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dinocanid · 21 hours
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(None of my following response is for the OP)
Hey, clearly you're venting, but I'd recommend venting on your own blog versus coming on OP's post to do so. Nobody else is out here in the notes making a huge fuss, it's not how you engage with people.
But that aside, no part of your post is the point of my response, so I'll explain it. Objectively speaking, the quality of a discussion made for an entire audience (and not one specific person) is not measured by how useful it was that one person. It's not an outlandish take that someone knows themselves more than anyone else will know them. If someone wants to hear about their own experiences, that's something they have to do, someone else can't read their mind.
They don't have to make a panel, that's not what I meant, but even writing down what you're experiencing is in and of itself a resource. Personal blurbs or short rambly essays are resources. A personal journal or diary up for others to read is a resource. Lots of resources in the community are inspired by other resources or if people are asking about a topic and there is a gap in the resources available. If there's something that someone can't make themselves, then there are plenty of people who may be able to talk about their own personal that may or may not be similar to the experiences of the one originally searching if asked. Like mentioned in another reply I made, there are plenty of adults willing to discuss how their identity affects their adult lives, but it's often so integrated or "go with the flow" that they don't think about it (at least not on a daily basis) unless prompted. And that's not the case for everyone, some aren't well-integrated and it possibly causes conflict in their lives, this is important to discuss. But you don't start that conversation by tearing down the work of other people because it wasn't what you wanted.
And sure, a specific panel wasn't named, but a subject was given and that narrows the pool quite a lot. I think this is all somehow being misinterpreted as "you're not allowed to dislike a panel", you can dislike what you dislike. There's a difference between "I don't like this, it just isn't for me" and "this is useless garbage". The world doesn't revolve around one person, that's not the guage that things are measured by. I don't like grilled cheese sandwiches, it doesn't matter who makes it or where I get it from, I don't like them even if tons of people sing the praises about how it's the best thing ever. That doesn't mean that grilled cheese sandwiches are a garbage food, or that the store is bad at what they do, because clearly people like them, and the world doesn't revolve around me. It's not a bad dish, it's not for me.
And, for what it's worth, the world is full of people. Somehow my first response was interpreted as being about me, I don't even make panels. There was a part that wondered if the event was taken seriously, and I responded that I do take it very seriously, but the entire rest of the response had nothing to do with me. I don't get anything out of anything honestly, I just know that the world is full of people.
I prefer not to have reblog chains too long on my blog, so that's all the input I have on this thread, but my DMs are open to anyone if yall (or anyone really) want to discuss further. I'm a chill person, I'm not all "grrrr bark bark bark", that's not how I talk to others
Sorry for being so inactive lately... been busy irl, and have been meaning to post here more often, but also, like... I always feel a bit shy approaching the 'kin communities on here because it kind of feels like everyone is sort of... "internet poisoned"? For lack of a possibly-better word. A lot of folks here on tumblr in the 'kin and alterhuman communities are children, and a lot of more prominent community figures treated like "elders" are only about my age or younger, and it feels really strange, to be honest. There's a lot of discussion of feelings and terminology, but very little "lifestyle"? It's like there's a universal expectation for everyone to just figure everything out on their own; you get some definitions here and there yeah, but the amount of variance says much more loudly "just figure out what it all means on your own, pal". ex. Not only can no one actually explain what "otherhearted" actually means sans relation to otherkin, but it feels like I never see anyone talk about dealing with what one could call "kin feels" in the workplace, when unable to acquire your habitat, etc... Othercon is online-only, and while I'm pretty sure I'd be unable to attend an in-person event, part of me has a hard time feeling like everyone is really taking it all seriously and is really unafraid of being "cringe" when obviously it's so much easier to act like you're so confident online. I kinda feel like meeting some wolfkin stereotypes in a park for snacks and doing a group howl would do more for me than years of reading essays on tumblr ever has.
I dunno, I tried watching a recording of an Othercon panel I felt would be relevant and useful to me once, and was floored at just how... utterly useless it was. Despite its promising title, it was just shallow "you're valid" garbage and internet discourse... Makes me feel severely alienated, to be honest.
