Aneurodivergent alterhuman pride flag, for when you feel as if your alterhumanity is in some way affected or influenced by your neurodivergency!
(Original alterhuman symbol created by @kindness-flags; we edited the infinity symbol in to make an ND alterhuman symbol!)
This flag is open for all neurodivergent alterhumans, regardless of one’s belief system (psychological/spiritual/etc)! This is because the ways neurodivergency can affect alterhumanity are expansive and not limited to psychological alterhumans alone. (We’re spiritual and ND!)
What does alterhuman mean?:
(adjective) A personal identity which is beyond the scope of what is traditionally considered ‘being human’, including but not limited to: otherkinity, therianthropy, otherlinking, otherheartedness, etc. Can also include groups such as plural systems, furries, and daemians by self-identification.
(noun) a person with such an identity.
What does neurodivergent mean?:
(adjective) Differing in mental or neurological function from what is considered typical or normal (frequently used with reference to autistic spectrum disorders); not neurotypical.
I personally have no desire to label what does and doesn’t count as neurodivergent oralterhuman, (other than listing some of the most common associations), since both labels are largely based in self-identification! If you personally feel that you fit under these categories, you’re free to use these flags. :)
Color meanings:
We took the red, orange, and yellow from our alterhuman flag and set them in the center, because those colors are also often associated with autism advocacy! (Red for RedInstead, gold because the chemical symbol for gold is Au, and orange because it lies between the two!)
From there, the top colors are a gradient from the initial red to portray the spectrum of neurodivergency, and the bottom greens are a callback to the greens seen in other neurodivergent pride flags, as well as just being calming colors!
Agnogender:An identity in which the user feels connected to a gender and may roughly identify as such, but isn’t sure what that gender is supposed to feel like in the first place, causing a disconnect.
Primarily (but not exclusively) made for nonhumans, and those who have a disconnect from identity.
-Gender can be replaced with any noun, such as agnoman, agnowoman, or agnononbinary. Comes from the word agnosthesia; “the state of not knowing how you really feel about something.”
For system members, this may be considered a subset of extrian. May also be similar to vexlian. It is under the kenochoric umbrella, though not every user has to identify with it.
Ahuman: A form of nonhumanity where an individual does not connect to humanity/being human in any way. Oftentimes they’re uncomfortable with being referred to as or grouped in with humans/humanity as a whole.
The term “antihuman” existed to describe this, however it’s often been mistaken as misanthropy (hating humans/humanity) in some of the spaces I’m in, so a term often used instead is this one!
1. Franz Ferdinand is assassinated. This is widely considered the final straw that kickstarted WWI.
2. J. R. R. Tolkien is drafted. He survives the war but returns home with a lot of trauma.
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is lent a strong degree of emotional realism because Tolkien is able to write from his own experiences. As a result, LotR becomes a cult hit, especially with the youth.
4. As the LotR trilogy reaches ever-higher peaks of popularity, certain people become so deeply enamored with the world of hobbits and elves and orcs that they have a sort of awakening - they begin recognizing themselves as elves (and other nonhuman creatures).
5. In the early 1970s, the Elf Queen’s Daughters is formed. This is the earliest known nonhuman group (which does not mean it’s the foundation of the nonhuman community - several groups later appear independently of the EQD, including AHWw, Alfandra, and Always Believe).
6. As the EQD grows, offshoots and overlapping groups are formed, one of which is the Silver Elves. After talking to the Silver Elves, a person named R'ykandar Korra'ti starts a mailing list in 1990 called the Elfinkind Digest.
7. The Elfinkind Digest attracts nonhumans of all kinds. Soon it becomes hard to talk about the community as a whole, and, instead of saying “elvenkind, orckind, dragonkind, etc.,” a person named Elezar begins using the word “otherkind.”
8. For unknown reasons - perhaps a typo, perhaps for ease of pronunciation, perhaps due to a misunderstanding -, some people begin using the variant spelling ‘otherkin’ and by 1998 it has overtaken the original spelling. Years go by and misconceptions appear. Rather than understanding the word as “a kind other than humankind” people begin to understand it as “kin as in family.”
9. The nonhuman communities remain small and spread out during the era of forums and personal websites, but with the rise of popular social media, and your posts being broadcast to hundreds or thousands or millions of other users, the communities see a sudden and rapid growth.
10. With this rapid growth, there’s no way to teach every newcomer the history of the community. A lot of people are completely unaware that the community even has history. Soon, discussions show up about how “you can’t have kintypes outside your race/ability/sexuality/gender” and “kin just means relating. You know, like family.”
11. At the same time, SJWs and anti-SJWs are waging a war. A subset of anti-SJWs decide to target otherkind and use every tactic to harass, mock, and belittle us. One of these tactics was “making up a slur,” vaguely inspired by the t-slur, according to some. And thus the word 'kinnie’ was born.
