ooc: meta post 1/2

[heroslayer]

Ok, what with new canon airing tonight, I figured I'd get off my rear and write two major meta posts I've been meaning to for awhile, now. The first one, this one, will cover how I see Sylar and how I write him, as of current.

This post will be updated as I discover new facets of the muse, either through what canon dictates, or through simply growth of the character as I write him. If I get Jossed concerning a particular aspect, I'll adjust my view accordingly and strike out anything no longer relevant, as I'd rather not outright delete anything I assume about the character, right now. I'd rather keep it for posterity. I'm weird like that.

Keep in mind that this is strictly my view on him in canon, and does not include my views on him in his various verses. I might talk about those later, in the second post I want to make, but for now? Strictly canon. And, while I don't think this needs to be said honestly, this is player/mun knowledge only.

• He was born and raised in Queens, New York, and before becoming Sylar, he hadn't been out of the state.


• His parents were Catholic, and brought him up that way. He went to Catholic school from Kindergarten until he graduated high school. He went church on Sundays. He took CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) classes after school. That sort of thing.


• As a child, his father would sneak him off to Gray and Sons to hang around and watch him work. He didn't want to end up a watchmaker, but he couldn't help but be fascinated by his father's work.


• Growing up, he wanted to be a cop or a fire fighter or something along those lines. He wanted to be someone other people looked up to.


• When Gabriel was fifteen five, his father walked out on his mother. To this day, he has no idea why, just that his father left and that when he was old enough to understand it, it shook him on a hundred different levels. Mostly because he'd been taught by the church that you just didn't do that and, up until then, he never doubted a thing his mother did or a word she said. After that, he started hating Virginia Gray and the Catholic church, slowly but surely, as he blamed them for his father leaving.


• When he turned sixteen, his mother made him get an after school job to help pay the bills.


• At age eighteen, he got a call from his father's lawyer saying his father had died. He left Gray and Sons and a small amount of money to Gabriel. And while Gabriel had been planning on going to college, his mother insisted he take over the family business, thus smashing any dreams he might have had of being something better.


• He loved Chandra Suresh in a father-son sort of way, and his death is one of the two murders he actually feels remorse for.


• It's probably pretty unlikely that he'd ever go back to being Gabriel Gray, after being Sylar for so long, even if he somehow reformed. Gabriel Gray was no one. Sylar is someone. And he doesn't want to go back to being a no body again.


• He's not a case of MPD or DID. If you want to slap a diagnosis on him, covetous psychopath is the closest you'll get.


• He has mood swings. Violent ones. One minute, he'll be the sweetest person you've ever met, the next he'll be planning ways of killing you, brutally and in detail. Generally, he has enough sense and sanity to keep the latter to himself, waiting until your back is turned to let it show, but sometimes he slips. And then you get creepy smiles.


• He lies when it suits him, but he's not a pathological liar. If you know what he is, he'll stop trying to restrain himself on your behalf.


• He very rarely promises anything, but when he does? He'll keep his word.


• He might be slightly OCD, he might just be insanely neat, either way though, his living space will never be anything short of immaculate. And woe be to anyone who messes up his order.


• Remember that hunger he talked about on Chandra Suresh's answering machine in first season? Yeah, that actually exists. Imagine every little thing that has annoyed you in the past week. Every stress. Every worry. Every idiot that cut you off in traffic. To the point where you want to scream. Now multiply that by five million, and know that the only thing that's going to make you feel any better is to kill something. That's what the hunger feels like. Sometimes, he can handle it and not kill anyone, others he needs to go out and find the first evolved person he can and senselessly murder them. It's a day to day basis sort of thing.


• Evolved humans tick, like a watch out of sync. The Master from Doctor Who has the drums, he has the ticking.


• Acquiring a new power is a high beyond any drug for him.


• Acquiring a new power is also painful for him. I won't go into the reasons why, since the mystery is half the fun, but stealing a new power hurts, kids. And Bennet was right - half the reason he's so crazy is because he keeps taking new powers, and with every one he steals, his overall sanity slips just a bit more.


• He sees himself as beyond redemption. The last of that went when his mother betrayed him.


• And on that note, he's convinced everyone is going to betray him, at some point or another.


• He won't kill normal people unless they're in his way.


• He's a firm believer in An Eye For An Eye. If you hurt him, he'll hurt back. If you do him a favor, he'll make a point of returning it.


• He needs attention any way he can get it. Fear. Love. Hate. Respect. Whatever. It doesn't matter as long as his presence evokes some kind response. It's why he'd never truly kill Peter or let him be killed (he needs the animosity). And one of the reasons why he truly feels guilty about his mother's death (because she loved him).


• He understands that there's a connection between him and Mohinder Suresh. He might even go as far as to name it trust, but hell if he'd ever tell anyone that. But it's why he called Mohinder after he murdered Isaac. And why he came to him to get his powers back, when it turned out Maya and Alejandro were headed that way. It's weird for him, since he has betrayal issues, but he can't let it go.


• He slept with Maya. To keep her from finding Alejandro's corpse. She is, to date, the only person he's ever had sex with.


• He's not really interested in women. Or men. Or anyone, really. You think he looks good? That's fantastic. Now go away before he kills you. Sex is just another weapon in the arsenal for him.


• The mun is currently going to kill her brother with telekinesis, because he broke the internet. On the first night of new canon.

And if anyone has any specific questions for me, concerning how I play Sylar, feel free to ask. I'll update this list with the answers.