#*egg is someone who hasn't figured out they're trans yet

[jojojooo33]

Thinking about. egg* trans girl Al running into Claus after the main series. Claus has transitioned (I'm shoving canon in a locker) and sees Al approaching in the distance and is like, "ah fuck it's that pipsqueak alchem-- oh wait."

Al comes up to him and Claus is like, "Hey you're not Ed." And Al replies, "Oh, did we meet you on our journey?" Claus starts vaguely explaining being trans and Al is like, "I have no idea who you are but what do you MEAN you can change your body with just normal medicine? That's so cool you can do that, tell me more."

[foone]

Crypto-trans? Isn't that what we called eggs?

Nah, because that's both not what I meant, and I'm not certain that explains what's going on with the author or the character in their story. I mean, it might? but I don't know.

What I meant more was that the story is not explicitly trans: no one in the story says "trans", no one references any equivalent concepts, and no one decides to transition. Yes, someone does change gender, and they end up happier, but this all happens for Story Reasons and not their own direct choices. So I meant "crypto-trans" in that it's the kind of story that's going to resonate with many trans people as having some themes they can identify with, sure, but it's not exactly a "trans story". Think, like, Ranma ½. Sure, it's very easy to see it as a trans story, but in canon it's not exactly one. Ranma Saotome isn't specifically trying to become a girl, he actively doesn't like his curse, and tries to cure it. (You could probably even argue that if he's trans, he's a trans man).

And as for calling the author or the character an egg... I don't know about the author. for all I know they could be openly trans! or they're cis and just write about some subjects that stray into crypto-trans territory on occasion: TF, hypnotism, possession, body-swap... these are all subjects that often get into Trans Areas but just as often don't. Maybe they write about a lot of these and are only posting their vaguely-trans ones on the specific site I was looking at, so I got the incorrect impression they're trans?

And as for the character being an egg, I don't know if that applies. Maybe?

Generally I understand term "egg" to mean "someone who hasn't yet figured out they're trans", which means they'll later figure it out and then Be Trans, and transition however they want based on that decision. This kinda has the arrow of time & consequence backwards: The character doesn't ever "figure out they're trans", they end up being a different gender because of Magic Shenanigans, get stuck that way, and in the long run they end up happy with that. That's not how trans people usually do, you know? You kinda have to decide you're trans BEFORE you transition. Doing it the other way around is the kind of thing that (I hope) only happens in stories, and I don't know how applicable "egg" is in this case.

[studebakerhearse]

I’m really on the fence about making one of my Star Trek ocs an egg because on one hand, it narratively makes sense because one of his biggest character arcs is coming to terms with who he is as an individual after losing a lot of his formative years to the Borg, but on the other hand, it’s going to feel weird to misgender him for several chapters until he figures it out.