i'm still very early in doing the challenge, so i decided to re-do & expand on my [second] attempt at @who-is-page's folcintera writing challenge! this iteration goes in much better depth of my experiences.
🐾 DAY ONE 📜
What is your species? How do you experience aspects of your nonhumanity?
while my identity contains multitudes a number of different aspects [such as being Steven Universe & Shadow the Hedgehog], at the end of the day, i am physically & internally a beast. in practice, for me, this is similar to gender stuff. it's also kind of tied into my gender stuff, but that's another post for another time. my thought process is rather simple: "if i am an animal, my body is as well."
the initial name i had for this animal was "gulodae," but i'm currently workshopping something new. it is a mustelidae beast; primarily resembling wolverines & fisher cats, with traits inspired by some mustelinae [stoats, weasels, minks] & martens.
the gulodae is something of my own design; a coalesced name/title for my animality. it's is not an effort to hybridize or "reduce" my therianthropy. rather, it's part of the experience itself.
alongside being an upright animal, i am a storyteller archetrope. being this affects all i do, all i am. my very nature is to weave narratives, worlds, cultures, regardless of my shape. it is truly the core of what i am, what i do, & what drives me. being a storyteller heavily affects my animality; it shapes my instinct, my mythos, my image. in turn, my animality heavily affects my storytelling; it shapes the lens & image of my art.
i grew up with animal stories, xenofiction, and always felt the strongest connection to the creature characters within those stories. in real-world social situations, i've always felt like an outlier - like i don't actually belong there, or that i'm "outside" of a given social dynamic. i'm the "person gets dragged to a party & befriends the house's cat" experience, except that i'm the cat.
i think that's why i was so drawn to the furry fandom. i've never felt more at home than i do with furry, because i think many others share that feeling of otherness & love/appreciation for animal characters. i only recently realized just how much of my animality has been shaped by furry culture - and how much my animality has shaped my furry experiences. a large part of the furry fandom is fursona crafting, and this hobby varies greatly between individuals. for some, a fursona is a one-to-one interpretation of themselves - just in animal form. for others, fursonas are more akin to "avatars" they use for self-expression, created from bits & pieces of theirself & expanded upon to the extreme. some people only have one fursona, others have a bunch.
i went through a lengthy questioning process with my animality. my fursonas throughout that time heavily reflect my mindset throughout this process; each one felt a step closer or further away from what i wanted for myself. furry is what inspired me to make a species for myself.
making this species & mythos has been & is something fun, introspective; it's an effort to cultivate a true sense of self for me & me alone.