“Ingo’s never mentioned a twin,” Said the young woman before him, though, half a beat after the fact, she grimaced and tilted her head to concede, “Though that’s not… surprising, given the circumstances.”

[…]

Emmet bristled. There were a number of matters that needed to be addressed in that statement, but the first order of business would be…

“That is verrrrry rude.” He said, his naturally flat words [exacerbated] by displeasure, “It does not matter that he is not here. It is still incredibly disrespectful.”

Irida swayed back the smallest bit in affront, spine straight and expression serious as she considered him, “I’m sorry, I don’t follow. What did I say to cause offense?”

—

So then what were the possible explanations?

First and foremost, the option set plainly on the table: his sibling had no memory of who they were and didn’t object to being called a woman. This could further be split into three distinct [possibilities]:

It was possible that, in their limited sense of self, preoccupied with survival, Ingo simply hadn’t seen fit to argue against the label. Potentially, they could have reservations left unspoken, or even unrecognizable in the context of Hisuian culture, and didn’t know how to act on them. Or it could be as Irida said, and his sibling did, in fact, identify as a woman.

All of that, however, assumed the amnesia was [legitimate] and not a cover story, which opened another [x] options. Easily grouped together were restrictions posed by the [circumstance]; whether kept behind closed doors or ignored entirely, there didn’t seem to be much precedent for the address of transgender individuals. It was entirely possible that it simply wasn’t worth explaining to the Hisuians, or might actively spark distrust. Both would be reasonable– if uncomfortable– [reasons] to stay quiet on the matter.

It was, however, also possible that Ingo had simply chosen the strangest time to detransition.

If that was what they wanted, that was perfectly fine, […]

—

Somehow, Emmet hadn’t expected the first thing he said to his missing sibling to be “Why are you in a tree?” but here they were.

Ingo was, in fact, sharing a branch with a Gliscor and looking down to where he stood with wide, searching eyes; even before they uttered a word, it was that [idk] that told Emmet the claims of amnesia hadn’t actually been fabricated. That made this trickier, but still far from unnavigable.