hexedglock

[hexedglock]

[hexedglock]

Mark the electrician has been here for five minutes and he’s already said “well that’s…weird” twice from the other room and frankly I’m afraid to ask.

[hexedglock]

quick PSA for anyone that is still confused (because I see it every couple weeks):

in simple broadstrokes, as simply and fundamentally I can break it down, Duke Thomas has the power to absorb and redistribute both light and shadow for a variety of effects.

he typically absorbs light through the eyes and uses it to perform different visual abilities (precognition, recognition, telescopic vision, x-ray vision, etc)....

conversely, he tends to absorb shadow with his body and uses it to travel, augment his melee, defend himself, or to terrify and disorient his opponents.

Duke also has a couple important passive abilities that are not fully confirmed or understood. his biological father is an Immortal named Gnomon, who implied that Duke may have similar immortality, and we also know that Duke makes other metahumans more powerful in his presence.

[hexedglock]

random acts of fiction: DC's secret Shonen Protagonist

I'm gonna have some fun and shonen up Duke's powers a bit. the concept centers around two key things; negative mass manipulation and a reflective Nth lined blindfold.

Nth metal blindfold - the darkness of the blindfold makes it easier to focus on absorbing and storing sunlight internally, while the reflective surface reflects and refracts light, which provides external light that he can manipulate to perform his photokinetic abilities without needing to use his eyes directly. this synergistic balance of his light and dark powers makes it easier for Duke to enter a "flow state" to perform a finer tuned use of his powers, which acclimates him to manipulating both on a grander scale. Duke based the tech for the blindfold on Luke Fox's smart fabric designs and had it engineered by Mister Terrific through his connections to Batman.

enhanced combat awareness - Due to Duke's naturally enhanced vision, his brain is uniquely fine tuned to process complex information with great precision and superhuman speed. Duke trained with Midnighter and Orphan to read body language and calculate movement with near perfect efficiency; though he lacks the years of training to outclass Cassandra Cain or Midnighter. His precision is best used without his blindfold (obviously) but the blindfold does not hinder him. I'd say he's equal to Red Hood with the blindfold and relative to Cassandra Cain and Midnighter without it.

photosynthesis - Duke's photokinesis is the root of all his abilities and sunlight powers his metahuman abilities. Duke can survive weeks in sunlight alone but hungry pains and dehydration will eventually kick in and there are limits how much his body can tolerate the irregularity after a certain period of time.

light projection - with the aid of the reflective surface of the Nth metal blindfold Duke can use his photokinesis to manipulate light to project off the the blindfold and send light on, in, or through his shadows, projecting images, make the shadows radiate blinding light, or make them reflective like a mirror.

negative mass manipulation - Duke can manipulate negative mass within shadows he casts and cause negative spatial distortion. By manipulating the negative mass, he can turn the absence of positive mass in his shadow (e.g in the shadow created from touching a car with his hands) into negative mass or "dark matter" and use it to repel or attract an object of positive mass. his shadow can cause objects they push against to pull towards the user instead of away, and vice versa with pulling becoming pushes. he can use the negative mass of his shadows to create what he calls "negative space", a spatial distortion caused by steadily increasing the negative mass of shadow, creating the distance between him, his shadow, and anything that comes in contact with them. so say he gets shot at, he can time it to use the shadow of the bullet on impact to "catch" the bullet in negative space. so the bullet is getting closer but the distance is paradoxically getting longer as the force of the negative mass repels against it. he can use this delay to slip out of the way of the an incoming object or "freeze" it place. he can do this to melee attacks too but, with size as a factor, the ability is far less reliable at freezing the attack itself like it could with a smaller object. Duke can use the push-pull feedback loop of his shadow's negative mass to amplify the impact of his hand to hand strikes and augment his movement speed. Duke can reverse and reduce the effect of negative mass in his shadow, giving it mass and solidifying it as a tangible physical object. the negative mass generation only works on shadows created on or directly from Duke. Duke can not create dark matter in external darkness.

umbrakinetic constructs - using his ability to solidify shadow, Duke can create life-like constructs of hard shadow. John Stewart trained him in technique, discovering that Duke's contructs work similar to Green Lantern rings and are tied to Duke's focus and emotional clarity. Due to training with John, Duke picked up his habit of creating his constructs from the inside out; making them very sturdy. He can use external shadows to increase the size and complexity of the constructs but he can only generate contructs from shadows generated from himself. Duke uses this to create weapons and supplies in the field.

refined shadow control - Duke can use his shadow to create footholds under his feet to walk on any surface; even up walls, on water, or on thin air.

fear induction - Duke's manipation of negative space and mass within his shadow puts a strain on the human body and causes fear and disorientation in targets engulfed in his darkness. this was what causes his targets to become scared and uneasy during his time on Outsiders.

shadow and light camouflage - this one is one I took from Samurai Jack, basically Duke can blend in and hid himself in sunlight or darkness. this isn't like Obsidian where he literally enters shadows (or light), Duke's merely blending into the respective elements.

bonus: radiant energy projection - (okay now it's FULL shonen time) so while the blindfold works best for storing sunlight and using his shadow powers, conversely, that stored light and solar energy is best manipulated and expelled when he removes the blindfold. Sunlight is stored in Duke's cells and while his eyes are uncovered his stored sunlight is depleting at a consistent rate through his irises; passively expelling safely as radiant light undetectable to the human eye until his body reaches a state of equilibrium. Duke can release the energy from the stored solar radiation at a faster and more destructive rate by creating and then filling negative space using his shadow with the positive energy of solar radiation, creating a superheated repulsive force and effectively "detonating" his shadow. This application requires a lot of sunlight and his sensory powers will begin to diminish once he expels too much sunlight so it's best used as a last ditch effort. Duke will become temporarily blind if he expels ALL of the sunlight stored in his cells.

[hexedglock]

Zagreus is so Ariel coded

[hexedglock]

Okay but Duke can canonically see ghosts—or at least them to a certain extent. So imagine that as he ages so does his powers, and that includes this ability.

Duke, walking into the kitchen early in the morning one day:

Thomas and Martha Wayne, who both look very real and very see through, having a heated debate about family recipes:

Duke, immediately turning around to go back to bed:

I actually adore the theory of murdered ghosts having to roam around their resting ground until their killer is brought to justice, so, Thomas and Martha being one with Wayne manor? With Gotham in general?

Uhh, YES PLEASE.

Patron saints of protection and guidance for the Waynes. Even if they could cross, they wouldn’t do it.

Have you seen this little family their son built? They need all the help they can get.

Duke genuinely thought they were 2 am hallucinations. When Thomas gives him pointers with Anna during lunch, he’s no longer certain it’s the case.

“C’mon, you’re my nephew! You gotta have more game than THAT. Buy her somethin’ nice. Dinner, jewelry, Russian battle axe. Y’know, lady things.”

“Uhh. I don’t think that’d work, Gramps.”

“What kinda woman doesn’t want an axe? Fine, get her a museum then. I know where Bruce keeps his credit cards, c’mon.” Yeah, everyone knows where. Bruce basically hands them out like coffee.

Martha heavily disproves of Bruce’s and Tim’s sleeping patterns and ‘encourages’ (strongarms) Duke into telling them to sleep.

Have you tried sending Batman, the Dark Knight, Vengeance himself, to nap before? It’s terrifying. Somehow? Tim is a bit scarier.

[hexedglock]

This is the money Marge. Reblog for good fortune

[hexedglock]

Your powers are badass. Coolest I've ever seen.