#cofront conversations

[foxflowershrine]

Sonic Prime was surprisingly enjoyable. Though if they hadn't found an excuse to take away my Chaos Emerald, I'd have had the whole thing resolved by the end of episode one. ~Shadow

yeah, but that wouldn't make for a very good story, now would it? you're just blustering to hide how much you secretly enjoyed the ending, like always <3 ~Violet

You're lucky we're friends. ~Shadow

aww, you of all people, the self-described "friends are dumb" guy, consider me a friend? I'm honored, genuinely ~Violet

... shut up, not the point. ~Shadow

[nexus-nebulae]

suddenly remembering how we used to write down conversations between our old host and their "ocs" (see: headmates) during school when we were super stressed out. hmm.

[gynaephora]

I was drafting a serious post and then got. THE ASK OF ALL TIME,

[plurality-is-mundane]

Just.. having conversations in cofront. We like to write down our conversations, but often we end up just Having Them spontaneously, and it's nice. It's a reminder that plurality doesn't need to be this big dramatic thing, and even if it's a huge part of our identity(&), it's just... mundane. It's our normal, and it always has been, even if we didn't always realize that.

.

[interstellarsystem]

Disorder Differences in Systemmates

Systemmates share the same brain, which often leads to the assumption that they're all affected the same by the brain itself. Its wiring, its abilities, and its disabilities. But symptom holders or those with intra-disorders are fairly common--at least in circles we run in--and they're not often talked about for fear of fakeclaiming or appearing ableist. We have headmates who are affected in all sorts of different ways by our disabilities. Some find things harder than others, while others actually find some tasks or symptoms easier to manage. It absolutely varies from headmate to headmate, which makes certain headmates better suited for fronting during certain times than others.

Merlin is more affected by our psychosis, particularly hallucinations, and xe tends to be more susceptible to paranoia. Mystery is a psychosis holder too, and has more positive symptoms like hallucinations than the rest of us, but is less affected negatively by it. It often hallucinates and falls into delusional thinking, but it's not really too bothered by it. So Mystery is a good choice for someone to front when we're having a psychotic episode. Sometimes, having Merlin cofront with Mystery makes it easier for Merlin to not be so susceptible to xyr symptoms.

I (Martin) have more obvious anxiety than the rest of us, and struggle much more in social situations. I'm much better at hyperfocusing on tasks, though. So I'm better suited for staying home and working on whatever the current project we have at the time, or keeping our to-do lists in check. Vince on the other hand is calm in most social situations that are more professional--so he's good for business meetings and such. In more casual conversation though, Vena and Merlin are much better at it and better suited to non-professional social groups.

Vince is an intra-NPD holder and also holds stronger symptoms of our BPD. He struggles immensely with percieved rejection, much more than the rest of us. But he also almost completely lacks empathy, which makes it much easier for him to be calm and logical in stressful situations. He finds it easier to help friends and those he cares about during stressful times because he's not weighed down by feeling their emotions--whereas the rest of us might break down from stress.

We talk a bit about mental disability differences in headmates more than those who differ physically. Somehow it seems more controvertial to mention that we have headmates that differ with physical symptoms while even in safe system spaces. It seems like most people (us somewhat included) mainly think of symptom holders as a mental disorder thing--a line of thinking we're trying to dispel. Headmates can have different disabilities and symptoms of all kinds, and it's not ableist or "harmful" to know that and speak about it. Headmates with different conditions to the body need to be recognised more.

Mike needed a cane in his memories and he absolutely needs our cane when he fronts more than the rest of us. He feels more at home and like himself having a cane by his side here, though, so it's good we already had one. I (Martin) need it more too--my joints are just more prone to pain. But our cane folds up nicely into our bag, so if we switch out in public, it's always with us just in case. Even if it's silly, we feel safer having a cane too--I mean, it's a metal pole. We're out as trans and clearly not your Regular Society Member, so it provides some feeling of safety to have.

