nova-dracomon - Tumblr blog

[nova-dracomon]

My Gender is [NOT] Human Zine is Now Accepting Submissions!

Xenogender: A gender that cannot be contained by human understandings of gender; more concerned with crafting other methods of gender categorization and hierarchy such as those relating to animals, plants, or other creatures/things.

This zine will be a collection of artwork, writing and more created by alterhumans and nonhumans to express both their species identity, gender, and how they intersect. While this zine will have an xenogender slant, everyone who has something to share about how their species and gender overlap are encouraged to submit pieces! Similarly, if you are currently questioning, you are still welcome to participate. Anonymous submissions are accepted.

What Can I Submit?

Both fiction and nonfiction pieces are accepted. As long as what you have in mind fits the theme, it’ll probably be a-ok. 

Off the top of our head, we’re thinking of:

Essays of your personal experiences

Short stories 

Poetry 

Advice columns

Artwork

Fictional advertisements

Comics 

Mock interviews

This is far from an exhaustive list, we welcome you to think outside the box!

How to Participate

Please email your completed submission to ruffledgryphon(@)gmail(.)com and title the email “My Gender is Not Human Zine Submission.” Also make sure to include the following information in your email:

A name you would like the piece attributed to 

Title of your submission

Any content warnings that you feel are necessary for the piece

Any social media handle or personal website you’d like listed in the contributor section

A logo or icon for the contributor section

**If you would like to stay anonymous please let us know

Members of systems are welcome to submit individually or collectively. Please let us know your preference when it comes to attribution.

Once the deadline has passed, the submissions will be crafted together into a single zine and it will be posted on our itch.io as a free PDF. 

Submissions are due by May 1, 2024.

Our itch.io: https://ruffledgryphon.itch.io/

Submission Guidelines

Each individual may submit up to 3 works to be featured in My Gender is [NOT] Human. Comics and multi-image works count as one piece. Individuals within a system may each submit up to 3 works. All work must be your own! Anyone caught plagiarizing or submitting AI-generated work will be barred from entering My Gender is [NOT] Human and any future zines from us.

Written submissions should not exceed 30 pages and multi-part art entries should not exceed 10 pages. Please keep in mind the zine’s pages will be 8.5x11 and entries will be scaled accordingly to fit that size. We request all art submissions to be sent in either .jpg or .png file formats. 

For stories that use multiple different fonts, we will do our best to preserve the general “feel” of your piece but cannot guarantee we will be able to use the exact fonts or sizes due to restrictions in what fonts we have access to, readability and overarching zine style.

Submissions must fit the thematic criteria of

About the intersection of gender and species identities

If you’re not sure if you count, feel free to reach out to us. However, we will be leaning on the side of “Yes! We’d love to hear from you!”

FAQ

Q: Where will the zine be hosted? What will it cost? A: The zine will be hosted digitally on our itch.io and will be free to download. Our itch.io can be found here: https://ruffledgryphon.itch.io/

Q: Is there a cap on submissions? A: There is none, as long as the file doesn’t start getting too big for our computer we’ll do our best! If there are an unprecedented amount of submissions, we may have to delay the release. In the event that happens, we would communicate that through updates on our tumblr.

Q: Can I update my application after it’s been submitted? A: Yes you may, as long as that is communicated to us before the submission deadline.

Q: Can I rescind my submission? A: Yes you may, as long as that is communicated to us before the submission deadline. This is because once we begin work on the zine, having to remove content mid-way through would throw off the formatting of everything else after. Please take this into account before submitting. 

Q: Will this zine allow NSFW entries? A: No, nothing 18+ will be accepted.

Q: What is your timeline for the project? A: Our submission deadline is May 1, 2024. We are then planning to spend the next month compiling all of the entries. Our goal is to have the zine live by June 1, 2024. If something unforeseen happens and we are unable to make that deadline, we will post an update about it on our tumblr.

Q: I have another question! A: Feel free to reach out to us at our email ruffledgryphon(@)gmail(.)com or here on tumblr  with any other questions you have about the zine.

[nova-dracomon]

alterhumans, cis or trans, i dont care

[nova-dracomon]

Alterhuman is incredibly broad that just means "identification that is alternative to the common societal idea of humanity." Therian is one of the terms under the umbrella, but there's a ton more.

We will say that wanting to be something is often a sign of being the thing. However, that's something only you can find out about yourself for certain.

