fromfiction

[fromfiction]

[fromfiction]

Hi I’m Vincent, I was wondering how long you’ve been kin for. I’m not fictionkin, I’m a soulbound that went into this body after my passing. I see fictives in other systems drop their identities all the time, and honestly it makes me nervous. I AM V, like it’s not something I feel like I can opt out of. I have cptsd from my old life, I struggle with grief and triggers everyday. But I’m scared to death that in 20 years, I’ll somehow realize it’s all delusion or childish and then not be V anymore. I’m scared in 20 years, this identity I have of V, and all my past life, won’t mean anything anymore. You got any advice or reassurances or statements on this?

Hey pal. I feel you. I understand that nervous feeling.

Back in the day, people used to tell me all the time that it was a phase, that I'd be embarrassed in a few years. That it wasn't real.

But I'm still here. I still know who I am. My understanding of myself as kin is always growing and evolving. I still get new memories. Being kin is still relevant to me in my daily life, every day. Probably more than when I was younger.

If you look at the archive for this blog, you'll see that it goes back to 2013.

But I've been here longer.

I've been here since the Livejournal days. If you look at my website, you'll see that I have an archive of my original website.

My original website from before the community used the term "fictionkin".

My original website from 2007.

I'm still here 20 years later. I know you're still gonna be here in 20 years, too.

[fromfiction]

the process of confirming a kin happens in two parts, ‘hey look at this little guy’ and ‘oh no’

[fromfiction]

Stricken with the weight of lifetimes' old grief, and nothing I can do with it. All I can do is see it over and over again. In my memories. In the story.

[fromfiction]

"I don't believe in fictionkin"

That's great. Being fictionkin is part of my identity and part of my life that affects me on a daily basis regardless of whether you believe in it or not.

[fromfiction]

It's really hard to be a person that so many people claim to love as a character, but when it comes down to it you feel like so few of those people who claim to love 'you' actually understand you as a person.

[fromfiction]

I was raised by a bear therian

Well, my dad never said himself that he's a bear therian, but even without the word "therian" being used, his experience as one was undeniable and incredibly clear to me. He spent much of my childhood talking about his dreams of Alaska, how the land there felt like home to him more than anywhere else on Earth. So much so that when the military asked him if he was willing to move North into Alaska, he immediately jumped at the opportunity and spent several years of his life living in Fairbanks back when the weather was still frigid and sometimes volatile. He camped in the wilderness regularly and would tell me stories of caribou surrounding his tent in the mornings, large grizzlies wandering through the rivers, and scraggly wolves with summer pelts trotting across the land. His job handling search and recovery cases at the time encouraged this lifestyle, especially in winter when people would go missing on the roads or crash their bush planes in the woods and he had to find the deceased and bring them back to civilization. Funny enough, he confessed to having a search and recovery team come and look for him at one point after he got carried away and stayed out in the forest for a little too long, deciding to ride the river near him a few miles away just as a "fun idea" and scared my mother into thinking he died out there.

I wasn't alive yet when my dad lived in Alaska though. I had my dad shortly after he had left, and I saw how much he missed it even at a young age. I honestly visited the state so often with him that you'd assume I had family there, but to him, maybe the Northern animals were family. I complained about it back then since I'd be wearing puffy coats and winter accessories in the middle of summer when everyone else was going to Hawaii or Mexico, but I saw how happy he was whenever he'd have a wild caught salmon for dinner or get to walk close to a glacier. When he'd see icebergs in the water from boat tours he'd be sitting entirely outside on the deck during or, most importantly, the day he finally got a chance to visit Admiralty Island (better known as "Fortress of the Bear"). It had always been his dream to go and as he sat there at ease in the tall grass fields watching the giant brown bears graze the fields a mile away. He had a look on his face as if he was meant to be there forever, that he was never supposed to leave. It was hard to not gain a fondness for the place with how much he loved it, and my dad would even tell my sister and I that the remote wilderness of Alaska is where he wants his ashes to one day be placed. Inevitably, I'll be going back again one day to the "final frontier" for him to finally be able to stay there forever like he wanted.

