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UPDATE: here's all the transparent versions of all the flags! i apologize for the watermark but i'd like for my work not to be stolen or anything, i spent this past week working on these.

feel free to use with credit ofc!!

once i have more funds, i will be ordering about 10 of every sticker from the manufacturer and i will sell those. i estimate that they will be for sale around early April! if they sell well, i will order more :)

i will try to add demisexual and demiromantic if enough people like them! i had a hard time trying to think of how to do the design for those. if you'd like to see a specific flag, don't be afraid to let me know!! and any suggestions at all are welcome!

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Calling Any and All Alterhumans

I am doing a study on the alterhuman community. If you have a moment to take this anonymous survey, it would be a huge help. Thank you!

Responses from all types of alterhuman welcome - otherkin, nonhuman alters, therian, fictionkin, etc.

The survey can be found here:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ur7mk6rEMUevXdc1sJfq2ydDX0kBSTBBkPizC5xH0L1UOVhXVEZUM1VYMkw4MUkzWkZNMzFaWUZYVC4u

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

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We're writing a book about alterhumans, and you can be part of it! For this part of the project, we want to hear from otherkin in particular. In the Otherkin Community Survey, we're gathering data about otherkin experiences and understandings of themselves and their community. If you participate, the survey asks about your kintypes, how you personally define the word otherkin, and about your experiences. It's about ten minutes long. This survey is open to anyone who is physically at least 18 who identifies with the label "otherkin" or other synonyms with that word. One response per physical body, please.

>>> SURVEY LINK <<<

This survey will close March 31st, 2024. We will collect data from the survey, which we will publish online afterwards and use for research purposes. Any identifying information that participants submit will be made anonymous or removed entirely. This is part of a series of surveys for our book about alterhumans, by House of Chimeras (@liongoatsnake), Orion Scribner (@frameacloud), and Page Shepard (@who-is-page). If you're interested in this project, please join our mailing list to get notifications of updates, additional surveys, and other events!

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Some people are really not understanding why most of us use the terms that we do, so again:

Spiritual otherkin ≠ you dream/astral shift/have memories/meditate/are religious/know your kintype and spirituality affect each other/have "spiritual experiences." Spiritual otherkin = you believe you are otherkin because of a spiritual cause. Psychological otherkin are capable of ALL of these experiences and perspectives.

Psychological otherkin ≠ you mental shift/have instincts/are ND/know your kintype and cognition affect each other/have "psychological experiences." Psychological otherkin = you believe you are otherkin because of a psychological cause. Spiritual otherkin are capable of ALL of these experiences and perspectives.

It's about your belief regarding the root cause. It is why. Not how.

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being a ridden dragon & not yet knowing what that entails

inspired by @who-is-page's post here! i decided fuck it !! i wanna write (more) about the draconic aspects of myself, timidness be damned.

as a quick preface, i am a psychological 'kin! i hold loose beliefs in multiverse & a form of reincarnation, but i don't know for sure if / don't think those things apply to me specifically.

o()xxx[{:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

i've known i'm a dragon for a while, now. i go somewhat in-depth about it here in this entry about adopting/trying out the term folcintera for myself, but i didn't really touch on one of the newer revelations i had about it:

i'm the dragon in a rider-dragon pair.

as for how i know this, it just feels Correct. (far as i'm aware,) i don't have any past or concurrent life memories, or know who/what my rider is or was. this is a noema that i cannot explain further, as of yet. I Just Know this aspect is fact.

i mentioned [in my linked entry] that my first up close exposure to dragons was the Eragon series, which is what cemented my idea of what "dragon" was to me. ever since that series, i've been aggressively hyperfixated on dragon-rider stories; the kind of hyperfixation that waxes and wanes, but when it hits, it Hits like a Truck.

i don't think i'm from any one specific source, such as How to Train Your Dragon, Dragonriders of Pern, or Eragon. none of those really feel like places i've lived or belonged in. my specific brand of dragonity is wildly different from any dragons you'd see in the listed settings/stories, so i am not any dragon you'll see in those stories — but i also am.

moreso, i feel a connection to the dynamic between rider and dragon; the trappings don't truly matter, in the end. i am the archetypal dragon-with-a-rider, and see myself in almost any dragon-rider setting. i am a Ridden Dragon, and that will mean something different to everyone who interacts with dragon-rider lore — including myself. i am both folcinteric and an archetrope, in this regard.

before i awakened, and thought about dragon-rider stories, i thought i was simply wanting to live in a world where i could share a bond like that & go on adventures... and while that's still true, since i'm an escapist storyteller, there's a key difference between then and now.

i thought i had to relate to and imagine myself as the rider — and that never felt completely right.

now that i'm aware of and better exploring my draconic side, this aspect has come to light. and i have No idea what it could mean for me.

as stated, i don't know who my rider was/is or could be. i don't know what our dynamic was like, if our bond is of magical origin or through mutual trust. though, that might have something to do with me being archetypal, here. my rider could be anyone; our bond origin could be of any type, so long as it serves the purpose of the archetype.

dragon riding means different things to different people. sometimes it's about taming a wild beast, akin to horseback riding. other times it's a magical bond. and other times still, it's about trust and friendship.

i still don't know what my personal mythos is, or if i have one at all. maybe it is just that dynamic, nebulous and without a tether. or maybe it's just not uncovered quite yet.

i don't know how common being a ridden dragon is, be it in fictherian/fictionkin dragon spaces, or more general dragonkind spaces, because i haven't seen it talked about much. possibly because i'm just not looking in the right places, but, *shrug*!

i have no idea if this post will inspire any other dragons with riders (or maybe even dragon riders!) to write about their experiences. but, never know unless i post, so ;]

thanks for reading!

