nexus_sages | (no subject)

"I guess from a certain point of view, sure. But my dad is his secret identity just as much, if not more, than he is his 'public' persona. So it really all depends."

Her look at the couch is pretty unsubtle and deliberate, and he takes the hint, gesturing in an offer to have her sit down with him. "Yeah, that's another thing. Anything 'lad' is in the same boat. Heck, it already sounds ancient unless you're, I dunno, from the UK or something."

"Don't get me wrong, I understand why people do it. To protect their families and have a place to get away from the constant pressure." They don't have 'Super' people where she's from, but she's hoping they're on the good side of things. Not that it wouldn't be entirely likely that some villains would love that kind of egotistical nonsense, so. She really can't be sure yet.

Either way, she's going to sit down; it's easier to have a friendly chat that way. "Yeah, you'll want to avoid those. I guess you could really confuse people by being Supergirl." What? She doesn't know that's already taken.

Jon chuckles and shakes his head, not offended. "I don't think I could pass for my other cousin. I'm not blonde enough, for one thing. And she pulls off a miniskirt way better than I do."

Which is good, since she was teasing. "Ah, already got one of those too? Hmm. I guess 'SuperIrefusetoconformtogenderstereotypes' is a little long, huh?"

She hums thoughtfully before asking, "What's your dad called?"

"It'd be a mouthful to shout if you needed to get my attention in two seconds or less," he agrees.

"My dad's Superman, the first and original."

"Why don't you be Superman also? There were two Hawkeyes, and really, the confusion is not in telling them apart. Mostly the confusion is in people not really knowing what their code name is." Of course, visually, it's easy to tell Clint Barton from Kate Bishop.

"Don't tell me he wouldn't share. That doesn't sound very super at all." He walked right into that and she's not even sorry she's not sorry.

Jon frowns a little. "That might work if he was retired or something, but he's still active. It'd get confusing if we were both in the same place at the same time, wouldn't it?"

"Well... the Hawkeyes make it work. But I think at that point they start using first names. So it's maybe not a perfect solution."

Verity lets out a puff of breath before asking, "Does it have to be in English?"

"I've thought about that before," he admits. "I'd prefer it, but if there was a really good option that wasn't in English, I might go for it. I've tried Kryptonian and it just doesn't work well, especially if I expect the news to be able to pronounce it."

"Kryptonian?" They didn't have one of those in her universe. If they did, it probably would have been eaten by Galactus and Kal would be the Silver Surfer.

"What would it sound like in Kryptonian?"

"If you translate it super strictly, Superman would be zhiushod. Superson is even worse, that's zhiuaonah." It sounds almost pronounceable by a baseline human, though there are a few sounds that are a bit out of hearing range incorporated into the syllables.

She doesn't have super hearing, so she's missing out on some of it. Sads. "Zhi-uh-shod? That's kind of musical. I like it. Say it again? I want to get it right." Kryptonian with a Manhattan accent; surely, the world weeps.

"Zhuishod," he repeats, though he winces a little at her attempt to say it. "You need special vocal cord stuff to say it perfectly."

"Oh." She doesn't have any special vocal chords, and seeing his wince, she won't try again. "So wait, is your dad an alien?"

She has a lot of catching up to do here Jon. She's from that other comic book universe.

"Um. Yes?" he says, hoping that it isn't a problem. It's been a while since he's run into a real xenophobe, and it'd be a shame if she is one. They've been having such a nice chat.

"Huh." Nope, not a xenophobe. Not a much-of-anything-phobe. She doesn't much like spiders or dentists, and clowns freak her the fuck out, but that's for other reasons. "Is it a nice planet?"

A valid question! She's seen as many kinds of aliens try to invade her world as come to be friendly.

"I don't know," he answers honestly. "It was destroyed when my dad was still a baby. I've never been there."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She really, truly is. Because... "Mine got destroyed five months ago."

She has his sympathy immediately. "I'm sorry to hear that. Are you okay?"

"I'm safe." That is not what he asked. She knows. Give her some time to work up to it.

"I mean. Nobody could be okay after that. But I think I will be?"

"I can understand that." His dad is lucky, in a way, he knows. He didn't spend his childhood on Krypton only to have it ripped away from him.

She gives a little nod, and then decides it's time to change the subject. "Maybe you should try thinking about what you want to symbolize to people, instead of trying to think of a name directly."

Jon is more than happy to change the subject, for her sake if nothing else. "That's one way to go about it. If I have to pick just one thing to represent me, that's a bit harder."

"Yeah... but it's not your whole identity. It's just one part. You don't have to sum up the whole of being..."

Wait.

"I'm sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Verity." Do half-Kryptonians shake hands?

Jon smiles and offers his hand first. "I'm Jonathan Kent. Nice to meet you, Verity."

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And thus, a new AU fanfiction is born...

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