#use throwing motion instead of rotation

[rotaryswinggolf]

Achieve GOAT Swing - Use Throwing Motion Instead of Rotation 🏌️‍♂️

Achieve the GOAT Swing by using a throwing motion instead of rotation! 🏌️‍♂️ In this live golf lesson clip, you'll discover why swapping rotation with a throwing motion can enhance your golf swing and lead to better performance on the course.

Start by setting up correctly and moving your upper body back. Focus on having your hands aligned with the center of your body. Instead of relying on rotational speed, use the throwing motion to generate power. This helps you stay behind the ball and get deeper into the right leg. By practicing this setup and motion, you'll find it easier to deliver the perfect swing.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced golfer, these tips and golf training aids can make a significant impact on your game. Watch the full lesson to see the transformation and learn how to achieve the GOAT swing!

[realitythroughthelensoffiction]

The implications of Crowley being able to stop (and start) time

In the very first scene of season 2, we see Crowley asking Aziraphale for help with "cranking up the engine". Aziraphale's job is to hold a piece of paper with overlapping circles drawn on it, and Crowley uses a hand crank to rotate the circles. After that, he proceeds to create the nebula. The part with the crank seems to have been a prerequisite to that.

Angels using hand cranks to set the universe in motion is not something Good Omens invented; you can find depictions of very similar scenes in medieval art (for an example, see this post by @tenderlywicked).

It is not clear, though, what "cranking up the engine" exactly means. It could just mean getting the mechanics of this part of the universe to work. But many fans have suspected that it also served a different function.

We know that Crowley can stop time. From what we've seen so far, he is the only supernatural being with this ability (except maybe God). But how does he do it? In the scene in the Bastille, he is not shown on screen when he stops time; when he restarts it, he does so by snapping his fingers. Snapping his fingers is also the method he uses to restart time in the scene with Mr. Dalrymple. At the airbase in Tadfield, he throws his hands up to stop time. But when he restarts it, he uses a hand crank. And although the crank is not visible in the scene with Mr. Dalrymple, Crowley does a very similar movement with his hand when he stops time there.

People have discussed whether the crank he is having at the airbase is the same crank he uses at the beginning of season 2. I'm one hundred percent convinced that it is. If the crank in season 1 was just an ordinary starter crank for the Bentley, Crowley couldn't start time with it. Plus, the series made sure to put an emphasis on the significance of the crank by showing it in a close-up shot when the Bentley explodes (for the possible symbolism of the shot, see this post by @erme-maererme).

The official Funko Pop! figure of Crowley is holding the hand crank, too, just as the Funko Pop! figure of Aziraphale is holding the flaming sword (you can find an image on Pinterest). Angels traditionally are depicted carrying attributes; I think the crank was (or maybe still is) Crowley's (for a wonderful analysis of Crowley as an engineer, see this post by @joycrispy).

So, assuming that the crank is indeed a tool to start time and was used thus in the 'Before the beginning' scene, what are the implications of that? Well, to answer this, we have to take a closer look at the concept of time - and of eternity. We know that heaven is eager to "begin eternity", as Michael proclaims in season 2. And we know from their drunk conversation in season 1 that neither Crowley nor Aziraphale are very fond of this idea.

But what exactly does eternity mean? I've always thought of eternity as an endless amount of time. But, theologically speaking, that's not what eternity is; instead, in classical theology, eternity is regarded as the complete absence of time (cf. this encyclopedia article; challenges to that classical concept in more recent theological approaches are also discussed there). For Good Omens, this notion is confirmed by Michael in the aforementioned scene, and also by Ligur in season 1, when he states: "Times are changing. They're coming to an end, for a start".

Now, the absence of time does not necessarily mean that everything is static. But in Good Omens, it seems to signify exactly that: no change, no progress, just repeating the same thing "over and over and over... and over and over and over".

This is very likely one of the main reasons why Crowley is so opposed to it, since he appears to be a fan of progress. Again, take a look at the aforementioned post about Crowley as an engineer. He even seems aware of things that are ahead of his time, like when he suggests to Mr. Dalrymple to wash his hands, because "it's gonna be over age in a few years". Not only that, but he even links progress to the concept of time. In season 1, when he drives his car towards the burning M25, he tells Hastur: "You know the thing I like best about time is that every day, it takes us further away from the fourteenth century [...] Didn't have any cars back in the fourteenth century. Lovely, clever human team inventing cars, and motorways, and windscreen wipers..."

And if time is connected to progress, and Crowley is able to start time, then that links his character to progress, too. You could go as far as to say that Crowley embodies the change and progress heaven fears.

Lastly, fans (for example @crowleysgirl56 in this post) have wondered whether Crowley is also able to manipulate, especially turn back, time. And while that would fit the recurring theme of altering reality in Good Omens (see this post), I'm pretty sure that turning back time is not something Crowley can do, because if he could, he would have already done it.

@sendarya and the people in the comment section of her character analysis of Crowley on Youtube have pointed out how often he uses the words "(it's) too late", and one time even "it's always too late": when the unicorn escapes Noah's son, when Wee Morag dies, and when he realizes the pointlessness of threatening Jim.

According to the video, Crowley uses "it's too late" to express his feelings about how "actions often have unintended consequences" that cannot be undone. And truly, Crowley is an expert when it comes to unintended consequences. As his entry in the Good Omens Wiki puts it: "many of his own plans end up backfiring on him". He shuts down the mobile phone networks in London, only to realize that this means that he isn't able to make calls either. He creates the M25 just to end up trapped inside it. The most important example for actions that had unintented consequences for Crowley are probably the ones that led to his fall. So I believe that him being able to stop time, but not to turn it back, is actually part of the tragedy (or irony?) of Crowley's character.

That being said, I assume that Crowley's abilty to stop and start time will be brought up in the finale again. Not in a game-changing way, but in a way that emphasizes how it is significant for who he is as a character and what time represents for life on earth. Actions cannot be undone, no matter how bad their consequences are. Progress, like time, can briefly be held up, but never be stopped or revoked, because it is an essential part of life itself.

[ominouspuff]

Hey op. I really love your art and would love to learn more of your style

Do you perhaps stream or have tutorials? If not that's fine, I just wanna learn more about the breakdown of your pieces and such <3

Hi nom!

Thank you! I don’t do streams or tutorials, but I’m more than happy to share some here if you like. If you’ve got more specific questions, let me know.

In fair warning most of my work is based on intuition more than studies, so my ability to articulate any sort of process is limited.

Attempt to Articulate Process 1.0

1. I start with motion and shapes. My goal with this is to capture the tone and mood of the piece as a whole. (Since I nearly always feature a hyper-emphasized subject rather than multiple subjects or environment pieces, usually this part is shown in a person I am drawing and what they are doing/preoccupied with.)

Sometimes I use lines/line art to capture these, sometimes I just select parts of my canvas to block out in different colors or paint in broad, clean strokes.

Here’s an example of this in an old draft for @ddeck ‘s Jedi OC:

Breakdown: You can see I have used both lines (in the background skeleton you can still see traces of, as well as the face and shoulder of the clothes, defining finer details) and colors in blotted, blocky, or clean shapes (the majority of the subject). The motion lines are complimentary in opposing directions, shown in the blowing hair and growing vines. The gaze of the viewer is drawn by the perspective and focal points of finer details in the piece, complex shapes or lines (hands, face, seams in the clothes, etc.).

2. While finalizing my motions and shapes to build on, I pay attention to voids and contrasts for what’s being viewed/communicated to come through clearly at a glance:

The shape of a subject can be emphasized by rotating it or stylizing the shapes themselves to leave spaces where the background will come through (voids). I think of this a lot like carving clay, using perspective and paint/eraser alternating to get dramatic shapes. The colors used can be contrasted as well to emphasize depth of a subject. Here’s another example:

Breakdown: There are plenty of voids both large and small to carve out the shape of this OC creature from the background. Additionally, the color of the background and accents to the creature contrast strongly while emphasizing the motion in the piece, to carve that silhouette out even further. Fun-ish Fact: Sometimes I give the impression of lines without there being any, by leaving gaps in the base colors of the subject where line art would define the shape of, say, crossed arms or the contouring of a subject. Basically I use void lines instead of line art, sometimes.

Here’s an example of steps 1 & 2 in a piece I’m currently working on:

3. After that it’s just lighting, detailing, and shading all the way. Here’s where it usually gets wild for me, because I rarely approach this the same way. The one thing I always do is add another layer to repaint over what I had before.

I either paint in simple, broad, low-opacity strokes after selecting the parts of the subject I want to be affected by the color and texture I’m using, or in tiny, boldly solid strokes that come together for an impression. Here’s an example of each:

Primarily broad strokes:

Primarily detailed strokes, ad nauseam:

Worth Noting: Backgrounds aren’t my forte. For them, I tend to use broad strokes and focus on setting a mood with the colors, shapes, motion, and textures, and using both to highlight the shape of the subject. Sometimes I will throw in a little spice of details in the background for accents or symbolism, but usually I prefer if they’re geometric thematic mood-setters or flat color shapes. You can see this in all of the above examples.

This isn’t comprehensive, and all this is for my digital art pieces that don’t take as much time to make, but I hope it’s helpful as a starting reference.

Thanks again for asking!

[renlyslittlerose]

Kinktober Day 19 - Semi-Public

For anon who requested: Sneaky sex? (Like, under the skirt, while sitting on his lap sex, right in front of her salad deal) 🥗

In a Theatre - 2,116 Rating: E Content: Established Relationship / Explicit Sexual Content / Semi-Public Sex / Dry Humping / Grinding / Lap Sex / Anal Sex / Top Obi-Wan Kenobi / Bottom Anakin Skywalker / can't take these two anywhere / Obi-Wan Kenobi Goes to the Opera

A/N: I know when I say theatre in the SW universe people are gonna think of that scene with Palps talking about ~The Tragedy, but in my little universe I'm picturing the booth they are in to be more like the ones they have in those old, gorgeous theatres in Europe. More intimate and dark. But hey, if you want to imagine them more in the open just going to down, go for it!

---

‘I can just sit on your lap.’

Obi-Wan knew he should have said no - especially when Anakin said it with such a look of delight on his face, eyes bright and lips curled in a smug little smirk as he waggled his brows. Obi-Wan was almost going to say no, that he could find his own seat in the concert hall and that it was his own fault he hadn’t booked a ticket ahead of time. But then he thought about how easily he could throw Anakin’s smugness back at him; pull the proverbial rug out from beneath him and agree to the half-joking proposition.

It had almost been worth it, too. When he had agreed, Anakin's face paled slightly, his eyes going wide as he asked for Obi-Wan to repeat his agreement. But instead of calling Anakin’s bluff Obi-Wan had only goaded Anakin on further, neither one of them willing to just give in and admit defeat.

And thus Anakin sat down on Obi-Wan’s lap in the small, intimate booth Obi-Wan had booked months in advance so he could watch his favourite rendition of ‘The Brief Reign of Future Wraiths’.

It wasn’t rare that Anakin found his way on to Obi-Wan’s lap, the pair sharing warmth or casual intimacy as they desperately sought comfort in a world that seemed increasingly keen to take it from them. Anakin didn’t really fit like he used to, his limbs too long, his chest too broad, and his head no longer tucked beneath Obi-Wan’s chin easily, the two of them having to shift and grunt their way into some semblance of comfort. But it was worth it in the end in order to feel Anakin close, even if he did weigh too much and made Obi-Wan’s ass go numb.

But in the theatre it was a different matter. Anakin had dressed up for the event, his Jedi robes abandoned in favour of loose flowing robes of dark blue and turquoise, the sleeves and chest embroidered with exotic plants from the famous gardens of Theed. It fit snug around his waist and tight along his shoulders, the tailoring bringing out just how broad and lean Anakin had become over the years, youthful awkwardness giving way to the steadiness of adulthood. He’d bothered to comb and style his hair, messy curls now made into soft ringlets that bounced with each step and nod of his head. He smelled like perfumes, soft and sweet, and when he turned slightly the light caught the sheen of highlight applied to the tops of his cheeks.

Just as the villain was exposing his plan to the audience in a raucous song Anakin started moving once more, his underside pushing down on to Obi-Wan’s lap in deliberately slow motions, rubbing the soft fabrics of Obi-Wan’s trousers against his length. Turning slightly he rested his cheek against the side of Obi-Wan’s head, one hand coming up to cup the other cheek, locking Obi-Wan in place.

“Anakin…” he said, trying to sound in control but failing terribly when a pitiful moan slipped past the edges of his teeth.

“I opened myself up before I came,” Anakin whispered.

The performers were now leaping about the stage, the orchestra whirling away on their instruments as sounds of fake cannon-fire broke through the theatre, delighting the captive audience. And all the while Anakin kept moving, rotating his hips in a way that made Obi-Wan’s cock harden. Biting down on Anakin’s shoulder, Obi-Wan tried very hard to pay attention to the show, but was beginning to come undone the more Anakin wiggled.

Though they were in a single-seat balcony box and tucked away in the shadows, Obi-Wan was still hyper aware of the fact that they were in public. Should anyone accidentally stumble into his booth they’d see it all: two Jedi, Generals of the Republican Army and war heroes in their own rights, fucking like depraved animals who couldn’t keep control of themselves.

The thought only made Obi-Wan want to do it more.

Especially when Anakin started panting and arching, writhing on top of Obi-Wan without shame or decency.

“C’mon, Obi-Wan, fuck me,” he said, his voice breaking through the swell of music and the high-note reached by one of the performers. “Got all dressed up for you and everything.”

“You mean you had Padmé dress you up.”

“It was still work.”

Obi-Wan bit his neck then, nipping at the taught cords. Anakin moaned obscenely and pushed down even harder.

Obi-Wan was leaking fully now, spilling into the front of his trousers as he started to buck up into Anakin. The dense smell of Anakin’s musk started to blend in with the perfumes, the heat of his body pressing into Obi-Wan’s muscles and sinking into his bones, filling him with reckless stupidity.

“Pull your robes away,” Obi-Wan begged against Anakin’s neck.

Anakin stood then, depriving Obi-Wan of his warmth and weight, but it was only for a moment, his hands working quickly beneath his robes as he set to removing whatever layers he needed to. As he did so Obi-Wan slipped his own trousers down, the banding hooked around his thighs as his cock sprung free. Stroking himself he spread his seed along his length, hissing as the cold air mixed with the brush of his hand and the slick of his precome. Glancing around, he made sure no one was paying attention to the pair, before he grabbed Anakin and shoved him back down onto his lap.

The touch of Anakin’s skin against his cock made Obi-Wan grunt in pleasure, and he bit into the back of Anakin’s neck as Anakin started grinding again, hips twitching back and forth and around and around, painting Obi-Wan’s messes along his skin. Fumbling around Anakin’s chest, Obi-Wan found an opening and slipped his hand in-between the folds of Anakin’s robes, finding his pec and squeezing it before playing with his nipple.

