FeatherWriter

Ah! I'm glad you're liking it! Getting easier to read then? What are you liking right now?

Yeah, this is very much a resetting point. For Gavin's plans as well as the characters, since we kinda threw everything out of alignment with the Drift stuff, heh. We've got a couple of days break while everyone recovers and now the team's ready to get back to work. I'm glad you picked up on Sylvie's tone here! She's definitely recovering and trying to make light of the situation as best she can. She and Vee have Drifted since then of course, so in addition to feeling better about being synced she's also picked up Vee's desire to reach out and rehabilitate fiVe naturally. (Heh, you should probably call her Miri unless you want her and Seiko coming after you!) Yep, at the moment fiVe and Sylvie are just too diametrically opposed to both be happy and functional at the same time, and that's fiVe's fault mostly. If Sylvie's upset, she's happy. If things are going well for Sylvie, she's upset and counts that to her detriment. Heh, “Backwards Compatibility” is that ship name. It's had followers for quite a while, and it's DEFINITELY a favorite of Gavin's, which I use to keep leverage, heh. This is somewhat of the first real canon hinting at it, though Zhu's potluck saw some kindness between the two of them. Ellie's art of Vee and fiVe is also heavily BackCompat themed. You'll see more Backwards Compatibility in the future, of that you can be sure. Sylvie and Miranda actually have quite a few similarities on that front. Sylvie foils nicely with both members of AdvHydro (which is what makes fiVe such an interesting character to write, as she's all three of them). Sylvie's all about software, while Miranda's all about hardware. They're an interesting pair and I'm glad their relationship is starting to develop as teammates. Speaking of AdvHydro... They are rather aware of their feelings for one another. Miranda has not made it a secret that she's attracted to him (though a lot of that goes on behind the scenes at their apartment), but he's not ready to commit to a relationship yet. That's why he left her and fiVe originally. He was getting too close to her and was worried that a relationship with her would distract him from protecting his sisters and would only cause trouble. I don't know if you remember this, but Seiko and Miranda were roommates before the campaign started. (Remember her finding him bleeding on her couch for their first meeting?) If I've got my timeline right, he showed up around Dec. 2019, but he ended up leaving Miranda and fiVe and disappearing almost exactly a year after, Dec. 2020. She doesn't hear from him or find out anything about him until Katie happens to hire them both for the same job in Session 1 a few months later, which takes place circa Feb. 2021. (I'd guess that the current session is taking place in early March 2021.) EDIT: Okay responding to those last few paragraphs. I'm not going to comment on Katie other than to say that you're going to like the next session. Yep. I have a feeling that Avery will be back. Seeing as Emmalyn and Gavin are actually a couple, I think they'll be doing some Avery/Eleanor stuff together.

You know I'll be around! I'm so unspeakably excited for this trip, it's not even funny!

Whoops, I'm late posting hte link over here, but Session #29 is up! Session #30 will be following pretty soon as well. (I'll probably just link it in this post maybe.)

Yep! That's my favorite thing to do with keteks! I think there's just something really fun about writing a sequence that uses the same words, but has a completely different meaning when you flip them around. There's plenty of ways to write keteks with the meaning being the same in each part, reversed or unreversed. I think the challenge of making something with a new meaning when it flips is lots of fun. Keteks take a while to write (it usually takes me about half an hour to do one) and they almost feel like more of a puzzle than a regular poem. Just kinda keep trying phrases, keeping in mind what you want to say and seeing if you can make that work with the flipped meaning. You'll probably wrestle with it for a bit, but there's nothing more satisfying than finally finding a prasing that works!

Thank you! I suppose I could post some more of my keteks over here, but they're not Stormlight Archive based... They're based around the characters of a story that I write with a few other Brandon Sanderson fans called The Sydney Scrougners. So... they might not totally make sense to people who haven't read them, but they're at least keteks still? One for Katie Horner, our stalwart captain keeping us together: One for Seiko Watanabe, who has become a criminal to support his little sisters, with a hint of romantic relationship with Miranda, because I ship those two like crazy: One for fiVe, my AI who thought she had been abandoned by her creator until she found a new home with Seiko and Miranda and has now decided she never wants to go back. And finally, my favorite, one written for the two Prophets of "The Assembly of True Judgement, the sinister Kaiju cult that we've been squaring off against. The two prophets are a brother and sister who apparently received a miraculous vision after seeing a nuclear bomb flash in Sydney. As a result of this miracle, their eyes turned bright blue as they saw the prophecied end of humanity. "Hallowed come the Judges" is the cult's chanted mantra, and the "False Prophet" would be Miranda, who also witnessed that flash but has sworn to destroy the Kaiju at all costs.

