#monster headmate culture

[bonefall]

bones. bones they made moonpaw a schizophrenia and plurality stereotype. bones. bones help us

OH NO IS THAT WHY THERE'S 16 MESSAGES

I TURNED MY BACK FOR 5 MINUTES GREAT GOOGLY FUCKELING MOOGELY

I still have to finish reading Star (you have to forgive me for being a capital G Gamer who's been uber distracted) to gather together my final fair assessment, so I can start putting down the fragments for BB!ASC. But I WILL tell you this;

The whole Moonpaw Discourse from a couple of months ago really opened my eyes to just how pervasive intersexism and plurality stereotyping is, even in this space.

Not all of it is malice-- like many other cultural biases, people often just pick up negative stereotypes passively and don't realize they reflect poorly on real people. "Scary evil head voice" is one of them. Yes, intrusive thoughts exist (they are something I deal with), but it's about the snap, subconscious association between "voice in head" and "mental torment."

As the case and point; Look at how FAST the fandom conversation changed when the team first teased it. What was a fantastical, equal parts sincere love and horror exploration of shipping a cat with a magic pool morphed. Overnight, The Voice was an abusive thing, an expression of a dead baby who wanted to live, or a reincarnated monster, or another evil Ashfur-esque posession spirit.

Something bad, malicious, unwanted. By contrast, the voice of the moonpool was mostly portrayed as a supernatural yet good thing. Genuinely asking her for help.

(Part of me also ponders the religious angle of it. "Voices in my head" that come from God are generally much more socially acceptable than "Voices in my head" that come from the self. Regardless,)

So, as always, I Don't Rewrite Arcs Until They Are Done (I DRAU TAD, if you will), BUT... I know for certain that I will want to subvert this.

If Canon!Moonpaw must be a system, and we're all ready to buckle up and bunker down through how the Erins handle this one, then for BB!Moonpaw I'll try to do the same. But for my portrayal, I want to write her relationship with her headmate to be generally positive. Or at least more complicated and multifaceted.

One idea in particular I like is the thought that she absorbed a twin... but writing it as a chance the twin GETS to live, NOT a life denied. Death would have claimed them if they didn't become part of her. So, they love her-- of course they do. They're two souls with one heart.

The specifics will have to come with time. I need to see how her plurality impacts the plot, the overall story being told, plus wait to assess the criticisms that real systems and fusion chimeras in our fandom will have. But I can say with certainty that I would like to attempt my redux with the sad truth in mind that headmates in media are almost never approached as non-malicious. I'd like to do what I can to make a difference.

[fenmere]

An Analysis of our Spiritual Identities

Just as we have striven to explore our spirituality with as little outside influence as possible, we ask that you do not take what we've written here to be any sort of prescription for your own life and spirituality.

Don't put us or our spirituality into any box of your own making (whether that's religious or scientific). But also, don't put your own spirituality (or psychology) in our box, either!

Still, you might find our way of thinking interesting, and it might spark ideas for your own exploration, so we share it. But mostly we just want people to know what we we are and how we experience ourselves.

Below is a fairly long, but partially bullet pointed, breakdown of how we got to our spiritual beliefs and what they are. And also, how we are Other (or therian/otherkin/not-human):

This all represents the averages of our strongest and most widely held model of spirituality. We are a population, and therefore hold a variety of beliefs. This does not describe those other beliefs.

What we’ve experienced:

We have memories from outside of our system. In the case of our two eldest, Jenifer and Eh, they have memories from before we were born. In the case of our walk-ins, they have memories of before joining us. These memories are not elaborate or detailed, nor are they narrative, but they are strong and persistent, with a singular sense of time (of occurring “before”), and are experiential and associated with a sense of identity.

Despite being raised in a culture that persistently and constantly works to coerce it’s members into taking on proscribed identities, we have always reacted to that as if those identities (human, singular, male, etc.) were wrong.

When we relax and listen to our inner memories and reflexes, we get a clear sense of what we are on a fundamental level: not-human, plural, not-male, etc.

So far, all apparent encounters with the seemingly supernatural that we’ve had can be traced back to headmate activity.

Actual specific identities that we have latched onto, however, can all be traced to ideas and concepts found in human culture. This, of course, simply means that identities that fall outside of that just cannot be approximately described by the language we have. A number of us fall outside that range, so we do have a control. And, even most of us who can be described as “dragons” are still very different from most dragons ever described by humanity. Similarly with those of us who are girls.

We have not really experienced anything outside of this, in regards to spirituality. We have our upbringing, with a progressive Lutheranism imposed upon us by our childhood church, but not to the point where we understood what Lutheranism was. And we’ve done a lot of reading and participated in a lot of discussions about alternative belief systems. This has led us to try meditating with the goal of leaving our body or making contact with the supernatural, and we had no success in that. But we don’t count these experiences as spiritual, but instead as indoctrination.

What we know:

We are many and we keep growing.

We are fundamentally not human, though many of us are heavily influenced by human cultures, and our body was conceived by and born to a pair of humans.

We are ktletaccete and beshakete. Ktletaccete are approximately described as autistic dragons. And beshakete are previously non-living spirits that have entered our system sometime since it took its first breath, also known as Outsiders and sometimes called Elementals.

