Down in Darkwood
System Emerged Aug 2022
They / Them ⫶ System Members / People ⫶ Queer ⫶ Plural ⫶ Body is Late 20s
Polyfragmented ⫶ Inl. Fictives ⫶ Therapist recognized Traumagenic Self-Dx
Welcome to our carrd!
We are plural.That is, when 'I' talk about 'Me' - who I consider myself to be as an individual - you should know that there are actually many 'me's occupying the same brain and body together.This is called sometimes called 'multiplicity,' or a System.
The members of a system can be incredibly varied in their existence, and each tends to be better at handling different things in our life.Quite a few of our people internally may unintentionally share their appearance with fictional characters. This sometimes happens through a process of introjection, where the brain unconsciously internalizes things from outside sources, then mixes and develops them with our own experiences, and aspects of selves.Generally this happens with characters the brain finds relatable, whose experiences might resonate with some aspect of our own, positive and negative. Often they tend to be those who are a source of comfort, or someone who could help make sense of something we're overwhelmed with so that collectively we can process stuff better.Many of our people internally exist with various origins, both introjected and not, so the 'inside' of our head might seem a bit chaotic to describe at times.Unfortunately important to note: Please don't assume our people's stances on matters will match their 'sources' - or your interpretation of said source.
Please do not treat us as 'fictional' or roleplay characters.
We are real people with actual lives.But otherwise, hi!
If you don't know what anything on this carrd means, see Systems Simplified!
An Update on Names
A few of us are changing the names we go by publicly.
Why? A couple reasons.First some context though.
As explained elsewhere, many of us exist with introjected aspects of others to form ourselves; the brain using partial templates from people outside us to base us on, to function and process things in different ways.A lot of us as such tend to present internally in relation to characters from fictional media to varying degrees, because our brain picked up a lot of traits from there, and therefore that is how our brain makes sense of things internally.Which brings us to the reasons:
Firstly
A lot of said characters come from races and cultures that are not those of the body we share. Regardless of our thoughts or opinions as introjects, we collectively move through and experience the world in a body that is white, and despite empathy, that does affect our experience and perception of the world around us.We do not in our day to day lives face discrimination for our race, or legal name, where many people of colour do. Even if some of us may feel that we present differently internally, our external reality is still vastly different from the what many people of colour face consistently.We seek to be appreciative and not appropriative, and with that, we also don't want to mislead others about our experiences, where on relevant matters it would be better to uplift the voices of others.We will still list Internal / Felt names in the additional info on our profile pages for the purpose of explaining how we exist as people, but those will not be our main identifiers that we use, nor on our main system list.
Secondly
While we still intend to talk openly about our experiences as introjects, not every single conversation is the right time to give a full-on lecture.This change helps take the pressure off us feeling like we need to explain so many complicated things just to interact with another person, where up to now we've often accidentally both overwhelmed the person listening, and exhausted ourselves.Sometimes it's better to conserve the mental energy and just keep to the basics of "Hi I'm plural" with the option to explain later if it feels important. And when we do, we should have more energy to do so.
Why Now?
A lot of things have been going on in the past year since we became more aware of ourselves as a system (August 2022) with little opportunity to mentally rest and process things without throwing yet another upheaval into the mix.A lot of significant life things aside, the brain has been going:"Wait, So if ThisPerson is ThisName then NotThis can't be ThisName, so they are NotThisName, and NotThisName seems to be heavily related to Character... then NotThisName will be assigned as CharacterName - and now CharacterName is grappling with self awareness of both being kind of /like/ Character and no longer being considered ThisName, and is not actually Character, but still being CharacterName, who is also still LegalName, but ?!?"-reoccurringly multiple times over as each of us comes to process and recognize ourselves within our system.It's taken time to settle down and just learn to just exist as ourselves, with ourselves. (We are grateful for the people around us who have been understanding as this process has looped.)It's something that still happens again any time we have a newcomer come into being, of course, who needs help settling in. Just, now fortunately not as many of us are all going through that process all at once as with New-System-Awareness.Those of us that come from being introjects, in our case at least, tend to cling to things from our perceived 'sources' because it's scary to try and figure out who you are otherwise when the brain is only telling you "Well you're not this person." but all it gives you is technically-fiction?It's scary to be 'nothing' - so at least 'something' was just confusing in the interim.
