"If you throw someone a life preserver, and they turn around and swim away from it; what can you do but let them drown themselves?"
Seven Pieces of Chalk is an Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic by Lady Charity on fanfiction.net. The fic opens with Arthur entering a new school and noticing that everyone is acting strangely. The halls are not like the typical American High School scenery. Students avoid each other. The whole place feels like it has been covered in a thick shroud. And it all seems to lead back to one Alfred F. Jones...
It is a lot darker than the original work and uses human versions of the anthropomorphized characters. But it is also very touching.
Tread lightly on this fic, it has some triggers.
The work can be found here
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Seven Pieces of Chalk contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: What Lovino thinks of the faculty.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Matthew.
- Bully Hunter: Alfred.
- Bungled Suicide: Alfred on his first attempt, thanks to Ludwig.
- Also happens later on with Gilbert.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers to both the seven people affected by Alfred's suicide, and the seven pieces of chalk they used to write their messages to him.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: The readers figure out that Alfred did suicide long before Arthur does.
- Driven to Suicide: Alfred
- Later, it almost happens with Gilbert.
- Follow in My Footsteps: Toris is afraid Matthew would follow his twin's suicide.
- Foreshadowing: Their English reading is Ordinary People, everyone freezes or stops mid-sentence whenever Alfred is mentioned, Gilbert lying to Arthur when he said that he's never been to a funeral, Matthew's Suspiciously Specific Denial that he has a brother, Ludwig thinking that Arthur was going to jump off the roof, they all contribute to The Reveal that Alfred committed suicide.
- Interrupted Suicide: Ludwig does this to Alfred before he can jump off the roof. It doesn't save him though...
- Arthur also does this to Gilbert.
- It's All My Fault: What most of the characters feel about Alfred's death
- Lampshade Hanging: Puck the Fairy.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The later part of the fic.
- Redemption Quest: Alfred tries to go on one of these.
- Shout-Out: The trickster fairy Puck hails from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
- Survivor Guilt: Everyone. But mostly Matthew.
- The Atoner: Alfred. And to a lesser extent, everyone else in the cast.
- Title Drop: Happens in the last chapter.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 5.
- You Are What You Hate: Alfred realizes that he's saving others from Ivan's bullying precisely because he did the same thing to Makisig.
