Y'all can't imagine the glee I feel when I see folks use it/its as their pronouns. I went through a period of using them for myself years ago (along with ey/em) that was part of my gender explorations and I remember that fondly, so I've been having some thoughts when I see those around me earnestly going for it.
At the time, I was a Very Small Fox:
This then led to a period of indeterminacy. In this case, my gender was listed as 'indeterminate' on FurryMUCK, and I would use it/its as my pronoun until someone started to use other pronouns for me, which would inform my appearance and behavior towards them. For instance, if someone used she/her for me, I'd use the same when interacting with them and would be more feminine. I still have the desc, even!
Makyo is an arctic fox, clothed in fluff from tip to tail. The fox is covered in snow-white fur in the winter, with the only non-white portions being the tip of its nose, its lips, and its eyes. In the summer, a black-grey thinner coat: a little patchy, a little salt-and-pepper, a lot cooler. The thick, soft fur rounds all of its features, from its triangular ears, to the points of its shoulders, and even to the tip of its tail.
The fox is of indeterminate gender. In fact, its gender seems to be wholly outside its control. Given a quiet, neutral space, it defaults to a thoroughly genderless critter. However, when the world around it impinges on its subconscious - as it is wont to do - its body and gender shift to suit, as though some part of it is always eager to please or fit in. The pronouns used to refer to it, the expectations placed on its physical form and actions by those around it, and its own unconscious desire to meet with favor in the eyes of those close by have it constantly shifting along a spectrum of both biology and identity. Call it what you will, treat it how you wish.
While there were clearly some self-image issues bound up in this (fawn trauma response much?), I still really love the idea.
This also influenced Dear. Dear's first appearance was the Twine version of Gallery Exhibition. At the time, the choice of it/its for its pronouns was one of a vanishingly small number that I'd come across, and it actually felt rather transgressive, and I was quite pleased with the response it received. Perhaps it was selection bias based on who would even be interested in such a thing, but that folks seemed keen on it was really affirming for me.
This isn't who I am anymore. People change, and I'm a people (regrettably), so she/her just kinda fits for me these days. However, one of the great things about the people I've found myself interacting with is that we can just adopt pronouns that fit us more exactly, even if they may rankle for others, and we just accept that in good faith and use them readily. My goal with the Post-Self universe (or at least all of the portions that we see) was to have a larger swath of society that did the same and have it not be that big of a deal. It comes up twice in the books (I wanted AwDae's identity and pronouns to play a role in the plot of Qoheleth without it being negative or the sole focus, and a shithead misgenders Dear in Toledot, which it laughs off and the situation is never mentioned again), but is otherwise just part of who the characters are. It's just a fact of their existence and thus as unworthy of comment as their shoe size. That Dear speaks in italics is far more worth commenting on than its choice of pronouns.
Despite none of them being native speakers of the lingua franca, Turun Ka and Turun Ko use it/its, Stolon and Iska use they/them, and Artante Diria uses she/her, and no one comments on it. Perhaps they discussed this when learning the language, but the delegates never bother asking why for similar reasons. Internal notes have some gendered aspects jotted down that influence their behavior (which I'm not gonna share because I hate Rowling out1 over this sort of thing), but that's just a mechanical thing between the author and the story, not an aspect of the story itself.
Anyway yeah. Y'all are grand and it makes me feel so good to know you <3
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Rowling out - v intr - to share paracanon that literally no one asked for.
