#Fictionfolk

[frameacloud]

Fictionfolk aren't necessarily fans of their fictional sources

by Orion Scribner, January 24, 2025

For fictionkin, fictives, fictional introjects, fictionflickerers, fictherians, and other sorts of fictionfolk and people who have experiences of deeply personal connections to fiction, one's source in fiction is not necessarily one's favorite story or something that one "vibes" with.

Many fictionfolk feel uncomfortable reading, watching, or playing their source because it feels uncanny to see their truth turned into pretend entertainment, or because the canon feels like it got things half right and half wrong, or how it portrays them. That can feel sort of like seeing something misreported on the news that you know didn't happen like that, or overhearing strangers talking about your private life. For people whose memories from another world turn out to be similar to a piece of fiction in this world, one can feel uneasy about the mystery of how that happened.

Some fictionfolk participate in the fandoms for their sources... carefully. Fans can get uncomfortably personal if you say you are one of the characters, so fictionfolk often choose not to talk about that in fandom spaces, only in alterhuman spaces. Seeing how fans reinterpret you in art and discourse can bring up all sorts of feelings. Some fictionfolk decide they won't look at their source's fandom.

There are fictionfolk who wish they didn't feel that connection to that piece of fiction. There are fictionfolk whose source is a story they always disliked or found offensive. Maybe they have a lot of thoughtful criticism, or maybe it simply feels disagreeable to them. Sometimes recognizing one's connection to fiction starts with exploring why a story bothers you so much.

There are fictionfolk who dislike the authors of their sources.

Some fictionfolk are experts on their fictional sources. There are also fictionfolk who recognized that their memories and feelings have the strongest similarity to a piece of fiction that they have had never even watched and would prefer to never watch. Or they watched just enough of it to recognize it and then "nope out" on watching the rest.

Funnily enough, it turns out that feeling a profound connection with a piece of fiction doesn't have to come along with liking the piece of fiction at all.

[alterhuman-art]

[Image description: Pixel art of Mangle from FNAF showing a close up of its fox head and secondary completely robotic one. End description.]

redraw/edit from 2022 ♡ creative engineering/latex faced mangle

commissions | FAQ | inbox art requests

[fromfiction]

In my heart I am still there.

In my heart I will always be there.

[dr-fizzovich]

is me... in roblos :3

[interstellarsystem]

I'm A Skarmory

I haven't fronted in a bit, though I do come out here pretty consistently at least once every 6 months. But man it never gets less weird not aligning with the body's anatomy. And yeah I get it, most nonhumans don't align with the body they're stuck in! But I'm a skarmory, and I see a lot of quadruped experiences, but not much from avians. So I'm weighing in with my stuff!

My feet--my primary gripping tools aside from my beak--are now replaced with simple, hardly useful for holding onto anything, human feet. They're just flat. There's no claws on the ends of the toes and god DAMN are there way too many of them. I understand they're to walk with, but mine doubled as tools and weapons. I guess I can kick people here? It's nowhere near the same, though.

My leg bones are much too long and much too short in places. Walking in this body feels like I'm walking on what should be almost my ankle. It feels like my legs are even just bent in the entire wrong direction, sometimes--definitely a weird feeling!

And my wings are now replaced with... What I'd consider the human equivalent of what my feet were. Gripping tools! Except.... Almost where my wings should be?? Why are my talons where my wings should be? This especially confuses my brain, because it tries to map my phantom talons onto our hands, which leaves my lower half feeling like it shouldn't be there at all. My legs are where my body ends, so if my hands are my talons, then... Why is there more body down there? It's led to me feeling phantom talons on both my hands and my feet on more than one occasion which is definitely something that feels so strange.

One thing I like is that my skin is smooth still. Though it may be smooth, sure, unfortunately it's soft too. It squishes like something I'd have considered food back home--and it's easy to accidentally injure. My body before was polished and metallic, right down to the knifelike feathers. Now if I trip and fall I have to be worried about more than just a little dent or two? You're telling me I can be seriously injured from something so simple? I can't just shed the feather and grow back some more armour?

My mouth. Oh my god don't get me started on the mouth. It's the worst part to me. One, why is it squishy like that. Two, why is the hard biting surface INSIDE the squishy skin? That just lines up with it being all too easy to bite into my own lips or cheek. Three, the teeth are brittle in comparison to my beak anyway! I have to be careful of chipping a tooth and not eat anything ridiculously hard--whereas before my beak was basically a pair of scissors. Why do I all of a sudden need to be so so careful with it? Why is it shaped like that? Why is it so flat on my face?

The mouth being one of the things I used to hold things with in my memories also lends itself weirdly to human anatomy. I can't open it as far, so I can't hold items I'd normally consider easy to carry in it. But it's also not generally socially acceptable to carry things around in your mouth either, for some reason? My hands get full so the logical conclusion to me, is holding whatever's lightest and less likely to be damaged in my teeth! A lot of our system members carry things in their mouth anyway if it's convenient, regardless of the social stigma--but it's still weird to me that there is stigma about it.

