#self vs melanistic

[roseate-felidae]

@amber-tortoiseshell

I don't think I explained right.

Ps. I added some illustrations (with contrast and highlights tweaked digitally for easy viewing), I'm unwell, so their really shitty, sorry.

But I'm feeling a lot better at the moment, hence my ability to type again. (My previous post today was atrocious).

Collapsing post so it doesn't clog up someone's dashboard XD. Answer below read more.

How melanin works is that Signaling receptor.

"Mcr1 is a receptor that creates Eumelanin or pheomelanin "

To simiplify: think of the hair shaft as a switchboard.

By turning (by signalling) some switches ON it makes eumelanin. By turning them OFF it creates phaeomelanin. By breaking the entire switch, it makes white.

But you can't add or subtract from the switch board. Only switch ON/OFF what's already there or break the switch entirely (making it unusable).

Self has no bands. The yellow bands in agouti are the phaeomelanin. If it had any, it would mean it has bands. But then it isn't self

If you are suggesting more eumelanin and some untouched phaeomelanin. That would actually be a melanistic agouti. With melanistic individuals still having the genetic info for agouti. But self isn't a melanistic agouti.

Self is literally turning ON all the switches on the switchboard. This makes a purely eumelanin rabbit. To repeat it from last time, If it had any phaeomelanin, it wouldn't be a self. As that would make a yellow band on the hair shaft, making it just a more black agouti, which isnt what self actually is. Or it could be a tort aswell.

But the switches still exist to be switched OFF again. They haven't been removed or broken. (We're not complicating it with Vienna, c gene, dutch or broken).

So our friend e gene comes along. Its sole purpose is to switch those ON switches (eumelanin) OFF. That makes phaeomelanin (an OFF switch on our switchboard).

In an agouti this gives the appearance of widening the yellow band and creating a yellow rabbit. In self this adds some phaeomelanin.

But e gene in rabbits can only turn so many ON switches OFF, it isn't powerful enough to do them all. So it leaves some switches left ON. As self had more switched ON in the first place, it has more ON switches left before e gene "got tired " and couldn't do anymore.

What you described with keeping some phaeomelanin and adding eumelanin actually makes this melanistic agouti. Genetically they are A- B- C- D- E-

but with some more eumelanin replacing only some of the phaeomelanin.

My self black mini rex, Juno. Genetically is aa BB Dd EE, she has no phaeomelanin. Any phaeomelanin would means she has a band on her hairshaft, but that would make her just a more black agouti (melanistic individual). Not a self.

Your confusion may be due to cats not having a true self. As all self cat's are still tabbies, just the colour masks it. But rabbits do have a true self gene.

Or thinking melanistic is like self (i used to rhink that myself). But melanistic ≠ self in rabbits.

The two are genetically different, despite looking similar visually.

I hope that explains it better :)

When i first looked into rabbit genetics more seriously i was so bewildered by aa ee, "solid" red being more patterned than A_ ee, agouti red...

But like. The a allele isn't some kind of "depatterning" allele. It doesn't makes the coloration even, it makes the coloration darker. It's a melanism allele. And when I started to look at it like this, suddenly a lot of things started to make sense

[coramatus]

Subway Boss Emmet vs. the Multiverse, part iv

More self-indulgent nonsense featuring Subway Boss Emmet getting simultaneously heckled and fanboyed by a bunch of kid OCs and then getting dogpiled by his Pokémon.

Co-starring original characters: Kathy of the Ten-Thousand Shades, Wyatt the tree hyena, Émil the belligerent 8yo mute, Azar the girl with a headscarf that isn��t actually a headscarf, and Rhys the melanistic anthro fox boy.

———————————

“Wow, would you look at that,” Rhys said, tapping his very watch-less wrist, “A second is up and she’s not back yet. Typical.”

‘Oh shut up, Rhys,’ Wyatt huffed in telepathic irritation. ‘You know what she meant.’

