#nonhuman behaviours

[eldritchbean-shapeshifter]

Does anyone else have issues with people touching your stuff?

Like. Whenever my dad or younger brother come into my room they like to grab something and fidget with it and it makes me really physically uncomfortable for some reason.

I just. Really hate it when people touch my stuff. Like. Plz don't.

Whenever someone does that I'm all like

internally. But I feel like I can't show my irritation externally and it's really frustrating.

An example is When people ask if they can use/see/hold my phone for a bit, I feel really irritated for no reason. Like, no. Don't touch my stuff.

It's just a really animalistic reaction. like those videos of people trying to grab something from their dog and the dog just growls and bites at them to scare them away.

I'm honestly thinking about making a sign for my door that says something like "DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING (without asking first)." Because I'm getting really fed up with it all.

[talon-dragonbeast]

you can behave like other species even if you dont identify as them, you know.

you can howl even if youre not a wolf. you can climb trees even if youre not arboreal. you can wear a collar even if youre not domestic. you can do quads even if youre bipedal. you can nest and chirp even if youre not a bird. you can bark even if youre not a dog. you can purr and make biscuits even if youre not a cat. you can do vocals even if your species is silent. heck, you can even make yourself a yarn tail even if youre not a mammal.

there's no alterhuman police, no one is gonna come and tell you that you cant have fun with your identity. the best part of ah identities is that you literally cant do it wrong (except for being hateful to others). and maybe, youll even discover something about yourself you didnt know before!

now go. go be the local cryptid youve always wanted to be.

[ambrosiaque]

when your friends affirm theriotypes you don't get connected to often >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[mxmorbidmidnight]

Things I’ve done at school

Wrote a horror piece for a creative writing test and had to be pulled out by the school counsellor for a mental health check

Ran after kids making assorted animal noises when they pulled the legs off lizards.

During a test I cut up the working out paper to make a short book about poop. This happened often.

I had a hyperfixation on pigs so every time we got a creative writing assignment I wrote about pigs. The teacher banned me from writing about pigs so I wrote about boars instead.

Accidentally threw a metal baseball bat at my teacher and hit her in the shin

Sticky taped a piece of cheese to a tree to try catch a rat

Brought bugs the classrooms (numerous times for numerous reasons some purposeful others by accident )

Made rude finger out of blocks in year three. Teacher was not impressed.

Collected rubbish for my collection and kept it in the classroom (in my own space)

Stabbed myself with a led pencil

Taught conservative Christian kids how to swear

The skibidi toilet/brony/lin Manuel Miranda/roblox/peter griffin death pose/bakudeku Romeo and Juliet mpreg English projects.

[midwinterwings]

ABOUT ME ...

MY DEAL// Physical plane/incarnation/mortal aspect of Hermes, spiritual otherkin, bird therian, local linden tree.

MY NAME// Blog runner is Linden, a member of a system. Other people in system may chip in, I may talk about them sometimes. We consider the blog to be shared, although most of the time it'll be me talking.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OUR BLOG// Spiritual deitykin thoughts and discussions, otherkin content primarily made to start discussions or conversations between nonhumans. For minors and those who don't want to see NSFW posts, it is suggested that you do not follow this blog. Although it is mostly SFW, I will be discussing sexual topics related to divinity/otherkin-ness at times.

TAGS:

#hermes says stuff

#hermes asks stuff

#hermes says stuff/nsfw

(Posts will have TW for NSFW topics such as mentions of sexuality.)

MISC INFORMATION//

-We have ADHD and autism - expect disordered posts and writing skill fluctuations. I also lose my phone if Im not holding it so not very fast at responding because a lot of the time I'm searching for where my phone is. Lovely.

-Pagan (not actively practicing currently).

-If you have any questions about my experience with divinity in more detail, or would like to discuss topics relating to divinity and/or otherkin-ness, dm me. I am willing to talk with pretty much anyone as long as there is mutual respect and questions are asked in good faith.

-My body is 20. You know what that means 😏 *silence*...Yeah I dont know what that means either

-Outside of this blog I love maths, computers and learning about the Internet and just how weird and wacky it is.

||Some brief info about my divine identity-->

I am Hermes, weaver of webs, shepherd, the splintered paths. I can be found in most mythology and religions as a messenger and trickster thing. I am a realm hopper and although I'm Hermes I'm a bit of other deities too, and other deities are a bit of me.

