eepycreature

’You can’t ship them, they’re literally trying to kill each other!’ SHHH THATS THE BEST PART

The alterhuman and otherkin communities are heavily influenced by cultural Christianity but most people aren’t ready to hear that

People have been wanting to hear me expand on this and the unfortunate thing is that I’m not able to make a whole essay on this. My response is probably going to be disappointing. (And yes, I know how this observation sounds coming from an Angelkin.)

But the biggest observation I have here is that the alterhuman community tends to treat humans as if they’ve committed original sin.

The separation between humanity and nature is BIG in Genesis. (And while I’m talking specifically about Christianity, this applies to all religions that utilize Genesis.) According to Genesis, humans were given dominion over nature. Directly placed above it. Whether this is to utilize nature as they see fit, or to be caretakers of it, depends on the interpretation. It’s most common in Christianity, especially Evangelical Christianity, to interpret it as the rights to plunder mature for resources. (I could go on a whole spiel about how cultural Christianity has influenced the environmentalist movement, but I’ll restrain myself.)

When the apple was eaten, Adam and Eve were banished from the garden of Eden, but they still retained dominion over nature.

Of course, reality is a lot more complicated than how Christianity portrays it. Humans are animals, the same as any other, acting out their natural behaviors as builders and thinkers. They’re as much a part of “nature” as any fox or wolf or deer, to name some common theriotypes. Humans are an essential part of the ecosystem around the world.

But the alterhuman community at large hasn’t really caught up to that. Humans as a whole are called evil, are continually separated from the sinless, wrongless animals.

The ideologies of Christianity and capitalism are, by and large, equated with human nature in the alterhuman community. Not only are humans uniquely capable of wrong and evil (unlike us pure and innocent victimized nonhumans, WE were born redeemed and guiltless of humanity’s sins), everything would also be better if humans were GONE (something I’ve seen people say on here) or they need nonhumans to teach them to care about the world around them beyond themselves (something I’ve ALSO seen said).

And here’s where we get controversial: the idea of “alterhuman” is… incredibly culturally Christian.

The definition is based on “common societal ideas of humanity”, but kinda… neglects to define which society? And so, as a primarily white and western online community, that “common societal idea” ends up being… the white, Christian, capitalist one.

Western, white, capitalist, Christian ideas of humanity tend to be extremely… limited, mostly for the sake of punishing anyone who steps outside of that box. There’s a very rigid definition of human, and that’s that. “Alterhuman” as a term refuses to challenge that whatsoever.

Your neurodiversity makes you struggle to identify with this tiny, rigid box? Well that’s an *alternate* experience of/to humanity, my friend! No need to challenge cultural ideas of what “humanity” is or means. No need to look too closely at taking neurodiversity out of the “normal human” box, that doesn’t have implications at all. Not being human is a good thing, right? Humans are awful.

Don’t entirely identify with the human body? Well that’s because you’re experiencing an *alternate* form of humanity! Don’t look too closely at disability rights or how many humans get extensive body mods.

Don’t look too closely at how these ideas of “standard” humanity interact with other cultures. Anything that white culture, Christian culture, capitalist culture pushes back against and punishes isn’t a human experience. It’s *alternative* to humanity. You’re being punished or alienated because you’re nonhuman, and definitely not because we’re trapped in an incredibly restrictive culture that gets real financial and martial power from deciding what a “normal” human experience is.

Stop treating humans like they’re uniquely capable of harm and evil. Maybe take some time to think about why you reject the idea of having humanity so hard. Maybe take some time to think about how many experiences are being labeled “alternative” to humanity, as opposed to something humans *can just do.*

Maybe take some time to realize that the alterhuman community isn’t always quite as countercultural as we’d like to think. Sometimes we *reinforce* the current culture without meaning to.

maybe it’s the community’s emphasis on using words like ‘nonhuman’ ‘other’ ‘alterhuman’ that kind of add to this

maybe we should use more words not describing what we are not but what we ARE. What we DO experience. And what we chose to make of those experiences, because all our experiences are unique. And ik we already do this with words like ‘kin and ‘kith, etc, but if our main defining trait is that we are not human, what is that even saying? Humanity is complex and vast and holds so many different experiences. Infinite of them.

relating to a species other than human, even one that does not exist, might be a better way of going about these things and describing ones ‘nonhumanity’ than using words like, well ‘nonhuman’

*crashes into ur dash three months late*

I hid a few sneaky details in their so I’m excited to see if anyone catches them >:D it was fun going back and watching some of the winner POVs as well.

Procreate — 34hrs (27 for the characters and 7 for the BG/ final layering)

putting this on main actually;

it annoys me to death when folks say stuff like “i’m not a therian, im a [xyz animal]”

because hey that’s what a therian is!

to say you don’t identify as a therian because you just ARE that animal is to say that therians AREN’T really the animal they claim to be. which is so wrong. to say you don’t like the term therian because it’s ‘too human’ is so insensitive.

therians are not necessarily human! someone calling themself a therian in no way makes them human! equating therians with humans is weird!

stop treating us like we are human, stop trying to separate ‘really being an animal’ from being a therian. they are the same thing. you’re not superior or different to us because you “really are that animal”. we all are.