Anakin groaned and reached around to cup the back of Obi-Wan’s head, his touch a little unkind as he tugged and pulled at Obi-Wan’s hair, breaking it loose from its styled hold. Licking a stripe along Anakin’s neck, Obi-Wan went back to observing the show as they continued to move together.

They were nearing the middle of the second act and quickly approaching the meeting between the lovers, just before they would be pulled apart by the villain who would quickly make a mockery of their love. The serenade between the two lovers had always been a favourite of Obi-Wan’s, and he closed his eyes and rocked up into Anakin, enjoying how the singers’ voices blended with the sweetness of Anakin’s moans.

But before he could fully relax Anakin was moving again, sitting up slightly as he rearranged his robes. Obi-Wan caught a flash of Anakin’s ass in the darkness of the space, and he resisted the urge to pitch forward and bite into the flesh. Instead he braced the base of his cock and bit the inside of his cheek, just as Anakin sunk down on him while the lovers embraced on the stage.

Anakin was hot and tight around his length, his thighs braced above Obi-Wan’s own, the pair joined in a way that Obi-Wan never got sick of. It had taken some time for Anakin to be able to take all of Obi-Wan’s cock, but it had been worth the patience and training to be able to be fully encased within. Anakin wasted no time and once again resumed his prior movements, grinding Obi-Wan in as deep as he could go as he wiggled and whimpered on Obi-Wan’s lap.

His hand slipped back into Anakin’s robes and he grasped his neck, curling his hand around it to feel every gasp and swallow, the flex of the tendons and the dip of the knot on his throat. With heavy-lidded eyes and a cock-drunk mindset Obi-Wan went back to watching the performers, biting down on Anakin’s shoulder and making the fabric soppy with his spit any time Anakin squeezed down on him.

“Force, you’re so warm,” Obi-Wan said, his toes curling in his boots as Anakin whimpered, the sound of it carrying through to his cock. Thrusting up, he shoved himself in further. “So warm and tight around my cock. You’ve been waiting for this all day, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” Anakin whimpered. “Couldn’t wait to get you inside of me. Thought about your cock peeking out from your robes in the middle of the theatre, unashamed and just there - for me, to please me, to be inside of me.”

“You’re such an eager boy, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Want my cock all the time?”

“Every single second. Wish I could have you inside me all the time, stretching my hole or filling my throat.”

Anakin’s eyes were closed and his head had fallen back, his moans mixing with the sounds from the stage below. Grabbing Anakin’s jaw, Obi-Wan turned his head back to the stage.

“Enjoy the show - I paid good money for my ticket,” he said.

Anakin let out a soft sigh and leaned forward, hands gripping the edge of the balcony. The new angle blocked Obi-Wan’s view of the stage, but it gave him a better angle. Gripping Anakin’s hips he held him in place and started thrusting up, slamming his cock in and out of Anakin at a rapid pace. Anakin’s moans matched the beat of the drums and the wail of the strings in the orchestra, mixing with the highs and lows of the singers as they belted out their undying adoration and obsessive love for one another.

A few more thrusts and Obi-Wan felt Anakin coming, his walls squeezing down on Obi-Wan’s cock, locking him in place. He continued to move despite the ache in his thighs and low-back, desperate to pleasure Anakin through it all. Anakin continued to pulse and quiver, and didn’t stop for some time, his orgasm curling and splicing through his body again and again until he fell back on Obi-Wan.

Sunk deep inside Anakin, Obi-Wan came as well. He kissed and nipped at Anakin’s stretched neck as Anakin pet the back of his head, happy little puffs of laughter slipping past his lips as he coaxed Obi-Wan on further, dragging every little bit of his orgasm from him that he could. As soon as he was done he collapsed back in the chair, arms limp around Anakin’s waist.

The orchestra had quieted then, the stage sombre as the second act was complete.

They dressed quickly as the lights came on for intermission, movement heard throughout the theatre. Tucking himself back into his trousers, Obi-Wan tried to cover up the obvious wet stain on the front with his own dress robes, but when he looked back up at Anakin he realized that it was useless to try and hide what they’d done. His curls were mussed up, cheeks flushed, and sweat plastered his hair down along his temples and the sides of his neck. There was no denying anything when Anakin looked like he’d just been thoroughly fucked.

That, or gotten into a fight with a Bantha and only narrowly won.

“Did you want something from the refreshment booth?” Anakin asked casually.

“You’re seriously going to go out there looking like that?” Obi-Wan asked.

“I’m not going to sit through another act without a stiff drink, Obi-Wan.”

Obi-Wan sighed. It was so difficult to get the youths these days interested in culture.

[melishade]

Attack on Prime Future Anthology: Therapy

Main Story

Christmas

Long Overdue

Boxing

Music IV

Everyone is finally going to therapy. Be warned. Heavy topics ahead.

Optimus found himself in that same place again, the place where the power of the titans had ended. He was staring down Eren once more, defeated, heartbroken, but accepting of his duty, of his role and responsibility. He gripped the Star Saber in his servo before charging at Eren. He remembered going through the motions of that final battle, throwing beams of energy at him, cutting off one of his arms.

But when he ran and dealt the final blow, ramming the Star Saber through Eren's titan form, he gasped in horror when the blade of the weapon was through the neck of Eren's human form instead of his titan form. The black armor and jagged teeth were replaced by trembling lips and pale, bloodstained skin. Optimus felt his whole body shake as tears fell down Eren's face. The teen had gripped the sword with his own hands, trying to get the blade out of his neck, but Optimus was locked in. He couldn't take the blade out.

Blood poured out of Eren's neck and mouth as he looked at Optimus with pleading eyes. "W-wh-!" Eren coughed and wheezed in pain. "W-hy? D-ad, wh-y-!"

Optimus gasped in horror as he shot up the berth, awakening from that horrible nightmare. He looked around and found himself in one of the rooms on the Nemesis. The Autobots have still been using the ship to help out with relief efforts, and have made it into their temporary base for the time being. The Prime looked down at his trembling servos before wiping his optics to relieve the tension that he was feeling. He wanted to tell himself that it was a trick of the mind, a nightmare that was over, but that nightmare was caused by a reality that he created. And it's a nightmare that's been happening for a few weeks now.

Optimus got up from the berth and opened the door to leave his room. He walked down the halls of the Nemesis, which had been cleared of majority of the humans. However, there were still many of them left without homes or family members to stay with, so the Decepticon warship was their home for the time being.

Optimus pressed the button to another room and saw Bumblebee using the energon processor in the lab. The Autobot patiently watched the crystal turn into a liquid, resting his elbow against the table and his chin on his servo.

Bumblebee's optics rotated when the door had closed behind Optimus before turning his attention to the Prime. "Hey, Optimus."

“I did not realize you were awake,” Optimus remarked.

“Yeah, well I’m pulling an all nighter,” Bumblebee sighed in defeat as he showed Optimus the files on the data pad, “The whole situation with Cyclonus opened up a slew of connections to other Decepticons that Cyclonus was trying to employ. There are a few that are currently imprisoned on a ship called the Alcamore and I'm going over, but some of these aren't as severe compared to crimes like Starscream and Shockwaves. I'm thinking of making an appeal."

"Then I shall leave you to your duty," Optimus declared as he turned around.

"You came in here for energon, right?" Bumblebee gestured to the machine, "Sit. I'll make you some."

"I do not want to distract you," Optimus insisted.

Bumblebee smirked, "It's been four years since I've gotten to talk to you. I want you here."

Optimus couldn't help but feel touched before deciding to sit across from Bumblebee. "Do you require any assistance?"

"Don't worry. I've got it," Bumblebee reassured with a wave of his servo, "Honestly I should just put this aside for a while."

Bumblebee shut down the datapad just as the energon processor beeped, signaling it was done. The lieutenant pulled the container out of the machine before grabbing two cubes and pouring the contents of it into two glass cubes. Bumblebee handed one of them to Optimus before raising his in a toast.

"To all nighters!" Bumblebee grinned.

"To all nighters," Optimus echoed back in kind before the two drank from their respective glasses.

"So what are you doing up so late?" Bumblebee couldn't help but ask. Bumblebee was surprised when he noticed something. Optimus had flinched at the question. His servo had tightened a little around glass.

"I was...unable to sleep," Optimus admitted.

Bumblebee couldn't help but feel pity at Optimus' confession. Part of him felt guilty for pressing, but he felt like he needed to. Optimus had changed so much since they had last seen each other. He was more open and vulnerable, and the Prime was no doubt suffering through his own losses. "Was it...because of a nightmare?"

Bumblebee was stunned to see the mask slip once more before it went right back up.

"I do not wish to discuss it," Optimus declared, "It is not something that I want to burden you with."

Bumblebee was already making speculations in his own mind about what those nightmares were about. But a name did come to mind: Eren Jaeger. It's been over six months since Eren had died, since Optimus had killed Eren, and the act has brought Optimus nothing but grief and torment. Optimus' outburst when Eren was brought up nearly costed them the peace treaty. Something needed to be done about it.

"You know," Bumblebee began, "You could...talk to someone about these nightmares and how you're feeling."

Optimus didn't say anything, but Bumblebee continued. "All of us have been going to therapy, since the war ended. We're finally in an environment where we can confront our trauma in a healthy manner. The most popular one is Rung. I can give you his contact info and you can-!"

"I do not want to," Optimus cut him off.

"If you're worried about the whole Optimus Prime situation, Rung won't say anything. I promise," Bumblebee reassured.

"I do not want to go to therapy," Optimus declared.

"Optimus, I think it would be good for you," Bumblebee insisted.

"The information I know and the burdens that I bare are not meant for anyone else," Optimus retorted.

"You don't have to tell them everything. Just one thing at a time," Bumblebee pressed.

"I cannot," Optimus declared, doing his best to remain calm.

"...I'm sorry, Optimus, but why?" Bumblebee pleaded, "You've been through enough, more than anyone else that we know. You could really use this. You need this. You don't have to think about leading us right now. We can wait for you. You can just focus on yourself."

Optimus didn't have a reply to that, so Bumblebee continued, wanting to get a confirmation that Optimus would take up his offer. "I know that it's been six months since that day that you had to-!"

The nightmare version of Eren flashed through his mind before crushing the glass cube in his servo, spilling energon all over the table. Optimus was stunned his reaction while Bumblebee was already on his pedes. Optimus quickly collected himself before standing up.

"I will not be going to therapy," Optimus declared coldly before standing up and leaving the room. He didn't even bother to wipe the energon from his servo as he stepped outside. Meanwhile, Bumblebee stared at the mess that Optimus had made, seeing his reflection in the energon. He wanted to help his leader and friend, but...he was certain he just made it worse. He didn't mean to. He didn't want to, but...he did.

========

Something was clearly wrong with Optimus, and it's been going on for the past few days.

In all their years of knowing Optimus, Hanji could tell when Optimus was in a bad mood. But this seemed serious. Optimus was forcing a smile, keeping conversations short, refusing to engage with world leaders like Willy Tybur. And he just didn't seem to want to sleep. He looked so exhausted.

But one thing that Hanji did notice, was that Optimus was actively avoiding Bumblebee. Which was strange. Optimus and Bumblebee seemed to be on pretty good standing with each other, but now things seemed to be rather tense. Like Optimus was trying to avoid Bumblebee every time he tried to talk to him. They weren't sure if they should ask, but....it was time for an interrogation.

"Bumblebee, hello!" Bumblebee jolted when Hanji landed on his shoulder with their 3D gear, "How have you been?!"

"Oh! I'm...fine," Bumblebee answered.

"Hmmm. I doubt that," Hanji accused, causing Bumblebee to flinch, "What's wrong? You can tell little old me."

"I don't really know you that well," Bumblebee reminded.

"Then it's the perfect time to get to know each other," Hanji proclaimed, "Tell me, do you have a favorite food?"

"I know when someone's trying to interrogate me. I've been in that situation one too many times," Bumblebee explained.

"Boo! You're no fun!" Hanji jeered, "But I'm serious. What's wrong? You and Optimus have been acting strange around each other. It's unlike the both of you."

"It's that obvious?" Bumblebee sighed in defeat.

"I've studied Optimus for years, I've annoyed Megatron for years, and my best friend is Levi," Hanji listed, "When you're surrounded by people like that, you can read anyone else."

Bumblebee sighed in defeat. "I recommended therapy to Optimus, and he said no."

"I doubt that it ended with just 'no'," Hanji assumed. Bumblebee's rather despondent expression answered their question, "What is therapy exactly?"

"Basically, it's a way to talk to someone about your problems and they psychoanalyze you to figure out what's wrong and determine how to make you better," Bumblebee explained.

"Oh, I think I've heard about that through your human allies," Hanji recalled, "But this is Optimus we're talking about. He harbors the weight of the world on his shoulders and refuses to let anyone else harbor that burden."

"...then he's probably never going to do therapy," Bumblebee lamented, "Especially not for me."

"I wouldn’t say that," Hanji chided before an idea formed into their head, "But I have an idea."

===

Later on Earth

"You want us to go to therapy?!" Sasha asked Hanji in confusion as the Survey Corps, Warriors, Jack ,and Miko were seating in the recreation area of Unit E. However, Jean and Rafael were missing from the group.

"Yes, for Optimus!" Hanji declared.

"Don't care. I'm out." Annie stood up and walked down the steps.

"Coward!" Hanji shouted, "No one else is leaving or I'm jumping them!"

"Wait a minute, what even caused this to happen?" Jack asked in confusion.

"See, I spoke with Bumblebee, and he told me he recommended therapy to Optimus, which Optimus has refused because he doesn't know how to take care of himself," Hanji explained.

"Can attest. I had to coerce Optimus into washing himself every few weeks." Levi raised his hand.

"It does look like he hasn't slept in a while, and he's refused to talk to Willy," Historia added.

"Dude's probably still wrecked over the fact that he killed Eren," Ymir stated, "He almost blew the peace treaty because of it."

"But how would us going to therapy help Optimus go to therapy?" Pieck asked in confusion, "As far as I'm concerned, Bumblebee worked with Optimus for millions of years and Optimus said no to him."

"Well to see all of his friends go to therapy could give him the moral support he needs to go himself," Hanji insisted, "And also, Optimus has a very different dynamic with the Autobots compared to us. There are expectations with the Autobots because of his status as a Prime. We don't give a shit about that."

"Not to mention, all of you guys need therapy," Jack declared, "None of you guys are sane."

"I would consider myself sane!" Hanji proclaimed.

"Hanji, that's a terrible joke," Erwin said, earning a glare from the Commander.

"You guys have been through so much trauma, at this point. Therapy shouldn't even be about Optimus. It should be about you," Jack explained.

"Does therapy help?" Armin asked.

"It does," Miko answered, "We've been going to therapy ever since we became agents. But it was also because Jack's mom insisted we do."

