#I don't really know what the bit is lol.

[890prodoctions]

For The Bit I'm actually really proud of this lol I might keep it as my profile for a while lol

[peace-hunter]

Idk if you've read deceptibee before but if you have,how would the primes react while Op and Megs are fighting over custody of bee and Dent his shoulder,I can imagine alpha trion giving Op a long aft speech of why he's a terrible friend

actually, i think OP is quite good at telling himself what a terrible friend he is. a bit too good if you ask any of his siblings.

it is another of the very few things the primes refuse to accept optimus' opinion on

haunted au

[brainmuncher]

The emergency

A good number of members within the Justice League have children. Not all of those kids are biological or adopted but they are their kids nonetheless. Some of those kids are even old enough to be adult heroes of their own, but even then they are still their kids. And the other kids tend to take up heroism at a very young age to most people's chagrin. Although as shown by the original child hero, now going by Nightwing, it’s not as easy as telling the kids to stop.

It was learned through intense hardship that smothering the child heroes was just asking for trouble. Despite how much the older heroes wanted to stay close to their kids, it was seen as overbearing and a show of mistrust. They would act out with even less backup in retaliation, which would only bring even more stress.

So to satisfy the need for protection without stepping on any toes, two new emergency meeting signals were introduced.

One was for the kids to send off. Each one was gifted a small device that could be hidden in their person. The device had both a mic and a tracking chip that could be activated when they were in extreme danger. As soon as the device was active a signal would be sent to the league for an emergency distress signal with the details of who sent it. Due to an outcry from the kids, the device could not be activated by the guardian of the child. The mic and locator could only be activated from the device itself. It wasn’t nearly as protective as some of the more worried leaguers would like, but it was at least something. 

The second signal was one that the leaguer with a kid in danger could activate. This signal could be activated with a single code into the communicators that every member owned. If the member who sent out the signal didn’t specify what kid was in danger, every member would receive a generalized notification of the emergency alert for one of the kids. This wasn’t ideal, but it was learned early on that the guardian of the child was often too distressed to make the code more complicated. It was best to leave it simple and answer questions at the emergency meeting.

Which was great in all, until someone who doesn’t have a child involved with heroics in their care sends off a general emergency.

In places all over the globe, an emergency meeting signal message was sent by Hal Jordan, one of the lanterns. He didn’t include what child was in danger in the signal, meaning that it could be any of the underaged heroes. And considering he didn’t have a child in his care, that made multiple members panic.

When was the last time they checked in with the kids in their care? Who was the one he was sending the code for? What happened to the child he had noticed was in danger? Why is he the one that noticed? Where were their kids? Who was in danger?

Because of the nebulous nature of the call, it didn’t take long for multiple heroes to find the nearest transport to the watchtower and tumble in. What they didn’t expect was the absolute haggard appearance of their friend. He was standing in the meeting room looking like the world had been destroyed before his very eyes. The way he sat without even cracking a sarcastic remark made multiple members pause.

“Hal?” Wonder Woman called, her face pinched in concern. “What has happened?”

The aforementioned member looked over who had already arrived before settling on her face. It was at that moment she knew that he was only looking so collected through willpower alone. This wasn’t just any child of the league, this was personal.

“My nephew Danny has been captured,” He began, sending a wave of different emotions circling the room. “I’ve been trying to find where they took him for a week now and I can’t get any leads. I need your help.”

The unsaid questions and emotions were nearly palpable. Multiple members turned to one another or stared with a million questions. Nobody had known that Hal even had a nephew named Danny. Sure he mentioned someone named Jason at times, but he never indicated anything else. The fact that he hadn’t mentioned him or the fact that he’d been apparently searching for a week was strange.

“And why are you only telling us now? Why did you wait so long?” Superman asked, speaking up the question that was on multiple minds.

A fire of anger curled in Hal's eyes. It was fierce and protective. It was a mixture of appalment for being questioned on his decision and fury for the reasons why he had to do it in the first place. He stepped forward towards the center table, slamming his palms down and leaning into it.

“Because any person that goes against the group will be declared an enemy of the United States. I’ve already had my account and housing connected to Green Lantern seized,” He explained with a deceptively calm tone. “I also needed to make sure that they didn’t have any connections with the Justice League. They have their agents everywhere.”

Unsurprisingly, Batman appeared from the gathered heroes from seemingly nowhere. Despite the feud between the two of them, the Bat was completely zeroed in on the situation. While he had a decent amount of distrust in the lantern, mainly because of the parallax incident, he could tell that the man was genuine. And the Bat always did have a blind spot for children.

“Explain,” Was all Batman said, staring Hal down.

The lantern in question looked at him with a grim face. This was it. Now or never.

“They’re called the Ghost Investigation Ward, or GIW for short. They hunt down and either exterminate or experiment on anyone they deem ectocontaminated or a ghost,” Hal started to explain, his hand curling on the table in frustration. “My brother Jack faked his death and ran off to be with another woman. Those fucks deemed my nephew as ectocontaminated and tried to take him from his home. He ran from his family so that they couldn’t be arrested for knowingly harboring an ecto entity. Told me that he remembered my face from a photo his dad tried to hide in the attic and sought me out.”

If the fire in his eyes were any stronger, they would probably become physical and burn down the room. It was undeniable that Hal Jordan was understandably completely pissed off. This situation was terrible from down to the very root.

“I tried to hide him but they somehow found him anyway. Now my civilian name is being heavily monitored and Green Lantern is being hunted down,” He finished his explanation. “If you join me in this, be prepared to lose everything.”

This was so much worse than anyone could’ve predicted.

[babacontainsmultitudes]

RIP Will Campos the only person who was murdered this episode.