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Otherkin News returns, with an article about the “anti-furry” bills in the US

The Otherkin News blog is a collaborative project on Dreamwidth, and it’s returning to activity after a long hiatus. You are welcome to make your own original posts to it about what’s going on in or about any alterhuman communities, or about interesting news articles you’ve found. Its main location is on Dreamwidth, and I don’t plan to post regular updates about it on Tumblr, but I wanted to at least put this notification on Tumblr. On Dreamwidth, conversations in the comments of the article are encouraged, and moderated for quality. This is what its newest article is about:

In January, a ton of US bills opposed transgender rights… three of which also opposed “furries” and “identifying as animals” in schools: ND HB 1522, OK SB 943, and IN SH 380. I just wrote a detailed post to the Otherkin News blog about them and the background behind why anyone would think of proposing laws like that! Part of the background was the “litter boxes in high schools” urban legend, with which right-wingers meant to satirize transgender restroom access. Another part: the three Supreme Court cases from around 2019, where amici curiae submitted briefs that tried to ridicule transgender people by comparing them to otherkin. Read all about it in my nine page long article, with glossary, in-text citations, and references:

https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/86709.html

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Otherkin News!

The Otherkin News blog has re-opened on Dreamwidth for anyone with an account to post what they consider to be news about otherkin, fictionkin, therianthropes, or any other alterhuman group.

Otherkin News is a collaborative project where people can share and discuss current events in our community, about publications that mention our communities, and about shared interests and experiences that we all have in common. Orion Scribner (@frameacloud) created and administers it, and everyone is encouraged to participate.

You can link to actual news articles there, or new essays from within the communities. You can advertise your surveys and your requests for submissions to anthologies. You can post about how you're opening a new forum or resource websites, or about how you’ve started up a social media blog with a specific purpose or goal related to the alterhuman community. Anything that you consider relevant to the communities, you can post about and learn about here!

Find the Otherkin News blog here!

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Otherkin Wiki is a new, independent wiki about the culture, history and experiences of otherkin and alterhuman communities. It evolved out of the Fandom wiki of the same name, and it needs your help to expand!

Basic info on how to help is already on the site itself. There's a lot more to do than just writing pages, and even correcting a single spelling mistake is an improvement! You can also join the Discord server to get guidance on all the stuff we haven't written documentation for yet. And even if you're not interested in directly contributing, you're welcome to join just to ask questions, make suggestions, or hang out!

Otherkin Wiki aims to be a highly visible, accessible and inclusive resource that represents the full truth and diversity of the alterhuman communities. That means it'll take a diversity of alterhumans to make it work - so please consider joining us!

Visit Otherkin Wiki here!

Join the Discord here!

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guidelines for minors in the therian/otherkin community:

predators are everywhere, including within this subculture. block. report. tell an adult you trust if you feel unsafe.

p-shifters are individuals who claim they can physically transform into their kintype. they're lying. they want attention. power. control. block them and spread the word.

it's okay to change your kintype. we're just glad you're figuring yourself out. we don't think you're faking.

"kin" is a noun, not a verb. you are kin. you are not "kinning."

it's okay to have fun in this community. it's okay to take yourself seriously, too. if someone doesn't like your self-expression? block them.

don't feed the trolls. they want to suck you in. laugh at you. hurt you. don't take the bait and remember: the block button is your friend.

some people believe their identity to be spiritual. sometimes it's psychological. respect both.

if your identity is causing serious distress, to the point that it's affecting your daily life, seek professional help. and if you ever feel like hurting yourself, help is just a phone call away.

Feel free to add more ⚡⚡⚡

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Every now and then I see a post that reminds me that most non-kin have an idea of the otherkin community that's defined more by people who made fun of us than by our community itself

If you heard about otherkin through general tumblr osmosis but never made an effort to actually understand us, your mental image of otherkin is mostly likely informed by people who pretended to be otherkin to start drama with the express intent to get people to hate us. It was really common a while back for anti-kin to create blogs posing as otherkin and post absurd, ridiculous, and inflammatory things like "I'm plantkin and keeping houseplants is slavery" or "I'm dragonkin and I ate my mom's jewelry". If you actually knew anything about the community it was fairly easy to figure out that these blogs were trolls, but most of the people on tumblr at the time either didn't know enough to be able to tell, or didn't even consider that they might be fake

And the most upsetting part? It fucking worked. So many people still seem to think that those posts were genuine reflections of what being otherkin means and how we act or talk about our kin identities

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Missed last year, but the community POC survey is back for 2023! It'll run for a good chunk of the year, to make sure enough data is collected.

