Wow. In the midst of my brain dehydration, I just decided to attempt to work on this update, and surprisingly, the words came to me just like that. Maybe it's because I need a break from romance once in a while. Maybe not. Anyhow, I'm glad to have this up! :D
However, a slight warning - this chapter and probably the next will not really be in a story mode. More like a guide. So if you know all that I will be stating, I'm sorry to disappoint and bore.
Meanwhile, please do enjoy. :)
IN THIS CHAPTER: Allen picks up Fanfiction lingo.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own DGM.
In due time, they set up an email account especially for the Fanfiction account that they made next.
"So, first, you have to get an avatar for your Fanfiction account. Preferably something that describes you. And you have to fill up your profile, talk about yourself and whatever else you want to." Lenalee says, cross-legged on the floor, as they both peer at the laptop screen. "Then you can post all the stories you want. And make sure you read fanfiction as well, to get more ideas and also to improve your own stories. Go ahead and review all the stories you want and stuff. It improves you as an editor. Also don't forget to 'favourite' your favourite stories! Makes people happy, you know. And-"
Allen covers his face with his hands, and sighs.
"Okay, okay, I'll do that all in due time, but what can I do in the span of an hour?"
"Search Google for a suitable photo for your icon."
"A beansprout," Kanda pipes up, and Lenalee silences him with a glare as Allen keeps thinking.
And thinking,
and thinking,
and thinking.
(and thinking.)
He promptly heads over to Google and types in the search bar 'smiley face', and saves the first smiley he sees, and uploads it as his avatar.
Lenalee mentally facepalms.
"Erm, alright then," she moves the mouse over to the profile section. "Go ahead and type whatever you want for your profile. Your favourite food, maybe? Wait, no, scratch that. Favourite music? Favourite colour? Things like that. The basics."
Tapping his chin delicately, like a refined proffesor-kind-of, Allen thinks for a while again, and scurries to type, his fingers flying over the keys.
Good morning, afternoon, or night, wherever you might be! My name is Allen Walker, and I am elated that you have visited my profile. To say a few words about myself; my favourite colour is black, my favourite animals are dolphins, tigers and bunnies, and my favourite band is The Lonely Island. I do hope sincerely that you have enjoyed, or will enjoy, my fan fictions, when I do post any. Until next time!
Lenalee reads the paragraph that is typed out, and winces at the overly-formal language, as she tries to form the words to point out Allen's mistakes without hurting him.
"Allen-kun, you don't really have to be..." she waves her hands in the air, "..so formal. Your profile is a bit like, your diary. It's a representation of you." Then she smiles, trying to reassure Allen. "Relax. Be free with your words. I know you can be really formal, but that's not what's needed on your profile."
The addressed bites his lip in concentration, and nods, and deletes the written paragraph to start a new one. Apparently he seemed to be mute, or lacks any words to say.
Sup dawg, the name's Allen. Allen Walker, but whatever, you know? I don't care. And heck care about my likes and dislikes. It's all trash. You don't need to know about me. And if you're a hater, then GET LOST. I hate haters. Haters hate me. So what? And for my stories. Look, you don't even need to read them. If you don't like them, then click that cross button up there on the top right/left (Mac or PC?). I'm a fanfic author, and I don't care about you.
All Lenalee has to do is give Allen an exasperated look.
"Alright, alright," he says, bursting into laughter as he presses his finger on the Backspace key. "I have no idea what to write, and I'm tired of thinking..."
Miranda: So, what do you think they're doing? :)
Krory: staring at the com screen, laughing like hyenas, pointing at stuff on the screen...
Lavi: I bet it's still fanfiction! :{P
Kanda is available
Lavi: YUUUUUU! :{D DON'T SIGN OUT!
Kanda: Baka usagi -.-... I'm only here because I had nothing else to do.
Krory: neither did any of us, lol.
Miranda: I'm going to take off my headphones for a while, and see what they're all in wrecks about. ^^
Miranda: ...yes, they're reading fanfiction. D:
Lavi: Let them laugh! We're having TONS of fun here! x{D
Kanda: Yeah, sure.
Krory: so...
Miranda: so...
Lavi: so...
Kanda appears to be offline. Messages you send will be delivered when they sign in.
