In System Relationship - Blog Posts

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1 year ago

In-System Relationships

Sorry this took so long. We’ve been really excited about this one. Next comic will be about signs that were missed. Bonus points if you can guess the sources of any of our fictives (I think one is pretty obvious if you know the source).

Unrelated to DID: My Very Good Friend @petticoatedmouse made a Discord server for people who like sewing. No particular level of experience required.

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[Image description:

Note: Their identities are listed because they are holding their flags in the comic.

First image, panel 1: A grey background with two people, Jenny (she/her), a fictive, who is demisexual and pansexual, and Omara (ze/zir), who isn’t an introject, but based parts of their appearance on a video game character. Omara is sapphic and has an unlabeled gender. The caption reads “In-system relationships… …quite a complex phenomenon.”

Panel 2: A pink background with the outline of a red heart and the captions, “So complex, in fact, that we can even feel the attraction on the outside. But only if the alter experiencing attraction is fronting or co-conscious.”

Panel 3: A grey background showing Worlds (she/they), a lesbian introject (who is also a vampire), and Kelly (she/her), a bisexual factive, holding hands. The caption says, “Sometimes, there are very much like out-of-system relationships.”

Panel 4: Worlds, whose bat wings are now visible, is flying through space with Kelly on their back. The captions are in white boxes and they read, “Other times, not so much” and “Yeah, I don’t think singlets typically fly through space (our innerworld is in space) on their partner’s back.”

Second image, panel 1: A sea foam green background with the words, “Of course, not every headmate wants this. We just have a lot of in-system relationships.”

Panel 2: A stage with a keyboard, microphone, and part of a drum set visible with a grey background is shown. Two alters are standing on it, Bay (she/her), a fictive who is ambiamorous and omnisexual, is standing by the piano looking at Sodium, and Sodium (she/her), an ambiamorous lesbian, is standing by the mic looking at Bay. The caption says: “They can be just as complex as out of system relationships… (yes, we have a stage in headspace where we perform whatever we’re listening to IRL).”

Panel 3: Captions say, “…and just as full of love.” and “While we have several polyamorous and ambiamorous headmatss, we don’t have any throuples or other with more than two partners. Systems that do have these are absolutely valid though.” Sodium is shown sitting on a grey bench on a grey background with another factive, Radium (she/her), who is demiromantic, demisexual, and trixensexual.

Panel 4: A sea foam green background with the caption, “They are very important in our system. When partners spend time together, it improves our overall mental health.”

Third image, panel 1: A sea foam green background with the caption, “This gets more complicated with introjects. Sodium and Radium are factives from the same source, but they aren’t dating IRL, which is a bit awkward. And yes, it’s valid to have factives who are dating IRL. We just don’t have any.”

Panel 2: Caption: “With fictives, it’s a little different. You may be fan favorites or even canon. Or you may be an unpopular ship or not canon (valid as long as there are no problematic elements) (no, they’re not getting married, this is how they dress in source).” It shows Jules (he/they), a bi demiboy, and Alicia (she/they), a pan girl (both fictives) on a grey background, looking at each other.

Panel 3: Caption: “And yes, it’s also valid to have fictives who aren’t dating their source-partner. Whether that’s because you don’t have an introject of them…” Cristina (she/they), who is pan, is shown on a grey background, saying, “If we had an introject of him, and he asked me out, I’d say yes.”

Panel 4: Caption: “…or because they’re simply not attracted to them (although in this case, we don’t have an introject of him either- thank goodness).” Eugenia (she/any), who is pan, and Mercedes (she/they/he), who is non-binary and straight (we chose to include that because they aren’t cis), are shown on a gray background saying, “Ewwwwww!”

Fourth image, panel 1: A sea foam green background with the caption: “Of course, in-system relationships aren’t for everyone.”

Panel 2: Rhombus (they/them), who is gendervoid, agender, and aroace, is shown on a grey background, with a caption and arrow next to them that reads, “Not interested in any kind of relationship.”

Panel 3: Three alters, Inflexible (they/them) (introject), who is lesbian, oriented aroace, and bellusaroace, Grey (they/he) (introject), who is non-binary and aroace, and Jayde (they/them), who is oriented aroace, pomosexual, and liagender, are shown on a grey background. Caption: “All three are interested in QPRs, and all three have experienced tertiary attraction towards people in the outerworld, but they are not interested in each other.”

Panel 4: A sea foam green background with the caption, “Especially when what you want is on the outside.”

Panel 5: The hosts, Ao (ey/eir) and Ruby (she/her) (captions say to check our first comic for their labels because there are a lot of them)!are shown on a grey background. The caption next to Ao has an arrow and says, “Has feelings for a singlet.” The caption next to Ruby has an arrow and says, “Has feelings for a different singlet.”

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