Because Thats Not For You To Decide.

Its like, people can ask me "why do you like this flat, two-dimensional, obnoxious fictional character and read into them a complex and nuanced inner life, and not this other flat, two dimensional, obnoxious fictional character?"

But all I can respond is that one of them I know personally and understand as a fellow being with a rich inner life and many positive qualities, and the other is just a flat, two dimensional, obnoxious fictional character to me. 🤷

System origin of the day ; Comfortgenic

Comfortgenic is a system origin that specifically created for the purpose of comfort. This can be the comfort of the host, someone outside the system, or a headmate.

It is an adaptive / created origin.

aromantic soulbonding culture is noticing that the soulbonding community is very interconnected with the selfship community and feeling weird about it

no shade to folk who are romantic with their soulbonds, the romance focus just makes us feel a bit alienated from the community

soulbonding culture is

I actually hate getting referred to as human. On tiktok, it's always "ur human" or "but ur human", and it gets REALLY annoying.

Like, no I am not human. I don't want to be perceived as human or a human who identifies this way. No, I AM a werewolf. I AM what I identify as.

A message to the younger members of the community, and those who doubt there place in it:

Beings don't care.

I went to a therian meet up over anthro northwest. And it was NOTHING like the current online spaces, especially all the discourse.

There was no fighting. It was beautiful. Beings were freely using whatever labels they wanted, no one cared "why" someone identified as something, mental, spiritual, physical. Everyone was like "Hey, cool!".

Older folks talked about their time in the community while the younger ones did quads. People howled, played with squeak toys. No one cared. And most importantly, everyone agreed the infighting was pointless.

You WILL be accepted irl. This discourse doesn't matter. You are going to find your beings, and none of these online pissing contests mean anything once you meet others off the screen.

It's a beautiful place out there.

Hey other plurals! Remember, there is no one stopping you from holding your headmates' hands.

There is no one stopping you from hugging your headmates.

There is no one stopping you from kissing your headmates.

There is no one stopping you from other displays of physical intimacy with your headmates. Given everyone's boundaries are being followed, we would highly recommend doing so!

Not only is it good for your mental health, but it can be good for your physical health as well. Our body was tired earlier and someone fronted to give someone else a massage in the headspace - note person B is usually very restless - and she and the body were fully relaxed in minutes. We actually fell asleep because of it and woke up feeling fairly refreshed.

So yeah, give your headmates some probably much needed attention, I'm sure they'll appreciate it!

Being a system practicing projection and/or imposition is so funny because why is there a reshiram standing over me in the kitchen? Why is Tomura Shigaraki standing ominously in the doorway? Why is there a dragon on my bed?

REBLOG IF YOU LOVE YOUR HEADMATES!!!!

Experiences in the Alterhuman Community (and Beyond) as a Fictive

It's a weird experience being a fictional character, especially dealing with fandom, the fact that your source is fictional, and interactions with people based on that--including some of the dehumanisation that's so common toward fictionfolk. I'm gonna go into that here because I need somwhere to collect my thoughts, so this might get long. I'll be talking about my experiences as a fictive, but this could very well apply to anyone who identifies as a fictional being--fictionkin, fictionlinkers, etc.

So, I see the version of me on the screen as an AU version of me, in short. I mean, I'm me, and I don't think I even looked exactly 1:1 with my canon self--so naturally, even though events line up pretty closely, I see my source as... Almost like a fanfic of my life? Like sure, that's decidedly me, and decidedly a lot of the things that happened to me and my friends, but also not me. I'm not that guy on the screen, he's what represents me.

Even though I fully believe I got here by dying in a literal past life, my source media here is absolutely fictional to me and I just... Don't look at it in really any other way. Which I guess makes sense if you put it into my perspective--what else would it be? It really is like reading a fanfic based on your life though, or reading an article about yourself in the news. A bit of a shock, a bit of "why did they include THAT?" sprinkled in here and there, a bit awkward sometimes, and it does tend to resurface bad feelings. But overall, it's not that personal to me. I'm largely fine with it existing.

On the other hand, what is shocking is that people see me as fictional. I'm a fictional introject, from a fictional source, from the perspectives of a lot of people here. But I look at my source and I go well... Yeah, that's fiction of course, but my life is an actual thing that happened to me. Realistically I know that not everyone has spiritual beliefs and not everyone even accepts fictional identities as something "real", but man is it weird to just... Have it be spun in such a way?

I'm used to being in the media, I'm used to having cameras on me and being in the public eye. I'm used to articles and stories and posts on the internet. I'm used to fans even! But this isn't your regular, run-of-the-mill experience of people wanting to know you because you're a hero. This is people who see your life and experiences as a fun story they saw in a book or on TV, coming up to you with the idea that you're their favourite character, and not... A whole entire person. It's so damn weird.

