Eccentric

[AN: This is mostly a humorous fic but there is slight transphobia and gendered pronouns (he/him) for Rally whom I headcanon as non-binary hence the fic.]

In Satellite, you can be whatever you want.

Except rich. Or treated fairly by anyone. Or a few other things. Like, a lot of other things actually. But still, the first point stands: in Satellite, you and be whatever you want. Or, maybe more accurately whoever you want. After all, Jack Atlas did it. Team Satisfaction did it, for a little bit anyway before the whole Security fiasco. The guy who began the Daedalus Bridge did it. Therefore, Rally can do it too!

According to Blitz, in the City whilst you can be rich and treated fairly – well, better than others – there are plenty of things you can't do. Like public urination, for lack of a better example. But other things too. Less embarrassing things. Still, there were higher expectations. Here, if you bathed regularly and had a working Duel Disk, you were practically the best. Up there, in the City, that was pretty bare minimum stuff. The latter anyway, up there it was expected that hygiene was perfect every hour of the day so that meant bathing or showering at least once a day. What a concept.

Moreover, they were really strict about other things. Not just hygiene but everything. There were limits on how fast you could drive and there were fines for walking on the wrong side of the street. They were strict about how food was sold and packaged and how much you should eat per day. It was bizarre.

But there was one thing that made Rally's skin crawl like he was listening to a grotesque horror story rather than rumours about laws in the City. And that was there were even restrictions on what publicly acceptable clothes looked like. Girls – people with vaginas – couldn't wear male clothes. Boys – people with penises – couldn't wear female clothes. There was a distinction up there, apparently! It sends Rally recoiling with repulsion. He couldn't imagine not being allowed to wear a dress whenever he pleased. How horrid!

Rally truly can't imagine a worse thing than not be being able to express yourself. That's why Satellite is great: you want to stand on a corner and be scream until sundown then go the hell ahead. Talk to yourself? You must make the best conversation around. Collect plastic bags filled with trash? Well, you know what they say about another's man treasure. No one's going to care. Do anything of those things in the City and you'd get arrested or become excluded.

Here, it's the fastest way to meet your gang; your like-minded people.

It's certainly how Rally came to know his friends anyway.

There was some exclusion in Satellite but there's always someone who agrees with you. Rally always gets into trouble with the other kids his age. They pick on him because they don't understand him.

He's not a girl. Don't call him a girl just because he has long hair that isn't tied up in a traditionally masculine way. Don't call him a girl just because he's wearing a dress.

Well, not today anyway.

Other days, it's a bit like… don't call him a boy. He's not a boy. There's a reason he doesn't present in a way that is traditionally boyish. But he's not a boy. Certainly, not because he was born as.

Rally doesn't quite know what he is. He just knows what he's not. What feels wrong and uncomfortable and tight and just… wrong.

Besides, isn't it great that he does have a place where he can be him? Eccentric and indecisive: yes, that's him. Satellite truly is a great place because whilst there are many things you can't be – rich, treated fairly – there are certainly a lot of people you can be.