[vaguely-concerned]

'my cousin is all stomach and no heart' is such a funny thing for illario to tell rook if he maybe is picking up on a little bit of a Vibe going on there. the 'LMAO. well good luck with that friend. better hotties than you have tried and failed and dashed themselves against the legendarily unamorous cliffs of my cousin's complete obliviousness and lack of interest to no avail. (optional 'may I suggest a more hah-hem *undoes another few buttons on his shirt that thing is open almost to his navel now it's borderline obscene* available dellamorte for your consideration. I mean if you're like in the market for one anyway' devious undertone as you see fit)' energy is off the charts.

(illario is above all a funny petty bitch and that's why I love him so indescribably. no no lucanis is right we need him around to drop shade like this he is in fact also an essential crow. we all contribute in our own ways)

[silusvesuius]

testing out drawing maormer 🪸🐚🪸 and a nelvas 🧣📜🩷 i'll ramble about maormer a bit in the tags

[phoenixcatch7]

It's always funny to me when in an lu fic the chain is offered bananas and don't accept them. Like, you're offering these high energy adventures free food?? Fruit they'll have never even heard of before??? A ridiculously expensive imported good at best?? AND it boosts your attack?

Not ONE of these idiots would ever turn down something new and interesting to eat at least once. They'd be all over those bananas and immediately get dubbed yiga and I'm honestly surprised no one has used it in a fic yet 🤭

[thevoidstaredback]

"Don't you find it suspicious?" Barry asks Wally.

"Hm?"

"The attendees. It's such a weird hodgepodge of people."

"Really? Everyone here is well known in their fields of work."

Barry doesn't seem to believe him. Rude.

"It's true!" he insists, "Everyone here has at least two articles written about them."

"And how would you know that?" Bart asks.

"Because I actually read the news?" Wally says. That, and Dick let him in on the whole plan that's been cooked up. He's upset that he wasn't brought in earlier, but he's more than excited to watch the security footage from 'Phase One'.

Iris gasps mockingly. "You do? I don't believe it!"

Wally sniffs. "Believe it or not, Iris, I don't live under a rock."

"Could've fooled me!" Dick snorts from behind him.

Whirling around, Wally grins at his best friend. "Dick!"

"Hey, loser." He directs his attention to the other three at the table, "Mister and Misses Allen, it's nice to meet you. I'm Richard Grayson, but everyone calls me 'Dick'."

Bart snickers. "Unfortunate."

Dick grins and ruffles his hair. "What's your name, little man?"

"'m Bart Allen!"

"Nice to meet ya, Bart." Crouching down, Dick stage whispers, "Can I let you in on a secret?"

Bart nods.

"If you go back out the doors, turn left and there's another room there."

Bart playfully glares at him. "Try'n to get me to a secondary location?"

Dick shakes his head. "Well, if you want to hang out here with the boring adults..."

"Bye, Barry, Iris!" he calls, running - though it's closer to a slow jog for a non-powered person - off, leaving the room.

"You guys set up another room?" Wally asks.

Dick shrugs. "I know, when I was a kid, that I would've done anything to get out of this stuffy atmosphere."

"That's fair."

"Sorry to interrupt," Iris says, "But where did you two meet?"

The duo share a look. It's Dick who says, "I met him when he was visiting Bludhaven a while back."

Wally nods. "Yeah, he's with the BHPD; He got me outta some trouble while I was there."

"Trouble?" Barry almost laughs, "What happened?"

Wally blushes, clearly embarrassed. "Let's, um, not get into this right now."

Iris smirks. "Now, Wally, what do you have to be so shy about?"

This was not a story Wally wanted out. Fortunately, Dick was on his side. For now, at least.

"As much as I'd love to tell you how much cocaine got popped over his head," -he ignores Wally's indignant shout and punch to his shoulder- "I've got a few other people to meet. It was nice meeting you both. Please, I hope you enjoy."

***

There's a group surrounding Bruce, as is normal for galas, though it isn't intentional this time. Most of them are the One Percenter's that were invited to shift suspicions, but there are a few heroes and their families with him. Lois and Clark Kent being the most notable, though Oliver and Diana are here, too.

He's got eyes on his kids, too, making sure they're all okay. Like before, they all have comms in, but they're all umutted unless something happens. The noise, otherwise, would've been too much and obvious to the Supers.

Dick's just finished talking with the Allens, excusing himself and heading over to Donna Troy and Jackson Hyde are talking. Wally looks to be trying to follow after him.

Jason's off talking to Roy and Lian, though Dinah has her eye on them while Oliver's distracted.

Damian and Jon Kent are already walking out of the room. Because dinner's been served and eaten, he doesn't call his son back.

Tim and Duke have been gone for the past few minutes. They'd both left the ballroom as soon as they could, probably off to the room they'd set up away from the boring monotony of the gala. Most of the teen heroes were gone, too.

Cass and Steph are oth talking to the three reporters, though the two from social media seem more interested in online gossip than the Daily Profit reporter.

"Mister Wayne!" Lois greets, pulling his attention back to the group around him, "Are the rumors about you and Batman true?" There's a gleam in her eyes as she speaks. She knows something. She probably knew his secret the second she saw the wax seal. Good. More things to hold over Clark's head.

Bruce smiles at her. "What rumors?"

"That you hate each other." she says, "You've said, on record, that you think Batman does good for this city just in the wrong way; and there's rumors that he's said that you do good work, too, but he just doesn't like you."

He fakes hurt so obviously that everyone can tell he's either joking or he doesn't care, "Batman doesn't like me?" Shocking information, that is. Imagine that.

"That's only speculation, Mister Wayne."

"Please, Mister Wayne was my father, just as Misses Wayne was my mother. Please, call me 'Bruce'."

"Alright, Bruce. Would you mind explaining your thoughts on Batman? He's Gotham's hero, so why don't you like him."

