indornaga

[indornaga]

Anways shoutout to my fellow folks who actually are incredibly GREATFUL to be a system/collective.

Shoutout to folks whose headmates have saved them from going through this alone.

Shoutout to folks whose headmates improve their life daily and keep them safe.

Shoutout to folks whose headmates help them with tasks around the house and take the load off your back.

Shoutout to folks with headmates who they're friends with, who they're partners with, who they genuinely love and find comfort in.

Shoutout to folks with headmates who took on your burdens and made them their own, simply to protect you.

Shoutout to folks who wouldn't be here without their headmates.

Final fusion isn't what all plurals want or need. Some of us need a little extra help in life, and sometimes that comes in the from of headmates.

Plurality is not all suffering all the time. It is not defined by whatever trauma or struggle you've gone through, and it shouldn't be treated as such.

Be kind to your fellow plurals and their headmates. Don't assume everyone detests their alters as much as you may.

[indornaga]

I see a lot of hate toward humanity in the alterhuman community- toward one's own human form, toward the bullies and antis, toward the way that humans have wrecked the natural world- and frankly I don't blame you, but I just want to shout out the alterhumans who love humanity.

Shoutout to the alterhumans who are grateful for the opportunities that only humans have and/or love their human bodies (yay for art, medicine, books, internet, opposable thumbs, and complex speech!!)

Shoutout to the domestic animal therians who feel safe and cared for among humans, the dogs and cats who want to be beloved family pets or trusty service animals.

Shoutout to the alterhumans who exist to protect and guide humans, the angels and deities and spirits who care so deeply for humans that you walk among them.

Shoutout to the fictionkins who still don't feel nonhuman at all because their fictotypes are humans.

Shoutout to the alterhumans who are proud ambassadors of your species, bridging the gap between humanity and nonhumanity.

You are no less valid for loving the species you were born into.

[indornaga]

i consider this a microagression /j

(bonus comic under the cut)

(this is a real interaction i had, by the way)

[indornaga]

The Animality of Humanity

i finally got a chance to sit down and listen to the new Nightwish album, and it hits the animal part of me just as hard as their other albums.

what is it about nightwish that makes me feral?

if you listen closely to their lyrics (especially these last three albums, but it applies to all of their albums) they talk a lot about the Human Experience(tm). but its not the human experience that we usually think of when we think of humans today--it's a lot of primal humanity, historic, from a simpler time and simpler way of life, from when humans struggled daily against the fickle whims of nature, against our fellow animals also trying to survive, and against their own instincts.

it took me a while to really listen to Human :|i: Nature because it sounds *so* human focused. every song is about human nature, as the title suggests, which put me off of it because it didnt feel like i could relate at all. but upon listening deeper, it tells the story of how humans are just as animal as any other. their music emphasizes the animality OF human nature, the capability of reverting to baser instincts in each human, of the human place in nature.

it took a few listens to really recognize it, but as a human with extra animal instincts, i was able to finally catch it: is it not animal nature to enjoy a good meal? for a social species to gather for a good cuddle and grooming? to come to the aid of a group member when in trouble? to scuffle with a threat, even if that threat is one's own species? to want progeny that carry on one's genes? it's certainly human nature to crave being in a natural environment, to see the trees and ground coverings, to see flowing water, the sky overhead. humans have a few extra instincts that dont seem it, but i also attribute to being animal; the love of music and song, and being storytellers. music and song is nearly universally loved. it awakens some sort of primal instinct in humans to move, clap, or sing along. storytelling has been used as a passtime for time immemorial, and again is nearly universally enjoyed. both of these are done with sounds; nonhuman animals use sound to communicate, and have been recorded to do sounds for fun as well. is that not what song and story telling are? communication?

early therian writings talk of doing totally human things to connect with their animality: taking hikes in nature, communing at gatherings, and most importantly, recognizing the animality in their human instincts.

we're lucky enough to be closer to the animal spectrum than most humans. but i think it gets forgotten about that humans are animals, and we tread a very fine line between the "sophistication" of humanity, and the ferality of animality. but that's the beauty of it; we're uniquely animal. we're something that our ancestors revered: how much of folklore is being in awe of or fearing nonhuman animals for their unique abilities?

i feel like that's what Nightwish's music really touches on, and why it's so good at awakening the ferality in me. also just the heavy guitar, drums, and the cadance of the songs hype up my primal predator brain lol i highly suggest giving them a listen. if only because the music is very feral.

[indornaga]

Someone came onto one of my posts and started saying stuff like "real animals can't talk / post on tumblr / whatever". Typically anti-otherkin stuff. I looked at their blog briefly, expecting a typical troll. But instead I found, a legitimate blog, of a vaguely left leaning person. They were reblogging stuff about ableism, and trans rights, and children's lack of autonomy in our society.

