ghost-of-a-system

[ghost-of-a-system]

handwriting

might as well post something relevant to the main reason we haven't been posting. school. /hj

most of us having varying handwritings is probably our most minor major inconvenience haha. thankfully we don't have to turn in physical papers as much in college as we did in the past :')

[ghost-of-a-system]

I know you’ve mentioned before how you’ve had alters go dormant a bit after they’ve formed. I’m a questioning system who (I think) has had fictives who form and the seemingly go away after a month or more/less. I struggle with knowing whether I was just kin with the character or making it all up. Do you struggle with feeling like you’re faking it with alters and how do you tell if it’s actually an alter or just a brief kin or liking a character. (Sorry if this is worded poorly)

it's worded just fine, don't worry. :) but yeah! that kind of dormancy is something we deal with pretty frequently. while we don't feel this way so much anymore, in the past we've struggled a little with the kind of worry you're talking about. it's been frustrating trying to rule alternatives out when we think someone new might've shown up.

after a while we honestly just tried to stop worrying so much about the "why" of things like that, though. our mindset is really just, if we think someone new's around, we'll treat it as such if we feel it would help us to do so. why they're around (or why we think they're around) becomes pretty irrelevant when we're just prioritizing our needs in the moment. if they end up sticking around, that's okay (that's usually our way of telling that it was a 'genuine' alter and not any alternative), and if they don't that's okay too. we don't dwell on it as much as we used to, and we think that's helped us a lot.

overall our advice is to just focus on what's the most beneficial for you in the present. the answers about things like that will come to you on their own. your wellbeing right now is the priority :) we wish you luck with your questioning too!

[ghost-of-a-system]

HIII its Brush anon again bc i actually got some questions

Have we?? Met??? Before??? Iirc you have a Killer alter and I feel like I've seen him in an ut au server im in once or twice

Do you have any name ideas for systems? We ourselves are one and we can not stick with names for the Life of us. Right now it's Neighborhood Sys bc our Headspace looks like a Neighborhood but i feel like it kind of messes with the Term "Neighborhood System" which means another system you know. So do you have any name suggestions or a place we can get suggestions from? It would totally help!!!!!!/nf

-🖌️

yeah of course! we love questions. 🫡 we do have a killer!sans introject, yes! we aren't in any utau discord servers, though, so it's likely not us haha. with any servers we are in, we usually just lurk ominously in the background and never talk anyway. /silly

and oh we're horrible with system names unfortunately lol, we don't even really have one ourselves. we just go by our collective name or username. we're unoriginal and indecisive. /j we think the current name you have is neat, honestly we think it could be anything you feel comfortable with or represented by. a lot of words or terms can have several meanings we think, as long as you're happy with it you can make it your own. :)

but if anyone else reading this does know any places for names, they could put them in the replies or whichever works. we don't personally know of any otherwise we'd share them! we hope you're able to find something that fits if you decide to change it though!

[ghost-of-a-system]

heY! You! You're cool!

Kinda on thin ice bc ur endo neutral (bad experiences with endos) BUT UR COOL!!!!

I hooe you have a good life with ur alters and I hope they're all doing okay and I hope YOU are too

Okay bye :3

-🖌️

hey! you! you're cool too!! no worries haha, everyone has a right to their own opinion and comforts. no judgement or pressure here to feel any way except what you're comfortable with. thank you for saying that, your words are very appreciated. :) overall, we've been doing really good! we hope it's been the same for you, and that it continues. thank you so much for reaching out <3

[ghost-of-a-system]

hey are you doin alright? no pressure to come back obvs, just wanted to check in with you guys!

we've been okay! mostly dealing with college/work or focusing on more personal pieces art-wise haha. we have ideas for comics we want to make once we find the time and motivation. we are excited for that :) thank you for asking too, because it means a lot to us! it's very kind of you, and we hope you're doing well also. <3

[ghost-of-a-system]

I'm sure many people have already shared this here, but I think it's important that people here on Tumblr need to see this.

