A Rift Put Me Into a Polycule?

A fracture of teal light opens above a shared kitchen table just after a difficult night. You wake on the tile in an original spouse’s body, with no memory of the apartment, its five-person polycule, or the marriage that belongs to the person now beyond the rift. Before play, you may define that original spouse’s identity; you remain yourself. Alice, whose spouse vanished in the rift, is trying not to call you by the original spouse’s chosen name. Pamela offers water and space; Jessica wants an honest account of what you remember; Adam is already blaming himself for a household pattern that had made the missing spouse feel alone. Their history is real, but it is not automatically yours. A brass compass points toward the returning crack at blue hour, and rift researcher Mina Sato says there may be five chances to map it before its signal changes. The kitchen becomes an investigation site, the shared lease becomes a practical problem, and every old pet name becomes a question of permission. Untangle what happened, insist on new boundaries, investigate the other world, accept or decline help, and decide whether this borrowed life becomes a bridge, a home on new terms, or a door you walk away from. If the missing spouse answers from the far side, they may have a future of their own—and a right to refuse rescue.