Endless stories are told around the world. All day, every day, there's always a new story to be told, and a new tale to be heard. Maybe it's not new, but at least you haven't heard it yet. These stories can be boring or entertaining. Long or short. Some stories paint a vivid description of its events. Some are bland with depictions, and leave the imagery to the imagination. With an infinite amount of events occurring constantly, and an infinite amount of words being combined in an infinite amount of ways, there truly is an indefinite amount of stories. These stories can be happy, sad, and they can make you feel many other emotions as well. These stories are often so popular, they're bought and sold like commoddities. Because if the story is good enough, it becomes one. Straying away from published works, stories are often shared by word of mouth, and received by ear. These stories could be random juicy tidbits about the people in your neighborhood, like "Oh, did you hear that Mr. Kayaba is divorcing his wife", but they can also be more immature but exciting stories like "Supposedly, if you head to the cafe at night, you can see a ghost if you stare behind the counter long enough". These are the most common, and are always being spread. Almost like a virus. Day in and day out, short little tales and anecdotes like that about anything and everything make their way through the air. These are the most common, and you've likely caught wind of them- or something similar. These often overlooked, but never missed stories. However. Most of those stories are false. Stories that didn't happen.
Wives' tales.
Rumors.
Street gossip.
Local legends.
All of which are never true. Their only purpose is to deceive. These rumors are made up by people who have boring lives, to make life less boring. Maybe, if enough people hear about this, they'll start to believe it is a common thought process. These lies, passed as tales, are made up. Entirely fabricated. They exist for nothing more than to be spread. That is what they're for. Perhaps the nature of all stories is to be told, but there are some stories which are not to be told.
If something remotely odd happens in a small uneventful town, the account of that will be twisted, until it becomes a lie that sounds real enough to believed and interesting enough to resonate on the tongues of the townsfolk, and sent out to pollute the town. Those townspeople received news of a shocking discovery, but in reality, what they've heard is far from the truth, and what they got was a lie disguised as a story whose only purpose is to be spread.
Who cares if it's a lie? If the only purpose of the story is to be told, then what's so bad about it if it is?
If the truth to the story was never augmented, then whatever. But this is a lie. False information. Events that did not occur. When such a thing is created and spread, the intention is for it to reach as many people as possible. Who's to say that the lie can't become the truth?
If that half baked false account starts to be believed by everyone, does that make it the truth? Does it make it their truth? Does a lie which is perceived as true by all become close enough to the truth to be passed as the truth? If the truth isn't evident, why not just pick something and decide that that's the truth?
The truth is always undefined, uncertain.
If you stubbed your toe walking down the street, but ten people who saw you walking down the street say that you didn't stub your toe, does the truth shift? Does the truth bend to majority?
Reality and the truth are assumed to be one, or the same. They're often used as synonyms for each other. But reality is real. It's what actually happened, is happening, and will happen. The truth is what is believed to have happened, what is believed to be happening, and what is believed will happen in the future. The truth is often far from reality. And this is a scary thing.
What you know to be true, what you know is a fact, could be a lie. Conversely, what you know to be a lie, a fabrication, may be the truth. But applying the ideology that the truth can be decided using the imagination of a group and a vote, the truth and a lie are the same. But what's separate from all that, is reality.
This story, unlike most tales, is reality, and the truth. This story actually happened, and was agreed upon by all who know of it to have happened. The purpose of all tales, true or not, is to be told. It could be argued, however, that this tale is one not meant to be told. It's one that might be better kept a secret between those aware of it. But a debate of whether a story should be told or not is just as agitating as discerning the truth from a mix of reality and lies. Reality
or maybe not reality
, truth, and lies, they could be the same. Whether or not a tale is meant to be told, or it should be told, might not matter in the end. It might all be the same.
But, this story, which undoubtedly happened, shouldn't have happened. And that's different.
