Here are some more little genetics cheats:

Cryptic Torties - Cats that are genetically torties but only show one color, either because the other color is visible in only a single small patch in a hard to see place, or because those patches all happen to be under white markings.

Cryptic White - Same principle as cryptic torties, cats that genetically have white spotting, but it's in a small single patch in a hard to see place, making them look as if they had no white at all.

White without White Spotting - If the family tree happens to have no white spotting gene, do not fret! There are some other ways to have white in your cat. Mutations and other genes with unrelated white markings are your friend!

Red cats that aren't red - Cinnamon can be stylized as a very deep red color without the cat being genetically red. Amber can look similar to cream/blonde. Carnellian makes genetically black cats look a deep red as well. There's probably more options that I can't remember off the top of my head lol.

Go wacky go crazy - There are some combinations of traits that don't really happen IRL, since they're not bred for, but that doesn't mean you can't make them happen in your designs. A silly example is that you can make folded ears and curled ears not cancel each other out, and thus make very silly curled-folded ears.

All hail the genetics hack god✨

Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".

Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"

And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".

Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.

At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.

So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!

Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!

Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!

Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.

in all honesty i feel there shouldn't be any christmas celebrations at all until palestine is free

x

To me, Machete kind of has the energy of a secondary villain/coldhearted side character in someone else's story that a lot of fans latch onto, moreso than the protagonist. Question is, would he be the villain in anyone's story?

Why, thank you! I'm actually glad to hear he gives off that vibe. I don't think he set out to become a villain but a lot of people certainly view him as one.

i saw some posts about grovyle and dusknoir and possession and it got out of hand.

for my money, labru is head and shoulders above other ships involving them simply due to the unmatched yap potential, i imagine them feeding off each other's energy like they're slipstreaming in mario kart until they start going fast enough to break the sound barrier

just kill me

You can assume I’m generally aware there’s a war on, Commander!

Gomens s2 comic time! Spent FOREVER making this because I could. Lmao

Reading/thinking about Sol some more, and I do think there's a need from some viewers for him to be either the pure selfless "healthy romance" choice OR purely selfish and unworthy of Joe, and imo he's neither, and that's what makes him interesting and human.

He hurt Joe by assuming the worst of him (in like, a very specifically, viscerally hurtful-to-queers way) and running away; he expects to be able to pick up where they left off as soon as he comes back, and really struggles to calibrate to the fact that Joe neither held a grudge against him nor pined for him this whole time. He just... moved on.

A lot of the ways Sol tries to support Joe or intervene in his toxic relationship with Ming are blatantly compromised by how much Sol wants Joe to choose him instead, but he's also right about Ming. I find him compelling because he goes harder than anyone before Ing in consistently, materially trying to be there for Joe, but there's always that level of selfish motivation to Sol's actions where he doesn't just want to protect Joe from violence or danger, he wants to redirect Joe's feelings from Ming back to himself. (And sometimes he fails to protect Joe not because Joe won't let him intervene but because he's too busy fighting Ming to pay attention to the guy they both just knocked to the ground!!)

If Sol really let go of the idea that Joe could ever want him again, would he still be as ride-or-die for Joe? Is the sincerity Joe showed him something he's repaying in kind, or is there always something he still wants from Joe lingering in the background? Is it possible to sincerely support someone you haven't stopped hoping will one day choose you? And when Joe refuses to let Sol help him, is it because he can't let himself burden a junior, or because he is intuiting and avoiding those strings that come attached to Sol's help, or both?

To me all of those questions are a lot more interesting than like "does Sol deserve Joe" or anything along those lines.

Peter can't pull Wade's hair for obvious reasons so he improvises and shoots a web store the back of Wade's head and using it like a ponytail.

actually he pulls the nub (erogenous zone)

i've drawn art of this and will happily direct you to @mywadeyisthecentrefold for you to behold it

but god. that reminds me of another of my million wips in the wings... the nubbin fic. the nubbin fic. i forgot all about the nubbin fic...

oh, my eyes are getting all bleary! u know what that means! ineedtogotobedholyfuckimsofuckingtired time to look at pictures of The Blorbo for five! more! hours!!

it’s so unfair that i have to sleep every night to be functional. so fucked up that i have to be unconscious for like 7ish hours of a day with only 24 hours. what if i want to read or do work or watch a movie rn huh?? no i have to snork mi mi mi or else everything is gonna be fucked tomorrow. life is so hard

In all seriousness though. Luis Serra Navarro is not white. Your art of him should not be white. Your perception of him should not be white. You don't even have to know the history behind his last name to observe with your eyes that he is not white. He is noticeably darker than everyone else in the game, so colouring him lighter, or God forbid making him look as light as Leon and Ashley, is just an absolute lack of observational skills. Even if you are not willingly, actively choosing to whitewash him, your conditioning to whiten features or skin tones is absolutely at work here. Everyone is susceptible and subjected to it. You need to fix that.

I’ve now seen the “would you eat lab-grown meat” poll twice, which means it is time to air one of my least charitable opinions---namely, I think imitation meat is an abomination. I could pretend this is for noble reasons (and I want to believe I have a couple in the mix) but truthfully its existence revolts and annoys me. It feels like a kind of hypocrisy; I mean, I’m sorry if you crave chicken wings for whatever reason? but you’re the one who gave up an omnivorous diet and refused to get creative with the foods left to you. Eat your cauliflower in buffalo sauce and shut up.