Questioning and Polymorphs: My Personal Journey and a Pinch of History

Finding a label that fits you within alterhumanity is a very convoluted process on its own. But as a label Polymorph is very complicated. Because of this and the lack of sources on the subject beyond a select few I wanted to write about my process of questioning and realizing I was a polymorph. Not because how I experience it is the "correct way " or anything, Mostly because hearing the details of one experience may be a good jumping-off point for those questioning.

 

Now I'm not here to tell you what a polymorph is, although I may discuss a lot of the terminology. Im mostly here to talk about my experience questioning and what helped me. I am telling you what it was like and contextualizing it with some terms and slight history. Mostly because questioning in itself involves discussion and therefore involves the aforementioned subjects. However, I am not a historian and If you have any alternative sources or corrections to any of the things I've said I'd highly encourage you to comment on them so I can make corrections. 

 

If you'd like a more official source on polymorphology I will redirect you to the extinction systems guide to polymorphology and the alterhuman wiki on the subject. (If the wording is confusing, which was for me for a while, polymorphology is to polymorph as therianthropy is to therian). Although it's important to note that because it's such a niche term it's not uncommon for people to disagree on a lot of the details. most prominently whether or not we have base forms. If you want a common opinion on the matter as well as the difference between polymorphs and shapeshifters id direct you here, I enjoy this one mostly because it recognizes the overlap. 

 

All alterhuman questioning is difficult to sift through, to begin with when you're just starting out. Especially when you experience multiple forms of alterhumanity. I switched up my wording constantly as i figured out more accurate terms to describe my experience. Weeding out the difference experience-wise between polykin and polymorph can be an incredibly murky topic.

 

Similar to a lot of other polymorphs I've spoken to, I started out collecting types like wildfire, picking up some, experiencing them strongly, then immediately shifting to another thing and dropping the last entirely pretty much involuntarily. Some, however, stuff in one way or another in my view of myself and personal identity which at least for me only complicated matters. I didn't seem to have anything that truly qualified as a true form, the closest I got was the blank state I experience between forms, not human at all, just nothing.

 

Then I found the term polymorph. It was through other alterhumans primarily. I felt like all of these states were connected by something overarching in a sense I couldn't really describe until I heard people talk about being a polymorph. Although it resonated heavily with what I experienced I was a bit nervous to confirm anything. But there were a few key points that helped me figure things out.

 

An important piece of the puzzle I found useful was morphtypes that aren't kintypes. In my experience personally, there are a lot of recurring morphs that I've had that aren't kintypes that gave me the most solid evidence of my own polymorphology. An important thing to note that I often make sure to tell folks who are questioning is for a lot of polymorphs having frequent cameoshifts is a prominent part of our experience, not a mistake or psychological bug. You may identify with your morphtypes to a varying degree depending on what it is.

 

Alternatively, there are also a lot of polymorphs who identify with their morphtypes strongly during the time they are in that morph, and the moment they move on it's gone, similar but not identical to flickers. According to the extinction systems guide these would be referred to as consumorphs and separamorphs respectively. I would be considered a consumorph.

 

For example, when I was first questioning a kintype I very much felt I had at the time that I was andriodkin in some way. As obvious by my current pinned post that was incorrect. That was largely due to my tendency to mimic in my personal polymorphology and the fact that I was consuming a lot of media with android or digital characters (Vocaloid, inscryption, portal), and one of those morphs did stick, Miku is still an incredibly common morph for me and while its not a core kintype its definitely a part of my identity that stuck.

 

Looking at an slightly older source it does seem like "cameoshifts" and "flickers" (although they may not be the proper terms for it) have been considered a hallmark of our experience for quite a bit. Even when different words were used they were describing the same phenomenon. A source discussing varying opinions and discussions from 2016 to 2018 references both of these exact terms being used and gives a not very solid but still existing definition of polymorph. I've found both compounding and slightly conflicting opinions on what polymorphs are from the surrounding years, however, this time on Tumblr primarily.

 

Barring all of that older stuff, which I would not have known at the time anyways, my second biggest piece of advice is to find polymorphs you can talk to about it (My Inbox is always open as well). If you are on Tumblr the tag  "polymorph " by itself will lead you to quite a few but  "polymorphkin " will assist you as well. Honestly what actually helped me find a verdict on whether or not I was a polymorph was to simply talk to other polymorphs about it. Everyone has a different definition of it and therefore experience so no matter where you fall you're bound to eventually find someone who can help you. Besides, with the amount of more specific labels, there are for types of polymorphs you can have a lot more specificity in how you explore things.

 

Now going through all of that, here's what I came out with:

 

Personally as a Polymorph, Im a consumorph, sometimes I identify very strongly with a certain morph all the time, and some common morphs I have no feelings about at all. I don't consider myself to have a base form, simply a preferred one that I tend to default back to, usually spirit but more recently zombie. I'm not sure if id considers myself under the energy beings category like a lot of older definition suggest but I absolutely share their experiences. I think that's partially why the label and the kintype are separate things now. 

 

Digging through your personal experience is an extremely muddy process but I hope that hearing some of my personal processes might assist you in your endeavors if you're a polymorph. There isn't really a point I'm trying to make in this post. This is more of a discussion than an essay despite the sources I've pulled up through out this. That's just purely to notate that i'm not pulling any of this information out of nowhere. Even if its not an authoritative source it shows i'm not the first one too use it.

This is largely going to be a ever changing article and will be edited pretty consistently if and when I get new information, as I may know i'm a polymorph but i'm always questioning and writing about the exact nature of that. 
So that's about all I have to say, goodnight and good luck

( Sources )