Nevermore

Nevermore McCaw, professor emeritus of early 21st century literature, ruffled her feathers and cocked her head. Her black beady eye studied the class. A story appeared on the overhead.

[This short story about strongk girl, though ill-received in its time, has come to be considered a classic,] chatted the professor. [Its accent, unexplained in-universe references, and elaborate emoticons serve as a good starting point for research into the fanfic subculture of the aughts and teens.]

Yomamma leaned back in her seat. [T'sall gibberish t'me], she chatted to the guy in the next seat.

[No, 'tis fascinating], replied Shiheed. [Try to visualize the letters of that second emoticon, \w/->w<-\w/ ... sure'ts nonsense t'start, but add t'earlier reference t'da undead, and suddenly ts'resolved to a ... vampire ... perhaps? Canna tell boot t'third one. Maybe fangs'n boobs?]

Yomamma subconsiously googled "UwU emoticon". It said it indicated "joy". [Whatever. Does naught for me.]

[But I dig it,] chatted Shiheed. [I know I've nearly done me degree in artificial psycho, but'm thinking of turning t'English.]

"Power Rangers", croaked the professor.


This was in response to someone else's very short trollish story, and the negative feedback it received, for a prompt on reddit.com r/WritingPrompts, "You've fought hard to finally achieve your dreams. You're so close, it's only a matter of days, if that. But, at the last moment, something makes you give it all up. for good or ill."


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