Jayfeather was blind before, and since coming here he sure can see now, but he's much more light sensitive than the rest of us. The feeling of being able to see was nice at first, even if it was foreign, but sometimes he feels it's not worth the hassle. He needs to wear sunglasses when fronting because his eyes just end up hurting from even small amounts of light. Crowley is the same, except he wasn't blind in his memories--he just got used to always wearing sunglasses in his life to hide how his eyes looked, and needs them here now. They're both more prone to migraines due to this.

Merlin is more shaky on his feet than others who front often. His legs are digitigrade and in headspace he has his wings and tail to balance him there--but in the body, he doesn't have any of that. His legs are the wrong shape and he has no counterweight to his posture. Even with our cane, he's more prone to tripping than most.

Mystery was a godlike being that didn't need to eat human food, or any physical food at all. It often forgets that eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom are things the body needs to do, because it doesn't often feel the need to do them. That can be good if we're running low on food, or if we can't eat for a while such as before a medical procedure though, so it's useful in its own way. Mystery is also not used to using its hands for intricate things like tying shoelaces, as it's hands before we're longer, bigger, and mainly nonphysical. It didn't need to be intricate, so it's hard for it to do things others in here can.

There's so many more examples in our system. The thing is, there can be positives and negatives to any disorder, really--and headmates are no different with that. We don't necessarily assign headmates "roles" or "jobs" based on their symptoms or lack thereof, but for us to function better as a collective, people tend to gravitate toward doing certain things they know others can't. It's important for us to know how we differ with our disabilities, and work around them together as best we can.

Systemmates with different symptoms aren't uncommon, and they're not mocking disabled people, or lying for some benefit. I'd argue that for some systems with symptom holders or intra-disorder holders, it's increcibly important to know about how you differ and how to work together to be functional--whatever functional means for you.

[plural-culture-is]

plural culture is your parents being confused because someone’s cofronting and both of you are controlling the body and having a conversation with each other so when they shrug the body shrugs but no one’s talking outside of the headspace

.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Here’s some positivity for headmates with different dialects and accents!

It’s a common occurrence for systems to have headmates with dialects and accents that differ from that of their body. Having a different accent or dialect from that of your body is nothing to be ashamed of, and headmates with different dialects and accents deserve to be accepted and celebrated in our spaces! So here’s to every headmate with an accent or dialect that differs from their body’s!

⭐️ Shoutout to headmates who have and use different accents or dialects when they front!

🪐 Shoutout to introjects whose dialects and accents align more with their source than with their body!

☁️ Shoutout to headmates who have accents in their system’s headspace, but not when they’re fronting!

⭐️ Shoutout to headmates who have to consciously practice their accent or dialect when they front!

🪐 Shoutout to headmates with different dialects from their body, but not different accents, and vice versa!

☁️ Shoutout to headmates who love the diversity of accents and dialects within their own system!

⭐️ Shoutout to headmates who wish it was easier to adopt the dialect or accent they wish they had or feel they should have!

🪐 Shoutout to headmates who don’t like or sometimes grow frustrated with their own dialect and accent!

☁️ Shoutout to headmates who have to mask their accent and dialect when fronting for their own safety!

⭐️ Shoutout to headmates whose accents and dialects blend with those of other headmates whenever they cofront or are coconscious together!

🪐 Shoutout to headmates who don’t have a different accent or dialect from their body, but who wish they did!

☁️ Shoutout to headmates with different dialects and accents that are visible in text-based conversations!

⭐️ Shoutout to systems who have been fakeclaimed due to having headmates with different accents or dialects!

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a dialect or accent that differs from your body’s! This is actually a normal experience for many headmates in all sorts of system, regardless of origin. If you or your headmates have different accents or dialects, we want to remind you that the way you speak is beautiful, unique, and perfect just the way it is. You don’t have to try and change your natural accent in order to be cherished and accepted in this community!

