Dirty Dan and Tio system ideas/headcannons!
Hey guys! So as some of yall may or may not know, I am a C-DID system. C-DID stands for Complex dissociative identity disorder. And me being me, I sometimes wonder what certain characters would be like with this condition. For SCWW, these characters are Dirty Dan and Tio! :) These are just some ideas I’ve had in my head for a while that I hope yall enjoy, and don’t be afraid to ask me questions in the comments! :]
🐸 I’d say Tio would probably be a polyfragmented/C-DID system just like me. How he presents(overt or covert,) I think his system would be covert. You wouldn’t really guess that Tio is a system when taking an initial look at him. A lot of people contributed to the mistreatment and abuse and trauma that Tio went through, even his own family. The only people Tio could fully trust at some point was his mother, Tia, and Leo. The only people who didn’t try to hurt him as a child.
🐸 I’d like to think that maybe he met uncle bun somewhere in his early teenage years, or possibly even before then. Either way, he met Bun while he was still actively being traumatized. This resulted in more uncle bun factives then Tio would like to admit exists. (He never told uncle bun out of pure embarrassment and partial denial of their existence.)
🐸 Tio probably had an interest in psychology in his teen years which led him to discover CDDs, and eventually—DID. Upon researching more and relaxing that DID fit what he had been expending for his whole damn life by that point, his first thought was— “Okay this makes sense,” but also simultaneously— “There’s no fucking way. That’s way too rare of a condition, I couldn’t possible have that-“ but… alas… he does have it. And it only became more and more obvious over the years. [Also for the record- DID/OSDD are not as rare as you think that is. That 1.5 percentage that gets stated in the DSM-5-TR only counts for the DIAGNOSED statistic of DID SPECIFICALLY in a SMALL PART OF NORTH AMERICA.]
🐸 Hopping off of that last one- I feel like Tio wouldn’t tell anyone about his system unless they knew they’d support him, (like say with his siblings Tia and Leo), or if they were a system too. Tio wants to tell Bun about his system on multiple occasions, but no time ever felt right to bring smtg like that up so he just didn’t.
🐸 I’d say that Tio probably had to go the self-diagnosed route for a long time because when he was growing up and growing into adulthood— not much was known about CDDs and treatment for those—ESPECIALLY DID/OSDD—didn’t exactly exist yet. Ofc he wanted a diagnosis hella badly so that way he could get the proper help and care that he needed, (and to help himself with denial), but still. This shit ain’t easy. Ask any system and they will tell you how much it sucks trying to find help.
🐸 Like most systems, trying to secure a diagnosis—let alone treatment—was an ABSOLUTE HELL to do. Mental health professionals half the time didn’t know what they were talking about and didn’t really know how to help Tio and his system because they didn’t know much about CDDs as a whole, and god forbid Tio talk about the complex trauma he went though as a kid or how complex his system ended up as a result. There was a 50/50 percent chance that he would get suddenly dropped by his doctors because they didn’t know how to help or what to do with him, or they would just say that he’s lying/faking it because— “There’s no way that’s possible”. There was also fact of that seeking out treatment or a diagnosis could be potentially made his already traumatizing situation worse depending on what was going on in his life while he was seeking out treatment.
🐸 Tio once got into a fight with Doc Quackers but he doesn’t know/remember how that argument ended because he spaced out and woke up at uncle buns’ house. When trying to figure out what happened people joked about him sounding like uncle bun during the fight and now Tio is partially terrified that one of his uncle bun factives fronted and did smtg like yelling at somebody.
🐸 Smtg systems have to deal with sometimes is called “psychoschematic symptoms” some examples of these are alters having different allergies then other head mates due to the brain being so convinced that you’re allergic to that thing that your body has a very physical reaction to it, different resting heart rates, different muscle tension, and even different eye sight. Depending on who’s fronting, different alters will have a very different experience fronting in the body as different alters fronting will cause different parts of the brain to light up or turn off.
I’d like to think that’s alters in Tios system deal with these, specially the eye sight and allergies thing. And he figured this out via one of his alters had an allergic reaction to something like— mangos or smtg and now everyone nearly freaks out if Tio so even LOOKS or TOUCHES mango. And I feel like what would make this worse is that if that particular alter doesn’t really front anymore and people are still freaking out if Tio tries to eat a mango even though he technically wouldn’t have a reaction because the majority of the system doesn’t have that particular allergy. 😅😂🤣
🐸 I feel like Tio would tell Uncle Bun about his C-DID eventually, but it would either be smtg Bun discovered by accident, or smtg that was told to him via Tio. Bun is intials shocked, but he’s not surprised, in fact- he has suspected that something was up for YEARS but didn’t know how to bring up. TL;DR: Bun wasn’t shocked at all and he accepts and supports Tio and his system fully.
🐸 Tio hates his alters. Point blank period. He loves his system, it’s one of the only reasons he’s alive today, but he’d be lying if he said that he didn’t wanna strangle some of the ppl up there sometimes.
🐸 Tio will tell stories about the stuff that happened in his systems headspace but edit it and use the guise of it “happening to some friends” oh his, or— “he read it in a book”, and simalure excuses depending on what he’s telling.
