I have two specific pages of my blog theme for my info and my tagging system, but I have been made aware that those aren't visible on mobile, so I'm condensing that info here!.
You can call me by my title, Sir Ebdoma of Rhodes, or you can simply call me Protesilaus, or Pro! I also go by my kin names, so Vander, Warwick, and Joel are all safe bets. I use He/Him pronouns.
I am primarily Protesilaus Ebdoma, from The Locked Tomb, Warwick / Vander, from both Arcane and League of Legends, and Joel Miller from TLOU (game and show). Other kins are listed on my blog!
This is a sideblog, but I collect all my mutuals on my about page. This page also has an extended version of this introduction, a list of my kins, and more. You can find it here! I also have a page on all my tags, which you can find here!
Feel free to follow & to send in messages, asks, or to @ me in posts you feel pertain to my interests! I am very open to making friends!. Feel free to send in anonymous asks as well - If you use a sign-off, I’ll tag with that. If I reblog an ask game, send stuff in! Doubles, non-kins, and others are welcome to follow as well.
Nothing on this blog should be unsafe for minors, but generally I'm most comfortable with interactions being of those 18+. Just personal preference!
I don't really have a DNI but it goes without saying don't interact if you are a bigot of any kind, or if you are anti-kin. If you post NSFW content that I cannot blacklist, or you engage in a lot of discourse, I also probably won't follow. Other than that, you should be good!
Decided to go ahead and create an interest form to see if this project is even possible. Please reblog, especially if you are interested
What is the project? It is an idea to create a published book anthology of alterhuman short stories, poetry, etc. I will also be looking for artists for page illustrations and covers
This is not a guarantee you will get in or that the project is currently launching, it is simply to gather interest to see if the project ca
Community Connections: Be Together With Other People
I've been chewing on someone my senior in the alterhuman community by ~7 years telling me I dashed their dreams with my work, by being fast at what I do and doing it well. Noel thinks it's just a hold-over of me butting heads with greymuzzles and old hats (something I begrudgingly admit I may never stop doing despite my best efforts). But I think it's an endemic issue within the community of people not feeling supported or confident in doing the things they wanna do.
I don't think I need to get quieter for other people to be heard, but I think we all need to help others get louder and have the confidence to be more consistent and unafraid. It's been proven to me again and again over the years that developing resources and guides in supportive environments helps to encourage people to step outside their comfort zones; people become confident enough to create wonderfully inspired things. We've seen it with the renaissance of personal websites, webrings, and zines. We've seen it with the spontaneous development of panels at conventions, including our own.
I think the idea that people just aren't interested in doing projects or writing long-form anymore (as though it's a generational problem, or a problem attributed to the direction the community's evolved in, or that it's something caused by a small handful of people being very active in the community) isn't wholly accurate, but I do feel like there are environmental factors that are making it easier or harder for folks to do those things. And while we can't change things like platform limitations--which is a comment more relevant to bsky and Mastodon than anywhere else--we can still make sure our communities are welcoming spaces that lift one another up. We can make engaging with others and jumping into something that's a lot of work (but a lot of fun) more approachable. We can show people that taking a leap of faith with a zine, or essay, or con, or band, or whatever, is going to be worthwhile to pursue. We can make this community feel not "us vs. them" but "us vs. all our problems, together."
We can do this just by talking to each other. Engaging with one another. Just by being friendly and amicable, sharing the things we're passionate about, and being unabashedly, genuinely ourselves. It doesn't take a fancy skill set to make folks feel welcome and to be supportive, and it's something that everyone can--and should--do. I think our community already does great at providing baseline resources, but we still need to remember to not be afraid to reach out and connect with the people we see in the day-to-day in our social media spaces, too. Don't be afraid to talk to that guy who has the same 'type as you. Don't hesitate to tell someone you really like their comic, or essay, or whatever they've made and shared. Don't stop yourself from jumping into a group or project that you're really excited to see! The point of any community is to be together, so be together with other people. Don't let yourself fall victim to the feeling of shouting into a void. Reach out across that bleak expanse of 0's and 1's!
