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Bonus picture! Væri made a few things clear to me - first, she's a she as much as Blit is a he. That is, neither of them are physically gendered, but they do have preferred pronouns anyway. Second, she does have armor like his and she puts it on when there's something important she needs to go protect. Væri considers it her most serious mission to seek out the good things in the world and make sure they don't vanish.
She has her flaws, of course, just like any Bitkin. If something isn't good enough for her, she can't do anything about it. She's too polite even to let anyone know. So if she's quiet, it means you haven't found "good enough" yet.
@dodec The way you talk about some of your characters makes me wonder if you aren't some kind of plural-adjacent, sometimes. This isn't a bad thing, of course!
Frankly I don't know if I have what it takes to qualify as plural. None of these voices are "me", exactly, but they do speak to me. They're the co-residents of the headspace where I'm the landlord (and also manage the community areas, giving them a nice arcade to play in and stuff). Glitch isn't me, but if she wants to tell me something, she will.
@dodec But of course, you are the one, or ones, who get to decide whether "plural" is a useful label for you or not. All I can do is say that, if you think it's a useful label, don't worry about being appropriative or anything by using it, because you wouldn't be.
There's a reason I haven't been very active about claiming labels, yes. One of my biggest fears is trying to step out somewhere I can say "I am one of X" and getting the response "No you're not". "We are X and we can tell you're just pretending." "You don't qualify. You haven't spent your life as an X. You were never part of X culture. You can't just say you are and expect us to welcome you."
@dodec I can understand that. It took us a long time to learn that people who lay down rules and insist that you have to meet this specific definition in order to count are generally not the kinds of people you want to be getting your information from. Like all things with identity, the vast majority of it is whether it feels right to you. No one but you knows how your mind works.
Or, in fewer words: labels are there to help people. Don't pay any heed to those who use them to hurt people.
@dodec And in the specific case of plurality, I can say that we're plural and, if you want to identify as such, we would absolutely welcome you. Doesn't matter if you've spent your life that way or if it's only been a few days, you're still perfectly valid.
I don't want to come off as saying that you _are_ plural, because none but you can say that. I just want to make sure you know that the option is there, and you won't be rejected.
@Rosemary I'll put it to the residents and see what they say. This might take a while. I don't even know how many there are at this point and some of those apartment doors lead to whole other worlds.
@dodec In fact, having them not be "you" is the definition of being plural in the strict sense; if they were also you, that's called being median. At least, that's our understanding of it.