Snippets: Jak and Daxter Thursday Part 2
(As promised, the Less Angsty Part.)
The onlookers all seemed to think Jak had slipped out of the Precursor craft at the last moment. That was just fine with him: it meant no one had seen him teleport out, carrying Damas into the tower. Leaving him there had been terrifying -- even if the monks in the Convalescence Ward had believed him to be a Precursor himself, and vowed to care for Damas with a reverence that made him sick, it was hard to trust his father's care to others. But he had appearances to keep up, just as his other self had warned him. All he could do was focus on his next steps.
Sig had taken the throne as interim regent in Jak’s place, as while he was more than capable of satisfying the battle requirements of a Spargan king, he wasn't yet of age. That was a mercy, but Jak knew Sig loathed the role. Damas had been like an elder brother to him from the moment he staggered through the gates of Spargus seeking refuge. Sitting in his place felt as wrong for him as it did for Jak.
#jak and daxter#fic prompts#writing prompts#prisoner exchange au#got a little Eldritch Dad in there but that's fine#keira hagai#keira gets to reconcile with jak#Damas lays low for a bit to let enemies think he's dead#Jak formally cuts ties with Haven but many of them still feel entitled to his service#Damas accidentally earns the nickname Damas the Undying because of Jak and he thinks its really annoying#Tess takes to Wastelander life like she was born for it and it's a little terrifying#and if Kleiver doesn't watch out Keira will stage a coup and take over the garages entirely#if you remember the last scene of the old disney robin hood with prince john and co in striped prison uniforms breaking rocks#that's what ottsel veger and the minor Precursors are up to#jak and daxter thursday#free day thursday
Snippets: Free Day Thursday Part One
(Slight tw for vague descriptions of crash related injuries. Also this came out way longer than I planned, so it gets a part two this afternoon with the epilogue)
When the missile hit, there was a split second of complete silence. Just long enough for Jak to see the glow and know they had no chance to dodge. No time to think, or even process that their lives were over. Just light, and then the world was a blur of motion.
He hit the ground hard, thrown from the vehicle, and just barely missing being crushed as the Slam Dozer rolled. With the wind knocked out of him, Jak lay crumpled in the dirt for a moment, gasping. He fought past the darkening static clinging to the edges of his blurry vision. He couldn't afford to lose consciousness. Not here.
#jak and daxter#prisoner exchange au#fic prompts#writing prompts#snippet thursday#jak and daxter thursday#dadmas angst#dadmas#king damas#don't worry part two is less angsty by far#Jak in this au uses Jak and Mar interchangeably#they're both his name. but he uses Mar outside of Spargus so Haven doesn't get to act like they know him anymore#vague description of injuries tw#count veger#for some reason as a kid i kept seeing him in my head as Preminger from that one Barbie movie#got older and realized Veger's design had some icky antisemitic undercurrents and went 'back to Inexplicable Preminger it is then'#does this mean his voice in my head is Martin Short? It might.#my aus
You know what would have been more interesting for Jak X, in my opinion?
If Damas lived, and now he and Jak don't know how to act around each other.
Jak seems like he's so afraid of rejection through 2 and 3, like he's self sabotaging because if he's the first to leave maybe it won't hurt so much. He has some abandonment issues -- ironically, some of it is probably because of being shuttled off to the past by Samos who was just like "what parents? I found you in a dumpster."
And then there's Damas, who was coming to accept that Mar was probably dead, and coming to accept that he'd come to see Jak as a second son. And then he finds out that Mar and Jak are one and the same, that the bond between them was severed by "holy men" like Veger and Samos so that they could experiment on his son or raise him to be a weapon and spare key to get into ruins and relics. He'd have a lot of processing to do and he probably wouldn't be ready to talk about it with Jak yet.
So then like, the will reading in Kras comes at the perfect time for Jak. He can't stand the eggshells he and Damas are walking on around each other, so he runs. Just to clear his head. Just for a little while. He'll go to the reading and come straight back.
And then they could've really built on the juxtaposition of each main character's relationship with their fathers. Rayn remembering all the idealized parts of Krew and minimizing the bad. Keira finally starting to see how overbearing Samos is and balancing her affection for him with standing up for herself and her friends. Ashelin figuring out what she wants her legacy to be compared to her father's. Mizo/Blitz resenting his father enough to kill him in cold blood. And Jak not knowing what to do with the father he has, or how to be a son -- if he should even try -- when he isnt the son Damas was looking for. Heck, let's give Razer some dad issues too. Let's give him an annoyingly over-the-top supportive dad who is a little too ambitious and pushing to become the next big crime boss in Kras City.
