#I’m like a sleeper agent but about mirage

[pettyelves]

neverender

She guessed that the abducting portal had landed them somewhere between here and there. A place where they should not have been, but were the last resort for whatever thing called out to them. 

It called itself the Dreamer.

Each time they were taken, Eilithe felt the creep of fear up her spine. Kurel’s questions flooded her. What if they didn’t jump through the hoops? What if they were too late? What if they couldn’t get back?

Eilithe imagined this must be what the Dream looked like--an expanse of cool mist and brilliant flora. Yet, the Sleeper’s corruption was seeping in to every part of the Dreamer’s home. Spidering black sludge that wilted and rotted the lush greenery.The path forward was a slow one, slower still for Eilithe, who lagged behind in caution. 

For the first time, she hid when fighting broke out. Tucked around a corner, she held in a panicked breath. The life in her belly was barely formed, still hidden beneath her chest piece. It had only just started to move and twist uncomfortably within her, upset by its mother’s quickened heart. Thump thump.I’m sorry, little kal. Thumpthumpthump. I would never choose to bring you here. Every step she took while the Sleeper and his agents were still alive was a step taken in risk to the heir to the An’Diel legacy. The only of his children who could inherit the Black Mirage.

She could only panic for one thing at a time. 

A chime of bells should have cleansed the last gateway within the realm, yet there was no light or indication that they had beaten it back in time. But the cold blew up from below the platform, and the form twisted up in a shape which churned Eilithe’s stomach over. 

When she looked at him, she saw their son’s face. Threshad’s father had galactic eyes, that froze her in place. Before she could get herself together, she heard Kurel’s swords draw. It was as if Kurel knew that this was his last chance to exact revenge for every horrible thing the man had ever done. To Eilithe. To Threshad. To Dead Sun. 

Each spell he cast hit Dead Sun like a force of fucking nature. From hiding, Eilithe flinched at every spell that shook the ground. When Kurel’s body went sliding back against the stone was when she lost it. Thump thump thump. Hold on, little kal. You’re an An’Diel-- and we survive. And just like that Kurel rose to his feet and Eilithe turned the corner and rose her hands to summon the guardian souls that slept in her shadow. Each of them stood on their feet, to face him.

Threshad’s father died and in the moment that his body was staggering to the ground, Eilithe’s only regret was that she wasn’t standing over him to plunge the knife into his chest herself. It was unceremonious, and uttered promise that none of this would matter. That they would fail regardless. 

The Dreamer’s bells chimed and the skies above them rained down cleansing waters that brought rebirth to the realm. Branches twisted out of the grounds and entombed the corpse-- leaving her son’s father buried more beautifully than he deserved. 

Standing over him, Eilithe listened for the sound of footsteps leaving. All but Kurel’s. “Can’ leave him like that. More than likely jus’ come back.”  She was quiet for the longest time,staring as though she could see those eyes still peering at her.”I’ll burn him,” she said, then all too quickly added. “We don’t tell Threshad..let him think his father died in the desert.” 

It wasn’t good enough for Kurel. “Why?”

She didn’t have an answer. “I.. don’t know, I just didn’t want him to know his father tried to murder his mother and unborn sibling. And all of Dead Sun.” She wanted her son to have a memory that wasn’t tainted of his father.

Kurel had other plans. “Then I’ll tell him.” 

If there was anything that Kurel and Threshad had in common, it was potentially their daddy issues.

"Your father is dead. He was a workin' agen' of The Sleeper." He delivered slowly.

"Dead," he repeated in an empty tone before slowly he nodded his head. "Tried to kill mother, and..." His words trailed off and he paced around the room and stood in what would be the kitchen. "Wasn't.. much of a father." He looked around like he was searching. "Thought it'd feel worse than this."

 As the now grown boy moved about the room in his own state of process, Kurel stood still. His arms lifted to cross loosely over his chest while he listened to him reach for reason, understanding and acceptance.