12. TikTok becomes the new hot platform. Kids and childish souls flock to it and bring their discourse along for the ride. The words continue to mutate and newcomers continue to be unaware of the history and baggage of certain words. Not knowing it as a rightwing term, they refer to themselves as kinnies. Not knowing the 'other kind than humankind’ origin, they consider 'kin’ to be something you just relate to.
Alterhumanogender: an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is tied to their alterhumanity.
Meant to be more inclusive than just kingender, encompassing heartedgenders and other alterhuman-related genders. Can be also called alteranthrogender and alteranthropogender.
Some identities encompassed by this label still don’t have a name, such those based on copinglink/otherlink or synpath.
[Disclaimer: I think it’s important to put ourselves in other’s shoes, and that some issues are unable to be resolved unless we do so. This post is by not meant as a defense of KFF'ers - only an attempt to interpret their motivations through a neutral lens, and by extension understand why our attempts to appeal to them fall short.]
In my opinion, most KFF'ers aren’t intentionally trying to be toxic, malicious, or destructive. From their perspective, they have their own supportive communities, their “own” language, their own culture - and we are the aggressive outsiders who are telling them that their concepts are invalid and wrong. Within their insular spaces, the construct of “kinning” is completely validated without question. Only outsiders - including both hateful non-kin and us - are subjecting them to negativity and the pressure to change.
Within their own closed communities, they can interpret our attempts however they want. They can view us as gatekeepers, as purists, as overly traditional old people, or as weird buzzkills who think there’s “no fun allowed”, and even KFF'ers who have never talked to us will gladly believe that. It’s the interpretation of us that feels the most validating and most defensive of their own experiences, so it’s inevitably the most appealing. Ultimately, the viewpoints held by their community are supported and reinforced a hundred times over by one another, while our attempts at combatting those viewpoints have been weak by comparison. I mean, why *should* they believe us? Why would they prioritize the opinions of prickly, angry strangers over those of the likeminded people who embrace them?
It doesn’t help that one of our attempts at pushing them away from the word “otherkin” has been presenting them with other words that we invented. Our act of pushing our language onto them inevitably feels invasive and overbearing. Regardless of whether our will is “correct”, we ARE pushing our will onto them in a very overt way. I would also argue that terms like “-hearted” and “-linker” don’t fit their experiences very well, and aren’t universally applicable to their community. Not all KFF’ers will resonate with the “consciously creating an identity” narrative, and the “feeling a deep connection” narrative lacks the nuance associated with their experiences and shared online culture. Regardless of how we mean it, from their perspective we are essentially popping up out of nowhere and saying “Your construct of identity is wrong - why don’t you ditch that constuct, dump your community, and take up our constructs instead!” Language is a symbol that references deeper dynamics, and our attempts undermine more than just words.
By changing their label to “fictionhearted” and turning against KFF terminology, an individual KFF'er would inevitably be distancing themselves from their community, and in some cases even abandoning it to join one of ours. It would likely lose them the approval of other members of their community. By changing their language they risk losing friends and online spaces that really matter to them, just for the sake of sparing the feelings of a few randos online (us, from their perspective!). It’s also worth mentioning that if many KFF'ers adopted “fictionhearted” or “otherhearted” simultaneously, the fictionhearted and otherhearted community would likely be usurped by KFF'ers just as the otherkin community was. Ultimately the word would lose its original meaning and nuance - it would adopt elements and behaviors that aren’t currently common in the hearted community, and I suspect that certain elements of introspection and spirituality would be lost as well. Any word of ours that they adopt won’t fully fit the dynamics of their experiences and community, because it wasn’t made by them OR for them.
The KFF problem is three fold: One, they have been using our terminology for quite a long time and have “made it their own” - at least from their perspective. Their community doesn’t go back decades, but many of these people are teenagers and very young adults. For them, even just 5 or 10 years IS a long time; 40 years ago is their parent’s lame music, while their community’s timescale is a significant portion of their entire life. Metaphorically speaking they’ve lived in a house for 10 years, only for the previous owner to show up and say “we owned it first, so you have to give it back”. Maybe our names ARE on the deed, but that doesn’t mean they’ll say “Oops, sorry” and happily abandon something that they believed was their home.
Two, they clearly outnumber us. The idea of “kinning” has become almost mainstream, and there are a huge number of people who connect with both the construct AND the word “kin” in the way KFF'ers use it. Metaphorically, we’re an army of 100 people facing an army of 10,000. A larger group can grow in numbers exponentially as they create increasingly more online content, and will come across to an uninformed outsider as having more authority by default.
