So you've landed on this page probably wondering why we just said we to describe outselves (to you, a singular entity). Or you might wonder why we said "we are Ivory." You might've also been pointed to this page after one of us struggled to answer an (apparently) simple question about outselves. You know, there's actually a lot of reasons that you may end up landing on this page. The point is this page addresses why Sylvia Ivory is actually many beings.

Analogy Time

So imagine your brain is a room. Now imagine yourself in this room. It's probably an empty room. Well that's what I'd imagine it to be since this isn't necessarily my situation. For my situation, imagine that there is more than one entity in this room who are not you. These other beings are people like yourself, with their own dreams, opinions, thoughts, and wishes. Pretty neat aye? Now also imagine these other entities (being referred to as headmates) can also control the body at times. Now you can imagine yourself as being secondary at times. Imagine that some memories are held by only some of these entities and despite you theoretically being around during these times, you don't remember anything.

Plurality

This is how we experience plurality, or the state of multiple self-aware entities coexisting within a single physical brain. This collective of people? A system, or to us, the Vineyard. While other systems may experience things differently, this is our own experience. What does this mean for you? It means that Sylvia Ivory is not one singular being, but a being controlled at times by others. The Sylvia that you may know is simply what happens when all of us here try to act like a cohesive person. Of course, we can't do this particularly well since we all are different. It's a bit difficult for a group of people to all emulate another person and for there to not be any inconsistency¹.

Tying back to why you might've come here. We say we since we are many people. Generally we cannot say in good faith the singular I unless it well and truly is just a singular member who did something. Additionally, we can't say that "I did X" in good faith as half the time it was not the fronter who did a given thing.

In short, we say we since it's what is correct. We are a collective, and we as a collective do things. In fact, this post is written as a collective. The first 3 sections were drafted by Eryn, the next ones by Kotlyn, and Camryn drafted the sidenote. We are here together so we might as well do things together.

Vineyard

As mentioned previously, the Vineyard is the name of our collective system. You might wonder, "well who else is apart of this vineyard system and how does it work?"

Members

Firstly, I'll first write about the members of the Vineyard and what may or may not be important to know about them:

• Kotlyn Vineyard (fae/faer): Me! The current being writing this! I like programming. What else is there to know? I really like coffee. Looping back to programming, I generally like abstractions. Beyond that, I really like the outdoors and the greenery that exists.
• Camryn Vineyard (fae/faer): Quite likes gambling. Also a fan of being condescending. Also of importance is faers interest in policy. Fae does consider violence always an option. Now how does that interact with their policy ideas? I actually don't know and I don't think I particularly want to know. Also really does not like Generative AI. As for kind of landscape, prefers more water-y landscapes (lakes, rivers etc).
• Eryn Vineyard (she/fae/they): The wildcard. Always confused for Sylvia Ivory (aka the collective as a whole). She is very fond of biking, going to random places with no plan. She prefers more mountainous landscapes over the greenery that I tend to like. Like Camryn, she is also fond of policy and really does not like Generative AI.
• Torino Vineyard (she/fae): Fan of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Also a very big fan of trains. As you might be able to tell, Torino is a fan of urban landscapes (since there's public transportation). A very big fan of public transportation. When she isn't going somewhere randomly, she manages to get lost while biking.
• Kate the Evergreen (she/her): Also doesn't take on the Vineyard last name. Likes systems programming. Doesn't like water too much. Manages to destroy any and all computers in less than 5 minutes flat (or your money back). Meows a lot. Stereotypical Rust programmer.
• Sylvie the Evergreen (she/her): Copied Kate's last name. Is a fan of meowing. Is too not a fan of water. Highly irresponsible financially. Gets lost very easily. Doesn't quite like programming. Is more of a fan of policy like Eryn but will still also dabble in sysadmin. Most likely to put us into financial debt :3c
• Julie (they/them): Doesn't take on the Vineyard last name. A very large fan of the Julia programming language, and geology. Really quite likes rocks. Their favorite rock is Rose quartz, although they like almost all rocks in general (except sandstone). Not a fan of large crowds.

Functioning

Secondly, I'll describe how the systeme functions: It doesn't!

On a more serious note, we like to cycle the front around throughout. Sometimes you might get me (yippee), sometimes Camryn, etc. Depending on what we need to do, we might have someone specific in the front (like doing policy, cs, rocks, etc). We generally get along for the most part. There are occasional conflicts but they get resolved in a usually peaceful manner.

Etiquette

While I'm still here, I might as well explain some of our own speaking, and how one should interact with us.

For starters, 9/10 times when we say we, we mean we (inclusive), where the addressee(s) are excluded. In other words, "we" generally doesn't mean "you." ² Sometimes we may clarify by saying "we (system)" when it may become ambigious.

Usually whenever we say "I," we mean the current fronter. So when I say I, I mean I (Kotlyn Vineyard). On this website, "I" may be used to imagine the position of the hypothetical "Sylvia Ivory" (which will be noted by them being listed as the author).

If you wish to address just the fronter, you should just use "you." If you want to blame the collective as a whole, you should use "y'all" or "you all."

You should address us by whoever the current fronter is if you know. If you don't know, you should probably ask, or refer to us as Ivory/Evelyn/Ivy.

There isn't a "real person" or "an original" you can speak to. We're all real and none of us are more or less real than any other. Whenever you're speaking to the hypothetical "Sylvia Ivory", you're really just speaking to one of the member components of us. So please don't ask to speak to "the original" or "real person" since we're all real here.

Questions That We Thought Of Answering

Here's some question that we've probably gotten or have decided to prepare ahead of time just in case anyone asks them:

• Who? Ivory.
• What? Plurality.
• Where? Not in the ocean.
• Why? No.
• When? Sometime.
• How? No clue.

Now that Eryn got her "five Ws" out, here's some more questions and answers:

• Do we like each other? Do you like your roommates (if you have them)? That's about how we feel with each other.
• Why is this so confusing? No clue. But if it's confusing for you, it's even more confusing for us (who experience it).
• Is this real? It's real to us and it's how we experience things. If you wish to accept that is up to you. Of course, don't blame us for not responding to the name Sylvia particularly well.

Additional Resources

• More Than One