The words you use in your daily life and how they sound are not a poor reflection of your character in any way, shape, or form. Headmates with different dialects and accents, please know that you are so loved, and you deserve respect and kindness as you are, no changes necessary! We’re rooting for you and hope you can have a wonderful day today. Thanks so much for reading, and take care!

[candyapplebuildaheadmate]

may we ask for a level 3 headmate based off the squishables (not squishmallows!) plague doctor plushies please ? literally just give us everything in your template please HSKSJS

thank you in advance, we saw you were looking for reqs!

~🪦🩸

Plague Doctor Squishable

Fictive - Level 3

♥ Name - Plague / Lucius / Flynn

♠ Age - Ageless / late teens

♥ Pronouns - It / They / Fluff / Fuzz / Plague / Dr / drself / Raven / ravenself / 💉 / 💉self

♠ Face claim -

♥ Species - Plush

♠ Height - Very short

♥ Fandom - None / Squishables(?)

♠ Type - Fictive

♥ orientation - Bisexual / Aroace

♠ Gender - Boyneutral / Plaguedoctorplushic

♥ Sign off - 🕸🪶 / 📺 / 🩺 / 🥀🖤

♠ typing quirk - Uses "0" instead 0f "O". Ex; The small br0wn d0g jumped 0ver the big h0le / Uses as little words as possible and gives simple matter of fact answers

♥ Pos triggers - Spooky things, comfortable situations like being in bed, seeing birds or when there's random facts involved in something (it loves to learn)

♠ Neg triggers - the body being sick, being around sick people, having health concerns or being paranoid about certain situations, when the body goes mute.

♥ Roles - Anxiety Holder (mainly health anxiety) / caretaker

♠ Likes - Documentaries, horror movies, Halloween, dark aesthetics, silence, being in silence, Tea and slight sweet coffee

♥ Dislikes - Loud people, long, dragging conversations, being on phone calls.

♠ Behavior - Usually very quiet, doesn't talk unless necessary but doesn't really mind having to talk unless it's for long. Has a constantly low social battery and can get overwhelmed in large conversations with groups of people. Likes laying around, being around other stuffies, being wrapped in blankets and sleeping in. Kind of a househusband and will clean up, shower the body, do chores, etc. it enjoys organized things and keeping rooms tidy as possible. "It brings a peace 0f mind" is how they think about it. Very much hides their "gentler" side (the part of them that likes being around plush toys) and kind of gives off a cold, slightly menacing demeanor that can be off putting.

♥ Front Behavior - Very silent in cofront, occasionally piping in to correct someone on what they're doing and keep them focused on what they should be doing (which usually just ends up on them taking front themselves to get it done). When they're in front it's usually for a specific reason, but they end up indulging in relaxation after they do what had to be done.

🍬🍎 Really hope this is good! 𖤐

[pdid-culture-is]

lengthy anon stuff ahead, sorry about that!!

i thought there must be something wrong with me or the system that i am a part of because ive been on front for so long. i never had the chance to be on a full switch, could only manage cocon or cofront with my fellow headoomfs, had gone through months of little to no communication, and began to doubt too.

then today, i found out about the pdid label and it made me so happy because im not the only one who goes through this?? i am SO glad that i found out about pdid but there are so little info that i could find. it made me think about the first time i ever accepted that i was part of a system, it DOES make sense too because it aligns with pdid and i only find out about it today? oml 😭

— windchime🎐💭 (can i be this anon? /nf)

We're glad you could find a place where you belong! It took us a while to find out about PDID too, especially because of the lack of material talking about it other than just a mention in a conversation mainly about DID or OSDD. We're happy that you found out about it :)

[fenmere]

A tour of our System's structure

Inspired by a conversation about the word "host" that developed into comparisons of system structures, we thought we'd draw up some illustrations and diagrams to help us talk about how we work!

This is, essentially, how we visualize our psyche. It's effectively unique to us, but probably bears some resemblance to how others work as well.

