“Q” by Ceylan Öztrük 

"Plant had overgrown half the room in the past year. Quibilah remembered when Plant arrived. O was brought in on a round, white platter, os fingers tied in a bundle with a red thread. Plant fed on Qui’s sadness. The more o grieved and shed tears, the more Plant thrived, grew and became brighter in color. O drew the energies of others into oself, and in the same way this green Plant absorbed os sadness. The room was grumpy that morning. Whenever o was in such a mood, the ceiling rose and the walls moved closer toward center. As the opposite corner retracted, the space – usually square more or less – was transformed into a strange trapezoid. O knew Qui in ways no other space did. When Qui considered which space might define om better, o always felt uncertain."


"[...]Welcome, Ms. Quibilah," said Meier.–Why is o addressing me with a gender? Has o not read the form where I explain I am biformal and need no salutation? Is o making fun of me?"


"[...]The transformation began in households (as did the discrimination). O started with the persons identifying as female, the woman, holding the knife at the blade instead of the handle. The transformation took many years and was accelerated only by the rewrite of history and reformation of language.In the 25th ratio, all concepts and euphemisms for superiority and dominance were erased and everything contributing to harmony emphasized. Biocentrism became the norm; anthropocentrism was eliminated in all os forms, terms and teachings.–Words were cleansed. Gender was once emphasized in pronouns, even nouns and other forms in the order that was. Now I cannot remember those gendered forms for male and female, for neuter. There is only o now. In this probability gender has no sense of prejudice or judgement and pertains only to a particular biological state."