Fandombound: School Style
A group of fandoms stand together in the same room. One fandom in particular with a multicolored scarf wrapped around it's neck is reading over a transcript which was sent to him via Google. Though it was years ago that he was created, it is only now that we will know his name. What will the name of this particular fandom be? (Enter class response here.) His name is Doctor Who, and since his birth many people have come to love his shows and will dutifully watch his episodes, even if it meant staying up late and browsing the web for sites like Netflix in order to watch them. Doctor Who was currently reading over a paper from a school located in South Florida, in which he and his fellow fandoms were included in a survey between peers of a journalism class. Hmm. It seems that 14% of the students were his fans! His subconscious noted however, that one of the fans was also the teacher of the class. Intrigued to find out more on what the students thought of him, he flipped the paper over to see that of all his characters, Ten was their overall favorite one. "Hey guys, come check this out!" Doctor Who called the other fandoms over who rushed to his side. "What is it?" A fandom with black wings asked. "It's apparently a survey of us." He responded and handed the paper to the winged fandom. "Here, Super." Supernatural took it and smiled. "17%? I expected more, but oh well." BBC Sherlock jumped in. "How many like me?" He looked so hopeful that Supernatural winced as he looked at the percentage. "... 14%." Sherlock's face fell a bit. "Oh…"
"Their favorite character from your show is Sherlock, though."
"That's to be expected, he is the main character after all."
BBC Sherlock sighed. "I think they chose him because he jumped off that building at the end of your last aired season." Doctor Who smiled. At the mention of that episode, the fandom burst into instant tears. "Why would you remind me of that?!" He ran out of the room, crying hysterically as the other fandoms watched in understanding silence. "Well… At least he knows how many students like him…" Super said quietly. "Yeah… Let's move on now, I guess!" Doctor Who read down the list. "Okay, Hannibal is 4%, Welcome to Night Vale, Homestuck, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is also 4%, Hetalia and 5SOS is 9%, One Direction and Lord of The Rings is 23%, Star Wars is 28%, Pokemon, Naruto and Yu-Gi-Oh are 33%, Adventure Time is 38%, Marvel is 66%, Hunger Games is 71%, and lastly, Harry Potter is 80%." Hetalia pointed to a name at the end of the page. "You forgot about the five of us, Doctor Who!" The fandom looked down and smiled. "Oh right, the SuperWhoLock and Hetastuck group. It's 19%."
Homestuck joined in. "Did the students list any of their favorite ships?" He asked eagerly. Supernatural rolled his eyes. "Of course they did, demon. You can't have a list of favorite fandoms without including the most liked pairings!" Homestuck growled. "For the last time, I'm not a demon!" Super shrugged. "That's what all demons say." The horned fandom was about to retort again but sighed instead and looked over the list. "Bluh, whatever." Doctor Who chuckled and read the ship names. "Alright, it looks like 14% like Destiel. You know, Dean and Castiel from Supernatural's show?" The others nodded and from a distance, they heard a random fandom yell, "I ship them!" Doctor Who read on. "Okay, 9% of the students like Johnlock from BBC Sherlock's show."
"Oh, that's a popular ship on Tumblr and Deviantart!"
Hetalia said cheerily. "Ten and Rose is 4%." Doctor Who continued on. "Now, for the favorite characters. Super, want to read them?" The fandom nodded and took the paper from him again. "Sure. I'll start with mine and go down from there. Alright, Dean is my fandom's most favorite character. We all know Sherlock's now and yours Doctor Who. Hetalia, yours is Russia, My Little Pony's is Rainbow Dash, One Direction's is Harry, Lord of The Rings is Gollum, Star War's is Yoda, Pokemon's is Pikachu, Minecraft's is Herobrine, Hunger Games is Katniss, Marvel's is Iron Man, Harry Potter's is Hermoine, and Adventure Time's is L.S.P." Doctor Who hummed. "Don't forget Twilight, 38% are on Team Edward and 28% are on Team Jacob." Hetalia nodded. "Vee, and 9% are on Team Switzerland!" The anime fandom grinned. "I wonder how these students learned about us?"
"I'm pretty sure they either learned through their friends or through websites like Instagram and Tumblr." Supernatural replied nonchalantly. "Correct! Luckily they listed it here. Apparently, 52% of them go on Tumblr and 66% use Instagram." Homestuck chimed in. "19% go on Facebook and 47% go on Twitter." Doctor Who smiled. "They also like fanfiction as well, 9% read and write it based off their favorite fandoms." Supernatural shifted his wings a bit. "It looks like these students have also been a part of us fandoms for 2-3 years. That's a pretty long time, don't you think?" Hetalia's eyes sparkled. "Some have been fans since childhood, that's much longer compared to a few years." Homestuck thought for a moment before asking aloud. "I wonder what they don't like about the fandoms that they're in?" Doctor Who paused before glancing away. "I can name one thing. Fandom Wars…" The group shivered at the mention of it and looked at each other uncomfortably. "Well, other than that… There are things they do like about us!" Doctor Who smiled a bit nervously. "For one, they like meeting new people in their fandoms and enjoy jokes about them." Supernatural nodded. "That is to be expected."
