Chapter Text
At seven years of age, you receive a package.
"It's here! It's here!"
The bright eyed boy scurried to the doorway, his brown hair flopping over his eyes. He eagerly awaited for the cardboard box of "wonders" as his mother paid the postman. The boy looked up expectantly,
"Can I open it now? Please!"
She only shook her head,
"You're far too young dear. In time, you'll be ready."
The young boy pouted and shuffled away.
Hopefully the time would come soon.
At 14 years of age, you attend a ceremony.
"Daniel!" the boy's mother shouted from the floor below, "Hurry up, we're going to be late!"
Dan let out a frustrated sigh,
"Just a minute mum! I'm straightening my hair!" He yelled back.
In all truth, Dan was not straightening his hair. That had already been done ages ago. Well, not necessarily ages.
Actually, what he was really doing, was ridding his hands of the black ink spots that now coated it. That was a nervous habit of his; doodling and conducting poems on his skin. It was a habit he needed to break.
When he finally made it downstairs, he met a worry stricken parent,
"Mum?"
She sniffed, and opened her arms to her son, wrapping them around his body protectively,
"My little bear is growing up." she whispered, squinching her eyes closed,
"I'm not going anywhere soon, mum. I still have time left." he assured her. She just nodded and held on tighter.
After about a minute or so, Dan gently removed his mother. If they wasted anymore of their minutes at home, they'd be late to a ceremony that would most certainly not want to be missed.
The family of two climbed in the car and made their way to the field house; a large building on the other side of Manchester.
When they stopped, Dan exited the car. His mother would not be coming with him, this he knew. She could not attend the ceremony being the way she was. As much as it pained Dan to think, he hoped he would not follow in her footsteps.
She gestured for her son to come close to the window, which he obeyed.
The boy stood as his mother fussed with his hair, quickly swatting her hands away,
"Mum!" he hissed, giggling slightly,
"You just have a little-" she reached up again. Dan grabbed her wrist, giving her warning glance. She smiled weakly at him,
"I love you sweety, I'll be back to pick you up when the ceremony ends."
"I love you too, mum." he sighed, and entered the field house.
-
Dan desperately wished he had a pen, but since he was refused one, the only thing he could do was stand there as his hands twitched at his sides.
The nervous energy bubbled up inside him. He felt like screaming, or yelling something irrelevant very loudly. He felt like punching someone.
Or course, he didn't.
Everyone had stared at Dan when he entered the building. He couldn't blame them; if it was the other way around, he would have been staring too,
"Where are his parents?"
"Maybe they're dead."
"Or maybe.. they're just ordinary."
"Oh."
"Poor kid."
"Do you think he'll be ordinary?"
Dan thought about that last one. Would he be ordinary? Oh god, he hoped not, but ordinarism usually runs in the family.
He tried to ignore the stares and whispers as he stood in his assigned place. Dan wasn't the only one here who had an ordinary parent, but he was the only here without a parent. Usually only the father, or mother came. No one's ever heard of a child with two ordinary parents. And there has never been one. Just a child with one parent. One ordinary parent.
Dan hoped his father would show up, but that was highly unlikely. His father left before Dan had been born. Hell, he doesn't even know what the man looks like.
So there he stood, alone. No one dared to spark any sort of conversation with him. That's just not how things worked.
He tried shoving his hands into his pockets in an attempt to cease the twitching, but then he remembered that these pants had no pockets.
Fucking fancy dress pants.
Soon enough, the ceremony started. The younger groups stood and watched as those ready of age opened their packages.
Man, was it a sight to see.
Different arrays of light and colours erupted into the air as one kid put his amulet on. He lifted his hand, and in an instant the room grew brighter, more vibrant. People were smiling in awe. It was beautiful.
As Dan watched, a feeling of content flooded through him, reaching to his finger tips and tingling at the end of his nose. He sighed happily,
"Luminescence." someone whispered next to him. Dan turned,
"Huh?"
"That's his Facult. Luminescence."
He nodded,
"My name's PJ, by the way."
PJ was a bit gorgeous, Dan thought. Which was a weird thing to think, but honestly he was. His eyes were literally the colour of summer, if summer had a colour.
But not just summer.
Like summer.. in space.
Basically they were just really, really, really green.
It was at this point Dan realised PJ was expecting for him to reply with his own name,
"Oh, um. Dan."
"Lovely." PJ smiled.
Their conversation ended when the next group went up to the podium.
Some had dark amulets, and when worn emitted an aura of dismay. In contrast to Luminescence, it made everything gloomy, dark. It felt wrong. With a flick of the wrist, this person could bring someone on top of the world to the depths of the sea.
"Omniscence." PJ whispered. Dan was grateful that he had been stood next to someone so clever. He had no idea what any of the Facults were.
Another kid went up, and to Dan's surprise he heard a loud "whoop!" from the person next to him. Dan looked over and raised an eyebrow,
"'S my friend, Chris." He said, grinning.
When Chis opened his box, he pulled out a bright orange amulet and put it on. Laughter from seemingly nowhere suddenly erupted. Dan glanced around, confused. No one was laughing?
But obviously, it was the amulet. That was his Facult,
"Comisinence," PJ whispered, chuckling slightly, "Of course."
Chris did a small fist pump, and threw his hands into the air as he made his way off stage.
There where more, some strange, some expected. A lot of them were repeated, but there was on Facult that caught Dan's attention.
A boy with raven hair, obviously having been dyed due to his ginger roots that had begun to show, stepped up to the podium. Even from the distance, Dan could make out an electric blue that sent shivers down his spine.
Damn.
When the boy put on his amulet, a thunderous roar shook the building. The boy looked up in surprise after studying the necklace in his hand. There was not only a roar, but a sweet sound flooded the entire building. There was no other way to describe it but compassion. How exactly could you describe the sound of compassion? It was like how you would imagine love to sound. Sweet, soothing, calming. It made you feel happy with yourself.
The boy up on the stage grinned widely, laughing a little bit to himself.
I looked over to PJ, expecting him to explain which Facult this was; he was left speechless,
"I .. I have no idea. But I love it." was all he said.
The rest of the older group finished opening their boxes, leaving the younger ones excited and eager for their ceremony, which would be four years from now.
And as Dan left the field house, on the car ride home, and all through the night, he couldn't stop thinking about the raven haired boy. About his smile. His eyes. His ability.
Dan knew he wasn't the only one thinking about him, he couldn't be. But still, he couldn't shake the boy's image out of his head.
At 18 years of age, you learn your Facult.
It was time. Finally. Time for him to open the box.
To learn who he was.
Who he would be.
Piles and piles of curiosity and anxiousness had been building up for 11 years now.
And he was finally going to see.
There Dan stood, up on the podium. Ahead of him were others awaiting to learn their own Facult, and those attending the ceremony to get a glimpse of what they would soon experience.
His hands rested on the lid, covered in ink and poems and little stories that would never be shared. His handwriting was nearly illegible now, after being smeared countless times from his hands entering the pockets on his - new - dress pants. (Oh yes. They had pockets now).
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, taking the top off of the box.
When he opened his eyes, he nearly fainted.
It was as if a huge weight had been dropped inside his stomach.
Those piles of curiosity were now just about ready to be ejected through his mouth. It was all for nothing. The time spent wasting hours imagining what he could be. Would be.
And now he was staring at nothing.
An empty box.
He was ordinary.
Dan was ordinary.