We have some speculation as to what visualizations correspond to what actual physical parts of our brain (and a little bit of EEG evidence to back it up), but we're not going to really talk about that much here.

Anyway, to begin with, we have our conscious headspace, which we call

The Bridge

We call it that because, stereotypically, it resembles the bridge of a starship.

Anyone who is on the Bridge is part of the Bridge Crew, and that mix can change up fluidly from second to second. It seems that we have a maximum Bridge Crew of 19 members, but that's a little fuzzy and we haven't thoroughly tested it.

We have three subsystems, the Girls on the left, the Dragons on the right, and the Id Monsters below and in the middle. The Id Monsters might not be a discrete sub system, and may instead be a small group that straddles the Dragons and the Girls (we are not positive either way, but they identify as a group). And we can divide our psyche and our body right down the middle, having one Dragon and one Girl cofronting. Any given Id Monster can replace either the Dragon or the Girl in that situation. We have managed to split three ways, with an Id Monster in the middle, but it was extra tenuous and fragile.

Anyway, at any given moment, we will have one to two Captains present, one of whom will be the primary managing captain. This switches slowly and fluidly throughout the day in sort of natural way. Usually a managing Captain will remain in place from a day to a week or so, but can usually voluntarily switch out with someone else at any time.

The Captains don't typically front, unless there is no one else on the Bridge.

Anyone else on the Bridge can front, and becomes what we call the Pilot. We also frequently just call them the Frontrunner.

The Pilot switches far more frequently than the Captain, usually depending on what task we're doing, what room we're in, who we're talking to, or emotion we're having, or any number of other variables. But also, we can usually switch voluntarily.

Everyone on the Bridge has access to the Bridge's shared working memory, which we call the Drift (after Pacific Rim). The Drift can be broken and resent by a Pilot suddenly leaving the Bridge, unfortunately.

Everyone on the Bridge contributes to working memory and to accessible long term memories. The Captain sets the tone for that, for the collective identity of the Bridge Crew, and manages who comes and goes. Most of our Captains are pretty lenient and accommodating these days, letting anyone come and goes as they please and only settling disputes.

But, OK, the Bridge is our conscious headspace, which means that it is not directly hooked up to our vessel's senses. It is essentially a big holodeck (ala Star Trek) that is run and managed by the Support Staff, who can be found just below the surface in

The Support Room

We're actually still arguing about what to call this place. Technically, it's part of Engineering? But, when we say Engineering, we usually mean a much deeper part of our psyche that's probably our lymbic system. We also have called it Control, or the Server Room.

Anyway, the Support Room has some untold number of awake system members in it, somewhere between hundreds and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. This is where our Liaisons (factive and fictive introjects) typically hang out waiting to help provide memories of the people and characters we've met and might be trying to communicate with, recognize, or think about.

It's also, we think, representative of all the centers of the neocortex that do the processing that makes the Bridge possible. Like, the visual cortex, the auditory processing centers, linguistics, etc.

And, conceptually, in the center of it is the Auditor's desk. The Auditor is the only "part" that we know of, not a fully member or person, not conscious. It simply counts things, and mostly it is busy counting headmates as they are created. It is because of the Auditor that we know how many headmates we have. And it is probably because of its preoccupation with our population that it gets counts of outworld things wrong sometimes.

The Auditor is, literally, a part of our brain that everyone has. It counts heartbeats, things we see, headmates, everything that needs counting. Everyone has a part of the brain that does this, with varying degrees of accuracy and ease of access. And we've just learned to perceive this part of our brain as the Auditor.

Which looks like this to most of us:

It never, ever leaves its desk. It can only communicate in numbers, yes, no, and silence.

Then, below all that is

Our Inworld

This is a panoramic rendering of the inside of the Sunspot, as we've designed it for our fiction. And it turns out that as we've written our fiction, our actual inworld has come to resemble it more and more.

