#TPA

[subsystems]

At this point, I don't want anyone following me if they uncritically support The Plural Association. This is full rant mode.

I'm triggered and deeply disturbed by the stuff I see being pumped out by this group under the guise of "inclusivity." I'm sick and tired of TPA stigmatizing systems that are different from themselves. I'm sick and tired of TPA spreading misinformation about systems that are different from themselves. I'm sick and tired of the false promises of resources and lack of transparency.

Instead of listening to systems that are different from them, they make up shit about us to turn our own community hostile towards us. You think systems who are pursuing or achieved final fusion don't see the shit you say about our existence? The misinformation you spread about us? You think systems with CDDs don't see the way you talk about them? You think we don't see you inciting more syscourse on social media?

You think we don't see you manipulating the articles people send you with their lived experiences in order to spread your toxic views?

It's ALWAYS the final fusion hatred. Have you ever asked systems who have actually achieved final fusion whether their ideas about us reflect the recovery we desired?

"It does not allow for personhood" what the fuck does that even mean! Never once during my final fusion process did anyone in my system feel like we weren't seen as or allowed to be people. Never once did our therapist erase or minimize our personhood.

Do you even care that our concept of "personhood" can shift throughout recovery, too? That we collectively pursued final fusion because our personhood felt more authentic and wonderful with fusions? And that we wouldn't fucking voluntarily pursue a recovery option if it felt like it took away from our existence, dehumanized us, or harmed us!

You only give a damn about the systems who fit your narrow little box of "valid." The ones who act and talk in the way YOU want, who heal in the way YOU want, who exist in the way YOU want. But fuck all the other ones, right!

God, sorry for this rant but I am just. So done. Please don't send them any hate or harassment, especially people who aren't even associated with them or got paid to write articles & shared their lived experiences for them. I just sincerely hope for TPA to change.

[mcmadcanvas]

Anybody else naming ur MC 'Basil' on Lawrence runs??

'Im a person, not a flower.'

You sure about that bud? 🤨

Anyways, enjoy a Lawrence sketch that I didnt want to ink. 💚

[chaddavisphotography]

SkyConnect tram that connects the airport to the parking garage and rental car center.

[ministerscrewtape]

TPA: Legion

[cadybear420]

Caleb in a Fancy Upscale-ish Dress: The CG, edit by me

You may or may not have seen Caleb edited into f!Rowan Salazar's dress; either here, here, or here (also my profile banner). Well I felt morally obligated to edit Rowan's CG for him as well.

[galliro]

Hot take maybe but TMP episode 3 is the best Flesh themed episode we have had in the TMA universe so far

[luvslalisa]

samara gray they could never make me hate you

[masked-alien-lesbian]

I don't know why, but the idea of Ruby Webster from Crimes and Passion and Vivian Lopez from The Phantom Agent as a couple really intrigues me

Vivian is more than happy to bend the rules and Ruby is aghast but enamored by Vivian's carefree attitude. Or perhaps Ruby just has a type for computer hacker nerds lol

[moon-and-firefly-syscourse]

Why the tpa "warmline/hotline" is harmful- to everyone.

if you aren't yet aware- the "tpa", or "the plural association" is trying to gain funding to start a hotline by plural people for plural people. this, in short, is a bad, BAD idea.

very very first and foremost, they are NOT TRAINED. and while im sure many of their volunteers mean well and genuinely do want to help, well meaning can only go so far. they aren't trained like crisis professionals from say, 988 (the USA national suicide hotline) or the trevor project- (a crisis line for lgbtq+ people) who are trained on what to do in dangerous situations and KNOW what to say in order to de-escalate, not continue to ramp up the issue. this is not to say that volunteers cant be helpful in certain times, even if they arent trained, but there is a great risk with untrained volunteers that they'll accidentally escalate the situation and be seriously dangerous because they simply arent trained for those kinds of situations.

