Hector

Feb. 13th, 2007 07:22 pm
ultraviolet9a: (angry)
[personal profile] ultraviolet9a
>> Hector
 
TITLE: Hector
AUTHOR: [personal profile] ultraviolet9a
SPOILER: IMTD and onwards, mildly though.
GENRE: Gen.
CHARACTERS: John Winchester (duh)
SUMMARY: “You never asked for a war.”
RATING: PG
FEEDBACK: Dude…duh
DISCLAIMER: Be mine be mine be mine. Nope, still not working. Disclaimer.
NOTE: I blame my heritage, my studies, my mother, [personal profile] theladyscribeand [personal profile] wolfpup (for the Heaven Forbid clip. Go watch it. Seriously.) .
 
You never asked for a war. All you wanted was to have your family, a wife, children, a house to call home. A life not too big not too little, just the kind of life that would make you get lost in the crowd and live happily ever after, unperturbed, just small stirs gently rocking the boat. Cuz you got your sons, you see. It’s not just about you anymore.
 
You never asked for it, not after all those battles, your whole life a soldier, duty, honour, death, life, not when you carved yourself a nice little slice of heaven in the arms of a woman you call wife. You still do. Death doesn’t make any fucking difference to how you feel about her, but it does make a difference about how you feel about God.
 
You never asked for the war. It came knocking at your door with yellow eyes and laughter that sizzled like the flames on that ceiling. You never asked for it, but surely you must have sinned before if your slice of heaven was taken from you.
 
Years later, in Jim’s house, you read Homer. You got a thing for war movies and war stories, though God knows you never invited them in your house, and you got a thing for heroes, and God knows Dean took that after you.
And you cry for Hector, cry for him because you see bits of yourself in the psyche of a Trojan that might and might have never existed.
 
Andromache always waiting for his return and the war brought to his gate and duty and what needs to be done over everything, everything. You cry when he bids his son goodbye, and you hate the Greeks at that moment, hate the Achilleian arrogance that dragged Hector behind a chariot. Cry for Andromache, mourn for little Astyanax over the walls.
 
Just family. All Hector ever wanted was his wife and his child and rage fills you up till you throw the tattered book across the room and hide your face in your palms and hate the Greeks so, so much.
 
And then not. Someone took Menelaus’ wife away and he reached the end of the world not to claim her back but the revenge on those who took her, and God knows you see yourself in that too, and for you Mary’s face didn’t launch just a thousand ships, Mary’s face made the earth orbit around its axis and you wonder if you’ve ever felt alive since she died.
 
Revenge is ahead of you, years and years to come and the walls are not falling, but you know even back then that no son of you will fall over any wall to his death. There will never be a Priam claiming your body, but there will be sons that go on and burn their father, not the unnatural way around, and something inside you, maybe the same thing that will have Sam dream dreams of fire, tells you how maybe your end won’t be so different than that.
 
You always wanted to be like Ulysses. You think on your feet, you learn fast, you survive. And all you really ever wanted was to get back home to an Ithaca, but your own Ithaca has been burnt to ashes and you can’t think of any hubris you’ve ever committed other than loving your family, so, so much.
 
There will be no Ithaca for you. You know it as certain as you know your own name.
 
There will be no peace waiting at the end of the journey, no journey that will be worth all this time, all those miles, all those moments you weren’t a father to your sons, but a drill sergeant.
 
You want to be Ulysses, with a happy ending at the end of the journey, the hero triumphant, but you know your fate will be that of Iliad, forged in the fire of battle, despite all your nomad life. You feel like driftwood in the ocean, dragging your sons with you, and all you can think of is the way Mary was pinned on the ceiling, all you can think of is that you want revenge, all you can think of is that there won’t be any peace left for you, all you can think of is that you’re Hector, over and over again. You know what will follow, but war is at your door and you’ll do what needs to be done, and will bite and hang on, and either cut through or choke on it.
 
You mourn for Hector, and you pick up the Iliad and cradle it as you weep for a Trojan that lost everything on the battle field and you swear on your wife’s grave that you won’t let that be the fate of you.
 
Know there will never be an Ithaca for you.
 
And then Dean storms in the room with Sam and Ithaca is closer than ever.
 
And you swear on your life that the fate of Astyanax will never be that of your boys, even if you have to swan dive yourself over the walls surrounding your city of Troy.
 
-The End.
 
SIDENOTE: Quick sketch. I always loved Hector a lot (mum’s influence I reckon) even if it meant rooting for the other team. All he ever wanted was to be with his family and his is the most tragic and noble and unfair death of all.
And ah…Ulysses…how can I not love him? Admire and smile at the spirit of human inventiveness that went against gods to heighten the worth in humanity. *shrug* Am such a sucker for this stuff.
 

