System Member Symbolism

Hello, I am Andromeda, and I am a rare fronter in the Milky Way Collective. After a conversation with some friends, I began to think about the meaning of our plurality. As a traumagenic system with diagnosed Dissociative Identity Disorder, we believe a lot of our members represent certain things about us. This can be seen in our fictionkintypes as well. So, to best do this, I will be introducing each member. As SimplyPlural sorts members in alphabetical order, I too will be doing that.

We will start with Aira. Aira, he/him, is a teenage boy with a love of anime idols, shoujo, fashion, and general cuteness. He loves the concept of love, and he loves pastels. He presents as a rather preppy, cute person. Under it all, however, is a lover of psychological horror, conspiracy theories, and ARGs. He loves when reality is challenged, and people are made to question things. He is one of our four hosts, and is what we would consider second in command. He is also a representation of our feelings of inadequacy. Aira, as a character, has always been considered a “failure”. He views himself as lesser than the people around him. Still, he tries hard to achieve his dreams. Just like his source, our Aira feels like a burden, constantly fears that people dislike him, yet works very hard to be a host. He wants to be a full person, deserving of love.
aira shiratori, momoko ryugasaki, iris sagan


Then, we will go to myself. I am Andromeda, she/they. I’m a bit quiet, and would consider myself to be rather calm. I enjoy photography, specifically of the world around me. Staged images are no good. I also formed as a robot. My formation as an artificial person shows that I am not meant to be similar to other people. There is a disconnect between me and those around me. This may be due to our autism, social anxiety, etc. I also represent the disconnect between us and reality. When things are difficult, and we are not mentally there, I am able to continue on as sort of an autopilot. I can’t get sick, I am a computer. I can’t get hurt, I can always be rebuilt. I can’t feel emotions, I have no heart. I have learned a bit more about human emotions, though, and it has been nice. Still, I wouldn’t say I’m around people enough to be the same as them just yet.
sekiyu hiragi

Next comes Aster, he/him(? I think all of us, including Aster, are unsure.) Aster is a… complicated case. I believe Aster originally formed in order to “fit in” with a more gamery crowd. He formed interested in more masculine games, and, though we haven’t gotten a chance to play any ourselves, likes the idea of FPS games. Though he was the stereotype of a “cis man gamer” alter, over time, and after befriending another alter, he began to enjoy things such as the romance genre, specifically sapphic romance. While, at first, Aster viewed himself purely as a himedanshi, who occasionally made jokes about being “just a girl (but actually a grown man), he has begun questioning his gender and sexuality intensely. His labels feel constantly contradicting, and they seem to shift by the day. Bigender? Genderfluid? Woman? Man? Who knows at this point. I’d like to believe he represents our want to fit in with the stereotypes of being a man, as our body and the majority of our system is transmasc, when in reality, we don’t fit those stereotypes. He is an escape from the concept of toxic masculinity that many transmascs, including us at one point, fall into.
itaru chigasaki, toru asou

Beatrice… Bea (she/her) is another alter who is not around frequently. She is very sweet and friendly, and prefers preppy, girly clothing. She considers herself to be a cisgender woman, and is bisexual, though she leans towards men. However, one thing to note is that she is a fusion of a couple of alters, one of which is Yandere-chan, from the game Yandere Simulator. Beatrice was a bit different from what one would expect from an Ayano, though. Rather than fixating on romance, she views friendship as being the most important thing. This continues to her life as Yui from Kamiaso, an otome game. While the point of the game is to fall in love with one of the men there, she considers herself to be friends with them all instead. Bea represents our stereotypical femininity, kindness, and general welcoming attitude. She isn’t very argumentative, and can honestly be a bit of a pushover. She is what many people want us to be.
ayano aishi, yui kusanagi, beatrice reden

Ben (he/it/glitch) is very easy for me to explain, actually. What he represents and his purpose is actually easier to explain than his personality and interests. Those interests include things such as cursed memes, aliens, JRPGs, and… who knows, honestly? He prefers to keep to himself, and thinks of himself as an enigma. But, why is he here? Well, we are schizophrenic. We suffer from heavy delusions, and have since we were small. Ben exists to protect us from these delusions, specifically the delusion of being watched. As a child, we were terrified that every screen secretly had someone inside it that was watching us. The screen would lead to another world, and someone was sitting there, staring at us from beyond it. To keep us sane, or, well, stable, Ben formed to be the person inside the TV. If we feel like we’re being watched, it’s just Ben. Ben is our sense of stability in our delusions.
ben drowned, botw link