“Do I?” Rhys shot back, “Kathy’s sense of time is borked even at—”

At that exact moment, a burst of rainbow light chose to form into a bright shining portal. Almost as if taunting Rhys.

The fox blinked at it, his ears quirked, “Huh, I guess her grasp of time is working for once.”

Wyatt just snorted at him and went back to lapping up his maple syrup dinner.

Rhys wasn’t paying attention. He was too busy staring at the person stumbling out of the portal right after Kathy.

From Rhys’s perspective, Kathy had just dragged in some homeless human man. It was the only way to explain his disheveled appearance, grody clothes, and some magnificently frazzled sideburns. Maybe if he were in better shape, Rhys would’ve thought the guy was a lost train conductor but as it stood, nope, just some hobo. Though that swooshy coat did look familiar…

“Hey kids!” their guardian announced in cheery singsong, “Check it out! I got another potential travel buddy for you to rake over the coals. Lemme know whatcha think~”

The words ‘potential travel buddy’ got everyone else’s attention. It wasn’t everyday that a new person joined them. But it also wasn’t typical to be asked to judge a newcomer, which meant that they were not simply dealing with another lost kid.

Azar and Émil turned to regard him easily enough — Azar turning and smiling politely; Émil’s dour expression suddenly deepening — while Rhys kept racking his brain to recall why he was sure he’d seen this guy before.

Wyatt’s reaction was a little more spectacular.

Glancing up, Wyatt’s eyes abruptly snapped wide open and he spat out his maple syrup in shock.

Unfortunately, he spat this directly into Émil’s face, the smaller child squeaking and flailing in revulsion. Shaking in silent fury, Émil wiped the syrup off his face and smeared the sticky mess into Wyatt’s fur in retaliation.

Wyatt was too boggle-eyed and slack-jawed to even notice.

On his part, Emmet hadn’t noticed either as he was too busy looking around in wide-eyed, grinning wonder. Clearly the planet-filled alien sky was a novel experience for him even if they were just on barren rocks in the middle of nowhere.

Kathy sauntered up to the kids and cleared her throat to catch Emmet’s attention.

“OK, so! Quick introductions!” she announced cheerfully and pointed to each kid in turn, “Now left to right, we’ve got Wyatt, Émil, Azar, and Rhys.” She held out an arm, gesturing to the man at her side, “Kids, this is Emmet.”

“Hello! I am Emmet!” the possibly homeless man greeted boldly, smiling wide as he saluted smartly. “I request a track switch to your line! Destination unknown! Ready for safety checks!”

The kids exchanged glances. For a second, no one seemed sure what to say.

“Might wanna brace yourself. They can get pretty brutal,” Kathy muttered under her breath to him.

If Emmet was nervous, he certainly wasn’t showing it. Even if he had been, that would be dispelled rather quickly.

‘I say yes! Let him join us!’ Wyatt’s mental voice echoed aloud, nodding excitedly, his mouth open in a wide dog-like grin.

Rhys squinted at him, ears pulling back, “What? Why?”

‘Because he’s cool!’ Wyatt insisted.

“No, he’s not. He sucks,” Emil signed, scowling as he toweled himself off.

Wyatt’s long jaws fell open, gaping at Émil, ‘What?! How can you say that??’

“Last time he cornered us and talked at us a whole bunch,” Émil signed back in rapid-fire agitation. “It was really weird!”

‘I didn’t mind it!’

“Liar.”

Azar quickly cut them off and asked Wyatt, “Wait, isn’t this that subway guy you were nerding out over that one time?”

Rhys snapped his fingers in realization, “Oh! It is that guy!”

‘Yeah! That’s him! Subway Master Emmet!’ Wyatt thought giddily.

“The hell is a Subway Master?” Émil demanded. “Does he make sandwiches??”

Kathy couldn’t hide her snort of laughter while the others, sans Wyatt, simply burst out laughing.