second- they are plainly twisting data to serve their goal and manipulating numbers to make their cause seem way more necessary than it is. in a wonderful post by @sysmedsaresexist (do let me know if you want me to untag you), theyve pointed out that their statistic that "62.58% of survey respondents indicated that they felt that DID/OSDD was not understood by crisis or hotline providers they have been provided with" was out of 60% of responders- meaning out of 60% of those 100% of participants, 62.58% said "no, did/osdd was not understood- which brings the total tally of those participants who said did/osdd was not understood to 37%. now that sounds a lot less impressive than 62%, doesnt it? thats purposeful. it makes their idea sound a lot more "noble", and while i would LOVE to have a hotline for people with DID/OSDD, i want a hotline with TRAINED VOLUNTEERS/PROFESSIONALS. without trained volunteers, there is a high risk for harm

link to SAS's post (go read!!)

yes, it's extremely frustrating that many suicide prevention lines dont know much about DID/OSDD, but making your own, untrained hotline is NOT the solution. many hotlines, though uneducated perhaps, can be very helpful for crisis- yes, even for people with DID/OSDD. dont just take your chances with untrained volunteers who may make the situation worse.

they claim that this hotline should be used before a full blown crisis- but unfortunately without trained volunteers and a proper system of training them, they might cause much more crisis's than they'll prevent.

if you are in crisis, please please please dont use their hotline- instead, here are some helpful numbers:

988: USA national suicide hotline

678-678: TrevorText- the text version of the trevor project. my personal favorite hotline, super super helpful and especially because it's for LGBTQ+ people.

866-488-7386: TrevorLifeline- the call line for the trevor project!

list of national suicide hotlines here

thanks for reading <3

[sophieinwonderland]

One of the Most Harmful Ideas I've seen is That Plurals Shouldn't Help Each Other

A person is tied to train tracks. They're trying to untie themselves. You happen to be walking by.

You have a saw.

What do you do?

Do you help or walk on?

If you help, you could end up cutting their leg. Maybe those ropes are tougher than they look? What if you try and you fail anyway? You can't free them before the train hits and now it's your responsibility.

...

Or how about an even more blatant trolley problem. A train is barreling down the tracks towards a person tied to the tracks. You have a lever.

If you do nothing, a coin flips. If it land on heads, the track changes directions. The person lives. It lands on tails, the person dies. If you do nothing, there's a 50% chance this person is going to die.

If you pull the lever, a D6 will roll instead of a coin. Now, if it lands on 1, the tracks stay the same. The person gets ran over. But if it lands on 2-6, the tracks change and they live.

Logically, by taking an action, you drastically increase the odds of survival.

But if it lands on 1, you might have to wonder if you failed. If this was the wrong move and if it did more harm than good to try. Maybe, you'll wonder, if the coin flip would have been better. If the coin would have landed on heads. And that's valid. But it shouldn't hold you back.

...

Perhaps another analogy could be coming across a family of cavemen who are freezing. You know how to build fire but they don't. If they don't know, there's a good possibility that they could freeze to death in the night. But if you do, maybe they'd misuse it. Maybe they'd start a forest fire. Can you risk it? Do you teach them how to make fire for themselves or refuse because you're afraid of all the ways it could go wrong?

...

I think there has been a lot of fearmongering in the community about the concept of plurals helping other plurals.

This came up recently over the topic of switching guides.

But I've also seen it before with the demonization of the Plural Association's planned warmline for plurals. (This also was paired with a conflation of Warmlines and crisis Hotlines. Note that these are not the same.)

The argument you see against plurals helping plurals usually boils down to, "what if something goes wrong? What if you accidentally give someone bad advice?" And while these are concerns you should try your best to mitigate, one should also ask "what if I don't help? What if I do nothing, because I'm afraid of how it could go wrong?"

I am not saying that there are no risks. Of course there are. But sometimes those risks are worth taking.

We need more plural support and resources in the world, and even though the warmline is taking much longer to get off the ground than expected, I do want to send a shoutout to everyone who was willing to volunteer to make it a reality, and I hope you can serve as an inspiration to others! 💖

[vigorothpal]

Vigoroth's journey to Germany!

Had to go through multiple flights to get to Hamburg. Started in TPA Tampa airport where we had The Columbia for lunch. Had some coffee from Illy just before boarding the flight.