And i just think, it kinda proves to me that a lot of self proclaimed leftists and progressives don't actually have any sort of core values that drive their political views. Because someone who is against ableism and transphobia and removal of autonomy, sounds like someone who has the core value of accepting people for who they are, no matter how unusual it may seem.

But, clearly, they don't. Because they were going out of their way to bully nonhumans for our identities, and trying to rhetorically argue us out of existence. We don't fit their understanding of the world, so they felt compelled to make rude comments. This person does not actually align themselves to any core values of respect and tolerance, they've just decided that they know which groups deserve it and which don't. And furthermore, upon deciding we don't deserve it, that they're entitled to bully us (presumably until we agree to conform)!

Which is, fundamentally no different than right wing politics. They've also decided they know which groups deserve acceptance, their pool is just narrower than the average leftist.

This is all to say, that it's very important for us all to examine what our core values are and why. Why do we tolerate certain groups of people, and not others? Why is it important to be inclusive, and to not bully people? How do I respond when I encounter someone I don't understand, or someone that makes me viscerally uncomfortable? Can rights be revoked? What rights are unalienable and why?

Having a core set of values to guide you will help you not make a fool out of yourself when you encounter someone or something that don't fit your current understanding of the world. If you encounter something that doesn't fit your understanding, then it's your understanding that should change.

[indornaga]

In honor of therianthropy day being yesterday, I finished the Meet my theriotype template! Have fun y'all. Feel free to tag me in these, love to see 'em.

Remember anything you want to edit, you can! Add, change, remove, don't care! Do it! Go crazy! Transparent ver. below as always!

The font used are Cinzel Decorative (75px) for title and Cormorant unicase (35px) for everything else. I used BeFunky for this :)

[indornaga]

plural culture is just chilling and feeling one of ur headmates wrap their arms around you and remembering ur loved even if you arent the best to live with

.

[indornaga]

Dealers Den & Artist Alley Applications OPEN!

The applications to be a part of the Centaurus Festival's Artist Alley and Dealers Den are now open! These will close on December 1st.

[indornaga]

I would like to know what breathe weapons my fellow dergs have, if they even have one?

I’m curious.

[indornaga]

Non-quadruped and non-biped otherfolk - if you experience phantom shifts, what is the back half of the body like? Does it appear below you? Or behind you? Just in general what are the phantom shifts like?

[indornaga]

Being reverse-Isekai'd via the reincarnation method would fucking suck.

You used to be a magic-wielding adventurer and now you have to go through high school. And you can't tell anybody about your past life or you'll be mocked at best and institutionalized at worst.

[indornaga]

i love tumblr for my system, everyone can just have their own accounts and use it whenever they want without the fear of being found, or judged or anything.

they can indulge in their interests and make their own silly little profiles THAT ACTUAL REFLECT THEMSELVES AS A PERSON without any bad feelings or thinking “i cant do this” because they are on my account, arrgrhrrggr i luv tumblrrrrrrr

[indornaga]

Transience and Mutability of Identity

So I read two really powerful and beautiful posts today. One about the transience of identity. The other one about You Can Just Be.

Like I’d mentioned on day 14, my personal color is orange. Looking back my journal, I had talked about my orangeness as well as how I just, had this idea of myself.

I mentioned the earlier two posts together due to their relevance. At least in my eyes. As a shapeshifter, it is all about change. Identities aren’t always so set in stone. I like the words inherent and intrinsic, stuff from within. As we experience the world around us, time and space, we experience change both outward and inward. It can also mean that it is okay to not have all the pieces, or just make up stuff as you go.

It is your identity, do whatever you want with it forever.

I mentioned something to the other polymorph and shapeshifter of otherconnect discord, that I wondered if I may have been a polymorph, then the draconity took over, and nowadays I’m just a draconic shapeshifter.

My origin stories and theories are always messy, confusing, chicken-or-egg situation. Memories are also fickle thing, every time you try to recall it will twist it a little. What can we be sure of the stuff we remember is true or not? And does it really matter?

If you didn’t click in to any of the links, that’s okay. Let me tell you about my own experience a bit.

Before draconity, I started without a “true” form. I started like your typical alterhuman stories, obsessed about the creature I later learned are called dragons. I’m not sure of the exact timeline of things, but let’s say while in the process of understanding my own nonhumanity (before draconity), I was also in the process of finding my color.

It goes like this. I say red was my color. Then yellow. And then, when a orange coded side character finally shows up, I say “that, that’s my color.”

