Remnants 16 - A character

I haven't made a huge number of characters, and a couple the ones I have made are all kind of a joke. For this likable unlikeable character contest, I'll try my best to create an unlikeable character that ends up liked. And yes, restating the prompt will totally help.

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Jeff would wake up every morning 5 minutes ahead of the set time on his parents' alarm clocks. He would then walk into his bathroom, where the acoustics were pretty good, and start to sing. Jeff wasn't exactly the best singer, but he had speakers to play the songs and back himself up. Then again, the songs he sang to weren't exactly the best songs in the first place.

Jeff seemed to enjoy annoying the hell out of people. Today, it was punk rock. Yesterday it was glitchy hardcore. Either way, his parents hated whatever he listened to every morning, and Jeff loved them for it. But whenever his parents gave him a "FUCK, JEFF, TURN THAT SHIT OFF!" or a "GOD DAMN IT, JEFF, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" Jeff actually would stop playing his music. He would then start blasting it instead - his parents could get pretty loud.

Jeff wasn't a bad person, though. So maybe he was the kind of guy who would slip through a closing door just to make the person behind him have to open it again, or the kind of guy who would find his friends' flaws and exploit them when they asked him how to fix them. But he was still a person, and he had feelings, too. He was just a little misunderstood when he tried to express them.

Once, Jeff had the chance to get one of the prettiest girls in school. He got a little ahead of himself though. She was just walking out of the lunch line with the usual foam tray full of food when suddenly it snapped in two, sending a ketchup-covered hamburger bun down her blouse and a carton of milk crashing to the ground in an explosion of white, low-fat goodness. Jeff was the only other person in the lunch room (they were early), and he started laughing slightly maniacally, knowing that this would be a great opportunity to get to know her. So he started running around randomly to go find some napkins for her. Meanwhile she was just standing there looking hopeless, her gaze shifting rapidly between the mess slowly soaking into her clothes and the running, laughing guy prancing around the cafeteria. By the time Jeff gathered up an adequate number of napkins, he was a little out of breath, so when he handed them to her with this silly grin on his face (he couldn't believe his luck!), what came out of his mouth was a highly disturbing "haaah-haaaah-haaaah-hhhhhhhere you go."

Naturally she let out a little shriek, as just a moment ago the running, laughing guy was on the other side of the room and now when she looked up from the spillage, he was grinning in her face. Shocked and concerned by her reaction, Jeff dropped the napkins and put his hands on her shoulders, asking firmly, "W-haaaaaah-t's wrong?" She cringed and turned her head to the side, then shoved him back.

She was fairly popular given her good looks, so by the next day everyone had heard about the crazy running, laughing guy. Determined to live up to the reputation she had given him, Jeff spent the next month or so pulling a bunch of crap to see if she took notice. She chose not to.

After that, Jeff turned a bit sour, or so it seemed. He could sometimes be seen using plastic knives to perforate the lunch trays, and the girls started spreading rumors of a wailing banshee that could be heard from beyond the wall separating the boys and girls restrooms - Jeff had read that singing was a great way to win someone's heart, so he thought he'd practice whenever he could. He also heard that girls liked tough guys, so he started picking fights in school. He wasn't very physical, though, so it generally ended up being that Jeff would just come up with really annoying ways to piss people off enough that they started fighting with him - no one would bother fighting him otherwise.

Eventually these things became a part of Jeff as he got desperate. Today was punk rock, yesterday was glitchy hardcore - he hadn’t been successful yet, so he probably hadn't been using the right genre for his random serenades. His parents were above him by nature, so if he pissed them off enough, he would eventually be able to prove his strength to the world by beating them.

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As it turned out, she liked punk rock, and apparently Jeff was "not so terrible" at singing it. Her name was Maria, and she was sorry for that incident from a few months back. Seeing opportunity once again, Jeff burst out laughing. This time, though, she laughed with him. This time, Jeff would make sure things ended on a positive note.

Once he calmed down a bit and regained his senses, Jeff noticed for the first time how pretty Maria really was up close. He took in her beautiful face – from those pastel green eyes to the soft point of her chin – like a little kid in front of a toy store. When Jeff started making weird noises as he breathed, she abruptly stopped laughing and her eye began to twinkle like miniature police lights.

“I- is there something wrong with my face?” Maria asked innocently.

“NO! Er, well, I mean, ah... Your face is perfect! You’re the most perfect person I’ve ever met!”

“Ah, I- I see...” she laughed nervously, and her eyes slowly fell to a suddenly interesting tile on the cafeteria floor.

Realizing how awkward their interaction had gotten, Jeff quickly barfed up an apology for his weirdness. Maria’s face filled up with a red glow – now, with those green eyes, Jeff was literally seeing Christmas, and the excitement in his face showed it – and she hastily reassured him, told him that it was fine, told him that she liked him the way he was and that he should stay that way forever. Suddenly the floor tiles became interesting to Jeff as well.

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Jeff came through the door with another black eye. When he got home, though, he properly greeted his mom and she walked over to kiss his head, making sure to avoid the bruises.

Recently the other guys at school had been telling off Maria, saying she must have been pretty damn stupid to go out with some freako like Jeff. Of course, Jeff couldn’t put up with this. He certainly didn’t like people considering him to be some freako. So, as per usual, he countered their remarks with elaborate speeches about the failures of “people” like them, about how such lowly animals could not possibly understand the complexity of a perfect being like Maria, about how they were too fucking dumb to think of any valid response, so they would just beat him up instead. All part of the plan.

Jeff didn’t give a rat’s ass about how disfigured he’d become at this point due to all the fights. He had transcended the torments of the physical world – he was a master manipulator of the mind, and he was in a deep, emotional relationship with the goddess Maria. Also, as a punk rock singer that only a select few would listen to willingly, having a demented face probably made him more likeable than unlikeable.