#trukin

I went in the fictionkin tag for the first time in a while, and I was, to put it lightly, appalled.

I’m not angry at the “cringey tumblrkin”. I’m angry at the True Real Otherkin Who Take This So Seriously And How Dare People Make A Mockery Of Us. I saw some of the WORST takes.

1. No post blatantly said this, but I saw a few posts that, put together, create this narrative of, “You can miss your old world, but you can’t miss it too much, or else it means you hate the Earth, and you can’t do that uwu You’re here for a reason, this Earth is your home now, you cannot dislike it!!”

Like, listen. I don’t think this world is bad and I do think there is a reason why I came here but I sure as HECK don’t have to like it. This Earth is not my home. Never was, never will be. I am passing through here, and I believe I am returning to my previous world after this life. I’m looking forward to it, and it motivates me to get through some days.

2. Posts on How To Do / Not To Do Soulbonding. Look. With spirits there is no “right” or “wrong” way to communicate with them. Enough with the whole “if they act like [x] then they’re not acting like Real People so they’re either fake, you’re puppeting them (including unintentionally), you’re new and inexperienced and haven’t perfected your discernment, or at worst you’re a predatory creep trying to lure people into a cult”.

Everyone’s spiritual reality is different. Spirits are NOT going to always ascribe to your idea of a Real Person (aka you need to fight / disagree sometimes, they don’t always automatically love you just because they did in a past life, etc.). Like, good for you if your spirits act that way!! But spirits do NOT fit into neat and tidy Valid Spirit Checklists because everyone experiences spirits differently. It will never perfectly line up with someone else no matter how badly you want it to. And it doesn’t mean that the spirit is lying OR that the other person has “bad senses / discernment”. Sometimes it’s just like that

3. I also saw the moldy take that being wrong about your kintype means that you picked up on a “false lead” or that the wrong kintype was a “distraction from finding your true kintype(s)”. Kintypes aren’t a science. They’re an identity. Whether you feel your kintypes are spiritual or psychological in origin, it’s insulting to say that being wrong is some Obstruction In Your Path To Truth. Being wrong about a kintype is part of the learning process and it’s okay to be wrong. It’s not that deep

4. So many cult warnings??? As someone who was part of a cult in the past, I know how scary it is to get caught up in one. But there’s, again, no clear checklist on what is a cult other than it’s an abusive relationship with a religious hat. I know from experience that when you’re in a cult, you don’t think you’re in a cult. You can tell yourself “I know the warning signs, I’ll NEVER join a cult!!” but that’s not true. They catch you unawares. I’m not sure who is being helped with all those “how to spot a cult” posts. 

Also, using the FF7 house as example of How Not To Soulbond / Kin isn’t actually done out of concern and looks more like “Wow, I’m glad I’m not like THEM!”

ALSO also, a LOT of the cult warnings I’ve seen for certain behaviors just looked like an excuse to dunk on “tumblrkin”

5. Blaming the “cringey tumblrkin” as to Why We Aren’t Being Taken Seriously. I’ve seen SO MANY accusations of this. First off, these SAME people will be angry at how otherkin and therians don’t take Real Fictionkin seriously and don’t believe in us and ostracize us, and then they........turn right around and blame the “tumblrkin” for these problems. I’m confused. You don’t want to be told you’re fake and cringey so you call other people fake and cringey??

“tumblrkin” (aka “wishkin”) I don’t always agree with. But they’re NOT malicious 99% of the time (most of that other 1% are trolls). But I think it’s disgusting to blame them for Making A Mockery Out Of Us. Stop using people you personally find cringey as a scapegoat. You are punching down rather than realizing the fact that no matter how much you do that, people will still find us fictionkin cringey. Even if there were 0 “tumblrkin” on the Internet, people will still find something wrong with us. THEY are wrong for being bullies, not the “cringey people stealing our terminology and making us look bad by harassing content creators” or whatever.

6. I also hate the environment that encourages constant grilling on spiritual / kin stuff. This should ONLY be done if someone requests it. Anything other than that is an attempt to weed out the “invalid”, “cringey”, or people you personally deem “predatory”. I have had friends who ascribed to this mindset before. I know that it comes out of a place of fear, shame, and distrust, especially after having been manipulated by a cult-like predator in the past. It comes from wanting to make sure that everyone Takes Spiritual Stuff Seriously because if the astral is real, it’s the same real for anyone. Therefore, anyone who has it different from you is Wrong or a Lying Predator. The mindset then goes that these people need to be corrected or avoided in order to keep everyone safe and on the same reality.

That’s not how the real world works. That’s not how spiritual stuff works. I believe that what everyone experiences spiritually is real to them. There isn’t such thing as “invalid”, only the fact that everyone has a different reality. Basically, everything is real. The only thing I agree on is that, because everyone’s realities are different, you shouldn’t force your own on others. Cult leaders do this and also the grillers do this (no, grillers are NOT cult leaders but its the same idea of wanting multiple people to share your reality). (This, by the way, is why other people cannot know your soulbonds / companions as well as you do, as well as your kintypes).

Being on the receiving end of the grilling, I lived a nightmare. I was constantly anxious and afraid to talk about my spiritual and kin experiences out of fear that I would be scrutinized and condemned as “invalid”. I wanted to live in peace and not feel like I had to hide from certain people who didn’t approve of my beliefs, just because it didn’t match their idea of What Should Be Real. Setting up this neat little criteria list of “how to spot the valid” is damaging and hurtful to others. Ever since I got out of that environment and my friends changed for the better, my mental health has finally been improving and I’ve stopped fearing exploring my own identity and my spiritual life because I feared everything I experienced was fake or that I was cringey and “mocking Real Actual Kin / Spirituals”.....because it didn’t fit every single Valid Criteria

I have a personality that is extremely similar to my fictotype (ps: this is NOT a requirement for fictotypes btw. You are NOT required to have a matching personality with your fictotype), so it’s debatable on whether I showed signs prior to watching the show or if that’s just my personality as a result of growing up and living this current life. And frankly, it doesn’t matter. I am still the character, and my world and my friends from that world are still real

Some people have feelings before they consume the story, and some don’t. Both are real, and the latter doesn’t need to be psychoanalyzed to prove that the former experience is More Real

You know why those “cult awareness” posts that spread around in otherkin circles are useless?? They’re extremely performative.

You CANNOT say that you have a heart for cult victims / cult prevention when you mock and get angry at any kin that “doesn’t take kin seriously enough”.

When you do that? You are ostracizing many, many people. They feel like they don’t belong anywhere. Cults LOVE to lure in people who feel ostracized. They make you think that they accept you while no one else does. People want to feel accepted, and they feel more loved in cults than they do in actual healthy communities. That is dangerous.

“tumblrkin are fakers that don’t belong in the community wah wah” WILL make more people vulnerable to joining cults that you all claim are rampant on Tumblr.

“You’re Making Us Look Bad”

“This Is Why People Don’t Take Us Seriously”

“You’re Taking Our Terminology And Now There’s Fakers Pretending To Be What We Are For Attention”