And then have levels that were more than just "Mario Kart with Guns", like some heist levels where you play as Daxter and Ottsel Tess. (Tess would Absolutely use her ottsel powers for Shenanigans, you can't convince me otherwise). Have the Marauders have more than just cameos as "Spargus's weird Mad Max neighbors", make them actual contestants in the race representing the ice region and their Wasteland colony! Have Jak and Damas bumbling their way back into being father and son again through good old-fashioned life-threatening peril! Have Tess be a major part of the game!
But alas, this remains just the secret, good version of the games in my head 😅
THINK ABOUT IT THOUGH: Damas as an unlockable racer, complaining about how lightweight and wimpy Kras cars are compared to the Slam Dozer!
Maybe like, levels where you can pit Jak and Damas against each other and they're picking on each other the whole time like
Jak: "This'll be a cinch! If I can outrun poison gas in a metalpede nest, I can outrun you."
Damas: "You're really not going to let that go, huh?"
Jak: "I dunno, are you going to send me into a metalpede nest if I don't?"
Damas: "I said I was sorry!"
#jak and daxter#jak 3#jak x combat racing#jak 3 rewrite#jak x rewrite#dadmas#king damas#keira hagai#samos hagai#sig would be so tired of everyone's teen angst like. he didn't ask to be everyone's counselor but here he is#also Tess fully replaces Pecker because i said so#jnd tess#wishful thinking#my edits#fake screencap#fake screenshot#Damas X: Combat Racing#aka the only time Damas wears pants
More Horizon-verse Spiderverse doodles because I'm dragging you all into this au with me
Wait a darn minute.
In the finale of Jak 3, Tess acted like she was surprised by the ottsel transformation for all of two seconds.
Ottsel Veger was Literally Right There Next To Them. She knew what happened to that guy.
And then she does that little grin when she looks back at her newly acquired tail?
I have come to the conclusion that that woman knew exactly what she was doing.
Ah, some Jak and Daxter nostalgia. Wanted to try redesigning them a little.
So here's Keira, looking less like she's going to snap in half at the waist.
Slightly more animalistic Daxter slightly inspired by a red panda's head shape
I'm a sucker for Jak and Damas's dynamic and Damas Lives aus
Some of my oldest Jak and Daxter art! In need of updating! This was before I started rewatching playthroughs, after which I was like "why and oh why did I make that poor boy so pale?! No no no, we're using the original character designs by Bob Rafei as reference from now on."
So I've updated this picture. Also tweaked their faces a little because Damas’s eyes and nose were at a weird angle compared to his mouth before
Eldritch Damas au
Sometimes Jak regrets accidentally turning his father into a sort of neo-Precursor. Especially considering his mother being the dark eco patron. (@sparguscityangel 's Micte)
It's really hard to keep up his image when his Lovecraftian parents are busy being Morticia and Gomez any time they encounter each other on the battlefield.
Because it was too funny not to have happened in at least one timeline, there is now a variant of Eldritch au where Jak is like "I'm going to sneak off to the past and steal my childhood self from another timeline because we deserved better. Surely my parents can't get into that much trouble in the meantime."
And he is, of course, incorrect. Because a week after he and Mar get home, Baby Coy'l teleports straight out of their mother and starts screaming bloody murder.
Jak would have appreciated some warning. And Daxter would appreciate some brain bleach.
#my art#my edits#jak and daxter#jak and daxter au#eldritch damas au#eldritch dad#king damas#dadmas#mama micte#dark eco goddess micte#jak and dax live in fear of coming home to new siblings tbh#jak and daxter ocs#Coy'l is inspired by Cojolxauhqui in design#also because light eco plus dark eco equals The Moon in this au basically#she probably can't channel but she is A Weird Baby anyway#I agree with the Mayans who brought Awilix to their pantheon: Cojolxauhqui deserved more stories#yes i stole pieces of Voltron to make this#no I'm not giving them back#jak and daxter mar
This Week's Prompt Poll:
WIP of Damas post Jak 3 (because 2004 animation being what it was means in The Scene We Don't Acknowledge Except For Angst, the dude only had his legs pinned. Learn to read a pulse, Jak! 😆)
"You're just going to sit there all day?"
