#and feline might be weird/confusing as a term for nonbinary

[signs-of-the-moon]

Alright the results are in! It seems that SOTM's audience primarily prefers the word "feline" as the cat speak term for nonbinary. But now I'm gonna veto that, because I found a word I like better (sorry guys). The term for a nonbinary cat will now be "Moggy". As stated before, I will be updating the allegiances to reflect this change and to highlight who our nonbinary cats in the story are!

And who exactly are those cats, I bet you're wondering. Well here's a list of who I think the identity fits best with:

Emberpaw of Treeclan (uses she/they pronouns)

Adderpaw of Treeclan (uses he/they pronouns)

Silverhawk of Treeclan (uses she/they pronouns)

Cardinaltail of Treeclan (uses he/they pronouns)

Honeykit of Treeclan (will start off using she/her pronouns but will eventually grow into using they/them exclusively)

Tulipnose of Grassclan (uses they/them pronouns. They will be using these pronouns starting from the time between Moon High and Moon Fall. Dw this will be pointed out in the next book)

Warblerkit of Grassclan (one of Swiftcloud's kits. They'll eventually go by they/them but will start off as he/him)

Galecall of Mountainclan (uses she/they pronouns but prefer they/them more)

Slatestep of Mountainclan (exclusively uses they/them pronouns)

Lilypad of Oceanclan (uses she/they pronouns but prefers she/her more)

Spicekit of Oceanclan (starts off using he/him, and will eventually go exclusively by they/them)

Stonepaw of Oceanclan (currently uses she/her exclusively but will start using they/them more into the story)

Snake-eye of Marshclan (uses they/them pronouns)

Fernfeather of Marshclan (she/they pronouns)

There will be more cats in the future who are nonbinary, cats that do not exist in the story yet. I'd also like to make a list of other cats, who are demi- as well as a few cats I've now decided are trans. Those cats are:

Batpaw of Treeclan (she is Demigirl and uses she/they pronouns)

Berrypaw of Treeclan (is Transmasc. Uses he/him pronouns)

Beepaw of Treeclan (Transfeme. Uses she/her)

Brackentooth of Treeclan (she is also Transfeme and prefers she/her pronouns)

Gullcry of Oceanclan (a Demiboy who uses he/they pronouns)

Seaweedfang of Oceanclan (Transfeme who uses she/her pronouns)

Bluesky of Oceanclan (he/him Transmasc)

Ebonymask of Mountainclan (Transfeme, and uses she/her pronouns)

Shrubdapple of Mountainclan (is Transmasc and uses he/him pronouns)

Morningrose of Marshclan (a Demigirl who uses she/they pronouns)

#I saw someone mention the word moggy on the wc reddit once as a term for enby cats and it stuck with me #ik irl a moggy refers to a cat with no breed/the cat version of a mutt tho #but idk moggy has a nice ring to it and as somebody who's nb it doesn't seem like that bad of a term #way better than gib. since gib is the term for a fixed cat #and feline might be weird/confusing as a term for nonbinary #I feel like that'd be the equivalent of saying your gener identity is human #viti shoosh

[everysea-everystar-blog]

Otherkin Challenge

I got this challenge from the blog @justanotherkin and thought it would be a good thing to fill out on my new tumblr! I’ve made very minor changes to some questions. 

1. What name do you go by? What is the significance of it to you? 

The name I go by usually isn't something I’m very comfortable with sharing here, but that has a lot of importance to me because I’m transgender and choosing my name has made me a lot happier. Online, I tend to go by Bumble, which is just a silly nickname but cheers me up. I believe my selkie-self is called Sìoda but I don’t call myself that. 

2. How old are you? What is the gender you identify as? (human) 

I’m 18 and I’m a nonbinary trans guy. 

3. What are your kintype(s)? 

Selkiekin, alienkin, spiritkin, felinekin, and I’m questioning monsterkin. 