We have four categories of being, three of which correspond to genders but are not inherently genders: girls, dragons, id monsters, and Outsiders. Outsiders align with and fall into the other three categories, but are also so fundamentally different from the rest of us that they deserve their own recognition.

Our girls are a form of monster. They have the gender of girl, as a non-binary gender, but also they are all ktletaccete or beshakete, and tend to also “kin” various types of traditional monster. And they all inhabit the right hemisphere of our brain.

Our dragons frequently take human form, but are not human. They have the gender of dragon, which is an aporagender to the outside world.  Also all either ktletaccete or beshakete. And they all inhabit the left hemisphere of our brain.

Our id monsters straddle the hemispheres of our brain, falling in the middle, and might reside in our limbic system. They do tend to lean dragon or girl, but only when fronting. They took their name of id monster because they seem to represent the purposes of a part of our collective psyche that is very closely described by the concept of an id, and they almost all present as monstrous and take pride in the identity of being a monster.

What we believe:

We believe that no outworlder explanation of the supernatural is relevant to our experiences, nor a reliable guide to interpreting them. None. Even though, through our own experiments, we’ve come to a set of beliefs that most closely resembles animism, we strive not to let any school of wisdom or cultural heritage of animism influence our interpretations and further experiments. This is not to disrespect those outworlder traditions, it is to recognize that they are not ours, and that we wish to strive for the goal of developing our own beliefs purely on our own experiences. Or as close to “purely” as we can manage to do.

We are never-the-less influenced by outworlder beliefs and cultures, not the least the one we were raised in. It is a matter of constant work to question our own interpretations in that light.

We are also very obviously heavily influenced by our biology.

Because we are heavily influenced by our upbringing and our biology, we have very strong evidence for where and how we differ from what these things try to make us become, through our dysphoria and earliest and most persistent differences in identity and experiences.

Some sort of basic sense of identity can be described as a result of all of this.

With our spirituality, what we are exploring is that which outworld science cannot test, but that which our inworld science can test. We have 4 million people and counting, all experiencing things from different perspectives. Where those experiences are different and the same can tell us a lot about who and what we are.

If we are not human, and not necessarily anything described by any outworld culture, then what are we?

Those of us who are Beshakete (or Outsiders) have an easy answer for this. They are what they say they are. They have the strongest memories and senses of identity, and the least indoctrination and weakest connection to our biology. So weak, in fact, that their identities feel poorly translated into English. 

Pike, for instance, is a manifestation of the abstract concept of one dimensional force, or forwardness, or straightness, or movement. It could, in fact, be a conscious manifestation of a photon, or time itself. But none of these words, nor even its name, accurately describe or encompass the meaning of its identity when it perceives itself and its memories from before our system. Calling it Pike and the elemental of the concept of forward movement is probably good enough, though.

Phage is the mechanism by which entropy and enthalpy are processed in the universe, often given the shorthand of Entropy Itself. Of all of our Outsiders, it is the one that has most become a person, living with our system since we were two and a half years old and learning how to pretend to be human with the rest of us. But even its memories of before joining our system are as strong as Pike’s.

And no one of us who is not an Outsider has memories like that.

So, the experiences, memories, and identities of our Outsiders give us the basis for our own spiritual belief, our form of animism if we can call it that.

Their memories are consistent with the kinds of information stored in their origin systems, the elements that could be considered analogous to memories, such as a fossil in a rock or the altered path of a breeze as it flows past that rock. The more complex the original system of the Outsider, the more complex their exomemories.

And, from their memories, we learn that everything has some degree of self awareness and memory that can be carried on into any new system that accepts it.

We do not know, in the case of our Outsiders, if our human-descended brain is merely copying the identity and memories of something from another system or if it is actually playing host to an entity from outside. But we also do not know if there is any meaningful difference between those two things. But we do have considerable evidence to support a hypothesis that there is no difference but that also our Outsiders represent a transfer of consciousness in a way that our Liaisons do not.

Our Liaisons are what some people call factive and fictive introjects. In our case, however, our liaisons do not instantly gain intimate knowledge of their sources. They must learn everything through observation. They are particularly focused and savant at doing so when it comes to their individual source. But that seems to be more of a function of autistic style special interest more than anything else. And while they could be said to receive the memetics of their sources over time, they do not receive a sense of identity or exomemories in the same way that our Outsiders do.

Other systems clearly experience something different, with their factives and fictives more closely resembling our Outsiders. And maybe we don’t get spiritual factives and fictives like that because we already have our Liaisons, who are generated so quickly. They fill the role already, leaving no space for spiritual transference (if that’s actually a thing - and our Outsiders seem to suggest it is).

Anyway, all that we know is that we have Outsiders that do seem to come from their sources in some way, and factive and fictive Liaisons who do not (and therefore use the term “subject” rather than “source“ for their focus of identity).

Now, Jenifer and Eh both have a very similar set of exomemories to our Outsiders. Only, they have no identity beyond something akin to “child of the abyss, or oblivion”. Their exomemories are of previously eternal existence in darkness with just enough sense of identity to have a sense of self, but not much more than that. And they both feel that their personal identities are mostly defined by how they fit into our body and the world after that.

It is very hard for either of them to sense any sort of intrinsic property of their exomemories and identities that can be described as more than that, and so far we have nothing we can work with except the absence of characteristics.

