#and liked it enough to add color and post it

[ouchthathurts]

❝ 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤. ❞

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐬) ⋮ Daisuke x AFAB! Reader

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 ⋮ 3.5k

𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 ⋮ 1 | 2 |

𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ⋮ Captains know best!

𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐬 ⋮ Cross-Posted on AO3 | Vomit Mentioned | Jimmy-Centered

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 ⋮ Sorry for the delay! Advisement and Finals are coming ups I'm fixing up the schedule to accommodate writing as well!

There’s tension in the room, it’s thick, rough to spread on toast and forced down your throat to make sure you know that you had fucked this up. Of course, Daisuke would be here–But why Daisuke? The rare updates your mother gave was that he really did nothing after high school, enrolled into college undeclared as he just partied his way through the first and second semester.

“No amount of money could get that boy into a good school.” Your mother sighed in relief, “Good riddance.” You had done well, well in your mother eyes since you could’ve done “one more extracurricular’ or ‘been involved in more organizations’ nonetheless, you secured your spot at her dream college and took it seriously in fear she’d kick out her child.

You know, you hadn’t taken the chance to notice how Daisuke had grown, changed in some ways with the faded blond hair dye on the ends of his hair–When did he start curling his hair? When did he dye it blond? What made him start wearing concealer around his eyes? There’re these subtleties you may have not noticed before, were they always there and you were always just that neglectful of him? Disappointed in yourself as a friend you wave to him, and when his eyes finally hit you, it almost drops like a dead body. There’s a way his eyes fall, it almost guts you in a way where he perfectly places his hands on the most sensitive parts. It’s the way he knows you inside out, he doesn’t even need to say anything to you, the look in his chestnut eyes that held everything back in them to not burst into tears. “Alright, Daisuke, that’s enough getting familiar with the crew.” Jimmy speaks, it’s a man you remembered having straight brown hair slicked into a midpart, brown eyes, and stubble. The scraggle under his chin made you cringe, praying that if he got closer there wouldn’t be something ghastly awaiting you. All of you wore the Pony Express jumpsuit, except Swansea and Daisuke who just wore the shirt and jeans with Daisuke adding on a top, you’re not surprised since Daisuke would add anything to the uniform to make sure he was authentic even in the little ways like a feather earring or multicolored rubber band bracelets. 

You began to play with the one under the sleeve of your jumpsuit, your fingers turning into pluck at your wrist was the one Daisuke had made for you back in elementary school, it had his and your favorite color alternating every two loops. 

“Oh! My! God!” You let out the most obnoxious gasp, it causes him to giggle, and you smirk to yourself knowing all the right buttons to push, there’s a big grin on his face as he slips it on your wrist, and you look down at it to see his wrist falling next to yours to reveal the same bracelet. “Do you like love it?” You snicker at his phrasing, “Dude, I like love it, man.” You mock him, he brings his shoulder to yours to shove it, and the two of you share a smile with glazed over eyes.

How do you even face him? Ways to talk to him, but your biggest fear is talking to him specifically. Everybody boarding this ship seems fine, or at least as good as any other crew could be to be honest with you, since you know it is like your first time. You're looking at a little longer than you should. Like Curly? I mean, you think he's good looking? It's the same blond that Daisuke wanted to do at one point, he was charismatic like how Daisuke was when you first met him, and his hand shake his firm but you long for the wiggle in his wrist Daisuke had.

Holy shit, what do you even do in this situation?

What do you even say to him? “Hey, I'm sorry for leaving you after all this time.” “My bad for abandoning you.” “I'm scared shitless at my mom.” Can you even use your mom as an excuse anymore? Is she even really that scary in the first place or were you just pussying out? All the time where you’ve defended him and all the times he's defended you–Why was you even arguing for him if you just ended up leaving him in the end? 

Soon you were met with the Co-captain again. You want to lie to yourself about your situation, that being on a ship is cool and being trained to fly it sounds even more amazing but Good God, you could not stand to be around Jimmy for longer than you needed to. 

Honestly, you were very much distraught to find out that you were being stuck with Jimmy. “Since as Captain I'll be a bit busier, I won't be able to be as active as I'd like to be in training. Jimmy’s been a good hand, he's strong willed, eager, and is a good companion to have on the ship.”

You have to shadow him?

In some place in your heart, you know that he hates it just as much as you do. Just meeting him for the first time made him just look at you like lesser, was it because you added your own accessories to your uniform or the fact you put effort into your appearance? Handshake from Jimmy killed something in you because of how he did it, why was his hand so clammy? Why couldn’t he smell better? How come anytime that you talk to him you feel this disgusting older mess inside you like you're the one fucking up all the time? You hope and pray that this isn't all the time you'll spend on the Tuplar.

Upon loading all necessary items, you all make your accession, there's not really a lot to do on the Tuplar, unfortunately there's never anything to do here besides put all your stuff into your room and pray for the best. “Let's go.” Jimmy says your name like a sergeant, it's clear he treats you as a boot licker and now here you were running your tongue against the heel, “Yes, sir.”

Your first thing when it comes to the Tuplar is how the hell a ship can even run this long, you remember the information your mother gave you about how this is the last human ran delivery service, you think back on it and hate it even more as you remember you're really just stuck with these people for around a year or two. 

You needed to make the best of it.

Whoever would be writing your recommendation letter Whether that Curly, or even Jimmy. You make sure that you did your absolute best. Now the biggest problem with being around Jimmy all the time is being around Jimmy all the time. You tried to find good things about him. For instance, he told you on the first day, “You're very diligent, I'm grateful for it.” It was nice to hear it, you began to look forward to it throughout the day like the people pleaser you were, spineless against Jimmy like you were to your mother.

