So I have to write a nonfiction story.

[Larxene]

I'm taking a Creative Writing class this semester, because I need an English elective to graduate. I figure, hey, easy A because I hate most other English classes. I'm terrible at the whole concept of analyzing for imagery and theme and all that sheet. But I'm decent enough at writing after doing it for, what, four or five years now? And hey, I've got plenty of ideas lying around in the canon of the stuff I've been working on these last few years.

 

Turns out, I need to write both a fiction and nonfiction short story by the end of the semester. Well sheet. I finished the fiction story in less than a month after the semester started (in fact, I wrote it in 2 hours one day when my class was cancelled and I had nothing to do but sit in the cafeteria waiting for my other class to start).

 

Except my life is terribly uninteresting. In fact, four months later, the only story idea I could come up with for something nonfiction is of my reign alongside Zexaeon as the real leaders of Organization XIII. (You became a figurehead the moment Zex and I became 'co-leaders', Roxas, don't even deny it.)

 

Sad, isn't it, that that's the only thing I could come up with?

[Tourmaline]

Magic can embellish any story.

 

Or do you just need someone else's life story?

[Larxene]

Magic can embellish any story.

 

Or do you just need someone else's life story?

 

I really don't think you understand the concept of 'nonfiction'. Like, at all.

 

But no, it has to be something from my life. The only other things worth writing about are things I just plain don't want to write about.

[Tourmaline]

That's what makes up all nonfiction. Rashness is the hallmark of idiocy, and I know you're not an idiot. I do have others who have attested to that.

 

Anyway, you ought write whatever will be most efficient. Get this done with so you can write about something you prefer. Many people find their experiences to feel banal, so I doubt nobody else would experience the problem. It's always a boring theme.

[Phantom Roxas]

Except my life is terribly uninteresting. In fact, four months later, the only story idea I could come up with for something nonfiction is of my reign alongside Zexaeon as the real leaders of Organization XIII. (You became a figurehead the moment Zex and I became 'co-leaders', Roxas, don't even deny it.)

 

I don't deny that. I totally agree that's what happened. If anything, I was jealous that you guys had your sheet together so much better than I did, and I still have no idea what I'm doing even now. I really admire how you guys took charge, and I was disappointed in myself for neither expressing that as well as I could have, nor living up to the "leadership" I claimed to possess. I wish I could live up to images I try to pass on for myself, but that's not what happened. You and Zexaeon were great then, and I feel like a jackass for not staying in touch with you guys even an iota of how I should. I haven't been denying this, mostly because I wasn't aware that this was even thing I was denying, but that just makes me ignorant. I'm sorry if I act as though I've let any sense of power go to my head.

 

Over the years, I've really grown to resent people online, other moderators on other sites throwing it around to abuse others, or just random people on social media who find the most inane things to manipulate others with. Last year in particular I had to deal with someone who mocked what I liked, still claimed to be my friend, rejected the "popular" or "traditional" perspectives in order to present himself as though he were more enlightened, generally making me feel stubborn or stupid, especially as he would construct increasingly stupid puzzles because he introduced me to DanganRonpa and wanted to control whatever theories I constructed while watching a Let's Play, then repeatedly asked misleading questions when our mutual friend and I each got something right, telling us that we were "100% factually wrong", or that whenever we couldn't figure out his puzzles, it was okay, because our brains weren't "programmed" for stuff like that. He thought he could just call me an idiot without explicitly saying so, and then pretend he still cared about me. There was someone else who similarly tried to control me with other stuff, but I've come to terms with how much of a horrible friend he was to me, while I'm still reeling from that first guy.

 

I saw myself as more than a figurehead back then, even if I sucked at expressing myself. But over the years, I've been burnt horribly by people who claimed to be my friends. Whatever nice things I thought about you and Zexaeon, I either half-assed showing that, or just never bothered. That was all on me. I've seen enough people clinging to their own illusion of authority that I hate thinking I could ever be like them, and I'd hate even more to think that I was already like that. I can't apologize enough for taking years to be open about this with you, but I'm sorry.

[Tinkerer]

Well, nonfiction does come in many flavors. Are you really sure it has to be an event that you have to write about? When I took a nonfiction class (and trust me, I loathe writing nonfiction), I found it easier to write about my opinions on something that I'm familiar with/experienced.

