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On Preservation, fanfic was reasonably understood and acknowledged, a hobby that wasn't any stranger than crocheting little animals or making soap carvings. It always surprised Ratthi how different it was in the Corporation Rim. Intellectual property was Serious Business according to both law and culture, and people had lost livelihoods over fanfic—not even because they had written anything especially dark or upsetting, just because it Wasn't Theirs. Servers popped up under unsearchable addresses like 17&06701#ce, and sometimes they went away again without warning. Everyone used secret names and multi-bounce signaling and it was all very cloak and dagger.
Also there was the Curse. Ratthi privately thought that the Curse was on the Corporation Rim, not the sites, and could be lifted very easily with spells such as reasonable working shifts or the slightest bit of safety regulation I swear to fuck. But people did have a tendency to leave author's notes like, sorry for the late update I broke my leg, or posting from hospital high as a kite so who knows what's even in this chapter lol.
And once the idea of the Curse caught on, some people started doing it for the Bit. One of Ratthi's favorite authors had started with no author's notes, but on one chapter they had put, murdered an executive, had to leave planet, and the uptick in comments had apparently been worth keeping up the joke. Most of the update notes were enigmatic—one of them just said the good news is I am NOT flat—but people liked them.
Ratthi had been hoping for an update, but not really expecting one. He got the impression that grumpy_for_good_reasons traveled a bit. So it was a welcome surprise, especially after all the harrowing things that had happened, to see the new chapter go up.
Sorry for late update, the author's note read, got shredded by gunfire. On the bright side I was NOT eaten by an alien zombie, and being not eaten is one of my favorite things. How was YOUR day?
Oh.
Oops.
Ratthi closed the display hastily, looked towards the other end of the Perihelion's lounge, where SecUnit appeared to be showing Three something, and wondered how he could leave an appreciative comment while being sure there wasn't a drone on him.