Fern pushed away from her computer as angrily as she could without disturbing the others in Elwood City High's library. She was furious at what she'd seen on the internet, absolutely furious.
Nearby, Brain noticed Fern's furious look and moved to her. Before he could speak, the librarian shushed them, so the two gathered their things and began to leave the school.
"Did your homework upset you?" Brain asked.
"No!" Fern hissed. "No, it's the internet, Brain, the whole thing! I'm sick of it! I can't even browse casually on my favorite literature sites anymore without seeing... No, you're not a part of those people. I'd offend you if I said anything else."
"Are you talking about your original pieces or...?" Brain trailed off. He didn't want to say "fan fiction". He learned from his creative writing classes that many serious writers thought fan fiction was deplorable, and he knew Fern was a serious writer. He just didn't know how she felt about fan fiction.
"No, fan fiction!" Fern huffed, slamming the bar of the school's exit door, causing an administrator to look up with concern. Considering it was almost four o'clock, she assumed it was a kid leaving detention in a foul mood. She was half-right, at least.
"What kind of-?"
"All kinds! I can't go anywhere without seeing something horrible! I know people experiement. I experimented with strange pairings, implausible situations, and other things, but when I was younger! I just...I don't understand these people."
"Have you told any of them they offend you?" Brain asked. Fern huffed, and Brain blushed, "Well, if you don't want to talk about it, I'll-"
"No, Brain, I want to talk about it. I NEED to talk about it. It's just...some of these people are fans of my work, and I want to be nice to them, but I just...I don't know how to tell them the truth without hurting their feelings."
"I think you're too nice," Muffy called, running to catch up with the two, her heels clacking loudly on the sidewalk. "You, Fern, are too nice to people. That's why you simply left the library when you should've caused an uproar, a big one!" Muffy grinned deviously.
"I'm not that kind of person, maybe when I'm alone, but-"
"But maybe Muffy's right. Maybe you should say something, but indirectly, perhaps through one of your own stories," Brain offered.
Muffy shook her head, "Call them out! Shame them into oblivion! Flame them!"
"No, no, no," Fern cried, stopping mid-step and almost tripping Muffy. "I like Brain's idea. I...I know what I'm going to do," Fern said, turning at the next intersection and dashing to the public library.
Once inside, she claimed a computer and started her story. At the end, she put a kind author's note, and then, with nervous beads of sweat forming on her forehead, she published the fan fiction to her favorite site.
She sat back, waiting for a response, but she got none after an hour. It would be six o'clock soon and time for dinner, but Fern also had homework, so she wouldn't be able to check for results until the morning.
The next day, Fern noticed flyers dangling from bulletin boards and glass windows. She pulled one off, horrified to see her fan fiction plastered on the walls.
"Oh, Fern!" an English teacher called, her arms full of books as she ran up to her prize student, "I noticed these this morning and noticed how proud Principal Warwick was of you. He had these printed and emailed you about them, but he warned me you might be embarrassed, so I've been waiting for you to arrive."
"What is all this?" Fern gaped, watching as passing students either read her fan fiction in passing or pulled a copy down for themselves.
"Principal Warwick has a daughter your age, and she writes fan fiction. She's had the same problem and told her father about your piece, so, here it is. And, you'll be happy to know your readers, some of them your target audience, are proud of you as well," the teacher smiled, gesturing for Fern to follow her to her classroom, which had several computers for her writing students to use.
Once online, Fern saw everyone was forgiving. Many praised her for handling such a delicate situation so calmly, and others apologized for offending her. In the end, friends were made, and though Fern's targets now needed help from editors online, they knew that in the end, they would be better off too.
A/N: I wrote this a while ago. I was inspired by recent browsing and wrote this up, but I didn't want to post it. I'm a quiet person; I'm pretty much just like Fern but fully human. I respect people in their decision to do whatever they want to do with their lives. If you want to marry someone of the same sex, I'm okay with that. If you want your cats to have a full-blown wedding complete with costumes, I'll help you take pictures.
But I am completely sick of the disturbing thing being posted within the Arthur forum. I understand this is . I've been here since the late 2000's posting stories, and yes, some of my old pieces are pretty disturbing to some audiences. But I have never and will never support the idea of children doing things with other children.
Yes, this is a call out to those who think child porn in the Arthur forum is perfectly acceptable. No, it's not. In fact, it's illegal, and many websites treat it as such. Why has never treated it this way beyond me. There are stories in this very fandom right now that should've been removed years ago, yet they remain. And more are posted as if this sort of thing is perfectly acceptable. Well, it isn't.
I usually don't do this sort of thing, but as my above story suggests, I'm sick of this and I'm trying to tell people the best way I know how: Through my writing. I won't name names publicly because I do care about the feelings of others, but there are some writers I have in mind as I write this. If you're reading and you feel your ears burning-which you should-know that I am having a hard time writing this because I don't want to hurt your feelings. But you need to realize that words can hurt people, even words you think are funny or entertaining. Sometimes what you think is entertainment is highly offensive to other people, and this is one of those moments.
I don't think I want to sit back and quietly shy away from my fandom anymore. I don't want to be like Muffy and blatantly call you out, flame every offensive piece, and raise a whole lot of hell to get my point across, but I do want people to know how I feel. I'm sorry if I've hurt any feelings, but I just had to get my thoughts across.