it killed you to grow up there, in the dark like that, with nothing but the bones of your childhood. they punished every version of you that wasn't a god. forced sainthood into saturdays and now when you're out in the sun, your hands shake. your breathing puffing into cold mornings, alone in your room, wondering how you could be so broken and yet never have anyone notice the break.

in the dream of that house, you sometimes remember meals and silence and long hallways and your hand cramping over your homework. you sometimes remember the yelling or the limegreen falsehood veneer your parents could construct in the presence of guests. mostly you remember the way time seeped through you, dripped onto everything, how the words it'll get better felt like an arrow through your chest.

you would lay in bed and hope for death with the same fantasy air as romance, picturing a glorious coffin. sometimes you'd picture a dramatic end or a tragic illness that would sweep you away. but mostly you pictured some kind of strange miracle; that you'd go to sleep and simply never have to deal with that again.

when you got out, you had to burn the atmosphere to escape. these days you reside on another planet entirely: one bright and full of lights and color and friends and spice and laughter.

and still sometimes when people say summer, you still remember the back deck. you still remember building a castle. you still remember the birds. when you lay yourself down at night - some part of you still whispers about catacombs, and the dark, and the bones.

some version of you is still resting in that tomb, after all. some version of you will always see the outline of that place and say that's where we used to call home.

"We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. Fear... the old blood."

Ok i def get rough werewolf partner but consider soft werewolf partner.

They just Flop ontop of you wanting pets, their fur is very soft and nice feeling in bed, if they think your ignoring them they start wining from a corner.

Huh. I think that's me lmao

Okay jumping on the Species Amplification/ Species-Affirming Care trend-thingy, since it seems like fun and would be a good way to figure out how to express my identity.

!!

my species transition plan to transition from human to cryptid

You're onto something with this-

the last couple of days I've been noticing way more buds than usual on the branches of trees and bushes. I think something big is about to happen

some attempts at vintage pulp covers style

prints

First one is SENDING me

this is what i want you to imagine when i say im going to run away into the woods and never come back

The limbs!!! Long limbs!!! Das me!!

Species Amplification Checklist

“Species amplification” because I don’t consider myself transspecies. I’ve been a werewolf, I’m just making it more visible, and trying to adopt a more stereotypical werewolf lifestyle.

Will update as things are completed, or when I inevitably add on to the lists.

X - Incomplete

✓ - Complete

O - Partially complete

? - Unsure if I’ll ever do.

This this this!!

It's so cool getting to see your own list! I'm foing something similar too, although I have yet to write down a proper list.

This is awesome! Good luck with your journey!

Humans are a horrible species that destroy the planet and controll eachother through government/hierarchy. They are also incredibly weak and helpless; having to rely on technology for everything.

Of course there are plenty of great humans out there, but as a whole they kinda suck.

Really, why would anyone want to call themselves human?

This was tagged beastpunk.

But let me reassure my followers that forms of bigotry, up to and including misanthropy, are not beastpunk.

In beastpunk, the celebration of animality does not stop at the threshold of species that someone may consider undesirable, "weak," or "helpless." It does not discriminate against species; it does not discriminate against any variety of animals, up to and including humans. To quote 'BEASTPUNK: Being Unabashedly Animal,' the coining essay:

The beastpunk movement embraces the fantastic and fantastical humans who exist alongside us, caught alongside us in the net of life and time. We reject the Disraeli's asserted angel/ape dichotomy, pulling down the sheer curtain of separation to reveal sameness even among the different. We are all animals, and that animality is something to embrace both in ourselves and in one another. If you don't believe so-- if you stand with with nose or muzzle turned up to the sky, not to gaze at the beauty of the stars in the night but to better look down upon others-- then beastpunk is not the movement for you.

Forgive me if I'm a little blunt here; I'm a little exhausted of this.

"Why would anyone want to call themselves human?"

Because some of us can see past the fact that a very small percentage of the human population have been causing a lot of damage for a very small amount of time, proportionally, and see that that's simply not the case for the vast majority of the population.

Because humanity is found in taking care of each other far more than it is in "destroying the planet" and "controlling each other", because we are inherently a social species that has been keeping our old and disabled alive for as long as we have been humans, who make art, who packbond with anything that moves and many things that don't, who mourn members of other species up to and including plants and even inanimate objects.

Because calling us "weak and helpless" while simultaneously complaining about the effects of us becoming one of the most widespread and successful mammalian species on the planet, and the species by far the most capable of changing our environment, is hypocritical. And if you experience species dysphoria, I'm genuinely sorry, that sucks, but that doesn't actually mean the human body is inherently bad to live in, just that it's not right for you.

Because I recognize that you contribute to the things you think make humanity "a horrible species" just as much as every average human around you - which is to say, very little. You may not be human, but you are a part of human society whether you like it or not - you are just as much of a contributor as everyone else around you. Blaming them more than yourself is short-sighted.

And because I am human, goddammit, and that is not a bad thing! I enjoy this life, I enjoy my human body even as I mourn its failings, I love my human family and friends! If my being a dragon, an arrogant, prideful, violent creature that would probably kill and eat smaller sapients without a second thought, isn't a bad thing, then my being a human isn't either.

