Hello everyone!

First of all, I deleted a bunch of journals from the past because they were incredibly embarrassing, cringey musings of a child! I didn't even know those were still here! I was pretty unhappy back then, but I can honestly say that everything is going very well now. I do get a bit down sometimes, but who doesn't, really? Either way, if you somehow found those, I deeply apologize for any sort of negative image you may have gotten of me. I've grown a lot since then and I hope you'll still be around.

Onto brighter things, though. I've been at my full-time job for about two and a half years now and it's still going strong. It's really the best job I've ever had, even if it is sometimes a bit monotonous. Retail is something I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemies. I know it's hard to get out of and to newer things, but if you're in retail, you gotta keep trying to get out of it! You can definitely do it.

Most of you already know, but Tachi has taken a bit of a backseat for me as a "main" fursona. He's still there of course, and I probably still identify with him more than any of the others, but Kentaro is now my "face" of sorts. Ken is relatively new in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to Tachi, who has been my face for... 21 years now? Damn. I had started conceiving Kentaro about 6 years ago--only until about 3 years ago did he move into the spotlight, so to speak. Funnily enough, it was my first trip to Disney World that really gave him the final push, haha. Again, Tachi isn't going anywhere and I will still always identify as him, but I will conduct most of my interaction as Ken instead of Tachi. You don't have to call me something different and I'm not going to change my FA account or anything like that. It's simply a change that I needed to go through. You'll probably be able to see that shift slowly move itself into my writing, too, as I upload stories.

Tachi, Kentaro, and Sen are all people I identify as. Even if Sen started out as a League of Legends OC, he still fills the slot of my love for gaming. I'm very proud of being able to shift him into different worlds that I want to "interact" with. I've also begun folding in a fox character who is sort of a foil for Kentaro. Some of you have seen him--his name is Belidar. He started out as a tabletop roleplaying (Pathfinder) character and he took hold quite quickly. He's sort of the embodiment of that "negativity" I spoke of earlier. He isn't inherently bad, but I do feel like having a figure to personify frustrations, anger, and irritation is a good way to handle them--with Beli, all of that negative emotion can be diffused into a big beefy fox man who grows a bit bigger and stronger from it all.

I'm uploading stories from the past three years. There are about 48 remaining, and I'll probably have another chapter or two written by the time I get to the finish line. I mainly stick to trades and gifts with a select few for the most part and I still don't intend to open commissions anytime in the near future, but I appreciate the inquiries that I've gotten. I hope I don't need to in the future, either, honestly. I do enjoy writing for people, but commissions just don't really cut it for my living situation anymore. If there is an art trade someone wants to do, please run it by me! I'm not promising anything, and I may turn it down (especially if I'm busy with work and streaming,) but it never hurts to ask. Please don't take it personally if I decide against it!

On that note, because I've gotten comfortable in my job, I've returned to streaming! I'm sure you may have seen the announcement images I upload every time I go live, and I apologize if that gets annoying, but I want to make sure everyone has a chance to hang out if they want to. I know streaming is a saturated platform, but hey, I enjoy playing games for people and doing a little bit of amateur voice acting here and there. It's pretty therapeutic, all things considered. If you'd like to hang out, please join me every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8 PM CST to 12 AM CST at https://www.twitch.tv/bigtoptanuki! I'd love to have you! We're about to start pulling in more people to stream, now that I've gotten a bit more comfortable with getting back into it.

Anyway, things are going well here. More story uploads are coming and you can always contact me here or on Twitter (@TanukiShowman and @BigTopTanuki and Bluesky (@tanukishowman.bsky.social). I can't guarantee I'll always reply immediately, but I'll do what I can! The full-time job, streaming, and writing in my free time takes up most of my life now, so please understand if I can't reply immediately or to everyone. It's hard to even talk sometimes, haha. However, you can certainly interact with me while I'm streaming if you wish.

That's about it. A lot has happened over the past three years. I appreciate those that have still stuck with me and I want to thank everyone who still reads my stuff. I hope to hear from you soon, especially if you decide to tune into my stream. I'd love to have you and can't wait to see you there!

If you want a place with all my contact stuff, you can see my carrd here:

https://tanukishowman.carrd.co/

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you soon!