It's not very common for me, but there are times when it feels like my headmates actually come out of "headspace" and are physically next to me, usually to show physical affection in some way. It's an extremely pleasant experience, one of my favourite parts of being plural. It seems completely random and I can't seem to find anything that triggers or causes it. Is there any way I can try to get it to happen more often?
The daemonism and tulpamancy communities call this experience "imposition", and they've written a bunch of guides on doing this intentionally. I've also seen it called "projection", depending on who's naming the phenomenon and where, but "imposition" is more useful in a search engine because the word is less common.
If you want a starting point, then I might point you to the Tulpanomicon's section on imposition (which has three guides), the slightly larger imposition section in the New Great Big List of Guides (which is 13 years old now- wow, that time went by quickly), and whatever Reddit threads you can scrounge up. I tossed "tulpamancy imposition guide" into a search engine and found useful results, so you may find more recent guides by poking around.
I'd also encourage you to write and share your own guide if you figure this out. There's a general lack of guide-style writing compared to a decade ago, and I think we could all benefit from each other's hard-earned lessons and skills.
For those who want to download the zine as a PDF, it can be found on itch.io, our plural article website, or our zines website for free (but donations are always welcome!).
we're at the age where high school is beginning to emphasise university and/or career pathways. this is harder for us, because we're plural and if certain people offline find out we kind of have to kill ourselves about it.
we don't want to work for the rest of our lives, we think the concept of "earning" a living is bullshit, our undesirable (read: AuDHD, plural, traumatised, generally socially inept) traits outweigh any traits employers actually want. if school feels like a drag and makes us suicidal, what will a 9-to-5 be like?
we know our country has a variety of different career pathways. however, many of them are trades-based, while we're most consistently interested in the humanities (also interested in sciences, but we don't have the maths grades or skills). the only way to study those seems to be through uni. high school was not created for people like us, and we predict our Year 12 grades won't be high enough for typical university pathways. we hate the idea of taking Alternative Pathways for Special™ Students. those pathways could work, and that would be like admitting defeat.
our incoherent ramblings aside — you're more than one, and you're still alive (!!!) in a world that doesn't know people like us can exist. barring people who lived before modern frameworks of plurality, we've never seen anyone be openly plural and have a successful career. but we ask you this:
is there a way to find a job or a field that meets all our needs when we're not just one person? when we, as individuals, don't stick around for long? and if not, what are our options?
First off: you never have to kill yourselves about it.
This is a throwaway sentence in your ask, but I'm not letting it go unanswered or unseen. You're scared and hurting enough for that to be an option. That's important. I give a shit about that.
We've been there. I think that people forget the fact that being suicidal can sometimes keep you alive when you don't have a better way to cope. "I hate this, but I can always die about it" is ironically a reason to live.
The fear of being found out by unsafe people is also (probably) not an irrational fear. It could suck if some unsafe people found out. You could deal with major life consequences, wind up homeless or hurt, etc. You could feel unbearable pain or face trauma. That's scary shit! It's okay to be scared! It's okay to not want it to happen!
But unless these offline people have a tendency towards homicide, you will still be alive when it all boils over, and you will be in a better situation one way or another. Something will have changed. So:
I'm going to ask you and any other "if they find out then I'm going to have to kill us" folks to do something really, really hard. At some point in the future, whenever the time comes: I'm asking you all to stay alive even if the worst happens.
I've got a reason that isn't just the "suicide bad" bullshit. I know that doesn't make a difference. "Okay, whatever, I won't be around to care about my own death anyway." My reason is that we've gone out and read the research on suicide success rates. Dying is actually a pretty shitty plan, all things considered, and most people fail at it. The people who succeed? It's usually not their first try, and they had to deal with however many times they failed on top of whatever drove them to attempt. The consequences of failing to die are problems in themselves. Suicide is a really risky and painful plan for escape, actually.
Luckily, you can make a better plan. The link above goes into more detail about all that, but again: I do give a shit if you live or die, and all I know about you is this ask. Live for some random internet strangers if nothing else. Figure out a better plan than dying.
Don't ignore whatever pressure, force, etc. is driving you to want to die in that situation. Whatever it is, it's serious, so take it seriously. Give it some attention, and do it soon. Suicide is the ultimate escape hatch. Why are you breaking out the big guns? What's happening in your life to make it a living hell worth dying to get out of, and what can you do about that (even if it's so tiny it barely feels worthwhile, even if it sounds like a crazy idea)?
(Apologies to the original poster, this pair of screenshots is years old and I hadn't gotten into the habit of including that information in screenshots yet at the time. If you know the post, please link it. It was on Tumblr.)
