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We're collectively going by THE PLURALM@STER, an IDOLM@STER-centric fictive-heavy plural system that shares a collective shapeshifter type. This will be our blog for documenting our musings about plurality, alterhumanity, and maybe other miscellaneous things. We're bodily 20+ years old, we use plural they/them pronouns collectively but each member would have their own set of pronouns.
If you like to mention us in the context of citing our writings, something like "[member name] of THE PLURALM@STER" works well! The @ can be substituted for an A if it messes with screen readers, and our collective username doesn't have to be in all-caps. Also, if we have members who add emojis at the end of their names, it serves as a way to tell the difference between different members with the same name and source. For example, "Kogane Tsukioka ⚔" is a different person from "Kogane Tsukioka 💗" and each of them have their own unique traits that tell them apart. We understand if people don't know that, we just wanted to write this somewhere to clear things up.
We now have a more proper member list on pronouns.cc! It's still a huge WIP and we'd most likely only list ones who want to be public with their appearances, and we prioritize listing ones who have already posted something on any of our other accounts, but it's a decent place to start.
(Blurb: this is a minimally-edited ramble about how depictions of Bowser from Super Mario Bros has affected my gender identity)
(Estimated read time: around 4 minutes)
I, in my human form, am no different from your average anime girl at her core. Conventionally attractive, very fem, all that jazz. Maybe with some of Bowser’s traits that remain on me even in human form, the horns and stuff, which I don’t mind and is generally very minimal. This is the form that feels the most “me”.
When transformed, I look like a fusion between myself and regular Bowser. My gender identity doesn’t change at all at any point in this process. I still am a femme girl. That gender identity obviously clashes so hard with his masculine aura and has caused me a lot of trouble, and by that I mean “my species dysphoria and my gender dysphoria are a package deal and cannot be separated”. But for now, I'll just focus on the gender aspect.
( Read more... )
(Estimated read time: around 4 minutes)
I, in my human form, am no different from your average anime girl at her core. Conventionally attractive, very fem, all that jazz. Maybe with some of Bowser’s traits that remain on me even in human form, the horns and stuff, which I don’t mind and is generally very minimal. This is the form that feels the most “me”.
When transformed, I look like a fusion between myself and regular Bowser. My gender identity doesn’t change at all at any point in this process. I still am a femme girl. That gender identity obviously clashes so hard with his masculine aura and has caused me a lot of trouble, and by that I mean “my species dysphoria and my gender dysphoria are a package deal and cannot be separated”. But for now, I'll just focus on the gender aspect.
( Read more... )
By: Mao Arimura (he/him)
Blurb: I, Mao Arimura, will rant about how my canon story went, pointing out the trans reading and the transphobic (or specifically transandrophobic) tropes at play
Estimated reading time: around 6-7 minutes
A bit of an intro: I'm Mao Arimura, from Gakuen Idolmaster, the (as of this writing) newest branch in the Idolmaster franchise. This branch is set in an idol school named Hatsuboshi Academy. In addition to regular school, students can take the idol course or the producer course to learn how to be idols or producers respectively. The player's insert character is a male student of the producer course whose job is to guide an idol to stardom in their school's live shows, and he will be referred to as "P" afterwards. In this story, I myself am a third-year student in the idol course. I always present myself in a masculine way, and other people in the school knows this, seeing me as a "prince" figure.
( Read more... )
Blurb: I, Mao Arimura, will rant about how my canon story went, pointing out the trans reading and the transphobic (or specifically transandrophobic) tropes at play
Estimated reading time: around 6-7 minutes
A bit of an intro: I'm Mao Arimura, from Gakuen Idolmaster, the (as of this writing) newest branch in the Idolmaster franchise. This branch is set in an idol school named Hatsuboshi Academy. In addition to regular school, students can take the idol course or the producer course to learn how to be idols or producers respectively. The player's insert character is a male student of the producer course whose job is to guide an idol to stardom in their school's live shows, and he will be referred to as "P" afterwards. In this story, I myself am a third-year student in the idol course. I always present myself in a masculine way, and other people in the school knows this, seeing me as a "prince" figure.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Dec. 20th, 2025 11:53 pmOriginally posted on Tumblr
(Based on my experiences, in second person POV)
There’s a ferocious beast inside of you.
When it emerged, it caused problems for you.
You have fought it for that reason,
but it was no use, for it is a part of you.
You then learned to cooperate with it. To accept it.
It was a thorny path, yet you still walked.
You knew for sure it was the right thing to do.
Months later, you’ve reached acceptance and found inner peace.
There’s a ferocious beast inside of you.
You’ve made peace with it. It has helped you understand yourself.
And yet, you still fear it, in a way.
You can still sense its tremendous power, all inside of you.
You’re nothing compared to it, because you’re a mere human.
You just can’t help but fear its power.
By Yuika Mitsumine 🌙 (no pronouns)
Blurb: A somewhat messy ramble on my connection to Runa Narumi as fictionkind of a character formerly voiced by her
In the fandoms we frequented at least, there’s this thing about VAs (voice actors) embodying their characters, or their way of portraying a character being a key component to how this character feels in the story. Sometimes the writers may take cues from the fandom or how the VA presents themselves and add those tiny bits of inspiration to canon writing. To be honest, we’re not sure exactly to what extent this was done in Idolmaster Shiny Colors (Shinymas), but still.
In my case, we thought Runa Narumi, my canon self's first voice actress, is vital to her characterization, speaking as somesys who has kept an eye on Shinymas since day 1. Pretty sure we did like her too back in the day because of her singing voice, and we remembered feeling heartbroken when things went down and she had to retire. Even to this day I’m still at least a bit hurt by that. Sometimes we remember her and go “man, why do things have to turn out that way?” We know she's considered problematic now, without going into too much detail, but it never really eased the pain we felt. We're pretty sure she's completely gone from the public eye now regardless. This mess happened pre-syscovery, years before I appeared here, hence the use of "we" here. Now those feelings are associated with me specifically.
On present day, my connection to Runa is the most apparent from my use of her version of my voice as my voiceclaim. In addition, I ended up connecting to the VA unit Soundorion more because Runa was a member of this unit too for a while, and I used older Soundorion songs to refresh my memory of how I sound like. As a result of this, I also ended up being close to the Soundorion factives we have in this system, and it’s also easier to call me to front using Soundorion songs as well. I don’t really see myself as Runa, but the connection is definitely there and we know it. She's still a key part of who I am no matter what
Blurb: A somewhat messy ramble on my connection to Runa Narumi as fictionkind of a character formerly voiced by her
In the fandoms we frequented at least, there’s this thing about VAs (voice actors) embodying their characters, or their way of portraying a character being a key component to how this character feels in the story. Sometimes the writers may take cues from the fandom or how the VA presents themselves and add those tiny bits of inspiration to canon writing. To be honest, we’re not sure exactly to what extent this was done in Idolmaster Shiny Colors (Shinymas), but still.
