𓆗 Likes: Singing, dancing, being in nature, long car rides, making moodboards, fall weather, cookies, stew, rain
𓆙 Dæmian Info 𓆙
𓆗 Name: Snakestar
𓆗 Pronouns: She/her, thon/thons
𓆗 Age: 19
𓆗 Interests: Pink Floyd, reptiles, Steven Universe, A Clockwork Orange
💫🌿 Hey howdy, I'm Snakestar! My main account is @snakestardraws, and this is my sideblog about dæmonism. I use it to make and reblog posts about dæmons, thoughtforms, His Dark Materials, alterhumanity, and identity. I myself am aromantic, heterosexual, creaturegender, and snakehearted (specifically, I identify as a sunbeam snake), and was diagnosed with Level 1 autism. I live in New Mexico USA, work in fast food, and have 5 wonderful reptiles. In my free time, I enjoy reading, writing, drawing, journaling, playing oud, boxing, and running.
My dæmon Sisyphus has been with me for 5 1/2 years and I love him more than anything. We love to make each other laugh, talk and philosophize together, share spiritual experiences, and support each other through the toughest times. He is extremely chatty in real life, but sometimes gets shy when it comes to sharing online. If he chooses to post here, it will be under the tag #sisyphus speaks.
Thanks for reading! If any of this sounds interesting to you, I hope we can be friends! 💫🌿
Happy unnecessary feelings day! I wanted to do my own take of the scene, featuring my daemon AU.
Ft. Miles Edgeworth (black kite daemon), Phoenix Wright (belted kingfisher daemon), Maya Fey (unsettled - shown here with a ruby-throated hummingbird daemon)
This is a very complex creature but cool enough that it's worth the effort to learn. I did my best and if I ever draw the mantis shrimp again I at least have a better idea now.
My favorite thing about the mantis shrimp is that it can see in colors that don't exist. They're also ridiculously strong and can break glass. The Oatmeal comic about the peacock mantis shrimp is worth a read.
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently when it comes to His Dark Materials is human evolution. We know that angels somehow interfered with human evolution on purpose around 30-40 thousand years ago, which is also when Dust started to accumulate around humans and their creations. But other hominins were still around at that time and at least in our world they also had similar creativity and imagination, which seems to be the conscious experiences that are most related to Dust.
So did other hominins also have whatever adaptations allowed for Dust to settle on them? Did they have daemons as well? If this strange event in our history happened similar to the Fall, with one individual getting this trait first and spreading it, how exactly did it spread? Also is this possibly a factor for why other hominins went extinct while our species was incredibly successful?
There’s also some other questions I have such as where the witches came from and also how panserbjørne evolution worked, but I’m mainly fascinated by Dust’s role in human evolution. I’m a huge nerd when it comes to anthropology even though I don’t know much about it so I may expand on this more in the future. I’ve got tons of theories surrounding Dust that I need to revisit.
being a daemian while also being otherkin is awesome because Atticus is the only being capable of seeing and interacting with my phantom limbs. its so euphoria-inducing to have a little bird perched on your horns, or a cat playing with your tail, or a raccoon preening your feathers. we can also mimic eachother in a way, for example Atticus sees me ruffling my wings and he does it too, just because thon can.
Something that is perhaps alluded to but never elaborated on when talking about phantom sensations is how a many times phantom sensations aren't feeling a limb, but rather an intense desire for sensory input in a way that is inaccessible to you.
If you look at an image of myself as a gillman, one of my main traits is all my frills. I don't feel every individual layer or every fin, but rather "sections" of them that move as a unit (mostly); the top of my head, the back of my head, the nape of my neck, the sides of my face, my upper back, lower back, and forearms. It gets iffy when you get into the realm of shaking them out or ruffling them, but this is generally how they're split. I can feel these individual groups not form phantom sensations the way I feel webbed hands or my hog tail, but rather because they are sensory organs that desire sensory input.
I can't feel my frills, but I desire sensory input that I can not experience without them. I am such a sensory seeking beast, I need to tap and rub and use my hands in the same way that I need to run clean water through my frills. I can feel the buildup of sweat and grime between them, and I need to shake it out. That desire for that specific sensory experience is so strong that I don't need phantom limbs to understand the shape of me, I just need to pay attention to what my sensory desires are and figure out what parts I'd need to experience it.
Its the same with my gills, and its why they're so rare. I don't need the sensory experience of breathing underwater, of feeling the water run through me and exit, until I am in an environment where that sensory experience is necessary. It's a deep desire I feel, but can't achieve. If I were to satisfy that desire, I'd need gills. Ergo, my brain believes that I should have gills.
I have a constant desire for very specific sensory input on these parts of my body? And XYZ feature would left me experience that? Then that's a part of the body that my brain thinks we're supposed to have.
Been having a lot of gunk in my fins today (likely from all of my late-nights and hours of studying for midterms) and I can't get rids of it. It's a sensation that simply will not wash away, and I hate that I can't just go in with a rag and clean out every crevice of them! They aren't there! I can't clean them! It's frustrating and a little silly. Beast needs to clean apart of herself that isn't actually there.
sometimes i get put off from calling myself cowhearted because i feel it just doesn’t convey how entirely much i feel about cows.
folks tend to think hearted just means your favourite animal or an animal you really really like. and it can be that for some. but it can be so much deeper. for me it’s so much deeper.
cows are a part of me. they’re a part of who i am. not my brain or my soul or my body, the way my theriotypes are. but part of my heart. which is why i love the term “hearttype” so, so much.
i want people in my life to see cows or cow-related things and think of me. i want to be associated with cows in everyone’s minds. not because i AM a cow, the way i’m associated with dogs because i’m a dog, but because cows are a part of me. when my friends see cow-print trinkets or cow figurines and the first thing they do is think i would like it, it makes me SO euphoric.
of course, i still am cowhearted. even if sometimes folks make wrong assumptions about what that means. that’ll never stop me from using a term that describes me and my experiences. i think for me they’re also partially a paratype, and i connect with them a lot on the level of being a farm dog. when i think about my life as a farm dog i think about cows. i think i had a herd. i loved them.
