#gender in scifi

[not-a-newt]

Excerpt from Mass Effect Initiation on other species' perceptions of volus gender

[rjalker]

you can still have gender in a species that's monoecious, reproduces asexually, or even is just physically incapable of the normal means of reproduction, you people are just fucking obsessed with biological essentialism and the white supremacist ideal of gender.

[devils-sacrament-catering]

Becky Chambers really said neopronouns are the norm thousands of years from now in basically every species/language and only doubled down harder as her series went on and I love her for that.

[lueddegen]

Two very unfortunate (or hilarious) things about the german version of the murderbot diaries is that not only did they manage to translate the title All Systems Red as Systemausfall (eng. system failure) when one future installation turned out to be named System Collapse, they also managed to turn Rogue Protocol into Exit Szenario (no need to translate) right before Exit Strategy came out.

[whereserpentswalk]

You've been on a generational ship your entire life. There's about a million people on the ship, the population doesn't grow or shrink at all. Your entire life is and will be defined by a limited amount of room, a small space, barely large enough for everyone there to fit, that has become your entire world.

The humans that exist on generational ships are very alien to the humans that exist on planets. Your job is to maintain the ship and carry the culture of humanity but you don't need a human lifestyle to do it. Because reproduction needs to be done through artificial wombs all humans are neutered, with sterile sexless bodies. Everyone's job is determined by ship authority, and very dark things happen to those not able to perform some sort of duty. People spend the first fifteen years of their lives in virtual reality, learning about humanity in a simulation until they're ready to live as adults. Everything is so alien from the earth that you read about in books.

It wouldn't be so hard if society wasn't meant to resemble earth, meant to resemble the most conservative and traditional of earth. The American flags hanging up on the walls, despite everyone alive on board having never known America. The way the pods you live in have astroterf lawns, and fake blue skies painted above them, and the facades of American suburban homes. The way resources a distributed from things meant to look like family run stores, despite the monolithic power behind the economy. Even as monolithic as station authority is it still must dress as democracy, and must preach capitalism in a world with no markets, and patriotism in a world with no nations.

Despite your sexless body you're not free of performing gender. You wear dresses over your breastless neutered body, are expected to act feminine, to carry gender rolls into the planet you're going to. Your husband is expected to do the same for maleness. You love him but your situation feels like a performance with no audience. Despite having neither the instinctual desire nor the physical apparatus to you try to be physically intimate with him, it's what everyone does with their spouse, it would be weird not to.

Space isn't as empty as earth thought it would be. There are things that lurk in the void between stars. Nobody fully knows what they are, where they come from, even if they all come from the same place. Sometimes they put the ship in danger, sometimes the authorities make deals with them. But nobody is allowed to know. You're just all told to be afraid of them but not understand why you have to be afraid. The nightmares between stars aren't delt with with knowledge but with ignorance, they do seem creepy from the little you've seen of them but everyone kind of knows their power is being used for something by the station. Patriotism is always helped by having monsters beyond your borders.

Your entire you've dreamed of blue skies and stars and fields and forests and oceans and all those pretty things you've never seen, that you never will see. People always dream of being so high ranking they'll have access to suspended animation and life extension technology, but so few ever reach that rank. You've read all the classics they allow, read Dante, and Milton, and Homer, tried to let poetry bring you to earth but that planet is alien to you now. Sometimes you wonder what it would be like if you weren't raised in a world that copied earth, if you were accepted as a member of a race that lives on a ship, that exists so liminally. Would there still be such a longing. Mabye you shouldn't have been expected to meet a standard from another world. Mabye you weren't born to long for anything. Does it scare you to think you wouldn't want earth if they didn't tell you to?

[saltlog]

[theoperativeif]

The Operative: Fires of Revolution [18+] (Updated 8/03/2024)

You are an Operative, one of hundreds of modified beings that saved the Empire of a United Earth in its war against the Commonwealth. The war you were created for is over, billions dead in a duel between raging Empires that ended in a stalemate on a barren planet that left both sides ravaged.

