#i dont want to tag this as christian/catholic or anything. because that is not what it is about

[chelseahotel2004]

how to pray

[kirby-the-gorb]

reply roundup!

thank you to the patrons, fleurdelis, lukeperiodsun, @heraldinthedark, hadbabits, kellie, natascha, imkirb, @technophage, and @zeldawithasword <3

the august/september sticker club design is up! the actual drawing is [here], and the photos of the real life physical stickers are [here].

also I drew another lolita kirby pattern [here] because no one can stop me. someday I will get to make actual fabric. someday...........

under a readmore for length.

there were many very good comments on [god] but I also don’t feel like I have anything to contribute in reply >.< (also congratulations to the person who got their majority, and I will always find it hilarious when one of my drawings ends up on a sideblog that has to tag it “non (topic)” lol)

(also I actually went to catholic school myself, so “me @ christians” was definitely the sentiment I was going for XD )

on [seastar]:

@the-halo-of-my-memory said: me when i went to the lake last week. you sit down on the shore and suddenly you're tangled in seaweed. also i saw a tiny lobster. i love those tiny clouds ☺☺☺

the seaweed gets you every time. tiny lobsters are very good though. (I love hearing little stories like this in the tags, thank you :> )

@ceylonsilvergirl said: Kirby rides on star, star rides on Kirby

ohhhh you’re right, I didn’t even think of that :0

@hermitfox said: I want those vibes

simply put a seastar on your head and you may achieve inner peace (or at least head empty)

on [sunhat]:

@shallowsatire said: big hat!!!! i wanna get myself a big hat for the summer again

big hats are good! I picked out a cute blue one :>

on [stickers]:

@epsilonnot said: oh my god these are so cute!!!

thank you friend <3

on [sleeby]:

@littlemousejelly said: oh kirbaby tired ;A; please someone bring blankie and plushie for snuggles (honshu)

he is just a little baby. he needs his naps.

@omegasmileyface said: ok i know its just their arms and stuff but i immediately saw this and thought 'me after a shower laying on my bedroom floor naked with my tiddies pressed up against me'

valid.

on [close]:

@littlemousejelly said: OH HELLO!!!! i am filled with joy

hehehe it’s working >:3

@bluebayard said: great kirb!! hope you feel better soon!!

thank you! I just overdid it that day, I feel okay now :>

@the-halo-of-my-memory said: *presses face against phone screen*

I’m sure he would love a good nuzzle -u-

on [kirblita]:

@littlemousejelly said: WHAT OMG MY EYES ARE SO PLEASED! THE SOFT PASTEL WAINBOW CATERPILLAR PLUSHIES OMGGGG

every time I draw something like this I feel so powerful lol, if I want to give kirby all the best stuffed animals I can!!!

on [tree]:

@laying-in-a-daisy-meadow said: ohh lets climb up a tree and go cloudwatching

that sounds lovely -u- I bet you can see them better from up there

on [bracelets]:

@iknowicanbutwhy said: At first i thought those were candy bracelets and then thought "nah, candy bracelets wouldn't survive creation"

very good point XD for some reason it never occurred to me you could make those. that sounds kinda fun.

on [printing]:

@littlemousejelly said: HOLY SHIT HELLO??? LIL ORB KIRBOS AHHHH! KORBY!!!!!

the roundest! he is a perfect circle! I am delighted :>

from the ask box:

@pourpresky said: i dont know who you are or what you do or where you live but i am going to find you and i’m gonna give you a BIG HUG because your blog is my daily dose of serotonin my life span increases everytime i see your posts and your drawings are my source of happiness

can’t thank you enough. ur art always make me smile and i hope you have an amazing day you are incredible and awesome

thank you so much! I’m so glad I can make you smile :> (this ask made me smile too, so I guess we’re even now!)

[brujoenlafrontera]

hi!!! I’m a puertorriqueño/nicaragüense enby looking into resources for learning bruja stuff, any good place you know to start?

