invisible woman

“No love between family, Sue?” Daken said with a grin. He knew this meeting was going to happen eventually, but he was still dreading it. “What are you gonna do, turn invisible? Call Namor?”

“You’d think the news would have literally anything else to cover,” he said. “But no. Nope! At least you can tell Johnny I didn’t have to buy my own.” There had, once, been a part of him (okay, most of him) that liked the attention, and had liked it best when he was the one profiting off his own candids. He’d been able to live with the smear campaigns to a point, so long as the paychecks cleared. But it was getting harder to live with now, and this, the Baxter Building, the Fantastic Four, Sue–this was one of the few safe things Peter had left. She knew who he was, who he really was. He didn’t have to hide. And then she mentioned the web thing, and he grinned a cocky grin. “Oh, you mean this little thing?” 

With a flick of the wrist, he’d mummified the barbecue, pinning it to the patio in a mess of web. “It is kind of a neat party trick.”

sue let out a quick and loud laugh at his comment about her brother, hand pretending to zip her lips shut and throw the key away behind her. when his web shot across the balcony, her eyes widened. sue - in one quick motion, grabbed his hand and flipped it over to see exactly what just happened. of course she knew what his powers were, but she had never really considered how they work. 

matt couldn’t help the smile that pulled up at the corners of his lips, however briefly, at the sound of someone calling swears four-letter words. matt, despite being raised strictly catholic, had never shied away from cuss words. being the son of a boxer did that to you, gave you a dirty dictionary; jack murdock was infamous for the strings of curses he would let out when he went down, which was often. he was even more infamous for the strings of curses his opponents would let out when jack made his comeback in the final round. as a result, matt knew how to swear like a sailor. 

he huffed out a laugh, a rare sound from him these days, and shook his head. “i haven’t heard anyone call them four letter words since i was in catholic school,” he said. he flinched lightly at the touch on his shoulder—even though he could tell it was coming, the average blind person wouldn’t be able to, and he had to sell the part, after all. “i’m fine. just—” he sighed, dropping both his hands to his hips. “i messed up. big time.” he took a deep breath. “i always tell other people it’s okay to make mistakes, but when it comes to me, everything has to be damn perfect.” 

“honestly, i think i’m getting a little soft. it’s kind of weird,” she admitted with a laugh, head shaking in disbelief of herself. maybe it was becoming a mother. that was besides the point. head cocked to the side as the man began to explain what was going on. honestly, sue knew that kind of story like the back of her hand. 

“Sue,” Johnny imitated, using the annoying kid brother voice he’d never really grown out of using around Sue, then let out a long sigh, still not meeting her eyes. “Come on, you don’t want to hear it. Another round of Johnny Storm’s Greatest Fuck Ups? Yeah, you must be so proud.” Bitterness drenched his words. And dread: the feeling of letting her down was worse than pretty much anything else. Johnny would rather put it off as long as possible, raising his hands up to fend off hers, rogueish smile in place, “Geddoff me, someone help, I’m being attacked by the Invisible Woman! Someone get Jameson on the line! These so-called heroes are getting outta hand!” Eventually, he was laughing so hard, his whole body giving over to it, shoulders shaking, mouth curving, eyes crinkling, that he was short of breath. People walking past might be giving them a strange look or two, but 1) this was Central Park in New York City, so they could deal, like at least they weren’t getting attacked by weird giant snail aliens or something and 2) this was Sue and him, the one thing in his life that could never change. Johnny finally looked at her long enough to actually meet her eyes and his grin widened, an easy happiness that he hadn’t felt in days resting in his chest. 

Still, the calm didn’t last long, his heart putting his chest right through the wringer at the thought of getting the FF back together. He knew the gleam in his eyes would give him away, a desperate longing Johnny could barely contain, but even so he played it cool, “Oh, you think so? I mean, I’m obviously kicking ass as a solo hero but it sure does break my heart to think of sweet lil’ Benjy all on his lonesome. Pretty face like his attracts all the wrong crowd so … guess I could be up for getting the band back together.” Next second, Johnny’s head shook, giving up the pretence, “Of course. Of course I want to. C’mon, Sue, of course. We’re the FF! This is what we’re meant for! You, me, Reed, Ben, we belong together. Just tell me when I need to flame on!”  

sue went invisible for a second, just for the picture of johnny actually screaming for help with no one around. but the loud laugh that erupted through her chest made it obvious that he wasn't alone, reappearing quite quickly right next to him. “stop it!” she squeaked, pushing his shoulder in before he quieted down. even if he was a pain in her literal ass, johnny was her brother and her best friend. just being around him again, it was soothing on it’s own. sue hated to say that she thought about those five years (even though it was only about five minutes for them both), but she did. the world went on without them, but sue hated that johnny had lost that time. he lost five years of growing up, making his normal fuck ups or whatever he liked to call them, maybe even falling in love. he lost all of that and sue was sure that she’d help him get that back. 

