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#mutant integration
wormspoodle · 2 years
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hc that rise raph hates bugs especially roaches much like his counterparts
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jabber-wockin · 3 months
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caprisun sleepover
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Introducing: Integration!
A rise of the TMNT fic taking place after the events of the movie. It's about the 4 boys learning to heal from their traumas and navigate a rapidly changing world.
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Rough sketch takes place 44 days post Krang invasion. A long awaited turtle pile after months spent recovering. (Many details like scars are missing because I had to go study lol)
It's mostly slice of life with some larger story beats in between. It's currently 30 000 words and growing as I flesh out more arcs and get more ideas. I will start posting this on AO3 when I am DONE. In the meantime though I want to start dropping details about it. This will likely take MONTHS to finish especially as I get less free time.
I am wanting to post some art (mostly rough sketches because I don't have enough time to really clean up art). I am also maybe going to post snippets of the draft.
Anyways! Here's the first snippet. It goes along with the sketch above.
"... Mikey liked to tangle his legs around Raph’s spikes until he was in what looked to be an uncomfortable position, but he insisted it was the best way to sleep in a turtle pile. Leo liked to sleep upright with a pillow cushioning his head from the spikes he would lean his head against. Donnie would curl around Raph’s tail, and Raph would curl it around Donnie in return. Some nights it would take Donnie a while to get everything just right, but tonight was not one of those nights. 
Raph let out a steady low churr that was inaudible to human ears, but would calm his brother's instincts. He felt Leo adjust so one of his tympanums was resting on Raph’s carapace. This encouraged Raph to make the rumble stronger, and he was rewarded by his younger brothers relaxing.
Raph woke up to find the sun shining in his face. It wasn't the pleasant experience he had heard of, but once he shaded his eyes it was pleasant, warm. He decided to bask instead of getting up that morning."
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ourtlesofturtles · 1 year
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Group pic :]
info about this au under the read more:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Paranoia
Humankind learns about yokai and together the two races start working towards peace. Somewhere along the line Hamato Yoshi and Draxum start working together to create the mutagen, which originally was supposed to benefit both races…however, it obviously does not go as intended.
During the big ceremony showcasing the mutagen, things start going run. The mutagen, which was supposed to act as a temporary way for the two groups to live in each others shoes, instead seems to be much more than that, as evidenced by Hamato Yoshi’s painful looking mutation onstage. As the crowd panics, the mutagen canisters explode, drenching many people in the crowd. Splinter, now a rat, grabs four random turtle test subjects who were also mutated and runs. The whole thing is initially blamed on Draxum, who conveniently disappears before anyone can prove it is-or isn’t-his fault. Only later, once the chaos has waned, do officials realize both parties responsible for the mutagen have disappeared, as well as four of the test subjects and many panicked civilians.
Splinter, worried that people are going to blame him next, hides in the sewers for many years, while raising the four turtles he grabbed and instilling in them the dangers of the outside world. However, one day they go against his teachings and brave the newly changed world…
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scribble-hell · 2 years
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Hey look! It's the Tutant Meenage Neetle Teetles!
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annamariedarkholmes · 2 years
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if pushing rogue out of the x-books and into the avengers for years means the x-office inadvertently made her marvel’s first 616 x-man introduced in the mcu instead of all the pet favs they’re trying so desperately to push for their own movies and d+ properties during krakoa i am gonna laugh so so so hard
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colombinna · 2 years
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I'm sorry but you don't get Magik if you don't see her as a sad, weird, emo lesbian
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empyrealarc · 2 years
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Adding ‘Spirit Halloween Manager’ to Angela’s section of the bio.
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whoslaurapalmer · 7 months
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holy shit, mutant graveyard of doom finally works with ruffle
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probablybadrpgideas · 10 months
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THINGS I AM UNREASONABLY ANNOYED ABOUT BY GAME SYSTEM
D&D: Please put a disclaimer that you are not a universal system. Every time I see someone try to do a political mystery game in D&D, I take 3d10 psychic damage and have to make a death saving throw.
Pathfinder: Look. If i wanted to play a game about fighting Cthulhu there is an extremely famous game specifically designed around doing that. Literally no-one is ever going to say "Wow, I want to play a Cthulhu themed game! Time to stat up a musical halfling from a magical fantasy land!".
Chronicles Of Darkness: Just admit no-one uses any of your rules. You have Social Door Rules and Integrity Conditions and Corruption Levels and I bet at most 50% of COD players could tell me which of those I made up. Just admit people aren't dressing up as Alucard The Bringer Of Shadows because they want to sit down and do calculus.
World Of Darkness: You know that old guy who's still doing his job even though he is way too old to do it any more, but he's now an institution so you can't get rid of him? Like that. The 90s called and they want literally everything about this back.
Call Of Cthulhu: I appreciate the commitment to authenticity, but maybe stop hiring actual disgraced mental asylum directors from the 1920s to design your sanity system?
GURPS: Look. Look. Listen. We both know that you just want to write history textbooks. These are history textbooks with a few stat blocks begrudgingly put in. If you just give me a book on early Chinese history I will read it and go "ah, very interesting!". You don't need to put in a list of character choices. We're all nerds. We'll read them. Live your best life.
