Running… Running… Endlessly running… No matter how far, or how fast you run, you know that what is chasing you will always catch you, tripping you up, grabbing at your heels. Keep running, it's the only logical thing to do because what awaits you if you even so much as falter is worse than hell-
Jasce's eyes shot open, his body still lying in his comfortable sleeping position, but as he shifted his legs, Jasce could feel the sheets cling to the droplets of sweat that beaded his body.
"Shit…" Jasce sighed and sat up, his mind still too drowsy to think clearly, but for some reason, it didn't really feel right to go back to sleep.
Looking for something to occupy his time, Jasce peered over at the clock on his bedside table: six twelve a.m. Jasce groaned; it was too early to get up, but too late to go back to sleep if he didn't want to just fall asleep in class. This was shaping up to be a terrible day; nightmares always made him feel like he was a little helpless kid again, something he hated, and now he was missing out on sleep.
Jasce groaned, and made a quick decision to screw school and get more beauty sleep.
"Ferren, eat your cereal."
Ferren shifted his greasy dark hair out of his face, feeling the pain that usually noted the cropping of a pimple on his forehead as he moved his hand across his pale skin. Sighing, he obediently spooned a mouthful of milky fruit loops as his father violently shifted the newspaper as he turned the page.
"So, how's the girl situation at school then, Ferren?" Ferren's father peered over the top of the paper with a mischievous glint in his gray eyes, but Ferren only blew out a breath of frustration.
"Come on, sweetie, not one girl you're interested in?" Ferren's mother said through a mouthful of toast as she walked into the kitchen, kissing her husband on the cheek and putting her purse over her shoulder.
"Nah, not right now." Ferren said as he stretched and leaned back in his chair as he attempted to seem casual about it.
His parents exchanged a knowing look and smiled, both looking at their son as Ferren fidgeted as his stomach dropped, his thoughts turning as he gritted his teeth and decided to change the subject before his parents decided to embarrass him further.
"not today, please… So mom, where are you going this time?" Ferren said as he stood up, taking his bowl over to the sink and rinsing the soggy remnants of his breakfast.
"Well, I've got a conference in Maine, but Mr. Suzuki asked me and Darren to help him pitch to a client in Vermont afterwards, so this trip's a long one." Ferren's mother said with a sigh as she smoothed her suit and squeezed Ferren's father's shoulders as she looked at her slightly overweight son.
"Alright son, hurry up and I'll take you to school." Ferren's father straightened up, putting the newspaper on the table as Ferren walked down the hallway of their cramped apartment into his room.
Breathing a sigh of longing as he looked at the posters that plastered his walls of all of his favorite anime characters; his eyes swept past the posters of Kazuma Yagami and Lelouch, settling on the poster above his bed of a confidently slumped blonde haired boy with his arms around a blushing girl in a maid's costume: Usui Takumi.
Ferren sighed again and pushed his unfinished homework into his custom backpack littered with old pokemon cards as he pulled a black jacket with white fringes over his shoulders. He looked in the mirror, frowning at the face that looked back at him, feeling a bubbling anger at himself, before his dad yelled at him from the kitchen, interrupting his self-pity.
"I think he needs to get out more, y'know spending all that time watching TV in his room isn't healthy." Ferren's mother said in a low hurried voice, as she looked down the hallway.
"I'll handle it, he's just going through a tough time. I don't think he's too popular-"
Ferren took one last look at the poster of Usui and put his headphones around his neck as he walked back into the kitchen, looking quizzically at his parents who both smiled brightly at him.
"Bye mom…" Ferren said cocking his head to one side as he gave his mom a hug, wondering why they were being abnormally weird this morning.
As he and his parents walked out to the street where Ferren's mother blew them each a kiss, and got into the waiting cab, Ferren got into the car and looked up at the fraying ceiling as he slipped his headphones over his ears, letting the sweet sound of music sweep him away to an easier world.
Ferren's father just shook his head and smiled at his son, patting him on the shoulder and starting the car, wishing he knew how to help him
"Damn… now that is an ass there, Sarah." Derek snickered as he leaned against the locker and watched with a cocky smirk as Sarah flipped her blonde hair, giggling as she joined her friends and looked over his shoulder, and his friends laughed.
"In there like swimwear, what'd I tell you boys." Derek said with a laugh as he pushed himself off the locker and swept up his bag.
"No way, Sarah won't do anything with you, she's dating Mark, man." A tall chubby boy with baleful brown eyes said as his voice cracked, getting snickers from the rest of Dereks friends.
"Didn't say I wanted to date her, what's the point if I can get it without spending my dad's hard-earned money on a date?" Derek said with a smirk as he shouldered his backpack, trying to remember what class he had next.
"You can take her to Andrew's party tonight," Alec said, sweeping his long dark hair out of his face as he stretched, checking his phone as it lit up with texts," She'll probably get real drunk and fuck you on table."
"She probably would, but my dad's being an asshole. Says he needs me and Jay to 'bond' with him." Derek laughed as he walked backwards down the hallway.
"Watch it, Derek. Don't wanna mess up that hair before you try it with Sarah." Derek turned to see a large overweight boy with a bandana on his head with a Jamaican flag printed bag slung over his shoulder named Collin looking down at him, before chuckling loudly as he ruffled Derek's hair and walked over to Alec and Louie, as Derek smoothed his black hair in disgust.
