If you've known me for a very long time, we're talking the teen years, and even then, you had to be close to me—okay, so basically, only Savannah knows, but still—I've actually had OC ideas and ambitions since I was 14, but a lack of drawing ability really kept me from sharing them widely. I tried to write them, but nobody reads that shit and it wasn't very good anyway. Even since I learned to draw, there's been a certain fear I've had of actually designing them for whatever reason. 2025 marks ten years of a lot of them existing with literally zero trace of them outside of private chats and the isolation of my mind.
This boy was the very first one! His name is Felix. I got into Pokémon and Mystery Dungeon early in 2014 as a way to pass the time stuck at home expelled from school, and I got obsessed. Oshawotts just became my favorite thing ever especially and are probably the reason I like mustelids so much these days. I was super creative, so originally, Felix was named Maru (y'know, Oshawott's Japanese name?), but somewhere down the line, he became Felix to me. He's soppy and easily frightened, often convinced he's cursed thanks to his shiny coloration, but unendingly loyal and will push through the pain when he knows he has to. He also loves sweets and seafood. He lives with his lifelong Chespin friend/sorta girlfriend Hazel, his headstrong, adventurous, protective other half (while Felix acts as her common sense and conscience).
Felix does have a more realistic anthro otter design I'll be designing for Pinède as well (and Caby encouraged me to come up with a species and Pinède design for Hazel as well, which is a great idea). This was just a sheet to figure out how I like to draw him, since I've never really done so before now. Shame, really—I've decided to start really cranking out toyhou.se bios, refs, and doodle sheets of all my neglected characters (which is basically all of them) to make up for it. They'd forgive me and appreciate the attention, I hope. I know I'm happy to see him.
Few more random thoughts while I've got the journal pulled up. Some more discussion with the Somnolians about me getting fired has led me to settle on the idea that it was probably financial, if they were replacing me with part time help that wasn't owed benefits or anything. Still majorly shitty, but whatever, less to do with me than I initially thought. If you're curious, the beer store was already tightly staffed—it was just the four of us, and that includes two store managers. I was the least senior of anyone there, so I guess it makes sense. Still shitty, but I've made peace with it.
Finally, if you cast your eyes back over to hifi, check the theme switcher! I cranked out a theme based on minerteaux earlier today in literally two hours, which is a far shorter turnaround for building a site theme than I anticipated. If you don't remember (lots of memberberries today), minerteaux was a literal week-long redesign I did of my Neocities site back in November 2018 to get back at the idea (thanks to my essay on nostalgiamining) that I just happened to hate old-looking websites. It was actually a pretty fun larp to go on, and I'm still fond of how it came out, so a theme it becomes! (You can read this slightly later essay on the project if you're wondering how I put it together. The modern version uses grid and CSS and just looks like a table layout.) That just leaves mari_v1 on the table for needing a theme...
Later though. I'm gonna keep working on the Guitar Hero II RetroAchievements set. Five-star Expert bass grind is hugely satisfying.