It's a cylinder, with an area about the size of Oregon and Washington put together lining it, with a forward ice ring, an aft sea, mountains, rivers, forests, and the whole bit.

In this image, the glowing part on the sides is the sun (you're supposed to wrap the image in a sphere for viewing in VR). That would be in the conceptual direction of the Bridge.

The dark hole in the middle is the sun intake of the Aft Endcap, and where the Engine Room is located. In the fiction, it's actually located in the Network and made to look like the sun intake. In reality, it's right there, and that hole is infinitely deep and stretches into our past beyond our birth. It is a way in and out of our system.

Phage, our Chief Engineer and eldest Outsider, lives in there.

When we say "Engineering", we're usually referring to that space, which we also call The Abyss, and its proximity and connection to our lymbic system.

Anyway, there's no point in rendering an image of the Engine room, because it's pitch black.

Our inworld is the shared reality we create when we're dreaming. Sleeping system members are thought to exist here. Awake and active system members who are not participating in Support or the Bridge are vividly dreaming here, usually repeating certain experiences, memories, and visualizations over and over again, in concert with each other, slowly iterating and changing them.

There are entire cultures in our inworld that have developed independently of each other since their creation.

The Auditor reports that we have approximately 4 million people now. Most of whom are factive introjects (what we call Liaisons) of people we've seen on the street, who've since developed their own lives and personalities, filling in the massive blanks that just a face, body type, and posture from a glimpse out of the corner of our eyes leave.

People who are in our greater inworld generally are not available to provide the Bridge with memories or any kind of support, unless the vessel is dreaming. When the vessel is dreaming, Support then feeds the Bridge visuals of what's going on in our Inworld and allows us to interact with the people there. Inworld people can, however join Support or the Bridge any time they want, but usually lose all working memory of what they were just experiencing inworld when they do so.

And all of this can be put in a diagram kind of like this:

[rin-and-jade]

how do you stay in headspace when you’re not fronting? two of us are unable to stay in headspace when the others are fronting. we can feel everything though it’s slightly muted when we’re not fronting. how can we learn to stay in headspace?

First of all, every part has varying amount of awareness when fronting or not. With this information, i want to let you know if all advices fail, it does not mean you're defected, yet it is already a natural state and limitation you have (which isn't inherently bad but it'll still be annoying). So let me give you some stuffs to try:

This is a problem with being co-conscious, a term that means being aware of things outside despite not at front and can spectate. You either can..

Bring up your subtle triggers: yeah i mean there are some triggers that'll call you out and makes you be there and exist, not strong enough to initiate a switch if you know what im trying to say. So go on and give it a try if you have any and see how it went,, but if you don't have any, skip this.

Let the fronters engage a chat with you: now its true that you're already having a hard time staying and exist there already, but it got to be interrupted somehow. This one's more subtle than using triggers or interests to 'wake up' and it helps you be more aware of things since you have to actively engage in a conversation, this needs to be practiced multiple times although.

Start where you're at: if you can feel the presence of parts, or surroundings of the world, or get the gist what's happening irl. why not start there? No need to focus on 'seeing' first, but strengthen the already-existing sense you can use, it's easier to do that one thing you could atm rather than learning something new.

Train awareness from cofronting: it is not a full front, but you're also less passive compared to just being conscious, so what if you work your way from here and see if things are more clear and less muted?

Anyway, please keep me updated on the progress, via inbox or DMs is fine,, i would like to know what works and what doesn't so we can finish this problem once and for all, ight?

- j

[acemarkey]

today on ena and cater's ramblings and character analyses: david chiem's system coding!

as a system ourselves, we've managed to pick up on some of his behaviors, which are, if you look deep enough, symptoms of did and/or osdd. so we're gonna talk about that now!

the layout of what we're going to talk about: his "facade" slipping (masking), his possible memory issues, him pausing before doing stuff, his tumblr page quote, and just going over his entire reveal (since it shows a lot).