Ah, thank you! Keteks are just so fun to write, especially if you can find a good reversal to pull off. I loved the idea of Kaladin sacrificing his life (and dreams) for Tien becoming Tien's life as a sacrifice, and keteks are really excellent at that kind of cool reversal. Pair that with taking up the spear for the first time, to the spear taking away lives and I think it turned out really well!

That's fine! Just making sure you didn't misunderstand! I can totally understand how you feel about that!

Well... did you read the original post? That's why I created this guide, for people like you who can't play the games but want to enjoy the story! You're the target audience right here!

Thank you for that! I'll give you an upvote of gratitude in return!

OH NO I MISSED AND HIT DOWNVOTE! Don't worry, I'm going to go upvote two of your posts to fix it! Dang mobile site... @Joe: Ehehehehehe. Your reactions amuse me greatly... @Quiver: Scene 1: The AiVee scene actually wasn't private, though I did it in a side chat. It actually took place at the same time as the Avery rescue scene (probably why Sylvie's quiet in that one.) Basically to amuse myself, I started having Vee and fiVe chat and then Gavin decided to have Corazon interrupt them. Some of this was originally altogether, so perhaps that's what's throwing it off? Scene 2 That phrasing was actually intentional. The "wise enough" is the key part there, Sylvie's looking at her hands and feeling the metaphorical blood on them. It's very much to the benefit to her already fragile mental health that she didn't see ACTUAL blood there. Yeah, I very much liked Sylvie's line about the snap. She is very haunted by what she's done. I really love what Ellie did with Seiko here. Somehow, Sylvie's broken down his professional mask and suddenly the relaxed petulance of a kid who didn't get his way shows through. Seiko shows himself as the youngest member here, really, the kid who never got to grow up normally and got thrown into a world he didn't want before he was ready. It's a vulnerable spot for him, but not one borne out of trust, but rather just not being able to care anymore. Oh no, I gave myself Seiko feels. I just love their dynamic and the little bit of almost good-natured bickering over who's the people person and neither of them know how to deal with things and just sort of being DONE with everything together. (And I'll edit in when you get to the rest.) Scene 3 "Stripping" is definitely the implication that you are supposed to be reading in that statement, hehehe. c; Eleanor gets a lot of the spotlight in this arc, especially in the actual plot-centered parts of the story. I'm really liking the new sides of her that we're seeing here as well! And fiVe gets a lot of her professionalism from Seiko, yes! Especially in the way that she uses names. To strangers, people are referred to by Title + Last Name; to acquantainces (like most of the team) she uses just last name; to her family, she uses first names. And then Sylvie gets called "Sylvia" to her face. Scene 4 Yeah, Seiko's just really interesting through this whole session. Aaah, Ellie does so well with him. And yes, I love his little sarcastic clapping at her. I really like the pettiness and slight insults that sneak into the Seiko/Sylvie dynamic sometimes. They're just a couple of rival dorks sometimes. Oh those two and their fake names. Scene 5 Pffft. Nice. Feeling a bit of Eleanor/Avery shipping there, Quiver? Scene 6 I'm pretty sure Brown was a contact roll of Katie's. Heather tends to be the business, plot-driving player sometimes. While everyone else is fainting and punching each other and yelling, Heather makes sure Katie's still doing productive things so that we can move the plot forward. Woo. I like the casual air between Katie and Zhu. They're a good contrast to Sylvie and Mike, I think. Here we see Katie and Zhu are both on the job, discussing the mission and important matters. There isn't a lot of flirting or outward affection, but there's a casual easiness between them as they work. It's a comfortable feeling scene. They work well together. Scene 7 I'm really quite satisfied with how well these last few scenes managed to work out. Simultaneous scenes like these are usually my downfall, but I think it worked out well here. We get small subtle reveals that "something has happened" as Eleanor and Katie both hear something