#lycs grumbles

In 2021, a movie came out called Wolf.

I was intrigued.

Many called it "embarrassing", a step back in the progress of the alterhuman community.

Many said it had potential and failed to live up to it.

Mostly, people said it was a mockery.

Time passes by and I do my best to avoid the movie treated like a monster by much of the community aware of it's existence. I indulge in Wolfwalkers, Van Helsing, and The Wolf Man. While those are enjoyable movies, they portray a world so different from our own. It feels more like a dream than my reality.

Come four years later, with the weight of isolation and hate bearing down on my shoulders like a chain, I cave and decide to watch the movie.

Now that the puppyposting and anti-canine discourse has mostly blown over, I've seen a few posts targeting therians in the name of "other labels exist." We are, once again, attacking the identities of folks of whom are doing nothing, rather than facing the real issues.

If you believe otherlink is being ignored, go after those attempting to dissolve the term into therianthropy and speak for the structure of the definitions. The biggest threat to 'link identities is "that's what a therian is, why do we need another useless label?"

If you dislike the way humanoid 'kins are being underrepresented, give folks a nudge when something is lacking recognition (e.g., an alterhuman post assuming everyone is nonhuman). Bring awareness to it where needed rather than going after therians.

Reblog smaller label coinings, contribute to alterhuman glossaries, post about a different label per week, share your experiences with lesser known terms, advocate for upholding definitions so they aren't absorbed by therianthropy, and so on.

I certainly know I can try leaning towards chicken, fish, bugs, etcetera, but does anyone have any other dietary suggestions to try?

I was about 11 when an online friend of mine mentioned one of their friends I knew, that day, had lost their battle with mental illness. That was my first and closest exposure to loss from mental illness. I would never be able to talk to them again.

I was about 13 when I learned that thinking you were actually an animal in therian spaces was considered 'mentally ill' and meant you needed to be put in psychiatric holds.

I was about 14 when I learned that some mental illnesses, including physical identity or attractions, deserved to be ostracized or even killed.

I was about 15 when I first began to tell people they needed to seek psychiatric help and institutions if they experienced things like amnesia with shifts or believing their body was animal because of their identity.

I was about 16 when I ended up in moderation spaces of the therian community, where my voice could silence others who rejected my opinion.

I was about 17 when I was in spaces that would promote death to folk with mental disorders, and have me reiterate the same ideals, while the rates of loss to mental health kept going up.

I was about 18 when I gained higher positions of moderation in broader alterhuman spaces and could silence all other positions.

I was about 19 when someone told me the weird labels I kept trying to use were basically clinical lycanthropy.

I was about 19 when I lost contact with most people outside of alterhumanity because of those disordered experiences.

I was about 19 when I was no longer able to function well in society because I was having disordered experiences.

I was about 19 when I struggled to even keep going because I was nearly completely isolated and struggled to get help because of societal ostracization of mental illness.

I was about 19 when I was nearly utterly alone because I chose to spend my childhood in sanist spaces.

I was about 19 when I discovered CLCZ tumblr and similar spaces, and began anonymously writing my experiences as Lyca.

I was about 19 when I confessed to a professional and began expressing myself and managing bad symptoms without curing my alternate reality.

I was about 19 when someone told me that if their brain's involuntary thoughts and desires meant they were automatically harmful, then my desires to bite others even when I resist automatically meant I was harmful and going to do it immediately.

I was about 19 when I discovered how much my upbringing against mental illness had destroyed my life, confidence, and ability to function in society.

I was about 20 when I realized I had been a part of that.

I was about 20 when I started wondering how many lives lost were indirectly my fault because of that.

How many now-inactive accounts are forever inactive because I refused to see the other side.

Lord knows what I've done.

Is it really a crime to hear out what othere have to say, even those deemed scary, harmful, and dangerous?

To those who haven't learned anything but harm and only give what they know?

I was about 11 when I defended a bully online that had regularly called me slurs, attacked me, and made my social life hell as an autistic, openly queer kid. The bully was getting attacked by another jerk on the same discussion board. I stood up for them. I still remember when they asked why I defended them despite bullying me.

I was about 11 when I made a new friend because I stood in their shoes and saw another living being trying to survive.

I still think about how many losses I might've contributed to, but I also think about how many lives I can save with a little more kindness and an open-mind.