I’ve gotten a couple of asks about this lately, and i’m so happy to know there are more latinos finding their way to the practice, tumblr’s brujeria tag often gives the impression that theres so little of us out there reclaiming our practices but getting asks like these brings me a lot of faith that thats not true :) first and foremost:

GETTING INTO BRUJERIA IS HARD.

it really is. baby brujos like us know that better than anyone- getting started, is often the hardest part of doing anything, and its no different with brujeria. it can feel so overwhelming and feeling lost is natural. from my experience, although i am still a newbie ive been able to find a lot of information out there, here are the best places to find info, sorted by priority:

FAMILY! a little self explanatory, but brujeria at its best is truly is an inherited, familial practice. If you can, before delving into internet resources, definitely connect w your family if you’re able to and ask them for guidance and about their experiences!

Your family is always the best resource over anything you can find online; theres so much misinformation out there or information not relevant to your region and if someone in your family already has established practices, always trust them first

 Do some thinking back to all your cultural traditions, quirks, stories, and superstitions that you’ve  learned from your family across time and never thought too much about- and rediscover them under a new light

KEEP IN MIND: brujeria is NOT a singular , concrete practice w concrete rules in itself, the term blankets a lot of traditions across latam, the caribbean, mexico, but imo its always best to stick with brujeria related to your heritage and where your connection is.

this can be hard for people (like me!) with huge family taboos toward brujeria that make it unsafe to ask around about, and/or limitations in family connections (also like me unfortunately). I personally can really only get the tidbits and stories that my family accidentally slips out when I occasionally see them. i try to write them down as much as possible, but the info i can get is limited... and thats where the following comes in.

ONLINE COMMUNITIES. i.e, youtube, tumblr, instagram brujx communities. notice I haven’t said “internet” in general- the reason why i trust community based social media more than random individual websites you find on google is because, in the case of brujeria and honestly any non-european craft, you’re often gonna find a LOT of white people writing blogs, books, etc about their “spiritual experiences” in latam countries and wrongly/incorrectly taking ATR or indigenous traditions (like with smudging). I know, with social media, although those same white people are also on insta and tumblr, it’s a LOT easier to see the face behind the accounts and differentiate who to trust, who’s legit and has real experience to share, rather than a nameless, faceless, website that is actually some colonizer sharing colonized ideas who thinks theyre on a spiritual journey taking traditions all willy nilly. And the fact that in social media, its much easier to find a lot of good brujas at once bc they tend to follow each other lmao.what ive personally done to find information tho is essentially SCOUR tumblrs, insta accs, and watching tons of youtube videos for posts, accounts, videos, etc, and narrowing down good info from there through , namely:

CHECKING WHO YOUR SOURCE IS!!!

ASKING YOURSELF FROM WHAT EXPERIENCE THEYRE SPEAKING FROM

ALWAYS TAKING EVERYTHING WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

AND STICKING TO INFO FROM CULTURES OPEN AND RELEVANT TO ME.

again, brujería is different depending on where your family is from in latam, and if you have an established connection to indigenous and/or black roots, so it’s useful to use keywords relating to that when searching (like if ur black, you can look into ATRs(african traditional religions) which tend to mix deeply with brujeria, if ur indigenous, finding other people from your tribe is great, and if youre not pursuing your already learned traditions you can think about connecting to them more deeply(altho indigenous traditions are their own thing, sometimes they do mix with brujeria too), and apart from familial roots, if ur catholic/christian and/or want to explore it, saint work/catholic brujeria might be a good fit for you!)  

tumblr: there are a couple of fantastic brujxs on this site with great blogs and resources who have sadly left the site, but i still go through their posts heavily for spells, rituals, scraps of info! etting started w brujería is hard bc there’s really not that much info out there right now, but i compile as many good brujeria posts i find on my acc.

@brujeria-n-bongs great for catholic brujeria, now at @Upliftherbs on instagram

@brujeria-lost @barberwitch @reina-morada @highbrujita

@naomi121406 is by far the most active and informative tumblr resource ive found, shes an afro-indigenous diaguita curandera from argentina so shes also really helpful if ATRs are in your path!

