#Fuzzy Business

[themandylion]

Fix-or-Treat! JayTim with pets?

This one is a part of Fuzzy Business, but you don't have to be familiar with it to read this (though it does explain the ducks).

—

"You're in no place to complain," Jason says. "Not after the ducks."

"I just asked why that box is meowing." Tim thought they were done with animals after resettling the ducks at the Fortress of Solitude.

"Carlos from 2B found them in the laundry earlier, but he's allergic and the shelter is closed for the holidays." Jason reaches into the box and pulls out a tiny orange kitten. It glares blearily around, then squeaks furiously.

"Their mother—"

Jason tilts the box forward, revealing a tired-looking adult cat with several more fluffballs nursing away.

Tim sighs. "Okay. But only until Monday."

[gatoburr0]

Oh no he’s fuzzy

[rexwrendraws]

the circus is coming to town, and what a selection of curiosities it has... 🎪

As soon as I saw the posters @amielot drew for the circus in their Horse Girl AU, I knew I had to try my hand at coloring them in! This AU has stolen my entire heart— if you haven't looked through the AU comics yet, DO THAT RIGHT NOW!! THEY'RE EXCELLENT!!

This poster is my colors on @amielot 's drawing, using @aquabluejay 's summoning circle asset in the background :) Insp under the cut—

Colors and textures were greatly inspired by painted circus/carnival posters, especially this one:

[allinone283]

I finished knitting a Lebowski sweater, please congratulate me! I tried very hard, redoing many details many times. like it if it's interesting

[andy-clutterbuck]

7x12 - Say Yes | requested by Anonymous

[worms-i-think]

Silliest little guys:

HES SO MEAN aaaahdikkkhwdkj I love Vyn, how in the world does this man treat people’s mental conditions when he loves to jab at his coworkers this much

Also Artem, who is apparently Mr. hobby collector extraordinaire according to canon, worrying he will be bad at this activity because it involves being relatively creative is so funny to me. He has no confidence in creating anything that lacks a step-by-step guide. He hates things being open to interpretation.

(Good thing Lukie is so eager to help people make things. You could walk into the shop and ask what he’s gonna do to repair your antiques and he would show you and let you help if you want. I would love to see him interact with Artem more! Then again, there would also be the interesting dynamic created at the begging of the game where Luke urges Rosa to decline his offer to join the NXX. The possibility of that tension! Anyway.)

Like?? I need to sit in on one of their tutoring sessions.

Also, this past chapter that was released was super tense in terms of inter-NXX relations, so it’s fun to see them get along as well as they can, but then there’s the lingering undertone that the four of them don’t feel they can trust one another at all. I’m super excited for chapter 10 >:)

[fisheito]

SCREMS my snautsticic child he is trying ok!!!!!! one tiny snake human hybrid built from the cave-ground-up, , attempting to learn all the implicit rules of humanness?! as if it isn't already tough enough out here!!!!

[themandylion]

fic or treat! jaytim, full moon

(Something for Fuzzy Business.)

"So," Tim said, dropping down to sit beside Jason on the grass. "Full moon tonight."

"I know it doesn't affect your shift. We've been over this," Jason says, ducking his head slightly. He has no reason to be embarrassed about past assumptions—how was he to know that werecaracals are nothing like werewolves?

"True, true." Tim tips sideways, leaning into him. "But a full moon does pack a wallop of magical mojo. And Zatanna thinks she's finally solved my anti-aging issue."

"Wait, seriously? That's huge news!"

"There's just one catch," Tim says with a grimace. "We're gonna need a Lazarus Pit."

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: ALWAYS NORTH by Vicki Jarrett.

To me, the scariest place on our entire planet is the Arctic, partially because the scariest thing on our entire planet are polar bears, which have been stalking my nightmares since middle school. So, of course, when I saw a fucked-up polar bear on the cover of a weird and fucked up maybe mystery maybe thriller definitely apocalyptic sci-fi adjacent book that takes place in the Arctic, I thought, "Oh yeah I should definitely start reading that at nighttime IMMEDIATELY while winter still nibbles on the edges of the weather, this is foolproof."

Reader: I am the Fool™.

I'm 80 pages in, and so far we've got weird inexplicable shit going on that we're trying to ignore, and we've been warned about bears SO Many Times All Over The Place (yikes), and we're now being stalked by a polar bear who has a History with the captain (borderline Moby Dick but make it a vicious land-capable predator), and time is fake because it's Always Daylight and we are doing Science on a Boat but make it Evil Capitalism also, and there's some neat textual framework going on with chapter headers, and I'm excited to see where this all goes!!

[ibelieveinahappilyeverafter]

having dyslexia when your job is a professional writer is bad enough, but having eyesight that sometimes goes fuzzy and blurry bad enough that you can't really proofread the stuff you write for Clients is about 1000x worse 😭

[roseverdict]

new minecraft tree + mob idea: new tree type that has caterpillars fall from it. as a particle effect? as a potential drop from breaking its leaves? i'm not entirely sure. all i know is i've had to dodge, coax away, or pluck off my person at least a dozen Friendly Fuzzy Little Guys falling from a tree in the past as many hours and i feel like it should exist in the cube game. mojang hire me

[are-we-really-doing-this]

Linchpin - Fear Factory

[that-darn-clown]

Im weaving something that is actively making me wanna throw it across the room. Lesson learned this yarn is NOT for weaving lmao my hands are covered in fiber and it takes a minute to pass the shuttle one way. Hell. This is a weavers hell.

