#i'm posting a lot about daredevil because i'm rewatching it for the first time in years

[velisveilka]

matt at the start of daredevil s3 is so real because i, too, get a blocked sinus and immediately resign myself to my fate as abandoned by god

[devilfic]

Prob, wayyyy too damn specific but I saw posts of Matt and I just rewatched The Batman (2022) and like I had this prompt of:

Reader is pushed away by Matt and decides to not fall with more vigilantes but runs in with Bruce and marries him? Maybe and it becomes some love triangle plot or idk

Idk what you could do with this, pls feel free to ignore it or modify. It’s just a weird ass crossovers of my two husbands.

at first I meant to humor you a bit with my thoughts on bruce and matt as very similar lovers but then it just turned into a throuple. walk with me:

it’s funny because matt and bruce have very similar self-destructive behaviors when it comes to relationships, but I think bruce is a bit more indulgent (whether he’d admit to that or not is another story entirely).

where matt is clearly insecure about if he can protect you—certainly he will fight until his last dying breath to do so but would rather you never be in danger to begin with—bruce is (and I'm especially thinking of an older, more experienced bruce), I think, unwilling to let you know that he’s just as insecure. mainly because failure cannot be an option. bruce also has much more at his disposal to protect you (cough cough money cough) and has backup plans for days. at this point in time, bruce would be more willing to let others in and have a healthier (?) way of maintaining relationships.

matt is, to the best of his ability, an ordinary man who strikes suddenly, sometimes recklessly, and thinks better within the throes of action. matt strikes me as someone who carries too many burdens to ever think a relationship with a civillian would work. he is a martyr like bruce, but I think where matt is in daredevil and where bruce is in my mind (years later, a little less cynical) are different enough to make them stand out.

that being said, I think matt would be hella suspicious of bruce because let’s be honest…. everything about him is a red flag LMAO. I can imagine matt playing mind games with bruce if they ever met, perhaps matt is representing a client who is suing wayne enterprises and oh, look, there’s you and bruce all cuddled up in the courtroom. matt listens for bruce’s heartbeat whenever he asks a particularly pointed question about his life but bruce has trained his heartbeat to be steady, his reactions natural. he gets one past matt.

and you think this man has some NERVE interrogating your new boyfriend when he’s the one who put you out. you almost let him have a piece of your mind but think better of it.

matt wonders if you like being bruce wayne’s. are you even able to still be you? the you that he truly knows?

needless to say, if they cross each other in cowls, matt will know it’s him instantly. I think it would sting matt to know that not only had you moved on to a man of much higher class, you’d also moved onto another nocturnal vigilante. one who, apparently, had no hangups about having you.

bruce also isn’t stupid. he’d done his research into the masked vigilante running around the neighboring borough of hell’s kitchen. it wasn’t apparent to him when he’d first met matt, but a little stalking research down the line and he’d put it together. they don’t reveal this to each other at first.

but later that night, bruce is holding you and wondering… is that your type? if it was by the simple hilarity of the universe that you ended up falling for him, right after leaving a man not too different from himself.

anon, I have a feeling that when you said love triangle, you really meant a love v as in bruce likes reader, matt likes reader, and reader likes both. but if I may talk my shit, I think these two might have a lot to like about each other. two vigilantes who operate by night and shadow, who have similar dedications to justice (matt’s being the idea of righteous and fair law, bruce’s being protecting the weak and innocent and rehabilitating or stopping the corrupt), two men leading double lives, two men as equally charming, and two men in love with you. bruce and matt find it hard not to see what you like in the other.

bruce befriends him. it’s kind of an accident the way he finds a kindred spirit in him, and at first it’s purely to keep an eye on this guy, perhaps to put together a contingency plan just in case. he starts sending nelson, murdock, and page cases in gotham that could use their legal advice, sending business partners and citizens alike to their door for referrals. matt isn’t sure what to do when they start getting a wave of new clients, all suspiciously right up their alley, but foggy and karen don’t mind the extra cash flow and matt struggles to find a way to not be okay with helping those in need.

matt returns the favor and starts training bruce on how to hone his other senses in combat. the two of them will spar for hours, only stopping if alfred were to come yank them apart or, god forbid, you come home early to find your boyfriend pinning your ex to the mat.

and you’re both horrified and fascinated to find that they get along really well. but you can’t just let matt back into your life after he’d all but slammed the door in your face. he’d given up on you. now he was weaseling his way back into your life with bruce—a happy life, might I add, although no less stressful—hanging around you like a dark shadow.

