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It was a just another tiring, stressful day for her, an ordinary 13-year-old girl living in the land of Smilestown, a place where everything is “fine” and everyone is “happy”. But for her? Everything is also “fine”. Everything is fine as long as it happens in Smilestown. And this day? It was mundane, unintriguing in her mind. Yet she had to keep it to herself since no one wants a sad, useless little crybaby in this perfect place, do they? Detention, getting scolded by her teachers for bad grades, getting scolded by her classmates for not contributing in the group project... it’s not like she doesn’t try for anything. In fact, Ryla tried really hard to keep everything together. But somehow, she still failed. She didn’t study, she studied, it doesn’t matter. It would still be the same. If she failed she would get scolded. If she passed, even though it was usually a marginal pass, she would still get criticized for not doing good enough. She did the group project, she didn’t do the group project, it didn’t matter either. No matter what happened, the group would ignore her efforts. If she did the presentation slides, her classmates would make mean comments about it being “unattractive and boring” without even explaining why they see it that way. If she didn't do the presentation, well, she would get scolded for it and she actually deserved it. And the worst of all? Her parents wouldn't even comfort her if she felt down. And Rina, the “oh so perfect” sister of hers had overly high achievements she will never be able to accomplish. So, she decided to try and act like how other people want her to be even though she failed all the time. Despite all these hardships she faced, she still had a dream. An innocent, beautiful dream. She wished to be the greatest power-wielder known to mankind and save a lot of lives. However, she was often mocked for such a childish dream due to having no powers at all. In this society, all those with powers were seen as more important people. Even people of the lowest social classes could have more opportunities than those of the rich noblemen as long as they held special powers. So… powers? What were they? There were 7 main types of power: Long-ranged, Short-ranged, Healer, Buffer, Shielder, Information and Creation. And some smaller branches including: physical, weapon, elemental, passive and non-passive. Some may enable one to control objects, some may cause one to manipulate space, some may allow one to grow stronger. But Ryla? Her power was but a dream. She wouldn't be able to become a hero easily simply by being herself.
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After her long and bitter time staying in detention, dreaming of the impossible, she met her boyfriend, Veretis, who was perfect in almost every way. Not only does he have good looks, was very stylish, knew a lot of people, he was also good at sports, had good grades, attended many competitions and received satisfactory results, was an amazing actor, a skilled pianist… basically perfect. But behind all that perfectness? He was scared. Scared that someone would suddenly be better than him and replace him, scared that he would stop being perfect, scared that he would suddenly lose everything he built so diligently. It took a very high pressure tolerance level to continuously act fine about being good at things when you’re secret crumbling inside and losing your original identity acting as what people want you to be and not who you are. Because every time you “adjust” or “improve” yourself with no direct benefits to your own wellbeing, you lose a part of who you originally were, until all that’s left of you is an empty husk of you, only to become a vessel of people’s “perfection”.
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“Hey how’s your day? D’you get your test results back or somethin’?”
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“Yeah. I think you can tell what my grades are.”
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“It’s fine. I don’t mind it. As long as you tried then it’s alright.”
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“Yeah. As if! You’ll never understand how hard I try just to get scolded again by everyone I know! You’re perfect, you’re mega rich and probably have a billion STM (Smilestown Money) and many people like you. And me? You think you have a say in what I feel? You’re too good to understand.”
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“You never told me how you felt. How was I supposed to understand?”
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“You’re supposed to know! I don’t feel safe enough to tell you cuz you’re all just gonna laugh at me for how I feel! That’s not my fault at all!”
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“You can’t just expect me to know everything when you never even told me!”
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“Ugh! Everyone hates me!”
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“I don’t. It’s fine, okay? Sorry for that…” he reassured her as he thought to himself, why does she always emotionally manipulate me? Why do i allow this to happen?
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“You’ll never understand me. You’re perfect. You have nothing to worry about.”
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“Listen I may seem perfect but it’s not easy for me to maintain this image in front of everyone acting like I can do everything without breaking a sweat. They may think I’m really talented, but it’s not the first day you know me. You know how I actually am and who I actually am, if I still have my original identity that is. It’s so hard. So. Hard. To be this “perfect” person in front of everyone. I need to keep everything at a high standard all the time cuz people will criticize me if any, and by that I mean any of my grades or results ever slip down even by a micro. scopic. Bit. Being everyone’s so-called “perfect” human is so tiring, I don’t even know if I’m a human or a physical form of your ideals. It’s so stressful, so boring, so mundane and? It’s killing me inside! Stop saying I have nothing to deal with! Shut up! You may not understand because you think you’re such an “ordinary” person to others. I’ll tell you what you are! An impolite, narcissistic schadenfreude! If you ever think I have nothing to deal with, you better just keep those thoughts to yourself. Don’t you EVER say that I have nothing to worry about! I’m not stopping you from having opinions about me. But if those are your opinions, I won’t listen to them.”
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“Fine then. If you won’t even care enough to listen, then let’s just break up! You don’t even care about me! I have my problems too! Just because you think you have it worse doesn’t mean you can belittle my feelings!”
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“Hey you can’t be serious about this… I’m sorry if I hurt you. I didn’t mean it like that… I just wanted to say that I have problems too… I know you struggle and try really hard. You’re good enough and I love you, okay?”
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“I don’t even want to be with you! You don’t care about me!”
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“I’m sorry. Please stay with me… I do care about you. We can go get ice cream together. I’ll help you with your studies if you want.”
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“You know I hate studying and it doesn’t work on me so just leave me alone! I hate you!”
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“Do you actually want to break up with me? Or is this another threat?”
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“I never threatened you! I only said that I’ll break up with you because you never understood how I felt! I need to say it more so you would care!”
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“But you never told me how you felt.”
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“I didn’t feel safe to! And did you even ask?!”
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“Yes, I ask you how you are every day.”
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“I don’t feel safe with you, okay?”
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“What can I do so that you can feel safe with me?”
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“No! We’re over!”
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“Is that what you truly want?”
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“Yes!”
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“Oh… I’m sorry… I’ll- I’ll go then,” said Veretis as he turned around quickly, hid
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ing away the tears that threaten to spill out from his eyes.
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