 

If you do have to write about something in your life, you might want to do some exercises to figure out some surprising events that you forgot you had. I'm currently taking a fiction class, but the teacher has some interesting exercises that help dive us into our memories. For example, "We always seem to be surrounded by cats/dogs. List as many cats/dogs you know, whether they be yours, a neighbor's or a stranger's/stray or even one on TV/the internet. After you list them, pick the one that surprised you out of the bunch and write a paragraph on it/why you remembered it." He also had a few other exercises that worked similarly. Maybe they can help?

[Larxene]

I don't deny that. I totally agree that's what happened. If anything, I was jealous that you guys had your sheet together so much better than I did, and I still have no idea what I'm doing even now. I really admire how you guys took charge, and I was disappointed in myself for neither expressing that as well as I could have, nor living up to the "leadership" I claimed to possess. I wish I could live up to images I try to pass on for myself, but that's not what happened. You and Zexaeon were great then, and I feel like a jackass for not staying in touch with you guys even an iota of how I should. I haven't been denying this, mostly because I wasn't aware that this was even thing I was denying, but that just makes me ignorant. I'm sorry if I act as though I've let any sense of power go to my head.

 

Over the years, I've really grown to resent people online, other moderators on other sites throwing it around to abuse others, or just random people on social media who find the most inane things to manipulate others with. Last year in particular I had to deal with someone who mocked what I liked, still claimed to be my friend, rejected the "popular" or "traditional" perspectives in order to present himself as though he were more enlightened, generally making me feel stubborn or stupid, especially as he would construct increasingly stupid puzzles because he introduced me to DanganRonpa and wanted to control whatever theories I constructed while watching a Let's Play, then repeatedly asked misleading questions when our mutual friend and I each got something right, telling us that we were "100% factually wrong", or that whenever we couldn't figure out his puzzles, it was okay, because our brains weren't "programmed" for stuff like that. He thought he could just call me an idiot without explicitly saying so, and then pretend he still cared about me. There was someone else who similarly tried to control me with other stuff, but I've come to terms with how much of a horrible friend he was to me, while I'm still reeling from that first guy.

 

I saw myself as more than a figurehead back then, even if I sucked at expressing myself. But over the years, I've been burnt horribly by people who claimed to be my friends. Whatever nice things I thought about you and Zexaeon, I either half-assed showing that, or just never bothered. That was all on me. I've seen enough people clinging to their own illusion of authority that I hate thinking I could ever be like them, and I'd hate even more to think that I was already like that. I can't apologize enough for taking years to be open about this with you, but I'm sorry.

 

Aw, Roxas, you'll warm my cold little excuse for a heart. I actually feel a bit bad you weren't included as much, really. Mind you, it's not that I actually looked down on you or anything despite the amount of control that Zex and I had back then. For one, it kind of boiled down to the fact that you were never quite as active as I was back then, so I was always able to get the full scope of things both on here and on Drift far more quickly. Even now I still barely have much of a life outside of the Internet. I just have far fewer people to actually talk to these days. I've had some falling outs with the last two online social groups I've been a part of, and hilariously, the only ones I still talk to are actually Zex, and believe it or not, Chiyuri (though the two of us aren't together anymore, haven't been for like five years, but we're still friends). Kind of sad the way things happen like that. Although the second of those two times was just because someone was a lying jabroni, and I cut off contact from her and most of the people we were both friends with. Not gonna go much into that one.

 

All things considered, I'm actually rather proud of you for finally standing up to the two of us right before we left. Sorry to admit it came so late, because by that point, Zex and I were just looking for our excuse to leave by then. Zex was busy with real life issues, and I was becoming more active with an RP group on Gaia that ended up spawning the story I've been working on the last couple years. YCM was just a distraction for us by then. That's kind of why we caused so much chaos toward the end, what with me giving all my authority to Chiyuri, Zex and his outright refusal to let Mineku back in, and that whole ordeal with calling Striker a dildo for a week.

 

You know, it's kind of funny. But in almost every major social group I've ever been a part of, I've always been part of a similar power dynamic. Typically with me always in a position of essentially 3rd in command, and often times still acting with the most authority. That Gaia RP, for example, I wasn't really the one officially in charge of things. But I was the one who, along with one other person, basically decided the course of the entire plot. Sound kinda familiar, doesn't it?

 

But, hey. I got Skype, if you feel like catchin' up at some point. I'm not the most talkative sort these days, but I'm basically always on if I'm home and/or awake.