I know my mantra for the last like ten years has been "JUST WRITE!" but I also want people to take away "JUST BE YOU! JUST HAVE FUN!" from the stuff I say. There is genuine euphoria to be found in participating in the community and rolling around in the mud with your peers. You will come out better for the friendships and connections you build when you put yourself out there and intentionally reach out to others. And in all of us doing this, together, we build a stronger foundation and a brighter future for the alterhumans who come after us. Our campfire burns higher and our voices carry farther when we scramble around leaving tracks with one another, and when we hoist each other up on our shoulders.
I just realized something that's a bit out of the ordinary for what I've seen, but I don't know if it's just because of small sample size?
Statistically, when I see people talking about wings (particularly feeling their own phantom wings), they're talking about them aching, or hurting, or being uncomfortable being against something. Nine out of ten times I see someone talking about wings, they're talking about them being uncomfortable.
But my experience with my wings is much more euphoric. I feel them most when they're emoting for me. (This has happened a LOT in the S/era shift; I'm almost constantly aware of them moving, laying certain ways, especially ''dancing'' to music for some reason?)
In raven shifts, they're a source of delight. I most often feel them at rest, but sometimes I'll feel them flutter in excitement or affection, or flare wide when I'm startled. (I tend to actually throw my arms out when I'm startled in bird shifts. It made my sibling laugh out loud once.)
Even as Li|ith (C|awthorne), where the wings were originally a side-effect of something deeply guilty for me, something I took on myself after traumatizing my own sister... They were never SOLELY uncomfortable. They worried me in those shifts, hell the first time my astral form shifted to "the raven beast" (well before it was shown in canon, possibly even before I kinsidered Li|ith???), it was tied to a lot of negative emotion, but the wings were a response to the negative emotion. Does that make sense? The wings didn't make me uncomfortable. Their presence was a response to feeling bad already.
But even with that shift, I made my peace with it. (I wish I could remember how... but all I know is that it didn't work for me the way it worked for Ed|a. I think mine was goofier.)
Anyways, rather than the presence of my wings causing pain or discomfort, they bring me peace and joy. I stretched today, after watching some of HH and thus deepening my S/era shift, and the stretching made me feel my wings even more vividly! Feeling physically less tense and achy brought my wings into sharp awareness. My experience with my wings is made vivider through joy rather than pain.
So is it really that common for phantom wings to cause people pain? Have I only been in spaces where people vent rather than share euphoria? Am I an outlier in that feeling my wings is a pleasant experience rather than painful, or are the wider pleasant experiences just not crossing my (admittedly small) circle? A mixed bag, perhaps?
(@protesilaus-ebdoma Tagging you because you have so many winged kintypes, and I know you've said they're different experiences before!)
I have a fair mix of both experiences I'd say. Though mostly my feeling of wings is positive to neutral, it leans positive. I have had achy / tense wing shifts (though, never overtly painful) but it's very rare (and to be fair, usually not the fault of the wings but all-over achy feels, so I don't know to what degree it counts). I don't think I've had an overtly uncomfortable wing shift though, mostly when they come it's not really due to turbulent emotions, rather the opposite.
The only achy wing-shifts I've had are in Baghera shifts, where my wings were once damaged but had healed. When I feel those they can be particularly sensitive but again, never really stinging pain, just a dull sense of discomfort. But even then, those are a rarer occurance than just neutrality to comfort with feeling them there
For my other winged kintypes it's only ever really a positive experience. Spreading my wings when I stretch, moving to wrap my wings around myself by instinct. Pretty positive
I do wonder if that's because a lot of my wings have been spectral/gilded/otherwise only semi-biological? (don't know the proper terms there, lol) So I guess there's also just less opportunity for discomfort?
It's certainly an interesting case study. Though, I do anticipate that the reason a lot of talk about wings being negative is simply because people enjoy venting their issues.
Thanks for the tag!
