A fictive post + “systems with lots of fictives debate”

Recently, a huge debate in syscourse and legitimacy of systems has concerned the amount of fictives and their sources within a system.

Fictive or ID

This is the first thing I want to cover. Sometimes an Alter can form with the appearance of a fictional character or take on a “face claim” when online- this does not mean they are a fictive. Some Alters also take “kins” or “ID” with characters maybe even using that source name, this does not make them a fictive and people do not have the right to call them as such when accusing systems with “lots of fictives” fake.

Straying from their source

Fictives are alters. They are their own Alternate consciousness in the mind of an abuse survivor. As they grow and develop over time their personality or role in a system can change to suit what is needed or how the circumstances/situations changed them. Some alters I know like this try to drop the “fictive” label altogether. This is perfectly normal and fine- just because they were influenced or “supposed to be” a character doesn’t stop them from being a person who can change.

Psuedomemories

Fictives are the most likely in a system to have “past life” memories or “source memories” or as they are actually called “psuedomemories”. These are completely valid and can be very real to an alter. The big thing in debates about it at the moment is this - these memories usually have correlation to real life traumas and abuse. An example: ”I have a friend who has a fictive who witnessed a lot of war and extremity abuse brother. In real life this friend doesn’t have a brother or been in a war- however they lived in a military based household and were sent letters with graphic detail of the vietnam war from family members there when they were a toddler. Their younger sibling has also been physically abusive their whole life drawing a solid connection to the fictives psuedo and real life.”

An alters “memories” are not fake but can often be linked to real life events, fears, or even aspirations/dreams/fantasies a child experienced during abusive or traumatic events. Something that needs to be understood though - the psuedomemories themselves can not be related to this real universe, has no connection to past life or alternate timelines (these are ideas or beliefs you can hold but do not force them onto others or promote them as true it can encourage delusions)

“Fictive canon calling”

Fictives do not have a “canon”. they are not similar or related to kins. A fictive can want someone from source to be friends with and that is perfectly fine. “Canons” for fictives are based highly on usually a hosts headcanons or preferences for the character even if its a subconscious influence and the rest is mostly maladaptive daydreaming, imagination or pseudomemories. All are strongly used to escape reality and abuse/tramatic environments.