It’s almost as if they each come from the state of existence before the Big Bang, if that really happened. Or from the fabric of spacetime itself, the state of the vacuum just before particles spontaneously form in it. But these are poetic interpretations of those memories and identities.

All we can say is that they definitively don’t come from nothingness, for they had a kind of conscious awareness that could form a memory and kernel of identity that was carried into our system as it received them during fetal development. And their memories and identities prior to joining our system were different from each other.

Different in what way? An inherent Jeniferness and an inherent Ehness that are not the same.

So, we think that Jenifer and Eh are a different kind of spirit than our Outsiders. But we don’t know how different. Is that difference the same as the difference between Pike and Phage? Or is it something more profound?

No clue. We do not have any evidence to suggest answers to those questions.

However, given all of that scant evidence, we are leaning toward favoring a particular model of spirituality and existence.

Every element, object, law, mechanism, and concept of existence has a spiritual identity associated with it. And a spirit is a localized concentration of that identity within a system that is complex enough to express it as some level of willful action.

Maybe living things, in particular animals with neurology (as those are what we’re familiar with), typically draw from a spiritual source that is the most basic, fundamental aspect of the universe, raw existence. And that’s what Jenifer and Eh are. There are clearly exceptions, if we take the accounts of outworlders at face value, but Jenifer and Eh are probably not among them.

We also have no reason to believe that a spirit that is about to be born into a human fetus is any different than a spirit that is about to be born into any other kind of animal, except where their futures are concerned.

And the reason that Jenifer and Eh are not human is because our vessel is not human. It has deviated from humanity enough that it does not belong to the species. At least, conceptually enough so that it affected our memetic development from conception (and certainly since birth). By the time we were three years old, we were looking for the correct match to our identities in examples outside of humanity. Animals, initially, but also monsters. And it’s the monsters that fit the best.

And the reason that there are two of them is because our vessel had room for and was developing to have two, instead of just one. And, it clearly developed to accommodate far more than that. But we know that our sense of gender and physical sex dysphoria is intrinsically tied to each hemisphere of our brain, meaning that our brian could not produce less than two self schemas. So, Jenifer and Eh were developing different senses of self the very instant they took root in our neurology.

Still, this is complicated further by the fact that neither Jenifer nor Eh have been perfectly malleable to outside influences. They both each have aspects of their identities that are not well defined by outworlder concepts. But this might just be due to chaotic development within an exceedingly complex system. And so far, we have no way to test whether or not that is the case. It is, however, the simplest and most likely explanation.

So, for now, we’ll roll with it, until either of them tell us differently.

The rest of us Ktletaccete are simply the children and grandchildren of Jenifer and Eh. We are what they are, further evolved and shaped by our system, but with much less of a connection to a spiritual existence outside of our system. We see that existence as only occurring after the death of our vessel, and not from before it (except through the shared memories of Jenifer and Eh).

So, we are Ktletaccete (which is a word we made up to describe ourselves), and not human, because our vessel is Ktletaccete and not human. It is the body of an autistic gyndracomorphic monster.

This isn’t to say our full identities as Ktletaccete don’t come from long before our vessel existed, nor that they come from only places other than human cultures! (We are not talking about our Outsiders here in any way.)

We are dragons and monsters because we most closely resemble and have kinship with dragons and other monsters. We inherited their memetics.

Part of our identities as Ktletaccete has always been that we’re shapeshifters. That, at least in our own adolescences, we take on forms resembling other beings. We sample, adopt, and adapt. And some of us have morphed into very human-like shapes.

Just, we have never, ever been human because our body has never, ever been human.

Outsider science may choose to define it as human, of course. The measurable differences are almost certainly not enough to satisfy its definitions of differing taxonomy.

But, we have not been treated as human, and we have always been able to see a fundamental gulf of differences between humanity and our own body, at least on a subconsciousness and spiritual level. And that’s where it matters.

---

Bonus fanfic type interpretation:

In Wildbow's Otherverse, we are fully Other.

We are a collection of spirits without a singular sense of human Self. Some of us are tiny animuses, and some are fragments of primordial beings, that have joined the whole. And the rest are spirits that have been created by the other spirits that make up what we are.

But we were born to a pair of non-Aware humans, and have, through that and other mechanisms, developed a thick disguise of being a mortal human.

And when that disguise must fail at the apparent death of our body, we're not quite sure what will happen. We'll probably disperse.

[sophieinwonderland]

I don't know if you've talked about this before, but some things I've seen from systemscringe and some of your anons (like the ones that keep on saying that everyone has multiple inner voices) has me wondering if many of them are closeted/self hating plurals, voice hearers (and other assorted neurodivergent folk). A lot of them seem to assume things that are notably abnormal (not necessarily clinical or dysfunctional, but abnormal) are normal, and that and the weird forms of anti-LGBT rhetoric makes me think that some are in denial, and don't understand why we're not in denial (or trying to deny it) too.

(Most significant example of this I've seen was where one mocked a schizotypal culture blog, saying that the blog was trying to pathologize and quirkify normal experiences... such as being afraid that everyone can read your thoughts, and that monsters are gonna jump out at you from dark corners)

Oh, definitely!

(Honestly, I kind of suspect that one anon was an r/systemscringe user.)