When he wasn't in Alaska, he was at home with me in Colorado taking me on adventures in the Rocky mountains. He was an avid fish lover, always packing salmon, halibut, or a tuna sandwich. I don't think he ate much else when I was a kid, and before my fish allergy developed, that was pretty much my diet too. I think he honestly was disappointed when I wasn't able to eat fish anymore, lamenting on the fact that I never got to have another Alaskan salmon or try a smoked fish. Every time his back would get itchy, he'd scratch it by using the corner between the doorway and the wall, very reminiscent of a bear using a tree to get some unreachable spot which I laughed about to which he'd shrug and say "it's an instinct I guess". Dessert always had to have honey in it, but if honey wasn't available, it had to be something with pumpkin or berries. Pumpkin pie, berry pie, and pumpkin ice cream were his favorites and his birthday dinners usually involved one of the three instead of cake. He often watched bear documentaries with me too, namely one I remember about someone who was the "Grizzly Man" who lived mostly in the wild and met his end to the very bears he spent his life around and I also remember him enjoying Never Cry Wolf, a 1983 film set in Alaska's remote North as well. It inspired him to apply for the ticket lottery every year for over a decade to try and win a trip to Katmai to see the bears during the salmon run, which he inconveniently won when he was literally already in Alaska and about to head back home. Needless to say, his irritated groans and pouts weren't forgotten on the plane back to Colorado.

My mom was mostly absent from my life in the sense that she played no healthy or genuine part in raising me despite being under the same roof due to her relentless addictions, so I do feel as if my childhood was mostly defined by being my dad's "bear cub". He loved animals and taught me to respect them and nature tremendously, and his "abnormal" behaviors became something I now recognize as something I resonate with as a grown otter therian. I sometimes wonder if he raised me into otterhood and if I would still be a therian without his influence, or if my otterhood is something of a "family trait" given that my older sister strikes me as a bird therian in many ways too, but I find it amusing to consider that there are so many animalistic individuals in my family who could fall under the alterhuman umbrella, and yet have never uttered the word "therian" in their lives. I'm curious how many other people in the world are just like me and simply never wanted to label it or explore it deeper, or worse, how many people have had it shunned into the depths of themselves to be forgotten about? I for one am grateful that I can call myself nonhuman and live a life understanding why I am the way that I am, even if I'm unsure of the source.

[fromfiction]

I love when I'm engaging with a part of my source material for the first time, and a character says or does something on screen and I react to it out loud irl, and then my fictional self says the exact same thing on screen.

[fromfiction]

That kin feeling when *you were absolutely correct*.

Guess who feels *incredibly* validated this morning.

It's "Aoiro no Hoshi". Hoshi can be translated as star or planet/world.

That feeling when you've been referring to something a certain way for months, only for the creator to confirm that *you were completely correct* after saying nothing about the subject for 25 years.

[fromfiction]

Hi! Fictionkin anon here. Apologies if this doesn't make sense, my brain is mush. Basically, when do you realise you are a certain character/that you kin a character? How do memories work when you find a new kin? Do you suddenly have new memories of this kin or?

Again sorry if this doesn't make sense, I haven't slept lol. V_V

Hey friend! "When do you realize you were a certain character" is a great question. It's one of those questions that has a lot of answers.

Some terms:

Questioning: When you're trying to determine if you're a certain character or not.

Awakening: The period of time between first questioning, and fully confirming your kintype.

Confirmation: being certain that you're a certain character.

One major answer, especially for people who don't know what fictionkin are, or who don't think that being fictionkin could apply to them, the answer is "you realize it when the overwhelming feelings suddenly hit you full force in the chest/and or you realize you have a memory of events or details of the fiction happening to you." There's no questioning period, you're just slammed full force into awakening and confirmation.

Another answer, that tends to be more prevalent with people who have already had one kin awakening is that there's a slower process where you start to feel weird feelings and compulsions related to a character, and you go through a questioning process to determine whether these feelings mean that you are the character or if they mean something else.

How do memories work when you find a new kin? Do you suddenly have new memories of this kin or?

Sometimes when you awaken it's because you suddenly receive one or many memories from your kin life, sometimes finding and connecting with your memories is a long process.

Almost no one remembers everything all at once, and many fictionkin struggle with frustration at not having all of their memories complete. Fictionkin may spend a lot of mental and emotional resources doing things like meditation and other processes trying to connect with their old memories.

I hope that helped to answer your question!

You can also check out our website https://fictionkin.org/ to see a lot of the collected work I've written on the subject over the years and our kin related sideblog @fromfiction

Feel free to send another ask here too, if there's more you want toas!

[fromfiction]

sometimes plurality is trying to cook and the eldritch horror guy in your brain forgetting how humans work

“aw fuck you got oil in all our eyes!!”

“…both????”

“*both :)”

[fromfiction]

Alterhuman is an umbrella term, not a synonym!

Nowadays, I see a lot of folks using alterhuman as a catch-all for not being human. While nonhumanity certainly falls within alterhumanity, alterhumanity does not exclusively refer to species nor is it synonymous with nonhuman identities (ex: therianthropy).

