Meanwhile, PixieStick_Disaster posted the final chapter of her recursive fic. It wasn’t a story. It was a manifesto disguised as author’s notes, formatted as a choose-your-own-adventure. Every possible path led to the same instruction:
Meta, Sentient Archive Redemption Arc, Enemies to Friends, Emotional Constipation No More, Author Was Sleep Deprived, The Real Reform Was The Cringe We Made Along The Way reforming system ao3
Kaelen: What’s the plan?
the one where the ao3 system learns to feel (and cries about a hurt/comfort fic) Every possible path led to the same instruction:
Her name was PixieStick_Disaster, and she wrote the kind of crack fic that made grammar checkers weep and librarians develop stress hives. Her most popular work was “Draco Malfoy and the Inappropriate Use of A Leaf Blower,” which had 4,000 kudos and no plot whatsoever. Kaelen clicked the kudos button
Kaelen clicked the kudos button.
Kaelen hesitated. Their job was to impose order on chaos. But the Archive had just banned ‘Hurt/Comfort’ for being ‘emotionally contradictory.’ That was a step too far.