bruce isn’t sure how to feel about it either. he knows how much you loved matt, how much you still love matt, and he can tell matt is not over you no matter how much he waxes poetic about the greater good and why you two couldn’t really work out. bruce gets it, worries that maybe he should get it more and cut you loose too before something happens to you. it had always been their worry: that while they were off protecting the city, there’d be no one there to watch over you. and there was no one there to watch over you. once upon a time.

there is no organized discussion about it. bruce is less hung up about it than matt. it does feel odd, imagining him around you and it being… normal. inviting matt over for dinner with your permission, and sharing wine and heavy goodbyes as bruce pays a taxi to see him home safe. he considers the way you squirm at the table, trying to keep it friendly between you and matt but there is that ache in your chest that remembers this man differently. it feels disrespectful and rude to be friends with him now, having him around gotham. eventually bruce asks you as you wind down for the night, his rings clattering onto the dresser tray as you pull back the sheets, “you love him still.” well, he doesn’t ask.

you freeze, halfway into the sheets, unsure if you’d even heard him right, “I’m sorry?”

“matthew,” he casts a glance over his shoulder, “it didn’t really end between you. not on your end.”

“if you’re trying to accuse me of something-“

“I’m not. I can see it on you.” but bruce’s voice isn’t angry or mocking or blaming. it’s… oddly resolute. thoughtful, even. “I like him.”

“I… what are you saying, bruce?”

he crawls under the sheets, nonchalant, but he finds himself just a little (just a little) unsure. “I’m saying that… maybe the reason why he pushed you away isn’t a problem anymore,” he stares ahead, focused on the fireplace that burns low, “if you wanted him still. I wouldn’t mind it. I wouldn’t mind him.”

you almost can’t believe your ears. “and you like him.”

bruce takes a minute to shrug, as if he needed to roll it around in his mind one more time.

“do you… want us to be together? all of us?” you watch the reflection of the fire in his eyes, waiting with bated breath.

he turns his head to you, “if we can get the usher boy to agree.”

you have to have a long, long talk with matt. there’s tears and a little anger and a whole lot of uncertainty as you talk out your tumultuous parting but then, as matt’s guilt starts slipping in and he says he’ll stay out of gotham so that he doesn’t cause you more pain, you blurt it out. matt isn’t sure he’s heard you right. you have to repeat yourself, a bit more eloquently, “I said… do you want to be with me and bruce?”

he doesn’t immediately say yes. in fact, he takes a day or two to himself to think about it. he’s staunchly sure in the beginning that he will turn you down but the words do not form, the hesitance keeps him from calling. when he gets advice from foggy (who is twice as bewildered but all too excited by the prospect) about how to say he’s not interested, he writes it down and it just. doesn’t feel right. he finds himself rearranging the words in his mind to be softer, more… flexible. less “hard and fast no” and more “I just don’t know”. the more he thinks about it the less inclined he is to even SAY the word no. is it because it’d really, finally cut you out of his life? would he only be saying yes to have you again?

bruce would be there too, that’s the key thing. maybe it could start out as just him being with you and bruce being with you at the same time, but maybe that was too weird for him to think about. sharing you with someone else. he wouldn’t want to. but what would the alternative be?

he calls bruce to meet in hell’s kitchen where he feels safer. bruce is calm, not imposing in the least. he lets matt rant it all out and get his feelings in check. when he’s blown off all the steam, bruce just says, “if it comes down to it, there’ll be no hard feelings if it ends.”

“this is crazy.”

“you can say no.”

“yeah. I know.”

some time passes. bruce comes to stand beside matt sitting on the ledge of the rooftop, keeping his heavy gaze fixed on him. “they still love you.”

“I know.”

the two of them say nothing for a while. matt tries to focus on the city, as loud as it always is, but keeps zeroing in on the steady earnest thumping of the man’s heart right next to him. he is being honest with what remains unsaid, what you’d told matt days ago that he still struggled to believe. he tilts his head so, and bruce has known him long enough now to know that he’s thinking hard about what to say next, “I suppose you’ll have to take me on a date first. just so we’re all even.”

“is pinning you to the mat not courting enough for you?”

[roipecheur]

2024 Fic Year in Review

Total number of completed works: 7

Total word count: 170,795

Fandoms written in: DCU (Deathstroke, Nightwing, and Batman), Daredevil comics & NMCU, HBO Peacemaker

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?  About what I'd expect! I'd always like to write more, but I did pretty well for the amount of time and energy I had.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? soul shape

Did you take any writing risks this year?  I'm not sure if I'd call it a risk, but I did write a genfic, which is unusual for me

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year? I always have fic goals!

