Irhaboggle Pride (2018) 30 Days, 30 Stories

Fanfiction

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" a large man snapped as Iris ran into him.

"Oops, sorry!" she apologized sincerely. The man only continued to give her a dirty look, sneering down his nose at her.

"These stupid Zoomers and their smartphones!" he muttered under his breath, then he was gone as quickly as he had come.

"I said I was sorry," Iris muttered under her breath as well, but someone still heard her. That someone was her girlfriend, Storm. The two of them were out at the store, grocery shopping. Or rather, Storm was shopping. Iris was intently reading her phone.

"You know, he has a point," the older woman said. "You've been on that stupid thing all morning! I've hardly even seen your face because its been glued to your screen! You should put your phone down at least a little and actually live! Do something productive!" she insisted.

"Oh, shut up Storm," Iris grunted. "Just because you aren't into social media doesn't mean you need to scorn or shame those who are! I am living. If you saw it the way I did, you'd understand that social media does open a person up. Think about all the people and info I have at my fingertips. How can you say I'm not being productive or living? I've seen and met more people on this little device than I have anywhere else in this world!"

"Alright, alright, Triggered Special Snowflake Zoomer. There's no need to get so defensive," Storm taunted.

"First off, you know full well I only get triggered when you call me triggered," Iris began in irritation, Storm's attempts to get under her skin starting to work. "Second off, you know I don't like using that term just because it really is supposed to be a medical term reserved for those who have legitimate triggers, not just something that ticks them off."

"Hmm, that is true," Storm said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, and it was something I read off the internet," Iris waved her phone with a smirk. "Someone pointed out how it might not be appropriate to use a medical term in such casual and satirical conversation in case it devalued the actual thing, something I would've never even considered without, you guessed it, the internet!"

"But then again, that term might not have even became part of the mainstream without social media," Storm pointed out.

"Oh, whatever," Iris grunted. "Besides, I wasn't even on a social media site this time. I was on a fanfiction site. There's a really good story out!"

"Wait! Fanfiction? You read fanfiction?" Storm scoffed, laughing in disdain.

"I write it too," Iris defended. She was used to people mocking her when she confessed to being a fanfiction fan. Having to defend her passion was an old battle and she was getting less and less hurt by remarks like this, even from her lover.

"Seriously? You actually write that fake, wannabe, cash-grab trash?" Storm shook her head. "That isn't real literature."

"Sure it is," Iris argued. "You're right that there are some crappy, poorly-written stories out there, but most of them are really good. They're all done out of passion and they're all done for free. There's nothing wannabe or cash-grabbing about fanfiction. I don't think many authors are in it for the publicity and certainly no one is in it for pay. Would any other author be willing to do what a fanfiction writer does? I think not!"

"Well, ok, so you got me there. Fanfiction is free where real literature is not," Storm allowed. "But fanfiction is still amateur stuff!"

"Perhaps anyone is able to post," Iris agreed. "But there are a lot of really, genuinely amazing stories out there! They have good plots, realistic development, stellar grammar, etc. Often, fanfiction writers are passionate about what they do and, thusly, try to do their best every single time. That means lots of editing and refining, even if there are still mistakes in the end. It's not as rookie as you think. People put a lot of time and effort into their works and it shows, both in what occurs in the story and how grammatically correct it's formatted."