interstellarsystem

[interstellarsystem]

tbh I think part of why the sentence "if you think you're faking it you're not!" is something I greatly dislike is because it discourages introspection and decreases distress tolerance while introspecting.

If you keep pushing those feelings away because they are uncomfortable they WILL get worse and you'll have to deal with them eventually - start when they're small and find the root of the problem.

Maybe your experience is very different than others (which does not invalidate your identity), maybe you'll find a label that fits your experience better.

Maybe you'll realize there's no deeper meaning other than insecurity and are able to acknowledge and dismiss those thoughts because you know they're rooted in false beliefs about yourself.

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Fun fact!! You can't fake a disorder you don't claim to have ❤️

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"Why don't you ever talk about your trauma?" So, here's the thing about trauma.... It's traumatic! Maybe we remember bits and pieces, maybe we don't, but sometimes people don't want to trigger themselves by explaining The Horrors to you just so you give them basic respect.

"If you have DID why don't you ever talk about your trauma" because I can't remember it?? Talk about missing the point...

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So last week I put out a poll for therians and otherkin asking whether they're alloromantic or arospec, which has mistakes. So here's the definitive version.

Before you vote, please note if your polytherian you can use the polytherian button but if all your species fit in the same one, you don't know all their behaviours, or you feel that only one affects your romantic tendencies, you don't have to use it.

You also don't have to think your orientation is related to theriantropy, this is just to see if there's correlation.

The last got 65 votes which was way more than I thought, thanks to all who voted!

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hi! this will be hard to word but do u know of terms that describe this experience? so. I have this feeling of existing basically in my head/as a consciousness rather than as the body. like the body is the vessel we’re piloting and remembering that we exist “on the outside” as the body can be upsetting. our system members have their own appearances that don’t match the body. but they exist. but what do I call that existence and their internal bodies? metaphysical? physical? this kind of experience makes me feel nonhuman (we already are alterhuman) but I can’t deny that biologically I am considered human and look that way bc of the body. I identify physically nonhuman in a “I am x therefore my body is x body” way.. but the way i feel feels as if it should be biologically. but the body’s existence disproves it? and I’m not sure what to make of those feelings and if there are any useful system or system reality terms? or what even counts as an extranth vs alters that are alterhuman. and I feel nonhuman.. but how and why to make sense of it since I’m not verifiably/ visibly a theriform animal or monster.

I think this sort of.. Alienation from your physical body is pretty common among systems? At least, we've felt that way. We have an internal perception of our form that doesn't match our outer body and it causes all sorts of weird feelings.

I wouldn't know of specific terms for the experience though? Aside from species dysphoria, which can be more general but also fits. We've seen people call their inner bodies their headspace forms, their true selves, similar things. Whether it's metaphysical, psychological, physical or something else? That... Tends to be up to you! We have headmates who are physically nonhuman in-headspace, and were formed by the brain so they consider it psychological overall because they themselves are based in psychological phenomenon. We also have spiritual headmates who are nonhuman in-headspace and they see themselves as wholly metaphysical. It depends on your own beliefs.

I think the line between physical vs mental/spiritual is kind of muddier when it comes to systems. If you consider your headspace to be a literal space or anything similar, then why wouldn't you be able to see your inner bodies as physical in some way? Sure, they aren't the bodies that interact out here, but.. They don't exactly have another body of specifically their own to call their physical body personally--usually. It's complicated and gets into a whole lot of nitpicking definitions.

As for the difference between extranth and an alterhuman headmate.... You can be both--alterhumanity includes extranths, and the broader nonhuman community after all. An extranth is meant to be an equivalent to "fictive" or "factive" but for nonhumans--a headmate who formed internally as a nonhuman. Can they also call it otherkin? Sure! But as far as I remember, extranth was coined with people who feel more aligned with fictive experiences as opposed to, say, therian experiences in mind.

I hope some of this helps? I sort of rambled in the response--it is late but I wanted to try and clear out the ask box a little. Good luck anon!