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dinocanid · 2 days
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I understand your frustration with not finding many adults in the otherkin community, but there are three main reasons for this usually:
- Hanging out in spaces adults frequent. Be in spaces kids frequent, and you'll find mainly kids rather than adults
- Adults have very busy lives often times, and probably don't have time to blog day in and day out.
- Lots of experiences are often not new to adults, so they don't write about them
As an example, I'm an adult, I only know mainly other adults in the otherkin (and larger alterhuman) community. I don't post about a very significant chunk of my otherkin experiences because it's completely integrated into my life. It's not because I aged out of being otherkin, it's just 2nd nature, I don't think about. If I feel like a wolf every day then I'm much less likely to write about it than someone where this is all new to them and they're working through things for the first time. This is the case for a ton of adult blogs on tumblr and why posts inevitably taper off as time wears off. If you talk about the same thing for several years in a row, what do you have to talk about? But their identity and life doesn't vaporize the moment they log off of tumblr.
I love to talk about my experiences, but if someone doesn't ask first about something specific then chances of me mentioning anything specific unprompted is next to zero.
Sorry for being so inactive lately... been busy irl, and have been meaning to post here more often, but also, like... I always feel a bit shy approaching the 'kin communities on here because it kind of feels like everyone is sort of... "internet poisoned"? For lack of a possibly-better word. A lot of folks here on tumblr in the 'kin and alterhuman communities are children, and a lot of more prominent community figures treated like "elders" are only about my age or younger, and it feels really strange, to be honest. There's a lot of discussion of feelings and terminology, but very little "lifestyle"? It's like there's a universal expectation for everyone to just figure everything out on their own; you get some definitions here and there yeah, but the amount of variance says much more loudly "just figure out what it all means on your own, pal". ex. Not only can no one actually explain what "otherhearted" actually means sans relation to otherkin, but it feels like I never see anyone talk about dealing with what one could call "kin feels" in the workplace, when unable to acquire your habitat, etc... Othercon is online-only, and while I'm pretty sure I'd be unable to attend an in-person event, part of me has a hard time feeling like everyone is really taking it all seriously and is really unafraid of being "cringe" when obviously it's so much easier to act like you're so confident online. I kinda feel like meeting some wolfkin stereotypes in a park for snacks and doing a group howl would do more for me than years of reading essays on tumblr ever has.
I dunno, I tried watching a recording of an Othercon panel I felt would be relevant and useful to me once, and was floored at just how... utterly useless it was. Despite its promising title, it was just shallow "you're valid" garbage and internet discourse... Makes me feel severely alienated, to be honest.
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dinocanid · 2 days
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Main organizer of Othercon here. If you want to see more information or guides that are specific to your situation then I recommend...making those things. Be the change you want to see in the world and all that. It feels unnecessarily harsh and disrespectful to the panelist(s) to call someone's panel "utterly useless garbage" because it wasn't helpful to you personally. It's no fault of theirs and moreso just the unfortunate fact that it wasn't for you. If someone's panel wants to uplift others and encourage them to write about their experiences then sure, why not, go ahead. We're not gonna stop them "for not being serious enough" whatever that may mean, the alterhuman community loves to write and blog and document, it's how a lot of people express themselves.
The event itself is a huge annual project for me, it helps bring people together every year and help them learn new things and share experiences, and I take it very seriously. It's been the biggest thing I've had to manage for the past 4-5 years.
The reality of organizing a convention though is that panels only exist if someone submits them. Myself and I'm sure a ton of others would love to see a panel about dealing with otherkinity in adult life and the impact that has on several things, but no one has submitted a panel for that before, so it doesn't exist yet. Until then...circling back to point one. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Sorry for being so inactive lately... been busy irl, and have been meaning to post here more often, but also, like... I always feel a bit shy approaching the 'kin communities on here because it kind of feels like everyone is sort of... "internet poisoned"? For lack of a possibly-better word. A lot of folks here on tumblr in the 'kin and alterhuman communities are children, and a lot of more prominent community figures treated like "elders" are only about my age or younger, and it feels really strange, to be honest. There's a lot of discussion of feelings and terminology, but very little "lifestyle"? It's like there's a universal expectation for everyone to just figure everything out on their own; you get some definitions here and there yeah, but the amount of variance says much more loudly "just figure out what it all means on your own, pal". ex. Not only can no one actually explain what "otherhearted" actually means sans relation to otherkin, but it feels like I never see anyone talk about dealing with what one could call "kin feels" in the workplace, when unable to acquire your habitat, etc... Othercon is online-only, and while I'm pretty sure I'd be unable to attend an in-person event, part of me has a hard time feeling like everyone is really taking it all seriously and is really unafraid of being "cringe" when obviously it's so much easier to act like you're so confident online. I kinda feel like meeting some wolfkin stereotypes in a park for snacks and doing a group howl would do more for me than years of reading essays on tumblr ever has.