In my case, we thought Runa Narumi, my canon self's first voice actress, is vital to her characterization, speaking as somesys who has kept an eye on Shinymas since day 1. Pretty sure we did like her too back in the day because of her singing voice, and we remembered feeling heartbroken when things went down and she had to retire. Even to this day I’m still at least a bit hurt by that. Sometimes we remember her and go “man, why do things have to turn out that way?” We know she's considered problematic now, without going into too much detail, but it never really eased the pain we felt. We're pretty sure she's completely gone from the public eye now regardless. This mess happened pre-syscovery, years before I appeared here, hence the use of "we" here. Now those feelings are associated with me specifically.
On present day, my connection to Runa is the most apparent from my use of her version of my voice as my voiceclaim. In addition, I ended up connecting to the VA unit Soundorion more because Runa was a member of this unit too for a while, and I used older Soundorion songs to refresh my memory of how I sound like. As a result of this, I also ended up being close to the Soundorion factives we have in this system, and it’s also easier to call me to front using Soundorion songs as well. I don’t really see myself as Runa, but the connection is definitely there and we know it. She's still a key part of who I am no matter what
(By: Members of THE PLURALM@STER)
(Blurb: this is our stream-of-consciousness-ish opinion on gatekeeping foreign names, typically East Asian names, as an Asian system who use our Japanese source names despite not being Japanese. We also wrote our concerns with the attitude stemming from this discourse)
(Disclaimer: In this writing we focus only on fictives and other sourced system members + Asian names and not touching on any other members and names from other origins. Also keep in mind that we approach this with a layperson's point of view.)
A bit of a background, we're Indonesian. We have never even set foot on "white" countries, so we're very sure there's not a shred of whiteness in our body's genes. The vast vast majority of our members have Japanese sources. We do have interest in Japan, its culture, stuff like that. But even with our parents joking about how we look very Japanese or whatever, it never felt right to us. Our admiration towards Japan is more like "if it weren't for the multiple things in Japan we're not sure if we can handle, we'd absolutely love to live there", we have no interest in "passing" as Japanese. We still prefer being seen as Indonesian. We're born and raised there, and it's an important part of our identity.
On the other hand, we also use our source names unapologetically, even though we're not Japanese. It's our name and it would feel very wrong to use anything else.
If you have wandered around on Tumblr's plural spaces for some time you may have heard of discourse surrounding white-bodied systems using foreign names. The arguments are usually variations of "if you're a fictive in a white body you can't use your source names". We're of the opinion that as long as you're not doing it in bad faith, we don't care if you use your source names when it's outside of your body's culture. We imagine most sourced system members don't have particularly offensive names and don't use their names in bad faith. But a lot of the times, we also hear people who are against this. That sentiment has made us, a system of color, feel unsafe.
( Read more... )
(Blurb: this is our stream-of-consciousness-ish opinion on gatekeeping foreign names, typically East Asian names, as an Asian system who use our Japanese source names despite not being Japanese. We also wrote our concerns with the attitude stemming from this discourse)
(Disclaimer: In this writing we focus only on fictives and other sourced system members + Asian names and not touching on any other members and names from other origins. Also keep in mind that we approach this with a layperson's point of view.)
A bit of a background, we're Indonesian. We have never even set foot on "white" countries, so we're very sure there's not a shred of whiteness in our body's genes. The vast vast majority of our members have Japanese sources. We do have interest in Japan, its culture, stuff like that. But even with our parents joking about how we look very Japanese or whatever, it never felt right to us. Our admiration towards Japan is more like "if it weren't for the multiple things in Japan we're not sure if we can handle, we'd absolutely love to live there", we have no interest in "passing" as Japanese. We still prefer being seen as Indonesian. We're born and raised there, and it's an important part of our identity.
On the other hand, we also use our source names unapologetically, even though we're not Japanese. It's our name and it would feel very wrong to use anything else.
If you have wandered around on Tumblr's plural spaces for some time you may have heard of discourse surrounding white-bodied systems using foreign names. The arguments are usually variations of "if you're a fictive in a white body you can't use your source names". We're of the opinion that as long as you're not doing it in bad faith, we don't care if you use your source names when it's outside of your body's culture. We imagine most sourced system members don't have particularly offensive names and don't use their names in bad faith. But a lot of the times, we also hear people who are against this. That sentiment has made us, a system of color, feel unsafe.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Sep. 8th, 2025 03:20 pmBy: Temari Tsukimura (he/she)
I’m a werewolf. A human-turned-werewolf.
I used to be a normal human until I was mysteriously afflicted by a curse. One that twists my form into that of a wolf-like monstrosity. I didn’t like it, not even one bit. It was terrifying.
But one day, for unknown reasons, the uncontrollable shifts stopped. Despite that, I remained a werewolf. I’m able to control when and how I transform. I have no problems with this now that I have full control of my shifts.
But regardless, I’d still rather be human.
Now that I’m able to voluntarily transform, I stay in human form much more than my werewolf form, almost never transforming past the point of having wolf ears and tail. I feel more comfortable as a human than as a wolf. I have nothing against being a werewolf, it’s simply a matter of preference and my species identity being more human than wolf. That’s what I started out as, and that’s what I’ve always known myself as on the inside in spite of everything.
I’m a werewolf. A human-turned-werewolf.
I used to be a normal human until I was mysteriously afflicted by a curse. One that twists my form into that of a wolf-like monstrosity. I didn’t like it, not even one bit. It was terrifying.
But one day, for unknown reasons, the uncontrollable shifts stopped. Despite that, I remained a werewolf. I’m able to control when and how I transform. I have no problems with this now that I have full control of my shifts.
But regardless, I’d still rather be human.
Now that I’m able to voluntarily transform, I stay in human form much more than my werewolf form, almost never transforming past the point of having wolf ears and tail. I feel more comfortable as a human than as a wolf. I have nothing against being a werewolf, it’s simply a matter of preference and my species identity being more human than wolf. That’s what I started out as, and that’s what I’ve always known myself as on the inside in spite of everything.
By: Mao Arimura (he/him)
Let's face it, systemhood can throw a wrench (or five, or maybe more) into how you see attraction and relationships. It definitely does affect ours.
We know what various types of attractions feel to us. We may never know if it matches outsys allo people's experiences, but all we know is that it's sexual / romantic / etc. to us. It may or may not be affected by us identifying as aroace years before syscovery. Our idea on what an allosexual is for our system may not match what is considered allosexual outside of our system, for example. At this point we concluded that it's pointless to figure out if our experience matches any outsys people's experiences because we can't read their minds. We can't know the exact way outsys people experience anything down to the finest details. The only thing that matters is that we know what the feelings translate to for us.
