Cloudy With A Chance Of Sarcasm

Commissions/art trades open. Werewolf introvert who loves making art and playing video games. Witch, animist, Pagan. She/her. 30 Demi/Grey Ace. Taken.

[canis-lycanthropus]

~Introduction~

Hi there! Figured I should do an intro of some kind. I’m Shadow, also sometimes called Lycan (original, I know), or Canis-Lycanthropus, and I’m a werewolf. I also have a wolf form, and consider my lycanthropy to be on a sliding scale from “human” to werewolf to wolf with everything between (see this post )

I consider myself a therian (sometimes I use theriomythic, but I’m aware some would consider me strictly otherkin). So basically I’m a vacillant/suntherian werewolf/wolf. In the past I considered it psychological, then half psychological half spiritual, and now I am firmly in the spiritual camp (for myself). I am always shifted but the intensity varies; I also experience heavy species dysphoria. I have been this way since I was born, and awakened around age 6 or so, and have been a part of the community on and off for the last 18 or so years.

I love playing video games and making art, some of which I may post here (I do take commissions also). I’m Demi/Gray asexual, questioning bisexual, and currently have a partner (who is also a werewolf!). I’m also a witch. I’m new to tumblr so be gentle with me as I figure out how to use it lol. This blog, at least so far, will have posts about being therian/a werewolf, anything I think fits that, as well as art.

I would love to make more werewolf/wolf friends, and I have a habit of finding “lost” wolves it seems lol. I’m always aiming to help and educate those in the community to the best of my ability. Feel free to reach out! If you made it this far, have a treat, you deserve it.

[canislupuslatrans]

I've seen this a lot in therian, alterhuman and nonhuman social canine spaces and I think its something worth talking about.

A pack is just a family, its not this magical group so many younger folks make it out to be. My pack is full of humans because I am the only nonhuman, you don't have to be with other nonhumans to be in a pack.

It's also something you shouldn't form with strangers, pack bonding is intimate and familial. I don't think you should be making packs with strangers.

You also don't need a pack, its quite normal for younger wolves (and other social canines) to be loners for a bit until they form a pack of their own.

Packs aren't this big thing with hierarchy and structure and rules. Packs are literally just families, if you have a family you have a pack, its as simple as that

[ecotherian]

I refuse to allow my identity to be erased by misinformation online.

“Therians don’t actually identify as animals” “Therianthropy is only a spiritual connection” “If you identify as an animal you aren’t an actual Therian”

Some people think that commenting these things are helping our community “find themselves”. They are not. They are actively harming the therian community and its members.

We cannot allow the spread of misinformation like this, unless we want our identities to be watered down and erased to a “connection”.

[crypticunknown]

Another Lycan anatomy study.

[lopatar]

fur variations of the "Great One" gray wolf, from The Hunter: Call of the Wild

[wolveswolves]

By Tanja Askani

[nu11ifi3d]

BIG DUMB IDIOT BABY APPLE FIGHT

[weaver-z]

I wish all of my followers a wonderful Big Dumb Idiot Baby Apple Fight Friday

[canislupuslatrans]

This might be kind of a hot take but I feel like the community has shifted away from identifying as animals to identifying with animals. I'm not a big fan of how many folks don't understand their own species behavior or know a lot about their species, it has led to me feeling very isolated around other canines due to how many of them don't present their species behavior (or even understand a single thing about how packs or canine behavior even works)

This is just my own personal take, but it feels weird to try to socialize with most folks in the community because most of the time its seen as "taking it too far" when you actually act as your species. (coughcough wolves are not friendly social creatures to strangers and can actually be quite shy, and growling is not always a form of aggression, on a similar note a wagging tail isn't always a sign of friendliness either)

Now, this isn't to say that those who don't show behaviors like their species are "faking it" (because thats a whole load of shit), it just feels like the community has gotten a lot more anthropomorphized (or humanized) from when I first discovered it

[thetadelta]

My suspicion is that this is exactly why more and more people who don't seem to actually physically identify as their theriotype have been using labels like "holothere". A lot of mainstream "therian" content has gotten focused on activities/aesthetics that aren't inherent to therianthropy– like masks and quads– so people who have intense animal instincts and phantom shifts (which are very normal and common!) feel alienated and need to assert that, no, they're really an animal. Which has lead to terms like "physical therian" getting watered down and misused.

The TikTok "therian" culture seems like it's largely to blame for this, but it's also a side effect of people moving from forums to public social media platforms. It isn't really possible to post on social media about genuinely "weird" experiences without the risk of bad actors seeing it and harassing you, so people (intentionally or not) downplay or cute-ify their experiences to make them more palatable for a public audience. It's part of the same trend as people self-censoring swears when there isn't actually any evidence that that has any effect– there's been an increasing push toward toning down anything someone might find objectionable, to the point where I don't think most people realize they're doing it. And people doing that leads to outsiders seeing "therian" stuff and going "that looks like fun! I want to do that!" because there aren't any immediately available resources to explain to them that therianthropy isn't a roleplaying trend– which is how we've ended up with people on TikTok saying stuff like "therians don't really think they're animals".

