#mod mervyn

[pluralhelp]

am I still plural/valid if there’s only 3 (maybe 2) of us?

100%. Nothing really makes you invalid as plural

The size of your system especially does not determine your plurality/your validity as a plural!

[pluralhelp]

Hello, I talked with @//spudsys a few hours ago about questioning being a system. And she said you may be able to help? For the record, I never in my life questioned being plural. So, into it I go.

A bit of background. I'm nonhuman. Totally nonhuman. Physically, psychologically, and spiritually. I have many types; I'm a winged cat, a dog, a jackrabbit, a deer, and a Watcher.

The thing is. I know that plurality and nonhumanity is linked in some way. But I don't think that each of my kintypes is an alter/headmate. Because the way I experience being a winged cat, dog, jackrabbit, and deer is merely through mental shifts, instincts and urges.

My Watcher identity is different from the others. Because yes, I'm always all of my types, but they are species, not whatever the Watcher identity is.

So, onto the signs I noticed:

- My Watcher "identity" has a name. It's called Orion, I don't know where the name came from, because none of my other types have names.

- Every time I get a Watcher mental shift, it's almost like I'm not really in control. Like I'm yanked back into a backseat. And I can more or less remember what happens when on a Watcher mental shift, but those memories evaporate not long after, and they are more blurry. Unless I'm really stressed; if I'm really stressed or scared I won't remember it. Like, I can remember them right after, but not later.

- My thoughts are... different. Normally, my thoughts are chaotic, inter-whined, really fast and energetic. But when I get a watcher shift I'm more... calm, reflective, almost.

- And my fictionkin/watcher memories are not really my own. I don't think they are from a past life either, I don't know where they came from. I assumed they were from a past life, or a parallel timeline, but maybe not??? I remember places, and things that happened. But I don't remember doing this, not in this life, at least.

- I've had bad memory since I can remember. My childhood was pretty normal, peaceful, I wasn't abused or anything. Although, when I was in high school I was always stressed, had panic and anxiety attacks, I dissociated once or twice, I've experienced depersonalization once. Like I was Watching my body from above. This was because teachers were awful to me, and I was bullied.

(My psychologist has defined my time in high school as traumatic, I'm a bit in denial tho. But I remember that when I talk about highschool with her she looks freaked out. She says that a lot of things that I experienced weren't normal, they were stressful and traumatic)

- Sometimes I write posts, notes or things that I don't remember writing. Once I was so stressed in my first year of college that I forgot full weeks at a time. I wasn't aware that they happened.

- In college, my memory was so bad that I had to carry around a notebook to remember to do things and what I was doing.

- Sometimes I find posts in my tumblr that I don't remember writing. This has only happened few times, tho.

- Sometimes my inner dialogue is almost like I'm talking to someone else, like a conversation. I don't know if I'm (me, Watcher) the one responding or if it's someone else (whoever Orion is).

- That's more or less everything. I don't know if this is plurality or what it is. I hope you may be able to help?

This definitely sounds like plurality to me.

It's also pretty common for pre-syscovery systems to assume headmates as kintypes/nonhuman identities, so it's very possible Orion is a headmate and not a kintype (it could also be both! You could have a Watcher kintype and Orion be a headmate) And of course yes, plurality is inherently alterhuman.

And personally I agree with, going off the base level information you gave, your psychologist. Stress (especially that causes anxiety and panic attacks, etc) and bullying are traumatic, especially for children. Now Trauma isn't necessary for plurality, but it's definitely a common cause (whether your plurality is disordered or not it sounds like it's very likely you could be Traumagenic[link] or something more specific like Bulligenic[link] or Stressgenic[link])

Everything else listed is sounding incredibly plural, and we as a system actually relate to a lot of what you're saying. It's ultimately your choice forward, but looking into some plural resources/communities and communicating with Orion is definitely an option for you! My main recommendation is to take it easy, don't rush or stress yourself out, and let things move slowly

Here's a quick collection of recourses I can immediately think of: (this is not, of course, a full list)

What Is Plurality[link] - Good base information. You seem to already know of what plurality is at least mostly, but there is more in-depth information on some common terms, etc, which could be of interest to you.

