#system infodumping

Made a new headspace map with the help of our cartographer! So very happy with how this turned out. Things have changed so much- we intended it to be just Celeste Mountain itself when we first manifested it, and now the world has taken on a life of its own!

Some cool places:

- The New City of Wizards is the hub of where most of the system lives, typically the non-fronters. It's run by a bunch of Librarians and Administrators, and is separated into four districts based on social rules for living and visiting there. In the center is the Clocktower Library, where as much knowledge as possible is stored and accessible to all.

- Celeste Mountain was originally all headspace was going to be, but now it feels more like the centerpiece everything else is based around. It has a bunch of little sites! LeBlanc doubles as the fronting room, so it's where I'm used to being most of the time. The Crystal Caverns mouth leads to Red Velvet's area along with the caverns and the Heart of the Mountain. The edge of the city ruins is where I first spoke to Badeline! The "portal" is technically a steven-universe style teleporter, which we have all over the place for convenience thanks to Peridot.

- Healer's tent is where people go to help get stabilized from any internal problems people might experience in headspace. He's able to help a lot but not able to do everything!

- The Moonpool cave is where we do all our intentional soulbonding!

- The Arena is set up to automatically rebuild itself if it gets destroyed in a "spar"!

Partway for personal records and partway an invitation to ask us about source/fictive related things! Our system management can make sure no questions are directed at members uncomfortable with answering, so please feel free to engage respectfully regarding source stuff! 💙

While most of our introjects do identify as an iteration of their sourceselves and have the memories to match, please keep in mind that some things about us and our memories might be divergent or completely different from source, and consider that you might get an answer different from what you expect because of this.

Please remember that we don't agree with every single ideal expressed in every single one of these sources! Just because we have fictives from somewhere doesn't mean we're caught up on The Discourse™ or support every sketchy ideology connected to it. Thank you!

Sources marked with a ✨ are our sources most important to the system in some way!

Sources marked with a 🪶 are our sources most important in a different alterhuman context in some way!

And now, on to the list!

Hi! not confusing at all, we'd be happy to share!

We have quite a lot of subsystems so hopefully we can give you some broad information ^^ I'm personally a monoconscious median subsystem, and one of our other main fronters is a polyconscious median subsystem - those'll be our two main perspectives, but we'll touch on some others as well.

A subsystem is often defined as a "system within a system", but I find most people don't get much milage with this phrasing. I think of it more like Russian nesting dolls - within the larger overarching one is a "smaller" one that contains others itself. In headspace, this is often experienced as subsystems having a single mindform. For example, Member A and Subsystem B have one headspace body/mindform each, but subsystem B often switches between different subsystem members within that individual mindform. Subsystem B might even have an entire nested headspace only they can access where their members have individual forms, but not always.

Let's go over the different ways median subsystems can present!

Terminology: Facet, monoconscious, polyconscious, headspace, mindform: the form a system member(s) takes within headspace, alterhuman, otherkin

Monoconsciousness - the complexity of monoconsciousness is what held us back from realizing our subsystem isn't just otherkin shifts for a long time. While my identity/disposition/opinions/etc will significantly change depending on the facet, my sense of awareness is continued. Rather than feeling like I'm switching out with another iteration of myself, it feels like I'm shifting & transforming into something new. Telltale signs that I've changed facets include wanting to use a different name & pronouns, having a significantly different disposition or response to regular events, feeling much more connected to some alterhuman identities than others, having different speech patterns, having drastically different likes & dislikes for things like activities or food, or feeling uncomfortable with the idea of being identified as the exact same person as I was before. While I still feel like "me", I feel fundamentally different, as if my innate self has shifted. This is actually why we use the overarching name "Prism" - it's a crystal through which drastically different colors of light can be seen when held at different angles. The sea on the monocon flag is another good analogy- while the oceans might have unique names and be worth differentiating due to drastically different ecosystems and such, they still all connect and flow into each other, and they're all still the same connected sea in the end. If you've played Slay the Princess, the Princess is a good example of a monoconscious median system.

Polyconsciousness - Hello 👋 my subsystem is median and polyconscious. While we all consider ourselves facets of our overarching identity, we all have our individual differences & consciousness, which we can tell exist either when we communicate with each other or when we notice ourselves switch/someone else who knows us notices. All of us represent an aspect of our overarching identity - while I focus on pleasantries, self-care, and light communication, Healer focuses on our interest in medicine & magic as well as being our retionale, Red Jam is our righteousness and sense of justice, Vanilla Bean is our desire for peace, stability, and care within ourselves, and more. Originally, Healer Cookie was the only one self aware when we entered the system, but it didn't take incredibly long for more of us to come out of dormancy and realize that while we were a part of the same whole (Perhaps as a slice of pie may be?) we are still different in our own right. We also have our own headspace that we're able to interact in between ourselves, though this is not a constant for all subsystems. I do believe that about covers it! Please let us know if you have any questions.

