literally just some guy (nonhuman)

the dragon's head snaps up as she sneezes, head tilting to the side, frills fanning out as she snarls in a quiet threat display. the girl looks down and mumbles something about how she didn't mean to offend, she was just curious and-

there's a muffled fwump as the dragon jumps down from the roof, landing on the ground in front of her and stalking towards her. she backs up, but not quickly enough, and then its sinuous tail is curling around her waist and pulling her off-balance, and she falls forward into the dragon's waiting arms

she makes an embarrassed squeaking sound as the dragon's head (longer than her legs) presses against her ear, snuffling and snorting as it tries to figure out how to clean her weird tiny frills that don't come forward right. it settles for just licking her ear clean, and she blushes. its snout moves lower, tongue happily laving at her neck, and then she gasps with surprise as it playfully grabs her arm in its hand-length teeth, pulling gently. she grips one of its horns and wiggles its head slightly, and it makes a curious chirping sound

My new portrait “Curly Lioness” from the Therians series.

oil on canvas 100x80 cm

You can still be alterhuman even if you acknowledge parts or all of your humanity.

You can still be alterhuman even if you find comfort in human rituals, culture, etc.

You can still be alterhuman even if you display human behaviors and characteristics.

You can still be alterhuman if you look or act nothing like your 'type.

You can still be alterhuman without dysphoria, euphoria, or both.

You can still be alterhuman even if you never plan to transition or present physically or socially as alterhuman.

You can still be alterhuman without blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars on gear.

You can still be alterhuman even if you aren't queer (surprisingly common misconception by the way!)

You can still be alterhuman even if you don't find the furry community appealing.

You can still be alterhuman even if there weren't 'signs' of alterhumanity in your childhood.

You can still be alterhuman even if you find aspects of alter/nonhumanity uncomfortable or scary (and this may change as you discover yourself!)

You can still be 100% alterhuman and 100% human at the same time.

You can still be alterhuman without misanthropy.

You can still be alterhuman without a spiritual connection to nature or a religion pertaining to nature.

Even if you aren't alterhuman, it's okay to be human.

Even if you aren't alterhuman forever, it's okay to recognize your humanity afterwards.

No seriously, it's okay to be human in some aspects or all aspects.

You don't have to constantly strive to be the 'most nonhuman thing possible' and you don't have to try and reinvent the wheel coming up with a new term thats 'more nonhuman' or 'further than humanity' than the last.

There are infinite ways to be alterhuman and you may never find a term to define yourself. You might not even find a species to label yourself as.

On the same coin you may find that your experience is painfully common, or not 'original' enough to warrant a 'true' experience. You have to remember that it's okay to be one of the gazillion black wolf psychological therians out there and that it is functionally the same (and has the same moral weight) as having brown eyes.

It's okay to be unlabeled.

It's okay if you wouldn't be considered alterhuman by the old standards from the days when alterhumanity was mostly on independent forum boards.

Grills and grilling aren't relevant anymore and it's better to block people that try to bring that back.

Today, at the local pride parade, there were a couple therian kids (I assume, with the masks and tails) running around, and I got to thinking about the little sister. Turns out her parents are considering enrolling her in a special ed class at a Waldorf school, where about half the students are therians and the teachers are supportive of therianthropy.

We live in a time where there are therian classrooms with supportive teachers. I broke down crying in the middle of the parade when my partner told me. Fuck dude, I'm tearing up all over again writing this. There are therian kids growing up right now, being open about their therianthropy and meeting support and acceptance from teachers and peers and parents and siblings, and being in a class surrounded by half a dozen other therians of their own age.

I have had people try to gatekeep me from my species because of my assumed gender. Reptiles are seen as "gross" and "ugly" by many, which apparently makes us masculine by default. Which, wow, that's a whole can of wyrms by itself, isn't it? I always thought they were beautiful, but my mother thought they were ugly, and she didn't like me having toys or posters of things she thought were ugly.

During the few years when I identified as a cat, I noticed that I was much more likely to be given cat-related species affirmation than I ever was to be given reptile-related affirmation. Because cats are cute, and so people were comfortable comparing me to a cat. People don't want to compare someone seen as female to a reptile.

I had on a badge which I'd made myself, depicting my fursona at the time (a raccoon-dragon). It wasn't commonplace at the time to have your pronouns on your badge, so I had to explain to someone that my fursona was a male dragon.

And I remember the response just being, "Why?"

I didn't know how to answer that. I think I just said "Because I want it to be?"

But it just struck me how odd it was. To be in a situation where "I'm a different species from my body" was a perfectly normal thing to say, but "I'm a different gender from my body" was bizarre. Nobody asked me what made me pick raccoon-dragon, even though that's not a typical fursona; but why would you want to be a boy dragon?

Something that is a constant point of talk in the Alterhuman community is "Where are the Elders at?" "Why don't Elders post as much anymore?"

