pandora
they/it
---
[ 32 | alterhuman | queer ]
[ indigenous | australia ]
---
blog to dump my thoughts on my alterhuman identity and to reblog relevant posts
---
Icon by digi
Welcome to a simple blog for me to explore things about myself and my nonhuman identity, and to simply reblog relevant posts and things that I like.
You can call me Pandora. New nicknames are welcome.
They/It, Adult(32)
- Horse
- Spotted Hyena (can be depicted as any hyena species)
- Nonhuman-humanoid
- Enderfolk (Hybrid - Enderian/Elytrian)
- Piglin
---
[[ Carrd ]]
Other Sites — content will be similar
[[ TikTok | Bluesky | Pillowfort | Dreamwidth ]]
[[ Self Ship and OC/Canon Ship Blog ]] — may follow for this blog
[[ Tags ]] — my tags for ease of access and mobile users.
---
Replies, comments and asks/submissions are always welcome.
---
I block, unfollow and filter liberally, because it is not on other people to cater my online space for me. If I see something I don't like, I remove it from my sight and move on.
I take ZERO responsibility for other's online experience as this is my blog. Learn to cater your own online space as it's only on you to do so.
If you see anything you don't like that I post or reblog, just unfollow and/or block.
People just looking for an argument or who are rude will be blocked and reported. Comments along the lines of looking for a fight or being rude will be deleted.
---
Before You Follow found below the cut, will be updated as I see fit.
I am an Adult - Dec '93
If you are not ok with this, and I follow you, please soft block, or block me to keep yourself comfortable.
- - -
I am Queer/Asexual and Indigenous(Australian).
I am Genderqueer/Nonbinary and label myself under the transgender umbrella.
I support trans people and their rights.
- - -
I use the word Queer. Both for myself and my community.
If you do not believe in reclaiming slurs or you tag things as "q slur", etc, just block me.
I am also kink positive, pro-sex education, pro-sex worker, etc.
- - -
Most of my sites will be SFW, but there still might be possible adult content, which will be tagged/filter when possible. Keep this in mind if you are a minor or do not wish to see such!
- - -
For certain sites with tagging systems I try to tag everything that I post with general, wide tags when they are useful.
Use any content filter options to stop from seeing what you don't want to see.
- - -
I do not tolerate hateful comments towards any animal, especially insects, spiders and other "creepy crawlies" and will block on sight. I understand phobias and squicks, but ALL ANIMALS are worthy of respect and life.
- - -
I am inherently and always will be anti Generative-AI and any large machine learning that steals from others and harms the environment.
- - -
I'm not here for internet drama and discourse, don't drag me into it or tell me about it. I have more important things to worry about.
- - -
I support contradictory labels/identities.
I support people who choose and intentionally create their identities and who use labels/terms that they feel fit them and their experience, no matter how temporary it may be. Because personal identity is way more nuanced and fluid than the boxes made to explain them. No one completely fits inside a box.
I support systems regardless of origin, including endogenic.
I support disability rights, including the right to self govern, and the right of dignity of risk. Including those who do not wish to "heal".
I do not get to tell people what they are experiencing or how to live their life because the only one who should be able to dictate that is them.
I support paraphiles.
Including non-offending/no-contact of ones that would be considered harmful. If they are not hurting anyone and managing their paraphilia it isn't my right to judge them or tell them how to live their lives.
- - -
Everything has nuance.
Nothing is ever black and white or can be easily shoved into neat boxes.
What one person may believe is harmless could be the worst thing ever to someone else.
Experiences are individual and opinions are subjective.
- - -
Thought crimes AND thought heroism do not exist.
You are not making the world a better place by attacking people for their thoughts, no matter how horrible, if they are not acting on them. You are not morally superior or better for not thinking "bad" things.
- - -
Your disgust does not dictate morality, or what is harmful.
Learn to live with discomfort if something is not actively harming REAL people/things.
- - -
I am inherently anti-censorship.
Yes, including the fiction you don't like that makes your tummy upset and your head hurt.
