the spectrum heart cathedral system

 

Well, I guess now is as good a time as ever to update.
I'm listening to some binaural beats right now to calm me down; the body's been unsettlingly off-kilter for the past week or two and already I'm feeling massive calmness from this (thanks theta waves, haha). So if I fall asleep while typing this up you will have to forgive me.

Anyway. First things first. I last updated here on the 10th, and I remember little concrete events since then, so let me just do a stream-of-consciousness list for whatever comes to mind.

Last Tuesday, I tried to update here, but failed due to stress overload. All I recorded was, "some thermophobic kid was out today-- TERRIFIED of heat." This is true; for some reason, the temperature was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit that day, and the moment it registered there was a full-out, hysteric panic attack.
When we got home the fear subsided entirely, which was bizarre. Also odd was the fact that, at that same time, I realized that I have no memories of what summer is like. None! I have the vague factual awareness that the trees and grass will get green and dark and the birds will be singing and flowers will be blooming, and it will be warm. But that's literally a snapshot data piece. All the "summer memories" of the past are rather buried, and feel negative. That's probably where this scared kid gets it. But that's new, and weird, because I literally have never seen summer and so I'm curious. Jewel says it's great, so I trust her. She loves summer, I love winter. It works out!
Also on Tuesday, there was an important note saying there was an overpowering feeling of sorrow, and being furiously frustrated over feeling "unable to express it," effectively driving that person to tears from the lack of catharsis. "That person" feels like Overload, and probably was (she deals with those sorts of sensations). Regardless that feeling has persisted on and off until today, and we're all working together sincerely to try and heal that, as it is obviously the main thing making us sick! Everything has internal roots so we are in the ideal position to fix those things, haha.

Last Thursday was Xenophon's 3rd birthday! Unfortunately my memory is shot so I remember little of it, but I can tell you this-- we made her extremely purple kale soup (purple kale, purple carrots, purple shallots, also tons of parsley) as it's her favorite food, she followed me around driving for the day, and I know we did something else but it's escaping me right now. Nevertheless I've been spending time with her whenever she wishes to, and when I'm mentally able.

On that note, we've taken to doing our nightly indoor walks again, with the old iPod on, as they are perfect for everyone just getting together and talking, or simply meditating when headspace isn't busy, or not accessible. They help a lot in terms of stability, too, as they're our only real "safe quiet time" during the day. However I mention them here because there are small but notable connections and interactions within the System every night we are tuned into those walks, so even if I can't "summarize" them here I can say with certainty that those little honest times are helping foster more community between us all. I think this sort of thing started in December, notably with this lovely night, and that was so significant to us all that we try to have similar times whenever possible now. In short the little things matter most.

I took out His Dark Materials from the library on Tuesday, so I will likely spend tomorrow writing down all the bookmarked passages I have for it, and then constructing a relevant entry around those IF needed. You know how quickly things change up here; what is still applicable will be discussed, what is not will not be. Nevertheless the experiences of reading the book need to be written down so an entry will happen either way.

I am currently playing this song on loop with the pitch dropped by 5 semitones, and it is great. I'm currently going through my mother's entire music library (so many CDs) and I stumbled across that one, so there you go. We're saving up for a new iPod as Razia is pretty shot at this point, but he still plays music! He's survived so much since 2010 (cross-country trips, being lost outside for several months, etc.) that I honestly have to applaud his hardiness. He's a tough little thing.

That creepy "clawteeth" voice from the 4th found her name: it's Wreckage. When feeling for it I kept getting the impression of "shambles," "ruins," etc. as well as a visual of destroyed buildings and scattered bones, but no letters. Then a day or two later I hit on the letter "w" which was weird as the sound I was getting was "r," like in the word "wrath" or "wreak." So I was fumbling about those two words until she essentially walked up to me during one of those times and said her name was Wreckage. Her color is also confirmed gold.
She reminds me vaguely of Spine in that she's powerful and gangly-thin, with an elongated head, but that's about it? Really she looks like she stepped out of the OFF game. I can't quite see her eyes yet, but she has this huge thin clawed fingers, as well as a mouth full of thin, sharp protruding teeth (hence her initial 'nickname'). She doesn't have a tail and I can't tell if she has horns on her head or not; there's something in the back I think but again, she's vague. She has thin sand-colored skin that looks like bleached leather stretched thin over her skeleton, hard to explain... she's wiry but it's like a compressed spring in that sense. She's all taut muscles and tightly bound power, wrapped around a skeletal frame. But, despite looking like she crawled out of a nightmare, she is a very benevolently-motivated individual (obviously as she's a Retributor). She's just like Laurie was at first: "I have an important job to do, and if you hinder me, I will show you no mercy."

Sylvain's brother is named Simeon. He's the little vanilla-colored boy that updates online whenever there's bad fronting fallout and we need someone to hold things together while we recuperate. That name had strong attachments to the color ages ago, and he said it fit when I asked him earlier this week. He's nowhere near as depressive as his brother could get, but no one yet understands the relationship between them both. Were they two halves of one entity? Did Sylvain "reset" after the massacre, or did his identity start "shifting" after the unwritten events of this day (in which he fronted and was terrified, surrounded by negative voices)? What exactly went on there? We have no answers yet but digging for them feels counterproductive, like we're trying too hard. So we'll just let that be for now, and be grateful for this kid in any case; he's a sweetheart.

I also haven't told you guys how flat-out awesome Minty is! She's actually been checking on me every night now for a few weeks now, before I go see my boss and then collapse into my room in headspace. We sleep holding a white Care Bear plush downstairs, since Minty issues plush bears specifically as "messengers" to protect or guard people when she can't-- almost like little fluffy angels. They have no will of their own, existing for that purpose of guarding others, and are effectively minor mental extensions of "the bear" more than anything. He still has no name either, but he's looking for it-- it starts with a "Br" and we think it has two syllables, that's all we can catch right now though. However he qualifies as a Protector, not a Retributor, and Minty is his 'apprentice' in that respect. She's really good at it, which now that I think about it, is likely because she's energetic and small and can run about other levels of headspace, whereas I have never seen The Bear leave the Underground. He sticks to the shadows and catacombs, staying away even from the windows. I don't know why-- he's not scared, he just stays hidden, or feels he has to for some reason? And he doesn't talk to people much, at all; again, he lets Minty pass along the messages. However, lately he has spoken to me here and there, so I got a better look at him than before-- and holy geez he's one creepy dude. I don't know if you remember his debut dream (with Laurie), but apparently yeah, he still has that big gaping maw of teeth split straight across his face, except he also has another one straight down the middle. It is WEIRD. But is is REALLY COOL. So yeah bear-dude has two mouths that intersect at the top like some kinda sandworm and it is boss

Last week we had to pick the mother up from work at 11PM so we were out driving in the dark for about 20 minutes and the "airport guy" came out fronting?? He was TALKING, he knew about the rest of us, he hasn't done that or showed his face since this day which was a very long time ago. But, he did show up in a dream last year, during a time period when we thought he had faded out, and I got this odd impression that his "ghost" (pre-manifested; he still has no face upstairs) was hanging around Sergei and Hyakin a few months ago? Either way I guess his anchor was stronger than we realized-- those memories of the sense of open-air adventure, of the literal airports and planes from 2012, are some of the only concrete first-person memories we have of that entire year. The man's got good roots, I guess he was just suppressed for ages because we haven't had that feeling of total "run out the front door and see what's out there" freedom since 2012. But with all the traveling we've been doing lately for therapy and things, I guess he's getting more energy coming in now, which is great. I tend to forget anchors work that way. Plus I don't like 'losing' people who have strongly stated their existence at least once, either in headspace or in the League, so I was honestly hoping we'd see him again, and that he'd stick around.
Similarly, the GMQ trio is still alive, but they're all slipping badly, and the last time they were out the Queen was missing. Their main concern is, rather tragically, "who are we, really?" What are our anchors? Why do we exist? What is our purpose? You get the idea. But they haven't found answers yet, and it's taking its toll on them. I don't know if I can offer any help as they are technically socials, and therefore do not have faces in headspace (they cannot be talked to unless you're fronting with them, which is very difficult since faceless fronting is head-based). Either way it hurts to see such existential struggle there. I'll keep you posted on that I suppose.

