#fragment individuality

[multiplicity-positivity]

Do you have any advice for median systems of mostly or entirely facets & fragments differentiating who is who?

The sense of feeling like partially different identities, but never entirely different makes us feel like none of us are a whole person and this is very frustrating and overwhelming for us…We want to develop stronger & more separate identities of our own and we’re hoping you or someone else might know of any resources that could possibly help us with that?

Perhaps resources for facets intentionally developing into alters?

Thanks for taking the time to respond either way. We appreciate it. Hope you & your system are doing well!

Hey, we have had fragments in our own system who later either fused or otherwise developed into fully formed alters. For some it just happened sort of naturally as they fronted more and more and gained new traits, interests, and perspectives. For others, they had to spend time consciously trying to develop their identities a bit more.

We have a post that aims to help headmates become a bit more distinct and individualized - and as a guide it could probably work for fragments as well:

Though keep in mind, for some systems, they are who they are, and they won’t be able to reach a point where their fragments, parts, or headmates are extremely distinct and unique as individuals. It’s better to try and learn to accept yourself than try to change some unchangeable core aspects of who you are. So please use your own discretion and try not to force your system to function in a particular way if that’s not how your system has worked in the past and if attempting to change isn’t really working.

If anyone sees this who has any further advice, info, or resources for systems with fragments hoping to become more separate and distinct, we’d encourage you to share it to help anon.

[philosophybits]

Most people do not themselves know how interesting they really are, what interesting things they really say. A true representation of themselves — a sketch and assessment of what they say would evoke the greatest amazement in them about themselves and help them to discover in themselves a completely new world.

Novalis, Logological Fragments II

[shisasan]

There is a difference between understanding the subconscious and fully integrating it into the Self. Awareness alone doesn’t set us free.

[goodpngs]

transparent version of this post + view here

[theweightofdivinity]

Emotional intelligence isn’t guaranteed with time.

Age can deepen insight, but it can also calcify defenses. Without self-inquiry, many grow older without ever truly evolving. Psychologically, emotional immaturity is often the result of arrested development, unresolved childhood responses still piloting adult bodies. Philosophically, it reveals one of our most painful paradoxes: We are capable of reflection, yet avoid it. We crave connection, yet sabotage it. We long to be understood, yet fear being fully seen. We say we want truth, until it confronts who we think we are.

Emotional intelligence is about knowing your internal landscape well enough not to weaponize it, once you begin to see this clearly, you can’t unsee it: how many mistake emotional suppression for strength, how many confuse emotional detachment for wisdom, how many adults are simply older children still waiting for someone to meet the parts they abandoned. We must learn how to witness our own riggers without projecting them, tend to our wounds before handing them to someone else. But sometimes, it’s not just avoidance it’s neurological. When trauma embeds in the body and fragments the brain, when the nervous system rewires for survival, when the heart shuts down to protect the psyche, it’s no longer about unwillingness. It’s about being physiologically trapped in the past. The heart and brain are not separate. What goes unprocessed psychologically is stored somatically. And what is stored somatically can keep the soul in stasis. Our cells remember. Our organs remember. The body becomes the archive of what the mind couldn’t bear. This is why healing matters. Not just spiritually but neurologically. Not just emotionally but energetically. To reclaim your full presence. To rewire survival into self-trust. To become a home your soul can safely live in fully, freely, consciously.

This is sacred work, It’s the re-integration of what trauma once tried to sever, your mind, your heart, and your humanity.

Sources:

Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score)

Peter Levine (Waking the Tiger)

Carl Jung (Collected Works on the psyche, the shadow, and individuation).

[tagidearte]

Wip for valentine's day... hope I can finish it by tomorrow. The painting will be simple but oh well, if I can't yall will just get the lineart <3

[harpycartoons]

The royal family!!! The King in Yellow and his wretched sons!!! Welcome back King Ghidorah

[cent-scratchnsniff]

messy doodles plus with some picked ramblings with them as i process, learn, and progress. yes only some out of many. i talk far too much. i missed so much too im just too tired to talk abt those aspects rifht now

[aroace-shumika]

enstars characters sekais/fragment sekais concepts. discuss.