We know what various types of attractions feel to us. We may never know if it matches outsys allo people's experiences, but all we know is that it's sexual / romantic / etc. to us. It may or may not be affected by us identifying as aroace years before syscovery. Our idea on what an allosexual is for our system may not match what is considered allosexual outside of our system, for example. At this point we concluded that it's pointless to figure out if our experience matches any outsys people's experiences because we can't read their minds. We can't know the exact way outsys people experience anything down to the finest details. The only thing that matters is that we know what the feelings translate to for us.
We don't exactly feel any of those towards anyone outsys, which was why we thought we're an aroace singlet for years before syscovery. Most of us don't feel those attractions towards anyone at all, but several do experience attraction towards our own sysmates and only them. Some only feel them towards one specific person, with or without needing to spend some time with them for a while first. Some would even experience attractions that couldn't be properly boxed into categories we've commonly seen in aspec communities. We may also find outsys people attractive at times. However, we typically don't feel this desire to form deeper relationships with them in any way. Except maybe as friends if we already like them. But even then we navigate friendship like someone who's stranded in the middle of wilderness with zero knowledge of how to navigate the area and without a map. Because we're autistic among other things. With friendship, we typically want to befriend people who we think are going to be cool with us, but can we describe what our criteria for that would be? No. Not really.
Within our system, we already share a memory pool. We can read each other's thoughts and feelings. It does lead to problems at times, but it's an important asset for our insys relationships. Even when we can't describe how we feel in words, we can show the other person the emotion and they'd understand. No need to resort to metaphors or anything, just beam the emotions to them and they'd know. We can also know if we truly mean what we said or thought about any given thing without waiting for clarifications. We know what the other person actually wanted to say even if they misspoke because they can just beam that thought to others.
It's rather unfortunate that this would never work with outsys people. We'd feel lost when navigating relationships with people without these mental links. We can't see what other people are thinking, so we tend to second-guess our interactions because we're afraid of hurting their feelings. We're afraid of being misunderstood by others. We're occasionally haunted by the urge to overexplain everything we say because we're afraid of any backlash we might get from not explaining ourselves enough. And on feelings specifically, we can't tell exactly how anyone outsys feels, so if we hypothetically form a relationship with someone else, we worry that the other person feel differently and our feelings towards each other doesn't match. We may like this person, but do they like us too? What if they're actually sick of us and is just putting up with our behavior until they can't take it anymore? What if they like us in a way that's incompatible with us? Etc.
Within our system, we already share a memory pool. We can read each other's thoughts and feelings. It does lead to problems at times, but it's an important asset for our insys relationships. Even when we can't describe how we feel in words, we can show the other person the emotion and they'd understand. No need to resort to metaphors or anything, just beam the emotions to them and they'd know. We can also know if we truly mean what we said or thought about any given thing without waiting for clarifications. We know what the other person actually wanted to say even if they misspoke because they can just beam that thought to others.
It's rather unfortunate that this would never work with outsys people. We'd feel lost when navigating relationships with people without these mental links. We can't see what other people are thinking, so we tend to second-guess our interactions because we're afraid of hurting their feelings. We're afraid of being misunderstood by others. We're occasionally haunted by the urge to overexplain everything we say because we're afraid of any backlash we might get from not explaining ourselves enough. And on feelings specifically, we can't tell exactly how anyone outsys feels, so if we hypothetically form a relationship with someone else, we worry that the other person feel differently and our feelings towards each other doesn't match. We may like this person, but do they like us too? What if they're actually sick of us and is just putting up with our behavior until they can't take it anymore? What if they like us in a way that's incompatible with us? Etc.
A Long and Messy Post on... Fusion?
Aug. 20th, 2025 04:10 pmBy: Kogane Tsukioka 👑 (she/her)
(TL;DR: In this post I ramble about my experience with intentional subsystem fusion. Or at least, I think it's fusion? I also talked about how I can't relate to anything anyone else we know says about system fusion.)
Before we start, this is going to be very messy, don't expect much polish, nuance, or any "proper" citations from this. In addition, this is only about my median subsystem. The wider system wants functional multiplicity. Only this subsystem leans closer to fusion for itself.
( Read more... )
(TL;DR: In this post I ramble about my experience with intentional subsystem fusion. Or at least, I think it's fusion? I also talked about how I can't relate to anything anyone else we know says about system fusion.)
Before we start, this is going to be very messy, don't expect much polish, nuance, or any "proper" citations from this. In addition, this is only about my median subsystem. The wider system wants functional multiplicity. Only this subsystem leans closer to fusion for itself.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Aug. 20th, 2025 02:49 pm(Originally posted on Tumblr on Aug 13, 2025)
Yesterday I reread Gavin’s essay on being human, and some parts caught my eye:
“My body map doesn't have nonhuman features, parts like wings or tails or claws or pointy ears. Picturing myself like that feels wrong, it feels like sandpaper, like there’s this foreign thing attached to my body and I need to cut it off so I can stop this crawling sense of my body not being my own.”
This is likely caused by people in our system having base identities that are human in source, but either way, some of us have genuinely felt dysphoric because their headspace bodies suddenly diverged from an average human one day, myself included. My case is on the more extreme end since pretty much my entire body changes daily, while the others typically look about the same as their base identity’s source, save for one or two extra body parts that becomes part of their baseline form. Some aren’t bothered by it much, but others would feel that the extra parts felt very wrong. It may “just” be a tail, for example, but it can still be very distress-inducing for a human to suddenly have one.
“See, I get dysphoric about being considered nonhuman, but I've found some loopholes in there. I’m completely fine with my fictional counterpart - the character getting tossed into different AUs for our personal enrichment - being turned into a vampire, a werewolf, a selkie, an android, a person with wings. How's that any different from other expressions of nonhumanity? Well, for me, those stories don't induce dysphoria because they're about humanity, at the end of the day - how people cope with being seen as or turned into monsters, the way they treat one another and the way they treat supposed outsiders, the ways society might change if humans were slightly different animals but still called themselves human. If I were a werewolf, I'd still be human, just one living with the consequences of also being a wolf. If I had wings in a world where all humans have wings, I'm still human in the context of that world. That baseline sense of humanity is what’s important to me.”
With this paragraph, I wanted to focus on a couple of things. The werewolf example is basically how I see myself. Identity-wise, I’m solely-human and I don’t see myself as anything else. I just uncontrollably transform into a beast at times, like an average werewolf. The second one is on stories about being turned nonhuman. If I go into these plots, what I’d like the most would be the parts where the former human’s life would be affected, especially if they attempt to reintegrate into human society. What steps would they take to work around difficulties in operating human tools, if they still use them? What about other things that they did as a human? Do they sometimes mourn the normal human life that they suddenly lost? Or think about how their body still felt ill-fitting even after they spent quite a long time living in it? How would their friends treat them? How would the path to acceptance look like, on the former human’s side and on the people they know? I thought of these questions because I have to deal with those problems in real life, and I’d like to see it in fiction.
