All you need to know to read this is that a demigod has been captured (and tortured) by Thanos, and Nebula visits them.
My father is a god, and I serve him as thou doest thine. My grandfather, however, is a Titan. Or should I use 'was'? For indestructible as my grandfather is, he has been made powerless to the world, and therefore, by what standard, is he existent? Voiceless, mindless, formless, no more than fragments of particles scattered across the cosmos by his children.
I see thy interest. Is it not so that thou art bound to thy father's service, a slave? Hating him and fearing him, despairing-nay, the spark of defiance is yet within thee, fed and fanned by hatred-you are strong. Would you hear a tale from parched lips, in exchange for a drink of water?
Then let us start, as all things must, at the beginning. Titans, are, in the my world, the children of the Protogenoi, those whose power is rooted in their element, in the earth and sky, in the bottomless deeps or boundless night. The lord of the Protogenoi was Ouranos of the Skies, and his children, the Titans. The youngest son, my grandfather, gathered his kin, and together, they subdued the Skylord, and held him to the Earth. The hierarch neutered the former king, and cut him into pieces so that his power was broken. But before his demise, the fallen king cursed his usurper.
"Son", he said, "for the sins of patricide and regicide both, I curse thee. As thou hath struck blows against me, thy fate shall be no different from mine. As thou hath risen against thy father, so shall thy heirs arise to overthrow thee. Thy fate shall be set in adamant, and the fates' weave shall be tight and unyielding. As thou took thy father's throne, so shall thy children shall cast their father down in turn. Never shall ye sleep in peace, for thy slumber shall be fraught with terrors. Thy reign shall be precarious, and thou shalt live in constant fear, and thy head shall lie uneasy as it wears a crown, till it rolls from thy shoulders."
So, the Titan king did fear his children, and consumed them upon their birth. Yet no design of the Fates can be opposed, and what patterns they weave into their cloth are inescapable. That the Titan King would meet his doom at his children's hands, was a fate from which he could never flee, and circumstance made his father's curse true. His lastborn son freed his siblings five, and together they fled their father, who then thought that his might was such, that he was safe.
He was a fool.
His children came against him in battle, and they won against him. So was the doom of Ouranos fulfilled. The King of Titans was brought down, and his children rent him to motes and particles, and cast them into the Infinite Night. They triumphed against their father, and took the places of their forbears, and reigned victorious. For as ordained by The One Who Never Was Not, the young shall always be mightier than their forbears.
Thus is the moral of this tale, as was spoken by he who was lastborn to he who was lastborn to Ouranos. Fear. For it is the fate of Titans to fall to their children.
I tell you this, Starborn. The Mad Titan claimed you as his daughter, did he not? Bear your title with pride, for it dubs thee Titan's Bane. And it is the fate of Titans to fall to their children.
Now, is my tale worth some water? Or will you inflict upon your victim the suffering of dehydration?
You are surprised. Though my speech is archaic, I am not unlearned in modern sciences. It was one way in which I sought to make myself equal to my sibling, and gain my father's approval. Or do you think it coincidence that I respect you so?
We are both lastborn. And lest you forget, twas to the lastborn that the Titans fell.
The pronouns thou/thy/thee and the you/your were used to indicate respect, or the lack of it. Note how are unnamed demigod used thou/thy/thee with Nebula until realizing that "you are strong". Then, Nebula is always addressed using you/your, while Ouranos talks to Kronos using thou/thy/thee.
"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" is from Henry IV, part 2, By Shakespeare.
I also have ideas for a fic that's a conversation about siblings, and the desire to please one's powerful parent.