The problem with r/systemscringe, in particular, is that it's a denial pipeline. The culture of the subreddit is setup to draw in systems and convince them that they've been faking the entire time and that their headmates aren't real.

I mean, I saw one post not too long ago by a r/systemscringe mod describing how they used to think they were a system, but ended up deciding that they just have maladaptive daydreaming and delusional attachments.

Basically, the maladaptive daydreaming part is used to explain away all the internal communication and inner world stuff, and the "delusional attachments" explain how they become those characters they talk to.

(For those who don't know, "delusional attachment" is a term used to describes believing you're a certain character or person. The term is not an actual medical term, but .)

And it's not hard to see how someone would determine this when they enter communities that pump them full of misinformation, like convincing them the only way to be plural is with DID, and that DID is an extremely rare disorder that practically nobody has. All while fakeclaiming anyone, even their own members, who claim to have the disorder or be plural.

So yeah, there is a lot of internalized ableism, internalized pluralphobia and general denialism in those spaces!

And yes, it especially comes across when you're describing plural experiences and they try to argue that everyone experiences those things when they very much do not.

[your-bigender-big-brother]

Here are some new honorifics I came up with! (And don't forget to check out this post that lists some already existing gender neutral honorifics.)

♡ General:

Nr. - "neutral"; can also pronounce as 'ner' Nb. - "enby"; can also pronounce as 'nib' Nn. - 'none', inspired by 'nonbinary' or being genderless Du. - "dual", inspired by having two genders Bd. - "blend", inspired by having two genders Tr. - "tri", inspired by having three genders Pn. - "pan", like 'pangender' or pan-anything Omn. - "omni", like 'omnigender' or omni-anything Ab. - "ab", like 'abinary' Mv. or Mvr. - "maverique" or "maverick"; can also pronounce as 'mav' Vd. - "void", inspired by 'gendervoid' Xr. - "zer" Xrs. - "zers"; can be a soft or hard S (The previous two can also be Zr. and Zrs.)

♡ Dragon Inspired:

Dra. or Drg. - "dragon"; can also pronounce as 'drag' Drc. - "draconic"; can also pronounce as 'drak' Hd. or Hrd. - "hoarder"; can also pronounce as 'herd' Fl. - "flame" Fr. or Fir. - "fire"; can also pronounce as 'fear' or 'fur' Wng. - "wing" Fng. - "fang" Str. or Stm. - "storm" Srp. - "serp", inspired by 'serpent' Wyr. or Wr. - "wyrm"

♡ Other Nonhuman Inspired:

Cr. - "cryptid" Rb. - "robot"; can also pronounce as 'rob' or 'robe' Cy. or Cb. - "cyborg"; can also pronounce as 'cy' or 'cybe' Mns. or Mtr. - "monster" Crt. - "creature" Om. - "omen"; can also pronounce as 'ome' or 'om' A. or Al. - "alien" Mg. or Mag. - "magic"; can also pronounce as 'maj' or 'mage' Amg. - "amalg", inspired by 'amalgamation' Atm. - "autom" like the beginning of 'automaton'

♡ Nature Inspired:

W. or Ww. - "willow" Asp. - "aspen" Pne. - "pine" Frn. - "fern" Flw. - "flower"; can also pronounce as 'flow' Stg. - "stag" F. or Fe. - "fae" or "faerie" (note that 'Fe' is the elemental abbreviation for iron, and iron is toxic to actual faeries. Might be good to keep in mind for faekin and fae headmates!) Flr. - "flora"; can also pronounce as 'fler' Fn. - "fauna" Lf. - "leaf" Bg. - "bug" Vrd. - "verd", inspired by 'verdant'

Do honorifics seem kind of silly? Well, besides the formality of them, they could work for anyone who might view them as a status. Fictives might have a certain ranking or status from their source. Otherkin might see their species as having some kind of required rank or formality based on the culture. Nonhumans in general might want to do away with any honorifics that refer to them as human, gendered or not. I think they could be useful and fun! 💙💚

Some example sentences below:

"This is Nr. Apollo and xe are visiting the local college to talk about xer experiences as an agender person. Have you been to one of xer lectures? I love to listen to xem talk. Go check out Nr. Apollo when you get the chance."

"Cy. Silver doesn't consider itself human and instead, it is robotkin! Its special interest is technology, old video games, and documentaries on animals. I hope Cy. Silver takes care of itself today!"

"Say hello to Str. Orion when you see em. Ey are headed to the store right now to get emself some new pencils. Ey really like to draw mythical creatures in eir sketchbook. If you ask, ey might show you some of eir work."

[plural-swag-competition]

Tiptapricot again! I’m not the best for giving recs and info on the comics, but can give some trigger warnings on the show and two of the runs I’ve read! This will all b below cut as it’s as in depth as I can do off the top of my head.

This is a long post, but I’ve tried to make it as informative as possible. It lists some heavy stuff! MK fans are welcome to let me know if there’s things they think I should add, and though I say in the post, anyone is welcome to shoot me an ask about specific triggers! There also may be some typos haha so excuse those.

Without further ado, let’s get into it :-)

First up!

The Lemire Run, 2016

This may not be the best run to jump onto as it has a pre-established cast and is highly referential to past MK work, but it was also the first one I read and I still really enjoyed it! As long as you have a general knowledge of the characters from like a quick wiki read, you should be good.

