Ryuu | 30s | They/them, XeNonbinary-solarian & maverique & Bright | ASD | AAPI POC Constellation of Dreams - Constellation Identity Listing - ∘○⋆✧✶🌟✶✧⋆○∘ DNI? Just interact at your own discretion, I bite. BYF: this is a personal blog. Main focus is alterhumanity, art, and all other matters pertaining to our identities and interests. I will also immediately block if you look like a bot without any substance to your blog. Beware of chaos. [Art Blog] | [Tags and Links]
Heyo! This is Ryuu Yumemoto. Whenever I saw questions about getting alterhuman feels or shifts, people 9/10 times talks about meditation if spiritual, quadrobics and masks if therian, and I dislike how those are always the default answers. It leaves so very little else, when they just don’t always work for everyone. So have a list to try out.
Updated May 04, 2026
- added links for conceptual alterhumanity, found under ‘Type Specific subsection, under “Conceptfolk”
This is gathered with the collective input and observation from the various alterhuman discord servers and other socmed spaces I’m in.
And it seems like this sort of question gets asked a lot, so I decide to drop this on tumblr and my personal site/blog
Remember that any tools and guides can be applicable for any other alterhuman identity discovery!
research articles/scientific journals/books on your 'type
roleplaying
surround yourself with the environment relates to your ‘type
activities (e.g. riding bikes feels like flying, etc)
Media & Entertainment
documentaries/source material on 'type
alterhuman playlist/music
Games that features your ‘types
Films and medias that showcase your ‘types
Others
journaling
doing Q&A/AMA/hot or cold with others, assisted self discovery
food
freewrite/draw
fashion/gear/fursuits/cosplay/costuming (a list starting by @maybe-a-cynic)
Im making a big ass thing on notion
Basically, it is a giant catalog of therian and otherkin gear.
From ears and tails, to collars, to win
engage in your 'type's behavior with people who are accepting and close to you
engage in ‘type behavior in general, including vocalization or voice training
quadrobics if quad ‘type
body mods such as tattoo (a little bit more permanent)/makeup
read upon other folks’ experiences
*meditation frustrated me on how to categorize it. It definitely span across the psych, the spirit, and just metaphysics at times.
Guides by others
If interested in the specifics and details of some of these methods, Hemlock has written this guide in the Alterhuman Community.
Another detailed listing of various ways of getting kin euphoria by Tigris (@transfelid) Kinrichment — Expressing Nonhumanity and Indulging in Kintype-like Behaviours
Otherkin: : Identifying Your Otherkin Species :
How would one get started in questioning their otherkin or such??? I think I have questions but I honestly don't where to even start or what
Links to Dragon Character Builders (Made by Other People)
Collected and published on March 9th, 2025 by the creator of Monster Brain Soup Dragon Builder, Lukas Stormskull
Plurality
The Dragonheart Collectives has made some amazing resources, but I cannot list them all. Fortunately they are all here in a single page. If you have question about your plurality, learning about it, just discovering it, definitely give these a read! (Bonus with other nonhuman and fictional identity educational writing near the bottom half of the page)
Dragon's Roost
For further finding out more of your new headmate, Roger de Camden of the Draconic Wizard Workshop has wrote a very helpful essay on it, do give this a read!
Is That a New Guy or Am I Losing My Mind; or, A Beginner's Guide to Finding Headmates
'Type Specific
*These are tools that can be useful for anyone but provide potentially the most benefit for the related species or 'type.
Conceptfolk
This is not a dragon: exploring conceptual alterhumanity
Exploring Conceptual Alterhumanity, 2nd ed. (Or: the revised and edited conceptfolk essay)
Otherhearted
💬 0 🔁 147 ❤️ 302 · A Short Guide for Questioning a Hearttype · [It is important to keep in mind that while some shorten "identify with" to
Draconic
Flight Rising’s Predict Morphology
> More detailed explanation on FR morphology predictor by Solomon (@majoramasc) tip-for-all-dragonkin
Monster Brain Soup Dragon Builder
A dragon maker made by a dragonkin!
> A bit of introduction here.
Dragonita's Dragon Builder (3D)
For the draconic type. Tools that are similar to piccrew or make-a-creature type of tools provide you with a set of parameters that you can mix and match to get the desired result.
These are not necessary quick and snappy “how to get shift or figure out identity” tools, but rather more reading from resources, especially community essays—to help you understand alterhumanity further. Resonance from here can be just as beneficial in figuring out your own identity or gaining a shift second-handedly.
Massive Alterhuman Resource by @the-otherspace
💬 6 🔁 93 ❤️ 173 · Want to know what I've been working on and why I keep asking for resources?