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i have more conversations inside my head than i do in real life

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that facet and kintype anon may like intrexperiflux :3

its a term we (as a parasian leaning varion) absolutely ADORE for our facets

Ty for the info! Posting for anon to see.

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hi, not sure who else to ask but when it comes to nonhuman plurality: can you see it as a facet and as a kintype at the same time? or are those terms mutually exclusive? um asking bc like i ID as nonhuman but my nonhuman side also like.., speaks to me, has somewhat different opinions, slightly different gender, etc. but like not different people. still feels like a kintype.

A facet is essentially a headmate that's a lot less differentiated from others, for median systems. This absolutely can feel like "me, but xyz" or a strong kintype shift, or talking to your kintype. I don't see why you can't use both, but facet would cover it anyhow.

If you wanted to be more specific, if this identity is fictional, fableing is a term that means a facet who has experiences in common with both fictives and fictionkin--that middleground of "I" vs "we" when it comes to a fictional kintype. I believe factling is the factfolk equivalent. I don't actually know of a nonhuman equivalent but I'd guess it'd end up being based off of "extranth".. I did some digging and actually couldn't find any, so I'm brainstorming here because this is.. Definitely a term that needs to exist. Something like extraling or nonhumaling to match the others? Both?

Extraling: A facet in a median system who has experiences in common with both otherkin and extranths.

Nonhumaling: A facet in a median system who has experiences in common with both nonhuman introjects and otherkin.

Even if these terms don't suit you--you can call it whatever you feel fits. This is your identity, after all.

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We use sign-ons on messaging apps like discord or texting, and here we use the tags feature so we can search for posts by a specific member when the tag search decides to work without a real sign on or off. This also means it's easy to retroactively edit pronouns (because we sign like "Topaz (They/It)") with a tag replacer.

We used to avoid sign ons like the one you did because it's similar to roleplay text--but that was when we were younger and cared more about outside opinions lol. Our proxies for PluralKit and the way we sign on in messaging apps is the same as what you did in this post nowadays. Maybe some other plurals still want to avoid that association?

Some other places like Reddit, we will sign off. It feels more natural to us, I guess? Like writing a formal letter with the sign at the end--that's just where the name goes. We also do this in physical notes we write to each other!

So... For us we do any combination, it's just.. About the platform and purpose of the post as opposed to just whether we want to announce it at the beginning or not. I know if we sign off at the end it's probably easier for people to ignore it than if it was there at the beginning in the first place, but we don't really mind. We make ourselves known anyhow, in all aspects of our online and IRL life--the beginning or end of a post doesn't make much of a difference to us.

Sophie: This is random but... why do systems do sign-offs?

I don't mean "why do you tell people who is fronting?" I mean "why do you tell people who is fronting at the end of the message?"

On our shared system blog, we tend to start messages like I did this one, with the name at the start so you know who is talking. If we don't, it should be assumed posts on that blog are from Ghost. On the other hand, any posts here without a name at the beginning are from me. (Ghost isn't allowed to make posts on my blog without saying it's him.)

We always do this at the start of the messages.

I don't know why more systems don't use "sign-ons."

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do you potentially have a solitary post with your DNI bit? I would love to reblog it as like a discourse post but reblogging an intro post for one part of 'discourse' is probably weird 😅

probably not but doesn't hurt to ask

– Trick @bistrocule

We don't, but we could make one that's separate if you'd like? No stress on us!

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I hope it's okay to spam-like your blog! Thank you for putting your thoughts out into the world, they're valuable.

Completely fine! Glad you like our blog.

[interstellarsystem]

Tentative Coining Post

OK so this was inspired by a discussion started by @/strawberrybabydog where the dog was proposing a term to describe the hatred of alterhumans. The dog ended up liking my suggestion, so I’m making a separate post to put it out there and get y’all’s feedback! Any thoughts or criticism are welcome.  

Alterhumisia: The hatred of or discrimination against those who have an alternate relationship to humanity. 

Nonhumisia: The hatred of or discrimination against people* who are nonhuman in some way. 

*I use “people” here to distinguish sapient people who are nonhuman from non-sapient, nonhuman creatures. 

