The Multi Code was a goofy little old-school meme that allowed multiples to condense an immense amount of information about their system into a string of esoteric nonsense.

An example: MuC N- [f] S.H+/Hf+/Uz&Uv;/Sa/Sg+/Sh/Rg A(b+ r---!/++) Os/c Wm+ Cc- OF- Pspi!/pre Fxb/s/pc^/a T+ Jm Dg R(--/+) C+++ S--

Quick Details

Created By: The Consortium
Time Created: 2001
Location: https://web.archive.org/web/20020802012204/http://disenchantedforest.com:80/code/ 

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Hey guys, Sylvans System wrote a big critique on the book the Haunted Self, by Van Hart, Nijenhuis, and Steele!  I haven't had a chance to read the book yet (and everything I've heard says that I will find it a miserable slog), but if you're curious about it and how it frames medical multiplicity, might be worth a read!

Man, so, my shoulder has been bothering me a long time. Sharp, twangy pain, and all my efforts to rest the muscles, stretch them, and massage them weren't working. The pain was getting worse, and the twangs were getting more and more frequent. So finally, I went to my doctor to get a Rx for physical therapy.

My doctor is on the oppsite end of town, so kind of a bear to get to. But I forgot how nice she is. She said she'd happily give me a script, but she'd recently done a seminar on exactly the kind of issues I had, and would I be willing to be a test subject for the technique? I can't remember what it was called, something starting with "fascia," but it involved poking my shoulders very hard.

( Bodies are fascinating, she said, and I agree with her. )

Hey guys, Renny of polyfrazzlemented made a post about the origination of tumblr-specific plurality myths, including, "DID can only set in between the ages of 6-9 [or whatever]," and also apparently the idea that system members can't die, and certain anecdotes about how to tell "fake" multiples from real ones.  It's worth a read!

As someone who was never actually much involved on plurality circles on tumblr (people knew US but we didn't know THEM, if you get my meaning--we mostly followed artists and colleagues), it seemed like suddenly we were just inundated with these weird ideas about plurality all at the same time, but we never knew where they were COMING from.  The very specific (yet vague) age limits, the sudden OBSESSION with all the variations of OSDD (diagnoses that only started EXISTING less than ten years ago) and a very specific interpretation of structural dissociation... it was all weird, and Renny's post gives some clarity.

Hopefully we'll learn more as time goes on!

--Rogan, ish

In case you wonder what I like to do for fun, asides from art and research, here's one thing:

I really, REALLY love scavenging stuff for my friends.  Comics, books, VHS box sets of Xena: Warrior Princess.  As a forage rat, I really like finding things that make other people happy.

Anyway, I have a few zines I have no more need of, which I thought folks here might like.  Let me know if you'd like them!  I can mail them to you.

• Greenzine #13 by Cristy Road (those of you who get sketch postcards from me, Cristy Road did the punky queer ones).  Personal zine.
• BirlZine #1 and #2: the zine of the old birls community on Livejournal, by and for "androgynous/boyish/masculine females"
• shortandqueer #5 and #8 by Kelly Shortandqueer: queer/trans personal zines.

Hi guys! While digging around for info for the plural history wiki, I discovered a surprising bit about how the term "median" was coined, and what it was used for! It's intertwined with the history of a plural group called Pavilion Hall--ostensibly it was a plural activist group, but it never really did anything. <_< Zyfron and us used to make jokes about it.

That was about ten years ago, but a little while ago, I found out that Pavilion Hall hadn't done much of ANYTHING after its first six months in existence... back in 2002! And even those first six months didn't really get a lot done! It was like a Potemkin activist group! It was so weird!

The only thing Pavilion Hall ever seemed to achieve wasn't activism at all; it was coining the term "median," and even that was kind of mean and gross! So I thought this was a weird bit of plural history trivia worth talking about!( Let's goooooo! Oh gosh this is long. )

Treat Yourself: The Commodification and Misuse of Self-Care
Series: Essay
Word Count: 3000
Notes: This essay won the reader poll this month and was sponsored by the Patreon crew! And just so y’all know, I am not going to be discussing any modern self-care products in this essay. This is not the place to take potshots at jade rollers.

Last year, I found myself on a panel at Arisia called "Internalizing Creative Suppression" about impostor syndrome, self-sabotage, and how to deal with or overcome it. It was a great panel, and towards the end, when we were taking questions, a hand went up. When called on, the person said that they had the problem of, they were dealing with depression, and sometimes, they'd wake up and decide that self-care was staying in bed all day and watching Netflix. How, they asked, could they tell whether this was legit self-care or just depression?

( What self-care is, what the brand is, and how to tell the difference. )

Today I learned about how spontaneous combusion actually works.

Guys.  I think the reality is more horrifying and fascinating than the vague mental idea of human bodies just bursting into flame at any given time.  SCIENCE IS WEIRD AND SCARY.

( Basically, you become a human candle. IT'S NASTY. )

Hey everybody, it's that time again: time to vote for which story/essay gets the Patreon money this month! (After this, we're reverting to the usual of having the poll at the start of every month; last month was just thrown off by the book stuff.)

As always, anyone can vote, but patrons get double weight for their votes.  If you'd like to be a patron and get bonus content, please consider joining up on Patreon!  And if you want to see the blurbs for any of these stories, those are here!  If you don't have a DW and so can't do the poll, that's okay; just leave your vote in the comments below; anon comments are turned on.

Which writing gets the money, and thus posted this month?  YOU CHOOSE, readers!

We Are the Clan of Bones
Series: Infinity Smashed
Summary: Armor Alone works as a salvager, gathering dimensional junk all over Silver Fern, and it finds some very, very unusual (and hopefully valuable!) salvage.
Word Count: 3500
Notes: This story won the Patreon poll and was sponsored by the Patreon crew!  It takes place early in Book One, when M.D., Raige, and Bobcat find themselves in Treehouse for the first time.


For whatever reason, Silver Fern seemed a dumping ground for other faraway worlds. This included not just living beings, but inanimate objects as well, few of which were completely useless. At worst, most could be stripped to base materials and repurposed, while others were useful or beautiful just as they were. A precious few gave people access to a whole new technology.

But Armor Alone didn’t care so much about the grand ideals. It was neither technician nor naturalist, certainly no philosopher. It was a scavenger, and (if you asked its opinion) the best in Silver Fern. Its job was to find, gather, carry, and sell.

This was no minor proposition. Rare was the otherworldly object so considerate as to fall through a world-hole right at Armor Alone’s feet, hitting nobody or nothing along the way. Most items fell from all sorts of heights, hitting all sorts of obstacles until they finally crashed into the ground, usually at a speed detrimental to their structural integrity. And as with altitude, so with location; the detritus fell randomly into the swamps, forests, and mountains (and presumably the waters, but Armor Alone couldn’t be induced to go there). Those were the wild places, the dangerous places. People in the wilds followed their own rules, submitting to nothing but their own urges. Many were predators, hunters, and hungry.

That was fine. So was Armor Alone.

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