Feyr Mynx watched as her big sister applied a healing balm to Fujikawa. Feyr nibbled on her beef jerky, staying in the living room as her sister whispered gentle words in the kitchen. She didn’t like the amount of attention big sister gave the earthling, but had to admit Fujikawa wasn’t actually that bad, now that they’d gotten to know each other a bit. 

What with the actual personality Fujikawa was showing after being zapped, Feyr felt like she might actually honestly like her. She was much more impulsive and interesting. Zyn definitely liked the new Fujikawa.

“You-dearest should have hit the robot with your fists, not your shoulder, you know,” Plynx whispered quietly enough anyone without Issiod’rian hearing wouldn’t have heard from the living room. “The energy field in the hands of the suit would take the worst of the blow.”

“I know, I know… I just saw you were in danger and didn’t think,” Fujikawa replied, her cheeks going pink.

“Tactically unsound,” Plynx said, though her voice sounded playful.

“I‘ve been known to be that sometimes,” Fujikawa replied with a grin.

The two stared at each other a moment, before kissing. Feyr closed her eyes and let out a gagging noise. She did not want to have to see her sister kissing anyone. Even if she no longer hated the idea of losing her sister to that someone.

“Tha—I—uh… I just remembered I promised to video call my father!” Plynx blurted while Feyr was still looking away. 

Turning, she found her sister looking absolutely flustered while running out of the apartment, barely stopping to put on her shoes. 

That was odd.

Plynx rarely did video calls. Reception was terrible on Earth with all the sloppy broadcasting bandwidths from local technology.

---

Svetlana was feeling mostly better by her next shift at work. Sure, she was sore, but she didn’t feel ‘thrown through multiple buildings’ sore. So that was nice. 

She tried to talk to the afternoon cashier a bit before the nervous young guy left, but he was still as much of a disaster around girls as ever. Even girls he used to be friends with… Or, at least, able to hold a conversation with. She felt a little bad about pushing him, but it was also a bit exhilarating to be so clearly a girl in people’s eyes. It was also better than wondering about Cartridge’s new choker that looked rather… dog-collar-like. While Svetlana had taken to liking chokers herself, that specific style on that specific redhead felt like it meant certain things she’d rather not inquire about.

Deciding to find other distractions, and rest her bruised and battered form, Svetlana plunked herself on the couch. Cartridge, meanwhile, took the cash, running through counting it with the shift handoff. Mynx had followed them, and booted up a beat-em-up. Which wasn’t surprising. Her little mood-ring-bracelet-thing-y was glowing yellow right now, which Svetlana was pretty sure meant Mynx was angry. Or, something adjacent to that. Extra competitive?

Svetlana pulled herself back up to try to do some inventory after a few minutes, when she realised Giovanni hadn’t left for the day yet. The boss usually liked them to at least pretend they were actually working when he was around. She was busy re-alphabetizing the Super Famistation games when the door jingled.

“What’s up losers!?” a cheerful voice called out.

Svetlana spun around, being greeted by her boss’ youngest child. With their blue undercut, cheerful grin, on point makeup, and military jacket covered in buttons, Geordi Cattarelli was a distinctive human being who drew eyes, even on the streets of downtown Hammer City. Svetlana felt a wave of nerves and anxiety wash over her about how Geordi might react to her new presentation. The cool non-binary punk whose courageous confidence she’d long admired… 

“Dang, Cartridge. You look like you’re going to tip over with those,” Geordi said.

Cartridge blushed, muttering something indistinct. Which was about the usual reaction from Cartridge in regard to Geordi’s compliments. Ever since they’d first met, Geordi had accepted Cartridge’s flirtations. That had utterly shocked and confused the normally rejected redhead. Cartridge had then insisted on being unworthy of Geordi’s returned affections.

“Also, Svetlana, I respect you jumping into the goth combat boots look with both feet right off the bat,” Geordi added.

“You, uh… approve?” Svetlana asked.

“It’s not my look, but you’re pulling it off very nicely,” they replied.

“As a… as a proper trans feminine type of person… you’re not offended or anything, right?” Svetlana asked, scooting over beside Cartridge behind the cash.

“Come again?” Geordi asked, staring at her like she was wearing a horseshoe crab as a hat.

“W-well,” Cartridge began, “I guess we didn’t knowingly take resources from real trans women, but… uh…”

The short redhead trailed off as it became obvious Geordi was struggling not to laugh. They lasted roughly ten seconds before bending over in a full-on fit of laughter.

Both girls leaned forward to make sure that she was still breathing as the laughing continued. Tears were running down her face, before they wiped them away, turning with a face that was clearly barely containing more laughter.

“I’m sorry, but… you two… how are you still… you’ve socially and physically transitioned, and gotten gender euphoria out of it and you still… still think you’re not ‘actually’ trans?” they asked.

“Yes?” the girls replied in unison.

“If we were actually trans we’d have… known, right?” Svetlana replied. “Obviously there’s a difference between wanting and being, right?”

Geordi stared at her.

“Right?” Cartridge asked.

Geordi continued to stare at both of them.

“Please say yes, so I don’t feel like an idiot who wasted fifteen years wishing she was a trans girl?” Svetlana said.

Geordi’s stare softened. “You’re not an idiot. Just foolish. But that’s easy to be.”

“Oooohhhhh…” Svetlana and Cartridge replied in unison.

Svetlana leaned against the counter, wanting it to aid her balance as she felt like her worldview had been pulled out from under her. She’d really… all those years. Ever since finding out trans women were a thing…

“I think I’m going to go cry alone in the break room for a little bit,” Cartridge added, before heading off towards the stairs.