Powered By The Apocalypse: I actually can't think of anything wrong with PBTA. That's not a bit, this is literally the perfect system. Take notes everyone else.
Mutants and Masterminds/Heroes System: Your systems have probably the most customizable character creation in the world and you both just make reskins of the Justice League over and over again. Maybe we only need one "thinly veiled copyrighted characters" setting? You can fight over it once you decipher your combat mechanics.
FATE: Ok I won't lie, I have no idea how the fuck FATE works. I have read the rules repeatedly and played three games and I still have no idea what invoking an aspect means. I don't know why. I grasped the rules of fucking Nobilis but this one just psychologically eludes me. This is more a problem with me I guess, but I'm still annoyed.
Warhammer 40k: Have you considered spending less on avocado toast? Then you might be able to afford to charge less for things?
Exalted: Apart from the lore, the setting, the mechanics, the metaplot, the character creation and the dodgy narrative implications, I can't think of anything to improve here.
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youwannaplaygames · 2 years
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Disney: So Wanda is the antagonist of MoM. She wants to steal her children from another universe-
Fans: Oh I get it! It’s like a reverse “House of M”, right? Wanda tries to pull Billy and Tommy into her universe, and accidentally brings mutants into the MCU, easily integrating the X-Men franchise you got the rights to from the Fox merger with the Avengers. That explains why Professor X is in the movie.
Disney: Oh. No, that isn’t it…
Fans: Oh. Well, what’s the plot of MoM then?
Disney:
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phykoha · 2 days
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the problem with mutants/yokai integrating into human society is the tons of humans that would cause such a ruckus and probably have riots or something over it. they would try to keep them out of their human schools, and try to make new bathrooms to keep them out of 'their spaces' and to 'keep the children safe'. because humans are awful.
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tonkysexist · 1 year
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So, why are so many iconic comic characters the product of Jewish creators? I’d love to answer that.
Superhero comics were primarily the creation of Jewish people. You might not know Stanley Lieber, Jacob Kurtzberg, Robert Khan, or Milton Finger. But, if you’re a comic fan, I can guarantee you know Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, and Bill Finger. These pen names were adopted to make their Judaism less obvious out of concern for the stigma and their safety. Comics (in general) were an industry populated by Jewish creators, because they were seen as a lesser art form that mostly existed outside of the mainstream newspapers. Many Jewish creators went to comics when they struck out in other fields (I believe the creators of Superman originally tried to go into advertising).
Jewish ideas and culture contributed so much to what we see in comics. Kal-El is Hebrew-named baby who shares an origin with Moses (Superman is Moses not Jesus. That particular choice in any media is a pet peeve of mine). The earliest version of Captain America was golem-like and fought Hitler directly. And the well… everything about the X-Men is Jewish. The ideas about them being a “human passing” minority. Fights about integration. Constant questions of identity. The importance of the “coming of age” for young (13 y/o) mutants. Even before Chris Claremont put it more explicitly in the narrative, the X-Men were always Jewish.
There are plenty of contemporary examples of Jewish and Jewish-coded characters and stories in comic books, and I hope to have 8 different posts this Chanukah explaining a few of my favorites.
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Chapter 2 of integration is out!
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Domestic Dream part 2: Family Bonds
Bayverse!Raphael x reader
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Part 1
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Y'all really liked my Domestic Dream with Raphael, so I’ve decided to give you more of him with your family.
Warnings: None, other than sweet Raph and maybe some spelling❤️
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As the months rolled on, Raphael found himself becoming an integral part of your family. He trained with your little brother in makeshift ninja lessons, endured your mother's attempts at cooking (some successful, some not so much), and even engaged in friendly banter with your father over the latest action movies, or whatever game they had decided to watch.
One Saturday morning, as sunlight streamed through the windows, bathing the living room in a warm glow, you and Raphael found yourselves surrounded by board games and the smell of breakfast. It was a rare moment of tranquility in the busy lives you all led.
You had invited both of your parents and brother over for a family day filled with board games and movies. Though your parents weren’t together, it didn’t stop them from spending time with you and your little brother, nor did it keep them from spending time with your mutant ninja turtle boyfriend.
You found it amazing, that the one thing that had shocked your parents the most about your boyfriend, was just a minor footnote now. Raphael, a massive muscular green mutant turtle, with superhuman strength, who had studied the art ninja since he was a child? According to your parents, he was proving to become the best son in law they could dream of.
As your little brother excitedly set up a game of Monopoly, Raphael surveyed the scene with a contented smile. You were in the kitchen, cleaning the last few things from the dinner. Raphael had offered to help you, but you had given him a kiss, and told him not to worry about it.
Your mother, sipping on a cup of coffee, caught his eye and motioned for him to join her on the couch.
"You know", she began. "I never thought I'd be sharing my Saturday mornings with a mutant turtle, but I do quite enjoy it".
Raphael chuckled, "Yeah, well, life's full of surprises".
"I have to admit, though", she continued. "You bring a different energy to this place. It's not what I expected, but it's... nice."
Raphael nodded appreciatively. "Thanks. I never thought I'd find myself in a place like this. It's different, but I like it."