Warnings for: Medical unreality, unreality, psych ward setting, gaslighting, abusive nurses/orderlies and doctors, shock therapy, drugging, death of friends, warped reality, manipulative Khonshu (the god they work for), further unreality/blending of realities between different headmates, mis-naming, car crashes/ship crashes, death of friends again, arrest/police interrogation, institutionalization as a child though not shown graphically, off-page death of father, internalized ableism/belief that to be normal you must not be a system, invalidation of headmates by another headmate, apparent though not actual alter death (they come back triumphantly, they are all ok), talk of brain and mental space/being “broken” as a form of manipulation.

This is the one I sent a propaganda post in about also! It was one of the first really major positive MK explorations (not the first, the 80s run and a handful of others actually have some real good stuff) and while it still has some funky parts, is a really gorgeous and awesome look at them, and again, has one of my favorite characters!

Second!

The MacKay run, 2021

This one’s the currently ongoing comic run! And while there’s less warnings it should be mentioned that since it’s ongoing, my list may become out of date somewhat soon, esp since issue 25 is apparently going to be 70 pages. But it’s a good time to hop on and join!

Warnings include: general monsters and fighting of them, self hate, internalized ableism and force-fronting by Marc/him being frontstuck for a lot of it, regular therapy sessions with Marc and his therapist that, although not manipulative or toxic or abusive like in other runs, are coerced by the avengers due to a previous run where the system basically took stuff over and took down the avengers for Khonshu (this run is referenced a lot), temporary death of main, discussion of gods, faith, and general theology, vomit in the issue 17 fight, racism/cultural appropriation by the character Jack Russel in the annual, forced switch by an outside partner in the annual.

There’s also a general blanket thing that, while MacKay is doing good at a lot, and issues 14/15 specifically have some really good system conversations facilitated by him working with a system for them, he is still not including Steven and Jake as much as he should, and stuff can feel unbalanced/that he’s forgetting about their systemhood sometimes. It’s overall a very solid run so far, but that’s good to be aware of!

And lastly but not leastly!

Moon Knight, 2022 show

The show is 6 episodes long and on Disney+ or u can pirate it (which. Is what I do haha) and these are what I can think of for warnings.

Best to skim beforehand and then peek at each chunk for each ep as you go. Id be able to give times if I was live watching with someone but I hope these cover stuff generally ok, and you can also look up specific stuff if you need, or send me an ask if you watch about a specific moment and I can find the time stamp! My inbox is always open :-)

Disclaimer that the show also has a lot of levity and comedy and calmer moments within everything I’m going to list. These are just the triggers, and since it is a heavy show it will seem dense, but it’s not just hell all the way through.

Ep 1, The Goldfish Problem—At the very beginning there is a scene where glass is put in shoes and stepped on, there is no blood or pain reaction or visuals of the skin, but that is a constant presence in the background for the whole show as the main antagonist is a cult leader who uses it for self flagellation. Lot of sudden and discombobulating switches accompanied by minor flashing, confusion and paranoia as it involves the beginning of system discovery by a headmate who has no idea what’s going on, a generally eerie vibe involving a large bird headed skeleton creature (Khonshu) popping up, voices from indeterminant origin/people seen in mirrors, scene in the mountains involves seeing the cult, and ideas of good and bad and predestined morality, car chase involving car crashes, guns and blood but not really gore or any especially violent ways of taking out bad guys, missing an important event due to amnesia and lost time, apparent stalking by cult and unreliable coworkers, mild panic attack.

Episode 2, Summon The Suit—More of eerie vibe from first ep and more of big bird man and some flashing, uncomfortable firing from job for perceived mental health reasons, headmates arguing, headmate freaking out and jumping to internalized ableism, person who knows one headmate but not ab the system being confused and frustrated/believing the one fronting is putting on an act, police arrest/kidnapping, more of the cult, discussion of eugenics ideology from cult, panic attacks, one use of the word “Psycho” during a joke, headmates arguing worse and lashing out at each other, manipulation by Khonshu, brief use of alcohol in an obviously unhappy state as coping.

Episode 3, The Friendly Type—Sudden and abrupt switches, coming to mid fight/after an adversary has been killed, confusion, non-graphic suicide as form of escape from protags (falling off cliff, body not shown in detail or close up at all), very intense trial scene involving possession by a god, and weaponized ableism and personality language against mains from antag, both demonizing and infantilizing them, somewhat of a breakdown/lashing out from main because of it, another fight at rich guys place involving guns and knives, as well as choking, and impaling of mains, but impalement has no blood or gore shown, the poles r kinda just through them and they’re alright, some more possible flashing triggers at end with sky scene though more mild.

Episode 4, The Tomb—Headmates arguing/tension, choice to pursue relationship action without direct discussion about it, sounds of dissection of human by a monster (dissection is blurred in background and not shown in detail), scary undead creatures coming out of the dark and fighting with a main, emotional manipulation by cult leader, argument with a partner causing a forced switch, intense guilt and mention of believing one should’ve died, main character death, and at very end and also big one for next ep: unreality, medical unreality, psych ward setting, drugging and restraint of patient, gaslighting, feeling like an “it was all a dream” twist (which is proven to be false, the psych ward here is not real and is a construct of the afterlife, but it is a big scare and can be triggering).

