Affini Compact, Year 6969

“My darling pets, have you ever heard of this terran tradition, looks like they used to call it… ‘gender’?”

Rowan rouses themself in their Mattress’ vines, trying to pay attention to what they’re saying. Calendula’s vines are always so comfy… what were they talking about? They catch their pinnate’s eyes, and see that Jupiter is just as confused as they are. 

“Uh, Mattress? What’s a… jen-durr?” 

Calendula seems flustered, their pine needles rustling quietly. “Uh, well, you see, terrans used to sort each other into these… categories, where most terrans were supposed to be either a ‘woman’ or a ‘man.’”

“Oh, so like choosing starting sides when we play Rebels and Florets?”

“Um, almost my dear, except if people didn’t like it when you swapped roles or sat out of a game for the day.” They give us a long squeeze. “I’m so glad we rescued you from all that.”

“Okay, but Mattress, what was the point? What was it all for?”

Their needles scritch Rowan’s scalp, a nervous fidget that makes their pet’s thoughts start to melt away. “Hmm, let’s see. One theory is that because terrans of the past didn’t have Affini to decide things for them, they needed to have shortcuts for social interactions, and these ‘genders’—along with other archaic signifiers, like (ugh) ‘class’—were used to facilitate that. So they would know that a ‘man’ talking to a ‘woman’ was supposed to act one way, but a ‘man’ talking to another ‘man’ would have different rules.”

Jupiter wriggles, flapping their hands. “Omg, that’s so weird! Imagine if I was a ‘woman’ and Rowan was a ‘man’… what would we do???” 

Mattress seems pensive. “Well, I did see a lot about how these ‘genders’ were used in terran courtship rituals… perhaps I can try something out for our game night tomorrow. I do have to mention, though, that these ‘genders’ were often thought of as related to body configurations, particularly in the sexual contexts I suspect you two may be inclined to indulge in. Is that something—”

They get cut off by Jupiter butting in, “Ooooh, yes! Trying out new bodies is the best!” They turn to their pinnate. “You’re in, too, right?” 

“Absolutely,” Rowan smiles back at them. Time to become a man! …whatever the fuck that means. 

-- -- -- -- -- --

Romeo looks up from his drink. “Wow, I really zoned out, maybe I’m on class-H’s,” he starts to think, before shaking himself. What would ‘class-H’ even mean?? He’s obviously just had too much of his martini. 

Pulled back into the present, Romeo looks around the cocktail lounge he’s been sitting in, glancing at the other patrons in the mirrors that line the walls. He notices a woman sitting at the other end of the bar, sipping a martini—she must have come in while he wasn’t paying attention. And once he notices her, his eyes can’t seem to leave her, as he finds himself entranced by her femininity, the shy way she sits and the soft way her hair moves. When she lifts her glass to sip from her drink, his eyes latch onto her smooth fingers, and he finds himself surprisingly turned on for such a simple action. 

As Romeo sits staring at her in the mirror in front of him, Juliet also looks around the bar, her gaze settling on something she sees in a mirror on the opposite wall as she relaxes and sighs wistfully. Unbeknownst to Romeo, she has noticed him and gazes on his confident posture and clean-shaven face, flushing and subtly squeezing her legs together as she finds the sight of his masculinity extremely arousing.

Seeing the signs of Juliet’s arousal, Romeo finds his own becoming overwhelming, the tightness in his pants—is that his usual reaction? It must be, but somehow feels new and exciting—growing as he tries to figure out what’s turning her on so much. Looking surreptitiously at the angles made by the mirrors around him, his last remaining processing unclouded by desire is obliterated as it snaps into place that she’s looking at him. 

Upon this (extremely hot) realization he turns to look at her directly, and finds her, having herself worked out that it was her that he was watching, staring directly back. And some kind of impulse in his head—the kind he would question were he not in the throes of such undeniable attraction—tells him that she’ll stay where she is, and he should go over to her. 

So he does, and when he reaches her, he leans over her without a second thought, kissing her firmly. And she, having been stopped from action until now by some barrier in her mind, wraps her arms around him, pulling their chests together, finding herself yet more aroused by the contrast of her soft breasts pressed against his firm chest, a reminder of their differences.

They both retain enough awareness to feel that they shouldn’t go further in a public place, so he follows his impulse and helps her stand before placing his arm around her and guiding her out of the lounge and towards his hab unit apartment. As they walk the short few blocks, they don’t speak, both lost in the shared feeling of arousal from the contact of their bodies, the omnipresent awareness of their opposing sexes, the unquestioned knowledge both have of where this will lead and how. 

When they get inside, he knows to push her onto the bed beneath him, to unbutton her top with abandon, and to unzip his pants. And she knows to moan at his assertiveness, to hike up her skirt, and to gasp at his size. And once they've both removed their underwear, they both know that he (active) should penetrate her (passive)—and then they stop knowing anything for a time, lost in the fog of their perfectly choreographed pleasure. 

A short while later, after they’ve both orgasmed, Juliet lays in Romeo’s arms, both breathing heavily. As the cloud of arousal they’d lost themselves to starts to fade, they hear a voice from the corner of the room, accompanied by a ‘snap’ that sounded like the crunch of dried pine needles. “Up, up, up! Oh my god, you two are so cute! And I had no idea having genders would make you quite that horny, you moved even more quickly than you normally do!”

Jupiter catches up first, blushing and flapping their hands. “Oh my god Mattress, you’ve been there this whole time?! I can’t believe you really made me think I was a ‘woman’! And you changed my name, too! Is that a gender thing as well??”

“Yes my pet, according to my research there are lots of signifiers that go into terran understandings of gender, including names. If you want to learn more at some point, we can read about how things used to work together, okay?” Jupiter nods their head excitedly at Calendula’s suggestion.

While their Mattress and pinnate were talking, Rowan was thinking through their experience. A thought strikes them: “Calla, how much of what we did”—they blush, remembering quite how much it was, and quite how fast—“did you put in our heads, and how much was part of having a ‘gender’?” 

“I found a couple terran sayings while reading about genders. Apparently ladies and gentlemen were both known for never telling their secrets.” They scoop both their florets up in their vines. “And neither will I.”