I am VERY NEW to the whole deity thing, please don't take anything I say as fact, theyre just my experiences and I could be wrong. I also do NOT claim the 'whole' deity, or the title of a God currently, as I do not have the skill or experience or ability that my divine self has, in this plane. My identity is currently purely energy-focused and all the divine shit I do is not in this realm.

-🪽

[enbycrip]

Yup.

Most species engage in various kinds of sex acts with members of the same and different sexes. Primates are particularly notable for doing this because primates have complex social structures.

It’s also worth noting here that the use of terms like “heterosexual” and “homosexual” are reasonable as technical terms describing specific sexual pairings in non-human species in a way they actually really aren’t when it comes to actual individuals, which unfortunately *is* the way they use “bisexual” in this article.

There is a lot of information out there which paints heteronormative sexual relationships as “natural” and recruits a poor understanding of the natural world as “evidence” for this.

It’s much more accurate to say that pretty much all species - including humans - use sexual acts as part of a survival strategy for themselves and their genes. This can include sex for reproduction, sex to create or deepen social bonds within all sorts of social relationships, from monogamous pairings to part of a homosocial group pecking order, sex to assert dominance, sex in return for resources from a partner, and many, many more.

[ruralincline]

I have the animal response to curl up in a warm dark corner on the floor to many different issues but tummy ache is chief among them.

To note tho, curling up on the floor (even better the ground) is so good to me. A harmonizing experience for the body.

[scpwiki-official]

rahhhhhh someone give us silly bugdraki ideas

[llamagoddessofficial]

In today's age of magic, shapeshifting has never been easier or more frequent. Have you started to notice your partner has some strange quirks? Does your husband, wife, spouse or significant other demonstrate some odd behaviours that you've only started to take real notice of after significant time together? Accidentally getting into a relationship with a nonhuman is more common than you might think. Here's a handy guide on some entities your partner might be, in case you feel you need to approach that topic.

1 - Fae Fae are a very diverse race, ranging wildly in appearance and power, and disguising themselves as humans is an everyday occurrence. You most likely grew up on stories about not giving your name to strangers, in case they are Fae - unknowingly marrying a Fae is shockingly common, the Bureau of Nonhuman Entities (BoNE) estimates that anywhere between 0.5 to 2% of human marriages actually include one or more Fae in disguise. Here are the signs your partner may be Fae.

A 'green thumb', very knowledgeable about highly local plants and fungi

Strong aptitude for poetry and instruments, a very beautiful singing voice. They highly enjoy writing songs for you, composing poems about you, and singing together.

Enjoys singing you to sleep.

Wild animals are completely unafraid of them, and often approach both of you

Loves gold jewellery, but abjectly refuses to wear anything silver.

Sees suspiciously well in the dark

Cannot get drunk - Fae are often immune to human poisons

Acquaintances of yours describe your partner as 'ethereal', 'enchanting', or 'hypnotising'. You may hear comments that your partner seems out of your league.

They place a very heavy emphasis on manners and politeness, and can quickly grow upset when social rules are not followed.

When frustrated, they use swear words you've never heard before

Fae are frequently attracted to neurodivergent humans. If you're neurodivergent the likelihood is even higher.

2 - Deity Again, more common than you might think. Deities both minor and major often find themselves attracted to humans, and stories of these romances are baked into our histories. Your spouse may be the God of anything from a very specific kind of flower, to a certain weather pattern, to (rarely) something very big like knowledge or the ocean itself. They're harder to spot than Fae, often indistinguishable from a normal human thanks to their many years observing people.

The biggest clue is that they don't notice pain, and never seem to get hurt. They'll have invulnerability or high resistance to things such as burning, freezing, drowning, cutting, and blunt force trauma. They might not notice they've put their hand on a hot burner, for example.

Speaks in strangely archaic language, often misunderstanding modern trends and linguistics. Oddly knowledgeable around ancient subjects.

They may randomly smell like blood and/or smoke. This is often a sign they've just received an offering, and the intensity of the smell is stronger with more powerful deities.

They can immediately tell when someone is lying, usually without giving a cause for the knowledge.

The two of you share pet names of a celestial nature, such as "star", "nova", "sun", "moon", "comet".

When upset, they have a highly commanding voice that can shake glass or cause bizarre events to happen (ie; mist indoors, words on a page scrambling, lights changing colour).