On Glimpses of Genderfluidity in a Polykin Context
AKA: I Can't Hold All These Genders, So I Dropped Them All
This is a personal essay detailing my experience with gender as a polykin fictionkin and therian, when my kintypes' genders are all different and I still want nothing to do with them. I'm still agender!
Kintypes discussed will include Blue Diamond from Steven Universe, Ryou Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh, Harrowhark Nonagesimus of The Locked Tomb, and a northern raven.
Content warnings: This essay largely focuses on disconnection from the concept of gender. While I won't go into details nor share explicit facts, I also make a reference to the kintype's genital configuration not aligning with my physical body's. Sources discussed at length will include Steven Universe, Yu-Gi-Oh, and The Locked Tomb. Memory suppression and dissociation will be mentioned. I also briefly mention injuries, lost loved ones, and exotrauma, though this isn't an essay about all that.
Spoiler alerts: Mild spoilers for Yu-Gi-Oh (particularly Memory World) and Steven Universe, and there's a massive spoiler for Harrow the Ninth.
Word count: 3,036 words
Tone: Casual, personal, introspective, euphoric, quick mentions of sad things but we're focusing on the contemplative parts here.
* Special thanks: This essay was inspired by the wonderful essay entitled "Dehumanization, Magic, and the Broodmother Instinct: Welcome to Khadgar’s Wild Gender" by Khadgar Chromatath of the DWW, as published in the Draconity 2025 Zine on itchio. Link to the whole zine below (it's free!):
A draconic community zine
--
I don't know how to write an introduction, and I despise the English class practice of summarizing the whole document in your introductory paragraph (especially with how long this got, dear Azar), and really, the summary's directly above this section, so let's just dive in.
Overall, in this particular life on this particular plane, I identify as agender. No gender. Absolutely null. Do not gender me. You cannot gender me in a way that matters. This is why my pronoun list is full of nonbinary neo sets; I strongly prefer sets like xe/xir and ey/em over they/them, but I'll accept they/them because in English, and I do mean prescriptivist standardized scholastically-accepted English, it's understood to be the default pronoun when the gender of the subject is unknown.
Not that that's what I base my language preferences on; I am very much a descriptivist myself, through and through! But what I mean is, it's widely and commonly understood by speakers of this language that you use they/them when the gender is unknown. "Someone left their grocery bag at the checkout. Do you think they'll be back for it?"
An unknown is almost like a null variable, right?
The thing is, it's not always that simple. Especially not in 'kin shifts. I get glimpses of gender, like far-off anomalies passing me by. Stars seen in the constellation of my sky, but never landing on solid ground. Their gravity pulls me, but I never make direct contact. They never really connect the way other aspects of my kintypes do. The wings, the magic, the emotions: all of these are immensely impactful, deep, recurring aspects of my kintypes that evoke further emotions and phantom sensations and the kind of longing known intimately to those with hearthomes and remembered friends they'll never see again.
But gender is always a passing thought that never settles in to stay.
--
Blue Diamond
Or, Non-Binary Femininity from an Alien Without the Concept of Gender
Let me open with the kintype whose gender I understand best in this life thanks to ample noemata.
Funnily enough, when I was "kinsidering" a canon Steven Universe Gem, but unsure which one, exactly, the first pronoun that awakened me was accidentally thinking of Blue Diamond with the pronoun "I" instead of "she". Also a "my" instead of "her." I was shocked at myself! But then I realized how "right" it felt. How appropriate. And when it came to gendered pronouns regarding Blue Diamond, "she/her" never felt wrong.
This is a departure from my typical setting (in the current life). I had never felt like I was particularly a girl, though growing up I also never felt like I was supposed to be a boy, either. Neither one of them fit me. Neither one felt like the category I belonged to. While I'd never experienced dysphoria arising from this body's hormone-based system, I never connected to it either. The day--the MOMENT--I saw the term "nonbinary", I felt gender euphoria for the very first time in my life. My worldview had been blown wide open! And once again, I finally found a label that fit me the day I saw, and understood the meaning through my study of etymology, the word "agender" and its glorious, comfortable, accurate, self-fulfilling lack of any gender at all!