Lavi: YUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-CHAN! D}:
Allen is slamming his palm down on the floor, and Lenalee is rolling around, in hysterics at a particular fanfiction.
"I like this writer!" Allen says, impressed, and Lenalee clicks on the link to his profile, where they look at his different interests, and random thoughts, and assorted fanfictions.
"And he even writes angst?" he remarks, clicking on another fanfiction, which features a fanfiction from his favourite anime with his favourite characters and his favourite food for the title - Mitarashii Dango. "And according to the author's note, he likes dango! Just like me! That's even cooler!"
Lenalee is not so impressed at the whole dango thing, but she smiles and nods along.
So after an hour of looking at the stories and finding links to other authors and reading THEIR stories, Allen and Lenalee go back to Allen's profile.
"Oh yeah, Lenalee-chan, do you have a Fanfiction account?" he asks, as he lazily supports his head on his propped up arm.
"Well, yeah," she replies, "but I don't want to show you my account just yet. Some of my stories are really kinda messed up, and it's embarrassing, to say in the least."
"It can't be that bad! Not as bad as me, I bet."
"I'll make you a deal - when you post your first fanfiction, I'll tell you my account."
Allen pauses to think, to think about the happiness of posting his first fanfiction, but then thinks about how inferior it'll seem to all the other fanfictions posted. He's not sure if he can take insults and criticism that well, and he's scared of posting his work where every person with a computer can see.
But in the end, "Fine," he goes, putting out a hand to shake on it.
"Great!" Lenalee takes his hand and gives a firm shake. "What do you want to learn now?"
"What does OOC mean? And smut? And fluff? And kink? And crack? And what's a drabble? How long is one? And then what are ficlets and one-shots? What are OCs? Lemons? Limes? BL? Slash? Femslash? AU? What's a disclaimer? What does it do?"
COMMENCE LESSON 1: FANFICTION LINGO
FANFICTION:
1. fiction written by fans of a TV series, movie, etc., usingexisting characters and situations to develop new plots.
2. a work of fiction in this genre.
LINGO:
1. the language and speech, especially the jargon, slang, orargot, of a particular field, group, or individual: gamblers' lingo.
2. language or speech, especially if strange or foreign.
Lenalee lifts the Macbook off the floor, places it on her lap, and clicks on the Microsoft Word icon, opening a new document. First, she lists all the terms that Allen wants to know:
OOC
SMUT
FLUFF
KINK
CRACK
DRABBLE
FICLET
ONE-SHOT
OC
LEMON
LIME
BL
SLASH
FEMSLASH
AU
DISCLAIMER
And then she starts filling in each definition, one by one.
OOC - out of character
"Okay, so let's start with OOC. It stands for out of character. Usually it's used in a fanfiction, when someone, the author or the reader, thinks that one of the characters is not acting like he or she normally is in the original piece of work. That something's not right in the character's speech or movements or personality. However, sometimes authors like making the characters OOC, just to have a little fun or show a possible different side of a certain character. Get me so far?"
Allen nods, taking it all in, and motions for her to continue to the next one.
SMUT - sexual intentions
"Smut is usually associated with dirty romance, like sex, and stuff. Even when there isn't any romance in the particular fanfiction, a smut-ish fanfic would imply dirty ideas and things, and corrupt your innocent little brain, so I suggest, Allen-kun, that you steer clear of smut. No reading, and definitely NO WRITING."
"Yeah, sure, Lenalee," Allen smirks in a very evil way, just to get her all motherly and protective. But surprisingly she nervously looks up at the ceiling and dismisses it, moves on, as if... she herself is committing the same crime she's preaching about?
Anyway.
FLUFF - cheesiness, cute, innocent romance.
"Fluff is nice. Fluff written by good authors can make you feel really happy inside, or content, and usually if you end a story with good fluff, it'll seem complete. Happy endings make the world go 'round. Fluff includes hugs, kisses, and holding hands. All innocent enough. Nothing too sexual. But too much fluff is not good. Or what some stuck up, fake authors call 'fluff' when it really is just a string of what they are doing. Fluff includes description, feeling."
KINK - same as smut
"Mo~ving on."
CRACK - parody, humor, usually including tons of OOCness.