Check out this enormous list (Google Docs)
General Alterhuman Resources What is alterhuman? (phasmovore) A Timeline of the Alterhuman Community by House of Chimeras Masterpost on the
Alterhumanity Framework by @monsterqueers / Dragonheart Collective
Dragon's Roost
Fictionkind Experience by Arcade Gannon
Fictionkind List
Please do reply with anything additional if you have suggestions!
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I do actually need singlets to understand that joking with a fictive about traumatic events in their canon is something you should ask for permission to do before assuming it will be a Funny fandom joke haha
Let's exercise our imaginations and think about what actually experiencing the events in the show/game/book what have you would be like and then ask ourselves critical questions like "would I appreciate it if someone made a joke about the worst thing that ever happened to me without seeing if I was cool with it first?"
If you are neurodivergent (editing to add: I mean ANY degree of neurodivergence, whether you were aware of it in childhood or not, whether professionally diagnosed or not,) I highly recommend following professional children's disability advocates who are themselves neurodivergent
and these can be like, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, whoever. Anyone who works in what might be called "special ed," who is neurodivergent.
Because they will be posting ALL of the things about what neurodivergent kids benefit from in an educational setting and what is harmful to them. That's their job, and they're uniquely good at spotting those patterns bc they share many experiences with the kids themselves, and once WERE THEMSELVES disabled kids in an educational setting. They Know what options/accommodations/interventions feel like and what they needed and did not get. AND, they used that experience as motivation to learn as much as possible about learning and child development and what kids actually need, from an expert standpoint.
They'll tell you exactly why what happened at school hurt you. Because they know. and they know what alternatives might have actually supported you instead of traumatizing you!
Reading about this is extraordinarily triggering for me, to be clear.
But I do it, because when I am reading about best practices, it immediately becomes clear the gap between that and what I received growing up. The advocates explain WHY kids benefit from one setup and are harmed by another. I can absolutely tell immediately what specific aspects of my childhood and upbringing were the most traumatic to me based on the extremity of my reaction to the content. I can gauge that by tracking my emotional reactions to reading about varying specific topics or situations, and the ways that adults might handle those situations. Because whenever I was made to feel like the way it happened was the only possible way it COULD happen, and told I was weak and broken and not trying hard enough for desperately needing something different? They were lying.
We now know that they were lying. There were other ways to do it that would have had my own experience and wellbeing in mind. Ways that would not have damaged me so profoundly during such a crucial developmental period in my life. Often the solutions posed by advocates are ways that I was advocating for AT THE TIME, AS A CHILD -- the number of "best practices" I read nowadays that are just LISTS OF THINGS I EXPLICITLY ASKED OR BEGGED FOR. I swear to fucking god.
um
Anyway. If you related to my last post about school trauma, here is some actionable advice. I like NeuroWild and Destiny Huff (on fb and insta) for starting out, and you can find and follow other people doing that work through them, hopefully.
I joke about it being humiliating to be traumatized because "my parents made me go to school" but I am extremely serious that school trauma can ABSOLUTELY be some of the most damaging childhood trauma. Schools are not built to serve children, and they're especially not built to serve any children who fall outside of certain very specific parameters, who happen not to thrive under the way the education system works.
This is the root of everything wrong with academia -- the way our entire society approaches both 1. child rearing and 2. education are, from a prosocial and literally human-centric perspective (I think of this as Social Ergonomics,) some of the least effective and most harmful ways of doing those things.
Many, many people are stuck in their lives because of what they do not realize is school trauma. It is very rare even in childhood trauma spaces to discuss school trauma, because it is a type of trauma which inherently requires people to question the entire foundation of some of our least questioned Systems. Institutional trauma is extremely hard to discuss, because it rests at the intersection of 'discussions of interpersonal abuse and trauma' and 'sociology-focused institutional justice frameworks' which are things that do not often overlap.
This is why it is helpful to learn about institutional justice/advocacy/liberation frameworks AS WELL as learning about interpersonal abuse dynamics. Many people who are survivors of institutional abuse, who have a concept of what abuse is but do not have a framework for what it looks like in a dynamic other than intimate interpersonal abuse, are unable to recognize themselves as having been abused. That's why I tell people to read about mad pride, prison abolition, youth rights, etc. To recognize your own trauma as trauma requires recognition of the ways in which our society routinely traumatizes people.
Sorry if this is unrelated but can I ask your opinion on the term kinrad? In my opinion it feels so invalidating as an otherpaw tbh
Sure thing!
Thank you for asking, Anon. (I already wanted to make a rant about it, but I don't really have a blog for ranting, so now I have an excuse to post it here).
