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KLEIN

the obvious answer is gay (and i dont disagree per se) but i generally see him as bi but misogynistic enough where people assumes hes gay

has two ex-wives and several kids/grandkids who he doesnt gaf about since they didnt/dont live up to his lofty expectations

in the conundrum of not really liking kids or wanting any but wanting to have a strong, proud legacy like his fathers before him. kids were more out of a necessity, but theyre all so useless (in his eyes) its pointless and it stresses him tf out. his ex-wives understand that aspect of him now

elaborating on the misogyny point, he has a hard time dealing with people that arent up to his standards in intelligence and while he doesnt hate femininity, he does see it as getting in the way of and unable to coexist with intelligence. ergo, as the gender and gender roles standards/expectations of the time, he saw most women as dumber than him. 'bimbo' was a common insult of his. it def bled into the executives being predominantly male bar dala

on that note, dala, while feminine, doesnt present as much while on the job so its less prevalent with her (but still present). with his wives he saw them off the clock and enjoying themselves and it made him feel like hed married someone lesser/dumber than him which strained the relationships til they broke

otherwise cis and stuff. only has the vaguest of connections to the queer community, generally doesnt see it as worth his time and doesnt really get the 'need' for it these days, its 2075 for christ's sake, its been legal for years (nevermind that bigoted hate crimes still exist). hes rich enough to have been able to live above that since he was young, so theres a major disconnect

i am a mobiklein truther but i dont think klein is like. actively seeking him out for anything. theyre courting i guess but neither really take the plunge. klein sees romance as a thing of the youth and something thatd just distract him, so he doesnt entertain it past coy flirting.

MOBIUS

old gay bear. maybe had a few girls in his youth but has sort of always known where his attraction lay. prefers masculinity and fellow bears but wont turn down a twink or two.

very in touch with the queer community as compared to klein. mobius has, through his whole life, always felt like an outcast wherever he went. mobius has felt othered and outcast his whole life without really understanding why he felt that way with no proof, so he grasps onto any community he has. the bear brotherhood was vital to his late-20s early-30s development into the more cheerful man he is now.

generally didnt/doesnt prioritise sex. tends to deflate when he feels its expected of him in dates and what not, esp early on. im not suuure if id say hes ace or somewhere on the ace spectrum? but he doesnt see life through a very sexual lens

adding to the outcast stuff, he does like being very masculine but there is a part of it that feels like it was for survival almost. leaming hard into the gender presentation expected of a man like him and though he likes how he looks and is and adores the community he found, does still wonder what he wouldve been like if hed resisted the urge and let himself explore more. ah well, too late now.

mobius /is/ actively pursuing klein but can tell theres a lot of hesitation so is taking it gently as he can. he doesnt see it as "over" as klein sees it. at the same time, he doesnt want to spend the rest of his life chasing someone who wont stop, so he does explore his other options

DALA

i actually see dala as aromantic or at least somewhere on the arospec, and definitely acespec. she is definitely mspec to some degree but struggles to define her attraction. shell call herself a lesbian or boy-ceazy as the situation fits.

theres a LOT i could say about how she lives under both the misogyny and racism of a pre-war america and i cant go fully in depth here but as it pertains to sexuality and gender theres some things that i deem important to the convo:

while she does have a lot of sex with others in big mt (with ppl of various genders), particularly kinky/fetish stuff, she doesnt indulge too often for fear of how itd make her look: as the only woman in the think tank, sleeping around could paint her as a floozy who slept her way to the top. its not true at all, she got where she is because shes smart, but what do the words of an Asian woman weigh in a pre-war society?

shes expected to perform feminity---specificslly america's definition of femininity---in public like at events (and she does, genuinely, like being girly and fem) but at the same time she cant be too girly, lest the mostly male reps and investors think she got her spot through money and sex. shes stuck in a really uncomfortable bind of having no choice but to be feminine in public but not /too/ feminine. and again, she finds herself judged much harsher than her peers.

this is worsened by her fraught connection to her gender. i dont see dala as being nonbinary (i hc all the tanks see themselves as gender neutral or otherwise above gender post-tankification, not exclusive to dala) but her relationship to womanhood is strained. yes, she likes being fem, but she does also enjoy being masculine and butchy at times, but feels she cant explore the latter fully. she feels disconnected from womanhood as america (and in particular a white america) defines it.

i do think she has some early hints of not-being-cis but its not something she puts energy into examining when she struggles as is yk.

not really looking for a relationship; she wouldnt mind something low commitment and low stakes but cant picture anything concrete as it currently stands when the future is so uncertain.

