Title: Not Good Enough

Prompt: Background Character - Let's be honest, after you worked so hard on it, the worst thing that could happen right now is somebody stealing the credit for it is not having it acknowledged.

Summary: The words 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' followed her everywhere. Beryl-centric.


A/N) Prompt stolen from my brother again. Because his prompts are beautiful.

Anyway... Beryl = Faye. I'm not sure why I gave her that name.

As for her little brother being named 'Siren'... Well, 'Faye' means 'Fairy'/'Faery' so mythical creatures. One can fly. The other can swim. This is great.

Also, chapter 4 onwards aren't edited I can't edit at 2AM


It started when she was a kid in school.

Her mother told her it was important for her to be the best possible. Her father told her that it was necessary to do better than everyone else, because then it would be easier to get jobs. So she tried her best to be the best. She was Faye, number one, all the time, no exceptions possible at all. Her teachers were proud of her. Her little brother Siren was jealous. Her parents doted on her.

But then it all changed when a transfer student from a different country moved over and booted her down to second place. Her teachers told her that it was okay, that he was 'foreign talent' and that it was obvious that he was going to be better than her. She noticed the stares she received, the stares from her parents filled with disappointment, the stares from her teachers that said that she wasn't worthy anymore, the stares from her brother that were happy that his sister wasn't the best anymore.

So she worked harder, tried harder, until she barely are and you could count her ribs. She wore baggy clothes to school to mask the fact that she was foregoing eating in order to study so that her parents could be proud of her. But even when she scored nineties out of hundreds all she could see was that it wasn't perfect and therefore 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH'. The words blazed in her mind, bright red and flashy, reminding her every second that she was 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH'.

She was stolen away from her home to a tiny laboratory on the outskirts of town, built into yellow-stoned mountains. She made friends with the two boys that had been captured, first with the white-haired one that had been there before her, and then with the black-haired one that had appeared after she did. Eventually they made friends with each other, talking to each other in the way only boys could, and ignored her. She curled up in a corner, blocking out their invitations and outstretched hands in favor of the words 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' that shrieked in her mind.

Eventually she was given up on, and they ignored her completely. She wasn't good enough for the white-haired boy. She wasn't good enough to hold his attention when the black-haired one came in. She wasn't good enough for anyone, to hold anyone's attention for long and she was just the third wheel in any relationship ever. So she buried her head in her arms and sobbed, shaking as the words 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' screamed at her as she willed it to go away and leave her alone.

And then after that she was dragged away by the owner of that laboratory and made into a robot along with the other two. They all forgot about each other soon enough, becoming emotionless shells of the people they once were. But behind the façade she held, the words remained in her mind. 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' it read, this time in bright red font that agitated her mind.

The scientist grew to favor only one of them - the black-haired boy he named Xenon. She wasn't good enough to garner the scientist's attention. She wasn't good enough for the other two to remember her. No matter what, it seemed, she was just 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH'. It didn't matter what she did to try and get the scientist's attention, she was just 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH'.

And then both boys ran away from the laboratory. She was the only one that stayed. And then for a split second, the words flashed into 'GOOD ENOUGH' in an approving green before the scientist demanded she get the black-haired one back, no matter the cost. She was back to square one. She was 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH'.

So she tried to be 'GOOD ENOUGH'. She tracked him down to the best of her ability and tried to convince Xenon to go home with her, back to the laboratory in the mountains. But when he refused, she tried to take him back with force, but failed and lay broken on the ground. 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' flashed in her mind as she struggled to get back up, to try and get herself working again. And she left to go back to the scientist.

She was fixed up, the scientist demanding why she was so terrible at doing one simple mission. Why she was terrible at everything. Why she was too weak to withstand Xenon's blows, why she was too weak to pull Xenon back. Why she wasn't convincing enough. And again, the three words - 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH'. And she was sent back out again, because the scientist had no choice.

She failed. Miserably. Rinse, repeat. She would fail, and then the scientist would tell her how useless she was, how bad she was, how she was 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' before sending her out again to capture Xenon. She would fail again, and return only to listen to the same things again. She believed every word - after all, her creator wouldn't lie to her.

At last the scientist wouldn't take any more of her failures. One last chance to capture Xenon, to prove her worth. But she believed she was worth nothing, so this time she purposefully lost against Xenon, although she had wanted to prove she was 'GOOD ENOUGH'. But she wasn't 'GOOD ENOUGH', Xenon was, and she never would be. No matter how much she tried and no matter what she did, she was always a failure, always a stupid mistake, always worth nothing, and always 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH'.

She had grown to believe this sort of self-hate was normal. She believed it even more over time though her system corrupted and distorted and her scientist destroyed her. She was 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' to live. If she had failed so much in her life, she was 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' for anything.

'NOT GOOD ENOUGH NOTGOOD ENOUGH NOTGOODENOUGH FAIL FAIL FAILURE FAILUREFAILURE WORTHLESS WORTHLESSWORTHLESS-'

'-SYSTEM CORRUPT. FATAL ERROR.'