Just then, your father approached, a mischievous glint in his eye. He tapped Raphael on the shoulder, drawing attention to the open Carlsberg beer he held out for him. Raphael accepted it with a smile.
"So, Raphael”, your father said, taking a seat in your armchair. “Got any special plans for our daughter?"
Raphael raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Your father grinned. "Well, you know, you seem like the type who could pull off a surprise. Any grand gestures in the works?"
Raphael scratched the back of his head, a hint of a blush visible under his tough exterior when he realized what your father was talking about. "Uh, well, I'm still figuring that out".
“Well… uhm… I’ve… uh”.
Your mother nudged Raphael playfully. "Don't worry, we won't judge. It’s okay if you haven’t thought about it. But if you need advice, feel free to ask".
“Don’t worry about her”, your father laughed. “She is just impatient and wants grandchildren”.
Raphael’s face got hot. He had not thought so far, at all. Sure, he had the occasional thought of growing old with you, but he had never let his thoughts wonder that far. But then a realization fell upon Raphael. They must have talked about you and Raph, and they must have agreed. They wanted you to marry Raph and they wanted the two of you to give them grandchildren. They really trusted him with you. That touched something inside of Raph. Raphael could feel his insides warm at this thought. But he was also in slight shock. He had never thought that he could ever do that. He had never thought of having, because his nature would simply make it impossible. Nobody would want children with him… But just a few months ago he had never thought your family would like him, and see him now. Your parents were literally asking when he was going to propose to you.
As the banter continued between your parents and Raphael, your little brother announced that the Monopoly board was ready for action, just as you finished cleaning the kitchen. The game commenced, filled with laughter, friendly competition, and the occasional intervention of a stealthy ninja move from Raphael that left everyone in stitches.
As the day unfolded, it became clear that Raphael had not only won over your heart but had also forged genuine connections with each member of your family. The initial reservations had transformed into a shared understanding that family came in all shapes and sizes.
Later that evening, as you all gathered for a movie night, Raphael found himself enveloped in the warmth of your family. Snacks were passed around, ready to be eaten to the movie you were about to watch. Jokes were shared, and as it so often happened when Raphael was around your family, he felt a sense of belonging that extended beyond the sewers and the rooftops of New York. He was placed in the middle of your couch, with you to his left and your brother on his right, while your parents each had found their own arm chair.
Your little brother, exhausted from the day's adventures, leaned against Raphael on the couch, who instinctively put an arm around him. "You know, Raph," he mumbled sleepily, without moving his eyes from the television. "You're like the big brother I never knew I wanted".
Raphael, touched by the sentiment, ruffled his hair. "Yeah, well, you're not so bad yourself, squirt."
As the credits rolled on the movie, your little brother, nestled comfortably against Raphael, looked up and said, "I'm glad you're part of our family, Raph."
Raphael smiled, a rare genuine smile that reflected the depth of the bonds formed. "Yeah, kid, me too."
Your mother, watching the interaction, couldn't help but smile. She caught your eye and gave you a knowing look. You, who hadn’t heard the conversation Raph had had with your parents, looked at your boyfriend in slight confusion. But Raphael on the other hand knew exactly what your mother was smiling for.
And in that moment, as the stars emerged in the night sky outside of your apartment, it was clear that Raphael had not only found acceptance but had become an essential part of a family that, against all odds, had embraced him with open hearts.
And in that moment, surrounded by the people who had once been strangers but were now family, Raphael realized that love and acceptance could be found in the most unexpected places. And maybe he should allow himself to dream of a normal life with you.
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farfromstrange · 25 days
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‘I Love You In Every Universe’
Chapter One: I Bet On Losing Dogs
Masterlist | List Of Installments
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Pairing: Matt Murdock x F!Mutant!Reader
Summary: The day you lost Matt, you lost everything. There is no moving on from what Spider-Man put you through, and you plan to execute your revenge.
Warnings: ANGST, Major Character Death, blood, suicidal thoughts, mutant!Reader, evil Peter Parker, 18+ because of darker themes, multiverse (No Way Home Era), slight AU
Word Count: 5.8k
A/n: FINALLY! This took me way too long to edit. Today, we’re setting the scene for future installments, but you’re not getting all the details, even if the first 3000 words of this are somewhat a flashback. So, if you think that there is too little dialogue for a Prologue, that’s probably why. This chapter is integral to the future installments.
Read Me On AO3!
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The world was silent when he died—an endless pit of nothingness, and above a sky full of stars. 
You don’t remember if it was raining. The moon was hiding behind a thick cloud, and the stars were burning, but you can’t remember if you were drowning in a river of tears or if it was the sky that broke that night. Everything else about that night, you remember quite vividly.
Hell’s Kitchen had become a battleground. The city lay at your feet in shambles; Wilson Fisk had become mayor after you tried hard to stop him, and the world fell apart. But it was his second in command, Peter Parker, who gave new meaning to the word ‘notorious’. Spider-Man infested your home like a parasite, slipping through your finger like dry sand. He knew what he was doing. He and Fisk held the city in the palms of their dirty hands, slowly crushing it like mealy little ants. 
