mint_phalanx | Entries

Mint Phalanx is a created/spontaneous system with a headmate formed as the result of Reanna's worry for Mike since Chester died. Every headmate except for the factives first started as a character. We're now tulpas, semi-tulpas or headmates. We've been sharing a brain since 2019.

Originator: Reanna

Frontrunners: Reanna, Brian, Mary, F.M.
Factives: F.M., E.A., SL, M, Ames, Chibz

Tulpas: Rebecca, Jackie*, Chaz, Brian, Ames, Liam
Semi-tulpa: Mary
Headmate: Chibz, SL, M, E.A., F.M.

Muse: Terrance

*Formerly Jackalope. Her tag is grandfathered.

Collective pronouns: she/her/hers/herself

He: Brian, Chaz, F.M., SL, Terrance, Liam
She: Reanna, Ames, Jackie, Mary, Rebecca, M, E.A., Chibz

Journal entries have the writer's name in the title and tags. Some entries will be tagged as being from the entire system. There are also two symbols we may use in titles:

[Name]& = two or more headmates
[Name]/ = one headmate and-or someone else

This is a list of books we self-published through Barnes & Noble Press. When available on the online store, the book's title will be hyperlinked to the product page. (Note: we publish under the name Reanna Field.)

( Books )

We like archiving websites on the Wayback Machine. It means there is a backup if the original goes down. It's fun when we add a link and learn it's the first time someone did. We even add our pages on there from time to time.

To archive as many pages on a site as possible, we check the "save outlinks" box. (You need an account to do that.) It makes sure you can browse the website. And sometimes, we get first archives from that.

Preserving the Internet is so fun!

Mood: calm

This is an entry from our system journal on 13 June 2026. Reanna remembers the different kinds of transition. We haven't come out yet.

I decided to try the pronouns ze/zir/zirs/zirself, so I asked my headmates to use them. It sounds right so far. I'm also starting to call myself intergendered. It includes bigender and would prevent my mom from saying, "you're technically still a woman." [I'm trying to remove personal barriers she might have to this kind of support.]

I've been so focused on the medical transition that I forgot about the social transition. The change of pronouns, the changing of markers, keeping our nails short, using men's toiletries, even wearing more masculine-looking clothes when we feel more like men. I was starting to think I wasn't trans enough for wanting to keep my breasts despite wanting to get rid of our periods. (I don't know how my dresses would look without them, and I don't want to wear a binder.)

Another thing that made me feel better was when SL told me Terrance's boss only wanted an emasculation. (Xi's a character.)

Thinking about our transition goals makes us happy. I hope we get to achieve them when we come out.

This is an entry from our system journal on 10 May 2026. Reanna learned something about her character Mio, so to speak.

Although Mio is a cisgender man, he doesn't want to be perceived as anything. He never cared about being masculine enough, but he doesn't want to be seen as feminine. (Remember: In goth, makeup is unisex. So is nail polish.) He wants to wear frilly blouses without being seen as girly (and will not wear anything "too girly.") He would want to wear a dress he deems masculine without someone saying, "why are you trying to make dresses manly?" (We actually found one yesterday!) [Cue the tangent about masculine dresses in history.]

Mio is not a masculine man or a feminine man. Being perceived as either upsets him in a way similar to gender dysphoria. [Which was very confusing.] But he knows he's cisgender because he doesn't experience his gender identity as not matching with his body.

Barnes & Noble Press now requires books to have a minimum price of $14.99. So, I had to change the price of Carnival to $14.99.

Mood: annoyed

I decided I did so poorly with The Murder After and The Year After that I'm pulling them from circulation. I'm not saying I wished I never wrote them. They created Terrance (and Liam.) I'm saying I didn't do a good enough job to make them worthy of sharing. Now, you can only find them in a shadow library.

Maybe I'll still fix them, just in case I change my mind.

I pulled The Murder After and The Year After from sale to create second editions of them. I want to fix the problems I noticed. If I don't, I'll be embarrassed by them for the rest of my life. I did not do a good job.