"Good decision, honestly. We love the Autobots, but we've been in too many life and death situations," Jack said.

"Doesn't help that the one who caused majority of our traumatic experiences is running around on another planet!" Miko glared at Hanji.

"Okay, I will take fault for that," Hanji relented.

"I mean...is it...safe?" Falco couldn't help but ask.

"Is therapy safe?" Miko almost laughed, earning an elbow jab from Jack.

"It's never been safe for Eldians to admit how they truly feel, lest they be shipped off to Paradis and turned into titans," Pieck reminded Miko in a cold tone.

"Sorry," Miko apologized.

"Therapy sounds like weakness. I don't want to go," Gabi declared.

"I get it. It can be nerve wracking to admit certain things about yourself to a person you don't know, but it's good and the doctor is obligated by law to not saw anything about your conversation," Jack explained.

"...Jean mentioned it to me," Mikasa spoke up, "He says it's been helpful."

"What's been helpful?" Jean asked as he walked up the steps.

"Therapy," Hanji answered.

"Oh yeah, therapy's great," Jean agreed.

"Really?" Sasha asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I go to group therapy with a bunch of U.S. war vets who've also lost their limbs." Jean gestured to his prosthetic leg, "We talk about our experiences and the recovery process and sometimes we get food."

"Oh we can get food?!" Sasha exclaimed.

"That's more exclusive to group therapy, I think. Not individual appointments," Jean explained.

"Did you run into Raf?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, he looked tired when I ran into him when he finished his therapy appointment. He looked tired, said 'Don't talk to me', and drank a giant cup of coffee," Jean explained.

"Yeah, Raf doesn't talk about therapy. He's the most messed up out of us three," Miko proclaimed.

"But it helps?!" Hanji pressed.

"Yeah, it's just nice to talk to someone with a similar experience and not get demeaned for being vulnerable," Jean answered, "It's also nice to talk to some people with sanity!"

"Good, so we should all do it!" Hanji addressed the rest of them, ignoring Jean's jab at them, "I am willing to schedule an appointment! Who's with me?!"

Everyone else muttered nervously, causing Hanji to groan. "C'mon! Jean said it was good! Listen to him!"

"It doesn't have to be consistent," Jack reassured, "You guys can just do one therapy session to get a feel for it. If you don't like it, then you don't have to schedule another appointment."

"...Just one?" Armin asked.

"Just do one! For Optimus!" Hanji pleaded.

Mikasa remembered the day Optimus had arrived at her door and how he broke down in fronts. She remembered his tears and his apologies, and the pain that he felt and is still feeling. He needs help. Now more than ever. "I'll do it. I'll do therapy."

"...Fine. But just one," Levi informed.

"Yes!" Hanji cheered.

"Do we have to?" Gabi asked Pieck, "Can we just not do it like Annie?"

"You know how Annie is. But therapy might be good for you," Pieck insisted, "We've been through a lot, and I'm sure that you want to talk to someone about how you feel."

Gabi looked down in guilt.

"And wouldn't it be liberating to finally talk about it?" Pieck asked, "This is a luxury none of us thought we could ever have: to be truthful without consequences."

Gabi thought it over and sighed. "Fine. But I'll just waste time."

"Gabi," Pieck warned her.

"Okay, I'm calling our therapist, Dr. Hernandez. She's the one that knows the most about the situation since we've been telling her about it in therapy," Jack said as he opened his phone.

"She's not going to be happy about that," Miko told him.

"I know, but they need it," Jack declared, "And if this somehow helps Optimus. It'll be worth it."

======

A few days later

Armin opened the door and stepped into an office. He was told that this was the place where the therapy appointment was supposed to take place, and it looked surprisingly cozy. There were two soft chairs facing each other with a table separating the two. On the table, was a desert plant in a vase and a box of tissues. There was a long couch right behind the chair with a pillow on the end of it. There was also a round beige rug under the two chairs. No windows were in the room. No rays of sunlight. It was just four plain walls with a few paintings of plants hanging on each one.

Armin flinched when he heard the door open behind him and turned to see a woman in a lab coat and combat boots step into the room. She had a light brown skin complexion, and dark wavy hair tied in a low ponytail. She held a notebook and clipboard in her hand, and when she went to look at her clipboard, Armin saw a scar over her left eye, with the cornea scratched out.

"Armin...Arlert? Am I pronouncing that right?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's correct," Armin replied and the woman held out her hand and smiled.

"My name is Dr. Isabel Hernandez. I'm an MD that received my credentials from Northwestern University, and I've been specialist in my craft for ten years now," she introduced herself, "I've heard about your accomplishments on your home planet. The U.S. government commends you for your bravery."

"Thank you." Armin reached out and shook her hand, "What's Northwestern University?"

"It's a prestigious school in the U.S.," Dr, Hernandez explained, "I usually explain my credentials and qualifications to my patients to put them more at ease."

"Oh," Armin muttered.

"I have been caught up on the situation from reports and eye witnesses, so I do have an fairly decent understanding," she explained, "Please take a seat and we can get started on our session."

"Okay." Armin couldn't help but be nervous as he sat down in one of the chairs, the one that was on his left. The therapist took the seat on the right before pulling out her notebook and opening it.

"So what brings you into my office today?" she asked.

=========

"Our Commander, Hanji Zoe, insisted that we all do at least one session of therapy," Mikasa explained, "They said that it was because Optimus was refusing to go to therapy when Bumblebee insisted he do."

"So you're doing this because of Optimus Prime?" Dr. Hernandez asked, "Did you feel obligated or pressured into doing this because of Hanji Zoe's insistence?"

Mikasa thought it over. "Not entirely...no..." Mikasa found herself picking at the fabric of her skirt. "I had actually heard about it through Jean. He recommended it to me, and...I've thought about it for a while. I've...just been putting it off."

"Was it something that was intentional?" she asked.

"No...I don't think so," Mikasa answered, "I've been getting physical therapy. I've had to get some skin grafting for my arms. And then I've been helping out with repairs from the damage from the Rumbling."

"I did ask Nurse Darby for some of the basic information regarding your medical notes, and she told me that you didn't come to Earth to get treatment until over a month later," Dr. Hernandez explained as she looked at her clipboard, "What prompted you to wait to receive treatment?"

"I...I just wanted to be left alone after the Rumbling," Mikasa admitted, "I was tired. I didn't want to fight anymore."

"But you came back," Dr. Hernandez stated, "Why?"

"...it was because of Optimus," Mikasa admitted.

"It does sound like part of you believes you're doing this as a form of repayment for Optimus," Dr. Hernandez stated, "Therapy shouldn't be a form of repayment for someone else. It's for your own health and benefit."

"It's a lot more complicated than that," Mikasa admitted.

"Would you be willing to explain?" she asked.

Mikasa looked down at her hands. "I...I abandoned my comrades and went home. I just wanted to live in peace...but I couldn't...Armin and the others...they came to try and bring me back...I refused...."

Mikasa waited for the woman to interrupt her, but she didn't. She was patiently waiting for her to finish her story. "I...I was tired....I was so tired of everything."

A memory of the knife in her hands flashed through her mind and she felt an immense amount of guilt. "I tried to end it all...but Optimus found me..." Tears formed in her eyes. "And he was....so devastated...he was in pain...they were all in pain. How could I think of leaving them?"

Dr. Hernandez handed Mikasa a box of tissues as she started crying. Mikasa took a few and wiped her tears before blowing her nose out. "Mikasa, I do have to ask a series of questions now that you've admitted that you've attempted to take your life."

"But that was only one time!" Mikasa insisted, "I haven't wanted to take my life since!"

"So you haven't attempted suicide again?" Mikasa shook her head.

"Have you had suicidal thoughts?" Mikasa shook her head.

"Any signs of depression?" Mikasa paused at that before nodding her head.

"Then we're going to have to dig deeper into that," Dr. Hernandez declared, "I'm sorry, but it is standard procedure."

Mikasa nodded in response, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy at that.

========

"I lost my best friend!" Sasha broke down into tears, "Connie died in my arms and I had to bury him and I know it's been months now, but it still hurts! My skills couldn't help him! I couldn't save him! And Eren was the one who killed him!"

Dr. Hernandez was a little taken aback by the outburst but quickly recollected herself before handing Sasha a box of tissues. "Eren Jaeger was once your comrade, correct?"

"We all used to be friends!" Sasha yelled, "I just don't get why he would do it! All this time I thought it would be some sort of misunderstanding! We all fought together! Ate together! Slept under the same roof! And he still attacked us!"

"You are taken off-guard because you never expected this kind of betrayal from a friend," Dr. Hernandez said.

"I don't get it! Did he want to destroy the world more than being by our side?!" Sasha demanded. Dr. Hernandez didn't flinch as Sasha grabbed the potted plant and threw it at the wall, shattering the vase to pieces and getting dirt on the ground.

=======

"So you are not doing this because your Commander insist that you do?" Dr. Hernandez asked Erwin.

"Hanji used to be my subordinate. I'm certain I could get them in line if I pushed too far," Erwin proclaimed, "No, I'm doing this because...I harbor a tremendous amount of guilt. I've lead many of my comrades to their deaths for my own selfish desires, lying to others and myself saying it was for the sake of humanity."

"I see. I have heard through the reports that a few of you believed humanity to be extinct," Dr. Hernandez recalled.

"I had suspected that humanity wasn't extinct, and I joined the Survey Corps in order to confirm those suspicions," Erwin admitted.

"You joined a military branch with the highest mortality rate to confirm a suspicious?" Dr. Hernandez raised an eyebrow at that, "Can you explain what caused you to make a decision like that?"

"....My ignorance had gotten my father killed when I was a young boy," Erwin admitted.

======

"You were an orphan on the streets, taken in by a cult and worshipped as a deity, arrested, tortured, locked in what was essentially a prison for sixty years, regained your humanity by eating someone, and then you joined the military because you heard about an illegitimate heir who later became your wife," Dr. Hernandez recapped.

"Yeah, that's my whole life story," Ymir shrugged.

"I'm concerned with the rather flippant attitude you're giving me," Dr. Hernandez confessed.

"Look, I don't know what else to say here," Ymir confessed, "My case is weird, and I doubt that you can help me resolve all of that."

Dr. Hernandez put a hand over her mouth. "Well I can't help with the sixty years of imprisonment, but I have given therapy to former cult members. So if you want, we can discuss your life during that time and discuss any deep seated trauma the cult might have given you."

Ymir sighed at that. "Well, I was used as a scapegoat for the cult when we got arrested. So I guess I can unpack all that."

========

"I don't really enjoy being the Queen of Paradis," Historia admitted, "Frankly, it was a responsibility forced on me because my father wanted to keep humanity ignorant because of the will of one of my ancestors. There are some perks to it. I'm able to use my power to give children homes, and I am respected for having the command of two of the most powerful titans in existence, but I wouldn't mind not having all of this power and responsibility on my shoulders."

"You were never given any proper training for your position. I can imagine the pressures you are experiencing," Dr. Hernandez commented, "Have you been able to communicate with anyone else in your position when you learned of humanity's survival?"

"I have with Emperor Kenshin," Historia explained, "He's older than I am, and has a lot more experience. So I've asked him for advice."

"Well it is good that you've taken a proactive step in reaching out for help," Dr. Hernandez praised.

"But am I going to have to be queen for the rest of my life?" Historia groaned in defeat, "I'm married to Ymir. I'm not going to be producing a biological heir anytime soon."

"There are resources on Earth that I can direct you to regarding different forms of government. Once you feel everything has stabilized, you can reviews these resources and try to implement them yourself," Dr. Hernandez suggested.

"That sounds perfect!" Historia exclaimed with excitement.

"But you have to be careful," Dr. Hernandez warned, "If you don't do this right, a coup can happen, and someone can usurp power from you."

"I understand," Historia nodded.

======

"Hey, look!" Hanji pointed to their eyepatch before pointing to the doctor's damaged eye, "Twins!"

Dr. Hernandez's mouth formed a thin line before writing something down.

"What-uh? What are you writing?" Hanji asked nervously.

"That you deflect your trauma through humor," Dr. Hernandez replied.

Hanji gasped in horror. "I don't do that! I am actually quite open with my emotions! I find it to be very helpful!...Although, there was one time...."

"Hm," Dr. Hernandez hummed in response.

"I didn't deflect my emotions," Hanji insisted, "But I did let my anger get the better of me when I found out about a friend's death at the hands of a temporary ally we made, and in anger I asked Megatron to kill him for me, but when he said no I threw two bottles of whiskey at him."

Dr. Hernandez stared in disbelief before scratching out the note that she had made. "Never mind, you and I are going to have to dig deeper."

"Breaking down my own mind," Hanji grinned, "How fun."

Dr. Hernandez didn't reply as she wrote 'impulsive', 'hyper fixated', and 'reckless' next to each other.

======

Levi didn't say anything. He refused to say a word as he sat across from the therapist in his wheelchair. The two remained in silence for a good few minutes, both staring each other down. Dr. Hernandez broke her gaze as she went to write something down in her notebook.

"Don't you fucking dare write anything down," Levi ordered her, causing her to pause, her pen not even touching the paper. The therapist then set the notebook and pen on the table.

"Okay, how do you want to do this?" Dr. Hernandez asked.

Levi raised an eyebrow at that. "As far as I know, I don't have to tell you shit."

"You're right," Dr. Hernandez shrugged, "We could sit here for 30 minutes in silence and I would still get paid. But I can't force you to do something that you don't want to. It violates HIPAA. In fact, you're more than welcome to leave."

Levi sighed at that. "I'm still...deciding."

"Are you doing this for Hanji's sake, Optimus' sake, or your own sake?" she asked.

"...I don't know," Levi admitted.

"Well we have 20 minutes left when you're ready to answer." Dr. Hernandez checked her watch.

=======

Pieck couldn't help but start tapping her cane nervously as she sat on the long couch. "I've...it's been a while since I've been in a compromising position like this. I try my best to avoid that."

"You lived in an internment zone your whole life before becoming a weapon of the state," Dr. Hernandez recalled, "I can imagine why you would be nervous."

"It's not even just that," Pieck admitted before lying down, "I did...I did everything right. I knew that Marley was a sham and they would probably kill us later down the line, but I still played by the rules because I believed in my comrades who I've fought beside. I did all of this, killed so many people, just so my father could continue living. Sure, my life would have been shortened, but for me, it was a small price to pay."

Pieck's grip on the cane got tighter. "But the Rumbling happened, and my home got crushed. My father no doubt got crushed with it. I've been holding onto a fleeting hope that they might have gotten out, but who am I kidding? They probably got crushed to death. I played by the rules, and my father dies. Annie broke the rules, and her father gets to live."

"Do you resent Annie for that?" Dr. Hernandez asked.

