People have been talking about the need to discuss non-kin alterhuman experiences so here's a quick ramble about my otherheartedness and the peculiar dysphoria that's been difficult to treat that accompanies it for me.
Otherheartedness for me is... interesting. It's far more of an emotional experience than being otherkin, honestly. In both good ways and bad.
It's peace and wonder because they are something that is real, whether as a flesh-and-blood creature or as a well-loved concept often honored in art and writing. It's being able to look at them (or even bask in thier presence if they're Earthen) for hours on end without being bored. It's feeling as though your love for them forms a core part of your identity and you wouldn't be You without it.)
It's feeling a hole within because no matter what efforts you make to claim thier beauty as your own you will never truly Become, never be able to see yourself as one in a way that feels natural and effortless (I still claim them as link types but the dissonance is probably always going to be there and it Hurts). It's surrounding yourself with thier shape in the form of figurines, art, jewelry, even clothing (good old Mountain T Shirts before thier quality fell off a cliff...) to feel a bit of thier power and presence and hope that in some way, somehow, some of it will finally rub off on you and calm that yearning itch in your mind.
