#i apologize if this comes off sounding nitpicky when that's not my intention at all

[ofieugogyshz]

Excerpt from @kiraheartilly

The following scene involves two men seeing you and Lance on TV briefly. The conversation briefly discusses your career and then goes on to talk about pronouns and gender, both as a general thing and in relation to you.

I wanted to submit this to you and get your feedback, less on the writing itself and more on the things discussed about gender, since it’s a personal subject. 

The men and their Pokémon sipped their drinks while watching TV. The news anchor gave a report. “Pokémon League Champions and married couple Lance and Sarah have recently landed in the Laegun Region. When asked about the reason for their trip, they had this to say.”

The scene cut to Lance, a familiar looking man with spiky carmine hair, light skin, and a black cape flowing behind him. “Part of being a Pokémon Master means learning as much about Pokémon as you can. For us, this means travelling the world to learn more about the Pokémon and trainers in various regions. We’ve been planning this trip for a while, but my wife and I have been quite busy and sometimes it’s difficult to get my schedule to align with theirs.”

Beside him, his wife Sarah smiled. They had flat brown hair and brown eyes, with a large black cloak hooded dress flowing over their body and down to her ankles, with extra fabric trailing behind them like a cape of their own. The dress was covered in lace and frills and made them look almost witchlike. Its darkness was in contrast to their light skin. At their shoulder sat an energetic Pikachu.

“If we happen to get a chance to spend some quality time together, that’s a plus too,” they said.

Watching this, Dean smirked. “We’ve been getting a lot of visitors from other regions lately. Didn’t Lorelei visit and have her match with Hazuki? I wonder if Lance and Sarah are planning to challenge anyone.”

“Sarah’s mostly retired now, they don’t do league stuff as much. But I wouldn’t mind if they did have a battle, it might be exciting to watch. I used to be a huge fan of theirs back in the day. They’ve been Champion in more regions than most trainers even get to visit. They dominated the competition in Hoenn, Unova, and Kalos in particular. They’ve also had a pretty fierce run in Sinnoh; between Sarah, Cynthia, and Dawn, the title of Champion seemed to keep flipping all around the place. Gloria, the champion of Galar, said she’s hoping to one day challenge Sarah, but they’ve never had a chance.”

“Wow, I never realized they were so strong.”

“Yeah, they’ve been out of the spotlight for a while now, so most people know them as Lance’s wife. I’m still hoping they’ll make a comeback someday,” Greg quickly sipped down his juice.

Blowing on his latte to cool it, Dean gave a quizzical look. “Wait, do they really consider themself to be Lance’s wife and not spouse? They use they/them pronouns right? So they’re non-binary and not a woman.”

Greg nodded. “Yes, Sarah is Lance’s wife. You seem to be confused about a few things. Pronouns are usually indicative of gender but don’t always match up in a strict one-to-one sort of way. It’s an extremely personal thing and while there are patterns, there are no hard rules.

“Secondly, non-binary people sometimes choose to use gendered language or terms when to refer to themselves. That’s why there are countless non-binary lesbians out there. You remember that one zombie show that was popular a few years back? One of the main characters was played by a non-binary person who used they/them pronouns but still identified as a lesbian. They also preferred being called an actor instead of an actress. And as counterintuitive as it may seem, some people actually do identify as non-binary women.

“Lastly, it’s worth noting that Sarah uses multiple pronouns. They/them, she/her, and even some neopronouns. When it comes to things like gender and identity, the world can be very complex.”

“I see,” said Dean, finishing his latte.

I’m hoping that if I can continue writing your full cameo will be in Chapter 5 or so. This is chapter 3

okay, initial fluster over with--

looking it over again, i’m not sure there’s much that really stands out to me beyond how the diction used feels a little... unnatural? not necessarily because people don’t often talk that irl and it’s not normalized, but more like... it sounds kinda elementary-level academic and not more casual. if the two were like. idk, scholars or something, i guess it could work, but it reads kind of very... school teacher teaching to classroom and less person to person having a discussion about gender.

like, uh, if it were me talking to someone about someone else’s pronouns/gendered language, it’d be more casual, along the lines of

“Someone can be both non-binary and consider themselves someone’s boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, spouse, etc. Being non-binary doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to adhere to non-binary terms, or that you aren’t allowed to use binary terms at all.” 

your example is still fine about the zombie show actor! everything else is good as is, I just recoil a little whenever I see people try to explain lgbt+ terms in a way that feels almost scholastic and not necessarily casual, for what would otherwise be a casual conversation/exchange. it’s something that I hope people are finding better ways to introduce as time goes on, when it comes to fiction and writing, so that we can all find better ways to emulate natural conversation about it!

oh, a minor thing that’s absolutely not related to the gender discussion and you’re more than welcome to disregard this next paragraph. it’s more along the lines of “people interpret championship differently than others”, some people treat being champion as different than defeating a champion (i am of the mind that these are two diff things) and that one can choose to be a region’s champion for a time, until the next championship match or they choose to step down or something but that’s all variable and ultimately no one’s going to fault anyone for conflating because it’s never been made clear in any medium, but i’d prefer something like “they’ve won multiple championship matches/defeated multiple champions, and always went after the next challenge, rather than keep the title in a single place. Even let their husband keep the Indigo Champion title rather than stay in their home region.” doesn’t have to be verbatim.  granted, if it runs contrast to the viewpoint that you headcanon about championship, then by all means go with yours as it is your story ultimately and i’m only providing feedback, not trying to mandate what the rules of canon are or something.

if this sounds all weird, i apologize. words are hard. gender is harder.