Short answer: I'm against that movement or whatever it is.
Long answer:
TW: Rant/Rant-ish, mentions of harassment
Note: I'm writing from my memory what the post was about, because I've blocked the coiner of this term on my main, I don't know what was the coiner's username to find them and I've blocked already many other accounts since seeing the coining post, so I'm not gonna find the post. Feel free to correct me on anything.
If I remember correctly, Kin Radical is pro-misanthropy, pro-kinning, anti-otherpaw, anti-fictionpaw (I've learnt about that term a while before I saw coining post of Kin Radical. It's apparently a term for these who roleplay as fictional characters. But I might be wrong) and anti-funlink.
I've seen already other alterhuman bloggers complaining about misanthropy in the alterhuman community. I haven't seen it much (probably because Tumblr algorithm prefers to recommend me some stupid discourses), but it's still annoying annoying to be aware that misanthropy is a problem in our community. Not every human is bad and hating whole humanity will not help with anything. I don't know what more I can really say. If anyone has more thoughts on this subject: feel free to add them.
When it comes to "kinning", I've seen that Kin Radical's coiner said that "kinning should be normalised", which is so fucking annoying to see, because KFFs stole the 'kin language and has been harassing fictionfolk.
Here's a fragment from The Dragonheart Collective’s Testimony on the KFF Phenomenon [link]:
KFF, or ‘Kin for fun’ is a term for those who claim that ‘kin is only for fun and a choice and means identify with/relate to instead of ‘identify AS’ and the culture the people who said this built on their stolen word.
Ie- The group of people above and the ensuing culture they created built on top of misinformation, a stolen word, and the harassment of fictionfolk.
The term is one that the KFF chose for themselves after a fashion, as they claimed they ‘kinned for fun’ rather than like all us ‘serious otherkin freaks’.
It was not the otherkind community who came up with the term in the first place, we just started abbreviating it because it was clunky to type otherwise.
KFF is a word for people who are being revisionist about our history and our words, who are trying to push those who have always been in the community out, and in the face of evidence will often double down and attack those who use fictionkin by its actual definition- usually in ableist, anti-spiritual, or saneist ways.
The word ‘delusional attachment’ was in recent years aggressively pushed on actual otherkin and fictionkin to further their attempts at stealing our word- doing damage to both psychosis communities (as it spreads misinformation about what a delusion is) and ‘kin communities alike.
People started using the phrase/term KFF because they needed to talk about the people who suddenly came in and started asserting a definition contrary to years and years of history, who started trying to push out the people who built the community to make a pale mockery of the community in its place.
They needed a word and well, the KFF chose the label themselves after a fashion.
Its a word that people who are not fictionkin and who were there back then often do not understand the full gravity of- what these people did to our spaces and the aggressive bullying and trolling people who claimed they ‘kinned for fun’ meted out to us.
People who weren't there often don't quite comprehend the damage they did to our spaces and the damage they continue to do. The aggressive gatekeeping and bullying they do to us freaks because they want to continue to steal and ‘normie-fy’ our word.
KFF reached critical mass and breached Tumblr containment to wider fandom culture, and now many people who count as KFF (as they think kin means the above and has always done so) are simply not aware of the history of the term and that it originally had a different meaning.
When it comes to otherpaws and fictionpaws, Kin Radical's coiner claimed that they're "mocking" therians and fictionkins. This is very stupid, because saying such a thing implies that masks, quads, roleplay = alterhuman.
I'll just quote a fragment of @d0gbite's post on the matter of otherpaw (but similar things would apply to fictionpaws) [link], because she explained it pretty well in their post:
no, someone wearing a mask or doing quads is not inherently copying or mocking therians, because masks and quads aren’t exclusive to therians, and they never have been. wearing a mask does not a therian make. wearing a mask does not necessarily have anything to do with therians. claiming that anyone who wears masks or does quads is copying therians is trying to claim exclusive rights of therians over masks and quads. it’s gatekeeping, yes, but worse than gatekeeping, it’s trying to cement masks and quads as inherently ‘therian’. which they aren’t. which we have tried all this time to teach folks that no, not all therians wear masks/do quads, and just because someone does those things doesn’t make them alterhuman.
but now these anti-otherpaw folks are regressing again to “mask = therian, therefore they must be copying and mocking therians”. which is factually inaccurate and damaging to what being alterhuman and being therian truly means. it’s what leads to the misinformation about the true depth of alterhuman identity on places like tiktok. and i’m so sick of it.