And three, it’s a lot easier for them to spread their ideas than it is for us to spead ours. They can make a cosplay TikTok with the caption “I am SUCH a Komaeda kinnie” or a Tiktok saying “Guess my astrological sign based on my kin list”, and they’ve spread their concepts to a new audience. On the other hand, we have to write long, in-depth historical posts just to combat the ideas they’ve spread easily. Also, while their construct is widely relatable (feeling extremely attached to a fictional character or creature) and their public expression of it often comes across as terribly fun (cosplay, roleplay, colorful wigs, cute makeup), our construct is a very rare experience and our behaviors seem quite frankly boring as hell in comparison (long forum posts, nuance, serious introspection, self analysis, meditation, long historical arguments with sources). This is not me saying that our endeavors are less worthwhile or fulfilling (or that we never have fun); I’m just saying that it’s easier to sell the idea of a party at a theme park than a nonfiction book club at a library.
Ultimately if they’re going to change their vocabulary, someone within their community will have to coin a new term and a lot of well-known KFF people will have to vocally support and adopt it. This unfortunately seems unlikely - as I mentioned at the start of my essay, why would they? Even if a lot of them change their verbiage, some inevitably won’t; and even if EVERY KFF'er changes their label, the idea of “kinnies” will still exist in the public consciousness. They have changed the meaning and connotation of our word in a long term way - many non-kin, including both anti-kin and indifferent internet users, will remember the new “kinnie” connotation. We can never go back to a time when our word’s meaning was solely the way we chose to define it.
So, what the hell do we do? It genuinely pains me to say this, and I’m aware that this spits in the face of our history and the older members of our community who helped build it, but I think we should at least consider choosing a different label. That can involve repurposing “otherkind” or creating a new similar term that follows the “other—” format. I think we’re holding onto something that’s already irreversibly damaged, out of desperation and conviction that we’re in the right. I won’t say we’re NOT right or that we have to give up the term - we can be metaphorical Spartans and say “No retreat. No surrender.” But the more time passes, the more I believe that this is an unwinnable battle. Continuing to fight on principle is honorable, but if we make that choice then we will have to deal with people mistaking us for KFF'ers for a very long time, if not indefinitely or forever. That misunderstanding may be acceptable enough to some, but it’s somewhat unfortunate at the very least.
This is not a decision I can personally make, and definitely not one I WANT to personally make. I’m only throwing these scattered thoughts into the tumblr void in an attempt to contribute to this ongoing conversation. If any of you want to yell about this suggestion, go ahead; I don’t expect it to be popular, and I’ll be glad to hear opposing viewpoints. I just hope that regardless of whether you agree with my conclusion, my reasons and interpretations are at least understandable and a worthy contribution to the debate.
I agree with basically everything you’ve written here, save your suggested solution, which I personally rather strongly disagree with. Your points on the KFFer perspective are pretty much exactly why I’ve never really tried to come up with an alternative - I’m not one of them; it’s not my place and it wouldn’t be accepted anyway. It would have to come from within.
Personally, aside from my personal convictions and admitted territorial streak over emotionally not wanting to abandon the word “otherkin,” here is my main logical counterpoint to your suggested solution: Unless we come up with some actual solution to the source of the problem, I see no reason to believe the problem of people misusing our words won’t simply follow us to whatever new words we create. If we were to come up with some new word, and somehow get everyone to agree to move to it, I strongly suspect that in 5-10 years a new KFF-type movement would arise from misusing that terminology - because the problem of social media making it easier for misinformation to spread combining with out-of-context posts from our community being easily misinterpreted will still be there. I could be wrong, but I see no reason to believe history won’t repeat itself in that scenario (and no real way to avoid that happening).
And that’s if we could get everyone to agree on a single new word, which would be a truly monumental if not impossible task - I’m not sure the community wouldn’t just shatter entirely if we tried, honestly, which makes a pretty strong secondary counterpoint in my opinion. People have tried before - the term “otherborn” comes to mind, but there have been others - and failed. Creating a word for a phenomenon where a word doesn’t exist is one thing; creating a word where there’s a pre-existing term and then trying to convince people to move to the new term is an entirely different beast (if you’ll pardon the expression). I don’t think it’s possible, even if I believed it were the best solution, which I don’t.
That being said… I don’t honestly have a better solution either, aside from simply waiting for the trend to die down (as the vast majority of Internet trends do), correcting individuals who are willing to listen wherever we can, and promoting good information (including the historical sources to prove that what we’re saying is the truth) as publicly as possible. The latter two of which I’ll admit are proving less effective than I’d like, and the first of which is a waiting game that could last years or longer (and, as you say, may not have an end after all - though most die, there is the occasional trend that sticks seemingly forever).
…Which is not a particularly encouraging way to end this, ha. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong and yours is the best solution (and a possible one after all) - I’m not completely closed to the idea, though at the moment I’m fairly strongly opposed to it. Gods know we need people’s opinions on potential solutions to this, because I for one have very little in the way of ideas.
