#we aren't taking questions about this or our plurality and if anything hateful ends up in the inbox anons are going off

[theremustbeabear]

Erm hi. I'm unfamiliar with plurality so I just want to ask a few questions if thats ok... I feel like this is too long for discord.

1. How similar are your introjects (is that the appropriate way to say it? Your introjects? Or this system's introjects?) To the source material? Are they influenced by fanon? If the source material character/person is talked about, do they take it personally? Be it shipping, character crit, etc... OK sorry this is many questions at once.

2. When did altars start popping up, and when did you guys become aware that "oh here theres lots of us around"? Any particular formative events/memories that are associated with the development of your plurality?

3. Are hosts usually the "original" altar? I'm sorry, idk how to say this.

4. This is more for talking on discord and the such but do memories and conversations carry over? Would it be inappropriate to go like "we (me and an altar) talked about xyz" to another altar?

of course, happy to answer any questions anytime! and an obligatory disclaimer that these are own opinions/feelings and that other systems may not see or experience things the same way.

"your introjects" is perfectly fine! "you" is a singular or plural pronoun, so it doesn't matter. our introjects tend to start out quite close to the source material, and then develop naturally from there. we like to think of our source character as a sort of foundation, which we then build our own house on top of—it's important, but it's not the only thing, and the more of the house that's built, the less of the foundation you see. some folks end up changing a lot, over time, and others don't, it just depends on the individual. influenced by fanon also depends, sometimes we are, sometimes we aren't, sometimes our brain decides to go off in a wild uncharted direction and drag us through a hedge and spit out an introject that feels like the source character has been put through a paper shredder and reassembled into some weird half-recognizable paper mache sculpture. as for taking source talk personally, we generally don't experience anything more strongly than what the average person would feel upon seeing talk of their favourite character. we view our source characters quite separately from ourselves, especially once we've taken on a different name, but we do thrive on making jokes. it's very common for us to see character crit, and if it's from a friend, the relevant introject to pop up and go "what did i ever do to you :( why do you hate me :( /j" without actually meaning any of it. it's all in good fun. if we ever do feel too strongly about something, we remove ourselves or the introject in question and handle it privately.

early 2021 was our system discovery (often shortened to syscovery)! late may, i believe? a lot of systems tend to struggle with their discovery, spending a long time doubting and unable to fully interact with their headmates, but that wasn't us. our old host was dragging up unpleasant memories one night, and our brain got sick of it, and decided to make her stop by dumping an entire person directly on her head, which caused her to freak out and flee into the back. lalna, the new person, was utterly clueless, but knew she wasn't the host, and so poked around in the brain until she found johan, who had been there for a month or so previous, and johan took over to sort things out. so, it was a very jarring and sudden transition, because prior to that point, our existing headmates had been trying very hard to keep themselves hidden so as not to make problems for the host. we're still not exactly sure how old our system is, due to the size and construction of our headspace, but the oldest we've found so far is sable, who is at least from 2018, perhaps earlier. we're a traumagenic system--a system formed from trauma, that is--so we'd prefer not to disclose the details of that, but suffice it to say our old host was simply having trouble dealing with life on her own, and so the brain attempted to fix that problem by making it so that she, well, wasn't alone. in all fairness, it did work! three years on, we're much happier now than we were before, and wouldn't return to singularity for a million dollars.

hosts are often the "original" alter (or headmate, as we prefer—the term alter is standard, but also viewed as a little too clinical by a lot of systems. we don't mind it, we just prefer other terms), but not always. the generally-accepted term for an "original" alter is the "core", and our core is not our current host. she used to be, but mike took over about a month after our syscovery, and has held the position ever since. the exact definition of host is fluid between systems, but for the most part, it's simply the "main" headmate that is around most often and is sort of viewed as being "in charge". big shoutout to mike, by the way, he's incredible and a big reason why we're so functional and problem-free these days.