Charlie (she/her) is a little. She is focused on becoming the ideal mature woman. This presents itself in… a variety of ways. While she didn’t form as Kotoko from Danganronpa, I believe her kintype as Kotoko explains her very well. It is hard to elaborate on Charlie, as her identity is a bit… controversial to many? Aside from those bits, of course, she’s largely very attention seeking. She loves cute things, which does bring us into controversial subcultures such as jojifuku. She was around when we were around 11 years old, for… reasons. But, yes. Charlie represents a want for attention, and the struggle between wanting to stay young and be mature. She will be anything, as long as you pay attention to her.
aishite aishite aishite, kotoko utsugi, yaya yuiki, vanilla

Cherry (he/him) is our obsession, over both others and our own perfectionism. Our strongest borderline personality disorder holder. While we all, of course, deal with this disorder in some ways, Cherry has it the heaviest. Cherry has to be perfect, because if he isn’t perfect, then nobody will love him. So, you have to tell him exactly what you want from him. Exactly the person you want him to be. If you do, he will become that. His obsession can go anywhere from loving another human being so much that he has multiple breakdowns in a single day just from the thought of them, to crying because an anime boy that he owns a billion pieces of merchandise of isn’t real, or that someone kin with the character said something negative about him. Cherry is a bit of a mess, but he’s working on it. Recently, he’s taken up zentangles, and is working on abandoning his need for perfection. Cherry isn’t a host, but he’s part of a duo that is… host adjacent.
izumi sena, satoru wakabayashi, barry, lock

Dai (he/him) is our confidence. That’s the best way to explain who he is. He has a tendency to search for adrenaline and serotonin, and often gets that through gacha and blind bags, even if he has nothing in specific he’s looking for. He can be pretty chill, and is very supportive to everyone he meets. He’s just here to have a good time, really. He has a very distinct presence to him, to the point where everyone who meets him can tell that we’ve changed. Dai’s presence enough has convinced someone we were plural. Someone once said, regarding VRChat, that they immediately thought to themselves “Who is this cis man?!” when talking to Dai. Dai represents our yearning to be a normal, average man. Just some guy. A bro in college. As a child, we were often left on our own. So, we became obsessed with our belongings. Our toys were our friends. Getting new things was making new friends. So, Dai represents our tendency to get the serotonin boost before thinking about any consequences.
dice arisugawa, mammon, a cat

Dell (he/they) is our protector. He is a tired, jaded man, who used to be much angrier as a teenager. His rage protected us, but it also, in a way, hurt us. He struggled with the responsibility of supporting us all, but at the same time, tried to protect us all by keeping us out of the loop and doing everything himself. We’ve learned since that it is important to share with one another, and that we should all work together to function more as a person. Dell represents our tendency to never ask for help, fighting our fight by ourselves. Sometimes, it feels like we’re all that we have. It can be helpful for us to remember that we aren’t alone.
dell honne, garry, a ghost

Dromi (he/him) is another one of our hosts. He’s a lazy cat, who prefers the company of animals to people. He can be a bit sarcastic, and tends to push people away when he can. He can handle large groups of people, which he often tends to do, but he tends to just kind of stay on the sidelines, surviving the stimulation. Dromi wouldn’t say he fears connection. He just doesn’t like the complexities of dealing with people, and doesn’t really like being tied down. He’s as free as the wind, and just wants to live life happily. Despite this love of freedom, I would say that Dromi represents our tendency to be closed off from others, keeping everyone at a distance. While his reasoning is more based on a tendency to struggle connecting with and speaking to others, there is also the idea that, “If I don’t talk to people, and I’m not close to others, then nobody will be able to hurt me.”
dromi, venti, tetora nagumo, sylvain jose gautier, meowth, a cat

