sigelphoenix

I need a Nexus icon. Hm.

Anyhoo, this is a little mini-fic I started writing a while ago, to start exploring Nexus' concept of gender. Then miss_arel's character brought the subject up at Sunday's game, so it seemed apropos to finish it up and post it.

In case it isn't clear, this scene takes place when Nexus is very young, before it rebelled from its former owner, and is still a soldier.

A Dialogue

"Oh, come on, be a man about it!"

"You've said that to me before. The other soldiers say things like that. Why?"

"Well, I guess you're not really a normal man, huh? But you're no woman! Ha!"

"Why not? I don't do those ... man things ... that you talk about all the time."

"Yeah, but ... You're just not a woman, okay? Trust me. You don't have the -" waving hand motions "- for it."

"But I'm not a man. I don't prove it."

"Prove it? What the bugger does that mean?"

"No one seems to believe that anyone else is a man. They always say things like 'be a man' or 'are you a girl?'"

"Oh, well, that - you know, we just mean -"

"And then when you drink a lot, and you see who can piss into the fireplace from farthest away to prove who has the biggest -"

"All right, all right! Gods! You don't have to be a man, okay? But then what do we call you? We can't call you 'it.'"

"Why not?"

"Because 'it' is ... for things. Like a sword or a tree."

"I am like a sword. And like a tree."

"Ha! Not normal ones, you big freak."

"Do 'it's need to prove they're 'it's? Or do they need to have the ..." Waving hand motions.

"Uhh, no. Well, not unless you're old Maynard, who sometimes likes to ... uhh, never mind. Nah, 'it's just need to be swords or trees or whatever they're supposed to be."

"No proving anything?"

"Nah. Well, except that they're good ... whatever-they-are's."

"Then I guess I'll be an 'it.'"