I dunno, I tried watching a recording of an Othercon panel I felt would be relevant and useful to me once, and was floored at just how... utterly useless it was. Despite its promising title, it was just shallow "you're valid" garbage and internet discourse... Makes me feel severely alienated, to be honest.
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dinocanid · 3 days
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I feel like people forget a similar thing used to be done with "tumblrkin", which led to otherkin on tumblr being equated as less legitimate wholesale. I'm not really a fan of dividing a community by a whole platform, just be specific with the problems instead
Can we knock it off with the “Tiktok therians!” talk. And any other talk that separates the therian community by what platform they use.
Yes, therians on tiktok can often be fed misinformation and then spread said misinformation.
Yes, it is frustrating to see that. I understand.
But when we talk about this part of the community like some foreign group, and not just other therians, it feels like we’re separating the community even more.
Mocking a part of the therian community for being put in a place where misinformation is rampant doesn’t solve the issue. It just makes them less willing to listen to us, less open to correction.
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dinocanid · 4 days
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You might benefit from this post I made:
Do any other polytherians find it hard to keep balance between your theriotypes? Like for me once I awakened my maned wolf theriotype I started drowning out my fox theriotype and mainly focusing on my maned wolf type.
I don't know. Could just be me but this is something deeply distressing for my little creature mind.
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dinocanid · 4 days
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That'd be me in our system!
anyone who's a system also have a nonhuman host who happens to be an OC? wanna see how many beings out there are like me :3
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dinocanid · 4 days
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Yall can I be real for a second, and this is untagged because it's not towards any one person in particular it's just something I've noticed
I know it's not everybody but why do so many UT/DR fictionfolk in the alterhuman community and beyond often have such rancid takes, if I had a nickel for every time I would have so many nickels, it's embarrassing please--
Some of us are chill I promise oml
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dinocanid · 5 days
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Thanks for sharing this!
Quick Description of An Intentional Switching Method We've Found Helpful: "Musical Chairs"
(this is re: @dinocanid's earlier essay about system dynamics, and challenges with practicing switching when many of the main guides use similar metaphors/frameworks that may not always work for everyone)
Our personal favorite method for intentional switches uses a combination of projection (in the prophantasia sense) and imagined sensory experiences, and leans on having good internal communication. (Projection isn't necessarily required, btw, just something we find useful for this).
