Tag Archives: fictional other

One of my former friends used to support me, comfort me when I was down over people harassing me for my F/O, but when they turned their back on me they said I was problematic for loving my F/O, and “forcing them” to do these things for me… Like, manipulating them into comforting and indulging me. I still fear that this is actually what I did without realizing it.

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Anon, the advice I give you depends strongly on an important factor.

Are your F/Os system members, soulbonds, or other real, people with agency of their own that you share your internal experience with in some way?

or are they just fictional characters that you write about and enjoy and play pretend with?

Because if they’re just fictional characters then it is impossible to manipulate them in any meaningful way. It’s like saying you’re manipulating a doll or a teddy bear. It’s ridiculous. There’s no need for you to feel guilty about any of it, because there is no real person for you to harm. Full stop. You’re fine.

If they’re system members, or other internal people with agency then it could be possible that you have been manipulative, or that your actions have caused harm.

Here’s what you should do if your F/O is a real internal person with agency that you worry you have been manipulating.

The same thing you’d do with any other partner you worried that you had caused harm to.

Talk to them about your feelings.

Communicate with them.

Ask them what they want, and if they feel harmed.

And if they do feel harmed, apologize, and ask them how you would like to proceed in the future.

a bit ago you got a (different) anon that was asking about the intersection between plurality and f/os, and you mentioned that the strong connection self-shipping can bring can form/summon (depending on your experience i guess) system members. we had this happen to us recently and honestly i don’t even know if there’s a point to this message i just like… got so excited seeing someone talk about this and say “yeah this is a thing that can happen.”it’s totally new territory for me (we have some fictives sure but he feels like… a different type of fictive i have no idea how to explain it) and i’ve never seen anyone talk about it, maybe because there isn’t a lot of intersection between the two communities, i dunno i’m not super connected so i could be wrong or just not looking in the right spaces but.we’ve basically been navigating blind which has been working but that doesn’t make the experience any less “lonely” i guess when you’ve never heard of it happening before yanno. and i’m also struggling with a weird amount of guilt around it— a lot of overwhelming feelings both positive and negative. i won’t go into detail because i don’t want to feelingsdump in your guys’ ask box lol, but… yeah.sorry i don’t even know what i was trying to convey here, feel free to ignore this, just seeing that ask made me do the metal gear solid “!” thing LOL.

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Anon, we are so glad to meet you, an so glad our posts resonated with you!

This part in your message stood out to me

we have some fictives sure but he feels like… a different type of fictive i have no idea how to explain it)

I think you should check out some posts over at our (very out of date) blog @soulbonder and see if some of the experiences talked about over there resonate with you.

Please feel free to put anything you like in our inbox if you want to talk more about your experiences.

How do I start self-shipping? I have a character I adore but like… now what? Is there a guide or something I could follow? Not to see if I’m “doing it right” but just how other people do it. Thanks!(Also I kinda don’t want to take her away from the girl I Ship her with lol. I kno sharing is caring but I Ship them so hard!!)

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I think this post our Jasmine made the other day is a pretty good intro to the kinds of things people do!

There’s no guide tho, you just do what makes you happy!

And you can totally ship yourself with this character and ship em with a canon at the same time!

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Some ideas for ways to celebrate your relationship with your F/O

💖 Curation based

  • Hoard pictures of your F/O on social media, a website, or saved on your harddrive. 
  • Print out pictures of your F/O and create a shrine for them on your wall, or in a binder or folder.
  • Buy and display merchandise of your F/O.
  • Watch fan videos, character analyses, and meme compilations etc about your F/O.
  • Reblog self ship imagines that you like, and tag your F/O in them.
  • Reblog memes and posts that remind you of your F/O, and tag your F/O in them.
  • Put together a playlist of music that reminds you of your F/O.

💖 Creation based

  • Make a self-insert character to ship with your F/O.
  • Make fanart about you/your S/I and your F/O
  • Write fanfiction about you/your S/I and your F/O.
  • Write a song or a poem about your F/O.
  • Write a character analysis of your F/O.
  • Edit screencaps of your F/O.
  • Make memes about your F/O.
  • Make crafts dedicated to or featuring your F/O.
  • Write a love letter to your F/O.
  • Write a love letter from your F/O.
  • Create a wedding certificate for you and your F/O.
  • Make moodboards and stimboards for your F/O.
  • Writesome F/O imagines that make you think of your F/O
  • Create an F/O prompt list or ask game with your F/O in mind.
  • Answer questions about your F/O from F/O prompts and ask games
  • Make picrews based on your and your F/O.

Hey, do you guys have any tips on how to deal with seeing your F/O being shipped with someone in their source material? I’m a bit self conscious and I’m scared that my F/O doesn’t like me anymore..

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Oh gosh, anon. That isn’t something we really have experience with, but it super does suck…

My best advice would be to either

a) avoid the source material as much as you can, and just enjoy your F/O outside of that

b) treat ‘canon’ as an AU to your canon with you and your F/O.

Whatever you do, make sure to block all the ship tags for the pairing you’re trying to avoid on tumblr!

Hello. Uh I have a question about systems. I’m sorry if it’s weird and makes no sense but, do you think it’s possible for system members to like… I dunno the right word so I’m sorry if it’s offensive, but like do you think it’s possible for system members to manifest as an f/o?

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Hi there, anon! Thanks for your question, and don’t worry, it’s not offensive! That said, there are couple of ways to interpret what you’re asking, so, if I didn’t understand your question correctly, or you have more questions after our answer, please feel free to send a follow up message!

♦ The first way to interpret your question is “can you have a fellow system member that you treat as an F/O?”

The answer to this is resoundingly “yes.” There are lots of our system members are in romantic relationships with one another internally. One way that we share and celebrate those relationships is by treating them as “F/Os” online, and making posts about our relationships in that context.

For instance Harry and Peter are both members of Sinister System. They’re in a relationship. Harry likes to make F/O posts about Peter to show him that he loves him.

♦ The second way to interpret your question is “can you have an F/O that you later discover has become, or always actually was, a system member?”

The answer is also yes. An intense, intimate connection like an F/O relationship is something that easily create, awaken, or summon a system member of any type.

Even people who do not typically consider themselves plural experience this fairly frequently, and there is a lot of crossover with what is called a “soulbond” in this sphere. (please ask me if you want to hear more about soulbonds or check out the blog @soulbonder for more information.) Here’s one specific post you might find worth checking out.

I hope that answered your question, and if it didn’t, or if you have more questions, please let us know!