Characterized

What is a friend...
\But that character you used to pretend.
That No One on the bench,
\That No One under a tree,
\Whom only you alone could see,
\Chasing clouds under the sea.
...That No One who used to be.
Laughing and falling and oblivious to time,
\Dependable and reliable and sublime.
\Sharing and giving and never running out,
\Daring and living and void of all the doubt,
\...Long before their ears required you to shout.
And now that friend is pretending as well,
\Laughing and falling and ringing his bell,
\Independent and unreliable and cloaked in a gaudy shell.
\...Lost in some extravagant hell
What happened to these fairy-tale-friends,
\Who are now running errands until the bitter end?