We don't really personally ascribe to the "monoconscious vs polyconscious" framework for ourselves personally--it's never really made sense when we try to map it onto our own experience, even though we've tried, and so this particular description won't be using that terminology, and may hopefully be useful to systems who ascribe to any 'consciousness type'. The really short version: "Trade places". Once the to-switch-in headmate is in close co-con, and aware of the body, external world, and their own internal body map, have the currently fronting headmate "stand up"/"step away" from your body and into a projection state, while the to-switch-in headmate "sits down"/"steps into" your body. (longer description below the cut)
The slightly longer version: 1) Let's say headmates Blue and Purple want to switch who's in front. If currently it's Blue; the first step is for Purple to come up to co-con as much as possible, and specifically tune in to awareness of the external world and their IRL body. 2) Next, while keeping a handle on that external awareness, Purple also grounds themself in their awareness of their own internal body map and position in space--we tend to do this via projection, so Purple would use a specific spot IRL as an "anchor" for their sense of self: (say, standing close behind their IRL body, feeling the mental sensation of the body pressed gently against their front, their own posture and internal proprioception, etc). This may be in a 3rd person POV, a 1rst person POV, or a mix of both! 3) Once this state is stable, now it's Blue's turn to take their awareness of their own sense of self, feeling where it is roughly centered around the IRL body's location but/and including any phantom limbs etc that may not fully "line up" with the body's outline. 4) Blue then takes their sense of self and "gets up" from their IRL body--if standing, step forward or to the side or whatever feels natural, if sitting, try "standing up and out" from your IRL body's position in space, so that now you're in a projected state. (Again, this may be in 1rst-person POV or 3rd-person POV or both, whatever works well for you). Then, Purple moves their sense of self forward into the space where Blue used to be--you may want to play around with this and whether it's easier for you to do it sequentially vs simultaneously. 5) Purple then lines up their own internal body map to roughly coincide with their body's IRL outline, and does their best to "reach into" the body's limbs, look through the body's eyes in 1rst-person POV, etc, kind of like putting on a jacket or linking up to an exosuit--feel free to play around with the mental metaphors to find one that feels right to you. 6) While Purple does this, it may be useful for Blue to "let go of some Brain RAM", if possible, so that Purple can use a bigger chunk of active cognitive processing. (If this concept doesn't translate for your particular system, don't worry too much about it).
7) Finally, Purple can start trying out little body movements, letting the motor impulses of their "internal movements" (posture, fidgets, little unconscious motions etc) actually translate out to how their IRL body stands and moves. This may take a few tries, and that's okay--speaking can be especially tricky, since a headmate who hasn't fronted much before likely hasn't figured out "how to make the body make their voice" yet, on a muscle memory level, and may need a bit of practice. Note #1: We personally rely a lot on our internal kinesthetic/tactile sensory "visualizations", so a lot of this guide is written with very kinesthetic language, but other folks may find that focusing on the visual or other senses work better--also, we recommend trying to incorporate multiple 'internal senses' at once if you can. Note #2: We tend to stay mentally chatting back and forth with each other during this process, kind of like having a hand on each other's shoulders while we "swap chairs", so don't feel like you have to be silent or that 'Blue' immediately needs to leave co-con; try it out and see what works well for you. Hope this is useful, and/or at least interesting! -L (+S)
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dinocanid · 5 days
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I flipflop regularly between wanting to educate about endogenic systems and not having the spoons for it. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, it's pretty random.
It also depends on the situation, ideally you don't go into sysmed spaces for that. That's like a hornets nest (where all the hornets have rabies somehow). I usually just bring it up in a convo if it's relevant to the current topic. I've gotten a couple "oh huh, neat, might reconsider things" by people who thought about it but were gatekeeping themselves from plurality by thinking you need a dissociative disorder or diagnosis first. There's also singlets who know absolutely nothing about plurality and try to overcorrect by parroting stuff from people who don't even understand the DSM/ICD. Plus the uptick in sysmeds I see in the alterhuman tags lately sucks, I don't want to have to block so many blogs that otherwise seem decent!
There's a lot of room for more formal education too, but that's like, more work and I'm way too busy on the average day to head smth like that.
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dinocanid · 7 days
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People who identify as honest-to-god dragons acting like they're way more legit than a pikachu will always be the funniest thing to me
(I say as a dragon)
find it so funny when spiritual nonhuman otherkins hate on fictionkins because they just assume their experiences are the only one
also?? just cuz someone's a fictional character from a show and you're a fictional beast doesn't make you any better than anyone else xP
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dinocanid · 7 days
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Our System Overview
(Preface: our system is highly metaphysical, in every single aspect, so that's the context everything's written in)
I've gotten a few requests over the months to write out how our system works, but I could never get around to it since it's hard to articulate. I'm attempting to do that today, but I'm encouraging you (the reader) to send asks if something is confusing since I acknowledge that some things might not be clear still. And of course, this is all our personal experience! Everything is different for everyone.
Members (and visitors)
One thing you'll probably see a lot in the rest of the post is "members" and "visitors". Everyone that's considered a member lives in the system; while they can venture out, they are bound to the system and for one reason or another can't just walk out forever to live somewhere else. Everyone that's a visitor doesn't live in the system, they exist elsewhere in whatever universe they came from and can leave whenever they please. Regardless, they're all under the "headmate" umbrella.
