A Mirage's best weapon.

Humour. Trauma. Distraction.

Mirage was always deemed the poster boy for the games. I mean, people weren't wrong when they said that. It was true, the man had so much merchandising and sponsors. But they knew what they were doing by giving him such a title. He was the son of a famous engineer who helped in the Titanfall wars, making the cloaking tech that made so many missions possible during those harsh times. And for those who went even deeper, they may know him as the nephew of a former 6-4 member. That was what he was to many people: the poster boy. He was never truly known for himself, there were always little strings of his relatives and of his past that connected him more to someone else. Mirage knew this better than anybody... well apart from a select few. Some of his fellow legends could read him like an open book. But Mirage knew this, and he knew how much of the poster boy appearance he had to keep up. Its why out of all the people you could ever meet from those games, Mirage was one who had learnt a very powerful lesson from a very young age.

Humour and comedy is the best form of camouflage. And when it doesn't work to hide yourself from something? Use it to make yourself stand out.

Mirage knew this possibly better than anyone. It had been reinstated in his mind again and again ever since he could first make his jokes. But over the years, as more and more people let him down, he realised that his humour which once had been used to attract people to himself and get himself the attention could be used for something far more powerful: Distraction. It was a coping mechanism in a way, or at least that was what his therapist told him. The use of humour to his extent was a very Detra... detri... whatever word it was which meant unhealthy. It was a very unhealthy mechanism. And he knew this, but at this stage in life he didn't really have much else to use. He had those places over the years where he could vent his frustrations. He had those. And as the pieces of his delicate puzzle fell apart, the walls of distraction slowly built up.

He remembered that birthday, when his father finally came back from his trip for his 14th birthday. And despite Mirage being so excited to get whatever his father gave him; it was just some rocks. Which is when it clicked for the boy. His father, his own father didn't know him. The boy wasn't too phased by it, he had never really gotten along with his father. But that didn't make it hurt any less, knowing his brothers had all these memories with their father and all Mirage got was some deadbeat who didn't even know what his son was interested in. It didn't help that the same day was when his father left again on some other adventure or prospect which would help them as a family. It didn't help that that was the last time Mirage ever saw his father...

Ignore the feelings. Distract with humour. A puzzle piece gone does not mean the entire puzzle falls apart.

And it was all right for the next two years. As he kept by his motto, keep distracting. It worked for a while; he made good memories for those years. And then the war started. His brothers all joined the fighting cause. Mirage found it noble. But it also didn't feel right. Roger. Ricky. Elon. These names he had grown up with, the names that ad driven him crazy for his life...he couldn't imagine the house, or his life without them. Whose guitar would he hear blasting at the early hours of dawn? Who would he here shout as they played basketball and who knows what else? His brothers may not have included him much, but it didn't mean he cared any less. He loved when the twins would mess around in their shared room. He loved when Roger would let him join in playing, even if he did only know one song on the piano. It was why he tried to join the army as well, to be with his brothers, to be with his family. He should have known it wouldn't happen. Sure, his friends all joined, but they were older. He was only 16, the war fields they dealt with was no place for a child. Not to mention his mother. If he went and something happened to them all then she would just be left on her own, and he couldn't live with that. So, he stayed. What would a few years be? He still had his mother, he just convinced himself that it would be like when they would all go off to university and leave him at home. He had his mother, that was all he really needed right? Just distract from the pain, just because a few more pieces of the puzzle have left doesn't mean the last two can't hold strong. I mean, what was the worst that could happen? That was what he kept reminding himself... what was the worst that could happen? He always thought it would be them finding out his brothers died in the battle.

Getting told by some random man all his brother were MIA and presumed dead, seemed to hurt a lot more, however.

That's when it started going wrong. He tried to help his mother cope, but he ended up making it worse. Although his mother promised him that it was not his fault and that she would always be there for him, he couldn't shake the guilt from himself. She was forgetting him. Forgetting his brothers. And he wouldn't let her fully slip. So, for years and years, he kept being her anchor. His reasoning was maybe, just maybe if she could at least remember him then she would keep the fragile shards of knowledge she had left.

Distract from the pain, use your humour. People need you to heal them more than you need to heal yourself. That was his new motto. It wasn't one he kept very well. He became somewhat arrogant and unthinking. But he tried. He always tried to make it right even if it did go wrong.

But this is where lines begin to blur. See, Mirage was a lot of things. A poster boy. A comedian. A bartender. A teacher and a friend. He wasn't a glass child; He wasn't the last surviving member of one mother's children. He wasn't the one who most of what he loved in the span of two years. That was Elliott Witt. He always tried to keep a clear division between the two. But it felt like he couldn't keep doing it anymore. Things kept coming up, things that involved both Mirage and Elliott. If he needed both then he was going to use both, they had the same motto after all.

Distract from the pain. Use humour as your defence.

He used it in the games as well. He had currently just lost a match, but he didn't let people know if it upset him. He was the humours Mirage after all. Nothing could stop that. Nothing could bring out the Elliott Witt in him. It's not like he would get a chance to solve a mystery he gave up on long ago... right?