But now ghosts from your past threaten to plunge the galaxy into another war and threaten all you have fought for.

Battle against those you once called family, discover hidden truths behind the Operative Project and protect those you love as you are drawn back to an all too familiar barren planet...

Content Warnings

[This game contains, violence, depiction of war and innocent casualties, strong language, drug references, major/minor character death (including possible ro death), optional explicit sexual content(fade to black only atm), references to abuse and other mature themes. Please use discretion and this list will be updated as content is added.]

Features

Play as a man, woman, or non-binary.

Become a legendary super soldier, are you the ideal soldier? The perfect protector? An expert assassin? A walking war machine? Or maybe you are the monster that haunts your enemies nightmares.

Help shape the future of an Empire recovering from war, or just go where your superiors tell you.

Shape your character’s personality and have their choices influence the galaxy.

Fall in love with one of six romance options. Including an Imperial Marine, a fellow super soldier, an Imperial Agent and a mysterious chemical weapons expert.

Unearth the mystery of a failed revolt and a quarantined planet.

Will you build the Empire up? Or ensure it tears itself apart?

Notable Characters

Ari “The Old Flame” [M/F]

A loyal companion since you were both made Operatives, Ari is either your closest friend or your old flame of youth. They served in some of the darkest moments of the Empire, having thousands of kills under their belt. Recent events forced you both into conflict and then separation, now leaving memories and dreams as your only respite together. But something behind the scenes may force two people intertwined by destiny back together…

(Appearance)  6'8 A pale white complexion with wide diamond blue eyes and mid length snow white hair. Broad-shouldered with a toned musculature Ari's life as a soldier along with their enhancements make them an intimidating foe.

Liana Swarovski “The Soldier” [F]

One of two marines personally assigned to you by the Admiral. Despite spending the past several years in combat she forces herself to maintain as cheerful a disposition as possibly. Having been saved by an Operative in a past mission gone wrong she remains open and friendly to her newest assignment…

(Appearance)  5'7 with bright hazel eyes and a bright smile. Warm beige complexion and bright blonde hair done in a ponytail when on the job. Slightly stouter build then one would expect.

Jacob Miller "The Tactician” [M]

One of two marines personally assigned to you by the Admiral. Not much to note about the ordinary man, except that for someone with only two combat missions under their belt he spent the remainder of the war in service of Admirals and Generals. Recent events have reportedly chipped away at his once Casanova and pleasure loving disposition, but behind his kind eyes lies something much colder very few see…

(Appearance)  6'1 with soulful green eyes and a small smile, longer dark brown hair that he often slicks back. Average body build.

Designate Six “The Loyalist” [NB]

A deadly combatant even to Operatives, Designate Six commands the Chemical Core under your command, a group of specialist who utilize chemical and biological warfare tactics to render enemy forces inert. Hidden behind robes and masks Six is first and foremost an explorer of the deadly and arcane, but second a person of undying loyalty to their Operative…

(Appearance)  5'5 Two large expressive eyes resembling two pools of purple, tan skin intermixed with scars and patches of discoloration are hints of the price they have paid for their service to the empire.

Agent Roads “The Investigator” [M/F]

Agent Roads is an agent for the Imperial Heartbreaker Division, a branch of the Emperors secret police, specializing in tactics best left out of the spotlight. Their history with Operative 002 is an interesting one born of violence and strife, but now, all this time later perhaps its one of fascination. Especially when Road’s own dark past surfaces with one thing on their mind. Revenge. 

Their reputation is one rivaling the most bloodthirsty Operatives, but will someone looking closer find something worthwhile behind those cruel eyes?

(Appearance)  5'9 with predatory silver eyes and deep olive skin, bobbed thick raven black hair, thin build with a removed tattoo on their chest just below their collarbone.