Our members (besides myself) include:
Amorphous (Ammy)
Drom
Gaster
And all of or visitors include:
Sans (from our timeline, not the canon one)
Several of his AU selves (there's a reason for this, it's just. A whole thing we're trying to get sorted)
Coincidentally, all of our members are spirits/dead in some sense of the word, while all of the visitors are still alive in their respective places.
Headmates That Are Also Kintypes (IE: the case with Ammy and Drom)
Often times when I'm talking about experiences relating to my dragon or dromaeosaurus kintypes, I'm using "the plural I". The reason for this is because due to some reincarnation shenanigans we are both each other and separate at the same time. They're both my past lives, and so one example is that when I was a dragon I was Amorphous (I'm not a "piece" of her or anything like that). When I'm feeling dragon-y that's not because of her doing anything, it's because my behavior and whatnot from the time I was a dragon is popping up. Duplication may or may not be the right word.
A good way to think about it is that both her and Drom are like "snapshots" of those lives, and each snapshot stacked with the next one. So Ammy was following Drom around as a headmate, and now they're both following me around.
How We Operate
At the time of writing, everyone both has their own individuality and are able to function independent from myself. There is no single thread of thought, everyone is doing their own thing at all times. How does my brain keep track of all that? It doesn't. Everyone is able to autonomously think and act in the headspace even if I'm not paying attention to them, but even so, I do have to say that it takes up a lot of processing power. Unless I'm asleep, my brain is regularly firing all cylinders like a laptop trying to run a heavily modded copy of The Sims. It's not uncommon for me to get headaches from system-related things. If someone new enters the system (visitors included) then I will get a headache even attempting to communicate with them. It usually takes a couple weeks for my brain to get used to it and for that effect to stop happening every time.
While I'm the main one seeing through the perspective of the body's eyes, everyone else not in front is capable of having multiple perspective. They can either have the view through the eyes psychically beamed into their heads (what happens by default), or they can go to the fronting room and see through the screen in there. They're also aware of all the other senses like smell, touch, and taste. These are all things they can opt in and out of at any time if they choose to. We don't all have access to the same thoughts though. Everyone can tell what I'm thinking (they have to since that's how we communicate), but I don't know what they're thinking about at any point in time unless they tell me (much like a separate-bodied person).
Although we aren't currently able to switch, we are currently practicing and most guides are hard to follow since it assumes that all of what's described above is not the case. Rather than there being "the body (who is the host) + everyone else", for us it's "the body + the host + everyone else". So a guide that details how to change a stream of consciousness (often described as "the I") is a bit hard to follow when we each have our own individual stream. And guides that describe "becoming the host" don't help either because the host isn't the body in our case. I'm the host because I'm the original occupant of the body, but I metaphysically exist independent of it with another form entirely. So reading guides on switching is a huge mess of "ok what do you mean because that is not how we work, what are we supposed to do exactly?".
The Headspace
Our default headspace is the void, which is a whole bunch of black nothing aside from the couch, lamp, and coffee table (and those are relatively new additions). If you've seen this post, that's basically the entirety of all that's in there. Even though it's virtually endless in all directions, the best way to think about it is that it's metaphorically in a bubble. In a very convoluted way, Gaster is a part of the void in a literal sense, so he has decent control over it (he could just meld down and be a disembodied voice if he really wanted to, less energy). He can keep our system's "bubble" of the void closed to prevent visitors from coming in, and can temporarily make "rooms" that's like being in a void on your own.
The void headspace also has the fronting room, which does look like an actual room but doesn't function for what it was made for. So as of right now it is a room you can stand in if you don't want to stand somewhere else, and that's about it (Drom likes to paint in there lol). It's unclear if the fronting room is connected to the void or its own thing. The door that goes out of the room leads into the void, but how you get to the fronting room from the void is a bit fuzzy. Sometimes the room is just freestanding in the distance and sometimes it isn't. My only guess is that it "loads/unloads" based on if someone is entering or exiting the room, so if someone's not currently going through the door then after a few moments it'll just poof if you're outside of it.