I don't exactly remember what the coiner said on funlinking, but it's annoying to see anti-funlink folk. Like, why are they so angry about someone choosing to become an otherlinker, because they thought it be fun thing to do?? Also, funlink isn't the same as KFFs. Funlinkers still identify as their linktypes, KFFs don't identify as their "kinnies" (I think that's what they call characters they relate to) and KFFs misuse 'kin language what I've already said before.
The thing that baffles me the most from all of that is the fact that the coiner of Kin Radical supports stealers of 'kin language who harassed members of our community (KFF), but they're against roleplayers who created their *own terms* (otherpaws & fictionpaws) to separate themselves from the alterhuman community. WHAT IS THIS LOGIC???
If anyone has any thoughts, feel free to share them.
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Inky Paws is a nonhuman anthology zine for original fiction writings by nonhumans and alterhumans about nonhumanity, alterhumanity, and similar, related themes.
This zine is primarily literature focused, but will also be open to more illustrative methods of story-telling such as comics. The zine’s focus is on fictional pieces that are centered around nonhumanity, alterhumanity, therianthropy, and similar (see Submission Guidelines section for more details).
And more! If you're unsure, just ask! Seriously, please just ask. I promise I would 10000% love to hear about your idea even if you're unsure about submitting it, there is no such thing as a bad idea and I cannot stress this enough.
How to participate:
You can submit your pieces in this Google Form!
OR
Email invisibleotherkin(@)gmail(.)com with your submission, and please title the email "Inky Paws Zine #4 Submission". With your submission, please include:
The piece's title or name,
A name or pen name to attribute the piece to,
Any content warnings that you feel are necessary for the piece,
Any social media handle or personal website you’d like to be published alongside your name with the piece (optional), and
Any relevant author notes or author biographical information (optional).
Anonymous pieces are also welcome.
Once submissions have been collected and the deadline has passed, these submissions will be put into the zine and it will be posted online as a free PDF. Submissions are due by November 30th, 2026.
Please see the Submission Guidelines, and Submission FAQ, below cut.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Each individual may contribute up to 3 accepted submissions to be published in Inky Paws; individuals within systems may each submit 3 pieces, that is to say 3 pieces per systemmate/headmate/preferred term.
Comics and similar multi-part pieces count as one submission altogether: if you submit a single story that has been divided into two sub-stories for dramatic emphasis, or if you submit 10 pages of a single-story comic, or if you submit a written piece of fiction and an accompanying image that you drew or otherwise created to go along with it, that would still only count as one piece.
Submissions must fit the thematic criteria of:
Being explicitly about or based on nonhumans, otherkin, therianthropes, fictionkin, alterhumans, or similar groups, or;
Having strong themes or describing experiences strongly reminiscent of or related to nonhumans, otherkin, therianthropes, fictionkin, alterhumans, or similar such as (but not limited to):
Characters experiencing nonhumanity or alterhumanity as being a part of themselves/their identity,
Characters experiencing anything similar to a shift (including physical shifting),
Characters struggling with (emotionally, socially, or otherwise) being both human and nonhuman or alterhuman in some way,
Characters having a past-life as something nonhuman or alterhuman that strongly still impacts their current life, or
Characters desiring to be nonhuman or have nonhuman attributes.
TL;DR - Your submissions have to relate to or be about alterhumans or nonhumans in some way, shape, or form.
Written submissions must not exceed 7500 words, and must also use a reader-friendly font with a text size of or exceeding 16 pt.
For stories that use multiple different fonts, such as pieces meant to imitate newspapers and similar, every effort will be made to preserve the general "feel" of your piece but fonts may not be transferred over 1:1 due to potential conflicts with font copyright, readability, and overarching zine style.
Multi-part image submissions must not exceed 10 pages in length, and must also use a reader-friendly font with a text size of or exceeding 16 pt if they include text. Images larger than 8.5 x 11in. will be scaled down to an appropriate size; please take that into account when creating and submitting your images. It is also recommended that images be vertical or square in their orientation.
Written submissions should be submitted as a .docx file. Images and mixed media pieces should be submitted as either .jpg or .png files.
All submitted pieces should be your own work. Individuals caught plagiarizing or using AI within their submissions will be barred from participating in Inky Paws, including in any potential future volumes.
SUBMISSION FAQ:
Q: Where will this zine be hosted?
A: The zine will be hosted for free download on Itch.io, where issues 1, 2, and 3 of the zine are already hosted.
Q: What is the cap on submissions?
A: At this time, we are not looking to accept more than roughly 25 submissions at most, in order to keep numbers and expectations manageable.
Q: Can I update my application after submitting?
A: Yes, so long as the updates are submitted before the submission deadline!
Q: What is your policy on content moderation and content warnings?
A: If you feel your piece needs content warnings, please include them in the submission, as we are hoping to include relevant content warnings and maturity ratings alongside all pieces. We are at this time accepting pieces of all tones and ratings.