[dreadblaidd]

Evanuris Lore Dump a collection of lore with brief synopses of each entry

Codex pdfs: DAO DA2 DAI DAV Solas dialogue

Pantheon Proper

Andruil - the huntress, and goddess of sacrifice Dirthamen - master of secrets Elgar'nan - the All-Father Falon'din - friend of the dead Ghilan'nain - mother of the halla Mythal - the All-Mother June - master of the craft Sylaise - hearthkeeper

Forgotten Ones no individual posts, sorry Anaris

Anaris Geldauran Daern'thal

Forbidden Ones only Imshael has an individual post

Gaxkang Xebenkeck Imshael The Formless One

Outliers

Fen'harel - the Dread Wolf the Healer - though not a "Forgotten One", the healer was an Evanuris or Evanuris-adjacent, linked with Sylaise, who was rarely mentioned in records of Elvhenan and whose name had been struck from ancient etchings on the order of Elgar'nan.

[philosophybits]

[The] capacity to truly awaken an individuality not one’s own within oneself [...] rests on a most marvelous power of penetration and spiritual acting. The artist turns himself into everything he sees and wants be.

Novalis, Logological Fragments I

[shisasan]

You don't touch the divine and walk away unchanged. 🜍 ⟡ ⟢ 

[fumifooms]

The core of Fullmetal Alchemist: All is one and Dwarf in the flask

Dwarf in a bottle is in my top 5 favorite FMA characters. No, not Father, that emotionless bland white bread empty husk, Dwarf, the whole. The sort of ball of void, the existential anomaly, so inhumanely human full with sins and individuality.

Fullmetal Alchemist is about willpower. About determination, about pursuing your goals without relenting. It is also about humility and about knowledge.

That is reflected in both the protagonist and the villain, though it is a theme common in most characters.  Both Edward and Dwarf in a bottle pursue their goals with great determination and will. Then, what is good with the manner of one and wrong with the other’s?

I believe a lot of it is about the very concept Dwarf symbolizes. Dwarf in the flask is artificiality.

An alchemy-made life. An artificial family. An artificial pursuit of knowledge and power, without caring about the journey of self-betterment that comes along with it, without caring to understand alchemy and its place in the world. Not only an artifical physical being, but also artificial emotionally; ripping apart his feelings and personality traits deemed negative to make himself into a “superior” being.

I think it’s also worth noting that yes, purging sins out of himself makes him lose those traits, even feelings. Then, if not greed, if not it all, what is pushing Father to pursue power? Greed said it himself: greed isn’t inherently bad, it’s the act of wanting. Father isn’t spiraling into a mad passion for alchemy, a pursuit of knowledge for innovation, or anything, he pursued his plan because he went through the motions, simply. As his feelings left him, all that stayed was the conviction without reasoning that since it was his plan before, he should see it to the end. Or perhaps it’s the course of action he logically came to. Perhaps alchemical enlightenment was deemed the obvious ultimate goal to have, without being interested in why it is or why it should be. Regardless, he lacks the passion and emotional intelligence to actually see the value in what he is doing, in alchemy, and ultimately that is what is punished.

I want to do a full dissection of the whole homunculus family, but I’m going to touch on some aspects of it here because it’s such an interesting topic to me. Disregarding Lust’s claim that homunculi are all individuals with a full range of emotions for a moment, I want to analyze what their traits mean in the angle that they fundamentally formed a whole all together as Father, or Dwarf in the flask.  The homunculus that is shown to be the most attached to his family members is Gluttony. The homunculus that is shown to be the most attached to relationships, in general, is Greed. Greed and Gluttony are then the homunculi, the traits, that care about people the most. And that makes sense, no? You don’t want to lose things you care about, you want to bathe in their love and their presence, and you want to keep having them for as long as you want, greed and gluttony aren’t unsimilar. Greed is interested in friendship and having companions, in possessing people’s hearts and loyalties, in making new connections and bonding with new faces. Gluttony is more interested in getting more of what he already has, more love in that way he already likes by the person he already loves, like wanting more of the familiar taste of its favorite meal. Other similar traits are pride and envy, the traits that affect your self-image. The feeling that you are remarkable and great and the feeling of wanting what others have or are, valuing yourself vs comparing yourself to others. By detaching parts of a whole, things get lost; Pride feels wholly superior but is ready to do anything to preserve himself including lowering himself to inferior beings going against his own code, while Envy only covers up his self-hatred and jealousy but would rather end himself before accepting to sully himself with the compassion of someone he looks down upon. Pride makes one value self-preservation, while envy is self-destructive by nature, perhaps. It is interesting that both feel prideful, yet Pride doesn’t reflect the fact that as part of a whole it also felt shame and low self-esteem, otherized, and Envy doesn’t reflect that Dwarf actually feels pride over traits they possess, as well. The truth is that these things coexisted in the one being that was Dwarf. Fragmented as they are, they only tell an uncomplete and incoherent story, like a puzzle. It’s ironic that maybe together, all these sins balance each other out to become healthier, less dysfunctional. Like a family, they can offer counterbalance to a trait when it becomes too central to the individual, offer support through their grounding presence. Someone slothful may feel unmotivated without greed to give them goals, pride without envy will make you stop striving to better yourself and envy without pride will give you self-loathing.

