Call Me Tav

(inspired by this post)

made some graphics for trans/nb plurals that a) didn’t use the word “alt*rs” and b) was inclusive of nb people who don’t consider themselves trans, like me

we do not consent to having our original content tagged as DID, OSDD, or any related tags. here’s why. 

Friendogenic? Endogenic systems make great friends and I hope you all have a good day!

A Quick Guide to System Terminology - Organized Alphabetically

Age-Slider:  A headmate whose age fluctuates in any direction, sometimes due to specific circumstances.

Alter: A member of a traumagenic system specifically.

Alterhuman: Any member that isn’t humanoid.

Aspect / Facet: A headmate in a median system.

Blending / Blurring: When telling who is fronting or switching becomes difficult.

Caregiver: A headmate whose general function is to care for the body and/or the host.

Co-Conscious: Like co-fronting, but without shared control of the body, just over the senses.

Co-fronting: When two members front together.

Co-Host: A member that fronts almost as much as the host.

Eclipsing: Partial blurring of the identity of two or more headmates, often with one prompting the other to do things for them.

Endogenic: A system created without trauma. (this does not mean the system was created without a cause, only that the cause is not trauma.)

Fictive: A headmate who is derived from fiction.

Fronting: Having control of the body and all of its senses, functions, etc.

Gateway: A system in which the headspace is open for headmates to come and go, usually from multiple innerworlds. The host typically has little or no control over this.

Headmate / Systemmember/ Systemmate: A member of the system, a person who shares the body.

Headspace / Innerspace / Mindscape / Paracosm: The setting in the mind in which headmates live when not fronting.

Host:The headmate that fronts most often or the original person.

Integration: The act of consolidating one or more headmates into the host.

Little: A younger or child-like headmate.

Median: The state of being somewhere between single and multiple.

Mixed-Origin: A system that contains members born from different events or needs, such as a trauma system with tulpas or an endogenic system with trauma members.

Persecutor: A headmate (Usually traumagenic in origin) who exists in order to punish the host / is a copy or similar to their abuser, and may be outwardly focused as well.

Plural: A term that encompasses medians and all other multiple systems.

Possession: A Tulpamancy term referring to the act of a tulpa taking over the body or a body part in order to interact with the outside world.

Protector: A headmate who fronts / co-fronts in order to protect the body, mind, another headmate, or the host.

System: A body that contains two or more people. Also referred to as a multiple.

Switching: The act of changing fronters.

System-Hopping*: When one’s system members visit other systems. *Often used as a manipulation or abuse tactic, be very careful when you encounter people who claim to be able to do this.

Soulbond: A soul (often belonging to a fictional character) that connects and creates a strong bond with a soulbonder.

Soulbonder: Someone who reaches out to souls either on purpose or accidentally and creates a bond with those that wish to stay. This is typically a spiritual connection.

Traumagenic: A system created by trauma.

Tulpa: A being, presence, person, alterhuman, or thoughtform created and cared for by a Tulpamancer.

Tulpamancer: Someone who creates and cares for a Tulpa.

We’re especially looking for people who post about / are:

- Homestuck!

- hskin

- utkin

- systems

- syskids!

- supportive of all kinds of systems

Please rb if it’s okay for us to follow you!

(Don’t rb if k*nk little or gatekeeper (esp kin and systems))

You can be endogenic and have problems with dissociation severe enough that you should see a therapist for help.

Endogenic =/= healthy or never had any trauma.

Traumagenic =/= DID/OSDD

Just because you have problems that affect your plurality, doesn’t necessarily mean the plurality or its cause is the reason for the problems.

Because here’s the thing: “I want to be/enjoy being a system.” Does NOT equal “Being a system is easy and fun all the time and I love every single thing about it.” That would be outrageous and foolish to say. Personally, for us, if we had a choice to give everyone their own body, we absolutely would in a heartbeat. It’d be a thousand times easier, and most of us would probably be a lot happier with that arrangement too. 

