Jacxa is Janon Jing

This is a conversation between Acxa and yourself, James Griffin.
James Griffin: Whoa. I guess I should be desensitized to aliens by now, but I've never seen one quite like you before.
Acxa: What’s that supposed to mean?
James Griffin: Nothing bad, just that I've met a couple of elf people who didn't look too different from your average humans, and then in you come with your-- Blue skin-- Pretty hair-- Uh, I mean, what, who said that.
James Griffin: Can-- Let me start over. It's nice to meet you, I'm Officer James Griffin with the Galaxy Garrison.
Acxa: ...Acxa. Just Acxa. Pretty hair?
James Griffin: Well-- I mean-- It's, y'know, it's... Alright, I guess.
James Griffin: Uh, so, Acxa! That's a nice name! Where are you from?
Acxa: ..Space. I wasn’t born on any planet, nor do I belong to any family. Where are /you/ from, Officer James Griffin?
James Griffin: Right, yeah, no, of course, what was I thinking. Ahem, um, I guess you can just get along by saying I'm a cut-and-dry Earthling, but if you want specifics, my family's from Quebec-- That's a province in Canada, if you didn't-- What am I saying, there's no context for any of this.
James Griffin: Earth! Just Earth. Pretty blue planet nestled right in the Milky Way, that's about all there is to it.
Acxa: Canada.. Another planet? I thought humans were only being born on Earth..?
Acxa: Is Canada the neighbouring planet? There was a smaller red one I noticed on the way here.
James Griffin: No, no, Canada's on Earth, it's just a little piece of land since the vast majority of it's covered by the ocean. Oh, but we do have a couple of settlements on Mars! That's the red one you mentioned; they're not fully sustainable just yet but we've come a long way in figuring out how to make do with what we've got.
Acxa: ...I see. You sound fairly confident in them. Did you start those settlements there, then?
James Griffin: God, no. No, I'm still way too green to be pioneering anything of note; the only reason I'm not still wasting away as a cadet is because the Galra occupation made quibbling over ranks pointless.
James Griffin: For what it's worth, though, I do have command of a squad under my belt; the MFE-Ares squad uses these fighters developed with Altean and Earth tech-- Oh, do you know what Alteans are?
James Griffin: I guess it's kind of insensitive to assume every alien knows what every other alien is about.
Acxa: I know them, yes. I am Galra, you do realise? Just.. not on /their/ side.
James Griffin: ................. Oh.
James Griffin: Oh, that. Huh. That... makes more sense than it doesn't, honestly, but I'm-- Wow, alright, open mouth, insert foot.
Acxa: What? Why are you going to eat your foot?
Acxa: Is this common amongst humans?
James Griffin: No, don't worry, it's just a stupid saying we have, um-- I'm sorry for not noticing sooner, I guess all of this is still a lot to wrap my head around and the only experience I've had so far with Galra is them trying to-- y'know, enslave an entire planet, as they're wont to do, from what I'm told.
Acxa: ...I see. There are Galra that are on your side too, you know. The leader of Voltron, for example; he’s half Galra. We aren’t all.. We aren’t all like that.
James Griffin: Wh-- No way. Kogane? *That* leader of Voltron?! No way that he's Galra; I've known him since we were both punk kids!
James Griffin: You must have your facts mixed up.
James Griffin: All due respect, ma'am.
Acxa: Ma’am?
James Griffin: Uh... Miss?
James Griffin: you know what, Acxa, let's go with that.
Acxa: Acxa is good.
Acxa: Regarding Kogane, he is half Galra. His.. mother should be with him on Earth.
Acxa: Her name is Krolia, I believe. You haven’t seen her?
James Griffin: IIIIII've... Kind of had my own stuff going on.
Acxa: ...I see. Tell me more about your squad, then.
James Griffin: Oh, definitely. Let's see, first there's Kinkade-- Ryan Kinkade, he's not much of a talker, but once he speaks up, everybody knows they've got to shut up and listen. Then Rizavi-- Nadia, I mean, she's a real spitfire that doesn't give one flying ffff...antastic iota about what anybody else thinks, and she'll let you know it. Leifsdottir is a little harder to pin down; Ina's wicked smart but her social skills leave a little to be desired.
James Griffin: Then there's Veronica, she's the sister of one of the Paladins. She was assigned to keep an eye on us, but really, it's almost like she's one of the team for all that she doesn't have a fighter of her own.
Acxa: I see. Veronica.. Is she with the McClain kid? Interesting. Must be a proud family.
Acxa: ...Do you have one?
James Griffin: What, family? ... Uh, yeah. I did.
James Griffin: Um, Quebec was one of the first places hit in the initial wave.
Acxa: ...I’m sorry to hear.
Acxa: I’m.. Sure they would be proud of you.
James Griffin: ... Thank you. I appreciate that. But you know, we do what we have to in order to make sure it doesn't happen again, and that's about all we can shoot for.
James Griffin: I'm proud of the work I'm doing, and I hope it'll lead to one less kid that has to go through it, no matter what planet they're from.
Acxa: I see.. humans are quite empathetic, I’ve noticed. Your planet could’ve been far more advanced if there were more people willing to make sacrifices for study, but you’re all far too loyal.
