Hiiiii! Your art is lovely. You draw Caine with so much emotion and dynamism! Iâd like to draw him more, but I really struggle with his teeth/head. Would you be willing to share any tips for how you approach drawing him? No worries if not; thanks for sharing your art with us. đ
Thanks for the question!
I wasn't sure how to explain it in words, so I made a little visual guide for you.
â Imagine a 3D western-style toilet seat. (Sorry, Caine! lol)
⥠Add some thickness toward the back teeth. The small diagram on the left shows what the dentures look like from directly above.
âą Give the silhouette some definition by rounding the corners and adding subtle curves.
(Actually, adding a jagged texture to the molars makes it look more realistic, but I usually skip that part! đ )
⣠Finally, pop the eyeballs inside.
Bonus:
On the right side, I added my go-to "lazy" way to draw Caine! đ
Explaining things is hard, but I hope this helps you even a little bit!
And one more bonus!:
Hereâs my personal tip for creating expressions.
I expand his range of emotions by combining the movement of the gums with the shape of the eyeballs and the size of the pupils.
Note: Trust and believe I'm using that horny ass line you ended with as a plot device too. LMFAO. @hhoneylemon
Synopsis: You're not officially a parent, but you might as well be. You're not officially married, but everyone seems to think you are. Between shirtless mornings, grocery store tension, and baby carrier missions, the line between âdating Markâ and âco-raising a purple alien infant with Markâ gets blurrier by the day. But itâs fine. Youâre emotionally stable. Probably.
Warnings: Mild Sexual Tension (NO SMUT), Coping With Parenthood, Mild Swearing, Off-screen Canon-level Violence, Found Family & Co-parenting, fluff galour. (Original Request Link: https://www.tumblr.com/vinnyvamppp/783842276548952064/i-have-a-vision-ive-been-thinking-about-when) PART 2 HERE
Mark Grayson (+ Baby Oliver!) x GN!Reader
WC: 1.2k (so cute)
Mark doesnât ask you to move in. He just starts making space, a shelf here, a drawer cleared there. By the time Oliver starts teething, youâre already brushing your teeth in his bathroom every morning and waking up with a foot in your ribs that definitely doesnât belong to Mark.
You werenât expecting him to drop out. No one was. Debbie had offered to help, of courseâoffered like it was the easiest thing in the world to raise a baby that wasnât hers, born from a man who had already broken the whole family once. And Mark had just said: âI canât ask her to do this. Heâs my responsibility, my⊠brother.â
Then heâd looked at you. Like he was bracing for something. For the inevitable pulling away. The âIâm not ready for thisâ talk. But youâd just nodded. Said: âOkay. Weâll figure it out.â We. His shoulder slumped with a sigh of relief. And thatâs how it starts.
Itâs not glamorous. Markâs working two jobs between diaper runs. Youâre picking up shifts, catching Oliver when he wonât stop crying, and Mark looks like he hasnât slept in a week. Some nights, the exhaustion settles over the house like fog, thick and still. Then thereâs moments where Oliver laughs or falls asleep on your chest like he knows exactly where he belongs. And everything feels lighterâsofter, just right.
Mark negotiated with Cecil⊠Kind ofâout of desperation, moreover. After bringing Oliver back, Mark tried to keep up with college, parenting, and being Earth's part-time savior. It lasted about two weeks. He was late to a Kaiju fight because Oliver had a fever. Left a lab evacuation halfway through to pick him up from your job because the sitter bailed. Cecil nearly had a stroke when Mark fought a teleporting assassin with baby wipes in his pocket.
âI canât do this full-time. Heâs a baby. Heâs my responsibility. Iâm not leaving him with my mom again and Iâm not dragging him into a war zone unless the worldâs literally ending.â
Cecilâbeing a professional manipulator and also somehow slightly terrified of Oliverâs explosive bowel habits, reluctantly agreed. Now, Mark handles non-lethal, low-stakes missions like alien negotiations and minor emergencies.
He takes himself off the active-duty roster unless itâs a Level Red situation, and Cecil sends backup or Eve when something big hits. Mark still trainsâstill reports in, but often while bouncing a baby on his chest or feeding him yogurt off-camera. So what happens day to day? He flashes by your job to drop off Oliver. Literally, heâll appear mid-conversation, hair a mess, onesie on backward.
âHey babe, sorryâcan you watch him for like two hours? There's a tidal wave hitting France. Be back by lunch. Probably.â Kisses you mid-chaos, and vanishes in a loud boom. Sometimes he leaves you with a half-full bottle and a sticky pacifier and expects you to just vibe.
