Coping at Ke'e Beach

[supertshirt.livejournal.com]

So, what do you do when you find out you're going to die? Kon's seen how thrown Kal is from his death--but Kal comes back. Even if he doesn't believe it now, Kon knows this, and he knows that he's not likely to have the same thing happen to him. He's not Kal. The world doesn't need him like it needs Kal, so why would he come back?

Heh. The Good Ship Stacy: two good-as-dead Super-guys enter, one super-guy leaves.

...Okay, that's kinda not funny.

Superboy doesn't know if he can take his mentor's tack of playing it by ear and trying his best to help everyone else. He doesn't know if he can get over the whole feeling lost part of it to get to what he needs to do, and just deal with their situation here.

Even after all his talk to Tim of not avoiding people, Kon deals at first by avoiding the others. But it's just for a bit, just a little while, not like all that time he spent on the farm, hiding, after Luthor made him hurt everyone, and the difference is, he's not hiding from coping, or repressing, this is how he copes. He just doesn't like people to see the initial anger--and it is anger, that he expresses by punching robots in the Sensorium until his knuckles start to bleed.

Heh, and that leads to his other problem. Not enough sunlight. The stuff in the Sensoriums feels like the real deal, but it's obviously not, if he can't process it so that his powers stay at full super-levels, and the light that Will kid's been conjuring up for him is weak. He's going on empty now. He can be hurt.

And it just drives it home even more exactly how...mortal he is.

But if anyone comes looking for him and poke their head in the Sensorium, they'll find him not punching robots or moping and brooding. If they peek in, they'll see him sitting on a rock on a beach bathed in the glow of a Hawaiian sunset. He hasn't availed himself of holographic clothes, but his plantsuit is stripped down to his waist, and he's writing things on one of the media pads from the Media Library, a thoughtful look on his face.

"--Have I ever been sledding? No. Better put that on there..."

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression... is he at acceptance already? Maybe his general attitude of rocketing through his life at warp speed is benefiting him for once.

Comments

[halfa-hero.livejournal.com]

Danny pokes his head in.

"Sooo. What's up?

[supertshirt.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Kon says. "Um, Danny, right? M'just...hangin' out."

A pause, and he looks at his media pad, and then looks up at Danny.

"You grew up all normal and stuff, right?" He's heard him talk and all, he sounds like a normal dude. "What's, like, I dunno, fun stuff you've done that you sort of took for granted that was normal to wind up doing while growing up?"

[halfa-hero.livejournal.com]

"...if you'd met my parents you wouldn't be assuming that. And I dunno. Water balloon fights, snowball fights, trying to see how many marshmallows Tucker could fit up his nose, playing catch."

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"...Man, I wish Kid Flash were here. He'd so do the marshmallow one."

He seems to be writing the others down. Water balloon fights, snowball fights...

[halfa-hero.livejournal.com]

"We also had this game that we played where'd we make up increasing weird rules as we were playing it."

[lytaalex.livejournal.com]

Lyta was walking down the hall past the sensoriums when she came across the open door that led out into what appeared to be a tropical island. Why she paused, she didn't know, but she did nonetheless and was soon stepping into the sunlit room. A salty ocean breeze met her as she entered the sensorium and, for a moment, she found herself closing her eyes and enjoying the warmth of the sun on her skin and the smells of the vegetation that blossomed around her.

It wasn't until she opened her eyes that she spotted, in the distance, the young man squatted down on a rock on the beach. Glancing over should back at the ship, she contemplated leaving him alone but something tugged her forward, urging her to go speak to him. And she listened.

Walking quietly so as to not disturb him--though not quietly enough that he wouldn't recognize her presence before she got too close--Lyta approached the young man. As she drew closer, she realized that it was Kon, one of the "kids" that she'd told Brainy she thought were "reckless" and "dangerous."

Sucking in a deep breath, she wandered over to a bent palm tree several yards away and eased herself down onto it, resting her palms against her thighs.

"This is kind of relaxing," she finally said, glancing over at Kon for a moment before directing her eyes out onto ocean.

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Kon says. "Ke'e beach, in Hawaii. I used to live not too far from here."

It's actually a fairly decent distance, but he used to fly everywhere.

"Good snorkling."

[lytaalex.livejournal.com]

"Really...?" Lyta said, still looking out at the ocean waves as they crested and crashed onto the beach.

"So, why aren't you doing that?" she asked, turning her attention back to Kon.

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"Whenever I go underwater, I always get nervous about getting eaten by sharks."

[lytaalex.livejournal.com]

"Hmmmm." Lyta smiled a bit at that admission. Holy crap! One of the dangerous kids made Lyta smile!

"Well, don't quote me on this but I think Stacy could get rid of the sharks if you asked her."

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

It’s nice weather, and she has to give the place credit for that. It certainly knows how to create a believable atmosphere, and it’s lovely to be there. It’s got the kind of weather that makes her wish she had a tank top and denim shorts; the ones she’d had for over a year now, so they were nice and worn in and comfortable.

