Chapter Text
It was a sunny day in the land of King AO3, a kind leader who built libraries for his people to enjoy. These libraries were meant to be an escape from reality; a place where people could enjoy themselves and find new worlds full of wonders and joy (and an unhealthy amount of angst that some people ate for breakfast ).
Children would stay up all night reading, eyes wide at the world they had lost themselves in, even if their parents didn’t quite agree with what they were doing. When these pure souls found themselves surrounded by books in the grand library, sure, they would become a lot less, ah, innocent , but they had also found their coping mechanism! Yay!
Teenagers were just trying to fucking feel something .
And adults were vibing while balancing three jobs and a severe lack of sanity and sleep. These books were like drugs for these sleep-deprived zombies.
Basically, AO3 had made life a bit less hellish.
That was, until they were attacked.
It was around noon when the first wave of the DDoS attack razed the kingdom, invaders flooding the streets while screaming about justice and purity and a bunch of other bullshit.
Great.
Most of the people were forced to evacuate into the Downdetector tunnels to escape the violence in the streets. A lucky few were able to hide out in the libraries, but many were forced to eventually flee into the depths of the chaotic tunnels.
Everyone was screaming and panicking, waiting for an announcement from King AO3, with messengers waiting by Twitter, a sneaky person who was able to get information somehow.
“I was able to get a message out from AO3 before he was captured,” Twitter had begun to the messengers. “He said to wait for the officials to work it out instead of paying the $30,000 Bitcoin ransom the attackers put out for him, which, by the way, happened.
“Even better yet, the attackers claim to have a justifiable reason, which I believe is total fucking bullshit. They said that they attacked because of religious reasons. Bunch of homophobes, they also said that the attack was against all of the LGBTQIA+ content, and smut, in the libraries.
“But AO3 told me to warn you guys, because he believes that they have ulterior motives, and that the reasons
The messengers went back to the Downdetector comments, bearing bad news. They told the people about what had happened.
—
The cries of outrage were deafening, to say the least. Some people were offering comfort and attempting to calm the raging masses. Others were screaming for the blood of the attackers.
“Who did this?”
“Why was AO3 attacked?”
“You can’t slay the gay!”
“That is very obviously a hate crime! You don’t just attack the gays and get away with it!”
“Guys! We have to do something!” yelled a random guy somewhere in the crowd. “We have to work together! We can’t get AO3 back. We’re not a military, we’re just a bunch of insomniacs! We can’t fight the invaders; they’re just too powerful! But we can claim more land for our King! Expand in his name!”
Everyone roared their approval, yelling out random ideas.
“Invade the Downdetectors of other kingdoms!”
“Write so much gay smut about the attackers that they’re too scared to stay!”
“Financially support the team working on getting AO3 back!
“Stay the fuck away from Wattpad, and execute anyone who sets foot on their land.”
The tunnels devolved into chaos yet again, but this time it was a bunch of pissed off readers with a hunger to help, coming up with ways to win this war and save their sacred libraries. After all, what were insomniacs without their fuel?