Cigarathe

Author's Note

The story in which you're about to read has a bit of history to it. The characters in this story were not created just for this story, and some of the characters were created by friends and are not my own. My friends and I made the characters in this novel during the Covid-19 Pandemic and it's quarantine. The characters we created were our escape to a fantasy land when we could not go anywhere else. In a way, these characters had saved us. When we could not see others, we used our characters to stay connected to one another. Having the characters of our creation to escape the stress of life has kept us out of very dark places emotionally.

We roleplayed as the characters we created online and every moment of it felt like a fever dream. We created story arcs and villains for our heroes to defeat and created relationships between characters as well. Reading our role play chats would've been like reading a novel. It was packed with action, adventure, romance, drama, betrayal, and so much more.It was fun to do in the moment and it felt equally fun to go back and read what had happened before. We all loved to role play, and we all loved one another as well. Role play had brought us together originally, but after a while of role playing we began to connect with one another outside of our characters. We formed friendships with one another thanks to it. I even connected with people from my school at the time that I never would've become close to without it. We named our group the Vibe Palace and they were my world. The characters in this story were my saviors, but those who created those characters turned out to be a helping hand in my own destruction as well.

With online friend groups comes online drama as well. When we learned the true nature of the people outside their characters we began to turn on one another. Servers that were once a safe haven for myself and others had become our own personal hell. We would still role play as our characters like we always did, but where we once talked as people outside of characters was transformed from a calming chat to a war zone. People would get into heated arguments left and right, and people would be removed from the group as a whole for something as simple as disagreeing with another member of the group. Some were removed from the group, and others left of their own accord. Even when leaving the group in one way or another you would still find yourself involved with their drama. I no longer speak to the vast majority of them, but I still remain good friends with one of them and I remain acquaintances with one other as well.

My point in telling this story when I can guarantee you didn't ask is this: despite this group of online friends being among the worst friend groups I've ever involved myself with, some good came out of my time with them. I was able to get through quarantine without any major issues thanks to them, and their characters combined with their personalities outside their characters have given me the inspiration to create this novel despite being a minor still. If anyone from Vibe Palace stumbled upon this novel, I would like to dedicate it to you. Despite our differences you gave me the characters and ideas that I needed to create this novel you see before you. Thank you for the memories and inspiration.