There was also the fact that he would teach you stuff, he always made sure to be open with you and never bullshit you on what you wanted to know. There was a clear inferiority complex though. Anytime the two of you bumped into Curly there was a clear pedestal that Jimmy put him on, it was exhausting to hear him talk about how Curly got him this job and how grateful he was and how much good Curly did on this ship.

It got even more awkward one day, though. It was most likely around the later time this week that you were working alongside Jimmy and Curly happened to show up. Now in your defense, you really didn't know the two like that, Curley decided to make a joke about Jimmy, basically along the lines of how Jimmy might be a 'Negative Nancy' and it was all in good fun.

Unbeknownst to you, Curly would definitely be talking to you about Jimmy was in the first place. Jimmy was definitely a character and honestly, it was very hard to even find the time to be around him, even though you were forced to be around him a majority of the time. Nonetheless, Jimmy was definitely not supposed to hear what Curly and you had discussed because you were giving your most honest opinion about Jimmy given the week you two had spent together.

“He’s just always weird, to me, all the time.” Curly raised a brow, “Weird as in?”  “At first, I felt special? Like all he was doing is just making me think that there was a chance to be better.” Then you let out a groan, you think back on what he says, and you continue on with your discussion, “It was this sick cycle, he’d compliment me, then he’d backhand me with a little thing, 

‘You could’ve been better.’ ‘You could’ve not missed it.’ ‘Do you even know how to maneuver?’ ‘I guess you’re not as diligent as I thought.’”  You sit there and look at Curly, and Curly look back at you with sympathy. “Well, why the fuck am I even trying then?” Curly flinches at your language but does nothing to halt your rant, especially when his eyes flicker above you then back to yours, he’s grateful you don’t notice.

“What the fuck am I gaining? If all it amounts to him just pulling the rug beneath my feet to see if I’ll float for him. It's ridiculous. I'm trying so much to please him and make sure I'm doing all right and that I meet his standards so I can do good in college, and I'm sitting here being bent over backwards and turned inside out for this absolute buffoon.” There’s another groan that earns his way out of you, “And his tone, it's so condescending. He never ever tries to think about anything that somebody else is doing. It's always about him, him, him, him. As if I have nothing else to do with my life. What if I want to go play games with Anya and Daisuke?”

Curly’s eyes aren’t even on you anymore, he’s looking to your left, and in return you follow his eyes. Guess that maybe it's just the way it's supposed to be? You don't say anything though You're terrified of even trying to go against either or so you sit there, and you stay silent. I mean what could you even say in the first place, “Jimmy…” You’re distraught that Curly didn’t tell you sooner, you don’t blame him, and Curly doesn’t correct you on it.

“So, do you have a problem with me? If you really have a problem with me while I’m on this ship, why work under me? Why do this? If you absolutely have nothing else to offer besides complaining the whole time, all you do is complain, complain, complain about what? About how I teach you? Mainly, it's because of how unattached you are to this. You never care for anything; you never sit there and think twice. You always sit there and think you're a know it all and think you know everything from A-Z. Unfortunately, you don't and I'm so sorry that you're hurt, that I know more than you and that you feel hurt or put on and I'm oh so sorry that you feel that way.”

The way Jimmy talked to you really pissed you off. Honestly, you were about 5 seconds away from beating his arse. Nonetheless though, you held back all that rage that you had pent up and thought about what you should do. He was apologizing for your feelings as if you are feeling the way you felt was absolutely the wrong way to feel and that you are not allowed to feel emotions in the first place about what he does as if his. As his actions don't have consequences. You want to say something and as much as you really want to fight against him.

You sit there, you take a breath in, and you apologize. 

“I’m sorry, Jimmy. I should've communicated better. You're actually a really good co-captain, Jimmy.” There's a look in his eyes that tells you majorly messed up he looks back to you with this glaring expression but a crooked little grin on his face that tells you differently, he'll turn his body to you slowly and you look to him with a wobbly smile, your foundation being nothing but the fear you have in his face.

“It doesn't really matter what you think, does it? At the end of the day, I'm co-captain and Curly is captain, not the other way around. Don't need you feeling bad for me especially when I know you'd rather be with Curly.” You're lost for words, what do you even say after something like this? You can try and be nice and tell him that's not true but what are you even gaining from that at this point?

No Curly is just awkwardly standing there, unable to really do or say anything he tells the booth of you. “Maybe you guys should work it out amongst yourselves, you guys are mature and like-minded adults.” That was his cue to leave. You're distraught by this, but not surprised, unfortunately, given that he didn't even tell you about Jimmy being next to you. You wonder how long Jimmy was actually there next to you before Curly was going to say anything, if he was going to say anything at all...

After Curly makes his way out of the hallway, you were left alone with Jimmy, and you try to start up the conversation. “Well,-” The way Jimmy barks out a laugh causing him to spit on your face made you wince at the scene, “Well, Well what? Well, you suck at your job? Well, flattery will get you nowhere. Well, what do you even plan on doing after this excursion? Well, what do you even study in college? Well, do you even think you'll return for the next time? Well? Well?” With each phrase he got closer, and closer, and closer.

