Hey all!

Just so people are aware, with the majority of my new art being my new sona, I will be moving away to a new account on FA to ditch the "rikkor" part of my name. I will be putting up a notice when it happens and where and what the account will be.

This new account WILL have some nsfw content on there, so if you are a minor keep that in mind, but ill be marking them all correctly.

I wil be leaving this account where it is, so all the rikkor art will stay here. I have no intention to delete it.

So as I have expressed before, I am moving away from the rikkor species due to the T&C.

The new one is here and I have some art of it and the reference sheet is coming soon too but now I have an account on FA called "VoxTheRIKKOR" Emphasis on rikkor. I will look into changing the account name, if I can't I will be making a new one at some point in the future and moving all my art there too and putting a notice up saying I have moved.

The new sona is a small fluffy dragon who is a bit chubby. Proportion wise they are very similar to a rikkor and it has my old colours. It also has a new symbol which is the Vergina Sun. A symbol used by the ancient Macedonian greeks as a symbol of unity, hope, the divine and the sun. No one has copyright on something so ancient and I think it represents my sona quite well, him being all about light and such. It was also used by Alexander the great and Phillip the second, and was also used to symbolize Helios, the god of the sun and guardian of oaths and sight.

Small history lesson there...

Anyway moving on. I will, as I mentioned before be moving and changing all my stuff to mention my sona is a dragon, rather then a rikkor and it means all restrictions have been lifted so maybe I will get some less wholesome art soon :P we shall see.

So ya know how a while ago I made this post:-

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10414329/

So I put my head together with a good friend of mine and we came up with a design which I named "Vox Paradox" but then in december an avatar was released that looked VERY similar to one we came up with and... no silly restrictions.

I think I may have found a new species.... I wont spoil it yet but a good friend of mine is doing a retexture for me and hes modding the mesh a little to fill it out a bit more. It should look fantastic once done!

Im going to try and be around on VR more this year, including going to the Rikkor meets. I will be away for the new years so I hope everyone has a good one! I hope 2023 is fruitful!

So I have been thinking recently, my sona, Vox... I like Rikkors a lot. They appeal to me because they are approachable and cute but there are a few things I have been pondering.... VRChat... it won't last forever.

Rikkors were created by Gennyuu-doushi a few years ago as a pet project of hers and she quickly went on to make new avatars all having the same unique aesthetic. They are very recognizable to the point where I often get mistaken for other species shes created. But this is the thing, they are bound to VRChat and the ToS of the avatar.

As some of you may know, there are two (maybe three) maybe contentious terms in the ToS you are asked to adhere too when using a rikkor. The biggest one is the 10% fee on any commercial use which also includes paying another person to make art of the character.

It's a tricky one, because on one hand, the vast majority of avatar makers also prohibit commercial use and yes, technically speaking if a person is earning a living via artwork and you pay them for it, in a court of law, it could still be seen as such HOWEVER.... nintendo.... hasbro... basically any company that has a franchise that has inspired characters from their IP which has gone on to be commissioned as an OC also falls under this. There has been cases where companies have gone after business owners for merely displaying artwork in their offices. I came across a case where a successful car dealership had a lawyer approach them demanding they take down artwork of ferraris they had in their lobby.

I know nintendo have come down hard on people using their IP in some circumstances, such as game tournaments but have they ever gone after furry artists? Not really. Some artists have however made sure to change the name and design of their creation ever so slightly to make it less likely the likes of Nintendo wont go after a pokemon themed character. I am also aware Japan has basically no concept of fair use.

The thing is in 99% of cases they do NOT go after artists and the reason why is because they would annihilate their fan base VERY quickly, so they turn a blind eye. It also provides them what is essentially free advertisement. I was hoping this would be the case with this avatar but it isn't, but I am mixing two points here.

I think the 10% fee is a very negative thing overall because I have had several friends just... abandon the rikkor after putting in a lot of work and getting their own art made only to find out they owe someone money which has been extremely disheartening. It's a very odd rule too considering other similar avatars such as these dont do it:-

https://kuronya.booth.pm/items/4366283
https://booth.pm/en/items/4375124
https://booth.pm/en/items/3562180
https://booth.pm/en/items/3559375

In fact I think no avatars do this at all. This is wholly unique to rikkors.

