Also, am I the only one who loses it every time he wears civilian clothes? Not that I don't love his robes (I do) but when he's so casual he looks even better. I mean,
Summary: What if you got trapped in the mirror dimension with Dr. Strange?
Warnings: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NO WAY HOME! Mentions of death.
Pairings: Dr. Strange x reader, Peter Parker x platonic!reader
Word count: 4,641
A/N: Kind of a Christmas fic? mostly towards the end! Also catch this being like my hundredth fic where the reader has basically Wanda's powers, but they're just so cool, I love her 🥺Anyway, Happy Holidays everyone, hope you have a good time with family and friends!
“Peter, don’t do this.” You warned, knowing what he was about to do before he could even raise his arm to do it. You step in front of him, “They have to go home, we can’t mess with their realities like this.” You tried to reason, hoping you could get through to him where Strange couldn’t. You heard his thoughts, telling you that he doesn’t care about any of that, that these people deserved a second chance, you knew there was no reasoning with him, but that wasn’t going to stop you from standing by Strange’s decision. Peter thwiped some webbing around you, grabbing ahold of the box, giving you an apologetic smile, and running away with it.
“DON’T!” Strange yelled, about to go after him, but Peter shot him into one of the cells on the back wall.
“Peter… give me the box.” You started to twist your hands, building up your energy in a blue orb, “I don’t want to hurt you or your friends.” Your eyes started to glow an icy blue.
“Woah, how do your eyes do that?” Ned looked at you in awe, and it was just enough of a split-second distraction for you to power down and Peter to run.
“This is why I never had kids.” Strange sighed as he walked through the cell wall
“HA! Yeah, that’s why.” You chuckled as you ran after Peter with him, he gave you a nasty glare, but you pretended not to see it. The two of you caught up with Peter outside of the sanctum where he was trying to swing away, but Strange created a portal for him to just land right back where he started. He tried swinging away again, but this time Strange made two portals so he would catch his own foot with his webbing. You put an energy field around him that brought him back down to the ground in front of the two of you. Strange then pushed Peter’s astral form from his body to get him to stop moving, but for some reason it didn’t really work.
“Woah, am I dead!?” Peter’s astral form exclaimed.
“No, I’ve separated your physical and astral form.” He reached to grab the box from Peter’s physical form, but for some reason he was able to still move the box just out of reach, “How are you doing that?”
“I have no idea, but this feels awesome!” He began to swim back to his body and re-entered it. He stood up straight and pointed at Strange, “That was really cool, but never do that again.” He then thwiped his webbing up to a building and started to swing away. Strange sent his cloak after him, and it did catch him for a moment, but Peter was able to wiggle his way out of it. You attempted to put another energy field around Peter, but thanks to his extra sense, he dodged it just in time. This left Strange no choice, he brought all three of you into the mirror dimension.
“Where are we?!” Peter yelled as he fell through a kaleidoscope of scenes.
“The mirror dimension, where I’m in charge.” Strange brought the three of you onto a train where Peter held out his hand to try to stop the two of you for a moment,
“I don’t want to fight you guys! But we can’t do this to them. They’ll die!”
“Peter, we don’t want them to die any more than you do. But if that’s how their fate is laid out, there’s nothing we can do. Please try to understand.” You tried to plead with him while you secretly duplicated yourself, walking underneath the train, crawling up the side and sneaking up behind Peter, you shot an energy blast into his mind before he had time to react to feeling you behind him. You showed him what his future was if he were to continue down this path. Death, destruction, loss, and so much pain.
“Peter, if we let that spell loose or don’t end this now, millions of people from different universes who all know Peter Parker is Spider-Man will be on their way here to find you.” Strange tried to persuade him while he slowly walked closer to him. Peter shook his head, getting you out of his head.
“Peter, you’ll lose so much if you keep on this path.” You whispered in his ear.
“I have to try. They deserve to have a second chance.” Peter whispered back and swung away on a rock. You both chased after him, Strange trying to catch him with an energy whip, which ended up shattering the mirror dimension even further, causing swirls of rocks. Strange floated in the center of it all, finally holding the box, you on a rock right next to him, waiting for him to open a portal out. Peter observed the situation and began to shoot webs at random rocks.
“I’m sorry Peter,” Strange said as he opened up a portal back to the sanctum, “I’ll come back for you in a bit.” But just then Peter webs started to attach to the two of you, pulling you side by side with Strange.