Heightened interest in the topic of immortality - particularly your views on it. Frequently asking you 'how you would feel' if you would live forever.

3 - Dragon A very rare (but not impossible) phenomena, most people have no idea that dragons are intelligent and emotionally complex beings that can very convincingly disguise themselves. Living in caves isn't for everyone and loneliness is not just a human feeling.

Very wealthy, but with no clear sign of where the wealth originates from. They may say their money comes from a 'long-term investment'.

Highly passionate lover. Deeply devoted and affectionate, sometimes to the point of it being inappropriate in public. Enjoys big displays of affection and physical intimacy. May need to be told to slow down.

Abandonment issues. This often stems from the highly violent childhood many dragons experience, and the frequent loss of loved ones to dragonslayers. They might be reluctant to be separated too long.

Has a particular item they enjoy hoarding. This could be clothes, trinkets, plushies, shoes, anything at all. You may find that they're very easygoing about you touching their collection, maybe they even actively make you part of the hoard. They may dress you in collected clothes, sort their collected plushies around your bed, or ask you to wear jewellery they've found. But they'll become extremely agitated and aggressive if anyone other than you tries to interact with 'their things'.

Prone to anger, quick-tempered.

Frequently concerned about your health, seems to perceive you as delicate and easily injured.

Please remember that if your partner IS nonhuman, they almost certainly didn't intentionally lie. Human relationships will seem very fast to other entities. Many transform into humans for a fun year out, find themselves head over heels in love, and then can't figure out the right time to tell their human lover the truth. Try not to hold it against them, everyone has their quirks!

[kremlin]

i figure most human behaviour that, not only doesn’t occur in other animals but has zero connection to animal behavior is basically distantly rooted in the known fear of inevitable death. let me be clear. cats and shit don’t know they’re gonna die. we do. we have thoughts. we know it’s coming. we think we’re gonna be rich, bullshit like that, most humans believe in magic and most humans doubt that math is a universal or consistent thing. total nonsense right. but everyone knows their ass is gonna die. before you write me off as some dumbass reciting basic 101 level university lectures just Trust Me I’m An Engineer. anyways. being human and dying are somewhat one in the same.

“if i do nonhuman things i can cheat the reaper.” short and sweet. if i can beat zelda faster than anyone i can outrun the reaper. and you know what, fuck it, i’m scared shitless of dying. it’s gonna hurt really bad no doubt. what if the brain destroyal process makes time slow down in my perception and it’s not just like five seconds of bleeding out or fire ant bites or however you go. Scary. so i’ll play along:

i am an average american man and i enjoy bad game runescape. it’s a computer game. MMO. kill monster get loot. sell what i don’t want to other players for gold. spamming chat with “SELLING BOWSTRINGS 200gp” for an hour “sucks” so the devs add a grand exchange where you can post buy/sell orders for a given item+price to maximize gameplay efficiency and minimize social interaction.

like any other MMO you can pay some sketchy website real money for ingame gold farmer by chinese gold farmers. totally against the rules. remember this

so the first thing that comes to any male aged 23-27 mind is “buy low sell high” basic bitch shit. no good. there’s a 5% tax that’ll wipe out your profit margin intended to eliminate this behavior (you’re supposed to friggen kill monsters). but everyone thinks they’re a genius and can beat the system and that there is a secret george soros style illuminati group that is holding the secrets, blah blah blah, whatever, and this comes as a coping mechanism after losing your shirt after trying to beat the market (success rate of 0%).

here is where people mostly quit thinking: if you do the math, which takes about ten minutes and can be done on one side of a sheet of paper with the most basic calculator, it’s easy to figure out that the amount of gold you’d need to play dirty (buy out all the available Feathers or Fire Runes or whatever) in order to corner the market would be so high that there is no possible way for a character to hold that much without having spent IRL money for gold. you’d get autobanned.

