#queste1

THEIR MANY MANY ISSUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im often thinking about how in canonverse with dead jack, tim never actually has to unpack really anything about his dad being kind of abusive, like with jack dead i think the most tim ever gets is like ok maybe he did some things wrong that hurt me here or there but so what, he wasnt perfect, what parent is? he loved me and i loved him and i miss him every day.

if jack was alive, however.

the thing is that if jack is alive when timkon get together, it becomes a mess so easily bc like. tim wants kon to meet and like his dad. tim wants his dad to meet and like kon. he hates lying to jack and he Wants him to see and approve of the other half of his life. he wants kon to like his dad because he loves his dad and he wants them to get along. and kon would see that jack is important to tim, even when he disagrees with the things jack says or does, and itd put him in a kind of quandary sometimes, like I Don't Like How He Talks To You? but generally tim would get a lil defensive of jack so kon would let it go, to a point.

and then there's also like. so kon has Issues™ around societal pressure of what role he should take in a relationship and how to be the Perfect Boyfriend™. of course, tim certainly isn't attempting to reinforce any of that, bc he loves kon and cares abt him as a person and not an ideal.

however.

you know who IS going to externally put that sort of pressure on kon, via expectations, and shovel talk bullshit, and general Overbearing Parent Posturing that ~just comes from a place of being worried~ bc his daughter UMMM I MEAN son is already a hero putting her-HIMself in dangerous situations all the time, and what can a dad do but worry…!!!!

what i mean by all this is that jack would be like "if you ever hurt tim. i have a shotgun." and kon would simply not tell tim about this. bc lol a shotgun cant do shit to him anyway so it doesnt matter and it'd just upset tim for no reason. right? it's moot. it's nothing.

but as time passes, there is a potential actual tim and kon fight in there where kon's willing to put up with a lot, but he does Not like when jack lashes out at tim. but tim's used to it at this point and so when kon tries to bring it up, tim is just like listen. i love you, but you do not get to tell me what a parent should and shouldn't be like. you dont even have--

and he stops himself before he says it, but it Is Enough. theyre having this little argument on the rooftop and then tim says it and for an instant kon looks like he's just been slapped. and then he vanishes. and tim's like shit i'm sorry--kon i didn't mean it like that i just--kon come back? look i'm sorry okay!! that came out wrong i wasn't… kon????

but he's talking to empty air. kon's gone.

and this. well this is the catalyst for kons "relationship trauma!!!" brain to go "okay! if you bring up tim's dad being shitty he'll get mad -> if you bring up tim's dad being shitty tim will dump you -> no matter what tim's dad says or does, accept it to keep tim happy" which is the direct line of reasoning as to "i won't tell tim his dad tried to threaten me"

its the kind of thing where kon goes home after he and tim fight and is Clearly upset, but doesn't want to tell ma what tim said that upset him so bad, because he doesn't want ma to hate tim and obviously she'd be mad at tim if he told her what tim said. so he can't say it. but also no he's clearly just being oversensitive tim didn't mean it like that so it's fine ma dont' worry about it. and ma's like ……………. buddy.

and its like. Notable. bc tim and kon Do Not Fight. this is Not Normal. this is Wrong. silly bickering? sure. an actual fight where kon goes home nearly in tears and doesnt want to talk to anyone for the next 24 hours? NOT NORMAL. something is WRONG. (tim gets temporarily demoted in ma's book to "Young Man." instead of "tim, dear," which is a terrifying experience for him.)

kon: omg ma no he didn't mean it he wasn't trying to be mean i was just being. well it was my fault for overstepping and being annoying in the first place and. um. ma: darling, you are digging that hole ever so much deeper under him. kon: kon: 🙊 kon (through his hands over his mouth): HE DIDNT SAY I WAS BEING ANNOYING OR OVERSTEPPING. HE DIDNT SAY THAT. IM SAYING THAT. HE DIDNT--

ma: then what did he say? kon: i . but. you. im. if i tell you you'll be mad at him :C ma: i'm already a bit teed off at him, dear. kon: weeeell................ you got me there.......................... kon: i said i didnt like the way his dad was talking to him when we were out for dinner together and he got defensive and said i should leave off it and it was really my fault for pushing back but then he said i dont know what im talking about because i dont have parents anyway and then i left ma: ma, recalibrating her view of the entire situation: I See.

