Chapter Text
Franziska von Karma was thirteen, and as thirteen year olds often do, she had taken to frequenting online forums. A combination of isolation and being the age of a middle schooler had given her a great affinity for the online.
She had started with merely looking at law school acceptance pages. It offered an easy laugh: these fools, years away from the bar and in their twenties already! Franziska herself had just passed the bar, and she had not needed law school. She felt strongly that these people online should not feel proud at an acceptance so late in their lives. When she told them such, and that even her accomplishments were shamefully unimpressive, she found herself banned from forum after forum for being a “troll.”
Of course Franziska was a troll. Simply not in the sense they were implying.
Regardless of rejection, Franziska found the internet freeing. She was allowed to voice her opinions without any potential professional repercussions. It was like a more lenient courtroom, and all Franziska had to do to succeed was get on leaders’ good sides and then argue her points until her opponent had no more energy left to refute her claims. Many people may have disliked her, but that mirrored real life as well. The difference here was that, unlike in court, there were many people who saw Franziska and did not hate her. “Friendship” was a word that Franziska von Karma, aged thirteen, had never seen any meaning in, but her travels through the web began to change that.
In the earlier days, Franziska was used to her only online interactions being arguments, so when a user she hadn’t seen before replied to a post saying they would love to hear more and asking her for a Trollian handle, she assumed it was just a pathway to more criticism. She did enjoy obliterating people in private arguments, with no monitors, so she created an account without any more thought. The other person even failed to use full words. This would be a swift and easy takedown.
But the user known as “arachnidsGrip” hadn’t wanted to argue with Franziska over media analysis or courtroom ethics or defining success. Instead, she encouraged Franziska. And that? That was a first.
As they talked, more and more frequently, Franziska began to realize how much she had in common with this girl. They both tended to share unpopular opinions. They were mean and proud of it. They enjoyed insulting people almost as much as they enjoyed assaulting them.
They both had some, well, let’s say conflicting feelings on their guardians and the people they had to harm to stay in their good graces.
And, for maybe the first time in Franziska’s life, she had a friend. More than that- someone who was like her in so many ways, it was surprising. Someone who pushed just as hard as she did. Even when talking to each other got cruel and hurtful, it was addictive.
Franziska found herself smiling at her screen a lot more since befriending AG. That was what friendship was like! Her stomach flipped at every new notification, and it felt… good? It was a far cry from the way her stomach flipped when her father asked her a question about foreign law. The smallest message could send her bursting into laughter, sometimes summoning genuine tears of mirth. Talking to AG was the best part of her day, and she started rushing to her computer when she got home from a trial. Franziska decided that she liked friendship quite a lot.
So when Franziska got a message one day asking if she wanted to try meeting up in person, maybe her heart leaped a little. Just maybe.
Over their months of acquaintance, Franziska had let AG know that she lived in Troll-Germany, and had gathered that AG was not in the vicinity. But upon demanding an explanation, she learned that AG just happened to be in the area for a week or so, stopping by for unspecified reasons that Franziska couldn’t get her to disclose no matter how much she yelled.
But that was okay. Maybe she would find out if she was able to finally, finally talk to her friend. Franziska consented to the meeting without much thought, and a date and time was scheduled.