"Yep."
"....you don't trust me not to strain the injuries. I should be insulted."
"Well frankly, boss, I had to inherit the recklessness from somebody."
"..."
"I'm right, aren't I?"
"....I'm going to tell the next advisor who walks in that you have separation anxiety. How about that."
"First of all, you're probably not wrong. Second, if you think you can annoy me into leaving, we're gonna be here a long time."
"So you say. But I am a man of nigh infinite patience-"
"-except when it comes to recovering from compound fractures, apparently-"
"-and you'll break down sooner or later."
#jak and daxter#jak 3#jak 3 wastelander#my art#lineart#wip art#dadmas#king damas#headcanon that Damas is a stubborn grouch about recovering from injuries#look there's many wonderful scenarios of Damas learning Jak is Mar that are filled with delicious angst and hurt/comfort#i want one thats as unhinged as the family itself: give me a Damas who realizes he now has carte blanche to inflict dad jokes on Jak#Damas unleashing puns and 'because i said so' and annoyingly supportive sports dad attitude#hes been saving it up since he first lost Mar and he's making up for lost time#Jak is absolutely mortified but secretly enjoys it
No one:
Absolutely no one:
Me: more Horizon Spiderverse? Say no more
I think Jak should've been allowed to loot Praxis and steal his glowy sword in Renegade. As a treat.
#line art#my art#jak and daxter#jak 2 renegade#Jak getting to carry a trophy to remind him that Praxis can't hurt him or anyone else again#but also IMAGINE HOW FUN THE MELEE FIGHTS WOULD BE#look when it comes to video games i prefer ranged attacks especially if they involve fireballs#but it must be said that i do love getting to thwack enemies with an absurdly large blade
48hr tumblr blackout proposal
tumblr mobile has seadily become near unusable these past few updates. not just from a user experience perspective (which is important enough in itself) but also from an accessibility perspective.
examples include the new way the image viewer works (if you can call it "working"), the tumblr live button replacing the profile button, and that newly created blogs will be forced to have their main dashboard tab be the 'for you' page.
the demands of the protest would be along the lines of:
- reverse the recent image viewer update
- scrap the new users 'for you' page default setting
- let us turn off tumblr live indefinitely
- increase efforts against spam / porn bots
- make reporting abuse and hate speech as easy as reporting as reporting spam
- let us go nuts show nuts again... for real this time
- commit to improving usability and accessibility, and listening to users!
- (suggestions welcome!)
to protest against these usability issues, and inspired by the recent reddit blackout, i propose a 48 hour blackout (where you don't use tumblr at all). preferably of both mobile and web (since web has problems too) but mobile is the focus here.
I suggest the 48 hours between the 30th of June to the end of the 1st of July.
this marks the end of pride month (for the "queerest place on the internet") and the start of disability month (since accessibility is a massive issue here).
tumblr office is in San Francisco, USA, so the times and dates will be calculated using their time zone (PDT).
i can't afford to blaze this post so please spread it around as much as possible! protests only work if significant numbers show up!
tumblr rejected the blaze campaigns for this post because they know it would hurt them. let's make this an indefinite blackout - it's the best way to get results.
(so the blackout would be from June 30th onwards)
@one-time-i-dreamt @i-am-a-fish @lizluvscupcakes tagging some larger blogs to hopefully get the word out more
Reminder: this starts tomorrow EST for anyone interested in participating
(I will be participating. See you July 1)
Digibashing fun with Dark Jak (why and oh why did they take the horns off in Jak 3?! Was it like the unused level, where using an asset from a previous game broke the whole thing?)
#jak and daxter#dark jak#my edits#fake screenshot#fake screencap#no disney character is safe from my grabby little fingers#i am but a humble goblin making paper dolls by cutting them out of disney coloring books more or less#except digitally#love that the whole second game Jak is filled with self-loathing and then the Wastelanders see DJ and are like 'rad. how much can you lift?'
James Patterson books are an invasive species humans brought into library shelf environments because we wanted fast-reproducing, easily-digestible food. But at the time, we didn't know as much about their natural airport environment, which has very few available nutrients. This environment greatly favours the genericalist species like Patterson, so there's very little bibliodiversity compared to the more specialized library or bookstore environment. This means that each species in an airport has an enormously expanded niche compared to just about anywhere else books can thrive - in their natural habitat, Patterson books may be one of only 3 or 4 species competing for available nutrients. In these low-density, low-nutrient environments, Patterson books occupy vast swathes of territory without bothering other species. This history makes it extremely easy for them to outcompete the more specialized inhabitants of the library shelf, who have often been carefully selected to fill ultraspecific subgenre niches.