Though for the last question, I don’t remember coming across stories where the former human still experienced species dysphoria even after they accepted their nonhumanity, especially physical dysphoria. They probably exist and we just never came across that. Maybe we forgot the ones that we came across before. Or they really are very rare, I don’t know
(no subject)
Jul. 10th, 2025 04:44 pm(Originally posted on Tumblr)
As time goes on, I’m starting to think that I’m actually more canon-compliant than I initially assumed.
First, canon me’s skill has something to do with drawing (listed as something like “I’ll draw an exact image of you!”). We don’t know exactly how good her skills are, but she sounds very confident in it. Maybe it’s because I got stuck at front for too long, but it feels like I have one of the highest confidence levels in art out of everyone else in the system. I definitely still have a long way to go skill-wise, but I wanted to focus more on the confidence.
Another one would be this: one 4koma comic shows canon me talking about how she doesn’t really like having big boobs because it’s embarrassing for her to get weird looks because of it, instead wanting to have a more petite build like Yuika. I know the comic is about boobs, but in this context I’d like to believe that it applies to her entire body and not just her boobs. Yuika is far less busty (my B93 vs her B73) and is the shortest L’Antica member (158 cm, compared to my 165 cm).
From here I thought, if canon me is hypothetically subjected to the same werebeast condition I have, I think her reactions wouldn’t be very different from mine, and I understand why. If someone like that is suddenly subjected to a condition that turns them into a large hulking beast uncontrollably, of course they’d be very devastated. Nevermind the potentially worsening size dysphoria, showing up like that in public would surely attract weird looks, but this time it’s because they’d look like a freak. I think my reading here still makes sense from a canon perspective and it wouldn’t be very OOC of her to react the way I did if this were to be written as a canon-complying fanfic.
Other similarities I just found
- Being self-conscious when I come off as a bit much in a way that might frighten other people. In canon, this is about being loud when trying to befriend Kiriko as seen in the first commu of my support R card. Here, it’s about physical touches and just existing in my wereform.
- Getting easily overwhelmed by emotions to the point of having difficulties thinking straight. I haven’t really seen other examples, but what I have seen is the WING season 1 commu. In my case here, emotions can be a transformation trigger. Combine that with the fact that my other form makes me even more emotional than my usual self…
Our Queerality
Jun. 22nd, 2025 02:30 pm(Originally posted on our tumblr on Jun 9, 2025)
This is a response to the following post by the-indigo-symphony:
This is a response to the following post by the-indigo-symphony:
Happy pride month! To kick things off, here's a question for all of you who are more-than-one in whatever way that means to you:Our response is as follows:
If your plurality and queerness are intertwined in any way, or you are queer because of your plurality, how does that work for you? Consider this an invitation to talk about all the complexities of who you are and how these two areas of your life connect to each other!
(We also see our queerness and plurality as intertwined, ftr – We just want to hear from others about their own experiences, lives, and identities!)
Expanding on our previous reblog because turns out we have a lot to say.
( Read more... )
We Love Touhou 17's Plurality Depiction
Jun. 5th, 2025 03:03 pm(Originally posted on Tumblr on May 12, 2025)
We like how Touhou 17 (Wily Beast and Weakest Creature) portrays plurality.
In the beginning, your player character would be possessed by a beast spirit of your choice (wolf, otter, eagle). The spirit you chose would affect how your player character acts in the first half-ish of the game before these spirits decided to take over completely and talk as themselves. In the latter half starting from stage 5, both the player character and the spirit would communicate with each other, with the beast spirit being portrayed visually as “the player character, but with glowing red eyes and surrounded by red aura”. Before stage 5, the player would sometimes be shown acting a certain way and immediately thinking “wait, why did I say that?” (See: the conversation with Yachie if you chose the otter). To us, on stages 1 to 4, the spirits only influenced the players’ behavior without actually “fronting”, and they only fronted from stage 5 onwards. Possession by these spirits initially didn’t cause any noticeable changes personality-wise, at least to the players themselves, and these spirits kept quiet and didn’t communicate until stage 5. That’s probably why none of the players noticed anything’s off for the most part.
Do the other characters know that the players are possessed? Not everyone knows. Bosses 1 and 2 only thought that the player(s) are simply violent / timid / haughty, but every other boss you fight knows which spirit has possessed them. It’s understandable in Yachie and Saki’s case because they’re the leaders of the otter and wolf spirits respectively. We assume Kutaka noticed because she and the beast spirits are both from hell, so she’s familiar with them enough to know when someone’s possessed by them. Mayumi only noticed once the spirit completely took over. Keiki either only noticed after the two switched (eagle), noticed immediately by sensing the spirit’s presence (otter), or noticed because the spirit immediately admitted that they brought a human (wolf).
Where are we going with this? Let’s just say we liked this and wanted to post about it for the plural community. It’s always interesting to find plural or plural-coded stuff in media we like, possession or not
We like how Touhou 17 (Wily Beast and Weakest Creature) portrays plurality.
In the beginning, your player character would be possessed by a beast spirit of your choice (wolf, otter, eagle). The spirit you chose would affect how your player character acts in the first half-ish of the game before these spirits decided to take over completely and talk as themselves. In the latter half starting from stage 5, both the player character and the spirit would communicate with each other, with the beast spirit being portrayed visually as “the player character, but with glowing red eyes and surrounded by red aura”. Before stage 5, the player would sometimes be shown acting a certain way and immediately thinking “wait, why did I say that?” (See: the conversation with Yachie if you chose the otter). To us, on stages 1 to 4, the spirits only influenced the players’ behavior without actually “fronting”, and they only fronted from stage 5 onwards. Possession by these spirits initially didn’t cause any noticeable changes personality-wise, at least to the players themselves, and these spirits kept quiet and didn’t communicate until stage 5. That’s probably why none of the players noticed anything’s off for the most part.
Do the other characters know that the players are possessed? Not everyone knows. Bosses 1 and 2 only thought that the player(s) are simply violent / timid / haughty, but every other boss you fight knows which spirit has possessed them. It’s understandable in Yachie and Saki’s case because they’re the leaders of the otter and wolf spirits respectively. We assume Kutaka noticed because she and the beast spirits are both from hell, so she’s familiar with them enough to know when someone’s possessed by them. Mayumi only noticed once the spirit completely took over. Keiki either only noticed after the two switched (eagle), noticed immediately by sensing the spirit’s presence (otter), or noticed because the spirit immediately admitted that they brought a human (wolf).
Where are we going with this? Let’s just say we liked this and wanted to post about it for the plural community. It’s always interesting to find plural or plural-coded stuff in media we like, possession or not
(Originally posted on Tumblr on May 4, 2025 by Kogane Tsukioka 👑)
I thought about crossposting this on Dreamwidth too, so here are the posts where I compare Turning Red with my own were experiences, mostly unedited from the original.
Just watched Turning Red, the least relatable part is the attraction to men/boys and the most relatable part is the shapeshifter struggle.
