question re: for the joie de vivre, asked for the joie de vivre: were there any particular lines / details / etc that you put in with the intention of conveying "this is Nonbinary/Genderfluid Rian (Billions)", or was it more a case of "it's in the tags, knowing and perceiving is left as an exercise for the reader"
ooh yeah for the joie de vivre is for the joie de vivre so truly exactly in the spirit of things
most immediately to the point: more of the latter, where it's like yeah this interpretation has kind of always been there such that naturally it doesn't feel like anything would really be changed if hypothetically it was made to be addressed directly in the text. and then it's just like, yep, this is the framework / general perspective, and the tag is there as an exercise to know & perceive, or, of course, just be considering / ruminating on as much for enrichment & wellbeing
related to the "was already always perceiving rian as gendery" and also being gendery oneself it's like yeah it's not like there's people having these So Cis moments (and not in a closeted "oh yeah we're all so totally cis right. tfw" way) that'd need to be excised if using tags where anyone's nonbinary....then there's also the convenience of having a nonbinary pov character here also, And who's involved in everything going on, so there's plenty of room in that way for anyone else here to be nonbinary, or, say, "weird" with their Affect(tm) / comport / etc whatever. and there's no approach that like, for things to be Sexual is inherently also to heighten the supposed Gender Binaryness of everyone's bodies & behaviors, such as that [gender is a shell game, lift up the cup, there's nothing there] desirability / eroticism is described via how Unlike [thee Other gender] someone is innately being in this situation. fun to get into details without either worrying about maintaining some ultimate mystery Or preventing anyone from being like you're fingering which hole right now? not really important. there's classics like firmness softness pressure heat wetness to be found in various ways various places, and it can be appreciated & enjoyed for its physicality & stimulation without being a Test of how much someone has the supposed platonic ideal body for supposed platonic ideal sex....think taylor mentally refers to winston's Dick less than he does theirs in the other briefer fic i wrote, and after he refers to it as such first....let's check. yep! pov winston w/5 references specifically to their dick(tm) vs taylor pov 1 to his. with, naturally, some differences in what all's going on....also fun to do things like write winston blowing rian where w/this description it's like yeah it works no matter specifics of geometric configurations really. if someone's rubbing someone off then you get the gist of the essentials already, room to maneuver
with similar potential ambiguity, it's like, rian could already be out to these two in this fic, and if not, it'll happen at some other point, just chilling atm....less [whee yippee]ly, sprinkled the concept into the wip limbo in like Vignettes Of Malaise of basically winston in that misalignment where he's thinking of himself & rian as friends & hoping/trying for constructive developments on that front, versus, as in canon, rian thinking of herself as a person & winston as not a person (and even when trying to adopt that angle like aughh it's so difficult to do it like billions does it and have rian have such bizarre perspectives / lack of any consideration of pretty much any concepts) wherein it's like, winston might feel Affirmed to be confided in & have that apparently be a rewarding experience for rian, but then like, well if you think telling winston anything Vulnerable is actually instead a completely safe test run b/c again, not seeing him as a person you're sharing things with, just a possession you're doing things at/to....but in that scenario of course it's not About [textual nonbinarity win!] as thee crux of the idea. to write about her coming out or doing anything else where it's not miserable sure requires further deviation from / dismissal of canon ofc, and to write her already being out would require writing about something else going on also like ah shit compounding the difficulties lol
so yeah no like easter eggs in that way! but fr i did still have it in mind at all & engaging in some [text description of bodies / spatial movements / textures, with room to maneuver] is fun & enriching anyways and only pairs well w/nonbinarity. even when things are also "obvious" b/c they're also not meant to be Not, like well, no Gotcha surrounding that here. and no characters are particularly interested in Asserting Their Own &/Or Their Declaration Of Someone Else's Gender by way of this sex they're having somehow so it was like yeah not particularly like any room had to be made for [p.s. rian nonbinary] in that it was already gonna be there. not unlike winston's autistacity ofc, he's also not necessarily, specifically, explicitly Out about that, but doesn't need to be, may not know it himself, doesn't have to....as ever, the power that the [trans/autistic] similarities & parallels & overlaps & resonances etc etc can have here, but we have to spin off into an au about it