Hello, call me Orb or Archivist. I’ve id’ed as some kind of alterhuman since 2015. I’m white, mid 20s and live in the UK. My original posts are tagged Statements. I make zines sometimes.
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I am vaguely nonhuman — think ‘biblically accurate’ angel for flavour. This ties into being the Archivist (The Magnus Archives). I am also a feline cladotherian, Sam Winchester (Supernatural) fictionkin and experience fictionflickers. Plural.
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Moth border used here is from this post.
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I block liberally because tumblr doesn’t have a mute feature. It's probably nothing personal.
"When I was new the community was good and cool but now it's toxic and bad because of all these new people!"
You have been part of a community long enough to make your mistakes, learn and gain the ability to recognise misinfo and toxic behaviour. Now you're seeing new people come in and make those same mistakes so they can learn and gain the same ability.
Nothing is ruined. This is the cycle that happens when a wave of new people enter a subculture. This is the mark of a healthy ecosystem.
Because of how I see a lot of beings in this community talk and behave, I want to give ya'll a gentle reminder.
You do not have to fit your alterhuman experiences into a specific label. Its okay if you aren't therian, otherkin, otherhearted, or anything else specifically.
My alterhuman identity doesnt fall into any of the community's labels. A lot of my experiences are different from those of many in the community. Calling myself something specific doesn't fit me, and thats okay. It was so freeing for me to stop trying to fit myself into one specific label, or act a certain way to fit into the community.
Its okay to just call yourself alterhuman or whatever and move on. Its okay if your experiences are different from others in the community. It doesnt mean you're faking, or not alterhuman enough, or anything like that. And if others try to tell you those things, block them and move on. They're not the kind of being you want to be around anyways.
I've got to admit, it's really strange not being the youngest in the room anymore.
I grew up in the therian community, it's been a part of my life for over a decade, since I was in my early teens. I have so many memories of being young and isolated and wondering where all the therian adults were barring the like... 2 I knew on instagram. I remember feeling like I had to fight to be heard and taken seriously by older peers in my late teens, especially here and in the therian amino trenches (iykyk).
I’ve been at a few different meets recently where I wasn’t the only adult, but I was the oldest person there. Something about being in person made it really sink in for me. There were kids half my age at these events, and their entire experience of therianthropy, what the community was, is so different to mine when I was their age.
None of this is a bad thing, just a strange feeling to come to terms with. As a wise man once said, the years start coming and they don’t stop coming.
Inky Paws is a nonhuman anthology zine for original fiction writings by nonhumans and alterhumans about nonhumanity, alterhumanity, and similar, related themes.
This zine is primarily literature focused, but will also be open to more illustrative methods of story-telling such as comics. The zine’s focus is on fictional pieces that are centered around nonhumanity, alterhumanity, therianthropy, and similar (see Submission Guidelines section for more details).
And more! If you're unsure, just ask! Seriously, please just ask. I promise I would 10000% love to hear about your idea even if you're unsure about submitting it, there is no such thing as a bad idea and I cannot stress this enough.
How to participate:
You can submit your pieces in this Google Form!
OR
Email invisibleotherkin(@)gmail(.)com with your submission, and please title the email "Inky Paws Zine #4 Submission". With your submission, please include:
The piece's title or name,
A name or pen name to attribute the piece to,
Any content warnings that you feel are necessary for the piece,
Any social media handle or personal website you’d like to be published alongside your name with the piece (optional), and
Any relevant author notes or author biographical information (optional).
Anonymous pieces are also welcome.
Once submissions have been collected and the deadline has passed, these submissions will be put into the zine and it will be posted online as a free PDF. Submissions are due by November 30th, 2026.
Please see the Submission Guidelines, and Submission FAQ, below cut.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Each individual may contribute up to 3 accepted submissions to be published in Inky Paws; individuals within systems may each submit 3 pieces, that is to say 3 pieces per systemmate/headmate/preferred term.
Comics and similar multi-part pieces count as one submission altogether: if you submit a single story that has been divided into two sub-stories for dramatic emphasis, or if you submit 10 pages of a single-story comic, or if you submit a written piece of fiction and an accompanying image that you drew or otherwise created to go along with it, that would still only count as one piece.
Submissions must fit the thematic criteria of:
Being explicitly about or based on nonhumans, otherkin, therianthropes, fictionkin, alterhumans, or similar groups, or;
Having strong themes or describing experiences strongly reminiscent of or related to nonhumans, otherkin, therianthropes, fictionkin, alterhumans, or similar such as (but not limited to):
Characters experiencing nonhumanity or alterhumanity as being a part of themselves/their identity,
Characters experiencing anything similar to a shift (including physical shifting),
Characters struggling with (emotionally, socially, or otherwise) being both human and nonhuman or alterhuman in some way,
Characters having a past-life as something nonhuman or alterhuman that strongly still impacts their current life, or
Characters desiring to be nonhuman or have nonhuman attributes.