Acxa: ..I’m not sure it’s so much of a bad thing anymore.
James Griffin: I like to think that with all our history built on making each other suffer, at some point we just all had to band together and say that enough was enough. It might be a slower road, but it'll lead to a destination that everybody will get to see eventually.
James Griffin: Besides, I'd say our progress isn't terrible. With the Alteans' help, we've even got our own wormhole! Makes vacations a snap.
Acxa: That’s a nice way of looking at it.
Acxa: ..Off topic, but what is a ‘Ma’am’?
Acxa: I’m still confused. Were you insulting me?
James Griffin: Oh, no, no no no, absolutely not! All it is-- It's just a respectful form of address for ladies on Earth.
Acxa: Ladies?
James Griffin: Right, you're right, why would aliens care about gender, good going, Griffin, um-- God, how do I even phrase this.
James Griffin: Uh, typically we tend to assume that people generally fall into two distinct groups between male and female, and I guess I should have been more careful about deciding that you were a girl-- Do Galra even have a concept of gender or anything?
Acxa: Ah. We have something like that, but it only matters when it comes to reproduction.
James Griffin: Oh, that too, but over here it's a... Little more important, not that it really should be, especially not in this day and age.
Acxa: ...What’s that supposed to mean?
James Griffin: Historically, we haven't had the best track record about treating the different sexes equally, especially when it came to women and the people who felt like they didn't fit the norm-- That's pretty much completely obsolete in this era, but every now and again, you get folks who decide to revive the idea that women don't have a place on the battlefield or it's a man's job to provide for families-- just the kind of ridiculous stuff my grandpa would turn his nose up at!
Acxa: ...I see. You humans were too caught up on this to advance yourselves and your community, then?
James Griffin: That's the long and short of it, yeah.
Acxa: Interesting.
Acxa: Are you a ‘Ma’am’ then?
James Griffin: Nope. I mean, I had a phase back in middle school, but-- Not the point, for me, it'd be something like "sir."
James Griffin: But you, obviously, I mean, you can go ahead and call me whatever you want.
Acxa: ‘Sir’ sounds fine.. sir.
James Griffin: Oh, jeez, that's.
James Griffin: Alright, okay, I can work with it.
Acxa: ..Did I do something wrong?
James Griffin: No! no, you didn't, it's-- Just kind of embarrassing, that's all.
James Griffin: I've never really had anybody call me that, and it... Doesn't feel like I've earned it.
Acxa: Ah.
Acxa: Well.
Acxa: You’ve given me a title of respect, so it seems only fair you have one as well, sir.
James Griffin: ... How about we just stick with Acxa and James, okay? Okay.
Acxa: ..Okay?
Acxa: How do you humans differentiate sirs and ma’ams anyway?
Acxa: Is there a uniform?
James Griffin: Um, kind of, in a sense! But not really, uh, men (those are the "sirs," by the way) tend to be taller, broader, deeper voices, and some of them keep their hair cropped short, whereas women are often smaller by comparison with higher voices and longer hair, but that's only really, really generally and there are tons of different exceptions since we're all about individuality and there are plenty of people who don't feel one way or the other.
James Griffin: It's all really confusing and gender is kind of a nightmare for us, too, so don't worry if you don't really get it right away.
Acxa: I see. I understand why you would see me as one of your Earth women, in that case..
Acxa: ..So gender is something a person acquires over time?
James Griffin: Nah, you're usually assigned one or the other at birth and people just kind of assume that's what you are with a bunch of expectations that go along with it, but there are a lot of folks who find out that isn't strictly accurate as they get older, so it totally can change, or it might not but the way you express it might be different, or it might also be something you're completely comfortable with your whole life.
James Griffin: It all depends on the person.
Acxa: ..I see. Interesting.
James Griffin: But I'm guessing you didn't exactly come here for an anthropology lesson on weird humans being weird humans.
Acxa: That doesn’t sound too nightmare-ish to me, makes sense.
James Griffin: Oh, well, then that's great!
Acxa: The anthropology lesson is an added bonus.
James Griffin: Good to hear that it didn't bore you; I've kind of got a tendency to lecture when I get into it.
James Griffin: So, uh, if you don't mind me asking, what are you here for? Just to see the sights?
Acxa: I’m here to help in any way I can, provide any information on the Galra that I can.
Acxa: ..And your lecture wasn’t boring, it was rather.. ah, cute?
James Griffin: ... Oh. Ah-- haha, well, um, I'm... Thank you, you make for a great listener.
James Griffin: I'd be interested in hearing more about the Galra at some point-- maybe if you're free, we could... Grab dinner? Or just talk, talking's good, I'm always here for talking!
Acxa: Dinner?
Acxa: Wait, no. I think Kogane explained this one to me.
Acxa: Dinner sounds good. Where do we.. acquire dinner?
James Griffin: Oh, there are a ton of places-- Well, there *were*, but I guess the rebuilding efforts are still underway. The Garrison's got a mess hall that can serve us pretty well in a pinch; it's nothing amazing, but it works as well as anything else for your introduction to Earth food.
James Griffin: The trick is to show up on Wednesdays for pizza night.
Acxa has left the conversation.