A Brief History
Connor and I met when we were around 13 years old at our tiny middle/high-school, consisting of about 25-30 people. One might assume that we went to a school for weird people, and they would be correct. A unique personality (mental disorder) was certainly a necessary quality for our school. Even with all the strange characters, our school provided a surprisingly fun experience similar to growing up with a giant, chaotic family. Everyone knew everything about each other. We referred to teachers by their first names, and sometimes even hung out with them outside of school. There was also a tad bit of "normalcy", similar to a traditional public school experience.
Connor was very introverted when we first met, and was one of the hardest people to befriend at our school. He didn't seem interested in talking to anyone, really. I was very extroverted and would talk to everyone. So every day, I would devote a little time to bothering Connor by talking to him. I don't think this really did anything in terms of furthering our friendship, but he was forced to interact with me in our small, little bubble. Eventually during one discussion, we realized we both played Warcraft 3. (Note from Connor: This discussion actually happened after we ran the 8k race for extra P.E credit for the school. We were eating at a Denny's after the race and talked about Warcraft 3.) This was the primary building block of our friendship, and the first game we played together. We started hanging out a lot, watching cartoons & anime, playing different video games, and eventually forming the second building block, arguing.
Connor has always had a love for annoying me, and was very good at it. For nearly 20 years, Connor has contrived new and clever ways to irritate me, one of his favorite pastimes. I have always been very argumentative, so naturally a lot of conflict was born from these two clashing character traits. At the same time, we have always shared a similar sense of humor as well, so throughout the years intense arguments were balanced with intense laughing fits. We also have always been able to have deep, interesting conversations, along with shallow, stupid ones. These factors, along with our love of the same video games, are the foundation of our friendship together. We've been through bad times and we've been through great times, and even though life has sent us in completely different directions, we remain best friends and continue to hang out, argue, laugh, and play video games together. That is the essence of Ogre Beast.