The story of crippling depression

By Darcy Swadling

Late in the evening one Sunday night Gale was finishing off his dinner as he sat at his desk headphones on “no way paladin beats barbarian in a fight, that just makes no sense a barbarian has rage which halves all damage all paladins have is a high AC which the barbarian’s multi attack effectively mitigates it makes no sense.” he laughs into his mic like it were an obvious fact. 

“Yeah, but paladins have spells to debuff barbarians and make them weaker before the fight even begins,” Karly voice replied through Gale’s headphones “what do you think Bit?”

“I think it depends on the barbarian and paladin’s subclass” Bit replies with blatantly audible caution

“Come on!” Karly yelled with exasperation at Bit’s stubborn neutrality

“Karly, you knew they were never going to take sides they never do.” Gale mocks as he leans back in his chair having just finished his dinner takes off his headphones and takes his bowl to the kitchen, and while he was out of his room his parents natural forced him to do the washing up before going back to his room. When he arrived back at the call Bit and Karly had started talking about the upcoming D&D session where Bit was playing dungeon master Karly seemed to be putting some ideas by Bit about her character. 

“that’s cool and all but guys I have to get some sleep before school tomorrow and it’s getting pretty late.” Bit said with a long sigh “Karly I’ll get back to you on that background stuff later.”

“oh I just got back,” Gale was a bit disappointed, but he couldn’t blame them for getting tired “well see you at school mate” 

“yeah see you to.” Bit said

“Bye Bit.” Karly called just before the dulled ping of Bit logging off the sounded in Gale’s headphones “Any way I’d better get some sleep as well, good night Gale.” And just like that Gale was all alone on the call and as he logged off discord started to feel the night getting to him after all maybe it was time to get ready for some sleep as he started his nightly routine. 

In the morning Gale woke and got ready for school just like any other day said goodbye to his family as he left and met up with Bit on the way like any other day then met up with Karly like any other day. Then he went through the old halls to class like any other day, as they walked through the halls Karly often liked to muse about who might have walk those same halls, one time she even came to the conclusion that a medieval lord must have been the first principal of the school which was only built in the 19th century as Gale pointed out to her disappointment. When they finally arrived at class they waited outside for the teacher they check that they have the right stuff for class. 

then a few of the stinking British soccer rock heads appear with their normal smiles and laughs “oh look there’s the dream girl with her boyfriend and thingfriend.” One said as they got near. 

“Get stuffed.” Karly snapped in reply, but his smile stayed as happy as before as he and his friends walked past and laughing to each other like they were the funniest people on earth. 

“Bloody pricks” Gale said to himself when they’d sat in their seats up the front. 

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean that they deserve any of our time, just ignore them.” Bit said as they sat down and class began. The rest of that class went smoothly if only because the trio were all up the back, away from the soccer team where they could fidget and work in peace. The next two lessons went about the same as the first but in the science class the they were doing a practical experiment and had to be in groups of two and so Gale had to go and join another person. After a few seconds of initial shuffling and argument amongst the various friend groups there was only one other person left, the soccer team’s star forward and a head full of rocks. As the experiment dragged on and he kept talking about sport or parties with his friends and not focusing on the experiment gale’s patience strained and the experiment results suffered by the end Gale was more than ready for a lunch of pork and crackles. Sadly, though the canteen was packed and by the time gale got to the crackles they were all eaten, and so he had to go without them for that day. So, when they ate that day they were all sort of mentally exhausted and looking forward to going home and playing games with each other. 

“Come on only one more class.” to go Karly said to Gale as he sourly picked away at his pork feeling burnt out from the science class. 

“And it’s the worst class of all, PE.” He said with grimace before he put a piece pork in his mouth to half-heartedly chew on. 

“Oh, come on it’s not that bad…” Karly paused trying to find something good to say about the class “there’s no theory work to do at least.”

“yeah and instead we have to run around after a ball while all the football players just do tricks again and again just to impress their friends.” Gale replied with a pessimistic sting in his voice from all the times he had tried to ask for the ball but one of the guys kicked the ball out in one of their fancy flourishes. 

“He has a fair point.” Bit chimed in after swallowing a mouth full of their pork. 

“Oh, you two are impossible!” Karly finished in exasperation apparently done trying to convince her friends think more optimistic. 

from there the conversation died down and the three friends focused on eating their food after then they spent the rest of their break in the library trying to find an interesting book out of the dozens possibly hundreds of boring books. When the bell finally rang for their last class the trio all steeled themselves for the most exhausting class yet in the most trying time to have it. As they were waiting for class to begin, in their sports uniform talking amongst each other the teacher arrived and explained what they were doing 

“So basically we’re playing a game of football.” A jubilant cheer arose from the soccer team as the teacher ended his on this note and they got to work choosing their teams and getting a ball and also a spar ball, picking roles. 

Soon the game began with all three of the outcasts on the same team before the match they had been preparing a game plan for the coming bustle where it was agreed that they would play on the out skirts just play positioning. This plan was useful in that they would be able to be relatively useful without having to come up against the more aggressive players chasing the ball. This strategy was working well for most of the game with the three friends not really doing too much and just being in position to make their opponent’s job a little bit more difficult and being team players. As the game progressed some of the more eager students started to push and shove more and as they did tensions began to rise and blood began to boil Gale who was already on edge after science, began to break as yelling got louder and the more competitive individuals got more impatient. 

Bit noticing this ask “hey Gale, you okay?” a concerned look on their face as they saw their friend struggling. 

“Yeah, just tired it’s been a long day and-” Gale was cut of as the ball shot past to fast for either Gale or Bit to react and the one of the other students ran over with a look of dismay on his face. 

“Hey what was that mate we passed the ball right to you and you let go out what was going on at least try!” He yelled as if there was any way that the two of them could have reacted without any warning and in that instant Gale snaped. 

“shut up I was having a conversation with Bit.” Gale yelled back with anger flowing unrestrained in his voice. 

“you mean George” the other guy replied ignoring the months and months of people calling Bit and using their preferred pronouns and the countless attempts to make him do the same. 

“My name is Bit, stop using my dead name.” they replied in a stern and angry voice.

“what dead name like you’re a different person, no.”