Random Book (+ HxR Oneshots)

Behold, Your Hero!

"Hhhheck yes.." You growled into the mic. Hunched over your keyboard and mouse, you wildly spammed and clicked in a way that sort of made it look intentional! On your main monitor was a game you'd been so kindly gifted before its official release date. On your other monitor, the chat to your Livestream poored past like a wild river. Too many names and comments to count. Too many words to ever hope to respond to.

Yep, you were living in the fast lane. It started way back when you were only an awkward 14 year old with no friends. To pass the time, you started making videos and later live streams. It took you years to get here, but you were here. A twenty year old with no life goals other than to game!

The masses followed you for your exciting, bombastic personality. No one was safe from receiving a jabbing insult from you. It was all in good fun, but you had perfected the art of crudeness on camera.

You were much the same in real life as well.

And now that you lived in a house full of other streamers, you had your life set ahead of you; a bright future certain to get you wealth and glory!

"AWH! WE DID IT, CHAT!" The first boss went up in a raging fit of flames. Your arms flew up over your head, an excited laugh jumping out your lungs as you marveled at the challenge now past you. "And if you too want to have a crack at this game, it'll be out iiiinnnn, TOMORROW! That's right! Click the link below to purchase the game ahead of time..before it's too late!"

The numbers were in the six digits, climbing higher and higher each day. The colors were so bright. Loud, rock music rattled your eardrums. Ohhh, this high was amazing!

...

The greatest fear for any, at this point, would be silence.

...

Five dried kelp wouldn't be enough to get you through the night... Not with how terribly your stomach ached.

You sat on a lonely island, a single torch the only source of light for miles. The stars sparkled overhead, their reflections dancing on the ocean waves all around.

You grimaced and dug your hand through the sand. The silence was mind numbing. No matter what you hummed, it didn't help.

"Alright, chat, what do you say? Five dried kelp..or this raw egg we picked up earlier today?" You asked absolutely no one. Your stomach growled an answer. "Heh... Both it is...then...." Not amused even by your own play, you cracked the egg and dropped the yoke into your mouth. The slimy, lukewarm goop made you spittle a little, but you kept enough of it in to managing swallowing. "..eugheu~" Quickly, you threw the four small pieces of kelp in after the egg yoke and chewed bitterly. Tasted like dead sea plant.. naturally salted by the ocean they grew up in.

It doesn't take much to break a person.

You trekked through the desert, heaving and huffing every breath. A backpack made crudely with leaves and vines carried the things you had accumulated over the treacherous weeks.

Your kind finds entertainment in watching each other suffer. A sick satisfaction out of watching circumstance taint their morals. You tell yourselves, "I would never turn out like them if I went through the same thing. Noo, not me. I have a strong heart." My child, you do not know how weak your soul really is; how fragile you become after only one insult; how lonely you are even when surrounded by people who love you...

At last exiting the desert, you fell into a pool of water and hurled into it.

Only when imagining the suffering of others has become a pastime, is it so blatantly obvious how badly you need to wake up.

This voice just couldn't get out of your head.

You laid curled up in a cave, too many broken bones to count. Every part of you is throbbing. The pain is so terrible and unavoidable that you've already lost your lunch to it again and again in this deep, dark hole. Two arrows are plunged into your side, scraping through your ribs with every breath.

Behold, your favorite part of the story. When the hero is at their lowest point. When darkness has consumed their life and the only choice they have left is to keep going or give up and die.

"Sh-shut...up..." You breathed, but of course the voice didn't listen. It never did.

Alas, the hero who once had everything, now has nothing. A lost and dying soul must make the difficult decision to fight on, no matter the consequences.

"I said SHUT UP!"

What will you do, young hero?... Now that you are faced with this choice, do you fight on and learn from your mistakes, or will you give up? Will you stick to those flimsy morals you hold so dear to you..or will they finally come crashing down in order to save yourself further suffering?

"ENOUGH!" Your voice broke. Jabbing pain in your side made your entire body convulse. "F###!!" You cried. 

...It appears our hero is headed down a very dark path.

"I said stop it!! Leave me al-one!!" Your voice was so weak. So terribly broken up with time. Tears filled your eyes as your head violently crashed into the stone again. You stared tearfully at the darkness all around you.

For a long time, the only thing you could hear was your own, loud sobs and strained breaths.

"I don't care where I end up tomorrow.. I don't CARE what happens next!"

. . .

"Just let me pretend that this is all a dream..."

. . . I . . . see no hero in you . . .

I see no villain either.

Only human.

As we all truly are.

Now wake up.

Have your dream . . .

-

(Sorry this makes no sense.)