"Some people write crack awesomely, that make you clutch your stomach in laughter, while some people write crude parody crack, and I hate that sort of thing. Crack usually symbolizes that there is purposeful OOCness in the story, just for the author to poke fun, and the audience to enjoy."
"Crack sounds evil."
"...it is."
DRABBLE - A fanfic of a 100 words or less.
"Drabbles are meant for extremely small fanfictions. Tons of authors put a bunch of unrelated drabbles about their favourite pairings in one fanfiction. Usually, drabbles are just small scenarios, which can start quickly and end quickly. Or the scenarios could be in the middle of something big, or a conversation, of things like that. Alternatively, drabbles are just used to signify small, small fanfics."
Allen's eyes widen. "So drabbles should be really easy to write!" he says, already coming up with an idea for a drabble in his head.
"Oh no," Lenalee rebukes, shaking her head, "to write a good drabble takes practise, because it's actually harder than you think to paint a picture with less than 100 words compared to 1000."
"...oh."
FICLET - A fanfic of around 500 words.
"Bigger than a drabble, but not so big still. A small story. Ficlets could also mean less than a 1000 words."
ONE-SHOT - A story in itself, with only one chapter, but as long as it can go.
"Most stories in FF(dot)net are one-shots. Things that people can complete in a go, where a whole story is told. Usually it's from 1000 words to 5000 words, but there really aren't any restrictions to the length. If you've got a short attention span, like I do, I'd suggest to stick to one-shots. Multi chapter stories can get boring."
Mentally, Allen makes a note to see how patient he can be by writing a multi chapter - and perhaps prove Lenalee that he's more controlled than she is.
OC - own character.
"How I hate OCs! How I detest them! OCs are characters that the author has made up to put into stories, and most of the time, they are perfect and cheerful and things, and the author doesn't even know his or her own character that well. Most of them time, OCs are involved in relationships with other characters in the story. Don't ever write an OC, unless it's really good and you show it to me and I approve, or I will personally see to it that your account is hacked."
"Don't get all fired up, Lenalee..."
LEMON - explicit sex.
"Lemons are for M-rated fanfictions. They are smut and kink. And I do NOT want to see you reading lemons, so when you see the lemon warning, you'd better not click on the fanfiction. Protect your sanity, while you can."
Allen never really wanted to read about sex anyway.
LIME - not-so explicit sex.
"Slightly better, but untouchable for you, anyhow."
BL - boy love, shonen-ai.
This time, Allen speaks first. "Okay, I get it already, you can move on."
Lenalee makes a hand gesture for zipping her mouth, without telling Allen that she's a major fujoshi (yaoi lover).
SLASH - BL.
"I think you'd rather skip this bit?"
"Yes... why yes, I would."
FEMSLASH - girl love, shojo-ai.
"Personally, I don't like femslash, and never will, but that's because I'm a girl. And I know you get the idea, so I'll skip this bit of commentation."
AU - alternate universe.
"Alternate universes are always fun. Most fanfictions are set in alternate universes. It's where the characters of the story are dropped in a different universe. Perhaps something never happened, or they are in high school, or they are hobos. Anything could happen. But the characters stay constant in AUs. Or there'll be too many changes, you know?"
"Erm, yeah, sure."
DISCLAIMER - copyright bleh.
"It's essential to put a disclaimer before each chapter of your story. Usually it goes 'DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN whateverfanficcategoryyou'rewritingin. For copyright reasons and all that. It's a bit tedious, but not really, because you only need to type a few words."
Lenalee stretches, and yawns.
"That's all for today, Allen-kun," she says as she gets up, the Macbook tucked under her arm. "I think we all need to go and sleep. RIGHT, GUYS?"
The fabulous four by the wall look up in surprise, and lazily push their limbs off the floor and trail after Lenalee with their electronic devices in tow. "Bye, Allen," Miranda and Lavi manage as they head out the door.
It's all Allen can do to head back to the bed, and try get some sleep after that night.
I FINISHED IT! YES!
Hope you enjoyed that. I did, too. Kind of. Give me a review, would you? I know I need to brush up some areas - I'm just not so sure where.
DISCOVERED IN RECENT EDIT: Tense changes. Ohmydorothy I am SORRY. Changed it back all to present tense though, so don't worry.
NEXT CHAPTER: Allen finds out just what he can do with his account.