#pluralpunk

[xxlovelynovaxx]

We've always been a kaleidoscope,

shifting colors turning,

stained glass yet ephemeral,

in morning sunlight burning -

call for the "original",

for a self certain you are yearning,

but we are all we ever were,

a multitude undiscerning;

a shapeshifter's "true form",

is one of overturning,

of shifting; questioning, impermanence;

of leaving and returning -

So cast aside those ropes and chains,

to know is to keep learning,

stop mistaking your own distress

for this existence being "concerning",

We are a rainbow after the storm;

and yet we are the storm churning -

beauty in a moment, blink, and then gone -

caught in the secerning...

What we are is to change.

Isn't that, of love, deserving?

[moonpool-system]

Cringe culture is unfortunately not dead but we can kill it in major spaces if we all keep being ourselves authentically and unapologetically. What they call "cringe" is actually pretty punk. It's defiance. Keep being yourselves, you're ALLOWED to exist as you are.

[the-save-star-anomaly]

you've heard "royal we", get ready for "plural me"

[manyminded]

ily plurals ily neopronouns users ily plural neopronouns users, either by specific headmate or collectively

[systemserendipity]

[disabledunitypunk]

Hey, this is a reminder that if you make your own disabilities into an aesthetic thing, or romanticize or even sexualize them, that doesn't make you ableist or evil.

We do what we have to do, to get through the hard parts. It's okay to find your sick self sexy, or see your pain through rose colored glasses, or make your struggling into a freaking moodboard. It really doesn't matter. You're not being appropriative or ableist.

Like yeah obviously, you should still handle with care, but handling with care doesn't mean sanitizing your entire way of interacting with your disabilities to only the toothless, sandpapered smooth stuff.

I've seen too many abled people, and people without the specific disability or symptoms being depicted, complaining that stuff like this is somehow offensive to the people with the disability or symptoms, often when I'm in that group myself, and just been like, "NO, it's NOT".

Even when a disability is entirely struggling or pain, the people with it are allowed to make enjoyment out of it. We're allowed to have fun with it.

This goes for everything from decorating mobility aids to, like mentioned, straight up moodboards.

You're allowed to interact with your disability in the ways that help YOU. You are harming NO ONE by doing these things. If abled people take away the wrong conclusion from it, that's THEIR fault, and blaming disabled people for it is ABLEISM. We do not have to spend every second of our lives being perfect model educators - we can just exist as disabled people.

[protectingtulpas]

#Tulpa life

One of the biggest things that stands out to me about the tulpamancy community on Tumblr is how alienated everyone seems to feel. You've got some advice blogs, some discourse blogs, but that's about it- which is wild to me, cuz tulpamancy is all about community and learning from each other! Even more than that tho, there's something important about seeing other tulpas & created systems doing what we want, making our own choices, LIVING our lives. It's a reminder that we're real people too- it's important and validating for others like us, and it's great for non-tulpas to see that we're just as much real and people as they are. The best part of tulpamancy is that we get to enjoy our own existence, decide for ourselves what we want, and live as US!! I wanna bring that energy to Tumblr.

That's why I'm starting a tag I want any other tulpas (and their hosts too, but don't forget this tag is about our autonomy) to join in on;

✨✨ #tulpa life ✨✨

the new tag for expressing yourself, living your life, and sharing your existence with the world!! What kinda unique experiences do you have as a tulpa? What hobbies and skills have you learned, what friends have you made?? Share your favorite memories, the gift you got for yourself, the food you cooked, anything that pertains to YOU and your existing as a separate real being. Not only for sharing yourself, but for connecting with others too! Imagine how great it'll feel to scroll through a tag full of other tulpas' experiences. I wanna make that a reality!! So help me out by posting things about yourself and your life as a tulpa under the tag #tulpa life, and let's see how many people we can reach by just being ourselves!!!

[impunkster-syndrome]

The commodification and "aesthetic-ifying" of political movements and subcultures has given us people who try to hijack those cultures for their beliefs since it is harder to keep out people who break the rules since people think it is "gatekeeping an aesthetic" and not enforcing the rules of a culture and space.

[astarions-musings]

This story is about survivors, who’ve seen the worst that life has to offer and said “Fuck you, I’m gonna be happy regardless.”

This one’s for the people who clawed their way up from rock bottom, with bleeding hands and bleeding hearts, supported by headmates who know exactly what you’ve been through and how to support you in ways you never realised they could. 