1: facade/mask slips

several times in drdt, david's facade will slip when he thinks no one's looking, or if he's stressed. the first example is in the prologue itself, during his introduction:

and then he panics and asks teruko to forget what he said right after:

thats the first instance.

there was also before the first trial, when david snaps at teruko to shut up and leave him alone before immediately correcting himself and apologizing, along with several others.

during trial 2, david rambles on about arei being tricked, spewing out derogatory adjectives, and nobody really questions it?

this can be seen as both masking (pretending to be a different alter/one person, essentially) and cofronting (when there are 2 or more alters fronting at once).

the first instance in the prologue seems more like masking, as do most of his slip-ups. the one before the first trial seems like cofronting because of how quick the correction was.

otherwise, he's good at maintaining his mask.

2: memory issues

...it's clear he has memory issues, and they're very apparent in trial 2.

we'll talk about him forgetting the conversation with are in the last section. for now, we're focusing on this:

david doesn't remember going to the relaxation room at first, and he goes along with it because if they're saying it happened, it had to have. and teruko points out his confusion.

but the topic is changed after.

before the breakdown, he said "i was wrong, i think," as if he didn't really know what he did and what he was taking accountability for.

memory issues and amnesia are a big part of systemhood, especially if you have DID. if there are any other mentions of david forgetting things, someone let us know so we can add them! because we forgot. very ironic, i know.

3: pauses

before doing a lot of things, whether it's acting or responding to someone, he pauses for a second, or ignores someone.

like, when he's asked for his alibi pre-trial 1:

of course, he could just be ignoring teruko, since xander just died. but.. he does this a lot.

he hesitated before running after arei. and. well. we'll talk about the rest at the end.

this can be seen as switching (which we'll talk about with the breakdown), or dissociation. mostly dissociation, though? i don't know how to elaborate, but he just seems more distant than one would during this. shrug.

4: quote

this isn't concrete in the slightest, but the source code quote on david's tumblr page is "i hate you, i hate you, i hate you, i wish you would just die."

we know that most people will likely say their quotes in some canon media, like min and arei have. and the quotes, i think, can be up to interpretation on who they were about. arei's doesn't count, but min's has both first and second person pronouns ("i wanted to save you.") honestly? in canon context, this can be seen as her telling teruko she was trying to save her, and her trying to save herself from execution.

david's also uses first and second person pronouns, which we don't believe any other quotes do. obviously, he hasn't said it (yet), so we don't know who it's directed at, but since most quotes are somewhat directed at the owners, it's clear it'll be somewhat about himself.

this completely diverges, but we think it could be "pre-reveal" david directed at "post-reveal" david. since... it doesn't seem like the two like each other, based on how relieved post-reveal david felt after dropping the facade (even though i don't think that's what happened), and pre-reveal david's panic over being called a manipulator.

5: chapter two, episode eleven

alright, this'll be the longest section, but it covers a lot of stuff.

first: david didn't remember the conversation with arei at first.

second: at first, he was panicking over being called a manipulator (he panicked twice! first with arei, second right before he broke down).

first instance ^ here, we don't know what happened after yet, but he was extremely quiet, like mentioned before.

second instance ^ right here, he clams up real bad, as teruko points out.

and what happens right after?

he breaks down. the way we saw it was him switching out with the post-reveal david, but it can also be seen as him giving up on masking. with the long pause, it feels like a switch, though.

and suddenly, after the breakdown, he remembers everything, from meeting arei to going to the relaxation room, and has zero problems with being called a manipulator. he doesn't pause that much anymore, and just takes it all with zero issue.

he did a complete 180. two very different personalities.

now, we hit the image limit, so it's hard to elaborate further. we'll close the post off here:

tl;dr: david is incredibly system-coded, whether it be on purpose or not. he dissociates, has moments that can be described as switches, struggles to mask sometimes, and has bad memory issues.

