hey!!! thanks so much for your kind message!! i’ve been in different fandoms for a long time so it wasn’t my first rodeo as a carat coming into a new fandom knowing no one. i had lurked for like 2? years and followed a lot of carat ppl on priv including fic writers i liked and eventually t3 was totally born out of an itch i needed to scratch. i started tweeting about it and basically the story goes that ver had followed me despite me knowing no one and having like 10 followers. she just kindly replied to a tweet of mind and encouraged me to share even tho i only had 6/9 chapters done. and that was that! i had no carat friends and it was a brand new ao3 acc!!! i was so happy to share and was so grateful for the encouragement but in the end i started writing bc i had an idea that wouldn’t leave me and i was working in a restaurant at the time and felt super inspired. i like to think i would’ve posted anyway but i honestly think if it wasn’t for ver the fic would absolutely not be what it ended up as today. this was a long wordy answer sorry!!! thanks for asking i hope you had a nice day too!