Flip, himself, will be turning five this month. While I have His name as an online alias, a Real Life Nickname, and something to sign my art with, I am not Flip per say. Flip, instead, is something else entirely.
Please, don't let this post confuse you. I'm just giving you some back story for the character, fursona, and "Slip Personality" of me. I guess it's more accurate to say that "We Are Each Other", if it makes sense at all. But this time it's all about him.
Flip started off a few years ago. This was the time when Star Trek Enterprise was good. I was kind of a fan of the character with the nickname Trip. I thought that having the verb as something to call someone by was just cool. This happened after my Neopets obsession (I proudly call myself a Neopets veteran: having been a member since the early years, when one could Roleplay on the Roleplay forum. Look up cale987) and at the start of my online Artist and avid Roleplayer courier. There was a message board made by a girl who at the time was the same age as me. Her name was Phyllis, and her online handles changed through the years. But when I first immersed myself into this "Roleplay", I started off with Flip. His name was a take on Trip, of course. He was a "red wolf", with a brown body, a grayish 'mask' around his eyes and up his nose, which went to black on the top of his head, around his ears, down the back of his neck, spine, and going back to grey along the top of his tail, finally with a white tip. This was made totally off the top of my head, in the space of 3 minutes or so. And yet it has stuck for nigh on 5 years. At the time of the roleplay, it was him and his 'mate' N'Kira L'shey, a maned wolf with black spots who later carried 5 of his pups, 2 of whom still survive (their names escape me now. I doubt I'll ever use them as characters again) and she 'died' of cancer 2 years later. Flip continued to live, and eventually members of the board just referred to me as Flip, so the name stuck.
Then 6th grade started. I was friends with my gothic neighbor next door, and we created even more characters together, and would roleplay in the back yard. At this point Flip was "dating" Blayre, a rottie/wolf mix with orange liberty spikes. They had 2 pups. Later, our relationship fell apart, and around the end of the year, my teacher had started to willingly call me "Flip" in class. This is the beginning of Me As Him.
I moved on to grade 7, and had a few teachers with very strong accents. Namely, my math teacher Mr. Adelman, from Chicago. He would always enunciate my name incorrectly, and just found it easier to call me "Flip" at my request. A few other people (friends and teachers both) will still call me Flip, but lately I've just been wanting people to call me by my real name. Flip is the more impersonal part of my social life.
Flip used to be just a character, then he developed into a half of me, and then he WAS me. For a long time, Flip was male. Some people thought this was confusing, and for a while, I changed it. Flip became a girl, and sometimes I still portray him/her as such. But not so much anymore. Only recently has he become a male again.
Flip represents the loyal, loving, and spirited side that I wish I had some days. Flip is forgiving, kind, and supportive. Quite the opposite as I feel a lot of the time. He can be as big as a horse, or the size of a puppy. He has also been a Squid, a Giraffe, and other things. But mostly he's been a Red Wolf, and he still is. He is in a way, my imaginary friend. He's an outlet of my emotions. I have drawn him in pain countless times. I have drawn him bloody and beaten, or psychotic, or triumphant. He's been a part of everything I've felt for the past five years.
I've never been able to pinpoint exactly when I made him, so I've just stuck his birthdate on the seventeenth of this month.
And so, here's to Flip. A man, woman, wolf of many hats. Happy Birthday. :)
