I would first like to start this one-shot off by stating that there is an underlying message in it that I am trying to convey. It isn't exactly subtle, but the message is something I feel should be kept in mind. This has nothing to do with my other one-shot titled "Not Exempt".
For reference, the character "Charley" is from the game Food Fight.
Vanellope had tears in her eyes as she tenderly held both of Charley's hands in front of them. He was a young boy, a year younger than her, but nearly a head taller due to their differing art styles. He had short, messy blond hair and baby blue eyes that seemed to have an endless depth to them. They were facing each other, sharing a dewy gaze that seemed to speak a thousand words amidst the deafening silence of the surrounding Oreo Guards. "Thank, you so much. For everything..." She chuckled and looked away as she blinked away a few tears.
Vanellope let go of Charley's hands, and his warm, radiant smile only grew wider as she wiped her eyes in a way that he couldn't see, but he knew what she was doing. Vanellope took a deep breath and continued her nearly interrupted thought as she turned back to face him with a sheepish smile, "Thank you for saving this game. No one would have blamed you if you had run away, because of the lies that I had so foolishly believed." She sent a glare towards Taffyta who simply fell to her knees and pleaded with her hands.
There were a few murmurs of laughter, and Vanellope did her best to not let it get to her and looked Charley in the eye with a mischievous smirk. "Now kneel.."
Charley simply bowed gratefully and got down on one knee, resting one arm on top. He chuckled lightly as a large, candy cane softly tapped him on both shoulders.
"Now arise, Sir Charles," Vanellope beamed while rolling her R's in an exaggerated regal tone as she leaned on the cane and extended her other hand to help pull him up. Upon getting him to his feet, she pulled him closer and kissed him sweetly on his cheek.
A disembodied voice then began to speak, "And thus, our hero was knighted. Sir Charles, having saved the world of Sugar Rush that day, won the hearts of many, most of all that of 'President' Vanellope von Schweetz. The End."
The Sugar Rush characters, and Charley gave a quick bow to the audience as the same disembodied announcer's voice said, "If you have any comments, we would appreciate it if you shared them by filling out the short survey at your nearest exit. Future performances are listed in the main lobby."
A red curtain closed from both sides of the dark chocolate stage in the white chocolate domed theater they had been standing on this whole time.
"Phew!" Vanellope said as she let out a nervous sigh and laugh while waving Sour Bill over, "Sorry about that, Charley." She grabbed a small box from Sour Bill and handed him a tissue so that he could wipe his cheek. It was tough, pretending to love someone. Especially when that someone had a girlfriend already. She next grabbed a bottle of sugar water from Sour Bill and chugged it down.
"More like 'sorry Adorabeezle', right?" Adorabeezle said with a mildly annoyed smile as she folded her arms, "Relax. It was just a peck on the cheek anyways. I'm still a little mad that he got the part without even telling me he AUDITIONED for it." She glared at him slightly, but her face quickly softened back to that of a proud smile. He did good, after all.
"I SAID I was sorry, Beezie," Charley said as he began to pout. He still couldn't help but laugh, "but it was the BEST role in the play! I can't wait to see what the audience thought of my top notch performance." He puffed out his chest in a joking manner, though he really wasn't too confident in his performance. There were times where he misspoke a line, and maybe everyone noticed and thought he was unqualified for the leading role.
"Right, right," Adorabeezle scoffed, "I still can't believe you had Rancis play the part of a revived Turbo."
"Can I get up yet?" Rancis asked as if on que. He let out a laugh since he had already decided that it was no longer worthwhile to stay quiet. Why was he even still laying down, slightly smeared with cherry syrup in the first place? The play was over. Maybe he had thought some kind of love drama would unfold if he kept quiet long enough.
"I'm still wondering where I was supposed to be in all this," Ralph said with a smirk as he passed through the curtain. He was just teasing, of course. Not everything has to be explained in a story, after all. For all he knew, he was at a Bad-Anon meeting or something along those lines. Felix and Calhoun were nowhere to be seen either throughout the whole play. Him being there would have made it too easy to resolve the conflict as it was written, after all.
"How do you think it went, Stinkbrain?" Vanellope asked with a hopeful smile. If his face was anything to go by, he liked it, but she still felt as though she had to actually hear it.
"It was GOOD, kid," Ralph said as he lifted her up by the hood of her hoodie and placed her on his shoulder, "Now let's go check out those surveys."
"I just hope they didn't hate it," Vanellope said with a nervous smile. Since Ralph liked it, there must've been tons. Then again, Ralph liked just about anything Vanellope took part in, because SHE took part in it. Which usually meant it was good anyways because if it wasn't, she wouldn't have taken part in it. She laughed and shook her head at the tangent she was mentally going through on the way to collect the surveys.
"Kid, they loved you out there. You can COUNT on it."
"You can COUNT these on one hand," Vanellope said with a largely disappointed sigh as she went through the surveys.
