Many of us are fictives. We use the term for two kinds of folks here:

• people made by the brain based on a fictional character ( brain-generated fictive),
• or people whose soul got transferred from another universe into this one, where a version of their universe is depicted in a work of fiction ( walk-in fictive).

(Sometimes it's both; sometimes we don't know or care; sometimes psyche material gets moved around between, or assigned to, our people regardless of how they initially joined us.)

From all of us fictives, please remember we're people, separate from our fictional character counterparts, and treat us accordingly. In particular, this means:

• This isn't roleplay. Regardless of your opinions on our identities, we're actual people, with independent feelings and thoughts and our own ways of experiencing and relating to the world.
• Don't assume you know us as people because you're aware of our source (= this world's fictional depiction of our life / world / fictional character counterparts). Yes, some (maybe most) things about us will match our source(s), but that doesn't mean we're comfortable speedrunning the "getting to know each other personally" phase.

For interactions about source media & fictional character counterparts, notably within fandom spaces:

• Don't assume we will enjoy engaging with our source as a work of fiction; if we haven't initiated or joined the interaction ourselves, ask first. Some of us can comfortably make the separation and won't have any problems with it, while others need to avoid engaging with certain topics, with the fandom, or even with our source entirely; some of us fluctuate heavily on what they can vs can't touch. (If you know us from a fandom context, this is a large part of why we sometimes take ages to engage with fanworks we showed interest in, or suddenly dip out of blorbo discussions -- sometimes the stars have to align just right.) No need for you to do anything about this, we'll take care of ourselves: if a conversation/thread/etc gets personally uncomfortable, we will tell you and/or disengage (depending on context).
• Also, if you're talking to us about stuff related to our source, please be aware we might have different things to say depending on the angle we approach that discussion from. "Your opinion on the piece of media, this world's fictional depiction?" often doesn't strike the same chords as "What about your actual life and memories from before?" Even though our fandom thoughts and preferences are often influenced by the latter, we know where we draw the line between "this is canon in the source media" / "this is a plausible interpretation based on canonical elements" / "this is a blorbo headcanon" / "this is about me personally"; in a fandom context, discussing the blorbos with us without getting more specific will only get you the first three. We are not the blorbos and discussing ourselves is a personal (non-fandom) matter. However, we don't mind being asked about that, if you're interested -- it's part of getting to know each other as people, after all!
• That said, please don't assume all of us will be comfortable telling you about all of our actual life experiences JUST because you know our source. All of this is real to us, and some of us are more private than others about personal matters. Please respect our comfort levels, and don't take it personally if we decline to talk about something from the personal angle.

For fellow fictionfolk:

• Don't assume you're automatically friends with us because you used to be friends with (a version of) us in another world. We're generally down for talking with folks from the same source -- it's a special kind of "yeah, I get what you went through" that we often appreciate -- but we're not interested in finding canonmates and aren't looking to rekindle old relationships.

And a quick additional note from our walk-ins:

• Don't call our exomemories (= memories we have from before we joined the system) "pseudomemories" or imply they're "substitute beliefs" for things that happened to us as a collective. That's not accurate for us. We believe they're memories of things that really happened someplace else; they are as real to us as memories from this world. (We've tried working under "ackshually it's all psychological" assumptions before, and it was measurably less helpful to us than acknowledging and respecting the authenticity of our spiritual beliefs. As a whole, we're not religious, but this experience is in the same ballpark as "believing in God" -- it is faith in the multiverse, a spiritual experience that cannot be proven true or false, an important part of our life that we find meaning and comfort in. Even if you don't share someone's faith/beliefs, you can respect its importance to them, and that is all we ask of anybody here.)

Thank you!