“Here and play around on this ship as if we're all doing these little dumb reindeer games to come and sit here and bullshitting around. I didn't know you were like Daisuke, and you have a little family going home to support you while you go through college, and I definitely didn’t know you wanted to hang out with the nurse who barely qualified for the position. I didn't know that you were so spoiled in lavish that you thought you could sit here and play around. You didn't want to learn anything, you just thought this was going to be a fun little hang out time. But this is real shit. We're doing real things.” 

It didn't help that he had just eased you into one of the closets, it's small with shelves lined with miscellaneous items. It was cramp, you're cornered by this absolute unit that was most definitely trying to intimidate you. You don't even know what to do at this point. You look in his eyes and even while you're trying to hold your ground you feel like your knees are going to buckle in. 

You stare at Jimmy, and he doesn't even see you, you're just another person who needs to know his place on the ship. Below Curly but above you. It was never explicitly said, and you don't know if you could ever really get it out of him, but you knew that this was just him making sure he knew you knew. You kept staring though and even as his face got closer and closer you couldn't even fathom how you would even get out of this.

“Well, what?” You see yourself in his reflection and there's nothing more humiliating than knowing how weak you look in front of somebody. It's almost petrifying how much you're realizing that you're stuck here, and you will be stuck here for as long as he wants you to be. 

“Well?” You sigh, “I’m sorry, Jimmy, I was just speaking my mind.” He doesn't even look at you, his eyes flicker up and they flicker back down at you with no type of change to emotion. “I didn't decide to have a person work alongside me and be around me this whole time just for them to speak their feelings I don't want you to speak your feelings I don't need you to speak your feelings I don't want to hear you speak your feelings You're here for one thing and one thing only follow my orders and if you can't do that then I don't even know why you even bother to show up.” 

“You didn't even decide to have me as your intern…” 

You shouldn't have said that and in those seconds you didn't even realize it you were being snatched up, it was quick both of his hands already pinning you both by the sides of your shoulders you weren't surprised that he was able to just immediately grab your forearms and yank you over to him with his face even more knotted up in anger than before. “I'm sorry, I didn't hear you, follower. What did you say?” Your breath hitches at the feel of coarse hands squishing your flesh without a care, “I said,” You think, you think some more, and you come to your conclusion.

“I said, you didn't even decide to have me as your intern, you only have me shadowing you because you're not as important as Curly.” The way his grip tightened was something you expected, and you prayed that the bruises on your arms wouldn't be too bad as you felt yourself being run through a compressor, that was until someone knocked on the door. Jimmy whips his head around to see who it is, “Who is it?” 

“Oh!” No, fucking, way. “Hey, Jiiiiimmy, right? I heard F/N’s voice in there and I was gonna ask if I could come in and get some stuff cause Swansea sent me…” Your eyes widen and you almost cry out in relief, “Daisuke? Yeah, I'm in here!” The look shot back at you almost gave you whiplash, quickly putting your head down in embarrassment as you were met with Jimmy's angered expression in your face. “We're coming out right now.”

There's an awkwardness in the air more than there was before but for a different reason. Upon getting out the closet you're met with Daisuke, You weren't the first to leave in fact as Jimmy was already standing there with his harm's crossed looking at Daisuke dismissively, there is a glare in his eyes that Daisuke had read as Jimmy being upset about being interrupted and you being embarrassed about being caught. Embarrassment was correct. You were absolutely floored by the fact that Daisuke had found you with Jimmy alone in a closet. It almost killed you to see the expression on his face upon leaving the enclosed area.

“Soooooooo, what were you guys doin’ in there?” Only Daisuke would ask such a question, and you admired him for such boldness and confidence you'd never lost it in those years, and he even glowed more with him being met with such a sight, you don't think he cares, and you do think maybe he thinks you moved on. It kills you to look at him, there's no obvious hurt in his face but Daisuke has always been someone that's displayed effortless suave. 

Jimmy was quick to speak, “Nothin’ you need to worry about, Daisuke, just getting to know my intern a little better.” There's a cheeriness to his expression It's obvious of what he's doing, and you can't even say anything without not wanting to be put into that situation once more. You argue with yourself again, You could defend yourself and tell Daisuke that Jimmy was being a total asshole to you, and you needed help and you were so glad that he was able to help you or you could do what you were best at and that was going along with it.

“Yeah,”

Just like you always did. 

“Ohhhhhhh, I see.” Daisuke lets out a warm laugh, too warm of a laugh, even as he's almost joking about it in a way that seemed like him and Jimmy were close, “Anywhosies, I'm going to take this stuff to Swansea. I'll see you guys around! Have fun getting to know each other!” You wish that your innards were churned into chum then regurgitated onto Jimmy. You turn to look at Jimmy, you think about what Daisuke thought about finding you two in the closet, once Daisuke was finally out of view, you promptly vomited onto Jimmy.

Those liquid would for sure stain his uniform and the chunks made a disgusting plan into the floor after you then clutched your stomach. You groaned, unfortunately for Jimmy, he took you to the nurse station. 

©ouchthathurts please don't translate, claim as yours, redistribute and/or plagiarize in any way. likes, comments, and reblogs are greatly appreciated!

[cavycaptain]

I tabled with Kagebros that TFCon Weekend and we've talked about the tracing and redraws--FYI I also sell redraws of famous G1 scenes to sell as charms/prints. The merch is in my own style rather than taking directly from the cartoons and I acknowledge that they're not original. I'm not one to stand against the selling of redraws because that's just hypocrisy.

Kagebros has apologized and understand the consequences of their actions and that's enough for me.

