Lex Speechless Newest Version

 Nothing here.

The Timeline of Dining on Ashes

This 5 part series that takes place on Earth 21 but is it's own storyline is named after teh first chapter of it I wrote. Wherein Superman talks with J'onn on the balcony at the DEO tower. J'onn is morose, I think that's the word. His biggest regret from a confrontation he'd had with Nikita wasn't that she compared him to Hank Henshaw, the military jerk who kept her a prisoner at the D.E.O for 5 years and tried to summarily execute him 6 years ago...but that the proverbial shoe had actually fit so well.

I haven't' actually written the confrontation in Nikita's apartment. I've only alluded to it in the chapters that came later. And having everything there except the beginning is unfortunate. But using chapter 2 as a guide to write chapter one is extremely difficult. But I do know one thing about that confrontation. Nikita stops just short of flat out asking J'onn to leave her home. Tells him that if this mess gets any more screwed up they won't be able to come back from it and she doesn't' want that. So J'onn leaves. After Nikita locks the door behind her, Me'gann, the White Martian she was defending asks for an explanation. Not so much why Nikita feels the way she does but why  she would defy a man who is not only her superior officer but someone she so clearly respects, on her behalf.

"Because this is the second time history has repeated itself and I didn't know what else to do." Nikita replies. And without looking at her guest she explains. "When the former prince of Daxam was thrown in a cell for a crime he literally couldn't have committed. Mon'el was believed to be guilty and the hero who arrested him assumed the worst of him just because he was from Daxam, didn't even bother to ask his name. Yeah that actually happened, and that was the first time it felt like Hank was still running things. That's just because Superman...Kal'el didn't know how Hank ran things and how weird it felt that a hero of Earth was so suspicious of an alien stranger for thier race. Nikita turns slowly to face Me'gann. "I told you that J'onn is wearing  the face of his predecessor, a man I served under before him. But that is an epic misnomer. He took the identify of a man named Hank Henshaw. the single most narrow-minded arrogant idiot I have known in over 74 years of life. It is disheartening to say the least when J'onn lives up to that man's face. Like I said, being around White Martians hurts me, physically. It's a fact of my biology and neither of us can help what race we were born as. But J'onn is the one who actually made me sick. His emotions were a pit I...He scared the hell out of me in a way I didn't even think him capable of. But slightly more importantly you are my guest and this is my home! Knowing what I know about the history of your races, if he'd found you at a restaurant or something and tried to arrest you, that is to take you back to the D.E.O  I wouldn't have objected, not publicly. I would have made my case to give you a fair hearing when we were at the D.E.O. As I said, he cannot force me NOT to be true to myself. And whatever else is going on, I know you well enough to know that I can trust you. And no one with a brain in thier skull insults a friend of mine IN my house. Not even my closest friends can get away with that and nothing can force me to permit it."

For months after this confrontation Nikita does her duty at the D.E.O. Things are professional and not even very awkward between J'onn and Nikita. Although it is obvious to both of thier friends that something has put distance between them They both seem pretty determined to not let it get in the way of actually literally doing thier job to protect the Earth. It takes nearly losing Nikita to Queen Rhea of Daxam for that wall of separation, of enforced peace to finally be brought down. As in the actual show Supergirl Queen Rhea attacks Mon'el significant other in an effort to reclaim her son. Except in the show Kara aka Supergirl is Mon-el's girlfriend and along with  'doing what is necessary to reclaim him, Rhea thinks of Kara insisting Mon-el stays on Earth as Krypton trying to take her son from her. She literally says that once Mon-el makes his declaration to stay on Earth with his friends. "Krypton's taken everything from me, and now you take my son."