I think by the time I found the word dragon, orange was already cemented. And while I was discovering who I am as a dragon, I suspected the orange is a intentionally added on aspect, because of how much obsessed I am with the color orange. It’s hard to tell if my special interest is the orange color or dragons (or even birds or art), perhaps all of the above.

In the dreamwidth journal entry linked after my day 14 post, I talk about how I had a dragon that I tentatively dubbed “me” prior to the orange fuzzball dream dragon.

A bipedal dragon with spiraling curled horns, frilly fin for cheeks, belly platted, webbed wings, sharp spine on elbows and ankles. Sounds like a pretty typical western dragon no? But like Daski (@indornaga)’s writing, you can also see foreshadowing, breadcrumbs of my true self.

I really have no idea what happened, but a year was all it took, and the barely there on my mind dragon was cast out. My orange self slam-dunked into my mind, perhaps not quite out of nowhere.

The mutability, how casually I just changed everything. From scale to fur, webbed to feathered wings, spiky spines replaces by soft mane and round features. Somehow still bipedal, in a manner of speaking. My main mode of travel was either flight, or roll.

The previous dragon never got colored though. And I think that’s where the created element comes in. I just went and slap that orange on there. Oh and you can see the red and yellow remained. Why white wings? Probably just because it make sense. At this point my eyes are so cartoonish there’s no obvious color, but later on my eyes are rainbowy pearlescent with rosey pink tint, and black sclera.

I have a thing against mainstream meta concepts.

It is merely speculation, but I suspected that may be why I am the dragon I am. I just want to break tradition, separate from the average mindset, I don’t want to be anywhere near “typical western or eastern dragon”. But that’s mostly a theory that is tied into the potential of just how much of my true self is created. Like the whole involuntary vs voluntary discourse, it is ultimately a pointless thing to ponder. I am already who I am today.

You know the whole thing how some with otherlink identity will get to a point where you can no longer tell where the voluntariness is anymore? Maybe I was originally voluntarily a orange furred dragon, maybe I truly is just a orange furred dragon, involuntarity and all. It all seem so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. The whole contemplation don’t add much value to my self discovery besides anxiety and distress.

You can just pick a color. And maybe along the way, you found other pieces to fit into your personal canon, or you end up finding new parts of yourself. Alterhuman experience is after all, a wonder.

[indornaga]

I think part of the reason why alterhumans/beings and nonhumans get so much hate is because some humans are socialized to lowkey believe animals aren't individuals like humans are, or even sentient beings.

They see their dog as some lovable baby, and not as a living thing that is sentient, and can understand some things. Of course, it's not going to have the knowledge of a biological human, or a nonhuman who is socially and culturally human, however, it's still a living thing with rights, feelings, and thoughts.

They see animals as inferior, so they cannot wrap their head around a human-appearing individual behaving in a nonhuman way. They see it as demeaning or weird. I feel like animalistic behavior to them is the equivalent to how they would think of cavemen. It's honestly a bit weird.

I understand that nonhuman-socialized nonhumans aren't going to understand things most humans do, I totally get that, but discrediting the social rules, the sentience, and the rights of a nonhuman animal just because they don't have the capacity to think some "human" thoughts is really strange to me.

[indornaga]

Therianthropy is not new to us but it is new to the general public. Millions of people assumed that everyone identified with having a human body and being human and now that they've discovered that there are people who don't they are having negative reaction to it. Species is seen as something strictly biological and our existence is disrupting that 'fact' And it's difficult to explain what non-human animal hood is or what it feels like because it's a deeply personal feeling that's unique to everyone. The world needs time and I do think we'll get there eventually.

[indornaga]

It is okay and normal if you have to invent or decide things about your headspace/innerworld. Building your innerworld isn't less meaningful than inherently having one. It's normal to NOT have an innerworld at all for that matter!

We've had problems with getting "deeper" into our innerworld, so we invented what is essentially a grounding technique for specifically our innerworld. It's just an object, a simple white orb we call the Tether. We just hold it and focus on the sensory experience - you could give any object any qualities you like really. Ours is like glass, smooth and cool to the touch. Holding it gives us something to focus on while also keeping us grounded to our inner selves rather than "stuck" in the front. It works best if we're in a more meditative state, so our attention isn't divided between front and innerworld experiences. Front always takes priority it seems.

This strategy has allowed us access to innerworld areas we were not able to get to before! System hall pass. Sometimes inventing new rules tricks the brain into following them. You can make shit up!

[indornaga]

Another thing on misinformation is that being a Therian makes someone act like an animal when it's the other way around for most. Most are a Therians because of the way they are.

Being a Therian didn't make me a cat, being a cat made me a Therian