No, a little censorship only on the things you don't like will NEVER work.
If you give the power to take away certain things to people in power, then it only takes them labeling the things they don't like as those things to get rid of things that had nothing to do with anything in the first place.
See, as an example: people screaming about how pedophiles must die and they're the worst thing ever and in turn how governments and queerphobes try to label all trans, gay and queer people as pedophiles which means they must be inherently harmful and so need to be eradicated
- - -
Ship discourse is not welcome here in any way.
But also, as some language information... Proship does not mean "problematic shipping" and that was never the definition of the term as much as some want others to believe it is.
- Pro = supporting or agreeing with something
- Anti = opposed or against a particular thing or person
A Proshipper is, and has always been, someone who supports shipping and people's right to ship things, and that is it.
- - -
I am of the old internet mindset of "if you don't like it, don't look" and "don't go looking for things you know you don't like/you know will upset you."
Only person to blame for interacting with things you don't like is yourself. Learn to remove yourself from the situation instead of placing all blame on other people who probably didn't even know you were there, or wanted you there, in the first place.
- - -
I'm old and tired, and kids these days would probably label me a "proshipper" as I believe there is way more nuance to this entire thing than simply the black and white mindset that the internet & fandom communities have shifted to over time.
It is not my place, or my right to tell others what they can and cannot do in fiction/fantasy.
I do not condone harassment over fictional characters, ships, etc, and if you're one of the people who think that this is ok, or that someone should die because they think differently than you, block me.
It's unrealistic to believe that anything created that holds taboo or problematic content means the one who created it condones it IRL. This falls along the same kind of mindset mostly conservative parents spat that "violent video games make people violent", which we all know is not true.
Censoring problematic content will not stop people from creating it. They will just create it where you cannot see it, which in turn could make it harder to find, and harder to stop when actual harm is happening.
Can fictional/fantasy content affect reality?
Sure! I will never say otherwise.
But to believe that it always does, or that it affects reality 1:1, is unrealistic, and assuming that most people cannot differentiate between the two.
Fiction and fantasy were created for people to be able to entertain ourselves, and to explore topics that we never would, or were impossible, in the real world in the safety of our minds and spaces we created.
The actions of those who use fictional content as a reason to do harmful things in real life is entirely on them, not the fiction, and they need to seek professional help for their paraphilias or actions.
If something...
- happens between two(or more) consenting ADULTS
- makes someone happy
- does not harm themselves or anyone/anything IRL
...then what other people do is none of my business.
One thing I think is important for understanding the daemian community – especially if you're coming from an alterhuman perspective – is that daemonism is not a word for a shared experience, nor a shared identity.
Daemonism is a practice. The concept of it can be used by anyone: alterhuman or not, plural or not. It can be pure playfulness. It can be imaginary, and that's okay! That's a beautiful experience in its own respect!
There's no universal daemian experience because we accept and embrace that our minds, and our experiences, are ours alone.
The community isn't built on a shared experience – just a shared idea which we all create unique versions of.
Some people stick closer to the basic idea we started with. Some just take what they like from it and throw out the rest. Some only take vague inspiration from it. Some people adapt it more than others, sometimes due to being neurodivergent, plural, and/or alterhuman.
It's still daemonism because daemonism isn't defined by us all "doing the same thing" or "having the same experience".
Daemonism is, for the most part, defined by a person deciding that they want to call what they are doing or experiencing daemonism.
And a large part of that is often in connection to the community, whether directly or in a peripheral way, by taking inspiration from the practice, making use of the community's writings, and so on.
This is why I think daemonism is often misunderstood in an alterhuman context. Daemonism is not an experience, it's not an identity – it's just an idea we each take and make our own. And that's what it should be. That's the beauty of it!
Anyone could be a daemian if they want to. There's no requirements. A lot of people get started with daemonism purely because it sounds fun! A lot of people start with only their imagination, and many people remain so.
For others, it might become something else in time, or they might discover there was something underlying their imaginings all along. It's no more or less a practice of daemonism, either way.
