Thank you, Amandalouise, that makes tons of sense. I'm not sure why I have been getting caught up in the idea that integration is more like an event than a process, but I have been. That's probably why I feel such an urge to nit pick it and segment (?) it... I dunno. It might have something to do with past resistance from some of us about the scary i word... in the past (like right after dx past) the idea of integration seemed like such a slap in the face to individuality and personal rights and so on. I think it was triggery back then and necessary to isolate integration to each of us as an individual, segment it, so as not to spook or offend the majority of us. It's just now occurring to me how very outdated and unnecessary that in the present. Thanks again, your words gave me a new perspective I didn't have before. Very helpful and appreciated.

MavriforceK9r... permanent or temporary? Yes? No? Depends. Heh. I think this kind of stuff is really subjective and going to depend on the individual/s involved. We have one who is like how you mention the temporary fusing up, we have a protector type who has been that way for years. I like to think on that like a transformer. They can be 'little cars' but sometimes they are one big one. I don't know how it goes for other people, but we have have had two integrate into the whole so far and they stayed that way, we have had others that integrated together but not into the whole and we stayed that way to for the most part. There was a few times there was a temporary kind of pull apart for some of us, but that never did stick for us, the pull back I mean, we've pulled back together after a little while and stayed this way. That's just me and mine though and what has happened to us. I tend to take the mindset that anything is possible.

-Avery