Superboy wakes up in a prison.
In the cell, sitting across from him, there's a teen that looks like another offshoot clone of Clark.
He learns in bits and pieces that he's been captures by a shadow government organization hellbent on ridding the world of anyone "ecto-contaminated", or anyone who has ever been dead.
Since he'd died before, even though he came back, he set off their sensors.
He doesn't remember how he got caught, doesn't remember what he was doing prior, but the walls are made of a weird material that glows green and cancels out his powers. It also doesn't hurt him.
Diluted kryptonite? He'll have to steal some and give it to Tim.
According to the kid, they've been forcibly detained to "serve their sentence for illegal immigration from the Realm of the Dead to the Realm of the Living" by way of routinely allowing themselves to be subjected to medical procedures. They are always being watched, they aren't the only ones captive, that apparently his entire high school had been condemned to it as well as some literal ghosts, and if he struggles then they won't give him the mercy of sedation while they do their experiments.
And Kon can't use his power to escape, or free this kid, or free any of the other prisoners. It's the worst case scenario.
Thank fuck he's best friends with a paranoid Bat that might have more contingencies than the Big Bat Himself.
Kon activates the only subdermal tracker he'd allowed Tim to place under his skin, and settles down to wait.
A prison of this design, but more high tech and with less privacy. Apparently the idea behind it was that you couldn't see the guards, but they could see you, and the lights would move at random to make you think they were paying attention all the time.
So psychological torture on top of imprisonment.
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Hello! I hope I won't sour your mood with this ask but I have been thinking a lot about your gay dogs this month especially.
I'll just try to keep the context short but in general I'm someone that has accepted being romantically undesireable. It was hard but in the end I have built my life just around me, my humble family and at this point in time I don't even think I have the time for a partner. And considering that it's the love month and a lot of people are preparing to celebrate it with their SOs I assumed that, actually, this is a thing that I sort of have in common with Machete.
From the miscellaneous lore on your profile I see Machete as someone that also has kind of rejected love. That also has built his life around his job, possibly hobbies, his family or mentors (depending if we're talking about canon or modern au). Who kind of forgot that relationships are a thing and that people bond with others in that way. Well, at least he did until meeting Vasco.
I just love thinking about their awkward beginnings. Machete being 100% sure that Vasco is just joking, maybe even sometimes teasing him (in a friendly banter type way) or just explaining to himself that all that kindness and interest is just him being a very considerate friend. And then we have Vasco that just tries to be subtle, as if he was trying to pass a fawn without it noticing and running away, but also with time gains confidence and tries more risque moves. Vasco being all smug and Machete being flustered when their hands or shoulders or tails brush in passing. And then when both are sure of their feelings we have Machete who has to choose between God and his love. Who, at first, unwillingly accepts that divine wrath will be worth their brief love.
I just love your boys. I swear they are all the love supply one might possibly need
Thank you for such a long and thoughtful message! I don't know why you thought you might accidentally sour my mood, I'm utterly delighted whenever I hear that someone has been pondering my little guys (rotating them in their head, as they say), and when they go through the trouble of sharing their findings and conclusions I'm so happy I could crawl up a wall.
I think you deciphered Machete's inner workings very well, especially those of the original canon version. The concept of love is of course prominent in Christianity, so even as a kid being raised in a religious environment that discouraged overt displays of affection and close personal bonds, Machete wasn't completely alienated from it. But it has always been a nebulous, unperceivable and unattainable thing for him. When he was old enough to lock down his career choice he readily accepted he'd never have romantic relationships, spouse or a family, and I think he must've been too young and socially inexperienced to think of it as a significant loss. Either he consciously blocked out the need for companionship by studying and working like his life depended on it, or he didn't really consider that being genuinely befriended, appreciated and loved as a person instead of a respectable and competent authority figure was even an option for him, at least not until Vasco came along.
