"You write Simon Snow fanfiction?" said the poorly dressed girl reading over Cath's shoulder.
Cath turned around. She had no idea that someone was reading what she was writing over her shoulder. Nosy, she thought.
"That's so cool! I write Simon Snow fanfiction too!" she excitedly stated, introducing herself to Cath, "Hi, I'm Audrey. Pre-Med."
"Nice to meet you, Audrey" Cath replied. The two of them talked about theirSimon Snow fanfiction. "What kind of fanfiction do you write?" Audrey asked.
"The kind where Simon and Baz are a couple." Cath replied. She wrote ship fics. She shamelessly wrote ship fics. "And you?"
"I don't know what you'd call it, but if it weren't fanfiction, it's be lit fic, I guess." Audrey said. "You can read it, if you want. It's on , under the handle SnowMan404."
Excited at the opportunity to read other Simon Snow fanfiction, Cath eagerly searched up SnowMan404 on . Sure enough, there was a barrage of Simon Snow fanfiction, most if it one-shots; unlike the longer, more novel like fics that Cath writes. That wasn't the only difference between Cath's stuff and Audrey's stuff. Audrey's Simon Snow fanfiction was very, very politically charged, often emphasizing conspiracies. If Cath didn't know any better, she'd have sworn that Audrey was an activist/conspiracy theorist masquerading as a fanfic writer. Cath couldn't read it, but she couldn't stop herself from doing so. It was kind of like a train wreck, except the train wreck had less carnage.
Cath was halfway through reading All Souls Night, a story that was basically "So let me get this straight," Cath said, "did I just read a Simon Snowfanfic that hints water fluoridation is part of some elaborate conspiracy that is somehow connected to the patriarchy?"
Audrey looked at Cath, chuckling. "Oh, trust me" she said, "All Souls Night is one of the tamer ones. If you want something really weird, read Heart-Shaped Box. Just, fair warning, that one might give you trouble with poorly lit areas for a while afterwards."
Cath just sat there, mouth open, in silence. She couldn't believe that someone would take Simon Snow fanfiction and use it as a soapbox for their bizarre, self-contradictory political agenda. "I'm sorry, Audrey; but all this does is leave a bad taste in my mouth." Cath said.
"That's what it's supposed to do." Audrey said, "What makes this so powerful is that it's real. This is actually happening."
Cath was beyond shocked. She had just witnessed someone write fan fiction not as entertainment, but as a method of complaining. "Why would you do that?" she asked, "If you need to complain about something, why not just complain?"
Audrey started to become angry "How else am I going to get all the sheeple out there to listen?!" she barked.
"It's not just that," Cath said, "it's everything! Your stuff is disturbing, contradicts itself about a billion times, and nine times out of ten, it doesn't even form a coherent sentence!"
Audrey gathered her things and left. "What a fucking sheep" she muttered under her breath as she left the common area.
Poor Cath couldn't get Audrey's story out of her head. Audrey's story shoved her opinion down the hapless readers throat. Everything else, even something as basic as actually making sense, was an afterthought. Clearly, it was the work of a medical student who had just snapped. Well, Cath thought, it's a good thing that Audrey's not my doctor.