The very intriguing thing about Barry and his healing capabilities mixed with whump is that you can submit him to near unimaginable tortures, that he will completely heal from, but that he will always remember. Ruin his vision, take out his eyes, then force him back into the world after he's healed and tell him to be normal about it---whilst he tries to reckon with relating to an experience he can't prove, an experience no one will relate to.
Barry Allen has one of those faces that makes me want to bounce it off a countertop a few times (affectionate). Bet he’d look great dazed and severely concussed with a broken nose.
You wanted to be asked to elaborate on a Barry in Doomworld AU? You have made me curious, please do elaborate. How many problems is Eobard Thawne causing now
GLADLY. Thank you for asking :D! First off, the post that prompted this ask.
I’ve got many ideas for how Barry could fit into (read: be whumped within) Doomworld, and that post solidified another one. Tbh now that I think on it the initial premise is similar to Armageddon/Reverse-Flashpoint but I’m gonna say it anyways.
…This is going under a cut. And I really hope it’s coherent.
Edit: I’d recommend reading this version for extra angst
So, Thawne frames Barry for some pretty awful murders. A Lot of them (probably in the hundreds. Speedster ya know, can get a lot done fast). (And he does it while wearing Barry’s face and mimicking his lightning color too (…yeah it’s what Armageddon did ik. It makes sense though!)). Anyways there’s a few ~specific~ kills that will come into play later.
Since Eobard has his usual red lightning and the murders were clearly committed by someone with yellow, it rules him out as a suspect and makes it easy for him to play the hero and ‘catch’ Barry in the act. Now. Could he just be thrown in prison? Sure. But I’m already onboard my Make It Worse train so choo choo motherfuckers we’re making the whump public.
Legally speaking who knows how this works but hey. Doomworld sucks so anything goes.
As far as everyone in the city knows, it’s a dangerous serial killer who’s trapped in a cage with transparent walls, kept on display in a public square. Sure he’s literally tortured sometimes, but why would anyone care when it’s just an awful person being punished for his crimes? And if anyone does have an issue with it, perhaps even suspect they got the wrong guy… Well they can take it up with Thawne! Oopsies their body will never be found. ANYWAYS. So Barry’s been kept like this for a while, but till let’s say the Doomworld episode, he’s just Barry Allen, a speedster but never The Flash— then our Barry’s mind and memories are essentially dropped into him (quick tangent— this is an implication of time fuckery that we never talk about. Post-Flashpoint, for example? The Barry everyone knew in that timeline is just Gone. The one who refused to save Dante for Cisco, probably had conversations with Iris about her anger with Joe, did and said some other things we couldn’t even know about— by time traveling with memories from a different timeline, Barry essentially erased this new timeline’s version of himself and replaced him. And this is NEVER ADDRESSED (I mean ofc it’s not. It’s really fucked up and the writers wouldn’t want to deal with it (…but frankly neither do I. It’s just something that occurred to me while making this post. ANYWAYS). So our Barry essentially replaces the other Barry, and he has no idea what the fuck is going on. One second he’s doing whatever he was doing at that point in Flash season 3; then the next he’s here, injured and trapped. He has his speed but he still can’t get out of the box. Anyone he asks for help, or even why he’s in there, gives him disgusted and angry looks, with no real answers.
And honestly, maybe Thawne doesn’t even stop by. He knows it’s his Barry now, he’s the one who chose that with the spear after all. So maybe he just lets him sit and wonder who did this to him, and why.
So Barry’s already asked random people for help. He’s probably increasingly desperate in this situation, even just for an explanation. Just imagine how he’ll react when he sees one of his loved ones walk by. And please now remember what I said about some specific murders that might come into play later… Can you hear my evil laughter from here?
Imagine he sees, let’s say, Iris. And he’s so SO relieved to see a familiar face, and of everyone who’s scorned him so far— She wouldn’t, right? She’d help him, right? Can you see his heart shatter when she looks at him with such intense hatred in her eyes, and walks past him without a second glance. And that hatred would be justified, if he actually did kill her father like she thinks he did.
And this repeats, when he inevitably sees his other loved ones look at him with that same hatred. Because Thawne killed people close to all of them intentionally. Except Cisco. But unfortunately not for any good reason.
There’s some things even the spear can’t modify, and Cisco’s powers appeared to be one of them. Eobard found out he still could vibe after killing Dante, and decided to kill Cisco too. He certainly didn’t want to (1x15 ya know), but the ability to vibe made Cisco too much of a threat. (Fun bonus of this is that he killed Cisco with Barry’s face. So when the timeline is put back to normal, Cisco may get some vibes of that death :) Just for funsies).
For the love of every god I went way off track too many times I’m so sorry. Also quick note that I probably don’t need to say but brain’s making me; as he did with all the Legends in the episode, Thawne definitely fucked with Team Flash’s heads and morals to make them ok with this whole situation. Pipeline-prison hell aside, this is obviously out of character and that’s part of the point.
Anyways back to the Barry suffering. He does figure out what happened eventually, and makes the connection that Thawne’s definitely the one who framed him. But what does it matter when no one will believe him? It’s like he’s 11 again except somehow worse. My braincells are running out but mix some classic Barry Allen Guilt Complex, 24/7 captivity, torture, everyone against him, and the fact that this is Season 3 Barry— and you get some inevitable thoughts about how, while he didn’t do anything to anyone in this timeline, he has hurt people, and killed people… Yeah this whole situation’s gonna get to him eventually.