Two of the labels we personally use are otherlink and othervague. Otherlink involves choosing to identify as something (in our case a hydra.) Once we got the creature in our mind, it clicked as something we wanted and we started purposefully reinforcing the identity.

The other term is othervague is an identity that is hard to pin down and/or that crosses into several difference categories. It serves as a way to tell others about ourselves without needing to exactly pin everything down and put them in boxes.

Not sure if either of these terms would be useful to you, but wanted to throw them out there in case they are!

Alright I've deleted everything on this side blog so I could ask dumb questions without my friends seeing

So here's my first odd question that I can't find the answer to on Google

Why the hell do I want to be a creature

Like a non-human beast

Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not a therian, I don't identify as non-human, I'm well aware that I am and that will not change

But like I wish I had ram horns, goat like ears, a long tail, and walked upright on digitigrade legs

Like a faun or a satyr but with paws instead of hooves, with sharp predatory teeth as well

And I find that when I walk on my toes and pretend I have paws, or I stretch with my arms out like an animal, or shake my head like one, I feel content

But again, I don't identify as an animal, think I am one, or anything else, I just find that when I act like this or pretend to be this one particular made up beast, it makes me happy and comfortable, but I don't understand why

I never do this in front of anyone, this is kept to myself, but I figured I'd just ask if anyone else does this

[nova-dracomon]

[Image description: Digital drawing of a barn owl perching on a broken tree and leaning down to tighten the straps of their battle claws. A metal mask obscures their face and the eye slit that extends down towards the beak in a v-shape is all in shadow. The background is a solid bright red. End description.]

New battle claws

[nova-dracomon]

[Image description: A post from @/tarincoyote on bluesky that reads, "Did you know that the fandom "had its own language" at one point? Primal is a language created by Trickster with around 3,000 [words] and seemed to be popular in the early 2000's among some furries and therians.

This book was printed in 2001 and I have the font for Primal on my laptop still. Included then are three photographs of a book featuring Primal. The cover reads "Primal the furry language" and features a sketch of an anthro canine in profile speaking the language. End description.]

[nova-dracomon]

[Image description: Two panel comic.

Panel 1: "It's usually said you learn the rules, the meaning of the world, as you age." The text is written around a close-up sketch of a wolf's back, their ears held back flat against their head. Then there is a close-up of their paw and mouth as they lean down to drink.

Panel 2: "But sometimes you learn them young, and those secrets cannot be carried easily." The full body sketch of the wolf is now shown. They are covered in scratches, their neck dripping blood and their head completely blotted out and distorted.

End description.]

24/05/2022

[nova-dracomon]

I am a dracomon x (digimon) and long-eared owl from the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series!

I've met only a handful of other digimon, but I've never met another dracomon x. Or another x-digimon in general. Honestly, I'm surprised there's not more digimon out there.

Also echoing what others have said in other reblogs and comments -- owls are uncommon in general, but owls from the Ga'Hoole series are even harder to come by. I've run into a single Soren and that's it.

Hortense

I would love to hear about everyone’s “uncommon” kin/theriotypes!

A rare species? An uncommon breed? A super niche cryptid? I want to hear alllll about it!

[nova-dracomon]

One Week Left to Submit to My Gender is [NOT] Human Zine

We will be closing for submissions on May 1st.

If you have already submitted an entry and not gotten an email confirmation from us, we have not received your piece.

Feel free to reach out to us here on tumblr with any questions or at our email RuffledGryphon(@)gmail.com

Zine informational post here.

[nova-dracomon]

[Image description: Close-up of growlmon, a red theropod-like digimon. They are hunched forward with their mouth parted to reveal their large fangs and as they breath twin plumes of smoke from both corners of their mouth. End description.]

[nova-dracomon]

This poll is NOT a measure of the validity of someone's identity, nor does it imply that nonhuman identity is something you can grow out of.

The context behind the poll is that I was much more "feral" as a child than I am now, and a lot of the instincts I had prior are just kinda non-existent. Which makes nonhuman identy less something I have to actively "battle with" (aside from the occassional dysphoria) and moreso something I can just chill out and go "hehe imma lizurb".

