With the matter of dinner settled, David ran off to go collect groceries to prepare whatever meal he and Jessie had cooked up between them. He wasn't playing up their skills merely to impress Sylph, the two of them were both accomplished cooks and huge food nerds. They loved picking up all sorts of recipes they had collected and shoving them into spreadsheets and databases.
I did manage to get back to the after school kids, but I was very distracted and I felt like the quality suffered. Everyone told me I was great, but my imposter syndrome told me the truth…
I included Sylph in the game as an excitable alchemy merchant she named Paracelsus when the party finally made it into town. She was surprisingly good at rattling off alchemical science babble, complete with a German tinted archaic English accent, which the kids absolutely loved. She later informed us that the character was a real person from the German Renaissance who she'd studied that had led her to the choosing of her name. I called her a nerd for knowing obscure 16th century alchemists.
We bid the group farewell and finished out the day with me not really getting anything done more than wandering the shelves with Sylph, Larry and Jessie unobtrusively surveilling us to vicariously feed upon our new relationship energy. As we wandered I told her all about books I love and she pointed out quite a few that she'd enjoyed in her studies. Sylph gravitated towards books on cultural history across a great deal of humanity, while I tended to enjoy delving more into science fiction or fantasy, though she had read several I pointed out as a study in human imagination.
Eventually it became time to close for the night and head upstairs where the air was filled with the smell of fresh spices and cut vegetables and the crackling of wood in the stove. We quickly made our way to the kitchen.
"What are you making for us today David?" I asked as I grabbed a seat on a stool across the kitchen counter from him.
David smiled warmly at us, eyes teary as he minced onions. "Kibbeh with salsa verde and Spanish rice. Basically, fried cracked wheat and ground lamb meatballs with a combination of middle eastern and Mexican spices and veggies." Professor Pancakes continued to regale us with the story of the food. "I learned to cook this from Larry's mother actually. She was born in Mexico of a family and into a community of formerly Syrian Jews. This is a middle eastern food that followed along with that community's diaspora, and then adopted aspects of traditional Mexican cooking"
"David loves to know the history of all the food he cooks. Him being far more the traditionalist when compared to me, my mother fucking adores him." Larry snidely remarked as he lovingly squeezed his husband's shoulders. "Always telling me I should be more like that nice big man of mine." He gave him a kiss on his fuzzy cheek. "But damn does this nice big man of ours know how to cook. She gave him all the family secret recipes." He walked over to open the fridge. "I however am nothing but a fruity snob, so I have obtained several bottles of fancy wine that should pair well and are now chilling."
"Where is your family from Sylph?" David asked.
Oh no right to the hard questions. I did my best to keep my face steady.
Sylph stayed cool and collected. "We are something of a family of travelers and explorers, never really staying in one place. I couldn't really say that we've come from much of anywhere other than not here." She laughed, and my family laughed along with, not sure what to do with the somewhat obvious non-answer.
It may not have been much, but it felt accurate in a strange way, looking at her now and the human face she chose. In her more dryad akin form, her face was humanoid but distinctly not human. My mind, so filled with need to categorize, couldn't pick out any ethnic background she drew from that she had adopted before coming to the planet. Now though, it was still obviously her face with many similarities to the Sylph I first met, but it seemed to have borrowed from many different backgrounds to become something that read completely as human and skipped over that uncanny valley. There were hints of peoples from all over the planet present in her features now. It was as if she modeled her likeness off one of those artificially created composites of an average human. She looked like her genetic progenitors had indeed been from everywhere.
Jessie poked me with a wooden spoon from across the counter. "It's not polite to stare Marin. I know the three of us and your mothers taught you better."
I turned bright red as I realized I had been lost in studying the contours of Sylph's face. Everyone, Sylph included, laughed at me. "It's not my fault her eyes are so easy to get lost in." I poked Sylph in the shoulder. "I blame you." This was punctuated by the sticking out of my tongue.
Now it was Sylph's turn to blush as the laughter just got louder. Things were going well. I relaxed into the sounds of cooking and jovial chatter as the wonderful smells in the air became only more wonderful.
* * *
Cooking was eventually completed and everyone busied themselves with preparations to eat. Sylph helped me set the table as Larry uncorked a bottle of wine. David and Jessie brought out the food and we all began serving ourselves.
The food was of course wonderful and as soon as the eating started, sounds of enjoyment followed.
When the second bottle of wine was opened and everyone slowed down eating, Jessie broke the ice in more concerted dinner conversation. "So Sylph, Marin says you're a biologist studying the aspen grove?"
"Yes, aspects of the soil ecology actually." Sylph's info dumping voice came over her as she excitedly got going. "So many different species of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, insects, and of course nematodes all form a highly complicated and interdependent web of relationships with each other and the root structure of the trees. I'm here to look at a few different fungus of the amanita genus which seem to be unique to this valley in particular. Amanita contains many of the most poisonous mushrooms that exist on earth through a class of compounds called amatoxins which completely ruin living cell's ability to synthesize proteins."
"So if we're ever looking to poison anyone you're our gal?" Jessie said with her mischievous grin.
Sylph gained a very conspiratorial tone to her voice. "I wouldn't suggest it if you wanted to get away with it. The toxins are detectable and have very distinct symptoms." She smirked at Jessie.
Jessie was not immune to the smirk. She blushed, but also cracked up laughing. Shortly after everyone joined in and I leaned affectionately on Sylph's shoulder.
"Has Marin told you what ey was going to school for?"
The 'was' in Larry's question stung a bit. I wasn't ashamed of dropping out of school at all given the circumstances of my return here, but the societal bias against what it saw as 'failure' or 'quitting' was still something that poked at me despite my efforts to not be swayed by it. I knew Larry didn't think consciously of it that way, but the wine might have let something slip.
