#Creepypasta Aerodactyl

[themultiversefox]

It's been a while so, have a couple sketches I've made recently

Xaneth, an unnamed alien creech, a Creepypasta Aerodactyl, and Oraki/The Talker.

[benisbeaaaaans]

More of them :)

[anomalymon]

[Essay] MissingNo Therian: An Exploration in Identity, Labels, and the Fictotherian Experience

We've seen a few posts of people wanting more personal essays in the community, so I thought I would write this and crosspost it to Tumblr. -Rex

I am a MissingNo. My exact form is one that's been fluid throughout my life, with Kabutops and Aerodactyl fossil forms having preference, but occasionally switching to the Lavender Town Ghost. I identify as a Pokemon therian or Poketherian for my species - or fictotherian for a broad term. This identification is one which can confuse people - after all, therianthropy is more traditionally associated with animals, and I identify as Pokemon that isn't real. My species only exists in four games that are well over two decades old and is a failsafe the game spits out. Why should I identify as a therian? Despite how strange it can seem, I still prefer therian over other labels such as otherkin and fictionkin. My therian identity is deeply intertwined with my hyperempathy, created by a bias of my animality, comes from viewing a MissingNo as a type of animal, and from experiencing common therian traits.

Therian over otherkin, fictionkin, or fictive

Some may be saying "why don't you call yourself fictionkin?" or even "Isn't otherkin for mythical species, while therian is for earthen species?" To address the later point, there have been better written essays dispelling this. I would highly recommend Therian: Dispelling the Earthen Animal Myth by The River System for a well written and researched essay.

To address the former point, it is personal preference. I did use "otherkin" for years and still do identify as both otherkin and fictionkin, but the term "therian" is more in alignment to how I experience identity. I am an animal, I experience shifts, and I experience instincts.

I don't perceive MissingNo as sapient on the level of elves or some dragons. For me, being a MissingNo is also a "real" thing, as tangible as a dog, bird, or dragon. I don't consider myself glitchkin despite being a glitch, nor conceptkin. I am like the theriomythics who label themselves for being an animalstic gryphon or phoenix.

When it comes Fictionkin and fictive, to me they can be too focused on identifying yourself in the framework of being a character, which I'm not. I'm not a creepypasta character anymore than one of the Hypno species would be. I still do identify as fictional - I can comfortably identify as "fictherian" or my preference "fictotherian" (Which comes from "fictotype". I believe I started this term usage - since when I started using it, I could find no results to it, but I did use it in forum posts, Discord servers, and other methods).

Fictive falls under a similar problem - but with slightly more alienation. While the term is open to me, my identity history makes me feel out of place in a community of walk-ins and introjects when it was one that developed later in life.

How I became a MissingNo and the grip of hyperempathy

My identity as a MissingNo came later in life. I began existing in my system as a canine pup - which I know from behaviors and mannerisms that I later connected to me in the present, and genuinely expressing feeling like a dog as a child. Years later, I identified this species as a manned wolf.

Then at around the age of ten, my identity shifted to a glitch Pokemon. What at least contributed to it was developing a special interest in Glitch Pokemon around this time. This combined with our natural hyper-empathy and perhaps being conceptum to subconsciously alter my identity over time.

These interpretations can cause me to be out of place. While I still love glitch Pokemon and I am fascinated by them, I rarely find anyone who also has an intense interest and fascination while having this level of hyperempathy - even if I encounter others who have some alterhuman or even gender or sexuality connection to glitch Pokemon. Almost uncontrollably do I see glitch Pokemon as genuine Pokemon. I might grow attached to certain Pokemon in the way I would a pet.

The overall psychological influence means that this identity comes down to personal interpretations and personification. I'm not a natural animal and you cannot read about me in a textbook or find any bits of lore within the games, but rather, I am an animal that came from the mind of a mentally ill person.