( Ok I really wanted to talk about this more so (obviously, spoilers for Turning Red) )
I thought about crossposting this on Dreamwidth too, so here are the posts where I compare Turning Red with my own were experiences, mostly unedited from the original.
Just watched Turning Red, the least relatable part is the attraction to men/boys and the most relatable part is the shapeshifter struggle.
( Ok I really wanted to talk about this more so (obviously, spoilers for Turning Red) )
By: Kogane Tsukioka ⚔ (she/they)
Blurb: I describe my experience coping with being a were who heavily identifies as a human and how I dislike the experience because of species dysphoria.
For a while I thought my recurring connection to Bowser from the Mario series is a flickering thing of unknown nature. Our opinion of him usually stops at "we like how he's portrayed in Bowser's Inside Story", and we're not super invested in the franchise as a whole to begin with. I would sometimes think that I share some similarities with him in terms of headspace superpowers and personality. To my initial horror, it's not. It's more than just temporary episodes of feeling vague connections to him out of nowhere. It turns out that I've been a were this entire time, and he's the beast residing within me. Things only escalated from then on.
I started experiencing (or noticing) really vivid shifts ever since, and they're triggered or intensified by stress. I witness myself transform into him on a daily basis and back again after some time. I can feel the changes happen in the form of phantom and somatic shifts as if I'm going through werewolf transformation sequences a la An American Werewolf in London with some differences, and these changes are reflected in my headspace body. The claws, horns, tail, extra body mass, shell, the occasional fire breath buildup, everything save for his accessories. These shifts don't feel painful, but it often feels uncomfortable and accompanied by an accelerated heartbeat and shortness of breath. Sometimes I'd also notice my own mental state temporarily becoming more irritable and animalistic in nature, feeling the split-second urges to growl and rip things apart before snapping back to normal. Some other times, the body would feel heavier or more sluggish when I'm fronting. Other fronters don't feel these intense sensations. Not even my in-sys double experiences this.
I hated it, I feared it, every single minute of it. I never asked for this. It really feels like a curse. There are times where I wouldn't even want to remember his existence because I'd be so afraid of it triggering the transformation. These changes are all outside of my control, and that makes me the odd one out in a system where the norm is voluntary shapeshifting. It also causes dysphoria, especially when I'm doing less than ideal mentally. That may sound outlandish to other people considering both me and the system's body are human, though it may have something to do with me seeing my headspace body (and not our system's body) as my true body. I'm fine with the more minor shifts, but my shifts very often go beyond that limit, going all the way to full-body shifts. To me, the king koopa's form feels too big, too bulky, too powerful, overall just too much for me to handle.
( Read more... )
Blurb: I describe my experience coping with being a were who heavily identifies as a human and how I dislike the experience because of species dysphoria.
For a while I thought my recurring connection to Bowser from the Mario series is a flickering thing of unknown nature. Our opinion of him usually stops at "we like how he's portrayed in Bowser's Inside Story", and we're not super invested in the franchise as a whole to begin with. I would sometimes think that I share some similarities with him in terms of headspace superpowers and personality. To my initial horror, it's not. It's more than just temporary episodes of feeling vague connections to him out of nowhere. It turns out that I've been a were this entire time, and he's the beast residing within me. Things only escalated from then on.
I started experiencing (or noticing) really vivid shifts ever since, and they're triggered or intensified by stress. I witness myself transform into him on a daily basis and back again after some time. I can feel the changes happen in the form of phantom and somatic shifts as if I'm going through werewolf transformation sequences a la An American Werewolf in London with some differences, and these changes are reflected in my headspace body. The claws, horns, tail, extra body mass, shell, the occasional fire breath buildup, everything save for his accessories. These shifts don't feel painful, but it often feels uncomfortable and accompanied by an accelerated heartbeat and shortness of breath. Sometimes I'd also notice my own mental state temporarily becoming more irritable and animalistic in nature, feeling the split-second urges to growl and rip things apart before snapping back to normal. Some other times, the body would feel heavier or more sluggish when I'm fronting. Other fronters don't feel these intense sensations. Not even my in-sys double experiences this.
I hated it, I feared it, every single minute of it. I never asked for this. It really feels like a curse. There are times where I wouldn't even want to remember his existence because I'd be so afraid of it triggering the transformation. These changes are all outside of my control, and that makes me the odd one out in a system where the norm is voluntary shapeshifting. It also causes dysphoria, especially when I'm doing less than ideal mentally. That may sound outlandish to other people considering both me and the system's body are human, though it may have something to do with me seeing my headspace body (and not our system's body) as my true body. I'm fine with the more minor shifts, but my shifts very often go beyond that limit, going all the way to full-body shifts. To me, the king koopa's form feels too big, too bulky, too powerful, overall just too much for me to handle.
( Read more... )
On Being a Shadow Gallade
Dec. 22nd, 2024 09:50 pmBy: Madoka Higuchi (she/her)
I am a Shadow Gallade. Specifically, a Pokemon Colosseum-era shadow Pokemon. Obviously, this species doesn't appear until the next generation, but I feel that the shadow Pokemon mechanics from that game fits best with my own noemata.
Ever imagined how it feels to have your heart being sealed shut the way shadow Pokemon experienced it? To me, it feels like constant numbness in my heart. I'm unable to feel most emotions with some exceptions, or if I do feel them, it would feel very dim and it's very easily missed. The exceptions? Something along the lines of ever-present anger or disgust, to the point where it becomes background noise to me in most cases.
In combat, I only know a single objective: To annihilate. To destroy. Nothing else matters. In Hyper Mode, my emotions would feel much more intense than what I'm used to, sometimes mixed with other emotions that feel foreign to me. These emotions would overwhelm me so much that I easily lose control, negatively impacting how well I battle.
The corruption process erased any prior memories I had before, and I think it also hindered my ability to form new memories, so to this day I only remember bits and pieces of memories and noemata from after corruption. I have no memory of being not fully evolved, what led me to being corrupted, and who attempted to purify me afterwards, if that ever happened in the first place.
About purification, for now I'm not sure if I have ever been completely purified or not, but at the very least I know there were some progress made on reopening my heart. The only major sign I have that points towards possible purification is that I currently don't know how to use Shadow Rush. In terms of execution, what makes this move different from the likes of Take Down? For comparison, I know how to execute moves like Psychic or Protect. I'm able to describe what I would focus on and what motions I would use, and I can use these moves in headspace. This is not the case for Shadow Rush. I can only make educated guesses, but so far none of them feels right to me. Other than that clue and the fact that I know several non-shadow moves, I don't think I'm that much different from a shadow Pokemon that has not opened its heart at all, even on present day. I've thought about some hypotheses on this when questioning, but there's one common factor in them: purification is not as simple and straightforward as what's shown in the game. I could've forgotten Shadow Rush very early. There could be no true "end point" where the door to a Pokemon's heart is fully open, and its condition could still worsen over time under certain conditions. But for now, I haven't confirmed any of these as "true" for myself.