I have a solution, but it’s a very unflattering one for the community. If everyone was more open about their kinity (the good and bad parts) and produced otherkin-esque, relatable content that could easily be digested by mainstream humans. Not just good identity 101 stuff, but all sorts of minor and major content. Weird content, cringy content, cutesy content, short content, mature content, etc. Interacting more with the public, being more open about what kinity is, talking about how it affects your interactions with others, your views on life, etc. The community has historically been very afraid of being open about otherkinity in all its forms and what they experience, but if everything is kept under the lock and key of forums and other community members you’re ultimately doomed to be usurped by another group.
Of course this is easier said than done, especially since this is an identity phenomenon, some otherkin have urges and wants that aren’t really acceptable by outsiders to the community and some people outside the community have expressed their urges to harm various ‘kin, but if enough people were expressing their kinity they might be able to drown out the KFFers. So if people were making cutesy, trendy content that got a lot of support and attention from kin and non-kin alike it might help. It might look cringy and ridiculous to some, but it would definitely get across the seriousness and everydayness of these experiences for a lot of people. (Of course, community members would need to support each other and not fight needlessly over these displays of identity…) It might also split the KFFers from otherkin and fictionkin further, because neither side would want to associate with each other if all they see is content they can’t relate to.
I disagree with the claim that kinnies wouldn’t accept other terminology given to them, however. Part of the reason why kinnies latched onto the “otherkin” term might have to do with “accessibility”, in a sense. We all know what it means to be “kin” with something in a general colloquial sense, and if you’re “kinning” you’re relating to something really hard. Really accessible meaning there, and really easy to grasp. It’s also quite cutesy, which seems to be a big thing for some of them. I’ve seen a lot of community replacements but they all lack this accessibility, or the ability to be shortened which is something I think a lot of kinnies would need to accept any external community term into their vocabulary. “Constelic” has been passed around but it wouldn’t work as a replacement because it’s very obscure and you can’t really shorten it properly, unless you want to say you’re “conning” someone, haha. Additionally, kinning can mean anything from “relating to a character for fun” all the way to “this is me on a deep level”, and while “alterhuman” could encompass those things, again it’s hard to say you’re “alting” or make it as cutesy as “kinning” is.
That’s not a bad thing (you definitely don’t want people distorting the community further) but itis a potential reason why they’re not taking well to any outside terminology, in addition to viewing community members as aggressive and pushy. In order to propagate a new term into their community ideally someone who is otherkin and a kinnie would need to introduce it, and it would need to be cutesy and easily understood by mainstream society. I definitely think they would take to it since they took to “kin” well despite it not even being their word, but it’d need to have the kind of importance that they place on those words.
A lot of them don’t feel their experiences are as deep as those in the alterhuman community and many of them do have friends there, so they would not integrate well in the alterhuman community, as noted above. Leaving them in what we currently call the “kinnie” community but just with their own community terms would be best.
And I think the after-effects would be similar to other community trends in the past. (Sorry to bring this up, but this is the only other community term theft incident we recall and it’s relevant here) way back ten or so years the therian community was overrun with people claiming to physically shift, and we know many younger community members were taught that therian and otherkin meant p-shifting by others who were taught that misinformation. When real therians and otherkin started sharing more of their information and making it more accessible eventually some of the more level-headed members started to accept the terms as their real meanings drifted by the community. As the trend died off and the therian and otherkin communities expanded, now the remaining “p-shifting kin” had to worry about being confused for otherkin and therians, and they finally adopted different terms. Hence why you don’t really see large droves of therians claiming to physically shift anymore. There’s still going to be that stubborn person here and there who identifies themselves as a therian and claims a physical transformation, and there’s still going to be a human who thinks that all otherkin can transform, but it’ll be largely forgotten or corrected with time.
Similarly, there’s still going to be that person who remembers what kinnies were, and there’s still going to be that person who identifies as a kinnie, but they’ll change eventually if they don’t want to risk being confused with a group of people they’ve dismissed and disregarded in the past. It won’t be immediate, but it will happen if kin voices can drown out their voices.
I think this is an interesting idea - I really like it! I’ve been using TikTok a lot recently (lurking, not posting) and I’ve noticed that there are thousands if not millions of mainstream “kinnie” videos, but almost no otherkin or therian videos. The only therian (who actually makes therian content) that I’ve seen have a decent sized following is a young teenager that makes quadrobics videos. When I see them I don’t think “eww, cringe”, I think “Finally, someone representing our community!” Of course that’s a lot of pressure to put on one teenager - but if we were more willing to put ourselves out there, maybe we could take on that role as a larger group.
I feel like our community has always been “hiding”, in a sense. In the early days closed well-moderated forums kept trolls out, which was essential to our sense of safety and security. But in today’s social media oriented world, online visibility is important. Old timey forums aren’t where young people think to go when they’re seeking community and validation, and having many of our resources behind login walls doesn’t help. Even on here we seem to keep to ourselves a bit, but it’s at least a step up from forums when it comes to access.