luckily for tim, at least he is FULLY aware that he just fucked up. he's been replaying that moment in his head at least 30 times per hour ever since and going oh god why did i say that!!!!!!! oh my god what's wrong with me!!!!!!!!!

tim: dick is it a bad idea/invasive/overbearing to drive over to where your boyfriend is avoiding you if you know he's right and you were an asshole and you owe him a giant apology but he's avoiding you and you feel awful and you really want to say you're sorry but you don't know if he wants to see you dick: gonna be honest here timmy, i don't know. tim: what do you mean you don't know?? you've had so many fights with people you've dated!!! dick: yeah and generally when i hit the point of "they're avoiding me after i was a huge asshole" i just accept i'm single again. tim: tim, his eyes enormous:

dick, panicking: BUT I'M SURE IT'LL BE DIFFERENT FOR YOU AND KON. PLEASE DON'T CRY. OH NO

(you know tim has hit rock bottom when he's asking dick for relationship advice.)

but he knows he fucked up. and it is driven home extra hard when he drives 20 hours to kansas, and instead of going "goodness gracious tim dear come in, put your feet up, what a long drive--have you slept? drink some water. when did you last stop and eat?" ma kent opens the door and says "ah. hello, young man." that's an absolute huge giant red flag waving behind martha kent that says "YOU MADE MY LITTLE BABY BOY CRY!!!!" but its ok ma. he's here to grovel. he knows he fucked it.

its like. the most anticlimactic apology too, bc kon also really hates fighting with him and would also really like a tim hug. he just has Not wanted to go to gotham again and answered tim's one text of "i'm sorry i didn't mean it like that at all i'm really sorry" with just a 👍 the night of, bc he was too busy crying into krypto to have a text conversation. which meant tim started driving the next morning.

anyways so this is how we get towards tim being forced to confront that Maybe His Dad Kind Of Sucks Actually bc. it takes something drastic (emotional harm to the kon-el!!!) for him to get past that mental hurdle. the thing abt jack threatening kon eventually comes out and thats Almost another fight except this time kon isnt fighting back. its bizarre and weird and feels Bad. because tim is trying to argue like what the hell, why didn't you TELL me he said that, no that is DEFINITELY over a line, what the hell dude??? and kon's arguing like it doesn't matter, it's not like he can hurt me anyway, besides you SAID this is normal dad stuff and i wouldn't know better anyway so why are you acting like it's a big deal now????

“Hey,” Tim greets, fingers twitching in a tiny wave. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Next time, you could call me a little sooner, y’know.” Suddenly Kon is kneeling at his side. His fingers brush against Tim’s cheek, astonishingly tender for hands that just crushed steel like tissue paper. “I was way out at Titans’ Tower. I hope—” 

“I don’t care who you are, you’re dead meat!” Metalhead roars, whipping the long chain from his flail towards them.

Tim flinches, halfway to raising his arm to shield Kon’s neck on instinct—as if Kon even needs that—but Kon’s hand shoots out and snatches the chain out of the air behind him. His TTK really does wonders for his spatial awareness.