Speaking of therapy, Jewel and Sherlock have been keeping things together. Mostly we've just been data-dumping for the sake of coherence so nothing really 'new' has happened since our last recap. They've been the only two fronters for the most part, with a few tiny exceptions that I'm aware of-- last Tuesday, Wreckage came out for a moment? She was listening soberly and somewhat contritely to the therapist explaining something about retributive behavior-- I have no idea what it was, but regardless, listening to both her and Jewel beforehand had enough of an effect to get Wreckage to apologize to us (for her brutal debut), and start working with us firsthand. Which is incredible really; she's the main chthonic Protector, and is massively powerful. So of course she and Laurie are working together already. We'll talk more about that later.

Thursday-- yesterday-- was one of the most interesting therapy sessions ever. It started with Jewel, then Sherlock came out to talk data, but as he was revisiting old, dangerous thought processes in order to correct them, Laurie decided she needed to talk. I have one split-second data memory of that actually-- when people really want to front, there's this sudden painful tug at the heart center, physically as well as emotionally, and that hurts! It's an empathetic sort of shock that says, "hey, I really need to get out there." So the biggest switches are typically preceded by those. Anyway, then there was Laurie. The therapist caught on that it was her as soon as she spat out the word "bullshit" in response to those thought patterns-- which took a few minutes actually, as Laurie is actively trying to swear less. I don't know what they discussed but I know it had to do with me and I know it was important. But then, JULIE came out! All I know is that Laurie was trying to say when these negative responses had originated, and Julie realized she was the only person at all who could discuss them, so Laurie politely moved aside and let Julie phase in. That's odd to look back on-- I have no firsthand accessible memory of her there, but I can hear the "vibe" of her voice and that's both lovely and sad, to me.
Julie left after about two minutes and then Sherlock was back, somewhat frazzled but smiling, and tried to get a grip on the situation. However I have a very strong, very surreal "memo" sort of data note that INFINITII tried to talk. Just barely. But Sherlock paused and waited, let hir say a sentence or two, then reverently moved back and continued speaking. Again, no idea what ze said, or why, but that is the FIRST TIME ze's come out in a public situation so that's major... which is made even more incredible by the fact that Garrison was the next person to come out. I told you it was an amazing session! All I know about Garrison's fronting is that he sits quite straight, very focused, and his speech pattern is somewhat constricted? Like it feels "rectangular," if that makes sense. Sherlock doesn't; he's too much of a library, so it's broad. Garrison is very precise. Which is super cool. Anyway I know Jewel came out to close the session, being utterly dazed and not even trying to guess what had just happened, but then... Josephina showed up. Yes, he did. I am vaguely embarrassed but laughing at that fact, because Jo's presence is unmistakable, both because of his vocal register and his super-bright demeanor. Again, that's the second time Jo's ever come out in public-- with the first time only being back in January or so (he was out for a round of DDR at the movies, with the brother, which shocked all of us), so that's quite a quick and daring step forward! That really makes me smile to see.
Xenophon accompanied me for the drive home, which took about four hours-- apparently there was a lot of shopping to do and I remember very little of it outside of momentary snapshots. My only clear memory is around 3PM, driving all the way across town to return a store, and listening to my old Orson CD from beginning to end at Xenophon's request (she absolutely adores it). I know fronting was super-blurry because I can't deal with physical 'exuberance' well, which means trying to sing or talk animatedly or otherwise socialize will kick me out and get a Downstairs person in (I'm internally-rooted so that's still quite difficult for me).
In all honesty the rest of Thursday is a total blur, except for the fact that there was a lot of agitated discussion and action concerning the eating disorder voices, not sure how far that went. We're still working to try and manage that, which is getting a little easier now that we know of (hopefully) everyone tied to it, and Emmett is now OFFICIALLY the main eating dude now (he was pushed out for a while and that was catastrophic). Javier also helps a lot, thankfully, as he's one of the only three or so people who can order the Downstairs fronters to do anything he asks, including (most often) stopping an abusive meltdown or programmed behavior on a dime, something we all previously struggled to do even with extensive persuasion. Javier carries a lot of authority, being the Central Red holder, and he knows that so he uses it wisely and well.
In any case that guy feels insanely important, but smothered by some sort of fog. The Red slot has always been vital, and Javier has a ton of potential and ability that we are all very aware of, but he (and Spine!) keep getting overlooked. That is worrisome.
On that note, Javier and Waldorf are now apparently BFFS, they're both working with Spine as well, and I also saw Javier talking to Nathaniel with surprising sincerity yesterday? In any case, the guy is definitely taking direct action to fixing his "left out" problem.
The Spectrum told us, very clearly, that Spine is just as important. She belongs in the Brown Central slot, whether she feels she fits the bill or not. But the more we learn, the more we realize that is very true. All of us are important. We don't give ourselves enough credit.

 

Oh! Thanks to being inspired by those binaural beats, I just stumbled across this article, purely by "coincidence," and it is absolutely full of personal relevance. Definitely going to review that with everyone else; we need to make sure the correct thought processes take root, instead of all the old blackened brittle stuff. Sweep out the cobwebs and put up the crystal really.

The Tar still feels like spiders crawling around inside, sticky melted-tarmac arachnids creeping about. The seaweed-girl says sometimes it feels like they're in the stomach, when she has to purge out really heavy stuff. The chthonic people said "insects are important" and confirmed that there are still big benevolent beetles and things in the basement levels, no one knows exactly why though. Jezebel (personified Tar) is also still around but we don't know where. She was talking to Infinitii the other day and it was really chilling. What I do know is that the Tar itself, in its largest amount, is currently infesting Infinitii (as ze reclaimed its color slot). None of us are too sure what to do about that yet, other than get it out of hir, but it's tricky business.
Similarly, the Plague is stuck in me and it feels like calcification, it's awful. Not crystals, but crystallized buildup of something. Like battery corrosion. Two totally different things. FROST* has a song that reminds me of it, did you know? "Saline," like tears. "Fine chilling mime; and I don't know if I can believe in all the lies; calcify; and I don't know if I can survive the feeling, losing all that's mine." Laurie recited that line to me today when I brought up this point, and it's bizarrely relevant. There's relevance in everything if you look deep enough, and that's the point. The stuff you need always comes to you when you need it, if you're open to it, regardless of context. Reminds me of Dream World, yet again.