Here Nikita is a Xavallen and no threat whatsoever. Rhea tries to kill her and then makes a public speech about how a 'weakling' like Nikita had the arrogance to think she could stand in the way of her getting what she wanted, of putting her family back together and Mon-el going back to where he belongs. As reported by the half-Enkaren Elana standing in front of everyone, Nikita shared her memories of the attack and was...IS wearing a claddagh ring on her finger. Mon'el and Nikita were engaged and Nikita didn't even insist he stayed with her, only that Mon-el's own wishes be respected, whatever they are. Elana does not beat around the bush and flat out tells Queen Rhea why she's really doing any of this. You want what's best for you, not what's best for your son.  Here on Earth a father is the most important person in a woman's life until she is married, and then it is her husband. I imagine that's the same everywhere. If you were really interested in what was best for your son, you'd listen to his choices, to his perspective on what IS best for him. You wouldn't try to destroy one family to put *your* family back together. You didn't try to kill; her for her arrogance or that she was a threat to your son's future, you did it because she was in your way." Which as you might imagine does not sit well with J'onn, Mon'el, Superman, Martin Stein or Me'gann Mor'zz.

The Celtic culture and the Irish Gaelic language is the closest to her own. Nikita appreciated the sentiments and the symbolism of the hands, heart and crown of the Claddagh ring.

Elana and Brainy - Corrected

 J'onn, I would like to introduce you to Querl Dox, a descendant of the Brainiac Clan."

"And you are sure. You are confident...in him?" He wanted to say 'that he is a good guy' but didn't want to be offensive, or risk ticking off a strange visitor.

"He is as much an exception to the rule as my own mother was. And you know a Franciscan Friar is non typical for an Enkaren." She looked to Martin Stein, to the Coluan visitor and back to Director J'onzz as she spoke. "My mother carried a dagger but never a sword. And she was more apt to carry a loaf of bread than an olive branch. You get where I'm going...what I'm trying to say."

"She carried a knife but never loved a weapon. She wasn't a pacifist, or at least didn't wear that on her proverbial sleeve but always tended to the poor and weak?" Martin Stein guessed.

"And for her people, for Enkarens that was very A-typical. They were warriors born. Not aggressive, not tyrannical by any means, but fighters all the same." She looked over to her friend. "Like I told you Martin. My abilities being weaker, my emotions being diluted and not in pure form, is the result of my mixed heritage. That I actually have control over my 'quick temper' and why my 'hot blood' is never very explosive...that's because my mother raised me right." Elana blushed. "Well, it's because she raised me how she did. In a way most Enkarens wouldn't consider to be 'right' or at least, not the most natural thinking.  And in a style, with a set of values most aliens, most other alien races wouldn't think of as 'Enkaren'.

Elana stares hard and Querl Dox. A moment alter she shakes her head. "Director, Nikita would be a better help to you than I. And I do not know how much help I can be right now."

Director, J'onn Jo'nzz looked at his alien friend with a note of sympathy. "You should go to your quarters and lie down."

Querl Dox looked with concern as a DEO agent took Elana by the arm and guided her to the room that served as Elana's quarters at the D.E.O. "I am afraid I do not understand is she...ill?"

J'onn Jo'nzz glanced back at the visitor. "Her physiology is messed up, at war with itself. She's had a very full day and needs to rest.

"Being half-Enkaren, half human her body would be disproportionate to either set of specifications. It would be like everything was just a little smaller or larger than it should be."

"You really do know a lot about practically everything." Martin said with a slight smile.

"I realize Elana introduced me to you as Querl Dox. But I would prefer to be addressed by my designation, Brainiac-5. Most of my friends just call me 'Brainy' That works better as well."

"Not close to your family?"

"A less formal name implies a familiarity I find...comforting. And for my people calling one by their full name is what would set us apart from our family unit. Brainiac-5 identifies me as a member of  the Brainiac clan."

"In the same way that calling someone 5th cousin still recognizes thier relation to thier family. And calling them 'Bandit' would not." 

"Yes...I suppose so. Forgive me but I did not catch you name?"

"Oh uh, my name is Martin Stein." 

"I am pleased to meet you, both of you." Querl said with a quick nod. 