 "Neither was mine." He stood there a few more awkward seconds. Debating where the line was. The boy was technically an adult or as close to one that mattered anyways.  Over the years Kurel had never attempted to be a father or replace the absence of one, and had treated the once teenager more like a trusted member of his ship crew. Rather than creating rules and regulations and enforcing mother's law and punishments. "There's some things you shoul' know."

 He moved to sit, knowing he would be there awhile. Hours, even. Relaying all that he knew and all that he knew Eilithe had kept secret from Threshad, even down to the worst of it all. He either told the boy everything he knew, because he knew that it would explain the feeling of not feeling the way one expected to at the death of a family member or because in the absence of having delivered that final physical blow, he could at least feel sated by erasing the man’s legacy. At the end of it, Kurel sat forward on the very edge of the couch cushion. His fingers laced together and hands draped between his knees. His head had been downward, as if staring at the floor through it all, until then when he lifted it and set his focus on Threshad.

"I know you an' your sister have grown up the las' many years signin' the family name on all you do an' everyone you meet. Cause i' was safer tha' way. For you. For her. For all of us.  You're old enough now to choose and regardless of your choice. Won't make you any less apar' of all of this." His hands unwound to gesture with them opening as if he held the whole of Dead Sun in his cupped palms, then closed them again. "In the bottom of the close'. In our room. Is a birth certificate. I' has your name on i' an' mine. You can destroy i' or you can leave i'."

Threshad did not sit.  He couldn't. 

Each new confession brought heat to Threshad's skin until he felt like he'd burst into flames. After he was finished, Threshad had his hand propped against the wall and just kind of hung his head. There weren't tears, there was just anger, boiling in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to do something, but it was over before he knew all of what was happening. It was a solid several minutes before he spoke. Finally, he looked to Kurel, his father, and he looked a long time. He huffed a laugh through his nose dryly and shook his head. "Look like you anyway. Stays as long as Lony has one too.." he said, running his hand through his hair. "Mom and the baby okay?" He re-asked, just in case. 

They were fine-- they were all fine. Kurel returned to their home to find Eilithe asleep on the front porch couch. With a rare tenderness he lifted her up, and she was just awake enough to put her arms around his neck. In bed she curled against his side, cheek against his chest and arm draped across him. 

That night she slept deep enough that she dreamed sweetly, though by the time her feet touched the floor in the morning-- she’d already forgotten it. 

@kurel-andiel​ @revthepunchbear​ @velerodra-valesinger​ @moonbaki​ @fishy-wanderings​ @deadsunharbor​

[bigskydreaming]

God bless you for actually understanding dick Grayson as a character. Fandoms portrayal of him infuriates me because it’s often so baseless or they focus on one panel and then make it out to be a defining character moment with no understanding of nuance Anyways, just glad I’m not alone in the (classic) nightwing love

Yuuuuuuuuuuup. I can’t even count how many posts about Dick’s temper cite these two times he yelled at Kory back in Teen Titans #17 or 18, and then Donna in Teen Titans #19. And how he says some cruel and cutting things to both of them, with panels even included to SHOW how he’s being an asshole.

And to be fair, he DOES say those things in those issues, and they ARE fucked up!

BUT, what pisses me off about that, is it was literally a plot point??? Like in issue #19, his and Donna’s fight, she says JUST AS CRUEL AND CUTTING of things right back to him? AND Donna is the one to get physical in that fight, she literally punches Dick through a WALL and also picks him up with one hand and tosses him onto a chair that breaks under him, and says he’s going to sit down and listen to her now.

But nooooooooobody ever mentions that, or talks about Donna’s temper, and here’s where it really gets sketch.

Because in that VERY SAME ISSUE, we follow Dick’s POV after he leaves Donna and runs off on his own. We have thought bubbles and panels of him asking himself why he would say all those things to Donna, asking himself what’s wrong with him?