An analysis of Dwarf isn’t complicated to do: it was a being brought about by scholars and complex alchemy, enslaved, and it wished to get the power to free itself and become an individual equal/superior to everyone else. Unable to become physically and fundamentally human, he attempted to become a proxy, close enough to it; making a family, gaining a human form, etc. It ultimately wished to pursue superiority through alchemical power and knowledge when he found the result lacking, when it still didn’t feel human, couldn’t connect with others, still felt fundamentally different, like his place in the universe was somewhere else, like striving for that higher calling would solve it. Blinded by lust to find belonging, wether it be in a place or in a role, it pushed itself to extremes of alchemy in the hope it will all make sense once he gets there. Ultimately futile, as he will end up feeling betrayed and abandoned by Truth itself, not able to rise up to its own expectations once more: because there’s no magic able to make one feel whole. He seeked to sculpt himself into a perfect being, one that could be anything and do anything, one that couldn’t be reproached, if not by humans, then the world itself would confirm and showcase his objective superiority for all to see.

Much like with Shou Tucker, this pursuit for knowledge and power is all for external factors, there is no inner fuel for it besides pride, shame, desperate want that was displaced onto alchemy instead of the self-introspection that alchemy promotes and necessitates. Dwarf ended up missing what was right under his nose, and subsequently failed the test of Truth and lost everything. What he was working towards ultimately meant nothing, not to anyone and not even to himself.

Edward was able to face Truth right because he took the time to understand, learned to not abuse it, reflected on what it all meant, on the place of things in the universe. That is terrifying for Dwarf, who is terrified he may simply have no place in it, but it is nonetheless essential. The other homunculi are proof enough: Greed had friends, was accepted in the friend group of our heroes as a trustworthy and dependable person, Ling would have preferred him to stay with him forever instead of leaving. Selim gets a second chance at life with someone who has loved him with all her heart… Which is the most confusing part of FMA I have no idea how he didn’t die ngl but I’m glad for the precious lil guy~ Even Lust and Gluttony found companionship and care in being together.

Dwarf has always had a place. He simply refused to philosophizes, and alchemists are ultimately philosophers. Not thinking power through, not analyzing it, is what leads to corrupt military states. Dwarf wanted to be recognized and accepted by god and the world itself, by showing himself worthy of it and demanding it, but he was the one who rejected the nature of the world first:

One is all, all is one.

He is the very embodiment of refusing that. Dwarf always had a place in the world, artificial anomaly as he was. Perhaps Dwarf wasn’t meant to be part of this all or this one initially, not created by the world, but. Dwarf seeked to become both all and none at once. He was born artificial, but never cared to learn the rules of nature and accept the limits of the world, seeking to destroy and warp them; he was the one that desired to make himself even more distinct from the world and label himself as a perfect, artificial being. Rejecting individuality to become some empty looking glass was the mistake Edward Elric didn’t make, growing to find the value in every type of life and finding the strength to keep going through every horror of the world. Dwarf’s folly was thinking that he was separate from the rest of existence.

The philosophical dimension to the value of gold or philosopher’s stones are the important part of alchemy, power isn’t what you achieve enlightenment through. May your pursuit of knowledge be wise and your resolve aim true.

–+–+–+–+–+–+–

I recommend this analysis by another tumblr user as complementary reading!! It goes over way more than I did and encompasses more of fma than this post, I just wanted to focus on a fraction of the themes and narrative that I found summed up the story’s key points well… Idk idk I’m a humble Dwarf enjoyer I don’t want to come across as pretentious 🙇 I can only hope this was a nice read. If you don’t remember the ending of the manga/brotherhood well I imagine this being very confusing, I should do something about that

[uranium]

my coworker and i have these insanely cheap high speed computers because they were sold with spyware on them so we wiped them and have been running the hell out of them for less than a year and both of them are crunching to the point the office sounds like this

and also it is constantly 90 degrees in here

[asgardian--angels]

Just wanted to thank you for taking the time and effort to put together the long climate/environment post, especially the online resources. I've wanted to replace the neglected/dead non-native plants at my place with native plants for months, but didn't know where to start my search for species except to walk around my local nature preserve trying to find something that isn't invasive lol. I'll be able to start (re)introducing native plants this month because of you :-)

Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad the post has been helpful and inspiring. If you'd like more directed guidance on native plants, I can probably point you in the right direction if you can give me a general area to work with (state would suffice!). In general, go for keystone species- those that are common in your area and support many kinds of insects- or pollinator favorites, or host plants for rare/imperiled butterflies/bees/moths.