‘Oh my god, he’s right there, guys!’ Wyatt protested with a whine.

“I have missed a joke,” Emmet stated with a blank smile, only mildly perturbed. He then pointed at Wyatt, “Are you psychic? I don’t see your mouth moving.”

‘Just telepathic, sir!’ Wyatt yelped, sitting up straighter, a blush of shyness touching his thoughts. ‘I can’t really talk otherwise, my everything is kinda wrong for that now, haha…’

“Oooh~ someone’s got a crush~” Rhys teased.

‘I will bite your tail off, Mori!’ Wyatt hissed with a snarl.

“I have a question for Rhys too!” Emmet said, cutting them off. “You look different! You were a verrry badly-disguised Zorua last time I saw you.”

“Nah, this is the real me, baby,” Rhys gestured at himself with both thumbs proudly. “I’m a fox. Not a Pokémon.”

‘And I’m not either,’ Wyatt hurriedly added. ‘I’m a human that got transmogrified by an evil plant demon thing.’

“Human,” Émil signed preemptively.

“Human too,” Azar added.

“Also human!” Emmet chimed in, hand raised. He looked at Kathy, “I still have many questions.”

“That can wait. You guys are all from different universes and timelines so there’s tons of questions all damn time,” Kathy chuckled, bemused. Stepping closer, she reminded the group, “Right now, the matter is if you kids think he’s alright to join us.” She gave Emmet a thoughtful look, “I personally don’t find him threatening. But I’m me. What say you?”

“I will ask you about that later too,” Emmet said, his smile wry.

‘Hey, wait a sec,’ Wyatt cut in. His head tilted, eyes squinting in sudden realization, ‘If Emmet is here, then where is—?’

Emmet stiffened.

“That’s why he wants to join,” Kathy answered abruptly, sparing him the need to do so. “He’s trying to find his bro.”

‘What…? What happened??’ Wyatt whined, his eyes now wide open as his ears drooped in horror.

Kathy shrugged, “Some kind of portal ate him it sounds like.”

The smile Emmet gave Kathy was less than happy, “That is not a nice way of putting it.”

“Am I wrong?” she pointed out.

Emmet wasn’t given a chance to retort.

In a burst of motion, Wyatt loudly slapped his hand-paws on the ground and growled at the others in challenge, overlaid by his mental voice shouting, ‘Then I vote yes! I don’t care what you guys think. I am helping him!’

“Cruuush~”

Rhys was summarily slapped in the back of his head by Wyatt’s tail leaves.

On the other hand, Azar just considered Emmet intently before asking,

“Mr. Emmet, you’re a Pokémon trainer?”

He perked up, grinning as he tipped the brim of his hat, “Yep! I am!”

“Do you have them on you?”

“Of course!” he displayed his belt, lined with a surprising number of Pokéballs.

“Are they good at fighting?”

‘Dude, he’s like boss-levels hard,’ Wyatt nudged her, telepathically whispering even though everyone could hear him.

Emmet visibly preened, subtly straightening his back.

“Then, I’m with Wyatt,” Azar smiled. She grinned at the others slyly, “Me and Kathy can’t keep saving your guys' butts all the time.”

Rhys made an undignified noise, rolling his eyes at her.

Meanwhile, the youngest of the group had just finished rinsing his face and hair with a bottle of water. He seemed to be trying to pointedly ignore the others as he dried off.

“Émil?” Kathy called out to the youngest, tilting her head with a playful smile, “You want to say something or are you going to just be passive-aggressive about it again?”

He froze as he started to take off his sticky sweater. Realizing everyone was staring at him, he shoved it back on with an irritated huff and signed,

“Can we not?”

‘Why?’ Wyatt asked plaintively. ‘Ok, yeah, that time him and his brother were trying to type me was kind of a lot, but I wasn’t expecting it so it threw me off!’

“You were thinking ‘oh my god’ over and over the whole time,” Émil reminded him, glaring incredulously.