Overall the body feels feeble and brittle in comparison to what I used to be. It's also distorted in such a way that my own phantom shifts are inconsistent with how they're arranged, so even when I get shifts it feels dysphoric. It's so weird! I don't necessarily mind having a human body but every time I come to front, it ends up throwing me off a lot more than just a little.

Life here isn't all that bad though, there's plenty of things I like here too. A lot of the lifestyle changes from before are nice, and I do actually like some parts of our body!

I like that we have a lot of fingers, in this body. My feet before only had 3 toes each, but having 5 fingers per hand is actually useful! It kinda helps fit more things with less likelihood of dropping stuff. I think the thumbs on these ones are a lot more useful than my feet were before, too--they're adaptable! Able to be used in all sorts of situations, not just grabbing things! I think that's cool. Like, I'm typing! Much faster than I'd ever be able to with my own beak or feet in my body--if metaphorical me knew how to type, that is.

I also like hair, even though everything on my body before was sharp or metallic. I just like the texture honestly--it's soft in a way that isn't all too dysphoric for me. It's a nice, like.. Stim toy, almost? Now that I think about it... Maybe I had fluffy down feathers between plates of armour to keep me warm? I haven't looked into it in all honesty. Not that the enjoyment of texture needs to relate back to me being a skarmory--just some pondering aloud.

I also definitely like that I don't have to be wild anymore. In headspace I can do what I want without fear of some predator who happens to know flamethrower coming up to me and deciding I'm a nice snack or I got too close to their territory. It's nice to be able to feel that in front too--the outerworld feels much more realistic to me and it's great to be able to feel alive and not constantly hunted.

Houses are cool, and so are beds. Having a bed and being able to make it all nice and comfy feels like nesting, to me. Where I would nest in thorns before to polish and harden my armour, this body nests in soft, fluffy things that protect us from getting injured by anything too hard. I think it's nice, actually--both I and this body nest in materials that match their body type! Kind of a cute little parallel.

I guess the conclusion I've come to after I've sat here rambling? Life is complicated, life is weird, but I'm here and I'm going to take as much joy out of living it as possible. Human body, skarmory body, doesn't matter. I'm here anyway, why not make the most out of it?

[narrobotor]

when I say i have the weirdest mems of the people i know in source i mean it cause Marla has her PS2 outfit and Tyler…

why the one outfit we see maybe 3 seconds of.

i need to see more people to draw Tyler in this fit btw PLEASE 🙏

[alterhuman-art]

[Image description: Daski as deir indoraptor-self, but with deir normally blue body stripe expanded to be in all the colors of the pan flag. Dei are loaded with rainbow-colored accessories including clip-on hair extensions, striped socks and bracelets. There are also bracelets for the pan and asexual flag and bandanas for the nonbinary one underneath a spiked collar. The tip of Daski's tail has also been painted in rainbow stripes. End description.]

my entry for #sparkleserendipity! i decided to go with the indo for it, since i was already pretty glamorous as a goddess.

[leviafin]

It's so easy, and fun!

[a-dragons-journal]

I am once again fucking begging the community to stop writing everything other than identify-as identities out of the word alterhuman and now fictionfolk too

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”.

EDIT: boy I wish someone had told me I accidentally used the same link twice before this hit triple digit notes LMAO. Here’s the actual fictionfolk link

[nyctohyloph0bia]

Did a template for you to put your fictotype in a nutshell! I encourage to edit to fit your own needs! Go crazy with it!

Below are the transparent vers!

[insectoidvoid]

if you're fictionkin, there is a very, very high chance you have a little metaphorical devil on your shoulder that constantly yells at you to downplay and minimize your identity for everyone else. and I am here to tell you that you must grab that little devil and dropkick it into an industrial shredder.

[the-eighteen-horsemen]

guys I found the fictionkin shirt of all time

[apotheosick]

It's not inherently harmful to want to have unconventional or non-human body parts. Your body is your own, do what you like with it.

[zoeynovie]

BE NORMAL ABOUT FICTIONFOLK

fictionfolk who are their source in every way are VALID.

fictionfolk who are uncomfortable with doubles are VALID.

fictionfolk who have dysphoria are VALID.

fictionfolk are VALID and there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.

[the-crystal-femmes]

I think fictionfolk should get free reign to mischaracterize who they are because it's literally them. I don't want to hear a fandom goer getting all mad when I post things "out of character" about Draculaura when, motherfucker, I'm literally her and I know myself well thank you very much. And I think my headmate should be aloud to adamantly claim that Pearl has autism because she's Pearl and definitely has autism