I think this mainly stems from what the ‘stereotypical’ therian has become- quads, masks, etc. some people just don’t identify with that stuff- not to say that they aren’t therians by not fitting into a stereotype, because that’s just untrue, but vice versa- quadrobists and/or mask/craft makers do not equal therian.

I think this alienation from nonhumans identifying with the term therian because it is seemingly ‘too human’ comes from what the term ‘therian’ has been made to mean to outsiders of the community/people who are not informed. Because, society HAS tried to make the term more ‘human’. I’ve seen so often people referring to therians as a ‘fandom’ etc etc, watering down its meaning until it is nothing but a loose term to throw around. But it’s not. It’s an IDENTITY. It’s deep and complex. Which is why it’s so important for us to continue to use the term, to show people that the term therian is much more than a hollow stereotype or a fandom. By ‘show’ I DO NOT mean fake-claim or accuse anyone. I mean keep people informed when you can, and keep the community strong.

Of course, it’s also completely understandable for people to simply not want to use the term therian. While I, am technically a therianthrope, I prefer to use the term alterhuman or nonhuman or maybe otherkin. I just don’t find the term therian helpful to explaining my identity. And that’s okay.

MORAL OF THE STORY : we need to fight against society pushing us into boxes and stereotypes, watering down our identity’s to fit societies standards; and simultaneously it is okay to not identify with a label simply because you don’t find it helpful, but never take that as a chance to do exactly what stereotypes are trying to do by watering down another identity as lesser in order to appear ‘legitimate’ ig

People have written a lot of touchy-feely pieces on this subject but I thought I’d get right to the heart of the matter

[The artist, putting a simple cake next to a much fancier one: “Aw man, that guy’s cake is way better than mine.” The Audience, gleefully holding up a knife and fork “HOLY SHIT! TWO CAKES!”]

additions from the og artist (credit)

“Holy shit two cakes,” I mutter to myself as I do fucking anything these days, this post was a godsend

Support group

last night i dreamt tumblr added like a billion buttons to the mobile app so instead of this

we got this

and everyone just rolled with it but sometimes the wide naruto got too wide and blocked off all the other buttons and people would just post "got naruto'd again :/" and the only way to reset him was to log out and log back in

The hottest thing a man can be is bisexual and tortured with visions

Ah yeah, for those who like TMA and those silly little emojis. Here!

( I mostly make these for fun, none of these were requested as a commission or otherwise )

“why do you ship them? I thought the ship wasn’t canon?” bro we’re talking about fictional characters, who don’t actually exist in real life, from a media that focuses solely on fictional events that are not real either. so what if these two made-up characters didn’t kiss in their source material? they have lots of nasty gay sex on archive of our own and thousands of novel length slow burn enemies to lovers fics written about them. the fanon content at this point far exceeds the whole canonical franchise. the problem isn’t “it’s not canon” the problem is that you don’t allow yourself to let go of canon and enjoy the wonder of fan contents that are just as good / valid

when a dragons wings are too small to realistically fly thats fine its reasonable i think to size them down to allow them to fit in a space better and be more readable as a character. but outside of really specific circumstances (like cartoonishly small wings) when a dragons wing webbing stops way too far up? punishable by death. in seymourworld.

sooo many dragon designs look like the last thing and it pisses me of. stopppp

she's done 🥹🥹🥹

after working on her on and off for a few weeks, the light dragon is complete!!!! i loved crocheting this pattern so much i'm actually a little sad she's done now 🥲💔 BUT i can't be that sad because she goes to a loving home (my tattoo artist) on the 26th!!!

i followed the "Crochet Light Dragon pattern, Zelda TOTK" pattern by Crochetdollsbyfifi on etsy!!! i HIGHLY recommend this pattern guys it's only $6 you won't regret it, and the seller is so kind 🥹

colors used:

lion brand heartland in "congaree"

lion brand basic stitch in "mustard"

k+c essentials cotton in "gold coast"

crochet thread in green

3/4" buttons in teal

a weight 3 or 4 purple yarn i lost the tag for

bernat baby blanket yarn in "baby sand"

bernat baby blanket yarn in "white"

(and i'll post my pattern for the eyelashes in the replies!!!)

Grumbo this Scarian that Mumscar this that GUYS. Just make them poly it’s NOT that hard

if fanon Scarian was good ? What lol whats wrong with it lmao

I agree about the sif/isabeau part tho. The perfect ship. All ships should strive to be like them. No one is doing it like them /silly

I wasn’t crazy about this piece so I wasn’t intending on publicly posting it again, but it keeps getting stolen every five minutes so I figured I’d put it here so people at least know who to attribute the original thing to lmao

[Digital illustration, Procreate App, 2020]

ITS NOT A PHOTO????????

@ominous-signs does this count