going on at the end of their scenes, and then we finally cut to Miranda and see that it was her fainting that caused the scene. Miranda explains a bit better later on, but what she's worried about is that fiVe's hatred of Sylvie is derived from Miranda's hatred of Kaiju. Miranda knows that kind of destructive, utter loathing because she recognizes it, and it's not a kind of emotion that she feels okay with fiVe having towards Sylvie. Hating giant alien monsters of destruction like that is one thing, hating a human being and a teammate like that is... very dangerous. Miranda feels responsible because she feels like she gave that part of herself to fiVe. (And Miranda's not entirely wrong. fiVe's hatred of Sylvie has a lot of issues, and it's destructive aspect is only one of them. Vee's starting to pick up on this... Even aside from her damage, fiVe is not in a healthy state of mind here.) Scene 8 I think Sylvie and Seiko said it well: Zhu is the ultimate people person of this group, and she handles her crew members so well. She's so wonderful. Ehehehe, poor Zhu having to deal with her bodyguard's strange relationship with the dangerous fugitive she's been chasing for a year. I have a feeling this was not what she expected would happen when she finally found Sylvie Mansen, heh. (But Mike and Sylvie cutes continue to be my favorite.) Sylvie's being forbidden to Drift is something that Zhu and Miranda were hoping for: that she would find a way to deal with her problems without running off to Drift with Vee. Now that she's not allowed to for medical reasons, she's going to have to do something else. (And she and Vee are going to "sync" the old fashioned way: they're going to talk for a few hours about what happened and why it happened and what they're going to do next. Scene 9 Miranda doesn't necessarily think fiVe is broken the way that Sylvie does, but she think's fiVe is dangerous. Seiko, on the other hand, doesn't care. He's used to messed up, dangerous people. He is one, and he knows that he gave some of that part of himself to fiVe as well. Heh, I think Miranda's line about liking Corazon has a lot more to do with... her history regarding people who work in the medical field. (Remember what Jason's job was?) Scene 10 What, Seiko and Miranda not following the doctor's orders? That doesn't even sound like them... Scene 11 If you're an Adv. Hydro shipper like me, you're hoping this conversation refers to all three: teammates, family members, and (maybe) a couple? *fingers crossed* I told you there was a lot of interpersonal drama in this session! I was talking to Emma about this as we edited, but I think it says a lot about our group that THIS is the session that's super long. There's not a lot of plot-events going on here, it's not an action sequence. It's just... the whole crew taking a moment to rest and talk through their issues, and I think it shows just how character-driven Scroungers is. (Aaah, I love this whole group, they're all so wonderful.) Scene 12 The tables are turning against fiVe here. She pushed her luck with that Drift and now it's starting to come back against her. Even Katie, who is very protective of her, is starting to think that her behavior might be out of line. Status quos are definitely shifting and it's really interesting. fiVe is starting to get confronted with some of her own issues (after everyone took her side, she started to think that she was totally in the right and that there was nothing wrong with her) but now... something's not right and she doesn't want to admit that. Vee has also started to realize this. There's something wrong with fiVe that has nothing to do with her processing damage. Scene 13 Vee and Sylvie had a few very difficult months after their incident, and it took them a long time to recover. I think those months are when Sylvie and Vee started Drifting all the time. Like, I'd imagine that when she was with the PPDC, Sylvie did probably one routine Drift a day with Vee... but after they're on their own, it gets to the point where they're Drifting every few hours. How long has it been right now? Well, Sylvie and Vee have had... 4 on-screen Drifts if I remember correctly? Programming in Session 2, Right before the PPDC come aboard in Session 9?