#gillie

Some questions for the resident humans.

Gender transition is broadly socially acceptable and medically supported in Jovia, though political attitudes on it vary. The common conservative attitude is that there are three genders: male, unisex, and female; and the only legitimate goal of gender transition is complete surgical sex reassignment. Working reproductive organs can be grown with an individual's DNA, and the most normative way to transition is "match" your sex organs with your chosen gender. Obviously it gets more complicated than that in practice, though, because not everyone is interested in "matching," nor can everyone who transitions take on the risk of major abdominal surgery. There is also an overall perception that the older you are when you decide to transition (or god forbid if you transition more than once) the more undignified it is, and the more inconvenient it is for the other people in your life. So Gillie had a very normative transgender experience for Jovian culture, except for her surgery aversion; while Mel had a very normative medical transition but had to deal with a lot more social friction.

Because of that L-bend it's more safe for Gillie to stick a swab in her ears than it is for you. She can't stab herself directly in the eardrum.

Idrisah has way more books than the average Jovian because she's a history nerd who is interested in stationary and manual writing, relatively niche hobbies.

RttS is mostly about weirdo only children who have have trouble fitting into their communities finding solace in each other's company, for some reason. I need to write more about their friends off of Dirtball, though. Both Gillie and Idrisah are still in contact with Yusuf, and despite the social turmoil Gillie didn't lose contact with everyone she met in college.

From a Terran perspective, all housing in Jovia is high density housing. It's not uncommon for smaller apartments to only have a toilet, living room, and bedrooms; with a shared kitchen space and washrooms (mist showers, laundry, more toilets). Absolute lowest end of the property tax and highest end of the density spectrum are dormitories, which have shared bedrooms with lockers. The apartment Gillie and Idrisah currently live in is HUGE and fancy by their standards; the only thing making it not a "house" in Jovian terminology is the entrance opening to a shared hallway. Gillie's dads are fairly wealthy and have a smaller end "lot house," with "lot" referring to the private outdoor balcony space. The bigger the lot, the higher the property taxes (functionally a kind of rent, paid to the Social Housing Board). Arguably Talita's currently living in a lot house, but that feels like too nice of a thing to call a converted storage shed… the toilet's a separate building, so does that technically make it a dormitory?… but it's a private washroom… she just calls it an apartment.