#alterhuman challenge

[reigning-kingof-ithaca]

Ximena Natzel's The Challenge animatic had me yelling, "SHE'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!" the entire time 😭

Penelope, the woman you are <3

[wizardsfang]

Niche Kin Appreciation Challenge

A 30 prompt challenge by @Wizardsfang

Anyone with any kind of type or kin can use this! HOWEVER!! This is especially geared at the appreciation of nicher & lesser acknowledged creatures!

From big to small, nonfiction to high fantasy, this challenge was designed to help give a few small fun things for folk to do to help fill the gaps in content for the things attached to their identity

I encourage folk to use #Niche Kin Appreciation or #Kin Appreciation along with other relevant alterhuman tags to help showcase what they create :]!!

< Text Only Version Here >

< Kin Drawing Challenge Here > (coming soon)

—

Note: not all kinfolk will be able to fulfill every prompt due to various degrees of representation; users are encouraged to get creative in their means to fulfill the gap WITHOUT using AI to generate or alter works

[alex-the-alterhuman]

Dear fictionkins,

Pls reblog this with literally any image of how you look like!!

It can be anything: art, picrews, gacha, edited original image, ect.

I don't care if it's low quality, or drawn by a begginer artist.

Here's mine: (I'm currently a Jeff TK otherlinker)

Made with a creepypasta picrew :>

[talon-dragonbeast]

Anglocentrism in alterhuman communities: ramblings of a Spanish-speaking dragon and a cat

[original in spanish here, though i have no doubt that this version will be disseminated more widely] • [original en español aquí, aunque tengo la certeza de que esta versión se difundirá más ampliamente]

this post was originally written as part of The Sol System's Alterhuman Writing Challenge. written by @talon-dragonbeast, with the help of my sibling @watcherwingedcat. we hope you like it!

word count: 2422

This writing, which is more of a rant with myself than a proper essay, is one I've been meaning to write for a long time; ever since I first joined an online community, to be more precise. Anglocentrism, according to Wikipedia (and yes, the irony of the article not being available in Spanish is not lost to me), is "the practice of viewing the world primarily through the lens of English or Anglo-American culture, language, and values, often marginalizing or disparaging non-English-speaking or non-Anglo perspectives."

If you are monolingual and your native language is English, chances are you have never stopped to think about the advantage this gives you over those of us who are not so fortunate as to be born with the lingua franca on our lips. Yes, you may have had to study some Spanish in school, but let's be honest, very few people remember what they learn in elementary school. As an English speaker, the whole world is built for you, and it's the rest of us who have to fit your mold. Culture, scientific articles, movies, books, video games, the internet, online communities, technical language, educational videos: even in the most international spaces, everything revolves around English. Which brings me to the subject of this writing: The Alterhuman community.

My name (as I am known on the internet, at least) is Talon. I've been a member of the alterhuman community, and more specifically, the otherkin community, for a little over a year now. Otherkin (a word that comes from other, in Spanish otros; and kin, shortened form of kind, in Spanish tipo) are people who identify as nonhuman in some way. For example, I identify as a dragon (among other things), and that's what I am, even if I look human on the outside and am perceived as such. There are many reasons why someone might believe they are not human, but I'm not here to discuss that, so let's get back to the topic at hand.

Since I've been in this community, I haven't written a single post in Spanish. And not for lack of desire, nor because I am intimidated to share something as personal as my mother tongue. No, the reason is simple: The community does not exist in any language other than English. By this I don't mean that there are no non-humans outside of England or the United States, because of course there are (even if they are on other platforms like TikTok or Instagram), and I'll talk about those later. But simply put, the reason you don't see many alterhuman communities in other languages is because all the resources, the introductions, the chronologies of the (English) alterhuman community, the definitions of the terms, the terms themselves, everything is in English.

I have always been bilingual. Well, trilingual actually, although my third language is not too relevant in my day to day life and I only use it in classes or when someone starts a conversation in the language. It's hard to explain how your brain works when you speak multiple languages fluently, but basically it's like running two parallel systems at the same time, but with thoughts. I don't usually think with words, but when I do it usually happens that some of my thoughts are in Spanish, and others in English, roughly in a 50/50 ratio. Or it can also happen that I start the thought in one language, but finish it in another. Or I may try to use a specific word in English that does not have an exact translation into Spanish, so that when translated literally the sentence does not make sense. Basically, everything I write or say out loud I have to run it through several filters first, one to remove the words from the other language, one to find the words to replace them with, and one to make the sentence make sense. Sounds exhausting, doesn't it? It is. Now imagine if in order to express yourself as you really are, in order to participate in a community with beings who understand and accept you like no other, you had to basically suppress half of who you are, all the time.

The problem is not only not being able to use my native language to express myself. As I have demonstrated in the last year and a half that I have been in this community, I am fluent enough in English not only to be understood when I speak, but also to express such complicated concepts as the self, human nature, the psychology of being, and all that comes with existing as nonhuman. The real problem comes when I try to express relatively common alterhuman concepts in my native language. I'm not just talking about labels like otherkin or therianthrope, which can be adapted to Spanish with relative ease. It's the little things, the simplest things.

For example, the term shift. The word itself is already difficult to translate; during my searches, I found a glossary of terms on the Otherkin Hispano website in which they call them "desplazamientos", which... is an accurate translation, I guess, but impossible to use comfortably in everyday life. There are also terms whose definitions use expressions that simply cannot be translated into other languages. For example, otherkin and otherhearted. In English, the difference between these two terms is that otherkin means "[to] identify as" while otherhearted is "[to] identify with". But this is a purely English expression. In other languages, the distinction does not exist, or it makes no sense to use it; therefore, these terms are totally inaccessible to any international user. Or compound words like "catkin", which are difficult to express in other languages. According to Otherkin Hispano, in Spanish it would be said as is without translation, Soy catkin. But that... is not grammatically correct, since it would be mixing two languages in the same sentence. The most appropriate would be to say Soy gatokin, which sounds wrong and doesn't make sense anyway, because kin is still an English word. Or "hearttype", which in Spanish could be roughly translated as "tipo del corazón" (kind of [the] heart). When saying that you have a specific hearttype, for example "corvidhearted", one way of expressing it could be a simple Soy corvidhearted, which carries the same problems as catkin. Or you could, as Wikipedia advises, say Soy corazón de córvido ("I am heart of corvid"). I don't dislike it, to be honest, but some might find it too metaphorical or poetic.

Finally, and before reaching the conclusion, I want to dedicate a few paragraphs to talk about the alterhuman community that exists in other languages. I mentioned before these communities; that although they do exist, they are very scattered through platforms such as TikTok or Instagram, with which I am not so familiar. But since I can't talk about Anglocentrism without at least talking about the Spanish-speaking alterhuman community, I asked my sibling Watcher @watcherwingedcat what it thought about the topic. This is what they wrote:

Hi guys, I'm Watcher, and I'm here to talk a bit about the Spanish-speaking therian community, which I think is the pristine example of the hate we receive both from people outside the community and from those inside, both Spanish and South American. While this post focused more on the language barriers, I want to focus on the real consequences of this barrier, how it divides us in the way we interact with each other: The social part of this whole thing (as I already said some other time or another and some of my followers know, I am studying Social Education, so from my point of view the social part is very relevant for everything we do). As my sister already said (hi Talon!), the English community is the majority in alterhuman spaces, but, what is the Spanish-speaking community really like?

Not very large, is the answer. The term itself is not very widespread, and the community is quite small. However, after a while of searching, I found it in a little corner of the internet. When I found a community in my own language, I was excited, but my curiosity and joy were soon extinguished... When I saw the reactions to their videos and posts on tiktok mainly. They were packed with hate messages. Packed. If you think hate in the English community is bad, you are not prepared for the hate received in other communities, especially the Spanish one. This is more a matter of culture, a little bit also due to the closed mindedness in countries like Spain, Argentina, or Colombia.

In general, the non-humans of the Spanish-speaking community mostly post about quadrobics and masks. At least, I haven't seen much beyond that, and the community is mostly in tiktok. And the reception of their expression of way of being? Disgusting. To give an example of how bad the hate is, in one of the videos I found (I think it was a therian making a mask or something), humans and non-humans were insulting the therian posting the video, discussions about how we are crazy and sick in the head and should be in mental institutions... It was horrible. The worst were the death threats, even, wishing the therian to die, or hang themselves, or worse (I've even seen rape threats). Comments that said things like, "If my sister told me she was a dog I would take her clothes off and force her to sleep outside and eat animal food, if she wants to be a dog I will treat her like one." Threats of abuse, both physical and sexual... Absolutely disgusting. And the worst thing is that the tiktok platform did not remove these hate accounts, the copy and paste messages of insults, the threats....

