DE: When I grow up

[bjornwilde]

Stepping in with one from repositorian :
What did your character(s) want to be as children? How far is their current job or profession from that?

Comments

[a1enzo]

Ever since first meeting Bob shortly before his first birthday (what we would consider four going on five), Enzo has indeed wanted to be a Guardian. Also a businesssprite like his sister, a rock star, and a pro jetball player, so, y'know. But mostly a Guardian.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

I'm not sure what Ellen wanted to be when she was a little kid, tbh. She knew there weren't a lot of options and she wouldn't get to pick anyway, so it didn't matter which one she wanted.

The only two things that spring to mind are 'a scientist doctor like Daddy' and 'not ignored and avoided and made fun of by the other Vault kids'.

[street_sparrow]

'Not dead' and 'nothing even slightly like my parents'. One out of two ain't bad.

[sdelmonte]

Kirk wanted to be a starship captain. Duh.

Charlie would have settled for "out of the orphanage." Otherwise, "rich" would have been his answer.

Howard wanted to fly planes.

Cy wanted to be a scientist. Or a firefighter. Or a running back in the NFL.

Knox did not dream of being a reporter as a kid. He wanted to be baseball broadcaster. Or maybe a baseball player in moments of delusion.

Gibbs never thought much about that.

[1nv1nc1ble]

An astronaut. A fireman. A superhero like Science Dog (and his dad). You know, the usual.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Maybe Lègle wanted to be a post-master like his dad. :3

That or a traveling man with a dancing bear.

[a1enzo]

Well, who wouldn't want one of those?

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Seriously!

[genarti]

Somehow I find this enormously endearing. TINY LESGLES.

[bjornwilde]

So now to actually try and answer for my pups...
Jessica wanted to be an arachnologist. I'm sure she had her other aspirations but that's the loudest one she's giving me. Obviously that didn't work out but I have a head canon that she still keeps up with the field and maybe even gets into arguments online about spiders.

Hank wanted to be a space hero like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, or one of Robert Heinlein's heros. He's pretty dang close, seeing as how he's on the verge of becoming a science hero.

Isabella (Lady Trent) wants to learn about dragons. She succeeds admirably in this despite her cultures attempts at putting her back in the kitchen/home.

Ethan Chandler wanted to be a hunter, a lawman, the president, and likely more. He's pretty close to the hunter/lawman.

Quinaln likely wanted to be a Guardian, like his parents.

Andrea wanted to live without fear. She got her wish.

Brimstone wanted freedom and got it, in a way.

Mulan, I am sure, wanted to be a warrior. I can almost see her wanting to be a sage but the warriors life won out.

Sam wanted to serve his country. I think he also wanted to be a fireman at one point and maybe an EMT.

[genarti]

I love how personality and societal expectations mean some characters only ever expected one pretty reasonable thing, or wanted a heartbreaking abstract, and others wanted to be a FIREFIGHTER ASTRONAUT SPACE HERO.

[1nv1nc1ble]

Aside from the fact that he can fly to the Moon in 30 minutes, take a death ray to the face without blinking, and survive a fight with Omni-Man, Mark is a frighteningly mundane dude. Even his nerdness is mild and socially acceptable. I think that's part of his appeal.

[genarti]

Thor wanted to be just like his dad! And a great king and a MIGHTY WARRIOR FAMED IN LEGEND! (This is also like his dad.)

He's certainly well on his way to the might warrior famed in legend part. For the rest... well, he's his father's heir and favorite right now, so in a way he's on track for that too, but he's slowly and reluctantly realizing that maybe Odin is not in fact a great example in all ways. That process will continue until eventually he makes a deliberate decision to be unlike his father in some key ways.

Enjolras... let's be real, even at age five Enjolras probably wanted to be Louis Antoine de Saint-Just. Or to be his best friend. (Robespierre, you say? YEAH THAT WORKS TOO.) Or a Spartan. Or Cicero. Or any number of other household examples of martial valor and republican righteousness.

...He did okay, except the "dying young in a failed uprising" part.

Cosette wanted to be a nun.

She's still very devout, but she's also going to get married soon and has discovered that she really rather likes participating in the world outside the convent, so not so much!

