FLUEGEL

Falling Down, Rising Up

A youth who found her calling in the world of sports, Dita Fluegel immersed herself and excelled in almost every exercise she tried. From track to gymnastics to various martial arts, she proved herself capable of being among the best of her peers when at her peak condition. She was born with a body that was faster, stronger, and more enduring than most, but unfortunately her mental fortitude was a bit more volatile. Thankfully her motivations were simple enough. The girl enjoyed competition and challenging training regimens kept her mind from being disturbed by unnecessary thoughts. When all else failed, her love for food would get her through almost any obstacle, with the drawback that it was also sometimes a double-edged sword that distracted her from more important things. It was something that her coaches over the years had learned to work around with. At some point, her coaches decided to focus her efforts on an event where she could display the full extent of her capabilities. And so she began training to become a decathlete with the goal of earning the gold in the Olympics one day.
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Despite her more focused training programs, she still continued to participate in other competitions where she did surprisingly well thanks to her natural talents. But tragedy would strike in a certain gymnastics event that she entered when she was thirteen. She would get into an unfortunate accident involving faulty equipment that resulted into a nasty fall, sending her to the hospital for several weeks. It was a terrible time for her and many people thought that she might have suffered lasting injuries that would end her promising career. In the end while she managed to make a full physical recovery in a few months and was even cleared to return to doing her training regimens, what took the greatest hit from this incident was her more fragile mental state.
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She had developed a case of basophobia as a result of her trauma that basically crippled her whenever it was triggered. When she was running, unless her mind was really clear and focused, she would always fret about tripping and falling down. Even when she was engaging in some of the martial arts that she was fond of, she would find herself paralyzed whenever she was going to be thrown or knocked down, unable to mount a proper response like she used to. And of course this meant that gymnastics and jumping events that she loved in track were a no go as she would begin sweating buckets from the starting block if she tried to attempt them. Gravity used to be her ally but now it bound and shackled her wings. Her World's Greatest Athlete dream was suddenly much further away if not impossible.
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As she contemplated her future, she was approached by a certain mysterious being offering a wish in exchange for her cooperation. According to them, if she wanted to, she could rid herself of all of her mental weaknesses and become an even stronger person than before her accident. But she never hated the kind of person that she was, flawed as she might have been. Even like that, she was able to enjoy the things she loved and she didn't yearn for anything more. However her newfound phobia of falling deprived her of those things. She wanted to once again be able to reach and stand at great heights literally and figuratively without fear, and so that was the only thing she wanted to change.
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"I wish for things to go back to the way they were when I never feared falling down, and was always ready to bounce back up when I did, to reach even higher. I don't really want anything else."
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It was hoping against hope and she didn't truly believe in it at first. But the result was nothing short of a miracle. She was freed from her fear almost on the spot and was suddenly able to do the things she couldn't do without being hindered. It really felt like she had gone back to those precious days. Her dreams were finally within reach again. At the same time, it sunk in that everything that mysterious being told her was actually true. There were forces in this world that threatened her peaceful life and that of others. And so if there was anything she could do to help on that front, she was willing to... as long as they weren't too scary. She wondered in hindsight if she should have also wished for that particular fear to go away.