#sad lad

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Waiting Game (Tower: Day 29)

For Angstpril, Day 7: Sleepless Nights

cw: imprisonment, isolation, mentions of violence, dehumanization

Masterlist ///// Next

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His head hurt.

It was strange, after everything that had happened, that he could focus on something as small as a headache, but maybe that's why he did it.

He'd lost a fight. No big deal, he'd lost plenty of fights, but this one didn't end with a defeat or retreat or even just an arrest. Overkast hadn't stopped after a blow that knocked Lex senseless, after beating him until he could barely move, even after tearing off his fucking limbs when he'd tried to counterattack with his fire.

Lex hadn't been conscious for long after that. 

He'd woken up in a cell, if you could even call it waking up. Half-dead, unaware of anything but the pain and the fact that he'd been caught. He'd tried to fight his way out, ignoring how much it hurt to move, how weak he was, but his fire wouldn't come. His blows wouldn't connect. They must've sedated him after that, because he couldn't remember much else.

He didn't know how much time had passed since his arrest. All he knew was his freedom was lost, and his arms were gone.

And his head hurt.

Alexei's cell was small. He supposed all cells in the tower were; they were designed to contain, not offer comfort. The floor and walls were dense stone, and there were no windows; no light save for the scant amount that crept from the slots in the heavy metal door. 

One ankle was connected to the wall with a few feet of chain, the other was fitted with a power-dampening cuff. A metal cot lined with a thin mattress hung from one of the walls, and a metal toilet sat in the corner across from it, barely within the range the chain allowed him.

The idea that this might be the rest of his life was too big, too painful for him to swallow right now. It didn't feel real. One slip up, one fight he'd been just a hair outmatched in, and his world had ended. The weight of that reality would crush him if he let it.

So much of him didn't want to believe it. Surely, he'd find a way to escape, or his friends in the Underneath would come and free him, or some fucking natural disaster would turn the tide in his favor.

But of course that wouldn't happen. If he wanted things to return to any semblance of normalcy, it was entirely on his shoulders.

Meals came twice a day, as far as he could tell based on his sleep and hunger patterns. A cardboard tray filled with cold, shapeless food, pushed through one of the door slots, along with a shallow dish filled with water. Eating on his knees, face in the bowl like some kind of animal was a blow to his pride, but he'd take it over being fed by one of the guards.

He hadn't seen another person since coming fully into consciousness, when they'd finally brought in someone with healing powers to seal his wounds. That had been a few days ago. A week, at most.

He knew he shouldn't care if he saw guards or not, and he was used to spending plenty of time alone, but the emptiness, the quiet of the cell was starting to eat at him.

Whatever. He could use their inattention to his advantage. Based on the fragments of memory from his weeks spent half-conscious and healing, he knew he was imprisoned at the Tower, one of a handful of places in the city designed to hold criminals with powers. Staffed by powered guards, equipped with plenty of countermeasures… breaking out would've been a challenge before he'd lost his arms. Now it'd be all but impossible.

Lex could bide his time. Get stronger, act weaker. Catch them off guard, take a hostage through the damned door slot if he had to. Anything to get away. Anything to avoid the fate the city had chosen for him.

But he knew that even if he could manage it, (he would, he had to) it would take time to find an opening, to plan. And that time would be spent here, whether he liked it or not. He'd heard stories of the Tower from other Neath citizens. Horror stories designed to shock their listeners; tales of human experimentation and violence and removal of rights, of guards torturing or violating prisoners just because they could. All second-hand. Once someone was taken to the Tower, they were often never seen again. Strange to think he'd joined that number. Strange and terrifying. But he was determined to change the ending of his story.

If that meant suffering through whatever the Tower had to give, he'd bear it.

At least that's what Lex told himself as he lay flat on his back, staring up into the darkness of the cell. He'd bear it, but 'it' filled him with a smothering dread.

And there was nothing to do but wait through it. He felt helpless, an object waiting to be acted upon—a bitter, sickening notion. He had nothing but his own body—or what remained of it—and the ragged clothes on his back.

The cell was sanitized of anything he could make use of; even the water tray was tinfoil, and he'd learned quickly that if he tried to remove it from the reach of the slot, the guards simply wouldn't refill it. The single sheet on the cot was thin enough that it wouldn't see much use before tearing, and what could he do with that besides set it on fire, destroying one of the few comforts he'd been granted?

He had his teeth, his eyes, his mind.

And there was nothing to do but wait.

Lex lay on his back. Trying to sleep, failing to sleep. Reciting old poems under his breath just to hear a voice, to keep the darker thoughts at bay, keep the despair from consuming him.

He closed his eyes, and he waited.

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@whumpacabra @enteredin2eternity @kixngiggles @whumpsday @kiichu @whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump @shywhumpauthor @distinctlywhumpthing

[the-flying-lemur-monkey]

Aegon be like:

and just remember, no one will ever be able to hate you more than you already hate yourself!

[bughead-in-the-comics]

From Sad Lad, PEP Comics #210 (1967).

[panthermouthh]

“Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?”

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

I think to topple the devine rights of kings billionaires, we need to dispel the myth that they have that money because they are smart and worked hard and make good decisions

I think the zip ties on the submarine and the limited views on the advertising platform might begin to show them for what they are

They are not smarter than you. They are not better than you. And if you suddenly magically got all that money people would stop saying 'no' to you too. and that is not a good thing

[archonfurina]

Love and Deepspace: Rafayel - 5* Deep Sea Promise

[b4kuch1n]

study of this masterwork

[canisalbus]

hello! i've written a short little machete fic, and i wanted to share it with you as thanks for all the incredible art and generous question-answering you've been doing these last few months. i hope that if you give it a look, you enjoy it. <3 keep up all your amazing work! archiveofourown [.] org / works / 50945128

✦ A Voi ✦

[ryllen]

i only realize zayne's arms is full of scars when he rolled his sleeves higher on Exclusive Tutorial

[starmocha]

Love and Deepspace + Tumblr Text Post ↳ Zayne, Part 2

[screwpinecaprice]

Just a silly guy, with silly silly thoughts.

@glowweek Day 2

Casual | Surprise

A casual surprise?😬😬😬

[abisalli]

I just want him to have fun, is that too much to ask for

[grimalkinscribbles]

Thinking about a very specific scenario in which Mhin gets slammed into a wall so hard by a soulless they’re out cold for a second. Flinching awake, completely disoriented, and tasting blood in their mouth- their first terrified thought is that they’re waking up after another agonizing transformation and someone else must be dead.

Mhin’s more than a little relieved when they quickly come to their senses with the soulless they were hunting lunging down at them.

[bearotonin-international]

Waldo is disappointed in us for forgetting to correctly queue up our Fat Bear Friday content. We are too 😔

[cosmic--static]

"you looked cold" (i love you)

[vellichorom]

hell timelines & funhouse mirrors // & finding a bit more of yourself IN yourself than you might like,

( ft @/sad-ist’s narrator! )