/10? (when Seiko uses the override code against Vee); the epilogue for Act 1 (after Sylvie wakes Vee up from the override), and then the Drift while they're inside the cult when Sylvie fixes Vee's damage from Katia. (There's also an attempted Drift during the Zhu talks, but Miranda comes in and interrupts them.) Offscreen though, Sylvie and Vee Drift a lot. Like... for hours a day multiple times per day. If they're alone in Sylvie's apartment, they often just walk around in the Drift together and spend their days like that. Sylvie always makes sure to Drift with Vee before she goes anywhere as well, so if she's just arrived at a meeting or something such, you can assume that she and Vee have finished Drifting before she left her house. The funny thing is, when the sessions take place, Sylvie's usually on the job, so they're some of the few times that she isn't Drifting with Vee. Heh. At this point in canon, the last time Sylvie Drifted with Vee was that morning, right before arriving for the weekly meeting with Zhu. As for Vee's behavior here: yeah, she's planning an intervention. She really does care about fiVe a lot, and she's going to go to the people that she thinks are going to be able to help her make fiVe better: her family. Fun fact: Vee is slightly nervous around Seiko and Miranda because she sees them almost like fiVe's parents Scene 14 This conversation was secret for a very short time. Gavin and Emma ran this one on their own (just in case any spoilers came up) but when it was finished and there wasn't any sensitive information in it, they immediately shared it with the rest of us. The only convo that was secret for an extended length of time was Seiko's (and that's mostly because I didn't know it had happened and didn't know to bug Ellie or Gavin for it.) So, most of the reaction stuff is just in-character. The players tend to know a lot more than the characters at pretty much all times. I tend to do mine publically because I don't hide much, but the other players are a bit more secretive than I am... Scene 15 DID YOU JUST MAKE AN AVENGERS REFERENCE? A+ QUIVER. YOU GET GOLD STARS FOREVER. I have canonically declared that this is Sylvie's first kiss. Because reasons. Reasons that totally don't involved the fact that I do not know how to write a character who has experience being kissed, as I do not have that experience either. Noooo, definitely not. And as for the triangle, it says something that Sylvie doesn't see it as a triangle. Poor Mike started to get upset that she would prefer Vee's company to his when she asked about Drifting, but she doesn't even see Drifting with Vee as chosing company. (And I like to headcanon that when she did get approved to Drift, she asked Mike to stay with her through it, for one, as a protective measure in case something went wrong, but also so that she and Vee could be together with him for once. I'm not saying there were mid-Drift kisses... but I like to think there might have been mid-Drift kisses.) Scene 16 This'll come up more later, but now that Vee has figured out where fiVe's loathing of her and Sylvie comes from (her idea that they abandoned her) she knows that the hatred is irrational and unhealthy. So she and Sylvie are going to work together to try to overcome that hatred and show her that her feelings towards them are hurting her more than they're hurting anyone else. Vee really does care about fiVe (perhaps even more than Sylvie does) because Vee and fiVe are both AI. While Vee can share her memories with Sylvie, that's not an experience that Sylvie will ever have to live with... but it's something that fiVe does. So there's a connection between Vee and fiVe that goes even a little deeper than Sylvie's idea of fiVe. I thiiiink actually that fiVe doesn't end up talking in the next session. There's a bit of a time skip, if I recall correctly, and fiVe has gone off to think about things on her own. Seiko and Miranda have been giving her space and respecting her wishes, but she's not going to speak to any of the team for a few days, Seiko and Miranda included. She's pretty shaken up after hearing indisputable evidence that shakes her worldview that Sylvie and Vee just completely abandoned her -- as well as getting smacked in the face with her own contradictory logic: Is Sylvie leaving her the worst thing that happened to her and reason to hate Sylvie; or was it her "escape" and the best thing that ever happened to her? fiVe's been trying to play it both ways, and it's finally starting to fall apart on her.

