She's stunning!

Haha glad you enjoyed

"Well Night-Wind, pleased to meet you. I admit I didn't do much research upfront on you or your species, I thought I'd experience it first-hand myself. Maybe I should have been a little more cautious. I want to make sure we get off on the right foot. I am here to learn and make friends so I hope you will help me understand how to interact with you according to your preferences."

"It is fine. This is my first separation, and I admit I am a bit nervous." I decided I should guard my feelings and try to project more boldness. "That is my purpose here too. Please do not worry. I certainly am not!" I laughed, proud of my ability to sound authentically bold.

The human seemed unsure. "Okay, if you say so. Well, anyway, how was your trip? Have you come far?"

As we traded notes, Cal began talking over his shoulder, rapidly searching through the entire living quarters.

"What are you looking for?" Surely this human couldn't have misplaced something so quickly.

"Oh, I'm just exploring. I've been to a lot of space stations but never really stayed in one. This is pretty nice!" He darted over to the window, a large oval in the outer bulkhead and gazed out at Longva-III, the planet we were orbiting. "I can't wait to explore the planet and this station. I'm so curious as to what I might find. I hear the flora is fascinating and some of it is extremely dangerous!" "Hmm, I wonder if anyone Well Dives here. I'd love to jump from here down to planetside."

I was slightly horrified. Was this human deranged? Did he perhaps have a recent head injury? I cleared my throat. "Well, I'm sure the Institute has a plan in place for structured, sensible, safe field trips so that we can learn about our surroundings."

"Hah, sounds boring! But I'm sure we'll find some time to have fun." Cal returned to the sleeping area and looked over at my belongings. "Wow, what is that? That's amazing!"

I swiveled an eye to see what Cal was referring to. "Oh, that is a memory stone, one of my parting gifts."

"It's so shiny! The way it scatters the light -- so many colors!"

"Well, I suppose it does catch the light in a pleasant way." He seemed fixated on the mundane object. "Do you not have any possessions?"

"Oh, yeah. I got here ahead of my luggage, but I was told it should arrive by the station-evening. Listen, I'm not sure what your feeding cycle is like but I'm kind of hungry."

My fear spiked for a moment.

"I mean, I was thinking about going to the he nutrition center and getting some food. Are you hungry? I thought maybe we could go together."

"Oh. Yes Cal, that sounds good. Lead the way." He flashed his teeth again as I followed him out of the room. It was remarkable to watch him stride boldly down the corridor, practically acting as if it was his station. But as I brought up the rear, I realized something had shifted with him. He kept glancing back to make sure I was still near. In his eyes, he and I were already part of a group. The "roomie" collective. I relaxed further and felt better. What a strange creature; occasionally terrifying but somehow, his presence was reassuring.

My separation/mourning ceremony was beautiful and helped give me closure. The elders told me I would eventually find a new community among the aliens and rebuild my identity with them, and my parent group reminded me that I would always have a place in the Universal Community. I felt lucky I was so independent minded and able to tolerate the break better than many would have, and I was excited to continue my education in interspecies relationships and galactic politics. But it was still difficult to be alone, and it didn't help when I was told my assigned roommate was from a predator species. At least their species was social and omnivorous, so it could have been worse.

After a long journey I arrived at Station Alpha-1, located in a system held and operated by the Galactic Species Alliance for the purposes of furthering interspecies cooperation and cultural exchange. First year scholars were housed in the station itself, and after processing I found I had arrived first to my shared quarters. I nervously reviewed information about my roommate's species. They were known as Solarians in the standard GSA nomenclature, and the species self-designation was Human. All of their habits, traits and customs were alarming but nothing adequately prepared me for meeting one in the flesh.

The door abruptly slammed open as the creature stalked into the common room, scaring me out of my skin and making drop my dataslate. It was almost my height, also bipedal, though with a much smaller build. I froze but it must have heard the clatter as its head whipped around, instantly zeroing in on me. It had front facing binocular vision, sharp and focused, and it locked both its glittering eyes on my facing eye. It advanced toward me aggressively, baring its teeth as it came. With my nonfacing eye I could see my resting platform extending behind me and I realized I was pressed up against it with nowhere to go. I took a breath to calm myself as it approached to within one meter, before it extended a limb towards me.

"Hi! I'm Cal! Nice to meet you roomie." After a moment it tilted its head and said "Hey, are you okay?"

I calmed myself, and gathered my courage. Everything was fine. This institution is dedicated to interspecies cooperation. This human is not here to be violent. "Why are you extending your limb toward me?" The human's limb dropped to its side.

"Oh, sorry -- human greeting custom. I'm not used to interacting with aliens. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable!"

"This was a normal human greeting custom?"

"Uh ... yes?"

I forced my muscles back into life. This was fine, just a misunderstanding. I huffed softly. "Its designation was Cal?"

"Well, I am a 'he,' not an 'it,' but yes."

I ducked my head in apology, while keeping him in view the whole time. "I had not yet refreshed myself on human sex/gender expression. Our definitions of analogous things differ somewhat but 'he' the acceptably closest analog for me as well. I am called Night-Wind."

This is embarrassing, but not a big deal. Those kids are fine. Assuming they noticed they probably thought it was funny if anything. I wouldn't worry about it too much. All you need to worry about is making sure have pants with enough structural integrity to handle your cake going forward.

Hell yeah. Love to have a monster wife!

"Baby," I said, with a hint of exasperation in my voice, "I would love you even if you were a little worm, or whatever."

"But what about a big wyrm?"

I suppressed a sigh. "Yes baby, even if you were a big worm. Now would you please get your cute little wormy butt in gear, we are going to miss our reservation!"