I have picked avatars you would typically see that would fall into "short stack" kemono avatars which I would consider rikkors fall into. If you go to any Japanese rikkor social gatherings you would often see these running around too. None of them have a license that incurs a fee. Infact the first one in that list even says commercial use is okay. The rest either say contact first or so long as the commercial use is personal even if it incurs a fee that's also fine, which I think is much more fair.

tldr, I don't like the 10% fee. I feel its very misplaced. I understand WHY it's there but I have witnessed it driving people away from the avatar which is a damn shame because rikkors are very cute and have a nice design.

The second bit is the fact they cannot be used for NSFW purposes. I don't really think rikkors are particularly hot... I mean they are very bottom heavy, but most short kemono style avatars are. I don't have any desire to have NSFW art of them made however if that should change I wouldn't be able to post it publicly.

There are two things on this, porn is technically illegal in Japan hence why they have those silly censors that cover up a tiny bit of anatomy. Most avatar makers also rule this out in Japan, secondly I also get why you wouldn't want to do this from a personal stance. If you make a character which is quite personal and you suddenly see it being sexualized and then loads of porn gets drawn of it, that would feel very slimey. I totally understand that.

The other thing is... you can't really stop it. Rikkor porn exists, but its kept private by those who had it made, or its just very suggestive. I also know it's been used in VRChat in sexual ways via modifications but those that have used it in such a way keep it quiet.

Fun fact, did you know that when animators and designers are brought into Disney, they are shown porn of their IP? Under the guise of "This is almost certainly likely that porn of whatever we design will be created. You need to expect this" in order to get rid of some of the shock.

Furries are horny. It can't be stopped and its unrealistic to think otherwise.

So yeah.... that about sums up my thought on this.

Gennyuu, I respect your work, you have done a lot of things for the furry community but I think next year I will go my own way. I will keep using the rikkor avatar, but will start looking into making something new where I am not as restricted. I understand why those restrictions exist but as some has said before "If you don't like it, leave it" and now I am choosing to do that.

My Rikkor character will still exist and I am sure ill keep getting artwork of him for a while but I need to transition to something more... me.

I'm still staying kemono, short, thick thighs and a bushy tail however XD

I'm going to be at MFF this year so if anyone wants to say hello then give me a nudge! I have never been to the US before so it should be interesting. I'm nervous about meeting so many of my US friends but I am sure that will pass after like 5 mins of meeting them :)

I have two more commissions in the works atm, one is close to completion but I have to tone the rate of art I am getting down a bit because as many people know the cost of energy has EXPLODED in the UK. Most governments have been putting large taxes on energy companies but not the UK because sadly our PM used to work for shell and it's the last thing she wants to do.

I'm going from £139 a month to £466 X_x so I have to tighten my belt. Next year I am going to one con, NFC and that is only because it carried over from last year. After that, I am taking a break from cons and saving money back up because travailing a lot as I have been doing gets expensive.

I have a few more commissions on the way but its taking longer then expected! It's okay though! Between covid, confuzzed and furlaity I think communicating with artists would have been hard anyway. Stay tuned!

I'm going to confuzzled next week!

If any of you fluffs are going, feel free to say hi :)

I made a video on VRC social etiquette. I am hoping this will be useful to people who are new to the platform. Credits are in the description!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_PF0zYJMbM

I got more stickers! You can pick em up here:-

https://t.me/addstickers/Voxtherikkor

I have 4 new pieces of art in the works, 3 of those are from artists I have never commissioned before. One of them in particular should be absolutely epic. It's from an artist who closed shop for a while but has come back. Their style is very kemono/fantasy and this will be fully painted. I can't wait to see it completed.

I have a few friends in Russia, and one in Ukraine. A couple of them are fellow Rikkor too... one thing thats common from both sides though is they do not support this war at all.

Putin is a small, greedy, narcissistic megalomaniac. Nothing good will come from his actions.

