#dream.does.asks

I'm glad the post resonated with you! (and so many other people!) :3

The main reason I've never talked about Arwyn on my blog before is because of the way daemonism is unfortunately sometimes seen as a plural subculture instead of what it is: a separate community with a distinct history and culture that happens to have overlapping experiences with parts of the plural community.

I was also worried about being mistaken for plural, partially because I didn't want to get yelled at for 'faking it', but mostly because being treated as plural when I'm not feels kind of like stolen valor in a way lol

See that's actually what's helping me be less of a cynical asshole about therian tiktok. Yes, it sucks that there are kids who call quadrobists therians and make it all about masks and tails and whatever but it's not THEIR fault. They're kids for God's sake.

That's what they know because the app they're using was designed to make money and keep your attention on it, not to create spaces of meaningful education and community discussions.

It is not the kid's fault that late stage capitalism hit the therian community so hard. It just isn't. We can encourage discussion and help combat misinformation or whatever the fuck but it's not the fault of the therians using tiktok (yes, even the cringe ones) that therian tiktok ended up the way it did.

This is a sideblog that I’m using for vents and small posts - you don’t know my main.

⚠️ ALERT AS OF DECEMBER 16, 2025: There are things/posts on this blog I no longer agree with. I have not gotten a chance to remove them yet. Please keep that in mind interacting with any of my older posts! ⚠️

I don't follow anyone in the therian community because I don't want to reveal my main blog, so I can't exactly be moots with anyone, but if we chat semi-regularly then we can be moots in spirit :)

I do not use tone indicators and will add an extra sentence if I need to clarify tone.

my most important post

Hi! Congrats on finding your identity! :3

As for advice (a lot of this is general/not sable specific advice):

Try literally anything you want. Eat like a sable, wear clothes in sable colors, try on gear, do quadrobics if you feel like it, etc etc etc. If it sounds fun and seems like it'll help you connect with your identity more then there's no harm in (safely) trying it! (Obviously avoid doing dangerous things like eating raw chicken or trying to jump 3 feet in the air on your first try doing quads.)

Related to the last point, don't force yourself to do anything you don't want to or don't enjoy doing or causes you pain. If quadrobics is hurting your arms or a tail is giving you a rash then stop doing it. That's completely fine and your health, safety, and comfort come first.

Remember that therian social media is extremely skewed in favor of therianthropy, and that all therians have hobbies and interests outside of just being a therian! I made the mistake of trying to make therianthropy my entire identity when I first awakened and I ended up completely miserable because of it - so I try to help newly awakened therians avoid that pitfall lol

Relating to the first point - just... do stuff you want to. Make that stimboard, design that mask, wear a tail, whatever you want. This is a community based around identity and there are essentially no rules (other than the obvious 'don't be a bigot or a creep' lol).

If you're looking for specific gear recommendations, you can find cat mask bases here, (I personally realized recently I don't really like wearing masks but I know other people like them lol) and I'm not too sure on places to ethically source real tails from as all of mine were second hand, so you're probably better off asking someone else. (Thrift stores are a good option if you're looking for fur in general.) You can also find custom animal ears all over etsy, but I can't really vouch for that in terms of quality because I've never bought any.

As for food, Sables are primarily carnivores so you're going to want to lean towards meat-y things if you want a more sable-like diet. I really like rabbit the few times I've had it, and if you want to feel a bit more connected or whatever you can always eat meat off the bone in the form of drumsticks or wings.

My favorite non-meat options are: Mushrooms, berries (including preserves and jams!), nuts like pine nuts (sunflower seeds make a good substitute), eggs, leafy greens such as lettuce, and anything with a crunch to it makes a pretty good insect replacement (or you could get dried insects but. pricey lol). Also I've mentioned this before but I LOVE pasta and noodles because they remind me of worms which is kinda gross but whatever XD

In terms of clothing: THICK stuff helps emulate fur, as does... actually wearing fur (faux or real) (love sweatshirts for this reason). Go for browns and tans to near-black coloration if you're looking for specific colors - really just look up sable pictures and match your clothing to that.