Sylph looked to me curiously. "You've told me some about your former studies but not the specifics."
I began with a small sigh. "When I was in school, I was on something of a pre-med track. I still don't really know if I ever really want to become a doctor with how much… baggage I guess, sits on top of it as a profession. Insurance, pharmaceutical industry, malpractice law, and the whole transactional imbalanced relationship dynamic that is expected with patients. I love the concept of care work. Mom definitely instilled and sparked that in me with her herbal medicine practice. My love for it was made even more obvious that it suited me as I was taking care of her for so long. That my experience with her… helping her through the end of her life… that it didn't push me away from the idea of that sort of work…" Sylph started gently rubbing my back. I hadn't realized, but my eyes had started watering. Looking around the table, everyone’s face was filled with caring and concern, Larry with a side of guilt for sparking this.
I backed away from thinking about mom. I didn't want to turn this into everyone pitying me. "I took lots of bioscience classes and I loved microbiology and biochemistry. Seeing the inner workings of life, even learning a bunch of the why to to explain the things that mom knew would be good for different ailments, how they worked. I only got more interested as I figured out trans stuff and I began biohacking my body." I chuckled and the mood around the table lightened a bit.
Sylph gave me a very warm smile. “That sounds wonderful! Have you ever thought of going back to school?”
“I have, but I was needed here… then I wasn’t, but I was happy here… but then I wasn’t actually happy here… but now I am? I think at least.” I let out another sigh, this was turning into a pity party for me, just being stuck and sad, unable to move on with my life. “I am happy now.” Turning to face the triad. “I’m happy with all of you” and then pacing a hand on Sylph’s knee. “and I am happy with you. I just don’t really know what if anything I want to do with myself. I don’t want to feel like I need to do something with myself and I don’t really... I just don’t know.” My eyes were watering yet again, a tear rolling down my cheek.
“Marin you don’t have to know.” David said as he laid a hand on my shoulder. “You’ve always been best at moving with things as they happen. Sometimes to your own detriment I'll give you, but it always seems to work out for you. How adaptable you are is one of your gifts.”
Sylph smiled brightly at me with that observation.
David continued, “You know we support you if you stay here, or go off back to school. We just want you to be happy.” His spouses nodded emphatically to back up his point.
I sniffled a little and grabbed my glass to take a gulp of wine. “Why do y’all always make me cry whenever we talk about my life?”
Larry knew the answer to this one. “Because we love so much seeing you being able to access your emotions rather than being that husk of a person you were when puberty hit.”
I pouted but couldn’t help but giggle a bit. “Second puberty was way better, even if I do cry about everything now.” Comically sniffling to prove my point. “Can we stop talking about me now?”
Sylph, my savior, came to my rescue. “Yes, please tell me how you all met.”
“oh dear sweet fuck, that’s an insufferably long story! We will definitely need more wine and comfier seating” Larry got up to grab another bottle and everyone moved to the living room.
* * *
The triad had a very comfy setup. A large and very deep curved couch sat along one wall that could easily fit all five of us, and a smaller but exceedingly comfy loveseat that frequently sat all three of the triad with Larry laid across the other two. This evening they ceded the loveseat to Sylph and I though. Both Couches were pointed slightly towards an antique looking cast iron wood stove with decorative glass panels to allow the flickering fire contained within to spread its light across the room.
Tonight had actually been going surprisingly well and I was basking in warmth. Warmth from the fire, from the wine, from my family's love, and from Sylph who I was snuggled up against as the triad took turns telling their tumultuous tale of true love.
Larry and David told of the lives of bisexual men in New York in the 90’s and how gay community was still being ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. Fear battling the need for companionship. How they met in a bathhouse and overcame that fear becoming so very attached to each other.
Jessie told of the charity marathon afterparty she met Larry at. How they hooked up and didn’t see each other again for a year. Larry had to interject with how much he and Jessie didn’t like each other at all beyond whatever drunken sexual chemistry they found that night.
David added to the tale with how one year after the hookup, he valiantly came to the rescue of Jessie in a bar as she was being persistently hit on by a drunken woman who was 'just a little curious' what sex with a dyke would be like.
Larry then picked up the role of storyteller to tell of his date with David that same night. He was only slightly late, corrected to two hours late by David. He found David with Jessie, someone he remembered as despising, hitting it off swimmingly over several empty drinks. The two of them grudgingly called off their mutual disgust in favor of falling in love with each other instead.
At some point I had drifted off to sleep with my head nuzzled under Sylph’s arm against her very soft and warm breast, a small hanging of drool at the corner of my mouth. Sylph nudged me awake with a squeeze of my shoulder and a sharing from her mind. I looked up at her in bleary eyed confusion. She jostled me again so I accepted.
I was confronted by a cold void that quickly sparked me back to wakefulness. It was a void different from my own, one that wasn't truly empty. I could feel small impacts against my senses all around me, what my instincts labeled as various varieties of electromagnetic radiation and many other types of particles. I was seeing with senses that were not eyes, but I could see stars. I was in space. I turned and could see the sun, and I was bathed in it's warm light. I turned again and I could see the moon, half shrouded in shadow. It was twice as large as I've ever seen it, and there was something unfamiliar about its surface. Within the sharing an instinct told me why. This was the view from Sylph's biosphere. I was looking at the "dark side" of the moon. The side of the tidally locked satellite that never faced the earth. I was now one of the few humans to ever see it in such detail in real time.
There was something else. About 45 degrees off my view of the moon was a slowly blinking blue light. It seemed to be blinking in some regular repeating pattern. Blink twice, wait, blink three times, wait, blink five times, wait, blink seven times, wait… it was blinking prime numbers, blinking at the biosphere of Sylph's people. Something had noticed them and was attempting to make contact.