At one point, I did also question being a Mewtwo, especially considering how the first movie portrayed it. I'd say the Pokedex descriptions for it fits well with regards to it having a cold and vicious personality and only caring about defeating its opponents. My moveset is also rather unusual for a Gallade and would fit a Mewtwo more, focusing on defense and special attacks. But in the end, I concluded that Mewtwo is more of a simile than a kintype. It just didn't feel right to see myself as one. Instead, I'm a Gallade with a cold, dead heart.
I am a Shadow Gallade. Specifically, a Pokemon Colosseum-era shadow Pokemon. Obviously, this species doesn't appear until the next generation, but I feel that the shadow Pokemon mechanics from that game fits best with my own noemata.
Ever imagined how it feels to have your heart being sealed shut the way shadow Pokemon experienced it? To me, it feels like constant numbness in my heart. I'm unable to feel most emotions with some exceptions, or if I do feel them, it would feel very dim and it's very easily missed. The exceptions? Something along the lines of ever-present anger or disgust, to the point where it becomes background noise to me in most cases.
In combat, I only know a single objective: To annihilate. To destroy. Nothing else matters. In Hyper Mode, my emotions would feel much more intense than what I'm used to, sometimes mixed with other emotions that feel foreign to me. These emotions would overwhelm me so much that I easily lose control, negatively impacting how well I battle.
The corruption process erased any prior memories I had before, and I think it also hindered my ability to form new memories, so to this day I only remember bits and pieces of memories and noemata from after corruption. I have no memory of being not fully evolved, what led me to being corrupted, and who attempted to purify me afterwards, if that ever happened in the first place.
About purification, for now I'm not sure if I have ever been completely purified or not, but at the very least I know there were some progress made on reopening my heart. The only major sign I have that points towards possible purification is that I currently don't know how to use Shadow Rush. In terms of execution, what makes this move different from the likes of Take Down? For comparison, I know how to execute moves like Psychic or Protect. I'm able to describe what I would focus on and what motions I would use, and I can use these moves in headspace. This is not the case for Shadow Rush. I can only make educated guesses, but so far none of them feels right to me. Other than that clue and the fact that I know several non-shadow moves, I don't think I'm that much different from a shadow Pokemon that has not opened its heart at all, even on present day. I've thought about some hypotheses on this when questioning, but there's one common factor in them: purification is not as simple and straightforward as what's shown in the game. I could've forgotten Shadow Rush very early. There could be no true "end point" where the door to a Pokemon's heart is fully open, and its condition could still worsen over time under certain conditions. But for now, I haven't confirmed any of these as "true" for myself.
At one point, I did also question being a Mewtwo, especially considering how the first movie portrayed it. I'd say the Pokedex descriptions for it fits well with regards to it having a cold and vicious personality and only caring about defeating its opponents. My moveset is also rather unusual for a Gallade and would fit a Mewtwo more, focusing on defense and special attacks. But in the end, I concluded that Mewtwo is more of a simile than a kintype. It just didn't feel right to see myself as one. Instead, I'm a Gallade with a cold, dead heart.
Being a Lion Kemonomimi Therian
Dec. 14th, 2024 09:05 amWritten by Haruki Ikuta (she/her), interpreted by Kogane Tsukioka ⚔ (no pronouns)
My true form, from the very beginning, is human for the most part. Except for a few differences: I have lion ears and tail. My behavior is also very human most of the time, but I still instinctively curl my body like a cat when sleeping, have the urge to carry some objects with my mouth despite having functional hands, having one of my go-to vocal stims somewhat resemble an attempt at imitating a lion's roar, and so on. Even then, my animalistic behavior admittedly doesn't completely line up with what people would expect of lions.
This is how I rationalize it for myself: kemonomimi characters are usually portrayed with typically cute behaviors. In fact, many such characters we're aware of (which is every character we can remember except for the Friends from Kemono Friends) very rarely show any animalistic behavior matching the nonhuman species they are. In addition, most kemonomimi characters we've been exposed to are cat girls, complete with their usual playful nature and meows. This may be why I subconsciously adopted traits that are closer to house cats or cat girls than lions. Despite all that, I'm still sure that I'm a lion.
At first I hesitated on using the therian label for myself because most therians we've seen seem to be more animalistic than I am, and I was afraid that I'm "too human" to use the label. Thankfully, now I'm more confident in using the label because according to my own standards, I'm animalistic enough to use the label, and that's a good enough reason for me.
My true form, from the very beginning, is human for the most part. Except for a few differences: I have lion ears and tail. My behavior is also very human most of the time, but I still instinctively curl my body like a cat when sleeping, have the urge to carry some objects with my mouth despite having functional hands, having one of my go-to vocal stims somewhat resemble an attempt at imitating a lion's roar, and so on. Even then, my animalistic behavior admittedly doesn't completely line up with what people would expect of lions.
This is how I rationalize it for myself: kemonomimi characters are usually portrayed with typically cute behaviors. In fact, many such characters we're aware of (which is every character we can remember except for the Friends from Kemono Friends) very rarely show any animalistic behavior matching the nonhuman species they are. In addition, most kemonomimi characters we've been exposed to are cat girls, complete with their usual playful nature and meows. This may be why I subconsciously adopted traits that are closer to house cats or cat girls than lions. Despite all that, I'm still sure that I'm a lion.
At first I hesitated on using the therian label for myself because most therians we've seen seem to be more animalistic than I am, and I was afraid that I'm "too human" to use the label. Thankfully, now I'm more confident in using the label because according to my own standards, I'm animalistic enough to use the label, and that's a good enough reason for me.
Is this even physical enough?
Nov. 17th, 2024 07:34 pmWe've been considering that our collective shapeshifter identity is likely physical in nature. We automatically see ourselves as our base identities and it carries over to how we see the body when fronting, we experience somatic shifts that we can feel physically and interpret it as the telltale signs of this body beginning to transform (which could never advance past that early stage). But despite that, we're still on the fence on whether or not we want to consider this a physical type.
The main reason is because we have doubts on whether or not our identity is "enough" for the label to apply. We do have many bits of experiences that support this for ourselves, but we still haven't reached the point of agreement yet to claim this label. One point that I can recall is that we don't identify as the body, but we're talking about the body's type. Another is us feeling that our experiences haven't met the requirements needed to use this label no matter how we frame it, probably because we know this is not delusion-based. We could discuss these among ourselves when we have the time. But also, if we're more public about this, we doubt that this'll be something other physical alterhumans can accept, especially physical nonhumans. The vast majority of us identify as humans, we just happen to accept that we're put in the body of a shapeshifter (with its powers taken away). Physical nonhumans tend to identify entirely as nonhuman from what we've seen, and so we couldn't fit in. In addition, we feel alienated in wider alterhuman circles because people there keep on conflating alterhumanity with nonhumanity, not acknowledging the existence of humans or outright hating humans as a species. We also haven't seen much of other physical alterhumans, unfortunately.