"What is this, an interview?" he jokes. It falls flat, though the people around him chuckle, as social rules demand. "Miss Lane,"

"Please, it's 'Lois'."

"Lois, then. You're here as a guest, so why do you insist on working?"

She smiles sheepishly, though she doesn't back down. "I'm a reporter through and through, Burce, I can't help it."

He chuckles, "Well, then I guess I can help you put these rumors to rest." He pauses for a moment, feigning putting his thoughts together. "While I do think that Batman is doing good for Gotham, I can also see the flaws in his design. After all, he's only one man."

"Oh?" one of the others in the crowd around him asks, "Have you met him?"

"Only once; he saved me when I had been kidnapped a few years ago," the Gothamites in the crowd nod knowingly, though Luther - who's sneering not-so-subtly - shakes his head, "just after Robin appeared, I believe. And I think that's the thing I hate about him the most."

"Hate?" Oliver, who's near the back of the group, wonders. Diana must recognise his voice because she looks over at him and doesn't look away. Point Bruce.

"He never should've brought a child into his line of work. I can never forgive him for that." Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Dick and Jason both share a look. He's speaking loudly, so he isn't surprised they hear. He means it, though. "Back to what I was saying, though! Batman does good work, but there are other solutions he's either overlooking or choosing to ignore."

"Such as..?" Lois prods.

Such as murder. That goes against his Code, but he's considered it. Though he walks a gray line, Kal is there as his moral compass. It wouldn't do to upset his best friend like that. Torture is also a solution, but that's also off the table, though Diana is the reason for that.

"Now, now, Miss Lois, I think it' time we leave this discussion for now. It's been a while since I was last in Metropolis; how's your own city's hero doing?"

Subtle, Bruce.

Lois looks deeply into his eyes, and whatever pieces she'd been missing click into place. She laughs, "He's doing well, though I haven't been reporting on him lately. That's all Clark."

"Have you met Superman?" Miss. Crowne asks, pulling the conversation along.

Clark shakes his head. "Only once, but not nearly long enough to get a comment." Luther looks slightly upset. Loser. "Though I'd love to talk to him some more. Have you ever met Batman?"

The answer is no. Batman makes a point to avoid civilians who aren't victims or Commissioner Gordon. However, Miss. Crowne says, yes, she has met Batman, though he didn't stay long for a talk. She seems to be proud of [not] meeting Gotham's resident cryptid, though her wording entices Oliver to speak up.

"Cryptid?" Oliver asks.

Miss. Crowne nods enthusiastically. "Yes! No one knows where he came from or where he goes at the end of each night. One day, he just showed up, and he's been here ever since."

She continues to spin a fantastical tale about what Gothamites think about Batman and his Birds. Bruce smirks behind his drink. This reveal is going to be really funny.

***

Down the left hallway from the ballroom, by the bathroom, is the sitting room that was chosen as the 'kid's room'. As soon as dinner had ended and the mingling had started, the Wayne children had spread the information about the second room to all of the heroes that had kids with them. Arguably, this room was much more fun than the ballroom.

Tim and Duke had been the first two to leave the ballroom, mostly so that there was actual security in the sitting room. Duke didn't have a team affiliated with the Justice League, so he mostly floated between the sitting room and the ballroom, like Cass and Steph, but Tim was almost a permanent fixture in the sitting room.

The entire team knows who Kon and Bart are, so thy stuck pretty close to each other as the only familiar faces in the party aside from their families. They left the ballroom soon after Tim and Duke did.

Cassie came in a few minutes later, Andy Curry toddling after her, though it didn't seem like she'd noticed.

Tim meet Cassie at the snack table. "Cute kid," he said, looking over her shoulder, "She related to you?"

Cassie didn't jump, though it was a close thing. She turned to Tim before looking behind her. "Nope."

Humming, Tim crouched down to pick up the toddler. Andrina 'Andy' Curry. Arthur and Mera will be missing her soon. "My name's Tim Drake," he says to both Andy and Cassie, though he coos, "What's your name, hun?"

Andy giggles as e boops her nose before picking her up and standing. "A-dy!"

"'Andy'?" he repeats, "Where're your parents, Andy?"

She points to the door. "Dat way!"

"That way?" Cassie says, also pointing to the door, "Why'd you leave them?"

Andy stuck her tongue out. "Bo'ing!"

Tim stifles a laugh. "Can you tell me your last name, sweety?"

"Cuwy!"

"Curry?" Cassie guesses.

"Yeah!" Andy nods happily.

Tim nods. "Let's get you back to your momma, okay, Andy?"

"Boo!" she shouts, gripping his shirt tighter. Cassie laughs.

Shooting his friend a small glare, he says, "You gotta tell your momma where you are or she's gonna worry!"

Andy's face fell, distraught. "Momma sad?"

Seeing the tears, Tim hurries to say, "No! No, no,no! Hunny, she's not sad, but she will be if we don't go say 'hi', okay?"

Andy nods, her eyes still watery, but she wasn't crying, so Tim would take the win."

Cassie follows as Tim leaves the room. "You're pretty good with kids."

"You think?" Tim chuckles. It was part of his Robin training.

"Yeah, though I don't know how you're going to find her parents in a room of people."

Tim looked at her from the corner of his eye. "I memorise faces pretty easily," he says, "And I made the guest list, so they should be easy to spot. Especially if they've noticed Andy here missing."

He nods at Duke as he passes into the ballroom. Cassie waits outside for him.

Just as he said finding Arthur and Mera Curry was pretty easy. They were talking to Dinah Lance, Mister and Misses Elliot, Jason, and Roy and Lian Harper. It didn't seem like they'd realised Andy was missing yet, so this was going to be a fun conversation.

"Excuse me?" he said, placing his hand on Arthur's shoulder, "Sorry to interrupt, but Andy here was wandering off on her own, so I figured I should bring her back to you."

