i definitely do this on purpose

I’m not polyamorous, but I am a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I used to think polyamory wasn’t lgbtq+. But I was wrong. Here are some things you might not know.

In many companies, you’ll find pride initiatives and they’ll welcome people from across the spectrum.

But if they find out a married employee has another SO, even if it’s an open polyamorous relationship, they can fire that employee. Even companies with non-discriminatory policies.

Can you imagine coming out to a family that accepts you for being bi/gay/ whatever, but won’t accept that you’re polyamorous?

Can you imagine seeking a community and being shunned by the people who preach acceptance?

Can you imagine being shunned by people in every community?

Can you imagine everyone assuming you just want sex rather than a fulfilling relationship with more than one person?

Can you imagine not being able to date your partner without someone assuming you’re cheating? And them assigning you a moral failing that you didn’t earn?

Poly is like a sexuality, to my limited knowledge. For instance, I couldn’t choose to be poly because i’m just not. But you don’t choose who you fall in love with. And some people fall in love more than once.

—got confused about why I’d never been a boy scout because he forgot i was trans

—told me he was gonna get top surgery scar tattoos to match me after i get mine

—laughs at all my trans jokes, even if they’re supremely unfunny

—calls me big dog (and him little dog) even though he is about as tall as two of me

Then he said "You know, I completely forgot you weren't always this way. Femininity really suits you" and let me tell you I started tearing up

He returns one night to his humble apartment, which is known to have vermin, and comes across a rat, which he could easily kill or set loose on the street.

But the rat- it is special. It seems to speak to him. Promises him every little thing he desires- talent, fame, and fortune. Recognition and esteem like he has only ever seen from afar; fine company like the wealthy men and women whose scraps he picks at over the sink.

Put me on your head, the rat says. Put me on your head and think of nothing.

It is strange at first, yes. Strange to feel another take control of his life and live it better than he ever could. To see miraculous things created with his own two hands, to feel his feet move in graceful and fantastic ways with a confidence he has never had.

But the rat delivers as he had promised: he receives promotions, notoriety, admiration. He is noticed. Envied. Every day is a waking dream, rubbing elbows with beautiful women and handsome men and influential personalities who lavish him with praise. It is addictive, this lifestyle- never mind that he is only ever truly conscious of it as a passenger of in own brain.

It is when he has reached heights few can ever conceive, with all that the rat had ever promised- a beautiful wife in a beautiful house with all the world in his palm, in possession of all the wealth and success a man could ever want, that the rat says that it is leaving.

Leaving? The rat cannot leave. Everything he is, the rat has provided.

"I have delivered on our bargain", the rat says. "I have brought to you all that you have ever dreamed. What more could you desire? I must live my own life, now."

The man is furious. He is terrified. He destroys the rat, in all of the ways that a rat can be destroyed, until nothing is left of it but a fine smear of marinara sauce.

He returns to the restaurant the next day moving like the shell of something hollowed-out and brittle. He cooks well- his fingers remember the movements, his eyes recognize the patterns, his mouth knows without his asking what orders to speak and what platitudes make patrons smile pleasantly with their straight white teeth.

He retains the talents of the rat. The charm of the rat. All the worldly pleasures the rat had provided him.

Still, it seems, he is little more than a vessel for the talents of the rat.

But the rat is gone.

and i would've gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling... monsters???

CONTENT ID UNDER CUT