I may redo this one of Waterboy but he's so wet and pathetic. Maybe I will collect all of them but finals are beating my ass so it will have to wait.
I also have never done a timelapse of my art before so it's really scuffed sry.
so i had this idea triggered by a thread with @enigmasalad where malevola and sonar would teach waterboy how to, as sonar would say, "freak some fuckers out."
this guy is 6'6 and constantly leaking water like a creature, plus he has a fuck ton of anxious energy inside him that could be channeled into looking as manic as possible. just imagine if he used his awkwardness to his advantage in a pinch, he could be TERRIFYING.
so i'm writing a little thing about it with proper punctuation and capitalization as a treat. this is probably the closest thing to a proper fanfic y'all are getting from me
~ herming below the cut!! ~
SDN is having a really bad day. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, everyone is spread super thin much like the final shift in the game and the city is crawling with gangs causing trouble. Amidst all the chaos, a couple members of the Z-team - namely, Invisigal and Flambae - get captured by a gang with tech that nullifies their powers. When Robert is finally able to get their trackers online, he sees them near the beach being dragged to the ocean. And there's only one Z-teamer who's currently available and close enough to go and save them in time.
"L-Leave it to me, Sir- Robert."
"Waterboy? Are you sure you can handle this on your own?"
"I...I think so. I have an idea- a plan."
"Okay, I trust you. Just...be careful out there, okay?"
"O-Of course."
A while ago, Waterboy had somehow been lured by Sonar and Malevola into opening up a bit about his confidence issues and concerns about not being of enough use to the team. In turn, they offered a bit of "advice", a new technique for little ol' Herm to use that could work in battlefields both hostile and social:
Intimidation.
As Malevola had said, "If you can't beat 'em, scare 'em shitless."
Waterboy had his doubts about this. He didn't think he had the capacity to be intimidating at all, let alone enough to fully scare people off. But his two teammates quickly rebutted that.
"Dude, you're literally like 6'6 and constantly leaking water. If you committed to the bit enough, you could convince people you're the fucking Creature From The Black Lagoon or something."
"Yeah, you've definitely got it in you, babes. Not saying you have to scare everyone off who has an issue with you, but it's good to be thinking about it as a...potential strategy."
Waterboy had still been somewhat skeptical, but thanked the duo for their advice regardless and had kept that idea in the back of his mind ever since.
And now he's here, about to test it for the first time.
As Waterboy makes his way to the location, he starts to feel incredibly nervous. He's already regretting this plan, but he can't just go back now. He's already en route, and his friends need him. So he makes his way to the beach and somehow manages to sneak past the group of gang members hauling his tied up teammates, kicking and screaming. There's not a lot of them, but it's enough that he couldn't hope to take them on by himself. So no matter how dumb his plan might turn out to be, it's all he's got.
He takes a short moment to steel his nerves before quietly wading into the water, swimming up to where he's still hidden under the surface but parallel to the opposing villians, and starts to slowly emerge from the water.
Here goes nothing.
Waterboy is REALLY regretting the plan now. His heart is beating out of his chest and he's trembling from head to toe, but he reminds himself that all that anxious energy will work to his advantage, and puts to use all the advice his strange coworkers had given him. He takes off his goggles, and makes sure his hair is messy and in his face. He leans into the trembling and starts twitching erratically. He uses his powers to make water ooze out of his mouth and eyes, trying his best to make it look as gross and unsettling as possible. He even starts making some weird gargling noises to really sell it.
As Waterboy advances, he's not really sure if this is even working. The water and hair in his face are making things blurry and hard to see. He can hear some vague commotion around him, but he's so stressed out of his mind that he can't seem to focus on anything outside of this 'performance'. So he keeps walking, doing his best to keep up the act. And after a few moments...
"Holy shit...Waterboy?!"
"What the fuck was that??"
Waterboy is snapped out of his focus by two familiar voices, rubbing his eyes and looking around to see his teammates still tied up but now sitting safely on the sand, and no gang members in sight. Chad and Visi are both looking up at him, completely dumbfounded.
It actually worked.
He successfully drove away a group of villians by just...looking really scary. That was all he did. And they ran for the hills.
After the shift, the Z-team goes out for drinks and the three of them sit and tell everyone what happened.
Courtney is mostly leading the discussion, excitedly explaining everything that went down and talking Herm up while also making a few jabs at him because of course she does.
Chad is a little embarassed to admit that Herm saved him, emphasizing that he could have probably gotten them out of there without help, but what Wetfartboy did was pretty cool too he guesses.
Victor and Malevola are so proud of Herm for taking their advice, Malevola giving him plenty of noogies and both hyping him up.
Alice, Colm, and Bruno are all very surprised and impressed.
Janelle isn't at all surprised by this story. She knew Herm had it in him.
Robert is thoroughly impressed and teases Herm a little, saying he wishes he could have watched it all go down but there weren't any cams around.
Katon is genuinely having a hard time understanding why anyone would be intimidated by this sad wet man, but he is enjoying the drinks and the celebratory atmosphere nonetheless.
And Herm? Herm is the most surprised out of any of them. He had very little confidence in the plan - in himself - going into it. And yet he did it anyway. And not only that, it actually worked.
He has a lot to tell his grandma about the next day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
okay wow this took me what felt like an eternity to write. i have so much respect for fanfic writers like what the fuuuuuck
anyways i hope u enjoyed this! i tried to make it more polished than my usual "idea dump" format so hopefully i delivered on that.
Thinking about that one injured Waterboy voiceline where he’s just fuckin shrieking cartoon-style repeatedly with a cadence like he’s trying to kick something off of him hysterically
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