#*buries my head in the sand*

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

i know the easiest way to resolve my two wolves dilemma about the near miss notfic is for buggy to be the one in disguise, okay? i know. i just haven’t been able to figure out why he’s in disg—okay, no, i’ve got it now.

(another self-indulgent “shanks/buggy post-roguetown, pre-luffy” encounter below the cut)

buggy, lately called “the clown,” is not usually a pirate given to subtlety or discretion. he wants word of his wicked deeds to spread far and wide! if people are afraid of him, they’ll give in faster, so he won’t have to work as hard to get what he wants!

but usually, there aren’t rumors of monkey d. garp in the area.

buggy’ll thumb his nose at most any marine, but garp is an exception. that guy has a monstrous strength on his old captain’s level, plus he’s equally famous for his incorruptibility and his bullheadedness. all in all somebody buggy absolutely does not want to deal with.

and sure, his bounty as it is probably doesn’t warrant a vice-admiral’s involvement, but garp’s been around a long time. he might recognize buggy as “one of roger’s brats.” and while they never had bounties of their own back then, surely the marine still want their heads. they went after tom, for fuck’s sake, there’s no way buggy is safe.

so until he hears from a reliable source that garp has left this particular corner of east blue behind, buggy is not leaving the sanctuary of his ship without a thorough disguise.

he’s gone without his distinctive makeup, of course. his hair he’s tied up and tucked away under an old knit cap, which he’s sewn an ink-black wig to the lining of to better conceal his identity. he even rubbed a bit of ink into his eyebrows to be doubly sure. and, last but hardly least, he’s chop-chopped his nose off, sticking an ordinary-looking prosthetic in its place with spirit gum that will be very annoying to remove later—but better a little adhesive rash than prison.

looking in his mirror at a stranger, buggy sighs, clapping his hands together. “right!” his ship needs a resupply, and buggy sailed his favorite little skiff here to take care of it so he doesn’t have to explain this disguise to his crew. “rope, sailcloth, gunpowder, food,” he mutters as he heads out. just a few essentials for any sailing vessel, nothing obviously piratical about it. a perfectly safe supply run.

a squad of marines go thumping past, and buggy can’t hold back a flinch at the sight.

he breaths in deep. this will be fine. all he has to do is not draw attention to himself, and…

“hey, you!”

buggy freezes, and fights the urge to turn around. freezing is bad enough, that would make him look super guilty. and anyway, with a call like that how could anyone possibly know who the marines are after?

“you in the hat!”

ah, fuck. buggy can’t lose the hat, that’s half his disguise gone right there. he glances back, curses under his breath when it sure looks like that squad of marines is coming for him, and makes a break for it.

“this is navy business!”

“stop!”

“like hell,” buggy mutters, rounding a corner into an alleyway. he blinks when he hears his own words doubled, and realizes there’s been someone else running from the marines the whole time. ah, shit, was he even their target after all? has he been running for his life for no reason? he turns to give the guy what for and just about chokes on his tongue, because—

well, because it’s shanks.

same stupid, distinctive hair, same stupid, distinctive hat. a cape, which is more style than buggy would have expected shanks to develop, but which is also stupid and distinctive. a pretty nasty scar over one eye. buggy takes his first reaction to that—i wouldn’t have let that happen!—and violently shoves it down into the bottom of his soul, where stupid thoughts go to die. what-ifs don’t matter, what matters is this entire guy is stupid and distinctive.

shanks gives him one of those soft-hearted, empathetic looks buggy always hated. “ah, sorry, i think i got you tangled up in my business.”

