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| “ | And I am going to show all of you just how cool I am! I will show you how pathetic you all are by learning how to paint and painting the greatest painting anyone has ever seen! Then you'll see, then you'll all see! | „ |
| ~ Mirage in "The Paintings Burn A Crimson Red". |
| “ | He had come here to make a painting. All he knew how to do was to create art. That's what he had done back before - wait, he was also an empty shell, wasn't he? Operating on his notion of how things once were? No. He couldn't stand this. He did not want to be some mindless sad husk driven by the past. He resented his form for being altered. He resented his past as a killer now. He resented everything. He had to make this right. | „ |
| ~ From "The Library Cries in Ultramarine Blue". |
Mirage is an anti-heroic character appearing in the SCP Foundation series. He is a anomalous artist living in the future in which the world was slowly being destroyed due to various anomalies taking over while the universe slowly collapsed.
He is the protagonist of the "Spectrum" series, which is set in the "Rat's Nest" canon.
Biography[]
The man who would become known as Mirage was once a member of the anartist group known as Are We Cool Yet? in the near future in which the Veil of secrecy broke. Despite becoming public and showing his art pieces to the world, Mirage never got the proper spotlight he wanted as people more admired the more classic art pieces rather than his which greatly upset him. Eventually the entire world began to slowly break down and various anomalies started to affect people which either killed them or mutated them. Mirage was mutated through unknown means into a bird-like humanoid and struggled to survive through the chaos with his driving point being his goal to create the greatest painting.
He began roaming the city of Las Vegas which has been renamed Lost Vegas, and tried to find a way to learn how to paint. After killing a mutated bartender inside of an abandoned hotel Mirage drank a bottle of vodka but found out that it was also filled with blood and immediately spat it out. He then let himself fall from the top of the building and using his cloak began gliding through the air and was able to see the miserable state of the city. After landing inside another building and making his way to the ground outside, he made his way past even more abnormal monsters going on their now daily lives, and finally arriving at The Metropolitan Gallery of Las Vegas where he had been living. As he attempted to fall to sleep on his sleeping bag, the colors produced by the phosphenes caused him to be reminded of the normal paintings in the gallery which were more appreciated than his own and became increasingly enraged. He proceeded to use his crowbar and a makeshift flamethrower to destroy all of the paintings hanging in the gallery before moving on to the sculptures, all the while cursing at this art and their creators and reaffirming that he was the coolest. After finishing his destruction he finally realized that the building was now enveloped in flames and he was beginning to suffocate which prompted him to immediately dash to the exit through the fire. He was successful in arriving in a safe place and instantly collapsed from the fatigue and rested as he saw the gallery that has been his home burn before the fire slowly extinguished. Despite this, after regaining his energy he became even more determined to learn to paint and show everyone the greatest painting that would ever exist.
Mirage decided to confront the dark golden god residing in the MGM Hotel, but before doing so he found himself being surrounded by lion-like eldritch monsters who worshiped the god. After trying to convince them not to eat him, Mirage tried to use his magical crystal after realizing that there were an overwhelming amount of lions, but due to its limited use he transformed the crystal into a laser chaser that tricked the lions into trying to catch the moving bright red dot. While moving the light and laughing at the lions Mirage was suddenly interrupted by their golden god who used the hotel to transform it into its face in order to communicate. The lion god expressed annoyance at Mirage for playing his acolytes, but otherwise held no ill intent against him. Mirage asked the god that he wanted to paint to which the god responded with a surprise approval and understanding, but told Mirage that he was unable to grant his wish and that he instead should go to the Wanderer's Library. Mirage was surprised that the Library still existed despite the apocalypse and asked where he could find a Way which led to it, since after the apocalypse most of the Ways have been moved or destroyed. The god directed Mirage to the city of Adelanto whose center held a still functioning Way and wished Mirage luck on his journey.
Mirage then began traversing the desert between Lost Vegas and Adelanto, but as he walked through the hot sand his water supply quickly began to run out. After killing a maggot-infected bird which was about to attack him, Mirage's crowbar got stuck by something covered in sand. Mirage proceeded to pull the unmoving crowbar, eventually pulling a skeleton whose shirt had been snagged by the crowbar and besides the skeleton found a still functioning Nokia phone. From the phone Mirage found that the skeleton was someone from Parawatch who had been killed by the nearby anomaly created by Mirage himself, a monolith with a crystal that disguised itself as a small oasis that brutally killed people who approached it with its four arms. Upon this discovery Mirage found the victim's wallet and found out that the victim was a seventeen year old boy named Michael Whitman. After seeing that his art piece had killed this kid Mirage tried to be proud for fooling him, but the good side within him became somewhat remorseful for this and so he decided to turn it off. After much effort due to the intense heat emitting from it he was successful in turning it off before resuming his way to Adelanto.
