Please tell us more about the Selkie au 👀
I wanna know everything. What’s the significance of the pelt being worn by Tim? What are the backstories?
YEAH!!!! okay so a bit of background: selkies are critters from celtic/norse mythos. they are seal-human shapeshifters, who can change form by removing or wearing their sealskins; the most common tales involve fishermen stealing a selkie woman's sealskin cloak to entrap her as his wife, despite her yearning to return to the sea.
SO, with that being said:
kryptonians are selkies!!!
kon is created by cadmus labs and lex luthor. he doesn't even know the significance of his coat; it's kept locked away except for when he gets it for promotional photoshoots. he doesn't realize it has anything to do with why he's always discontented and afflicted with varying bouts of malaise.
when clark finds out - when he can see this physical, material evidence of kon's mistreatment - he's beyond horrified and enraged. they're violating a child, so profoundly that he doesn't even realize he's being violated, and he cannot let that stand.
lois, fully human but VERY protective of her husband and by extension all selkies: LET ME AT HIM. LET ME AT LUTHOR IM GONNA RIP HIS FACE OFF
clark, holding her off the ground: dearest, please. i need you to stay calm... and write the most damning exposé the planet has ever seen.
lois: .......FINE. but then YOU better rip that bald fucker's face off, you hear me?
clark comes home with kon in tow, uncharacteristically quiet and subdued. his eyes are red-rimmed and his cheeks blotchy, but lois doesn't say a word about it. she lets him sit curled up in the corner of the sofa, clutching his pelt around himself tight enough to make himself look small, and thinks he looks more like a child than he ever has before.
fast forward a couple years. kon has found his place in the family; jon in particular adores him. he's gotten kind of jaded and unhappy about his whole history; he's seen clark leave his sealskin around the house, has even seen lois wear it, but he's kept his hidden away in his room ever since that first day, except for when he's wearing it himself. clark, lois, and ma never touch it; the only one allowed to is jon, and even he knows not to push if kon's feeling antsy.
tim is kon's bestie. all the core four are besties. but none of them know the selkie secret - it's very well-guarded. they just know kon is a weirdo who really loves to take long walks on the beach and gaze at the ocean.
one day, he is on a long walk by the marina with tim. tim, somehow or other, falls into the water in january. he gets out quickly, of course, but it's cold and he's wet and kon really doesn't want him to get hypothermia, so--
he shrugs the sealskin coat off his own shoulders and wraps it around tim's, and tells him c'mon, let's get back to the house.
they go back to the house.
tim is wearing kon's coat.
tim. is WEARING. KON'S COAT.
kon, who barely even tolerates his beloved baby brother touching his coat, because he was so violated and taken advantage of in his earliest days!!!!
TIM IS WEARING KON'S!!! COAT!!!!!
clark hold her coffee. lois is about to whip out her shotgun.
and that's how we get the scene @cowboysorceror drew <3 clark is extremely concerned; lois is 👌 THIS CLOSE to a mama bear rampage, tim is freezing, and kon is like. well. this sure is happening!
other quick notes, in part brainstormed with beckett and also with my bestie @adjit in various dms:
kon doesn't, like, LOVE this whole scenario, but frankly, he's more worried about tim than he is upset about his coat. he knows tim would never use it to hurt him, to control him, to own him; he trusts tim. simple as that!
it's kind of hard to communicate this to clark and lois in a couple of quick facial expressions over tim's head, but he manages.
they get tim bundled into a hot shower and warm, dry clothes, etc. he's coming back downstairs from kon's room, afterwards, and pauses on his silent feet when he overhears his name in conversation.
"no, it's not--i'm fine, i promise," kon is saying. "tim's not like--tim wouldn't hurt me. i know he wouldn't. you don't gotta worry."
huh, tim thinks. he's pretty observant, not that he needed to be to notice the way clark and lois stared at him and kon earlier. clearly, the jacket is significant; he knows clark and jon have matching ones. maybe it's a family thing?
sounds like kon had some kind of shitty ex, and... they got worried about him getting into a relationship again?
well. no need to worry about that! he immediately resolves that he will put their worries at rest. he Will be the best boyfriend kon has EVER had.
like, they aren't dating (yet), but, uh, you know. semantics. details.
(he doesn't find out the actual secret until later. when he finally realizes what this meant, that kon trusted him with his personhood, he. well, he's not crying, but he does get this funny tug in his chest and he really, really has to go hug kon for a long time.)