Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-31322722-20180918185334/@comment-31322722-20180918203255

Here’s a story.

Once upon a time, there was a 13-year-old girl who still played a PBS KIDS game. She eventually found a fan wiki for the game and decided to join. She really liked talking to everyone, even if EVERYONE WAS SUPER CRINGEY AT THE TIME. Even though she matured and wasn’t into random stuff that made no sense anymore, she still stayed. After all, she and the members of the wiki had been through so much together. She couldn’t just leave after all that.

One day, she recommended a show to someone. He said he didn’t like it, but he would give it a chance anyway. The girl suspected he wasn’t actually giving it a chance, and just went in thinking he’d hate it anyway, and told him this, but he misunderstood and a huge argument followed. Both were stressed day and night, until things eventually dissolved between them.

The girl was 14 now, starting high school, and hoping to leave her traumatic 8th grade past behind. She was enjoying school, but another girl on the wiki got into an argument with her after she played a trick on the girl. Many things were said, but the other girl was clearly wrong in so many ways. She would type in red links — which are annoying for the wiki, since they clog up “wanted pages” — and wouldn’t stop until an admin repeated what the girl had said about them being harmful to the wiki. But the argument went on. The girl was very stressed out all the time, and angry at all the things this person on the wiki told her because they just weren’t true. But she looked back at the conversations they had and realized she was being very unreasonable as well. So she promised herself that she would hold back and show some self-control.

The other girl on the wiki made a new wiki and told everyone to join, except that the girl she argued with wasn’t allowed. This made the girl furious. Of course, she wasn’t going to go on that wiki anyway, but this was becoming straight-up cyber bullying. After some time though, she created an alternate account and posted a formal apology. This got rid of the tension between the them and anyone else on the wiki, but it never felt like things were truly resolved. They never talked about what happened. They just left that behind. Although the girl was uncomfortable with how she’d left things, she went along with whatever the other girl said, because she was too afraid to bring up the argument again.

However, the more she got to know this girl, the more she realized that she didn’t really want to be her friend anyway. Of course, she didn’t want to be enemies, but it never really felt like they clicked. She was happy just getting along with the other girl, but was too afraid to say anything.

Months passed, and the girl decided she would say something. But it all turned out wrong. She was banned again after yet another argument, and they did not leave each other on good terms.

Popularity was starting to return to the original wiki, and after a while, everything was fine again. She was unbanned — again — and she wasn’t really enemies with everyone. However, history repeats itself, and she somehow found her way into various situations like the previous ones.

Her friends told her that she should leave; it would be better for her mental health overall. The girl agreed, but said it was just too difficult to leave. Things constantly got worse, then better, then worse, then better, and so on and so forth, and the members of the wiki went from extreme to extreme when talking to her, even if it felt like they were only being nice to be nice, and nothing more than that. And she didn’t blame them either. After all she’d done. Not only that, but she spent so much time on the wiki, that even if it was mentally torturing her to no end, she was practically inseparable from the wiki, being reminded of old times. Even if all the hurtful things everyone had said and done were always echoing in the girl’s head, they had shared so many good ideas with each other. Even if she wanted to leave, a part of her wanted to stay. Her friends said she should just leave, and not say anything. The girl nodded, but didn’t bring up the subject again. She was afraid it would annoy them.

With no one to talk to about her problems and possible relapse of depression (her parents had said a long time ago that they didn’t want to hear what “those crazy people” were saying), her mental state got worse and worse, and she started accepting insults and false retorts instead of fighting them. She knew it would only make things worse. That’s all she ever did. She was always the problem on this wiki. She tried several times to work things out, but it always seemed like the situation was still bitter. Too bitter to talk about. Occasionally, she let herself go and fought, but it never turned out well.

Even though the members of the wiki had evolved from banning all disagreements, they were still too cautious around her, and it hurt her that they had misunderstood her and thought so many things about her that weren’t true. This started to affect her grades, which didn’t help things with her parents. And she barely had anyone to talk to anymore, being afraid of annoying her friends.

Months later, she took one last look at the wiki. Nothing was going to change. The same pattern repeats over and over again. It was too much. People were being nice to her, she supposed, but not a second went by where she wasn’t reminded of everything they’d said to her. Even if they’re were genuinely being nice, she couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t take anything anymore.

So, one day, she disappeared, without any announcement. A couple people asked for her, but most had forgotten, and those few had forgotten after a few months as well. And only the presence of an old comment would remind them of her, but nothing stirred within them. Not a hint of worry or concern. And things went on. Why should they care about that girl, who only ever caused trouble? She’ll come back anyway...

But she never did.

Years went by, the kids grew up into adults, they got jobs, and moved away from home. The wiki was basically in the past for them, but they logged on every now and then. The girl was still missing from the website. They didn’t think much of it.

What they didn’t know, was that, miles away, she had fallen asleep a little too early.

THE END

Too dramatic?