SO..finally, go on the ol’ www.reddit.com, and make a really really professional-to-professional sounding post advertising a “service”. Saturate the fuck out of it with dense but very real financial jargon. the “service” (which needs to be obscured enough with plausible and relevant language) is a hedging service aimed at make-believe market players who are buying and selling such huge amounts of items and gold (usually in anticipation of a game update that will speculatively introduce a sudden, dramatic, and capitalizable price change for some item). you need it to be as alien-sounding and foreign as possible but with enough believability and clarity that a handful of reddit jackasses will figure out what the fuck your post is about. whenever pressed further, act totally puzzled and make it very clear that this is not a service relevant to “individual entertainment-motivated” players or some shit. no matter what amount of gold anyone quotes at you, just act puzzled and if that amount is 1/1000th the amount one of your “normal” clients deal with. you need to do all of this extremely artfully. and by “you”, i’ve been meaning to write “me”. really lay it on thick that whatever you’re “doing” is totally unavailable to them and that you want zero to do with them.

so now theyre still mostly totally confused but enough is made clear that their interest is piqued. got my hook in em. some guy will copy/paste wikipedia shit in an obnoxiously long and pseudointellectual, contemptible but characteristically reddit guy style what you’re “selling” actually is in the most exhausting, hand-holdingest way to his fellow reddit gamers. with complete tone of authority.

inevitably one of them will put on their sherlock holmes hat and go deep undercover, emailing me posing as an interested party. bingo. now i get to really lay on the WTF and go off the rails asking about vouchers from One Of The Big Seven, but oh no, you can’t get one of them to vouch for you, that’s fine, it makes sense, we’re the only firm that deals with unvouched, that’s our market, well, one of them at least. Just give me a rough rundown of your entry criteria, dwell time, risk tolerance, fuckin “Gamma Ratio”, you know, all the basic stuff, and i’ll have the team generate a .xlsx for you to plug your data into to get a rough feel for what the final contract might be like.

(lololol) But REMEMBER, that excel sheet is seeded, output is fuzzed and salted and if you share it or try and sell it to our competitors, it will be fuzzy enough to be worthless to them but obvious to us who leaked what. this is the only way we’re able to integrate unvouched clients without untenable premiums and while managing our risk levels

blah blah blah blah, i go on and on and on and the guy on the other end is developing a scab from constant head-scratching. and that’s about the maximum real-world harm i’m willing to inflict. i know this sounds like an elaborate as fuck confidence scam but it isn’t. that shit makes me sick. i’d literally slam my arms in a car door before taking a cent from all this. hell, i’ll go out of my way to guarantee i don’t even piss anyone off or offend them or anything.

your guess is as good as mine but i do stuff like this constantly for anything i know well enough and the example i gave above is just a pretty low quality one i made up on the spot. this is a public blog after all.

anyways, cheers, hoping this saves me from dying or whatever the hell i was talking about before that could have probably been cut out. Namaste. Mahala.

[eldritchbean-shapeshifter]

shaving your legs not because society says to but because the creature you are (at the moment) doesn't have body hair

[ghost-bxrd]

ANOTHER DAY another cool au by the ghstbird community <33 Eldritch Jason Todd u are gorg <3, random question for brainstorming since I'm too invested now

How did the adoption scene take place? The same crime alley thing? Catherine todd? Willis? AAAAA or just local eldritch being that steals car parts (he's emulating human behaviour in crime alley, maybe he just tosses them later to kids???) maybe he just has immense compassion towards humans (although he doesn't fully understand them) (all Jasons need to be made out of bleeding compassion FOR ME BUT!! depends on what characteristics we're pulling for) (AND. IF HE'S DYING FOR SHELIA? gotta be compassionate. HE'S ROBIN, he is full of love towards these fleshbags. Though... uh... nonhuman... and having messed up emotional responses)

Nonono, because Robin Jason with his bleeding compassion is so important to me as well!!!

So basically (because I’ve put too much thought into this little au as per usual) the bullet points for eldritch Jason and the things you mentioned are as follows:

Jason spontaneously came into being. Eldritch things aren’t usually born in the way humans are, and Jason used to be a concept that suddenly gained consciousness.