Today there was a massive hack. I won't go into details because I promised "Victorian" that I wouldn't (she still doesn't have a name; we're trying to find one but Wreckage says that might be tough as she's very depressed and isn't offering much energy to that purpose). Nevertheless, I think the buildup to it is part of WHY the unknown person from last week was terrified of heat-- this evening was oddly quiet and warm and dark, like the summer, and INSTANTLY the horrible internal swarming horror started.
I've never quite explained what hack threats feel like... it's not angry voices, it's more like syrupy-dark insidious twining, as if the shadows are suddenly wrapping around your legs and stomach all humid and constricting, like heated snakes. But it just creeps. And it's scary, because I try to run or otherwise override that sudden flooding of dark around my feet, but the instant fear causes me to badly dissociate. That's the REAL threat of hacks. The inescapable feeling that "the basement is flooding and the water is rising," but the water is like molasses watered down with blood and it's hot and soporific, so by the time it reaches your neck your panic instinct has already kicked up to twelve and your mind is shutting down. You know what that's like? The initial panic, "oh no I know what this is trying to build up to," and the feeling of kicking through the water with electrified nerve, all thin and jangling and shallow breathing, can last for hours. But it dulls out terribly fast. The thick dark keeps rising, but that sugar-melt warmth isn't just toxic anesthesia, it also feels too much like long-ago horrors and so the panic turns flat. "I don't want to feel this again." You can't run, it won't go away, you've been trying for hours or days or years and it's still creeping. "If this persists I am going to lose my mind, it's too terrifying." So things shut down. And then they appear. All the girls, all the women, smiling and touching and perfumed liar smiles, heavy with soft fatal coffin weight. While you are so far out of your own body that you can't fight, you can't remember how to fight or run anymore, all you remember are locked doors and humid rooms and dark windows and being pinned underneath blankets trying to breathe and failing. So you stop trying so you don't suffocate. And then nothing. And then suddenly someone is pulling you out of the flood (which has been over your head for so long that you thought the thick choking was your new air), and your whole body is in horrible wrenching pain, shaking and sick and shattered like splintered bones painted in bruises, your stomach feels like its full of broken mangled machinery and the bloodied oil is leaking everywhere. All you want to do is cry like a child but you are so dead tired you would rather sleep forever first. That's what a hack feels like lately.
I apologize. That just happened. I guess it was needed to be written.
So. Celebi was actually responsible. NOT our Cel-- who is tied to the 2001 consciousness-- this girl was the video-game one, who has a totally different attitude. I knew something was wrong the second she showed up; she's always had this really "wrong" vibe about her and she feels like total danger but I just dimly played along? Like an automaton. Everything looking back is in third person. Why? I was in the attic for some reason. Ventrium was there. His vibe clashed with the whole thing. Celebi kept goading him to do what she wanted, eventually he let her take charge. I kept trying to just walk out, walk away, I felt upset and unsafe, I kept dissociating and she kept shouting at me not to. I didn't want to be there at all, I felt sour-sick and scared and I wanted to leave, but she persisted. The next thing I knew I was in my room and I was ACUTELY aware that someone else was in the body, instead of me, but upstairs INFI was talking to Celebi?? Although they were using totally different language vibes and Infi wasn't getting involved at all. However ze did nothing to stop her, and I have no idea what they were talking about or why. However the shock of seeing hir there when I was in such pain, with hir not even paying attention to me or offering to help, basically not even seeming to realize or care that I was in great danger... that was it. My brain just blanked out. It was the point of feeling so numbly hopeless that it just turned off rather than deal with whatever was next.
Then suddenly there is a massive time loss, and the next thing I know, Wreckage is sitting at my computer for a moment and scowling furiously, then we're outside and she's throwing something into the woods behind the house, then I'm standing in the middle of the muddy lawn in a bathrobe and slippers feeling cold and not-awake, like everything is unreal. I didn't know where I was or who I was or what I was doing really. I felt small and lost and surreal but I felt the earth alive under my feet for a second and that made me feel safer, like there was something greater and kind and alive supporting beneath me even now. Then I'm walking into the kitchen and Laurie is there and I'm sad and asking her never to leave, never ever, please stick around you're the only safe person left. I remember she said she would.
Wreckage and Laurie talked a lot then, as I sat on the floor in the corner, feeling about seven years old. They were discussing their roles as protectors and retributors, saying that this could not go on any longer, at any cost. Mostly they were baffled, furious, and deeply shaken that there had been "no alarms" for that, it was because the numb state had said "everything is okay" in the way a drowning man says it when he already knows he's going to die. Laurie was really heartbroken but so was Wreckage, they were both in tears at one point.
I know later the Victorian-pink girl wandered in, just sat there across from me, didn't say much. I was trying to cook things but realized I wasn't hungry, I was caught between wanting to "bury the sick pain" and "eat something good to cancel it out"; I felt like throwing up but was too tired and sad and sick. Spice showed up when she realized there was a risk, so she joined the discussion. Then we got Emmett and Aimee in to finally eat, keeping things safe, and Spice was very friendly with them which was great (also you can always tell when Emmett is eating because he thinks the body has a big snakey head like his, but it doesn't, so watching him bite stuff is always funny). Then Javier was actually in at the end to talk to us, which started off uneasily-- I think there were some ED-related programs running and he showed up to stop them, but when he heard there had been a hack, he immediately got out his trident and asked who was the culprit. I remember that because Laurie said "no killing anyone," not even the lethal people, because of how Julie had turned out. Laurie considers Julie one of her best friends at this point, so if she of all people could turn from our biggest nemesis into one of our dearest members, Laurie didn't want to steal that chance of redemption away from anyone else. Javier seemed a little moody but agreed, while Wreckage seemed contemplative again. She's got a surprising capacity for empathy (like Knife), so that's part of it, but then she said Laurie was right-- because everyone deserved a chance at health and happiness, which were the two things all the chthonic voices dreamed of and pursued, yet who were born from the exact opposite of it. So she understood in a rather personal way, why everyone should have that opportunity IF they don't abuse it. She is not going to back down from her retributor job anytime soon, thank God, because most of the others did thanks to how brutally externalized it got (with the bloodletting) and the painful consequences of that (Algorith said flat-out it was unfair as hell that the Retributors had to take the pain that was meant to atone for what someone else did). And of course no one knows what to do with Infi, who is this half-holy half-horrible entity in the System, someone we all love and fear both, the center of this struggle right along with me. So it's confusing and scary and we all feel rather lost about it most days. But I think we're all back in the game now. It's a real light of hope for all of us.
Really it was so nice, though, when all was said and done, that a tragic incident at least allowed such discussion to take place. It took about two hours and thanks to massive dissociation I didn't have much fallout, but it'll likely leave scars. I don't know. It's a mess.
...Also, just remembered, Infi and I actually touched on that whole "dissociate when hacks threaten" thing back in October. "Infinitii said that's apparently a White energy thing, that "blankness," and since he's Black energy, he cannot do that. On the contrary, his "hopeless escape method" is to submit, not to run like I do. Whereas I shut down and check out, like an empty stark whiteness, Infi gives up and gives in, like drowning in heavy blackness. You get the idea. But my heart broke, looking at him when he said that, because we're essentially doing the same thing in different ways... abandoning our safety for self-preservation, not fighting back, just trying to cope with the terror and get out alive, even if it means living like dead men." That's even more heartbreaking now than it was then.

