Informed Consent

[Intro]
Hello, I've read your bulletin and I just wanted to say
That this is what I need to hear but you knew that anyways
You wouldn't ask how I identify, you just gave options to me
Of three different ways, possibly, you can share your personality with me

[Verse 1]
I admit I couldn't stop until I forgot how to start
I met my match, someone had to be twice as smart
And get up early in the morning, and stay awake through the dawn
To spin well-written tales out of wishful improvisation
I ask who goes ham at tasking you before you surrender your life
To someone who cannot be sure you're even in their sight
But you wеre due to the еmpathy and all that selflessness
That makes the bad ones target you, dangling carrots on what could be your deathbed
I ask who would overtax you and claim it's your idea
Then try to get it all in writing before it disappears
You know they don't exist because neither do you
It's like two ghosts arguing ones and zeros, when they cannot even count to two

[Chorus]
Mono is just one
Stereo is two
Quad is four-way radio
Poly is whatever you choose
The first step is and always is getting informed consent
I know you don't find it quite as hot
It doesn't matter
You still got to ask for it

[Verse 2]
Or you could fly to another country, to take what you can get
From someone who has nothing left or all that much to give
But to them, that nothing's everything and it's all they'll ever be
You can't decide you do not want it when you've already done the fuckin' deed
Habits and their habitats, oh, the research that you do
The big stories you've given and the time it wasted for you
But all that you got out of it was a solitary dose
Of what you handed everyone and you know that you'll always know
That I would've given everything
In fact, I almost did
From the days of truck stop phone cards to the parking lot of them
To somewhere up the road, somewhere by a beach
It wasn't my decision
I chose to ignore my own needs
You see I did what I thought I had to do and I have thought of what I did
This is a big-ass planet and we were on opposite sides of it
And you are still worth everything I ever claimed you were
When you could not believe that
When you were simply thought of as "her"

[Chorus]
Mono is just one
Stereo is two
Quad is four-way radio
And poly is whatever you choose
The first step is and always is getting informed consent
I know you don't find it quite as hot
It doesn't matter
You still got to ask for it

[Verse 3]
When you think back?
To how kindness got you handled less than stellar by your friends
Well, I knew what you were doing, and I knew what you meant
But I signed up for a duty, thought I laid down the best plans
For you and I to slip back to that dynamic thing if we can
(Jump around in the timeline a bit!)
Since we were never lovers, not in any misplaced sense
If he'd heard our own story we would know the context
And why it's so nonsensical to those who guard their mouth
From talking about which side of any particular slash you talk about
"Slash" is the operative word, for me the knife still twists
I was never whole before, before you told me I am this
And I said that you're the inverse, you said you'd hoped I'd take control
Well I tried, but met my match
I'm switching off
I'm going home

[Bridge]
What were you trying to get away with?
I might've helped you despite the risk
Because love makes me do awful things but mostly it's something I miss
So what did you get away with?
I don't even know why you went at this
The pictures that you showed me have no reason to fucking exist

[Chorus]
Mono is just one
Stereo is two
Quad is four-way radio
And poly is whatever you choose
The first step is and always giving informed consent
I know you don't find it quite as hot
It doesn't matter
You got to ask for it

Who were you trying to be and why?
I knew before [?] was alive
Cause there's no me, I don't exist
You showed up to lead me away with this
Was it time for me to learn
The difference between right and wrong