Anyway:
About Working
The 9-5 is better than school if you ask me. There's a lot more freedom and autonomy in the workplace (though it depends where you go), and you're at least allowed to go to the bathroom without begging for permission. You get to be more of a person. Weirdos like us often get treated with a bit more understanding, though there's improvement to be had.
It still sucks. Some aspect of it will probably continue to suck no matter what job someone works. There are, however, certain flavors of suckage that are preferable to others.
Hi, fellow "the society I live in was not designed for brains like mine". This is where I give you the complicated answer that we're not exactly a shining example of "a successful career" by most people's standards, but we still have some advice if you want it. And, like you said, we're alive.
The biggest caveats:
We're old by internet standards (apparently!) but young by human standards. There are people older than us who could give you better advice, and I'd strongly encourage seeking out systems in their 40s and 50s to ask them the same question. They do exist. I promise. We've met them, and they've got some fascinating things to talk about.
We are disabled and lucky. We are lucky enough to be able to be openly disabled at work because most of our coworkers are also disabled, and we're lucky that we can work part-time while we sort out our situation for the immediate and distant future. Some form of disability income may be on the table given that part-time work is pushing the limits of what we can handle right now, though that kind of income has its own issues. We're looking into options.
We literally just changed career directions because the career we went to college for did an ethical backflip (on top of pre-existing bullshit) and we're not comfortable continuing down that path after burning out over it. We are happy with the change in path, so I can at least tell you why it works for us right now, but we're not exactly established or successful in any career sense beyond doing reasonably well at the job.
All that said, I can tell you what I think I know about why our current job is working for all of us so far, and I can tell you what I wish someone had told us about career choices.
Figuring out what to do
Some people say, "follow your passion". Some people say, "fuck passion, follow the money". I say, "follow whatever thing actually makes you want to do any kind of work at all."
Ask why you might want to work. You're asking a lot of "what do I want to do?" and not as much "why do I want to do it?", and the latter's been what's actually helped us figure out what kind of job we want.
We hate that we have to work. You said you hate it too. If you weren't forced to do it, though, then how would you spend your time? What do you care about? Yes, you need the income. But how do you want to spend the time?
A 9-5 is most of your day. If you're spending a 9-5 shift working on something that clashes with your values or doesn't feed you, then are you happy spending most of your day on that, or is there a problem? What do you want that day to look like, ideally?
Ask yourself. Ask any system members who expect to be involved in your system's career. Ask the folks who don't plan to be involved now but might wind up in that position in the near-ish future if something happened to the current work crew. You don't have to agree on why you're working, but everyone looking to do the work should ideally be willing to do it (or to tolerate letting others do it).
Do you want to do a lot of little tasks, or one long one? Do you want to change the world for the better or does impact not mean too much to you? Do you want to keep things running smoothly so others don't have to worry, or are you looking for a safe outlet to challenge others? Do you want to be good at a skill? Do you want to be part of an effort you admire? Do you want to have an excuse to avoid people, or to socialize? Etc.
This isn't a fast conversation, and you're likely to disagree. I'd recommend writing it down and returning to the topic a few times to see how opinions evolve. Start looking for patterns if there are any, or start negotiating if there aren't. Figure out the general shape of what environment you're hoping to work in.
Seriously, discuss this shit like a Socratic seminar. Get into the nitty gritty. What do people want from work if they have to do it? What values or wishes come up the most often? What don't people want? What are people willing to tolerate even if it's not their preference?
Keep an eye out for any hard "no" opinions and either respect them or plan for them. Having a job that only a small subset of your system can do is great until that subset isn't available when your shift starts.
Jobs are weird
I'm phrasing this as "why" and not "what" because, frankly, a lot of jobs aren't what they seem. Our last job was in cybersecurity, and we had to essentially do an electrician's crash course as part of that. Our current job has us memorizing everything that someone can easily do wrong with a fax machine- we work at a library and it has a fax machine that confuses people. Our dad has a graphic design degree and works in robotics, and he uses that degree.
You will likely wind up learning some random bullshit that seems unrelated to the job but is actually critical to pulling it off, and you will frequently be surprised by how fluid these domains actually are. Every job we've worked has more to it than we were led to believe.
Never underestimate the value of knowing something outside of whatever field(s) you go into. As a mentor put it: be a generalist, but have a specialty. Be reasonably capable of many things, but delve deep into a smaller set. It's good advice, and it works well for systems who can delve into many different things depending on personal interest. Liking different things can be an asset. Having different interests can come in handy. Find a job that lets you use that variability to your advantage, if you can.