I am proud of the Hispanic community for being so open about their identity, don't get me wrong, but there are times when it is safer to just not share that part of who we are with others, especially if you are a minor and vulnerable. That's another issue that concerns me, as I've seen people coming out to parents, siblings, friends, and them just belittling them. That, coupled with misinformation, is a recipe for disaster.

I couldn't help but notice the deep root of misinformation in the non-human community itself. They confuse definitions, the different terms, which leads them to spread even more misinformation. This I don't think is entirely their fault, or that they are so young for the most part, as I have not seen Hispanic therians over the age of 18. I think this is largely due (as Talon already mentioned) to the language difference, and the lack of translation of certain terms. In general, when talking to friends with whom I am open about my non-humanity, I use English terms. It is a little weird to use those words in English while speaking in Spanish, but I am bilingual and for now there is no solution to that. I think the Spanish community would benefit from spreading correct information, and having a platform to express themselves with their own, like tumblr is for the English community. Something my sister expands on in dreir post. As for me here I finish my little comment, I'll leave you with Talon now. Watcher out.

As a conclusion, I would like to talk about the consequences that Anglocentrism might have on non-English speaking alterhumans, and then propose some ideas on how we might begin to address (or at least mitigate) it as a community.

First of all it is the obvious; the vast majority of non-English speaking alterhumans simply never realize that they are alterhumans in the first place, on account of the language barrier. All of the resources for beings who are questioning their humanity or lack thereof are in English, so they are not accessible to people who don't understand the language; therefore, a non-English speaker would have a much harder time accessing them. Another consequence is not being able to express your alterhumanity fully, both internally and externally. Remember when I mentioned that my thoughts are evenly distributed between English and Spanish, always keeping a 50/50 ratio? Well, recently, I have noticed that when reflecting on my identity as a dragon, all my thoughts are automatically generated in English. I find this deeply shocking, as I feel that a fundamental part of my identity is being eroded. It is devastating to feel that you can only express half of who you are, suppressing what could otherwise be a complex and multifaceted identity. Not being able to express myself in my other language limits my ability to explore that part of myself.

Anglocentrism is a cycle that never ends; since all the resources are in English, no members in other languages can join, and since there are no members in other languages, all the resources that are created are in English. And while I wish I could say that I have a solution to end this Anglocentrism once and for all, unfortunately, I do not. I am only one person (dragon), and this is a problem that I alone cannot solve. True, there have been some commendable attempts by the international community (translations of writings, alterhuman blogs in languages other than English, the Eurokin server on Discord are some examples); however, these initiatives often don't often get very far because of the very nature of the community. As I have already said, most of the alterhumans are North American or English, therefore any attempt to globalize the community would be restricted by the fact that there are not many members who would be interested in this in the first place. So what can we do to change this? The answer lies in you, reader. If you have a second language, encourage yourself to create writings in it from time to time. If you come from a culture other than the mainstream, talk about how that affects your identity. If you have traditions specific to your country that you believe are alterhuman in nature, share them. And if you are part of the English-speaking majority, I invite you to contribute in a positive way through simple actions, such as listening to us when we express ourselves in other languages, recognizing that we do not all share the same culture, and keeping an open mind when discussing topics that may be unfamiliar to you. Our strength as a community lies in the diversity of our members; let's embrace it.

[wyndscale]

dragonkin ask game

hey there! since this year, the year of the dragon, is getting to its end, i decided to come up with some questions for dragonkin and other draconic beings in the alterhuman and plural community. these can be used for personal use in blogs and are free to use for "draconic question of the week" pings on discord, for example. i will explain the reason for those and what i plan to do with them below the questions after the cut. i hope you will have fun with those.

questions under the cut

1. when did you find out you are a dragon?

2. what kind of dragon are you?

3. when did you join the dragonkin/alterhuman community?

4. what are some unique features of your dragon self? can be related to your body, your powers or your behavior.

5. what do you think of the representation of dragons on earth?

6. do you have memories of being a dragon in a past life or concurrent life?

7. what do your shifts look like, if you have any?

8. what does your species' diet?

9. do you have a breath weapon? if yes, which one?

10. do you know your dragon body's size?

11. do you hoard?

12. how does your draconity influence you irl?

13. do you feel species dysphoria sometimes?

14. what did/would your habitat look like?

15. are you territorial? can be a place(s) or other beings.

16. what do you think about the dragonkin/alterhuman community?

17. do you use a special vocabulary related to your draconity?

18. does your species have a special language or alphabet?

19. do you have a pack/clan or are you on your own?

20. where do you spend the most time? outside in nature or in your cave (at home)?

21. what is your favorite dragon media? is it a book series, a show, a video game or something else?

22. have you ever met a dragon like you or similar to you?

23. do you consider your identity spiritual, psychological or something else? do you use these labels at all?

24. do you have any other identities beside being a dragon?

25. do you own any gear (tails, horns, jewelry etc.) related to your draconity?

26. how does your species communicate primarily? do you use speech, sounds/vocals and/or body language?

27. is your dragon self animalistic/feral or sapient?

28. do you have a visual description of yourself or something that looks similar to your dragon body?

29. do you have any body modifications (tattoos, implants etc.)?

30. are there any dragons/other dragonkin who inspire you?

31. free space

the reason i made this ask game is because i will try to answer every one of the questions during the last month of the year of the dragon. this is a sort of "dragonkin ask game/challenge", and you can try it too, if you want.

thank you for taking a look <3

[rrottenotterr]

Niche Kin Appreciation Challenge (prompt 1)

Challenge by @/wizardsfang

Introduce your kin !

My kin type is a minecraft creeper ! Specifically one that appears catlike, like in the creeper cat mod !! This is what i look like i guess :333

I would say i identify with/as a creeper for a few reasons but mostly it just feels right. I'm an explosive guy who can be pretty chill when left alone, but get too close and boom, i explode and destroy myself and those around me. Idk fully if being a creeper is a hearttype, copinglink, or kin, but idrc what it is 🤷

[who-is-page]

Greener Grasses and Fossilized Paw Prints: Where (and Why) the Greymuzzles Go

Author: Page Type: Essay Words: 1,229 Summary: Page's personal experience as an adult canine psychopomp, and how it applies to the dearth of older otherkin in general alterhuman community spaces. Answering the question of: where are all the older otherkin? And why do people always seem to eventually leave? Author's Note: The term "greymuzzle" is used within the scope of this essay's title to reference older otherkin who have been active in alterhuman spaces for extended periods of time (a nod to the word's original definition within furry spaces), and is not referring to greymuzzle's most frequent definition in alterhuman groups as a community-given term denoting an individual with noteworthy activity and contribution.

[Part of the Sol System’s Alterhuman Writing Project for 2024. If you don’t want to see these posts, block the tag #inkedclaws]

When I was a young otherkin, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, I found it difficult to conceptualize why there was such a dearth of older community members, especially those 30 and above. I could understand the theoretics behind the disparity, of course— social media platforms, as we all know, tend to skew towards younger audiences due to generational differences in technological proficiency/preference. Established adults with working lives and families don’t necessarily have the same amount of free-time that young adults or teenagers do, either. But even with all that taken into account, it seemed like the number of otherkin aged 13-21 in comparison to the number of otherkin aged 30+ was less a gradual decline and more an unfathomable chasm of difference. The community had been around for decades at that point, with plenty of ghost town groups and abandoned forums to demonstrate that fact… and unless the Veil was secretly age-restricted, those people hadn’t up and disappeared into thin air. So where were people going? And, more importantly, why?

It was a question I’d never been able to answer in a way that felt satisfactory as a teenager and later as a young adult. But now, feeling the call of the void myself, I finally do have an answer and an understanding that I never could have achieved five or ten years ago: why the fuck would I be online when I could be playing video games or having sex with my hot partners instead?

It’s a crude and simplistic way to put it, but just hear me out. As an established adult, I have access to funds, stability, and freedom that I never had as a teenager or even as a young adult who still felt at the mercy of an uncaring universe’s slightest whims. My support systems in high school and college suffered from the same sort of financial and social precariousness that come with the territory of navigating the world as a young adult, but my support systems now are made up of other established adults; while I’ll never say that everything is always perfect for all of us, it’s much easier to get on your feet and stay on your feet when your arms are linked with people who are more firmly rooted in one way or another. I have access to a type of freedom that I could never have imagined as a teenager, because it was literally outside of the range of what was possible for me and my peers.

