mirasage

[mirasage]

Muse Sage Backstory

UHHHHHHH im a fucking bitch for tragic anime backstory, so as follows is how I’ve written backstory for Sage. If riot ever decides to feed us good, I’ll listen, but I love the idea of her using her powers for,,, bad.

Mirai was from a poor family, born to work, doing labour since she could walk. Working to live meant she had no time for school, and both her and her brother were illiterate, something she didn’t realise was an issue until they moved to the big city. Regardless, she was happy with her life, living in a bubble, developing her quiet disposition, prefering to look inward, content with her own company. It’s a normal day in the city when the first light shatters her reality, and as she sobs over her brother’s prone body, clutching desperately at his spasming form as he bleeds out, her hands begin glowing beneath the fabric of his shirt. Her parents are buried deep, deep under the rubble of what used to be her home, and suddenly, she has nothing. Holding him until he goes cold, she weeps as her skin stitches itself back together.

She wanders the dead city for days before beings picked up by scavengers, deep in a dissociative fugue. The looters aren’t good people, but they have a roof, and food, and over the next couple years, everything goes dark. She masters her abilities, realises she can heal the harm she does, and doesn’t use it for good.  To this day, she only remembers bits and pieces, but along the way, she earns the title of “The Butcher”, still revered in certain circles. They give her a place to work, a disgusting basement, and she carries out their dirty work for her. Scrubbing will never be enough to get the grime out from under her fingernails, and she feels like Lady MacBeth in the way that the blood will stain her soul. She makes a life for herself in the carrion, deep in the gore of things. Surviving is adapting, and so she transitions from girl to soldier. Eventually, she learns to read - it’s a long journey, all half burnt books, (remnants of the explosion that shook the city, the world) and frustrated outbursts, but the words call to her, and as shapes make way for letters, and she learns about language, she finds a refuge. Sage still runs with her scavengers, working for a shadowy company she knows nothing about, but the pay is good, and she can practice her abilities (and have a corner she knows she won’t be interrupted in for when she slowly reads her books). Along the way, she picks up medical textbooks, forces doctors and surgeons from before to teach her, the threat of her abilities hanging heavy in the air. It’s not long before she’s masterfully wielding a scalpel, and it’s not long before medicine, the kind that isn’t “magic”, becomes her raison d'être.

Mirai has long since become a woman when a masked figure drops into her sanctuary to tell her she can be more than this. He’s heard about her, knows more like her. Mask tight to his face, he tells her that he can help her get back what she's lost, help her find a family, and at the same time, use her unique skill set for retribution. It’s justice he’s talking about, but aren’t justice and vengeance the same thing? One nod is all it takes to agree, and she finally leaves the city, joining a team of individuals like her. It’s like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders, and she’s no longer so alone. It’s on one of her first field missions with the valorant protocol that everything goes very, very wrong. Coms go dark, and the heady scent of copper fills the air. Gunshots ricochet off heavy concrete, but it’s so much louder when they stop, blood rushing in her ears, heart pounding, hyper aware of every little sound. She feels small, and dirty, flashing back to her days in her makeshift dungeon. Heavy in her hands, the cold steel of her phantom is her only comfort as she silently traverses the battle site. Mirai zeros in on him from an angle, and isn’t sure if he’s dead -  the man that recruited her - but he’s lying prone in a dark puddle, no noise coming from him. It’s a bitter, dark feeling, and she’s never felt more desperate than when she places her hands on him. “I wasn't strong enough before... but now, now I am strong enough for us all!” Fuelled by anguish, she pours her all into him, seeing radianite fractals bloom from her palms, encasing him in a chrysalis of cyan. Mirai wasn’t expecting wasn’t expecting for him to burst out, ready for action, but she takes it in stride, effortlessly hones the new skill, practicing whenever she gets the opportunity, which in her line of work, is often.

It’s only when the door lock clicks behind her that the facade breaks, calmness giving way to fury, to grief. She mourns her brother, hates herself for her lack of skill, feels the weight of the knowledge that he would still be alive if only she’d known. Compartmentalizing is coping, and as time passes, Mirai becomes who she was, not who she is. Mirai is who she is when she’s really feeling, when she’s alone enough to be vulnerable. She’s reborn as Sage - the wise healer, strong enough to move a mountain, infallible. The slight smile never leaves Sage’s face, a practiced mask of understanding, but underneath the obsidian shell, Mirai writhes, and The Butcher scrubs her hands.

[mirasage]

Viper: What kind of tea is this? Raze: Oh, I boiled some Gatorade.

[mirasage]

[mirasage]

this is a sage space

it's your friendly neighbourhood valo blog. here's what to expect:

- HCs! (of the angst, fluff and smut varieties)

-requests! Good practice for me, so please ask away. Characters, ships, scenarios, I'll write most things! (Although i reserve the right to, y'know, not do something.)

-fic recs and... perhaps my own fics...

-sage (and everyone else!!!) posting!