OC Trans girls are always naming themselves "Alice" or the name of some anime character or some shit, amirite?

The year is 2055. We find ourselves in a quaint home on the outskirts of Hakodate, where a young boy is staying with his 62-year-old grandfather while his parents are out of town.

"Now, my grandson, you wanna see the sorts of cartoons your old man watched as a kid?"

"Sure, gramps!"

"I'm glad to hear that, because I've still got some old goodies on my shelf..."

The old man plugged in his old DVD player — ancient technology at this point, fascinating in its own right for its obsolescence alone. "Eenie meenie miney mo...", the old man said, dragging his finger along his shelf of old DVDs and video cassettes. "Oh, this one's good!", he said to himself, while taking out a little DVD case. He cracked it open.

The artwork on the disc and its case was already eye-catching for the young child: a wide blue sky and blue ocean, European-style architecture, and four young women with pastel hair, and some sort of weird cat-like creature next to them. All the women were wearing predominantly white dresses, with sailor hats; the pink-haired one was standing atop a gondola, and held an oar.

"Uhh, gramps?...", said the child.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Is it really OK for me to watch this?", asked the child.

"Well, why wouldn't it be?"

The kid blushed. "Well, it's just that... You, you know, it's got, uh, pretty girls in it."

The grandpa ruffled the child's hair. "It's all good, don't worry. They may be pretty — they got my heart a-flutterin' when I was your age — but there's nothing inappropriate in this show."

"It's not that, gramps… I mean, I'm, I'm a boy, should I really be watching girly shows like this?"

The grandpa smiled at the kid. "Oh, girls and boys, there's no real difference, is there? We're all just people at the end of the day. It's not like watching this cartoon will turn you into a girl or anything like that.". The grandpa put the DVD in and started playing the first episode, and fetched a little box of dagashi for the boy. The two of them enjoyed tasty treats and old cartoons for hours.

The child was particularly impressed by episode 3. "That new girl's my favorite character now."

"Oh?", said the grandpa, "Well, it is very sweet how she grows happier with time, isn't it?"

A brief pause in the conversation.

"...Gramps?", said the boy.

"Yeah?"

"I... I wish I was an undine."

"You do, now?", the grandpa smiled, "Well, it does sound heavenly, doesn't it? To row gondolas through this quiet city, Neo Venezia…"

"Yeah...", said the boy. "A-and the undines' uniforms are p-pretty, too, aren't they...?" The boy glanced at his grandpa before looking to the floor and mumbling, "I... I want one."

The grandpa patted the kid's shoulder and said, "Heheh, so you want to cosplay already at seven years old? There's nothing embarrassing about that. It's a fun hobby.". As the end credits rolled, the old man stood up and said, "You know, I'm a pretty talented seamster, even at this age… C'mon, I'll take your measurements, and then the next time you visit, you can be an Orange Planet trainee too."

And so the old man found his measuring tape, and measured the kid. Sure enough, the next time the kid visited his grandpa, the old man was ready with the little white dress, with gloves, a long-haired green wig, and a sailor hat to boot. And the child, of course, loved wearing this costume. He even started wearing it outside and to school…

…This, however, wasn't to last. The child was made fun of by his peers for his non-conformity, and his parents disapproved of his cross-dressing as well. But ol' gramps, on the contrary, was nothing but supportive, not only sewing and buying more feminine clothes for the child, but even teaching him to sew clothes for himself. It was honestly the most alive the grandpa had felt in years!

During a sewing lesson at grandpa's house about six years after the boy first wore the Orange Planet dress, the boy said, "Gramps, you know… I'm noticing some changes happening to my body."

The grandpa nodded in understanding. "Puberty, eh? It's tough on everybody, but you'll survive."

"Grandpa... Is there any way I can keep myself from becoming a man? I want to grow up to become a woman.", said the kid.

The grandpa smiled. "I'll do what I can to help you. I'd always wanted a granddaughter, you know."

"Thank you, grandpa.", the kid said quietly.

The grandpa cleared his throat. "So, first of all, do you want me to call you by a new name?"

"Maybe, but which name?", said the girl.

"Ohh, so you haven't decided on a new name… Do you need any help with that?"

"Yes, please.", said the girl.

The grandpa pondered for a moment, and said, "Hmm… Do you remember, the first time you wore a dress?"

"Yes, I was 7.", said the girl. "You'd sewn that Aria costume for me."

"And what was the name of that girl you were cosplaying as?", asked the grandpa. "You liked her a lot back then. You liked how she learned to become happier. So if becoming a girl will make you happier, then perhaps that girl's name is a good name for you, too."

"Alice… I like the sound of that."