First, I'll change the narration from the British dialect to the American dialect. If it's confusing to that Creative Writing student, it's going to be confusing to others (even the British.) Terrance doesn't use it, anyway. It's just a relic from when the reader was supposed to be him. The British dialect was me narrating. The second person perspective is not changing because it's natural to Terrance. (He is interacting but is also watching himself.)

Then, I'll indicate when a facet called Also Terrance is speaking. He is the reason Terrance has thoughts 90% of the time, and he has conversations. This plurality manifests itself in a second person perspective. Terrance calls him "watching thoughts." (And this is what happens when you don't know your character turned muse is plural before finishing a story.)

And then, I'll remove the first chapter of The Year After from The Murder After because I don't think it will make people want to read it. Maybe I'll add my preview instead. (The preview is an excerpt of a story we share on DeviantArt and Tumblr.)

It was hard for me to admit to myself that I did a poor job with these stories. I hope I do better, so I'm not embarrassed. One day, people will buy our books, and I want them to be good.

Update (22/3/2026): I decided to share these stories on DeviantArt instead of selling them.

I can't believe it's already been seven years since Reanna realized she's plural. (I thought it was in February, but it was actually in March.) She told us how it happened. One day, on this month, she realized Kenji was doing her math work.

Cross-posted from Tumblr.

Brian thought it would be really funny to listen to a band called The Children of the Plague. (We were on a Spotify equivalent to a Wiki Walk.) The only album on the page is called Sad Sickness: Songs to Kill Yourself To. The album art has a girl in a white dress splattered with blood. And I had to listen to every song.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting. The phrase "DEAD DOVE. DO NOT EAT." comes to mind. (And so does "edge-lord.") I don't know how to explain it. Every song left me thinking, "what the fuck did I just listen to?" The only one I liked was "Music To Drown To." "Despair on the Radio" came in second.

I felt a little sick. Even worse, The Children of the Plague was the last thing we listened to before closing Spotify.

I'm not sure if that was shock rock or horror punk because I never listened to those genres before. (The closest thing Reanna has listened to is Fatal Thirteen, which we describe as nu metal/horrorcore.)

Our Barnes & Noble Press account wasn't terminated! We can go back to it! Goodbye, KDP! However, it means books published last year will look like they've been published this year. That also means Carnival won't be a second edition anymore because it's easier to edit the one I have. No one has bought it yet, anyway. (Actually, I should probably make a second edition.)

Directed to others: I want to do May all over again. In May, we ran out of medication and became anxious after a few days. Like, really anxious. It was hard to bear. And it lasted a long time.

One thing I'd like to redo is eating Panda Express. It was the day after we became anxious. Our mom brought some Panda Express when she came home from work. We had orange chicken with rice. But I was so anxious, I couldn't eat it all. I want another chance to enjoy that meal.

Mood: tired

The problem of evil asks how an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God exists in a world of evil and suffering. It implies the two things aren't compatible. Theodicy is a solution to the problem of evil that isn't "God doesn't exist."

I have a theodicy to top all other theodicies. God doesn't stop all evil and suffering because it would bring about the end of the world.

I was inspired by Jewish eschatology. It states that when Elijah returns and restores the Temple, there will be one thousand years of peace before the world ends. I assume that the peace would be the end of all evil.

I admit it doesn't explain why God would intervene in one person's problem but not another's. Small interventions wouldn't count as removing all evil and suffering. Maybe it's a sadistic choice.

I've never made a timeline for any story before. Trade in Traffic has a set timeframe, so I need one for pacing. The plot happens from April to June. The story ends at the beginning of the Denver Buntings' first game of the season.

Making the timeline is a little harder than I thought. I'm glad I took notes on voluntary workouts first. It let me organize the events.

I should share the name of the main character: Mio Mendoza. It took me forever to find one that sounds like a kicker's name.