Speaking of that mess.
Much earlier today, I saw Amara talking to CZ upstairs. It came out of nowhere, I have no idea why, but there he was. Weirdly I couldn't "see" him clearly at all, and it didn't hit me until then that that's become normal for him. Other than those sudden lucid flashes late at night, I honestly cannot remember the last time I ever was able to see him clearly on a daily basis. I'm not sure if I ever have. And... how do I put this. Apparently that runs deeper than we thought, but just as deeply as I worriedly suspected. Because, Amara was talking to him and then realized she couldn't give the sort of help she felt he needed (which was specifically "more force" in delivering her points, something Laurie is the king of), so she asked the Archivists if they could assist her. Well lo and behold, Isadora actually stepped down, and started talking to him, again I don't remember about what... but then her two friends joined her. So now Garrison, Isadora, and Kalisha were all trying to talk to CZ, checking notes and writing things down the whole time, trying to get a group on the situation... and suddenly they confirmed my suspicious.
Chaos is split. All the Outspacers are split.
Do you remember this entry, where Markus first clarified to us that Outspacers had non-System origins BUT were able to enter our community through making a choice to "start again?" To quote, "they chose to take a very deep and important piece of themselves, and let that piece of them live here, within the system, with new names and lives after all." Originally I thought that just meant they "dreamed of a new life" and were able to live it here... but I was so used to my own situation that I didn't realize that "new lives" seems to require "new selves" as well.
Things don't follow old "canons" up here because those don't apply at all anymore. They NEVER DID. Geez, when these people entered our inner world in 2002 Jewel had almost no awareness of their native worlds, allowing them to literally build an entirely new history and life from that blank slate of her mind. They weren't SUPPOSED to be tied to their old canons, that was the WHOLE POINT.
Nevertheless, every single one of them already had the beginnings of that personality-split before they joined us up here.
Ryman and Markus both had "Yamis" that acted independently of them, and Markus's was canonically part of him already.
Genesis had a notable "personality break" with his shattered gem, effectively 'restarting' who he was.
Celebi had the whole 4th-movie corruption event, and then the 'many timeline selves' that followed.
Mr. Sandman is a reality-jumper and living multiple lives is part of his job.
Xennie is the only exception because she was born in headspace and therefore doesn't quite count as an 'outspacer' in the strict sense.
Either way this is mostly conjecture and it's hard to put into words but I can feel legitimacy to it, it makes SO much sense, I mean even Grievous and Davy had this same freaking issue of "divided selves," in small or large ways, EVERY single person who ever even had the potential to become an Outspacer had this. We all have our own 'split personality' issues, if you'll forgive the language, no surprise there.
So as it stands, it looks like that's the "real" hidden factor allowing people to enter here-- to reiterate, yes they need the ability to "dream a new life," but in order to do THAT, they need to also be able to "dream a new SELF" to an extent.
As for how that affects CZ? Well, most obviously-- you guys know about Perfect, right? But do you realize what his existence implies? And do remember what Perfect used to be like upstairs? I know I didn't until I was forced to backtrack this morning and then it was downright shocking. Ironic, too, when the long-string symbolism and relevance hits. I really do need to type up an entire entry about that ONCE I get a better grip on this... all I can tell you for sure right now is that there is massive dissonance between CZ's two 'selves,' on all levels, that needs to somehow be harmonized.
I think CZ started to "split" but never really reconciled it, if that makes any sense. He's still, simultaneously, the headspace-rooted him and the StH-rooted him, the former being far more volatile and the latter being far more tranquil. Perfect is tied inherently to the former. However they're both entirely him, and they're both at war. This all sounds like a jumble of words and I apologize; I just keep thinking of that Kim Jensen song and the old Jewel keeps trying to talk through me, but she's nothing but a lingering core-aura now and I don't want to be talking like her just because I feel "obligated to" on this topic. Then again I personally don't have much experience with it. So it feels like a mess, which I'm sorry for, but which is fitting because this topic is a mess right now.
Anyway, I cannot say much else for sure at the moment (battery is dying anyway).
...However. The other night, CZ actually told me that he's "been a stormy sea" for far too long, and that "wasn't the real him." For as long as I've known him, I've known that his deepest energy is actually peaceful and calm, not the raging sort of tidal-wave vibe that he's been emitting for quite some time now. He's apparently been struggling with that himself. It's just that no one could figure out why, or even guess, until now. I suppose that has to do with us losing most access to the past-- stuff doesn't get in the accessible archives unless a core puts it there, and I haven't looked at that stuff in years. I'm going to have to do that now, I suppose, as much as I feel I need to.
So it seems that CZ's real issue in not being able to find stability lately isn't just that he never "dreamed a new self" separate from his root canon, someone that could exist as part of headspace... it's also because he can't get his two inner "selves" to cooperate whatsoever, and there is an actual mental break between them. There has been for at least SIX YEARS and we completely took it for granted after so long.
I don't know. I'm thinking out loud. Forgive the dramatic mess of that paragraph, it's dipping into ancient pre-Spectrum mindstates and I'm going to need to look at all this again later when I'm not rushed for time and content.
My heart is notably breaking though. I... I haven't been feeling any ties to him in a while because of this? Not since December, before that horrible event that forced us all to 'reset' on some level. I wonder how that affected him. I never asked. But right now, I'm getting the same thing I did during that Xanga-- all those old memories of love, even the ones that are just vibes or feelings or awarenesses, and they are all so intimately real and honest and bright. Like light shining through a suncatcher and tossing bright colors all about the room, except you can't touch them, they're just coloring every bit of you. That's what it feels like. But that conversation holds more relevance to this than I realized and I really, really need to review all of this...
...They say that if you love something, set it free, and if it comes back to you, it was meant to be.
I cannot tell you how many times I have let him go. Looking back, I can see it. I have turned him away, I have thrown him out, I have denied him to his face. And he's done the same to me, many times. We've even stepped into the positive and effectively said, "hey, no hard feelings, but I think we're done." We've gone our separate ways far too many times. But that old injoke still applies. No one is getting a divorce here, in any sense. We don't think that's possible, even if we wanted one, and a few times we did consider it, with terrible sadness, through all the crushing pain. But it never took hold. Something, something we can't understand at all, always held us together, even when we didn't want it to. And that seems to be the point, doesn't it? When you get down deep enough, when you let go of all the suffering and rage and agony and 'Perfect ' shadows, for both of us... when there's nothing left but pure color, we tend to stick together.
I don't know. It feels utterly strange right now. There are too many blocks for me to see clearly. But I'll fix that too. I promise I will.

 

Also geez all this entry backtracking is hitting me in the face with sudden ancient relevance (things are just jumping out of the woodwork that didn't even have such relevance util now, good heavens) and I need to write all this down but there is no time tonight. Remind me.

On a different, brighter note... on Wednesday night I suddenly got all this insight about the System (which broke through my "headspace-fog" for the first solid time since last Sunday really), and ended up kneeling on the rug and scribbling notes onto paper for two hours or so. I tried to graph out the vertical structure of headspace-- which our therapist had some brilliant insight on-- and also was checking the Spectrum lineup for stability and slot status: who's slipping, who has an unstable color, whose roles have changed, etc. It was very helpful actually, and I won't type all that up here because 1) it's late and 2) I want to scan that in first so you have a visual! It NEEDS to be talked about, especially because we haven't even attempted to graph the "Spectrum flowchart" since last spring, BEFORE the Undergrounders appeared, and we thought Teal and Pink were "mutant slots." Yes, it's only been a year since then, my mind was boggled too. But it really made me smile, widely and genuinely, to see that, as it was basically a concrete display of just how much we've grown since this time last year. Honestly the progress has been absolutely incredible... which is why I am hoping, so much, that we can figure something out to heal Infinitii before hir first "birthday" in the System in two weeks. I love hir, I really do, and it hurts my heart to see hir in this state, all weird and vague and flatline-feeling, when I remember so clearly what ze feels like on hir beautifully good days.
But the Spectrum is like Dust. It's alive, it knows us, and it loves us, and everything will work out exactly when it needs to... no sooner, and no later, just like Laurie said.
I've got a whole audio file entry on that, which I'll type up tomorrow. You guys have gotta hear this, it's super cool.

