as small as a world and as large as alone, So, I remember in the possibly-canon 30 days...

10:50am September 23, 2013

whatisdoneisinprogress asked: So, I remember in the possibly-canon 30 days thing, it's mentioned that Filif's species has a time when they have a change of gender and/or sex for...I think reproductive reasons? In any case, I'm wondering what pronouns I should use to refer to Filif at different points in the timeline.

soilrockslove:

youneedacat:

dduane:

Well, from the dialogue in the “shopping” episode we get the sense that Filif thinks female is the closest identification that will make sense to Nita; but there’s something a bit tentative about the phrasing. This is probably understandable, as the reproductive morphology of Demisivs is fairly complex.

All Demisivs carry both sporophytes and gametophytes (or structures that somewhat parallel to them) and a third phytic body corresponding to nothing Earthly, making them all both hermaphoditic (monoicous) and potentially trisexual — except for those who, for personal or cultural reasons, elect not to be. Production or shedding of one or two (or sometimes all) of these phytic bodies can be triggered by life-cycle issues or personal preference or pair-or-group-bonding dynamics or a significant number of other events or situations, some of which would make perfect sense to humans and some of which would make no sense whatsoever.

For example, many Demisiv who go up north for the annual Nightless Days festival elect to “berry out” for the event; a nearly equal percentage elect to dump some or all of their phytic bodies immediately afterwards. For a human, asking a Demisiv why this happens is productive of a lot of data but (normally) little understanding that maps to any behavior a human might closely equate with attendance at something like a summer rock-concert weekend… especially since the “rock” being performed is weather-mediated modern dance that represents ancient seasonally-dictated sexual congress without actually involving it. And what the attendees do — especially since any form of congress may not result in reproduction for months or even years, if at all — is explicable, but only if you have a month or so to spare. And even then it may not make a whole lot of sense.

In any case, Filif seems to have decided that being about to go into elective gametophytic mode reads more like being human-female than anything else available, at least when it comes to the question of whether it’s appropriate to share a dressing room. This being the case, “him/he” has worked for the books, and “her/she” probably works well enough for the present.

Until Fil does something else unexpected, anyway…

Cool. And yay I can finally reblog asks on android.

Yes! <3

Even Earth-based plant and fungi genders can be pretty interesting!

Remind me to write up a post about ginger and avocadoes and such if you are interested.