“You know what’s cooler than magic? Math!” Peter shouted as he shot a web at the box and the final of his other webs tightened, pulling you and Strange chest to chest, and strung together in midair. He then shot a web at Strange’s sling ring, ripping it off his fingers,
“Ow!” Strange huffed.
“Sorry!” Peter said as he jumped through the portal, “But I have to try” he said, looking back one last time, then gone as the poral closed on its own.
“Well, this is awkward.” You chuckled realizing how close you were to Strange.
“That kids got some nerve, I tell you!” Strange huffed out in frustration.
“Makes for a great superhero though.” You attempted to shrug but could barely move your arms.
“Can you energy blast his webs or something to at least get us apart?” Strange asked
“I mean I could but why would I want to miss out on all this quality time with you?” You chuckled. He glared at you, clearly not in the mood for jokes, “Okay, okay, geeze. If looks could kill.” You muttered. You built up a ball of energy in one hand and attempted to shoot it at the webs wrapping the two of you together, but it ended up aiming at Strange instead,
“HEY, WATCH IT!” He yelled as he just barely moved his head out of the way.
“Okay apparently I cannot get us out of this. I can’t move my hand the right way. We’re just going to have to stay like this until his webbing dissolves.” You sighed.
“How long will that take?”
“I think I heard him think something along the lines of an hour we’d be free?”
“AN HOUR?” he was clearly getting claustrophobic.
“Hey, don’t worry. We can play a game or something, distract ourselves until we can get out of here.” You tried reassuring him. He just looked off into the distance in silence. “Or we could stay here in silence, whatever works!”
“Why do you think I never had kids?” He asked out of nowhere.
“What?” You asked bewildered, completely forgetting your comment earlier.
“Earlier I said this is why I never had kids and you laughed and said, ‘yeah that’s why’. So, why would you say that unless you meant something else?” He turned his head to the side so he could look at you, you guys were basically nose to nose as you turned to look back at him.
“I just meant that you’re not the type of guy who wants to settle down.” You looked away, feeling bad about your comment that you didn’t even think twice about, but clearly bothered him.
“Maybe I am, I just haven’t found a reason to settle down yet.” He turned his head to look away. You paused for a moment and thought about what he said, “So if someone you loved came to you one day and said they wanted you to give up the life of a sorcerer and settle down, would you do it?”
“Why do I have to give up being a sorcerer?” He asked
“Because it’s a dangerous, life-threatening activity and if it were me, I wouldn’t want the father of my children to be constantly risking their life. Knowing that at any moment in time you might have to give them some made up story as to why their dad chose to go save the world and give up his life instead of stick around to watch them grow up. I might be selfish to ask that of them, but I think I’d have the right to ask that much of them.”
“Would you give up your powers to be a mom?” Strange asked you.
“I can’t really give up my powers, so no. But I would give up the whole Avenger’s gig. In. a. heartbeat.” You emphasized the last couple words.
“What do you think you’d do if you weren’t an Avenger?”
“I’ve always had an interest in writing. Maybe I’d become a publisher or author or journalist. Who knows? I’ve never really had the option to do anything else.”
“But you’ve thought about it?”
“Of course, I’ve thought about it.”
“Who do you see?” Strange asked, almost as a whisper.
“Who do I see myself being?” You asked confused.
“No. Who do you see by your side?”
“Oh.” In all honesty, you’ve definitely pictured yourself ending up with Strange one day. That was your first instinct to say, but you quickly bit your tongue, almost forgetting who you were about to say it to. “No one in particular. But I think that it would be me and them and four kids, two boys and two girls. We’d try to live the perfect suburban life but in reality, we’re far from perfect, and that’s okay.”
“That sounds nice.” Strange gave a faint smile.
“What about you? Since you claim you’re the type of man to settle down, what’s your future look like?” There was a pregnant pause, and you couldn’t help but slip into his thoughts. They mirrored yours just minutes ago. Not the thought of the perfect little family where the people had no faces or particular features. He was picturing you and him in a suburban neighborhood chasing around your four kids, two boys and two girls. He was picturing what you’d have random daydreams about if he ever brushed past you or winked at you or made you laugh so hard, you’d have to grab your side and start crying.
“I guess you’re right, I’m not the type of man to settle down.” He finally answered you, pretending he couldn’t think of the answer to your question. You were about to answer him but was stopped by the sudden jolt of the webbing loosening and you falling from your position in the random spinning sky. Thankfully you were able to catch yourself before you got hit by a spinning rock and you levitated up to a rock that was floating in front of where Strange was now held up by his cloak.