People have traced and stolen from my merch/art before to the point where potential customers have become wary of purchasing from me because they did not realize that the tracers were taking advantage of my lack of online presence/small following. I'm not a fan of dogpiling, but I admit that I have made call-out posts, because again I have a smaller audience and get overwhelmed by misinformation thrown at me and I feel as though I'm backed into a corner. I have to understand that the tracers behind the screens are human like me and if they credit or take the art down, I am a very forgive and forget person. Again this is my own personal take on the situation from my own experience, and people do have the right to be upset and angry.

When you admire an artist so much, you want to implement their style into your own--I'm inspired by DJW, Josh Burcham, Dana Terrace and many more. Tracing or 1:1 referencing helps when you want to understand how those artists could obtain certain structures in their art--like hands or faces. Its a tale as old as time when inspired by your teachers but in the end you have to take what you learn from them and create a style most comfortable for your own skillset. I see that Kagebros has their own style developing and I cannot wait to see how much they improve in the near future.

I haven't addressed anything because I'd simply be repeating whats already been stated before. There are many points to this story that I agree and disagree with and I was more of a bystander through all of this while supporting my friends. But I guess deciding to still stand by my friend was enough to fuel a different kind of rage brought into the public space and affected our safety.

During this whole ordeal, at TFCon Baltimore, I was warned that a person was following and taking pictures of me WITHOUT MY CONSENT throughout the weekend. I have reason to believe its the same people going after Kagebros. I fear for what these people are capable of or what they could have planned had I or Kagebros not stayed with friends at all times. I feel so disgusted and violated. Yes, this is a public event and I had also taken pictures with friends/visitors that wanted to visit me. There are randoms who also probably unintentionally took pictures of me in passing. But this group had sought out to film and take photos of us for the sole purpose of stalking--I would also like to add that this same group has a history of doxxing people, including minors, in the Transformers fandom.

In this current political climate, its a terrible time to be an AFAB Person of Color. In a place where I thought I could feel accepted and safe and experience a little bit of escapism, I'm alarmed that even then I still feel in danger. Kagebros made mistakes but it doesn't warrant this kind of outrageous behavior. Me choosing to stay friends with someone does NOT warrant being stalked and followed.

I'm not perfect either, I've made so many mistakes, and I'm begging these people to take time to look inward, to self reflect on their actions and to realize the harm they are causing to people's physical and mental wellbeing.

This Post is by someone that wants to remain anonymous, they DM'd me this and asked me to post

The callout campaign against Kagebros has gone WAY too far. The lengths these people have gone to violate someone’s boundaries and privacy in order to “warn” people is incredibly excessive and is dealing horrible damage to their mental health and wellbeing. It needs to fucking stop.

The situation has spiraled completely out of control, spurred on by people who would rather side with a proud AI artist than have a civilized, adult discussion about tracing. Said AI artist has a history of attempting to ruin Kagebros’ credibility, spreading disinformation and rumors about them and their nonprofit charity zines, now going as far as to allegedly incite people to nonconsensually take photos of them at their booth at TFcon Baltimore, and block-evading their socials in order to find more posts to pick apart.

As they have stated already, Kagebros never had ANY intention to scam people, which understandably doesn’t change how those affected may feel. That being said, they could have very easily traced over things without altering them in any way at all, like many others within the convention vending sphere have blatantly done without a callout from these same people who care so much about “calling out tracing”. There tends to be a gray area in the realm of tracing techniques within the art industry (especially professionally), and there is plenty of merit for their actions to be criticized. As they’ve stated, they were under the impression that Official artwork/figures were okay to trace over and alter, which they now know to avoid doing so in the future. Even if the details and credibility of the piece can be scrutinized, they still made a conscious effort to alter the pieces in question to be more original.

Although said effort may not be enough for most, they now KNOW that. End of story. They can't immediately change the pieces they had available for sale, and they should be showing change through their future pieces and actions, which is something that’s up for judgment by anyone. And yet the people starting this have needlessly dragged it on, inciting others to keep spreading the accusations to further audiences, leading to more harassment.

Seafoamsol had admittedly unblocked Kagebros and “offered” to have a talk with them about the situation, but their own intentions are extremely questionable, as a conversation should have been the first priority, rather than a callout post. They assumed Kagebros’ intentions without giving them a single chance to address it themselves before the callout, and are now going forward with the narrative of them being a scammer.

Again, if they truly were concerned, they could have unblocked them and had a conversation before the callout was made, instead of assuming their intentions were to deceive people.

The situation is very nuanced, meaning there's a lot of points to be acknowledged on both sides in order to come to a conclusion, which could have happened peacefully if adults just had a civil discussion with each other. There is a justifiable talk to be had here, and reasonable changes to be made, but this can’t be accomplished productively if people continue to jump to conclusions and assume intentions. This has done nothing–and WILL do nothing–but hurt people, if this behavior doesn’t stop. mistakes will be made, lessons will be learned. Please look at this situation in its entirety before coming to your own conclusions based on assumptions made by people with evidently questionable motives and a history of causing problems for others and driving them out of the community. 

Thank you for reading.

[tksubby]

i love you i love you i love you i love eugene 🩷

[iindigoeyed]

saw this dress and purse and i KNEW i had to draw this, it's so her!!

[freaky-flawless]

Dead Tired Honey Swamp

Shout out to @deuces-stone-cold-style for the nightgown inspo!

[anistarrae]

shadow bandee design i made awhile ago :D (jan 17th, 24)

i feel like mirror bandee would be very skilled without putting the effort in, getting where they are by power, instead of earning it through putting the work in. this would lead to them becoming over-confident and become the cause their biggest weakness. a friend pointed out this would mirror dedede in the beginning of the series too!