"Yes....no...I don't know," Pieck confessed, "She was given an out and she took it. Who wouldn't in our position? But I...I just want my dad back."

Pieck started crying as she covered her eyes to hide her tears. "Everything I ever did was for nothing."

==========

"My brother and I were forced to become Warriors because of what our uncle did," Colt explained, "It was either we shorten our lifespans for the sake of Marley, or get turned into titans for combat."

"How old were you when you were forced to enlist?" Dr. Hernandez asked.

"Twelve for me. Eight for my brother," Colt answered.

"You've seen too much death and destruction for someone your age," Dr. Hernandez commented.

"Yeah," Colt sighed, "With....the attack on Liberio...twice...the Rumbling...but...I can't help but feel happy."

Colt clenched his fists. "Sure the world got trampled, my parents are dead, but Marley's been destroyed, and I've never been happier. They can't hurt us. They can't hurt me, my brother, or anyone else I care about ever again. And I'm glad their dead."

Colt froze in fear, slowly turning his gaze to the therapist. But she didn't respond to his sinister thoughts. She didn't even write anything down. "I-!"

"Nothing leaves this room," Dr. Hernandez swore to him.

==========

"I lost months of my life," Falco lamented, "I wake up one day, enjoying a festival that was supposed to unite the world against Paradis. The next thing I know, it's a war zone. After that I get shot, I black out, I wake up on another world, and find out that everything that I've ever known is gone. My parents, my home, Reiner and Porco died! And I couldn't do anything about it!"

"Falco, there's not much you could have you," Dr. Hernandez insisted, "Despite your training, you're still a child."

"But I was supposed to die for my country! Yet I'm somehow still alive! What about the people I was fighting for?!" Falco demanded, "And!...And it doesn't help when I caused the Liberio attack in the first place! I aided and abetted the enemy!"

Dr. Hernandez raised an eyebrow at that. "How?"

"I....I got tricked into sending letters to Eren Jaeger's comrades outside the internment zone," Falco sighed in defeat, "I still...I still haven't told anyone I've done it yet. And I don't want to."

"But it sounds like the guilt of keeping this a secret from the people you love is hurting you," Dr. Hernandez concluded, causing Falco to cross his arms and slouch in his chair.

=========

"I'm not saying anything to you!" Gabi declared with a pout, "You can't make me talk!"

"You're talking right now," Dr. Hernandez retorted.

"Shut up!" Gabi yelled at her.

"Gabi, I have already been made aware of the conditions that you've lived under. Understand that this is a safe place where you can express your feelings freely," Dr. Hernandez reassured.

"No!" Gabi spat at her.

"I'm going to have to assume it was because you weren't allowed to express your emotions freely," she assumed, "The others have talked to me about their feelings. This is a safe environment to speak up about your feelings."

"What did they talk about?" Gabi asked.

"I can't say. That'd be violating my oath," Dr. Hernandez answered.

Gabi's arms slowly uncrossed at that. "I know Falco said something mean about me."

"Why would you assume Falco said anything about you at all?" Dr. Hernandez asked.

"Ha! You admitted something! You broke your oath!" Gabi pointed at her.

"I didn't say anything revealing. I asked why you would assume Falco said something about you. From what I could gather, it sounds like you were assuming Falco was going to say something mean about you," Dr. Hernandez accused.

Gabi blushed with embarrassment.

"Why would you assume Falco said something mean about you?" Dr. Hernandez asked again.

"...Because I nearly got him killed," Gabi admitted, "I jumped onto the ship and he followed me to stop me...and he almost died because of it."

=========

“I loved Eren,” Armin confessed, “He was my best friend. My very first one, but…I couldn’t see the signs of his descent to madness. Or…maybe I didn’t want to see it.”

“Why did you not want to see it?” Dr. Hernandez asked as she wrote down ‘survivor’s guilt’ for Armin.

"Maybe I just didn't want to believe it," Armin answered, "Maybe because I didn't want to believe that my friend could ever be that cruel. I never thought his hatred could manifest in that kind of way."

Armin gripped his knees tighter. "Now I just....I hate him now. Or I'm trying to hate him, but I'm just finding myself to be a hypocrite when I do. And I still can't find it in me to hate him. We've been friends longer than enemies, and I tried so hard to help find another solution for him. Why wouldn't he accept another solution?"

"PTSD can manifest differently for each person if left untreated," Dr. Hernandez explained, "Common side effects can include aggression, social isolation, and depression. Eren was clearly traumatized at a young age and was never given the opportunity to grow past that trauma in a healthy way."

"But we were in the same situation!" Armin exclaimed, "We lost our homes! We lost our parents! Our comrades were eaten in front of us! Why did we end up so different?! Why am I still here while Eren isn't?!"

"From what I could gather, Eren Jaeger also possessed a tremendous amount of power at his age. That power, along with his PTSD and the threats of the world, got to his head at some point. He no doubt felt like a cornered animal trying to lash out, constantly trying to justify his actions until he couldn't anymore," Dr. Hernandez explained, "Perhaps there was a gap in understanding because of the power and responsibility he possessed."

"But we still tried to find other solutions!" Armin insisted, "We tried to give Eren a solution that would require the least amount of bloodshed!"

"And you did your part," Dr. Hernandez emphasized, "Armin, from what I could gather, you and your comrades provided Eren opportunities to stand down and find a peaceful solution, which he failed to take. You did your responsibility, but it was Eren who refused to take your offer of peace. You can't blame yourself for him not accepting that offer."

"I'm trying not too," Armin declared, "I...I really am trying. I've disowned him too. But every time I think about it, I feel more hypocritical because I helped save Megatron of all people. Do you realize how messed up that is? I've disowned Eren, but I'm defending Megatron."

"I suppose one could consider that hypocritical," Dr. Hernandez stated, "And I have a negative bias towards Megatron myself, as do many others. However, information I've been given shows that Megatron is taking accountability for his actions, and has actively risked his life for others with no reward in return."

"But I knew Eren my whole life! Megatron I've only known for fours years and most of those years were hostile!" Armin retorted, "I just...this isn't how I wanted things to be. And I'm angry and guilty and ashamed. Because I know that if I somehow managed to convince Megatron to change his mind, then I could have done more for Eren in order to prevent the Rumbling."

Dr. Hernandez sighed as she closed the notebook in her hand. "The unfortunate truth is I can't give you all the answers you want right now. You're showing clear signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety, Inferiority Complex, and Survivor's Guilt. And from experience, it can take a long time to properly manage such diagnoses."

"Not...cure," Armin pressed.

Dr. Hernandez smiled bitterly at that. "That'd be a wish anyone would want. To return to ignorance and innocence. But the reality is that it will always remain with you. No matter how many years have passed, no matter how big the jar gets, the thing that scarred you will always be apart of you. But it's up to you to decide how you handle your trauma. Do you let it harm you and consume you? Or do you take to proper steps to accept what happened and continue onward?"

========

That night

"So...how'd it go?" Jean asked everyone as they sat on the top of the Nemesis, earning groans of defeat from the majority of them.

"It went surprisingly well," Historia smiled.

"Ha! Ha! I'm a terrible person!" Hanji faceplanted into the ground.

"There's no way she actually said that," Miko retorted.

"No, I'm just reflecting on past behavior and I just....haven't been the best?" Hanji confessed.

"Shocker," Levi quipped.

"Apparently I've experienced something called 'religious trauma'," Ymir stated, "And that it led to me having my 'god complex'."

"I found myself admitting things I'm not proud of," Colt admitted.

"...we didn't talk much," Levi stated.

"Agreed," Gabi lied.

"Dr. Hernandez texted me, saying that she hopes you all follow up," Jack informed as he looked at his phone.

"We'll...think about it," Pieck decided.

"What are you all doing up here?" Optimus asked as he walked onto the roof of the ship, "And where have you been? I have had to deal with the Tybur's questioning today."

"Sorry, Optimus," Hanji apologized.

"It's alright, I...I have made it clear that I did not want to be involved with this world's politics," Optimus stated in annoyance.

"I will go and take care of that," Historia promised as she stood up and walked inside the Nemesis.

"Where were the rest of you?" Optimus asked the rest.

"Therapy," Levi stated bluntly.

Armin and Mikasa noticed the way Optimus flinched at that.

"Therapy?" Optimus asked.

"Yeah, I've been going to group therapy on Earth, so I recommended that everyone else go to therapy too," Jean explained.

"It was invasive. I don't like it," Gabi admitted, earning an elbow to the side from Falco.

"Ignore Gabi," Hanji said, "Therapy was good for us. You should try it. I'm sure there are Cybertronian therapists, right?"

"Yeah, but Optimus is also considered dead. Wouldn't the person talk about it?" Jean asked.

"I'm sure there's someone, right?" Hanji asked Optimus, and they noticed how Optimus darted his optics to the side, "So there is someone!"

"Bumblebee....recommended someone," Optimus confessed.

"So why don't you go?" Armin pressed.

"Wow, they are really good at playing dumb," Miko whispered to Jack.

"I..." Jack and Miko were stunned to see how nervous Optimus looked, "I have been busy."

"The Autobots can easily cover your shift," Hanji reminded, "They've done it before. And it's not you like talking to the world leaders. And we only had a thirty minute session."

"I can assure you that-!"

"For fuck's sake, go to therapy!" Levi shouted at him, causing everyone else to scream at Levi, "No fuck it, we are not coddling Optimus or anything like that! You need to go to therapy!"

"Captain, I can assure you that I am fine," Optimus insisted in a strained voice.

"Really?! You killed Eren and you're fine?!" Levi called him out, while everyone else fell dead silent, "All of us know how much that brat meant to you and you're the one that had to kill him! How the fuck are you fine?! All of us know that's a lie! Besides Megatron, you're the most fucked up out of all of us!"

"I am not going." Jack and Miko froze when they noticed the anger in Optimus' voice.

"Bullshit, you are!" Levi ordered, "How are you older than all of us and still acting like a child?!"

"My responsibilities are not yours to bare," Optimus reminded, "And I told you, I am-!"

"You're not fine!" Mikasa shouted, stunning everyone, "Optimus, you're not fine! None of us are! We all lost people we care about! We lost Eren, and it hurts me and it's hurting you and you know that! Denying it isn't going to help you!"

"You could have cost us the treaty with that outburst!" Levi reminded, "You cried over Eren after you killed him! How the hell are we supposed to interpret that?!"

"...There are many factors I would need to consider," Optimus quietly said.

"Then the Autobots can help out with that! I'm sure they'd be happy to do so!" Hanji reminded, "They have to be worried about you too!"

"Yeah, c'mon! We give a shit about you!" Miko chimed in.

"Optimus, please go to therapy. We're begging you," Armin pleaded, "We don't know how else to help you and we don't want your grief consuming you. We love you, and we want you to get better. Just please, please, tell us the truth so we can help you."

Optimus' helm hung low and he clenched his servos. He couldn't go. He didn't want to. He didn't want to confront the truth. He didn't want to be treated differently. He didn't want to admit his own failures as a leader and comrade. He was weak. He was cowardly. And he had to bare this burden alone. That's how it's always been.

But...it was wrong. He knew he wasn't well in his spark. He was in pain. He hadn't been able to sleep. It's been affecting him, and he's just fallen into the habit of trying to hide it. Was there any real need to hide it anymore? The war was over. Humanity was saved. And he was so tired of baring this burden alone. He wanted rest. He wanted release. He...he needed help. He did not want to keep living like this.

"I will...attempt to try-!" Optimus froze when he felt someone on his pedes. He looked down to see Mikasa hugging him as tight as she could, followed by Armin, Jean, Hanji, and Sasha. The Prime had kneeled down and scooped them up in his servos before cradling them close.

"Thank god," Levi sighed with relief, "At least Bumblebee will be happy."

"...we should confirm that he actually attempted therapy," Pieck suggested.

"Agreed," Erwin spoke up.

Miko raised her phone in the air to try and take a picture, but Jack placed his hand atop of the phone and lowered her arms.

========

The Next Day

Rung was quietly meditating in his office. The door was locked, his glasses were off, and his optics were closed. He mimicked breathing, inhaling and exhaling. He slowly let blue light pour out of his chest and dance around him. He focused on nothing, kept his mind calm, letting nothing outside of this room distract him-!

Rung’s colorful optics opened when he heard the familiar ping of his comm. link. The energy around him dissipated, and his optics returned to a cerulean color. It looked like his break was over. The therapist tapped the side of his helm to activate his comm. link. “Hello?”

“Hey, Rung?” A familiar voice greeted.

“Bumblebee, hello!” Rung exclaimed with excitement, “I know our last conversation you said you had to cancel because you found Arcee! And then I heard the Nemesis was taken! What happened?!”

“A lot,” Bumblebee vaguely replied, “Listen, I have a favor.”

“Anything for a friend,” Rung reassured.

“See…I have this…friend.” Rung could tell Bumblebee was choosing his words carefully, “And he’s been a little adamant to come to therapy. Part of it is because he’s afraid you might say something about him to the public.”

“Bumblebee, I am offended!” Rung exclaimed, “I am bound by a code! I do not leak client information!”

“It’s not just that!” Bumblebee insisted, “You…you cannot. And I mean, cannot, tell anyone about this patient!”

“Bumblebee-!”

“I mean it!” Bumblebee cut him off, “He’s putting a lot of trust in me and I really want to help him! You have to promise me you won’t say anything!”

“…You have my word. I will not say a word about this patient to anyone,” Rung declared, “Client confidentiality.”

Bumblebee sighed over the comm. link. “Okay. There’s a space bridge coming to get you.”

“Huh?” Rung jolted when a space bridge opened up behind him, “Who is this patient?!”

“Just come through!” Bumblebee pleaded.

“Fine.” Rung put his glasses on and grabbed his datapad and stepped through the space bridge, “But we’re having our appointment immediately afterwards because you’ve been putting it off for-!”

Rung froze as he made it to the other side of the space bridge. He was on the Nemesis. He could tell. He’s seen the ship up close before. Bumblebee was there in front of him, waving and looking rather nervous. But behind Bumblebee….was…Optimus Prime.

“…I have questions,” Rung stated after a moment of silence.

“Yes and I will answer them during our session, but Optimus could really use your help,” Bumblebee insisted.

“I mean!” Rung hated that he had to ask this question but he whispered to Bumblebee, “Are you certain that’s Optimus Prime?”

“Yes, he used the Star Saber,” Bumblebee whispered back.

“Is this what the call was for?!” Rung exclaimed.

“Yes-!”

“And please, please, don’t tell me Megatron is here too,” Rung pleaded, “Cybertronians have surmised they attract each other like magnets.”

Bumblebee looked rather nervous, confirming Rung’s suspicions. “Don’t tell me I have to give him therapy.”

“You don’t!” Bumblebee declared.

“This was a mistake,” Optimus spoke up, “My status will interfere with the therapy session.”