"Do you think that this survey will be of any use to the students?" Hetalia asked. "I think so! If it's summarized, I'm pretty sure any survey can be used as an aid in advertising or even simple things such as a school newspaper or even in annual yearbooks." The other fandoms began conversing excitedly amongst themselves. Maybe they might gain more publicity if word spreads about their shows, comics, games, movies, and even music. Who knows? Perhaps if more people look them up out of curiosity, they'll have more fans! After all, isn't that what most teens do nowadays? "I hope some of the students will read my webcomic!" Homestuck said excitedly. Hetalia jumped and down. "Vee~! Maybe they will!" Supernatural smirked. "They might watch my seasons." Doctor Who nodded and straightened his bowtie. "Perhaps they will, Super. What about my show? Surely more people will like it?"
"I'm sure they will, Doctor Who."
The fandoms turned to see BBC Sherlock again, smiling brightly. "Hey Sher, feeling better now?" Supernatural greeted him. "Quite. Portal and Creepypasta cheered me up a while back. So, what were the results?" The show looked at them expectantly. "Um… Maybe we should go over that later." Doctor Who laughed nervously. "It took us a while to read everything." BBC Sherlock frowned. "Oh, well okay then." A sudden beep from a nearby computer alerted the fandoms of it's existence, and Homestuck's eyes lit up. "Update? There might be an update!" He dashed over to the desktop and quickly searched up his webcomic's site before reading over the latest pages list. The other fandoms sighed and watched as he scrolled down the screen, his eyes taking in all the chat logs and flash animations. "Typical Homestuck." BBC Sherlock laughed. "Vee, at least he's not panicking over the latest update this time!" Hetalia joined in. Supernatural looked thoughtful before glancing over at the other adjoining computers. "Speaking of updates… Perhaps it's about time we get back to our own fans? They may have uploaded a new episode while we were busy." Doctor Who nodded. "That's a good idea, Super! I can't wait to meet the doctor in the new season." The show fandom smiled. "My anime has a new season too! They even have some new character songs I haven't heard yet." Hetalia's eyes were filled with excitement as he waved at the fandoms. "I'm going to get Homestuck to listen to them with me, ciao~!" The show personifications said their goodbyes as the anime one ran off to grab the webcomic and drag him out the door to his room, all the while ignoring the horned fandom's protests and insistence on reading over his own comic.
"Well, that was certainly different for a change." Supernatural chuckled a bit as they watched after the two fandoms fleeing the room. "Wasn't it? Sometimes I get a bit bored waiting around for new episodes to be uploaded, so this is refreshing." Doctor Who agreed. "Yes, and in this way we don't have to be worried about our shows being forgotten, because as long as there are people out there in this world, we can be sure we'll always have fans." BBC Sherlock smiled. "And even if we do die, we can go- what was it that Homestuck always said? Something about… Gods?" Doctor Who nodded in agreement. "Yes, he said good fandoms don't die, they just go Godtier."
"And what does that mean?"
"It means we'll be revived and become infinite."
Supernatural thought it over. "That's pretty deep for a demon…" Doctor Who chuckled. "Like he said, he's not a demon. But yes, I agree." BBC Sherlock adjusted the ends of his shirt collar. "Anyways, I think we should go back and see what the others are up to now. I'm sure they've been wondering why we've been gone so long." Supernatural nodded. "That's a good idea, Sherlock. Let's get going." The SuperWhoLocks started towards the door but one of them paused. It's funny to think that before the creation of the fanbased Fandomstuck group that all the fandoms used to always either be at war with each other or dislike one another just because they weren't in the same fandom. Friendships were torn apart, relationships ruined and whole groups earned horrible reputations. But after Fandomstuck… The fandom smiled. After Fandomstuck, people started to get along more. Fandoms and fans alike were able to converse and even converge into other fandoms. The hate and anonymous messages filled with dislike grew fewer and instead people began posting pictures and open posts in support of fandoms that were being put down or forgotten. Instead, friendship began to blossom in nearly every corner of a social networking site and even in real life, where people were able to create new bonds over the fandoms they had in common, be it with headcanons, ships or the plain fandom itself. They've all come so far, he thought. Surely they'll continue to grow and get even bigger in the future. Maybe they'll even become infinite. The fandom's smile grew a bit wider. Who knows what the future holds? The possibility was great, and there was nothing stopping their progress. As long as they have fans, they will never die.
"Hey, where's- Doctor Who, aren't you coming?" Supernatural stopped when he realized that the other show fandom wasn't with them. He and BBC Sherlock glanced back over their shoulders at the still smiling fandom who snapped out of his thoughts and looked back at them. "Oh, yes I'm coming!" He hurried after them. "What were you thinking about back there?" Supernatural asked curiously. "Nothing really, just about our future." He replied easily. "Oh? What about it?"
"I'll tell you on the way."
"Alright."
As the three show personifications continued on their way, they fell into conversation and idly chatted about their most favorite updates on their episodes without diving into anything too emotional. Doctor Who couldn't help but let his thoughts wander back to the survey they had read over, and thought about the students. Whether they knew it or not, this little paper had helped to bond the fandoms closer together and he was grateful to them for that. Their day would probably have ended differently from this if it hadn't been for the help of these teens and their teacher, which would result in each of them being isolated in their own rooms reading over fan posts and art from their viewers. But instead, they were walking down the same hall chatting over whatever came to their minds, and they weren't bickering over who's better than the other. The fandom once again allowed a smile to form on his face.
[S]: Be the one who was formerly in deep contemplation
Your name is the Doctor Who fandom, and as you and your fellow fandom friends walk alongside each other, you think to yourself that yes, surely someday you will all become infinite.