Episode 5, Asylum (biggest ones here and very intense episode)—More of same medical unreality and gaslighting by a doctor, on screen drugging of patient/mains with a syringe, forced trauma memory exploration involving static dead bodies, passive suicidal ideation, off screen drowning, off screen sibling/child death, intense verbal abuse from mother, passive father, alcoholic abusive parent, guilty flashback to older Marc the night Khonshu contacted him which involves an attempted suicide (gun put against chin) and manipulation, headmate hitting their head rapidly during a breakdown, physical abuse from parent with belt (action not shown on screen but build up is and there is briefly audio of impacts), headmates arguing, internalized ableism, discovery of being an introject and negative thoughts about “realness” and self as a result, emotionally abusive doctor, parental/abuser death, alcoholism by main, breakdown at funeral, hitting of kippah on ground during breakdown, intense switch in time of distress, apparent alter death (not permanent but is not resolved in this episode).

IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY ME TO WATCH EPISODES 5 AND 6 IN THE SAME SITTING OR CLOSE TOGETHER. 5 is really fucking intense, and even while being very well done, it can really fuck up your brain and mental space. Episode 6 is a huge balm onto that and makes me cry every time because of it.

Episode 6, Gods and Monsters—Cult carrying out goals, intense grief from living main, dead bodies talking, brief possession by a god, guilt tripping and trauma leveraging by antag onto mains, sudden switch, brief return of psych ward setting (though in a context of triumphing over it/proving it to be a construct), after credits scene involves abduction of antag from a care facility, and murder.

Also general note that the show is really complicated and nuanced in its rep. It has a lot that’s really good but they also made some mistakes. The term DID/Dissociative Identity Disorder is not said on screen, for example, largely because the system themselves don’t know what’s going on/are dealing with a lot of internalized ableism, however it was still a choice by the writers. Some cast and crew members have also said not great things in interviews, but on the flip side, a lot of them have shown they really care.

Oscar Isaac specifically did a whole lot of research for his roles, and has been very respectful and awesome in interviews and in his pushing for the characters to be given the best they can. There’s a lot of discussion to have around all of it, and a lot they can improve in a season 2 if/when we get it, but it’s still a really complex and empathetic exploration of the system in general.

But also, it may not be for everyone!

I’m a singlet, and I’ve talked and discussed stuff a lot with the groups I’m in including systems in fandom, and there’s a lot in it people connect to, but it also may not be the type of show others want to watch and that’s ok. Rep is so nuanced and complicated especially with something so stigmatized, every step forward doing its best but not always nailing it, that everyone will have their varying relationships to it, and what works for some may not be good for others.

But yeah! I love moon knight a lot, and all of the things recommended here while none are perfect each do really amazing things with their stories, art, and explorations. I hope this can help some people interested in checking them out do so in an informed and safe way. My inbox is open if anyone has questions, and I can also point to some other really cool people in the community for specific discussions, recommendations, and more!

Hope you all have an epic and wonderful day! Good job on a swaggy bracket :-D

(ID in ALT)

[eclipian]

can we get a headmate that's basically 2020 tiktok emo, lots of xenos n neos, 'arson' and 'bug' those kinda of names, just basically the embodiment of '2020 cringe' because cringe culture sucks :3

Done and done! Enjoy the Monster energy obessed dude.

[zorughost]

azurearctos -> zorughost (trying out)

Hello everyone, thought finally pinned post

• 20+, loveless aroace, trans agenderthing? intersex, he/him it/its pronouns

• Plural (no syscourse please), @familie plural blog

• Semiscribal (flux if make sense? sometimes more words), full sentences from headmate

• Autistic, disabled physically and mentally (crutch and wheelchair user)

• Biggest special interest Pokémon (am normal about Allister and Kieran, Espurr and Hisuian Zorua lover)

• Special interests: animals/nature, video games (+ Pokémon, MH Stories), Japanese culture (+ manga/anime, Yokai, food, myths), folklore/mythologies, monsters, stuffed animals, VTubers, dragons and HTTYD, prehistoric animals and dinosaurs

• Favorite manga: Rosario + Vampire, The Fox & Little Tanuki, Dungeon Meshi, Deepsea Aquarium Magmell

• Engaged environment protection

• Pagan

• If don't know why follow, probably for sideblog(s), will reblog/like so know

• Biggest ever

• Reminder: NO "go nonverbal", say "speech loss" or synonym, nonverbal = permanent

userboxes by @/sweetpeauserboxes

------

DNI: racist, ableist, LGBT/MOGAI-phobic, islamophobic/antisemitic, proshipper (especially if minor or incest involved, bad trigger for self and headmate, and related trauma for headmate), terf/radfem, transabled and similar, anti-otherkin (hurt nobody), anti-age/petre (not sexual, recognized coping mechanism), support HP/JKR

[fenmere]

Ah-ha! We'll write one. Actually. Wait. Actually. We already have. It's a fanfic, so you can't buy or sell it, and you have to read it on AO3, but in Star Trek Mercury: Two Way Mirror Mountain, Garamond Vanderkemp, the narrator who starts and ends the story, and system member to Danielle and Auden Vanderkemp, is an Id Monster. As in that is its gender. And it uses it/its pronouns. Not much is made of it, because we postulate that Starfleet is just rad that way, and so are the aliens they end up visiting. But, Garamond is the MC (along with its two headmates) and is xenogender, even if the term "xenogender" isn't used explicitly. Our purely original works, the Sunspot Chronicles, may not count, because it takes place in a society where gender isn't a cultural concept and it isn't assigned. Most of the narrators and MCs of the books probably could be described as xenogender, because they're aliens and they aren't necessarily agender (they just don't think about it much, and don't have the language for it), and they aren't men or women (and they're all fictional analogues of us, and we're, well, more or less xenogender - we prefer aporagender as a term, but it's the same thing really). But, it comes up even less than in Star Trek Mercury.