‘It was a happy ‘oh my god’! Like meeting a cool celebrity kind of freaking out!’ Wyatt defended.

“You sounded scared.”

‘I’m always scared!’

“Of him??”

‘No!’ Wyatt yipped incredulously, ‘I already voted for him!’

At this, some of the fury Émil had been holding back fizzled out. He slouched with a frown, seemingly unhappy with his reading of the situation. After a moment of thought, he amended,

“Then, I don’t think he’s dangerous. Just really, really, really weird.”

“Is that a dealbreaker?” Kathy clarified.

“Not really,” Émil signed with a scowl. He gave Emmet the stink eye, doubting the adult understood him, “I just don’t like him. As a person.”

“That’s not a ‘no’,” Azar pointed out with a smile.

“OK, fine! He can come too!” Émil threw his hands up. Then, glaring at Emmet, he signed, “I’m gonna kick you extra hard if you do that thing again.”

“Signal received!” Emmet signed back, his grin cheeky.

On his part, Émil looked shocked but quickly shoved it under another surly scowl.

Azar was not hiding her surprise, “Uh, how do you know ASL?”

“I don’t know what that is!” Emmet grinned, “But Émil is definitely using Unovan sign language.”

Azar was about to say something but then stopped as she remembered, “Oh, right, Unova’s basically the US.”

‘Just the east coast. New York City, really,’ Wyatt corrected.

Émil stared at them all in abject confusion, “I use American sign language. What the heck is Unova?”

Emmet was about to interject when Kathy beat him to it with a loud,

“OR! How about we not worry about it. It’ll just cause an existential crisis.” She turned to fix a scowling grin at the kids, snarling between her teeth, “GUYS.”

For once, the kids seemed appropriately chastised.

“Now that just leaves you, foxy boy,” Kathy pointed to Rhys with her hands held together.

On his part, the black fox looked as if he’d already dozed off, arms pillowed behind his head with his snout raised to the sky as he laid on his back. The white tip of his fluffy tail twitched irritably.

“C’mon, Rhys. I know you’re not asleep yet,” Kathy chided.

“Ugh…” Rhys grumbled, ears flat as he lifted his head to glare at her, “ Honestly? I don’t care. If he’s not a creep or serial killer, then we’re probably fine.”

‘He’s not!’ Wyatt thought heatedly.

“Alright, good enough for me,” the fox shrugged.

Azar frowned at Rhys, “That’s an awfully low bar to set for someone you’re traveling with.”

“I have low standards,” he shrugged again. Then his lips curled back into a mean smirk as he pulled his arms up to point to the others, “I mean look at you guys!”

The other three groaned.

‘Oh fuck you too,’ Wyatt snapped.

“Someone’s going to stab you someday,” Émil signed with a flat glare.

Rhys yawned, laying back down sleepily, “That’s future-me’s problem.”

Émil just rolled his eyes.

“So… yeah. I guess we’re OK with Mr. Emmet,” Azar offered to Kathy. She side-eyed Émil’s scowl and amended, “Mostly.”

Kathy nodded, satisfied.

“Looks like you’re in,” she turned to Emmet, smiling as she held out a hand to shake, “Welcome aboard.”

Emmet’s grin could have outshone the sun as he clasped Kathy’s hand in both of his, shaking hers vigorously.

“I am Emmet! Thank you!!” Releasing Kathy’s hand, he stood straight, performing his favored point and call pose as he announced, “Safety checks complete! Everything’s ready! Follow the rules! Safe driving! Follow the schedules! Everyone smile! Aim for victory! All aboard!”

Dead silence reigned as Kathy, Azar, Rhys, and Émil all stared at Emmet.

“…uh, sure!” Kathy agreed, not sure what else to do.

Only Wyatt looked absolutely star-struck by this display, his eyes wide and shining in awe, the leaves of his tail loudly rustling from how hard he was whipping it back and forth.