[kafka030]

AFKJ OC - SO... URM... ANON BRING UP A TOPIC ABOUT 'LOVE LIVES'...

. . .

I won't elaborate much... But below is... Urm... A tiny bit about My Merlins having a crush on someone...

I do know that some Merlin Variants like a Celestial/Hypogean/Lightbearer/etc ...

So... This is my little... Tiny approach about them... Not too deep...

Edited: I lied-- it becomes lengthy-- I-- T_T

. . .

To those who have come this far... and are familiar with my... Merlins... Urm... I once mentioned that "He likes her" and "She likes him"... That's all... Because...

I'm not good at writing romance genres so... Yeah... Ahahahaa, yeay...

Lemme place it here... A little tiny bit... Of My Merlins... "Love Lives"..?

. . .

Magister Kafka:

> His in love with Dolly. PERIOD. Ahahahaa

> QnA <

> QnA <

> Short Story <

Note: I wrote the above short story BEFORE I knew the lore in-game is like-- below... So... The above is solely my headcanon...

. . .

. . .

> Short Story <

Magister Evangeline:

> She had a crush on Bealran. NO DOUBT! A sparring partner-- FOR SURE!

> There's no written content about their relationship thus far...

M:

> I feel like I wanted to include him also... Because... This one favourite song of mine truly described his love life... I imagined his voice was like the singer so... :D

. . .

Note:

(We were Lovers by Jean-Jacques Burnel)

Please... Don't watch this anime... It's soo cursed, imo... The opening song is good though...

I don't want you guys to become dizzy of its animations (the colours in this anime are just-- too vibrant... Imo) and-- I could rate it as Matured content..?

Welp... you have been warned...

Harsh words were said, and lies were told instead. I didn't ever mean to make you cry... But love can make us weak and make us strong. And before too very long. I was totally in love with you, I bathed in you, Lost in you, captivated by you, Amazed by you, dazed by you. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wrong. So tonight I'll sing a song to all my friends, Also to those we won't be seeing again. To those I knew and those I still adore, And I want to see once more... I just pray that you will love me and trust me, Laugh with me and cry with me, Spend those silent times with me. Love me evermore. Love me evermore. You and I were lovers. Our dreams were not soured by life. And then my friends betrayal Meant you never would be my wife. Harsh words were said, and lies were told instead. I didn't ever mean to make you cry... But love can make us weak and make us strong. And before too very long, I was totally in love with you, I bathed in you, Lost in you, captivated by you, Amazed by you, dazed by you. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wrong.

. . .

Lyrics :

. . .

Long... Very... Long time ago...

> He once loved a noblewoman who cares so much about commoners... He does get to know her at one point and vow to one day... Took her in his arms and married her...

> He told about her to his best friend... Of how he adored her and wanted to court her one day...

> However... When he was away on his duties as one of the chiefs of the Arcane Council... Trying to fight against the Hypofiends and Hypogeans slowly emerging... His best friend... HIS FLIPPING BEST FRIEND-- Ends up married her... The one that he madly in love...

> and she-- SHE thought he was dead-- after being away for years... Fighting Hypofiends and Hypogeans... Without sending some letters back to her... ...

> Due to heartbroken knowing that information reached his ears... And seeing them-- her in his best friend's arms... ...

> He... Drowned himself in his duties... Of the so-called... The Supreme Magister, Merlin... The Greatest Mage... One of the Chiefs of the Arcane Council...

> Worshipped Dura, his Dearest Goddess... with all his heart...

> Without caring to settle down and build a family anymore... Without wanting to ever fall in love anymore... Drifting away from others after each meeting...

> Doesn't want to make a "bonding session" with the other members of the Arcane Council (sitting down and drinking together, etc)... Becomes ever so... Distant and... Eccentric...

> Then... sacrificed himself for the fate and future of Esperia...

. . .