Ethereal Daydreams

Ethereal Princess, dream of starlight! (background image by 冰小凝 on gracg)

[defrostedvertebrae]

how do normies do it. human. not into objects. a single person. romantic feelings for humans.

darn near impressive how most somehow manage to stay that painfully normal. no whimsy? no?

[chuunipocalypse]

more people need to see and talk about zun's statement on being a chuunibyou

[dark-magician-girl-meets-world]

Me: I don't know. I just don't think there's much comedic potential to the idea of a "pizza samurai"

PIzza Samurai, entering physical existence due to the sheer willpower which I still spend thinking about him: I will defeat you with my New York Style martial arts Pepperōnin, also real now: Prepare to get sliced

[soupofcryptids]

I love you, those who don’t fit the societal norm

I love you, those who dress alt

I love you, physically disabled folk

I love you, neurodivergent/mentally ill/mentality disabled folk

I love you, non human folk

I love you, plural folk

I love you, maladaptive daydreamers and immersive daydreamers

I love you, those who use create/experience alterreality

I love you, voluntary systems,kins,bonds etc

I love you, everyone who has been outcasted for existing, you are welcome in our hearts <3

[gatheringbones]

please invent an imaginary friend to go to a museum with this winter please for the love of all things holy

[anime-as-textposts]

[frameacloud]

Fictionfolk resource masterpost

This post is about fictionkin, fictives, and other types of fictionfolk and experiences of fictionality. In it I recommend some readings and other resources for definitions, primers, etiquette, history, questioning, databases, and community. I have also shared this list as a Bluesky thread. Updated Dec. 26, 2025.

Definitions

A quick guide to fictionfolk terminology by @aestherians

A fictionfolk glossary by the Dragonheart Collective

Introductions

Fictionkind FAQ, by the Dragonheart Collective

Fictives: A Short Intro, by Ryn^Aristocrats

Soulbonding info carrd, by fairy tea

Changing beliefs & behavior through experience-taking, an academic article by Kaufman & Libby

Etiquette

By the Quicksilver System

By Sprites

By Espeon & Synanthrope

By the Dragonheart Collective (script)

History

A Timeline of the Fictionkin Community, by @houseofchimeras

Pluralpedia on where the word fictive came from, researched largely by LB Lee & sobqjmv

Are you fictionfolk?

Questioning guide for fictionkin, by DoctorCorby

The Big List Of Fictionkind Experiences, by 375-6

Living as fictionfolk

Living as a Fictive: How to Find, Create, and Broaden Your Identity, With and Without Canon, a lecture by Goratrix bani Tremere

Living with a “Problematic” Fictional Identity (And Where to Go from Here), a lecture by Goratrix bani Tremere

What to do when your source upsets you, a booklet by the Dragonheart Collective

Databases

100+ writings in the fictionfolk category in the Alterhuman Archive

17 games, zines, & other creations on itch.io by various

Community

Web ring, maintained by @nova-dracomon

Dreamwidth community, moderated by @tanadin and sun_dragon

Safety in Alterhuman Spaces, by Dragonheart Collective

Alterdirect, a public directory of Discord servers, which has a list of servers for fictionfolk from many different canons

[magimilitaria]

Posting this as a whole post too. Because magi's need to see this.

I BEG of you, do not..comment on if this is wrong or whatnot if you're a new magical hero. You're just proving my point in which "you think you know everything off the bat/want to know everything."

Go get experience. Don't police what people do. Forge your own path.

[shrimpgirldick]

Let's be beautiful and chuuni together

[etherealdaydreams1]

I want to play pretend forever- a manifesto

I want to play pretend forever. I want to create a character, and larp as them in a world that I designed from this moment forward. I want to enter a world that only exists within my imagination, and project it onto the world before me.

A lot of people think this is a rejection of physical reality, a lot of people would call me delusional, and even more would tell me to grow up. After all, I'm 24 years old and I am still pretending I am a fairy princess saving the world.