It’s weird, in this place, not having much in the way of personal effects. All she has is her lariat, bracelets, a small thing or two, and people. She has Tim, and Mia, and new friends, and Kon. She apparently has a future, but that doesn’t really matter. This is the present, and she vows to focus on that.

She watches him for a moment, admiring him as she listens, and then she picks her way through the sand, coming up behind him.

Cassie touches a hand to his shoulder, first, in case he’s too engrossed to notice her, and then slips her arms around his neck, and leans her head against his, looking over his shoulder. She’s smiling, and it shows in her voice.

“Hey, you. What are you working on?”

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

He starts when she touches him. He is that focused on what he's doing, and, well, it's Kon. Thinking am hard.

But when she slips her arms around his neck, his whole body immediately goes slack and relaxed, and he snuggles against her just a little.

"Kinda a list." He scoots over so there's room for her. "Pull up some rock."

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

"Alright."

Cassie lets her arms slide off him and she steps up onto the rock and sits down with him, close. She leans against him.

"Never been sledding, huh?"

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"Nope. Hawaii's kinda a little warm for snow, and Kansas is kinda flat. It's weird. I've played baseball on alien planets, but do you know, I've never gone rollerskating? It's been all about the surfing and cliff-diving and stuff."

He flicks through his list. "I have a ton of stuff I still wanna do. Go snowboarding and/or sledding, climb a mountain--without flying. Play baseball and/or football and win--with no power use (and not when the fate of two planets is on the line)."

It's a pretty long list.

"Read War and Peace, so I'm part of the point-oh-oh-oh-one percent of the population that's actually read it and not just saying they read it to sound smart. These ones are a little harder: Spit off the top of the Daily Planet. Spit on the Lexcorp Tower..."

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

“So you skipped all the boring little stuff and went for the flashier stuff,” she says, “but I can see why you’d want to try them. A lot of it sounds pretty fun.”

Cassie thinks some of it is the kind of stuff that Tim will call bad ideas.

But as much as what he’s doing scares her with all that harsh reality –– a bucket list? –– it has its merits. Real merits. It sounds like Kon wants to do that “really living” thing and she admires that, and it’s hard to get that smile off her face for even a moment.

“You HAVEN’T spit on the Lexcorp Tower?”

[pie-bitches.livejournal.com]

For once, Dean and Sam had been having a pleasant conversation, mostly free of arguing and insults (except for the occasional jab, but hey, they were brothers, it's expected). So instead of stomping around the ship like usual, Dean's taking his break from the med bay by walking towards the sensoriums. It's his favorite part of the ship, and he wants to see if he can spend a little more time at Bobby's house.

Except one of them's in use, and it looks like a beach. Wow, why didn't Dean think of that?

Of course, he wanders in (curiousity killed the cat, Dean), mumbling something to Stacy about beach gear. His clothes shift into a simple t-shirt and jeans as he spots the kid on the rock. Moving closer, Dean catches a bit of what the kid's mumbling about, and raises an eyebrow.

"Bit early for a kid like you to be making a list like that, huh?" Dean asks, hands in the pockets of his jeans.

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"You don't even know the half of it, dude," Kon says, but he doesn't sound annoyed or sad, just resigned.

[pie-bitches.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, Dean knows that tone.

"Try me. I think you'd be surprised." Dean replies, looking a bit amused.

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"I'm, y'know, a superhero. I got pulled from this big...crisis, I guess. Massive problems going off in a bunch of places at once. Bad guys all over. World's on the brink of destruction, kinda thing. My girlfriend got pulled from further in the timeline and it turns out so did a few others here, that were all acting...weird around me."

He goes on, "The reason they were wasn't because I had bad breath or something, it's because we win, we defeat the bad guys, we save the world--and I have a big hand in it apparently. But I'm supposed to die."

He adds, "Which, y'know, kinda sucks."

[pie-bitches.livejournal.com]

"Huh. That does suck." Dean replies mildly. "But y'know, I think I can relate. The whole apocalypse thing's familiar, and the death thing, too."

Dean pauses, and makes his way over to a nearby tree, leaning against it so he can talk to Kon a bit more comfortably.

"So maybe it's not too early for the whole list thing. You seem to be handling it pretty well, for a kid."

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

"There you are," Kara Zor-El says, finally finding her cousin. There's an emotional battle raging in her clear blue eyes as she approaches Kon, and her arms are crossed as though she's trying to protect herself...or contain herself.

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"Hey."

He types a few more things on his little pad, and then looks up at her.

After a moment, he tilts his head.

"Guess you heard the news, huh."

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

Kara nods and sits down next to Kon. She pulls her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. "Cassie told me," she says simply. She waits a moment before asking, "Did you know about this? Back when we had that talk? When I first came on the ship?"

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

Kon shakes his head.

"Apparently Beetle and Paco and Speedy knew, but BB told the others not to tell me." He adds, "Which is okay. I get why he did. If Kal wasn't supposed to come back, I wouldn't know how to handle that, either."

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

Kara nods. "What about Tim?" First suss out who's kept this from her, and then work on consoling her cousin. She wants a hit list first. Easier to deal with grief and all that.