Caffeinated Were

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Do they realize only a small section of the community are transspecies-? This community has never been about transition in anyway, only some folks will have a transition, even if they identify physically. You are basically trying to change the definition of alterhuman

This is coming from a transspecies animal btw, it’s valid to want to transition and talk to other transspecies folks, but trying to claim that’s the ONLY way to be alterhuman is fucking crazy and just ignores the whole point of the label

Such is the case for myself since I have no accessible means to physically transition into a shapeshifter. I can’t gear my transition around a singular experience when all experiences of mine are inseparable from my identity as a shapeshifter. Additionally, my shapeshifting is entirely done through phantom shifts. Nonetheless, I am transspecies.

My species transition is similar to my relationship with gender in that the state of my body isn’t the core focus of my journey. Rather, the social and political deconstructions of species are. Part of why I found myself in this label is the following outlook: crossing the cultural boundaries of species. I wasn’t always nonhuman, and as a kid I was rather odd for a human, but now I know that I’m both human and nonhuman. I’ve found my truth in being a fictional shapeshifter, and I like how there’s many aspects of my identity that contradict the notion that we can only be what our societies perceive us to be.

Apart from that, it’s disheartening to hear how folks find themselves in this community, only turn towards exclusionism. I identify with a lot of labels, including transspecies, but alterhuman has been my main one for quite a while now. Transspecies is specifically used to highlight my experiences regarding, well, species. Alterhuman, however, covers every base of my identity from my fictionhood, humanity and nonhumanity to my dæmonism, archetropy and ontoplanarity. I feel most at home with this term because no stone is left unturned with it.

@who-is-page and @frameacloud's panel at Othercon has gotten me thinking about writing essays about my own alterhuman experience... I was thinking maybe I should write something about why I write fiction, and how that relates to my own identity. But thinking about that made me realize that one of the reasons I write is because I identify as a fictional self-insert character that I created when I was a hatchling in make-believe games. Like, that's the way I view myself - not as a generic blue dragon, but as that specific character. Additionally, given that many of those games were based loosely in books I've read, it means that my identity is based in fiction as well. Though I don't identify as him, my name is even based on a fictional character's!

I've never really thought about calling myself fictionkin before now. When I joined the otherkin community initially, I had some bad reactions to talking about my identity in that way. And then some more bad reactions. My identity as a dragon is involuntary; I couldn't change it if I tried (and I have), and it isn't something I intentionally made into an identity. It's a bit of why I never really got why everyone insisted strongly on the distinction between otherkin and otherlinkers. Though I'm not opposed to the idea, I don't feel like my fictional identity was made by me channeling a past life either, which felt like it was the acceptable explanation for this back in 2016. Otherwise, creating a kintype wasn't "allowed."

For a while, I felt like I separated my identity into a dragon otherkin aspect, where I was just "a dragon", and had character me on the side as a fun thing - what I considered my "kinsona". But I think this is a false dichotomy. The two aren't really separable; who I am as a dragon was created through books and play. It wasn't really until @aestherians's posts in early 2021 - five years after I found the otherkin community - that I felt that the community had finally decided that the definitional line between kintype and linktype, voluntary and involuntary, didn't have to be such a strict line after all. (I'd been arguing that "involuntary identity" shouldn't be a part of the definition of otherkin for four years by that point, so yes, I'm still both smug and salty.)

So, though I didn't expect this to lead to me coining a new term when I started out writing out this post, I've decided to do it. I'm not sure if anyone except me is going to use it, but I think creating it as a concept gives it both a bit of legitimacy and permanence. I hope it will be of use to someone else, and if anyone else shares a similar experience, I welcome them to talk about it in more detail - at some point now, I think I definitely should describe mine.

Being psychological* otherkin, the concept of having a specific type of dragon that I am doesn’t always make sense for me. While I know that I’m a dragon, and a lot of my general features I’ve figured out from noemata (even if they sometimes conflict with each other), there are certain aspects of my draconity which I don’t know in that way. This includes details of physical features, along with some species-related instincts or behaviors. In many cases I don’t think these are things I have yet to figure out - I just don’t think that inherent knowledge exists.

Because of that, I’ve occasionally instead created parts of my draconity and what I consider to be my dragon species (in a sense, filling in the blanks). As an example, I write fiction with dragon characters, and sometimes don’t have an intuitive sense of what the correct body language for a situation should be. In these cases, I’ve often taken inspiration from canine, feline, or even human body language for my writing. Interestingly, because I write using my own dragon species as inspiration, this ends up changing my own species. What wasn’t there before becomes created knowledge that affects my own behaviors or appearance.

This isn’t noemata, which is inherent knowledge about one’s kintype and isn’t chosen. Discussing a bit on the Otherconnect discord, this doesn’t seem to be an experience that’s specific to me. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t any terminology for it, and I think that it might be useful to create some (with ideas below). The idea behind this is to have a word that represents “knowledge about one’s type”, but that could be of voluntarily created origin, or possibly quoilintary or mixed-voluntary. Here I specifically used the word “type” because I don’t think this experience (nor noema) is limited to just otherkin, and that it can apply to otherhearted or otherlinkers.

Just listing out a few of the ideas for a word to describe it that were discussed:

-Aspect could be used to be any sort of knowledge about one’s type, with whether it’s involuntary or voluntary being a modified. For example, “an involuntary/inherent aspect” would mean the same thing as a noema.

-Linkstory or linkcanon could be used for specifically voluntary knowledge.

-Insight could be used to mean any sort of knowledge about one’s type, with kinsight and linksight being the (in)voluntary versions.

Castiel’s wildlife experience by zation || @zationao3 Rating: Explicit Word count: 36k

When Castiel’s girlfriend of five years decides to leave him, he finds himself reevaluating a lot of aspects in his life. Or, The one where the shadows in this supposedly abandoned factory seem to move on their own.

If you are looking for something fun, not too short, not too long, but sweet and sexy, you've definitely come to the right place.

In case you are unfamiliar with Zation's Were universe, here is a rundown - there are regular humans, and then there are Weres who can be classified into two big categories - Domesticated (with subcategories as Manufactured (to have a certain trait) and Farmed (for breeding)) and Feral. Care to guess which type Castiel runs into?

Don't be fooled by the name, they are only called Feral, it's not a trait. In fact, they are very friendly. They even bring gifts!

Since this has been asked a LOT and it's been about 3-4 years since I first got them done. Mine were done using composite bonding (the stuff they use for fillings) that was shaped and cured to my real teeth

Call dentists around you and see if theyre comfortable doing it I had to call at least 10 different clinics until I found someone

More below the cut

because to hear even Tumblr the "gay gender website" talk people only wear harnesses while strapped into a sex swing while being fisted

but the reality is that the harness, both leather and spandex, in gay male world is like stiletto pumps, a bright red lip stick, a short skirt or push up bra.

sure some people are wearing those things because they're about to get laid or hoping to. But lots of people wear them just to feel sexy, confident or powerful. And there's nothing X rated and "shouldn't be seen in public" about any of that.

lots of gay guys wear harnesses to bars or clubs not because its a sex thing, but because its a sexy thing, they feel attractive and confident.

I get that gay men feeling attractive and confident terrifies people, but if you're at Pride and a guy walks past you in jeans and a harness, either shirtless or over his shirt, he didn't violate your civil rights or do a sex thing in front of you, he's wearing a totally appropriate outside that makes him feel confident and powerful.

"Life Studies of Various Foxes"

Lives of Game Animals, Volume 1 - Part 2. 1925. Written and illustrated by Ernest Thompson Seton.