hey ,, ive looked into fictionflickers for a while now but ive been looking at it and it seems as if ( as far as im aware ) its something which whilst someone is a flicker it doesnt like appear and dissapear through the period someone is one happens ,, whereas i go through days where i will identify as the character for about half a day then i will feel like myself again , do u know what this is called ? sorry if any of the way i put this was disrespectful , i am still learning terms etc .
This sounds like it could be an mshift or something, but I'm not quite sure! Flickers can last for any length of time I'd imagine, and if it's recurring during that interest then I'd say it counts! It might also be worth looking into cameotypes/cameoshifts.
You know, I wish I had known that fictionflickers can indeed be over a year long and feel nearly as real as a kintype rather than just being a passing resonance. Temporary, but still important.
NEVER assume anything connected to a hyperfixation is permanent until the hyperfixation is over.
Complicated robothearted thoughts deluxe, finally put into words (split into two parts due to how long-winded we are).
We’ve been thinking a bit lately about how, collectively, the whole system is some kind of robothearted, all for different reasons, and how our plurality affects our outlook on our alterhumanity in general.
Not sure whether to compare the intersecting of experiences in this case to layers, or just tangles at this point /lh.
As older followers (or those who’ve read through the history of this blog) may know, back when I first awakened as otherkin, I mistakenly identified as robotkin (among other things which turned out amusingly off).
I know now that I’m robothearted; I have a connection with robots, sure, but I myself am not one, and the notion of pretending to be one/identifying as one ultimately feels like at best a very strange and at worst uncomfortable concept to me.
Like impersonating a friend.
Considering this feeling, for the longest time I found it strange that I’d feel drawn enough personally to robots to even mistakenly identify as one.
At last, I’m happy to say that we now have an answer; the entire Quasar System is robothearted in some capacity, all with varying reasonings for such, as well as different levels, so to speak, of a connection. (Two of us could firmly say that they’re very literally almost robots/robotic-adjacent in nature, though they choose not to for various reasons).
So of course, before we realized we were a system, those near constant, conflicting vibes from all directions of broad, and personal connections to robots definitely could be easily misconstrued as a kintype, especially for someone newly awakened to otherkinity in general..
However, the one whose robotheartedness overall piques the most curiosity, from all of us, was Marx.
Consistently, Marx has always been especially prone to fictionflickers and cameo shifts; we admittedly don’t think much of fictionflickering, nor do we talk much about it here given its (in our opinion) fleeting, disorienting, and hard to describe nature, but we respect it and want to learn more about the phenomenon.
And almost as the perfect motivation to do so, our resident little jester tends to form intense, though brief connections to things connected either to his hearttypes or hyperfixations.
So of course that means that he’s gotten quite a few robot-adjacent flickers, ranging from momentary, surface-level cameo shifts to a much more immersive “sampling” of some identity; to the rest of us, it’s disorienting.
While we’ve probably all had a few cameo shifts here and there, Marx is essentially a magnet for fleeting, though to him very meaningful connections. Perhaps it’s his nebulous grasp on identity, perhaps it’s his way of processing empathy.
All we know is that, despite his occasional tendency to have confusing cameo shifts, he’s actually helped us make more sense of our alterhumanity in general.
When we have more experiences to compare, it’s somewhat easier to sort out our feelings on matters.
And while we’ve been putting off examining our hearttypes in more detail, I think in finally doing so, in finally beginning to untangle some of those layers and connections, we’ve gained a better understanding of ourselves overall, somewhat.
I'm a little confused about a part of my identity. I've been calling it a flicker but I'm not sure if that actually fits? Best way I can describe it is that I only identify as a dog or an alicorn when I'm shifted to that creature. Calling myself either of those at any other time isn't right. But a cameotype is a shift you don't identify as, so that doesn't work either. Do you know what I should call this?
Hmm... Well, a flicker tends to be an identity you feel when you're thinking about it. The way I personally like to describe it is somewhat like a 'hyperfixation identity', in a way. Identifying only when shifted isn't something I've actually fully heard of before! If you consider it a flicker though, you're always free to use the label. Whatever works for you.
You could also make your own term, if you wanted. I'd be interested to see if anyone else also experiences something like this and would like to add to it.
Hello! I've never looked into fictionkin/ fictionflicker terminology before as I'm a therian but lately I've been having reoccurring "cameo-shifts" of a considered problematic character (ticci toby) that through your blog I've learned is a fictionflicker.
First off thank you for creating such an easy to understand informational blog!
Now my question is if you'd have any tips on dealing with a fictionflicker of a problematic character? Or for a fictionflicker in general? I've never had one of these before.
Thank you kindly!