Eri. Eri is. Someone. Eri represents our instability. That I can say for sure. Eri used to be a semi verbal mess of an alter, constantly going into panic attacks, stuttering words and having intense delusions. Eri used to hate existing as Eri, and desperately wanted to fuse into or become someone different. Thankfully, as Eri mentioned in an essay, Eri was able to become more of a person after we went on medication that managed our mood swings. Now, Eri does tend to front more when we are having mental health issues, particularly intense feelings of dread. Still, Eri is much more stable now than before, and we are very happy about that. In a way, it’s like we’re collectively recovering from our instability, and are working towards becoming a more functional person.
kano shuuya, gentaro yumeno, c-ta, d-ne, eridan ampora, uzaeris

Everett is our apathy. They don’t care about gender. They don’t care about pronouns. They don’t care about sexuality. They just… don’t care. They come off as someone very laid back, but in reality, things are very difficult for them. They don’t care enough to have interests. They tend to just lay in bed, scrolling through Twitter at best, and doing nothing but staring at the wall at worst. They don’t care about themself, either, and when people express any interest in them, they’re genuinely surprised. There’s not much to them, after all. They exist. They represent our depression, in my opinion. Sometimes, you just don’t have the energy to care about anything. You just want to fade into nothing. It isn’t always because you’re sad, you just don’t have the energy to keep existing. That’s Evie.
yamato nikaidou

Finis (he/it/they) is hard to explain. He has fused so many times that it can be hard to pinpoint just exactly what he represents. He loves old, vintage aesthetics, and also fish. As a child, he had a fixation on mermaids, and desperately wanted to become one. He also loved our collection of American Girl dolls that our grandmother got us. He was obsessed with those dolls, wearing matching clothing to his favorite one. Finis, himself, is a doll. Once again, an artificial human. He represents how we were made to be seen and not heard as a child. We were a doll to be shown off to people, but the moment we opened our mouth, we would say something “wrong” and get in trouble. So, we have learned to be quiet. From this treatment, Finis is very bitter. He tries his best to be kind, and being able to express himself online has helped immensely, but he still often falls back on rather blunt ways of speaking.
finis beckford, shuichi saihara, satan, naoto shirogane, tsumugi tsukioka, haruka nanase, a-ya, a doll, a homunculus

Giorno (they/them) represents our desperation to fix everything. If we have problems, we need to fix it. Giorno, in canon, can heal those who are injured. While it isn’t exactly the same thing, Gio specifically formed in our system to fix a problem we were dealing with at the time. Now, they are still here, and they are finding their place, learning their interests, etc. They like a lot of anime, especially Kill la Kill. They also have what many call “main character syndrome”. They view themself as some sort of protagonist, someone who will solve all of the world’s problems.
giorno giovanna, ryuko matoi

Hawk (he/him) is also partly our confidence, just in a different way from Dai. He’s loud, excitable, and wants people to see him. Look at him! He’s cheery and social, and loves hanging out with other people. I would say he represents our want to fit in with other people. We want to belong, have friends. Hawk wants millions of friends, millions of fans, and he wants to shine more than anything. He’s supportive, caring, and values friendship and family above all else. He doesn’t consider our actual family to be family, though, thank goodness. Family should be full of kindness and support, and he wants to give that to people.
kaze amaba, ichiro yamada, torahiko kusakabe

Io (they/it) is very straightforward. They’re what we consider to be our “flat” autism. They dislike emoting too much, despite being generally very silly. Admittedly, their flat personality makes everything more funny. Io also represents our love for family, as they have a younger brother in our system that they love more than anything. Collectively, we do have a younger sibling, so, in a way, Io represents us being an older sibling, and all that entails. Io loves to create art, the messier the better. Creativity is something that brings them a lot of joy. Unfortunately, for a long while, art school took any of the joy of creation out of them, but lately, Io has rediscovered that love of art.
yusuke kitagawa, iori izumi, zhongli, kuro yakaku, solitus, shirase kobuchizawa

Joshua (any pronouns) represents our escapism and our head being in the clouds. When you’re dealing with a difficult life, and you struggle to handle it, sometimes your brain will try its best to escape. Joshua is this escapism. They consider themself to be a god among humans, that they are simply different from the people around them. They do not feel better than humans, but they’re fundamentally different. He rationalizes his abuse by saying that he was targeted for being who he is. This is just a trial by God, so he must learn to overcome it. While he is not from any particular religion that exists in this world, I would say that they are at least partly a product of our experience of being raised Catholic, and our family being very against even the idea of us not being Catholic. Joshua, in source, had a lot of power. He was in charge of it all. So, in a sense, Joshua being in our system represents a longing to have control over our situation.
joshua kiryu, a god