“Well, that was fun!” You chuckled at the horror that briefly crossed his face as he watched you slip.
“Define fun.” Strange gave you a look like you were deranged. You rolled your eyes at him.
The hours dragged by after that. You tried playing different games, like eye spy or 20 questions, but you both eventually gave up and got bored. You began sending random energy blasts as different boulders, shattering them to bits, then hitting those bits with more blasts until they were microscopic bits. Strange simply sat and watched.
“What’d you get Wong for Christmas?” You randomly turned and asked him.
“Socks with cats on them. Why, what did you get him?” He eyed you.
“I don’t want to say… It’s embarrassing.” You blushed.
“Well now I have to know!” Strange sat up straighter and his cloak brought him a bit closer to him.
“I know it’s dumb and childish, but he’s always complaining that I don’t clean up after myself enough or that I talk too much when he’s trying to concentrate… so I made him one of those coupon books with things like ‘cash this in for one hour of cleaning the sanctum’ or ‘cash this in for 30 mins of silence’.” You looked away, seeing his face break out into a smile.
“That’s… perfect” He was obviously trying to hold back a laugh.
“Shut up! It came from the heart and that’s what matters!” You swatted at him but his cloaked pulled him back before you could touch him.
“What’d you get me?” He wiggled his eyebrows, “one hour of you being nice to me coupons?”
“You wish I made coupons for you.” You flipped him off. “Anyway, I can’t tell you because it would ruin the surprise, you’ll just have to wait another week.” You shrugged.
“Awe you’re no fun!”
“Define fun” You challenged him back and he laughed. You turned back to the random floating rocks, getting ready to blast some more when a portal popped up. On the other side were Peter’s friends,
“Oops.” Ned said as he held up his hands trying to close the portal before Strange and you could get through, but he was taking too long and you both joined them back in their dimension. Strange grabbed the box from MJ and you floated up to where you saw Peter and two other guys in Spider-Men suits. You looked between the three of them, trying to wrap your head around them all being there, but first you had a bone to pick with your Peter,
“We have been stuck in the Grand Canyon for TWELVE HOURS!” You shouted at him. The oldest looking Peter stood in front of your Peter and the other got closer to you and demanded to know why you were lollygagging in the Grand Canyon and not helping Peter. “I wasn’t helping him because he trapped me there with no way to get back! I tried to help him but all I got was trapped.” You crossed your arms and stared down the Peter that dared to blame you for this.
“Aunt May is dead.” Your Peter said, breaking your stare from the other one, to look at him.
“Oh Pete… I’m so sorry.” Your heart broke for the poor kid.
“I should’ve listened to you, I know that. You showed me her dying and I thought I could change that, but I was wrong. I was too late. But I’m not too late to help these guys, which was her dying wish. Please, let me do this. For her.” He had tears welling up in his eyes. You could hear Strange processing his words and still contemplating pressing the button on the box.
“His plan is working; we were able to help a few of them already.” The Peter in front of you pointed down to the man that once was a lizard slowly changing into himself again. You looked back up to the three Peters and nodded your head. You looked down to Strange and gave him an apologetic smile as you grabbed ahold of the box with your magic and floated it up to you.
“You guys do what you have to do, but as soon as they’re cured, I’m hitting this button and sending everyone back, you got it?” You wagged a finger at them like a mom disciplining her children. They nodded and turned into a small huddle to try and figure out what they were going to do next. Before you levitated off to the top of the statue, you heard the one Peter who you stared down ask, “She can see the future? I wonder if she could see what I’m going to have for dinner next Friday” “Why would you need to see that?” The oldest Peter asked. “I don’t know. Maybe so when next Friday’s dinner comes around, I won’t have to ponder what I’ll have because I’ll already know!” “You get the chance to see your future and that’s the moment you choose to see?” Your Peter asked. You laughed to yourself as you met Strange at the top of the statue.
The Peters went to work as Strange went to work on closing and containing the spell. All was going well until the Goblin came flying in and threw a small bomb into the box, breaking the spell open, and throwing you off the statue. Strange hesitated for a moment, about to reach for you, but remembering when you caught yourself earlier and instead bringing his focus back to the broken spell that was now breaking open the sky in purple streaks. What Strange didn’t know was you were knocked out by the blast and your unconscious body had no one to stop it from tumbling further and further down. That is until one of the Peters swung by and grabbed you, landing with you in his arms bridal style. He laid you down on the ground and lightly shook your shoulder, trying to get you to come to. Your eyes fluttered open, seeing the man above you crying as he held you. You had no idea who this man was or why his was crying but his thoughts were loud at that moment, and you quickly learned why.