So let's take a look at my gender as Blue Diamond now: I understand that to make the Gems a mostly feminine-presenting woman-shaped species was an intentional choice in this world, here and now, where that source is a work of fiction, and there is meaning in that. Representation is an important endeavor in art, after all!
But in my timeline as a Gem, it wasn't a conscious choice. She/her pronouns weren't chosen because Gems are inherently female; we called ourselves "she" and "her" in English because that was what the native dominant species on Earth called us in their language when we arrived. Something with the curved silhouettes of most Gem types, I suppose.
I don't recall much of Gem language, aside from its overall vibes (both in the meanings of "mood" and the literal shortening of the word "vibrations"; we didn't always communicate through mouths in sounds within the range of human hearing). But I don't think there was ever a gendered distinction. Gems in my timeline were sexless, genderless, and thought to be, in our ideal form, free of romantic attraction. (At least during Eras 1 and 2. Era 3 was very eye-opening, as you can imagine if you've seen the source. But that's a whole other essay for another time.)
So "gender" wasn't really on my radar. It wasn't a concept we had in Gemkind, and exploring one's individual identity wasn't ever really... encouraged, or even known about to many of our race for a long, long time. Self-perception didn't matter; what mattered was the perception of your duties and your skills by your supervisors (at least in my court; Yellow was a micro-manager but I delegated), and the contributions of "you" (meaning your entire gemtype) to the Empire.
I don't say this to endorse it; Eras 1 and 2 were hard on us all. But especially, cruelly, on those who tried to be Different. Too deviant from the norm. Too individualized. Those with these sorts of thoughts, should they reveal them to the wrong Gem, were punished. To develope one's own gender, and worse, talk about it, would have been to invite shattering.
So fast-forward a few dozen centuries, and enter Era 3. I was never particularly enamored of humans, or their concepts; once the Earth was no longer slated to be destroyed and I had no desire to "keep" Pink's favorite species preserved and sequestered away, I was happy to release them. I don't think I ever really cavorted or consorted with them. They were as alien to me as I them.
Now, I don't have a lot of specific memories from Era 3. I know things Happened, but nothing like the upheaval of my entire belief system, or understanding of myself that happened at the end of Era 2.
I don't think I had a "gender awakening". I was content with my gender being, basically, a Gem. Arguably, my "gender" was Diamond. It was certainly on that level of self-identification and self-perception, even after the title was stripped of social expectations.
Now, to perceive it in this world, I feel Blue Diamond's gender as a femme-presenting flavor on my usual agender spectrum. It's an absence of gender where the part of self-identification that usually lives in gender is taken up by identification of things like my projected form, and my pathokinesis, and my fellow Diamonds. Possibly a xenogender, if I understand the term correctly.
It feels like an effortless understanding, too, and I think Blue Diamond is the most comfortable shift to be in gender-wise because I presented in a way that aligns with my gender presentation in this life, with long hair and shapely skirts and overall draping clothes, and I wear a lot more blue (which many people in this life say flatters me). But it is, overall, a "null" sort of return if I investigated what gender I sensed in myself.
It's like still being agender, if only the flag was blue!
--
Ryou Bakura
Or, Shifts With Masculinity that Rolled High on Stealth
Another fictotype I discovered several years ago came to me after a very rough months-long kinsidering process on the heels of reawakened exotrauma. I'll spare you the gory details. (If nothing else, I don't like to relive them...) But this is where the dissociation, memory loss, and memory suppression warnings come in.
I can't remember exactly what my gender was as Ryou Bakura. I genuinely just don't. That exotrauma I mentioned? In that life... (Oh, how can I even begin explaining the complicated entanglement of reincarnation in Yu-Gi-Oh...?) Well, let's just say that I have three kintypes from that same timeline, one of which is a reincarnation of another several millennia later. In the later life, I had memories of the earlier life. They didn't come to me often, but they were often emotionally laden, and thus greatly distressing.
