Explaining what fictionkinity is in as much depth as I possibly can

A fictionkin is someone who involuntarily believes that they are a fictional character on a spiritual or mental level. It is a form of alterhumanity usually placed in the sub-category of otherkin. Someone may believe that they are only truly one character, referred to as a selfhood fictionkin, or they can kin multiple characters. (pretty sure that's called polykin? Not sure, someone in the comments can clarify if they feel like it. I should know this I kin like 20 people.) 

Usually selfhood fictionkins are in something called a permashift, where they are stuck as that character for a long time (usually a couple of days) and sometimes permanently. People with multiple kins can also experience this, but they can shift as multiple characters at the same time, so if a permashift is happening all other kins can also shift too.

The most common term to use for shifting into a character is kinshifting. If anyone needs clarification on what that is, it's when you shift into being a character mentally or spiritually. I'm not very well-versed in spiritually kinning characters, so if I'm wrong on something, feel free to correct me at any time.

Now onto some of the more obscure terminology the community uses, if you're not super far into the culture of it.

A source is the piece of media your kin comes from, like a book, game, show, movie, etc. Some fictionkins may experience missing their source, or other characters from their source as well.

 A past-life kin is a kin who someone believes they were in a past life. These people often kin [a] character[s] spiritually, but if they don't that could also be the case too.

 A kinmemory, or kinmem, is a memory that someone has from their past life, if they believe in that. People who have kinmems can also not believe in past lives, which can confuse them a bit. (What helped for me is just not thinking about it too hard. Lol.) 

A kintype refers to a certain kin you have, but people can also use "kintypes" to refer to a certain subset of their kins or their kins in general if they have multiple.

Kinsidering is the act of considering whether or not you are a character. This can be through waiting to kinshift as that character multiple times, doing excessive research, consuming media related to your source or characters you knew/like, or content of yourself/your kinsider. It can also just be wondering whether or not you are that character. Not every kinsider is right. 

A kinfirm is when you confirm that you are the character, either mentally or spiritually.

A kinsona is when you apply characteristics or something to represent yourself onto the design of your kin, or redesigning your kin to feel more like yourself or more represented. 

Not every kin is completely canon. Some people are canon-divergent, which means that their kin isn't exactly like how they are in source. This could be a few headcannons, added design characteristics, shipping-related, and more. Others could also be completely canon, meaning that they act and look exactly like in their source. Others could also be somewhat in-between as well.

There's also a thing called fictionflicker, and I'm not entirely sure what that is, but I'm pretty sure it's when you kin someone on-and-off..? Like, based off of context clues, that is what I can deduce.

I've also seen people confuse fictionkinity for fictives too, which are not the same thing. Fictionkin is when you believe that you are one or more characters, but a fictive is when one or multiple fictional characters is in your brain but are completely separate people from yourself. That being said, if your "kins" can talk to eachother and have a completely different identity from oneself, maybe you should look into what a fictive or introject is..

There's probably some more I'm missing, feel free to ask questions if you're curious! Hope I could help with anything.  c:

(This category doesn't fit I didn't know what else to put there </3)