We're Plural
We'll start this by saying that we aren't openly plural to many people in our life, nor the greater internet. Not to many of our friends, and not to any of our family.
That said, we aren't doing much to hide our system beyond the most public of spaces (e.g., social media, IRL). We've come out to a few people, and are out in a few Discord servers where either other systems are present, or we feel safe to be out. So if you happen to be reading this and wondering what this plural thing is all about, then hopefully you‘ll find this post as a helpful introduction.
Simply put, it means there are more of one of us in here! And I think more than one, rather aptly named, summarises this well.
You could think of a plural collective as a group of lifelong roommates, but with a body instead of an apartment.
To go further into detail about plurality and how people identify with it would be beyond the scope of this post but we do invite you to ask us anything.
Maddie, and the Roses 🌹 as a plural collective
We go by the system name of Roses. But referring to us as Maddie, Roses, "The Roses", or one of us individually is fine.
For now, you can find a list of some of us (there are many more) on the sidebar to the left, or at the top of the page on mobile. We haven't done much in the way of introducing ourselves formally and we likely will in the future to people/in spaces we're out to. We also have some individual presences on other parts of the internet, and are able to present as individuals on some Discord servers and in DMs using services like PluralKit or /plu/ral (our preferred service).
Perhaps you might wonder why have decided to present this way to some, that is, as several entities, and using plural pronouns like “we” and “us” (and sometimes "we&" and "us&" to different between "us (Roses)" and "us and you"). It is certainly a choice, and many plural systems decide to present as “singlet” instead, externally, as one being with singular pronouns. They may choose to do this out of safety, fear of rejection, etc. It is not dissimilar to deciding not to come out as trans, and continue to present as the gender people already know you as.
It's a concept that fascinates many, the idea of always sharing your life with others, never being alone no matter where you go. Yet, for all that, there's a lack of understanding and a great deal of stigma surrounding plurality, and many plurals hide as a result.
We do this because when we do, we feel more like ourselves. If you think about how a trans person can get body euphoria as they go through their journey, similarly we collectively get euphoria when we get to exist like this, though it has taken a lot of questioning, doubt, fear of pluralphobia, fear of more spaces that are exclusive to any sort of non-medicalised or only partially-medicalised forms of plurality, to get to where we are today, and that certainly hasn't gone away, and may never will.
Some of you reading have met us on Cohost, which is where we originally came out as plural. For the people outside of that who know us, especially those who have known us for a while, this whole concept might be new to you. We hope that you can be accepting of us. We understand that it might take some getting used to hearing us individually, or as a collective. You don't need to treat us any different than you already have been.
We still go by singular she/her pronouns outside of these safe spaces and present under the name “Maddie” even if someone other than her might actually be fronting (in fact, she hasn't been around lately, not to cause any alarm because there are others here "holding the fort" and it's not like she's gone forever). Just know that who you have been dealing with as one person, has in reality been a few different people sharing the one head, and that's why we use “we” or "we&" pronouns from time to time.
The "she/they&" you see us list in a lot of places is shorthand for "she/her, plural they/them".
That's it for now. Nice to meet y‘all! We all look forward to interacting with you and hope you do as well.
❤️ Glim & Selphie