When you met Matt Murdock, it was years back when things were still better, yet they were never perfect. He found you broken at the side of the road—or that was what it felt like, anyway. 
From the start, you have always been different. In a world where everyone wanted to be someone, your uniqueness painted a target on your back. Your nature was misunderstood by most; they either wanted to be you, or they were vying for your inevitable downfall. 
You stood out of every crowd. The target on your back remained no matter how hard you tried to turn yourself into a shrouded mystery. Eventually, you had to start running. You operated out of the dark like a criminal—a vigilante, and a mind-reader who could set the world on fire if she only tried hard enough. 
For most of your life, you were hunted. Scientists wanted to run experiments on you, tie you to a gurney, and study your brain until they understood how your abilities worked. Freaks wanted to sell you for millions to equally disturbed individuals. 
You couldn’t take it anymore. You were merely a scared child who grew into a terrified teenager who didn’t know any better: dead parents, dead everything, and a mind built to read those of others. 
Back then, your only instinct was blatant survival, so you ran. You ran fast and you ran far, an orphan so many would have rather seen dead than operating in the dark, but oh, you had to become something to feel like you were worth something.
When you landed in New York, beaten and alone with a bone-crushing fear of the future, the Devil found you, taking you home with him. He saved you. He picked up your pieces, glued you back together, and wrapped you in a protective glaze. All the heartbreak you’d endured, and the trauma you’d suffered getting there seemed worth it whenever he held you in his arms. 
You were Matt Murdock’s world, and he was yours. He showed you heaven and hell; he saved you from the purgatory you pushed yourself into and got you settled with a one-way ticket to paradise. After all these years, you finally found your salvation in a person.
He was your broken Catholic boy with a heart made out of gold. The universe didn’t deserve him, and yet he gave the world everything he had. He sacrificed his soul to God and his city. He prayed, he begged, and he fought hard for what he believed right at the time. 
Matt saw himself as the Devil; embodied him, too. Though in your eyes, he was an angel with an invisible halo only you could feel in every fiber of your being. His thoughts, his heart, and his soul; he gave it all to you.
You cherished him with all you could give him. It wasn’t much, but he loved you more than anyone had ever before. You were more than a mutant, more than a broken girl at the side of the road, and more than a potential test subject. With him, you finally learned what living was like—what it was supposed to feel like to be human.
The world tried to clip your wings. They took away your voice and your ability to breathe. Matt brought you back to life. He was not the love of your life; Matt Murdock was your soulmate. You lived for him. You existed for him. He was your heart, your soul, and the reason for your survival. 
It wasn’t healthy, how dependent you were on him. He made you see colors you couldn’t see with anyone else. You loved him fiercely. You loved him in a way that was pure agony. And you loved him in a way that you knew would screw you up forever.
It didn’t cross your mind that you could ever lose him. To you, Matt Murdock was immortal. He was the man you could see yourself growing old with. 
You got married in a small ceremony at the courthouse—it wasn’t just for love, it was also convenient, but he forever tied himself to you as you tied yourself to him with a golden wedding band—and you talked about maybe having children one day. A mini-you and a mini-him in your little farmhouse in the suburbs. For that, he would have left Hell’s Kitchen once it was safe enough to do so.
It was a foolish dream now that you think about it; you were foolish to think that happiness would ever be in the cards for you, but then he kissed you again, good morning and good night and in between, and all you could see was a sea of roses. 
He walked through fire (sometimes literally) for you and came back on the other side, hardly always unscathed but always alive, and always with a smile on his chapped lips. He crawled home to you even when he was broken. He crawled home to you when he was full of adrenaline. And he crawled home to you when he thought he couldn’t or wouldn’t anymore, both mentally and physically. He knew he could always come home to you, his best friend, his lover, his confidant, and soon enough, his wife.
You stitched his wounds and kissed his scars to breathe new life into him. You brought him back from the edge. You gave him something to live for. He told you that you saved him, and hearing that after getting on your knees every night, thanking him for the same thing, did something to you. It healed you from the inside out.
You kept him alive the same way he did you. You stood strong together against your enemies every night, fighting as a team. He taught you how to fight, and you taught him how to connect. Matt didn’t know what it was like not to push someone he loved away, but you made sure he understood. He connected to himself; he connected to his past, present, and future with you, and that made him a better man. 
You lost and you won, but at least you had each other to fall back on. You did it together. You did everything together. Boyfriend and girlfriend. Husband and wife. Lady Red and Daredevil.
The fragile little yet oh-so-big thing you had was raw, vulnerable, yet the most tragically beautiful love affair you could have possibly had the pleasure of calling yours. And pleasure, you had plenty. Love, you had plenty. You had everything until everything was ripped from your bare hands—until the very thing sustaining you shattered on a white cloth, spilling crimson blood everywhere, and what you swore could only be pried from your cold, dead hands slipped away in a moment in time. 
You both died, in a way, but it was Matt’s body you held as he took his last breaths in the dead of a hot summer’s night. You can’t remember if it rained, but he was certainly drowning in your tears.
“He’s going to kill you,” you warned him. “Parker and Fisk are out to destroy you. If Spider-Man sees you with your guard down, he won’t hesitate.”