No worries, I see no word theft! So remember how I said it might be a while on Session 28? Well, thanks to the wonderful co-transcribing help of Emma, IT'S FINISHED ALREADY WOOO.

Dang. I've got to get ahold of one of those spikes. You admins keep all the good powers for yourselves.

WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT RENA-- Oh, Weiry already got it. You are spared my wrath this time, TheShogun. Buy. I'm curious about those kinds of spren and WoR seems like a very heavy spren-info book already. And because I'm an eternal optimist... *winces* All the currently-living Kholins make it to the end of WoR alive?

Congrats, Peter! I find it amusing that I'm less than a hundred points behind the Lord Ruler himself now, after Eric has been so unreachable for so long.

*much blushing* I like this interpretation as well. I think it's a very apt analysis, talking about societal perceptions of what a person should be and showing that that's nowhere near as important as what the individual wants to be. That can certainly be applied to gender roles and I like the dynamic that you've picked out here. I'd say that you're probably right in that Rainbow Dash is the most tomboyish of the Mane 6, (though I think a good argument could be made for Applejack as well.) I like that both she and Rarity (who is perhaps the most overtly feminine of the group) are two of the ones who go with him, as well as Twilight, who of course is closest to him, having known him the longest. It's a good group to have followed him out, and I think it helps reinforce the message that you're trying to defend here. I like it a lot. I've never seen Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura or Escaflowne. Then again, there's a lot of childhood staples that I missed out on, whoops!

...yeah it's not like I once started to write a fic where Renarin finds out he's secretly adopted and is actually the son of a Parshendi leader or anything ever. And I definitely didn't call it "The Monster That Parents Tell Their Children About At Night." Noooo, that would be absurd. That doesn't even sound like me at all. Deeeeefffinitely not. (I totally abandoned that fic after only a few paragraphs though, so it never got posted.) I actually ended up talking a lot about the Renarin/Loki parallels in a thread over here a while back, and while their situations are remarkably similar, it's their personalities and worldviews that really set them apart. But I've already written that essay once, so I won't do it again. Rest assured that Renarin and Loki are possibly the two fictional characters that I've thought the most about... ever, and I've thought a lot about their parallels as well. (Also there was that one time that beneathsilverstars drew me a picture of my personal group of "book smart, brainy, younger brothers who are less popular and less athletic than their older brothers" playing Risk together, AKA: Renarin, Loki, Unalaq from Legend of Korra and Luigi from Mario. That's totally a thing that happened.)

...I'm not saying I know all the words to "Be Prepared" in French.... but I might know all the words to "Be Prepared" in French.

Session edit! Session #27 now has a new scene: Seiko's talk with Zhu during the Drift. It's scene 2 now, if you want to go check it out!

Wooooo *pops confetti* Now I've got three new readers of Scroungers! AND NEW READERS OF SCROUNGERS ARE MY FAVORITE. I've got Weiry and Fruity over on tumblr, and now you over here! I will assure you, They get much better after the first few sessions, trust me. We start to really hit our stride around Session... 7, I'd say. That's when we as writers really start to mesh, I think. (Also at first I feel like seven sessions is like... egregiously long, and then I remember that these first few aren't nearly so long as the later sessions. Quiver, Joe, care to back me up on the session quality increase?)

*takes a quick bow* Thank you, Kadrok. I tend to think about Renarin... probably a lot more than the average person and whenever any of you give me the opportunity to unleash them, I take full advantage of it. Stand back, o ye who mentions Renarin in the presence of Featherwriter, or be overwhelmed with words.

ATTENTION Guys, I'm going to step in here as staff and ask that discussion of this topic be placed on hold, please. These are not spoilers that the general public is meant to have and even vague hints are more than should be shared, I think. If you are in possession of screenshots, please DO NOT share those, even privately through PMs. For those who do not have the screenshots, please do not ask for PMs containing them. It's unfortunate that the leak occurred but we need to be respectful of Team Sanderson's wishes and not spread this info around. Please, do not pursue this thread further. EDIT: This topic is locked until the staff can figure out what to do. All posts with potential spoilers have been hidden.

