#a person even
okay look so hear me out. if the elven world is similar to the human world and has a near equal ratio of men to women, then I think it would be the smartest move for the members of the Collective (specifically thinking Blur and Wraith but everyone works) to all be genderless/androgynous in their disguises and use they/them pronouns (or others). Us knowing their genders via their pronouns (I know pronouns don’t equate gender but in the story they do. not my choice there) immediately eliminates half the elven population from the running for who they could be. If they have a rarer ability, like Tiergan, people knowing their gender is significant! Really narrows it down!
For Juline, looking for any froster vs looking specifically for a female froster? it’s not the most telling information, but it’s still pertinent and drastically affects who people are suspicious of in ways that aren’t favorable to her.
but if they appear not specifically gendered (ahem, invisible or a literal blur of colors) and elves can mimic and alter their voice to change pitch, then they should be able to disguise, hide, or be intentionally misleading with all possible gender markers, nearly doubling the number of people they could be and making it harder for everyone to determine who you are
that is all, thank you for your time this pride month
Oh I made a post about this sometime- you’re right, they/them would definitely help with this whole anonymity thing they have going on. And we know the Lost Cities have a gender neutral pronoun or they/them equivalent thanks to Nightfall. The only real explanation I can think of for why Shannon gendered the blob of colors is our good pal cisnormativity.
“Behold, a man” —Shannon Messenger, for some reason
[ID: The art of Blur from Unlocked, who is just a smudge of colors in a vaguely humanoid shape. /End ID]