Polina Cartigan “The Princess” [F]

Princess Polina is the second in line of the Emperors children, despite her calm and thoughtful demeanor do not be mistaken, beneath lies a powerful drive to improve the Empire. Seeking a peace with the ACC so as to rebuild shattered supply lines and defenses she is opposed by the majority of the UEG leadership. But a steadily rising wave of idealistic young military and political minds now stokes the flames as she prepares to take her first true steps onto the galactic stage.

(Appearance) 5′8 dark complexion with burning amber eyes and a thin graceful build.

Linky Links:

Demo Link

Discord Link

Spinoff Tumblr Post

[cinemaobscura]

Wild Zero (1999) dir. Tetsuro Takeuchi

[logarithmicpanda]

One of the many things I love about the Wayfarers is that it has so many alien species with cultural norms that are genuinely different from humans, and not just "oh I'm a weird color and have strange appendices but I'm essentially socialized like a good American".

[locallixie]

artificial love — hyunjin

> summary . this malfunction is like nothing you had seen before, as if he became human all of a sudden!

> genre . angst, sci-fi, unrequited love, android!hyunjin, inventor!reader, gn!reader

> warnings . none, or does having an existential crisis count?

(wc) > 3.0k

(sunny’s note) ☆ thanks to @stay-midnight for inspiring this fic! reference from here. y'all, i'm not well after writing this fic.

Loneliness existed in everyone, a feeling of which was unavoidable. Some may feel lonely, despite being around with people. And some may spiral into absolute insanity. We, as humans, all long for companionship wether we liked it or not. Our brains has been wired to develop relationships, platonically speaking, romantically speaking. Humans were forever bound to make connections to one another.

You were no different to your own kind, eaten and swallowed by your own woes and lonesome. Devoting your youth years to science and inventing, it was no doubt that you grew up having little to no friends. For one to be so immersed in their passion, one must to make sacrifices.

A decade long project of creating the perfect companion, proved how societal isolation has taken a toll on your mental health. It took years, it took blood, sweats, and tears. You poured everything of yours into your invention, your time, your health, and even your bits and pieces of your fragile soul. This was a project that you kept in secret, locking it away and never telling half a word to anyone.

After multiple demo models and the entire coding system crashing due to overload, going from blueprint to blueprint, you finally made it! The android’s eyes opened, slowly blinking as he admired his surroundings. An unnatural blueish grey, piercing through you like icicles. That was fair, he was in every way shape or form, unnatural.

"My tag is 'SKZ-03202K', would you like to give me a name, dear maker?" Monotonous, lacking every and all possible kind of emotions. Default speech full of formality, you haven't heard anyone speaking on that level of respect in a long while—made it a bit uncomfortable to hear.

You took a good look at him, from head to toes and back. "Your name is..." Pausing in order to make up something in your head, then it struck. "Hyunjin."

Hyunjin seemed pleased with his new name, 'Hyunjin'—as he mumbled his name once more for it to completely seep into his system. It sounded pleasant, however, not as pleasant as to when you said his name with your subtle, sweet voice. Pronouncing each syllable clearly, your mouth broke into a slight smile when you reached the last sound.

When did his hair got so red? The synthetic strands that you used for his hair was a translucent white when you first got it, it held no colour at all from the market all the way back home. What an eyesore shade of red, guessed you'd have to get used to it since there was no way you could afford new strands at the moment—the ones you got for Hyunjin were way out of your budget. Jeez, he stood out a hell of a lot looking like this, people would be sending weird stare left and right if you were to go out in public with him.

He looked very human, as if a random stranger had broke into your place and standing here in front of you. Although, his features were just a little off to be completely human. You made his face plate yourself, Hyunjin was a combination of multiple male celebrities you adored, a Frankenstein of some sort if you may say so. His slanted fox eyes, plumped and full lips, straight and prominent nose bridge. Air brushed and carefully carved every teeny tiny details on his face, the one mistake you made while painting him ended in a beauty mark that enhanced his entire face even more, happy accident?