Emmet similarly had no regard to the others’ reaction. Experiencing a new boost of energy, he turned to Kathy excitedly, beaming as he asked,

“When do we make our first stop??”

This snapped Kathy out of her shock as she broke out into an amused laugh, only feeling slightly bad at what she said next,

“Actually, your first stop is a nap. You haven’t slept in days and that changes right now.”

Emmet’s grin froze, anger creeping into his monotone voice as he exclaimed, “Change of stop denied! I don’t need a nap!”

She pointed at his face, “Your eyebags say otherwise.”

Faint snickering could be heard from the kids. Even Rhys had perked up in interest.

Emmet leaned away from her hand with a hard grin, “I am fine.”

Kathy tapped a finger against her chin thoughtfully, her eyes wandering down to his waist, “Mmmh, OK, but I’m gonna get a second opinion.” She leaned into his space, eyes fixed on the Pokéballs lining his belt, as she sweetly called out, “Hey, lil’ dudes? I know you can hear me in there. Think you could do your guy a favor and look out for his well-being?”

All at once, every single one of the Pokémon on Emmet popped out of their balls in a massive flash of light. He only had a split second to yelp before he was summarily dogpiled by ten very large Pokémon, his hat comically sent flying in the process. With an aggravated growl, he attempted to wrestle them off, but all ten refused to budge. After a moment of useless flailing and cursing, Emmet was forced to flop back, breathing heavily in defeat.

The kids all burst out laughing at the scene.

The two teams all gave Emmet stern looks. Clearly they knew what he was doing to himself.

Kathy had to wonder if they had been waiting for an excuse to bring their trainer to heel. She nodded at them respectfully as she approached Emmet. Kneeling down, she peered down at his unhappily smiling, upside down face, deeply unimpressed.

“Emmet, listen to me,” she said calmly, waiting for him to focus his attention on her. When she was satisfied he was listening, she explained, “If you’re coming with, I need you sharp and focused.” To punctuate her words, she flicked his nose, eliciting a wince from him, “That means I can’t afford to keep a shambling, emotional mess that might get us killed because their head wasn’t screwed on right. Nothing personal, but this is best for everyone.”

Emmet looked ready to argue, desperately wanting to fight her on it, but then he relented, sighing before reluctantly muttering,

“…safety first. You have the right of way.”

It was a victory Kathy wasn’t really expecting, but it seemed that Emmet did actually have some common sense rattling around in his brain.

“Cool,” she nodded curtly. She then gave the assembled Pokemon a meaningful look as she rejoined her charges. “I’ll leave it up to you guys to decide when he’s good to go. Otherwise, feel free to say hi to the kids.”

For the ten Pokémon, it seemed as if they’d only just noticed the additional four people. A few blinked in surprise before they all turned to chitter and rumble at each other. There were nods and shakes of the head, a few excited gestures, and some confused pointing at Wyatt and Rhys before they seemed to reach an agreement. Seven of them got off Emmet’s person, leaving Haxorous, Archeops, and Garbador to keep pinning their trainer down.

Emmet just inhaled in relief as his lungs regained the room to expand again and watched as members of his and his brother’s teams wandered over to the kids. All four of them bore excited smiles as the Pokémon split off to meet the ones they were most curious about. Which just left…

“You can get off my cab now,” he pointedly smiled at the three Pokémon still sitting on him.

Unfortunately for him, none of them were buying it. Garbador just smugly settled herself more comfortably across his legs. Haxorous laid down and made his belly into her personal pillow, keeping her mouth-blades strategically positioned in places that would not appreciate an abrupt meeting with a sharp implement. Archeops was the only one nice enough to move and let his fluffy side be used as a pillow, snuggling up closer to his trainer.

“Fine,” Emmet relented, leaning against Archeops with an unhappy sigh. He stared up at the eerie purple gas giant looming overhead, listening as Rhys sharply yipped when Galvantula gave him an accidental shock of excitement, the other kids laughing openly at his misfortune.

