Wow! A filler project for while I work on something better. I see people occasionally confusing otherlink, otherhearted, and otherkin with eachother because they all share the same prefix, so I wanted to make a project explaining the difference. Otherlink: voluntarily identifying as a real non-human animal, ficitonal character, mythical creature, concept, object, plant, or anything else. It's an umbrella term of copinglink, funlink, aeslink, paroulink, supportlink, animallink, ficitonlink, conceptlink, objectlink, plantlink, mythlink, cladolink, paleolink, panlink, and some others. Otherhearted: involuntarily feeling deeply and intrinsically connected, identifying with, and/or feeling like family to a real non-human animal, ficitonal character, mythical creature, concept, object, plant, or anything else. It's an umbrella term of animalhearted, fictionhearted, concepthearted, objecthearted, planthearted, mythhearted, cladohearted, panhearted, paleohearted, and some others. Otherkin has 2 main definitions, and no-one can agree on which one is right. The first, and slightly more often used version (I think), is involuntarily identifying as a mythical creature, concept, object, plant, etc. It's an umbrella term of copingkin, conceptkin, objectkin, plantkin, mythkin, and some others. The second definition, which I personally use, is involuntarily identifying as anything, including real non-human animals, ficitonal characters, mythical creatures, concepts, objects, plants, and some others, making it an umbrella term of copingkin, therianthropy/animalkin, fictionkin, conceptkin, objectkin, plantkin, mythkin, cladokin, pankin, paleokin, and many others. The differences should be pretty self evident by now- otherlink is voluntary, unlike otherhearted and otherkin, which are both involuntary; otherhearted is a deep intrinsic connection / identifying with / feeling like family to something whereas otherlink and otherkin are both identifying as (I do know of folks who voluntarily have a deep intrinsic connection, identify with, and/or feel like family to things, and the current term for it is heartlink, but that might change); and the first definition of otherkin doesn't include animals and fictional characters, but otherlink and otherhearted do (part of the reason I think that the second definition is better, plus how you can use stuff like "wolfkin" and "mothkin" and "sharkkin" interchangably with "wolf therian" and "moth therian" and "shark therian", and how mythkin, plantkin, conceptkin, objectkin, and copingkin are all subterms of otherkin, so why should animalkin and ficitonkin not be?)
The song is Perfect Day by Miriam Stockley. Background and thumbnail are from google.