“It’s not your fault.” You wiped the mixture of tears and dirt off his cheek, “It never was your fault she died.”
“How did you…” He started to stutter,
“I can read minds as well.” You said as you began to sit up on your own. “Thank you for catching me, I appreciate it.”
“Of course.” You began to stand up and you were going to levitate back up to Strange to help him with the spell but was stopped by Peter grabbing your arm, “I know this is probably a bad time, but… will I be okay when I go back?” His eyes were filled with panic and sadness. You could see memories of him after the death of his girlfriend, him losing it. Him going dark. Him hurting instead of helping people. You knew his fear. You walked up closer to him and shot a bit of magic into his head to show him his future.
“You’re going to be just fine, Peter.” You smiled at him when he regained a focus on you. He was silently sobbing at this point. He mouthed a thank you and pulled you in for a tight hug. You hugged him back, knowing that was what he needed most, reassurance and a hug.
You met Strange back at the top of the statue and he was struggling to keep ahold on the spell.
“Is there anything you can do (y/n)?” He looked at you pleadingly. You looked down at your hands and formed a ball of energy, concentrating on it. Slowly making it bigger and bigger, until you swung your hands out over your head, screaming as the spell took almost everything out of your already exhausted body. You formed a bubble around the spell, containing it to just the area, keeping it from expanding.
“The best I can do is contain it. It’s not my spell though, I can’t stop it!” You yelled as you struggled to keep your hold on the field of energy. Your Peter then joined the two of you, seeing your struggle.
“I think you have to complete the spell sir.” Peter said to Strange.
“But everyone will forget you. Everyone who loves you will forget… we’ll all forget you.” Strange said, correcting himself, realizing how much he would miss the kid.
“I know, but it’s what’s best for everyone else. I’m ready sir.” He reassured him.
“Call me Stephen” He smiled at him sadly.
“I’m ready Stephen.” Peter smiled softly. You looked at Strange for confirmation that he was going to recast the spell, and he slightly nodded, giving you the que to let go. You released your spell and turned around and hugged Peter tightly.
“I’m going to miss you, Parker.” You felt yourself begin to tear up.
“Don’t worry as soon as I can I’m going to come find you guys, explain everything, and continue annoying you and causing loads of headaches for you.” He patted your back, you pulled away and smiled at him.
“You better.” You returned his smile, “I’m sorry about May.” You whispered to him.
“Yeah, me too.” He frowned but quickly composed himself and nodded, giving a sort of sendoff to you and Strange as he went to say goodbye to the other Peter’s and MJ and Ned.
A week later you, Wong, Strange, and a few other apprentices were sitting around the Christmas tree in the middle of the sanctum. You conjured up cups of hot coco for everyone as you all wrapped yourselves in as many layers as possible to avoid the cold snow that was still sticking around, covering every surface of the room. You handed Wong your gift to him, Strange giving you a smirk as he opened it.
“I love it!” He happily flipped through the book, laughing at some of the coupons that were also inside jokes between the two of you. You threw a smug look at Strange and gave Wong a hug,
“I’m glad!” He then gave you his gift to you, a gift certificate to the spa uptown that you always say you wish you could go to,
“You remembered!” You looked up at him from the gift, so excited.
“How could I not, every time we pass it you stare in the window and say how much you think it would be cool to have a spa day.” He chuckled,
“Well, I’m very grateful, thank you Wong.” You hugged him again.
As Strange and him exchanged gifts you walked around to the others and gave them all little gifts boxes with candies and other treats in them, a thanks for all their hard work and dedication. You were talking to a girl named Sam about how long you think the snow is going to last when Strange came up to you and asked if he could speak to you. You apologized for leaving the girl and followed him up to the library.
“Are you taking me away from the group to murder me?” You joked
“Yes, no one will hear you up here.” Strange, teased back, making you laugh.
“Happy Christmas.” He turned to you, stopping you in your tracks in the center of the library.
“You brought me all the way here to say ‘happy Christmas’ to me?” You giggled.
“Well, yes. But I also wanted to give you this.” He pulled a long rectangle box out from his robes and handed it to you. You hesitated to take it. It was clearly a piece of jewelry. You knew how reckless of a spender he was and you began to fear he got you something ridiculously expensive when you only made him a sweater. But, you took it from his shaking hands, giving a grateful smile. You slowly popped open the box to reveal and striking gold bracelet. Two thin gold chains wrapped around each other in an endless loop. It was beautiful, but too much.
