#althu expression

[interstellarsystem]

Nonhuman expressions of affection are great. Purring. Exposing weak points as a show of trust. Head bonks. Preening and chewing. Nuzzling. Biting. Intertwining tails. Feeding each other. Little chuffs, chatters, beeps and squeaks. Fluffing up of feathers, fur or other things. Dancing to impress. Cleaning their fur, scales, feathers or skin. Sharing body heat. Ears pointing toward those you care about to show your full attention is on them. Slow blinking.

[interstellarsystem]

There's not much in the world that gets a majority of us to feel super creaturey or animalistic that compares to just.... Cracking open a hard boiled egg. Which might seem so simple and so benign, but I think it taps into a lot of our foraging and hunting instincts at the same time.

It's so good. You grab something, crack it open and eat the stuff inside, which can all be pretty easily done with just your hands. Like cracking into a walnut or crunching a bone. It's just one of the best nonhuman euphoria foods possible to eat because it feels like a more involved process than just eating a steak. And we like meat and even fruits and vegetables more than we like eggs, we don't really enjoy egg for the taste--it's the experience that gets us.

We're not even sure what 'type of ours this would relate to, but it's a pretty universally animalistic experience across the board. Maybe our collective dragon 'type ate eggs from others' nests? Maybe it's some sort of bird thing? Hard to tell. But it's definitely a thing. Would recommend.

[interstellarsystem]

Honestly we're looking into getting more species-affirming clothing and accessories. Not just obvious gear either. Tails and ears can be good, but... It's so nice to be able to wear colours that remind you of your fur/feathers/scales/skin or jewellery with something reminiscent of who you really are on it.

We ended up getting some paw socks that have cartoon cat paws on them and honestly? The markings themselves feel so much more creature than our human feet, even though we're not all cats or even things with paws.

Wearing fingerless gloves makes us feel like we have different markings on our hands which is species affirming for a lot of people in here.

Even just wearing a simple red unzipped jacket with a black shirt underneath makes Merlin feel so much more like he has his cardinal feathers.

We really underestimated the joy that species affirming clothing can give, even if it's not quite you or not quite accurate. Even if it's just regular clothes hiding human features. Even if it's regular clothes in the right colours. Anything closer to our actual individual bodies feels so much better.

[interstellarsystem]

Get yourself a partner who loves your nonhuman features and will give you nice chin scritches, appreciate all of your floof, and understand that head bonks mean you want to be pet.

[interstellarsystem]

Custom pins! We got these made for us and we love em. We needed a plural and alterhuman flag pin so bad.

Pins, in order are...

Top row: Our singletsona (Interstellar), one of our ocs (Sbeve), another of our ocs (Snap), our system symbol.

Bottom row: Plural rings with the text "more than one", the alterhuman flag, the disability flag, the demiromantic flag.

[interstellarsystem]

Winter is coming (in Australia at least). You know what that means?

FEATHER FLOOFING TIME.

Going from this.

TO THIS.

BECOME BORB.

[interstellarsystem]

We get that not everyone is able to, but we're taking a lot of joy in being more openly alterhuman. Years ago, we couldn't even talk about being trans to anyone in our IRL circles--which is a big enough issue as it is. But we've gained more confidence through IRL advocacy and social groups and so much more... We've really come a long way in being confident in ourselves and talking to people even just generally. And we're noticing a change in how we present, and what we wear and do.

We openly wear alterhuman symbols--we have an otherkin star necklace we wear any time we go outside. We have a therian sticker on our phone case and plan on more. We are planning on decorating our cane with stickers of our identities and things important to us. We want plural rings or an ampersand to wear in some way. And really, it's getting so much easier to talk about around people IRL, even if just symbols are subtle. It's euphoric to know that we're representing ourselves in an "if you know you know" way, and hell, we've met other alterhumans IRL before. Maybe someone will see these symbols and feel safer even if they don't talk to us directly.

We know we're lucky to have friends we can be safe around IRL, and so we can keep being who we are publicly without much of a safety concern. We hope that one day every alterhuman can just do whatever they want without fear of harrassment from people who hate "furries", people using transphobia against us, or alterhumisia in general.

[interstellarsystem]

Man okay we love the concept of eating rocks and we don't know if it relates to anything alterhuman for us (we feel like it could be?) but it's at least related to our disorders. Gemstones look so crunchy and edible, you can't tell me that amethyst wouldn't taste like grape flavouring.

But I'm eating one of these and I don't think I can even begin to describe the primal urge being satisfied right now. Sugar, crunchy, looks like rocks. 10/10. Absolutely going to need to make a bunch of these.