Once the timelimit's over, this poll can also probably give some comfort to younger people who are probably struggling with instinct stuff rn. While it's not guaranteed, there is a non-zero chance it'll mellow out. I'm also just curious how many have similar experiences

[nova-dracomon]

Genuinely, how do so many anti-endo people have the fact that they're anti-endo and "fakeclaimers DNI" right next to each other in their profile/pinned/etc.? Babe, you are the fakeclaimer. The thing you are doing when you say "DNI endogenic "systems"/supporters", putting "systems" in scare quotes to state that you don't think they're really systems, is by definition fakeclaiming. You just think that it's justified when you do it because this time you've got the REAL fakes and you REALLY know how to tell when someone is lying about their experiences and identity, pinkie promise. That doesn't make it not fakeclaiming - all fakeclaimers think that. They wouldn't do it otherwise.

[nova-dracomon]

The Alterhumans in Relationships Survey is collecting data on alterhumans and queerplatonic, sexual, and romantic relationships. This survey asks questions about your current and past relationships, and how you feel about relationships and alterhumanity. This survey was made for otherkin, therians, fictionkin, systems, and other people who may call themself alterhuman. But even if you don't use any of those terms, you can take still this survey.

This survey is being organized by Who-is-Page, an alterhuman scholar who has been in the community since 2014. The data collected in this survey will be used for research purposes and may be presented at an online convention (OtherCon 2024) later this year. Depending on how much you write in the write-in questions, this survey takes about 15 minutes.

Survey Link

Your physical body must at least 18 years old to participate in this survey. The survey will close on July 6th.

[nova-dracomon]

no, you don’t need to wear your mask/tail to school.

i wish young nonhumans didn’t feel compelled to be ‘out’ at school, especially when it’s a dangerous environment. i keep seeing posts along the lines of “wore my tail/mask to school! people berated/teased/put their hands on me, but it’s ok”.

no, it’s not.

like.. i understand a mask or a tail can be a very validating thing for some people. and i’m not saying NO ONE should wear them at schools. but i just keep watching this mounting trend of young therians insinuating you need some physical accessory or to do quads to be a ‘real’ nonhuman. and then it leads to things like this and it makes me incredibly sad.

i’d known i was alterhuman since late elementary school, actually. it’s a huge part of my life even now, years after graduation. there wasn’t a reason for it to be brought up, so i never did. it was a closely guarded secret to me, but it didn’t feel like a weight i was carrying. i always thought “no one needs to know i’m an animal if it jeopardizes my safety. so, oh well”.

“but, how will people know that i’m an animal?”

they probably will. they probably already do.

i was the designated ‘animal’ person my entire school career despite not ever handling animals in front of anyone. if there were pets, lost wild animals (baby rabbits, birds, lizards), or sometimes even loose livestock that got onto campus, it was always me who had to go tend to them.

everyone wanted me in their group in environmental science. if a project called for animal illustrations, the same thing would happen. it was certainly weird because i was also a ‘weird kid’ and not especially desired to be around outside of that, lol. but i was never harassed for it. it made me feel very validated, actually.

i had fun during gym running and fiercely destroying the opposing team in field hockey. i taught everyone which plants were okay to forage (and we snacked on them when we had to sit on the lower field for practice). every day i was hyperaware of the limbs i had that weren’t quite there. friends noticed my ears twitch and my nose wiggle at certain stimuli. i felt nice walking on two legs. i felt nice because i felt animal and i didn’t have to prove it to anyone.

really like… just do what makes you happy. i admire the bravery it takes to so earnestly wear your identity on your sleeve like that. that’s very impressive. however, there is NO obligation to do anything like that if you understand that there will be a reaction that poses a threat to you.

i want our kids to be safe, too. you don’t have to feel dysphoria over being discreet. sometimes it’s the safest option. and sometimes, that can be really fun, too.

study everything you can about your ‘type. wikipedia and animalia are good resources. ramble about them to anyone who will listen. jokingly refer to yourself as one in friend spaces. wear discreet clothes that remind you of your ‘type. find a nice private place outside where you can run and explore and look at plants and smell the air and feel like yourself. but by no means do you have to prove yourself. you know you.

[nova-dracomon]

My biggest, first, most important piece of advice for therians who awakened roughly a year ago? You are still NOT immune to the "I'm pretty sure I know everything by now" phase of being, relatively, extremely new to a community; which is to say, the education blog you have the urge to start is not necessary and can wait. You are in the learning and figuring yourself out phase.

[nova-dracomon]