Im not black myself and dont follow ATRs so i don’t really know many good blogs for afrolatine brujxs out there but if anyone would like to tag some in the replies thatd be awesome!

instagram: Ive found that instagram #brujeria tags has a pretty healthy active stream of posts. You’re gonna have to sift through a lot of them to get to the good stuff though- imo a lot of hispanics use the brujería tag not to mean “latine brujería” but just the spanish word for witchcraft, so a lot of white hispanics will put wicca/neo witchcraft in the tag. imo that’s really not something i’m personally interested in bc it’s not true to brujeria’s traditional nature, is very white/eruropean , and that wicca shit basically just got here. its a relatively a recent thing😭 so i try to stick to bruja accounts that aren’t influenced by that.

youtube: The youtube brujería tag is hit or miss? and again, contains a lot of wicca. But there are some good practitioners on there like The Mexican Witch! You just gonna look around, and dont be afraid to click on videos by really really small youtubers; they often are the ones with the most informative and legit things to say!

Everyone’s path as a bruja/o/x (sjdf trying to be inclusive w gendered language is difficult) is different but here are some topics i think are great to look into as a beginner!

ancestors: start at the bottom and figure out who they are, where theyre from, and set up an altar. it’ll help you a lot with figuring out your identity and path as a bruja later on.

setting up a grimoire

divination: tarot is actually what got me into brujeria at first! tarot isnt strictly traditional and is european in itself but its a wonderful tool for connecting to dieties, saints, etc as well as super fun and helps a lot with introspection

ritual abrecaminos, aka road opening spells!

amarres (love spells... proceed with caution)

limpias, mal de ojo

saint work: even if you’re not catholic (im ex catholic), a growing number of us (especially lgbt latines like @/upliftherbs on instagram) are starting to take back and decolonize our view of saints like La Virgen Maria and removing her from the rigid european/colonized interpretation thats been forced into us

candle spells in general (i fucking love candles tbh, cheap, easy, fun, and WORKS)

spiritual colognes, how to cleanse

finally, here are some helpful posts yall should definitely read and think about moving forward!

about using tumblr as a resource

about looking into brujeria as a part-white part latine

bruja psa + about reclaiming lost indiginety

honestly naomi’s entire brujeria tag is great and super informative for beginners and basically holds answers for almost anything at this point

hope this post helps yall out!

EDIT: oh lord now that this is posted the outline format i tried to use is all kinds of fucked up please dont mind the odd numbering lmfao tumbr hates organized formats

[thehagandthestag]

Hey- i stumbled on your blog looking at headscarves and was surprised to see a pagan veiling tag. Ive been wanting to start wearing a headscarf for a while now, maybe a year? For, semi-religious reasons? I havent committed to it bc i am afraid of being disrespectful to hijabis. I know that with a headscarf (and i have work it when out in the city) people assume im muslim. (1/2)

Im actually a quaker, and we have a christian tradition of plain dress head covering but its a little different than what i want frm a headscarf. Idk where your frm but do people ask you questions about it? How do you answer them. Im about to move to a new city and start a new job, so i feel like its a perfect moment to start.And i have felt led to do it but im very nervous about starting and how to justify myself to others (not so much to the public but to mainly muslim hijabis) when i dont want to get into my very personal reasons for doing it. Sorry this is so long. Any advise or thoughts? Thanks!

I know that a lot of people who have considered veiling for various spiritual/religious reasons and have, like you, been worried about disrespecting or appropriating Muslim culture.  Using a scarf/cloth to cover your head for religious reasons is present in SO many different cultures!  So many that no one group can claim it as their own.  Some married Jewish women wear Tichel, the Amish (and some Mennonite) wear bonnets, some Catholics wear lace veils during prayer, some married Hindu and Sikh women wear head/face scarves (or ghoonghat), there are some buddhist nuns who wear special headdress, women (and men) around the world who are of African descent have a hair wrapping tradition, and catholic nuns wear a habit.  And it’s not just women either, men from many different cultures also have traditions of wearing specific hats or head wraps (or specific ways of wearing/caring for facial hair).  So to simply wear a scarf or wrap your hair in a scarf is not appropriation in itself.  There are, however, specific ways of wearing a scarf/veil that may be considered appropriation.  For example, someone who is white probably shouldn’t wear a traditionally African style scarf.  Also, Hijab is a very specific way of wearing a scarf (covers hair and neck) but many people confuse it with just a scarf worn over your head.  So I think it’s important to note that however you decide to wrap your hair/head, unless you belong to the associated culture, don’t call it Hijab or Tichel or Ghoonghat, etc. 