Juniper (she/her) is a teenage girl who represents our want to please, through a very specific example from childhood. Our father was never the most caring, so we took up soccer to get him to notice us. If we did a sport, he would love us, right? He loves sports, after all. Unfortunately, we really weren’t built for sports. We struggled, cried, and eventually quit. This just upset him more, so part of us wish we had never tried in the first place. Juniper is very athletic. She’s exactly the girl that our parents would compare us to. She’s social, she’s easy to get along with, she’s active, and she’s “normal”.
ayumi takahara

Kat (he/him) is “part of our anger”. In reality, he feels like he plays it up often, because it’s what people expect of him. He gets frustrated, but we all get frustrated. Kat represents our feeling of being trapped. We’re in a place that we don’t want to be in. So, we have to put on a brave face and fight to get out. Do we want to fight? No, not really. But we were meant to fight. His source loves to fight, and is always itching for one. So, he has to too, right? After all, he’s in a situation where that’s all he can do. He’s an attack dog, but he doesn’t want to be. He’s generally very chill when he’s not being made to start biting people.
katsuki bakugou, romano, a dog

Kennedy (he/him) represents our feelings towards family. Some may say “well, that doesn’t seem right.” He is pretty known by friends for his self loathing and depression. However, that wasn’t always the case for him, and he’s been getting much better as of late. As a child, Kennedy cared about family above all else. He viewed one of his system members, though he didn’t know he was a system member at the time, as a close brother. However, he had very complicated feelings surrounding his source family, as well as our current family. Who does he consider his parents? Do his parents consider him to be their son? This should have been the main struggle that he dealt with, but unfortunately, Kennedy has received a lot of hate over the years for being a Hetalia introject. This caused him to retreat into his shell, hating himself for existing. Again, he has thankfully begun to love himself more after receiving support from friends who don’t mind that he is who he is. We’re very glad to see that.
hong kong, kenma kozume

King (he/it) is another one of our hosts. This should be obvious, but King Kokichi Ouma represents our ability to mask. King loves to go outside, talk to people, and get attention. Still, he puts up a facade, trying to get people to like him more and more. He has complicated feelings about this, and wants to be himself. Even when he does have the opportunity to talk to other people as himself, he keeps his true self under lock and key. The truth is, King is very emotional, and cries easier than anyone else in the system. Things trigger his tears incredibly easily. Another thing that he hides is that he cares for the system more than anyone else. He views himself as a leader, and takes care of everyone in the system. He wouldn’t say he’s a protector, he’s just someone who cares. He’s here for everyone, even if he can be annoying from time to time. Also, he loves Haruka Amami and The Idolmaster.
kokichi ouma, nico yazawa, banri settsu, lyney, ban jumonji, fizzarolli

Lambda (any pronouns) is another host-adjacent alter. Aside from that, they’re our social anxiety and our tendency to get incredibly overstimulated incredibly fast. Lambda loves people. He really does. He just feels like puking anywhere from a group chat in a public server, to a voice call with friends, to a train ride. He sees people and his mind goes blank, his body goes numb, and he starts shaking uncontrollably. Lambda is our avoidance, it hates fronting anywhere where it’ll be around people, and doesn’t really like leaving the house. It’s very jumpy, and constantly looks over its shoulder when it walks alone. Lambda will quadruple lock doors, just to make sure they’re locked. So… it shouldn’t be a surprise when I say that Lamb is our paranoia.
ramuda amemura, mary, a homunculus

Leo, our very kind Leo (he/him). Leo is similar to Giorno, but while Giorno is trying to fix external issues, Leo is trying to fix internal issues. Leo controls a lot in the system, from whether or not people can front, to the spread of information. Leo knows everything about everyone, but thankfully, has a kind heart and wouldn’t hurt a fly. He admires heroes, and wants to be like them. However, he does have a bit of an “I’m better than you” attitude, and views himself as a king. Frankly speaking, he thinks hot shit. Still, the way he expresses these feelings never comes off as rude and insulting, and is similar to bragging.
leo tsukinaga, yuri nakamura, yukihiro kamiya, tooru oikawa, gaming, hana n fountainstand, blitzo buckzo

