plurality is a spectrum. no one's plurality is going to look exactly the same because by nature of plurality, we are all different. some plurals have headspaces, some don't, some have inconsistent headspaces. some plurals have easy communication, some have none, some have difficult communication. some have strong amnesia, some have none, some have weak amnesia. some have really diverse headmates, some have really similar headmates, some have a lot of headmates, some have few headmates. some are disordered, some are not, some lie in an inbetween. some are adaptive, some are spontaneous, some are created. and some of these things can vary from day to day or as systems change over time. plurality is a spectrum, not just a black and white experience

✶ DRACONIC GLORY ✶

[ * ARHRRGRGHJRGHRGH this is finally DOOOONEEEEE ]

[ * I've never done such rendering with this method before (painted it and picked the colors by hand in a layer above the sketch/lineart and base color layer) and it turned out SO SO WELL ]

[ * I also wanted to give it a touch of computer-screen-ish-look because that just adds so nicely ]

[ * Took 8 hours in total, drawn on Krita along with a Wacom Intuos S tablet ]

[ * Feels nice to draw my dragon kintype :} i haven't really done a fully-rendered drawing of myself in a while ]

[ * Also a small attempt at poetry... alterhuman poetry.... i don't really write poetry so apologies if it's wonky :P but i'm personally happy about it! ]

would you mind taking screenshots of that comic from twitter? I don't have an account so I'm not being able to see it

full credit to @/shrimplify on twitter!

(i couldn’t include the title image, but it’s a drawing of angel wings with a price tag, with the words “for sale- angel wings”)

It is concerning how often folks offer up otherhearted/otherkith as an alternative to "kin" for KFFs without qualifying that recommendation with anything.

There is an extremely broad range to what KFFs call "kin". A KFF person might be otherhearted, but they could also be a whole bunch of other things instead/in addition. Otherheartedness is not the same as just liking/relating to a character, it's not the same as faceclaiming, it's not the same as RP'ing, it's not the same as 'linking or flickering or being constelic...

If someone asks for alternative phrasing to phrasing that can mean any of those things, with no way of immediately distinguishing which meaning any one person is using, just naming one of them without any sort of elaboration is a bad answer no matter how you slice it.

I worry that the same thing that has happened to "kin" may eventually happen to "otherhearted" as well as a result of that carelessness. Hell, I have already seen someone say otherhearted means the same thing as simply relating to a character.

I know giving properly nuanced answers takes more effort. I know it can be exhausting if you find yourself having to do it over and over, and god knows having to answer the same questions ad infinitum is pretty much a fundamental alterhuman experience. But giving a misleading answer isn't the solution.

adding onto what's already been responded, I want to toss a link here to my own side blog that strictly host alterhuman information available on tumblr, the specific link will take you to the alterhuman's coinage post to tell you the broadness and how big the umbrella can be.

What you are describing, some would call that heartedness. Animalhearted, otherhearted, fictohearted, all the same thing. Just wanted to toss that in here for consideration as well.

There is zero such requirement such as needing to have or for the identity to be a past life or it has to be spiritual. It's common for those to crop up because it's one of the more common explanations of the origin of one's alterhumanity compared to everything else. The other big explanation is nd brain. There are numerous ways one attributes where their alterhumanity came from, but the important part is your feelings and sense of self/identity.

Alright I've deleted everything on this side blog so I could ask dumb questions without my friends seeing

So here's my first odd question that I can't find the answer to on Google

Why the hell do I want to be a creature

Like a non-human beast

Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not a therian, I don't identify as non-human, I'm well aware that I am and that will not change

But like I wish I had ram horns, goat like ears, a long tail, and walked upright on digitigrade legs

Like a faun or a satyr but with paws instead of hooves, with sharp predatory teeth as well

And I find that when I walk on my toes and pretend I have paws, or I stretch with my arms out like an animal, or shake my head like one, I feel content

But again, I don't identify as an animal, think I am one, or anything else, I just find that when I act like this or pretend to be this one particular made up beast, it makes me happy and comfortable, but I don't understand why

I never do this in front of anyone, this is kept to myself, but I figured I'd just ask if anyone else does this

The Vague Flicker of a Connection

Can't think of a fun title. So punning with terms available it is!

