shadow-lycanthrope

[shadow-lycanthrope]

physical nonhumanity is not just OK , just acceptable , just valid or otherwise - physical nonhumanity is , honestly , as profound and sacred as other expressions of nonhumanity .

regardless of origin , regardless of reasons , any of that . everyone have rich lives , rich stories to tell about those lives , and that is so very wonderful !

[shadow-lycanthrope]

I just had a horrifying realisation

Imagine a time when facial tracking and similar technology reaches a point where companies will start tracking your eyes, and if you aren't directly staring at whatever advertisement they throw up in the middle of your game or website or tv show, it'll crash and you'll have to rewatch it all over again just to get the rewards or next episode or continued access to your news article

Awful

[shadow-lycanthrope]

reblog to bonk the person you reblogged it from with a hollow cardboard tube

[shadow-lycanthrope]

people who say they stare and or scream at the abyss/void-

Me a voidkin: Do not yell nor perceive I, you fools.

[shadow-lycanthrope]

Small

Photo Credits: Chris MacDonald, FoxSky (me)

Sorry I haven't been posting a lot lately, I've been taking a step back from the community to do personal journaling, but also, I got a cat! A coworker of mine traps and rehomes them in her area, and one was the runt of her litter, so she needed extra care, which led to her being brought into the office a couple of times. That ended in me being offered her. If you remember, the last pet in the house passed away back on Easter, and I've been especially lonely without another animal in the home, so this has been a very good turn of events for my mental health (even with all of the stress that comes with a new kitten).

I figure I'd introduce her in this post, since I'm already talking about her. Peppermint, Pepper for short, is about six weeks old right now. She's solid black with green eyes and I'm sure will either have short or medium length fur when she's grown. She's starting to get comfortable with me and the room, which means she's also finding every way possible to annoy me and get into trouble, but I'd rather that over her being afraid of her own home. She loves nothing more than pets and attention and cuddling, and she really likes toys she can bat around or hunt.

I'm not sure if we'll make her a member of the Northern Steel Pack or not, but for now, I consider her my kit. She makes me excited to wake up every morning and get home from work. I've honestly been feeling a lot like a fox with her around, as I get to interact with her as one without judgement and care for her like a vixen would her pup and keep a den with chambers and hiding places and bring her food and water and things to play with. Kittens even cuddle like fox kits, constantly nuzzling the face and being underfoot. Hopefully she'll grow into the best cat she can be and go outside with me on hikes and trips once she's an adult.

[shadow-lycanthrope]

what is THE worst thing you've ever drank. all liquids acceptable. please tell me what it was, bonus points for why

[shadow-lycanthrope]

Happy Pride to all of my fellow queer nonhumans. We deserve love too and we also deserve a little snack or trinket of some sort.

[shadow-lycanthrope]

Yknow the large population of canine nonhumans in alterhumanity makes a lot more sense after learning that we as homo sapians share 84% of our DNA with canines. 84%. Not just like one in particular, but all of them. In an esoteric and physical sense, this.. kind of explains a lot in my mind.

[shadow-lycanthrope]

Does anyone else feel incredibly conflicted by having multiple Theriotypes, cause like

My main one that pops up is my border collie Theriotypes, but then I'll get my barn owl win phantom wing shifts at the same time as my border collie phantom shifts and like, it's confusing

Like and I'm also a wolf, but that sometimes clashes with my dog self so idk which one is responsible for the shift I'm having (cause I have really frequent phantom shifts)

But also I'm definitely some sort of horse, and the fact I don't know sometimes drives me insane

I feel like i have the spirit of 4 things in me, and like, plus the Server (voices in my head/s) plus my human self and plus my characters that like I animate in my head daily it's alot, it's too much

I'm going to have to graduate and work one day and be normal and I don't want to, I just want to go home, but I don't have one anymore, I want my body back, I don't want to be here, but I don't know where I want to be

I just look at the stars and the moon because they have been with me forever

They're the only things that make me feel safe anymore

[shadow-lycanthrope]

i’m so fucking tired of being told i’m not an animal

[shadow-lycanthrope]

humans, I hope you know your natural scent isn't bad.

everytime I meet someone new, I get a little sad when they wear heavy cologne because it feels inauthentic to the true them.

Im a scent guy, and light perfumes are okay, but heavy ones just take away YOU!!

we're ALL animals, you don't have to hide your scent. it's how some of us recognize eachother!

[shadow-lycanthrope]

Photo Credits: Martin Miřejovský

Happy Wet Beast Wednesday!

I'm also going to use this post to share how much I've been loving fruits and veggies lately. Blackberries, strawberries, grapes, apples, lettuce. Very delicious treats for a fox, especially fruit with a little whipped cream on the side. I get to have some for lunch today and then have a bunch of shrimp for dinner so I'm a very happy vixen.

[shadow-lycanthrope]

What is "prey rage"?

Thanks for the question! And sorry that my answer is so long. I like to yap and this has been on my mind for a while. This is coming from anglophone USAmerican observations, for the record, I don’t and can’t speak in absolutes on this issue as it applies to other countries and cultures.

