I've always gone with the lusus thing (since all pairs we've seen so far match). Trolls gender themselves based on their lusii, especially since I headcanon trolls as taking after their lusii in various other ways (see: some of Karkat's freakouts being kind of crabdance-y). Maybe some don't (which also opens up the door for sorta-trans trolls, IDing opposite their lusus), or their lusus's gender is unidentifiable or just never got sexed. (Singular they may originally exist for "gender undetermined" especially regarding animals/lusii and some people just adopted it for personal use. Probably wouldn't be much of a fuss because they've got other things to worry about, like surviving to ascension) This could tie into caste: Jadebloods might tend to have female lusii because reasons, we only see Heiresses because Gl'bgolyb (and male-IDing or nb Heirs might have a lower survival rate because of a cultural "What? NO" reaction might make them more likely to get offed)
The lusus headcanon is my personal favorite as well. Since they get raised out of species, they might just pick up gender from the symbiotic relationship. This would leave trolls as baseline agender/nb
....what if male or nb Heirs end up getting culled because Gl'bgolyb won't, like accept/bond with them your lusus does have to sort of 'pick' you and I'd assume that's still a thing with the Heiress/Heir, but like what if. she just. doesn't connect to trolls who end up IDing as male or nb, and doesn't take them as her troll, and they're culled as a result.
It's possible she might abandon them if they end up not IDing as female, because she is part of the Empirical Machine and it wouldn't do for the plan to have something as out of place as an Heir.
I would be more inclined to think she gives less than a damn about the empire and what Her troll gets up to and trolls who get adopted by her just get female from her, going with trolls not having a gender on their own.
I mean I'm pretty sure they came up with troll designs first, then assigned the signs more or less arbitrarily to different aspects and moons then made up some extra signs to fill the empty slots.
also I really just like the idea of a young fuschia troll who's survived the ordeals or whatever it is they do prior to getting their lusus who's already decided they're nonbinary for whatever reason, and then Gl'bgolyb just. ignores them. won't take them. because Female Fuschias Only. like she just doesn't pick the enby fuschia, they may as well not even exist to her, she doesn't even show up, and so the enby fuschia is set to be culled ....and then maybe they RUN AWAY and try to hide OC time apparently
i love both of them i love the colorful yellow i really hope they survive and OH DEAR GOD the insufferable teal bless my child it is me at my worst i love him
I'm a tad worried for the Soleil twins. They're twins, in a cult which worships a cherub. How much do the subjugs know about cherubs? Do they know what cherub shared-body "twins" do to each other as standard?
they're also twins in a cult which worships a deity that is two-and-one at once, and there are not, i think, indications that the Mirthful Messiahs regularly murder each other in any permanent way.
Okay, raw eggs are not really good for humans either and we all know about fugu, but Xefros' casual attitude to "HORRIFYING PARASITES" and the fact that there's a happy little ditty about not inhaling while preparing a particular dish, which he seems totally unconcerned about, is making me wonder; is literally all their food trying to kill them? We know everything there "is considered prey by everything else", according to Nepeta, but I'm starting to think it's fighting back even after it's dead. I did say I don't trust anything about Alternia. For that matter, do trolls actually enjoy eating bugs? Xefros mentions that Grub Juice is so gross that "[your] throat closes up in protest" but he still drinks it constantly, which makes me wonder how much worse the alternatives are, and he calls it "whatever this is" and says that you "don't ask" about the content of grubloaf, which is making me think they aren't supposed to eat bugs or don't enjoy them. Or possibly with regards to "grubs" that they don't know or don't want to think about the idea they might be eating their own babies - I know that's fanon but it makes a lot of sense.
Also I know it was meant as a joke, but as a person with anxiety the line about only being legally allowed to read certain sections of a magazine but still being given the whole magazine fucks me up. In a society where you could potentially be under surveillance by psychics at any time, imagine how many sleepless nights those poor troll kids would get from accidentally letting a magazine fall open to the wrong page or something. Upthread says Alternia's not designed to be a torture chamber but things like this really make me think it is.
...I don't think there's any indication that Alternia has a thought police in Hiveswap? certainly that couldn't exist planetside.
Click the Heiress' picture with the Cuebat: Even if they couldn't actually do that, Xefros being convinced that they could is the issue here.