Mirage was able to finally arrive to the city of Adelanto which had mostly abandoned and had been taken over by vegetation which turned it into a jungle. As he entered the city a woman caught him from behind and put a gun on his head threatening to shoot him and demanding to know the reason why he arrived in the city. A frightened Mirage tried to calm her but as she was about to shoot him regardless the Wardens, hot irons that had come to life, began approaching them which prompted the woman to run and leave Mirage behind. Mirage not knowing where to escape decided to follow the woman through the unfamiliar jungle. As he was about to catch up with the woman he got ambushed by the sapient irons and one of them went straight to his arm and began burn it while Mirage screamed in pain. Thankfully, the woman decided to help him and used her machete to kill some of the Wardens while the rest fled. The two then made their way through the anomalous jungle and evading many abnormal monsters inhabiting it before arriving at a shelter that held the remaining survivors who lived their normal lives. Upon entering the secured shelter the woman, whose name was revealed to be Bertha, directed Mirage to an old warehouse that had been turned into a hospital and there she began treating Mirage's wound caused by the Warden's attack, since she used to a doctor before the apocalypse. After Mirage informed Bertha that he was going to the Wanderer's Library she asked him if he could find her son Michael when he departs, but at that moment Mirage realized that the corpse he had found in the desert was Bertha's son. Feeling conflicted internally Mirage lied that if he encountered Michael he would tell him where Bertha was before leaving the shelter and heading straight to the Way in the north side of town.
Mirage was able to arrive at the partially sunken building that contained the Way and entered through a broken window where he found smelling animal remains and disorganized stuff. He made his way to the main lobby where he found an elevator filled with a set of candles, hourglasses, pocket-watches, gold coins, a bucket of sand, and a dead mouse. Mirage tried to use the elevator by pressing the only button which had printed symbol on it which resembled an hour glass, but it didn't work since he needed to do something related with Time. After Mirage tried to unsuccessfully use the objects inside to make the elevator work, he decided to offer the elevator Michael's old Nokia phone which was nearly a century old. This seemed to work as when Mirage pressed the button again the elevator finally worked and brought him to the Wanderer's Library.
After entering the Library, Mirage found that the place was in a state of disarray as most Librarians had died. Mirage eventually encountered one of the few living Librarians nicknamed Uncy who offered to help Mirage find the book he was looking for while also teasing him much to Mirage's annoyance. While walking through the Library Uncy explained to Mirage what had transpired before arriving at Archivist Owlpede's desk which stood next to Owlpede's deceased partner Ayman. Owlpede, who was unaware of the Library's current state and still thought that things were normal, explained to Mirage the Library's rules and gave him a Library card in which Mirage would write his name and use it to borrow books.
After leaving Owlpede behind Mirage asked Uncy on the Archivist's strange and ignorant behavior to which Uncy responded that like most staff members of the Library Owlpede was once a human who broke the rules a long time ago and was transformed into his current state and after the hive-mind behind the Librarians was broken Owlpede was technically free, but due to having forgotten his past life he didn't know what to do else and so kept working in the abandoned Library, becoming a shell of his former self. Upon this revelation Mirage began thinking about himself and how he had used his art to kill people and decided that he would redeem himself by creating the best painting ever existed as homage to the lives lost and so he and Uncy proceeded to the art section of the Library.
Appearance[]
It is unknown how Mirage looked like as a normal human prior to his mutation. After his anomalous mutation Mirage now possessed glowing eyes that bled "black ichor", a stretched mouth, a hooked nose and off-white colored feathers growing over his body. He wore a white hooded cloak with a pair of decorative metallic wings attached to the head of the hood.
Powers and Abilities[]
Like most members of AWCY? Mirage had the ability and knowledge to create anomalous art pieces which would kill people. Despite his mutation Mirage possessed no abnormal powers apart from losing some of his pain reception, so he carried several items that he used to survive the apocalyptic world. He could use his cloak to glide through the air when falling from high distances, a crowbar to attack his enemies, and a magical crystal that could take the shape of whatever Mirage wanted, but overtime he became unable to properly control it.
Personality[]
Like most members of Are We Cool Yet? Mirage was a proud anartist who saw anomalous art as the best form of art. He sought to earn his deserved recognition by creating anomalous art pieces that would mercilessly kill unsuspecting victims and believed that after the Veil broke he would finally achieve this. However, his creations were not valued as much as the classic ones and this caused great frustration in him. After the world began to slowly be destroyed and Mirage mutating into a bird hybrid he seemingly adapted to the new deadly and nonsensical state of the world and became determined to learn to paint since doing art was the only thing that kept him going. As he witnessed death all around him Mirage realized the depravity of his creations and became remorseful for what he did to the innocent victims of his art pieces and became even more dismayed after learning that Bertha who had helped him was the mother of one of his victims. Reforming himself his only goal left in his life was to create the greatest painting ever existed which would be genuinely appreciated by the remaining survivors and sought to redeem himself through it.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Mirage hates famous artists like Sean Scully, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso who overshadowed him and his fellow anartists.
- As of now the "Spectrum" series is left unfinished as its final tale "The Final Days Are Lit in Hues of Mauve" hasn't been created yet.