There's still that level of disrespect that comes from people who are a little parasocial with you, but it almost hits deeper here because a lot of the time, you know they're not seeing a hero or the things you've literally done in your memories. They're seeing that guy on the screen they think is cool, and while he represents you, he's not you. And they're treating you like a celebrity because of that weird fanfic version of you on the TV or in that book.

There's usually little acknowledgement of your life or experiences as "real". When you're presenting as your fictional identity around others, you tend to get put into one of a few camps:

Cool Character from Media who I love and adore and want to talk to (and will probably get fanperson excited about it). I will probably get dispraportionally upset if Character tells me to back off a bit because I don't want my blorbo to be mad at me.

Character from Media I'm in love with and will immediately start asking invasive questions to or outright flirting with. Could get real gross real quick.

Problematic Character or Guy From Problematic Media that I instantly dislike because that's so Problematic how dare you show your face. I'm reporting you for being Character, you should change your identity if you want to exist so bad.

Character from Media who is disabled/queer/mentally ill/has any soft personality trait ever and I will now be treating you like a sweet little babyboy cinnamon roll who could not hurt a fly.

Person who identifies as Character? How interesting! I'm going to really pry and question everything from your actions in-source (to get unique perspectives from Character) and question literally everything else. Because this is Science and I'll get mad if you don't tell me everything, you need to tell me everything or you're rude.

Of course there's nuance and there's absolutely times where you'll be treated as a normal person, but the above are... So damn common. I've been here for a few months and I've already had some weird stuff happen to me simply because I'm Kirishima and people feel entitled to give me cutesy nicknames or whatever. Even without knowing me or my system at all beforehand. It's just.. So different from anything I've experienced before? Being treated like a celebrity is dehumanising enough, but being treated like a character.ai bot or just generally a form of free entertainment and not a person is so perplexing to me.

There's also that if you're from a popular source, you see stuff about yourself everywhere. Posters, plushies, advertisements, posts on social media--all of it. Some of that I'm used to already, but it's kind of weird when you're mentally aware that this is all for that twisted-mirror version of yourself and not you. And if you get a little uncomfortable at some fanart showing up out of the blue, or someone making a source related joke... You're kind of just expected to brush it off. Which yeah, I get it! It's about the source, not me, but it's still just... A weird feeling. A feeling of not being allowed to be upset because it's about the source and not literal you.

I think there needs to be a line, maybe. Not saying that fictives should be putting a stop to any media or fandom ever, just.. That maybe respect toward us for being uncomfortable with fan content due to being a fictive or fictionkin should be more normalised. It should be more okay to say "hey, I'm Character, please don't joke like that" to a friend, or "don't send me fanart of this thing, I'm Character and that's weird"--which it normally is! But there does tend to be a sort of layer of "Oh, it's because you're Character. You know that's not you, right? You shouldn't be upset, you need to source separate more."--when if most other people were to set a boundary like that, it would usually be respected. Source separation can be great, but if someone hasn't separated or doesn't want to, why is it okay to still send them material they're uncomfortable with--or at least, why do people tend to argue that the fictive should "just separate from source" instead? It... Just boils down to alterhumisia toward fictionfolk, honestly. It sucks.

There's a lot of problems with basic respect toward fictionfolk of all kinds--hell, even in the alterhuman community where it's meant to be safe. I don't know if this rant is entirely coherent or not, I don't know if there's anything noteworthy to take from it--but if you do take something from it, let it be that fictionfolk want to be treated like people. Source separated, not source separated, canon divergent or compliant, hearted, linker, 'kin or 'tive--we're people. Don't let our identities change the way you instinctually treat us. Let us be openly us, and treat us as you would anyone else.

Sometimes, I wonder...

Sometimes, I wonder if anyone else in my life is plural, but too scared to tell anyone.

Sometimes, I wonder if anyone else in my life is plural, but they just don't have the language to describe it.

Sometimes, I wonder about my friends' "imaginary friends" who've taken on a life all their own.

Sometimes, I wonder about the folks who think in conversations, who have named each and every one of their emotions, each speaking with its own distinct voice.

Sometimes, I wonder about the people who stay up late at night crying, only to be comforted by a familiar voice from within, telling them not to give up.

Sometimes, I wonder about the beings with elaborate and sprawling internal worlds, where a thousand other beings they've known in their daydreams wait to welcome them home.

Sometimes, I wonder about the headmates, forced back to the subconscious, patiently waiting for their host to figure it all out.

Sometimes, I wish I could tell all of them.

Sometimes, I wish they all knew they weren't alone.

Sometimes, I wish they all knew how freeing it can be to embrace plurality.

Sometimes...

Sometimes, I wish they all knew that the future is plural.

I hope the future is plural...

We hope the future is plural.