#alterhuman simile

[knifedog-machina]

Dogs As Narrative, Through The Lens Of Abuse Recovery

J: so I got into the Archetropers’ Guild discord server, saw a prompt, and immediately started writing answers because wow talking about myself is fun, I need to do that more? definitely a more informal essay than the last one, I really just copied it from discord!

Content Warning: mentions of past abuse, but it’s pretty vague and has a hopeful swing to it!

I identify with dogs, as a dog, in the metaphorical sense of like - a dog as shorthand for a beloved tool? Being a bad actor's attack dog, being used and abused, biting the hand that fed and hit you. Dogs in the way they're used in vent art, as a metaphor for loving and trusting the wrong person.

But I also identify with dogs as beloved companions, as sweet and loyal and playful and loved. I know people who adore their dogs even if they came from horrible circumstances and have bad habits from abuse, and like - it's a narrative identity for me, something that ties together very different parts of my life, the before and after.

Like, yeah okay, I'm a dog. I unquestioningly love and trust people I care about. Of course an abuser took advantage of me, I didn't know better, and she promised to love me but she wouldn't even comfort me when I was scared of the rain. But also, there are way more people in the world who love me and want me to be happy, and that's good to remember as I recover and heal and grow! Calling myself a dog means accepting the way I adore people as a neutral to positive trait, instead of becoming a paranoid mess who refuses to be vulnerable again.

I don't know how much it's a species thing, because whenever I try to picture myself as a dog it's more like the shadow of a dog, pricked ears and bushy tail and all black, no detailing. I feel Wrong about picturing myself as a more realistic dog, instead of an artistic rendering of a black dog - like for dog photography to Resonate with me, it cannot be someone's candid pics of their pet German shepherd rolling around, it has to have some kind of message intended for use, otherwise it's like. That's a normal dog! I do not identify with you, normal dog, you're very cute but that's it. You’re unrelated to my life narrative!

And I don't generally feel the need to introduce myself to people as a dog when new people hear about me, because that feels like it's more personal? like hey, I’m a dog, you wanna know why? It's The Traumas! I’m open enough about it, but I don’t want to be pushed into thinking about it, and sometimes alterhuman spaces grill you about the origin of your identity too much for my comfort? I’m talking about it now because I want to, not because I’m being pressured into sharing.

I say all that, but I do really like cultivating my doggish traits, because they're kind of just things I like already - exercise, chewing and biting as a stim, play-fighting, getting scritched, curling up in a little ball to sleep. And sometimes I like giving myself phantom ears or tail or fangs for the expressiveness of them. I feel perfectly complete without them, but I like having them sometimes! They're fun!

And I don’t know if it just has to be an archetrope? I can describe it in other ways! Poppy (@aestherians) coined a term on rair website, here, about something being an alterhuman simile if you relate to it so strongly because it reflects your lived experiences, and I think I could call dogs my simile just as naturally as calling them my archetrope. It's a useful word and I haven't seen it around much!

[aestherians]

Shout-out to @elk-hound for making a very neat chart over his alterhuman mess, which inspired me to make a chart over my own mess

Green = Kintype Red = Hearttype Purple = Paratype Blue = Kardiatype Teal = Simile Grey = ?????

Awhraya and Ben aren't 100% a product/part of me, but it's hard to put into words exactly what's going on. My connection to them affects my self-perception, but it doesn't affect their own self-perception. I'm just a watcher through their eyes, while they live their lives and have their own self-discovery to deal with. In a way, they overlap me, but I don't overlap them.

[starsailor-kinthepast]

A Reflection of the Ideal Self; a mirrortype

In collaboration with @fish-and-forbear I’m happy to introduce the term reflection, or mirrortype, to the alterhuman community. A mirrortype is defined as a reflection of the ideal self and both terms are perfectly acceptable ways to describe it – whether you say “Elsa is a reflection of me”, or “Elsa is one of my mirrortypes”, or some other version of those statements.

The following text will try to define what an “ideal self” is in this context, what a reflection/’type can appear as, and elaborate on the similarities and differences with similar terms. It is 800 words long, with an approximate reading time of six minutes.

