Oho. this one? argh, i tried to find you something but i'm getting sleepy and SO braindead, nothing came. I like the thought, though, so in the meantime i'm gonna cheat and give you this drabble I wrote a while ago and -- I think -- never posted about Blue's childhood.
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One day he lost his mother's name. He was five year old and wasn't sure why the big change, and he didn't like it much. Sevag. How weird. Sometimes he even forgot to turn around, even when he knew perfectly well he was the one they called.
The only thing that was even remotely good about his new name was that the people in his class couldn't make as many silly songs with it. Sev-sevie-sevag, Sevanouchka, and that was pretty much it. He would have liked the old jokes better, and the old fights and the old spankings for punching people in the nose, because at least they were about his and his mother's name and that meant they were still the same, two of a kind.
Sevag wasn't his name, it was a stranger's name, and he was deaf to it. See, mother, I have your name and I want no other.
Eventually his mother sighed and closed her eyes and never called him by his private name again. And he was Sevag even to her, and Kem to none.
When he was eleven, he met the other Sevag, the older one. They were nothing alike, even though he was tall and thin like not-Sevag (Kem) promised to be, and they had the same narrow eyes, and Kem could hear him like he never heard his mother. Older-Sevag slouched and seemed to want to be elsewhere, and he probably would have been, but Kem could tell the man in a business suit was the one who held the leash. The man in a business suit was all thin smiles and calculations and talked about thankfulness and familial obligations and opportunities, and encouraged him to the test.
If he did good on the test, then he would have a lot of opportunities, just like that father he knew nothing about. So he failed it.
When he left the test center and saw his mother's tired, disappointed face, he knew he still wasn't going to get his old name back, and it was too late anyway.
When he was fourteen, he left school. Less fees for her to kill herself paying that way. He never had another real conversation with her after that.
Mermaids in Space -- Blue backstory
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One day he lost his mother's name. He was five year old and wasn't sure why the big change, and he didn't like it much. Sevag. How weird. Sometimes he even forgot to turn around, even when he knew perfectly well he was the one they called.
The only thing that was even remotely good about his new name was that the people in his class couldn't make as many silly songs with it. Sev-sevie-sevag, Sevanouchka, and that was pretty much it. He would have liked the old jokes better, and the old fights and the old spankings for punching people in the nose, because at least they were about his and his mother's name and that meant they were still the same, two of a kind.
Sevag wasn't his name, it was a stranger's name, and he was deaf to it. See, mother, I have your name and I want no other.
Eventually his mother sighed and closed her eyes and never called him by his private name again. And he was Sevag even to her, and Kem to none.
When he was eleven, he met the other Sevag, the older one. They were nothing alike, even though he was tall and thin like not-Sevag (Kem) promised to be, and they had the same narrow eyes, and Kem could hear him like he never heard his mother. Older-Sevag slouched and seemed to want to be elsewhere, and he probably would have been, but Kem could tell the man in a business suit was the one who held the leash. The man in a business suit was all thin smiles and calculations and talked about thankfulness and familial obligations and opportunities, and encouraged him to the test.
If he did good on the test, then he would have a lot of opportunities, just like that father he knew nothing about. So he failed it.
When he left the test center and saw his mother's tired, disappointed face, he knew he still wasn't going to get his old name back, and it was too late anyway.
When he was fourteen, he left school. Less fees for her to kill herself paying that way. He never had another real conversation with her after that.