And I mean, your not that much of a hypocrite, you do in fact participate completely in mundane reality, not engaging in any forms of play pretend as an adult! Unless of course you count pro wrestling, theme parks, Santa Claus, virtual reality, tabletop roleplaying games, or literally any video game, of course. This is not to insult any of what I just mentioned. After all, I love them all for the same reason, they offer an alternative view to see reality. All of them however, have something missing. To a certain extent, each and every one are limited by a separation. Video games and VR are admittedly easier to explain the separation because there is a literal screen in front of you, but with the others it gets more complicated. the barrier isn't physical, but psychological. As much as mediums like theme parks and pro wrestling attempt to immerse you into their worlds, they also use the same tactics to create a barrier of belief. They make an effort to inform you, both consciously and subconsciously, that what's going on isn't actually real. Again, I don't exactly want to say this is bad, after all wrestling companies don't want you to sue their heels, and theme parks want to remind you that your not actually in danger, but that is not what I mean when I say-

I want to play pretend forever, and everyone already is. If I handed you 100 pieces of paper, how would you feel? Outside of very specific circumstances, you would be confused, probably. After all, what would you do with something so worthless? But if each paper had the face of a dead white person on it, a number, and a few other details, you would wonder why I am giving you something so..valuable..how does that work? After all, the physical characteristics of money aren't that special, nor does it have any inherent value. It has value because we as a society pretend that it does. We are told to "accept reality" and to reject any kind of fantastical beliefs, but simultaneously forced to embrace a world where pieces of paper and lines on a map determine who you are as a person. You already play pretend forever, but lets be honest-the worldbuilding's kinda shit.

So what does it mean, to play pretend forever? I haven't fully figured it out yet, to be honest. The kinky folks have the right idea, but that is more my headmates thing than mine. I wish I can give or find you a way that you can do this, but to be honest, I don't think they exist yet. That's why I'm making this, I guess. If you are at all interested in developing this idea, please reach out to me (@wonderlight on discord, or @etherealdaydreams1 on tumblr- and I will check the comment section here for a bit as well!) I do know that it is possible, however. We can all be the wizards, pirates, princesses, dinosaurs, or anything else we dreamt of as kids, and it can be real.

I want to play pretend forever, wont you join me?

[spamtown-usa]

sometimes i feel like the alterhuman community is super obsessed with reality in an often unhealthy sort of way? you dont need to have Literally Experienced things for them to be real to you. You dont have to actually believe in past lives or anything to feel you have had a past life experience. You dont need to really believe that you are an alien that came from beyond earth to feel like an alien that came from beyond earth. You don't need to believe in the multiverse to feel like you are experiencing something to do with it. Just like how nobody else has to believe in those things to understand that you feel them. You can do whatever you want actually. Feelings are fickle things and they do not care about what you believe is true, and this is not always a bad thing despite what people might say.

Sometimes you are a shapeshifting starthing from beyond the veil of space and time while simultaneously believing that that's not actually possible. Sometimes you have spirits in your head while simultaneously not believing in anything metaphysical. Sometimes you have reincarnated beings in your head without believing in reincarnation. The dissonance is perfectly okay if that's what brings you peace - it is what brings me peace. I do not feel any desire to "debunk" myself or my headmates despite my beliefs, nor do I feel a desire to bring any of the things I currently find impossible into how I understand the world. Your identity does not need to be perfectly explainable within the bounds of anyone's reality, including your own, because it is not something that relies on anything but your own feelings. Live a life that brings you peace

[the-indigo-symphony]

Perhaps this is moving away from the point a little, but I feel like this conundrum especially does a disservice to communication. If you only allow yourself to describe your experiences by what you completely, absolutely believe to be true and real, you limit your options for language and communication, and it becomes harder to find the words to describe yourself. Describing two of our kintypes, We might say that We are/We feel like a violin that gained a soul, and then that soul got stretched into a dragon shape before being put into my body. Do We one hundred percent believe that this is what definitely, literally happened? No! We're using poetry to try to communicate something that doesn't really fit any words at all! We're gesturing in the general direction of what's going on with our identity so that others can understand it enough. They might never understand it perfectly, but that's okay, they just have to get the gesture.

I can't really blame people for being so concerned about what is "real"; tangible, probable "reality" is what people use to hurt us, after all, whether that's casual mockery or psychiatric institutionalization, all because our beliefs don't align with "objective reality". But I think we (honestly, both inside and outside the alterhuman community) should become more comfortable with the idea of something being a gesture at whatever's really going on, or an imperfect attempt at communicating something that might be impossible to perfectly communicate. It's language, not reality. Communication is messy and identity is messy; don't make up rules for yourself, make some poetry to express yourself. The world of language is your curtain of worms on a string; even if what you make looks silly, if it brings you joy and helps you express yourself, then that's what really matters.

