How We Lost Our Fanfic Virginity

“Once upon a time, when I was a teenager back in the 90s, a coffee shop opened in my hometown. This was a momentous occasion, as my friends and I had decided that we loved coffee and these were the days before there was a Starbucks on every corner. And the best part? This coffee shop had The Internet.

By which I mean it had computers connected to the internet. There were tables with glass tops, and the giant CRT monitors were suspended underneath the glass so you could browse the wilds of the world wide web in relative privacy. You bought a card and loaded time onto it, then inserted your card and the internet was at your feet.

So my friends and I, being completely and utterly obsessed with The X-Files at the time, went searching for stuff.In one night, we had discovered shipping, fandom, and something that would be a big part of the next nineteen years of my life: fanfiction.“