With that said, It should be noted that any items submitted with soapboxing intent and anti-nonhuman, anti-alterhuman, anti-fictionkin, or similar leans are largely not welcome, as this is a zine geared towards all aforementioned groups and then some.
Q: Can I submit an in-progress draft or sketch? Can I claim a spot in the zine before sending in my submission?
A: We are not currently accepting WIP pieces for submission at this time, though feel free to send us your WIP if you have questions related to its future submission. We also cannot reserve or guarantee a spot in the zine pre-submission, regardless of any existing drafts or WIPs.
Q: Can I submit a piece of fanfiction?
A: While we've now accepted pieces of fanfiction in the past, we tend to prefer to leave them out for legal reasons. If you submit a piece of obvious fanfiction, please know that it may be significantly more likely to be rejected from the zine and that, if the piece is accepted, the piece may be removed without warning from the zine later on if DMCA or legal issues arise. We strongly advise that individuals who wish to write something inspired by fiction make it non-obvious to the outside reader where the inspiration is being taken from.
Q: Can I submit something I've created in the past?
A: You can submit something you've created in the past, but please try to avoid submitting anything that you've published previously and is currently publicly accessible. For example, if the story you want to submit has already been featured in a different anthology, please don't submit it to Inky Paws! We want to encourage people to create new pieces, or to put the spotlight on pieces that haven't previously had the opportunity to be published.
Q: What is the projected timeline for this project?
A: Submissions will close by November 30th of 2026. The publish date of the zine depends on submission amount and size of submissions; in an ideal world, we hope to have the zine published by December, before year's end.
Q: Can I rescind my submission?
A: As long as you request to rescind your submission before the submission deadline, yes. After the deadline passes and the formatting and work towards publishing begins, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to remove your work from the zine due to time constraints and potential formatting issues. Please take this into account before submitting.
Q: Will there be any physical copies of this zine?
A: Due to cost restraints and a lack of printing experience on the part of the zine organizers, we have no physical copies of this zine planned for print. You are, however, welcome to download and print copies of the zine for personal use.
Q: Who are the organizers of this zine? Where can I reach out to ask further questions?
A: Who-is-Page and Noel Sol of the Sol System are organizing this zine. Feel free to send us any questions, comments, or concerns to invisibleotherkin(@)gmail(.)com, or you can always message us on Tumblr at Who-is-Page.
Ive never really understood the hate towards physical therians. If someone says their body is that of a nonhuman animal, then who am I to tell them it isn't. It all seems like such a non-issue. Recently a ton of discourse has been showing up about it on my dash, and i just dont see the point in arguing about it. I feel like it just divides our community further, which is not something we need. I really don't see how it harms anything. Like I am legit confused what everyone is upset about. Is this a situation like how some trans people will invalidate non-binary people to appeal more to cis people? There are very few instances where I can see someone being nonhuman on a physical level as actually harmful (like if someone were to try and eat solely carnivorously because of their theriotype, which will cause you to get scurvy and die). So long as you aren't hurting yourself or others, why does it matter?
Regarding my initial thought of people conflating physical nonhuman (plus lycanthrope, which I should have added) with pshifter, and consequent comments proving my point. Because “pshifter” is quite a label to put on oneself.
Putting this into a reblog because this is a complex issue that I alone can’t really discuss in detail on. So hopefully others can weigh in.
I’m going to roughly quote some community discussion that’s been had on this topic.
[“pshifter” as a term in specifics are about a group of people who has] historically been scammers, abusers, and mini cults using the allure and prestige of physical shapeshifting to harm others as well, as well as fakeclaiming anyone that couldn’t physically shift/was not physically literally the thing. The claims of Most Valid and Best Authority and self-giving prestige has long been a thing that physical claims have been paired with and it gets people hackles up.
In addition as its against consensus reality it can mess with people with reality issues to see physical claims, and for other people its a safety and false information concern (as consensus reality says that cannot happen).
Physical alterhumans also get a lot of fakeclaiming, so for those who are Not scammer pshifters and are instead experiencing nonstandard reality/what is considered delusions, this feels really shitty. Also the ableism. Lots and LOTS of ableism.
So, mutual weariness, sometimes mutual dislike, while it appears to be between the physical vs nonphysical alterhuman, it isn’t a clear binary (a lot of things are not binary, especially large scale community issue like this).
This issue has not been started for just a couple years, but going back deep into community history. Which we need to take into consideration. Community trauma should always be part of the equation, and community growth as well (people are better able to talk about being physical nonhumanity now compare to then)
(we’ve always had issue of sub community fakeclaiming each other as well, fictionkin a prime example being fakeclaimed by therian and otherkin.)
