Unhinged Thirty Days Of Otherkin Challenge, Day 9: Are You Smaller Or Larger Than A Breadbox?

Derelict Gothic Abbey ~ Jorge Carlos Gonzalez

Keupajsko Vrelo, Serbia

Psychological therian not as in "this one circumstance from my childhood made me this one species" but as in "millions of tiny things over the course of my entire life from birth to well into adulthood added up to create a nonhuman identity that likely continues to evolve as my psyche changes, some of which I can identify but many of which will get lost as memories of unremarkable life events seemingly unrelated to my nonhumanity"

a 2013 Chinese stamp from a series on cat breeds

[id: a postage stamp with a meticulously detailed illustration of a Maine Coon cat. the cat is large and fluffy. its brown and white fur is rendered with careful hatching. this stamp is marked as being worth 1.20 Chinese renminbi yuan. end id]

i need to rb more non-mammals. there's a serious mammal bias on this blog

re: cat paratype

since i discovered the alterhuman community in 2015, i've known i was cat-hearted. for the same amount of time, i've questioned a cat therio/kintype on and off.

for most of that time, i've dismissed the 'type. i feel none of the instincts or desires of a cat, such as prey drive or territoriality. clearly, i would think, i'm confusing my feelings surrounding my heart-type for kinfeels. since other-heartedness isn't as well-known or talked about as otherkinity, surely it'd be easy to mistake one for the other.

the reasoning made sense, and i'd let the subject go - and yet, this cat-shaped question would return, again and again.

this last year, i discovered my identity as a mimic - a creature whose shape is influenced by its environment, the people and animals it spends time around, and the media it digests. because i was raised by humans, my physical body is human, and my envisaged shape is usually humanoid, i consider myself a human mimic. as in, not a human, but something in a human shape.

so when the cat-shaped question pawed at my door again, i was finally able to put things together: i'm a cat mimic.

it makes so much sense, really. for as long as i can remember, there's been a cat in my family's house. the first cat i bonded with as a child slept with me almost every night. cats were my first favorite animal, the first animal i really studied and sought information about. when i started teaching myself to draw, cats were one of my first subjects. of course i would mimic them!

this explains my lack of feline instincts, and how my shape never truly matches - i'm a mimic in a cat's shape, and not a cat proper.

ahh, it's just so nice to finally figure this out. that cat-shaped question has a collar with a name tag now, and happily curls up in my bed.

unhinged thirty days of otherkin challenge, day 30: has thirty days of this unhinged you further?

nah, but it was fun! i've been wanting to talk about my alterhumanity, but felt too wary - this was a good way to ease into it.

One thing I noticed in the alterhuman community is that most of us use names that relate a lot to our theriotypes. I'm Watcher because I'm a cat, @talon-dragonbeast is Talon because she's a dragon, @harpyrex is a Harpy... You understand what I mean, right? However, I've been wondering if irl names that creatures here use are related to their therianthropy. I'm guessing no, but I don't really know.

So, regarding your irl name, how much does this name relate to your theriotype/s? I'm talking about legal name, or the one you use the most with friends or family if you're trans, or nicknames. (DON'T TELL ME YOUR IRL NAME IF YOU DON'T WANT TO). If your irl name doesn't relate to your theriotype/kintype, would you legally change it to one more keen to your theriotype? Below is a poll you can answer with this question.

For example, my legal name is my deadname because my parents are transphobic and won't let me change my name. However, in college and with everyone irl who is not my family, I use another name. This name is gender neutral/masculine because I'm non binary, I use he/they pronouns irl, and it looks like a dog name. Tho I was not aware of this when I chose it, because I was fifteen and I didn't know I was alterhuman, this nane looks like a dog name. Which I'm really happy about.

I was wondering if others do what I did. Is your irl name (it doesn't matter if it's legal name, but the one you use the most) like a name that your theriotype/s would have? Would you change it legally for a more nonhuman name?