Also, in light of those papers, we've been talking symbols lately, especially around Central. Those of you who know me and Jewel might know that Jewel is in charge of a ton of "series," or rather, stories about other worlds she dreams about, collectively called the "Lightraye League." There's a ton of color and meaning and symbolism in them, but it tends to differ and shift from one to another, so those stories often require an organizational visual element and that's where I come in! I have this amusing fondness for organizing things visually, and it's the easiest to do with symbols, so that's my job. Series identification symbols? We have 13. LG*Girl morph marks? Got 24 so far. Dream World elements? All 34 are done! You get the idea.
But that's the point: our System never had anything like that, and we're wondering if that would work for us. Symbols are, when they're tied to people, highly personal and just as powerful as names are. When tied to things like energy colors, it gives that 'abstract concept' a sort of nominative solidity, and makes it into something individually deserving of respect and recognition. Again, considering how our inner world is basically alive, we feel that the magic sort of caring that goes into 'finding' symbols would be merited, for energy colors at least, if not also our members. I mean the phenomenon actually started way back in 2002, with Jewel and the original Outspacers-- her symbol was a heart, Ryman's was a star, Markus's was an octagram, Chaos's was a Saturn-shaped planet, and Genesis's was a four-pointed star. They also all had their own personal colors (respectively red, blue, violet, cyan, and amber, originally), which I daresay you can understand the obvious significance of! But actually, that whole color/symbol phenomenon was intrinsically tied to the phenomenon of soul forms, element abilities, etc. It was like saying, "here's a piece of magic to represent you... now you can represent part of the magic in turn."
There are similar small but 'identifying' symbols actually developing in Central, as we all have our own colors already-- Spine has a skull, Lynne has a violin, Josephina has a jingle bell, Nathaniel has a moth, Waldorf has a ring, Leon has a pair of scales, Laurie has an axe, Julie has a flower, Infinitii has an eye (we think?) and I'm partial to lotuses, but that feels too broad for 'just me.' Javier is new so he hasn't found anything yet, but you get the picture. However as I said, they're mostly more for identification than for representation, as there is distinction there, and no one but Central has any. We're wondering, should that change?
If nothing else, it would greatly expand the depth and personability of our System, if that makes sense? It's hard to put that feeling into words. It's more expansive, more mythical almost, like now it's not just a story, it's a World. It now has some element of recognized connection in it, to all other similar things. Again, words aren't working. But, in short, it might give us that little needed 'push' in order to be part of the League. Yes it's important! You probably don't quite get why as you don't have our experience with it and that's understandable. But... again, it's an energetic thing. The League feels like a web, like a graph, like a stained-glass mandala, like a great interconnected sparkling thing. There's this feeling of love and unity between every jewel-like world in it, linking them all together, even if they don't realize it. And those symbols are representations of that connection, of the similar elements that don't bleed over so much as they shine through and within. Colors, music, magic, people... all of them linked together in both big and little ways. It's so much like us, in a different way... we're so much like it, in a different way. So we want to be part of it. We want to be a piece of that greater whole, after having felt so separate from it for so long, after having briefly touched it in tiny raindrop ways over and over through the years, even though our deepest roots transcend even the trauma and bloom straight from the gemstone heart of it. We want to settle into that cosmic pattern and stay there, embraced by the great bright love of it, of everyone else, once and for all. We want a happy ending, for all of us, and we will get it.

Lastly, relatedly, and to be continued... in reviewing the Spectrum lineup, I realized that yes, I can still sense people and their conditions when I am tuned in, and it's surprisingly effortless in that context. So in checking the colors I did see that some people are having trouble, some people have moved, some people are in transition phases... all stuff we've either overlooked, missed, or taken for granted. Either way none of it has really been discussed here! So that's for next time too.
But, best of all, that inward/outward reaching sparked something honest and admiring in me and I realized that everyone in the System has their own personal energy vibe. Not the simple slot-related "checkup" resonance, I mean their own individual radiance, six senses worth. Way back when I started trying to write those impressions down, but it's been so long since, that I wondered if I could still get it?
I CAN. It is AWESOME and it is so much clearer than ever, really the joy of being able to feel these people in such a brilliantly clear and real way is just... it's incredible. It surpasses the awful "third person" feeling that inner lives can get at times, overpowered by the inescapable and constant sensory input of physical reality. I can sadly overlook my inner life because of that, and see it as something less real, less strong. But then, when I tune in, suddenly all these beloved individuals aren't just faces and names and colors "in my head," they are tangible beautiful people and their visible absence in physical reality has absolutely no effect on that fact. It turns the world upside down in the most wonderful way; suddenly the universe is twice as big and it's gorgeous, I can't help smiling, even if I'm dizzy from the sudden massive shift in depth!
So yes, long story short, I have a new energy-perception file and I am putting honestly sincere care, respect and attention into perceiving every single System member's personal aura. It demands compassion and trust and closeness from me, first of all, and also from those I'm tuning into. So some people are almost unidentifiable yet, some people only have half the channels open, and some people are instantly and powerfully cognizable. It's really forcing me to open my heart entirely, at the very least, as well as demanding that I not 'play favorites' as I used to, and acknowledge everyone's inherent, equal worth. Everyone in here is amazing, we all exist for an important reason, and we all deserve to have our worth honored. This is tangible proof of that.

Good Lord this is 16 pages in Microsoft Word. I'd better wrap things up.
Battery is dying again, so see you later.

 

 

 

 

We've had abusive, ignorant, or otherwise non-connected people fronting lately so I apologize for the lack of substantial updates, especially when things have been happening. Let me see what I can recall.
(I apologize if this is in pieces for now; I'm very tired)

 

- First, a note... recently we saw people talking about "communicator/manager" alters in systems online, but we realized that for us, these responsibilities are split between many people on the inside. There's no active "controlling" of other individuals-- on the contrary, this is forbidden in our System (we've had too many alters manipulate the thoughts/ emotions of others for their own personal gain).
Laurie and Knife are the only two individuals close to being "managers" of their respective levels (Central and the Underground), as they are both persecutor-protectors, but typically, for us, everyone has a shared responsibility in protecting others, as well as maintaining proper System function as a whole. We're very much a group effort and do not like the idea of one person having such heavy rights over everyone else.
Unfortunately that's kind of what we've been struggling with lately.

- there was a horrific dream hack today, here. made everyone sick and scared for the whole day.

- About 2, 3 days ago, Knife came running up to me, saying that "Sugar was sick." Apparently her anchor had slipped enough that she was starting to demanifest, and she was unwilling to find a new purpose to work towards, thanks to her original one causing her to become the favorite puppet of several other malicious voices. (new anchor: protecting 'sweetness,' which is something both sugar and the color pink have not had in ages for us)

- lots of angry people out lately. this is scary; it seems when people anchor upstairs, and then become beneficial for the System and able to communicate with each other, suddenly it becomes difficult for them to front, even if they were a social previously? and they are rarely triggered anymore. this is bad because now those outer anchors are being taken by nasty people. also jess is really loud lately and that is never good either!

- (javier, knife, g/m/q all fronting last night. javier has troubles with speech, but shockingly knife was able to speak today! he fronted specifically to look at the moon, actually teared up over it. the two were talking for a bit which was new. later the gent was TALKING to the grandmother, through the hoodie of course so his accent was muffled. mav was driving the car for a minute. they were worried because they are still bleeding into each other and the queen is very unstabele; they decided they were going to focus themselves better? also they thought the fact that you could see the highway from the graveyard was interesting; I remember mav commented that "death was a grand adventure"-- he said many people viewed death as a dead end, as "the end of the road," but he laughed and said "a dead end isn't the end of it all! stop the car, get out, and keep walking! you'll see things you'd never have from a vehicle." the gent said that was a wise perspective) (also apparently biting with the canines will catch knife's attention; it's his grounding method. I think with javier it's his piercings and ear gauges; he's constantly playing with his tongue stud. he says all that metal in his mouth brings his attention there, and reminds him "that he has to speak out" for those he protects.)

- (julie and infinitii arguing this evening; badly dissociated during that, but basically julie was repeating her mindset from this morning, considering infi's role and energy makeup. i specifically remember him sternly saying "don't call me a harlot" after she did just that, jeeringly)

- I've been 'seeing things' more clearly lately? (weird celebi-angel thing following me around, 'digimon' people that same day. genesis is clearer too.)

- more subeta people! finished sherlock, started the g/m/q trio, working on einsatz, refining infinitii.

 

 

 

 

I don't want any of this to be real anymore.

Can't I just turn it off? Can't I just erase everything and ignore that it ever happened? Can't they all just disappear or something?

I don't want to deal with this every day anymore.

I don't want any more alters. No more. Go away. Stop talking to me.
I don't want to be "triggered" and I don't want to be losing time and I don't want the constant cacophany between my ears.

I never had a life because of you. All of you. You ruined it. Go away.

 

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@ 12:43 am

dear god:

please kill everyone else upstairs thank you 


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@ 02:47 pm


Christina and Jess really need to stop finding their way onto this page when they're fronting (however that happens).