…he doesn’t recognize buggy.

good! this is good, this is—salvageable, anyway! buggy clears his throat, tries to throw his voice a little higher, speak a little more politely. anything to avoid that soft look becoming one of recognition, or that awful heartbroken look from all those years ago. “that’s okay! anything to inconvenience the marines.”

as the rhythmic sound of boots thumping gets closer, an idea occurs to buggy. “speaking of…” he grabs hold of shanks’ cape, pausing only when shanks puts a hand on his wrist and gives him a wary look. right, shanks doesn’t know him from adam like this. “sometimes it’s better to fight smarter, not harder.”

shanks considers him for a moment. he lets go of buggy’s wrist.

permission granted, buggy moves quickly. goodbye, stupid hat! flip the cape around, the lining’s a different color so that will do nicely. adjust the closure so the fabric that’s supposed to be the top hem instead functions as a hood, all the better to hide that hair and scar… sure, it probably won’t hold up to a close inspection, but who needs it to? low-level marines are idiots.

buggy leans back against the alley wall and spreads his legs wide to make himself shorter and easier to hide. when shanks doesn’t seem to get the memo, buggy rolls his eyes and tugs him closer, until shanks is standing almost too close for propriety, his cape hiding both of them from view.

hands pressed to the wall above buggy’s shoulders, shanks stares at him intently, an eyebrow going up as they hear the marines run past without giving their hiding spot so much as a first glance, let alone a second. “impressive,” he says.

buggy snorts. “naturally.”

something about this response amuses shanks, who smiles, drops one hand on buggy’s shoulder, and squeezes. “thanks for the save, gorgeous.”

buggy’s mind goes blank.

well, mostly. “gorgeous?!”

shanks frowns, though his eyes are still smiling. “don’t tell me nobody’s ever called you ‘gorgeous’ before.” buggy doesn’t react—has no idea what shanks is doing—as that hand slides up his shoulder, his neck, to cup his cheek. shanks leans just that little bit closer, taking the lack of space between them from the appearance of improper to actually improper. buggy still has no idea what shanks is doing until his thumb starts to rub small circles near the corner of buggy’s eye. “that’s just not possible. i mean, your eyes alone are stunning…”

he knows that move. shanks told him about that move, about the barmaid who’d used it on him the first time, using a compliment about shanks’ eyes as an excuse to touch his face, right before she—

it’s a very sweet kiss. probably the kind of kiss buggy would have expected of shanks, if he’d ever let himself think of things like “shanks” and “kissing” at the same time before. (face hot, it occurs to him that maybe the way he’d always violently shut down such thoughts might mean something. he violently shuts down this line of thinking.) shanks pulls back after a brief moment, a curious look in his eye that buggy takes to mean ‘more?’

whatever look happens to be on buggy’s face must say ‘no’ for him—though probably not in as insistent a tone as he’d like, his mind is still pretty fuzzy—because shanks steps back, casually giving buggy space. like of course after… that… all he wants is to fix his cape and retrieve his hat.

“wh…?” is all buggy can manage.

an eyebrow goes up, and shanks smiles a little smugly as he slides that stupid hat back into place. “like i said. thanks for the save.” and with that, he’s gone.

buggy’s knees give out.

he spends ten minutes sitting in that alleyway, definitely not remembering anything that just happened in particular detail, or wishing he’d answered an unspoken question in a different way. eventually he remembers that he has duties to attend to, and he’d better attend to them soon if he want to get off this island today.

which he does.

he certainly doesn’t have any reason to want to stick around here.

no sir.

“rope, sailcloth… limes?” suddenly buggy can’t remember the last thing on his list. well, it can’t be that important if it was the last one, right? right. surely they can go without… whatever… until after garp’s gotten tired of this part of east blue.

because buggy is never going out in disguise ever again.

[jamiekb]

Re: Magnus Institute Ruins

I don’t think I ever updated the progress on this project. It’s probably been half a year at this point since I did anything with it, but I wanted to get some more motivation for continuing it. the color scheme did go through a bit of a change from the last, but still needs to be more cohesive

by now I’ve resigned myself that there’s plenty of assets I have to remake in higher resolution, start from scratch with the animation (the paths did something weird that I’m not sure how to undo, cause what I tried didn’t work), the red canary effect and actually do the rest of the story

[mezzmerizd]

I feel faint why are they doing silly little piggy back rides holy fucking shit

[shitouttabuck]

prompt #1 constant physical touch to feel safe 🥹 would make me so happy

(#35 made me laugh because "ok YOU'RE my problem")

hello! also requested by @murder-trio and another anon :)

prompts: 1 constant physical touch to feel safe + 35 your problem is my problem

baby, can i hold you?

