a tiny fanfic: one day Odo said “gender is ridiculous. why do you solids have so many”
“gender is a social construct” explained Kira, her mind half on the conversation and half on her rebel friends who she still wondered if she was betraying by working for the government. “they can be an important part of an individual’s identity and also a tool used to oppress people”
“i’ve been like twenty genders” said Jadzia Dax as she rolled by on a skateboard. then she did a cool flip and started grinding around the railing of the promenade. “Ben calling me Old Man is actually an inside joke, the result of a hilarious mixup when the translator decided Curzon was probably a dude. Trill don’t have dudes. Trill don’t have ladies. Dudes and ladies are human concepts.”
“most of our pronouns come out of the universal translator as the closest equivalent in the cultural context of the person hearing or reading it,” Worf explained, watching Jadzia and secretly thinking the skateboard thing looked really fun. “there are almost as many genders and pronouns in the universe as there are stars.”
“can i still call Garak my gay lizard boyfriend” asked Julian, who just wanted to be a part of things.
“of course, my dear doctor,” said Garak, who had been hiding under an unoccupied table at the replimat, pretending he didn’t know that the others were only pretending they didn’t see him.
“we are at war” Benjamin Sisko reminded everybody. “or we will be soon, i don’t know, Jadzia’s still here and the prophets said something about… Nevermind. Odo, you can’t decide other people’s genders are ridiculous.”
“i just don’t want one” said Odo, who was very surprised by this point because conversations that started with the words the solids didn’t tend to actually get reactions out of people anymore.
Benjamin sighed. “you don’t have to have one. no one has to have one. everyone can have one, or more than one, or none. please go do your job”
“ok”
“doctor please get out from under that table where definitely no one else is hiding”
“ok”
sci-fi-gifs