Melanie Hamilton Wilkes was sitting staring out the window as her sister in law scribbled furiously on a sliver of paper. Her brow was furrowed and her lips pursed as she concentrated.
"Scarlett, darling, what are you doing?" The diminutive Mrs. Wilkes asked.
"What does it look like? I'm writing." Scarlett snapped in frustration. "Why?"
"Well, it appears that we have been invaded."
"Invaded!" cried Scarlett in fear. "The Yankees are here? And you are just standing there staring out the window like a little ninny?"
"I don't believe that its the Yankees." replied Melanie.
"What ever do you mean? Who else would invade us?" Scarlett quizzed.
Melanie's face was ashen, "I'm not certain. But it isn't an invasion as I was expecting. And they are all waving these strange little contraptions at us, yelling that we should do this and that. Can't you hear them?"
Scarlett peered out through Aunt Pittypat's lace curtains. "They are little girls!" Scarlett exclaimed in frustration. "They look no older than Careen. I don't think that they are much of a threat."
"But look Scarlett, none of our regular friends have stopped by today. I think perhaps this younger crowd is somehow preventing them. I don't think that they would be scared of them, but you know how irritating those children who think that they are adults can be. They try to act like they are adults, but instead make themselves look like fools, and make everyone else uncomfortable." Melanie was still standing obscured from sight by the curtains.
"Surely they will lose there interest. There are so many things that are surely more interesting than we are. I know that it can be fascinating to dream about how life would be like if Rhett and I were to get married, but I don't know why they keep trying to make me leave this time period. I have no desire to be in the twenty-first century. Have you seen the clothes that they try to put me in? Have you seen what they try and make me say and do?" Scarlett groused as she moved back to the table where she had been writing. With a side glance at her sister-in-law she hurriedly added, "you really don't want to know. Trust me."
"All right. I will trust you. I don't understand this younger generation, although sometimes the older crowd certainly makes me blush. Perhaps they will return to one of their other fanfiction interests. I have seen that many have been dabbling in other areas as well. Perhaps they won't stay here. Perhaps they will go off into the Twilight, whatever that is." Melanie said encouragingly.
"Yes, but there are so many of them. I am feeling suffocated."
"But surely you aren't wishing that they would stop visiting all together. If they did then the fandom would die."
Scarlett snorted in quite the unladylike manner. "I can assure you that the fandom would not die out just because a few thirteen year olds didn't get to post their ludicrous stories."
"But they are so young! We shouldn't discourage them." Melanie argued quietly.
"It isn't you that they center most of their stories on. If that were the case you would be complaining as well."
"But you normally enjoy being the center of attention." Melanie countered.
One dark eyebrow rose. " who gave you a back bone?
"Well, remember at the barbecue. You enjoyed being surrounded by all of your beaus and being fawned all over."
"It isn't the same. They glorify the wrong things, and then sometimes stories that only use my name. The person that they are writing about certainly is not Rhett and I!" Scarlett groused.
"So you don't mind the stories..." Melanie prodded perplexed.
"..when they are well written. I particularly enjoy the ones where I get to inflict bodily harm on..." Scarlett paused.
"Oh, you mean the story where you kneed both Rhett and Ashley. Yes, that was certainly enjoyable. Sometimes those men need some help getting their brains straight."
"It isn't just stories like that though, I mean look at that giant story by Corn, you know the enormous one, not the one where I die. I am still a little miffed about that one. But right now she has everyone ready to hang Rhett from Ms. Eleanor's roof." Scarlett responded with a gleam in her eyes.
"You know I am a little said that this corn person doesn't ever write about me. It seems as though she has an aversion to writing about what our darling Mrs. Mitchell wrote. All of her stories come later, except for that one..."
Scarlett started laughing, "Oh, yes. That one. The one she didn't want anyone to remember that she had written since she hates to dabble in canon. The one that princess dragged out into the open." Her eyes sparkled as she thought of how uncomfortable that particular author had been at discussing that work.
"But you enjoy other stories than just that one, don't you?" Melanie asked.
"Of, course. But the worst problem with most of these stories is that so many of them get abandoned, and we never see the author again. Bluesneak is still around, but she has several stories that are just hanging there. There is that Christmas one, and yet for months I have been stuck sad at Christmas waiting for some resolution. And yet nothing happens, nothing happens except we are suddenly surrounded by little girls trying to fill in the gaps that the old more established authors have left wide open. Perhaps we should be blaming them!"
"But you normally adore them!" Melanie cried clutching her hands to her chest.
"Yes, but they are the ones currently leaving me hanging. Have you seen all of the stories on the front page? Have you tried to read them? I know that you love good literature, even though it generally bores me to tears."
"You are correct, darling. This isn't literature. Perhaps we could admonish the young ones to only write one story at a time and to spend more time researching for it. That might work."
"Don't you remember being 13 or 14? I wouldn't have listened, of course I wouldn't be writing. I would be doing something else, just about anything else."
"Well they obviously are here. Perhaps its as school project, or a study on the effects of adding an entirely new social set to an existing community to ascertain the possible effects of such an action."
"What did you say?"
"A study on the effects..."
"Yeah, I was only kidding. I don't want to know. I don't need to know. I just wish that they weren't monopolizing the board. I miss the old days when you knew that what you clicked on would high quality." Melanie paused, "that was terribly rude, wasn't it?"
Snickering, Scarlett nodded her head.
"I'm sure that with some time that they will improve."
"God help us all until then." Scarlett sighed.
"Well, would you rather that those children tried to dabble in the M rated fics?" Melanie questioned.
"Well, no. I'm a little hesitant to go in there myself. Have you read some of those stories?" Scarlett inserted.
Melanie blushed and ducked her head. "Well, I was bored after everyone stopped posting. I'm quite embarrassed by what I read. But did you see the one posted by a thirteen year old that said not to be read by anyone under fourteen. That puzzled me. Why would it be appropriate for her to write, if she was too young to read it?"
"As if I understand their logic. I never did understand other females, and these ones think of nothing that is even remotely interesting to me." Scarlett yawned.
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Melanie asked.
"How should I know? Surely something that you have read prepares you for this." Scarlett answered.
"Perhaps if we go up to bed and pretend that they aren't there, that they will simply go away." Melanie suggested hopefully.
"I don't think that we would be that lucky. If Mammy were here she would tan their hides for some of the things that they have written. And she would have washed out their mouths with lye soap."
"Yes, well. Maybe we should try to do something like that..." Melanie smiled sweetly.
"I don't want to mess with it. I'd rather wait them out." Scarlett offered.
Melanie grinned, "You might be in for a long wait."