Landed in ATL Atlanta to board a connecting flight. Didn't have time to eat any meals in the airport, had to make sure we made it onto the 9 hour flight. Saw pretty hanbok on display in the airport.

The final connecting flight was in CPH Copenhagen. The longest layover at four hours. But it did give enough time to enjoy a coffee from Joe & the Juice.

Finally landed in HAM Hamburg. Everything was dressed up pretty for the holidays. Even the baggage claim looked fun to be in.

[playchoicesconfessions]

Sent by anonymous

‘people who like TPA should watch Spies Are Forever! it's a musical that's free to watch on youtube!’

POST/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE MOD’S PERSONAL OPINIONS!

[mcmadcanvas]

Another sketch that needs to be immortalized before I try to add ink and color.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Websites we do NOT recommend for systems or those questioning

The Plural Association/Power to the Plurals

Reasoning: TPA (and by extension Power to the Plurals) claims to be a nonprofit, but does not reveal financial information, audits, or annual reports that are common among respected, genuine nonprofits. Most of TPA’s resources are behind paywalls, with options to donate on every page of the website. We’ve written before on why we think TPA/Power to the Plurals is a grift (in the link are sources to back our claims). The creator of TPA/Power to the Plurals has also manipulated statistics to make alternate claims, and does not understand the differences between fusion and integration in disordered systems.

Astraea’s Web

Reasoning: Astraea’s Web is very vocal about being anti-psych, anti-therapy, and anti-recovery. They continually refer to DID as MPD and drive a wedge through the plural community by attempting to separate and distinguish “natural multiples” from “disordered systems.” They have referred to systems seeking treatment or struggling with dissociative disorders as “basket cases” and attempt to claim natural multiples are better than and unaffiliated with systems with complex dissociative disorders. It is their plainly stated goal to demedicalize complex dissociative disorders and have them removed from the DSM! They sensationalize dissociative disorders and rely on stereotypes to get their messages across - on their site, they mention the infamous Sybil case almost twice as much as they mention dissociation or dissociative disorders.

You can read their FAQ to see all of this for yourself (brace yourself - this website is rife with ableism!)

Kinhost.org

Reasoning: Like Astraea’s Web, Kinhost is also anti-psych, anti-therapy, and anti-recovery. They would rather plurals pay for their life-coaching program than seek actual treatment for debilitating symptoms. They scorn therapy and treatment in their Multiple Manifesto, and claim that receiving treatment is akin to “being experimented on” which could not be further from the truth. The system who runs this site has referred to systems seeking treatment and the state of therapy today as a “therapocalypse” and is very open about being anti-recovery for systems who desperately need it.

Websites like these divide the plural community, cause misunderstandings, spread horrible stereotypes and disinformation, encourage infighting, and reject recovery. They perpetuate an “us vs. them” mentality that pits “empowered” (ie natural or nontraumagenic) multiples against systems with or without DID or OSDD who require treatment in order to live happy lives.

We’ve recommended some of these sites in the past before we knew more about the empowered multiple’s movement and exactly what it entails, or how each of these sites have caused tangible harm in the past. However, we will never recommend or advocate for these sites in the future.

Please take care of yourselves and use critical thinking when searching for plurality resources online. Watch out for ableism disguised as resources for nontraumagenic plurals, and remember that all systems are valid and unique in their own ways. No one deserves to be vilified or outcast for seeking healing, recovery, and stability, or for listening to experts and doing research.

[choices-binglebonkus]

I was rereading one of my old critique posts where I was talking a bit about Agent Gray and TPA!MC’s relationship and…

I had forgotten I even wrote this and it caught me so off guard I did one of those jolty jump-laughs and spilled my drink all over my dinner plate. This stupid fucking thing I wrote about MC ruining Agent Gray’s dinner actually caused me to ruin my own.

[cadybear420]

OG HSS male LIs in some fancy upscale-ish dresses, edits by me

Aiden is wearing Victoria Flint (KOD)'s dress, Caleb is wearing f!Rowan Salazar (TPA)'s dress, Michael is wearing Samara Grey (TPA)'s dress