“Optimus, wait!” Bumblebee begged as he ran up to the Prime to get him to stay in the room. That’s when Rung noticed it. He noticed the Prime’s posture slightly slouched over. His voice sounded exhausted. His digits twitched at an abnormal rate, and his optics flickered.

“Your physical appearance suggests a lack of sleep,” Rung remarked, causing both to look at him, “Possibly insomnia.”

“…yes…” Optimus mumbled.

“For how long?” Rung asked.

Optimus didn’t answer. He refused to do so, averting his gaze from the smaller Cybertronian. Rung glanced over and Bumblebee and walked over to him. He grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him towards the door.

“Stay outside,” Rung ordered as he slammed his fist on the button to open the door, “And don’t run off! We have a long overdue session!”

Rung pressed the button again, shutting the door in front of Bumblebee. Rung turned to the Prime, who stared at him in surprise.

“This is a private session now,” Rung declared as he sat on the floor of the room, crossing his legs, "Sit. Let us begin."

"You...you will not tell anyone else?" Optimus asked him.

"Never," Rung swore, "As a licensed professional, and as someone grateful for your sacrifice, I will not tell anyone what is discussed her. And about you. Please take a seat."

Rung could tell that Optimus looked reluctant, but the Prime mustered up the courage to step forward and sit in front of Rung.

"So, how long have you been experiencing symptoms of insomnia?" Rung asked.

(God this was a long one. Anyway, still making edits to the final chapter. It should be posted by....let's say this weekend.)

[nardo-headcanons]

Writing Scientist Characters

this post is mainly an excuse to post a certain list of lab supplies I've made for a friend and infodump about lab work. but feel free to use this as a little resource when writing characters who are scientists and/or lab nerds. who knows, maybe it'll be of use.

General thoughts

Many people think it's a stereotype that scientist or nerd characters talk using complex technical jargon. While that is true to an extent, there actually is some kind of lab jargon. It varies across different labs and fields, but one thing they have in common is that it seeks to simplify, not the other way around.

gelelectrophoresis becomes elpho

microbiology becomes mibi

deioninized water becomes aqua dist

biochemistry becomes BC

sodium hydroxide becomes NaOH

They will probably not call a glass of water "silicon dioxide and h2o".

...and more. feel free to get creative. If you're writing in any other language than English, you can throw in one or two anglicisms as well. Also, most scientists will never gatekeep their work, and in an opposite fashion, will not shut up about it unless you make them. And no, most chemists do not know the entire periodic table by heart, only the most relevant elements. (main groups and a few commonly used metals of the subgroups) When it comes to characters doing the lab work, keep in mind that there are a lot more people involved than the scientist themself. Most scientists are more occupied with paperwork and data analysis, it is the laboratory technicians and assistants that do most of the practical work. They often have more lab experience than the scientists themselves.

Things you can have your lab nerd character do instead of making random chemicals explode

writing a lab report (and losing their mind over excel)

degreasing the glass bevel stoppers

removing the permanent marker from beakers (labeling is important)

complaining about the lack of funding of [their field] research

cleaning glassware

preparing specimen for examination

googling the most basic equations for their report

checking if the glassware and utensil collections are complete

steal single use plastic pipettes from their lab

pirating expensive textbooks

A list of laboratory supplies and utensils you can have them work with

Laboratory general (chem + bio)

Erlenmayer flasks, beakers, precision scales (3 digits), glass rods, metal spoons/spatulas, screw on glass flasks (autoclave compatible) test tubes, stopcock grease, dispensers with sanitizer and hand cream, gas burners, heating plates, eppendorf pipettes, pipette tips, Peleus pipetting aids, squirting bottles, liquid and powder funnels, incubator/drying chamber, round watch glasses, magnet stirring plates.

Microbiology Autoclave, petri dishes, agar plates, innoculation loops (reusable and metal), clean bench, microscope slides, microscope, drigalski-spatula, test tubes with clamping lids

Histology

Paraffin bath, water bath, scalpels, scissors, razor blades, microtomes (rotating microtome, slide microtome and freezing microtome), histocinette, tweezers (various kinds), ocular

Biochemistry

Sequencing robots, eppendorf tubes, gelelectrophoresis chambers, centrifuge

Analytical Chemistry

Photometer, kuvettes, burettes, mass spectro meters, UV bank (for chromatogrophies), pyknometers, melting point meter, porcelain mortars, pH paper, analytical scales (4 or more digits)

Prep Chemistry

Tripod/standing material, miniature lifting platforms, spiral condenser, colon condenser, round bottom flask (three necked and y- necked), filtration material, Separating funnel

Electrical engineering

Electric generators, Soldering iron, Clamp connectors, plugin connectors, ohm’s resistors, plug in lamps, condensers, transistors, PCBs, amperemeters, voltmeters, multimeters

Mechanics

Tripod/standing material, metal hooks, metal rods, mechanical stop watches, marbles, metal springs, Newton meters, laser motion detectors

Optics

Prisma (various kinds), various glass lenses (concave, convex, biconcave, biconvex), laser pointers, optical bench, mechanical iris diaphragm, looking glasses, monochrome lamps, lamp filters

Most used chemicals

Deionized water, ethanol, NaOH, HCl, H3PO4, NaCl (+ physiological NaCl solution 0.9)

Useful websites for writing science stuff

DNA sequence generator (simple): http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~mmaduro/random.htm

DNA, RNA and protein sequence generator: https://molbiotools.com/randomsequencegenerator.php Annealing temperature calculator: https://tmcalculator.neb.com/#!/main

Medicine name generator: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/medicine-names.php Anything chemistry related: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=chemistry

Commonly used software:

MS Excel

Yenka

CASSY Lab

LabView

SpectraLab

LIMS

LaTex

Slack

Scientist friends, feel free to add onto this.

Have fun writing!

[mildcharacterenjoyer]

Thought about Gemerl having to rescue Omega from Eggman.

YES! I was thinking about this too! You could go either way, Gemerl saving Omega or Omega saving Gemerl, but I LOVE this one specifically. You know Omega. He's so proud, high, and mighty and the fact that he has to rely on Gemerl's help is so aggravating to him. Like all his limbs are detached somewhere in an Eggman base and Gemerl sneaks in. Lemme just write something real quick.

Unimplied Gratitude

Ships: Gemega (Gemerl/Omega)

Words ~ 2,071 ~

Warnings: Kidnapping, restraints

A figure rockets quietly outside the walls of an Eggman base, dodging cameras and motion sensors. Gemerl is not known to participate in the restoration’s efforts without Cream or Vanilla’s involvement, however this extraction mission is a special case. E-123 Omega has been abducted by a new Eggman creation known as Sage with the intent to either reprogram him or delete his code.

Originally Rouge had been the one who had planned on rescuing him, but Shadow also requested aid. Instead of having Rouge choose between “her boys”, Gemerl decides to perform the E-Series extraction himself. One, because then the gizoid can hold the save over Omega’s ginormous ego and two, something inside of him aches at the possibility of losing his sparring partner.

Despite all the arguments and fights Omega starts, Gemerl decides the overall loss of his presence would be much less than ideal. His emotions regarding the badnik are already complicated enough. He would rather not add sadness to the mix.

By locking onto Omega’s IP Signature, he uses his location systems to determine what distance he is from the signal. Luckily, Eggman didn't seem to care about the security of the room he is in, or powering off the badnik so he couldn't call outside help. Not that Omega would, considering how much pride he takes in referring to himself as the ultimate robot. His awareness acts as a beacon for the Gizoid's sensors, showing him exactly where he is.

Gemerl enters into the building through a vent shaft, taking a few turns and navigating through the maze-like floor plan depicted by his scanners. It is not long before he reaches an air shaft directly above where Omega is kept. He peers through it while surveying the area, relieved to see it is only Omega and no other badniks are inside guarding the door.

It is a pitiful sight however. The E-series robot is limbless, his weapons and legs deposited out of reach on a table in the back corner. Gemerl decides he should limit his teasing for the moment, in case the fragility of their friendship is strained by his jests. With nimble fingers, the gizoid works the air shaft open, barely able to catch it before it drops to the ground and possibly alerting Robotnik to his presence.

Omega’s head follows Gemerl as he drops to the floor and sets the vent panel on a nearby surface. The gizoid speaks first. “Hello there.”

“Gemerl.” Omega’s voice is quieter than he is used to, but whether this is because of the hushed conversation or a wounded hubris he is not sure. He takes a second to see if the badnik has anything else to say, then walks closer to him when he doesn't.

“How are you doing?” Gemerl asks, throwing glances all around the room to look for possible traps or cameras.

“My movements are limbited.” Omega rotates his head back and forth as if to prove his point. Gemerl files the joke away in his black mail folder for later reviewing.

“I can see that. Would you like some help?”

“Is that not why you are here?”

“It is.” Gemerl crosses his arms out in front of him. “I am just hoping to receive a ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ first.”

Omega ignores his request. “Where is Rouge?”

“Currently assisting Shadow.” Gemerl pulls up a nearby chair and sits backwards in it in front of the badnik.

“I see.” Gemerl notes the disappointment interlaced in his voice.

“I told her I would rescue you well before she knew Shadow needed assistance.” It wasn't entirely the truth, but an angry Omega is easier to save than a sad Omega.

“I would not call gloating in front of me ‘rescuing’.” Omega’s eyes flash in irritation.

“If these positions were reversed, you would be gloating the entire time as you rescued me and you know it.” Gemerl points between his eyes teasingly.

“Irrelevant.” The badnik looks off into the middle distance, seemingly embarrassed his sparring partner could see right through him.

For once, the gizoid wishes he could laugh at his ally's misfortune. He pushes the rest of his jests to the side for a moment of sincerity. “How is your central processing unit? Have you received any malware or attempts at reprogramming?”

“Not yet.” Omega looks past Gemerl towards the closed door before meeting his gaze again. “I was threatened with both around two hours ago. Along with my appendages, most of my other systems have been disabled.”

Gemerl looks back at the door and lets his shoulders drop in defeat. As much as he wants to wait until Omega acknowledges his rescue, the time remaining before his captor returns is unknown. “I won't waste anymore time then.” Gemerl rises to his feet and moves the chair out of the way, before kneeling down to inspect Omega’s restraints on the floor.

“There are clamps and chains binding me to the floor.” Omega’s head follows Gemerl as he circles on his hands and knees around Omega’s suspended chassis, looking for points of weakness in his restraints.

“Not just the floor.” The gizoid reaches under the E-Series and taps two thick steel beams where chains and clamps stem from jutting out of the floor. Gemerl swears under his voice box, silently cursing himself for not asking questions about Omega’s captor before playing hero. “Whoever did this does not want you to escape. Sage, right?”

“She proclaims herself to be Eggman’s daughter.” Omega spits the words out of his voice box with malice while Gemerl crawls around underneath, further inspecting the beams. “She calls him Father and then refers to me as a brother in the same sentence as if I were part of my creator’s family! I am enraged at the thought!”

Gemerl knocks on the beams lightly, testing the thickness. “You are enraged by many thoughts.” He taps other specific areas along the beams, pleased to find that they are not as dense as they initially appear to be. His processing unit generates a genius idea and he begins to stand, forgetting to check what might be above him. The tallest spike protruding from in the middle of his forehead clangs suddenly against one of Omega’s thigh joints, and his neck rebounds downwards from the impact.

“Expletive!” Apparently, Omega felt it too.

“Apologies.” Gemerl curls his face inwards and withdraws out from underneath Omega, then jumps to his feet. He is met with an angry glare from the E-Series robot.

“Your spatial awareness is lacking.”

“So is your spatial mobility.” Gemerl fires back. “I did apologize.”

“Your apology does nothing to aid my rescue.”

While ignoring Omega's slight, Gemerl swivels away and makes a bee-line for the desk displaying all of his detached limbs. “Which arm houses your laser?”

“Both are equipped with one.” Gemerl grabs them off the table, then holds the right and left in his respective hands. “Are there any differences between them?”

“Negative.” Gemerl sets the right one down and crawls back underneath Omega on the opposite side of the room. “You do not know how to operate my laser.”

“I would like to. If you would kindly walk me through the process that would be wonderful.” Light sarcasm intertwines with the gizoid's voice.

“There is no time! Reattach my limb and I will cut my own restraints.” Gemerl eyes the angle between Omega’s arm joints and the metal beams, imagining his full range of motion.

“You could cut your own restraints, but you cannot reach the beams or the clamps holding you down. You are too low to the ground to allow enough room to maneuver your forearms into the right position. It would be quicker and safer for you if I perform it from down here with direct access.”

Gemerl is close enough to Omega’s waist to hear his fans start to rotate faster than normal. “Due to our earlier incident, I do not like the idea of you operating a laser below me.”

“As long as you do not distract me, there will be no cause for concern. Now, how do I activate your laser?” Gemerl peeks inside the end that would fit into Omega’s elbow, hoping to become familiar with the layout.

The E-series robot is silent for a second, then gives into Gemerl’s request. “There is a maintenance handlebar located near the inner left wall of the arm. Find it and turn it 60 degrees counter clockwise. This will cycle between weapons to my laser.”

Gemerl does as he is instructed, finding the handle with ease and turning it the correct direction with care. The claws from the arm automatically retract and out pops a single ignition tube. He aims the laser at the edge of the closest steel beam. “How do I fire?”

“The lower arrow on the arm is a flap that can be pulled back. Like a trigger.” Gemerl finds it and digs it out, yanking the flap back. The laser ignites and begins searing through the steel beam. Sparks fly, and Gemerl quickens the pace at which he operates, remembering how noisy these weapons can be. A few seconds later and the first steel beam is cut. He bends one end and pulls out the chains and slides off the clamps that are supporting Omega from one side. 

The disarmed robot begins to lean and Gemerl watches where he stands up this time. He hooks an arm underneath Omega’s waist belt to support him as he works on the next beam from a top down angle. Gemerl feels his own fans begin to heat up at the proximity increase. A notification somewhere along his internal screen depicts Omega's core temperature is rising, so he is sure the E-series isn't doing much better. They can figure out what is causing these effects after Omega is free from danger.

Once the second steel beam is cut, Gemerl kicks in one side and reaches down to pull out the chains and slide off the clamps holding him hostage. Omega’s incapacitated body falls free into Gemerl's hold, chains and clamps clang to the the floor as the gizoid uses his own brute strength to break their hold of the E-series robot.

They are face to face now. Closer than he had ever cared to be to his sparring partner before now at least. Luckily for him, Omega doesn't seem to be in a talking mood anymore. Gemerl walks over to the desk where Omega’s other appendages are and lays him down across the desk. It is then his protests begin again.

“No. No! Pick me up at once. Do not leave me like this!”

Gemerl ignores him and sprints to pick up the Lazer arm he had discarded and lay it with the rest of E-series’ body. Gemerl quickly scans the room, aware that it would take too long to put him back together in enemy territory. He spies a large fabric bag hanging across multiple chairs in a different corner and quickly unfolds it.

