#fictionality

This post is about fictionkin, fictives, and other types of fictionfolk and experiences of fictionality. In it I recommend some readings and other resources for definitions, primers, etiquette, history, questioning, databases, and community. I have also shared this list as a Bluesky thread. Updated Dec. 26, 2025.

Definitions

A quick guide to fictionfolk terminology by @aestherians

A fictionfolk glossary by the Dragonheart Collective

Introductions

Fictionkind FAQ, by the Dragonheart Collective

Fictives: A Short Intro, by Ryn^Aristocrats

Soulbonding info carrd, by fairy tea

Changing beliefs & behavior through experience-taking, an academic article by Kaufman & Libby

Etiquette

By the Quicksilver System

By Sprites

By Espeon & Synanthrope

By the Dragonheart Collective (script)

History

A Timeline of the Fictionkin Community, by @houseofchimeras

Pluralpedia on where the word fictive came from, researched largely by LB Lee & sobqjmv

Are you fictionfolk?

Questioning guide for fictionkin, by DoctorCorby

The Big List Of Fictionkind Experiences, by 375-6

Living as fictionfolk

Living as a Fictive: How to Find, Create, and Broaden Your Identity, With and Without Canon, a lecture by Goratrix bani Tremere

Living with a “Problematic” Fictional Identity (And Where to Go from Here), a lecture by Goratrix bani Tremere

What to do when your source upsets you, a booklet by the Dragonheart Collective

Databases

100+ writings in the fictionfolk category in the Alterhuman Archive

17 games, zines, & other creations on itch.io by various

Community

Web ring, maintained by @nova-dracomon

Dreamwidth community, moderated by @tanadin and sun_dragon

Safety in Alterhuman Spaces, by Dragonheart Collective

go to a location that people tell you not to go. like the woods, or behind the abandoned movie theater. you know your locale best. absolutely go in the dark, that's when most of them come out.*

really conspicuously open some snacks. this will net at least some voices, coming from the darkness, asking if you're going to eat all of that. fairy food rules are not fully accurate, but if a monster eats some of your food they DO have to hang out for a bit, that's supernatural etiquette. share the snacks**

don't stare.

be quiet. silence demands to be filled.

when they talk, listen to them, not to the hundred and one stories in your head telling you to kill something that looks like this.

if they live in a labyrinth, ask them if it's comfortable or if they just live there because they've always lived there.

answer when they ask the same question back.

by the time you've finished the snacks, you should have figured out if you have compatible personalities. if you don't, go your separate ways without anger. if you do, suggest a regular meeting spot, like the back aisle of the gas station store where there's a broken light or your basement at 1am

they'll eventually become easier to see in the light. that's how being a friend to someone works.

go looking in the dark again.***

The first time i saw inside (by bo burnham obviously), i watched it like it was a gritty documentary about someone losing their mind, trying to be creative in total isolation. I saw other people react to to the special with concern for bo’s mental health and i thought about it for a moment and realized he actually wasnt isolated (he has a dog and a girlfriend) and he was also doing promo for promising young woman. After realizing this, I thought the whole thing was a fictional movie he made with a team, and i was annoyed by my own need for “authenticity” - why would i feel differently if the special was still the same thing. Now, I think its probably a mix of truth and fiction, but idk i still feel weird about people talking about it like it’s anything other than a movie. 

I also fear I am alone in thinking it’s not the best of his specials. Maybe it’s also the fact that i was an enormous fan of his like seven years ago, watching literally everything he’d ever done. I lowkey feel like his demographic has shifted away from fifteen year old girls (something i was when I discovered him). 

I also didn;t think it was as dark or depressing as people are saying it was ...? It also wasn’t uplifting in the way i found his other specials and his movie to be, but idk i could relate to a lot of the mental stuff in it but it didn’t neccesarily take me deeper into my anxiety or feelings of worthlessness. and i was envious of the private space he had, and the equipment, and the fact that he could just take longer on a project if he wanted without getting shit for it. 

by Orion Scribner, January 24, 2025

For fictionkin, fictives, fictional introjects, fictionflickerers, fictherians, and other sorts of fictionfolk and people who have experiences of deeply personal connections to fiction, one's source in fiction is not necessarily one's favorite story or something that one "vibes" with.

Many fictionfolk feel uncomfortable reading, watching, or playing their source because it feels uncanny to see their truth turned into pretend entertainment, or because the canon feels like it got things half right and half wrong, or how it portrays them. That can feel sort of like seeing something misreported on the news that you know didn't happen like that, or overhearing strangers talking about your private life. For people whose memories from another world turn out to be similar to a piece of fiction in this world, one can feel uneasy about the mystery of how that happened.

Some fictionfolk participate in the fandoms for their sources... carefully. Fans can get uncomfortably personal if you say you are one of the characters, so fictionfolk often choose not to talk about that in fandom spaces, only in alterhuman spaces. Seeing how fans reinterpret you in art and discourse can bring up all sorts of feelings. Some fictionfolk decide they won't look at their source's fandom.

There are fictionfolk who wish they didn't feel that connection to that piece of fiction. There are fictionfolk whose source is a story they always disliked or found offensive. Maybe they have a lot of thoughtful criticism, or maybe it simply feels disagreeable to them. Sometimes recognizing one's connection to fiction starts with exploring why a story bothers you so much.

There are fictionfolk who dislike the authors of their sources.

Some fictionfolk are experts on their fictional sources. There are also fictionfolk who recognized that their memories and feelings have the strongest similarity to a piece of fiction that they have had never even watched and would prefer to never watch. Or they watched just enough of it to recognize it and then "nope out" on watching the rest.