A lot of alterhuman concepts don't apply to daemonism because of this. Fact is, there's plenty of daemians who are orthohumans too, and plenty of people who specifically see their daemonism as an orthohuman practice.
I see it get included under the alterhuman umbrella a lot, and I feel like it gives the wrong first impression to come at it from that angle by default.
Really, it's more comparable with being a furry. For some people, it is a deep, impactful, life-altering experience, and the people who feel that way are a vital part of the community. But equally, for some it is an exercise in whimsy, playfulness, or creativity – and those people are no less members of the community for it.
We're not united by being plural, or having thoughtforms, or being alterhuman. We're united by being a bunch of people who were inspired by some books (or a film or TV show) to play around with the idea of daemons, and ended up sticking with it for one reason or another.
While the individual experience can be very deep indeed, that isn't what makes daemonism what it is.
Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”
So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”
Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.
Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.
#'this is present in the text' is often a good first step #but those second and third ones (naming it; describing its function) are vital (via @elucubrare)
"What if I'm wrong about my species/type?" So what if you are? What's wrong with growth? Change? Realizing who you truly are? Do not be afraid to discover another side to yourself.
If fictionkin are welcome in otherkin spaces, treat us as such.
I've come across so many people who say "fictionkin are included in Otherkin" yet we're not treated as such by those same people.
The term "kinning" is used my fictionkin however is looked down upon by otherkin and when I've used it in a fictionkin post in an otherkin community, I get so much hate. I even had a post disabled for violating the guidelines in the official therian amino even though (at that point in time) there was no guidelines around the word kinning. Here is why it's an okay word to use.
A) kinning is a verb and verbs don't inherently imply that something is a choice as its the context that does. To give an example, if I choose to run that is a choice however if someone moves my legs and makes me run that is not a choice.
B) If kinning isn't an overall otherkin term, it's a fictionkin one and therefore is fine in that context.
The mere fact that it's at least a fictionkin term and I was shamed for it shows how fictionkin aren't treated as Otherkin.
Being treated as non Otherkin isn't isolated to one word. Posts I make about fictionkin in otherkin spaces often nitpicked however if I post the exact some post but change the words so it applies to non fictionkin Otherkin then it's not nitpicked.
I know that some fictionkin might not label themselves as Otherkin, however they cannot deny that fictionkin technically are under that umbrella. (choosing not to id as otherkin is valid).
I just want all fictionkin to not be looked down upon or seen as some side community when we shouldn't be.
"Kinning” is not a fictionkin term, it’s a wishkin term, and as another fictionkin I don’t want it anywhere near me. This might get a little angry. I’d apologize if I were sorry.
Fictionkin are under the umbrella. I wish we were better respected, yes, and we’re not. I wish we had our own spaces that weren’t infiltrated and mocked twenty-four-fucking-seven. But using wishkin terms and helping them make a mockery of us is not helping.
You can’t ask for respect and use words meant to mock everyone else in the same sentence. The words “kinning”, “kins”, “kinnies”, and all of that other nonsense is frowned upon for a reason. This is a serious subculture, and those words came directly from people making fun of us. Let me explain this, so you won’t get lost in the shorthand.
When we say those words imply it’s a choice, the full extent of what we mean sums up to: “Being fictionkind is not a fun roleplay or a joke, this is serious, we are serious, we do not appreciate people walking in and telling us we need to grow up and stop playing pretend, we do not appreciate people assuming we do it for fun, we do not appreciate people coming in and using our terms to play pretend for fun and insisting they know more about our subculture than we do. We not appreciate people using our terms and our community to start cults and abuse actual members of our community, until we’re divided and trying to make anything coherent enough for more than a clique is downright impossible.”
This whole ‘kinnie’ / ‘kinning’ thing is wishkin, also called tumblrkin because tumblr made it a hell of a lot worse than it was. I’ve seen kinnie cults, okay? I had a nasty run-in with one a couple of years ago, and I am dead fucking serious when I say five people almost died because of it. Five people almost died, and I was one of them. And one guy almost had his life ruined and pressed for charges. Because one megalomaniac of a person realized he could control others by weaponizing his trauma and dressing it all up in fictionkind terms and social politics until he had us all ensnared. Because he didn’t start the scary shit until I thought we were practically family, and he was very good at justifying his actions and manipulating people into believing him.