But in therian and non-therian spaces both, there is a general tendency to characterize prey animals as passive (innocent, helpless, harmless) and predators as active (hunters, killers). And this notion is harmful and unhelpful across the board, but especially, in my opinion, when it comes to large ungulate species.

Most of us (USAmericans) are extremely alienated from the beef, dairy and pork industries, and are unlikely to interact closely with cows or pigs. Given the general cost and land requirements of equestrian hobbies, the same goes for horses. Deer are somewhat present in the collective consciousness but usually as pests or a road hazard or a hunting season. The fact that these animals are capable of violent self defense is obscured, almost on purpose, in a land of friendly milk advertisements and Disney cartoons. You don’t want to think about Bambi goring someone, do you? That might make you buy less merch.

And to be fair, I do think it goes deeper than that. Humans anthropomorphize reflexively. Predator species are often more charismatic and their relative rarity and ecological importance makes the study and documentation of individuals much easier. Predators are usually independent, and when they’re not, they often exist in family groups, lifestyles that are not only approachable but downright appealing to the USAmerican mindset. These animals are framed as intelligent (as it relates to a human way of thinking) and active ecological forces that keep prey animals (necessarily passive in comparison) in check.

So the prey species become largely secondary. Since humans are at the top of the food chain, it’s difficult to properly conceptualize life for animals that are predated upon. They eat (mindlessly), they reproduce (mindlessly), and they are killed (mindlessly). If humans have deigned them worthy of conservation, they become not just mindless, but sin-less creatures uniquely devastated by climate change or habitat loss (a characterization that also hurts predatory species). Their passivity is a virtue in need of protection and, if it’s not obvious, the idea that these animals are as equally capable of killing as they are of dying sort of throws a wrench in the whole well-meaning paradigm.

Elk and bison injure people annually at Yellowstone, and still humans wander up to them as if that outcome is a complete impossibility. And yes, the public is largely uneducated on animal behaviors, but I hear a lot less about tourists toddling off towards bears and wolves, don’t you? It’s like that gif of that biker guy holding his arm out to a horse clearly displaying every “fuck off” warning sign in the book, and the guy gets bit. It’s not just that he doesn’t know horse body language, it’s as if he can’t conceptualize the idea that a horse might feel threatened and lash out and hurt him. Because horses don’t do that. They’re literally nice.

Obviously, prey species will defend themselves, violently, explosively and “no holds barred” if necessary, because the other option is usually death. And this defense, by design, will fuck up humans or any other predatory species.

Granted, prey “rage” is an unhelpful anthropomorphization of this behavior as well, but in my defense I was talking about myself.

I’ve talked before on this blog about how I value kindness and compassion, and partly why I value it so highly because it is often against my nature entirely and is something I have to actively work at. If I feel I have been wronged or hurt my first instinct is the kind of kick-your-lights-out, kill-or-be-killed reaction an elk has when a wolf is latched onto its hock. I have to get them back, and it has to hurt.

Now I can recognize that that is a self destructive and unhelpful impulse (there is no wolf latched onto my hock), but I do believe it is informed by my “prey brain” (among other aspects of my nonhumanity). It is unhelpful to characterize me as innocent or incapable of harm on account of my deer-ness, and I will always reject that sentiment. Further, is damaging to discuss deer and other prey species as wholly sweet and innocent even and especially in therian spaces, and that was largely what I was getting at with my original post. Hope that has answered your question lol :>

[shadow-lycanthrope]

Please take this if you have a few minutes! I’m collecting research for a book I’m writing titled “I’m Not Human” — A Guide to Understanding the Otherkin Community.

There will be several parts of the survey that will be released each time the window for taking the previous one has closed, so keep an eye out, and make sure to take it soon!!

I want to have this book done by August, so I will be running each survey for 4 weeks. The last week will be an overlap period, so the next survey will be released, and the previous one will be locked after the new one has been up for a week.

This survey is very general, but in the future, there will be topics covered such as mental health, physical wellness, self care, spiritualism, specific ‘types and so on, so make sure you save this post in some way!

[shadow-lycanthrope]

i accidentally drew one of u mfs which one is it

i didn't draw wolves in such a long time omfg

[shadow-lycanthrope]

Not sure if it's the same, but I have ptsd, and while I love making and collecting masks of my kintype(s), actually wearing them anywhere that isn't my room by myself is extremely stressful for me. Can't see, can't smell, it makes me feel extremely vulnerable and I don't like it.

We don’t have enough disabled therian representation.

It’s true. We don’t. Since the therian community is mainly online, we don’t get a lot of disabled therians. That is mainly because the algorithm pushes mainly quads and masks. It also kinda ties into my last post about the therian community being very quads and gear centered.

Many disabled people (myself included) aren’t able to do quads. And in a world that’s already not made for us, “coming out” as a therian can place unnecessary pressure on us to be able to do quads and wear gear.

I’m gonna be real with y’all, I can’t live my life without being in pain 24/7. I have multiple disabilities and while i’d love to have gear and do quads, my body just doesn’t allow it.

TLDR: even though disabled therians are underrepresented in the therian community, please don’t discount our existence.

Thanks for reading!

[shadow-lycanthrope]

sometimes i wish my existence can become part of the universe, like instead of a human i can just be energy that exists within the vastness of space