Source
r/Parahumans•
PathtoVictory

Multiple Personalities and Powers

Worm

How do you think Dissociative Identity (Multiple Personality) Disorder would affect the triggering process? Would the shard only look into what the host personality is feeling or all of them? Would this create one power in total or give a unique one to each personality? Would the shard treat it in a fashion similar to a multi trigger, pinging what each personality feels off of each other.

Note that this is assuming that the personalities are aware enough at the time of the trigger event to influence it.

Another question could be, what kind of power would be created if a person triggers as a result of finding out that they have multiple personalities?

Posted Oct 18, 2016, 6:11 PM UTC

1616
LiteralHeadCannonMover•

I think people with DID are very likely to get Breaker triggers; according to Wildbow, Breaker powers tend to come from triggers centered on a skewed view of reality (for example, someone who triggers to defend themselves from hallucinatory opponents). Because of how the triggering process analyzes their frame of mind, they would likely get distinct aspects of the power for each "personality".

It's dangerous to actually think of people with DID as containing multiple persons. That's their delusion, and talking about it as if it were true feeds it. It may be necessary to entertain the delusion to have productive conversation with someone with DID, but it's not actually how reality works.

23
PathtoVictoryOP•

That's pretty much what I figured for the power.

While I am by no means an expert, I am majoring in psych so I know that I should be careful how I refer to this kind of stuff, just figured it would be easier in this context to ask the question more generally.

7
PredictabliciousFuck the Simurgh•

The shards probably don't care about the host's mental health peculiarities, other than pattern matching it for power expressions.

Maybe the parahuman decides to express different aspects of their power via different personalities, maybe even having no powers under some of them. But this is basically a psychological issue.

It could be Thinker (emotional stress), Master (isolation from family and friends after going to an institution), Changer (feels out of place due to mental illness), Breaker (trigger while having a psychotic breakdown), Tinker (inability to "get it together" due to mental illness).

8
qwertytarrShaker•

I think it's probably more likely that someone would develop DID after getting powers. Something with their trigger fucking them up.

6
PathtoVictoryOP•

Absolutely possible, but I was specifically wondering what would happen if they had DID beforehand.

6
eklu•

As far as I know, powers in the Wormverse are coded to your DNA, which is why Fenja and Menja have the same power, because twins share DNA. Nyx (S9000) and Nix (Vegas Capes), if I recall correctly were twins too. Nyx took a Cauldron vial, and went Case 53 while getting her powers. Her twin ended up with the same powers, but without the physical mutations.

So in any case, all of the personalities would have to share a power, since their DNA remains the same.

5
PathtoVictoryOP•

This is a good point, but powers are also shaped by the emotions experienced during a trigger event. I wondered that if each personality focused on a different emotion, would that screw with how a shard chooses how to define the power?

4
GreatWyrmGoldThinker•

Nyx (S9000) and Nix (Vegas Capes), if I recall correctly were twins too.

I don't suppose you could find a source? Because a shard being shared between a Case 53 and another cape would be pretty big, considering what C53's are.

2
eklu•

Tada!

3
GreatWyrmGoldThinker•

Hm. Not quite what I was hoping for, but still neat.

1
UndeadAnonymous Apex•

It's not Wormverse, but I'm working on a character named Oddlot who has a wide powerset but each of his personalities only uses/is aware of certain powers. From a WBverse perspective, I would be interested in the idea of a pseudo-"case 53" that causes cognitive damage rather than physical.

4
GreatWyrmGoldThinker•

From a WBverse perspective, I would be interested in the idea of a pseudo-"case 53" that causes cognitive damage rather than physical.

You mean, like Bitch or Labyrinth?

10
UndeadAnonymous Apex•

Exactly, yeah. Someone develops such a wide and diverse powerset that in order to master each power their mind fractures and the passenger shapes unique personalities to utilize each one. But the passenger is broken, and doesn't really understand how much damage it's doing

6
GreatWyrmGoldThinker•

You mean, like every passenger?

3
UndeadAnonymous Apex•

They're all kind of broken, but some more than others

1
TheSneakySealShitposter•

I see this all the time! DID isn't real!!! People do not have this and when it does come up, therapists essentially make it worse by trying to understand how it happens when they should be convincing the person it wasn't real.

1