It brought back some old, old memories. He hadn’t done anything remotely like this since…

…since he and Ingo had gone on their own Pokémon journey almost two decades ago.

…had it really been so long?

It was going to be strange for sure, having to adjust to completely unknown travel partners again. At least when they were kids, he and Ingo had each other for backup. Now, he was entirely at the mercy of five strangers.

(Though he supposed the mini-platoon of experienced Pokémon at his beck and call evened the odds a bit if it came to it.)

With himself hopelessly trapped, Emmet settled in, the sounds of youthful background chatter a surprisingly nice change from the painful silence of his much too empty apartment.

Whatever happened next, it certainly promised to be interesting…

[amber-tortoiseshell]

A, B, C, D, E - Cat vs Rabbit

My comparative cat and rabbit color genetics post

Wild type (black agouti) rabbit and cat

My color genetics interest started out with rabbits, and while I know much more about cats now, they'll always have a spot in my heart...

In this post I'll go through the most important color genes, although sometimes I'll make comparisons based on phenotypes too.

All the photos are from the Warren Photographic Image Library.

A. Agouti

Both species have the dominant agouti (A) and the recessive self or nonagouti (a) alleles.

Black self rabbit and cat

Beyond these, cats add the charcoal (Apb) from the leopard cat, while rabbits have the otter or tan allele (at).

B. Brown

Black (B) as wild type, chocolate (b) as variant for both, and an extra recessive allele for cats: cinnamon (bl).

C. Color restriction

The most dominant allele of the series is the full color (C) for both species.

In rabbits the next is dark chinchilla (cchd), this gives the chinchilla and related colorations. Phenotypically basically the equivalent of silver tabbies in cats, despite silver (I) being a different gene. Chinchilla doesn't show up meaningfully on solid rabbits, so there's no smoke there.

Silver tabby cat and chinchilla rabbit. These are genetically very different colors, but manifest similarly: the animal loses the yellow-red pigments, and keeps the black.

The next rabbit allele in order of dominance is the sable or light chinchilla (cchl) which can be interpreted as the equivalent of sepia/burmese (cb) in cats, although they probably aren't the same mutation, because like the dark chinchilla allele above, sable has "silvering" effect on agoutis. Their shared characteristics are the slightly darker extremities and the intermediate interaction with the point allele.

Sable rabbit and sepia (or possibly mink) cat

The colorpoint pattern is also present in both animals under the names siamese (cs) and himalayan (ch). It manifests as pale body with dark extremities.

Pointed cat and rabbit

Edit: unfortunately I made a mistake here: while the color of this rabbit is indeed called point, it's not himalayan, it's nonagouti+sable+red. A real black himalayan rabbit looks like this:

Note the red eyes of the rabbit and the blue eyes of the cat - both suggest depigmentation.

Cats have a rare extra allele called mocha (cm).

And lastly, albino (c) is also present in both.

D. Dilute

Pretty much the same both genetically and in look. Dense (D) is dominant, diluted (d) is recessive.

Diluted (blue self) rabbit and cat

E. Extension

The mutations of this gene can be grouped into two categories:

increase of function: overproduction of black pigments. The animal is dark, melanistic. Dominant alleles.

loss of function: underproduction of black pigments. The animal is yellow/red. Recessive alleles.

Rabbits have two dominant alleles in the first group: full extension or dominant black (Ed) and steel (Es); cats have none. (Although this group isn't absent from the cat family either: black jaguars for example have a dominant black mutation.)

In the second group we have lots of different alleles: harlequin or japanese brindle (ej) and red (e) for rabbits, and amber, russet and copal/serdolik for cats (but their red is a different gene!). These all give different reddish phenotypes.

Red rabbit and cat - same name, similar color, different genetics.