🐸 Flashbacks are very rough for him :( he will often isolate himself in his house when this happens and will often push the people he trusts the most like Uncle Bun, Tia, Leo, and sheriff Callie. Even if they just wanna help, Tio and the rest of the system will still lock themselves up whenever they can(preferably their house,) where they can hide away from the danger their brain and body is convinced is still there.
🐸 I feel like some of Tios earliest symptoms of his system developing would be the memory issues, switching, and having different voices from time to time with zero explanation. He knows now in his old age of course that this is all due to his C-DID, but little Tio did NOT know that.
🐸 The dissociative amnesia aspect of the disorder stresses Tio tf out. He doesn’t have full on black out amnesia/switches often, but when it DOES happen he get a little nervous cuz literally ANYTHING could’ve happened while he was away and out of front.
🐗 The first time Dirty Dan couldn’t recognize his brother was scary for him. He—or at least the alter who was fronting at the time—didn’t really know who Dusty was. They knew that Dusty was friendly and their brother due to a gut feeling, but that’s all they really had to go off of and that notion really confused him in his mind. He could tell that Dusty wasn’t any kind of danger, but his brain couldn’t wrap around WHO Dusty actually was. It took a lot of explaining and comforting on Dusty’s end for things to start making a lick of sense. Even if Dusty didn’t know about the system at the time, he always figured that his brother was extremely forgetful and still loved him and helped him regardless.
🐗 Upon figuring out that Dirty Dan was an OSDD-1b system, he was experiencing the symptom of denial and experiencing it HARD. He would deny it up and down until things start to make a little TOO much sense and then he has a breakdown over it; to which Dusty reminds Dan that whether he’s a system or a singlet he will still love and support him either way. Even if that loves loving and supporting more than one person in one body all at once.
🐗 Dirty Dan constantly fake claims himself constantly because of various things like being fictive heavy, and not being able to remember his traumas properly to explain. (BOTH OF WHICH ARE NORMAL AND REAL/VALID SYSTEM EXPERIENCES BTW), and Dusty will have to gently remind Dan that being fictive heavy doesn’t mean he’s faking it and that not being able to remember the trauma is the whole point of the disorder; and that if he WERE faking it, he’d know. Because faking is intentional. And also denial is a heavy symptom- systems are often covert and don’t like to be found.
🐗 Speaking of being covert- I think Dirty Dan would have a more Overt presentation! :) Not as overt to where it’s obvious- but you would definitely suspect smtg if you knew what to look for. (Which I think sheriff Callie definitely would, but a little bit more of that later.)
🐗 I feel like Dirty Dan would have that one alter who doesn’t know how to properly mine coal for the life of them and dirty Dan has a personal hatred for them.
🐗 Much like Tio, Dan would likely have alters who struggle with eyesight while Dan personally doesn’t. He hates it, especially on mining trips where being able to see is crucial to do his work. In these moments Dusty is a huge help.
🐗 I feel like he also would deal with random body pain as a part of flashbacks and stuff; he still has no clue where it stems from.
🐗 After literal years of searching Dan is able to find a professional who specializes in CDDs, he gets to see them and they’re actually pretty good! They listen and believe Dan when he talks about his suspicions and the system, and I’d even like to think that this therapist/psychiatrist helps Dusty himself figure out that he was also effected by the trauma more than he thought. While Dusty is indeed a singlet, the discovery of his own C-PTSD wasn’t smtg he was expecting to relate with his bother on.
🐗 Dirty Dan will often go into denial about the trauma he went though or at the severity of it. To which Dusty would have to gently remind him that he DID in fact go through all of that and that it WAS all real, even if that notion really stresses Dan the fuck out.
🐗 Dirty Dan as a child would avoid certain areas of the house, places, and people for reasons he could never [fully]comprehend or remember. Dan and Dusty both know now that this was a symptom/bi-product of the OSDD developing, but at the time that it was happening, it was quite distressing.
🐗 I feel like Dirty Dan was the type of system to think that the voices in his head(the alters) were imaginary friends or potentially even angels of his family was religious.
🐗 Jumping off of that last one— religous figures such as angel and/or demon appearing alters forming due to religious trauma. :)
🐗 Some of Dans earliest symptoms he can recall of the system developing was the dissociation itself, hearing alter voices, and finding things in his room he didn’t remember putting there, and on the contrary to that- things he put in his room disappearing.
🩷 On a somewhat similar note- I think that Sheriff Callie would be strangely educated on systems and mental health in general compared to most. Being a sheriff like her you come to realize whose actually a criminal, and who’s just poor and/or mentally ill and needs help.
💙 Also- I feel like after realizing that his brother is a system and learning more about it, Dusty would become shockingly good at pointing out systems. Like- I genuinely think he might even be the reason some people discover their systems lmao.
💚 I feel like Doc Quackers would suspect smtg up with Tio and Dan becuase he knows some studs about DID/OSDD, but becuase he isn’t a licensed mental health professional, he thinks that he could possibly be mistaken and so he doesn’t really try to bring up his suspicions to either of them. 