 "Brainiac-5...I think I'll just call you 'Brainy'." Martin and Querl both cocked thier heads. "If what you just said is true, if 'Brainiac' is actually your family name, then that means you're related to Indigo. How is that possible?"

Brainiac-5 did not respond except to lower his head.

Martin Stein spoke up instead. "Director, I believe we will have to wait until Elana is with us again to start answering that question. She seemed to have an understanding of the issue that surpasses knowledge."

Going Back (Remembering back)

This is the final scene, the glorious finale to that story that began in my writings with Superman compassionately asking J'onn Jo'nzz if he was Dinging on Ashes. Hence the name of the plot-line.

When Ashes are Turned to Nectar

“Oh my God I just realized how stupid I was being!”

It was the absolute last thing I expected to hear out of Nikita's mouth. I'd spent almost an hour talking with her about what had happened between her and J'onn and why.

“I was this close to making some sarcastic comment about being an empath not a telepath. And for once the point wouldn't have been that I wasn't a mind-reader. My people, like Enkarens are constant low level empaths. But we don't read emotions we receive them, like no matter what. I wouldn't say it's very good asa lie detector but we can actually sense ignorance and innocence. And in that moment, in my apartment Me'gann was innocent and J'onn had his head so far up his ass. I'm sorry but he did.”

That's when whatever the light-bulb was went off in her head.

“How he reacted to Me'gann is perfectly understandable. I've been asking myself how he could suddenly forget who I was, and think I would go along with it. In that moment, looking at me he actually reminded me of Hank. Not because of the hate in his eyes but because of the single-mindedness, close-minded and hard. He just wasn't thinking straight. I keep saying his reaction to Me'gann, his belief about her was understandable. But that's all this ever was, a reaction to having Me'gann in the room. Hell, given what they are to him I can't say I blame him!”

I didn't know what to say, so I just waited. I knew she didn't need prompting, just a breath.

“Me'gann's people are...what Hank and I thought J'onn was when we met him. You remember about White Martians and Green Martians, right?” I nodded. “What I never had the chance to tell you, is that if J'onn had been the kind of person he is, but looked like Me'gann, I would have had trouble seeing it. Seeing him for who he really is.  Even without my personal experience, I would have assumed the worst of him. The White Martian I met was a dick. But White Martians are horrible. I would actually call them monsters. They are known in the galaxies as mindless, aggressive, one-would-say militaristic-except-they-don't-have-discipline, monsters. But to J'onn's people they're something worse. They are more like...Demons.”

I was starting to catch on. “So the idea of a White Martian you would actively defend, was hard wrap his head around. And taking her part was hard to swallow. He must have felt...betrayed.”

“He didn't forget what I was or our history together. He must have thought I had betrayed that history! I mean don't get me wrong. I still stand by the whole 'She's a guest in my house and you have no right to take her from under my roof' part.”

“Can't argue with you there.”

"I just kind of have trouble with the thought I was so busy being hurt he pulled a Jekyll and Hyde to realize it actually made sense!"

“Do you truly believe she's different?” I asked her in a low voice.

Nikita raised an eyebrow, sat up straighter than I'd ever seen her and set her face. “Me'gann is as different from her people as Lena Luthor is from her family. She's not only different, she's worth it. And I don't just believe that. I know it. Which was kind of my entire point.” She looked over at me, almost inquisitively. I didn't say a word. “And you weren't asking that for yourself, were you?” I shook my head. She turned to the front door.

J'onn was standing at the doorway.

"Nikita, as always you are too quick to blame yourself." J'onn said warmly.

"I...will you please explain that?"

I chuckled a little bit at the irony. "Can I field that one?" J'onn nodded solemnly. "I've had a lot of time over the past 8 years to miss you, and to regret not having the chance to get to know you," I said pointing to Nikita and then to J'onn. "But one thing that stands out when I look back on the day we met is that you weren't just absorbing the blame to keep it off my shoulders. You actually blamed yourself for making such a baseless assumption about him just because of what you believed about White Martians. Even though that belief wasn't baseless. And now here you are again, absorbing fault that doesn't actually belong to you. Nikita, you were Hank's prisoner for six years. Even at the end when you didn't live in a cell, you were his prisoner. But you never had a problem with J'onn wearing Hank's face until he actually lived up to it. And I'm sorry but I have to ask...was she right?"