She was blocked, however, by Giovanni descending. He was a solidly built man, and therefore was not easy to slip past on the narrow staircase of the old building. 

“Are you… Geordi, what did you do to upset my employee?” he asked.

“I just talked to her about gender, dad,” they replied.

“Ah,” Giovanni said softly, sidestepping to let Cartridge pass him. “Well, if you’re going to make them too emotional to work, I hope you’re actually going to stay the night. Seeing as how she’s both a minor and an alien, I don’t think I can leave the other one in charge, if the cops come sniffing around.”

“No worries, dad,” Geordi replied with a salute.

Giovanni nodded, before heading off into the night. Svetlana waved him off before walking over and dropping into the chair, having a lot to process. She only vaguely noticed Geordi sitting down beside Mynx.

“Oh, hey. Dragon Fist Five. Love that game,” they said with a smile.

Mynx turned, seeming unsure about the idea of a blue haired human.

“You-stranger, have very most many colourful buttons,” Mynx said.

“I’m quite proud of my collection,” Geordi replied, after a moment of parsing Mynx’s grammar.

“She/her… they/them… they…” Mynx muttered, before dropping to a whisper that Svetlana barely heard. “You… you are multiple too?”

Geordie stared at her for a moment.

“Ok, I know you’re new to the language, kitten, but singular they/them has a history stretching back…” Geordi said, before pausing and taking a second look at Mynx’s face. “Wait…”

Despite her own emotional state, Svetlana looked over too, surprised by the fear in Mynx’s eyes.

“By ‘multiple’, do you mean plural—that is, I… well, I have some friends who are systems?” Geordi replied. “They’ve, um, got headmates?”

Hope returned to the young lynx girl’s eyes. Or, girls’ eyes, if Svetlana was following what the conversation meant?

Yes. She was following.

Mynx, or, rather, specifically Zyn Mynx (answering the earlier question of who ‘Zyn’ was) confirmed it. Then probed about what the Earthling version of the condition was like. Geordi assured her that the pop culture representations were generally terrible and inaccurate. Assured that, unlike what Plynx had apparently feared, they could be treated as actual hum—actual persons, the other two Mynx girls, Feyr and M’gnyz, also poked forward during the conversation.

What Svetlana had initially mistaken for a mood bracelet was apparently some sort of interface that not only displayed a colour for Zyn, Feyr, and M’gnyz, but also allowed them extra control over who was running the show. M’gnyz generally took over as the conversation went on, seeming to be the most outgoing and talkative of the three. She was so excited to find that both Geordi and Svetlana weren’t afraid of them that she started purring as she talked. This continued until she got so excited she couldn’t even sit still and began dancing around the store.

Svetlana found herself wondering if Plynx might be similar, but reasoned the lack of a similar bracelet probably meant she wasn’t. She did wonder if there were other different things about Plynx, though. She’d normally thought the feline girl was basically human but different on the outside. 

Then again, Geordi seemed to understand what the Mynx girls were talking about, so maybe this confession was actually a sign of just how similar to humans Issiod’rians were.

After that conversation wrapped up, while M’gnyz was still dancing about, Cartridge came down from the breakroom. She had a pair of coffee mugs in her hands.

Cartridge briefly raised an eyebrow at M’gnyz’s dancing, but seemed to have learned not to ask. Instead she walked over to Geordi’s side.

“Remembered you always have a latte from the machine upstairs when you visit, so, um, I tried to make you one like you like,” the redhead said, offering the coffee over. “Helped me take my mind off things.”

Geordi smiled, before her eyes drifted to the choker around Cartridge’s neck. A smile spread across their face a moment.

“Thank you. Good girl,” they said.

Cartridge turned red, and briefly gave her best impression of a kettle’s whistle before sitting down on the couch with a thud. The redhead stammered a mildly incoherent ‘your welcome’ adjacent reply. 

“I should come visit more when you two are working, if I get to have coffees made by such a cute girl,” Geordi added.

Cartridge blushed further, which Svetlana hadn’t realised was possible. She also began to giggle. A smug grin spread across Geordi’s face as they sipped their coffee. 

“Oooh. Excellent. You got the coffee perfect,” they said.

Cartridge giggled again. “You’re too kind. Much too kind.”

Sensing the energy around the two on the couch, Svetlana got to her feet and headed over to where Mynx was (were?) sitting. The bracelet was still blue, so that meant the one in charge was still M’gnyz. 

“Hey kid, want to go up to the attic?” she asked.

“Attic? What’s up there?” the alien princess replied.

“Mostly other stuff we find in boxes people sell us. Things that aren’t electronics related. Old comic books. Some toys. That sort of stuff,” Svetlana replied.

“Hmm… that sounds interesting. Ok,” she said, grinning away.

Svetlana led her upstairs, catching a smile from Geordi as she rounded the corner. 

M’gnyz found the old toys amusing in the crudeness of their construction, amazed that earth children played with such simple hunks of plastic. Though the nature of many of the toys had left Svetlana having to explain what dinosaurs were to the alien girl. 

Which turned into getting an absolute dumping of facts about prehistoric beasts of the Issiod’rian homeworld from M’gnyz. The feline princess produced a tablet-like device to show off pictures of an assortment of alien beasts.

M’gnyz later moved on to comic books, but gave the same complaint Plynx often did about human writing being too small. Svetlana was going to ask if the sisters needed glasses when the colour of Mynx’s bracelet changed to yellow. She had to dodge when Zyn pounced forward, and realised the feline girl was chasing a rather large and nasty looking spider. It only took a second pounce for her to squish it.

“Are there more of these in here?” Zyn asked, looking excited at the thrill of the chase.

“I hope not,” Svetlana replied, shivering and wanting to retreat to the employee lunchroom.