hiya! I'm usually kin with characters for what I'd say are psychological reasons. but now there's this character who feels like it's really me, but that has a different personality from mine rn in canon. this kind of thing is probably not unheard of, but I wanted to know if it's something others experience: you acting different from you, so to speak
I would say that for most fictionkin who are kin due to spiritual reasons rather than psychological reasons ‘having the same personality’ is not a major reason that we feel like we 'are’ that character/person.
Personalities often change from life to life, and experience to experience. Our personality, while many elements often remain the same, is shaped by our specific circumstances, and the people around us as we grow.
Its totally normal to be kin of someone who seems very different than the way you are now.
would you say kin tropes (or commonalities between kins) are only a "for fun" kin thing? can those who kin spiritually have kin tropes? i told some friends recently that "i think the kins i connect to now are the ones most relevant to who i am as a person today bc my current life is triggering those memories. thats why my listed kins are similar to me but im sure i have some that arent and i even have some listed kins that are very different than me in a lot of ways" is this how you experience kinning?
First, an aside. We don’t use or like the terms “kins” (more appropriate terminology: kintypes) or kinning (more appropriate terminogy: being fictionkin) but we have discussed this in other posts, and the topic is best further discussed outside of the reply to this very good and interesting question.
When you say “tropes” I hear “common personality traits, events and experiences.”
In our experience it is extremely common for spiritual fictionkin to have recurring “tropes” that repeat or echo throughout their various lifetimes and kintypes. Sometimes recognizing a “trope” common to your awakened kintypes can be the first step and starting place for questioning to determine if something is a kintype or not.
There are certain common threads I recognize as repeated events throughout my lives. I consider these repetitions from a very spiritual standpoint; repeated personality traits and common choices I make in each lifetime are a reassuring reminder of the continuity of self that lasts beyond incarnation.
Repeated incidents, meanwhile, things that seem to happen to me over and over again that I have no control over; those I understand to be a mark of my ‘fate’ in some way, or a kind of mark on my existence.
As for what your friend says, that the kintypes that you connect to the most easily are the ones that are most relevant to your current life, and therefore trigger the most memories– I think there is a lot of merit in that line of thinking, from my personal experience.
For myself, the kintypes that have awakened most easily are the ones with experiences that echo intense experiences I have had in this life in some way, usually painful ones. Kintypes that don’t immediately spark that kind of connection are always harder to question, and harder to determine if they’re really a kintype or not. You might spend a lot of time thinking ‘is that really me’ even if the answer is firmly ‘yes’, just because there is currently more spiritual ‘distance’ between that incarnation and this one.
So, in summary, yes, I think “kin tropes” are very much a thing, though I wouldn’t call them that. I think it’s easy, and important, to recognize the patterns, cycles, and consistency in our journey through our lifetimes.
Finally, after years of people asking on this blog, I can answer the question: “what is the difference between a kin and an irl? Why do people use the term IRL instead of kin?”
IRL is a term used in the psychotic community as an alternative to the term “delusional attachment.”
You can find out more on this great fact sheet.
Thank you to @bepo-goodbye for sharing this info with us.
Does it make sense that whenever I hear myself called by my kintype’s name, I get some semblance of euphoria? Like, similar to gender euphoria, but slightly different?
Also, my kintype’s name is something that sounds fairly unreasonable for a human name, but I want to change my name to that name. I know names are made up and all, but is that reasonable?
There’s nothing unreasonable about that at all. I know plenty of people with very unusual names that were selected by their parents.
It’s normal to feel good when someone calls you the name of your kintype because that’s YOU. That’s your name.
Hi! How are you? Can you do multiple questions in one ask?
- I have a connection to a character from an anime, Jujutsu Kaisen - Inumaki Toge, if you're interested. I sort of have a crush on him, but I also see myself in him, so it's something in between a copinglink and f\o crush. Is there a word for this? What label should I use?
- Considering that, I want to wear the clothes he'd wear, but I don't know how to explain it to my parents and am deeply ashamed that I have to essentially cosplay someone to feel good. Is there something wrong with me?
Use whichever label makes you more comfortable. You should be aware that many fictionkin feel a sort of physical or even romantic attraction to our kintypes at times; its not particularly unusual, especially when you’re still figuring out your kintype and wrestling with memories, to have these feelings and confusion.
There is nothing wrong with you no matter what clothes you want to wear, kin related or otherwise. There are many of us who feel a sense of fulfillment by emulating the styles of our kintypes, or collecting items related to ourselves through our kintypes.