It’s about the hope the world couldn’t tear from your heart, the life they couldn’t squeeze from your lungs, the fire in your eyes that they thought they’d put out, but yet it still fucking burns.

This one’s about the future, for people who never thought they’d get one.

It’s about what happens after the happy endings, when you’ve fought off the monsters and made friends with your demons (they make damn good headmates), and yet the story goes on. It’s about the nights you spend stitching together a new sense of self, about patching the holes in the person you once new, about moving into a whole new self like a hermit crab who outgrew its old shell, admiring the claws and the fangs and the dashing good looks of the new form.

It’s about sitting down in a bed under the warm blankets, surrounded by the creature comforts that your system’s collected, and approaching your trauma like you’d approach a stray dog. Moving softly and gently, with some comforting treats to help it feel safe, letting it approach you at the pace it feels safe at. Feeling your heart break into pieces at how awfully this animal has been treated, feeling the cold rage in your soul at the bastards who abused this animal so cruelly, but also the hope and the joy at the life this creature still has ahead of it.

It’s about looking the pain in the eye and going “Fuck you, I’m gonna be happy regardless, and I don’t care how much work it’s gonna take.”

It’s about people like us. It’s about people like you.

And you’re not alone.

So welcome to the story. Let’s write a new chapter.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Here’s some positivity for systems who are punk or pluralpunk!

Punks of any movement play key roles the movements they are a part of. Plural punks and those who are pluralpunk are not only important members of the plural community, but they helped make it into what it is today! Here’s to all the pluralpunks out there, and the punks who are plural!

🖤 Shoutout to systems who are part of the pluralpunk subculture!

🩼 Shoutout to systems who are a part of madpunk, cripplepunk, crustpunk, solarpunk, straight edge, anarcho-punk, or other punk subcultures!

🤘 Shoutout to systems who push against oligarchy, monarchy, colonialism, imperialism, and authoritarianism, who are involved in leftist politics in their cities, and who fight back against unfair establishments!

🌿 Shoutout to systems who are poor or live in poverty while still finding ways to live punk lifestyles!

☀️ Shoutout to systems who take part in mutual aid and give back to their communities!

🪡 Shoutout to systems who sew, cross-stitch, repair furniture and appliances, and know other skills to help prolong longevity of every day items!

🎵 Shoutout to systems who are inspired by alternative and punk fashion and music!

♿️ Shoutout to disabled systems and those with chronic pain whose disabilities prevent them from learning DIY skills! We promise you’re just as punk even if you can’t practice DIY!

📖 Shoutout to systems who create flyers and zines, table at events, and help spread the word of the punk movement in their spaces!

🎨 Shoutout to systems who are punk artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and other creatives!

🌟 Shoutout to systems who are Black, Indigenous, or Asian punks, and to all punks who are people of color! Y’all are the pillars and cornerstones of these movements - have always been and always will be!

🌈 Shoutout to individual headmates who are punks in systems who aren’t! Your punk identity is not invalidated in the slightest by not sharing punk culture with your system!

📢 Shoutout to systems who stand up against and readily call out transphobia, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, and other forms of bigotry in their spaces!

Remember punk is a culture, a mindset, and a way of life! There’s no one right way to be punk - punk is by nature refusing conformity and living life on your own terms outside societal standards! So please embrace your identities as plural and punk, and feel free to express yourself and be yourself in punk spaces!

We’re wishing the very best for you and your system in all that you do! Remember to stay safe and anonymous when engaging in direct action, keep yourself hydrated at punk shows and events, and give yourself plenty of breaks when crafting if you need them! It’s punk to take care of ourselves in a world that’s actively working against us! Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

(Image ID:) A pale orange userbox with a cluster of multicolored flowers for the userbox image. The border and text are both dark orange, and the text reads “all plurals can interact with this post!” (End ID.)

[sanguinebutch]

if you’ve ever used r/fakedisordercringe, you owe every single disabled person £100 right now. this also goes for all the system cringe/“faker” subs as well.

[xxlovelynovaxx]

Remaking this post to be safe for all systems (because quite frankly gatekeeping positivity love and support just shows your true colors

to fictives who:

- absolutely despise their source, due to trauma or otherwise

- whos source is an active trigger for them

- who have separated from source due to issues surrounding source

- who cant see source the same ever again due to traumatic incidents

- who actively avoid fans of their source

- who enjoy their source but actively avoid the community

- who just generally dont like source

I love you. I understand. It's so hard but you'll get through it. Even if it's difficult.

I promise.