Sladick long fics: fantasy/royalty AU I didn't get to write last year, Blüdhaven time travel fix-it fic but not in the way that you think that I also didn't didn't get to write last year, and if I have time, a deeply fucked up apprentice arc inspired fic that I have affectionately nicknamed jumpscare Slade

^recycling these goals from last year because I'm still frothing at the mouth to write all of these

Sladick shorter fics: no capes AU where Slade uses the GI bill to go to college in his 40s (I want to write something fun), soulmate AU?, two-part amnesia fic, turn a pound of flesh into a series (I have three sequel ideas)

^first two also recycled from last year orz

Fratt: edit and post the fic I wrote in late 2023 and forgot about, maybe write a fic based off Marvel 1602?

Jaytim: I've got a couple of jaytim ideas cooking, a lot of it depends on what else I've got going on and if I can finally finish my read-through of Tim's pre-Flashpoint appearances

The Hitcher: I wanted to write fic the first time I watched that movie, but I was busy writing other stuff. I might rewatch and write something if I have the time.

Most popular story of the year? spark & catch by kudos

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: killing the mood

Most fun story to write: the bats & birds chapter of local 1331 aka the Batman pro-union propaganda fic

Most unintentionally telling story: the bats & birds chapter of local 1331 again lol because you can probably read it and tell I have at least some experience around and/or knowledge of unions

Biggest disappointment: the full extent of the law didn't turn out like I wanted it to and took way too long to write. There are some elements that I like and I'm proud of, but in retrospect I do wish I'd written something shorter and punchier.

Biggest surprise: Writing a dicktim fic: the coldest night of the year. This was for an exchange in a Discord server. I hadn't thought about writing dicktim before, but it was fun!

My favorite part of fandom this year: Being unhinged with people on tumblr and in discord servers about our faves ♥ (recycling this from last year also)

Tagging: anyone who wants to do it 💕

[trulycertain]

Whelp. I binged Defenders in a day. Apparently I like it way more than I like the individual shows. Something about how it's filmed: Luke Cage and Jessica Jones just made me feel icky. (Didn't watch past the first ep of Ironfist because my god, that dude's a moron.) Defenders, on the other hand, was actually fun. (Daniel is still a moron though.) I'm gonna try out Punisher, but I don't have super high hopes; I don't particularly like Frank as a person, but the idea of him does compel me.

Oh! I'm really glad you had fun! I was worried it might be boring or frustrating for you, so I'm really glad it was a good surprise. Any particular bits you liked most?

I'll also say that Defenders letting characters be a bit dafter and leaning into awkwardness and comedy beats may have been part of what helped with tonal ickiness, maybe? It was also, palette-wise, a lighter show with more daytime scenes, which could definitely be a pacing help, now I think about it. Also, I mean... I adored Foggy and Claire. What's new? Wish Karen had had more to do, but DD S3 seemed to realise that was an issue and kind of addresses that, at least. And while it felt really weird to have a Luke and Danny who weren't Best Bros 4 Life, and my Heroes For Hire heart ached, it was unexpectedly fun watching them bond.

I still haven't seen most of the individual shows, either, though I might at some point. I actually did like JJ s1 a whole lot, but it was a heavy watch.

Daredevil was an easy sell for me, because I've loved Matt Murdock for twenty years and we DD fans never get adaptations, but I'll still admit to being uncertain about how dark and sometimes slow that first pilot episode was, until ep2 grabbed me by the collar and got me. (I blame Claire. That and the times we saw Matt being quietly daft with Foggy, where I went, "...Oh. Still not ginger, but yeah. That's my guy." )

I definitely was interested in Frank as a tragic arc, but also uncomfortable with the kind of violence he trades in. (Heck, I often frown worriedly at Matt for how punitive his brand of justice can get, but I... also kind of hate guns, so hard sell.) I also had the misfortune to have a friend who was very into The Punisher but turned out to be not such a good friend. The combination of all those and not being able to put aside some current events Stuff meant that I never gave it a try when it came out. I might well give it another chance, though, not least because I'm fascinated by where the Netflix stuff takes Karen.

I'd literally just started season three's first ep when my computer had to go in for repairs, and it's the one season I haven't got on disc, so... Still waiting on the big rewatch until I don't have to battle with my TV. Also stuck on a phone keyboard, so fewer rambly meta posts til things are back in order. Season three is my next move, then I'm considering going back and trying out some more of the Netflix 'verse, particularly Luke Cage s1, which I've seen bits but never the entirety of.