4. How long have you known that you are otherkin? How old were you when you awakened? 

I think I’ve pretty much always seen myself as nonhuman and had connections to certain species and such, from a very young age. However, I didn’t know about the existence of otherkin or therians until much later, and was actually against the communities for many years. I think I was just in denial and wanted to join in with everyone else making fun of otherkin. I only started getting involved with the community about a week ago. 

5. How did you find the otherkin community? 

At first through tumblr, and then just searching around for forums and group chats. 

6. How does being otherkin affect your life? 

It doesn’t really affect me much daily, though I definitely feel a disconnect from humanity almost all the time. I do experience “species dysphoria” but I wouldn’t compare it to the level of discomfort that gender dysphoria brings me. I also have some paranoia about friends/family finding out about my identity. I’m homesick most of the time, too. 

7. Are you “out of the metaphysical closet”? If so, to whom? 

The only people I’m really “out” to are those on otherkin group chats or forums, and that’s very anonymous to be honest. I spoke briefly about my worries with my best friend a little while before joining the community, but didn’t want to press the issue further because she clearly doesn’t get it. She wasn’t mean about it though. 

8. How did/would your family react to you being otherkin? 

They would either laugh at me, ignore me, or think I’m crazy. Probably all three. (Sidenote: I am actually mentally ill, so I think my parents would believe that me being otherkin is a symptom of this. I know that isn’t the case, but there you go.) 

9. What does being otherkin mean to you? 

It simply means that I am aware of my nonhuman identity and my nonhuman selves, in whatever form that might take. It’s just a part of my daily life that I’ve recently come to terms with and makes me understand myself better. 

10. How do you believe you came to be otherkin? Is it a psychological connection? Were you reincarnated? Explain. 

This depends on which kintype we’re talking about, so I’ll give it a go: 

Selkie: I’m living a parallel life with my selkie self 

Alien: I was “reincarnated” into my human body from an alien life, and my soul is still alien 

Spirit: As a being, I’ve always been a guardian spirit 

Feline: I have a feline soul alongside mine 

11. What do you hope the otherkin community will be like in ten years? Are you for public awareness or against it? Why or why not? 

I hope that the community is even bigger in ten years time, and hopefully viewed with less contempt from the outside world. However, I’m not really for public awareness, because I think it will only bring us more hatred. Also, I don’t view us kin as an oppressed group, and would therefore like to focus more on the support of genuinely oppressed groups such as POC and LGBTQ+. 

12. Do you have phantom/astral limbs? What are they and how do you feel them? 

While not so much a phantom/astral limb, I often feel the texture of my seal’s tail as a selkie on my legs, as well as other sensory experiences like seaweed and cold ocean water around me. I also have nose and mouth twitches that I believe are related to my cat’s whiskers. 

13. Do you mental shift? Have you ever harmed yourself or someone else during one? 

I do mental shift sometimes, but it’s never been dangerous. The only possible danger is that I might try to do things that my human body can’t really do (e.g. swim in very dangerous waters, go on very long forest walks - I have a disability so this is impossible). 

14. Have you ever mental shifted at a time when it could be considered inappropriate? 

I think some of the times that I go nonverbal (I’m autistic) are triggered by mental shifts, and that’s always “inappropriate” or at least inconvenient. 

15. Do you astral project or practise any occult crafts? 

 I’m a witch currently trying to get back into his practise. 

16. Do you feel you are any sort of danger to society? 

Not at all! I might have some “weird” beliefs and be nonhuman but I’m generally very peaceful. I wouldn’t hurt anyone unless they hurt me or someone I loved. 

17. Does your nonhuman identity complicate everyday life for you? If so, how? 

As aforementioned, the only real impact being nonhuman has on my daily life is feeling disconnected from humanity. This does cause a decent amount of social and emotional issues, as well as “species dysphoria” interfering with my moods. 

18. Why do you believe are here as a human? 

I’m not really sure about this one to be honest, but it could be linked to me being spiritkin: maybe I’ve been sent to specifically protect the nature on earth for the time being. Still unsure, though. 