MissingNo the animal

What defines "animal" varies. Humans are biologically animals and primates, but not all humans identify with those terms, with some taking offense to it. To someone with hyperempathy, a stuffed animal may be as much of an animal as a living one, or even a car might be a type of animal to certain minds. This connection is what makes me feel a MissingNo can be a type of animal.

Additionally, Pokemon are their world's equivalent of animals, and this is how most of my system views Pokemon due to one of our deepest parallel life connections being a humanlike Mewtwo. This sentiment is also one I've seen many Poketherians have. In the world of our origin, we are animals. For another essay on a similar experience, I'd highly recommend "The Fire Burns Bright" by Jasper, an Alolan Marrowak therian.

Within the contexts of the games and many interpretations - including my own - MissingNo is also a bird. It is one of few Pokemon which use this glitch beta typing. Being a bird can be equally as much a part of it and I'd consider birds as a paralleltype and one where I may confidently call myself a bird. Albeit a very odd bird.

The wolf and animal bias in my core

In addition to the bird of the MissingNo, the manned wolf at my heart is still important to my identity. It's in between otherhearted and therian on a sliding scale, and I identify it more as manned wolf-hearted for convenience, but it's closer to "kinth". I don't know why I am or was a manned wolf, but it doesn't quite matter to me either way. What matters is that there is the manned wolf.

To me it feels as if despite my core being or "soul", my mind became a MissingNo while the core remained the same. To my soul, a MissingNo is a type of dog. Then, to my mind, a manned wolf is a type of Pokemon. Both of these identities came about and exist in harmony rather than opposition.

Another comparison that the heart and soul makes is being "feral". Glitch entities in video games to me are almost like an animal which can't be domesticated. They may act fine, but every so often you'll encounter something that reminds you that at their core, they're wild. MissingNo still scrambles sprites and Hall of Fame data - and you can't have a "normal" experience with it. MissingNo is to Pokemon as a wolf is to a dog.

The instincts that made me tear apart playsets when playing house pretending to be a dog are still present in the instincts that make me want to tear apart meat when I eat it.

The Experience of a MissingNo Animal

I fit into many traditional therianthropy experiences and unto a hybrid canine/avian experience - just perhaps with more twists towards the bizarre.

I am a contherian when it comes to mental shifting and almost always feeling like an animal. However, I do experience phantom shifts. I get the sensations of skeletal fangs, claws, and a body that's far heavier and taller than my tiny, human form. Though the bizarre comes when during these shifts, I don't feel like I have skin and much of my body feels transparent, I feel like I should be able to stick my hand through my lower jaw.

I feel the sense of freedom and flight when I ride a bike downhill. For a few minutes when I bike, I can imagine myself flying. I sit in rivers and ponds among the wading birds feeling like I belong. I treat the chicks and chickens we raise like a part of my flock.

I still want to hunt. Sometimes I need to fight my instincts to recognize chicks as flockmates and not food. I like to eat wildly and I like to taste blood and fat in my food. When I eat, I feel like like the blood should dribble through my skinless jaw bone. Skeletal claws should be typing this essay instead of fleshy human fingers.

Conclusion

I am an animal, and despite doubts, I am a therian.

This label fits my experiences better than the alternatives. I don't feel as much alienation or out of place compared to other communities even though my species isn't an "animal" in the traditional sense. Hyperempathy has created this experience for me in that I feel more comfortable saying I am an animal than I am from fiction.

My center being is animal and always has been, it's just how its presented through my life has shifted. The animal instincts have only developed as my species has.

It is my hope that more unusual therians might come forth and be encouraged to examine their experiences - and for both earthen therians and potential theriomythics or fictotherians to explore what exactly "animal" means to them. I want others to also examine where their mind's biases may lead them, how that can impact their identity, and use it to feel more at peace in what the heart wants.

[decamarks]

What is your opinion on missingno?

