Paw Print System

We're the Paw Print System! We do not have a collective name, if you need to refer to us use our system name and they/them pronouns (specifically they/them in the context of us being a collective, not singular they/them). Otherwise please address alters directly by their own names and pronouns.

[paw-prints-system]

The Introduction Post

Hello, Tumblr! We are a DID system who created this blog to talk about and log our experiences as a system.

Our alters see themselves as very individualized, and so we choose not to use a collective name or pronouns. If you must refer to us collectively, just call us the Paw Print System and refer to us with plural they/them pronouns. Generally we would prefer for you to use our alters individual names and pronouns, though.

We are collectively anti endo (although the extremity of our beliefs vary by alter) but do not wish to engage in syscourse here, consider ourselves sympathetic to endos as potential systems in denial of trauma, and will be civil with pro/endos if they choose to interact with us despite our stance.

Bodily we are twenty one years old and intersex, we do not collectively like to use gender/sexuality labels for us as a whole, because they vary so much depending on the alter.

To protect our privacy and keep this blog separate from people we actually know, as well as to avoid potential harassment for fictive sources, all of our alters will go by pseudonym names on this blog rather than their actual names.

We have, currently (that we know of), twenty eight alters, and several what we'd describe as 'sub-systems'. We might make longer intro posts for each subsystem going into more detail about each alter later, but for now, a brief description of our system will suffice:

'Universal' Alters: A subcategory of alters within our system which seemingly have access to the entire system, and all sub-systems seemingly have access to them so far. We have four of these currently.

Princess - She/Her, Shi/Hir, and It/Its Pronouns - Feminine Terms - Sapphic idemromantic transfeminine demigirl - 21 y/o - 🍰 - Host

Icarus - Any Pronouns - Any Gendered Terms - Unlabeled Sexuality & Gender - 21 y/o - 🪽- Gatekeeper

Lucy - She/Her Pronouns - Feminine Terms - Girl, Unlabeled Sexuality - 8 y/o - 🐶- Little

Stencil - Shi/Hir & They/Them Pronouns - Any Terms - Genderfluid Intergender & Unlabeled Sexuality - 22 y/o - 🎨- Caretaker

'Disconnected' Alters: A subcategory of alters within our system which aren't part of any main subsystems. Disconnected alters tend to be 'less developed', generally fronting far less than more alters (or even being kept completely internal) and holding more singular perspectives and emotions than most alters. We have six of these currently.

Mouse - Shi/Her and It/Its Pronouns - Any Gendered Terms - Agender Aroace - 21 y/o - 🐁

Circus - He/Him Pronouns - Masculine Terms - Pansexual Man - 21 y/o - 🎪

Porcelain - No Pronouns - No Gendered Terms - Genderless & Aroace - Ageless - 🎀

Pacific - He/Him & They/Them Pronouns - Masculine & Neutral Terms - Gay Demiboy - 21 y/o - 🌊

Bat - He/Him & They/Them Pronouns - Neutral Terms - Unlabeled Sexuality & Agender - 21 y/o - 🦇

Bella - She/Her Pronouns - Feminine terms - Girl & Unlabeled Sexuality - 12 y/o - 🎻

Deceit - Any/All Pronouns - Any Terms - Genderfluid & Unlabeled Sexuality - Ageless - 🌀

The 'Green' Subsystem: The largest subsystem we have, completely cut off from non-universal alters outside of the system. Currently has seven members.

Briar - She/Her & Shi/Hir Pronouns - Feminine terms - Aspec Lesbian Trans Woman - 21 y/o -🌹

Nova - He/Him & Star/Stars Pronouns - Masculine Terms - Gay Transmasc Demiboy - 21 y/o - 🌌

Hyacinth - He/Him & She/Her Pronouns - Masculine & Feminine Terms - Bigender & Unlabeled Sexuality - 21 y/o - 🪻

Primadonna - She/Her & Fae/Faer Pronouns - Feminine Terms - "Bicurious" Woman - 21 y/o - 🪲

Lamb - She/Her Pronouns - Feminine Terms - Prefers not to speak of gender or sexuality - 21 y/o - 🧿

Moon - They/Them & Pup/Pups Pronouns - Feminine and Neutral terms - Agender (wolfgender?) Aroace - 21 y/o - 🌒

Molly - She/Her & They/Them Pronouns - Any Terms - Nonbinary Transfem & "Probably a lesbian but flexible" - 21 y/o - ☄️ * side note that, while he doesn't identify with any subsystem, icarus is often attached to this subsystem and was previously considered a member of it. furthermore, there's confusion about whether nova and one of our detached alters, pacific, are actually the same alter- they have different names and sources but share most of their emotional and personal identifiers as well as roles, and are very blendy and hard to tell apart. also, briar has a strong attachment to one alter, uccen, in another subsystem, and considers him to be an 'aspect' of her in some ways, though neither have access to each other subsystems.

The 'Blue' Subsystem: Our second largest subsystem, completely cut off from non-universal alters outside of the system. Currently has five(?) members.