And more than just that freedom is the fact that I, as an adult, have a family! “Having a family” has, in my experience, some shitty, heteronormative connotations. As a teen, I always took it at face value as juggling bills, kids, white picket fence, other boring responsibilities that eat up your time, etc. But as an adult, now I know that having a family can be anything you make of it, and I make it extremely, obnoxiously queer. In my case, it’s living with people who understand me on a deep, foundational level, and who love me not in spite of who I am but because of who (and what) I am. It’s not passively being around those people; it’s actively, enthusiastically spending time with them because it’s fun and because I love them too and because they’re my people and I picked them and they picked me. As a kid, I’d never consciously recognized the difference between people you’re passively around because you have to be versus people you intentionally choose to be around and who intentionally choose you right back. In part, this is because as a kid you often don’t get the option to make that choice, while as an adult you have more control over your environment. Too often online environments feel like the former, rather than the latter, even if being within them is, technically, a choice. But here, now, I have people in my household who will go out of their way to intersect their daily lives with mine and ask, “You wanna walk to the park?” “You wanna grab a coffee?” or “You HAVE to see this YouTube essay I’m watching and no I don’t care that it’s 4 hours long on a topic you know nothing about, just trust me!!!!!” and that’s such a radically different and wonderful experience.

As an adult, I live with a group of people who make being alive more fun than I could have ever imagined. I have the ability to make my own fun in ways I couldn’t as a kid, for a variety of reasons. I don’t have to feel like an anxious purse chihuahua 24/7, agonizing over my existence and every possible thing that is liable to go wrong if I frivolously spend money on so much of the thought of a hot coffee. And I finally, finally understand why older otherkin disappear off the face of the Earth. It’s because being an adult nonhuman-identifying person is amazing in a way almost no one ever talks about: the euphoric experience of being known and loved, and of knowing and loving yourself.

There are so many exciting and wonderful things I could be doing in the meatspace with people I have actively chosen to spend my life with, and who fully accept and understand me as someone who’s queer, plural, and nonhuman. There’s so many enriching ways I could be engaging with my hobbies, the environment around me, and my local community. With this all in mind, why the fuck would I ever be in public online spaces where people try to argue with me about whether or not I exist, or if my experiences are real, or if I’m using the right and latest lingo to describe my experiences? Why would I subject myself to that when I could just roll my eyes, close the laptop, and go be a beloved canine psychopomp in the comfort of my werehouse instead?

That’s the crux of it. As adults with families and support networks, we have the option to not subject ourselves to the morifying ordeal of being known by asshole strangers online if we don’t want to. We can stick to just our families and our friend groups, and we will still have people around us who understand and who acknowledge and interact with our alterhumanity. The alterhuman community isn’t the only or even most important place for being our authentic selves; rather, it takes a backseat in the day-to-day life. It’s still something that’s fulfilling and worthwhile to engage with, but only on our own terms (terms that are quickly becoming incompatible with the ways Internet culture is evolving). But more often than not, there’s just more fun things to do.

In some ways, it’s kind of a relief to have had this epiphany. People haven’t vanished from alterhuman community spaces because they collectively ‘grew out of it’ like some anti-otherkin insist, or because the various generations of otherkin are so extraordinarily different from one another as to be oil-and-water. People vanish from online alterhuman spaces because offline life as an adult alterhuman is awesome. As an archivist it’s frustrating, but as a nonhuman, I find it a specific type of happiness that’s worth celebrating in its existence and prevalence. It’s an assurance that life only gets better as you get older: isn’t that grand?

[henryisabigfatbitch]

Niche Kin Appreciation Challenge

1. Introduce your kin

My niche Kin would be a Moth (Cecropia, and White Ermine)

Cecropia moth:

White Ermine moth

[nyctohyloph0bia]

On Voluntary Nonhumanity 2: Electric Bogaloo.

My previous posts about voluntary nonhumaness made a discussion spring up around 'Linking, and sadly due to my own mistakes to getting my point across clearly, everyone thought it was about 'Linking, despite not mentioning it once.

So, here's what I'm gonna say:

Nonhuman 'Linking = Voluntary Nonhumans.

Voluntary Nonhumans ≠ 'Linking.

'Linking is a practice and it's whole new thing, it's not just Therian, Otherkin or Fictionkin "but voluntary" or "lite". Again, as a otherlinker, this can be a relation you consciously maintain or something you actively towards to maintain and shape around to what fits your need. Here's a good post talking more about this.

Voluntary nonumanness isn't always 'Linking. It can be something like Voidpunk and Altervexo.

I am that scary, impossible voluntary therianthrope, I explained why this is in my reblog of the post, but I will reiterate:

I don't have a wolf linktype, this is no case of "I feel less valid if I don't label myself as a Therian :(". If I wanted it to be a linktype, it would've been a linktype.

I became a wolf therian, I can't drop it, I can't unbecome a wolf as you can a linktype (which, does NOT make it any less valid). This is who I am, deep, deep inside who I am now.

I cannot explain it in any better way than being "bitten voluntarily by a werewolf to become one". I didn't have to work towards it, more than my own inner conflict "is it right or wrong that I did this?".

And guess what? This isn't exclusive to nonhumaness. You can become Fictionkin too. You can become whoever the hell you want, however you want, because guess what? Not everyone is psychological because of trauma. Not everyone is born with a nonhuman or fictional soul. Not everyone has parallel lives. Or was born bound to another universe. Not everyone is born nonhuman.

Some are magic, some are headspace-made, some are other spiritual and metaphysical means, some don't know if it's voluntary or involuntary, some are just deciding to be one through a cathartic voluntary experience.

[canidbld]

Feraveli: Tiktok and the "Therian Aesthetic"

Content warnings: oveuse of the word aesthetic (chat I am NOT a thesaurus 🙏), general ramble shenanigans, and it takes a bit to get to the point (very sorry)

Words: 1.9k

— Day 2 of Sol's November Writing Challange

Tiktok has been downloaded onto my phone since 2020, and I've been in an off and on dynamic with the app. There were periods where I'll be addicted to scrolling for months and moments where I'll just go cold turkey for equal amounts and in the time I've had the app, there's a lot of things I've learnt like what the app is about, how it works, why the algorithm is the way it is and why trends become trends and the users who make up the app. Not to say I completely understand the app at all, most of my opinion on tiktok are just patterns I've noticed which resulted into an assumed conclusion with no real backing and support other than a "I've had tiktok for 4 years"

In my opinion, Tiktok is an app that encourages consumerism and wants people to conform to a single box label and aesthetic and lifestyle, essentially encouraging you to make yourself a brand and it's because of the way the algorithm works. According to my boyfriend, the more you intensely focus on one certain niche, aesthetic, community or singular type of content, the more your account will be advertised to your desired audience/demographic that post or consume similar content. You can do things like following people who match the "theme" of your account, reposting content similar to what you want to post, liking and commenting on said posts as well and following and using hashtags that connect you to the content you want to make. All these actions, while necessary to build somewhat of a platform on the app, create a bubble at best and an echo chamber at worst. Everything you do on tiktok is anaylsed by the app to curate the "perfect" for you page (FYP) of all your interests and most content creators on tiktok are aware of this, that's why you see people who are stacked with merch of their favorite anime or why there are accounts who just post edits for a single franchise/character or people who post outfits under a single aesthetic.

The more you visually and materially show how dedicated you are to an aesthetic, franchise or community, the more people will see your theme and they'll follow you, want to be and look like you and then start buying products similar to the aesthetic you're advertising.

It's an app that's known to water down sub-cultures and aesthetics to the point that the origins and themes of these concepts become almost obsolete, favoring visual aesthetics over the true meaning of the sub-culture. Goth and Scene, for example, are one of the more obvious examples. Part of the reason sub-cultures with history dating back decades ago get so warped is due to the way the algorithm works and how tiktok and its users profits off of niche aesthetics and communities.

So, what does this have to do with therianthropy?

Tiktok therians have been a bit of a topic in the community. Talks of how tiktok is filled with misinformation and how the therians of tiktok just focus on the visual aspects of therianthropy rather than the experience. I've read from a lot of therians that were active during the 90's and 00's and the 10's that talked about how different therianthropy has evolved since back then when you could connect with other therians through forums and the era of essays that profoundly described their experiences about being a therian and the deeper meaning of what that meant to them.