“Ugh, dude, you really don’t know how to take a hint.” A phantom touch squeezes Tim’s shoulder in silent apology as Kon turns away from him again, his expression darkening. “First you hurt my Robin. Now you can’t even stop interrupting while I’m trying to talk to him. You think your stupid little weapons are gonna work on me eventually if you just, what, keep on trying? Like, helloooo? Are you a complete idiot?”

oooh good question!!!! (also oughgh the flu is evil, i hope you're doing better <3 glad my writing was a comfort while u were down!!)

i really like putting tim in metropolis in the future. specifically, i like putting him in lois lane's purse as a journalist, but also i like placing him at the steelworks as like. john henry and nat's buddy! he's also a tinkerer (although not any sort of engineering prodigy like them), and he'd enjoy being a backup Superman's Gadget Guy to john henry. (suck on that, emil hamilton </3)

i do think he maintains a hero identity (i'm partial to rook), but he's Much less active in the field than he used to be. this is because being immunocompromised gets his ass and he has to grapple with the shocking reality of "when the disability is disabling", i.e. he has a major sepsis incident and nearly dies and that's a big wakeup call. not so much because he almost died of an illness (he's used to that lol!! hashtag the clench!!) but specifically because at one point when he's in the hospital, he wakes up a little bit while in a haze of antibiotics and fever and hes only like a little bit awake, but its just awake enough to register kon at his bedside silently sobbing. bc all the superstrength and ttk in the world and hes still completely helpless here. and tim doesnt wake up enough to say anything but that image/memory Haunts Him and hes just so moody and pensive and mulling over it as he recovers.

so that's like the big prelude to "tim going into journalism and becoming a gadget guy for the supercommunity" to me. it's also a point for tim & babs stuff. he has to sit on the floor next to her and pout about it and then also put his foot directly into his mouth while trying to be like "babs how did you adjust to this life :(" like

tim: ugh it's just so--i don't know how you stand it!!! babs: i don't, honestly. tim: babs: tim: i. thats not. i didnt mean that like. babs: SNRK

what i also like to do with him when he's a little older (like in his 30s) is placing him in charge of training and mentoring a team of up and coming teenage heroes, i.e. tim's "oh god i understand red tornado completely" arc. it's deeply entertaining to me. need him to be griping like "and i just don't understand why she thinks it's a good idea to stick her nose into all of this when like, she's all of fourteen--" and dick just starts laughing at him. also all of his kids think kon is so cool that they agree when he starts going on about ttk and they dont' even care about tim theatrically groaning in the background.

13. worst blorboficiation

oh my god okay wait i Have to link you to @loisinherlane's ives/simon fic bc it's so topical and also really funny.

that said. HMM!!!! i think it really depends on the point at which they all met because i do firmly believe in timives and konentine as exes. if simon is still in his extremely bitter about tim and kon dating phase, he's gonna be a bitch to any and all of tim's friends just by association with "that stupid car-obsessed asshole from gotham", and ives is gonna be like okay what crawled up your ass and died dude??????? but if simon has had time to mellow out i think it would go fine.

i don't necessarily know that simon and ives would have a lot to talk about in a way because i think they'd be dancing around secret identities here, like. simon knows kon is superboy/man/nova and ives knows tim was robin/red robin and is whatever now vc that's what made them break up. but simon doesn't know tim's identity and ives doesn't know kon's, assuming that timkon haven't gone public with their relationship in their hero personas, so that could certainly add a funny layer to it, ft. tim and kon going oh this is a terrible idea why did we let them meet.

OOOOOHHHHHHGHHHH YES. yes i see it. i absolutely see the vision. kinda like early rr09 tim/tam in a way... will i ever be over that panel where tims like "remember conner's special 'techniques'" while fighting for his life? no i will not. mr yost what the FUCK does this mean and why the FUCK is "techniques" in quotes?

i see this tho and i raise you: uno reverse song rec!!! the ultimate "they were his colors" song to me is "colors" by april smith and the great picture show:

aw thank you so much! i don't have a ton of recs, but i do have a couple on hand.

chrysalis by @loisinherlane is one of the kon fics of all time, to me. it's about his fambly and the complexity of growing up when you never got to be a little kid and i . 🥺 waugh!!!

speaking of kon in smallville. lessons on pie dough and helping hands by @ommlett!!! kon & the kents... ouhhh hes baby!!!

hand on my stupid heart by @misspickman gets me in the "kon you have fucking issues please get help buddy" (he will not) department. the smallville parts (lori!!!! my beloved!!!!) are particularly chefs kiss!!