tiktok is really the worst place to be a system right now
people are fakeclaiming over things that are known did/osdd symptoms and traits, and theres so much fucking misinformation spread around.
so here's a thing
-systems can be of any size
-headspaces can be of Any Size
-alters can not get along, and even disagree politcally
-alters can be Absolutely ANYTHING and have any job within the headspace
-it doesnt always take years and years to get a diagnosis. sometimes it's a super long process, and sometimes it's really Not. it really just depends on your doctor.
-alters can sound Different from each other when fronting
-alters can be co-conscious, and switch rapidly, without distress or headaches, especially if it's just Two Alters.
-DID makes gives you Amnesia for the purpose of you not remembering your trauma, so you think you have never been through trauma
-Dissociation is very hard to pinpoint if you have dissociated all your life. it just seems normal, and so some people may think thay they don't at all.
-your brain can also convince you that the traumatizing stuff you went though, Wasn't Traumatic
-alters can have Relationships with each other. healthily.
-the estimated number of people with DID/OSDD is 1%, and that is just people with diagnoses.
-it is well known that alters can exhibit Different Physical traits. such as having different symptoms of the same sickness or other mental disorder, some alters having all the symptoms of one disorder while others don't, some having light allergies while others don't. sometimes they can need Different Eyeglass Prescriptions, and sometimes some can be deaf or HoH while others aren't. and yes this includes neurological disorders. there are other ways they can differentiate, but these are the most notable ways. trauma does Physically Change your brain, and alters use different neural pathways within the brain.
TLDR: Get your information from actual medical professionals, papers, books, and studies, instead of the internet. And for the love of fuck, you Can Not diagnose or undiagnose someone based on what they tell you ON THE INTERNET. Not only are you not a doctor, you are only viewing a very small window of how that person actually is. All you're doing is enforcing your own identity through Bullying and Gatekeeping someone else.
So... Ratigan falls into a canal after the whole ben thing and gets swept away. he survives, but barely. a kind wild pack of rats helps him heal and learn to survive. after over ten months of being wild and not binding his legs to appear more mouselike, (like Chinese feet binding) his body reverts to it's more natural state. by the time he's well enough to leave the pack, he already has a life and good genuine friends out there. he stays wild.
(almost a year after ben)
Basil gets into some trouble on a case, and gets thrown into the canal after being brutally beaten. He would have washed out to sea had an exceptionally strong swimmer, clearly no mouse, pulls him from the water.
both shocked into silence, they both have so many questions. so many unsettled scores... but a broken leg and hypothermia are a terrible mix and would kill the mouse in hours.
(this one is an accurate size comparison of rats V. mice) Basil is able to think and talk given that the shock hasn't worn off yet. The former professor has to get Basil to his hidden medical pack (you never go anywhere in the woods without one.)
once in extreme agony, the detective forgets all about Ratgian.
and of course Basil gets absolutely wasted on pain meds. they'll have to wait until it wears off to talk.