[Text] [Anon]

[aurathread]

Once upon a time, there was a little kitten.

[A picture of a kitten appears.]

The kitten loved to play, and she spent her days running around the city, trying to find other kittens to play with. Instead, she found a little girl.

[And the picture of the little girl appears.]

The kitten loved the little girl, and the little girl loved the kitten. But one day a group of bullies showed up.

[This picture of bullies could be better, but shh.]

They teased the little girl, and taunted her for taking care of something so small and weak. They ripped the kitten out of her hands and tossed it down the alley. The kitten was okay, but they beat up the girl.

The little girl had to recover for a long time, and the kitten found her way home. She sat outside the window of the little girl's bedroom, but her father had forbidden her from letting the kitten in.

[Sad kitten in the rain…]

By the time the girl could get out of bed, the kitten was still there. But the kitten was dead.

So who's the wrong one in this story? The kitten, for trying to reach out for help? The girl for not being able to protect the kitten? The bullies for beating her up and hurting the kitten? Or the father, for not letting the kitten in?

[Tsukasa you're banned from telling stories from now on.]

Comments

[imthegoodguy]

I'm sorry to hear that.

But I can promise you the world's not as bad as you remember.

[aurathread]

Maybe not. But people are strange. They turn on you quickly. I don't know who to trust. Even you.

[imthegoodguy]

I wouldn't trust me, either. The fact that anyone does is nothing short of a miracle.

[aurathread]

I don't see how most people can trust anyone.

[imthegoodguy]

Because there are genuinely good people in the world. Even those you wouldn't expect to be good. The ones you think are irredeemably flawed. Sometimes they surprise you with just how good they are on the inside.

[aurathread]

I've only met a few. And they're not here.

[He wishes they were. It'd be easier. He wanted to wake up but now he's not sure if he can face the real world again.]

[imthegoodguy]

I'm sure you'll meet some here, too. It might take a while. You really do have to get to know a person well before you know just how good they are.

[aurathread]

But if you get to know someone they might end up hurting you.

[imthegoodguy]

That's the risk you have to take. Either that or spend the rest of your life alone.

[aurathread]

At least you wouldn't get hurt...

[imthegoodguy]

That's not true. I have gotten hurt. Many times. By people I chose to be with, and people I didn't. Some of it was my fault. But not all of it.

[ LOST: a television show where everyone has daddy issues or IS the daddy issue, some cases both ]

[aurathread]

[.hack//SIGN: a story about parental figure abuse]

You'd get hurt less, at least. I tried to reach out to people and now they're not here with me. In the real world at home people picked on me for no reason. I couldn't even get the... supplies I needed. If I could just live away from people I wouldn't be hurt by them anymore.

[Like on a deserted island-]

[imthegoodguy]

[ Ben lived on an island with his father. It worked wonders for him! ]

Pain is pain, no matter who caused it. Sometimes, getting hurt once causes enough pain to match getting hurt a thousand times. That's always the risk; but you have to ask yourself, is the risk so great that it's worth the pain of being alone? Is it worth keeping company only with your own misery?

Just because your loved ones aren't here doesn't mean you'll never see them again. They might even wind up here with you. Don't give up hope. That will only make the pain worse.

[aurathread]

[That would just end badly here]

Being alone isn't painful. It shouldn't be, at least. Not when the other option is so much pain, physical and otherwise.

[imthegoodguy]

There's nothing in this life that protects you from pain.

[aurathread]

You can do your best to minimize it though.

[imthegoodguy]

You can, but then you aren't really living.

Those sorts of things are fine for old men like me. But if you're young... You've got your whole life ahead of you. Why end it before it starts?

[aurathread]

Because I don't want to get hurt.

[imthegoodguy]

I honestly don't know what to say to that, except that I'm sorry life has made you feel you have no choice but to retreat.