J'onn sighed deeply and looked down. He wasn't particularly on edge, just kind of pondering his answer. "Obviously I didn't know him like you did. But he seems to have been nothing if not a blind, militaristic idiot. Someone who couldn't see past his own preconceptions -what he knew as certainties- to see the goodness in a person. If is what the two of you see when you remember him. then yes, I lived up to his name." he looked up, with a fierceness I'd never noticed before. "And Nikita, you were right to call me out on it!" Nikita looked like she couldn't believe her ears. "I came into your home to take someone away just because I had a problem with them. But not even with them, with thier species. I treated them like a criminal because of thier race. You were right that is NOT what we do here anymore..." He looked at me, helplessly.

"It is however what Hank would have done when he was director, without a second thought." I said. "Hell it's what he did as director...to you. Nikita, I don't imagine you've had much occasion to talk about your time in the D.E.O before Hank saw you for who you truly were. I imagine it would have been too painful to talk about. Before I came back it would have been too sad...reminded you too much of me.  But I'm telling you know, your reaction to J'onn...to a reawakening of those feelings makes perfect freaking sense: You were having your own memory flashbacks!

Superman and Jeremiah

Superman landed without a sound on the front yard of a very familiar house. He was dressed in his standard uniform, so he had come to think of his costume. Being raised as Clark Kent, he preferred that name to his birth name of Kal-El, preferred normal clothes to his Kryptonian suits. But the speed and silence of flying required the non-terrestrial look of his assumed identity. So he came to see his old friend dressed in full superman regalia. Before he'd even gotten to the front door, Jeremiah and his wife Eliza walked out of the house to greet him.

“It's been way too long my friend.” Jeremiah said with a warmth familiar to both of them.

“Jeremiah, can I talk with you a minute?”

“Kal-el of Krypton when have I ever, not wanted to talk with you?”

“Well to be perfectly frank this conversation will end with me asking you to come back to the DEO.” In an instant Jeremiah's warmth hardened. “And what exactly makes you think I'll go with you? I left that place for a reason and they think I'm dead. Which, in case you didn't realize it is the only reason I can stay gone.” It was a sign of the tremendous respect and friendship the two shared that Jeremiah's voice remained calm and firm while expressing his disdain.

“ 'They think you're dead'. Superman repeated, his words ringing with a tone of thoughtfulness that surprised his friend. “An ironically appropriate choice of words.”

“Okay, you have my attention.”

“I'm not here for the DEO, or even because of them. As an entity I don't understand them. I'm here because the new director of the DEO and one of their former alien prisoners seriously need to hear from you. They are the only people I wasn't raised with to know who I am and I have recently learned that they know you. I'm finding myself feeling a little stupid about her. There is...a former alien prisoner who has not stopped talking about her hero, a former agent of the D.E.O. And I never figured out it was you she was talking about. It wasn't until Mon-el of Daxam showed up that I saw the depth of her feelings about the place. Both the personal haunting of before and how fervently she defends what the place has become...to her anyway. And two weeks later I overheard her reminisce about the good-bad old days. And seriously everything crystalized.” Superman took Jeremiah's are in a tight embrace, pulling him close and refusing to let him turn away. Jeremiah sensed the need behind the action and did not resist the effort. “I'm here because J'onn J'onzz and Nikita think you're dead.”

Arias and its Truth

 Jeremiah is mentally misspelling J'onn's name because of how Sarrin is pronouncing it: properly. In French Jean or John is pronounced with a soft 'J'. As J'onn Jo'nzz is. It would sound French to our ears.

