#alterhuman anecdotes

I started inside, walking and then running around my house. I was on the balls of my feet, leaned forward, with my arms tucked in the dinosaur pose and my fingers curled like talons. I experimented a bit with vocalizations.

Then I went in to my balcony, it was a bit hazy but still clear enough to see the sky. Now I always enjoy star gazing, but something felt completely different seeing them in the state I was in.

So I went outside. I explored around my apartment complex, I wanted to go into the wooded patch next to us but unfortunately there’s a lot of litter and broken glass back there. So I headed down the street.

As I was doing some reptile research the other day, still looking primarily at leopard lizards and perentie, I began to come across an interesting conundrum in relation to my ocean kin research from earlier this week.

One of the major types I’ve considered for my potential ocean predator type is the mosasaur, a large extinct marine reptile. Another reptile. I began to wonder, am I really a dragon and a lizard and a marine reptile? There’s some overlap in these experiences. The mosasaur is huge (the largest of them being around 50 if I remember correctly off the top of my head) and so is my draconic type (bigger sometimes, then the mosasaur) I associate my draconic type with harsh environments, including deserts. My lizard type is a desert inhabitant.

There’s differences as well, of course - diet, some environmental factors, behavior, appearance - yet the edges of them feel…fuzzy almost?

I faced a similar question when I discovered my dromaeosaur type. I already identified as a harpy - one of the types I came into the community with the knowledge of - and there’s many physical similarities between the two. Feathers or wings on the arms, taloned feet, posture, feathered body. I was able to the tell the difference though in part because my shifts for both of these types are so visceral. My feathers are different, my arms, my talons, my coloration, my behavior. So similar and yet so clearly separate in my mind.

From what I’ve observed over the last month and half or so of identifying as alterhuman my dromaeosaur and harpy shifts are two of my most common. I’ve seen some polykin refer to some of their types as “primary” or “main” perhaps these fit into that category for me.

My dragon experiences have also been pretty clear. I still have some questions about the details of it, but not the existences of it itself.

My reptilian experiences are actually what spurred me to start exploring the alterhuman experiences. I’ve always identified with nonhuman experiences but some of my lizard traits puzzled me and pushed me to dig deeper, eventually excepting that nonhumans weren’t just something I related to, I was in fact alterhuman. Yet as I’ve questioned and categorized my types I still struggle to pinpoint the details of it. Should I hold all my types to the same standard of clarity? Should I allow myself an expanded view of what identities I posses? I’m unsure.

Shifting is such a potent part of the experience for some of my types that wrapping my head around the ones where it happens less is a bit difficult, I think seeking out some discussions by folks who don’t shift at all could be very useful in me identifying sorting these types - both for identifying which ones I have and for cataloging the differences between similar types.