[tieflingkisser]

[lesbianslimefriend]

here's where to find it on windows 10

[the-tiny-dragons-tea-room]

Ugh, it was in mine. It's off now.

[the-tiny-dragons-tea-room]

IT GETS WORSE

I had to turn this off, but it's something that allows Windows and anyone using your device to generate text/images.

LOBOTOMIZE YOUR MACHINES

[marougus-the-dragon]

AI is a freacking plague, I share this for any windows user.

[doubleca5t]

Listen, fellow trans women, I love you all, but if you think that trans men or transmascs are an oppressor class you need to log the fuck off because you are being brainpoisoned by discourse-mongers. That is a legitimately rocks for brains take

[art-res]

Pose Maniacs

http://posemaniacs.com

Requires flash to rotate the models, but hella worth it in my opinion

Learn how to draw dynamic poses with these 25+ anatomy tutorials

[necrozmi]

Lunaith⠀⠀❀⠀⠀When the Moon is simply a fact of one's existence or identity. It may feel that, without moonlight, there'd be no you.

@indeacy, @poppiesong, @snugmutt, @byte-bank, @baikalsealic, @fleurvoidteacollective, @the-novalunosis-hoard, @daintykills, @hiyocutie 🤍

[hyposerenia]

[approaching-the-scrungularity-d]

May I suggest participating in the sacred game of Pretend? Wear cat ears! Wear elf ears! Wear frog ears, whatever that means! Become a Priest of the Holy Lemon, may her reign be ever sour! Talk to the alien bird-dog that lives in your bottom drawer and eats compliments!- aww, isn't he cute? The world around us is entrenched in the war between A Harsh and Unchosen Reality and a Shiny Distracting Advertising Nightmare- but hey! Look down here! The piskies are still robbing the cookie jar. They never left. The water still remembers how to make rainbows, if only you would walk through them. When did cardboard stop being gold? Why doesn't a star-flecked scarf make you a wizard? Who told you that there are no unicorns on Mars? Please, don't leave us here. The storytellers, the mad mages and triumphant heroes, the things under your bed, the small and fearsome childhood gods- the Man in Red, the Pearly Keeper, Spring Court's Fool, the Grove-hidden- we are here! We only ever hoped you would still believe in us, after all that you've done, after all that's happened to you. But children so quickly fall into the Real World, and no-one remembers us there. Come on, then- Pretend is waiting. We'll wait forever if we must. But don't you think there are dragons in those hills?

[star-pup-idol]

The One Face, Many Masks Theory

Note: this post isn't meant to invalidate or attack anyone's personal concept or beliefs. This is simply me putting a name to an idea I've seen floating around and think more people should know about! This also isn't a roleplay concept, but rather a spiritual practice.

Irl magical girls are an incredibly varied practice. There's more concepts than most can count, and everyone will define the experience slightly differently. The theory of One Face, Many Masks is simply one way of thinking about the practice.

The way that most magical heroes will describe their practices falls under energy and entity work. Most will say something to the effect of fighting embodiments of negative energy, emotions or similar such things

There are a wide variety in how these embodiments present, and it will be entirely different concept to concept. The theory presented in this post is that all the things that heroes fight are the same, just being shaped into different forms

What may appear as a witch to one person may appear as a curse to the next. In this theory, whatever you're fighting, it's rooted in the same energy and is likely the same entity.

For example, some worry that by becoming a magical girl, they are creating the negative entities they will then fight. This of course isn't the case, you are simply giving a name and face to something that already existed.

Similarly, this quells concerns about there being a true Real And Valid™ concept. Just because an entity is wearing a certain mask doesn't mean it's less real than a different mask.

Finally, this allows us to see how connected we all are. If we're fighting the same monsters, we're not alone. We're together in this fight, even if what we're fighting looks different or has a different name. In the end, we all have the same goal.

Personally I've experienced evidence of this theory. I'm someone who has changed concepts a lot. I also use taglocking to find and fight my enemies. Frequently a taglock will still have a hostile entity attached to it even after I switch concepts. It will change with my perception of my magic

I'm definitely not the first to think of this, I'm just sticking a name to the idea! I may not even be the first to give it a name lol. I'm very open to further discussion, feel free to share your thoughts I'd love to hear them (⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠)