Plurality has been fucking whack yo.

I have five members in my system, three of which front. I'm one of those members and I'm the primary. It's my body and I get to do what I want with it, that's the agreement we have.

I only discovered I was plural in December.

[cont]

One of the members who fronts is a lesbian ace Buddhist named Vanessa who thinks she's lived past lives (I think she's deluded herself but w/e). She's into religion and new age shit, things I'm not. She's massively stuck up sometimes. She doesn't front because she will aggressively drive a point home. I think she needs to learn how to calm down.

[cont]

The other member who fronts is a "genderfucked" aromantic pansexual named Regina who is agnostic, into law, and absolutely abhors tech. They're... interesting. I'm told they're quite distinct from me, but more similar to me than Vanessa is. I relate to Regina far better and we have far better internal communication.

[cont]

I have a boy named Brad in here too, who generally resents being in this body, and is sort of the Zoidberg of the system. He's massively gay and really wishes I'd stop taking estradiol and spiro.

I also have a member named Bridget. She's quiet. She doesn't know too much about herself yet. She can't front yet, without feeling extremely disoriented at least.

And then there's me. Y'all know me.

Most of my closer friends have accepted it just fine. They find my other members interesting and respect their names and identities. I'm not out to the general public and probably never will be.

I've found most people aren't really receptive to plurality. Most people don't really care to hear, at least, the ones who don't think I'm mentally ill and need psychiatric assistance. (which I absolutely *do not*, this is not a pathological condition that affects functioning)

As for fronting... I generally respect requests to front, so long as they give back control when I absolutely *must* front, like for bureaucratic or police interactions or whatever. I can take it back by force, but I prefer not to, as that tends to make me disoriented. I've only had to do that a few times, though, and I think everyone knows better now.

[cont]

When someone else fronts, I don't remember much of what they experience, if anything. They can draw on my memories, mostly, although I can wall them off. I can sort of draw on theirs, but it's hard. It's hard to explain. It's not a hard barrier but it's there.

I have to remember to tell people when I've switched back; that happens if someone has fronted for too long and has gotten tired.

Sometimes we have blendy moments where co-fronting happens with me and another.

Co-fronting is fucking weird. I try to avoid it. It happens when one of us has fronted too long. Fronting can be kind of exhausting for members who aren't me. I don't know why.

An interesting aspect of our system is each member has distinct tastes in food (food/smells are different between each, don't ask me, I don't know), and distinct skill sets (Vanessa is more artistic than I, Regina is better at peering through bureaucratic nonsense and is way more sociable). Vanessa and Regina have had to be taught how to drive. Vanessa does an okay job but she's jerky. Regina does a great job but they go way too fast when they shouldn't.

[cont]