Need some advice

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Okay, a lot has happened since we last posted here. The most important thing that happened, as far as the context of this message is concerned, is that what we thought were dark "Undercurrents" or mini-Faces turned out to be one individual - a shapeshifter - that had been hiding from the rest of us. We found him quite by accident... he was fronting in the form of some dragonish thing, and out of a spontaneous (one could say Inspired) fit of curiousity, I traced him back to his source before he even knew what was going on. Expecting to find myriad dark and barely conscious sub-Selves, I instead found just one individual. I recognized him instantly as the one who had called himself Fii-Maik once upon a time. The one time Fii-Maik had fronted, it scared me shitless. But this guy wasn't evil at all. Dark, yes. A troublemaker, yes. Pained and lonely and a conniving little shit, yes. But evil, no. Some would label him such, but not us. And he was not the slightest bit scary when caught unawares. Apparently, he was acting a part before.

We had a confrontation, Fii-Maik and I. At its end, he had to accept that his ruse had been discovered. But he was still defiant. He changed his name to Pyrayton in a last-ditch effort to scare me. It was a lame attempt. I know the name means nothing to you, but it was once scary to me. Hasn't been scary since I was a kid.

Over the months since finding Py (as I call him), I've come to realize just how insidious his influence has been. In trying to hide from my awareness, he had been constantly working against me. If not for him, I might have realized I was a multiple years before I did. If not for him, I would not have spontaneously developed nictophobia, xenophobia, and paranoia back in December of 2005. (Luckily I no longer have those... they were short-lived). And now that he's been exposed, he's been furiously trying to push us away. We're giving him his space for now, but we all know - and he knows - that it will not last. Especially with the latest discovery of something he did while in hiding.

It has recently come to our attention that Pyrayton may very well be responsible for making Alexander how he is. Those of you who remember Alexander Antonin doubtless don't have fond memories of him. He is, after all, an angry cynic with a temper problem who doesn't know when to quit.

But it might surprise you to know that the proto-Alexander was a kind and gentle soul who liked to help people, especially people that others refused to help. He was not an agnostic at all, but a firm believer in the Conversations With God series. He was my masculine side, yes, but somehow he had become the complete opposite of what he used to be. Unfortunetely, proto-Alex did not have a name. Pyrayton must have used his naming ceremony as an opportunity to gain control of him and shape him into what he is now.

There IS hope, though. Alex is pissed off at Pyrayton that he was raped in this way, and enough of proto-Alex remains that we might be able to rebuild him into his former glory. After all, it seems that his hatred of how he is might be a symptom of having always known, on some level, what had been done to him. And, now that he knows what he was before, he no longer has any reason to resist.

So my question is, do any of you have any advice on rebuilding a system mate? Any advice from other mid-continuum multiples would be especially helpful.

Thank you.

Comments

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

*inserts "Yay dwagins!" to satisfy her headmate*

My instinct would be just to go with psychology and helping them as a person, but I suspect that's not really what you meant by 'rebuild'.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

For now we're going with what was working before we realized "I" was a "we"... spirituality. It was working very well until the train of my mind was derailed and we had to put the puzzle back together.

Literal rebuilding I would like to experiment with, yes, but spirituality made at least one permanent change that I am glad for. No reason to think it won't make others.

[linacrow.livejournal.com]

We work with such magic within our system. For us, it works to isolate the memory and then use that as blueprint. I've just realized that our method of doing things is very hard to explain or even think about...Well, it helps if they're willing!
-Samara

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

The last group I knew that had a guy in a situation like this and tried to rebuild him had to be careful of sabotage from within. Some of their people had an insatiable need for something to be happening, some kind of action or conflict that they would be involved in. It kind of undercut their ability to fix things that needed fixed both in their operating system and, like you say here, with individuals.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Sounds similar, slightly. What with Py being as he is.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Hmm... very good advice.

[arcis.livejournal.com]

if (when?) it happened to us, first action we would take (as a preparation) would be sealing the person in a secure 'room' so that the .. for some reason the word 'shredding' (or exorcism, if you'd like, but I realize that has negative conotations to some of you) comes to mind, can take place securely. it would be beneficial as well to keep the person alone untouched by the outside influence for awhile just to make sure you're not just providing a a vessel for another to corrupt.

depending on what kind of infestion happened, then we would choose a suitable executioner to 'divide' (or cleanse) the person, with another one supervising and to react if anything unexpected happen / the influence decide to take malicious form/ otherwise~

after that, treating the wounds left and making the person rest-- still in secure condition. then see what happens.

[arcis.livejournal.com]

.. um yeah, this kinda thing happens pretty regularly here.
I think we used 'sealing the influence in an object', 'destroy', making barriers (there's one specializing in -only- barriers for heavy cases/attacks), usually the manager is enough to execute the operation, but some cases we had to use softer approach (as in, rather than offensive/ hard/ destroying ways it's like.. a blessing of some sorts)

.. I have no idea just how the situation here relates to your system though o_O so.. um, yeah~ our 2 cents :D

[rookguard.livejournal.com]

we've dealt with a similar situation. To (over)simplify it there are two of us, primarily, but we found the same sort of befoulment hiding deep in the forests of our mind. One of us is more susceptible to its influence than the other, but we typically manage to subdue it without much effort once we're aware of it. It has cost us before, but we have accepted it as an unavoidable hurdle.

We cannot speak to your situation, but we can tell you that none of us have ever been truly lost. We are not illusions or constructs and we cannot be 'outgrown' by one another. To restore one of us who has disappeared, for whatever reason, is no more than a matter of will.

[thefurryone.livejournal.com]

There's been a darkness within our system for a very long time, and we've tried just about everything to put him away. We seal him up, and in time he breaks free. We collapse his section of the Dark Space, and he manages to escape to another sector. We try to erase him on a neuron-by-neuron basis, and we miss some chunk that he's copied himself to. Over all of this, though, we've never tried to purify him. Someone just emerged in our system (bringing with her, I might add, an absolutely gorgeous palace-- B. McA.) who might be able to help us with that. We'll give that a try.

As for the immediate concern, I think the best way to handle it would be to try to seal away the corrupted individual in a location where communication is possible, but the individual cannot take control of the body. Make sure Alex understands that he's not being confined as a punishment, but rather as a safety precaution for everyone involved.

(Speaking as someone who used to be an 'antagonist', however, I should also say that John has done nothing to alleviate me being pissed off. I still would love nothing more than to destroy him... but the fact of the matter is, he's what's keeping us all in check. I've come to understand his role-- even if I don't particularly like it-- and I'll cooperate inasmuch as it benefits me to do so. If you want to reform your buddy, then you'll need to step up to the plate and be a leader. No way around it. --S.N.)

Uh, obviously your mileage may vary.