Scene 1 I'm glad you liked the Drift. It was a really intense thing to write and I think it's definitely changed Sylvie and Miranda quite a bit. And I feel strangely proud that Emma and I were able to make you cry with it. I mean... get dust in your eye with it. Those snippets of Seiko/Miranda scenes at the end are from the infamous secret Seiko/Miranda convos of which I have heard so much. I've gotten ahold of a few of them from Ellie and Emma, but they guard those with such ardor that I have to beg for even glimpses. (Which they then give at opportune moments because they enjoy causing me pain, those two.) Scene 2 Oh no not the puppies! Hehe, I have a feeling this Act is Eleanor centric. With Avery as a potential love interest for her, and Yegorov being a major part of her backstory, it certainly seems that way! I am glad that you don't want to see poor Avery beaten, but I know what you mean about seeing xem used more! Seiko is of course still upset with Miranda because she risked letting Sylvie know about his secrets, so he's still being sulky. (AAAND, I've just gotten word that there was a secret convo between Seiko and Zhu while he's out wandering, so I'm going to try to get ahold of that and edit it in ASAP. I don't think that one will be restricted, I just didn't know about it and needed to ask for a transcript. Sorry about that!) Scene 3 I think Ellie keeps up with these somewhat but I will definitely pass along the message to her! (Her art is so pretty isn't it?!) And yeah, her Avery turned out really well. Hehe, I think it's funny that you originally coded Avery as masculine, because I orignially coded xem as feminine. (I still catch myself occasionally wanting to use she/her/hers pronouns for xem, even though I know it's not right.) I suppose that just shows that Gavin's writing xem well! *dismantling the gender binary one J-Tech with a pompadour at a time* Hehe, Mike can't always go running off to help the Scroungers. He's gotta earn his keep protecting Zhu some of the time! De Banns is cool though. We love our recurring NPCs, do we not? (De Banns is currently fancast as Nichole Beharie, ala her portrayal of Abbie Mills on Sleepy Hollow.) Scene 4 Yeeeeeep. I thought it best that I go back and quote what Zhu said to Eleanor, since I figure most people probably aren't going to remember the specifics of what happened way back in Session #10. The group of us all immediately knew what was up, but we also have reason to remember Yegorov after my wailing over the fancast of Hiddleston for him. Scene 5 Heh. So... I should maybe explain what happened there. Here's how combat works in FATE: You've got stress boxes (which can take a little bit of damage) and consequence slots (which can take more damage, but are gonna leave your character with lasting impacts.) Each of these slots can take a certain amount of damage. If a character takes more damage than they have slots to cover, they get "Taken Out". Now, getting Taken Out does not always mean death. It's not like D&D where if you run out of hitpoints you die or something. Basically it means that the character finds themselves in a condition where they can no longer be a part of that combat, and... the character that did it to them gets to decide what that condition is. It can be death, or it could be something like being tied up completely or knocked unconscious or thrown overboard on a ship. (So, PCs can get Taken Out by NPCs without dying, which is nice, but then the GM would decides what happens to that PC.) So... Katie attacks this guy, and and he retaliates (but neither of them do damage on their first roll.) Then Sylvie steps up. I roll RIDICULOUSLY WELL again, and Gavin tells me that I can have Sylvie take this guy out in one hit if I boost with a Fate point. I do that, of course, because yeah that's awesome and why not? (And I have tons of Fate points stored up from making poor Sylvie miserable with compels all the time, hehe.) So that means I get to decide what happens to this dude. I could have had Sylvie knock him out or break his legs or something so that he couldn't fight anymore, but would still be alive, but I decided, "She's in a bad state of mind and this would certainly stir things up: Let's have her kill him without thinking." And I'm kinda really glad I did. Sylvie's guilt over that guard that she murdered in the prologue is not something I've been able to play with much, but you can rest assured that it comes up now. It also fits into my "Taravangian" idea of character development: Gotta tear them down completely before you can build them up stronger. The Drift tore down a lot of Sylvie's perceptions about herself, and this little combat scene is going to tear her down the rest of the way. Also NO MORE HOSTAGES. TOO MANY HOSTAGES ALREADY. ACTIVATE MURDER MODE. (Warning: Flashy Homestuck gif.) Scene 6 This is actually a pretty important scene for Vee as well: she's the one that finally figures out why fiVe hates Sylvie. It's the abandonment issue, and... when it gets looked at closely, it doesn't completely make sense. The rest of the crew has mostly been thinking that fiVe hates Sylvie because Sylvie doesn't respect her as her own person, but really, deep down, this is what the problem is. And now Vee knows it. And then, yes, Corazon's back! Woo! What'd I just say about recurring NPCs?