Left unweeded, Patterson books will expand their territory over multiple book bays, crowding out or even straight-up eliminating space for competitors and sending contributor-author runners out to other shelves. Contained to a single, planned set of shelves and kept strictly pruned, Patterson books can contribute to a healthy ecosystem. But many curators don't know or don't care to do the planning and maintenance, leading to the nightmare of overcrowding and loss of circulation.
THEY'RE TAKING UP FIVE BOOK BAYS AND THAT'S AFTER WEEDING.
THE PATTERSON SITUATION IS SEVERE
THEY'RE THE GOSH-DARNED MINT OF FICTION SHELVES
Have you tried natural biblio control? I have heard that if you release some fairly agressive manga, despite their smaller bibliomass, their raw numbers allow them to out compete and drive out even Patterson infestations.
This has had some small measure of success in the YA Graphic Novels section, but elsewhere he's now expanded into the non-fiction. THE NON-FICTION! MY LAST BASTION OF PATTERSON-FREE SHELVING!
James Patterson books are an invasive species humans brought into library shelf environments because we wanted fast-reproducing, easily-digestible food. But at the time, we didn't know as much about their natural airport environment, which has very few available nutrients. This environment greatly favours the genericalist species like Patterson, so there's very little bibliodiversity compared to the more specialized library or bookstore environment. This means that each species in an airport has an enormously expanded niche compared to just about anywhere else books can thrive - in their natural habitat, Patterson books may be one of only 3 or 4 species competing for available nutrients. In these low-density, low-nutrient environments, Patterson books occupy vast swathes of territory without bothering other species. This history makes it extremely easy for them to outcompete the more specialized inhabitants of the library shelf, who have often been carefully selected to fill ultraspecific subgenre niches.
Left unweeded, Patterson books will expand their territory over multiple book bays, crowding out or even straight-up eliminating space for competitors and sending contributor-author runners out to other shelves. Contained to a single, planned set of shelves and kept strictly pruned, Patterson books can contribute to a healthy ecosystem. But many curators don't know or don't care to do the planning and maintenance, leading to the nightmare of overcrowding and loss of circulation.
THEY'RE TAKING UP FIVE BOOK BAYS AND THAT'S AFTER WEEDING.
THE PATTERSON SITUATION IS SEVERE
THEY'RE THE GOSH-DARNED MINT OF FICTION SHELVES
Fic Prompts: Snippet Tuesday
Continuing from Monday's Snippet, now we come to the bit with Spy Tess. Now, there's a variety of ways she could've gotten here -- @sparguscityangel had an idea of Tess actually being there to report to the spies who trained her, and those spies being loyal to the deposed king of Haven. Other contexts can involve Tess trying to blend in with Wastelanders like in @sonicringnoise 's Friends in Low Places, or there to bring Jak intel (and shiny new guns) from Haven.
"Tess!"
Jak stretched up, waving her over from a circle of men and women at one of the cookfires dotting the courtyard of the temple.
"Sit over here!"
Jak really wasn't the outgoing type, and he never had been for as long as she'd known him. But after navigating around more Wastelanders than she'd ever seen in her life, Tess wasn't about to pass up a chance for some information from a friendly face. The circle parted, a little begrudgingly, to let her through, but this seemed more related to having to move while eating rather than an objection to her presence. She dropped down to sit on an overturned crate beside Jak, who pulled a paper-thin circle of some kind of bread from a rack by the fire and handed it to her.
#fic prompts#writing prompts#snippet tuesday#jak and daxter#dadmas#king damas#adopted dadmas#jnd tess#spy tess#wastelander ocs#jak and daxter ocs#the old Lurkers in Foothills Clan all see Dark Jak as a juvenile Lurker and all insist that he's too skinny and must be freezing#Jak accidentally acquired like six Lurker grandparents#Daxter owning an apparently successful pub makes me think he knows something about food and drink prep#Daxter is unquestioned king of the kitchen and he rules the campfire with an iron paw#headcanon that Tess waters down anything Jak drinks in Jak 2 because he's A Kid and also nobody wants to see Inebriated Dark Jak