[moonpool-system]

Plurality in Slay the Princess: Part 1

[pt: Plurality in Slay the Princess: Part 1]

Imagine you're standing facing the unknown, and then a little internal voice begins narrating everything you see.

[The Narrator] "You're on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path, is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin, is a princess. You're here to slay her; if you don't, it will be the end of the world."

He seems pretty biased.

One of the best indie games to come out in 2023 was Slay the Princess, an indie horror/romance visual novel featuring your player character and the being he's meant to slay, known simply as The Princess. However, you're not alone, in more ways than one- both your player character and the Princess display clear aspects of plurality - aka, multiple identities residing within/utilizing a singular physical body. This can take many forms in real life, from disordered to non-disordered variants, and a good few of them are prominently recognized in this visceral narrative experience.

After the read-more will be some spoilers from the various choices you can make throughout the early game- so while this is part 1, there will be no endgame spoilers yet! It'll start off with Chapter 1 and go deeper from there. If you're intending on playing the game, we HIGHLY recommend you play only after reading Chapter 1 information, or only after this part 1 at most! It's best experienced blind as possible, and trigger warnings are present upon opening the game. This analysis took a while to write, so please consider reblogging if you enjoy!

...

Right from the beginning, the plural undertones of the story are clearly apparent. Once the Narrator stops speaking, you as the one controlling the body are able to communicate by asking various questions directly to the Narrator to press upon, enthuse over, or counter his point. The Narrator is speaking to you mentally, but is not you.

If you continue on the path to the cabin, you're presented with someone else speaking to you internally, titled as "The Voice of the Hero". The Narrator quickly responds with "Ignore him. He doesn't know what he's talking about." This situation tells us a lot of interesting things! First off, the Hero defers to the pronoun "we" - as he's clearly responding to the Narrator's direction, the other individual in this situation must be the controller of the body. The Narrator reinforces this concept by talking directly to you, telling you to ignore the Hero. So right off the bat, there are three people in this body- the Host, whom is being controlled by the player, the Narrator, and the Voice of the Hero. They stay with you throughout (most of) the entire game, so even without much happening, the main character is very blatantly plural. The only thing we can tell about them so far is that they're a polyconscious system, wherein each member displays their own individual consciousnesses rather than sharing one, and can all perceive the world using separate streams of thought.

Let's say you head to the cabin, speak to the Princess, and don't even bother taking the pristine blade meant to slay her, as you're intent on saving her. You speak to her with options using "quotation marks" to indicate vocal speech rather than how you've been thinking to the other members of your system, and you free her from her bindings. Just as you're walking up the stairs, the Narrator decides to try and impose his decision instead, and save the world by using the arm of the body to raise the blade to her. Being in control of the body as a plural/system is called fronting, and oftentimes in intense circumstances, one member can "take" the front from another. This is what we see in the desperate Narrator, and the fact that the Hero expresses his frustration at the Narrator's actions at the same time indicates once again that the members of this system are polyconscious.

You resist the Narrator and warn the Princess, and she also notices and addresses the sudden shift in motivation. She then takes the blade, and uses it haplessly against you in self defense. Such is this end of Chapter 1; everything goes dark, and you die.

!!! CHAPTER 2+ SPOILERS BEGIN HERE !!!

[pt: !!! Chapter 2+ spoilers begin here !!!]

Chapter 2 is titled "The Damsel". When everything loads, you're back where you were before- the Narrator doesn't seem to remember you or what happened, but you and the Hero clearly do.

Not only that, but another character has joined the mix since your supposed death- The Voice of the Smitten loudly proclaims his love for the Princess and hatred for the Narrator. Plus, he says something unique- he mentioned "the four of us" foiling the Narrator's "assassination attempts". This four includes the Princess, the Smitten, the Hero, and the Host/player, establishing how everyone here perceives the others as separate entities. Plus, now that naming consistency with the others established, the Narrator, not labeled as a "voice", starts to stand out as something... Different, from the rest of you all.

But it's not just you that's changed; everything within the cabin looks different, and it's not only that.

The Princess has metamorphosized; the Damsel wears a new dress and crown, has a much more gentle and delicate disposition, and her voice sounds significantly higher pitched and kinder. Not only that, but her bone structure is physically thinner, as is addressed later in the route. She has inarguably become different in not only personality but appearance too. Additionally, while she recognizes you and your earlier confrontation, she uses the pronoun "I" to refer to both herself as the Damsel and herself as the Princess before. This is indicative of monoconscious systems, where members share an individual consciousness/train of thought and switching involves the feeling of one member "becoming" another in a smooth transition, and median systems, where members often feel like facets of an overarching identity rather than completely separate entities. We see more evidence to medianhood after the two of you escape, and the Damsel seems to be taken away by... Something. You find yourself presented with the Entity holding her gingerly.