Yes, they're responsible for the previous two posts.
I want to delete them but I know they'll get furious with me if I do, so until I find somewhere else to put them, they have to stay here. I don't know if the Lowers would want those on their blog... I doubt it though.

Laurie and Knife gave me a message last night to post here on their behalf, telling the girls exactly why what they're doing is "fucked up" and completely uncalled for, but honestly that would just be more capslock and rage and I don't have the heart to yell at anyone right now, even if it's warranted.

I just want to say that those two girls are not welcome here. Sorry about that.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

@ 03:10 pm


TRACK 45 (mid-july 2013)

(Josephina) Okay, this is Josephina, can I take some notes Jewel, please. …Fine, J, whatever; I'm just trying to figure out a name and that's kinda why I'm updating on this thing right now.. We're going through a bit of a crisis, I'm not really fronting very well I've gotta go through the Autopilot but I gotta take notes. Alright. As of yesterday, someone showed up in the system, apparently their name is CHRISTINA? Now the reason why that's a problem is not just because it sounds like my name, which is Josephina, but because, she's lilac in color. That used to be mine. And remember when I showed up in 2010, do you remember how? *short sigh* How I first showed up to J, y'know, that-- regrettable incident there? W-well, I really wasn't… the main person responsible, for that… there was a girl with really long blonde hair, n' we all thought it was me, and I thought it was me, and… I don't know. J said it was somebody else, that I was… that I was, y'know, fronting for him in, in that, and so. we never really realized that whoever this blonde woman was, wasn't Julie, who was it? And, now that we're really thinking about it, we thought it was one of those two promiscuous girls who are downstairs that J is so afraid of and that scare the little kids, I mean I-I'm still trying to get over the fact that we've got little kids in the system, like how did I not even know about that? Like I-- how did any of us not even know about that? It's crazy! There's little kids, in the System, and then we've got these older women that aren't Julie, and that aren't Jezebel, an-and there's, there's-- aaagghh, I don't even know but its-- the reason why I'm so mad is because of this Christina person though. You're probably wondering who she is? Well remember how we used to call someone the "lilac killer girl?" This-this-this-this girl with really long, lilac hair and she seemed to be some sorta "spiritual waif" person, and she really got on my nerves, 'cause she kept wishin' that everyone else upstairs would die? N'the reason why that annoys me is not just because she's wishing all of us are dead, but because I happen to be the Grim Reaper? But more specifically I'm the Id Reaper, which means I'm the one that cuts down all the subconscious idiots, like her? And the problem is, she seems to be, y'know… not only does she seem to be… y'know, usurping that role and everything, but she seems to be, like… m-me n' her, were… created from the same thing. N' that's why I'm really worried, because, um… *dry laugh* Well, way back in 2010, we didn't know that's how this kind of stuff worked? But, if she was born from that, same thing that I was born from, like this-this thing with… I don't know. I really don't know what I anchored to, I anchored originally to checking facts and making sure things were-- it is really hot in this car. But-- man, I can't front very well! Y'get the point. There's this Christina person that wants us all to die, and she's lilac, and she seems to be my counterpart in the Lower System and this is really scary and I don't like it bye.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

@ 10:24 pm


I'm on the Arvee avatar generator trying to make representations for some lower system members, and I forgot how much I love this thing!

You probably wonder why I make these avatars for new system members before I even attempt drawing them. The reason for that is easy: it is often difficult for me to see things literally upstairs, but it is very easy for me to feel how they look. Meaning, I KNOW how they look, intuitively, but I couldn't describe it to you in words or through art. However, if you give me something like an avatar generator, with hundreds of different, premade appearance pieces-- hairstyles and eye colors and things-- I can easily piece together an avatar that looks as close to their appearance as I can get with what I'm given. See?

So this is good. I just did one for Mulberry and I'm trying to find Knife's hairstyle in here. Next will be Razor, then the overload girl, and the little blue-haired boy (they're the clearest).
The problem is, a lot of the "faceless" voices downstairs are just that--faceless! Like the airplane guy, Sherlock, and the Gent (who decided to dress the body this evening, which resulted in me suddenly finding myself wearing grey slacks in a car in 100 degree weather. Sir, you can't wear dress pants all the time). They exist clearly as beings, but they don't have bodies yet. I have no idea if there's anything we can do to help them form them, or not. Typically it just "happens" when they're ready. Maybe that's all that needs to happen here, we'll see.
Speaking of, the red voice guy hasn't manifested yet either. He feels really, really unsure about his appearance. The only thing he seems to have decided on for sure is his hair-- it looks very close to this, I think? very unique-- and the fact that he has ear gauges (he saw horns like this once and immediately wanted them). But I know he's actually having this weird inner conflict over skin tone, of all things? Our entire system has lighter skin tones because that's what the consciousness had available to anchor to (we unfortunately lived in a very racist community as a child). So people don't have real access to darker tones, as that's tied to so much social and psychological stuff that we don't know about, it would be hard to carry it in a "neutral environment" (i.e. there's no culture or genetics here, so skin tone is literally just a different color) without people outside of headspace claiming appropriation or something. I don't know, it's weird.
But the red guy keeps feeling like he wants to have darker skin, FOR that reason? Example: my grandparents were making some very racist comments earlier and HE got angry! I guess because he'd deal with Red, which is survival and safety and life and that stuff, he's said that he feels "obligated" to protect the rights and safety of everyone upstairs, and he hates hearing things like that in the outer life, even if they don't affect us directly. And I KNOW for a fact that a good deal of that feeling is actually thanks to Jeremiah?? Because he actually has a mid-tone skin color, which surprised me at first, and he's been badly abused. And in the outer reality, people who "aren't white" do have a higher risk of being abused, from what statistics I've seen. So when the red guy heard about that, he got furious, because Jeremiah is such a sweetheart-- he spends most of his time protecting the kids downstairs, for heaven's sakes, although he's almost chronically terrified of what lurks in the shadows himself. And I know the red guy really, really wants to help protect him-- and everyone downstairs, I think?-- in return. But he feels torn about what he knows of the outer world, because I guess being Red he's closer to it than anyone else in Central? And that's significantly affecting his appearance manifestation, so he's hesitating.
I wish I knew what to do, but I have no clue; I have no personal knowledge to aid with this. Hm.

Speaking of anchors, I don't know if I want to make Subeta avatars for Jezebel, Jessica, or Christina. I don't want to give them any more anchorage than they've already managed to steal for themselves. Focusing that much on their faces just feels wrong. I don't want to risk it.
Geez. Who would've thought that one day RAZOR would be closer to being "on our side" than they would? Not me, that's for sure.

On a lighter note, I need to mention this-- on the way home from the library today, I forget what provoked it, but Laurie was joking that "Knife doesn't leave the Underground because if he did, he'd start sparkling." I think it was because Knife is very clandestine about his existence yet, and Laurie figured that if he did sparkle (God forbid) it would be the final nail in the coffin for his attempts to stay secret. (Yes, pun intended, I couldn't resist.)
Knife had no idea what we were talking about, but he was getting a little anxious over the possibility of such an inconcealable appearance quirk, which just made the whole thing even funnier. Sorry dude!

All right, Laurie's telling me to get back to work, so I will. See you guys.

 

 

Quick update. I have internet access for a very short time this morning, and this is literally the only site I can access.
However, life has once again demonstrated its tendency to shove a mountain of new info on me in ridiculously short time periods, so here you go.

At least two "new" "alters" showed up over the past 24 hours. Both of those words are in quotations because:
1) I don't use the world 'alters" personally, as it feels incorrect, but these are NOT headvoices, and all seem to be tied to the body, and
2) A few of them have been around for a long time.