[luck-of-the-drawings]

POOR GABRIEL MONTEZ! YOU NEVER SAW THIS COMING DID YOU? ALL YOU WANTED WAS POWER. SECURITY. SAFETY. & THATS EXACTLY WHAT YOU GOT! JUST IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR BODY. LETS JUST HOPE NO ONE FUCKS THIS UP. LETS JUST HOPE YOU WONT HAVE TO CLEAN UP THE MESS.

[synthshenanigans]

this is a fair bit older but i just remembered it existed so take this while i doodle stuff of the new song

chonny gaming

taken from this post v

funni markiplre funaf

[dorkfruit]

if i should fall, will it all go away?

every damn time .. love u saint of the grindset <3

[lavenoon]

Accidentally Undercover AU, let's go!

Three idiots and six identities, and all the comedic chaos that entails.

Y/N is a rather particular parkour enthusiast, who happened to catch the eye of someone scouting for new secret agent material. They're damn good at their job, though their lighthearted "ehehe I'm a secret agent" attitude doesn't really give off that impression. They're proud of their reputation though, and worked hard to get where they are.

In come Sun and Moon - one animatronic, two AIs (unbeknownst to Y/N). A tag team that works shorter shifts but due to their shared body still more than Y/N, and is scarily efficient. They quickly ascend the ranks and become respected agents to everyone except Y/N. About the same time, they look for a new place to live - somewhere with more space for all their gadgets and gear, and preferably with a landlord who won't ask too many questions.

Well, Y/N doesn't ask any questions they don't want turned around towards them, so at least with this arrangement everyone is happy. They don't mind the drilling, whirring, and all the other seemingly suspicious noises - because they're used to them, and have their own little workshop (although they invested in soundproofing long before Sun and Moon moved in). They do quite like their new neighbor, not realizing that's supposed to be plural, and find him one of the easier people to deal with in their life.

Not like their rival at work - who really seems hellbent on making their life difficult. Some mission overlap means they meet quite often, and fortunately mutually agree not to tell anyone else when their banter distracts them from the mission itself, almost causing them to fail. They don't truly hate each other. They're just the two smart kids in class who always need to prove themselves (to the other).

They're all very smart to work as secret agents - but I cannot emphasize enough that they are all three extremely, extremely stupid when it comes to their identities. They don't even expect the nice neighbor/ annoying coworker to be both, so of course they don't notice.

Sun and Moon can talk internally, and do sometimes, but mostly while one is active the other is in rest mode. It's a mutual decision - they would drive each other crazy, constantly critiquing actions/ not being able to actually intervene. They can "wake" each other, but mostly do that around the time of the switch anyway.

So when one talks about the respective Y/N identity they're aware of, they do so via recounting, and not shared memories, only increasing the dissonance between "Robin" and Y/N.

A present day to mildly futuristic setting, animatronics and robots are fully integrated into society. There's also enough of them around, so Y/N in turn doesn't question why their neighbor and coworker look so damn similar.

Shenanigans ensue ✨

Edit: Here's the masterlist! (Check reblogs for future updates)

[whack-patty]

💼🧸 Jeremy and Peanuts 🐘🎪

This was a homework assignment about value and saturation, and a test drive for a 24+ page mascot horror comic project in another class.

((More Parker Park (FILLER NAME HAH) content coming within the next few months as I finish up, if not on tumblr then for sure on my Instagram!!))

[megidoreyn]

Since we didn't get pseudo-fiend designs for the alignment characters in SMT4, I was curious in seeing how they'd look! So I made a pseudo-fiend design and reference/turnaround sheet for Walter-Lucifer just for fun😈💜 He uses elements from both of Lucifer SMT4's phases, as well as Walter's human features.

💜twitter

[thaliagrayce]

Contrasting Colors

Link: ao3 Pairing: Jason Grace/Nico di Angelo Fandom: Percy Jackson & the Olympians Tags: post-Heroes of Olympus, Not TOA compliant, fluff, jealousy (but like only a little bit)

Word Count: 2,998

Summary:

There was a stranger on the subway who had been staring at them on and off since they had boarded the train. That wasn’t too unusual, but it was rubbing Nico the wrong way today. He shifted from one foot to the other as their car passed from the light of the last station into the darkness of the tunnel system once more. Maybe it was the fact that the stranger was a boy who looked just a little older than him. And taller. Broader, too, although he was almost certainly less experienced at actually using the muscle filling out his expensive name-brand athlesiure. He’d been looking between Nico and Jason since they left the shopping center they’d spent the afternoon at, but mostly he’d been looking at Jason. (or; Nico and Jason's journey to self-expression and belonging through really dumb shirts.)

There was a stranger on the subway who had been staring at them on and off since they had boarded the train. That wasn’t too unusual—Nico and Jason had both lived as demigods for long enough that a little staring wasn’t going to ruin their day unless it came with violence—but it was rubbing Nico the wrong way today. He shifted from one foot to the other as their car passed from the light of the last station into the darkness of the tunnel system once more.

Maybe it was the fact that the stranger was a boy who looked just a little older than him. And taller. Broader, too, although he was almost certainly less experienced at actually using the muscle filling out his expensive name-brand athlesiure. He’d been looking between Nico and Jason since they left the shopping center they’d spent the afternoon at, but mostly he’d been looking at Jason.