I’ll admit that my own content isn’t very accessible to non-therians and non-otherkin - I do what I do best, which is writing inordinately long pseudo-intellectual posts that only make sense with a ton of pre-existing context. And I think (and hope) there’s purpose in that. But that doesn’t have to be ALL our community is, and I think we limit ourselves when we act like such “serious” content is the only “valid” type of posts to make. I imagine there are people who lurk rather than posting because they don’t feel qualified to write essays, just as I don’t feel comfortable dressing up cutely and posing in front of a camera. I think there’s room for all kinds of content in the community, for the sake of public visibility and also just for Us.
Anyway, I’m rambling. I do think your idea could increase public awareness - the big challenge would be telling gatekeepers to f* off. We should be doing that anyway of course; I just think that making “cringe” content is a surefire way to draw particularly snobby otherkin out of the woodworks. Those of us who don’t want to make the type of content we’re discussing should at least be willing to stand up for those who do and call out elitism when they see it. In an ideal world I’d love to see more otherkin and therians on apps like TikTok, where The Youth™ hang out. Seeing more visual content in general would be nice as well, given that most of our stuff is written! I have no idea how to encourage people to do this on a massive scale, but I definitely think the idea is a good one!
(Your mention of p-shifting history was helpful as well - I don’t have anything to add since I wasn’t there at the time and have limited knowledge, but I did find it informative and relevant.)
On the topic of specific terminology, my main worry is that we as outsiders may not be fully qualified to create a term that resonates with their experiences - not as qualified as they would be themselves, at least. The point about cuteness and “accessibility” is a good place to start though! I myself tend towards labels that have familiar root words, so I can definitely understand that. It’s interesting that “kin” provided familiarity and understandability, given that it originally came from a reduction of “-kind” and not kin/family at all! (Or so I’ve heard.) I agree that the word would have to be shorten-able; the linguistic structure of “kin” is really appealing, since it’s short, a natural umbrella that covers both “fictionkin” and “otherkin”, and can be pretty easily modified ie. “kinning” and “kinnie”. It seems like the word “kin” is perfect for them on so many levels (aside from you know, originally being ours), so a replacement term would have to be pretty dxmn good.
Anyway, thank you for your reblog! I appreciate getting responses to my posts, especially helpful and constructive ones! I hope this isn’t too scrambled - I have limited energy for editing right now so I’m posting whatever comes to mind and hoping it makes sense.
I don’t have any proof for it but I feel it’s kind of an alterhuman thing to find comfort in things that are often considered scary/disturbing. I feel at ease in dark, cramped spaces, and being out at night when it’s so dark you can barely see anything. There are depictions of body horror that look somehow right, because being a shapeless polymorph makes me drawn to creatures looking like shapeless mass of something. I’m drawn to so many things that should reasonably not be attractive in any way and so much of it is because I’m not a regular base human
So, I have recently come to conclude that Soul Eater is not a synpath, as I previously thought, but rather a kintype. I’ve never been good at essays centering on self reflection, trying to puts feelings into words is just bleh, but I’m gonna try as I wanted to talk about how my relationship with this character has evolved.
Starting from the very beginning, my journey with the Soul Eater series started a decade ago. I discovered the anime while on a forum. Not through discussion of it, but rather because a person had a Soul Eater AMV embedded in their signature and the thumbnail caught my eye. I watched it and got pretty intrigued. I immediately decided to watch the anime. At the time I loved it, but also never considered it a favorite. The horror elements were great and the characters likeable, however there were also some parts that I didn’t go crazy for.
I can’t in good faith make big considerations on my feeling at the time. It’s been a long time and I worry confirmation bias may influence my memories. I can say I didn’t start seeing Soul as myself, but I also knew nothing of fictionkinity at the time. Besides, I was in middle school and majorly confused about everything, so I’ll forgive myself for not catching on to anything.
I started connecting the Soul Eater series and alterhumanity some… two or three years ago? Rather than the characters, it was the setting that struck me. I had learnt of the concept of hearthome, and it hit me almost out of nowhere that Death City fit the bill. Not going to get into too much detail about that since it’s not the focus of this essay, but Death City is like the perfect mixture of many different things that make me feel at ease, or that I long for. It was a bit of a perplexing moment for me. I hadn’t given much thought to the series for a few years at that point, so it surprised me that I’d connect so intensely with the setting. Yet it just worked.
Later on, I came to the conclusion that the two main characters, Soul Eater and Maka Albarn, were my synpaths. I realized this after doing a read of the manga - which from an objective analysis I find better structured than the anime, but on a more emotional standpoint the manga comes second for me. I felt connected, that was the only way for me to describe it. Maka felt like an old friend. I had a few brief “shifts” too, where I almost felt like her, but they have always been rare and last no more than a couple hours.