“What are you doing?!” Omega’s volume rises from the desk where he is.

“Providing you with transport.” Gemerl opens the bag wide and begins to shuffle all of Omega’s limbs into it. The E-series protests grow with each part of him he packs, until all that's left is his torso and neither regions.

“You are not putting me in there!”

If a gizoid could smile, Gemerl would be grinning. “Maybe if you thank me for rescuing you, I’ll secure the bag below your head so you can enjoy the view.” Omega glares hard at Gemerl for a minute, before the gizoid decides his patience is up. “See you soon.” He stuffs the rest of Omega inside, muffling a string of angry explicit phrases and exclamations.

Gemerl ties off the bag and slings it over his shoulder. It wiggles around comically behind him as he uses a missile to blow a hole in the roof. He fires his jet engines and successfully escapes with Omega in tow. 

—----------------------------------------------------

Orbot hovers next to Sage who is giggling her little head off, watching the room the two robots were in through a screen. “You let them get away?”

“With comedy appeal like that, who wouldn't? Omega isn't all that important to Father anyways. I can always catch him again.”

“Oh the perks of being the favorite child. I will never know them.” The little robot flies off sadly

[art-of-manliness]

Bruce Lee’s Forearm Workout

If we’ve learned one thing this year about what the ladies find attractive in men, it’s forearms: forearms sticking out of rolled-up sleeves; forearms gripping steering wheels; forearms handling tools. Women love the look of a man’s well-developed forearms. Strong forearms are functional too: they improve your throwing capacity and help you lift, carry, and hold things better. If you’ve wanted to build bigger, stronger, more defined forearms, today we’ll get a tutorial on how to do so from someone who raised forearm development to an art: Bruce Lee. A Dragon’s Forearms Last month, we detailed the all-around physical training protocols Bruce Lee used to build his strong and chiseled physique. But there wasn’t room in that article for delving into how Lee worked his forearms, an area of his body he was especially committed to developing. Lee believed that forearm strength was essential to punching power and grip strength, capacities that were fundamental to his life’s great goal: becoming the best martial artist in the world. And, as someone who desired to fully express the beauty of his body, he appreciated the aesthetics of muscular forearms as well. Lee’s wife Linda called him “a forearm fanatic.” The martial artist Bob Wall remembered: “Bruce had the biggest forearms proportionate to anybody’s body that I’ve ever seen. I mean, his forearms were huge! He had incredibly powerful wrists and fingers—his arms were just extraordinary.” Another friend said that “If you ever grabbed hold of Bruce’s forearm, it was like grabbing hold of a baseball bat.” Bruce Lee’s Forearm Exercises The forearms include numerous muscles that can be broadly categorized into two groups: the flexors (on the underside of the forearm) and the extensors (on the top of the forearm). To develop truly meaty forearms, you’ve got to do exercises that work both of these groups of muscles. As you do so, your forearms will not only develop in size, definition, and strength, but you’ll improve the stability, endurance, and stamina of your wrists and grip as well. Lee only lifted weights three times a week, but he trained his forearms every single day, doing a variety of exercises that trained all of their muscles. While Lee commissioned the creation of several special forearm-training apparatuses, most of the exercises he did, which we’ll detail below, can replicated by the average joe: Wrist Roller. Lee was a big fan of this classic forearm exercise, which targets both the extensors and the flexors of the forearms. To perform it, you need a wrist-roller device: a bar/rod from which a rope hangs that attaches to a light weight (usually 5-10 pounds). To perform the wrist-roll exercise, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold the wrist-roller rod straight out in front of you with both hands, palms facing down. Begin rolling the weight up by rotating your wrists; focus on using your wrists to roll the rope around the bar, rather than moving your arms or shoulders. Don’t bend your elbows. Continue rolling until the weight reaches the top, near the bar. Slowly lower the weight in a controlled way by reversing the motion. Lee could perform push-ups with just two fingers (the index and thumb), of one hand. Fingertip push-ups. Fingertip push-ups are performed as you would traditional push-ups, but instead of placing the entirety of the palm-side of your hand on the floor, you support the weight of your body with only your fingertips. As you get stronger at this exercise, try to progressively subtract a finger from each hand; Lee eventually got to the point where he could do this exercise with just two fingers from one hand. Reverse Curl. The reverse curl targets the brachioradialis, a muscle of the forearm that flexes the forearm at the elbow; it will hit your forearm extensors as well. Usually when you’re doing a curl, your palms are facing up; with a reverse curl, your palms are facing down. You stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, gripping the barbell or dumbbells with an overhand… http://dlvr.it/TCFbjQ

[plum-pudding-everywhere]

OK it’s infodump time. just a heads up i may hit character limit and end up taking up multiple asks. one of the first things you’re taught about in animation are the 12 principles of animation! they might vary a bit in how they’re described but most people follow the principles as they’re described in the book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, written by two of the people that got disney to be the big studio it is today. the illusion of life is basically the animator’s bible. it is The Book.

in order to keep myself straight when it comes to remembering the principles, i’m following this youtube video that my teacher showed us in class ^_^ it was made by the same guy who does those stickman animation vs animator videos, if you’re familiar! and he explains things well. i’d highly recommend watching it so you can see the visual of each principle being exercised as it’s being explained. also, a lot of principles overlap with each other somewhat, so expect some redundancy. OK let’s get started >:D

Principle 1- Squash and Stretch

you’ve heard of this i’m sure! animation looks more appealing to the eye if things squash and stretch with their motion. it’s how you get “bouncy” looking animations, and it keeps things from looking stiff. something moving fast or dramatically will stretch, and something suddenly stopping or compressing will squash. the most important thing to keep in mind with squash and stretch is maintaining the same volume— otherwise, whatever object is being animated seems to grow or shrink in size, which isn’t an effect we’re usually looking for. (rubberhosing in old cartoons breaks this rule a bit, but if you look you will see that squash and stretch absolutely still applies!)

Principle 2- Anticipation

an important thing in animation is creating something that your audience can intuitively follow along with. a lot of animated movements happen quickly, so you need to cue your audience in on what your characters are about to do. this is what anticipation is for! plus, in real life, a person doesn’t just start running from a standstill or lift up and throw a ball like a robot— they wind up before they move. anticipation can be just about anything— you can oftentimes anticipate a rotation of the head by having the eyes move first. it can be subtle or dramatic— looney tunes showcases a lot of anticipation! this principle is also sometimes called “wind-up” or “lead-in.”

Principle 3- Staging

this principle is incredibly important for coherency and clarity in your animation. since you’re an artist already, you’ll actually be a bit ahead in learning this! staging is all about composition and leading the eye where you want it to be at the right time. think rule of thirds type stuff. a lot of staging is intuitive, and you’ll pick up on it as you practice. trust yourself! any human can tell what looks good vs what doesn’t. studying other animations is also very useful for learning this one. i highly recommend studying other animations in general, tbh :3 a LOTTT of animating uses reference so get comfy with that idea.

Principle 4- Straight Ahead and Pose-to-Pose

this is less an idea to keep in mind, but rather two methods of frame-by-frame animating that you can choose between depending on what you’re trying to animate. straight ahead animation is exactly what it sounds like— drawing one frame of an animation, then the next, and then the next one after that. straight ahead is very good for animating things that move somewhat unpredictably, like fire or steam, but it’s easy to lose track of your timing or motion in more structured actions. pose-to-pose works a bit differently— instead of drawing one frame after the next, you start with the most important frames in the animation, or the “key frames.” in a basic bouncing ball animation, this would be the first frame, the first impact with the ground, the peak into the air, the second impact, and the last frame. then, you go and draw the frames between those keyframes. this is called “in-betweening!” the word “tween” comes from this, because all a tween is is having a computer do your in-betweening for you (do not equate this with being easier, though! computers are finicky and it takes a lot of work to get tweens feeling natural as a result.) pose-to-pose is usually best for character animation or big/complicated motions. you have more control over your movement and timing this way, but if you need to animate something with movement that’s a bit more random, you may struggle a bit trying to use pose-to-pose. use each method whenever the situation calls for it!

Principle 5- Follow Through and Overlapping Action

this is one of my favorite principles! to me, it’s what takes a lot of animations from feeling stiff and basic to alive, like the things i’m seeing are actually moving and interacting with each other. things that are attached to a body with room to flow (hair, accessories, clothing, tails, what have you) will move somewhat independently from the body and continue to move while the body reaches a rest state. if a superhero with a cape lands in the ground fast, the cape will stay in the air for a while before falling to rest behind them. if a character with long, flowing hair is suddenly yanked backwards, they’ll start moving before their hair does, causing it to seem to float up into their face. basically, keep things like inertia and gravity in mind. this is also a really good way to make animation feel flowy and smooth :)

Principle 6- Slow In and Slow Out

another example of inertia! generally speaking, if you want a movement to feel natural and organic, you need to follow this principle. things in motion are slowest at the beginning and end of their actions, and fastest in the middle. that means you’re going to be drawing more frames at the beginning and end of your motions, and less frames in the middle. each frame is a fraction of a second (usually 1/24th in the industry, or a 1/12th if you’re animating on twos (aka most of the time)), so the more frames you spend on an action, the slower it will be in the final product. this principle is also often referred to as “ease in and ease out” or just “easing,” which is what i usually call it. easing is the main thing that you need to keep in mind when animating with tweens, as well! it’s what brings a motion from mechanical to natural.

Principle 7- Arcs

to put it simply, almost all motions follow an arc. when a person moves their arm, their elbow swings on an arc from their shoulder, their wrist swings on an arc from their elbow, their hand swings on an arc from their wrist, and so on and so forth. the best way to learn this principle is to just watch things move. look close and you’ll start to notice the arcs that objects and people follow! this is another huge part of making tweens feel natural instead of mechanical. oftentimes, animators will create what’s called a motion path, which guides the computer to tween things in a certain way instead of going straight from point A to point B. most motion paths follow arcs, but some don’t- it depends on what’s being animated and how it’s moving.

Principle 8- Secondary Action

secondary action refers to actions that support the main action of something in motion. in character animation this is usually anything that can be used to express an emotion— if you want to animate a cat being startled, the primary action will be the cat jumping back and maybe running off, and the secondary actions will be the cat’s tail fluffing up, ears pinning back, spine arching, and face curling back in a hiss. secondary action is often confused with overlapping action, but they’re not the same. one supports realism, while the other supports communication.

Principle 9- Timing

this is one of the most important principles out there, imo. timing is exactly what it sounds like— it’s the pacing of your animation, how many frames you let each action take, how long any pauses are. timing is another thing that you kind of have to feel out as you practice, but studying other animations will be your best friend here. remember, frames are a unit of time! the more frames something takes up, the longer it will be. this also plays a part in deciding your framerate in the first place. most professional studios do what’s called animating on twos in 24fps. all animating on twos is is having each new drawing in an animation last at least two frames. this has you effectively animating at 12fps most of the time, which is perfectly functional for most scenes without really sacrificing looks. when animators want their scene to look REALLY smooth, they’ll switch from animating on twos to animating on ones, which simply means that each drawing only takes up one frame. this lets animators increase the smoothness of the final product without disrupting the timing— you can fit in more frames because you were intentionally leaving them free before. animations can happen at basically whatever fps you want depending on what you’re going for. i know that popular animator crumb/cuptoast animates at 6fps, for example! if you’ve seen their animations, you know it’s still possible to get a really nice final product with that few frames. if you’re animating frame-by-frame, i’d suggest not going over 32fps. at that point, the increase in quality is so minimal in comparison to the amount of work you’re doing that it isn’t really worth it.

Principle 10- Exaggeration

another of my faves! exaggeration is exactly what it says on the tin. take that pose. now push it. more. just a little bit more. don’t be afraid to break physics— this is art, not real life. almost all art forms contain exaggeration, and in animation it’s especially important. for example, squash and stretch are often used as a form of exaggeration! think smear frames or tom and jerry. also, the more exaggerated something is, the easier it is for an audience to tell what’s going on. if you want a character to look visibly angry, but all you do is make them frown, the audience has a hard time intuiting what that frown means. are they sad? bored? upset? but if you make them frown hard, maybe even growl or grit their teeth, furrow their brow, throw their hands up in the air, have their face turn red, make steam blow out of their ears, etc… well, then it’s pretty clear that they’re mad. in cases where you want an animation to feel more realistic, the exaggeration will be more subtle, but it should still be there to some degree. remember what you’re trying to convey— generally, treat things less like a documentary and more like theatre. i keep this in mind basically every time i draw (especially very animated characters like marzi), and i’m pretty sure it’s why the thing i get compliments on the most in my art is expressiveness. never be afraid to push just a little bit more.

Principle 11- Solid Drawing

this is, to me, the hardest principle. solid drawing is all about realism. you want your characters to feel like they exist in a real, living world, so they need to follow the rules. think of characters in 3D forms instead of 2D shapes (this is the main reason why animation reference sheets ALWAYS have a turnaround or two). remember that they have weight. keep proportions consistent (unless exaggerating). this rule can be broken on purpose if you don’t need something to feel particularly “real” (think 1930s era cartoons), but 90% of the time you will need to keep it in mind, so it’s best to learn the rule before you break it. solid drawing is not easy, and it takes a lot of practice. to me it’s the animation equivalent of dynamic posing in illustration. one of the hardest things to animate in 2d is the camera rotating around a character, and that’s because the character needs to maintain an extremely consistent appearance or else the whole thing breaks and looks uncanny. This One Is Hard But Important basically

Principle 12- Appeal

appeal!!! i love appeal. because appeal pertains to design! when designing anything for animation (we’ll say a character for simplicity’s sake right now), you need the design to be appealing to the audience. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOUR DESIGN HAS TO BE PRETTY. they can be ugly and appealing. cartoons like invader zim or ren and stimpy are good examples of Ugly With Appeal. this is where things like shape language, silhouette, and expressiveness come into play. sometimes you can break other rules to increase a character’s appeal— for example, mickey mouse’s ears never overlap with each other or the rest of his head, regardless of the angle his head is at. this breaks solid drawing rules, but maintains the distinctive silhouette, so someone will be able to look at him from any angle and INSTANTLY recognize that it’s mickey mouse. i actually follow this rule with marzi’s ears to a degree, though i’ve also been trying to balance it with more solid drawing as well! it keeps the silhouette distinct and prevents from creating business that could distract.