People co-opting community terms, toning them down, and calling the original community "taking it too far" happened already with fictionkin, and it seems like therians are next. The best thing we can do is to just hold the line, correct misinformation, and keep being loudly authentic.

EDIT: And to be clear I am the number one encourager of having fun and being silly with your theriotype! I do it constantly! There's just a difference between that and having fun with the aesthetic of an animal you don't actually know much about. If you identify as something it's a baseline respect to yourself and to that animal to know basic facts about it. It's also a baseline level of respect to accept that others in the community will experience therianthropy differently than you.

[thetadelta]

Thinking about this more, and I feel like this is also the result of an overcorrection in response to the old grilling/fakeclaiming culture that used to define the therian community. People used to oppressively gatekeep therianthropy and most of us got sick of it, but because of that community history I think a lot of people now have the idea that encouraging someone to do more introspection or suggesting that they might be misattributing their experiences to the wrong animal/creature is "invalidating" someone's identity instead of a good-faith attempt to help them feel more self-actualized and confident.

The whole questioning process seems to have fallen by the wayside in a lot of places, so you get people who, for example, feel a canine-shaped tail or a connection to werewolves and immediately go "I'm a wolf!" without considering other options, and nobody encourages them to question that assumption because they're worried about coming across as gatekeeping– even though that person would be happier and more secure in their identity if they took the time to introspect and learn about other animals before settling on something.

"You can be whatever you want forever" is a mostly true statement, but self-discovery is a long and personal process, and I absolutely believe that other people asking you (polite, good-faith) questions like "so why do you think you're X and not Y?" is a helpful bordering on necessary part of that process. Helping people figure out what they are used to be half of what we socialized about in the community! It's how we shared experiences and bonded and welcomed people! But I feel like now, asking questions like "you seem to act a lot like a dog, so what lead you to identify as a wolf and not another type of canid?" is often seen as rude or as an attempt to invalidate that person's identity. And it shouldn't be! Answering questions like that is how other people learn about what therianthropy is like for you, and if you're secure in your identity being asked these things won't make you feel defensive or invalidated, they'll make you excited to talk about your experiences with others. "I express my wolf theriotype in a doglike way because I was raised by humans like dogs are" is a perfectly valid and interesting answer to that question, for example.

Too much questioning is bad, but so is too little questioning. I would love to see more introspection posts by newer, questioning community members. Seeing and helping other people do self-discovery used to be my favorite part of being here!

[aulerean]

everyone always says wherewolf, but nobody ever asks how wolf...

[taxidermycanine]

born to hunt. forced to fold laundry

[wildcatpaws]

"Time to go beast mode" I say as I curl up into a ball, wrapped up in blankets, with my plushies and listening to soothing sounds for sleep .

[moonpool-system]

✅ curled up safely

✅ warm den

✅ fluffy bedding

✅ various ambient noises

Seems like beast mode to me

[wulwoo]

[artofmaquenda]

Feral Hearts

Two odd beings find tenderness, or a quiet kind of love that doesn’t need naming. What they find together may be love, or safety, or simply the relief of being seen. The world around them mirrors this truth: bones feed roots, insects thrive, and so-called unwanted beings persist. Nature does not reject them, and neither do they reject each other. There is no mistake here, only belonging. Everything exists exactly as it should. Prints: https://artofmaquenda.etsy.com/listing/4427468901/feral-hearts-print-wolves-nature

[seawolfed]

“Unaligned”

Another piece on dysphoria. Posted this one a little while ago on my other social media accounts but wanted to share here too 🐾

[seawolfed]

“Half formed in the wrong shape”

Lately I’ve been focusing more on personal artwork pertaining to my emotions and experience as an alterhuman. Though I write from time to time, I find it much more natural to depict these emotions in visual form rather than with words.

[seawolfed]

“Who is this body for?”

Species dysphoria feels like waking up in a body built to the wrong blueprint - these hands moving at the ends of your arms like strange, overarticulated tools.

Every gesture feels slightly off-balance, every touch too sharp or too precise, as if the world expects you to navigate it with instruments you were never meant to wield. Each time the feeling hits it always comes back to these hands…

Finally got around to finishing this painting. I feel like I’m getting closer to how I want my art to look and feel 🐾

[uniquecrash5]

Oh hey tomorrow is Wolfenoot.

[injuries-in-dust]

Happy Woolfenoot everyone.

[poisoned-sugar11]

HAPPY WOOFLENOOT!!!!!

[canis-lycanthropus]

Happy Wolfenoot! Awooo!!

[saltmalkin]

awooooooo wolf study