If that isn't an option, he wears a baby carrier during missions. Look, not for the big ones. But if the threat is âgiant sewer ratâ or âangry alien ambassador who doesnât understand doors,â Oliver is strapped to his chest like a tiny judgmental but giggly backpack with earmuffs. You even designed him a superhero onesie that says, "Invinci-baby," and yesâhe wears it at every outing.
âYouâre bringing a baby?â
âHe likes the wind.â
âHeâs drooling on your comm.â
âHeâs observing diplomacy.â
Cecil threatens to fire him weekly. Debbie sighs deeply every time she sees the footage on GDA securityâjust to check in when needing Cecil to make sense of this. All the while watching Doc Seismic scream âIS THAT A CHILD?!â mid-monologue.
Today, you didnât realize how dangerous this grocery trip is going to be until Mark lifts the baby carrier with one arm like itâs nothing. Heâs Invincibleâwhat did you expect? His gray t-shirt rides up just enough to make your soul flicker out of your body like a dying TV screen. Focus on the produce section. Innocent terrain, right?
You grab a head of lettuce. You do not look at the way Mark bounces Oliver gently while scanning for cereal. You are a good person, a person with restraint. Heâs doing that thing againâbeing effortlessly domestic. Like, hot dad energy turned up to eleven. Every time he reads a nutrition label or wipes drool off Oliverâs chin, your brain short-circuits a little more.
You used to flirt shamelessly. Make out in supply closets, pull him into his room by the collar. But now? Now youâre in aisle six, arguing about formula brands, and trying not to climb him in front of a shelf of canned peas.
âI think we should get the oatmeal-based one,â Mark says, turning towards you. And there it is: that low voice, as he leaned in slightly. The focus with that soft-eyed, fully attentive attitude. You blink at him, trying to play it cool as you bite your tongue. âWhatever keeps his poop neutral. I'm not reliving last week.â Mark gave a crooked grin, brow raised, his shoulder hitching, âThe explosion?â
âDonâtââ you groan, covering Oliverâs ear. âDonât traumatize him again. We had to hose down the high chair, Mark.â A grin tugged at the corners of your lips. He laughs under his breath and sets the formula in the cart.
You watch the muscles in his forearm flex as he pushes it forward. Youâre sweating nowâItâs winter. âWhy do you look tense?â he asks. You gesture around helplessly. âBecause this is basically foreplay, and thereâs a baby in the cart.â
Mark chokes on a laugh, reaching instinctively to cover Oliverâs ears. âYou canât say stuff like that while Iâm holding our son.â You freeze. âOur son?â His eyes widen a little. The cart keeps rolling. The baby stares up at the ceiling fan, utterly indifferent to the life-changing moment. ââŠI mean,â Mark starts, fumbling now, âheâs not yours, but likeâwell, he kind ofââ
âMark.â You step in close, dropping your voice. âIf you keep talking in that voice and calling him our son, I swear to God, I will embarrass us in this store.â Markâs eyes flick to your mouth, then back to Oliver. His jaw flexes with blotches of pink creeping up his neck.
âI hate that we canât do anything about this.â You both stare at each other for a second too long. Then Oliver lets out a dramatic sneeze that breaks the tension like a rock through a window. You sigh. âWeâre in hell.â Mark leans over and kisses your temple. âAt least weâre in hell together.â You glance at the shopping list and mutter, âAdd wine.â He stares at you in bewildered silenceâ âFor Ms. Grayson.â
You find yourself thinking about stupid things. Like the taste of oatmeal lingering on your tongue. Like whether youâll need a bigger place. Like whose last name Oliver will have. Like if Mark knows he hums when heâs rocking the baby to sleep, tuneless and low, and how your whole chest aches every time you hear it. Youâd marry him.
That thought hits you while Mark is on the floor of the living room, one sock on, hair a mess, cooing nonsense while Oliver grabs at his nose. Youâd marry him tomorrow.
Or bend him or let him bend you over the desk right now. Whichever happens first.
Youâve seen this man explode aliens. Why is him wearing low-slung sweatpants more threatening to your mental health than intergalactic war? But you donât tell him that. You just hand him the bottle, brush your fingers against his, and whisper, âYouâre doing okay.â Mark looks up at youâtired and worn down, but smiling.
âYeah?â
âYeah.â
A/N: Literally kicking my feet as I write this, I will forever love your big, beautiful brain. Hopefully, this was decent, my friend. :)