sincere but that's only making her blush deeper. 

Her instincts... seem to be of two minds about this! She is terrifed as heck but the pool feels incredible to a sense she didn't even have five minutes ago and something's telling her that looking wouldn't necessarily be so bad and that's just aaaaaaaaaaaa because oh my god has she put herself in literally a hentai -

She can't help herself, she glances back at the tanned shipgirl. It's hard to converse without looking!

Missouri's lower regions are thankfully hidden by the water, but even with a single glance Maxine gets an eyeful of her bare breasts. She blushes even deeper, and her gaze slides away. "Um," she says. "What - what's your name again?"

"Missouri, dear." She smiles warmly at Maxine, giving a quick but blatantly appreciative glance to the blonde's own bikini-clad curves.

Holy shit she's being checked out by a girl!!!

She blushes really hard. "I, um. Thank you, Missouri. I'm... really still getting used to the being-a-girl part and, um, being tossed directly into a bathhouse like this is..." She searches for a word. "Intense."

Gosh it's strange to hear her own voice so melodious and sweet. She's absolutely unreasonably pretty and she doesn't know what to do about it. 

<I think she might be into you!> telepaths Tenta-chan from the locker room where she's lounging in the steam. <Go get her, girl!>

<Aaaaaaaaaaa???> Maxine telepaths back.

<Don't worry! Just be yourself! You're better than Isabella Valentine any day of the week!>

Affection and reassurance radiate off of Tenta-chan.

"Understandable. You expected a nice, easy shakedown cruise, but you got thrown into a storm."

She sighs in relief as the repair bath soaks into her tired hull, and stretches, arching her back.

"Tell us about yourself, Maxine. You said you're Canadian?", New Orleans asks as she lounges.

"Yeah. Albertan. It's all oil and gas out there, and pretty conservative for Canada. I was in university for computer science and slowly failing my courses due to ADD..."

She sighs. The memories aren't very happy.

<Give yourself some credit. You were a girl and didn't know it, which made you really socially isolated and made you feel like you were somehow bad, too. Looking back at your memories I'm pretty sure you were straight-up depressed. It's not your fault you were struggling.>

<You can read my memories???>

<Er. Sorry? It's because you're my owner, the telepathic bond goes deeper for us. I can't really help it.>

Maxine looks over at Tenta-chan. "Tenta-chan says that I shouldn't be so hard on myself, because I didn't know I was a girl and that made me... kind of depressed. I don't know if she's right, but... It wasn't so bad? I had friends in high school, a little dungeons and dragons group... And there were some people at the university computer science club who were okay... It was really more of a games club though."

Nola nods. "That tends to be the story for the trans officers I know on the station. They have a few friends, but an inexplicable malaise holds them back until they crack their eggshell and realize they're trans. Gets in the way of so much."

"... crack their eggshell?" Maxine tilts her head. "That's an interesting expression." 

"Trans girls who don't know it yet are often called eggs, and realizing it is called 'cracking your eggshell', from what I've heard."