madimpossibledreamer

        “I was...assigned female at birth, Klavier, so, um, if you have a problem with that, I guess we’re breaking up?” He wants to sound more sure of himself, but it comes out as more of a question than anything.
        His boyfriend appears frozen for a moment longer before letting out a short laugh. “If I needed any more proof you have seen none of my photoshoots, it was this,” he replies, nonsensical, and then begins taking off his shirt.
        “Klavier?” He’s probably turning as red as his vest.
        “Just proving to you, Apollo, you have nothing to worry about.” And then—
        Oh. Those are some pretty familiar surgery scars, yeah.

( Omake 13 )

(This was my ‘what I am writing later’ memory jog. When I came back to it later, I went ‘...actually that looks like a pretty good chapter summary’, so here we are.)
Desmond absolutely went back after this chapter and re-read Shaun’s ‘intro to the factions’ sheet and took the line “We absolutely do not need to end up as flexible as the Dragon” in a completely different context than originally intended.

        “I have a weird feeling about your new neighbor,” Xander announces loudly, glancing over at where the man is barely visible, hammering again. Ignoring, as per usual, Buffy’s frantic ‘keep it down’ motions.
        “You’re lucky he’s so loud he didn’t hear you,” she stage whispers as close to his ear as she can manage and still be audible.
        “If good fences make good neighbors, what do bad fences make?” It’s...a kind of dark riddle, honestly.

I’m going to try to have a chapter out every other week.

Soul marks, but the mark develops as you spend time together and so if you never meet the person it just kind of stays generic.

Desmond actually is doing better than he thinks, but he’s right that he has been half-assing it a little because he wasn’t confident. He did obviously decide to have another existential crisis, this time because he finally realized that people might know who he is now.
Red’s speech about the war is paraphrased because, among other things, he usually tells it at his store.

        “You’re the best partner.”
        “No, you are. I’m a Pretender to the title.”
        *snort*
        “What?”
        “Pretender.”
        “You have got to be joking.”
        “I am.”
        “...I walked straight into that one.”