I hope this ends quickly and does not escalate any further.

One year later…

Well on February the 1st, that’s the day. This day last year everything changed. Not just for me, but for some of my closest friends too.

“Last seen online at 5:58 AM” The last time Rab checked his telegram was on the 1st of February 2021.

I have been thinking about what to say in this post for a while but I think the best thing I can do is try and get a message to those who grieve, share some of my experiences with Rab and a message to those who are experiencing depression.

Rab, dear friend, heart of the party, a loving, gentle individual who was a huge star wars nut, an extremely intelligent astrophysics student, passed away suddenly. What followed was utter confusion, devastation at the truth of what happened and now we are still dealing with it and will continue to deal with it for the rest of our lives. He was 19.

Rab was the sort of person who would interject on a conversation with something very witty and funny. The kind of person who would know how to work out a very difficult maths problem in a matter of seconds, completely shocking everyone. Who in Vrchat would pull out a very memey avatar because he knew how to read a room. He could tell when someone was down and try to talk to them, he could tell when someone was being self destructive and try and comfort them. He was a very kind and loving person. There are paragraphs of things I could say. The last thing Rab told me, is when I was playing the game “Dyson sphere program” he called me “Super mega uber hitler” because I was essentially ruining the ecosystem of not just a planet, but an entire star system.

Below is a the short story of when I met Rab:-


…………
So the first person I met in this group was Spunky, I met him through my irl best friend Grem and I added him to my friends list. I really wanted to play on vrc one day but Grem and some of my other friends were not around and I was too shy to go into public worlds. I saw Spunky was online and psyched myself up to join on him. I was literally chanting to myself "Just do it, just fucking do it" as I hovered over the join button on Spunkys social profile in vrc.

When I joined, Rab was not there... but this is when I met Riyo and Azra. Spunky had to leave like... 30 seconds after joining so now I was an anxious wreck. I had no one to cling too. However Riyo came up to me and said hi, he liked my Rikkor avatar (which was a public one at the time) and he cloned it and we talked for a bit and so did Azra. We added each other to our friends lists and I left that day feeling glad I hopped in.

The next day, I saw Riyo and Spunky online in the drinking night world in vrc and decided to join them and oh my lord it was packed. I met a lot of people that night who I hold close, such as Cinnamon, Jace, Kittiah, Catari... the list goes on but more importantly... Rab.

There I was clinging to Spunky, and saying a few words to Cinnamon when out of nowhere 4 huge muscle bound Scotsman pop in. Start dancing right on top of us screaming "SCCOOOOOTTTLLLAAAANND" with bagpipes blaring. At first I thought...

"Who is this idiot?!"

That idiot, was Rab. After screaming at people to get a drink he changed into a pine-marten and said hello. He saw I was shy and told me he liked my avatar, asked who I was already friends with there, asked if I was drinking. Simple questions with simple answers. He was trying to get to know me and I let him in and it was one of the best things to happen to me.

Fast forward a month or so, myself Riyo, Rab, Cinnamon and Spunky were watching warhammer 40k battle reports together in VR and I was sat in Rabs lap as we did this. We went on to play other games together, such as warhammer inquisitor, war thunder, pavlov, phasmophobia and others. He really helped make the rest of the year bearable. He was such a blessing.”
……….

I have been dreading this day for a while. It’s difficult to put into words exactly what went through my mind when we learned what happened, why he vanished suddenly off all social media. All I can say is like many of us, when I learned what happened, it was the most crushing feeling of loss I have ever experienced. I don’t have anything creative to make as tribute, I don’t have those sort of skills but what I will be doing is pouring one out for him in his memory.

My therapist knows all about what happened and he told me a little about his job. He told me that part of his job involves talking to cancer patients, those who are terminally ill. He asks them (the cancer patients):-

“What are the positives of this situation?”

Seems like an insane and insulting question doesn’t it?

He asked me to think about it, what would they say? What could someone who is terminally ill say to that? The first thing I could think of is that their families would come together for them, in this moment of crisis, to lean on each other, to support the patient too. It could renew relationships. My therapist said that's exactly right and it’s something that he sees a lot.