Mera turned, gasping a bit, though it was probably mostly for dramatics. "Andrina!" Gently, she takes the toddler from Tim's arms, "You were supposed to be with Jackson! Why did you wander off?"

"Bo'ed." Andy huffs.

Arthur chuckles. "Thanks for bringing her back, ..?"

"Tim Drake," he offers his hand for a handshake, "I'm Jason's little brother."

"Squirt," Jason acknowledges, "You sticking around?"

He shakes his head. "Nah. I'm gonna go back to the sitting room."

"What?" Roy chuckles, "Too important to stay with adults?"

Tim raises his eyebrow challengingly. "Andy had the right idea. You adults are pretty boring."

The entire group laughs as he excuses himself, leaving the room quickly. He meets Cassie just outside the door.

"I'm Cassie Sandsmark," she says, holding her hand for a handshake.

Tim accepts, "Tim Drake."

"I know. You're pretty famous, y'know?"

He groans. "Don't remind me, man."

"Not all it's cracked up to be?"

"Not even close."

Cassie laughs and Tim joins her. It'll be a weight off his shoulders when his team finally knows him in and out of costume. Though, he knows they'll be hurt at first, they'll more likely find this prank hilarious, especially when he shows them the Cave footage of Phase One.

He and Cassie find Bart and Kon in the same corner as before, though they both have food and there's more people in the room.

"Hi," Tim greets, "I'm Tim Drake. I'm glad you could make it!"

"Connor Kent," he then points to Bart, "That's Bart Allen."

"Cassie Sandsmark," she says.

They all shake hands and merge conversations. For a moment, Tim can imagine that there's no secrets between them.

Eventually, the conversation turns to the Gotham Vigilantes.

"You know the rumors, don't you?" Tim says.

"What rumors?" Kon asks.

He watches his teammates for a seconds before glancing around the room and leaning in to whisper conspiratorially. They lean in as well. "That the Bats and his Birds aren't human."

There's a pause.

"Excuse me?" Cassie blinks.

Tim nods. "No one's quite sure where or when Batman showed up. And the others? None of them seem quite human. Some people think that Batman was created by the sheer amount of magic that's cursed the city."

Bart tilts his head to the side. "Gotham's cured?"

"Yep! Didn't you know that? Can't you feel it?"

"Drake," Damian says from behind the three heroes, startling them, "What are you doing?"

Tim shrugs, leaning away from his friends, "Telling my friends about the magic in Gotham."

"Tt. Baseless assumptions."

"Half of the rogues in the city are undead."

"What?" Kon half exclaims.

"The other half have PhDs in different fields." Damian refutes, "Your point?"

"Yeah, that's fair." Tim agrees, "Konnor, Cassie, Bart; this is my little brother Damian. Damian, this is Konnor Kent, Cassie Sandsmark, and Bart Allen."

"Pleasure to meet you." He was not convincing in the least.

"Nice to meet ya, little dude," Kon smiles.

Damian scowls. "Do not call me little."

"Aww!" Bart coos, laughing, "He's so cute!"

Damian bristles like a cat. "I am not-!"

He's cut off by Jon Kent throwing an arm over his shoulder. "Dami!" he smiles, "You've met my uncle now!"

Cassie does a double take. "You're an uncle?"

Kon shakes his head. "Yep."

"Jon," Damian says, significantly calmer now that his friend is here. "Remove your arm from my shoulder or I will remove it from yours."

Tim clicks his tongue. "Don't be like that, Dami. Who's your friend?"

"This is my nephew, as your heard," Kon introduces, "Jon Kent."

"You're Clark and Lois's kid, huh?" Tim asks.

"You know my parents?"

"'Course," he shrugs, "They've covered quite a few of the events that I've been to."

"You say that as though that's something to be proud of," Damian snarks.

"Shove off, Baby Bat."

If anyone asks, the slip was purposeful.

The group freezes.

For a long moment, their little corner is silent.

"No fucking way." Kon swears. "Red?!"

Tim barely hides his snort. "Surprise."

Damian sighs. "Nice going, Drake."

"Oh, shove off, brat. I was gonna tell them anyway." Quieter, he says, "Though, the meeting I was arranging is redundant now."

"Hold on, hold on, hold on!" Bart interrupts, 'What's going on?"

Sighing, Tim leans against the wall. "B decided it was time to tell our teams our real names, but, in true B fashion, he's being dramatic about it. We've pranked the Justice League, and I have the footage if you wanna see."

Cassie holds up her hand to make him stop talking. It works. "You're Red Robin. Which means you're Robin."

"Yes." Damian confirms.

"That means that Batman is Bruce Wayne." she says. It takes a second for her words to really sink in. "What the hell!"

"Are you gonna keep freaking out, or do you wanna see what we did to the Justice League last month?"

"Are you bribing us?" Bart asks, almost apauld.

"Is it working?"

"Yes."

Part 15 Part 17

[statementlou]

Tbh i am not surprised that a person who openly talked about having drinking problems since 1d days, because of how crazy 1d worked has been agressive. What surprises me is people being surprised (they never seriously saw drunk person?). But i am also confused about this whole book. Apparently Maya said that that book is not fully bout Liam but compilation about her exes and some of the worst parts are not about him. But recently she said that the book is “ofc about him” so what is true then? Or did she meant it that ofc some parts are about him or that whole book is about him?

