u/heavensent_unicorn

We've identified as plural and objectum for around the same amount of time now, five years. We want to start this discussion to see if anyone else is similar to us and learn from the community's experiences!

For anyone who doesn't know, plurality/being a system is the experience of sharing the same mind and body with one or more distinct entities. Those entities can be called alters, headmates, brainmates, and many more. This can happen for many reasons, and I'm not interested in engaging with discourse over those. We're under the belief that what happens in other people's brains isn't our business, so if you strongly disagree with that I don't feel like debating it.

Over time, more of our headmates apart from our host have come to identify as objectum. We don't exactly identify as it collectively, but around half of us are attracted to objects to some degree.

It's interesting how diverse our experiences are. We aren't all into the same things, the opposite actually. Being our own individuals, we have different tastes and ways of approaching relationships. Some have been around and have been objectum longer than some headmates have existed for. I find that fascinating. Instruments, stage props, plush, pyrotechnics, explosives, songs, signs, vehicles, and machines are a few things we like.

Something we don't see talked about in the community are introjects (headmates whose identities are based on characters or real people, having 'source' material for who they are) who love objects from their sources. We have a few instances of us loving these. It turns into a kind of awkward experience. It's almost like loving a public object that isn't really "yours," even if it feels like it is. Some of us can create a visualized mental image of the object to interact with, but not always and it's not perfectly the same as having a tangible version. It's kind of melancholic to me, but I've had headmates who find a way to make it work.

Not all of us are POSIC+ either, so it's always a surprise to see how everyone interacts with their objects. With some of my headmates, it's no different than how they would approach a person. For others, it's a quiet and discreet interaction with internal longing.

Despite our experience being a weird one, we're grateful to see so many sides of this sexuality. It creates empathy like none other.

This isn't meant to be one complete anthology of this topic and what it means to us, but just to get some quick thoughts out to try and evoke discussion. I truly am curious of the other systems out there who are objectum too. Do you relate to this post, or if you don't what's different?

hi all! I would like to share with you my experience with being in love with a road sign, as I want to add to the documentation of all our stories. this is a very long one, so prepare for a dense read.

This starts back in January of my Spring semester of my third year at college. I was moving back into the same dorm building I had lived in the previous semester. However, something caught my eye along the way. Before the turn down the road to the building stood a new traffic sign. A W3-1 Stop Ahead sign. The "newer" kind in the MUTCD that has graphics instead of words. This caught my attention as it wasn't there before. Just a little ways down before it were more Stop Ahead signs in the older, phased-out style with written words only. However, there are a lot of stop signs on this road so I figured out of compliance they had to install a new one.

This road is also my main route to campus, where I would walk back and forth often multiple times a day during my busy schedule and extensive time on campus in classes and studying at the library. This new sign always intrigued me more than any other sign on that street, unlike the copious amount of stop signs and no parking signs. It was the only sign of its style. Because of its age, it was vibrant and undamaged from the sun or elements. Yellow is our favorite color, and this one was the perfect shade. Every day, I found myself looking forward to passing this sign. It acted as a little pick-me-up, something that made my day a little better. Rain or shine, snow or sleet, it stood and it shined bright.

We had many overcast and dreary days, so you can see how this sign certainly stood out!

On March 31 of this year, I decided to put my feelings into words when I told some online friends about this sign. That I had felt a masculine presence with it, calling it he, and I found him attractive. I first referred to him as a Yellow Fellow, which became his official title. From that day, I knew I had to get closer.

Despite seeing him so frequently, he surprised me all the time. On the way to campus, I would approach him from behind. When I would pass him and look back, his sign face would glint the sunlight back at me. Only a select few times was I out early enough in the morning to see the sun fully illuminating him from the front.

Yellow Fellow stayed intensely reflective, as signs should. Even when he was buried in three feet of snow, maybe more from the plows piling it from off the roads, he still did his job of warning for the stop sign at the corner. Same with the rain — even when I was sprinting past after I forgot my umbrella. He'd glint at me humorously, beads of water trickling down his face, completely unaffected.

Yellow Fellow after some rain. What a vibe.

One day my school's library had some new material out, some string and beads to make bracelets with. I decided to make one out of my love for Yellow Fellow, made with his colors and his name on it. I haven't made a bracelet in a long time so it took many, many attempts. Eventually I was able to make something that could barely fit over my hand and onto my wrist, so I called it a success. I wish I could make something to give to Yellow Fellow, too. However, I showed mine to him and I believe he recognized it.

