#jchnnytorch

[bayousthief]

"how many gator's you seen on da side a' da road in New York, Johnny?"

Johnny couldn't take his eyes off of the meat as it sizzled in the pan, and it took everything in him to not let his face twist with disgust as he raised his eyebrows. "This isn't, like, a roadkill situation, is it?"

[spiderxling]

@jchnnytorch

So, here he was stuck in another reality. Peter thought he had seen it all when he got to meet two other versions of himself, but he never really expected to have their positions be reversed.

In fact, Peter had Strange cast that second spell specifically to prevent anything like this from happening. He did it to protect the stability of the multiverse, to keep everything as it was and where it should be. He did it to save everything. If he thought about the hypothetical truth that everything he did that day was for nothing, that he sacrificed so much only for it to fail— well, he couldn't think about that. For his own sanity, he needed to try and focus on the ways he could begin to fix things. Again.

But as stressed as he was, Peter also felt like there was a certain weight that had been lifted off his shoulders. Getting pulled into another reality felt almost like a reset button was hit. He was in a place where none of his past mistakes seemed to matter. His loneliness, his pain, his fear and bitterness— they were all an entire universe away. Peter was very good at running when things got hard, even if he was stubborn when faced with admitting it. To him, distance was the best thing for everyone around him who mattered. They were better off without him, and he didn't have to face the crushing heartbreak it all brought him.

Still— there were certain behaviors that were so strongly ingrained in him that they were now habits. Protective measures that probably didn't need to exist, because he was so afraid of more bad things happening. That's how he found himself wearing his mask in the kitchen of the Baxter Building as he was grabbing himself a glass of water. And maybe a snack.

He knew that it looked stupid, wearing his mask with a t-shirt and sweatpants. Every time he scampered into one of the shared rooms the Fantastic 4 were kind enough to be letting him use, he tried to do it when no one else was around. And he always tiptoed or wall-crawled back into his assigned room to eat on his bed. Solitude was safe— that's what Peter learned. He tried to take up as little space as possible, to not be a bother to anyone, to decrease the likelihood that he would form any sort of attachment.

For two days, Peter interacted with the other occupants of the building as little as possible. But as he was staring into the open fridge, tapping an anxious finger against the door as he battled his decision paralysis regarding a midnight snack, he could hear someone entering the room and knew that he couldn't run away this time.

His focus shifted to trying to script a conversation in his head depending on who it was about to join him— but he still continued staring into the fridge as he held it open, frozen in place as his mind ran in a dozen different directions.

[givesadmn]

Jessica knew what was coming next. A drink. Then another one. Anything to numb the torrent of feelings that threatened to overwhelm her. "You got a point, or are you just venting? I don't think I signed up to be your therapist."

"First I'm in a new time period and then I'm in a new reality. I'm nervous to find out what's coming next."

[controlledrage]

"Wait, are you asking if I want a selfie with you? I thought you were asking me for one."

"Huh? Oh-- sorry, I don't do autographs. I might be able to squeeze a selfie in, though."

[hawkitout]

"I don't think you do. No offense, of course. I just feel like I would remember a flaming guy flying around." Was this even going any better? Jesus. Kate paused. "Absolutely not Arrow Girl or Arrowette. It's Hawkeye. And no, I'm not a Clint Barton variant."

"Absolutely." Johnny smirked softly as he let his flames dissipate, leaving him standing there in his Fantastic Four uniform. "I'm the Human Torch. I dunno if I really exist in your reality. And you're... Arrow Girl? Am I close?"

[controlledrage]

"Yeah, I'm getting that vibe." Jen chuckled before shoving some curls from her face. "I mean, maybe not for all of this directly, but probably. I'd want to consider filing the suit as emotional distress. It wouldn't be going to small claims court though, that's for sure."

"Hey, people don't exactly come to me for the smart questions." Pausing, Johnny tilted his head at the rest of Jen's response. "So if there was an entity or person responsible for all this, you could sue them?"

[amricas]

"Well, aren't you lucky?" America's lips twisted downwards. Before being wrenched away to Earth-Prime, she had been pretty close to considering Earth-199999 her new home. Her actual home remained as inaccessible as ever. At this point, the Parallel and her mothers may as well have been a dream. Watching him eat her pizza with a slight frown, America tugged a new slice onto her plate. "People freak out if they can't get the right kind of milk for their coffee. Of course they're gonna freak out about something this big. All I'm saying is that the freaking out won't actually help, so maybe save the breath. It's been months since we got here. Have we made any progress? Nope."

"I'm cool as a cucumber. This reality is my home." Johnny pointed out matter-of-factly, pausing to snatch a slice of pizza from the box and taking a generous bite. "But you can't really blame people for losing their shit, you know."

[jckpct]

"Look at us go. Here, high-five." MJ held her palm out. "You mean Reed Richards, right? He seems like a pretty good metric to go off of."

"I am also new to being a superhero, but I gotta say this is a first. My rule is, if Reed is freaked out by it, I'm freaked out by it."

[ebcnyblade]

"As lovely and carefree as that sound, I can't sit around and wait for other people to save the day anymore. I have to do something now. I have the opportunity to do something other than sit idly by and hope." He wished and wished he could have done more to help Sersi and the other eternals with the Deviant and Tiamat threat, while he paced in his flat and reconnected with his uncle.

