in my case, it's not about the others pretending to be me or each other. if things feel off inside, either where an alter is just under the surface so to speak or there with me (i guess also like an internal and not external switch), there is the need to pretend things are ok even though logically no one on the outside looking at me can see any of what is going on inside. it's an attempt for me to try to keep more control and to blend in or something as it all can feel really scary and strange and isn't what i want external people to see because it can make it all a lot worse.

that's just my interpretation on the whole pretending or not aspect of things since mine don't take complete control like other systems, so no one really knows them..though maybe the point of that is so no one does know things are off or they exist. i guess that is for protection of the system to keep things hidden.