thepluralmaster

[thepluralmaster]

dating your headmates is great and all but there’s a sadness to it. like is this all there is? you kiss my forehead, but nothing happens. we’re holding hands, but no one sees it. there is no other body to hold at night, the hands running through my hair are my own. no one understands and no one tries to. i love you, but it’s not enough. im still touch starved and no amount of this can fix it. on some level we wish it were visible. in some way we wish it were real.

[thepluralmaster]

sorry for, like, discoursing on main, but i just think that as a community, we deserve better. people with DID deserve better, people with other dissociative disorders deserve better, systems who do not (or choose not to) label themselves with a diagnosis deserve better, people who identify as plural for other reasons deserve better

it makes me so fucking angry that even within our own community so many people are attached to this idea that we're uniquely broken, that only fantastical levels of abuse could produce people like us, and that the only way for us to be believed is for us to portray ourselves as broken birds, and thusly we must all clamber to be The Most Abused and therefore A True And Valid System, Immune To All Criticism

[thepluralmaster]

Fictive culture is lamenting that your source self didn't get a happy ending (or at least, not what I would consider a happy ending) so fuck it, it's self-indulgent fanfic time, baybee

.

[thepluralmaster]

[thepluralmaster]

Actually I think it's okay to compare your experience with plurality with your experience with being queer. Comparing your own experiences isn't this grand commentary on queerness or plurality and it's not trying to dictate how everyone else feels aboot it.

I think part of it is that people are fundamentally understanding what a comparison is meant to be. For example, someone talking about how being xenogender and plural has had similar social impacts isn't saying "plurality is a gender for me".

I have a hunch that the immediate "no, don't compare your plurality to queerness" reaction is coming from the fact that most Tumblr users don't see gender as a controversial identity that needs to be proven.

[thepluralmaster]

After looking through several days of syscourse, you know what:

There is no point in spending thousands of words arguing about the validity of experience. It's pointless.

You can scream from the rooftops that the ICD/DSM/DIDresearch/Your Uncle says some experience isn't possible. And people are going to keep having it all the same. And they will give it whatever label fits.

Much more interesting are some of the bounds and conditions.

Did you know (from purely anecdotal evidence of reading #plurality tags for the last years) that people of all labeled origins tend to describe very similar experiences? Whatever is happening in the brain, is occurring in ways that share common language. This is fascinating.

Did you know that most systems on Tumblr stumble onto their systems rather than create them (again, regardless of origin)?

Or that most systems view their headmates in a generally positive light? Even when sharing frustrations about them and about the disorder (for those who are disordered). People who talk about spiritual origins, including possession, also discuss their experiences with generally positive words.

Did you know that some people introject fictives wholesale, and others seem to create and introject particular qualities or archetypes? And that those introjects often speak to the system's real-world influences, often from their childhood?

Did you know that a fair few people discuss a particular experience of being two, often complementary, beings? Specifically, two, often of different genders, often perceiving themselves as close friends, person+imaginary friend, or siblings? And I have no idea why. If this isn't cool, I don't know what is.

What I want is to see more people be interested in the details and less worried about policing each other's lived experience. I want to know what that means? Why does the brain do it that way vs. some other way? What does this mean for personality development?

Look, all I'm saying is that, arguing about whether someone is or isn't a system isn't going to get you anywhere. Whereas discussing shared experiences is a fascinating glimpse into how people understand themselves, how brains work, and how spirituality is closely connected to physical experience. These are remarkable things to dive into. That's what I want to see discussed more.

[thepluralmaster]

book from the sky (tianshu) xu bing, 1989-91

I was so excited to see a copy of this in real life bc it's something I studied in art history. this is a book that was typeset and printed by hand using wooden blocks but every one of the characters was invented for the sake of the piece and does not correspond to any word in the Chinese language

[thepluralmaster]

When it comes to helping loved ones in abusive relationships, saying anything like "you should've seen this coming", "I told you so", "I know better than you", or "you're too young to make these decisions" (especially at someone with a significantly older parter) NEVER HELPS.

Making an abuse victim feel guilty, shamed, embarrassed, judged, or otherwise attacked pushes them away from supportive loved ones and deeper into the abusive relationship. It also gives the abuser the opportunity to frame you and the victim's other friends and family as enemies who are just trying to attack their relationship and take away their happiness, further isolating them from anyone who could help.

Your loved one does not need your unsolicited commentary on how stupid or foolish you think they are for being abused. They need you to be kind and supportive, a safe haven they can turn to without fear of being judged or hurt, and someone they can trust to really help them when they decide to leave. Don't become just another person who hurts them.

[thepluralmaster]

A woman is transformed into a succubus without any awareness of it whatsoever.

She thinks that, in a simple stroke of luck, she’s just gotten very good at finding other people online who care about her special interests.

[thepluralmaster]

Sometimes we have kids read nonsense words to practice their knowledge of letter sounds and how they interact without them attaching meaning to it. These are some good ones I came across today

[thepluralmaster]

As much as I like Reflect Sign as the Shinymas Moon Unit song, sometimes I wish I can get brave HARMONY instead, that’s our all-time favorite Moon Unit song.

Good news is, I can easily manipulate my mental voicebank to “hear” myself sing it, with decent accuracy

- Yuika Mitsumine 🌧️ (no pronouns)

[thepluralmaster]

I truly believe any neurodivergent person can be framed as manipulative if their doctor dislikes them. What is masking if not manipulation if you view it uncharitably enough?

[thepluralmaster]

One thing for those who have watched The Boy and The Heron or will watch it. The Japanese title for it is How Do You Live? And Miyazaki stated he was leaving it for his grandson, saying, "Grandpa is moving onto the next world soon but he is leaving behind this film".

The deaths of contemporaries and friends such as Satoshi Kon and Isao Takahata and also the expected successor of Yoshifumi Kondo were things that have always weighed heavily on the back of Miyazaki's mind.

He recognizes the industry and the occupation for how soul crushing it was, grinding up either the spirit or the physical body of those who work in it. He loves and hates the industry he stands on the peak of and fully recognizes how it will probably be the death of him. And he knows it'll leave him unable to say a lot of things to his Grandson.

So How Do You Live? is a lesson. For his grandson. For himself. For his two sons. And probably for anyone else willing to pay attention.

Hayao Miyazaki is a flawed man that makes things so important to so many people. And I think more than any other film of his, in this you get to pull back the curtain a bit and see him at work. And what should be this giant unblemished titan can be seen for what he is, a sad old man who had higher hopes for himself and has even higher hopes for the people he makes his work for.

It's a beautiful thing to see another's humanity in their work. To look past the artifice and glam of commercialized art and find humans behind it. And humans willing to show their humanity and mortality is even rarer. And something to be celebrated. So when you watch it. Or if you've watched it already. Understand that this film is Miyazaki kneeling down, weary after years of weaving dreams and making mistakes, reaching out and saying to you that he hopes you can do better. It's an old man who's made all the mistakes of the world passing it on to you, hoping you do better, and making sure you know it's okay if you don't.

How do you Live? By making mistakes. By messing up. But still moving forward. And still reaching out.

[thepluralmaster]

[thepluralmaster]

the colors of the sunrise

[thepluralmaster]

[thepluralmaster]