Do you ever see a mediocre fic get really popular in a fandom just based on the author ran a semi-popular twitter account and it becomes kind of like a cult and nobody's allowed to say anything against that fic (not even that you're not interested in it) or the hoarde will come after you and the author even searches for indirects and sends their minions after people and you can't escape people talking about this fic no matter where you go and it's NOT EVEN THAT GOOD
Do you ever see a mediocre fic get really popular in a fandom just based on the author ran a semi-popular twitter account and it becomes kind of like a cult and nobody's allowed to say anything against that fic (not even that you're not interested in it) or the hoarde will come after you and the author even searches for indirects and sends their minions after people and you can't escape people talking about this fic no matter where you go and it's NOT EVEN THAT GOOD
MEDIOCRE FIC LIVEBLOG
OK starting out there’s a huge blurb about the author’s life choices and links to their socials before we even get to anything about the story... Definitely a good start
Is the basic premise that all of them work at Staples?
Chapter 1:
Maybe it’s because I’m not invested in this fandom but the characters don’t really read as separate people at this point. They don’t have specific “voices” or anything interesting that tells them apart. The prose is bland the way most prose on AO3 is bland.
The premise of all your faves working at Staples is... OK I guess?
I could read it very quickly because nothing interesting happened. Even though it’s a set-up exposition chapter meant to hook you, it didn’t hook me or tell me anything very new about teh characters, save that they work for Staples or are about to work for Staples.
The SPAG is not very bad so there’s that. It was very legible.
- OP
oh and the staples thing is because on of the people once said he worked at staples for a few days when he was a weed smoking teen and I guess that resonated with this person
So does this fic span the course of a few days? Why is it 14 chapters long???
- OP
no they said in the first author's note *exactly* how long it takes place for and how each chapter corresponds to a week of time or something
14 weeks?????? 14 weeks of this? I thought each chapter was like a day from how little stuff was happening
OPI will enjoy this in a cathartic way
Chapter 2:
Dear god author’s notes before the fic should not be this long. I feel like I’ve been transported to the early FFN era.
So last chapter they make a joke about the PMS section’s acronym but do not ever explain what the hell PMS stands for in the context of Staples. Because I am not a regular Staples customer nor have I ever worked there, this is annoying and obtuse. This acronym, completely unexplained, continues to be used in this chapter.
There are little setups for interesting stories to be told by the characters, which could give them some flavor, but instead of writing them, the author decides to say they couldnt come up with something. You’re not smooth!! I know you couldn’t come up with anything either, author!
I guess the POV switches between characters every chapter because of course it does.
The author is obviously going for the “2 characters hang out together and through their interactions we get to know their character and relationship with each other” but keeps doing the friendship equivalent of fading to black.
And then they spent an hour wasting time before getting back to work. OK but what did they do??? Why not even write that??? Why are you so afraid to write meaningful interactions between characters instead of little quips back and forth??
OP"keeps doing the friendship equivalent of fading to black." i love you
Chapter 3:
I thought as time went on the author’s notes would subside. Instead, they are only getting longer. Oh you’re trying to create suspense? How? By writing boring stuff and making the audience go “Oh it’s going to get better”?
Yet another “character establishing chapter”... Pity the characterization isn’t that interesting.
Our protagonists talk about starting a band. Some gay stuff happens between one of them and a side character like in last chapter, to kind of keep establishing that this is a slash fic. The job turns out to be seasonal.
The prose continues to be bland. This feels like the writing of a college freshman, if that makes any sense. Like someone who’s taking their mandatory writing course for the first time and focusing on making the prose not-bad instead of good. There is more excitement and character in the author’s notes than in the fic.
Maybe that’s why the author’s notes are so long.
sounds super annoying
... wow That's... insane. I've seen some of it in h4ak but it's mostly by minions and when the writer finds out they're p quick to tell them to knock their bs off
the fic author has even said that you're not allowed to ship the characters a certain way T_T only their way is the valid way wtf kinda god complex
Like they only allow one dynamic??? The fuck?
yeah and somehow even the people I thought were rational are buying into this. Proper cult stuff...
This reminds me of a BNHA fic I read
:/// oh yeah thats a person I'd block and never read from wtf
i thought this was wild the first time i read it, but now knowing that it's rpf... don't get me wrong, i have nothing against rpf whatsoever, but if you're going to pull 'this is the only way' on a ship, rpf is the last kind i would expect
Is it bad that I want to read the fic now
can I link it without destroying my anonymity hmm
Unless you're the author I'll have no idea who you are
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25903483/chapters/62950894
sorry I probably should've made that a hyperlink but I'm dumb
oh that is really rough
i have never ever seen that and i am now grateful for that