Is it wrong of me to go by my kintypes name and dress/act like them? Im a fictokin spiritually and its been itching at me. I shouldn't be me, i shouldn't be myself im supposed to be *insert character*. Is it wrong to basically adopt everything about them? Especially because they are Japanese and im very White and American.
Your kintype is you. It is never wrong to dress or act like yourself, or use your own name.
Extreme “appropriation discourse” is racist eugenics wearing a progressive hat. Here are some posts from back when this was going around a few years ago:
“You can’t be kin with that character it’s racist!!”
Let me explain to you a thing: saying that it is racist to be kin with a character simply because they are a different race than the person kin with them in and of itself is racist.
It suggests that poc are different than white people, and that they are not “people.” It also suggests that you can choose your kintypes, which I personally don’t believe in, as otherkin is a spiritual belief for me.
Send me hate if you want to about this, but that’s not going to change the fact that I know I’m right.
– https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/fromfiction/124204979247?source=share
“You can’t be kin outside your race” was manipulative discourse invented by white girls masquerading as Japanese trans women in order to “own” their favorite anime characters as fictotypes. It’s entirely baseless and only survives today as aggressive white guilt hiding behind the label of actual social justice. Repeating the racist antics of people like that is bad praxis. Don’t buy into it. And if you really think the souls of white people are different from ours, you have deeper problems.
– https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/fromfiction/143086634707?source=share
Hi hi I'm the anon who asked about confirming kintypes,
So I think a character from a source I've seen recently might be a kintype, but I already have a kin from that source so I'm worried it's not valid and I feel like I should stop questioning them as an kintype.
Do you have any advice for specific kintype questioning?
Sorry for this being long I've just had these thoughts inside my brain for the past few days, answer this whenever you feel like it I don't mind waiting.
Hi anon. Here are some thoughts I put together that I hope will help you with your questions.
The short answer is yes; it is possible, though uncommon and atypical, for one person to have two distinct and separate kintypes from the same source.
However, if you’re taking your identity as fictionkin seriously, this is a scenario that you want to examine carefully to understand the how and why of it occurring.
FIRST
Is it really a second kintype, or is it another phenomenon?
- Is the ‘second kintype’ actually a soulbond or unknown system member?
- Is the ‘second kintype’ actually the kintype of a known or unknown system member?
- Is the ‘second kintype’ actually someone that your first kintype from the source was deeply emotionally attached to in a way that blurs identity? For instance, a lover, a rival, a mentor, a sibling, etc?
- Is there another reason that these two characters might blur together and create identity confusion in a way that made them both seem like kintypes?
- Is your first kintype mistaken, and this second kintype correct?
- Is this potential second kintype actually a comfort character, fictional other, copinglink, hearttype, or other connection?
SECOND
Is there a reason (spiritually or psychologically) for two theoretically separate people from one universe to be one combined entity in this universe? (you)
If you consider your kintypes psychological, you’ll want to ask yourself if its useful to you to consider both of these characters ‘kintypes’, or if what you’re experiencing is more of headmate/system member experience of some kind. Are they both “you” or are they separate? Beyond that my questions here will have a more metaphysical bent.
If they’re both kintypes, why?
- Did something in your experience of the source cause these two characters to merge into one person?
- Are these two characters one character reincarnated, or experiencing time and events from multiple bodies or points of view
- Is one character mentally conditioned to have the other character’s memories implanted?
- Are these characters so close to one another that they would want to experience life as the same person, or is there something that might have forced them to do so against their will?
- Were you incarnated into this universe multiple times as different characters?
I hope these questions can help you answer for yourself what you’re experiencing. For what it’s worth, my system member, Jas, the unusual owner of this blog does have a situation where he has two kintypes from one source– because those two characters received each other’s souls/memories and merged into one person in our timeline.
Sorry if this question has been asked before
what's the best way to confirm an kintype?
Here are some pretty decent guide to get you started:
If you have some more specific questions about details and elements of the questioning process, please feel free to send a follow-up ask!
several years ago, I confirmed this kintype, and I've been pretty certain about it ever since. But more recently (within the last 2 years) ive been recurrently having impactful dreams where that character appears separately from me.
i know dreams are often just dreams, but it's been nagging at me, so I'd appreciate an outside perspective on what this could mean?
Are “you” (the POV ‘character’ of the dream) interacting with your kintype in the dream directly? Or is it more of a 'third person omniscient’ POV dream, as if it were a movie?
If you are interacting directly with your kintype in the dream, it may be that the part of your subconscious that most closely retains that aspect of yourself is trying to communicate something about itself to your larger self through dreams.