Matt slid his skilled fingers into his pair of leather gloves. They were worn down, but they smelled like him. You could feel the unease sizzling in the pit of your stomach—a parasite. 
“I have to do this,” he told you, his voice laden. “The bastard is ruining innocent lives in my city. I can’t stand idly by and let it happen.”
You weren’t fighting, but the statement still hung deafeningly loud in the room, hanging itself from the ceiling with a noose that was threatening to take you down with it. 
“He challenged you because he knows you’d do anything—” 
He cut  you off, “He’s underestimating me.”
You stared into his eyes. It hurt. It hurt so much. The dark cloud was heading straight for you, but he couldn’t sense it. “You almost died the last time you came face-to-face with him,” you tried again.
“So did you,” he said. “Fisk is nothing without Spider-Man behind him, and those two have done enough damage already.”
“Matt, please—”
“I have to, sweetheart. This is the only way.”
“There is always another way.”
He shook his head. “Not this time. The city is about to fall. If I let them win, there is no coming back from this. You know that.”
“At least let me come with you then,” you said. You begged him to listen, but he wouldn’t see how worried you were. “We’ve been through hell together. We can fight this war together, too.”
“No,” Matt insisted. “He will see an easy target. You mean too much to me. Spider-Man is gonna use you to get through to me. I can do this. You just have to trust me.”
“I trust you. It’s him I don’t.”
“I’m gonna talk to him, and if I have to fight him again for the whole fucking world to see, so be it.”
The words slipped you before you could stop them, cutting through the air like a sharp-edged sword. “What if you die trying?” 
He stopped dead in his tracks.
“I don’t want to lose you!” you cried. 
You had not cried in front of him often before that night, but your walls cracked, and you broke. 
Matt cradled your face as he whispered, begging you to listen, “You won’t. I promise. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
The invisible string pulled you tighter together. Fear, anger, and desperation; he felt so many things—so many things running deeper than the ocean—but you swallowed them. 
“I’m not okay with this,” you murmured.
“I know. Here–” he guided your hands to his face, “Feel me,” he said.
You remember gasping when the floodgates opened. “I always feel you.” 
You stroked his delicate cheeks. He was here, home with you; why couldn’t he stay like that forever? Why did you have to let him go? Past, present, and future began to blur. 
I love you. He tuned out all other thoughts so you could hear him.
He was praying. He was hoping. Only a handful of times had he felt this way. You were so tightly interlaced that you could feel all of him without even trying, but that night, you tried. That night, he tuned out all of his self-deprecating thoughts. He allowed the silence of your connection to engulf him—for the city to disappear, and he allowed you in. 
I love you so much. Do you hear me? You’re everything to me. I love you.
Those three words weighed heavy like bricks on your heart. 
“Remember, three knocks,” he said aloud. “Don’t open for anyone else.”
“Three knocks,” you whispered in agreement. 
Three knocks like three words: I love you.
You read his mind, swallowing the words, but a big part of you wanted to spit them back out. You didn’t want to hear it. The universe was sending you a warning sign. 
Matt exhaled. He cupped your hands in his. The connection deepened, the string pulled tighter, and you became one. That night was the first night you saw glimpses of the future, and you didn’t want to accept it. You were such a fool to think everything could ever be fucking alright, both for you and for this magnificent force of a man you chose to call home—because home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling, and often enough, it’s a person.
He nuzzled his nose against yours. He kissed you. Softly, gently, passionately. You kissed him like you knew it would be the last time.
“I love you,” he repeated. 
The red flags waved, but you looked away. “I don’t want to say it back because you have to come back to me,” you confessed, “and this feels too much like a goodbye.”
He forced you to look at him instead. “Say it back, baby.”
“I love you,” you caved.
You shouldn’t have. You should have put up more of a fight. 
I will always come back to you. Cross my heart. He crossed his heart, but he hoped too much to die. Perhaps in not saying it out loud, he thought the truth would hurt less.
You refused to believe it until time had run out. You refused to cave until it happened. And when it happened, the city, for the first time since you’d arrived there, went completely quiet.
You followed him. Of course, you did. After a few hours of pacing the floor, you followed him. He was still in your head. You heard him from across the city, his thoughts loud and clear, and you could feel his pain like an inferno lighting up the night sky. 
When you arrived on that godforsaken rooftop though, you could only watch in horror as Spider-Man lifted the love of your life toward the sky. He wouldn’t accept your bargain. You offered yourself instead of him, but no; Peter Parker was not in the mood for bargaining. 
He lifted Matt toward the sky, and he drilled the dagger right through his chest. 
“No!” you screamed again. 
Silence. 
His blood ran through your fingers like quicksand, and sitting there, cradling Matt’s chest to yours as his heartbeat slowly faded into oblivion, you knew the end was near. The world could be so fucking unfair. You both died, but it was only his heart that stopped. You lost him that night, and your entire world stopped in an instant. 
You liked it better when he was angry with you. When he was loud, when he was laughing, even when he was just being sarcastic. You liked him better when he was alive. He turned into a ghost in your arms, forever and all eternity, and you fell face-first into the abyss. 
Maybe it was raining that night. Maybe you were being buried under the weight of your guilt and the never-ending flow of your tears. 
