#thunderstormhearted

[d0gbite]

an otherhearted experience i want to talk about: “just otherhearted”

(for @skylargoesbark alterhuman new years posts!)

i know a lot of folks tend to think of otherhearted as “just having a connection”, or like the lesser version of kin, and it will never not get on my nerves when i see someone (trying to correct someone else) say “therian/kin isn’t a connection!! if you just have a connection, that’s just otherhearted!!” or something similar.

it’s the word ‘just’ that always gets me. it’s just a connection. it’s not kin; it’s just otherhearted.

it feels reductive. it feels like dumbing down what it truly means to be otherhearted.

personally my hearttypes aren’t just anything. they’re a whole slew of complexities and emotions that are integral to who i am as a being. they make me who i am, and i wouldn’t be the same without them.

and i know people tend to think it’s not a big deal, and even if i were to say “imagine if someone said ‘it’s just a kintype’ about one of your kintypes”, many of you probably wouldn’t care. but my issue is that to otherhearted creatures, specifically, it happens over and over and over again. and if i ever point it out, suggest a correction, i sometimes get dogpiled on as if im the bad guy; op didnt mean it that way, dogbite, don’t be so sensitive. you’re overreacting.

but i suppose that’s the problem, isn’t it? that they didn’t mean to. that reducing our identity in such a way is so common, so familiar that people don’t even think about it when they do it. that in their subconscious, otherheart will only ever be “just a connection”, and nothing more. even if they don’t mean it that way. it still stings a little even if it wasn’t intentional.

all this to say: to be otherhearted is to have unique experiences, to have a deeply rooted and meaningful identity, to have complex relationships with your hearttype beyond “just” anything. my otherhearted identities make me who i am. there is no ‘me’ without cows, without dogs, without thunderstorms. and i love being otherhearted<3

[d0gbite]

HELLO can you perchance— if you haven’t already — talk about your church grim type? i’m super curious :O

hi!!!! i have a little before but always happy to talk about myself more 🥰🥰 i love talking about my types!

to me, being a church grim actually feels surprisingly like a regular dog. before i knew what a church grim was, i assumed that’s what this type was—just some sort of strange but regular dog, like a black gsd or something.

i think the way it feels different to me is mainly through association; being a church grim comes with a heavy association with religious themes (for me these manifest as dark or sacrilegious themes, akin to religious trauma) and for me personally an association with thunderstorms & windy, dark weather. this feels like the kind of weather i was meant for, as a church grim. i also feel an association with protecting graveyards, and a love-hate relationship with my religious trauma—i was made to protect these people, but they are the same people who sacrificed me for themselves. in my very being it is coded to love them, to guide them, but i can’t help from hating them for their selfishness and their cruelty. it’s the religious trauma :)

while i often use images and visuals that are super edgy when representing my church grim type, it actually feels very vulnerable to me. i feel scared, anxious, unstable as a church grim, especially when i have shifts. i think it’s because i’ve been dismissed (or maybe freed) from my post as a church grim. in folklore, we are supposed to be tied to one church/graveyard and protect the souls of the dead, guiding them to the afterlife. i do not do that anymore. and i think a lot of the vulnerability comes from being a creature with a purpose who is not fulfilling that purpose.

anyway,, i do enjoy being a church grim! it’s not all sad and scary! i do also enjoy being thunderstormhearted because of my church grim kin :)

these are some photos i feel really connected to as a church grim (i took the first 2!!)

[d0gbite]

you might have a post about it somewhere that i haven't seen but whats your experience with being thunderstormhearted? that sound so so cool! :]

rahh thank you, i love being thunderstormhearted but i rarely get to talk about it :]

thunderstorms are a paratype for me, as they are intrinsically linked to my church grim theriotype. i feel at home in thunderstorms, like i belong in them. they always give me intense church grim shifts when i get to be outdoors during one (especially if it’s dry/no rain and windy—the BEST weather ever).

i don’t know how to describe it other than i feel connected to them due to being a church grim. they’re my home, what i was meant to belong in. sometimes i used to wonder if perhaps i was thunderstormkin, but it feels much more like i should be in a thunderstorm rather than i am one. it feels like they belong in my heart :)

i do have a couple other posts talking about it if you wanna hear more ! (here and here)

[d0gbite]

thinking recently that thunderstorms are likely a paratype of mine.

i have always been deeply affected by thunderstorms and wind storms in a way that feels like kin. i don’t know how to describe it besides a strong bond, and a connection. i love them so dearly, i feel almost one with them.

considered maybe i was thunderstormkin. but i don’t FEEL LIKE a thunderstorm, i feel like i should be in one. i feel like they belong in my heart. i feel like i should be right back in my big black dog church grim form, wind howling around me. in the grass with my hair blowing around my face, looking up into the thundering clouds, i will shift instantly. every time.

maybe i’m thunderstorm hearted. i very well could be. but it’s definitely a paratype related to being a church grim.

[d0gbite]

thunderstorms are INVIGORATING as a church grim i must GO OUTSIDE even if it’s raining (i do not like rain. but i will put up with it) and RUN AROUND and BARK at the SKY!!!!!! thunderstorms fill me with a kind of homesick energy that i never ever have otherwise and every minute i spend indoors during a thunderstorm is a minute WASTED!!!!