TL;DR - Your submissions have to relate to or be about alterhumans or nonhumans in some way, shape, or form.
Written submissions must not exceed 7500 words, and must also use a reader-friendly font with a text size of or exceeding 16 pt.
For stories that use multiple different fonts, such as pieces meant to imitate newspapers and similar, every effort will be made to preserve the general "feel" of your piece but fonts may not be transferred over 1:1 due to potential conflicts with font copyright, readability, and overarching zine style.
Multi-part image submissions must not exceed 10 pages in length, and must also use a reader-friendly font with a text size of or exceeding 16 pt if they include text. Images larger than 8.5 x 11in. will be scaled down to an appropriate size; please take that into account when creating and submitting your images. It is also recommended that images be vertical or square in their orientation.
Written submissions should be submitted as a .docx file. Images and mixed media pieces should be submitted as either .jpg or .png files.
All submitted pieces should be your own work. Individuals caught plagiarizing or using AI within their submissions will be barred from participating in Inky Paws, including in any potential future volumes.
SUBMISSION FAQ:
Q: Where will this zine be hosted?
A: The zine will be hosted for free download on Itch.io, where issues 1, 2, and 3 of the zine are already hosted.
Q: What is the cap on submissions?
A: At this time, we are not looking to accept more than roughly 25 submissions at most, in order to keep numbers and expectations manageable.
Q: Can I update my application after submitting?
A: Yes, so long as the updates are submitted before the submission deadline!
Q: What is your policy on content moderation and content warnings?
A: If you feel your piece needs content warnings, please include them in the submission, as we are hoping to include relevant content warnings and maturity ratings alongside all pieces. We are at this time accepting pieces of all tones and ratings.
With that said, It should be noted that any items submitted with soapboxing intent and anti-nonhuman, anti-alterhuman, anti-fictionkin, or similar leans are largely not welcome, as this is a zine geared towards all aforementioned groups and then some.
Q: Can I submit an in-progress draft or sketch? Can I claim a spot in the zine before sending in my submission?
A: We are not currently accepting WIP pieces for submission at this time, though feel free to send us your WIP if you have questions related to its future submission. We also cannot reserve or guarantee a spot in the zine pre-submission, regardless of any existing drafts or WIPs.
Q: Can I submit a piece of fanfiction?
A: While we've now accepted pieces of fanfiction in the past, we tend to prefer to leave them out for legal reasons. If you submit a piece of obvious fanfiction, please know that it may be significantly more likely to be rejected from the zine and that, if the piece is accepted, the piece may be removed without warning from the zine later on if DMCA or legal issues arise. We strongly advise that individuals who wish to write something inspired by fiction make it non-obvious to the outside reader where the inspiration is being taken from.
Q: Can I submit something I've created in the past?
A: You can submit something you've created in the past, but please try to avoid submitting anything that you've published previously and is currently publicly accessible. For example, if the story you want to submit has already been featured in a different anthology, please don't submit it to Inky Paws! We want to encourage people to create new pieces, or to put the spotlight on pieces that haven't previously had the opportunity to be published.
Q: What is the projected timeline for this project?
A: Submissions will close by November 30th of 2026. The publish date of the zine depends on submission amount and size of submissions; in an ideal world, we hope to have the zine published by December, before year's end.
Q: Can I rescind my submission?
A: As long as you request to rescind your submission before the submission deadline, yes. After the deadline passes and the formatting and work towards publishing begins, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to remove your work from the zine due to time constraints and potential formatting issues. Please take this into account before submitting.
Q: Will there be any physical copies of this zine?
A: Due to cost restraints and a lack of printing experience on the part of the zine organizers, we have no physical copies of this zine planned for print. You are, however, welcome to download and print copies of the zine for personal use.
Q: Who are the organizers of this zine? Where can I reach out to ask further questions?
A: Who-is-Page and Noel Sol of the Sol System are organizing this zine. Feel free to send us any questions, comments, or concerns to invisibleotherkin(@)gmail(.)com, or you can always message us on Tumblr at Who-is-Page.
not all of us can live in fantasy 100% the time like i see some people on here do and it's refreshing to learn something new. its been philosophy, essays, and history for me and i feel much more at home on planet Earth for it knowing that people have been struggling and wishing similarly for millenia.
its not that fiction doesnt have its place, its important and healthy to exercise the imagination, but non-fiction can do so much to boost and supplement that. if not for yourself, for your art or for the people you're around
every time I see someone who's like "im too old to be fictionfolk why haven't I aged out of this yet it's been years... it's for kids......." im like. this is why I need to be fictional even louder
im 27 ive identified as fictional since I was around 15 !!! and it hasn't died off. in fact it interacts with my life in so many ways as an adult!!!!! i hate calling myself "older fictionfolk" but when people younger than me talk about aging out of their personal identity im like. no you don't have to!!!!!!!!!!!!! you can be you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i need to get louder and even more fictional. you can be a grown ass adult and fictionfolk it's awesome narancia jojo with 3 college degrees
It’s suck to see because while yes, things can change over time in life, no one’s destined to grow out of an experience. That happens when you feel like it’s no longer a part of who you are, not “eventually” as you age. Exploring your identity doesn’t begin and end at adolescence. It is gradual, and it looks different for everybody. Regardless of how it turns out, the insight you gain from those experiences matters.
