/\ /\ / \____/ \ | /\ /\ | | | \ \_/\_/ / \________/
Based loosely on the Plural Etiquette Questionnaire. This page mostly acts as an FAQ of sorts for those who know us well enough to have a use for it, but don’t already know the answers to everything on the questionnaire.
When referring to us, do so grammatically like you would any other group! We share a physical body, but we’re all separate individuals. We don’t really have a “system name” or anything (although “the cats” often gets used as a shorthand). Just refer to us by our individual names!
If you don’t know for sure who’s fronting, it’s fine to ask!
Please don’t try to force switches or ask for someone who’s not around, though. If someone needs to be told something, and they’re not around, the message will get back to them eventually. It’s also somewhat common for one of us to wake up and start observing from the background if something relevant to us is going on; don’t be surprised if messages start being relayed back and forth by whoever is in the front, or if a switch occurs to handle the topic at hand.
Selective mutism occurs to varying extents across our entire system, ranging from almost always verbal (Hazel) to completely mute if not directly assisted by someone else in the system (Luna). Don’t assume silence means we’re ignoring you or anything like that! The physical setting we’re in can sometimes limit our use of assistive technology (namely TTS), so while we’ll generally advocate for our own needs just fine, it’s worth keeping in mind.
Ask us questions! It’s fine! And it’s way better to be asked a couple weird questions than for those around us to just haphazardly guess as to what to do.