Nico shifted again, hyperaware of the space between them. Were they standing close enough? Was it too close? They had walked onto the subway car together, but it would be plausible that they just happened to be standing next to each other while they were waiting for the train. The platform had been crowded, it could have looked like coincidence.

Nico knew that he and Jason didn’t look like a matched set. There was about a foot’s difference in height when they were both standing straight, and Nico almost always made it worse by slouching. Their resting expressions were completely different now that Jason’s updated prescription let him see clearly without squinting at the world. And, most noticeable, there was the difference in style: Nico was comfortable in his all black, and Jason was wearing one of the colorful and dorky t-shirts he’d bought on this trip.

(“Look, Nico!” he had said after dragging them both into a store that was about 50% anime merchandise. “It’s me!” He held up the shirt for Nico to see: a pale blue t-shirt with a white cloud-shaped breast pocket. The cloud had a cutesy blushing smiley face on it. Nico raised one eyebrow in question, and Jason pulled the pocket open. The fabric underneath the cloud was printed with a rainbow. It was a terrible joke, and Nico had laughed anyway.)

Nico glanced at the shirt—which Jason liked so much he’d found a bathroom and changed into it as soon as they left the store—out of the corner of his eye. The white of the little cloud almost glowed in the terrible subway lighting. It was so bright, and Jason looked tall and handsome and at ease, and that boy across the train car was looking at him and Nico kept noticing.

Nico brought his right hand up and fidgeted with the blue bandanna he’d bought and tied around his neck on an impulse as they were leaving the mall. The train slowed down to approach another stop and Nico braced himself not to stumble. He wasn’t used to wearing anything around his neck, but it wasn’t terrible. He could maybe do it more often.

On his left, Jason brushed his knuckles against Nico’s in a signal they had developed early on in their relationship, when they figured out that their comfort levels with PDA were decidedly different. I would hold your hand right now if you wanted me to, it said. Nico turned to give him a smile.

Jason was looking down at him, head tilted in a way that reminded Nico that he’d technically been raised by wolves. There was some concern in between his brows. He was completely focused on Nico. It was possible that he hadn’t even noticed the boy across the way, or that he’d dismissed him as mortal as quickly as Nico had and then not thought about him again.

Nico knew that, if he wanted, he could take Jason’s hand right now and prove to all the random strangers in this train car that they were a matched set. He could tell the boy that might or might not have been checking Jason out to fuck off without even opening his mouth. A tiny, possessive part of him wanted to.

Instead, he took a deep breath in and brushed his knuckles back. They both heard the thank you, I love you that implied. The taste of jealousy was bitter and Nico didn’t want to let it linger. He let the breath out.

---

This whole endeavor had started about two months ago, just after they started dating. Nico had been accompanying Jason on a lot of his Pontifex Maximus duties, meeting up with minor gods and drafting temples across the country. Nico’s shadow travel got them places on time and Jason’s flight got them back to where they were staying when Nico got too tired to jump again.

That particular day had been a bit rough. Nico had jumped the both of them halfway across the country to Nowhere, Iowa and was already exhausted when a hydra melted out of the cornfield next to them. Nico was no help in the ensuing fight.

Jason didn’t really need the help, though. He managed to kill it on his own in under ten minutes while Nico slumped against a nearby bale of hay, sleepily cheering him on.

Unfortunately, killing the hydra was not a neat process, and it managed to get him a few times with its acid spit. They worked together and managed to do a halfway decent job of burying the final head underneath Nico’s hay bale before Jason realized that half of his shirt had melted off during the fight.

He had only packed pajamas.

They managed to find Jason a new (ish) plain shirt at the one Goodwill in town quickly, but Jason seemed reluctant to leave. He kept looking back at one of the clothing racks they had passed by, even after they paid and were heading out of the store. Nico gave in to his curiosity.

“What was it?”

“Huh?” Jason asked. He tore his eyes away from the rack one last time and pulled the door open, holding it to let Nico pass first.

“You keep looking back. What caught your eye?”

“Oh, I…” Jason smiled. They headed off toward their motel at a decent clip; they didn’t have a whole lot of time to check in, have Jason change, and leave again to get to their meeting with the eccentric minor agricultural god. “It was nothing. There was a shirt that made me smile.”

“Oh?” Nico prompted.

“Yeah. It was kind of goofy, y’know. Jelly bean print.”

Nico huffed a laugh. “I can picture you in that.”

“Really?”

Nico raised an eyebrow. He had planned to tease Jason, but the hopeful look on his boyfriend’s face stopped him. Raised eyebrows and a hint of a smile and that light in his eyes were all because of a jelly bean shirt?

“Sure,” Nico settled on instead. “Why not? Goofy print for a goofy guy.”

It was evidently the right answer. Jason’s smile grew as they walked into the motel, checked in, and shuffled off to their room. Nico sat on one of the twin beds with his chin in his hands as Jason took over the bathroom to change.

Technically, Nico wasn’t needed here at all. He usually tagged along to these meetings to have something to do, but he knew that if he even hinted he might be feeling tired…

When Jason got out of the bathroom, Nico was lying face down on the bed. Jason fretted and fussed and insisted that Nico stay behind to take a nap, as Nico knew he would. As soon as he left, Nico got up and put his boots back on. The meeting probably wouldn’t take more than half an hour and he wanted to be sneaky, so he had to be fast.

Besides, if he was quick enough, maybe he really could take a nap after he got back from the thrift store.