Alterhumanity includes but is not limited to:

Fictionfolk: An umbrella term that encompasses all individuals of fictional origin or hold a personal connection to fiction. This includes fictionkind, fictives, fictionhearted individuals, folks with fictional hearthomes, imagithropes, etc.

Otherhumans: Individuals whose species is human but not in context to humanity as we see it in its current state. Some examples include human fictionkind and archaeosapient early humans or neanderthals.

Heartedness: A broad experience in which an individual may not identify as someone or something, but has a deep, personal connection with that person, place, or thing. This includes folk who are otherhearted/otherkith/synpaths, talehearted folk, and folk who have hearthomes (fictional or not).

Archetropy: An identity in which one heavily identifies with or generally experiences an archetype, trope, or pre-established character model in a way that is central to their identity.

Plurality: The state of more than one person within a body. That said, not all who are plural may relate their plurality to alterhumanity.

Dæmonism: The practice of communicating with one's internal dæmon, a thoughtform stemming from one's subconscious. A dæmon is also given a sentient form, typically a nonhuman animal of sorts. Can be considered as a form of plurality but depends on the individual and their relationship to their dæmon(s).

Soulbonding: A practice in which an individual forms a personal bond or connection to a fictional character and communicates with them from their headspace or soulscape. Can be considered as a form of plurality but depends on the individual and their relationship to their soulbond(s).

Furry Lifestylers: A subset of the furry community whose position in the subculture carries into their daily life. Some members have described it as "furry as a way of life", in which being a furry is inseparable and intrinsic to oneself.

I have alterhuman terms of my own to take into account as well:

Archaeosapiens: Individuals whose alterhuman identity is intrinsically rooted in prehistory, antiquity or mythic accounts of history. Although I don’t use it for myself anymore, I can say as the person who coined it that species is not central to archaeosapience; it is the distinct connection to one’s time that’s central. Anyone of any species can be archaeosapient.

Ontoplanarity: In referral to ontoplanar, which describes individuals who originate from planes and realities outside of this Earth. While one could relate this term to alienkind and spacekind, ontoplanar focuses one’s own point of origin rather than one’s species. In that regard, anyone of any species can be ontoplanar.

There’s also human alterhumans who aren’t specifically otherhumans. The idea that humankind as we know it is completely alienated from alterhumanity is a misconception, likely tying into the assumption that “alterhumanity = nonhumanity”.

I originally discussed this in the Alterhuman (Tumblr) Community but I felt as though I should make this information publicly available, especially with how the term has been sifting around lately. I’m not the first to bring this up, far from it even. If anyone who’s learned something from this wants to know more, here’s some posts to check out:

The finalized coining of the term Alterhuman/AHPI (x)

Aster’s discussion on alterhuman as an umbrella, particularly its conflation with otherkin (x)

Rani’s discussion on umbrella terms in the community, addressing erasure in folks’ usage of both alterhuman and fictionfolk (x)

Rani’s explanation on the difference between nonhuman and alterhuman as terms (x)

A thread of terms and experiences that tie into the alterhuman community (x)

I understand being excited to find a community that speaks to you. We’ve all been there!

That said, inclusive language is important. Even more so when the terms we use were already inclusive to begin with.

I think the best example I’ve seen to address this phenomenon is Aster’s example referring to queer and its usage. Queerness is vast. It is not synonymous with one specific experience in the LGBTQ+ community. That much is understood online.

In the same vein, alterhumanity is just as vast. It is not synonymous with nonhumanity, be it therianthropy or otherwise. It can be alienating for your peers to see it centralized as that experience alone. Alterhumanity is an ocean of possibilities and perspectives that should be recognized alongside nonhumanity. I encourage folks to look at it in full, if not use terms that specifically highlight what you experience instead of framing alterhumanity as only that experience.

[fromfiction]

I didn't say it was my base shift, I said it was my favorite shift.

[fromfiction]

Sometimes the sheer, chest-caving weight of the difficulty of re-reading/watching a few minutes of that part of your source material reminds you that it's all so crushingly real.

[fromfiction]

That post about autistic people not having their past lives or whatever is soooo funny bc I feel like the exact opposite. My soul is much much older than all of y'all's and that's why I'm like this and every one else is a dumb bitch

[fromfiction]

'Therians are just normal humans!!' The fuck are you talking about, I'm an abnormal creature

[fromfiction]

The anime I was isekaid to as a child that hasn't had any new content in 30 years has a new video game coming out..... Why... No.... That's illegal.