The prefix in each word is derived from “alterhuman” and “nonhuman” respectively. The suffix is -misia, the greek word for hatred or hate. I use this suffix in place of -phobia, to avoid any misconception that these words might be describing an actual clinical phobia of some kind. I also chose it over -ism for the sake of clarity, especially because “alterhumanism / nonhumanism” would be too close to words like Transhumanism, and might just sound like philosophy or lifestyle rather than a type of discrimination. 

Why the two different terms? Because alterhumisia describes the hatred against alterhumans in general, which can include a huge spectrum of experiences. While nonhumisia is more specific; it describes the hatred of those who ID as a species other than human. Consider alterhumisia the umbrella term - all nonhumisia is a form of alterhumisia (but not vice versa). One could potentially coin other terms to fit under the umbrella, i.e kinmisia or theriomisia, for example. The person who is doing the discrimination would be a alterhumisist or a nonhumisist. 

*** I hope this goes without saying, but just because I am coining these terms, that does not mean I am comparing this to other types of systemic oppression. I am not saying these are equal in some way to racism, sexism, etc. I am simply attempting to coin a word to describe the hatred we often face on a day-to-day basis. It’s also important to note how it intersects with other forms of discrimination. Someone who calls otherkin “crazy” and “delusional” and says they “should be locked up” is being alterhumisist, yes, but they are also being ableist and that should not be ignored. In fact, in this case the discussion of ableism should be prioritized as systemic ableism is often the root of that kind of discrimination. These words could potentially be very useful but remember to always consider intersectionality!! ***

[interstellarsystem]

system culture is going to bed in one outfit and waking up dressed COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY. who changed our clothes. WHY. we don't even have very high amnesia barriers so WHEN DID WE GET UP AND CHANGE?????

[interstellarsystem]

plurality is beautiful. 50+ guys and none of us want to front

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hey, otherhearts/synpaths/kith!

do you prefer the term otherhearted (including animalhearted and fictionhearted), synpath, or kith?

i’m just curious :) i typically use otherhearted for myself, but only because that’s the term i learned first

[interstellarsystem]

It’s a little disheartening to realise that the ‘gar therian’ tags only contain my introductory post, amazing art from 2024, and the gorgeous gar photos holopics/snowleopardmountainlion has shared. I’m a disappointed in myself for not sharing my experiences as a therian gar more. This post aims to rectify that — it is a ramble on what it personally means to be a gar.

Unlike my raptorhood, being a fish has psychological origins for me. On the surface level, it is admittedly quite out of the blue (/pun). I don’t have an innate connection to fish*, nor do I have an exceptional love for water, which is ironic, considering how aquatic my identity is. However, I am drawn to such environments, as though, given different circumstances, the water is where I belong. I am a creature enamoured by the history of life on our earth, and so see water as my metaphorical blood; my origins are tied to the medium, and it is within me.

*The paraphyletic group. I’ve been into birds for as long as I can remember, and all tetrapods are technically a kind of fish.

In a way, being a gar is much like this. We are known as “living fossil” fish, as our form has barely changed since the Jurassic. Our bodies were shaped in a world near-unfamiliar to present day, and I see myself in this as an archosaur.

Our shape has remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years because it has allowed us to survive. We have endured the environment for millennia. My garhood is tied to a sense of security — of ganoid scales and toxic eggs; perhaps even a desire to be protected, and for one’s own to be safe.

An aspect of my garhood is based around movement. I find familiarity in our preferred style of hunting: being an ambush predator. One who can strike, but one who waits to do so, slow-moving and sedentary most of the time. I see this behaviour reflected in my own; I am often passive, but armed with needle-like teeth. I can bite.

This isn’t all that defines my garhood. Garhood is a mess of feelings merged with experiences, which makes it hard to explain and justify without bordering on poetry. Unlike being a raptor, in which my physical characteristics help affirm my identity, I cannot rely on descriptions of my species.

To me, being a gar isn’t based on how closely I resemble type specimens (which is why I am no one species) — being a gar stems from my instincts more than anything, both in the instincts I have and the gut-feeling that I am simply one of us.