For tiktok therians, on the surface, it seems the experience of being a therian is branded as making masks and doing quadobics. It's all tiktok constantly regurgitates. The "aesthetic" of being a therian is someone who wears masks and has those clip-on tails. It's being connected to nature and running and frolicking around in pretty meadows and exploring lush dense forests. Its muted greens and earth brown tones. It's the "therian bedrooms" with the fake leaf decor and the masks and tails hung on the wall. It's the slow-motion tiktoks of people doing quadobics.

What came with this aesthetic and branding came with tiktok pushing this content out to the millions of people who used the app and would come across these videos. Some of the people who saw these videos, who had no idea what therians were, would be introduced into a community that they wanted to participate in and so more people would post more content under this "aesthetic"

The aesthetic, of course, came with its downsides. The major focus on the the visual imagery of therianthropy would result in very little talks about the experience and introspection of being a therian and even less on the history of the community. Like I said earlier, tiktok can create a bubble and the therians who awakened through the app very rarely research past the tiktok search function which has resulted in a lot of misinformation and old debunked discouse rehashed passing through the algorithm like wildfire.

There has been efforts to push back against the misinformation through accounts that do talk about the history of the community and educate the therians on the app but the ratio between quadrobics and educators is unbalanced with quadrobics accounts being more in quantity. Doesn't help that tiktok favors quadobics content more, leaving the accounts that try to educate and talk more deeply about therianthropy and alterhumanity as a whole with little reach and a small platform. Even more is that some of the accounts that try and educate sometimes spread misinformation themselves.

Now, I want to add a disclaimer. You can absolutely enjoy quadobics and wearing masks, and not every therian is responsible for educating others when the resources for it can be found through Google. You don't need to explain your experience as a therian, you can just simply enjoy being a therian in however you express that and if it's through quadrobics and masks then you are just as valid and important as the therians who originated from alt.werewolf.horror.

The problem is how tiktok conflates this aesthetic of therians with the experience and identity of being one and makes it as if this is all the community is when it's not an accurate representation of the community as a whole. Honestly, it doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg of therianthropy.

So when I came across an account that had recently coined the term "Feraveli," I instantly latched onto the label because I saw the potential in how important it is.

Feraveli was created in October 2024 and is coined by Solar (also known as @hellhoundtherian on tiktok). The summarised definition of feraveli is:

"People who enjoy the aesthetics of nature and animals"

Its a simple enough definition, made to be simple on purpose so people could build upon it themselves. This could mean liking certain habitats like forests or oceans or the dessert and the animals that inhabit them. It could mean liking concepts like the aesthetic of night and nocturnal animals. It could mean liking the mesozonic era of the past and liking the dinosaurs and animals of those times.

The term was coined to actually give a name to the tiktok therian aesthetic and that's why I think it's important for the term to exist because being able to give the aesthetic a name is the first step to being able to separate it from the experience and the therian identity as a whole. I believe that the term will give others the vocabulary neccesery to make it more easier for therians and alterhumans in general to vocalise more about their experiences allowing for more introspective conversations about how they feel versus the visual aspect of their identity. But more importantly, the term isn't just meant to be a term synonymous with alterhumanity. The term allows room for non-alterhumans to participate in the aesthetic without having to use nonhuman labels due to misunderstandings and misinformation.

Otherpaw is also a term that exists for similar reasons, to separate the aesthetic from the identity. The difference, I find, is that people who use the otherpaw label very rarely also identify as therians because they like the aesthetic of quadrobics and masks rather than actually identifying as an animal. Feraveli can also be that, but it's a term that wants to be explored and expressed rather than letting itself have a restrictive and rigid definition.

Feraveli can just be as simple as liking nature and animals but it can mean so much more than that to others who label themselves as feraveli.

In the feraveli carrd, Solar describes the different ways feraveli could be expressed, such as:

Dressing up as your chosen feraveli aesthetic (forest, nighttime, ocean) in whatever clothes you think represents that aesthetic

Decorating your room in items and trinkets and decor you think matches the vibe of your chosen feraveli aesthetic

Adopting other aesthetics and meshing it together with being a feraveli if it helps you express your feraveli aesthetic, such as taking aspects of fairycore, if you think it helps you express the vibes of the forest more

From an alterhuman perspective, I think feraveli can help other alterhumans express their alterhumanity more easily. For example, a bat therian who is a night feraveli, a fictionkin whose feraveli aesthetic matches the environment of their fictotypes media source or a robot kin that has a feraveli aesthetic centered around sci-fi and machines or even horrorkin who finds a feraveli aesthetic in environments like silent hill / foggy spooky areas. It's a lovely sandbox term, I think, that really thrives on creativity and expression more than anything and I'm so thankful the term exists.

For me, I'm a city and suburban feraveli. I like the aesthetics of the city and suburbs as I feel like it resonates with my canine theriotype. Both feravelis make me think of stray dogs and cats patrolling the streets which makes me feel euphoric when I picture myself as that. I express this feraveli type through dressing up more grunge and baggy because I think the style represents the vibes of the city. I wear blacks and grays for the same reason and created a playlist of songs that I think fits the aesthetic of the city. Another reason I feel so connected to these aesthetic feraveli types is because I also grew up and lived in these environments. I could talk about my personal feraveli more but I'd need more time to see what feels right for me under this label.

The term was coined recently, after all. Created only a month ago, not nearly enough time for the term to have solidified a culture for itself, but the beginnings of a community have sprouted on tiktok, and I hope that it continues to grow. It's exciting, to be honest, with feraveli being a newly created term to me. I'm excited to see the potential of it evolve like so many other terms such as copinglink, folcintera, and even the label therian itself as it has also evolved over time throughout the community. I'm even more excited to see and read potential essays about how others express feraveli and what the term means to them. I'm just excited to see how feraveli grows, and I hope anyone reading this will give feraveli a chance and incorporate the term towards themselves.

Feraveli carrd

Original coining post

Solar's (@hellhoundtherian) tiktok

[frameacloud]

I just created this! The Alterhuman Writing community account is a place for us to share our essays, poetry, stories, and other original writing about being alterhuman. The November 2024 Alterhuman Writing Challenge inspired the creation of this community account, but it will continue to be a place for posting our writings all around the year. https://alterhuman-writing.dreamwidth.org/

[wizardsfang]

Niche Kin Appreciation Challenge

A 30 prompt challenge by @wizardsfang

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1. Introduce your kin

2. Make a playlist for your kin

3. Share 5 fun facts about your kin

4. Do a photo dump for your kin

5. Assign colors to your kin

6. Share about your kin’s hearthome

7. Share your favorite aspects of your kin

8. Write a poem or drabble

9. Create a moodboard

10. Share a piece of media that relates to/reminds you of your kin

11. Share how you discovered this kin

12. Badly make a minimalist drawing of your kin

13. Assign your kin a food, hobby or genre

14. Create a Userbox or PFP set for your kin

15. Assign your kin an aesthetic & rant about why

16. Write affirmations for this kin

17. Create a club for your kin (or those close) and describe the objective of the club

18. Design a prototype, create, or otherwise share gear suggestions for your kin

19. Talk about how you express this kin

20. Make gifs & do a gif dump for your kin

21. Create a Stimboard

22. Create a “beginners guide” to your kin

23. Make a silly meme or trend for your kin

24. Share memories, shifts, quirks, or feelings this kin may bring

25. Start a silly/lighthearted rumor about this kin

26. Draw or Write your kin in a past or present drawing/writing trend & put sincere effort into it

27. Share your tougher experiences you have with your kin & you how persevere

28. Assign your kin a cutie mark, pokemon type, httyd class, WC clan or any other means or special identification from media & share why

29. Create a watchlist or gaming list for your kin

30. Create anything else you wish you’d seen for this kin

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Anyone with any kind of type or kin can use this however, this challenge is especially geared towards niche & lesser acknowledged kins

From big to small, nonfiction to high fantasy, this challenge was designed to help give a few small fun things for folk to do to help fill the gaps in content for the things attached to their identity

I encourage folk to use #Niche Kin Appreciation or #Kin Appreciation along with other relevant alterhuman tags to help showcase what they create :]!!