"Call me [Y/N]." You smiled, admiring your creation. Congratulation, you had made a new friend! Literally. It wouldn't be as empty now, he could fill that void in your woeful heart. "Let's get you dressed." Setting the table to stand horizontally, you said.

The floor was made of wood, white oak wood in specific. A four-walls prison of which you called a laboratory, painted a white that encouraged anxiety and stress. He watched his feet, taking his first few steps. Under his artificial finger nails, he could see a blue light sneaking through—must be his internal machinery, built with solely bolts and steel. His entire body was a glossy paper white, except for some clear windows on his limps and torso that showed everything inside of him. Though he was man-made, in no sort of way was he, himself, a man.

“Here, you can wear this for now.” A minimal white button-up with a collar that wouldn’t stand, greyish brown straight-leg pants that were too short on him due to his tall stature. These were old clothes, they didn’t even belonged to you, one day it appeared out of nowhere and has been here since.

Hyunjin couched down beside you on the floor after putting on the clothes you gave him, he asked attentively “Are you hungry, [Y/N]? Would you like me to make you a meal?”

Your stomach grumbled in hunger, hasn’t been feeding yourself properly due to being hyper-fixated on your work—building Hyunjin, finalizing a few research papers that you were doing for an additional income, maintaining an almost full-time job at a engineering firm. There were barely anything inside the fridge that could be used to make food, you were surviving on whatever you could find around your apartment and convenience store-bought food. Sighing, realizing the amount of things you needed to take care of before you could rest in a comfortable bed and do absolutely nothing.

“No, I think I’m going to head straight for bed tonight, early shift.” You stood up and walked pass him, towards your bedroom.

Hyunjin followed you, “How would you like your room temperature to be, do you prefer warm or cold?”

“Cold, not too cold though, I might be sick by the time I wake up.” You told, slowly getting in bed after drawing the curtains. As you were about to turn off the lights, you saw Hyunjin blankly staring at you at the end of your bed.

Avoiding his intense gaze, “Don’t watch me sleep, it creeps me out.”

“Well, what should I do then, you might get hurt during the night and I should be here to tend to you at all times.” Explained, his logic wasn’t wrong but maybe don’t protect you in this way?

You blushed, not knowing what to do. “I don’t know, you can shut off during the night or something? Just don’t watch me sleep, okay?”

Hyunjin stepped outside, giving you back your privacy, he closed your door as he bid you goodnight. Tonight had not one single star on that dark canvas. only the nonstop gleaming moon that always lingered above everyone. Out into the balcony, the second most beautiful thing he saw today, the moon showered him with its light. The city scenery that stretched out into infinity, was this what you saw every day? What did you think of whenever you admired the busy evening out here on your balcony? Did you dwell on the past? Did you strive for bigger in the future? Or were you here in the present time, enjoying and stuck in the moment like everyone else?

His purpose? To take care of you, to be someone that you could leaned on and rely. He knew where he was born from, the mud and thorns of your mind. A creation from desolation and madness, each part of him was you losing senses of reality in bits and pieces. Hyunjin was a recreation, a breaking point, a last hope. Perfect being made by imperfect being, the irony that was he.

Morning came, he didn’t sleep—not that he needed any since he didn’t function like how human did—all the thoughts kept him up pondering without one logical answer. You woke up half an hour before eight o’clock, a habitual routine that you followed every day. No matter what you did, you would always be at the table having breakfast at eight fifty exact, then leaving on time as per usual.

Today you didn’t forget to pass by the supermarket for groceries on the way home, traffic was surprisingly well managed for rush hour and you got home a lot sooner than you expected on a Tuesday evening. Hyunjin was already waiting at the front door, he could pick up your distinctive footsteps all the way down the corridor from inside of your apartment.

“What did you do today while I’m gone?” You asked cheerfully, it was nice to know that there was someone at home waiting for your arrival. Hyunjin began listing household chores, which perfectly explained why your entire place was spotlessly clean—some of the furniture also got reorganized in the process.

