#i almost left the [2:02 AM] tags in this bc it added but i think its fine haha

[emberglowfox]

Arthur is trans? That is so cool!! Oh, that brings up another question: Does Zarian understand the whole trans thing? I know he’s super intelligent and what not but at the same time a lot of trans experience is a bit more.. emotional / mental (at least for me)

OH BOY YOU HIT ON ONE FAVORITE SILLY THINGS I CAME UP WITH here i talked abt this w friends a while ago let me grab it. readmore bc there's a lot

TLDR: not at first, but he comes to eventually, partially because he is brainfused to arthur and as a result is kind of backseating his gender euphoria LOL

(these are discord messages i've attempted to format + some elaboration on things people might not know, in brackets.)

so it’s like. the sentient robots ([DRACOs and PULSARs], kathos is kind of his own deal) don’t exactly like. wake up with a gender rlly? like they know what it is— i’m not really sure what the baseline of information they wake up with is, but i think they have like a vague bookish understanding of most things, but are kind of clinical in that it’s not hands on info really so they don’t have like… idk a deep understanding of it? like it’s uncertain surface level knowledge, kind of childish, almost. [imagine reading a book about a train. you know what it is, conceptually, but you've never seen one in person. it's effective, but different.]

so, again, they know what gender is, but don’t have one internally. DRACOs left to their own devices, especially in groups (so, the decoms [i can't remember if i've said this, but the decoms are 'decommissioned' dracos that never got corrupted. zarian is one of them. i think i have?]) kind of… figure it out eventually? like they somewhat arbitrarily decide “i will use these pronouns” for clarity's sake. some even go so far as to say “i’m a girl/i’m a boy” if they find they enjoy it, but it’s not all of them. v1s that connect with a pilot have access to… kind of their memories? it’s hard to explain, like they can’t rewatch things their pilot has experienced exactly but they, on top of the baseline knowledge, get their pilots understanding of the world. [i gave an example of this but its spoilers teehee.]

a lot of times, this also results in them copying their pilot’s gender identity, because their understanding of it is now colored by their pilots emotions and therefore they’re like oh ! this is good then! a DRACO that does this may end up changing their mind if left to ponder it long enough (tramsgener…) but usually like they’re content to like. bum hits of gender euphoria off their pilots i guess LOL

zarian iiis kind of a mix of both? zarian gets both his name and his pronouns from captain zarian, an in-universe comic book hero. he’s a he/him user but not a “man”, he doesn’t really care. this ends up more or less compounded when he gets fused to arthur, and he ends up enjoying being a “boy” in the traditional sense a bit more.