Sorry, just confused

I also am not surprised- we've learned so much more about the real stories of things and about the guys' actual lives over the last years, and the story that has unfolded around Liam has been totally consistent throughout if you've been following it, and so the information Maya is telling us is shocking and upsetting but not difficult to believe. I got an anon yesterday saying they were worried about getting similar revelations about the other boys, like "if Liam could be doing this we just don't know, any of them could", and while in a way that's always true I guess, anyone could be doing anything in private like... that doesn't really concern me. Because none of these Liam revelations are coming out of nowhere, there have been many MANY steps along the way leading us here if you've been watching, and he has talked openly about both his mental health struggles and his addiction issues. So to answer that anon... to find out something similar about Louis would in contrast contradict everything we know about him and no I'm not worried about it. Is he probably very irritating, absolutely, but an abuser or a loose cannon, well that news would shock me. But anyway as for the book I don't find it strange that she was nervous when it came out and treading lightly and later decided, fuck it. In the absolutely on point tiktok she dropped today (YES👏GIRL👏FUCKING TELL THEM👏) she even mentions attempts to keep her from publishing the book, presumably by Liam's team, that I am riveted by and cannot WAIT to hear more details about actually- like I said I don't find it at all strange that she was nervous and downplayed it a bit then. But if she says now that it's just about Liam, well, I would say it's been clear from the beginning that the book is their story. Maya herself brought up the parallel of songs being written about stuff and I think it's the same thing; it's true (she was in an abusive relationship that involved certain kinds of events) but maybe not 100% literal (I'm sure details were changed to make the story work, it's not like a word for word timeline of their interactions or whatever).

[lunarharp]

if i just told you i love you would this world change

[icewindandboringhorror]

What would you choose? :0c

(note: original image is from HERE (link) - but I edited it to add a wider variety of options.. also added $3 extra to the total, even though I know that makes it more uneven lol, I thought if you're adding 10 whole extra items, the money to spend should at least be increased slightly, if that makes sense..)

[kaontic]

“I'm headin' in for repairs!”

“I'll shadow you back!”

One of my fav G1 moments, even if I read too much into it.

[deoidesign]

Hi, how did you learn to draw Steve's physique?

Ohh what a complicated thing to answer...

When it comes to how I learned to draw anything, it's hard to say anything too specific since it's always a culmination of many years of assorted study and practice... but I can try to do my best to explain some of the biggest things that helped me learn, some tips I keep in mind, and maybe at least some places to start/delve further.

(just a little disclaimer it's not like my drawings here are going to be 100% medically accurate.. they're just to illustrate concepts!)

The main thing about learning various physiques is understanding anatomy. Which feels obvious, but I don't mean proportions; these are important, but perhaps more important is understanding the skeleton and how it moves and learning where muscles connect to bones and where fat grows on the body. When you understand how these function on a more mechanical level, depicting form and movement in a way that feels natural comes in tow.

For instance, understanding things like the pronation and supination of the radius and ulna, as well as the fact that muscles can ONLY contract or relax, will help you understand a bit better which muscles will be flexed and which will not while someone moves. It's inherent to the positioning based on the structural makeup of the body... It's not like you NEED to memorize all the muscles and bones, of course, but understanding and gaining at least a passive familiarity with the concepts really helps.

In tandem with this concept is the way parts of the body flow into eachother. Muscles ALWAYS come in groups because they can only contract. Whatever muscle is there to lift something, there is a muscle on the other side to pull that bone back down. What this results in is a series of straight edges next to curves, which gives us a lot of really lovely "s curves" and dents and folds and so on and so forth just naturally occurring.

I would suggest at least learning the "bony landmarks", which are bones (usually) visible on the surface of the body. things like the iliac crest, the great trochanter, the 7th vertabrae, the acromion process... These can be used to help you understand the parts of the body as angles and relationships, rather than trying to remember lengths and sizes, which vary immensely... (since you asked about steve, he can be our model... also study these on your own don't just take my word for it haha, these are the ones I personally keep in mind)

I've done the same thing with body hair... learning where it grows and in which directions... It helps me make up variations without needing reference, because I have a set of rules I can follow.

The biggest thing that helped me understand all this on a much deeper level was my ecorche course. I sculpted this guy. We started by sculpting the entire skeleton to understand the bones, and then we added muscles on top. Not every single muscle, of course, but the "artistic muscles" AKA the ones which directly affect the surface of the body. Doing this let us see where muscles connect, because we would make a shape, put it on the bone where it actually goes, and then you get to see how other muscles overlap that.

This helped me, perhaps, more than anything else. But I also didn't just start with this course, I had been drawing for years before I even took it. I had been in school for years before I took it. Not that I think it wouldn't be helpful to someone just starting out, but I do think that the more you know going in, the better an in-depth course like this will help you and stick with you. Classes are also expensive, though so I'm not really like... recommending you pay potentially thousands of dollars to take one... But it did help me a lot, personally.

I also, of course, have done many figure, gesture, and master studies...

These just help you quickly gain a stronger understanding of generalized anatomy, and gives you real life examples of and practice with of how people move and balance.

What all this does when combined, is gives me a very solid ability to depict movement and form in a way that feels relatively natural from my subconscious without the need for reference.

The rest of how I've learned to draw his physique is honestly mostly just stylization. I understand the body, and this is how I am depicting it for his level of musculature.

And as I move into depicting him in other ways, either moving in comics or in animation, realistically rendered, or extra stylized, these concepts inform every step of that process for me! When he keeps the same/similar relationships between parts, he gets to still look like himself.

It ALSO really helps when putting clothes on, because the way cloth falls and bunches and lifts is all directly related to the form it is on... So the more you understand that form, the more you can depict clothing and movement in a way that feels natural.

This is all, of course, true when I draw anyone, you asked about Steve so I'm trying to mostly show with him! But because I'm just drawing from raw information of general anatomy rather than trying to study one body type at a time, it allows a lot more "give," I think!

Like, here's most of the cast from TTA so far... actually, they're not as varied as I thought they were nevermind LMAO ignore this part

But, it also makes monster and alien design much easier! It's a lot easier to come up with non-human anatomy when I understand human anatomy, because I can manipulate the knowledge I have...