for us, they do! we're an osdd-1b system, so we have very little amnesia between alters, if any at all. the best way to explain it is that the front, where we have to be to interact with the outside world, and the body, have their own memory bank, of sorts, that's accessible by any headmate who is in the front at any time. right now, i can remember what angus was doing when we were playing video games this morning, and the jackbox games night two weeks ago, even though i wasn't entirely present for the first and completely out of front for the second. however, once i leave, i'll have no access to the knowledge of what's happening outside until i return, and the gaps will be filled in. it's a little odd at first, but once you're used to it, it's completely seamless, and is the reason why we often struggle to remember who was fronting for a past activity, and/or simply refer to the past vaguely using i/we without specifying. things are generally a little bit clearer when it was you, specifically, though—for example, i have no idea who started writing the hickgib fic in our drafts, even though i remember writing it, but i know that it wasn't me, particularly. this is because we also have our own personal memories that encapsulate source & things we might get up to in headspace outside of the front. all this to say: no, it's perfectly fine to mention talking to another alter, and honestly, we'd be glad for the reminder, lol, we've probably completely forgotten who was participating in the conversation and might want to drop them a line to jog our memory more clearly.

hope this helps! thanks for asking <3

[stormy-talks]

Hello. I am the anon that sent that ask to @/our-queer-experience about otherkin being insane. I was going through the responses and saw your comment, inviting me to ask anything.

I wanted to thank you.

And. Well.

I wanted to ask, why are you all so sure that this is not a mental health condition? Because after seeing the responses from different people, I'm still not at all convinced that you all are not insane.

Someone else answered with their experience and feelings about the topic and asked me to take a moment to consider if I believe that "you all being actually insane would mean that it is alright for me to be mean to you" or something like that and, honestly? No. I do not believe that. I would never be mean to someone for being otherkin, I am not going to argue with you or try to convince you you are human, I know you are not doing anything wrong, you are not putting yourselves nor anyone else in danger, you do you, it doesn't affect me. (but I'm still going to check myself for internalized ableism anyways.)

I sent another ask after that one, I don't know if you saw it, explaining this. The thing is that I don't want to just go on with my life thinking that you all are just clinically ill people. I want to at least try to understand, at least take a moment to ask questions and listen to the answers.

I know that there is a possibility that there is not something wrong with you, maybe it is something wrong with me. And I do not like being wrong. So if that's the case, I need to know so I can fix it. Acknowledging that I am being stupid is the first step to stop being stupid.

Also like I know it is not anybody's job to educate me and it doesn't matter what I think about you and your experiences. I am nobody and you all are still worthy of respect. Me not understanding something doesn't give me the right to be an asshole about it.

I am defending myself too much lmao sorry. This ended up much longer than intended.

I just want you to know that I appreciate you wanting to take the time to answer to me and explain this stuff to me, and that I am not coming from a place of hate and I don't pretend to "win an argument."

Well, anon. If you were concerned it's a mental health condition, I would hope you'd be an advocate for people with such an experience. But, with your use of the word "insane" in conjunction with "mental health condition", then I can only imagine you do not actually choose to be an ally to people with such conditions.

Bigotry in secret is still bigotry. On the outside, you'll be accepting and amicable. But you see us as insane behind anonymity. I also wouldn't call the use of "insane" internalized ableism. You did not internalize that.

There are a number of otherkin experiences ranging from psychological to spiritual to many more. There isn't really one way to explain otherkinity and invalidating one experience invalidates them all. So I won't spare you with "But some of them aren't psychologically otherkin at all! Sometimes it's a spiritual belief!" They're all real and valid experiences.

It's no different than plurality. In fact, it all fall under the same label of alterhuman. Sometimes it's something clinical, sometimes it's something more. We all have varying experiences with our bodies and our minds, and it doesn't always feel right to consider ourselves human. Something else pulls us away from that. There's a nagging feeling that our bodies and minds just aren't suited to the human experience.

Humans are complicated, but we don't always choose to be complicated.

You had the right idea by saying that we're not hurting anyone or putting ourselves in danger. You are so very close to being on the right track. Even if for some reason it's true that we are "clinically ill", how does that change the validity of our experiences? Yes, a number of otherkin are actually otherkin because of delusions, but they are still very much welcome in the community with open arms because they have very real experiences not unlike any other such identity.

Knowing why we're otherkin, not knowing why - it doesn't have any real effect on you. You can go about your day. But for us, we don't get to just stop being us. Instead, we have to fight to explain why being human just doesn't always work. We have to explain an identity not everyone fully understands. We don't know why it happens, but it doesn't hurt us. I think if anything, it helps us better understand ourselves by leaning into it.