Fictional Fans

Some 20 years ago I was just entering my teenage years and ran into a Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac rerun on cable--I had missed the original run, being a tad too young and taugh to sneer at "violent and perverse japanese cartoons" hah the damage prejudices did then--and wow it pushed so many of my buttons.
Plus a few months later we got internet at home for the first time and there I was, sneaking through Altavista to learn more about my favourite characters and their story, encountering episodes lists, fan sites, and... fanart. Fanfiction. Shipping. Yaoi!
I cringe just a little bit at the memory, oh to be so young and naïve and would-be-edgy, but mostly I look back fondly at it. While I'm relieved that my first atrocious attempts at fanfiction were lost with Geocity, I'm disappointed that most of my first awful attempts at fanart disappereared too, those I wish I'd saved. Some of them are safe at the bottom of a box but the worst, that is, the best examples of baby's-first-trashy-crack-and-porn that I wish I could share again because looking back on it I find them hilarious, got destroyed.