buck/eddie | 3.6k | rated t

Eddie shakes his head, biting his lip as he tries to inhale evenly. “M’okay,” he croaks. “Just gotta—make this Jell-o body work.” Buck approaches him, slowly, carefully straddling the bench before him, face to face. “D’you want me to talk you through it?” Eddie shakes his head again, wet hair flopping into his face. “I don’t know why it’s not working. I’ve been—for, like, twenty minutes now. Longest shower of my life.” His attempt at light-heartedness falls a little flat with the way his voice trembles when he says it. He groans, frustrated as his whole body quakes like it’s seizing, clenching his fists even harder before giving up and wrapping his arms firmly around himself, like if he holds himself tight enough the shaking might stop. His eyes are squeezed shut, and Buck feels something inside him crack when this helpless, devastated sob wracks his body, eyelashes clumped with tears he’s not letting fall. “Fuck,” he says, wobbly. “I just—God, I feel fucking insane. I know, logically—fuck.” “What do you need?” Buck asks again. “What can I do?” Eddie makes a frustrated noise. “I don’t know. I don’t know why this won’t stop.” “Okay,” Buck says, trying desperately to think of what he finds comforting when he’s in a bad place. Or what Eddie reaches for when he needs comfort. The answer is simple enough—a literal reach for each other, reassurance in the magnetism with which they lean into the other’s orbit. A hand on a shoulder, a press of bodies beside each other, a nudge of knees under the table. “Can I, uh. Can I touch you?”

or, eddie panics. buck holds him.

read on ao3

[stupidlittlespirit]

so was no one going to tell me that Ford was basically confirmed to be aroace

[welcometogrouchland]

I miss them so bad (Dick and Damian)

[fuckinart]

(they'll never understand) How could I ever understand? No, I don't have to understand. I don't wanna understand. So I will never understand. (we could have everything)

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I've had a few people tell me that they think JD Vance will be president within the year, but I don't buy that. There are a lot of avenues for Donald Trump to leave office, and not a single one of them seems plausible to me.

He's probably not going to die of natural causes. He's about four years younger than Joe Biden, meaning he's basically the same age today as Biden was back in 2021; the fact that Joe Biden is still alive, and the fact that Trump's mom lived to be 88 and his dad lived to be 93, mean it's very likely Trump will still be alive well into the 2030s (if he matches Jimmy Carter, he'll make it to 2046... God help us all...)

He probably won't be assassinated. After the attempt in July, he's sure to get the highest level of secret security any human being has ever had. Nobody will be able to get close to him. (I'm still convinced the attempt was a false flag; he had a squib of fake blood behind his ear, the "shooter" was a patsy, and the secret service shot some random schmuck in the crowd to make it look real; but that's just a theory, a Conspiracy Theory™, thanks for watching!)

He will never be impeached because he owns the House and Senate; every single member who voted against him in 2021 is either gone or has announced plans to leave very soon. Mitt Romney was safe in Utah, but he chose to retire rather than face a primary challenge from a diehard Trump supporter. No Republican in Congress will ever defy Trump again, not when he's the one who appointed the majority of the Supreme Court (methinks Thomas and Alito may resign soon so they doesn't end up pulling a Ginsburg by dying with a future Democrat in office; if not them, Roberts will almost certainly be blackmailed/bribed to retire like Kennedy in 2018).

JD Vance and the cabinet will probably never invoke the 25th amendment to remove him. Trump is not a smart man, but he has the world's strongest self-preservation instinct. I concede that he's easy enough to manipulate because he surrounds himself with opportunistic yes men who know how to butter him up and betray him when it becomes convenient (look at the staff turnover from his first term, all the sycophants who turned around and wrote tell-all books which nobody has ever bothered to read), but I think he has enough true loyalists in his pocket to warn him of any potential schemes behind the scenes. I don't think a majority of his cabinet picks would ally themselves against him because they'd be politically crucified. The rest of the party would back him 100%; Donald Trump IS the Republican Party, so no faction within it can get rid of him, and the mouth-breathers who voted for him would riot if they tried.

