... Actually on Mars, but who's splitting hairs? This is one of my favorite RPs, and I'm looking forward to finding a creative partner tonight!

Edit: We are looking forward to finding a third partner tonight. The ever lovely /u/syork101 has offered to make it a threesome!

https://www.reddit.com/r/dirtypenpals/comments/2utrnv/mf4f_join_us_in_space/

I've come to the conclusion that astropsychologists are primarily concerned with keeping people from hurting themselves or each other. Their secondary concern was ... well ... honestly, I'm not sure they really care about anything else.

I take a deep breath and wait for the automated gas chromatograph to do it's thing.

We're about six months in on a two year assignment at The Outpost, and everyone is starting to get a bit restless. Cabin fever might be a better word for it. We're part of the three person team stuck in an small insulated bubble on Mars that was ruthlessly optimized by a budgeting committee. After two generations of an internationally funded terraforming effort, we are the ones building the first permanent human settlement. It's the achievement of a lifetime to be part of this team, but honestly -- right now it just feels like a grad school lab job.

Our day to day life is pretty mundane: mostly sampling, analysis, and reporting on the developing environment. There's a lot more excitement when a new module falls out of the sky -- we get to spend a couple of days outside in suits, preparing and attaching it to the structure. But that doesn't happen too often. It'll get much more busy towards the end of our two year tour, but for the next few months? Pretty low key.

The conditions mandated by the astropsychologists is that our team be comprised of three people, a man and two women. Apparently, the research shows that three men or three women stuck in very close proximity for two years is bad news. They needed high achievers who were strongly independent, but worked well in small teams -- and apparently this translates into fairly introverted, highly opinionated nerds.

To tell the truth we get along pretty well. There are only a couple of things that have been a little more challenging than expected: the utter lack of privacy, and developing an unexpectedly high libido.

The first week was awkward. I mean, we spent several years in training, but being genuinely stuck in The Pod is a big amplifier for all those feelings.

Privacy is basically non-existent. I mean, there's a thin curtain we can draw around the "bathroom," which is basically a square meter of floor space and a collection of various devices needed to maintain personal hygiene (a story for another time, let me tell you) ... and that's about it. Otherwise, we just look politely the other way when someone is changing clothes, and we know it's time to give someone space when they pull out their bunk and put in their earbuds.

Libido, well, that's a different matter. I don't normally have a high libido (this is one of the things they extensively examine and attempt to screen against), but there's something about the forced intimacy, threatening environment, and boredom that ... well, lets just say I'm pretty horrified by my part of the bandwidth consumption reports, not to mention trying to be discreet about jerking off. We all had frank conversations about sex in our training, but it's still a little odd living under a microscope. I know there is a team of physicians on Earth who pour over our health data, and I'm sure they've had a few dry medical conversations about my obvious urges. I'm sure this as all been thought through in detail, and there was a surprisingly large amount of contraception included in our personal health kits, but ... well, I guess we'll see.

The icing on the cake is the crush I've developed on you. Ugh. I try not to laugh too hard at your jokes, or respond too eagerly to your requests, or be too attentive ... but I love the way you smile, your confidence, your shape -- even if it's fairly well masked by our decidedly shapeless wardrobes. Back on Earth there'd be no question about asking you out ... but here? What can we do?

The gas chromatograph beeps, and I'm thankful for the interruption. The results come up on my tablet, and I know they were automatically relayed to Earth. Nothing unexpected.

I suspect they make me push the button just to give me something to do.