19. Are you active among the otherkin community? 

Recently, yes! I’d love to be more active on the tumblr kin community too, but I’m scared about all the anti//kin things that I might end up seeing. 

20. Are you religious? What faith do you follow? Does it contradict your otherkin identity or do you feel that the two are synonymous somehow? 

I don’t follow any sort of organised religion; I like to think of myself as a semi-theistic Pagan. I believe in Mother Earth and have thoughts of a great Universal Spirit, but I don’t “worship” them as such. This does’t contradict with me being otherkin at all - in fact I think it might explain my spiritkin identity. 

21. Have you ever been emotionally, verbally, or physically harrassed simply for being otherkin? 

I haven’t experienced this directly, but the fear of it happening is why I’m very private and secretive about being otherkin. I’ve witnessed a lot of online bullying and mockery of us, and for a long time I was one of those people being mean to otherkin/therians because I just wanted to fit with what I saw people saying. 

22. Do you efel you are oppressed because you are otherkin? 

No, not really. Oppression is based in societal systems and ingrained belief, and to be honest it makes complete sense that humans wouldn’t understand people claiming to be nonhuman to any extent. I do think that the bullying and mockery is unnecessary and cruel, but I wouldn’t call it oppression. 

23. What is your take on fictionkin/mediakin/factkin? What about machinekin and appliancekin? 

I’m not sure I really understand fictionkin, but I’m not really against it. However, anyone who gets angry at a writer or other person involved with fiction because they aren’t adhering to their kin canon is just rude, and threatening to harm yourself over this is incredibly disturbing. I would consider myself fictionhearted with multiple characters, and have no problem interacting with fictionkin as long as they aren’t rude like I said before. I definitely have a problem with factkin, as I just see that as identity theft. I really can’t get my head around machinekin and anything else that isn’t living or spiritual, because I don’t believe that a non-living thing can exist in a human body, but I don’t think those people are inherently bad. 

24. Did the awakening process seem relatively easy or difficult to you? Why? 

If I refer to the process of accepting my nonhuman identity as my “awakening” then it was definitely difficult. Like I said, I spent years making fun of otherkin - not actively or online, but with friends, and I would sometimes look at the tags on tumblr - which I know realise was me trying to cope with being nonhuman. Making the transition to acceptance was scary. 

25. What do you think of the information provided online about otherkin - is it relevant or not? 

Most of the things I’ve found have been relevant, but a lot of articles written by non-kin just don’t have a very good understanding. 

26. How has your otherkin/therian identity defined you as a person? Do you feel as if it has given you morals that you didn’t have before? 

I think that coming to terms with my nonhuman identity has helped me be more accepting of other people’s identities as long as they don’t harm themselves or others. I think my general confusion surrounding vegetarians/vegans comes from me being selkiekin and felinekin, but I have nothing against those people. 

27. Have you learned any life-long lessons due to your otherkin identity? 

Nothing is what it seems. 

28. What do you want to do with your life? 

I’d like to go into animal care as a career (e.g. pet rehoming shelters, conservation, ethical farming, animal sanctuaries, etc.) as well as being a writer and musician on the side. I’m willing to do any job in the meantime that doesn’t involve too much social interaction. 

29. Do you have any tips or advice for young and/or newly awakened otherkin? 

Get the “tumblr savior” browser extension (or any alternative you prefer, I think xkit is quite popular, do your research) and blacklist any anti//kin tags you can think of. This will bring you a lot of mental peace, trust me. Surround yourself with positivity but remember to keep a critical eye. Find ways to live in balance with your kintype(s) as opposed to having a jarring double existence. You may have to accept the fact that “coming out” as kin in your public life will likely cause more harm than good. Make online friends. 

30. Anything else you’d like to share with us? 

I’m so glad I’ve finally joined this community - I’d been scared for years. 

#personal #survey