I don't think there exists a single scenario in any universe across any possible multiverse in the totality of creation in which Donald Trump would choose to resign from office under his own free will. None. That will NEVER happen. He is a narcissist who relishes in having complete control over his party; he is their face, their voice, their avatar. He is not the kind of person who would willingly step out of the limelight and pass the torch to someone else. Even when he's out of office in 2029 he'll still be president vicariously through whichever successor the Democrats fail to defeat. He's never going to disappear; Ronald Reagan disappeared because he had Alzheimer's and was embarrassed of being seen in public as he deteriorated, but Trump has no shame and none of his family members care enough about him to keep him at home when his mind is gone, they'll parade his catatonic husk around until he dies, and even then he'll have enough instinct left in him to smile and give thumbs up for the camera.

JD Vance will almost certainly get Trump's endorsement in 2028 and effectively run unopposed the same way Trump did in 2024 (nominal opposition that never stood a snowball's chance in hell; Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley were NEVER going to get the nomination over Trump), but I don't think he's going to become president before then. Trump won't let him.

[mellosdrawings]

Happy Halloween trick or treat the treat is getting n2 squad in an actual event. The trick is that it’s a lost in the book event and they might forget EVERYTHING at the end 💀

...........

Fuck. I forgot about that detail.

[crimeronan]

one of my new year's resolutions was to find a lot more musicians of color to listen to & it's just occurred to me that i have a TON of time to do so since i'm walking so much now. please rec me your fave musicians/bands of color and/or your fave songs?

if it helps, things i Really Really Like include:

rock/metal

acoustics

string and woodwind instruments

instrumentals in general

angry women

poetic lyrics

emo angst bull shit

genre blending (especially infusing traditional cultural music with metal elements and vice versa)

things i Prefer To Avoid:

super heavy bass / electronic elements

i think that's.... about it. bass/electronica are just not good for me sensory-wise.

also lyrics do not need to be in english! and these are just notes on my usual taste in case it helps ppl come up with recs. fling whatever u want at me. Pls 🙏

[gudvina]

by the way went to the theatre to watch a movie and got hit with the realization that michael cimino would have been perfect for the role of young haymitch, and it makes me seethe that we'll never get it done right.

[kenandeliza]

practicing a rendering technique

featuring captain marvel jr using the flourish color palette

i redid his cheeks 6 times (took me 30 minutes lol)

rendering is hard and i wondered why i even bothered ;w;

here’s a speedpaint if you’re interested, the actual process is 3 hours so this thing is a bit too sped up :p

imma go ahead and stop drawing for a bit, the drawing itself somehow became too embarassing for me after a double look xD

[starleska]

part two of my Lex Luthor propaganda crusade. have a taste of this smug rich asshole

pal i'm dying because you put in that first gorgeous image of Lex in the suit and i literally just replied to part one of your ask with it 😳😳😳 stOP TRYING TO CONVERT ME HE'S REALLY PRETTY-

[shocked-collar]

Some advice for everybody before I stop being a cunt... you're not gonna get along with everybody. Some friends aren't meant to be. People fall out, people stop talking, people separate. It's something that happens. And sometimes it's someone's fault, but that doesn't make them a villain. What's important is to walk away remembering this was someone who cared about you once, and that you cared about them once, and that it's okay to not forgive or forget, but that you're both still human with lives to live beyond on each other. All of that is okay. You will be okay.

Don't forget yourself because you're bitter and angry at someone. Move the fuck on. Make something new of that space left in your life. It's not gonna be immediate and it's gonna be difficult, but at the end of the day, this is your chance at life and you don't wanna waste it hung-up on somebody who's moving ahead.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming. Who up Stradeing they Lawrence?

[pneumaticshift]

just dropping in to tell u I love ur writing and so thankful that you showed me how awesome shipping batman and green lantern is.

Omg stop, you make me blush 🥰 I have one agenda and it's Batlantern, so I'm glad the propaganda is working.

[granma-sweetie]

whatever i just have to fuckinggg deal with the fact that he will never like me how i like him and he will never see me as i see him and he will never like someone like me. and i just have to get over it i guess