"Mmm, I can." He has no mixed feelings about this.

"Long hair is feminine and short hair masculine in most of the world, but in Cascadia enough men have long hair and women have short hair that no one will infer anything about it. Dresses and skirts are feminine, pants are unisex. There are ways you can dress that are definitely male, like suits, but it's pretty unusual for anyone to actually dress like that. Nail polish is feminine outside Cascadia but neutral here, makeup is feminine everywhere but in Cascadia wearing eyeliner to a party or a club is neutral, ear piercings are feminine outside Cascadia but neutral here, body piercings are neutral everywhere, having body hair is masculine outside Cascadia but neutral here. The rules for jewelry are complicated. I think that's all the things?"

"I'll keep that in mind."

"--I mean, you can also just let people assume whatever, it's fine."

"Yeah, I can, I-- just didn't expect it?"

"Yeah, I think Cascadia is-- very unusual in our attitude towards trans people."

"It's not like I have that many places to compare it to but-- probably."

"Some places being trans is illegal, some places it's not, pretty much anywhere you can transition if you're passable and don't mind lying to governments-- suspect that was probably true in Great Tang too, honestly-- but Cascadia is one of the few places in the world with gender anarchy and basically the only country that has gender anarchy. The rest are cities."

"It seems like the thing Cascadia would do. You're very-- freedom focused."

"Must be a change."

"I'd defend our honour, but-- yeah, no, Cascadia is a lot more."

"We have more resources to let people be free with, even if you wanted to let people transition I don't think you could if you hadn't synthesized testosterone. Or, I guess, figured out surgery well enough that people would survive having balls transplanted in them."

"I mean, we definitely managed the other direction fine--"

"Except you have to do that before puberty or they'll still look pretty masculine, and I think you didn't take the most gender dysphoric one percent of boys and make them eunuchs."

"No, it definitely wasn't half as planned as that."

"And that wouldn't get all of them, anyway, a bunch of kids start being gender dysphoric at puberty."

"Alas, I think I have to admit your technology is superior here."

"Anyway, yeah, it's the dress, do as you like with this knowledge."

"I solemnly swear to only use this knowledge for good."

Lev goes back to cursing quietly at his phone.

Pancakes remain a great Cascadian invention.

Jing Yi leaves, and goes about the next week trying to be productive. He keeps up with the GED studies-- he's good at stuffing a lot of information into his head quickly, but fitting twelve years into one is still a lot of hard work.

And he starts to-- deliberately settle in for the long haul. He researches and discovers and acquires earplugs. (Because at this rate he would either end up nocturnal or constantly sleep deprived and that is just not practical for learning and/or living.) He pokes about and makes lists of places he could go and meet people.

He tries to organise a proper memorial table. He tries and-- temporarily fails. Turns out someone had to change how your meant to do it in one of the centuries he skipped. And he will sort it out, sort out which set of guidielines to follow, but-- dealing with a double whammy of grief over the people he has lost and the time and place he has lost can wait at least another week.

And then one afternoon his phone buzzes with:

I'm boooooored want to do pre-sex negotiation

it's how you're supposed to do it

best practices

consent, communication, that other C I keep forgetting

He knows half a thing about sex in Gilead. He can do this. He can successfully not break cover.

What is there to negotiate?

okay so the most important thing is that you gotta tell me the weird shit you're into that you think is normal sex