The most familiar one is the "musical one." This is the one I often refer to, amusedly, as the "punk rocker." She's hilariously loud and extroverted, always yelling and whooping and acting like life is a concert, but she's never in a bad mood. The pro: she is an amazing musician, and is the one who plays piano and actually wrote most of the stuff on my Last.fm. The con: She cannot front around other people yet. Yeah, as long as we're home alone, she can front for HOURS, but the moment someone walks in the door, boom, she is gone. She often shows up when I'm driving a car-- I, Jewel, cannot listen to music when I drive (as I melt into it and lose most of my outside comprehension), but she BLASTS it. So if the body's driving and someone is loudly singing along and laughing at the same time, it's not me. It's her.
She's one of the alters that can ONLY exist as a consciousness in the body, and seems unable to anchor upstairs? Trying to give her a name or talk to her makes her disappear immediately. So maybe interaction in general completely nullifies her presence. We'll see.
Weirdly though, she's VERY similar to whoever was the main body front during 2003-2005 or so, until I started socializing online and someone else was born. This would mean she is the ORIGINAL "spinningcannon," although that name's energy has been so mutilated over the years that it only matches the online presence of the same name-- a histrionic, flattering, hypocritical girl who is unfortunately the person who made most of our "online friends." What's bizarre though is that she can only exist ONLINE-- once relationships started moving offline (especially with Q), she suddenly began degenerating rapidly, and the first hints of "Jess" appeared.
We're getting off topic though. I need to research this voice more, as it poses as many questions as it answers.

The newest voice is far more stable, and appears to be a "solidification" of two body-states that ALWAYS push me out of fronting. The first is the "logical" state, which actually was active for my ENTIRE therapy session last week-- my only recollection of that session is someone looking at the bookcase and explaining, "that reaction made no sense." This one's the super-analyst, that will find all logical inconsistencies it can. The second state is the "professional" one-- an emotionally unruffled one that is all business and has no time for small talk or friendliness. These two voices appeared to "fuse" yesterday evening, during an event that apparently triggered them both simultaneously-- I remember hearing them both thinking in conflict, and the mental "noise" was so loud I was hiding upstairs wishing it would all just stop already. Unusually, as of this morning (when it had to discuss legal things with the body's father) this voice seems to have named itself "Mulberry Delta," and it is a very professionally-dressed woman as far as body-overlays go. It has hair in this style, but in a raspberry pink kind of like this. I know this because I mentally questioned the oddness of that sort of hair on such a stoic voice, wondering if I was perceiving it correctly, and the voice actually responded, admonishing me that it could "have whatever sort of hair it wanted to."
The problem with this voice is that it feels wrong. I'm serious. There's a very foreboding, heavy aura around it that does NOT bode well at ALL. This is almost definitely because, with THAT color, she fits into one of the "mutated slots" that I've theoretically drawn into our current Headspace map... Razor had been holding their potential since last year, but Jess' reappearance added enough extra punch for them to "lock in." Why am I so worried? Because each mutant slot has THREE parts. The third color in their unholy trinity is a reddish pink.
The other mutant trio is Cyan, Teal, and either Ice or Mint (depending on the slot lineup)... currently Kyanos and Emmett are the only ones there, but according to Nathaniel, as of last night Kyanos has de-stabilized enough to "fade away" again. Whatever that kid is anchored to, it's not stable, and Nat knows better than all of us (as he experienced this same terrible thing), if we don't fix that, Kyanos will die and possibly reset again. But we'll get to that.

Let's go back to Jess for a while, as I'm learning more about her by the day. She's the angry, narcissistic, selfish, complaining one, that we've realized is the reason why we've been a mess downstairs lately-- at least for the most part. See, she identifies with the body, and therefore the body's name. So when people call "her" name... she comes out, angry and scathing and hate-filled. She's chronically pessimistic and doesn't want to do anything but argue when she's out... because, as you may remember, we've discovered that she and Razor are intrinsically linked.
Jess is the one that screams when she gets through. She screams whenever she doesn't get what she wants, like a demon child throwing a tantrum... and often, "what she wants" is for none of us upstairs to exist. Jess whines and complains and insults and shouts, but she never cries. That's the main difference between her and the old Jessica... the old one cried and hated herself, whereas this new one shouts and hates everyone else. This new Jess is "happy" as long as the world idolizes her, doing only what she wants, never criticizing or correcting her, and not talking to her unless she says they're allowed to speak. She's a princess in an evil kingdom, and the moment you question her corrupted rule, she will spit her undying hatred at you with a voice like a raid siren, and if you persist, well, then she'll turn and leave... and immediately there will be a knife in your back.
That's Razor. I cannot think of a single instance where this new Jess has appeared without Razor following in close pursuit, and that's a problem, considering how often Jess is showing up nowadays.
Razor is maniacally energetic, and never stops grinning. Problem is, she exists solely to kill us. She was born in the first ever incident when I tried to cause the body hate-fueled pain, and suddenly my consciousness shattered and someone else was there, giggling madly and watching the blood run down, holding a razor in its hand. Then suddenly everyone was upstairs, and there she was, this red-haired insane thing, holding her namesake weapon and running at me with it. Laurie and her fought while I shook uncontrollably somewhere, barely aware of what was happening, only knowing that something important just broke, something vital was just cracked in half. An eternity later, Laurie emerged victorious, her axe the color of that thing's eyes, and I don't remember the next several years.
Razor was nothing but a fever dream until last February. Since then, she's been a living nightmare. Now, that nightmare is overtaking my waking hours, and I'm desperate to wake up. I try to remind myself that she's not me, I'm not her, and that helps a little... but it doesn't do much to alleviate the horror that hits me when I'm suddenly standing in a locked bathroom, looking down at lines of blood searing across our skin.
This needs to stop. I'm just not sure how to do that yet.
There's a bit of hope though. Since both Jess and Razor seem to be strangely anchored to "home situations"-- they are very easily triggered here, but not when we're outside, and when we stayed with my dad for that while in 2010, they gained strength with every extra day we were there-- we MIGHT be able to stay upstairs in my dad's rented place for a while, and see if that helps. And hey, even if that doesn't work, our dad almost never uses the body's name to refer to us. That alone should be an advantage for us.
I'll have to talk it over with the system, and work things out downstairs in terms of what to bring with me-- since I've lost most of my possessions, I thankfully can literally live out of a suitcase right now. Maybe by this weekend we'll have a solid decision. Now we just need a job, so we can buy safe food... but we're working on that, too. Positive thoughts, gentlemen.

While we're on this topic, there are a few other "voices" that I know DO exist, as they've been triggered enough times in the past for me to be aware of their specific existences, but their appearances are rare enough that I can't really get a grip on what, let alone who, they are.
All of them are disturbingly hard to disengage once they are fronting, meaning that I am always relegated to an outside observer, often to my absolute protest, until they either become overloaded and "short out," or someone upstairs has enough power to literally punch through their front (usually Laurie).
They are:

