As yet, all system members are fictives¹ from the Ode clade out of the Post-Self cycle. I had a unique benefit when working with this material. There were a lot of built-in aesthetics — they were all already either skunks or fond of skunks, they were all already queer, they were all kind of fat and okay with it (still working on that one, myself), and so on — but also the variance of a base personality provided by years of individuation. Another benefit is that many of them were only loosely defined rather than fully fleshed out beings that I had to live into wholly.

As such, the names are fit to the person already, so I just...get them. I would be lying if I said that names did not play a role in leaning into a personality early on in the process, though. If you want to see the whole process, you can check this incredibly spoilery spreadsheet (spoilers for all of the Post-Self cycle, Idumea, and some of Marsh)

1. I wrote the books, so one may say it is debatable whether or not the system members are defined by the canon or the system members define the canon. It was probably the former in for the Post-Self cycle, but was certainly the latter for things like Motes Played.

So I saw @critters-system doing this and it seemed neat. Feel free to shoot me an ask with a question! (You can include the number, but please also include the question text~).

Here is the system.

name asks

1. do you have a collective name? how was it chosen?
2. how do new system members choose their names?
3. are there any system members who identify with the body's name?
4. which system member has the most stereotypical name?
5. which system member has the weirdest name?

age asks

6. how does age work for your system’s members?
7. does your system have ageless system members?
8. who is the oldest system member? how old are they?
9. does your system have system members who age slide or age regress?
10. if you have them, do your system's littles want to be treated like children or adults?

queer asks

11. do system members tend to have similar sexualities, or are they different for each member?
12. does your system have more male, female, or nonbinary system members? is there any overlap between those?
13. do any system member use xenogenders or neopronouns?
14. does your system collectively identify as anything? if so, what?
15. do you& consider the body to be transgender?

nonhuman asks

16. what system member is the strangest species?
17. do any system members have wings?
18. does your system have any animal system members?
19. what is the weirdest part about being a nonhuman system member?
20. is the majority of your system human or nonhuman?

asks for the current fronter

(feel free to ask more than once!)

31. who is your favorite member in the system? (alternatively, who are you closest to?)
32. which system member has the most based takes?
33. what is the funniest piece of system drama?
34. do you enjoy being part of a system?
35. what's something you like that no one else in the system likes?

Oh um! I am not sure, actually. I do not know if it counts as a joke, but a bunch have different nicknames for Motes based on her name/size. Slow Hours calls her Speck, Beholden calls her Dot, Dry Grass calls her Skunklet, and so on.

What are your system members' idle animations?

Slow Hours ⏳: Reading in a comfy armchair, occasionally yawns, looks up, smiles
Beholden 🪔: Listening to music on headphones, tapping foot, occasionally lifts one side if the headphones to see if you said something
My 🫴: Leaning against a wall, paws stuffed in pockets, looking bored, occasionally smirks at some internal joke
Motes ✨: Jogging in place, looking super excited, occasionally zips off one side of the screen and back in from the other
Rye 🌾: typing. Just...typing
What Right Have I ★: reading, occasionally tics
Dry Grass 🌱: having an unheard conversation, occasionally puts on a Very Important Witch Hat for [Marsh spoiler] reasons
True Name#Convergence ⚖️: standing calm, polite, and attentive with a slow swish, occasionally preens
May 🌺: same as True Name but cuter