There is infinite more to study in the world of anatomy... The complexity of the human body goes extremely deep. For our purposes as artists, we need only depict a fraction of it, but more information rarely hurts the process.

I'm sure there's something in here that's wrong on a technical level, I'm mostly going off of memory. But that's kind of my point - I understand enough generally and conceptually that when I am missing something and need to find reference for it, I understand what I'm looking at. It's much easier than trying to learn AND draw at the same time.

I hope even one thing in here helped you! Sorry it's so long.

[ruvviks]

– Beginnings.

Characters >> Lily Castellanos, Nathan Dixon (oc), Sebastian Castellanos Total >> 3.5k words Warnings >> Alcohol mention Context >> The first chapter of my own TEW3, taking place some months after the conclusion of the in-game events of TEW2! You can read more about it all here!

It snowed in Krimson City.

The sky had been the same dull gray color since sunrise, snowflakes slowly cascading down and covering the street in a thick blanket of snow. A heavy fog held the city tightly in its grasp– an eerie atmosphere hanging in the thin afternoon air and low-hanging clouds swallowing entire buildings whole– and with only limited visibility on the road, traffic was forced to crawl by in slow motion.

While not an unseen phenomenon, it was far from a common sight for early January, only days after Nathan’s birthday. He had spent that day snowed in in his little apartment, had celebrated it alone; not as if it mattered much, he doubted Kid even knew and besides his ex-colleague from MOBIUS he severely lacked other friends to hang out with those days.

He stood motionless at the fence of the small playground located in Krimson City’s public park, gloved hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his long, black coat with the collar popped up to shield the lower half of his face from the occasional sharp gust of wind. He had not moved in a while, shoulders and tousled black hair covered in a thin layer of fine white powder, frost nipping away at the tip of his nose as his eyes followed a group of kids excitedly running around.

It did not take a genius to notice Lily was significantly older than the others there, but none of the kids seemed to mind. It came as no surprise to Nathan to see her there– she had not once lost her playfulness even after everything MOBIUS had put her through, and without a proper outlet for it in all her years trapped in the shadow organization it only made sense for her to want to have a chance at spending the remainder of her childhood like she had always been supposed to.

He watched in silence as she scooped up some snow in her pink and orange mittens, wincing when one of the other kids threw a snowball directly at her face; she was smiling, though, and quickly pressed the snow together to then hurl it back, the surprisingly well-aimed attempt hitting someone else on the back of their coat.

‘You’re startin’ to freak out the other parents, standing there like that.’

The corners of Nathan’s mouth lightly curled up upon hearing the familiar, low voice, not needing to turn his head to know who joined him on the other side of the fence.

‘Was starting to wonder how long it’d take for you to notice me,’ he said, his own voice a little rougher than usual on account of the cold, and his severe lack of proper rest in the past few weeks. ‘Was gonna give you another five minutes before I’d walk over to introduce myself. You’re getting slow.’

‘I’m getting comfortable,’ Sebastian Castellanos corrected him with a scoff, returning Lily’s little wave as she ran by the both of them– Nathan merely greeted her with a single nod of his head– before quickly shoving his hand back in the pocket of his green jacket.

‘No need to keep my eyes up anymore, Nate. Threat’s gone, MOBIUS’ gone. Life’s improving day by day.’

‘Good.’

Nathan wished he shared Sebastian’s sentiment.

If anything, life had turned rather sour for him after they had successfully gotten rid of a large chunk of MOBIUS several months ago. He had never expected to walk away from it alive to begin with– and now, without the steady income the organization had provided him with for years, he found himself struggling to get by.

He glanced to his right, gaze briefly meeting that of the ex-detective before he quickly averted his eyes and let them wander back to the playground, trailing over the various snow-covered playground sets.

Sebastian looked good, healthy– much better than the state he’d been in when Nathan had last seen him all those months ago. Part of him regretted not reaching out sooner, the sudden reconnection now an obvious sign that something was wrong; though the wiser part of him knew that had he stuck around the Castellanos family they would not have been able to move on and heal, which was the last thing he would have wanted to be responsible for.

‘What about you?’ Sebastian quietly asked, as if he’d been able to sense Nathan’s melancholy. ‘You look like you haven’t slept in days.’

Nathan scoffed, slightly tilting his head to look at his feet and he absently kicked some snow off his boots. ‘That obvious? Sure feels like it.’

He had teamed up with Juli Kidman to deal with the remainder of MOBIUS, after the Union incident. Of course the destruction of the STEM environment hadn’t led to the fall of the whole organization– it would’ve been stupid of them to link all of their employees directly to the mainframe of a single STEM device, despite the Superiors’ obvious lack of knowledge concerning the technology– and while MOBIUS had suffered massive losses, it would only be a matter of time before they would regroup.

But he was not there to talk to Sebastian about how their hunt was going.

Something else had come up.

Nathan’s silence did not go unnoticed and Sebastian turned toward him, leaning sideways against the fence with a concerned look in his eyes. He did not need to say anything– and neither did Nathan, as he slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets and removed one of his black, leather gloves.

The pale top of his left hand had a burned appearance, as if fire had scorched away skin and flesh– the wound only partially healed leaving it broken and torn clinging closely to his veins and bones. Though despite how recent he had received the scar, its appearance instead implied years long possession, and despite its severity it did not hurt at all.

He could tell by the look on Sebastian’s face the scar reminded him of someone.

‘Now, I know what you’re gonna say–’ Nathan started, but Sebastian cut him off.

‘I can’t do this, Nathan. I have a daughter–’

‘–I know.’

His voice came out a lot sharper than he had meant for.

‘I’m not asking anything of you,’ he said, his heartbeat pounding in the back of his throat.

‘Not this time.’

It had started as police radio chatter.