Typically, there’s more insistence on framing experiences as “phases” than allowing those experiences to simply be. The only guaranteed result in that is amplifying social expectations, or at least concerns around said expectations. In some cases, it also leads to people being shamed into feeling like there’s something wrong with how they’re living their lives when, usually, it’s something completely harmless.
It’s a little different in my case since I came into my alterhumanity as a young adult. I semi-knew what otherkin and fictionkin meant as a pre-teen, but 1. I decided against joining either community out of fear of judgment and 2. my understanding of fictionkin (or “kinning” as it’s known in fandom spaces) wasn’t the same as it is now. Fast forward some years, a mutual I had on Twitter was openly otherkin. I found my way back to these communities through this person. When I learned I’m a gold dragon, I was twenty-one and navigating undergrad. I’m 24. I graduated with a bachelor of arts degree to show for it. My fictionhood hasn’t left me. It’s changed but it remains as an integral part of who I am. If anything, it’s expanded into margins I’ve never considered before and given me new ways to explore my relationship with this world.
I liken my fictionhood to that of an extraterrestrial because I feel like I belong in realms and dimensions outside of this one. It’s also because I world-hop regularly, usually with my dæmon and a cybernetic ecosystem— the latter of which also originates from fiction. I embody the trope of a fourth wall-breaking fictional character, and that experience informs the connection I feel towards fictional worlds. It is a type of intimacy that’s hard to explain in communal terms, because it ties into both my visits to these worlds and my self-perception. I consider myself culturally Light Flight, despite not belonging to any draconic species from Sornieth. I also have my fictionhood to thank for furthering my understanding of gender as a xenogender person, such as distinctly gendered fictomeres— like Umamusume (vaguetype) and Sayo Yasuda (fictotype)— and fictomeres where gender is irrelevant— like Verza (fictionlink).
I have faith that I will continue to be fictionfolk next year when I turn 25. Then, I will continue to be fictionfolk the year after that when I’m 26. I hope to be fictionfolk in my 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. Considering the amount of people I’ve seen in these age groups among otherkind and therianthropes, I hope I’ll find myself in that exact position years down the line.
I’m an adult. I’m also a fictional shapeshifter. I can proudly say that as The Winged Lion— and so much more — I am an otaku who loves collecting literature, regularly loops the music of pinkpantheress and f5ve, dreams of earning my masters degree and working in a library, helped run a student magazine in undergrad and would love to attend ren faires and dyke marches once I’m fully independent. All of these things I do/did/want to do as an adult are also things I have in mind while fictionfolk.
There is no biological clock on your personal experiences, and that includes fictionhood.
For the folks curious about templates, these are the shapes I cut from cardboard. I added a couple little pieces of cereal box cardboard as structural support in various points, like the bridge of the nose and behind the beak. Also, I ended up cutting the forehead piece a little smaller, which I marked on the paper, but I kept the template size in case you want to see how it originally looked.
@blackbearmagic made a bunch of cool templates for the workshop I'm going to do in December, too. I'll get a few photos of those later.
I think my favorite part of this was how different your mask looks from all the ones I've made so far, and not just because you made a bird and I've been making mammals
It's a completely different piece of wearable art. It has a different soul. It has a different feel.
I think everyone should make a mask of their favorite animal to wear, even if they're not a therian. I think the world would be a healthier, happier place if everyone made a cardboard replica of their favorite animal's face.
Bear's mask templates! I just want to stress that our masks are extremely low tech and budget friendly. They're made out of cardboard, hot glue, and fleece, with an elastic band in the back. I used a little sheer black fabric I had leftover from my terror bird costume for the eyes.
Fleece and felt are very forgiving fabrics and you can basically just cut a single large piece and stretch it to fit, gluing it to the cardboard one small section at a time. The fabric was the only purchase we made for these, and it was in the form of thrift store blankets.
the horror of being "god's favourite princess". literally one of my favourite horror themes. the god loves you and it's so scary.
it will always choose you. you cannot die. you'll always come back because it loves you so much. you are its right and left hand, its eternal weapon. it will drown you in its light. light as horror. darkness as horror. what if it thinks you are its best friend.
you are god's favourite princess and it's terrifying.
