martin crieff using they/them pronouns for lack of any idea of the range of options out there
arthur being helpful and excited and thinking everything's brilliant, and douglas helping to look stuff up for martin (who has very limited internet and needs it all for icarus bookings)
martin getting very excited about invented pronouns
plane/planes/planeself
air/airs/airself
martin getting everyone to use 'captain' in place of pronouns, except for arthur, who uses 'skip', and is so so happy because he can be really helpful and important in taking skip seriously, and it makes them both so happy that martin trusts arthur enough to be relied upon for respecting skip and helping skip explore skip's identity, and it helps martin a lot because it feels safe like mjn does and like everyone will take skip seriously
martin having fun with pronouns and exploring their gender in a happy and safe environment
and here are some quotes from canon that are all relevant to various readings of martin's gender (trans male, trans female, nonbinary, whatever)
"Martin. You're not seriously asking me to call you sir." (Abu Dhabi), plus Martin's resultant defensiveness on the topic
"It's always trouble when we're 'gentlemen'." (Boston)
"You're a little guy who can't get a game with the big boys" (Boston)
"Yes, Martin, we're all delighted by your new-found butchness" (Boston)
(in relation to Douglas' nail varnish) "Well! I had no idea you were such a pretty pilot, Douglas!" aka the world's awkwardest and most bitter attempt at mocking the idea of not conforming to gender roles
"He used to be Martha, now he's Arthur!" and resultant happy drunken giggling with Carolyn (aka the crew are ok with trans stuff and Martin can joke about it with them) (Fitton)
"'For god's sakes, son, give it up and become an electrician!'" aka using 'son' when quoting his father's misunderstanding of what was important to him (Limerick)
"I am...a man..." (long pause), "I am a man... with a van." (Limerick)
"What, when you were a girl?" "Yes, when I was a girl! - No, when I was a boy. I was - I was never a girl!!" , and resultant panicked wibbling (Newcastle)
Jealousy and bitterness towards Paramount Martin - "You look more like a captain than me, you SOUND more like a captain than me, you've even got a better NAME than me! You must be very proud!"/ "Yeah, perfect height. Taller than most people, but not weird tall." (Rotterdam)
re tree-climbing, "I'm sure you climbed thousands in your care-free boyhood." "No, I didn't!" - implication that Martin didn't have a 'boyhood' (Uskerty)
Carolyn, proudly: "That's my boy!" (Uskerty)
'Coming out' to Wendy about Icarus, "I use it for work, a bit, between trips, you know, man-with a van stuff - I'm a man with a van." and "You clearly didn't want to talk about it, so they didn't." works very well as a metaphor for telling them about any sort of trans stuff (Wokingham)
Non binary Martin Crieff _did_ want to be a pilot when he was a little girl. He just was feeling more feminine at that point in his life.
there is so much stuff in cabin pressure which is super easy to interpret as trans and nonbinary martin. so much
imagine martin at about seven wanting to wear dresses and skirts and have long hair, and going to school like that and everyone just going 'oh you're a girl now!!' and martin being somewhat confused because no, i'm not a girl any more than i am a boy, but having a phase of identifying as female anyway because at least it wasn't being called a boy all the time
and in newcastle linda's comment makes them all stuttery because they don't know how open about stuff to be, and anyway they weren't a girl, but they didn't know how to respond really
((side note: the reason linda was so quick to say 'what, when you were a girl?' is because trans woman linda getting really gay vibes from martin and trying to work out what their gender is or was, and hoping/excited to meet another trans pilot to be friends with))
nonbinary martin getting hassle from passengers who don't believe they're ''really trans''', and having a mr leeman moment and retreating to the flight deck, and douglas sees they're looking miserable and lends them his phone so they can source stuff ('there aren't MANUALS for this sort of stuff! how are you supposed to prove people wrong if it's personal and you can't use a manual!!') and then at the end of the flight going out there and totally slamming their wrong ideas in the most professional manner and explaining to them that there is NO SUCH THING as not being 'really trans' and their identity is perfectly real and valid and they don't need other people to tell them whether it is or isn't
and then majestically absconding, and douglas says 'fantastically done' and arthur says 'that was BRILLIANT skip!' and carolyn has a tear in her eye because she is so proud of martin
imagine - during edinburgh, martin knows that there are more important things they should be thinking about, but seeing douglas' nail varnish reminds them very strongly of times when they tried painting their nails for school and were teased mercilessly until they gave up trying and pushed the idea of trying to decorate themself to the back of their mind. but all the way through the flight, despite all the chaos of mr birling and douglas' attempts to steal the talisker, martin can't stop thinking about it. they hope douglas doesn't notice the glances they keep on sending towards his flight bag, and they think they're okay to go on as usual - because think how douglas would tease them if he knew. but then, after the flight,
"anyone care for a shot of nail varnish", and they all laugh, but then when arthur points out very earnestly that "that would taste nasty!", douglas gives a shrug and says "well, in that case, i have no further use for it" - and leaves it on a shelf in the portacabin "just in case"
and martin can't help themself; they never have money to spend on fripperies, and they tell themself 'just this once', and they make some excuse to be the last to leave and paint all their nails - it's clear, and the next flight isn't for several days, and nobody will know
what martin forgets, of course, is that they don't have any nail polish remover
what martin also forgets is that douglas is good at anything he sets his mind to
and the nail varnish is clear, and martin gets so comfortable with it, that by the next flight it's still on their fingers (barring a few chips from man-with-a-van work).
douglas gives them a meaningful stare, and they realise and start stuttering about 'protecting nails during heavy lifting'. douglas hears them out long enough to be completely sure that they're bullshitting and embarrassed about it, and then smoothly cuts across with the last thing martin expected - a compliment
and martin's kind of stunned but they manage to keep it together, and for the rest of the flight they even have a little confident smile on their face. and near the end of the flight douglas gives martin an assessing glance and demands to know if he needs to start doing anything different, and martin is utterly taken aback but manages to say that they/them pronouns would be good, and they both go on as before
and then on the next trip, douglas sets his flight bag down with a clink of bottles, and smoothly pulls out a range of colorful nail varnishes that he "just happened to have knocking around; they were a present for helena that she never used", and they spend the flight painting martin's nails in cool and snazzy colours, and douglas even helps with some patterns (turns out he's very good at nail art)
arthur thinks it's brilliant!!! and martin gets more and more confident, and lets arthur try as well and they even conspire to paint douglas' nails (martin patiently specifying that it doesn't mean anything about your gender really it's just something that makes them feel better about theirs)
carolyn approves in a long-suffering way, and only comments to make fun of them when martin and douglas come into work one morning with their nails painted in stripes like captains' and first officers' epaulets, until arthur grabs her arm and paints 'gerti' one letter on each nail
dorky nail art mjn family supporting their fave nonbinary pilot and having as much silly fun as they possibly can
for the rest of martin's life, happiness is the smell of nail varnish drying in the cockpit of an airplane in the sunshine