The orange gene of the cats is an entirely different matter, and it's just a funny coincidence that harlequin rabbits look so similar to tortie cats. Brindle in rabbits is its own allele, not just the phenotype of the heterozygotes, and it's not sex-linked. Buck rabbits can be harlequins just as easily as does.

Harlequin rabbit and tortoiseshell cat - similar look, different name, different genetics

To make everything even more complicated, the word "tortoiseshell" (or shortly "tort") is used in rabbit breeding too, but it means a completely different thing than in cats: a nonagouti red. I assume because a nonagouti red rabbit (just like to the genetically very similar nonagouti amber cat) is darker than the agouti counterpart, especially on the extremities.

Tortoiseshell rabbit and cat - same name, different look, different genetics: bunny is a recessive homozygote for not sex-linked red, kitten is a heterozygote for sex-linked red.

+1. White spotting

Rabbits have three different white spotting genes: blue-eyed white or viennese, english and dutch. The latter two are strongly linked, the crossing over is rare. It's suspected that all three patterns are caused by mutations on the KIT gene. KIT is also the gene where all the so far known cat white spotting alleles: dominant white, white spotting and white gloving were mapped to.

Black dutch rabbit and black bicolor cat. They are remarkably similar, aren't they?

Summary:

[amber-tortoiseshell]

I know you probably have no idea, but you're the only person I know who is also into this stuff, and there's no info online. because mammals have basically the same hair color genes, would human hair colors be analogous to cats? black=default, brown=chocolate, blond=either cinnamon or some type of dilution, red=red (phaeomelanin replacement)? I know piebald and temp. sensitive albinism actually exist very rarely in humans too

Red is an mc1r mutation, i know that (like amber in cats). Wait a minute, I'll try to look around...

So. uhh.

We identified 123 autosomal and one X-chromosome loci significantly associated with hair color; all but 13 are novel.

via https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0100-5

Wow, that was an exciting article. Look at this for example:

First, the observation of higher prevalence of lighter hair colors among women follows previous findings based on objective quantitative measurement of hair color, suggesting that sex is truly associated with hair color, independent of socially driven self-reporting bias.

Light hair colors (blonde and red) are more common among women. Very interesting.

Anyway unfortunately human hair color seems to be very polygenic. Here's another good article i found, with even more genes: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07691. They describe at least 16 MC1R variants associated with red hair with different penetrances, and found related mutations on several other genes too, including POMC and RALY (the latter influences the expression of ASIP, a familiar peptide: this is our very own agouti gene, responsible for melanistic morphs in several species). On the other hand the variants of genes HERC2 and OCA2 seems to be associated with blonde hair and decreased probability of red.

Unfortunately despite all of this, MC1R mutations ≠ red hair:

Although 93% of individuals with red hair carry two MC1R variants, these make up only 15% of people who carry two MC1R variants. The majority of people with two variants have blonde (15%) or light brown hair (41%).

And this is still just red. Every other color is even more complicated. The authors made a genetic score value to predict the hair color on the blonde vs brown vs black scale based on 213 gene variants.

These include mutations of the genes TYR and TYRP1 - respectively C (color restriction) and B (brown) in cats -, EDNRB, a gene associated with (i believe) roan-type colorations in different animals, and KITLG or KIT-ligand, a gene (based on the name) working together with KIT (responsible for white spotting in cats).

So all in all: i wouldn't say brown or blonde hair in humans = chocolate or cinnamon or anything else in cats. Even red hair as the equivalent of cats' MC1R-type recessive reds is a little bit of an oversimplification.

The closest analogue our hair color varieties have in cats is probably... rufousing.

[thegoldenavenger]

25. AU where svsss!luo binghe wakes up in pidw, surrounded by strangers he can't trust, who expect so much of him, and he cannot find his shizun, and cang qiong mountain sect has been razed to the ground and the merging of realms has already happened. He tries to find a way home but he's trapped in plot devices and tropes that force him to stay longer and longer in this nightmare world. He sees Ning yingying and she calls him husband and some sort of cosmic horror writhes inside him.