Late in the afternoon, Nathan had already been getting ready to go home. Kid had picked up a mention of Beacon– its doors long closed for the public yet the building remained in the heart of Krimson City, left to rot and wither away– supposed ghostly activity reported within its decaying walls, and she had wanted to investigate.

Nathan sharply exhaled and put his glove back on, exposed fingers growing numb in the freezing winter air. He leaned forward with his arms on the fence, to move a little closer to Sebastian; as if he was afraid someone would overhear them, as if they could make sense out of any of it to begin with.

‘He’s back, Sebastian,’ he defeatedly stated, and the other man lowered his gaze. ‘I saw him. He did this to me.’

‘Impossible.’

‘Wish it was.’

Despite hearing many tales, and having worked on his project for years as developer within the MOBIUS branch he had been part of, Nathan had never seen or met Ruvik face to face. The brilliant mind behind the STEM technology had always remained in the shadows; up until his death, after which his brain had become the core of MOBIUS’ very first STEM device.

Naturally so, when Nathan had run into the man while wandering the abandoned hallways of Beacon, his first assumption had been that he was asleep– followed by a brief moment of panic in which he had believed he was dead, or somehow back in STEM.

But Ruvik had touched him– had forcefully grabbed his hand to make him drop his gun and had left a burn similar to his own scars– and had then vanished the second Kidman had yelled out Nathan’s name, the old and presumed broken STEM device in the room next door whirring and humming as if it had never been deactivated in the first place.

‘I’m here to warn you,’ Nathan softly continued, eyes fixed on a random spot in the bright snow covering the playground and thumb absently running over the gloved back of his scarred hand.

‘We don’t know yet what exactly he’s here for, what exactly he’s tryin’ to do. Investigating as we speak, but– shit’s looking serious. Somehow reverse engineered the STEM signal to reach outward, expand into reality. Push itself out rather than draw people in.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Similar to the wireless connection that pulled you into STEM the first time round, but– without being pulled in.’ Nathan had to bite his tongue to stop himself from getting too technical. ‘An– An active environment in our world, if you follow, rather than on the device’s mainframe. Signal seems to be inactive still, but we’re gettin’ the readings. No idea how he’s planning to activate it yet.’

They had moved the device to their own headquarters, on the outskirts of town. Had needed to connect it to the second prototype– the device that had supported the Union environment, which they had taken from MOBIUS’ headquarters after wiping out its agents– in order to gain access to the mainframe, get any data extracted from it in the first place.

Their initial hope had been that it was nothing more than echoes– malfunctions in the STEM device caused by neglect promptly activating the wireless signal allowing shades from within to wander the Beacon hallways– anything but Ruvik’s actual return, however that was even possible–

‘Daddy!’

Nathan blinked, drawn out of his thoughts by Lily’s voice. He watched her run over to the two of them– the front of her coat, face, and hair completely covered in snow and a bright smile on her face as she attempted to wipe some of it from her forehead, but if anything her mittens just further spread it out.

‘I’m getting cold,’ she said, squinting when Sebastian reached out to help her with the snow. ‘Can we go back home soon?’

‘Of course honey,’ he replied, barely able to mask the exhaustion in his voice now that Nathan had explained the situation to him– and for a brief moment it was as if they were back in Union, radioing back to Kidman from the momentary safety of one of their established safehouses. ‘Don’t want you catching a cold.’

Lily looked up at Nathan and smiled at him– but she was a smart kid, and he watched her expression change as she looked back up at her father, head slightly tilting before she shook it to get some strands of her ink black hair out of her face, the single white strand in her bangs– matching Nathan’s own– a grim and constant reminder of her mother’s fate.

‘Is everything alright?’ she asked, and Nathan couldn’t help but wonder if she still associated him with MOBIUS, if she still associated him with the tests and experiments they put her through and if she still associated him with the STEM device, meeting one another within in some facility in the Marrow where he was forced to watch over her like a vulture at all times, all to keep the system stable.

‘Nothing to worry about,’ he simply answered her, unsure if she would fall for his lie, but knowing it would give her infinitely more comfort than the truth ever could. ‘Just came to say hi.’

The breeze picked up, howling loudly in Nathan’s ears as if the whole city softly cried for him; the cold boring its way through his clothes and eating away at his skin, exposed or not, freezing him all the way down to the bone. He lowered his head– a futile attempt at shielding his face from the biting wind and snow, individual snowflakes cutting like knives across his forehead and cheekbones.

He watched Lily smile at both him and Sebastian again before running off to get back to the snowball fight for just a bit longer, diving behind the slide to get cover. His gaze was pulled back toward Sebastian– but said man appeared deep in thought, eyes pointedly fixed on something in the distance, head anywhere but in the present.

‘I gotta go back in,’ Nathan quietly continued; an unnecessary statement, the gravity of the situation like static in the air between the two of them, though to put it into words was to accept the harsh reality of it all– acknowledgement of what had to happen, what was going to happen, something he had not been able to do before.

‘It’s nothing like Union,’ Sebastian bluntly replied with a shake of his head, turning his back to the playground and resting heavily with his elbows on the fence. ‘He’s nothing like Stefano– nothing like Theodore. He doesn’t need a weapon or a core to draw his powers from, you get too close and it’s over. You understand?’

Nathan didn’t know what else to say.

He had never thought he’d have to go back into STEM after Union. He’d be alone this time round– no Sebastian by his side, no Kidman to radio back to. They had reconnected some old friends– Joseph, Yukiko, Esmeralda– but had no idea whether or not their consciousnesses would still be somewhere within STEM, and for all Nathan knew he would be diving into a world entirely of Ruvik’s creation, with the same horrifying creatures haunting it as last time, if not worse.

Of course he was terrified. All it took was one encounter with Anima and he would never see the light of day ever again.