Well then, not only a topic about Renarin, but one talking about gender issues as well? Hmm, this is one I'll be keeping a very close eye on. So let's talk about Renarin and gender issues, shall we? (You put Renarin in the title of this topic. That's basically asking for an essay about me. I offer no apologies.) First of all, let's get some language things straight. When we're talking to or about transgender or genderqueer people or characters, the most important thing is that we're using correct pronouns. If we're saying that Renarin is transgender, despite his biological status, then he is male. And we need to use his preferred pronouns. We've been given male pronouns for him, so that's what I'm going to use (for the most part.) Now, if I'm reading this correctly, we're theorizing that Renarin is DFAB (Designated Female At Birth) but is either a transmale or a cisfemale pretending to be male, ALA Mulan. (Those are different things btw! Gender identity is different than gender expression!) If he is trans, we use masculine pronouns for him, as we would for any transgender person. If the second, we would use feminine pronouns for her because, despite the fact that she presents as male, she still identifies as female. I'd push for defining which is which, because those are two VERY different situations, however I find that neither of them seem to be overtly tenable. If anything, I'd argue that if Renarin is transgender, the most likely situation would be that of a female DMAB person, pre-transition. (I'm going to use male pronouns here for the sake of clarity, since this theory would be pre-transition Renarin and personal pronouns would still be masculine at this time. If someone who knows better knows whether or not this is correct, please correct me and I'll fix this!) I've said it before and I've said it again: Renarin seems to be fascinated by the feminine arts. He's got a bent for scholarship and an analytical mind, he's constantly asking questions about fabrials and Dalinar comments that he would make an excellent engineer if he would only join the ardentia. In addition to this, we see a lack of aptitude for the masculine arts because of his blood weakness and probably because of his ASD. This is something that he's highly insecure about, and he feels he is not the son that his father deserves. I... have trouble believing that a DFAB Renarin would believe himself to be masculine, when it is an area that he struggles with so much. I don't see why he would feel himself to be male to the point of transitioning publically. And I don't quite buy the idea that his condition would be more easily borne by being masculine. Obviously an older brother with a younger sister is not an uncommon or unfavorable situation, just look at Jasnah and Elhokar. I'd think that a brother and sister pair might be more favorable, for then you have each of them becoming proficient in the full spectrum of their respective arts. DFAB Renarin transitioning to male, in a world with such strict gender roles, consciously choosing to step into a set of strict roles of which he already feels inadequate. It just doesn't add up for me. I've talked about how I would like to see Renarin (and Shallan) try to break down some of the Vorin gender roles, and pursue those arts to which they are most suited; Shallan as a Shardbearer, Renarin as an artifabrian, possibly. Renarin's obviously interested in the feminine arts, and I'd like to se a character arc in which he begins to pursue the areas where his talents lie, though I suspect that if he does so, he will feel incredibly guilty and insecure about this. He's already far from the ideal son, and now he is pushing himself further by looking into feminine pursuits? That would be a very difficult situation (and one that I think would be fascinating to read about). At this point I think it could be possible that Renarin could think: "What if I'm not supposed to be male at all? What if I was supposed to be a girl all along?" and then transition to female, though... I still think that's possibly a bit of a stretch. Writing about a transgender character's transition is a VERY sensitive topic, and would be difficult for a cisgendered author like Brandon to pull off without being offensive. I have a feeling it's a topic that Brandon would probably try to avoid. ...and that's my essay on the possibilities of trans!Renarin. I hope that this has been inoffensive, but I'm going to admit right now: I'm cis, and probably not qualified to talk about transgender issues with any kind of authority. I would apologize for the length but... you all knew this was coming, didn't you? Finally, in regards to the Kalarin ship, not only is it a very strong and well-supported ship at the moment, but I have a feeling that most of its current shippers would be rather upset if it were to suddenly become a het ship. Most of them like the ship in great part because it uses interpretations of Kaladin and Renarin which make them queer. You don't want to upset the Kalarin shippers, like that, y'all. They will tear you apart. You have been warned.

*is summoned* Yes, I'm very good friends with kogiopsis, who asked that question, as well as her two roommates, whose tumblr handles are swamp-spirit and lunarubato. Swamp-spirit is ASD, and she was the one who actually theorized that Renarin might be ASD and prompted Kogi to ask the question. She recognized the ways that he reacted to things as similar to her own experiences and made the connection. So, while Renarin might originally read as neurotypical to those of us who don't know, you can rest assured that his portrayal is certainly accurate enough to be recognizable to those who know what they're looking for. (By the way, swamp-spirit has told me that if anyone has questions about Renarin or just want to talk to an ASD WoK fan, she's welcome to answer them. Her askbox on tumblr can be found here: http://swamp-spirit.tumblr.com/ask.)