If its more of an omniscient movie-like style dream where you’re not identifying your 'self’ as a separate character in the dream alongside the kintype, then it’s probably just a different POV than the dreams you usually have. I personally have a lot of dreams where I experience this perspective, without any 'self’ character in the dream, even though my current self or one of my kintypes 'stars’ in the dream.
In the summer of 2007 the entire online fictionkin (then otakukin) community was 80 members, about 2 dozen of which did more than lurk, and a dozen who were generally active.
I am awestruck daily to see how the community has grown. If you had told me back then that there would be thousands of people using these ideas and concepts to describe themselves and their experiences, I would not have believed you.
Disagreements and arguments are as old as the community. That we feel called to clash on the subject only speaks to how important these concepts and beliefs and ideas are to us. If we see more disagreement now than we did then, maybe it’s only because more people have a desire to speak.
I am so enormously glad every day that the fictionkin community exists, and endures, and has grown in the last 15 years. In 2007 all we heard from outside the community–even from the otherkin community– was that it was a phase, It was an obsession. We would grow out of it.
We are still here. I am still here.
And I’m glad to have you all here with me.
I’m curious about what makes someone fictionkin and what doesn’t. Main stuff that is listed are memories, homesickness, nostalgia, phantom limbs, etc. All of those are things that have a spiritual connotation esp. in reference to past lives. But what about psych kin? Wouldn’t it make sense if they didn’t experience these things because they didn’t literally live as their kinselves in past lives? I feel as though I am certain characters, recognizing them as self, though I also believe this comes from my mind rather than spirit. If someone IDs as a character but has no other experiences that are often labeled as kin “symptoms” (for lack of a better word) then what does that make them?
I’m spiritual fictionkin myself, and thus I have never experienced being psych kin, so I can’t tell you what kind of experiences, feelings, or ideas that psychologically based kin might or might not have that they feel make them fictionkin.
Maybe some psych kin out there could chime in and answer?
I’m always fascinated by the ways kintypes are connected to one another. As I have uncovered more of my loves through the years, I’ve found some fascinating throughlines.
I created what I’m calling a kintype web to help visualize some of the associations and connections I have between different kintypes, and I thought I’d share it in case it inspires other people to make similar webs of their own.
Kintypes turning out to be fictotypes
About a year and a half ago my partner told me that they had discovered a robot kintype that they wanted to further explore, and to do so together.
My partner and I have been together for ten years in this life. We are both fictionkin, and our metaphysical history and nature is continuous and intertwined. We have known one another in different ways in different times and worlds. It was obvious that if they had a kintype where they were a robot of some kind, that I had been there in some way too. Hearing about it, in fact, immediately resonated with me. I told them of course I wanted to help them explore it.
When they told me about what they knew about that kintype, this was what they initially said:
- they were built and styled to look female
- the robots were all quite doll-like
- they were produced specifically for military combat
- they were an early model or prototype unit
- they had been in storage/stasis/scrap for a long time
- they had been in a war with an enemy who overran them
- they had been almost completely destroyed in combat and remembered shutting down
Hearing all this when they told me evoked an immediate emotional response from me, and I felt almost immediately that I knew something about who I had been when they were a robot.I was positive, immediately, that I had been some sort of mechanic or engineer, and that I had been the one who repaired them after they shut down. I also felt pretty strongly that I knew what I would have looked like; a delicate featured young man with tousled brown hair.
After we discussed our feelings and memories for a few weeks, one thing that my partner wanted to do was to explore fiction, to see if there was a story that matched– if this was an unknown fictionkin type. We both knew that it was just as likely that this was an otherkintype; that the story that matched our experiences might not have been told in this world yet, or not told in a medium that we would ever discover. Personally, I felt like that was most likely the case; that we would only ever find partial matches with things that resonated but weren’t The Thing We Experienced.
But still, we looked. After all, looking at things and figuring out what made them Not The Thing would only help us further our understanding of what we actually had experienced.
So we delved into a LOT of robot fiction.
I combed a LOT of wiki pages. We watched a LOT of shows. A lot of stories that otherwise might have hit were counted out because the character was a cyborg not a robot.
Nier Automata felt close, but the world felt too far apocalyptic, and we both felt that in our world the human population had been reduced, but was still present.
My partner looked at a lot of serious, gritty war stories about science fiction wars.
I looked at a lot of 90s/2000s dating sims and harem anime where young men rescue robots and dolls.
Neither of us found anything that felt ‘right’.
And then, 2 months ago, we found it.
