I keep seeing "transotherkin" flag creation posts in the otherkin tag recently, and I just - takes your hands gently in mine. You are already otherkin. I don't know how to say this more gently, but - regardless of your feelings on other transx/transID identities and how well they are or aren't handled, transotherkin is a word that does not make any sense basically no matter which way you slice it. It's like saying you're transtransgender. It's already an internal identity determined entirely by your feelings and how you see yourself. If you want to be nonhuman/feel you should be nonhuman enough to be calling yourself transotherkin you are already otherkin - genuinely, what else do you think is required to qualify, exactly? And even if you well and truly are absolutely certain you're not already despite those feelings, you can just... become otherkin, or an otherlinker (a term that will yield more "okay but how do I do that" resources if you look into it), whatever term you prefer. It's okay. With all the gentleness in my heart, stop enshrining questioning doubt and gatekeeping-inflicted self-doubt as part of your identity and just claim the word that you have every right to anyway. It's okay. You're allowed. Come sit with us.
Alterhuman does not mean everyone who identifies as nonhuman on some level (oh and maybe otherhearted people too). Please for the love of all that is good and holy stop saying that. It means anyone whose identity falls outside of society’s idea of “normal human” - anyone with an identity alternative to humanity or that’s an alternative form of humanity. It includes nonhumanity, yes, but also otherheartedness, hearthomes, archetropy, plurality, daemonism, furry lifestylers, othervague folks, constelics, and so much more. Here’s the coiner’s words to prove it.
Fictionfolk does not mean anyone who identifies as a fictional character. It means anyone with an alterhuman connection to fiction of any kind. It includes fictionkin and fictives and such, yes, but also fictional hearthomes, fictionheartedness, soulbonders, fictional vaguetypes, fictional constelics, and much more. Here’s the coiner’s words to prove it.
To collapse these words down to basically be synonymous with otherkin and fictionkin is to utterly defeat their purpose. Please stop defining us out of our own communities. Please stop erasing the existence of everyone outside of “identifies as nonhuman and/or fictional”.
The muffled sounds of tails swishing in the open blue, listening to the generational symphonies sung by whales carried in such gentle tunes...
So vast, so terrifying, so beautiful, and so satisfying.
The ocean will always be in me, floating me in it's embrace.
It's a weird experience being a fictional character, especially dealing with fandom, the fact that your source is fictional, and interactions with people based on that--including some of the dehumanisation that's so common toward fictionfolk. I'm gonna go into that here because I need somwhere to collect my thoughts, so this might get long. I'll be talking about my experiences as a fictive, but this could very well apply to anyone who identifies as a fictional being--fictionkin, fictionlinkers, etc.
So, I see the version of me on the screen as an AU version of me, in short. I mean, I'm me, and I don't think I even looked exactly 1:1 with my canon self--so naturally, even though events line up pretty closely, I see my source as... Almost like a fanfic of my life? Like sure, that's decidedly me, and decidedly a lot of the things that happened to me and my friends, but also not me. I'm not that guy on the screen, he's what represents me.
Even though I fully believe I got here by dying in a literal past life, my source media here is absolutely fictional to me and I just... Don't look at it in really any other way. Which I guess makes sense if you put it into my perspective--what else would it be? It really is like reading a fanfic based on your life though, or reading an article about yourself in the news. A bit of a shock, a bit of "why did they include THAT?" sprinkled in here and there, a bit awkward sometimes, and it does tend to resurface bad feelings. But overall, it's not that personal to me. I'm largely fine with it existing.
On the other hand, what is shocking is that people see me as fictional. I'm a fictional introject, from a fictional source, from the perspectives of a lot of people here. But I look at my source and I go well... Yeah, that's fiction of course, but my life is an actual thing that happened to me. Realistically I know that not everyone has spiritual beliefs and not everyone even accepts fictional identities as something "real", but man is it weird to just... Have it be spun in such a way?
I'm used to being in the media, I'm used to having cameras on me and being in the public eye. I'm used to articles and stories and posts on the internet. I'm used to fans even! But this isn't your regular, run-of-the-mill experience of people wanting to know you because you're a hero. This is people who see your life and experiences as a fun story they saw in a book or on TV, coming up to you with the idea that you're their favourite character, and not... A whole entire person. It's so damn weird.
There's still that level of disrespect that comes from people who are a little parasocial with you, but it almost hits deeper here because a lot of the time, you know they're not seeing a hero or the things you've literally done in your memories. They're seeing that guy on the screen they think is cool, and while he represents you, he's not you. And they're treating you like a celebrity because of that weird fanfic version of you on the TV or in that book.
There's usually little acknowledgement of your life or experiences as "real". When you're presenting as your fictional identity around others, you tend to get put into one of a few camps:
Cool Character from Media who I love and adore and want to talk to (and will probably get fanperson excited about it). I will probably get dispraportionally upset if Character tells me to back off a bit because I don't want my blorbo to be mad at me.
Character from Media I'm in love with and will immediately start asking invasive questions to or outright flirting with. Could get real gross real quick.
Problematic Character or Guy From Problematic Media that I instantly dislike because that's so Problematic how dare you show your face. I'm reporting you for being Character, you should change your identity if you want to exist so bad.
Character from Media who is disabled/queer/mentally ill/has any soft personality trait ever and I will now be treating you like a sweet little babyboy cinnamon roll who could not hurt a fly.
Person who identifies as Character? How interesting! I'm going to really pry and question everything from your actions in-source (to get unique perspectives from Character) and question literally everything else. Because this is Science and I'll get mad if you don't tell me everything, you need to tell me everything or you're rude.