Soul… well. I have Soul shifts too, but they’ve always been far more common and lasted longer. Maka “fades” as soon as I’m out of shift, but Soul tends to linger longer. While Maka has that definite “friend” feel, Soul was somewhat different. Like I cared about him, but I never cared cared? Here we go with my inability to describe emotions. There was a strong connection, but while Maka is in some ways akin to a comfort character, someone that makes me feel nice when I think about her, Soul never had the same effect. Which makes sense if I look at Soul as a kintype rather than a synpath. You can’t be your own comfort character, can you?
I think one reason I considered Soul a synpath for long before moving him to kintype status - and I did think about it even before the latest round of questioning - is that I always found character specific fictionkinity hard to conceptualize. I understand having a fictional species kintype well enough, but figuring out how can one be a charactergave me more trouble. I accepted it, because understanding shouldn’t be a requisite for respect, but it confused me. To be honest, it confuses me even now that I conceded I may be fictionkin myself.
On a surface level, I suppose I have some personality traits that align well with Soul, but that is hardly the core of it. I wish I could live in my hearthome. I wish I could meet Maka, or also Chrona. I want to have pointy teeth so badly. I have a handful of noemata about my canon (and, uh, it feels super weird to talk about this in these ways). There’s just something that says that being Soul is right. It feels right to call myself Soul. There’s differences between us just as much as there are similarities, but that doesn’t change the fact that I feel like him, even when I consider the things that straight up contradict who I am otherwise.
Another thing that left me on the fence, is that I don’t always 100% feel like him. I’ve seen people say at times that kintypes aren’t always the same intensity, that they tend to fade during some periods and be stronger during others, so I tried to examine my feelings under those lenses. At times I feel like I’m Soul, and at times I feel like I’m almost him, like I should be but I’m not. That feelings is more similar to how having a synpath or heart-type is, so I had to think about them. I think now that a better way to describe those moments is thinking “I am Soul, but I’m not Soul, because my life is different, but we’re two versions of a same person”. Like I’m AU Soul, basically.
And that’s where I’m at. I may write more as I think more on this. One thing I’ve been thinking about is origin theories. For my polymorph kintype, I don’t care about origins, because the fact that I’m like this now matters a lot more than why I am like this. On the other hand, I feel that if I’m fictionkin I want to know why. I’m someone who usually doesn’t even relate to characters, this level of self identification is really out of the ordinary for me, and it confuses me.
Something I realized like a few hours ago: alterhuman stuff can in fact make you feel more connected with your body.
I’m not super connected to my body on most days. I don’t have negative feelings towards it, but it’s pretty neutral. It doesn’t match my internal sense of self, and I don’t outright suffer from this, but it’s also not how I see myself.
Now, I have this synpath, Maka, that looks somewhat similar to how I do. Not identical (also because she’s from an anime so she isn’t drawn very realistically) but we have some points in common. Earlier I was looking in the mirror and it occurred to me, and surprisingly thinking that I look like her made me feel more grounded in my body for a moment.
I don’t have any big essay to go with this just thought it was neat.
So I was reading the transcript of @aestherians Othercon panel, which I found very well thought and thorough, but it kind of sparked a thought from my own experiences with ‘linking, which I thought I’d put in a separate post since I don’t want to clutter that one with vaguely related comments.
I find myself wondering if my approach to otherlinking is fundamentally different from other linkers, in that for me, involuntarity is the whole goal. A lot of the talk relating choice mentions people who started out with a lintype, and then it went out of their control and became involuntary, and so they now relate more to otherkin than otherlink. But personally, when I hear “this voluntary identity became involuntary” my instinctive reaction is that, uh, wasn’t that the point? I’m sure there’s a lot of linkers who came to this intending to make a voluntary identity they can easily drop if no longer needed, but personally I will only consider myself successful in this otherlinking stuff when I will stop having to reinforce my identity every five minutes and have it turn into something that’s just there.
(This may I feel be connected to how copinglinking is the most common form of linking, and a coping mechanism is usually something that one should be able to drop if it no longer works or is no longer useful. Creating a link for reasons other than coping is more rarely talked about, and the people who don’t link for coping may have different goals)
To put it bluntly, being otherkin is easy for me. I got this identity, it’s there, I didn’t have to work for it. But otherlinking is a lot effort. I’m someone who has a very hard time changing myself. I can’t pick habits or drop bad ones, I’m horrible at sticking to schedules, working on personality traits I want to change is hell. If I ever do manage to create an involuntary identity for myself, that’s something I’ll want to celebrate. Changing the way I identify from otherlinker to otherkin would feel like discarding all that effort. It’d be like invalidating myself, in a way.