26. Big cat au. Luo binghe is a melanistic lion and liu qingge is a white tiger. I just want to draw this. I don't have a plot I just want these two to be big cats who fight sometimes.

27. More genre-savvy shen yuan in the wrong genre. Like, horror-movie buff shen yuan but he's in a romantic horror. Action-Adventure fan but he's in a historical drama. Period romance Otaku shen yuan but he's in an anachronistic otome game. My favorite thing about sqq's arc is that he is Convinved he knows what's happening that he's doomed to the narrative that everyone is, changes things anyways and becomes so genre blind that his literal character arc climax is realizing how real everyone is to him. No more blinders: he loves his friends and always has.

28. On the flip side, it would be hilarious for movie critic shen yuan to transmigrate into horror movie pidw and then goes "to survive i must [pushes up glasses] turn this into a Guillermo del torro film" and deliberately changes genre.

29. More meta fics in general. Play with the tone armor!!! Plot armor. Chekov's guns. (Sqq deliberately planting a flag early so he can pull it at an appropriate time, sqq making a big show of telling lbh / the peak lords / yelling @ the system / whoever about something so it HAS to be brought up or used in the future, giving him an edge or something, sqq adding "obviously" to the end of all his statements so the narrative twists things into red herrings which dostracts everyone else)

30. Pidw Luo Bing-ge's stallion protagonist halo vs Svsss Shen Qingqiu's Power of Love self saving system. Like binghe can't be defeated, he gets what he (thinks) he wants, all the power and fear in the world. He can snap shen qingqiu like a twig. But shen qingqiu's halo as the actual main character in svsss is bonds and found family. He saves people, even those he shouldn't, and they save him until he saves himself by admitting how much he loves binghe (and the world hes in, i guess). Like, yeah the bing-ge v bing-mei extra but like, pushed to the meta-limits

31. I want a SVSSS cook book fic. Just, fluffy fic that walks you through Luo binghe cooking recipes. SQQ searching for substitute ingredients to recreate a dish he used to make for his meimei. Lqg's guide on how to make a roast rabbit stew. Sqh and mbj making noodles. SVSSS's family recipes.

32. Dr. Stone au.

I'm going to drop some SVSSS aus here that I'm not gonna do anything with unless my followers get real cool with a lot of things real fast*

1. Undertale SVSSS au where Shen Yuan falls into the underground and Luo Binghe is a Very Friendly Flower.

2. Warrior Cats AU mostly because I think Shen Qingqiu (Jiu) as Yue Qingyuan's scummy and underhanded deputy would be So Funny (sad) but I Do Not want to come up with the cat names. (Shen Yuan kitty pet who follows apprentice Luo Binghe into the forest like an idiot.)

3. Liu Qingge & Shen Qingqiu & Luo Binghe Orpheus au. Self explanatory. Sad. They look back.

4. Shen Yuan transmigrates as a servant in the Qiu household and adopts Shen Jiu on sight. Sorry Yue Qi, there is a new big brother in town. It takes Shen Yuan literally until, like, Shen Jiu gets his courtesy name for Shen Yuan to go "Oh! This is the scum villain????? But he's my poor little meow meow." Somehow Shen Yuan befriends Tianlang-Jun in this AU.

5. Definitely some sort of roleswap....... airplane and cucumber swapping places would be A Thing. But also Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu swapping roles would be good..... (I've definitely seen Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe AND Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan swapping places and it is so good. But branching out.)

6. ATLA au (self explanatory. Luo binghe is the Avatar. Duh.)

7. Also KNY au (I just want to draw everyone in that style haha, but Luo Binghe definitely got turned into a demon and is struggling to regain his humanity. Or not. Depends on who he meets on the way, really.) I was going to say Liu Qingge is the Giyuu parallel but... Rengoku is RIGHT there....