Ens. Kim Stapledon - Bogeyman

((OOC:  Thought I'd take this opportunity to do a bit more character development))

((Shuttle Bay - Fake USS Enterprise))

There was something oddly ironic about all of this.  Kim stood once again inside of the product of someone's obsession with creating a life they didn't have through a bunch of stuff and characters.  She sighed, thinking back on her time in creative writing class at the academy with Professor Vaal.

((Flashback - Starfleet Academy - Creative Writing Class))

Kim sat calmly in her seat, still uncertain as to why creative writing was offered at the academy to begin with.  The semester was still just beginning and this was only the second lecture of the course.

Vaal:  The narrative needs to be consistent, to carry with it the weight of the intended meaning.  Details must be made to serve the greater needs of the narrative agent's intended purpose.

Kim thought about this.  

Vaal:  If your character is wearing red stockings why is she wearing them?

Kim was wearing her black Starfleet issue socks.

Vaal:  If your character is scared of the dark, why is that relevant to the story?

Kim wasn't scared of the dark.  

((Flashback - 10 years prior))

The closet door shook, an ominous glow emanating from its edges.  Behind her she could hear soft crying.

The door slid open slowly, pulled ajar by crooked fingers attached to a horror neither she nor her sister could describe.

((Present - Starfleet Academy - Creative Writing Class))

Vaal:  And when your actions occur they must bring the reader forward, convey a message that works both internally to the story and externally, in the reader's mind.

Kim did her best to take notes.

Vaal:  In the world of story there is always coherence.  Even in the case of works like the film Rubber, there is a coherent message about the underlying reality of things and details that, while expected to be there, don't really matter.  Why was the tire black and not yellow?  No reason.

((Flashback - 10 Years  prior))

The crooked fingers were tipped with glistening black claws, the skin of the hands was a dark green, pockmarked and slowly peeling off of the bones beneath.  

Kim's old nightmares came back to her, her sister's crying behind her accompanying them as they flooded through the now wide open closet door, interrupting the calm and normal rhythm of hanging clothes and forgotten keepsakes.

Between everything stood the horrifying form of the fanged and terrifying monster.

Why had she dreamt that its claws had been black?

((Present - Starfleet Academy - Creative Writing Class))

Vaal:  Even in those small details there was a reason.  

Kim nodded.  He continued.

Vaal:  And the world of the story and its characters must be relatable.  The reader must, in some sense, want to occupy the world of your story.  They must miss that world when they leave it.    You are building a space for your reader to occupy if only for a short while.  Let them identify with and celebrate your characters' achievements.

((Flashback - 10 Years  prior))

Kim stood face to face with the horrible monster.  Its eyes glared at her menacingly, black beads whose darkness made itself felt as holes in the dim light of her bedroom.  

The creature opened its mouth.

At once Kim sprung into action.  She flung her leg out, spinning and hook kicking the fiend.  She felt the crunch of snapping bone beneath her heel as she connected with it.  

The monster let out a horrifying howling sound as its ribs were cracked.

((Present - Starfleet Academy - Creative Writing Class))

Vaal:  You must invite your reader to come along with you on the plot.  Creative writing isn't just about creating a static artifact to be pondered later.  If you have a story to tell it will come alive in your hands.

((Flashback - 10 Years  prior))

Stapledon: ::Soothingly:: It's okay.  You're safe now, the monster's dead.

Gradually, her sister's crying subsided.

Slowly the lights in the room came on.  At her feet the monster's carcass was replaced by the shiny hardwood floor.  The closet door was open, revealing only her clothes, her journals, and a few other keepsakes.  One of the hangers rocked gently.

Stapledon:  See?  No monster.

((Present - Starfleet Academy - Creative Writing Class))

Vaal:  And when your story ends your reader needs to have gained something from reading it.  Even if it's something small.  Stories are among the most precious things sentient life forms can create.  They are intangible but more valuable than gold-pressed latinum.  They are weightless but carry more power than the most destructive supernovae.  

((Flashback - 10 Years  prior))

The sister Kim had created for herself faded with the hardwood and the closet.  Soon Kim stood alone in the holosuite.  For a moment she fixated on the yellow grid.  She wondered why the lines were yellow.  She'd read the reason a while ago but forgotten.

((Present - Starfleet Academy - Creative Writing Class))

Vaal:  Stories bring coherence to a chaotic world.  They allow us to feel a sense of closure and meaning in even the darkest times.  

Over the years Kim had sensed her mother's concern about her imaginary friends in the holosuite.  She'd weaned her off of them, encouraging her to find ways to use her talents with holo programming to make things for people in the real world.

Every so often she'd seen sadness in her mother's face when they'd talked about her need to find more real people to be friends with.  As time went on she deleted more of the programs with her sister in them.  

And then one day the incident in her social studies class had happened.  

There had been something terrifying about the Betazoids and what they'd said.  She heard the girl's words again in her mind.  "Your fantasy life with your imaginary sister is so lame.  I hope you grow up to be an even lonelier loser than you already are."  The pain made her wince once again.

Vaal:  A story is like work of numerical analysis, taking the seemingly random points and placing them in the context of a coherent arc.  Even in the most terrifying of times, the story goes on.  And there is always meaning.

She remembered how things had died down a few minutes after the Betazoid had said those things to her.  She'd been so angry, felt so violated.  She'd wanted there to be a law against Betazoids reading peoples' thoughts like that.  In the midst of her anger had been something else.  Quietly and gently, the voice she'd so often used when comforting her fictional sister whispered in the back of her mind.  Don't worry.  We'll make friends.  Real friends.  You'll see.

That night she'd deleted the rest of the programs.  She'd cried bitterly, hated the Betazoids in class.  

She was shaken from her reverie by Professor Vaal.

Vaal:  As Starfleet officers you'll encounter many situations that won't seem to make sense.  You'll lose friends.  You'll discover things that appear at first glance to be pure noise and chaos.  But if your minds are inquisitive and you are brave, I promise you it will all make sense.

The Betazoids hadn't said anything else to her about her fantasy worlds after that day.

Vaal:  Your work isn't just cataloguing data and exploring.  It's putting it all together and conveying what it all means.

((Present - Shuttle Bay - Fake USS Enterprise))

Kim set about arranging the fake tools from the era of those old scientists in their respective kits, preparing them for transport on their fake shuttlecraft back to the real Constitution.

There was happiness in her return to her duties as the arc was adjusted to incorporate a few more points of data.  She hoped there would be more.