Trowa was kind of wistfully drawn to circuses, and probably daydreamed sometimes about being in one. But mostly he thought of himself as a nameless soldier who couldn't possibly be anything else, and he didn't really figure on surviving into adulthood.

Well, he's no longer a soldier and he's a lot older than he ever figured on with no imminent death in sight, and now he's a professional circus acrobat. Worked out pretty well for him!

Clare... god, I don't even know. I don't think she comes from a culture where people much expected to do jobs very different from their parents' -- really, I don't think she spent much time daydreaming about future professions. She was going to be a farmer or miner or whatever they were, and then she didn't really plan anything.

And then at age 10 she decided to become a Claymore because of codependence and revenge plots, and did so. Good job on the follow-through, Clare...??

River, of course, wanted to be a famous ballerina mathematician physicist engineer princess dinosaur-rider.

She's semi-famous! And still has math and physics and engineering and dance as hobbies? And she'd totally still take the opportunity to be a dinosaur-rider, come on.

Regan wanted to be a famous equestrian and dancer (not that she actually studied dance much) and doctor and geneticist and actress and fencer. At some ages, all at once.

She is none of these things, although she kept some of them as hobbies.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Tiny Enjolras glowering at his nurse, who is trying to get him to put on clothes and come to the table to eat his breakfast for goodness' sake, and telling her that he's being Spartans.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

(Tiny Enjolras having a huge meltdown when his nurse hauls him over and firmly puts a shirt on him and picks him up and sits him down in front of his breakfast, because HE CAN'T HAVE BREAKFAST HE'S BEING SPARTANS.)

[street_sparrow]

*cracks up*

[genarti]

...

PRETTY MUCH

TO BOTH

I am totally willing to mentally Millicanon this, frankly, although those are not stories he's gonna be telling anyone.

(SPARTANS DON'T HAVE NAPTIME, HE DOESN'T NEED A NAP HE'S A SPARTAN)

[street_sparrow]

It is such a shame no canon character knew him as a child.

[pro_patria_mortuus]

I know, right?

I mean, if the subject actually arose and somebody asked, he would probably be willing to admit wryly to certain friends about the childhood ambitions part. But not the breakfast table meltdowns, which really it's not as if he'd remember anyway; one doesn't. So the most he'd know is if it became a family joke or story later, which I don'd know that it even would.

But it's SUCH a glorious mental image.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

SPARTANS AREN'T EVEN ALLOWED TO HAVE NAPS. OR BREAKFASTS. OR NICE CLEAN SHIRTS. HE CAN'T BE SPARTANS IF HE HAS BREAKFAST.

(He could plausibly remember it if you really need someone to winkle out embarrassing stories; I mean, I remember a few things from being a small kid and being Really Mad about something. Like getting in trouble for biting my brother when we were playing vampires, dammit.)

[pro_patria_mortuus]

And then the sobbing meltdown, because tiny child. His poor longsuffering nurse. I bet she learned (or made up) very quickly a lot of stories of military heroes eating their breakfasts on the campaign trail.

(Hee hee hee. WE'LL SEE.)

[bjornwilde]

(This is Milliways. I am certain we can find an artifact/magic spell/holiday/whatever to make it come to light.)

[1nv1nc1ble]

This whole thread has me envisioning a tow-headed French boy, shouting Leonidas' lines from "300" ("Folie?! Ce. Est. SPARTA!!"). It's a bit distracting.

[genarti]

Ha!

And I always think of the PG 300 YouTube parody thing, so now in my head it's BROUSSE-TOI TES DEEEEENTS.

[hey35andholding]

Clem: Wanted to be a gymnast. Safe it to say her dreams were destroyed and she ended up a showgirl instead.

Dixie: Thought she'd be a nun. Then she realized her temperament wasn't suited to the order, so she thought she'd settle for married life. Then came Doc. The rest is history.

Juliet: Always wanted to be a police officer thanks to her Amazing Army Guy Brother Ewan (who turned out to be a double-dealer. SSHH!)

Pinkie: Received her destiny and her cutie mark just out of foalhood. IT was never to be questioned that she's not destined to make people smile.

Eponine: Thought she'd take over the inn. Whooops!