Critter Collective

System blog. Expect lots of random reblogs and vents. As well as the occasional drawing or two.

[critter-sys]

Intro Post

Figured we should really remake this... Anygays...

We're the Critter System, aka the Critter Collective!

We're a newly discovered system as of... roughly April 2026.

We aren't quite sure whether we're more endo- or more traumagenic, but we are quiet certain we're of mixed origin.

If we should post any comics about us, expect animal representations, which are also based off of our assigned animal emojis.

...I'd have liked the others to do their own bios, but... we kinda don't cycle through many fronters? Maybe some time in the future...? Who knows?

Posts are usually tagged with the fronter's name and animal.

Bios (To be updated with further occasional fronters if needed):

Tyler/Ty "The one that fronts the most, alongside Xavier. They go by any/all, but mainly they/them. The one who keeps up most fan fics."

Assigned animal: Fox 🦊.

Look: Wolpertinger.

Note 🦡: I guess they've taken a liking to that thing.

Gender: agender

Pronouns: any/all, mainly they/them.

Role: ???

Xavier "The second-most frequent fronter, right after Ty. Xavier is most likely our apathy and frustration carrier. If there's art, it's most likely from him."

Assigned animal: Stoat (Current workaround: Badger 🦡)

Look: Stoat.

Note 🦡: ...I swear to whatever deities there may be, if anyone here calls me a human...

Gender: demi-boy

Pronouns: they/he.

Role: Apathy and frustration carrier.

Phoenix "Our protector. We... don't really know much about them? They are a phoenix, as far as we can tell. Pretty secretive, especially towards Ty..."

Assigned animal: Phoenix 🐦‍🔥

Look: Phoenix

Gender: probably agender?

Pronouns: any/all

Role: Protector

Vic "The one who's usually the most confused about the fact that they are fronting in the first place. ...We don't know much about him."

Assigned animal: Bat 🦇

Gender: demi-boy

Pronouns: he/they

Role: ???

Hunter "Warning: Do not interact. We don't know what he wants, but we know he's, in some way, trying to hurt us."

Assigned animal: Wolf 🐺

Gender: Male?

Pronouns: he/him? Definitely those, unsure about others.

Role: Persecutor

"Berry" "A tiny bit of an anxious mess... We won't disclose their IRL name for their own sake. If referring to them by species, go with a hedgehog."

Assigned animal: Hedgehog 🦔

Look: Hedgehog

Note 🦡: Don't refer to them as anything other than an animal, best as a hedgehog. Seriously, we don't need them more anxious than usual.

Gender: ...Somewhere on the enby spectrum?

Pronouns: they/them

Role: Most likely anxiety holder

Raine "Our depression holder and current guess as to last host. ...We don't really know their triggers, but talking about difficult subjects seemingly is only rarely one?"

Assigned animal: Otter 🦦

Gender: ...Guessing enby?

Pronouns: they/them

Role: depression carrier

[ifvwasix]

I made a thing because I keep seeing people refer to other people they don’t know this way

[weekly-eons]

Love Love Love your Eeveelutions!!! Could I get an Asexual Spectrum Vaporeon? The pretty purple-pink flag with four lines, darkest at the top and lightest at the bottom

https://lgbtqia.fandom.com/wiki/Asexual_spectrum

^ link to the flag, theres multiple & thought itd be easier to send with with my ask :] Stay Safe!!! Have a good pride month

porple

[effigy13]

i honestly think it shows a really disingenuous and surface-level understanding of dissociation when people make the claim that when you have DID, every single split must come from stress or trauma every single time, because that's verifiably not how dissociation works. yes, the core disorder itself is only caused by repeated, complex trauma during childhood, but the reality of dissociation once the disorder has already developed is far more nuanced than that.

the best examples i can think of displaying this are the numerous books i've read by therapists talking about their time treating patients with DID. something that many of these therapists have done is help their patient install a "therapist alter" to help them stick to their recovery goals when they're not in therapy. sometimes choosing a pre-existing alter to be the therapist's "buddy", or in other cases, this involves creating an alter from scratch--maybe not intentionally, but a need rises and a new alter is produced from it. the key point being that this new alter isn't necessarily produced from stress. i don't have screenshots on me right now but i believe i'm thinking of bennett braun and david yeung when i talk about these things. regardless, this isn't an unusual part of DID therapy.

this is further supported by the concept of epochal division. in the literature, epochal division is very similar to a "system reset", wherein there is a massive shift in the way a CDD system functions due to a major event or life change.