I think a lot of people are too scared of messing up when writing a plural character to even try including a system in their story, and that's okay! It's totally okay to feel intimidated when representing experiences you have no frame of reference for.
But systems are so rarely included in stories, and I for one would really love to see more people like me in the stories I love. So, if you think you're up to it...
Here's a guide to how to write plural characters and include them in your story!
(long post warning.)
Here's the simple answer for how to write a plural character!
Step 1: Make a character, like how you would make any other character. Give them their own thoughts, feelings, and personality.
Step 2: Make another character the same way.
Step 3: Repeat a few more times if you're feeling fancy.
Step 4: Make all of those characters share a body.
Aaand you're done! Congratulations, you've made a system! It's really as simple as that if you want it to be, as at its core, plurality is just more than one selves sharing one body!
But that's not really the most nuanced way of doing it, is it? That's how you can create a generically plural character, but what if you want to get fancier, resonate with specific plural experiences?
Well... Let's forget the simple answer for now, then!
First, you want to decide what type of system you want your character to be.
I'd say there are four primary spectrums to consider here, all of which can be decided independently of each other!
Spectrum #1: disordered to nondisordered.
A disordered system typically refers to a system that meets the criteria for a specific diagnosis with a CDD (complex dissociative disorder), such as DID (dissociative identity disorder) or OSDD (other specified dissociative disorder). The symptoms and diagnosis requirements for these can be easily accessed online from sources such as the DSM-V.
A nondisordered system refers to a system that is, well, not that! This does not mean that plurality is never a struggle for them, nor does being a disordered system mean that plurality is inherently a negative experience.
If you want to write a system with dissociative amnesia between headmates, you'll likely want to write a disordered system! If you do intend to label your character with a specific medical diagnosis, please take extra care when doing research, as DID and OSDD are both highly stigmatized and frequently misunderstood diagnoses.
Also, avoid the term "multiple personality disorder"! That is no longer a medical diagnosis, it hasn't been called that since the release of the DSM-IV, and use of this term is largely considered ableist.
And lastly, maybe they don't use this framework at all! Not all plurals choose to identify as strictly disordered or nondisordered. If your OC doesn't, why not?
Spectrum #2: system origins.
Now it's time to answer why your system is a system to begin with!
Did childhood trauma cause it? Did they become plural intentionally? Perhaps it just sorta happened, or they were born as a system! Maybe it has something to do with their religious beliefs, even!
Broadly, system origins can be split into four categories: adaptive, spontaneous, created, and spiritual. A system can also be multiple of these!
Adaptive: adaptive systems are systems which became plural in response to some kind of stressor in their life, such as extreme childhood trauma or prolonged stress. Most disordered systems are adaptive! Ask yourself how their trauma may affect the relationships between their headmates. Does it cause hostility, or are they even closer because of it? A mix of both, perhaps?
Spontaneous: spontaneous systems are systems with no especially clear cause. Sometimes plurality just happens! Some folks are systems from birth! Some might not know why they're plural at all! Maybe your system OC has a unique or silly explanation for their plurality.
Created: created systems are systems which became plural intentionally through various mental exercises. It can be a long and complicated process for some, and come quite naturally for others! I recommend actually researching methods of system creation if you want to make a character who is a created system, to get a feel for what the process may have been like for them! Also, why did your OC choose to become plural to begin with?
Spiritual: spiritual systems are systems whose plurality is tied to spiritual or religious beliefs! This is quite broad. If you want to base this around a specific real world religion, be mindful to do your research! If not, what might their specific beliefs about their system be? Do they see their headmates as having come from somewhere else, like another world? Please remember to treat all spiritual and religious beliefs with respect, even more unorthodox ones.
Mixed origins: as I said, none of the above terms are mutually exclusive! Maybe your OC's system was created intentionally for spiritual reasons! Maybe your OC's system formed spontaneously but has since been influenced heavily by trauma! Don't be afraid to mix it up!
Unlabeled origins: many systems choose not to label their origins at all! It's not something all systems care about, for one, and some systems also actively dislike the idea of putting themselves in a specific box. Some systems also just don't know their origins.
Spectrum #3: singlet to plural.
Okay, well, this one's weird, isn't it? Either you're plural or you're not, right?
Well, actually, no!
Some systems are what are called median systems, essentially in-between plural and singlet. Median systems may see their headmates more as differing facets of themselves than entirely separate people!
Median systems may identify with both plural and singlet experiences.
Separation between different headmates in a system can vary wildly from plural to plural!
Spectrum #4: headcount
Finally, how big is your plural OC's system?