That was the kind of person he was. And he’s far from the only one. I have seen so many damaging, downright terrifying cults come out of kinnies and their ilk it’s not even funny. And while you can make the argument that it’s the people, not the tools, I’ll tell you something.
This community - or at least, what’s left of the actual fictionkind community - has sworn up and down for years that your journey of introspection and questioning is a solo fucking journey. You don’t let your canonmates dictate your experiences. You stand your ground if you get grilled. Every few months posts go ‘round explaining what cults are, resources to help people get out of them, and the fact that everyone knows everyone and largely, actual fictionkind on tumblr tend to be in their late 20s early 30s. That shit isn’t tolerated.
Kinnies took our terms and our experiences, twisted them into a mockery, and used them for a power trip. They didn’t ask, they didn’t try to learn better, they didn’t do anything but dig their heels in and insist it’s all okay. It’s not. It makes a mockery of me, it makes a mockery of everyone like me, it destroyed and is still destroying one of the few places I feel safe to exist in. And oh, I don’t get to feel safe in that anymore, because I’m constantly looking over my shoulder wondering if this’ll get taken away, too.
Kinnies took the fictionkind community and gutted it. It’s no wonder we aren’t respected as much as we used to. Kinnies made it damn well clear that we can’t be respected, because unless you’re fictionkind and been in the community a while, you can’t fucking tell a real fictionkind from a kinnie. I don’t blame them for painting us all from the same brush. I only wish that one day, all the kinnies fucking leave or we manage to drive them out, and we can go back to being respected.
Because to a point, we were. The Queen Elf’s Daughters and the Silver Elves - both theriomythic, and some downright Tolkein fictionkind! - started the whole otherkin scenario as we know it. They’re credited for kickstarting this wonderful, wild place. I’ve spoken to members of the Silver Elves. I’ve researched them, I found them on academic websites (I have so many academic papers on my extended drives, it’s not even funny), I’ve started learning how they differ from everyone else because they kind of fucked off elsewhere and I won’t deny, for lack of a better term, I want to know what we’d be like if we were never found by the greater world.
I’m sick of kinnies. I’m sick of people saying “oh I’m kinning this” when they mean they have a passing interest in having a faceclaim. I’m sick of asking “And how many centuries deep are your wounds, and do you still howl at the moon?” and instead of getting “Eight, and I never did, but here’s my recreation of a recipe I had six hundred years ago using ingredients I have when 95% of them were unique to my world, have a taste and I’ll tell you how we got this dish,” I get “Hahaha it’s not that serious, shouldn’t you be in a psych ward?”.
I want to have proper ass discussions. I want to discuss where faceclaims are important, how roleplay actually affects your identity, how transhumanism has changed over history, how the internet has aided or failed us. I want to see where the divide of copinglinking and otherkin is, where it’s important, where it’s not. I want the words “I’m fictionkind” to fall from my lips without fear.
You are not helping. You are using incorrect terminology that’s most often used to mock, divide, and destroy us (and by us I mean fictionkind), and you’re telling me it’s okay because... Why, exactly? Because you can ignore nuance and the fact most fictionkind fucking hate those terms because you personally think it’s okay? Because you’re one person and your voice is somehow louder than the hundreds who mock us? Because I’m supposed to actually know that it’s friendly fire, coming from a stranger, when you’re still stabbing me? If it walks like a duck and quacks like one, it’s a fucking duck, and someone telling me it’s okay to use the knives of the enemy the exact same way sounds an awful lot like an enemy themself.
Go on. Tell me again it’s a term fictionkind use. Tell me again it’s totally okay, because it’s you. I’ll promise to at least try to pretend I believe you.
no one remember that "kinnie" was coined by an anon on only-on-tomblr like two years ago? like that is the source. a troll/ hate blog that was dedicated to spreading misinformation about otherkind and fictionkind. if their blog isn't deactivated it'll still be on there somewhere.
