#nqk

I wanted to do this for Trans Day of Visibility and surpriiiiise didn't have any spoons, but better late than never!!!

They're playing a game

Instagram - Twitter - Patreon

Short answer: No. Not the way most people seem to want, anyway.

Long answer: Not explicitly, and definitely not using Western terms.

There are many Doylist Reasons for this.

Since the fic is set in 1990s era Japan, the term "non-binary" isn't in use in Lucky Child's setting. The word just wasn't in use in that place or time. The modern Japanese term is "x-gender," but that won't be in use for a while yet in NQK's world (like the early 2000s).

Pronouns work differently in Japanese than they do in English, so requesting they/them pronouns or the term "non-binary" doesn't make sense for NQK.

I didn't come out as non-binary until the story was like 75% completed. Inserting a "coming-out narrative" into the story would take up time and space in a narrative that was not constructed to support one. I would have to completely shoe-horn it into the story, changing my intentions for the very important, carefully crafted final act. It would bloat an already crowded narrative with something the narrative doesn't need to deliver on all the promises it set up in previous chapters. Inserting a coming-out story so late in the game would not make for good storytelling.

There are also Watsonian Reasons.

There are hints of NQK's dissatisfaction with gender throughout the story. From challenging Minato's treatment of them to Botan's observations of NQK's wardrobe, it's easy to pinpoint moments where evidence of their shirking of gender norms shines through. (The signs of my eventual coming-out are very obvious to me in retrospect.)

But while the signs are there, NQK is a very busy person who has a lot on their plate. Preventing the end of the world, being embroiled in a plot involving gods and goddesses, maintaining canon... they have a lot on their mind. And honestly? Their gender is the last thing on it. They are too freakin' busy to pay it any mind right now. In a few years, maybe. But right now, they're too distracted to care much.

Frankly, if anyone asked Keiko what their gender was at this point the story, they would look at them and awkwardly laugh, perplexed. They would feel uncomfortable, and they would begrudgingly likely say they were a girl, and then they would try not to think about it because the answer made them anxious for reasons they couldn't quite articulate. But that's as far as things would go right now, and they would make no declarations of import. Not right now, anyway.

Circling back to a Doylist perspective, NQK's continued "pursuit of self" can be read as an allegory for a gender coming-out story. They are constantly trying to find and assert their independent identity apart from the one assigned to them at birth (the identity of "Yukimura Keiko"). It's very easy to find this allegory within the text considering my own gender, and it's one I suspect I subconsciously inserted prior to coming out.

Compounding all of that, I started writing this story before I came out. The version of me who exists in the story is based on the version of me who existed before I came out. My real self and my fictional avatar have grown in different ways and in different directions. To quote Robert Frost, "two roads diverged in a yellow wood," and NQK and I can each only take one of those roads at a time. I set her path at the start of her story, and I don't intend to pull her down a different one so late in the narrative.

I took one road. NQK took another. Perhaps down the line we will travel the same path again, and perhaps that path will bear the name "non-binary," but for now, we explore different avenues of the gender world.

So, to sum up?

NQK's pronouns right now are she/they, and while I consider them non-binary, they are not quite there yet in terms of their own thinking.

here is my future leo design that looks pretty much like every future leo design until you see his full body that i dont have time to draw but trust me it'll be different (at least from the future leo designs I'VE seen)

The first two cuz they mostly mach his vibe, the third one is just so nice (he will say some shit about how they deserve better from the would or about moving on and my f!Leo would hug him and cry for a few hours at minimum).

Watashi is gender neutral if used formally, which is when you are talking respectfully to someone and you are addressing yourself. Though between friends, its generally used by women.

Boku is strictly masculine.

And Ore can be used between friends and used by both men and women, though mostly used by men.

Don't know if this was helpful. Sadly, there is no terms that have an equivalent to they/them.

Thanks for doing research; I looked around and found pretty much the same thing, so it's nice to know I wasn't looking in the wrong places, haha.

But yeah, there's no they/them in Japanese grammar as far as you/I can tell. You use gendered pronouns to refer to yourself in Japanese, but others don't really use pronouns to refer to you. Gendering yourself is basically in your own hands, and there's gendered language structure beyond pronouns like ore/watashi/boku that also needs to be taken into account. Plus there are grammatical elements that can signify queerness, which is neat.

And that's the main reason I decided not to instantly swap over to they/them in LC now that I've come out, and it's why NQK hasn't requested people use they/them pronouns for her. Those pronouns DO NOT EXIST IN THE LANGUAGE SHE'S SPEAKING, and I do try to keep in mind as much as I can that they're all technically speaking Japanese in that story. Obviously I throw that out the window when writing puns, but... XD

I did try to look up nonbinary identities and how they exist and what they're called in Japan, and I found the term "x-gender" is basically the equivalent to nonbinary in Japan, with some cultural nuance layered over it. But since LC is set during 1991 and that term wasn't coined until the late 90s, she's a few years off from hearing it and being able to use it, much less use the term as a jumping-off point for self-exploration.

Basically when people tell me she needs to request they/them pronouns and start identifying using the word "nonbinary" during LC, I have to remind people that the terms we use here in 2021 Western society aren't available to her in her place/language, so she can't explore using the terms we're familiar with, much less request people use pronouns that don't exist in her language.

Basically NQK's coming out journey won't mirror mine because it CAN'T mirror mine, and that's OK. Eventually she'll get there. It'll just take time and research.

If y'all want details about NQK's eventual gender expression, she'll probably use masculine-coded and gender neutral language a lot, mostly in an effort to signify that she's not a cishet woman (as I'm sure many will assume at first glance, as that's what people always assume about me). She'll probably end up using the term "x-gender" once it gets coined, too. But unless she relocates to a predominantly English-speaking country, they/them and and the precise term "nonbinary" won't factor into her life much.