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Steve was your regular Joe, but his name was Steve. He had a boring 9 to 5 job, woke up every morning and went about his daily routine. Teeth brushed, hair combed, pants ironed. Like a well oiled machine, he was ready for his day. Steve was a single coffee man and a sad looking muffin kind of guy. No one paid him any mind when he sat at his desk typing away his boring duties. His boss likes to ride up his ass and give him more work, but Steve didn’t mind. Because when it was break time he would whip out his phone and scroll on his ao3 account. Checking out all the new fiction from his favourite fandoms. Steve loved giving his kudos away to any story that made him feel a certain type of way. When he felt cheeky he would leave a comment too, but Steve always left boring comments like, “Good job (thumbs up emoji)” or his classic, “ Waiting for the updates (praying hands) “ Steve always played with the idea of writing his own fanfictions. But was he creative enough? Would people want to read his work? Would he do a gen, or maybe think outside the box and do a slash instead? It was always in the back of his mind- could he be the next big name fanfic writer? Those thoughts excited him the most, people raving and reviewing his work. Telling him in depth details how much they adore what he wrote. Begging him for updates as he basks in the glory of it all. This would bring life into Steve very boring life.
It was a Wednesday, not your typical Wednesday but a funny hat’s at work kind of Wednesday. Steve was waiting for his favourite writer to update, he watched the clock. Each minute was painstakingly brutal. When will they update? Are they ever going to update? Did they go on hiatus without him knowing? Steve needed to know what was going to happen next. Cliff hangers were the best and the worst. Steve kept refreshing his e-mailing waiting for that beautiful notification to pop up and tell him they updated. He grew annoyed and logged into Reddit to pass the time. Mindlessly scrolling, he saw a crosspost. “Fanfiction?” Now, Steve wasn’t as tech savvy as you’d think. Just because his boring job dealt with computers, it didn’t mean he understood the internet that much. He clicked the subreddit and his eyes widened at the screen. These were his people. A sudden burst of joy rushed through his body as he started to shake, these people understood him. He started to scroll and upvote or downvote whatever he saw. He added his own two cents into certain discussions, mostly one sentence answers. But the people needed to read his opinion. One post he came across was encouraging people to write what they love, and that spoke to Steve. He had to say something so he typed in, “ Yes, You’re right. I will write. (thumbs up)” The pure excitement was raiding off of Steve's face, that his own boss avoided him. No one in the office understood what was wrong with Steve but they made sure to avoid any conversation with him. Steve started to brainstorm a story, he wasn’t sure what fandom he should write for, but he was going to let fate decide for him.
That night, he booted up his windows 95 computer and cracked his fingers. He found the perfect fandom for his story. It was going to be an epic action pack, romance of the life time comedy with a touch of slice of life sprinkled with horror and maybe just maybe a little smut. Steve was debating on the rating. “Bill Gates, get ready” That’s what he called his trusty computer. The loud whirring sound of the computer starting up was music to Steve’s ears, that poor fan was at the end of its life trying its hardest to keep the computer cool. Steve lightly tapped at it smiling, the black screen lit up, as the Window 95 logo flashed on the screen. Steve quickly turns up the volume to hear the chimes of being welcome. The five minutes was worth the wait as everything started to boot up. Humming a tune, Steve started to click on the internet explorer and logged into his ao3 account. His hands were shaking with anticipation as he clicked on “Post: New Work” This was it for Steve, he was going to be a fanfic writer. He was a mad man, the loud clacking of the keyboard filled the room. He typed his whole one-shot story into the word text box. At the stroke of midnight, he finally finished. Hungry and tired, he hit; post and stared at his work. “Perfection.” The poor window 95 computer was louder than ever, trying its best to keep up with Steve, it finally crashed and Steve patted at it. “Thank you Bill Gates,” Steve got ready for bed, the smile never fading away. He just wrote the next best fan fiction out there and he couldn’t wait to wake up to see how many hits, kudos and comments he was about to get. Steve thought about quitting his shitty job to focus on a career in writing. For the first time ever, he dreamt that night of all the comments he was going to get.
The morning rays hit Steve in the face like a slap to the mouth. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his phone, checking his email. There was nothing. Titling his head, Steve quickly opened his ao3 app and it crashed on him. Cursing at his phone, he opened up chrome and looked at his works. A single hit, one single hit on his work. A sudden hit of rage entered Steve's body, he tossed his phone and cursed the fanfic gods. How dare they, he was brilliant for fuck sake! Crumbling to the ground, Steve had a horrible day at work, his sad face haunting his coworkers that his boss told him to take the day off.
Steve was laying in his bed, staring at the ceiling wondering where did he go wrong? Was there not enough romance? Was it too long? Too short? Was his character completely OOD? Then it struck him, Reddit. There was always that Weekly Fic Showcase, he knew they would appreciate him. He added his comment,and waited. He laid there for hours, not moving an inch until he read a familiar notification on his phone. He jumped and opened up his phone. Someone added, “Commented” and Steve was over the moon. This was it, he was going to open up his link fiction and see the mass hits and kudos. His heart was racing so fast he lost his breath for a moment and had to calm himself down. Opening his link, there it was, two hits, one kudos and one comment saying , “Great job”. Steve broke down sobbing. Life was cruel.
He tossed and turned that night, he could barely sleep a wink. He let his phone die as punishment for ruining his day. He had already emailed work saying he would be staying home the next day, his boss encouraged him to stay home too. Steve had no energy to deal with Dan. That wasn’t his boss, that was the cheerful bus driver. When Steve finally slept, little did he know, something was happening to his fiction.