Some other notes from the Prism:

- Not all headmates may feel like fully defined people completely separately from medianhood, and tend to hold intense emotions or singleminded thought processes - these are called fragments. We have one fragmented subsystem, and he struggles to settle on a single identity and feels as if he's constantly co-conscious with at least a couple of his subsystem members.

- Not all median system members are in a subsystem. For example, we have many median members formed from exomemories of others; they still share that intrinsic median connection of self, but they have an entirely separate mindform and exist as simply another member of the system rather than nesting within it.

- Not all subsystems are confined to a singular form all the time. Our Vessel subsystem is a median subsystem of two, and while they were originally one member, they separated equally into two one day and are still bound together via a strong mental link. They can't be too far apart from each other in headspace without being "pulled back", they instinctively know each others' emotions & thoughts as easily as breathing, and they're able to reform back into a singular body at will. They remind us of mitosis but if they could pop back together <3

This is something we experience, yes! But probably not as intense as some others, since it's not necessarily because of memory barriers- more like how our different perspectives influence our skills from a subjective point of view. We don't really see it as having anything to do with being polyfrag/polyplural specifically.

For example, when we're feeling okay enough the body roller skates at the local rink. I play things too safe and careful, which makes me clumsy and struggle gaining speed. But Badeline is more fluid and confident, and instinctively compensates in ways I don't, making her much better at skating than me.

Another example is art! And this is a great perspective one as well. I'm (the Prism) personally a character artist at heart, meaning when we/I think about art, we're very inclined towards starting with a sketch, followed with an ink/outline layer filled in with color. This mentality means I can't comprehend how painters do their thing for the life of me. Meanwhile, Casey is incredibly inclined toward painting and color layering, meaning she can pull off paintings irl that I couldn't even conceptualize! Her unique perspective gives her that skill.

Hiya! Whoever was in front at the time forgot this existed so I'll go ahead and answer it!

Q #3: How many headmates do you have/are you aware of including yourself? You don’t have to count anyone who doesn’t want to be counted.

A: Let me go calculate based on our simplyplural data, hmmm... We currently have 235 members in the system (we're polyplural)! Though we're pretty sure we have a new unintentional thoughtform in their budding stages, so that number might go up soon!

Q #12: Do you have any animal headmates (non-anthro and non-alterhuman, for example just a regular cat)? Do they front?

A: We do indeed have a few! One of our first traumagenic members is a warrior cats fictive, Spottedleaf, and she's been there since we had under fifteen known members. We have a few other Warrior cats fictives, all noncanon soulbonds- Hollowstar, Jaykick, and Comfreykit. They of course have the mental processing they display in the books, but they dislike using human language and often uses internal body language to communicate instead. None of our warrior cats fictives front.

🍒 - funny story that happened in headspace?

🌟 - how did you find out you were plural?

🌱 - share a picture (drawing, icon edit, picrew etc.) of urself in headspace!

☔️ - favorite thing about being plural?

{we hope this doesn't come out formatted horribly, sometimes asks don't do paragraph breaks?}

This is crazy old and i have no idea which alter/headmate reblogged the old post but lesgooooooooo

🍒 Funny story that happened in headspace?- Well ok I have like no memory of normal stuff that happens Round headspace, I'm usually too focused on front the rare times im around, BUT i do have this meme for you my system members made!

(Our fronting room is a cabin-looking variant of Leblanc Cafe from Persona 5, Akira works there)

🌟 How did you find out you were plural? - Well originally we didn't just "find out" we actually actively started tulpamancy while STILL being an egg to our own experiences LMAO- it took the Prism a while to figure out we've been plural the entire time tho!! Mostly just some self reflection after a couple years of coming to understand how our plurality works. I've personally been here since middle school though!!! I just didn't know what to call myself back then :D

🌱 Picture of myself in headspace? - OOOOHHH THIS ONE IS EASY!!! I'm a splatoon fictive so I've made cutouts of myself from the ingame creator!!

Here I am!! My name is Cans, or Minu (with a thick Inklish accent) :3 I'm a turf war athlete and led my own team!!

☔ Favorite thing about being plural? - Ummm probably the ability to express myself freely!!! I feel more like myself than ever, if I wasn't plural I probably wouldn't have my identity like this!! I love my role of motivating us and being able to be part of a group again!