(There was a short period of time where the brainstorming went into the direction of “eldritch jason found a dead street kid and assumed his appearance/inhabited the body”, but this seemed a bit dark so I had to come up with an alternative)

Jason watched humans for a quite a while and—alone from the very beginning— became enamored with the concept of family and love and happiness and belonging

One way or another (no specifics as of yet) Jason ends up with Catherine and Willis. Willis isn’t too shoddy in this au, he’s just… pretty neglectful. And a criminal. He does his damndest to stay well clear of wherever Jason is because that kid— he’s not normal. Maybe he’s a meta, Willis doesn’t care, all he knows that the sense of doom he feels around him is unnatural and he’d rather make his home in prison than around Jason

Catherine loves Jason. She can’t see beyond the surface layer of humanity Jason wears, partly due to her substance abuse, and Jason… knows that humans can’t last long like this. He can see her organs failing, her brain activity dimming, but he doesn’t know how to fix it. And he’s too busy basking in the love he’s finally feeling for the first time

Jason loves being human. If he could lock everything that isn’t human about himself away, he would. He thrives on witnessing strangers showing compassion to one another, to see them struggle and overcome hardships. They’re just a blip in the cosmos, in time, but they’ve got so much to offer. But likewise, he loathes witnessing injustice

When Jason ends up on the streets he’s just a big ball of sad. No home, no love, nothing. Nothing left. At least he needs neither food nor shelter to survive, but it still sucks. He loses some of his blind eyed wonder for humanity during this time, but not enough to give up on it. He adapts, he overcomes, and like you said, he starts emulating other street kids. Collecting scraps and handing them out to the young ones. And when he sees the Batmobile just standing there… well, that’s a week’s worth of food for ten of the kids he knows

Hitting Batman with the tire iron is a knee jerk reaction borne from cautionary tales about adults. He’s not actually scared of Batman

(Batman may be a little scared of Jason. Especially when he ends up buying him a burger and, out of the corner of his eye, thinks he sees Jason unhinge his jaw only to reveal five more jaws and and an abyssal void and—)

Just… eldritch things. And the tribulations that come with pretending to be human. Wanting to be human.

[thunderboltfire]

I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

[acti-veg]

do you have any advice for someone (me) who spent most of her life as the world's #1 zoo defender but is now majorly questioning them? i now aim to be a field conservationist, but for years on end i wanted to be a zookeeper, and i fully believed in the educational benefits zoo proponents are always touting. but after doing a ton of research into how harmful captivity is on animals, the horrific captures required to bring them into captivity, the compelling evidence for nonhuman personhood for vertebrates, and the educational failures of zoos (as well as reading the excellent essay by derrick jenson you've posted about in the past), i'm now super conflicted. i can't deny the big impact zoos had on me as a child, though. sorry to just dump in your inbox like this but this issue is driving me nuts so i figured i'd ask someone who is also passionate about it

For many people, the hardest thing to give up in their journey to going vegan is something like cheese, or eggs. For me it was zoos. Even when I was eating fully plant-based, getting rid of my animal fabrics slowly and avoing anything animal-tested, it took some time for me to do the research and really see this place where so many of my happiest childhood memories occured was actually pretty harmful. I was right where you are now.

That essay encouraged me to reframe my thinking in terms of who is actually benefiting from the arrangement. Conservation of animals in captivity who will never realistically be released - what are we conserving exactly, and for who? Education, but for who? What do we actually learn from zoos, really? I looked at the most notable achievements of zoos, and wondered if they could have been achieved without putting animals in captivity for public viewing. I found that some of the most significant conservation stories came not from zoos, but charities, private breeding programs, rewilding and land conservation

. Similarly, documentaries educate just as well as zoos do, if not far better, because the animals we are seeing are exhibiting their natural behaviour, as opposed to their atypical, stressed and often depressive captive counterparts. There just isn't a great deal we can learn from observing animals in wholly unnatural surroundings, they develop completely abnormal social structures, often zoochosis, and we have built several fundamental misunderstandings of wild animal behaviour on assumptions made by exhibiting behaviour that exclusively occurs in captive animals.

There is just no reason why conserving animals and educating the public should need animals to be on display for our amusement, and for the profit of their owners. What good zoos do can be done far better by institutions who do not have the vested interest of profiting from their incarceration, and can conserve and learn from animals in their natural environment.

[talon-dragonbeast]

misceanimalis identities and alterhumanity

(also called: ✨misceverse propaganda✨)

a few days ago i promised to write a post about the misceverse and how it applies to myself/my identity. so, here it is!