However… if we had to choose between being a system and not knowing each other/being together at all, no. Not for all of the riches in the world, not if it guaranteed us never suffering again, not even if it promised us all getting our own bodies exactly the way we wanted them. Absolutely not.  Of course being a system isn’t easy, of course it’s not just all fun and games, of course it’s not even always enjoyable. OF. COURSE. NOT. But we aren’t about to trade it for the world, because nothing worth having is ever a walk in the park. Having relationships of any kind is a struggle. But people still want friends, family, and mates.  So likewise, “Being a system is hard/painful.” Does NOT equal “I hate everything about being a system and my headmates aren’t worth the effort.” We’re a family and we love each other. It doesn’t need to be perfect. We don’t need it to be perfect to be happy. We’d be screwed if every relationship had to be nothing but fun to be happy with it. Not so fun things that I do in every outside relationship as well as with my system: - Fight. Sometimes over stupid things like different tastes in music/movies, and sometimes over big things like feeling like they’re not being treated fairly. - Cry. Because sometimes someone has hurt my feelings or I’ve hurt theirs, or someone is having a bad day and I hurt because they hurt. - Feel frustrated. Because there are things that I can’t do because someone else is uncomfortable or not interested, or because I can’t do a damn thing to help someone who needs more support than I could possibly give with my lot in life. Things I do to make my relationships outside as well as with the system better even though it’s not as easy as it sounds: - Take a minute to calm the fuck down and then express my feelings in a calm manner so me and the other person can figure out where we went wrong and fix it and go back to having fun together. - Let the other person know that they’ve hurt me and why/encourage the other person to tell me when I’ve hurt them and how I can refrain from doing it again and hug it out and do our best to understand each other. Or do my damned best to help them however I CAN no matter how small, and be there for them through thick and thin so that at the very least they won’t have to struggle alone. - Compromise, maybe we do something the other person doesn’t care for this time and next time we do something I don’t care for, or if it’s about being plain uncomfortable we find middle ground that won’t trigger them but I can still have a part of what I want. Sometimes I must admit it doesn’t work out though and we both just have to accept that we can’t have or do certain things, which is extremely upsetting and unfair but worth it when you care about someone and recognize they’re a person and have needs that should be respected just as much as yours. Or in the case of not being able to give someone the help they need, I become their strength and support so they can do it themselves, and if not, then I at least do what little is possible to make it easier to get through it. We don’t live this way because it’s a piece of cake, we live this way because we enjoy the pieces of cake we get along the way. 

like and/or reblog if you& have been hurt by gatekeepers, including (but not limited to):

accusations of being “fake”

harassment

namedrops and/or vagues on “fake system” blogs

doubting the legitimacy of your& own experiences

if any of the above have caused dissociation, panic, etc.

this is regardless of:

your& system origin (traumagenic, endogenic, quoigenic…)

your& system nature (psychological, spiritual, mixed…)

whether or not you& have/want a dissociative diagnosis

how many “acceptable” or “unacceptable” traits you& fit (ie. certain “fake”-seeming fictives, having no original, several fictives from the same source, etc.)

If that were so, then yeah. It’d be as ableist as making what looks like a fun lifestyle out of being triggered, or being “OCD”, etc.

Except… it’s clearly not. We’re not playing. We’re not romanticising a very real, very serious disorder – we’re just being ourselves. And to think that it’s impossible for anyone to be any kind of multiple without also having DID is pathologizing so many more than just us here. It’s demonizing a way of being that has existed for hundreds of years on the fringes of normal society. Saying that there’s no way anyone can ever have any more than one person in their head without also having a serious disorder, casts doubts and aspersions on the health and sanity of such notable persons as:

Carl Jung, who had Philemon

Socrates and his daimon

Leonard Nimoy, who experienced Spock as having a mind of his own

Fernando Pessoa and his heteronyms

Countless authors who’ve heard and seen and talked with their characters – whether they believe the characters to be real people or not is irrelevant to the fact that they’re still actually experiencing something at least on the fringes of being multiple.

Buddhists, and Westerners, who’ve delved into creating tulpas, some from a religious standpoint and others from secular ones. (While it’s exploded in popularity in Western society in recent years, it’s been a thing for at least a hundred.)

Joan of Arc and probably a whole host of other saints who’ve talked to God or angels and gotten responses back, and sometimes have even felt that it was God literally doing things through them, rather than them doing it themselves.

There’s countless religions that view spirit possession as a real, positive thing, interacting with other beings existing inside them. Even Christianity, with its focus on listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit, which some denominations take very literally. Regardless of whether these spirits actually exist and are doing so or not, people are and have and will continue to experience the presence and influence and possession of other persons/minds inside and alongside their own.