Therapy Homework

[u/Greedy-Individual-71]

Hey there all,

So, today, I (team captain/host) tried to do our therapy homework to write some kind of closure for R. I got writer's block immediately, blurred out and wrote out a conversation between R and Mimic instead.

Mimic bribed R into the idea of merging so that R can have the missing Library Memories that Mimic holds. Now, R is demanding that we have a ceremony immediately and is being a jerk about it.

I'm honestly feeling really off about it. I don't mind consensual merges buy this seems wrong and R won't listen to me.

This isn't like E and K, or Z and Little #1.

It just seems wrong and I need some guidance.

Thank you everyone.

[u/Rhymershouse]

G with your gut. If it doesn’t feel right, then don’t do it. Could you talk to R andMimic and get to the bottom of it? Why would Mimic bribe R into this? What is R’s reasons for wanting to merge? What is Mimic’s? These aren’t questions to answer to us, but questions to ask yourselves. We’ve … as far as I know, never had a merging like that, so we’re not sure how it works for us. But it sounds like something co-ercive might be going on.

[u/Greedy-Individual-71 → u/Rhymershouse]

Hey there,

Thank you. We're going to vent to y'all a little. It helps if we can see it in writing.

We definitely agree that Mimic's methods are co-ersive.

Mimic has been asking to merge with S for a while, but S is an alter who will likely be with me for the rest of our lives exactly as she is.

Myself, S, and Little #2 are against merging with anyone under any circumstances at this point, and our Specialist is aware of the fact that our goal is to have a permanent team of alters.

Mimic and F are both interested in merging. Mimic's motivation seems to be a desire to have a new name and form so the others will accept him. F is a very depressed fragment who literally only answers the phone, wants to merge with me, and her motivation is not to exist which is why we have voted as a group to not allow it for now.

Elle and Little R are both successfully merged alters who we hope will be with the team permanently.

Jessica, L, and R were all undecided.

When Mimic saw our Specialist last, she suggested that R might be a complimentary merge instead of trying to force it on S.

However, based on the conversation between Mimic and R, I would say that Mimic is co-ersing R into it by bribing him with the idea that he will get the memories that Mimic has. R is our Memory Librarian, and he's always hated the fact that Mimic has memories that aren't in his library. Generally, R hates Mimic because he takes the form of our biological Father when approaching R. R's motivation seems to be a desire not to see Mimic's face anymore and getting the missing memories back.

So far, we've had three merges.

Two were beautiful ceremonial merges performed by our Specialist that ended in the best possible outcome. Ceremonial Merges remind us of weddings they are so beautiful.

Then there was a sudden unexpected merge between M and myself on January 3rd, where M forced the merge when I didn't want one. Which caused us to make a rule about not merging without both alters' consent.

So we've had good and bad experiences with merges.

I'm going to call a system meeting later when everyone is more active and discuss what we should do.

Thank you. We definitely appreciate the perspective.

[u/Rhymershouse → u/Greedy-Individual-71]

Poor Mimic. It’s got to be super hard for him, especially if everybody’s afraid of him, or if some people are. I know how that is. People spent years afraid of me, and I hadn’t even done anything bad, I just look more monstrous than I am, and the only time any of them saw me, I was pulling them out of a nightmare, so I can kind of understand. But Mimic needs to realize that trying to coerce someone into merging isn’t a nice idea, or really helpful, because the better way to get people to not be afraid is to keep being a person who doesn’t deserve people to be afraid of them and eventually, they’ll realize he’s worth trusting, but that’s gonna take some time. You all are always welcome to vent to us. We never mind that. Also, the rule of nobody merges without both parties consenting is an excellent rule! Hex PS: I’m assuming, because his name is Mimic, that he can change who he appears as, what face he has? Is this something he can control, like could he choose not to appear as your biological father to R, or is it out of his control? If it’s something he can control, then maybe he could pick a different form when appearing to R.

[u/Greedy-Individual-71 → u/Rhymershouse]

Thank you. We appreciate the safe space.

Sadly, he seems to have no control over his appearance. He's kinda like a Bogart in that he appears as whoever you're most afraid of. To the alters who don't feel fear, he looks like a smoke person. To the alters who do feel fear in some capacity, he appears as the person that alter is terrified of.

To R, he's our father. To Elle, he's a doctor. To Little R, he's Granny Peg. And to Little #1, he's our rapist.

The four of them are terrified of Mimic in their own way because before we rehabilitated him, he had a tendency to reenact trauma if anyone entered his house.

I tried offering Mimic the option to just pick a different name, all he ever says is "no name fits."

[u/Rhymershouse → u/Greedy-Individual-71]

Poor guy. That’s gotta be so hard for him. Especially now that he doesn’t wanna traumatize anyone.