“I can’t…” you sobbed, tracing his cold cheek as the rain fell around you. “I can’t feel you.”
His heart stopped beating, and the invisible string pulverized. You watched it as it went with the wind. Without him. Without you. 
You screamed until your lungs gave out. Then, silence settled in. 
The night was quiet when he died; nothing but a sky full of stars and the endless black pit of death above and below you. 
The blood and his missing pulse weren’t the worst part, by far; the worst part was that you could no longer feel him, and that thought won’t ever not haunt you. 
You were certain that night. When you lost him, and you screamed your heart out, praying to a God you’ve never believed in, you swore to yourself that you would avenge him.
You were going to kill Peter Parker, and nothing in this world could ever stop you from watching this miserable motherfucker bleed to death. 
The bed shakes violently as you awaken. Dreams, so many dreams. Your nights are far from peaceful. They haven’t been for weeks. Months. What day is it? You don’t remember. 
Nightmares follow you like hunters after a fox. Your pajamas stick to your skin, and you’re sweating even though it is spring, and spring doesn’t have hot enough temperatures for you to be sweating quite like this. When you pull the comforter away in a sudden panic, the wetness seeping into your skin, there is nothing but white. No blood, no tears, just gaping emptiness in the farmhouse.
You pant heavily, dragging your nails across your skin. Your fingernails are tinted a charcoal black. In your heart, there had once been a bright red glow—like a ruby crystal sustaining your soul. You used it to channel other people’s thoughts. You could read them, you could hear them, and you could feel them. That Ruby has gone out now though; it has turned into a black smoke threatening to overtake anything it comes in contact with. 
The sun isn’t strong enough to break through the gray clouds. As you step out into the garden that stretches around your home, a gentle wind brushes through the bare branches of the dead trees. The wood is starting to splinter, turning hollow as sickness after sickness runs rampant through nature. 
You trace a finger over the poison ivy that has grown over the tombstone. The green fades, turning into a rotten brown. It dries out, and it dies right before your eyes, as do the roses you have been keeping in a vase ever since you laid a finger on the last bouquet. 
He liked the smell of roses, but you hated the look of it until Matt died, and suddenly, everything looked and smelled like a field of roses, reminding you of him. He was your daisy, your sunflower, setting fire to your freezing soul. He was sunshine, you were midnight rain. He liked to claim differently, but you wouldn’t let him. You may have been his sunshine, but out of the both of you, he shone the brightest. 
The poison ivy dies, and if you even manage to kill a plant with the word ‘poison’ in its name, what does that say about you? What has become of you; plotting a stranger’s death and killing the nature around you as you dive into books about mind-reading and dark magic to understand who you truly are? Dark magic sounds like a story out of a piece of fiction, but it’s far from that. 
You’ve known of your ability to manipulate the human mind ever since you discovered the creature hidden within you, the one who could touch another human being and see their thoughts so clearly. The one time you tried to manipulate someone, you caused them indescribably agony. You ruined their life. You broke them. You made them complicit and took all they were away from them, turning their fragile mind into ashes. That day, your fingers turned charcoal for the first time. 
If you try hard enough, you can kill him—Peter Parker. He took your husband and your city, now sitting in his ivory tower, overlooking the damage he’s done. He killed everyone and everything, even Wilson Fisk. He has taken the people of Hell’s Kitchen hostage, but no one has dared to make a move just yet, not since their beloved Daredevil disappeared off the face of the earth. With him, his Lady Red went as fast as she had come. 
You don’t want to fix what Spider-Man destroyed; you can’t get back what he took, nor do you want to, and the city doesn’t mean anything without Matt in it. 
You have to be the monster to kill another monster, only then you can join your husband in his tomb. Didn’t you vow to stay together, even in death? 
The city can burn, for all you care, but first, Peter Parker has to die. 
You scratch at the dirt in the engraving of his name. Matthew Michael Murdock. 1982 — 2023. Beloved husband and hero. 
You hate this. You hate that his grave is in your backyard, but this was the only place you knew his corpse would be safest. No one can touch him here, and you can talk to him, pretending you can still feel him. If you focus hard enough, you can still hear his voice in your head, telling you to move on. 
How could you though? How could you abandon all you’ve been through? You can fight, you can win or lose, but nothing will ever be the same again. And it is far from worth it to stay alive when he isn’t. You’ve made your decision; whether or not you’ve come to peace with it, that’s another story entirely. 
“Tonight is the night,” you murmur to the gravestone. Of course, you don’t receive an answer. 
Lately, you have been swearing to yourself you wouldn’t cry anymore, that there are no more tears left to shed, but every day, you end up crying anyway. It’s an endless cycle of despair.
You wipe your cheeks, untangling the chain that holds your golden wedding band close to your chest from around your neck. Gently, you guide it to your lips and press a kiss against the ring. 
“I love you,” you whisper.
For when you meet again in another life. 