[as a disclaimer, im still very much aroace so rest assured this post will be completely sfw. however, im aware that some people can be uncomfortable with this stuff so ill be putting the post under a read more]

so, omegaverse. a few of you may remember my post/essay on how i view gender through draconic lenses, and how my species classifies ourselves not with sex but with how we contribute to society, our Role. well, last week i saw some of my mutuals (shout-out to @/were-bastard and @/professional-jaywalker, the birds ever /pos) reblog stuff about something called the misceverse, which was inspired by omegaverse fanfic tropes, and... well. it piqued my interest. i had read a few of these stories myself when i was younger, so i knew more or less about what it was all about, but i didnt know there was an entire community centered around it!

what struck me the most about these communities was the normalization and celebration of animalistic behaviours, specifically as they relate to relationships, something that, as a nonhuman, is obviously very appealing to me. i struggle a lot to express affection in the expected/"human" way, as my instincts tell me to act more like the creature i am. things like nesting, scenting, giving gifts or having a special language of animal noises to communicate with your loved ones are things i do naturally, and that i fight to suppress every day. upon seeing all this in the misce community, plus the classifications that match so perfectly with my dragon Roles, i was sold.

so, what even is misceanimalis?

also called miscecanis, its a community centered around the omegaverse, that is, a universe where people have secondary sexes as well as the normal ones: alpha, beta or omega. (they were inspired by that one study on wolf behaviour and pack dynamics, which i find really funny bc its considered incredibly inaccurate nowadays). people on this verse exhibit animal behaviours like nesting, forming packs, making animal noises or "subvocals", and, of course, experiencing mating cycles (i will not get into that last part, but basically omegas have heats and can get pregnant while alphas have ruts and can get people pregnant; betas are usually the "normal" ones, but this may vary between verses). also! a very important thing in omegaverse is scenting. everyone has a unique scent, so people can identify your dynamic right away; its used as a way to mark your territory and your mate and to express emotions.

about me!

dynamic: i am bidynamic; both an omega and a beta, also called a gamma or oeta.

for me, this means that im socially neutral (but leaning submissive), i exhibit protective and nurturing behaviours like an omega, and give a calming effect to people like a beta. my presentation though is fully omega: i am very timid, uncertain and introverted, though if im feeling confident enough i can come off as more casual/laid-back.

scent: my scent is vanilla, very sweet as is typical of omegas (funnily, i found that this scent is almost unbearable for most people, but i adore it).

i use vanilla body lotion and perfume for myself, and a soft vanilla air freshener for my den.

behaviours: i am misceavian, which means my behaviours are mostly based on birds (nesting, gift-giving, mating dances, all that stuff). my subvocals are both avian and draconic: purring, chirping, etc. i also experience heats but they are very mild, and are less frequent than for monodynamic omegas.

anyway, i think thats enough for today! wow i rambled a lot, didnt i? i hope you enjoyed reading this, and maybe even fell for my propaganda i mean, considered a misceanimalis identity for yourself! i found that the community is very nice and open-minded, and i think more alterhumans could benefit from joining it!

[talks-with-the-void]

what does physical alterhuman mean? /gq

short answer: just what it says right there, it means being physically nonhuman

HOWEVER, it's obviously not just that simple, so here's the long answer:

- reality checking for the sake of explanation under the cut -

there are many reasons why someone might identify as a physical nonhuman or holothere, which is a term for all physical nonhumans (coined by @/defrostedvertebrae). for one, someone might experience delusions related to this, which would most often fall under clinical zoanthropy (the delusion that someone can turn, has turned or will turn into a nonhuman animal), but it can also be a different, more... let's say vague type of delusion. these people believe they can literally physically turn into animals and/or their DNA is nonhuman. there's nothing morally wrong about this and they are not harmful and/or p-shifters (which have a long history of very manipulative, malicious and cult-like behaviour).

then there are folk who follow the idea of "I am a fox, and this is my body, therefore this body is physically the body of a fox". they acknowledge their bodies as biologically human, but still physically identify as whatever they are, because it brings them comfort or something along those lines.

and then there are people like me - I don't experience delusions and I know my DNA is human. but instead of a werewolf who's trapped in a human body, I see myself as a physical werewolf, who is stuck in the human shape. and no matter the shape I'm currently taking, a werewolf is always a werewolf, which means I am physically one.

there are also people who claim to be non-delusional but able to physically shapeshift - while I for my personal comfort mostly don't interact with those, it's important to know they aren't automatically p-shifters or have ill intent. they probably are actually delusional, but not able to identify their delusions as such, which is not an uncommon thing. if that makes you uncomfortable, I get it, totally, but please remember to not reality check them, as it can be very harmful.

I hope this is explaining things a bit! if it's too confusing, I can try to reword stuff ^^