Defender of the Light wrote:
As the grandson of a junior-high English teacher, I feel obligated to reply to
a couple things in this.
>He turned quickly to face the newcomer, wondering how they had snuck up on
him.
No they. He. Newcomer is gender unspecific and thus in English is
masculine. She would be permissable, because you're about to reveal it's >
Ritsuko.
-Interesting theory. Very. I'm being gender-non specific, so I don't
agree
on the newcomer point. After all, 'the newcomer' sounds better than
'the new
person'.
"They" simply does not work here. "The newcomer" is singular. "They" is
plural. Singular antecedents take singular pronouns.
"They" works fine for me. That's a rule that deserves outdating.