The Semi-Literate & Literate Roleplayer's Club (V4)

[Keriae]

Ohhhh autumn me please! You always have such great ideas <3

[rose;]

so, I'm back to playing my avian human character that I adore so much, cause who doesn't love a character with wings, but one thing has always bothered me. when they're flying, what do they do with their arms/hands???? any option seems awkward! hodl them at their side?? stiff and unnatural seeming. Hold them out like their wings and move them with their wings?? slightly more plausible but idk that seems like it would get tiring. Put them in pockets? what if they don't have pockets??
this is why I think avian creatures shouldn't have arms too, wings are arms but its way too difficult to have a characer that doesn't have arms/hands

[Make_a__Scene]

I had a character who was modified into a flying fox, and his arms just got turned into wings.
The problem with humans with wings, I think, is just flying in general. Everyone assumes they would fly face-down, but that always raises the problem of legs. Have you ever tried to lay on your stomach and actually hold your legs up without touching anything? It takes a lot of ab strength. There's nothing supporting the weight of the legs while flying.

[Artesian]

I say curl up, so you're like a flying bowling ball. Or fold your legs back and hold your toes with your arms. Or say, forget physics, huge avians wouldn't work very well anyway, so let's just have them fly like we always picture them flying because it's prettier that way.

[Make_a__Scene]

Why not vertically? Like angels are often depicted.

[VesVes]

Or just have them lie limply while the wings do all of the work /shot

You know, it would actually be vey interesting to have a character who flies like this...maybe they're just really lazy or tired all the time.

[rose;]

Why not vertically? Like angels are often depicted.

would that really work for long distance flights though? I've always seen it as this when anything but long distance anyway, but... eh. overthinking this stuff

I also came across an anatomy thing for avian human things that point out that it might be logical to have them have an extra muscle beneath the man chest muscles to aid in pulling the wings forward? I'd find it but it seems to have disapearred from my pinterest

I would remove arms altogether from avian human characters but it just seems extremely difficult to have a character without hands

[Artesian]

@Scene: If we're considering aerodynamics as applying, the vertical position is not, eh, the most efficient posture to be in, wind resistance wise. The vertical one provides less wind-resistance, even if it's hard to hold yourself in that position... And Thorry is right, arms would be very handy for balancing and moving, as would legs. They could form much the same function as a bird's tail, I think. But I'm not an anthroavianbiologist. It is an interesting problem!

@Rosie, you might try putting a hand like thing on the wing itself? Or give your characters a prehensile tail-thing.

[- serendipity]

You could always have the arms being the wings themselves. Obviously this would make it hard to hide but it would solve the problem of where to hold your arms and help with aerodynamics. The feathers would grow from the bone (or something) and be along from the shoulder blades to the hands. In the past I saw a very good explanation on tumblr for where the wings would most logically be on an avian human but I can't remember where I saved it; it had very good theory and the art that accompanied it explained the logic well.

[rose;]

@Scene: If we're considering aerodynamics as applying, the vertical position is not, eh, the most efficient posture to be in, wind resistance wise. The vertical one provides less wind-resistance, even if it's hard to hold yourself in that position... And Thorry is right, arms would be very handy for balancing and moving, as would legs. They could form much the same function as a bird's tail, I think. But I'm not an anthroavianbiologist. ;) It is an interesting problem!

@Rosie, you might try putting a hand like thing on the wing itself? Or give your characters a prehensile tail-thing.

where would you put the hand? Wings don't move quite like arms, would they? So at what point would you put the arms to make it able for them to reach and handle what they wanted?