More Than One[link] - Another base resource. I mention this as it's the first plural resource we ever came across, and all things considered it's not bad. It's maybe brief, but it has other resources within it

Communication Techniques[link] - Shared by another mod. If you're looking to begin trying to communicate with Orion

Power To The Plurals[link] - A plurality based website with a lot in it, I haven't read through the whole thing but it's definitely got some good information in there.

Pluralpedia[link] - There are a lot of terms on here and it may be overwhelming starting out, but it's still a good archive of terms and information. I'll nudge you in the direction of This Page[link] and This Page[link] as I think they could be of interest to you, but look through it on your own time too!

Plural Tags - here on Tumblr there's obviously a pretty large plural community, and while it's not the best it's still a community (which in turn brings resources, experiences and support). Scrolling plural tags can be a gamble with all the discourse, but generally these tags are what we use/look through:

pluralblr, pluralgang, plural community, pluralpunk, plural positivity, plural experiences,

I'm not sure on any specific disordered plural tags (which even if you don't end up being so, it might be worth looking into), as we don't typically look through them for our own reasons, but they're usually labeled similarly to above like DIDblr, DID community, DID system, etc. There's also the OSDD and ODD tags

There's also many many plural blogs

And a plural community here on Tumblr we personally enjoy is Plural Party[link]! It's definitely a pretty calm and welcoming community, and a good place to share experiences. I'm also going to point you towards Alterhuman Community[link]

Good luck and have a great day! To both you and Orion

[pluralhelp]

every system around me has at least one introject of some kind, and i just... not a single one. is that normal?

Very much so! Not everyone has introjects, and not everyone has brainmades/entomates. There's plenty of systems out there without any, you're not alone in that :]

[pluralhelp]

Hello 👋

Just a random thing that might help someone else. There’s this website called https://flowcharty.altervista.org/new/ - or just search flowcharty, it should be the first or second result after a pluralpedia website explaining it.

What it does is let you input in different key things about your alters in their format that then helps you parse out who’s in front when you’re not sure. I’d say it’d be less hassle for those with smaller systems just because of the setup, but once you type all of the things out you can always copy and paste the list into a document that you can then copy and paste into the website whenever needed - it’s sort of a one and done thing.

It takes the information you put in and then asks a series of questions to help determine who might be in front. If it can’t figure it out, it gives you the top few that would fall into the category of answers you gave out. Pretty helpful for us, and hopefully it helps at least one other person having another resource to use

- nick

have a nice day, remember you’re a being worthy of respect, yolo

Oooo that is a really cool website, thanks a lot for the recommendation!

Link to it ↓

[pluralhelp]

What does 'core' mean?

Core[link] refers to a headmate who has some form of direct connection to the body pre-plurality, though this isn't something every system has (nor does every plural have a time in which they were not)

Also, some median folk use it to refer to the main or central identity that most or a large majority of the headmates are facets of/influenced by?

[pluralhelp]

Hey there! We’re a polyfrag system with a large headcount for both alters and subsystems and we were wanting to read/hear about others experiences with having alot of headmates and subsystems. We have about 500 some members documented in our simply plural rn and the estimated headcount we were given was around 3k but we’re not sure how rigid that number is .

Hello! Answering this ask so other systems can add on with their own experiences.

We're probably somewhere in the middle of small and large, leaning small. So we can't really share ourselves, but hopefully you get some responses!

[pluralhelp]

How do I hug my headmates and have them actually feel it? They're cool and deserve hugs :]

Hello! I relate to this a lot,

Now I'm not familiar with stuff in headspace or an inner world as we don't really have one. However! I often will hug the body/ourselves, with the To Be Hugged in front or co-con with me, and that works. In fact, all physical affection we want to show to one another and feel it is through the body .. it's actually really comforting ^♡^

There are likely other ways, and this may not work for everyplural, but this is what we do! I hope they get their hugs <3

[pluralhelp]

I know that fictotypes aren't supposed to be able to talk to you in your head, so am I still even fictionkin if I'm experiencing this?

Hey! True, your fictotypes generally don't talk to you, and that could be a sign of plurality*

*many would argue that since plurality is a form of alterhumanity, then this and kintypes can easily intersect or share similarities to each other anyways

You can also totally be a fictionkin still/as well! Maybe you view your fictotype separately from yourself, maybe they're a fictive AND you're a fictionkin, etc. It's up to you/you both really!