mikesys headcanons, i suppose? (also please correct me if i got anything wrong—i don’t have d.i.d. myself and have only done external research before making this post so things might not be perfect, but feel free to correct me!)
(i mean that. if i wrote something wrong or offensive by accident correct me. please.)
(TW for mentions abuse/trauma)
Mike (he/him) — 18 (same age as the body) — Host/Gatekeeper. From what I’ve read, gatekeeper alters can (or at least tend to) control when alters do and don’t front/certain parts of the subconscious. And I mean…he kind of does do that. The entirety of ROTI is just him doing exactly that. Trying to, at least. The whole argument between him and his alters in All Stars/the end of ROTI is because they feel like they have no control because he takes the lead on everything. (which tbh that would’ve made a much more interesting plot line/conflict for Mike than anything Mal served, especially if Manitoba were the main antagonist considering he seemed the most upset about never fronting “unless Mike wanted him to” but whatever…I’m not freshtv). I don’t think he has anything that specifically causes him to front when he’s not? Nothing I can think of anyway. I’m not sure how it works and if alters can just willingly front but from I’ve read they sometimes can? I don’t know though. If anyone wants to weigh in please do! I do think he was the core though.
Chester (he/none) — mid 70s/early 80s — Protector(?). I think Chester was one of, if not the last alter to split. This isn’t very original, but I do think part of him is a reflection off of the system’s “Nonno” (who was maybe the only safe adult in their childhood, even if he was prickly, unfriendly and unpleasant to be around sometimes—he adored Mike. He loved him to death). He split after their grandfather died and used to play more of a caretaker role, but his role shifted a bit as time moved on. He still fronts when one of the other alters grows frustrated and/or angry/gets injured. He holds a lot of the system’s pain, both physical and mental. He’s prickly partially because he reflects their grandpa, like I said, but also to drive people way, in a sense. He’s not very trusting of many people. It’s difficult to get his guard down but when you do, I like to think he’s sweeter.
Svetlana (she/her) — early 20s (around 23-25) — (Mental) Caretaker. I have a headcanon that Mike is the oldest of four and had only sisters. He was severely neglected as a child, both because he wasn’t a girl like his mom wanted, and he was the oldest and she considered him “an adult” at the ripe age of seven. He really wasn’t seen his own individual person as much as he was lumped in with his sisters. Because of this, he was thrust into whatever activities his sisters wanted to do (or whatever his mom wanted his sisters to do). Gymnastics and ballet were the biggest ones. So Svetlana split off to help with his dysphoria and the emotional neglect. She usually fronted during these lessons both because of Mike’s dysphoria and because he considered it a “fight or flight” situation. He knew if he didn’t do well, the abuse and neglect would only get worse. She still fronts a lot during these fight or flight situations, but she uses her gymnastics to both fight back and fly. She carries a lot of dysphoria too. She’s not exactly “motherly”, but she does protect the system from potential threats and is probably the best about things like emotional regulation and forming somewhat healthy coping mechanisms. You see in All Stars that she’s the one who tries to hype the group up/keep them going. Her caretaking is mostly mental/emotional. Manitoba takes better care of the physical body.
(speaking of)
Manitoba (he/they) — late 20s/early 30s — Introject/Caretaker. He was probably the first to split— he did so both as a distraction from his parents abuse/getting divorced and as a survival tool. Some of the system’s only good memories as children are from watching things like Indiana Jones and The Crocodile Hunter. So Manitoba’s an introject of people Mike idolized as a kid. He usually fronts in “survivalist scenarios”, or times where the body thinks it’s in danger/survival mode. Such as if the system desperately needs food, water or shelter. He will eat anything too—bugs, dirt, leaves. He knows which ones are safe and which ones aren’t. I saw a headcanon that Manitoba has Pica/Pica tendencies which I thought was genius so I’m taking that (if OP sees this pls lmk so i can properly credit you—edit: it was @ask-the-mikeys headcanon! thanks for letting me know! <3). So I think he started out as a distraction and quickly evolved into a physical caretaker. He’s the best at maintaining physical wellness, out of any of them. The others usually either forget or they overwork/overwhelm themselves.
Vito (he/him) — between 19-22 — (Sexual) Trauma Holder. I’m pretty sure most of the fandom agrees on this one. He was the very last alter to split and did so due to some sort of sexual trauma. I heard that somewhere, his first job was working at his Uncle Vinnie’s car company, fixing cars and stuff. I like to think they had a good relationship with their uncle—it was their cousin who was the problem, and he closely resembles him in both personality and attitude. His cousin was a complete loud mouthed frat boy, similar to how Vito acts. He fronts when someone in the system feels exposed or vulnerable in some way. I’ve seen people make headcanons that he did what he did with Anne Maria specifically to drive Zoey away, inevitably protecting the system from the potential danger that comes with an intimate/close relationship and I honestly really like that. He’s the least trusting of the alters—maybe second to Mal. Nobody else in the system remembers any of the things Vito does, and they only know through journaling (which I headcanon the system starts doing post canon).
