(07-09-2019, 07:10 PM)robkelk Wrote: Well, if I'm going to be the coordinator, I guess I can coordinate an invitation for Labster to come back and write with us again.
How about it, Labster?
Speaking of writing... Another scenelet for the Halloween Party thread.
"Have you seen some of the stories that people here have written about us?"
"Donaldson-san doesn't like it when we go looking for such things," replied Kuroko as she shook her head.
"Not that sort of story." Tessa frowned. "Well, I suppose that sort of story as well," she continued, "but that wasn't what I meant. Apparently, some of us have much more adventurous lives in this 'fan fiction' than we do back in our home worlds."
"Did somebody say 'fan fiction'?" Yomi joined the conversation instead of heading back to her apartment-mates and friends. Putting a plate of chili rellenos down on a nearby table (seeing whether she could get Osaka to try one would have to wait) she continued, "What's with some of those? I can understand the ones where one of us falls in love with somebody she just met -"
"You can?" While her tone was polite, Kuroko's expression was clear; she didn't believe a word of it.
"It's wish fulfillment. Who wouldn't want one of us as a girlfriend?"
And Kuroko was enlightened. "Ah. Of course. Please continue."
"The ones I can't understand are where we get into adventures of some sort."
"For some of us, it's understandable," Tessa interjected.
"If you're in charge of a mercenary unit, or you're a powerful esper, sure, it's understandable. But I'm talking about stories where somebody like me or Tomo ends up saving everybody's lives while causing millions of yen of property damage -" (Halfway across the quad, Brent sneezed.) "- or somebody like the Sailor Senshi get into fights with some super-martial artists -" (At poolside, Rob sneezed.) "- or somebody puts together a harem that's also a strike force." (Near the buffet, Ben sneezed.) "Who'd even write things like that? And why is everybody suddenly sneezing?"
They all realized who just sneezed. They looked at each other for a moment.
"No, they couldn't have."
Cue someone asking Ben about it later, because he's probably regarded as the face of brutal (though polite and tactful) honesty about about these matters.
Ben shrugged in a way that clearly communicated his helplessness in the matter.
"Think of it this way - who would you trust with your wellbeing? Some rando who is probably a really decent fellow, but doesn't know what kind of trouble they're in for? Or the person that knows exactly what you need, when you need it, and only because stories, unlike real life, have to make sense? I haven't said much about the matter because it's gauche, and I've even gone so far as to delete all my stuff."
"You deleted it?" asked Kaname archly. "All of it?"
Ben gave her a deadly serious look. "Yes, Kaname. All one-million words of cumulative fanfiction that I have written. Gone and never to be recovered again."
It was a good thing she hadn't been drinking anything. Kaname hadn't thought that it had been something that big.
"How the hell could you write that much!?"
Ben sighed. "I have ADHD as well as Clinical Depression. The depression on its own is bad enough, but the ADHD also skews your sense of reward. I spent time on it not because of some misguided purpose, not because I wanted to shut myself off from the world, but because I couldn't connect to it. Do you have any idea of what a life like that is like? That there are people around you that can enjoy a normal life, but you can't because everything about you is so radically different? Your paradigms, your mentality, your ethics and morals, the way you look, act, and talk? And the few times someone does try to be nice to you, it doesn't work because it just feels... Not so much insincere, but more like they don't get it. And really, they don't. They can't and never will, because they're not wired like you are."
Ben stopped himself because he found himself on a rant, and needed to cut to the core of the matter. "I wrote stories about you guys because I felt there just wasn't enough of the story told, or I felt that your characters weren't being done the justice they deserved... and because part of me wanted to escape from this life. Writing fanfiction was the closest I could come to that."
"And what did you write about me?" asked Kaname, her tone softened, but a hard look on her face just the same.
"I wrote you as a friend. A friend to someone you got along with because he was an American boy alone in Japan, just as you were a Japanese girl alone in New York. He knew what it was like because he was living it, and he also got the jokes and the pop-culture references that you picked up during your time in America."
"And Tessa?"
Ben sighed. "A childhood friend that had seen first-hand how unfair life can be to just one person. Something that she used as the driving force to propel her through MITHRIL, so that she could pave the way for a better world. One where people like her beloved friend wouldn't have to hurt or suffer."
"Its accurate," said Teletha with a slight blush. "I was so lonely back then - I would have jumped at the chance for a friend - even... no, especially one like Benjamin. I might have even fallen for that person. Sousuke would have only reminded me of him. But Benjamin was never there. We never met. And instead, I fell for Sousuke.
"You've seen it yourself, Kaname. How he has always been so respectful towards us. He's only come out about his feelings with me because I asked him point-blank. And no matter how much he wanted to, he could never try to influence us. It's not right at all. We couldn't even be proper friends because of it - it was absolutely critical that he remain professional at all times. ...I cannot even begin to imagine what that must be like - I can't even fully manage myself around Sousuke. For him to maintain that level of self control says great things about Benjamin."
"I'm nothing special," said Ben, shutting down that thought right away. "I simply keep reminding myself that it's not only wrong, but that nothing would possibly come of it anyways. At least, nothing good."
Part of Kaname wanted to crow about that last part - that he was absolutely right and that he had little business with them at all. But at the same time, she could see how much it had weighed on him. And he'd been right on the nose about her time in New York. Even though she had enjoyed herself... it was also the loneliest time of her life - which had only been underscored when she returned home, only to live alone in an apartment big enough for both her and her father.
She had to keep herself from shuddering at the idea of living her entire life that way - of being so far outside the norm that meeting someone that could relate to you was a nigh-infinitesimal chance.
And Kaname found that she simply had nothing to offer at all as Ben politely excused himself, and began making his rounds once more.
I'm just beating the hell out of the poor guy, aren't I?