Nothing against people who one day decide otherkin may be a better label for them, of course. Everyone has their own ways to interpret their identities and the right to use whatever language fits them better. I just find myself sort of on the fringe of this discussion and I don’t understand if I’m the only one here with different priorities.
First of all, I am now questioning badgers / mustelidae cladotherian.
Second, and most importantly, I am changing up what I’m posting on this tumblr. I will be posting more video game related stuff, mainly Petz Catz 2, Petz Dogz 2, and THE DOG Island.
Hello therians, otherkin, curious humans, and everything inbetween! I wish you all the best 2021 and if you celebrate a holiday, I hope it is great! I got a lot of gear for Christmas and I’m happy! Shirts, paws, tails, masks, even stuffed animals! Stay safe and have fun with your December too!
Beings use the word “kinning” a lot and it kind of bothers me, and a lot of other otherkin and therians. Kin isn’t something you do, it’s what you are, you can’t choose it. In my opinion, “kinning” should be dropped and you should use these terms instead, as these have been accepted more widely and make much more sense than “kinnie” and other childish, unnecessarily quirky terms. There are three other words that sound much better!
|| SYNPATH || A being that an individual can relate to, but not identify AS. The relation can be for several reasons, such as sharing characteristics with a being or a concept that resonates with you. “My synpath is a wolf” is an example.
|| KITH || ANIMAL - HEARTED || OTHER - HEARTED || A being who has a strong connection with another being, but not quite identifying as it. They may experience shifts with their kithtype. “I am wolf-hearted” is an example.
|| COPINGLINK || A being who CHOOSES to identify AS a non-human being for fun or for a coping mechanism. This can be seen as a hobby or simply liking a different identity. Note it is still different than otherkin and therians as you CHOOSE to have a copinglink. “I have a wolf copinglink” is an example.
Some red flags I’ve seen when reading posts here on Tumblr have been really common. Some posts are rather suspicious. I’m not saying all of these beings are bad or fake, but there’s a higher chance for these types of beings to be kinnies and not actual otherkin. I don’t know someone elses identity and I don’t claim to either. These are just some common misrepresentations I’ve seen flying around everywhere…
1. Kinning, kins, and being a kinnie for fun. Otherkin and therian isn’t a choice. It is not a trend, a fashion style, a fetish, or any of that nonsense. Not petplay, not pet regression… oh hunny no. It’s an identity, not a hobby. It is not a coping mechanism either, same thing as having fun or escaping reality. Otherkin is reality. You might want to look into the “furry fandom” or other fandoms if you think it is for fun.
2. Choosing a kintype / theriotype. This is simply not possible. Just because you think lions are badass or raccoons are cute and quirky, doesn’t mean you get to pick it yourself and pretend to be one. It is an identity, not a choice.
3. Kintype / theriotype appearance and separate beings. There is a difference between “this is my theriotype” and “Oh this pic looks like me.” You don’t get to customize what your theriotype looks like. Sorry, but no, you aren’t a pure white wolf fox cat hybrid with four wings and neon blue eyes with magical powers named Luna. Kintype don’t have names. It is you! You can have a nickname like anyone else, but not your kintype. Your kintype is a general species, not an individual who’s separate from yourself!!
Oh goodness, I’ve gotten carried away ranting but these are some of the biggest things that bother me. There’s many more things that are misrepresentitive, like “kin is just quadrobics” or “I’m an angry animal who wants to kill every human ever” or “kin is just extreme furries” which is all false for many reasons… but that’s for another day. Let me rest before I handle those ones next.
It seemed like time hasn’t elapsed as fast as it has.
My fur was perfectly sun-kissed, my paws gripped the warm earthy soil, gardens were abundant with herbs and florage, and a dash of cool rain here and there to let the world continue to grow. Summer, they call it, a season of sunshine, fun, and relaxation. I liked the summer. I have fond memories as many dogs that took place in this summer time.
Another season, they call autumn, or even fall, has just passed up. Flew by, it did, like how the thick green leaves turned into fruitless crunchies which fly to the roots of the picturesque, soon bare and dreary trees. The lands are wind-blown dry, and mounds of richly coloured, windless leaves covered the dry grass, perfect for pouncing into and letting those leaves fly back up into the crisp cool air for one last time. Autumn is nice, but to me, it disappears too fast. It becomes gloomy too soon.
The sweet, sad trees with no leaves sway back and forth in the frigid gusts of wind. Some trees are still vividly jungle-like, and they keep their needle-like pine leaves all year, forever. These trees somehow make their way into the human dens, houses, and they decorate them. It becomes unnaturally bright, each human has their own ideas each year for what they want to make it look like. Large or small rounded orbs that look like tennis balls, long wrapping fuzzies that sparkle and shine, and varying presents that nest themselves beneath the tree.