"Well, I say you just enjoy it while you can. Someone smarter than us will figure all of this out eventually."

[bloodstne]

"Spontaneously combust? Shite, mate, take ten steps back." Elsa shook her head. "You've always had to worry about vampires, you just didn't realize it."

"You're telling me that not only do I spontaneously combust, but now I've gotta worry about vampires too?"

[imperialpraetor]

"I've unfortunately had the displeasure of familiarizing myself with your worlds slang. However, that does not leave my threat any less real." Largely to the credit of his son after attending Professor Xavier's school.

"Woah, dude! I'm just joshing with you. Aaand I'm now realizing that you probably have no idea what the hell that means.."

[invisiblewomn]

There was never enough time.

Sixty seconds in a minute. Sixty minutes in an hour. Twenty-four hours in a day. 1440 minutes in a day, and yet, that still wasn't enough. Before, Susan would have considered herself a balanced woman. She helped take care of her brother, she studied, she succeeded. If she could set her mind to it, she could accomplish it. Her tenacity had done her well as she attained her degrees and slowly achieved her goals. Before, she hadn't realized just how finite time was even though she was constantly stressing over deadlines. Susan had failed to see how good she had it, even though she had thought she was excelling.

Now, things were different. She was different. Her body, twisted and turned. The cells had shifted and changed into a formation that she couldn't recognize — couldn't even see sometimes. The accident had irreparably changed everyone who had been aboard the ship. They had suddenly become strangers in their own skin, and some of them didn't even have their original skin anymore. But still, she persevered. Sue put her head down and did everything she could to harness the abilities that had been thrust onto her. She had to be strong not only for herself, but also for Johnny, Reed, and Ben. Rational. Balanced. Brave. Susan could do it, but it was hard.

Of course, that was before the multiverse threw something else on their plate. Before the multiverse had decided to become entangled in a way that they couldn't seem to unknot. It felt like they had gone straight from the frying pan into the fire. They were still stuck in the labs working all night, but now they had hundreds of eyes on them. It wasn't just the newly christened Fantastic Four looking for their place; it was a multiversal affair that they seemed to be headlining.

"Hm?" Despite the fact that there was a pen in her mouth and a pencil tucked behind her ear, Sue still was looking around for one before she realized she had one. Pulling it out of her mouth, she turned to take Johnny in. Her eyes darted to the smiley face on the board, but it didn't overlap with any of her equations. Her shoulders loosened ever so slightly.

"That's probably because Reed was in here for thirty-six straight hours. I'm only at twenty-two." Had she eaten during that time? Maybe at one point. There was an empty take out container on the counter. Sleep? No, not really. Her eyes burned from exhaustion but the caffeine was jumping through her system, sparking each nerve.

"Is this code for you're hungry? I can make you something. A break won't kill me." It was easy to slide from the role of researcher into big sister. Johnny could make his own food. He had before. She just needed to feel like she could do something in the midst of feeling powerless.

@invisiblewomn

Things were weird, Johnny could tell that much. Even if he wasn't a scientist like his sister and Reed, or an former astronaut like Ben, he didn't need to be either of those things to see that tensions were getting high. The weird fanged dude and the wizard were ten seconds away from blowing a hole into the Baxter Building the other day.

Reed and Sue seemed to be spending most of their time holed up in the lab together, which left Johnny to the company of Ben "Rocks for Brains" Grimm, or the weirdly secretive Spider-Whoever His Name Really Was who was now staying with them.

So, Johnny opted to go bug his sister in the lab instead. Admittedly, he was a little curious to hear about what they might have learned about this multiversal rift, and he missed her (even if he wouldn't say the second part out loud).

Sue was looking at a whiteboard with a bunch of formulas and theories scribbled around, and Johnny came up from behind her, picking up a dry-erase marker and using his mouth to pull the cap off before stepping forward and drawing a smiley face in the middle of all the chaos.

"C'mon, Suzie, aren't you hungry or something? You've been at this for hours. Even Reed stepped off by now."

[peterfour]

there's a pause as he unclenches his jaw, "got it. message received."

“You’re doing a shitty job at convincing me, bro. You’re doing this weird thing with your jaw as you talk like everything’s not great.”

[bgrimms]

ben blinked, the action heavy both physically and with sarcasm, "if the next words out of your mouth aren't 'i'm sorry ben, won't happen again'–- i'm going to step on you."

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop with the rock jokes.” Johnny insisted as he held his hands out in mock self defense and paused, letting a beat of silence linger between them for a moment. “But you’ve gotta admit they kinda write themselves.”

[havk]

alex immediately cooled down as well, the glowing blue energy that had slowly begun to emanate from his fingertips fizzling out the moment he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.

"sorry, man. just – not a good time, you know?"

The flames on his fingertips immediately fizzled out, and Johnny recoiled to hold his hands behind his back as the other guy raised his voice. “Who pissed in your cereal? I was just showing you.”

[jckpct]

"Hey, that's normally my line. Although, I don't mind autographs. It's nice to not have to be camera ready."

"Huh? Oh-- sorry, I don't do autographs. I might be able to squeeze a selfie in, though."