#was having some Kon thoughts

[ct-cactus]

Superboy AU where the suit is actually a part of Kon. (TW/CW for brief mention of self harm near the end, marked with three ***)

He doesn’t notice it when he’s still in CADMUS, where he’s in a state that’s not really conscious but too alert to labeled asleep- a dissociative in between. He hears the scientists talking, hears the mention of “the suit responds as expected” or “how does he react to this…”

He can’t focus on it when after weeks of experiments and tests and “Look here, Project 13” he’s being rescued (what was there to be rescued from, what’s going on-)

But when things calm down, and he’s brought to the Watchtower’s medbay and someone goes to remove the suit so they can perform a checkup, he flinches away because that hurt*.

All too suddenly he’s aware of being able to feel the suit. It doesn’t feel like a coat, doesn’t feel like a blanket, it feels like him.

He becomes aware of how it aches, how he can feel the AC on him even though he should be covered.

A quick examination just confirms it: his suit is like a second skin.

It’s full of nerves, veins, even a few thin layers of muscle. There’s no bone, but it’s too soft and flexible to be cartilage. It seems weaker than the rest of him, somehow, old bruises able to be seen if you’re looking for them.

***When he’s left alone for the night, legs still strapped to the medical bed because (he’s dangerous and untrustworthy and was made by Luthor) he thrashed around in a panic earlier, he finds a scalpel left on a try at his bedside and runs it across his chest (hard, because even though he’s not Superman he’s damn well close).

He doesn’t know if he cries when blood rises and trails after the scalpel.

He doesn’t know how he feels when weeks later, there’s still a faint scar.

*I’m not 100% sure how it works in the comics, but to me just because you’re near indestructible/invulnerable, that doesn’t mean you can’t feel pain. I’m sure there’d be a higher tolerance to it, but considering Kon would only be a few weeks old/out of the tube at this point, he hasn’t built up that resistance yet.

Also I am well aware that a scalpel would not work on Kon, let alone Clark, but maybe it’s a kryptonite infused scalpel for emergencies.

[saedyne]

nobody asked but my hot take is that i think kon's struggles with

being literally made to be superman

being given roles and expectations (as a hero/boyfriend/etc) based on that/how he looks and squeezing himself down into those expectations

being torn between duty/obligation (even and perhaps especially of the self-imposed variety) and his own sense of self

feeling like he outlived his purpose after coming back from the dead and not knowing what he's supposed to be now that he's done the superman thing (maybe even feeling like he needs the unbearable weight of expectation because without a job to do or a box to fit into he might dissolve into nothing because he's always avoided examining who he is when there's nobody he has to be i wonder why that is)

could. uh. y'know. all that could be read as quite...queer. in a pretty genderful way. but what do i know.

[mamawasatesttube]

pondering the issues tim and kon would have to work through in their relationship... like. kon's thing for attempting so earnestly to be what his partner wants him to be that it impedes his ability to communicate, vs. tims constant struggle with the hero/personal life balance.

imagine: kon shows up to pick tim up for date night, but tim forgot about it bc he's so wrapped up in a case. he's crunching numbers he's deep in a research hole he's in the zone. so kon taps at the window and he's like hey :) you're welcome to hang out but i really won't be any fun for a bit, im so close to cracking this. it's not anything urgent right it can wait an hour or two?

and kon thinks about reminding him they have reservations for dinner. but even if tim goes oh shit and gets changed real fast, his brain will be on the case the whole time and kon knows it. so he pastes on a smile and goes oh yeah no it's nothing important, i was just saying hi on my way to metropolis :). and he knows tim Really Is in the zone bc tim doesn't even notice how fake that smile was

and the thing is, kon really thinks he did what he was supposed to do here. if he feels hurt, it doesn't matter because he did what A Good Boyfriend Should Do. besides, helping people is more important than his feelings. so if he feels hurt about this he should simply get over himself and stop it.

except like that's not actually how feelings work. oops

but tim realizes kon showed up for date night the next day when he glances at his calendar. and he's like FUCK. and then immediately Why Didn't He Tell Me???? Why Did He Just Leave Again???? ? ???? kon???? and he tries to apologize to kon but kon's like no you didn't do anything wrong ! and tim is like. uh. yes i did? (holding flowers with immense confusion)

he's trying to get kon to tell him what he can do to make it up to him, if there's anything kon particularly wants to go do, what's a date idea kon wants!! and he doesn't understand why this seems to be making kon shrink in on himself a bit because he's?? trying?? to fix it???

