Okay so here is what happens in Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, this is what happens.
Paul is usually an emotionally shut-off gay male night fox, but sometimes he tries being a girl. Polly(girl Paul) always gets too emotionally invested or affectionate and something bad happens, at which point Paul runs back to being an emotionally shut-off gay male night fox. He drinks and fucks his sorrows away, with no apparent awareness. This is a pattern in his life.
Paul is the metatextual egg. There's a bunch of weird flavouring since it's 90s queer scene and he's a shapeshifting water spirit and all that, but there's a pointed lack of actual trans people, it's a book where everything trans is layered subtext. It is weird for a Trans A Novel to be subtle.
EDIT SORRY IT'S ALL LIES
"Paul had never met a transs*xual guy before Franky," HOLY SHIT BUBBLE BROKEN IT IS SO OVER FOR PAUL!! To be fair to my dumb ass Paul still doesn't really relate the experience to himself, no; it seems our boy is a No Thoughts Head Empty sort of ambiguous twink.
Also Paul's last name is Polydoris, if u even care.....