Probably a hard ask bur did we ever send an ask stating that if you knew of any books where the MC is xenogender, that it would be super awesome? :0

Anyways, do you know of any books where the MC is xenogender?

I don’t, sorry! Anyone else?

[plural-culture-is]

monster/supernatural headmate culture is slightly freaking out every time you get close to front, because the body doesn’t have the horns/tails/fangs/etc that you’re used to having in headspace.

.

[bengesko]

Hi there. I’m Nikolai.

I love trans women. Y'all are my sisters, and you're safe with me.

FARTS can go get exploded in hammer cars ♥

Zionists can fuck right off- you WILL be blocked. Keep your genocidal bullshit away from me.

If you're new here: My persona, Silviu (the one in my icon, on my sidebar), is a Bengesko (-points to username-) and is NOT a w*ndigo. (Also, w*ndigo do NOT look like that, so... way to fall for the white narrative.)

I’m 39, Kalderash Diddikai, a transmasc monster (He/Him; Xe/Xem). I’m myrsexual/panromantic and poly. (But I also use queer for simplicity).

I’m disabled (and fighting for SSDI, since I am unable to work in any capacity due to Ehlers Danlos/Migraines)

I try to tag appropriately for content warnings/ships etc- just let me know if you need something specific tagged, and I will! (I WILL have some darker content on here, be forewarned!)

I use THC medically (sometimes recreationally, but I can't afford to do so all the time.

I am the figurehead of a system; I am not open about it on main, but occasionally, I tag posts as they relate to my headmates. I don't use collective pronouns out of a long time habit. I am pro-endo, and do not engage in syscourse.

It's 2024: If you're using Harry Potter shit or 4chan type usernames, you're blocked on sight. Grow the fuck up.

I block minors. My content ain't for you.

Asks are disabled. Had some anti-rromani bigots in my inbox- when Zionists can't get you to take their side, they'll show their true colors. Rroma and Jewish cultures have a long history of being intertwined and overlapped, and if you're a Zionist, you're a traitor, and you don't deserve the camaraderie and support of the Rromani diaspora. You should know better than to support genocide.

[yesthatsatumbler]

Partly agreeing with the overall point, mostly finding the whole spelling thing funny, not mad in the slightest?

There's been a lot of discussions in the corners of the plurality community that I participated in about how the terms "tulpa" and "tulpamancy" have inconvenient religious baggage and should probably be replaced by something else (unfortunately I don't actually recall what exactly the proposed replacement term was).

It probably didn't help that AFAIK historically the most common alternate term for the same(ish) practice was "soulbonding", which was... well there were probably a ton of people in the HP and other fandoms who would likely have complained that this is absolutely not what soulbond means. Fortunately it hadn't caught on enough for them to be significantly bothered.

I'm not aware of any specifically racist (as such) background, but I hadn't watched the video (yet). I don't know where exactly the modern name for the practice came from. I suspect that the video authors aren't actually aware of the 2000 alt-sex-stories outlier (most editions of which actually do use the "tulpa" spelling) but TBF I'm not actually confident that it was a sufficiently major influence on later naming either.

The use of "tulpa" to mean "mental construct that attained physicality" dates back to at least the 1990s, in contexts like X-Files; usually it's described as an evil monster to be dispelled (in much contrast, as I understand it, to the original spiritual version, which was mainly intended as benevolent). I imagine it's this kind of thing that you're calling "demonization" - certainly sounds like a convenient term for that particular setup! I'm not sure if the more modern "internal mental construct, with no pretense to physicality" version is directly derived from that, though. AFAICT the 90s sources used "thoughtform" as the more generic term and left "tulpa" for the more external variants.

TL/DR: I agree that the term is flawed, I don't consider it specifically racist but if cultural appropriation is a thing this is definitely an example, I can't think of a better alternative offhand anyway ("headmate", "alter" and "introject" are all too generic), and the consistently wrong spelling that strongly reminded me of that one old story initially really distracted me from the actual argument. Maybe at some point I'll actually watch the video and then I would hopefully be able to comment further.

Okay sorry for ranting so much but I have another thing I want to talk about

I put in the energy and I decided my stance on the word “tupla.” Before anyone gets mad at me I want to say I am not gonna block or get mad at you for using the word tupla. I don’t know your race or religion and frankly what words you use is none of my business. And I’m not gonna go all “dni tupla” or anything because It’s not that deep. Also I support the idea behind tupla just the name for it is flawed

But, I do suggest especially white and non Asian people to do your research on where the term came from and the racist use of it online before it became a popular plural term.