And then TWO ISSUES LATER, after Dick has gone off on his own to search for Raven who was rumored to be kidnapped months ago and Donna and the rest of the Titans haven’t done shit about it….Dick gets captured by the Church of Blood. Again. For the third time in two years, comic book time.

He thought he was sneaking in, in disguise, no chance of being detected….but they were on to him the second he walked through the door…..because as was revealed the very next page…..he wasn’t rescued by the Titans the last time they freed him from the Blood Cult. The Blood Cult LET the Titans rescue Dick, to use him as a sleeper agent. The Titans only broke what they THOUGHT was the brainwashing job the cult had done on Dick, not realizing that the cult had implanted a second, deeper layer of conditioning beneath that.

And Mother Mayhem, the leader of the cult literally goes on to tell Dick that he was strong mentally, and did a good job fighting off his conditioning and was tough to brainwash….and that its unfortunate that his mental battles resulted in him lashing out at all his teammates and loved ones for the entire past year he’d been struggling with it, due to his emotional and mental imbalance. (And then they tortured Dick to the point of death in order to brainwash him more fully this time, with it explicitly being stated that he would have died from what they did to him if they hadn’t had Raven healing him even as they did it and using her magic to keep him alive).

Anyway, that’s the story arc where Jason teams up with the Titans, the source of him being a former Titan as well, and the reason he said he was one of them when fighting Tim and smashing up Titans Tower when he came back as the Red Hood…..so everything in that story is still canon, in the pre-reboot timeline. 

Which means when they did rescue Dick, and everyone was made aware of just HOW LONG Dick had been under the cult’s control (keep in mind that entire past year between the first and last times he was captured by them included the following events: Bruce adopting Jason and making him Robin, Terra betraying the team in the Judas Contract, Dick breaking up with Kory the first time, because she got married on Tamaran for purely political reasons but it still bothered Dick, Dick stepping down as leader of the Titans and Donna becoming leader….ALL OF THOSE THINGS happened while Dick was canonically under the control of the Blood Cult, but other than the other Titans having a couple pages where they ‘forgive him’ for being such a jerk in light of this and promising never to mention it again….its literally never mentioned again by anyone BUT Dick….who goes on to angst for the next several years about it, pretty much, as he second guesses literally every decision he made that year and has no idea what choices were actually his and which were just him being used.

Lololol sorry to go off rambling, but its just an example of how far back this insistence on reducing Dick to his most basic character traits and omitting mentions of all trauma he endures other than the stock tropes of his rapes by Tarantula and Mirage, Talon or Court of Owls related stuff, or the occasional story about how often he gets freaking shot in the head and has resulting injuries and side effects.

Like, that was huge. Dick lost a YEAR of his life, when he was only twenty, to some cult’s brainwashing, with no idea where he ended and their influence began in any of that. That’s HUGE story fodder. Huge potential to examine how Dick feels about the fact that not a SINGLE ONE of his teammates suspected something MIGHT be wrong with him after a whole year of literal out of character behavior that he’s still blamed for from time to time.

And people KNOW THIS STORY HAPPENED, because they cite it all the time when referencing that Jason was a member of the Titans once, or how Donna and a couple others were constantly comparing Jason to Dick during that team up, and Jason told them to knock it off.

But nope. Nobody ever mentions that Dick was literally brainwashed when he was shown being infamously enraged at his teammates in examples from that time. Or that like….they returned the favor. Because lol who needs context right? Like once again, it quite literally wasn’t his fault, because he wasn’t in full control of his own actions. It was an actual plot point. The STORY was Dick was the Blood Cult’s pawn that whole year.

And yet, the results of that story are used to show how he’s not perfect, because look at these examples of his legendary temper.

Sigh.

[callsign-relic]

I’m so autistic I can’t watch anything that has Pete Davidson cause i just start bouncing in my seat like “MIRAGE MIRAGE ITS ROTB MIRAGE ITS HIM AAA”