i'll own the fuckin sky

    it’s not that clark doesn’t understand kon is suffering too. he’s a consequence of the joker’s actions just as the rest of them are - more so than most, truthfully. clark knows, somewhere in his muddled mind, that he should offer support, but he also sees the way kon looks at him now and hears the rapid, fearful heart beat coming from the boy, “ yes. ” it’s barely a whisper at first and then he holds his bloodied hands out, “ i did it. i killed him. ” the words seem so foreign to him, but they don’t feel wholly wrong. it frightens clark some, but not so much that he can feign true regret. the joker took everything from him.

    still, he wonders where this leaves them now and perhaps clark’s hesitance to face kon stems from the fact that he knows the younger super isn’t going to take this well. clark won’t fold either though. “ all the people he’s murdered. all the lives he’s destroyed. ” he doesn’t mean just lois or metropolis either. the joker has wreaked havoc on the people of gotham city for years. it didn’t matter how many times he was thrown behind bars. nothing deterred a mad man like him. “ what else was there to do ?? they’d lock him up and then - how long until he escapes again ?? how long until metropolis, until lois, was just another tick on his list of atrocious acts ?? ”

kon’s throat works around the lump in it, the one that makes his voice break.  he stares at the ceiling and gathers his thoughts, counts to ten in his head.  he’s not scared of clark.  not one bit.  because this act is atrocious and terrible, yes, but it doesn’t...change all the years of history, all the years of striving to be like clark.  kon’s fingers scratch unconsciously at the symbol he wears, and it definitely doesn’t feel like the sky is falling.  

@svpernovcs !

“Kon,” Tim says softly as he approaches the other, his tone soft, very clearly concerned. The world is still reeling from what’s going on, from what - what Superman did. And Tim knows it’s wrong, he can’t deny there’s a big part of him that’s struggling to really reconcile the fact that someone like Clark could do something like this. If that’s how he feels, though, god only knows how Kon feels right now. And Tim has no intention of leaving him to deal with this on his own.

He settles down beside Kon, shoulder brushing against his gently. “Give up on the silent thing, it doesn’t suit you.” He really shouldn’t open with a joke, that’s Dick’s thing. “Talk to me.”

kon glances over at tim from the corner of his eye and struggles to quirk a smile. it’s not a bad joke, and tim’s not wrong per se.  kon is only himself when he’s spewing half a dozen sarcastic jokes in as many minutes.  but maybe kon hasn’t been himself since this whole thing started. 

@svpernovcs​ | starter.

    there’s blood splattered over the symbol on his chest. clark hadn’t realized it when he first landed back at the fortress because the blood up his arm had demanded most of his attention. most of it has dried now and some of it flakes to the floor if he moves too much. it’s not a reasonable thought that comes to him as he sits, but it grips him anyway: was any of that blood lois’ ?? it was likely the pressure of breaking the atmosphere that killed her so he doesn’t think - well. it didn’t matter now. visible or not, he’d live with it for the rest of his life. it’s a stain on his very being that overwhelms him as it mixes with the now obliterated metropolis. 

    he killed them and he killed the joker and he can’t separate what he feels about any of it right now. it’d be easier to feel numb, but that’s not quite the right word for what swirls in his chest. he’s been mulling it over for hours. he doesn’t hear kon’s arrival because of it but the younger super has never been lacking in presence. clark drags his eyes up from his outstretched hands and blinks slowly at kon.

      “ i don’t want you here. ”

what is kon looking for, anyway ??  he’s barely aware of the force that brings him unflinchingly toward clark’s fortress.  kon doesn’t ever wear a mask, but there’s a difference between conner and kon and superboy all the same.  ( no matter that they’re all borne from clark and kal and superman, kon can’t bare to think about that just this second. )  he makes himself known, superboy clear in the set of his jaw and the irreverent stitching on his jacket and the symbol bright on his chest.  

          Cassie hasn’t found her breath yet. Ever since it happened, she’s felt like she’s in a state of limbo, wondering if any of this - if ALL of this - is even real. She’d like a no, it’s just a simulation, just a dream, but unfortunately… she doesn’t think that’s so. 

           She doesn’t think twice before interlacing her fingers with Kon’s as some sort of comfort - but she couldn’t tell you if it’s more for Kon or for herself. So many lives snuffed out like that, a city leveled, and such a familiar, well-known face disappearing into the dust. Her death signaling many more innocents to follow… And yes, it’s not Cassie’s fault at all, but the inner HERO in her keeps blaming herself over and over and over again. You didn’t look hard enough. You didn’t save them. What are you even doing ??