"-He ain't got a chance-" Derek looked over his shoulder at Collin, snorting derisively as he walked down the hallways, feeling a bit slighted and looking for something to boost his ego.
Suddenly, a smaller, overweight boy with long greasy dark hair walked in front of him, wearing large headphones and bobbing his head to the music. Derek's scowl turned into a sneer, looking down at Ferren with glinting eyes.
"Sup, ferret?" Derek said loudly, causing the people at their lockers to look at turn their heads, but Ferren didn't turn around.
Derek looked around; everyone was watching him and he could feel the weight of their gaze on his shoulders, and knew he couldn't back down and shoved Ferren lightly, sending the smaller boy stumbling.
Ferren had heard Derek the first time, and knew from long experience that if he just kept walking, Derek might find another distraction to occupy his time, but today Derek kept pressing him. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the Derek approached Ferren again, and Ferren tensed, waiting for the abuse to start.
Derek sneered down at Ferren as the boy hunched down and kept walking, trying to ignore him; Derek lunged for the headphones on Ferren's ears and before Ferren could react, Derek put them over his head.
"What- what is that Japanese crap?" Derek laughed at Ferren, who snatched his headphones back and glared at Derek, who looked at his Code Geass t-shirt.
"Oh, wait I get it. You're one of those dudes who watches that tentacle porn stuff, I mean I don't usually judge, but damn man!" Derek sneered at Ferren, who turned bright red as the people milling through the halls began to snicker.
"That's not- true…" Ferren faltered as he felt his stomach sink, and his lip began to tremble as the feeling of helplessness set in and he prepared himself for the mental torture Derek had been putting him through for years.
Suddenly the bell rang, and the heaviness that settled on Ferren's shoulders lifted slightly, and he began to walk away, thanking God for old clichés.
Derek looked distastefully at Ferren, and felt robbed of his chance to serve his ego as the people who had been watching began to hurry to their classes. Derek strode forward, knocking Ferren aside as he did so.
"Yeah probably isn't, cuz everyone here knows you're gay."
So what did you guys think of the first chapter of my first HOTD story? Jasce will reappear more in the second chapter, but damn Derek is a grade A dick. Anyways, instead of boring you with my opinion let me explain the rules (and a couple of extra things).
In an ideal situation, this story is going to be a sort of exploration of the psychological effects that being ousted from control has on the entirety of humanity (I know what attack on titan is thank you very much), and I really enjoy this genre so I'm trying my hand at it. Feel free to give me constructive criticisms and suggestions and I will do my utmost to correct my mistakes.
1: I'm gonna break the tradition of giving my characters their own OC form because that would spoil their connections to one another (maybe cuz I'm lazy :) jk)
2: When writing you're OC form, you MUST (cannot stress that enough) fill it out in its entirety or it will be difficult to accept your character, because I've fused all the info I'll need into the OC form so I can write chapter 2 as quickly as possible.
3: I've noticed a general trend of very creative OC's in some of the HOTD stories, so keep up the good work, but I've also seen some pretty terrible ones as well, so I will not be accepting and reposted OC forms or characters that I recognize.
4: Try to refrain from your character becoming a Mary Sue (for those of you who don't know, google is probably in the search bar above) or being too similar to the three main characters.
5; As a challenge to any out there brave enough, I encourage you to try and write an OC form for Alec, Louie, or Sarah because I'm definitely using those three characters throughout the story, and plot armor may/may not apply to them:)
6: Finally, among the rules, no superpowers or overdramatic backgrounds, this is not that kind of manga-y story where teens with military backgrounds suddenly gravitate to this school and become unbeatable in combat, the more normal and fleshed out your OC is, the more I'll enjoy writing about them.
7: Now a poll (since I don't want to put it on my page): is Ferren gay?
OC form:
Basic Facts:
Name:
Gender:
Nationality:
Age:
Nickname(s):
Grade:
Appearance:
Hair color:
Hair Style: (if you want it to change throughout, specify)
Eye color:
Build: (body type)
Clothing style: (Since clothing will change throughout, just give me an overview of their style for me to go off of)
Clothes at the beginning: (if the OC is a student, try to go with a dress code that you know of)
Personality:
Major life events:
Maturity in the beginning:
Maturity towards the end: (What you would like for them to achieve ideally)
Basic Personality towards the beginning:
Basic personality changes throughout:
Personality type: Dominant or submissive
How they would act towards people they like/dislike: (like as in friend)
How they would act towards someone they're interested in: (romantically)
Prevalent strengths: (only the ones they have in the beginning ex. Leadership, combat skills, etc.)
Prevalent Weaknesses: (Once again, towards the beginning ex. Awkwardness, fear, etc.)
Main Strengths: (that you would like them to develop)
'Fatal flaw': (Not what kills them, just their biggest weakness)
How they react to death: (be realistic)
Mental strength/state: (be creative, but not too creative)
Family:
Father:
Mother:
Brother/sister: (optional)
Brother/sister 2: (optional)
Guardian: (optional)
Other:
Weapon of choice: (in an ideal situation)
Fighting style: (all over the place, focused/conservative, etc.)
How you would want them to enter: (meet all the other characters)
How they would react to Derek:
How they would react to Ferren:
Good luck!