May I Present To The Room The Fictionflicker Severity Scale, Designed Based On Past Experiences:

fictive culture is watching one headmate go “sigh…. i wish i could be like him…” while the guy hes talking about has literally told him he sees himself in him

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Here's to proxy systems!

A proxy system is defined as "where one functions as a singlet (or approximately close to one[...]) due to a frontstuck host, yet members of the system are [...] distinct in headspace" [via Pluralpedia].

Shoutout to proxy systems who:

Are median

Have OSDD-1A or P-DID

Live life as a singlet most of the time, or only tell close loved ones about their system

Also identify as specutien

Didn't initially know they were a proxy system due to lack of information in plural spaces

Thought their system might've been something else at first, such as a kin system, or thought that they were just a singlet

Please know you are so important to us! You deserve as much place in the plural community as anyone else! Did you know how amazing you are? Well, now you do! It's going to be ok, and you'll get through anything you might be facing right now.

We love you!

🖤💜💙💚💛

to put in as simply as i can. telling someone that you do not believe their experiences with themself, that science has yet to prove either way, saying that is inherently wrong ableist and that they don't actually know themselves, is not kind. no matter how you word it. people are allowed to take offense to that, and people have every right to not want to be around you after that.

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.

Hey. I'm a singlet and I honestly don't follow syscourse a lot because I am not directly affected by it and my NPD makes me stay away from things that don't affect me but I saw that there were many singlets that had a stance and most of them are anti endo and I am like... Wtf? Sib, you ain't no damn system. It's like if a non lgbtq+ person had an opinion on queer discourse NO. The only thing you should be doing and saying is: I don't know but I think that anyone should be cared for and have rights and shits. That ain't that goddamn hard.

Sorry if I sound a bit aggressive, my tone is meant to be rather neutral. (Quick note because I think it matters, use it or he when talking about me in third person.).

Some people just are looking for groups to hate. It's as simple as that.

I think that there is a more generalized pluralophobia behind it!

That there are some singlets who are only capable of "caring" about systems if they can feel superior. They will accept systems as long as those systems accept that they are inferior to the singlet majority.

Those are the vibes that I get from a lot of singlet sysmeds.

It's a very conditional sort of acceptance casting systems as broken things that need to be fixed.

The moment they encounter a system who says "we didn't have trauma and our lives are perfectly fine and happy because we are together," That's now something that is a threat to established norms. It's a threat to singlet-normatism.

Host culture is wanting to talk about your fictive headmate but they’re disliked in the fandom (villain). And trying to shield them from that judgment by not talking about them my name

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Fictives, Fictionkin, Soulbounds, all of fictionkind

seeing art and thinking “That’s me!” Is okay, you’re not selfish or self centered for it. Seeing ship art or smut about you and feeling strange about it is okay to feel and also okay to talk about on your blog or to your friends. If you’re not harassing the people who make them, then it shouldn’t matter and nobody should care. Non fictionkind do this shit all the time, they look at characters and say “they’re so me”, so why should it matter if you do the same? It’s you! - V

Can someone educate me on endogenic systems and why they are/aren’t harmful because I know nothing lol

soulbonding culture is the realization of why there aren't alot of sources around; and being sad about it (Hi! This is a reply to a different anon. Apparently soulbonding is very old and alot of old websites were deleted!)

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Pro tip for what may be a very niche audience of systems with mid level internal communication: if you can only internally communicate when trying to do so and you rarely or never hear surprising, random comments from other headmates that some other systems talk about, that is in fact normal. Internal communication is something that almost always takes time and practice to get better at, so it's not unusual for a system to have difficulty hearing each other and need to actively try to talk to each other to achieve internal communication. Hell, there's a reason that learning internal communication is a part of treatment for systems seeking medical support – because it can be difficult and it's unlikely that you've mastered it right off the bat!

Not hearing your headmates most of the time is okay. Needing to focus on talking to a headmate to internally communicate is okay. If you rarely or never get surprised by someone internally talking to you, that probably just means your internal communication has some barriers, difficulties, or quirks that other systems do not have. That does not mean you're faking; that does not mean you're less of a system. Don't fool yourself otherwise just because you see other systems getting caught off-guard by their headmates talking to them, or overhear each other talking while they're focused on something else, or anything else. They are not you, and your system is going to be different from their system. It's okay if your internal communication is different from other systems.

Tl;dr: Don't trap yourself in self-doubt if your system doesn't have perfect internal communication (including if you have internal communication that's "good enough" for your system but lacks in some areas). Internal communication (and communication skill) varies from system to system, and you don't have to have flawless communication to be a real system.