He asked me to ask myself, what are the positives here? For me, it was that I had to come out of my shell. I forced myself to talk to more people and try to be supportive. I learned a lot from that but I still ask myself, why? Just why? Why did you do it, Rab? Trying to look at a positive no matter how small seems unfair.

Again as an admission whilst I am still doing this saying this… Although a year on I still grieve, I feel sadness, guilt, confusion and there were countless nights I spent listening, crying, drinking entire bottles of whisky.… and I think about it almost every day but there is one emotion I still feel which I am not proud of. That emotion is anger, not just at myself for failing to take action, I occasionally feel anger, asking “Why? Do you understand what you have done Rab? How badly you hurt everyone?” but I know I should not feel that way. Rab thought he had no way out. Sometimes we can’t control our emotions or what we feel.


There were signs, he even spoke to me about a few things, but I didn’t take any definitive action and I still beat myself up over it. So many people had their lives changed, some even questioned their faith. It still makes me feel like I failed in a way I can never atone for. Utterly unforgivable. But I also know this wasn’t caused by me, or anyone in particular.

It was caused by an illness. An insidious and evil thing akin to cancer. It makes its host hide what's going on so they don't reach out.

If you ever feel like you have no way out, please please talk to someone, anyone. Do not act on it. It will cause pure devastation. There might be a voice saying you won't be missed, but it’s wrong. You will be missed…

Every…

Single…

Day…

The loss I have felt has never gone away and once you experience this, it stays with you but over time, it becomes manageable.

The love I feel for my friends is immense and I hope they know that. Rab probably knew this too and he knew all his friends loved him, but when you are that unwell, this sickness blinds you. Depression is an illness. It can be treated. Taking that first step is very hard and to anyone who has done so, you should be so proud of yourself.

What do we do from here a year on? Some people have made promises to themselves, either to honour Rab or to make changes that they need, realizing life is too short and how valuable it is. If you come to this conclusion you can make good changes and do things you have always wanted to do. As I mentioned earlier, some good things can come from even the worst situations, the light is easier to see the darker it gets, but it might become harder to reach, that's where your friends and family can help, you just need to let them in.

For me, as I said, it helped me start to talk to people more. Since I was a teenager I always wanted to “be there” for people because I know exactly what it’s like when you reach out and try and get help but those who are supposed to protect you, bury their head in the sand.

I didn’t know how to express this, how to start trying to talk to people but thanks to friends like Grem, Cinnamon, Spunky and Riyo and many more, who are still an inspiration to me in so many ways and because of the very sad circumstances I was able to learn. I have felt like I have gotten better at talking to people but I do lean more towards offering suggestions of actions rather than words of comfort, but I am working on the latter because sometimes actions either aren't needed or will do more harm than good.

So if you could ask yourself, what did this situation change which ended up as a somthing positive in the end?

I’ll end this here with something that anyone reading this should take away. If you need to reach out to anyone, if you are struggling, please reach out. You are loved. If you ever feel alone, and you are reading this, message me. I’ll do my best to steer you to a place where you can get proper help. And if it’s not me, tell someone. A loved one. A friend.

Like my therapist said and implied, pain can help you grow, but the price can be too damn high...

This pain of loss however is nothing to be celebrated, but it can make things change in positive ways and help you grow as a person.

Finally, something I heard which I use as my personal motto, some art and a song which I attribute to Rab.

“The storm will lead you home…” - The Promise, Globus

Some art made by my friend Amelia

https://twitter.com/Novaloux/status.....64770728112132

This song is something I will always attribute to Rab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU75Aca_Kk4

“Stand tall, my friend
May all of the dark lost inside you find light again
In time tumbling, turning, we seek amends
Eternal winds to the land descend
Our journey will never end”


Rest in peace Joshua. Rest in peace my friend.

So a theme that my sona has, that a few people already know about, is it has an affiliation with light.

My poi balls in VR emit golden light, I have some animations that bring down a pillar of gold light to a specific spot, my eyes glow slightly with it, and I have some artwork too done by Meesh where I have a ball of light in my hand.