“otherhearted” has just as much feeling, just as much meaning, just as much substance as the words “therian” or “kin”. that’s what i want everyone to understand. we are not lesser and our identity is not weaker or less meaningful because it’s “just a connection”. it isn’t “just” anything. my cowhearted identity make me who i am. there is no “me” without cows.
More little logistical conveniences in a world with corporeal daemons:
Bathrooms usually have a bed and/or a perch to give daemons a comfortable place to rest while their human bathes or showers other than the bath mat. Some daemons are happy to join their human in the bath/shower, but many don’t like getting wet or have forms that would make it difficult / possibly dangerous (e.g. a lot of rodents), and even for those that like water soaked fur can take a long time to fully dry so bathing isn’t usually an everyday thing.
Daemons don’t normally wear clothing, but there are times when it’s necessary or at least much more comfortable - for the same reasons animals sometimes wear clothing in our world. Not all fur and feathers are created equal, and a fennec fox, or a chihuahua, or a serval, or a parrot wouldn’t have a good time in cold climates. Children’s daemons can just turn into arctic animals and/or crawl into their human’s clothing (as shown in The Golden Compass), but daemons with warm-weather settled forms are out of luck, and often wear sweaters, hoodies, and/or earwarmers. Superheated pavement in warm climates, and road salt in cold ones, can also hurt a daemon’s feet just like a real animal’s, so many wear protective paw booties.
Human clothing made to accommodate daemons is also common. The most obvious is arm and shoulder pads which allow large birds - especially birds of prey - to land and ride on their humans’ arms or shoulders without injuring them. People don’t really wear falconry gauntlets because it’s not like they’re just putting them on for a hunting or training session with a bird, it’s daily life including times when you need to use both your hands for something else. Clothing may also have special pockets for very small daemons to ride in, sometimes incorporating clear plastic windows. Daemons that are too big for a pocket but small enough that walking around in crowded places is awkward - e.g. rats, ferrets, rabbits - most commonly ride on their humans’ shoulders, but sometimes being carried in a sling is easier, more comfortable, and warmer.
Doors with round handles are rare. Daemons don’t go far from their humans so it’s not incredibly limiting or dangerous to not be able to open a door, but it can be annoying and inconvenient to not be able to, especially when the human’s arms are both full of dishes or grocery bags or something. You’ll sometimes see ladders or rough surfaces attached to doors so small-ish forms can climb them, although this is probably seen as tacky.
Tailoring is an integral part of society as daemon-related changes to clothing are extremely common.
It is very common for tailors to have a primate daemon as this allows the human tailor to measure the human while the primate measures the daemon. There are also daemon weight scales in all tailors to ensure that specialised pockets etc are made secure and strong enough without a one-size-fits-all approach that could lead to unnecessary bulk, while also embedding it in the clothes in such a way that it does not strain the rest of the fabric in an unseemly way.
It is just a universal fact of architecture that all buildings are designed with perches of some kind dotted around a little over head height, particularly in seating and dining rooms. Styles have varied throughout the years, from stylised carved poles of stone or wood either coming straight out of the walls, to coming out a little and then running parallel for a more integrated look, to shelves or wide picture rails, and many more. You can use the style of perches to guess the age of a building.
Daemon beds are a popular business. Some are designed to integrate or clip on to an existing bed for those with small daemons but feel that sleeping cuddling your daemon is childish, or for those that share their bed and worry about a partner touching or crushing them accidentally in the night. Some are designed for a natural feel that that daemon’s normal counterpart would desire, others are not dissimilar to a smaller or lower version of a human bed, and most retail beds are offered with a custom built daemon matching set. A lot of people with more easy going type daemons just settle for a blanket or cushions on the floor or on their person’s bed.
a zine jam for alterhumans. we'll be making mini zines inspired by being alterhuman! you can use the prompts below, or do whatever! just make sure to follow the rules
rules
must be a mini zine (learn how to fold one HERE!)
must be alterhuman adjacent or inspired
tag it with #alterhuman minizine jam
you are encouraged to post a flat scan of the final zine, so others can print and enjoy it too. this is NOT required!
the zine jam ends the 12th of October!
though please consider this a soft deadline. you are free to submit zines whenever you'd like! just make sure to use the tag.
the prompts!
this time i've split the prompts into 4 categories, to better include more of the alterhuman community.
general
what makes you feel like yourself?
how did you discover alterhumanity?
how do you express your alterhumanity, online and offline?
nonhuman
what is your favorite part of being nonhuman?
what brings you nonhuman euphoria ?
describe (in detail!) your nonhuman identity. what does it feel like?
otherkin
fun facts about your kintype/s
do you have any gear? talk about it! if not, what kind of gear would you like/find affirming?
do you experience shifts? what are those like?
plural
whats something you love about being plural?
whats your favorite moment you’ve experienced as a system? any inside jokes?
talk about your sysmates. do y'all get along? whats the dynamic like?
please tag me (oceaniccourt) in your creations, and I'll reblog them here until the deadline!
once again! thank you for reading, and i cannot wait to see what gets made!
& if you are new to zines entirely, here's some useful links: