Been thinking about our POSIC object companions lately.
For us, the experience of being POSIC is inherently plural in a lot of ways, but with one exception, most of our companions AREN'T system members OR headmates. It's not at all plural in the same WAY our system is.
It's not multiple people in one body, nor is it a hivemind of a singular shared consciousness being split across multiple vessels/bodies.
I think where it feels inherently plural to us is in the perception of multiple discrete consciousnesses. It's being multiple consciousnesses - minds or souls or both - in multiple bodies - in a shared communicative space - in a way that goes beyond the experience of just say, two people talking to each other in the same room.
Like, excluding the possible existence of psychics/telepathics (which could also feasibly be considered plural by this definition) when two people and/or systems are in a shared physical space, their consciousnesses remain entirely separate from each other, never overlapping or mixing or even interacting on the plane of consciousness alone.
On the other hand, my perception of object sentience feels a lot closer to my perception of my headmates' consciousnesses in terms of how and on what level they interact. The consciousness themselves slide over and orbit each other, sharing a gravitational space which allows them to act directly on one another.
It's like how distant stars exert no FORCE on each other, but can share light, but stars in a binary system exert force and sometimes even exchange material with one another, if that makes any sense.
Um, so basically, the mindbodies of my object companions act on one another in similar ways as to minds within the body that houses my system.
But, crucially, when I say that my POSICness is part of my plurality, I do NOT mean it is part of my systemhood. It's an entirely separate part of my plurality that has nothing to do with being multiple in a physical BODY or even a metaphysical HEADSPACE, but rather with having ACCESS to a shared space housing multiple consciousnesses EXTERNAL to the system and not itself a system.
The plurality to me comes from *perceiving* multiple minds, not being them myself - because most singlets can only perceive their own minds, and even most plurals can only perceive minds within their system.
I think POSICness should at least overlap with the plural umbrella for this reason, and not just for when object companions ARE headmates. I feel like singlets AND systems who do not consider their companions part of their systems should at least have the option to identify as plural just by *BEING* POSIC if they choose. (Of course, you can do whatever you want forever. I just mean like, it being known as part of the overall "official" definition.)
And I think it's important to remember that plurality really is a much wider umbrella than just systemhood. Plural nonsystems are valid, no matter what reason they identify as such. Plural has always been an inclusive term - and that means more than to just all origins and disordered/non-disordered systems.
I think it's really neat that plural CAN be all these things.
