the lions den

Devotion

We’ve now passed 300 responses which is honestly incredible. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to participate and share their experiences. The level of engagement has been far beyond what I expected.

At this stage, the dataset is already large enough to start identifying meaningful patterns, which is exactly what this project set out to do.

The survey will remain open for a little while longer to allow for a broader range of responses, so if you haven’t taken part yet (or know someone who might want to), there’s still time!

As before:

- The survey is anonymous

- You can skip any questions

- It’s focused on understanding lived experiences, not judging or defining them

I’ll share more updates as things progress; but thank you. This has been a really strong start.

Please feel free to share the link beyond tumblr as I already have been, this helps gain more visibility on the project and improves the reach of where the data is coming from.

(And please remember there are multiple cultures in this world)

Therianthropy is alterhuman, but alterhuman is NOT therianthropy.

Otherkin may be nonhuman, but not all otherkin are animalistic nonhuman.

There are fictionkin that can cross all the big categories.

Not everything is “I identify as this nonhuman animal”.

its not and never has been something you need in order to truly identify as a therian

it makes me so annoyed that people only think of therians as walking on all fours

if you do quads cool!! but its not inherently a therian thing

Ive been in and out of the ER lately and struggling severely with my health, but I really wanna manifest a culture of decolonizing in a community made with racially and ethnically marginalized people at the center. I wanna see what we can imagine together. And I mean that as more than a bunch of buzzwords or a virtue signal.

It was talking about aging mostly past age 30 as an alterhuman and “settling into your identity” and “becoming humanized.” Basically they were saying that after reaching a certain age, alterhumans lose the potent investment and intimacy they once had in their identities as they experience more adult responsibilities and societal expectations.

I don’t necessarily think this take is entirely incorrect, but I think it was extremely over generalizing and alienating especially to somebody like me. Look, I get it. People’s identities change over time. Sometimes you may find that your identity has been drowned by the big adult persona character you’ve had to build to get through life. If it happened to you, it’s ok. It’s not like you’re evil for it or whatever.

What bothered me was the insinuation that it’s a normal thing that happens to everyone. That it’s nice. That we all want this. That my and a lot of other alterhuman’s intimate and passionate involvement in their identities is a byproduct of novelty. That we’re silly and young even. It was just giving “oh you silly younguns, one day you’ll quiet down and grow up and humanize. One day you won’t care so much. It’s just called growing up!! Don’t fight it!”

Listen dude. I’m in my mid 20s. I have been vibrantly an animal since I was born and I found this community at 15. It has not calmed down. I have never found that “settling into my identity” meant becoming comfortable in human society. I have never ever lived a day where I have not been constantly aware of the fact that I do not belong here and that I am an animal wearing a human skin. I feel this identity to my very core. It is inherent to my existence and always has been. It has not gone away. It has not “settled” by the definition given in the thread.

And so what does that make me? Silly? Childish?

And what does that imply about my peers in this community? Is my ability to relate to and share experiences about how being a therian affects every day life and how we can experience euphoria and how we can enrich our lives as alterhumans and express our dysphoria and the ways we don’t fit in just a fleeting moment in time? A gift from youth that is quickly coming to an end for me? How much time is left before I am once again the odd one out. Will I always be too intense? Even for strange misfit communities? Will I be left behind as everyone’s identities are put in the basement, crushed by the overwhelming weight of social expectations for older adults?

This reminds me of something.

I am autistic. I don’t really adhere to social rules the way others do. I also don’t follow rules I don’t understand.

Since I was a kid, I’ve never thought it was necessarily childish to play, just something children did. I mean all the animals play into adulthood. I never understood why playing had to take away from your maturity or intelligence. In fact I thought it was immature to worry about being seen as “very grown up” and to do everything you can to seem big.

I still remember when everyone just suddenly stopped playing. Playing was one of the only ways I could express my strangeness as a child. It was creative and whimsical and explorative and you could be whatever you wanted to be. And then everyone suddenly stopped. And I didn’t understand why. I tried to keep playing. Nobody wanted to play with me. I became silly and childish and strange. The people who ran around in the woods with me were suddenly straightening their hair before class and wanted nothing to do with me. Sitting there on their phones. Talking about things I wasn’t interested in. And so, I had to accept that I’d never play with anyone again. And it has always been a deep heartbreak for me, since the very last time I played.

I grieve it. I dream about it. And some part of me still hopes maybe one day I’ll meet somebody who’s unbothered enough to play with me again.

Is this what you’re trying to say is going to happen to me one day with being alterhuman? That I’ll once again be left behind? Am I going to experience the confusion of watching everyone cease to care about something we collectively cared so deeply about? Again? Don’t say that.

I’m sorry. I’ve been like this my whole life. 15 was the age I realized I belonged in this community. That is a whole decade. And I have always been an animal as faithfully as it feels to cry. As raw as an open wound. It has been the only thing I’ve known.

Don’t say it’s about growing up.

When I was in my teens and early/mid 20's I was convinced I was wholly incompatible with the life I was born into, but since then I've worked to have a life where I can be authentically myself as much as possible, and that's allowed me to feel like I can belong here. I've found the bits of human society– the neurodivergent, queer, socially "unacceptable" bits– that accept me as I am, and that is what I mean when I tell people that aging allows you to enjoy humanity more. My identity hasn't changed, but my surroundings have. I don't need to post on the internet about the stress of being nonhuman in a human world any more because I've found whole communities of people that accept my nonhumanity instead of making me feel alienated 24/7. My friend group is all in our 30's and we spend our time together being weird and silly and making strange noises and wandering in the woods, and most of them identify as human! I also meet new likeminded people all the time because I know where to look now and who to avoid. I'm not any more human than I was 10 or 20 years ago, I've just found all the parts of humanity that let me be myself so it's not in the forefront of my mind all the time any more because my nonhuman needs are being met.

It's honestly less about aging as an alterhuman and more about just aging in general. Your teens and 20's are super hectic and stressful and confusing, but once most people hit their 30's they just... Chill out a bit. Every single person I know over age 30 looks at people in their 20's and goes "you could not pay me to have to go through that again" lol

Anyways. If you find the right people to be around, the abandonment you felt with your friends as a kid won't ever happen again. The alterhuman community will always be here, but there are also tons of other vibrant, beautiful communities who embrace being strange and whimsical and creative, and they're everywhere if you know where to look. Outside of alterhuman spaces I've met mermaids and pirates and werewolves and fairies and genderfuck drag performers and anything else you can think of who are over the age of 40. I know people in their 70's who spend their weekends dressed in costume firing cannons and doing stage swordplay. I've met people in their 50's who spend all summer wearing fangs and a tail at ren faires and consider it their real self. The vast majority of people who could be considered alterhuman have never heard the term and probably never will, but they're everywhere and they find each other.

However, I do have these paw mitts that have a lock on them that are for kink stuff that I find super validating however because I can't use my human fingers, and I can't take them off without a magnet. It's restrictive in validating ways rather than invalidating ones. I also do enjoy tails but I feel dysphoric if I can't wag it on command.

Fictionkin, I see you

Otherkin, I see you

Otherlinks, I see you

Constelics, I see you

Otherkith, I see you

Paleotherians, I see you

Synpaths, I see you

Plantkin, I see you

Fictionkith, I see you

Conceptkin, I see you

Copinglinks, I see you

Choicekin, I see you

Polymorph, I see you

Theriofluid, I see you

Bugs, fish, birds, I see you

Characters, colors, songs, I see you

Aliens, I see you