Mal (he/they/it) — 16-17 — Persecutor. He was the host for a lot of the system’s preteens/early teens. He holds a lot of the darker internal thoughts/feelings (like self loathing, fear, shame, deep anger…) and his lashing out/self sabotaging comes from him thinking he’s “protecting” himself, even though he’s incredibly misguided. I don’t think he’s some bloodthirsty psychopath, but he’s also not an “UwU emo boi!” either. He’s a misguided, mentally ill teenager who has severe trauma. I honestly would have loved to know more about why he was in juvie with Duncan and what he was like there that made him so terrifying to everyone else. But alas. I do headcanon a lot of it was for assault/battery and that a lot of why he was so “feared” was because he spent a lot of time either disassociated for hours at a time (and nobody understood what he was doing) or lashing out at anyone who came near him. He probably knows a lot more about the system’s trauma than they think he does. But a lot of what he does comes from both some sick idea that he’s actually protecting himself/the system and not hurting them, and from the idea that part of him—them—deserves to feel that way.
And no, the “reset button” doesn’t exist. The idea that simply pushing a button will cure your disability is absolutely deranged and I hate it so yeah ! idk these are just some thoughts—I’ll probably revise this when I’m more informed/give done more research. But I do have some miscellaneous headcanons I’ll add under the cut
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Mike knows card tricks. Like the freaky ones, not just the “specific hand movement” ones. It Zoey thinks it’s the coolest thing ever. And it also scares her a bit because he won’t explain how he does it.
Svetlana and Zoey bake together. Her favorite thing to make is cupcakes because she likes being able to do different things with the icing and stuff. They also do each others nails because I need that to happen.
Chester only writes in cursive and none of the other alters know how to read cursive. This was a pretty big problem when they started journaling, which only angers Chester because “kids these days don’t know anything!”.
Along that line, Vito and Manitoba have the world’s worst handwriting. Vito sucks at spelling and Manitoba always writes at lightning speed. Doesn’t help that their handwritings are chicken scratch either.
Svetlana is the only one with legible handwriting. Mal too—his handwriting is surprisingly neat and orderly. Almost eerily so. He just writes in a microscopic font for some reason. Mike is somewhere in the middle. His handwriting would be neat if he didn’t have Shaky Hand Syndrome.
Mal’s real name isn’t actually Mal. He just calls himself that because it sounds cool. Though it’s also partially because the others just gave him the “Malevolent One” nickname and he took it to heart. Honestly him not even having a name is pretty sad. His name literally just means Bad.
Mike does swear. He probably swears more than most of the Maggots except maybe Anne Maria and definitely Jo. I know a lot of people want him to be a lil cinnamon roll or whatever but I know this boy would absolutely cuss you out if you piss him off/drive him to his limit. He’d probably throw hands with you too. Let’s not forget this is the same guy who pushed Scott into shark infested waters despite knowing about his fear of Fang.
The system as a whole just cannot grow facial hair and it makes Vito and Manitoba so upset.
Mike’s favorite dessert is cinnamon buns and Zoey makes crazy good ones. Let me have this. I need to draw it.
I like to think that him, Cam and Zoey live together post canon since all three of them are technically millionaires since they all won the show at some point. It makes my Camzoke heart happy.
They’re half Mexican, half Italian. The first headcanon I ever had was that Mike was Mexican actually. I’ve thought that since I was like 8 lol.
Mike knows Italian because his grandpa mostly spoke it (he was an Italian immigrant). Chester also speaks Italian, at least a little bit. He learned it from an outside source though.
Mal canonically knows Spanish but none of the other alters do. I mean, they know a little bit? They know the basic words but Mal knows a lot.
Vito would tear up a Brazilian steakhouse. I just know it.
Svetlana wishes she had more friends who were girls—she wants that kind of connection. I would’ve loved to see her and Jo interact more to be honest. I think they would’ve been good friends.
Svetlana is really insecure about her height. She wishes she were shorter like some of the other girls were.
Chester loves feeding the ducks. I don’t know why. It’s just something I can see.
Not in a romantic way, not even in a remotely normal way. He's in love with him the way a creator is in love with his masterpiece. He so carefully and lovingly shaped him, pushed him to his boundaries, built him into the key to achieve his vision. And he's fascinated by how perfect Jon turned out to be. He's obsessed with him. He needed him to rule the world beside him. Jon is the only one Jonah wouldn't have tried to step over or get rid off, he wants him there.
Jon is precious and perfect and he wants to put him in a glass box and just stare at him for eternity where there's only the two of them in a world of suffering.
My favourite lovecraft fact is that canonically Nyarlathothep has fought the teenage mutant ninja turtles so my fellow malevolent fan artists do with this information what you will.
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