And as someone who's been in the community for over 10 years now, I distinctly remember thinking "Hah, that'll never be me. I love posting about my alterhumanity" But low and behold, I've kinda fallen off from posting daily. Heck its a miracle if I make a post once a month! Sure I lurk around the tags and forums. I'm active in the comments at least. But I've definitely noticed my presence in the community falling to the back burner.

So I'm calling all "Elders" and "Greymuzzles"

Go ahead and pick a couple of questions from the following and answer them (or answer them all, I'm not a cop) vvvvvv

What are some ways that you still struggle with Alterhumanity?

What are some Alterhuman Success stories you have? (Whether it be finding a neat hack for dealing with species dysphoria or a fun affirming encounter you had such as coming out to a friend)

What are some lessons that you've learned after all these years?

What are some writings that you've done that you think are still relevant now? (feel free to link to them!)

What are some major differences in what the community was like when you discovered it vs how it is now?

How did you deal with the "Hype" of discovering your Alterhumanity wearing off?

The full news post can be found here:

Matrix is a messaging standard that works with many different clients--like how email is a standard that can be accessed via many different websites and programs. This means that, like email, if one app or server sucks, you can just switch to a different one without losing your contacts and servers and chat history, and people using different domains can still communicate over the same app. It can also do end to end encryption.

Figured I’m already doing a controversial poll, so why not another.

My thoughts on endogenics and the like is complicated. But I (and probably others) want to see what the general consensus on endogenic systems currently is.

I said “don’t respond unless you are therian, otherkin, fictionkin, or similar”, because if you are a tulpamancer (also a type of alterhuman) without also being one of the for mentioned, then obviously you’d be pro endo. No, I’m looking for data from therian and otherkin (and similar) first.

The answer I usually get is essentially because plurality has a pathological form and otherkinity does not (or at least, not one that's recognized by the psychiatric community as such). (One could make an argument about clinical lycanthropy here, but the difference between "experiences delusions about shapeshifting" and "identifies as nonhuman" are large enough compared to those between disordered and non-disordered systems that I don't think it's a fair comparison.) But just because there exists a pathological form of an experience does not mean the non-pathological form of it isn't real. Anxiety disorders existing does not mean that someone experiencing regular old anxiety over a stressful situation isn't ~really~ experiencing anxiety, or that they're "faking a disorder," or that they're invalidating the experiences of people who do have an anxiety disorder that may be completely disabling. It means there are both pathological and non-pathological forms of that experience. The same is true of plurality - pathological forms of plurality exist in the form of DID and OSDD, and those often stem from trauma (though not necessarily, it must be pointed out), and the struggles associated with these disorders are very real! But it doesn't follow that because of that, non-pathological plurality, or plurality that doesn't stem from trauma, don't exist. Therefore, we go back to the original question: why are you (general you) willing to fakeclaim plurality, but not nonhumanity? Who is actually benefiting from insisting that non-traumagenic systems are lying about their experiences?

i will start by saying that the posts are RIGHT and I UNDERSTAND WHAT IS BENG SAID and I AGREE and it is TRUE. I am just saying that the portrayal of HOW theyre saying it can be harmful, dismissive of, or confusing to some people, as they really do see themselves as an extension of that character, or as a person from that world.

The problem is that people can’t handle critical analysis of characters that they relate to or see themselves in. - So.

You have to remember that your source is, indeed, a different, fictional universe. Maybe you are that person (or creature), but you have to have a healthy mindset towards that and remember that you came from a story. You, at some point, served a narrative. It can be confusing to understand and come to terms with for some, but its what helps.

-And so, when people engage with your character, and do analysis, it is not an attack on you; if anything, it’s a compliment. They found you interesting. Yes, you could have been a bad person, but it was for the narrative. You arent under that anymore, your branches can grow out. They aren’t attacking you; theyre studying your sprout in the lab, and youre a tree now. they thought you were an interesting and cool plant!!

Even when people point out flaws in the writing it is still not an attack on you. theyre pointing out the growing conditions for the sprout, saying what might have stunted growth, what might have caused deficiencies or other problems. this is not an attack; it is an investigation. youre in new soil now, and you have everything you need to grow. And so you did. Theyre simply looking back on your old conditions.

When you see someone interpret your character in a different way, that is not an attack, nor are they wrong. (Well, maybe they are, but it doesnt really affect you if so.) That is scientists making predictions about what the sprout might have grown into. you were put into new soil, which allowed you to be who you are now; the scientists (the fans) are making predictions (character interpretations) about what you might have been like depending on the soil (writing, story events, etc.) . maybe in another world, you would have had differently shaped leaves, or a genetic mutation that made you grow different fruits, or maybe you would have had a different amount of sunlight, or whatever. these are just people having fun, and thinking, and using their brain. It doesnt affect you!!!

So. Remember to engage with media well.

Sincerely,