LOVE. LOVE SO SO SO MUCH. missingno wasn't my introduction to the world of pokemon glitches but its status as being basically both The Glitch Pokemon and The Glitch in general makes its existence pretty inescapable, LMAO. six year old me read missingno's page on bulbapedia like a thousand times over. six year old me was also completely terrified by it. i once got scared by a shirt hanging on the wall because i thought it was the skeleton aerodactyl, as well as a blanket that was in the vague shape of missingno's sprite. (my sister pointed out that it was actually backwards. it still spooked me.)

i'm pretty sure i've posted this a few times before but these segments from missingno's wikipedia article still make me scream and cry a little.

as a kid, that certain strangeness about what's 'real' and what's not can be really unsettling. the existence of missingno is observed less like the product of a malfunction and more like a curse—a punishment for cheating, or for playing the 'wrong' way. even if its effects on the game are relatively harmless, the experience of seeing something like missingno, something that shouldn't exist, is really unnerving. it's easy to assume that it's malevolent in some way; if it can break the illusion of the game world, surely it can break other things.

it's like being afraid of the dark. it's an unknown entity, loosely assembled pixels in the shape of an indefinite blocky sprite. you can see anything in it, because it isn't anything. (though its alternate forms only serve to encourage fear; like seriously of course they had to be the 3 scariest sprites in the game. genuinely what a miracle it is for that to happen)

i think it's a really wonderful little aberration. there are so many cool glitch pokemon, but even among the swathes of exploding bulbasaurs and infinitely hatching eggs, missingno is very well deserving of its status. the amount of curiosity it encourages and inspires is so cool, and obviously really important to me. the dozens and dozens of creepypastas penned by 10 year olds in school composition notebooks about its arcane evil are cornerstones of our society IMO

^ I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

[themultiversefox]

Something, something, art dump of different fandoms because of brain not making up it's mind.

[decamarks]

hi jojo i used to be so scared of pokemon glitches when i was little were you ever scared of pokemon glitches or creepypastas

oh my god i was downright terrified of them. you might not expect that from how openly i adore glitches on here but as a kid i was SO AFRAID of them.

i played pokemon pearl for the first time when i was like 4 or 5, and it was on one of those ds flashcarts that came preloaded with a TON of cheats. i used the walk-through-walls a lot because i didn't know how to progress the story otherwise LMAO. anyway the feeling of walking through walls in pokemon pearl is indescribable and it terrified 5 year old me.

when you go out of bounds in DPPt, it says the location you're in is the "mystery zone", and it plays a weird, off-key version of one of the route themes. it's so strange and scary to be able to go beyond those bounds, where you know you're not supposed to be. there's no world beyond there, nothing to be found, just this harrowing, endless black void. usually when you see the 'edges' of a game, you just wonder what might be beyond them. but when you go beyond them and find nothing… it's genuinely disturbing. but it was still fascinating to me as a kid, and that fascination never really left.

glitch pokemon like missingno were also absolutely horrifying to me, though i only ever learned of them through reading about them online, since i didn't grow up with gen 1. i would spend hours reading about missingno and then get scared and cry because i thought skeleton aerodactyl was behind me. i think there's something to be said about being scared of something, yet still continuing to seek it out for no other reason than wanting to understand it, because part of you thinks it's fascinating, and part of you thinks it's even a little beautiful. glitches are one of the strangest and most wonderful digital entities out there, because no one ever intends for them to exist, and yet they're still so beautiful and fascinating. they're sorta like nature in that sense—entirely unintended, formed organically as the culmination of a ton of little mistakes or mutations, or maybe miracles. glitch pokemon are like lovely little wildflowers to me

OH WAIT i also was extremely terrified of pokemon creepypasta LMAO. my sister read them to me against my will and i had nightmares and cried a lot. i was sooooooo scared of pokemon dead channel. i do not know why. i remember when i was like 7 i wanted to write a creepypasta where the narrator was a pokemon creepypasta writer, and their game becomes evil when it finds out what they're writing about. 7 year old me was a genius of metanarrative basically