The ideal self

The ideal self is similar to an archetype, except it has, in our experience, far more detail. It is how we feel on the inside; how we should be. It isn’t a kintype or “true self” in that there isn’t a singular entity at the centre of it; it is a collection of values, beliefs and traits we encapsulate

There is something to be said of how the ideal self is something involuntary; a constant across lifetimes, selves and identities, but I’ll save that for a different time.

What is a reflection of the ideal self?

In our experience, reflections are most often found in fictional characters – but that is due to the nature of our ideal selves. Your ideal self might look very different, and you might find reflections of it in concepts, colours, songs, animals, objects, and so on. In my case, I associate a lot of concepts, colours, songs, animals and objects with my reflections, but that does not make them my reflection.

Let’s use my mirrortype Elsa as an example. Nearly everything about her is perfectly aligned with my ideal self; it’s almosta 1:1 reflection. Her gentle strength, her femininity and magic powers, the way she is a spirit meant to protect and bridge – that she is a protector, that she is tired, that she is old – these are all traits she shares with my ideal self. Because of that I relate strongly with her, but it doesn’t mean I am her. If anything, she is me – the same way as when you look in the mirror. You are not your reflection, but your reflection is you. It is not a kintype, not otherheartedness, not a synpath… but it is similar. And that brings us to similar terms.

Similar terms

It might be easier to understand what a mirrortype is if we compare it to other, pre-existing terms. Mirrortypes are very similar to terms like otherhearted, synpath, paratype, simile… and dozens more, whether widely spread or not. We really get nitpicky and gritty with the details when it comes to this, but it’s important, so bare with me.

Otherheartedness and synpaths is such a vague concept from before. It serves almost as an umbrella term these other terms fall under (like paratypes and similes). Mirrortypes are something very specific, where otherheartedness and synpaths are very vague, so the distinction is easy to draw between those.

Things get trickier with paratype, coined by @aestherians. In raer own words, paratype “includes every connection and relationship you have with something, that only exists because of your pre-established identity”. There is room for a lot of overlap with paratypes and mirrortypes, due to the nature of the whole ideal self – in many ways, you could say that a mirrortype is just a paratype with a more specific source… but there is another term that is extremely relevant to mirrortypes: similes.

Simile, another term coined by @aestherians (and elaborated on here, along with otherheartedness, synpaths and paratypes) is “a character, animal, concept, or object, which reflects or otherwise represents who you are, without actually being a part of your identity. A simile may be described as a metaphor for who you are.” Sounds familiar, right? So… what’s the difference between a mirrortype and a simile?

I want to preface this by saying I love the term simile, and I used it for a while to describe Elsa, though it still didn’t entirely fit. The difference, once again, comes down to the ideal self. A simile is a reflection of what is “already there”, who you already are as a person – and that is not the ideal self. My mirrortypes are very different from my similes!

If we want to get very nitpicky about things, you could say a mirrortype is the child of a paratype and the sibling of similes. A simile but to the left; a simile but with a different flavour. After all, the self and the ideal self will always have that in common: they are you.

[sapphicdragons-1]

my bio! (long post)

Hi! You can call me Vi. I use she/her (or they/them if you’re feeling boisterous). Any gendered compliments are welcome, but creature-related ones are encouraged! I’m also very leftist, athiest, socialist, and a punk-in-training. (i despise the government and society to some extent, but i am mostly a law-abiding citizen and a fucking coward)

Gender: thingy? I identify along the lines of genderqueer, agender, and genderfluid. I don’t stress it too much :3

I am homosexual-leaning omni and aromantic; i have a few microlabels but im fine saying just that. I experience alterous attraction and a deep emotional connection in place of romantic attraction. I am also hypersexual (not traumagenic).

Nonhuman identities: I am an Aqua dragon (original species). It fits somewhere between othermidst, othervague, heartedlink, otherkin, otherlink, and fictionkin, but is strong enough that I consider myself dragonkin. Because of this, I am avianhearted, canine and feline simil, have a lush forest hearthome, and feel very connected to bodies of water, the sun, the moon, the sky, and thunderstorms.

