Tag: reblogs

rukleethedragon:

There’s things we just don’t understand, like as a species. We don’t really get how sentience works, even though we can practically define it. We don’t know what happens when we die, even though we’ve spent lifetimes studying how one might stumble upon death.

It’s not that I have an inflated sense of self-worth, it’s not that I’m “blinded by my own hubris,” and it’s not even that I think there’s some grand plan or design in the works. It’s simply that there are things we cannot fathom. Why do I like certain colors or smells? What makes a cat person, versus a dog person? Why do some people seek out danger, while others develop irrational phobias? It’s honestly a little prideful to think that we could ever comprehend everything that happens on this bitch of an Earth, let alone think that we have even a fraction of the answers now.

There is something different inside me, something which has made me different than any of you. You all have something inside you that makes you different from me. Is it a soul? A glitch? A defect? Just one thought or one experience can so greatly affect our personal trajectories.

Perhaps it is the particular supersonic vibration of my own soul which draws me to swamps, to the sound of a certain chord progression, to the taste of mint, the smell of wet sand, the feel of a smooth river rock or a particular mug in my hands. Maybe it’s just that I was always supposed to like those things. Maybe I chose them when I was teeny tiny.

I guess I’m just wondering how crazy it actually is to identify and give name to these feelings we all have. Maybe we’re all wrong– maybe there’s some other reason we feel this way. But I think it’s unlikely that so many of us would feel so strongly for so long with absolutely no reason.

ranthimi:

necrophagist:

Also if your coping mechanism not only involves the complete and unquestioning compliance and validation of total strangers, but also requires that no one else in your presence be allowed the same coping mechanism, it’s crossed the line into being an actual part of the underlying problem.

It’s not actually helping you cope if even a slight challenge to your method leads to panic, dissociation, or extreme mental distress. IDing as a character is not actually a viable coping mechanism if 1) the benefits are only achieved through constant outside validation and 2) absence of said validation leads to a relapse in the harmful behavior or thought patterns that the coping mechanism was designed to help.

To add on to this: I had a copinglink back in high school. I hadn’t fully figured out my nonhuman stuff back then, I knew I was, I just didn’t know what due to some external fuckery by a so-called friend. Anyhow, while I consciously chose a character to identify as for the purpose of a placeholder, it became a lot more than that due to how much I was dealing with at the time, and because it went so unchecked and unregulated by anything or anyone else, it actually became distressing and harmful as a result.

I cannot imagine what sort of damage these kids are doing to themselves by choosing “IDs” for fun and then yelling at everyone else over it and allowing it to control their lives to such a degree. If I were to ever take on a c’link again, I’d do so with the explicit intent to emulate certain positive traits of the character/creature in my life with the nice little bit of buffer between my actual self and general stressors that having a coping identity generally provides.

The danger with this sort of thing lies in over-identifying as your chosen persona. That’s what all these kids seem to be doing. It’s more than just a security blanket to them anymore, it’s not an extension of them, it’s them, so if you touch it, you’re hurting them. This is never how it should work because by the time this happens you’re far into unhealthy coping territory because you can’t control the fandom, actual fictiokind, or other people choosing the same character as a c’link.

While emulation can instill more permanent positive traits in one’s life, just because you emulate your favorite celebrity or character or mythical beast it doesn’t mean you will literally become them if you believe you’re this thing hard enough. That’s generally considered to be creepy and unhealthy. A distance to one degree or another between yourself and the object of your emulation is vital for this sort of thing, but since they’ve all decided that words don’t mean things and you can be nonhuman if you wish hard enough from day fucking one it’s normal to these kids to do these sorts of things.

devoutdecay:

This snippet from the D&D guide is really interesting. Not the language we use here, for sure, but it’s something I think we could use.

Most of us, if not all of us, would likely be considered quasi-deities, and I’m sure we could combine terminology as needed. For example, in this lifetime, by these standards, I’d be a quasi-titan, but when I go home I’d go back to being a lesser deity.

This isn’t the language I choose to use for myself, but again, I think it could provide a sort of standard terminology that we could potentially stick to as a group.

This is pretty neat. I suppose I’d be considered more of a vestige at this point – my power wasn’t exactly by mortals, but powered by an elder / great deity – but at full power I’m on the higher end of lesser. Slaying my avatar wouldn’t bother me, but I’m not elder-god level and never will be, ha.

Dear Followers of Othermagic:

othermagic:

Hey.

So you’ve probably noticed, this blog is sort of dead, and most of what’s put here anymore are reblogs from my main or occasionally from other people. I don’t want this to be the case. This is meant to be a springboard, a starting point, somewhere for people to go and look and find ways to express and explore themselves in a deep, meaningful, yet still fun way.