Dolly - She/Her, They/Them, & Doll/Dolls Pronouns - Feminine Terms - Aspec Transfem Dollgender Lesbian - 30 y/o - 🧵

Matcha - She/Her & They/Them Pronouns - Feminine & Neutral Terms - Bisexual Transfem Demigirl - 21 y/o - 🍵

Montreal - She/Her Pronouns - Feminine Terms - Bisexual Trans Woman - 22 y/o - 🐰

Abstraction - They/Them & She/Her Pronouns - Any Terms - Gnc Bisexual Woman - 25 y/o - 🃏

Ribbon - She/Her Pronouns - Feminine Terms - Transfem Demigirl & Lesbian - 26 y/o - 🌸 * side note that, while stencil is a 'universal alter', meaning shi has access to the whole system, they seem to primarily feel connected to and front alongside the blue subsystem, so they may belong in the list. porcelain, while primarily being a detached alter, also might have some connection to this subsystem, given porcelain has primarily fronted around them, and some members of this system have an emotional attachment to porcelain (unclear if its returned). we're not sure. so the alter count for this subsystem is between five and seven.

The 'Pink' Subsystem: We're getting into subsystems that front less frequently now. Our frequent fronters are generally the green and blue systems as well as our universal alters, so all subsystems listed from here on generally front less or under more specific circumstances. Currently has three members.

Melody - She/Her Pronouns - Feminine Terms - Lesbian Woman - 35 y/o - 🎹

Glitter - She/Her & Kit/Kits Pronouns - Neutral Terms - Unlabeled Gender & Bisexual - 20 y/o - 💋

Sniper - They/Them Pronouns - Any Terms - Gender Apathetic & Bisexual - 21 y/o - 🎯

The 'Red' Subsystem: Here we have one of our two smallest subsystems. Currently has two members.

Mellohi - He/Him Pronouns - Masculine Terms - Aromantic Lesbian Demigirl - 16 y/o - 🎵

Tangerine - She/Her Pronouns - Feminine Terms - Asexual Lesbian Demigirl - 16 y/o - 🍊

The 'Orange' Subsystem: Our other smallest subsystem. Currently has two members.

Ophelia - No Pronouns - No Gendered Terms - Genderless Bisexual - 15 y/o - 🦋

Uccen - He/Him & It/Its Pronouns - Masculine Terms - Genderless Aroace - 15 y/o - 🐺 * side note, as said earlier, uccen often feels like an 'aspect' of briar and they are connected with one another in some way, but neither seems to have access to each others subsystems.

[paw-prints-system]

We'd love to do system comics like the ones we see floating around but with a headcount of..thirty one now..I think..it feels so implausible to make designs for everyone to do comics of. Especially since we're trying not to make our fictive sources too obvious which would mean changing most alters appearances pretty drastically for the purposes of comic designs. Augh. Other systems how do you do ittt.

[paw-prints-system]

Google what to do when you have two alters from the same source. We just found a new alter and she's sourced from the same character as Porcelain. They can't both have the characters name that'd be. Confusing for us internally. What do you guys do in this situation do you make them fight to the death for the canon name or-

Anyways, new alter, yayy. We're using code name 'Ribbon' for her on this blog and she'll be using 🌸 as her sign-off emoji.

(hiii tumblr ヽ(^･ω･^) - 🌸)

[paw-prints-system]

Hate not knowing who I am, we're all so well documented you'd think it'd be easy enough to tell who is in front, but I just feel blurred together and have a big headache. Literally who all is in front right now I'm going to bang my head against the walls. We've known we're a system for months and it seems like it's always getting harder to tell (probably because we're always splitting or discovering new alters) how do you guys do it.

[paw-prints-system]

"Subsystems":

I don't know if labeling our 'groups' as subsystems is actually correct. I've always had somewhat of a hard time conceptualizing what a subsystem really is.

But we do have very distinct groupings of alters, I think? And between the different groups, we have more communication struggles, higher amnesia gaps, etc.

Like, if someone from The Green Subsystem fronts, and then another alter from The Green Subsystem switches in, they're likely to remember most of what the other did and have minimal problems with amnesia gaps. They can also usually recognize each other pretty easily, and communicate. If Briar is fronting, and then Nova enters co-con, Briar will pick up on his presence and be able to go "Oh, hi Nova <3", and while our internal communication is generally pretty limited, when it does happen more 'smoothly' its between members of the same subsystem.

On the other hand, if someone from The Green Subsystem fronts, and then an alter from The Blue Subsystem switches in, it may be harder to switch, or more discombobulating, and the new fronter will probably have much much higher amnesia. Furthermore, when cofronting/cocon, members of separate subsystems often can't even recognize each other, or themselves, which leads to us being more confused and dissociated and not knowing who is in front, and they usually just..can't communicate at all.

I don't know if these are 'subsystems' as they're usually defined, because again, the definitions we're given are often confusing for us as a system with no real visualization of our alters or 'inner world', but it feels useful to us to put a name to the separation that exists there.