plurality beam

Alternatively; Stereotypical Headmates that're fun to have around? Working title I suppose. A fun little addgenic guide to give YOU ideas for headmates ta form based on ones you see all over the place/ones that'll make fakeclaimers the angriest if yer a spite-motivated sonuvabitch like us! We have pretty much all of these kinds'a alters so there's no judgement, hate, or makin fun here. These are all said with love and experience and silliness :)

This one has an ACCENT (Token Texan, Token British, etc)

The DSMP Alter (TommyInnit, Dream, Techno, and Schlatt are most common to see)

The Homestuck Alter (Especially Dave Striders, Karkat Vantases, etc)

The "scary one" who's actually not that bad. (A persecutor, protector, etc, that appears scary or "evil" but is pretty chill in actuality)

General MCYT Mention (Grians, Avery/D3rlord3s, etc)

The cutesy pastel syskid who talks in an itty bitty voice and isn't very self-sufficient

The My Little Pony Alter (Especially Pinkie Pies, they seem the most plentiful! Cuz who doesn't love a little joy?!)

Roblox. Literally ANYTHING Roblox. Forsaken, Dandy's World, Phighting, Hackers, Myths, anything, even just a little noob guy! Robloxians are great company :)

The Plush Alter (Famous Plushies, or your own plushies!)

The Alter From a game/show/media/etc you've NEVER touched or hardly engaged with(Can cross with any of these!)

The OC Alter (ESPECIALLY if they're a favourite OC of yours that you talk about all the time)

Feel free to add your own in reblogs or replies!

I realized that I'm a good couple of these (Southern Accented Roblox OC) and that's funny. Make a multifictive who's all of these now /j

so

that's a fun suggestion

Because the thing is, for a lot of endogenics, including ourselves, it's not dividing. It's adding.

(We have literally one split. We Willows pulled a fragment out of Crystal that held her self directed anger, out of desperation in a severe, dangerous depression episode and yes we consider that episode that triggered this to be trauma. Over a period of about a decade that fragment healed and reintegrated into Crystal. Yay Angel we're proud of your growth and healing.)

But like. When we were 15 and accidentally made/found Jas, we originals didn't lose anything. When Jas made Varyn, nothing was pulled from herself to create him. When we Willows intentionally made Daj and Ameda Grace, there was nothing taken from us that then became those two.

There's also no dissociative barriers between us, aside from the minimal recognition of "that's not me, that's you".

Our brain isn't dividing us up. It's creating new neural patterns that have different strengths and skills, different traits and values, that belong to each one of us. Each of us is as enduring and complex as any of the others. We're each a whole person.

And we're not here for particular reasons that would suggest it's trauma. Our brain isn't doing this to protect us from anything. It's just how our brain functions: as multiple people.

We've literally been plural since age 4 - we remember it going back that far. We don't know how to be any different. The idea of being singular is actually scary. We would lose so much inner diversity and strength, so much of our ability to have some of us rest and recharge while our external responsibilities get taken care of by another of us. We can't be one person who IS All The Things because so many of us are so diametrically opposed, particularly us Willows.

"wow! that was a great experience!"

"YOU WEREN'T EVEN THERE"

I am not a "personality" or "alter". I use "headmate" in much the same way I use "roommate".

I am attached to these guys by body, headspace, and nothing else.

We are not the same mind. We are not the same person. We live together and so we have to get along.

I am a Cassie and I speak for Cassie. Not Poliwhirl.

"Poliwhirl" is our team name (which we rarely use outside of usernames and contacts). You do not talk to Poliwhirl. You talk to a member of the Poliwhirl System.

❤are you medically recognised/diagnosed? if not, do you plan to? (no judgement either way!)

🧡if you are comfortable sharing, what is your headcount? do you keep track of it?

💛do you switch frequently or do you go longer periods between switching?

💚does your system have introjects of any kind?

💙do you have any subsystems?

💜who are your frequent fronters?

🤎do you have any non-human alters? if yes, which species are they?

🖤do you make/buy gifts to other alters in the system?

🤍does the taste in music vary a lot between different alters?

🔴does your system have any type of in system relationships? (familial, romantic, platonic etc.)

🟠how much amnesia do you experience?

🟡do you experience black out amnesia?

🟢what does switching feel like for you? does it vary between alters?

🔵do you experience quick switches or does it take longer to switch usually?

🟣do you get frontstuck often? what do you do to try to get 'un-stuck'?

🟤do you ever not notice you've switched, and suddenly realise that 'you haven't been you' for a while?

⚫can you switch 'on command" or is that something that is hard for your system? does it depend on the alter?

⚪do you have a headspace? if yes, describe it! if no, do you want one?

🟥how easily accessed is your headspace? (If you have one)

🟧is there a place in your headspace where dormant alters go?

🟨do alters have their own rooms/areas in your headspace?

🟩is your headspace big, or smaller? is it complex/less complex?

🟦do you have specific alters that cannot access headspace at all?

🟪did you have to build your headspace over time, or was it just there?

🟫how did you pick your system name?

⬛how does your system handle in system disagreements in general?