"Something finds me in the Long Quiet and brings me the gift of a fragile vessel."

She cradles her and describes the vessels as "nerves and fibers to feel the worlds beyond. Perspectives to make my own", and the Damsel as "soft and delicate. You molded her to love you, and she'll make for a gentle heart." She words it as if they are the same, and yet different at the same time. You ask if she is the Princess, and she says this;

upon pressuring, she states that you're speaking in circles. "Does it matter where one thing begins and another ends?" This once again supports the fluid concept of median plurality. She is different, and yet she is the same. It's hard to tell the lines between one and the other, even though they both still distinctly exist. She asks you to "bring [her] more perspectives so [she] may be whole", wishing for the facets of herself to be returned to her via completing different routes of the game. Interestingly enough, it seems the Entity displays polyconsciousness during these segments, unlike the in-loop Princesses. In another route she mentions the Princess having a will pushing against her own, and at the end of your conversation she mentions one last thing;

You're flung back to the beginning, with only the Hero and the Narrator at your side, and not a single memory ingame of what happened. You can't re-access old routes, so you have to choose to do something different the next time, to bring different parts of herself home to her.

There are many different routes you can end up on, and the Princess will change in many different ways depending on your decisions. Let's go over some interesting notes on how the two's plurality presents over the course of the time loops.

- The Princess seems to be completely monoconscious when within the loops, sometimes acknowledging herself as different but never referring to her other facets as a separate perspective ("I/me", never "she" like the Entity refers to her vessels.) This rule is only broken by the Stranger route whom, where due to the world literally fracturing, had multiple perspectives shoved into a single one, and she refers to herselves as "we".

- The origin of new facets of the Princess seems to correlate directly with the reset of the world they're in, and we never see her looping forms change otherwise, meaning we can likely assume this to be their origin. While time loops aren't recorded to have happened in this universe, we can safely attribute some sort of metagenic origin to the Princess's median facets. The only other time we see her "change" other than after a reset is her disposition & voice upon the first time meeting her, depending on whether or not we take the pristine blade. This displays that the player character's actions directly affect the Princess's facets as well, however delving into that would get into endgame spoilers, so it'll be touched on in part 2.

- Due to the lack of evident amnesia, distress, or disorder expressed to be caused by her plurality (aside from the Stranger) it's safe to assume the Princess falls under the category of systems/plurals without a dissociative disorder such as DID, P-DID, OSDD1, and UDD.

- On the flipside, the Player's system shows quite a lot of distress and disorder, from the Broken and the Smitten attempting to kill the body to the Cold eager to harm it, as well as many different system members with specific jobs meant to help counteract or ease the negative circumstances of the previous loop. Additionally, during the Moment of Clarity chapter, the Host explicitly experiences amnesia of traumatic memories the other members remember everyone experiencing, displaying dissociative amnesia. It's likely this system falls under the category of plurals with a dissociative disorder such as DID, P-DID, OSDD1, and UDD.

- Many speculate the members of the Player character's system to be your past lives or iterations of you after your death, since for the most part, a new one appears every time the body dies. This would be known as a fenigenic/phoenigenic origin. However, there are a couple instances where this theory falls apart- for example, in the No Way Out route, the Player, Hero, Narrator, and Cheated are joined by both the Voice of the Contrarian and the Voice of the Broken at the same time; right after, the Hero states that this is your third time, meaning if the past life theory is true, there should be only two new members, not three. (The line between alive and dead gets fuzzy later in the route, but this one is cut and dry.) Instead, I propose the Player's system to be an adaptive system, ending up with new members whenever they must adapt their mindset drastically to the situation. The new members often tend to be a reflection of the body's actions during the last loop, which supports this concept as well.

- Routes such as No Way Out and The Adversary complicate these assessments. In No Way Out, every time you die you try something different, which results in a new system member every time. In The Adversary, you fight over and over again with the same determination, and The Stubborn remains as the only new member from the beginning the entire time. However, in both of these routes, the Princess stops changing form at all. Evidence once again shows itself that the Player Character's perception not only affects what the Princess will be, but what the results of his own changes will be as well.