I woke up. I don't know how else to describe what happened, I woke up. I was sitting on a bench, my back against a wall. The first thing I noticed was that the only lighting in the room was from tiki candles. The second was that I wasn't restrained in any way. Whoever that man was knocked Hank out quickly, and knocked me out a moment later. Hank was so focused on taking out this 'creature' he'd been hunting, he never stopped to think how powerful his target might have been. I couldn't help smiling at that. I looked around the room. It was a wigwam more than anything, the kind American Indians lived in. And I was alone. I laid down on my side, facing the curtain that served as a door. And waited for someone to come in and speak to me.

“Are you awake?” I heard a voice say from the other side of the door not ten minutes later.

“Yes, please come in.” I answered. A young woman, maybe in her late 20's walked in carrying a bowl and a tray. Her cinnamon-colored hair was short-cropped just below her earlobe. She weighed maybe 140 pounds. “Nibbles.” She said holding the tray up a bit. I nodded. She set the tray down on the bench and the bowl of water down at my feet.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“I should think that was self-evident.” She said in a voice so devoid of humor I could not believe she was poking fun at me. If anything she seemed surprised at my question. So I decided to rephrase the question. “Why are you doing this?”

“Me personally, Jean said to make you as comfortable as possible. Why are we taking any measures to make you comfortable...that is for Jean to explain.”

“Am I a prisoner here?” I insisted.

“No restraints but there is a perimeter, that is my understanding.” She replied. She tilted her head to the left. “Please, introductions should come first. My name is Sarrin, and you?”

“Jeremiah.”

“Jeri-miah. That's a good name.” She smiled softly.

“Forgive me but are you...what planet are you from?”

“I am Atraxi. We don't have a home-planet. I was almost 8 years old when my mother and I left home. I was 10 years old when we made our home on the Western coast of the United States.”

“Jean is your leader?”

“We're a collection of aliens of various races and a few of the more tolerant humans any of us have met. And yes, J'onn Jo'nzz is the leader of our community. But I'm not wearing a bracelet.”

“Please, elaborate.” I told her earnestly.

“I'm not afraid of you. That's not why I'm this high-strung. I'm just skittish, even by my very nature I'm....unsteady and uncertain.  To be frank, I'm more concerned with what you think of us than I am about offending you.”

“You are an incredibly perceptive individual.”

“My people sense emotional vibrations. We don't read minds. While I will not do so without permission or instruction, I can search your heart. If J'onn asked, I would try to search the core of your being. Tell the truth, I am tempted to do so anyway. I swear I am not trying to be intrusive. I can tell you are an extra-ordinary individual. I'm just...not sure why.”

“ 'Discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart'. And that was meant as a question.”

“More like 'motivations and intentions'...but yes. Early part of Hebrews am I right?”

“...Yes.”

“I like the book of Matthew and the book of Hebrews. Beyond that I prefer Psalms and Micah.”

“Luke and Isaiah were always my favorite.”

“Then you and I are a-lot a like.” She said with a smile. “Jeremiah. Well I assume your name is spelled the same as in the book of the major prophet?” I nodded and tried to smile. “Listen, J'onn is eager to speak with you. But I should warn you, J'onn's people are psychic. All his people's communication would have been through thought. So chances are he'll give me his words and hear your answers. My people are empaths and I have an extremely well-ordered mind, makes it easier for me to hear and understand what he is trying to say. But I wanted to assure you that he will not search through your mind to find hidden truths or secrets. If that is what you are, to be polite expecting -- to be candid anticipating -- will happen you are incorrect. To quote an old television show. 'Let him have every liberty, except liberty itself'. It's that kind of situation.

“House arrest.”

“I just realized you've been asleep for hours. You...probably don't even know where you are." I nodded. "Absolute cliff notes version:  You are in Arias, Guatemala. It is our community of...friendly individuals from various points across the stars.” She looked at me hard, trying to make sure I understood her meaning. I nodded. “If you're up for it, I'm to take you down a walk down the main road. But only if you are up for it.”