Outside, however, became white, and unusually severe. Even though it is unfamiliar and bitter, it’s still as fun as summer was! This is called winter, and it is where the snow comes by. Blissful sunshiny speckles of frost fall down from the wet clouds and form mountains of plush snow. It is refreshing and fun, and exciting to play in. I like winter too, and I am glad it is coming here!
As a canine cladotherian, I identify as a ton of canines, including extinct species. That means there’s lots of possibilities for my shifts. Sometimes I have puffy fur, long fur, short fur, curly fur, or even little to no fur. Since I can’t exactly feel and touch my fur, as real as it feels like it is there, I like to buy stuffed animals with different fur textures so I don’t feel alone.
In my spare time I find dogself watching all kinds of canine related videos.
From canines eating fancy foods, to going on walks though parks, to unboxing toys and different knick knacks made for us… there’s plenty of videos of us doing things, and even getting groomed and pampered!
Whenever I enter pet-stores I can’t help dogself from messing with everything in the dog section, I always squeak the toys and check out the treats. I may even find dogself trying on and buying dogself a collar from time to time.
Anyways, I just wanted to say, us dogs really appreciate all you humans do for us. Improving our food ingredients… creating new toys by the minute… and going as far as creating us outfits and beds that are oh so nice!
Hello, I am Fedha, and I am a canine cladotherian! I am new here and many people have recommended this platform to me to just be dogself! I hope to have a good time here on Tumblr and I look forward to posting often! - Fedha
the most anti-respectability politics thing u can do as an otherkin person - because otherkin folks have a lot of discourse about it - is literally just. sounds corny but like. be urself. whether or not you fit into otherkin stereotypes literally doesnt matter. if you’re being authentic you’re being anti-respectability politics
i dont have supernumerary phantom limbs. i dont take my identity overly-seriously. i havent been The Same Animal since before i was born, i’m not nonhuman because of common causes either. hell i barely even like my true species as an animal.
but i also identify as a dog 100%, so much so that i’m transspecies. i don’t like being called human. i’m a canine. i change parts of my life where i can to connect more with my true species. being a dog affects every single aspect of my life. oh, and i think furries are great too
it literally doesn’t matter. if you’re a spiritual wolf who wholly identifies as nonhuman and has extreme species dysphoria, who wouldn’t dare to even be slightly un-serious about their identity; cool. you are doing the right thing. if you’re a person who only partially identifies as nonhuman, your true species is a type of algae, you have no dysphoria whatsoever & your entire sense of humor revoles around being algae? thats also cool. the thing about respectability politics is, to outsiders, both of these people are unpalatable and bad. where our wolf friend may find total social rejection from humans, our algae friend would be told “you’re one of the good ones,” which is arguably just as isolating. being anti-respectability politics has to be all of us or none of us
Is it weird for a non-wolf to kind of wish they could be in a pack? It looks like such a fun little Therian Culture thing that I’m missing out on. Maybe it’s the Harris’s hawk in me that wants it. Or maybe it’s the raven in me that just wants to hang out with wolves.
Even if you believe your memories to have never happened, they’re still real to you. They matter and they’re important, and they’re no “less” important than past-life memories. If you have exomemories you believe happened, those are also important and real. ALL types of memories are completely valid.
(We’re going to edit this post with some resources added to it at a later date.)
About Us:
Hey, we’re the Interstellar System! We’re a quoigenic system of 150+ members. We collectively use they/them pronouns and we’re bodily an adult.
This blog was created to spread positivity to all branches of the alterhuman community. If you have any positivity ideas or requests, let us know! Our ask box is open for basically anything, except hate, which willbe deleted.
A Quick Terminology List:
Alterhuman: Having an identity that is not strictly human, doesn’t fit the normative human identity or a person that identifies as such.
Therian: A person who involuntarily identifies as an earthly animal (dog, cat, etc).
Otherkin: A person who involuntarily identifies as nonhuman.
Fictionkin: A person who involuntarily identifies as a fictional entity.
Otherlinker: A person who voluntarily identifies as nonhuman.
Otherhearted: A person who strongly identifies with something nonhuman.
System/Plural: Multiple people in a body.
Starseed: Someone who believes they’re from another planet/dimension/universe, usually here to help humanity.
Godshard: Someone who believes they’re a smaller, independent part or shard of a still extant god.
There’s definitely more terms than this, and if you’d like us to add more, let us know! If you’d like to see a more in-depth list of terms, check out our alterhuman carrd!
If you’d like to learn more about us and our individual members, take a look at our system website!
If your alterhuman identity is noncanon or an OC, that’s awesome! Just because you’re not canon doesn’t mean that you’re not real. Your experiences are real.
If your system can’t switch or switches rarely, that’s perfectly fine. You’re not broken or fake, being semi permanently or even permanently frontstuck is a common experience.
