Okay, so to understand z-teams reaction to the addition of waterboard into the team I need to remind what waterboard is known for. And he's know for (and consequentially was given his name) for waterboarding healthcare CEOs and company owners.

Now here comes my interpretation of the dispatch narrative, but to me they're heavily playing with the "super powers have a price". A price being your body and health of course. So. I headcanon that a lot of dispatchers has disabilities. And that the prospect of becoming disabled on the line of duty looms over every single working hero at SDN. And when you have a guy, who's actions directly led to improvements in healthcare situation (be it approval for test/surgeries, lowering down prices of certain medications, providing more support to those in need) it creates a kind of tension. Because on one hand this is a villain, a murderer, a guy that they, ideally, need to catch and give to the police. On the other hand there almost no one at the SDN actually views him as evil. Moreover some even like him. And almost everyone is uncomfortable when you bring him in the conversation.

I made an explicit decision to make Flambae a trans man in the fic I've started (also hey all you millions of people who wanted it to be a fic. Yeah, I'm writitng it. I hope you're happy). Fic literally starts with him getting approved for phaloplasty, because waterboard killed another CEO. And Prism is from Flint Michigan, and just from a quick google search you can find out about water being led poisoned in 2015, high poverty rates, high crime rates. This factors contribute to becoming disabled, as well as covid. For this story I hc that Prism has relatives that are ill and/or disabled in some capacity.

So. Waterboard is that fucking guy who ruins their shifts frequently, making them slip on puddles and break bazillion bones a minute, being insane evil mackerel. But. He's also the person that helped them get a better life with his direct actions.

But also. Waterboard is still an anxious fucked up guy. More fucked up that Waterboy, I'd say, though after years of depression, derealizations etc. some of the visual affects of his anxiety are not as present. Like he's not stuttering as much, he's body language is not as squirmy as waterboy's, but he's still a socially inept loser. But because of him waterboarding CEOs, the costume, him being stealthy and being silent for the most part, everyone had this image of a tall mysterious man.

And then Z-team is met with the reality of waterboard being a sad loser who's just. Too depressed for anything really.

So they're kind of welcome him, then their expectations are shattered and they're not so welcoming for a period of time, but after him working a bit longer at the SDN (And a good amount of time spent with Flambae and Prism) they've come around to love him as the rest of the team

Villain! Waterboy

Moment in the au at the end of the episode 8 they throw Flambae into the ocean, and it's Waterboard who saves him

Villain!Waterboy Z-team sees this evil mackerel and realizes that for the next hour and a half they won't be able to do anything because they'll be slipping on puddles and breaking from one to three bones each

Some very vague Villain!Waterboy concepts

I wanted his villain costume to employ more of a fishy camouflage, with the lighter belly and darker back. He was not exclusively Shroud's goon, but Shroud was kind of the one who got him into villain world soooo red accents. And also this loser now is not only anxious but also depressed so no optimistic yellow in his color pallet