You dig a small hole into the dry dirt where, six feet under, Matt is resting now. He always told you he would end up in hell when he died. You were never particularly religious before you met him, and when he struggled with his faith while you were together, you believed even less in an all-merciful God. Now though, with Matt gone and the world on the verge of falling apart and crushing you under its weight as you approach the biggest challenge of your life, the thought of ending up in an eternal life of nothingness after death—the thought of there being nothing but mindless darkness, no body, soul—scares you too much. Imagining the pits of hell or paradise with the love of your life, and reuniting with him, is a prospect you would rather see when you close your eyes than a world on fire. 
The necklace lands in the hole, and you cover it up. You couldn’t bring yourself to get rid of your ring before, but you won’t risk carrying it when you do what you are about to do.
Tonight, Peter Parker is going to show himself to all of New York City as the new mayor in all of his Spider-Man glory. He begged for you to come out, and he told the city he would be merciful in prosecuting you for the crimes you committed in the past alongside Daredevil. When you come out tonight though, you won’t surrender yourself. You will use the platform he is giving you and you will fight as you reveal him to Hell’s Kitchen and show the world who he is. You will tell Matt’s story, even if it’s the last thing you do. 
You have been burning for him for the longest time, and the flame is about to go out with a bang. 
That night, you put on the red suit Melvin made for you years ago before he lost his mind for what might be the last time. It has holes from where the moths dug their teeth into. The piece around the waist is starting to fade in color, and the leather is worn out, but it reminds you of simpler times. Better times. The black of your fingertips matches the lining of your outfit, and that’s all you need to feel the power sizzle deep within you.
You don’t have to remember the weather report because you can feel the rain soaking your skin through the fabric. The air smells salty, and it tastes the same on your cracked lips. Tonight, you will be Lady Red for the last time. Until the bitter end, you have sworn yourself. Matt did the same thing. You have to do him proud.
You make your way from that little farmhouse—your broken red castle—to the familiar streets of Hell’s Kitchen. Destruction surrounds you. The news didn’t do justice to what Peter has done to the city you once loved. But no one loved it more than Matt Murdock. 
Your fists clench at your sides. Oh, you want to tear this man limb by limb and feed him to the dogs. 
It starts with a low rumbling beneath your boots. You don’t pay much mind to it at first. You hide out on a rooftop across the courthouse. The spotlights are on, and he’s standing there at the podium, looking as though he is so proud of himself for ruining so many lives. You don’t usually experience joy when hurting people, but you will savor watching the life drain from Peter’s lifeless eyes. 
Your hands clench around Matt’s batons. The metal is heavy but flexible. You click your nails against them. Every move needs to be meticulously calculated, but tonight, the barons will remain in the holsters on your thighs. You won’t need them. You won’t need anything but your bare hands. 
You’re going back to your roots tonight.
The ground moves slightly, only a few inches. You could have missed it if you weren’t crouching to get a better look at the world below you. You catch yourself on the ledge, a frown finding its way on your face. 
“What the f–” you shake your head. Since when does thunder shake the ground?
You seem to be the only one who notices, or Peter Parker is better at brainwashing his decibels than you expected. He was born to be a dictator. His presence turned your fairytale into a dystopian tragedy.
“Tonight,” he says into his microphone, “is the last chance for Lady Red to reveal herself for a lesser sentence. A new era is on the horizon. I am your mayor, and I am Spider-Man. Without me, you would be nothing. Daredevil couldn’t save you. Wilson Fisk couldn’t save you. But I can, and after tonight, we will start anew. For this is the era of real heroes as we rebuild this city from the ground up, and we turn the City of New York, including Hell’s Kitchen, into its own world. Starting with the arrest of the criminal who is Daredevil’s accomplice Lady Red. I hope for her sake she will show herself tonight. If not, we will find her, and she will suffer the full extent of the consequences of her actions. That includes the Death Penalty.”
You land gracefully, catching yourself with your hand on the asphalt. The crowd parts with a gasp, and you finally stare into his eyes. 
After he drilled that dagger through Matt’s heart, he told you, “You will always be a monster, never a God.”
You deserve nothing, he thought. It has stuck with you since that night. Growing up, it was the only thing you heard. You were nothing but trash. A disgrace. A monster. What will they say when they see that you have finally become what they feared so much? 
You will burn down whatever is left of the world, including him. God knows you want to. 
Magic pulsates in the atmosphere like a growing spell in a small shoe box. The air vibrates, and the ground shakes again. This isn’t your doing, but the sudden charge that fills your veins as adrenaline sustains you. Your eyes glow red. This is who you were born to be. 
“I heard you were looking for me,” you declare. 
He doesn’t look surprised to see you. “Ah, just like clockwork,” he murmurs. “Are you going to make this hard on all of us or are you here to finally surrender yourself?” 
You purse your lips, playing with the energy between your fingers. “I came to destroy you.” Each step toward him on the big marble steps feels like a mile, and the crowd starts to move further back, dispersing in an attempt to save themselves. Most of them are eager to watch though. What has he done to them? 
“Destroy me?” Peter laughs, addressing the crowd again, “You see who you’ve been calling a hero all this time? This mutant? Look at her!”
All eyes are on you. They’re whispering. They’re speculating. Their thoughts overlap in disarray, and you’re drowning in a sea of judgment. They are trying to tear you down like sharks. You’re leaking blood, and God, they are angry. But it’s not you they’re angry at.