There's no wrong answer here! Smaller systems may be easier to write, but if you want to write a large system, you don't necessarily need to precisely define details on every single headmate. Maybe they have more common fronters, so you can focus development on those!
Systems can be any size, from as small as two to as big as, well, infinity! Yes, you read that right, some systems actually claim to have infinite or uncountable headmates! The sky's the limit.
Please do note that duo systems, systems of two headmates, seem to be the most common in media, but are actually rather rare among systems in real life. If you make a duo system character, I recommend also making one other plural character with a higher headcount to reflect this! Obviously there are plenty of duo systems in real life, though, they're just not especially common.
I'd say a good number is about five to ten headmates. It should be manageable from a writing perspective, but it's also closer to the actual average headcount I've observed among plural peers (15-20). If you're up to the challenge, though, I absolutely recommend creating a larger system! Systems with a hundred or more headmates are actually quite common! Obviously this could be a huge writing challenge if you actually want information on every single headmate, but you don't need to be that detailed, and you can make new headmates for your OC as it comes up in the story.
Things to consider
Here are some more miscellaneous things to consider when making a plural OC!
Do they have any introjects?
Introjects are headmates that are in some way based on an external source. For example, a system might get an introject of their sibling, or a favorite fictional character! Not all systems have them, but they are very common.
Do they have introjects of real people in their life, and does that cause tension? Maybe their system has been heavily influenced by a special interest, so they have many introjects from a piece of media that's important to them!
What is their internal communication like?
Some systems can talk to each other freely in their head, while others can't communicate internally at all! And everything in between.
If they have difficulty with internal communication, what external tools might they use to talk to one another? Maybe they keep a journal, or leave each other sticky notes! Maybe they don't talk at all!
What are the relationships between headmates like?
Do they get along? Do they hate each other? Does it vary between headmates? (That last one is the best answer!)
Are any of them friends? Family? Enemies? Dating? Exes? And yes, headmates can be all of these things!
Maybe they have so little communication that they're practically strangers to one another, but one headmate has a lot of spite towards whoever keeps eating their leftover cake!
How do they feel about roles?
Many systems use a framework of roles for their headmates, as many headmates split for specific purposes! The most common fronter may call themself the host, for example! The one who takes care of the others may be the caretaker, the one who protects the others from harm may be the protector, and so on.
Some systems find role language like this helpful, others don't! What about your OC?
What ways do their headmates vary?
...And what ways might they be similar?
Do they have different genders, orientations, fashion senses, music taste, mannerisms, interests, accents, fears, hopes, or dreams? Do these differences cause tension, or do they all accept each other?
Are some of their headmates different ages? The most common terms for a child headmate are little or syskid!
Are some of them different species? If so, do they consider themselves otherkin or a therian, or do they see it as something else?
Maybe they're similar in some ways too! Maybe all of the headmates are the same gender, or the system trends towards a specific area of the gender spectrum!
Do they have a headspace?
...And if so, what's it like?
A headpsace, or innerworld, is an internally imagined space. Basically, exactly what it sounds like, and singlets can have them too! But they're more common among systems.
It can serve as a place for headmates to speak with one another, a place where headmates go when they're not fronting, and just generally a world for headmates to occupy.
Not all systems have one! Does your OC?
If so, how big is it? Is it a room? A building? A town? An island? A world? Does it even have an edge?
How detailed is it? Is it an empty void, a fully fleshed out world, or somewhere in-between?
Did they create one intentionally, or has it just sorta always been there?
What terminology do they use?
Many systems have varying idiolects when talking about their systems!
What do they call their headmates, for example? Just headmates? Alters? Members? Sysmates? Facets? Parts? Brain friends? Or something unique to them, like stars or puppies or fuckers or anything else! Does it vary between headmates?
(Note that "alters" is generally more common among disordered systems! Also, parts language is considered offensive to many systems, but many also actually prefer those terms for themselves. Always ask!)
Do they call themself a system? A collective? A plurality? Something unique, like a flock or a constellation?
How complex is their system's structure?
This can relate to headcount, the larger the system the more generally complex it is, but there's more to it than just that!
For example, maybe your OC's system also has subsystems! Those are exactly what they sound like, a system inside a system, a headmate with headmates.
Maybe their system has different layers or sidesystems! Essentially two entirely or mostly separate systems within the same brain. Sidesystems may have worse communication with headmates from other sidesystems, or they may not be able to communicate at all!
Do they have any fragments, "partially formed" headmates?
Do they know they're a system?
Maybe they don't! Maybe they found out recently! Maybe they've known for years! Maybe they've always known!