They'd sneak up on me as flashbacks, or as awful night terrors. But the worst past was, I didn't know where they were coming from. They would leave me devastated, frightened, often in tears. My heart would be torn to shreds, and I wouldn't know WHY.
(The spirit of the Ring was never very forthcoming to me.)
What I do remember, and vividly, is that I was desperate to make these memories stop. I took an occult approach, and I performed a spell to block out the memories. And it WORKED.
(I lament that I don't remember which method I used, because now I have trouble recovering any specific memories from that life, and they tend to fade back into the forgotten when I DO remember anything--if I don't immediately write it down. But at least performing my own workings in THIS life because I was desperate to recover memories of Pink Diamond seems to have helped with regathering memories from Ryou, too?)
Anyways, my point is, those memories are locked behind some kind of emotional paywall and I can't often access them. To get back on topic in this essay: This includes memories of my gender.
I'm pretty sure I was some flavor of cis man. It was never something I put very much thought towards, though. Perhaps I wasn't the most introspective person...
I do remember one strange night, in this life, when I was very deep in a Ryou shift, and it came with a phantom shift of genitals that don't align with this body. And I didn't feel much at all about them. Certainly no dysphoria or revulsion, which I'm grateful for. Just a moment of surprise when I expected them to be there, and they weren't.
It didn't come with any particular attachment to the idea of gender associated with them though, masculinity or otherwise. Just a vague acknowledgement that, "Okay, so I guess I wasn't trans..." But at the same time, the disconnect from an identity of masculinity made me wonder even about that. Because could I have been nonbinary, maybe?
The tricky thing with Ryou is that alongside the voluntary memory suppression, I also struggled with dissociation and depersonalization. I wasn't always terribly aware of what I was thinking or feeling. Partially because of the spell to divorce memories and thoughts and feelings away from myself, I struggled to separate even the things I do remember from a general haze of vagueness. (There was also some trauma wound up in that, post-canon, but perhaps not as much as one would expect after being impaled and repeatedly possessed against my will...)
Anyways, I don't remember any strong feelings of gender, aside from maybe a sort of acceptance. Not resignation, exactly, and certainly not celebration. But I don't remember feeling anything about it whatsoever, aside from thinking of myself as a boy, a man.
I certainly wasn't terribly masculine, though. I was soft-spoken, quiet, and generally content to go along with whatever my friends wanted to do. I had my passions, of course! Games, especially ttrpgs and the eerie or occult side of Duel Monsters were my favorites, that's canon as hell and it aligns beautifully with my memories to the point of affecting how I play Yu-Gi-Oh in this life, too.
I'll spare you the infodump. But those were the things that made me happy. My games, my friends, my cooking, my collections, my magic, and my memories from THAT life, my life as Ryou, that I wanted to cherish, like memories of my deceased mother and sister.
I can't remember feeling either euphoric or dysphoric towards my gender; I suppose it simply wasn't anything I wanted to put much thought towards. Or never had to. It was probably why I had so many girls as suitors though.
--
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House
Or, Femininity in an Inherently Queer Future
You want to know the funniest part? That wasn't even the only time I suppressed my memories! (Or maybe that's the saddest part...)
Unfortunately this describes another kin life when I had memory issues, and the memories I do recover come with a question of reliability. Except, unlike with Ryou, I don't generally enjoy exploring them, anyways. I have very little desire to.
From the moment I kinsidered Harrowhark, I was railing against it. I did NOT want to be Harrowhark. I hated the idea of it to my core. Alas, this was, in fact, further proof of being Harrowhark. I've largely barred myself from Harrow-shifting as best I can; though deeper shifts come with inexplicable eradication of my kinetosis, gastritis symptoms, and dyscalculia, they also bring a deep dysthymia, irascible irritability, and have a negative effect on my mental health, absolutely tanking my mood.
I do know one thing, though: I identified as a woman, and there was never a question about it that I can recall.