When wearing a simple head scarf, I have been asked if I am Muslim.  Again, I think this is due to people not fully understanding head covering traditions from around the world. When asked this, I politely say no (and usually just say “I’m cold” or something, because I really don’t want to have to go into the complexities of my spiritual/religious beliefs with a stranger…)

You mention being Quaker, which also has its own history of hair binding/covering tradition.  So, even if you don’t want to wear the traditional bonnet from old Quaker tradition, deciding to cover your hair is totally understandable and you have the history to back it up, “I’m Quaker, it’s traditional for women to cover their hair.”(Unlike me, there is no tradition in Gaelic culture to support head covering.  I have to go into this big spiel about personal spiritual choices and whatnot.)

Hope this helped!

Note: I apologize if anything I said above is incorrect.  I am, by no means, an expert in anthropology or other cultures.  This is just what I know based of simple research about head coverings from around the world.

[legolasgoldy]

( gonna do both muses but do Finrod first since thats who the person who tagged me interacts with ;3  Main Verse will be in regular text, and Modern/Marvel In italics.)

FULL NAME: Main: Findarato/Artafinde (Artafinde is the less used of his father-names),  Ingoldo ( his mother-name). Modern/Marvel: Finrod Ingoldo Felagund OTHER NAMES: Findo ( used by family/cousins/lover( Makalaure, but still a cousin so..)), Finda ( used by parents), Felagund, Nóm, Nómin TITLE: King of Nargothrond, Prince of the Noldor, Hewer of Caves AGE: Main: Can be anywhere up to roughly 2300 the age around when we died, unless through au in which he would be reborn.  Modern/Marvel: Can be anywhere from 7-30s depending on type of thread. GENDER:  Male SEXUALITY: Bisexual/Demisexual ORIGIN: Main: Tirion, Valinor Modern/Marvel: Maine, US CURRENT LOCATION:  Main: Depends on thread but I’ll say Nargothrond. Modern/Marvel: Depends on thread, could be southern US ( havent decided which state yet) or New York. NATIONALITY: Main: Noldorin, Half Teleri? Hopefully that answers the question, Modern/Marvel: American but his parents are english so he sort of talks English anyway. ETHNICITY:  Caucasian SPOKEN LANGUAGES: Main: Quenya, Telerin, Sindarin, Taliska(What the race of Man spoke), Dwarvish, etc. He literally just learns everything. Modern/Marvel: English and as many languages as he can get reading materials to learn. RELIGION: Main: I dont know what to say for middle earth? They have Eru and the Valar and those are their “Gods”, Modern/Marvel: Christian? HEIGHT:  Main: 6′1″, Modern/Marvel: Depends on age but still ends up 6′1″. BODY TYPE: Same for all verses/aus. Well toned, Muscular but not overly so. Very pretty round butt lol XD, Body claim pictured here be warned its a lil nsfw but nothing shows. EYES:  Light-ish Emerald Green TATTOOS: None PIERCINGS:  His ears in all aus/verses. In Main verse he wears dangly earrings, In Modern/Marvel he wears studs of all sizes but usually bigger ones. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: tbh im not sure in main verse, he was just taught the general things and then later he pursued music. Modern/Marvel: grade school, highschool, Xavier Institute, and in regular modern he goes to a lot of music oriented colleges. SOCIAL MEDIA: N/A SMOKING: Never DRINKING: Main: He likes drinking wine with dinner and at formal events. Modern/Marvel: As an adult he likes drinking wine with dinner here as well. DRUGS: Never ATHLETICS: Hes open to trying anything at least once HOBBIES: Writing music, singing, playing music, Learning, Exploring, Journaling, drawing/painting plants and animals for his journals. VIRGIN: No. In Main he lost his with his beloved Makalaure around...his 200s i think the age was. Modern/Marvel: Lost it at 16 with Makalaure In Marvel bc of reasons, and in regular Modern he loses it around 19-20s with Makalaure. FAVORITE DRINK: Tea, particularly English Breakfast FAVORITE FOOD: Link Sausage ( the only meat he eats aside from the occasional seafood), Deviled Eggs. FAVORITE MUSIC: Main: Anything Makalaure sings XD, Modern/Marvel: Yet again, anything Makalaure sings and classical, but he loves any music that speaks to him no matter what Genre. CLOTHING STYLE: Main: Very fancy. He wears a lot of greens in any shade/tint. He wears, golds, whites, yellows, and blues sometimes too. His tunics have intricate embroidery of various things, can be random swirls, vines, flowers, etc. Tunics can be shorter horse riding attire or longer. He doesnt particularly like super long robes though, he prefers shorter tunics ( like knee length and higher) with formal cloaks type covers that drag behind him. Usually wears pretty embroidered boots that match his outfit. Findo’s closet is hugee. He always wears jewelry, earrings, necklaces, rings, headdresses, the works! He tries to be casual sometimes but thats basically just a necklace, rings, and earrings. Modern Marvel: He will nottt wear blue jeans. Its just not his cup of tea, he doesnt like having to match his shirts with blue pants plus he doesnt like the thickness of some kinds of jeans.  He’ll wear different color jeans, just not thick, coarse, blue jean material. He prefers that sort of fabric that resembles jeans but is lighter/thinner different fabric, and a bit more flexible/ semi-stretch.  Findo will wear any color pants that suit his fancy, particularly greens, light greys, whites, beiges, etc.  He doesnt like pants that are too loose or too tight, so they are an in between, straight legged pants. Button up shirts are his favorite, in any color that he likes ( never black). Sometimes if he cant find any shirts with embroidery on it he’ll embroider some things on the cuffs and collar. But he did find a white button up shirt with green leaves embroidered onto the collar and cuffs once at the store and thats where he got the idea, and that shirt has forever been his favorite. Always wears his stud earrings.  His shoes are typically a type of dress shoe in various colors, black, brown, green suede, blue suede, etc.  ( all of this excludes when he is a child in the 1970s * cough cough* green corduroy bell bottoms,  and  teenager in the 1980s lol lord help his sense of fashion then, bright colors everywhere X’D) UNDERWEAR TYPE: Main: Doesnt wear any, Modern/Marvel: He’ll wear briefs, and short boxer briefs in rich blues and greens. He would not be caught dead in actual boxers. TAGGED BY: @blind-mutant TAGGING: @mikhailvalhidris, @minstrelmaglor, @truesanguinesoul, @i-dream-of-oceans, @driftinglightofthewoods, @castoutbymyown, @atorturedsoul, @youcancallmepietro, @first-son-of-finwe, @eclairegrey, @artaresto  ( Tagged a few new followers so you feel included! ;D Feel free not to, i know thats a ton to fill out XD).