Rikkors, according to their lore, come from a place that has magic. It’s not uncommon by any stretch when it comes to people's fursonas to have that, for example, dragons, unicorns, etc etc. These mythical creatures are magical in nature. Some Rikkors (in their lore) also go to magic schools to learn magic, hence why a lot of rikkors wear robes. I also have a robe I put on occasionally depending on my mood and fashion choices!

I took advantage of this knowledge and asked myself, if I could have ONE power, ONE power at all, what would it be?

Some people want multiple powers or have their sonas have insane levels of power akin to a dragon ball Z character but no, not me. If I could have one, it would be to heal and protect. Not to destroy or do anything harmful.

Light is used this way as a common trope from movies, video games, animes etc, and whenever I played MMOs whilst growing up, I would always be a healer. I like playing support. That’s what I themed it after. Golden, holy light which is just used to heal.

I do realize that there is a certain amount of cringe with this, but hey this is all fantasy anyway so why not? There is also the idea and stereotypes associated with it, IE, macos are insecure, people who pick cat sonas use it as an excuse to be assholes (like cats (NOTE: I like cats ^^ )) or foxes are all bottoms or something… pretty harmful stereotypes honestly and I don't agree with them. When it comes to light, there is an air of arrogance, like someone who sees himself as a good person when in actuality they are a narcissist and they think they can’t do anything wrong, a holier than thou mentality.


I am well aware of my flaws, I am far from perfect and I make mistakes all the time but this is nothing but a tool. I always liked how world of warcraft interpreted their version of the light, which is to say you just have to believe enough in your cause and the light will answer, even if you are a genocidal maniac. Or how final fantasy xiv does it, white magic drains the world around the white mage and using it too much is dangerous and harmful to the environment and lets not forget warhammer 40k. The emperor is portrayed to his subjects as a literal god and his custodes when they teleport come from “golden light” to save the day but my god… the imperium and the emperor are as far from being good or holy as I can imagine anything GOOD could possibly be.

So that’s just a quick thought. Something symbolic of being “good” is only as meaningful as it’s wielder. I’ve known too many people who either look at it as a stereotype or they fulfill it. How you interpret it is up to you.

Do you give them a chance, or not? Either way, I won't hold it against you.

I’ve had the rikkor persona for a while now and whilst there are not many of us it’s nice to see that steadily the amount of rikkors on FA, twitter, wherever is increasing! I have met quite a few now, some contacting me out of the blue, others I have ran into in VRC and to any rikkor reading this who is new or wants to say hi, feel free to drop a message on telegram, twitter or even discord. Telegram would be easiest for me however 😊. I like meeting new people and for a long time it wasn’t like that, ide be too shy and scared at the prospect of meeting new people. It should be noted though, that I am not exactly active in the rikkor community. If you want to go looking for that, you should look for either the rikkor roost discord, or the rikkor café.

You won’t see me that often at rikkor meets apart from the big ones such as the ones at furality. I might occasionally join on some others, but it will be rare. It can be hard to keep up with the number of friends in the VR group I am a part of to begin with! It’s called the VRMegacuties and it’s one of the most well run and welcoming groups I have ever been in. Shout out to Azra for making this all possible!
Everyone in this group is a furry (kind of goes without saying) so if you ever want to hang out, this is the group I’ll be with. Anyway that’s all I wanted to say!

I havent been very active but I have a few comissions being done which are looking awesome! Gotta get more Rikkor art out there!

So I had someone create an almost exact replica of my vrc avatar, which is my sona, Vox. He took a SS and sent it to me. I told them to not impersonate me and they said they would never use it. It still made me feel very uncomfortable.

I would never claim a colour is mine but a colour scheme on a certain species which is exactly the same as mine could easily be seen as sona theft or impersonation especially after they contacted me...

If anyone sees a Gold/white/black Rikkor with amber eyes floating about in vrc, check their name. If its not "Vox Draco" It's not me.

I know I havnt posted anything in ages, but to be honest drawing, although I am getting better at it, feels like a chore so I am not that motivated. Maybe ill do it again when that changes.