I've seen arguments, essays even, amongst the fandom arguing that the binary of Necromancer and Cavalier roles (as high-status professions that could define one's life) takes the place of the male/female gender roles, and I don't agree. To take the place of it, one would have to completely remove the acknowledgement, expectations, and assumptions associated with the prior binary state. I don't see any evidence of that having happened. I will concede that they play a similar role in social and behavioral expectations, and it is fascinating to consider, but I very much had personal feelings and attraction to certain "genders" as the social construct we know today. Not to mention, FAR too many people lie outside that binary. Very few people were a Necro OR a Cav. (Especially if you look OUTSIDE the Nine Houses.)
Again, I'll spare you the infodump. But I know I was a woman, and I knew it then, and I knew it of those I felt attraction to.
I'm not convinced there was any "euphoria" in that, aside from it being a part of Me, and I had to be valuable, I had a desperate pride bordering on arrogance, whoever and however I was. The entire experience of just being Harrowhark came with a lot of dysphoria. Not gender dysphoria, mind you, but dysphoria in the classic Greek sense. Dysthymia to a greater degree. Comingled with great pride. It's a weird and complicated mix, and I don't think I have the emotional intelligence to explain it. But the dysphoria certainly did NOT come from my gender.
It does get interesting to think about, though.
The vast majority of my memories are from life on the Ninth House. Where I was born; where I was raised; where my heart and loyalty was for so long. There's rarely any clarity to them; certain glimpses, certain feelings.
This particular life is supposed to take place at LEAST 10,000 years into the future from modern day. (I suspect a bit longer, considering... Everything That Happened before the so-called Man Who Became God turned himself into ~Emperor~ John Gaius. But I am once again telling myself to spare you the infodump, because that one gets nasty and bitter anyways.)
What does queerness look like in this future? Textual canon of the books in this world certainly don't show any evidence of queerphobia. Despite my insistence that the gender roles persisted, neither is there shown any backlash for failing to fit oneself inside a little gendered box. Different Houses (societies on different planets) had different boxes.
Gender evolved.
I don't think I was ever subjected to the same expectations as the average young woman, though. I don't really have any meaningful memories, let alone commentary, of the specifics. I'm always intensely distracted by Everything Else when I'm reading the books, so I've never been able to compile evidence against the "Gender is Now Necro/Cav" argument.
I suppose the only concrete thing I have to offer you regarding my life as Harrowhark is "trust me, gender in general was different", and I kind of hate that lack of depth for both of us. I was a woman, and so preoccupied with being a necromancer, a prodigy, an unhinged trapdoor in the lives of those around me, that I don't know what being a woman meant, except that I was one and I didn't have time to question it.
--
A Northern Raven
Or, Soaring Beyond Human Gender Expectations
Now let's stretch the concept of gender just a little bit further: my theriotype as a northern raven isn't even remotely humanoid. While I do believe the nonhuman animals extant here-and-now are sentient, they aren't SAPIENT, and that's a deviation from my usual kintypes.
It was the first kintype I ever discovered, and one of the last genders I discovered. I am a raven therian: I remember setting eggs, and raising nestlings. (I've even been thrown into a raven shift on the bus, simply by grocery bags between my feet on the ground, because it reminded me of setting eggs!)
I think I must have been female based on behavior, but there's a disconnect between what is female to the raven and what is female to modern human society (regardless of which society we look at, it is different). There are no expectations or accusations; just understanding that this is what we were doing, and this is what our babies needed. My female-ness didn't extend beyond much other than egg duties and receptivity in courtship. It wasn't a source of euphoria or dysphoria. It wasn't anything I was aware of.
I did like raising our babies. I liked when they would be playful. I liked the subtle artistry of building our first nest.
But I also liked flying, and bobbing on evergreen branches if I landed too suddenly, and watching the world from high above.
I was a sentry, a scout, guardian of my kin. Being male or female didn't affect the important things like my vigilance, or my unkindness [i.e., raven flock], or my quick response to threats. As long as my throat and lungs worked, it didn't matter to the bird whether I was male or female, cis or trans, conformative or queer. As long as I could call out when there was a hawk or human, I was respected.
