Anonymous asked: You're one of the only reasonable people in the otherkin community, so I figured you could answer this. I'm positive I'm a 'kin, but I can't help but feel like more than one animal. Is that normal?

I like to think I’m reasonable; glad you agree ~

To answer your question, most of my real-life therian friends are more than one animal, and so am I. Supposedly that is not the case with most people, but in my experience “poly-therians” are far more common than people think. Some have one “main” theriotype (i.e, animal identity) and one or more less influential ‘types, while others will have multiple equally strong ‘types. Here are some examples of theriotype combinations in people I know personally:

Snow leopard (main), leucistic barred owl / gyrfalcon (secondary), others (weak) [this is me]

Gray wolf (main), raven (secondary)

Yorkshire terrier mutt / hairless cat (main), reindeer (secondary)

Melanistic red fox / green venomous snake (main)

Marten / Crow (main)

Different ‘types will generally become stronger or weaker in different situations. My dog/cat friend, for example, feels strongly canine when she is around people but strongly feline when she is alone or in a bad mood, and my avian side(s) are most prominent when I am feeling insecure and when there is dramatic weather. Physical surroundings are very influential for most therians, as well (e.g, whether my wings are barred owl or gyrfalcon ones usually depends entirely on where I am).

How much someone’s theriotype(s) influence them (if they do at all) also differs from person to person - any number of your theriotypes may be part of your personality, and it may not be clear at first which ones are and which are not. Some (like myself) have their main nonhuman identity integrated into their personality in such a way that they are always in a state of partial “shift”. That is, human/nonhuman mental composition may change but the nonhuman part never dips below a certain percentage, often resulting in consistently present phantom limbs and noticeably nonhuman personality quirks. The general term for this is “suntherian”; there are also “contherians” who always feel partially nonhuman but do not experience shifts. In contrast, some therians/otherkin feel almost entirely human most of the time and only experience phantom limbs and nonhuman instincts when a shift is triggered.

In short, there is no “right” or “normal” way to be a therian/otherkin; your identity is unique. Just observe yourself and patterns will appear.

Happy introspection, and good luck!