- Image Version for Challenge Here

- Kin Drawing Challenge Here (coming soon)

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Note: not all kinfolk will be able to fulfill every prompt due to various degrees of representation; users are encouraged to get creative in their means to fulfill the gap WITHOUT using AI to generate or alter works

[talon-dragonbeast]

El anglocentrismo en las comunidades alterhumanas: divagaciones de una dragona y un gato hispanohablantes

[para mayor claridad y divulgación de este escrito, he proporcionado una traducción al inglés en una publicación aparte. puedes encontrarla aquí] • [for further convenience and outreach of this piece, I have provided an english translation in a separate post. you can find it here]

este post fue escrito originalmente como parte del Desafío de Escritura Alterhumano del Sistema Sol. escrito por @talon-dragonbeast, con la ayuda de mi hermano @watcherwingedcat. esperamos que os guste!

recuento de palabras: 2418

Este escrito, que es más una diatriba conmigo misma que una redacción propiamente dicha, es uno que llevo mucho tiempo queriendo escribir; desde que me uní por primera vez a una comunidad online, para ser más exactos. El anglocentrismo, según Wikipedia (y sí, soy consciente de la ironía de que el artículo no esté disponible en Español), es "la práctica de ver el mundo principalmente a través de la lente de la cultura, la lengua y los valores ingleses o angloamericanos, a menudo marginando o despreciando las perspectivas no angloparlantes o no anglosajonas".

Si eres monolingüe y tu idioma materno es el inglés, es probable que nunca te hayas parado a pensar en la ventaja que esto te aporta sobre los que no somos tan afortunados como para nacer con la lingua franca en nuestros labios. Sí, es posible que hayas tenido que estudir algo de español en el colegio, pero seamos honestos, muy pocos recuerdan lo que aprenden en la escuela primaria. Como angloparlante, todo el mundo está construido para ti, y somos los demás los que tenemos que adaptarnos a vuestro molde. La cultura, los artículos científicos, las películas, los libros, los videojuegos, el internet, las comunidades online, el lenguaje técnico, los vídeos educativos: incluso en los espacios más internacionales, todo gira alrededor del inglés. Lo que me lleva al tema de este escrito: La comunidad Alterhumana.

Mi nombre (como se me conoce en internet, al menos) es Talon. Soy miembro de la comunidad alterhumana, y más específicamente, la comunidad otherkin, desde hace poco más de un año. Los otherkin (palabra que viene de other, en español otros; y kin, forma acortada de kind, en español tipo) son personas que se identifican como no humanos de alguna manera. Por ejemplo, yo me identifico como dragona (entre otras cosas), y eso es lo que soy; aunque por fuera parezca humana y me confundan como tal. Hay muchas razones por las que alguien puede creer que no es humano, pero no estoy aquí para discutir eso, así que volvamos al tema que nos ocupa.

Desde que estoy en esta comunidad, no he escrito ni una sola publicación en español. Y no por falta de ganas, ni porque me intimide compartir algo tan personal como mi lengua materna. No, la razón es simple: La comunidad no existe en otro idioma que no sea el inglés. Con esto no quiero decir que no existan no-humanos fuera de Inglaterra o los Estados Unidos, porque por supuesto que los hay (aunque se encuentren en otras plataformas como TikTok o Instagram), y hablaré de estas más adelante. Pero sencillamente, la razón por la que no se ven muchas comunidades de alterhumanos en otros idiomas es porque todos los recursos, las introducciones, las cronologías de la comunidad (inglesa) alterhumana, las definiciones de los términos, los términos mismos, todo está en inglés.

Siempre he sido bilingüe. Bueno, trilingüe en realidad, aunque mi tercer idioma no es demasiado relevante en mi día a día y solo lo uso en clase o cuando alguien comienza una conversación en ese idioma. Es difícil explicar cómo funciona tu cerebro cuando hablas varios idiomas con fluidez, pero básicamente es como ejecutar dos sistemas paralelos al mismo tiempo, pero con pensamientos. No suelo pensar con palabras, pero cuando lo hago me suele pasar que algunos de mis pensamientos están en español, y otros en inglés, más o menos en una proporción 50/50. O también puede pasar que empiece el pensamiento en un idioma, pero lo termine en otro. O que intente usar una palabra específica en inglés que no tiene una traducción exacta al español, por lo que al traducirla literalmente la frase no tiene sentido. Básicamente, todo lo que escribo o digo en voz alta tengo que pasarlo primero por varios filtros, uno para eliminar las palabras del otro idioma, otro para encontrar las palabras con las que reemplazarlas y otro para hacer que la frase tenga sentido. Suena agotador, ¿verdad? Lo es. Ahora imagina que para poder expresarte a ti mismo como realmente eres, para poder participar en una comunidad con seres que te entienden y te aceptan como ningún otro, tuvieras que suprimir básicamente la mitad de lo que eres, todo el tiempo.

El problema no es sólo no poder utilizar mi lengua materna para expresarme. Como he demostrado en el último año y medio que llevo en esta comunidad, domino el inglés lo suficiente no sólo para que me entiendan cuando hablo, sino también para expresar conceptos tan complicados como el yo, la naturaleza humana, la psicología del ser y todo lo que conlleva existir como ser no humano. El verdadero problema viene cuando intento expresar conceptos alterhumanos relativamente comunes en mi lengua materna. No estoy hablando solo de etiquetas como otherkin o theriántropo, que se pueden adaptar al español con relativa facilidad (como acabo de hacer ahora). Son las cosas pequeñas, las más simples.

Por ejemplo, el término shift. La palabra en sí ya es de difícil traducción; durante mis búsquedas, encontré un glosario de términos en la web Otherkin Hispano en la que los llaman "desplazamientos", la cual... es una traducción exacta, supongo, pero imposible de usar cómodamente en el día a día. También hay términos cuyas definiciones utilizan expresiones que simplemente no es posible traducir a otros idiomas. Por ejemplo, otherkin y otherhearted. En inglés, la diferencia entre estos dos términos radica que otherkin significa "[to] identify as" (identificarse como) mientras que otherhearted es "[to] identify with" (identificarse con). Pero ésta es una expresión puramente inglesa. En otros idiomas, la distinción no existe, o no tiene sentido utilizarla; por lo tanto, estos términos son totalmente inaccesibles para cualquier usuario internacional. O palabras compuestas como "catkin", que son difíciles de expresar en otros idiomas. Según Otherkin Hispano, en español se diría tal cual sin traducir, Soy catkin. Pero eso... no es gramaticalmente correcto, ya que estaría mezclando dos idiomas en una misma frase. Lo más adecuado sería decir Soy gatokin, que suena incorrecto y tampoco tiene sentido de todas formas, porque kin sigue siendo una palabra inglesa. O "hearttype", que en español podría traducirse aproximadamente como "tipo del corazón". Al decir que tienes un hearttype específico, por ejemplo "corvidhearted", una forma de expresarlo podría ser un simple Soy corvidhearted, que conlleva los mismos problemas que catkin. O podrías, como aconseja Wikipedia, decir Soy corazón de córvido. A mí no me disgusta, para ser honestos, pero para algunos podría resultar demasiado metafórico o poético.

Finalmente, y antes de llegar a la conclusión, quiero dedicar algunos párrafos para hablar sobre la comunidad alterhumana que existe en otros idiomas. Mencioné antes estas comunidades; que aunque existen, se encuentran muy diseminados por plataformas como TikTok o Instagram, con las que no estoy familiarizada. Pero como no puedo hablar sobre el anglocentrismo sin hablar al menos de la comunidad hispanohablante alterhumana, así que le pregunté a mi hermano Watcher @watcherwingedcat qué opinaba del tema. Esto es lo que escribió:

Hola gente, soy Watcher, y vine a hablar un poco sobre la comunidad therian hispanohablante, la cual me parece el ejemplo prístino del hate que recibimos tanto por parte de gente de fuera de la comunidad como por la gente de dentro, tanto española como de América del sur. Si bien esta publicación se centraba más en las barreras del idioma, yo quiero mostrar cuáles son las verdaderas consecuencias de esta barrera, cómo esto nos divide en la forma en la que interactuamos unos con los otros: La parte social de todo este asunto (como dije ya alguna que otra vez y algunos de mis seguidores saben, estoy estudiando Educación Social, por lo que desde mi punto de vista la parte social es muy relevante para todo lo que hacemos). Como ya dijo mi hermana (hola Talon!), la comunidad inglesa es mayoritaria en los espacios alterhumanos, pero, cómo es realmente la comunidad hispanohablante? 

No muy grande, es la respuesta. El término de por sí no está muy extendido, y la comunidad es bastante pequeña. Sin embargo, después de un tiempo de búsqueda, la encontré en un pequeño rinconcito de internet. Al encontrar una comunidad en mi propio idioma, estaba entusiasmado, pero mi curiosidad y alegría se extinguieron pronto… Al ver las reacciones de sus vídeos y publicaciones en tiktok principalmente. Estaban repletos de mensajes de odio. Repletos. Si pensáis que el odio en la comunidad inglesa es malo, no estáis preparados para el odio que se recibe en otras comunidades, especialmente la española. Esto se debe más a una cuestión de cultura, un poco también debido a la mente cerrada que se tiene en países como España, Argentina, o Colombia.

