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For time immemorial, children have been warned by their parents to avoid the Fae at all costs.
“Don’t step in faerie rings, they’ll steal you off to their strange land!”
“Take care to follow the rules of hospitality, they’ll curse you if you stray!”
“Never give then your true name, they’ll take it for themselves!”
Wide-eyed, the children nodded along to their elders’ warnings, vowing to themselves to never approach the odd and fey creatures. They grew older, their bodies growing and changing around them, and for some, seeming to grow too tight, too wrong. Their minds would cast back to the warnings of the Fae, of names lost to the creatures, of the promise of a new life, free from the burden of a name and its original owner.
The hopefuls would bundle up in a homespun shawl, quietly leaving their homes with meager offerings of shiny trinkets in search of a Fae willing to lay claim to their name and grant them a fresh start. Many were lost along the way, some thinking better of it and turning back, some stepping into the wrong circle or speaking to the wrong Fae, and some coming across a young traveler, silver sword strapped to her back and Triforce burning hidden under her glove.
“Take our name!” they begged the traveler. “Grant us freedom! A new name! A new body! A new gender!”
“I wish to be a spinstress!” the former woodcutter cried.
“I wish to be with my love!” the once-woman declared.
“I wish to be me! ” the masses of those no longer male or female chorused.
The first time, the traveler didn’t know what to do. She tried to be subtle, to take the name and trinkets he offered and nothing more.
She took too much, that first time.
The being once with both name and gender blinked. Stood up. Stared at the traveler. The traveler’s mind was awash in a sea, the two genders crashing against each other like warm water and cold and the name they had taken declaring itself like a symphony in their mind.
They tried to give the gender back to the being, apologies spilling from their lips as they tried to undo the damage they caused. The being’s face was awash in tears, joy radiating from every pore.
“No. keep it.” the being said. “This is the greatest gift I could have been given. Thank you, kind Fae.”
The being walked home, neither male nor female nor anything but happy. On the way, the being chose a new name, a new gender, one with plenty of X’s and the being was happy forevermore.
The traveler still stood on that dusty road, the new name and gender thrumming in their soul, waiting quietly for use.
He. The traveler mouthed. Him.
Link.
It had a nice ring to it. Link continued his journey.
Word spread of the being’s transformation, and the traveler was soon stopped again by another hopeful. The hopeful’s new gender swirled around her, her body shifting to match the pronoun he had given her and the image in her mind, and Link continued on. He grew skilled at his craft, handling each new gender with care and twisting a few she’s into they’s and he’s into xey’s. The trinkets added up in his pack, as did the genders in his soul, and yet Link continued. He was a Hero, after all, and Heroes help.
Eventually the traveler was given a new name of his very own; Hyrule. He gained nine brothers, journeyed out of his home, and the genders sat lying in wait for their turn.
“Damn dress keeps slipping.” Twilight grumbled, as indeed the emerald silk bodice fell unattractively down his chest.
It was an hour before a ball in Warrior’s Hyrule, and the Captain had aggressively beaten it into the Chain’s skulls that they were to wear “something nice” and to be “presentable as Heroes of Hyrule” while glaring daggers at Time and Wind. Time and Wind, for their part, had studiously avoided his gaze until Wars had left the room and then had turned to the rest of the chain with the kinds of smiles every Link knew meant trouble.
“‘Something nice’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘something male’...” Time mused, clearly not to himself.
“And those seamstresses have a storeroom full of dresses just ripe for the stealing!” The pirate piped up.
Twilight had attempted a token protest, but was quickly shouted down by Spirit, and surprisingly, Sky.
“What sort of brothers would we be if we didn’t give the Captain a headache once in a while?” Sky asked, arm slung loosely around Twilight’s shoulders.
So there they were, trying on dress after dress in the storeroom after befriending the Royal Seamstress and causing only minor amounts of chaos.
Well, minor amounts of chaos for a Link.
“Here, Twi, try this.” Hyrule said absently, chucking a spare she/her at the Rancher. She spluttered in surprise as the bodice suddenly fit snugly, the dress filling out and curving in all the right places.
The rest of the chain stopped and stared as their sister abruptly sat down, so shell-shocked from the change to the point where Time had to grab and shake her shoulders to bring the Rancher back to reality.
“Hyrule.” Twilight said faintly. “What the fuck?”
Hyrule, for his part, was confused by her response. “What?” he asked, nonplussed. “You said the dress kept slipping?”
“So you changed my gender?!”
“Yeah? Don’t worry, I have spares.”
“WHY DO YOU HAVE SPARE GENDERS, HYRULE?!”
This was getting to be too much. Perhaps he could fix it?
“I can take it back! I just thought it might help!” Hyrule defended, hands up in a placating gesture.
A stunned sound from Spirit cut through the room. “Hyrule.” He said slowly. “How did you get these genders?”
Hyrule squeaked and looked for a means to escape. This was way too much attention, he was only trying to help!
Nothing presented itself. Hyrule’s throat closed up, so he raised his hands to sign.
“People keep giving them to me? They don’t like their original one? Don’t you guys get this too?”
Legend was openly gawping. “No, Rulie, why would people just hand you their gender?”
Hyrule was now trembling. He loved his brothers but this was far too much for the shy soul.
“That’s enough!” Time cut in. “Hyrule, put Twilight’s gender back to the way she was. Legend, stop jumping on him. Twilight, stop yelling.”
Hyrule nodded and raised his hands, calling the Fae magic to them.
“Wait!” Twilight said suddenly. “Hang on a moment!”
Everyone turned to her. A slow but devilish smile spread across her face. “We’re supposed to be giving the captain a headache, right?”
Wind nodded uneasily.
“And what’s more headache-inducing than a brother turned sister? Or a herd of brothers turned sisters?”
Wind nodded again, much more eagerly this time. Time turned back to Hyrule. “You said you have spares?”
The ball was glorious, the dumbstruck look of the Captain even more so. Upon the reassurances that this wasn’t a curse, they were just being Links, the singular brother of the Chain looked like he’d pounded an entire bottle of mead the night before and had drunk next to nothing the entire day.
Hyrule wished she could say she pitied him.
She did not.
Twilight was busy trying to wrangle Wild, her dress paired beautifully with her markings and Wild’s shimmering blue gown flashing as she tried to shovel everything in the buffet table into her slate. Wind and Spirit stood nearby, cheering Wild on as the coins on Wind’s Boho dress clinked and clanked and Spirit’s train-themed ballgown rustled and caught the light. Time and Sky witnessed in silence, throwing away their responsibilities at the same time they’d thrown away their original genders. Four was busy gossiping with the old ladies at the window with Legend, while Wars stood far away from all of them, staring at the ceiling as Artemis giggled next to him.
Hyrule, meanwhile, had pigged out on the treat table and was busy trying not to fall into a food coma, sitting on the couch between Legend and Four.
As she lost the battle and dozed off, she was glad it had all worked out in the end.
And Hyrule really had rocked that dress.