I haven't done quadrobics in months so you might have to ask someone else for advice on that one, however: Go SLOW with it, take your time, don't do anything unsafe, etc. Your wrists are FRAGILE and need to be protected.

I don't think I have a list?

When I talk about therian tiktok I talk about my own experiences on the app (which were. bad.) but I guess I DO have some concerns? All of them I've covered before tho - like the 'fake therians' nonsense, or the need to perform your identity, or the content-ifying of identity due to late stage capitalism.

I have one more concern though that I've never talked about on here iirc: I think there's a lot of pressure on therian tiktok to 1. Know your theriotype automatically, 2. Have it be a cat or a fox, and 3. Have or make gear of it immediately.

Honestly as someone who cycled through a shit ton of animals and mythical creatures trying to figure out what the fuck I am it makes me a little worried to see especially younger therians close themselves off to questioning so early.

Not to mention the sunk cost fallacy - part of the reason I was in denial over a wolf theriotype for so long was because I already HAD a bunch of wolf stuff, I had a mask and a tail and several clothing items and plushies. I felt like it was a large part of my identity because I had TOLD other therians it was, which made it all the more embarrassing when I was wrong.

So... yeah, I guess that's another one of my concerns. People boxing themselves in way too early and then feeling like they can't reveal they were wrong without losing friends or a community.

Especially for content creators, imagine you've built your entire identity and account on you being a black cat therian who does quadrobics and makes aesthetic videos, only to realize your theriotype is actually a broad-snouted caiman and you never had a cat theriotype in the first place. What would you even do? Reveal you were wrong to your audience and potentially lose them because they want to watch a person in a cat mask, or continue to produce content that you know isn't your true self?

It's never bad to ask! You're always welcome to ask questions here, anon :)

As for the question itself: I think that's something you need to do some internal reflection on.

Why do you want to be a therian? Is there a reason behind it? Do you think maybe you are a therian and you're just in denial about it? What's driving this want?

Do you want a sense of community? Do you want to be set apart from humanity? Do you want to do quadrobics or wear masks? Do you want to find other people who have the same experiences as you do? Do you want to feel accepted?

I went through a phase similar to this with several canine theriotypes - the thing that helped me the most was digging down in there to try and discover what was really driving my want. Even if you're not a therian the self-reflection really helps. In my case with the canines I ended up figuring out that what I really wanted was a sense of community and connection, not a canine theriotype!

My main recommendation is to 'try on' the identity and see how it feels. That's what I usually do if I'm questioning a theriotype (which I actually don't do very much anymore lol) - it helps prime your brain space to understand whether or not this identity actually fits! If it doesn't fit then it slides right off and you stop caring nearly so much about it.

I'd also suggest taking a break from online (or in person) therian spaces for a while, just because it breaks up the feeling of seeing this community everywhere and feeling driven to constantly interact with it.

for me it was a lot of "these experiences line up with a lot of other therian's experiences" - I had trouble FINDING my theriotype for a while though - several years of looking for it on and off forever because NONE of my nonhuman behaviors lined up until I stumbled into Sables by accident lol.

For that I just kind of Knew. It was like looking at myself in the mirror when I saw a sable for the first time. That's me. That's what I look like, that's what my identity is.

However!

It CAN be helpful to sort of "wear" the identity for a while and see how it feels - I went through a phase of questioning a dog theriotype, and while I did so I called myself a dog, I looked at posts by dog therians, I even made a pair of ears to try on, and it all ultimately ended up not being a theriotype. (I still clung on to it for a while until I started spending more time around dogs which is when I realized 'yeah this isn't me' XDDDD)

If it's an actual theriotype, it'll stick around, if not, it won't. At least that's how it worked for me lol