En general, los no humanos de la comunidad hispanohablantes publican sobre quadrobics y máscaras. Al menos, yo no he visto mucho más allá de eso, y la comunidad está en su mayoría en tiktok. Y el recibimiento de su expresión de forma de ser? Repugnante. Para poner un ejemplo de cuan malo es el hate, en uno de los vídeos que encontré (creo que era un therian haciendo una máscara o algo así), humanos y no humanos estaban insultando al therian que publicaba el vídeo, discusiones sobre cómo estamos locos y mal de la cabeza y deberíamos estar en instituciones mentales… Era horrible. Lo peor eran las amenazas de muerte, incluso, que deseaban que los therian murieran, o se colgaran, o cosas peores (he visto incluso amenazas de violación). Comentarios que decían cosas como: “Si mi hermana me dijera que es un perro le quitaría la ropa y le obligaría a dormir fuera y comer comida de animales, si quiere ser un perro le trataré como tal”. Amenazas de abuso, tanto físico como sexual… Absolutamente repugnante. Y lo peor es que la plataforma de tiktok no eliminaba estas cuentas de odio, los mensajes copia y pega de insultos, las amenazas…

Estoy orgulloso de la comunidad hispana por ser tan abiertos sobre su identidad, no me malinterpretes, pero hay veces que es más seguro simplemente no compartir esa parte de quienes somos con otros, especialmente si uno es menor y vulnerable. Esa es otra cuestión que me preocupa, ya que he visto gente saliendo del armario con padres, hermanos, amigos, y ellos simplemente menospreciándoles. Eso, juntándolo con la desinformación, es una receta para el desastre. 

No pude evitar notar la profunda raíz de desinformación en la propia comunidad no humana. Confunden las definiciones, los diferentes términos, lo que les lleva a extender aún más desinformación. Esto no creo que sea culpa suya del todo, o de ser tan jóvenes en su gran mayoría, ya que no he visto therians hispanos mayores de 18 años. Creo que esto se debe, en gran parte (como ya mencionó Talon), a la diferencia del idioma, y a la falta de traducción de ciertos términos. En general, yo al hablar con amigos con los que soy abierto de mi no humanidad, uso términos ingleses. Es un poco raro usar esas palabras en inglés mientras hablo en español, pero yo soy bilingüe y por ahora no hay solución a eso. Creo que la comunidad española se beneficiaría de extender información correcta, y de tener una plataforma en la que expresarse con los suyos, como es tumblr para la comunidad inglesa. Algo en lo que mi hermana expande en su post. Por mi parte aquí termino con mi pequeño comentario, os dejo con Talon ahora. Watcher fuera.

Como conclusión, me gustaría hablar de las consecuencias que el anglocentrismo podría tener en alterhumanos que no hablan inglés, y después proponer algunas ideas sobre cómo podríamos empezar a resolverlo (o al menos paliarlo) como comunidad.

En primer lugar está lo evidente; la inmensa mayoría de alterhumanos no angloparlantes simplemente nunca se dan cuenta de que son alterhumanos en primer lugar, por culpa de la barrera del idioma. Todos los recursos para seres que cuestionan su humanidad o falta de ella están en inglés, por lo que no son accesibles para personas que no entiendan el idioma; por tanto, una persona que no angloparlante tendría muchas más dificultades para acceder a ellos. Otra consecuencia es no poder expresar tu alterhumanidad al completo, tanto interna como externamente. ¿Recuerdas cuando mencioné que mis pensamientos se distribuyen equitativamente entre el inglés y el español, manteniéndose siempre en una proporción 50/50? Bueno, recientemente, he observado que al reflexionar sobre mi identidad como dragona, todos mis pensamientos se generan automáticamente en inglés. Considero esto profundamente impactante, ya que siento que se está desdibujando una parte fundamental de mi identidad. Es devastador sentir que sólo puedes expresar la mitad de lo que eres, suprimiendo lo que de otra forma podría ser una identidad compleja y multifacética. No poder expresarme en mi otro idioma limita mi capacidad de explorar esa parte de mí misma.

El anglocentrismo es un ciclo que nunca termina; como todos los recursos están en inglés, no se pueden unir miembros en otros idiomas, y como no hay miembros en otros idiomas, todos los recursos que se crean están en inglés. Y aunque me gustaría poder decir que tengo una solución para terminar este anglocentrismo de una vez por todas, desgraciadamente, no la tengo. Solo soy una persona (dragón), y este es un problema que yo sola no puedo resolver. Es cierto que ha habido algunos intentos dignos de elogio por parte de la comunidad internacional (traducciones de escritos, blogs de alterhumanos en idiomas distintos del inglés, el servidor Eurokin en Discord); sin embargo, estas iniciativas a menudo no suelen llegar muy lejos por culpa de la propia naturaleza de la comunidad. Como ya he dicho, la mayoría de los alterhumanos son norteamericanos o ingleses, por lo que cualquier intento de internacionalizar la comunidad se vería restringido por el hecho de que no hay muchos miembros a los que esto pueda interesarles en primer lugar. Entonces, ¿qué podemos hacer para cambiar esto? La respuesta está en ti, lector. Si tienes un segundo idioma, anímate a crear escritos en él de vez en cuando. Si provienes de una cultura distinta de la dominante, habla de cómo eso afecta a tu identidad. Si tienes tradiciones específicas de tu país que crees que son alterhumanas por naturaleza, compártelas. Y si formas parte de la mayoría angloparlante, te invito a contribuir de manera positiva mediante acciones sencillas, como escucharnos cuando nos expresamos en otros idiomas, reconocer que no todos compartimos la misma cultura, y mantener una mente abierta al discutir temas que pueden no ser familiares para ti. Nuestra fuerza como comunidad radica en la diversidad de nuestros miembros; aprovechémosla.

[that-dreaming-dragon]

Media Representation and (a rant on) Draconity

I think it's natural to want to find something within the media that represent and reflects yourself. As a dragon, the option might seem like quite a few within various sources of media, but the realities are that I and my various alterhuman identities are not the typical or commonly seen dragons.

As myself, I'm orange, furred, white feathered wings, yellow horns, and the vibrant red belly. Those are not things you find common in animals, even amongst birds, that's some colors that don't exactly flow together. People drawn inspiration from around their world to create, people are also creature of comfort and habit--with the idea of dragon being "fire breathing, bat winged, scaly lizard" or "scale with mane, elemental control and sometimes deity, serpentine wyrm", and then variations based off of that, perhaps scaled beast with feathery wings, or great furred wyrm with webbed wings and fire breathing. Seriously what is with the fire breathing? Have I mention that I'm a shapeshifting sort of dragon? While that is often tied to the eastern sort of draconic beings, my exact combination of dragons are far and few in between. Even the dutch angel dragon within the furry community has certain limitation and character traits that don't align with me. If I hadn't got turned off by the idea of looking anywhere or being misidentify as a horse, I might have find myself drawn to the dutch angel dragon as a sort of maybe paratype, or just friendly dragons that I share similar traits with. But alas.

Every single piece of media or fictional source that has a representation I can find brings me joy. Games centered on collecting dragons like Flight Rising or Dragon Cave does a great job of acknowledging that diversity. I get especially grumpy when dragon maker only has webbed wings and scaly body. At one point I really did not want to put the 3D dragon maker by Dragonita on my Alterhuman Shifts and Self Discovery Tools guide (ohh, guess I finally got a name). You can call me petty however you want, but I was not very happy of something that denies my existence. I'm a strong advocate for draconic diversity, because I am not alone in being "unusual" sort of dragons. Nobody should feel like this, unseen. Dealing with the constant "he or she" as someone nonbinary is more than enough, thank you very much. I feel like as alterhuman, hell, even just within the confine of draconic community or even smaller the dragonkind community, there should be a sort of basic understanding that "dragon" is a abstract term. Like "what is human", "what is dragon" should be a default and nobody gets to decide who is or isn't dragon. To touch back onto what I wrote on Day 1 of this challenge, alterhumanity is a experience, it is a feeling, it is vague and abstract, it is something you know within your essence, or one day you will awaken to it. A dragon is all of that. I did end up finally putting the 3d builder on my guide. I will still prefer Lukas Sotrmskull's Dragon builder though.

Before I let my thought get away from me, lets talk about my other alterhuman identities.