Another completely separate headspace we use regularly is a canyon area that has things like Drom's fishing pond, a forest, and a house. Unlike the void though, it cannot sustain itself and I have to actively "manifest" it so-to-speak, which takes a lot of mental energy and can result in headaches if done for too long. When I stop manifesting it the headspace reverts to the default void, so using another headspace is an event we usually have to plan for a specific block of time.
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dinocanid · 7 days
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Intersex here also! Not looking to be mutuals, just saying that intersex alterhumans are def out there
IM HOLDING YOUR PAWS I CANT BELIEVE I FOUND ANOTHER INTERSEX ALTERHUMAN IM SWINGING OUR PAWS BACK AND FORTH
HOLDS YOUR PAWS AND DANCES WITH YOU!!!! SWINGS OUR PAWS BACK AND FORTH!!!
Ps: I’d love to be moots if you’re down for that, if you don’t feel comfy revealing who you are publically you can always private message me:D if you’re not okay with either that’s fine too and I hope you have a lovely day <3 :3
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dinocanid · 8 days
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Reblogging my own response here since "read more" extends across the whole post and I wanted just a regular addition.
But anyway oddly enough, personally my creature instincts make me more inclined to share food, rather than food guarding. I have a huge "if I'm eating, you're eating" mentality
This might be one of my "weirder" rants but I think I came to a realization that the way I eat has been a pretty big sign my therianthropy.
Ever since I was little, adults in my life have been nagging me that I "eat improperly."
The biggest thing I got told off for (and still get told off for) is that I eat too fast, or a I take too big of bites when I eat. I never have understood why people thought this was such a big deal. I'm eating the way that is most comfortable for me and somehow that's the "wrong way."
I am eating like I should .
To me, this has been part of my disconnect from "the human experince." I don't eat like a human, I've always been eating like an animal; even without realizing it. Subconsciously eating as fast as I need so that my competitors don't take my food. Big bites, like a bear would. Sometimes even large portion sizes, like a bear would.
I would like to know other alterhuman's experience with food and/or eating habits. Does anyone else feel like they were eating a certain way or only eating a certain type of food and not realizing they were doing it?
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dinocanid · 8 days
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Honestly my otherkinity comes with a special flavor of "Do Not Perceive Me", although the proper descriptor is probably "(social) species dysphoria related to not being perceived correctly by others".
I don't share selfies of myself with anyone or anything. I joined a group chat for my college and everyone's sharing pics of themselves in their intros, meanwhile I'm over here like "here's a portrait of me, yes this is legit how I'd like to be perceived". If someone thinks about me, I'd rather have it be dog-me versus human-me
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dinocanid · 8 days
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Me with the carnivore head jerk and also whatever this motion is:
(under the cut for dinosaur eating a person. It was the only gif I could find with the same movement lol)
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This might be one of my "weirder" rants but I think I came to a realization that the way I eat has been a pretty big sign my therianthropy.
Ever since I was little, adults in my life have been nagging me that I "eat improperly."
The biggest thing I got told off for (and still get told off for) is that I eat too fast, or a I take too big of bites when I eat. I never have understood why people thought this was such a big deal. I'm eating the way that is most comfortable for me and somehow that's the "wrong way."
I am eating like I should .
To me, this has been part of my disconnect from "the human experince." I don't eat like a human, I've always been eating like an animal; even without realizing it. Subconsciously eating as fast as I need so that my competitors don't take my food. Big bites, like a bear would. Sometimes even large portion sizes, like a bear would.
I would like to know other alterhuman's experience with food and/or eating habits. Does anyone else feel like they were eating a certain way or only eating a certain type of food and not realizing they were doing it?
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dinocanid · 8 days
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[Ghost Stories]
Completed YCH for @lizardywizard and @kleeradragon !
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dinocanid · 10 days
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Honestly I just want to talk to people more tbh. I don't wanna just be known as the person that runs Othercon, I've got a lot to talk about when it comes to alterhuman topics. It's why I ended up seperating the blogs
I did some math recently and I've been around the community for 13 years holy shit. It doesn't feel that long but I guess so. It just feels weird to be that person that's been in a space longer than some people have been alive. You see a lot of things repeat every few years and it's interesting to have that hindsight
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