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things from the tsunami arc that altered my brain chemistry irrevocably and eternally:
buck's hand twisted in christopher's shirt pre-wave
you're gonna be okay, kid and the hand on buck's face
the way buck cups christopher's head when he's finally got him in his arms
and the way he clings to christopher as soon as they're up on the fire truck for the rest of the episodes, always keeping chris nestled against his side or tucked under his chin whenever he's not saving people
how he freezes when he hears christopher fall in and just Knows its chris
buck finding christopher's glasses
the fact that we see the moment buck cuts himself and he doesn't even react because he's too heartbroken to feel anything else besides the grief
do i even need to mention buck carrying himself through most of LA on willpower alone?
or the black tent?
or buck calling maddie and not even worrying about telling eddie, just worrying about christopher, until he sees him at the VA hospital?
or how eddie nods as buck stammers through his explanation like he believes that its not buck's fault even as his heart is breaking over losing his child?
or the way buck hands eddie christopher's glasses?
or he was looking for buck?
how about the way eddie presses his forehead to christopher's temple?
and the Look between buck and eddie? buck, disbelieving, relieved, just utterly and completely relieved because whatever happens next, even if he never gets to see his diaz boys again, at least christopher is alive. and eddie, disbelieving, relieved, entirely and wondrously in awe of the man that kept his son safe and alive despite a tsunami.
and buck collapsing because finally, finally his job is done. nothing else matters now.
not to mention!!! the After
wait for me to come home my beloved <3
buck's whole voiceover
the way chris walks into the loft and rests his head against buck's stomach, trusting him to wrap him in a hug, and the way buck hesitates like he's not sure he's allowed
eddie pushing in, eddie, the strong silent type, filling the silence that buck would usually to try to drown (poor choice of words, i admit) out whatever thoughts are going through buck's head as he tries to object to being left alone
eddie's instantaneous, easy switch from nonchalant teasing to serious reassuring
two men five centimetres apart because they are gay!
eddie's hand on buck's shoulder and the fucking thumb on his neck... kill me :D
eddie being honest and vulnerable about his parenting
i love him enough to never stop trying and i know you do too because of course eddie has just had more than enough evidence of that, and not just evidence but tsunami-proof evidence that buck would quite literally go to the ends of the earth for christopher, but this quote, buddie or not, links buck to christopher, to that co-parent role, indefinitely and irrefutably
eddie's little comment about buck losing weight (sir... why are you paying so much attention 🤨)
and FUCK, perhaps the worst of them all, eddie pausing in the doorway, one hand on the doorframe, eyes down as he says buck's name and that little moment of hesitation before he looks up and says thank you. for not giving up.
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I’ve seen a few posts pointing out how stampede vash lacks the anger that 98 and especially trimax vash has. Which is true.
And it is important. Because vash isn’t the too morally strong or good or kind to be angry or whatever. Vash has a lot of rage about a lot of things. he chooses to be kind despite it rather than not being angry at all.
His sheer determination to not give into anger and choosing kindness over and over again is very important to who he is.
(personally I think that while tristamp vash went through a lot already too, he simply has not quite reached that point)
What I haven’t really seen are post pointing out that stampede vash, unlike 98 and trimax vash, does not cry.
Vash cries a lot. Some of it is for the comedy and because he is dramatic like that and also he isn’t above trying to get pity that way (with little success lol).
But he also cries a lot just… because. I don’t know how to explain it.
Like vash has no shame or inhibition to cry when that’s what he feels. Not gonna lie, I know trimax mostly from spoilers so far (shame on me) but especially in 98 vash cries very freely. He cries when he thinks he will have to watch that ex-mob boss or whatever being shot. Cries after killing, cries after monev kills all these people and he wants to shot him but wont. And so so many more.
Like that time he just suddenly drops his donuts and cries in the middle of the street.
Vash is friendly and sociable on a surface level but he has cut himself off from so much. Keeps so many things on the inside. Crying seems the one thing he doesn’t hold back on. Maybe his only genuine outlet for the pain.
Vash hides his scars, his pain and much more but he never hides his tears.
Vash, in 98 even says ‘is there something wrong with that?’ when the kids note that he is crying despite being an adult.
In contrast to that, stampede vash never really cries. He even states that he doesn’t deserve to.
We see him shed tears just once, at the very end when it becomes clear to him that he can’t save nai and that his brother and him have grown so far apart that he barely recognizes him anymore. He sheds silent tears for nai, for them, at what he certainly believed to be the very end.
Stampede vash is not only a lot more timid than his counterpart but seems overall more repressed and and emotionally dulled/exhausted
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