OKAY that’s that for the 12 principles!!!! i’m impressed i fit it all in one ask. hopefully. if tumblr sends this properly. if you have any questions or there’s anything else about animation you wanna know about (history, software, industry, etc…) feel free to ask i LOVEEEE talking abt animation so much. okay that’s all i got for ya yaaay yippee hooray

Holy crap. ⊙▽⊙ Everyone give it up for Mars for this one. You really wrote out all of this for me.... omg.... thank you!!! I will definitely have to watch that video you linked. And I'm actually surprised that I recognized a few of these principles. yippee!!!! I'm gonna have to get into animation now, I don't have a choice. you've forced my hand... I'll be coming back to this later for sure. hehe ^__^

[joyceyayo]

“Satin”

Jim Halpert short story fanfic by Joyceyayo

A/n I wrote this literally years ago but it’s okay so ima post it. The backstory is just that they go to the same school.

The satin of her plum-colored dress is so deep you can almost taste it. The way it tightens around her waist makes my throat feel like it was swelling. She walks down the hallway of the dormitory meeting my eyes as she nears the doorway I'm standing in. She reaches me and I look down at her green eyes staring right back up at me, analyzing my thoughts to which it looked like.

"Hi" she tumbles out as my hands finally meet the tops of her shoulders, they rest there as she awaits an answer. I lightly pull my hands up to her face, cupping her chin and edging her closer to my lips ever so slowly. She closes her eyes.

"Hey" I whisper right against her lips, but not touching them. It was tempting but it was so fascinating seeing how I could annoying such a patient girl. I remove my hands from her and enter the dorm, releasing the door and letting it almost slam, locking her out. She catches it and you can hear it thump against her palm.

"You're always such a tease!" She complains, actually letting the door slam and lock after following me into my kitchen. Where I take a seat and eat the stale chips I left out from earlier. She is standing right in front of me holding the back of a chair instead of sitting in it. She's looking down at me now and I raise my eyebrows.

"Oh really?" I joke trying to keep a light mood, not letting my feelings overpower me. I look at her with a stare that is waiting for her response while moving my hand around in the bag trying to find a whole chip.

"Yeah" she breathes quickly and I stand back up to wash my hands at the sink. I tilt my head sideways and smile at her, trying to get on her nerves. "Yeah you're such a dick" she groans walking towards the area beside my sink.

      I have to rotate my head to follow her movement. I grab a paper towel and cock my head, smirking at her. I Toss the towel out and step closer. She steps back a bit as I near her body. The closer I get the more she backs up. Until she hits the wall behind her. She sharply inhales, Looking side to side before feeling my breath on her face and looking at me. I place my hands on the wall on either side of her, keeping her in place. I look down at her, breathing unsteadily and I lift her chin.

      "You're going to regret that baby girl" I assure and lightly kiss her. I trail the kisses to her neck and suck a tiny bit.

I push her down to her knees with absolutely no resistance. She slowly unbuckles my belt and slides down my pants and boxers. She swallows nervously looking at it. She grabs it and places it in her mouth. I open my mouth and hot breath releases. She starts to slowly move her head and I place my forearms on the wall behind her. I blow air and bite my lip, she goes a bit deeper and I let out a groan. I look down at her and tuck her hair behind her ear. She looks up at me and I'm losing control, rolling my eyes, and saying "good girl".  I pant as I form her hair into a ponytail. I look down at her.

      "Mhm" she agrees in a hum and I shudder. I push her onto me and throw my head back, lost in my groans. She's gagging and tears are streaming down her face.

"You know we have a safe word and motion, but you still won't use it. Deep down I t- think you wanted this." I let out groans and inconvenient pauses in the sentence. She looks up at me, glossy-eyed with me down her throat. I continue to push her head against me.

She resists a bit and touches my hand to let me know she's had enough "sorry" I breathe for a moment as I gain some self-control and stop myself from coming as much as I need to. I pull her back up. Her makeup is running down her face and I wipe the side of her mouth. I give her a long kiss.

      "turn around" she looks up at me with a look I've never seen in her eyes, full of lust and deviance. Even though it's new I know exactly what she's gonna say. She gives a big smile.

      "Make me" she speaks. I grab the sides of her shoulders now and whip her around to face the wall before slamming her against it. I slowly lower my lips to her ear for a second. her heavy breath hitches and trembles with anxiety.

       "You've got quite the mouth on you," I whisper and she lets out a small whimper.

       "I'm sorry sir" she begs as I mess with the hem at the bottom of her dress. I lift it a bit to expose her lace panties.

      "Sure, sure you are." I grab her hips and push them onto my region, Imitating thrusts. I bend down for a second and lick her heat through her panties, one long stroke. This makes her move closer to the wall and lets out a loud moan.

"you've got a lot coming for you princess if that made you moan" I take my pointer and middle finger of the same hand and place them in her mouth. I wet them and rub them against the tip of my cock. I move her panties aside to push myself against her entrance. She whimpers loudly. I progress towards her ear and breathe heavily into it for a moment.

      "Hm?" I hint and she nods once, I steadily myself back up and look down at what I'm working with. Pretty fucking good, I smack her ass and she squeals. I slowly slide in. She screws her eyes shut and purses her lips. While I remain in that same first thrust I place my hand on her neck, pulling her head back. I inhale slowly and start thrusting into her, making her mouth gape open to looking like noise would come out but it doesn't. Like she wants to let out the loudest moan but she can't.

She finally starts to wail when I start pulling her onto me while thrusting. She sometimes tears up when I go rough on her.

      "You're so fucking good baby" I groan into her ear, she feels as though I'm in the most relaxing yet exciting place ever. I put my other hand on her stomach to keep her from struggling and she places her hand over mine. here we go.

"Jim I'm fucking coming" she pushes my hips away while profusely moaning, sort of as a reflex. So I just take her wrists and pin them against the wall then I just continue thrusting. She screams with pleasure as I start going faster and faster to meet my release. I let her go and pull out. I cum all over her ass.

I clean her up and I get back dressed, she just lets her dress fall. The satin clings back to her body as to say 'I'm not here for you'. I run my hands through my hair and scratch the back of my scalp as I lean against the counter of my kitchen. She finally turns around she looks me in the eye.

"You're sexy you know that?" I say casually as she nears me. She gets to me and presses her torso on mine, crossing her fingers as her forearms are doing the same.

"Yeah," she says laughs doubtfully. I sigh and wet a paper towel at my sink. I wipe the runny mascara off her cheeks.

"Yeah! Why else was I not be able to have you in my dorm for 2 minutes without pulling up your dress and fucking you against my kitchen wall." She blushes, I can see it clearly because I'm looking right at her cheeks and I wiped the small amount of makeup she would have had covering it.

"Come on let's get some dinner," I say and she nods.

[jeanjauthor]

Randy Johnson was one of our greatest pitchers for the Seattle Mariners. I'm not much into sports ball things, but the Mariners were heating up so much that season, I watched some of those games (and attended some!), and I remember watching that game where he pitched a perfect game. Even the announcers were kinda holding their breath toward the end, watching to see if he did a full shut-out.

The Mariners did make it to Division Champs, but after a while, their bullpen (collection of pitchers) just went downhill, and they've been struggling ever since. Good pitchers with long-lasting stamina are generally hard to find, and Randy Johnson was one of the best.

Pitching, by the way, is one of the roughest sports on the rotator cuff. So many pitchers end up having to have surgery because of how much strain and stress and repetitive motion injuries they garner over their careers.

Pitching--or more specifically, throwing things--is also a Human Species Specialty. There are a list of traits that are very Human Specific, and these things all helped us to evolve into the pinnacle of mobile, sentient life here on Earth.

We have the proportionally largest gluteal muscles of all species. (No, elephants really don't have proportionately large gluteal muscles! They have huge thigh muscles instead, because they're quadrupedal.) The development of such large glutes helped to give our two-legged movements a lot of (literal) support, and their (relatively excessive) size makes striding for long periods of time a lot more economical biologically.

Humans can sweat, which gives us a massive stamina boost. (We're not the only species that can sweat, but coupled with everything else, It Adds Up.) We're not super-fast, but when we do have to run, that sweat cools our bodies and thus keeps us running (or even just walking) for a lot longer than our prey animals, which often only have panting as a self-cooling mechanism...so they have to stop and pant every so often. We can literally walk our prey to death, making us highly efficient pursuit predators.

Humans can throw things. Yes yes, "monkeys can throw their poo!!" we've all heard of that one, but that's not what I mean when I say humans throw. We can throw for distance, we can throw for speed, and we can throw with incredible accuracy, too. The way how most non-human primates have their tendons and muscles and joints all put together, a gorilla is much more capable of bench-pressing a human than a human is able to bench press another human, but that same "greater strength and leverage" in the way a gorilla's arm and shoulder, etc, are put together makes it very difficult for the gorilla to throw fast, hard, and accurately.

Yes, primates can get somewhat close when it comes to throwing things at targets most of the time, but humans have evolved an incredible level of hand-eye coordination. And yes, harnessing that level of precision and accuracy does take a lot of practice, but humans start out with a natural advantage when it comes to the free-swinging movements of our arms...and in training our bodies and minds to coordinate to hit a target. I would far rather find myself having to run away from a gorilla throwing rocks at me than a human throwing rocks at me!

(Note, most gorillas don't like fighting unless they have to, so I'd probably deserve it from a gorilla if they were provoked into throwing rocks at me.) (Alas, when it comes to having or needing a reason to get "bal-listically" violent, humans are more...complex...shall we say?)

Anyway, when a human trains themself to be able to hurl a small object into a very specific area (barely a foot or two wide, foot or two high) at a very specific distance (pitcher's mound to the batter's box)...you know they can throw.

As for catching...that's very, very much a Human Specialty, too. Most other animals that can catch things need to use both front paws--and many dogs will use their jaws--but humans have figured out how to track incoming projectiles and move just one of our lovely grasp-capable hands to catch whatever it is. (Provided it's of the correct size and shape and speed; there are some things you just cannot catch with your bare hands, alas poor glob of pudding, I didn't get to know thee well... *ahem*)

Baseball players are used to doing physics calculations on the fly as they run all over the field, tracking the parabolic trajectories of baseballs that have been flung by a teammate or struck by a batter. We use our stereoscopic / binocular vision, we coordinate with our legs and feet to position our bodies, we reach up with our hands (gloves do help; I wince in sympathy every single time for that one player's poor palm!), and we can catch the things that other humans threw.

I repeat, humans can catch what another human threw. Humans. The Throwing Gods™ of Earth (so to speak). The only other creature that can consistently catch some of what we can throw are canines! (Alas, they cannot throw the ball back.)

i know its the mets, but this is the coolest shit i’ve ever seen a human being do

[mephysioaustralia]

How Anatomical Slings Impact Injury Recovery and Physical Performance

If you’ve ever struggled with recurring injuries or inefficient movement patterns, the answer may lie deeper than just muscle strength or flexibility. Many Australians overlook one crucial biomechanical system: anatomical slings.

These interconnected muscle and fascial systems play a vital role in transferring force, maintaining balance, and coordinating efficient, pain-free movement. Whether you're an elite athlete or someone recovering from injury, understanding how these slings function can change how you move—and heal.

What Are Anatomical Slings?

Anatomical slings are functional muscle chains that span across the body, linking the upper and lower limbs through the torso. Instead of acting in isolation, your body moves through interconnected systems, and slings are the glue that ties them together.

There are four primary types:

Anterior Oblique Sling – Involves the external obliques, abdominal fascia, and opposite-side adductors. It’s key for rotating, walking, and stabilising the pelvis.

Posterior Oblique Sling – Includes the gluteus maximus and latissimus dorsi, connected through the thoracolumbar fascia. It powers extension and rotation, especially in walking and running.

Deep Longitudinal Sling – This chain includes the erector spinae, sacrotuberous ligament, and hamstrings. It helps manage force through the spine and legs.

Lateral Sling – Comprising the gluteus medius and tensor fasciae latae, this sling stabilises the pelvis during side-to-side movement and walking.

Each of these slings supports motion, shock absorption, and force transfer across the body’s kinetic chains.

Why Do Anatomical Slings Matter in Physiotherapy?

Traditional rehab often focuses on isolated muscles or joints. However, injuries rarely result from a single weak area—they often stem from poor coordination between systems.

Anatomical slings ensure that your body operates as one integrated unit. When a sling isn’t functioning well, the result can be compensatory movement, pain, or injury.

At ME Physio, treatment goes beyond isolated strengthening. By assessing anatomical slings, they help patients address the real cause of dysfunction, not just the symptoms.

Common Issues Linked to Sling Dysfunction

Disruption in sling function can lead to a range of common conditions, including:

Lower back pain

Hip and groin instability

Recurring hamstring or calf strains

Poor balance or gait instability

Shoulder pain related to core dysfunction

Pelvic pain post-pregnancy

Sports injuries (e.g. ACL tears, patellar tracking issues)

For example, a weak posterior oblique sling can reduce hip drive in runners, leading to overuse of the lower back or hamstrings. Sling-focused rehab restores proper force transfer and symmetry.

How Physiotherapists Use Sling-Based Rehabilitation

A physiotherapist trained in sling assessment, such as those at ME Physio, starts with a movement-based evaluation. They look for asymmetry, compensation, and coordination across the body.

Your treatment plan may include:

Targeted activation: Using tools like resistance bands to re-engage dormant sling muscles.

Motor control training: Re-establishing brain-body connection for better coordination.

Functional movement retraining: Practising walking, lunging, rotating, and reaching with proper load distribution.

Manual therapy: To release restrictions in fascia or soft tissue that inhibit movement.

Rehab focuses not just on strength, but on neuromuscular efficiency—how well your brain recruits the right muscles at the right time.

The Role of Anatomical Slings in Sports Performance

For Australian athletes in sports like AFL, NRL, swimming, cricket, or track and field, anatomical sling coordination is often the difference between performance and injury.

Consider the throwing motion in cricket: the posterior oblique sling provides torque and power. A poorly functioning sling can lead to shoulder strain or elbow injury due to overcompensation.

Or in AFL, lateral sling stability is vital for agility and cutting. Weak glutes in this sling can compromise change-of-direction speed and contribute to knee or ankle injuries.

By optimising sling engagement, athletes enhance force transfer, reduce injury risk, and maximise performance.

Real-World Patient Example

At ME Physio, one case involved a 42-year-old office worker with chronic low back pain. Traditional core strengthening hadn’t solved the issue. Upon sling assessment, it was discovered that her anterior oblique sling was poorly coordinated—her internal obliques were underactive, and her adductors were tight.

By retraining that sling with rotational lunges, banded core work, and mobility exercises, she experienced a dramatic reduction in pain. She returned to long walks and even running within weeks.

This kind of result is common when the system is treated, not just the site of pain.

Is Sling-Based Therapy Right for You?

Sling dysfunction can affect anyone, regardless of age or fitness level. It’s especially helpful for:

Chronic pain sufferers (back, hip, pelvis, shoulder)

Athletes recovering from injury

Post-natal women rebuilding pelvic and core function

Workers with repetitive strain or postural issues

Anyone with recurring or unexplained injuries

If traditional treatments haven’t resolved your symptoms, sling assessment may reveal what’s been missed.