Phillip’s form is filled out under the cut  to save space ;D

FULL NAME: Phillip Chevalier OTHER NAMES: Phil TITLE: N/A AGE: 28 GENDER:  Male SEXUALITY: Homosexual ORIGIN: France CURRENT LOCATION: America, US ( not sure which state, it really just changes to fit threads) NATIONALITY: French ETHNICITY:  Caucasian SPOKEN LANGUAGES: French, English, Can speak a little Spanish hes just not the best at it he only knows small things he learned in school the rest he forgot. RELIGION: Catholic/ Christian altho not strictly catholic or anything, he just went to catholic churches as a child occasionally when his Mama and Papa wanted to pray so those kind of churches are what hes most comfortable in as far as churches go. It would be weird for him to go into a church and there not be a candle to light. HEIGHT:  5′8″ BODY TYPE:  Its so difficult to explain XD Pictured Here EYES:  Blue-Green. Bright green towards the pupil and blue-green towards the outside of the iris. TATTOOS: None (but he does get a tiny little Pooh Bear on his hip in some aus.) PIERCINGS:  None EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: L' Ecole Primaire (Elementary/Primary school), Le Collège (Junior High), Le Lycée ( Highschool), And YEARS of medical school. SOCIAL MEDIA: Probably facebook and maybe twitter SMOKING: Never DRINKING: OOOO never to excess unless hes gonna be off for a few days but even then he doesnt get drunk often bc he doesnt like the feeling. But he LOVES mixing drinks and having nice fruity drinks in moderation. DRUGS: Never ATHLETICS: He hikes, goes to the gym, and yoga HOBBIES: Reading, Spending time with friends, collecting bears.. etc.. VIRGIN: Nope, lost it around 19 with his first boyfriend Axel. FAVORITE DRINK: Hot chocolate. FAVORITE FOOD: Caramel Corn, lobster, crab, really likes creme brulee too. FAVORITE MUSIC: Alot of french music, just various genres. Same for American music, it just depends on what sounds best to him. He doesnt like American rap that much because its too fast to understand. CLOTHING STYLE: A lot of soft fabrics. Phil will try to always wear v-neck shirts to keep the fabric from touching his neck much, it makes him itch and get all splotchy. Jeans and other types of pants, he really doesnt mind as long as they are comfortable and look nice on him. He usually dresses casual in jeans and v-neck t-shirts with a stylish but comfy coat. Especially really soft pea coats he loves those, or any double buttoned coat really. Phil has a weakness for soft ugg moccasins, or short regular uggs, He loves wearing them but he does wear dress shoes when he needs to dress up for date night or something. In the winter he loves wearings soft scarves, hats and gloves. UNDERWEAR TYPE: Seamless, stretchy, black, shorts. They are super short though, kinda like booty shorts XD

[starlightbarbie]

(don’t reblog this post if you’re not one of my friends talking to me)

okay, you know, i changed my mind? i’m cleaning house today, airing out laundry, so why not do the same emotionally?

it’s been weighing on me too long and making me feel like a bad person but i’ve been so terrified of burning bridges that i never want to admit when i have a different opinion social-justice/spiritual-wise than my friends on here.

bc a lot of people seem to have the attitude that having a different political opinion than someone means you literally can’t interact with them again or continue being friends.

which i understand, it’s an online safe space and you want to surround yourself with like-minded people so you can enjoy your time away from the real-life people whose opinions you’re stuck around. tumblr is kind of the only place you CAN talk to ppl about lgbt, race, gender, etc issues and avoid other types of ppl.

but it just seems so, in a way, divisive and un-productive to alienate people who you enjoy talking to and being friends with, who share all of your political, social justice beliefs except ONE or TWO....just because their ideology doesn’t match perfectly with yours.

especially when they’ve been respecting your opinions the entire friendship and there’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to continue talking just without discussing those topics you’ve never discussed in the first place because they’ve been silent about them...

so maybe i’m afraid of all my friends finally learning my two differing opinions and immediately going “wow youre a bigot we cant be friends” and maybe thats presumptive and wrong but i can’t help my instinctual worries, you know? am i putting up too much self-defense here??

i hope i dont sound attack-y which i’m worried i might because whenever i get ranty....but whatever, this is all just MY opinion and if you read it i hope you can understand where im coming from and then, take from it what you will.

.hhmm. enough stalling...

ive never been “anti” otherkin--as i understand it’s a spiritual belief for some and a coping mechanism for others, and there’s no reason for me to bash that or find any fault with people who just feel a connection to a certain animal or whatever. that’s been happening for all of human existence, there are religions which believe in reincarnation, and i’m agnostic anyways.

i wasn’t raised religious, tho my mom was raised catholic--she wanted my sister and i to come to god on our own terms in our own time instead of being brainwashed by a church since babyhood. so far it just made us very secular. but i’ve had jewish, christian, muslim friends, and never disrespect anyone’s spiritual beliefs. i do preach separation of church and state and hold the political views that come with that, but i believe in freedom to express religion as long as it doesn’t infringe on another human’s rights.

