Hi! I have been a fan of ECM since the chapters were in the 10s and itโs literally the only fic I read lol. With Spider-Man brand new day coming out, I have been thinking about how Peter looks in it. Especially how muscular he is (sue me for staring๐). I was wondering if you would eventually write Peter gaining a bunch of muscle and looking like he does in the new movie? Idk how long youโre planning on writing ECM, but I would absolutely love to see Peter having an arc where he gets his strength back as Spider-Man and gains more muscle! I also think it would be really interesting to see how Jason would react to this, and even how the BatFam would! Anyways, love your work!!
Thank-you so much! I'm glad you've enjoyed!
Honestly, I don't think I've tried to write him as a waif (or weak)? Mostly I picture him as having something of a sleeper build, because he tends to wear looser clothing, but with the suit it's more obvious that he's muscular (that's why the girls in 'Study and Milkshake Fridays' perve on his ass haha). In regards to strength... while I haven't given Peter the opportunity to show off exactly how strong he is, he did mangle Jason's pistol with his bare hands in the very first chapter, so... ya boi is strong.
I know Jason described him as thinner than he should be early on, which is because of both grief, depression and poverty. However, even by chapter 15 Jason notes that he's been gaining back the weight he'd lost: "The night hugged the slowly refilling contours of his cheeks". He's also noted on several occasions that Peter is heavier than it like he should be, which has been my nod to what I imagine are the denseness of Peter's muscles (chapter 4: โShit, youโre heavier than you look. Your limbs made outta lead?โ).
Likewise, in Chapter 40, Babs describes Peter as: "Average height โ though a bit on the smaller end, and shorter than herself โ with a gymnastโs build that had been hard to pin down the first (and only) time sheโd met him." Which is to say... he's jacked (but also a fair number of male gymnasts are short/average in height). It's just that Babs works with all kinds of heroes so it's not like Peter's muscles are out of the ordinary to her, so they're not really worthy of her noting in her own narration.
exhibit A on the 'male gymnasts are jacked' front:
Just LOOK at those arms. Jacked I tell you. JACKED.
In the case of Jason... whether or not he's been... appreciating Peter's build hasn't been visible since a lot of the scenes where Peter is Spider-Manning with him are told from Peter's POV. But Jason is demi: while he has thus far appreciated Peter on an aesthetic level, because the romantic attraction hasn't properly clicked yet, Jason's not paid much attention to Peter in a sexualised manner. (Unlike Peter the bi disaster who was thirsting over Jason before he realised he was in ๐ถlooove๐ถ .)
Jason's made the connection before with women because of heteronormativity, but it's going to take a kick up the ass for him to realise he feels the same way about Peter.
Anywho, TL;DR Peter is both jacked and super strong. Jason has noticed because he's not blind, it's just that you've not had the chance to see that he's noticed, and it's not been an observation made from a sexualised perspective.