Hobbies: I enjoy drawing, crafting, jewelry making, sculpting, biking, gaming, swimming, frolicking, collecting, doing quads, “ruining” clothes, and just doing other gooberish activities :D

Music: I have no set music taste, but a few of my favorite categories are ambient [sign crushes motorist, Duster, Other Nothing], whatever Odetari, 6arelyhuman, and Asteria is, Radiohead, Nirvana, Franz Ferdinand, ambient 2 [Lyn Lapid, Louie Zhong], whatever The Living Tombstone, Lemon Demon, and Bo Burnham is, whatever Mac DeMarco and The Neighborhood is, vocaloid [HEAVILY including my love Kikuo], bo en, and yada yada yada. If you have any band recommendations (especially good alt bands!), send them my way!

Fandoms: Too many to count, but my mains are OMORI, Wings of Fire, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, Heathers, and many, many more. I am also a furry :3

I am also very involved in communities such as alterhuman, alternative, neurodivergent, and punk, but these are not fandoms.

I live in the midwestern U.S.

This account is geared towards teens and young adults. If you’re over 30 and we haven’t interacted, probably let me give you a vibe check before you follow

i’m a bit of a chronic attention seeker, and will do things or amplify things sometimes that might be subconciously for attention. please be patient, and don’t be rude to me when it happens, i have quite a few microtraumas surrounding this :/

will be fine with people goofin off in my asks!

might do commisions for sketches, doodles, moodboards, backgrounds, and maybe stimboards.

Tag system!

#kaeposting - kin stuff! #kaecreates - stuff I made that relates to my kintype

#kaefrolicks - picures or videos of the forest, and maybe videos of quads in the future

#kae rambles - dragon go bla bla bla

#vi’s updates - updates about my life

#vi’s passion projects - crafts because slay

#vi’s wonderful world of pretty things - pretty pictures of scenery, jewelry I love, and maybe some outfits. room maybe

#eye of the storm wings of the heart - pretentious ahh name. storm stuff, nice water sounds, avianhearted stuff, basically all my secondary kin things

#+££+|~| - vents. typically angry due to my nature, under the cut with a warning. stylized “teeth”

#€|@\/\/$ - vents. typically obsessive thoughts / talking about hypersexuality. stylized “claws”

#aqua dragons 🪷 - info on or relating to my favorite lil creatures! lilypad as to not to be confused with shrimp or water dragons.

This is a safe place for queer, MOGAI, LGBTQIA, POC, alterhuman, ALL systems, endels, lycanthropes, zooanthropes, physical nonhumans, neurodivergent people (not just ADHD and autism! [them too] ALL! /friendly), age and pet regressors, people with kinks, so on and so forth. I can’t think of many others, but the rule of thumb for paras is [TW]:

If you are a ped0 or zo0, you better be no-contact, as well as pro-treatment for yourself as well as pushing it for others. If you aren’t both of these, get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me. No exceptions.

If you are a necr0, I’m somewhat more fine with that. However, for the love of nonexistent god, please don’t actually make contact with dead things. Just out of respect.

If ur smthn like objectum thats coolio js dont tamper with other people’s property ty

I’d vastly prefer if paraphilia wasn’t discussed on this blog, for the comfort of me and the thingies around me.

If you either don’t wan’t to, or don’t, hurt others, you’re fine. Example: Nonhumans with a prey drive getting the urge to kill small animals without following through, and people with mental illnesses / personality disorders hurting others without meaning to and feeling remorse. You are loved, and you are safe here.

DNI: Bigots, transphobes, homophobes, anti-feminists, radfems, TERFS, conservative people, extensively religious, anti-endel/clinical ‘thropes, antifurries, antikins, and other generally dislikable people. tryna use mild language ‘cause this varies wildly in severity.

And I would prefer if Abrahamic religion was kept out. It’s fine to believe in that god, but I would prefer if it wasn’t brought up much on this blog. thank you for your consideration :)

and I think that’s all! I’ll link the Guide to Aqua Dragons below when I make it! thank you for your time

WARNING: BLINKIES AND EYESTRAIN

:3

[aestherians]

Idk how coherent this is gonna be but I just wanna thank you for that essay and the term simile because it's literally the term I've been looking for since I entered the community. I have What I now recognise as a simile in the character Hissy from puppy-dog pals, and that relationship is what pushed me to research alterhumanity and eventually lead me to discovering identities I didn't even know I had. So, thanks for helping my describe my weird relationship with this cat from a preschool show

Glad to have been of help :'D