[normalmcguy]

i think cofronting with friends is near indistinguishable* from hanging out with friends outside of the system save for the one small fact that nobody else can tell what the fuck you're laughing at

i was at work like last week cofronting with my best friend Jonny and we had like a solid line of customers, so it was like a one after another type situation. and there was this girl with a sweater that just had the plaintext name of the citytown where we primarily live (like half an hour ish away from the theater we work at) and i said to her "oh i like your sweater! i live there :)" and shes like thank you i love it there as she's leaving and it turns out the customer directly behind her (who definitely heard the entire conversation) had the exact same sweater but instead with the name of a major major city like 3 hours away and Jonny (not aloud. obviously,) says to me "right, now say that to this guy too" and i was smile giggling like a freak through the entire interaction

* i don't actually, i just wanted a natural manner to introduce my story. about my friend

[multiplicity-positivity]

hiya! c:

do y'all have any advice/tips or resources on how to tell the difference between a kintype vs a headmate?

I struggle with this sometimes and it's kinda hard for me to differentiate between them and I get really confused, and I've started questioning if my kintypes are actually headmates and I just haven't realized it yet?

I've been hanging around plural spaces for a while now and a lot of things about plurality and the community really resonate with me, so it's been making me question a lot of things about myself lately

I've been reading up on kinforms and it really struck me like woah! this is kinda what I've been experiencing!

but I still have a hard time trying to figure out kintype vs headmate >_< and could really use some help thanks! c:

Hi! This is a tricky question, and it ultimately may just be up to you to decide whether or not these kin experiences are kintypes or other headmates!

We’re not fronting with anyone who’s kin right now (though I guess you could call me fairy kin? I don’t quite feel like the kin experience fits me as it does the rest of my system though), but we’re cofronting with our otherkin members enough so I feel confident in our ability to at least provide some advice!

I think the biggest difference between something being a kintype and another headmate is degrees of separation. Our host, Parker, is dog-kin. He feels like and is a dog! He kins dogs and the canine experience really aligns with his own. So for Parker, that dog-ness is an inherent part of himself and his identity!

Parker is not fictionkin. So when he cofronts or interacts with our fictives, say Ralsei (hiya!) or Obi-Wan, he doesn’t feel like he is these characters. Rather, he can interact with them, have conversations with them, and feels like they share a place in his mind.

This is how we determine a headmate from a kintype. For us, we as individuals don’t really interact with our kintypes - instead, they function as core aspects of our identities. In contrast, we do interact and communicate with the other alters in our system!

We know Parker used to think he was Ralsei fictionkin before learning more about the system. Since our syscovery though, he’s been able to have conversations and interact with Ralsei, and has realized that Ralsei is in fact fluffs own part, separate from him!

This is the most we can say about this from our own experience. I’m sorry if it’s not very useful, or doesn’t align with the experiences of most others with kintypes! Regardless, we’re wishing you the best in figuring this out!

🌸 Margo and 💚 Ralsei

[writing-plurals]

Hello! I've been thinking of writing fanfics about a ship making them share the same body. It's going to be drabbles/one-shots tho, since I'm not good at writing (I barely ever write XD) and I don't think I would be able to write a full story with various chapters. I'm plural myself so I have a basic idea of what I should avoid (evil killer alter trope for example)

There's some ideas I came up with and would like some advice on writing the following:

In-system romantic relationships

DID systems

Median systems

Plurals fighting together as heroes

But there's something else I wanted to ask advice on (even if it isn't exactly for writing). See, I'm a native spanish speaker so I'm gonna write the drabbles in spanish. I think it could be a good way of introducing non-disordered and non-traumagenic plurality to other spanish speakers since most of the plural content and activism in spanish is about dissociative disorders only, but because of that there's many sysmeds and anti-endos and I don't know how I should deal with them.

