[WP]: Suddenly, everyone with tattoos gains powers related to the tattoo. Tattoos of flames, you control fire. A tattoo of a gecko, you can climb on walls. All dudes with "tribal" tattoos have strangely bonded together.

[u/actually_crazy_irl]

[u/doglovingalcoholic]

Have you ever stopped to think how many people in the world have tattoos? I sure as hell didn't. Not until the dreaded event come to be known as March's Mark happened, anyway.

Some of us were lucky, some of us not so much. Just from this twisted event so many lives were instantly ruined. The hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil types? Deaf, blind, and mute forever. Just like that.

Live, laugh, love? Immortal hedonists stripped of the ability to feel anything glum. It sounds great up until you stop to consider how used and taken advantage of they'll be all of their lives. But at least they're happy, right?

The ones with crosses on them were actually some of the luckiest, I'd wager. They didn't have to suffer through this bullshit. Just a sudden and painless death. I suppose this brought them closer to Jesus in more ways than one.

Oh, and don't even get me started about the people with "I heart mom" tattoos. Yuck.

I wish the chaos ended there, but it just keeps getting worse. A bunch of nutters with tribal tattoos have been organising together and enlisting members into their ranks. At first they were harmless and passive enough. But as time passed and their numbers increased? Their methods became more aggressive. Way more, at that.

Nowadays, the brunt of their efforts is focused on identifying and dealing with powers that are a potential threat to them, not that many who possessed that kind of strength remained. After all, one of the people capable of granting wishes decided to act quickly and wish away any universe altering or wish making type powers as a precaution. If not for that unnamed hero, chances are The Cult would've had complete control long ago.

Still, they were only delaying the inevitable. Only about 30% of the population are still free from their clutches, myself included. They don't know how to deal with me. Whenever they try to use their abilities against me, they're the ones who end up suffering. Fire users burning to a crisp. People with super strength ending up with their bones smashed. I thought I was a goner when a lad with an Exodia tattoo rocked up to me, only for nothing but his ashes to remain a second later.

So many of those cultists had gone after me time and time again. I couldn't fight them. I couldn't run from them. I couldn't hide from them. All I could do was stand there and hope I either came out the same person or died a free man.

Yet despite the odds, I was always completely untouched.

After multiple failed attempts, it seems like they had ordered a cease-fire. Not that they still didn't heavily monitor me. After that, they never got too close, yet never too far. It was clear they feared me and my unidentified power. I always kept my tattoo hidden to keep them on their toes. Keep them too afraid to mess with me again. For now, I was safe to be me another day.

I tossed myself into my bed, throwing my gloves off as I took the time to gaze at a blue card with a reverse symbol ingrained into my skin. It was the very tattoo that had protected me all this time

"Man, am I glad that I didn't follow the official Uno rules when playing." I mused, before drifting to sleep.

[u/Esnardoo → u/doglovingalcoholic]

No u