I started organizing my thoughts on my new story in a green notebook, so I don't hog the system journal. It's nice because I can expand on those thoughts. I can even write down scenes.

Right now, I'm making a list of victims who died. I plan to put it at the end of the book, so they're not just headlines. Then, I'm going to learn how trading actually works, so I don't sound like a confused writer. (I don't want to accidentally portray something that happens in an actual trade as something that happens to trafficked players. Well, besides the exchange of them.)

I haven't done something like this since Spiral. That's the story that made Roxy and the Other People, Kenji, and Adrian. The notebook was green, too.

This entry is from our system journal on 13 September 2025. Reanna has an idea for a thriller. (And by "we," she means "I.") We don't intend to watch Him. Ever.

We might be riding on the tailcoats of Him, but we have a story idea about a football player who gets caught up in a player trafficking ring. For me, the purpose would be to show how dehumanizing trading can seem. We thought of the idea last night, originally as a joke that it would be the sequel to Him. Then, F.M. told me that I could write it.

We already have a few things fleshed out. The trafficking ring involves professional football teams and is run by the General Managers. Players who request to be traded aren't trafficked. [We changed this detail.] Players who don't are. They're transported in cages and are abused. Players trafficked from a rival team are tortured until they conform or die (whichever comes first.) Teammates may be encouraged to join in the abuse because the rival player is "poisoned." I'm considering reading about programming techniques used by abusive cults. (It would specifically be used for rival players.) [I decided to focus on abuse instead.] Players trafficked from non-rival teams go through dangerous hazing rituals.

The main character learns about the trafficking ring when the police question him about a former teammate who died after being traded. When he asks the interviewer why he's being questioned for a death that happened out of state, she says the other investigators suspect the player was also a victim of a trafficking ring. [We decided to specify that it's happening across state lines.]

We also decided the main character would be the first openly asexual football player. He's a kicker because it's easy (for us, anyway. Simple job description.) And he's good at it, too.

The working title is Trade. The project is going to require a lot of knowledge on the business of football. If trading isn't as dehumanizing as I assume, then the story will be for pure entertainment. Details of the trafficking ring may change with the facts.

Reanna: I no longer think I'm riding on the tailcoats of Him, unless you define the tailcoats as "perverting football." (This story isn't even in the same genre!) It also wouldn't be the first thriller involving the sport. My sister made me aware of Black Sunday and Two Minute Warning.

These are entries from our system journal on 9 and 10 July 2025. On the ninth, Terrance describes how he felt while listening to "About You (feat. blackbear)" by Mike Shinoda. It happened to come on that day. On the tenth, he describes how he felt while listening to "Hold It Together" (something he's been wanting to know for awhile.) It happened to come on that day. This entry is not directed to anyone, so it's in the second person.

9 July

You listened to "About You (feat. blackbear.)" It's by Mike Shinoda. Your heart raced. You felt discomfort. You even disconnected a bit. You had trouble thinking. "Hold It Together" must feel worse. Yet, you still want to know.

10 July

You just listened to "Hold It Together." You jumped. Your heart raced. You didn't know what was happening. Your legs shook as you got up to get a drink of water. You kept taking deep breaths. You had to write this, and you felt a little sick afterwards. Your face might still look disturbed.

Now, you know.

We thought it was necessary to share how our body reacts when listening to this song. Some incidents are better than others.

Title: The Year After
Series: Terrance's Story #2
Genre: romance, dramadey, psychological fiction
Year self-published: 2025 (through KDP), 2026 (through B&N Press)

Copyright status: CC BY-SA 4.0. (Do what you want as long as you give credit and use the same license.)

Blurb: It has been one year since Jacqueline died. Terrance exists. His trauma has made his existence feel less like living and more like surviving through misery. In fact, he doesn't have much reason to live. Then, one night, a man gives Terrance his phone number.

Format: novella
Page count: 68 (sixty-eight)

MPA rating: PG-13
Reasons: some language, drama, suicidality, minimal sexual content

Price: $3.95
Note: This is specifically SL's story.