⬜is there anyone specific in your system you don't get along with?

❤️‍🔥are you 'out' as a system to anyone? (online friends/partners etc. count!)

❤️‍🩹how good is your communication with the rest of the system? does it vary much between different alters?

I was wondering if you would be okay describing what it feels like when someone else fronts? That’s something I’m trying figure out for myself and maybe hearing other people’s experiences would help ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(Also all the comics are amazing keep up the good work 👍)

Ampersand is an up-and-coming app made for plurals, similar to Simply Plural and Octocon except entirely offline. While downloadable and usable, it's still in alpha. I discovered it a few days ago and instantly fell in love with its dashboard and customization options.

My and my alters profiles on Ampersand. Note the ability to have backgrounds on your profiles, and the space to note role (or whatever else you fancy putting there - we used it for role and emoji designation)

How does it compare functionally, though, to something like Simply Plural? I'll use SP as the main point of comparison here since it's what we're used to using and have the most experience in, and I feel like a lot of plurals that use organizational apps like these are using SP.

Similarities:

Front logging. SP displays it on a scrollable timeline with the ability to see fronters side-by-side, where AMP uses a calendar that you can leaf through to see all who fronted that day in order.

Alter profiles. Both apps use markdown, are able to display images, have custom fields, alter colors, profile pictures, pronouns, etc. Simply Plural lacks Ampersand's ability to display gifs in avatars however. Ampersand's alter profile colors also effect link colors within descriptions and custom fields, and will tint the profile to match the color.

Custom fields. Similar across apps, but AMP only has text fields so far, where SP has options for dates and colors.

Message boards(?). I've not used the feature in any meaningful capacity in SP, but AMP has a dashboard that displays message board messages, and I've been enjoying using that.

Overall system profile. Very similar to SP, AMP has an overall system profile page to display your information - member count, profile photo, description, and name. Unlike SP, since AMP is fully offline, you can make your name anything and not have to worry about if a username is taken.

Custom fronts. As far as I can tell, they work the same way across apps, but I haven't experimented a ton with AMP's version of them.

Front status. Similar across apps, just type in your status.

Archiving alters. The same across apps.

Alter search. Better in SP, I've not quite figured out how to search for alters by things like tag or role - or if that's possible.

Now for the differences...

Simply Plural:

Has folders. This I feel is sorely lacking in Ampersand, as we're polyfragmented and like most of our alters tucked neatly away out of view so we don't get overwhelmed.

In-app chatroom. Another lacking feature for AMP that's super handy to have, though we don't use it much, when we need it it's a lifesaver.

Friends system. Since AMP is offline, there's no way to share your information with others or to see others information or fronters - which some might like!

App reminders and notifications. Handy. We have a permanent notification pinned to our phone to show us who's logged as fronting at any time.

Some examples and screenshots of SP:

Ampersand:

More profile customization options. Backgrounds, gif display, personalized profile/link colors, and another row of display information (the "role" section).

A journal. We haven't tested it and don't plan to use it since we have an analog journal, but it seems to display on a calendar you leaf through like you do with front and message board history.

Passive influence logging and "main fronters". When logging a front, you can set an alter to be the "main fronter", which will change the "hello" header text to their name. You can set other alters to "influence" the main or other fronters, which will change the outline color and set their status to "influencing xyz"

Has tags. When importing your information from SP (which you can do btw - as well as with PK and Tupper!), your folders will be converted to tags. They display underneath your role on your profile, and you can set them to display in list view as well.

Examples and screenshots of AMP:

It's more like, hey! You are this character but also you're a real person capable of change and capable of adapting and reacting to the world around you, which means that in a lot of cases the situation is going to change you as a person. Sure, the past is there but if the old reason for your existence or goal or antagonist is just gone now, what the fuck. How do you pick up the pieces from that. You are indelibly changed as a person because you now have to reorganize your entire life around a new and unfamiliar reality. And sometimes people react in weird ways and people change a lot, especially when you give them lots and lots of time to adapt to said new reality.

“People with DA’s dni”

“People with DA’s are against the rules”

“If you have a DA, leave”

SHUT UP SHUT THE FUCK UP

I cant control my fucking delusions!! I cant just decide to stop being fucking delusional???? most my delusions are non persecutory btw!! And i can live just fine believing them and would actually prefer to keep it this way!! I only need and want help for the delusions that are inherently harmful!!

istfg “we arent gonna enable delusions” congratu fucking lations!! Fun fact, it can actually be ableist to be on either extreme of always enabling all delusions or never allowing anything but reality checking and forced “help”! My DA’s dont affect me negatively and im in fact happier this way, i am happier as this character

“oh but hows it a delusion if you know its one?” Cus im self aware!! Im able to, most the time, tell when an experience of mine is atypical and work from there!! I might be able to slap the label “delusion” over it and just be detached from that fact while i still truly believe in it but if someone else told me its just a delusion or im not actually that character, that would be distressing

people will say “not ANOTHER cat ‘therian’ ugh way overdone🙄”

and then be like “you can’t be a unicorn!! You’re just looking for attention! Besides unicorn aren’t real dummy😡”