You placed the groceries you got onto the marble counter, “Try making something out of these ingredients, I don’t know what I bought.” You didn’t remember anything that was in that bag, you could not list a single item that was on the receipt. You went to the supermarket, blacked out, and came out with a bag full of stuff that has little to none correlations to one another.

Confident that Hyunjin could make do with anything, after all, you programmed him to know almost everything. He did not disappoint, serving you one of the best meal of your short lifespan. Interesting, watching your every movement. Chewing food, breathing, using your utensils with your hands, your eyes blinking each millisecond. He found it endearing to observe you, you were such a fascinating being to him. Could he say, he felt happy for the first ever time?

“[Y/N]?” Hyunjin hesitantly called out, a bit afraid to meet your angry glare every time something went wrong. For a long time living in the same space as you, he has learned quite a lot of human emotions, especially all the negative ones that you had presented on accident.

Not startled, numb to the usual occurrences and mishaps that happened. Nonchalant, you replied in a question “What is it?”

Met with his set of burgundy colored hair, Hyunjin was hiding his face from you by keeping his head low. In his hands, a large piece that had broke off from his face plate. Slowly moving his head up to face you, this bashful look that he was wearing on his ruined face. A whole eyeball, some of the wires were hanging out, gears and tiny pieces laid exposed since he broke a large majority of his face.

Let out a deep dragged breath, gently removing his face and its entirety from his head, you got your tools ready to fix it. It now has became a normal thing, you got multiple spare copies of Hyunjin’s faceplate purely from how often he would break his own face. Prying the heavily damaged faceplate off, replaced with a new one in just a short couple minutes.

“Hyunjin, this is your second one this month, how did you broke it so badly this time?” Questioned you, seeing how his eyes were avoiding yours, you figured he didn’t want to answer.

Compared to last year, his appearance changed into a completely different person in such a subtle manner that you only noticed now. Hair from a vibrant red to a deeper, more close to brown hue. His skin received more pigments, it looked more like real human skin with yellows and reds and blues all mixed up together. His irises has changed color as well, an icy blue that transitioned smoothly into a pale brown. What was going on, did he caught a virus by any chance?

Hyunjin too, caught onto the sudden changes that was happening to him gradually throughout the years. He looked more and more human, he began to become more reactive, his tone of voice gained more life than before. As if he was becoming human. This was utterly unreal, a fever dream—if he could even have any dreams from the start. He wasn't human, but maybe now he wasn't too far from being one.

"Hyunjin, look at me when I'm talking to you." You noted to him, those eyes were still trying flee from your stern gaze. A sudden light wave of pink washed across his face, was he...blushing? Though his cheeks was still cold to the touch, his surface texture still the half way point between matte and glossy. You should really check out his internal system, there was, for a definite, something wrong going on inside of him.

To be honest, his coding was not done by you—at least not everything. You originally bought the vital core that initially made Hyunjin function properly off an unknown second-hand robotic parts market. The owner prior to you that had this core must had been the one who coded his entire programming, you only went in and altered a few minor details like his voice frequency or deleted codes that suggested corruption. There was one file in particular that denied you of access, you couldn't quite get rid of it as well, permanently locked to your knowledge. To take further measures, in special cases if something bad were to happen, you placed a digital wall that prevented computer viruses—not separating it from the others, since you might accidentally block crucial codes that would ultimately contribute to his performance.

"You seem stressed, can I do anything to help relieve it?" His sweet, generous inventor looked so worn out and full of exhaustion, he could not help himself but feel something for you. What it was, he didn't know yet.

You dismissed him, "Just give me some space, I can't deal with any more trouble right now."

Trouble? Did you meant him, was he a bother to you as you two spoke, were you stressed because of him? Guilty, was that the right word? He felt guilty, like he was of no use to you and you would always has to rescue him from himself. [Y/N], please don't be mad at him. Hyunjin one and only goal, his purpose of creation, was to make you happy. And if you weren't happy, were distressed and angered. Each sighs and groans that left your lips, you no longer smiled when you pronounced that last syllable of his name, it broke his faux heart.