Elena's laugh echoed down the stairs. "You get so uptight about that stuff. Relax, honey! I'll be down in a minute."

I try not to start pacing.

"I can hear your teeth grinding from here, Bobby. There, was that worth the wait?"

Elena's heels clacked down the stairs as she came in to view wearing a simple but elegant little black dress. She paused for a moment, looking over at me. God, she was stunning. She walked over to me, blushing a little. As she stepped close in front of me, she reached her hand up and caressed the side of my face. And then down at my pants. "Well, it's certainly nice to be appreciated."

She stepped back and looked uncertain, and a little sad.

"What's wrong, baby?"

"Nothing, Bobby." She took a breath. "I ... I believe you." Resolve settled over her features. "Honey, change of plans. Take me over to the Wilton formation. There's something I want to show you there."

"The ... The limestone outcropping in the state park? Now? Seriously?"

"Yep. I'm serious. It'll all make sense when we get there, I promise. I'm not going to put this off any longer."

I looked at her. She looked at me with those big damn eyes of hers. I always thought they almost glittered in the dark. I threw up my hands. "Fine, fine. You know, some husbands don't have weirdos for wives who drag them all over creation for no reason, you know that right?? Sheesh." I continued with my good-natured grumbling as Elena rolled her eyes at me and we headed out to the car.

About an hour later I found myself standing with Elena in front of a cave.

"I've never seen this cave before. I don't think it's on the map."

Elena glanced over at me. "No, it's not. C'mon honey, not much further now."

The starlight quickly faded as we walked into the cave. The ceiling was pretty high, thank god. Wasn't a fan of tight spaces.

"Baby, it's getting really dark. I can't see anything."

"I know. It's ok though - I can see fine." She stretched out her hand in the darkness and found mine. "It's ok, honey. Trust me."

I did, of course. Even in these bizarre circumstances, I did. I said nothing but tightened my grip on her hand. She led us further into the cave and down a tunnel, which seemed to slope down. It was surprisingly smooth going. After walking for about 5 minutes, she paused.

"You'll feel a tingling sensation. It's normal, don't worry about it."

Before I could react, she pulled me through an opening I couldn't see. As I crossed the threshold, it did indeed tingle. I gasped as I entered a huge cavern. It was lit by glowing fungus on the walls and rocks, and I could hear a small river burbling nearby. Minerals glinted in the dim light, studding the ceiling and increasing the visibility. Strange and colorful plants grew along a clear path further in.

It was breathtaking.

"Baby, what is this place?"

"Go on honey, just a little further."

She dropped back a step or two as I continued down the path. Rounding a corner I entered a large chamber carved out of the rock. It was lit similarly to the larger cavern, but had no undergrowth. Something glinted in the dim light, something metal. Something like ... "Holy shit." Before me, towards the back of the chamber, was a pile of treasure. Gold coins, chests with gems spilling out of them, assorted swords and other weapons.

Behind me, I heard Elena's voice. Only it was somehow much more resonant than it normally was. I felt something huge looming behind me, but for some reason, I wasn't scared as it coiled around my body. It was warm, almost hot. A massive head leaned over my body and twisted on a long neck.

"It's me, honey. Your Elena."

Her scales gleamed in the dim light, as the sinuous curves of her body undulated around me. She has the same big, beautiful eyes. And they definitely glittered in the dark. Her teeth looked very sharp. But she looked uncertain, even afraid.

"Oh. You meant 'Wyrm.' "

She cocked her head at me. "Yes."

"Oh." "Elena... I love you."

Her head sagged, and a few tears rolled down her face and splashed on the ground, sizzling lightly. "Oh Bobby. Thank you."

I cleared my throat. "Well, now that that's out of the way. Uh, do you think you could squeeze a little harder? And maybe, uhhhhh. Use your teeth on me a little?"

Elena threw back her head and laughed. Then she drew in close. "Bobby Brighton, you are incorrigible! Is that a gold bar in your pocket or are you happy to see me?" She squeezed a little tighter and bared her teeth.

God she was stunning.

😂

OP, I think Y are kind of TA here. She might BTA too, depending on a clarifying question I have: are your family members ok with being deadlifted? Is your gf just sort of ambushing them, tying straps around the group, and getting in a quick set? Or is this something they are participating in willingly? If not, then she is also an asshole. Don't hogtie and orchandle families with out their consent, you know? But I'm guessing they were all fine with it and took it in good humor.

(Sidenote, OP. If you do get your shit together on this, the implication is that your gf is pretty skilled with rope and knots, so think through some of the fun potential applications there! Her shenanigans may have been a hint to you that you were clueless to! Not to overly stereotype, but I find that orcs often prefer to 'show' rather than 'tell'.)

Anyway. Your ego is feeling a little bruised but you need to get through that. Just because she is physically stronger than you doesn't mean you aren't a real man or that you are weak. In fact, I think she is trying to help you with that, if you could see it. Everybody knows you don't play with food in orc households that's ready to eat; you get right down to business. She's trying to bulk you up, my guy, so that you feel more secure about her. She's hoping that one day you'll be strong enough to deadlift her family members, individually at least. So don't be an elf about it, dude. Frankly your gf sounds cool as hell. She didn't break up with you, so this is probably salvageable. My advice is to apologize and try to be a better sport going forward. If you really want bonus points, some time when the two of you are alone, hand her the ropes and tell her you are ready for your deadlifting and see how things go.

Tl;dr YTA, and your gf is clearly dope as hell, so fix it, OP. And then report back.

The moment I look up at the heavens, at all the innumerable stars that all of my ancestors have gazed at in awe and wonder for as long as humans have been human, and see a fucking ad for starlink or something... I revolt. Guillotine time.