           His words snap her out of her thoughts before she takes a shaky breath, biting her bottom lip. Her voice trembles, ❝ I don’t… I don’t know if we can. ❞ There’s no way to bring back the dead from Metropolis. No way to bring back Lois. No way to undo the tragedy. ❝ …I can’t even process fully that… that Metropolis and all of its … they’re… they’re gone. ❞

kon doesn’t realize it’s happening until it’s already done, but there’s a sound in his throat like a sob and it wracks his body.  he can’t stop seeing it all -- well, it didn’t go up in flames, and it didn’t vanish.  somewhere between the two.  it had happened in an instant, barely enough time to shield gar, and that hadn’t been enough, either.  

“We do not deserve to be called heroes. We have stood by to watch the world burn. I held her corpse in the middle of a nuclear wasteland once populated by millions because we allowed him to escape and murder again and again. We are culpable, Kon.” Diana left Themyscira to help the world of man achieve peace, to protect the innocent. There had been a critical failure in both. Her eyes flashed with ferocity, but she reigned herself in with the reminder that everyone had lost, and she placed a firm grip on his arm. Not as a threat, though she’s never been a comforting figure either. “I am not advocating for thoughtless slaughter, nor the bypassing of a system of justice, believe me. I am only saying… what we have done has not been enough.”

@svpernovcs

although they weren’t historically the closest, stephanie still wanted to check up on him. unsure if he wanted to eat anything, or even have her around, the blonde still brought over some food regardless. just in case, she thought to herself as she knocked on the door a few times. “hey, it’s me!” steph paused, holding back any sarcastic, definitely unneeded right now, comments. “i know i’m not tim or cassie, but i have some food? you know, if you’re hungry. we don’t have to eat it, we can just…” another pause, hoping he even heard her through the door. “we can talk, or we can sit in silence. up to you, i guess.” she really was trying.

“Someone like the Joker would have been put to death in Themyscira long ago. No civilized society would have allowed this to continue for so long. What justice is there in valuing one man’s so called right to live over the dozens he’s murdered? Over the millions?” The images of Metropolis decimated still played in her mind, and the sight of Lois’ corpse- kind, witty, lovely Lois, who made Kal smile sun bright smiles and lit all their lives with her charm- would not leave her. She could not allow it to leave her. Diana shook her head bitterly, eyes hard. “We have failed.”

    what else can i do ?? clark doesn’t know how to answer that. he doesn’t know what to say to kon because clark hasn’t been able to keep the helplessness from suffocating him ever since he found – god, jimmy. clark can’t think about jimmy right now. he needs to focus on lois, but even the thought of her with the joker, stuck in the clutches of a man who lives to destroy…

   “  just keep an ear out, kon. i can’t see her. wherever she is, it’s lead lined. they planned this. they set her up, kon. ” he can’t breathe right when he thinks about it and all clark wants to do is tear up every bit of metropolis to find lois. “ they set me up and i can’t do a damned thing about it. if something happens to her, to the baby - ”

            ❝ What’s going on ?? Has anyone FOUND her ?? ❞ Cassie’s voice trembles with worry - timpani heart beats to match. Wonder Girl is of course referring to Lois Lane, a woman she knows is held especially dear to Superman, and she is DESPERATELY hoping Kon has an answer that signals the slightest glint of hope in such an urgent, stress-inducing situation.

            She takes a few short, anxious breaths before continuing, ❝ I-I haven’t seen her , nobody I’ve talked to says they’ve found her - a-and I heard that fucking horrible CLOWN broke out and - ❞ She needs to take another breath, biting her lip so she doesn’t completely blow her top from the stress and anger currently making a nest in her head. ❝ …What about YOU ?? ❞ She asks. ❝ Are you okay ?? Because, like, I’m not. At all. ❞

                                                                                @svpernovcs

    kon isn’t glad cassie seems so panicked, of course, but it does make him feel a little less like he’s losing his mind.  it’s good to know that everyone’s on the same level of red-alert-red-alert-really-fucking-scary-bad as kon, or at least close.  his teeth are so tightly clenched with anxiety that he’s starting to get a fucking migraine.  he hasn’t slept, eaten, stopped since he found out -- and he knows no one has, which makes this all the scarier.  if they’re all looking, how come they haven’t found her yet?  

    as much as kon tries to pretend otherwise, fear is what propels him on right now.  fear of where this could go, of what a piece of shit clown might do with the situation -- kon’s known a few bats for long enough to be afraid.  and fear creeps up more quickly when it becomes clear that this isn’t a situation superman can just handle.  if superman is powerless, then what is superboy?  he’s anxiety personified at clark’s side as he gives a shaky rundown.  

     hands firmly on her hips, stephanie inspected the dangling criminal before shaking her head. “is that so? well, then i definitely hate to say it,” she totally didn’t, “but he must be yours. he’s not dressed up enough to be one of mine.” though she had to admit ( to herself at least ), gotham was never short on petty thieves who stuck to a more stereotypical wardrobe.