As a dragon(kind) with feathered wings and fur, I had a hard time finding draconic content that would fit my otherkind needs.

Now, I've encountered the Mana series, not in depth, so I completely missed the dragon that I would have been immediately drawn to. One I was introduced, something certainly clicked.

Flammie from the Mana series is a character, or sometimes a species of dragon, that is fluffy with four feathery wings. Sometimes acting as a companion, it is the sacred beast that helps out the hero within the game. It sort of scratches several itches I didn't know I had until now. A mythical creature that is a helper but not really there, it gives off an almost Mew vibe. The mentioned physics are similar to mine. With my recent discovery of where my body is the most flexible in terms of shapeshifting limitation, where wings have the most freedom in terms of numbers, Flammie as a whole is like something that could have been me. But all these connections mean it has a paratype element in it.

The could have, would have, and may have all sort of become a strangely vaguetype experience.

But I don't have such feelings all the time. Sometimes it's just a character that piqued my interest because of the similarity I have with it. That's where the flicker element came from.

Asian American here.

I think a factor on the demographic at first glance is that alterhumanity and the myriad of terms and concepts are in english, or started from english speaking communities.

So there may be folks out there who are non-english speaking poc but could very well be alterhuman, yet don’t have the terms to work with.

Therianthropy isn't limited by race

Are there any therians that aren't white/caucasian? If there are please repost.

⋆｡‧₊°♱༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻♱༉‧₊˚.

I'm a black/African American alterhuman and furry and I'm ashamed of showing that side of me in public because of what my mother said to me. I feel like it's not really show in video media or public places. I want to wear gear and not feel ashamed of shifts in public. I feel that if I it's normalized that certain things aren't just for certain races that people like me wouldn't feel so ashamed to step out of my comfort zone.

⋆｡‧₊°♱༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻♱༉‧₊˚.

So if you would, please repost. I want to know. If you even have your own experiences like this too feel free to add on. It would mean the world to me.

If someone doesn't understand a joke and asks you to explain it, explain the joke. Don't be exclusionary to neurodivergent people. Don't belittle people for needing an explanation. Don't be a dick.

I say this as a neurodivergent person who has seen so many people be rude extremely often to people that just cannot understand a joke. To the point where they're calling them stupid, "you must not be X if you don't understand it", or lazy for "not just googling it".

And no, "just google it" is not always a proper answer to explaining a joke. Sometimes the explanation is straight up not on google, or the info that person might find is wrong.

Just explain the joke. It's not hard. It doesn't ruin the joke. Be considerate of neurodivergent people. Don't be a dick.

The Alterhumans in Relationships Survey is collecting data on alterhumans and queerplatonic, sexual, and romantic relationships. This survey asks questions about your current and past relationships, and how you feel about relationships and alterhumanity. This survey was made for otherkin, therians, fictionkin, systems, and other people who may call themself alterhuman. But even if you don't use any of those terms, you can take still this survey.

This survey is being organized by Who-is-Page, an alterhuman scholar who has been in the community since 2014. The data collected in this survey will be used for research purposes and may be presented at an online convention (OtherCon 2024) later this year. Depending on how much you write in the write-in questions, this survey takes about 15 minutes.

Survey Link

Your physical body must at least 18 years old to participate in this survey. The survey will close on July 6th.

Technically 1 and 3 maybe?

I had always experienced alterhumanity, and had a few people in my life who can very well call themselves alterhuman, but before the community, no one had such a term around me. I didn’t know what I am has actual term and that there is a whole community of folks like me out there!

Saw a similar post and decided to make my own detailing my experience. Between the ages of [baby] to 11 or 12, I fully believed I was a dog that somehow got Freaky Friday'd into a human body. I'd navigate on all fours a lot and spend a bunch of time in my "dens" (which were basically homemade forts), and was generally pretty Feral™️. Would also tell my friends that I was secretly a dog and had the sharp incisors to prove it. At the time I predicted it was probably clinical zoanthropy, but it wasn't, and around 13 it had mellowed out a considerable amount (in part due to Ammy's training, thankya Ammy /pos). I had also known about nonhuman identity labels like otherkinity and therianthropy for a couple years at that point, and eventually decided those fit best since I still considered myself nonhuman in a human body, but not in the same way zoanthropes experience it. Like yeah I'm nonhuman but I don't have to deal with the transformation stuff they do

Some personal DnD art for the means of self-indulgence. I was originally just drafting up a rough idea for myself but eventually figured this one could be worth the refinement. Glad I spent the time on it, felt good.