[mister-eames]

Love the idea of a and E somehow getting roped into Cat-sitting at the same time but definitely let’s make this pre-relationship and it’s definitely when they won’t even admit that they’re friends and instead insist they barely tolerate One another. However the day eames catches Arthur slow blinking at the cat is the day he decides he must marry this man.

They'd managed to avoid bloodshed, so far.

Well, that's not entirely true. On the first day Eames did get in the way of an errant string toy and the jarringly sharp claws of Brumehilda the Bengal, but it was an accident. He's learned since then.

But between Eames and Arthur, things have been, dare he say, civil. Friendly, almost. Arthur even laughed at Eames, once. It may have been when Brume scratched his hand but Eames would like to think that's a step up from Arthur looking at him and sighing, or outright ignoring him, per his usual disposition.

They've shared living spaces before, on jobs. Sure they were out of each others hair then more often than not. But this time was different.

While there was no lost love, this time Eames got to see Arthur in his down time. Arthur in his down time wore plaid pyjamas with horrendously scuffed hems and worn fabric at the derriere. Arthur in his down time wore sweatpants and crew socks during the day and smoked in the mornings, half-asleep as he leaned against the open windowsill, eyes drooping closed before snapping back awake, a once fresh cigarette now sagging from the weight of unflicked ash, burned unobserved in his drowsiness.

Arthur in his down time, could be a downright slob.

Suffice to say this cat-sitting favour rubbed some of the gleam off of Arthur's shine. No longer was he the pristine point man he purported to be. Eames knew better now. Arthur burned toast and ate it over the sink. Arthur sometimes belched. He was painfully, charmingly, human.

And all of these moments of Arthur being just a man, Eames could deal with. After all, Arthur got his own, too. Over the course of the last few days Eames had noticed changes in Arthur around him. No longer was he subject to withering glares and cold indifference. The wide berth Arthur had always given him had narrowed down, his gargantuan personal bubble had been punctured. They said goodnight to each other when one was going to bed. They watched TV together on the couch. Sometimes Eames even would say 'oh I like this show', and Arthur would reply 'me too' and then they'd sit and watch re-runs of Bewitched for hours and eat toasties and chip butty's.

Then came Arthur with the cats.

Prior this job, Eames had always envisioned Arthur to be like one of them. You know, feline-like. Snooty. Territorial. Picky. Prone to assholery.

But Arthur, it turns out-- Arthur was a goddamn pushover. More than once Eames caught him sneaking treats to Remy the Ragdoll or indulge in belly-rubs, baby talk included, with Sven the Sphynx.

Brume had been the hardest to woo, for both of them. She was immune to any sort of bribery or physical affection, remaining deeply distrustful and would hiss and howl and hide whenever she caught sight of either of them.

Which leads Eames now, to this very moment.

Arthur, sat on the couch in his plaid pyjamas, a glass of red wine held in one hand as he holds himself very, very still.

Eames would think nothing of it, coming back from a trip to the bathroom, noticing Arthur still as a statue in the technicolour glow of the television light, were it not for the fact that Arthur was not looking at the screen at all.

"Alright, Arthur?"

"Shh."

When Eames rounds the couch he notices two things: one, One, Brumehilda sitting directly at Arthur's feet, staring at him, her tail whipping back and forth rapidly like a windshield wiper. Two, Arthur is blinking at her, slowly.

"What are you doing?" Eames whispers, resuming his seat on the couch.

Arthur holds up a finger towards him and continues to blink down at the cat.

Brumehilda continues to stare back at him, judgementally it would seem, by wide yawn she gives. But she hasn't scurried into hiding under the couch yet, which is something.

"Arthur."

"It's how cats show affection," Arthur whispers back, still in their stand-off. "I'm gaining her trust."

"You look like you're having a stroke," Eames says, grinning when Arthur wordlessly trades which finger he's holding up at Eames.

He watches them. Arthur blinking slowly trying to convey affection and fondness to cat, like it matters to him. Eames has seen Arthur shoot projections in the head and break the wrist of a handsy-extractor and break down dream architecture with the quirk of his brow and now with crumbs on his shirt in the morning but he's never seen Arthur quite like this.

After a moment, Brumehilda blinks back.

Arthur breaks out into a dimpled-grin, taking a victorious sip of his wine, looking pleased as punch at his own actions. The cat leans forward to accept touch but Eames barely notices, too busy trying to battle with the parts of his chest that are taking giant leaps in an attempt to escape his body. Towards Arthur.

Distracted, Eames picks up his beer from the coffee table and sips it, watching the nightly news roll in on the ancient TV. He looks back again and presses a thumb down to his sternum, hard.

---

Brumehilda allows Arthur to give her head scratches and the occasional butt-pat after that. Two days later their duties are up.

---

Eight months later.

---

They're three days into this job. It's the first since his cat-sitting escapade with Arthur and while they are not as frosty as they once were, Eames might even say they now engage in regular, harmless banter, Arthur has been sending him weird looks lately.

"Have you got something in your eye?" Arthur asks one day when Eames is giving details to the team on his proposed forge.

"Pardon?"

"Do you need glasses?"

Eames pauses. He glances around the room for a possible explanation The chemist and extractor keep their eyes trained dutifully down to their notes, refusing to meet his gaze.

"Do I what?"

"I don't mean -- you're squinting a lot."

Squinting? Is this man for real?

"Right. Is there anything else you'd like to nitpick about my face, Arthur? Or may I continue with the brief?"

"I'm just saying. Go to an optometrist for fucks' sake."

Optometrist, Eames thinks derisively, getting back to his presentation. It's just allergies, that's all. Just something in his system.

[angeltism]

The best way to start my day. Sighs dreamily

[bromantically]

oh so the ache really is unavoidable huh