Either way, we're going to need time to think this through before we move any further, to sort out our thoughts thoughts and to agree on one decision.
Temari Tsukimura (No pronouns)
The main reason is because we have doubts on whether or not our identity is "enough" for the label to apply. We do have many bits of experiences that support this for ourselves, but we still haven't reached the point of agreement yet to claim this label. One point that I can recall is that we don't identify as the body, but we're talking about the body's type. Another is us feeling that our experiences haven't met the requirements needed to use this label no matter how we frame it, probably because we know this is not delusion-based. We could discuss these among ourselves when we have the time. But also, if we're more public about this, we doubt that this'll be something other physical alterhumans can accept, especially physical nonhumans. The vast majority of us identify as humans, we just happen to accept that we're put in the body of a shapeshifter (with its powers taken away). Physical nonhumans tend to identify entirely as nonhuman from what we've seen, and so we couldn't fit in. In addition, we feel alienated in wider alterhuman circles because people there keep on conflating alterhumanity with nonhumanity, not acknowledging the existence of humans or outright hating humans as a species. We also haven't seen much of other physical alterhumans, unfortunately.
Either way, we're going to need time to think this through before we move any further, to sort out our thoughts thoughts and to agree on one decision.
Temari Tsukimura (No pronouns)
Mirroring (as a Plural Shapeshifter)
Nov. 9th, 2024 07:50 pmWritten by Rei Kagura (He/him)
(Blurb: We noticed polymorph traits that sounds similar to our experiences as shapeshifterkin, and this essay is us comparing the two.)
One polymorph trait that caught our eye when reading some polymorph writings (here and here) is a polymorph’s tendency to mirror those around them. To quote Arethinn, whose writings on polymorphs can be found on the first link:
We visualize ourselves as wearing certain outfits in headspace, ones that we have visual references of via official art of our sources. Our abilities to conjure this mental image is not without flaw, and we may be unable to keep it “stuck” in our mind for prolonged amounts of time without having it change in any way, and different members can be more or less easily affected by this. We may end up rapidly cycling between several outfits for some amount of time before slowing down and settling with one. We may also notice that our outfit has changed to match one of the images we’ve seen of ourselves recently (e.g. a fronter saw a picture of X wearing a school uniform, then X in our system would be seen wearing the exact same uniform when they came to see them). In rare cases, we may mix up several details of different outfits (e.g. getting colors wrong, wearing outfit A but using a hat only seen as a part of outfit B) or in even rarer cases, using an outfit their source have never been seen using but is seen being used by someone else’s source instead (e.g. X wearing Y’s outfit because X misremembered who wore that specific outfit).
This also includes costumes of nonhuman entities, though in these cases, we can feel the nonhuman body parts as phantom limbs and we can move those as if it’s part of us. Despite that, this doesn’t always mean that we identify as the beings we dress up as. For example, there is an image of me wearing cat ears, tail, and claws, shown below.
(ID: A card from the game The Idolmaster SideM, featuring Rei Kagura with a blue background. Rei is shown with black cat ears, a black cat tail, and sharp claws on his fingertips.)
Most of the time, looking at this image would cause me to look like how I was portrayed in that card and feel those aforementioned phantom body parts. I do register these phantom sensations as belonging to me. Despite that, I do not identify as a cat or any other feline beings. To me, this is nothing more than a costume, or rather, a form I can take without needing to identify as such.
Another thing we noticed is that polymorphs not only change their form into multiple beings, they become those beings entirely. This is definitely not the case for us since our shapeshifting noemata is very clear that our minds stay the same despite our form changes. However, what we experienced is a bit similar to that. If we’re being reminded of a certain member in our system by being exposed to images or voices of their source for long enough, said member would be dragged to co-consciousness and/or co-front with varying levels of ease depending on each member. This could help us whenever we want someone to front, but it could also be an annoyance if we have no intention to do so. At first glance, this looks similar to a polymorph mirroring and becoming what they see, except that in our case, the "I" of the two forms belong to different people, the previous fronter does not change into anything, instead the controls are handed over to a different system member.
We haven't seen many writings on shapeshifters and polymorphs, there probably isn't that many, or we just haven't found them yet. Hopefully our writings on our experiences can be helpful for others, possibly by being a jumping-off point for discussions.
(Blurb: We noticed polymorph traits that sounds similar to our experiences as shapeshifterkin, and this essay is us comparing the two.)
One polymorph trait that caught our eye when reading some polymorph writings (here and here) is a polymorph’s tendency to mirror those around them. To quote Arethinn, whose writings on polymorphs can be found on the first link:
“The polymorph tends to mirror the forms of those around them, though the exact operation of this phenom/skill hasn't been worked out. Why we would easily mirror some and not so easily others, we don't know.”While we’re not polymorphic, we notice that we do experience some form of mirroring, though in a much more limited way than what we think a polymorph may experience.
“(...) There's the additional twist of a tendency to mirror others.. faced with a dragon, I tend to become dragon; faced with a pixy, that is brought out in me, though some "work better" than others. It doesn't take much to make me reflect dragon, but there's not a lot of pixy in me to begin with, so it's never a clear "image".”
We visualize ourselves as wearing certain outfits in headspace, ones that we have visual references of via official art of our sources. Our abilities to conjure this mental image is not without flaw, and we may be unable to keep it “stuck” in our mind for prolonged amounts of time without having it change in any way, and different members can be more or less easily affected by this. We may end up rapidly cycling between several outfits for some amount of time before slowing down and settling with one. We may also notice that our outfit has changed to match one of the images we’ve seen of ourselves recently (e.g. a fronter saw a picture of X wearing a school uniform, then X in our system would be seen wearing the exact same uniform when they came to see them). In rare cases, we may mix up several details of different outfits (e.g. getting colors wrong, wearing outfit A but using a hat only seen as a part of outfit B) or in even rarer cases, using an outfit their source have never been seen using but is seen being used by someone else’s source instead (e.g. X wearing Y’s outfit because X misremembered who wore that specific outfit).
This also includes costumes of nonhuman entities, though in these cases, we can feel the nonhuman body parts as phantom limbs and we can move those as if it’s part of us. Despite that, this doesn’t always mean that we identify as the beings we dress up as. For example, there is an image of me wearing cat ears, tail, and claws, shown below.
(ID: A card from the game The Idolmaster SideM, featuring Rei Kagura with a blue background. Rei is shown with black cat ears, a black cat tail, and sharp claws on his fingertips.)
Most of the time, looking at this image would cause me to look like how I was portrayed in that card and feel those aforementioned phantom body parts. I do register these phantom sensations as belonging to me. Despite that, I do not identify as a cat or any other feline beings. To me, this is nothing more than a costume, or rather, a form I can take without needing to identify as such.