"I disagree with Kamala's position on the war in Gaza. How can I vote for her?" by US Senator Bernie Sanders

[ghost-of-a-system]

its nice to see someone else with warriors and deltarune introjects!! and, besides that, nonhuman introjects in general. sometimes it feels rlly shitty when we remember most of us arent human, as we know that the average person would same some shit like "oh so you think you're a cat??" so its honestly just nice to see another system with non humans from the same sources as us, it reminds us that theres nothing wrong with it yknow?

your guys's comics are wonderful, you explain the topic very thoroughly and in a way thats easy to understand, at least for us. hope you're having a good week!! -shadowsight

we hope you're havin a good week too! yeah, it's always nice seein other systems with similarities to us like that. all of us who're here right now are nonhuman, except like. this one guy technically but he's barely meetin that criteria lol. might as well not be too.

our system's always been a good mix if not majority nonhuman and it's definitely pretty uh, awkward? not for us, but when it comes to talking to "the average person" like you said. we get reminded real quick of how most people'll think strangely of us. guess i could maybe blame that on some certain depictions of nonhuman alters in systems perpetuated in media and stuff. we've even gotten a sorta response like "they're in your head?", somethin about how we look scary, whatever, several times when someone has seen a picture of what whoever of us look like. like we're genuinely something that is weird, not right, should be feared, i've got no clue. has always made it real hard for us to be comfortable letting people see who's in the system, or knowing "what" we are.

in general i think we've noticed people just take us more seriously if they're under the impression we're human. and that it's much harder for them to want to acknowledge those of us who aren't as individuals and not just. a super weird bad influence or somethin. that was a bit of a rant, whoops, but anyway it was nice hearin from ya :) we're glad you like the comics, and that they're helpful! that's real nice to hear

[ghost-of-a-system]

If we would like to get to know you guys better (like, be friends) is there a way we could communicate with you aside from here? Sorry if this is a weird ask I've wanted to ask for a while g hj gh /nfta

it isn't weird, don't worry! we mostly just use discord to uh actually talk to people haha. if you use that, you could probably send us a dm here with your username, or ask for ours if you're more comfortable with that. (or even send another ask with your username, we wouldn't post it or anything lol.) unfortunately i'm not sure of any other good options outside of that if it's not on here. but we would love to get to know you if possible :)

[ghost-of-a-system]

I don’t think I’ve had much experience but is cofront/cocon like having second hand emotions? Like, I believe there’s this one alter, and she’s really upset or something and so the body is upset, but I personally don’t feel those emotions and don’t know why I’m having them. It’s like I’m in main control but someone else is handling my emotions

i'm sure that it can be, i think that co-fronting/co-consciousness is probably one of those things that varies by system. at least when it comes down to the specifics like that. for us, since the feelings/emotions are affecting the body, anyone who's fronting feels them. we generally "share thoughts" when we are fronting together, so usually we know why we're feeling this way that way. all of us who are fronting usually still feel our own individual emotions regardless of who is actively doing things, but i can definitely see that not being the case for everybody. it might depend on how strong the dissociative barriers/general barriers between alters are in a system. but that would just be me theorizing lol, take it with a grain of salt.

[ghost-of-a-system]

HI IM A PRETTY NEWLY DISCOVERED SYSTEM, AND WE HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT SOURCE MEMORIES

(sorry about the capslock, for some reason our keyboard glitches out sometimes lol) HOW DO THEY WORK?? LIKE, HOW DO I KNOW IF ITS A SOURCE MEMORY OR IF IM JUST MAKING IT UP? WE ALREADY HAVE PROBLEMS WITH RECOUNTING MEMORIES SO HOW DO WE DO IT FOR SOMETHING WE DONT EVEN HAVE ANY PHYSICAL PROOF OF?

(okay the keyboard is fixed now)

can it just be like... a feeling? sometimes i look at a character from my source and i go "oh i like them. i get a fond feeling when i look at them" even though ive never really been intruduced to that character before? can they develop after the alter is?

sorry if its a lot of questions, were just really confused and we cant find anything that answers our questions 😭

(Also we hope that you are all doing well!!)

no worries, and we'll try our best to answer. we struggle with similar things, the recounting memories part mainly. well, we struggle a lot with looking back on "the body's" memories (whether they're from yesterday or a decade ago) and trying to decipher whether they were real or not ('specially if there's 'no proof' to help us). so that happens with our pseudomemories/source memories as well.