Conclusion
Between those two reasons, that's why most of the time we just refer to each other's emojis publicly and only use names sparingly.Now that we feel we've processed enough where trying to do this doesn't lead to a meltdown, we want to take that step.Not all of us that relate to other sources will change our names, but those to whom the first reason applies will. We won't push newcomers to figure out alternatives immediately, but encourage them to do so if they decide to interact externally, and want to in a self-identifying manner beyond signing with Emojis.So you'll see some gradual updates to names in our system list, etc as people work things out.
General Collective Info
How do we prefer to be referred to - Individually (See System List)
If you don't know who's around - Darkwood. We don't mind being referred to by our previous system name if you know it, but that may confuse others.
Collective Pronouns - They / Them
Many of us are queer and gender diverse in some way.How many of us are there?
You don't need specifics. We will say we are polyfragmented, though.Preferred Terminology - System Member / Member / People
Please avoid for us - Headmate / Alter / Part
(You may of course use your own terminology for yourselves if applicable!)
Body Info
Body Age - Late 20s
Body Ethnicity - White / Pākehā
(Pākehā is 'White' in te reo Māori.)We do have Introjects whose sources are of different races, ethnicities & cultures to the body's.
Actively learning more about these cultures and their history is something we do out of respect.
We know this does not equate any of our experiences to those faced by BIPOC people, or systems.
Therefore we should elevate their voices, especially in areas of their lived experiences.
We will do the best we can to navigate where there is divided opinion, within our purview.
Privilege is something we do our best to be mindful of. We always seek to educate ourselves on oppression and impact, and remain open to correction.
Please DM if we say anything amiss so we can correct our harm and apologize.
Diagnosis Info
System Type - DID / Dissociative Identity Disorder
Medically/Therapist-Recognized
We are still seeking formal diagnosis, but wait-lists have been difficult.ADHD + Autistic
Likely OCD, AVPDDiagnosed Dysgraphia
Views
For some of main views we hold on Plural matters, you can find those here.
We do lean tend to lean into analysis to try and understand things better.
With some of us, our language might reflect that a bit more.
Some people/systems may find this uncomfortable.
However we also try to listen to the experiences of others so that our understanding isn't devoid of empathy.As always, we seek not to form opinions in an echo chamber of just ourselves.-The Burritio Bus System
Views
On therapy
We support systems having agency to determine what support works for them.*
*If that's working with a therapist, or psychiatrist, or neither.
They should be free to start, or stop involvement as they wish.
No one should be forced into it, nor disparaged if they do find it helpful.We are pursuing Functional Multiplicity.
Naturally occuring fusions are totally fine.
Systems should also be free to pursue fusion if that is what they wish.
But fusions should never be pressured or forced.
Views
On Non-Traumagenic Multiplicity
We do believe in the existence of natural multiplicity, endogenic, and mixed origin systems, etc. There is ample evidence in modern day and historically across a wide range of cultures. Dismissing this because it is not our experience, nor the opinion of a prejudiced band of stereo-typically cis-white-older-male academics, would be irresponsible and oppressive.We acknowledge the tragic and messy state of the Traumagenic / Endogenic situation, and that harm has occurred in multiple directions.It saddens us that the actions of individuals have unfairly lead to widespread condemnation of whole groups. While we acknowledge that some have ended up with triggers formed from personal incidents, we really hope some day you can find peace and healing in this area.
Views
On Triggers
We don't publicize our triggers that could be easily used. Not positive, not negative.
If something comes up privately, we will address it or remove ourselves.The one subject we will address:
We will not participate in, and will not recommend system hopping / travel, by the definition of one body / brain / system to another body / brain / system.
Fortunately, the issues connected to it for us can't be set off randomly.But if we see that you actively participate in that, we will keep our distance.
(If we follow you and later see it, sorry, we will likely block for our wellbeing. It's an us thing.)We are totally fine when 'System Hopping' is used as a term to describe people moving between subsystems still within one wider body / brain / system.+If you ever need to unfollow/block us for any reason, that's okay, please take care.
Views
On who we follow
We try to follow various systems or people that work with systems that hold a range of views, even contrary to our own where it's not a trigger risk, to give us a wider understanding of the community because we believe plurality has a diverse range of experiences.This doesn't mean we agree with or endorse everyone we follow. We are just trying not to form views and opinions in an echo-chamber, and to be open minded.