but when it goes past otherkin...people identifying as animals, plants, and galaxies, that doesn’t harm anything--but when it comes to fictionkin and factkin it makes me very uncomfortable.

it feels extremely like theft of intellectual property and theft of identity. factkin, i have never actually seen a person identifying as, just people having “discourse” over, so i dont know if its even real but if it is...i dont even know if i have to argue against it, it’s literally pretending to be another person who is alive?? and is themselves. it’s way beyond wrong to pretend to actually be a famous person, and it is NOT a healthy coping mechanism. it could actually really scare or harm that person they’re pretending to be.

fictionkin is something i have seen a LOT and have friends who id that way, so that’s i guess the big topic here. no problem with otherkin, no one i know is factkin, but fictionkin....

i understand where it would come in as a coping mechanism, i really do. i can relate. i have characters that i’m very attached to, that i relate to very much, that i look up to and want to emulate. some of them i even feel unreasonably possessive over, like “well that’s my favorite character, they can’t be your favorite character if they’re already mine” which probably comes in to play with fictionkin feeling like they ARE the character so nobody else can be the character.

but the thing is, i can’t help but to feel like it’s intellectual property being stolen. it’s one thing to roleplay, to say “hey i know i dont own this character but i’m gonna pretend to be them and explore different scenarios.” the same for cosplaying or writing fanfiction and making fan art. using characters somebody else created to INSPIRE your own art is all fun and games as long as you dont claim to own any of the copyrighted materials.

claiming to BE the fictional character is totally claiming to own it. not legally obviously, i don’t think any fictionkin think they legally have rights to their kin, but definitely a huge mark of ownership to say “This is Me.”

they didn’t create that character. they didn’t spend hours, days, months, pouring their heart soul sweat blood and tears into bringing that character to life. the writer/artist did. when you write, you put literally all of yourself into your characters. every bit of it comes from your thoughts, your unique worldview, the things you’ve seen and learned all mixed together and spat out in a new form. it all comes from the mind of the character’s creator. in a way, their characters are each, them, or have their blood running through their metaphorical veins.

i am PASSIONATE about writing.

claiming to BE that character, that a writer put so much of themselves into, is almost like claiming to be that writer too. at least like carving out a piece of their mind and saying “this is mine, it came from my life in another universe. it doesn’t belong to you. it’s not a unique pattern of emotions and ideas and creativity that you spent years developing. it’s just me from another universe, what a coincidence, right?”

it’s so offensive to steal another person’s hard work like that. and tumblr--tumblr--is supposed to be this place where people care about art theft and crediting the owners matters? and that makes me very, very uncomfortable as an aspiring writer who has my own original characters developing in my head.

important side note: i dont think you can say that fictionkin doesnt actually hurt anyone the way factkin obviously would. i have seen personal accounts from people on tumblr that said people were tagging their ocs/self portraits as kin, or telling them that they were kin with their ocs and they were writing the story wrong in some way, and they were very distressed by it.

so. i have never said anything because i dont want to hurt anyones feelings and i dont want to lose friends, but i also have to be honest and say what i believe if i want to respect myself as a person. so that’s what i believe.

and i don’t think it’s a necessary course of action to cut off ties with someone because they dont believe in fictionkin. its like stopping being friends with someone because they have a different religion than you. i’ve had christian, jewish and muslim friends and as i said, i’m non-religious.

i understand that maybe identifying as a character is more tied with your personal identity than your religious identity, so it’s natural you would feel like people should accept that that character is part of your personality--but please understand that i can accept that there are aspects of all those characters in you and that you relate to them, without expecting me to believe that infinite universes AND reincarnation across those universes exist, which is more than any of my religious friends have asked of me. (ie no one has tried to convert me to their personal spiritual beliefs)

so that said, idk if anyone read all of this, but if you want to stop being my friend over it i wont try to make you change your mind. if youre uncomfortable talking to me after this, its fine and i wont push it. i gave my reasoning for why im willing to stay friends and put our different beliefs aside so know that youre always welcome in my life if you want to be, but i wont force you if you dont.

the next one is worse. stay tuned.