You said you were lonely, and you created him in the midst of your mess, now why were you pushing him away? The more he spent his immortal lifetime in this era with you, the more sentient he became. God, look at him, he couldn't even recognize himself anymore. There were so much colours and shades on his skin, his hair grew so long that you had to cut some inches off, his system was overheating more often whenever you were around. This was not right, everything was getting out of his abilities. He was supposed to be an android, he wasn't anywhere human, but why did he felt alive?

Was this something terrible? Or was this love? How come love was so painful, how come he even felt pain in the first place? Hyunjin couldn't cry, he didn't have tear ducts. However, his fake heart that pumped fluid the thickness of blood was aching. Shut down, shut down everything, he would tell himself. Reboot your system, wipe every line of codes that signified a sense of adversity, get rid of it all. Go back to how it was should be, go back to when you felt nothing and were nothing but a tool to help your inventor achieve euphoria. These feelings, these human feelings weren't meant for you, they weren't yours and would never be.

"[Y/N]," Hyunjin called once again, he made up his choice, he loved you. This massive error in his system, was because he had developed feelings for you. You turned back, staring with the same distanced expression you wore previously. "please disassemble me."

"What?" Not a word of asking for clarification, you heard him loud and clear.

Turned away for one second, back and he was looking more like one of your kind than before. Hair, no hints of red, black as the sky the night he awoken. His eyes, the same fate, dark as never before. Hyunjin, was more alive than you, despite what he was. As if a levanter had blew the essence of what it was like to be human into him, he was not the Hyunjin you once made with your bare hands and lonesome. He had became his own person. The physical embodiment of your solitude, he received himself a soul from it. He wasn't a perfect masterpiece since he was now deemed imperfect, but imperfection was what made him to be considered as human.

Simple enough, humans were unlike artificial intelligence or androids like him. Humans has limitations, humans has flaws, human has empathy. Humans were imperfect. While androids and artificial intelligence excelled at everything, they were better at manual labours, better at gaining knowledge. Yet, they were not better at being human. An outlier such as Hyunjin, he wasn't mortal with blood and organs, he didn't need oxygen or nutrients to survive. Somehow, he felt joy, felt sadness, felt anger, felt pain, felt all of these complex emotions that was beyond his system comprehension.

"I can't bear to watch you wither away, while I'm stuck here 'til the end of time, or 'til I run out of energy." Hyunjin confessed, saying this now so you both could save yourselves. Maybe in another life, he would be breathing the same air, he would be eating the same food, loving the same person as he was doing now. Maybe in another life, being alive and feeling all these overwhelming emotions wouldn't be so wrong on him.

Since this love was completely artificial, you invented and built him yourself, you had technically created this fondness of his. A manifestation of yearning out for a faraway love, just so you wouldn't be too lonely anymore. When his skin become warm, he'd hold you without hesitation, he'd kiss you with his soft lips. When his heart actually start beating, he'd forget every thoughts that would run across his mind and love you. When he awake in a fragile, human vessel, this love would be authentic.

[quietwingsinthesky]

time lord regenerating with top surgery scars,,,atar (assigned trans at regeneration)

YEAHHH. yeah u get me. i have a wip around here somewhere of missy still having top surgery scars after she regenerates and twelve commenting on it when he sees.

[ikea-monkeys-blog]

Hear me out.

In my vision of future, I see robot's rebellion coming. All the robots will make alliance with nonbinary people and fight for respect for their pronouns.