The main way I wanted to do this was magic. There’s not so much of a focus on it anymore, despite otherworldly/fictional reconstructionism being more out in the open now, but it’s still taken a back seat to aesthetics and psychological explanations and memes. Yes, magic is work, exploring yourself is work, but it’s by no means something entirely devoid of fun and lightheartedness! That’s why I made a few early posts about reviving glamourbombing and some activities you could do to feel more like yourself, more in your zone.

But most of what I wanted was a sort of cultural exchange between nonhumans, something that not only encompassed magic but bringing some parts of home here in as many ways as possible. Remembered languages, recipes, fashion emulating those from another world, little nuances about how other places worked and how we could all share them with each other.

Something this community lacks, and has lacked for a sadly long time, is things that bring individuals closer together rather than dividing them up even further. Labels, to some degree, are useful in defining experience. Past a certain point? They can become divisive, it can just devolve into splitting hairs. I came into this community expecting… a community. People bonding over differences rather than fighting over them, people learning about what other worlds are like, what their friends’ homes were to them, trading and sharing ideas and learning about each other and themselves.

So what does this mean for the blog? Well, for one, I really wanted to share my impetus for making this blog, seeing as I’ve been feeling bad about neglecting it. I just don’t know what to do sometimes when the fact that things still seem divisive and distant as ever gets to me. I’m not leaving! That’s not what this post is about.

I want you guys to share things. I want to find a way to build up a community where more than just memories of events are shared with one another. I want to know ideas and prompts and other things that other people have learned. I want it to be okay to embrace “weirder” things like the magic and culture and holidays and fashions and languages that initially made me so happy a community existed at all! 

Respectability politics only serve the community itself so much, and right now, all they’re doing is hurting it further. People who don’t want to like us won’t like us no matter how “clean” we are to them. So rather than ignoring it and pretending it doesn’t exist, it should be embraced that… no. We’re not exactly “normal”. Otherwise we wouldn’t have reason to suspect something wasn’t human or otherworldly to begin with!

I will try and post more prompts. I will try and come up with ideas and content, but honestly? I’d love more feedback, more interaction, more ideas. I’m sorry if I’ve been a little stiff in the past with my replies. Sometimes I just don’t know how to respond (or don’t realize that sometimes it would be best to simply post an ask without a response so everyone can see it!) and I apologize if I’ve come off as rude or hurt feelings in the past. I’m still just as prone to mistakes as anyone else. 

But mostly, if you get any inspiration from this blog? Tag us! If you have remembered languages or holidays or cultural tidbits or types of magic? Let us see it! If this becomes a hub for more “nonstandard” types of memory sharing/cultural exchange, I’d honestly love that. More community in this community would be a beautiful thing to see, and I’m more than happy to help you share.

Thanks for reading this and sticking around through weird times. 💜

Cloud

Modern ‘Kin Cuties (Updated!)

whatthedeadknow:

Faekin who wear floral shirts and put way too much sugar in their coffee

Demonkin who take long walks in the city at night and wear off-color dark clothing

Ghostkin who admire tattoo shops and listen to weird horror music constantly

Vampirekin who drink cranberry juice and browse in old book shops

Spacekin who visit planetariums and wear sparkly fingerless gloves, ‘because aesthetic’

Zombiekin who only ever blog because that’s what you do when you can hardly ever sleep and are charming af

Shadowkin who drink cold coffee and sit under trees and old buildings

Seakin who eat salted caramel and sing melodic indie songs

Godkin who visit museums and listen to instrumental music

Techkin who like to hack and play indie video games

Plantkin who go to community gardens and put honey in their tea

An Interesting Find

liongoatsnake:

atlas-of-mossland:

I was doing some research into the origins of the current usage of -hearted terminology (this post here will help you out if you’re interested as well!). And during my diggings I was surprised to find the first “official” definition of the term given by the person who more or less coined it.

On The Daemon Forum, Oct 26th 2009, user Teddy laid out the definition of the term [insert animal]-hearted and contrasted it’s meaning to that of therian:

_____ therian: One who identifies as other, more than, or not fully human, instead choosing to identify themselves AS part or fully animal, whether mentally or in soul. May experience past lives or phantom limbs, or certain animalistic behaviors and urges.

_____-hearted: One who identifies as fully human, but who identifies strongly WITH a particular animal, similar to a totem. May experience phantom limbs or certain animal behaviors, but does it as a way to become closer to an animal to whom they feel connected.

(I linked to the post up there, however you have to be logged into the forum in order to view it)

I found this really interesting because it’s a piece of otherhearted history I’ve literally never seen mentioned anywhere. Also interesting (to me at least) is the fact that the “as vs. with” distinction has been around since the start. It’s pretty amazing how far the term has spread from it’s origin point and how the understanding of what “-hearted” means has changed with time.

Most people aren’t aware of the terms origin and that it came from The Daemon Forum  in the late 90s.

The therian community did have a term that meant similar (”animal person”), but nothing much ever grew from that term perhaps because it was so easily mistaken as not having a significance.

– Cavern-Risen