Dear Reader,
Welcome to my MGRP. This one is about a shapeshifter named Otto who is a metaphor for autism. I wanted this to have a bit of a happy ending, which is why this is not the full dear reader letter. This letter is primarily about the research parts, the first artifact is actually an in-universe dear reader letter to help you understand the project through the character's perspective. With that out of the way, there's many important things to answer. I chose this topic because, while I knew random facts about autism and otherkin identities, it didn't make up a complete picture. I used many of those details in the project, but had to research to find out about many more, such as autistic burnout. I might continue to use Otto in other works, as they're a fairly solid depiction of what I was going for. Also I have to note Otto has many experiences I don't. Even if it feels convincing, that does not mean that I had those experiences. However, some are indeed informed by my life. I will not delineate which, besides to say I haven't been abused.
One of my central questions was how autism affects day to day life, which my story depicts decently well. I had to break it up into smaller questions, like how it may be socially isolating, and how autistic traits change over time. My main source was quite non-standard–conversations with otherkin and autistic individuals on the internet. While this character is primarily a metaphor for autism, they're also an otherkin fantasy. I had to try and wrangle those two elements together, which led to some sacrifice of both. At the point of time that the character is written in (A teenager, roughly 14-16) every otherkin individual I talked to knew they were non human, and didn't reject this identity like my character does. Still though, theyn gave valuable perspective on how it feels, for me to make Otto based off of. Otto shapeshift's from pure emotion. They become bird when they feel bird, or bear when they feel bear, and they've been trying so hard to repress it. This leads to many negative traits, many of which are aptly described by autistic burnout. This work says a good bit about that, giving a fairly realistic depiction despite the obviously fantastical nature of the character. Many of my smaller details were also researched. I learned animals don't have combinatory speech–all their meanings are predefined, and they cannot construct new ones without many, many years of evolution. I learned about the overlap between being otherkin and autism, through asking those many otherkin people. A disproportionate otherkin people have autism, especially the ones I talked with.
This project doesn't go into as much detail about the otherkin side of the equation, but it doesn't ignore it either. The main work which focuses on the identity issues central to being otherkin is the one just below, the alternate dear reader letter. Additionally, Otto's main friend is otherkin, he really wants to be what Otto is, the same sort of shapeshifter. I actually asked some of these otherkin people online how that conversation would go, and based mine off of it.
Enjoy the project. I could've done better, but it's pretty good for what it is.
This is a barebones landing page. This is because it's not part of the main presentation, so I didn't style it up as much. Just click here to go to the blog section.