Lucio (he/it/they) represents our suicidal ideations. While we wouldn’t consider ourself to be suicidal anymore, Lucio has an odd fixation on death and dying. He would be first in line to get a lobotomy, fully knowing what would happen. He, too, has a bit of a flat personality. He can be difficult to get along with because of it. Still, he is very kind, if not obsessive, when it comes to the people that he cares about.
belphegor, masumi usui

Luna (any pronouns) is an elegant woman. She represents our sense of responsibility. She may be a bit airheaded, on occasion, but she is very responsible. Luna will take on tasks that others may be unwilling to do. She will clean, she will work, she will drive, she will do anything that we need to get done. She actually enjoys cleaning very much, as she’s fond of being in a neat, organized environment. In her free time, she enjoys reading yuri and drinking tea. She also has no patience for people who she perceives as rude, and has a rather strained relationship with Dell because of it.
yohane tsushima, soichiro shinonome, celestia ludenberg, lune

Michel (he/him) is our annoyance. He’s a babysitter for one of our littles, but he doesn’t really care to speak. When he does, he doesn’t want to waste the energy trying to put up a kind front. He says exactly what he means. He cares about the little he cares for, as well as his group of friends, but he views talking to anyone else as a nuisance. There isn’t much to say about Michel, really. He’s here.

Narancia, or Nanashi (he/they), is our final host, and is our main host. He is an excitable, hyper person who loves making friends more than anything. Nana views friendship as the most important thing in life. He desperately wants to make as many connections as possible, because he deeply loves the world and all the people in it. He is somebody full of love for all around him. Unfortunately, because of this love, he is incredibly trusting to people he likely shouldn’t be. He finds it difficult telling people no, and struggles acknowledging when people are treating him poorly. He will put up with cruelty over and over again, and just go “it isn’t that bad, I’m sure they didn’t mean to hurt me!” This is because he is dependent on the attention of others. Nana is the alter that represents dependence. He needs others to survive. If he is not making connections, he doesn’t have a purpose. If he isn’t helping people, then who even is he? How can he survive? He has to do something, anything. Please be his friend. He can’t exist on his own.
yoshi nanase, narancia ghirga, letty amery, sakuya le bel shirogane chihiro fujisaki, olivia, 707, iori motohashi, napstablook, momose sunohara, orion, otomaru heishi, meloetta, mio yamanobe, a dog, a bunny, a ghost

Nicola (he/they) represents our self confidence. While others may be confident, such as Dai and Hawk, Nico is specifically confidence in oneself. He loves himself, and not in a “better than you” sort of way, but in a “I am so perfect and sexy” kind of way. He, too, thinks he is hot shit. They love to drink, look hot, and have a good time. Your stereotypical party girl. He loves gyaru fashion to the extremes, and, as someone who values aesthetics over all else, wants to change the body’s entire wardrobe to be what he enjoys. Because he loves himself and being out, he gets upset when he isn’t remembered or doesn’t front for a long period of time. I would also say Nicola represents our determination. He wants to be something, so he’ll do it. According to him, though, it would be easier to do these things if he wasn’t sharing a body with everyone else. He has complicated feelings towards being a system, admittedly. As for personality, Nicola is the kindest asshole you will ever meet.
takamasa saeki, natsume sakasaki, nicola francesca, damara megido, junko enoshima

Noel (he/they) is jumpy, but not in the way that Lambda is. He’s softspoken and self conscious, and always expects someone to say something about not liking him. Still, he has a strong sense of responsibility. If I were to say what Noel represents… it would probably be our vulnerability. If I were to compare Noel to anything, it would be an egg. One wrong move, and the egg will crack, and people are always trying to crack the egg.
akio tobikura, satoru, shuuji kayama

Quartz (any pronouns) represents not caring, but in a positive sense. People are going to call them names, or are going to be rude, but who cares? Better to have fun and be happy. They don’t care how people view them, or what people say about them. Nothing makes them happier than being themself, and if people don’t like that, it’s their loss.
kokuto neji, hifumi izanami, shinra kishitani, yuuga aoyama