If they don't, are they going to find out during the story? What might that look like for them? What do they think is going on, if they don't know it's plurality?
Do they use external tools?
Do they keep a journal? Do they leave notes for each other?
Maybe they wear pins or bracelets to show who's fronting! Maybe they use an app to track their system and their fronting!
Plurality and magic
If you're writing a story with magic, how might magic and plurality intersect?
Maybe different headmates can use different types of magic! Maybe their magic looks different depending on the fronter!
I would caution against having your only plural character be plural from magical origins, such as possession, though. Those can very much be akin to plurality in media, and there's no reason not to explore that! However it is fundamentally disconnected from the experiences of real systems, so if you are specifically setting out to make a plural character, I'd recommend against explaining their plurality with magic. This doesn't apply if you're willing to include multiple systems in your story, like one magical in nature and one not!
Closing thoughts
Writing a plural character is much like writing any other character.
Do your research, be prepared to receive constructive criticism, but don't be afraid to try! This may all seem like a LOT to consider, but you don't have to include every single thing I mentioned here, this is all just something to get you started and give you a basic idea of what's out there!
The bottom line is, write your plural character like a person. Plurality is not a gimmick, and it's not an entire character in and of itself. It's a trait a character can have! Yes, it's quite a unique trait, and comes with a lot of implications for the character, but it's still just part of the character.
Include your plural OC in the story how you would any other. Let them be a character, with their own story, with friends, with enemies, with strengths and weaknesses.
Writing a plural character really is just a lot like writing multiple characters, at the end of the day! If your character views their headmates as entirely separate people, write them as such!
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I fucking hate the tiktok therian community for what they have done to the therian community. They fucking butchered the community. Now folks believe they don't even identify as animals.
They fucking forgot the name of the THETA DELTA, the fucking SYMBOL FOR THERIANTHROPY
The therian community is dear to me, it is where I first realized my flesh wasn't human like I was raised to believe. Even if I am not one of them, I am fucking angry for the damage caused to the community.
It is a big deal, because it's not fucking harmless, this new wave of therians have pushed physical nonhumans out of spaces they created and are currently trying to take our labels.
I am angry, I fear the damage to be irreversible.
The community is no longer based off of the same identity that it once was
I wouldn’t put all of the blame on a group of (majority) minors who got permission from their parents to post videos with their homemade masks. I wouldn’t blame said group if the instant gratification method of social media inhibited them from researching into a rustic forum from 2014 about experiences and definitions the wider community is now wanting to desperately update.
This isn’t just a TikTok issue - this is the consequence of how social media alters your brain. The community is faced with very powerful psychological tool that has been designed to keep you addicted no matter what.
This is what happens when therianthropy is exposed to the communication method of short form content - it is rebranded to fit the fast-paced climate of reels. TikTok actively encourages comparison from account to account, in order to stay relevant you need to be predictable. Familiar. Human.
Abandoning the past of the therian community and modifying its DNA to co-exist with trends is exactly what platforms like TikTok want from communities. To sell, to buy, to conform, and to drop everything else that would be disturbing to the average human eye. Change the meaning, change labels, anything to be and feel liked. Again, this isn’t just TikTok. This is everywhere online.
Pushing away therians purely because they originated from TikTok will only widen the divide, and leave the new wave vulnerable to even more harmful misinformation. Yes, I understand the frustration. Trust me. It fucking hurts when the community you once grew up it is no longer thriving.
A community is a collective. Evolution happens as a collective. We cannot abandon each other. The new wave of therianthropy desperately needs re-education now more than ever.
mm yeah, even if I never trusted tiktok as a platform to begin with. Downright negative for something like our information heavy community.
But yeah, social media, just look at fictionkin. Did you know there were a whole wider community before the kff phenomenon happened? Now even our own community members mock or can’t trust fellow community members. But we still try, picking up the pieces and we try to find each other in all that rubble.
Sometimes, no amount of emotional preparation can help.
We’ve properly spoilered ourselves, we’ve seen the analysis, read through fanfics that even quoted from the movie. We’ve even seen the various bts in full.
Aziraphale is a mess. Crowley had to comfort us both, and I can’t decide what size I need or want to or instinctively to be in, because I need to protect, I want to cover them up, I want to comfort because I know Crowley isn’t alright either (C: ‘m fiiiiine. ‘m a demon, made o’ tougher stuff than this), and I want to be small and held.
I had to say no to Crowley’s offer to take over front. They need each other right now.
“One of the most nerve racking things is to exactly know that we do not live in a binary world, but be surrounded by people that think we do and want to have a discussion about it.”
Excerpt from Chapter 37 of It takes heaven and hell to raise the Antichrist (Good Omens fanfic)
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