---

The Jelly Bean Shirt was the most obnoxious shirt in the entire world and Jason loved it. It was a short sleeved button down that was just a touch too small across the shoulders for Jason, which meant that he often wore it open over a different shirt.

The only other shirts Jason owned were either bright purple, bright orange, or the solid green shirt they’d bought for the meeting. Jason very quickly became the easiest person to spot at camp. Leo and Piper teased him about it, but he took it with a smile and continued wearing the shirt.

The next time they left camp for Pontifex business, Jason asked if they could go shopping again afterward.

“I know it’s not really necessary,” he said, sheepish, “but it’s kind of nice. I’ve never really picked out my own clothes before.”

Nico stopped in the middle of rifling through racks of secondhand sweatshirts. Had… had he ever seen Jason in anything but camp shirts? He really tried to think. The t-shirt for the meeting last time didn’t count, it was just the closest functional replacement clothing for the job. They’d picked it out specifically to be unobtrusive. And then there was…

Nope, then there was the Jelly Bean Shirt and nothing else. Jason had been raised by the Legion and dumped into Camp Half Blood and he’d never had the chance to be anything but a representative of those two places, or of his father, or of the minor gods.

Nico might have dressed himself like a walking Hot Topic advertisement, but he chose to do that. He’d been choosing how to dress himself since he was ten. He looked at Jason’s sheepish expression out of the corner of his eye.

“You’re dating the son of the god of wealth. Why are we looking in Goodwill?”

“Target doesn’t have this kind of selection,” Jason answered.

“I can afford Armani, why would we go to Target.”

Jason eyed a sweater that might have been handmade, complete with giant pink applique teddy bear on the belly. He held it up to his chest and wilted when he noticed it was about three sizes too small for him.

“Armani would look too… business. Probably.” Jason put the sweater back and moved on to a more summery section. “I don’t know anything about fashion, but big labels like that sound way too fancy.”

“Right, you prefer designers who are more in touch with their inner six-year-old girl.”

Jason shrugged. “It makes me more approachable, doesn’t it? I’m not the Son of Jupiter, ex-Praetor of the Twelfth Legion, Titan Slayer, Champion of Juno, Hero of Olympus, Pontifex Maximus like that. I’m that guy with the unicorn shirt.” He then pulled out a t-shirt that had pom-poms dangling from every hem. “Is this too much?”

Jason held the stupidest shirt Nico had ever seen in his life up to his chest and Nico realized he might be in love with him. He bought the shirt.

---

And he’d kept taking Jason out, on dates and on trips to make his wardrobe feel like him, and that’s what landed them on the subway that morning. They’d gotten as far as they could on public transport, then clasped hands and slipped into the shadows.

“What’s with the scarf?” Jason tugged at the bottom of the bandanna once they settled into the familiar comfort of Cabin 13. Nico untied it to let Jason take a closer look, and to get the fabric off of his neck. It was, other than Jason himself, the brightest spot in the room. That felt like a pretty apt metaphor.

Gods, Nico didn’t want to admit it. He was working on being able to talk about his feelings, but it still sucked every time.

 Jason never made fun of him, though. Nico took comfort in that fact as he staunchly refused to make eye contact, instead focusing on taking out and folding the new black skinny jeans he’d gotten to replace his old black skinny jeans. (He’d been wearing the old ones last time he attempted the climbing wall. It hadn’t gone well.)

“You like color.” It wasn’t a real explanation, he knew, but it was all that would come out at the moment. Nico smoothed away a few more wrinkles in the jeans.

“I like the way you dress, too, though. You look really good in black.”

Nico hid his reddening face behind his hair as he shoved the meticulously folded jeans into the drawer with the rest of his balled-up pants. He knew that. Jason, once he realized that it wouldn’t scare Nico away, was not shy with compliments. Nico knew very well how much Jason liked the way he looked. It was a lot sometimes, but it was… nice. It was really nice.

“I. Thanks.” Nico took in a breath and shut the dresser drawer, then stood up and let it out. He could do this. He turned toward Jason, who was still holding the bandanna. It almost blended in with the light blue of Jason’s new shirt. They weren’t exactly the same shade, but they were close enough to suit Nico’s purposes.

“We look really different. And that’s okay, I’m happy that you’re finding clothes that you like. But we don’t…” Nico walked over and took the bandanna from Jason’s hands to better demonstrate his point. “We look really different,” he ended up repeating. “And I just wanted.” It was suddenly hard to form words around the lump in his throat. When had that gotten there? This wasn’t a big deal, what was he even upset about?

“Can I hold your hand?”

Nico looked up. Jason had a hand extended to him and obvious concern furrowing his brow. Nico stepped past the hand and fitted his body against Jason’s instead. Without other people around, he didn’t have to worry about spite or jealousy or whatever motivating him. Everything was a lot simpler when it was just the two of them. Nico could take what comfort he wanted.

Jason wrapped his arms around Nico, just like he knew he would.

“I don’t care what anyone else thinks, you know that?”

“Yeah,” Nico mumbled into the blushy cloud on Jason’s shirt. It still smelled like the mall.

“The scarf looked nice on you, but you don’t need to wear color to be beautiful.”

Nico groaned and buried his face in his boyfriend’s chest. “I know.”  He was starting to feel stupid for his insecurity. Jason didn’t act like this for anyone else, why would a few stares bother him? The arms around him tightened.

“Besides, I think we look cute together like this.”

Nico looked up at him without bothering to step back at all. His chin was probably digging into Jason’s sternum, but that was Jason’s fault for being so tall. Jason looked down to meet his eyes and smiled.