The other side of the spectrum, when you have a almost exact match in sources that are well known, you end up keep getting mistaken as it. My kardiatype looks very alike to Haku from Spirited Away. It gets frustrating when I bring up my kardiatype, and people immediately go "oh, Haku!" It's the same problem with people seeing my self protrait and call that a horse or a goat. Seriously, is like people don't recognize a basic dragon head shape if it isn't scaled and spiked. Horses are neat, goat is fine, and Haku is a very cool dragon. But my kardiatype was not Haku. I'd argue that he was just your generic Japanese storm dragon that may or may not be local deity. Wild thought huh. I like that I get to see glimpse of that dragon through Haku, but I would really rather not deal with yet another case of misidentification in the form of "close enough". My human english name got enough of that treatment.

Amongst my other draconic identities, I have a vague-flicker of Flammie from the mana series. The vaguetype feeling has components of paratype within, precisely due to myself being the sort of dragon I am. Belly plate aside, Flammie looks very close to me. And with my discovery of how suggestive my wing count may be (currently in shifts of at least 4), Flammie is definitely a big contender for media representation of myself.

When it comes to intensionally created identity, me and Akumu, my headmate/mirror self, collectively linked a vaguetype of Aurelion Sol. Now, Aurelion Sol has nothing alike to me, maybe the color is more align with Akumu's, but generally, the eastern noodle form is my least favorite to partake in. It feels like a responsibility, and things are just heavier in a way when I'm in that form. It doesn't have to make much sense. Perhaps I will delve into this one day. One can argue we formed the link due to our kardiatype. But really, it happened because that's the one dragon we were really drawn to (and attempted to main) while playing League, and well, there were two others who were shyvana and smolder respectively, and we wanted to complete the draconic of LoL set for shits and giggles. There not much need to find a representation, because we are the exact representation from the source. But wait, we identify with the concept stage where people dub "unbound form" of Sol. Whelp, guess we gotta look elsewhere again.

It feels like I'm trying to start a topic and well, rant on draconity got me all over the place.

Sometimes it really is a exercise in patience. The more unique you are, the harder it is to find representation. Wouldn't change myself for the world though, I love my uniqueness, and I appreciate how crazily varied dragons can be. Or any other sort of creatures or identities or experiences. Life is wonderful like that.

[liondrakes]

“You Can’t Take Me”: To Be Ontopunk in 2025

by Sivaan of Candlekeep

Blurb: Personal reflections on embracing ontopunk ideologies and practices in the wake of today’s climate. This is my final entry for @who-is-page’s Alterhuman Writing Challenge.

Day 30 of the AHPI Writing Challenge

“Don't judge a thing until you know what's inside it. Don't push me, I'll fight it. Never gonna give in, never gonna give it up, no— if you can't catch a wave, then you're never gonna ride it. You can't come uninvited. Never gonna give in, never gonna give it up, no— You can't take me, I'm free,” Bryan Adams.

Sometimes, I change shape based on my emotions. When I’m aggravated, I don’t become a lion. I don’t become a bear, or a gryphon, or a dragon. I don’t become any predatory species I belong to, contrary to the assumptions tied to those ‘types.

No, I become an oryx. I become a gemsbok, to be exact. My anger doesn’t look like unsheathed claws or gnashing fangs. It looks like a pair of slender, black horns, piercing through flesh. If not that, it’s in the form of an elk. It sounds like a furious, restless bugle that’s a little too close, like whatever’s coming is giving its final warning before it charges.

I am a bull who’s sick and tired, especially with the United States as is. I don’t need to air out the list of reasons why my country’s government is looking to fuck over me and those like me. All of those changes in one day make that evident enough.

However, I will make one thing clear. Politicians hold no authority over my identity. Things are bleak, very bleak, but when haven’t they been that way? I can count the times I’ve truly felt safe in this country on one hand, but that didn’t stop me from putting my foot forward and making the effort to see another day.

As years came and went, I grew more determined in spitting on the image of politicians and billionaires since my country is so adamant about propagating their filth. That included those who bootlick them so much that they forget they too are affected by the class disparity perpetuated between them and their “idols”. Said determination also meant emotionally preparing for outcomes like our recent election. It’s hard to find hope under these circumstances, but that doesn’t mean I can’t inspire hope for myself or those around me who need the support.

When the second inauguration of that bastard and his fraternity of fascists unfolded, all I could think of was a song. It was a short and simple song from my childhood, albeit through a DVD bought by my parents many years after it released. Given the topic of this entry, I’ll admit that it’s not a punk song in terms of genre. It’s a song that came from the animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002). Nonetheless, it still holds so much power to me.

Performed by Bryan Adams, this song, “You Can’t Take Me”, plays as Spirit is dragged to a military encampment where he is expected to become a war horse. Despite how hopeless his situation seems, Spirit himself refuses to give into that hopelessness. He snaps at his captors, fights against their ropes, and digs his hooves into the dirt as the song progresses. Although he made a sacrifice to protect his herd, he is determined to return to them. That means securing his freedom at all costs. “You Can’t Take Me” stresses this in its chorus, but this isn’t the last time that this goal is given focus.

Spirit’s freedom is the heart of the film’s plot. Freedom is also a recurring theme alongside resistance against oppressive systems and solidarity with other marginalized parties. Spirit defends his freedom no matter the circumstance, even when things take a turn for the worst. At the same time, he couldn’t do it alone nor could he abandon those in the same spot as him. Spirit knew a life of exploitation isn’t a life at all, not just in his case but in the case of other captured horses and Little Creek. To me, remembering this song and the context in which it exists may have been coincidences, but they sure were useful coincidences given my position.

Yes, I am angry. I’m not devoid of a conscience, though. I can’t afford to give into hopelessness. No one can. It’s what our pathetic excuse for a government wants, and hopelessness will get us nowhere in the days ahead. Instead, I’m putting that energy into something that will provide better structure to my world view.

Earlier last year, I familiarized myself with two ideologies within the alterhuman community: ontopunk and beastpunk. Both subcultures are alike in their values and practices, but have a set focus at their core. Ontopunk centers radical acceptance of all forms of existence and the autonomy within it, whereas beastpunk centers radical reclamation of nonhuman animal identity. I'm more familiar with the latter of the two since a couple of my friends are beastpunk. That said, I've found myself gravitating more towards ontopunk as a personal ideology.

Ontopunk is often associated with kinpunk, a communal concept that technically predates it. However, I learned recently that the conception of ontopunk and its connection to kinpunk were coincidences. Ontopunk happened to come around the same time as the coining of kinpunk. Created during discussions within the Alt+H Discord server, two terms with similar approaches as kinpunk came to be: alterpunk and ontopunk. From what I could tell, these terms essentially meant the same thing. When kinpunk started floating around on Tumblr, these terms were then suggested as all-inclusive alternatives.

Of the two, ontopunk won out due to its emphasis on being. Since ontopunk’s point of reference is usually a clarification for what the term is and its purpose, I personally go off of Sapphire (@/bigendering)’s proposed outline for alterpunk due to these terms’ shared basis:

Radical acceptance, in which you are what you say you are.

Open exploration of your identity, including exploring and/or supporting affirming practices such as body modification.

Advocacy for the natural world, which includes supporting animal rights and plant/environmental care.

Rejection of anthropocentrism. This includes the idea that people = human, that humans are more important than other life forms, and that humans are better and different than animals in exceptional ways.

Rejection of the idea that the body is the center of identity, that one can have only one identity, and that identity can’t change.

Rejection of the idea that one can't choose one's identity, or that chosen identities are lesser in comparison those that aren’t chosen.

Rejection of intercommunal bias, particularly towards mammals as the nonhuman side of our community contains a vast quantity of mammalian members.

Note: much of this is paraphrased from the original thread covering alterpunk / ontopunk. The original thread is linked in the passage that first mentions ontopunk and beastpunk.

With this considered, ontopunk isn’t exclusive to alterhumans either. It’s open to all. Whether inside or outside of this community, it’s about embracing all who express themselves how they see fit.

Furthermore, there’s the nuances of being besides oneself to acknowledge. Ontopunk isn’t only for those who actively define their own means of being but those who’re treated as if they have no perceivable sense of being as well. Mord (@/vagabondsun) quoted itself on how ontopunk could be applied in this context:

“vagabondsun (77): [...] i think a line in there about like, acknowledging the... not ‘personhood' exactly, but the sovreignity of inanimate objects? I...] especially if we're alluding to ontology, like, object oriented ontology is a philosophical theory that exists which rejects anthropocentrism by saying that all entities, including inanimate objects and concepts, have some kind of (in very simplified and not-quite-accurate terms) a subjective awareness.”