“Then let us walk about a bit.”

“Please, wash up first. The dirt on your face will cake to your skin otherwise.”

“Do you always talk like that?”

“Uncertain, unsteady, yeah pretty much.” She said with the first smile I had seen on her face. “If you mean as if English is my second language, then absolutely yes...It's my fourth!”

“Okay, please explain that one.”

“My own people's language, the official language on my home-planet, the first Earth language I learned wasn't even English. I landed in a very ethnic community. Not diverse but...you can take a guess.”

“Chinatown in San Francisco.”

“Nail on head. I should tell you, at least a little of my being 10 degrees off is that I don't value hitting the nail on the head as far as convention. only communication... expression.”

“Which is why Jean has you do the introductions. You don't claim either world but you understand them both...I take it.”

“There is that.” A deep voice said from the doorway. “And she sees beyond sight in a way I have never encountered before.”

“I...ah..” I stammered at the giant green man standing in front of me. “I realize you have no reason to trust me but you can believe me when I say I am glad to meet you.”

“And I you, Jeremiah. What is your surname?”

“Listen, whatever else is going on, I don't doubt your intentions. And I hope to prove mine. Starting with what a friend of mine would have called 'proper introductions'. I'm Jeremiah Danvers. For my part, you can consider me a friend.” I offered him my hand.

For a moment the alien I took to be Jean Jones looked at my hand as if he didn't know what to do with it. Then he straightened himself like a solider and offered his own right hand. “I am...J'onn Jo'nzz.”

"So Sarrin said she was to take me on a walk down the main road. Am I correct in thinking that was actually out of her own head?"

"Yes...But she said it that way to illustrate to you that I was alright with it. Sarrin can be...more direct than precise sometimes."

"I'm getting that impression." I said with a smile. "Let me wash up, I'll come with you." I thought I saw a sad look in Jean's eyes as I turned around to wash up in the bowl Sarrin had brought to me. I understood why as soon as I saw Sarrin give a slight bow to him and duck out of my room.

When Sarrin says 'I'm not wearing a bracelet', she is trying to tell Jeremiah that she follows J'onn because she respects him, not because he owns her...because she chooses to not because she has to. Her people were 'bonded into service' in such a way: silver bracelets that covered ones wrists, like irons. It is significant that Sarrin and her mother left her home planet when she was 8 years old. On her planet of origin Atraxi children are bonded into the service of a great family when they reached the age of 10. J'onn and Sarrin are as close as they are because they have history that predates Arias. Not romantic history more a feeling of mutual respect and owing the other person things. 

Arias Guatemala only exists in one of my two sets of alternate Earth stories: the one on Earth-9. In it Jeremiah Danvers was brought here to live and to stay after the mission to terminate a particularly dangerous alien went the way it did. Jeremiah stayed with J'onn as kind of a willing captive. Exchanging himself for not only Hank Henshaw's life but his freedom. He asked J'onn to not only let Hank live but let him go. He's a captive in that he cannot escape but his life is otherwise perfectly normal. Basically he has every liberty except liberty himself. Elana and Martin Stein practically stumbled upon them, as Arias itself 4 years later and that in turn encouraged or spurned Jeremiah to visit the D.E.O and find some closure/answers on how he feels about...anything. 

He tells J'onn he wants to see for himself if Nikita really is free to do what she wants and chooses to stand my Hank's side. Or is simply following orders, voicing a party line when she serves as Hank's lefftenant And they actually do use that word. He needs to check in on her and then he can find some closure and move on with his life. By this time Jeremiah and J'onn have become the best of friends. Jeremiah Danvers feels bound by an oath tying him to J'onn. "I promised I would never leave your side. From what I understood that was a til death do us part oath of loyalty, if not brotherhood."

"The oath is invalid if you are staying only out of obligation, do you not see that?" J'onn laughs quietly.  "Jeremiah...I know why you stay with me. But if you have someone else in your life who needs you I would never knowingly keep you from them. that's part of what brotherhood means!"

