Thread: And What Alice Found There

Random Bitching See more Seizures suck. My sleeping schedule, or lack there of, came to its culmination whatever night it was. Lol, sort of sad that I don't even remember. My days and nights happen whenever I wake up and go to sleep. So, if I'm up for thirty plus hours, even though a whole day will have past, to me it is still whatever day it was. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but you get the idea. Luckily, my brain finally stopped feeling like I was hungover but my body is still sore as all hell. I forget that while lungs are organs, they're also muscles. It doesn't hurt to breathe anymore, but my legs and arms are still killing me. Tomorrow is Ariana's last day of school then she'll be out for summer break and part of my sanity will leave with her. I really need to start working on my story plots x Anyways, so the other night me and a friend of mine were talking. About furries. This is a subject I tend to get burned on a lot on because there doesn't seem to be any clear cut definition. I mean, don't get me wrong. I know the term 'anthro' encompasses a lot of stuff. Machines can be anthropomorphic, in which case they get called Androids. Anthropomorphic adjective 1. ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human, especially to a deity. 2. resembling or made to resemble a human form Furry adjective 1. consisting of or resembling fur 2. covered with fur wearing fur 3. obstructed or coated as if with fur Anyways, she showed me things that she considered being 'furry', which to me my first idea was 'anthro'. This brought up a couple of new terminologies for me to play around with Gijinka, Kemonomimi, and Kemono. These basically equate down to Kemono Literally means 'beast' in Japanese. It also refers to a genre of Japanese art and character design that prominently features fictional anthropomorphic or sentient animal characters in human-like settings and situations. Bodies are generally more animalistic, but with a higher intelligence than an animal. Kemonomimi Literally means 'animal ears'.A humanoid fictional character who possesses animal-like features. More often these are just the ears and the tail. So, technically a catgirl or kitsune is more a less a Mimi. The body and actions more closely resembles humans. Gijinka Japanese for personification. This usually takes from a deity or idea rather than an animal. It comes up a lot in Pokemon fanfics a lot. I think primarily because even though Pokemon are 'animals', their corporeal forms are still embodiments of powers and other forces of nature which is what Gijinka seems to focus on the power aspects. This has the mostly widely varied body type, allowing for pretty much anything but if applied to an animal, gives more than a few characteristics like Mimi do. Using the term Anthro, tends to get me burned a lot because it is such a loose and encompassing term. So, finally, what I've come to my own definition of an Anthro a pretty much even 5050 split of whatever it is, but with a more humanoid body and mindset. Lycanthropes and other were- or transformy creatures also fall in to this category but get a little more wiggle room on this because of their ability to change forms. They can be completely human one minute and, if they so chose, completely animal the next but still retain a higher intelligence. So, if I say I'm okay with a werewolf character, but would prefer at mimum an Anthro form, don't be surprised when I get pissy if you put them in Furry or full wolf. Which leads me to my definition of a Furry. Which is really more like Kemono in characteristics... maybe more of a 6040 or even 7030. These are the furries I'm still okay with playing with. Pretty much where they will snout, sharp teeth, claws, instead of hands and feet that have paws, and will either have disproportionate limbs and might even do the all fours thing. But once you get in to the more animal like furries is where I start to draw a line of uncomfortableness. This mostly applies to female furs having multiple sets of mammary glands or pouches and male furs having musk glands... all of which they intend to use. Then you have the full out animals, which I don't think should be lumped in to the furry category, because... well, they're not. No human like intelligence, or features. They are driven mostly on instinct, or in a domesticated case, the desire to please. Anyways, I'm getting in to waaay too much stuff here for it to be so late. Pretty much, what I'm boiling it down to is this. Lines everywhere are drawn on what constitutes as what. To me, in roleplaying, it isn't so much the creature itself as more of what one tends to do with it, and how it is RPed. I don't know what the point of this was. Maybe to clear things up to myself or continue on a one-sided argument that ended in an 'agree to disagree' a few hours ago. Regardless, someone else will find it useful one day. If nothing else because you learn some new words. Edit So, after further talking with my friend, she force fed me my own words. RPing is about opening yourself up to new experiences, and should focus on the writing, the story, and character interactions. This has made me a little less 'no furries' than I was previously. It wasn't even an option now I'm a little more open to them.