Thank you for your time ❀ Added a small timelapse - the quality ended up pretty bad all things considered, so Idk if its worth uploading to YT like this. TvT

Song is "Little Dreamer" by Domini Forster

One thing I witness in the community again and again, is the argument “I’ve seen” or “I’ve never seen” therefore it happens or not as the personal truth. Ironic considering my opening statement.

But that is the truth, we often only see our personal truth as the reality.

Which, when coming into contact with the shared reality that is the community, can be rather shortsighted. Just because I have not seen a cicada alterhuman does not mean one does not exist. Just because I know that there is a car therian does not mean that people will believe me. Just as I’ve seen and heard a lot of the pain and conflict within and on the fringe of the alterhuman community, doesn’t mean that some others will ever know about them or understand the harm. Just because I know all all these myriads of alterhuman identities, yet there are far more I do not know, at the same time there will be those that knows so little.

Such phenomenal can be found anywhere, not just within the alterhuman communities.

It is of no one’s fault. Personal reality are that, personal. Some held certain beliefs while some don’t.

It is one of the bigger reasons why I advocate so much for folks to seek out different communities, to soak in the larger community experiences. Especially for those that only ever know the one closed, small community they settled in.

But the fault lies in using it as a argument point.

“I never seen them, therefore they don’t exist.”

“I have seen it, therefore it is the obvious and only Truth.”

Two sides of the same coin, knowledge fallacies. To know is to realize that there are only so much we can know, but to not know is ignorance, and ignorance is one of the three poisons. Striving to learn without harm to others, keep open heart and acceptance, that should be the goal to knowledge.

People have been talking about the need to discuss non-kin alterhuman experiences so here's a quick ramble about my otherheartedness and the peculiar dysphoria that's been difficult to treat that accompanies it for me.

Otherheartedness for me is... interesting. It's far more of an emotional experience than being otherkin, honestly. In both good ways and bad.

It's peace and wonder because they are something that is real, whether as a flesh-and-blood creature or as a well-loved concept often honored in art and writing. It's being able to look at them (or even bask in thier presence if they're Earthen) for hours on end without being bored. It's feeling as though your love for them forms a core part of your identity and you wouldn't be You without it.)

It's feeling a hole within because no matter what efforts you make to claim thier beauty as your own you will never truly Become, never be able to see yourself as one in a way that feels natural and effortless (I still claim them as link types but the dissonance is probably always going to be there and it Hurts). It's surrounding yourself with thier shape in the form of figurines, art, jewelry, even clothing (good old Mountain T Shirts before thier quality fell off a cliff...) to feel a bit of thier power and presence and hope that in some way, somehow, some of it will finally rub off on you and calm that yearning itch in your mind.

@lunardeercat

My go-to advice for any “how to draw [x]” type question is usually to study photo references …of course, when it comes to dragons and other mythical creatures, this presents a bit of a problem.

Since you can’t look up real photographs of dragons’ talons, the next best thing is to find photos of similar structures on similar animals.  This could vary depending on your dragon’s design, but as a starting point I would recommend looking at human hands, lion/cat paws, bird talons (especially birds of prey), and lizard/alligator feet.

(Photo sources: human, lion, eagle, alligator)

When you’re looking at a photo, try to break it down into component shapes – starting with the largest, overall shapes, and then moving towards smaller, finer details.

For hands, I usually start with the palm, then the shape of the fingers all together as one piece (often broken in two by a line denoting the knuckles), then the last joint of each fingertip, then each of the individual fingers, and finally the small details like finger nails, wrinkles, etc.

Here’s an animated version, in case that helps you visualize the process better:

After studying the creatures you’ve chosen to base your dragon on, you can blend their traits together to create something new.

Hope this helps!

The great dragon migration