0

gay gay homo sexual gay. and homophobic about it. not in the sense he hates the gays—he literally doesnt care who someone else is doing—but /him/? gay? absolutely not, he cant be gay! he has a girlfriend and everything!

DEEP in comphet. i think its the result of the environment he grew up in; his parents didnt see being gay as a bad thing but they did expect to have entirely cishet non-queer kids. 0 has a pretty rigid view of what a future and family should be for him and doesnt really get why it doesnt feel satisfying for him.

ik him being trans is a decently popular hc but its not one ive ever really subscribed to. i dont think his desire to be recognised for his name is a literal translation from pre-war feelings but rather a manifestation of his desire to be known for something he can control rather than something assumed of and imposed upon him, like his comphet (though thats not the only aspect of his life it represents.)

its worth mentioning here bc i dont want to say it everytime, i do think all the men of the think tank are sexist to some degree. i see their time period as more progressive than that of the 1950s but the attitudes towards gender presentations still remain and its inescapable. even open-minded men like mobius still fall victim to it. all that to say 0 definitely has a problem with assuming the worst of things women say, assumes theyre undermining him over small comments and its what leads to many of his relationships failing.

continuing from above, he has major masculinity problems that also stem from his comphet. any man more feminine than him is laughable, any man more masculine than him is a tryhard out to humilate him and 0 is NOT overcompensating for feeling inadequate about his own gender presentation and sexual preferences and small dick and essentially being a chubby twink who cant grow body hair. HE ISNT.

hes a sad little man full of hate to me and it never goes away as a tank, just manifests differently. despite his increasingly desperate attempts at love, something always falls apart and hes left to stew in the aftermath.

8

undefined mspec with a fem lean. he doesnt care to label himself but he likes both women and womanly men and the occassional manly man or manly woman.

8's pretty self-actualises in terms of gender and sexuality, his issues mostly lay elsewhere, and (compared to others) he has no major sexist streaks aside from what was typical of the time, and even then he was considered more liberal than others.

he doesnt label himself as trans or anything but he did experiment with gender a lot as a boy. big genderfluid energy but, like many others, decided he "grew out of it" and left it behind. regrets that, honestly, but its far too late now. hes a man, whatever that means these days.

always felt misheard by those around him and struggled to fit in with the men around him. he didnt really "get" it in the way they did, every masculine role and sterotype didnt abide by the reason he thought they did and it became a mess, so hes largely stopped caring for the standards of others.

hes often bashed for his cowardliness or hand-wringing when it comes to matters of violence, a real man doesnt shy away from such matters, and hed be lying if he said his completely reasonable concern being interpreted as cowardice doesnt ignite some fierce feelings of emasculation (not that hes unaware he is, in fact, a coward).

not looking for a long-term relationship, still sees himself as young and dumb and full of opportunities and hes just not ready to tie himself down yet

BOROUS

borous is a toss up, i could see him as cishet and just really insecure but i think hes more interesting to read as arospec and bisexual.

borous is deeper into the american dream propaganda than the rest of the tank (which is saying something considering. vaguely gestures to the prior sections of the list) and so his view of america and those within it is very strict. nuclear family, one son one daughter, white fence surrounding a small home. hes not overtly homophobic—that would disregard the freedom! that this great country stands for, they can do as they wish!—but he is internally judging them for it.

like 0, he is someone who felt very emasculated in his youth by larger, more manly boys like richie marcus, but unlike 0 was able to physically change to be more typically masculine. still, he obsesses over his younger years for many reasons but the ones relevant to this discussion is his dubious attraction to richie. i wouldnt say he was romantically nor sexually into marcus but his obsession with the mans nethers and constant thoughts about being physically overpowered (not to imply he enjoyed it, it was just on his mind a lot) sparked a significant amount of homophobia and sexism ignited by his own insecurity on his own sexuality and percieved lack of masculinity. consciously or not, he equated the acts done to him by richie as masucline, and so in his middle age performs them on animals or prisoners of war. because hes a MAN and thatd what MEN DO.

in his younger mind, betsy was what a woman should be; attractive, smart (but not too smart!), family-oritented, the works. it didnt really matter that he wasnt really attracted to her, she was the dream all-american girl. facing bullying from her worsened his feeling of masculinity, that a /woman/ was exerting power over him! the shame! the embarrassment! she must be a communist, to spit in the face of the ideal american family so!

whether hes actually into men as well or its just a weird obsession spurred by childhood feelings of inadequacy is up to interpretation—its not like borous ever figures it out.

actively looking for a relationship but hes decided that no one can meet his ever increasing standards. he may just have to be alone forever! oh no!