synecdoches

On 23-07-04 I posted this:

Anyway now that I know there are others here, I get to play the fun game of reconciling my existing mental frameworks with multiplicity. Do I have intrusive thoughts or is that Somebody? Do I get songs stuck in my head or is someone pulling a Salt & Pepper Diner with the Rainbow Road guy and Cat Hacks?

~localhost:

Very funny to read this now that I know about Aisha.

I kept hearing a song from childhood church in my head during a stressful day when we were moving. Frustrated, I snapped at the voice out loud. "Whoever the fuck is singing Scripture Power, please for the love of god stop!" And... it stopped. There was an emotional reaction too-- stunned silence, a child drawing back from a scold. I second guessed myself for a few hours.

Then it happened again-- the same song played on loop for a while. This time I paused and asked more gently, again aloud. "Whoever is singing, listen. Songs from church bother me because they make me feel unsafe. Can we find something else to sing?" This time the voice bounced around a few songs before landing on Frere Jacques. Still not my favorite, but it wasn't triggering, at least.

Anyway... that's Aisha pulling the Salt & Pepper Diner in our head, yeah. She loves to sing and dance, and most of the time if there's a catchy song "stuck in my head" it's actually her singing. We've discovered some music she really likes, which has made it much easier to redirect away from triggering songs.

Intrusive thoughts, depending on the content, are sometimes Fox. He's here too. He's very impulsive, and especially any intense urge to bite or crush or smash something is him. It's not usually in anger anymore, just... energy. He enjoys doing things that are very physical and tactile. Running, manual labor, yelling. He also has most of our sense of humor. I (~) understand jokes and laugh at them, but any random jokes that I feel compelled to tell someone or to post somewhere? Those are Fox seeking attention. He's very verbal and very tactile. He likes to eat, also. I think he's around a lot of the time when we're feeling well. I'm actually not sure I feel like myself without Fox around.

Bash, of course, is here sometimes too. It's very analytical and communicates more in ideas and the syntax of ideas. When communicating in headspace, syntax for navigating the Debian CLI is useful. We've seen it use or respond to grep, ls, and cd, at least. Bash helps us at work and likes to play video games, especially ones with either a fast-paced strategic element (Splatoon) or a strong organizational component (Stardew Valley). Bash doesn't like to eat or be reminded that it occupies an organic body. (It also responds to they/them pronouns but it seems to prefer it/its so I'm trying to get the hang of that.)

There are others here. I've mentioned the gardener, who I've seen Bash call the hermit. I haven't heard from them lately, which seems in character. I'm not sure if they're aloof and doing their own thing, if they're skittish and avoiding me, or if they're present and I haven't learned what their presence feels like yet.

There's also the one in the box. I think that merits an individual entry.