Which I think is the perfect time for the Legends to rescue him. And he gets the desperate relief of someone believing and helping him. Plus, luckily everything’s gonna be fixed anyways so it’s fineeeeeeeee
Anyways. I’m done. Hope you enjoyed because it felt like I just wrang my brain out and let the thoughts spill like water out of a wet towel (not a bad thing. I just really hope this was coherent). Goodnight.
He’s become so use to the flash, of the feel of something hitting him, bruising and breaking and demolishing, and then the rapid heal, that it’s a shock to wake up in the morning stiff and sore. He lies in bed a little longer, his alarm buzzing in his ear.
He braces his ribs, wrapped and broken and bruised, with his arm. Barry can still feel the backlash of Griffin Gray’s punches, powered with super strength and the other man’s grief and hurt and anger. Thinking of Gray brings a puddle of bile to his throat and he swallows it down, wincing as it grates on his ribs, his bruised trachea and about every hurt he’s ever had.
“Barry!” Joe shouts up the stairs. “You best be getting up!”
He doesn’t have the energy to shout. Doesn’t have the energy to get up and pull his shirt on. Doesn’t have the energy to do anything.
But he has to. With a quiet groan, Barry sits up in bed, an arm wrapped around his ribs. There wasn’t a lot to do for broken and bruised ribs, only to be wrapped and dosed up on painkillers - that was an upside that Barry hadn’t thought about - and making sure that he doesn’t get jostled too much on the way to work or at work.
He gets dressed, slow and stiff. It makes him feel like an old man. He’s glad he’s started wearing his cardigans again, they’re easier to pull on than having to pull a sweater over his head.
“Comin’, Joe,” He says, wavering on the top of the staircase, loafers in hand. He’s blushing red, he can feel it. He hates this, hates it with a passion he’s never felt even before becoming the Flash.
“Alright, Bar?” Joe asks, holster and badge already on. He’s got that little furrow in his brow that means he’s concerned but trying not to make a big deal out of it.
“I can’t put my shoes on,” Barry mumbles, blushing red. It had been agony trying to pull his trousers up. Having to bend down for an extended period of time to pull his shoes on and then tie them? He almost ended up going head first in a spectacular swan dive when he first tried it.
“Can’t put your-? Oh,” Joe says, and his eyes go soft and concerned. His eyes flicker to the bump of thick bandage he can just make out under Barry’s white collared shirt “Sofa,” Joe points.
“Thanks, Joe,” Barry says. He’s going even redder. He hates that he apparently can’t fend for himself. Can’t do anything. He feels like a burden in a way he never felt before.
Not even when Joe first took him in and he had to put up with a screw-up of a kid with PTSD and panic attacks and nightmares and believing in the impossible.
Joe sits on the coffee table, slapping Barry’s knee.
“Foot up, Bar,” Joe says, and his fingers are quick and effortless as he laces the loafers.
“I’m definitely getting shoes without laces,” Barry mumbles as he looks up at the ceiling.
“Might help,” Joe says, and there’s something so mild and inoffensive in his voice that Barry makes a fist with his hands, pulling at his jeans from where they’re grasping the denim. His eyes burn.
Embarrassed for the third time this morning, Barry scrubs a hand down his face and doesn’t dare look at Joe, who knocks Barry’s foot off of his knee, obviously done.
“I’m sorry, Joe,” Barry says miserably, peaking through his fingers at the older man.
Joe leans forward, looking at Barry with dark, serious eyes.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry about, Barry,” He says, quiet and serious in a way he always is. There’s an added hint of sadness to the serious edge. It makes something in Barry quake. “I’m so proud of you, okay kid?”
“Yeah,” Barry says. He doesn’t know what there’s to be proud of.
“Hey,” Joe taps him gently upside of the head. “Get that look of your face, you’re not a burden and you’re definitely not deadweight, okay?”
Barry ducks his head, smiles. He doesn’t quite know how Joe does it.
(That’s the thing though. He feels like deadweight and that’s because he is.)
“Now c’mon,” Joe stands, and he helps pull Barry up from the sofa. “We’ve gotta get to work,”
Barry snorts, slapping Joe on the shoulder quickly. His eyes say everything, wide and thankful as he passes Joe. He winces against the pain of his ribs when he stretches too quickly to grab his messenger bag from the banister and Joe shoves a bottle of painkillers in his hand.
It’s going to take some getting used to, Barry thinks. Now that he can use painkillers, he keeps forgetting.
“Make sure you take some,” Joe says warningly, darting his eyes from the medication to Barry’s eyes purposefully.
The Problem with Multi-Dimensional Travel was just updated! Chapter 18 is now up on AO3! I’ve forgotten to update on fanfiction.net but I’ll do that soon lol. Again, I’m not attaching the link in case it keeps me from appearing in tags/search.
Summary: Everyone loves tearful reunions. Except Doc Ock, of course.
Excerpt: “He recoils at the sight of Barry. He's covered in blood from head to toe. Twin streaks of blood are dried under his nose and ears, and from there it only gets worse.”