Bluntly, "Of course there are plenty of great humans out there, but as a whole they kinda suck" is not the compromise you think it is. "Of course there are plenty of great gays out there, but as a whole they kinda suck" is still homophobic, y'feel? Allowing for "the good ones" does not actually make your statement any less cruel or hateful toward people who have done nothing to deserve it, for a trait they did not choose. You are still labeling me as "a horrible species" and "weak and helpless" first, and then as an afterthought going "but you might be okay, I guess."

Human behavior isn't even really unique.

Most animals keep a territory of some kind, from the largest elephant herd fending off rude bulls, to the smallest mealworm beetle protecting it's reproductive rights (hey, that's what I wrote my bachelor's thesis on!), and from the loosely defined "personal spaces" of lizards, to the strictly patrolled borders of dragonflies. In humans that behavior can escalate to war. Chimpanzee and ant and mongoose behavior can also escalate to war. Usually it doesn't. Usually animals (including humans) seek peaceful solutions - it just doesn't always work.

Most animals take what they need to survive. Sometimes that hurts other species. When grasshoppers transform into locusts and decimate entire grasslands, they don't do it out of maliciousness. They're just trying to survive in an unbelievably competitive and dangerous environment. When humans contribute to environmental destruction, they are just acting as cogs in a machine that they barely comprehend, and that they can't leave because they need to survive. It's not a uniquely human behavior, both in the sense that humans aren't the only animals doing it and in the sense that the behavior is not inherent to humans - humans can live without destroying their environment. Many humans do, and have done so for thousands of years.

To say that humans can't change, that humans can't live without hurting, that humans are all bad, that humans are inherently bad, isn't just misanthropic - it also betrays an ignorance of the world around you. It's anthropocentrism. It's human exceptionalism. When you tell humans that they can't help doing bad things, because doing bad things is just a part of human nature, you are giving them a free card to continue doing bad things. Misanthropy disregards the diversity of behaviors on Earth. Misanthropy excuses human warfare and anthropogenic climate change, because it insists that those things are just what humans do. Misanthropy is the most anthropocentric philosophy out there.

There's so much solid writing here.

I'd like to call attention to the fact that I think comparing human society to a locus swarm is actually quite a good comparison.

Large groups of migratory creatures that have unintentional but wide scale destructive effects on the world.

Most humans as far as I can tell, aren't maliciously plotting the end of the world. They just want to live. And in many cases, for their children and loved ones to live.

Even the worst among them aren't actively trying to destroy the world. They want power, the destruction of earth is a side effect.

Combine the majority's desire to live, with a small minority's hunger for power and willingness to exploit their fellows, and of course that leads to a problem.

The idea that humans are uniquely evil is a comforting lie, because it surrenders any notion of responsibility. But a comforting lie is still a lie.

Humanity is not unique. Destruction is not inevitable. Change is possible.

We don't talk about nearly enough about the possibilities on tattoos for alterhuman folks. I'm not just talking about someone tattooing the theta delta in your arm.

I'm talking about tattoos of paw beans in your hands, or an animals facial features in your face, whiskers in your cheeks. Like, even bits of fur outlines on your body and chest would. What would I'd like to have is two cuts printed in my back as if a pair of wings should emerge from it (probably couldn't, or shouldn't because I have like three giant scars that cross over my shoulders). Or, or, even the image of wings in your back, giant black wings.

Nonhumans with horns could tattoo themselves antlers in their forehead, mermaid or marine otherkins could have tattoos of gills in their neck. It would be so nice actually

Omg I've been thinking about this same exact thing like a ton? Perhaps the occasional patches of scales, or on your back but with some Eldritch tentacles instead... Maybe they could wrap over your limbs or something! Super cool stuff... There's so many cool tattoos that could be used in an affirming way like this! :V

I'm not a tattoo kinda person myself, but if I was to get them i'd definitely cover myself with werewolf iconography. Wolfsbane, lunar phases, wolf teeth, paw prints, etc.

I have a werewolf character with a full moon tattoo on his back that I would love to get in another life.

too many stories about turning yourself into a monster as a metaphor for pretending to be something you aren't and losing yourself in the process. not enough stories about turning yourself into a monster as a metaphor for choosing to openly embrace yourself even if it's strange to other people

any time the conclusion of the story is "and then he turned back to normal because what really matters is being true to yourself and being loved for being who you really are: a boring human" i hear a spongebob boo-womp in my head. can you tell i'm autistic by the way

As a disabled, trans, alterhuman... I feel this in my soul. Why does being a big cool monster always metaphorically relate to being bad or disengenuine? Maybe, and this is crazy I know, but maybe... being different is actually a BETTER metaphor for being true to oneself??

Fellow diaabled alterhuman here:

This just in- turning into a big beastly monster is actually a good thing.

Many of these stories hold being human, being normal, to be the gold standard. The idea of losing oneself in a lie is interesting, but I there's too much focus on the lie being the monster. What if it's the other way around? What if the lie is the human, the normal?

Losing oneself in the dream of fitting in, is an experience that many people can relate to- whether alterhuman or not. We've all lost parts of ourselves trying to be someone else, after all.

Just my own thoughts on the matter.

werewolf doodle :P