Another thing we noticed is that polymorphs not only change their form into multiple beings, they become those beings entirely. This is definitely not the case for us since our shapeshifting noemata is very clear that our minds stay the same despite our form changes. However, what we experienced is a bit similar to that. If we’re being reminded of a certain member in our system by being exposed to images or voices of their source for long enough, said member would be dragged to co-consciousness and/or co-front with varying levels of ease depending on each member. This could help us whenever we want someone to front, but it could also be an annoyance if we have no intention to do so. At first glance, this looks similar to a polymorph mirroring and becoming what they see, except that in our case, the "I" of the two forms belong to different people, the previous fronter does not change into anything, instead the controls are handed over to a different system member.
We haven't seen many writings on shapeshifters and polymorphs, there probably isn't that many, or we just haven't found them yet. Hopefully our writings on our experiences can be helpful for others, possibly by being a jumping-off point for discussions.
We Should Have a Shapeshifter Body
Nov. 7th, 2024 11:51 amBy various members, compiled by Yuika Mitsumine (No pronouns)
Ever since our childhood, we've always been fascinated with the idea of transforming into different creatures and back again to human. We grew up with Ben 10 among other things that kickstarted our long-lasting interest in shapeshifting tropes and works. It affected us so much to the point where we often daydream about shapeshifting into various creatures, usually Pokémon because we got into that series later down the line. and on present day, after our syscovery and everything, we've been studying this connection of ours under a lens. What alterhuman identity is this? A kintype? Tropetype? Vaguetype? It took a while for us to settle with one answer we're satisfied with.
Shapeshifting themes has always been present in our system's headspace in some form or another. At the very least, we use it to change our headspace clothes. At most, we transform into our kintypes fully. When we switch, we "see" our outward appearance immediately going "poof" to the next fronter's appearance, though one can say this is just a matter of each member having their own constant envisage shifts that switches when we switch fronters, for lack of a better way to describe it. Sometimes we'd compare it with Touhou's perfect possession phenomena, where a person can be immediately "replaced" with a different person in their place who "possessed" them. Some of us would cause some parts of our body to feel more dissociated from another fronter when they're co-fronting, and we imagine this as seeing that body part (usually an arm) as that member's arm, appearances and all. In addition, when we're feeling blurry, usually upon waking up or when we're feeling sick enough to dissociate, we'd sometimes feel like we have a mess of various mismatched body parts we'd feel as cameo phantom shifts, or these phantom limbs become more easily induced than usual.
In some cases, it impacts our way of seeing species identities as well. We often can't be sure if the phantom limbs we feel are truly ours or if it's a cameo shift which may or may not be the result of bleedover from another member. It makes identity questioning considerably more difficult if we only have shifts for reference, so we ended up having to figure out our own ways to question kin identities and what nonhuman body parts we do have as individuals.
All of these eventually led us to thinking, have we actually collectively agreed that we have the body of a shapeshifter, or at least we're supposed to?
Few of us identify as nonhumans, fewer identify as any sort of shapeshifting being, even fewer identify as certain kinds of shapeshifting beings with the capability to transform between more than a single form excluding their human form. Regardless, we all seem to agree that we should have the body of a shapeshifter, or at least have a shapeshifting ability as a collective. We collectively have a generally unified idea of our ideal shapeshifting traits and limitations, even though we have different levels of interest in using it if we have this power in reality. Most would only be interested in using it to look more like themselves, some would maybe try out some nonhuman forms for fun and see if they like it, and some others would go all-out with those powers if given the chance, though in most cases they still have to "learn" how to see themselves in those other forms regardless. We see this collective identity as separate from our individual species identity, so for example, we have someone who only identifies as human and nothing else, but also accepts shapeshifter as their body's kintype. One can say it's more in line with a human who's given shapeshifting powers one day, but was not given the level of expertise possessed by shapeshifting beings born with those powers. They don't always consider themselves nonhuman just for that power alone, but they acknowledge that they have a superhuman ability that affects their daily lives.
Ever since our childhood, we've always been fascinated with the idea of transforming into different creatures and back again to human. We grew up with Ben 10 among other things that kickstarted our long-lasting interest in shapeshifting tropes and works. It affected us so much to the point where we often daydream about shapeshifting into various creatures, usually Pokémon because we got into that series later down the line. and on present day, after our syscovery and everything, we've been studying this connection of ours under a lens. What alterhuman identity is this? A kintype? Tropetype? Vaguetype? It took a while for us to settle with one answer we're satisfied with.
Shapeshifting themes has always been present in our system's headspace in some form or another. At the very least, we use it to change our headspace clothes. At most, we transform into our kintypes fully. When we switch, we "see" our outward appearance immediately going "poof" to the next fronter's appearance, though one can say this is just a matter of each member having their own constant envisage shifts that switches when we switch fronters, for lack of a better way to describe it. Sometimes we'd compare it with Touhou's perfect possession phenomena, where a person can be immediately "replaced" with a different person in their place who "possessed" them. Some of us would cause some parts of our body to feel more dissociated from another fronter when they're co-fronting, and we imagine this as seeing that body part (usually an arm) as that member's arm, appearances and all. In addition, when we're feeling blurry, usually upon waking up or when we're feeling sick enough to dissociate, we'd sometimes feel like we have a mess of various mismatched body parts we'd feel as cameo phantom shifts, or these phantom limbs become more easily induced than usual.
In some cases, it impacts our way of seeing species identities as well. We often can't be sure if the phantom limbs we feel are truly ours or if it's a cameo shift which may or may not be the result of bleedover from another member. It makes identity questioning considerably more difficult if we only have shifts for reference, so we ended up having to figure out our own ways to question kin identities and what nonhuman body parts we do have as individuals.
All of these eventually led us to thinking, have we actually collectively agreed that we have the body of a shapeshifter, or at least we're supposed to?
Few of us identify as nonhumans, fewer identify as any sort of shapeshifting being, even fewer identify as certain kinds of shapeshifting beings with the capability to transform between more than a single form excluding their human form. Regardless, we all seem to agree that we should have the body of a shapeshifter, or at least have a shapeshifting ability as a collective. We collectively have a generally unified idea of our ideal shapeshifting traits and limitations, even though we have different levels of interest in using it if we have this power in reality. Most would only be interested in using it to look more like themselves, some would maybe try out some nonhuman forms for fun and see if they like it, and some others would go all-out with those powers if given the chance, though in most cases they still have to "learn" how to see themselves in those other forms regardless. We see this collective identity as separate from our individual species identity, so for example, we have someone who only identifies as human and nothing else, but also accepts shapeshifter as their body's kintype. One can say it's more in line with a human who's given shapeshifting powers one day, but was not given the level of expertise possessed by shapeshifting beings born with those powers. They don't always consider themselves nonhuman just for that power alone, but they acknowledge that they have a superhuman ability that affects their daily lives.