Thank *you* kindly! I'm glad that this blog has been helpful to you, and I'm glad the information is easy to understand!
Dealing with a flicker of a problematic character is the same as dealing with any sort of ID relating to that. At the end of the day, it's your identity, and nobody has a right to tell you what you can and can't be, problematic or not. You have your reasons for it, and it's not particularly in your control, so you shouldn't fault yourself or let others fault you for it.
In terms of handling flickers, honestly, you sorta just ride it out from my experiences. Take it as it comes, find things you like about it and focus on all the aspects you're given, since they tend to give pretty interesting insights about things for later down the line. If you're really not fond of it though, I could suggest trying to focus on a different media? Distracting yourself from the identity may help it fade faster, but it's really up to you.
Hello hello! I'm fictionflicker and I've recently found your blog! I was wondering if you'd ever do a post about fictionflicker terms! I've been looking everywhere for the correct terms for certain things but so far I haven't found anything
~Funky Anon
Perhaps! What type of terms are you looking for? In general, there aren't a lot of overarching terms from what I've seen, but if anyone would like to add some then feel free! I might end up making a post for the ideas I've had over time for terms myself.
The mortifying ordeal of getting really long fictionflickers/modelocked into a form whenever the brain gets a new serious hyperfixation leading to all manner of identity confusion for both the host and myself.
To be honest, I don't mind it, but if we sounded confused/contradictory about just where Jasper from Dragon Quest XI fit into our identity let it be known that we had no fucking idea either.
The Relationship Between my Cameo Shifts & Kintypes
I’ve always been prone to cameo shifts and fictionflickers. It’s something I’d been meaning to talk about, but like every other topic in my head, it just sat around gathering dust.
It’s taken several years for me to fully understand the how’s and why’s of my cameo shifts—especially how they related to undiscovered kintypes—and how to embrace the transience.
Cameo shifts and flickers have long been a feature of my alterhuman journey. Most of the time shifts just happen. Sometimes I can induce phantom shifts on purpose. But it took a lot of questioning and reflection to appreciate these experiences.
When I first awakened to being fictionkin, I didn’t realize I was experiencing cameo shifts. I’d heard the term, but since I just discovering my identity, I didn’t have a solid frame of reference for what was a permanent, integral identity coming to surface and what was something my brain was spontaneously latching onto. I spent over a year frequently questioning something new and wondering why things that felt so real to me one moment just fell off and wouldn’t come back. It was only after discovering the polymorph community sometime in 2017 that I realized I was very prone to mirroring. I had been contemplating at the time whether or not I was a dog therian only for it to fade when I wasn’t reading about canine therians’ experiences. Since then, every time something new caught my eye, I analyzed it very closely and learned to keep it at arm’s length until I was more confident that it’d stick around.
And yet, of all the characters and creatures I’d questioned since then, only two of them would turn out to be kintypes.
When I was questioning my Mob/ian identity in ‘18, I looked back at all the past cameo shifts/flickers/debunked ‘types and picked up on a pattern: a lot of them had nonhuman traits in common with what I was questioning. Claws, sharp teeth that didn’t make sense with my fictotypes, fur, etc.—not necessarily anything super specific, but with how certain I was becoming of being Mob/ian, it was an interesting pattern. I also noted that I previously had this compulsive desire to question anything from the franchise—a feeling that I tried my best not to give too much thought to, given my history with fictionflickers. It was becoming apparent to me that a lot of my past flickers and cameo shifts had to do with this kintype.
Around the same time, I also started questioning being from NiGHTS. I questioned being NiGHTS themself. I decided it was nothing. I questioned if Clawz explained both my Mob/ian shifts and draw to NiGHTS. I came to the conclusion it didn’t. And despite my best efforts to leave it be, to convince myself Night/opia must be a hearthome, I’d find myself questioning something new, and then I’d find that it just wasn’t right.
And when I finally figured out what exact kind of Nightmare/n I was, those cameo shifts stopped.
In fact, I don’t seem to get as frequent and as intense cameos or flickers as I used to. They still happen sometimes, and sometimes they’re surprisingly strong, but something about discovering these kintypes seemed to solidify my identity. Like there were no longer these holes that my brain was desperately trying to fill.
Needless to say, cameo shifts and fictionflickers have long been confusing as hell and frustrating to deal with. But more recently, with all the experience I have now, I’m learning to embrace them more. I’m reframing them as transient identities I get to be and novel experiences I get to have, rather than something I’m forced to endure.
Besides the connection to my kintypes, I don’t really know what makes cameo shifts so common for me. The nature of my soul? A product of past life experiences? The love child of empathy and dissociation? I dunno! And it’s not like it matters. I doubt anything will change the fact that I experience this, so it’s the least I can do to accept it as it is.