I was a raven, I was trusted, and I was among friends. That was what mattered.
Journaling Prompts for Nonhumans, Therians, Otherkin, etc.
These are purposefully non-specific, make them more specific as needed.
What led you toward identifying as other than human? Is it a voluntary or involuntary expression for you? Explain why?
What about you, your personality, and mannerisms naturally feel nonhuman compared to others? Do other people notice the difference?
What do you identify as and how did you come to that conclusion? Describe your kintype(s) in detail.
How does your identity play into your everyday life? Do you make an effort to include it in your daily life?
How do you affirm your nonhumanity mentally, how do you do it physically?
Do you still feel a connection with humanity? If so, when do you most feel it? Is it a positive or negative experience?
Where would be the most ideal environment to live in where you could express your non-humanity? If you have a hearthome, describe it in detail.
What do you think society would look like if nonhumanity was a widely accepted expression of self?
If you've identified as something other than human for a long time, how has your expression of that identity changed over time?
If you've only recently begun identifying as nonhuman, how do you predict your expression of your identity will change over the years?
Do you believe individuals belonging to certain demographics (poc, neurodiverse, younger generations, etc) are more likely to identify with nonhumanity over others? Why or why not?
Does your nonhumanity influence how you interact with others? If so, how, and do you make an attempt to manage it?
Do you view yourself equal to, above, or below humans in any regard? Why?
What is the oddest thing that brings you euphoria related to your identity?
What is your most favorite item or activity that brings you euphoria?
If you had the ability to change into your kintype (or alternate nonhuman form), would you do so permanently, or would you want the ability to shift between your human and nonhuman form? Explain your choice?
If you had the choice to live entirely separate from humanity, would you take it? Where would you want to go? Is there anything you would miss about humanity?
What do you believe the origin of your nonhumanity is? Do you believe it's different for everyone?
Are you a social or solitary species? How does this affect you in your day to day life?
Do you have nonhuman friends? What are they like, how did you meet, and how does interacting with other nonhumans affect you?
If you don't have other nonhuman friends, do you want them? Why or why not? Would you want to make friends with those of a specific type?
Do you have dreams, visions, memories, etc. Of yourself in your nonhuman form? Explain them in detail?
Where is your favorite place or safe space to express your identity openly?
Do you have a den/nest/burrow etc. If so, describe its appearance in detail along with what about it makes you feel safe and comfortable.
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.
Definitions
A quick guide to fictionfolk terminology by @aestherians
A fictionfolk glossary by the Dragonheart Collective
Primers
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
A couple guides to avoiding faux pas & treating your fictive friends with respect.
By the Quicksilver System
By Sprites
History
A Timeline of the Fictionkin Community, by @houseofchimeras
Pluralpedia on where the word fictive came from, researched largely by LB Lee & sobqjmv
Questioning
Questioning guide for fictionkin, by DoctorCorby
The Big List Of Fictionkind Experiences, by 375-6
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
Been musing on names lately - in particular, whether or not I want an alternate name for my gorilla-self or not.
I 100% understand why people often do pick alternative names for themselves as therian/otherkin, but for me personally, my thoughts boil down to two things:
I already picked my "human" name because I'm trans, so the name I go by in my day-to-day life feels like it belongs to me/is one I identify with
If I were born a theriform gorilla, I would not have any sort of spoken or written name (except a nickname from wildlife biologists who might study me, maybe lol). My "name" would be my scent, my personality, my presence - maybe a certain inflection in a contact call. So giving that part of myself a different written/spoken moniker almost feels pointless?
Anyone else feel this way? Or care to share how and why you chose the name you did as it relates to your alterhumanity? I'd love to hear some perspectives!
I chose my name so it could fit both my human life and my reality as a whale!
It's meaning has connections to water and I find it to be a nice name! Since people need to call me something, whether online or not, why not pick something that can relate to my nonhumanity? No matter if it's in a very small way! This way I won't resent the name for being "too human" if that makes sense.
