Celine: Ooh, I like "insourced soulbonds." Shame I'm hearing this term for the first time at the same moment I'm also hearing that it's apparently obsolete and fallen out of use now. We got here way too late! Alas.
So like, for us, Sara used to be a "general purpose" OC (she wasn't bound to a specific setting; she just kind of existed in a general roster for things like getting commissions, roleplay and the like) whereas Ardei definitely had a specific (never actually made or released but definitely planned out in my/our head) RPG-type game setting he was from. On the other hand, despite having less of a concrete setting origin, Sara identifies much more strongly with the old character--that is, the headmate is Sara, she literally and actually is that actual character, Pinocchio'd to life. Meanwhile, Ardei the OC had more of a specific project setting he was tied to, but Ardei the headmate is much more open to the idea of being... like... various formative influences, strong memories, traumas, and a whole soup of bits and pieces of me from all around my life that melted together and descended on Ardei the OC like "yes, this seems like a fitting identity to claim, a fitting shape through which I can present myself."
(This means we coincidentally don't have an answer to how they the "that story was my life!" question applies to them because both of them have ways to sidestep it entirely; Sara doesn't have a story to be her life or not, and Ardei is less attached to the notion that he is the Ardei from Ardei's story.)
But neither are fictives because both are insourced, and both are label-less "normal" headmates despite the very different ways they each relate to the characters that were there before they woke up and started talking to me, apparently.
no subject
So like, for us, Sara used to be a "general purpose" OC (she wasn't bound to a specific setting; she just kind of existed in a general roster for things like getting commissions, roleplay and the like) whereas Ardei definitely had a specific (never actually made or released but definitely planned out in my/our head) RPG-type game setting he was from. On the other hand, despite having less of a concrete setting origin, Sara identifies much more strongly with the old character--that is, the headmate is Sara, she literally and actually is that actual character, Pinocchio'd to life. Meanwhile, Ardei the OC had more of a specific project setting he was tied to, but Ardei the headmate is much more open to the idea of being... like... various formative influences, strong memories, traumas, and a whole soup of bits and pieces of me from all around my life that melted together and descended on Ardei the OC like "yes, this seems like a fitting identity to claim, a fitting shape through which I can present myself."
(This means we coincidentally don't have an answer to how they the "that story was my life!" question applies to them because both of them have ways to sidestep it entirely; Sara doesn't have a story to be her life or not, and Ardei is less attached to the notion that he is the Ardei from Ardei's story.)
But neither are fictives because both are insourced, and both are label-less "normal" headmates despite the very different ways they each relate to the characters that were there before they woke up and started talking to me, apparently.
I don't know, terminology is weird.