5 "Mark, did you _really_ need to bring me here for this?" whispered Caleb.
7 "_Yes!_ No one can do the Don LaFontaine voice like you! I said I owe you a favor!"
11 It was time for the Gender Queery discussion group at the Q Center to begin. The facilitator read the rules (keep confidentiality, respect people's identities, use "I" statements, _&c._), and people began to introduce themselves. A man calling himself Augustina said that he identified as a nonbinary transfeminine demigirl and that his pronouns were _she_ or _they_. A woman named Laura said that she identified as fluidflux and that she took _they_/_them_ pronouns.
13 When the circle got around to Mark, he kept silent as Caleb began to narrate: "Ever since puberty, he had fantasized about being more like the women he loved and admired. In a world teeming with the wonders of modern science, _fantasy_ becomes _reality_ ..."
15 Mark stood up and said proudly, "My name is M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake, my pronouns are _he_/_him_, and as of last week, I am—" he lifted up the side of his shirt a few inches to reveal the estradiol patch, as Caleb finished:
17 "_The man with the nonstandard hormone balance!_"