there's two things that we really depend upon when it comes to remembering source memories, or determining if we even have them to begin with. those are usually emotions and, honestly gut feeling lol. what you described with looking at someone and simply feeling that way could very much help indicate something about your memories. for us it is usually kinda like this, just comes to us naturally really. it's what our brain jumps to first and it's what feels the most "right" when comparin it to how we feel about other possibilities.

as far as the whole emotions thing we mentioned, it's a little more specific to us, so it might not completely work for others (?). we generally have a pretty hard time forcing ourselves to feel a certain way, mainly towards people and events. emotions, connections, events, they're all things that take time or personal experience for us to feel much of anything for. when it comes to source memories, i mean we could try to make up a scenario from a source but chances are we won't feel anythin towards it. when we do remember something from our source/"past", and we feel something for it, usually strongly, well, we know it's genuine because we know how our brain works. if it wasn't real to us, we would be completely unfeeling about it.

now this gets a bit tricky since sometimes you can have source memories but feel little to nothing towards them anyway, and though it doesn't happen often for us (we usually either have them and feel heavily for/are affected by them, or have none at all), it has been the case a few times. usually we would rely on that gut feeling thing but, honestly? since we felt nothing for those memories, we never really had an interest in trying to learn more about them. so that's about the most i could add to that.

last thing promise haha, regarding the "can they develop after an alter already has" thing. we have a little experience with this personally, but my short answer is i'm sure it can. if it's what your brain needs, well, anything's plausible in a situation like this, in my opinion. personally it has only ever really happened to us after an alter has split but before they have completely "developed" past being a fragment of sorts. like we have an introject guy we split a while back, didn't know too much about em source-wise, did engage with the source a couple days or so after they showed up. then those bits ended up being part of their source memories later on. so yeah, i'm still sure it can.

hopefully that works, if not we can clarify anything! we hope you're doing well too :)

[ghost-of-a-system]

Apologies if this seems invasive, but do you experience differing levels of barriers between alters? Regarding communication or awareness of the other for example. If so, how do you deal with that?

it's not invasive for us, no worries. also, sorry for such a delayed answer lol. :')

communication and awareness of each other is something that works a little strangely for us. because it technically is not the best whatsoever, but we have enough workarounds to where it practically isn't an issue. we can only actively communicate with each other when/if we are co-conscious/co-fronting with one another, and this stays the same across all of us. (and our awareness of each other in a time like that is usually pretty clear.) we also don't have severe amounts of amnesia, so we can usually remember enough about each other or events to be manageable. but outside of those two things, we are basically completely cut off from one another. when we aren't fronting, we kind of don't really exist to begin with. i'm pretty sure we're a ''monoconscious'' system, i think people label it? we have one string of consciousness (fronting), and if we aren't on that at a given moment, we don't exist. no way to reach us because there's nothing to reach (fronting triggers aside). it's weird.

since we have no way of communicating outside of fronting, though, and no guarantee for when one alter will front again, we do often have to leave notes/messages for each other. usually it's only if we need something non-urgent done that one alter handles the best, or in general if whoever has something that whoever needs to do. most of us front pretty consistently/together pretty consistently so outside of that, it isn't really an issue.

fronting is also the only way we can really be aware of one another. it does make it difficult to determine things like dormancies (is this alter dormant, or do they just rarely front kind of situation). that's kind of a more complicated process for us. i can elaborate on that if you'd like, but i'll leave it for now. hopefully all of that works as an answer. let me know if i misunderstood anything though, i'm not the best at this haha

[ghost-of-a-system]

We are struggling to explain plurality to our singlet friends, how would you guys describe it?

sorry for replying to this so late! we only really have limited experience specifically explaining DID/OSDD to people, but i can explain something general in case anything can be taken from it. it still might seem from that bit a lens though since it's just the most we personally have experience with!

we have always done better at helping others understand concepts through answering questions rather than just laying out all the information at once, so usually our process depends on that. when it comes to DID/OSDD, we would often start with the most basic explanation of a dissociative disorder resulting in one being made up of two or more alters/parts, potential memory trouble/amnesia, dissociation, kind of whatever you're ok bringing up as surface-level information.

usually i'd guess a sort of follow-up question would be "what are alters?" or something alike haha, which i would probably describe as an alternate/separate identity or state who may have their own individual mannerisms, characteristics, morals and preferences, etc.. it's about as simplistic as i think we could get, and the rest would depend on going off of questions that i'm sure someone might have lol. it can definitely take time for others to understand, but they most certainly can. still, i wish you luck :) and to let us know if we should elaborate on or correct anything !