but he hasn't realized that the issue is that kon thinks, on some level, that prioritizing himself in a relationship in any way is how he gets dumped. like he wouldn't consciously say that's what he thinks. he'd deny it out loud. but that's how he secretly feels on the inside: that having needs or wants, that expecting reciprocity from his partner, leads to him being left behind.

and so finally tim has to drop the "no really what do you wanna do??" angle to just sit on him and cup his face like hey. hey. i don't know what's going on in there but i can tell you're like Genuinely Upset (kon Haha what no I'm not!!!) but for some reason you keep saying i don't have anything to make up to you. which is Not True, Kon. can we accept that. i DO have something to make up to you and i WANT to make it up to you.

gotta cup kon's cheeks and gaze earnestly into his eyes like he's a sad lil puppy dog. listen. kon. i have a bad habit of letting the hero stuff in my life eat away at the rest of it and i am trying So Hard to be aware of when im doing it, but sometimes i fuck up because it's a hard habit to break. but i Will, because, like, this is the kind of thing that's ruined Every relationship i have ever had and i refuse to let it ruin us!! im Gonna be better for you bc you deserve better. and also because i know the rest of my family will be single until the day they die but I Refuse, okay. bruce and dick have fumbled every single relationship they've been in and i Won't be like them kon, im gonna do right by you or die trying, but you gotta talk to me for that, okay.

and kon's like. wow way to drag literally everyone in your family but i do actually feel a little better now. and tim's like fuck yeah B) was it the throwing dick and bruce under the bus that helped? i'll do it again anytime. especially bruce. listen bruce fumbled wonder woman do you know how bad that man is at relationships??? the fumbler for REAL.

and kon giggles despite himself and then manages to finally let go of some of that tension in his shoulders, heaves a big ol puppydog sigh, and plonks his face into tim's shoulder. he needs a minute but he finally admits, okay. yeah. it didn't feel great, and i should've told you it was date night that night itself. as for what we could do now, um... i'm not entirely sure... and tim's like not to worry! in my infinite wisdom i have ☝️ made a date night idea spreadsheet.

and like, the point is kon realizing that actually a good partner would like him to talk about his feelings and needs and wants. and tim realizing once again that He's Not Gonna Be Like Bruce He Refuses To Be Like Bruce. Rip To Bruce But He's Not Gonna Fumble A Bad Bitch. finally they go to the aquarium together or something and take a lot of silly fish selfies, and tim buys kon like 5 gift shop plushies. yippee!

[ravenpureforever]

Red Tornado: You are all insane and I want to study you under a microscope so I’m your babysitter now

Robin:

Impulse:

Superboy: Hey what the fuck

[gnomewithalaptop]

Rereading the Our Worlds at War tie-in again and God I miss their friendship every day

[pup-pee]

YAYYYY HAPPY 90S KON WEEK

Day 1: Family / Friends

w/out bg under :3

irons outfit looks so tiger woods 2 me

[covertblizzard]

jaykyle au where they're theatre kids in the same school but they're not the actors jason's the scriptwriter/director and kyle is the prop manager (i don't know the official terms sorry) and they'd probably do an amazing job on the backstage setting if they could stop arguing for 5 whole seconds about their artistic visions and ideas and how "this would obviously work better this way"

[swan2swan]

Sammy going from "I love my family and I would do anything for them and you don't get to speak on them" to "My family is actually The Worst and I'm proud of who I am" would honestly be a super-sick and subversive arc. Especially for a children's show.

[kryptonbabe]

There's this moment in Young Justice #1 in which Red Tornado compares Impulse, Superboy and Robin to Id, Ego and Superego respectively and first I thought - nice parallel, that is actually a pretty smart and insightful way to look at these characters, particularly on their first solo issue... Then the next panel comes with Superboy's conclusion and...

This is the silliest comic book I've read in a while and I read silver age comics pretty often... you just can't take this seriously and it's lovely for that

Although I'm already a fan of Peter David, the writer of this series, ever since I read his X-Factor books at Marvel, I was still expecting Young Justice to be at least a little bit overrated (due to the absurd popularity of the main characters), but I'm having fun so far, this makes me laugh way more than I thought it would, the hype is real...

It's not a perfect series, nothing ever is and writers really seemed to struggle with what to do with women in these 90s titles (at least for now, in my experience), but still, Peter David writes the goofiest dialogues, smart word plays (and makes surprisingly accurate scientific references, which I do love to read in comics), and it's not without emotional sensibilities too, although the main focus is the lighthearted action and dynamics (for now)

I just wanted to write a little update and register these impressions!