Our own example
Personally, yes, we need the income. The real reason is money, as usual. But at the same time, if we work a job that doesn't scratch the "this means something to a real person" itch, then we'll be miserable- we learned that at a previous job. It has to make some kind of meaningful difference to another person for us to want to do it. The same goes for needing to feel competent, capable, or independent/autonomous (with support available). These are two things we can pretty much all agree on, with the occasional exception.
We've all got our own reasons to like our job too. I care about keeping some level of aesthetic sense to the work, and this job lets me organize the shit out of things. Other folks don't care how it looks. Our current job works because we all have strong reasons to want to do the job, not because we entirely agree on what those reasons are or what we'd individually love to be doing.
If you can't find any shared values, find a job with tasks that you can all do comfortably, enjoyably, tolerably, etc. If you can't find that, then find a job that lets you be specialists, one with low time pressure but (possibly) high skill pressure where having Kevin Who Does The Paperwork is an asset and not a problem ("Where's Kevin???"). If you can't do that, then you've probably got some system cooperation issues that could use attention first. Taking care of yourselves is a job too.
Actually getting a job when your brain is weird
I've started to think that the whole resume song and dance is mostly bullshit at this point- the one thing that's consistently gotten us work is knowing people. Getting out there, getting people familiar with our face (and quirks!), showing interest, and taking the first interesting opportunity a friend offers up is what works. Every single job that we've managed to get was because we knew someone who knew someone.
This is a shitty setup for autistic, traumatized, and otherwise socially strange folks, but there's a way to hack it. Get to know other brainweird people and ask them for job hunting help. If you're lucky, then they'll point you somewhere with overwhelmingly neurodivergent staff or excellent accommodations.
I'd recommend volunteering if anything interests you (and if energy allows- it's a limited resource, don't exhaust yourselves!)- it lets you test if you all actually like that kind of work. It's better to find out that you don't like a career path or a task when it's a volunteer thing that you can back out of easily, not your livelihood. Even if you don't wind up working where you volunteer, it's a chance to learn what kind of workplace culture is comfortable and what's an absolute no-go for your system.
Volunteering also makes it much easier to get hired later. We got hired at our current job because we were good friends with most of the staff, attended and volunteered at events, and straight-up told people that we wanted to work there someday. Eventually, someone told us that there was a position open and we applied (and asked them for a recommendation). Immediate interview when we'd gotten no bites for a year before then. Showing up to a place frequently and showing interest works.
Internships are also an option for testing careers, especially if you're still in any kind of school! Look for internships if you're interested in a general area but don't know what the work would be like. (And respect your time: get a paid internship.)
You may be able to find job shadow programs that give students and recent graduates a chance to hear about a line of work from people who've been in the field for a long time. If you can, look for programs and services like this in fields that any of you have significant interest in. They can help you figure out whether to move further towards a field or whether it's not as good a fit as you'd hoped.
You might also consider researching local groups, businesses, etc. that hire in your fields of interest. If any of them seem promising, then you may want to see if they have any programs or events for students. You may also want to see if they have any contact information- sometimes, you can ask if there's anyone you could meet with to talk about what a career at that company would be like. Even a quick meeting for lunch can tell you a lot (bring questions!)
Workplace culture makes a huge difference. If you can: Find your local gay coffee shop run by your local weirdos. The laundromat run by a schizophrenic guy in his 40s who wants to give a kid like him a chance. The place that attracts a ton of neurodivergent patrons or has a weirdly loose dress policy for the staff. The places that have furries showing up to events.
Finally, a weirdly specific social tip and some advice. The tip: the "company values" page of a corporate website, if it exists, is your friend for figuring out what a workplace's culture could be like. Sometimes it tells you straight-up how people treat each other. The advice: take the Special Path. Don't torture yourselves trying to be normal when normal isn't taking any steps to meet you where you are. Make the world bend to meet you for once and see how it goes. There's power in accepting support.
and not in the way of wanting more people to have a dissociative disorder, but in the way of plurality being more accepted and known about.
and not just traumagenic plurality; all types of plurality.
everyone deserves a safe place to be themselves, which includes plurals of all kinds, no matter the origin.
we've known about our system for over 5 years now, and we've only managed to muster the courage to tell 2 people in our life about our plurality. we'd like it to be more, but we don't out of fear. fear of more abuse, fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, etc. Those fears are such common experiences throughout the system community that it's become a known problem, but by working to make the sigma around plurality disappear, we get closer and closer each day to a plural future. ♡
Hiii may i request some Annabeth Chase art mayhaps
yes you may!!! i’m going through my request right now so anyone can send them :P AU requests might be the easiest inspiration wise so plsplspls send me those pf any character ever
i don't want a "link sent to my email", i don't want a "one time verification code texted to me". i use my username and password, and if i don't have my password, i don't. log. in.