This caught my eye as someone who’s *multiposic (aniposic and psyposic, to be exact). For the objects in my day-to-day life, my relationship with them is usually platonic or familial in nature. Although I don’t always talk to them, I know that they coexist alongside me and are close to me as individuals. I appreciated this approach from Mord since not everyone considers the presence of objects and concepts in these conversations.

*Multiposic refers to an individual who is POSIC+ for multiple reasons; the following two labels are why I’m POSIC+. Aniposic refers to an individual who is POSIC+ due to being a practicing animist. Psyposic refers to an individual who is POSIC+ due to psychological reasons but either chooses not to disclose why or does not know why.

Aside from those details, I thought of my own sense of being. Here are some examples:

I am not from this dimension, at least not originally. Many versions of me exist across different points in my dimension of origin.

I see myself as a scholar, a quest guide and a figure akin to a wise serpent through my archetropy.

I am transspecies. I experience having multiple forms outside of the human body I occupy, specifically through phantom bodies.

I am a fictional character and creature. I hold connections to other fictional beings through soulbonding.

I am also a creature with earthen connections, be it through my experiences with earthen animality or earthen mythology.

I am an agnostic animist. In my opinion, the existence of deities and other manners of higher powers exist solely through the practitioner in question. The act of belief is what makes these figures real; otherwise, all other means of their existence can neither be proven nor disproven.

That said, I believe objects and concepts have their own form of sentience. Lack of verbal, expressive and overall physical communication does not rule out the possibility of said sentience.

I am many, many things that question the boundaries of being as proposed by the society I currently live in. If I said I was any of these truths aloud, I would be given a sideways glance by your average citizen in the United States. I don’t particularly care about that result, so long as I am in the right company. Most of them believe one inconceivable, all-powerful spirit of a man created the pots we piss in, and also use him as an excuse to condemn my existence, but you don’t see me casting judgment upon the possibility of said spirit’s existence or the beliefs inspired by him. The problem is when people fully believe their way of being is superior to others or that someone else’s way of being is weird, questionable, or generally “wrong” when it doesn’t harm anyone.

Perhaps, that’s why I gravitate towards ontopunk ideologies so much. The very margins of how I perceive my existence, the existence of others and the worlds surrounding us challenges those norms. It doesn’t stop at my alterhumanity. It extends into my relationship with my environment and my day-to-day life. It includes how I envision not only my existence in this world, but how I envision the existence of all things. It is thoroughly, unapologetically about embracing what it means to be anything.

So why not embrace all of me? Why not wear that on my sleeve, defying the “policies” proposed by those who aim to destroy people like me? You can’t put a law on existence. Damn them all if they do. I’ll continue to take heed of existence and the autonomy it provides.

Everyone is deserving of ontological freedom. As the coiners addressed before, ontological freedom isn’t exclusive to us alterhumans either. We share many of those freedoms with orthohumans and non-sapient beings simply by existing alongside each other. Hell, I insist that we assert our ontological freedoms even more.

Self-denial has held me back in my past, but I refuse to let it cage me in the future. I will lock my horns together and wrestle hatred to the ground. I will pierce the throats of fear and compliance until my dominance is made clear. I will drive them from my home, from those I share space with and from myself above all else.

I will still be here, and I will continue to be who I am. That is what being ontopunk means to me, especially at the start of this year.

Come what may. Know that I am free.

[who-is-page]

Wag Those Tail Feathers: The Wonders of Alterhuman Courtship

Author: Page Type: Essay Words: 1,065 Summary: Page's perspective on alterhuman courtship, as an individual who has been both on the receiving and giving ends of it.

[Part of the Sol System’s Alterhuman Writing Project for 2024. If you don’t want to see these posts, block the tag #inkedclaws]

As a polyamorous alterhuman, I’ve had the wonderful experience of being in relationships with people who have a variety of different courtship instincts— sometimes even all at the same time! Including my own instincts, it’s led up to some interesting realizations about the variety and diversity of expressions of love, and how wonderful it can be to be loved by an alterhuman (and to be an alterhuman in love, too).

My personal experiences, notably, revolve specifically around being nonhuman and this applies to a majority of my partners as well, which influences the flavor of this discussion. It’s been a wonder to be the target of a feathery mating dance, to be wooed with draconic jewelry and treasures, or to have my partner jump out with a meal, as proud as could be at displaying their hunting skills for a mate. It’s not necessarily just a nonhuman thing, either, of course; my orthohuman partner exhibits some similar sort of feelings and actions, too! Something which comes across especially strong in his hunt-and-gather supply-hoarding behavior in video games. But there’s something so especially intimate about having your alterhuman partner court you in a way unique to their species identity. It’s a beyond flattering form of trust, love, and affection.

And as an alterhuman who has targeted my partners, alterhuman and orthohuman alike, with my own affections, it’s also uniquely affirming to have your partners engage with your varieties of courtship for your species. There’s something incredibly special to have them try to learn your rituals and woo you in turn, even if they don’t have the same instincts driving them. It’s love with intention, a conscious effort to learn a language that’s typically foreign to them or which they might otherwise never come across on such a personal level. It may not always be perfectly executed, but the intentions behind them make them perfect regardless.

I’m someone who’s fully public about my alterhumanity. I don’t hide that I’m a dog and (luckily) no one especially seems to care in the day-to-day when I’m meeting up with strangers and acquantinces. But it’s become an important part of my dating life that potential partners need to not only be aware of my alterhumanity and accept it, but they also need to interact with it. You could argue that my spouse set the bar high for any potential future partners with how he took to my canine-ness and plurality like a fish to water, but I’m of the opinion that it’s something that should be the norm, not something so utterly unexpected by many.

Being able to engage in alterhuman courtship with your partner, as serious or as silly as it may fundamentally end up being, shouldn’t be something that you feel is utterly unreachable, that you yearn for but never feel like you’ll be able to reach. Alterhuman courtship is a wonderous experience; something that I think it’s not only important for alterhuman folks to be able to freely do with those they love most, but also to be on the receiving end of, too. It can be easy to default to the status quo in relationships, because of the societal pressure around us. Normativity around romance, sex, and even platonic affections is something that is constantly at play in the backgrounds of our culture and which embeds itself into our conciousnesses in unexpected and often invisible ways; and it’s difficult to dissect these without exposing ourselves to what some might list as “weird” or “unusual” urges and behaviors. But we can’t unpack the shame or embarrassment that might be holding us back from engaging with these urges unless we actually let ourselves acknowledge the collective, confusing feelings abound within them. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to shrug our shoulders and simply say, “I suppose I’ll never find someone who can accept me as my [species] and all that entails,” or to just resign ourselves to having to hide a part of ourselves away forever to maintain relationships.

We should toss these types of negative feelings aside and embrace our alterhuman courtship urges in earnest: that sometimes we’re not fully human, or we’re human a little to the right, and that inevitably makes romance, sex, and platonic interactions a little different for us than it might look for standard folks as displayed on a big screen. It’s not a failure on our part, and it’s not something that needs to be squirreled away due to internalized respectability politics. We can love ourselves and find love in others, for and by being ourselves. We can experience unique forms of love and adore those factors in others. This is, to me, a part of the territory that comes with being alterhuman or knowing alterhumans. It’s a part of what makes life wonderous.

In my partnerships, I love getting to bring my partners gifts. I love to bring them tiny treasures, small things from my system’s hoard, to pebble at them almost like a penguin would (sometimes including a silly little dance, of love!) It goes beyond standard gift-giving in the way that most of the people I’ve met would think of it, where presents that large are often reserved for special occasions like holidays and birthday. But it’s something I do year-round, to show my partners that they’re always on my mind, and that what is mine is their’s, too. I do the same thing with food; while normally incredibly food protective, both due to species identity and past food insecurities, I make the effort to share my favorite foods with my partners for the same fundamental reasons. To share my food, my bed, my life— and to have my partners recognize that as not just general displays of love, but as specifically displays of love intertwined with what I am, is something which displays a deep level of understanding and acceptance for my species. It’s something I’m grateful for beyond words, but it’s also something that I don’t want us as a community to accept as unheard of, or as just a one-off, lucky occurrence. Love like this is achievable and rewarding, both as a recipient of such alterhuman affections and as the giver. And we all deserve to experience it, in whatever form of love that we feel most comfortable with. Don’t tell yourself otherwise; don’t settle for less just because you feel like you have no other choice.