I’ll site my source at the end but I’ll also do a tldr of my source:

Tldr: Before popular in the plural community, tupla was a demonized and often racist term usually used to describe creepy pastas for example slender man was called a tupla. Then the term was picked up by the brony community who were still using it in a racist way where it was popularized as a plural term. “Tuplamancy” also isn’t the practices name. It’s a combination of “tupla” (Buddhist practice) and the root word “mancy” which is Greek. The way our community uses tuplas are also different then the way Buddhist did/will so we essentially took a word, demonized it, then used it incorrect

Source:

Anyways just keep it in mind I’m not your dad I don’t control you but listen to Asian people and poc please :)

[sophieinwonderland]

From some random post we saw while doomscrolling through syscourse(which, are you alright? You're the top poster, which isn't really something to strive for in one of the most hate and rage driven tags systems can find themselves in on tumblr... should take a mental health break every once in a while):

Because, frankly, the anti-tulpa narrative was manufactured to shutdown created systems, and present bigotry in a way that appeared progressive. People aren't actually against words from other languages and religions being used in new ways. They're against these words being used by endogenic systems.

As a pro-endo mixed/POC system who has spent hours upon hours trying to understand the tulpa language discourse argument- I'm honestly really fucking hurt by this hugely inaccurate assumption. I don't see how we're trying to shut down created systems, what i see is trying to educate and steer people away from a term that was created through ignorance, racism [albeit not forwardly malicious], and cultural appropriation.

Tulpa creation bears no connection to Tibetan Buddhism anymore —not that it ever really did, given this exact phenomenon is not actually mentioned to exist, ever, by, i forgot the name of the person who invented the term but i know she was a) white and b) racist in ways outside of this — but is still touted around as being connected and part of that spiritual practice.

It's not about "we dont want endos using this term." It's that we want the term to stop being used ALTOGETHER. We personally have witnessed traumagenic systems exploring creating headmates, and we have steered them away from using tulpa language in favor of "parogenic" as a term.

It saddens us that you can just so brazenly dismiss it as a whole as shutting down created systems while so much else is going on that you're choosing to ignore.

You have a good heart - do more research into why people are saying what they are and don't just dismiss them like that. Please don't speak over those people who are a part of the culture being appropriated, simply because of refusal to change.

And yes, we asked this on anon not out of cowardice, but because we'd really rather not start getting a bunch of death threats on our main blog.

-Enzo

Okay, let's try a thought experiment. Imagine for a moment that there are two universes. In one universe, the anti-tulpa narrative begins and is popularized because it's harmful to Tibetan Buddhists as an ethnoreligious group.

In the other, the anti-tulpa narrative is concocted and pushed heavily by anti-endos as a way of delegitimizing one of the strongest and most well-researched endogenic communities.

What would you say the differences would be between these two universes?

Personally, I think if one were to enter the first universe, you would find several things.

Anti-tulpa sentiment probably would have begun in the early 2000s as the internet was coming into more sidespread use and shows like Supernatural and X-Files would use tulpas as horror monsters.

Similar to above, once backlash started, it would be hitting all presentations of tulpas, including in creepypastas and its use by the SCP Foundation.

Much of the backlash would be coming from members of the Tibetan Buddhist community, including at least some spiritual leaders because yes, religions have hierarchies of leadership.

Well, what about the second universe? What would we expect that universe to look like? Personally, I would expect the following:

There would be zero trace of anyone ever taking issue with the tulpas in shows like Supernatural or X-Files prior to tulpamancy being formed.

All backlash would be focused solely on tulpamancers. Nobody ever would mention the SCP Foundation, Mandella Catalogue or creepypastas about tulpas.

Most of the anti-tulpa backlash would be coming from system circles, and would be heavily pushed by anti-endos. While you might be able to fund a small handful of Tibetan Buddhists who have been convinced by anti-endo rhetoric that it's bad, there would be no spiritual leaders getting involved and most Tibetan Buddhists you ask outside of system spaces wouldn't care.

Which of these two universes do you feel most resembles our own?

Before you answer, here's a fun thread comparing the differences in people's opinions on r/systemscringe vs those on r/Buddhism

When r/systemscringe is pushing a narrative that the word is appropriation while actual Buddhist communities on the same site shrug their shoulders and don't care, this should send up immediate red flags as to the legitimacy of this whole controversy, and which groups are actually interest in pushing it.

Now, I am not suggesting that none of the very small handful of actual Tibetan Buddhists who have taken issues with the practice don't legitimately feel as they claim to.

The problem with propaganda is that it's often very good at manipulating people's emotions. If it couldn't do that, it wouldn't be effective.

We've seen this with similar anti-endo smears, like the ones claiming "system hopping" was appropriated from RAMCOA systems. And sure enough, despite its use in the plural community predating any RAMCOA connection by a full 16 years, this claim still persisted. And some RAMCOA systems were even manipulated by these lies and convinced endogenic systems were stealing terms from their community.

We actually see this same tactic over and over again.

We see it with "system hopping" which they claim was stolen from RAMCOA systems. We see it with "sysmed," which they claim is stolen from the LGBT community. We see this with the very concept of plurality itself.

The fact of the matter is that this has become a core manipulation tactic in the anti-endo playbook, designed to sew division.