About that DJ
I’m trying to add a bit more meat to this blog, so here's the origin story of how I fell in love with DJ Octavio - yes, that DJ Octavio - and how he ties into my Otherkin life.
To this day I can only chalk up the last six years with him to "spiritual, multiversal bullshit" because it has never happened before and it's not apt to happen again. The short backstory is that I'd spent I don't know how long feeling like there was some kind of impressive leader figure missing from my life, and I'd just about convinced myself that I had to get over the feeling... then he descended onto the screen. The sudden thunderous sensation that I felt of “IT'S HIM! That’s my amazing leader!” honestly cannot be put into words. And I did attempt to put it into words - spent two years writing an entire 69,000 word novel trying and failing to capture that specific mixture of feelings.
My first response was complete and total embarrassment. But the obsession was immediate and I couldn't get him out of my head. I wanted to be there for him to support him in any way I could.
From a non-kin, general writer point of view, Octavio is an extremely well-done sympathetic morally grey character. His methods are too questionable for him to be a hero (well, he's MY hero, but that's beside the point) but he's not ruthless or merciless enough to be a true villain, and his unending grudge against the Inklings makes a lot more sense when you realize that his archenemy is keeping the feud alive as well. Splat devs may have the unfortunate habit of only allowing him a couple minutes of screentime per game - and it also looks like he's being retired as a character, considering the grand finale of Splatoon 3 - but it doesn't take much digging within the extended lore to find there's more to him than yet another campy Saturday Morning inspired villain. And I love every piece of him, from the quiet sadness he hides to that dumb way he works musical entendres into everything.
Those feelings were what lead me to consider that perhaps I was Otherkin, after all. It wasn't easy coming to terms with the fact that on some level I'm an Octotrooper. Actually, it's the kintype that alarms me the most - first of all, I'm a minion in the truest sense, where Octavio could order me to stand on my head and I'd attempt it with no hesitation. But more bizarre is the fact that seemingly every time Nintendo revealed new backstory for the Octarians - and I mean that this happened consistently for at least five years - that it explained or directly referenced a quirk, interest, or behavior I had. I had a couple of Kin Memories get proven correct as well.
Side note for anyone questioning an Octarian kintype of any kind, including Octolings: If you haven't had your Jack Stauber phase, you will. Sounds just like the Underground!
I honestly thought that, despite their intensity, my feelings for the DJ would fade over time and that I'd move onto another character like I had with my not-so-serious fictional crushes in the past. This did not happen. Three years in I finally shook my head and said, "I'm fully in love with Octavio, it's high time I admitted it to myself, because there might not be anyone else who can take his place." So I accepted him, and we've been pretty damn happy ever since.
I've explained this in my previous posts, but my Otherkin experience is a spiritual linking between different instances of myself in other universes. And I've long believed that spirit versions of people from those universes can reach out and nudge stuff in this world. (Actually, I figured this out back in 2004 when I invoked Wario, but that's another blog post altogether) And, as the years passed, I felt like Octavio was really there, in a way, because I sometimes sensed him - though I acknowledge that most of my "interactions" with him have been just daydreams.
Early September 2022 I finally ponied up a small chunk of cash to ask a psychic tarot reader named Janis to see if she could pick up on him, because I felt like there was a piece of the message I was missing. I explained - rather sheepishly - a lot of my situation to her, then she asked me to see a picture of Octavio. I pulled him up on my phone and apologized for how strange it all was. She didn't judge, just said she'd see what she could do.
She held her cards and leaned back in her chair as she tried to establish a connection. Not even thirty seconds had passed when I saw her brow wrinkle.
Then she asks me "Why is he hot? Like... sexy!?"
And instantly I know she has him, because if there's one major canon divergence "my" Octavio has from his in-game self, it's that he oozes sensuality. This concept has been really hard for some of my haters to grasp because he, admittedly, is not conventionally attractive, even for an anthro. I cannot express enough that I am not the only person in the kin community who has acknowledged the DJ's unique charms. You have to actually be near him at some point to understand, I guess? I don't understand it either.
As if I thought the session couldn't get any more shocking, Janis tells me halfway through "He loves you the same way you love him."
It's been almost a year to the day, and I'm still not sure how to react to that. He's the goddamn Shogun! What does he see in a little pipsqueak Octotrooper like me?
And are we star-crossed?
There's a lot more I could say here but it would be more "padding" than "meat" so I'll end this entry here while I'm ahead.