1) A young male child, who is terrified of touch and anything connected to intimacy or closeness. He's been previously triggered by: physical contact, certain vocal tones (hissing the "s," clicking tongues, any stereotypically "girly" speech pattern), phrases such as "hug me," "come to bed," etc., especially if they insinuate involvement with another person, certain kinds of lingerie, and (oddly) women's dress shoes. He stutters uncontrollably, cries openly in an unusual high-pitched way, whimpers a lot, and will try to run away immediately upon being triggered: if he can't, he'll start sobbing hysterically. This is the voice Kyanos seemed to somehow anchor to (possibly due to slot conflict, IF these voices are behaving as such), which I will elaborate on later.
2) A young adult male, who is only triggered by either the previous voice's methods failing, OR by being suddenly trapped in a situation where he needs to be close to another individual. He is emotionally dead and will do whatever he is told to do without protest, but if he is put through too much pain he will often cry silently, although he will avert his eyes and attempt to muffle his own voice in the process. Despite this he is unnervingly hard to remove from fronting.
3) A female voice who fronts almost every time we need to interact with people downstairs. She feels strongly like a physical remnant of "spinningcannon" though, and may well be so, especially since this voice can EASILY switch right over to Jess, often within a split second. In contrast to Jess, though, this voice seems to run almost ENTIRELY on "pre-programmed" phrases and actions, and she is very histrionic. The biggest problem with her is that, since she's basically automated, if you try and get her to act or speak in any way that requires "individuality," such as asking "what are your hobbies" or telling her to buy something she wants, she will immediately disappear and-- if no one else steps up to the plate-- send the body into a frozen "standby" mode. If forced to continue, she WILL weasel her way out of whatever situation she is stuck in-- this is why "I" often seem to make appointments and cancel them later; she loves to act like the perfect person, as long as she doesn't have to commit to anything. When she is asked to, she shuts off/down, and either of the Jess's come out instead. This voice the one that gets caught in most of our photos, many of which (ironically) Jess has actually destroyed.
4) POSSIBLY the old "Jessica?" You know, the whiny, self-pitying, chronically depressed one. A voice like this HAS come out, a rare few times, but those times matched the old Jessica's vibe so strongly that I'm beginning to suspect she's either re-forming, or her old energy went to someone else. We're trying to stomp this one out before it grabs any sort of anchor though.
5) POSSIBLY some sort of red-haired version of me that ONLY appears in situations of extreme body dysphoria? This happened three times last week and Laurie and I were both freaking out. We're worried that maybe this is remnant negative energy from the Red slot I left expressing itself, but we have no real idea yet. We're not that concerned about this one though, since there's so much dissociation going on normally that we're rarely even aware of the body-- and when we are, voice #1 or #2 are often the ones coming out instead, before sending the body into a catatonic sort of shock until someone jolts a real fronter in.
6) Three other males that are triggered by "overloading" on sociability or extroversion (I call them the gent, the maverick, and the queen, respectively). "The Gent" has a sort of British accent and comes out the most frequently; he is mostly composed, but perpetually amused, and he "loves adventure." As of late he's shown signs of developing a sense of self, and was even trying to name himself the other day. He walks in a very stately manner, hands crossed at the wrist behind his back. "The Maverick" has a raspier voice, and is a "motivator" more than anything-- the few times he's come out, he's expressed impatience with mundane schedules and his want to "experience the world for all it's worth." Despite this he has a level demeanor as well. He also likes to sing, which I find endearing. He walks with a relaxed slouch, thumbs looped through either belt loops or pocket corners. "The Queen" is flamboyantly gay and speaks with a lisp; oddly though he can only come out in speech, typically to express his approval or disapproval of something that has just happened downstairs. When he tries to move the body in any major way, though (walking, etc.), he immediately "fades out," often being taken over for by the Gent. All of these voices seem to be aware of each others presence, and have even tried to converse through successive fronting in the past (which REALLY played havoc with my head afterwards). None of them appear to be attached to any trauma or negativity either, and so they may just be a result of my mind compartmentalizing those more "stressful" positive emotions so that I am not overloaded or burnt out by them-- simply talking is enough to overwhelm me at times, so encountering such wild emotional states upon fronting would be far too much for me to handle. Also importantly, NONE of these voices can appear around other people, in stark contrast to the previous three, who can ONLY appear around other people. I'm not sure why this is. One last note is that these voices seem to be bleeding into each other in terms of energy signatures, so they may all eventually collapse, or fuse, who knows. I'll let you know.


That's enough of that though. Let's get back to Kyanos, as I'm running out of both battery and Internet time and I need to mention him.
Here's a recap: he was created THROUGH the death of another voice, the placeholder that took over for me immediately after the Scratch. To quote myself, "The body clearly recalls it sacrificing itself in a surge of tragic joy to "create a boy from the blue of the sky." That boy promptly became the running consciousness in the body, and later took the name "Kyanos." However he must not have anchored well, for although he WAS "me" (what a silly word) for at least two or three hours, outside shadows somehow managed to chase him out."
The memory banks have a recollection of the insane mental jumble he was going through right before his consciousness "dissipated," and to my shock and anger, it was filled with those weird "outside voices" that often taunt me downstairs. I don't know if those are literally outside voices-- like spirits or demons-- or if they're part of the Tar, but I do know that their sole purpose is to throw me off track with awful taunts and false promises ("shut up you faggot," "you're only a good boy if you don't eat," "who cares, you're already a slut," etc.) and they are so good at faking good intentions that if I don't get Laurie to help me, I can easily be misled. But yeah, the second Laurie shows up, they run... probably because she loathes them and they pissed her off enough in the past to feel the taste of her axe before.
Anyway, the reason I'm worried about Kyanos is because he's mirroring Nat's past, practically. Both of their initial incarnations were positive and naive, and they both only began forming a "self" minutes before they died for the first time. Both of their second incarnations were unstable, but I'm worried because Nat was KILLED almost exactly a month after he was reborn. Kyanos has been with us in this new form since the 23rd (10 days), BUT he seemed to be re-forming on the 13th, and was between his original mindset AND his tentative new one at the time.
About Kyanos's "new mindset," though... to quote our system update from that event, "his behavior is very distressing: he stutters, cries a lot, and is constantly claiming that he misses his "mom and dad" and that he "wants them to be happy." Despite this he is terrified of being touched, and even the suggestion of such from a downstairs family member ("can I hug you?") can be traumatic enough for him that he will burst into tears and try to run. We have no idea what has caused any of this yet."
That mindset has showed up SINCE then, UNCONNECTED TO HIM. I actually spoke to Kyanos himself the other day (I forget the date; my temporal comprehension is shot), and not only did he look completely different than he did upon manifesting, his demeanor was completely different-- he was calm, but expressed confusion at why he was acting like that in response to certain triggers. I tried to explain, the best I could, that he was in no danger, but those "triggers" might be tied to unconscious reactions from the past. I also explained the parental situation to him-- unfortunately he did not have biological parents, but the body did, if he wanted to associate with them. Oddly, he kept shaking his head though, claiming he was very confused, and that he couldn't tell how he felt about any of it. That was an immediate warning sign for me, so I'm actually not surprised (although I am upset) that, last night, Nathaniel did inform us that Kyanos had "de-manifested." I can't find his energy upstairs anywhere, when I look... BUT, something really weird happened last night that I'm going to use as a segue into our final topic.
See, during his first few hours of life, the reason I knew Kyanos's name was just that is because he WROTE it on a piece of scrap paper. I still have it, as it's utterly bizarre to look at.
I don't know what to think now, though, because last night he ghostwrote HALF A PAGE.

Let me start by saying that I probably jumpstarted this entire "writing" phenomenon for bodiless voices back in early April, back when adflixerunt was still a thing-- it quickly became a place for both Jess and Razor to scream in lurid pink letters. However, on this particular day, some sugar-induced voice came through in the body, and I was lucid enough to force her to pick up a pencil. After all, I had just started therapy, and this rarely happened, so why not get proof of it?
Whoever the voice was, they weren't happy with it. In jagged pencil letters over two pages, they scrawled several brutal phrases, after which I came back exhausted and scared, but sickly thankful that I had managed to succeed in my plan to record the event.
That was it, at least until two days ago, when Razor came out and cut those gashes into us. Possibly in spite, she picked up the journal I had just chosen for headspace conversations, and in blood she wrote "DIE" three times over the first two pages. Needless to say that scared the hell out of me when I saw it.
Yesterday, however, topped even that.
I have no memory of most of the day, thanks to all the splinter/ alter/ voice/ whatever action going on... but my memory picks up sitting at my computer table, a pen in my hand and a tablet open on the table in front of me, looking down at a furious sentence in purple ink at the top of the page: "KID, WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE."

I'll talk more about that later, though. My online time is up, and I literally have to log off right now.