"C'mon kid, it's not THAT bad," Ralph said in an understanding tone as he looked at the four surveys left behind and spread them out on a table backstage next to another table that was filled with snacks and drinks. It wasn't the first time that these two felt somewhat ignored, after all. So what if the people they spent so much time and effort entertaining didn't leave any kind of feedback one way or the other, right?... Right?... He sighed and tried not to dwell on it too much. "Well for what it's worth, I'm telling you that you did GREAT." She did. He couldn't have been more proud of her, having been brought to tears himself upon watching her performance in the front row with Felix and Calhoun.
"Thanks, Stinkbrain," Vanellope said disappointedly. Ralph's opinion mattered far more to her than anyone else's, that much couldn't be denied, but it still left a sour taste in her mouth, especially after she had to force herself to kiss someone else's boyfriend and act natural about it to stay in-character.
"I can't believe it..." Rancis said in a slightly disgruntled tone, "Are these ALL of them? There were hundreds of people watching though! Even the little candy fans didn't bother writing a simple 'As expected of our Buttercap'd racer!'" He felt silly for complaining about something so pointless, but all the same it was disheartening. Was this play just a waste of his time? He could have been out with Taffyta on a date, or Konami forbid practicing his racing techniques. He had half a mind to just stop altogether even though he did enjoy performing in front of so many people. Not everyone could actually handle something like that. If he dropped out, who would take up his mantle? No, he had to continue, didn't he? Besides, Taffyta would probably get mad if he DID quit.
Charley sighed as he passed the others while mumbling to himself. Like the others, he too was quite disappointed by the lack of feedback from their audience, who according to Ralph, was quite entertained. He almost. ALMOST would have preferred negative feedback. How hard was it to put a few check marks on boxes and maybe write out a sentence? Not very, that's for sure. And yet only four people bothered. Oh sure, some of them didn't have thumbs, but even Sour Bill managed somehow. The drawling green sour ball servant had left a few paragraphs detailing what he enjoyed about the play.
"Charley, wait up!" Adorabeezle said as she ran after him and muttered "Sorry guys," as she passed by. She may not have had a speaking role in the play, but it was fantastic as far as she was concerned. And that was DESPITE the fact that her boyfriend ended up getting kissed by another girl and that it was implied that he was going out with her to boot.
"Charley, come on..." Adorabeezle pleaded with him as she gave him a comforting hug. Charley had hidden himself away to brood in an alleyway between the theater and some other business. A clothing shop or something. She didn't care enough to find out.
"It's my fault, isn't it?" Charley said as he just barely cried into Adorabeezle's shoulder. It hurt his pride as a man to be crying over what even he saw as a non-issue. It didn't help that he was already worried about having ruined the performance by saying a line wrong a few times. "They hated it..."
"They didn't hate it!" Adorabeezle insisted, "Charley, you didn't do bad, okay? So what if you said the wrong words a few times? They still meant the same thing..."
"Then why didn't they SAY that?!" Charley asked desperately, "Don't they realize what we go through to prepare something that elaborate? If that's the way it's going to be, maybe I shouldn't even bother with it."
"No, don't do that..." Adorabeezle begged. She didn't like to beg, but the two of them being on stage together like that, even if their roles didn't have them together as lovers. There was nothing she found more fun and exciting... after racing, of course. "You can't just give up one something you enjoy just because a few hundred- well I don't want to say ungrateful, I'm sure they have their reasons- Anyways, you can't just stop because of something like that. Not everyone can just up and think of something to say for every performance. Do you really want feedback that just says 'very good' or 'more please'?"
"Not really..." Charley mumbled before letting out a tired sigh, "It's just kind of hard to keep going at something so time consuming when no one seems to appreciate it enough to say anything. They just come and go without a word. They're like players. Not knowing we're even alive and have feelings..."
"Will you keep going for me?" Adorabeezle asked sweetly, yet sadly as she rubbed his back, "You were great out there..." She couldn't explain it, but there was just this nagging feeling in her heart that said they shouldn't give up just because of this. Maybe things will get better.
"For YOU?" Charley asked as he finally let a smile edge onto his lips, "Anything..." It's not all to his liking, but if it means making her, the most important person in his life, happy? Yeah, he'll keep going.
This story was obviously about stories not getting as many reviews as they sometimes deserve. This isn't about me, as I personally don't care (that much), but the next time you're reading a fanfic, keep in mind that the story you're reading might never get an ending because of the writer not getting enough feedback to feel fulfilled in their writing hobby. I've seen multiple authors, in THIS fandom, that even took down their stories completely so that nobody could even read (or reread) what they had already written.
Writers may not need a review every chapter, they of COURSE don't need essays, but when reading a story, even just leaving a review saying, "Oh, I like what you did with x," is more than enough to count as a 'good review'.
To illustrate my point further, take this fic's stats for instance. As of checking it last, there have been 180 visitors, with a total of 224 views (for some reason). Compare that to the number of reviews and you should see the problem writers face.
One can argue that the fandom is "dying down", but that isn't the only factor as there is still a similar amount of visitors now as there were 6 months ago when reviews were more common. I know this because I compared the stats on my real fanfiction account to the ones on this account. Anyways, I've said my piece. If you want to encourage writers to continue entertaining you, you know how to do it. I need not say more.