“Oh yeah! New Bugle photographer, right? I think I met him, too. Seemed nice. I could do worse as far as paparazzi goes.” Peter shrugged and pulled off his mask, shaking out his hair. “Felt bad disappointing him by being… well. Not spiders.”

Was he sure he was okay? Not meeting Sue’s eyes, he ran through the list in his head. Lonely. Heartbroken. Bored. If history had anything to say, they were all signs Johnny was heading for implosion. Collision at one hundred miles an hour, no breaks. There wasn’t much point hiding it from Sue - sometimes he’d swear she’d gotten mind reading powers in the accident if she hadn’t been able to read him like this before too - but Johnny always tried anyway, scoffing incredulously, “Uh, I’m always alright, you know that. I just wanna know when we’re going to space again.” No, he wanted to know when they were being the team again. The Fantastic Four, where they belonged. At least, where he belonged - the only place he belonged. But Sue, she had a lot more to give. That was the worst thing about having a brilliant sister. If there was one thing he hated, it was having to share her with the world. Sure, whatever, it was important work, but Johnny kind of liked it better when she turned invisible. When it was just them. He forced a grin in place and exaggerated a sigh, “Do you know the last time I rescued a beautiful alien princess? Me neither! That’s how long it’s been! Do you see this face, sis? This is a face that is meant to be rescuing beautiful alien princesses!” 

‹    𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍.    ›    ❛    @reshieldedstart​    !

                    𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇      𝐓𝐇𝐄      𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐒      of      his      faux      glasses      ,      clark      pointed      at      the      objective      on      his      phone.         ❝      get      pictures      of      spiderman. ❞      it      was      his      first      task      as      the      daily      bugle’s      newest      journalist.      it      felt      a      little      too      campy      for      his      tastes      but      it      was      a      start      considering      clark      kent’s      credentials      didn’t      matter      much      in      a      universe      where      he      never      existed.         ❝      gotta      say      i      have      no      idea      who      that      is.      but      it      sounds      scary      .      .      .      a      whole      man      made      up      of      spiders      !?      ❞

@reshieldedstart​​

he’s standing in front of the apartment that he had lived in before he had got blipped, it had been a steal when he had gotten it, right near every little coffee shop and restaurant that he had loved, all within an easy walking distance and right near the subway. he supposed that with half the population gone, including himself, the city would have changed and it had. the places that he had once loved had been closed down and something new had taken it’s place and that apartment building that he had once made home was now someone else’s and scott didn’t know what to do with himself now, his second instinct is the xavier’s mansion, but he doesn’t move, he stays there until he can’t anymore, and when he starts moving again he doesn’t really know where he’s going to just that he needs to go somewhere. it’s rush hour now and he’s pushing against the crowd before he absolutely collides with someone else. “shit! sorry, decided to run against the current at a bad time.”

location: outside the midtown courthouse

open to all [ @reshieldedstart​ ]

matt’s focus was slipping. he felt stretched thin these days, like a rope reaching the end of its tensile strength. that day, he had just barely scraped his way through a case they had taken on pro bono, and he could tell that their client thought that matt was phoning it in because of that. he didn’t mean to—he just hadn’t had the time to prep between cruising through the city as daredevil, trying to juggle a million different things at their small firm, and finding time somewhere in there to get a minute of sleep. it was frustrating for someone like matt, who was a perfectionist. they didn’t get the deal they should have deserved in there. usually so self-assured, he had stumbled through his closing argument. 

he had waved foggy off, telling him he needed the afternoon to get some rest, but matt was actually planning on pumping himself full of as however much caffeine it took to get through what seemed like a million briefs that afternoon in the comfort and quiet of his apartment. for the moment, however, all he could think about was how royally he screwed his up. “shit. shit,” he exclaimed to himself, bringing a hand up to try and press the tension from his forehead. 

getting back to the real world was - well, not easy. nothing could prepare you for something like disappearing from the face of the earth for five years and being able to return, only realizing that the two minutes that you felt was actually half of a decade. sue was also not the only person that it had happened to, the entire world also living through their own version of the blip all on their own time. for someone to relied so heavily on her brain to give her answers, realizing that she couldn’t help everyone was affecting her more than anyone could probably know. 

susan storm, the invisible one !  ( @reshieldedintro​ )