I don't think I can ignore them, specially because I don't want them spreading misinformation (as always) in the comments but I also don't want to flood them debating sysmeds. I thought of maybe making a carrd (with sources) and linking it but IDK if it's actually worth it to make a carrd just for this.

Hey friend! That's a lot, and I can't touch on all of them, so some of them I'll be throwing to other mods and our followers to add on in reblogs. I hope that's alright!

In-system Romantic Relationships

Internal Romantic Relationships are almost the same as ones in the Outside. You can surprise each other with flowers, and presents that's to be THEIRS. You can hold them inside *and* out (when cofronting. It'll all just look a little different.

Person A wants to surprise Person B? Gotta make sure internal walls are built up so they don't know about the flowers until they're set up and they switch in. Have them leave notes for them with the sappy shit people would normally say to their face if there were two bodies involved.

Person A and B want to cuddle while watching a movie, it looks like hugging yourself, but maybe B has control of one arm, and is stroking the face or other hand. During sad parts, A hugs B (with the body) eeeeeeextra tight!

Plurals Fighting As Heroes

The mask a singlet would wear as a hero has multiple meanings once a system puts one on. So plan on the group having a long conversation about the name they all want to use that won't tip anyone off. Think System Name but opposite direction, so as not to be found out.

And same goes for the outfit, except you can probably lead with more of what the system members like in aesthetics.

And the elephant in the room, what about powers? Do they all have seperate (more nichely specific) powers? Do they all have the same one and use it differently? If you've seen the later seasons of My Hero Academia, there's a comparison to Midoriya you might find helpful.

Just make sure that if you include powers, that the way it fits into the world doesn't show your system to be Different because they're a system.

And last but not least (for my advice before additions)

If you're planning on writing some of the first creative representation of plurality, prepare to be the people that are looked to for information.

Set up a Caard or something akin to one with information, (credited and linked to sources!!!, Caards get a bad rep for that), and you can direct people to it like a FAQ.

And by taking on this role, you have to accept the risk that sysmeds are going to try to debate you. So deeply consider if you have the time to research responses that are backed up by studies that you can shut them down with. There are several blogs I've seen share information like this that you might find helpful in bringing it to the spanish side of fandom.

@cambriancrew is a fantastic place to start, and you can find more blogs akin to them there.

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I hope that this and advice further down on this post is helpful. And I give my best wishes as you embark on this. We need more people like you making content online.

-Mod Tick Tock

(This has been edited to remove the color, thank you for the feedback!)

[plural-affirmations]

do you have any advice on communication for a questioning system with consistent communication access to only one headmate? I can talk to her and she sometimes cofronts(?) but she mostly stays in headspace. I've seen two other headmates but I've only seen one of them and have only had a brief conversation with the other and haven't seen them since.

[also btw! We love the blog and appreciate everytime you post, even if it doesn't apply to us. Ty for posting 🩵]

-🌌🐾

Telephone!

No, seriously! Have you ever heard of the game "telephone"? You communicate a phrase to someone, and they pass it along to someone else, who passes it along, who keeps passing it along... you get the idea. The fun part of the game is that, after being passed down by so many people, by you get to the end, it's a completely different phrase.

You're gonna want to avoid that with system communication, for obvious reasons. The way to work around it getting garbled, we've found, is to make the message as short and clear as possible.

So, like, for example, instead of telling Person A "hey, can you ask Person B if they can come to front so they can do our homework? I'm having a really hard time and I need help", it'd be more like: "can you ask B if they can front for our homework?".

I think for system communication, a lot of it just kinda happens naturally after getting to know your own headmates and how best to contact them. Really, it's just about reaching out to who you can access, and practicing further and further.

You can also just send a thought into The Void™ like a message in a bottle -- think about something really hard, especially if you have someone specific in mind, and it might get to them... somehow? We're not really sure about the mechanics of that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Anyways, that's just what we do! I hope it's helpful.

(P.S.: Thank you so much!! You're so kind! ❤️)

🖤💜💙💚💛