- Another differentiation between you, the "voices", and the Narrator, aside from his lack of memory between loops and insistence that he's not the same person as other versions of him, is how they both treat and experience the Mirror. The Narrator is notably distinct in that he cannot see it during regular gameplay, and that once the world is replaced with it at the end of a route, he's no longer existent to perceive it. The ones labeled "voices" are able to see it and fear it instinctively- while they're different from the Narrator, even they disappear when you look in the mirror and speak to the Entity. Hypothetically, this could mean that you are to the Voices' perspectives as the Entity is to the Princess's. The Entity mentions that nothing but you and her come to the space where you speak.

- Upon meeting the Entity after the third time you bring her a vessel, she greets you with this line; "I am a growing chorus of contradiction. A mass of tides ebbing and flowing all at once in more directions than my attention can bear to hold. To look at any one is to shift them all into something new, and to look away is to reshape them yet again. All of me is changing, and yet the rest is still the same." This is an interesting perspective into her relationship with the vessels and how her overarching identity is affected by her medianhood.

- A case that deserves special mentioning is the route of the Spectre, after killing the Princess without hesitation in chapter 1 and then proceeding to kill yourself after. In Chapter 2, you're then presented with the option to let the Spectre possess you temporarily, giving her not only access to your body, but to your mind. For a brief while, she can hear and interact with all the others currently present with you- at the time, the Narrator, the Voice of the Hero, and the Voice of the Cold. Once she's within you, the Narrator can't even get out a full sentence before she comments, "So this is what it's like to be you, huh? Disembodied voice narrating your every move?" She addresses the Voices differently than the Narrator; "All these shards of broken glass on the floor... Are they also supposed to be you?" The Hero takes initial offense at this, saying that "I'm me, is what I am." The conversation continues to the Hero questioning the Narrator's existence, to which he responds, "You don't need to know what I am. You just need to know that I'm different than you. More important."

To this, the Princess answers, "So you're the one that pulled the strings and made me dead. I can tell you don't belong here. You're barely even there. Like the shape of something left behind. You're more of a... Memory, than a person." And then, "You're kind of like me, actually." What does she mean by that? Is he like a ghost? Something else? It'll be addressed in part 2, but clearly he's different from the rest.

- One of the most affirming dialogue options you can have with the Entity is after the fourth time you bring a Vessel to her, where you both speak about how your systems operate. You can ask her, "When you send me back, I'm not alone. There are voices that speak to me. Some of them are me, but one of them is something else. I call him The Narrator, and he wants me to kill you. Do you have a Narrator? Have the Vessels had one?" This is yet another hint that the Narrator is fundamentally different than the rest of the Player's system, making it clear that together they make up a mixed origin system. In response to your question, the Entity responds with this:

From this we get a few things. For one, the Princesses are referred to in the plural sense ("their minds"), enforcing the separation between them. However, she goes on to describe them existing and constantly metamorphosising into something new, basically confirming the concept of monoconsciousness within the Princesses themselves.

....

From all this, we've drawn a lot of conclusions about the plurality of the Player character and the Princess/Entity from Slay the Princess! Such depth of plural experiences is extremely rare in any media, and this one exemplifies it very well, balancing both personhood and parts-based conceptualizations in its depiction. In part 2 we'll go over how the endgame and its philosophy applies to these concepts, as well as the revelations about the characters involved. It's wonderful to have such vibrant and unique plural representation in a video game; thank you for reading this disambiguation!

[the-save-star-anomaly]

I think dividing system spaces by trauma/endo is a bit shit, and thats why I like the emmengards rings of system origins better

[manyminded]

I think origin-discourse is stupid.

I’ve known I was plural for 4 years now. In the “real world” (If there is such a thing) I am afraid. I never speak about it outside closed doors. I have never met another system irl. I long, desperately, clawing at the floor with wet eyes begging the gods that someone like me is out there.

This is a large terror. All encompassing. Plurality is my whole life, yet it’s impossible to talk about it in the world. It’s not safe. Never was.

So - what. What? What if the first system I meet is anti-endo? What if we have different opinions on this discourse?

Do you understand how small this is? It’s such a small trait in the grand scheme of things. I do not care if you’re pro- or anti-endo. I care that you’re alive and here. No one cares about your origin! No one gives a shit! You’re stuck in an echo chamber! Stop hating others to feel safety!

WE ARE NOT OPPRESSED BECAUSE OF HOW WE FORMED. WE ARE OPPRESSED BECAUSE WE ARE DIFFERENT, PERIOD.

[systemserendipity]

This got sent in a plural server we're in and skjfkehdhdjwd

Can't stop laughing lmao

-Jude🐘he/they/kit, Collie🔒any pronouns