“You call me a mutant,” you say, “but wasn’t it you who was bit by a radioactive spider?”
His smile fades. 
“You are Spider-Man, no?”
“You are a wannabe hero with unregulated powers,” he snaps. His voice roars through the speakers, and the mood in the crowd starts to shift.
The ground vibrates again, stronger this time. You can’t be the only one feeling the quakes, but everyone else seems unmoved. They’re too focused on both of you to notice anything else, and you should do the same. However, the energy doubles and you are closer to bursting than ever. Something is happening, and you have no control over it.
Peter sneers. “You’re a failure,” he calls your name, “just like your husband!”
You stop dead in your tracks. Your eyes darken. “If you want to enforce the death penalty on me, Parker,” you growl, “why don’t you do it yourself?” 
Peter taps his chest, and his suit transforms into shades of black and spider webs. At that moment, panic erupts. People start running, but you tune them out.
The air begins to smell sour. Burnt. It is so high the pain consumes you whole. He doesn’t have to touch you to bring you to your knees, but looking up, you realize that it wasn’t Spider-Man who infused your ears with such a high frequency.
Someone is uttering a powerful spell, you can hear his voice in your head as he thinks of several names all over the place. Time passes by in a flash. Hours, days, weeks, and months. The universe falls out of control. The beeping picks up and you sink deeper into the ground.
You swear then and there that the sky starts to rip in two. The sky resembles a nasty cut on your forehead, a pair of hands ripping the cut further apart, causing the blood to pour out in rivers.
One of the cuts swallows you. With a scream, you fall through several rollercoasters passing by violet stars. 
The cut is a portal; one moment, you are flying through the sky at the highest possible speed, and the next, you hit the ground hard.
It’s not raining anymore. The sun shines down on you, and the heat creeps up your skin like tiny ants. The pain finally releases, but your head is still spinning. So many feelings, so many voices, and so many thoughts threaten to overwhelm you.
Not even an LSD trip hits that bad. You lazily open your heavy eyes to find not the courthouse but the New York skyline right before you.
You look down at your shaky hands. The charcoal is gone. The power in your veins feels different, all-consuming, but in no way bad. You take a deep breath. Even the oxygen tastes different. 
The world stops spinning, and you finally take a look around. A car honks, an SUV heading straight for your wobbly frame.
You’re in the middle of a road. What is it? A freeway.
Oh, shit!
You jump aside, hitting the sidewalk with a loud thud.
“Watch out, bitch!” the driver shouts out of his window. 
Where once used to be the courthouse, you are met with a street in the middle of downtown Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Stores line the side of the street. Tourists, foreigners, and those who are native to the city pass by you, and their gasps and whispers sound so different from the automatic voices Peter Parker raised them to be.
“Oh, no,” you breathe out. “Oh, no, no, no!” The air is getting thinner. 
“What are you thinking about, hm?” he asked into the darkness of the room. 
His heartbeat aligned with yours. His calloused fingertips traced your bare skin. You were in heaven. Beautiful, sinful heaven.  
His jawline appeared even sharper in the colorful lights from the billboard outside. His skin glowed white—paler than usual, even. You could stare into his eyes forever, such a beautiful hazel with hints of forest green. Perfect eyebrows, perfect lips. They bowed at the top, so kissable.
He pressed them to your bare shoulder blade, down your spine. The butterflies danced crazy in your tummy.
“You’re distracted,” he hummed again.
You chuckled, looking over your shoulder at the beautiful man in bed with you.
“Can’t help it when I’m with you,” you remember saying. 
Matt offered you his signature smirk. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I quite like the view.”
“And when I do this?” He trailed another finger down your sensitive spine. 
You shuddered. “That, too.”
He did it again. “Tell me what’s going on in that pretty head of yours.”
“Thinking,” you said.
“About what?” he asked.
“A book I read.” You paused to turn on your back. “About the multiverse.”
It was a surprising change in subject, and he raised his eyebrows in a rather amused way. “The multiverse?” 
You nodded. “We know way too little about it. There could be more of me and more of you out there, and we don’t even know it,” you told him. “The multiverse… there is a chance it could be real. And that alone is terrifying because if it opens and we’re not prepared, chaos might ensue.”
He propped himself up on his elbow next to you, listening to the calming sound of your voice. It was always his favorite thing to do.
Matt used your voice as his podcast; it was his favorite, too. 
“Can we jump universes?” he wondered.
You shrugged. You didn’t know, at least not at the time. “Maybe,” you said. “But I’m not a scientist, let alone good at physics, so… let’s just go back to kissing. I’m much better at that.”
He laughed, but he did not object. At least with kissing, you both knew what you were doing. So, he brought his lips to yours, and the multiverse disappeared in a Bermuda Triangle of pleasure in your mind. Lost but not forgotten. 
Maybe.
But as you sit there, sliding back against the brick wall in the closest alley, you realize that you downplayed the probability. 
You were going to kill a man, but instead of blood on your hands, you are now cursed with the knowledge that the ‘maybe’ of your once-thought-silly pillow talk has always been very fucking real, and you have nowhere to run in this strange world you have fallen into that is New York City, Earth-616. 
Where do you run when you can go anywhere, just not home? 
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