Start Your Journey with ME Physio

ME Physio specialises in movement-focused rehabilitation and injury prevention. Their experienced team uses evidence-based methods to assess and treat the whole body—through the lens of anatomical slings.

Their article on anatomical slings offers an excellent overview for anyone curious about improving function or managing pain.

Conclusion: Move Better by Training Smarter

The concept of anatomical slings has revolutionised the way modern physiotherapy approaches pain and performance. It’s no longer enough to treat a muscle in isolation. To truly recover, improve, or excel, you need your body to move as an integrated system.

If you’re serious about healing smarter or enhancing how you move, anatomical sling training is one of the most powerful tools available.

[jointandmuscularpain]

Unlock Core Strength with the Russian Twist Exercise

The Russian twist exercise is one of the most effective core workouts that targets the abdominal muscles, obliques, and lower back. Whether you're an athlete, a fitness enthusiast, or someone just starting their fitness journey, incorporating the Russian twist into your routine can significantly improve your core strength, balance, and overall body stability.

What is the Russian Twist Exercise?

The Russian twist exercise involves sitting on the floor with your knees bent and your feet either flat or lifted slightly off the ground. You lean back at about a 45-degree angle and clasp your hands together or hold a weight like a medicine ball. Then, you twist your torso from side to side, touching the weight or your hands to the floor beside you on each side.

This rotational movement activates the obliques—the muscles along the sides of your abdomen—while also engaging the rectus abdominis, or "six-pack" muscles. The deeper core stabilizers, like the transverse abdominis, also fire up to keep you balanced throughout the movement.

Benefits of the Russian Twist Exercise

1. Core Strength and Definition

The Russian twist is a compound core movement that works multiple abdominal muscles at once. By doing this exercise regularly, you can improve core strength and get closer to that toned, defined midsection many strive for.

2. Improved Balance and Stability

This exercise requires you to stabilize your torso while twisting, which engages the muscles in your back, hips, and lower abdomen. This contributes to better balance and coordination in both athletic performance and daily activities.

3. Enhanced Athletic Performance

Movements that involve rotation—such as throwing a ball, swinging a bat, or even changing direction while running—rely on strong obliques. The Russian twist exercise helps build rotational strength and power, making it ideal for athletes in sports like tennis, baseball, and soccer.

4. Low Equipment Requirement

One of the greatest things about the Russian twist is its simplicity. You can do it with no equipment at all, or use household items like a water bottle or backpack for resistance. For added intensity, you can use a medicine ball, dumbbell, or kettlebell.

How to Do the Russian Twist Exercise Correctly

To get the most out of the Russian twist exercise and avoid injury, follow these steps:

1. Start Position

Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Lean back slightly to engage your core and lift your feet off the floor if you're comfortable doing so.

2. Hold a Weight (Optional)

If using a weight, hold it close to your chest with both hands. Otherwise, clasp your hands together.

3. Twist

Rotate your torso to the right and touch your hands or weight to the floor beside your hip. Then twist to the left. That’s one rep.

4. Maintain Form

Keep your core tight, spine straight, and chest lifted throughout the movement. Avoid rounding your back or letting your knees wobble.

5. Repetitions

Start with 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps per side and increase as you build strength.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using Momentum Instead of Muscle: Focus on controlled movements rather than swinging your arms.

Rounding the Back: This can lead to back pain. Always keep a neutral spine.

Not Engaging the Core: Your abdominal muscles should be tight throughout the movement for maximum benefit.

Variations of the Russian Twist Exercise

To keep your workouts interesting and challenging, try these variations:

Weighted Russian Twist: Use a medicine ball or dumbbell for added resistance.

Feet-Elevated Twist: Lift your feet a few inches off the ground to engage the lower abs more.

Decline Bench Twist: Perform the exercise on a decline bench for a greater range of motion and intensity.

Final Thoughts

The Russian twist exercise is a versatile, effective, and accessible workout that delivers serious results for your core. Whether you're training for a sport or simply want to enhance your overall fitness, adding this move to your regular workout routine can help you build a stronger, more functional core.

Make sure to perform the Russian twist with proper form and gradually increase difficulty to avoid injury and ensure progress. Your core will thank you!

[benchsmartphysio]

Unlock Core Strength with the Russian Twist Exercise

The Russian twist exercise is one of the most effective core workouts that targets the abdominal muscles, obliques, and lower back. Whether you're an athlete, a fitness enthusiast, or someone just starting their fitness journey, incorporating the Russian twist into your routine can significantly improve your core strength, balance, and overall body stability.

What is the Russian Twist Exercise?

The Russian twist exercise involves sitting on the floor with your knees bent and your feet either flat or lifted slightly off the ground. You lean back at about a 45-degree angle and clasp your hands together or hold a weight like a medicine ball. Then, you twist your torso from side to side, touching the weight or your hands to the floor beside you on each side.

This rotational movement activates the obliques—the muscles along the sides of your abdomen—while also engaging the rectus abdominis, or "six-pack" muscles. The deeper core stabilizers, like the transverse abdominis, also fire up to keep you balanced throughout the movement.

Benefits of the Russian Twist Exercise

1. Core Strength and Definition

The Russian twist is a compound core movement that works multiple abdominal muscles at once. By doing this exercise regularly, you can improve core strength and get closer to that toned, defined midsection many strive for.

2. Improved Balance and Stability

This exercise requires you to stabilize your torso while twisting, which engages the muscles in your back, hips, and lower abdomen. This contributes to better balance and coordination in both athletic performance and daily activities.

3. Enhanced Athletic Performance

Movements that involve rotation—such as throwing a ball, swinging a bat, or even changing direction while running—rely on strong obliques. The Russian twist exercise helps build rotational strength and power, making it ideal for athletes in sports like tennis, baseball, and soccer.

4. Low Equipment Requirement

One of the greatest things about the Russian twist is its simplicity. You can do it with no equipment at all, or use household items like a water bottle or backpack for resistance. For added intensity, you can use a medicine ball, dumbbell, or kettlebell.

How to Do the Russian Twist Exercise Correctly

To get the most out of the Russian twist exercise and avoid injury, follow these steps:

1. Start Position

Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Lean back slightly to engage your core and lift your feet off the floor if you're comfortable doing so.

2. Hold a Weight (Optional)

If using a weight, hold it close to your chest with both hands. Otherwise, clasp your hands together.

3. Twist

Rotate your torso to the right and touch your hands or weight to the floor beside your hip. Then twist to the left. That’s one rep.

4. Maintain Form

Keep your core tight, spine straight, and chest lifted throughout the movement. Avoid rounding your back or letting your knees wobble.

5. Repetitions

Start with 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps per side and increase as you build strength.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using Momentum Instead of Muscle: Focus on controlled movements rather than swinging your arms.

Rounding the Back: This can lead to back pain. Always keep a neutral spine.

Not Engaging the Core: Your abdominal muscles should be tight throughout the movement for maximum benefit.

Variations of the Russian Twist Exercise

To keep your workouts interesting and challenging, try these variations:

Weighted Russian Twist: Use a medicine ball or dumbbell for added resistance.

Feet-Elevated Twist: Lift your feet a few inches off the ground to engage the lower abs more.

Decline Bench Twist: Perform the exercise on a decline bench for a greater range of motion and intensity.

Final Thoughts

The Russian twist exercise is a versatile, effective, and accessible workout that delivers serious results for your core. Whether you're training for a sport or simply want to enhance your overall fitness, adding this move to your regular workout routine can help you build a stronger, more functional core.

Make sure to perform the Russian twist with proper form and gradually increase difficulty to avoid injury and ensure progress. Your core will thank you!

[clockbuildingkits]

Analog Clock Parts

Utilizing Clock Parts to Express Your Uniqueness

Utilizing clock parts to build a timepiece is a means for a person to share some innovative uniqueness. Clock parts are generally picked separately, blending and matching in basically any kind of possible means, gave that their dimensions align and their styles are complementary. Clockmakers, whether amateur or expert, have found that this vast control over a product frees their spirit and opens them to a brand-new world where their creative imaginations preponderate.

However, simply throwing clock parts with each other haphazardly is apt to get old rapidly. One need to do a minimum of a minimum of preparing in the direction of the finished item, what its case should appear like in regards to style, color, and dimensions, whether to buy it or build it, and whether it will certainly hold on a wall surface or rest on a nightstand. This suggests some design job is required, which, with the appropriate perspective, can end up being another type of creative expression.

Actually, the instance itself might end up being the end-all, coming to be the central emphasis and overshadowing the timekeeping facet. This occurs when an old clock has actually stopped working and needs retrofitting, or when a family heirloom is geared up with a watch. In such instances, you'll want to maintain the hands and dial modest lest they detract from the centerpiece, and also a preassembled clock insert can be an excellent way to go.

On the other hand, if timekeeping is all-important, invest all your effort towards making the clock do all you want it to do. The starting factor is to choose the movement (or motor) according to the attribute collection you desire to carry out-- not only rotating the hands right into position at each moment but likewise various other things that please your fancy. By doing this, you recognize the capability up front and afterwards choose the different parts that flesh it out.

Remember that no person looks at the activity; instead, they gander at the dial and hands. So, depend on the activity to deal with the feature, however allow your uniqueness inspire the type in regards to style and shade. To put it simply, this is where some kind of statement is made; you identify its degree of beauty, boldness, and mindset.

Now, do not go wild and have the hands and dial make contradictory statements, which people would certainly just discover confusing. This suggests that these parts need to not be picked separately yet together. They need to match in size, and they need to also integrate in color and design; as a matter of fact, aim to unify ball of wax with the framework.

You can reveal a great deal of uniqueness (many stylistic choices) with simple timekeeping, yet you can also do so with the extra unique motion features. Time extension of the period past 12 hours is one way (to 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month). These require a particularly calibrated dial to couple with the motion, and perhaps an extra hand to direct at the added details.

Another electrical outlet is to use weather activities, either the temporal display screen of tide degree (alone or integrated with normal timekeeping) or sensations that need to be measured. Sensors maintain continuous track of humidity, temperature level, or pressure, and the software program in the motor transforms the number right into a single hand setting relative to a range printed on the dial.

A 3rd strategy is to apply novelties such as aesthetic pendulums or artificial chimes. These emulate older clocks and supply a certain level of nostalgia. Variations on whether you use a second hand, or just how it runs, is one more concept. clock parts

Basically, the clockmaker is offered great deals of choices for creating a watch that is attractive and appreciated by others. There really are no limitations to utilizing clock parts for expressing your uniqueness.

[theoriginalcrossjumper]

guild in fma au

hiiiii grem how's it going

i'm so glad you asked!

so the guild-in-fma au is another one of my incredibly self-indulgent aus where i yeet my guild of ocs into yet another universe to throw wrenches into plotlines, sometimes even on purpose

for everyone except the like..... maybe three of you that have actually heard me ramble about them, here's three sentences of background: the Crossjumper Profiles is a book/series i'm attempting to write that centers around a Guild of eight (8) people who are known as Crossjumpers due to their job involving jumping between dimensions*; the initial plot follows micki, one of the guild members, who has essentially a metahuman ability to shrink anything she touches, including people. i have all 8 of these people rotating in my head but the actual plotline for that book is slower going. in the meantime, being interdimensional* travelers means i can yeet them into various canon universes to develop their personalities more and reflect them through various funhouse mirrors to see what shakes out.

the guild-in-fma au is one of these: i was curious what the guild would look like if they were originally from/reincarnated into the fma universe, and with the in-universe closest analogues to their abilities and backstories i wound up with an alarmingly even distribution of two alchemists, two alkahestrists, two (human) chimeras, and two homunculi.

....and then i immediately threw all of that out of the window to start in on a plotline that involves maes hughes tripping headfirst (literally) into one of micki's shrinking arrays, befriending her (halfway by accident), and then several months later, fleeing in a panic to her for help instead of to a telephone booth when he discovers a world-ending secret and thus averting his own death by use of shrink-ray-ex-machina (because i'm incapable of writing any fma-centric aus where maes hughes does not survive).

so here's a snippet for you!

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“What-?” Maes lunges to catch the glass jar she tosses him, fumbling it barely before it hits the ground.

Micki drags her palms across each other, one forward and one backwards, sparks cascading away from the motion. Her hand moving backwards claps over her own chest, and the one moving forwards darts out to clap onto the creature’s arm. Blue sparks explode into blue lightning.

The creature yowls as light sears across the back of Maes’s eyelids; he barely snaps them shut in time. He opens them as soon as the sparks fade, squinting through the sun-spots to find two four-inch-tall figures on the ground.

One of them throws themselves back, away from the other, which is stumbling dizzily and holding both hands to a head covered in red sparks.

Maes’s gaze falls to the jar in his hands.

Oh. Oh!

He scrambles to unscrew the lid, then, before the red-sparking figure can move, drops to his knees and slams the jar over top.

The figure falls off its feet at the force. Maes flinches; he hadn’t meant to do that. He also had not thought this through. “What do I-?”

“Lid!” shouts the other tiny figure, scrambling back over.

Right, shit, the lid-

Maes wavers, then, cringing and muttering apologies, scrapes the jar to the side enough to scoop up the fumbling figure in the jar, then flips it sideways and screws the lid on quickly.

The other tiny figure darts right up to his hands and slaps a hand on the back of the jar. Another array crackles across the surface, and Maes nearly drops the jar again as it suddenly grows so cold in his hands that it frosts over. He sets it down hastily.

The creature inside, banging on the jar walls, slows down rapidly. It wavers on its feet. Then, it slowly topples over, and stops moving.

Maes stares down at it, torn between relief and horror. “…Did we just kill it?”

“If it could heal from you shooting it like it implied, it can heal from being flash-frozen once I turn the array off,” says the miniature Micki Taylor. “Also, what the hell is going on, Maes?”

Maes looks back down and balks. He—hadn’t been this close to anyone under the influence of her shrinking arrays when he also hadn’t been under their influence. Had he really been that fucking small? She’s barely as tall as his fingers. “I—uh. Don’t know?”

The connection he made shoots through his mind. “I connected dots that I wasn’t supposed to and they started chasing me because of it.”

“They? Are there more than one?”

Blue lightning crackles.

Maes jerks back in surprise as Micki abruptly re-sizes herself, crouched on her heels in front of him with a frown. “How many of these things are after you?”

“I—how did you—did you just prevent us from ever resizing that thing?” Maes sputters. He’s already racing to put the pieces together, however, and he’s coming up with an explanation that he can’t believe he didn’t see coming.

“Yeah, no, I kinda lied about my array limitations to avoid being forcibly drafted into the military, I’d say sorry but I’m really not,” Micki shrugs. “But also we don’t have time to argue about it if another nonhuman entity is coming after you.”

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no i will not give context here on how an alchemy array that shrinks people down to several inches in height does not count as human transmutation <3 enjoy!