Date: 2007-02-13 06:00 pm (UTC)
ext_16464: (Default)
From: [identity profile] dairwendan.livejournal.com
I really enjoyed it! The comparisons are so true!

Date: 2007-02-14 01:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
Thank you. Glad u liked it!

Date: 2007-02-13 07:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jdsgirlbev.livejournal.com
OH dear lord!!!!! John wishing...DYING... for Ithaca, for Penelope and Telemechus..the IDEA is so right... And then Dean storms in the room with Sam and Ithaca is closer than ever. That line got me.....

Date: 2007-02-14 01:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
So glad you liked it!!!

Date: 2007-02-13 08:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ewanspotter.livejournal.com
This is absolutely beautiful. Maybe it’s the literature geek in me, but I was completely absorbed. Excellent job.

Date: 2007-02-14 01:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
I'm a literature geek too. Total sucker for all that. *sigh* So am really happy you liked it! :)

Date: 2007-02-13 08:42 pm (UTC)
gelliaclodiana: (Default)
From: [personal profile] gelliaclodiana
And you swear on your life that the fate of Astyanax will never be that of your boys, even if you have to swan dive yourself over the walls surrounding your city of Troy.

Oh, John. This is lovely. (How can anyone not love Hector?)

Date: 2007-02-14 01:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
So glad you liked it.

And yeah. How can anyone not love Hector indeed? Paris I want to whack on the head with a wooden spoon. But Hector...Hector is love. Hector is the embodiment of all that's shiny on humanity. And his death just....argh. You know?

Date: 2007-02-13 10:11 pm (UTC)
lark_ascends: Blue and purple dragonfly, green background (Default)
From: [personal profile] lark_ascends
Beautifully written.

Date: 2007-02-14 01:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
Thank you! Happy you think so.

Hector

Date: 2007-02-14 06:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] borys1848.livejournal.com
Beautiful. I have ALWAYS loved Hector too, since I first read Edith Hamilton's book "Mythology" at a young age (and then other myth books too). Always had a thing for the Trojans and reading the Iliad makes me cry. To this day I still recall a quote from Hamilton's book: "Troy has perished, the great city, only the red flame now lives there." Don't recall who she's quoting though. Hector is a classic hero and the comparison between him and John seems so obvious I'm going duh, why hasn't it been made before.
Thanks.

Re: Hector

Date: 2007-02-15 06:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I think what made me spin the whole thing to begin with was the fact that what they both wanted was a family life. That got me going.

And yeah...Hector...he was so freaking pure his death really makes your heart ache.

Date: 2007-02-14 10:28 pm (UTC)
ext_13391: (Default)
From: [identity profile] smilla02.livejournal.com
And then Dean storms in the room with Sam and Ithaca is closer than ever

I swear I got chills at this point.

I must join the chorus of Hector's girls/boys here. But I love more how you manage to intertwine the classical myths in John's story. John is all that and more and I love this to bits. Thank you!

Date: 2007-02-15 06:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
Thank you for your lovely, lovely comment. Am happy that you liked it!

Date: 2007-02-17 11:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com
This...

This as a monumental and fantastically done fic, m'dear!!

*Loves you for it*

*HUGS*

Date: 2007-02-17 03:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
*hugs back* Thank you so much! Am really happy you think so!

Date: 2007-03-29 09:00 pm (UTC)
theladyscribe: Etta Place and Butch Cassidy laughing. (Default)
From: [personal profile] theladyscribe
How the heck did I miss this story? Seriously, why did you let me get away with not reading it?

Beautiful and lovely, although I've always imagined Dean as Hector (Hector as Dean?) and John as Priam. But that may be because of the combined influence of Eric Bana and Jensen Ackles on my personage...

And you swear on your life that the fate of Astyanax will never be that of your boys, even if you have to swan dive yourself over the walls surrounding your city of Troy.

Just, ohhh.

Date: 2007-03-30 04:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
How the heck did I miss this story? Seriously, why did you let me get away with not reading it?

I...don't know? I just write. And submit. And...that's it? :) (And am happy when people catch up? :) )

Am so glad you liked it though. Whee!

But I could never see John as Priam. Cuz John hasn't lost a son, and the thing that killed me about Priam and Hector is the fact that a father has to bury his boy, a father has to beg the man who killed his boy for his body, that just kills me.

And the fact that none of this shit is Hector's fault and he ends up dead...well...that's on the killer list too.

Maybe that's why in my mind Hector was John. Both family men thrown into war. Damn.

Date: 2008-07-20 09:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] irnan.livejournal.com
*sobs*

*mems*

Date: 2008-07-24 09:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
*hugs* thanks, sweetie.

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