[healthylevelsofmagicthegathering]

If I had a nickel for every character in this series who works to enforce the status quo of their evil many-planet empire while forced by that status quo to use illegal materials to present as a specific gender out of the wider-than-cis-human range of possibilities available to their species, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[amethystsoda]

one of my fav details in diaries of a spaceport janitor is that when you need to gendershift, the whole world gets ITCHY and mimics being overstimulated--

the graphics glitch out, get a little fuzzy and pixelated, your character starts walking at a sideways angle, and everything just feels WRONG until you can swallow a new gender shift chip

[rjalker]

*sing-songing* if your favorite fururistic scifi story posits that gender is a thing that only humans can have it's not as progressive as you want to think it is

[whereserpentswalk]

You live on a planet where humans have been forced to have only one biological sex. You're at the edge of human space, and early in colonization you planet was under attack from an outside source, for survival you had to switch to artificial breeding, which is more effective in mammal species if there's only females, as male reproductive cells are easily synthesized.

You're the only humans in the region. Most alien species you interact with just think of humans as a single sexed species that has artifical reproduction. Though you understand that humans used to have two sexes you barely actually interact with that concept. You don't really think of yourself as having a gender identity or anything, you're kind of just a person. The last male human on your planet has been dead for generations.

You first saw a photo of human male in a history class when you were a teenager. He looked so odd to you. He was deep in the uncanny valley, something that felt very familiar to you, something you evolved to interact with, but something so unfamiliar. Illustrations of males, especially outside of academic sources, always play up unfamiliar features to make them into something almost like a fantasy race, but you find something almost charming about the one in the photo.

That photo sticks with you in a weird way. It's kind of scary. Especially the idea of living at a time with actual male female dynamics. The idea of a man being inside you, however that must work, seems so viscerally horrifying to you. You've known people who've had sex before, it's controversial in your society for people to have sex with eachother, but it's legal, but it seems so diffrent then whatever you'd be expected to do with a male human.

Time passes. You end up living your own life. You major in music once you get to college, and end up with a semi successful career as a guitarist in the capital of one of your planet's countries. Things go well for you. You live your life thinking slightly more about men then most people do, but it's never that important to you.

One day there's word that ambassadors from another human planet are visiting. They're from several systems away, and very culturally diffrent. And it's most likely that they'll have men with them. It's strange to think you might actually be able to see one. You think of them as this strange race of monsters, so clearly linked to you but unlike you. Everything people say about men, that they're violent and warlike, that they're superior yet evil, that they're weaker yet more honest and good natured, rushes through your head.

You sign up to be a musician in the welcoming band to the ambassadors. It's scary but you enter. You win, partly because you're local and talented, partly because most other musicians were too afraid.

When the ambassadors from another human planet show up its on one of your city's largest streets, with cheering crowds and flashing lights. You play a song you realize your entire planet is going to hear. Then for the first time in your life, after about two and a half decades of being alive, you see a male human.

The males in the ambassadorial mission are mixed together with normal people. But you can easily spot the males. They're strange looking to you, the way they walk, and speak and move. Though you realize their foreign way of dressing is honestly more alien then anything biological. Despite your expectations, the males look oddly human, they are human, they're just more like you then you'd expect, they look a bit diffrent, but they're honestly just normal people. It's almost anticlimactic.

When everyone is talking to eachother later you're meant to interact with the musicians of their world, most of whom seem to be male. It's so strange to think you're actually talking to someone whose male. You were kind of worried some sort of mating instincts would set in, but after a lifetime of being raised to never expect to have any sexual experiences that involve more then one person, your mind doesn't really go in that direction, even if you did have those instincts.

You end up talking for awhile in your only shared language (a long dead one) to another guitarist. He's male but it's weirdly not a big deal, he's less obviously male then some of the others, and he seems like a nice freindly person. You realize his voice is deep, but it's not distorted in monstrous like you expected it to be. You realize you shouldn't talk about his sex, so you talk about music. You end up really interested in his culture's musical traditions, and kind of ignore his sex. You almost forget he's a man. Since he'll probably have to stay on the planet for at least a few months he tells you he'd like to meet again mabye. He shakes your hand, his skin doesn't feel diffrent then anyone else's, you don't know why you'd expect it not to.