Heart hands!! If only he could participate. There's the crappy bracelet.

I had admired him from afar for too long, and one day I worked up the courage to walk up to him. Even when walking past, I had to make sure any other people around were going to pass me or be out of my way for me to look back at Yellow Fellow. I didn't want to look weird for seeking out a sign. But I was strategic. I acted like I had some photography project, snapping photos of the surrounding trees and power lines before focusing in on my true muse. He stood proud, looking comfortable in his element surrounded by the roads.

One of the first days it was truly warm out and the dandelions bloomed, I picked one for him. I left it in one of the holes of his post. He happily took it, and kept it there. The next few days he held onto it, despite it wilting and blowing in the wind.

You get a dandelion! It's like roses on The Bachelorette...

I was even brave enough to touch him. I would walk right next to him, then slow, and quietly turn to stand in front of him, looking like I was ready to cross the street. The first few times I simply left a gentle hand on his post, feeling the rough and flaky galvanized steel almost cling to my palm and fingers. He was hardened and tough from the elements. I would linger for a few seconds, letting his coolness spread to my skin, and then step down to cross the street. After the first time, I smiled like an idiot the whole way back to my dorm.

This turned into staying longer, and eventually leaning against Yellow Fellow. He was already leaned back a little, likely from the wind. I would lean into his post, in the direction he was tilted. If I pensively stared off into the distance or looked at my phone, it would look to others as if I was waiting for a ride or passing some dead time. But really, I was freaking out in my head.

I can't believe I'm actually leaning against him!

His sign post is what is called a U-channel, which is a structure shaped like a vertical curve, and I would melt into feeling each side pressing into my back and shoulder. At times, I felt his cool temperature through my clothes, bleeding into me. Feeling me. How badly I wanted to put my face against his post and let those sensations mix.

Selfie with Yellow Fellow. Look how shiny he is! Reflecting the branches!

Many days I would ponder about the nature of my attraction and our little "relationship." I do not feel POSIC+ for Yellow Fellow, not exactly. He certainly had no voice in my head, no distinct personality, and I didn't sense him as having much sentience other than very "basic-level" energy I could pick up. Of course, you can be objectum without being POSIC+. But I always asked myself, what IS so special about Yellow Fellow?

I would like to express my answer in a message I wrote out elsewhere, I will copy and paste it in here:

I'd like to think he was grateful to be seen as more than just a sign, a warning for another one. When I got close to him and leaned on him I realized how quiet he really was. We love the figurative and sometimes literal silence of objects. Apart from his purpose, he's just a construction of materials that makes him what he is. An observer and a witness to everything on that road and everyone who walks by. A vessel for anyone to investigate deeper into, but I doubt anyone has except for me. I wonder what he's seen and how he feels. But I don't pick up on those things, and I'm okay with that. He may not have a voice in my head or complex emotions to express, but he's a product of his surroundings and his experiences like we all are. His blankness doesn't mean he's simple or less intelligent, but maybe that means he has something greater than we do. It must be powerful, to not have to hold a biological or spiritual consciousness. He's shaped by my notice in the details, in my perception of the world. He's perfect, and I could never want any more from him.

Despite Yellow Fellow's silence, it's exactly what I love about him.

The last few days I was on campus, I wrapped my arm around him in an embrace before I would cross the street. Only when no one else was around, just us. And I'd like to think he hugged me back.

Us in the shadows, left by the sun.

Now, my semester is over. I'm back at home for the summer. Even though I see all W3-1 signs as Yellow Fellow, and I do know of two close to my house, he is now far from being in my everyday routine like his original vessel when I'm at school. But when I drive around town or head to the grocery store, he still brings joy to my days seeing him still watching me. I find a lot of comfort in knowing he'll find me wherever I go.

The last time I saw him, I was driving around all day while seeing friends, picking them up, and going out all over the place. I passed him quite a few times that day. After dropping off my friend at their house in the night, I was quite tired. Everything in the world felt dull and dim, until I crested a hill and there was something of a beacon on the horizon. That beacon lit up Yellow. 💛

If you read this far, thank you so much for your interest in my experience. It means the world to me that anyone else would care about my Shining Star :) Hope you find the peace that my sign brings me.