From the first two issues of Young Justice (1998) by Peter David and Todd Nauck

[konveeart]

Sketchpage of my characters <33

I closed my eyes couple days ago and half-slept under the cloudy weather. It's the first time in years I get brave enough to draw my characters in a scene right after I experience it.. I sleep immediately at night (no complaints, I am indescribably grateful I don't experience insomnia), but I miss the time before I snooze where I dive into my headworld..

I've been doing so many things in-between working split shifts that I've given myself possibly another ibs episode, resulting in taking the day off yesterday. I felt ok by noon so "I'll draw for 2 hrs" became 7 ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ I'll do my best to take it easy for the next few weeks u u ^^^love how I wrote so and as soon as I recover I want to go back to doing a billion things!!

Since you're here, here's the full page~

It was super fun to draw and I am extremely shy about it but also super proud and I worked hard!!

[seaside-hysteria]

Hot take but Teen Titans vol 3 era Cassie wasn’t that bad. Her designs were kinda terrible yes, BUT. It did have some interesting characterization and I feel like people wanna ignore that completely because they gave her lipstick?? Like how can you ignore her arc around the grief of losing her basically sister just cuz she kissed some boys or whatever. Ttvol3 Cassie definitely could’ve been better, like, leagues better, but still. It’s important to her story and it’s weird when people try to ignore it entirely

ALSO without ttvol3 we wouldn’t have had the mess that is Rose and Cassie. This is the price we have to pay for toxic yuri

[mamawasatesttube]

the geoff retcon is just so poorly done in so many ways. when i think abt it i just rly do have to roll my eyes because it wouldn't even be that hard to be like "actually, paul westfield was duped by agenda under orders from the contessa" and have that as the explanation for the introduction of luthor dna instead of paul westfield's, if you MUST include it. like that way it doesn't blatantly contradict the entire luthor plotline with mae in reign of the supermen, and it could've been a reveal to luthor himself, too. that couldve been fascinating ESPECIALLY in the context of lex having baby lena in that era, until the y2k event.

but fuckign. why do that when we can directly contradict kon's entire origin story which explicitly states he escaped before they were able to put control codes in his head. and when we can also just completely dismiss the ethics of "they [wanted to] put control codes in his head" in favor of "what if... some genes... make you BAD..." which is just very thinly veiled eugenics that the narrative entertains, for some reason. frankly, imo, lex was far more interesting as a character in every plot other than this, because he became so one-dimensionally evil in a very boring stock "manipulative" way. and we didn't even get a single mention of lena in all of his "my son" bullshit. using the contessa wouldve been such an easy and perfect way to tie it all together!!!! but sure. why do anything like that, right geoff.

[magenta-somethings]

my friend has gotten me into f1 enough that my brain is trying to combine it with dc comics. anyway, i'm conflicted over whether in a dc f1 au it would be normalised for f1 drivers to be 'anonymous' ala the stig from top gear (to preserve the dc element of secret identities) (with the justification that in this universe became even more focused on the car rather than the driver) or if its more true to real life and the secret identities thing just needs to be thrown out. i do know one of the teams would be wayne industries & ppl would accuse bruce of being a nepo baby except he's just. too fucking good. only team owner to also be a driver. and the robins would be the second drivers of the team, and at some point dick would leave to join another team so he could be a first driver and there would be. so much drama. jason retires early after being seriously injured in a crash only to return years later & join another team & be an absolute menace. also a lot of drama about bruce adopting his second drivers probably (reverse nepo babyism???). i have some non-batfamily thoughts floating around as well but this is the nepo baby sport. this was built for the batfamily

[artlyloser]

the 2000s kid urge to just rant to a camera about the things I'm currently obsessed with

[robingivesmemagic]

most heartbreaking thing is looking up if kon shows up in something but its just the t-shirt superboy design

[swan2swan]

Had an epiphany last night and shook out some rust today.

A few years ago, I made a Mother's Day fic (got a lot of stuff wrong, but...); this time, I've got more information, but I'll probably still get some stuff wrong.

This was all somewhat formulated last night at work, then basically pounded out today, mostly made up on the spot. Had some scrapped concepts...might come back and revise, and forgive me if anything isn't impactful enough, I wanted this done a few hours ago but had some issues...again, shaking off the rust.

Anyway. YAY, sometimes I write fanfiction!