While we don't block minors from following us, as a rule we do not follow back anyone who doesn't declare their age / age-range, or is under 18 unless we know them from other circles. We tend to avoid following people under 20 in general.We try to read and adhere to people's listed DNIs, but if we accidentally misunderstand them and interact, you're welcome to block us.
(This only tends to happen due to people writing vague lists with niche, unexplained acronyms we don't understand, or just saying "Basic DNI criteria" without explaining what that means to them.)
Views
On AI
AI generated 'art' / 'photo' images are theft.
AI voices trained from non-consenting performers are both theft and identity fraud.
Chat GPT has been trained from books, articles, and scraped online content, largely without consent. And AI 'Character Chats' are trained from fanfics, without author consent.Generative AI has already poroven to be theft on a MASSIVE scale, of already created work by people, and increasingly theft of opportunities that could have otherwise gone to creatives.There are not yet adequate protections in place for ethical use to be possible.Even disability is not an excuse to ignore such ethics:
Many disabled people work in creative fields, but are losing some of the only accessible work they can do because of rampant AI abuse.
Using said tools shows supports for further theft by 'proving' demand.We believe that the datasets of now-existing models already need to be wiped entirely and started from scratch, with strict means of authenticating that only genuinely opted-in-with-proven-ownership works are included.We have no interest in engadging with anyone who uses or supports Generative AI.
Views
On 'ship' content
This page was previously unpublished due to anxiety around people misunderstanding our opinions on the subject, but we are doing better in that regard, so we feel it's time to be clearer around our stance on this.If you are uncomfortable with any of this, you are welcome to block us, no questions.
Our views would be considered Proship.
(and Profic, by extension.)To define that for the unfamiliar, or misinformed:
We believe fiction is the best and safest way for people to explore ideas or ships, including problematic ones, in a way that are safe and separate from reality, and that people should not be harassed, doxed, or sent death threats for doing so.We do not support morality-policing of fictional content.We do not believe that exploring those ideas or consuming media that has problematic themes explicitly means that an individual condones, endorses, or desires to recreate those behaviours in real / external life.We believe in individual agency, for people to choose to scroll away from fictional content that makes them uncomfortable, using tools widely available such as Content / Trigger Warnings, muted word lists and blocking.Weaponized Purity Culture and Censorship creates environments where serious subjects get swept under the rug, and safety tools become taboo to employ at all, on threat of ostracization, which allows people with actual predatory intent to get closer to vulnerable people.
Consider the history of Christian churches for an immediate example.We oppose puritan attempts of redefinition Proship as supporting real paedophilia. Miseuse of the word paedophilia both dilutes the meaning and leads to victims being taken less seriously when they need actual support, and policing of fictional content wastes time and resources that should be put to helping actual survivors of abuse.
In a System Context
While this steps a little away from the 'fiction' aspect explained above, since it's adjacent, we feel it's important to address:We also believe that systems that internally have 'problematic' dynamics within their system, should NOT be harassed.Disordered and Non-Disordered, Traumagenic and Non-Traumagenic, their circumstances are internal, and don't affect other people externally, so if someone is uncomfortable with how a system presents, the same tools for curating your own comfortable space should be utilized: Content / Trigger Warnings, muted word lists and blocking.To contextualize as a disordered, traumagenic system with relevant experience:
When you consider the ways in which disordered systems can form especially, and how forms of attachment are also likely to develop in a disordered way, it should not be considered surprising that some brains might seek stability in a way perceived to be safe that has developed from that response to trauma.
Please bear with us as some of our people have decided to take on other names that are separate to, where relevant, introjection-related sources.
(Previously known as names will still be listed in their profiles pages.)* are those yet to update.If you want to read on why, click here.
Main Front Team
Click names for Profiles
Regulars
Irregulars
Patty
Caretaker,
She / Her
Rosia
Undefined,
She / Her
Ember
Caretaker,
They / She
Ashe
Undisclosed,
They / Them
Those who have decided to come forward publically have put what they are comfortable with regarding roles, etc, however this is not pushed on anyone.
We do not believe explicit labeling of anyone is necessary for validity.Any other system members do not wish to disclose themselves at this time.
Hello!
Here's where you can find us online!We might start a blog at some point too? But not yet.
Ehe, the links are also in the footer anyway~
But having a set page also seemed like a good idea?