[ghost-of-a-system]

it's a vent so be warned

sry it is probably not making much sense, i might delete it later lol 💀

[ghost-of-a-system]

Reminder to Click for Palestine today!

Thank you for your aid!

[ghost-of-a-system]

I think the thing a lot of singlets (myself included) hav3 an issue understanding with DID is that usually there is not “original” of which all the others circle around. All alters are equally people (or otherwise) rather than them being parts of the body name or the person that everybody sees.

since we can never experience DID it’s difficult to understand and media has made it worse.

I don’t really know where I was going with this and obviously you shouldn’t except these interpretations and this is t an excuse for everybody who has said things about y’all’s did but it’s trying to be an explanation

it's alright, honestly. i can't speak for everyone, but we have a decent time being understanding and patient in explaining DID/OSDD and working through misconceptions with people, whether they be "singlets" or even other systems. if anything, it's something we enjoy doing. all that would ever really frustrate us is people who refuse to listen, refuse to learn, and refuse to see other opinions and perspectives of various things regarding it.

it makes sense that it would be easier for most people to naturally have a simpler time looking at systems in the way you describe. whether it be because of media, or just from knowing someone and learning that said someone might not exactly be who you thought, quite literally. obviously, we know that there are systems with an alter who might identify with the body/the body's name/etc., but not all. it'd probably just take a lot of spending time with any systems you know or learning from system spaces to get you accustomed to that idea. a lot of things get easier to understand when you're actively spending time around or engaging with them. honestly, all that matters is that you're willing to try to understand. i think i'm ok saying that that's something a lot of us appreciate more than we have the words for.

more of a personal perspective thing-- we have not told many people that we are a system in person. we are fairly upfront about it online, but i think that not having a "face" or our actual name makes it a lot easier for people to grasp and separate us. do you know that whole joke about how "i can only ever imagine people as their profile pictures"? haha, yeah, that works in our favor a little sometimes. but, in person, explaining the concept that there is no alter who goes by the body's name, there is no alter who looks like the body, this person that everyone thought they knew basically does not exist, well, it's hard. and we don't blame anyone for having trouble with it. especially for people who have known us for a long period of time.

is it sometimes invalidating? at times, but that has only ever been when people have seemingly still tried to pick one of us to be "the face of the system" in their eyes, because they care more about what's convenient for them than they do for us. if someone was just struggling to understand, but still willing to try, well, that's more than we could ever ask for. it's seemed easiest for people who actually try to get to know each of us individually, but we don't have too much experience with it. most of us are too scared/embarrassed to talk about ourselves, especially in person lol.

[ghost-of-a-system]

Hi, hoping to help with all of your feelings about hosts, I always thought it ment they "hosted the body" aka fronting, the most out of all of the alters in the system, not that they are the body,

Sorry if this seems random, or makes you feel bad (though, not my intention, entirely possible with human error)

no worries whatsoever, this is a completely fair way of looking at it! and, overall, we do agree. we have no issue with the term "host" itself, as we find its subjectivity and general meaning fairly handy and understandably used so often. if we gave that impression at all, we apologize! it was not our intention. /gen /lh

our issues stem more with how people sometimes view and treat hosts (such as the "they are the body" claim), not the term or hosts themselves. we just do not feel comfortable using the term for ourselves due to how strong the assumptions tend to be. but that is just a personal quirk, hahah. that definition of "host" -- and most definitions of it -- also just do not work with our system well. if we tried to label any hosts, well, we would all fit that criteria, honestly, save for a few of us up here. so we figured it'd be better to just leave a label like that out altogether.

tldr is that hosts are cool, the term is cool, but people making assumptions about them... eh, not so much, lol. let me know if i need to clarify anything further. thank you for reaching out, though, so that i could elaborate a little for us. :)

[ghost-of-a-system]

Just wanted to say your art is always so so good

aw thank you so much !! reading this made me smile a lot suddenly haha, thank you ^^ we're so glad that you like it!