(Nico was never, ever going to tell him how funny he looked from this angle.)

“Mismatching is cute, Piper keeps telling me that. It’s cute to wear mismatched socks. I think we’re cute together.”

Nico snorted. “I saw Piper’s bunk on the Argo II, I think she just can’t find matching socks.”

Jason pulled a face. “You might have a point. But Piper had one, too. A little variety and a little difference is good.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Nico’s hairline. “I think we look perfect together.”

“Sap.” The hug and the conversation and the visual angle all made Nico feel a lot better. Or maybe it was just being around Jason, honestly. Having honest conversations.

Maybe talking about his feelings wasn’t the worst.

The next day, the two of them had plans to head to New Rome to visit friends and work on Pontifex business. They were supposed to meet up at Thalia’s tree after breakfast and packing.

As usual, Jason was already waiting when Nico climbed up the hill. He smiled at Nico and extended a hand for him to take.

He was wearing one of the shirts they’d found yesterday—a pink button down with little dinosaurs printed all over it—under a denim jacket that had probably started its life black, but had faded into a dark grey over the years.

That was new. As in, that was new since yesterday afternoon. Nico would have remembered a jacket like that. He took Jason’s hand, but didn’t stop staring at the jacket.

“Where’d you get that?”

“Huh?” Jason brought his other hand up to fiddle with one of the buttons on the jacket, and Nico noticed that his nails had been messily painted black.

It looked… He looked…

“Oh! The jacket.” Jason laughed and it sounded a little nervous. “It’s Piper’s, actually, but she said I could have it. It was too big for her anyway, she was just planning on cutting it up for one of her projects. Said I’d get more use out of it.”

Nico stepped forward and ran his free hand over the denim. He didn’t comment on Jason’s obvious nerves.

“I like it,” he said. “You look good.”

Jason’s shoulders relaxed and he gave Nico a little grin. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Do you like it?” he asked. This effort alone was enough to squash like, half of Nico’s insecurities, but this wouldn’t do any good if he were limiting Jason’s self-expression just like the Camps did.

“I do. It makes me feel more connected to someone pretty important to me.”

“Good.” Nico smiled at him. “I’m gonna steal it so often.”

“Hey! That defeats the purpose!”

Nico’s hand wandered to the jacket’s collar and he tugged on it, urging Jason downward. “Hmm,” he hummed into a kiss. “I’ll give it back sometimes. Don’t worry.”

Jason was smiling like a dope. He wound his free arm around Nico’s waist.

“That’s okay, then. We can share.”

Nico liked the sound of that. He kissed Jason one last time and tugged him into the shadows.

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Ghost patterns

Have you ever seen a black panther or jaguar on the sun?

On paper the tabby patterns are quite simple: an agouti (A_) cat has stripes, a nonagouti (aa) doesn't. But like everything else in biology (and reality, really), this isn't always this easy.

There are several different genes with epistatic effect on the nonagouti phenotype: this means an allele of a different gene overrides the solid effect, and an aa cat has visible tabby pattern.

This phenomenon is called ghost pattern. Basically it means we see the pattern when we don't expect it. Smokes, colorpoints, solids, all kind of pheomelanin-based colors can display it (for some reason pheomelanin loves its stripes much more than eumelanin, and for red and yellow shades a solid and a tabby cat is very often nearly indistinguishable).

Examples

Oranges

The most well-known epistatic example is the orange gene. All ginger cats look tabby, even if they are genetically solids.

This is especially conspicious on self torties, where the black-based part is solid while the red-based area is striped.

Smokes

Another gene that can bring out the underlying pattern in the inhibitor. When the dominant inhibitor allele is combined with the nonagouti genotype (I_ aa), the resulting cat is called a smoke.

These are a smoke and a silver cat, the only difference in their genotypes is that the left one is a nonagouti: smoke, the right is an agouti: silver tabby.

Smokes with different ghost patterns:

Watch the faces: these are all obviously solid cats, yet the pattern is clear and easily identifiable.

Colorpoints

This one is different from the previous two in that these cats can be genetically agouti (A_), but since in case of tabby (lynx) points the pattern type generally can't be identified, if you see some distinct marks on a pointed cat's body, congratulation, that counts as a ghost pattern.

Snow bengals are famous from their ghost rosettes (or marbles).

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE ART OF EXCESS by Tom LeClair.

Another day, another "requesting niche out of print nonfiction from the library that they have to borrow from the Library of Congress, because of course they do"! I didn't actually read the whole thing because I'm not familiar with six out of the seven books he analyzes, but I did read the preface, the introduction, and the chapter about Le Guin's ALWAYS COMING HOME (which was really the epilogue lol).

His framework of "systems novels" was fascinating to me and my biology-oriented brain, and he flagged a lot of the same things I transcribed for my "le guin posting" tag, which I thought was neat! Unfortunately: he nerfed himself by spending most of his time on behemoth novels by six white men as Representative of Excess as Mastery, so I found his overall conclusions lackluster--like, dude, really, broaden your sample size if you're trying to generalize to American Literature Going Forward (it's no wonder Le Guin was the most hopeful and reconstructive of the lot, given the synopses of the other bricks he discussed). Neat intro and preface! And I found myself nodding along to a lot of his insights on Le Guin, but I also found myself rolling my eyes at how he tried to generalize from the texts he selected.

[sammekh]

I just think that the event currency thing is only a band-aid solution for a much wider problem and will be completely useless after 2 years because TGC refuses to lower prices of older event cosmetics tbh.