#nonhuman shenanigans

[dreamlandsystem]

Some weird species dysphoria I’ve been getting lately is how our eyebrows don’t move when we’re looking around the way they do in physical dogs. You can kind of see it in these gifs:

It keeps bothering me that my body doesn’t do this when I’m looking from side to side! But no matter how much I try I can’t manipulate my own brows in this way. Sigh.

[dreamlandsystem]

We want to talk about our nonhuman experience a little bit. Our experiences with therianthropy are a bit different from anything we’ve seen from other alterhumans, and it can feel a bit isolating at times.

Many of us headmates do identify as therian or nonhuman, but most of us do not identify as a specific species. It’s more like we are kin with a certain scientific family or order (for example, canidae or columbidae or testudines rather than a specific species of canine, dove, or turtle). We still experience what I’d describe as kin shifts, we deal with species dysphoria, visualize ourselves as those species who exist in the classifications we identify as, but it’s a lot more vague than kinning a specific species of animal.

It sometimes makes us feel like our experiences aren’t as real as other nonhumans, like somehow our therian identities are watered down because of this vagueness. We don’t see anyone else ever talking about this kind of experience. Even those out there who are polykin tend to know the specific species they belong to. And we just… don’t. We often feel like multiple species within the same family, sometimes shifting between them, sometimes feeling like multiple at once.

We still absolutely identify as nonhuman and also therians. And we are the species we identify as. I am a canine! I’m just sometimes a red wolf and sometimes a coyote and sometimes a mixed breed dog and sometimes multiple of these at once. And maybe it’s a polykin thing? But it feels more like my kintype or theriotype is canidae rather than, say, Canis lupus.

Has anyone else ever felt this way before?

[dreamlandsystem]

wrt our last reblog (we didn’t wanna add on bc it’s slightly derailing) we have no issues whatsoever with people who use “kinning” language and in fact some of our parts do. that doesn’t make us less otherkin or less alterhuman and if other folks think it does that’s their problem tbh.

what’s more, we don’t actually take any sort of offense to those who are kinnies or kin for fun. what does someone else’s identity have anything to do with us? if they chose their kintypes, if they just id as otherkin for fun or as an escape or whatever… who cares? to us they’re still alterhuman and they still belong. the ways they choose to identify are none of our business.

we’re allowed to have different experiences. someone who’s kinning for fun may not have experiences that align with otherkin folks who aren’t kff, and that’s okay?? why is it such a big deal whether or not someone calls themselves a kinnie or whether or not they kff?

[dreamlandsystem]

we went swimming for the first time in over a year today. gosh it was so exhilarating to finally stretch my flippers in some deep water.

i couldn’t really tell just how much being away from the water was getting me down until we plunged into the quarry for the first time. it was like i could finally breathe after a year with no air.

today i’m feeling so refreshed and rejuvenated. we have got to get in the water more often. ghost was cofronting yesterday, and woof’s a dog who loves the water, so we made a really great pair.

a note to all you aquatic therians - you’re probably missing the water more than you understand at the moment! try to go for a swim or at least swish your body’s feet around in some water if you can. i can’t describe how beneficial a couple hours at a lake was for my mental health.