Rey (he/they/fae) represents childhood curiosity. Rey wants to learn more than anything. They have so many questions about the world, and they want to learn as much as they can to answer them. Rey loves nature and exploring, and wants to travel everywhere he can. He loves to read, especially what we would call “fantasy nonfiction”, field guides to things such as magic and fae. They can be a bit naive, but they’re overall very courageous and find joy in the adrenaline of telling people that are trying to hurt them that they can’t do that. Nobody can hurt them. Rey is very strong!
rei kagura, hajime shino, arthur granvelle, amy rose, an elf

Rick (he/him) represents… how do I word this? He’s our system’s main protector, and he works hard at this job. He is our shell, our knight, our self defense mechanism. He is strict, rude, and spiteful, but has a heart of gold under it all. He truly cares about those in his system, and, if you end up close to us, will likely add you to the people he wants to protect and care for.
rick amery, hansel hexenhaus, elefseus, leone abbacchio

Rowen (they/them) represents change. The body is always changing. The alters inside our head are always shifting in identity. We’re people, after all, and nobody is the same forever. Still, as a system, things are a bit different when it comes to the concept of change. Rowen is in charge of fusion in our system. We are absolutely not looking towards final fusion as a possibility for us, but, at the same time, it would be hard if we had hundreds of fragmented alters. Rowen helps for us to accept that, in order to reach functional plurality, we have to fuse down. This helps us to not only cut our alter count down, but to become more solid, as we are taking on more identity into ourselves. Fusion isn’t death, splitting isn’t death, it’s rebirth.
hoozuki, rohan kishibe, a demon

I genuinely do not know what Skye (they/it/he) represents. They’re just… a teenager. They like rainbows and scenecore and retro video game technology. They like weird memes that are impossible to comprehend, and their music taste consists of absurdist beeping noises and whatever you would assume to see on a playlist labeled “silly goober music”. I guess, if I were to say anything, Skye is our ability to be cringe and free. Skye is our childhood, Skye is our nostalgia, and Skye is someone who longs to experience the life we never had.
sora harukawa, mitsukuni haninozuka

Sothis represents our need for a mother figure, while Eva, who I skipped so I could mention them both together, represents our need for a father figure. We have had… issues with our parents, if you couldn’t pick up on that. So, our brain decided to create a family for us. It is a bit sad, I will admit, for your family to be inside your head, but that’s where our actual supportive family is, so… that’s life, I suppose. Sothis is very responsible and can be a bit direct and blunt with us, but she means well. Eva is very caring and soothing to be around, and can be very goofy.

Apologies, I can’t think about Stephanie without my head pounding at the moment. I don’t know what she represents aside from religious delusions.

Salem (it/its) is our littlest little. It represents comfort in the morbid. When things are hell, and the world feels like it is falling apart at its seams, Salem thrives. As a child, our father would subject us to countless conspiracy theories and horror content. It terrified us to no end, but we had to watch it, and if we were scared, then there was trouble. So, from that, Salem formed. Salem could handle it. Salem loved it. Aliens building the pyramids, ghosts haunting a house, whatever Stephen King was up to… Salem loved it all. Of course, Salem is very, very young. It struggles with speech, though it enjoys reading very mature works of fiction that some adults might not expect a little alter to be interested in. Salem is a very special, brave kid.
allister, hibiya amamiya, nagisa shiota, towa wakasa, nagisa shingetsu

Finally, Winter (he/him). If Kat was our “not actually an anger holder” alter, Winter… is our “absolutely an anger holder” alter. Winter has a very short fuse, can be incredibly pissy, and is incredibly argumentative. He can, of course, be calm, but he has a tendency to fight whenever he perceives us as being wronged in some way. If I were to call him anything, I’d say “a hater”.
kei sarukawa, fuyuhiko kuzuryuu, a wolf

So… that is the Milky Way Collective. We all represent different things, as many people in systems do. Everyone in the world has a reason to exist. This extends to alters in systems. Though we may have formed from traumatic experiences, and represent some pretty difficult to deal with things, we continue to fight on, so that we can reach a level of stability one day. We want to be people, and we want to be happy.