What to do if your account gets wrongfully terminated
So by now most of you have probably heard that my account was suddenly terminated (aka banned) on Saturday afternoon. I’m back now, and since I had to do some digging into this on my own, I figured I’d make a post for others to reference.
How to tell if you’ve been wrongfully terminated
You will find yourself suddenly locked out of your account. For me, I had just made a post when I got kicked to the login screen. My password wouldn’t work, so I tried to reset it, at which point I got this screen:
Now, if Tumblr legitimately terminated your account - meaning, you broke a rule and they banned you for it - they should send you an email telling you why. So, immediately check your email. If you don’t get anything, it was probably a glitch. These happen shockingly often, so there’s a whole process to it.
How to get your account back
First, submit a support ticket. Tumblr’s support email does NOT work, you MUST go through their site. Select ‘Terminated account’. Write a POLITE message explaining the situation. Describe what you were doing when you suddenly got kicked off, and state that to the best of your knowledge, you haven’t broken any rules, or that if you did, you would be willing to delete the offending posts. Include your url and email.
Check your email. You should immediately get an automatic message saying they’re looking into the problem. If you don’t that means that Tumblr marked your email as spam (because they banned you). If you need to, resend the ticket using a different email address at the bottom. Explain that your account email doesn’t seem to be going through and that’s why you’re using a different one.
Wait. Tumblr Support’s hours of operation are 9-5 EST, Monday through Friday. If, like me, you submitted your ticket on a weekend, you may be in for a wait. If you don’t get a response within 24 hours, DO NOT SEND ANOTHER TICKET, but instead reply to the email they sent you. I’ve seen it advised that you should send another ticket only if the problem isn’t fixed within the week.
Check you url often. Tumblr will likely never respond to your email letting you know what happened or that you’ve been reinstated. Check your url every so often, and if it finally loads as your blog (instead of the ‘There’s nothing here’ screen) you are free to log back in.
And that’s it! If it was a glitch, they SHOULD reinstate your account, but you MUST submit a support ticket letting them know what’s going on.
Okay, so, in the years since writing this guide, I’ve both seen some discussion as well as made my own observations that lead me to believe this is not just a glitch with Tumblr’s code.
More likely, if you’re reading this because you got termed, your blog was caught up in a bot dragnet.
Tumblr, like all social media, has bots. And Tumblr also does regular bot purges. It’s strikingly clear to me when these purges happen, because this post will gain a ton of notes in the span of a day. Occasionally, but not always, this will happen shortly after I notice an influx of bot followers.
That means that, for most people experiencing this problem, you are doing something that triggers Tumblr’s automated bot removal process. I cannot say what it is. Social media tends to keep their bot removal criteria vague, so that people scripting bots can’t evade capture.
Which sucks for the innocent human bloggers caught up in the purges, but it also means that if you can get someone to double check your blog, you should be reinstated pretty swiftly.
My blog has not been termed again, but if you check the notes of this post, you will see plenty of people who got their blog back using this process, many of them in the last few months. So these steps should still work.
"The consistent display of Black patients as mere disease exemplars also blunted physicians' compassion. The result of exploiting the "clinical material" was a damping of sensitivity and altruism towards Black patients, and this became an important but unacknowledged part of a physician's training.
One powerful illustration of this process is found in the touching November 1846 memoirs of the newly minted Dr. Pray. He recounted how during his first anatomical dissection he had filled in overwhelming sympathy for the fate of the young girl under his scalpel. "Today are subject, a poor Negro girl, was brought up. Poor, despised and disregarded African, degraded and despised in life you are to be made a spectacle of and subject of ridicule and obscene jest even in death." Yet, under professional pressure, he immediately launched into a detailed public surgical dissection of the girl's labia.
A year later, the same doctor laughingly wrote of his antics the night before, when he had delighted in making a group of white women of his own social class scream in horror. How? By frightening them with "a piece of dead nigar" that he has saved from the dissecting table.
...Students such as the young George Pray were likely to be the most idealistic of caregivers, but they were also the most vulnerable to professional repercussions should they offend professors. They could not afford to criticize instructors, even obliquely, by suggesting that the clinical material should be treated as sensitively as white private patients. Eventually, students absorbed the racist values that informed their education at every turn."
Chapter 4- Medical Apartheid, Harriet A. Washington
saki is the best prsk character @demiboy-potato - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
