Plurals United

Adelaide: Ghost Ship residents are SHOCKED about a stunning discovery made about their headmate.

Merrill: Uh, I don't think this needs to be a headline. We just got to talking about the differences in the patterns of our experience of reality.

So, Shuichi apparently doesn't have this nonstop running mononlogue in his head. What I do frequently, and this is pretty automatic and I don't tend to be that conscious of it, is sort information by talking to it to a hypothetical audience. Like, as though I was going to present it, except I know I won't. Maybe I should, because maybe the information could be of use to someone. But it all revolves around my niche special interest and the audience for that would be... small.

Shuichi: I think there may be more people who would appreciate that than you realize, even if they didn't outright tell you.

Merrill: I guess if I posted it to the internet, I wouldn't have to watch people's eyes glaze over as I totally lose them talking about something that makes sense only to me because I'm privvy to the context of it all.

Anyways, we're not here to analyze me, we're here to analyze, you sick weirdo.

Shuichi: Why are you calling me a sick weirdo?

Merrill: Well, you aren't, it's just that you have an inner experience that feels foreign to me. And that experience being that you have a deeper connection to our shared body, one that you didn't spend your formative years in, than I do.

Shuichi: I don't know if I'd call it a deeper connection. I just feel present. Grounded.

Merrill: See, I can make an active effort to feel this sense of being actually in the body and not just a free-floating stream of thoughts. But I can't do it as fluidly and naturally as you.

Adelaide: Me neither, what the fuck?

Rainer: I don't struggle as much being in the body, either. I do... feel lonely in front, somehow. Like I'm cut off, even though you can all reach out to me in our thoughts. It's strange.

Merrill: Interesting. I suppose this is (and here I go, framing this with my bullshit special interest that will likely alienate most readers) this is the difference between me being an Enneagram 5 and Shuichi a 9. I'm a mental type, Shuichi's an impulse type, and if we're right about Rainer being a 2 then that's a heart type neighboring the impulse center.

Rainer: I suppose that would lend itself to me preferring to not front, and support whoever's fronting instead. (Also, goodness Merrill, you're interests are most definitely not "bullshit.")

Shuichi: And it probably explains why I do like to front. When my thoughts and feelings bother me, getting away from myself and focusing on what's around me helps a lot.

Merrill: Yeah, I guess 5s and 9s are both prone to sort of displacing themselves, but 5s do it by fleeing into their thoughts and 9s by into their bodies. Although maybe it's the mental/impulse centers in general. I suppose the image types displace socially, or into personas?

Shuichi: I hadn't ever thought of it as escaping, but it's starting to make sense.