hi!! i was wondering if you could explain the concept of placekin a bit more! as an alterhuman myself i want to open myself to as many identities as possible so i can show respect and support for everyone! if you could explain a bit about what it is i’d really appreciate it!! :33
Of course! Tysm for asking and being so open-minded!
This is a long one, so sorry if my response took a while! I tried to be as in-detail as possible.
Placekin (also known as locationkin) is a subdivision of otherkinity/alterhumanity where one identifies as a place.
The place someone identifies as might be here in our physical world or universe, or it might be a fictional, conceptual, or spiritual place.
Some "common" examples I've seen are countries, states, and places from video games!
The place might not have a definite name or boarder, either. For example, it might be a biome, landform, body of water, void, space, or coordinate.
There are many more examples of places one might identify as, but as long as they feel like their kintype would fall under the "placekin" label, then they may choose to use it!
As for what it's like to be placekin, there is no one way to experience this identity. Placekins might have shifts or experience sentience with their kin, while others may not.
You can think of it on a similar level to conceptkin and objectkin, and placekin might also choose to identify under one of these labels as well!
As for myself, I've had one mental shift before, but it was of my heart-type, the D.R.C.. (Yes, places can count as otherhearted too!)
During this shift, I felt like everything around me was the size of a mountain, even bigger than that. My consciousness was somewhere "in the sky" (aka the air above me), while my body was the land.
As I said before, places can be heart-types too, and this could fall under the placekin umbrella, if you think about it as a general term to describe those whose identity (or part of their identity) is surrounded by a place.
Other terms in this umbrella might include placelink (choosing to identify as a place), heart homes (a place that one sees as their true home), and hiraeths (an unreachable place that one longs for).
Of course, you don't have to identify under the placekin umbrella (or alterhuman/nonhuman at all, for that matter) to have one of these as part of your identity. A mainstream human might have a heart-home or a hiraeth, as well.
That's all for this post, but of you have any other questions, feel free to ask! I hope this was a helpful resource for you :)
