The Word of Your Body
is an Animorphs Alternate Universe Fic by Poetry, author of Dæmorphing. It has a sequel called Your Body Is Not An Apology. In this universe, the core four Animorphs are transgender — Jude (Jake) is a trans boy, Rachel is a trans girl, Cass(ie) is non-binary, and Marco is bigender — while Tobias is intersex. Together, they bond over their shared experiences.
The Word of Your Body contains examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: Jake is called Jude here. Downplayed with Rachel, who used to be called Reuben, but chose her canon name when she transitioned.
- Adaptational Gender Identity: The premise is that Tobias is intersex and the core four Animorphs are different kinds of transgender.
- Anachronic Order: The fic is written as an anthology of scenes, with two per Animorph. While each characters' scenes are in chronological order with each other, they're not in relation to the rest of the fic. For example, Jude's scenes take place pre-series and during the events of #6, and his section comes after David's, which is obviously based on #20-22.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Since this is set in The '90s, everyone says "transsexual", but nowadays "transgender" is the more accepted term.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Ax assumes that breasts are sex organs when he first meets the Animorphs.
- Insult Backfire: Temrash attempts to torture Jude by showing him Tom's memories of despair, but gives Jude hope instead because he inadvertently revealed that Tom considers Jude his brother.
- Intersex Tribulations: Tobias has perineal hypospadias, and went through a painful genital mutilation surgery at a young age to make him look more male. Fortunately, morphing undoes it.
- Mistaken for Gay: When Jude says he wants to be a boy, Jean assumes he's a lesbian and tells him you don't have to be a boy to like girls. Jude retorts that he's too young to be attracted to people.
- Sobriquet Sex Switch: Jude is the masculine version of Judith, his dead name.
- Trans Tribulations: Jude's parents and Temrash 114 are all dismissive when he tells them he's transgender; the former insist it's a phase he'll grow out of, while the latter uses it as an excuse to invite him to the Sharing.
Your Body Is Not An Apology contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Santa Barbara PD has search warrants for Jude and Rachel under their dead names, Judith and Reuben.
- Bittersweet Ending: Nobody is Spared by the Adaptation, but the surviving Animorphs don't lose the will to live after the war; they can use their fame to help trans kids like themselves.
- In Spite of a Nail: Unlike in canon, this version of Rachel knows what she wants to do after the war: get hormone replacement and breast implants. She still dies on a suicide mission.
- Named by the Adaptation: Tobias' surname is Calladan, Marco's is López Cheng (both of which originate from Daemorphing), Cass' is Johnson, James' is O'Rourke, and Colette's is St. Germain.