The survey is welcome to be answered by anyone a part of the alterhuman/nonhuman/etc. communities. Please be aware you must be at least 18 to legally participate in surveys. If you are white, please also answer the survey! We're trying to get a percentage, and can't get that if only POC answer lol. Sharing this around is also appreciated so a lot of people answer, especially in bilingual or non-English circles.

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What’s the term for kff that isn’t kin?

Like you identify with the character because you relate to them not because you are them.

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❗IMPORTANT SURVEY❗

I have put together a survey regarding gatekeeping and exclusionism in the Otherkin community. This survey is entirely anonymous, and will ask you to evaluate whether or not a variety of kintypes are valid or not. It may look long, but these questions are all yes-or-no.

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS SURVEY IF YOU ARE NOT OTHERKIN. AN ALTERED VERSION OF THIS SURVEY WILL BE OUT SOON FOR NON-OTHERKIN.

@who-is-page @liongoatsnake @aestherians can you please reblog this to get a boost in viewership? I would like as large of a sample size as possible, and you're some of the biggest Otherkin blogs on Tumblr.

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extremely concerning seeing otherkin (especially minors) post their memories of a person they knew in a past life and ask for them to reach out. people can lie. that person might not be like you think they are. people can take advantage of you. there is basically a zero percent chance you are going to find the person you're thinking of, please just keep yourself safe and hold off on it even if you miss them

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Just a reminder: be careful when joining packs. I know you want therian friends, I really do, but just joining a random pack you find online will often lead to disappointment. And it's not even about them being dangerous (which is definitely something to consider too), but joining a pre-existing friend group and hoping for you to form a bond like pack mates can leave you feeling really isolated and disappointed.

Not to say that packs are bad in the slightest, but try to form bonds with other therians naturally through forums and your own blog. Interact, reblog stuff, like posts, and eventually friends sort of make themselves.

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Quick guide to fictionfolk terminology

Fictionfolk: Any person/being/individual whose identity has a fictional component

Fictomere: The object of ones fictional identity

Fictionkin: A person who identifies as a fictional character, species, object, or concept

Fictionkind: Same meaning as fictionkin. The addition of the 'd' is a kind of cultural signifier, originating from the original spelling of otherkin, otherkind (as in "of an other kind [than human kind]"). The 'd' indicates that you have a general understanding of community history and/or that you take your fictionkinity seriously.

Fictherian: A person who identifies as a fictional animal. A combination of 'fictionkin(d)' and 'therianthrope'.

Fictive: A system member who originates from a fictional universe

Fictionhearted: A person whose identity is strongly tied to a fictional character, species, object, or concept, but who does not identify as their fictomere

Fictotype: A fictionkin(d)'s fictomere

Fictionhood: The state of being fictionfolk

Fictionkinity: The state of being fictionkin(d)

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Hello!

So I have a friend who’s a irl and I’m a fictionkin and he’s very confused on how fictionkins can “experience reality”

What I mean is, since he’s a irl, he IS that character and experiences life as that character but with me I notice reality and am comfortable with reality but I’m also my kintype. He’s confused with this bc he thinks it’s just “kinning” no hate to him bc hes just generally confused and it’s a bit confusing to me bc I don’t wanna be faking being a fictionkin because I’m content with reality.

For example I’m very much aware I’m not my kintype and don’t really care. But I also AM my kintype when I see my kin types fanart photos, cosplays, seeing myself as my kintype etc. I’m very okay with reality

Ig the question Leads to, can fictionkins be okay with reality but also still be their kintype

Hi anon,

I...am very, very confused by this question. I'm sorry.

The only requirement to being fictionkin is just to involuntarily identify on a non-physical level as a fictional character. The reasoning behind this may be different for everyone, but at the heart of it what matters is that you identify as that fictional character. It may be due to a past life, it may be due to a split soul, it may be due to the way your brain works to process trauma, it may be any number of reasons, but you are that character. Physically, maybe not. And of course, literally, we are living in a world where we are not always able to live those exact lives as the characters we identify as.

I am just really kind of, confused, about what you mean by reality? Like, I am Luke Skywalker. I have a job, I have a dog, I drive a car, and although I live my life kind of "outside" my kintype, I am still him. Of course when a customer gets mad at me I don't try to use the Force on them (though when I do walk past the automatic doors I sometimes wave my hand a little and pretend I'm opening them with my mind, lol), I know the world I live in and the life I'm living is different from the one I had before. But what makes me Luke Skywalker isn't the powers or the body or anything like that. I'm just him, living a different life now. That's my reality.

So? Yes? We live in reality. You have to be okay with reality, because there's not really any other option. I don't really understand what your friend is trying to tell you, but if he's trying to tell you that you have to lose sight of reality (whatever that means) to validate your kintype, I don't think he's a very good friend to have.