I've been in the overall Otherkin community for 11 years now.(therian, otherkin and fictionkin) And while wishing and role players have always been an issue it's never been so bad where I see *Corporate fucking brands on Twitter* use the phrase Kinning and post their "kinnie list" to thousands of followers.
Kinning/Kinnie was a term created by a troll and largely upheld by people roleplaying or trying to start fandom war bullshit. It's not valid. At all. It's not apart of ANY of the alter human communities and has done nothing but continue to make our communities a mockery to people on an even wider scale than EncyclopediaDramatica and the like ever did.
Minor correction/addendum: One of the "founding groups", so to speak, was called the Elf Queen's Daughters (the EQD), not the Queen Elf Daughters. None of these folks identified with any fictionkind or fictionkind-adjacent labels, and to my knowledge none of them were charater-specific. Several of them were, however, of fictional species, such as Hobbits and Tolkien Elves.
Another "founding group" that was favorable towards fictional species was Alt.Fan.Dragons (Alfandra), in which dragons from Pern were accepted as members.
Also, "kinnie" was not coined by the only-on-tomblr anon. The earliest usage I've found of the word was in a post making fun of the kin community, trivializing the harassment we've faced over the years by comparing antikin sentiments to transphobia. Here's a link.
The goal of this survey is to gather information of on incidences of species-based misgendering within the Alterhuman community.
Please do
Introducing a survey on Species-Based Misgendering, hosted by Duranos of The River System.
Species-Based Misgendering: the assumption of one's gender and/or pronouns based on the expectations of one's species, stemming from biases, when the expected gender does not match the individual's gender.
Gendered Expectation: the expectation set for a species' gender, whether this bias comes from a cultural or folkoric background, establishment in a media, a linguistic framework, etc.
The survey is open both to the identities underneath the alterhuman umbrella, as well as nonhuman/human+ folks within plural conglomerates.
While this survey is primarily looking for responses from those who have been misgendered based on their species, those who have not experienced species-based misgendering are welcome to complete the survey as well. Interpretation of what counts as species-based misgendering is open to interpretation by each individual, and there are long-form fillable responses throughout the survey to accommodate this.
The survey is set to close on July 31st, 2026.
I welcome folks to share the link to the survey wherever you are active in the alterhuman community.
I feel like the online alterhuman community is not immune to rose-colored nostalgia glasses about the state of things in the Good Old Days when alterhumans were Serious and Philosophical. "Nobody takes it seriously anymore" surely has been the case since like 2005 at least
Also people were complaining about Kids Having Fun back in 2005, and it made for joyless spaces back then too. And racist ones, since a knock-on effect was that people who didn't use "correct English" couldn't participate.
I'm not eager to go back to the old days. Neocities is there if you need it, and with much better tagging and search functions than we had back then. You can do what you like in your own spaces! But the community is larger than that now, and a small group of tastemakers no longer own it.
If I were to be uncharitable, I'd say that's what some people are missing.
Tags read: “#we gotta be real squad the silliness we see now just feels more prevelant because of 1) microblogging platforms #and 2) we're more well known as a community-- which means more kids inevitably in our spaces by default. #and 3) a lot of joins from the furry community (which is a fandom space and has a much sillier culture overall #causing a bit of a culture shift towards art and play. but not in a bad way!! #anyways let ppl have fun it's fine the philosophical spaces are still out there. or turn ur blog into one. follow ur heart #sorry I'm so high but I hope this made sense”
I do wish I had things to talk about when it comes to my alterhuman identities, but without many strong experiences I don’t even know what I would write about or where to start
But to summarize: The new website is up! Artist, panelist, and staff applications are open right now and can be found here. Those forms auto-close on June 30th at 11:59pm (US East). This year's mascot vote is also open, and can be found on the same page. The mascot vote only lasts a week, so get your votes in!
The email newsletter is also being retired in favor of RSS, with more details available on the news page.
