Kon-El | Conner Kent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lowercase_el) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
metaheroes2022-12-03 02:41 am
lowercase_el) wrote in metaheroes2022-12-03 02:41 am
Entry tags:
Our Powers | Video | Open
[Kon is up on a roof. He props his phone up on a chimney and steps back after hitting record. He's in costume, as Guardian, his domino mask obscuring his features. No S anymore. The detachment from the S means a detachment from his face, something the Alliance has video of that can be used in facial recognition]
[Robin's paranoid about this. The least he can do is maintain that distance from his identity as Superboy, even if people from home will recognize him.]
I've spent the last few months debating talking about this, and thinking about how I'd talk about it if I did, and whether I'd only just mention it in passing sometimes, or actually call attention to it. I don't know for sure if it'll help or hurt. Or if it'll matter at all, but hey, at least if everyone just ignores it, that's better than it being a disaster, right?
[Time to stop waffling.]
I'm Guardian and I'm a clone. For a lot of people back home, and a lot of other Starfallen, that won't even matter. For a lot of people from this world, it might not either. But to some people back home, it did. Sometimes I had to fight for my right to be my own person and fight to not be controlled.
Hell, I'm pretty sure the US government still classifies me as unrecoverable [air quotes] "defective property." Their words.
Anyway, I did some digging and this world's track record with clones? Not great. Even heroes like Atomight have made mistakes - killed clones like they don't matter. I've been told he's one of the last people around the Alliance from that era - and that he realized his mistake and has tried to do right by clones since. And I won't say I don't believe it. I do think people can change.
But I've also dug around and found out there are plenty of people that see no problem with what he and the other heroes of that time did and would have no problem with anyone doing it again now. They see clones as soulless or dangerous or incapable of actually thinking and feeling. As if non-clones have a trademark on being controlled, brainwashed, or manipulated.
[He puts his hands on his hips.]
Whatever the case, I'm stuck dealing with this world as it is. That includes whether or not I want to hide what I am - which I don't - and whether or not I want to go guild - also a big fat no. There are people besides the Starfallen in the Alliance and I can't trust them to not throw me under the bus the first time it's convenient on a mission because they think I'm not alive enough to feel the treads.
[Someone shallow like Fantastic seems the type.]
But instead of just going Unaligned and being quiet about it, I wanted to make it clear I'm actually conscientiously objecting and why. This may not be my world but I'm stuck living in it and the fact some parts of it don't feel safe for me to live in needs to be called out. Because I can't be the only clone that feels that way.
As for any Starfallen who have no issues with clones, I'd really appreciate if you look out for the clones here. I'm gonna try - always have - but I can't be everywhere at once. [He looks skyward, thinking.] I think that's all I wanted to say? Um, I guess if anyone has questions about clone stuff, AMA? Anon's enabled.
[Robin's paranoid about this. The least he can do is maintain that distance from his identity as Superboy, even if people from home will recognize him.]
I've spent the last few months debating talking about this, and thinking about how I'd talk about it if I did, and whether I'd only just mention it in passing sometimes, or actually call attention to it. I don't know for sure if it'll help or hurt. Or if it'll matter at all, but hey, at least if everyone just ignores it, that's better than it being a disaster, right?
[Time to stop waffling.]
I'm Guardian and I'm a clone. For a lot of people back home, and a lot of other Starfallen, that won't even matter. For a lot of people from this world, it might not either. But to some people back home, it did. Sometimes I had to fight for my right to be my own person and fight to not be controlled.
Hell, I'm pretty sure the US government still classifies me as unrecoverable [air quotes] "defective property." Their words.
Anyway, I did some digging and this world's track record with clones? Not great. Even heroes like Atomight have made mistakes - killed clones like they don't matter. I've been told he's one of the last people around the Alliance from that era - and that he realized his mistake and has tried to do right by clones since. And I won't say I don't believe it. I do think people can change.
But I've also dug around and found out there are plenty of people that see no problem with what he and the other heroes of that time did and would have no problem with anyone doing it again now. They see clones as soulless or dangerous or incapable of actually thinking and feeling. As if non-clones have a trademark on being controlled, brainwashed, or manipulated.
[He puts his hands on his hips.]
Whatever the case, I'm stuck dealing with this world as it is. That includes whether or not I want to hide what I am - which I don't - and whether or not I want to go guild - also a big fat no. There are people besides the Starfallen in the Alliance and I can't trust them to not throw me under the bus the first time it's convenient on a mission because they think I'm not alive enough to feel the treads.
[Someone shallow like Fantastic seems the type.]
But instead of just going Unaligned and being quiet about it, I wanted to make it clear I'm actually conscientiously objecting and why. This may not be my world but I'm stuck living in it and the fact some parts of it don't feel safe for me to live in needs to be called out. Because I can't be the only clone that feels that way.
As for any Starfallen who have no issues with clones, I'd really appreciate if you look out for the clones here. I'm gonna try - always have - but I can't be everywhere at once. [He looks skyward, thinking.] I think that's all I wanted to say? Um, I guess if anyone has questions about clone stuff, AMA? Anon's enabled.
no subject
That doesn't mean I'm gonna make decisions based on fear.
[He's finally starting to get extra, extra frustrated now.]
And what do you think closeting is? It's not just because of a sense of privacy or shame, a lot of times it's because someone might straight up be in danger if they're open about what they are.
That means if you're something the rest of the world might hurt, it's a super personal choice whether you want to hide or not. As in, it's my choice how I feel about it. You could say the same thing about me being bi.
...And yeah, I'm gonna be open about that too.
I don't know if this will help but I also don't know that it won't, so I just have to try. Because this doesn't have to be my world for me to want to try to help in whatever ways I can. And talking about this kind of stuff can help change how people think.
Every single time I've been in another dimension, or in the future, or on a weird island of animal people, or whatever weird-ass place I've been stuck in, I've been the same me and done the same things. On Gemworld, the only thing holding me back from trying to topple a dictator by myself was that I had a baby to think of.
How is what I'm doing surprising? At all?
no subject
Buying homeowners insurance doesn’t mean that you want your house to burn down. Doesn’t mean you’ll ever have to use it.
You buy insurance before the disaster, because no one will take you afterwards.
It’s surprising because you wouldn’t hear me out and don’t care how I feel at all because you’ve got this. So get it. You’ve made it clear that you aren’t interested in my help. It’s like you’re trying to make me take this as badly as possible.
You do what you want. I’ll do what I want.
no subject
[He scrubs his hands over his face, though not hard enough to knock his mask off.]
But what you want better not be what you tried.
If you think what I'm doing is wrong, nobody's making you help me if it blows up in my face. If you disagree with it so much, then when the times comes, don't.
no subject
The last time it blew up in your face, there wasn't anyone to help you.
So I was helping in advance this time.
If you didn't need it, you never had to know.
no subject
You forget that we were only alone at first, but we freed everyone hooked up to the tower.
And it didn't stop what happened from happening. That's the part you don't get about insurance policies and emergency exits.
Plus if I did this while having an out, it'd mean a lot less. What's the point of conscientiously objecting as a gesture if you can just fu - [He's trying to curse less because he's being on his best Super behavior and he's no longer in another dimension cursing in a field while trying to learn how to farm an alien planet's crops] flip off to some other country?
no subject
And I know. I wasn’t going to tell you so it wouldn’t manipulate you.
I can’t do this.
no subject
[Oof.]
[Of course that day was a horrible blur. That was insensitive on his part.]
I don't know what you want from me at this point, man.
no subject