Fan Fiction Response

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Summary
The Soup Pot Fan Fiction Response, commonly called "the fan-fic" or simply "the response," was (as the name implies) a response written by certain members of the SP in response to another fan fiction.

Both fan fictions fantasized the idea of a physical discussion board, turning discussions on HSD (High Source of Distraction) into physical buildings, and virtual actions as real.

The Thunder Squad
See Enemies. For the full article on the Thunder Squad, visit this page.

In the school year of 2018-2019, a group of individuals, calling themselves the titular "Thunder Squad," formed a sort of band on HSD (High School Distraction). The Thunder Squad, or the TS, borrowed its name from a picture featuring a bolt of lightning, which each of the members would use as their profile picture. Some of the members of the TS included Logan, Beau, Micah, and Nathan (last names omitted for privacy).

The TS began as an essentially roleplaying group. Although not formally participating in roleplay (which was forbidden by the rules of HSD), each member would pretend to play a military-style role, with Logan as commander. Because of the TS's frequent conflict with the HSD moderators and other students, the members began to wage a fictional war upon these individuals. Each "battle" would consist of roasts (aka insults) thrown back and forth; and each TS member was expected to back their comrades up by praising their roasts or participating directly in the roasting.

The TS, drawing inspiration from other role-playing games, began to document their "adventures" in fan fiction format. In their fan fiction, the TS members would wage war on their enemies (moderators or other students) in intense, highly-fantasized battles involving complex armors and overpowered weaponry. The moderators were generally portrayed as patronizing and evil, and Logan as a brave and noble commander.

Backlash
After a few weeks of existence, the role-playing of the TS attracted the attention of the moderators, who, after some consultation, decided to shut the TS down. The TS was no longer allowed to continue their roast battles, but they were still permitted to continue the writing of their fan fiction.

The style and quality of their writing drew negative reactions from notable writers, such as Hannah and Charis. They especially focused on grammatical and spelling errors, such as swapping "there," "their," and "they're," and repetitious phrases, such as "shook their heads." Attention was also drawn to the puerile, sentimental, and egotistical nature of the writing style.

Initial conception
The low quality and ridiculousness of the TS fan fiction especially drew the attention of Shark, known for her correct grammar usage and flabbit-essays. Initially intending to mock the TS fan fiction by imitating and exaggerating their writing style, she began to write a short parody, which she shared with some other members of the SP, including Cucumber.

The basis of the parody was an imitation of the TS's repetitive phrases, poor quality, and fantastical ridiculousness. Logan and the rest of the TS was portrayed as a Quixotic band of over-imaginative adventurers in a physical HSD environment. According to the parody, they would parade around in cardboard armor and fake weaponry, seemingly convinced that they were crusaders for a righteous cause. Logan, for example, would carry a banana which he claimed was a shotgun.

Although at the time unfinished (approximately five paragraphs long), the parody quickly gained traction among those who read it.

Progression to episode format
Inspired by Shark's parody, Cucumber decided to continue the parody as a group effort, and wrote the first installment in episode format, calling it "Episode 1." They intended to release more episodes every few days in TV serial fashion.

In the first episode, Logan and his gang were portrayed as adventurers, each wearing a different form of armor. Micah, for example, wore tin foil armor, while Grace protected herself with bubble wrap. Under the impression that they were warriors, they would go on various comedic adventures and undergo humorous mishaps.

Initially shared only with Shark, the first episode gained popularity and approval. A list of character personalities, narrative arcs, and episode outlines and suggestions was drawn up in a collaborative Google Docs file. This was so that the authors of the parody, now called "the fan-fic response," could collaborate on the fan fiction.

Continuance
After the first episode was completed, it was shared with the rest of the Soup Pot. While it was approved by most of its members, notable writers of the SP professed special interest in the concept. These individuals included Pigeon, Pretzel, and the original authors.

The collaborative doc was shared with the SP members who volunteered to write episodes. During the next two weeks, three more episodes were produced.

In order to publicize the fan-fic response so that HSD could read it, Cucumber formulated a plan in which Pigeon would create a discussion called "Fan Fiction," which would be for the explicit purpose of sharing any genre of fan fiction. Other members of the SP, including Censored, and the authors themselves would pose as innocent students as they posted their episodes. The identity of the "author" was kept a secret, and it was clearly made known when each episode was posted that "the author" had solicited their help in posting the episode.

Seven episodes in all were released.

Episodes
Here are a list of episodes as of school year 2018-2019.

Characters
Here is a list of characters that appear in the response fan-fic.

Main

 * Logan. The brave, noble, emotional, poetical, egotistical, and self-pitying commander of the Thunder Squad. His character is loosely based on Don Quixote. He wears cardboard armor and brandishes a squashed banana.
 * Elisha. Logan's right-hand-thunderman and best friend. Loves making traps, but generally fails. Known for rallying up the Squad to follow their leader, he uses a green frisbee as a shield.
 * Beau. Also a close friend of Logan, he wears no armor and uses only a cardboard sword called Big Bertha. Not the quickest of wit.
 * Karleigh. The Squad's secretary. Carries a notebook wherever she goes, in which she records the adventures of Logan and the TS.
 * Micah. Wears tin foil armor and a colander helmet.
 * Nathan. New recruit to the TS. He is known for short, meaningless quips.

Recurring

 * Thayer. Grand overseer of HSD, and is the primary antagonist.
 * Grace. A powerful moderator, she is one of the main antagonists and is a close associate of Thayer.
 * Katherine. A lesser but capable moderator, known for her love of anime and her ability to detect euphemisms.
 * Abigail. Owner of the mischievous Mr. Darcy, she is known for her love of romance.

Other

 * George. A good fighter and staunch friend of Abigail.
 * John. A professional and judgemental handyman, he often gets in the way of the TS.
 * Benjamin. A good student who is the victim of many of the TS's exploits.
 * Hannah. Formerly an ally of the TS, she now leads a better life barbecuing.
 * Catherine. An expert at weapon building, also the cashier at a crafts shop.

Reception
When the episodes premiered, the reception from students not affiliated with the TS was almost completely positive. Although the SP was only able to reach a limited audience, due to the unpopularity of the discussion, the critical comments were in favor of the episodes. Students said the episodes were "hilarious."

"I totally loved it," said K1, a student well-known for her brilliant artwork, fantasy novels, and poetry. "[I]t was hilarious... [I] thoroughly enjoyed it because I thought it was great and well-written."

Other reviews included:

"[O]h that's beautiful." ~M

"Absolutely wonderful (I especially enjoyed Episode 1)." ~A

"Gold" ~E

The TS, however, responded to the episodes with extremely negative comments. Two TS members notable for their negative reviews were L and B. Possibly because of their victim-complex, they took the episodes as personal attacks and criticized the author of crudeness and cowardice, even to the point of sending death-threats.

"If i [sic] ever find who wrote this, May [sic] the good Lord have mercy on their souls," said B. "The story, while written with some style is also very crude... We... know that the writer, in their attempts too [sic] make TS look like idiots, will drag down anyone to obtain their goal... What we most know about the author, is that he/she is a coward. A coward who will not face up to their work."

"Ok, what you're missing when you tried to make a 'satyre' [sic] was that you are very unfair," said L. And, when he mistakenly concluded that Pigeon had written the episodes, he said, "ACTUALLY WHO AM I KIDDING [name removed] GET YOUR SMUG LITTLE FACE OUT HERE I KNOW YOU DID IT."

These negative comments, however, were not well received by other people, even by other members of the TS.

K2, although she had some complaints about the episodes, said, "I think some people *sidelong glances* are overreacting."