I Plan To Stay Alive This Time

got a few requests for a shiny alt of my recent espeon drawing, here it is with the original under the cut :)

Mu could spend eight hundred years insisting that Joy Boy is gone, that Joy Boy failed, that Mu understands the world better now. He builds this enormous, controlled empire and buries every trace of the past because remembering hurts too much.

But then...!!!!

Emet releases that stored Haki.

For one impossible second, it is not merely power. It is him.

The same presence Mu once felt beneath his claws while perched on Joy Boy’s shoulder!!!

The same overwhelming warmth, laughter, and certainty. Perhaps Mu used to fluff his feathers whenever Joy Boy’s Haki surged, completely unafraid because he knew it meant his person was there.

Then, eight hundred years later, that familiar presence crashes across the world.

The throne room disappears. The Five Elders disappear. Eight centuries disappear.

He is only a small bird again, hearing his owner come home.

“Joy Boy…?”

And then the Haki fades.

...

Maybe he even starts making old parrot noises without realizing it, clicking his tongue, trembling, repeating a phrase Joy Boy taught him:

“Mu is here.”

“Mu waited.”

“Joy Boy, Mu waited.”

And that is the cruelest part: if he was a parrot, or JOYBOYS parrot and he ate the devil fruit - his intelligence, power, and transformation cannot change the original wound.

Joy Boy is gone, dead, and his bird cannot not understand why he never came back.

So Mu preserves the hat. Guards the world Joy Boy wanted to change.

Repeats his name with anger because anger is easier than grief.

He even hates the new Nika because Luffy carries Joy Boy’s presence, sure.. but its not his Joy Boy.

The remaining ones this year are:

May 2nd

August 1st

September 5th

October 3rd

More clown yaoi of his darling ocs

Walnut was born in a species-recovery breeding program in the 1980′s.  The program had crane chicks hand-raised by human volunteers, and at that time they did not fully understand the measures necessary make sure that the chicks do not imprint on humans and retain their identity as cranes.  

As a result, her keepers believe, Walnut does not recognize other cranes as members of her own species.  

It has not been proven that Walnut killed her previous suitors; however, there is a persistent rumor in the white-naped-crane-conservation community that she did.  

Because this species is highly endangered, and the gene pool of the captive population is small, it’s pretty important for the survival of her species that Walnut A) mate, and B) not kill a bunch of other cranes.  

The actual name of the keeper is Chris Crowe.

They both arrived at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2004.   

Walnut immediately began paying special attention to Chris--and ignoring the eligible male crane in a nearby enclosure.  

Walnut initiated their courtship, performing the opening moves of a mating dance.  

Chris realized that if he reciprocated the mating dance, it might be possible to artificially inseminate Walnut with her participation and consent.  (The process normally involves restraining the bird.)  

It worked!  

Chris and Walnut have had five children, who were raised by other crane couples at the facility--sometimes the biological dad and his mate--both because it’s unclear whether Walnut would accept the chicks as her own, and because Chris is not equipped to be a Crane Dad.  

However, the Institute provides her with artificial eggs to sit on, and Chris takes his turn looking after them.  (This would not work with real eggs because he can’t sit on them properly, but Walnut seems to feel that he is on the job if he just stands over them.)

she has not been PROVEN to have killed her exes, but there is a PERSISTENT RUMOR (really officers she's simply DEVASTATED, she sobs, wearing a new feather boa unfortunately resembling her most recent deceased husband)

His name is Chris CROWE. (Mrs. Walnut Crane-Crowe?)

the mental images of a whole human man learning and performing the crane mating dance, and "sitting" on artificial eggs so she thinks he's performing his duties as a husband and father (and apparently OBJECTS if he does not?)

"chris, buddy, you gotta marry the possibly-murderous crane lady for the GOOD OF THE SPECIES." (alternately: "chris, my man! good news! we found you a very interested lady! She's 36, she's very spirited and independent, she holds a very important and rare status in her society! ...Is there a downside? WELL...")