As Inside, So Outside - And Vice Versa

How we tag stuff:

we usually don't tag reblogs at all

we have specific tags for each series of posts that we publish here

#plural pov - for the Plural POV series

#faq in-system - for the Frequently Asked In-System Questions series

#plural shenanigans - for asks describing yalls system shenanigans

and there are more incoming!

General system introduction:

We're a mixed origins system - we were a median system from birth and then developed into a more complex system due to trauma. Although we don't discuss it often, we do have a bunch of factives, fictives and/or otherkin members of the system. Our collective pronouns are they/them or xe/xyr/xem. Folks writing this blog do not know our exact headcount, but we know it's around 50 folk here.

Why the name Graveyard System?

It's because our inner world started off as a literal graveyard, set in endless green fields. It was very impractical to work with as a metaphor and was getting quite small for a system that big, so throughout a few months we worked on changing it. Now the graveyard has been raised from the ground and is floating above our Dreamland, with 7 satellite islands floating around it, connected by bridges, but most headmate's private rooms still have the outward appearance of their graves.

A Tour Of The Graveyard - some members' personal intros

From the Hiacinthe Team (frequent fronters):

Liwia - spiritually, she's 70, physically she's 30. The mom and the grandma of the group, often takes responsibility for system kiddos. Her dream is for the body to become an elementary school teacher when we can afford working such a low-paying job. Her first role in the system was however quite the opposite of what she's doing today: her empathy made her a skilled liar and a manipulator, so in the past it was her job to lie to and comfort our past abusers. Now she uses that same empathy and understanding of another's perspective to reparent any kids she encounters in the system.

Lena - at first she was our only anger holder, but after others stopped suppressing her presence and she taught others how to feel anger, she had the space to grow into a well-rounded protector. She's very into astrophysics, and nowadays she mostly shows her anger holder side while fury-cooking a homemade meal for our friends whenever they forget to eat themselves and make the mistake of mentioning it to her.

Andrew - a workaholic with the best fashion sense out of all system members. He's a guy, and he's the only one out of frequent fronters who likes pink, bold colourful make-up, glitter, and neon-coloured clothes. He says his role in the system is that of the gay uncle, but Liwia would better describe him as the father of the group.

Florka - a nonbinary gal that spends their time analysing everything happening in our lives, filling countless journals with data and making sure that other members actually deal with their issues instead of ignoring them. Has a very dry sense of humour.

Others:

Askja - a practicing witch who doesn't give a single flying fuck about what anyone else thinks about her. A protector that makes the body's anxious reactions go away.

Olek - a vaguely humanoid creature of the void, a previous trauma holder. Currently busies themself by tending to the gardens in our inner world. Enjoys retro-style platformer video games.

Let me start be going through an example. Let's say that we're discussing a pretty newly-discovered traumagenic system. The term seems to suit them perfectly - there's a high chance that whatever trauma caused them to develop in the first place is still ongoing, and therefore every development inside their system will be tied to trauma in some way, because pretty much their entire life is. That situation is simple enough. But what happens when that system manages to escape the traumatic circumstances that have formed them? What happens when, after months or years of healing, most of their traumaholders either went dormant or processed their trauma and developed past their original purpose? If that system's recovery did not include final fusion as their final goal, they will still be a system. It is likely that new life situations will cause them to develop new headmates, headmates that will have nothing to do with the original origins of the system. After decades, most of the active headmates may have experiences way closer to those of the members of endogenic systems, because, in a sense... Those headmates would be endogenic. In situations like those, does it really make sense to define each system by merely the very beginning of their journey?

Something very similar can happen in reverse. When an endogenic system experiences trauma, it is likely that new headmates will form, and the experiences of those headmates may closely much those of traumagenic systems. But unless the entire system redefines themselves as being of mixed origins, any traumagenic-focused spaces, where they could search for community's support, would be closed off to them. Even if they would make the change to the label of mixed origins, many spaces will still reject them. But how does that make any sense? Why would we focus only on the moment of birth of one's system, when what shapes their experiences is their entire life?

The same argument may be made for willogenic and spiritual-based systems. Willogenic systems are capable of splitting new headmates completely unintentionally, just like systems of other origins are capable of constructing new headmates with the help of willogenic guides. Spiritual-based systems can gain new headmates 'just because', and due to trauma, and through constructing them, and in any other way, just as many systems of other origins have headmates that summon in new self-aware companions through their spiritual practices. Why would we pretend that the entire system has to fit its original label, as if systems weren't made up of living, breathing things, changing with each day as is in the nature of the living things?