On the evening of this body of mine’s physical birthday, we were watching a youtube video detailing the new anime coming out this season. At the very end of the video, I was about to turn it off, when the youtuber started talking about an anime based on a gacha game, about robot girls. We were both like ‘lol this won’t be it’, but we had made it a policy to at least glance at everything that we found that hit some of the criteria just in case.
So I played the anime’s trailer.
Almost immediately my partner’s reaction was ‘oh no. OH NO’. There was a particular moment of puppet/doll imagery in the trailer in particular that smacked her in the face.
So we went to the wiki.
I was expecting (hoping?) for some detail to jump out that clashed with the things we had figured out on our own. But the more I read, the more everything actually fell into place.
There were military robots built to look female; and who were doll-like. They were in fact explicitly called dolls, something my partner had said a few times before. There was the character who my partner had been describing; who was an early model, who was in storage for a long time, who had been destroyed in a large battle. And there was the tousel-haired young mechanic who had fixed her. He looked almost exactly the way I’d been picturing and describing to my partner.
Rather than elements disproving that this was The Source, everything we learned felt more and more right. As we read the wiki. As we watched the show. As we read the manga. As we caught up with the goddamned chinese mid-tier gacha game. It’s called Girls Frontline, or Dolls Frontline, in case anyone was wondering.
Despite all my expectations that there was no way that we’d discover a kintype, remember details about that kintype, and then later discover that there was an actual media that matched it note for note and was The Thing…. There it was.
It was like if I had remembered being Ken Ichijouji and then only later found that Digimon was an actual show that was real. It was like a bucket of ice water over my head. It was a hell of an experience.
I don’t really know what to say to wrap this up. I wanted to share this experience because it’s something that has, unsurprisingly, been heavy on my mind lately. It defied my expectations. Its something that in my mind, reminds me that what I experience as metaphysical fictionkin is to me, really stranger than people typically believe reality is.
I’m curious if anyone else has had experiences like this, where they have discovered a kintype and then later discovered source material that matched it. If that’s something that’s happened to you, I’d be really thrilled to hear you share about it.
Final thoughts on the matter
I am frustrated with the way that some people involved in the meta-conversation surrounding dialogue between physiological kin and metaphysical kin continue to attempt to reframe the metaphysical side of the conversation as being about wanting ‘validation’ or to ‘be believed’ from the psychological side.
At no time has the metaphysical community demanded belief or ‘validation’ (whatever that may be) from the psychological community.
What we have asked for is for our position and boundaries to be respected.
Specifically, what we have asked for is for psychologically minded kin not to hijack metaphysical posts to point out that psychological kin are not being included in whatever we’re saying.
Metaphysical kin failing to discuss the experiences of psychological kin is not leaving psychological kin out of a discussion that is meant to include them. I shouldn’t have to add ‘psychological kin don’t experience this this way’ every time I make a post about something regarding metaphysical kin.
Psychological kin would get really annoyed if every time they wrote about their experiences from a psychological perspective, metaphysical kin came to their post and added things like ‘I experienced something like this and it turns out it was because of a curse that was put on me by a witch’ or something.
So why is it surprising that metaphysical kin are annoyed when psychological kin add onto posts about metaphysical experiences with things like, ‘I experienced this, and it turned out it was the result of my mental illness, and went away with treatment’?
The metaphysical fictionkin community has a long history of being accused by people outside the community of their identity being the result of delusions and mental illness. So when people ostensibly inside the community come in and respond to posts about metaphysical experiences by saying something about how their experience is the result of mental illness, it’s easy to feel like one is being attacked.
Psychological fictionkin and metaphysical fictionkin have lots of common ground. There are lots of experiences that we can and do and should continue to discuss together in a larger framework, because it is something which applies to both groups. I respect the beliefs of psychological fictionkin, and I, in general, enjoy discussing on common ground, and admire the thought provoking writings produced by members of that perspective.
But there is a time and a place. Jumping into a post that doesn’t include you to demand that you be included is rude. Fullstop. It doesn’t matter what community it’s in.
No one is asking psychological fictionkin not to share their experiences.
We are asking for our boundaries to be respected, which, frankly and honestly, I understand can be difficult to do in a social media environment.
If you feel disincluded in a topic by a post about someone else’s experiences, please don’t ask why you weren’t included. Make your own post. If you want the OP’s perspective on your thoughts, tag them in your new post. This gives them the opportunity to interact or decline to interact with the conversation, without hijacking their own experiences.
Fictionkin.org has been updated again! I’ve added a basic soulbonding section, as well as added some major articles from former versions on the site, including understanding kin memories, and shifting vs fronting.