Of course there's nuance and there's absolutely times where you'll be treated as a normal person, but the above are... So damn common. I've been here for a few months and I've already had some weird stuff happen to me simply because I'm Kirishima and people feel entitled to give me cutesy nicknames or whatever. Even without knowing me or my system at all beforehand. It's just.. So different from anything I've experienced before? Being treated like a celebrity is dehumanising enough, but being treated like a character.ai bot or just generally a form of free entertainment and not a person is so perplexing to me.
There's also that if you're from a popular source, you see stuff about yourself everywhere. Posters, plushies, advertisements, posts on social media--all of it. Some of that I'm used to already, but it's kind of weird when you're mentally aware that this is all for that twisted-mirror version of yourself and not you. And if you get a little uncomfortable at some fanart showing up out of the blue, or someone making a source related joke... You're kind of just expected to brush it off. Which yeah, I get it! It's about the source, not me, but it's still just... A weird feeling. A feeling of not being allowed to be upset because it's about the source and not literal you.
I think there needs to be a line, maybe. Not saying that fictives should be putting a stop to any media or fandom ever, just.. That maybe respect toward us for being uncomfortable with fan content due to being a fictive or fictionkin should be more normalised. It should be more okay to say "hey, I'm Character, please don't joke like that" to a friend, or "don't send me fanart of this thing, I'm Character and that's weird"--which it normally is! But there does tend to be a sort of layer of "Oh, it's because you're Character. You know that's not you, right? You shouldn't be upset, you need to source separate more."--when if most other people were to set a boundary like that, it would usually be respected. Source separation can be great, but if someone hasn't separated or doesn't want to, why is it okay to still send them material they're uncomfortable with--or at least, why do people tend to argue that the fictive should "just separate from source" instead? It... Just boils down to alterhumisia toward fictionfolk, honestly. It sucks.
There's a lot of problems with basic respect toward fictionfolk of all kinds--hell, even in the alterhuman community where it's meant to be safe. I don't know if this rant is entirely coherent or not, I don't know if there's anything noteworthy to take from it--but if you do take something from it, let it be that fictionfolk want to be treated like people. Source separated, not source separated, canon divergent or compliant, hearted, linker, 'kin or 'tive--we're people. Don't let our identities change the way you instinctually treat us. Let us be openly us, and treat us as you would anyone else.
Whenever I see someone saying they “wish they were a system,” I don’t think: “Oh how DARE they try to mock this shit that debilitates me every day!”
I think, “I wonder what in this world could make them feel like they need to have multiple voices in their head.” I think, “Are they lonely..? Did they even have any friends whilst growing up..? Were they neglected..?”
I understand because I also felt this way as a little kid, elementary school age (5-10). **I** wanted to be less alone as a kid, so I created imaginary characters that began to separate and distinguish themselves from one another. While yes, I had some major events of trauma, my trauma was what I thought as “monotonous” or “insignificant.” I just wanted someone to talk to, someone to confide in. I didn’t feel safe telling an adult what I went through, so it was stored in another alter.
You guys are so quick to jump at someone you have no information on in any way. You don’t know how educated this person is on the complexities of DID, and you don’t know what the person went through at all.
Please stop being so harsh and aggressive towards people figuring themselves out.. you would want that grace too..
being plural is crazy because you do the most mundane shit and have a bunch of people making live commentary on it like they’re streamers making reaction content
- 🦇
Fictives, Fictionkin, Soulbounds, all of fictionkind
seeing art and thinking “That’s me!” Is okay, you’re not selfish or self centered for it. Seeing ship art or smut about you and feeling strange about it is okay to feel and also okay to talk about on your blog or to your friends. If you’re not harassing the people who make them, then it shouldn’t matter and nobody should care. Non fictionkind do this shit all the time, they look at characters and say “they’re so me”, so why should it matter if you do the same? It’s you! - V
[plain text: Plural positivity cus we felt like it!!]
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you're traumagenic/disordered and support endos
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you're mixed origins
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you're endogenic
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you're blurry all the time
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you don't have a headspace
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you're frontstuck
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you consider yourself one due to imaginary friends/imagis
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you have "too high" of a headcount
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you have "too low" of a headcount
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you only have non-human headmates
You're still a real system/plural/etc. if you only have human headmates
You're still a real system/plural/etc. No matter what anyone tells you!
[Plaintext: You're still a real system/plural/etc. No matter what anyone tells you!]
do you ever feel like you're faking but in a 'this feels forced'/'these people are too unrealistic' way? e.g, you have a headmate who can speak a different language, but can't translate said language to you when asked? or because your brain is so exhausted from dissociating constantly, headmates personalities start to get weird and fuzzy and they say stuff they'd never do (to me, it feels like they're melting back into a singlet because my brain can't hold their personalities together)?
Can someone educate me on endogenic systems and why they are/aren’t harmful because I know nothing lol
To people who feel like their identity is unwelcome in the alterhuman community, just know, I see you
Fictionkin, I see you
Otherkin, I see you
Otherlinks, I see you
Constelics, I see you
Otherkith, I see you
Paleotherians, I see you
Synpaths, I see you
Plantkin, I see you
Fictionkith, I see you
Conceptkin, I see you
Copinglinks, I see you
Choicekin, I see you
Polymorph, I see you
Theriofluid, I see you
Bugs, fish, birds, I see you
Characters, colors, songs, I see you
Aliens, I see you
To therians and otherhearted with canine or feline therio/hearttypes, stop leaving us out. Stop forgetting about us. The alterhuman community is made of more than just you