the cat stash

easy to pronounce, even for children (though kids 4 & younger may pronounce it more like "mayd" or "maygh")

ONE SYLLABLE!!! ("individual" is too goddamn LONG.) you have to be able to say it quickly and casually

ends in a soft vowel sound, so it'll flow right into the next word ("ind" halts the whole sentence)

fits neatly into the existing structure as a relative of master/mistress that can be abbreviated down to an m and one other letter

distinct enough that it can't be mistaken for either gendered term (if you call me mix I'll kill you. it sounds like miss with extra steps)

wizard.

drawbacks:

there aren't any

They went NUTS for it! Not only did they love it, but there was an immediate click in understanding about they/them pronouns *from the entire cohort* that I haven’t experienced in 3 years of programming.

And linking it back to the root words Mister and Missus as OP so wonderfully provided helped establish that using they/them or neopronouns isn’t just playing around or “Miss but different” the way it can be with Mx. I used to try to go by Teacher Day because I was still getting she/her’d all the time but that also came with the problems of the students only being able to see me in the role of Teacher and being intimidated by the educational institution and their grades (I don’t even work for the school I’m external staff I don’t even have WiFi access). And I’d still get she/her’d all the time.

As soon as I introduced Magister they saw that a nonbinary person could be an Adult with a *societal* role outside the binary. It was immediately visible in their ecstatic faces. And I didn’t get misgendered today.

Contact established with the Iron Lung.

Is he deadass, question?

"Except abstraction isn't death. It's more like a mix of psychotic break and lasting disability. We watched a cautionary tale about a closeted transfem who hurt people by trying to push them away over and over, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't FORCE everyone to stop loving her. We watched her realize too late, but still get that fleeting chance to understand and accept that she WAS still loved, that it never had to be this way. It's a message to everyone in her shoes to please not let it get this bad, but also loudly screaming, no matter how bad it gets, you are not unlovable; I see you and I love you and you are not alone. And then we watched her friend care so much for her that she pushed the others to find new, kinder ways to take care of people like her and to allow her to still be around other people in some capacity, even if she'll likely never really recover or be able to live like she used to. She still exists. She still feels. She's still loved, and being given the best quality of life they can figure out how to give her. It IS tragic. It's not a happy ending for her. But it's bittersweet and, importantly, a very personal story to Goose herself. It was always an existential horror about finding meaning in a meaningless existence, and it still offers her so much sympathy and grace and love amid her tragedy."