‘You should go,’ Nathan said, pushing himself up from the fence and stuffing his hands back in the pockets of his coat, ‘get out of town while you still can. Grab a bag or two, grab Lily, take her on a– on a road trip up north or something, while we figure this out. Just in case he–’

He couldn’t finish his sentence. The thought of Ruvik succeeding and trapping the world in a constant state of STEM was something he would rather not think about.

‘–you know.’

An uncomfortable silence followed. And rightfully so– what else was there to say? The whole situation was ridiculous to begin with, and for Nathan to show up only now instead of at any other point in time, months of radio silence after nearly dying together in a simulation of reality lingering between real life and a dream–

He carefully watched as Sebastian shifted his weight from one foot to the other, able to study his face for longer now that the other man refused to make eye contact with him. He truly did look a lot better; Nathan could only assume the man had stopped drinking, and had been getting a much better night’s sleep.

Though despite the improvement in his appearance there was still that lingering sense of dread, the dark shadow that had washed over his face the second he had laid eyes on Nathan’s scarring and had realized what he had come to him for.

Nathan couldn’t blame him. But he’d had to let Sebastian know.

He licked his lips and nodded to no one in particular, ending the conversation himself by taking a small step back and turning back around to return to his car, drive home, drink himself blind and pass out to hopefully get some sleep in before he would have to dive back into his worst nightmare–

‘Hey.’

Sebastian’s hand on his upper arm was unexpected and Nathan hated how he could not stop himself from flinching, a reflex more than anything else, and he hated how it made Sebastian pull his hand away as if he’d touched fire, the tips of his fingers on Nathan’s body despite the layers he wore the first physical contact he had experienced in months.

‘Who is “we”?’ Sebastian quietly asked, briefly glancing behind him to see if Lily was still far enough away. A surprising question; though not out of character for the ex-detective, his curiosity piqued just enough for him to try and get a little more information out of Nathan before they would say goodbye and possibly never see each other again.

‘Me,’ Nathan plainly answered, ‘Juli. Used to be just us two but we gathered a team of old STEM developers to help us with this. They got moved on to other projects while we were working on Union– they removed their chips, came back for us.’

‘So all MOBIUS.’

Not even a question, simply a statement.

Nathan bit the inside of his cheek. ‘Ex MOBIUS.’

The atmosphere changed, a sharp tension bouncing between the two of them as Nathan straightened his back and lightly tilted up his chin. He couldn’t exactly place the look on the other man’s face, though by then knew him well enough to know his hesitation wasn’t caused by uncertainty, but moreso distrust.

‘Thought the program was meant to kill them all,’ Sebastian said, a somewhat hostile undertone in his voice that had not been there before.

‘Just our branch.’ Nathan paused, watching as Sebastian slowly nodded and mouthed a soundless “right”– not entirely sure what his reaction was supposed to mean, but he decided not to ask. ‘Already told you it runs a lot deeper than you thought.’

Myra's sacrifice had put an end to the Administrator's reign of terror– had destroyed his legacy, and all research and findings on the STEM system as designed by Ruvik and improved by MOBIUS. Whichever branches remained did not nearly have enough resources or knowledge to pull off something even remotely similar; and whatever scraps of code they could have gotten their hands on before Kidman and Nathan had wiped their systems clean would prove insufficient to provide them with a stable environment.

And even if they would make it that far– provided they’d be able to recreate the STEM device from written instructions alone, Ruvik's original blueprints lost to time and MOBIUS' own burned to a crisp in the aftermath of the Union incident's conclusion– the mental erosion Union's residents had suffered from and the Anima manifestations that had happened as a result had never been resolved, leaving any future STEM residents with the all but comforting promise of a similar fate.

'I'm diving in tomorrow,' Nathan said, knowing there was nothing else left to say. The breeze in the park was picking up again, sweeping snowflakes that were starting to feel more like hail than anything else into Nathan’s face with a lot more force than before, melting on collision and dripping into the collar of his shirt. 'First thing in the morning. Can’t waste any more time. In case you wanna come say goodbye–'

He reached into the pocket of his pants, then held out a note to Sebastian; handwritten, containing an address located on an abandoned warehouse site, not too far from Nathan's own home.

'–our headquarters.' He waited for Sebastian to take the note from him. 'No pressure, of course.'

No pressure.

The note was almost a blatant sign that Nathan wanted him to be there. He could not ask it of him directly– but gave him the option anyway, leaving the decision up to Sebastian instead.

But deep down Nathan knew that Sebastian knew that he really did not want to go back in alone– and if it had been up to him they had recruited Sebastian a week ago already, when things had first started to go wrong.

‘Do you have backup?’ Sebastian softly asked, as if he could look directly into Nathan’s head– asking the one question he had hoped for, with an answer to it that could easily enough change Sebastian’s mind about letting Nathan walk away if only he would play his cards right–

But despite how often he had practiced the entire conversation alone in his car, despite going over all the different things he could say at least a million times, just to get Sebastian to feel sorry for him– as selfish as it fucking was– Nathan found himself unable to speak.

He simply shook his head instead.

The other children and their parents were leaving, now. It was getting late, and colder, and Lily slowly wandered back to Sebastian to start dragging him back to the car if he were to take any longer than he already had.

Nathan looked up at the sky, eyes fluttering shut as he allowed more snow to drift down onto his ice cold skin, and he breathed in and out deeply before turning back to Sebastian.

‘They’re expecting more snowfall tonight,’ he said, locking eyes for only a split second and shooting a smile in his direction, as he began walking backwards into the direction of his car. ‘Don’t wait up. And– Drive safe, okay?’

Sebastian did not answer him.

It snowed in Krimson City, accompanied by a deafening silence weighing it down and choking it out, as if the whole city was expectantly holding its breath.

Nathan left.

taglist (opt in/out)

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[sysig]

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Bonus:

The novel experience of being crushed by a giant rock, a visual metaphor

[jula483]

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