SL: I tried narrating in the British dialect again for consistency. I've decided to call it narrating for Terrance. If you want to know what happened first, read The Murder After.

Mood: accomplished

We decided not to let the Trump Administration ruin our day. We showered. We dressed up in long-sleeved crop top and a pair of jeans. We played some Sudoku.

Right now, our mom is making dinner. She and our brother plan to watch fireworks at Sister City Park. We might watch the Rockies game later.

So far, it's been a nice day.

Mood: happy

I finished typing The Year After and plan to release it on 14 August. And Reanna isn't anxious. (She had been the closer I got to the end, so I worried that would happen.)

I'd say Terrance's story is over, but it truly isn't. He's part of the phalanx now, and we have to give him headspace maintenance. (That's not a bad thing for us. It keeps our internal problems in check.) He has made pictures and doesn't want them to collect proverbial dust. I guess that's part of having a muse. (Hell, I even have short stories I want to write.)

After headspace maintenance, we can start working on Le Prince and Disney, our new project. Reanna thinks it could be our first novel.

Mood: accomplished

Title: The Murder After
Series: Terrance's Story #1
Genre: mystery, dramadey, psychological fiction
Year self-published: 2024 (through B&N Press)

Copyright status: CC BY-SA 4.0. (Do what you want as long as you give credit and use the same license.)

Blurb: Terrance is one person to a body and lives in Lakewood, Colorado. One morning, he woke up next to a dead body. Now, he wants to know what happened one night because he became a suspect in an investigation. Do you want to know what happened too?

Format: novelette
Page count: 52 (fifty-two)

MPA rating: PG-13
Reasons: some language, violent death (off screen), drama, suicidality

Price: $3.95
Note: This is specifically SL's story.

SL: I should point out that I tried narrating in the British dialect. Our official story is that I was challenging myself. Then, I learned the second person is Terrance's natural perspective, but I was too lazy to change anything. So if I sound like an American trying to sound British, that's why. ~~(Please don't get mad at me for saying "closet" instead of "wardrobe.")~~ [T: I roll my eyes and go with it.]

Title: Carnival (links to Barnes & Noble)
Edition: second
Genre: gothic horror comedy
Year self-published: 2022 (through B&N Press), 2024 (through KDP), 2026 (through B&N Press)

Copyright status: CC BY 4.0 (do whatever you want as long as you credit the original work.)

Blurb: A car explodes while leaving Lakeside Amusement Park. Rebecca is assumed dead. After James and Chaz argue over what happened, they and their friends go there to look for her. Instead of entering Lakeside, our heroes find themselves in Carnival, the park’s Faerie counterpart. It is a backdrop which makes finding Rebecca only one of their worries.

Format: novella
Page count: 76 (seventy-six)

MPA Rating: R (Restricted)
Reasons: profanity, violence, child death, drama, spirit possession, and horror

Price: $4.95

Note: This is the one we portrayed ourselves in. It was like acting in a movie. Chaz, Brian, and Rebecca are the only tulpas in this story that still consider themselves part of the phalanx. The rest chose to live in a place we call The Background to relieve head pressure (a sense of pressure, not actual pressure.)

Midcontinuum Spearmint

Entries

Navigation

About Mint Phalanx

Books We Published

Archiving Websites (Reanna)

13 June 2026 (Reanna)

10 May 2026 (Reanna)

Required Price Change (Reanna)

Pulled from Circulation (SL)

Pulling for Fixing (SL)

Seven Years (Brian)

An Album (F.M.)

B&N is Alive! (Reanna)

A Redo of May (Terrance)

The Theodicy to End Theodicy (Reanna)

The Timeline (Reanna)

Taking Notes (Reanna)

13 September 2025 (Reanna)

9 and 10 July 2025 (Terrance)

The Year After: Profile

Fireworks Day (Reanna)

Completed (SL)

The Murder After: Profile

Carnival: Profile