“I can’t accept this.” You close the box and give it back to him. His face fell for a second,
“Well why not?”
“It’s too much. It’s too expensive. I couldn’t possibly accept this knowing I couldn’t repay you.” You shook your head, insisting he take it back. He just chuckled and waved his hand over the box, making it disappear and the bracelet secure itself around your wrist.
“I insist you take it.” He smiled, seeing how it looked perfect against your delicate skin.
“All I got you was this.” You conjured your gift to him and handed him the box. He opened it and revealed the sweater. It was a deep, earthy green knit.
“Did you make this?” He asked as he felt the material, looking at the pattern. You nodded,
“Yeah, I picked out the color thinking it would make your eyes pop. Not that you really need them to pop, but I just thought it would complement them well. And I thought you could use something extra to keep you warm since we don’t know just how long this snow thing is going to last.” Your rambling was cut off by him smiling at you,
“I love you…”
“You what?”
“I love i-it. I love the sweater! I love your effort into your gifts is what I was going to say.” A deep red blush began to creep up his neck and cover his face. You stood there in shock for a moment. You knew he might’ve felt this way based on what you saw in his thoughts in the mirror dimension, but you didn’t think something like this would happen.
“Ask me again.” You muttered.
“What?” He asked, confused by your sudden change of topic.
“Ask me again what I see when I picture my future.” You insisted softly.
“Oh. Umm, what do you see when you picture your future?” He asked, confused as to where you were going with this. You gathered up a small ball of energy and showed him your daydreams of you and him living together, having a family together, growing old together. He opened his eyes, and a grin slowly grew on his face, “Oh.” Was all he whispered.
“Oh indeed.” You whispered back as you grabbed his face and kissed him, feeling like everything was falling into place.
Later that day you snuck out of the sanctum and made a trip out to a small apartment complex where you knew Peter was now staying. You’d been tracking his movements since the last time you spoke on that statue. You waited for someone to use their key to get in the building, asking them to hold the door, a big box filling your hands. You took the elevator up to the third floor, finding his room number and knocking three times. Peter opened the door and confusion flooded his face.
“(y/n)? What are you doing here? How did you know I was here? How do you even know who I am?” He bombarded you with questions as he stepped aside, letting you in.
“I’m here because no one should be alone on Christmas. I knew you were here because I’ve been keeping track of you to make sure you were doing okay. I know who you are because when Strange casted that spell I put a sort of counter spell force field around my mind so I wouldn’t forget you.” You set the box down on his dining room table and turned to him with a smile.
“Why would you do that?” He asked, still stunned.
“Because Peter, I knew you were going to shut yourself out from everyone. Start over. Leave your friends behind thinking it’s what’s best for them. I didn’t want you to be completely alone.”
“How did you know I’d do all of that?” Peter asked, completely forgetting you can see the future. You raised one eyebrow at him, giving him a minute to think it over and then it dawned on him, “Oh right! The whole future seeing trick!” You chuckled,
“Now get over here and open your gift!” You excitedly shoved it towards him. He gladly grabbed it, sitting crossed legged on the ground. It was a giant Lego death star set. He held it up, getting a good look at it, and then smiled at you, tears in his eyes, “Thank you.”
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that’s not fair to gideon mendel, the photographer who took those photos in 1993. he took them in black-and-white even though color cameras were available, yes, but not to “make them seem long ago and far away”. he was photographing in black-and-white so they would be taken seriously.
mendel is still documenting and lifting up the voices of people who live with hiv/aids in the project “through positive eyes”.
if mendel hadn’t taken these photographs, we wouldn’t have a record of these patients and the ends of their lives at all. it was extremely unusual for aids wards to let photographers in, and the patients took a risk in letting mendel photograph them and their loved ones.
From a literary perspective, it’s ridiculous that JK Rowing went so far to prove that Remus and Sirius were not gay. Those characters were very thinly veiled allegories for two of the most pressing matters in queer culture (the aids crisis and being rejected by family/forced out of your home) and she really could have left it at that and let the reader take what they want from it. Obviously those metaphors were poorly written, lycanthropy is intended to mirror aids, but is not handled as delicately as it deserves to be, and Sirius’s story is reflective of the queer experience, but it is not stated explicitly enough that life gets better after leaving home in those situations. This is made much worse by the fact that she killed characters and forced romances to ensure that the audience cannot have their own interpretations of the story.
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