More Heroes Fanfic! :O
Quick little nothing I just popped out in ten minutes. I dunno.
XD
Title: What's in a Name?
Fandom: Heroes
Character: Sylar
Rating: Eh, let's say PG-13 for the oh noes bad language
Summary: Quick introspective on a name change.
A/N: For DeanPants. <3
***
It wasn't that he didn't remember the name. Of course he did. It was his, wasn't it?
Gabriel. Like the God damn angel.
He'd heard it every day growing up. From a father's lips, said with impatience.
'Gabriel, why can't you get this?'
'Gabriel, put your nose to the grindstone.'
'No one will just hand you life on a silver platter, Gabriel.'
'You're not enough, Gabriel.''
Well. Maybe that last one was implied.
His earliest memories were of watching his father. The watchmaker. Sitting on a chair, being absolutely still, glasses shoved up against pudgy cheeks while he watched the man fiddle with tiny parts too delicate to be real. All he'd wanted was to plunge in, to prove himself. But, no. He had to study. He had to watch. His fingers weren't long enough, his hands not steady, his eye not quick enough for the meticulous work.
So he watched.
Someday his father would approve. Except someday never really came, did it? Always just the sound of his name, breathed out in that little sigh. Like he was a timepiece that always seemed to be one second off. Frustrating.
Unworkable.
And his mother. Smoothing down his hair. Giving him sweater vests and tuna fish sandwiches, as if he didn't get teased enough. Gabriel. Like the angel. Her angel, she always said. Her little boy.
Why couldn't he be more special, though? He should be doing more. Could be doing more. Just lazy. She could force that out of him, though. Hard work, that's all he needed. A firm hand.
Direction.
So, yes, he was well aware of his real name. Gabriel Gray. Bland and forgotten almost as soon as it had taken up the air necessary to say it. The watchmaker's son, becoming the watchmaker.
Gray and Son.
Not even really worth a mention. A hanger on. An unwelcome addition.
He was more than that. He had to be more than that. To become only Gabriel, to end his life as nothing more than an insignificant timepiece restorer, it was unthinkable.
His hands were steady, father. His nose was to the damned grindstone. And he would become something. Something special.
It was his destiny.
But Gabriel Gray was too bland for that. For a destiny. The only future he'd ever have was sitting in a dusty back room and fixing other people's watches. Poking and prodding and making things work.
He always knew how things worked.
But that wasn't enough.
Reinventing himself was the only way. He didn't cease to be Gabriel. Nothing so prosaic. He simply shed an unneeded skin. Chucked aside an outdated sweater, pulling on the suit of who he was meant to become. He had been Gabriel. Now he chose a metamorphosis into Sylar.
Sylar was more, after all.
He wasn't constrained by a past. By a name, but a path plodded out in obscurity and unimportant mediocrity. Sylar was new and fresh.
Himself, reinvented. Sylar was who Gabriel Gray had been born to be. A new name simply completed the transformation that Dr. Suresh had begun.
Gabriel.
Like the fucking angel.
No more.
XD
Title: What's in a Name?
Fandom: Heroes
Character: Sylar
Rating: Eh, let's say PG-13 for the oh noes bad language
Summary: Quick introspective on a name change.
A/N: For DeanPants. <3
***
It wasn't that he didn't remember the name. Of course he did. It was his, wasn't it?
Gabriel. Like the God damn angel.
He'd heard it every day growing up. From a father's lips, said with impatience.
'Gabriel, why can't you get this?'
'Gabriel, put your nose to the grindstone.'
'No one will just hand you life on a silver platter, Gabriel.'
'You're not enough, Gabriel.''
Well. Maybe that last one was implied.
His earliest memories were of watching his father. The watchmaker. Sitting on a chair, being absolutely still, glasses shoved up against pudgy cheeks while he watched the man fiddle with tiny parts too delicate to be real. All he'd wanted was to plunge in, to prove himself. But, no. He had to study. He had to watch. His fingers weren't long enough, his hands not steady, his eye not quick enough for the meticulous work.
So he watched.
Someday his father would approve. Except someday never really came, did it? Always just the sound of his name, breathed out in that little sigh. Like he was a timepiece that always seemed to be one second off. Frustrating.
Unworkable.
And his mother. Smoothing down his hair. Giving him sweater vests and tuna fish sandwiches, as if he didn't get teased enough. Gabriel. Like the angel. Her angel, she always said. Her little boy.
Why couldn't he be more special, though? He should be doing more. Could be doing more. Just lazy. She could force that out of him, though. Hard work, that's all he needed. A firm hand.
Direction.
So, yes, he was well aware of his real name. Gabriel Gray. Bland and forgotten almost as soon as it had taken up the air necessary to say it. The watchmaker's son, becoming the watchmaker.
Gray and Son.
Not even really worth a mention. A hanger on. An unwelcome addition.
He was more than that. He had to be more than that. To become only Gabriel, to end his life as nothing more than an insignificant timepiece restorer, it was unthinkable.
His hands were steady, father. His nose was to the damned grindstone. And he would become something. Something special.
It was his destiny.
But Gabriel Gray was too bland for that. For a destiny. The only future he'd ever have was sitting in a dusty back room and fixing other people's watches. Poking and prodding and making things work.
He always knew how things worked.
But that wasn't enough.
Reinventing himself was the only way. He didn't cease to be Gabriel. Nothing so prosaic. He simply shed an unneeded skin. Chucked aside an outdated sweater, pulling on the suit of who he was meant to become. He had been Gabriel. Now he chose a metamorphosis into Sylar.
Sylar was more, after all.
He wasn't constrained by a past. By a name, but a path plodded out in obscurity and unimportant mediocrity. Sylar was new and fresh.
Himself, reinvented. Sylar was who Gabriel Gray had been born to be. A new name simply completed the transformation that Dr. Suresh had begun.
Gabriel.
Like the fucking angel.
No more.