This was my original idea for Earth-9 Jeremiah Danvers and J'onn Jo'nzz. Most of it was maintained, in a rather diluted form. But not established until the most recent entry and the literal latest scene I wrote. Because of the difference in tone and measure between that scene and the rest of the story, I couldn't incorporate it to flow naturally in the story I had written. Consequently  I ended up using it as a guide to start my Earth-9 Story COMPLETELY over. That is what the entry titled  Dreaming the Impossible is: an Earth-9 do-over. My story of being surprised and taken in my an 'enemy'...take two.

I don't think this actually happened. But it would make a GREAT story:

In 1658 a duel occurred, between a French Duke and a Spanish Count. Upon defeat the Spaniard knelt, closed his eyes and bowed his head. "Quick and clean, you promised." He whispered. The other man dug his sword into the ground. "That assumed I would have to kill you. I don't and I will not. I cannot." This confused the Spaniard immensely. Obviously this man was not of any religious order that forbade violence or taking a life. The Duke explained. "I have not sworn an oath never to kill. Taking a life fighting for my own is something I can accept. Taking a life just because i have the choice or freedom to do so is abhorrent to me. And I will *never* cross that line. Get up."

Elana is of a race called Enkarens, well she is a half-breed but identifies herself as one of her mother's people. She can give people images or videos in thier minds eye if she maintains the connection, like they were watching a movie or in a holodeck. She's explaining that if she were entirely of her mother's people this would be a full immersion experience and indistinguishable from reality. Where ever they would put one, one would literally believe they were there and it was real. To other races in the galaxy this ability is known as 'traumatic hypnosis'. It's an misnomer, but an understandable one." She says. Her race are such fierce and capable warriors, this is assumed to be the only way they'd use that ability: to bring enemies to their knees.

Her friend suggests that might not be because of the Enkaren race at all. But because other alien races are such single-minded warriors and conquerors. They would use a gift this way, it is what makes sense to them. It is the only 'sensible' thing to do according to thier mindset. So how this ability is perceived has less to do with a misunderstanding of Enkarens and more to do with the mindset of the other races. What is this kind of reflection called? Where the description of a thing is taken more from the viewer than the picture itself? If it makes it easier to understand what I'm asking: Instead of 7 mice seeing 7 parts of a single thing and think it's something different, each of the seven mice sees the elephant, the one thing and give it seven different names?

Dreaming the Impossible, continued. Jeremiah is mentally misspelling J'onn's name.
“Jeri-miah. That's a good name.” She smiled softly.
“Forgive me but are you...what planet are you from?”
“I am Atraxi. We don't have a home-planet. I was almost 8 years old when my mother and I left home. I was 10 years old when we made our home on the Western coast of the United States.”
“Jean is your leader?”
“We're a collection of aliens of various races and a few of the more tolerant humans any of us have met. And yes, J'onn Jo'nzz is the leader of our community. But I'm not wearing a bracelet.”
“Please, elaborate.” I told her earnestly.
“I'm not afraid of you. That's not why I'm this high-strung. I'm just skittish, even by my very nature I'm....unsteady and uncertain. To be frank, I'm more concerned with what you think of us, how you interpret us, than I am about offending you.”
“You are an incredibly perceptive individual."
“My people sense emotional vibrations. We don't read minds and while I will not do so without permission or instruction I can search your heart. If J'onn asked, I would try to search the core of your being. To tell the truth, I am tempted to do so anyway. I swear I am not trying to be intrusive. I can tell you are an extra-ordinary individual. I'm just...I'm not sure why.”
“ 'Discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart'. And that was meant as a question.”
“More like 'motivations and intentions'...but yes."

Note: When Sarrin says 'I'm not wearing a bracelet', she is trying to tell Jeremiah that she follows J'onn because she respects him, not because he owns her. Because she chooses to not because she has to. Her people were 'bonded into service' in such a way: Silver bracelets that covered ones left wrist, like irons.