I'm lucky to, as a fictionkin, sort of have a plethora of names, but I do feel like for my kin identities that do not have names I feel little need to name them, primarily because there are so many options for people to call me by that I don't see the need, but also because I find names to be an important part of the experience of being kin (when someone refers to me by a kin name it feels more impactful to me or more true than a name I might use outside of kin spaces? I don't know how to describe it) so I would struggle to ascribe a name for much of the same reasons, It wouldn't accurately represent that facet of me. But I find all perspectives incredibly interesting!
where every other week, or maybe once a month?? On some Thursday, for the fun of it, i post an essay assignment or thoughtful prompt
Things to give fellow community members a starting point to begin their own self reflection, or stir polite conversation?? Something to help spur on deeper thought n break up the current post trends within the current tumblr therian/otherkin scene
Im not sure if many folk would engage with it, but I think it may be fun for me
Making a post about ig cause if anyone has any ideas, thoughts, or possible prompts/points to put out- id love to hear it :]!!
How fun to share another source! I had been kinsidering Husk for quite some time and after seeing the second season confirmed for myself that it was true. I'm not a fanatic for the source material but something clicked when watching for me.
- Pro ( @protesilaus-ebdoma )
Hello again, Pro, and it's fun indeed! The second season had the same effect on me, though I wasn't kinsidering from season 1. Just paying the most attention to scenes that Sera was in. But while I'm not a fanatic either, season 2 definitely made something click for me too.
Ha, and yet another one with wings for you, too! I've asked you before about your experience with different wings. From one wing-haver to another, what's it like with Husk? (And are you new to having a tail?)
It's quite interesting actually! The wings themselves are quite similar in form to my certain other kins, I tend to trend birdlike apparently (though, always just shy of a full bird funnily enough), but unlike other wings which are more manifest there's a weird sort of spectral nature, I'm not sure how to describe
It's possible it's an effect of them being phantom wings to begin with, but unlike other shifts with wings theyre much less ever-present? Probably a product of the fact that I was able to summon them at will to begin with.
Not new to having a tail but it is a different shift over all when it comes to physicality. Many of my shifts, Husk being one, come with this muscle memory of moving to grab or stabilize with a tail or wings that aren't there. I imagine this is a commonality for those with phantom shifts of prehensile limbs or just more precise limbs in general? Even outside the realms of alter humanity I can't fathom why there hasn't been more investment into making some sort of prehensile tail attachment/accessory tech. It would be so convenient! One can dream, I suppose
Otherhuman doesn’t mean otherkin. Otherhuman doesn’t mean “Other than human”. Otherhuman is not synonymous with nonhumanity in any way. They are antonyms, if anything.
Otherhuman is a label for individuals who are human or experience humanity, but not in the sense of (ortho)humanity as it is currently known.
An otherhuman could be from another group of pre-existing human beings, such as Homo habilis or Homo neanderthalensis.
An otherhuman could be someone who is a human being from another version of Earth, however that may be.
An otherhuman could be a human character, be them canonical or non-canonical to the narrative. And yes, this also includes human OCs.
An otherhuman could be a human being or a member of a human-like group in a fictional world (ex: Tallmen in Dungeon Meshi, various races of Men in The Elder Scrolls, etc).
These are just a few examples of what otherhumanity can look like. So please, and I say this being both human and nonhuman myself, stop posting about nonhumanity under a tag/label that is about being human. Otherhumans and human alterhumans in general deserve a space to discuss, rant, make memes, and do just about anything else you see other communities do, too.
So, I've seen a lot of amazing templates made for otherkin on here, and I was inspired (especially by the template made by @/nyctohyloph0bia!) to make my own.
I wanted this template to be extremely in-depth, so I tried to include as many questions as I could think of.
This was made with fictionkin in mind, but anyone can use it! I only ask that if you do, please show me in reblogs so I can see!!! :)
(Also, please don't crop my username at the top off, that's for crediting purposes.)