[ID: epochal divisions were common in most of this cohort as isolated phenomena, but played a major role in a substantial minority. with each major life change some or all of the alters were created anew, and their predecessors might either remain active or subside, and become covert or latent. the dynamics of such configuations usually reflect the wish to make a new start, rebirth fantasies, or anniversary phenomena. the [sic] often followed moving, changes in schools, changes in family constellations (such as the death of abusers or the birth of a child), marriage, or great pressure to take flight - the last word is cut off. end ID.]

you can describe the opening of a new chapter in your life as 'stressful', but major life changes such as marriage are multifaceted, and there's a big reason i underlined the phrase "the wish to" [make a new start, etc]. "great pressure" and "rebirth fantasies" are also very important, because things like the wish for change, the opportunity or even the fantasy of change can all lend themselves to dissociation in their own ways, even when nothing bad is necessarily happening in the moment, and especially when something really good (and big) is happening.

this is because even feeling the presence of a looming new chapter in your life can make you dissociate. feeling certain emotions can make you dissociate, such as anger or even happiness, it doesn't have to be negative emotions. things that have positive associations for you can cause you to dissociate for so many reasons.

this doesn't mean that you split based off of hyperfixations or whatever tiktok nonsense, but rather that dissociation is a complex and multifaceted process that produces results based on your extremely specific life experiences, tolerance levels, and neuropsychology.

basically, if you have a CDD and something makes you dissociate, there's a chance it can make you switch or even split with enough exposure no matter what it is. good stress, a major life change, your favorite show from your childhood, moving away from your family, nicotine withdrawal, getting a new job, graduating, getting a romantic partner, and many more things.

if this happens to you, this isn't something to be alarmed by. it's not inherently a sign that you're failing or moving backwards. these things are normal parts of the disorder and how it functions over time, even though they're not talked about very often.

[starsteel-absol]

addressing the elephant (mega) in the room (za)

[grub-muncher]

This is not an extensive list of types of delusions, these are only a few common types of delusions, there are other less common types of delusions which are not mentioned in this comic

[deltaomicronfive]

Hey kids! Don't smoke. Just don't do it. It affects your body in the worst ways possible, even if you never get cancer.

Hey kids who smoke! You are still fucking worthy of love, dignity and respect and anyone who mistreats you because of your addiction alone is a fucking cop.

[forgottenclockangel]

We keep being like “wow system comics are so cool, we should make one. Not me though. I don’t have any ideas” but nobody has ideas that they wanna do.

[xifipype]

That fennec plush is so goofy.

[parkchanwoohoo]

if u get second job i'll you

YOU'LL ME??

[unyieldingsilence]

‎

[lastdreadpirate]

@funnier-as-a-system

[funnier-as-a-system]

[Image description: a screenshot from SpongeBob SquarePants. It shows Squidward looking terrified of something off-screen. / end description]

[floralflesh]

Its disability pride month so if I see any one of you use the word “psychotic” as a synonym for “evil” you owe me $1000000000000

[critter-sys]

Extending that to the rest of us, that'd be... 874870000000,00€ * 11.

...Yes, I did account for the USD to Euro exchange rate.

[aro-ace-culture-is]

Aroace culture is watching movies and series for the ACTUAL plot (iykyk)

.

[critter-sys]

Thinking about it, I don't think we ever really had a sense of self? Like, we existed, and I guess that was enough for us?

Interests and such were mostly just "I guess that interests me?"

Of course some stuff did stick, but... we are really not interesting when it comes to... anything? We're pretty average, honestly.

[medleyofmind]

my firsts post... this is some of the methods my system uses to tell me they're real. we've mulled it over and felt like sharing it because the community on tumblr has helped us a lot with understanding and accepting things. <3

[childrenofthelightcomic]

Children of the Light- Chapter 9, Page 24 < Previous | Next > Start Reading Content Warnings If you like putting your foot down, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Story and Art by @saltnpepperbunny

[pmdobt]

… and so, we've reached the fabled "cartridge bump" some of you may have heard whispers of!

Back in 2020 when I was playing through the Amp Plains segment, I did a quicksave in the dungeon as I do with many dungeon runs in the game, I often only play in short bursts. And then made an oopsie. For those unfamiliar with Explorers, a quicksave allows you to save in the middle of an adventure so you can turn off the game and later pick up where you left off, with one caveat— the save is just a quick "checkpoint" that will not be honored if you reset the game after resuming gameplay. So if you're on floor 12 in a dungeon and quicksave, and quit playing for a bit, when you resume the game you leave right where you left off on floor 12. If you need another break later at, say, floor 15, you need to do another quicksave. But if you're on floor 15 and lose an important item and decide to reset to go back to your quicksave, the game will instead treat the reset as any old "loss" in a dungeon, and you'll lose items and money accordingly. It's basically a way to allow you to take breaks without allowing you to savescum. But what happens when you quicksave, and then later bump and dislodge your cartridge? Well, it counts as a loss all the same. In OBT's playthrough this happened here in Amp Plains, and I lost quite literally everything except for exempt items (like the aura bow, which can never be lost), and… A single pecha berry. No pokemon fainted during my initial run of Amp Plains, so I didn't count this loss as any sort of death (other than to my inventory, rip). But did anyone faint in the subsequent run(s)? We'll see! This depiction is a bit anticlimactic compared to some theories folks had before this point, but I hope it's a fun little thing to interpret either way!

[leaveitbehindfortherenegadelife]

can people stop having birthdays? your parents fucked some years and 9 months ago and now i have to be in a social situation. i could be playing pokemon