I was in the shower again. Honestly, a lot of us seem to do our best thinking in there, especially when it’s about the really important stuff.

This time I found myself thinking about the fact that nobody in my family, except my siblings, knows that we’re therians/otherkin, nor that we’re plural. I, in particular, find myself getting hung up on that a lot because it means I can’t really be myself around them. I can’t let my energetic, admittedly pretty girly self out around my own family.

The others have been getting more and more hurt by it too, especially those who are very different. Astrrhea, for example, doesn’t really pass as human very well. She has a very strong accent and naturally carries herself in a way that’s just… not human. Then there’s Amelira, who’s much newer. She’s fiery, emotional, and has an energy that’s completely different from most of us. She doesn’t really pass as human naturally either.

As I was cleaning my dirty ass, I started thinking that maybe it’s finally time to tell someone in my family, because we really can’t keep this charade going forever.

There are a lot of us now.

Some of us move through the world in fundamentally different ways. Some struggle to hold back their animal instincts. Some are female while this body is male. Others simply have personalities and ways of speaking that are so different from the son my parents think they know.

Kaelaeth was quietly pointing all of this out while I was thinking, even as I kept circling back to how much emotional backlash we’ve been carrying over the last several months from our family’s unintentional microaggressions.

Tomorrow I have to go to an event, and my sister—who already knows—and my father will both be in the car with me for a good while. My mother won’t be there.

That’s kind of the opportunity I’ve been waiting for.

Mom has had… odd reactions whenever furry-related topics have come up in the past. Not necessarily hostile, just… uncomfortable. She also leans pretty heavily into her Christian beliefs at times, so I’d much rather talk to Dad first and get his thoughts on how best to approach telling her before I actually do.

Honestly, I just need a fucking ally in this house.

Not that my sister isn’t one—we love her to pieces—but she’s not especially good at defusing tense conversations or noticing subtle microaggressions. Dad, on the other hand, is surprisingly good at both. If I end up waiting until I’ve moved out before telling Mom, maybe Dad can help redirect conversations or quietly step in before misunderstandings turn into arguments.

I honestly don’t know how this is going to go.

Dad has always been pretty laid back about most things. Whenever We’ve mentioned are furry or therian friends, he’s never reacted strangely. My biggest concern is the plurality, because that’s something that could fundamentally change how he sees and interacts with us. The therian and otherkin side of things probably will too, just not to quite the same extent.

Part of me worries that he won’t be able to make that adjustment.

Then again… I think that’s probably our anxiety talking more than our reason.

Either way, one of us will write a follow-up entry once this conversation has happened. I won’t pretend we’re not terrified, because we absolutely are.

Here’s hoping it goes well.